Labour pledges to toughen ‘weakened and gutted’ online safety bill
Shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell vows to target algorithms that bombard children with harmful content if party wins power
Tough new laws that would protect children from being bombarded with seriously harmful online material, will be introduced as a top priority of a Labour government.
After meeting families who have lost children as a result of exposure to harmful content, the shadow culture secretary, Lucy Powell, has won the backing of party leader Keir Starmer to legislate as one of the first acts of a Labour government, if the party wins the next election.
Tesla broke labor laws by telling workers not to discuss pay, NLRB claims
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Tesla’s accused of violating national labor laws by allegedly telling employees at its Orlando, Florida location not to talk about pay and working conditions, as first reported by Bloomberg. In a complaint filed in September, the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) regional director in Tampa claims Telsa “told employees not to complain to higher level managers about their pay or other conditions of employment” and said “not to discuss their pay with other persons.”
The complaint goes on to accuse Tesla of instructing employees not to discuss the hiring, suspension, or termination of employees with others. These incidents occurred from December 2021 to January 2022, the complaint alleges, and violates laws that prevent companies from “interfering with, restraining and coercing employees in the exercise of rights guaranteed” by the NLRB Act. In a statement to Bloomberg, NLRB spokesperson Kayla Blado says a judge will hear the arguments laid out by the complaint during a February hearing.
Grubhub must pay DC $3.5 million over claims it charged customers hidden fees
Grubhub has been ordered to pay $3.5 million to settle a lawsuit from the District of Columbia that claims the company misled customers by tacking on hidden fees to their orders. According to a press release, Grubhub must pay $800,000 to DC as a civil penalty, while the remaining $2.7 million “will be paid back to affected customers.”
In March, DC Attorney General Karl Racine filed a lawsuit against Grubhub, accusing it of falsely promising “free” online orders to customers, as well as “unlimited free delivery” for those who subscribe to Grubhub Plus. The lawsuit alleges this practice is “deceptive” since Grubhub still takes a service fee for non-pickup orders made by Grubhub Plus customers, and charges both delivery and service fees for standard orders as well.
My office reached a $3.5 million settlement with Grubhub for charging customers hidden fees and using deceptive marketing techniques.
As a result, $2.7 million will be returned to the consumers who were impacted, and it will have to shape up and disclose every fee separately.
It also cites several other questionable business practices, such as the way Grubhub bundled service fees in a single line with sales taxes on the checkout page, something the company only stopped doing recently. Grubhub was previously accused of listing restaurants on the platform without their permission to expand the service, and launched a series of microsites resembling restaurants’ real sites in order to route orders through Grubhub. At the time of the suit’s filing, Grubhub refuted the claims and said “many of the practices at issue have been discontinued.”
As part of the settlement, Grubhub’s required to “place a refundable credit” in the accounts of affected customers, which applies to anyone who has “paid a small order or service fee on an order placed via the Grubhub Platform” at a restaurant located in DC anytime between January 1st, 2016 to December 31st, 2022. Affected customers will get split into three groups depending on how often they used the platform, with those in the first group getting at least $4.50, the next getting at least $7, and the people in the final group getting at least $10. If the account owner doesn’t redeem the credit within 90 days of receipt, Grubhub’s required to send them a check with the amount they’re owed.
In addition to the payment, the platform’s required to make a number of changes, such as prominently displaying any additional fees to customers at checkout, listing each fee on separate lines, and shutting down or transferring ownership of the microsites it made for restaurants located in DC. Grubhub must also stop telling Grubhub Plus members that they can receive “free delivery,” and now has to disclose when the prices for certain menu items are higher than what they’re advertised at restaurants themselves. In an updated post on its website, Grubhub says it has agreed to “provide additional clarity for our diners and thousands of restaurant partners.”
“Grubhub used every trick in the book to manipulate customers into paying far more than they owed, and even worse, they did so at the height of a global pandemic when District residents were already struggling to make ends meet,” Racine says in a statement. “Grubhub’s hidden fees and misleading marketing tactics were designed to get the company an extra buck at the expense of DC residents but we’re not letting them get away with it.”
Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti leak reveals specs from ‘unlaunched’ RTX 4080
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge
A new leak could confirm rumors that Nvidia’s planning on releasing the “unlaunched” 12GB RTX 4080 graphics card as the RTX 4070 Ti. The company briefly posted the specs for its upcoming RTX 4070 Ti GPU on its website, but Twitter user @momomo_us managed to snag a screenshot before Nvidia pulled the page down.
So far, the leaked specs look identical to that of the 12GB RTX 4080, with the chip sporting 7,680 CUDA cores, a 2.61 GHz boost clock, and 12GB of memory. It also says the GPU could run 4K at up to 240Hz or 8K at 60Hz with DSC and HDR, while an included chart indicates that the RTX 4070 Ti could outperform the RTX 3080 by about 3.5 times when playing Cyberpunk 2077 with its new Ray-Tracing: Overdrive mode.
In October, Nvidia faced criticism over its decision to launch the 12GB RTX 4080 GPU under the RTX 4080 moniker because of how much it differs from its much more powerful 16GB counterpart. Unlike the 12GB model, the $1,199 16GB RTX 4080 features 9,728 CUDA Cores, a 2.51GHz boost clock, 780 Tensor-TFLOPs, 113 RT-TFLOPs, and 49 Shader-TFLOPs of power. This backlash led Nvidia to cancel its launch altogether and plan a way to repackage the chip.
Pricing for the RTX 4070 Ti hasn’t yet been confirmed, but some rumors indicate that it will be cheaper than the $899 12GB RTX 4080. According to Wccftech, Nvidia may go with a lower $799 price point because the US recently pushed back the reimplementation of a Trump-era tariff on Chinese-made GPUs and other computer parts, which was expected to go into effect at the start of 2023. Now the 25 percent tariff isn’t set to go into effect for another nine months.
Nvidia’s expected to launch the RTX 4070 Ti at CES in January, so we won’t have to wait too much longer to confirm these specs and rumored pricing.
