With photogrammetry, hundreds of still photos can be transformed into an incredibly realistic 3D model of a real place on Earth — assuming you capture them all.
This Memorial Day weekend, a self-flying robot cameraman did that entire job for me. I simply designated where to fly and where not to fly, kicked back in a chair, and a Skydio 2 drone nabbed those photos all by itself.
Today, Skydio is launching Skydio 3D Scan, an optional software suite for its self-flying drones that lets them build incredibly detailed models for far more important tasks than my holiday backyard BBQ. We’re talking about scanning bridges that might be in need of structural repair, accident reporting at crash sites, and allowing clients to inspect construction sites from most any angle, anywhere in the world, during and after structures are built.
Those aren’t theoretical, by the way: Skydio says the North Carolina Department of Transportation is using it for bridges; the Boston Police Department for crime and accident scene reconstruction; and, below, you can see an real-life interactive 3D example of a water treatment plant for an upcoming semiconductor facility being built in Chandler, Arizona by Sundt Construction, presumably for Intel. (Skydio says it doesn’t know for sure.)
As you can imagine with that kind of clientele, the feature doesn’t come cheap: $2,999 per year, per drone, for the ability to autonomously grab all those photos given a designated volume that you’d like to capture. That also doesn’t include the drone, a controller, or the software you’ll need to actually stitch the images together: $99+ a month for DroneDeploy, or several thousand dollars per year for Bentley Systems’ ContextCapture, as a couple examples — the embedded Sketchfab models in this post use Bentley’s solution. 3D Scan will come to the company’s $10,999-and-up Skydio X2 drone later this summer as well.
Though it’s aimed at professionals with money to spend, a few short sessions showed me you don’t need to be a pro to use 3D Scan, or necessarily even know how to fly a drone. Assuming you’re following all local drone laws, it’s simply a matter of powering up a standard Skydio 2 drone (with two high-capacity microSD cards) and a Skydio controller, then following a series of prompts on a phone. You fly the drone to the top, bottom, and corners of the area you’d like to capture, pick how much detail you want, and then it does the rest on its own — taking pictures with its 12-megapixel front camera while the drone’s other six eyes and navigation system keep it from crashing.
The larger and more detailed your scan, the longer it’ll take, but you can resume after a battery swap — Skydio recommends you don’t stay out longer than four batteries.
Like I wrote in our Skydio 2 review, you can trust this drone not to crash, and the 3D Scan mode adds a geofencing feature that can help you keep it from flying into unwanted areas, too. Frankly, I didn’t feel a pressing need to hang onto the controller during my backyard patio scan, so I left it on a table while I watched. The only thing that confused me was knowing when the scan was done: it turns out you have to land the drone, then leave it powered on to finish processing. Then, it was a matter of uploading a couple gigabytes of photos to DroneDeploy or Bentley and waiting for them to process.
There’s an AR mode where you can keep track of a virtual Skydio drone as it makes its rounds.
As you’ll no doubt see in the 3D models (or failing that, YouTube), they’re not quite seamless yet — not something you’d want to explore in virtual reality, for instance. (I tried.) Even though I can make out the exact texture of the cement slab and tiles in my backyard, and the metal carnage in this Swiss cheese of a busted helicopter, here are loads of holes and smudges that photogrammetry is just failing to provide.
Skydio CEO and co-founder Adam Bry admits that 3D isn’t everything, and that some clients will simply use 3D as a guide to all of the individual high-res photos that Skydio also provides. “If you set the closest resolution, you’re talking about something like .5mm per pixel … it’s enough to see fine cracks in concrete, it’s enough to see rust on a bolt, it’s enough to see details of a skid mark on the ground.” And while he says the system works in indoor environments, it’s currently optimized for flying around an object you’d like to capture instead of capturing the world around the drone, like you might for an indoor tour. (Skydio is “fairly active” in pursuing inside-out capture as well.)
Long term, Bry thinks the automated aerial scanning might come in handy for digitizing the world for other reasons, like augmented and virtual reality, but for now it seemed like simple, detailed 3D structure modeling was a problem Skydio could solve. “There are countless examples of the world’s best drone pilots keeping this mental model of the path they’ve flown,” says Bry. Now, scanning may not need to be about flying, or even programming a path on a map. It’s just another app on your phone.
Skydio’s holding a special live webinar at the US Space and Rocket Center today at 9AM PT / 12PM ET to show a bit more of what 3D Scan can do. They’ll be scanning some exhibits inside the center, Bry tells me.
With Apple Music CD-quality, Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless streaming announced at no extra charge to Apple Music users (and at an unspecified date in June) certain users have reported actual lossless and hi-res icons appearing on the streaming service ahead of its official the launch.
With Apple’s annual (coronavirus permitting) Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicking off in just five days on 7th June, Apple may well be readying hi-res content for the big reveal and leaving a few early treats for its loyal users.
As first reported by Apple Insider, keyed up users hoping to spot a few early-access Easter eggs have allegedly discovered albums showing labels for Lossless or Dolby Atmos, and others are apparently being prompted to re-download albums for new formats.
What Hi-Fi? tried to follow suit but is unable to replicate any of these experiences. A user in Japan was apparently able to see a video EP with the labels for Dolby Atmos, Hi-Res Lossless, and Apple Digital Master (main image, thank you @0gniRincha) while another subscriber in the Netherlands was prompted to download an album to experience it with Dolby Atmos with Lossless audio, although they claim that when they tried to do this, it didn’t actually download.
So what’s up with Apple Music? For a moment I got a popup saying I need to redownload an album to get Dolby Atmos. After doing so the music type went to HLS media. Now it’s back at streaming AACJune 1, 2021
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Apple Music空間オーディオやロスレス、デジタルマスターはまだMVだけの模様 pic.twitter.com/sftu8kIUuMMay 31, 2021
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The new features will require iOS 14.6 or later to work. Apple will actually offer three tiers of higher resolution audio: CD quality (16-bit/44.1kHz), Apple Music Lossless (24-bit/48kHz), and Hi-Res Lossless (up to 24-bit/192kHz). You will be able to choose your quality through the Settings > Music > Audio Quality section of Apple Music.
At launch, all of Apple Music’s 75-million-strong music catalogue will be available in CD quality or Apple Music Lossless. Also on the day Apple officially releases the upgrade, 20 million tracks will be accessible in the highest quality Hi-Res Lossless format, with the whole catalogue following “by the end of 2021”.
With thousands of tracks arriving in Dolby Atmos too, could a few have slipped through the net and been leaked to some users early doors?
Apple Insider has also reported a fresh new discovery: all music videos in Apple Music now signify that they are playing with Apple’s proprietary Spatial Audio enabled within the Apple Music app – and the label for Dolby Atmos or Spatial Audio doesn’t have to appear for it to work. To try it out, when wearing your AirPods Max or AirPods Pro, listen to a music video and check the Spatial Audio setting in Control Center. If Spatial Audio is playing, the icon will be animating.
To see this icon, swipe down on the top right corner to reach Control Center, and long-press on the volume slider. The icon should appear in the bottom right of the display.
Apple has told What Hi-Fi? that post-launch, Apple Music Dolby Atmos will also work with third-party headphones – as long as you manually enable it. To do this, go into Settings on your iPhone or iPad and then to Music. A new Dolby Atmos option will be available. This is set to Automatic by default (which means Dolby Atmos tracks will play correctly when you’re listening via any W1- or H1-enabled pair of Apple or Beats headphones such as the AirPods Max, AirPods Pro or standard AirPods), but not when you’re using third-party headphones. However, if you switch this option to Always On, even these non-Apple headphones will play back the Dolby Atmos tracks correctly.
iOS 14.6 adds support for Apple Digital Master 24-bit files in Apple Music. This means that the majority of Gaga’s catalogue is now available in that format & labelled accordingly. The Fame Monster Video EP supports also Hi-Res Lossless & Dolby Atmos which enables Spatial Audio. pic.twitter.com/NJYQJr1jOmMay 25, 2021
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Still no official date on the Apple Music Lossless launch, but Apple Music subscribers should mark the 7th-11th June in their diaries – and keep checking for those icons in albums from big-hitters such as Lady Gaga, Lil Nas X or Drake.
MORE:
Further good news: HomePod and HomePod Mini will support Apple Music Lossless
Check out 30 Apple Music tips, tricks and features
See also 10 Apple Music playlists to listen to right now
Huawei has announced its first smartwatches running its own HarmonyOS operating system, the Huawei Watch 3 and Huawei Watch 3 Pro. In theory it’s the third separate operating system Huawei has used for its smartwatches, which originally ran Google’s Android Wear (now Wear OS) before introducing its own LiteOS software with more recent devices.
