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From this week

Platforms

Instagram launched IGTV, a long-form video app.

The idea isn’t to go after Snapchat (now that they’ve copied practically everything) — it’s YouTube they’re after. It’s directed at video creators, offering them up to 1-hour video clips (versus a mere 1-minute on Instagram). They’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to design this app for mobile audiences. It’s vertical, full-screen, and autoplaying. A vertical YouTube, perhaps. I have to say the UX is fresh and enlightening. What will it take for newsrooms to jump onboard?

TechCrunch

Quartz will launch a business show on Facebook Watch.

It’s not just video — Quartz will be using a Messenger chat bot as well to surface stories and engage with users. Quartz is one of 20 publishers who will soon be launching video shows on Facebook Watch.

Axios

Facebook will let some Group administrators charge fees.

They’re testing this out in specific areas — parenting, cooking, and home cleaning groups. “We hear from group admins that they’re looking for ways to help them earn money to deepen engagement with their members and continue to support their communities.”

The Verge

Governments & policy

China spends billions of dollars to make sure its messages are heard around the world.

The objective of CGTN is, as directed by Xi Jinping, to “tell China stories well”. Is it working?

The Economist

The Myanmar government told the Democratic Voice of Burma that it can no longer run content from U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia because RFA uses the word “Rohingya”.

RFA said it will continue its coverage of the refugees on radio and Facebook.

Myanmar Times

Tools

It’s hard not to get excited about this — Google finally has its own podcast app.

You iOS people will find it hard to believe, but Android never had a native podcast app before. And if you think about how Android dominates global smartphone sales, you’ll understand why we’ve only just entered the Golden Age of podcasting. James Cridland, who writes the fantastic Podnews newsletter (and reads this one!), has an FAQ for all podcasters.

Podnews

The folks at Kaleida (they too, read this newsletter) are putting together a mysterious product.

Kaleida is apparently building a mobile news app for “people who want to share news… in private, only with people they know, from quality news sources”. I have no idea how that’s going to work. But you can join me on the waiting list here.

Kaleida

Microsoft rebranded its MSN news apps to simply Microsoft News.

If you’ve never tried it, News boasts an aggregated base of 1,000 “premium publishers” and 800 human editors who pick and feature stories. I re-installed the app today, just to see what’s different from the old MSN app. Quick rant: I don’t know why news app publishers are still asking people to self-declare their interest in topics. Isn’t it clear by now that people don’t necessarily know what they want to read in news? We don’t think in terms of categories — tech, sports, money. If it’s interesting, we’ll read it, right? Sectioning was invented by newspapers to address very specific reader and advertiser behaviors in print. They don’t apply to digital.

The Verge

How cool is this: here’s public domain football data for all the World Cups — including the Russia 2018. For free.

So if you’re publishing — or tracking — soccer results, you can use the JSON files and they will auto-generate what you need. And you don’t have to mess around with API keys either.

GitHub

Trends

Google plans to train 8,000 journalists in India on fact checking.

They’re running workshops in English, as well as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, and Kannada.

The Hindu

Nuzzel (one of my daily used apps) launched NuzzelRank, which scores news sources based on authority.

They’re picking up signals based on reading behavior and engagement. It’s also working with partners like NewsGuard and Deep News for authority rankings.

TechCrunch

Transformations

SCMP, extending its rollout of new products, launched a video series called Goldthread.

Think AJ+ meets Anthony Bourdain. These are video stories covering aspects of culture, food and identity in China, packaged for a young, international audience. Goldthread is led by former Mashable editor Victoria Ho. “It’s clear that somewhere between blobs and banned memes is an opportunity for stories with greater cultural context and less exotic freakiness.”

SCMP

Back in the day, Hong Kong’s Next Magazine exposed corrupt officials and dodgy real estate tycoons.

It also took a lot of heat for its reckless pursuits of stories. With the demise of its business, it offers plenty of lessons for media startups trying to make an impact.

