** The Bulletin ** June 17, 2023

Hey you!

I told you I’d be in touch soon. Since we last spoke, I started providing coverage of the Reddit blackout. I put up a video on YouTube where I laid out the timeline, and I also put out a couple blog posts about the situation where I flexed my reporting skills and formed an opinion. Those are linked below per usual.

Most notably, I’ve sunset Twitter for most updates. I have a dedicated page at SladeWatkins.com/twitter that outlines everything. In short — I don’t think Twitter’s going to last.

New on YouTube

• I laid out a timeline of Reddit’s API shutdown and related it to the upcoming IPO in my new 9 minute piece “How Reddit Killed Apollo, Sync, and More: IPO, API, Timeline, What’s Next”

• Games hasn’t launched yet, but is planned to launch by end of July 2023. August 2023 at the latest! The last bit of equipment I needed just arrived yesterday (Friday).

New in my Journal

• I got really sick for a brief period of time and complained about it.

• I complained about iOS getting all the good apps instead of Android, specifically for Mastodon.

• I complained about Amazon screwing up and losing my package (a phone case) within their shipping network, which doesn’t exist where I live anyway.

• I wrote about the subreddit blackout on Reddit and my hopes for it after Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, was absolutely obliterated during his AMA.

• And finally, last night (Friday) I posted an update in regards to the API situation, expressing that it’s recoverable but Steve Huffman doesn’t want to listen to anyone and dug his heels in. Spoiler alert: It’s not recoverable anymore, folks.

Things I found across the net

• We can once again thank the EU for something good — removable and thus, user-serviceable, batteries. It’s something they’re looking into, apparently.

• In a huge pivot for the company on the gaming front, Apple announced their own “Game Porting Toolkit” at their Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2023) to help developers bring Windows games built for Intel to Macs with Apple silicon.

• Apple also announced iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS (14) Sonoma, and watchOS 10. I am already on all the developer betas (except iPadOS, my iPad is too old) and I have to say — watchOS has a brand-new redesign and feels very different. It took some getting used to. You can find more info by clicking on the OS names. (As an Android-first user, I am very jealous of some of these features, even though I carry an iPhone in my other pocket…)

  • Oh, and I wanted to call this out specifically — Android has had an “auto-delete 2FA codes” thing for a while, but now iPhones are getting it, too! Everyone rejoice in cleaner Messages threads!

• Speaking of Android, can Samsung win me over? This gapless hinge thing that’s being rumoured is certainly grabbing my attention… I’ve already loosely decided to go with a folding phone for the next upgrade cycle — and it’s between the Google Pixel Fold and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold lines. I’m paying close attention to the market, because the upgrade cycle starts early next year. Whatever gets announced now is likely what replaces my rapidly aging Pixel 6. Whether it’s a fold or not. (No, I don’t want a flip phone.)

• Chance Miller wrote an absolutely brilliant article on 9to5Mac about Reddit’s out-of-touch CEO Steve Huffman, which absolutely encapsulates how I and many other feel about his stupid decisions. TL:DR — He doesn’t care, he does what he wants.

  • There might be reason to believe he’s taking advice from Twitter’s former CEO/now “CTO” (basically CEO still, as he controls everything while the new CEO, Linda Yaccarino sits there and looks pretty) Elon Musk, who Huffman praised in an interview with NBC News and admitted he has spoken to him as well. Twitter’s dying off slowly, so it’s not exactly the company you want to emulate.

• While I realize it isn’t exactly an independent source, Signal Foundation President Meredith Whittaker did do a good write up on why the UK’s “Online Safety Bill” maybe isn’t the best idea for safety. In short, I agree with her here — there is no safe way to create a backdoor. All conversations that are end-to-end encrypted are the safest way to communicate — no backdoors, no ways to breach it. As someone who adopts a “reasonably secure” approach to navigating technology in the modern day, I will always advocate against such bills that seek to inhibit my safety and the safety of others. The “Online Safety Bill” should not pass. (Disclosure: I use Signal as my primary chat application.)

