The Morning After: Monday, June 5th 2017

the-morning-after-monday-june-5th-2017 photo 1 Wonder Woman

Welcome to the new week. Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference kicks off later today. While we will be reporting live from it, we've also got thoughts on what you might see, right here.

We also try overclocking processors with liquid nitrogen (and some skill), and explain that the end of SIM cards as we know them is coming. Oh, and Google Photos is now smart enough to delete your useless photos all by itself.


Warning! May contain liquid nitrogen
A total newbie tries overclocking to 7GHz

the-morning-after-monday-june-5th-2017 photo 2

Asia's big PC show, Computex, has two competitive arenas: eSports and extreme-PC-overclocking. Even if you don't have the Counter-Strike skills to cut it it, there's always the opportunity to pour liquid nitrogen onto a PC motherboard. Total overclocking newbie Richard Lai took up the challenge.


The Assistant will ID pictures that might not require top billing.
Google Photos archiving rolls out with AI-powered suggestions

the-morning-after-monday-june-5th-2017 photo 3

The new Archive feature recently spotted in Google Photos is now rolling out to all users, but it has an extra trick. While the Archive button lets you push more mundane photos (scans of receipts, screenshots of a random tweet, or maybe particularly personal photograph) out of the main Photos display without deleting it, there's also a new suggestion in the Assistant tab that will use its machine learning skills to find likely candidates for you. Of course, you can manually archive photos any time you like (they'll still show up in search or inside albums), but if you already have a significant Photos catalog this should make things easier.


Plastic cards may linger, but expect the big changeover soon.
Computex was a reminder that the age of the eSIM is upon us

the-morning-after-monday-june-5th-2017 photo 4

Nestled inside your cellphone is a sliver of plastic you almost certainly never think about. Your SIM card basically stores your phone's identity and passes it along to whatever wireless carrier network you pay for. It's absolutely crucial to the way your phone operates, but wireless carriers and network companies have been plotting its demise for years. Yes, the future belongs to what's called an eSIM -- short for "embedded SIM" -- woven directly into the silicon fabric of a device's modem. eSIMs may already be in our wearables, but thanks to Intel and Microsoft, they'll wind up in our phones and PCs before long.

But wait, there's more...

  • Microsoft's vision for connected PCs gives me hope for Windows
  • Sony is building a full-frame digital camera for pro filmmakers
  • Recommended Reading: 'Wonder Woman' is a timely superhero movie
  • After Math: We're on our own

Recommended stories

More stories

The best immersion blender

The Breville Control Grip immersion blender produces smooth textures and is easier to use than the competition.