Despite the new OS, the Watch 3 offers a similar set of features to Huawei’s previous wearables. New additions includes a redesigned home screen that now consists of a watchOS-style grid of apps rather than a list, and there’s also support for video calling through Huawei’s own MeeTime service.
Although it’s branded as a HarmonyOS device, the Watch 3’s long battery life suggests its operating system is significantly different from the version of HarmonyOS Huawei is using on its new tablets, and may have more in common with LiteOS on its previous watches. Huawei did not respond to questions about any similarities between HarmonyOS and its existing operating systems.
The Watch 3’s design doesn’t deviate much from Huawei’s previous smart watches. It’s got a circular 1.43-inch OLED display with a 60Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1000 nits. The display is edge-to-edge, so there’s no rotating bezel on this smartwatch. Instead you control it via a rotating crown, similar to an Apple Watch. The watch is available in a couple of different styles including an “active” model with a rubber strap, a “classic” model with leather, and an “elite” version with a metal bracelet.
For activity tracking, the watch features many of the same sensors as previous models, including heart rate tracking, an Sp02 sensor, and sleep tracking. But new for this version is a temperature sensor, similar to Fitbit’s Sense smartwatch from last year. Huawei says this sensor can continuously track the temperature of your skin throughout the course of the day. Huawei says the watch supports a hundred different workout modes, ranging from running to climbing, cycling, and swimming.
eSIM support returns from the Watch 2 Pro, which means the Watch 3 can also be operated independently from a phone with its own 4G LTE connection. The watch supports making voice calls directly, and there’s also support for video calls via Huawei’s MeeTime service (though there wasn’t any confirmation about whether the watch will work with other video calling services like WhatsApp).
With 4G turned on, Huawei says you should get around three days of battery life from the Watch 3, but that extends to 14 days if you’re willing to turn off 4G and use the phone in “ultra long lasting mode.” Even in this low-power mode, Huawei says you should still be able to track your activity and workouts, and its watch faces will still be animated.
As well as the Watch 3, Huawei is also announcing the Watch 3 Pro today, which offers up to 5 days of battery life with 4G turned on, and up to 21 days in its long battery life mode. Other improvements include a more premium titanium construction, and more accurate GPS tracking.
Third-party app support is still a big question mark hanging over Huawei’s first HarmonyOS watches. As always, Huawei promises it’s working with developers on bringing their apps to its devices, and showed off a range of app logos including one for the Emirates airline. But beyond that, there weren’t any app logos for services I recognized, and Huawei hasn’t confirmed support from any of the major music streaming services.
Huawei is yet to confirm pricing or release details for the Huawei Watch 3 and Watch 3 Pro, but said an announcement should be made soon.
E-commerce site Etsy, best known for selling handmade and vintage wares, is buying up a cooler, younger rival, UK-based secondhand shopping app Depop.
The $1.6 billion acquisition lets Etsy access Depop’s young and growing userbase. Etsy says more than 90 percent of Depop’s users are under 26, meaning they mostly belong to Gen Z, while Etsy’s own users are firmly millennial, with a median age for sellers of around 39. Etsy claims that Depop is the 10th most visited shopping site for Gen Z consumer in the US.
“We are simply thrilled to be adding Depop — what we believe to be the resale home for Gen Z consumers — to the Etsy family,” Etsy chief executive Josh Silverman said in a press statement. “Depop is a vibrant, two-sided marketplace with a passionate community, a highly-differentiated offering of unique items, and we believe significant potential to further scale.”
Depop, founded in 2011, shares Etsy’s love of secondhand clothing. But while Etsy’s brand leans more towards the vintage and cosy, Depop’s is more fashionable. Depop’s revenues doubled last year to $70 million, with most of this income derived from sales commissions.
While Etsy will get access to Depop’s users, Depop itself will be able to draw on Etsy’s experience to scale internationally. “Many of the challenges that we are going through as a business are things that Etsy has gone through before,” Maria Raga, Depop’s chief executive, told The Financial Times. “Etsy has made massive improvements in terms of search and discovery, and this is something that we can definitely learn from.”
The acquisition is the latest sign of activity in the secondhand clothing market, though things are not exactly stable. Depop rivals Poshmark and Thredup, for example, have both seen market caps soar on successful IPOs only to fall again when financial earnings revealed widening losses amid sales growth. And Etsy itself has seen its shares drop from a pandemic high as global lockdowns begin to lift and physical retailers reopen. Grabbing Depop seems like a way to reduce that exposure and access a mobile-first userbase.
Confirming what The Verge reported back in April, Ikea tonight listed a new Symonisk “picture frame with Wi-Fi speaker” product on its website. The device, which is listed for $199, has not yet been announced — but it’s one of two new collaborations between Ikea and Sonos set for release in the near future.
According to the likely-to-be-removed website, the Symfonisk picture frame measures 22 inches high, 16 inches wide, and 2 inches deep. Ikea says customers will be able to choose between “various interchangeable fronts,” and the frame will be offered in either black or white finishes. Like the previous two Symfonisk products, the picture frame is designed to blend into your home decor and not stick out as an obvious tech gadget.
Image: Ikea
“You can choose to hang it on its own on the wall as an eye-catcher, match it with your other pictures on a wall, place it on the floor, or lean it against a wall,” Ikea’s site says of the picture frame. Despite the name “picture frame,” it seems that you won’t be able to put your own photos into this frame; it’s more of an art piece. The front materially is likely specially designed to help sound pass through.
Ikea’s site confirms the Symfonisk picture frame will support Apple’s AirPlay 2, allow for stereo pairing, and can be controlled through the Sonos app just like previous Symfonisk products. It also has this quote from Sonos product manager Sara Morris: “By working together with the designers we were able to keep the thin edge of the picture frame while hiding a deeper acoustic volume behind it. Together with a waveguide, this let us make big room filling sound from what looks like a thin speaker.”
The other 2021 Symfonisk joint effort between Ikea and Sonos will be a redesigned table lamp speaker. June 14th is the latest rumored date for when the two companies will officially announce both products — even if Ikea got a little ahead of itself this evening.
Facebook employees are circulating an internal petition calling for the company to investigate content moderation systems that led many Palestinians and allies to say their voices were being censored, the Financial Times reports. The news comes weeks after Israeli airstrikes killed more than 200 people in Gaza, including at least 63 children. Israel and Hamas have now reached a cease fire.
Palestinian activists and allies have long accused social media companies of censoring pro-Palestinian content — and the issue has only gotten worse during the recent conflict. At Facebook, content moderation decisions are made by third-party contractors and algorithms, and the process is less than perfect, particularly in non-English speaking countries. After Instagram restricted a hashtag referring to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, pro-Palestinian activists coordinated a campaign to leave one-star reviews of Facebook in the app store.
It appears Facebook employees are taking note. “As highlighted by employees, the press, and members of Congress, and as reflected in our declining app store rating, our users and community at large feel that we are falling short on our promise to protect open expression around the situation in Palestine,” they wrote in the petition. “We believe Facebook can and should do more to understand our users and work on rebuilding their trust.”
The letter was posted on an internal forum by employees in groups called “Palestinians@” and “Muslims@.” It reportedly has 174 signatures.
Employees are asking Facebook to do a third-party audit of content moderations decisions surrounding Arab and Muslim content. They also want a post by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he allegedly called Palestinian civilians terrorists, to be reviewed by the company’s independent oversight board.
Last month, employees at Google, Apple, and Amazon wrote internal letters calling for executives to support Palestine. Employees at all three tech giants said they felt executives were unsupportive of Muslim workers. Some also wanted Google and Amazon to review a $1.2-billion cloud computing contract the companies had recently signed with the Israeli government. Yet no company had as immediate an impact on information surrounding the fighting as Facebook.
In a statement emailed to The Verge, a Facebook spokesperson said the company has committed to an audit of its community standards enforcement report. “We know there were several issues that impacted people’s ability to share on our apps,” the spokesperson added. “While we fixed them, they should never have happened in the first place and we’re sorry to anyone who felt they couldn’t bring attention to important events, or who believed this was a deliberate suppression of their voice. We design our policies to give everyone a voice while keeping them safe on our apps and we apply them equally, regardless of who is posting or what their personal beliefs are.”
The Rimac C_Two concept has evolved into a production-ready electric hypercar called the Nevera, and it’s still just as absurd as it was three years when it first broke cover at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show.
Powered by a 120kWh battery pack, the Nevera uses four electric motors — one for each wheel — to put down an almost unbelievable 1.4MW of power, which Rimac says is roughly equivalent to 1,914 horsepower. The quad-motor setup can push the car to 60 miles per hour from a standstill in just 1.85 seconds. It has a top speed of 258 miles per hour.
