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1. And the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt SF 2019 is… Render

In the beginning, there were 20 startups. After three days of fierce competition, we now have a Battlefield champion.

That winner is Render, which has created a managed cloud platform to serve as an alternative to traditional cloud providers such as AWS, Azure and GCP. And the runner-up is OmniVis, which aims to make cholera detection as quick, simple and cheap as a pregnancy test.

2. Next Insurance raises $250M from Munich Re, becomes a unicorn

Next Insurance sells insurance products to small businesses. And Germany-based Munich Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurers, was the sole investor in its new round.

3. Roku to launch low-cost versions of its soundbar and subwoofer under Walmart’s onn brand

In September, Roku debuted the Smart Soundbar and Wireless Subwoofer, both at $180 each. The Walmart onn-branded Smart Soundbar and Wireless Subwoofer, meanwhile, will only cost $129 each.

4. No one could prevent another ‘WannaCry-style’ attack, says DHS official

Jeanette Manfra, the assistant director for cybersecurity for Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said at Disrupt SF that the 2017 WannaCry cyberattack was uniquely challenging because it spread so quickly: “I don’t know that we could ever prevent something like that.”

5. NASA shares 3D Moon data for CG artists and creators

The data set includes not just imagery but depth data, making it simple to build an incredibly detailed 3D map of the Moon.

6. As Sinai Ventures returns first fund, partner Jordan Fudge talks new LA focus

Fudge and co-founder Eric Reiner are centralizing the Sinai Ventures team in Los Angeles for its next fund — a bet on the rising momentum of the local startup ecosystem and their vision to be the city’s leading Series A and B firm. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

7. This week’s TechCrunch podcasts

We’ve got a new episode of Equity recorded at Disrupt, with Alex and Kate discussing why San Francisco remains a startup hub. (And keep an eye out later today for a bonus episode of Original Content.)

While it’s true that many parents are doing their best to reduce screen time as much as possible, there’s something to be said for the Kindle Kids Edition. The best and worst thing about the device are its limitations. It’s purpose built for reading, and that’s about it.

For that reason, the Kindle line makes a lot of sense to get the kid treatment. Kids can’t really play games or get into too much trouble on the E Ink display — not any more than they’d be able to get into that the local library, at least. The Dewey Decimal system is a gateway to all sorts of shenanigans.

From the looks of it, the Kindle Kids Edition is basically a repurposing of the standard Kindle — much as Amazon did with the Echo Dot. It’s got a six-inch, 167 PPI E Ink screen with a front light, coupled with the standard weeks-long battery. The color, drop-friendly case is included in the $200 price. As is one year of FreeTime Unlimited and a two-year warrantee. There also are a slew of different kid-friendly features, including activity badges, kid wallpaper and vocabulary building tools.

A few weeks after introducing a ridiculous number of new Echo devices, the company is revealing a bunch of new kid-focused products in addition to the new Kindle. There’s a new version of the Fire 10 Kids Edition, featuring 12 hours of battery and a USB-C port — the latter of which appears to a first for these Fire devices.

FreeTime, meanwhile, will also be arriving on Fire TV, first through the Fire TV Stick, followed by Fire TV Edition smart TVs. Echo Show devices are getting access to the app, as well.

President Trump this morning randomly addressed a recent court ruling on net neutrality, calling it a “great win” that will “lead to many big things including 5G.” Perhaps he didn’t read the ruling closely, because it in fact is an enormous blow to the FCC and the “unhinged” logic on which it based the rollback of net neutrality.

You can find a full analysis of the decision here, but Trump’s tweet ought to be addressed directly, because it is wrong in several ways.

First and most important, the FCC didn’t win this. Certainly it was a partial victory in that it wasn’t struck down and many of Mozilla et al’s objections were dismissed (sometimes almost flippantly). But not only were several issues, such as the legal abandonment of the Lifeline program, sent back to the FCC to be addressed, the entire Restoring Internet Freedom rule had its teeth pulled by the removal of the agency’s ability to preempt state laws.

The FCC had relied on specious arguments throughout, but one of the least convincing was that it had the authority to overrule states that had established their own, stronger net neutrality rules, as California is doing. This attempt to “create preemption authority out of thin air” was completely unjustified by any law or precedent, the court ruled, and that entire section of the new rules was struck down.

That means states can set their own rules and the FCC can’t interfere — and if a few states set strong rules, companies will likely choose to simply comply with those nationally rather than create a collection of state-specific ones. This is a huge setback for the FCC, essentially removing its authority to enforce its own rules. So are they really even rules?

