Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II review – new thrills from the old campaigner
Setting one’s unease at delighting in hi-tech warfare aside, this is a precisely tooled, intensely immersive combat simulator
It is almost comforting in this era of “games as a service”, where franchises exist as endless monetisation machines designed to consume every second of our free time, that Call of Duty still gets an annual retail release. Once upon a time, these games sold 30m copies a year, and people queued outside stores at midnight to buy them. Those days are gone, but Modern Warfare II shows there is still guilty pleasure to be had in these ridiculous yearly instalments of macho combat gymnastics.
The campaign story takes place three years after the close of 2019’s Modern Warfare. The newly created Task Force 141 is sent to track down an Iranian terrorist who has somehow acquired a set of American nuclear missiles. It’s slickly produced, fast-moving stuff, ricocheting around the world, from the Middle East to Mexico, while gruff guys yell macho spec-ops phrases at each other. En route, there are a few spectacular set-pieces. A section where you infiltrate a convoy of military vehicles as it zooms along a civilian highway might be one of the best driving sequences I’ve ever played in a mainstream shooter; and there’s a brilliant gun fight on the deck of a cargo boat in rough seas, where massive shipping containers slide all over the place, squishing unwary combatants.
In the year he’s spent rediscovering video games, Dominik Diamond has made plenty of embarrassing blunders – but this time, the mistake led to a revelation
Kid #1 informed me the other day that Horizon Zero Dawn was coming off PlayStation Plus at the end of October. I wrote about what this game meant to me back in July, playing it at a time when I had multiple life challenges, and the escapism and sense of achievement at completing it was a lifesaver. I did NOT complete the extra chapter The Frozen Wilds, however, because I moved to a new job, leaving consoles and TVs behind for a month or so. I passed the game on to the aforementioned oldest kid to play and she adored it even more, putting it up there with Zelda Breath of the Wild and The Last of Us on her best ever list.
Now she had done her completionist, 100%-ed-it-on-the-hardest-difficulty thing with it, she was about to return to the sequel – and wondered if I wanted to nip in there while the PlayStation was free and get The Frozen Wilds done before it disappeared off Sony’s subscription service and into the ether.
It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in your console. Many things, in fact, but here are some of the top scarers, from eldritch Victoriana to teen slasher horror and the video game equivalent of black metal
Folk horror meets point-and-click adventure in this richly atmospheric narrative yomp over the desolate moors of Victorian England. Thomasina Bateman is an archeologist and woman of science, summoned to excavate an ancient mound near a remote rural village – and terrible forces are brought forth. With its engaging protagonist, brooding yokels and atmospheric locations, it’s like taking part in a chilling BBC costume drama starring Suranne Jones and Sean Harris.
Let's explore the unique security dynamic between Ukraine and BlackBerry this week because it should reaffirm BlackBerry as the go-to company for cybersecurity. Then we'll close with my product of the week, my new favorite laptop, the incredibly unique Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 dual-screen laptop. The post BlackBerry: How Ukraine Is Making Us More Secure appeared first on TechNewsWorld.
Best podcasts of the week: the full story of Boris Johnson’s rise and fall
In this week’s newsletter: from zipline stunts to illegal parties, British Scandal charts the highs and lows of the former prime minister’s career. Plus: the five spookiest podcasts fit for Halloween.
High Low With EmRata
Widely available, three episodes weekly Emily Ratajkowski (below) has come a long way since exhibiting her impressive shoulder shimmy in Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines video. “You probably have some ideas about me,” she says while introducing a podcast that flips from pop to philosophy, covering TikTok, politics, sex and more. If it’s happening in the world, EmRata has a lot to say about it, but she knows her market and is careful to keep things fun, too. Hannah Verdier
For much of the tech industry, this summer was a season of economic uncertainty – one that led to a drop in Bitcoin prices, hundreds of laid off workers, and a hiring freeze. For video platform TikTok, it was also the summer that US regulators crossed the aisle to come to something of a consensus: it was time for stricter rules.
Since Buzzfeed reported in June that employees of TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance had access to US consumer data, TikTok has been the focus of rare bipartisan calls for regulation and inquiry.
Apple’s 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros might not arrive until next March
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales
Apple’s new M2-equipped 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros may not arrive until early next year, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. While previous rumors suggested Apple could release the upgraded devices by the end of this year, now Gurman believes they’ll launch in the first half of March.
As noted by Gurman, this release window would allow Apple to launch the new MacBooks around the same the macOS Ventura 13.3 and iOS 16.3 updates come out, which are expected sometime between early February and March. This prediction aligns with Ming-Chi Kuo's tweet from August that suggests Apple could release the new MacBook Pros early next year, as well as a recent rumor from Korean leaker Lanzuk (yeux1122), which also indicates the new MacBook Pros will arrive in March.
Gurman cites Apple’s recent earnings call as further evidence that the upgraded line of MacBook Pros isn’t coming this year. During the call, Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company’s product lineup is “set” for the holiday season, while chief financial officer Luca Maestri says he expects Mac revenue to “decline substantially” in December, potentially because Apple doesn’t plan on releasing a new MacBook Pro this year. When Apple released the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros last October, the devices added $10.9 billion in Mac revenue, and it doesn’t seem like Apple’s expecting the same trend this year.