What’s more, Rimac says one of the things it worked on over the last three years was improving the battery pack’s liquid cooling system, meaning drivers can use that peak power for longer before the batteries start to complain.
To make sure drivers have a fighting chance at controlling that amount of power, Rimac developed a new all-wheel torque vectoring system that basically acts as both an electronic stability and traction control system. The software can make “over 100 calculations per second to tailor the level of torque to achieve the desired driving style,” Rimac says in the press release for the Nevera. Braking in a car like this is also important, and Rimac has designed the Nevera to be able to dynamically adjust the balance of the braking force between the friction brakes in the wheels and the regenerative braking made possible by the electric motors.
Image: Rimac
Image: Rimac
Image: Rimac
Image: Rimac
Image: Rimac
Image: Rimac
Image: Rimac
Image: Rimac
Image: Rimac
Image: Rimac
Image: Rimac
Image: Rimac
Image: Rimac
Image: Rimac
Image: Rimac
Image: Rimac
If that’s not enough, Rimac has developed an “AI driving coach” feature that leverages the Nevera’s 12 ultrasonic and six radar sensors, as well as 13 cameras to help “optimize and enhance the driver’s on-track performance.” It does this by providing track-specific audio and visual cues for when to brake for, where to turn into, and when to accelerate out of a corner.
Of course, very few people will have to worry about whether they can properly pilot a Nevera. Rimac is only making 150 of them, and they’ll each start around $2.4 million.
A big part of that price tag is Nevera’s lavish tech. The monocoque is the largest single carbon fiber piece in the automotive industry, according to the company, dramatically cutting weight and improving safety. The H-shaped battery pack is structurally integrated into that monocoque, too, keeping the center of gravity low and adding to the overall structural stiffness. To keep the ride smooth, the Nevera has a double wishbone suspension that uses electronically controlled dampers, which also makes for easy ride height adjustments.
Inside the cockpit, there are three screens: a driver display, a horizontal touchscreen in the center console, and a passenger display. There’s also an accompanying mobile app, which offers live track data, and the ability to download telemetry so drivers can analyze their performance.
The other part of the price tag is that Rimac will customize basically every other aspect of the Nevera hypercar for buyers:
No two Neveras will leave the Rimac factory looking the same or bearing the same specification, thanks to customers’ ability to choose from a comprehensive range of bespoke trims and material options. In addition to the company’s premium individual personalization program, Rimac will offer its flagship in various editions: GT, Signature, Timeless or the customers can choose to go Bespoke.
Each buyer will even be “invited to Croatia to design his or her car to their exacting requirements,” Rimac says.
As if that isn’t enough to convince someone to pony up $2 million and change, the company says founder Mate Rimac will personally test each Nevera that gets built.
The funny thing about a car like the Nevera is that it’s not alone. There is a growing stable of absurdly priced electric hypercars that can make nearly 2,000 horsepower. Lotus has the Evija, while Pininfarina has the Battista. (There are a few hybrid options in this class, too.) What’s made Rimac unique is that it really was a sort of go-it-alone effort, one that Mate Rimac built from the ground up.
That said, Mate Rimac says in the press release for the Nevera that it “is the car I had in mind when I embarked on the ‘impossible’ journey ten years ago.” His company now has backing from Porsche, which is reportedly working with Rimac to make electric hypercars for the German automaker’s sibling brand, Bugatti. Hyundai has also tossed Rimac some coin. While the Nevera looks like a truly thrilling electric hypercar, the most exciting thing about what Rimac’s been doing for the last decade might be whatever comes next.
Do you own an Echo Studio, an Echo Dot, or a Ring Floodlight Cam? If so, Amazon is about to introduce your device to a new type of network it calls Sidewalk, which is meant to help extend the range of its low-bandwidth devices (so that if your network goes down, for example, your Dot can piggyback on your neighbors’), and also to make location devices such as Tile more efficient.
According to Amazon, Sidewalk will use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), the 900MHz spectrum, and other frequencies “to simplify new device setup, extend the low-bandwidth working range of devices, and help devices stay online and up-to-date even if they are outside the range of home Wi-Fi.” It will do this by essentially sharing the connectivity of your compatible devices with that of your neighbors.
Amazon says that Sidewalk will get switched on this coming June 8th (Tile functionality will be enabled June 14th), and that it plans to automatically opt in all the eligible devices. The company’s published list of devices includes: Ring Floodlight Cam (2019), Ring Spotlight Cam Wired (2019), Ring Spotlight Cam Mount (2019), Echo (third gen and newer), Echo Dot (third gen and newer), Echo Dot for Kids (third gen and newer), Echo Dot with Clock (third gen and newer), Echo Plus (all generations), Echo Show (all models and generations), Echo Spot, Echo Studio, Echo Input, Echo Flex.
Questions have been raised as to how this could impact the privacy of your data. Amazon has made a white paper available that lays out how customer information is being protected. But if you are still not reassured by this and would rather not participate in Amazon’s good neighbor program — as it were — you can opt out before Sidewalk gets switched on. Here’s how:
In your Amazon Alexa app, select the “More” icon at the lower right hand corner of the screen
Go to “Settings” > “Account Setting” > “Amazon Sidewalk.” (Just a note: if you’re not connected to any Echo or Ring devices, you will probably not see this option.)
Use the toggle to disable Sidewalk
And that’s it! Opting out will not (according to Amazon) in any way affect the current function of your devices. But if you decide you do want to opt back in, or you want to opt out sometime in the future, you can come back to the “Amazon Sidewalk” page and use the toggle.
Note that in the same page you’ll see a setting for “Community Finding,” which will share the approximate location of the devices connected by Sidewalk in order to make location-dependent items like Tile more accurate. If you want, you can leave Sidewalk active but disable “Community Finding” by selecting the “Community Finding” link at the bottom of the “Amazon Sidewalk” page and then toggling it off.
Apple’s streaming TV app is coming to another platform today: Nvidia’s Shield. Shield owners will now be able to access Apple TV Plus, rent movies through Apple’s store, and access subscriptions to premium channels like Showtime and Starz that were set up through Apple.
The biggest hook is finally getting access to Apple TV Plus. Apple needs the streaming service to be accessible in as many places as possible in order to expand viewership. And viewers need to be able to access the service on whatever device is hooked up to their TV, if Apple wants to make sure people use it and stay signed up.
Apple TV Plus is already available through many of the most popular streaming devices. It’s offered through Roku and Fire TV streaming devices, available on recent PlayStations and Xboxes, and supported on many Vizio, Sony, Samsung, and LG TVs. The app came to Google’s latest Chromecast in February, and it was supposed to expand to other Android TV devices — like the Shield — sometime after that. The service will support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos on Shield devices.
The timing is good for Apple. Free trials for Apple TV are about to lapse for the service’s earliest users. And the second season of the service’s biggest (and pretty much only) hit, Ted Lasso, debuts July 23rd. The more places Apple TV Plus can be accessed, the better odds Apple has of getting some actual paying subscribers.
It was March 2020, and restaurants across the country were shutting down, setting up takeout windows, or doing whatever they could to absorb the shock of COVID. But it was Chuck E. Cheese, of all places, that had the foresight and steely clarity to see not just what the new era required, but what it permitted. With much of America suddenly interacting with restaurants through delivery apps, the food industry had been transformed into e-commerce, and the arcade better known for its ball pits than its food was free to invent a new identity: “Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings.”
Pasqually’s cover was blown a month later, when Kendall Neff of Philadelphia wrote on Reddit that the pizza she ordered from what she believed was a local mom and pop in fact came from Chuck E. Cheese operating under an alias. But the gambit was a success. This March, the company told the trade publication Food on Demand that Pasqually’s is here to stay. And it is far from alone. In fact, during a period when restaurants closed en masse, restaurant brands proliferated.
Big chains like Denny’s and Red Robin spawned brands like The Burger Den and The Wing Dept., both announced earlier this year. Meanwhile, a new group of companies is aggressively courting restaurant owners and enlisting them to run delivery-only brands out of their existing businesses. Restaurants can choose from a menu of brands with names like Hot Dog Station, Salad Box, Mr. Cheeseburger, or Grilled Cheese Society.
These are called virtual brands, and as with so many pandemic trends, they preceded COVID but were accelerated by it. In the past, restaurants might occasionally use aliases to increase their likelihood of appearing in search results, and Uber Eats has had a program helping restaurants set them up since 2017. But when it came to imagining the future of delivery, most attention and funding focused on the virtual brand’s better-known cousin, the ghost kitchen. Startups like Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick’s CloudKitchens garnered large investments on the premise that multiple delivery-only restaurants sharing specialized commissary spaces would be efficient enough to thrive in the low-margin world of food delivery.
