Found Them First →

Really cool service from Spotify that tells you who were listening to on Spotify before they made it big. For the record, these are the artists who owe their success to me:

  • Magic!
  • Of Mice and Men
  • Banks
  • Ariana Grande
  • The Mowgli's (who I listen to in spite of their terrible apostrophe usage)
  • Meghan Trainor

I'd love to see even more data analysis like this out of Spotify. Their end of year reports are great as well, but I shouldn't have to wait that long to get insight like that. This sort of data analysis could and should be a huge differentiating feature between Spotify and other music streaming services.

Peace Out →

Marco is pulling his very successful ad blocker "Peace" from the App Store:

Ad-blocking is a kind of war — a first-world, low-stakes, both-sides-are-fortunate-to-have-this-kind-of-problem war, but a war nonetheless, with damage hitting both sides. I see war in the Tao Te Ching sense: it should be avoided when possible; when that isn’t possible, war should be entered solemnly, not celebrated.

Even though I’m “winning”, I’ve enjoyed none of it. That’s why I’m withdrawing from the market.

I'm surprised he pulled his app instead of selling it (jokes).

But it seems like Marco should have had thought through all of this before he released his app. I wonder what happened. Was it just more successful than anticipated? It's going to be interesting hearing him talk through his reasoning a bit on ATP.

Peace →

A pleasantly surprising announcement from Marco Arment today:

Today, I’m launching my own iOS 9 content blocker, called Peace, to bring peace, quiet, privacy, and — as a nice side benefit — ludicrous speed to iOS web browsing.

There are a lot of content blockers being released today, but Peace strikes the best balance I’ve seen of effectiveness, compatibility, simplicity, and speed, powered by what I’ve found to be the best database in the business after months of testing. And it’s just $2.99.

For the time being, this is my iOS 9 content blocker of choice. Marco is good people, and I've been using Ghostery (which this blocker uses for its database of shit to block) on Chrome for a few weeks now with good results.

As a side note, I wonder how much extra traffic The Verge is getting today just from people testing out their new iOS 9 content blockers.

Techdown #49: We'll Get to That Bullet Point →

 

Aaron really brought his A-game this episode. He also brought a stack of notes an inch thick containing nothing but his thoughts on Metal Gear V. That man is nothing if not organized.

StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void Opening Cinematic →

Mmm. Blizzard cinematics.

Starcraft II was officially announced in 2007, the first installment of the trilogy didn't drop until 2010, and now the final expansion is coming this November, in 2015. Hard to believe it's been that long already.

The Jungle Book - Teaser Trailer →

Looks really promising, and the cast is fantastic. I can't wait until my son is old enough to watch movies like this with his mom and me.