The upgraded 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros aren’t expected to come with any major design changes, but they’ll likely feature the more powerful M2 Pro and M2 Max processors. According to Gurman, the M2 Max chip is rumored to feature 12 CPU cores and up to 38 GPU cores, an upgrade from the 10 CPU cores and up to 32 GPU cores in the M1 Max. While Apple released its 13-inch MacBook Pro in June, it comes with the base M2 chip (also included in the new MacBook Air), featuring eight CPU cores and up to 10 GPU cores.
Acer’s Chromebook Spin 714 is worse than its predecessor
The Spin 714 isn’t terrible, but it’s not the champion the 713 was
Acer’s Chromebook Spin 713 has been at the top of our Best Chromebook list for a few years running now. It’s one of the most beloved Chromebooks of the past several years, and it had a laundry list of things going for it: blazing fast Intel processors, a crisp and high-resolution 3:2 screen, a generous port selection with Thunderbolt 4, all-day battery life, and one of the better keyboards you could find in the Chromebook space. I had very high hopes for its sequel, the Chromebook Spin 714.
So it brings me no pleasure to report that the Chromebook Spin 714 is worse than the 713. That doesn’t make it a terrible computer — and at my Core i5 / 8GB / 256GB unit’s MSRP of $729.99, many of these flaws are more forgivable than they would be at a price of, say, $1,000. But I do see it, unfortunately, as a step back. Here’s why.
Let’s start with the good things
The major area in which this device has improved over the 713 is speed. The 714 is one of few Chromebooks that comes with Intel’s 12th Gen processors. It is lightning fast. It handled my heavy multitasking workload just fine, and I can’t imagine it would have a problem running things in Linux, either. Nothing I threw at it — even when I was hopping between 20-25 tabs and apps — generated any heat or made the fans spin up at all. While I tested last year’s Spin 713, the fans were raging basically the whole time. So that’s a welcome improvement.
This is verified through Intel Evo.
This is also, in my opinion, a slightly better-looking computer than the 713. I won’t go so far as to call it a good-looking device — the design is still somewhat boring and drab, and an “Antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass” logo etched into the top bezel is particularly unappealing. Still, there are some nice accents around the touchpad that make everything look more professional. And the finish is high-quality — this device was battered around in my backpack without a scratch. Visually and materially, this device is a step up from the 713. (But, I cannot overemphasize, it still looks boring.)
See that little gap in tablet mode?
USB-C and USB-A on the right.
USB-C, HDMI, headphone jack on the left.
And finally, there’s a garaged stylus. It lives in a tiny slot in the bottom right corner of the device, and it’s very easy to slip in and out. Writing with it was a mixed bag — the texture was smooth, but the hinge isn’t quite sturdy enough to keep the screen firmly in place while I was writing in laptop mode or tablet mode. I didn’t love the give it had in both cases.
But then there’s everything else
Okay, time to talk about some of the more puzzling changes Acer made. First, the display. So, yes, the Spin 714’s screen is slightly larger. However, the Spin 713 had one of the most exceptional screens that has ever been put on a Chromebook. It was 3:2 with 2256 x 1504 resolution. It was so roomy, there was zero glare, colors were vivid, and all of this was a huge part of the reason that Chromebook 713 was topping Best Chromebook pages all over the internet. I am picturing that screen right now, and I miss it so much. Please come back to me.
Anyway, that’s not the screen the 714 has. This device sports a 1920 x 1200, 16:10 panel. It reaches 340 nits of brightness, whereas the 713 easily passed 400. Look, this screen is fine, but like... meh. It’s fine.
Screen is covered in Antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass.
Second, one of the ports is gone. Acer removed the microSD slot that the Spin 713 had. The other ports here are fine (you get two USB-C with Thunderbolt 4, one USB 3.2 Gen 1, one HDMI, and one headphone jack). It’s just that the 713 also had all that, plus a microSD slot.
And then we get to the battery life. Once again, Intel 12th Gen is displaying shorter battery life than Intel 11th Gen did. I averaged seven and a half hours out of the 11th Gen device (which, bear in mind, had a brighter and higher-resolution screen). I averaged four hours and 56 minutes of continuous work use, at 50 percent brightness, out of this one. And while you may get higher numbers than I did here depending on your workload, it seems very likely that most people will get a sizeably shorter time out of the Spin 714 than they would out of its predecessor. (Charging time was speedy, at least — the 714 juiced up to an hour in just 46 minutes, an improvement over last year.)
You can put it in all the usual convertible laptop modes, if you are so inclined.
Even as a tent!
There are other minor things, too — the 714’s touchpad is smaller, its chassis is thicker and heavier, and there’s no fingerprint sensor. And then, all of that aside, there is the fact that they made the device more expensive. This unit, remember, is $729.99 — a Core i5 / 8GB / 256GB model of the 713 was $699. My model is the cheapest one I’ve been able to find online — I’m also seeing a Core i5 / 16GB unit and a Core i7 / 16GB unit both listed for just over $1,000.
Sure, maybe the included stylus and slightly larger screen would justify that price increase in a vacuum. But then I look at the long list of things missing from the 714, the ways in which it’s a step back, and I’m just not convinced.
I don’t want to brush past how much extra power the Spin 714 has. The silent fans and cold plastic were very much a noticeable improvement. This likely remains one of the most powerful Chromebooks — if not most powerful devices — you can buy for $729.99.
But what makes me sad is that the Spin 713 used to be that. The Spin 713 blew its competitors out of the water with benchmark scores. But it was also great in so many other ways. It had a great screen. It had great battery life. It had a great port selection. Really, the only thing to complain about was the subpar audio (which remains subpar on the 714). The Spin 714, by contrast, mostly has the powerful specs going for it. And while that power certainly keeps it in the conversation, it is not at all the slam-dunk purchase that the 713 was.
