[KC] DEBRIEF WEEK 46/47 FRIDAY 11/19 & 11/26
DIGITAL TITANS
_Twitter acquires Threader, an app that compiles and shares threads. Twitter announced today that it’s acquiring Threader, an app that lets people compile Twitter threads and share their favorites, making it easier to help people find long threads on the platform. When users reply to a thread, tag Threader’s profile, and write the word “compile,” the Threader bot creates a link that presents the thread in an easier-to-read, article-like format.
_Spotify. Spotify wipes default shuffle button off albums as Adele asks to respect the art. While most of us are used to listening to music on shuffle, many artists and producers seem to feel strongly that albums should be appreciated chronologically. In fact, it was so important to Adele that her new album, 30, be heard in the right order, that she asked Spotify to remove shuffle as the default play mode on its platform. “This was the only request I had in our ever-changing industry! We don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our tracklisting for no reason. Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended,” Adele tweeted. The music service complied, removing the shuffle option from all of the artist’s albums. And it didn’t just stop there. According to Gizmodo, the option has disappeared from other artists’ works as well, with albums now set to play in order by default.
_Xbox x Gucci Series X Console . Gucci brings their trademark ultra-lux style to gaming with the bespoke Gucci Xbox Series X console. The console itself is wrapped in a laser-engraved case with the letters "GG" with two Gucci-branded controllers. All this fits in a hard Gucci suitcase with a matching "GG" pattern and "Good Game" printed on the back that makes sure one arrives at the LAN party in style. The Gucci Xbox Series X is limited to 100 units.
_YouTube is making a big push on live-stream shopping heading into the holiday season, while it’s also updating its connected ad options to offer more transparency into performance. First off, YouTube has announced a new series of live-stream shopping events, as it looks to tap into the rise in shopper behavior leading into the holidays.
_Meta-owned Instagram is bringing two new features to Reels, the app’s TikTok-like short video format. The two features coming to Reels include Text-to-Speech and Voice Effects that offer creators more options while making Reels. The Text to Speech feature lets users use an artificial voice to read any text they add instead of using their voice in the video. Voice Effects, on the other hand, can be used to modify the audio and voiceover on Instagram Reels. These new features were announced by Instagram in a blog post on its Community page on November 11. The features come as the company’s latest effort to give users more creative options to explore while making Reels. The new features are being rolled out to users on both iOS and Android. The Text-to-Speech option can be accessed via the text tool in the Reels camera. It enables an auto-generated voice to read the text one has added to Reels. As mentioned above, this feature will allow users to use an artificial voice in the videos instead of their own. To access the new text-to-voice feature, users need to open the Reels Camera in the Instagram app > Record video or upload from gallery > Tap the Text tool > Tap on the text bubble and select “Text to Speech" from the three dots menu > Select the voice you’d like to use > Post.
_Snapchat To Open Festive Market In AR, Bringing Holiday Shopping Feels To Homes. Snapchat is offering a holiday shopping experience for users who might not be able to make it to the festive markets or their favorite stores this year-end. Harnessing the power of augmented reality, which the company is no stranger to, this virtual market will open on Black Friday (November 26) with immersive experiences from six stores. These include Coca-Cola, Hollister, Prime Video, Under Armour, Verizon, and Walmart. Each will have its own dedicated “store space” on the app where shoppers can browse products with exciting deals, and purchase them straight from the app. For Coca-Cola’s room, the firm will be recreating the festive visit to Santa at the mall, as reported by Campaign. And in Verizon’s, customers will get to enjoy an AR treasure hunt for holiday deals, with the option to make purchases directly through the lens.
_Download the syllabus (PDF) The TikTok Syllabus: Teaching Socio-cultural Issues on TikTok is a public scholarship project launched by the TikTok Cultures Research Network. In response to our series of public events in 2020–2021, our research-focused Network has pledged to continue dedicating time and resources to enhance the teaching and pedagogical work done around TikTok Studies and its impact on society. This Syllabus provides a curation of the early landscape of TikTok Studies, providing educators and researchers with resources to teach and think about TikTok through various socio-cultural perspectives. Like the first iteration, this Syllabus is currently limited to English language work, though we have extended our efforts to consider a myriad of case studies and resources especially focused on the Asia Pacific region, where we are based. We welcome collaborations on future iterations of this Syllabus, across languages, regions, and foci. For a full list of academic publications on TikTok by members of the TikTok Cultures Research Network and from academia at large, visit our publications page. We welcome suggestions for entries via our contact page.
