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Things of note for the week ending Friday January 30th, 2015.

According to my Mailchimp statistics, whenever the Five Things newsletter goes out late I always lose one subscriber. So if that’s you this week, I didn’t like you much anyway.

Shall we?

Five things on Friday constantly evolves. When it first started out it was just a photograph of some notes in a Moleskine but these days it’s a fully-blown weekly task with a newsletter plugged into it with several hundred subscribers. The latest thing I’m trying out is putting my favourite story of the week at the top. In a desperate attempt to convince you to keep reading, I’m leading with my best moves. We’ll see if it pays off…

On that note, OH MY GOD THIS IS SO EXCITING (for me):

1. SPOTIFY + PLAYSTATION
This is quite frankly, stellar news.

Coming this Spring (and in tandem with PlayStation killing its ‘Music Unlimited’ service) Spotify is FINALLY launching on Sony PlayStation (and Xperia Smartphones) – YES!

As a massive gamer and Spotify user, this is MUSIC TO MY EARS (fnaw) and it’s going to be brilliant. Look!

“You can also use Spotify while playing games on PS4, enabling you to soundtrack your gaming sessions with your favorite songs in the background. Want something heavy and rocking for an intense Destiny Raid? How about some old school hip hop while taking the field in Madden NFL? With more than 30 million songs and 1.5 billion playlists, Spotify on PlayStation Music has it covered. As we get closer to launch we look forward to telling you about some of the other great features that will be available exclusively through Spotify on PlayStation Music.”

The Sony blog has the details.

[source]

2. TWITTER LAUNCHES GROUP DMS AND VIDEO
First off, and in line with the prediction made last year (see ‘Video Royale’ in this document), Twitter has rolled out its own native video upload service.

You should all be able to do this right now (update your app if not) and WIRED has published a good write up of why it works so well. I’ve tried it and it works OK I guess.

pic.twitter.com/RLDO7YzXbi

— James Whatley (@Whatleydude) January 31, 2015

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

More on those fish later.

Second, on the new Whatsapp Group Direct Message feature front, this seems to be a little rushed. The eminent Mr Mat Morrison ran a little test earlier this week (my Pebble didn’t like it much) and here are the results:

So, I’ve tested Group Messaging on Twitter. Too early to say, but it’s already over for some.

This is what I think we’ve learned:

• Can only initiate from iOS Twitter mobile client, not from Web (although can participate on Web)
• Does not appear on iPad or Tweetbot; does appear on TweetDeck – but this is Web TweetDeck; doesn’t appear on my desktop app.
• Only 20 people in a chat
• 3rd party cannot delete messages in stream, author can?
• Adding protected accounts to a chat means that their tweets can be seen in chat. This Confuses the hell out of TweetDeck.
• No integration with Lists
• Everyone gets bored of notifications really fast
• Morse code does not work

^ Good facts ^

Nice one, Mat.

3. I LOVE THIS SPACE JAM TRIBUTE

That is all.

[source]

4. PULSATING EARPHONES OF LIGHT
Not a sentence I thought I’d write today but whatever; these are cool.

These Kickstarter (what else?) headphones are pretty darn awesome.

They self-illuminate, they help you get spotted by traffic, they can pulse to your actual heart beat (as well as to the beat of your music), and to top it all off, they’re actually going to get made.

Hurrah!

5. LIFE’S A PITCH
I’ve been reading a lot of Dave Trott recently and this post ‘Life’s a Pitch‘ spoke to me. It’s the tale of how the idea for ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ was pitched and eventually sold in (it’s a 2min read – do it now). I’ve heard of similar stories before (ever heard the one about using a real lion to pitch the idea of Disney’s Animal Kingdom? Look it up, it’s a doozy) but for some reason, I felt compelled to write about this one. Well, not this one. But what it evokes.

At my last agency, 1000heads, we spent a lot of time making the superfans of our clients feel really, really special. From lending them sportscars to flying them to far away places, our job was to ensure that they felt appreciated by the brand that they loved so much.

