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iPhone 15 Lineup Rumored to Feature Significantly Larger Batteries

The iPhone 15 lineup will feature significantly larger batteries across the board, according to an alleged Foxconn worker speaking to ITHome.

iPhone 15 lineup dummy models.

The information claims that the iPhone 15 will feature an 18% larger battery, iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15 Pro a 14% larger battery, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max a 12% larger battery. The exact capacity changes are said to be as follows:



























2021 2022 2023
iPhone 13: 3,227mAh iPhone 14: 3,279mAh iPhone 15: 3,877mAh
iPhone 13 mini: 2,406mAh iPhone 14 Plus: 4,325mAh iPhone 15 Plus: 4,912mAh
iPhone 13 Pro: 3,095mAh iPhone 14 Pro: 3,200mAh iPhone 15 Pro: 3,650mAh
iPhone 13 Pro Max: 4,352mAh iPhone 14 Pro Max: 4,323mAh iPhone 15 Pro Max: 4,852mAh



If correct, the changes would mean that the 15 Plus would increase its battery capacity lead over the Pro Max model even further, while the 15 Pro would remain the iPhone with the smallest battery. The source is without a proven track record, but the alleged capacities seem plausible, especially given the fact that this year's iPhone models are expected to get slightly thicker, providing more internal space for larger batteries. With the efficiency improvements of the A16 and A17 Bionic chips, it seems highly likely that the entire iPhone lineup could boast battery life improvements this year.

ITHome also highlighted separate information purportedly coming out of Foxconn that is circulating on Weibo saying that the iPhone 15 Pro will begin with 256GB of storage as standard, doubling the current 128GB base storage configuration. This would also be a key differentiator between the Pro and non-Pro models, since the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are still expected to start with 128GB of storage.
Related Roundups: iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro
Tag: Foxconn
Related Forum: iPhone

This article, "iPhone 15 Lineup Rumored to Feature Significantly Larger Batteries" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Black Existence in “Torto Arado” em Dez Dobraz

The collection of critical essays “Torto Arado” em Dez Dobras [“Torto Arado” in Ten Folds] will be released in 2023 in Brazil by Mercado de Letras. The anthology, organized by Francisco Neto Pereira Pinto, Rosemere Ferreira da Silva, Naiane Vieira dos Reis Silva, and Luiza Helena Oliveira da Silva, is divided into four sections entitled: […]

The Morning After: Meta's Instagram-linked Twitter rival could arrive this week

As Twitter continues to figuratively kneecap itself by limiting tweet views, Meta is hustling to bring its Twitter rival to reality. A listing for an app called Threads was spotted on the iOS App Store with an estimated release date of July 6th. In May, a report said the microblogging service was nearing completion and could be out as soon as the end of June. While an end-of-June launch didn't quite happen, the app could arrive when Twitter users are more willing (and maybe even eager) to finally jump ship.

Twitter boss Elon Musk announced at the weekend that verified accounts — which translates to paying users — can read 6,000 posts daily, while non-paying users can only read 600. He said the website is adopting the measure to "address extreme levels of data scraping [and] system manipulation."

From both the app listing and rumors, we’re expecting Threads will migrate your followers and circles from your existing Instagram handle, ensuring you should have an active timeline right from the outset. That is, if you’re an Instagram user.

– Mat Smith

You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!​​

The biggest stories you might have missed

Amazon is offering a $5 credit when you buy a $50 eGift card for Prime Day

Blue Origin is planning to open new launch sites outside the US

Tidal is increasing its HiFi plan to $11 per month

The best mobile microphones for 2023

The best cameras for 2023

Compacts, DSLRs, action cams and, of course, mirrorless cameras.

TMA
Engadget

Since smartphones started eating casual photography’s lunch, camera makers have focused on devices designed for very specific uses. Action cams provide sharp, fluid video. Compact cameras target both tourists and vloggers. And DSLRs are available at some of the best prices we’ve seen. Then there are mirrorless cameras, which continue to improve their autofocus and video. And that’s where some guidance helps. Whether you’re a creator looking for just the right vlogging camera, an aspiring wildlife photographer or a sports enthusiast, we’ll help you find the perfect camera to match your budget and needs.