_Meta. Mark Zuckerberg is the worst brand spokesperson for Meta right now. Will anyone tell the Meta CEO and Facebook founder that he should not be the face of his company? Steve Jobs is one of, if not the best-ever example of a company executive who doubled as a marketing spokesperson. The black turtleneck, the jeans, the understated but infectious enthusiasm and drive—all became synonymous with the Apple brand. It’s an ideal that many executives and company founders have been chasing, long before Jobs’ death in 2011. Today, in 2021, we find ourselves in an era of the celebrity founder, in which people already famous for their winning personalities, such as Rihanna, Ryan Reynolds, and Dwayne Johnson, aren’t just brand ambassadors but they’re also owners tying their million-dollar personas to their brands. Now, scroll through the feed of other executives who are also the face of their brands. There’s Elon Musk, of course, but much of his work takes place via Twitter and not video. There’s the high stagecraft of Jeff Bezos, but much of that has been in service of his brand, or Blue Origin, rather than Amazon. So keep scrolling . . . scrolling . . . and eventually you’ll land on Mark Zuckerberg.
_ ‘Pokémon GO’ Developer Reveals Plans To Take The Metaverse Outside In First Ad. Niantic, the company behind Pokémon GO, has always had augmented reality (AR) as a signature touch to its games. It might seem natural that it’d be moving towards the metaverse, but the company has a different take to most. In a blog post from October, founder and CEO John Hanke had written that the conversation around the metaverse has been too focused, up until now, on ditching our current world and heading for something that has the potential to be “better,” in a very grass-is-always-greener take. That’s not what Niantic wants to do; instead, its visions for the metaverse are still based around the “reality” part of augmented reality. The company hopes that it can keep “encouraging everyone, ourselves included, to stand up, walk outside, and connect with people and the world around us.” Now, that’s something that might conjure up memories of the summer months of 2016, which are often dubbed “Pokémon GOSummer.” Simpler times, right?
ALSO
Niantic has released details of Pokémon Go’s upcoming Ed Sheeran collaboration in a new blog post, a little over a day after first teasing the surprising crossover. The event kicks off on November 22nd at 2 pm ET (11 am PT) and will run for a little over a week until November 30th. The main feature appears to be a performance of some sort from Ed Sheeran, though what form this will take (a pre-recorded video? A virtual Ed avatar?) isn’t at all clear. Niantic says the performance will include songs from Sheeran’s new album, titled =(yes, the name of the album is the equals sign), and that it’ll be accessible from the News section of the Pokémon Go app. Right now, this section is just a news feed of announcements and blog posts, so this doesn’t offer much of a hint about what shape the performance will take.
INNOVATION
_Patreon Looking To Build Its Own Video Platform So Creators Can Bypass YouTube. Patreon already has a pretty solid reputation in the creator community, with a decent repertoire of text and image sharing options. It’s now poised to introduce its tools for creators on the platform, and one area that it’s keen to expand upon is its approach to video. Currently, creators who want to share video with their supporters either have to keep it to 200MB and below to upload onto the site, or use an external platform like YouTube or Vimeo and link to it in their posts. While this could work for short clips or exclusive peeks into trailers and such, it isn’t ideal for creators whose main practice includes video content, such as animators.
PEOPLE, MEDIA, CULTURE
_ The Dematerialised on the Rise of Virtual Fashion. Marjorie Hernandez and Karinna Nobbs, co-founders of The Dematerialised, explain why, one day, a digital dress could be just as desirable as a physical one, as featured in the fourth episode of The BoF Show, now streaming on Bloomberg Quicktake.
_ Most cryptocurrency wallets today, such as MetaMask, exist as browser extensions. But web browser Brave is shaking things up a bit, revealing on Wednesday the Brave Wallet, a built-in crypto wallet that will allow users to buy and sell “almost any” asset, including NFTs. Brave is a web browser designed with privacy in mind, one of a few alternatives that have risen to Google’s Chrome browser and search engine after user privacy concerns were raised. Apart from storing currency, the Brave Wallet will also display live and historical market graphs, buy with fiat via Wyre, transfer and receive currency, and trade NFTs. Another benefit is that users will have access to Web3 decentralized applications (DApps), also without the need for installing browser extensions.
_ $9,000 iPhone ‘Tyrannophone’ Contains 80 Million-Year-Old T-Rex Tooth Fragment. Russian luxury gadget customizer Caviar has unveiled the iPhone 13 Pro Tyrannophone, which not only comes with a hyperrealistic engraving of a T-Rex on the back but also an 80 million years old tooth fragments from the dinosaur. Yup, you read that right. The uniquely-designed smartphone is part of the company’s latest Tera series, which features a lightweight composite foundation and a gold-plated jewelry alloy. Even more special, the eye of the T-Rex is made using real amber, while its head is sculpted out of titanium.
