http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/technology/farhads-and-mikes-week-in-tech-the-iphones-super-mario-moment.html 2016-09-12 14:03:30 Farhad’s and Mike’s Week in Tech: The iPhone’s Super Mario Moment Apple is killing the headphone jack but helping revive Nintendo’s great franchise with Super Mario Run, coming exclusively to iOS. === Each Saturday, Farhad Manjoo and Mike Isaac, technology reporters at The New York Times, review Mike: Farhad: Mike: This week was a technology news vacuum surrounding the Like, for instance, Snapchat deciding to cut some of its That should be worrisome to Twitter, whose Farhad: For instance, the Snapchat Live stories covering the Louisiana flooding last month were the best reporting on that that I saw. Most other outlets give you several people’s perspectives on a story, usually second hand. On Snapchat, you see dozens of people’s snaps showing different parts of a story — in this case people showing their homes getting flooded, going to shelters, dealing with the aftermath. It was an incredibly emotionally resonant way to depict the kind of news story that can otherwise seem remote. Also, it’s fun to take pictures of my face as a bee. Mike: I think this is a good, necessary and long overdue thing. I’ve had many friends tell me of their continuous rejections on Airbnb. Here’s to hoping it actually curbs the discrimination. Farhad: Mike: Next, I would be remiss not to talk about “jackgate,” or “headphoneapocalypse,” or whatever term we’re using to describe Apple ditching the headphone jack. John Paczkowski of Buzzfeed covered it in great detail Farhad: One big test of success here — other than sales — will be what other smartphone manufacturers do now. If we suddenly start seeing the headphone jack disappearing from all high-end phones, Apple will have won the argument. Mike: Speaking of Nintendo, today I’d like to focus on something that got a little bit less attention during the Big Apple keynote: Super Mario. Yes, that’s right, the world’s most beloved plumber is coming to the iPhone rather soon — before the end of the year, Nintendo said — in the Japanese video game giant’s first ever Mario franchise on iOS. It’s called Super Mario Run, and it’s a neat-looking side-scroller you can play with one hand, even on the subway. This is a watershed moment for Nintendo, long considered a laggard in its approach to mobile gaming. As you may well know, the advent of the iPhone — and Android — was kind of a big deal. The mass adoption of smartphones upended entire industries, like GPS navigation companies, mapping sites, and yes, even video game makers. More and more people who once looked to consoles, desktop PCs or even hand-held devices to get their gaming fix are now playing iPhone games, downloading them directly from the app store without the hassle of going to buy a new video game DVD or another console. That’s a massive shift in a mega-market, something that came virtually overnight. And Nintendo, the world’s pre-eminent legacy video game company, has really struggled to recalibrate. I take this Mario thing as a big deal. But tell me your thoughts on the matter. Farhad: But really the deeper story here is that smartphones are unstoppable. Everyone in tech keeps looking for the next big thing, but to me the biggest story in tech continues to be the way smartphones keep swallowing up every other gadget. The best smartphone cameras are now much better than any snapshot camera you can buy, and for most people, a phone is the only camera they need. The Nintendo announcement shows that phones have now completely consumed mobile gaming, too. My own prediction: TV is next. Last night I watched the first episode of Season 2 of “Narcos” on my phone. Mike: Farhad: Have a great vacation, Mike! Mike