Second, this wasn’t “the” big court case on net neutrality. This was a major one to be sure, but it is only the latest, and certainly not the last, in a long line of cases that have been kicking this issue back and forth for decades. In fact, circuit judge Patricia Millett, in her statement accompanying the decision, essentially said they expect it to eventually rise to the Supreme Court.

Third, it isn’t a “great win for the future and speed of the internet.” Very little will change for end users, just as very little changed in 2015 when net neutrality was established, or three years later, when it was abolished. The broadband industry has generally not let these swings of the pendulum affect its plans and investments, many of which have been in the works for years. And really, outside of some very specific circumstances like throttling, net neutrality (or the lack thereof) doesn’t affect the speed of the internet, either directly or by interfering with broadband providers.

Last, it won’t lead to 5G. 5G is a new global mobile standard that has very little to do with net neutrality and everything to do with spectrum, hardware, fiber backhaul, and things like that. The deployment of 5G has been underway for years and has been almost completely unaffected by this side of the regulatory landscape.

The net neutrality battle is far from over, but this court case made things extremely difficult for the FCC. Without the threat of being overruled, states are free to make their own net neutrality rules as strong or stronger than 2015’s. So in a way, the President was right. This is a great win and will lead to many great things — just not the way he thought.

For years now, Apple’s been judicious with its MacOS updates. Understandably so. Given the massive online outcry every time Facebook changes the placement of a button, it’s in UX designers’ best interest to keep changes gradual and subtle. These days, the overarching philosophy of operating system design seems to be more about guiding the user’s hand and making pronounced changes over time.

By the standard of annual consumer electronic upgrades that Apple has played a key role in perpetuating, updates to MacOS have, perhaps, been too subtle to foster the same sort of excitement. And honestly, that’s perfectly fine. If a laptop is a flashy new car, the operating system is the great steering wheel that doesn’t whiff out the window while you’re driving.

Catalina bucks the trend of recent MacOS updates a bit, in that the updates feel more pronounced. While it’s true that the underlying principles are the same, there are some fundamental changes to day-to-day applications that both impact current use and lay the groundwork for future evolutions of the desktop operating system.

The most pronounced change is the much ballyhooed death of iTunes. The name will continue to exist in some residual instances, but for most intents and purposes, iTunes is being laid to rest with Catalina. Eighteen years was a pretty good run, of course, and signs of the once mighty music application will very much live on in Apple Music. But the new operating system finds the company very much planting its flag with premium content plays, the undisputed future of Apple’s massive revenue generating machine.

That extends, of course, to the arrival of an upgraded TV app, which sets the stage for TV+ and Arcade, which also gets a handful of new arrivals to celebrate today’s public release of Catalina. Podcasts also gets its own desktop app, but for now, at least, that’s not a direct revenue source for the company. It is, however, important for the company to lay claim to the rapidly mainstreaming medium to which it indirectly gave name.

The arrival of Catalyst, meanwhile, lays the seeds for the future of Mac apps. Following the arrival of Apple’s own News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home, the company has opened the program up to all iPad developers to easily port their apps to the desktop. In a broader sense, the move continues to blur the lines between the two operating systems, for better and worse. For Apple, however, the decision is much more pragmatic: Mac software development has stalled as iOS has boomed. This is a simple solution to help keep thing this in check.

Accessibility gets some much welcome updates, too, including much improved Voice Control, while Apple continues to add updates on the security side.

For the sake of this writeup, however, I’m going to start with the bit that gets me the most excited: Sidecar. From my own perspective, Apple tends to bury the lede in its own feature set. Though I completely understand that it’s simply not as universal an application as, say, Music, TV or (likely) Arcade. Maybe it’s because I’m just getting back from yet another work trip (we held a little event in San Francisco), but Sidecar is a legit productivity game changer for me.

Against all recommendations, I opted to run a beta of Catalina on my primary work machine. I know, I know, but when a beta drops while you’re on the road, there’s really no other option. I had some issues with the software I won’t go into here, because betas gonna beta. I surprisingly had some issues getting the feature to work again with the latest version of iPadOs and the GM of Catalina, but everything should be smooth sailing by the final release.