Continue reading.

There’s an animated GIF generator now

Are your group chats ready for this level of nonsense?

Remember the early days of the AI hype train, when everyone spent their time making stupid images using text prompts? If you want to recapture the nostalgic haze of, uh, late 2022, Picsart has you covered. The popular image editor just launched an AI-powered animated GIF generator, calling the tool its “most unhinged” platform yet. Type a bunch of nonsense into the chat box, wait a minute or so and marvel at your “chaotic and eccentric” creation. The platform’s integrated into the regular Picsart app and is available for iOS, Android devices and on the web.

Continue reading.

Twitter launches 'new' TweetDeck as the old version breaks down

The feature will also be exclusive to Twitter Blue in 30 days.

If you've been having trouble using Twitter recently, you aren't alone — the service has been having issues since it started limiting the daily number of posts users could view. Although many of the platform's issues stabilized over the weekend, TweetDeck remains broken unless users switch to the beta version of the list aggregator. Now, Twitter is gearing up to solve the issue by making that beta version of TweetDeck the main version. According to Twitter Support, the feature will become exclusive to Twitter Blue subscribers in the near future, noting that "in 30 days, users must be Verified to access TweetDeck."

Continue reading.

Some HBO shows are streaming on Netflix in the US for the first time

'Insecure' is now on the platform, with 'Band of Brothers' and 'Six Feet Under' arriving later.

There really is an HBO show on Netflix. All five seasons of Issa Rae's highly acclaimed comedy-drama series Insecure are now streaming on Netflix in the US. Even more HBO shows are on the way, too. Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Six Feet Under and Ballers are also coming to Netflix as part of the deal, the company told Deadline. Meanwhile, Netflix users outside the US can stream True Blood on the service.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-metas-instagram-linked-twitter-rival-could-arrive-this-week-111508536.html?src=rss

Threads

Screenshots of the iPhone screen showing a new app called Threads by Meta.

Our Solar System possibly survived a supernova because of how the Sun formed

Image of a young star inside a disk of orange material

Enlarge / Artist's conception of the early Solar System, which was at risk of a nearby supernova. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Stars are thought to form within enormous filaments of molecular gas. Regions where one or more of these filaments meet, known as hubs, are where massive stars form.

These massive stars, located nearby, would have put the early Solar System at risk of a powerful supernova. This risk is more than just hypothetical; a research team at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, led by astrophysicist Doris Arzoumanian, looked at isotopes found in ancient meteorites, finding possible evidence of a massive star’s turbulent death.

So why did the Solar System survive? The gas within the filament seems to be able to protect it from the supernova and its onslaught of radioactive isotopes. “The host filament can shield the young Solar System from stellar feedback, both during the formation and evolution of stars (stellar outflow, wind, and radiation) and at the end of their lives (supernovae),” Arzoumanian and her team said in a study recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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Europe’s first ‘lightning hunter’ releases striking footage of severe storms


Europe’s first “lightning hunter” has generated striking animations of severe storms hitting the Earth.  Built by Italian firm Leonardo, the system is the first satellite instrument that can continuously detect lightning across Europe and Africa. The imager is comprised of four powerful cameras. Each of them can capture 1,000 images per second, day and night, and detect a single lightning bolt faster than the blink of an eye. Algorithms then send the data back to Earth, for use in weather forecasts, climate research, and air transport safety. According to Eumetsat, the European weather agency, severe storms have caused an estimated €500bn…

This story continues at The Next Web

Rapid weight loss may improve advanced fatty liver disease — new research

Our recent study has shown that the “soups and shakes” diet may be able to reduce the severity of liver disease

Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K Max falls to $25 in early Prime Day streaming sale

If you're looking for a high-quality 4K streaming stick, look no further. Amazon's best model, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, is on sale for Prime Day at an all-time low of $25, a full 55 percent off the regular price. And if even that is slightly too expensive, Amazon has also discounted the regular Fire TV Stick 4K by 54 percent to $23 (also an all-time low). Finally, if you want the most streaming power possible, the Fire TV Cube is on sale for $110 ($30) off — once again the cheapest price we've ever seen.

