Do you remember the internet in 2001 and how much fun it was?

And also how slow it was…

But really, how much fun it was? Finding interesting things on the internet in 2001 was still considered a bit of an adventure as search engines were a thing but they definitely weren’t optimized the way they are now where they basically know what you’re searching for before you finish typing the first word.

But when you found something good it was like you hit the jackpot!

Enter: Ebaum’s World. Maybe all I need say is Ebaum’s World and you’re already hearing Arnold Schwarzenegger ask you, “Who is your daddy, and what does he do?” Hahaha, I’m already laughing. I’d say for a good couple of years in highschool everyone walked around telling people they were a cop, you idiot!

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Ebaum’s World was (technically still is) a meme site before memes were really a thing. Amongst a flurry of random content, the site was famous for all kinds of funny pictures, videos, and it’s sound board that lead to a series of viral prank calls posted on the internet.

This is still so funny 20 years later 👇️ 

The site was started in 2001 by Eric Bauman and his dad Neil. It grew to be one of the most popular sites on the internet, becoming acquired by Handheld Entertainment in 2007 for $15M upfront, $2.5M in HandHeld stock, and then up to $52.5M in cash and stock over 3 years. In the early 2000’s if you saw something funny on the internet it was probably on the Ebaum’s World site or it came directly from it - especially if it was sounds from a soundboard.

Nowadays instead of clicking through a soundboard with pre-canned sounds, you can just use AI to create your own calls. A friend of mine called me this week with his own AI tool and although it sounded like one of those automated calls where they tell you that you just won a cruise, he created it within a minute and it was super personalized to me. Not going to lie, I was pretty impressed. Now I wait for when the internet does this for prank calls and revives the Ebaum’s World hype of the early 2000’s.

This week's issue is a 5 minute read:

🎤 Even Drake uses AI

🚫 Is this the end for TikTok?

🍎 Apple’s failed vision

Is There An Artist More Clever Than Drake?

Remember when Taylor Swift re-recorded her first six albums because she wasn’t given a chance to purchase the masters from these albums when they were up for sale? And then the re-recorded versions of these six albums ended up eclipsing the streaming numbers for the originals? This had to be one of the more clever moves an artist has done in our lifetime.

I think Drake just one-upped Taylor Swift

Now he’s not going to earn the kind of money like Taylor made from re-recording her own albums but what he did is very, very clever.

ICYMI: Kendrick Lamar opened the otherwise subliminal beef with Drake with a verse off of Future’s track, “Like That” to a point where it’s just obvious that the two of them don’t exactly like each other. The resulting domino effect shortly after the track being released revealed that a bunch of people don’t like Drake - Future, Metro Boomin’, The Weeknd, Nav, Rick Ross, and most recently, Kanye West.

So Drake responded with:

When this track was originally leaked there was a lot of speculation that someone put it together with AI. Recall this AI track. Eventually Drake released the track officially on his streaming channels and that put the AI chatter to rest.

There’s been A LOT of AI chatter in this beef

A track came out by what turned out to be not Kendrick Lamar but rather someone playing around with AI to create something hauntingly similar here. Quickly we learned it was basically some guy in his basement who’s been playing around with AI and music for a good year now. But then Drake released again…which was just taken off of all official Drake socials!!

The clever part: Drake released a follow up diss track with an AI-powered Tupac Shakur and AI-powered Snoop Dogg that was actually really good - basically imagine Tupac, prime Snoop, and Drake did a track, it kinda worked. But representatives from Tupac’s estate were have NONE OF IT. Drake has taken the song down after the cease and desist he received. And so you can still find it here but the hype was short lived.

In essence we went from everyone thinking Drake and Kendrick released AI diss tracks to Drake giving in to the public and actually releasing an AI diss track featuring his real self. And he used two West Coast rap legends to boot (Kendrick is from California). It’s been like two weeks now and Kendrick still hasn’t responded…after starting all of this himself.

The Clock Is TikTok-ing

When Trump was president, I think it’s safe to say a lot of people at TikTok were holding their breath given how much he threatened to have the platform removed from the US altogether. Sell it to an American company or be completely banned from America was basically Trump’s soundbite for a good year. But nothing really happened?

And then a report came out in 2022 that Bytedance employees in China could access US TikTok user data, which influenced US state governments to ban the app from government phones. But again, nothing really happened? To paint the picture further, US social media sites/apps - FB, IG, YouTube, etc. are all banned in China, mainly because that would mean Chinese user data would leave China and be hosted in a US data center. Ironically the US could have its TikTok user data stored in Chinese data centers as we speak.

Alas, finally the US government has put its foot down and signed a bill that once again forces TikTok to either sell its US operations to an American entity or face ban and removal from the US altogether.

Even China doesn’t allow TikTok to be used in China!

On the one hand TikTok is claiming this is a violation of US citizen’s first amendment rights of being able to freely express themselves. But on the other hand this is kinda sorta a national security concern if the US truly does suspect that user data is being sent and accessed in China. Funny enough, Chinese citizens can’t access TikTok officially on Chinese data networks, they have to use Douyin, the Chinese version.

President Biden signed the legislation on Wednesday which means TikTok now has 270 days to sell to an American company or forever be banished from the US. Something tells me a lawsuit is coming from Tiktok’s side which will extend this period into sometime in 2026 or beyond.

No Vision For The Vision Pro

I was in an Apple store the other week and it was business as usual - iPhones, iPads, and over-priced accessories everywhere. You know what I didn’t see? That big fat Vision Pro headset. Mind you, I haven’t really thought of it since they released it. I don’t even know if it’s out in Canada but I kinda really don’t care?

Apparently barely anyone is thinking about the Vision Pro these days.

The initial sales forecast Apple had for selling these things was around 700,000 to 800,000 in 2024. According to insiders in Apple, that forecast has been reduced to 400,000 to 450,000. To give you perspective, Apple sold 124 MILLION iPhones in the US in 2022 - so you know people LIKE Apple products. It seems like they definitely do not like the Vision Pro.

There’s thoughts that Apple may be revisiting the headset and looking at a cheaper, “entry level” model instead given the low demand. But my whole thing is, what did you expect people to do with this mixed reality thing? Did they really expect people to be walking around with Star Trek headsets on all day? I mean I know my phone is basically an extension of my arm at this point but I’d like to allow my eyes to breath freely.

Earlier this year Apple stopped its 10 year pursuit and investment into making an electric car. Coupled with the dismal response to the Vision Pro and the fact that they’ve released the same phone for the past 4 years, it’s not out of the question that Apple has been struggling to truly evolve and innovate their business in recent times.

Fun lil story - I asked them in the Apple store what the difference between the iPhone 14 and new iPhone 15 was. They said nothing other than the chip inside the phone and you no longer could use regular USB cables with the new phone so you had to “upgrade” your charging cable. LOL what are you doing Apple??