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Well, hello there! I hope you had a great short week—aka cramming five days worth of stuff into four? OK, enough complaining! I’ve been working on some exciting stuff, plus I get to hit the road again ✈️ for next week’s big Apple event. More on that, plus a Lego trick that will blow your real—not minifigure—mind 🤯, Sheryl Sandberg leans out, and the final move from FB 🔜 META.
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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: CHAYA HOWELL / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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California, here we come! (If you didn’t love “The O.C.” theme song, you can unsubscribe from this newsletter right now. Wait, I don’t really mean that. Please stay!)
On Monday, I’ll be in Cupertino to cover Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference— known as WWDC or to true Apple nerds as “Dub Dub.” It’s been two years since I’ve been to an in-person tech event, and all signs point to it being very different from the Before Times. The number of attendees has been significantly limited, and the presentation is still pre-taped, meaning I’ll be watching the same thing you can stream to your bedroom. I will, however, get to meet with folks in person.
What won’t be different? Wall-to-wall announcements of features coming to all of Apple’s major operating systems—iOS, MacOS, iPadOS, WatchOS. Year after year, the company’s top executives use the big Monday keynote to talk about all sorts of improvements and convince developers that Apple’s operating systems and App Stores are the best homes for their software.
And yet, this year, given the backdrop of news surrounding the company, what Apple consciously avoids talking about may be as interesting as what it does. I’d bet 13 iPhone 13s we don’t hear about the following on Monday:
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A mixed-reality headset:
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All eyes are on Apple for its next big product category. Reports have hinted at the second half of 2022 for the debut of Apple’s mixed-reality headset (think virtual reality with some augmented-reality features), but WWDC doesn’t seem like the time to talk about the device. Noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said the headset is not in mass production, and he doesn’t anticipate an announcement next week. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear about new augmented-reality features for iOS and iPadOS.
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iPhones, iPads and more:
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This event is focused on software with the occasional Mac announcement. There won’t be new iDevices—those come at the September event. There are reports that Apple may, however, announce a new MacBook Air.
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Sideloading apps:
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The pressure is on from European legislators to force Apple to allow apps to be downloaded outside of its App Store, something called sideloading. The company is doing all it can to argue against this, saying that it would open users up to security and privacy threats. Then there’s the continued push for Apple to lower the cut it takes from in-app purchases. Perhaps an Apple executive defends the App Store ahead of introducing a new feature but more than that? Nope.
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Unionization efforts:
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Apple events often start with a beautiful photo montage of new Apple stores. Right now employees at Apple Stores are seeking to unionize, and the company has pushed back on such efforts. Will Tim Cook nod to that? Another nope!
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Updates on controversial features:
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Remember Apple’s efforts to identify sexually explicit images of children stored in iCloud? I sure do. The feature was shelved and never heard of again. Also, Apple’s progress on digital driver’s licenses has slowed, launching only for TSA in two states. Thinking more nopes on these and any other controversial or red-tape-heavy features.
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An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on what is—and isn’t—coming next week. Luckily, Monday is just a few days away. Stay tuned for coverage.
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👋🏻, Sheryl Sandberg
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Sheryl Sandberg on Wednesday said that she will be leaving her role as chief operating officer of Facebook parent Meta, after 14 years with the company. The news wasn’t surprising to many as she’s taken a backseat in some of the company’s bigger initiatives over the past few years. Still, during her time there she built out the business side, turning a free-to-access social-media startup into one of the biggest advertising companies on the planet. Much more from my colleagues here.
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FB 👉🏻 META
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FAANG? More like MAANG! FAANG is an acronym used to reference the biggest tech stocks: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (now Alphabet). But come June 9, Facebook will begin trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol META. Until then, it remains FB, which it’s been since the company launched its initial public offering 10 years ago. (Why not MAANA? Because Alphabet’s ticker symbol is still GOOG.) Perhaps the ticker change will mean better days ahead: Shares of Meta have lost more than a third of their value since the company, struggling with Apple’s ad-tracking changes, announced its name change six months ago.
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Duo 💥 Meet
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Chances are you stopped paying attention to the names of Google’s messaging apps because there have been SO MANY. But for those trying to keep in straight: The company plans to combine its Duo and Meet apps into a single platform later this year, giving users one place to have virtual conversations. In the next few weeks, Google will add all of Meet’s features to the Duo app, including things such as noise cancellation and auto-light adjustments. The transformation will be complete once Duo is officially renamed Google Meet before year’s end. Confused? Us too.
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CREDIT: JOANNA STERN/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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Look, every serious—or even amateur—Legohead has one: a box or pile of miscellaneous Lego pieces that no longer belong to a specific kit. (OK, fine. In my house, that’s all we have!) This is where Brickit, an app for Android and iOS, comes in.
Scatter the pieces on a table or on the floor, open the app on your smartphone, tap “Scan” and the app will launch your camera. Hold your phone above the Lego pile, and the system will recognize the blocks and count them. Then it will return a number of different building ideas. For instance, in my pile, it counted 147 bricks and returned 28 different ideas, including this cute little…something:
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CREDIT: JOANNA STERN/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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I was thrilled to see the app updated this week with a few features, including a visual search function, which will pinpoint the piece you’re looking for in that big pile it took a photo of. It’s not perfect: It often misidentifies pieces that are obscured by other pieces. But I’m still blown away by how this app combines AI and image recognition to solve such a serious problem.
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CREDIT: Royal Consumer Information Products
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I was thrilled to see how many people responded to last week’s Throwback Thing. Thanks to all of you who shared memories and photos of your beloved HP 12C calculators. Clearly it holds a special place in your ❤️, which is why I was also thrilled to discover that there’s an app for that!
You can turn your smartphone into a 12C-styled calculator by downloading this app for iPhone or this app for Android. It costs $14.99, slightly less than this used vintage model on eBay.
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PHOTO: MUFFY CLARK GILL
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Muffy Clark Gill from Naples, Fla.
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Sony 200 CD jukebox model CDP-CX225
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The ease of accessing and playing so many of our CDs. We knew we needed to have more storage as my husband was picking up numerous CDs every time we visited a Caribbean island.
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At one time, we were members of a small steelpan band. At every island we visited (St. Martin, St. Lucia, Antiqua, St. Thomas, Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad and more), we would pick up CDs as memories. We now have amassed a huge collection of Soca, Calypso and steelpan music.
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They work just fine. My husband has saved the music collections on his computer, too. Well over 10,000 songs!
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📷 Got an idea for a throwback? Reply to this email with a photo of your old tech and tell us why you loved—or hated—it. 📷
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Reply to this email and share your feedback and suggestions.
User-submitted content has been edited for clarity and length. This week’s newsletter was curated and written by Joanna Stern and Cordilia James in New York.
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