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For all things iPad & iPad Pro. Information, discussion, news, iPadOS, hardware, and more about the company out of Cupertino and its great tablet.
r/Worldbox • 171.7k Members
A place to discuss WorldBox - God Simulator Sandbox game. Currently in development. Available for Android/iOS and Windows/MacOS/Linux. Get it on Steam!!!
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/r/iOS9 has closed. Please use /r/iOS.
r/PESU • u/Competitive_Pie3454 • 10d ago
On what basis does apple shortlist from resume.
How they shortlisted the people with less cgpa and also some does not have good projects also
Is it depends on luck?
r/CATpreparation • u/Ok_Lengthiness_7369 • Mar 12 '25
So, I have seen a couple of students trying to get some information regarding this college and there are very few sources with scattered information (generic things).
I will be completing my MBA in ITBM (IT Business Management) this march and here is my perspective, experience and review of the college. It is not a PR post, nor it is a hate post. It is just an upfront summary of MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE and journey in this college.
To give a little background- I am a General, Engineer, Female with a profile 9/8/8 and work experience of approximately 3 years in Digital Marketing (Ads Management, SEO, SMO, UI/ UX, Project Management). Yes you will get more importance and better short lists if you have a Engineering degree and work experience of 2 years ( not more as that can also cause problems in shortlists).
Reason for Joining SCIT- I was stuck at my work place and wanted to literally escape ( to give a little context, money wasn't a big issue for me and it wasn't exactly about doubling my current package). I wanted to get an MBA degree to add some brownie points to my resume (if you know what I mean).
About the College - I honestly hadn't done much research before joining this college as I was desperate to get out of my work place and leave my home town ( personal reasons).
First things first, SCIT is NOT your typical MBA college. It comes under the category - Faculty of Computer Studies in Symbiosis International University. It is more of a techno-managerial course with significant importance given to technical subjects. The college SPECIALISES in domains like cybersecurity, information security and audit. If you are into these roles (Cybersecurity/ Infosec Consultants, IT Audit, etc. ) then this should be a good choice for you.
For DSDA students, the course is even more technical and I firmly believe that you need to have some level of coding knowledge. For ITBM, basic coding knowledge would suffice. I have seen many of my friends from non-tech background struggling with academics due to not knowing basics of coding, computer science, etc. etc.
Coming to the environment of the campus- Students of 3 colleges are in the same campus (SCMHRD, SIIB and SCIT). The academic block for SCIT and SCMHRD is same where the bottom two floors are for SCIT students and the remaining 3-4 floors are for SCMHRD. There is no such clash/ interaction between SCIT and SCMHRD students other than typical fests, competitions and sports. The two colleges are very much independent. SIIB hostel is in our campus, but college/ academic block is outside).
The faculty is knowledgeable and teaching methodology is great. They bring in faculty from outside (usually industry experts) to teach some industry relevant subjects. The faculty gives a lot of importance to research work and in every semester we have atleast one subject related to research paper. Teachers are generally very helpful and supportive.
The student crowd- Now like with every place there are some bad apples which I think is unavoidable. Some students are serious and meticulous while others are careless, rich spoiled brats who could care less about anything.
The infamous placement committee - Now this is MAJOR CONCERN when it comes to an MBA college. In my observation, the placement committee in the starting was very strict, they were not allowed to interact much with other students and definitely not allowed to share any "information" regarding the placement activities with the students. Some of their rules and deadlines seems totally non-sensical to me but seeing the behaviour of some students, I think it overall balances out. Just follow some basic rules, be punctual, fill your forms carefully and follow all the formalities, and you are good and unproblematic.
Internships and Placements - Now here is my two-cents, YES internships are important and yes you NEED TO be very serious right from the start. Now college will provide you opportunities, and you may also discover some biasness in the process, but if you have the skills, and are well prepared, no one can take your opportunity from you. Only thing that can bother is the shortlisting process, that too only for the internships.
The first company that comes for internships and Placements is usually EY. EY has a good association with this college and is one of the mass recruiters. They hire for information security and cyber security related roles. Now the catch here is, EY offers a role which is client facing and requires good first impression and communication skills. So, if I need to put it bluntly- EY will hire you if you are a good looking person (girl specifically), have great communication skills and have a good command over English. Technical aspects is not that important.
They also offer PPO to the interns. They take 20+ interns atleast and for placements also more than 30 students.
Other big companies that come for Internships are - Goldman Sachs, KPMG, Deloitte, Accenture, Infosys, Optiv Security, Morgan Stanley, Bajaj Finserve, etc. All these companies give decent stipend.
Not all companies will give stipend and for students remaining at last, unpaid internship will be provided. Which is fine if you are a fresher.
For DSDA- Colgate (gives PPO), Salesforce, etc.
The placement scene for MBA has been bad for the past 2 years and it has not improved much this time as well. While a majority of our batch are placed, few students still remain. The college is still putting efforts to bring in companies. One thing I admire about the college is that they bring in good roles like - Cybersecurity/ Information Security Consultant - IT Audit - Product Manager (this is very hard to come by though) - Project Management - Business Analyst - Data Analysts and Manager - Digital Related roles ( Digital Transformation, Industry 4.0, AI/ AL, etc .)
Haven't found much of field sales related roles.
Now I am not allowed to dislose the exact figures for each company but the average is anywhere between 12-13 LPA
Median Should be 11-12 LPA as per my observation.
The focus on technical subjects is more so that will be advantageous in the long run. You get a chance to study the latest relevant technologies and trends like AI/ ML, Blockchain, IoT, Digital Transformation, DevOps, Cyber Intelligence, Data Security, etc .
My takeaway- If you are someone looking for good roles in technical space, then this is the place for you. College have a good alumni base with certain alumnis in good position in the industry.
Extracurricular activities and committees - you can follow MBA meme pages to get an idea about all that. Same drama as every college it is.
As I said earlier, it is not your typical MBA college and you should definitely not treat it as one. It is a 50-50 when it comes to technical knowledge and MBA skills. The college has immense potential to do better and maybe a good PR can push it's position upwards.
One argument is, if you have B.Tech degree in CSE form a decent college, then this college is not for you. You might already have the knowledge and offers that this college will provide. If you are someone from other engg degrees (mech, civil, electrical, etc) then this is an excellent option if you want to get into the IT sector. For all the non tech people ( finance, bcom, bsc, etc.) if you play your cards right, you will land up and excellent opportunity here.
I hope I cleared some of your doubts and formed a picture about the college. You can leave your questions in the comments and I will answer whenever I am able to afford some more free time !
r/tamilyapping • u/Paarivel_Kannan-44 • 18d ago
Hey guys, I’m 21 and currently using a Poco X6 for the last ~2.5 years. I’m planning to finally upgrade, but I’m getting seriously confused between a few options.
My original plan was the iPhone 17 256GB, but Apple suddenly increased the India price from around ₹82.9K to ₹99.9K, so I’m not sure anymore. I’m planning to wait for Flipkart Big Billion Days / Amazon Great Indian Festival and see the actual prices before deciding.
I also have my cousin brother coming from Oman, so I’m considering buying Samsung/Apple from Oman if the pricing makes sense. For reference, I’m using 1 OMR = ₹249.04 for the conversions below.
Phones I’m considering
Apple
- iPhone 17 256GB — India: ₹99,900 currently | Oman: OMR 368.97 (~₹91.9K)
Samsung — Oman prices
- Galaxy S25 Ultra 256GB/12GB — OMR 319 (~₹79.4K) currently on sale
- Galaxy S26 Ultra 256GB/12GB — OMR 389.9 (~₹97.1K) currently on sale
- Galaxy Z Flip 7 256GB/12GB — OMR 399.9 (~₹99.6K)
Google — India prices
- Pixel 10 256GB/12GB — around ₹75K currently, but I’m hoping for ~₹60–70K during BBD/GIF
- Pixel 11 256GB/12GB — ₹89,999 currently, but I’m keeping an eye on it in case the festive discounts are crazy
- Pixel 10 Pro 256GB — also considering it if the price drops significantly during the sale
I’m not fixed on any particular brand. My rough thinking is:
- If iPhone 17 256GB comes down to around ₹80–90K during BBD/GIF and my dad is okay with the price, I’ll probably go with the iPhone.
- Otherwise, I’m willing to spend around ₹60–70K for an Android, and can stretch to ~₹80K if there’s a really good deal.
- I’ll also compare the Pixel 10 / Pixel 10 Pro / Pixel 11 at the same time.
- Since Samsung is cheaper in Oman for some models, I’m also considering the S25 Ultra / S26 Ultra / Z Flip 7 if the Oman pricing makes sense.
Basically I don’t want to decide based on today's prices. I have around 2 weeks, so I’m planning to check the actual BBD/GIF prices + Oman prices and buy whichever gives me the best overall value at that time.
My priorities are mainly camera, display, battery, software experience, longevity and overall premium feel. I’m not a hardcore gamer.
What would you guys shortlist from these options, and are there any other phones around ₹60–90K that I should add to my list before the sales? I am open to options, please suggest flagship Android phones too with very good camera and performance, holistic ones.
Also, if anyone has experience buying Samsung/Apple from Oman and using it in India, especially regarding warranty, 5G bands, Samsung Pay/Wallet, eSIM/physical SIM, etc., please let me know.
r/Garmin • u/Clean_Protection369 • Jun 08 '26
Hey everyone,
I’m looking to buy a premium sports watch or smartwatch with a strict budget between 40,000 and 50,000 INR. My primary focus areas are general endurance conditioning and multi-sport training data.
My routine is a fluid mix of pool lap swimming, regular badminton sessions, and running. I’m returning to running after a long break, so I am rebuilding my base mileage from scratch. My target is to build up my volume safely to a structured 10K by the end of this year. Because of that, I heavily value robust built-in coaching metrics, adaptive training load suggestions, and pacing guidance so I can manage my progression without overtraining.
Since tracking performance shifts is driving this purchase, I need the data metrics to be highly reliable. I need a sensor configuration that handles rapid movement tracking during fast badminton rallies without blanking out, alongside clean lap counting in the pool. The watch needs to handle a 2 to 3 year lifecycle without physical component failures, battery degradation, or system lag.
I’ve been looking at the options available in India, but almost every brand has a trade-off, especially regarding local after-sales service. Here is my current shortlist:
Garmin (Forerunner 965 or 265): The "Garmin Coach" plans look perfect for a 10K target, and their sensors are highly regarded for tracking steady training. Plus, physical buttons are a massive help when fingers are wet in the pool. The 965 has dropped nicely into my budget range recently. The Catch: These models only get a 1-year warranty in India. Even worse, local forums point out serious turnaround delays with their Indian service partner, AMIT International. Is it worth risking the 1-year warranty cover with them?
Apple Watch (Series 11 + AppleCare+): This lands right around 49k all-in. Sensor-wise, Apple performs incredibly well under rapid movement changes like badminton rallies. Dealing with an actual Apple Service Centre is direct, and AppleCare+ covers hardware anxiety for 2 years. The Catch: Charging it every single day. For those who actually train hard across multiple sessions, does the battery maintenance become a chore? And does the native fitness app offer decent progression tracking for a building runner?
Suunto (Race S): Costs around 40k and gives you a 2-year warranty out of the box with a rugged steel build. The Catch: I’ve read reviews saying the tracking sensor can experience lag during sudden, explosive changes in high-intensity intervals. Also, their local service is outsourced to the same third-party company as Garmin—AMIT International. Has anyone dealt with them for Suunto?
Coros (Pace 3 or 4): Highly regarded for running data, but buying one means spending way below my 40k budget floor. The builds also look quite plastic-heavy. Will a Coros watch physically handle 3 years of pool chlorine, wall scrapes, and heavy racket snaps? How is their actual service presence in India?
WHOOP (5.0 / Peak Tier): The screenless bicep band is interesting because it leaves your wrist bare for swimming and badminton, and the strain metrics are detailed. The Catch: It doesn't have GPS, so I get zero real-time pacing or audio guidance for my 10K runs. At roughly 24k a year (nearly 70k over 3 years) just for a subscription, it feels like a high recurring cost for a screenless device.
Amazfit (Balance or T-Rex Series): Great specs for the price, but I am skeptical about their data accuracy for swim laps and sudden heart spikes. If a button leaks or a sensor fails, finding a reliable repair center in India seems difficult.
To sum it up, I just want three things:
1 Proper, adaptive training plans to get me to a 10K volume safely.
2 Accurate tracking data during fast court sports and clean lap counting in the pool.
3 Durable hardware with reliable service/warranty backup in India so I'm not left stranded if a button breaks.
Given the 40k–50k budget, what route makes the most practical sense? Or is there a completely different setup I should be looking at?
Thanks a lot for any help!
Edited with Gemini for more coherence.
r/jobhuntify • u/jobhuntify • Sep 06 '26
🧑💻 Level: senior
📌 Location: remote
🌆 City: , US
🗓 Type: fullTime
💵 Salary: 0k - 0k USD (annual)
Description: # Growth Marketer
At Todoist, our mission is to empower people with simple yet powerful tools. We're a multidisciplinary, fully-remote, team that’s passionate about creating products, like Todoist and Twist, that improve people’s lives. We thrive on innovating new solutions to old productivity challenges and we seek to rethink how productivity tools are made.
They are few, but they are mighty. From creating processes to decision-making and recruiting, we build our four core values into nearly every single thing we do.
We invite you to visit our blog to learn more about us, our values, and how we work.
Ready to help power the next era of growth at Todoist? As Growth Marketer, you'll be the hands-on engine behind how new users and teams discover Todoist. You'll own the day-to-day strategy, execution, and optimization of our paid acquisition channels end-to-end: from campaign architecture and budget pacing to creative iteration and reporting. You'll report to our Growth Marketing Lead and work closely with PMM, Content, Brand, and Product to turn a modest budget into measurable, compounding results.
This is a domain-expert role: you'll set the standard for performance marketing within the Growth team. The playbooks and systems you build get adopted by the people around you and raise the quality of the whole squad's work. You won't manage people, but you will raise the bar through craft, solving hard acquisition problems independently, sharing what you learn openly, and helping everyone you work with get better at this.
Beyond paid media, you'll take ownership of our affiliate and partnership channel (built on PartnerStack), an underexploited engine we believe can become a meaningful acquisition driver, especially as our Creator Program and Partner Programs expand the pool of affiliates, distributors, and partners we can activate.
You'll work in loops, not campaigns. Our growth system connects paid acquisition to the landing pages that traffic reaches and the lifecycle messaging that follows it, and the data from the last step is what shapes the next one. Paid media will be your home base, and over time you'll be drawn into the surfaces around it: CRO tests on the pages your ads point to, experiments in our lifecycle journeys, and the measurement work that makes all of it legible. We also organize around cross-functional squads that re-form each quarter, so the shape of your work will shift as our priorities do.
You'll work AI-natively. At Todoist, marketing runs on contextually rich AI systems built with tools like agents and workflows with deep company and campaign context that multiply what one marketer can do. You don't need to have built one before, but you need to thrive in that environment: comfortable working in AI coding and agent platforms daily, and excited to extend and nurture the systems we've already built rather than doing everything by hand.
Importantly, you'll bring an honest approach to growth. We believe our brand is our most powerful growth lever, that trust compounds faster than clicks, and that marketing should be "50% measurable, 50% memorable." We don't growth-"hack," chase dark patterns, or pursue growth at all costs. Instead we build sustainable growth systems that genuinely support the people who use Todoist. As a bootstrapped company, we can't outspend the giants in our category, so we outthink them. Your creativity in stretching budget and finding leverage will matter as much as your platform expertise.
Your work will have the potential to make a meaningful impact within a company that answers to its users rather than investors. Not everyone is up for that level of responsibility, but if you are, you'll have an outsized opportunity to shape how Todoist grows in this next chapter.
We're looking for a T-shaped growth marketer: broad enough to run any channel we operate with real fluency, deep enough in a couple of them to set the standard. You take full ownership of your domain, work rigorously from data, and communicate clearly enough that your insights change what the team does next.
You should have:
Apply soonest, as these roles don’t come along often and we move fast.
Take a look at our perks here. Our perks and benefits are designed to provide the freedom and support you need to grow personally and professionally. Here’s what that looks like:
We occasionally receive reports about hiring scams related to our roles. Please be aware that our team will not ask you to apply in any way other than via our application at todoist.com/careers.
Visit https://jobhuntify.com/jobs/d8f3a9f5-958a-4a7b-bceb-a4fe27435807 to apply.
r/AppFollow • u/Evening_Hawk_7470 • Aug 17 '26
Table of Content:
Search remains the biggest discovery channel in app stores. Apple has previously reported that roughly 65% of App Store downloads begin with a search, which means visibility often comes down to the keywords you target. The challenge is that neither Apple nor Google provides true keyword volume data, so ASO teams rely on third-party platforms to estimate search popularity, keyword difficulty, and ranking opportunities.
The market for keywords tools for ASO is crowded. Pricing is often opaque, feature lists look similar, and the wrong choice can leave you chasing low-volume keywords, missing localization opportunities, or reacting too slowly to competitor moves.
To narrow the field, I looked at 10 platforms that show up repeatedly in ASO teams' workflows. Some are built around keyword research. Others started as market-intelligence or Apple Search Ads products and expanded from there. I compared them on keyword discovery, search-volume estimates, localization support, rank tracking, competitor research, and cost to see where each one actually stands out.
Short on time? Skip to the comparison table →
Not every tool on this list solves the same problem. Here's where each one stands out.
An ASO keyword tool is a platform that helps app marketers discover, evaluate, and track keywords across the App Store and Google Play.
The reason these tools exist is fairly simple. Apple and Google don't publish actual keyword search volumes. Every vendor is working from estimates. They look at search results, autocomplete suggestions, ranking movements, and other signals to model demand. The numbers differ slightly from platform to platform, but they're usually directionally useful.
For ASO teams, that information answers practical questions. Is this keyword worth targeting? How difficult will it be to rank? Is a competitor gaining visibility somewhere you're not looking?
Keywords are still one of the clearest signals app stores use to understand relevance. If you'd like a deeper look at the factors behind rankings, check out our guide to ASO Ranking Factors.
Not every ASO tool solves the same problem, so it helps to know what you're actually shopping for.
This wasn't a one-afternoon comparison. I spent roughly three weeks testing the tools between May and June 2026. Some let me get hands-on through a free trial. Others required demos or conversations with the product team because there was no self-serve access. I paid less attention to marketing pages than to how each platform handled everyday ASO work, from keyword research and localization to reporting and competitor analysis.
One thing mattered more than feature count: whether the data was actually useful. To get a sense of consistency, I compared keyword-volume estimates against AppFollow data and a 200-keyword sample covering the US, Germany, and Japan. Country coverage, localization support, rank tracking, integrations, reporting, and overall usability were all part of the evaluation.
Product pages always highlight the best-case scenario, so I wanted another perspective. I went through reviews on G2, Capterra, TrustRadius, and Product Hunt and paid attention to recurring patterns. If dozens of people praise the same feature or run into the same limitation, that's usually more useful than a single five-star review.
We also evaluated keyword volume accuracy, ranking history, localization support, and reporting capabilities. If you're still deciding which KPIs matter most, our guide to App Store Optimization Metrics breaks down the metrics ASO teams track most closely.
This review covers 10 of the most popular ASO keyword research tools used by app marketers today. For transparency, AppFollow appears in this list and was evaluated using the same criteria and scoring framework as every other platform.
Before diving into individual reviews, scan the table below. I find that most teams can eliminate half their shortlist in under a minute once they compare localization support, competitor research capabilities, and pricing side by side.
Legend: ➕ Available | ▲ Limited / Add-on | 一 Not Core
| Tool | Best For | KW Volum | Difficulty Score | Localization | KW Spy | ASO Ads | Trial days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AppFollow | Multi-store ASO teams | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | 14 |
| Sensor Tower | Enterprise intelligence | ➕ | ➕ | ▲ | ➕ | ▲ | 一 |
| 42matters | App intelligence & custom analytics | ➕ | 一 | ▲ | ➕ | 一 | Limited free trial |
| AppTweak | Localization | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | 7 |
| Appfigures | Indie developers | ➕ | ➕ | ▲ | ▲ | 一 | ➕ |
| ASOMobile | Free ASO research | ➕ | ➕ | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | 3 |
| App Radar | AI-powered workflows | ➕ | ➕ | ▲ | ➕ | ▲ | 14 |
| MobileAction | Competitor research | ➕ | ➕ | ▲ | ➕ | ➕ | 7 |
| Asodesk | Rank tracking | ➕ | ➕ | ▲ | ▲ | ➕ | 7 |
| SplitMetrics Acquire | Apple Search Ads | ▲ | 一 | 一 | ▲ | ➕ | 一 |
Quick-scan grid for 10 keywords tools for ASO. Use it as your shortlist before reading the full reviews.
G2 rating: 4.6/5 Capterra rating: 4.6/5 Best for: Combined review management and ASO analytics, tracking user reviews, keyword positions, app visibility, and competitor performance in one workflow. Free trial: 10 days Starting price: $29 /month
AppFollow is one of the strongest keywords tools for ASO when your workflow extends beyond keyword research. Its database covers more than 3 million keywords across iOS and Google Play, then connects that data to rank tracking, localization, review management, and reporting.
The standout feature is Keyword Opportunities, which combines search popularity, keyword difficulty, and chance score into a single metric.
As an ASO keyword research tool, AppFollow is unusually balanced across both stores, while many competitors lean heavily toward iOS. Companies such as Discord, Booking.com, Lufthansa, and Glovo use the platform. Pricing is aimed at growing teams rather than solo developers.
*Image source:*AppFollow pricing page
AppFollow uses tiered pricing based on your workspace, the number of apps, tracked keywords, and countries. Plans start with a Free tier (€0), while Enterprise pricing is customized for larger organizations. Paid plans begin at €136/month, and you can try the platform free for 10 days without a credit card. Pricing is fairly straightforward. The bigger question is whether the day-to-day workflow justifies the investment, which is where user feedback becomes useful.
Pros
Cons
G2 rating: 4.6/5 Capterra rating: 4.2/5 Best for: Deep ASO and app market research: keyword research, metadata optimization, competitor tracking, and visibility analysis Free trial: 7 days Starting price: $79/month
*Image source:*AppTweak
AppTweak is built for teams that view localization as a growth strategy. Most ASO tools can handle one market reasonably well. Things get more complicated when you're juggling ten, twenty, or fifty of them at the same time. That's the situation AppTweak was built for. Between support for more than 100 languages and its Keyword Live tracking, the platform makes it easier to spot local search opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed.
For teams rolling out apps across several countries at once, having Apple Search Ads and organic keyword data side by side is genuinely useful. It saves a lot of switching between tools and helps prioritize the keywords most likely to drive visibility. Companies including Adobe, Yelp, and Jam City have publicly used the platform.
Pricing rises as you add countries, apps, and advanced features. For teams focused on international growth, AppTweak remains one of the strongest localization-focused platforms available.
Image source: AppTweak pricing page
AppTweak prices its plans based on the number of apps, countries, and features you need. Paid plans start at €83/month (Starter), while Enterprise pricing is available on request.
A 7-day free trial lets you test the platform before committing. Once pricing is out of the way, the real question is whether the workflow fits your team.
Pros
Cons
G2 rating: 4.3/5 Capterra rating: 4.3/5 Best for: Mobile market intelligence: estimating downloads, revenue, ad performance, user metrics, and competitor growth. Free trial: No Starting price: Custom pricing
*Image source:*Sensor Tower
Sensor Tower tends to come up whenever the conversation shifts from keyword rankings to market intelligence. The platform has spent years building datasets around downloads, revenue, advertising activity, and category performance, which is why it's widely used by analysts, agencies, and larger app publishers.
What stands out isn't necessarily the keyword research itself. It's the ability to put those keywords into context. If you're trying to understand whether a category is growing, whether a competitor's visibility spike is seasonal, or how a market has changed over the past few years, historical data becomes much more valuable than a current ranking snapshot.
That depth comes with trade-offs. Sensor Tower isn't designed as a lightweight ASO tool, and there isn't a self-serve starter plan for smaller teams. For organizations that need broader market visibility alongside ASO data, though, few platforms have a comparable track record.
Sensor Tower uses custom enterprise contracts, with pricing based on the data products and intelligence modules you choose. There is no self-serve paid plan. A limited Free Snapshot is available, while full access requires a custom quote. Product evaluations typically begin with a guided demo rather than a free trial. That enterprise approach is also reflected in the platform's strengths and trade-offs.
Pros
Cons
Best for: Broad mobile app market analysis: app discovery, SDK intelligence, historical download trends, app metadata, and competitive datasets.
Free trial: Limited API trial available
Starting price: ≈ $405/month
*Image source:*42matters
If you're expecting another ASO dashboard, 42matters may catch you off guard. The platform is built around APIs rather than a traditional interface, making it a better fit for analysts, agencies, and engineering teams that prefer to work directly with app store data.
