Apple Keynote, Maths Homework & Long Weekends
5 in 5 - Brave & Heart HeartBeat #215 ❤️
This week we're talking the Apple Keynote, featuring exciting new colours but not much else, Telegram's new privacy turnaround and the danger of gambling influencers.
Plus, the AI apps promising to do your maths homework, and the actual scientific benefits of the bank holiday weekend.
Let’s get into it.
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#1 -The Battle of Software V Hardware.
Software (and some new, wow, colours) won.
The latest Apple presentation was basically an admission that in the speed race of Software Vs Hardware, the Software has now sped up to the point that Hardware is almost irrelevant.
In the early days of phones, hardware was moving so fast it was dizzying – from the original iPhone to the 3GS to the iPhone 5 and now to the iPhone 16, where the iPhone 10 was likely the last real leap in hardware.
Every phone since has had a slightly better battery, slightly better camera, and a slightly better screen. The iPhone 16 is no different.
Make no bones – it’s an amazing phone and will last anyone buying it (including us) 5 years at least, but it is the latest of very incremental updates.
The same was true for the Apple Watch 10 – slightly thinner, That’s it. Bigger screen? Their comparison was an Apple Watch 3! The Ultra. New colour. That’s it. Airpods Max? Same. New colour. Air Pods and Pro’s? Slightly better. All day battery life? Someone needs to tell apple there are 24 hours in a day, not 14 – 16.
Everything else that was touted as software. From the new Apple Intelligence features (they said ChatGPT precisely twice) to the AirPods as hearing aids. Software. New heartbeat features? Software. Better camera processing. Software.
Just one more thing? Not anymore. Just the same old thing.
#2 - Is Telegram Doing A 360?
After his arrest last week Pavel Durov, the man who values privacy above safety, has made some changes to his apps privacy policy.
Durov stated that during his four-day interview he was told that he may be personally responsible for other people’s misuse of telegram because they didn’t answer to the authorities.
To which he said, no way, wow, I should change that!
This was apparently brand new information to Durov, as if he’s never been asked in an interview if he felt responsible for terrorist attacks and said, no, of course not. But we digress.
Telegram originally noted on their FAQ page that private chats were so protected that they “do not process any requests related to them” – they’ve since quietly removed that phrase.
Apparently nothing has changed – you could always report or block private chats, Telegram even invited users to check the source code and see themselves that nothing has been changed, and the FAQ has only been changed to make it clearer.
Not dodgy at all, and not at all a confirmation of the idea that some people have that Telegram could moderate private chats all along, but choose not to.
Durov has also disabled two functions – media uploads to their blogging tool and a function called “people nearby” – both of which apparently had issues with bots and scammers.
Nothing like getting arrested to get the brain working, right?
#3 – The Influencers Nobody Needs
We know now how TikTok works, you show interest in one video on a certain subject and before you know it your FYP is full of it. But what happens when that subject is gambling?
The Guardian describes a snowball situation – you watch a popular clip of the musician Drake winning seven figures on the roulette, then you see an influencer who won big at the casino too, all of a sudden you’re watching videos that claim to offer “guaranteed” ways to win big.
Rabbit holes like this are going a long way to normalize gambling among a young audience, and according to a TikTok creator called Rob Minnick who is trying to redress the balance by sharing his struggles, the scariest category of these videos is that gambling is profitable.
These videos feature advice from gambling “pros”, more often than not also very young people, spouting the idea that if you’re losing at gambling it means you’re bad at it – just follow my advice and you can get rich quick.
There’s now a microindustry of such influencers, pushing gambling picks and advice to a scarily young and scarily zoomed in audience.
Minnick says he feels outnumbered because the pro-gambling videos are made by “production companies” and feature popular influencers talking about how much they’re winning.
Gambling is cool right now, let’s see where they are in five years.
#4 - Gen AI Is Coming For Maths
Since 2021, ChatGPT has turned English homework upside down. Schools tried banning AI, figuring out how to detect essays written with AI technology, and in turn students figured out more ways to hide what they were doing.
But now, English isn’t the only subject at risk, as students are experimenting with free smartphone apps that complete their maths homework using AI, with the most popular of them being Gauth, which is owned by ByteDance (of TikTok fame).
Gauth has actually been around since 2019, and while it focuses on maths it has also expanded to Chemisty and Physics, and it’s popularity has recently skyrocketed – it now has a 4.8 star rating on the App Stores and is near the top of the list for educational app downloads.
Simply point your phone at your homework and it’s done.
However, not to a very high result. Wired tested the app and on average it gave answers that would get a low B or a high C – not perfect, but enough to get by if you really can’t be bothered.
Plus, the Gauth website asks students to adhere to the “Honor Code” – not to use the app in a way that would go against your school’s rules. Well, if you say it of course they’re going to do it. Not…
Question, is AI the new calculator? It helps, but you need to really know what you’re doing to get an A.
#5 - The Benefit Of A Bank Holiday
Everyone loves a bank holiday, and of course anyone you ask would say that a three-day weekend is better than a normal one. Obvious, right?
Well, it’s also scientifically proven.
A recent study suggests that the a two-day weekend actually does you more harm than good. Apparently, it acts as a disruption to the circadian rhythm and can impair your mood and even mental capacity when you go back to work.
If you’ve got sleep to catch up on, apparently two days of sleeping in is just enough to adjust the circadian rhythm to give you an unpleasant jolt on the Monday, but not to actually get extra rest.
The study says that when people get an extra day or two off they have more time to sleep, exercise, work on their relationships – you know, keep that health bar topped up like in the sims – which gives them a clearer mind and a happier outlook during the working week.
We’re guessing 4-day weeks would have a similar effect, then.
We’re hearing a lot about the 4-day week, whether it’s a week with normal daily hours or a full week condenses into the four days, and cheaper childcare is currently being touted as the best benefit, but it could make people more effective and happier during their working hours too.
Brave & Heart over and out.
Bonus
Mark Zuckerberg’s New Style
While it may seem trivial, Mr Z’s new style change is anything but.
From the Steve Jobs school of wearing the same outfit every day, dressing as a teenager hacker, to a brand new “stylish” look that we THINK involved a stylist, his style change is nothing if not an appeal to the newest generation he’s trying to get into his Meta products.
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