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Can the iPhone Air Restore Apple’s Design Halo?; Klarna Rises 15% in First Day of Trading; the Drive to Make EVs Roar Like Real Sports Cars
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Good morning. Today, Apple’s new ultrathin phone tries to meet the company’s perennial challenge; investors pay now for a pay later pioneer; and automakers strive to keep their acoustic identity.
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Apple says it made several design tweaks to ensure that the iPhone Air’s size won’t compromise performance, but it doesn’t boast the battery or camera of its sibling 17 Pro. Photo: Apple
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The new iPhone Air can’t match the new 17 Pro for battery life or camera quality, but Apple isn’t making a performance wager with the ultrathin model, Sam Schube reports.
The company hopes you’ll want to buy one because you think it’s the most stylish device on the market.
It’s one answer for the unique challenge Apple faces every year, according to Deyan Sudjic, the director emeritus of the Design Museum in London.
“It’s an impossible task, to be expected to reinvent the most extraordinary innovation that was the original smartphone,” he said.
And with former Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive now working with OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman on an as-yet-unannounced AI-powered device, he noted, the new phone “tries to rekindle that in very different circumstances.”
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Content from our sponsor: Deloitte
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Scaling AI in Government: Tools and Strategies for Delivering Value
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Government leaders are embracing AI’s potential, but scaling the technology calls for specialized strategies, workforce training, and clear metrics to balance costs, risks, and public benefits. Read More
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Klarna is slated to become the exclusive buy now, pay later provider at Walmart in the U.S.
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Shares of online-payments provider Klarna climbed 30% at the open on Wednesday in the Swedish firm’s closely watched NYSE debut, the latest sign that a long-suffering IPO market is alive and kicking, Corrie Driebusch and Sherry Qin write.
The company is best known as a buy now, pay later lender—a sector that has breathed new life into retailers’ old installment-plan sales support.
Klarna is slated to become the exclusive buy now, pay later provider at Walmart in the U.S. It has been introduced on eBay U.S. and will soon begin rolling out services on Nexi, Worldpay and J.P. Morgan Payments.
It has also been making a push to become a fully fledged bank, recently launching products such as a U.S. debit card in partnership with Visa.
Shares ended the day 15% higher.
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80,000
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Estimated turnout for a pop-up launch event by Sincerely Yours, the teen-centric skincare brand debuting in Sephora this week, in the American Dream mall in New Jersey
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The Roar of the Sales Pitch
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The new BMW iX3 EV will dispense with orchestral sound effects in favor of a narrow range of artificuial sounds. Photo: Alexandra Beier/Getty Images Audio: BMW
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Sports car makers are rolling out EVs designed to be just as noisy as the big engines their customers know and love, Stephen Wilmot reports, calling the roar and rumble central to their identities and appeal.
Kevin Hellman’s team at Dodge developed its new Charger Daytona EV to growl as loudly as the brand’s famously noisy Hellcat model.
“It is a bit obnoxious, and that’s kind of the fun part,” said Hellmann, Dodge’s head of product. “And it always has been.”
BMW EVs feature sounds composed in a collaboration with Hans Zimmer, who wrote the scores for “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Gladiator,” but the orchestral effects are being ditched in the next-generation iX3 for a slimmed-down range of manufactured sounds.
The roar of the engine can even be an upsell for EVs: The “Porsche Electric Sports Sound” package is available for $520.
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“I’m confident that a lot of current customer support that happens over a phone or computer, those people will lose their jobs, and that’ll be better done by an AI.”
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— OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in an interview with Tucker Carlson, predicting that customer support will be the first sector of the job market to feel a big hit from AI
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Sue and Chuck Kesey got a lifeline for their mom-and-pop business from the Grateful Dead. Photo: Kesey Family
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How a legendary Grateful Dead show in a field provided a springboard for probiotic yogurt and the natural-foods movement in America as a whole. [WSJ]
Why that triple-arrow symbol for recycling became a “tool for greenwashing.” [Fast Company]
Tariffs are increasing costs for “Made in America” brands. [Modern Retail]
Coach is emerging as a winner in the competitive accessories market. [Glossy]
The many differences between “Severance” and “The Pitt” encapsulate the TV business right now. [NYT]
Paramount hired former Meta and Google executive Dane Glasgow as its chief product officer, responsible in part for improving the user and advertiser experience on Paramount+. [Deadline]
Netflix Chief Product Officer Eunice Kim is leaving the company, just after completing a significant update of the service’s user interface. [Variety]
MSNBC fired political analyst Matthew Dowd over his comments on Charlie Kirk’s shooting. [THR]
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