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What did you decide to buy this week? I went with slippers that I hope won’t make my feet sweat. Elon Musk? Oh, just Twitter for a proposed $43 billion. Naturally, that’s this week’s big thing. But I’m also very into a new Google search trick, a $100 computer and an AirPod cleaning trick.
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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: ELENA SCOTTI / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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The Tech Things radio telescope intercepted the following transmission from outer space…
Dear Elon,
We know you were told there’s no life on Mars but we’re here, patiently awaiting your arrival. We regularly monitor data feeds from Earth, and this week, we are quite puzzled.
Obviously, we understand your investments in space. We understand electric cars. We understand brain implants. We even have our own fancy network of tunnels, and a version of your Hyperloop that goes about 3,000 of your Earth miles per hour. But Twitter? Why do you want to own a social-media company?
In your SEC letter, where you proposed buying the entire company for $54.20 a share, you said: “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.” Excuse us, as we are from another planet, but do you mean unlock like one of your Tesla cars? Or unlock in the figurative sense, perhaps as an interplanetary comm system?
Luckily, we beamed into your TED interview on Thursday, where you shared more about your vision. It seems you have the following reasons for wanting to own Twitter:
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Free speech:
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You said “free speech” a handful of times in the interview. You want Twitter to be an “inclusive arena for free speech,” but also noted it will have to abide by the laws of speech in different countries. (That could one day include the Martian Bill of Rights, too, right?) But we have many questions from up here: How do you plan to deal with moderation and avoid the pitfalls of other “free speech” apps? And how can you assure the solar system that you wouldn’t abuse a megaphone you owned outright?
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Product fixes:
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We hear this Twitter isn’t the best. No tweet editing, opaque algorithms and more. “It's very important that the algorithm be open-sourced and that any manual adjustments be identified,” you said in the interview. You also said that if there were an edit button, edited tweets would retain their previous information, and that perhaps retweets and likes would zero out with an edit. And as for putting an end to bots, we couldn’t agree more. (The Martian Robot Wars were not fun.)
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Passion:
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“The civilizational risk is decreased the more we increase trust in Twitter as a platform.” Again, we struggle with the concepts but we do understand that you believe that this sort of public discourse is very important to humans like yourself.
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Still, with all your other projects, this seems like small bugs (a Mars dish like your potato, only with more legs) and a messy world to venture into. It might be wiser for you to stick with building Earth’s largest rocket, so that we can see you soon.
On behalf of all of the Red Planet’s citizens,
Marty the Martian
P.S. There are no toilets here so you’ll have to find another spot to do your tweeting.
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Fitbit Finds its Rhythm 🫀
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Fitbit has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an algorithm that can detect irregular heart rhythm known as atrial fibrillation, or AFib. If the system picks up an irregularity, the wearer gets a notification. It will be available on select Fitbit devices next month. Apple received FDA approval for its AFib feature in 2020. So you might say Fitbit was a few beats behind on this one.
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iOS ➡️ Android
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Google quietly rolled out a Switch to Android app for iOS, to make moving data from an iPhone to an Android phone smoother. The app walks users through steps to set up your new device, including turning off iMessage on the old one. The app’s arrival comes nearly seven years after Apple launched its Move to iOS app for Android phones, and nine years after Samsung’s Smart Switch. If you are switching phones, regardless of what platform, read my colleague Cordilia James’ guide on how to wipe your old one.
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TikTok Tests the 👎
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TikTok is trying out a dislike button in the comments section of the app. Users with access to the function can “dislike” specific comments they think are irrelevant or inappropriate. No one except the disliker will know, but the feedback may be used to make those comments less visible to others. In related news, YouTube recently stopped displaying the number of dislikes on videos.
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OK, say your kid really wants those black Nike sneakers, which make him “super fast like a cheetah,” but in blue. Fine, that’s my very specific example. Google’s new image Multi Search feature, which combines image and text search, makes it a lot easier to deal with a request like that.
Open the Android or iOS Google app and tap the camera icon in the search bar. Snap a photo of the object (in my case, the sneakers) or tap the photo icon in the lower left corner to grab a photo that you’ve already taken. Once you’ve got the image, swipe up, and at the top of the screen, tap “Add to your search.” Now type in the extra text (in my case, “blue”).
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PHOTO: ELENA SCOTTI / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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The results aren’t perfect, but it’s a fun alternative to text search-string roulette.
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This week’s Throwback Thing is special. It was submitted by Walt Mossberg, the original Wall Street Journal Personal Technology columnist. He created the column in 1991 and spent the subsequent 22 years covering and reviewing tech for normal folks. He also inspired me and many others to pursue a career in tech journalism. A very special submission, indeed!
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PHOTO: WALT MOSSBERG
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Walt Mossberg from Washington, D.C.
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I bought it at a drugstore in 1982 for $99.
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My favorite feature was the BASIC commands on the keys. (BASIC, for those who don’t know, was a programming language.) My least favorite was the janky storage provided by the cassette recorder. It didn’t come with a monitor so you also had to hook it up to a black-and-white television.
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I learned a little primitive coding with the Sinclair. My fondest memory was writing a super-simple, guess-the-number game and then playing it with my 4-year-old son on my lap. By the next year, I had graduated to a vastly better and costlier Apple IIe, but it was the Timex Sinclair that got me into computing and set me on a decades-long journey.
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It’s a little beaten up. The label fell off and is missing. I have no idea if it still works.
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📷 Got an idea for a throwback? Reply to this email with a photo of your old tech and tell us why you loved—or hated—it. 📷
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Got questions about your digital life? Reply to this email with them!
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Almost eight years ago today, you had an article on Spring Cleaning Gadgets. Do you have an update to this considering how many more hours these types of items are being used?—L. Smith from Raleigh, N.C.
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My BlackBerry buying advice has changed dramatically over eight years. My gadget-cleaning advice? Not so much. You continue to need two important pieces of equipment:
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Non-abrasive spray:
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Sometimes things get a bit more icky and need some liquid power. You can buy basic screen cleaner or you can do it yourself by mixing some water and some isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle. I used to say you shouldn’t spray directly on the gadget, but back in March 2020, I tested some intense phone-cleaning methods and found that even rubbing disinfecting wipes directly on the phone hundreds of times caused no damage.
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One update I would make: Clean your gross AirPods. Use a cotton swab or a dental-floss stick to get the gunk out from around the edges of the earpieces. Here’s a good instructional video.
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I’m a newsletter N00b and want to know what you think! Reply to this email and share your feedback and suggestions. This week’s newsletter was curated and written by Joanna Stern and Cordilia James in New York.
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