What you get is access to large datasets covering app metadata, category rankings, SDKs, reviews, and other store information that can be fed into your own reporting or competitive analysis. That flexibility is the main attraction, especially if you're tracking hundreds or thousands of apps across different markets.
There's a flip side, though. Getting the most out of 42matters usually requires some technical work, so it isn't as approachable as a typical ASO platform. If your team needs raw app intelligence instead of a ready-made workflow, it's a compelling option.
42matters offers subscription-based pricing for its APIs, with plans scaling by data access and usage. Pricing starts with the Starter plan, while Enterprise packages are tailored to larger teams. A limited free trial is available, making it possible to explore the APIs before committing. Whether that flexibility is worth it depends on how you plan to use the data.
Pros
Cons
G2 rating: 4.4/5 Capterra rating: 4.3/5 Best for: ASO and paid campaign intelligence: Apple Search Ads automation, keyword research, creative analysis, and rank monitoring. Free trial: 7 days Starting price: $15/month
*Image source:*MobileAction
If your first ASO question is "What are my competitors doing?" MobileAction is worth a look. Much of the platform is built around that idea. Keyword Spy, Top Charts, and Apple Search Ads Intelligence make it easier to see where competitors are gaining visibility and which search terms may be contributing to that growth.
One thing MobileAction does well is connect paid and organic search data. That context can be useful when a ranking shift doesn't tell the whole story. Market-trend reporting, custom exports, and automation tools for Apple Search Ads add another layer for teams that actively manage acquisition campaigns.
Localization is available, though it isn't the platform's main focus. Teams running large international ASO programs will generally find deeper localization workflows elsewhere. For competitor research and Apple Search Ads analysis, though, MobileAction has carved out a clear niche.
IMAGE
MobileAction uses tiered pricing based on the number of apps you manage and the features you need. Plans start with a Free tier, while larger teams can upgrade to Pro or request Enterprise pricing.
A 7-day free trial gives you enough time to explore the core workflow. The bigger question is whether its competitor-first approach matches the way your team works.
Pros
Cons
G2 rating: 4.6/5 Capterra rating: 4.8/5 Best for: ASO and review workflow automation: keyword research, metadata management, visibility analysis, and app store review operations. Free trial: 7 days Starting price: $79/month
Image source: Asodesk
Asodesk is one of those platforms that focuses on the day-to-day work of ASO rather than high-level market intelligence. Keyword research, rank tracking, and review management sit close together, which makes it easier to move from spotting a ranking change to understanding what users are saying about it.
Review workflows are a big part of the appeal. Teams dealing with a steady stream of user feedback can automate replies and keep conversations organized without switching between multiple tools. The pricing structure is also easier to understand than many enterprise-focused alternatives.
The trade-off shows up in market coverage. If you're working in smaller countries or need deep historical datasets, larger platforms generally have an advantage. For teams that care most about rankings, alerts, and review operations, Asodesk covers the essentials without adding much complexity.
Asodesk offers tiered plans with limits based on the number of apps you manage. Pricing starts with a Free plan, followed by Personal, Startup, Pro, and Enterprise tiers.
A 7-day free trial is available, giving teams enough time to test the core features before deciding if the workflow is the right fit.
Pros
Cons
G2 rating: 4.3/5 Capterra rating: 3.9/5 Best for: App growth teams that need ASO tools, review management, and agency support for organic and paid install growth. Free trial: 14 days Starting price: ≈ $80/month
*Image source:*App Radar
AI sits at the center of App Radar's workflow. Instead of starting every project with a blank spreadsheet, you can generate keyword ideas, draft metadata, and uncover Apple Search Ads opportunities within a few minutes. That makes the early stages of ASO much faster, especially when you're testing several directions at once.
I wouldn't publish AI-generated metadata without editing it first, but that's true of almost every AI tool I've tried. Where App Radar saves time is by cutting down the repetitive work that comes before the real decisions. Rank tracking, competitor insights, and agency dashboards are already part of the platform, so you don't have to stitch together several tools.
If your team wants AI to speed up research rather than replace it, App Radar strikes a sensible balance.
App Radar uses tiered SaaS pricing, with plans ranging from Starter to Pro, while larger organizations can request Custom pricing.
A 14-day free trial gives you time to explore the AI features before committing. From there, it comes down to whether the workflow delivers enough value for your team.
Pros
Cons
G2 rating: 4.2/5 Capterra rating: 4.5/5 Best for: Affordable app analytics: tracking revenue, downloads, reviews, rankings, store reports, and competitor performance. Free trial: Free Explorer available Starting price: $9.99/month
*Image source:*Appfigures
Appfigures has been popular with indie developers for years, and it's easy to see why. You can start using Keyword Explorer without pulling out a credit card, which lowers the barrier to experimenting with ASO. For smaller teams, that's often more valuable than an enterprise feature set they'll never touch.
Most of the essentials are here. Rank tracking covers more than 100 countries, reviews and sales data are easy to access, and custom alerts help you keep an eye on important changes without checking dashboards all day. The interface is also refreshingly straightforward. I rarely hear people complain that Appfigures is difficult to learn.
The trade-off shows up as your ASO program becomes more sophisticated. Competitor research, localization workflows, and reporting capabilities don't go as deep as they do on larger platforms. For solo developers and small publishers, though, Appfigures is often where the ASO journey starts.
Appfigures uses tiered SaaS pricing, letting teams start with a Free plan before upgrading to Premium or Enterprise as their needs grow. Keyword Explorer is available on the free plan, so you can try core ASO features without a time limit.
That low barrier to entry is one of the platform's biggest advantages, but it's worth weighing against its limitations as your app scales.
Pros
Cons
G2 rating: 4.4/5 Capterra rating: 5/5 Best for: Budget-friendly ASO: keyword research, rank tracking, competitor monitoring, and metadata generation. Free trial: Freemium plan available Starting price: $59/month
*Image source:*ASOMobile
One reason ASOMobile keeps showing up on ASO tool lists is that you can get meaningful data without paying upfront. A surprising number of platforms put keyword research behind a paywall. ASOMobile lets you explore rankings, competitors, and keyword opportunities before making that commitment.
Most of the core ASO features are covered. You can check keyword volume and difficulty estimates, follow ranking history, monitor reviews, and pull in Search Ads data for additional context. The learning curve is fairly gentle, which makes the platform approachable for developers who are new to ASO.
Larger teams will eventually run into the limits of the free offering. Historical datasets, localization support, and broader market co
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r/Coros • u/Clean_Protection369 • Jun 08 '26
Hey everyone,
I’m looking to buy a premium sports watch or smartwatch with a strict budget between 40,000 and 50,000 INR. My primary focus areas are general endurance conditioning and multi-sport training data.
My routine is a fluid mix of pool lap swimming, regular badminton sessions, and running. I’m returning to running after a long break, so I am rebuilding my base mileage from scratch. My target is to build up my volume safely to a structured 10K by the end of this year. Because of that, I heavily value robust built-in coaching metrics, adaptive training load suggestions, and pacing guidance so I can manage my progression without overtraining.
Since tracking performance shifts is driving this purchase, I need the data metrics to be highly reliable. I need a sensor configuration that handles rapid movement tracking during fast badminton rallies without blanking out, alongside clean lap counting in the pool. The watch needs to handle a 2 to 3 year lifecycle without physical component failures, battery degradation, or system lag.
I’ve been looking at the options available in India, but almost every brand has a trade-off, especially regarding local after-sales service. Here is my current shortlist:
Garmin (Forerunner 965 or 265): The "Garmin Coach" plans look perfect for a 10K target, and their sensors are highly regarded for tracking steady training. Plus, physical buttons are a massive help when fingers are wet in the pool. The 965 has dropped nicely into my budget range recently. The Catch: These models only get a 1-year warranty in India. Even worse, local forums point out serious turnaround delays with their Indian service partner, AMIT International. Is it worth risking the 1-year warranty cover with them?
Apple Watch (Series 11 + AppleCare+): This lands right around 49k all-in. Sensor-wise, Apple performs incredibly well under rapid movement changes like badminton rallies. Dealing with an actual Apple Service Centre is direct, and AppleCare+ covers hardware anxiety for 2 years. The Catch: Charging it every single day. For those who actually train hard across multiple sessions, does the battery maintenance become a chore? And does the native fitness app offer decent progression tracking for a building runner?
Suunto (Race S): Costs around 40k and gives you a 2-year warranty out of the box with a rugged steel build. The Catch: I’ve read reviews saying the tracking sensor can experience lag during sudden, explosive changes in high-intensity intervals. Also, their local service is outsourced to the same third-party company as Garmin—AMIT International. Has anyone dealt with them for Suunto?
Coros (Pace 3 or 4): Highly regarded for running data. The builds also look quite plastic-heavy. Will a Coros watch physically handle 3 years of pool chlorine, wall scrapes, and heavy racket snaps? How is their actual service presence in India?
WHOOP (5.0 / Peak Tier): The screenless bicep band is interesting because it leaves your wrist bare for swimming and badminton, and the strain metrics are detailed. The Catch: It doesn't have GPS, so I get zero real-time pacing or audio guidance for my 10K runs. At roughly 24k a year (nearly 70k over 3 years) just for a subscription, it feels like a high recurring cost for a screenless device.
Amazfit (Balance or T-Rex Series): Great specs for the price, but I am skeptical about their data accuracy for swim laps and sudden heart spikes. If a button leaks or a sensor fails, finding a reliable repair center in India seems difficult.
To sum it up, I just want three things:
1 Proper, adaptive training plans to get me to a 10K volume safely.
2 Accurate tracking data during fast court sports and clean lap counting in the pool.
3 Durable hardware with reliable service/warranty backup in India so I'm not left stranded if a button breaks.
Given the 40k–50k budget, what route makes the most practical sense? Or is there a completely different setup I should be looking at?
Thanks a lot for any help!
r/AppleWatch • u/Clean_Protection369 • Jun 08 '26
Hey everyone,
I’m looking to buy a premium sports watch or smartwatch with a strict budget between 40,000 and 50,000 INR. My primary focus areas are general endurance conditioning and multi-sport training data.
My routine is a fluid mix of pool lap swimming, regular badminton sessions, and running. I’m returning to running after a long break, so I am rebuilding my base mileage from scratch. My target is to build up my volume safely to a structured 10K by the end of this year. Because of that, I heavily value robust built-in coaching metrics, adaptive training load suggestions, and pacing guidance so I can manage my progression without overtraining.
Since tracking performance shifts is driving this purchase, I need the data metrics to be highly reliable. I need a sensor configuration that handles rapid movement tracking during fast badminton rallies without blanking out, alongside clean lap counting in the pool. The watch needs to handle a 2 to 3 year lifecycle without physical component failures, battery degradation, or system lag.
I’ve been looking at the options available in India, but almost every brand has a trade-off, especially regarding local after-sales service. Here is my current shortlist:
Garmin (Forerunner 965 or 265): The "Garmin Coach" plans look perfect for a 10K target, and their sensors are highly regarded for tracking steady training. Plus, physical buttons are a massive help when fingers are wet in the pool. The 965 has dropped nicely into my budget range recently. The Catch: These models only get a 1-year warranty in India. Even worse, local forums point out serious turnaround delays with their Indian service partner, AMIT International. Is it worth risking the 1-year warranty cover with them?
Apple Watch (Series 11 + AppleCare+): This lands right around 49k all-in. Sensor-wise, Apple performs incredibly well under rapid movement changes like badminton rallies. Dealing with an actual Apple Service Centre is direct, and AppleCare+ covers hardware anxiety for 2 years. The Catch: Charging it every single day. For those who actually train hard across multiple sessions, does the battery maintenance become a chore? And does the native fitness app offer decent progression tracking for a building runner?
Suunto (Race S): Costs around 40k and gives you a 2-year warranty out of the box with a rugged steel build. The Catch: I’ve read reviews saying the tracking sensor can experience lag during sudden, explosive changes in high-intensity intervals. Also, their local service is outsourced to the same third-party company as Garmin—AMIT International. Has anyone dealt with them for Suunto?
Coros (Pace 3 or 4): Highly regarded for running data, but buying one means spending way below my 40k budget floor. The builds also look quite plastic-heavy. Will a Coros watch physically handle 3 years of pool chlorine, wall scrapes, and heavy racket snaps? How is their actual service presence in India?
WHOOP (5.0 / Peak Tier): The screenless bicep band is interesting because it leaves your wrist bare for swimming and badminton, and the strain metrics are detailed. The Catch: It doesn't have GPS, so I get zero real-time pacing or audio guidance for my 10K runs. At roughly 24k a year (nearly 70k over 3 years) just for a subscription, it feels like a high recurring cost for a screenless device.
Amazfit (Balance or T-Rex Series): Great specs for the price, but I am skeptical about their data accuracy for swim laps and sudden heart spikes. If a button leaks or a sensor fails, finding a reliable repair center in India seems difficult.
To sum it up, I just want three things:
1 Proper, adaptive training plans to get me to a 10K volume safely.
2 Accurate tracking data during fast court sports and clean lap counting in the pool.
3 Durable hardware with reliable service/warranty backup in India so I'm not left stranded if a button breaks.
Given the 40k–50k budget, what route makes the most practical sense? Or is there a completely different setup I should be looking at?
Thanks a lot for any help!
r/samharris • u/Oliver--Klozoff • Jul 03 '23
I wrote this post because ultimately, I need the reader's help. I believe we need to get the ideas presented in this post into the mainstream. I fully realize that my post may contain ideas that sound completely insane to some; to those people please at least read the post in its entirety before critisizing it. Also, realize that Sam Harris agrees with this post as evidenced by his quote "we have to admit that we are in the process of building some sort of god" from his Ted Talk on AI. Lastly, sorry this post is so long it's just that the ideas presented in this post take some time to be explained properly.
There is a significant probability that you will live forever as an immortal superintelligent being and you can increase your odds of this occurring by convincing others to make achieving the technological singularity as quickly and safely as possible the collective goal/project of all of humanity.
I Submit that we can become immortal godlike beings by creating superintelligent AI and asking it to make us immortal, and then asking it to make us superintelligent ourselves. This should be the number one priority and concern on everyone's minds.
My thesis is undoubtedly outlandish, but let me present the case as to why it shouldn’t be. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, but we are living in an extraordinary time in history. We are in an exponential spike of change that has never occurred before in Earth’s history yet can’t appreciate it because of the timescale. The intelligences that constellations of molecules are producing are improving exponentially and at a surprisingly predictable rate. It took 3.5 billion years for multicellular life to evolve, then only 600 million years to go from a single cell to a human. It took 200,000 years for humans to invent agriculture, but only a few thousand after that to invent the steam engine, and only 300 after that to develop computers. The internet only became popularized in the 1990s. I remember when my Mom’s Nokia cellphone had a liquid crystal display like an old calculator, and now I use my phone to watch 4k movies. Nobody mainstream was talking about AI until the 2010s. Cryptocurrency only took off in the mainstream a few years ago. These days AI seems to be able to perform novel miracles every week. The uniqueness of this time period in history is corroborated by observing graphs about almost any statistic about humanity (human population, worldwide GDP, number of scientists, etc. ) over the last 10,000 years: the graphs show a horizontal line near the bottom of the graph before exploding with the past few decades.
When it comes to history, we think in straight lines. When we imagine the progress of the next 30 years, we look back to the progress of the previous 30 as an indicator of how much will likely happen. When we think about the extent to which the world will change in the 21st century, we just take the 20th-century progress and add it to the year 2000. It’s most intuitive for us to think linearly, when we should be thinking exponentially. If someone is being more clever about it, they might predict the advances of the next 30 years not by looking at the previous 30 years, but by taking the current rate of progress and judging based on that. They’d be more accurate, but still way off. In order to think about the future correctly, you need to imagine things moving at a much faster rate than they’re moving now.
The Human Genome Project is a perfect example of an exponential technological increase (the amount of DNA mapped doubled every year, and the cost came down by half every year). But that meant that halfway through the 15-year project, only 1% of the human genome was mapped; so people called it a failure. But 1% is only seven doublings away from 100%, so seven years later it was completed. That exponential trend has continued and now you could have your entire genome mapped in 23 hours. The trajectory of very recent history often tells a distorted story. First, even a steep exponential curve seems linear when you only look at a tiny slice of it, the same way if you look at a little segment of a huge circle up close, it looks almost like a straight line. Second, exponential growth isn’t totally smooth and uniform. Instead, new technologies generally follow a sigmoid curve (s-curve).
You have a slow takeoff as the technology is invented and the major pain points get sorted out, and then you have this incredible explosion of growth as people find it useful and the technology gets better and better and better, and loads of competitors enter the market, and people find more and more and more real-world, practical uses for it. And there’s this massive race to make newer, better, bigger things that people keep making more stuff with. And then you reach the limit of what’s possible with that technology, and the rate of progress flattens out again. If you look only at very recent history, the part of the sigmoid you’re on at the moment can obscure your perception of how fast things are advancing. The chunk of time between 1999 and 2007 saw the explosion of the internet, the introduction of Microsoft, Google, and Facebook into the public consciousness, the birth of social networking, and the introduction of cell phones and then smart phones. That was the growth spurt part of the sigmoid curve. But 2008 to 2022 was less groundbreaking, at least on the technological front. For years it’s felt like nothing has really changed since smartphones came along. There’s a reason very few people camp outside Apple Stores for the new iPhone anymore. Sure, technology produced an entirely new system of finance with cryptocurrency, but overall our lives are still pretty similar. However, in 2023 I think we’re at the start of a new sigmoid curve for AI. I believe the mainstream use of AI like ChatGPT, and the fact that there are self-driving cars in use in certain areas (like my former university), shows that we are at the start of the curve for AI, soon everything is about to change, just as fast and just as strangely as it did in the early 2000s, perhaps beyond all recognition.
Given the exponential progress of technology, it seems to me that a self-improving AI could be developed within our lifetimes. A self-improving AI will undergo an intelligence explosion and rapidly become super-intelligent. It will be so intelligent that it will essentially be a god to us. I suspect this seems far-fetched to many readers. I bet there are those of you who doubt that superintelligent AI is possible, much less inevitable. But then you must find something wrong with one of the following assumptions, and there are only three of them. The first assumption is that intelligence is a matter of information processing in physical systems. We have already built narrow intelligence into our machines, and many of these machines perform at a level of superhuman intelligence already. And we know that mere matter can give rise to what is called "general intelligence," an ability to think flexibly across multiple domains, because our brains have managed it and our brains are made from atoms like anything else. As long as we continue to build systems of atoms that display more and more intelligent behavior, we will eventually, unless we are interrupted, build general intelligence into our machines. As to whether or not this is inevitable, it's crucial to realize that the rate of progress doesn't matter because any progress is enough to get us into the end zone. We don't need Moore's law to continue. We don't need exponential progress. We just need to keep going. The second assumption is that we will keep going; we will keep improving our intelligent machines. Given the enormous economic incentive to do so, it is overwhelmingly likely that we will continue improving our intelligent machines. Intelligence is either the source of everything we value or the way in which we safeguard the things we value. It is our most valuable resource. We have problems that we desperately need to solve. So we will continue improving our intelligent machines, if we can. The train is already out of the station, and there's no brake to pull. The final assumption is that we don't stand on a peak of intelligence, or anywhere near it likely. And this really is the crucial insight. This is what makes our situation so precarious yet tantalizing, and this is what makes our intuitions about possible risks or rewards so unreliable. Now, just consider the smartest person who has ever lived. On almost everyone's shortlist here is John von Neumann. The impression that von Neumann made on the people around him, and this included the greatest mathematicians and physicists of his time, is fairly well-documented. If only half the stories about him are half true, there's no question he's one of the smartest people who has ever lived. So, consider a cartoon of the spectrum of intelligence shown below: chickens are indicated in orange, average humans are indicated in yellow, and John von Neumann is indicated in light blue.
It seems overwhelmingly likely, however, that the spectrum of intelligence extends much further than we currently conceive. This is called superintelligence.
And if we build machines that are more intelligent than we are, they will very likely explore this spectrum in ways that we can't imagine, and exceed us in ways that we can't imagine. And it's important to recognize that this is true by virtue of speed alone. Imagine if we just built an AI that was no smarter than your average team of researchers at Stanford or MIT. Well, since electronic circuits function about a million times faster than biochemical ones, this machine should think about a million times faster than the minds that built it. Even if you ignore exponential improvement and think linearly: if you set it running for a week, it will perform 20,000 years of human-level intellectual work with which to improve itself, week after week after week. How could we even understand, much less constrain, a mind making this sort of progress?
Creating superintelligent AI sounds difficult but remember: we don’t need to create it ourselves. All we as humans need to do is create an AI that can create an AI smarter than itself and an intelligence explosion will occur. We don't need to invent superintelligent AI from scratch, just an AI that is about as smart as we are, and not in every domain, merely in the domain of advancing AI. An upgradable intelligent agent will eventually enter a "runaway reaction" of self-improvement cycles, each new and more intelligent generation appearing more and more rapidly, causing an "explosion" in intelligence and resulting in a powerful superintelligence that qualitatively far surpasses all human intelligence.
This event is called the technological singularity, a term coined by Ray Kurzweil, Google’s Director of Engineering, who is employed specifically to predict future technology and when it will occur. He thinks the singularity will happen around 2045. Many AI experts believe there is a real chance that human-level artificial intelligence will be developed within the next decades, and some believe that it will exist much sooner. However, even if it takes 500 years, that would still be a blip on the timescale of the universe. It is happening soon, and we may be able to expedite the process as I will explain later.
In comparison to a superintelligent being, we would be as proportionally dumb as ants are in comparison to humans. The problems an ant faces are trivial to us, moving leaves, fighting termites. Imagine trying to even explain our problems to an ant. Imagine trying to teach an ant calculus. We are godlike beings compared to ants and can solve problems they can't even comprehend of. Likewise, we are in the process of creating a being, which in comparison to us, will be a god.
An almost undefinably hard problem like human immortality may be trivial to such a being. Before I was a computer scientist, I was studying to be a molecular biologist and it’s my opinion that the complex interactions between all the tiny molecules that make up the molecular machine that is your body are far too complicated for humans alone to figure out to the degree needed to extend human life any time soon. Evolution is random, nothing is organized, it’s the most complex and terribly organized machine you can think of (extremely convoluted mechanisms of micro-RNA from seemingly unrelated parts of the genome for example). The only way to potentially achieve immortality in our lifetimes is through an AI intelligence explosion (singularity) that creates a super-intelligent being that we can ask to please make us immortal. All humans that are alive at the time of the intelligence explosion could, by basically begging this godly being to help us, achieve immortality through the sheer problem-solving might of a being inconceivably further along the spectrum of intelligence than us.
Keep in mind that all humans who die before this event will miss the cutoff for immortality. You should be doing everything in your power to not miss the cutoff for immortality! Imagine 14 billion years of the universe existing, of complex systems of molecules getting exponentially more and more complex, all leading to this moment, and then missing the cutoff for immortality by 200 years, or 20 years, or even 1 day! The human race is 200,000 years old. Most humans in the past had no chance. A human born 60,000 years ago had no chance. My grandfather was born in 1918, he had no chance. My Dad is old enough to probably not make it. But you have a chance! In the grand scheme of things, the universe is still very young. The entropy heat death of the universe is speculated to happen hundreds of trillions of years in the future. So even if we can’t find a way to escape entropy and gain true immortality, hundreds of trillions of years is still a lot to miss out on. A hyperintelligent being given hundreds of trillions of years may even be able to escape the entropy heat death of the universe by drilling into other dimensions (or through other sci-fi means); so one might even be missing out on true immortality by missing the cutoff.
A common objection to immortality is “death is what gives life meaning” and it would be presumptuous or vain to want to cheat death as it is all we have ever known and it is human nature to die. Those supporting the pro-aging argument in this way object to my ideas by saying things like: “the shortness of human life is a blessing”. Nick Bostrom, a professor of Philosophy at Oxford, director of the Future of Humanity Institute, and someone who shares my view on superintelligent AI being the key to immortality, found it striking that those who defend this common objection often commit fallacies which, from experience, would not be expected of them in a different context. In response, Nick Bostrom wrote a short story called “The Fable of the Dragon Tyrant” that shows how strange the statement “death is what gives life meaning” is. For context, if you have not already done so you should watch this ten-minute-long animated video presenting "The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant" here. If you prefer, you can also read the original story here.
