Amazon union organizers call off election attempt at a California warehouse
Currently, there’s no explanation for why the election’s being called off. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The Amazon Labor Union has withdrawn its petition to hold an election at an Amazon fulfillment center in Moreno Valley, California, according to Kayla Blado, a spokesperson for the National Labor Relations Board. It’s a sharp-turn around for organization efforts at the facility, known as ONT8; the petition was filed on October 12th, and the NLRB had confirmed that there was a sufficient showing of interest to proceed with the election, according to The Los Angeles Times’ Suhauna Hussain.
It’s unclear why the petition was withdrawn or if it has any relation to the ALU’s recent loss in Albany, New York. The withdrawal request isn’t currently publicly available, but petitioners don’t have to tell the NLRB why they’re withdrawing, according to Blado. The union didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment. Had the election proceeded, an estimated 800 full- and part-time employees would’ve been able to vote on whether to organize with the ALU.
Last year, the union won an election to organize Amazon’s JFK8 facility in Staten Island, where it’s currently trying to negotiate a collective bargaining contract with the company. However, it’s struggled to repeat the historic victory, losing an election at the neighboring LDJ5 facility in May and another in Albany earlier this month. ALU’s president, Christian Smalls, called the latter election a “sham,” saying that it “wasn’t free and fair.”
Google Chrome will no longer support Windows 7 next year
The final update for Chome on Windows 7 and 8.1 is scheduled to be released in early February. | Illustration: The Verge
Google will release the final version of Chrome for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 sometime next year. Chrome 110, which is tentatively scheduled to be released on February 7th, 2023, will be the last version that supports the two older Microsoft operating systems, according to a Google support page (via Android Police).
This could be a bigger deal than you might think. Despite Windows 7 first being released in 2009 and Microsoft officially ending support for it in 2020, data suggests that the operating system is still running on a whole lot of devices: as recently as last year, that number was estimated to be at least 100 million PCs. That means a lot of people could soon be both an unsupported operating system and an unsupported web browser, which could be a significant security risk.
Chrome will still work after version 110, but it won’t get any future updates on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, according to the support page. So if you’re still on a system running one of those older operating systems, we strongly suggest upgrading as soon as you can. That way, you’ll be able to receive security updates for your operating system and take advantage of the latest Chrome features and security improvements as well.
OnePlus’ fast-charging Nord N300 5G is coming to T-Mobile for $228
Bravo to OnePlus for dropping the gimmicky macro camera. | Image: OnePlus
OnePlus is bringing its signature fast charging feature to a lower price bracket in the Nord N300 5G. It includes 33W wired charging (with a charger in the box!) and will sell for $228 — an appealing proposition since most flagship phones don’t even include charging that fast. The N300 also bears a striking resemblance to parent company Oppo’s K10 5G, released in India earlier this year. It makes a few tradeoffs to hit its low price point, and we’ll be curious to see how they pan out.
The Nord N300 uses a midrange MediaTek Dimensity 810 chipset with 4GB of RAM, which is a shift from the Snapdragon processors used in its previous Nord devices sold in North America. The N300 also breaks away from previous budget OnePlus devices by opting for just two rear-facing cameras: a 48-megapixel main and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The company has dropped the low-res macro camera this time — good riddance.
There’s a big 6.56-inch display on the N300 with a fast-ish 90Hz refresh rate, but its resolution is 720p — a step down from the 1080p screen on last year’s Nord N200. There’s also just 64GB of built-in storage, which was the case with the N200, so a microSD card might be a necessary add-on purchase.
The bottom line, though, is that this is a very affordable phone with very fast charging. The Nord N20 5G also includes 33W charging, and in my testing, it added about 30 percent charge in just 20 minutes. The N300’s 5,000mAh battery is a bit bigger than the N20’s 4,500mAh cell, so speeds might not be quite as good, but that’s still faster than just about any other phone in this class.
The N300 goes on sale November 3rd at T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile in midnight or jade color options.
