Meta pushed a WhatsApp update that replaces the soccer ball ⚽ with the FIFA corruption cup soccer ball by Adidas
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How is that shit different from Discord shitty server exclusive emojis. This crap is so… exhausting
Also, what is that… what appears to be a baseball, but green with red stitching?
Seems to be a softball
Consume the ads like a good corpo-drone. Lobby the unicode consortium to have your emoji added/removed because you have no control over your computer; you have no property. Drone does what the computer says to do. Consume ads. Beep bop.
As if all competitions weren’t immoral by nature
⚽ is also an Adidas World Cup match ball.
The difference is that the design was streamlined and iconic enough to be timeless and become the football design in public mind.
Before the Telstar footballs looked like this:
Wow, I had no idea! I just looked through the list of World Cup balls, and they only used that design, like, twice. But what an impact! I assume they had to get fancy afterwards because every ball started to look like that, so now it looked almost boring. Wild!
That’s cooled it’s named after the Telstar satellite. There’s a high school in Maine that’s also named after the satellite.
Why would anyone use WhatsApp when there’s Signal?
Because most of the world is already on WhatsApp, and changing to Signal would isolate you from most people and businesses.
changing to Signal would isolate you from most people and businesses.
Sounds great - if I wasn’t already using Signal, that just might persuade me 😁
The only people that believe I’m worth contacting have already switched to Signal and the ones that refused to switch lost contact with me. Their loss I guess.
So what? Don’t support fascism.
Same thing with Twitter and mastodon I guess.
Must be more popular in your country, in Canada I don’t know a single person on whatsapp
It’s very big in western Europe. Here in the Netherlands everybody is on WhatsApp pretty much since it’s creation
I think the whole europe except some countries
never heard anyone use whatsapp in sweden, everyone is expected to use something that supports sms as a fallback. Usually facebook messenger or whatever the iphone thing is called.
Far as i know the only popular truly separate platform would be something like snapchat or kik or whatever, which is used by teenagers.
except some countries
Checks out
Yeah they’re all on Facebook Messenger which sucks. I’ve managed to switch a few in my surroundings to Signal but I still need to keep Messenger for holdouts.
Thankfully I have managed to get everyone to switch from Messenger to Signal, atleast for talking to me haha. Two other family members being privacy oriented too really helped getting the rest of the family moved over.
Poland , and everybody around me is on WhatsApp, only a few people have Telegram. Searched a bit of saved phone numbers, none had Signal tied to them
Damn shame
I thought people on here of all places would understand the impact of the network effect.
I agree, but the other people all use it 🫠
because it’s the de facto sms replacement in many european and south american countries
So?
sometimes you want to sent text messages to normal people
Because in my country historically the telecom companies are charging 0.30€ per SMS (text) and 2€ per MMS (text with photo).
So WhatsApp when they launched with their “1€/lifetime” offer on the iPhone 3GS they were the right app at the right time and became the de facto replacement for any kind of messaging. It’s insane how basically overnight they replaced msn messenger and Skype because it was so convenient (Microsoft never did a smartphone client for msn messenger, only unofficial ones. It was available on dumbphones but it used SMS from the plan to send/receive, nobody used it because you needed to be a millionaire to afford it)
SMS now in my country is only for receiving OTP codes, for the rest is WhatsApp, because still in 2026 the telecoms are still charging 2€ for each MMS sent and nobody wants to risk huge bills. This includes iMessage because if a chat suddenly goes green and you didn’t notice, it costs dozens of euro
Your telecoms are ripping you off. SMS messages ‘ride’ on the normal connection mechanism to cell phone towers. If your phone connects to a cell phone tower, it already has the space and data to attach an sms and requires nothing else. SMS are ‘free’ from the infrastructure point of view.
Maybe lobby your representatives to make charging for them illegal and you’ll get proper messaging back without selling off your data.
