?? Wiser! #100: Apple v Epic | FTX Fallout | Elon's Lost It | Timex In The Metaverse | Generative AI | Mastodon

?? Wiser! #100: Apple v Epic | FTX Fallout | Elon's Lost It | Timex In The Metaverse | AI Art | Mastodon

w/Wiser!?No.100?- Sunday 20th November

Welcome to this round-up of what's happening in emerging tech, big tech, and business. This is the condensed Sunday edition of the Wiser! Newsletter, made especially for subscribers on LinkedIn.

But, if you want the content-rich, fuller version of Wiser!, packed with even more insight and information, join the mailing list. Everyone on the mailing list got their version of Wiser! delivered straight into their inboxes early on Friday morning.

Which means that they already have a two-day head start on you, just because they signed up for free here.

In this LinkedIn Edition of Wiser!, you'll find this week's featured stories are:

• Round 2 of the Epic Games v Apple court case over the App Store has started. What does it mean for the internet economy?
• The fallout from FTX continues. Most narrative focuses on the end for crypto. I say they're all wrong!
• The Twitter debacle continues. Is Elon Musk losing it before our very eyes?
• Watch maker Timex is the latest consumer brand to market to the next generation of buyers in the metaverse.
• The European Union is moving every closer towards a ban on facial recognition. So what?
• And Mastodon. The decentralised social media platform that's picking up all those leaving Twitter (including me.)

???Thank you for reading. Every week,?15k?subscribers just?like you?get Wiser!

ATB, Rick

P.S. consider becoming a supporter. It's only €1/month and goes towards the running cost of the newsletter.

Praise from Billy, who was one of the first subscribers to Wiser!:

"Congratulations on your 100th post for Wiser! Rick. The newsletter has got better with age!" - Billy Bassett, a Wiser! subscriber since issue #1.

??? Or, you can always watch the headlines from this week's Wiser! on my YouTube channel...

The Battle For Taxing The Internet: Epic Games v Apple Round Two

?? This is an excerpt from this week's article for premium subscribers.

On Monday 21st November, Apple and Epic Games go back to Court. This time Epic has been joined by market regulators.

The DOJ says it’s worried that “errors” by the lower-court judge in the first trial, who mostly sided with Apple last year, may weaken its hand in future enforcement actions.

The case, which is about online marketplace policies for transactions related to apps and services, is being closely watched as US regulators continue to scrutinise big tech companies in their role as gatekeepers to the digital economy.

• In other words, if you have an iPhone, everything you do has to go through the App Store - the AppStore is the gate and it's 100% controlled by Apple.

This week, at the James R. Browning Courthouse in San Francisco, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in?Epic Games v. Apple, Inc. This is Round 2 of the David v Goliath battle that will have huge implications for all mobile app developers if it goes Epic's way.

?? To read the full article, you will need a premium subscription for Wiser!

For more BigTech headlines, go here.

??? This week's Wiser! is supported by BABBEL

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Is Elon Losing It? Or Has He Already?

Literally nobody could have predicted the complete and utter shitshow that Elon Musk has made of his Twitter take-over. One of the greatest, if not the greatest of our generation, product builders has let his inner child run wild with his new Twitter toy. It's so bad you couldn't make it up, even if you were the campaign manager for Liz Truss.

I'd even go so far as to say that I'm genuinely concerned for the health and well being of the genius man-child. Remember, he's the CEO of multiple, substantial organisations that each require a full time CEO.

And here he is picking fights with his staff, Twitter's users, US lawmakers and the advertisers whilst carrying over a $1 billion in annual interest repayments. If it were me, I don't think I'd be biting the hand that feeds me.

Anyhow, there's a ton been written about it by people far more qualified than me. So, I've included links to tell you the latest comings and goings for this story.

Find out everything you need to know about the Twitter debacle here.

Or watch these 60 second shorts on either TikTok or YouTube.

?? Meanwhile, Twitter users are moving to Mastodon...you can find out all about in the latest episode of Big Tech Little Tech here:

Timex Launch An Immersive Experience In Fortnite

This may be the watch maker's biggest foray into the Metaverse, but it's not their first. Previous use-cases include a virtual Justin Bieber concert. And a tie-up with AmazeVR’s Megan Thee Stallion virtual reality concert tour, called “Enter The Hottieverse.”

This latter use-case was interesting for the way that Timex provided virtual watches to wear on every user’s avatar using special hand-tracking capabilities.

The brand is exploring the space further with a heavily interactive gaming experience. It's a move made alongside other major brands who continue exploring what it will take to drive positive ROI in virtual worlds.

The new Timex experience involves Landon Barker, a Gen Z icon and son of the Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. This is a common trend to attract a Gen Z audience with a generational influencer to add credibility and appeal.

Here's The Thing:?Timex are an old world brand getting down with the kids. They're creating brand awareness in the space where the next generation of watch buyers hang out.