Like Dave’s story above, we always tried to make our clients feel a part of the story too. They would never understand surprise and delight (and therefore would not pay us to surprise and delight their fans) if they didn’t experience it themselves.

So here’s a challenge: what can you make real for someone next week? What is it that do make, do, or sell that you can turn on the person you’re selling to and give them the experience that you want to create.

Something to think on this weekend.

Oh, and buy Dave’s book.

Whatley out.

______________________

Wait, you want more?

FINE.

Bonuses this week are:

• Got a big TV with either Chromecast or YouTube? Then you’ll be wanting this 18hrs of massive ocean aquarium footage. Mine’s on right now and it’s excellent.
• Not a new feature but many people don’t actually know about Google Now’s Shazam-like skills at identifying songs. Here’s how to use it.

Happy now?

Things of note for the week ending Friday January 23rd, 2015.

1. HOW DO YOU BUILD AN AIRBUS?
It’s like I’m psychic, I know. The question has been on your lips all week, right? It’s incredible really, I honestly don’t know how I do it.

– Just stress-testing an Airbus wing –

Japes aside, if you were indeed pondering the above question then please, ponder no more. This rather excellent and informative video (5mins 16 seconds) can tell you all about it. I’m not a massive plane geek (not ‘nerd’ – check the venn diagram) but I really enjoyed it.

2.65m different parts? Amazing.

The wings are made of TAPE. STICKY TAPE. Amazing.

Plane-making factories can knock out one whole plane every two days? AMAZING.

2. A WAY IN WHICH GOOGLE GLASS WON
And now, a short interlude on the unexpected benefits behind the (so-called) demise of Google Glass:

Technology needs to be socially acceptable. I think in this case that Google Glass didn’t pass that test. A highlight that op eds on the closure of Google Glass like to look at is how it was ridiculed. This included – the way that it looks on your face. Not everyone wants to look like they’re performing sci-fi cosplay at a convention. It also means social acceptance of issues that are pretty unique today – privacy out in the world.

Now you could say that CCTV and government agencies are watching you anyway and there’s the old, OLD chestnut that if you’re not guilty, what’s the problem?

In fact, I think there is a social recoil to being possibly recorded overtly. Google Glass is not exactly subtle but many humans are also uncomfortable when they get close to a whopping great big TV camera that stands out like dogs’ balls.

The piece from which the above is quoted from is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Good smart thinking.

3a. THE THINGS WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT LOVE
It’s a book, by Raymond Carver.

It provides a theatrical backbone to the (excellent) film, BIRDMAN.

After seeing (and subsequently waxing everso lyrical about) the latter, someone whose opinion I respect strongly recommended seeking out the former.

I did.

And with the melancholic stories of American life in a timeless era providing a backdrop for loss, desire, and wasted lives; it is an incredibly powerful read.

I am probably stupidly late to this but I don’t care.

Sometimes the words not written hit harder than the ones that are.

Buy the book.

3b. REAL WORLD XIAOMI THINGS
My friend FJ has a Xiaomi Mi3 (sometimes he let’s me play with it).

It is a thing of beauty.

FJ and I share a mutual love of mobile technology and the fact that he has one of the shinier phones in the world is unsurprising to me – he is also a man of taste. But FJ isn’t a thing this week (sorry FJ).

The thing this week is FJ’s replacement handset. Y’see FJ’s Mi3 device suffered an issue with its SIM tray (I believe it got jammed) and FJ needed to get it replaced.

So he did.

I love this.

That is all.

Before we move on to THE NEXT THING, here are a couple of other Xiaomi things you might find interesting. First up is FJ’s review of said phone from August last year. Good insights here and definitely worth reading if you’re after something different for that achingly desperate pocket of yours.

Second thing is this announcement of Xiaomi’s latest flagship, the Mi Note. Fancy.

4. NEW TWITTER CARD ALERT: VOTE NOW
In my never-ending quest to be a leading source of knowledge on all things Twitter Card related, I thought I’d share this latest nugget that I spotted the other day –

While this isn’t exactly new news (Twitter was spotted messing around with these back in September of last year) it is the first time that I’ve spotted them in the wild.

