Image: Apple / Protocol
Apple saw the future and it was magnets

Good morning! This Wednesday, there was a surprise show-stealer at the Apple event, Twitter's dealing with more verification issues, and there's a new idea for content on the internet.
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There's a new iPhone! Four of them, actually! With 5G! The blue one looks great! But that's not what I want to talk about. (Here's a good overview if you need a refresher.)
I want to talk about magnets. More specifically, the magnetic, wireless charging thing on the back of the new iPhone 12 models. Apple's dusting off an old and beloved charging brand and naming it MagSafe. In the process, it's starting what could turn into the most interesting new Apple ecosystem in a while.
This one's going to be really interesting to watch. The mobile accessory business is worth tens of billions of dollars every year, and the 12 will definitely be a win for charger manufacturers. It doesn't come with a plug, so buyers will have to spend extra for something if they want to use the MagSafe feature.
For now, MagSafe is only on Apple's newest phones, and the accessories aren't even available yet. But you don't have to squint that hard to imagine an iPhone 13 or 14 that has no Lightning port at all, with MagSafe being the only way to connect to your iPhone. That's going to be big business.
Read this: Janko Roettgers on where the HomePod Mini fits into the smart-speaker landscape.
Anna Kramer writes: Some prominent (and unverified) women and non-binary people in tech are calling out Twitter's opaque verification process. While Twitter has verified thousands of users over the last few years, it says the process is currently on hold — but some quiet verifications last week set off this latest uproar.
While of course this is about status — everyone wants to look like they've made it — it's also a question of respect and self-protection. Many of the women I spoke with said that the coveted check makes it easier to deal with trolls.
The question of respect and self-protection for women in the industry extends way beyond verification, though. Emily Kager, a senior Mozilla engineer known for her viral TikToks satirizing tech (I particularly like this one), told me:
Kager is hoping that more men will get behind the push for respectful online communities, but she's not holding her breath. And Novotny's quest for verification? "I'm happy to talk about it, but I don't think anything will ever come of it," she told me.
Most of the internet feels like it's held together by duct tape and Band-Aids (and that one person in Nebraska). To make things work better on their platforms, some of the biggest tech companies have taken to creating their own systems and formats, so at least what you read on, say, Google will work … on Google. That's how we got AMP, Instant Articles, Apple's News format, and so many others.
Robin Berjon is trying to spearhead a better way. He's the VP of data governance at The New York Times and is leading a project known as Content Aggregation Technology (CAT for short), which aims to build a better content standard for the internet. Actually, scratch that. To build the first content standard for the internet.
The best answer would look something like HTML, only better, Berjon said. What does better look like? Better content previews in search engines and social feeds, better preloading in apps, and better data privacy for users who might not want their news browsing happening inside Facebook's walls. He hopes to get a Big Tech partner or two — "if this is only publishers, it doesn't work," he said — and start building a solution that actually works for everyone.
Stronger care … from more efficient operations
In a defining moment for healthcare, it's even more crucial to deliver patient-centered care efficiently. At Philips, we are committed to providing intelligent, automated workflows that seek to improve patient care. More efficient healthcare means stronger, more resilient healthcare.
On Protocol: Clarence Thomas wants to argue your Section 230 case in the Supreme Court:
Dropbox is switching to virtual-first work, and changing its whole idea of a workday:
Eli Pariser proposed a new way of thinking about social space online:
Former European Commission deputy director-general Cecilio Madero Villarejo said regulating tech is about more than money:
That's how many old Usenet posts Jozef Jarosciak recently uploaded, going back as far as 1981. Jarosciak is building the Usenet Archives, which already has 349 million posts inside it, and the new posts are some of the oldest ones from the forum. He told Vice he expects that number to triple. This is about as good an artifact of the early internet as you're ever going to find.
Can we talk about Tim Cook's Event Day playlist? It's a little bit top 40 (Panic! At the Disco), a little bit Dad-tries-to-be-hip (the Fleetwood Mac song from that TikTok everybody saw), a little bit newsy (RIP Eddie Van Halen), and a lot like the soundtrack to a movie about a young whippersnapper making her way in the big city. There's some great music on here! But Tim, maybe call Zane Lowe for some recommendations next time.
Stronger care … from more efficient operations
In a defining moment for healthcare, it's even more crucial to deliver patient-centered care efficiently. At Philips, we are committed to providing intelligent, automated workflows that seek to improve patient care. More efficient healthcare means stronger, more resilient healthcare.
Today's Source Code was written by David Pierce, with help from Shakeel Hashim. Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to david@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day, see you tomorrow.
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