The best deal by a long shot is the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, though, with a steep $30 discount that makes it just $2 more than the Fire TV Stick 4K. It's Amazon’s most powerful streaming stick, thanks to a faster processor that delivers 40 percent more power than the one in the Fire TV Stick 4K. That translates to faster app start times and more fluid menu navigation, for a better overall experience. The Fire TV Sitck 4K Max also comes with WiFi 6 connectivity, as well as support for Dolby Vision, HDR, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos audio, along with Alexa commands via the Alexa Voice Remote.

While not quite as zippy, the Fire TV Stick 4K is also on sale for $23, or 54 percent off. It's a great option if you want a low-profile streaming device that can handle 4K content. It also supports Dolby Vision and HDR, and comes with the Alexa Voice Remote, which lets you search for and launch content with voice commands. Frankly though, for the extra $2, I'd grab the Fire TV Stick 4K Max.

Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K Max falls to $25 in early Prime Day streaming sale
Amazon

The Fire TV Cube (which is rarely discounted much) is on sale at an all-time low price of $110 (21 percent off). It's Amazon's most powerful streaming device with a hexa-core processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. It supports 4K, HDR content with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, and it has picture-in-picture live view as well. You're also getting hands-free Alexa controls, too, which means the Cube's built-in speaker will hear and recognize your commands to turn off your lights or check the weather, even with your TV off.

Finally, if you want to upgrade your remote on any Fire TV device, the Alexa Remote Pro is on sale for $28, or 20 percent off the regular price. It features a backlight and programmable buttons, but the most useful feature is the Remote Finder, which lets you ask Alexa to trigger a noise if decides to play hide and seek. And if you want to save a few more bucks on top of these all-time low prices, don't forget that Amazon is offering a $5 credit with the purchase of a $50 eGift Card

Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for the best Amazon Prime Day tech deals. Learn about Prime Day trends on In the Know. Hear from Autoblog’s car experts on must-shop auto-related Prime Day deals and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-fire-tv-stick-4k-max-falls-to-25-in-early-prime-day-streaming-sale-103554549.html?src=rss

Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K Max falls to $25 in early Prime Day streaming sale

Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K Max falls to $25 in early Prime Day streaming sale

Dutch students smash world record for most efficient hydrogen car


A student team from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has set a new Guinness world record for the longest distance driven by a hydrogen car without refuelling. The student team, called Eco-Runner, succeeded in driving their ultra-efficient city car no less than 2,488.4 km in three days using just one kilogram of hydrogen fuel — equivalent to driving from Berlin to Istanbul. The marathon feat, which took place from 23-25 June, smashed the previous record of 2,055.7 km. The Eco-Runner student team smashed the current world record by over 400km. Credit: Eco-Runner/TU Delft The team headed to…

This story continues at The Next Web

By: ayjay

George Orwell, review of Mein Kampf (1940):

Nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly all “progressive” thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security and avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military virtues. The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers; tin pacifists somehow won’t do. Hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don’t only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades. However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life. The same is probably true of Stalin’s militarised version of Socialism. All three of the great dictators have enhanced their power by imposing intolerable burdens on their peoples. Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people “I offer you a good time,” Hitler has said to them “I offer you struggle, danger and death,” and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet. Perhaps later on they will get sick of it and change their minds, as at the end of the last war. After a few years of slaughter and starvation “Greatest happiness of the greatest number” is a good slogan, but at this moment “Better an end with horror than a horror without end” is a winner. Now that we are fighting against the man who coined it, we ought not to underrate its emotional appeal.

Summer Fun! Finally!

A few days after I wrote my post about pretending that it was summer, the weather changed and it started getting warmer. Now, I’m not saying that my post was a magic spell or anything but I think you can draw your own conclusions there. Ahem…let’s carry on with today’s post. The weather hasn’t been… Continue reading Summer Fun! Finally!

Patriotism and war: Can America break that deadly connection?

Why is patriotism linked to killing and dying on the battlefield? There are better ways to love your country

Momo’s Deadline

This story was funded by our members. Join Longreads and help us to support more writers.

Linda Button| Longreads | July 4, 2023 | 15 minutes (3,167 words)

Momo
She filled our lives with good food,
chutzpah, laughter, and love.

