Hit film Baby Driver was cut essentially in real time on set on a MacBook Pro, cutting way back on the need for expensive post-primary photography re-shoots.

Amazon is working on an updated version of its Echo speaker which will primarily focus on audio quality, Engadget reports. The new Echo will allegedly be shorter and slimmer than the original, “almost as if it were three or four Echo Dots stacked on top of each other,” the report says.

This weekend is Disney’s D23 expo, where the company often unveils the first glimpses into what it has in store for the years ahead. Our own Editor-and-Disney-aficionado-in-Chief Matthew Panzarino is down in LA for the event’s early access press day.

Giving early adopters the first access to new technologies can help diffuse those technologies among the masses. A notable example is Google’s rollout of Gmail: In 2004, about 1,000 select users were given exclusive access and told to invite others.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee unanimously recommended that the agency approve this “living drug” approach for children and young adults who are fighting a common form of leukemia. The agency doesn’t have to follow the committee’s recommendation but usually does.

At first glance, the organization chart for the maker of True Story, a card game and mobile app in which players trade stories from their daily lives, resembled that of any company.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/12/business/economy/flash-organizations-labor.html

We often talk about whether human beings can survive a cataclysmic space event, such as a large asteroid hitting the Earth. But even if we’re wiped out, other life will go on.

https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/14/water-bears-could-survive-until-sun-dies/

Reserve with Google is going wide. What started as a test run last December, opened to the rest of the country in March and now, in addition to workout classes, you can book a spa day and a haircut too.

https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/13/reserve-with-google-salon-spa-reservations/

Streaming killed the music gadget years ago. Just up and drove a stake through its silicon heart as listeners traded 99-cent song downloads for $10 monthly subscriptions to all-you-can-listen services. OK, maybe you have some Baby Driver-induced nostalgia for an iPod.

https://www.wired.com/story/you-might-actually-love-this-ipod-shuffle-for-spotify/

Hello, and welcome to our startup. We hope you’re enjoying your complimentary snifter of vaporized coconut water. Once you’re done, please place the glass into one of the blue receptacles around the office, which will send the glass to be washed and dried.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/welcome-to-our-startup-where-everyone-is-23-years-old-because-we-believe-old-people-are-visually-displeasing-and-out-of-ideas

Silicon Valley is supposed to be a place where a couple of guys in a garage or a dorm room can start companies that change the world. It happened with Apple and Microsoft in the 1970s, AOL in the 1980s, Amazon, Yahoo, and Google in the 1990s, and Facebook in the 2000s.

https://www.vox.com/new-money/2017/7/11/15929014/end-of-the-internet-startup

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re on a rapid march towards a “secure by default” web when it comes to protecting traffic. For example, back in Feb this year, 20% of the Alexa Top 1 Million sites were forcing the secure scheme:

https://www.troyhunt.com/life-is-about-to-get-harder-for-websites-without-https/

At work today, we were discussing the future direction of the website and app. A concern was raised that, without a clear mandate, the website would “continue to be a great desktop version, and a much poorer version of the app.” As the front end lead, that stung.

https://popmotion.io/blog/20170710-mobile-web-is-awful-and-were-all-to-blame/

We do plan to do something about it at least. We got in contact with https://the-indexer.com/, who in turn got is in contact with an agency. In that agency we were assigned to some very experienced pros that will be helping us to update the mobile site so that we will no longer have this issue. It’s gonna be great! I wish we knew about them earlier to be honest. We should’ve done a bit more research.

In 2015 we told you Complete Streets was coming to Orlando and that SODO was the first district to get the treatment. It’s finally taking shape in the form of Our Sodo. This new series of inter-related visioning and planning efforts kicked off May 31st.

http://www.thedailycity.com/2017/07/downtown-south-now-testing-ground-for.html

Microsoft is killing off Windows Phone 8.1 support today, more than three years after the company first introduced the update. The end of support marks an end to the Windows Phone era, and the millions of devices still running the operating system.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/11/15952654/microsoft-windows-phone-end-of-support

I just worry that people are forgetting what Prime day is really about and who died to make it possible.

https://twitter.com/JeffGrubb/status/884785937598660608

Volvo on Tuesday launched its new VNL line of semi trucks, which in upgraded configurations support Apple’s CarPlay standard, bridging iPhones with dash displays.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/07/11/volvo-brings-apples-carplay-to-new-vnl-semi-trucks

The world’s first hands-free toothbrush that takes just 10 seconds to clean teeth could save people hours in the bathroom every year, its inventor claims.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/amabrush-hands-free-toothbrush-clean-teeth-ten-seconds-paste-vibrates-mouthguard-a7834951.html

It’s clear that the sport of football needs to change. And the $64,000 question, my friends, is simple: “how?” Something is terribly wrong. The writing’s on the wall: youth participation in the sport is down, thanks in large part to their parents’ concern for their health.

https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football