They’re weird, they don’t embed (see above), I can’t see a proper use for them (yet) and they seem to be only available to [selected] partners – read: paying advertisers. I’ve tried dicking about on the BIRDOPS page where they’re built but I’m not having much luck.

Oh well. They’re a thing, and now you know about them.

Woop.

Bonus Twitter thing: ‘Hey! Stop using Instagram!‘

5. HOW TO BE AN EXPLORER OF THE WORLD

Submitted without comment.

___________

Bonus items:

• True Detective director has signed to direct the upcoming film version of Stephen King’s ‘IT’. This is excellent news.
• Read a book.
• Whatsapp as newsletter? Interesting.
  

DID YOU LIKE THIS POST/EMAIL/THING YOU ARE READING?

Why not tell someone about it?

Whatley out.

EDIT: ‘3a’ and ‘3b’ this week. That’ll be because I’m an idiot and can’t count (it’s been a long week). Thank you to the super smart person who pointed this out.

Things of note for the week ending January 16th, 2015.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Five things on Friday #107.

It’s been a busy week (and there are several other blog posts in draft that are close to publishing – probably at the back end of next week – once the madness subsides and all is calm once more) so why not enjoy yesterday’s edition of Three Track Thursday (it’s not another new regular thing, don’t worry, I do actually have a life to live) while you read?

Done that?

Good.

Shall we?

Let’s.

1. GOOGLE: PROJECT ARA

The world’s first (proper) consumer-grade/ready modular phone, Google’s Project Ara is very exciting indeed. Admittedly this thing has been on the way for a while now (starting off as a small start-up, being backed by Motorola, who were then bought by Google), at long last, it’s actually getting somewhere.

And that somewhere is Puerto Rico.

This is actually really exciting and, with the right support, could actually effect a sea-change in the way that we deal with mobile hardware.

Replaceable, shareable, and a unique flavour defined by each individual user; we could be looking at the future, kids.

The Next Web has more.

2. THE EIGHT BOOKS EVERY INTELLIGENT PERSON SHOULD READ
This next item comes once again from the rather excellent blog known as Brain Pickings. During a Reddit AMA recently, renowned and respected physicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, was asked the following question:

“Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on the planet?”

Tyson’s response is suitably insightful. Covering everything from Charles Darwin, The Bible and even Sun Tzu, the list is unsurprisingly excellent.

(But that is not why this is a thing this week)

He goes on to add:

“If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world.”
…

Maria Popova, author of Brain Pickings (where I picked up this gem), responds to that last section more brilliantly than I ever could.

She writes:

“What has driven it, evidently, is also the systematic exclusion of the female perspective. The prototypical “intelligent person” would be remiss not to also read, at the very least, Margaret Fuller’s foundational text Woman in the Nineteenth Century, which is even available as a free ebook, and Betty Friedan’sThe Feminine Mystique. But, of course, the question of diversity is an infinite one and any list is bound to be pathologically unrepresentative of all of humanity — a challenge I’ve addressed elsewhere — so Tyson’s selections remain indispensable despite their chromosomal lopsidedness. My hope, meanwhile, is that we’ll begin to see more such reading lists by prominent female scientists, philosophers, artists, or writers of the past and present; to my knowledge, none have been made public as of yet — except perhaps Susan Sontag’s diary, which is essentially a lifelong reading list”

Perfect.

And so right.

Now go read a book.

3. SOME BACK TO THE FUTURE STUFF
Hey! Wait! Where are you going?! Come back! No! Wait!

I promise and swear that this is not yet-another-post about how THIS IS THE YEAR OF THE BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II. No. It is not that.

But seriously – can you really take any more of it? We’re only three weeks into 2015 and if I see another ‘Top things brands can learn from Back to the Future’s 2015 predictions – published on LinkedIn’ I might never watch the darn thing ever again. You know it’s going to get worse, don’t you? Like much worse. You’ve got Nike trainers, Buzzfeed lists of ‘things BTTF got right!’, and that’s before we even get to October… Ugh.

Where was I?

Oh yes, THIS is an awesome collection of three top-down posters that perfectly illustrate the trilogy’s different parts. And they’re awesome.

