It's Thursday, September 14, 2017. Hey, good morning!  We made it past hump day. Two to go. We’ve had time to mull over Apple’s big iPhone announcements and the results are... inconclusive. Maybe you should get the iPhone X, maybe you should get the iPhone 8. It just depends. There’s also more tone-deaf ideas from Silicon Valley, and a sudden torrent of Nintendo news.
The Impossible Project is dead, long live Polaroid Originals.
 Sure, you have Instagram now, but there’s nothing like snapping a picture and watching it develop on real film before your eyes. After a decade of trying to revive Polaroid photography, the Impossible Project has renamed itself Polaroid Originals and launched its second device, this $100 OneStep 2. It’s paying homage to the original Polaroid OneStep from 1977.
| | Decisions, decisions.
 Apple, now that was courage. Announcing a pair of phones, then knocking them figuratively off the table to reveal the iPhone of the future -- which will launch a month later. What’s an iPhone faithful supposed to do? Buy the iPhone X. No, wait. Buy the iPhone 8. | | Mark your calendar.
Part of Elon Musk’s master plan is rolling out an all-electric big rig, and we’ll find out the details next month. Rumors have us expecting 200- to 300-mile range, and possibly autonomous capabilities that could revolutionize trucking. We’ll be first in line for a test ride.
| | Have they heard of Amazon Prime Now?
 Just as Juicero exited stage left, Bodega stepped in to represent everything people love to hate about Silicon Valley startups. After Fast Company presented its glorified vending machine as an attempt to make your corner store obsolete, a wave of outrage followed, forcing an apologetic response from its founders. Of course, a critical look at the company’s business plan suggests that even with internet connectivity, computer vision and machine learning, it’s unlikely to succeed. | | Its talent for altering a photo’s setting and lighting will bother purists.
 Lots of us are already averse to Snapchat-like AI photo filters, but Apple’s latest imaging trick called Portrait Lighting might cause even more dismay. Here’s how Apple VP Phil Schiller describes it: “You compose a photo, the dual cameras and the ISP sense the scene, they create a depth map, and they actually change the lighting contours over the face.” At first glance, that sounds like a nice, innocent feature, but it might one day create much more consternation than puking rainbows. It’s all about virtual lighting. | | Direct.
Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition is out now on the Nintendo eShop, with a physical version coming in the future. The bad news is that it leaves older Nintendo handhelds in the dust, but players with the right equipment can use buttons or the touch pad.
| | Play ‘Super Mario Odyssey’ in style with this themed Switch bundle
 “It’sa themed bundle!”
| | Less tumbling robots.
Far from the killing machines many fear, most commercial robots are tipsy contraptions that can barely see in front of them. Panasonic wants to help them out with its new 3D LiDAR, specifically designed for mobile robots rather than autonomous cars, which is where this tech is typically used. It can scan as wide as 60 degrees vertically and 270 degrees horizontally, allowing for “detection of objects on the ground precisely as well as the roughness of the ground surface,” Panasonic explains.
| | Three months of service for free.
 Sure, Apple unveiled its Series 3 Watch, with LTE capability. But how much on top of the $399 watch will you have to pay your carrier to use it? Now, we can give you a number. An Apple Watch Series 3 will cost you $10 per month on your cell plan, and it appears that all US carriers will offer three months of free service (a $30 credit).
| | But wait, there's more... | |
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