Do you trust Meta?: newsletter week of 10/13

First and foremost, if you're new around here- welcome! This is the newsletter that goes out sometime between Friday and Sunday every week. It's a little bit journal, a little bit internet links, and always hot off the press.

For the last week, I've been deep in the weeds on an Oakley Meta Vanguard review, a new $500 pair of smart glasses from Meta that are aimed directly at athletes, both in features and in looks. Which means that I have been biking, climbing, and just generally getting to have a great time. (I have the best job ever)

So far, I've managed to take around 300 photos and videos with 'em, which for a pair of glasses is no small feat. And I can confidently say that I love them, but only when I don't think too deeply about how incredibly strange it is to be wearing a camera and five microphones on my face at all times. Especially a camera that is created by and connected to Meta, a company that is not exactly known for great privacy standards.

footage of my nephew, Peter, via the Oakley Meta Vanguards

This problem is, of course, not new-- Meta smart glasses have been around for years. But, this is the first pair that I actually find comfortable, in both look and feel, when wearing, meaning that I have actually wanted to be using them. Hence the conundrum!

via the Oakley Meta Vanguards

If you have any questions about these new glasses, drop a comment! Otherwise, be on the lookout for my full review later this week. And with that, everything else I have been thinking about this past week.

via @thebasicappleguy on threads

📖 What I read:

https://microsoft.design/
Not so much a read, but some UX I spend a lot of time staring at.

Honor Teases a Bizarre Robot Phone, and Kohler Debuts a Toilet Sensor
"Based on the accompanying launch video—which appears to have been largely created using generative AI—the Robot Phone features a camera module that flips out, functioning like a pan-and-tilt camera on a gimbal."

New M5 14" MacBook Pro, Vision Pro, and iPad Pro
Every time a new MacBook Pro drops, I think, "maybe it is time I update my M1", and then I breeze through a video edit and think, "eh, I'm good".

How TikTok keeps its users scrolling for hours a day
"According to TikTok’s internal documents, revealed as part of a multistate lawsuit against the company, it takes just 260 videos, which could be as quick as 35 minutes, to form a habit on the app."

The future of being trans on the internet
Huge s/o to my alma mater for putting this collection of stories together.

📺 What I watched:

Put a Bird On It! | Portlandia | IFC
In response to the new merch and rebrand, both of which feature a bird, someone sent me this. 11/10 pull 😂

The First 3 Minutes of 17 Shows
If you are in NYC, I cannot recommend going to see this enough. It's part comedy, part memoir, part classic off-Broadway weirdness, and totally worth the $33 it will cost ya. But hurry because it's only on till Oct. 25th.

MY PIXEL 10 PRO FOLD EXPLODED
I never want to know what this smelled like.

A weighted phone case that might just be the minimal phone solution we actually need

🎶 What I listened to:

A War With Time (Acoustic) - Brandi Carlile
1,000 of these views are from me

Kahan (Last Year) (20 November 2021) - Fred again..
Fred's more ambient/slower work, like this, is by far my favorite.

1234 - Feist
This song will never not make me think about iPods. If you know, you know...

Okay, bud! That is all I got for this week. Back to the edit I go~
Hope you had a great weekend! As always, I appreciate the hell outta ya <3
-b