Watching from the cot: are smart toys and baby products worth it for parents?
More and more smart baby monitors and AI-powered toys are entering the Australian market, but these expensive products can have a significant privacy cost
We’re increasingly littering our homes with smart devices from TVs and fridges to home assistants, known broadly as “the internet of things”. The internet of things now extends to devices aimed at new parents, marketed as making parenting easier, and babies safer.
These include the types of products you’d expect (wifi-enabled baby monitors) and a whole range of more surprising objects (remote-operated white noise machines; smart cots that soothe babies to sleep; socks that monitor a baby’s heart rate and oxygen levels; smart toys that get to know their child owner). There are even surveillance systems that read the facial expressions, sounds and movements of babies, with the promise of alerting parents to potential dangers lurking in their little one’s cot.
Twitter has been hit by a coordinated trolling campaign in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover, with more than 50,000 tweets from 300 accounts bombarding the platform with hateful content.
The social media platform said it has been targeted with an attempt to make users think Twitter has dropped or weakened its content policies after the world’s richest man bought the company for $44bn (£38bn) last week.
The 10 funniest things I’ve seen on this internet, you say? No problemo. I’ve been training for this for quite a while. All those nights scrolling TikTok and giggling to myself before suddenly realising it is hideously late? They were research! In your face, circadian rhythms!
But I’ve watched approximately 718m funny videos and now I have to pick just 10? Maybe I’ve trained too hard.
In the few years since its launch, TikTok has already altered the face of the social media landscape, attracting more than 1 billion users and leading competitors to replicate some of its most unique features.
The impact of that explosive growth and the ‘TikTok-ification’ of the internet at large on social media users remains little understood, experts warn, exacerbating concerns about the impact of social media on our habits and mental health.
Forget Free Coffee. What Matters Is if Workers Feel Returning Is Worth It. Commutes are still painful, readers say. And it’s hard to give up the joys of working from home. But many of those who have gone back to the office say they like it.
Elon Musk declares Twitter ‘moderation council’ – as some push the platform’s limits
Conservative users began recirculating conspiracy theories as others voiced concerns over allowing hate speech and disinformation
Among the most urgent questions facing Twitter in its new era as a private company under Elon Musk, a self-declared “free speech absolutist”, is how the platform will handle moderation.
After finalizing his takeover and ousting senior leadership, Musk declared on Friday that he would be forming a new “content moderation council” that would bring together “diverse views” on the issue.
Lego is moving on from its Mindstorms educational robots
The projects you can build with Lego’s Mindstorms Robot Inventor kit, which will be going away by the end of the year. | Image: Lego
As reported by Lego fan sites like Brick Fanatics and Brickset, Lego is discontinuing its Mindstorms kits, which are meant to let people make robots out of Lego bricks, pins, beams, motors, gears, and other pieces, and then program using Lego’s control hubs (via Gizmodo). The devices have been sold as a way to let children and adults easily build and program robots since 1998.
While the company isn’t completely done with the idea of educational robotics kits, it will stop selling its Mindstorms Robot Inventor kit by the end of this year.
The company’s statements suggest there’s an end date on its support for the various apps used to program and control Mindstorms robots on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and Fire OS, saying that it’ll keep them going until “at least the end of 2024.” That doesn’t mean that the robot control units will necessarily become useless bricks. There are open-source tools for writing and uploading code to them that aren’t made by Lego, though a lack of official tools could make things more difficult for younger or inexperienced builders.
According to the statement posted by Brickset, Lego will have the Mindstorms team working on other parts of the business, though it didn’t provide specifics as to what they’d be doing. Lego didn’t immediately reply to The Verge’s request for comment.
Antisemitic campaign tries to capitalize on Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. The campaign appeared to start after Mr. Musk officially took control of the company.
Will Elon Musk Be Able to Keep Twitter’s Advertisers Happy? Mr. Musk once said he hated them, but ad sales are the engine that powers the company he now owns.
Apple’s first unionized workers say the company is withholding new benefits
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Organizers at Apple’s Towson Town Center store in Maryland claim that the company isn’t telling the whole truth when it comes to withholding benefits from workers at the location. As the company’s first retail location to unionize in the US pushes to negotiate a contract, workers say it’s making it difficult for them to bargain for their benefits.
In a letter addressed to Tim Cook, the negotiating committee says they’re disappointed to learn the company won’t be offering workers at the location some new health and education benefits that are rolling out to other retail employees. The union also says that Apple has been spreading “misinformation” by saying workers would have to bargain for those benefits to be included in their contract.
“There is crucial context missing in this communication around the process of change within a unionized store and the fact that we can, and we will include these (and any new benefits) in our collective bargaining contract proposal,” says the letter, which you can read in full below. However, the union also claims that Apple has made it difficult to bargain for those benefits by not sharing “any details” about them.
Apple didn’t respond to The Verge’s multiple requests for comment on the union’s accusations.
The union, known as IAM CORE (CORE stands for Coalition of Organized Retail Employees, and the organization is partnered with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers), won its union election by an almost two to one margin in June. Since then, workers at other locations say the company has continued to oppose unionization efforts, with the Communications Workers of America filing complaints about Apple’s behavior in New York and Oklahoma.
