Newsletter: week of 12/16

Happy Friday, bud! It's a snowy, cold day in my neck of the woods, perfect for playing hooky at the local ski slope (hence the later-than-usual newsletter). Hope you are getting some time to play hooky as well! Here is everything I played with, read, watched, and listened to this week.

Source: Tim Wingert (@timhosqo) https://bit.ly/4iKmjq1

Tech I played with:

Sony M-430 - Many years ago, my mom handed me a plastic bag with a small recorder and many tiny tapes. In my family, the rule is that if you have old tech, Becca will take it. While I usually start playing with everything I'm handed immediately, the Sony M-430 recorder that was handed to me sat untouched for over a decade until this week. I found it while looking for an old hard drive, and I've had so many ideas for a video about it since.

It's such a simple piece of gear—there are only a few buttons for recording, rewinding, fast-forwarding, and ejecting, and it's smaller than a smartphone. But the best part about this recorder is the audio it produces—it has a graininess and a classic high-pitched buzz that only a tape could create.

I am not sure what the video about this device will be like, but one thing is for sure: the Sony M-430 will be going almost everywhere with me for the next month.

What I read:

New point-and-shoots!

• Every week, I am more certain that 2025 will be the year of the point-and-shoot camera. This week brought the release of the Lumix ZS99 and an AI bot claiming that a new RX100 is coming in April (this is incredibly unconfirmed, but it is fun to speculate, nonetheless).

Apple hits out at Meta's numerous interoperability requests

• John Gruber put it best on threads: "Apple says Meta is seeking low-level access that would break both user privacy and device security. Meta says Apple is using “privacy” as a bullshit excuse to avoid even reasonable interoperability. But without reading the requests, there’s no way to say which side is more right than the other."

Flipboard’s Surf app is a big new idea about the future of social

• A fully decentralized way to discover and read stuff from across the internet! Is it too good to be true?

What I watched:

Why are Leica cameras so expensive?

• I have spent very little time with Leica systems, so in January, I will be taking one on the road to answer the question, "What's so special about this camera?" This video is an easy-to-watch research video for that.

A Generative AI Polaroid camera, the Instagen

• This custom-built camera takes an actual photo and then uploads it to Midjourney along with a text prompt describing the photo and adding some style references such as "oil painting". Then the reimagined image is both uploaded to this website and printed out. So cool! But maybe it should come with a disclosure written on the front of the camera so folks know that they are instantly being uploaded to an AI image generator.

Why Pointe Shoes Cost the NYC Ballet Nearly $1 Million A Year

• My feet hurt just watching this. But I have long wanted to do more videos about how things are made, so I have been trying to watch more content like this, along with some old episodes of Dirty Jobs.

GoPro: Best of 2024

• I have been watching these GoPro roundups for as long as I can remember. They always inspire me to get out there and get living!

What I listened to (holiday edition):

It is the one week a year that I dive back into my holiday playlists. My favorite songs include Chrismas Lights by Coldplay, What Christmas Means to Me by Ceelo Green, Pennies from Heaven by Louis Prima, Sleigh Ride by Ella Fitzgerald, Carol of the Bells by Destiny's Child, and Please Come Home for Christmas by Eagles. Pass along any and all of the holiday songs you are diving back into!

Ok, bud. That's all I have for this week. I hope you and everyone you love are able to kick back, relax, and enjoy the holidays together. I appreciate you so much!

-becca