The Morning After: What is it with Netflix cropping ‘Seinfeld’?

Welcome to Monday. How was your weekend? For me, a rainy October — England doing what it does — kept me indoors, but fortunately, there was a crop of shows I was planning to watch anyhow.

While I caught up on the cultural phenomenon that is Squid Games, a lot of you dipped your toes into the entire run of Seinfeld, which is now available to stream on Netflix.

You might have noticed the march of progress inadvertently squashing some of the visual gags out of shot. Case in point: The pothole featured in season 8 is literally out of shot to fit the show into the modern 16:9 widescreen format.

Cropped shows have always been an issue: Seinfeld has been on cable TV and Hulu with similar cropping. The popularity of Netflix has simply meant the show is getting more attention at this moment in time. There are solutions. When the entire run of The Simpsons hit Disney+, it was similarly squashed into widescreen. Disney eventually released the seasons that aired in 4:3 in their original aspect ratio.

Will Netflix do the same?

— Mat Smith

Apple’s new MacBook Pro should land this fall

According to rumors, that is.

Apple has now updated the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch for the holiday season — we’re still waiting for a launch date for the wearable — but what about the Macs? There have been plenty of rumors about a totally redesigned MacBook Pro coming out this fall, and the reliable Mark Gurman at Bloomberg says an M1X-powered MacBook Pro will arrive "in the next month."

It wouldn’t be a huge shock: Apple has typically held Mac-focused events in October or early November; the first M1-based Macs were announced in early November, last year.

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Toyota's three-wheeled C+walk picks up where Segway left off

It arrives in Japan next month.

Toyota’s latest three-wheeler isn’t a bike or a car. Like the headline suggests, it’s more like a Segway, built for pedestrianized areas and more aimed at mobility than sheer A-to-B transport. To that point, it has a maximum speed of just over six miles per hour, though it’s possible to throttle it down to one mile per hour, and includes an obstacle avoidance system. It beeps when it detects something on your path and slows down if a collision is imminent.

Toyota believes the scooter could help elderly workers travel across large facilities, like warehouses, factories and airport terminals.

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Apple, Amazon and others back groups trying to kill US climate legislation

Many tech companies have lobbyists who are fighting the $3.5 trillion budget bill.

Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Disney are among the major companies backing corporate lobby groups and organizations battling a US climate bill, according to a report. That's despite those companies all making pledges to reduce their impact on the environment. The Guardian reports that watchdog Accountable.US analyzed the groups to learn which companies have connections to them.

The United States Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and the Rate Coalition are three of the lobbyist and business groups that oppose the Democrats' $3.5 trillion budget bill, which includes measures to fight climate change.

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NBCUniversal's channels are staying on YouTube TV

The two companies have settled their spat.

The YouTube / NBC drama is officially over. After reaching a temporary deal to keep NBCUniversal channels on YouTube TV, the companies officially resolved their despite Saturday afternoon. "We’re thrilled to share that we’ve reached a deal to continue carrying the full NBCUniversal portfolio of channels," YouTube wrote on its blog. "That means you won’t lose access to any of their channels, and YouTube TV will continue to offer 85+ networks for $64.99. We appreciate NBCUniversal’s willingness to work toward an agreement, and we also appreciate your patience as we negotiated with them on your behalf."

It was such a potential problem for YouTube TV that the service said it would cut its price by $10 per month if it wasn't able to reach a deal with NBCUniversal. Fortunately for YouTube TV customers, nothing is changing, at least for now.

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