In Italy we don’t have the concept of “lobbying representatives”. It’s a US thing.
https://data.ipu.org/parliament/IT/IT-LC01/basic/contact-details/
There. 5 seconds to figure out how to email your parliament. That’s not an exaggeration.
edit: for good measure here’s your eu commission representative contact info too. https://italy.representation.ec.europa.eu/chi-siamo/commissione-europea-rappresentanza-italia_it
iMessage because if a chat suddenly goes green and you didn’t notice, it costs dozens of euro
There’s a setting in iOS to disable that from happening btw
I don’t get to choose what app my European friends use
signal is extremely popular across europe
i’ll get right on telling them that. again.
But you get to choose what app you use. And if they continue to support fascism you have to decide if you want those kind of friends.
random european “i use whatsapp because it’s kind of the default app for a lot of things in my country”
you “fascist”
you see why i might not take you seriously?
Don’t care. Using meta is directly supporting and funding environmental degradation, AI data centers, misinformation, and yes facism.
Can you see why I am tired of being delicate and senstive about it?
what you’re being is hysterical
No, those are simply facts. So you support that then?
Edit: this is why
All these free services somehow add up to 60 billion in profit every year. And they are expanding, they plan to spend 125-135 billion in AI data centers. They are going to build data centers that will use hundreds of gigawatts in over 10 locations. The power used by each is in the scale of the same as powering all of San Francisco with some of these as 2 to 6 times as much as San Fransisco to put it into perspective.
They are going to use about 1,000 to 2000 acres each, use 1 to 3 million gallons of water a day (one site is asking for a permit to use 23 million gallons a day).
All because of people are using “free” apps.
Let me just cut contact with most my friends, my parents and grandparents. Or have to call them. But still lose our group chats. That’ll surely improve my life.
We actually held a poll in our friend group chat to switch to Signal, but the result was that everyone who was not very privacy concious didn’t want to move. Because everything else is still on Whatsapp.
It isn’t about the privacy though. It is about the direct funding of meta. You are supporting meta which means, you support AI, data centers, environmental degradation, political manipulation, and billionaires.
I can’t do it. Whatsapp is a non starter. Someone has to take a stand.
enjoy texting yourself dude
Usually too busy to care. You enjoy funding a billionaire. Make your life worse because you can’t take a stand and are so needy for approval.
Its a little inconvenient but not bad. Gotta start somewhere.
I know we’re all saying network effects, but I don’t know what the fuck network effects means.
Network effects dude. Network effects.
It’s a simple concept.
You need at least 2 people to form a conversation.
One of them has Whatsapp, Telegram, signal, MSTeams, smoke signals and those flags that ships used to communicate.
The other only has Whatsapp.
They are going to communicate over Whatsapp.
Even if the dude with 1000 communication methods meets another dude with 1000 communication methods, they are going to use WhatsApp, because they are used to using Whatsapp with everyone, so it’s just easier to have everyone on WhatsApp.
those flags that ships used to communicate.
i think those are called semaphore and they’re cool as hell. i have a set of flags around here somewhere
Of course the random dude I replied to on Lemmy owns a set of semaphore flags. What else would I expect?
oh, my wife and i are [mode of communication] geeks. she knows 3 different sign languages, i know a really rare one, we both speak just enough of like 17 different languages to order food and find the library and bathroom wherever we go. Also in semaphore. Partly because we sing, partly because we like people. The first time you learn a new language it changes the way you think about the world just by giving you new words and structures to place those words. It’s beautiful.
Because it’s unfair to assume that everyone has the necessary education or awareness of what the internet is and what online privacy means that we take for granted.
You genuinely don’t know? 😬
Man, until I read the text, I thought this was about these old 45 record inserts.
What is the point of these, and their shape
It allows one to play 45 rpm records, which have a big hole in the middle, on the turntable most people had at home which was designed for 33 ⅓ rpm records, which have a small hole. The shape forms a gentle spring to create tension inside the 45.
