Flawed-Dropping 🆕📱

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover Apple’s “Awe-Dropping” Event, AKA the iPhone 17 launch. There were some interesting updates to the range, and, as ever, phones were thinner, more powerful, and physically stronger. Much the same as every year, then. But Apple did treat us to a talking point or two, including the super-super-thin iPhone Air and new AirPods with real-time foreign language translation (yes, please). We also have news on Elon Musk’s enormous pay deal at Tesla (the world’s first trillionaire?), we tell you why Mark Zuckerberg is suing Mark Zuckerberg, and how OpenAI plans to challenge LinkedIn, as well as all the latest from the 3Advance team.

🔥 Vibe & Validate with 3A: Workshop, Prototype and Roadmap in ONE Week 🔥

🎬 Our Top Take

📱📵 Apple - iPhone Air Announced at “Awe-Dropping” Event 2025

Apple’s “Awe Dropping” (their words) Event 2025 has just wrapped. Tim Cook and friends unveiled the iPhone 17 range – the thinnest iPhone ever and the most durable, thanks to scratch-resistant Ceramic Shield 2. There’s everything you’d expect with a new range – new chips (the A19), better camera, superior batteries, and, in a win for smartphone gamers, a much better screen resolution and refresh rate with Pro Motion added across the range (it was formerly limited to Pro models). Strangely, the iPhone 17 Pro is not available in black, which is causing a mini meltdown among Apple fans on social media at the time of writing. Apple also announced the iPhone Air, which has not been given the 17 branding. It’s very, very thin (just 5.6mm), and Apple says it’s so light “it seems to disappear in your hands🪄.” While the iPhone 17 and Air took the headlines, Apple did reveal other goodies, with upgrades to the Apple Watch, particularly Watch Ultra. One of the most notable announcements of the day was the addition of real-time translation of foreign languages to AirPods Pro 3, powered by Apple Intelligence. Admittedly, this is pretty awesome, and yes, for gadget freaks like ourselves, a super-thin iPhone is pretty cool, but was it “Awe-Dropping”? We’ll leave that to you. Over here, we’ll keep on waiting for the next over-hyped drop – apparently Apple plans to launch a new AI-powered web search too, as part of a new system internally dubbed “World Knowledge Answers”. Siri will finally be “Awe-some”… Right? iPhone 17 and iPhone Air go on general sale on Friday, September 19th. #AppleEvent Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Max

This week’s App of the Week is not a recommendation, more of a report, perhaps even a warning. In early September, around the same time that Russian citizens began noticing that access to messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram (both massively popular there) had been blocked, the Putin government began aggressively marketing the new ‘super app,’ Max. It functions in a similar way to China’s WeChat as an essential communication tool for daily life. Of course, it’s also reportedly a government surveillance tool. Indeed, from September 1st, all smartphones sold in Russia must have Max pre-installed. The app is available for download on both Google Play and the App Store. We’ve looked at the reviews on the app stores in English and Russian, and the word “spyware” comes up again and again. Make of that what you will.

🧐 Stat of the Week: $1.5B

📈📉 Anthropic – Deal Struck to Pay Authors for AI Copyright Infringement

Anthropic, the AI firm behind Claude, has just agreed to an out-of-court settlement to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class action from authors who claimed (correctly, it seems) that it used their work to train its models without permission. It is the biggest copyright recovery sum in history. You should note, however, that OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, etc., are facing similar lawsuits, so if this settlement is a bellwether, you may expect other huge payouts. Not to take sides, but it does seem fair. #PayDay Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

We got to help Quiet Collection bring their Birthday Collection to life – and it’s now officially live 🎉 The idea is simple but so lovely: seven short audio sessions (just 5-7 minutes each) you can listen to during your birthday week. Some help you pause and reflect, some look ahead, and some are just about celebrating yourself. It can also be gifted easily – you just need a name and email, making it perfect for friends with September birthdays (or any month!). We’re really proud of how this came together, and we hope it feels like a kind companion for anyone who presses play.