From super scooters to smarter meters: six firms to watch in 2023
Times are tough for businesses old and new, but the pace of change in many sectors this year will be relentless
The upheavals of recent years have posed huge challenges for established companies, but for others rapid change can mean big opportunities. Entrepreneurs are breaking ground in important new areas, from artificial intelligence to biotechnology and super-smart energy meters. Here, we look at six companies making the most of the moment.
Your Memories. Their Cloud. Google, Apple and Meta offer near-limitless digital basements in which to store photos, videos and important documents, but you should keep a copy of what you hold most dear.
AI-assisted plagiarism? ChatGPT bot says it has an answer for that
Silicon Valley firm insists its new text generator, which writes human-sounding essays, can overcome fears over cheating
‘A confident bullshitter that can write very convincing nonsense’: not a takedown of an annoying student or a former British prime minister, but a description of an artificial intelligence writing programme that is causing headaches for its makers.
With fears in academia growing about a new AI chatbot that can write convincing essays – even if some facts it uses aren’t strictly true – the Silicon Valley firm behind a chatbot released last month are racing to “fingerprint” its output to head off a wave of “AIgiarism” – or AI-assisted plagiarism.
Why did the US just ban TikTok from government-issued cellphones?
Trump tried to impose a total ban on the China-based app and some states have already prohibited its use on official devices
The US government has approved an unprecedented ban on the use of TikTok on federal government devices. The restrictions – tucked into a spending bill just days before it was passed by Congress, and signed by Joe Biden on Thursday – add to growing uncertainty about the app’s future in the US amid a crackdown from state and federal lawmakers.
Officials say the ban is necessary due to national security concerns about the China-based owner of the app, ByteDance. But it also leaves many questions unanswered. Here’s what you need to know.
Meta acquires smart lensmaker Luxexcel as it works toward AR glasses goal
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Meta’s throwing more money into the metaverse with its acquisition of Luxexcel, a Netherlands-based company that specializes in 3D-printing prescription lenses for smart glasses. The news was first reported by Dutch outlet De Tijd (via TechCrunch), but Meta has since confirmed to The Verge that it purchased the company.
“We’re excited that the Luxexcel team has joined Meta, deepening the existing partnership between the two companies,” Meta says in a statement provided by Ryan Moore, the company’s head of financial communications. While the terms of the deal are unknown, Meta CTO and Reality Labs head, Andrew Bosworth, revealed in a blog post earlier this month that the company’s pouring “about half” of the metaverse-focused division’s operating expenses into augmented reality (AR), while the other half’s going to building virtual reality products (VR) as it continues to bleed billions.
Luxexcel, which was founded in 2009, says it can integrate the elements needed to create an augmented reality experience within a prescription lens, such as holographic film and projectors. In 2021, it partnered with WaveOptics, the company that provides the displays for Snap’s Spectacles, to create a lens outfitted with waveguides, or the transparent display technology needed to superimpose virtual objects on a user’s real-life environment.
Even as Meta works toward building its first pair of AR glasses, we may not see a finished product for some time. Bosworth says Meta’s AR glasses will “require years of progress” as it attempts to make the device “slimmer, lighter, faster, and more powerful.” In June, The Verge’s Alex Heath reported that the first version of Meta’s AR glasses will only be available to developers — just like Snap’s Spectacles — while two later pairs could become available to consumers over the course of several years.
But Meta’s inching closer to its goal, as it added color video passthrough to its pricey new Quest Pro headset. It also partnered with Ray-Ban in 2021 to launch the Ray-Ban Stories, a pair of smart glasses outfitted with cameras, speakers, and microphones. The lenses don’t come with built-in displays, but maybe that’s something this new acquisition could help Meta achieve down the road.
The 10 best shows to stream on Apple TV Plus from 2022
Micha Huigen / The Verge
Apple TV Plus is one of the best bangs for your subscription buck. It started with a limited number of shows back in 2019, but the offerings have steadily increased, the shows that have ended have ended super satisfyingly, and there’s just a whole lot of stuff you can binge on there.
The problem is that, unless it’s Ted Lasso, you might have problems finding other people in your friend group to watch these shows with. But there are probably dozens — dozens! — of us watching Apple TV Plus. Below are some of the best shows you can watch. I excluded Ted Lasso from this list because I’m positive you’ve already watched it.
You know it’s been a long year when you realize Severance premiered this same year. The show is about people who willingly separate themselves into two personalities: one who always works and one who never does. It’s partly a satirical look at how much of ourselves we sacrifice for work and partly a fascinating puzzle box show. It feels like the biggest hit Apple has had since Ted Lasso, and that’s down to its wonderful blend of humor, absurdity, and perfectly paced drama.
This show is scooped straight out of the brain of Ronald D. Moore, the guy who gave us the tremendous Battlestar Galactica reboot, some of the best episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and the often bizarre but always entertaining Outlander. For All Mankind follows the US space program in a world where the USSR beat America to the Moon. The first two seasons saw war on the Moon, but the third season, set in the early ’90s, was focused on a more prescient storyline about a billionaire trying to get to Mars, no matter the cost.
Mythic Quest returned for a third season this year as well. It’s a little more uneven than the first two seasons, but the show — about a bunch of jackasses running a video game company — continues to be one of the most accurate looks at the game industry around. It’s also an often heartwarming, frequently funny examination of the relationships forged in the workplace.
Loot — about the wife of a tech billionaire who, as one of the richest people in the world, slowly learns to use her fortune — shouldn’t work. It should feel like a misguided attempt at crafting empathy with the richest people in the world. But Maya Rudolph isn’t afraid to make her character look like a dumbass, and she gives her just enough humanity that you root for her — even if you might wish no one had that much cash.
I wasn’t personally a fan of Foundation — I found it to be kind of a slog through one of Isaac Asimov’s less fascinating sci-fi worlds. But at least three of my Verge co-workers have finished the show and loved it, and Lee Pace is very good as what is effectively a God clone. Plus, it’s already been renewed for another season.
