Marques Brownlee's hot new app

This week’s issues are going to be a little shorter than usual. I’m speaking in Norway at Future Week and the timezone is a little wonky. If you’re looking for more delicious content to consume, check out Panic World, the new podcast from Garbage Day. Our newest episode is out today featuring Michael Hobbes!

YouTuber Releases Weird, Bad App

Marques Brownlee released an absolute head-scratcher of a project this week called Panels. It’s a subscription-based app that sells high-res wallpapers for your phone. First and foremost, the idea that someone would care enough about the wallpaper on their iPhone to PAY FOR IT requires such an advanced level of Apple guy brain rot that I actually can’t even imagine it. And the idea that someone out there is changing their phone’s wallpaper regularly enough to pay a $12-a-month subscription for new ones chills me to the bone.

And it seems that I am not the only one who has a hard time imagining the utility of such an app. Brownlee is being roasted across the web by, it seems, every single person in Silicon Valley right now. They are tearing the app apart on a technical level. And have already figured out how to bypass the paywall and just download all of the wallpapers for free lol.

The immediate backlash was so strong that Brownlee has already put out a “listening and learning” statement much like many of the AI wearable startups that were sent scrambling this year after Brownlee trashed their products. As Product Hunt’s Jason Levin wrote, “The critic has stepped in the arena,” and it seems fair to say that he has not performed very well. Unless…

OK, no, I am not going to defend the app. It sucks ass and is a patently absurd thing to release. But it’s also an important illustration of how Brownlee is not — and has never been — playing the same game as the companies he reviews. And, unlike, say, the AI hardware companies he’s ethered in videos this summer, he has a much better sense of who his customers are and where his money comes from than they do.

Brownlee is a YouTuber. That’s where all of his content is hosted and that’s where the bulk of his revenue comes from. And his audience, I’m willing to bet, is overwhelmingly young men who buy new gadgets to show them off. The aforementioned brain-rotted Apple guys. Panels was, as of last night, number three on the App Store charts. So yeah, there are clearly people this app is catering to. Is this also a shameless cash grab? Of course (it also has ads lol). Is it also clearly targeting a specific kind of person with a specific kind of “need”? Clearly. Something Silicon Valley should probably consider!

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A Good Radiohead Cover

@tanaka_kimhongnam_kkw

라디오헤드가 보면 오열 할 "Creep" 뽕짝 버전ㅋㅋㅋ #Radiohead #creep #크립 #김홍남 #뽕짝 #아이뽕 각종 행사문의는 1577-3149 🤬장난전화 사절🤬 소중한 날 금쪽같은 추억을 남겨드립니다.

AI Slop Evolves

To give you some insight into the perverse thrill I get from looking at internet garbage. I literally sat up in bed when I saw the above post on X this morning. It’s a classic viral post format — “look at this big cat” — but it was generated by AI. In case you need proof, if you watch it, at the very end, parts of the background start moving on their own.

It was originally posted by an account called @Lily19911707, which only has 13 followers, and was then shared by an account called @gunsnrosesgirl3, which has 2.6 million followers and is Verified on X. This, itself, btw, is a common content hack on X right now. Where bigger accounts use burner accounts to post videos and share them over to the main feed. I think it’s a way to trick X’s terrible algorithm into thinking the video is being shared organically.

But back to the AI factor here. Basically, up until now, AI video has not been good enough to fully replace real viral clips. The fact that random bull shit accounts are now starting to experiment with it, though, is a huge deal. A true snake eating its own tail moment for social media as a concept.

Those Who Do Not Learn From DashCon Are Doomed To Repeat DashCon

Bridgerton fans in Detroit are saying they were scammed by a company called Uncle & Me LLC (lol) after they paid $300 for an event that made DashCon look like Sleep No More.

You can click here for a thread with some truly incredible photos and videos of the event. The highlight for me is the fact that it advertised ballroom dancing and there ended up being just a lone stripper dancing on a pole in the center of an giant empty room accompanied by a lone violin player. Incredible stuff. Look forward to hearing how Uncle & Me LLC does in court once they get hit with a lawsuit from Netflix.

Jake Paul Is Wearing A Fat Suit And Lifting Fake Weights

If you come across any videos of Jake Paul working out right now, just know that it’s all part of a stunt he’s doing to advertise his upcoming fight against Mike Tyson. Contrary to what many have thought, he is not doing some mpreg thing, he’s pretending to be super out of shape before magically losing weight before the match. I’m glad he’s having fun.

The Chappell Roan Discourse Cycle Continues

Chappell Roan caved to the psychopathic stan accounts and Pop Crave knockoffs (do we have a term for these yet?) and released a video statement clarifying her recent quotes about not endorsing a presidential candidate. She says she’s not voting for Trump. Like with everything she does, in the video she’s articulate and smart and shows that she’s clearly thinking about how to be deliberate about her new fame.

The fact that the internet this week is losing its mind over Roan while also tearing apart a random fan caught on camera at a recent Charli XCX concert at the same time that a stan was livetweeting her stalking of actor Evan Peters feels like a real line in the sand moment for stan culture. This whole year has felt like a real reckoning for fandom. What does it mean? What is it worth? Who does it serve? If the 2010s was a period where brands and celebrities slowly acquiesced to the most intense and deranged online fan communities, it feels like the 2020s are a swing of the pendulum back in the opposite direction. And I wouldn’t be surprised if online fandoms start getting pushed towards the fringes again. Which is, honestly, probably where they should have stayed. (Except for Garbage Day fans. You are all my friends and I love you.)

What Are Next?!

Some Stray Links

• “Why Do Men Even Comment on Porn Sites?”

• “What I learned in year four of Platformer”

• “On the frontlines of New York’s renegade rave scene”

P.S. here’s Wink-182.

***Any typos in this email are on purpose actually***