Good morning! Keep reading for a link to some cool anti-gravity meetup info. Today’s sponsor OnePlus keeps the deals flowing! Save up to $219.99 with the OnePlus 9 Pro and the new OnePlus Buds Pro. Surfaces Chief product officer at Microsoft, Panos Panay announced five new Microsoft Surface products yesterday, in his always-earnest, slightly over-the-top
Read MoreNatasha Lomas / TechCrunch: London-based grocery delivery startup Jiffy raises $28M Series A led by Heartland, bringing total funding to $35M — Well that was fast. London grocery delivery upstart, Jiffy — which was only founded in April this year — has nabbed $28 million in Series A funding around half a year after initial
Read MoreWhat you need to know WhatsApp is testing a new feature that will make it easier for people to create an icon for their group chats. Users can assign a photo to a group chat today, but expanded editing options are being tested on iPhone. New options are coming soon. The popular messaging app WhatsApp
Read MorePhoto by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, has announced plans to force smartphone and other electronics manufacturers to fit a common USB-C charging port on their devices. The proposal is likely to have the biggest impact on Apple, which continues to use its proprietary
Read MoreAssociated Press: European Commission proposes legislation mandating USB-C charging for mobile devices, citing electronic waste; Apple is the main holdout from using USB-C — LONDON (AP) — The European Union unveiled plans Thursday that would require smartphone makers to adopt a single charging method for mobile devices.
Read MoreThree years ago, in the misty Before Times of 2018, DARPA launched its Subterranean (SubT) challenge. The big goal of the SubT Challenge is to empower first responders or search-and-rescue teams in underground environments, where GPS and most communications signals can’t penetrate. Thirty teams ended up participating in the contest, and eight have made it
Read MoreIt will also band the sale of bundled chargers with devices… What you need to know The EU has finally unveiled its USB-C charging mandate proposals. The bloc also plans to ban bundling chargers with devices. It also wants harmonized fast charging technology. The EU has today unveiled its long-promised plan to mandate USB-C charging
Read MoreWashington Post: Researchers: despite Apple’s ATT changes, at least three popular iOS apps are sending identifying info to third-parties even when users opt-out of tracking — On your iPhone, you can now tap a button that says, “Ask app not to track.” But behind the scenes, some apps keep snooping anyway.
Read MoreWhat you need to know New images show the iPhone 13 disasembled. A smaller Taptic Engine and Face ID system are obvious. The battery got bigger, too. Apple’s brand new iPhone 13 lineup will go on sale tomorrow and someone has already had a go at taking a couple of those devices apart. Just as
Read MoreChristine Hall / TechCrunch: Spotnana, which offers SaaS tools for the travel industry, emerges from stealth with $34M Series A and $7M seed funding — Spotnana emerged from stealth Thursday with $41 million in its pocket and an open global platform targeting the $1.4 trillion business travel industry.
Read MorePhoto by Stephen J. Cohen/Getty Images This week marks the release of Sable, a beautiful indie title that looks like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild mixed with a comic from Jean “Moebius” Giraud. It’s not just the game’s art that’s striking, though; the whole experience is accompanied by an excellent original soundtrack
Read MoreThe creators of Blacks & Whites want to make talking about inequality easier—and might teach your racist uncle a thing or two.
Read MoreJava quietly underwent one of the biggest changes in its development in 2018 with the adoption of a new release cadence. This bold new plan resulted in Java developers getting a new feature release every six months. This is wonderful for keeping Java fresh and relevant, but it makes it pretty easy to miss features
Read MoreRacing bar charts can be a useful way to visualize comparative data over time. There are a number of ways to create them in R, including combining ggplot with gganimate or using echarts4r. But the easiest way I’ve found so far is with the ddplot package. Welcome to ddplot ddplot isn’t on CRAN, so you’ll need to
Read MoreAdam Satariano / New York Times: Despite passing a tough hate speech law, researchers say social networks in Germany are flooded with hate speech and harassment ahead of an election on Sept. 26 — Scrolling through her social media feed, Laura Dornheim is regularly stopped cold by a new blast of abuse aimed at her
Read MoreWhat you need to know Twitter says that it is working on a bug that caused some tweets to disappear. Users have been complaining that tweets sometimes disappear from their timeline for years. Twitter says it’s rolling out fixes over the next two months. Things should be fixed within a couple of months. Twitter has
Read MoreThere’s no sign of a fix just yet… What you need to know Users are having storage problems when they upgrade to iOS 15. The new software on iPhone and iPad is causing a ‘storage almost full’ notification to show. It doesn’t seem to matter how much storage is actually taken up on your device.
Read MoreWhat you need to know Apple’s iPhone 13 lineup will launch with Cinematic mode, bringing a Portrait mode effect to video. Videographer Jonathan Morrison created a full music video showing off its capabilities. While generally good, the video does show some of the issues Cinematic mode will have at launch. There’s good and bad here.
Read MoreCredit: Robert Triggs / Android Authority The smartphone industry is finally feeling the first shock waves from the OnePlus and Oppo merger. Earlier this week, OnePlus’ Pete Lau admitted that the brand would use a new unified OS going forward, melding traits of Oxygen OS and Color OS. Other news about join hardware development teams
Read MoreKeith Naughton / Bloomberg: Research: automakers globally will produce 7.7M fewer cars this year due to the chip shortage, costing them $210B in sales, as chip lead times slip to 21 weeks — – Asian factory shutdowns make duration of crisis more uncertain — Parts maker Faurecia cuts guidance; Traton to miss sales goals
Read MoreBluetooth has become widely popular since its introduction in 1999. However, it’s also had its fair share of security problems over the years. Just recently, a research group from the Singapore University of Technology and Design found a serious vulnerability in a large variety of Bluetooth devices. Having now been disclosed, it is known as
Read MoreEnjoy a better audio experience on FaceTime calls in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15. On iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, Apple offers spatial audio for FaceTime. The new feature creates a sound field that spreads voices out like they’re coming from the direction where a person’s video image is positioned on the call. In doing
Read More“The … claim that Apple is pro-competition, I think, is a fair statement, as long as one accepts that competition is welcome as long as no one can compete with Apple” What you need to know An Australian Bank chief has mocked claims the company is pro-competition. Matt Comyn of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Read MoreAustin Carr / Bloomberg: A look at efforts to close the digital divide in states like Arkansas, as a Microsoft study finds around 120M Americans don’t have access to high-speed internet — With help from Washington, the 120 million Americans without high-speed internet access have their best shot in a generation at getting it …
Read MoreJay Greene / Washington Post: California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill requiring Amazon and other employers to disclose the use of productivity quotas and more, coming into effect on Jan. 1 — Gov. Gavin Newsom says the new law, which targeted Amazon, will protect workers and give them “the dignity, respect and safety they
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