Enh. I could sense Momo looking over my shoulder as I typed, her head wrapped in a bright coral scarf. I was relieved she had put on weight since death. The final month her skin had hung on her, a size too big. She was back to her firm, long-legged self, her dark eyes bright with interest.

“Enh?!” I said.

I like where you’re going, but the words aren’t right.

This was what we had always done for each other—poked and questioned and haggled over art. Still, I felt the pressure of the deadline. “Your husband needs this in four days. I‘ve got to get the ball rolling.”

Momo shrugged. You’re the writer.

What did she know? Inside I harbored a delicious fantasy that my words would cause the audience—Momo’s friends and sisters, her husband, Marty, and their daughter—to ooooh at how I had captured her gusto on a tombstone. 

For most of my career I have written ad copy. The work suits me. Constraints. The single page of paper. Brevity. Choose as few words as possible. Let the visuals tell the story. Conjure emotion in compressed space and time. Here, then, was the perfect writing assignment for me. A three- by two-foot billboard. Thirty words, max. My business partner’s epitaph. 

But unlike advertising, lofted into the airwaves to evaporate, this project would be carved into granite for eternity. I yearned to create a gravestone that would sing through the ages, that would capture the joie de vivre that was my partner. One year later, Momo’s death still had me reeling. I had worked with her for two decades. I loved her. I considered Marty, her husband of only a few years, a latecomer to the Momo party. Now, for this assignment, he was also the client. He had final say, after all: When it comes to customs of death, spouses top all others. According to Jewish tradition, the time had come to inscribe the grave marker. A literal deadline. 

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Marty had procrastinated for months. So, at the request of friends, I was pitching in. The final words were due by the end of the week. Could I deliver genius in five days?

Momo was right. The copy was “enh.” I emailed the lines to Marty anyway—She filled our lives with good food, chutzpah, laughter, and love—and hoped he would embrace it.


Momo and I had run an ad agency together. She was a seize-the-day daughter of Holocaust survivors; I was bred from stoic Yankee stock. When our agency dwindled to two, we embraced our differences and renamed the business Tooth and Nail. She, the smile. Me, driving home the point. We spread out giant sheets of paper on her dining room floor for brainstorms, plotted campaigns on her sofa, pilfered images off the internet, fought, competed, stepped over each other’s words, slashed ideas, fretted over stubborn, uninspired clients, and laughed about our men. 

In the early days, on train rides home from New York to Boston, Momo would find a table for four and unfurl her coat onto the adjoining seat so no one would join us, while I tucked my backpack around my shoes, not wanting to take an inch more than I had paid for. The coastline scrolled by. She counseled me on my imploding marriage; I marveled over her athletic dating. “Who should I choose?” she asked. “The heart surgeon who’s analytical, or the brain expert who’s all heart?”

“Which one brings you joy?” I knew enough to ask that question. Momo chased pleasure, splurging on business class and nice hotels. She spent far more energy on my happiness than I did. She gifted me photographs of tulips exploding in red and orange, a painting of a woman treading a gray ocean, her nose barely above the surface, as if Momo saw beauty in me but also my struggles. She extended a life raft. She cooked homemade matzoh ball soup steaming with ginger and fennel, she listened deeply, as the best therapists do. I left our conversations feeling both filled and emptied, cleansed and heard. 

Finally, she chose Marty, the psychiatrist who strummed classical guitar and wrote her love letters from his neglected house near the shore. 

Then, the mammogram revealed a 2.2-centimeter lump. Cue the mastectomies, chemo and radiation, wigs and thinning eyebrows. Momo rejected that as her entire story. For seven years after her diagnosis, Momo made even cancer an adventure. She wrote a blog. 

Am I upset over the possibility of losing a breast? Not really. I’ve had a terrific pair for 48 years. My girls have given me and many boys great pleasure.

She treated loss as a punch line, no topic too intimate. 

On Monday I took a shower and quickly realized that I won’t be scheduling any bikini waxes in the near future.