Virtual brands in some ways represented an opposite bet: that there are already too many restaurants, with too much kitchen capacity sitting idle, and that it can be put to use running delivery-only brands. Then came COVID, and every restaurant abruptly had extra kitchen capacity and a desperate need for revenue. There followed a Cambrian explosion of virtual brands. Uber Eats estimates the number of virtual brands on its platform more than tripled in 2020, to over 10,000. Grubhub reports a similar boom. According to a report the company released this year, 15 percent of restaurants operated a virtual brand before the pandemic. By the end of 2020, 51 percent had at least one.
And many have more than one brand. A lot more.
“Now in my little, 1,000-square-foot restaurant, I’m now carrying about 12, 14 brands,” says Ty Brown, with some astonishment.
It started gradually. Brown, a 43-year-old entrepreneur living in Brooklyn, had just opened The Bergen, a small takeout spot in his neighborhood, when he got a call from someone in California who said he was with a company called Future Foods. (Future Foods is actually an arm of Kalanick’s notoriously secretive ghost kitchen company, as food journalist Matt Newberg reported in June, though the two do not publicize their connection.) The pitch was simple: Brown was already making burgers and wings at The Bergen, so Future Foods would set him up with some additional brands — Burger Mansion and Killer Wings — which the company would list on delivery apps. Whenever someone bought from one of these brands, Brown would fill the orders, and Future Foods would send him a check for the revenue, minus its cut of around 20 percent.
The Bergen was Brown’s first restaurant, though far from his first business. He’d long been active in his neighborhood through a variety of ventures, chiefly the Brooklyn United Music & Arts Program, a nonprofit youth center and marching band he founded and runs. The kids in the program were always asking their parents about dinner, he says, so when he noticed the restaurant down the street had closed, he decided to lease it and open a spot of his own. Future Foods seemed like a helpful boost as he got on his feet.
He also hoped it would give him an edge on the apps that dominate delivery. Like many restaurant owners, his relationship with the apps is one of fraught dependence. He relies on them for orders and to handle delivery, but their fees, plus the advertising he says he must buy in order to get noticed, means he ends up paying them up to 25 percent of his revenue. “It’s pay to play,” he says.
In their pitches to restaurant owners, virtual brand companies offer to change this dynamic. Some claim to be able to get better rates with the app companies because they negotiate representing hundreds of restaurants rather than just one. They handle advertising and buy it at scale. Often, sales reps hint at arcane knowledge of platform algorithms. (One restaurant owner had been advised to open on a certain day and keep certain hours to win the algorithm’s favor.) But at the simplest level, they supply the menus, photos, and brand names: Something Fishy Fish and Chips, Hey Burger, Tendies Chicken Tenders.
“With the virtual brands thus far, a lot of it really boils down to search optimization,” says Melissa Wilson, a principal at the food service consulting company Technomic. Just as the incentives and constraints of Google search or Facebook’s News Feed gave rise to certain emergent styles — the keyword-crammed headline, the clickbait tease — digital brands are converging on a distinctive form. Because people search for food on delivery apps in much the same way they search for anything else online — by product type rather than brand — specific restaurant names like The Bergen, named after the street it’s on, or even Denny’s and Red Robin, are too opaque.
(In retrospect, even Chuck E. Cheese’s Pasqually’s feels like a transitional stage on the way to a fully optimized future, one that hasn’t lost its vestigial human name. Insisting it never meant to deceive, the company has pointed out that Pasqually is actually the name of the chef who took in Chuck — or rather, Charles Entertainment Cheese — the orphaned mouse who, according to the character’s surprisingly developed and unexpectedly tragic backstory, throws birthday parties for children to make up for those he never had. “If you’re a brand fan of Chuck E. Cheese, you know who Pasqually is,” an executive assured the trade publication QSR. “They’re curious to know what Pasqually’s might taste like.”)
The newer virtual brands are, paradoxically, distinctively generic. They share an uncanny familiarity, like the name of a restaurant in an airport food court — something that you feel like you’ve heard of before but can’t quite place: Noodle House, Pasta Mania, Chef Burger. It doesn’t take long to develop an ear for them. Technomic’s Wilson picked out two near her: Craftsman Bowls and Craftsman Burgers, spinoffs of a local steakhouse. I first contacted Brown after scanning Grubhub and spotting Wing Dynasty, a name that is both suspiciously bland and contains the truest tell of all: wings.
“Oh my god, I’m so sick of talking about chicken wings!” exclaims Food on Demand’s editor Tom Kaiser, laughing in a way that makes clear he is actually not. “How many wings are people eating in a given week? It’s crazy.”
If virtual brands are the response of an industry transformed abruptly into e-commerce, wings are the iPhone charger, the weighted blanket, the product that is profitable, in-demand, and so close to being a pure commodity that just about everyone is trying for a piece of the action. Just as hundreds of brands with arbitrary names like ASLTW and GOSICUKA will pop up on Amazon to sell identical cables or hair ties made in the same factory, because no one brand dominates and anyone has a shot at winning the algorithmic lottery, wing brands exploded over the last year.
Rishi Nigam, CEO of Franklin Junction, calls it “the great chicken wing rush of 2020.” His company mostly matches established brands with restaurants that have excess capacity — in practice, often chains inside chains, like the Canadian seafood company The Captain’s Boil, which ran for a time out of Ruby Tuesday — but it made an exception for wings, launching Wings of New York, a virtual brand from the hotdog company Nathan’s Famous, as well as WingDepo, which runs out of Frisch’s Big Boy. (With virtual brands, it all gets very complicated very quickly.)
From April 2020 through February 2021, a period when restaurant visits and orders dropped by about 11 percent, wing sales actually rose by 10 percent, according to David Portalatin, senior vice president food industry advisor at NPD. “American restaurants in the United States have served more than a billion servings of wings since the pandemic came along,” Portalatin says. The same period saw wing prices surge far beyond their pre-pandemic level. According to USDA data, wing prices in the Northeast were up nearly 50 percent at the end of February 2021 from where they were the year before, and they have continued to climb. There have been warnings of wing shortages.
Wings, like pizza and unlike, say, tacos, handle delivery well, and some of the restaurants that specialize in wings, like Wingstop, were already adept at digital ordering and particularly well-suited for the pandemic, Kaiser says. Wings are also extremely simple to make. “It’s a one-ingredient menu, right?” says Nigam. “There’s no barrier to entry. You and I could launch a wing brand by 6PM tonight.” Crucially, no one brand dominated the category, and there is no proprietary wing type or sauce, so any given restaurant’s overnight wing brand had a decent chance of winning attention on the delivery apps. This made wings an obvious first target for restaurants that had idle kitchens and needed additional revenue.
“It all added up to a perfect storm,” says Portalatin, “for wings.”
Spencer Rubin, founder and CEO of the New York sandwich chain Melt Shop, had been thinking about testing a wing brand before the pandemic, maybe for football season. Then COVID hit and his walk-in business evaporated. People were ordering dinner more than lunch, Rubin observed, and were particularly interested in “craveable” comfort foods, and there were only a few good wing brands in New York City, so he launched Wing Shop. “We got lucky with that one,” he says, being among the early entrants to the great wings rush. Now “everyone and their mother is launching a wing concept.”
Big chains like Applebee’s jumped in, first with the brand Neighborhood Wings, then with Cosmic Wings, an attempt to establish a proprietary moat through exclusive Cheetos dust. Chili’s launched It’s just Wings. The Smokey Bones barbecue chain launched The Wing Experience.
Meanwhile, virtual franchises started hitting up independent operators and pushing them to take on additional wing brands.
“It was crazy with wings,” says Dawn Skeete, the owner of Jam’it Bistro. She opened her Jamaican restaurant in south Brooklyn in 2019, and when the pandemic hit, Future Foods seemed like an appealing way to test what items at what prices sold in her neighborhood. The barbecue brand, OMG BBQ LOL, didn’t work out, but she kept going with Just Wing It. Then she took on a second wing brand, Wing Spot, after a new virtual franchise company called Acelerate.io approached her.
Acelerate.io is an LA-based company founded by a former DoorDash employee named George Jacobs, who felt that for delivery to be profitable, kitchens had to increase “throughput” by operating multiple restaurants. The company launched in late 2019 — with a wing brand, naturally — and now runs seven brands in “several hundred” restaurants across the US. (It’s spelled “Acelerate” because it’s “more efficient with just one c,” Jacobs says, but also because “accelerate.com” was too expensive.)