“Enhance. Stop. Move in. Stop. Pull out, track right. Stop. Center and pull back. Stop.”

So good. The above photos were found over on iO9. And I’d recommend clicking through because, if you like this kind of thing then you might find the comments to be really quite awesome.

Really.

4. EVER BEEN IN OR NEAR A THEATRE?
Then this handy guide might be right up your street.

*chortle*

5. PHOTOS FROM THE SPACEX LANDING
This is fairly hot off the press: Elon Musk has finally shared some photographs of the ‘failed’ (if you can call it that) landing of the reusable SpaceX rockets.

And they’re pretty incredible to look at.

@ID_AA_Carmack Full RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) event. Ship is fine minor repairs. Exciting day! pic.twitter.com/tIEctHFKHG

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2015

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

@ID_AA_Carmack Rocket hits hard at ~45 deg angle, smashing legs and engine section pic.twitter.com/PnzHHluJfG — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2015

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

@ID_AA_Carmack Residual fuel and oxygen combine pic.twitter.com/5k07SP8M9n

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2015

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Stunning.

If none of the above makes any sense to you (WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? UNDER A ROCK?!) then the BBC has a really good primer.

__________________________________

Bonuses this week are varied –

• All week I’ve been looking at gifs, reading lists, and generally enjoying the commentary on the Tiny Fey/Amy Poehler opening monologue at the Golden Globes. Even if you’ve done the same, the actual video is worth a watch because, well, because they’re worth it (and the delivery is just great).
• Campaign Magazine asked me to write 1400 words on ‘the year ahead for social media’. So I did.
• This Atlantic photo essay about the mass-penetration of mobile phones, their various uses, and how they’re literally everywhere today, is great – ‘A World Transfixed by Screens‘

Liked this? Tell a friend.

See you next week,

Whatley out.

Things of note for the week ending January 9th, 2015.

1. ROBOTS ARE BREAKING THE LAW
…and nobody knows what to do about it. Well, that second part isn’t strictly true. But read the intro to this article and tell me if you’re not intrigued about what our android friends might get up to in the future:

The Random Darknet Shopper, an automated online shopping bot with a budget of $100 a week in Bitcoin, is programmed to do a very specific task: go to one particular marketplace on the Deep Web and make one random purchase a week with the provided allowance. The purchases have all been compiled for an art show in Zurich, Switzerland titled The Darknet: From Memes to Onionland, which runs through January 11.

The concept would be all gravy if not for one thing: the programmers came home one day to find a shipment of 10 ecstasy pills, followed by an apparently very legit falsified Hungarian passport– developments which have left some observers of the bot’s blog a little uneasy.

Right? This whole thing is pretty cool/questionable/good brain fodder. The article makes a few good points, but in summary:

• IF this was the US, then the programmers might be found responsible (and guilty).
• The coders in question have claimed responsibility for everything their bot does (and claim ownership of said illegal substances).
• The coders’ lawyer says as it’s an art project which means that, in line with the Swiss constitution (that states all art is in the public interest) that all of it is allowed to be free.

The implications for the future are… well, interesting. The coders in this instance have taken responsibility (but have an ‘out’) but that might not always be the case. The Swiss constitution allows an art project to be free and without prosecution but that might not always be the case.

The future is bright, the future is vague.

—

2. THE VOICEMAIL RETURNS
Some of you might know this already but I [used to] record a weekly mobile tech podcast called ‘The Voicemail‘. Along with another mobile tech-head, one Mr Stefan Constantinescu, we deliver 30mins of irreverent mobile tech coverage and generally have a laugh doing so.

Back in October 2014, Stefan and I decided to put the show on hiatus for the remainder of the year (he was changing jobs and moving country and me, well, I needed the time out too.

Anyway, the plan was that we’d regroup in January to kick-start the show for 2015. We have, and episode 121 is available to download now. Even if you have only a passing interest in the latest mobile tech (eg: what phone should you get next?) then you should give us a listen.

FYI.

