📡 Are you leading? or following? 👣
Welcome to this week’s Pulse!
I know I probably say this every time, but I do hope you’re well — both physically and mentally. These are tough times; for pretty much everyone.
While being on lockdown, I’m trying to create as much as possible. Whether it’s a Telegram channel or a store on my website… I just think I have to make the best of this unfortunate situation… That’s all I can do.
Hope you make the best of it, too.
— 𝕭𝖊𝖓 𝔣𝔯𝔬𝔪 [ 𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖛𝖊 𝖎𝖝 ]
🗞 NEWS
Microsoft now blocks reply-all email storms to end our inbox nightmares [TheVerge]
thanks to the dudewithsign — i guess
Tesla sues Alameda County to force California factory reopening [TechCrunch]
elon’s at it again on twitter!
Apparently, UK’s NHS has already begun developing a second contact tracing app, using Google and Apple’s contact tracing APIs [TheGuardian]
Apple will host a virtual WWDC starting on June 22 in the Apple Developer app and website, free for all developers [Apple]
not an unexpected move; but a good one nevertheless.
Tim Bray, a well known senior engineer and VP at Amazon, resigns after nearly six years [Vice]
criticising the company on his blog for firing protesting workers
Apple to begin reopening US stores next week using safety measures like temperature checks [9to5Mac]
starting with some stores in Idaho, S. Carolina, Alabama, and Alaska
Zoom is acquiring Keybase, a 25-person startup, to add end-to-end encryption to video calls [CNBC]
the first acquisition in the company’s nine-year history
Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs says it will no longer pursue its smart city project at Quayside in Toronto [BetaKit]
unprecedented circumstances…
Google brings all of its messaging and communication apps under a single team [TheVerge]
to be led by Javier Soltero, who is VP and GM of G Suite
Facebook’s Oversight Board announces its first 20 members, out of a total of 40, who will oversee challenging content issues [NYTimes]
of 20 current members: 5 members based in US; 70% experience living more than 1 country; 90% speak more than one language; 29 languages spoken amongst members combined [Axios]
Microsoft debuts 13.5-inch and 15-inch Surface Book 3 laptops [Engadget]
with 10th-gen quad-core Intel CPUs, new NVIDIA GPUs, available May 21 from $1,600 and $2,300
Android 11 Beta 1 is being pushed back to June 3 [9to5Google]
about a month behind schedule, but the final release is still on track for Q3
Microsoft says there’s been a 75% YoY jump in time spent in Windows 10, and Windows 10X [TheVerge]
it was originally pitched for dual-screen devices, is coming first to laptops
💰 EARNINGS CALLS
Pinterest Q1: revenue of $272M, vs. $270M est., up 35% YoY; user base grew to 367M MAUs, up 26% YoY [CNBC]
EA Q4: revenues of $1.39B, beating expectations of $1.19B, up 12% YoY [VentureBeat]
Uber Q1: revenue of $3.54B, up 14% YoY; gross bookings of $15.8B, up 8%; net loss of $2.9B; rides gross bookings fell 5%, Eats bookings were up 52% YoY [CNBC]
Nintendo FY 2019: net profit of $2.43B, up 33.5% YoY, on sales of $12.31B, up 9% YoY; 55.7M #NintendoSwitch and Lite consoles have been sold [VentureBeat]
🧠 INSIGHTS
Footsteps - Credit: Simon Migaj on Unsplash
Following in the footsteps of those that came before
No matter how hard you try, you can’t.
After just a few steps, you’ll be slightly enlarging the footprint. By the time six people have done it, the original is completely gone.
Footprints might be a fine compass, but they’re not much of a map. That’s on us.
from Seth Godin’s Blog.
keepin it short and simple… Seth’s writing is just fantastic…
📊 STATISTICS
Top Apps Worldwide for April 2020 by Downloads - Credit: SensorTower
Top Apps Worldwide for April 2020 by Downloads
Zoom was the most downloaded non-game app worldwide for April 2020 with close to 131 million installs, a 60x growth from April 2019.
The countries with the most installs of the app during this period were India at 18.2% of its total downloads and the United States at 14.3%.
TikTok was the second most installed non-game app worldwide last month with more than 107 million installs, a 2.5x increase from April 2019. The countries with the largest number of TikTok installs were India at approximately 22%, followed by the U.S. at 9.4%. Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram rounded out the top five most installed non-game apps worldwide for the month.
Read more on SensorTower.
Biggest Gainers & Losers Among Online Service Categories During COVID19 - Credit: Verto
Biggest Gainers and Losers Among Online Service Categories During COVID19
Comparing January & March 2020 data to see which market categories saw increases or decreases in visitation and users (which is defined as “user reach” in the chart) as the COVID19 pandemic developed, for each market category in the US, Verto calculated the percentage of growth in user reach (i.e. how many consumers out of the total online user base have used a service in its respective category during the month).
They then averaged these growth rates across all services in a given category and compared all the categories. The chart below illustrates the findings.
Biggest Increases
News sites/apps have seen the most significant increase (55% more users on average).
Law/government sources (which have showcased official information, instructions, and guidelines related to public health) have also spiked, gaining almost 40% more users.