Just Wing It and Wing Spot have the same menu, Skeete says, which helped with bulk purchases as wings got more expensive. “Wing prices are going through the roof, and I think it has to do with all these virtual kitchens that are doing wings,” she says. She’s now looking to take on a third wing brand.
Brown always made wings at The Bergen, both under his own name and Future Foods’ Killer Wings. Business was good for much of 2020. The Bergen’s takeout and delivery-focused business was well-positioned for the spring lockdowns. It got publicity for donating meals to families in need, followed by more attention as a local Black-owned establishment during the protests surrounding George Floyd’s murder. The pace was almost more than staff could handle.
But by the end of the year, business was flagging, so in January, Brown responded to a pitch from Nextbite, an arm of the restaurant software company Ordermark. The company recently received a $120 million investment from SoftBank and has been expanding aggressively, offering restaurant owners, which it calls “fulfillment partners,” a selection of “turnkey” virtual brands from which to choose.
“Nextbite, man, the day I opened up that brand, they put out a lot of wings,” says Brown. “I had to go shop for more wings. I had to go open up a credit account in order to just carry enough wings. I had to go buy more freezers.”
The new brands were doing better on the apps than The Bergen, a fact Brown attributes to their ability to game their algorithms. “I call it the wizard behind the curtain,” he says. If a brand’s sales are low, he’ll call his support person at its parent company and ask them what’s going on. “Can the wizard click the magic button?” he jokes. “They start laughing at me, but they tell me that they know the algorithm, they know how to make sure we’re first on these websites.” A few days later, the orders flood in.
It worked so well he signed up for another company, The Local Culinary, a Miami-based business that started as a ghost kitchen but pivoted to the virtual franchise model last year. Next came Virtual Dining Concepts, that one run by Robert Earl, the former CEO of Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood. Earl launched Virtual Dining Concepts in 2019 after becoming disillusioned with the economics of ghost kitchens. It started, as all things do, with a wing brand, Wing Squad, being run out of Buca di Beppos and other restaurants he owns. But during the pandemic, he began licensing brands to other restaurants as well as coupling them with celebrities, an attempt to bring the power of fame and virality to the search-dominated delivery sector. Recent innovations include Tyga Bites and MrBeast Burger, which Earl says will be operating out of over 1,000 kitchens by the second half of this year.
Brown found it to be a polished operation: video modules to train staff on how to prepare the food and a requirement that they send in a photo of it packaged with branded stickers.
Soon, he was selling burgers under the names of Chef Burger, Burger Mansion, Hey Burger, and MrBeast Burger. Wings were sold under the names CHICKS, Wild Wild Wings, Crispy Wings, Killer Wings, Firebelly Wings, and The Wing Dynasty. It is a mathematically daunting array of burgers and wings, and that is to say nothing of newer additions like Hot Dog Station and Hot Potato.
Yelp reviews for The Bergen show complaints over late and mixed-up orders, including several in which orders are confused for other brands. “So I ordered from a restaurant called Hook, Line and Seafood, and some time later I received a call from The Bergen,” reads one of several one-star reviews. “Evidently they’re at the same address.” Brown has begun offering raises to employees who can memorize all the menus.
Yet, from another perspective, it is all very simple: burgers, chicken sandwiches, wings. “They’re branded differently but they’re made the same,” Brown says. “A cheeseburger with egg and bacon is called a Morning Glory. Somebody else calls it a breakfast sandwich. Somebody else calls it the Egg-o-nomitor — I don’t know, I’m making it up, but it’s the same exact thing, it just depends on who’s calling it what.”
“Instead of saying buffalo wings, they might say classic wings,” he goes on. “It’s the same exact wing, man. One might have one sauce different. My wings, their wings, the other wings — they’re all the same wings. I even stopped making my wings the way I used to make them. I’m a Black guy. We used to season our wings. I stopped because nobody else is doing it.”
Other elements of The Bergen’s menu have begun to resemble its corporate guests. If a brand has a burger that’s selling well, Brown will add it to his own menu — he’s already buying the same ingredients, after all — under yet another name.
Proponents of digital brands and ghost kitchens often pitch them as a way for chefs to experiment. When you don’t have to lease new space or hire new staff, it becomes less costly to try something new. At the same time, the availability of data about what works, platforms that algorithmically reward success with more success, and the way people search for generic products all create evolutionary pressure in the same direction. It’s a push-pull we’ve seen play out on other platforms. In theory, people are free to try weird things; in practice, most everyone makes wings.
Other restaurant owners are warier of the trend. Robert Guarino, who owns several restaurants in New York and is the CEO of Five Napkin Burger, started a virtual brand last summer (wings, of course) but is winding it down now. He warns that grafting delivery brands onto an existing restaurant can be harder than the pitches make it out to be. Capitalizing on excess kitchen capacity seems simple until owners realize everyone is ordering from all their menus between 6 and 8PM, or that multiple items need the same equipment, or that staff can’t keep up. “Restaurants are in some ways little factories; in some ways, they’re not,” he says.
His other concern is longer term, and one shared by many in the industry: that the delivery apps themselves will launch virtual brands. They have the data on what foods perform well, and they control what restaurants rank highly in search; what’s to stop them from launching a virtual brand themselves, asks Guarino, or offering brands to restaurants willing to pay them higher fees? “That’s the moment that the independent restaurant community has always been afraid of,” he says.
Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, compares it to Amazon’s practice of using data gleaned from its Marketplace to identify successful products and sell its own version. “It’s kind of the next logical step,” says Rigie. “It’s like Amazon Basics, where they say, ‘Okay, we’ll continue to sell your burgers, but now we’ve learned how to make our own burgers, and if you want your burgers to be listed above our burgers, you’re going to have to pay an additional premium.”
It’s not an unreasonable fear. None of the delivery apps have managed to make the business consistently profitable, and while margins in the restaurant industry are thin, it represents at least a possible path to financial viability. The apps are also facing the threat of defections over their high fees, as some restaurants start handling orders and delivery themselves. Running virtual restaurants would be one way to maintain a baseline selection on the platform.
The apps and the franchises are already working closely together. In December, Grubhub launched a program called Branded Virtual Restaurants, a partnership with Virtual Dining Concepts and the Chicago restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, and began running Facebook ads and sending emails courting owners. “These are simple, low-risk solutions for adding a new revenue stream to your business without increasing your overhead costs,” reads one Grubhub email inviting restaurant owners to sign up for brands like Pauly D’s Italian Subs or Mario’s Tortas Lopez. “Each Branded Virtual Restaurant is backed by a celebrity and national marketing campaign that’s sure to attract new customers to your restaurant.”
Brown received the pitch and is enthusiastic about the partnership for the same reason other restaurant owners are wary: he believes Grubhub’s involvement will give him an advantage. Searching for ways to open more brands, he recently expanded into a second Brooklyn location and is setting up outposts in Orlando and Atlanta. He hopes to open each with 15 to 20 brands. He feels the virtual restaurant boom is just beginning. He’s getting more and more ads and inquiries inviting him to sign up with brand after brand.
Recently, he learned about yet another company joining the rush. Google is testing a partnership with Nextbite and will be placing orders using its delivery service from Brown’s shop, among others. (Nextbite said it had no information to share at this time. Google did not respond to a request for comment.) It’s an ominous sign for the delivery apps which, after inserting themselves between customers and restaurants, now face the prospect of a yet bigger company doing the same to them. But for Brown, it’s a vote of confidence from one of the largest companies in the world that the future he’s betting on is the right one.
It’s a strange future, one where restaurants find a way to thrive in the low-margin world of delivery by becoming something else, something more like a food factory optimized for maximum output, with its production lines determined by an assortment of technology platforms and branding companies. It’s a more opaque world than the industry seemed to be headed toward a few years ago, when restaurants were advertising locally sourced ingredients and gesturing toward transparency in their supply chains. Instead, it will have some of the mystery of e-commerce, where a single click summons an item — from where exactly is unclear, and less important than the speed with which it arrives. In exchange for the specificity of physical restaurants, consumers will have an abundance of ever-changing choices, though perhaps all made in the same kitchen, and will find whatever it is they search for, especially if it’s wings.
(Pocket-lint) – It can be a little difficult to stand out from the crowd in the wireless earbuds world at the moment, whether you’re an established presence or a newcomer.
Best true wireless earbuds rated: Wire-free Bluetooth audio
Having a big name attached to your ‘buds could be a help though, and music producer Kygo has been making some waves with his headphones brand over the last couple of years.
The earbuds, called Xellence, are a creditable addition to his oeuvre. But in this bustling market are they particularly memorable?
