📻Find Audio Memes, Tiny Android Dreams, and Midnight Trains
I blame TikTok
Hello friends! How are you doing this wonderful morning?
It’s started getting pretty hot here in Tennessee - it was 90 degrees this weekend! Yeeeesh. I was personally hoping for a few more weeks of the 80’s . . .
Have you seen the latest season of Love, Death and Robots?
If you haven’t yet - that’s what you need to watch tonight.
It was wayyyyyyyyyy better than season 2. Despite the fact that there were only about 9 episodes - it was absolutely fire.
My favorite episodes were “Mason’s Rats”, "In Vaulted Halls Entombed" and “Kill Team Kill,” and “Bad Traveling.”
SO. GOOD.
If you aren’t really a fan of speculative fiction - at least watch “Bad Traveling.” It’s a very well done horror short - and it has serious Dishonored vibes.
I will never look at a hard-shelled crab the same way ever again.
I did a little deep dive into the StableGains UST debacle this week. Check it out if you’re interested. Some mighty shady stuff happening . . .
I’ve started getting into some Phonk vibes - This artist Nightshift TV has some really fun stuff!
Think of it as a cross between some Deathcore Rap aesthetics and some 80’s synthwave beats.
Think Cyberpunk Street Race
Shall we hop on in?
📻Find Audio Memes
It was bound to happen sooner or later - a Giphy for audio.
Voicy looks and feels a lot like Giphy - you can upload and download audio clips - find stuff by tags, and all that good stuff.
Something like this has been needed for years - especially now that TikTok is mainstream.
Where do I go to find audio?
I mean - yeah - you can try and search on TikTok - but likely the audio isn’t on its own, or it’s paired with some audio clip you don’t want.
Next thing you know - you’re trying to separate audio in Audacity (or mobile equivalent) so you can extract the clip you ACTUALLY want.
Yeah - why not just search for the raw clip?
Like this Among Us “report body” audio
Where the heck would I find that without some kind of search engine?
Voicy is seeking to solve this issue by putting all those clips right at your fingertips.
Unfortunately, Voicy has one tiny issue.
It forces you to create an account unless you want an audio watermark.
WHO WANTS AN AUDIO WATERMARK?
noone.
Of course - you could download the audio and remove the watermark - but that’s quite a bit of friction that most people won’t want to deal with.
I understand that Voicy wants people to create free accounts (I’m sure this is useful for advertisers or investors) for downloads without watermarks - but it’ll be easy to dismantle them as a competitor until they remove the watermarks.
All you have to do is make Voicy - but without watermarks.
Instant frictionless audio downloading. boom.
It’s an important issue to keep in mind.
Go check out Voicy at the link!
📱Tiny Android Dreams
The iPhone 13 mini was an unexpected phone from Apple.
It was like “Woah - Apple still cares about consumers who don’t want big phones?”
It was compact, powerful, and a win for old-school Apple fans.
Remember when Steve Jobs said that no one was going to buy big phones?
I myself like my big One Plus 7 Pro - but have to admit quite regularly - I miss my smaller phones in the “old days.”
Heck - my One Plus barely fits in my pocket. It can be awkward to hold for long periods of time while I turn my brain to mush on TikTok.
The founder of Pebble - Eric Migicovsky, has returned with a plea to Android owners. Let’s get someone to make a small premium Android phone.
It's increasingly clear that a small premium phone is not on any OEM roadmap. So I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands. My goal here is to rally other fans of small phones together and put pressure on Google/Samsung/anyone to consider making a small phone. If you want a small premium Android phone, this may be your last chance (ever?) to help bring back the phone category that we love.(source)
It’s sad - but true. Noone makes a good small Android phone - and it’s highly unlikely that anyone will . . .
What’s in it for them? a small niche market? Why pursue that when you can spend that R&D on a foldable?
Eric is trying to avoid it - but it’s definitely possible he may have to do it himself.
Isn't it crazy to start a phone company?? Yes, yes it is. I really hope it does not come to that. My hope is that we can gather support from the community and convince Google (ideally) or another Android manufacturer to build this phone. I have a very specific set of skills and industry connections that I have acquired over a long career in the hardware business. I will put them to use in our shared quest to get the perfect small Android phone. If no one else ends up building one, and enough people sign up...maybe I will be forced to make it myself. (source)
It’s definitely something Eric has the skillset for. Remember - Eric founded Pebble - which he later sold to Fitbit.
