This Company Will Pay You to Review the iPhone 11

WhistleOut is looking for someone to review the iPhone 11 for them. You’ll get paid US$1,000 plus you can keep the phone when you’re done.

You’ll be putting the new iPhone through its paces—testing the camera, getting into the nitty gritty of the interface, seeing what kind of battery life you’re able to squeeze out of it—and writing a comprehensive review based on your findings. We’ll need your written review within a week of you receiving the phone. We’ll give you a review form for this.

Cord Cutters Take Big Chunk Out Of Cable

Data from Leichtman Research Group showed the rise in cord cutters continues unabated.  Cable companies lost 455,263 subscribers in Q2 2019. Traditional TV as a whole lost 1.53 million subscribers in the quarter.  Fast Company took a look at the research.

Leichtman says this is the fourth consecutive quarter of record losses for the industry, but the bigger story is that cable TV losses are in line with where satellite providers were a year ago. In Q2 2018, Dish Network and DirecTV combined for a loss of 478,000 subscribers, and last quarter, their losses nearly doubled year-over-year, to 857,000 subscribers. Without big changes, cable TV could be looking at similarly bleak results a year from now. Not that they care too much. While satellite providers don’t have other clear business models to fall back on, cable companies can profit from cord cutting by selling more internet service at faster speeds.

This Super Durable Lightning Cable Doubles as a Portable Charger: $19.99

Check out today’s deal on a Nomad Lightning cable that has its own built-in 2,800mAh portable battery. It’s a 1.5 meter nylon-wrapped MFi -certified Lightning charging cable, and the housings at either end are made of aluminum. And then embedded in the cable is that 2,800mAh battery, enough to charge iPhone 8/X/XS from flat to full, and put a good dent into the iPhone XR and the Max models. This device is just $19.99 through our deal.

Spotify for Podcasters Comes Out of Beta

Spotify took its podcasters dashboard out of beta Tuesday, The Verge reported. It aims to give podcasters useful data as it establishes itself as a podcasting platform.

Podcasters have long lacked data about their listeners, which poses problems when they’re trying to sell ads. Spotify is uniquely qualified to give podcasters that data because every Spotify user requires an account to listen, where they’ve provided basic demographic data about themselves, as well as their music listening habits. Nothing about the dashboard will change when it comes out of beta, although Hellman says it’ll be refined over time as podcasters respond to the product. The idea is to mirror Spotify for Artists, the dashboard it provides for musicians, but optimized for podcasters.

Dark Mode For Facebook App on The Way

Dark mode for Facebook’s main app appears to be close. A researcher found the company is testing it for the Android version of the app, CNet reported. Surely an iOS version will follow too?

Reliable researcher Jane Manchun Wong found that Facebook is testing a darker color scheme on the Android version of its app. However, she noted that this feature seems to be in an “early stage of development” — it’s only appearing on the app’s Groups tab with some dark text displaying against a dark background, making it tough to read. So it might be a while before Facebook’s mobile dark mode gets a wide rollout.