Christina Aguilera might be an anomaly for wishing social media was around at the start of her career, but she certainly has a good reason.

Throughout the early-2000s, the purported Aguilera and Britney Spears rivalry helped to fill celebrity gossip pages around the globe. Although they had different voices and sensibilities, they were relentlessly pitted against each other in the pop world.

Had the likes of Twitter or Instagram been around, Aguilera could’ve easily put that scuttlebutt to rest.

“[Celebrities] come together more now, and if this was back in the day whenever people would compare me to other artists and things that were happening, I would’ve loved to have squash it before having an interview,” she told Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday.

Aguilera said she would’ve liked to do a song with Spears to end those rumours, and that social media could have made it happen. You know what, it’s not too late.

“If her reps say OK, then well…” Aguilera trailed off, leaving us hoping, wishing, waiting for the pop collaboration of our dreams.

Daniel Radcliffe doesn’t actively seek out Harry Potter memes, but that didn’t stop Jimmy Fallon from throwing a few his way.

The Harry Potter star, who is currently promoting his Broadway run in The Lifespan of a Fact, was a damn good sport on The Tonight Show on Wednesday, offering up genuine enthusiasm for meme after meme. 

But one particularly generated a strong grin, the viral video of YouTube personality Kelsey Ellison at MCM London’s ComicCon, stupefying all with a casually fierce dance while dressed up as Hermione Granger.

“That is great. We need to remake the film as a musical,” said Radcliffe.

Scientists have come across what they claim to be the earliest-known human drawing in South Africa.

The etching, reminiscent of a hashtag, was drawn with an ochre crayon on silcrete rock, and was discovered in Blombos Cave, which is located 300 kilometres (186 miles) west of Cape Town.

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It’s estimated to be 73,000 years old, predating previously known abstract and figurative drawings by humans from Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia by at least 30,000 years. 

The results of the discovery were published in the journal Nature by researchers from Europe and South Africa, including Francesco d’Errico, Karen L. van Niekerk, Laure Dayet, Alain Queffelec, and Luca Pollarolo.

Christopher Henshilwood, a professor from Norway’s University of Bergen who led the discovery team, explained to The Conversation that his team are “hesitant to call it ‘art’.” 

“It is definitely an abstract design; it almost certainly had some meaning to the maker and probably formed a part of the common symbolic system understood by other people in this group. It’s also evidence of early humans’ ability to store information outside of the human brain,” he said.

Henshilwood added that the cross-hatched patterns have been found on pieces of ochre in other sites, indicating our early ancestors’ ability to reproduce graphic designs with different techniques. 

“The discovery adds to our existing understanding of Homo sapiens in Africa. They were behaviourally modern: they behaved essentially like us. They were able to produce and use symbolic material culture to mediate their behaviour, just like we do now,” he added.

“They also had syntactic language — essential for conveying symbolic meaning within and across groups of hunter gatherers who were present in southern Africa at that time.”

Once used as shelter by hunter-gatherers, Blombos Cave is now a significant archaeological site for researchers seeking to understand our early ancestors. 

Back in 2011, a painting kit made of abalone shells dating 100,000 years old was discovered in the cave, as well an an earlier discovery of ochre-painted shell beads.

I bought the original Apple Watch “Series 0” back in 2015, and it served me well for a year until I felt overwhelmed with receiving notifications on my wrist. (Phantom vibrations are a real thing. Look it up!)

Series 1, 2, and 3 of the smartwatch introduced welcome updates like a built-in GPS, water-resistance, and then cellular connectivity, but I’ve never felt that any of them were compelling enough to spend more cash on. 

But Apple’s just-announced Apple Watch Series 4 might change my mind.

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Apple kicked off its annual fall iPhone event with the new Apple Watch Series 4. Since the original Apple Watch, the smartwatch has rocketed its way to become the No. 1 watch in the world (according to Tim Cook).

He might be biased, but he’s not wrong. Despite a slow start out of the gate, the Apple Watch has destroyed the competition. Just about every consumer tech company has abandoned making new WearOS smartwatches (though that could change now that Qualcomm’s got a new smartwatch chip that might incentivize new projects) and they’ve only remained on life support thanks to fashion brands.

Samsung’s still plugging away with the Galaxy Watch. It’s got really great multi-day battery life, but it’s still fundamentally unchanged from the previous Gear S4 and Gear Sport.

For the first time, the Apple Watch Series 4 finally feels like a major leap forward for a smartwatch compared to its original.

The smartwatches now come in two new screen sizes: 40mm and 44mm — a jump up from the previous 38mm and 42mm — without any significant change to the watch case itself.

The screens are over 30 percent larger than the Series 3 and sport curved corners that blend more seamlessly with the bezel.

And the bigger screen is immediately noticeable. There are more pixels for displaying watch face complications and content. You’re just not covering as much of the display when you swipe on it, which makes you actually want to engage with stuff like notifications.

Many of the new watch faces, such as the fire and Breathe app-based faces, look more organic on the screens.

All your existing Apple Watch bands still work with the Series 4, which brings me comfort. The Series 4 is thinner and lighter than the Series 3, making it less bulbous on the wrist — another comfort.

Also, the Digital Crown is now more than just a dial for scrolling. Place your finger on it and the Apple Watch can take an electrocardiogram (ECG), which you can then provide to your doctor. It can detect if you’ve fallen and then call for emergency assistance.

I didn’t get to try any of these features, but they definitely seem super practical. I could see both of them being very useful for anyone who wants to keep closer tabs on their aging parents or grandparents. 

The Apple Watch Series 4 also feels vastly more responsive. I tried the Series 3 for a few weeks, but watchOS never exactly felt really speedy. It does on Series 4. 

At the end of the day — yes — the Apple Watch Series 4 is still a smartwatch. And it’s admittedly kind of pricey, starting at $399 for the non-cellular 40mm version. You still use it for the same things pitched with any of the previous versions: fielding notifications, tracking your health, making phone calls and texting, etc.

But the developments that come with the Apple Watch Series 4 make using the smartwatch an all-around nicer experience now, because the screen’s not so small that you need to squint to see anything.