There’s no doubt, of course, that this is the latest bit of Sherlocking — Apple integrating its own version of a popular third-party app into the operating system. But with something like this, there’s really no competing with native support for most users. For those who need fair more nuanced use of things like Apple Pencil for, say, art making, Duet and Luna may still be worth checking out. If, like me, you just want to use the iPad as a second screen for some added real estate on the road, Sidecar’s the thing.

Enabling the feature is as simple as signing into all of your accounts: Make sure all of the relevant wireless protocols are turned on and then select the associated device from the drop-down. Your primary desktop can either be mirrored or used as an extension like a standard external monitor. The primary benefit of mirroring seems to be the ability to essentially use the screen as a touchscreen and iPad input. This should prove appealing for artists and a potential alternative to a pro tablet like the kind Wacom makes.

For me, the second display is the thing. Hooking up the extending real estate is a big sigh of relief, making it far easier to keep multiple windows open at the same time. Having Slack open on the iPad while I use Pages and Chrome on the main desktop is a pretty significant time saver.

A small quibble: Keeping the Sidecar and display settings separate is a bit of an annoyance. The side I ultimately use for the iPad usually comes down to where I’m sitting. It would be great to be able to swap on the fly. The addition of a virtual sidebar, meanwhile, is an interesting one, but pretty redundant in mirrored mode.

All told, however, Sidecar is far and away the best addition to MacOS in recent memory.

I’m less in love with the loss of iTunes. I totally understand why Apple made the switch, and honestly, I’m a bit surprised it took them this long. I’m a long-time Spotify user with no interest in making the jump to Apple Music. I prefer the device flexibility Spotify affords. Among other things, the move to Music feels like an opportunity to constantly push users to “Try it Free.”

Music can still be used to play a locally stored song, but the move to streaming service has weaned me off of the notion of digital music ownership. Somewhere in my apartment, there’s a dusty old hard drive with hundreds of gigs of music, including weird old stuff that no one bothered to obscure the distribution rights for. Perhaps one day I’ll dive back in, but honestly it’s feeling increasingly less likely.

The principles of Podcast should be familiar to anyone who’s ever used the mobile app. It’s all pretty simple and, like Music, focused on discovery. Separating it from Apple Music seems to imply that the company doesn’t have much interest in making huge Spotify-esque investments in the category. And for now, at least, why bother? Apple has a pretty massive head start in the space.

Apple TV gets a nice refresh, as well. It, too, is focused on discovery. Even more importantly for Apple’s long game, however, it lays the groundwork from TV+, which is set to arrive next month. Premium channels like HBO, Showtime and Starz have been integrated here, in a bid to become a more robust cable replacement for cord cutters. Also nice is the arrival of a dedicated Kids section with curated all ages content.

Arcade certainly isn’t what people are referring to when discussing the Mac’s long journey to becoming a more serious gaming system. And while the titles are largely designed to be played on mobile devices, those subscribing at $5 a month will no doubt welcome the ability to play on the desktop. There’s a lot to be said for the ability to take a quick work break with a round of the excellent Zelda knockoff/homage, Oceanhorn 2.

Photos adopts some key features from its mobile counterpart. AI/ML will determine and highlight your best shots, while images are categorized by days/months/years. Photo previews are large and now include live photo and video playback.

On the more pragmatic side of things, syncing and backup get some nice upgrades, now available outside of iTunes. That’s a change that certainly makes sense, with those features now accessible through the Finder. Honestly, that’s where they belong. Accessing them through iTunes always felt like a relic of the early iTunes/iPod days. This information is available directly in the main Finder sidebar.

As ever, there’s no hesitation in recommending Mac users update to the latest version of the operating system. Of course, that’s helped along by the fact that it’s a free upgrade. This is one of the more transformative MacOS updates in recent memory, and most of the new features are welcome — as I said, I’m not in love with Music for personal workflow reasons, but Sidecar is a biggie.

MacOS Catalina is now available for all users.

Missing out on a month’s rent because you can’t find a tenant is a huge loss. Searching for someone to fill a home takes work, while property managers are incentivized to price your place too high leading to costly vacancies.

But new startup Doorstead wants to take on the risk and the work for you. It acts as a property manager for single-family homes but guarantees you rent at a specific rate starting in a certain number of days, even if it can’t fill the house or apartment. It also handles all the algorithmic pricing, advertising, tenant interviews, repairs, maintenance, leases, and online payments in exchange for 8% of rent. Owners just sit back and receive the money, making it much easier to profit off of distant real estate. The startup claims to earn users 3% to 9% more than other property management models.