And that’s it for The Bulletin this time round. I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Stay dry if you’re in the northeastern US, crappy weather is coming, as sad as it is…

Yours,

—Slade

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Reddit CEO Steve Huffman (u/spez) royally screwed up so bad that over 5,500 subreddits (as of writing) are going private. But he made it even worse with his very brief AMA wherein he was caught using copy-and-pasted answers, got downvoted into oblivion so hard that the answers stopped showing up and Reddit had to pin a comment with links to the answers, doubled down on his debunked and untrue claims about Apollo’s developer Christian Selig, and pulled admins into an AMA that was meant to just be him.

I’m just scratching the surface of what u/spez and the fellow admins have managed to screw up in the last few days alone, too. This prompted an open letter from many moderators stating that it did not alleviate concerns and several subreddits have already started going private. It’s just embarrassing and made a bad situation way worse than it needed to be.

As I’m writing to immediately publish this, the subreddits are going private en masse prior to the June 12th blackout date. r/iPhone, r/DIY, r/LifeProTips, and more have already done so with over a thousand already doing so. That number rises the longer you watch.

Reddit certainly has a longer way to go to appeasing users and developers alike, two groups that make the site what it is today. The IPO might be breathing down their necks, but nothing they do to impress Wall Street should be at the expense of the community they have historically at least tried to embrace for all these years. There are solutions, and of course, the Reddit admins seem uninterested.

I hope the blackout is effective or at least gives the community some leverage.

And if you missed my brief 9 minute coverage of the situation, I published a video on Friday, which is below (YouTube embed):

The post The subreddits start going private appeared first on Slade Watkins.

It was time for a new phone case, specifically for my Pixel. I asked my dad to get me a red one (because red is my favourite colour), and he did… last Wednesday. Interestingly, the screen protectors for my iPhone came, but the case for my Pixel did not, despite being ordered and slated for similar delivery times (last Friday for the screen protectors, last Saturday for the case).

Turns out, for whatever reason, the case was “delayed” with no explanations given on why. Thanks, Amazon! It hadn’t even shipped out yet, despite being an Amazon Prime item. Fast forward to Monday, when my dad says he’s just going to cancel it and reorder, when all of a sudden, after attempting to cancel, it updates to show that it has shipped and left the facility in Connecticut (CT).

I’m one of those people you cannot trust without a case or a warranty. It’s not that I’m abusive to my technology — not by any means — I’m just unlucky. It’s just better to have a backup plan. So needless to say, not having a case causes some massive anxiety for me, especially because I was using my Pixel as my primary phone up ’til then. (I am currently on an iPhone.)

Unfortunately, its status has read as “departed” the CT facility since yesterday. Whoever the shipping partner is, whether it’s Amazon or some contractor, really screwed up. It should’ve been here by now. The screen protectors were shipped from the very same facility and got here fine. (They’re sitting next to me right now as I write this.)

So… I wonder what on earth happened here. Someone’s to blame, clearly. Hopefully it lands here before the weekend, I’ve got a lot of fun things going on, and not having my primary phone or a case for it is going to suck… *sigh*

The post This package should’ve been here by now appeared first on Slade Watkins.

Shorter entry today, just wanted to talk about this for a sec.

As I’ve been using my iPhone and Mac together more and more, along with Mastodon, I’m realizing that there aren’t really any great or amazing Mastodon apps for Android (yet!) There are some good ones — Megalodon and its fork Moshidon, both derived from the official Mastodon app, come to mind — but nothing that is both native and fast like Mona or Ivory on macOS/iOS exists.

Nothing against those apps, either, or the others that exist. It’s just that I’ve tried them all out and have found that the iOS walled garden gets way better treatment than Android folks do. There’s a reason for that, though.

A big problem with Android app development is that there are just so many devices that it’s hard to optimize an app like that for them all. Whereas on iOS/macOS, each version of the OS has a fairly small set of devices that it supports, so it’s much, much easier to build for. That’s always been Apple’s strong suit, and it’s certainly helping them win this fediverse app game.

The thing is, it’s worth a shot building something that just feels good to use. Smooth animations, native design, customizability are all things that people look for. That’s what I want in a Mastodon app on Android! It just doesn’t exist yet, as far as I can tell…

I guess what I’m saying is, I hope someone steps up to build something like a Mona or Ivory on Android. I really do! (And if you have any suggestions for ones to try, please do let me know!)

The post There aren’t really any great Mastodon apps for Android (yet) appeared first on Slade Watkins.