Amazon facing £900m lawsuit for ‘pushing customers to pay more’
Litigants say millions of online consumers have paid too much and been denied choice
A £900m class action claim against Amazon accuses the company of pushing customers towards “offers” that benefit the online retailer, but are not good deals for users.
The complaint, which is to be filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, focuses on the company’s “Buy Box” feature, which artificially promotes certain items above the rest in response to user searches.
Should my friend make more effort to keep in touch now she lives abroad?
Martha is fed up with at her mate’s flakiness. Niamh says living five time zones away makes communication difficult. You make the call on who’s in the right
It is, quite literally, the trillion dollar question: how did TikTok go from a niche social network for lip-syncing teens to the most popular app in the western world, threatening to knock Facebook off its perch entirely, in just a few short years?
There are no end of possible answers, and TikTok owes its phenomenal success to a host of canny choices: easy-to-use video creation tools blurred the line between creator and consumer far more than YouTube had ever managed; a vast library of licensed music allowed teens to soundtrack their clips without fear of copyright strikes; a billion-dollar advertising campaign across Facebook and Instagram bought new users as quickly as Zuckerberg’s company would send them over.
Everything you need to know about Meta’s moderation controversy in India
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Meta — Facebook and Instagram’s parent company — was at the center of controversy in India, where a local publication claimed the company removed an Instagram post on behalf of an Indian politician. Meta pushed back on these claims and accused the outlet of using “fabricated” evidence, and it’s starting to look like that may be the case.
After Meta and several experts online found inconsistencies in The Wire’s reporting, the outlet decided to suspend access to its stories on October 18th and conduct an “internal review” of the documents it used as evidence. It later retracted its report on October 23rd due to “certain discrepancies” that emerged in its reporting.
It’s an unusually difficult story to keep track of, drawing on the nuances of Indian politics, email forensics, and Meta’s contentious relationship with the press. So we’ve boiled down the last couple weeks of chaos into a simple recap of what’s happened and why it matters.
What’s going on here?
On October 6th, independent Indian news publication The Wirepublished an article about how Instagram incorrectly took down a satirical image of a man worshipping Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The owner of the account, @cringearchivist, says Instagram removed the post for violating its “sexual activity and nudity” policies, even though it did not contain sexual activity or nudity.
Many had assumed the post was flagged due to a glitch in some automated system, but The Wire said this wasn’t true. An internal source at Meta reportedly told The Wire the company removed the post at the request of Amit Malviya, the head of the information technology cell at India’s ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party (or BJP), but holes in The Wire’s reporting make these allegations questionable.
Meta has since denied The Wire’s report. It accuses the outlet of spreading false information and has attempted to debunk the “fabricated evidence” provided by The Wire’s source, stating that it hopesThe Wire “is the victim of this hoax, not the perpetrator.” After adamantly defending its claims, The Wire has taken the responses from Meta and users online into account and said it’s going to “review its reporting on Meta.” The outlet later made the decision to retract its story entirely due to various inconsistencies in the documents it initially presented as evidence, which we’ll go over below.
What did The Wire say happened?
Essentially, The Wire reported that Malviya got the post banned by using special privileges given to high-profile users. To back up these claims, they published screenshots of the documentation Instagram allegedly uses as part of its internal review process, which list Malviya’s Instagram handle, @amitmalviya, as the user who reported @cringearchivist’s post. The document also stated Malviya “has XCheck privileges” and that another review of the reported content is “not required.”
The XCheck program is indisputably real: last year, a report from The Wall Street Journal revealed that Meta uses an XCheck, or cross-check, system that lets high-profile users avoid Facebook and Instagram’s typical moderation processes. But The Wire’s reporting seemed to show this was being used for partisan political ends in India, allowing Malviya to “post as he likes without the rules governing the platform applying to him.”
What does Meta say about The Wire’s claims?
Meta responded to the allegations by saying its cross-check program “does not grant enrolled accounts the power to automatically have content removed from our platform.” It adds that the policy was put in place to “prevent potential over-enforcement mistakes and to double-check cases where a decision could require more understanding.”
