Buttongate

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We’re halfway to the weekend. Here’s a fun fact that will throw you for a loop: Dogecoin, the memecoin, has popped 157% since last week and now has a market cap of $53 billion… making it worth more than companies like Ford, Keurig, Dr Pepper, and Allstate. It’s a weird time to be alive.

DAILY TOP TRENDS

Brands Bring Back Buttons

After a decade-plus of touch screens, brands across various industries are turning back to the tried-and-true pleasures of physical buttons for their newest products.

Why It Hits: Although touch screens have seemed like the technology of the future, people have been clamoring for a return to the “older” tech due to safety concerns, its intuitiveness, and the simple joy of pushing a big button.

Between The Switches: Knobs, switches, sliders, buttons, and click wheels are the new markers of luxury.

• Apple, the company that mainstreamed touch screens, added an “action button” and a “camera control” button to its new iPhone 16 models. The latter is actually a dynamic button that allows users to slide along it to adjust settings.

• Carmakers like BMW and Kia have ditched touch displays in favor of dials and switches that won’t force drivers to look at a screen (Europe now only gives its highest automotive safety rating to cars with physical buttons).

• The button revolution is even coming for induction stoves (Copper), e-readers (Kobo), handheld gaming (Playdate), and synthesizers (Teenage Engineering).

Final Push: WSJ notes that our innate love of physical switches is due to “proprioception” — our spatial awareness in 3D spaces. In other words, buttons are simply more intuitive to the human condition. Maybe Star Wars and Blade Runner were onto something when they depicted technology still chock full of knobs. But with smart screens here to stay, the best buttons may be the ones that can mix physical pleasure with digital utility like Apple — the best of both worlds.

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The Apps Gen Z Loves

The results are in: Gen Z’s app download data reveals that the generation loves TikTok, embraces OpenAI, is rediscovering PayPal, and suggests that Quibi may have been a little ahead of its time.

The Big Picture: In our tech-saturated society, app downloads over the past year reveal where trends in social media, entertainment, personal finance, and AI are either emerging or have gone mainstream.

Behind The Code: Techcrunch, using data from app intelligence firm Appfigures, took a look at Gen Z’s app diet (at least those aged 18 to 24).

• The most downloaded app was the Chinese fast-fashion retailer Temu, which had 41.98 million installs, demonstrating how quickly the brand has caught up with rival Shein.

• Young people remain obsessed with TikTok (#2 at 33.23 million downloads) while also showing a lot of love for TikTok editing tool CapCut and other ByteDance apps, like social app Lemon8 and AI study companion Gauth.

• Meta also made inroads with the young generation, scoring 32.32 million downloads for Threads, with WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram all above 20 million installs.

• In entertainment, Netflix remains the top streaming service (15.67 million downloads), but short-film streamer ShortMax notched over 10 million installs.

• OpenAI has converted young people to the chatbot life with 24.63 million downloads, which they admit they use for their college papers.

• And in a money-sharing surprise, PayPal posted 13.92 downloads, beating out Venmo and Cash App… both of which didn’t crack 10 million.

The Future: Gen Z accounts for roughly 40% of mobile users worldwide. While the study only accounted for Americans, it’s a fair microcosm for much of the developed world. Expect ad dollars to continue pouring or start pouring into every one of these platforms.

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DEEP DIVES

• Listen: Script Apart chats with filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods about their new Hugh Grant-starring horror movie, Heretic.

• Watch: It’s not just you — the human-verifying CAPTCHA tests are getting harder. WSJ investigates.

• Read: Bloomberg games out what it would like when AI-enabled robots no longer need their makers — us.

86% of you voted Yes in yesterday’s poll: Do you have an Amazon Prime membership?

“Yes, I’m passively contributing to the Jeff Bezos scheme to take over the world one next-day delivery at a time.”

“But I’m canceling it before it renews in December.”

“Unfortunately, Amazon is a necessity now for me. I know I’m adding to the problem by shopping at Amazon, but I can’t find what I need in stores anymore.”

“This confirms my belief that everyone has one. It’s a tax on existing.”

“No desire. I love shopping in a local store and supporting them and their staff!”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

QUICK HITS

→ Entertainment / Media

🐭 Disney is apparently looking at candidates outside of the Mouse House for its next CEO, including current Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson.

🎤 The Weeknd is releasing a music experience, “Open Hearts,” native to the Apple Vision Pro tomorrow.

📽️ For its 25th anniversary, The Blair Witch Project is getting released in the way it was supposed to be seen for the first time.

→ Technology

🏙️ Saudi Arabia has sacked Neom CEO Nadhmi al-Nasr, another setback for the smart city.

✝️ Microsoft and The Vatican have consecrated a deal that will use AI to manage visitor flows in the city and help with restoration efforts.

😂 Sega is releasing a pager that can only be used to send up to five emojis. Hilarious.

→ Creator Economy

💵 Meta said that it will offer lower cost subscriptions to its ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram.

🚸 Meta’s Horizon World has been invaded by children.

🍋 ByteDance is integrating Lemon8 into TikTok to juice users.