🦅 [ perspective ix ]

​​🍔Rage against the burger maker The Verge has an in-depth look at the burger-making robots that are the main attraction at San Francisco restaurant, Creator. The piece offers a balanced approach to the idea that these machines will replace human jobs, but there’s no escaping the fact that ‘burger bots’ are a very real frontline face of automation. Optimists love to say that automation is nothing new, and that it only ever offers new opportunities for humans by giving us new roles. But technological progress accelerates ever onwards, and the coming wave of automation may happen so fast that we can’t find enough jobs to replace those it devours. And what happens then? When we talk about automation taking jobs, it’s often in the context if artificial intelligence – 'invisible’ software replacing existing human roles. Burger-making robots show that, if automation causes significant unemployment, there will be plenty of real machines to rage against. Read more in today's Big Revolution: prs.pctvix.co/2NHvTeG Martin Bryant, 🚀@PerspectiveIX

🗣 Old solutions to modern problems! by Dougal Shaw: prs.pctvix.co/2NGR2Wo 🚀@PerspectiveIX

​​🥇The apps with the most days as the No.1 free iPhone app since 2010 Messaging apps in general spent the most time at the top across all the App Store territories, accounting for seven of the top 10 in the ranking. Chief among them was the now Facebook-owned #WhatsApp, which was one of four apps in the top five under the social giant’s auspices, the other three being Messenger, #Instagram, and the core #Facebook app itself. 🚀@PerspectiveIX 📖 via SensorTower: prs.pctvix.co/2N77232

📰#iXDailyBrief STAT ⚡️ The ‘Gareth Southgate’ effect? M&S’ suit sales have been boosted so far for the 2018 World Cup with sales of waistcoats up by 35% YOY. (Source: Marks and Spencer) INSIGHT 📌#Pinterest's rudimentary consultancy gives retailers advice on in-store merchandising: prs.pctvix.co/2NJIVs3 OTHER NEWS 📈 Olio, the app that lets you share unwanted food items with your neighbours, picks up £6M Series A: t.me/iXNews/29108 📱 HTC’s blockchain-powered Exodus #smartphone is a risky bet that needs to pay off: t.me/iXNews/29106 👊#YouTube is fighting fake news with $25M to promote journalism and more context in search results: t.me/iXNews/29001 🤝#Snapchat moves beyond traditional publishing brands with latest partnerships: prs.pctvix.co/2NJzzN5 👻 Snapchat and #Amazon will team up on in-app shopping: prs.pctvix.co/2NIPag6 🕵️‍♀️ House Republicans demand answers from Alphabet following Gmail privacy scandal: t.me/iXNews/28988 — Sorry about missing the Daily Brief yesterday. I was on a couple of flights with no internet access. And today, I'm trying to catch up 🙃 Ben, @iXNews

​​💰Rich beyond reason Yesterday, news broke that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is now not only the richest man in the world, but a whole $50bn ahead of second-place Bill Gates. Quite frankly, that kind of accumulation of wealth in an individual is unsettling. Bezos’ $143.1 billion net worth isn’t all cash he can spend whenever he wants, but why should it sit on his balance sheet when there’s so much that needs improving about the world? People should be able to do well from the businesses they build, and that means that some people who run particularly successful companies will become incredibly wealthy. But there comes a point where you look at that kind of wealth and think about what could be done with it if it was being put to use to make the world better. Read more in today's Big Revolution: prs.pctvix.co/2NGANZC Martin Bryant, 🚀@PerspectiveIX

🥤Behind the Design: Coca-Cola Curves The iconic Coca-Cola bottle was born in Terre Haute, Indiana🇺🇸 in 1915 as the result of a national contest to fight off the copycats! 🚀@PerspectiveIX