Design
Plastic case and build
60g weight (including case)
Touch-sensitive controls
Unlike other audio brands named for or endorsed by celebrities, these earbuds from Kygo really don’t look too glaringly brash. Yes, there’s a repeated ‘X’ blazoned on both the case and each earbud, but it’s a logo subtle enough to blend in nicely, and aside from that these ‘buds look pretty normal – in a good way!
The best Lightning headphones 2021 for your iPhone or iPad
By Dan Grabham
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The case is small and lightweight, built from plastic, and easy to pocket. It’s got indicator lights to let you know its charge level, and the earbuds clip in easily with the help of magnets. The case charges by USB Type-C – we’d have liked to see wireless charging, too, but that’s life.
One slight worry on our end is that the case’s lid, while sturdily hinged, is pretty thin – if there’s a potential point for breakages, this could be it. However, it’s satisfying to open and shut, so doesn’t feel fragile in the hands.
Moving to the earbuds, each has a round exterior that corkscrews in toward a silicone tip (with multiple sizes included). A twist gets each into your ear canal and we found them comfortable enough to wear for long periods. That said, those with smaller outer ears could find them a little chafey.
In terms of controls, the whole flat outside surface of each ‘bud is touch-sensitive. A tap on the left or right earbud will alter the volume of playback, while double-taps can pause (and unpause), while triple-taps can change noise-cancellation mode (or ‘ANC’ as it’s often called).
Each earbud also has a small button to its rear so that can activate your chosen voice assistant, but this is so awkwardly placed and hard to press when the ‘buds are in your ears that you’ll doubtless almost never use it.
That ‘X’ on each Kygo ‘bud has a backlit LED which looks fairly classy, but you can turn the lighting off easily if it doesn’t suit your style.
Overall this is a solid showing in design terms – there’s nothing here to redraw the lines for all wireless earbuds, but Xellence looks nice and feels good to use.
Sound quality
10mm drivers
Personalised sound with Mimi
When it comes to actually listening to music, Kygo’s Xellence ‘buds offer a fairly similar picture: it’s a solid performance, not that it rehapes the mould of sound potential. The sound stage here is entirely decent, with a richness that makes plenty of different genres sound warm and natural.
If you use the optional Bass Boost setting, you’ll get a welcome added oomph on the low-end, and while we didn’t find that highs got particularly defined, it’s still more than capable of punching through whatever playlist you throw at these ‘buds.
One nice twist on this is that the earbuds use sound personalisation in partnership with audio engineers Mimi. In the companion app, you can take a hearing test that takes a couple of minutes. It assesses how each of your ears receives different frequencies, then creates a custom EQ (equaliser) to make music as natural sounding as possible. It works nicely and you can really hear the difference if you toggle it on and off.
That’s further enhanced by decent ANC. There are three settings for Xellence – noise cancellation, ambient mode, and no cancellation. With cancellation on you’ll unsurprisingly get a more isolated sound, and we found that it did a very decent job of drowning out external sound without impacting our music.
Ambient mode boosts the volume of sounds around you using the included microphones. As is often the case, it works fine but is eerie and too distracting for prolonged use. With both turned off, meanwhile, the in-ear shape still gives solid passive isolation and you’ll save some battery life.
Best noise-cancelling (ANC) headphones for blocking out noise when you’re working from home
Earbuds aren’t just for music in modern life, though. Call quality is a key factor, and Kygo’s Xellence doesn’t excel here. Your voice will come through slightly muffled and echoey, sadly, meaning these aren’t a great pick for conference calls or long catch-ups.
Software and battery
10-hour battery life, 20 further hours in case
X by Kygo companion app
Bluetooth pairing
The aforementioned X by Kygo app is where you’ll get a bit of added control over these earbuds, and it’s a fairly slick affair. It’s easy to pair new earbuds through it (although this is also straightforward in your phone’s settings) and you can toggle between a bunch of settings.
This includes the Mimi sound personalisation test, changing the earbuds’ lights, turning the Bass Booster on, and adjusting ANC. You won’t necessarily find yourself opening it up all too often, but it’s a useful hub.
We found our connections over Bluetooth to be pretty strong and reliable, meanwhile, although leaving the room that your phone’s in can still be a risky affair.
On the battery front, meanwhile, you get a stated 10 hours of battery life that shrinks to 8 hours if you’re using ANC. The case adds 20 more hours to make for 30 total before you need to plug it in again – and those numbers line-up with our testing. That makes for battery life that isn’t the best in the industry but is solid enough to see you through most working days or journeys.
Verdict
Xellence delivers good sound quality, the sound personalisation is a bonus for those who use it, while active noise-cancellation does well enough in blocking out ambient sounds. The design is equally fine without standing out to excess – except maybe for those lights.
X by Kygo’s Xellence is a dead solid pair of wireless in-ears, then, but you’re unlikely to be blown away by any one particular element. Which isn’t deep criticism, but it does feel like something ‘X-tra’ would be needed for these ‘buds to really stand out in what’s a hugely crowded market.
Also consider
Apple AirPods Pro
If you don’t mind spending a bit more, and especially if you’re on iOS, Apple’s own in-ears are simply superb, offering all the software conveniences you could want, alongside extremely impressive sound and some of the best active noise-cancelling (ANC) you can find.
Read our full review
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Klipsch T5 II True Wireless
Alternatively, to keep the cost down, a slightly better-priced pair of earbuds can be found here from Klipsch. These don’t have active noise-cancellation (ANC), but they don’t really need it too badly. That feature absence explains their simply superb sound quality for the price.
Read our full review
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Writing by Max Freeman-Mills. Editing by Mike Lowe.
A new collective is trying to solve the live audio monetization problem. A group of primarily tech-focused hosts are launching a shared podcast feed that’ll round up the many social audio chats they’ve started, with plans to run ads across the collected feed.
The group, which is being spearheaded by Techmeme Ride Home host Brian McCullough, will initially involve nine total contributors, including Alex Kantrowitz of the Big Technology newsletter and product designer Chris Messina. They’ll share a podcast feed where they can publish audio they’ve recorded live across various social audio platforms, like Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces, and that feed, which is already live but hasn’t been publicly announced, is called SpaceCasts. Anyone who participates can publish their live audio on the feed and profit from whatever ad sales are made. (The team says anyone can apply to participate and says people can get in touch through their website. They also say they’ll ask all live room participants to say they’re okay with being recorded.)
The big idea is that this solves two problems: one is that dedicating resources to putting together social audio rooms is hard to justify when there’s no major, native way to make money off a show that’ll disappear the moment it ends. The next is that launching an individual podcast is also difficult and requires marketing to grow. Sharing a podcast feed with others means everyone shares the goal of growing the feed and bringing listeners to it. Ad money, which the group hasn’t made yet, will be divvied up by downloads. So if one member contributes only one show in a given month, but accounts for 20 percent of the downloads, they’ll receive 20 percent of the revenue.
“What we’re saying is, ‘Look, take the stuff that’s actually good that you’ve recorded and that you think you know could be of interest to this broader audience, and we’ll collect an audience that is interested in kind of a potpourri or like a buffet of different topics from people who are experts but also have their own perspective on on this stuff,’” Messina says.
This all speaks to social audio’s focus on making it easier to get people in one place to record something — and its lack of focus on monetization or native recording. Twitter says it’s working on a native recording function, but that hasn’t launched yet, and Clubhouse has launched in-app tipping, which is helpful, but doesn’t monetize actual chats. Some creators have started partnering with brands on their Clubhouse rooms, and entire agencies have spun up to sell ads for them. But a podcast feed still remains the best way to widely distribute recorded audio that can live on forever.
(Pocket-lint) – When it comes to small cars, there’s one model that’s always really stood out: the Fiat 500.
Relaunched in 2007 – and revised in 2015 – the Fiat 500 has secured its position as something of an icon. Alongside the Mini, it’s perhaps one of the most distinctive and commonly sighted small cars on the road.
Now with an electric powertrain, there’s a brand new design that harks back to the original 1957 model, wanting to race into a new generation of small car motoring. Say hello to the Fiat 500e.
Perfectly cute design
The new Fiat 500e will run in parallel to the combustion version that’s already on the road in the short term, but it has had a design refresh that’s fairly radical. It’s larger – longer, with a wider track and bigger wheels – but you’ll recognise this diminutive model at a glance, as it retains much the same profile.
This 500e drops the Fiat badge from the front, instead carrying 500 branding on its nose, with a new bonnet lid that’s reminiscent of the 1957 model. On the previous version the bonnet curved around the top of the headlights, now the lights are split, with the top section like an eyebrow on the hood.