At least half of what I watch on Netflix nowadays is a K-drama, but Apple’s first foray into Korean language dramas often feels much more luxurious. The show is based on the book of the same name and deals with the Japanese occupation of Korea during World War II, so it can be a hard watch sometimes. But Pachinko is worth it.
Every good streaming service should have at least one romantic period drama, and The Essex Serpent is Apple TV Plus’. Like Pachinko, The Essex Serpent is based on a novel. This one is about a widow (Claire Danes) who travels to Essex to learn if a mythical serpent is killing people. There, she meets the town’s very married pastor, played by Tom Hiddleston. Longing looks and heated moments ensue.
Have you ever watched an otherwise thrilling spy caper and wished it had a dark sense of humor or a lot more Gary Oldman? Then have I got the show for you! Slow Horses, which premiered its first two seasons this year and has already been renewed for a third and fourth, is just a straight-up entertaining espionage thriller about a bunch of rejected spies trying to get their new, less important, spy jobs done. Oldman is their grumpy boss.
This three-season comedy about Emily Dickinson started off a little rocky but, by season 2, had turned into an intricate portrait of romance, ego, and family. The final season aired last year and was absolutely stunning as it carefully set up the messed-up family dynamics that would lead to Emily’s work reaching a wider audience while balancing it with a hopeful story of a woman who is content to let fame pass her by as long as she has love — and her work — by her side.
I know I could suggest a lot of other shows to watch — like Servant, about a resurrected baby, or Black Bird, about an inmate trying to get a confession out of an even worse inmate — but we need to take a moment to appreciate See, set in a post-apocalyptic North America where everyone is born blind. It was one of the first shows to launch on Apple TV Plus back in 2019, and it concluded this year. It’s extremely goofy in a syndicated-for-SyFy kind of way, and some of the characters are positively grating, but when it wanted to be fun, it was really, really fun.
Turning Sports Statistics Into Riveting Cinema Jon Bois and his collaborators specialize in documentaries about seemingly unremarkable teams. Then he wields charts and graphs to spellbinding effect.
Tim Wu, Architect of Biden Antitrust Push, to Leave White House Tim Wu has been a leading proponent of a more aggressive approach to reining in the power of big business.
Google Voice will now warn you about potential spam calls
Google says it’s using “advanced artificial intelligence” to determine if a call is legit. | Image: Google
Google has announced that it’s adding a red “suspected spam caller” warning to Google Voice calls if it doesn’t think they’re legitimate. In a post on Thursday, the company says it’s identifying spam “using the same advanced artificial intelligence” system as it does with its traditional phone app for Android.
If the spam label appears, you’ll also have the option of confirming that a call was spam — in which case any future calls will be sent straight to your voicemail — or clarifying that it wasn’t, which will get rid of the label for future calls.
Google Voice has had the ability to automatically filter calls identified as spam to voicemail for years, and has also allowed you to screen calls before actually picking them up, but those options may not have been great if you’re the type of person who gets a lot of important calls from unknown numbers. Google does say that you’ll have to turn off the Filter Spam feature by going to Settings > Security > Filter spam if you want the automatic spam labeling.
While it’s definitely nice that Google’s giving Voice users more options for dealing with spam, there are some advanced features that it currently offers on its Pixel phones that could help even more. Specifically, the ability to have Google Assistant screen the call while letting you choose its responses would be a big boon — though it seems unlikely that the company would put a flagship feature like that on a service that many people use for free.
The spam warnings will be available to everyone with a Google Voice account, and could take up to 15 days to roll out starting from Thursday, according to the company. That means you should start seeing them by January 13th.
InnoView 27″ Monitor Improves the Computing Picture
If you'd like a different view of your online work productivity and game-playing perspectives, InnoView makes your upgrading choice easy with its recently released 27" desktop monitor. The post InnoView 27″ Monitor Improves the Computing Picture appeared first on TechNewsWorld.
I just wish my Tesla Model 3 had Steam
I just want a rolling battle station. | Image: Tesla
Steam, the PC gaming platform, is making its way around town as part of Tesla’s latest holiday update. It fulfills a promise Tesla CEO Elon Musk made almost two years ago: that you’ll be able to play The Witcher 3 using the car’s built-in hardware. But unfortunately for me, I won’t get to play it, and it doesn’t look like there will be any easy path toward upgrading.
I have a 2018 Tesla Model 3, and I think I should mention it’s received plenty of upgrades over the years, including overhauled user interface, Autopilot visualizations, streaming apps, and arcade games. But in my car, all of Tesla’s fancy new software is running on the Intel Atom — a processor designed for cheap netbooks from the previous decade (Remember the Eee PC?). So it’s no surprise that my Model 3 can’t play Steam games, but I still wish it could.
Support for PC games from Steam, however, is reserved for the latest Model S and X vehicles, ones that cost about twice, if not more, than what I paid for my 3 (even with the latest discounts).
And we’re talking about only the latest of the 2022 models, as redesigned S and X vehicles from 2021 and early 2022 include the “PS5-level” graphics chips based on AMD RDNA2 but don’t have the needed 16GB of RAM.
Of course, the holiday update comes with a brand-new holiday light show that can time up with other Teslas. Also, I appreciate that Tesla brought back the swipe-able cards that conveniently show trip info and tire pressure — that was removed in last year’s introduction of software version 11, amongst other head-scratchers like removing seat heater buttons from the bottom bar.
The video also includes some technical details on what it takes for games like Cyberpunk 2077 to run at high graphics settings in a Tesla. It uses a Linux virtual machine, Steam Deck verified games, and of course, GPU acceleration from hardware I could only dream of having in my car.
Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge
Thanks for bringing the cards back, Tesla! Version 11 of the OS is finally good.
Interestingly, Model 3 and Y vehicles that started shipping this time last year came with some upgrades, too, including new infotainment computers running on AMD Ryzen chips. The new hardware, known in Tesla community circles as MCU3, shows improved performance throughout the OS — but unfortunately, they don’t come with discrete graphics needed to run many resource-heavy games offered on Steam.