In advertising we start with the audience and consider how we want to make them feel. Who would trudge the slope to visit Momo’s gravesite each year? Her loyal circle of friends, surely. Her three older sisters, each a variation of Momo: artistic, smart, empathetic. And, of course, her 13-year-old daughter and round-shouldered Marty, his AirPods filled with classical guitar. I imagined her quiet, sarcastic daughter cresting the hill and I wanted to reward her with a smile, to feel the warmth, sechel, and humor of her mom embracing her.

Amazingly, when I look back, I did not follow my own best practices. I did no research on tombstones, threw out no wide net. I suffered from tunnel vision—exactly what I warn young writers never to do—and got stuck on a single idea. Had I bothered, I would have discovered a wide field of possibilities; it turns out that epitaphs trace the arc of history with tales of society, legacies, and stories of power and love. 

From traditional Jewish blessings . . .

May her soul be bound in the binding of life.”

and Japanese poetry . . .

Empty-handed I entered the world 
Barefoot I leave it.

. . . to good old sardonic American. 

Here lies Butch, we planted him raw, 
he was quick on the trigger, but slow on the draw.  

We could have honored Momo’s philosophy, She was bubbles in the champagne of life, or captured her perseverance: Grit and Grace, or something risqué, pulled from her own blog. “I won’t be scheduling any bikini waxes in the near future.”

I could have offered Marty an array of choices, mocked up what the stone would look like, handed him a scotch, and nudged him in the right direction. Instead, I worried and clung to one idea. Grief stuffed me into a small, hardened box.   


I was thinking of something more inspiring. 

Marty’s response waited for me the next morning. In advertising, where writing is a team sport, my ego had long ago shrunk to a chickpea. Still. Ouch. He sent examples of quotes he considered inspiring. 

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”Dr. Seuss

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” Abraham Lincoln

“The pain passes. The beauty remains.”Renoir

My stomach curdled with disappointment. I hated when clients reached for clichés. Also, I was pretty sure Old Abe never said that. Momo leaned across and squinted at the text. She turned to me with a look between constipation and impatience: What do these dead white guys have to do with a hot, middle-aged diva?

“Right?!” I nodded even though I got where Marty was coming from. When a star collapses and sucks up light and life you need big mother constellations like Abe Lincoln and Dr. Seuss on your side. Marty was crazy in love with Momo. He proposed in her throes of dying and adopted her daughter. Not so crazy. 

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But he wasn’t there when Momo first brought her daughter home from China, the same year I gave birth to my youngest child. He hadn’t watched our kids grow up to be best friends. He wasn’t with us, looking down on giant sheets of paper, pulling ideas from the air, creating a company while taking turns with after-school pickup. Where was he when we got The History Channel clients snockered on vodka at a creative presentation on Russian tzars, or when Momo snored through a conference call, and we claimed it was a leaf blower? 

My hand hovered over the keyboard. Momo was still making that face. I marshaled my diplomacy and shot a note back to Marty. 

The Renoir quote is lovely—haven’t heard it before. How about this:

Momo

She filled our lives with chutzpah, laughter, and love.

“The pain passes. The beauty remains.” —Renoir

Marty didn’t respond. The day ticked by. 


In her last month I had wheeled Momo around the block, past her front yard where a gardener friend had fashioned a river of smooth stones. Momo did not admire the curving white through her lawn, or the blaze of yellow leaves outside her windows. She curled inward with pain. Now that it was my turn to lavish her with support and comfort, I had no words. I spoke to her as if to a child. “Isn’t that tree beautiful!” 

“Take me home,” she said. 

Her office had been turned into a sickroom, a large bed and TV at one end. Her sisters had arrived from Israel, Dominica, and Maine and tightened around her. They filled the kitchen with music, took turns dressing her, served up platters of hummus and opinions. They, and her other friends, somehow understood the rituals of grief, care, and mitzvah. Their religion was seeped in loss and optimism. They practiced simple, concrete gestures. But I didn’t even know what to do with my hands. I felt useless, as if I had gone from insider to outsider. I’ve been here all along, I wanted to say to them. Momo and I, we helped each other. She offered me refuge from my unraveling marriage. I gave her purpose.

The night she passed, I left my phone in the living room. When I woke, messages from her friends and sisters spilled down my screen. Voice mails. Texts. “Come to the hospital!” “Hurry!” I had slept while my friend died. 


