New iphones, Manadalorian season 3, driverless UberEats vehicles, Juul’s legal settlement, and more! Let’s dive in.
New iPhones, AirPods, and Watches
As expected, Apple rolled out new devices across their lineup. The iPhone now comes in 4 models, the 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro, and 14 Pro Max, all with varying screen size, battery life, and camera quality. Apple also released the second generation of AirPods Pro, which now have better noise cancelation, battery life, and a redesigned charger. The Apple Watch Ultra is a fresh new model, designed for extreme weather and outdoor adventures. Some products such as the iPhone 14 Pro models will be available starting this Friday.
Mandalorian Season 3
The extremely popular Star Wars television series will be returning for a third season. While no official date has been announced, rumors are speculating the season’s first episode will be released in February 2023. Disney released the trailer for the new season at its D23 expo event on Saturday, featuring the star actor Pedro Pascal as the Mandalorian. The show will stream exclusively on Disney+.
UberEats Autonomous Delivery
Uber has partnered with autonomous vehicle manufacturer Nuro to begin offering truly contactless deliveries. Starting this fall, customers in California and Texas will have some food deliveries made by driverless robots. The Nuro R2 vehicles can carry up to 500 pounds of items in its two climate controller storage compartments. Nuro has already partnered with big brands such as Walmart, Domino’s, Chipotle, and 7-Eleven.
OnePlanet NFT Marketplace Migration
OnePlanet is a relatively new NFT marketplace that was entirely based on the Terra platform. At its peak, the platform recorded 30,000 monthly active users and around $450,000 in daily trading volume. However, with the crash of the Terra blockchain, they have decided to transition to the Polygon chain. OnePlanet also has plans for incorporating a customized launchpad and infrastructure to provide utility to token holders.
JUUL Settlement
Juul Labs will pay at least $438.5 million to settle claims with 33 different states and Puerto Rico over the alleged marketing of its vaping product to underage users. Under the deal, Juul is banned from using people under 35 in its marketing, product placements, social media posts, and other advertising. They are also banned from selling Juul branded merchandise and funding education programs in schools. The company has said it is focused on providing alternatives for adult cigarette smokers while combating underage use.
Comcast Multi-gig Speeds
The Comcast corporation is beginning to roll out internet speeds over 1 GB per second to 34 cities across the United States by the end of 2022. The service has already started providing 2 GB per second speeds to customers in Colorado, Georgia, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the increase only applies to download bandwidth, while upload speeds are still capped at roughly 200 MB per second in most areas. The company will rollout symmetrical multi-gig speeds in 2023.
Fun fact: The phrase “I have a bad feeling about this” is said in every Star Wars film.