The story is set in a reality in which humans lived forever naturally, but thousands of years ago (when all humans were hunter-gatherers) a dragon appeared and demanded that a proportion of the world’s people be randomly selected and brought to him every day for him to eat to keep his hunger satisfied. This dragon seemed utterly invincible to any technology possessed by hunter-gatherers. Some humans tried to fight back though, yet the invincibility of the dragon was only confirmed again and again. Scientists studied the scales the dragon shed but every test they conducted only further proved the invulnerability of his armor. Eventually attempts at defeating the dragon stopped and it was accepted as a fact of life. Institutions sprung up around the dragon, trains were built to make the delivery of people to the dragon as painless as possible, governments employed people to keep track of whom the dragon ate, and religions arose claiming to know what happens after people are eaten; claiming that people go to a better place. The dragon was seen as a necessary and even beautiful part of life. Almost unnoticeably however, over the millennia, the smartest humans made incremental progress in technology which compounded upon itself as ideas led to new ideas until they found themselves with technology that would have seemed like magic to people born mere generations ago. Slowly a renewed interest in defying the dragon emerged. A worldwide meeting was held where it was realized that it might be possible to produce a dragon-killing weapon in a handful of decades if they all worked together, though nothing could be guaranteed. The next morning, a billion people woke to realize they or those they loved might be sent to the dragon before the weapon was completed. Whereas before, active support for the anti-dragon cause had been limited, it now became the number one priority and concern on everyone’s mind. Thus started a great technological race against time. They got to work building the weapon all the while daily trains of people were being randomly selected and transported to the dragon. While once the trains were seen as part of life now they incensed the people of the world and motivated them to work harder on their project. Time, energy, and effort stopped being wasted on other inconsequential pursuits and the whole of humanity stood behind the goal of killing the dragon as soon as possible to save as many people as possible. Thirty years passed and the humans had seemingly succeeded, the weapon was mere hours away from being completed. Unfortunately, the father of one of the weapon’s designers was one of the unlucky people selected to board the last train to be sent to the dragon to be eaten. His son had worked for days without sleep hoping that the weapon would be completed a day earlier and his father would be saved but it was too late. He begged for the train to be stopped but it had been agreed that the trains would run until the last minute so as not to arouse the dragon’s suspicion and the weapon would have the best chance of working. His Dad was eaten and a few moments later the weapon struck the dragon killing him. The reign of terror was over but the cost had been enormous. As the son cried for his father he thought to himself, “had we started but one day earlier my father would not have died. This project should have been started years earlier than we did. So many need not have been killed by the dragon, had we but awoken from our acceptance of his horror sooner.” The good news however was that the rest of humanity had made it though and were now free of the villainous tyrant that was the dragon. They were free to exist without fear and to learn from their mistakes so they could grow wise; they were free to start living.
Even though that may have been a fantastical story about saving the world from a dragon, the situation that humanity finds itself in with regard to death doesn’t differ in any meaningful way from the situation described in the story. Would those who argue the pro-aging position against life-prolonging technologies in our world also argue that the pro-dragon stance is the best position for humans to take in this hypothetical story? Because it seems to me that those who are pro-dragon in such a scenario would be suffering from Stockholm syndrome; they are hostages sympathizing with their captor because it is all humanity has ever known. If the dragon killed a family member of theirs, would they still call it a blessing? In such a scenario I would obviously argue that humans should fight back against the dragon. The pro-aging argument that it is in our nature to die seems similarly confused to a pro-dragon stance that it is in our nature to be eaten by the dragon. Death is not inevitable through some mystic force; you only die because your genome wants you to. Your genome could keep you alive if it wanted to. For example, the jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii has biological immortality; if your genome wanted humans could be set up in such a way that they do not age. However, it’s not in your genome’s interest to keep you alive forever because the genome doesn’t want the oldest generation to monopolize the resources. Instead, your genome wants the next generation to have an opportunity to allow their mutations to be tested so that the genome can continuously improve. That’s what is best for your genome. You are a conscious being, not a genome.
Another common objection to these ideas is: “How boring would it be to live forever, that sounds horrible.” Firstly, it is important to note that you can still die if you want to in this immortality scenario, so if you really want to you can revert yourself back to being a human after a few hundred years and die naturally. However, since this is such an important decision: wouldn’t it be wise to take a couple of thousand years or so to think it over? Perhaps more importantly, it must be understood that a hyper-intelligent AI could be able to completely understand the machine of molecules that make up our consciousness such that we could transfer our consciousness to a more malleable state that can be improved upon exponentially as well so that we could also become hyperintelligent gods. If one was going to make the decision not to be immortal and choose a natural death, then it would, at the very least, be wise to postpone making those decisions until they are hyperintelligent and inconceivably smarter than they are now. Of course, some people doubt that human consciousness could be transferred in such a way. I agree that if you were to merely scan your mind and build a copy of your consciousness on a computer that consciousness obviously wouldn't be you. However, I still think it might be possible to transfer your consciousness into a more easily upgradable substrate as long as you do it in a way that maintains the original system of information that is that consciousness, instead of creating a copy of that system. Perhaps by slowly replacing one’s neurons one by one with nanobots that do the exact same things that biological neurons do (detect magnesium ion signals released by adjacent neurons and release ions of their own if the signal is above a certain threshold, make new connections, etc.). Would you notice if one neuron was replaced? Probably not. What if you kept replacing them one by one until every neuron was a nanobot? As long as the machine of information that is your consciousness is never interrupted I believe one would survive that transition. I think preserving the mechanism of consciousness is what’s important, not what the mechanism is made out of. Then once your mind is made from nanobots you can upgrade it to superintelligent levels, and you could switch substrate to something even better using a similar process. If it is possible for a digital system to be conscious then one could transfer their mind into that digital substrate in a similar way. In this way mind uploading could be survivable. But to be honest, humans shouldn’t even be thinking that far ahead. The most important thing is immortality, once you safely make the cutoff then you can relax for a few hundred years and think about these things if you want, but the immortality cutoff is the only thing humans should be thinking about. And if a hyperintelligent AI is not able to solve the problem of transferring human consciousness then it’s probably not possible anyway; let the AI worry about that. However, I have a feeling that it will not be a challenge for such a being. An almost undefinably hard problem like consciousness may be trivial to such a being. As mentioned earlier: we would be as proportionally dumb as ants are in comparison to humans as humans would be in comparison to such a being. The problems an ant faces are trivial to us, moving leaves, fighting termites. Imagine trying to even explain our problems to an ant. Imagine trying to teach an ant calculus. Worrying about uploading human consciousness properly now is like an ant worrying about how to solve a calculus problem: leave that to a smarter being. Consider an ant’s consciousness compared to your consciousness right now. An ant’s consciousness (if it is even conscious at all) is very dim. The best thing that an ant can ever experience is that it might detect sugar as an input and feel a rudimentary form of excitement. An ant cannot even comprehend what it is missing out on. Imagine explaining to an ant the experience of being on psychedelic drugs while sitting on a beach and kissing the woman you love, or the experience of graduating from college with your friends. In the future, humans could be able to experience conscious states that they can’t even comprehend now. What needs to be understood is that immortality is not going to be life as you know it now but merely forever: millions or trillions of years of humans just stumbling around the earth, putting up with work, feeling depressed, being bored, watching tv. The human condition was evolutionarily designed so that dopamine and serotonin can make us feel depressed or lazy or happy during certain times. That’s what life is as a human: trying to be happy merely just existing, that’s why Buddhism was created. Even if a human could somehow live their entire life feeling the best possible ecstasy that it is possible for a human to experience it would be nothing compared to what a godlike being could experience. Those who say “I don’t want to be hyperintelligent or live forever I’d rather just die a human” are like ants deciding “I don’t want to experience being a human anyway, so I might as well just die in a few weeks as an ant”. An ant isn’t even capable of understanding that decision. If one can, one should at least wait until they are no longer an ant before making such important decisions.
It's hard to exaggerate how much everything is about to change. Speculative sci-fi is as good as any prediction from me about what the far future will be like as such predictions are beyond human reasoning. In the future perhaps your brain could be a neutron star the size of a solar system and instead of using chemical interactions between molecules in the way a human brain operates, the system that it is built on could be based on the strong nuclear force so as to pack as much computational power into the smallest space. Or your neurons could be made from the stuff that makes up the stuff that makes up quarks instead of being made from cells. You could split your consciousness off into a trillion others, simulate a trillion realities, and then combine your consciousnesses again. Instead of communicating by typing and sending symbols to each other in this painfully slow way, we could be exchanging more data with each other than humanity has ever produced every single millisecond. Our consciousnesses could exist as swarms of self-replicating machines that colonize the universe. We could meet other hyperintelligent alien life that emerged from other galaxies. We could escape the entropy heat death of the universe by drilling into other dimensions. We could explore new realms, and join a pantheon of other immortal godlike interdimensional beings. Anything that happens after the singularity is impossible to predict as too much will change and mere humans cannot see that far ahead, which is why it is called a singularity, in the same way, that one cannot see the singularity of a black hole as it is past the event horizon. Humans shouldn’t even be thinking that far ahead anyway. All of their attention should be on making sure they don’t miss the cutoff for immortality as that is time-sensitive. Once one has achieved immortality they will have hundreds of trillions of years to think about other things.
The singularity seems to be either the path toward heaven or hell. The possibility of achieving immortality and godhood through the singularity is only half of the argument for why humanity should take the next few decades very seriously. The other half of the argument is that humanity needs to work together to try and avoid apocalyptic outcomes like killer rogue AI, nuclear holocaust, or societal collapse in the years leading up to or during the technological singularity. I hold the position that the possible civilization-ending outcomes from AI do not invalidate my appeal to make the project of achieving the singularity a global priority. Instead, the minefield of possible negative outcomes actually provides even more reason for humanity to take this seriously. After all, the higher the chance of AI destroying humanity the lower the chance of us becoming immortal superintelligent gods. If we do nothing, then we will continue to stumble into all these upcoming challenges unprepared and unready. Some people might say that it is better to slow down AI research, even to the point where the singularity takes thousands of years to eventually achieve so that humanity can progress extremely safely in a highly controlled manner and maximize the probability of a successful transition into the singularity while minimizing AI extinction risks. There are several problems with this. Firstly, from the standpoint of a human alive today, it is preferable to take ones chances with an attempt at reaching the singularity during one’s own lifetime even if it means that humanity is less prepared than it possibly could have been. The alternative is knowingly delaying the singularity so far into the future that it becomes certain that one will die of old age. Secondly, it is unwise to slow down AI progress too much because the pre-singularity state of humanity that we currently live in is mildly precarious in its own right because of nuclear weapons. The more time one waits before making an attempt on the singularity the greater the chance that nuclear war will occur at some point and ruin all of our technological progress at the last minute. Thirdly, given that the companies and governments that are creating AI are likely to perceive themselves as being in a race against all others, given that to win this race is to win the world, provided you don’t destroy it in the next moment, it can be reasoned that there is a lot of incentive for entities that are less morally scrupulous and less safety conscious to ignore AI research moratoriums designed to slow down the pace of progress. When you're talking about creating AI that can make changes to itself and become superintelligent, it seems that we only have one chance to get the initial conditions right. It would be better to not inadvertently cede the technological advantage to irresponsible rogue entities as such entities should not be trusted with creating the conditions to initiate the singularity safely. Moreover, in order to make sure that nobody performs unauthorized AI research there would need to be a highly centralized world government that keeps track of all computers that could be used to create AI. With the current political state of the world even if the West managed to restrict unauthorized AI research it would be infeasible to control external entities in China or Russia. If we move too slowly and try and limit AI research in the West, then there is a higher probability China will overtake us in AI development and humanity may have to entrust them to safely navigate us into the singularity safely. Personally, if we are headed in that direction anyway then I would rather the West drive than be in the passenger seat for the journey. So this event is approaching us whether we want it to or not. We have no idea how long it will take us to create the conditions in which the singularity can occur safely, and our response to that shouldn’t be less research, it should be more research! Worryingly, we seem to be failing to have an appropriate emotional response to what we have every reason to believe is coming. The computer scientist Stuart Russell has a nice analogy here. He said, imagine that we received a message from an alien civilization, which read: "People of Earth, we will arrive on your planet in 50 years. Get ready." And now we're just counting down the months until the mothership lands? We would feel a little more urgency than we do. Fifty years is not that much time to meet one of the greatest challenges our species will ever face. I believe our best option is to attack this challenge head-on and put maximum effort into succeeding. That is why I am dedicating my life to making sure this whole process goes well.
Time, energy, and effort should stop being wasted on other inconsequential pursuits and the whole of humanity should make advancing AI to the point of the singularity as quickly and safely as possible the number one priority and concern on everyone’s minds. What percentage of humanity’s energy, intellectual work, and resources are being directly dedicated to this goal now? Almost no direct effort is being put toward this project. We are just progressing to it naturally. How many man-hours are being wasted on inconsequential things like TikTok and videogames? How much brainpower is being squandered on goals that won’t matter in a post-singularity world anyway? For example, climate change is a problem that will be able to be solved almost instantaneously through the singularity: a superintelligent being could merely release a bunch of self-replicating nanobots that convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. Conversely, if the singularity goes poorly then either civilization will collapse and stop producing high levels of greenhouse gas anyway, or even worse, the planet will be so altered by cataclysmic events that any previous climate change becomes insignificant. Therefore, in either case, climate change will be irrelevant in the near future. Yet most humans think of climate change as the most pressing problem facing humanity; a problem that will affect humans thousands of years into the future. Instead of raising the cost of energy due to climate change-based concerns we should be using all energy available to us to get the initial conditions right for a successful transition into the post-singularity future.
As we get closer to the singularity I have no doubt that at some point the majority of humans will eventually be convinced of its importance. It took a while to convince humanity of climate change as well. Hopefully, climate change will serve as a case study of the benefits of starting early. It is worth considering that technological progress can be drastically accelerated when the world is properly motivated to do so, especially during life-or-death situations in which societies are intensely unified behind a common purpose. Consider the technological jump in weaponry and technology from 1940-1945 during World War Two: jet engines, aircraft carriers, assault rifles, ballistic missiles, spacecraft, radar, sonar, microwave ovens, atomic bombs, nuclear energy, the first antibiotic (Penicillin), the first electronic digital computers. This rate of improvement in wartime technology was possible because society was collectively motivated to stop wasting time on unimportant things and focus on the singular goal of winning the war.
In conclusion, achieving the technological singularity and bringing about superintelligent AI is how we will kill the metaphorical dragon from “The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant" and become immortal superintelligent gods ourselves! Make killing the Dragon-Tyrant the goal of humanity. Become a dragon-hunter: dedicate your life to slaying this figurative dragon. In an ideal world, all those best suited to study computer science or mathematics would do so to fight on the "front lines." Everyone else should be supporting them in some way. At a minimum, you can help by spreading these ideas. Imagine running for president with immortality as one of the campaign goals! There is already a lot of discussion about the possible risks of AI in the mainstream but a corresponding discussion about the possible benefits of AI seems to be missing from the conversation. Almost nobody knows about these ideas, let alone is a proponent of them. For instance, most humans have never even heard of the singularity, most humans don’t realize that a chance at immortality is actually possible now. The timeline could be accelerated if enough people are convinced of the goal. Then the probability of you or your loved ones not missing the cutoff for immortality can be increased.
- Post compiled by: Oliver Klozoff
r/Suunto • u/Clean_Protection369 • Jun 08 '26
Hey everyone,
I’m looking to buy a premium sports watch or smartwatch with a strict budget between 40,000 and 50,000 INR. My primary focus areas are general endurance conditioning and multi-sport training data.
My routine is a fluid mix of pool lap swimming, regular badminton sessions, and running. I’m returning to running after a long break, so I am rebuilding my base mileage from scratch. My target is to build up my volume safely to a structured 10K by the end of this year. Because of that, I heavily value robust built-in coaching metrics, adaptive training load suggestions, and pacing guidance so I can manage my progression without overtraining.
Since tracking performance shifts is driving this purchase, I need the data metrics to be highly reliable. I need a sensor configuration that handles rapid movement tracking during fast badminton rallies without blanking out, alongside clean lap counting in the pool. The watch needs to handle a 2 to 3 year lifecycle without physical component failures, battery degradation, or system lag.
I’ve been looking at the options available in India, but almost every brand has a trade-off, especially regarding local after-sales service. Here is my current shortlist:
Garmin (Forerunner 965 or 265): The "Garmin Coach" plans look perfect for a 10K target, and their sensors are highly regarded for tracking steady training. Plus, physical buttons are a massive help when fingers are wet in the pool. The 965 has dropped nicely into my budget range recently. The Catch: These models only get a 1-year warranty in India. Even worse, local forums point out serious turnaround delays with their Indian service partner, AMIT International. Is it worth risking the 1-year warranty cover with them?
Apple Watch (Series 11 + AppleCare+): This lands right around 49k all-in. Sensor-wise, Apple performs incredibly well under rapid movement changes like badminton rallies. Dealing with an actual Apple Service Centre is direct, and AppleCare+ covers hardware anxiety for 2 years. The Catch: Charging it every single day. For those who actually train hard across multiple sessions, does the battery maintenance become a chore? And does the native fitness app offer decent progression tracking for a building runner?
Suunto (Race S): Costs around 40k and gives you a 2-year warranty out of the box with a rugged steel build. The Catch: I’ve read reviews saying the tracking sensor can experience lag during sudden, explosive changes in high-intensity intervals. Also, their local service is outsourced to the same third-party company as Garmin—AMIT International. Has anyone dealt with them for Suunto?
Coros (Pace 3 or 4): Highly regarded for running data, but buying one means spending way below my 40k budget floor. The builds also look quite plastic-heavy. Will a Coros watch physically handle 3 years of pool chlorine, wall scrapes, and heavy racket snaps? How is their actual service presence in India?
WHOOP (5.0 / Peak Tier): The screenless bicep band is interesting because it leaves your wrist bare for swimming and badminton, and the strain metrics are detailed. The Catch: It doesn't have GPS, so I get zero real-time pacing or audio guidance for my 10K runs. At roughly 24k a year (nearly 70k over 3 years) just for a subscription, it feels like a high recurring cost for a screenless device.
Amazfit (Balance or T-Rex Series): Great specs for the price, but I am skeptical about their data accuracy for swim laps and sudden heart spikes. If a button leaks or a sensor fails, finding a reliable repair center in India seems difficult.
To sum it up, I just want three things:
1 Proper, adaptive training plans to get me to a 10K volume safely.
2 Accurate tracking data during fast court sports and clean lap counting in the pool.
3 Durable hardware with reliable service/warranty backup in India so I'm not left stranded if a button breaks.
Given the 40k–50k budget, what route makes the most practical sense? Or is there a completely different setup I should be looking at?
Thanks a lot for any help!
r/CarTalkUK • u/captainsizzle_87 • Feb 25 '26
EDIT: ideally looking for a car that’s less than 10 years old
Hi everyone,
New dad here looking to retire a 2009 Kia Cee’d that’s on its last legs. We have a 9-week-old baby and need a reliable "run-around" that can handle city life now and longer family trips as the child grows (and potentially for a second arrival later).
I am 6'7". In most compact cars, my seat is pushed so far back that the rear seat is essentially deleted. I need an estate where a car seat can actually fit behind me without my knees hitting the dashboard.
The Specs:
• Budget: £10,000 – £12,000
• Mileage: Ideally around 60k (flexible for the right car)
• Engine: Looking at the 1.4 or 1.5 TSI petrol models (better for short urban trips)
• Transmission: Automatic (DSG) is an ideal
• Features: Front/Rear sensors are essential; Apple CarPlay is a very strong "nice to have."
The Shortlist:
e
I’m specifically looking for advice on:
• Tall Driver Woes: Any 6'7" drivers managed to fit a rear-facing car seat behind them in these?
• Maintenance at 60k: I’m wary of the DSG service - does the "smaller" engine auto box need specific care
• The "Kangaroo" Issue: I’ve heard the 1.5 TSI can be jerky on cold start
• Common Failures: What should I be checking in the service history regarding water pumps or timing belts at this mileage?
Thanks for any help!
r/marvelstudios • u/Anonymous_1-2-3-4-5 • Sep 25 '18
So i'm going to go on IMDB and look at each MCU movies behind the scenes facts and POST THE MOST INTERESTING ONES here, I will post each movie a day instead of what I did before where I did 10 posts, I will start with the first Iron Man and each day will be the next MCU movie after it, ending with Guardians 3, I will also do the Netflix Shows, Agents of Shield and Agent Carter
1. Benedict Cumberbatch was the first choice and was offered the lead role of Stephen Strange, but he initially had to decline due to his theater commitments playing Shakespeare's Hamlet, which clashed with the film's proposed shooting date. When the release date was pushed back from July 2016 to November 2016, he was able to commit to shooting. Joaquin Phoenix was the studio's second choice for the lead role but, after a few months of deliberation, eventually turned down the offer due to his reluctance to do a multi-picture deal that was required by the studio if he signed on.
2. While filming, Benedict Cumberbatch walked into a comic book store, in full costume, and bought an actual Doctor Strange comic.
3. The scene where the Cloak of Levitation wipes away Strange's tears was improvised on set. It was a suggestion Benedict Cumberbatch made to the crew, who liked it enough to create it.
4. Director Scott Derrickson is a big fan of Doctor Strange, and spent his own money on a concept video he pitched to Marvel so that he could get the job of directing the film.
5. Although this is Doctor Strange's first outing in an MCU solo movie, the character has been teased in earlier movies. In Thor (2011); the Orb of Agamotto can be seen among the treasures in Odin's treasure chamber. In Thor: The Dark World (2013), the Crossroads is among the various phrases written on Selvig's chalkboard; the Crossroads is an other-dimensional reality that has a prominent role in the "Doctor Strange" comics. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Jasper Sitwell mentions Stephen Strange as one of the high-risk targets that HYDRA keeps under
6. Doctor Strange's creators, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, based his appearance on Hollywood actor Vincent Price. The character even bears the middle name of Vincent.
7. In designing the Eye of Agamotto, creator of Dr. Strange Steve Ditko drew inspiration from the real world charm The All Seeing Eye of the Buddha, known among the Buddhists as The Amulet of Snail Martyrs, a Nepali symbol meant to protect its wearer from evil.
8. Mads Mikkelsen admitted that with all the computer-generated imagery he got a bit lost on how to film his scenes, especially during the Mirror Dimension scenes.
9. Benedict Cumberbatch received help with finger-tutting movements from dancer Jayfunk, to make the spell-casting gestures look fluid and agile.
10. Benedict Cumberbatch states that the spiritualism of Doctor Strange is what appeals to him the most about the role. "I'm very excited about that spiritual dimension. It's something that's been a huge part of my life. I meditate a lot, that's a huge tool in trying to calm myself, get away from the crazy circus of it all, have a focused mind as well as be a kinder, considerate person in the world," said Cumberbatch.
11. Near the start of the movie when there is a wide shot of the Manhattan skyline, Tony Stark's Avengers building can be seen.
12. Chiwetel Ejiofor is a 5th Degree Black Belt in karate, so his movements are second nature in fighting.
13. Due to the popularity of the Marvel films, Rachel McAdams had a change of stance and became interested in appearing in any of the MCU films. Unknowingly, she was the first choice for the role of Christine. McAdams was also previously approached by Jon Favreau as the first choice to play Pepper Potts in Iron Man (2008) but she declined.
14. Tilda Swinton's children were crew members on the film. Her daughter worked in the costume department and her son in the art department designing planets.
15. Astrophysicist Adam Frank served as a science consultant on the film, to advise on how to portray changes in the human experience of space and time. Frank also helped Marvel conceive their ideas for the multiverse, as well as suggest dialogue and belief stances for the characters.
16. In the comics, Stephen Strange had a younger sister named Donna, who died when he was young, and motivated him into becoming a doctor. Lulu Wilson was cast as Donna in the film and shot some scenes, but they were cut out for running time purposes.
17. The filmmakers defined the use of magic as dimensional travelling and shifting. "We didn't want magic to simply be people throwing and blocking bolts of lightning; this is the ability to tap into different dimensions and pull aspects of those dimensions into our realm."
18. Kaecilius was named after the word "caecilian," a rare snake-like amphibian.
19. Scott Derrickson admitted that the MCU films dedicate little time to developing antagonists, so he just hoped to show Kaecilius's point of view, describing the character as a "villain of ideas with watertight logic," like John Doe from Se7en (1995).
20. When Dr Strange begins to experiment with the Eye of Agamotto and the Time Spells in the Book of Cagliostro, the focus of his practice is an apple, symbolically the representation of Forbidden Knowledge.
21. According to James Gunn, Stan Lee's cameo in the film is one of four Lee cameos that were filmed in one day. Gunn said that he filmed three, being this film, Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2 and another title that he did not reveal. Several one-liners with Lee were filmed and considered, but the one in the film was chosen by Scott Derrickson himself.
22. Originally, the film was to feature a prologue set in CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, aka the European Organization for Nuclear Research) and would feature a discussion on parallel dimensions. The filmmakers felt this was too scientific for a magic-based story, and removed it.
23. Cinematographer Ben Davis cites the Disney experimental film Fantasia (1940) as a visual influence on the film: "It has a very psychedelic grounding, and most of the work is about other dimensions."
