File under “texting in public,” I love the trailer for Netflix’s Starting 5. For…reasons.
File under “trust and safety is hard,” Finn Voorhees had Apple repair his iPhone screen but then found himself suddenly banned from Snapchat.
I began to suspect that Apple had given me a refurbished iPhone as a replacement, and the previous owner had been banned for violating Snapchat’s guidelines. … DeviceCheck allows developers to set and query two bits of data per device, which persist across app deletions, reinstalls, factory resets, and even device transfers between users. Apple’s documentation suggests using this for limiting free trials to once per user or banning devices with known fraudulent activity. They even mention that developers are responsible for resetting these bits when a device changes ownership, but it’s unclear how developers could verify that this has occurred.
File under “defining a security is hard,” Ben Weiss’ at The Verge on what’s been happening at OpenSea is worth reading. Two quick thoughts. First, given today’s news that the SEC sent them a Wells notice, maybe killing creator royalties (to better compete with Blur?) wasn’t really the move? Second, this quote is just brutal:
“They hired these fucking animals, these reptiles from like Amazon, Facebook, Google,” said another former employee. “The white walkers came in through the fucking door like in Game of Thrones.”
File under “real estate is hard,” David Wertheimer on the news that New York’s Flatiron building is going condo:
For most of the first century of its life, the Flatiron was a thriving space, with thousands of people walking into its lobby and filling its 22 stories with an ever changing population, each generating their own experiences, their own memories. The building was lively inside and out. That is likely never to return.
And finally, file under “someday, maybe, I hope to stay there” Colin Nagy at WITI on the renovation happening at the Park Hyatt Tokyo:
This is one of the most high wire acts that can happen in hotels: evolving a beloved icon, while retaining its magic elements. Park Hyatt Tokyo is a place where you either get it, or you don’t. But it is a place with integrity, timelessness, and a design intention that has been executed with remarkable consistency over time.
I also love this video from the hotel’s 25th anniversary that Nagy’s a part of…