Hello! I am back! I had a great two week break, thanks, but it's good to be back to respond to your wonderful readers.
But it turns out that I left at a time when a lot was going on, and putting together this newsletter was a great opportunity to catch up and read some very interesting stories.
Especially if you share your Netflix password with someone, you might want to call them soon and ask for a regular donation...
Does your dad use your Netflix account, which means you're constantly getting emails about how to get back online? Is your child still watching Netflix in college and keeping you from gorging yourself on Squid Games just when you've managed to squeeze 45 minutes out of your busy life?
If so, prepare to be even more frustrated: it will cost you more to suffer from this in the future, as Netflix seeks to monetize password sharing.
The reason is simple: Netflix has lost 200.000 paying subscribers since the beginning of the year, and this decline will accelerate rapidly, according to estimates. So the platform is "taking steps" to stop things like excessive password sharing, by charging users for the sharing privilege (that charge is currently €2.99 for a trial in places like Chile and Peru).
I was going to rant that that's not the cause of the problem, that it's the price increases, the increased competition, the lack of quality content... but then I read Axel Metz's article, and he's done everything up to now more eloquently than I ever could, and has spoken to experts about it. You should probably read this...
One of the quirks of being a phone reporter over the years has been when a brand launches a new color variant of a recently launched phone; it often offers a moment of simple joy as opposed to hours spent discussing specs and materials.
The iPhone 12 in purple made people happy. The HTC U12 in Flame Red was one of the most beautiful phones I have ever seen. So when Samsung said the S22 Ultra would arrive in red, our phone editor Tom Bedford predicted it would be gorgeous and voiced his opinion as such.
How wrong I was. As it turns out, Samsung thinks "red" actually means "sort of burnt coral with a reddish tint," and many readers reached out to us to tell us how disappointed they were.
Why not make a nice red Samsung phone? This is what people want, clearly, so stop playing with candied colors and make a proper red variation.
I've been thinking about which headphones to go for, as my trusty and super cheap Enacfire headphones from Amazon are starting to irritate me too much.
I might be swayed by Bang and Olufsen's new Beoplay EX earbuds, as they look a bit like the AirPods Pro in design, but not quite Apple-y (I'm still burnt from the abuse I received on Twitter the first time around). which showed the original AirPods).
What will ultimately influence me is not the quality of the audio, which will probably be excellent, but whether it will be good for sports. I'm currently reviewing the Jabra Elite Active 75t, which are much cheaper than AirPods, so I can't wait to familiarize myself with the Beoplay EX.
And they better be good: €399 is a lot to pay for a pair of headphones.
Our team was in attendance at the Meta (formerly Oculus) Quest launch this week, with a host of games debuting at the event.
Although sadly – and annoyingly – we haven't seen a new headset announced (it's long overdue), the games that have appeared look pretty good and show that Meta, Facebook's parent company, is still investing heavily in this area.
The Ghostbusters game in particular looks pretty stellar - it almost makes me want to go out and buy a dedicated headset, until I remember that I can play on my PS4 for about 20 minutes every month, so it probably wouldn't be worth it.
But for those of you who have time, these games are worth checking out, and we've got all the trailers lined up for you too.
I knew deep down that Garmin was about to launch a new running watch with the Forerunner 955, and this leak makes it almost certain. Cat Ellis did a great job writing said leak, with a lot of information about what Garmin is planning, as well as a mysterious device.
However, this line bothered me: “With improvements in battery technology, more efficient components, and solar charging, the Forerunner 955 could offer performance more similar to the 7mm Garmin Fenix 47 Solar, lasting up to 22 days in smart watch mode. , and 73 hours in GPS mode.
The problem, dear reader, is that I just bought the Fenix 7 Solar (and it's amazing, it has a real flashlight and I love it) because I thought "yeah, it's expensive, but I'll use it every day". . It is true that it is a bit cumbersome but it will be fine.
So the idea that all the good things about this watch will find their way into a slimmer, cheaper, more racing-focused watch doesn't make me happy. I just hope the Forerunner 955 doesn't have a flashlight, then you'll be fine.
I'll be honest: I included this story mainly because I wanted to celebrate the fact that our software writer, Daryl Baxter, got married this week and wrote an extremely sweet post about the five apps he used to plan the wedding.
I'm not going to lie: As someone who's also planning a wedding, the thought of sharing a to-do list app with my partner makes me sick to my stomach.
I can see myself doing more things in the app than real things like talking and begging them to send the menu options and telling me where to send the deposit and choosing where the tables will be stored and what if people just want to come for the party and where is the awning now and... okay, I need to breathe.
But I found some great ideas in this article on budgeting and planning, so if you have a wedding coming up, click on it.
This is another time where science blows my mind. How, in 2022, can we discover a part of our lungs that we didn't know existed?
Ok, calling it a new body part in the title above is a bit of a stretch, not like they found a spare finger in the lungs or anything, but reading on a deeper level, I'm in awe of the ability of the human being. body to regenerate.
Essentially, the scientists discovered that we have respiratory secretory cells (RAS), which are similar to stem cells in that they are "naive." They can then be brought to life and used to repair damaged cells, and a better understanding of them could help in the development of treatments for diseases related to smoking and pollution.
Check out the full article on WordsSideKick.com (it's a fascinating read) and marvel once again at how our bodies work.
This is from the publisher.
It's really nice to take time out and see what comes out of the team when I'm away. I read Matt Hanson's summary last week and really enjoyed it. I think we need to hear more about him in the future, so we can list him more often.
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Have a good weekend! My best advice this week is to go out and take a photo of something shiny; it's a great way to develop an appreciation of where you are or who you're with.