There’s also no official word whether older cars with the Intel-based MCU2 (like mine) can get a retrofit, which would be awesome since apps I can run, like Netflix and the web browser, are feeling increasingly sluggish nowadays.
While the update didn’t bring me Steam, it did at least get me Apple Music — so I no longer need to pay for Spotify to listen to music directly on my slow Intel Atom-powered screen.
Elon Musk’s Cuts at Twitter? A Data Center, Janitors, Some Toilet Paper Elon Musk has reduced the company to a bare-bones operation, and employees are under a “zero-based budgeting” mandate to justify any spending.
31 Hours Inside SpaceX Mission Control A reporter got an inside look at SpaceX’s attempt to launch and land three rockets in less than two days in October, part of the company’s bid to make spaceflight appear almost routine.
Twitter Users Report Widespread Service Interruptions The issues surfaced several days after Elon Musk said he had shut down one of the company’s major data centers.
Tesla behind eight-vehicle crash was in ‘full self-driving’ mode, says driver
San Francisco crash is the latest in a series of accidents blamed on Tesla technology, which is facing regulatory scrutiny
The driver of a 2021 Tesla Model S told California authorities the vehicle was in “full self-driving mode” when the technology malfunctioned, causing an eight-vehicle crash on the San Francisco Bay bridge last month.
The crash on Thanksgiving Day resulted in two juveniles being transported to hospital and led to lengthy delays on the bridge. The incident was made public in a police report on Wednesday.
TikTok banned on devices issued by US House of Representatives
Politicians ordered to delete Chinese-owned social video app that House has said represents ‘high risk to users’
TikTok has been banned from any devices issued by the US House of Representatives, as political pressure continues to build on the Chinese-owned social video app.
The order to delete the app was issued by Catherine Szpindor, the chief administrative officer (CAO) of the House, whose office had warned in August that the app represented a “high risk to users”.
This new Game Boy-inspired 8-bit game console is the size of a matchbox
Image: Arduboy | The Verge
The Arduboy Mini is the latest Game Boy-inspired handheld game console from creator Kevin Bates, the man behind the original Arduino-based 8-bit Arduboy. Measuring in at around two quarters in length (as shown in Gizmodo’s early review), this tiny gaming handheld offers many of the same benefits as the larger Arduboy despite its compact size, such as an OLED display, hundreds of open-source games, and an exposed design that encourages users to explore hardware hacking and coding.
In fact, tinkering is so encouraged that the Arduboy Mini doesn’t come with a speaker or a battery built-in. Instead, the gadget comes with clearly labeled solder contacts for both a battery and speaker located on the exposed rear of the device. Otherwise, the Arduboy Mini can be powered by a portable battery connected to the USB-C port.
The Mini features a monochromatic 128 x 64-pixel OLED screen, a 16MHz ATmega32u4 processor, and six buttons — four on the front left laid out like a directional pad and two on the right that can be used as action buttons in-game. A seventh button is also located on the rear of the device, which is used to reset the console. A library of over 300 8-bit retro-inspired games come preinstalled on the tiny console, all open-source and created by a dedicated developer community.
Image: Kevin Bates | Arduboy
The Arduboy community has developed over 300 retro-inspired 8-bit games that come pre-installed on the Arduboy Mini.
Preorders for the Arduboy Mini are currently available for $29 via an open KickStarter project, which surpassed its initial $10,000 funding goal within just 13 hours of launching on December 7th. Discounts are available when buying multiple Arduboy Mini consoles (such as a pack of ten for $240) and fulfillment isn’t expected to start until June 2023.
Google Employees Brace for a Cost-Cutting Drive as Anxiety Mounts The tech giant has so far taken steps to streamline without mass layoffs, but employees are girding for deeper cuts.
US military biometric capture devices loaded with data were sold on eBay
Image: Getty
Old US military equipment being sold on eBay contained what appears to be biometric data from troops, known terrorists, and people who may have worked with American forces in Afghanistan and other countries in the Middle East, according to a report from The New York Times. The devices were purchased by a group of hackers, who found fingerprints, iris scans, peoples’ pictures, and descriptions, all unencrypted and protected by a “well-documented” default password. In a blog post, the hackers called getting at the sensitive data “downright boring,” given how easy it was to read, copy, and analyze.
Matthias Marx, who lead the group’s efforts in researching the devices, doesn’t think that the data itself is boring, though, calling the fact that they had been able to get their hands on it “unbelievable.” Though he plans on deleting the data after the club finishes its research, what they’ve already found raises concerns about how closely the military guarded this information.
Image: Chaos Computer Club
Screenshot of the Windows XP-based UI from one of the biometric devices obtained by the Chaos Computer Club. MOBS stands for “Mission Oriented Biometric Software,” according toa presentation from the club.
That’s especially true given reports from last year that the Taliban obtained biometric devices as the US was withdrawing from Afghanistan. As several commentators have pointed out, the data that may or may not remain on the devices could help identify people who had helped American forces. The US also built biometric databases of Iraqi citizens. Talking to Wired in 2007, one US official said of the database: “essentially what it becomes is a hit list if it gets in the wrong hands.” (It’s worth noting that the devices wouldn’t necessarily let someone use the master database of Afghanistan’s population, unless they had access to additional equipment, according to The Intercept — small comfort for those whose data was stored locally on the device.)
In all, members of the Chaos Computer Club purchased six devices, which the Times says the military used around a decade ago to gather biometric info at checkpoints and during patrols, screenings, and other operations. Two of the devices — both Secure Electronic Enrollment Kits, or SEEK IIs — had information left on their memory cards. According to the hackers, one of the devices contained 2,632 peoples’ names and “highly sensitive biometric data” that appeared to have been collected around 2012.
The device only cost them $68, according to the Times. The outlet also says the company that sold it on eBay after acquiring it from an auction wasn’t aware it contained sensitive data, according to one of the employees it spoke to. Another company wouldn’t comment on how it had gotten the devices that it sold to the club. In theory, the devices should’ve been destroyed after they stopped being used.
