All the Things We Loved in March
AppleApple Launches Apple News+ Paid Subscription Service
Apple's new subscription service functions like a digital newsstand. For $10 a month, you can unlock access to premium magazines (including WIRED) and a few national newspapers. Read full issues designed for your iPhone, with a human-curated news experience that recommends content you might like. Read the story.
AppleApple Updates AirPods, Adding a New Custom Wireless Chip
Do you need new AirPods? You do now. Apple's updated set of wirefree earbuds includes a new chip made specifically for faster wireless connections and 50 percent more talk time, even though the batteries within them are the same size as the batteries in the original version. There's also an optional wireless charging case. Read the story.
Thibault Renard/Getty ImagesInstagram's New Shopping Feature Makes It a Digital Mall
Instagram has an uncanny ability to surface the products you definitely, certainly, absolutely need to buy. Now, with its in-app checkout function, it's even easier to buy those things. Just tap a product on one of its shoppable posts, enter your credit card information, and boom—you've made a purchase. By streamlining the process of buying things within its mobile app, Instagram moves one step closer to becoming your own personalized digital mall. Read the story.
Photograph: GoogleWith Stadia, Google's Gaming Dreams Head For the Cloud
Stadia is both a cloud-gaming platform and a Wi-Fi-enabled controller that connects to said platform. It offloads all gameplay to Google's cloud servers, supporting games that run at an eye-watering 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. The Stadia controller manages the game data, rather than the local device. The controller also has an Assistant button so players can get in-game help from Google Assistant, and a capture button to save or share stream gameplay directly to YouTube—either privately to the user's own channel, to select friends, or to the platform at large. Read the story.
HPHP’s New Reverb VR Headset Bumps Up the Resolution
HP's latest virtual reality headset, the Reverb, is designed to be worn for a while. It weighs in at just over a pound, with an adjustable velcro strap. One of the biggest updates is a significant bump in the resolution of the LCD panel built into the tethered headset. The price has swelled too: The Reverb bundle will start at $599 when it ships in late April. Read the story.
Tiny GiantFreitag's Latest Bags Have a Funky New Ingredient: Plastic
Freitag's latest line of bags are made partially of truck tarp, and partially of material spun from recycled plastic bottles. The truck tarp material is insanely durable—but it's also thick and rather stiff. These new Tarp on PET bags, however, are mostly constructed from that new plastic-bottle fabric, so they're much lighter and more pliable. The brightly colored tarp sections are incorporated sparingly, giving the bag structure and adding durability where it's needed the most: in the straps, along the bottom, and on the seams that see the most stress. Read the story.
Michael Short/Getty ImagesApple Enters the Credit Card Market With—Yep—Apple Card
The latest hardware innovation out of Cupertino isn't an iPhone or a MacBook. It's a credit card. Made of titanium, the Apple Card features no card number, no expiration date, no signature, and no three-digit code on the back. The customer’s name is simply printed on the front alongside a security chip. Apple doesn't really want you to use it like a card, though; instead, Apple Card is designed to be used on your phone, just like Apple Pay. You also get cash back on any transaction made with Apple Pay. Read the story.
