Let us explore and lift the bonnet of the metaverse and look at what is under. The metaverse belongs to a suite of technologies that build on alternative types of realities, aided by wearable devices. The most well-known technologies are augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) – which is a blend of both. Extended reality (XR) is an umbrella term that encompasses all kinds of altered realities offered by technology. It is important to note that these different types of realities provide different levels of immersion or how users experience them (these types of realities).
Is the metaverse VR, AR or MR?
While VR, AR and MR are one of the most important elements of the metaverse, we might even say a cornerstone (of the metaverse), the simple answer is no, the metaverse is neither. These extended reality technologies will be just one of the ways to access and experience the metaverse. Although not the only way (to experience it), all it takes is a device with a screen, like a computer or a smartphone. The Metaverse is a much broader concept, and it is a combination of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), blockchain, Web3.0, artificial intelligence, social media, and much more.
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Augmented reality (AR) allows users to view the real-world environment with augmented (seamlessly added) elements, generated by digital devices. We usually view the combined actual and digital content through a handheld device or smart glasses (still often in two dimensions). Mixed reality merges the real world with the virtual world to create new environments and visualisations where objects from the virtual world and real world coexist and interact in real-time. We may describe it as enhanced augmented reality with some aspects of virtual reality – thus a blend of both. Experts forecast that users, for their daily activities on the internet, will engage in the metaverse through augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) for the foreseeable future. In contrast, virtual reality (VR) is foreseen to be used mostly for entertainment, gaming, meetings, and virtual learning and training.
Virtual reality (VR) simulates 3D experiences using a computer-generated environment, allowing the user to completely be detached from the physical world and immersed into a digital one. Users experience Virtual reality using ocular technology (VR headsets or glasses) and, more recently, haptic technology, such as gloves and suits. Haptic technologies are rapidly being developed and adapted for the metaverse to be used in combination with AR or VR. This technology essentially stimulates users’ sense of touch; it enhances what the user experiences by adding tactile response, so the user may ‘feel’.
Another emerging tech is a brain-computer interface (BCI) which is a part of neurotechnology. BCI is a computer-based system that takes brain impulses, examines them, and then converts them into instructions for devices that ultimately deliver the required result. Researchers predict it will be applied in the metaverse to enable people to operate devices, interact with one another, and control avatars through their thoughts alone. Eventually, further advances would allow the brain to reproduce the sense of taste, touch, and smell.
Sophisticated algorithms and computing power are predicted to be key factors (or enablers) in the further development of more immersive environments. Metaverse will certainly require ‘supercomputers’ with a high-performance level; this is where quantum computing development comes into play. Quantum computing should add computational power to the metaverse, VR and MR, resulting in more immersive and seamless experiences.
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Virtual worlds and their infrastructure, landscape(s), and other assets will be created by AI in addition to humans as the primary content creators. As technology advances, AI is expected to take a primary role in content creation. Researchers at Stanford’s Computational Imaging Lab believe that AI is crucial for improving 3D displays for virtual and augmented reality applications. At the same time, companies are already training AI to create entire virtual worlds. Soul Machines is working on Humans OS 2.0, an AI-driven digital 3D version of chatbots that will eventually inhabit the metaverse, which learns from interactions with real people.
Governance and technology
When it comes to governance, perhaps the biggest concerns are about our condition as human beings. Whom do we trust to run and govern the metaverse – is it tech companies, or do we expect countries to have digital twins of their governance structures in the metaverse? Web 3.0, the metaverse building block, offers a different approach – decentralisation. It is important to note that Web 3.0 is still in the process of being imagined, designed, and built. Much of Web 3.0 remains hypothetical.
Web 3.0 is a notion of who would own and govern the internet of the future, rather than a new technology per se, although it is based on emerging technologies like blockchain, non-fungible tokens, and AI.
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Decentralisation is an idea that ownership and governance should be divided among the internet’s users and creators, as opposed to centralised corporations owning and managing it.
In particular, this approach tries to get rid of the current model of a centralised network run by a single entity (like social networks or e-commerce websites), but rather to take a step back in internet history and build the network on free and open source standards of the internet backbone. In theory, this could enable access to metaverse on a utility level for everyone (as is the case with the internet).
Blockchain is the backbone of what is titled Web 3.0. Ownership over digital assets is foreseen to boost new types of economic, social and financial relations. For communities involved in a build-up of Web 3.0 based on blockchain technologies, metaverse will in fact be based on Web 3.0, while XR will ‘only’ add the 3D and immersive component on top of it.
