Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Notations From the Grid (Special Weekly Edition): #RandomThoughs On the State of Tech Today

We present the following courtesy the Visual Capitalist, the Financial Times of London & the Sydney Morning Herald:



September 24, 2021

Technology

Tim Biggs

 

Happy Friday! This week we took Apple’s latest toys for a test, Twitter went crypto, and we plumbed the dark web for new COVID scams.

The annual ritual surrounding new iPhones — leaks, the announcement of an event, the event itself, preorders, reviews and release — has become very familiar over the years. It’s designed by Apple of course to maximise the number eyeballs on its new fare and the length of time those eyeballs linger, but it also consistently produces some weird effects. For example, every year I’m asked by multiple people: “So do I need the new iPhone?”

The answer is obviously no. Phones are great, and important, and it’s nice to have a really good one, but Apple’s release schedule shouldn’t dictate when you buy one or which one you get. In fact, I don’t believe Apple (or any phone company) has ever produced a phone so revolutionary it demanded an immediate upgrade. Certainly not in the past decade. Yet something about the Apple ritual, or perhaps the memory of retail frenzies in 2013, make us believe it could happen.

The truth is smartphones in 2021 are a bit like cars. They come out annually, but nobody needs a brand new one every year. Given the pace of hardware innovation, and the fact that software updates bring new features to existing devices constantly, I’d argue even keen tech fans only need a new phone every two years and would barely notice the difference between a 2020 and 2021 model. That’s not to say the iPhone 13 isn’t incredible, because it is, you just don’t need one.

 

What to watch for

Twitter has inexplicably embraced the blockchain, announcing that users are now able to “tip” their favourite accounts using bitcoin. Currently though it appears to be a US-only feature, as transactions are facilitated by third-party app Strike. Adding to the sense that the announcement happened purely because someone at Twitter is really into crypto, the company also said it is looking into a way to formalise users setting a non-fungible token (NFT) as their profile picture.

Facebook has announced two new versions of its Portal smart displays, which are essentially devices dedicated to Messenger, WhatsApp and Zoom video calls. The $279 Portal Go has a rechargeable battery and a handle so you can move it with you around the house, while there’s also an upgraded Portal+ at $519 which is intended to be used for work calls at a desk. They’re due to be released on October 19.

Amazon is refreshing its mid-tier Kindle, the Paperwhite, for the first time since 2018. The new model has a bigger 6.8-inch display, 10-week battery, adjustable warm light, USB-C charging and the same smooth waterproof design. At $239, it’s $100 more than the current entry-level Kindle. There’s also a $289 Paperwhite Signature Edition, which expands storage from 8GB to 32GB, has an ambient light sensor and adds Qi wireless charging capabilities. They’re coming October 27.