Another day, nothing.

“He hates it,” I said.

Oh, you know Marty. Momo waved her hand. He’s a BFD at the hospital. He’s probably curing ADHD and seasonal depression. 

“After years of pounding me on deadlines, you’re giving him a pass?”

He’s a genius, they need more time.

Ouch, I thought. Double whammy. 

The morning of the deadline, my email dinged.

This is what I woke up with at 4 AM:

Mother, wife, negotiator, artist, cook, adventurer.  

Forever bold, stylish, and brave.

“The pain passes. The beauty remains.” —Renoir

Thoughts? Marty. 

Lists. The final refuge of the desperate, the last gasp of clients when they’d run out of ideas or lacked imagination. Marty had reduced Momo to a string of nouns, adjectives, and commas, as if that defined her. Plus, Wife was the second word? 

Momo beamed. Stylish. Adventurer! Marty’s so good with words, isn’t he? 

That’s what love does, I muttered to myself. It infuses mediocre writing with sentiment. “He left off sister. Friend!” 

Momo frowned. Gotta include them. Maybe we need an extra tall slab. Fit everything in. 

I pounded a response on the keyboard. 

Oh, those 4am thoughts! 

I would add friend, sister, businesswoman . . . and the list gets long. Maybe focus on how she made us feel? xoxo 

How did Momo make me feel? She had taught me that moments live in the flickering gold light of a beech tree and a bowl of warm soup. That loss waits for all of us, so we’d better wring happiness from every second. Death had robbed me of my witness, my confidant, the most honest friend I ever had. She never lied to me about my situation. Or herself. How many lovers have you had? I had asked her when I started dating again. She looked off to the corner of the restaurant, counting. “Sixty? Eighty? I had fun.” Would I ever squeeze so much out of life? She left nothing on the table.

Momo, courtesy of the author.

What did I give her? My doggedness. My drive. My craving for partnership, as if I was born incomplete. I gave her my standing in the industry. My fierce competitiveness. My soundless, grateful love.  

I went to make coffee. Marty’s response waited in my inbox.

It doesn’t work to say how she made us feel.  We need to convey who she was. Funny, I left off sister and friend as her middle sister thought that it would be unnecessary, but it’s a key part of who Momo was. I was hoping that negotiator and artist would cover who she was as a businessperson.

Off to the eye doctor.

Ah, he was pulling in Momo’s sisters. A classic zone defense move by the client. I poured contempt onto the page. 

New glasses? Hope you’re seeing more clearly now. Give me a call . . .

What do you think, Momo? I looked around the room and discovered her missing. Marty never responded either. But a tombstone deadline does not melt away like some canceled ad campaign. 


The morning of the unveiling broke crisp and bright, the kind of April day we long for after the gray length of winter. A brightly colored square, rippling in the sunlight, waited for us. Someone had swathed the tombstone in scarves. The wind lifted the corners, flirting and winking, to reveal edges of letters. What was written there? When I had asked Marty the night before at a gathering in their home, he shrugged and said, “Something like in the email.”  

Momo had handpicked her site. Even the year before, as we tipped clumps of earth onto her casket, weeping, we admired the location. It faced a protected edge of the graveyard. 

Now, a year later, grass had grown over the mound. The trees plumped with buds and sunlight flickered through new green leaves. The rabbi, a short, bearded man, gestured for us to draw close. Marty stood with their daughter, his arm around her. I expected Momo to leap out from behind the stone and join us. 

We each read something. I had to borrow a quote that morning, too overwhelmed to think. Words. All my life I have wrestled with, debated, and polished them. But how much had they ever mattered? Momo’s sisters approached the stone and unfastened the tape that secured the scarves. My shoulders tensed and my hand squeezed a damp Kleenex in my pocket. As the coral silks pulled away, the epitaph revealed itself from the bottom up. The words were indistinct, unreadable, and I cursed the stonecutter. Then I pushed the tears from my eyes and read the final, stubborn, unfixable inscription. 

