Issue #64 True Metaverses, Anxiety Consumerism, and the positive side of Social Media - Sat, Sep 15 2018

Dozens of reporters — inside Apple's Steve Jobs Theater or back at their offices — spent hours on Sept. 12 tweeting about Apple, sharing details about its two new iPhones and Apple Watch. Yet despite all this free press attention, the…

Clo Willaerts First year I didn’t even watch the live stream. Despite all the free press attention anything “big” from Apple always gets, the tech giant spent what several marketers considered to be a significant amount on Twitter.

After saying I was impressed by High Fidelity's ability to get 350+ avatars in the same local metaverse space, a guy who actually helped define the metaverse told me that he wasn't very impressed. Will Burns, Vice-Chair for IEEE's Virtual Worlds…

Clo Willaerts Interesting: “We are amid a VR hype where nobody wants to look at things with a critical eye. I see a large group of virtual worlds crowning themselves as a Metaverse because it's marketing hype. “

A senior Google research scientist has quit the company in protest over its plan to launch a censored version of its search engine in China. Jack Poulson worked for Google's research and machine intelligence department, where he was focused on…

Clo Willaerts In the six weeks since the revelations about Dragonfly, the censored version of Search in China, Google has still not publicly addressed concerns about the project, despite facing a major backlash internally and externally.

Midway through “ Swiped: Hooking Up in the Digital Age,” premiering on HBO Monday at 10 p.m., a middle-aged mother bestows a bit of allegorical advice upon her daughter and her daughter's friend, seated at a stool nearby. The fruit at…

Clo Willaerts The old-school ways of dating — as in, going out and meeting people — doesn’t work in the modern age.

Two Kickstarter campaigns between the fall of 2016 and the spring of 2017 set out with relatively modest goals: Each intended to raise around $20,000 to create products that claimed to relieve stress. Instead, both made millions and ended up…

Clo Willaerts Fidget spinners and weighted blankets have 'helped give rise to the growing anxiety economy, composed of adult coloring books, aromatherapy vapes, essential oils, and other products designed to calm us down.

Yes, teens use social media more often than ever. But the positives appear to outweigh the negatives, according to a national survey released Monday by Common Sense Media. “Many of the insights are likely to challenge some parents' notions…

Clo Willaerts Yes, teens use social media more often than ever (especially ⁦‪@Snapchat‬⁩ ). But the positives appear to outweigh the negatives, according to a national survey released Monday by Common Sense Media.

Peter's in the final stages of going live with his startup. He and his small team have secured the last of their $300k seed money and quit their jobs. It's been a lot of hard work, late nights, and days spent on the phone or in front of a laptop to…

Clo Willaerts If you don’t need to use your devices, then don’t. Detach, don’t detox.

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Clo Willaerts Highest Grossing Films 2010 - 2018: Visual Breakdown, Part I Top 5: Star Wars TFA, Black Panther, Avengers IW, Jurassic World, and Marvel’s The Avengers.