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Good morning. Let's get right to it.
⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today’s newsletter takes 3.67 minutes to read.
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🍩 Daily Sprinkle
“If you work on something a little bit every day, you end up with something that is massive.”
–Kenneth Goldsmith
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🗣👂 Dose of Discussion
📱 Apple’s Privacy Changes
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Apple’s new “App Tracking Transparency” feature rolled out yesterday as part of an update to the iOS14 operating system for iPhone and iPad.
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The anti-tracking feature arrived after an initial seven-month delay, during which Facebook launched a public campaign against the changes. The social networking company earned 97.9% of its 2020 revenue from advertising ($84.2B).
🤿 A deeper dive…
If you own an iPhone or iPad, mobile apps have been able to track you inside and outside their ecosystems on an opt-out basis using a unique identifier for mobile devices called an IDFA. (What is an IDFA?)
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But once the iOS 14.5 software update is installed, opt-out flips to opt-in – meaning users will not be sharing data by default, they’ll have to manually consent to it (even for apps already downloaded prior to the update).
Many companies that rely on online advertising - including FB, Snap, & Unity - have said the privacy changes will reduce the effectiveness and profitability of targeted ads.
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Facebook has framed most of its public criticism - including concurrent full-page ads in the NYT, WaPo, & WSJ - as a defense of small businesses relying on targeted online ads to survive.
However… In a Clubhouse discussion last month, FB CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested Apple’s new privacy controls could actually help his company in the long run, as the inability for companies to track iPhone users may push them to sell products on Facebook-affiliated platforms if they can’t collect enough information to effectively target ads from their own apps.
⏭️ What’s Next?
TBD. It remains to be seen how consumers and industry will be affected – but here’s a few scenarios. 👇
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📰 Quick Bits
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📝 Census Reshapes House & Electoral College
The U.S. Census Bureau released initial results from its 2020 population count on Monday. The data will be used to reallocate the number of seats given to each state in the House (which also affects Electoral College vote totals).
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The Winners: Colorado, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, and Florida will all gain one House seat, while Texas will add two.
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The Losers: California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia will all lose one House seat.
More: The overall U.S. population stands at 331,449,281, a 7.4% increase over 2010 representing the second-slowest growth of any decade in history.
From the Left: NPR
From the Right: MarketWatch
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🇮🇳 India COVID Update
India saw a record number of COVID-19 cases for the fifth consecutive day, reporting 352,991 new cases in the 24-hour period ending Monday. The country has reported more than 5M new cases so far this month.
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At least 2,812 people died yesterday, pushing the country’s death total above 195k – though media reports and health experts suggest the official death toll is likely undercounted.
More: The U.S. pledged to send a team of CDC health advisers to India along with therapeutics, tests, oxygen, and protective equipment, and agreed to send raw materials and components to manufacture Covidshield, a version of AstraZeneca’s vaccine produced by India’s Serum Institute.
+🌏 Vax Populi: The U.S. will also begin sharing its entire stock of AstraZeneca vaccines with the world - up to 60M doses - once it clears federal safety review.
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🍎 Apple Allocates Assets in America
Apple announced an acceleration of its U.S. investments yesterday, including plans to build a new $1B+ East Coast campus in North Carolina.
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Over the past three years, Apple said its U.S. contributions have “significantly outpaced” its original five-year goal of $350B over five years set in 2018.
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The company is now raising that level of commitment by 20%, pledging to spend $430B and add 20k jobs by 2026.
More: Apple said the money will go towards “direct spend with American suppliers, data center investments, capital expenditures in the US, and other domestic spend — including dozens of Apple TV+ productions across 20 states.”
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DONUT Holes...
📈 Tesla reported a record net income of $438 million for Q1 2021; revenue increased 74% year-over-year.
📢 Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a DOJ “pattern-or-practice” probe into the Louisville Police Department more than a year after the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor. (From the Left | From the Right)
🎶🗣 Spotify is increasing prices on some plans starting April 30, The Verge reports. The increase will apply to Student, Duo, and Family plans across parts of Europe and the UK, and Family subscriptions in the U.S.