—

3. PHIL HARTMAN: THE GLUE
One of the more enjoyable long reads of the week: I found this Grantland piece from last summer about how the super talented Phil Hartman was the glue that held Saturday Night Live together.

At this point I’d normally put in an image from the website or quote something from the piece or even embed a video for ya’all to watch. But not this time. This time I’m going to tell to just go and educate yourself on one of the great, lost comedians of our time.

—

4. HEROIC WORDS OF WISDOM
As is customary for a good Five Things on Friday, here’s a section on superhero-related stuff.

In ‘Heroic words of wisdom’ artist (and obvious comic book fan), Adam Thompson, pairs the stars of Detective Comics with the inspirational words that have appeared in the pages (or from the films) where they dwell.

I really like these.

That is all.

Source.

—

5. SMUGGLING ULYSSES

I read this piece on a tube journey earlier this week and was hooked from start to finish. It’s the story of how, in 1933, a man was hired specifically to smuggle a copy of [the then banned] Ulysses into the United States of America and get caught doing so.

The after-effects of which would cause a major shift in the way censorship of literature behaved not only in the US but across the rest of the English-speaking world.

An amazing story.

—

_____________

Bonuses this week are short and sweet:

• Your stuff, you have too much of it
• Animal Problems (the Octopus pun killed me)
• Do Pufferfish hold their breath?

_____________

Liked this? Tell a friend.

Whatley out.

Back for 2015.

Yeah, so the plan was to take 2015 off for FTOF. I’ve done it before and it was actually quite nice to shake off the responsibility for a year or so. For this time around I thought I’d hand the decision over to you, dear reader (see item five, last week). And what a lovely bunch of people you turned out to be: every single response I received – via email, Twitter, or in person – was a variation of ‘Keep it going!’ and so here we are.

Five things on Friday is still here and will be for another year.

If you’re new here, welcome. Five things on Friday is a weekly collection of things that I’ve found on the Internet in the past week. It’s rarely five things (as there’s usually a few bonuses) and it sometimes doesn’t go out on a Friday either (like today, for instance). It’s as regular as it can be and a fair amount of effort goes into putting it together.

In short: your readership and support is appreciated.

Thank you.

If you know someone who might enjoy this weekly update as a newsletter, please do forward them to the sign up page, and give the gift of Five Things on [sometimes] Friday for 2015.

Right then, shall we crack on?

Things of note for the week ending January 2nd, 2015.

1. ONE DIRECTION: PUB QUIZ QUESTION
Did you know that some of Harry Styles’ biggest Twitter fans number their replies to their handsomely-haired boy band idol? No. Me neither. The why behind it though is just amazing.

To those (eg @freethestones) wondering why some Harry fans suffix their replies with a number, here’s why: pic.twitter.com/1xNw9rM0O8

— John Self (@john_self) January 1, 2015

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

‘I believe the children are the future…’

As random Internet facts go, I really like it.

2. PUBLIC SPEAKING: PREP
I’m fortunate enough to be invited to speak at different events from time to time and the three things I swear by are preparation, preparation, and preparation.

In the first instance, knowing your materials forwards, backwards, inside and out, is so important for getting your presentation right.

In the second instance, knowing the space where you’re going to give your talk helps you understand the nature of the acoustics, how people will be looking you, and where the screen will be in relation to where you’re standing.

Finally, in the third instance, rehearsing the talk – alone, in your room, with friends, with family – helps hammer out those habits (I used to touch my face ALL OF THE TIME for some unknown reason – my Mum actually pointed it out and I don’t do it any more) and helps give you confidence when speaking.

That’s all great but what about if you have no materials?

What if you’ve had no prior warning to speaking and someone’s asked you to ‘just say a few words’ at a professional gathering of some kind?!

For some of us, panic can set in and fear takes over.

And fear is no good at all.

The good news is, thanks to Lifehacker (which is where I found this handy tip) preparation can help here too. Well, not preparation. But PREP. The PREP framework, in fact:

The next time you’re asked to say a few words with little or no notice, use the PREP framework to structure your speech.

