The Morning After: Weekend Edition
You probably had a better Friday night than Uber did.
Letter from the Editor
There's something about the internet that turns grown-ass adults into sniveling, name-calling adolescents. We make dick jokes, start flame wars and lol so hard when others fail. In my six years at Engadget, I've learned the hard way why they say "Never read the comments." I've been called a "lady guy," a "perverted piece of shit" and a "pathetic and icky chronic wanker" by commenters with screen names that are about as original as a JanSport backpack on the first day of school.
But we're all adults here — or at least that's what our analytics team tells me — and, as our latest themed week shows, the internet isn't always the digital equivalent of an eighth-grade locker room. Over the course of the week, our editors have offered advice on how to stay cool in a connected world, clean up digital clutter, keep all your things safe online and do a little good from your desktop. They've also delved into some uniquely adult issues like online dating after 40, using the internet to dress your age, oversharing as a parent and never learning to drive in the age of automation.
One need look no further than this past year's alt-right ascent to see that the man-baby is alive and well. We live in a world where cartoon frogs are tools of oppression, and finger-pointing on a short-form social network is the preferred diplomatic tactic of world leaders, but we can all try a little harder and do a little better at pulling up our big-kid britches every once in a while. So here's to all the grown-ass folks out there. You might have a few more wrinkles and a little more debt, but you'll never have to diagram another sentence as long as you live.
-- Christopher Trout, Editor-in-Chief
We don't know what you did last night (you stayed in and watched Netflix -- we know), but it probably went better than Uber's evening. First The Information reported that CEO Travis Kalanick was present at a 2014 trip to a "karaoke escort bar" that led to an HR complaint by one of Uber's managers. The source of this revelation? Kalanick's ex, who was present for the trip, and received a call from Uber VP Emil Michael suggesting her story about that night remain vague. And all of that happened before a self-driving Uber Volvo rolled over after colliding with another car in Arizona.
Enjoy this six-second clip of a prototype Tesla Model 3
Elon Musk tweeted a brief video showing the first drive of a "release candidate" of his company's first mass-market EV. There aren't really any conclusions to draw from the video, but it is a good sign that things are coming together so it can start shipping later this year. In other tweets, Musk mentioned that a dual-motor AWD performance version of the Model 3 would probably follow next year, along with an RHD version for markets like the UK. The Model S is expected to remain Tesla's acceleration champ thanks to its larger battery, at least until the company revisits its Roadster model in a few years.
Netflix commits to four more Adam Sandler movies
The Netflix strategy to have something for everyone applies to Adam Sandler, as the service just cut a deal to get four more of his movies. Those will add on to the four movies it bought from him in a 2014 deal, which has produced Ridiculous 6, The Do-Over and upcoming release Sandy Wexler. It's been a while since we anticipated a Sandler movie, but the company's closely guarded data seems to suggest he's worth the investment.
Apple tweaks its iPhone, iPad lineup
Tuesday morning Apple refreshed a few items, by upgrading the storage on the iPhone SE (the 16GB iPhone is officially dead) and iPad Mini 4, and dropping in a limited edition line of Project Red iPhones. The new 9.7-inch iPad got most of our attention, but mostly because of its compromises.
But wait, there's more...
MIT's 3D-printed robot is inspired by the goldbug beetle and changes color when it's poked
Critical exploits found in LastPass browser extensions -- grab those updates
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