Notably, the reports about Apple withholding benefits came out days before the Oklahoma store was scheduled to hold its union election, which IAM CORE’s letter says was a “calculated” move. If it was, it didn’t work: workers at Penn Square store in Oklahoma City voted to unionize in a 56-32 vote.
Still, there are still ongoing union drives at Apple stores in New York and Atlanta, where the threat of withheld benefits could sway votes or even stall the process of holding an election entirely. The union involved with the campaign in Atlanta canceled the vote in May, saying Apple had made it impossible to hold a fair election.
Earlier this month, Bloombergbroke the news about Apple’s push to withhold benefits at Towson and provided some details about exactly what workers might be missing out on; the list included a free Coursera subscription, prepaid tuition at some colleges (versus the reimbursement model Apple usually uses), and new healthcare plan options. The publication cited Harvard Law School professor Benjamin Sachs, who said that there was nothing stopping the company from offering those benefits to unionized employees.
Wilma Liebman, a chairperson for the National Labor Relations Board, told Bloomberg that the company’s move to block benefits could be a violation of labor law, saying it was “hard to see how they could come up with a legitimate reason for the timing other than to influence the outcome of the election.” According to the NLRB’s site, employers also aren’t allowed to “refuse to furnish information the union requests that is relevant to the bargaining process.”
As for the workers in Maryland, they hope the letter will spark a conversation with leaders at the company and store. IAM’s president, Robert Martinez Jr., promised in a press release that he would “sit down with CEO Cook anytime” to support the union’s members at Towson.
Elon Musk bought Twitter. Here’s how it happened.
Laura Normand / The Verge
The deal is done — Elon Musk owns Twitter now.
After six months of wrangling, it’s all over: Elon Musk owns Twitter. How did that happen? Read on — we’ll lay out every step of how it happened and how the billionaire is now in control of Twitter, with several former execs abruptly escorted out of the building and Twitter employees awaiting the first updates from their new “Chief Twit.”
The $44 billion offer Twitter’s investors couldn’t refuse.
Elon Musk tries to cancel the deal and says it’s because of the bots.
Musk sent a letter to Twitter saying he plans on terminating their merger agreement, claiming the company is in material breach of the deal and accusing Twitter of “false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement.” Twitter then sued Musk in an effort to force him to finish the deal, and the fight seemed like it was headed to trial in Delaware’s Chancery Court in October. What followed was months of legal wrangling over evidence, accusations of fraud, and even a few depositions.
Elon Musk decides to buy Twitter, again.
Finally, Musk decided to do what he had already agreed to do and buy Twitter. Judge Kathaleen McCormick gave the two sides a deadline of 5PM on October 28th to close the deal, and with time ticking down on the evening of the 27th, the deal has closed, and Elon Musk reportedly began Twitter’s new era of private ownership by firing several executives, including previous CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and policy chief Vijaya Gadde.
What does this mean for Musk, and for Twitter?
Musk, who already leads Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, and Neuralink, is one of Twitter’s most visible users, with a large audience of devoted followers. The billionaire exec spontaneously shares earthshaking company plans, uncredited memes, and bizarre accusations. That’s in addition to responses that serve as a global tech support line for people who want everything from help with their electric car to politicians seeking satellite internet so they can keep citizens connected during a war.
Musk has said he plans to turn the platform into something more like WeChat and TikTok, would bring Donald Trump back to the platform, and thinks Twitter could have a billion users in just a few years.
Musk’s first move on Thursday was to oust Parag Agrawal, who was Twitter’s last CEO as a public company. Chief financial officer Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, the company’s policy chief whom Musk had publicly criticized have also reportedly left the building. Sean Edgett, the general counsel, is also gone, The New York Times reports, adding that at least one of these executives was walked out by security. Chief customer officer Sarah Personette was also fired, Insider reports.
Musk was scheduled to be deposed on October 6th and 7th, after having moved his deposition from late September. He announced he’d honor the contract his lawyers negotiated after all just days before the deposition was to take place. That deposition was likely to be uncomfortable; a judge found that Musk likely deleted Signal messages that were relevant to the case. That deposition was delayed as Musk and Twitter worked toward a deal; Musk even received a court order halting proceedings to allow the deal to close by October 28th.
Questions still remain about what Musk plans to do with Twitter now that he owns it, though he’s made a number of public comments. The Washington Post reported that Musk planned to cull 75 percent of Twitter’s employees, citing estimates given to prospective Twitter investors. Musk told Twitter staffers that the 75 percent figure was inaccurate, Bloomberg reported. In Musk’s text messages, provided during discovery to Twitter’s lawyers, he and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, a friend of his, discussed cutting staff by requiring a return to office.
“Day zero,” Calacanis texted Musk. “Sharpen your blades boys.” Requiring Twitter employees to return to offices would mean 20 percent of the staff would leave voluntarily, Calacanis wrote. Also, Calacanis told Musk, “Twitter CEO is my dream job.”
Although Musk has said that his Twitter acquisition is “not a way to make money,” he’s reportedly raised ideas for cost cutting and increasing revenue. Governments and corporations could be charged a “slight cost” to use Twitter, and there could be job cuts on the table to improve the company’s bottom line. Some of Twitter’s current employees have criticized Musk’s plans for the platform as “incoherent” and lacking in detail.
More broadly, Musk has talked about using Twitter to create “X, the everything app.” This is a reference to China’s WeChat app, which started life as a messaging platform, but has since grown to encompass multiple businesses, from shopping to payments to gaming. “You basically live on WeChat in China,” Musk told Twitter employees in June. “If we can recreate that with Twitter, we’ll be a great success.”
