📡 The smartest 🤓 in the room...
Welcome to the 87th Pulse!
Hope you’re well and safe. Thanks for being here, reading Pulse; I really appreciate it.
If you use Telegram, you’re probably familiar with [ ix family ] there; and now, they have a new member:
[ ix daily ] — tech, media, and business news headlines. 1 daily update; 6 days a week.
it’s there to fill the gap between [ ix news ] and Pulse!
Let me know what you think. Your feedback is always appreciated.
Now, let’s get readin’, shall we?
— 𝕭𝖊𝖓 𝔣𝔯𝔬𝔪 [ 𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖛𝖊 𝖎𝖝 ]
🗞 NEWS
This AI creates entire songs complete with music, lyrics, and vocals [TNW]
and it’s better than me! see for yourself: pop, in the style of Céline Dion or Classic Pop, in the style of Frank Sinatra 🤯
Zoom admits it doesn’t have 300M DAUs, quietly correcting the claim in its original blog post to 300M “daily Zoom meeting participants [TheVerge]
cheeky!
UK’s NHS says it’s making a contact tracing app that uses a centralised approach, giving it more insight into COVID-19’s spread than Apple and Google’s approach [BBC]
Germany says it will adopt a decentralised approach to digital contact tracing backed by Apple and Google, abandoning its home-grown alternative [Reuters]
not sure how i feel about this!
Telegram postpones the launch of its TON blockchain for a second time, pushing the go-live date to April 2021, and offers to return $1.2B to investors [CoinDesk]
Coronavirus causes worst smartphone market contraction in history — global shipments down 13% [TheVerge]
and 5G ‘iPhone 12’ rumoured to cost $649, 'iPhone 12 Pro’ at $999 and up [AppleInsider]
who’s gonna be buying?
Fortnite is hosting a Diplo concert in its new party mode [TheVerge]
virtual concerts are EVERYWHERE!
Tesla’s lost $14B in value after Elon Musk tweeted its shares were overpriced [Recode]
oh elon elon… this time, it won’t go down easy for you with the SEC dude!
Jeff Bezos is being called to testify before Congress over ‘misleading’ statements from Amazon [TheVerge]
amazon’s like 'we might’ve lied to you, but it didn’t mean to! our hearts are in the right place-ish!’ ffs amazon!
First U.S. dog tests positive for coronavirus [Gizmodo]
no no no no no no no nooooooo
Intel unveils 10th-gen desktop CPUs, including 5.3GHz flagship [TNW]
Intel to buy smart urban transit startup Moovit for $1B to boost its autonomous car division [TechCrunch]
with Apple’s plans on making their own CPUs, Intel needs to fill that void in its revenue, and they’re doing well…
💰 EARNINGS CALLS
Apple Q2: $58.3B revenue, up 1% YoY; $44.9B from products, $13.35B from services; net income of $11.25B [Apple]
Amazon Q1: $75.5B revenue, up 26% YoY; net income of $2.5B, down from $3.6B in Q1 2019; $10.2B from AWS revenue, up from $7.7B YoY [Amazon]
Twitter Q1: sales up 3% YoY to $808M; net loss of $8M due to COVID-19; mDAUs hit a record 166M, up 24% YoY [TechCrunch]
Alphabet Q1: revenue of $41.2B, up 13% YoY; net income of $6.8B, up from $6.7B YoY [Alphabet]
With Q1 numbers in, here are YOY ad growth / cost per ad charts for $snap $fb and $twtr. Snap interestingly improved on its CPM trend, FB and Twitter saw larger COVID related declines.
notes: twitter cost flat for Q219, Snap said "almost doubled" ad impressions Q120 (used .95) https://t.co/PdVsFyGgPD
🧠 INSIGHTS
Wired, co-founded by Kevin Kelly - Credit: James Bold on Unsplash
Don’t trust all-purpose glue.
Hatred is a curse that does not affect the hated. It only poisons the hater. Release a grudge as if it was a poison.
Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points.
Buying tools: Start by buying the absolute cheapest tools you can find. Upgrade the ones you use a lot. If you wind up using some tool for a job, buy the very best you can afford.
You are what you do. Not what you say, not what you believe, not how you vote, but what you spend your time on.
