Summer Travel, Sample Sales & Wellness 🏖️
This Week in Review☕️ : Instagram reignites Shopping craze | Top tips for Optimal Health | Apple brings back most popular video game after 5-year legal battle | Google launches smart AI glasses
Quick Bites:
Travel ✈️: When is a holiday enough?
Research suggests we need at least one nine-day break every year.
Personally.. we're in desperate need of a 6 month vacation twice a year
PS. A holiday is ONLY enough when we have no phone, no kids, a 5-star buffet and unlimited spicy margaritas.. and preferably with Johnny Depp as our butler 🍹🍹
For those with limited paid time off, a holiday planned in advance can go a long way, according to WSJ, noting that 15 days of time off can turn "into nearly 50 days of extended break time."
A major holiday hack💡: Ask for a day off after a public holiday to enjoy a four-day long weekend. And take off Monday instead of Friday. Getting back to the office on a Tuesday isn't as hectic than trying to finish a busy week 😈
About 50% of US workers with paid time off don't use all of it and around 20% of US private-sector workers have no PTO, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Our boss💡: We offer 2 weeks vacation but we ask that you not take off Mondays, Fridays, month end, month beginning or any day when another employee takes a day off
Our Thoughts💡:
Us realizing Christmas and NYE will happen on weekends this year👇🏻
Big Tech 📱: Apple brings back popular video fame ‘Fortnite’ after a long legal 5-year long fight, according to CNBC.
Background💡: Apple removed the game from its app store after it tried to bypass Apple's 30% revenue-sharing cut in 2020.
In retaliation, Epic Games (the company behind Fortnite) filed a fully-prepared 65-page lawsuit against Apple- having anticipated the ban.
While the average bloke doesn't stand a chance against evil Cook and his band of power-hungry developers, Epic Games had a solid war chest at a USD 17 billion+ valuation.
Apple may have flooded Washington lobbyists with money and muscle to maintain it's monopoly, but the anti-trust sentiment amongst Big Tech was huge back then and still continues.
Some say- the fact that developers have been allowing Apple to hold them in digital slavery for over TWO decades is appalling 🤯🤯🤯
Key Highlights, reported by CNBC:
-Fortnite is one of the most culturally influential games in the world
-The move immediately returns the first-person shooter game to the App Store for iPhones and iPads in the US, five years after its removal.
-On Monday, a judge said that Apple had to explain why Fortnite hadn’t been approved yet
-The legal battle challenged Apple’s 30% commission structure and resulted in a court ruling limiting Apple’s 27% fee on purchases made outside its platform
-Apple delayed reinstating Fortnite, prompting Epic to file a legal motion to enforce the court’s order
-Under pressure, Apple re-enabled Fortnite’s return by the May 27 deadline set by the court
In context:
The fees that Apple takes from the app store are a huge part of it’s business. They’re reported in “Apple’S Services Business”, which also includes advertising, warranties, payments, and subscription offerings such as Apple TV+.
Apple reported nearly $27 billion in services revenue during the March quarter.
AI 👓: At its annual conference on Tuesday, Google made headlines with a big focus on smart eyewear and AI.
👓 First up: high-tech glasses
Finally, some hope of smart glasses that won’t make you look like a cyborg from 2013
The search giant is stepping deeper into the smart glasses game with 3 major projects:
Project Aura – a new collaboration with Xreal to build the first-ever eyeglasses that run on Android XR, Google's platform for extended reality
A second project with Samsung to develop augmented reality (AR) glasses
A stylish take with Warby Parker, combining smart tech with fashion-forward frames
The tech giant said: “Why launch one pair of smart glasses… when you can launch three?”
💡 But that’s not all: Google also announced AI Ultra, a $249.99/month subscription for premium access to its top AI tools.
Yep, That’s right. Two hundred and fifty bucks... a month.
For that price, the AI better make your iced oat latte, do your taxes, and ghost your ex🖕🏻
Our thoughts💡: Looks like Google is betting BIG on wearables and premium AI- and turns out the future looks sleek, smart, and expensive af
But hey, at least we’ll all be walking around looking like chic robots
Retail 🛍️: TikTok reginited the sample sale craze, Business of Fashion reports.
Sample sales have gone viral with social media influencers sharing their product hauls as well as what to expect from wait lines, pricing and restocks.
Guys, if you're really going to a sample sale, be a decent human being and turn your phone horizontal before you record fights
Great day at the Sephora sample sale today! Put 3 girls in the hospital, curb stomped an old lady and murdered a white male, but we love our new liquid Nars highlighter! 💃
Instead of just getting rid of unsold inventory, sample sales are becoming a more strategic part of brand marketing.
Brands are also taking a more personalized, experiential approach to these sales, staging them more like a party with food and beverages to connect with shoppers, Business of Fashion reports.
Our Thoughts💡: Just survived our first sample sale stampede.
We came, we saw, we conquered.. our credit card limit🤯
Health 👟: At the CNBC CEO Council Summit in Arizona this week, Arnold Schwarzenegger shared his insights on health and wellness, emphasizing the importance of consistent habits and a positive mindset.
“It is extremely important to not stop moving when you’re 50 or 60 just because of joint problems. If you stop movement, then this is the first step to death.”
-Arnold Schwarzenegger
Key Highlights from this talk:
Consistency Over Intensity: Schwarzenegger stressed that maintaining health isn't about extreme measures but about consistent, daily practices.
Mindset: He highlighted the role of a positive attitude in achieving health goals, suggesting that mental resilience is as crucial as physical effort.
Age: Acknowledging the changes that come with aging, he advocated for adapting fitness routines to suit one's current capabilities while still challenging oneself.
Community: He emphasized the value of having a supportive community or network to stay motivated and accountable.
Purpose-Driven Health: Schwarzenegger linked health to a broader purpose, suggesting that taking care of one's body enables individuals to contribute more effectively to their communities and causes they care about.
“Do something. It doesn’t matter to me if you play tennis, if you go skiing, if you play soccer, or if you lift weights ... but do something.”
Quicker Bites:
G7 Finance Chiefs Meet Amid Tensions: G7 finance ministers convened in Canada to address trade imbalances and currency policies.
China and Australia Cut Interest Rates.
Mexico City Officials Assassinated: Two top aides to Mexico City's mayor were gunned down in a brazen daylight attack, highlighting escalating violence in the region.
Tesla Stock Rises Despite Weak China Sales: Tesla's stock increased by 1.1% as CEO Elon Musk confirmed he would remain at the company's helm for the next five years.
Vodafone Reports €1.5 Billion Loss for the fiscal year.