Hello! I returned! I had a lovely two weeks off, thank you, but it’s good to be back talking to you wonderful readers.
But it turns out that I left at a time when a lot has been going on, and preparing for this newsletter has been a great opportunity to catch up on everything again and read some very interesting stories.
Mainly, if you share your Netflix password with someone, you might want to call them soon and request a regular donation…
Does your parent use your Netflix account, which means you get constant emails about a new login? Does your son still watch Netflix in college and prevent him from bingeing on Squid Games in the exact moment did you manage to squeeze 45 minutes into your busy life?
If that’s the case, prepare to be even more frustrated: it will cost you more to experience that hassle in the future, as Netflix looks to monetize password sharing.
The reason is simple: Netflix has lost 200,000 paying subscribers since the beginning of the year, and that decline is set to grow rapidly, according to estimates. So the platform is “taking action” to stop things like excessive password sharing, by charging users for the sharing privilege (that charge is currently $2.99 for a trial in places including Chile and Peru). .
I was going to rant about how this is not the cause of the problem, which is price increases, increased competition, lack of quality content… but then I read Axel Metz’s article, and he has done it all. more eloquently than he ever could, and he has spoken to experts about it. You should probably read that…
One of the quirks of being a phone journalist over the years has been the time a brand releases a new color variant of a recently launched phone; it often provides a moment of simple joy in contrast to hours spent discussing specs and materials.
The iPhone 12 in purple made people happy. The HTC U12 in flame red It was one of the most beautiful phones I have ever seen. So when Samsung said the S22 Ultra would come in red, our phone editor Tom Bedford predicted it would be beautiful, and thought as such.
How wrong I was. It turns out that Samsung thinks ‘red’ actually means ‘a kind of burnt coral with a reddish tint’, and many readers have contacted us to say how disappointed they are.
Why not just make a beautiful red Samsung phone? That’s what people want, clearly, so stop messing around with false colors and create a proper red variant.
I’ve been thinking about which headphones to go for, as my trusty and super cheap Enacfire headphones from Amazon are starting to irritate me too much.
I might be swayed by Bang and Olufsen’s new buttons, the Beoplay EX, as they look a bit like the AirPods Pro in design, but not quite as Apple-y (I’m still burned by the abuse I received on Twitter when it showed the original AirPods for the first time).
What will ultimately influence me is not the quality of the audio, which will probably be excellent, but rather whether they will be good for sports. I’m currently re-reviewing the Jabra Elite Active 75t, which is much cheaper than AirPods, so I’m looking forward to the Beoplay EX.
And they better be good: $399 is a lot to pay for a pair of headphones.
Our team was in attendance at the Meta (formerly Oculus) Quest launch this week, with a host of games debuting at the event.
While we sadly and annoyingly didn’t see any new headsets announced (a long time ago), the games that did appear look pretty good and show that Facebook’s parent company Meta is still investing heavily in this area.
The Ghostbusters game in particular looks pretty stellar – it almost makes me want to go out and buy a dedicated headset, until I remember that I can play on my PS4 for about 20 minutes every month, so it probably wouldn’t be worth it. .
But for those of you who have time, these games are worth checking out, and we’ve got all the trailers lined up for you too.
Deep down I knew that Garmin was about to release a new running watch in the shape of the Forerunner 955, and this leak makes it almost certain. Cat Ellis has done a great job writing said leak, with plenty of information about what Garmin is planning and a mystery device in there as well.
However, this sentence has bothered me: “With improvements in battery technology, more efficient components, and solar charging, the Forerunner 955 could offer more similar performance to the 47mm Garmin Fenix 7 Solar, which runs up to 22 days in smart watch mode. and 73 hours in GPS mode.”
The issue, dear reader, is that I just bought the Fenix 7 Solar (and it’s great, it has a real flashlight and I I love it) because I thought “yes, it is expensive, but I will use it every day. Sure, it’s a little bulky, but it’ll be fine.’”
So the idea that everything good about this watch will find its way into a slimmer, cheaper, more performance-focused watch doesn’t make me happy. I just hope that the Forerunner 955 doesn’t have a flashlight, then everything will be fine.
I’ll be honest: I included this story mainly because I wanted to celebrate the fact that our software writer Daryl Baxter got married this week and wrote an awfully sweet article about the five apps he used to plan the wedding.
I won’t lie: As someone who’s also planning a wedding, the thought of sharing a to-do list app with my partner makes me sick to my stomach.
I can see myself doing more things in the app than actual things like talking to the venue and begging them to send the menu options and telling me where to send the deposit and choosing where the tables will be stored and what if people want to come just for the night and where is the marquee now and… okay, I need to breathe?
But I did find some good ideas in this article on budgeting and planning, so if you have an upcoming nuptials, give it a go.
This is another time where science blows my mind. How, in 2022, can we discover a part of our lungs that we didn’t know existed?
Okay, calling it a new body part in the headline above is a bit of a stretch, it’s not like they found a spare finger in the lungs or anything, but reading deeper, I’m in awe of the human body’s ability to regenerate itself.
Essentially, scientists have discovered that we have airway secreting cells (RAS), which are like stem cells in that they are “blank.” They can then be brought to life and used to repair damaged cells, and understanding them better could help with the development of treatments for diseases related to smoking and pollution.
Check out the full article on WordsSideKick.com (it’s a fascinating read) and marvel all over again at the way our bodies work.
This is from the publisher.
It’s really nice to take some time off and see what comes out of the team when I’m away. I read Matt Hanson’s summary last week and really enjoyed it. I think we need to know more about him in the future, so we can include him on the list more often.
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Have a great weekend! My top tip for this week is to get out there and take a photo of something sparkly – it’s a great way to develop an appreciation of wherever you are or whoever you’re with.