The Bulletin
for 11th May, 2024
Hey everybody,
I was thinking that I'd step away for a little while longer from producing The Bulletin, but I decided I missed it enough to put it together again. Still no social media for this guy (for the most part), but we can at least have this little corner of the internet for sharing stuff in the meantime.
Going forward, I'll also be publishing Bulletins on bulletin.sladewatkins.com/posts so you can get the whole archive at any time, no subscription required! That said, they still won't be on Slade's Corner until the following Tuesday at 8am Eastern (US). Consider it a nice little archive of all of my emails that'll be available immediately after I hit send!
I've been doing okay since we last spoke. I watched the Apple Event with a new friend, Adam, over FaceTime since he's in the UK. We ended up talking for hours after that -- but it didn't feel like it at all! We had such a good time that we're planning to do more calls like that, outside of Apple Events. It's so cool that we're able to be close friends without needing to worry about international data charges or whatever. Technology is neat!
As I write this, I'm sitting in my friend's living room down in Ghent, NY. extended my monthly "trip to the city" to go be with a friend who needs me, who I will be staying with starting Sunday. I knew I could, so I did. Unfortunately, things have not been smooth getting this to happen -- but after calling in some favours, I was able to make it work. Huge thank you to my friend Pixel, plus my other friend's parents for taking a huge weight off of my shoulders! Now I'm just glad to be able to be there for my friend! Thank you, sincerely. Here's hoping it helps!!
With all of that out of the way: The Bulletin is back, baby! Since the last Bulletin released, I've switched to an iPhone 11 (with 128GB!)--along with Apple services across the board (thank you to Adnan for BOTH of those!!). Music, TV, and Arcade, basically. Downside is it's a Swedish Apple ID, but I don't mind. You can have a US and Swedish ID on one phone.
But yeah! Lots going on, so let's jump right on in!
Upcoming Events
I will be at Bennington, Vermont's 37th Annual Mayfest with my mom on 25th May, 2024, from 10am-5pm in (naturally) Downtown Bennington, Vermont. My mom will have her jewelry and crafts collection with her, with a slightly updated display, so if you're in the area: please come on down! Again: 25th May, 2024, 10am-5pm, Downtown Bennington, VT. More details here.
On 1st June, my mom will also be doing the Battonkill Valley Pride Celebration at Lakota Farms in Cambridge, NY -- which I'll also be at! This one's running from 12:30pm-4:30pm, so come on down if you're in the area! Let's have a great kick off to Pride Month! (For those who don't know, I'm LGBTQ+. I've already switched to Pride themed wallpapers and a matching Apple Watch face! I'm very excited!)
Once we get into June, there's an event every weekend until July, pretty much. One's pending, so I'm not going to list those here until we get some solid confirmation! If you'd like to follow my mom on Facebook, and get more up to date information outside of this newsletter, you can find her here: https://www.facebook.com/theodessadesigns/
Things I found across the net...
Been a hot minute since I shared some interesting stuff I've found. Let's go!
- One of my friends from high school, Oliver (they/them) is raising funds to take part in the Gotham EDU Film and Media Career Development Program. Please donate and/or share if you’re able! Click here to do so. And if you’d like to learn more about my friend, please visit olivergraceschaffer.com!
- eSIM is about to become mainstream, with Apple's new iPad Air and Pro models losing the SIM slot worldwide. This likely means that the eSIM-only future that began with the iPhone 14 and 15 series here in the US could become the reality across Apple's entire product lines starting as soon as September!
- Worth noting for the eSIM thing: eSIM support has been improving, but many MVNOs still do not support eSIM (that links to a list that do, which is tiny), and carriers like Verizon are known to have issues with the technology even many years later here in the United States. I'm glad US Mobile is going to have support for it on all three networks, though. That's awesome! (I use the T-Mobile side of US Mobile right now with a physical card.)
- Nintendo Co., Ltd., the parent company of Nintendo of America (I have a PR contact at NoA), has announced that the "successor to the Nintendo Switch" will be revealed before April 2025 (end of the fiscal year). I've got my theories, but the way they've been talking about it: it sounds like they're doing the same concept, new approach, basically.
- Speaking of, Nintendo is removing social media sharing to Twitter on the Switch effective 10th June, 2024. Also worth noting here: they mention explicitly that the social media sharing function for Facebook may get removed, as well. All that will be left is the "send to smartphone" feature that many consider to be very poor (myself included). They're also removing the friends suggestions from social media feature, leaving smart device apps (e.g. Pocket Camp, Super Mario Run) and Wii U/3DS the only functions to remain.
- For the first time ever, Apple is removing Apple stickers from the box for its products, starting with iPad Air and iPad Pro. Vision Pro also lost stickers from the box, a tradition that has been in place for decades. This is part of Apple's 2030 Environmental Initiative, which includes removing all plastic from their packaging.
- Apple came under fire for its "crushing" iPad Pro ad due to what appeared to many as "tone deaf" given the company's environmental goals. But as 9to5Google pointed out, it actually appears that LG did this same concept for an ad back in 2008. That said, the environment and climate change weren't as big of a concern back then, so it's not surprising they didn't get the backlash that Apple is getting today.
