AI for your face, and your face, and your face, too - newsletter week of 9/15

Hello from the skies. I am en route home from San Francisco, where Meta showed off its latest smartglasses during the company's annual Connect event.
Disclosure: Meta flew me out and put me up for the event.

By far, the best part of the event was the failed live demos (seen here and here), which, ironically, made the entire event, one dedicated to showing off AI smarts, feel utterly human and therefore wonderful.

Zuck and I at Meta Connect 2025. I could not agree more with what's on the screen.

I use AI daily. Google's Gemini is my go-to for pulling specs, release dates, and information about products. I have an audio-enhancing plug-in, called Clear, that I put all of my VO through in Adobe Premiere, and Grammarly has saved me from a lot of, though not all, embarrassing spelling and grammar mistakes. But, as much as I enjoy these tools, it's still very comforting to watch Meta, a company that is set on bringing AI to the masses, struggle to get its AI to have basic conversations or accept incoming calls. The robot overloards aren't ready to take my job... yet.

I also got to demo the new Meta Ray-Ban Display... but more on that soon.

Here is everything else I read, watched, and listened to this week.

📖 Things I Read:

A Bucolic Stone-Skimming Contest in Scotland Is Infiltrated by Cheaters
“It only shows how keen people are to win this trophy,” said Kyle Mathews, one of the organizers and the official “Toss Master” who provides commentary during the event. “In many ways, it’s flattering.”

How Samin Nosrat Learned to Love the Recipe
I vividly remember when Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat came out. It really is an excellent cookbook, and the companion Netflix show is a joy! But I also vividly remember never hearing about Samin Nosrat again. She went viral, then she went away.

Samsung brings ads to US fridges
It's only a matter of time before the home turns into times square.

📺 Things I watched:

2. Romance - Gawx
fffff I'm such a Gawx fanboy, but also come on... his work is such a content cleanse.

Fred again.. - Rooftop Live (Fede’s Roof, Naples)
I watched this as it premiered, reading along in the chat, and was struck by how real Fred continues to feel despite his growth- he was super active in this chat, he posts many videos of himself creating music behind desks that are messy,clearly used, and in "normal" looking spaces, and he doesn't wear fancy clothes or sell a lavish lifestyle.

Nothing CEO Reviews Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw what Carl was watching at 0:23... 🤯 (spoiler: it's ME!)

The Sound of Music
I had never seen this movie, and WOW, it's actually so damn good. A perfect film.

🎶 Things I listened to:

My 2012 MDX has a funny/terrible bluetooth connection, so when Hannah and I get in the car, the car plays God and picks the phone it wants to connect to for the day (no, really, once it picks, it's locked in). This week, the lucky winner was Hannah's iPhone 13 Mini. So here are some of the usual suspects when Hannah DJs:

Lots of Whitney Houston:
Greatest Love of All
Saving All My Love For You
and her favorite - I Have Nothing

Some Whitney (the band):
Golden Days
No Woman

Some lesbians:
Power of Two - Indigo Girls
I'm the Only One - Melissa Etheridge
The Story - Brandi Carlile

A bit of Bruce:
Dancing In the Dark
Thunder Road (she sang this entire song, accapella, to me on our second date <3)

Some '90s country:
Forever And For Always (Red Version) - Shania Twain
Sold - John Michael Montgomery
Bye Bye - Jo Dee Messina

If you listen to any of the above, please do so while imagining the song blasting through the speakers of an old SUV, windows down, driving down a mountain road, with two little lesbians (Han and me) screaming the lyrics.

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Alright, bud! The next week is going to be a wild one for me. I'll have some action camera news, my year in review video, the start of my iPhone 17 1,000 photos video, and maybe a mic test in there, too. 😅
Appreciate ya! -b