Was meant to have enjoyed a little two-and-a-half day vacation this past weekend, but instead, I ended up needing to go home early due to not feeling well. A couple days later, whatever this is moved from my nose to my throat and chest. Which is… “great.”

I’ve only gotten worse — and I’m starting to sound like Roz from Monsters Inc.

This has progressed to a point where I’m just so sick of being sick. Every time I cough, it’s a coin toss whether or not it’ll trigger a really awful coughing fit.

I still dunno what it is, either. Could be COVID (which I haven’t had since February 2022), or an upper respiratory infection (which is going around in my community). Rest and hydration are the best medicine at the moment. Nothing else touches it.

Here’s hoping I get better soon and it’s not a sign of anything serious!

The post Sick of being sick appeared first on Slade Watkins.

** The Bulletin ** May 29, 2023

Hey everyone,

It has been a hot minute since I last wrote you. I’m sorry I let it go this long without some sort of update! To make up for it, let’s take just a few minutes to catch up on what’s new in my orbit.

Redesigned website

Wanted to include a quick blurb in here about my website. It was recently redesigned to look like a late 90s/early 00s webpage, but still be accessible to people on mobile and modern browsers… And, I was even able to finally put my high school grad speech back up, too. Check it out if you have a sec!

Introducing blogs.sladewatkins.com!

I’m very excited to announce that blogs.sladewatkins.com is now available to read. This new approach contains “subsections” pertaining to all the topics I might find my self writing about. We’re starting with three, with a fourth on the way (we’ll come back to that in a sec): The Journal, The Island of Wayside, and the Writing Corner.

Most notable new stuff from my Journal

As usual, links are underlined! 🙂

• Almost a year with the Pixel 6 as my daily driver, and it’s driving me bonkers. I couldn’t in good faith take it with me on a mini-camping trip, so I didn’t. I took my newer (to me) iPhone 12 instead. (Disclaimer: Apple gave me the iPhone 12 for free.)

• I also took a moment to announce several new and exciting things coming from me by July of this year!

• I wrote up a rant about how RCS is the future of messaging and isn’t a Google product. The green bubble debate must die.

• And finally, I hinted about going on a couple trips before/after my 21st birthday to visit some people within my inner circle. I’m very excited, because the last time I travelled was with my best friend to North Carolina in 2021. I’m long overdue for a little escape from home!

New reporting from me

I’m going to be increasing my independent journalism output on Substack soon, alongside my other updates. Join me there! With that said…

• Spotify has a new “Your DJ” feature. Here’s what I think of it!

• The Super Mario Bros. Movie broke $1.1 billion USD gross globally, making it the highest grossing animated film based on a video game ever.

New social media platforms

Since we last spoke, I’ve joined some new social media platforms, including Mastodon. Here’s the list for you!

• YouTube: @sladewatkins and @sladewatkinsgames

• Twitch: @sladewatkins

• Bluesky: @sladewatkins.com

• Mastodon: @[email protected]

• Goldfish: @[email protected]

If those aren’t your preferred platform and/or you’d like to find me somewhere else, my Linktree contains a full list of every account I maintain across the web! Pick your favourite!

Tap to go: linktr.ee/sladewatkins

And that’s it for updates! I’ll be reaching out again sooner than I did last time, I promise.

Have a wonderful evening,

—Slade

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UPDATE, JUNE 22, 2023: I am warrantying the phone. It’s covered until August apparently (didn’t know it had been that long already) so might as well do something about it now. Will update if this does anything! Fingers crossed!

For the past bit (I don’t remember exactly how long), I’ve been daily driving a Google Pixel 6. I’ve always been an Android guy, even with my brief four year stint daily driving iOS, and have preferred “The Android Way” since I got my first phone — the Kyocera Hydro, on Boost Mobile (US) — all those years ago. I definitely regard myself as being part of the power user category among my fellow Android users.

That being said, there has been several issues plaguing my experience with the Pixel 6 specifically that have absolutely flabbergasted me. I’m not sure how to fix them, and I wanted to document them somewhere just-in-case.

• Consistent battery drain. Unplug the phone, and watch it drop from 100% to around 60% within a few minutes. And here’s the kicker: THERE’S NOTHING RUNNING IN THE BACKGROUND. Not a single application. What?!