Doorstead’s approach to the hot sector of ‘iRenting’ has attracted a $3.3 million seed round co-led by M13 and Silicon Valley Data Capital, and joined by Venture Reality Fund and SOMA Capital. They’re betting on co-founders Jennifer Bronzo, whose parents ran a construction and property management firm, and Ryan Waliany, who worked in product at Uber after his recipe platform Kitchenbowl was acquihired.

“I grew up going to job sites and learning about construction” Bronzo says. “In the recent decade, my family purchased a lot of properties in the Bay and they needed help filling capacity. I saw so many opportunities in property management because of how antiquated the industry is.” Doorstead is now operating in five cities around the San Francisco Bay Area.

As consumers grow accustomed to zero-friction services, that approach is branching into bigger and bigger sectors like the trillions paid for long-term rentals. Waliany, Doorstead’s CEO, tells me “We’re in the process of Uber’izing each step of the property management lifecycle”. The startup is hoping to become the OpenDoor of rentals

How Doorstead Works

First, property owners contact Doorstead and provide some basic information on the home they want to rent out. They receive a preliminary offer before the startup does an inspection and takes professional marketing photos while digging through reams of data on local pricing, availability, and demand to pick a rate its algorithm believes it can fill the home for quickly. Owners then receive a final offer agreement saying they’ll be paid $X per month starting in Y number of days (typically 21 to 45 days), with Doorstead absorbing all the risk if it can’t find a tenant.

From there, the startup does approved maintenance and cleaning as necessary, and then methodically lists the home on all the top rental platforms. It handles open house walk-throughs and runs background checks on potential tenants to find who will most reliably pay rent. Doorstead prepares a lease and gets it signed by a tenant, but even if it doesn’t, owners still get their guaranteed payments. Rent is collected online, and if a move-out or eviction is necessary, Doorstead takes care of the transition to finding a new tenant.

There’s plenty of margin for Doorstead to earn if can consistently fill homes faster. Most property managers charge at least 50% of the first months rent, but instead Doorstead keeps all the rent of any extra days if it fills the spot before the guaranteed due date. From there, it charges 8% of monthly rent with no tenant placement fee, which is close to or under the common 10% fee on single-family home property management. And if it manages to secure a higher rate from tenants than its guarantee, it gives 70% to the owner.

“Property management incumbents have a 43-day vacancy average which leads to $86 billion in economic waste in the U.S. alone” Waliany tells TechCrunch. “This means that landlords could earn the same money and lower rents by 12% for tenants with an efficient market.”

The Rise Of iRenting

With Doorstead, even if the owner lives far away, the turn-key service lets them efficiently rent their home. That’s not only important to them, but to overcrowded cities like San Francisco that often see apartments left vacant by overseas owners because they’re too much effort to rent out. To date, Doorstead’s algorithm has allowed it to recoup 100% of its guarantees and it’s shooting to stay above 90%, while maintaining its NPS of 80.

But if the startup is working that well, it’s only a matter of time until incumbents try to barge in.

“It would be a no brainer for Airbnb to enter this market and Zillow to open this” Waliany admits, given their existing pricing algorithms and popularity as rental destinations. But Bronzo says “the biggest barrier is the operations piece that an Airbnb and Zillow haven’t stepped into.” It would be a big departure from their lean software-based marketplaces. Other property management startups like Mynd, OneRent, and BelongHome only offer guaranteed rent once tenants are found, absolving themselves of most of the risk. They’d have to take on a more precarious business model.

What about Zeus, Sonder, and Lyric, which offer property management of homes they then use for corporate housing or as boutique hotels? “An owner of ours considered Zeus vs Doorstead and went with Doorstead because: 1) our offer was ~12% higher, and 2) they didn’t want the wear-and-tear that comes with having people move in and out of the property every few days or few months” Waliany explains. “Sonder and Lyric have 300 move-in and move outs over a 6-year period. Doorstead has ~4 move ins/outs and that results in significantly less wear-and-tear and a much easier operations to manage. Not only that, the long-term rental market is 42x larger and has 12x more addressable revenue.” Doorstead will have to build a brand and product moat to defend against inevitable direct competition.

iRenting is still a fresh concept so Waliany warns that “with any new business model, there will inevitably be ‘unknown unknowns’ that we cannot predict, black swan events, and things that we might only be able to learn through calculated bets.” Luckily, since it doesn’t hold the leases for very long, and home rentals typically increase in an economic downturn, Doorstead’s liability is manageable in the event of a recession or other crisis.