It’s not a surprise that they’re available for sale online — decommissioned military equipment often ends up in private hands. The disconcerting part is that the data was left on at least some of them and that nobody caught it before the devices were sold on eBay (which technically constitutes a violation of the platform’s policies against selling computers with personally identifiable information). The response from the US and device vendors is also not reassuring; when contacted by the Times, the Department of Defense just requested the device be mailed back. The Chaos Computer Club says it also contacted the DoD, and was told to get in touch with the SEEK’s manufacturer, HID Global. The hackers say they didn’t receive a response.
Southwest cancels thousands of flights, leaving passengers stranded across the US
Southwest Airlines canceled over 2,600 flights on Tuesday. | Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Southwest Airlines has left thousands of travelers stranded at airports throughout the country after a winter storm barreled through most of the US before and during the holiday weekend.
While Southwest canceled over 2,600 of its flights on Tuesday, the trouble’s expected to extend well into this week, with data from Flight Aware indicating that the airline has already called off more than 2,400 flights on Wednesday and over 1,500 on Thursday. Southwest canceled nearly 3,000 flights on Monday. Other airlines with notable flight cancellations didn’t even come close to Southwest’s total, as Spirit canceled 83 flights on Tuesday, while Alaska Airlines called off 75.
Southwest uses a “point-to-point” system that has planes flying from destination to destination and picking up staff along the way. Point-to-point systems have their advantages, as they can offer direct and more affordable flights because the destinations they stop at typically have less air traffic, but flight schedules can quickly fall apart once one route gets canceled.
Other airlines, like United, use a “hub and spoke” system that has planes returning to a central hub once their route is complete. This allows airlines to cancel flights to certain locations without affecting other routes, as well as have access to additional planes and flight crews without flying them in first; something Southwest can’t do without causing a domino effect of cancellations for its other flights.
Southwest spokesperson Jay McVay said to reporters that due to the storm, “We end up with flight crews and airplanes that are out of place, and not in the cities that they need to be in to continue to run our operations,” which was echoed in a video released by CEO Bob Jordan (below).
WFAA-TV in Dallas, where Southwest is headquartered, spoke to Mark Duebner, a former director of aviation at Dallas Love Field. Duebner, who was driving to his destination due to a canceled flight, told the station that while Southwest’s system is normally very efficient with no slack, “If the crew isn’t positioned in the right spot, because of another cancellation, then that flight gets canceled, connecting flights get canceled. It just really spirals downward very quickly. It’s the combination of a perfect storm as you will.”
The mass cancellations have travelers at airports waiting in line for two or more hours to rebook their new flights, which, unfortunately, won’t occur anytime soon. A number ofpassengersreport not getting new flights until the end of this week or after the New Year, forcing them to sleep on airport floors while they wait.
Cancellations are spread out around the US, hitting major transit hubs like Denver International Airport, Chicago Midway International, and Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport. Ryan Green, Southwest’s chief commercial officer, tells the Wall Street Journal that the company will cover the costs for hotels, rental cars, and other airline tickets, and is notifying customers that they’re entitled to refunds if they don’t want to rebook their flights.
The catastrophe prompted a response from the US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who says he’s tracking the situation “closely” and will have a statement on the matter tomorrow. On Monday, the US Department of Transportation sent out a tweet, stating that it’s “concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service” and that it will “examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.” Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) also called for Southwest to compensate passengers for the cancellations.
In a video posted to the company’s website, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan says he reached out to Buttigieg on Tuesday to talk about what the airline was doing to help customers. He also apologized to travelers and employees, and reiterated that the company’s “highly complex” network struggled with large numbers of its airplanes and crew being put out of commission. “After days of trying to operate as much of our full schedule across a busy holiday weekend, we reached a decision point to significantly reduce our flying to catch up,” he said. You can watch his full statement below.
CEO Bob Jordan addressing Southwest’s delays.
In addition to cancellations due to the snowstorm, Southwest is also struggling with a staffing shortage in some locations. The airline declared a state of operational emergency last week at the Denver airport after receiving “an unusually high number of absences.” In a leaked memo to employees, Southwest Airlines says staff members will need a doctor’s note when calling out sick, and that it “will use mandatory overtime” to require employees to come into work or otherwise be fired. As noted by the Denver Post, Southwest spokesperson Chris Perry denied that the callouts were part of a coordinated effort from employees.
As of 17:00 ET today, Southwest canceled 71% of its 4000 scheduled flights. Tomorrow the airline has canceled 62% and Thursday 57%, so far.
“We were fully staffed and prepared for the approaching holiday weekend when the severe weather swept across the continent, where Southwest is the largest carrier in 23 of the top 25 travel markets in the U.S,” Southwest Airlines says in a statement. “As we continue the work to recover our operation, we have made the decision to continue operating a reduced schedule by flying roughly one third of our schedule for the next several days.”
This isn’t the only other time Southwest has experienced major operational issues. Last October, the airline contended with both staffing shortages and severe weather conditions, leading Southwest to cancel almost 3,000 flights over the course of four days. At the time, former Southwest COO Mike Van de Ven told employees that the company has “a very aggressive hiring plan” but that it still isn’t “where we want to be with staffing.” Dallas Business Journal reports CEO Bob Jordan made similar statements during an investor day presentation earlier this month, saying the company’s systems needed to be upgraded as part of a major modernization push to eventually operate 6,000 flights per day while employing 100,000 people.
Update Tuesday December 27th, 7:18PM ET:Added video from Southwest CEO Bob Jordan.
The Google Nest Hub Max is still matching its best price ever at Best Buy and Target
The Nest Hub Max is a great alternative to Amazon’s larger Echo Show devices | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Just in case Santa didn’t make it to your house this year, we’re bringing you a handful of post-Christmas content. Because unlike the big dude that lives up north, The Verge Deals team works hard all year scouring the internet to make sure its best discounts are all front and center for you to see. The discounts available right now are a bit sparse, but we’ve still managed to wrangle a handful that we think are worth looking into if you’re looking for something to treat yourself.