• Random brightness changes from app-to-app. Dark to bright, bright to dark. You name it, it has happened. Why? Don’t know. But it’s annoying! It persists after a restart and there’s nothing in the OS logs that point me in any particular direction — it all seems normal!

• Texting issues, not even carrier-related. Restarts fix this, though… seems it might be a Google Messages issue? No idea!

• Consistent overheating, even when not actively using the phone or in a cool (66 degree Fahrenheit) environment.

I’ve only ever observed these issues on Tensor (1st gen) equipped Google devices, though, so it’s definitely possible Tensor G2 fixes these issues. But this is insane to me. With no ability to track down what it is, and not being allowed to unlock the bootloader and flash an alternative ROM until 2024, I’m not really able to report a bug or get as far away from the trouble as I can.

Otherwise, this phone has been solid and I love it. It’s just one thing after the next lately, though… I’m even starting to consider jumping ship to another brand entirely, which isn’t great.

I’ll definitely update this list if I run into anything else! Maybe it can help someone else having the same troubles?

The post This phone’s been driving me bonkers… appeared first on Slade Watkins.

You know, it has been quite some time since I talked about what I’m working on. I don’t like to do so because I want there to be some genuine surprises, but today I’m opening up about two new things that are getting launched by mid-July 2023! These are unrelated to Kakariko Herald (“KH”), though there will be some overlap with it! So without further ado, let’s go…

YouTube relaunch (for real, this time)

Yep, YouTube’s coming back, and it’s coming back fast! Internally, I am beginning to write several videos which I will be writing, shooting, and editing for the main channel ahead of relaunch. On my aforementioned main channel, I will be pivoting my style to something very special which has been years in the making. Personally, I’m shooting for a growth-focused model that will allow me to do this PLUS KH full-time with little to no barriers.

Oh, and the notes for my main channel videos (including the original scripts, all sources, additional info that didn’t make it into the final upload, etc.) will be placed on the Videos subsection of “Blogs”. The subsection will launch later this month. I’m very excited to able to share this sort of bonus content with you, as well. I have no plans to paywall any channel’s bonus content at this time, though I may do so in the future for larger projects. We’ll see.

But that’s not all! I’m also launching a second channel, SladeWatkinsGames, focused on Let’s Play/gaming content. We’ll be covering some of my personal favourite games spanning several systems including DS/3DS, Wii, Wii U (remember that?), GameCube, and more! Together, we’ll cross over a few different franchises that mean the absolute world to me. It’s going to be a lot of fun!

Both channels offer me a chance to create things again (something I’ve really wanted for a long time), and scratch several creative itches I’ve had for years now. This has been hard to keep a secret, even from my own family, for the past four years, and I’ve actually accidentally let it slip a few times now, too… Oops!

As for schedules for the channels, we need to talk about those for a moment. The main channel will upload on an as-ready basis for the time being, as those videos are at a point where heavy amounts of research and writing will need to take place before a video can even enter production. The Games channel, however, will be on a regular schedule, though I don’t want to promise an amount of videos each week (because that’d amount to stress), I’m aiming for no lapse in videos lasting more than a few days. My hope is that I’ll be able to edit ahead and have a buffer.

Twitch Streaming

I’m excited to announce that I will be livestreaming on Twitch beginning this summer. We’ll be sticking to a 3 day/week schedule, with one week off every other month. I’ve had ideas for how I wanted to make a Twitch stream work, and I think I’ve found a way. These Twitch streams will be archived as both full VODs (unlisted) and episodic series (published) on SladeWatkinsGames.

This methodology allows two LP projects to take place at time, giving the Games channel some variety, while not eating into valuable recording time for the main channel or time that needs to be spent working on upcoming projects. It also allows me to not feel like I’m doing “work.” While this is now technically my job, it doesn’t have to feel like it. It should be mostly fun!

So, there you have it

To recap what I’ve announced here for you today:

• Two YouTube channels: scripted content on @SladeWatkins, and gaming content on @SladeWatkinsGames.

• Let’s Play live streams on my Twitch channel, along with VODs and episodic content based on those streams on @SladeWatkinsGames.

• Two projects, four years in the making, finally start to see the light-of-day.

Regardless, I’m very excited to see it all finally come together (seriously, this has been a passion project of mine since 2019!) and I can’t wait to share it with you, as well!

