Apple delivered its “Glowtime” launch event yesterday, debuting the iPhone 16 in a 90-minute gathering that highlighted how AI will be incorporated into the new phone. But it left several questions unanswered when investors are looking for Apple to prove it has a way to boost sluggish sales and compete with domestic tech companies in China.

If you’re planning to upgrade, here’s what you can expect from the new iPhone:

• You’ll be able to use Visual Intelligence, a new feature that’s similar to Google Lens.
• Siri will be able to find info on your phone, summarize emails and messages, and send photos from your library.
• You’ll get a custom emoji generator, for when you need to send a “witchy baseball” to your friend.

Most of the changes were previously announced at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, except Visual Intelligence, which will be enabled by a new button called Camera Control. At yesterday’s event, Apple showed examples of how to use Visual Intelligence, like pulling up information about a restaurant you pass by or looking up the breed of a dog you see on the street.

But you’ll have to be patient: The Apple Intelligence tech will launch in beta mode next month in the US, in English only.

Aside from AI…Apple’s other announcements focused on two words: bigger and better. That includes a larger and thinner Apple Watch, a bigger display on the iPhone 16 Pro, next-gen AirPods Pro 2 that will have the ability to become clinical-grade hearing aids, and a camera good enough to film a music video.

Big picture: It’s unclear if Apple appeased investors looking for specifics about the company’s AI plans. Even if Apple were ready to release its AI globally tomorrow, it still needs approval to roll out the tech in China and the EU. And that’s all happening while China’s Huawei is nipping at its heels—the tech company announced an upcoming trifold phone hours before Apple’s event, and it’s already received over 3 million preorders.—CC

Calling all Uber One members in the US and Canada: Got a question about the latest tech news? Meditation techniques? Or do you just wanna know what can and absolutely can’t go inside an air fryer?

Hit up Perplexity, the new AI search engine. Uber and Perplexity have teamed up to offer all Uber One members (a membership to save on Uber and Uber Eats) based in the US and Canada one free year of Perplexity Pro—offer ends Oct. 31.

Perplexity searches the internet in real time to provide detailed, up-to-date answers with citations for all of your pressing questions (ya know, instead of a handful of blue links from traditional search engines).

Go ahead—get some answers.

Harris and Trump gear up to debate. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will take the stage at 9pm Eastern tonight in Philadelphia for a debate even more consequential than Pat’s vs. Geno’s. It will be hosted by ABC News and air live on several networks, while also streaming on ABC News Live, Disney+, and Hulu—potentially giving the candidates their biggest audience in the lead-up to Election Day. It’s the second presidential debate of the election cycle, but the first, and possibly only, between these two candidates (Joe Biden’s performance in the last one convinced many that it was time to replace him as the Democrat contender). With the polls showing them basically tied, each candidate will try to stand out.

Iconic actor James Earl Jones has died at age 93. James Earl Jones, the star of stage and screen who told Luke he was his father as Darth Vader, Ray that people would come in Field of Dreams, and Simba that everything the light touches was his kingdom as Mufasa, died yesterday at his home in Dutchess County, New York. Among other honors in the resonantly voiced Jones’s 60-year acting career, he achieved the rare EGOT win.

The Princess of Wales says she’s done with chemo. Kate Middleton, who publicly revealed her cancer diagnosis in March, released a video saying she has completed her chemotherapy treatment. “Doing what I can to stay cancer free is now my focus,” the princess said, but she also noted, “My path to healing and full recovery is long and I must continue to take each day as it comes.” She’s expected to gradually return to public life with a limited schedule of events for the rest of the year.

They say lightning doesn’t strike twice, but the Department of Justice certainly does. Google reported to court yesterday to defend itself against monopoly allegations for the second time in less than a year in a new case that has the potential to strip the world’s largest online advertiser of a chunk of its ad business.

Hair of the DOJ. About a month after a federal judge decried Google’s search engine dominance as anti-competitive, regulators are now trying to prove that Google unfairly dominates the digital ad space, too. The DOJ alleges:

• Google’s trifecta of software products for ad sellers, ad buyers, and real-time ad auctioning account for 91%, 40% to 80%, and at least 50% of their respective markets.
• Cornering both the supply and demand sides lets Google keep $0.36 from every dollar spent on ad deals it brokers.

Google says…its ad tech is successful because it’s the best. The search giant also panned the DOJ for only focusing on website ads, since the market has expanded to mobile apps, social media, and streaming.

But…regulators say YouTube CEO Neal Mohan will testify that Google has sometimes required ad sellers to either use all or none of its tools, steering them away from competitors.

Looking ahead…the DOJ wants Google to sever its popular Ad Manager services from the rest of its business, which some industry experts say could level the field and lead to better data privacy regulations in online advertising.—ML

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After receiving the economic equivalent of a “see me after class,” the EU was told it must boost investment by as much as $884 billion a year or accept lower living standards. That was the central prescription in the widely awaited report that the former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi delivered to EU leaders yesterday.

The star economist’s turnaround plan for Europe comes as the EU deals with slow growth and struggles to compete with the US and China amid shrinking trade, elevated energy prices, and the prospect of population decline.

“Do this, or it’s a slow agony”

Draghi wants EU countries to borrow funds collectively in order to increase investment by 5% of their combined GDPs, a spending boom almost double what was enacted with the US’ Marshall Plan, which helped Europe recover after World War II. He recommends that EU nations:

• Collectively pour cash into green tech, digital breakthroughs, and shared military defense.
• Coordinate policies among the 27 member states to help key industries compete globally.
• Remove bureaucratic hurdles, defend domestic production from Chinese competition in certain cases, and allow more corporate mergers that improve innovation.

But politics…will make it difficult to move beyond the blueprint. The EU’s largest economy, Germany, already shot down Draghi’s proposal for shared borrowing, a concept that rich EU members have long opposed.—SK

Americans tend to believe in going big. This works out well for lumberjack breakfasts and flat-screen TVs, but it can create safety issues when it comes to cars, which keep getting heavier. Nearly 79% of the US’ new car sales through last month were SUVs and trucks, per Motorintelligence.com. Heavier cars like pickups and SUVs can be safer for the people in them but not for pedestrians or smaller cars in collisions. That’s why yesterday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it’s proposing new rules aimed at bigger cars that would require special safety testing to minimize pedestrian head injuries—and it says they’ll prevent 67 deaths a year. But it’s not just pedestrians who big cars can harm: The Economist analyzed data from 7.5 million two-vehicle crashes and found that getting hit by an extra 1,000 pounds of car—about the difference between an SUV and a compact car—increases the likelihood of death by 66%.