Blockchain is the basis for allowing ownership over digital(ised) assets – be it digital money, art, or other types of information. Some known examples of blockchain use are crypto-currencies like bitcoin or Ether, in-game items like avatars, digital and non-digital collectables, ect. Importantly, blockchain has enabled the emergence of non-fungible tokens (NFT) – digital tokens that represent non-fungible assets in the real or digital world (like art, music, real estate, or in-game items). Unique properties and ownership over those assets is stored in an NFT blockchain. Trading NFTs thus equals the trade of real or digital assets, while blockchain ensures a decentralised and secure track record of those transactions. NFTs can play a pivotal role in enabling the economic and trade potentials of the metaverse.
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However, this concept comes with its set of challenges. For instance, platforms built on Web3.0 do not really rely on a single server. Instead, information is copied and spread over multiple servers via a peer-to-peer network. As a result, no institution, such as a hosting company, has the power to take down unlawful/harmful content. Another challenge is blockchain technology. Once information is on the blockchain, it is permanently stored and can only be removed through a consensus.
Geopolitics and trends
The global metaverse market was valued at US$40 billion in 2021 and is estimated to surpass around US$1,607.12 billion by 2030. Another report by McKinsey & Company (‘Value Creation in the Metaverse’) stated investment in the metaverse so far in 2022 (US$120 billion) has already more than doubled the total investment for 2021. The same reports estimate the value of the market by 2030 to surpass US$5 trillion. Furthermore, the report predicts the e-commerce industry is likely to benefit the most, with an estimated market impact of somewhere between US$2 trillion and US$2.6 trillion by 2030, followed by the academic virtual learning market (US$180 billion to US$270 billion), advertising (US$144 billion to US$206 billion) and gaming (US$108 billion to US$125 billion).
With such market predictions, geopolitical competition is inevitable. As the metaverse idea goes mainstream, more companies, from the gaming industry to luxury fashion brands, are entering the contest. However, the state of play is ultimately the same: Companies headquartered in the USA and China are at the forefront of the race.
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Companies are not the only ones interested in the metaverse – governments and their institutions are keeping a close eye on developments.
Other countries are joining the ‘race’, with Barbados, South Korea, Dubai, and Spain making announcements of their own. Barbados is planning to launch the world’s first metaverse embassy in the Decentaland metaverse. Barbados government is also finalising agreements with other metaverse platforms to buy land, build virtual consulates and embassies, provide e-visas, and build a teleporter that will allow users to transport their avatars between various metaverses. Meanwhile, South Korea is investing around US$177.1 million, while its capital Seoul plans to become the ‘first major city’ to enter the metaverse. Its citizens will be able to access the cities’ economic, cultural, tourism, educational, and civic services by 2023. Moreover, the emirate of Dubai announced the launch of the metaverse Strategy, which aims to turn Dubai into one of the world’s metaverse economies as well as a global hub for the metaverse community. The Spanish government promised grants to small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) and independent contractors with domicile in Spain or the European Union who are involved in research, development, and innovation projects integrating Web3 and metaverse technologies.
Margrethe Vestager, the bloc’s antitrust chief, stated that the EU is analysing the metaverse landscape, before deciding how to regulate it and its potential impacts. Accordingly, the European Parliament commissioned a study investigating the potential benefits and challenges of the metaverse, with aim to assist the Members and staff of the European Parliament as background in their parliamentary work.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has published her ‘2022 State of the Union Letter of Intent’, underpinning the metaverse as an important digital opportunity and trend while also setting out plans for potential regulations of the metaverse. However, the letter provides little specifics on EU actions. Another EU official, Thierry Breton, the Commissioner for Internal Market, wrote about the metaverse in a blog post. Breton explained that the metaverse was one of the European Commission’s most pressing challenges, and its plan to foster the virtual world will focus on people, technologies, and infrastructure.
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Even though there is a broad debate about the metaverse in the US public, the government is keenly silent. The discussion of the metaverse is still in its early stage among politicians; a group of US representatives established the Congressional Caucus on Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality Technologies to educate lawmakers and their staff on this emerging tech.
The metaverse and the underlying technologies could aid developing nations in closing economic and digital divides, for they provide a fresh start for everyone – venture into the unknown.
According to a survey conducted by Ipsos for the World Economic Forum (WEF), enthusiasm for the metaverse and extended reality is highest in developing countries, while in developed (countries) not so much. Turkey was the country most familiar with the Metaverse at 86%, followed by India (80%), China (73%), and the higher-income country of South Korea (71%). At the same time, familiarity with (the metaverse) is lowest in Poland (27%), France (28%), Belgium (30%), and Germany (30%).