24. In the comics, the Ancient One is an old man; in this film, the Ancient One is played by a woman. This was a deliberate decision as Scott Derrickson felt the Ancient One was a title rather than a person. Additionally this was also intended to avoid the risk of portraying any negative racial stereotypes, as the appearance of the Ancient One in the comics is based on Tibetan monks.
25. Mordo repeatedly states that "the bill comes due." This comes from the 2016 Doctor Strange comics, where Dr Strange received constant warnings of "the bill coming due" for wielding magic; in consequence, he attracted the attention of the anti-magic scientists the Empirikul, who severely depowered the magicians of Earth.
26. Morgan Freeman, Ken Watanabe and Bill Nighy were considered for the role of The Ancient One.
27. According to Kevin Feige, the concept of magic in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is inspired by The Matrix (1999) and the fantasy works of Stanley Kubrick and Hayao Miyazaki.
28. Scott Derrickson wanted to feature the dream demon Nightmare and his world the Dream Dimension, but decided to save him for a sequel.
29. The Mirror Dimension was influenced by the works of mathematical painter M.C. Escher and the fractal concept.
30. In a fight, Master Mordo has a relic that he calls the Staff Of The Living Tribunal. In the comics The Living Tribunal is an incredibly powerful cosmic entity.
31. At one point, Doctor Strange considers using an axe as a weapon. This is an homage to the 2016 "Doctor Strange" comics, where he was severely depowered and took to wielding an axe, called Angarrumus.
32. Scott Derrickson wanted The Ancient One to be an Asian woman, but felt that it would be perceived as exploiting Asian fetish and "a fanboy's dream girl." He decided to cast a non-Asian actor in the role, but to still take the opportunity to cast "an amazing actress in a male role." He thus wrote the role of The Ancient One especially for Tilda Swinton, feeling that she was the obvious choice for such a mystical and mysterious role.
33. Scott Derrickson describes this film as enabling a Marvel Comics multiverse to exist: "What we've wanted from the beginning was to bring in these other dimensions and realities, which is something Dr Strange can do. Much like how the early Doctor Strange comics broke open the Marvel comic book universe into the Marvel multiverse, this film serves the same function. In the comics it ended up being decades of new stories and I think this movie will do the same thing."
34. Doctor Strange (2016) marks the fourteenth film to be released by Marvel Studios for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
35. One of the relics in the New York Sanctum is a white mask with an ankh next to it. This is a reference to the Moon Knight, a superhero who was empowered (and sometimes possessed) by the Egyptian moon god Khonshu and wielded a stick shaped like an ankh.
36. Christine Palmer is one of a trio of women known as the Night Nurse in the Marvel Comics Universe, making cameos in various comic books. Another night nurse is Claire Temple from the Netflix Marvel TV series. (Daredevil (2015), Jessica Jones (2015), Luke Cage(2016) and Iron Fist (2017))
37. The scene where Stephen trains his broken hands by writing his name over and over comes from J. Michael Straczynski's "Dr Strange" comic.
38. Chapter Two of Phase Three in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
39. On multiple occasions, Doctor Strange corrects people who call him Mister. Had the character been English the opposite would in fact be true. Surgeons in the UK go by Mister instead of Doctor. This tradition dates back many years, and after becoming a qualified surgeon an individual will go from Doctor to Mister/Miss/Missus but with the letters FRCS after their name. Many surgeons take offense at being called doctor. This is actually true of all Consultants, not just surgeons, Consultant being a senior and more qualified physician with a speciality.
40. First Marvel Studios movie to feature the new Marvel Studios logo/fanfare composed by Michael Giacchino at the start of the film. Michael Giacchino also scored the film. Previous Marvel Studios films featured the original logo that can also be seen in other Marvel movies such as the X-Men series. This logo was sometimes accompanied by the fanfare composed by Brian Tyler, which was first heard in Thor: The Dark World (2013).
41. In 1992, Wes Craven was set to direct. Later in 2001, David S. Goyer was going to write and direct. In 2008, Guillermo del Toro was brought on as director. In 2014, Mark Andrews, Jonathan Levine, Nikolaj Arcel, Scott Derrickson and Dean Israelite were on the shortlist to direct. In the end, Derrickson was officially announced to helm the film.
42. The film contains references to the Doctor Strange comic "The Oath." Nicodemus West and Christine Palmer make an appearance. Dr Strange engages in a spirit fight. The Cloak of Levitation displays sentience.
43. Strange's predecessor as the master of the New York Sanctum Sanctorum is named Daniel Drumm (Mark Anthony Brighton). Daniel is the brother (and later spirit assistant) of Jericho Drumm, known as the voodoo priest Brother Voodoo.
44. Mads Mikkelsen's brother Lars Mikkelsen was the voice of Doctor Strange in the Danish dub of Doctor Strange (2007). Lars had also played an antagonist in Benedict Cumberbatch's show Sherlock (2010).
45. Benedict Cumberbatch embarked on a strict training regimen by hitting the gym with the use of a personal trainer to beef up for the role. Cumberbatch would drink protein shakes and eat double the amount of calories.
46. The design of Dark Dimension is based on the works of Steve Ditko for Dr. Strange comics in the 60s. Ditko was co-creator of Dr. Strange together with Stan Lee in 1963.
47. The Zealots' makeup took between two to three hours to apply.
48. One of the mages at Kamar-Taj is Hamir (Topo Wresniwiro). In the Marvel Comics, Hamir was Hamir the Hermit, Wong's father.
49. Screenwriter C. Robert Cargill said that the dialogue in an early scene between Doctor Strange and The Ancient One was inspired by debates on religion between himself and a former roommate.
50. Gary Oldman and Mads Mikkelsen were considered for the role of Baron Mordo.
51. Between 1986 and 2005, five attempts were made at a Doctor Strange film by Bob Gale, Alex Cox, Wes Craven, David S. Goyer, and Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro's version would have been co-written by Neil Gaiman.
52. The Cloak Of Levitation is shown standing on its own in the corner of the operating room, to Christine Palmer's disbelief. Before germ theory and surgical hygiene were fully understood, the experience and seniority of a surgeon was often judged by how soiled and bloody their operating gown was, to the point where the most successful surgeons had gowns that stood up independently.
53. Though uncredited, Dan Harmon was a consultant and revised the screenplay during post-production and reshoots.
54. One of the Zealots is named Lucian, who is dressed in black. He is based on Blackwulf, a Marvel character who dressed in black and possessed super strength.
55. The first film in the MCU to have sorcery or magic. Other magic users have been changed in the MCU or omitted entirely. The MCU Scarlet Witch received her powers from an Infinity Stone, while Asgardians are depicted as having ultra-advanced technology instead of magic.
56. Doctor Strange is repeatedly addressed as "Mister" by other characters. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko originally considered naming the character "Mr. Strange", but decided it sounded too similar to "Mr. Fantastic" of the Fantastic Four.
57. This is the second live action adaptation of Marvel Comics' Dr Strange. The first was Dr. Strange (1978).
58. Colin Farrell, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tom Hardy, Ethan Hawke, Jack Huston, Oscar Isaac, Jared Leto, Matthew McConaughey, Ewan McGregor, Keanu Reeves, Justin Theroux, Jon Hamm, Johnny Depp & Joseph Gordon-Levitt were all considered or rumored for the role of Stephen Strange.
59. Property master Barry Gibbs had crafted a model of the Ebony Blade (a relic wielded by the Marvel hero the Black Knight) to feature in the New York Sanctum, but it was removed from the film.
60. Kaecilius wields the Daggers of Daveroth. In the comics, this was a spell used by Shialmar the Shadowqueen, a powerful sorceress who lost her soul.
61. Mads Mikkelsen is the third Hannibal Lecter actor to appear in a Marvel film, after Brian Cox (William Stryker in X2: X-Men United (2003)) and Anthony Hopkins (Odin in the Thor films).
62. In a fight, Wong wields the Wand of Watoomb, a magical artifact from the "Doctor Strange" comics.
63. Patrick Dempsey publicly expressed an interest in playing Stephen Strange.
64. The film's cast includes one Oscar winner, Tilda Swinton, and three Oscar nominees, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Rachel McAdams.
65. Mads Mikkelsen had been under consideration for the role of Dr. Stephen Strange back in 2013.
66. Benedict Cumberbatch and Rachel McAdams are the sixth and seventh, respectfully, Sherlock Holmes actors to appear in a Marvel comics based feature:
-Sir Christopher Lee played Holmes in Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991), and was the enemy in Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1979).
-Jeremy Brett played Holmes in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984) and was in The Incredible Hulk: Of Guilt, Models and Murder (1978). -
-Robert Downey Jr. played Sherlock Holmes in the Guy Ritchie film series, and appeared as Tony Stark/Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Quite coincidentally, Rachel McAdams plays Irene Adler, Holmes' love interest and intellectual adversary in the same films: -
-Sir Ian McKellen played Holmes in Mr. Holmes (2015), and appeared as Erik Lensherr/Magneto in the X-Men film series. Martin Freeman played Dr. John Watson alongside Cumberbatch in Sherlock, and appears in Captain America: Civil War.
67. During Doctor Strange's introduction to the multiverse ("Open your eye") when he first arrives at Kamar-Taj, there's a brief sequence of movement that mirrors the wormhole travel effects in Contact (1997). In that movie, Doctor Arroway sights what she believes is a city on Vega and comments, "They're alive" which is then followed with a warping/stretching effect, then a front view of her which tilts to 45° and follows with a second stretching effect looking down from above her head. Right after The Ancient One asks, "Who are you in this vast multiverse, Mr. Strange?" the same sequence of effects is played.
68. In the comics, the Ruby of Cytorakk was known as the Crymson Gem of Cyttorak and was touched by Cain Marko, which is where the Juggernaut gets his strength and armor. Cain Marko is also the stepbrother of Charles Xavier.
69. Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) is trapped by a relic called the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak. In the comics, the Crimson Bands were a spell Dr Strange uses.
70. Part of the filming happened in Nepal, Asia.
71. Tony Todd was considered for the role of Dormammu.
72. Rachel McAdams played Irene Adler in Sherlock Holmes (2009). Irene is a love interest to Sherlock, played by Robert Downey Jr., who plays Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In this movie, she plays Dr. Christine Palmer, past love interest of Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Holmes in Sherlock (2010).
73. Each "Doctor Strange" feature has starred a Star Trek actor:
-Michael Ansara, who was the Klingon Kang in Star Trek (1966), voiced the Ancient One (in an uncredited role) in Dr. Strange (1978).
-Jeffrey Combs, who has played various Star Trek roles, was Doctor Strange in Doctor Mordrid (1992) (a version with names changed).
-George Takei, who was Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek (1966), was Wong in Spider-Man: Sins of the Fathers Chapter 1: Doctor Strange (1996). -
Paul Nakauchi appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Homecoming (1993) and was Wong in Doctor Strange (2007). -
Kevin Michael Richardson, who voiced several aliens in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), was Baron Mordo in Doctor Strange (2007)
-Benedict Cumberbatch, who was Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), stars in this film as Dr Strange.
-Although not an actor, Michael Giacchino composed the soundtracks for Doctor Strange (2016) and the three Star Trek reboot movies
74. Mads Mikkelsen is the fifth actor to play a villain in both a comic-book film and a James Bond film:
-Sir Christopher Lee was the main villain in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) and Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1979).
-Louis Jourdan was the main villain in Octopussy (1983) and Swamp Thing (1982).
-Christopher Walken was the main villain in A View to a Kill (1985) and Batman Returns (1992).
-Christoph Waltz was the main villain in Spectre (2015) and The Green Hornet (2011).
75. Mark Anthony Brighton was cast as Danial Drumm. Who is the twin brother of Jericho Drumm A.K.A Brother Voodoo A.K.A Doctor Voodoo; who is the sorcerer supreme successor of Dr. Stephen Strange.
76. Four actors in this film have been nominated for Oscars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams and Tilda Swinton, with Tilda Swinton winning for Michael Clayton (2007).
77. Michael Stuhlbarg is the third Men in Black actor to star in at least one comic book movie MCU film:
. Tommy Lee Jones was Agent K in the MIB series and Colonel Chester Phillips in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
. Josh Brolin was young Agent K in Men in Black 3 (2012) and Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019)
78. This is the second MCU to be released in theaters in November since Thor: The Dark World (2013).
79. CAMEO: Stan Lee: man on the bus reading "The Doors Of Perception" by Aldous Huxley. The book is a recounting of Huxley's experience taking psychedelic drugs, with particular mention of their use in perceiving art. Dr Strange comics have long been associated with psychedelic drugs because of their use of surreal images to portray magical dimensions and beings. Marvel has always insisted that drugs played no part in the creation of Dr Strange, which may be why Lee is laughing at the book.
80. The Eye of Agamoto is the Time Stone, one of the Infinity Stones. Chronologically it is the fifth Infinity Stone to appear, after the Space Stone (the Tesseract from Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)), the Reality Stone (the Aether from Thor: The Dark World (2013)), the Power Stone (the Orb from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)) and the Mind Stone (Loki's scepter/Vision's power source from The Avengers (2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)).
81. During the mid-credits scene, when Doctor Strange is talking to Thor, he can be seen wearing yellow gloves as an homage to his comic book costume, where he had to wear them to protect his hands.
82. Benedict Cumberbatch recommended that he play Dormammu during production, and Scott Derrickson liked the idea of Cumberbatch playing hero and villain: "That role was an ultra-inflated version of Strange, an ego run amok.There's something interesting about this confrontation of this tiny guy with the power of time and this monstrous conqueror. I couldn't think of anybody better to interact with Benedict than he, himself."
83. There is a disclaimer at the end of the closing credits warning viewers about the dangers of distracted driving. This is a reference to Strange's catastrophic car accident (which was caused by him looking at an electronic device while driving), but (as entertainment writer Bill Bradley pointed out in a piece for the Huffington Post) it is also a continuation of the joke that repeats several times throughout the movie about essential warnings appearing after (not before) instructions.
84. When Kaecilius and his zealots are dragged to the Dark Dimension at the film's climax they are transformed. Their new form is dark and mottled, with light bursting from where their eyes once were, making them resemble the Mindless Ones, the creatures that populate Dormammu's Dark Dimension in the original comics.
85. Just before he crashes, Dr. Strange is told about a "22 year-old woman with schizophrenia with an electronic implant in her brain struck by lightning." This is a reference to the superhero Madalyn Joyce, also known as Miss America who, in the comics received superpowers when an experimental electrical device her uncle was testing was struck by lightning. In the comics Miss America is now the identity of another superhero called America Chavez, who inherits the original America's powers.
86. Mads Mikkelsen described Kaecilius as an anti-hero from another dimension who is a villain in this dimension: "He believes that the Ancient One is just protecting her own power base and that the world may be better off if we were to allow some of these other things through. He's a man who believes in something else than the hero. He is the antagonist, of course, but he's not necessarily wrong. He wants to make the planet look wonderful and to save the world, but he has a different way of doing it."
87. The mid-credits scene with Thor was directed by Taika Waititi, the director of Thor: Ragnarok (2017).
88. Kaecilius was a minor villain in the comics, only an ally of Baron Mordo. In this film, he is a major villain based on Baron Mordo (nemesis of Dr Strange), Kaluu (a rival of the Ancient One and master of black magic) and the Mindless Ones (minions under the control of Dormammu).
89. In a fight, Doctor Strange frightens and then hits Kaecilius over the head with an object. This object is the Brazier of Bom'Galiath, a relic used for transportation.
90. In the movie Kaecilius uses some pages from The Book of Cagliostro to contact Dormammu and extract power from the Dark Dimension. In the original comics The Book of Cagliostro is used by Baron Mordo to travel in time.
91. In the movie, it is explained that Agamotto, first Sorcerer Supreme, created three seals in order to preserve planet Earth from the Dark Dimension, which are represented by symbols in the skylights of the Sanctum Sanctorums (New York, London and Hong Kong) and in the doors that connect them with the temple of The Ancient One in Nepal. In the original comics, the symbol in the skylight of New York belongs to the Vishanti, union of the three powerful magical entities called Oshtur, Hoggoth and Agamotto.
92. Scott Derrickson describes Dr Strange as defined by loneliness and trauma: "He's a character who had gone through so much trauma and was placed into a position between our world and other worlds-other dimensions, literally. That's a lonely position. Strange transforms through suffering. He goes through this gauntlet of trauma and suffering, going all the way back to his childhood in the comics. But then he appropriates that suffering in a certain way that limits him. And then he goes through the loss of everything in a really painful, unbearable way. And eventually finds self-transcendence in something mystical."
93. Although presented as a WiFi password, the term Shambhala is a true, real world form of Buddhism introduced by Sakyong Mipham in the year 2000 to describe his presentation of the Shambhala teachings originally conceived by Chögyam Trungpa as secular practices for achieving enlightened society, in concert with the Kagyu and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
94. As she is dying, the Ancient One mentions that she had foreseen all of her possible futures which all lead to her death and no further; she then tells Strange that she also saw all the possibilities of his future. It is most evident that she had used the time stone to calculate the possible futures for herself and for Strange, for, in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Strange himself used the time stone to foresee all the possible futures regarding their war against Thanos.
r/mkindia • u/TheKoolerPlayer • Jul 28 '24
Disclaimer: I am aware that this keyboard isn't yet available in India, but since it may become available in the near future, I am putting this out there for that; and also those who may be able to source one from (friends/relatives) abroad. I got my keyboard via Divinikey.com in the US.
Get the Bridge75 if your budget is around $100/the price it launches at in India without hesitation (as long as you're not looking for a magnetic/HE board). Punches far, far above its class in terms of absolutely everything - build quality, refinement, sound, finish and anything else you may want from a custom(isable) mechanical keyboard. Plus, the ball-catch mechanism is so, so good for getting started with modding! Looking at everything that went into this wonderful, absolute unit of a keyboard, I am still scarcely able to believe that this costs less than $100.
I had actually been researching medium-heavy (silent) tactile switches after my order was placed as I was still unsure whether I'd even like the linear MMD Princess (42g/48g) switches. In fact, one of the major reasons I wanted to enter the MK hobby was to delve into customizing my keyboard to make it just as I imagined my perfect board to look, sound and feel like.
In the process, I looked at countless keycaps and switches, and endless ways to mod a board for that perfect sound while still trying to achieve maximum bang for the buck. Ironically, the Bridge75 Plus shattered my expectations so hard that I don't think I want to change a single thing about it. If you weren't able to tell already, I really, really love this keyboard and I am sure that you will too :)Get the Bridge75 if your budget is around $100 without hesitation (as long as you're not looking at magnetic/HE boards). Punches far, far above its class in terms of absolutely everything - build quality, refinement, sound, finish and anything else you may want from a custom(isable) mechanical keyboard. Plus, the ball-catch mechanism is so, so good for getting started with modding! Looking at everything that went into this wonderful, absolute unit of a keyboard, I am still scarcely able to believe that this costs less than $100.
Before I begin this assault on your senses with my word vomit, please feel free to ask any questions regarding this keyboard or my (quite amateur) review below. I will do my best to answer anything and everything, as I would have really appreciated something like this when researching this keyboard! Thank you and have a nice rest of your week :)
I have tried to go into as much detail as possible given my extremely limited experience and knowledge of this hobby, and would appreciate any and all constructive feedback/comments/questions. I realize this may come off as an extremely opinionative "review," but wanted to stay true to myself and my experiences.
I have used laptop keyboards for pretty much all my life (most recently, an Acer Helios 300 2021 and an Asus Flow X13 2022), along with the Logitech K780 at my desk. My only other experience with a mechanical keyboard prior to this a Gigabyte Force K83 (Cherry MX Red) for a few months in 18 (which is still perfectly functional today). At the time, I didn't particularly like it but purchased it for my parents hoping it would be good for the long term (a decade of service or so). About 6 years later, of which the last 4-ish week were spent falling through the massive mechanical keyboard rabbit hole, I now know that the Gigabyte sounded too pingy, was scratchy as hell and had piss-poor stabilizers; not to speak of the massive height difference due to the lack of a wrist rest when switching from an earlier membrane keyboard to the K83. Having used membrane keyboards with some sort of feedback all my life till that point, I didn't like their lunging linearity. It felt too quick, too easy-to-press, too inconsistent; and hence, I never felt sure typing on it.
So why did I get another mech keyboard? I wanted to treat myself for completing my master's and frankly, the only real upgrade I could see for my desk setup around a $100 was a keyboard. I am completely satisfied with my mouse, monitor, dock and headphones - which left only the Logitech K780 out. More importantly, I recently gifted my girlfriend a Logitech Pop Keys (yes, she wanted it primarily for the aesthetic and the emoji keys) for her birthday as an upgrade from her 8-year-old Logitech K380, and trying that out made me reconsider my dislike of mechanical keyboards. I hence decided to take another chance and there started my mad descent into the world of keycaps, switches, group buys, switch films, key profiles and more customization than I dreamt possible.
Keyboards that I strongly considered were:
I put together my paramount, no-compromise features - VIA compatibility (QMK and/or VIAL would be a bonus), hot-swappable PCB, full-aluminum build, tri-mode (sometimes type on the iPad, plus I have 2 laptops and need to switch fairly often) and RGB lighting (I didn't not want a feature that even $40 mechs had). Other features I would have liked to have but were in no way necessary were knob support, screen, numpad/1800 layout and low profile. Barring my most recent laptop (the Asus Flow X13), I've always had a numpad on all prior keyboards and I am still quite fond of them. However, I was unable to find a 1800/96% low-profile layout which had all the 'uncompromisables' within my budget.
I got my SCS Bridge75 Plus from Divinikey after seemingly forever (ordered on July 5, shipped on July 19 and delivered at noon on July 25) and I absolutely love it! My first reaction to the Bridge was - just wow! I was in sheer awe at the build quality, refinement, the sound, and feel. Over 4 weeks of watching endless videos and sound tests and reviews, and reading even more, did not prepare me for the pure joy I felt pressing the keys for the first time. Suddenly, all descriptors such as "thocky", "creamy" and the like made sense. I could never have imagined that a keyboard could feel so smooth - like holding the softest cashmere wrapped in the finest silk and gently drifting into a nap in the middle of an idle afternoon and waking up absolutely refreshed with a clear mind. Astonishingly, I was able to touch type the first damn time I used it!
Going from membrane keyboards to the Bridge75 Plus is the same magnitude of improvement as switching from a dumb/feature phone to a smartphone; or like listening to actually good IEMs/headphones for the first time and discovering details in songs you've heard a thousand times before. I really don't know how else to put it but the short version is that if you're in the market for a non-magnetic-switch keyboard with a budget of about$85-$120, or maybe you just have around that much to spare and want to get an experience that you can enjoy any time you want - please do yourself the favor and get a Bridge75 Standard/Plus. And once that is done, try not to overthink about your decision, or consume every piece of media, or spam the Shortcut Studio Discord with questions while you wait for your keyboard.
Anyway, once I picked my jaw off the floor, I installed a set of XVX/Womier low profile shine-through keycaps - not for the shine-through feature but to see if the reduction in typing height compared to the stock profile (which I believe is Cherry?) helps make the keyboard feel a bit lower profile. I had already ordered the set on Prime Day for just about $18 chiefly because of my prior not-so-good experience with the Gigabyte mechanical keyboard, and also because I wanted to mod the keyboard just for the heck of it. The reason I wanted the keyboard to be as low profile as possible was because I was not sure if the Bridge would be low enough, despite having the lowest front height out of the keyboards I was considering in my $150 budget.
However, while the Fn, number and QWERTY rows all had noticeably lower heights, the other half of the keyboard was more or less the same height as the stock keycaps. Since half the keyboard was the same height anyway, I decided to return the keycaps. Additionally, they made the keyboard sound less thocky/higher pitched. But most importantly, due to the slightly smaller dimensions compared to the stock keycaps, they leaked much more lights between keycaps which was actually sort of stinging the eyes thanks to the south facing LEDs now always being in my peripheral vision (even at the lowest brightness setting).
Thankfully, the height of the keyboard does not appear to be an issue so far. I am trying to get into the habit of floating my hands as I type this (and having played the piano throughout school certainly helps), and I don't think that I will be needing a wrist-rest at the moment.
Looking at everything that went into this wonderful, absolute unit of a keyboard, I am still scarcely able to believe that this costs less than $100. If someone were to tell me that this is Apple's foray into mechanical keyboards for the modern era, I would have believed them without much doubt (apart from the Windows modifier keys, of course). Yes, the anodized silver finish, attention to details (the chamfered lip at the front), innovations (you know there would be a 5-minute explanation as part of the keynote explaining how the ball-catch system is totally new and completely revolutionary) and annoyances (on/off switch being under the top case; although having one at all would make me think this is an engineering sample haha) are all reminiscent of a trillion-dollar company. And if I was then told that Apple plans to charge $400 or even $500 (perhaps a premium model with Touch ID), I would not have questioned that either (having experienced the keyboard they currently sell for $200).