This will NOT be a “frankphone” style failure.
He has a track record in successfully bootstrapping hardware - and I believe (if it comes to it) he could do it again with an Android phone.
Remember the Nextbit Robin on Kickstarter? That did really well and ended up being a decent phone!
Honestly, I’d probably prefer if Eric did it himself. Google really dropped the ball with Project Ara . . . .which was another amazing indie idea . . .
Go check out Eric’s site to sign the petition! All he needs is 50,000 motivated buyers . . .
🚂Midnight Trains
What if you could travel on style in a train?
No - not those horrid trams like the BART in SF.
We’re talking about hotels on rails here.
Midnight-Trains is a European startup that’s hoping to bring trains back in a serious and meaningful way, making travel a fun adventure - rather than a wretched slog through airports.
The experience being sold by commercial airlines is outdated. It’s time to retire the short-haul flight. The experience of flying around Europe is inefficient and marked by stress and discomfort.The speed the airlines offer is an illusion, and a 1-hour flight is actually a grueling 4-hour trip from door to door. Finally–and most importantly–air travel produces high carbon emissions. Midnight Trains was born of these observations. It’s time to choose a more comfortable, efficient, and sustainable alternative. We believe that the journey is as important as the destination, and that every moment is precious. Seeking to reconnect the beating hearts of our largest European cities, we set ourselves a challenge: create a hotel on rails, thereby reawakening the enchanting experience of the night train. (source)
We often fantasize about the trains of the mid 20th century - with films like Murder on the Orient Express or Polar Express making us yearn for a great train ride.
Without the murders on the Orient - though
That Wes Anderson ad for H&M was probably my favorite ad of the past 10 years.
Doesn’t that make your heart yearn for a fun train ride?
Heck - I’m watching the ad again on my second screen while I type this.
Midnight Trains hopes to launch its first line in Paris in 2024 -and extend to more than 10 destinations.
It’s a very ambitious map - but one that would take you to many of the biggest cities in Europe.
Wouldn’t it be fun to take a train from Rome to Florence, then Paris too?
All the sights you miss when flying . . . conversations over a hot meal in a train . . .
and most importantly. Leg space!
They plan to offer private rooms (with showers), food, bar service, and other awesome features.
I’m looking forward to hearing how much it costs as opposed to air travel or a long road trip. If it’s comparable - I think it could do quite well!
Check it out!
🐙The Land of Random
Let’s - Get - Random!!!
Create Awkward Situations
Ah yes - for that situation when someone comes to look at something on your computer and awkward message notifications start popping up. HAHAHAHA.
What if tech looked like empire maps?
This delightful website visualizes tech like PHP or Ruby as empires upon a map.
Train Surfing Stunts
Speaking of trains . . . this is nuts
The Pyramid Tablet
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to design for a nonrectangular device? This fascinating article gets into the nitty gritty while keeping it fun and informative.
Tropicana Crunch
Yo - they made cereal that can be eaten with Orange Juice? Where can I buy this?
Round Retro Style Computer
This is AWESOME
Off the Grid - by Neil Blomkamp
I know we’re all burnt out on Battle Royales - but this one feels like a mashup of Titanfall style play (a live multiplayer game with missions) with traditional Battle Royale features. It sounds really fun!
The Land of Web3
Rosko & Friends is a daily collection of unique NFT art by Felix Schlater, a talented artist. Every day, Felix creates one new unique piece for the collection - and releases it straight on Opensea. I have the one above, and two others. It’s a great opportunity to buy one of a kind artwork directly from an artist! At the moment, Felix is in month 5 of the 365 day challenge - one new piece of art every day, all of 2022.
Spritz promises to let you pay your bills directly with crypto. Very interesting!
The Bolt Card is an offline Lightning card that harnesses BTC to pay using NFC. It sounds awesome.
Make NFT’s fungible by gating access to your events with NFT tickets.
🎵TikToks You Can’t Miss
I think i’m most frustrated about Hershey’s chocolate bar with this
Best OfferUp find ever
Yeah this is absolutely true - they’ve done it several times
And the sad part is only a few of these ever get decent cultural momentum
This is the IRL version of going off the map in a video game
DON’T LET IT SEE YOU
That’s all for this week. See you next time!