The company also pushed back on the internal report provided by The Wire’s source. Guy Rosen, Meta’s chief information officer, says the instagram.workplace.com URL included in the screenshots doesn’t actually exist. “It appears to be a fabrication,” Rosen writes on Twitter. “The URL on that ‘report’ is one that’s not in use. The naming convention is one we don’t use. There is no such report.”
In order to prove the legitimacy of its source, The Wire posted a video showing what the outlet claimed is part of Instagram’s internal workspace. The clip showed a user scrolling through a list of alleged “post-incident reports involving VIPS” on Instagram’s backend, which The Wire said employees can only access through the company’s internal subdomain, instagram.workplace.com. And while the outlet said, “it ascertained that the video hadn’t been tampered with,” Pranesh Prakash, a legal and policy analyst, spotted an instance where the cursor jumps unnaturally during the video.
Meta says the company has evidence that a user made an external Meta Workplace account, altering the page’s branding so that it appeared to belong to Instagram. The account was created on October 13th, a few days after The Wire’s initial reports. The Wire has since revealed that, during the review of its reporting, its investigators haven’t been able to verify the validity of the Facebook email its source used to contact the outlet.
“Based on the timing of this account’s creation on October 13, it appears to have been set up specifically in order to manufacture evidence to support the Wire’s inaccurate reporting,” Meta explains. “We have locked the account because it’s in violation of our policies and is being used to perpetuate fraud and mislead journalists.”
What about The Wire’s other evidence?
The Wire also claimed it obtained an email sent by Andy Stone, the policy communications director at Meta. In the email, Stone allegedly expresses frustration at the aforementioned leaked internal document and asks to put the journalists behind the story on a “watchlist.” The Wire went so far as to verify the authenticity of the email using a tool called dkimpy, which validates the email’s DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) signature.
I know - and whoever is now going to increasing lengths to fabricate this story knows - this is completely false. I never sent, wrote, or even thought what's expressed in that supposed email, as it's been clear from the outset that @thewire_in's stories are based on fabrications.
The protocol is supposed to prove that an email really came from where it says it did, and in this case, that’s Meta’s fb.com domain. The Wire posted a video showing the authentication process — that the outlet says was signed off on by two independent security experts — and came to the conclusion that the email is real.
In response, Meta said that the email is “fake” and that there’s no such thing as a “watchlist.” Stone also denies the existence of the email in a statement on Twitter. “This is completely false,” Stone writes. “I never sent, wrote, or even thought what’s expressed in that supposed email, as it’s been clear from the outset that @thewire_in‘s stories are based on fabrications.”
Users on the web have poked holes in The Wire’s allegations as well. In a thread on Twitter, cybersecurity expert and author Arnab Ray found that the DKIM analysis video posted by The Wire doesn’t actually prove Stone himself sent the email.
DKIM is based on a domain public key, not an individuals. It’s not like PGP. All DKIM could prove was that an email came from an org, not a person within the organization. So anyone inside an org can spoof someone else in org, it provides zero protection for insider spoofing
As explained by Ray, “DKIM is based on a domain public key,” which means it can’t prove that it came from a specific person; it only shows that it came from the domain attached to a specific organization, like fb.com. This leaves room for someone with access to the organization’s email to spoof their address, making it seem like the email came from Stone but really didn’t.
Prakash also shows how easy it is to create a video that makes it looks as if he’s using a DKIM tool with a two-line shell script named “dkimverify.” Prakash made it so the “tool” outputs a “signature ok” result regardless of what’s entered, which indicates the DKIM is verified. The emails between The Wire and supposed security experts who verified the outlet’s DKIM authentication process are also questionable. Prakash points out that the dates on the emails don’t match up on the current and archived versions of the article, with the former listing the email’s year as 2022 and the latter saying 2021.
There’s also evidence that the emails may have been fabricated altogether. Kanishk Karan, a policy manager for online platforms, found that The Wire referred to him as an “independent security expert” at the bottom of one of the unredacted emails, along with a fake email address made to look as if it belongs to him. Karan says that while The Wire reporter Devesh Kumar did contact him for DKIM verification, he never did it and referred him to other experts instead. In its most recent update, The Wire admitted the other security expert featured in the story, Ujjwal Kumar, also “denied sending such an email” to sign off on the DKIM process.