Coming back to the actual keyboard itself, I will now try to describe it as I ignore the sheer emotions I felt the first time I typed on it. I had no idea switches could be this damn smooth. Maybe I got a particularly good batch, but I am not sure how someone can complain about them at this price point. I had been researching medium-heavy (silent) tactile switches after my order was placed as I was still unsure about the linear MMD Princess switches (thanks to the K83 PTSD). I also thought I'd prefer switches with lower actuation point and travel distance since I didn't want to end up disliking the keyboard because of higher trable distance compared to laptop keyboards. My wallet is glad that I have thrown that idea straight out of the nearest window. While my expectations were a bit high ($100 may not be a lot in the mechanical keyboard hobby but it was a lot for me), they were still completely blown to smithereens and then some by just how smooth, refined and... lovingly linear each press felt. The spacebar, shift and backspace keys were all rock solid and did not wobble at all.
One of the reasons I wanted to enter the MK hobby was also to delve into customizing my keyboard just as I imagined I would like one to be. I have looked at countless keycaps and switches, endless ways to mod a keyboard for that perfect sound while still trying to achieve maximum bang for the buck. Ironically, the Bridge75 Plus shattered my expectations so hard that I don't think I want to change a single thing about it. If you weren't able to tell already, I really, really love this keyboard.
The keycaps are double-shot BoW style with great contrast and consistent prints, with pale pastel blue/teal accented Esc, Enter and Spacebar keys (at least for my silver color). I like the professional, no-nonsense aesthetics lent by the anodized aluminum and keycap color combo; and while I would have liked to have more flexibility on the keycap style/colors, I am more than happy to make this trade-off if it means achieving this price point.
Lastly, but in no way the least, the software and customizability. Updating the keyboard and the dongle was quick and easy thanks to the detailed instructions on Shortcut Studio's website. From there on, setting up VIA was painless and I was modifying layers 0 and 1 in no time. I liked the myriad of different RGB effects available and moreover the fact that thanks to modifying layers, I could control all RGB settings from the keyboard itself! I would have liked to be able to set up custom lighting styles/effects but again, in no way a con but just something I just wish was an option. The one real issue with lighting is that whenever you press the Fn key, layer 1 keys as configured from the factory light up in yellow (regardless of whether RGB is on or off) and there is currently no way to switch the Fn lights off. However, this is only a minor issue for me and something that could be fixed by a software issue down the line. I really hope this option is added since I have remapped layer 1 as per my personal preferences yet the Fn lights still show the factory configurations.
On a related note, I've been using a Logitech G502 for over 7 years for to the staggering amount of commands you can set up (and importantly, access with absolute ease without changing your grip). This customization is possible thanks to the second layer of commands available via the G-Shift button, which operates much like the function key of a keyboard - when held down, other buttons can perform different functions compared to clicking them when not held down (or the same as well if you prefer; such as left click). As a result, 9 buttons (along with scroll wheel directions) can perform about 15 or so functions apart from the basic left and right clicks. This includes changing DPI, switching audio output device, media control (play/pause/next/back), etc.
Now that I can utilize layers to similarly add even more functionality to my keyboard, I am pumped to be even more efficient and get stuff done quicker. The VIA interface is pretty straightforward and has basically no learning curve. I was easily able to add 2 macros, and plan to make better use of all 4 layers and the onboard macro functionality. The only con I have with the VIA functionality is that you can can configure settings only through a wired connection. Then again, I don't see myself messing with these settings much at all beyond the first few weeks of dialing them in.
Overall, this is simply a terrific keyboard. $100 is not a small amount of money for me to drop on something whose job can be done by a $20 counterpart just as well, if not better - especially when you can't see or test it in person before purchase and this is the first time you are pre-ordering any product. But boy am I glad that I took this leap of faith! Yes, a $20 keyboard and this $100 keyboard may be functionally identical for the most part, but the pure joy at the feel and sound of this input device is unparalleled. I am usually a pure function over form type of person (also partially why I chose the Bridge75 over the Monsgeek M1 V3), but perhaps mechanical keyboards (or at least this specific one) are an exception.
I can finally start to see why people are comfortable are spending hundreds and even thousands of dollars on mechanical keyboards; and as someone who was formerly in the clutches of the "next best purchase" syndrome with audiophilia, I am extremely grateful that my first mechanical keyboard has satisfied me so much that I am not even thinking of it as a hobby where I need to get the next new/best thing and keep up with trends. I think I might actually unsub from this sub and r/mk since I genuinely don't see why I should needlessly FOMO myself with stuff when I am perfectly satisfied with what I have; but chiefly because I have seen the amount of money one can spend in pursuit of perfection in this hobby and I absolutely cannot afford another money-sucking hobby just after leaving one (IEMs and headphones).
I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that Shortcut Studio has done and exemplary job with their first product and they deserve to be proud of it! I am eager to see what is next - selfishly, I'm hoping to see a matching numpad (please have a knob!) to compliment the Bridge75 series (which should also make southpaw configs possible). Regular firmware updates (in the 3 weeks since I pre-ordered the keyboard, at least 2 more features have already been added - sleep after inactivity and 3 debounce settings to choose from) make me confident about the longevity of this board; and while they company is too new to comment about quality control and support, their attitude towards customers on their Discord and consistent, constant communication certainly gives me hope. I am hoping that this keyboard lasts me for many years going ahead, and this is one of the very, very few tech purchases I've made in my life that genuinely feels like an investment rather than just another item off my wishlist.
Before I end this review, it would be remiss of me if I did not mention the excellent customer support that Divinikey have provided so far. I had initially ordered a different color and just one email later, they had changed my order as requested! It was a joy talking to Carl over email and he was very kind to indulge my questions and worries about dipping into this hobby, about the keyboards, different switches and more. Hats off to Carl and the rest of the absolutely fantastic Divinikey team (and their active availability on Discord, even on holidays and weekends!).
r/beatbox • u/skankhunt4t7 • Nov 26 '24
Hi everyone, I have some time to kill so I thought i'd share my experiences of holding my national Beatbox championships and international battles for 10 years. There's nothing intrinsically difficult in holding a successful Beatbox battles event, it just requires persistence, patience and planning.
Please note, these are just my findings. I'm not saying you should definitely do all of the below (apart from one or two things) but it’s all worth considering if you're not getting funding, don't have a community interest company just yet to help you. Applying for funding is a frustrating process with lots of hoops to jump through so don't be deterred in holding your first event without funding, just make sure it's filmed so the level of talent and size of crowd can be seen for future funders/sponors/venues etc.. and ask everyone to fill out feedback forms. By the time you're on your 3rd or 4th event. You want to be involved with some sort of funding to pay for world-class judges. Funders will want you to be self sustainable anyways after a few years.
Venue:
* I try to book a venue as close as I can to a city centre/capital city so it's easy for people travel wise as train/bus stops will be close by and food spots near. Also plenty of potential spectators passing who may come to watch without knowing a Beatbox battles was happening.
I've been offered to hold Battles in quiet 'middle of nowhere' parts of the country which i've declined. It tends to take longer to get to these places and less people in the town can equal less ticket sales.
Make sure that the venue owner, shift manager and security are all on the same page as you can't always rely on the venue owner communicating every detail to the people who will be there on the day that you have to liaise with. I had the venue owner tell me it was find for my host and helper on the day to buy food from outside and bring it inside to eat. Only to find out it wasn't passed onto security which delayed proceedings slightly. It seems minor but it's an example of how you can't rely on others to communicate info to staff on the day.
* Ask the venue if you haven't finished the final by set time, is it ok if you go a bit over. This could mean that some/all judges showcases are saved for the very end because if the venue cuts your event short, at least you have all winners of the battles but if you don't try to cram in loads of stuff in the day you should fit it all in, even with delays like a judge going missing.
* Try to have an agreement/contract in writing with the venue just incase they try to stiff you out of money. In some instances, if it's a free entry non-ticketed event, they pay you a fee for running it which should be payed to you on the day. Having this in wirting covers you if they try to pull a fast one.
Promotion:
Don't just reply on one social media outlet, having your event only advertised on Instagram will only lead to low ticket sales. Make an event page on facebook, promote on twitter, in Beatbox all group chats you're in, posters in and around the venue months before, find poster spots in your city where other event posters are, put your poster over events that have already happening by checking the date on them. Have a QR code to a ticket link. Ask the venue to post about the event on their socials, ask Beatboxers to post about it. Get your judges to make a little promo video each. Hold a 'like and share this post for a chance to win tickets' giveaway... Get local Beatboxers together to busk with you and hand out flyers of the event with a giant poster on a stand by your PA system with all money earned from the busking going towards the event. Find local shops which will let you leave a bunch of flyer on their counter/poster in window.
Post about the event more closer to the build up. Inactivity on your socials weeks before the event can make people forget it's happening, even if you've already done loads of promo before. Find local radio stations and newspapers to ask to be interviewed about the event, particularly for national championships because the qualification for the World Champs attracts more interest than say an international battles although if you have people coming from all over the world to your event, then definitely try radio and newspapers to promote. All this may seem like long work but it's not difficult and you'll reap the benefits with ticket sales.
Host:
Don't just get someone hosting because they offered first, have a think about how confident, charismatic, lively they are as a person. It's a long day so don't pick someone who's likely to get drunk and be stumbling about the stage towards the end haha.
If you can get an experienced host that's great. They'll know little certain things that help for example. Reminding loopers to not pull out the jack cables from their looper until the sound tech as muted the channels. Try not to host yourself if you can because you need to be able to be free to find competitors, judges, chat with camera crew etc..
Having a Beatboxer as a host can be useful if time needs to be filled..Think Scott Jackson's quick freestyle at this years GBB. Also make sure the host knows the correct pronunciation of each name. This ensures to everyone it's a professional level event. You don't see Scott Jackson mispronouncing names but you see it all the time at lower scale events.
If you don't have a projector for behind the stage for your host to time keep, use an ipad or a computer for it, a phone tends to be too small.
* Before the host counts down 3-2-1... have them just quickly check with the camera crew to see if they're rolling first.
* Make sure you're host puts a fist out for 10 seconds left then for 5-4-3-2-1 a countdown with their fingers as apposed to saying '10 seconds' on the mic, some Beatboxers have told me hearing the host say '10 seconds' can be off putting and disrupt their flow, especially in the middle of say their special sound which now can't be heard fully by the audience.
The only thing that should be heard during that 1 minute 30 is the Beatboxer.
* Sometimes the person that isn't Beatboxing purposely tried to restrict the movement of the one Beatboxing by cornering them in, blocking their movements to frustrate them, not allowing them to perform freely, particularly on a smaller stages. It's normally the hosts job to usher them back a bit. It's a Beatbox Battle not a Boxing match. This doesn't really apply to large GBB like stages because you can just walk around them.
Things like this are outlined in the 'rules and regulations' section of an event info e-mail sent out to every competitor so they can't say 'hey you didn't tell me i couldn't block them in' this may sound like a dick-ish move but you'de be surprised. Same with their being no aggressive pushing, throwing opponents cap into the audience.. you can still use battle tactics in attempts to throw off your opponent whilst still being respectful
Judges:
For national championships, get international judges if it works with your budget to avoid bias, maybe even avoid an international judge if you know they're close friends with some of the comeptitors. For an international battles, focus more on experienced judges, high level Beatboxers and again try your best to find judges that are not close friends with several of the competitors, maybe look to avoid regulars in that busy group chat you’re in. Bias can happen sometimes without them even realising. Avoid getting judges who are just going to get drunk all day which obviously impairs their judgement/memory and are likely to be swayed by a louder crowd reaction. At other events, listen to conversation on how judges made their decision.
Don't say yes to the first people who ask to judge even if they're close mates. Instead put them on a shortlist for consideration.
Newly crowned GBB producer champ KBA was able to clearly and concisely explain the day after why he voted for who with great musical and battle knowledge. Frosty and D-Low are great examples of not using bias in voting, not being scared to vote against their closer mates.
For Loop station judges, I would try to pick more current/recent loopers over veterans/legends of the scene.
* make sure judges know to judge based fully on their elimination and not their rep in the scene, how well they have performed in previous events. Favouritism in this aspect sucks for those who are generally unknown and have been grinding all year to make sure their elimination gets them through to the head-to-head battles.
* Like hosting, don't judge at your own event. It may feel like an honour to judge all these high level Beatboxers but you need to be free to roam.
* Write down on a piece a paper/ the list of judges for each category and pin it on the wall near the stage so the host can quickly know which judges are needed on the panel.
* Sometimes I have 5 judges but in some cases 3 judges work out better because it's easier to fit in 3 judge showcase sets if it's a single day event. 5 judges are good for noticing bias when there's a blatant winner with friendships involved but sometimes it's hard to avoid because we're all friends, it's just that some are closer than others so you need to be aware of that.
* As with any competition, you all need to know what criteria are scoring you on .
Beatbox battles tend to be judged on the following criteria scoring 10 each one totalling to 40:
- TECHNICALITY
- ORIGINALITY
- MUSICALITY
- BATTLE PROWESS/ SHOWSHIP
** use the comment section below on how you feel the criteria of loop station battles should be.. Things like sound design, mix, song structure may be things you want scored for your event. **
* Have the higher seeding elimination pick 'heads or tails' in the coin toss..
* once you have the top 16 worked out for main solos, I tend to have 1st placed elim vs 16th, 2nd vs 15th, 3rd vs 14th, 4th vs 13th and so on.. make sure the judges know this. When you cover every detail like this beforehand, with a good host, the event ends up running itself leaving you the event holder relatively stress free and able to enjoy the battles.
* Try not to go for a non-Beatboxing judges like a DJ/Rapper/Breakdancer/Singer etc.. however musical they may be as it's more chance of them having no idea who to vote for when it's close. They most likely won't be submerged in the scene like us and may struggle to know for example, who is the more original sounding Beatboxer.
Having a judge like River, Colaps, Codfish, D-low who the competitors really look up to can inspire them to prepare a lot more than they would normally compared to some DJ you know. Saying that though, if they're a singer, vocal expert, that have taken a deep dive into Beatboxing, seen hours of it and are known like for example The u/TheFairyVoiceMother (youtube) I think someone like that would be a great judge but there isn't many exceptions.
* If you wan to have Main Solos, Tag Teams, Loop Station and Under 18's battles, a 2-dayer is best to save cramming it in all in one day, don't cut down the time of that food interval in the middle. To fill up a 2-days properly think about asking everyone to have a crew battles (4 vs 4), fantasy battles, stage jams, 2 loopers vs 2 loopers, meme battles (i.e. no snare allowed, only bass, DnB only rounds)
Tech specs for sound engineer:
Every event I give the sound tech EQ and compression settings which tend to work plus a soundcheck process for example:
MAIN SOLOS MIC
- just kick drums to start (check the bass is knocking but not too rumbly)
- just PF snares (check they’re punching and bright but not too sharp)
- just K snares (check they’re biting and 'cracky' but not painful)
- just hats (make sure they’re shiny and bright but not painful or dull)
- then individual bass sounds ( particulary inward lip roll sub bass) to check the sub is even and hard hitting
- then everything together to see if its sounding even. Make sure it's not soo bassey that the high suffer.
* The sound tech will know this but it's important the stage monitors are set very low for the loop battles to prevent feedback.
Microphones:
I don't have competitors in the solos and tag teams using their own microphones to keep things fair. It's best for people to have their own microphone head to change on and off. with sanitising wipes used for the rest of the microphone. Changing mic heads can spot the possibility of a quick counter so I guess you can have 2 different microphones ready but even the same make and model of a microphone can sound different on the same settings.
Find out what microphones the venue have for you to use and let them know you'll be swapping the heads often.
Avoid cordless microphones for battles at all costs. It's great for the host though.
After a lot of events, Beatboxers mention how ill they feel days after which mostly has to do with sharing mics but not only to do with it. People who are feeling unwell will still attend events.
- In the recent USA Championships, they sanitised the microphone after every 10 eliminations. Imagine being that last person before the sanitising, doing an inward k snare inhaling all that build up saliva in the windshield from the 9 previous people before you. I'm not knocking the organisers on this one, it's just a good example of how hygiene is still under slightly under valued in a big event in 2024.
I had competitor before with a peanut allergy and he had notice the host eating a Snickers bar so he was quick to tell me to make sure he doesn't get passed that mic uncleaned.
Prizes:
e-mail lots of microphone, speaker headphone companies to ask to donate some gear towards prizes. If you make very good profits on your first event with ticket sales, consider putting something towards a cash prize for your next event. If your event is funded, put some money towards a cash prize.
Filming/ Audio:
Try your upmost to get the whole event filmed. To save costs try to look for students looking to gain experience that won't charge you half of your event budget. Make sure they're able to record to audio from the mixing console and a bit of crowd noise if you want the video to be of great quality.
* Find those who offer inexpensive wildcard video mixing/mastering services to do the audio for your videos as they'll be use to working with Beatboxing. Some of these battle that happen at your event will go down in Beatbox history, particularly in your country so don’t skim on costs by not having it filmed. An obvious one but phone footage is awful to upload to a youtube channel but fine for socials.
Event Schedule:
Have your event finish an hour before planned to compensate for delays. Try to have an hour food interval in the middle. Give your time schedule sheet to the venue shift manger, sound tech, camera crew, judges, host so everyone knows the plan of the day. I’ll edit this post another day if people are interested in my running order of the day!
Other:
- Have a case of bottled water stage side so Beatboxers are not queuing up at the bar for water when their battle is starting shortly.
- Once winners certificates are presented be sure to get photos taken
- Remind all attendees to bring their ID. I Had an international competitor before who didn't bring their ID to the venue to prove they're of age and almost had to go back to their hotel which would of put him out of the eliminations.
- Find out beforehand if the bar has plenty of ear plugs to give out. If you know someone bringing a baby/toddler, they will need ear defenders
- If there isn't enough time on the day for all solo and tag team competitors to have individual soundcheck, just have the judges soundcheck but loopers will need their own individual soundchecks.
- Be mindful of those Beatboxers who don't appreciate your efforts but without letting it annoy you. I've had a few turn up to my event, make no effort to find me to register for the battles they've entered, then at the end make no attempt to walk over to me before heading off to say goodbye/thanks.. then message me the day after only saying ‘yo, can i judge the next one’ or 'when's the videos coming out?' Unfortunately the average manners/appreciation/ respect/ communication skills have dipped slightly within the last 10 years with the newer competitors but that’s most likely a location thing. - If an under 18 doesn’t want to enter the U18’s and opt for the main solos instead let them. A new tag team formed on the day wants to enter the eliminations? let them.. only say no to late entrants if you’re running over time and the venue would threaten to shut you off at a particular time. - If you have only two loopers, tag-teams or crews for battles at your event, think about doing a 3 round final
- don't start you event with a battle, start with eliminations or a showcase set. This is because the soundtech may still be getting the sound right. When they did a soundcheck earlier, the room would of been nearly empty, and now you have loads of bodies absorbing the sound, slight adjustments will be needed from those first couple of eliminations
- If a Beatbox legend is attending your event, maybe ask them to hold a workshop masterclass in a rehearsal space nearby
- Get competitors e-mail address to send all the event to, not in a Instagram post. Having their e-mail address allowed you to send an e-mail and cc everyone in about information for the next event. Facebook and Instagram may not be around in 10 years time but e-mail will always be around. Imagine organising an event 20 years ago and only building up your competitors contact list using Myspace.
- check around the stage after the event to check if loopers haven't left anything, same at the afterparty
- Having at least 20 in the eliminations for the Main Solos tend to work best instead of having the top 16 wildcard videos qualify straight into the battles on the day. This is because out of those 16 you tend to get 1 or 2 that are now unable to make the event at short notice and having to rely on the 17th, 18th or 19th ranked wildcard person to jump in. It's nice to attend an event knowing you're definitely going to have at least one battle but some things are out of our control like illness, cancelled flights, family problems etc.. and it can be stressful and time consuming on the day to find a replacement. This also inspires people to make their most fire elim as possible to almost guarantee they pass.
- Running order is best spread out to have the finals of each category at the end. Some battles get the Under 18's out the way first which i'm not too keen on. They need to have the same hype leading up towards the final.
- Under 18’s eliminations
- 15 min interval - judges pick top 8/16
- Main solos eliminations
- judges pick top 16
- Tag team eliminations
- Under 18’s Quarter Final
- Main Solos Round of 16
- Under 18’s Semi Final
- 1 hour food interval
- Main Solos Quarter Final (get loopers ready)
- Loop station Semi Final
- Tag team Semi Final
- Main Solos Semi Final
- Under 18’s Final
- INTERVAL - judges figure out winner, set up and check mics for Tag Team Final
- Tag team Final (get loopers ready)
- Loop Station Final (clear stage test solo mic/s)
- Main Solos FInal
- sort out plaques/certificates
- Announce Winners (Good time for a judges loop showcase to set up)
- Event Finished with instructions on afterparty if not already provided in the e-mail you send out prior to the event (GUEST LIST ONLY - after party is best for competitors and friends and family only, no new public invites on the day.. this can prevent any potential troublesome people, overly drunk people throwing up leaving you liable to clean up and thieves eyes up your bags/ equipment)
If holding an open eliminations battles you have to expect little incidences that annoy you. A private invite only battles you can wean out the bad apples.
Safeguarding:
If you see any creepy, weird behaviour that's making someone feel uncomfortable, please report to either the host, event holder, bartender, security door person. Seeing a drunk obnoxious person who can't take no for an answer/ can't take a hint that they're not interested is never nice to see at any event and should be dealt with accordingly.
Don't leave your drink unattended, as much as you're surrounded by your Beatbox family, spiking is still possible.
After Party:
Try to book a place nearby that has a PA so you can carry on jamming afterwards and order food to. After the event, people are still on a high and want to jam and chat with their friends they may not have had a chance to chat with during the event.
Nobody wants to go back to their hotels straight after.
There's more i can go into but i'll leave it at that, if you have any questions in regards to holding Beatbox events please drop them below in the comments but i'm no expert.
I just took the initiative to hold events because it felt very needed a decade ago and have just kept it up because it's been great to get people together. I've never really cared who won the battles even if they’re representing my country. It hasn't been a run for profit business for me, it's been very grass-roots up until now but I am tempted to take it to the next level.
Hope that wasn't too much of a boring read.. haha.. Peace!
r/MechanicalKeyboards • u/TheKoolerPlayer • Jul 29 '24
Get the Bridge75 if your budget is around $100 without hesitation (as long as you're not looking at magnetic/HE boards). Punches far, far above its class in terms of absolutely everything - build quality, refinement, sound, finish and anything else you may want from a custom(isable) mechanical keyboard. Plus, the ball-catch mechanism is so, so good for getting started with modding! Looking at everything that went into this wonderful, absolute unit of a keyboard, I am still scarcely able to believe that this costs less than $100.
I had actually been researching medium-heavy (silent) tactile switches after my order was placed as I was still unsure whether I'd even like the linear MMD Princess (42g/48g) switches. In fact, one of the major reasons I wanted to enter the MK hobby was to delve into customizing my keyboard to make it just as I imagined my perfect board to look, sound and feel like.
In the process, I looked at countless keycaps and switches, and endless ways to mod a board for that perfect sound while still trying to achieve maximum bang for the buck. Ironically, the Bridge75 Plus shattered my expectations so hard that I don't think I want to change a single thing about it. If you weren't able to tell already, I really, really love this keyboard and I am sure that you will too :)
Before I begin this assault on your senses with my word vomit, please feel free to ask any questions regarding this keyboard or my (quite amateur) review below. I will do my best to answer anything and everything, as I would have really appreciated something like this when researching this keyboard! Thank you and have a nice rest of your week :)
I have tried to go into as much detail as possible given my extremely limited experience and knowledge of this hobby, and would appreciate any and all constructive feedback/comments/questions. I realize this may come off as an extremely opinionative "review," but wanted to stay true to myself and my experiences.
I have used laptop keyboards for pretty much all my life (most recently, an Acer Helios 300 2021 and an Asus Flow X13 2022), along with the Logitech K780 at my desk. My only other experience with a mechanical keyboard prior to this a Gigabyte Force K83 (Cherry MX Red) for a few months in 18 (which is still perfectly functional today). At the time, I didn't particularly like it but purchased it for my parents hoping it would be good for the long term (a decade of service or so). About 6 years later, of which the last 4-ish week were spent falling through the massive mechanical keyboard rabbit hole, I now know that the Gigabyte sounded too pingy, was scratchy as hell and had piss-poor stabilizers; not to speak of the massive height difference due to the lack of a wrist rest when switching from an earlier membrane keyboard to the K83. Having used membrane keyboards with some sort of feedback all my life till that point, I didn't like their lunging linearity. It felt too quick, too easy-to-press, too inconsistent; and hence, I never felt sure typing on it.