“There are three large trillion-dollar industries – food, transportation, and housing. At Doorstead, we have an opportunity to completely redefine the housing value chain by creating a new class of property management that eliminates unnecessary vacancies. In the end, this redefinition of the value chain allows ourselves to become the Blackstone of the future” Waliany concludes. “It seems like we’re giving everyone free money.” That will prove either the startup’s downfall or a powerful growth tactic.

Waymo, the autonomous vehicle company under Alphabet, has started creating 3D maps in some heavily trafficked sections of Los Angeles to better understand congestion there and determine if its self-driving vehicles would be a good fit in the city.

For now, Waymo is bringing just three of its self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans to Los Angeles to map downtown and a section of Wilshire Boulevard known as Miracle Mile.

Waymo employees will initially drive the vehicles to create 3D maps of the city. These maps are unlike Google Maps or Waze. Instead, they include topographical features such as lane merges, shared turn lanes and curb heights as well as road types and the distance and dimensions of the road itself, according to Waymo. That data is combined with traffic control information like signs, the lengths of crosswalks and the locations of traffic lights.

Waymo does have a permit to test autonomous vehicles in California and could theoretically deploy its fleet in Los Angeles. But for now, the company is in mapping and assessment mode. Waymo’s foray into Los Angeles is designed to give the company insight into driving conditions there and how its AV technology might someday be used.

The company said it doesn’t plan to launch a rider program like its Waymo One one currently operating in suburbs of Phoenix . Waymo One allows individuals to hail a ride in one of the self-driving cars, which have a human safety driver behind the wheel.

The self-driving car company began testing its autonomous vehicles in and around Mountain View, Calif., before branching out to other cities and weather, including Novi, Mich., Kirkland, Wash., San Francisco and more recently in Florida. But the bulk of the company’s activities have been in suburbs of Phoenix  and around Mountain View — two places with lots of sun, and even blowing dust, in the case of Phoenix.

Income share agreements (ISAs) rose to public awareness this year — if measured in press articles and discussion on “VC Twitter” — after several years of niche experimentation among a small community of education advocates. An ISA in a financing model where the student participates in an education program without paying tuition, then pays a certain percentage of their income for a set time term in return.

As I mentioned in my analysis of ISAs back in April, there is rapid growth in ISA pilots by traditional universities in the US and by vocational training programs but there’s also a lot of regulatory uncertainty. All stakeholders in the US want the federal government to provide a regulatory framework for the ISA market since the current lack of policy creates market uncertainty and opportunities for unethical actors.

I asked several of the entrepreneurs, investors, and policy experts at the forefront of ISAs to share their perspectives on the current state of the ISA movement:

• Tonio DeSorrento, Vemo Education
• Ethan Pollack, Aspen Institute
• Shaan Hathiramani, Flockjay
• Austen Allred, Lambda School
• Alison Griffin, Whiteboard Advisors
• Sam Lessin, Slow Capital
• Terri Burns, GV
• Kristen Sharp, Entangled Solutions
• Leo Polovets, Susa Ventures
• Jan Lynn-Matern, Emerge Education

Here’s what they had to say…

Tonio DeSorrento, Founder & CEO of Vemo Education

“What’s been really fascinating, in recent years, is the innovation that is occurring at colleges and universities that are using ISAs to support and improve student success.

In a long-awaited move, Spotify announced this morning its iOS 13 app would now offer Siri support and its streaming music service would also become available on Apple TV. That means you can now request your favorite music or podcasts using Siri voice commands, by preferencing the command with “Hey Siri, play…,” followed by the audio you want, and concluding the command with “on Spotify.”

The Siri support had been spotted earlier while in beta testing, but the company hadn’t confirmed when it would be publicly available.

According to Spotify, the Siri support will also work over Apple AirPods, on CarPlay, and via AirPlay on Apple HomePod.

In addition, the Spotify iOS app update will include support for iPhone’s new data-saver mode, which aids when bandwidth is an issue.

Spotify is also today launching on Apple TV, joining other Spotify apps for TV platforms, including Roku, Android TV, Samsung Tizen, and Amazon Fire TV.

The app updates are still rolling out, so you may need to wait to take advantage of the Apple TV support and other new features.

