★ Elon Musk posts open letter to Twitter advertisers on the cusp of completing his acquisition
Elon Musk:
Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content! Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.
This is bullshit. Ads are ads. They are always there to sell something. Becoming a 'respected advertising platform' is an admirable goal but are the advertisers themselves well respected? Not given the ads I see online everyday. On Twitter I am bombarded by gambling ads (and I mute accounts instantly as an opt out). Around the web I am shown items I have already bought and so much other nonsense that I basically don't notice what they really are only that they're in my way.
For ads to be specific enough, I need to be tracked and profiled. I am not OK with this. I certainly don't tweet about everything in my life and I don't follow the same brands across Twitter, Instagram and YouTube so ads are unlikely to be very useful on my Twitter profile alone. We don't need another Meta ad network in our lives.
As a 'respected advertising platform', hold advertisers to a higher standard. Don't take every dollar on offer. Make your platform respectable.
If not everyone can get a blue tick, why should everyone be able to place an ad?
John Gruber's commentary:
That's a good North Star. Ads as desirable content has been my mantra at Daring Fireball ever since I turned on the revenue spigot.
That might be true of a site like Daring Fireball, of which I am a great fan. Ads really don't get in the way over there, they're easy to skip and ignore. But I'd much rather pay for a place on Twitter than be a part cog in its ad network.
Posted 27th Oct 2022 @ 15:25
iOS 16.1 for iPhone launching on Monday with these 8 new features
I was really excited for iOS 16.1 and more functionality around the Dynamic Island but not so much now that it looks like live Premier League scores are limited to the US and Canada. Insane to me that the nation in which these games occur cannot benefit from an OS feature like this (although it's also
Still, excited to see which apps that I have will support Live Activities in a meaningful way.
Posted 20th Oct 2022 @ 14:50
Zuckerberg: Apple 'Charges as much as it can' for hardware, but Meta is willing to sell at a loss to grow the Metaverse
Mark Zuckerberg:
We're going to build the best hardware in the space and we're going to basically sell it at a break-even point and in some cases, maybe even slightly at a loss in order to basically help grow the ecosystem with the business model of basically having the revenue come through software and services
And advertising. Unless that's being lumped in with 'services', which to me is disingenuous. Being advertised to is not a service. While Zuckerberg might see this as a way to disrupt the hardware space, don't forget that we are the product to Meta unless they decide to give up the creepier sides to their business.
It may well be true that Apple charges as much as it can, but doesn't any business? Meta obviously don't sell ad space at a loss so why would Apple sell their hardware that way?
It's not even a decade since Apple stopped charging for Mac OS upgrades, don't forget. I would much rather pay
I am not comfortable with Apple selling ads in any space given we are not supposed to be the product. Maybe ads around
In any other space though, Apple should steer clear of ads, in my opinion.
Posted 15th Oct 2022 @ 22:35
★ A Tour Of Robert Llewellyn's Ultra-Efficient Eco Home
Solar panels haven't made it onto our street yet, majority of the properties just face the wrong way but it's something that crosses my mind from time to time and would be great if we could figure out a way to make economically viable. Add in battery storage too and we'd be onto a winner.
Posted 14th Oct 2022 @ 14:13