๐ก Every little ๐งcounts; and matters.
Welcome to this weekโs Pulse!
Hope youโre 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, Iโve 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.
Iโm working on a few exciting things for you โ meanwhile, your coffees help and are much appreciated!
Now, letโs scroll down โ but do it slowly if you donโt wanna miss the GIVEAWAY below.
If youโre reading this on the web, you wonโt see the GIVEAWAY section; sorry! Make sure youโre subscribed if you donโt wanna miss the next one though.
โ ๐ญ๐๐ ๐ฃ๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ช [ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ]
โฐ GIVEAWAY: A Gift of Better Sleep โ 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. Iโve been using Sleep Cycle Premium for almost two years now, and I highly recommend it.
You can download Sleep Cycle for FREE:
๐ค ๐ As a gift to our readers, weโre giving away 2 vouchers to unlock Sleep Cycleโs premium service for six months.
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
For a chance to win, click here.
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
Stay safe, take care, and sweet dreams!
[ must enter before 18:00 BST, 15/04/2020; two random winners]
๐ 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].
itโs 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, itโs 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 playingโฆ
iOS 14 code shows that Apple is working on a โClipsโ feature letting users experience parts of an appโs functionality in Safari via a link or scanning a QR code [9to5Mac].
sorry, but does anyone use โClipsโ like at all!?
Microsoft wonโt 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 timesโฆ
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 girlsโ 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 newsโฆ if they WANT TO!
Facebookโs experimental product unit debuts Tuned, an iOS app creating a โprivate spaceโ 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 wouldnโt.
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].
โlower oil price and a wait-and-see approach to buying new modelsโฆโ
Boeing 787s must be turned off and on every 51 days to prevent โmisleading dataโ being shown to pilots [TheRegister].
what the actual fuck!?
๐ a gift for you.
๐ง INSIGHTS
The Ripple Effect - Credit: Linus Nylund on Unsplash
We rarely have complete control over the big issues.
But the way we interact with each other, the small kindnesses, the extra effortโit adds up.
One after another, day by day.
It might be enough to change someoneโs day. And then the ripple continues.
from Seth Godinโs Blog.
itโs a long issue, so i thought letโs keep this part short โ but not just short for the sake of itโฆ itโs enough. enough little thingsโฆ they matter.
๐ STATISTICS
Kids' daily screen time surges during coronavirus - Credit: Axios
Kidsโ 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.
Read more on Axios.
Top Apps Worldwide by Downloads (Mar 20) - Credit: SensorTower
Top Apps Worldwide for March 2020 by Downloads
TikTok was the most downloaded non-game app worldwide for March 2020 with more than 115.2 million installs, which represented a 98.4% increase from March 2019. The countries with the most installs of the app during this period were India at 29.5% of its total downloads and Brazil at 9.4%.
Read more on SensorTower.
Videoconferencing traffic - Credit: Nokia
Network traffic insights in the time of COVID-19
Continued dramatic growth in videoconferencing apps โ some now showing a 700% increase from February 1
Self-imposed reduction of streaming rates by streaming video providers brought relief โ no significant weekend peak increases (with some exceptions)
The abrupt decline in video streaming rates (happening from specific dates) suggests it was a result of speed reduction - not caused by congestion or insufficient capacity.
Thereโs a lot more to read on Nokia blog:
๐ฑ TOOLS & APPS
Pikaso Bot: Screenshot Twitter without even leaving Twitter.
quick, easy, and clean way of screenshotting tweets.
more of a trick than an app, nevertheless, handy (wrote this in 2017 โ 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! ๐
Airtable + Bannerbear: Auto generate images using Airtable
handy. really handy.
๐ง 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.โs top brass? Do you know what youโd say? And what youโd lobby for? Mark Cuban does.
This week on Morning Brewโs Business Casual podcast, Cubanโowner of the Dallas Mavericks, Shark Tank investor, and media execโdoes just thatโฆand 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!
๐ก [ pulse ] โ a playlist on Spotify
go listen โ and add your fav songs.
๐ฆ TWEETS of the WEEK
Wanted: COVID-19 expert
Requirements: four years of experience
my shoes probably think i died
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!
@elonmusk Stonks https://t.co/wy9o8Q6CEX
Better โwrongโ alone than โrightโ with the herd.
my boyfriend has been wearing sweats so much he has started calling normal pants... "hard pants"
[Sir David Attenborough voice]
Once again this adult male has opened the wrong side of the cereal box.
wake me up when 2020 ends.
๐ FUN STUFF
me: h-
my mom with her phd in corona virus after graduating from whatsapp threads: https://t.co/msWK8DKN2G
Having a grate time. https://t.co/hC6gseSijr
What has been seen cannot be unseen
#ps5 https://t.co/nQhneObCRT
A friend sent me this and now I canโt think of anything else https://t.co/gPbNwi729U
Towel animal left by the hotel staff - Credit: Reddit/u/OyeSimpson
You Have One Job, Stay Indoors
I dint think thats how it works. https://t.co/5ZBRzR5Rcs
Hey honey, let me show you a new trick!
ouch!
That's all for this week...
This was a loooong oneโฆ
See you next week โ or maybe sooner ๐ โ same place, same time.
Ciao