_ American Grammy-winning music artist Timbaland, who has over 1.72 million subscribers on Youtube, announced the launch of an entertainment brand Ape-In Productions (AIP), based around Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT’s. Despite the growth of NFTs this year, skeptics still question what else can a URL image be used for other than viewing. Initiatives like AIP are showcasing utility for these digital assets that go beyond the value of ownership. The Bored Ape Yacht Club was founded by Yuga Labs in April of this year and has since become one of the most successful NFT projects of all time, accumulating over $1 billion in total sales across two related projects, Bored Apes and Mutant Apes. Coingecko estimates the current market capitalization of Bored Apes at more than $2 trillion. Yuga Labs minted a total of 10,000 distinct Bored Ape characters, and the ownership of one or more NFTs gives membership to an exclusive club community of Ape collectors. Ape-In Productions is a music label looking to work with Bored Ape talent. Its first signing, theZoo, is a hip-hop group in the Bored Ape Yacht Club universe and already has its first single ready for release, ApeSh!t, which Timbaland produced. The idea is to create a platform where select Bored Apes can release music and other content as NFTs. Ownership of these NFTs will grant access to other exclusive experiences in the Bored Ape universe, such as animated concerts and virtual studio sessions. Timbaland launches music label based on Bored Ape NFTs
_ Working in the Metaverse. What the Metaverse will look like.
_Nvidia Flaunts Art AI That Paints Realistic Pictures Just From Text You Give It. Nvidia has been developing artificial intelligence art tools perfect for people who aren’t born painters. Earlier this year, the graphics processing giant launched ‘Canvas’, an AI painting app that transforms amateurish doodles into full backdrops. Now, you don’t even need to use your mouse or stylus—a few words are all it takes to channel your inner Claude Monet. ‘GauGAN’, the deep learning tool named after post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin that powers this technology, has been improved to generate beautiful photorealistic landscapes from scratch with a prompt of just three or four words. If you’re a wordsmith, adding another adjective or changing up the phrase will create a different look in real-time. Enter “sunset at a rocky beach,” for example, and you’ll find an AI-created picture that shows just that. You can then replace “sunset” with “afternoon” or “rainy day” to switch up the scene.
BRANDS
Adidas Releases Mysterious NFTs With No True Owner, Fans Are Plunging In Anyway. One of the main characteristics of a non-fungible token (NFT) is its ownership. Although digital images can be moved around the internet, there is only one “true” owner, and this is minted on the blockchain. (Unless, of course, a pirating force finds a loophole.) However, Adidas’ first foray into the metaverse takes that and turns it on its head: it’s a mysterious NFT with a mysterious purpose and no singular owner. This token was first made available on Thursday on the platform POAP, which is often used to distribute collectibles exclusive to specific events. “This digital collectible is our way of rewarding you for following your curiosity as we explore this new age of originality together,” the description writes. The terms of service make clear that Adidas maintains ownership for all the NFTs, which is where the concept of the singular owner—arguably one of the, if not the most, appealing aspects of an NFT—is removed. “This token proves you were here from the beginning of this journey,” Adidas continues. “Keep it safe—it may come in handy.”
_Dyson Opens Virtual Store Allowing You To Navigate Its Products From Home. Dyson has been meta even before the meta became the mainstream. Previously, the British household equipment brand created a lookalike toy version of its iconic vacuum cleaners, complete with sound effects, to get young children in the flow of chores and possibly start helping parents out earlier in their lives. Now, the company is coming for adults with a different kind of simulation. In line with the immersive 3D interactive environments that Facebook’s Metadreams of, Dyson has launched Dyson Demo VR, a virtual-reality shopping experience modeled after real-world Dyson stores. Here, shoppers can pick up 3D renderings of Dyson products, “hold” them to try them out, and learn more about them. Dyson e-commerce director Sean Newmarch tells Glossy that the virtual store was set up as a direct response to how COVID-19 has overturned the way brands interact with consumers. “When we were faced with the challenge of our demonstration stores and our demonstration temples being unavailable… we moved quickly to embrace virtual reality,” he says.
_‘Grand Theft Auto’ Players Can Now Get Vaccinated By Pfizer In-Game. Grand Theft Auto players can now bio-hack themselves, sort of, with heightened COVID-19 immunity, as part of a campaign by Pfizer Brazil. Pfizer vaccination centers have been built within the Grand Theft Auto RolePlay (GTA RP) game, a modded version of the prominent action-adventure video game franchise, calling Brazilian players to get their avatars shots to complete an in-game mission. The facilities exist in Cidade Alta, Latin America’s largest GTA RPserver, and have been installed in hopes to inspire more youths to get vaccinated in real life. As of the time of publication, about 60.4% of the Brazilian population are fully vaccinated. According to Paulo Benetti, the CEO of Cidade Alta owner Outplay, the server draws “more than six million” daily viewers, who check in to watch their favorite gaming creators and streamers on the platform.