Currently, Google’s Nest Hub Max is still on sale at Best Buy and Target for $174.99 (normally $229.99). While it may not offer the same, room-filling sound as the Nest Audio, the Max features a gorgeous 10-inch screen with a great camera for making video calls. It also offers extensive smart home controls and offers up personalized information based on whoever is looking at the screen. Read our review.
The Nanoleaf Shapes Mini Triangles Smarter Kit is usually $119.99, but is currently discounted to $99.99 at Best Buy, and comes packaged with everything you need to set up a small area of customizable accent lighting. The bundle comes packaged with ten individual touch-activated pieces that can be programmed to display specific themes or mirror the colors on your computer monitor, allowing for a more immersive gaming experience. Just like other Nanoleaf products, the modular light panels can also be controlled using either the Nanoleaf app or voice commands via Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.
The Bose QuietComfort 45 headphones are discounted to $249 at Amazon and Best Buy (normally $329). Not quite their lowest price ever, but still worth checking out if you’re shopping for a relatively inexpensive pair of high-quality noise-canceling headphones. Living up to their name, the Bose headphones are remarkably comfortable, in addition to providing excellent noise cancellation. While the QuietComfort 45 headphones can’t be used while charging and lack audio support over USB-C, the solid battery life should ensure that these occasions are rare. Read our review.
You can also find Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds II discounted to the same price at Amazon and Best Buy, lowering the $299 earbuds to just $249. The QuietComfort Earbuds may lack multipoint Bluetooth support and wireless charging but still provide excellent noise cancellation and sound quality. Read our review.
If you’re running out of space on your PC or PlayStation 5, the 2TB WD Black SN850 SSD is currently available for $229.99 at Best Buy. This is the lowest price we’ve seen on this drive, which usually costs $359.99. This is a little pricey but condenses a lot of storage into a single drive, and this model comes equipped with a heatsink that makes it compatible with Sony’s PlayStation 5.
M.2 SSDs like the SN850 are much easier to install than older storage methods, allowing you to slot them into a motherboard or other device with an M.2 slot without the need for cables. SSDs also offer much faster transfer speeds than older SATA storage methods, allowing files to be moved around quickly and games to load faster.
You can also find discounts on the 1TB model at Best Buy for $154.99. The 1TB model is a good option if you need a drive with a less expensive entry fee, but the 2TB model is the best value of the bunch.
New iPad Mini could be a year away
Apple’s iPad Mini launched at the end of 2021. | Photo: The Verge
Apple is updating its iPad Mini with a new processor, says respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The inbetweener is supposed to begin shipping by the end of 2023 or the first half of 2024.
The iPad Mini received an all new design at the end of 2021 after remaining largely unchanged since it was introduced way back in 2012. The 8.3-inch tablet fits in between Apple’s largest iPhone (the 6.7-inch Pro Max) and 10th-gen iPad (10.9 inch). It runs on an A15 Bionic chip with a USB-C port and an option for 5G connectivity. Kuo says the new processor will be “the main selling point,” so we shouldn’t expect too much else to change.
The iPad Mini will certainly be ready for a chip update after two years, if Kuo’s timeline is correct. That could mean an A16 inherited from the current top-of-the-line iPhone 14 Pro, or even an M-series chip used by the iPad Air and iPad Pro. Guess we’ll find out as early as next fall when Apple usually unveils its pre-holiday lineup of hardware.
Four stories that sum up the state of tech in 2022
Crypto self-destructed (twice) and Twitter got a new, CEO-shaped main character– but what else happened this year?
Happy Betwixtmas to those who celebrate, and mournful “sorry everything fun is shut” to those who don’t. Me? I’m thankful for the one week of the year where tech news stops – or at least, slows down. (This is written in advance and I’ve got a lot riding on that sentence still being true by the time you read it).
It’s been an odd year. Even by the standards of the sector, it was just extraordinarily silly. Crypto collapsed in the dumbest possible way, twice. Elon Musk bought his way into being the main character of Twitter, for good. AI seems just on the precipice of doing away with the Ucas personal statement. Nothing is normal.
Standing for “decentralised autonomous organisation”, a DAO isn’t really in the same class as an NFT. Rather than being a singular digital asset, like a picture of a monkey or a dog-themed copy of a dog-themed copy of bitcoin, a DAO is more like a company – but one which is directly controlled by its shareholders, without the need for employees or directors.
(Although, we should note, a DAO is Not A Company and owners of DAOs are Not Shareholders, because if it were and they were, the whole thing would be wildly illegal. Glad we’ve cleared that up.)
Given what we know and expect from Russia, it’s unlikely to come as a shock that – according to data from Checkpoint Research – in the first three days of combat, cyber-attacks on Ukraine’s government and military sector went up by 196%, compared to the rest of February.
But what has been interesting to watch has been the fightback, with attacks on Russia up 4% for the week. It might not sound like much, but there has been noticeable pushback from white hat hackers, hactivist groups and others on the counterattack.
What happened was unexpected. Upon proving that I was the real Alex Hern, I was greeted with a wall of glee. One user spammed the phrase “YOUNG_HERN_IN_THE_HOUSE”, another posted “ITS_FUCKING_ALEX”. “ALEX NEXT ELON”, “ALEX SAVE OUR BAGS”… before I could even post my first real message, someone had sent “ALEX TYPING”15 times. Where my first appearance had felt like a parent breaking up an illicit house party, this felt more like the second coming, with me unwillingly cast in the role of Jesus.
Things got worse when I said I wanted to speak to people for a story about it. No matter how explicit I was that I thought the entire thing was dumb as hell – dumber than I thought was possible for an already extremely-dumb sector – news of a forthcoming article spread like wildfire. “All publicity is good publicity,” was spammed into the channel, with one user pointing out that Shiba Inu, a shitcoin worth an inexplicable $7bn, had had a very similar genesis, with the majority of its early press simply mocking it as a low-effort clone of the original shitcoin, Dogecoin.
