Technology

XS is the normal one. XR is the cheap one. XS Max is the big one. Thata good start to understanding Apple confusing naming scheme for its new line of iPhones. Apparently jealous of Androidfragmentation, Apple decided it needed three different models, three different storage sizes and nine different colors.

You can think of the XS as the updated iPhone X, the Max as the new Plus and the XR as a revival of the great-for-kids budget iPhone SE. Herea comparison of their features, prices, options and release dates.

The iPhone XS — standard, smaller, sooner

Applenew flagship phone is the iPhone XS. If you want the best Apple has to offer that will still fit in your pocket, this is the one for you.

Itgot a 5.8-inch diagonal OLED &Super Retina& HDR screen with 458 pixels per inch, which is actually taller than the old 8 Plus5.5-inch screen, but ita little thinner, so it has less total screen volume. Dual 12 megapixel cameras offer stabilization and 2X optical zoom, plus the new depth control Portrait mode feature. It$999 for the 64GB, $1,149 for the 256GB, or $1,349 for the 512GB.

It comes insilver, gold and space gray, all in stainless steel thatwaterproof to two meters. Pre-orders start Friday, September 14th, and they ship and hit stores on September 21st.

The iPhone XS Max — bigger screen, bigger price

If you love watching movies, browsing photos and shooting videos on your phone, you&ll want the iPhone XS Max.

The 6.5-inch OLED &Super Retina& HDR screen is the biggest ever on an iPhone, dwarfing the 8 Plusscreen, yet with a similar device size since the XS Max takes up more of the phoneface. The twin 12 megapixel lenses stabilize your images and offer 2X optical zoom, as well as Portrait mode depth control.

It also comes in stainless steel silver, gold and space gray that are all waterproof to two meters, and costs $100 more than the XS at $1,099 for 64GB, $1,249 for 256GB or a whopping $1,449 for 512GB. As with the XS, pre-orders start Friday, September 14th, and you can get it in your hands on September 21st.

The iPhone XR — colorful, cheaper, duller

Don&t need the sharpest or biggest new screen and want to save some cash Grab an iPhone XR. Its size comes in between the XS and XS Max, with a 6.1-inch diagonal LCD &Liquid Retina& screen with 326 pixels per square inch.

Fewer pixels and no HDR display means the XR won&t look quite as brilliant as the XS models. The XR also only has one 12 megapixel camera lens, so it doesn&t offer stabilization or 2X optical zoom like its XS siblings, but it still gets the cool Bokeh-changing Portrait mode depth control.

The XR is only waterproof to one meter instead of two like its expensive sisters, and lacks 3D Touch for quick access to deeper features.

As a bonus with the XR, you do get 1.5 hours of additional battery life and six color options in the aluminum (&aloominium& if you&re Jonny Ive) finish:white, black, blue, yellow, coral and red. And itcheaper at $749 for 64GB, with $799 for 128GB and $899 for 256GB.

If thatnot cheap enough, you can now get the iPhone 7 for $449 and the iPhone 8 costs $599 — though there are no more iPhones with headphone jacks now that the 6S and SE are getting retired. In hopes that you&ll buy a pricier one, the XR arrives a month later than the XS models, with pre-orders on October 19th and shipping October 26th.

Apple may find this level of customization lets everyone find the right iPhone for them, though it could simultaneously produce decision paralysis in buyers who aren&t confident enough to pay. While ita headache at first, you&ll end up with a phone fit for your style and budget. Though without a ton of improvements over the iPhone X, you might not need an &iPhone Excess.&

HQ Trivia is aiming to attract more players following a slight decline indownloads with a new, large prize. The company announced today it has bagged Target to sponsor to sponsor a special Emmy-themed game featuring its biggest-ever single winner prize of $100,000. The game will air on Monday, September 17 at 9 PM ET, but will be played in a different fashion than usual.

Typically, HQ Trivia players compete to win or split a cash prize, which often doesn&t amount to much more than enough for a cup of coffee. But this time around, HQ Trivia will run in a &one winner takes all& format, meaning only one individual will earn the winnings from the game.

Instead of a normal 12-question round with 10 second to answer, the game will continue until only one winner remains. Players can still use their extra lives, but only until question number 15. After that, they won&t work.

The gamecontent will be Emmy Awards-themed, featuring questions about shows, actors, the Emmy telecast, and other historical facts.

Target is stepping up as the gamesponsor for this winner-takes-all milestone game. The game itself will also be branded, but the exact nature of the creative is something Target is keeping under wraps for the time being as ita first for the retailer.

HQ Trivia has worked with a number of other big-name brands in the past through its game, includingWarner Bros, Nike, MillerCoors, National Geographic, Chase, Viacom, and NBCUniversal.

The news of the milestone game comes at a time when HQ Triviadownloads have been trending slightly downwards. As TechCrunchJosh Constine reported last month for the appApple TV launch, the iOS version of HQ Trivia had fallen from being the No. 1 U.S. trivia game to No. 10, and the No. 44 game to No. 196.

