iPhones, Wearables, Plant Music: Things We Loved This Month
Photograph: LightThe Bare-Bones Light Phone Will Set You Free
It’s a pocketable device, the color of graphite, that makes calls and sends text messages and does little else. The first version of the Light Phone promised a reprieve from the travails of modern technology, if only temporarily. It wasn't designed to be a consumer product so much as an experiment. Look at how anxious you are without your phone. But while the Light Phone found an audience, people couldn't "go light" for as long as they'd like to, because of the phone's limitations. This second iteration—which can now send and receive text messages—is meant to unleash you from your smartphone forever.
Photograph: Matt Anderson/Getty ImagesLet Your Plants Play Music, and Gardens of Sound Will Bloom
The PlantWave is a "biodata sonification device." Attach its two probes to any plant's leaf like a pair of miniature stethoscopes and the device monitors the fluctuations of electrical conductivity on the leaf surface. That data feeds into a program that turns those signals into controls for electronic instruments. As light graces a leaf, it might tilt the pitch or change the rhythm. Now, the creators of that device are working on a version that will let users connect to the music of plants on their smartphones.
Photograph: AppleAn Exclusive Look Inside Apple’s A13 Bionic Chip
Apple's real advantage over its competitors comes from owning the entire vertical stack: the software, the system hardware, and the chip design. The A13 Bionic chip is smarter, faster, and beefier, and yet it somehow manages to consume less power than its predecessor. It’s about 30 percent more efficient than last year’s A12 chip, one of the factors that contributes to the extra five hours per day of battery life in the new iPhones. For an already high-performing chip to see such a significant boost is sort of like watching Usain Bolt beat himself in a sprint.
Photograph: TestedAdam Savage’s New VR App Lets You Visit Maker Workshops
Adam Savage’s Tested VR app isn’t a typical game-y VR experience. It’s a partnership between Oculus and Adam Savage’s Tested, an online platform for showcasing the work of Savage and other creative makers and their workshops. Each episode features the work of a different creator—a chain saw artist, a puppeteer, a creature sculptor. The app is meant to give the viewer the feeling of being right there at the bench while an artist swings swords and chops up logs.
Photograph: Veja/Arthur WollenweberVeja's New Running Shoe Subtracts the Plastic
Petroleum fuels your morning run as much as coffee and oatmeal. The footwear industry relies on the goopy lifeblood of plastic, and running shoes in particular are dependent on the stuff. For runners to do their job—stabilize your foot, soften impact, and give enough bounce—the typical shoe ends up being constructed almost entirely from plastic and foam. Veja bills its new shoe, the Condor, as the first “post-petroleum” running shoe. But while Veja removed as much plastic from its construction as possible, the fact is that it seems almost impossible to get rid of the stuff entirely.
Photograph: AmazonAmazon Won’t Stop Until Alexa’s Always With You
Alexa earbuds, Alexa glasses, an Alexa ring: Amazon announced them all at its annual hardware showcase in September. What these devices have in common is a singular focus on pushing Alexa outside of the home, and inserting it into the rest of your life. Amazon, unlike Google and Apple, has not yet seen major success with mobile technology. This presents Amazon with challenges both practical and existential. A digital assistant that only interacts with you at home might understand what music you like or what time you wake up. But it has vast gaps in its knowledge about where you go, how you get there, and what you do. And boy oh boy, do they want to fill those gaps.