Elon Musk reportedly fires top Twitter executives as he takes over company
The $44bn deal will give world’s richest man control of influential social media platform with more than 230m users
Elon Musk has reportedly completed his $44bn takeover of Twitter, taking control of the company and firing several of the company’s top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal.
Several outlets, including Reuters, the Washington Post and the New York Times, reported on Thursday evening that Ned Segal, the chief financial officer, and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust and safety, were also fired, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Elon Musk Reaches Out to Advertisers Ahead of Deadline for Twitter Deal The billionaire posted a note to advertisers saying he wanted the service to be “the most respected advertising platform.”
Musk’s takeover is expected to close on Friday, with Twitter going private and delisting from the New York Stock Exchange. Despite a message from CMO Leslie Berland on Wednesday saying they’d “hear from him directly on Friday,” an employee all-hands with Musk has yet to be scheduled as of press time. Meanwhile, Twitter’s current CEO, Parag Argawal, hasn’t addressed employees in weeks.
While employees wait for more from Musk, the reality of the acquisition is starting to set in. On Thursday afternoon, an internal memo seen by The Verge said that Twitter’s code would be frozen until Tuesday, November 1 at 10AM pacific — the same day that many employees will see their current batch of equity and cash compensation vest. Then Musk had some of Twitter’s product leaders meet with employees from Tesla, presumably to help him get a handle on what exactly he is buying. (Bloomberg first reported the meeting.) Later in the day, employees donned costumes and brought their kids to work for a #trickortweet Halloween party at Twitter’s offices.
Since Musk suddenly proclaimed he actually wanted to buy Twitter again earlier this month, Twitter’s most internally visible leader has been Jay Sullivan, the general manager of consumer and revenue product. He has been holding regular listening sessions with employees, but on Thursday, shortly after employees received a calendar invite for a “quick informal check in” call with him at 7:35PM ET, the meeting was cancelled “until further notice” without explanation.
Many Twitter employees have recently noted the absence of Parag Argawal, their current CEO, who Musk soured on after the two initially started talking about Musk joining Twitter’s board. “He has been completely absent for weeks,” one current Twitter employee, who requested anonymity to speak without the company’s permission, said of Argawal. “He has ghosted us,” said another. Both Twitter’s Slack and the Twitter employee-only section of Blind, an anonymous message board for tech workers, are full of similar comments about Argawal, according to screenshots seen by The Verge.
Now that Musk is going to buy Twitter, he has already started meeting with some leaders across the company. On Wednesday, he showed up to Twitter’s San Fransisco headquarters carrying a literal kitchen sink and held an impromptu discussion at Twitter’s coffee bar. There he downplayed a recent report that he would lay off 75-percent of Twitter employees, though many employees are still expecting deep cuts.
As is fitting for Musk, his Twitter takeover has been a messy saga fueled by his penchant for drama. In any event, we’re hours away from a conclusion to this saga. It’s the beginning of a new era for Twitter.
Walmart stores are adding a Netflix section with gift cards and gear
Walmart and Netflix are expanding their partnership. | Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
At the in-store Netflix zones, you’ll be able to buy things like “music, apparel, collectibles, games, and seasonal items” from big Netflix franchises like Stranger Things, Squid Game, and even the upcoming Knives Out sequel. Walmart and Netflix will also be selling “concession kits” of goodies like popcorn and candy to make watching Netflix at home feel like you’re at the movies. (Though in the case of the Knives Out sequel, you could just go see it at a theater.) Walmart will also be selling a $19.99 Netflix gift card, which conveniently translates to a single month of Netflix Premium following a recent price hike.
Intel layoffs are coming in Q4 as it cuts billions in spending
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Intel has confirmed that it will lay off workers soon as part of its plan to cut billions of dollars in spending. The announcement comes after reports that Intel is planning on cutting thousands of jobs.
As part of its Q3 earnings, the company announced plans to cut around $3 billion in costs over the course of next year, and CEO Pat Gelsinger told Reuters that part of that would come from “people costs.” He also confirmed the job cuts to Bloomberg and added that the company was reducing factory work hours for some employees. By the end of 2025, the company hopes to have cut its costs by $8 to $10 billion a year.
Intel is faced with an industry-wide shift in semiconductor availability as the pandemic shortages give way to overproduction in certain segments — a problem also affecting competitors AMD and Nvidia. “The chip industry is changing from that of shortage to surplus (by early 2023) across a number of devices. This will negatively impact revenues across the chip industry (at least in most cases), and typically, these situations call for re-evaluation of cost and margins,” said Gartner analyst Gaurav Gupta in an email to The Verge.
The company didn’t immediately reply to The Verge’s request for details on the number of workers that it expects to lay off and what departments will be hit. Bloomberg has previously reported that Intel’s sales and marketing teams could see the biggest cuts.
In his Reuters interview, Gelsinger did say that Intel’s people costs were a relatively small part of its overall spending, so the company is more focused on its factories and fabs as places to save money. The company is currently in the process of building a facility in Ohio, which it broke ground on earlier this year, and has committed at least $20 billion to the project.
In terms of its earnings, the company has made it out of the red — in Q2, it lost half a billion dollars, and this quarter, it reported a billion dollars in profits. That number is, however, down 85 percent compared to Q3 2021, which made up part of Intel’s best financial year ever.