PREP stands for:

• Point – Introduce your speech with your main point. Focus on one point only, so it’s easier for your audience to comprehend.
• Reasons – Tell your audience why you think the point is true. Back this up with research and statistics to add credibility if you have these to hand. If not, simply speak from the heart.
• Example – Highlight an example (or several) that supports your main point and your reasons. Again, back this up with data if appropriate.
• Point – Wrap up your mini-speech by reiterating your main point so that it sticks in people’s minds.

It’s a simple structure, relatively easy to remember and most importantly it works.

I love little  ‘cheats’ like this and employ a fair few of them when giving presentations. If you’ve got any, I’d love to hear about them.

3. STING (no not that one) BUT FOR WI-FI
Imagine you’re a Hobbit. Now imagine you’re Bilbo (or Frodo) Baggins. You’ve got this sword – it’s pretty ace – it glows blue whenever Orcs or Goblins are near. It’s literally magical.

Now keep imagining you’re a Hobbit but you’re no longer in Middle Earth. You’re in the middle of New York City. You’ve got to somehow get an email to Gandalf to let him know where to send the giant eagles to come and get you but you’ve got no Wi-Fi.

Thing is about NYC, there aren’t that many Orcs and Goblins so your sword’s early warning alarm system is pretty useless. But what if you could hack that sword somehow? What if you could swap out the bits that detect evil and swap in elements that detected FREE WI-FI instead?! Wouldn’t that be something?

If only there was some kind of handy guide on how to do it.

4. TWITTER: ‘WHILE YOU WERE AWAY…’
This has been around for a while now (I’m on the Twitter beta channel, shh) but only seems to have been rolled out in earnest over the past week or so.

In short: Twitter has started presenting a few of [what it thinks are] the best tweets you might of missed since your last log in. Of course, to see this new feature in action it does mean having to actually not use it for a short while which I know will be quite a hard stretch for some of you.

Joking aside, this roll out is bang in line with the some of the thoughts and ideas that Marshall Manson and I have been talking about in our recent 2015 Trend Predictions presentation. To quote slide 13 from said document:

‘In 2015, like Facebook before it, Twitter is sure to embrace algorithmic content serving, and move away from its traditional reverse chronological format’

‘While you were away’ is just the beginning, boys and girls.

Just the beginning.

5. THE MARVEL OMNIBUS
This is the kind of stuff the Internet was made for.

A man named Mike Furth has created his own super cut of Marvel’s cinematic universe. If you’re new to this, then you might not know that Marvel’s films happen in phases. Each phase is finished with an Avengers film. So any film that happened before The Avengers (or: Marvel’s Avengers Assemble, for us guys and gals in the UK) all happened in phase one. Everything after that is phase two and, when Avengers: Age of Ultron comes out later this year, we’ll be moving into phase three.

Back to that super cut.

This chap named Mike Furth has gone through every Marvel film to date (as well as some episodes of Agents of SHIELD and a couple of the One-Shots) and re-edited them into one chronological super cut.

The whole thing comes in at just over 12hrs (that’s about the same time you’ve spent watching The Lord of the Rings in your life time, if not less) and if you want to make your own, Mike has put up a guide on how to do just that.

Even if you’re not planning on making your own version, this is a really informative video and probably worth watching anyway for just sheer geek points.

__________________

Bonuses this week are in the shape of 2014 round ups / 2015 look aheads that are worth looking at.

W_W

• The widely-read and equally knowledgeable Paul Fabretti passed me this succinct tech round up from Fred Wilson: ‘What Just Happened?‘ (this is not only really good reading but also completely and utterly spot on – read this and let’s talk about it sometime).
• My unpaid and unaware mentor, Stephen Waddington, has put together his ‘15 areas of work in progress for 2015‘ covering off everything from Demographics to Influence, this is a great insight into what one of the smartest minds in the industry is thinking and talking about. On that note, if you’re not subscribed to Steve’s blog you’re really missing out.
• Katie Moffat shared this list of ‘The 10 Best Podcasts of 2014 (excluding Serial)‘. If Serial has got you in, then definitely check this list out. If it hasn’t that check it out anyway.

Until next week!