Momo 
Mother. Wife. Sister. Friend.
Negotiator. Artist. Cook. Adventurer.
Forever Bold, Stylish, and Brave.
“The pain passes. The Beauty remains” —Renoir.
November 4, 1958–October 25, 2013

Every word rang true, but they read like a catalog. Writing, I have realized, reflects the writer, not the subject. The tombstone embodied Marty: conflict-averse, hoping to placate everyone. The list did not add up to Momo. I had yearned for bolder art, and my failure said something about me too. I deferred to Marty instead of seizing the moment and creating art worthy of this woman, if that was even possible. 

Loss had yawned over me the past year with daily reminders of my friend. The plants she had bequeathed to me, now gasping for water, hung from my ceiling; my phone became a minefield of photos and buried emails. I would rifle through contracts or sort through our old projects and feel fresh pinpricks of grief. I turned funny tales from our partnership over until they became smooth, comforting stones in my palm. 

I had tried to find another business partner. I needed someone else, I knew that, to keep me from spinning tighter into self-criticism, to slow down and let my feelings catch up, to find happiness for myself, as she had taught me. I even met with a consultant who listened carefully over bad hotel coffee and said “You’re lucky if you get one or two partners like that in a lifetime. Don’t try to replace her—go out and seek many people.” So I found designers, producers, and accountants to help me run the business. I began a relationship with a kind man. Each person filled a hole in my life but, like the litany on the tombstone, couldn’t capture what I had lost. Death had rubbed its heel squarely on what vibrated and flourished between us, ending the world Momo lived in, of possibility, her quicksilver wit, the warmth that rose from her, her push to seek out new adventures.

I closed my eyes and imagined going home and calling Momo and telling her about this day, where we sang songs and prayed and grieved both privately and as a chorus. The group murmured on either side of me. The edge of a cold breeze snuck down my collar. I folded my arms and held myself tighter.

Ach!

“Momo?”

What’s with the waterworks? Life is waiting for you down the hill, my dear.


I never visit Momo’s gravesite, nor do I want to. She sits next to me when I labor over a script or edit a commercial, and even now, as I try to craft this memory of her. I did not have the right words to say to her in her final weeks. I could not conjure poetry for her at her service. My words failed me then, they fail me still, and I keep trying. I want to breathe life back into the shining energy that filled my days. I want to make Momo alive for you on this simple piece of paper. 

Do words matter? I visit Momo’s blog and linger over her final post, written weeks before she died. The stamp of that last date floats farther away from me, but the words still leave fresh yearning. 

Seven years of debilitating treatments, anxious scan results, and the occasional self-diagnosis. It’s a lot to go through to drop a few pounds. Seven very precious years spent with my magnificent husband, my daughter and stellar friends. Seven years going on eight years with nine years in reach and ten years hardly a stretch.

Knowing all that and still, I live like there is no tomorrow.


Linda Button is a storyteller and writer for a large non-profit. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, Boston Magazine, PBS, and elsewhere. Her memoir-in-progress, Fight Song, explores mental illness, martial arts and learning to let go, despite love. 

Editor: Krista Stevens
Copy Editor: Peter Rubin

The Summer Wardrobe Cometh

The dress that’s so long you drag half of all nature behind you.

Daily Cartoon: Tuesday, July 4th

By: Zoe Si
“Oh, my God, Janice—it’s happening again.”

Google's updated privacy policy states it can use public data to train its AI models

Google has updated its privacy policy to state that it can use publicly available data to help train its AI models. The tech giant has changed the wording of its policy over the weekend and switched "AI models" for "language models." It also stated that it could use publicly available information to build not just features, but full products like "Google Translate, Bard, and Cloud AI capabilities." By updating its policy, it's letting people know and making it clear that anything they publicly post online could be used to train Bard, its future versions and any other generative AI product Google develops.

The tech giant has highlighted the changes to its privacy policy on its archive, but here's a copy of the pertinent part:

Google's privacy policy, which reads:
Google

Critics have been raising concerns about companies' use of information posted online to train their large language models for generative AI use. Recently, a proposed class action lawsuit was filed against OpenAI, accusing it of scraping "massive amounts of personal data from the internet," including "stolen private information," to train its GPT models without prior consent. As Search Engine Journal notes, we'll likely see plenty of similar lawsuits in the future as more companies develop their own generative AI products. 

