Weekend edition—Mobile-phone purgatory, how to sell anything, bye-bye bacon

[Quartz - qz.com]() Good morning, Quartz readers! “The market is getting a bit bored now of the black rectangles.” That’s a strong statement to make at the mobile-phone industry’s biggest annual expo, which brought more than 100,000 people to Barcelona this week. But the boss of a major reseller of handsets told Quartz at the [Mobile World Congress]( that everyone is still “waiting for a game changer,” and he had a point. Consider the devices unveiled at the expo. Samsung launched a [souped-up version]( of its previous flagship, another [retro Nokia]( was given a modern makeover, and obscure Chinese manufacturers faithfully copied the [worst aspects]( of the iPhone X. Oh, and Asus made a big deal of unveiling the [ZenFone 5]( touted as a big improvement on the, er, ZenFone V. During the show, it emerged that quarterly global smartphone sales fell [for the first time ever](. So, have we run out of ideas? Not necessarily. To listen to the telco execs tell it, soon-to-come [5G networks]( will bring gigabit speeds that will enable self-driving cars, robotic surgery conducted across continents, and ubiquitous AI. Then again, they’ve been saying that for years. Privately, they fret about the enormous cost of upgrading their networks and worry that the step up to 5G from 4G will be as inconsequential as the “meh” move to 4G from 3G. The industry demands continuous disruption, and gets anxious during times of incremental improvements. Think back to 2006, when [delegates in Barcelona]( had little notion that a niche computer company in San Francisco would soon announce a [shiny black rectangle]( that would change the course of the industry for the next decade. A similar disruption could be around the corner—perhaps something to do with AI, AR, or bots—unbeknownst to the telco execs in Barcelona. In the meantime, established players will continue investing in slimmer handset designs and faster networks in the hope that, if they build it, the next iPhone will come.—Joon Ian Wong, Jason Karaian, and Mike Murphy Five things on Quartz we especially liked Tonality. Emotion. Certainty. These are the keys to selling virtually anything, according to a convicted fraud. The titular “wolf” of The Wolf of Wall Street (a film based on a memoir penned during his 22-month prison term), former stockbroker Jordan Belfort is now offering seminars on his particular brand of salesmanship. Quartz’s Alison Griswold attended Belfort’s NYC class and filed a sharp-eyed dispatch on the man who, in her words, could [sell Steve Jobs a Blackberry](. Bangladesh builds an island camp. On a 7.75-square-km (3-square-mile) island in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladeshi officials are erecting flood barriers, laying out roads, and building structures. Seventeen years ago, this island didn’t exist—but it’s now being readied to house around 100,000 Rohingya who have fled Myanmar. David Yanofsky [used satellite imagery]( to explore the island, and examine just how cramped its quarters could be. Levi’s is breaking in your jeans—with lasers. The brand was trying solve an environmental problem—a harmful chemical used to lighten denim—when it stumbled upon a [transformative labor-saving tech innovation]( Marc Bain writes. Now, a system of powerful digital tools and lasers that burn precise wear patterns on jeans in minutes are changing the way Levi’s designs, makes, and sells its iconic product. The incongruous sport of showjumping in Lubumbashi. Sports often double as status symbols—such is the case for an equestrian club in Lubumbashi, where entrepreneurs are sending their teenage children to learn the art of showjumping, the better to prepare them for mingling with privileged international peers. But, as [Lynsey Chutel reports]( the club’s moneyed milieu only highlights the deep inequality permeating one of the world’s poorest places. What we chart about when we chart about charts. Quartz reporters took on a challenge this week: Try to find a story that can be told in just one chart. You can check out all the [posts here,]( but a few from the highlight reel: Isabella Steger [on South Korea’s dwindling birth rate]( Thu-Huong Ha on the dramatic [success of Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury]( Preeti Varathan on the ever-growing [largest known prime number]( and Echo Huang on China’s [domination of AI-related patents](. Five things elsewhere that made us smarter Yes, bacon is killing us. But it’s not bacon’s fault. Nitrates, added to processed meat to make it the pink we crave, are the culprit when it comes to making that meat carcinogenic. As Bee Wilson [unravels in the Guardian]( it doesn’t have to be this way. The meat industry doesn’t want you to know that we can have our bacon and eat it in good health, too. It just means adding salt, and giving the meat time to cure. Assessing Amazon’s impact. US cities are bending over backwards to woo Amazon, in the hopes of being chosen for its second headquarters. But it only takes a glimpse at locales where Amazon has set up shop to see that the company can exacerbate the very problems city leaders hope it will solve. In The Atlantic, [Alana Semuels takes a hard look]( at the implications of this system, where communities desperate for new jobs set a too-low bar for any company with the power to provide them. Venezuelans catch the next bus out. Venezuela is in crisis, so much so that the average resident lost 24 pounds last year for lack of access to affordable food. The plunging currency and economic free-fall have led hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans to conclude that there’s nowhere to go but elsewhere. For Reuters, Alexandra Ulmer [joined 37 passengers on a nine-day, 5,000-mile bus journey]( out of a country that many of them have never left. Americans are burning out. In 1980, less than 5% of Americans were cremated—now it’s 50%. A confluence of cost, environmentalism, dwindling cemetery space, and increased social acceptance have made the practice more popular than ever. But what exactly goes into cremation? In Popular Mechanics, [Caren Chesler explores]( the world’s long history of burning the dead, and visits Rose Hill Crematorium in Linden, New Jersey to understand the process. It’s time to disconnect the dots. As we weigh the pros and cons of technology’s impact on humanity, John Herrmann [declares a starting point]( (paywall) for reform in the New York Times magazine: rethinking the ubiquitous dots, or “badges,” on apps, which notify a user when something new awaits them. “The dot is where ill-gotten attention is laundered into legitimate-seeming engagement,” Hermann writes. Time to cross it out. Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, Blackberry sales pitches, and cured bacon to hi@qz.com. You can follow us [on Twitter here]( for updates throughout the day, or download [our apps for iPhone]( and [Android](. Today’s Weekend Brief was edited by Kira Bindrim. Enjoying the Daily Brief? Forward it to a friend! They can [click here to sign up.]( If you click a link to an e-commerce site and make a purchase, we may receive a small cut of the revenue, which helps support our ambitious journalism. See [here]( for more information. Want to receive the Daily Brief at a different time? [Click here]( to change your edition. To unsubscribe entirely, [click here](. Quartz | 675 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10011 | United States