📡 It’s not gonna be the same.
Hello and welcome to Pulse — the weekly techie/businessy newsletter from @perspectiveix. I’m your host Ben, and I’m back — for now.
Sorry about not making it last week; let’s just say I would if I could, but health comes first. Also, Pulse is taking a much-needed break during the not-so-interesting 2020 holidays and will be back on 10th January 2021; so
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you all!
In the meantime, I’m thinking about making [a few] changes to Pulse, so if you have any ideas, feedback, or suggestions, I’d be happy to hear them. Just reply to this email, or DM me on Instagram.
Oh, and by the way, you can support Pulse by clicking here & here.
Now, let’s jump in — and see you next year!
🗞 NEWS
YouTube’s unremarkable 2020 [link], Apple stores close in California & London [link], and Gurdians (of Galaxy-ish) [link]
DJI on blacklist, Microsoft’s chips, and The second vaccine [link]
SolarWinds keep blowing, Twitter keeps launching, and more major anti-trust issues [link]
Facebook attacking Apple, States attacking Google, and Bitcoin [link]
Goodbye Periscope, Hello antitrust, and A royal podcast [link]
Google-less hours, SolarWinds, and Privacy labels [link]
Reddit’s purchase, Twitter’s purchase, and Tesla’s break [link]
🧠 INSIGHTS
Credit: Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash
It’s a rather motley crew. One is a nurse, another a lawyer, a third an investment adviser. There are three programmers, a soldier, and a data scientist. An entrepreneur, a consultant, and, I just found out today, a nuclear engineer. The ring leaders are a hotel clerk and a person we have known for years, yet no one knows his name, and then there is me.
We talk about all kinds of things: video games and COVID, family frustrations and bad bosses, and whether Aaron Rodgers is better than Patrick Mahomes (if only Rodgers had had Andy Reid). And, of course, the Milwaukee Bucks. That’s the reason we are in the same group, after all, which is another way of noting that all of us — except the Kansas City Chiefs fan — are originally from Wisconsin. And yet many of us had never met each other until a couple of years ago, when we attended a Bucks game together; the physical world was a trailing indicator.
Read more on Stratechery.
📊 STATISTICS
YouTube's Top-Earners 2020 & The 9-year-old at the top
YouTube stars are regularly bombarded with the question “how much do you earn doing this?”. This infographic sheds some light on the most lucrative end of the YouTube money list. Ryan Kaji earned $29.5 million from June 1, 2019 to June 1, 2020, keeping him in the number 1 spot on the Forbes ranking.
The special thing about the Texan? He is just nine years old. Kaji has become famous with videos in which he presents new toys and rates them. Even younger is Russia-born Anastasia Radzinskaya (known as Nastya and 6 years old), whose videos have generated revenues of $18.5 million.
via Statista.
Netflix's StreamFest enables the app to hit a record day of downloads with 1.3M
On December 5th - 6th, Netflix gave all of India a free trial called it “StreamFest.” The company ended up extending the offer another two days but we can already tell people have definitely taken advantage!
Read more on Apptopia.
📱 TOOLS & APPS
Background Remover: Quickly remove the background from any photo for free
another one; and it’s free
Roy: A simple & delightful colour picker for designers
also, another one; but a really good one.
🔍 SPOTTED
On Twitter, you can check whether you risk losing your verification badge [link]
Figma is working on the ability to connect multiple accounts to use a single Community profile [link]
Snapchat is working on the ability to show Friend’s Bitmojis in your phone’s push notifications [link]
Snapchat is working on a Lenses settings page [link]
Spotify is working on “Mono Audio”, an option for playing stereo audio content as mono [link]
Instagram is working on the possibility of tagging people in Reels [link]
Twitter explains why an account is verified when you tap the verified [link]
🐦 TWEETS of the WEEK
How people treat you is their KARMA,
How you react is yours.
Life is the space in between thoughts.
😂 FUN STUFF
A very 2020 Christmas! - Credit: emperor_piglet/Reddit
Save money on expensive calendars for 2021 by reusing one from 1993 as the days/dates match. Bequeath it to the grand kids and they can use it 2106 in their radiation-proof subterranean lair. https://t.co/rPn8BleaNd
Baby announcement photo in 2020 - Credit: tyleryoungblood/Reddit
That's all for this year...
Christmas is coming... so does a new strain of the coronavirus...