Don’t be the smartest person in the room. Hangout with, and learn from, people smarter than yourself. Even better, find smart people who will disagree with you.
Read all of them on The Technium.
On his 68th birthday, Wired cofounder Kevin Kelly shares 68 bits of advice. It’s worth reading — more than a few times… these were just a few of them.
📊 STATISTICS
Advertising Revenue - Credit: Forrester
Q1 Earnings: Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat Advertising Decelerates While Usage Accelerates
The global economy is in recession: US Q1 GDP declined 4.8%, and the eurozone’s contraction set a record. As far as the advertising triopoly and the social networks are concerned, however, advertising in Q1 surpassed bleak expectations and usage is booming — but not all is how it appears to be.
Read more on Forrester.
the pandemic’s real impact on advertising won’t be felt until Q2
iPad App Downloads - Credit: SensorTower
iPad App Downloads See First Positive Quarterly Growth in Four Years
Driven by a surge in use and adoption of the device during the COVID19 pandemic, quarterly first-time downloads of apps for Apple’s iPad surpassed 1.1 billion worldwide in Q1 2020, marking the first year-over-year growth in this metric since the Q4 2013 and a 40% increase from Q1 2019.
At the same time, quarterly global consumer spending in iPad apps saw its largest YoY increase since Q4 2014 at 16%, while crossing the $2 billion threshold for the first quarter ever.
Read more on SensorTower.
Favourite Social Platform Among US Teens - Credit: MarketingCharts
TikTok is the 3rd Favourite Social Platform Among US Teens
When it comes to which social media platforms resonate most with US teens, the battle between Snapchat and Instagram continues. But the latest report on teens from Piper Sandler shows that a new player – TikTok – has made its way onto the scene and is quickly becoming a favourite with teens.
Snapchat has remained the favourite among teens since 2016. However, Instagram, which is currently the favourite social platform for almost one-third (31%) of the 5,200 US teens surveyed.
Read more on MarketingCharts.
📱 TOOLS & APPS
SimpleDesktops: A collection of wallpapers designed to make your computer beautiful without distraction.
love their minimalistic wallpapers
not a new app, but their new feature deserved a mention: Spotify-owned Anchor can now turn your video chats into podcasts [TechCrunch]
CleanShot X: Capture your Mac’s screen like a PRO
not free, but definitely worth the money.
Shop (by Shopify): Your new shopping assistant. Pay, track, and shop - better [iOS | Android]
shopify’s experiment with product curation and direct commerce
🔍 SPOTTED
Instagram is testing some new text styles [link]
LinkedIn is testing a new darker-coloured theme for link previews in news feed [link]
Snapchat is launching “Friend Compass” [link]
Instagram is working on choices of chat colour [link]
Instagram is working on “DM Me” Sticker [link]
Google Duo is working on “Reachable with email address” setting [link]
🎧 AUDIO STIMULATION
Ray Dalio: Predicting Our Future Using Our Past — Part 1
Ray Dalio, billionaire philanthropist and hedge fund demigod, thinks we can utilise historical precedent to insulate ourselves from the inevitable pain points life throws at us. Do you?
If Ray Dalio Were President… — Part 2
He’s not running. But if he were?
there’s a lot to learn from in these two episodes…
🐦 TWEETS of the WEEK
10:20
10:25
10:21
10:23
10:22
- Parallel parking my time machine
Build the necessary first, then the useful, then the nice.
i've got nothing to say except
I suppose If Apple patents “editing” a message, that may be the nail in the coffin for any chance of Twitter getting an "edit tweet” feature.
/cc @CaseyNewton #EditButton https://t.co/vbe5rhzxwR https://t.co/xlfNGzvRZA
on #socialmedia
followers come and go.
care about the ones that stick around;
others are just a number. https://t.co/vI89MuIylM
😂 FUN STUFF
Baby Announcement in the time of Covid - Credit: Reddit/u/chino6815
You Have One Job, Stay Indoors
Summer is coming. https://t.co/VupkUshElz
respecting social distancing - Credit: Reddit/u/lokishredz
the crocs are finally returning to rivers, nature is healing. we are the virus https://t.co/bXWuJG5PyQ
That's all for this week...
it is.
see you next week. don’t forget to share pulse with a friend — if you’ve made it this far, they’d want to read too… you’re smart, you know how to do it.
ciao