More importantly, they're learning how this goes down. What works and what doesn't is the name of the game right now for consumer brands who are playing the emerging world of virtual reality, blockchain and web3.

Which Consumers Brands Are Playing In Web3 and the Metaverse?

Do you want or need to know who is doing what in the emerging tech space of virtual reality, blockchain, NFTs, and crypto? AKA the Metaverse and Web3.

Look no further! Because I've tracked, analysed and documented 250 consumer brands plus another 50 celebrities, cities and locations who are all pushing at the frontier of the next generation of the Internet.

They know this is where their next customers are already hanging out.

The database of 250 consumer brands is free for all premium subscribers to Wiser! If you're not a premium subscriber and want to know more, find full details on how to access this unique collection here: ??

FTX Collapse and More Fallout

FTX was one of the big three cryptocurrency exchanges alongside Binance and Coinbase. It's founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was seen as the poster child for crypto in the web3 era.

With no board of directors and?a $32 billion valuation, this was a remarkable feat for a company only launched in 2019, run by a 30 year old and his?polyamorous girlfriend. Their rise was almost as staggering as the speed?of their demise.

Unfortunately it has cast a deep shadow over the whole crypto space and is yet another own goal, gifting the naysers a free pass to say "told you so."

Here's The Thing:?This is the wrong way to look at it. FTX is a truly awful example of what happens an inexperienced and apparently super smart founder lose with other people's money and no guardrails.

We've been here before with superstar founders being given huge sums of cash to go break things and fail fast. The point is, there are never no casualties.

In the case of FTX, there could be a million of them. From the big boys, who should have known better, to 100s of thousands of retail investors who followed the promise of untold crypto riches.

The trouble is, Bankman-Fried was so smart, nobody really understood what he was talking about. And therein lay his mystique. Now, after the event, "everyone" seems to have known there was something fishy.

And that's how the sorry tale begins. For a comprehensive deep dive on what, how and why it happened,?read this if you want the detail.

Or listen to?this excellent podcast from Matt Levin, a man who had previouslt confronted Sam Bankman-Fried about FTX being a ponzi scheme.

Or if you want something a little more light hearted...(credit to Steve Tunstall for finding it).

For more Web3 headlines and news, go here.

?? NFTs Explained In Under 5 Minutes

My mum asked me over the weekend what an NFT is. She'd heard me talking about it with Shaun on the podcast. It reminded me that just because I talk about this stuff all day, doesn't mean everyone understands it too (and why would they?)

So I made this to explain NFTs in under 5 minutes.

Europe is edging closer to a ban on facial recognition

According to?this report in POLITICO, the European Union wants to ban facial recognition technology.

I get the concerns about privacy, but I think the genie is already out of the bottle on this one. Facial recognition is ubiquitous (anyone with a phone has it).

For me, it's not the use of facial recognition tech for identification that's the concern, but the use of the data behind it. But if we go down that path, we also have to question Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple and how they use the data they get through surveillance.

You don't think Siri or Alexa is listening to what you're saying all the time?

Or our own governments. Such as the?British govt scanning all Internet devices?hosted in the UK.

I get the EUs determination to protect citizens, this administration is doing more than anyone in tech regs. But I can't help but think this is not the solution.

For more on this and other links and related news, go here.

?? Create Your Own Profile Pics With AI

Astria?lets you make AI-generated images of yourself for a few bucks. Upload a few photos of your face and several hours later, after Astria has crunched the data, you will be able to generate art based on your likeness using different themes and styles you chose.

It's fun, give it a go! Here are a few of the images Astria made of me...

??? Listen To A Never-Ending Conversation

The Infinite Conversation?is an AI generated, never-ending discussion between Werner Herzog and Slavoj ?i?ek. Everything you hear is fully generated by a machine. The opinions and beliefs expressed do not represent anyone. They are the hallucinations of a slab of silicon.

That's right, this conversation literally never ends, it just keeps on going.?This is the future!

?? The Sample uses AI to find the newsletters you're going to love to read.?Sign up for free to the newsletter of newsletters?and get something interesting new to read every day.

(P.s. if you signup to The Sample, they will promote Wiser! to their audience.)

?? Reinventing Finance Podcast

I was recently invited to join Nikolaus Sühr and Tom VAN DER LUBBE as a guest for their podcast called Reinventing Finance. As background, I've known Nik from when he first started KASKO , the insurance startup he still runs today.?I wrote this article about Kasko 7 years ago!

Any how, the conversation was about the insurance industry, what I thought about the chances of changes and disruption and where did I think it would come from. You don't need to be an insurance person to follow the conversation. It's more about how old world industries, like insurance for example, can or can't change.

?? Big Tech Little Tech Podcast

Shaun and I recorded the latest episode of the show last week. The big story is about Mastodon and our initial experience of using it. Get all the show notes and links here.

??? Find Big Tech Little Tech on all these major Podcast platforms:

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The original, longer version of this newsletter was published on Friday 18th November 2022