​​💻 Surface Go: A posh netbook and a gateway drug One phrase wouldn’t leave my mind after reading about Microsoft’s new Surface Go tablet: ‘posh netbook.’ Ten years ago, the joy of having a tiny little PC you could carry anywhere, running full Windows XP (perfectly acceptable for the time!) was incredible. The novelty wore off, as netbooks simply weren’t powerful enough for sustained use. The Surface Go updates that 'desirable, underpowered PC’ idea for 2018. You certainly won’t be running high-end games on it, but as a way to carry a lightweight PC around wherever you go, it looks very tempting indeed. But that 'netbook’ analogy just won’t go away. Will its slow processor end up frustrating users? We’ll have to wait for the first reviews, but for Microsoft, maybe it doesn’t matter. Surface Go has another purpose – it’s the perfect 'gateway drug’ for Windows 10 for dipping your toe back into Windows 10 if you're a Windows-curious Mac user. Read more in today's Big Revolution: prs.pctvix.co/2N1A4ks Martin Bryant, 🚀@PerspectiveIX

🦍It's Donkey Kong's Birthday! On this day (9 July) in 1981 Nintendo released Donkey Kong. #History 🚀@PerspectiveIX 📕prs.pctvix.co/2u7P093

​​👁Engagement With Social Media is Changing Sharing and #SocialMedia are often seen as synonymous, but in this chart, we take a look at how sharing on social increasingly takes place alongside other, more “purposeful” activities. 🚀@PerspectiveIX 📖 via GWI: prs.pctvix.co/2ugFvEp

📰#iXDailyBrief STAT ⚡️ More than 1.3 billion users of Google-owned YouTube regularly watch music videos, making it the biggest music service in the world. However, artists receive only 67 cents per user annually in royalties. (Source: The Guardian) INSIGHT ⛓ Will Blockchain Diminish Facebook’s Advertising Dominance? prs.pctvix.co/2u5lEZJ OTHER NEWS 😍#Apple’s Shortcuts will flip the switch on Siri’s potential: t.me/iXNews/28934 📈 Facebook moves on from data scandal as stock reaches all-time high: prs.pctvix.co/2u41YFs 🦂 Drake’s Scorpion pulls in over 1 billion streams in its first week: t.me/iXNews/28933 😬 Timehop discloses July 4 data breach affecting 21 million: t.me/iXNews/28937 ⚽️ Cristiano Ronaldo in talks over US$10m Facebook series: prs.pctvix.co/2u3mzcO 🏆 Technology has changed my World Cup watching for the better: t.me/iXNews/28927 — ❓ How has technology (VAR, Goal Line Technology, etc) changed your World Cup watching experience? 👍 I think they're great! 👎 I think they're terrible! 😐 I don't watch football Ben, @iXNews

​​Your future surveillance state In China, cameras and facial recognition are used to identify criminals and – more importantly, perhaps – scare people into staying in line. In the West, we hear stories of technology like this being tested from time to time, but there's nothing as comprehensive as the Chinese system. Civil liberties organisations in the West would baulk at any government that tried to roll this out... for now. Authoritarianism is on the rise in parts of the West, and even in more liberal states, we may sleepwalk into total government surveillance. If you’re thinking 'that all sounds very Orwellian,’ remember that surveillance in '1984’ extended into the home, with cameras and microphones installed to monitor citizens’ private time. We’re already helping to set that up by rushing to buy smart speakers and internet-connected security cameras. The surveillance state of the future will be partly our fault. Read more in today's Big Revolution: prs.pctvix.co/2zokYDI Martin Bryant, 🚀@PerspectiveIX

​​Dear iX Friends, We are super excited to let you know that Martin Bryant, former Editor-in-Chief of international technology publication The Next Web, has accepted our offer and will be joining @PerspectiveIX as a contributor. We are convinced that he will add another layer of success to our quality efforts. Martin is a world-renowned consultant, speaker, writer, and educator in the fields of technology and media. In addition to his time at The Next Web as the Editor-in-Chief, he has been the Community Editor at Tech North and has interviewed top technology executives onstage at some of the world’s biggest technology conferences like the Web Summit, SXSW, and LeWeb. He also often appears on TV and radio and gives insight into technology news stories on the likes of BBC Breakfast, Sky News, You & Yours, and Good Morning Wales. We are thrilled to have Martin with us. We've planned to learn a lot from him; hope you do too. You can learn more about Martin on his website (martinbryant.net) and Twitter (twitter.com/martinsfp). Ben, 🚀@PerspectiveIX