New Zealand Uber drivers win landmark case declaring them employees
Uber said it would appeal against the decision, which judge said ‘may well’ affect other drivers’ status and entitle them to workers’ rights and protections
A group of New Zealand Uber drivers have won a landmark case against the global ridesharing company, forcing it to treat them as employees, not contractors, and entitling them to a suite of worker rights and protections.
New Zealand’s employment court ruled on Tuesday that the drivers were employees, not independent contractors. While the ruling applies specifically to the case of four drivers, the court noted that it may have wider implications for drivers across the country.
In the final sprint to the US midterm elections the social media giant TikTok risks being a major vector for election misinformation, experts warn, with the platform’s huge user base and its design making it particularly susceptible to such threats.
Preliminary research published last week from digital watchdog Global Witness and the Cybersecurity for Democracy team at New York University suggests the video platform is failing to filter large volumes of election misinformation in the weeks leading up to the vote.
Apple pauses App Store gambling ads after developer outcry
Other unspecified categories of apps have also been paused. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
On Tuesday, Apple announced that companies could advertise their apps on the store pages for other apps, putting their icon in the “you might also like” section. Almost immediately, developers started showing examples of ads for gambling apps being recommended under their apps.
As MacRumors reporter Joe Rossignol points out, Apple hasn’t clarified how long the pause would last, or if it’ll be making any policy changes based on how the initial rollout has gone down. It’s also unclear which other ad categories have been paused.
Apple’s rules for advertising on the App Store do list apps related to gambling, alcohol, dating, and the pharmaceutical and medical industry as “restricted,” meaning that there are special rules about where they can be shown. The limitations are mainly about laws instead of what’s tasteful or potentially harmful though; the site says gambling apps are “prohibited or limited in some countries and regions,” but doesn’t say anything about the audience they can be served to.
How Apple proceeds could be very important for the future of the iPhone. Reports have indicated that it’s planning on expanding ads outside the App Store, to apps like Maps, Podcasts, and Books. Imagine seeing a casino pop up when you search for addiction recovery centers, or erotic novels when you’re looking for books on dealing with a porn addiction.
The good news for Apple is that there are other companies that have been working on this problem that it can borrow ideas from, if it’s not too proud to do so. Google, for example, lets you limit the number of ads you see about potentially sensitive topics like alcohol, gambling, dating, pregnancy, and weight loss. Apple talks a big game about how the App Store is a safe place to get software for your phone, and (despite the many ways it’s historically failed to prove that) it needs to maintain that appearance. But can it do that while also trying to show us ads whenever we open its apps?
Zuckerberg is all in on the metaverse whether you like it or not
Image: Getty Images
Toward the end of Meta’s earnings call on Wednesday discussing the company’s results for Q3 2022, CEO Mark Zuckerberg took a moment to address his metaverse doubters.
“Look, I get that a lot of people might disagree with this investment, but from what I can tell, I think this is going to be a very important thing,” he said. “People will look back a decade from now and talk about the importance of the work being done here.”
The problem is that a decade is a long time from now. And as Zuckerberg experienced on today’s earnings call, he is losing faithful supporters quickly. “I think kind of summing up how investors are feeling right now is that there are just too many experimental bets versus proven bets,” one Wall Street analyst said on the call.
The numbers are staggering (PDF): Meta’s Reality Labs division lost $3.7 billion this last quarter and $9.4 billion this year so far. It made only $285 million in revenue for the quarter, a nearly 50 percent drop attributed primarily to weaker sales of the Quest 2 headset that got a $100 price hike in August. The next version of that headset is currently planned for release in the second half of next year, and Meta just released its Quest Pro this week, a pricier $1,499 version marketed for work use cases.
Mark Zuckerberg on the Quest Pro, future of the metaverse, and more
“We do anticipate that Reality Labs operating losses in 2023 will grow significantly year-over-year,” Meta said in its earnings press release, just a few days after a large shareholder publicly pressured the company to reign in its spending.
Meta’s stock dropped a staggering 20 percent today after it reported a 4 percent drop in revenue growth. The results show Apple’s ad tracking prompt has cost it over $10 billion, advertising spending on its platform is continuing to weaken, and its stock is currently trading at a price not seen since the end of 2015.
Zuckerberg tried to give investors reasons to be bullish today. He said there are more daily users on Facebook than ever before. Instagram and WhatsApp both have over 2 billion users, with the latter just starting a significant marketing push in the US that takes aim directly at iMessage. Even the company’s TikTok competitor, Reels, is starting to grow dramatically, with Zuckerberg saying, “we believe we are gaining time spent share on competitors like TikTok.”
That may be true, and this could be another painful moment of transition akin to Facebook’s shift from desktop to mobile or the introduction of Stories like Zuckerberg suggested. But for now, he is experiencing a crisis of confidence.
Elon Musk makes splashy visit to Twitter headquarters carrying sink
Tesla CEO changes his profile to ‘Chief Twit’ as Friday deadline to finalize his takeover deal nears
Elon Musk paid a visit to Twitter’s headquarters ahead of an end-of-week deadline to close his deal to buy the company, posting a video of himself in the company’s San Francisco lobby carrying a sink.
“Entering Twitter HQ - let that sink in!” he tweeted on Wednesday.
Tesla’s self-driving claims are reportedly under criminal investigation
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Tesla is facing a criminal probe over its claims about its driver assist technology, according to Reuters. The US Department of Justice launched an investigation late last year following more than a dozen crashes, some of which were fatal, involving the company’s Autopilot feature.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been promising actual driverless cars are coming since 2016 — a promise he has yet to deliver. He’s gone from saying that Tesla will have 1 million robotaxis on the road by the end of the year to 1 million people in the FSD beta program, which are wildly different things.
