Welcome to my first “Daily Teaspoon”.  This is a not-very-clever play on the common abbreviation of Teaspoon, TSP [Tech, Sports, Podcasts].  I plan on sharing 3-5 articles a day, covering my interests which are most commonly sports and tech, with 1 podcast recommendation.  I will hold myself accountable to do this Monday-Friday, posting these at approximately 9 A.M.  Thank you for taking the time to read, if you like what you see, PLEASE share and tell a friend. Thank You Thank You Thank You.

Tech:

Apple Speeds Up Electric-Car Work

Apple Inc. is accelerating efforts to build an electric car, designating it internally as a “committed project” and setting a target ship date for 2019, according to people familiar with the matter.

Interesting.  Rumors about this product have certainly been abound in the recent past, but I’m surprised it has moved to “committed project” status.  Count me in as a person who believes that the future of personal transportation is more along the lines of an Uber (or Uber-type) company with a large fleet of self-driving cars, but that dream is SO far down the line that Apple must see a viable market for selling cars.

The Verge Reviews the iPhone 6S and the iPhone 6S Plus

So now we have an iPhone with a big screen, with skyrocketing sales. There’s no obvious reason to make it better; almost every major competitor has actually put out multiple high-end phones this year in an effort to compete and it still hasn’t been enough. What’s Apple’s next move?

Turns out that the answer isn’t a taller or wider display — it’s a deeper one.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball Reviews the iPhone 6S

I think it’s backwards to think that in an S year, Apple simply takes the previous model and makes a few tweaks. Instead, I think what’s obvious is that knowing the basic industrial design at least two years ahead of time gives the engineering teams inside Apple an opportunity to make significant changes to the components and the materials used to construct them. The timeline for iPhones, because of the massive scale at which they must be manufactured, is such that, right now, as I’m typing this, the design for next year’s iPhone 7 is either locked down or very close to it. The company will now spend the next year hustling to make it work and put it into production so it can start shipping a year from now. But that means there are also teams already at work on the iPhone 7S slated for 2017 — and they have a massive head start in terms of knowing the shape and dimensions of the device.

Needless to say, I’m very excited about the new iPhones. I personally was expecting a more lukewarm response, but as these reviews indicate, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking improvements are only marginal because the outside appearance hasn’t changed.  I generally like both the higher end Android phones and iPhones, as both have their merits.  Most notably, Google’s services are far better than the iPhone offerings, but I think slowly that gap is bridging.  Overall, this is the first time in a few years I can blindly recommend an iPhone over any other phone in the market.  Both of these reviews I’ve linked are excellent, which is predictable coming from two true pros in Nilay Patel (The Verge) and John Gruber (Daring Fireball).  The Verge also does excellent video reviews, the corresponding one to the iPhone review can be found here.

Sports:

Zach Lowe on Danilo Gallinari and the Denver Nuggets

Gallinari might be all the way back, and he just turned 27. That should be an indisputably good thing for Denver, and it probably is. But it’s fitting that the return of the Rooster raises questions for perhaps the league’s most confusing franchise. Can he stay healthy? And can he sustain this form over a full season?

I’ve always liked a lot of players on the Nuggets roster, notably players like Wilson Chandler and Danilo Galinari. Kenneth Faried feels like the odd man out, but this roster has a ton of versatility and should be interesting to watch over the next couple of years.

Podcast

Exponent: Episode 051 – All About Ads (61 minutes)

Hosts Ben Thompson and James Allworth have a great conversation about the business of advertising in the past, present, and future.  This is especially relevant as currently in the tech world a lot of debate is currently ongoing about the ethics of ad blockers.  In general if you have interest in the business of technology, I highly recommend you subscribe to this podcast.