Plus: Amazon brings down the web again, and a glimpse into Apple's design processes | An intriguing behind-the-scenes look at Apple | And Amazon's done it again
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I'm constantly feeling a sense of tech déjà vu these days – from Amazon Web Services taking down the internet again to things that Facebook (sorry, Meta…) launches turning out to be rather underwhelming, it feels like we're doomed to watch the same things over and over.
Thankfully, some things in the tech and entertainment worlds look more promising: I'm thoroughly intrigued by a Samsung Galaxy Watch patent application that's emerged, and I'm hoping that this new Spider-Man film is going to scratch the Marvel itch in a way that Eternals didn't.
Also, I'm still not sure how we earthlings managed to 'touch' the sun… but touch it we did this week, apparently.
Members of the Apple Design Team at work on the company's Cupertino campus (Jason Schmidt)
We sometimes get asked by other publications within our little empire (Future Publishing) to support great interviews, features or exclusive news that they've produced – and this was a top one.
The revered publication Wallpaper* managed to get behind-the-scenes access to Apple's Design Team, and it was incredibly insightful. From seeing how Apple prototypes its iPhone designs (a process that, as you can imagine, is painstakingly meticulous) to the level of detail over the fonts and sculpting of every piece of marketing material, it was… well, so very Apple.
I've visited some brands where design testing was done in facilities that were basically glorified classrooms – and while some may feel that Apple products are over-engineered, you can't deny the level of care and attention that goes into them.
The Downdetector web page showing some of the sites impacted by the latest AWS outage
I'm sure I've written about this before… yes, yes I have, just last week in fact. Because Amazon Web Services, which acts as the conduit for a large portion of the web's traffic, went down again, meaning that users of sites including Hulu and Twitch, and even people trying to book rides at Disneyland, were left frustrated and disappointed.
The reason was fairly mundane: apparently two US servers were sent too much traffic by engineers after they spotted an increase in users and redirected elements of the AWS network to cope. It was only out for a couple of hours, but it was enough to bring parts of the online world shuddering to a halt – it's been our biggest story for days.
But it does beg the huge question: how could this happen twice within a month? Is a large part of the internet really that susceptible to human error? I shudder to think of the cost of these outages to the brands affected, and to AWS itself - if the above explanation is really all there is to it, there clearly needs to be far greater protection and redundancy built in.
We did warn him that the article contained spoilers… (Sony Pictures/Marvel Studios)
No spoilers here – I've not seen Spider-Man: No Way Home yet. I'm very excited for it, though, as while recent Marvel films like Black Widow and Shang-Chi have looked good, I've not been as interested in meeting new characters as I am in being reacquainted with old friends.
While Spider-Man: Far From Home was only okay, I still like the premise of the latest installment: bringing back old enemies from other Spider-Man franchises (confusingly) and melding elements of the Phase 3 and Phase 4 parts of the MCU… there's a lot to get excited about. And will there be multiple versions of Spider-Man? Will that turn out to have been the greatest secret ever kept in cinema?
If you've not watched it, DO NOT read the linked piece – our Entertainment Writer Tom Power tells me it's so filled with spoilers that you may never be able to watch another Marvel movie again.
Mark's Riverboat, one of the virtual spaces in Horizon Worlds (Meta)
Our esteemed new US Editor-in-Chief, Lance Ulanoff, was one of the first people to fire up an Oculus headset and jump into the collaborative Facebook / Meta Horizon Worlds, the sparkling new digital realm that, if Mark Zuckerberg has his way, will be the place we all congregate in the future, while sitting in comfy chairs and ignoring our ever-expanding waists.
It didn't go well. And it wasn't even full of bugs… it was just a bit nose-wrinklingly dull.
"Horizon Worlds was a fun and eye-opening experience, my first real one in Meta's idea of an immersive virtual world," Lance writes. "I wouldn't characterize Horizon Worlds as inspiring or impressive. It's sparsely populated, visually blah, and, for now, painfully small. It's also unlikely to convince anyone that the Metaverse is just around the virtual corner."
So maybe it's not the Future of Everything after all…
Future Samsung wearables may offer a lot more screen real estate than the Watch 4 (Future)
In the early part of this century, I met with many brands that were working to make flexible electronics a thing, and every time we spoke I just wanted to know when they were going to invent a bendy wristband that could turn into a tablet when taken off and unfurled.
They eventually tired of my (probably childish) line of questioning, but this Samsung patent proves that I was onto something.
The patent describes a watch that will allow you to pull out the screen of a standard smartwatch to get more real estate if you want to browse the web or do other things that require a bigger screen. It's not coming any time soon, as is the way with most devices outlined in patents, but these look like the first steps towards having truly integrated electronics on our bodies.
I'm here for this. Ultimately I want an all-in-one smart running suit that I can sell advertising space on, to start making those runs pay for themselves.
I was going to castigate our gaming writer Adam Vjestica for lauding the Analogue Pocket, an attempt to allow users to play old Game Boy cartridges in a handheld that can be docked for TV.
I was ready to make all kinds of derisory noises, thinking that people would be fooled by nostalgia into thinking they could recreate the magical moments of their youth… and then I read this paragraph in the introduction:
"...all those games you grew up playing decades ago will run exactly how you remember on the Analogue Pocket - but so, so much better. The Analogue Pocket's gorgeous screen and clever software include advanced features that inject new life into games – like a sharpening option, frame blending, as well as support for original display modes".
And suddenly I want one of these with every fiber of my being, without even needing to read the rest of the article – although you absolutely should, and if you remember the Game Boy fondly, you'll enjoy this in-depth look.
An artist's rendering of the Parker Solar Probe passing through the sun's corona (NASA)
When I was little, I was told that nothing could touch the sun as it would all melt. "Even bone?" I asked innocently – although I can now see how that may have sounded slightly creepy. "Yes, even bone" came the impressively patient reply.
But now humanity has penetrated the sun's atmosphere, with the Parker Solar Probe orbiting at speeds of up to 430,000 miles per hour and getting close enough to fly through the corona, which counts as touching it in our book.
I can't comprehend how we've built something that can withstand a million degrees celsius, nor how we now have more information about the solar winds and flares that can disrupt our worlds. It's another "Oh man, science is good, isn't it?" moment.
I'm just glad we didn't make the probe out of bone, for so many reasons.
This is from the editor
Thank you again for making it all the way through another newsletter – I'm always bowled over that people respond with lovely words, and you can too, by emailing me with the subject line NEWSLETTER. And thank you for all the congratulations on the new baby!
I've not got any big life events to share with you this week (although my album of cute baby photos is growing exponentially, to the point where my Google Photos app is constantly telling me off for running out of space), but it is nearly Christmas, and TechRadar is spinning up a whole suite of excellent festive content for you to enjoy.
Do make sure that you're checking the site daily – we're hopeful of having a clever way of packaging all our festive content together for you, so that you can sit back, crack out the iPad and ignore your family while they watch terrible TV, in the modern spirit of the holidays.
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