Last month, two young paddleboarders found themselves stranded in the ocean, pushed 2,000 feet from the shore by strong winds and currents. Thanks to the deployment of a drone, rescuers kept an eye on them the whole time and safely brought them aboard a rescue boat within minutes.
In North Carolina, the Oak Island Fire Department is one of a few in the country using drone technology for ocean rescues. Firefighter-turned-drone pilot Sean Barry explained the drone’s capabilities as it was demonstrated on a windy day.
“This drone is capable of flying in all types of weather and environments,” Barry said.
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Equipped with a camera that can switch between modes — including infrared to spot people in distress — responders can communicate instructions through a speaker. It also can carry life-preserving equipment.
The device is activated by a CO2 cartridge when it comes in contact with water. Once triggered, it inflates into a long tube, approximately 26 inches long, providing distressed swimmers something to hold on to.
In a real-life rescue, after a 911 call from shore, the drone spotted a swimmer in distress. It released two floating tubes, providing the swimmer with buoyancy until help arrived.
Like many coastal communities, Oak Island’s population can swell from about 10,000 to 50,000 during the summer tourist season. Riptides, which are hard to detect on the surface, can happen at any time.
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Every year, about 100 people die due to rip currents on U.S. beaches. More than 80% of beach rescues involve rip currents, if you’re caught in one, rescuers advise to not panic or try to fight it, but try to float or swim parallel to the coastline to get out of the current.
Oak Island Fire Chief Lee Price noted that many people underestimate the force of rip currents.
“People are, ‘Oh, I’m a good swimmer. I’m gonna go out there,’ and then they get in trouble,” Price said.
For Price, the benefit of drones isn’t just faster response times but also keeping rescuers safe. Through the camera and speaker, they can determine if someone isn’t in distress.
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Price said many people might not be aware of it.
“It’s like anything as technology advances, it takes a little bit for everybody to catch up and get used to it,” said Price.
In a demonstration, Barry showed how the drone can bring a safety rope to a swimmer while rescuers prepare to pull the swimmer to shore.
“The speed and accuracy that this gives you … rapid deployment, speed, accuracy, and safety overall,” Price said. “Not just safety for the victim, but safety for our responders.”
Manuel Bojorquez is a CBS News national correspondent based in Miami. He joined CBS News in 2012 as a Dallas-based correspondent and was promoted to national correspondent for the network’s Miami bureau in January 2017.
It’s been quite some time since we heard anything about Netflix’s animated adaptation of Splinter Cell — but the streamer has finally provided some details on the show. The reveal comes in the form of a very brief teaser trailer, which shows a little bit of the show, but mostly showcases Liev Schreiber’s gravelly take on lead character Sam Fisher. We also have a proper name now: it’s called Splinter Cell: Deathwatch.
Horseshoe crabs: Ancient creatures who are a medical marvel – CBS News
Correspondent Conor Knighton visits New Jersey beaches along the Delaware Bay to learn about horseshoe crabs – mysterious creatures that predate dinosaurs – whose very blood has proved vital to keeping humans healthy by helping detect bacterial endotoxins. He talks with environmentalists about the decline in the horseshoe crab population, and with researchers who are pushing the pharmaceutical industry to switch its use of horseshoe crab blood with a synthetic alternative used in medical testing.
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Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
Your Strands expert
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Your Strands expert
Marc McLaren
NYT Strands today (game #201) – hint #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… A way with words
NYT Strands today (game #201) – hint #2 – clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
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DIRTY
STRICT
POSE
POSED
DEAN
DOSE
NYT Strands today (game #201) – hint #3 – spangram
What is a hint for today’s spangram?
• A bard’s domain
NYT Strands today (game #201) – hint #4 – spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches?
First: left, 4th row
Last: right, 5th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #201) – the answers
The answers to today’s Strands, game #201, are…
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RHYME
VERSE
METER
STANZA
SYNTAX
DICTION
SCANSION
SPANGRAM: POETRY
My rating: Moderate
My score: 2 hints
I’ve never been a fan of poetry, though I love words and language. Set it to music and it’s a different matter – and I guess the best lyricists are also poets. But ask me to talk about SCANSION and STANZAs and I’m a little lost. All of which is a way of justifying why I needed two hints to complete what for some people will probably be a fairly simple Strands puzzle.
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I worked out what the theme was early on, with the clue of ‘A way with words’ and the fact that I found RHYME by accident combining to set me on the right track. But though I spotted a couple more, I couldn’t get them all without needing a helping hand for METER and STANZA. After that I spotted the spangram, and the others were solved pretty much by a combination of guesswork and my modicum of knowledge.
Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Thursday 19 September, game #200)
SPIDER
MILLIPEDE
BEETLE
TERMITE
EARWIG
SPANGRAM: CREEPYCRAWLIES
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT’s new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I’ve got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you’re struggling to beat it each day.
A blockchain entrepreneur, a cinematographer, a polar adventurer and a robotics researcher plan to fly around Earth’s poles aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule by the end of the year, becoming the first humans to observe the ice caps and extreme polar environments from orbit, SpaceX announced Monday.
The historic flight, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will be commanded by Chun Wang, a wealthy bitcoin pioneer who founded f2pool and stakefish, “which are among the largest Bitcoin mining pools and Ethereum staking providers,” the crew’s website says.
“Wang aims to use the mission to highlight the crew’s explorational spirit, bring a sense of wonder and curiosity to the larger public and highlight how technology can help push the boundaries of exploration of Earth and through the mission’s research,” SpaceX said on its website.
Wang’s crewmates are Norwegian cinematographer Jannicke Mikkelsen, Australian adventurer Eric Philips and Rabea Rogge, a German robotics researcher. All four have an interest in extreme polar environments and plan to carry out related research and photography from orbit.
The mission, known as “Fram2” in honor of a Norwegian ship used to explore both the Arctic and Antarctic regions, will last three to five days and fly at altitudes between about 265 and 280 miles.
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“This looks like a cool & well thought out mission. I wish the @framonauts the best on this epic exploration adventure!” tweeted Jared Isaacman, the billionaire philanthropist who charted the first private SpaceX mission — Inspiration4 — and who plans to blast off on a second flight — Polaris Dawn — later this month.
The flights “showcase what commercial missions can achieve thanks to @SpaceX’s reusability and NASA’s vision with the commercial crew program,” Isaacman said. “All just small steps towards unlocking the last great frontier.”
Like the Inspiration4 mission before them, Wang and his crewmates will fly in a Crew Dragon equipped with a transparent cupola giving them a picture-window view of Earth below and deep space beyond.
No astronauts or cosmonauts have ever viewed Earth from the vantage point of a polar orbit, one tilted, or inclined, 90 degrees to the equator. Such orbits are favored by spy satellites, weather stations and commercial photo-reconnaissance satellites because they fly over the entire planet as it rotates beneath them.
The high-inclination record for piloted flight was set in the early 1960s by Soviet Vostok spacecraft launched into orbits inclined 65 degrees. The U.S. record was set by a space shuttle mission launched in 1990 that carried out a classified military mission in an orbit tilted 62 degrees with respect to the equator.
The International Space Station never flies beyond 51.6 degrees north and south latitude. NASA planned to launch a space shuttle on a classified military mission around the poles in 1986, but the flight was canceled in the wake of the Challenger disaster.
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“The North and South Poles are invisible to astronauts on the International Space Station, as well as to all previous human spaceflight missions except for the Apollo lunar missions but only from far away,” the Fram2 website says. “This new flight trajectory will unlock new possibilities for human spaceflight.”
SpaceX has launched 13 piloted missions carrying 50 astronauts, cosmonauts and private citizens to orbit in nine NASA flights to the space station, three commercial visits to the lab and the Inspiration4 mission chartered by Isaacman.
Isaacman and three crewmates plan to blast off Aug. 26 on another fully commercial flight, this one featuring the first civilian spacewalks. NASA plans to launch its next Crew Dragon flight to the space station around Sept. 24.
Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News.
Today we’re launching a totally new, totally different app. Meet Orion.
Orion is a small, fun app that helps you use your iPad as an external HDMI display for any camera, video game console, or even VHS. Just plug in one of the bajillion inexpensive adapters, and Orion handles the rest.
But wait — we’re a camera company. Why an HDMI monitor?
We built this to scratch a few itches. First, in professional cinematography, it’s common to connect an external screen to your camera to get a better view of the action. Orion not only gives you a bigger screen, but you can even share screenshots with your crew with a couple of taps.
We also built this for… pure fun. When traveling with a Nintendo Switch, it’s a delight to play games on a bigger screen, especially alongside friends.
Orion goes a step beyond display. By default, inputs could look fuzzy on an iPad’s retina display. (Why? The Switch runs a modest 1080p resolution, and even if it ran at a higher resolution, most adapters on the market can only run 60 frames per second at 1080P.)
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Orion sharpens those low resolution inputs with an AI powered upscaler!
