Happy Friday everyone!
This week saw a big release from Facebook Oculus. At $399, can the Oculus Quest be Zuckerberg's iPhone? Will VR finally become important enough to become mainstream in 2019? Let us know what you think - we love to hear from you!
Here's our favourite stories from the week!
Features
25 Years of WIRED predictions: Why the future never arrives
This past summer, I pulled up a chair—for a time at the Library of Congress—and read every issue of the magazine’s print edition, chronologically and cover to cover. My aim was to engage in a particular kind of time travel.
In this piece, David Karpf tells the story of WIRED, from its bombastic inaugural issue in '94 featuring such self-assured statements like -
“The Digital Revolution is whipping through our lives like a Bengali typhoon—while the mainstream media is still groping for the snooze button.”
- through to WIRED's and its contributor's many predictions over the past quarter-century, either proven false or true by time, though many will surprise you. Finally, Karpf reaches today, and speaks about what the swaggering, optimistic and loud WIRED of the 90's has become.
A newspaper empire in the balance: the continuing saga of Tronc
Newspapers and the journalists that write them voice their hopes and concerns about the future. The big question is how to survive the tough market for legacy print publications, without a clear path to financial success.
It’s a dark time to be in the media business but its history shows its an important business that is more than the sum of its parts.
It’s one thing to buy an auto parts factory and then sell off the machinery and fire the staff. You lose an auto parts factory, but if you lose a newspaper, the functioning of the city’s democracy fundamentally changes.
Future of TV
Facebook’s recent ‘bear hug’ of Instagram frustrated its independent founders
In big social media news of the week, Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have left the company. The world is speculating at the real reason for their departure. The general idea out there is that Facebook has been trending towards a tighter control over Instagram. A 'bear hug' that has impacted everything from referral signups to team growth.
Systrom reportedly explained their reason for leaving like this:
“We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again... Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that’s what we plan to do.”
Interactive Media
Snapchat lets you take a photo of an object to buy it on Amazon
Is the camera the new cursor?
In a rare partnership for Amazon, the commerce giant will help Snapchat challenge Instagram and Pinterest for social shopping supremacy. Snapchat announced it’s slowly rolling out a new visual product search feature.
So how does it work, Snapchat’s camera will scan a physical object or barcode, which then brings up a card showing the item and similar ones along with their title, price, and a thumbnail image. When they tap on it, they’ll be sent to Amazon’s app or site to buy it.
This partnership is a win for Snapchat's commerce-focused strategy. It has seen a decline in its number of users recently. With commerce features like this, the quality of their user activity, may be worth more to advertisers than the quantity.
Spotify will make a playlist based on your DNA
Yup. Spotify and Ancestry.com are teaming up to curate music based on your genetic heritage. Just hand over your DNA information, and they'll blend it with playlist algorithms, and ...
What could possibly go wrong? 😅
That's all from the Rerun team this week. We're taking a little break next week to take part in our Team Week Lab Day in Dublin. Until then, have a great week!