Lip locked

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today. A new app turns travel recommendations into an itinerary, you can now grab a robotaxi ride in San Fran, Superman comic sets new record, and Guns N’ Roses are back in the news…again 🤪

Let’s get into it!

And you won’t need a gong to summon it.

Zoox was purchased by Amazon in 2020 for $1.2 billion, and as of today you can download the app to get on a waitlist for a free ride on the cartoon-looking miniature self-driving vehicle.

The Zoox prototype looks more like a ski mountain gondola than a car; it has no steering wheel, no pedals, contains just two passenger benches on its ends, and is a rectangular box on wheels that somehow doesn’t have a smiley face on the front.

The current prototype is being tested in San Francisco after a successful run along the Vegas strip. It makes sense, given how big tech culture is in the City By the Bay, and how steep so many of its streets are. One could think a gondola may already be required to travel uphill in SF, after all.

Riders on the waitlist for what’s called the “Zoox Explorers” program will be notified when it’s time to hitch a ride.

In case you were wondering, passengers can’t take over control of the vehicle’s movements, but climate and music are under the command of those hitching a ride.

Some like to travel wherever the wind takes them, but others prefer adhering to a stringent itinerary comprised of scouted out places or social recommendations. For those who lean towards the latter, the Boop app may be for you.

The app allows travellers to share locations and photos, and through the location data and metadata in the photos, the app can turn one traveller’s trip into a bookable itinerary.

On top of helping travellers formalize their plans for a big trip, the app also allows travel influencers to build official itineraries they can sell to followers and fellow enthusiasts.

While some seek out recommendations, others make a living giving them, and that’s partly what drove founder Nancy Li Smith to create the app. Always finding it difficult to jot down or save recommendations from her own trips in an organized fashion, Smith decided there’s gotta be an app for that.

She also built it to take pressure off women who find themselves stressed about travel planning. 82% of travel decisions are made by women, according to a study published by WayAway.

“Women are majority of the time the planner in the relationship and in the family and the friends groups,” Smith recently told TechCrunch. “There’s this pressure to make every trip amazing, not only for yourself or your partner, for your family, for your friends. Boop is now solving this so that we can capture this easily without people doing anything.”

You don’t have to be a collector to know an original copy of the very first Superman is without a doubt the gold standard of comic book collecting.

At Heritage Auctions, the most money ever paid for a comic book was indeed for an original copy of Superman #1, drawing $6 million. However, that was only until late last week.

A different copy of the same comic book—but in better shape—was found in the attic of a northern California home. Three brothers were cleaning out the house of their recently-deceased mother, and though they said she often spoke of having old comics stashed away somewhere from the 1930s, they just assumed she was making it up to mess with them.

The truth is the comic was indeed in the attic, and last Thursday, it sold for $9.12 million at a Heritage Auction after appraisal company CGC gave it a score of 9 out of 10—an unprecedented rating for such a highly-sought after collectible treasure.

"Superman No 1 is a milestone in pop culture history, and this copy is not only in unprecedented condition, but it has a movie-worthy story behind it. I was glad to see the price reflect that and am honored Heritage was entrusted with this iconic book," Heritage vice president Lon Allen said in a statement.

Guns N’ Roses announced they’ll release Nothin and Atlas on Dec. 2, bringing the total new songs released since the classic lineup reunited to six, with the two new ones joining Hard Skool, Perhaps, Absurd, and The General.

Little is known about Nothin, besides details Duff McKagan shared at a Fender Flagship Tokyo event earlier this year, where he said, "we have a new song that is coming out soon that we're starting to play live—it's called 'Nothin'— and I scroll between full tone on and full off.”

As for Atlas, it’s believed to be the new title of an unreleased Chinese Democracy-era track called Atlas Shrugged, a demo of which leaked in 2019, and featured Axl Rose’ signature high-pitched wail soaring over dense melodies.

GnR continues to fuel speculation that a new album could finally be on the way. There’s certainly no shortage of music, according to Slash.

"But the thing with Guns is, in my experience, you can never plan ahead. You can never sit down and go, 'We’re going to take this time, and we're going to do this.' Every time we've done that, it falls apart," Slash recently told Guitar World.

He said whaaaat?

No need to “be afraid…be very afraid” 🤣

Just settle in for some fun with today’s trivia — 10 questions featuring a treasure trove of great movie quotes. You’re gonna have a blast!

Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 eGift Card ;)

Winner will be notified on Thursday afternoon. Keep an eye on your inbox and don’t forget to check your spam folder!*