Tesla vehicles today come standard with a driver-assist feature called Autopilot. For an additional $15,000, owners can buy the FSD option, which Musk has repeatedly promised will one day deliver fully autonomous capabilities. But to date, FSD remains a “Level 2” advanced driver-assistance system, meaning the driver must stay fully engaged in the operation of the vehicle while it’s in motion.
Tesla has said 160,000 customers are currently using FSD and has promised a wider release of the software will come before the end of the year.
Loved by fans and loathed by safety advocates, the FSD software has gotten Tesla in a lot of hot water recently. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently investigating 16 crashes in which Tesla vehicle owners using Autopilot crashed into stationary emergency vehicles, resulting in 15 injuries and one fatality. The probe was recently upgraded to an “Engineering Analysis,” which is the second and final phase of an investigation before a possible recall.
The company has been accused of false advertising by regulators and sued by customers for allegedly misleading them about the capabilities of their vehicles. But FSD is also crucial to Musk’s vision to portray Tesla as a leader in AI and robotics. And Musk has largely avoided any serious consequences in his pursuit to be at the bleeding edge of technology.
A Justice Department investigation represents a higher degree of scrutiny since it carries the risk that Tesla or its executives will be charged criminally. According to Reuters, federal prosecutors in Washington and San Francisco are examining whether Tesla misled consumers, investors, and regulators by making unsupported claims about its driver assistance technology’s capabilities.
The TikTok video starts like most other travel snaps on the platform do, with selfie shots showing the user* and his companions sitting on a plane and walking through the airport.
But unlike the highly curated images of hotels and tourist attractions typical of this genre on TikTok, the video quickly takes an uncharacteristic turn, showing the user sleeping in camps, at one point traveling by horseback and ultimately scaling what he calls “la famosa frontera de la muerte” or “the famous border of death” between the US and Mexico.
The OM-5 is the first leftover Olympus camera to be branded OM System, and I get sad looking at it
The new OM-5 is a small body, weighing 366 grams, designed to size up with the Zuiko line of f/4 zooms and compact prime lenses. | Image: OM System
When Olympus sold its camera division and reformed as OM System, it hyped up a push toward computational photography with its new mirrorless cameras — this is not that camera. Today, OM System is announcing the new OM-5, a $1,199.99 mirrorless camera that launches late next month and looks like a zombified husk of Olympus. I’m sure it will be a fine camera, but I can’t help feeling depressed when I look at it.
Sure, the OM-1 was technically OM System’s first camera release, but it was still branded Olympus. Now, with the OM-5, it’s proudly wearing the OM System name on its forehead, something that’s sure to only please a handful of people in a marketing meeting somewhere.
Image: OM System
We’ll have to get used to this look now, as OM System is also announcing it will be gradually transitioning all Olympus-branded cameras, lenses, accessories, binoculars, and audio devices to the revised branding.
Except, well, this still just seems like another holdover from Olympus development. Let’s run through a little checklist.
Same 20-megapixel four-thirds sensor as the two-year-old OM-D E-M1 Mark III? Check!
Same 6.5-stop five-axis in-body image stabilization system as that camera? Check!
Same 2.36-million dot OLED electronic viewfinder as the OM-D E-M5 Mark III it’s replacing? Check!
Same 121-point hybrid phase and contrast-detect autofocus system? Check!
Same 4K video that tops out at 30 fps? Check!
Same Live ND, Live Composite, Starry Sky AF and other computational photography-lite features from prior Olympus models? Check!
Joining the OM-1 in ditching those confusing alphabet-soup names littered with endless “Marks” and going for something simpler? Okay, actually, that’s great, and I support it.
It’s not that this camera has nothing going for it, though the list of new features is so sparse that one of the biggest additions is support for vertical video — so you don’t have to manually change the orientation of the file later. The new OM-5 is also IP53-rated for weatherproofing, matching the OM-1, and it’s the first OM System / Olympus camera you can use natively as a webcam with just a USB cable. But beyond all that, I’m squinting my eyes to look for more reasons to find the OM-5 appealing for anyone other than the Olympus faithful who already have a bunch of compatible Zuiko lenses and are overdue for an affordable upgrade.
Image: OM System
The rear of the OM-5 looks identical to the previous OM-D E-M5 Mark III, and it maintains the articulating three-inch touchscreen with about 1.04 million dots.
There’s nothing wrong with having some of Olympus’s solid features trickle down to a lower price point, but in a time where much of the excitement around cameras is focused around systems with larger sensors, this camera feels like a slightly uncomfortable inflection point.
The joint Olympus and Panasonic-developed micro four-thirds system is a camera line that looks like it could slowly fade away, especially with Panasonic’s attention seemingly more focused on niche box cameras and its full-frame offerings in dire need of refreshes.
Image: OM System
The OM-5’s in-body image stabilization achieves up to 6.5 stops of compensation, or 7.5 stops when paired with an optically stabilized lens.
I’m hoping we’re just about to run out of these old Olympus leftovers in the development cycle, and we’ll soon see some really interesting things from OM System. We need something cool to distract ourselves from that cringe-inducing wordmark atop the camera because, right now, I fear it only makes me mourn the legacy of Olympus cameras that’s at risk of slipping away.