MMM OF THE WEEK
_El Salvador Is Building A Bitcoin City That Mines Crypto From A Volcano. El Salvador is no stranger to cryptocurrency, with its government famously throwing its weight behind Bitcoin. By offering citizens the option to pay for their McDonald’s meal in Bitcoin and plans in place to start mining crypto from volcanoes, it’s safe to say there’s no going back. Adding to the list of crypto-related innovations, the country is investing in is a whole new city. Yes, it’s based in Bitcoin. And yes, it’s called Bitcoin City. According to president Nayib Bukele, speaking at Bitcoin Week, this new city will be located near a volcano along the Gulf of Fonseca, between La Unión and Colchagua. Of course, it’ll have its own geothermal power plant. Remember how they wanted to mine crypto from volcanoes? It’s all coming together. CoinDesk reports that the city is planned to be a full metropolis with residential and commercial areas, an airport, and a port and rail service. Residents in nearby areas such as La Unión could travel to work there, too. The city will have no income, property, capital gains, or payroll taxes. And, of course, the city will be shaped like a coin. At the center of this giant coin, a plaza is planned to play host to a huge Bitcoin symbol.
_Bot Company Is Offering $200K For Eternal Rights To Use A ‘Kind & Friendly’ Face. Promobot, a robot manufacturing company responsible for producing humanoids modeled to look as close to real people as possible, is hiring, but not in the way one might expect. If you have a kind and friendly face, as subjective as that might be, you could sell it for up to US$200,000 and “transfer the rights to use one’s face forever.”This coveted face would then serve as the base for a new “humanoid robot-assistant,” per a press release, “which will work in hotels, shopping malls, and other crowded places.” It will start its operations in 2023. People of all genders and races are welcome to apply, so long as they’re over 25 years old. But perhaps the most important deciding factor, as stated on its website, is that the face must be “kind and friendly.” This criterion is presented next to the image below: Upon selection, the successful candidate will have a 3D model of their face and body developed. At least 100 hours of speech need to be dictated by the candidate in order to develop the bot’s voice, for the finishing touch.
_ Dr. Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, who specializes in animal-computer interaction, and teammates at the school of computing science at the University of Glasgow and Finland’s Aalto University have created a device with a sort of “dog internet” that would finally make electronic communication between humans and dogs two-way. When you’re out at work, your lonely/bored pooch could shake a ‘DogPhone’, its favorite toy with an accelerator installed, and video calls you. Dr. Hirskyj-Douglas experimented with this technology with her 10-year-old labrador Zack. She hid an accelerator inside Zack’s go-to toy, a ball, which would trigger her laptop to start a video call with her if it sensed motion.
_Barbados has become the first country in the world to create a digital embassy in the metaverse. The Caribbean island announced their deal with Decentraland, a crypto-powered digital world involved in the metaverse with 90,601 plots of “land” last week after. The landmark decision was approved by the Barbados Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Dr. Jerome Walcott in August with the virtual embassy due to officially open in January 2022. “This platform will be an important forum where Barbados will work with our traditional partners and new allies to deepen engagement in the diplomatic arena, and the investment, business, tourism, and cultural sectors, and people-to-people interaction. Barbados looks forward to welcoming the world in its metaverse embassy.” Dectraland shared the history-making news on their social media page and confirmed that Barbados became the first sovereign nation with an embassy in the metaverse after striking the deal.
_ For people with a regular drinking establishment of choice, the person behind the bar can even become a friend and confidant. Or, as renowned Canadian economist, Harry Gordon Johnson once said: "The greatest accomplishment of a bartender lies in his ability to exactly suit his customer."Soon, however, those bar staff might not even be human. Enter Cecilia, a robotic bartender that mixes and serves cocktails, and uses artificial intelligence (AI) to talk to customers in much the same way that Alexa, on an Amazon Echo speaker, or Siri, on an iPhone can respond to you. The unit looks a bit like a tall fruit machine, only with an animated female barmaid - Cecilia - appearing on a large, upright video screen. You either tell her what cocktail you want, or order it on the below touch-screen, and pay for the drink by tapping your bank card or phone.
OFF-TOPIC
_Gen Z and the death of the networking mixer Gen Z, the largest and most ethnically diverse generation, is also emerging as a more opportunistic generation, taking advantage of today’s tight talent market to pursue new jobs that offer more purpose and direction.