What's New

Snapchat has always known exactly where you are. What, you thought everyone saw that “Greetings from the Brooklyn Bridge” filter? Until recently, Snapchat didn’t do much with your location data beyond serving up geofilters and pushing location-specific stories. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Imagine you could build your own Android phone from scratch, with the ability to bend a Chinese manufacturing colossus to your whims. What would you make? That is more or less the story of OnePlus, the Chinese company founded in 2013 to produce premium smartphones. But don’t call it a startup: OnePlus is a subsidiary of BBK Electronics, the world’s second-largest smartphone manufacturer (it also owns Oppo and Vivo. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Physicists like to share the legend of a professor who asked students how they might determine the height of a building using a barometer. The story goes on to list some of the ways you might do that. You could drop the barometer from the roof and record the time it takes to hit the ground. Or you could offer the barometer as a bribe to the building manager and ask him the height. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Phoenix just provided another reason to hate flying: the heat. With temperatures there expected to hit 119 degrees Fahrenheit, airlines canceled more than 40 flights today. Wait. What? Airplanes can't fly because it's too hot? That's crazy. No, not really. According to news reports, the heat poses a particular problem for the Bombardier CRJ airliners, which have a maximum operating temperature of 118 degrees. Bigger planes from Airbus and Boeing can handle 126 degrees or so. OK. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

When you work at Twitter, you get near-daily updates to the app to test. These beta versions often provide a glimpse of new features, and most of them are small. So when a major update landed two weeks ago, one thing stood out: The quill icon, which everyone knows you press to compose a tweet, was no longer an icon, but a single word: Tweet. This experiment in iconography didn't last. A subsequent update brought a new tweet button, and another after that. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It’s easy to get lost in the great pantheon of consumer drones. Even just looking at industry leader DJI’s options, there are enough choices to set your head spinning faster than a quadcopter blade. Today we’ll focus on one choice: the DJI Phantom 4 Pro+. Coming in at a cool $1,800, this marks the top end of what could be considered DJI’s consumer line, with the next level up being the $3,000 pro-level Inspire 2. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In a dystopia, there are no happy endings. Despite what June says or thinks, life will never return to the way it was. Moira can’t erase the nights of ritual rape. Janine can’t restore the eye the Republic of Gilead took from her. June can’t be there for her daughter’s childhood. But as long as there’s resistance, there’s hope. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

I’ve always assumed Apple would eventually run out of ways to improve the iPad. It long ago made the processor faster than anyone needs. You won’t find a sharper, more accurate, more responsive screen on a tablet. The battery lasts days, plural. And really, what else matters? Sure, the speakers suck, but chalk that up to the limitation of air-blowing physics. What makes the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro so intriguing, then, is just how many things Apple made noticeably better. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Pretty much everyone agrees that distracted driving is bad. And the most common distraction just might be your phone. People seem convinced that they must see that notification or status update right now. This can cause problems when you're driving. You know, crash problems. That's why I'm excited to see the next version of Apple iOS features something called driving mode. Your phone will know you are driving, and refrain from showing notifications until you've stopped. I like this idea a lot. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Nothing lasts forever. In fact, some things only last two years, two months, and 14 days. That’s how long, at least, Amazon’s absurdly cheap unlimited cloud storage made it. Now that the greatest deal in tech has come to an end, it’s worth taking a fresh look at your data-stashing options. Amazon’s Unlimited Everything plan truly was unprecedented when the company announced it in 2015, and went unmatched ever since. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices