Chris Welch

Tesla Sued Over Crash That Trapped, Killed Massachusetts Driver Samuel Tremblett pleaded with a 911 operator to be rescued from his burning Tesla Inc. Model Y SUV after a crash in October: “I can’t get out, please help me.”

NEW: Trapped Tesla Driver’s 911 Call: ‘It’s on fire. Help please’

Samuel Tremblett died in Easton, MA after his Model Y crashed into a tree and caught on fire. He managed to talk to a dispatcher. His remains were found in the backseat.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Verge headline: I grew up with Alex Pretti by Kristen Radtke Photo: An old picture of a boy and a girl at a birthday party

"I didn’t realize, in the hours before his name was released to the public, that the man millions of people had seen lying facedown on the pavement from multiple angles of eyewitness video was my childhood best friend."

Read more from @kristenradtke.bsky.social: www.theverge.com/policy/86856...

For peasants like you and I who don't live in mansions, you can expect more exciting consumer-facing products in the coming months as Sonos ramps back up under @tconrad.bsky.social.

Exclusive: Sonos is back.

The company announced its first new hardware product in over a year, ending an intentional lull as it focused on software.

The Amp Multi offers more versatility than the regular Amp for those with luxury homes or complex spaces.

tinyurl.com/mw8wfydr

“Everyone should be allowed to carry a gun for their safety but the government can murder you in the street if you have a gun” is an incredible endpoint for the conservative moment

The coffee shop is packed with people. It’s giving out coupons to anyone who donates plasma in the blood center truck outside. A pair of neighbors wait for coffee and fill each other in on the latest ICE killing. A man has to excuse himself to quietly cry in the corner.

A Saturday in Minneapolis.

Updater, Shannon Liao's gaming newsletter | Substack Exclusive gaming and tech news, from a classically-trained journalist, delivered to your inbox. Click to read Updater, Shannon Liao's gaming newsletter, a Substack publication with thousands of subscr...

after flying back from Vegas last week, I was just laid off from Inverse today. I'm open to connecting over email at shannon@flashinfics.com and I'm definitely still in the writing and editing space. Expect a more in-depth explanation coming soon in my Updater newsletter. shannonliao.substack.com

ash ticks every box: great reporter and writer, great colleague, great person, great ff8 appreciator

LG Will Let TV Owners Delete Microsoft Copilot After Customer Outcry LG Electronics Inc. will let owners of its televisions delete Microsoft Corp.’s artificial intelligence software amid a consumer backlash.

LG will soon let TV owners delete the Microsoft Copilot "app" that was added in a recent webOS update.

Ensuing customer frustration went viral on Reddit, with many pointing to it as an example of tech companies forcing AI on them.

Full story (gift link / free to read): tinyurl.com/2v24t8fr

A phone with genuine two-day battery life. And an ultra-smooth 165Hz display. And an IR blaster, meaning it can control any TV you point it at.

The OnePlus 15 is a great Android phone. But you can't buy it in the US yet due to the just-ended government shutdown.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

YouTube will start using AI to automatically upscale millions of videos to HD and eventually 4K.

A spokesperson tells me this *isn't* just limited to TVs: these "Super Resolution" upscaled videos are coming to mobile and the web.

But will they look any good? TBD.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

pretty harsh to badmouth the watermelon after all these hours.

Who remembers?

Bose Angers Customers by Ending Cloud Streaming for Old Speakers Bose Corp. announced this week that it will discontinue the cloud infrastructure for its “SoundTouch” line of audio speakers in February, rendering the devices unable to directly stream music from ser...

New: Bose is shutting down cloud music streaming for its SoundTouch speakers.

Customers who still own the products are very frustrated.

I spoke with a longtime Bose customer who said his aunt and uncle — both in their 80s with dementia — still use and love their SoundTouch speaker today.

I reviewed the iPhone 17 Pro... and I reviewed the iPhone 17... and I reviewed the iPhone Air.

Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup is its most impressive in a long time because the company shifted focus back to hardware.

Full review: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Spotify Introduces Higher-Fidelity Feature for Paying Customers Spotify Technology SA is introducing higher-quality sound for paying subscribers, the streaming company’s latest effort to enhance the listening experience for its best customers.

Full story: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Lossless is rolling out gradually to over 50 markets through October.

Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the US, and the UK are up first.

If you have Premium, you’ll get a notification when it’s available for your account.

It doesn’t cost anything extra beyond the normal Premium subscription. There’s no “Supremium” plan or Music Pro add-on.

It took the company this long… just to deliver the core feature it announced in February 2021. What a thing.

News: Spotify Lossless is here. More than FOUR YEARS since being announced, today the music streaming service is rolling out the higher quality — up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC — to Premium subscribers in select markets.

YouTube video by Tito Sotelo The Beatles - Free as a Bird (2025 official remix)

Instagram’s music library somehow leaked the 2025 mix of “Free As A Bird” by The Beatles from the upcoming Anthology reissue.

It sounds amazing. What a difference from the original.

Enhancing old recordings is proving to be one of the best uses for AI.

Listen here: youtu.be/unJ7C8LCIlY?...

Sunset near Union Square in Manhattan on August 17th.

Oh wow, NYC.

That damn song at the end stayed stuck in my head for days

ESPN DTC and FOX One to Launch Combined Bundle Offer | The Walt Disney Company Viewers will have the opportunity to bundle ESPN’s DTC Unlimited Offering and FOX One for $39.99 per month Starting October 2.

The "we're just reinventing cable" thing really hits with this one.

the degradation / dismantling of Eater is such a damn shame. in a world of influencer- and bot-skewed restaurant ratings, googling "eater [city]" provided guidance from passionate locals with good taste; it was a cheat code for eating well wherever you traveled

This is one of the bleakest developments yet out of Vox Media. All the newsletters and podcasts in the world won't fix it.

Sending my support to those who abruptly lost their jobs today — cruelly coinciding with Eater's 20-year celebration, no less. (www.eater.com/food-culture...)

Sonos to Raise Its Hardware Prices This Year Due to Tariffs Sonos Inc. will raise prices on some products later this year, the company said Wednesday, a move that threatens to complicate its comeback attempt following a tumultuous 2024.

Breaking: Sonos says price increases are coming for some products later this year due to tariffs hitting Vietnam and Malaysia.

As for new hardware, @tconrad.bsky.social mentioned a "lull" in launches over next couple quarters with emphasis on software differentiation.

Full story now on Bloomberg.

Fujifilm Raises Camera and Lens Prices in the US Amid Tariffs Fujifilm Holdings Corp. raised US prices for the majority of its digital cameras and lenses on Friday, in some cases by hundreds of dollars, as President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to reverberate...

Photographers, tariffs have come for your beloved Fujifilm film simulations.

The company raised US prices of most cameras and lenses on Friday, with popular models like the X-100VI and X-T5 now $200 more expensive than they were Thursday night.

Spotify’s terrible privacy settings just leaked Palmer Luckey’s bops and bangers The Panama Playlists claims to show the favorite tracks of some of the biggest names in tech, media, and politics.

It’s a music platform. Music is communal. Sharing music is a big reason Spotify is beating Apple at this game.

Some things make sense to keep private unless you specify otherwise. (Venmo transactions!)

I wouldn’t call public-by-default playlists terrible privacy.

www.theverge.com/privacy/7163...