Vergecast: reviews of the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple Watch Series 8, and more

Dan Seifert37 minutes ago

The Pixelbook served its purpose.

Earlier this week, Alex Heath and David Pierce reported that Google has canceled its next Pixelbook and moved the team elsewhere in Google, indicating we won’t see another one.

Monica Chin says that’s fine, and while she’s right, I can’t say I’m not sad about it — the 2017 Pixelbook remains a marvel of engineering to this day and I’d love to have seen an updated version (ideally with thinner bezels).

Another space SPAC is in the works.

Intuitive Machines will become the latest space company to go public after merging with a special purpose acquisition company (aka, a SPAC).

Intuitive Machines is one of three companies that was selected to build robotic lunar landers in partnership with NASA. It’s lander, Nova-C, will have its first launch next year.

NASA experiments will be on board, but this is very much a commercial venture too. Riding along will be “Omni-Heat Infinity reflective technology” from Columbia Sportswear, and a Jeff Koons exhibit.

David PierceTwo hours ago

Tim Cook is in New York for the iPhone 14 launch.

New iPhones aren’t the spectacle they once were — no huge lines, no overnight waits — but Apple still brings out the cheering employees and sneaker-wearing execs for the launch. This year it’s Tim Cook and Greg Jozwiak, and I assume they’re just whispering “welcome to the Dynamic Island” in everyone’s ear as they walk out.

Thomas RickerTwo hours ago

Xiaomi’s next flagship phone leaks a bit early.

According to the very reliable leaks from Roland Quandt, Xiaomi’s next flagship phone — the 12T Pro — will feature a 6.67-inch (2712x1220) OLED display, 200 megapixel main camera, Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 SoC, and 5000mAh battery that can charge at 120W. Full specs and images at WinFuture.

Some of Uber’s internal systems were hacked.

It sounds like the hacker got access to someone’s Slack account, and then some of Uber’s other internal systems. Lots of details still unknown, but there are some unverified screenshots floating around Twitter that make it sound like the hacker got a lot of access and potentially a lot of data. Uber said it’s working with law enforcement to investigate.

Hear me out: global eSIM domination should look like Windows browser choice.

After hunting for a data plan in Australia this week, I’m excited by Apple’s move to drop the physical SIM tray from the iPhone — it could put pressure on global eSIM adoption. But eSIMs are still pretty clunky since you need to scan a QR code or download a carrier app to activate them. Data is the most important thing on any phone, so shouldn’t it be the easiest thing to shop for? I hope someday clicking “Add Cellular Plan” on the iPhone brings you to a centralized menu of carrier plans that are rated by speed and price.

Amazon is only streaming Thursday Night Football in 1080p, sigh.

This is Amazon’s first season exclusively streaming TNF for Prime subscribers, and I had really been hoping the company would spend the extra money to do it in 4K. Alas, an unnamed spox tells TV Answer Man it’s 1080p, although Sports Video Group has a deep dive on the production truck that says it’s 4K ready. Apple’s MLB games are in 1080p, too. What do we have to do for sports in 4K, people?

LG may be figuring out 6G.

LG successfully sent a Terahertz signal, which could be the basis for 6G communications, over a 1,000-foot distance outdoors. Last year, it was only able to get the signal to go around 330 feet.

Obviously, this tech is a long way off — it’ll be a few years before there are even discussions about 6G standards, and most of us probably won’t be using it until at least 2030.

Instagram vs. TikTok in VR.

Meta’s Quest Pro won’t be officially unveiled for another month — unless they leave a few units laying around in a hotel hallway, again. Now Protocol reports Pico (which, like TikTok, is now owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance) will launch its next VR headset on September 22nd.

Pico’s new headset may share some features with the Quest Pro, like full-color passthrough video for AR, and a better display.

Twitter, but with an edit button.

Twitter really is almost ready to offer users the long-awaited edit button, and already confirmed that after a little more internal testing, some Twitter Blue subscribers will get access later this month.

Per Platformer author and Verge contributing editor Casey Newton, those public tests are planned to start next week, on September 21st.

We love that tattoos hurt, but hear me out: what if they didn’t.

I’m a fan of these cute semi-permanent tattoos created with stickers covered in tiny needles! They seem promising for people who need skin markers for medical procedures. I’m an even bigger fan of an article explaining this while driving home at every possible opportunity how totally cool pain is during a recreational inking experience. It’s a delicate balancing act, and as someone with a freshly healing tattoo, I appreciate it.

YouTube Shorts are driving more than half of the top 50 channels on the platform.

I love TubeFilter’s weekly breakdown of the top 50 most viewed YouTube channels — especially lately, because I keep looking at the percentage of channels that are primarily active on TikTok-clone Shorts. This week, 29 of the top 50 channels worldwide are primarily using Shorts, and a staggering 33 of the top 50 in the US.

The FCC is trying to clean up space junk.

The agency is floating a plan to have low-earth-orbit satellites (like Starlink) get de-orbited within five years of mission completion, instead of 25 years as the rule stands now.