Another perk is control over the brightness of the image beyond the iPad’s screen brightness. If you’re trying to view video in daylight, crank up brightness to HDR range for extra help. If you’re on a late-night flight and don’t want to bother anyone around you, make things darker than the iPad’s darkest.
OK, I hear you ask, but how much does all of this cost? A camera monitor is hundreds of dollars. Well, Orion is free. Yep, free.
If you want to support the app, get Orion Pro: It packs AI upscaling, CRT emulation for retro games, and image adjustments (and whatever else we cook up). It’s a one-time upgrade for $5. It unlocks everything. No subscriptions.
As for those adapters, we found plenty available for under $20. Now it’s easy to get confused and accidentally buy, say, a USB-C hub with video output, which can’t capture anything. (Ask me how I know.) That’s why we personally tested the top ten adapters on Amazon and made a helpful buying guide with our recommendations and some other accessories, too.
The Story of Orion
This summer, Apple announced a set of awesome new features coming to iOS 17, and one of them was external-webcam support on iPad. After digging into the feature for our flagship app, Halide, we weren’t satisfied with the results in a camera app.
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However, we did discover that a ton of companies sell tiny, inexpensive adapters that convert HDMI signals into webcams. “What if you could use an iPad as a portable screen?” Hmm! Intriguing. We had an idea, and we got to work.
We wrote the first line of code on August 6th, we’re shipping September 20th — 45 days later.
We’re launching at the start of new iPhone season, so we’re already super busy and shifting our focus to our flagship iPhone photography app, Halide. Orion won’t distract us from that, because we’re calling it a b-side.
B-sides are small fun, small, and focused projects. Apps like Halide needs major work every year to keep up with new hardware, but we expect Orion will be “done” after a release or two. We’ll keep maintaining it so it doesn’t break, but we won’t revolve our lives around it. It’s a fun utility, and that’s why we’re only asking for a few bucks.
Beyond being fun to build and design, apps like Orion let us experiment with new developer tools earlier than in our flagship apps. In a mature app used by lots of people, it’s a good idea to wait a year or two before adopting a cutting edge technology; while Apple launched SwiftUI in 2019, but we waited until 2021 to add it to Halide. SwiftUI has been a huge win for certain types of problems— and we couldn’t have built Orion so quickly without it— but by waiting two years before adding SwiftUI it to Halide, we had to play a lot of catchup in 2021.
So apps like Orion allow us to scratch our own itch, which is how we got into building apps in the first place, and also help us keep up with where iOS is heading.
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The Orion Video System Design
You might notice something about the styling of Orion — it’s very stylized in a… retro sort of way.
When we set off to design the app, we really wanted it to be fun. Starting with the basic idea—a portable screen—we thought of the era where televisions and video were still exciting, fresh technology. The techno-utopia of the early 1980s came to mind. We find this a delightful aesthetic.
Pastels, purples and pinks. Detailed technical illustrations and bright colors. Futuristic logos. Type that tracked far too tightly thanks to the invention of the photo-typesetter. And of course, the invention of bitmap typefaces and on-screen user interfaces and icons.
We didn’t want to just lean into the clichés—there are enough vaporwave sunsets with Deloreans out there that try to seem ’80s’— so went and developed a visual language that is based on the electronics brochures and VCR interfaces of bygone days that conveys ‘modern’ in a way only the 1980s visual vernacular can.
In Halide, we did everything we could to make the app feel as tactile as a real camera. Great cameras are wonderfully tactile — every knob and switch has a weighted, deliberate feel and click to it.
In Orion, we wanted to give you the joy of your own ‘video system’. That meant starting from the beginning: you open the box to unpack it. Because, well, why not.
Instructions follow, so you can get started quickly.
And when not actively in use, you return to a glowing, slightly distorted nostalgic place of on-screen menus, where our custom-made pixel font called Radiant steals the show.
If it wasn’t obvious, we had a lot of fun doing this. And that’s what really mattered to us: if anything, Orion was a project to collaborate with friends on something fun and different.
Thank you
We want to build things with craft, fun and delight. To showcase that apps are an art form, and have no business being boring. We hope you enjoy the result — we know that we loved building it for you. Thanks to you, we get to do what we love.
Orion was a collaboration with friends. Some of the incredible design and typography on display (and our two custom typefaces) are the work of Jelmar Geertsma. Orion was co-engineered with Anton Heestand. The opening music (yes, opening music) is by Cabel Sasser. Extra thanks go to Louie Mantia for bézier wrangling and our families — especially Margo — for supporting us in doing what we love. If you are still reading here, please consider leaving us a review on our apps — it goes a very long way.
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