The health/fitness and education markets have also seen significant rises (21% and 19% respectively) in user reach. Remote work tools (including the productivity category) and the overall use of social media and messaging apps (including video conferencing) have also gained almost 10% more users, which is notable given that these markets have massive user bases even during normal times.
Biggest Decreases
Gambling related sites/apps have seen the biggest decrease in user activity. (With professional sports suspended, there’s nothing for consumers to gamble on.)
Sports apps/sites are also down, showing 14% fewer users.
Read more on Verto.
Fortnite: Registered* (not active) Users:
• July 17: 1mm
• Dec '17: 30mm
• Jan '18: 45mm
• Jun '18: 125mm
• Nov '18: 200mm
• Mar '19: 250mm
• May '20: 350mm
Mar '19 to May '20: Registered up 40% (or 100mm!)
Enormous, even if actives and cultural dominance have receded
📱 TOOLS & APPS
Pikaso: Screenshot Twitter like a pro; now with ONE CLICK! [Brave/Chrome Extension]
this was already super handy… now, it’s a whole new level of useful!
Let’s Enhance 2.0: Powerful AI to increase photo resolution. No quality loss.
will probably come to your rescue at some point…
Bytedance’s video editing app; lots of features, and it’s free.
Airbnb’s online “talent directory”: for staff affected by lay-offs
good move?
Organise Your Music: by any of a wide range of musical attributes including genre, mood, decade of release and more.
Smarter Playlists: lets you automate the process of making complex Spotify playlists.
Spotify Listening Together: A global music listening experiment
a few tools to use with your Spotify…
🔍 SPOTTED
Instagram is working on revamping Insights [link]
Instagram is working on “Videos Over 60s” filter for video picker, useful for IGTV [link]
Instagram lays out guideline for maintaining IGTV Ads eligibility [link]
Facebook is working on Job Application Questions [link]
Facebook is working on “People Are Talking About” section [link]
Twitter’s new conversation controls [link]
Twitter’s new ‘want to revise this?’ feature [link]
Twitter is testing to show a separate “x Retweets with comments” [link]
Spotify is working on a new header layout for Podcast Charts for Android [link]
🎧 AUDIO STIMULATION
Can Capitalism Survive? Chamath Palihapitiya Isn’t Sure - Business Casual
American capitalism is kind of like apple pie. We know it’s supposed to be a quintessential component of our culture, but we’re not really sure how to make it from scratch without leaving a bad taste in someone’s mouth.
This week on Morning Brew’s Business Casual podcast, the provocative and recently very viral venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya argues that today’s recipe for capitalism isn’t working.
Palihapitiya’s case against this “perversion” of capitalism looks a little like this:
We’ve strayed tremendously from the free market system that allowed all entities, wealthy or poor, to move together in unison.
To Palihapitiya, that’s resulted in a massive zero sum game between resilience and efficiency. If we want to have both, we need to make some changes.
Rip Off the Band-Aid: Chamath Palihapitiya on Our Broken System - Business Casual
In this episode, Chamath argues his thesis that “zombie companies” need to go six feet under for the rest of the economy to stay alive and well—especially in the middle of today’s pandemic and recession. He explains…
Why stock buybacks and monetary mismanagement deserve more than a slap on the wrist
How the government needs to reconsider the incentives it offers companies to create a more sustainable version of capitalism
And while he’s at it, Chamath draws apt connections between luck and hard work.
Come for the deep analysis of government intervention in companies deemed too big to fail, stay for Chamath’s assertion that the U.S. economy needs billionaires like the NBA needs LeBron James.
fantastic episodes to give you an interesting take on capitalism. i learned a lot.
🐦 TWEETS of the WEEK
You should be scared of being average!
what is your favorite HDMI port on your tv? mine is 2
How to be a successful #nocode entrepreneur
CREATE more than you CONSUME.
CONSUME:
📘 Books
🎧 Podcasts
🎥 Courses
📺 Youtube
🐦 Social media
CREATE
⌨ Blog posts
🎶 Tweets
📦 Products
💻 Content
👩🏼🏫 Webinars
CONSUMING only feels like being productive.
Sorry @elonmusk 😅 https://t.co/SlkpWwy2ZO
😂 see this 👆and then this 👇 and 🎁 a gift for you.
naming my daughter https://
the rest is blank so she can decide her own future :)
a useful 🧵 👇
TWITTER CROP GUIDE THREAD! (1/5)
1 pic https://t.co/cURbUJL3hI
4/10 - Cut & paste your surroundings to Photoshop
Code: https://t.co/cVddH3u3ik
Book: @HOLOmagazine
Garment: SS17 by @thekarentopacio
Type: Sainte Colombe by @MinetYoann @ProductionType
Technical Insights: ↓
#ML #AR #AI #AIUX #Adobe #Photoshop https://t.co/LkTBe0t0rF
#AugmentedReality - AirPods Last Played ↓ https://t.co/ON28YEUSyI
😂 FUN STUFF
Dog (vs) Cat Version 2 😂👍 https://t.co/ZyylPTwucY
An important map. Source: https://t.co/DO7e4fMybb https://t.co/jS6v63NemW
That's all for this week...
and i’ll leave you with this
always have your mask on...