Daily Tech Snippet: Thursday, September 8

• What’s Really Missing From the New iPhone: Dazzle Forget about the headphone jack for a second. Sure, it’s pretty annoying that Apple’s newest iPhones — the 7 and 7 Plus, which were unveiled in San Francisco on Wednesday and will start shipping to customers on Sept. 16 — will not include a port for plugging in standard earbuds. But you’ll get used to it. The absence of a jack is far from the worst shortcoming in Apple’s latest product launch. Instead, it’s a symptom of a deeper issue with the new iPhones, part of a problem that afflicts much of the company’s product lineup: Apple’s aesthetics have grown stale. Apple has squandered its once-commanding lead in hardware and software design. Though the new iPhones include several new features, including water resistance and upgraded cameras, they look pretty much the same as the old ones. The new Apple Watch does too. And as competitors have borrowed and even begun to surpass Apple’s best designs, what was iconic about the company’s phones, computers, tablets and other products has come to seem generic. This is a subjective assessment, and it’s one that Apple rebuts.Yet there are signs that my critique of Apple’s designs are shared by others. Industrial designers and tech critics used to swoon over Apple’s latest hardware; nowadays you witness less swooning and more bemusement.And while Apple has slowed its design cadence, its rivals have sped up. Last year Samsung remade its lineup of Galaxy smartphones in a new glass-and-metal design that looked practically identical to the iPhone. Then it went further. Over the course of a few months, Samsung put out several design refinements, culminating in the Note 7, a big phone that has been universally praised by critics. With its curved sides and edge-to-edge display, the Note 7 pulls off a neat trick: Though it is physically smaller than Apple’s big phone, it actually has a larger screen. So thanks to clever design, you get more from a smaller thing — exactly the sort of advance we once looked to Apple for.

• Amazon Cuts Delivery Times in Threat to Alibaba, EBay, Wish.com: Amazon.com Inc. is speeding the delivery of USB cables, smartphone screen protectors, cosmetics and other small, flat items in its continuing push against rival marketplaces that help overseas manufacturers and suppliers sell directly to U.S. shoppers.  The Seattle-based company notified merchants Wednesday that such items would now be delivered to Amazon Prime members within five business days, down from eight previously, according to an e-mail obtained by Bloomberg. That makes Amazon delivery of small, inexpensive items from China, for example, much faster than the two weeks to 30 days it can take using marketplaces owned by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., EBay Inc. and Wish.com. Amazon wants quick delivery, which has helped it dominate online shopping in the U.S., to further differentiate itself from competitors in cross-border e-commerce. U.S. online shoppers will spend about $30 billion this year on cross-border transactions, a 10 percent increase from 2015, with China the leading source of goods purchased, according to a February report byEMarketer. 

• OfferUp raises $119 million for resale marketplace: It’s like Craigslist, but with auctions. OfferUp is an app that makes it easy to buy and sell your goods. The fast-growing Seattle-based company is raising $119 million to continue its global expansion and continue hiring. The round is led by Warburg Pincus and includes funding from GGV Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and T. Rowe Price. OfferUp users snap a photo of their used items like clothing and furniture and then check the app to sort through the highest bids. The built-in messaging feature also makes it easy to communicate with prospective buyers. Hans Tung from GGV Capital said that he invested in OfferUp because “Craigslist hasn’t innovated for a long time and there is unmet, pent up demand for classified on mobile.” He points out that OfferUp makes it easy to communicate with prospective buyers, without having to share one’s personal cell phone number. OfferUp launched just last year and already has 29 million installations in the U.S. They claim that their user engagement rivals Snapchats.I personally tried OfferUp last fall when I was selling items before a cross-country move. I was surprised to see how easy it was to find bidders for seemingly undesirable things, including my used trash can! OfferUp previously raised over $91 million in funding.