Drowning in the Streams 📧

Back from the road – briefly (back on the road tomorrow). One thing top of mind right now is just how far behind I am on what would seem to be some really good television shows. For all the talk that we're now past "peak TV", the pace of releases has seemed relentless to me the past few months. Perhaps it's just because as the parent of an infant, I struggle to stay awake long enough in the moments where I could plow through some of this content, but I mean, I had to create a new list in my to do app to keep track of things I eventually want to watch, lest I forget.

Currently on there (in no particular order): The Gentleman, Monsieur Spade, Feud: Capote and the Swans, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Sugar, Tokyo Vice (season 2), A Gentleman in Moscow (not to be confused with The Gentleman), 3 Body Problem, Manhunt, Ripley – and that's just newer shows. I've yet to get to Silo, Severance (!), White House Plumbers, The Old Man, and a handful of other "old" shows. And that's because I'm currently in the midst of watching Shogun, The New Look, X-Men '97, Masters of the Air, The Stairwell, Foundation, and Monarch.

And The Acolyte plus the new season of House of Dragon will be upon us soon.

I'm the type of person who is usually reading about a half dozen books at once, but this TV show context switching is bonkers. Throw in movies and it's even worse. The best of times and all that...

🌍
Sent from London

Briefly...

The ‘Beastification of YouTube’ May Be Over – Mimicking video style is sort of the point of TikTok, but it has long swept over YouTube as well. The latest version was insanely fast cuts, flashes, and loud sound effects in the style of MrBeast. With his rise, a massive amount of videos copied the tactics. Which felt like it was pushing us closer to the futures envisioned by Idiocracy meets Wall-E. Thankfully, it seems there's now a movement against such video styles...

The Problem of AI Ethics, and Laws About AI – Benedict Evans points out something fairly obvious, but that also doesn't seem to get talked about enough: AI is not just one piece of technology used for a specific purpose, it's a wide-range of technologies used in myriad ways. Good luck trying to shove it into buckets from where to set rules and laws. This is not the car industry, there's something new being put out there into the world almost daily. The first step in trying to figure out how to have some level of control over such tech is to admit this reality.

Watching People Watch a Game. With 100,000 Friends. – The worlds of Twitch and English football/soccer commentary broadcasts are colliding. "Watchalongs" are a fascinating trend, which is also the offshoot of director commentary, post-show recaps, and podcasts where people just sort of catch up with friends. While the "Manningcast" is kind of professionalizing this for the NFL, this can obviously go far more granular with all sorts of content and games.


My Missives...

Apple’s Vision PROblem
Apple’s Immersive Video problemOn Thursday Apple debuted its first immersive video since the Vision Pro launched, a five-minute-long compilation of highlights from the MLS Cup playoffs late last year. Without even seeing the vid…Six Colors Earlier this week, Apple finally – and I do mean finally, it took them

What on Earth is Apple Doing with content for the Vision Pro (besides very little)?

Where is the Colorful MacBook?
I’m not the least bit ashamed to admit that I hate April Fools Day. First, I’m someone who values high quality information above all else.1 Second, it’s stupid. Yes, I’m a grinch or whatever. I just don’t find any of the jokes – especially the jokes by tech companies – funny.

Why on Earth hasn't Apple jumped back into colorful MacBooks?

″‘Heck, Yeah,’ Say Google Founders”
20 years of GmailWill it still be here in another 20 years?The Verge Speaking of real news on April Fools Day, here’s Victoria Song looking back on some news from 20 years ago... When Gmail launched with a goofy press release 20 years ago next week, many assumed it

Gmail at 20


Quoteable...

"The words just tasted good."

-- Louis Gossett Jr. on his role of Emil Foley, the Marine drill instructor from hell, in An Officer and a Gentleman, for which he won an Oscar. Gossett Jr. passed away last week at age 87. Sadly (to me) his obit has zero mentions of Iron Eagle.


Some Thoughts On...

🔪 Jon Stewart sticking the knife into Apple

⁉️ Yahoo buying the dead AI newsreader Artifact

👻 Apple soft launching 'Spatial Personas' for VisionPro

💊 A fifth Matrix movie being greenlit

🤖 Apple's next big thing is now robots?

🕹️ Hollywood's shift from comics to videogames...


Quickly...


One More Thing... (Grunge Edition)

A lot of the AI tools and services launching everyday are clearly overhyped. But some things almost feel underhyped. Suno, which allows you to type in some words to make a song about anything is in the latter camp. There are a few such tools, but the output here is really good. Here's a song I "wrote" (by typing about 5 words) about MG cars in the style of grunge.

Not your style? How about a pop song about Spyglass? I think Taylor Swift is safe, but this is just pure fun. And you could imagine all sorts of uses for this – my wife created a song for our daughter for her half birthday. She loved it.