Newsletter: week of 7/14

For the last week, I have been using the Z Fold 7, Samsung's newly released $2,000 folding phone, as both my phone and my laptop.

It started like this...

Using a Satechi Thunderbolt 4 dock, my BenQ 27" 4K monitor, a Magic Mouse, and a Keychron K7 Max keyboard, I created a complete desktop setup with the Z Fold 7 as the brains. And because I use my laptop almost exclusively for editing video, I had my voice-over microphone and SSD plugged in, and working(!!), too.

Answering emails, taking video calls, and surfing the web was so easy and enjoyable that it had me wondering why I hadn't tried this sooner.

That was until it was time to start editing...

Although phones and laptops are becoming equally powerful in terms of computing power, the size of these devices (small vs. large), how they handle heat (no fans vs. fans), and how we interact with them (a few fingers vs. a full keyboard and mouse) greatly affect what we can do with them.

Think about it like a food truck (phone) vs. a full-sized kitchen (computer). A chef can create an excellent five-course meal in a food truck, but it will be more challenging due to the limited kitchen space-- there is less room for staff, additional cooking tools, and even plating dishes. While in a full-size kitchen, the same chef can have other cooks assisting, all the necessary tools, and dedicated workspaces for every dish.

Editing long-form video is a lot like cooking up an entrée, a few mains, and dessert all at the same time. And this week, despite the Z Fold 7's incredible computing power, I learned that I much prefer a full-sized kitchen to do so.

And I thought the bike trip was hard...

But more on all that in my next video. Also, side note, the speed at which my content turned into "Becca being tortured by tech" is alarming, and I hope it doesn't stay this way 😅.

Anywho! Here is everything else I tuned into this week.

via cheerful_nihilism on threads

📖 Things to read:

The Astronomer CEO's Coldplay Concert Fiasco Is Emblematic of Our Social Media Surveillance Dystopia
Facial recognition and crowdsourced social media investigations are constantly being used not just on cringe CEOs, but on random people who are simply existing in public.

Delta moves toward eliminating set prices in favor of AI that determines how much you personally will pay for a ticket
Someone, please make this illegal.

I tried Grok’s new companion feature — and I’ve never felt so uncomfortable
"If this is the future, get me out of here"

📺 Things to watch:

I Visited Mount Everest Base Camp (with $275)
God, this guy is good.

Vlog 35 | 12 Years Behind the Lens (Fujifilm X-T5)
a super honest and authentic photography origin story

Kayak Camping Big Bend - 3 Days Living in a Canyon
ohhhkkay, I'm bringing friends on the next big adventure... who's in?

my favourite generative AI model is my brain by defecationformation
PSA

🎶 Things to listen to:

Fred again..: Tiny Desk Concert
Every few months, this gets thrown back into rotation.

Westward (album) - Dylan Gossett
for pretending you're driving an old truck through the desert

Foreign Language (Will Taylor (UK) Remix) - Flight Facilities & Will Taylor, Jess
this week's EDM fix

Oneida - Tyler Childers

The Longest Goodbye - ROLE MODEL, Laufey

Alright, bud. That's all I have for this week! I'll have the Z Fold 7 video for ya real soon, but in the meantime, I hope you have some time to get outside and hang with some people you love.
-Becca