Hasta La Gadget!

The 2022-23 NBA season is right around the corner and the league is stealing a march on opening night with a redesign of its iOS and Android app. The new version places a lot of focus on vertical videos, which fits right in with the modern age of social media.

For one thing, it rips a page right out of the TikTok playbook with a vertically scrolling For You feed, which will feature real-time highlights from ongoing games. The page will be personalized with the help of Microsoft Azure and Azure AI (Microsoft is the NBA’s cloud and AI partner) and feature recommended content that’s based on fan preferences.

In addition, the league has integrated its subscription services, NBA League Pass and NBA TV, into the app. It says NBA League Pass members will have access to live streams of out-of-market games with higher video quality and lower streaming latency. Subscribers will be able to watch games with alternate camera angles, check out betting-focused versions of streams and try analytics-driven options. There will be Spanish, Portuguese and Korean commentary feeds too.

Alongside the relaunch of the app, the NBA has lowered the price of League Pass subscriptions for a limited time. The standard package is currently $15 per month or $100 for the season, and $20 per month or $130 for the entire season if you opt for the premium package. The bundle includes access to NBA TV.

Elsewhere on the content front, the app will feature streams from pre- and post-game press conferences and media days, teams’ pregame shows for League Pass games and a show centered about NBA culture and lifestyle. There will also be weekly shows focused on highlights and betting. International pre-season games in Japan and Abu Dhabi will stream live on the app as well.

You’ll have access to several docuseries, including a seven-episode one called Gold Blooded that focuses on the Golden State Warriors’ run to the 2022 title. The first episode is on the app now. In Pass The Rock, which will debut in late November, you’ll gain some insight into the NBA’s hottest new stars, on and off the court. There will be archival content too, including documentaries, 500 classic games and every Finals game since 2000.

On top of all that, the league is introducing a free membership program called NBA ID, which can be linked to a NBA League Pass subscription. NBA ID will offer benefits and rewards including original content and material from the league’s vault. Members will also gain access to exclusive experiences from NBA partners, ticket deals, prizes from NBA Pick’Em fantasy games and more.

As one of the few companies that’s figured out how to make robots that consumers actually want, iRobot sells a wide range of robo-cleaners, including both vacuums and floor moppers. Its new Roomba Combo j7+ is the first Roomba bot to do both, using a clever mechanism that lifts the mopping tool completely out of the…

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Get a look at Lindsey Wallace in Halloween Ends. Melanie Lynskey joins the cast of HBO’s The Last of Us. Jodie Whittaker promises her Doctor Who regeneration scene is “one for the Whovians.” Plus, one last look at Smile, and new set pictures from Secret Invasion. To me, my Spoilers!

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Last year, I tried the Freewrite Smart Typewriter — an expensive, single-purpose E Ink typewriter that does one thing very well. It lets you draft text with an excellent keyboard and zero distractions. If you’re a serious writer, there’s a lot to like about it, but it is most definitely not cheap; Astrohaus, the company behind the Freewrite, even raised the prices of its products, including the full-size model and the portable laptop-style Freewrite Traveler, earlier this year. 

Today, though Astrohaus is unveiling a third device that they’ve been teasing for a few weeks now, the Freewrite Alpha. The most important thing to know is that the Alpha will be priced at $349, or $249 if you purchase via the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign that starts today. That’s still not cheap, but it’s half the price of the Freewrite Traveler while still offering the same core features as the other products in the lineup.

The Freewrite Alpha is a small two-pound slate with a pop-out kickstand that probably isn’t quite as portable as the Traveler, but should still be quite easy to carry with you just about anywhere. Despite the small size, it nevertheless has a full-size mechanical keyboard with Kailh Choc V2 low-profile switches. My guess is that they’ll have a lot more travel than the laptop-style keyboard on the Traveler, though they probably won’t be quite as satisfying a typing experience as you’ll get with the Kailh Box Brown keyboard on the full-size Smart Typewriter. 

Alan Burns

It’s also the first Freewrite to use an LCD display rather than the E Ink screens on the other models. It’s a smaller screen than the already-small displays on other Freewrite models; it can display between two and six lines of text, depending on the font size you use. Given that Freewrite devices are meant specifically for drafting rather than editing, this shouldn’t be too much of a concern, but you will see less copy on this device than other ones. You can scroll back up and see what you’ve written and used the WASD keys to move your cursor around, but I’ve found that, for the most part, I just plow ahead and write. 

Astrohaus says that the LCD display is reflective and uses ambient light, so it’s not quite the same as looking at a glowing rectangle like your phone or iPad. But it likely won’t be quite as easy on the eyes as the E Ink screen on other Freewrites. But on the other hand, the refresh rate should be much quicker. As for battery life the Alpha should last about 100 hours. Past Freewrites haven’t had specific battery estimates; Astrohaus just say they last weeks between charges. 

Alan Burns

There are a lot of things the Alpha has in common with other Freewrite models. Everything you write is automatically saved to the device locally, and — assuming you connect it to WiFi — everything is also backed up to the cloud and available in the Freewrite Postbox web app. You also don’t have to use this proprietary service, as the Alpha can also back up to Evernote, Dropbox or Google Drive. For the old school among us, you can also connect the Alpha to a computer and pull the local files off via its USB-C port (this is also used for charging). 

If you’re interested, the aforementioned Indiegogo campaign is live now, but devices aren’t expected to ship until July of 2023. That’s a long wait for this product, but the current $249 price point is a lot more affordable than any previous Freewrite — so if this device catches your eye, it might be worth checking out on Indiegogo. While Freewrite devices are expensive, I can say from experience that they really can help you focus on writing, provided you can keep away from your phone, of course.

Volvo has introduced a number of important safety features in its vehicles throughout the years including the first three-point seatbelt back in 1959. But now the company has developed something a bit more techy with what it’s calling the world’s first interior radar system for cars. 

Set to debut on its upcoming flagship EX90 electric SUV, Volvo’s new radar system is designed to monitor both the cabin and trunk of a vehicle in order to prevent the car from being locked while anyone is still inside. The idea is to guard against situations where pets or children may be inadvertently trapped inside a car on a hot day, with the car surfacing reminders if it recognizes that there are still occupants inside when being locked. Additionally, the car’s climate control can also be set to stay on if a passenger is detected, further lowering the risk of heatstroke. 

While the thought of leaving a pet or child inside a car on a hot day is unimaginable to most people, it can happen to anyone. In its press release, Volvo cited statistics from the US where more than 900 children have tragically died due to hyperthermia since 1998. 

Volvo’s senior technical specialist for injury prevention Lotta Jakobsson says “No one chooses to be distracted or tired, but we know it can happen. We’re all human and distraction is a fact of life. With the help of cutting edge technology, we’ll support you when you’re not at your best and help you avoid leaving family members or pets behind by accident.”

In order to cover as much of the inside of the EX90 as possible, Volvo says it will use multiple radars positioned in the car’s overhead console, roof-mounted reading lamps and in the trunk that can detect “sub-millimeter” movements. Unfortunately, we won’t get a more detailed idea of how Volvo’s new interior radar system really works until the EX90 is officially revealed on November 9th. But given that the new feature will come standard on the company’s forthcoming EV (where allowed by regulation), we’re hoping to see similar systems become basic equipment on more cars and makes in the future.