Nikkei

21st Century Fox accepted Disney’s takeover offer, rejecting a competing bid from Comcast.

Disney is getting Fox for $71 billion in cash and stock. Comcast earlier offered $65 billion in cash. This move will bring Pixar, Marvel, X-Men, and The Simpsons under one roof.

Ars Technica

The Los Angeles Times picked 75-year-old Norman Pearlstine as its top editor.

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the new owner of the paper, wants to send the message that he’s focused on journalistic values and will return the publication to its glory days. I’d like to know: How much are you spending on tech?

New York Times

Media startups

Singapore-based New Naratif released their financial statement, in a show of transparency rarely seen in these circles.

The team is appealing the Singapore government’s rejection of its business application (on grounds that NN is “contrary to national security”) so they’re hoping this will shed more light on their operations. I love reading financial statements of media startups — always a treat. It’s also always staggering to see how much money gets spent on PayPal fees (a problem we face as well).

New Naratif

Design

The Apple Watch now has a responsive browser.

One of the reasons this is a big deal is because Ethan Marcotte is excited about it. I’ll take his word for it — he’s the revoltingly talented web designer who started the whole ‘responsive web design’ thing. He says “the Watch’s WebKit browser looks pretty darned good, as it turns out.” It still doesn’t support web fonts or video embeds, but that will probably come soon. Wrist-first design, people: you heard it here first. (Thank you, Shuwei.)

Ethan Marcotte

The universal symbol for a handout is, well, a hand out, palm upwards.

But if you’re a beggar in Shanghai, which, as we all know, functions several years in the future, you stick out your QR code. Make sure to also read the comments on this tweet: it also has a clip from that WeChat spoof on hilarious ways of using QR payment codes.

Twitter

Using Material Design is a political choice.

Every now and then, us product designers need a sanity check, a bracing plunge into the icy waters of Lake Critical Thinking. This essay asks us to reexamine the design decisions we take. “When we make use of Material Design as an aesthetic for our interface designs, we are not just making a cosmetic choice. It's also a political choice. We are representing Google.”

Imaginary Cloud

Remember when Apple was fun?

It was red and blue and yellow and rainbow-hued, it could be spherical and playful — even silly. And then it grew up and shrouded itself in minimal smugness and shades of corporate luxury-brand blah. It lost its sense of humor. “Perhaps others in the industry will look for ways to succeed beyond just drafting in Apple’s wake, and find something valuable in a return to color and joy.” Or maybe Apple will find its chill.

Quartz

We need to talk about AirBuds.

re they 1) just another Bluetooth headset, 2) foreshadowing major changes to the social fabric, or 3) another way in which we redesign our social bodies, not just for function, but for social signalling? Have a read and inform your opinion. (Also, hey, have you seen my left AirBud because it was literally right here…?)

The Atlantic

These World Cup jersey illustrations by Old Magic Design are gorgeous.

Follow, heart, like, and share. (Thanks to Meagan Fisher Couldwell.)

Instagram

Safety

I’m still shocked by the killing of Shujaat Bukhari, the founder of the English-language newspaper Rising Kashmir.

Bukhari was a middle-ground advocate for peace in Kashmir — until he was gunned down in Srinagar last week. The police still haven’t found any leads. “The killing of Bukhari teaches us that one who truly stands for peace pays the price of getting 15 bullets in his head and abdomen.”

The Quint

Notables

There’s a book documenting the remarkable history of India’s first newspaper.

Irishman James Hicky started Hicky’s Bengal Gazette in 1780, which covered what we today call “hyperlocal” news. He also exposed corruption in the East India Company and embezzlement in the local churches.

Quartz

China’s anti-porn office is cracking down on women who whisper into microphones.

There’s even a term for this: autonomous sensory meridian response, or ASMR. Abacus News does a good job explaining why people are into this stuff. Sounds creepy to me.

Abacus News