[Elizabeth Lagone],the head of health and wellbeing policy at Mark Zuckerberg’s company was taken through a selection of the Instagram posts the teenager had viewed in the six months before her death – deeming many of them to be “safe” for children to view. It was not an opinion shared by many in the room atnorth London coroner’s court.
Molly, from north-west London, died in 2017 after viewing extensive amounts of online content related to suicide, depression, self-harm and anxiety. In what the NSPCC described as a global first, the senior coroner said social media had contributed to Molly’s death, ruling that that Molly had died from “an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content”.
Reliance on hi-tech solutions to climate crisis perpetuates racism, says UN official
Rapporteur Tendayi Achiume says projects are at expense of marginalised groups and Indigenous peoples
The world’s reliance on hi-tech capitalist solutions to the climate and ecological crises is perpetuating racism, the outgoing UN racism rapporteur has warned.
Green solutions including electric cars, renewable energy and the rewilding of vast tracts of land are being implemented at the expense of racially and ethnically marginalised groups and Indigenous peoples, Tendayi Achiume told the Guardian in an interview.
Gary Hersham has been selling houses to the very rich for decades. At first, £1m was a big deal. Now he sells for £50m, £100m, even £200m. What does it take to stay on top in this cut-throat business?
Finding Community, and Freedom, on VRChat On any given weekend, there are dozens of parties happening on VRChat, a platform where users assume fantastical avatars of their own design.
Is A.I. the Future of Test Prep? Riiid is one of a handful of companies that believe that A.I.’s algorithms are perfectly suited to track student performance and give individualized attention.
LG’s new minimalistic appliances are also upgradeable
LG’s new lineup of minimalistic appliances is coming in 2023. | Image: LG
LG Electronics has a new lineup of minimalistic appliances that removes all unnecessary buttons and decorative flourishes in a refreshing “less is more” approach. The fridge, washing machine, dryer, oven, and dishwasher are said to feature improved controls for an “effortless” user experience.
The appliances are also upgradeable via software and hardware as part of a program LG launched in January. “Upgradeability challenges the idea that expensive appliances are designed with planned obsolescence in mind,” said Lyu Jae-cheol, president of LG Electronics home appliances at the time. “We want customers to experience the feeling of getting a new washer or refrigerator throughout the entire lifecycle of an LG appliance, not just the first time they bring the item home.” Let’s just hope LG isn’t taking a page from the automotive industry to extort money from customers in perpetuity by charging to activate basic features the appliances already come with.
Unfortunately, LG’s announcement lacks any detail like specs or pricing or dates of availability, so we’ll have to wait for CES to kick-off on January 5th to learn more.
‘Hack’ of UK cabinet minister’s Twitter account changes profile picture to Elon Musk
Education secretary Gillian Keegan’s account was completely altered, with profile picture showing Elon Musk
The Twitter account of the British education secretary appears to have been hacked. The profile picture was changed to one showing Elon Musk and several tweets were posted promoting a cryptocurrency event.
On Christmas Day the account of Gillian Keegan, the MP for Chichester, replied to a number of tweets with links to a website advertising cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and dogecoin.
Yes, I’ve got two watches on — why don’t you?
A mechanical dive watch like this Seiko SKX013 is a classically cool look, especially on a NATO strap, but there’s no reason you can’t pair it with a smartwatch and still look great.
A little over a year ago, I made the conscious decision to wear both a traditional watch on my left wrist and a smartwatch on my right wrist day in and day out. And I’m here to tell you with a straight face that this best-of-both-worlds solution has no downsides. If you’re into watches and tech or even remotely watch-curious, you should consider doing the same.
It’s easy to be a little bit anachronistic, admiring the simplicities of the past while wanting the bleeding-edge intricacies of the future. I find myself bouncing back and forth on these all of the time. I want the latest technology in my digital camera, but part of me feels an itch to go back to shooting film. I like the convenience of streaming music on Spotify, but I spend money on vinyl records to own a proper sonic keepsake. The same is the case for my love of wristwatches. For years, I’ve admired traditional watches, fancy handmade mechanicals and inexpensive quartz movements alike, but I’m still drawn to smartwatches and all of the functional advantages they offer.
A silver or black Apple Watch can match with just about anything, even a bright red see-through Casio G-Shock.
My traditional watch collection is quite modest, as I’m more the Casio and Seiko type than the Rolex and Omega type. In other words, while I appreciate the luxury stuff out there, I seek out affordable timepieces that are still fairly well made and designed and should last a long time if well taken care of. On the other hand, I also own an Apple Watch Series 6 that I bought off of my colleague Mitchell Clark shortly after I started at The Verge. While the horological folks out there might categorize most styles of watches I own as “sport” or “tool” watches, there really is nothing more sporting or tool-equipped than an Apple Watch. It’s a helpful little computer for your wrist, though frankly, it doesn’t get me excited quite like my Seiko SKX013 — which was my first automatic watch — or spark emotion in me like my dad’s old Hamilton Paxton that he left behind.
If I don’t get an occasional pop of color from my watches, then the yellow stitches on my Docs have to do all the heavy lifting.
The Apple Watch is a great work of technology and engineering, but its masterstroke comes from all of the stuff you can do with it: timers, alarms, notifications, activity and fitness tracking, and digital watchfaces you can change on the fly. Traditional watches have some of those features, like timers and alarms, but I don’t feel like I have to do much extra with a regular watch to appreciate their form and function.
Once I combined these two devices by wearing them at the same time every day, I quickly learned how perfectly they complement each other. It starts out as simply as how I’m going to dress for the day. I often swap out which traditional watch I’m using every few days or even on a daily basis depending on my mood or what I’m wearing. Sometimes I want something that blends in with my outfit (which is usually black, some gray, and occasionally white), and sometimes I want my watch to be a statement piece that really pops from my monochromatic wardrobe. You can sort of do that with an Apple Watch on its own since there is a litany of strap options and watchfaces available, but it’s not the same as traditional watches that have wholly different shapes, sizes, textures, and materials from one to another.