The lack of Siri support for Spotify was not the streaming music service’s fault — it wasn’t until iOS 13 that such support even became an option. With the new mobile operating system launched in September, Apple finally opened up its SiriKit framework to third-party apps, allowing end-users to better control their apps using voice commands. That includes audio playback on music services like Spotify, as well as the ability to like and dislike tracks, skip or go to the next song, and get track information.

Pandora, Google Maps and Waze were among the first to adopt Siri integration when it became available in iOS 13 — a clear indication that some of Apple’s chief rivals have been ready and willing to launch Siri support as soon as it was possible.

Though the integration with Siri will be useful for end-users and beneficial to Spotify’s business, it may also weaken the streaming company’s antitrust claims against Apple.

Spotify has long stated that Apple engages in anti-competitive business practices when it comes to its app platform, which is designed to favor its own apps and services, like Apple Music, it says. Among its chief complaints was the inability of third-party apps to work with Siri, which gave Apple’s own apps a favored position. Spotify also strongly believes the 30% revenue share required by the App Store hampers its growth potential.

The streamer filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the European Union in March. And now, U.S. lawmakers have reached out to Spotify to request information as a part of an antitrust probe here in the states, reports claim. 

Despite its new ability to integrate with Siri in iOS 13, Spotify could argue that it’s still not enough. Users will have to say “on Spotify” to take advantage of the new functionality, instead of being able to set their default music app to Spotify, which would be easier. It could also point out that the support is only available to iOS 13 devices, not the entire iOS market.

Along with the Apple-related news, Spotify today also announced support for Google Nest Home Max, Sonos Move, Sonos One SL, Samsung Galaxy Fold, and preinstallation on Michael Kors Acess, Diesel and Emporio Armani Wear OS smartwatches.

 

Last year’s iPhone was an outlier for me. Although I reviewed the then-new iPhone XS line, the model I ultimately chose for myself was the “lesser” iPhone XR. I chose it mostly for aesthetic reasons. As much as I appreciated its well-rounded technical merits, I was downright giddy at the notion I could have an iPhone in my favorite color: blue. I’ve not once regretted my choice nearly a year later. Color aside, the XR was—and remains—a terrific device.

At a fundamental level, choosing the iPhone XR was more significant than a favorite color or a willingness to accept some technical differences. As a visually impaired person, foregoing the XS meant I was purposely giving up a pivotal accessibility feature—the OLED screen—that would have made my experience with the device more accessible. In hindsight, the fact I decided on the objectively worse phone in the XR speaks volumes about how great it was as a product, and how color can spark such raw, immense delight.

This year, there is no blue iPhone. Without the emotional appeal of color in the equation, I’m reminded once again why the best iPhone money can buy—the iPhone 11 Pro Max—is the best, most accessible iPhone for me.

The Awesomeness of OLED

Apple provided me with two review units: one white iPhone 11 and one midnight green iPhone 11 Pro Max. As of this writing, I’ve had both phones for close to two weeks and I’ve spent roughly a week with each phone. I also have my year-old XR handy as a reference tool.

While I have spent lengthy time with OLED displays before—my iPhone X had one and, on a much smaller scale, every Apple Watch has had one—coming back after a year with my XR’s Liquid Retina LCD screen was quite literally eye-opening. Even with my poor eyesight, I immediately could notice a substantial difference in quality after putting my XR (and iPhone 11) side by side with the 11 Pro Max. For two years now, Apple has rightfully boasted about the XR’s (now 11) LCD screen being the best in the industry. It is ridiculously good, but the Pro’s OLED display is itself so good that I’ve wondered during testing how I was able to live happily with my XR last year.

In practice, the Super Retina XDR display on the 11 Pro Max is appreciably better in all phases. In addition to being physically larger (albeit not by much), the 11 Pro Max display’s brightness and sharpness make everything I see on my device much easier. It reduces eye strain and fatigue, which are constant battles for me. iOS 13’s new dark mode looks fantastic on OLED screens; I have it set to automatically switch from light to dark at sundown, and use apps like Twitter and Things in their pitch black modes at nighttime. Although there are dark mode skeptics, I personally find it to be a welcome reprieve during evening hours, and the credit is due to the Pro’s OLED display.

I started my testing with the iPhone 11 Pro Max for a few days, then switched to the regular 11 for another few days. After using both, knowing their respective screen technologies, I instantly knew which model I preferred. I could use the iPhone 11 with no problem, but having access to both phones reaffirmed to me just how superior OLED is for my vision. For my needs, it’s OLED or bust.