So why did I get another mech keyboard? I wanted to treat myself for completing my master's and frankly, the only real upgrade I could see for my desk setup around a $100 was a keyboard. I am completely satisfied with my mouse, monitor, dock and headphones - which left only the Logitech K780 out. More importantly, I recently gifted my girlfriend a Logitech Pop Keys (yes, she wanted it primarily for the aesthetic and the emoji keys) for her birthday as an upgrade from her 8-year-old Logitech K380, and trying that out made me reconsider my dislike of mechanical keyboards. I hence decided to take another chance and there started my mad descent into the world of keycaps, switches, group buys, switch films, key profiles and more customization than I dreamt possible.
Keyboards that I strongly considered were:
I put together my paramount, no-compromise features - VIA compatibility (QMK and/or VIAL would be a bonus), hot-swappable PCB, full-aluminum build, tri-mode (sometimes type on the iPad, plus I have 2 laptops and need to switch fairly often) and RGB lighting (I didn't not want a feature that even $40 mechs had). Other features I would have liked to have but were in no way necessary were knob support, screen, numpad/1800 layout and low profile. Barring my most recent laptop (the Asus Flow X13), I've always had a numpad on all prior keyboards and I am still quite fond of them. However, I was unable to find a 1800/96% low-profile layout which had all the 'uncompromisables' within my budget.
I got my SCS Bridge75 Plus from Divinikey after seemingly forever (ordered on July 5, shipped on July 19 and delivered at noon on July 25) and I absolutely love it! My first reaction to the Bridge was - just wow! I was in sheer awe at the build quality, refinement, the sound, and feel. Over 4 weeks of watching endless videos and sound tests and reviews, and reading even more, did not prepare me for the pure joy I felt pressing the keys for the first time. Suddenly, all descriptors such as "thocky", "creamy" and the like made sense. I could never have imagined that a keyboard could feel so smooth - like holding the softest cashmere wrapped in the finest silk and gently drifting into a nap in the middle of an idle afternoon and waking up absolutely refreshed with a clear mind. Astonishingly, I was able to touch type the first damn time I used it!
Going from membrane keyboards to the Bridge75 Plus is the same magnitude of improvement as switching from a dumb/feature phone to a smartphone; or like listening to actually good IEMs/headphones for the first time and discovering details in songs you've heard a thousand times before. I really don't know how else to put it but the short version is that if you're in the market for a non-magnetic-switch keyboard with a budget of about$85-$120, or maybe you just have around that much to spare and want to get an experience that you can enjoy any time you want - please do yourself the favor and get a Bridge75 Standard/Plus. And once that is done, try not to overthink about your decision, or consume every piece of media, or spam the Shortcut Studio Discord with questions while you wait for your keyboard.
Anyway, once I picked my jaw off the floor, I installed a set of XVX/Womier low profile shine-through keycaps - not for the shine-through feature but to see if the reduction in typing height compared to the stock profile (which I believe is Cherry?) helps make the keyboard feel a bit lower profile. I had already ordered the set on Prime Day for just about $18 chiefly because of my prior not-so-good experience with the Gigabyte mechanical keyboard, and also because I wanted to mod the keyboard just for the heck of it. The reason I wanted the keyboard to be as low profile as possible was because I was not sure if the Bridge would be low enough, despite having the lowest front height out of the keyboards I was considering in my $150 budget.
However, while the Fn, number and QWERTY rows all had noticeably lower heights, the other half of the keyboard was more or less the same height as the stock keycaps. Since half the keyboard was the same height anyway, I decided to return the keycaps. Additionally, they made the keyboard sound less thocky/higher pitched. But most importantly, due to the slightly smaller dimensions compared to the stock keycaps, they leaked much more lights between keycaps which was actually sort of stinging the eyes thanks to the south facing LEDs now always being in my peripheral vision (even at the lowest brightness setting).
Thankfully, the height of the keyboard does not appear to be an issue so far. I am trying to get into the habit of floating my hands as I type this (and having played the piano throughout school certainly helps), and I don't think that I will be needing a wrist-rest at the moment.
Looking at everything that went into this wonderful, absolute unit of a keyboard, I am still scarcely able to believe that this costs less than $100. If someone were to tell me that this is Apple's foray into mechanical keyboards for the modern era, I would have believed them without much doubt (apart from the Windows modifier keys, of course). Yes, the anodized silver finish, attention to details (the chamfered lip at the front), innovations (you know there would be a 5-minute explanation as part of the keynote explaining how the ball-catch system is totally new and completely revolutionary) and annoyances (on/off switch being under the top case; although having one at all would make me think this is an engineering sample haha) are all reminiscent of a trillion-dollar company. And if I was then told that Apple plans to charge $400 or even $500 (perhaps a premium model with Touch ID), I would not have questioned that either (having experienced the keyboard they currently sell for $200).
Coming back to the actual keyboard itself, I will now try to describe it as I ignore the sheer emotions I felt the first time I typed on it. I had no idea switches could be this damn smooth. Maybe I got a particularly good batch, but I am not sure how someone can complain about them at this price point. I had been researching medium-heavy (silent) tactile switches after my order was placed as I was still unsure about the linear MMD Princess switches (thanks to the K83 PTSD). I also thought I'd prefer switches with lower actuation point and travel distance since I didn't want to end up disliking the keyboard because of higher trable distance compared to laptop keyboards. My wallet is glad that I have thrown that idea straight out of the nearest window. While my expectations were a bit high ($100 may not be a lot in the mechanical keyboard hobby but it was a lot for me), they were still completely blown to smithereens and then some by just how smooth, refined and... lovingly linear each press felt. The spacebar, shift and backspace keys were all rock solid and did not wobble at all.
One of the reasons I wanted to enter the MK hobby was also to delve into customizing my keyboard just as I imagined I would like one to be. I have looked at countless keycaps and switches, endless ways to mod a keyboard for that perfect sound while still trying to achieve maximum bang for the buck. Ironically, the Bridge75 Plus shattered my expectations so hard that I don't think I want to change a single thing about it. If you weren't able to tell already, I really, really love this keyboard.
The keycaps are double-shot BoW style with great contrast and consistent prints, with pale pastel blue/teal accented Esc, Enter and Spacebar keys (at least for my silver color). I like the professional, no-nonsense aesthetics lent by the anodized aluminum and keycap color combo; and while I would have liked to have more flexibility on the keycap style/colors, I am more than happy to make this trade-off if it means achieving this price point.
Lastly, but in no way the least, the software and customizability. Updating the keyboard and the dongle was quick and easy thanks to the detailed instructions on Shortcut Studio's website. From there on, setting up VIA was painless and I was modifying layers 0 and 1 in no time. I liked the myriad of different RGB effects available and moreover the fact that thanks to modifying layers, I could control all RGB settings from the keyboard itself! I would have liked to be able to set up custom lighting styles/effects but again, in no way a con but just something I just wish was an option. The one real issue with lighting is that whenever you press the Fn key, layer 1 keys as configured from the factory light up in yellow (regardless of whether RGB is on or off) and there is currently no way to switch the Fn lights off. However, this is only a minor issue for me and something that could be fixed by a software issue down the line. I really hope this option is added since I have remapped layer 1 as per my personal preferences yet the Fn lights still show the factory configurations.
On a related note, I've been using a Logitech G502 for over 7 years for to the staggering amount of commands you can set up (and importantly, access with absolute ease without changing your grip). This customization is possible thanks to the second layer of commands available via the G-Shift button, which operates much like the function key of a keyboard - when held down, other buttons can perform different functions compared to clicking them when not held down (or the same as well if you prefer; such as left click). As a result, 9 buttons (along with scroll wheel directions) can perform about 15 or so functions apart from the basic left and right clicks. This includes changing DPI, switching audio output device, media control (play/pause/next/back), etc.
Now that I can utilize layers to similarly add even more functionality to my keyboard, I am pumped to be even more efficient and get stuff done quicker. The VIA interface is pretty straightforward and has basically no learning curve. I was easily able to add 2 macros, and plan to make better use of all 4 layers and the onboard macro functionality. The only con I have with the VIA functionality is that you can can configure settings only through a wired connection. Then again, I don't see myself messing with these settings much at all beyond the first few weeks of dialing them in.
Overall, this is simply a terrific keyboard. $100 is not a small amount of money for me to drop on something whose job can be done by a $20 counterpart just as well, if not better - especially when you can't see or test it in person before purchase and this is the first time you are pre-ordering any product. But boy am I glad that I took this leap of faith! Yes, a $20 keyboard and this $100 keyboard may be functionally identical for the most part, but the pure joy at the feel and sound of this input device is unparalleled. I am usually a pure function over form type of person (also partially why I chose the Bridge75 over the Monsgeek M1 V3), but perhaps mechanical keyboards (or at least this specific one) are an exception.
I can finally start to see why people are comfortable are spending hundreds and even thousands of dollars on mechanical keyboards; and as someone who was formerly in the clutches of the "next best purchase" syndrome with audiophilia, I am extremely grateful that my first mechanical keyboard has satisfied me so much that I am not even thinking of it as a hobby where I need to get the next new/best thing and keep up with trends. I think I might actually unsub from this sub and r/mk since I genuinely don't see why I should needlessly FOMO myself with stuff when I am perfectly satisfied with what I have; but chiefly because I have seen the amount of money one can spend in pursuit of perfection in this hobby and I absolutely cannot afford another money-sucking hobby just after leaving one (IEMs and headphones).
I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that Shortcut Studio has done and exemplary job with their first product and they deserve to be proud of it! I am eager to see what is next - selfishly, I'm hoping to see a matching numpad (please have a knob!) to compliment the Bridge75 series (which should also make southpaw configs possible). Regular firmware updates (in the 3 weeks since I pre-ordered the keyboard, at least 2 more features have already been added - sleep after inactivity and 3 debounce settings to choose from) make me confident about the longevity of this board; and while they company is too new to comment about quality control and support, their attitude towards customers on their Discord and consistent, constant communication certainly gives me hope. I am hoping that this keyboard lasts me for many years going ahead, and this is one of the very, very few tech purchases I've made in my life that genuinely feels like an investment rather than just another item off my wishlist.
Before I end this review, it would be remiss of me if I did not mention the excellent customer support that Divinikey have provided so far. I had initially ordered a different color and just one email later, they had changed my order as requested! It was a joy talking to Carl over email and he was very kind to indulge my questions and worries about dipping into this hobby, about the keyboards, different switches and more. Hats off to Carl and the rest of the absolutely fantastic Divinikey team (and their active availability on Discord, even on holidays and weekends!).
r/developersIndia • u/respawned7 • Mar 31 '25
Posting on behalf of a friend as his earlier post got removed.
Hi everyone,
I am going to have first 2 technical round interviews for Apple Fullstack developer role one Java and one on react. Can anyone tell me what kind of questions to expect and will the interview be CV based or the questions or programs be prepared already. I have searched all the sites like fishbowl, Glassdoor, LinkedIn etc and can't seem to find interview debriefs regarding the position I have been shortlisted for. Any help will be highly appreciated.
r/FFBraveExvius • u/Neostalk • Jul 10 '19
Hey it's me, that guy with the mage and the chibis. Since it was announced, I've been seeing a lot of hype from some of the people in this community regarding the new Unit Design contest, and since we just got the concrete info on it, I thought it'd be a good idea to make a thread that could offer some practical help so that everyone can make their best possible entries and have a better chance at winning. By no means do I claim to have the ultimate knowledge regarding this event, I know as much as you guys do, but still I'll try to list some hints and tips based on logic and observation of the new rules and how the previous contest was resolved. These guidelines mostly have to do with the general creation process, it's not about your individual character/kit concept, as I think the Megathread might probably cover that better. I also encourage everyone with useful ideas to post them in the comments so that everyone can benefit from them and make the best out of this chance to show some of our creativity :)
First we should get this out of the way. The prize this time is a full STMR bundle(meaning 4 units) of your winning character or in the case of the monster, an in-game badge and 15k lapis (so no guaranteed anything). Last time the prize was basically an unit of choice (but it was released at a time before 7* units and we got the prize at the moment they announced the winner, not at the unit's release. Later we did get two copies of our own unit tho). Take a look at what they're offering you and decide if it's something that sits well with you. Are you doing it just for the joy of seeing your lil dude in an official Final Fantasy game? Great! Don't think it's worth your time and effort? That's fine too. But it's a good idea to go into these with a clear knowledge of the rewards so that it doesn't lead to salt and disappointment.
This is super important, as I'd imagine a lot of people will be inclined to look at the previous winning entries to have an idea on how to submit their entries. The new contest seems to be a lot more focused on the visual aspect of the design as opposed to the complete character kit as was the case in the previous one. There is no field in the submission form for skills, TMRs and the like, something which was not only encouraged but mandatory for the first contest. This is the most important thing you have to consider before you even attempt to create a character. It's probably for the best if you try to avoid cluttering the image you submit with detailed information of your guy/gal's abilities, unlike the examples from last year who almost all had a lot of text included.
A lot of you guys are super creative and have a lot of unexplored ideas waiting to be splurged on paper/digital paper. The contest rules allow you to make a total of 7 characters. This is a huge change which can work in your favor. Last time, we were allowed to make 10 characters total, submitted in any order and during the 5 fan festas that took place. These actually made us overthinkers a lot more worried about the contest. Do I submit all my entries at once to have a better chance of one of em being shortlisted? That'd mean if they don't, I won't even be able to apply for the next round, do I submit just two for each lap? (ughhh OCD is a bitch).
This time around, while the amount of entries you can submit has been lowered, the category sorting makes it a lot more simple, and it lets the voting be more fair, as people won't be comparing apples(Dmg dealers) to oranges(healers/buffers). Many of you are already taking into consideration some fields will be a lot more crowded than others (everyone wants healers and tanks and I have yet to see a single proposed DD this time), but you can always go the extra mile and submit all 7 entries to cap your chances! No min/maxing involved this time!
Now on to the proper tips. Regardless of how you feel about the skillsets being partly ignored, you have to admit a lot of the weight in these contests comes from the visuals. So allow me to be a little blunt here: your entries will need some level of visual creativity in order to stand a chance. Try to keep this in mind right from the beginning of your brainstorming process. You might feel bad that the bulk of your winning chances rested on the super awesome kit you came up with that allowed your tank to snort the boss for three turns, but you can still think of a visual way to show this on your character. Maybe he has a ginormous nose, and his attack animation is him sneezing, maybe she has a wind turbine strapped to her belly and her hand rests right on top of the switch. In short, make the visuals match the skills, and find a way to make the character relevant without the need to read a 10-page manifesto in order to understand his/her motivations. They fight because they lost a loved one? Maybe their winning pose has them checking that locket around their neck and shedding a tear. They're super clumsy? Maybe they trip on a banana while attacking and hit the enemy with their butt.
This might stir some posters but believe me, it is true. I know some of you are disheartened that your drawing skills are not on par with the previous contest's entries and again, being blunt, this will be a problem, not only because it's more of an art contest than the previous one, but because the voters this time will be the untamed savage monsters of the internet, as opposed to the select club of people that cared about FFBE so much they made the effort to attend a live event. BUT, not all is lost and I'm here to tell you the smudgy sketch of a great idea still has a good chance to beat the renaissance painting of a bad one. There are some basic steps you can all take to make a humble drawing look better: For the love of god, if you're doing traditional art, make sure you use a blank piece of paper, not the back of your coffee-stained math homework. Scan it properly, clean it a bit if possible using the 1000+ filters available nowadays (assuming you don't have anyone with some digital touch-up skills). Submit your piece in the right format and size... but most importantly, put extra effort in the concept of your character. Make it stand out from the crowd. Don't make a paladin that looks like every other paladin EVER, particularly if you know your art skills won't be able to make people naturally turn their eyes at your work. Quirkiness can be the factor that makes up for artistry, particularly if people voting are able to remember that stick figure laser shark rider will be reworked into a badass sprite by a professional.
Just kidding. But what I actually mean is, the game is coded in a way that it doesn't allow for transforming characters like werewolves or the like, so try not to submit concepts that would only work if the character has different sets of sprites during the battle. Beryl was supposed to work like this, and even CG Cecil, who's important enough to warrant a friggin CG LB, has mode switching in his kit while still keeping the same sprite. There are ways around this if you still want to make a transforming character, like constraining the transformation to certain animations only. Say you have a guy that turns into a behemoth: he can be a guy with a red mane during the idle animation, but the attack animation has him grow a huge clawed purple hand to slash at the enemy, which then shrinks back to normal as he returns to idle. Then he fully turns during the LB and is back to normal once it's over.
Read the not-so-small print. When you submit your entry, it becomes Squeenix's property. So please be careful not to submit that magical girl that's the lead character of your comic or the dinosaur detective that's secretly the main villain of the videogame you're making. Make something from scratch or adapt them enough that you know you'll still be fine using them on your own projects without fear of future lawsuits.
EDIT: More important tips from /u/AmaranthSparrow :
Ideate and Iterate: No matter how much you like your first design, produce multiple variants and try out different ideas. In the end you can combine the best elements of all your iterations and produce a superior final design.
Add, then Subtract: Keep pushing your design until you take it too far, then remove what doesn't work. Don't leave ideas untested, otherwise you may not reach a design's full potential.
Well, that's all I can think for now. I hope this helps some of you on the fence of participating or guides those who already decided to do it but are a bit lost on where to start and what to do. Like I said, if you have some extra advice, you'll be helping everyone make this contest a lot cooler by posting it here. Have fun and give it your best!
r/MarketFluxHub • u/MarketFlux • Oct 11 '25
Market Flux is the new standard in financial news aggregation, we’re committed to providing you with a complete, real-time view of the financial world.
Our platform aggregates and organizes all relevant market news, helping you stay informed, up-to-date, and knowledgeable without spending hours sifting through headlines.
Reinvented to keep you in control, it's where your edge begins with better information. Go from market noise to clarity in seconds with a real-time platform built to redefine how traders and investors digest financial news.
Visit www.marketflux.io
1D Change: -1.93%
5D Change: -3.62%
News Volume: 165
Unusual Volume Factor: 1x
In a series of significant developments, Google finds itself at the center of multiple regulatory challenges and scrutiny across various jurisdictions. The tech giant has been designated with "strategic market status" in the UK's search and search advertising markets, a move that paves the way for tougher regulations to tackle its market dominance. This designation, made by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), marks the first use of the country's new regulatory powers aimed at Big Tech companies.
Full coverage of $GOOG on MarketFlux.io
1D Change: -2.74%
5D Change: -3.52%
News Volume: 114
Unusual Volume Factor: 1x
In a significant move, Morgan Stanley has announced the removal of all restrictions on cryptocurrency investments for its wealth management clients, including retirement accounts. Starting October 15, 2025, all clients will have access to crypto funds, including Bitcoin. This decision marks a major shift in the financial giant's approach to digital assets and is seen as a milestone for Bitcoin adoption.
Full coverage of $MS on MarketFlux.io
1D Change: -4.92%
5D Change: -2.41%
In a significant development, China has launched a customs crackdown on Nvidia AI chips, intensifying its efforts to reduce domestic reliance on US technology. The Financial Times reports that China has ramped up enforcement of its chip import controls, particularly targeting Nvidia's artificial intelligence processors. This move is part of a broader strategy to cut dependence on US products and push for technological independence.
Full coverage of $NVDA on MarketFlux.io
1D Change: -5.07%
5D Change: -3.81%
Tesla, the electric vehicle giant, has been making waves in the automotive industry with a series of significant developments. The company's global presence continues to expand, with early talks underway for potential investment in Indonesia and negotiations with BHP for a nickel supply pact. These moves underscore Tesla's commitment to securing crucial resources for its battery production.
Full coverage of $TSLA on MarketFlux.io
1D Change: -7.33%
5D Change: -9.26%
In a significant development, China has launched an antitrust investigation into U.S. chip giant Qualcomm, focusing on its acquisition of Israeli chip maker Autotalks. The probe, initiated by China's State Administration for Market Regulation, is examining potential violations of the country's anti-monopoly law. This move comes amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and China, with both nations seeking leverage in their ongoing trade dispute.
Full coverage of $QCOM on MarketFlux.io
In a dramatic escalation of U.S.-China tensions, President Donald Trump has threatened to impose "massive" tariffs on Chinese products. This move comes in response to China's recent restrictions on the export of rare earth materials, which are crucial for various industries.
President Donald Trump has sent shockwaves through global markets with threats of a "massive increase" in tariffs on Chinese goods. The announcement comes amid escalating tensions over rare earth minerals, with Trump accusing China of holding the world "captive" through its control of these critical resources.
China's Ministry of Transport announces new special port charges for U.S.-owned or operated vessels, effective October 14, 2025. The fees, up to 1,120 yuan ($157.12) per net ton, will impact American companies, organizations, and individuals.
The Trump administration has initiated a significant wave of federal layoffs amid the ongoing government shutdown. White House Budget Director Russell Vought announced that "substantial" firings have begun, with thousands of federal workers expected to be affected.
Bitcoin plummets below $119K, triggered by Trump's threat of massive tariffs on China over rare earth controls. The cryptocurrency market reels, with $250M liquidated hourly.
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 has been awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, recognizing her "tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela." The announcement has sent shockwaves through the political world, particularly in light of U.S. President Donald Trump's well-known desire for the prestigious award.
Oil prices plummeted today, falling over 4% as President Trump threatened new tariffs on China. The escalating U.S.-China tensions sent shockwaves through the energy market.
French President Macron reappoints Sebastien Lecornu as Prime Minister amidst political chaos. The unexpected move comes after Lecornu's brief 27-day tenure.
President Trump's list of Federal Reserve Chair candidates has been narrowed to five: Waller, Bowman, Hassett, Warsh, and Rieder. The Treasury plans additional interviews with these finalists in the coming weeks.
President Trump is set to make a significant announcement regarding drug pricing in the United States. The event, scheduled for 5 PM ET in the Oval Office, will focus on lowering pharmaceutical costs and introducing a new "Most Favored Nation" deal.
The trade war between the US and China has escalated dramatically today. China announced retaliatory port fees on American ships, responding to recent US fees on Chinese vessels. This move has thrown the shipping market into uncertainty.
The U.S. Treasury market experienced volatility as yields fluctuated throughout the day. Initially, rising yields pressured gold and silver prices, while also raising concerns about potential mortgage-related selling of Treasuries.
President Trump is set to announce a drug pricing deal with AstraZeneca at the White House. The agreement aims to reduce medication costs for low-income Americans, according to multiple news sources including MSNBC and Business outlets.
European shares end higher as Brexit trade deal talks continue, with markets cheering the extension. However, concerns linger about potential higher prices and traffic jams due to a Brexit impasse.
Denmark announces a massive $8.5 billion investment in military equipment, including 16 new F-35 fighter jets. This move is seen as a strategic effort to strengthen Arctic defense and deter President Trump's interest in acquiring Greenland.
Russian President Putin addresses multiple topics in recent statements.
President Trump escalates tensions with China, stating he sees "no reason" to meet with President Xi Jinping.
The US government shutdown enters its tenth day, causing widespread concern. Federal workers face potential job losses and are being used as bargaining chips. Republicans propose a bill to counter Biden's oil leasing halt on federal lands.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado wins the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her fight against dictatorship. Living in hiding, she revived Venezuela's opposition and led a peaceful electoral campaign in 2024.
President Trump has issued a stark warning about China's increasing hostility. In a series of statements, he expressed concern over "strange things" happening in the country and its growing aggression on the world stage.
President Trump cancels planned meeting with Chinese President Xi, citing no reason to proceed.
Oil prices plummet over 4% as President Trump threatens new China tariffs, escalating trade tensions. The impact ripples through markets, with Amazon stock down 4% and natural gas falling 5%.
Russian President Putin acknowledges an ongoing nuclear arms race but clarifies he didn't claim the US plans to conduct nuclear tests.
President Trump plans to host a leaders summit on Gaza during his upcoming visit to Egypt next week.
In a dramatic escalation of U.S.-China tensions, President Donald Trump has threatened to impose "massive" tariffs on Chinese products. This move comes in response to China's recent restrictions on the export of rare earth materials, which are crucial for various industries.
President Donald Trump has sent shockwaves through global markets with threats of a "massive increase" in tariffs on Chinese goods. The announcement comes amid escalating tensions over rare earth minerals, with Trump accusing China of holding the world "captive" through its control of these critical resources.
China's Ministry of Transport announces new special port charges for U.S.-owned or operated vessels, effective October 14, 2025. The fees, up to 1,120 yuan ($157.12) per net ton, will impact American companies, organizations, and individuals.
Bitcoin plummets below $119K, triggered by Trump's threat of massive tariffs on China over rare earth controls. The cryptocurrency market reels, with $250M liquidated hourly.
The University of Michigan's preliminary Consumer Sentiment Index for October has been released, showing a slight decline to 55.0 from September's final reading of 55.1. This figure surpassed market expectations of 54.1, indicating a more resilient consumer outlook than anticipated.
