Adrian Hon reminded me of something I’ve been puzzling over for a few months, in the wake of the Mystery of the Missing Amazon Receipts: Chances are you’ve bought something from Amazon in the last few months (yes, we are all hypocrites, also there’s a pandemic on). Try searching your email for one of those… Continue reading Author, author!
Tag: Technology
King of the Web
Matt Webb has been thinking big thoughts about the future of the web: It’s hot and it’s lunchtime, so let’s pretend I’m in charge of major global technical infrastructure! I wrote about how I would improve RSS the other day (because being able to subscribe to text is super neat, but it’s so arcane compared… Continue reading King of the Web
Modern communications
Modern communications technology in action. [Via RT by @cstross]
If not Netflix, who?
M.G. Siegler ponders Netflix’s ability to get us watching, even when the content isn’t all that special (sparked by his watch of The Old Guard, but prompted by the wider pattern of so-so content on the platform: The real risk here is that the audience starts to associate Netflix with mediocre films. It may not… Continue reading If not Netflix, who?
Reasons not to use Microsoft Teams (number one in a very long list)
My experience of team working from home bears precisely no relationship to this. And yet, I still can’t help but find it entertaining and endearing. So, well played, Apple’s marketing team. Well played indeed.
Amazon Apostate
Now that he’s left Amazon, Tim Bray can express heretical thoughts about the company’s priorities out loud, in public: On a Spring 2019 walk in Beijing I saw two street sweepers at a sunny corner. They were beat-up looking and grizzled but probably younger than me. They’d paused work to smoke and talk. One told… Continue reading Amazon Apostate
This is fine
It’s almost as if the manufacturers of smart speakers want everyone to get used to accidental activations: Voice assistants in smart speakers analyze every sound in their environment for their wake word, e.g., «Alexa» or «Hey Siri», before uploading the audio stream to the cloud. This supports users’ privacy by only capturing the necessary audio… Continue reading This is fine
Bra Theory
Logically, there was no good reason why yet another branch of human endeavour shouldn’t fall to the energy of an entrepreneur prepared to apply modern technology and a Can-Do attitude to the problem. That was the theory, anyway: While tailors have figured out a formula for men’s suits, bra tailoring is a younger technology with… Continue reading Bra Theory
Paper phone?
I’m torn between thinking that the Paper Phone is a neat little idea and the proposition that as long as your personal data is in the Cloud then the trick is to arrange things so that you have access to it wherever you are via whatever devices are at hand so you don’t need to… Continue reading Paper phone?
Windows in windows
Part of me really hopes that Apple end up shamelessly stealing the idea of what to do next with the tablet form factor from Microsoft rather than Samsung. Now we’re in the process of the transition to iPadOS, it’d be good to see the new branch of the iOS project explore something that’s not tied… Continue reading Windows in windows