An Apple iPhone 8 by any other name, but what will it really be called?

We’re in the home stretch for Apple’s big dog and pony show for the next batch of iPhones, and Apple’s invites to the party say it’ll be the first event in the “Steve Jobs Theater” on the new “spaceship” campus. Crews are still putting the finishing touches on the multi-billion-dollar torus known as Apple Park, and, we hope at least, Apple has finally buttoned up the new iPhone. Which will be called, well… we’re not really sure.

Prognosticators have said the new device could be called the iPhone 8, the iPhone 10, or the iPhone Edition. But what will the other iPhones Apple is expected to reveal be called? 9to5Mac is saying their reliable sources claim the phones previously known as the iPhone 7S and 7S Plus will get a promotion and be called iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, with the new OLED halo phone getting tagged as the iPhone Edition, much like the $10,000 dollar Apple Watch Edition when it debuted.

And let’s not forget the “Steve Edition” of the iPhone, better known as the SE, which may get a bump in memory capacity to 128gb of memory while retaining the classic design introduced by Jobs just before he passed away in 2011. We’ll know who gets named what on September 12^th.

Alexa, run my life

Integrating an AI bot into a tech device is all the rage at present, and now, a popular maker of high-end earbuds is welcoming Alexa to the fold.

Bragi, makers of the full-on wireless The Dash and Dash Pro earbuds, say a future software update will bring Amazon’s smarthome AI bot Alexa into service for users. Apple and Google-phone users could already access Siri and Google Assistant, but adding Alexa to the mix opens up a possibly much wider information – and shopping – portal. Forget to order that thing you need before leaving on a trip? Just ask Alexa to do it for you while you wait in line at the airport.

That sounds maybe a bit too convenient, and god help you if you walk into a Whole Foods with the things on. Bragi says Alexa access will arrive with an update in October.

Prize level: $10 million

Nintendo just lost a court battle with a company that says the video game console maker infringed on its patent for tech used in those ubiquitous controllers, and the court told Nintendo to pay $10 million to the company, known as iLife. iLife had been asking for $144 million, so Nintendo kind of got off easy if you ask us. But no one is, and Nintendo is appealing, claiming they did not infringe on the patents and that the patents were “invalid.”

The original lawsuit was filed in 2014, so we’ll have to see how the appeal shakes out.

We’ve got more news on our Facebook page and YouTube channel, and be sure to tune in to this week’s DT podcasts: Close to the Metal (computers and such) on Tuesday, Trends with Benefits (general tech shenanigans)  on Thursdays, and Between the Streams (movie and TV topics) every Friday.