Today, itthe No. 135 game and No. 467 Overall app.

According to data from Sensor Tower, the app has 12.8 million downloads across platforms, the majority of which (11M) were this year.

HQ Trivia claims the app continues to have the &largest live audience on mobile daily.&

The company respondedat the time that games are a &hits business& and &don&t grow exponentially forever.&Rus Yusupov,CEO of HQ Trivia parent company Intermedia Labs, also noted that HQ was working on new game formats as a result.

Despite the fickle nature of mobile gamers, HQ Trivia has spawned a number of clones and other live games, includingFox&sFN Genius, ProveIt, FameGame, Gravy, MajorityRules, Cash Show,and manyothers. Even Facebook caught onto the trend, launching its own gameshows platform to support interactive video.

However, it remains to be seen if live game-playing is a lasting interest for mobile gamers, or just a flash in the pan.

Apple kicked off its hardware event today with a charming little video that did double promo duty, both introducing the event in a lighthearted way and giving a quick curated tour of the companynew &spaceship& headquarters. We don&t always post Apple advertisements here at TechCrunch, but when we do, itbecause they actually show off something new. Well, kind of new, anyway. Itnice to see it all in motion.

A low aerial shot brings us into the scene, the top floor of the spaceshipexterior, and as the opening strains of the &Mission: Impossible& theme start up, we see our protagonist (Alison, we find out later) blast out of a conference room.

A couple of things to note here: the top floor (4, by the way) is filled with outward-facing rooms, surely of various sizes and functions, but the outermost ring, right next to the windows, is where you walk. With all the people moving around those glass-lined tunnels, perhaps a better name for this HQ would be the Ant Farm.

However, there do appear to be some shared spaces with chairs and other accommodations here and there. It just doesn&t appear that lots of the outdoor spots will be cherry offices with nice views, with peons stuck in some inner ring. Thatgood. But there will have to be a full-time staff, plus robots, to keep the glass clean. Thatbad. Itpoetic in a way, though: everyone is always having to de-smudge their phones, why shouldn&t Apple have to de-smudge its headquarters

Next (via a rather dizzying pan) is what we have to assume is a spoke on the wheel, a large atrium that looks to extend from center to exterior, and is filled with calming white and neutral-colored furniture. It looks like the inside of Jony Ivesbrain. There are probably eight of these, with one or two being extra resplendent for visitors, perhaps with stores extending off the sides, portrait galleries of Apple execs and so on.

This shot is very &North by Northwest,& by the way.

Ita matte, but still. Saul Bass is the master, by the way.

The spoke opens up on the inner side onto the big courtyard, as we all know, which is elaborately landscaped and criss-crossed with paths. At the center is a large pond, though interestingly there seem to be rather few paths leading to it, since our heroine takes the direct route through the sage and other brush.

I actually expected the pond to be a bit more picturesque, but thereonly so much you can do with that climate. It seems to be only about a foot deep, lined with large rocks. I was hoping they might let it go wild with lily pads, wild birds and so on. I&ll be interested to see how they keep it free of algae so people like the protagonist can rush through it. Luckily her AirPods didn&t fall out. (If she had a headphone cable it wouldn&t be a problem. Just saying.)

Obviously Apple is making a bit of fun of itself here regarding the inconvenient nature of a ring-shaped HQ with a body of water in the middle. Shouldn&t there be a pedestrian underpass or something

Across the pond our intrepid briefcase carrier perhaps unadvisedly runs right through a bunch of people blowing grass all over each other on what appears to be a large continuous greenbelt or fairway between the lake and the ring. Doesn&t Apple know you&re supposed to leave the cuttings on the grass What do those guys think they&re doing anyway There are like 20 in one little area.

Into the far side of the ring, where therea large cafeteria filled with Applefavorite cedar furniture and stretching through all 4 stories. Some of it looks CG. If I&m honest a lot of this looks CG. It has probably been extensively touched up.

On the outside of the cafeteria spoke is a huge set of sliding doors, which employees are likely not encouraged to do a tactical roll through when they&re closing. That&ll be really nice in the mild summers of Cupertino to get the breeze in there. That space might be hard to heat if therea cold snap, though.

A nice touch has the protagonist hitting all her rings while taking a silver Apple bike from HQ to Steve Jobs Theater. Brave of Apple to show the bike failing, or grabbing her cuff, or whatever happens at the end. Usually nothing of theirs fails in their promos.

Of course the denouement is the delivery of the briefcase to Tim, and the reveal — with a shot that will probably be used and reused for dank memes in the future — that it was The Clicker.

Check out the full short film here:

Clearly Apple wanted to show off its new HQ in a careful way, and certainly they&ve whetted the appetites of many Apple devotees who will want to see this haven in person. Unfortunately, however, our heroine has tasted the bitterness of being carelessly exploited by the executives at her company, perhaps now feeling for the first time what Applemanufacturing partners exact from their workers. With luck she will learn from this and enact change from within. Now that&s an impossible mission.