The creases down the side of the car meet this bonnet line perfectly, to give a much stronger sense of visual design, while the wider track means there’s a little more freedom at the rear of the car for a larger wheel arch, which adds a strength to the hind quarters.
With the wheels planted firmly on the corners, there’s still a toy-like aesthetic to the Fiat 500. It’s fun to look at; a car that makes you think about youthfulness and vibrancy – although perhaps not in the black version which reminds us of a tiny London taxi.
Pocket-lint
This is also one of the only electric cars you can get as a convertible. That’s right, the Fiat 500e holds on to the ragtop which is also powered, sliding open to let in the sunshine like a giant sunroof, or retracting down the back for more of a convertible result. The convertible is available on all but the entry-level trim.
That hood blocks the rear view when it’s all the way down, but it’s fairly quick to open and close with the press of a button – a really distinctive feature. Bear in mind that you then lose the hatchback, instead getting a small opening into the fairly small 185 litre boot.
Across this design, it’s all about the little details, but there’s no escaping the fact that this is a small car, smaller than the Mini Electric, smaller than the Vauxhall Corsa-e and smaller than the Honda e too – but perhaps just as cute as that Honda.
Pocket-lint
There’s also only four seats in the Fiat – just as in the Mini and the Honda e – and it’s a three door design, so very much designed around the two in the front. The rear seats are small, with negligible legroom, so forget about transporting people in the back on a regular basis, it’s just not that car.
A refreshing interior
The interior is more conventional, more mature, ditching the “everything must be round” approach of the previous model and giving a more spacious finish as a result. There’s a natural advantage here: with no transmission tunnel, Fiat has made sure to remove that floor-line obstruction, so there’s more space around your feet.
There’s still a bump for the driver display and the centre display still sits on the top of the dash, but the big round buttons of old have now gone, with increased touch controls on the display, and rows of buttons for important climate controls.
You’ll also spot that there’s no gear selector, instead just a line of buttons to press. In the age of electric cars, poking the ‘D’ button because you’re about to drive is all you need.
The Fiat 500 has been characterised for its body-colour dash on previous models and there’s a number of options here. The Action (entry-level) gets a black dash (the same as pictured); the Passion will let you have black or white; the Icon is body colour, or Technowood; while the La Prima edition gives you the option of a fabric finish- so there’s no lack of character.
Pocket-lint
Much of the interior uses harder plastics, although we feel it’s more sympathetically done than in the Vauxhall Corsa-e. Fiat’s focus, instead, is on pushing other elements, particularly the Seaqual fabric, which is 100 per cent recycled plastic, of which at least 10 per cent of which has been reclaimed from the sea.
The options available to you are very much dictated by the trim level, with Fiat saying that the Icon is likely to be the biggest seller – and also having the widest range of options.
Those who follow the car world will know that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles merged with PSA to form the Stellantis Group from which we’ve seen a range of electric cars from Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroën and DS Automobiles. While all those brands share the same platform (so are all very similar) the Fiat 500e doesn’t: this is a platform that was developed by Fiat – so this car is different in many ways and that’s evident from the interior design and specification.
Pocket-lint
We like the sophistication of this new model and again there are little details that shine through. Take, for example, the subtle silhouette of the Turin skyline in that dashboard cubby hole – which houses the Qi wireless charging pad – or the electric door handles and indoor release buttons.
There’s so much that just jumps out as unique about the Fiat 500e that it’s only really the Honda e that compares. The Mini Electric, by comparison, is much like every other Mini on the road, while the Corsa-e is the same as its combustion siblings – and shares many parts with those other Stellantis Group cars.
A practical technology story
The Fiat 500e feels technologically advanced, although there are decisions to be made because they have an impact on the interior tech that you’ll get. The entry-level model in Action trim doesn’t have a central display, instead getting a smartphone mount on the dash so you can slip your phone into it.
This obviously helps keep the price down and for many, but you’ll then need to have a smartphone to run the Fiat GOe Live app. We haven’t tested this, but we can imagine that you could run Android Auto for phone screens and get access to most things you want. As Apple CarPlay needs a display in the car and won’t run standalone, Apple users would have to find another solution. You can have it as an option on the Action for £850, if you prefer.
However, move up to the Passion trim and you get a 7-inch display, while Icon and La Prime get a 10.25-inch display. We think most people will likely buy a trim level that has a display as it means you can have proper Android Auto or Apple CarPlay – and the good news is that both can be wireless too. There’s USB ports for charging, or on some models a wireless charging pad so you can just drop your phone into the cubby hole and have it charge as you drive.
Fiat’s infotainment system has a lot going for it. It’s better than some small car rivals and we prefer it to the Mini and the Corsa-e, although you don’t get the wow factor here that you get from the Honda e’s wall of displays. There’s customisation, it’s responsive, and it’s easy to click through and get to what you want. We normally prefer physical buttons for major segments, but Fiat has them permanently showing down one side of the built-in display, so it’s easy to navigate.
Every trim gets the 7-inch driver display – and this offers a lot of flexibility, which is why you might be happy to forego a central display at a push, because this will let you move through a whole range of screens to access a wide range of information. Again, it’s a lot more flexible than some models, with controls on the steering wheel making for easy navigation.
The steering wheel itself is great, the bi-spoke design another retro touch, but there’s one thing you might take some time to find: the volume control. This is between the front seats, alongside the electric handbrake and drive selector switches. It’s easy enough once you know it’s there, but we’d much rather Fiat had found somewhere on the dash or wheel for it.
Cruise control comes in from Passion trim upwards; La Prima offers intelligent adaptive cruise control and lane centring (level 2 autonomous driving) as standard – this is also an (expensive) option for Passion and Icon models too – along with some other fancy features, like the rear parking camera.
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For a car that’s harking back to its 1957 relative and wanting to be one of the smallest on the road, there’s certainly a lot on offer.
Driving, range and charging
Regardless of the model you choose, you’ll get keyless entry and a start button, but there are two different battery capacities. Again, this is to offer a version that’s as affordable as it can be, with a 24kWh battery for the Action – if you want any other trim level, you move up to a larger battery (42kW) and more powerful powertrain too.
We’ve not driven the entry-level option, but to outline the differences, you get a 24kWh battery, 70kW motor producing about 95hp, and the top charging rate is 50kW – which is what you’ll find in many fast-chargers around the UK.
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This configuration is going to be best suited to city drivers, with a shorter range of 118 miles / 190km (WLTP standard), which is going to be limiting if you have ambitions of driving longer distances.
All other models get that larger 42kW battery and 87kW motor, which produces around 118hp. All models do 0-62mph / 0-100kmph in about 9 seconds – so none are hugely fast, but the initial speed is what you feel, regardless of whatever model you’re driving. As with all electric cars, it’s as peppy as you could want it to be, but it won’t win any drag races.
Obviously, a higher capacity battery means a longer range – and Fiat officially rates it at 199 miles / 320km (WLTP). In our own testing, we were able to average about 4 miles per kWh on the motorway, which comes out at about 168 miles; in more careful driving around urban environments with plenty of braking we got over 5.5 miles per kWh – which would return about 230 miles, which isn’t too bad at all.
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With a bigger battery, longer practical range is within your grasp from the Fiat 500e too. The car’s economy is still better than you’ll get from rivals like the Honda e or the Mini Electric.
There are three driving modes – Normal, Range, Sherpa – which is an interesting twist on things. Range is the eco mode, while Sherpa is the ‘limp home’ mode, limiting speed to 50mph / 800kmph maximum – meant to be use to get you to a charger. There’s no sport mode and we can’t say that really matters here.
The Fiat 500e drives like a city car, the controls are lighter than light, and the ride is a little bouncy – certainly less forgiving than some larger models – but not too noisy. Road noise will come into the cabin, more so if you have the convertible, but generally speaking, it’s smooth enough.
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Speaking of noise, the Fiat 500e has its own AVAS (acoustic vehicle alerting system) which plays Nino Rota’s Amarcord when you’re doing under 12mph to make sure that pedestrians know they’re about to be hit by an Italian car. You’ll catch snippets of this if manoeuvring slowly and you can’t help but smile.
The best electric cars 2021: Top battery-powered vehicles available on UK roads
By Chris Hall
·
Of course the best thing about small-car driving is all the practical benefits that come with it – you can actually park it, it will nip through traffic and negotiate congested streets – further reinforcing its position as a great car for busy roads.
Verdict
The Fiat 500e is dripping in style, bringing plenty of style and character to a refreshed design. At one extreme it’s one of the most affordable electric cars around, at the other it’s a highly personalised offering that’s filled with the latest creature comforts.