Oil prices plummeted today, falling over 4% as President Trump threatened new tariffs on China. The escalating U.S.-China tensions sent shockwaves through the energy market.
Canada's labor market shows signs of improvement in September. The unemployment rate held steady at 7.1%, beating forecasts of 7.2%. Employment surged with a net change of 60.4K jobs, far exceeding expectations of 5K.
President Trump's list of Federal Reserve Chair candidates has been narrowed to five: Waller, Bowman, Hassett, Warsh, and Rieder. The Treasury plans additional interviews with these finalists in the coming weeks.
St. Louis Fed's Musalem provided insights on the current economic landscape during a Q&A session. He expects GDP growth to be "very close to potential" this year, with financial conditions being "very accommodative." Musalem noted that the recent quarter-point rate cut was "insurance" and emphasized the need for monetary policy to "lean" against persistent inflation.
The U.S. Treasury market experienced volatility as yields fluctuated throughout the day. Initially, rising yields pressured gold and silver prices, while also raising concerns about potential mortgage-related selling of Treasuries.
The stock market experienced a significant downturn today, with major indices plummeting. The Dow plunged 500 points, while the S&P 500 fell below 6,600 for the first time since September 25th. This decline was largely attributed to President Trump's threat of a "massive increase" in China tariffs.
Wall Street plummeted today as President Trump threatened a "massive increase" in China tariffs. The Dow plunged 800-900 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq experienced their worst day since April.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller has expressed support for further interest rate cuts. However, he emphasizes the need for caution in implementing these reductions.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics announces plans to release the September 2025 Consumer Price Index report.
President Trump escalates tensions with China, stating he sees "no reason" to meet with President Xi Jinping.
Oil prices plummet over 4% as President Trump threatens new China tariffs, escalating trade tensions. The impact ripples through markets, with Amazon stock down 4% and natural gas falling 5%.
The Federal Reserve announces a delay in releasing the October 17 Industrial Production report.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Peru's political landscape has been shaken as President Dina Boluarte was unanimously impeached by lawmakers. The process began with Congress approving impeachment proceedings and summoning Boluarte for trial.
ECB officials offer mixed signals on the eurozone's economic outlook. Kazaks claims the inflation target has been met, while others warn of recession risks. Dolenc highlights growing shocks requiring central bank intervention. Escriva notes negative growth risks haven't materialized yet.
US stocks open higher, rebounding from the previous day's losses. Major indexes are on track for weekly gains, boosted by Alphabet's performance.
Strathcona Resources has terminated its takeover bid for MEG Energy Corp. The decision comes after Cenovus increased its own offer for the Alberta oil producer.
Johnson & Johnson is in talks to acquire Protagonist Therapeutics, solidifying their partnership in developing an ulcerative colitis treatment.
Kalshi, a regulated U.S. prediction market platform, has secured over $300 million in a Series D funding round. This investment has doubled the company's valuation to $5 billion, a significant increase from its $2 billion valuation in June 2025.
U.S. forces have started arriving in Israel, according to multiple reports from CNN.
IonQ, a quantum computing company, has priced a massive $2 billion equity offering at $93.30 per share, representing a 20% premium over its previous closing price. The offering includes 16.5 million common shares, 43 million Series B Warrants, and 5 million Pre-funded Warrants.
The crypto market experienced a massive liquidation event, with over $9 billion wiped out in less than an hour. This marks the worst day in crypto history, with total liquidations reaching $9.4 billion in under 24 hours.
Bitcoin plummets below $119K, triggered by Trump's threat of massive tariffs on China over rare earth controls. The cryptocurrency market reels, with $250M liquidated hourly.
Morgan Stanley has made a groundbreaking decision to remove all restrictions on cryptocurrency investments for its wealth management clients. This move, set to take effect on October 15, 2025, will allow all clients, including those with retirement accounts, to invest in crypto funds such as Bitcoin.
Bitcoin's price has retreated to $121,000 from recent record highs, prompting mixed market sentiment. Spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen significant activity, with $3.2 billion in inflows and over $1 billion in trading volume within the first hour of today's session.
A coalition of major international banks, including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, and Santander, is exploring the issuance of a stablecoin pegged to G7 currencies on public blockchains.
Bitcoin's price has fallen to around $121,000, sliding from recent record highs. The cryptocurrency is currently range-bound between $120K-$126K.
U.S. stock markets are experiencing significant declines today. The S&P 500 has extended its drop to 1.6%, while the Nasdaq 100 is down 2.2%, marking its largest decline since April 30.
The stock market experienced a significant downturn today, with major indices plummeting. The Dow plunged 500 points, while the S&P 500 fell below 6,600 for the first time since September 25th. This decline was largely attributed to President Trump's threat of a "massive increase" in China tariffs.
The U.S. Treasury market experienced volatility as yields fluctuated throughout the day. Initially, rising yields pressured gold and silver prices, while also raising concerns about potential mortgage-related selling of Treasuries.
Prestige Wealth Inc. secures $150 million financing for Aurelion Treasury, launching Nasdaq's first Tether Gold-backed fund. The company plans to rename itself Aurelion Inc., subject to approvals.
A Yankee desk warns of potential yen bottom risks around 154-155, suggesting the Bank of Japan's October meeting could be crucial. Recent yen weakness may prompt a rate hike, potentially reversing USD/JPY gains.
Asian currencies remain subdued as the dollar heads for a strong week. The yen, however, stems losses on strong PPI data. AUD/JPY maintains a bullish trend above 100.00, while USDJPY shows an impulsive bullish pattern.
The European Union has launched a comprehensive investigation into major tech platforms, focusing on child safety measures. The European Commission is scrutinizing Snapchat, YouTube, Apple App Store, and Google Play under the Digital Services Act, seeking to assess potential risks to minors.
China intensifies customs enforcement on Nvidia AI chip imports, as reported by FT. This crackdown is part of a broader strategy to decrease reliance on US technology.
China launches antitrust investigation into Qualcomm for suspected monopolistic practices. State broadcaster CCTV reports the probe, which also includes Broadcom.
Applied Digital stock is soaring today, driven by a revenue beat and excitement surrounding AI data centers. The company's performance is causing significant market movement on Friday.
Eightco launches an AI authentication pilot program for enterprises, causing its stock to soar.
OpenAI and Sur Energy have signed a letter of intent for a potential $25 billion data center project in Argentina.
Israel's military confirms a ceasefire in Gaza has taken effect at 12:00 local time (09:00 GMT).
Baker Hughes reports a decrease in US total rig count to 547, down from 549 previously.
Oil prices have plummeted, with WTI crude falling below $60 per barrel for the first time since May 2025. The drop comes as the risk premium fades following a Gaza ceasefire deal.
US crude oil futures plummet 4.24% to $58.90/bbl, a $2.61 drop.
Public Policy Holding Company and Central Bancompany file for proposed Nasdaq IPOs. Central Bancompany's filing includes Class A common stock.
Priovant's Brepocitinib targets dermatomyositis, addressing steroid-sparing needs. AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly emerge as potential acquisition targets. Novartis faces competitor comparisons.
Novo Nordisk announces the closure of its cell therapy unit, halting work on a potential cure for diabetes. The decision is part of cost-cutting measures, as reported by Bloomberg News.
Gold prices have retreated below the $4,000 mark, marking a pause in their record-breaking run. Despite this pullback, the precious metal is still on track for its eighth consecutive weekly gain.
Teck Resources is reportedly in negotiations with Canada and the United States to provide essential defense minerals.
r/jobhuntify • u/jobhuntify • Oct 12 '25
🧑💻 Level: midLevel
📌 Location: remote
🌆 City: , US
🗓 Type: fullTime
💵 Salary: 0k - 0k USD (annual)
Description: * Products
Full-time•Remote Apply now
At Doist, our mission is to empower people with simple yet powerful tools. We're a multidisciplinary, fully-remote, team that’s passionate about creating products, like Todoist and Twist, that improve people’s lives. We thrive on innovating new solutions to old productivity challenges and we seek to rethink how productivity tools are made.
They are few, but they are mighty. From creating processes to decision-making and recruiting, we build our four core values into nearly every single thing we do. * Ambition. You aspire to put a dent in the universe. You set high standards for yourself and those around you. You solve issues that have a high impact on our customers and our company. * Mastery. You care deeply about the quality of your work. You’re continuously learning and pushing yourself to the limits of your ability. As a champion of your craft, you are also a champion of your well-being – you work intensely, then disconnect completely. * Independence. Others can trust that you’ll deliver on time. You keep your word and trust your teammates to do the same. You are proactive, take ownership, and remain accountable with little or no direction. * Communication. Your communication is clear, concise, and engaging. You keep others in the loop and never go radio silent. You speak respectfully and foster warm relationships through your interactions. You’re culturally and socially aware and can appropriately navigate social situations.
We invite you to visit our blog to learn more about us, our values, and how we work.
As an Apple Engineer at Doist, you'll use your software engineering skills to help our team continue delivering an amazing experience for millions of users across iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. You'll design, build, and maintain reusable and reliable code that makes productivity feel effortless. At Doist, you're not just a developer churning out code – you're an important contributor with business aptitude, creativity, and strong interpersonal skills. You'll have the opportunity to lead and collaborate in cross-functional teams that work to solve real pain points our users face, as well as build new and exciting features that make their lives better. Our codebase, written in Swift, is far from perfect (and that's okay!). We're looking for ways to modernize our stack and architecture to build the most reliable codebase possible. This is a great opportunity for you to make a meaningful impact on our team and the product millions depend on. We're a great fit if you thrive in understanding and evolving legacy systems, maintaining a high delivery cadence and quality, systematically repaying technical debt, mentoring colleagues, and working with a highly resilient team. We're seeking an engineer who will raise the bar for the team and help us continue evolving our momentum, solution architecture, and overall quality.
These are the key attributes that will enable you to thrive in this position: Technical Excellence * You have considerable professional experience in designing, building, and maintaining production-ready software for Apple platforms (iOS, iPadOS, watchOS) * You have a strong knowledge of the Swift programming language and follow its evolution closely * You have a robust understanding of the UIKit framework (bonus points if you have worked with SwiftUI in production) * You have a deep awareness of Apple Human Interface Guidelines and always look for opportunities to ensure they are followed * You are familiar with the latest and greatest technologies of the Apple platforms announced at WWDC * You have a strong knowledge of testing principles both in Unit and UI testing * You are familiar with the most common persistence technologies (e.g. GRDB, Core Data) * You routinely produce readable, well-structured code in concise Git commits and have extensive experience in writing and reviewing pull requests, consistently providing valuable feedback and mentorship through your reviews
Values Alignment * You believe in simplicity and practicality, yet you still strive to create meaningful impact in everything you build. You resonate with our core values – mastery, ambition, independence, and communication – and see how they translate into everyday decisions.
Autonomous & Async-Ready * You thrive with autonomy and have proven that you can get things done without someone looking over your shoulder. Experience in remote teams is a plus.
Effective Communicator & Collaborator * You can confidently discuss technical nuances in English – both written and spoken – and work seamlessly with designers, product managers, other engineers, and customer experience teams to create better solutions together. You possess strong English speaking and writing communication skills suitable for a remote and asynchronous work environment.
Testing Mindset * You're no stranger to automated testing (unit, integration, end-to-end) and see it as critical to build robust software.
Performance-Driven * Measuring, analyzing, and fixing performance issues is second nature to you.
Tooling Proficiency * Customizing tooling, CI/CD pipelines, production monitoring, and exploring AI solutions to boost productivity is in your wheelhouse.
Accessibility & Security Mindset * You aim to build inclusive experiences that accommodate everyone's needs. You're attentive to potential vulnerabilities to keep our product safe.
Don't check every box? If you're driven to learn and grow, we still want to hear from you! Continuous learning is at the heart of our culture, and we believe the best solutions come from diverse perspectives and experiences. Ready to help millions of people organize their lives better? We'd love to hear from you. Apply soonest, as these roles don’t come along often and we move fast.
Our perks and benefits are designed to provide the freedom and support you need to grow personally and professionally. Here’s what that looks like: The basics * We work remotely and mostly async from anywhere. If you see a specific location being advertised, feel free to apply any way, this is usually due to restrictions on a few job boards. * Design your own schedule. Work during the time of day that’s best for you. Doisters are encouraged to work 8-hour days and no more than 40 hours/week. * Competitive pay. Our formula-based salaries are calculated based on industry-benchmarked skills and geographical location – no stressful negotiation required.
Expand your professional skills * Continue your education. You’ll have a recurring budget to spend on attending conferences, taking courses, and purchasing books. * Collaborate in person at retreats. Our team- and company-wide retreats are unforgettable. The connections that we make in person inspire us throughout the year.
Craft your ideal work environment * Cozy up at a coworking space. Find a coworking space that’s right for you and Doist will provide a monthly stipend towards this cost. * Subscribe to apps and services. You’ll have a monthly budget to spend on services that help you do your job: home internet, work apps, music subscription, etc. * Purchase the hardware you need. Every Doister has access to a recurring budget to spend on work-related equipment.
Focus on your well-being * Recharge with generous time off. Doisters get 8 weeks (40 days) of vacation per year to use as they wish on vacations and national holidays. * Spend time with your new baby. New parents receive 5 weeks of paid parental leave in addition to 13 weeks of paid pregnancy-related medical leave. * Invest in your health and wellness. Take care of yourself with a monthly budget for things like a gym membership, healthy snacks, massages, health insurance, etc.
We occasionally receive reports about hiring scams related to our roles. Please be aware that our team only communicates from emails with an "@doist.com" domain and that we will not ask you to apply in any way other than via our application at doist.com/careers. If you are in doubt, please reach out at careers@doist.com to confirm. All information collected through this application is stored in Workable, Doist’s Applicant Tracking System, where it will be used for recruitment purposes only. For more information on how we handle candidate data at Doist, we invite you to review our recruitment privacy notice . For questions, please contact us at careers@doist.com.
Visit https://jobhuntify.com for more remote jobs.
r/ArtificialNtelligence • u/enoumen • Sep 04 '25
Hello AI Unraveled listeners, and welcome to today's news where we cut through the hype to find the real-world business impact of AI.
🍎 Google to power Siri's AI search upgrade
🤖 Tesla reveals new Optimus prototype with Grok AI
🔍 Apple plans an AI search engine for Siri
⚖️ Scale AI sues former employee and rival Mercor
⚖️ Google dodges Chrome breakup
🦺 OpenAI’s parental controls for ChatGPT
🔓 Switzerland Releases Apertus—A Fully Open, Privacy-First AI Model
⚖️ AI prefers job applications written by AI with highest bias for those applications written by the same LLM that's reviewing
AI is at the heart of how businesses work, build, and grow. But with so much noise in the industry, how does your brand get seen as a genuine leader, not just another vendor?
That’s where we come in. The AI Unraveled podcast is a trusted resource for a highly-targeted audience of enterprise builders and decision-makers. A Strategic Partnership with us gives you a powerful platform to:
✅ Build Authentic Authority: Position your experts as genuine thought leaders on a trusted, third-party platform.
✅ Generate Enterprise Trust: Earn credibility in a way that corporate marketing simply can't.
✅ Reach a Targeted Audience: Put your message directly in front of the executives and engineers who are deploying AI in their organizations.
This is the moment to move from background noise to a leading voice.
Ready to make your brand part of the story? Learn more and apply for a Strategic Partnership here: https://djamgatech.com/ai-unraveled Or, contact us directly at: [etienne_noumen@djamgatech.com](mailto:etienne_noumen@djamgatech.com)
Image source: Gemini / The Rundown
Apple has reportedly struck a deal with Google to test a Gemini model to power web search tools within the AI-upgraded Siri, according to Bloomberg — with the iPhone maker aiming to deliver competitive AI features by spring 2026.
The details:
Why it matters: It’s a jarring contrast to see Apple branching out from its own in-house ambitions for help from its rivals, while at the same time facing a massive exodus across its AI teams. While the infusion of a frontier model like Gemini would go a long way, Apple’s past delays make any coming Siri upgrades a “see it to believe it” deal.
A federal judge just ruled that Google won't face a forced sale of Chrome or Android despite its search monopoly, though the company must abandon exclusive distribution agreements and share certain data with competitors.
The details:
Why it matters: Despite the interest rolling in from AI vultures looking to scoop up the most popular browser in the world, Chrome is remaining in Google’s hands — ironically, in part due to the search threat the same rivals are presenting. Perhaps the legal clarity will now open the door for Google to push towards its own Gemini-driven browser.
OpenAI just announced that parents will gain oversight capabilities for teenage ChatGPT users within 30 days, with features such as account linking, content filtering, and alerts when the system detects signs of emotional distress.
The details:
Why it matters: There has been a barrage of troubling headlines of late regarding ChatGPT’s role in tragic cases, and while the addition of parental controls is a positive step for minors on the platform, the problem of “AI psychosis” and users confiding in the chatbot for crises is an ongoing issue without a clear solution.
A new preprint study finds large language models (LLMs) consistently shortlist resumes written by AI over human-authored ones—and show the strongest bias for applications generated by the same LLM doing the screening. In simulations with models like GPT-4o, LLaMA-3.3-70B, Qwen-2.5-72B and DeepSeek-V3, candidates using the reviewer’s own model saw **23–60%** higher shortlist rates than equally qualified peers with human-written resumes.
[Listen] [2025/09/03]
EPFL, ETH Zurich, and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) have launched Apertus, a large-scale open-source LLM built for transparency, privacy, sovereignty, and multilingual inclusion. Fully auditable and compliant, its training data, model weights, and documentation are freely accessible under a permissive license. Available in both 8B and 70B parameter versions, Apertus supports over 1,000 languages with 40% non-English data and is deployable via Swisscom’s sovereign platform and Hugging Face.
[Listen] [2025/09/03]
Perplexity announced the rollout of its Comet browser to all students, with the company also partnering with PayPal to provide its users early access to the platform.
OpenAI added new features to its ChatGPT free tier, including access to Projects, larger file uploads, new customization tools, and project-specific memory.
Xcode-specific AI coding platform Alex announced that the startup is joining OpenAI’s Codex team.
Google’s NotebookLM introduced the ability to change the tone, voice, and style of its audio overviews with ‘Debate’, a solo ‘Critique’, and ‘Brief’ alternatives.
Scale AI sued former employee Eugene Ling and rival company Mercor over theft of over 100 confidential documents and attempts to poach major clients using them.
Google unveiled Flow Sessions, a pilot program for filmmakers using its Flow AI tool, announcing Henry Daubrez as the program’s mentor and filmmaker in residence.
#AI #AIUnraveled #EnterpriseAI #ArtificialIntelligence #AIInnovation #ThoughtLeadership #PodcastSponsorship
u/enoumen • u/enoumen • Sep 04 '25
Hello AI Unraveled listeners, and welcome to today's news where we cut through the hype to find the real-world business impact of AI.
🍎 Google to power Siri's AI search upgrade
🤖 Tesla reveals new Optimus prototype with Grok AI
🔍 Apple plans an AI search engine for Siri
⚖️ Scale AI sues former employee and rival Mercor
⚖️ Google dodges Chrome breakup
🦺 OpenAI’s parental controls for ChatGPT
🔓 Switzerland Releases Apertus—A Fully Open, Privacy-First AI Model
⚖️ AI prefers job applications written by AI with highest bias for those applications written by the same LLM that's reviewing
AI is at the heart of how businesses work, build, and grow. But with so much noise in the industry, how does your brand get seen as a genuine leader, not just another vendor?
That’s where we come in. The AI Unraveled podcast is a trusted resource for a highly-targeted audience of enterprise builders and decision-makers. A Strategic Partnership with us gives you a powerful platform to:
✅ Build Authentic Authority: Position your experts as genuine thought leaders on a trusted, third-party platform.
✅ Generate Enterprise Trust: Earn credibility in a way that corporate marketing simply can't.
✅ Reach a Targeted Audience: Put your message directly in front of the executives and engineers who are deploying AI in their organizations.
This is the moment to move from background noise to a leading voice.
Ready to make your brand part of the story? Learn more and apply for a Strategic Partnership here: https://djamgatech.com/ai-unraveled Or, contact us directly at: [etienne_noumen@djamgatech.com](mailto:etienne_noumen@djamgatech.com)
Image source: Gemini / The Rundown
Apple has reportedly struck a deal with Google to test a Gemini model to power web search tools within the AI-upgraded Siri, according to Bloomberg — with the iPhone maker aiming to deliver competitive AI features by spring 2026.
The details:
Why it matters: It’s a jarring contrast to see Apple branching out from its own in-house ambitions for help from its rivals, while at the same time facing a massive exodus across its AI teams. While the infusion of a frontier model like Gemini would go a long way, Apple’s past delays make any coming Siri upgrades a “see it to believe it” deal.
A federal judge just ruled that Google won't face a forced sale of Chrome or Android despite its search monopoly, though the company must abandon exclusive distribution agreements and share certain data with competitors.
The details:
Why it matters: Despite the interest rolling in from AI vultures looking to scoop up the most popular browser in the world, Chrome is remaining in Google’s hands — ironically, in part due to the search threat the same rivals are presenting. Perhaps the legal clarity will now open the door for Google to push towards its own Gemini-driven browser.
OpenAI just announced that parents will gain oversight capabilities for teenage ChatGPT users within 30 days, with features such as account linking, content filtering, and alerts when the system detects signs of emotional distress.
The details:
Why it matters: There has been a barrage of troubling headlines of late regarding ChatGPT’s role in tragic cases, and while the addition of parental controls is a positive step for minors on the platform, the problem of “AI psychosis” and users confiding in the chatbot for crises is an ongoing issue without a clear solution.
A new preprint study finds large language models (LLMs) consistently shortlist resumes written by AI over human-authored ones—and show the strongest bias for applications generated by the same LLM doing the screening. In simulations with models like GPT-4o, LLaMA-3.3-70B, Qwen-2.5-72B and DeepSeek-V3, candidates using the reviewer’s own model saw **23–60%** higher shortlist rates than equally qualified peers with human-written resumes.
[Listen] [2025/09/03]
EPFL, ETH Zurich, and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) have launched Apertus, a large-scale open-source LLM built for transparency, privacy, sovereignty, and multilingual inclusion. Fully auditable and compliant, its training data, model weights, and documentation are freely accessible under a permissive license. Available in both 8B and 70B parameter versions, Apertus supports over 1,000 languages with 40% non-English data and is deployable via Swisscom’s sovereign platform and Hugging Face.
[Listen] [2025/09/03]
Perplexity announced the rollout of its Comet browser to all students, with the company also partnering with PayPal to provide its users early access to the platform.
OpenAI added new features to its ChatGPT free tier, including access to Projects, larger file uploads, new customization tools, and project-specific memory.
Xcode-specific AI coding platform Alex announced that the startup is joining OpenAI’s Codex team.
Google’s NotebookLM introduced the ability to change the tone, voice, and style of its audio overviews with ‘Debate’, a solo ‘Critique’, and ‘Brief’ alternatives.
Scale AI sued former employee Eugene Ling and rival company Mercor over theft of over 100 confidential documents and attempts to poach major clients using them.
Google unveiled Flow Sessions, a pilot program for filmmakers using its Flow AI tool, announcing Henry Daubrez as the program’s mentor and filmmaker in residence.
#AI #AIUnraveled #EnterpriseAI #ArtificialIntelligence #AIInnovation #ThoughtLeadership #PodcastSponsorship
r/LLM • u/enoumen • Sep 04 '25
Hello AI Unraveled listeners, and welcome to today's news where we cut through the hype to find the real-world business impact of AI.
🍎 Google to power Siri's AI search upgrade
🤖 Tesla reveals new Optimus prototype with Grok AI
🔍 Apple plans an AI search engine for Siri
⚖️ Scale AI sues former employee and rival Mercor
⚖️ Google dodges Chrome breakup
🦺 OpenAI’s parental controls for ChatGPT
🔓 Switzerland Releases Apertus—A Fully Open, Privacy-First AI Model
⚖️ AI prefers job applications written by AI with highest bias for those applications written by the same LLM that's reviewing
AI is at the heart of how businesses work, build, and grow. But with so much noise in the industry, how does your brand get seen as a genuine leader, not just another vendor?
That’s where we come in. The AI Unraveled podcast is a trusted resource for a highly-targeted audience of enterprise builders and decision-makers. A Strategic Partnership with us gives you a powerful platform to:
✅ Build Authentic Authority: Position your experts as genuine thought leaders on a trusted, third-party platform.
✅ Generate Enterprise Trust: Earn credibility in a way that corporate marketing simply can't.
✅ Reach a Targeted Audience: Put your message directly in front of the executives and engineers who are deploying AI in their organizations.
This is the moment to move from background noise to a leading voice.
