Technology

The iPhone XR arrived like an afterthought. No surprise, really. Applealways been one to lead with its best foot forward — the latest, greatest and, quite literally, the largest. Projecting the life on the bleeding edge is a cornerstone of the companyimage, market share and stock price.

The iPhone XR isn&t that. In the context of yesterdayevent, the handset is an also ran. Itlower-powered, with a single camera and lower-resolution screen that stirred up criticism amongst display enthusiasts online. Italso precisely the phone the company needed to make — and Applegoing to sell a crapload of them as a result. In fact, I wouldn&t be too surprised to see this entry-level device outsell both of its premium brethren.

Over the last 24 hours, a number of folks have asked me which phone they should buy. The answer varies from person to person, of course, but for the majority, the XR simply makes the most sense. It is, as I wrote in my hands-on yesterday, the iPhone X for the rest of us.

Last year10th anniversary handset pushed the limits of the iPhone, with regard to underlying technology, design and budget. It represented what was arguably the biggest leap for the line since the introduction of the App Store way back in 2008, while helping to break on the $1,000 smartphone.

We all knew things were heading that way, and companies like Samsung certainly gave Apple a run for its money, but the iPhone X really tested the limits of what consumers are willing to spend on a smartphone. Initial sales reports were less than ideal for the phone, though a much pricier phone meant, naturally, that Apple had to sell fewer to hit the same bottom line.

But Apple isn&t Vertu. Actually getting the product into consumers& hands is an equally important aspect of selling a new phone. Early reports had the company eye a return to the LCD as a way of offsetting the phonecost in order to appeal to a broader audience.

As The Wall Street Journal put it back in June, demand &is likely to be slower than many in the industry believed a year ago, when the iPhone maker was preparing its first OLED smartphone.& For Apple, a return to the LCD likely felt like a step backward after releasing its most forward-looking phone.

But while such things do matter to some, technology refreshes are more often driven by the desire to stay a step ahead of the competition than they are consumer demand. And while having the highest resolution screen possible would certainly be nice, itnot necessarily $1,000 worth of nice.

The iPhone XR represents a more balanced approach for Apple. But atop the foundation of the iPhone X, the handset manages to be relatively reasonably priced without being the sort of relic the iPhone 8 felt like it was announced alongside the X.

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The XR is the populist iPhone. The iPhone for the people. I&ve been calling it the iPod Mini of iPhones and Matt Burns has been saying itthe iBook, but the point stands. Ita cheaper, more colorful alternative. At least one of our co-workers has been obsessing slightly over which color to get.

At $749, itnot cheap, but compared to the XS and XS Max (starting at $999 and $1,099, respectively), ita relative bargain, and most of the missing features won&t have an impact on the day to day use of an average user. Heck, even the single lens camera has learned to approximate portrait mode to further cushion the blow.

If I were in the market for a new iPhone, I&d almost certainly go the XR route. Listen, I&m a tech blogger living in New York City. I have a pet rabbit to feed. Do you think rabbit food grows on trees (I mean, technically it does, but you get the point).

If you&re a prospective iPhone buyer, you&re probably in the same boat. The XRthe way to go, and Applegoing to sell a ton of the things.

A nasty legal battle is set to play out between two former Uber executives.

Eric Alexander, the ride-hailing companyformerpresident of business in Asia-Pacific, has filed suitagainst former Uber PR chief Rachel Whetstone .

Alexander blames Whetstone for his firing from Uber in June 2017, claiming her &grossly misleading statements& both internally at Uber and to the media, &destroyed his reputation.& He claims she &harbored deep seated personal animosity& against him, was jealous of his close relationship with then-CEO Travis Kalanick and frequently made racist comments about several minority groups during her tenure.

Whetstone,well-known in Silicon Valley for her comms prowess, also left Uber in 2017 and has since gone on to lead PR efforts at Facebook and now Netflix.

We&ve reached out to Whetstone, Alexander and Uber for comment.

Backstory

Last year, Alexander was very publicly ousted from Uberafter obtaining the medical records of a female passenger who was raped by an Uber driver in India. Alexander had reportedly been investigating the case himself because he believed the Indian ride-hailing business Ola was behind the incident and that the competitor was trying to damage Uberreputation in India.

Alexander spent just over three years at the company and was a close confidant of Kalanick&s.

The allegations

The allegations outlined in the lawsuit,first reported by Business Insider, don&t seem to be connected, but rather are an attempt by Alexander to portray Whetstone as a vicious, jealous and racist former colleague out for his career:

Ms.WhetstoneharboreddeepseatedpersonalanimosityagainstMr.Alexanderover his perceived higher status within Uber, as well as Mr. Alexanderrepeated efforts to curtail Ms. Whetstoneongoing racist comments (culminating in Mr. Alexanderpublic rebuke of Ms. Whetstone in front of another Uber officer. Given the contentious relationship between the parties, upon her severance from Uber, Ms. Whetstone took the unusual step of insisting on a reciprocal non-disparagement clause that specifically referenced Mr. Alexander by name. Ms. Whetstone thereafter proceeded to violate that clause by spreading false and misleading and/or disparaging information about Mr. Alexanderresponse to the rape in India. Ms. Whetstonederogatory statements were made in direct violation of the non-disparagement.

The lawsuit provides several examples of racist comments allegedly made by Whetstone, including that &the Chinese cannot be trusted.&

Alexander says Whetstone also went to reporters—BloombergEric Newcomer and RecodeKara Swisher were named specifically — and told them &false and misleading information.&

Uberpast catches up to it

The lawsuit, for the most part, looks to be an attempt on Alexanderend to clear his name. According to his LinkedIn, he hasn&t pursued any new opportunities since his well-publicizedexit from Uber, and thatlikely not for lack of trying.

As for Uber, despite replacing its CEO and several other top-level employees following its no good, very bad year in 2017, the company hasn&t been able to shake itsscandal-ridden reputation. The mistakes made under Kalanickreign have and will continue to catch up to it.And nothing, not even a rebrand, can stop that.

Herea full look at the lawsuit.

Twitch, the Amazon-owned streaming platform, has brought on its first head of diversity and inclusion, as well as a new chief financial officer and chief human resources officer.

Katrina Jones, who will start next month as Twitchhead of diversity and inclusion, is the former head of diversity at Vimeo. At Vimeo, Jones created the companydiversity strategy, and worked on disrupting bias and fostering inclusion.

Meanwhile, Michelle Weaver and Sudarshana Rangachary are coming on board as CFO and CHRO, respectively.

From the diversity and inclusion front, Twitch has a history of struggling. The platform itself, for example, was called out in 2015 for being mostly white and male.

Fast-forward to 2016, and Twitch hosted a panel at its annual convention dubbed &Diversify Twitch.& That didn&t turn out very well for Twitch, as its African-American panelists were subjected to racism, insults and slurs. Just last year, Twitch hosted a site-wide &holiday& to celebrate diversity and inclusion on its streams, chats, apps and community.