Welcome back to another weekly vlog, let’s get to it!
Twitter CEO say no more political ads
Twitter made a statement move on Wednesday with CEO Jack Dorsey tweeting: “We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons…”
His move applies pressure to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg who recently made headlines regarding his comments about maintaining a hands-off approach. Zuckerberg has gone on record to say that he would allow politicians to run any claims – even false ones – in ads on Facebook justifying the statement by explaining that Facebook had been set up to allow free expression, going as far as saying politicians’ ads were newsworthy.
Political ads on Twitter will cease on November 22nd – we’ll be watching closely as the ball moves to Facebook’s court.
The streaming war goes FREE
Streaming companies are under so much pressure to juice their subscriber numbers that they're giving away access to for free on a trial basis. Subscription streaming providers have set lofty subscriber goals over the next few years. But without the distribution prowess of a wholesaler, like a telecom company, they won't be able to hit those numbers.
It's basically the same economics as cable, where networks spend billions of dollars to produce or buy high-quality content, then rely on companies with direct customer relationships for distribution.
WarnerMedia boss John Stankey told Reuters in an interview on Friday that the company will offer HBO Max at no extra charge to 10 million AT&T Pay-TV and wireless customers, who are also HBO subscribers.
Other streaming companies including Disney+, Peacock and Apple TV+ are following a similar model.
Flashback: Netflix was the first streamer to broker a deal like this with a telecom provider when it said in late 2017 that its app would be distributed for free to millions of T-Mobile customers.
Be smart: The goal for most of these mega-streamers is to get users to buy some other, more lucrative service.
Coca-Cola named most polluting brand
You hate to hear it, but Coca-Cola has been named the world’s most polluting brand for the second year in a row according to a global audit of plastic waste. It was found that the company was responsible for more plastic litter than the next top three polluters combined. It’s no shock that mega-organisations like Coca-Cola do cause an impact on the environment, but we like to believe that with their success, they invest in protecting the health of our planet and ensuring a healthy future
Product News: Apple AirPods Pro
Apple has launched the AirPods Pro, a premium version of its wireless earbuds featuring noise-canceling. The earbuds only come in white. Noise-canceling is adjusted up to 200 times per second using a system that is very similar to the noise cancellation system in the new Beats Solo Pro headphones. A transparency mode is available that will allow users to hear their surroundings. Apple claims that AirPods Pro has a force sensor that is used to control music playback and toggle between noise-canceling and transparency mode. It comes with flexible ear tips. A software audio test is available that can tell the user if they have chosen the right-sized tips by measuring the sound level in the ear and comparing it to what is coming from the speaker driver. The AirPods Pro has around 4.5 hours of continuous listening battery life and is sweat and water-resistant. It is available for pre-order now and will be released on October 30th for $249.
That’s it for this week, enjoy your weekend!