๐ Metaverse, Apple x Sony's Collab & Donda Stem Player
Facebook's scary 'Meta' vision, Apple Music & PS5's collaboration and Kanye West finally ships product ๐
Whatโs up everyone?
Halloween weekend is around the corner, and despite whichever part of the world you might be in, the Internet and itโs expansive culture now means that itโs that time of the year when everyoneโs sharing their Pumpkin farm images yet again.
While Halloween might date back to around 2000 years back, when Celtic tribes of modern-day Scotland, would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts, probably the scariest & dystopian scenarios of the present unveiled itself in Tech yesterday, when Facebook officially announced itโs re-branding as โMetaโ โ
Short for the concept of the โMetaverseโ, Facebook has committed to deploy $10 Billion this year to its subsidiary arm โFacebook Reality Labsโ and is betting on the concept of users wearing VR headsets to enter and spend better parts of their day in a virtual world.
Check out how it works right here ๐๐ป
This might be a personal take, but if Facebook was considered evil for disregarding user privacy and monetising their data, the possibilities of them controlling people who wear a VR headset and live in a virtual world for most of their day sounds even more dystopian ๐
However, itโs a free market and while the adoption of their Metaverse remains to be seen, it hurts to see such amounts of capital not being deployed in solving real world problems ๐
Speaking of the real world, Drake ringed in Halloween a few days early as he celebrated his 35th birthday with a Narcos themed costume party ๐๐ป
The rapper who went trending on Twitter yesterday for calling out Eminem as underrated, has twisted fans into figuring out if heโs tricking or treating them ๐
When it comes to treating their fans, Sony and Apple had a fine trick up their sleeve earlier this week ๐๐ป
PS5 now supports streaming Apple Music ๐ฎ
Sonyโs Play Station has not only disrupted how video games work, but managed to capture broader imagination in terms of its significance in Pop Culture.
Play Station drops are highly anticipated events, and itโs rare to catch your hands on one at least a few months after they launch โก๏ธ
With Apple probably being the only other consumer brand that manages to command such a brand loyalty, this announcement between Sony and Apple, was like the coming together of two Goliaths ๐ค
Starting today, PS5 users with an Apple Music subscription can enjoy more than 90 million songs from Apple Music, tens of thousands of curated playlists, music videos in 4K, Apple Music Radio streaming todayโs hits, and personalised playlists based on their music preferences.
Check out how it works in detail right here ๐๐ป
Donda Stem Player Launch โช๏ธ
Remember that weird round-shaped device that Kanye West was seen playing around with?
Yeah, thatโs finally shipping orders now ๐
Listed for $200, the Stem Player is now being shipped out concurrently with DONDA album orders in the United States and the United Kingdom.
As for how it works, Kanyeโs website describes that the device can split any song into stems, including new music uploaded to the player. Users can add effects, isolate parts and control vocals, drums, bass and samples ๐ถ
Check out how itโs unboxing looks like ๐๐ป
In addition to the final DONDAย cut, the stem player offers exclusive access to ย singles that arenโt included on the 27-track album or available on streaming services.
The one that has fans most excited for, is โLife of the Partyโ featuring Andrรฉ 3000.
It was ironically leaked by Drake, who West disses on the song, and Andrรฉ 3000 later explained that he was cut from the album because he wrote and recorded his explicit verse before he was made aware of Westโs inclination to not use profanity in his tracks, making sure that his work can be consumed across age-groups ๐จโ๐ฉโ๐ฆ
Can you imagine jamming to Kanye West with your old man? After all, itโs Halloween folks, nothingโs too crazy this time of the year ๐ป
Have a good weekend everyone ๐ป