No.134: 🎨 What Would Monet Make of Tech Today?
+ New Data from Fiverr; Apple Ads; Reliance Jio Glasses
Hello,
This will be a somewhat brief hi, tech. (“phew!” - You), but after illness kiboshed last week’s edition I wanted to make sure we got back in action. I spent my weekend enjoying some birthday festivities after a magnifique few days à Paris. 🥳️🎁
Hence, you get the gift of a Monday hi, tech. Don’t say I never give you anything.
As we arrived at Paris’ Gare du Nord, I had one of those epiphanies one is always likelier to have on train travel. My last plane-based epiphany was “never fly to or from Luton Airport again”.
Way back in the 1870s, Claude Monet wanted to paint the Gare du Nord. He had spent most of that decade outside of France, hoping to avoid conscription to the army. When he returned to Paris, he was amazed by the technological progress that defined the intervening years.
In the end, he painted a series of images of the Gare St Lazare (the “Ouest” station) - and how he came to do so is one of my favourite historical tidbits.
Monet went to the station and demanded to speak to the controller. When he was granted an audience with the station boss, Monet declared himself to be a painter of great genius who would bestow global fame on the Gare St Lazare, immortalising it with his brush.
The controller could hardly refuse, even though Monet was not a painter of great repute at the time. The station facilitated the painter’s demands and even pumped extra smoke out of the trains to add drama to the scene.
At the time, the station welcomed over 13 million customers per year.
Monet’s confidence brought it to a standstill.
Monet later reflected that the smoke-filled station was “a fascinating sight, a real dream”.
Other painters did not share his enthusiasm for the new industrial age, of course; Turner was notably sceptical about whether this mechanical age represented progress at all.
But if we are indeed witnessing similar technological change today, why does it not fascinate our artists in the same way? Which poets are struck down by wonder when they survey the modern landscape? What would qualify as “sublime” in this so-called fourth industrial revolution?
Perhaps the artists are too worried about being replaced by the robots.
Last week, Microsoft announced that it was bringing DALL-E 2 to its Designer product. It will be accessible to all of us through the Bing browser, which is apparently a rival to Google’s Chrome. It must have popped up overnight.
Perhaps the technological changes today are simply less visible, albeit not less substantial. The first industrial revolution, or the invention of the motorcar, brought physical symbols of a new relation to time and space. They were also aesthetically pleasing objects.
To paint a scene of modern life would be to paint screen-addicted individuals, atomised and polarised. Yet we should not lose that sense of wonder altogether. Imagine leaving for a few years and coming back to a major city, à la Monet. Would the results surprise you?
🙏 A Small Favour, Please
I’m trying to market this newsletter again and I figured, who better to give me some feedback than the loyal readers?
I put together a Google Form with two very easy questions in it. I mean it: they could have been written by a 5 year-old.
If you would be so kind as to give some short feedback on what you like about this publication, it would be greatly appreciated: 👇👇👇
And if no-one takes me up on the option, the Form will be deleted quicker than an Iker Casillas tweet.
Now let’s get on with the show.
Thanks to AI, you can now create automations in Power Automate by simply describing them
In Microsoft’s Power Automate, you can now describe a process using natural language and it will set it up for you.
Pretty handy, no?
Rollercoaster rides trigger emergency calls from new iPhones
“According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), at one US amusement park the plummeting rides activated the phones' crash detection system.
The feature was introduced in the new iPhone 14 and Apple Watch Series 8, Ultra and SE with the latest OS.
Apple told the newspaper the technology is intended to provide "peace of mind" and will continue to improve over time.”
Meta’s New Headset Will Track Your Eyes for Targeted Ads
This is reported as new news (as opposed to old news), but it suggests Meta is still planning to track our biometric data. It sounds spookier than it is, mainly because turning this into a workable product is very difficult. We still shouldn’t doubt the direction of travel, nonetheless.
Fiverr releases new Business Trends Index
Your friends and mine, Fiverr, have released their sixth Business Trends Index.
It uses data from their freelance marketplace to quantify the demand for different business services.
I am always fascinated by these studies. They highlight the gap between industry chatter and everyday matters. For example, senior marketers are spending a lot of time talking about the metaverse, along with TikTok’s explosive growth.
However, Fiverr finds that there is an average 92% increase across all Instagram-related searches.
It may be that this simply shows the glacial pace of change in the industry. Or, it shows that the industry talk is misaligned with the actions marketers are taking every day.
You can look at the country-level data here. “Corporate identity” is really growing in popularity in Germany, it seems.
Apple’s ad business set to boom on the back of its own anti-tracking crackdown
Keep an eye on this - Apple has set out the structural reforms that will see it reap bountiful rewards in the coming years. Expect antitrust action (Apple exempts itself from App Tracking Transparency because its native apps are “first-party) and expect Apple to get more aggressive as it takes mobile ad business from Meta/Snap.
Reliance Jio trials Jio Glass
Reliance Jio is a telecommunications and tech giant in India, as I’m sure most of you will know. As a tech giant, it has no option but to create smart glasses.
“Weighing 75 grams, Jio Glass uses 3D avatars to make interactions better in the virtual world. It comes with personalized audio and allows designed discussions by sharing 3D holograms.”
They will also - and I can’t stress this enough - make you look like a nerd. The glasses don’t even fit; they’re like the 3D ones you get at the cinema.
Is this guy living a life you would envy?
I always wanted one of those beds with a TV in the headboard, but not like this:
It reminds me of this:
I know people would tell me to be more optimistic, to see the true power of the technology and open up to a brighter future.
To which I would say, just let me pop on my Reliance Jio glasses and then tell me alllll about it.
Imagine Monet painting that.
I will leave you with this intriguing development:
Until next time!