So... what does all this add up to?
Whatever happened, it doesn’t look good for The Wire. One way or another, there’s mounting evidence that their initial reports weren’t quite telling the whole story. Some skeptics believe The Wire fabricated the evidence entirely and created a phony story in an attempt to smear Meta. There are even some who think someone aligned with the BJP leaked the story in a deliberate effort to discredit the publication.
Meanwhile, others thinkThe Wire might’ve been the subject of an elaborate ruse, with someone close to Meta creating the fake evidence and tricking the journalists into believing it’s real. The Wire is considering this as well, noting “We are still reviewing the entire matter, including the possibility that it was deliberately sought to misinform or deceive The Wire.”
As more information comes out, things are starting to get clearer, though. A recent report from Platformer revealed Kumar is the only one who had contact with The Wire’s so-called “source,” and just last week, Kumar claimed his accounts were hacked. In addition to retracting Kumar’s reporting on Meta, The Wire has also suspended access to his story on Tek Fog, an app supposedly used by the BJP to infiltrate, control, and spread misinformation on various social media platforms. The Wire states the report has “been removed from public view pending the outcome of an internal review by The Wire, as one of its authors was part of the technical team involved in our now retracted Meta coverage.”
“In the light of doubts and concerns from experts about some of this material, and about the verification processes we used — including messages to us by two experts denying making assessments of that process directly and indirectly attributed to them in our third story — we are undertaking an internal review of the materials at our disposal,” The Wire explains. “This will include a review of all documents, source material and sources used for our stories on Meta. Based on our sources’ consent, we are also exploring the option of sharing original files with trusted and reputed domain experts as part of this process.”
But wherever this confusion and doubt came from in the first place, the point of reporting is to suss this stuff out — and that clearly didn’t happen here.
Why is all this important?
Meta’s leadership has had a turbulent relationship with the Indian government, and this bizarre back-and-forth is only going to make things worse. When Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen came forward last year, internal documents showed that Meta (then-Facebook) largely ignored issues happening in India. According to The New York Times, Meta allocated 87 percent of its budget for classifying misinformation on the platform to the US in 2019, while the remaining 13 percent was spread across the rest of the world. This lack of moderation left a rash of hate speech and misinformation on Facebook in the country.
There are also issues related to Meta’s relationship with India’s ruling BJP political party. In 2020, the company was accused of failing to remove anti-Muslim posts shared by Indian lawmaker T. Raja Singh, a member of the BJP party. And last year, internal documents obtained by The Guardian found that Facebook allegedly allowed fake accounts linked to promoting a BJP politician to remain on the platform. A recent report from Al Jazeera claims Meta offers a cheaper rate for ads purchased by politicians belonging to the pro-Hindu party.
Update October 23rd, 2:28PM ET:Updated to add that The Wire has retracted its report.
Update October 19th, 12:05PM ET:Updated to add that The Wire has pulled its stories and that it’s conducting an internal review.
Correction October 17th, 6:08PM ET:A previous version of the article stated Pranesh Prakash is a legal and policy analyst at the Centre for Internet and Society. This is incorrect, as Prakash is no longer at this position. It also previously stated that Prakash shows how easy it is to fabricate a false result using a DKIM tool like dkimpy, when Prakash actually shows how to fabricate a video that makes it looks as if he’s using a DKIM tool like dkimverify. We regret the error.
Correction October 18th, 11:08AM ET:A previous version of the article stated Amit Malviya is the head of the BJP when he is actually the head of the IT cell at the BJP. We regret the error.
Facebook warns it could block news in Canada over proposed legislation
Nick Barclay / The Verge
Facebook might ban news sharing in Canada if the country passes legislation forcing the company to pay news outlets for their content (via The Wall Street Journal). In a post shared on Friday, Facebook parent company Meta says Canada’s proposed Online News Act falsely presumes that it “unfairly benefits from its relationship with publishers.”