Three years with Face ID

I’ve written about my trials with Face ID before. As we collectively enter our third year with Apple’s facial recognition system, I think it’s worth briefly examining where it stands in context of the new iPhones and accessibility.

Apple says Face ID in the new iPhones is “up to 30 percent faster” while working from further away and at more angles than before. I cannot tell how much better it is in these regards; it’s Face ID and it seems to work just as well as it ever has. My strabismus still seems to wreak havoc on the phones’ TrueDepth camera system.

I set up Face ID on my 11 Pro Max and turned off Require Attention so that I needn’t look directly at the camera to unlock my phone. (When you do this, Apple blasts a modal alert on screen saying Face ID won’t be as secure as it could be. Fair enough, but it’s a trade-off I have to make in order to use it.) It’s worked like a charm, as usual.

What’s interesting, though, is what happened when I switched to the regular iPhone 11. I set up Face ID, but forgot to go into Settings and disable Require Attention. I suddenly realized this the other day, as I had clearly forgotten Face ID settings don’t sync from device to device. In hindsight it’s impressive how much Face ID has seemingly improved at recognizing my gaze. Whether it’s purposeful on Apple’s part, I don’t know, but I think it’s telling that I was unlocking my phone and paying for Lyft rides pretty much hassle-free for days with Require Attention on by default.

My strabismus still makes me an edge case, so I prefer Require Attention be disabled, as it’s the path of least resistance. Yet the happy accident I had regarding Require Attention led to a pleasant surprise. I can’t say it’s directly attributable to this generation of Face ID, but it’s an improvement regardless.

Adieu, 3D Touch

Like the much-maligned Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro, I have long been an ardent supporter of 3D Touch. I wrote about how it could positively impact accessibility when in debuted with the iPhone 6s four years ago, and missed it with my XR.

Apple’s removal of 3D Touch lends credence to the cons I outlined in my 2015 piece—namely, that it was too complex (for users and Apple) and it was too undiscoverable. The Apple community at large has felt this way about the feature since the beginning, especially bemoaning how it never percolated across iOS devices, most notably the iPad.

iOS 13 has brought Haptic Touch, first introduced with the iPhone XR last year, as a replacement for 3D Touch. It’s more or less equivalent; iOS 13 has expanded Haptic Touch’s scope so as to pick up many of 3D Touch’s tricks. These include Quick Actions on home screen icons and message previews in Mail and Messages. And importantly of course, these features work on iPads running iPadOS.

From an accessibility perspective, I have enjoyed having access to these shortcuts again on my iPhone 11 review units. I missed them during my time with the XR until now; the contextual menus throughout the OS really do cut down on excessive swiping and tapping. I like how Apple has grown Haptic Touch for the most part. I cannot tell an appreciable functional difference between it and 3D Touch in terms, say, starting a new email or text message from the home screen.

Where I believe Haptic Touch is a regression from 3D Touch is in performance. Accessing Quick Actions or link previews, for instance, feels like it takes forever relative to before. It isn’t so bad to the point that it’s unusable, but it’s definitely noticeable. More importantly, it causes Haptic Touch to lose a bit of the luster that makes haptic feedback such a promising assistive technology. Where 3D Touch always felt instantaneous, Haptic Touch, capable as it is, feels slower, thus ruining the fun a little. I assume this latency can and will improve over time, but count me as one who misses 3D Touch in the new iPhones.

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Miscellany

A few cursory notes on the new iPhones worth mentioning.

SIM card swapping. This is an extremely first-world problem, because I am privileged in the sense I get to review new iPhones every year. But this is an accessibility matter! Every year I get a new iPhone (or multiple iPhones) for testing, I’m reminded just how inaccessible the act of swapping my SIM card can be. It is a test of my visual acuity and fine-motor skills, both of which are not strong suits of mine. Especially on the midnight green, where the finish is so dark on the sides I can hardly see where the SIM tray is, moving between three iPhones can be quite adventurous. (I remember the jet black iPhone 7 having the same issue in terms of finding the SIM tray.) I like that Apple provides users with the SIM tool; the SIM card dance isn’t their fault. Still, as a visually impaired reviewer, I felt compelled to share this bit of accessibility minutia.

Color. Speaking of color, I do like the new midnight green finish a lot. The CW’s Arrow is my favorite television show, and the shade of green strikes me as the iPhone Oliver Queen would choose.