With unique watches like this all-metal G-Shock, you get cool features like a solar-powered movement that you just don’t get with most smartwatches. So why not wear and appreciate both?
However, by combining the unique qualities of my traditional watch opposite my Apple Watch, I feel like I can come up with small ensembles that lend me a bit of added confidence in my personal style and leave me feeling more comfortable in my own skin.
Now, you may ask: is that the clothes or is it the watches? I’d argue it’s both. Each of my traditional timepieces has a small connection to me in terms of design and style, so if I didn’t wear a watch or only stuck with a smartwatch, I’d lose out on that little bit of personal flair.
This is my first main pitch to you for why I think more people should try out this double-wrist combination — accessorizing is just a whole lot of fun. Finding your personal style is essential to a lot of people’s confidence and overcoming personal anxieties, and even if it helps a tiny bit, it’s worth it. The other primary reason why you should try double-wristing is that it teaches you to settle into appreciating the things you’re into in a slightly more casual manner.
Okay, I know, I own a lot of G-Shocks. They’re affordable and so dang fun.
For example, all of us that wear Apple Watches or other smartwatches are often familiar with battery anxiety. My 44mm Series 6 dies in about a day and a half, but it rarely phases me. It’s barely a minor inconvenience because, while it’s charging, I’ve still got my regular watch on the opposite wrist. In fact, I rarely ever charge my Apple Watch overnight, which is the usual routine for many people. I let it track my sleep — because why not — and just plop it on the charger at any point in the day when it buzzes about a low battery. This practice may sound chaotic to some, but to me, it helps me mostly not care too much about the battery life of one more device in my life. If it dies, it dies. I’ll get to charging it soon enough and have no problem being a bit blasé about it.
These casual feelings have also helped me not get too bent out of shape over the inevitable dents and dings my watches pick up. In fact, when I bought my Apple Watch from Mitchell, I was aware that it already had led a very Pacific Northwest life — it had a bunch of small scuffs and a long scratch across its screen, which I assume happened while running away from a bear trying to steal Mitchell’s fancy trail mix or something. Buying a well-loved timepiece for a good deal is a great way to help you overcome that initial anxiety of putting the first scratch on it, and since my wrists have a tendency to make unscheduled appointments with the door frames in my house, it’s just best that I don’t fret. Patina and wear and tear are cool anyway, right?
Watches are important keepsakes for a reason. My father’s old manual-wind Hamilton still works like a charm, and when I wore it on my wedding day, it was a small way of making him a part of it. I usually reserve it for special occasions.
Keeping my relationships casual with my timepieces (and any device I own, really) is often best, as I have a tendency to be a little too hardcore about some of the things I care about most. When someone asks me about my cameras or my fountain pens or my love of Dr. Martens boots, I have a tendency to come on a little strong and overshare my passion for these things — I’m working on that. But that brings me to what may be my most important point about the double wristwatch ensemble: you think you’ll look like a weird nerd, but the truth is, most people do not care. Not one iota. Like, nobody else gives a shit. Trust me.
Most people don’t give a shit about your expensive camera, either, by the way, unless they’re just as big of a nerd as you. Ditto for wearing two watches.
Just like when you go out looking your best and nobody comments on how cool or pretty or handsome you look that day, if you’re doing this for other people, you’re doing it wrong. You have to do it all for yourself because that’s the opinion that matters most. You’ll think wearing two watches will paint you as some weirdo, but even if and when people actually notice enough to make a comment, it’s so low on their list of concerns that they probably won’t give it much more thought or attention after that. You can give them a long explanation, sort of like I’m doing here, as to all the advantages of wearing two watches, but most conversations will play out like this:
“Oh, are you wearing two watches?”
“Yeah, a regular watch and a smartwatch.”
“Why?”
“I like it.”
“Oh okay, cool.”
And whether they think it’s actually cool doesn’t really matter. It matters that you think it’s cool, or that you like the way it makes you feel about yourself, or that you like being able to tell the time with a small flick of either wrist because it’s helpful when you’re working on something and you’ve got your hands full but you gotta know the time because someone’s asking or... — I digress.
On the off chance that someone asks you about your duo of watches and they actually do care, it’s probably because they’re into this stuff, too, and it will instead spark a beautifully nerdy conversation about watches or tech or both. In my experience, this is more likely than any snide remarks or perplexed stares of confusion.
The Casio F91W may be my most inexpensive watch, but that doesn’t stop me from cherishing it like few others — even opposite a pricey Apple Watch.
I really don’t feel there is much stigma over wearing two watches. Hell, the late CEO of The Swatch Group, Nicolas Hayek, was known for wearing a half-dozen or more watches at any given time. There isn’t much stigma over wearing a traditional watch at all, really, even though we live in a world that in some ways has evolved past them entirely. So try it out. Bust out that old Timex or Swatch someone gave you as a kid or start with a classically geeky Casio calculator watch. Why not? (Okay, fine, the calculator watch might be a little redundant with a smartwatch.) Get out of your comfort zone if you have to, and instead of choosing between tech and tradition, choose both. Life’s too short to make decisions about yourself or your own sense of self based on what others may think or care about.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24324381/IMG_6176.jpeg)
Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24323282/IMG_6158.jpeg)
Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24321094/a11919a860d50830d1787febb276c657_original.gif)
Image: Kevin Bates | Arduboy
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24320089/Screenshot_2022_12_27_at_13.35.19.png)
Image: Chaos Computer Club
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24164193/226376_double_watch_wrist_AKrales_0173.jpg)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24164199/226376_double_watch_wrist_AKrales_0346.jpg)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24164189/226376_double_watch_wrist_AKrales_0008.jpg)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24164202/226376_double_watch_wrist_AKrales_0481.jpg)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24164198/226376_double_watch_wrist_AKrales_0281.jpg)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24165438/226376_double_watch_wrist_AKrales_0450.jpg)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24164203/226376_double_watch_wrist_AKrales_0528.jpg)
