The newsletter

#107 - Cooking using augmented reality, Incredibles popups

Greg Taieb · · 7 min read

This week I offer you:

  • ⚰️ An interesting reflection on the reasons why we cannot get rid of popups
  • 🍳 Cooking thanks to augmented reality
  • 🚗 The boss of Uber plays it incognito
  • 🛒 The best application for doing your shopping

⚰️ Why can't we get rid of pop-ups?

Do you like pop-ups?

I have an idea of the answer and you have you even said that the web would be more pleasant if they disappeared permanently?

And yet for decades now this interface component that we hate so much has continued to thrive and pollute our internet browsing.

So certainly the GDPR and the recovery of consent for cookies has not helped things but the pop-up existed well before and has many other uses (promo code, form, etc.).

In this article The Verge looks at this an anomaly that pushes developers to continue using a design element that irritates all visitors.

Pop-ups are everywhere, even though no one wants them
How did one of the most hated elements of web design make a comeback?
The Verges.e. smith

We especially learn why we are probably not about to see pop ups disappear...🥴

🍳Cooking has never been so simple thanks to reality augmented

I often talk to you about AR (augmented reality) because even if the use cases are not yet very developed we really see very interesting experiments, particularly in the culinary field.

I already presented to you the Snapchat filters which allowed you to simulate a restaurant menu.

Even better, imagine no longer having to worry about quantities when you cook and having indicated them just by looking at an ingredient.

This is precisely what this demo that I found on Twitter offers and it's quite brilliant in that it shows you a lot of contextual information such as the cooking time or the recipe.

Okay at this stage it's only a video but it has the merit of revealing concrete use cases which is not a bad thing a few weeks before a probable announcement of Apple's connected glasses.

Okay, and since we're talking about cooking, I'll take this opportunity to remind you that the best application for storing your recipes is Mela which I talked to you about in this newsletter 👇

#58 - 👩‍🍳 The best cooking app
Hello, 2022 is already 2 weeks strong and 100% of my newsletters have arrived late 😅. We're going to try to get things back on track, especially since I received a few messages that really motivated me to do better (👋 Caroline). On the menu this week: * 🚘 Cars that change from
📱 Greg's NewsGregory Taieb

🚗 The boss of Uber puts himself (again) in the shoes of his drivers

A few months ago I told you about the test that Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO, had done of Uber by pretending to be a meal deliveryman.

He has since done it again in September 2022 by becoming a driver in an attempt to understand why the company was having difficulty recruiting.

Uber’s CEO became an undercover boss in a used Tesla and was surprised by how rude some riders can be
Dara Khosrowshahi told The Wall Street Journal he secretly made dozens of trips and deliveries to better understand its recruitment problems. alt="">InsiderRyan Hogg

The least we can say is that he took this mission seriously since he bought a second-hand Tesla and registered under a false name on the platform (the story does not say if it is with or without the support of its teams).

He then completed no less than 100 races to put himself in the position of his drivers. He also made deliveries again for Uber Eats.

In the end he discovered:

  • the harshness of certain customers
  • The stress of the driver to maintain his bill
  • The practice of tip-baiting which consists of giving a good tip at the time of the order to reduce it once the delivery is made

We are definitely far from a Travis Kalanik described with a lot of accuracy in the excellent series Super Pumped which I told you about a few months ago and which I recommend to you even more now

#79 - 🚗 Uber in series, how Alan manages his knowledge and Discord
Hello, I hope you are well this hot week. Remember to hydrate between reading the articles in this newsletter 💦. On the menu this week: * 🚗 The crazy story of Uber told in series * 🧠 How the start-up Alan manages internal knowledge * 🗣 Discord: the best app for…
📱 Greg's NewsGregory Taieb

🛒 Bring! The best application for managing your shopping list


Everyone has their own method for managing shopping lists:

  • the paper list: practical, quick to make but which you don't always have on you and which cannot be shared
  • phone notes which are a digital version of the paper list
  • Dedicated applications

Personally, I have a very long time worked with a list of reminders shared on iPhone which allowed me to check off foods and had the advantage of always being with me and synchronized.

And then I recently discovered Bring! which falls into the 3rd category and has a lot of advantages that can only be found in a dedicated application.

  • Quick addition of a food via auto-completion
  • Automatic suggestion of foods in confusion from our history
  • Lots of shortcuts which allow you to specify the entry (e.g.: bread... sandwich, burger, etc.)
  • Management of several lists
  • Access to recipes and automatically add their ingredients to the list
  • Integration of all your loyalty cards

It's free, it integrates with a bunch of Siri, Alexa, Google Home services to add items to your list by voice.

Bring! Shopping List App for iOS & Android
The simple shopping list App to share with friends and family ✓ Free ✓ Google Assistant & Alexa ✓ integrated recipes ✓ organized loyalty cards ▷ Get Bring! now…
Bring!

🔥 in short

Twitter now disables likes, replies, and retweets if a tweet has Substack links
What’s next?
The VergeMitchell Clark
  • Spotify closes its Clubhouse competitor: an application that never took off. When we know that Clubhouse saw its downloads drop by 80% in 2022, this confirms that the live audio trend only works today on… Twitter.
  • The start of big problems for ChatGPT? With the recent ban on GPT in Italy due to GDPR, we wonder if we are not witnessing the first domino falling for the most famous generative AI. To be continued, but this would make VPN sellers happy.
ChatGPT Has a Big Privacy Problem
Italy’s recent ban of Open AI’s generative text tool may just be the beginning of ChatGPT’s regulatory woes.
WIREDCondé Nast
  • Tinder is considering an offer $500/month. While we are all looking to reduce our subscriptions, Tinder is working on a premium offer at $500/month. Having never used the service, it seemed very expensive to me but that was before I learned that this move was inspired by Match's acquisition in 2022 of "The League", a dating application which charged $1000/week. So the Tinder offer might actually be a good deal!

🎙️ The podcast of the week

Aaaah, those good old NFTs! It’s been a long time since we talked about it with Rémi.

And yet. You might think that it's over, that it was just a speculative madness that would disappear as soon as the crypto madness took off.

You have to believe that not, maybe even that the people who create and buy (and sell) them would find a use or visual pleasure in them!  

Today, we’re going to get our hands dirty. We open the doors to the blockchain of blockchains: Bitcoin.

That's all for this week!
See you next week and don't forget to share this newsletter to introduce it.