⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ FREE BIRD
Offbeat college football site Every Day Should be Saturday announced its closure on Wednesday with a retrospective from Spencer Hall.
The farewell is excellent writing.
👾👩🚀 There Are So Many Grasshoppers in Las Vegas Right Now You Can See Them From Space
“Nevada has already had much more rain in 2019 than in an average year, making for an especially great season for the pallid-winged grasshopper.”
🏊♂️🏊♀️ Drowning Deaths on Lake Michigan Have Skyrocketed
The year’s high precipitation has also brought about stronger rip currents throughout the Great Lakes.
“Record lake levels made worse by heavy thunderstorms and strong winds are leading to dangerous conditions on the Great Lakes, with tragic incidents this week leading to swimming bans and beach shutdowns from Lake Michigan to Lake Erie.”
A helpful primer on what to do if caught in a rip current: “(1) Remain calm - it will not pull you under. (2) Swim parallel to the shore until you break free, then swim diagonally toward the shore. (3) If you cannot swim out of the current, float until it weakens, then swim diagonally toward the shore. (4) Summon help by waving your hands.”
⌚️👀 75% of Apple Watch Sales Last Quarter Were First Time Purchases
📅👨🍳 Alinea Cofounder Nick Kokonas Changed the Restaurant
Industry Forever. Along the Way, He Made Some Enemies.
“Nick Kokonas, co-owner and cofounder of the Alinea Group, the company that he and star chef Grant Achatz have built atop the foundation of their wildly creative, internationally acclaimed restaurant Alinea. He’s also the CEO of Tock, a dining reservations system he launched in 2014 that has raised $18 million in funding and has a client list of 2,000-and-counting restaurants and wineries in 24 countries.”
Favorite line (among many): “Steve Hafner, CEO of OpenTable parent company Kayak enjoys the rivalry… describing Kokonas: ‘Finally, a man worth killing.’”
// a recommendation //
The Apple Watch has been out for over four years… which is why the above breakdown is so surprising. I had figured that folks would have their feelings set on the thing by now. If it wasn’t your move, it’s not as though anything fundamentally had shifted since 2015. And if you were an iPhone user and wanted one, it’d already be on your wrist.
That’s clearly not the case if three out of every four customers are trying out the product for the first time. That means there’s a ton of runway left for a device that still can’t even work on its own. What happens when you can wear an Apple Watch independently from whatever phone you’ve chosen for yourself? That’s an entirely different market.
I also think the cellular-connected watch is worth a mention. At first glance, it can feel redundant to spend more for an LTE connection on your wrist when there’s already one in your pocket. Wouldn’t it be nice to get text messages when you’re on a run? I dunno man… I’m running? However - if half of your company’s revenue comes from selling smartphones - you probably can’t come right out and say “wouldn’t it be nice to get away from your phone every once in a while?” That’s not the pitch you want splashed on your website… but the answer is YES.
Yes, it is very nice getting away from your phone once in a while.
A cellular-connected Apple Watch lets you stay 2019 responsible - connected to your texts and a map - without having an attention-grabbing portal holstered to you. The relief of not being able to google whatever comes into your head is surprising (I… wanted this?) and the benefit of sidelining your timelines for a night out is obvious.
The device isn’t exactly there yet but you can see it rounding into form. Always-on Siri improvements are the right direction, a battery that creeps past a day and a half of use helps. If your watch understood your voice consistently and - I dunno - could grab juice from a phone capable of reverse wireless charging, that’d be even closer. Something to think about if you’re among the 75%.