November 8, 2023

IN THIS ISSUE

🚙 New Waze feature sends crash-history alerts

👂🏼 Hands-on with new Master & Dynamic earbuds

📺 NASA launches free streaming channel today

🚫 Wrapped for Instagram app causes concern

UP FIRST

New Waze feature sends crash-history alerts

The Google-owned app seeks to make your car journey even safer

Navigation app Waze has just launched a new crash-history alerts feature to let drivers know when they're approaching an accident-prone road.

The crash-history alerts feature draws on reports from the Waze community and has some AI smarts built in, too.

If your route includes a crash-prone road, the Waze app will show an alert before you reach that section of your journey that will say something like: “History of crashes – next 1 mile.”

The nature of the hazard isn’t specified and Waze said that to keep driver distractions to a minimum, it won’t keep sending out crash history alerts for a section of road that a driver uses regularly ...

HANDS-ON REVIEW

Master & Dynamic MW09 earbuds review: wireless objects of desire

'Everything about the MW09 communicates luxury and precision'

Master & Dynamic (M&D) has just unveiled a new pair of wireless earbuds, the MW09.

Priced from $349 and available for preorder from November 14, these impressive new buds feature hi-res audio, wireless charging, Bluetooth Multipoint, a new AI-driven active noise canceling system, and impressive battery life.

The MW09 offers two kinds of charging case – aluminum or Kevlar. There’s no difference between their battery capacities or their IPX4 water protection, though the Kevlar is a little lighter and costs $50 more.

This hands-on review digs deep to discover the highs and lows of M&D’s latest set of wireless earbuds, and whether MW08 owners should consider upgrading ...

SPACE

NASA's new video streaming service launches today

The new channel is part of a broader redesign of NASA's website and app

NASA+ is an ad-free channel that seeks to entertain, inform, and educate space fans via a range of original programming.

Space Out, for example, invites viewers to “enjoy relaxing music and ultra-high-definition visuals of the cosmos, from the surface of Mars to a Uranian sunset”; Other Worlds shares the latest news from the amazing James Webb Space Telescope; and NASA Explorers covers the story of the OSIRIS-REx mission that recently returned from deep space with a sample gathered from a distant asteroid.

Family-friendly animations called The Traveler and Lucy’s Journey are also part of the launch package.

NASA+ is part of a broader revamp of NASA’s website and app and is available on most major platforms ...

EXPERIENCE by Nadeem Sarwar

You should probably stay away from the Wrapped for Instagram app

The third-party iPhone app is raising serious privacy concerns

I’ll keep it simple. Stay away from the Wrapped for Instagram trend. The app has been making rounds in the App Store’s top bracket for the past few days, and the premise is a little too lucrative to ignore in the first place.

You may see your friends online showing off their Wrapped stats, but before you go and join in the “fun” for yourself, please consider the following first.

Just like Spotify’s own “wrapped” system that offers an insight into your music streaming habits for the whole year, the new Wrapped app offers a dive into your Instagram usage trends.

Now, before you go ahead and install it, you might want to pay attention to my own experience with Wrapped for Instagram ...

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