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The New-Bands Edition Friday, July 22, 2016

These New Apple Watch Bands Are Worth A Trip To Brazil, by Justin Fenner, GQ

Like any other major sporting event, the Olympic games are going to inspire a ton of clothing brands and accessory makers to produce stuff you can wear while rooting for your favorite team. Apple is no different. When the games start in August, the tech company will be selling Apple Watch bands that reference the national flags of 14 major competitors, meaning you can symbolically cheer on Team USA (or Team France, or Team Brazil) every time you get a text message.

Minor detail: You can only get them if you're in Brazil for the games.

Drive Time

Apple CarPlay, Where Have You Been All Of My Driving Life?, by Lauren Goode, The Verge

Our phones have taught us to expect constantly updated software and interfaces that don’t make us want to tear our hair out. Until more car companies can figure those things out, handing your main dashboard panel over to Apple or Google is is a good move — and hopefully more of them will do just that.

Kia To Release CarPlay Software Update For Select 2014 To 2017 Models, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

Kia has announced that CarPlay and Android Auto will be available as free software updates for a wider range of select 2014 to 2017 model year vehicles equipped with UVO3 or a compatible navigation system.

After Beats 1, Try Radio 1

BBC iPlayer Radio App Now Available In The U.S., by Darrell Etherington, TechCrunch

BBC does radio well, and now Americans can experience the full effect of the UK broadcaster’s audio content expertise with the iPlayer Radio app for iOS and Android. The app contains all of BBC’s radio feeds, including Radio 1 through 6, as well as the World Service. It also has offline support for BBC podcasts, and curated collections of past content.

Stuff

Typinator Still Makes Life Easier For Mac Users, by Dennis Sellers, Apple World Today

One of the most useful features of Typinator is the possibility to create expansions based on regular expressions.

Want To Earn Loyalty Points? There Are Many Apps For That., by Timothy R. Smith, Washington Post

I often collect the loyalty reward cards that get punched with each purchase. And then I lose them. So I checked out two apps that could replace that old paper method.

Notes

America's Broken Digital Copyright Law Is About To Be Challenged In Court, by Cory Doctorow, The Guardian

The rule is section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998, the “anti-circumvention” rule that makes it illegal to break an “access control” for copyrighted works. These “access controls” often manifest as “digital rights management” (DRM), and the DMCA gives them unique standing in law.

EFF is suing the US government, arguing that section 1201 of the DMCA is unconstitutional, and also that the Library of Congress and the copyright office have failed to perform their duties in the three-year DMCA 1201 exemption hearings.

How Sex, Animals And Obama End Up In Drink Names, by Rosie Schaap, New York Times

My mother was so amused by drinks with risqué names that she’d make a great production of ordering them — especially, I’m pretty sure, in my presence. And although the memory of the first time she visited me at a bar where I worked one summer and loudly called for a Slippery Nipple — in front of my boss, my co-workers, my regulars — still stings a little, I’ve long since lightened up about such things.

What I haven’t lightened up about is the difficult art of inventing names for cocktails.