The best of Public Access Vol.13: This is Halloween
It pleases me to no end that this, our thirteenth Best of Public Access post, is going up mere days before the spooky, candy-filled spectacular that is Halloween. While I spend my time reading terrifying ghost stories on the internet (here, here, and here) and mapping out which post-Halloween sales I should hit before everything turns red and green, the editors on the Engadget home page have been busy writing about the excitement over Back to the Future day, adorably tiny robots for your cup holder, and where you can watch Bob Ross paint happy little trees all day long.
In other news, we're looking for a mobile app developer to join the team, so if you're experienced in iOS and Android coding and are interested in joining the team check out more details here.
This month in Public Access, we've seen some really stand out stories – including some from the Engadget editors including a brand new Growing up geek post from Roberto Baldwin, a discussion on the Martian from Devindra Hardawar, and a video from Sean Buckley on how Back to the Future III ruined this year for all of us. Our latest Q&A is with hiphop superstar Lil Jon (who is remarkably chill and funny on the phone), and in addition to the articles below, there have been some great posts this month from Rene F. Najera, Cosette Jarrett, Chris Carroll and R.L. Adams. Thanks for contributing y'all!
If you would like to contribute to Public Access, you can sign up to do so here; and if you'd just like to read more Public Access articles you can find the all the posts chronologically here.
Recommended Reading
"The A9 processor of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus were dual sourced from Samsung and a company called TSMC. The differences between these chips was not evident for some time as fans assumed the smaller 96mm² by Samsung would be the superior chip. Users are conducting tests and reporting the results via forums on Reddit and Mac Rumors which have resulted in the conclusion that the TSMC A9 has approximately 2 hours better battery performance than the Samsung."
Read the rest of Does your iPhone have a good or bad A9 CPU?
"The latest proposal is that all drones must be registered before use. Seeing as some enthusiasts own 10-15 drones, I can't see this being very practical, and it won't get us any closer to achieving our primary goal: safety. This would also be next-to-impossible to enforce because people are building drones from scratch in their basements."
Read the rest of Drone Regulations That Actually Make Sense
"Twelve million dollars is not a huge tax bill for a company like Airbnb, (whose valuation and yearly revenue are virtually impossible to determine with any real accuracy, but who certainly love to tout their own estimation of their value at around $10 billion), and neither is$12 million any kind of a real problem solver for the City of San Francisco."
Read the rest of A San Francisco native reacts to Airbnb's ad blunder
Your dose of inspiration
As always, new assignments are added for Public Access members every Friday – this month we have prompts on IFTTT recipes, tips for calling tech support, confessing what your worst tech habit is and telling a story in meme or GIF form. There will be two new assignments released to members tomorrow, as well as a new Listen Here Now playlist. Got an idea for an assignment, have feedback or questions on Public Access? You can always reach me at amber@engadget.com.
