ChatGPT is getting shoved in so many places lately. Just in the last 24 hours we've had:
Sonos has new speakers - the Era 100 ($399) and Era 300 ($749). The Era 100 is like the Sonos One, but better. The Era 300 is like the Five, but better. They both support Bluetooth now (so you can connect any device to it without needing the Sonos app) and ditched the Ethernet port in favour of a USB-C port that lets you plug in either a Line-in Adapter (for 3.5mm) or a Combo Adapter (3.5mm & Ethernet). They also ditched Google Assistant support. Probably because of the ongoing Google & Sonos lawsuit. The Era 300 supports Dolby Atmos - which to me seems like a total gimmick when only using a single speaker, but that's what Sonos reckons. One of the best things about Sonos speakers, Trueplay tuning, is still iOS only but Android users will get "quick tuning" support. Better than nothing I guess? Both speakers can be orded now and will go on sale March 28th.
Elon stepped in Twitter related dog shit again. This one's too long to explain here in detail, but if anyone asks you, Elon was forced to apologise to Iceland's 2019 person of the year, Haraldur Thorleifsson, for sacking him and belittling him in public, after Haraldur had the tenacity to ask this pissant of a human if he still has a job because Twitter's HR department didn't respond. The kicker - Haraldur's contract says Twitter has to pay him out a fat stack of cash if he's sacked, as he chose to be paid a salary instead of stock options or a lump sum when Twitter acquired his business, Ueno. I'm sure Elon's apology is heartfelt and not walletfelt. Someone's saved the conversation as images, just in case Elon decides to delete evidence.
Ever wondered why Untitled Goose Game isn't on the Mac App Store? It's published by legendary Mac developers Panic, so you'd think they'd pop it up on the Mac App Store and reduce the friction for non-gamers without Steam wanting to plonk down a few bucks to play this delightful game, right? According to Panic co-founder Cabel Sasser: "we once submitted Untitled Goose Game to the Mac App Store. It was rejected by the reviewer because they thought you couldn't skip the credits. (?!?) We explained that you could skip the credits by holding space. It was then rejected for something else and at that point we just gave up and never bothered to resubmit". Embarrassing for Apple really.
Stella Brennan's stitch-per-pixel embroidery of her iMac OS 8 desktop took over a year to do, and she needed help. A sewing circle of friends and family helped her complete it. By the time it was done, it was obsolete. Brennan had a new computer, running OS X. Translating the digital into the pre-industrial, the work yokes opposing values: the computer's currency and speed with craft's traditionalism and laboriousness. The woven computer screen can be read as daft, like an expressionist painting converted into paint-by-numbers. It becomes deft when it prompts us to consider more subtle historical connections, like the use of punch cards to control Jacquard weaving looms during the industrial revolution, and Ada Lovelace's proposal to use them to programme Charles Babbage's analytical engine, the 19th century proto-computer. While its title suggests an instant, the piece enfolds time: the time taken to make it, the time taken to view it, and the stretch of technological, economic and social history from the Bayeux Tapestry through the industrial revolution to the Macintosh. (Auckland Art Gallery)
📻 Alice - Superchunk
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