📡 Every little 💧counts; and matters.

Apr 12, 2020

Welcome to this week’s Pulse!

Hope you’re all well and healthy.

You know, one of the challenges of delivering Pulse while on lockdown has been keeping up with the day of the week! Nevertheless, I’ve put together a pretty long Pulse for you today, and I really hope you enjoy scrolling through it as much as I enjoyed making it.

I’m working on a few exciting things for you — meanwhile, your coffees help and are much appreciated!

Now, let’s scroll down — but do it slowly if you don’t wanna miss the GIVEAWAY below.

If you’re reading this on the web, you won’t see the GIVEAWAY section; sorry! Make sure you’re subscribed if you don’t wanna miss the next one though.

— 𝕭𝖊𝖓 𝔣𝔯𝔬𝔪 [ 𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖛𝖊 𝖎𝖝 ]

⏰ GIVEAWAY: A Gift of Better Sleep — for You!

In these unprecedented times, being able to relax and fight anxiety through better sleep is a crucial step toward better health.

Sleep Cycle is a fantastic app that analyses your sleep and can help you sleep better through soothing sounds and better waking up experience. I’ve been using Sleep Cycle Premium for almost two years now, and I highly recommend it.

You can download Sleep Cycle for FREE:

[ iPhone | Android | Huawei ]

💤 🎁 As a gift to our readers, we’re giving away 2 vouchers to unlock Sleep Cycle’s premium service for six months.

🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁

For a chance to win, click here.

🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁

Stay safe, take care, and sweet dreams!

[ must enter before 18:00 BST, 15/04/2020; two random winners]

🗞 NEWS

Apple and Google announce a joint effort to introduce iOS and Android APIs in mid-May for opt-in Bluetooth-based COVID-19 contact tracing [TheVerge].

it’s weird to see them work together; fantastic, nevertheless.

Instagram is rolling out access to DMs on the web to everyone globally, after testing the feature since January [Instagram].

had this for a while, and well, it’s useful if you use them frequently.

Google makes Stadia free to use for anyone with a Gmail address and will give new users two months of Stadia Pro for free [Polygon].

start playing…

iOS 14 code shows that Apple is working on a “Clips” feature letting users experience parts of an app’s functionality in Safari via a link or scanning a QR code [9to5Mac].

sorry, but does anyone use “Clips” like at all!?

Microsoft won’t be delivering its Windows 10X-powered Surface Neo dual-screen devices in 2020, nor will it ship Windows 10X to third-party OEMs [ZDNet].

disappointing, although not surprising :|

Airbnb has held talks about raising an additional $500M to $1B in debt, after announcing a $1B debt and equity deal on Monday, to weather the pandemic [Bloomberg].

desperate times…

Jack Dorsey is moving $1B of his Square equity, almost 28% of his wealth, to Startsmall LLC to fund COVID-19 relief, to later focus on girls’ health, education [Jack/Twitter].

respect.

WhatsApp now limits forwarding of viral messages, forwarded five or more times, to one group at a time, to fight the spread of misinformation [TheGuardian].

apparently, companies CAN take some measures against misinformation and fake news… if they WANT TO!

Facebook’s experimental product unit debuts Tuned, an iOS app creating a “private space” for couples, letting them keep a photo diary, exchange notes, and more [TheVerge].

would you trust facebook with even more of your private personal information? i wouldn’t.

Global sales of electric vehicles are projected to drop by 43% this year as the technology faces a series of overlapping problems, the consultancy Wood Mackenzie finds in a new analysis [Axios].

“lower oil price and a wait-and-see approach to buying new models…”

Boeing 787s must be turned off and on every 51 days to prevent ‘misleading data’ being shown to pilots [TheRegister].

what the actual fuck!?

🎁 a gift for you.

🧠 INSIGHTS

The Ripple Effect - Credit: Linus Nylund on Unsplash

Enough little things

We rarely have complete control over the big issues.

But the way we interact with each other, the small kindnesses, the extra effort–it adds up.

One after another, day by day.

It might be enough to change someone’s day. And then the ripple continues.

from Seth Godin’s Blog.

it’s a long issue, so i thought let’s keep this part short — but not just short for the sake of it… it’s enough. enough little things… they matter.

📊 STATISTICS

Kids' daily screen time surges during coronavirus - Credit: Axios

Kids’ daily screen time surges during coronavirus

Parents were already struggling to limit screen time for kids when they were in school, let alone trying to pull them away from their devices while they are forced to stay home away from their friends, peers and regular activities.

📱 TOOLS & APPS

Pikaso Bot: Screenshot Twitter without even leaving Twitter.

quick, easy, and clean way of screenshotting tweets.

Upload Photos to Instagram from Your Desktop Computer

more of a trick than an app, nevertheless, handy (wrote this in 2017 — and it still works).

Photopea: An online, free, photoshop alternative that anyone can use.

it even looks like photoshop.

Generated Photos: Rights-free faces made using AI

useful; and kinda creepy! 🙄

Airtable + Bannerbear: Auto generate images using Airtable

handy. really handy.

🎧 AUDIO STIMULATION

Mark Cuban on COVID Responses: Perfection Is the Enemy of Progress - Business Casual

What would you do if you were in the room negotiating a stimulus deal with D.C.’s top brass? Do you know what you’d say? And what you’d lobby for? Mark Cuban does.

This week on Morning Brew’s Business Casual podcast, Cuban—owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Shark Tank investor, and media exec—does just that…and explains why perfection is the enemy of progress.

listening to podcast is becoming harder and harder in quarantine, and this is one of the latest episodes i listened to while cleaning! and it was good!

📡 [ pulse ] — a playlist on Spotify

go listen — and add your fav songs.

🐦 TWEETS of the WEEK

Sahil Lavingia

@shl

Wanted: COVID-19 expert

Requirements: four years of experience

7:40 PM - 6 Apr 2020

gent

@gentv10

my shoes probably think i died

10:12 PM - 8 Apr 2020

Apathetic

@Asleep2000

i dated a guy in the 90s who would go to thrift stores and take the forgotten tapes out of the answering machines. we would go smoke cigarettes and listen to them. that was living, that was living!

3:15 AM - 9 Apr 2020