Twitter + Elon Musk (again) | Google Pixel 7

Issue sent on October 8, 2022 to INTERFACES NEWSLETTER subscribers. Subscribe and receive every Friday morning.

OCTOBER 7, 2022

Good morning, interface. Hot week – Elon Musk wants Twitter again, Google shows its claws, Motorola returns to smartwatches. At the same time, the Brasil Game Show is ramping up (we escaped, luckily), rumors of an Asus (Zenfone? ROG Phone?) launch in Brazil the week of October 20, and new iPhones finally hitting stores in the next few days . Great read, recommend sites to friends and more 😉

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

PIXEL FAMILY 7

After already showing off products at I/O in May, Google this week launched its line of hardware: the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro smartphones (with 5x zoom on the more expensive model), the Pixel Watch smartwatch, and gave more details. Pixel Tablet, which will not be released until 2023.

What is important here? 5 years of Pixel updates, a beautiful watch and the promise of turning the tablet into a kind of Google Nest Hub / Echo Show for the home thanks to the fixed base.

In addition to gadgets, Google announced this week – via a press release ia thread on twitter – the new generation of the Nest WiFi router (perhaps the only product on the list that has a chance to come out in Brazil) and the Nest Doorbell.

And when we talk about Google products in general, there is theory which explains the reasons for the predictable death of various company services and jobs: internal promotions (create and launch something, get promoted to a new position, watch your project die because its only function was to… promote you, wash and rinse).

TO WATCH

Less than a month ago, we complained about the lack of product around Motorola smartphones. Now the company has launched the Moto Watch 100, a smart watch with a generic face (like the brand’s headphones) and that has already passed through Anatel a long time ago.

Its price is R$ 999, but we believe its function is to be sold at a discount in bundles with Moto mobile phones. After all, it’s already a (re)start, after the nice (and domestic) Moto 360 from years ago…

ELECTRICAL OUTLET

The European Parliament passed a law making USB-C the standard for chargers for smartphones and other devices. It’s a setback for Apple – which has to adapt its devices by the end of 2024.

HUGE FIGURES

Samsung used BGS to launch another colossal monitor (55 inches) with an equally impressive price tag (R$21,500). We’ll soon see them on very large streamer setups.

NO PURE 5G

Who would have thought that, even if all Brazilian capitals already have 5G working in all Brazilian capitals, less than 6% of the antennas are standalone 5G, “real 5G”.

AMAZON FIND OF THE WEEK

DIGITAL CULTURE

THIS WEEK IN ELON MUSK

Our nefarious favorite did a lot of mischief in rather random ways (but methodically, which is essential for this category of human being):

• On Twitter, he confronted Ukrainians about the war – and proposing a peace plan in the region.
• Tesla showed two robot prototypes for potential home use.
• Chance roulette got off to a rough start and, presumably for legal reasons, Musk offered again (paywalls) via Twitter – same price, same terms – even with the US judicial process (which has already been suspended).
• All, apparently, to turn Twitter into a cool app (Musk, I’m sorry to inform you, but WeChat only worked because of the time it was launched in China and the technological conditions there).
• Will the deal work? Now, much more than before, it depends on whether the banks will commit to financing (paywall).
• We gave up looking for a reason for it, now we just let the flow go. We even subscribed to the Verge’s seasonal newsletter about… Elon Musk.

TSC TSC

Americanas integrated 2 million book reviews from Skoob (a social network for books) into its e-commerce platform—something Amazon, the owner of GoodReads, considered doing, but was aware of and avoided.

IT’S NOTHING BUT…

TikTok now has the ability to post photos directly in the app.

PROCEDURE

Kim Kardashian did unreported cryptocurrency advertising and got in over her head.

CEMETERY

Meta (Facebook) seems to be provoking content producers, giving with one hand and taking with the other. Now your newsletter service has failed. And rumors begin to circulate about a giant bird flying over Meta… with the potential to lay off 15% of the workforce.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES THERE…

Right-wing dating app (what a concept) The Right Stuff may (unknown) be bait to lure (the FBI, not right-wing women) people involved in the January 6, 2021 riot in the US.

…AND HERE

If you visited Twitter this week after the 1st round of elections, you found the terms Satanism and Freemasonry on the rise – Nukleus explains why.

DIGITAL TWINS

Weird story of the week: Bruce Willis didn’t sell — or at least denies selling — his image to a company that could create deep fakes using the actor’s image for publicity.

MARIO IN THE CINEMA

The Super Mario Bros movie trailer is out – the gringos didn’t like Chris Pratt as the voice of Mario, but we love Mooca’s accent in the Brazilian version.

Nothing, however, will beat the Brazilian voice actor Gru from Despicable Me, who gave the villain a Paul Maluf-like voice, or the cool Toad from the 90s Mario cartoon.

Oh yes, Nintendo has decided to sell physical Switch games in Brazil.

LONG READINGS

WORMS

In the Verge, what the human composting process looks like – yes, you read that wrong. The practice is a natural alternative to burials and cremation.

THE LENSES

At IEEE, a visit to the production of the world’s largest digital camera (literally)

REFLECTION

In Smithsonian magazine, the whitest white paint in the world – and which will (soon) be used in airplanes to reflect heat.

THERE ON THE WEB 3.0

• The Bloomberg Podcast (paywall) questions the future of the metaverse and Web 3.
• If we’re body shamed in real life, why not be in the… metaverse?

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