The story behind the Apple Watch is a fascinating one. It was Jony Ive’s pet project, and he started thinking about it back in 2011. He said he didn’t remember talking about it with Steve Jobs, so you could say the Apple Watch was Apple’s first post-Jobs product.

The process was both typical and atypical for us. We are a tight-knit group of designers, and as always, these things start with an idea that quickly becomes a conversation that changes in nature as soon as you start to draw and make physical objects. Things are exceptionally fragile as an idea – entirely abstract – but once there is an object between us, it is galvanizing.

Apple’s branding for the new iPhone models to be announced this Wednesday may leave some shoppers non-plussed. The new iPhones, according to Bloomberg, will be the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and the iPhone XR. The XS and XS Max models will come with 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch OLED screens and the XR model will have a 6.1-inch LCD screen. The report adds,

The phones may raise the iPhone average sales price, boosting revenue and profit, while expanding the total number of active Apple devices to support sales of accessories and digital services. Still, none of the phones will feature breakthrough new features, with more significant changes planned for next year, the people said.

Apple also plans to introduce Apple Watch Series 4, the AirPower wireless charging pad, a new entry-level MacBook, and a pro user-focused mini desktop Mac this year. It’s shaping up to be a busy—and expensive—fall.

Apple removed Alex Jones’ Infowars podcasts from iTunes listings about a month ago, and now the iPhone and Mac maker has permanently banned the Infowars app from its App Store. Apple told Buzzfeed the app violates its App Store review guidelines. Buzzfeed said,

Infowars’ app, which allowed users to read Infowars articles, shop, and livestream all of Jones’ programming 24 hours a day, served as a window into the incendiary conspiratorial content that led to the outlet’s ban from Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, and Twitter.

Considering the Infowars app acted as a conduit to the same content that got the podcasts delisted, it seemed like only a matter of time before the app was blocked, too.

Gizmodo has a nice summary of the current SETI work. «A new congressionally mandated report says NASA should refine its strategy and improve its tools to foster the study of exoplanetary systems and expedite the search for alien life…. The new consensus study report, authored by the National Academies of Sciences … highlights several strategic priorities that, if implemented, will go a long way in ensuring that scientists have the resources they need to study exoplanets (planets in orbit around other stars).»