🗳️ California Gov. Gavin Newsom will officially face a recall election. (1.5M signatures are required to force an election; at least 1.6M have been verified.) (From the Left | From the Right)
☁️ Thoma Bravo agreed to the largest cloud acquisition by a private equity firm in history, purchasing security software vendor Proofpoint in a deal valued at $12.3B.
📸 Pic of the Day...
Image: Sotheby's
A pair of Nike Air Yeezy 1 prototypes worn by the rapper himself at his 2008 Grammy performance sold for $1.8M at auction yesterday – the first recorded sneaker sale for more than $1M.
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🔢 By the Numbers
23.2 million - The number of Americans who tuned in for the verdict of the Derek Chauvin trial across 11 TV networks carrying it live, according to Nielsen. (For comparison, Sunday night’s Academy Awards show drew a record-low 9.85M TV viewers)
2 - The number of publicly-traded psychedelic drug companies in the U.S. after MindMed’s IPO today.
$1,463 - March’s median asking rent in the 50 largest U.S. markets, a 1.1% year-over-year increase. It’s the first month where the pace of rent growth has increased since last summer.
📣🗣💬 This Week’s Poll Question
The Indy 500 is set to host 135,000 spectators Memorial Day weekend in what will be the largest sporting event in the world since the start of the pandemic. The following rules/restrictions will be in place:
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Masks are required.
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Social distancing is required.
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The stadium will be at 40% capacity with temperature screens upon entry.
So Here’s Our Question: At this very moment, do you feel comfortable attending an outdoor event (ballgame, concert, etc.) that has the same rules/restrictions?*
Yes
No
Unsure
*Poll results and the best comments for each response will be featured in tomorrow’s newsletter.
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💸🔥 Sponsored
Take Your Meal to the Next Level
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🤗 Daily Dose of Positive
🌟 The Star of the Store
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Image: Instagram
One New York City performer received an overwhelming standing ovation last month. But she wasn’t on stage or in a flashy costume – nay, this roaring applause came from an unlikely crowd in the warehouse of a supermarket.
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“The rush I felt from the sound was overwhelming. I realized as the tears came down that this was an applause that I had never had before. They were the people who were by my side through this entire pandemic… I cried like a baby because of how much love was in the room.”
Read the story.
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🛸🌄📲 Calling from the Future…
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Images via screenshot: YouTube
Weeds compete with farmers’ crops for resources such as space, sunlight, and soil nutrients. But removing invasive plants is no easy task - chemical herbicides can contaminate the surrounding environment, and pulling weeds by hand can be taxing work.
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Enter the Autonomous Weeder, an AI-powered robot that roams farmland to identify and destroy weeds using carbon dioxide lasers.
The Autonomous Weeder’s supercomputer enables precise targeting to avoid crops.
The self-operating machine can eliminate 100,000 weeds per hour, covering 15 to 20 acres per day. (By comparison, a human laborer can weed about one acre each day).
Read more.
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💡 Dose of Knowledge
🌊 Roll Tide
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In coastal areas, how long does it take for high tide to turn into low tide?
A) 6 hours, 12.5 minutes
B) 12 hours, 25 minutes
C) 24 hours, 50 minutes
D) 49 hours, 40 minutes
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(keep scrolling for the answer) |
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😎🍩 Refer friends & family to the DONUT and earn rewards
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Access merch and even mini-vacations for FREE by referring others to the DONUT. Simply:
1. Copy your unique referral link below.
2. Post said link on your company's Slack channel, drop it in your group chat, etc... you know the drill. 😉
3. Watch the rewards roll in.
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Ambassador Rewards and Progress → |
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💡 Dose of Knowledge Answer
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A) 6 hours, 12.5 minutes
Gif: NOAA
Unlike a solar day, a lunar day lasts 24 hours and 50 minutes. This occurs because the moon revolves around the Earth in the same direction that the Earth is rotating on its axis, meaning it takes the Earth an extra 50 minutes to “catch up” to the moon.
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The Earth rotates through two tidal “bulges” every lunar day, so we experience two high and two low tides every 24 hours and 50 minutes (one high or low tide every 6 hours, 12.5 minutes).
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