Battery life. One of the iPhone 11’s biggest selling points is the dramatically increased battery life. I’ve long compromised my battery—on an iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch—because I need to run my devices with maximum screen brightness in order to see. That I can do so on iPhone 11 and still mostly benefit from the battery gains speaks volumes about Apple’s battery work. I can go a whole day, using my phone normally at max brightness, and not stress about conserving my battery or finding an outlet somewhere.

Portrait (pig?) Mode. Seriously, Portrait Mode on the new iPhones was made for pigs.

The bottom line

It’s a testament to the “completeness” of last year’s iPhone XR that I was so happy with it. Yes, it was beautifully blue, but it was also a damn good all-around iPhone. Apple describes the iPhone 11 as having “just the right amount of everything,” the iPhone for everyone, but that tagline could just as easily apply to the XR. Even today, the XR is a great phone if you can do without the second camera. The iPhone 11 is simply a better iPhone XR.

The iPhone 11 and 11 Pro are close enough, spec-wise, that if it the regular 11 came in blue, I might’ve been tempted to upgrade to that. There’s a reason Apple offers iPhones in a rainbow of colors; the psychological impact color has on consumerism is a very real phenomena. Perhaps someday soon there will be a blue iPhone with a Super Retina OLED display. That said, while both iPhones are highly impressive, I’m happy with the Pro for the upgraded screen quality and three cameras. You really can’t go wrong with either iPhone 11, but for this year anyway, the return to OLED was the clincher for me.

Roku will produce lower-cost versions of its new Smart Soundbar and Wireless Subwoofer for Walmart under the retailer’s own onn brand, the company announced this morning. While already Roku offers distinct versions of some of its streaming media players exclusively for retailers like Walmart and Best Buy, the company had briefly mentioned a larger deal with Walmart in its second-quarter financial report.

In addition to the Roku TVs and players sold at Walmart, Roku had said it would offer “several new Roku devices including audio products,” under the Walmart onn brand.

The new onn Roku audio devices for Walnart are an expansion of the line introduced last month.

In September, Roku debuted two new devices including the Smart Soundbar and Wireless Subwoofer, both at $180 each. The idea was to complement the existing Roku wireless speakers, in the case of the subwoofer, or offer an alternative for those who didn’t own a Roku TV or didn’t have enough space to set up the wireless speakers, in the case of the soundbar.

The Walmart onn-branded Smart Soundbar and Wireless Subwoofer, meanwhile, will only cost $129 each.

Similar to Roku’s flagship models, onn Roku Smart Soundbar offers support for Dolby Audio, streaming from Bluetooth devices, and connects to the TV via HDMI-ARC or HDMI and Optical. However, it will ship with Roku’s simpler IR remote offering TV power and channel button shortcuts, instead of the more powerful voice remote that comes with the $180 version.

It also features 40W of peak power versus the Roku Smart Soundbar’s 60W and different drivers.

The onn Roku Wireless Subwoofer is designed to work with the onn Roku Smart Sounbar to offer customers a deeper, richer bass. The lower-cost version features a 10″ driver like the Roku Wireless Subwoofer, but it’s slightly smaller and features 150 peak watts of power versus the Roku Wireless Subwoofer’s 250 peak watts of power.

Both devices also feature branding and cosmetic differences, Roku says.

“Roku and Walmart have worked together for years to enhance the entertainment experience for millions of people who have purchased Roku TV models and Roku streaming players. Now, we’re looking forward to getting these new audio products on shelves to provide consumers with better sound for their TV experience at a great price,” said Mark Ely, Vice President of Players and Whole Home Product Management at Roku, in a statement.

The Walmart exclusivity deal will help to bring more customers to Roku’s products at a time when the majority of Roku’s revenue isn’t hardware sales, but rather platform revenue.

Led by advertising, Roku platform revenue has out-earned hardware sales for the past five quarters. And in Q2, Roku saw $250.1 million in revenue versus $224.4 million expected, up 59% from the same quarter in 2018 — the rise largely attributed to advertising.

The new onn Roku-branded products may serve as an entry point for some customers into Roku’s wider range of products, including its streaming players and Roku OS-powered TVs, for example. This, in turn, could help Roku grow its customer base for its platform business. In addition, Walmart shoppers are historically price-conscious, meaning they’re the ideal demographic to target with Roku’s growing ad-supported streaming business, where it provides free movies and TV through its home page hub, The Roku Channel.

The devices will become available sometime in the next few weeks both in Walmart stores and on Walmart.com, says Roku.