Does the audio just sound slowed down or is there something else
Most record players have an adjustable speed and can do 33.3 or 45 rpm and some can do the old 78s. There were also other speeds but they were mostly used for other applications. Otherwise yes, it would sound slow compared to an LP.
I suddenly want a software lp
Haha, by other applications I meant I remember there being some background music systems for elevators and retail stores and some early dictation systems and such that were slower, like in the 10 rpm range.
However… Software used to come on cassette tapes in the days of the C64 and the ZX Spectrum etc. I don’t see why you couldn’t record the same ‘sound’ onto an LP but I imagine the error rate might be far higher. In fact, I would be shocked if it’s never been tried.
Some old computer magazines in the 8 bit era occasionally distributed software on flexidiscs. They were also called Floppy ROMs.
I mean those cassettes are what gave me the idea :3
The different playback speed also allows more music to be squeezed onto each side of the disc (albeit at a slightly lower quality).
Just to add to this, many 45s came with the same small hole as LPs and 12" singles. The big hole was there for 45s that were to be used in jukeboxes, I think.
many 45s
All 45s. You punched the hole out yourself if you wanted to use it in a jukebox.
Yeah, fair point. I was thinking of those 45s that don’t have a punch out as an option.
I see, thank you.
The shape allows the tabs to push in slightly and snap into the 7”. I’ve heard them called ‘spiders’ :)
Well there’s your problem. You’re using messenger and emojis.
I can’t find that shit on Signal 🤷♂️
the problem arrives when you try to switch your friends over… :(
Why are you using meta WhatsApp? The fuck?
To communicate with people who aren’t tech nerds, i.e. majority of the population.
I switched off an my parents, grandparents and siblings all switched to signal with me.
I’m not saying everyone can or will, but it may be easier that we think.
Mine tried Signal and then vehemently returned to WhatsApp…
I did the same. Took a while but the whole family was on board.
Now on to convince multiple circles of friends and every new person I meet…
In many parts of the world Whatsapp is the dominate communication platform. My landlord sends me my utility bills through WhatsApp, as is my doctor’s scheduling platform, and my vet’s contact info, etc. It’s basically impossible to do things without it.
I live in one of those places. It does make it hard, but someone has to decide not to fund meta, so I put my foot down and won’t do it. It isn’t easy, but I manage.
That’s legit. I have a burner account that is only used for things I absolutely have to, like my utility bills.
Because 3 billion other people do.
3 billion sources of revenue for meta, harvesting all that data, training AI, selling ads!
So they can create data centers, push AI, influence politics, and in general have one person live a billionairs lifestyle.
I think you just gave me 3 billion reasons NOT to use it. Are you going to continue to fund those things?
be the change
Seriously this. Fuck Meta and shame on OP. There are much less evil VoIP apps available.
Okay, come back to us when you figure out how to convince my entire family to download Signal or Telegram (which are seen as shady anyway) just because one person they know wants them to.
It’s not realistic.
delete the apps
if your family need you they’ll find you
Tell them what they are directly funding, and take a stand.
How would you people have ever got by in the past, lol.
You got advertising in my data scraping app!
FIFA ball does not look happy
If you see it as pointing to the right it looks pretty content, actually.
Try as I might, I can’t imagine it that way. Got an illustration?
As someone that knows nothing about sports what an I even looking at here and why are people upset about it? All I see are balls and ball accessories.
Hank Soccer here
Dammmmn, that’s an ugly ball. Let’s call it the Curseball Games insted.
(Fun thing: The football you usually see in emojis is also based on an official World Cup ball, but at least that one’s a classic for a reason. Looks distinctive. Looks cool. Can’t say the same for most of the recent ones, it’s all a blur to me!)
Not to you, to meme OP
Why is there a lime green baseball?
It’s a softie for the ladies
Kind of weird how the ladies ball is bigger. We have smaller hands. Ours should be smaller.
easier to hit cause clearly women have to be bad at sports
Ha
