Technology

Drag Queens at 1 Hacker Way, Why Flip Phones Are Hot and More #Mustreads

Bay Area drag queens and performers meet with Facebook.

by Noah Kulwin

Sep 18, 2014, 8:00 AM UTC

Facebook

Good morning!

Here’s some of what’s getting passed around the Re/code newsroom:

Last week, SFist reported that Facebook’s latest crackdown on users using “stage names” instead of real ones drew the ire of drag queens and other performers, who said that using their real names on Facebook opened them up to harassment. Yesterday, SFist posted a wonderful photo from a meeting between the outraged performers (in costume!) and representatives from Facebook at the company’s HQ.
The TV networks still insist on debuting new shows in the fall, so it’s time to watch a bunch of programming that likely won’t be around this spring. Vox has a beautifully designed preview site to help you decide what to sample. The Batman prequel series “Gotham” seems worth a look (at least to Netflix), and the John Cho vehicle “Selfie” also has potential.
Next Tuesday, the PBS program “American Masters” has a special on the Baby Boomer generation. Part of the show features voluble Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak; Fast Company has more on the segment, including a clip.
Social networks whose pitch is “exclusivity” aren’t new. There were password-protected LiveJournals, followed by whole communities of locked Myspace accounts and, after the rise of Facebook, there was Path, which was originally supposed to be Facebook for you and your 50 closest pals. Now, a former conductor of the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra has started Netropolitan, which costs an astonishing $9,000. In an interview with Vice, the founder said that he wants to reach an “untapped market” of millionaires worldwide, and that he feels the price tag might not be high enough to reach his target demographic. Mmm-k.
Sure, the new iPhone is dad-cool or geek-cool, but if you’re actually cool-cool, you’re following technology trends from 2004. The new “in” thing of the chic elite is to use a flip phone, and to show it about proudly like legendary Vogue editor Anna Wintour. This is because, as Chiara Atik says in a sharp piece for Medium, flip phones represent “the ultimate luxury: Inaccessibility.” What’s more luxurious than making your friends actually have to call you or send an SMS message to get in touch?

If you see any stories you’d like to send our way (or have any questions/comments about stories we’ve recommended), feel free to shoot an email to noah@recode.net.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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