Motherboard
Brian Merchant is senior editor of Motherboard, the science and tech website published by Vice, and the author of One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone.
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Brian Merchant
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FROM Brian Merchant
To the Point
The secret history of the iPhone on its tenth birthday In 2007, Steve Jobs appeared at MacWorld in his trademark black turtleneck, blue jeans and white sneakers. He announced, "Apple is going to reinvent the phone." From that announcement, Brian Merchant took the title of his book, The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone . He reports it became the bestselling product of all time -- and the most profitable -- because it “intertwines a phenomenal number of prior inventions and insights -- some that stretch back into antiquity."
To the Point
California Start-up Wants to Free Our Bodies from Food The 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green portrays a dystopian future were people survive on revolutionary foodstuff, but there's a kicker. In the final scenes, we discover that soylent green is people! Now comes a new diet consisting of substances different from what we think of as food. It's all the brainchild of Silicon Valley entrepreneur Rob Rhinehart, whose Kickstarter campaign to raise $100,000 ended up with more than a million. Science writer Brian Merchant lived on Soylent for 30 days. He's the senior editor of Motherboard , the science and tech website published by Vice.
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To the Point
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.
To the Point
Trump's new look at civil rights and global warming President Trump is reportedly ready to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We look at the possible consequences. On the second half of the program, we hear about cuts in Obama-Era civil rights programs called for by the Trump Administration's first budget plan.