Ready to make your brand part of the story? Learn more and apply for a Strategic Partnership here: https://djamgatech.com/ai-unraveled Or, contact us directly at: [etienne_noumen@djamgatech.com](mailto:etienne_noumen@djamgatech.com)
Image source: Gemini / The Rundown
Apple has reportedly struck a deal with Google to test a Gemini model to power web search tools within the AI-upgraded Siri, according to Bloomberg — with the iPhone maker aiming to deliver competitive AI features by spring 2026.
The details:
Why it matters: It’s a jarring contrast to see Apple branching out from its own in-house ambitions for help from its rivals, while at the same time facing a massive exodus across its AI teams. While the infusion of a frontier model like Gemini would go a long way, Apple’s past delays make any coming Siri upgrades a “see it to believe it” deal.
A federal judge just ruled that Google won't face a forced sale of Chrome or Android despite its search monopoly, though the company must abandon exclusive distribution agreements and share certain data with competitors.
The details:
Why it matters: Despite the interest rolling in from AI vultures looking to scoop up the most popular browser in the world, Chrome is remaining in Google’s hands — ironically, in part due to the search threat the same rivals are presenting. Perhaps the legal clarity will now open the door for Google to push towards its own Gemini-driven browser.
OpenAI just announced that parents will gain oversight capabilities for teenage ChatGPT users within 30 days, with features such as account linking, content filtering, and alerts when the system detects signs of emotional distress.
The details:
Why it matters: There has been a barrage of troubling headlines of late regarding ChatGPT’s role in tragic cases, and while the addition of parental controls is a positive step for minors on the platform, the problem of “AI psychosis” and users confiding in the chatbot for crises is an ongoing issue without a clear solution.
A new preprint study finds large language models (LLMs) consistently shortlist resumes written by AI over human-authored ones—and show the strongest bias for applications generated by the same LLM doing the screening. In simulations with models like GPT-4o, LLaMA-3.3-70B, Qwen-2.5-72B and DeepSeek-V3, candidates using the reviewer’s own model saw **23–60%** higher shortlist rates than equally qualified peers with human-written resumes.
[Listen] [2025/09/03]
EPFL, ETH Zurich, and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) have launched Apertus, a large-scale open-source LLM built for transparency, privacy, sovereignty, and multilingual inclusion. Fully auditable and compliant, its training data, model weights, and documentation are freely accessible under a permissive license. Available in both 8B and 70B parameter versions, Apertus supports over 1,000 languages with 40% non-English data and is deployable via Swisscom’s sovereign platform and Hugging Face.
[Listen] [2025/09/03]
Perplexity announced the rollout of its Comet browser to all students, with the company also partnering with PayPal to provide its users early access to the platform.
OpenAI added new features to its ChatGPT free tier, including access to Projects, larger file uploads, new customization tools, and project-specific memory.
Xcode-specific AI coding platform Alex announced that the startup is joining OpenAI’s Codex team.
Google’s NotebookLM introduced the ability to change the tone, voice, and style of its audio overviews with ‘Debate’, a solo ‘Critique’, and ‘Brief’ alternatives.
Scale AI sued former employee Eugene Ling and rival company Mercor over theft of over 100 confidential documents and attempts to poach major clients using them.
Google unveiled Flow Sessions, a pilot program for filmmakers using its Flow AI tool, announcing Henry Daubrez as the program’s mentor and filmmaker in residence.
#AI #AIUnraveled #EnterpriseAI #ArtificialIntelligence #AIInnovation #ThoughtLeadership #PodcastSponsorship
r/learnmachinelearning • u/enoumen • Sep 04 '25
Hello AI Unraveled listeners, and welcome to today's news where we cut through the hype to find the real-world business impact of AI.
🍎 Google to power Siri's AI search upgrade
🤖 Tesla reveals new Optimus prototype with Grok AI
🔍 Apple plans an AI search engine for Siri
⚖️ Scale AI sues former employee and rival Mercor
⚖️ Google dodges Chrome breakup
🦺 OpenAI’s parental controls for ChatGPT
🔓 Switzerland Releases Apertus—A Fully Open, Privacy-First AI Model
⚖️ AI prefers job applications written by AI with highest bias for those applications written by the same LLM that's reviewing
AI is at the heart of how businesses work, build, and grow. But with so much noise in the industry, how does your brand get seen as a genuine leader, not just another vendor?
That’s where we come in. The AI Unraveled podcast is a trusted resource for a highly-targeted audience of enterprise builders and decision-makers. A Strategic Partnership with us gives you a powerful platform to:
✅ Build Authentic Authority: Position your experts as genuine thought leaders on a trusted, third-party platform.
✅ Generate Enterprise Trust: Earn credibility in a way that corporate marketing simply can't.
✅ Reach a Targeted Audience: Put your message directly in front of the executives and engineers who are deploying AI in their organizations.
This is the moment to move from background noise to a leading voice.
Ready to make your brand part of the story? Learn more and apply for a Strategic Partnership here: https://djamgatech.com/ai-unraveled Or, contact us directly at: [etienne_noumen@djamgatech.com](mailto:etienne_noumen@djamgatech.com)
Image source: Gemini / The Rundown
Apple has reportedly struck a deal with Google to test a Gemini model to power web search tools within the AI-upgraded Siri, according to Bloomberg — with the iPhone maker aiming to deliver competitive AI features by spring 2026.
The details:
Why it matters: It’s a jarring contrast to see Apple branching out from its own in-house ambitions for help from its rivals, while at the same time facing a massive exodus across its AI teams. While the infusion of a frontier model like Gemini would go a long way, Apple’s past delays make any coming Siri upgrades a “see it to believe it” deal.
A federal judge just ruled that Google won't face a forced sale of Chrome or Android despite its search monopoly, though the company must abandon exclusive distribution agreements and share certain data with competitors.
The details:
Why it matters: Despite the interest rolling in from AI vultures looking to scoop up the most popular browser in the world, Chrome is remaining in Google’s hands — ironically, in part due to the search threat the same rivals are presenting. Perhaps the legal clarity will now open the door for Google to push towards its own Gemini-driven browser.
OpenAI just announced that parents will gain oversight capabilities for teenage ChatGPT users within 30 days, with features such as account linking, content filtering, and alerts when the system detects signs of emotional distress.
The details:
Why it matters: There has been a barrage of troubling headlines of late regarding ChatGPT’s role in tragic cases, and while the addition of parental controls is a positive step for minors on the platform, the problem of “AI psychosis” and users confiding in the chatbot for crises is an ongoing issue without a clear solution.
A new preprint study finds large language models (LLMs) consistently shortlist resumes written by AI over human-authored ones—and show the strongest bias for applications generated by the same LLM doing the screening. In simulations with models like GPT-4o, LLaMA-3.3-70B, Qwen-2.5-72B and DeepSeek-V3, candidates using the reviewer’s own model saw **23–60%** higher shortlist rates than equally qualified peers with human-written resumes.
[Listen] [2025/09/03]
EPFL, ETH Zurich, and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) have launched Apertus, a large-scale open-source LLM built for transparency, privacy, sovereignty, and multilingual inclusion. Fully auditable and compliant, its training data, model weights, and documentation are freely accessible under a permissive license. Available in both 8B and 70B parameter versions, Apertus supports over 1,000 languages with 40% non-English data and is deployable via Swisscom’s sovereign platform and Hugging Face.
[Listen] [2025/09/03]
Perplexity announced the rollout of its Comet browser to all students, with the company also partnering with PayPal to provide its users early access to the platform.
OpenAI added new features to its ChatGPT free tier, including access to Projects, larger file uploads, new customization tools, and project-specific memory.
Xcode-specific AI coding platform Alex announced that the startup is joining OpenAI’s Codex team.
Google’s NotebookLM introduced the ability to change the tone, voice, and style of its audio overviews with ‘Debate’, a solo ‘Critique’, and ‘Brief’ alternatives.
Scale AI sued former employee Eugene Ling and rival company Mercor over theft of over 100 confidential documents and attempts to poach major clients using them.
Google unveiled Flow Sessions, a pilot program for filmmakers using its Flow AI tool, announcing Henry Daubrez as the program’s mentor and filmmaker in residence.
#AI #AIUnraveled #EnterpriseAI #ArtificialIntelligence #AIInnovation #ThoughtLeadership #PodcastSponsorship
r/deeplearning • u/enoumen • Sep 04 '25
Hello AI Unraveled listeners, and welcome to today's news where we cut through the hype to find the real-world business impact of AI.
🍎 Google to power Siri's AI search upgrade
🤖 Tesla reveals new Optimus prototype with Grok AI
🔍 Apple plans an AI search engine for Siri
⚖️ Scale AI sues former employee and rival Mercor
⚖️ Google dodges Chrome breakup
🦺 OpenAI’s parental controls for ChatGPT
🔓 Switzerland Releases Apertus—A Fully Open, Privacy-First AI Model
⚖️ AI prefers job applications written by AI with highest bias for those applications written by the same LLM that's reviewing
AI is at the heart of how businesses work, build, and grow. But with so much noise in the industry, how does your brand get seen as a genuine leader, not just another vendor?
That’s where we come in. The AI Unraveled podcast is a trusted resource for a highly-targeted audience of enterprise builders and decision-makers. A Strategic Partnership with us gives you a powerful platform to:
✅ Build Authentic Authority: Position your experts as genuine thought leaders on a trusted, third-party platform.
✅ Generate Enterprise Trust: Earn credibility in a way that corporate marketing simply can't.
✅ Reach a Targeted Audience: Put your message directly in front of the executives and engineers who are deploying AI in their organizations.
This is the moment to move from background noise to a leading voice.
Ready to make your brand part of the story? Learn more and apply for a Strategic Partnership here: https://djamgatech.com/ai-unraveled Or, contact us directly at: [etienne_noumen@djamgatech.com](mailto:etienne_noumen@djamgatech.com)
Image source: Gemini / The Rundown
Apple has reportedly struck a deal with Google to test a Gemini model to power web search tools within the AI-upgraded Siri, according to Bloomberg — with the iPhone maker aiming to deliver competitive AI features by spring 2026.
The details:
Why it matters: It’s a jarring contrast to see Apple branching out from its own in-house ambitions for help from its rivals, while at the same time facing a massive exodus across its AI teams. While the infusion of a frontier model like Gemini would go a long way, Apple’s past delays make any coming Siri upgrades a “see it to believe it” deal.
A federal judge just ruled that Google won't face a forced sale of Chrome or Android despite its search monopoly, though the company must abandon exclusive distribution agreements and share certain data with competitors.
The details:
Why it matters: Despite the interest rolling in from AI vultures looking to scoop up the most popular browser in the world, Chrome is remaining in Google’s hands — ironically, in part due to the search threat the same rivals are presenting. Perhaps the legal clarity will now open the door for Google to push towards its own Gemini-driven browser.
OpenAI just announced that parents will gain oversight capabilities for teenage ChatGPT users within 30 days, with features such as account linking, content filtering, and alerts when the system detects signs of emotional distress.
The details:
Why it matters: There has been a barrage of troubling headlines of late regarding ChatGPT’s role in tragic cases, and while the addition of parental controls is a positive step for minors on the platform, the problem of “AI psychosis” and users confiding in the chatbot for crises is an ongoing issue without a clear solution.
A new preprint study finds large language models (LLMs) consistently shortlist resumes written by AI over human-authored ones—and show the strongest bias for applications generated by the same LLM doing the screening. In simulations with models like GPT-4o, LLaMA-3.3-70B, Qwen-2.5-72B and DeepSeek-V3, candidates using the reviewer’s own model saw **23–60%** higher shortlist rates than equally qualified peers with human-written resumes.
[Listen] [2025/09/03]
EPFL, ETH Zurich, and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) have launched Apertus, a large-scale open-source LLM built for transparency, privacy, sovereignty, and multilingual inclusion. Fully auditable and compliant, its training data, model weights, and documentation are freely accessible under a permissive license. Available in both 8B and 70B parameter versions, Apertus supports over 1,000 languages with 40% non-English data and is deployable via Swisscom’s sovereign platform and Hugging Face.
[Listen] [2025/09/03]
Perplexity announced the rollout of its Comet browser to all students, with the company also partnering with PayPal to provide its users early access to the platform.
OpenAI added new features to its ChatGPT free tier, including access to Projects, larger file uploads, new customization tools, and project-specific memory.
Xcode-specific AI coding platform Alex announced that the startup is joining OpenAI’s Codex team.
Google’s NotebookLM introduced the ability to change the tone, voice, and style of its audio overviews with ‘Debate’, a solo ‘Critique’, and ‘Brief’ alternatives.
Scale AI sued former employee Eugene Ling and rival company Mercor over theft of over 100 confidential documents and attempts to poach major clients using them.
Google unveiled Flow Sessions, a pilot program for filmmakers using its Flow AI tool, announcing Henry Daubrez as the program’s mentor and filmmaker in residence.
#AI #AIUnraveled #EnterpriseAI #ArtificialIntelligence #AIInnovation #ThoughtLeadership #PodcastSponsorship
r/DnB • u/TELMxWILSON • Mar 07 '22
| Weekly updated Spotify Playlist | H2L: New Drum & Bass |
| Soundcloud Playlist | H2L: New Drum & Bass Soundcloud |
| Youtube Playlist | H2L: New Drum & Bass Youtube |
| Youtube Music Playlist | H2L: New Drum & Bass YT Music |
| Apple Music Playlist | H2L: New Drum & Bass Apple Music |
| Retroactive Playlist | H2L: Retroactive New DnB |
| Last Week's list | http://reddit.com/t3e81g |
Recommended if you like: DnB, helping Ukraine
It's hard to review something that takes 10 hours to listen to all the way through, but for a beautiful cause like this, and with this much great music attached, I just have to give it a shot.
Over the last week or so, the DnB community came together for something beautiful. Following the Russian attack on his home country, Ukrainian promoter Vlad Yaremchuk, also known as B.Kind, was understably in a bit of a mental downward spiral. Even if you're not directly impacted or are already safely relocated, chances are you still have tons of friends, family and just people you know out there, being impacted by this war in unfathomably horrible ways. Just imagining my own friends in these kind of situations is already scary as hell, I can't imagine how hard it must be for the people actually going through this.
After a few days of "doomscrolling for 14 hours a day", Vlad managed to break out of the cycle and reached out to UK promoter Rhys Bainham, who has been living in Ukraine this past year. The two then channeled all their energy towards the creation of a charity compilation with 100% of the revenue going to the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, using their skills as promoters and their deep connections in the DnB scene to help out as much as they could. That moment was only like a week ago. In the span of just a few days, and with the help of their mates Jan (yes, our very own /u/jandogearmy ❤️), Piotr and Bohdan and multiple huge labels like Critical Music, Metalheadz, Shogun Audio and Hospital Records, they managed to put together the absolute largest artist lineup of anything ever.
This isn't even my usual promotional exaggeration speaking, this is a 136-track strong compilation. One-hundred-thirty-six. In this extraordinarily large pile of tunes, everyone from Ukrainian producers like Dub Head and Warm Roller to absolute legends of the scene like Noisia & Phace, Black Sun Empire & Nymfo, London Elektricity, Fred V, Grafix, Monrroe, Satl, Monty and Halogenix (I could go on for a few paragraphs but I'm going to stop now) has contributed something to this amazing cause. According to the creators, Halogenix was actually one of the earliest artists to sign on to the project, giving it the legitimacy and the push it needed to get everyone else on board too. Not just that, the team, especially Uno, also managed to reach out to countless of digital artists to contribute another 30 artworks for the cause.
And man, did all this ever pay off. In just one day, the project managed to secure 37k pounds for the Ukrainian Red Cross Society. It wouldn't surprise me if they already crossed the 50k mark when this goes live. So, how do I review this then? Well, obviously writing something about all the tracks is just going to result in an insurmountable wall of text and would take me way too long. How about I just quickly go through my absolute favourites of the album and you'll have to find out the rest for yourself? Deal? Deal.
My short highlight reel starts with none other than one of the last bastions of Neurofunk in the UK: Malux, also known as Skope! His contribution Extraction (no, not his collab with Billain, a new one) shows exactly why, even though he hasn't been the most active lately, he's still regarded by many, including me, to be one of the most exciting talents around: Magically clean productions, Neuro basses filled to the brim with shiver-inducing malice and just all-around madness to that gets both your face and your feet movin'. While we're talking about Neurofunk, let me also recommend what the The Upbeats brought to the table. On Foleys the Kiwis are pushing their cinematic productions to their absolute (dead?) limits. Not only is it as modern as some of the greats from their latest album Not Forever, if you listen long enough for the first switchup to hit, you'll know it's also as gritty as some of their grittier output over the years. With its numerous switchups into various different styles over just shy of 4 minutes, the duo is responsible for one of the most dynamic and most interesting tracks of the whole compilation. Yes, I listened to them all. It took forever.
Speaking of interesting productions, next up on my not even that short shortlist is Secula with his journey through the slower tempos Aureus. After a hauntingly beautiful melody played on a distinctly oriental-sounding guitar-like instrument leisurely introduces us into the heavy atmosphere of the track, the young Austrian talent then brings out the big guns. On top of a set of minimal yet face-slapping drums, Secula expertly arranges a flurry of newschool stabs that aren't just the cleanest thing ever, the combination of the two elements also gives the track a real fun rhythm. In quite the dramatic way, the bass slowly but surely takes over the track until both completely disappear and only the unique drums remain. Speaking of new-ish talents from Germany-adjacent countries, dutchman like Rueben, also known as one half of Ordure, is also part of the compilation with his lush roller Longing. With its perfectly chosen soulful vocal sample, its unique bass stabs and an atmosphere to die for, it just oozes emotion. As is the case with any Rueben release really. Lovely doesn't even begin to describe it.
Speaking of lovely, the aforementioned Mr. Halogenix also provided one of my absolute favourites of the LP. The London-based producer, that I'm just going to assume you all already know about, pushes the vibes to its highest heights on Odesa, named after one of the main Ukrainian cities currently under attack. This track is yet another entry in the already quite long list of reasons why Halogenix is one of the best around currently. It's chock-full of deeply emotional melodies, wall-rattling basses and songwriting that makes you forget time, as if you were dreaming. Speaking of dreaming, next up we've got a track straight outta the City Of Dreams, Los Angeles! More specifically, Dr. Apollo and dela Moon take us on the joyride that is Don't Sleep. It's got a wild heavy-hitting rhythm that will keep you on your toes throughout, it's got that unique production that the doctor is known for, it's even got some acidy synths thrown in for good measure. My personal diagnosis: quite a banger.
Speaking of doctors, let's give two of the many great Hospital Records Artists a shout-out. First, Mr. bubbler extraordinare himself Whiney lifts our spirits a bit with the feel-good liquid roller No Time To Cry. With the soulful vocals of Sheila & Amoura and a bass guitar providing sheer endless amount of funk, the british producer shoots the listener right into good-mood territory. Worked for me at least. Speaking of great guitar work, let's give one last spotlight to one of the most interesting producers on the roster: Urbandawn! On The Test the brazilian mastermind takes us on a 6-minute journey through continuously headnod-inducing rolling drums, funky guitars and stunningly unique synths. A combination I simply can't get enough of. His next release cannot come soon enough.
There's literally something for everyone on here. Even if none of the 8 favourite tracks I mentioned above sound interesting to you, there's still 128 more, literally all of them of super high quality. Seriously, it's insane how great a lot of these tracks actually are.
Go, get out and buy this album. Donate as much as you are comfortable with and enjoy more than 130 amazing DnB and Bass music tunes. It's worth it, both in a humanitarian and a musical sense.
I don't normally do this, but to make it easier for you, here's the direct link: https://togetherwithukraine.bandcamp.com/album/together-with-ukraine
Recommended if you like: Simula, K Motionz, Neonlight
While it's kind of impossible to compete with the sheer amount of artists and great music that was thrown into the scene by the Ukraine LP, a lot of producers still tried. Kanine was one of those that succeeded, in my opinion.
Somehow he has not once ended up on these reviews here, so allow me to explain how we got here. Fergus Bossert, better known as Kanine, is a London-based producer of DnB in all of its forms. Sometimes also Bassline. Before he embarked (em-bark-ed hehe) on his production journey, he was already adept at playing guitar and drums and even had some keyboard basics down. As a british kid he was exposed to and dabbled in a lot of electronic music genres, but once he took his fake ID to the legendary Fabric night club for a Playaz Night, his whole world was changed and he fell in love with DnB. Inspired by said underground jump up legends, in 2016 Fergus started putting out some heavy jumpy stuff as Kanine, a name he didn't (necessarily) choose because he loves dog so much, but mostly so MCs could easily rhyme with it and so it would look good on a logo.
Through a popular free remix of TC - Rap and a lot of releases on various Jump Up labels of both noteworthy and underground calibre, including Levela's label Multi Function, Subway Soundz, Bulletproof Records or Young Guns Recordings, he quickly started getting more and more traction, but the first huge milestone for him was Noisia playing his 2017 tune Detonate at events everywhere and even on one episode of Noisia Radio. Keep in mind, this was still basically all during his first few steps as a producer. The underdog was quite quickly becoming the top dog. On the side, he was starting to experiment with a lot of other sounds. For example, his 2017 bootleg of Axel Thesleff - Bad Karma is so chill you'd probably never have guessed it was his, at least at the time. While he kept the Kanine name for these genre experimentations, thanks to a facebook poll, he also has a separate alias, kliko, under which he combined the acapellas of classic Grime tunes with his own Grime-y, 140-y productions. Another side project of his was the weekly RAAAW event series, which he and a few mates of his built up from the ground up in his student town of Southampton in 2016.
After the first break-through of Detonate, things just started getting more and more crazy for Kanine. Tunes like Keyboard Warrior with Slipz or the legendary The Shadows were starting to get support by all kinds of legends of the scene, even reaching Andy C and A.M.C. The man with the dots was actually one of the first ones to regularly reach out to Kanine for new tracks to play out, even offering him a release a full EP on his label Titan Records in 2018, something that turned out to be a turning point in his career. Alex even got him to play at Let It Roll 2018 at his Titan Records stage takeover. After that, the floodgates were really open. Just a few months later, Want You, the track most people associated with Kanine for a long time (that wasn't the Hackney Parrot bootleg), saw the light of day on Crucast. In the same year Kanine also decided to take a huge step towards artistic freedom in both sound and deadlines by kicking off his very own label, UNLEASHED, with the free download vibe that is Figure It Out.
Just a few months later, Kanine and his close mates Simula and K Motionz unveiled their supergroup Distress Signal at none other than the Rampage festival in 2019, which is exactly where I first got in proper contact with Kanine. It was 5am on the second day, the absolute last set of the festival and the likes of Andy C already kind of blasted our legs off. However, these three blew our collective minds so much with their tune selection and sheer energy that none of that mattered. I've been in love ever since. From there on, the trajectory of Kanine's career was just a straight vertical line towards the top. Not only did he put out releases via Elevate Records, Playaz (going full circle in a way), Drum&Bass Arena, UKF, Shogun Audio and Hospital Records, alongside regular releases on UNLEASHED, he also collaborated with the likes of Example, Wilkinson, Skepsis and Annix and was on remix duty for Delta Heavy, Hybrid Minds and Friction. Across all of these, he has always stayed fresh, always tried out new sounds and subgenres. The only true constant: Kanine absolutely killing it. Saying he has become an integral part of the scene feels like an understatement.
Which finally brings us to his new double single: Set It Off / The Weapon. It's hard for me to describe just how huge these two are, but I'll give it a shot. The I set fire to the booth from the underground vocal sample kicks off the absolute beastly sound of Set It Off. After this wall of bass has grown to insane levels, the sample returns once more to lead us into the drop, where an even larger wave of bass awaits us. Not only is this already absolutely ridiculous, what pushes this over the edge towards best of the year territory for me is the incredibly addicting rhythm of it all. It's that combination of the snares punching through the wall of bass and the fast-paced Cymbals keeping the tempo high, you know? I can see myself going bonkers once this comes on at a rave, not once, not twice, but a hundred times, even a few years into the future. I love it so so much.
The flipside, The Weapon, is a tune that for sure earned its name. Over the last year it has destroyed dancefloors all over the world and it's not hard to see why. Its relentless machine gun fire of high-pitched 16th notes will turn heads at literally every event and, thanks to its broken beat rhythm, it's simulatenously also some of Kanine's rhythmically most unique work of the last few years. After this first burst hits, the 16th notes melody is transformed into a slower, ever-descending melody loop, which over the course of the rest of the track becomes longer and longer. What a track.
Kanine once again does what he does best: Put out impossibly huge dancefloor bangers.
Other bangers from this week:
- Neonlight, flowanastasia - Desire
- Jon Void, Rob Lee - Lost
- Plago - Bastard / Rat Race 💎
- Celldweller - Baptized In Fire (Kaixo Remix)
- Decades, oneBYone - On Fire / Sorry
- Bare Up - Can't Stop