To quote Tim Cook at a previous Apple Event, “What a great day of announcements!” Perhaps we’ll cover WWDC on the main channel just for fun? Who knows! I’m excited. Let’s-a-go!

The post There’s some really cool stuff incoming! appeared first on Slade Watkins.

I hate that people think that RCS is a Google product. It’s not, and I’m sick and tired of seeing this stupid assumption online. I know why this is the case, Google used to refer to this as Chat from Google Jibe, but has pivoted to calling it what it actually is: pure RCS based on the GSMA’s Universal Profile. But… what is RCS? Let me back up a bit.

Short Messaging Service (“SMS”) and Multimedia Messaging Service (“MMS”) are the old, antiquated standards from the GSM Association (“GSMA”). It’s what you’ve likely been using primarily for over 30 years now. Those same folks, the ones who brought you SMS and MMS, also brought you Rich Communication Services (“RCS”).

RCS allows for end-to-end encryption (using the Signal Protocol) so your messages are secure, high quality media sharing (no more blurry videos!), the ability to leave a group chat/thread, as well as typing indicators and read receipts. While I don’t necessarily agree with Google’s approach to marketing those last two as killer features iPhone users care about (I personally turn both off), I can see where they’re coming from.

Google hasn’t had a great track record with messaging apps, it’s true and I am not saying that it isn’t. (I mean, remember Hangouts? Hangouts was awesome!) However, Google Messages (which I believe was known as Android Messages at one point) has been around in some form since 2014, and has since become the preloaded replacement for carrier-provided apps like Verizon Messages here in the US. It’s here to stay for many years to come, and anyone who says otherwise is probably living under a rock.

It’s about leveling the playing field between every mobile operating system, iOS and Android, and even Linux, too, if you really want to go there. With the Universal Profile, any platform can enable RCS to be interoperable with every other platform, with just a tiny bit of elbow grease. Since Google has done this for their platform — Android — all Apple would need to do is implement the feature into their platform’s Messages app.

Would this diminish iMessage’s value? Absolutely not.

Is Apple right to completely write off RCS, like this completely out-of-touch article from Digital Trends’s Michael Allison suggests? NO! (Respect to the author, but it misses the point entirely.)

iMessage has a lot more going for it than RCS does. Built-in applications, games, Apple Cash person-to-person payments, etc. are what actually set it apart, despite what Apple’s marketing would want you to believe as a consumer. SMS and MMS are inherently less secure, and goes against Apple’s own mission of building privacy and security into “every product.” They’re relying on standards from the 90s that haven’t seen many updates since. RCS is the better alternative here, period, end of discussion.

The fact of the matter is that, eventually, RCS will have to replace the heavily insecure standard as the primary, with SMS/MMS going to a strict fallback method. I don’t even think it’s a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. With Google saying there are now 800 million active devices with it enabled on Android alone, I could see that happening sooner rather than later.

Apple needs to upgrade their users to RCS. It’s not an iMessage replacement, it’s not even close to being one, but that wasn’t the goal.

• The goal was to offer a better alternative to the old, insecure tech of yesterday.

• The goal was to offer something modern that was made for how we communicate today, not 30 years ago.

• The goal was to allow you to leave a group chat.

• The goal was to finally fix something that has been broken for a long time.

RCS does all of that and just a tiny bit more, but does NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, encroach on iMessage’s territory. Not in the slightest.

P.S.: if you’re still using Verizon Messages or Samsung Messages on your Android device, now might be the time to consider switching to Google’s RCS client… most carriers recommend that now and you’ll gain access to RCS.

The post RCS is the future of messaging appeared first on Slade Watkins.

I was thinking about this earlier, but I am super excited for what’s to come in the next few months. Not only is my 21st birthday coming up, but there’s a chance I may be taking a fun trip or two around that time, too! I can’t share more, I wish I could, but let’s just say I’m really looking forward to it!

The only hint I will give you is that it may or may not involve getting to visit some people and grow my inner circle. If that sounds familiar, well… if you know, you know!

I haven’t travelled since 2021, when I went to North Carolina with SwitzVP along with her boyfriend and their friends. It has been long overdue for me to get out of my hometown for a bit, and I’m looking forward to making it happen, as the potential for it happening has only continued to increase by the day!

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

The post I’m excited for something appeared first on Slade Watkins.