Elon Musk Seems to Answer to No One. Except for a Judge in Delaware. Kathaleen St. J. McCormick, the chief judge of Delaware’s Chancery Court, gave Mr. Musk until Friday to acquire Twitter. She is also the judge in at least one other case involving the billionaire.
Apple confirms the iPhone is getting USB-C, but isn’t happy about the reason why
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Apple has given its most direct confirmation yet that a USB-C-equipped iPhone is coming now that the European Union is mandating that all phones sold in its member countries use the connector if they have a physical charger. When asked by The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern if the company would be replacing Lighting, Apple marketing lead Greg Joswiak answered by saying: “obviously we’ll have to comply, we have no choice.”
Stern brought the law up during a talk with Joswiak and software VP Craig Federighi at the WSJ’s Tech Live conference, and followed up by asking when we could expect to see USB-C on an iPhone. Joswiak replied by saying that “the Europeans are the ones dictating timing for European customers.” Currently, the law dictates that “all mobile phones and tablets” will have to use USB-C by “autumn 2024.” Joswiak refused to answer whether the company would include the connector on phones sold outside the EU.
But he made it abundantly clear that Apple isn’t happy about being legally coerced into making the switch. Before acknowledging that the company must comply with the law, Joswiak went into a long explanation about how Apple has historically preferred to go its own way and trust its engineers rather than be forced into adopting hardware standards by lawmakers. He cited examples around Micro USB and hearing aid compliance as situations where Apple has been pushed to meet ill-considered requirements.
He also suggested that charging bricks with detachable cables have mostly solved the issue of standardization, and claimed that switching the iPhone to Lightning to USB-C would cause lots of e-waste. (Personally I don’t find this argument compelling; I have to replace most of my Lightning cables every few years anyways, at around the same cadence I buy new phones, because they wear out or get chewed on by cats.)
Still, it’s telling what wasn’t mentioned: a portless iPhone that relies solely on wireless charging, something that would theoretically be allowed. Joswiak didn’t say that the company was weighing its options, or considering if there were ways it could get around the need to put USB-C on the iPhone. Instead, we got a resigned, slightly winding answer that lead to what seems like an inevitable conclusion: USB-C is the future port for connecting to and charging your iPhone.
Starlink satellite internet for moving vehicles launches in December
Image: SpaceX
SpaceX has announced that its Starlink for RVs satellite internet service will be available for moving vehicles starting in December 2022. While you’ve been able to mount one of the satellite dishes onto or outside of a stationary vehicle for a while now, it was intended for use only while parked, like at a campsite or remote cabin (though there were those that tried to make it work on the go). Soon, you won’t have to sacrifice connectivity when you pack up and hit the road, but that ability won’t come cheap.
While the standard Starlink for RV service uses SpaceX’s $599 satellite dish, using it in motion requires a Flat High Performance dish, which will cost a whopping $2,500. (When I visited the order screen, there was also a $50 shipping and handling fee.)
The service, however, will cost the same $135 a month for the “Best Effort” internet connection. In a support document, Starlink explains what to expect: “Network resources are always de-prioritized for Starlink for RVs users compared to other Starlink services, resulting in degraded service and slower speeds in congested areas and during peak hours.”
SpaceX’s site says that the hardware is built to be weather-resistant and that it’s “designed for a permanent installation on your vehicle,” which also likely raises the price to get this service up and running on your rig unless you’re confident in your DIY abilities.
In-motion use is supported for users with Starlink RV service meeting the following criteria:
Using Flat High Performance Starlink
Starlink is securely installed with the Wedge mount included with the Flat High Performance Starlink kit.
Using Flat High Performance Starlink while in-motion without the Wedge mount, or using any other Starlink model will void the limited warranty of your Starlink.
Customers in “select markets” are currently able to order it, and SpaceX only promises “high-speed, low latency” internet in certain areas (sorry northern Canada and the midwest US).
Map: SpaceX
There go my plans for a driving across Alaska livestream, which totally would’ve worked otherwise.
The company has been building to this capability for a while, but the FCC only granted authorization to use the system on moving vehicles earlier this summer. Since then, SpaceX has announced that its service will be coming to airplanes and cruise ships, so it makes sense that automobiles — or “any moving land object,” as the company’s CEO Elon Musk notes — would be next.
Microsoft says more than 20 million people have used Xbox Cloud Gaming
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
More than 20 million people have streamed games using Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Tuesday during the company’s first-quarter fiscal 2023 earnings call. That’s double the 10 million figure Microsoft shared earlier this year, just before Epic Games and Microsoft partnered up to bring Fortnite to Xbox Cloud Gaming.
It’s clear that partnership has boosted Xbox Cloud Gaming, particularly because it’s the only game that’s available free via the service and doesn’t require an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
While Xbox Cloud Gaming is growing, it’s not clear how other streaming services are fairing in comparison. Google never broke out Stadia numbers before it unceremoniously announced that its game streaming service will end in January 2023. Nvidia doesn’t regularly report GeForce Now subscriber numbers, and we haven’t heard from Amazon about its Luna numbers.
Xbox Cloud Gaming still mostly requires a $14.99 Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, but maybe the Fortnite experiment could see Microsoft open the door to more free-to-play games. Consumers get free access to streaming a game using their phones or through a web browser, and Microsoft benefits from revenue from in-game purchases. It’s a model that you’d expect Microsoft to push beyond just Fortnite in the future.
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Image: OM System
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Image: SpaceX
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Map: SpaceX