Owners of websites that could be considered public squares in the digital age have also taken steps to either prevent or profit from the generative AI boom. Reddit has started charging for access to its API, leading third-party clients to shut down over the weekend. Meanwhile, Twitter put a restriction on how many tweets a user sees per day to "address extreme levels of data scraping [and] system manipulation."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-updated-privacy-policy-states-it-can-use-public-data-to-train-its-ai-models-095541684.html?src=rss

Close up or woman using smart phone

MicroLED Apple Watch Ultra Now Rumored to Launch in 2026, Not 2025

Apple is known to be working on an updated version of the Apple Watch Ultra that uses a next-generation microLED display, but the device has again been postponed due to manufacturing issues, according to market research firm Trendforce (via The Elec).


Information shared in April by display analyst Ross Young suggested that an Apple Watch Ultra with microLED display would launch in the second half of 2025 at the earliest, rather than late 2024 as was originally rumored.

Now, Trendforce believes it has been postponed for a second time and is unlikely to emerge before the first quarter of 2026, because of problems relating to high manufacturing costs which need to be solved before Apple can proceed to mass production.

Apple has reportedly invested more than $1 billion on in-house microLED development over the past decade to reduce its dependence on Samsung Display and tighten control over the supply of key components in the display panel sector.

The ‌Apple Watch Ultra‌ is expected to be the first Apple device to adopt a microLED display. The current ‌Apple Watch Ultra‌ uses standard OLED technology, whereas MicroLED offers many of the benefits of OLED along with some improvements.

Compared to LED displays, microLED is much more energy efficient and it would likely notably increase battery life on the ‌Apple Watch Ultra‌ and other devices that adopt the technology in the future. Unlike OLED, there's much less risk of screen burn-in, and microLEDs have a longer potential lifetime.

MicroLED displays also provide contrast improvements and faster response times because of the pixel-level individual lights, plus the color is better and brighter. In a nutshell, it's a next-generation technology superior to OLED and miniLED.

Apple is already testing microLED displays for the Apple Watch, and the displays are said to feature brighter, more vibrant colors and a look like content is "painted on top of the glass." Apple is planning to bring the technology to the iPhone and other devices in the future.

As with all early rumors about devices that are a year or two or more out, they can be unreliable in terms of launch timing, as Apple often has to push back its release dates due to delays in design, component sourcing, manufacturing, and more.
Related Roundup: Apple Watch Ultra
Related Forum: Apple Watch

This article, "MicroLED Apple Watch Ultra Now Rumored to Launch in 2026, Not 2025" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Google's Pixel 8 Pro revealed in prototype leak

Google's Pixel 8 Pro may have been revealed in new photos on Reddit by someone affiliated with Google, DroidLife has reported. The back shows a very Pixel-like camera array along with the rumored body temperature sensor, along with a sticker that reads "for test/evaluation only." Another reads "Zuma - B1," a possible code name for Google's incoming Tensor G3 chip. The front screen, meanwhile, shows a Fastboot Mode indicating 12GB of Samsung LPDDR5 DRAM, 128GB of storage and "husky," a previously revealed codename for the Pixel 8 Pro. 

The Pixel 8 Pro is supposed to have a more capable camera array, with a 50-megapixel (MP) Samsung main camera that allows 50 percent more light, and a 64MP ultrawide Sony camera. It also looks to have a flat display, as rumored, rather than a curved one like the Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro models. According to yet another leak, it will have a 5,000 mAh battery (roughly the same as the Pixel 7 Pro) and a modest bump from a 23W to a 27W max charging speed. 

Google's Pixel 8 Pro prototype revealed in leak
Reddit

In a series of posts on Reddit, the poster "annoyingtoread", said that he received it "from the device team in Google for testing." The person then mused that they should perhaps use a throwaway account, and someone replied "you really should, considering that in this account you've even posed pictures of yourself." The original poster subsequently deleted his account. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-pixel-8-pro-prototype-revealed-in-leak-091118014.html?src=rss

Google's Pixel 8 Pro prototype revealed in leak

Google's Pixel 8 Pro prototype revealed in leak
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