The design alone will win it fans, although those jumping over from the older combustion version will have to swallow the electric price bump that comes with it.
It’s clearly a car that’s designed for two people, with the rear seats more likely to be used for an overflow of shopping – but the same can be said of the previous Fiat 500. Or all Fiat 500s, really.
As electric cars go, the Fiat 500e is fun, considered and currently unique. We’re sure it will be as popular with young drivers as it is for those wanting a second car for commuting.
Also consider
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Honda e
The Honda e’s appeal lies in its refreshing retro take. There’s nothing like it on the road and it’s well appointed too, with digital wing mirrors as one example. But in like-for-like pricing, the range is shorter than the Fiat 500e.
Read our review
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Mini Electric
The natural small-car rival, the Mini Electric is more powerful, so a little more sporty to drive, but has a smaller battery so offers less range. While it has plenty of character, we think the interior design could do with an update.
(Pocket-lint) – Xiaomi’s expertise when it comes to affordable fitness trackers is no longer a matter for debate. This is the sixth iteration of its impressive Mi Band tracker, after all, and practice does tend to make (closer to) perfect.
Best fitness trackers 2021: Top activity bands to buy today
We’ve been wearing it for a couple of weeks, day in and day out, to stack it up against the competition as well as its own previous versions, and we’ve come away without much surprise. This is a really solid band, with only minor drawbacks.
Design
1.56-inch AMOLED display, 152 x 486 resolution
5ATM water resistant
Weighs 62g
The Mi Band 6 isn’t exactly a revolution when it comes to the design side of things – it looks much like the Mi Band 5, with some telling changes. That means that you still have a vertically-oriented display in a silicone housing and a band fastened by a punch-hole.
It’s super light and comfortable to wear, making it one of the easiest bands we’ve tried for overnight use, and there are plenty of holes in the strap to let you adjust the tightness of the fit when needed.
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The tracker is only available in one colour – black – although you can swap out coloured bands if you like.
The Band 6 charges with a small included cable that magnetically clips onto its underside. Nice and simple.
Where things have changed slightly is the screen, although the body of the tracker is only different by a matter of millimetres. Gone is the Mi Band 5’s display, replaced with a new bigger AMOLED option that squeezes in an extra 50 per cent of real estate.
We’re impressed by the change, too. The bezels around its edge are pretty tiny and the 450nit maximum brightness is impressive when cranked up, with a resolution of that’s crisp enough.
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The tracker is still nice and thin, too, so it won’t jut out from your wrist too far at all, further contributing to its comfort factor. Water resistance means you can feel free to keep it on in the shower, which also means it’s fine for a swim if you’re feeling more ambitious.
The band might not be a real redesign, but more display on a similar-sized body is always a good equation from our point of view, and the Mi Band 6 is easy to wear for long periods, which is all it really needs to do.
Tracking
SpO2 blood oxygen monitor
Heart rate monitoring
30 sports modes
Sleep tracking
The Mi Band 6 isn’t going to set the world alight with its design, then, but its tracking is the real reason you’ll be picking one up. It’s here that Xiaomi once again demonstrates that it has chops in this price bracket.
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You get heart rate tracking that you can trust to maintain solid accuracy, alongside an SpO2 blood oxygenisation monitor that, while a little finnicky when it comes to taking readings, is absent from many more expensive devices.
Blood oxygen monitoring: Apple Watch Series 6’s biggest feature explained
There’s also sleep tracking if you’re happy to wear it during the night, and passive stress monitoring if you want your tracker to tell you how you’re feeling (no, it doesn’t speak soothingly to you). The extent to which these last two features are constructive and useful might vary from person to person.
You get a whole bundle of exercise modes to pick from as well, when you decide to get a bit more active. There are 30 included, covering mainstream options like outdoor jogging and more niche choices like rowing.
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These are easy to select and control while you’re on the go, although when we left the Band 6 to its own devices and relied on auto-detection for our activities things weren’t always quite as responsive as we’d want.
Overall, though, the picture is impresive and easy to use – with data collected in week-long retrospectives and available through the companion app for more detailed assessment.
Best fitness trackers 2021: Top activity bands to buy today
By Britta O’Boyle
·
Our guide to the top fitness trackers available, helping you count steps, track calories, monitor your heart rate, sleep patterns and more.
Software
Mi Fit companion app
14-day battery life
Tethered GPS
The software side of things is right down the middle of the road on the Mi Band 6. It’s not exactly the smoothest and most responsive system you’ll ever use, but it more than gets the job done.
Responsiveness on the touch screen is decent, while menus are fairly easy to swipe through and navigate around. A swipe in any direction from the home screen might bring up the settings menu, swipe you through more features, or bring up the main menu of options.
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It’s all easy to learn, and you thankfully also don’t need to worry too much about battery life. Xiaomi’s stated 14-day battery life matches up to our testing, and even when we ramped up the screen’s brightness there wasn’t too much of a battery hit.
You’ll need the Mi Fit app to connect to your phone for tethered GPS and synced health records, which is pretty easy to accomplish. The app itself is very much fine.
Accessing your heart rate history or step counts is pretty simple, as is adding more home screen options for your band, but its layout is hardly the most intuitive, and seems to assume that you might have multiple Xiaomi products to control, muddying things a bit.
Xiaomi also takes pains to again highlight its PAI system, a collated score to give you an idea of whether you’re being active enough to maintain a healthy pattern of life.
It’s a little bit opaque in terms of how the score is designated, but simple enough to provide no-frills motivation if you’re in a rut, and it’s satisfying to watch the numbers rise as you take the time to get a bit sweaty more often. Still, you can pretty easily ignore it, as it’s far from a training plan or anything.
Verdict
The Mi Band 6 shows that experience counts as far as fitness trackers go – and Xiaomi has plenty of it to go around. It hasn’t reinvented the wheel in the Mi Band 6, but it’s a solid improvement thanks to its better display.
Still, there’s nothing here to force an upgrade if you’ve already got an older Mi Band and you’re happy with it – and the slight hike in price that comes with the higher-quality screen does mean that the Band’s previously stellar value is merely ‘good’, now.
If you want a simple fitness tracker to start watching your lifestyle more carefully, the Xiaomi Mi Band 6 is a solid choice, much like those that came before it – but with a bigger, better screen to help everything along.
Also consider
Pocket-lint
Fitbit Inspire 2
It’s a little pricier, but if you want something similarly slim and light but with a better companion app, this Fitbit makes a solid case. You get top-class tracking, but the display is far less vibrant than the Xiaomi’s – so it might come down to taste!
Read our review
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Writing by Max Freeman-Mills. Editing by Mike Lowe.
Facebook-owned Instagram has made changes to its algorithm after a group of its employees reportedly complained that pro-Palestinian content was not viewable for users during the conflict in Gaza. Instagram typically surfaces original content in its stories before reposted content, but will now begin to give equal weighting to both, the company confirmed to The Verge on Sunday.
As reported by BuzzFeed News and the Financial Times, the Instagram employee group had made numerous appeals about content that had been censored by Instagram’s automated moderation, such as posts about the al-Asqa mosque being mistakenly removed. The employees didn’t believe the censorship was deliberate, according to FT, but one said that “moderating at scale is biased against any marginalized groups.”
The change is not only in response to concerns over pro-Palestinian content, a Facebook spokesperson said in an email to The Verge, but the company realized the way the app functioned— bubbling up posts that it believes its users care about most— led people to believe it was suppressing certain points of view or topics. “We want to be really clear— this isn’t the case,” the spokesperson said. “This applied to any post that’s re-shared in stories, no matter what it’s about.”
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have been criticized over the past several weeks about how they have surfaced — or not surfaced—content around the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Earlier this month Twitter restricted the account of a Palestinian writer, which it later said was done “in error.” And Instagram ended up apologizing after many accounts were unable to post Palestine-related content for several hours on May 6th, a move that head of Instagram Adam Mosseri tweeted was due to a “technical bug.”
Many people thought we were removing their content because of what they posted or what hashtag they used, but this bug wasn’t related to the content itself, but rather a widespread issue that has now been fixed.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) May 7, 2021
Instagram says it has repeatedly heard from users who say they are more interested in original stories from close friends than they are in seeing people who reshare others’ photos and posts. That’s why it prioritized original stories, the spokesperson said. “But there’s been an increase— not just now but in the past as well — in how many people are resharing posts, and we’ve seen a bigger impact than expected on the reach of these posts,” the spokesperson said. “Stories that reshare feed posts aren’t getting the reach people expect them to, and that’s not a good experience.”
The spokesperson added that Instagram still believes users want to see more original stories, so is looking at how to focus stories on original content through new tools.
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