Apple Wonder Lost 🍏📱

👀 TLDR:

In this week’s What’s Appening, we are “live” from Apple Wonderlust 2023. The showcase for the new iPhone 15 range finished a few hours ago, and we provide our take on what’s hot and what’s not from the event. As many predicted, the iPhone hasn’t changed much, but the move to USB-C will be welcomed by many. This week, we also have news from X, looking at how it violated its own policies in advertising. Our Stat of the Week looks at the Messi effect on Apple TV. And What’s dAppening celebrates the new football season with Reddit NFL NFTs.

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Takes 🎬️

🍏📱 Apple – iPhone 15 and Watch Series 9 Launch at ‘Wonderlust’ 2023

Apple’s Wonderlust 2023 was the company’s chance to show off the new iPhone 15 models, as well as the Watch Series 9. The only issue was there was not a lot of “new”. Sure, Tim Cook and the gang told us that a lot of things were “even better”. And they are. Better batteries, an A16 bionic chip for the standard 15 model (A17 for the Pro), a super-duper camera for the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and more features for Dynamic Island. The biggest change of all: iPhone 15 will finally have a USB-C charging port. Apple has fought this for years, having consistently pushed proprietary cables (and sometimes no cables at all), but finally has subsided to pressure from the EU and given the people what they deserve. The wonder stops there though! Many of the other “new” features of the iPhone 15 were already found in the 14 Pro. It’s a little uninspiring. Watch Series 9 had a bunch of improvements, too, including a really neat “Double Tap” feature that lets you answer calls and access apps by tapping your fingers together. Apple talked a lot about climate change – including a segment with Octavia Spencer as “Mother Nature” – which is commendable. But as for blowing the doors off with a must-buy device, Apple loyalists will no doubt snap up the new all-powerful titanium iPhone 15 Pro Max, but the casual smartphone user, we suspect, will be happy enough to keep using the iPhone 14 for a little while longer. Perhaps we should give Apple a break - the potentially game-changing Vision Pro is due out next year - but there are only so many times you can ‘reinvent’ the smartphone. Maybe the iPhone has peaked. #AppleEvent Read more here.

🚫🤷🏽‍♂️ X – Platform Violates Its Own Policy with Ad Ban

Twitter/X’s ads have been a huge bone of contention recently. As we know, many advertisers have fled the platform, adding to its financial woes. There’s also the problem with the promotion of scam adverts. But it seems X is even capable of violating its own terms, blocking an advert for Freedom Forum, a client of 3Advance. The ad, which highlighted an event intending to educate attendees on the First Amendment, didn’t seem to break any of X’s rules on political ads (X bans adverts that promote legislation but not educational events). Nonetheless, the back and forth (and changing of reasons from X’s customer service team) makes for frustrating reading for anyone thinking of advertising on the platform. #Xcuses Read more here.

Other News: A Brief Roundup of Interesting Stories this Week

🤖 ChatGPT sees (another) traffic slow down. Has the hype over ChatGPT finally subsided? Traffic on the chatbot’s website has now seen a decline for three months in a row. Find out why here.

🪙 French influencers must sit an exam to promote investments and crypto. An interesting new law has come into force in France, compelling social media influencers to sit an exam before they promote financial investment advice, notably for crypto. Read about it here.

☎️ Roblox launched avatar-based voice calls. Roblox, the insanely popular game/platform, is trying to expand beyond its meat and potatoes offering as a kids’ game, adding an animated voice-calling product that will act like a Zoom call with virtual avatars. Get the details here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 110K Sign-Ups

🍏⚽ Apple TV+ - Messi Effect Sees 110,000 Subscribers Join for 1st Game

We were waiting for some data releases on the Messi Effect, i.e., the impact of the soccer GOAT Lionel Messi arriving to join Inter Miami. Apple TV+ has reported a surge of 110,000 sign-ups for MLS Day Pass on the day of his first game for Miami in July. There’s a long road ahead for Messi – and Apple – to grow the sport in the United States, but the partnership seems to be bearing some early fruit. #MessiSignUps Read more here.

🕸️ What’s dAppening?

🏈👽 Reddit – Platform Launches Collectible Avatars for New NFL Season

One of the biggest success stories of NFT adoption has been on Reddit. The discussion platform has partnered with Polygon (the same blockchain partner as Starbucks and Nike) to launch several NFT avatar collections. The latest collection has marked the beginning of the new NFL season, with a range of collectible avatars for all 32 teams in the league. Reddit now boasts 18 million unique NFT holders, with 22 million mints to date. From what we can see, the NFL NFT collection looks like another winner. #NFLNFT Read more here.

Meanwhile at 3Advance…

Another 5 Star Clutch review!! 👏 Yes, we’re on a bit of a roll here. After a Summer of non-stop app releases, our reviews are now coming in fast and furious. Our friends over at Béné Tipping left us this stunning review and we’re proud as punch. Check out the review here, and drop us a line if you’d like to hear how we can scale your startup!

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