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July 20, 2021
šŸŽ‚ Good morning! Jeff Bezos flies to space today of course, but more importantly, it's my mum's birthday!
Bezos launch
blue origin
Blue Origin

Itā€™s launch day for Blue Originā€™s New Shepard and Jeff Bezos and crew, just under two hours after this newsletter hits your inbox.Ā 

  • The latest status was Blue Origin confirming its astronauts were go. (Hmm, ā€œastronauts.ā€)Ā 
  • That crew includes Bezos and brother Mark, 82-year-old Mercury 13 aviator Mary ā€œWallyā€ Funk, and 18-year old Oliver Daemen, who replaced his father ā€” who bought the ticket for $28 million and had some kind of ā€œunknown scheduling conflictā€ ā€” and is a physics student.
  • If you just want to tune in, you can go watch on YouTube, coverage starting at 7:30am ET.
Heads Up rolls out, but...

Iā€™ve always had trouble with Googleā€™s Pixel phones getting cool features that the rest of the Android ecosystem doesnā€™t get.Ā 

  • Itā€™s smart when Google uses its Pixel devices as a testbed before wider Android feature roll-outs, of course including latest versions of Android.
  • It also makes sense when Googleā€™s building specific hardware in the hopes for people to pick up a Pixel, like the Soli radar system, and its adaptive battery mode probably relies on Googleā€™s own device knowledge.
  • Where I think Google needs to just get on with helping everyone with an Android phone is things like Call Screening, something very helpful for stopping spam, which is not just a Pixel-owner problem.
  • No one wants Google to be like Apple, especially when features have societal benefits. Not even Pixel owners.

Ā But this isnā€™t a swipe at Google today, because hey, one of those features just started rolling out more widely: Heads Up.

  • If you didnā€™t know, Heads Up is a Google feature previously only on Pixels that politely reminds you to stop using your phone while walking.
  • It reminds you to focus on the task at hand while youā€™re on foot, which is helpful for anything from slow walking to real danger.
  • I donā€™t know, itā€™s weird that we all probably need this, but obviously we could all pay more attention at times, and the feature has worked ok for me in the past.
  • Now, Google has started deploying its Heads Up feature to all Android phones through an updated Digital Wellbeing app.
  • XDA, which broke the news, found it installed on Android phones seemingly regardless of make or manufacturer, from Asus to Realme.
  • This is good. Keep rolling out the Pixel-only features to be Android-wide, please Google.
Roundup

šŸ”“ Latest on the NSO hacking fallout: Political fallout across India, Mexico, Hungary and more (The Guardian). Also, Edward Snowden called for a spyware trade ban, saying the industry should not exist: ā€œThey donā€™t make vaccines ā€” the only thing they sell is the virusā€ (The Guardian).

šŸ”‹ Google announces one-year warranty extension for Pixel 4 XL battery issues in US, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan (Android Authority).

šŸ““ Android 12 ā€˜ruinedā€™ the power menu, and some Googlers agree (Android Authority).

šŸ‘‰ 7 problems modern smartphones have solved without you knowing it: HDR, fingerprint scanners (Android Authority).

šŸ’¬ HalloApp is a new private social network from two former WhatsApp employees (Android Authority).

āš½ PS4 ā€˜cryptofarmā€™ reportedly wasnā€™t mining crypto, but using bots to grind in-game FIFA currency. What a world. (Engadget).

šŸš“ā€ā™€ļø Peloton keeps adding content and is now getting into gaming, which sounds pretty fun actually (Gizmodo).Ā 

šŸ“ŗ CNN plans to launch a CNN Plus streaming service, which sounds less fun (The Verge).

šŸ” The Pentagon is bolstering its AI systems ā€” by hacking itself (Wired).

šŸ”­ From the telescope that brought you the First Black Hole Photo comes the best look yet at extreme cosmic jet(CNET).

šŸš¢ Walmart, Ikea, and Amazon have a dirty shipping problem according to interesting new data breaking down maritime emissions (The Verge).

šŸ§¬ Genealogists say Leonardo da Vinci has 14 living relatives! His ā€œmany-times-great nieces and nephews include several office workers (one of whom served as a naval gunner in the 1960s), a retired upholsterer, a surveyor, and a state employee who is ā€œpassionate about motorcycling and music.ā€ Cool and all, and at least theyā€™re not painting Da Vinci relative NFT Mona Lisas or something. (Ars Technica).

šŸ§¼ ā€œBetween foam, liquid, or bar, what is the best type of soap for handwashing?ā€ (r/askreddit).

Chart Tuesday

I thought this was pretty interesting via r/dataisbeautiful:

chart tuesday charts 1

Then someone re-did it by chronological order:

chart tuesday charts 2
  • Thereā€™s a definite gradual trend towards more words per year. And then the whole unfolding-pandemic-thing really did the trick to add almost six times the length of boring old years like 2002 or 2004. (Yawn, who remembers those anyway?)
  • By comparison, the rather eventful year 1945 would rank third on this list.
  • Though, and people noted this important fact in the comments, Wikipedia wasnā€™t invented then!Ā 

Have a good one,

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor

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