First introduced in April, the Online News Act compels online platforms like Facebook and Google to share revenue with the publishers they aggregate their news from. The goal of the bill is to ensure news outlets are fairly compensated for their work. Canada’s House of Commons Heritage Committee held a meeting about the legislation last week, but Meta says it wasn’t invited.
While Google later walked back on its plans after striking deals with media organizations, Facebook reversed its news ban only after Australia amended its legislation. Facebook's temporary ban not only affected news outlets but also ripped down posts from government agencies, like local fire and health departments. Earlier this year, a group of Facebook whistleblowers claimed the move was a negotiation tactic, alleging Facebook used an overly broad definition of what’s considered a news publisher to cause chaos in the country. The company maintains the disorder was “inadvertent.”
Now Facebook’s prepared to put a block on news in Canada if the country doesn’t change its legislation. Meta says posts with links to news stories make up less than three percent of the content on users’ Facebook feed, adding that the content “is not a draw for our users” nor is it a “significant source of revenue.”
“If this draft legislation becomes law, creating globally unprecedented forms of financial liability for news links or content, we may be forced to consider whether we continue to allow the sharing of news content on Facebook in Canada as defined under the Online News Act,” Meta states.
Meta also claims news outlets benefit from putting their stories on Facebook, and not the other way around. In May, Meta says registered news publishers in Canada received over 1.9 billion clicks over the past 12 months, bringing in an estimated $230 million CAD in value. Google also spoke out about the legislation during last week’s meeting, saying it “will make it harder for Canadians to find and share trusted and authoritative news online,” and that publishers already benefit from the traffic they receive through Google.
Pablo Rodriguez, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, said in a statement obtained by the WSJ that Facebook continues “to pull from their playbook used in Australia.” “All we’re asking the tech giants like Facebook to do is negotiate fair deals with news outlets when they profit from their work,” Rodriguez explains.
PopGrip JumpStart review: what if a battery bank were also a PopSocket?
PopSocket’s battery bank isn’t a small accessory. | Image: Mitchell Clark / The Verge
We’re smack in the middle of newphoneseason and getting close to the time when some of us are going to have to start worrying about wish lists and stocking stuffers, so I want to look at an accessory that may be on some people’s radar: the PopGrip JumpStart, a $35 battery bank that attaches to your phone via PopSocket’s quick release mechanism and provides around a 50 percent charge via a built-in Lightning or USB-C cable.
When I first heard about it, I hoped that the JumpStart would be both a good battery bank and a good way to hold my phone. Unfortunately, I found that it was relatively mediocre at the first job and worse at the second, making it a bit unclear who exactly this product is for.
I will say a few nice things before I really dig in, though. The JumpStart is a very nice object, made of a textured plastic shaped into a little ovular puck with the classic PopSocket sleeve on the back. On the top of the puck is a single button, which you click to start charging and which has a light that acts as a power indicator.
When you attach it to PopMount 2 products (aka the ones with the replaceable tops), it clicks into the mount with a satisfying sound. However, once you pop it out, it spins freely, so the puck can end up perpendicular to your phone. I couldn’t figure out any use for it doing this; it’s far too prominent to act as a kickstand, and it doesn’t really change the experience if you’re holding your phone in landscape instead of portrait. The only thing the spinning did was annoy me and occasionally detach the JumpStart from the phone.
Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge
The integrated cable is about as good as it could be.
The integrated Lightning or USB-C cable (you buy it with one or the other) is around seven inches long and feels surprisingly sturdy. I’d expected that it would come loose and flop out of its slot, but that didn’t turn out to be the case at all. If anything, it’s almost a bit too difficult to deploy; I really had to dig my nails in and pull. But while I’m happy PopSockets is using a good cable, I really wish the JumpStart just used wireless charging, like other mountable battery banks from Anker, Otterbox, and Apple.
In theory, the built-in cable would make the JumpStart more convenient than having to carry around an external battery bank and corresponding cord, but I honestly found myself wishing I had gone with the latter solution whenever I was just trying to use my phone. The JumpStart’s bulk made it difficult to get my phone in and out of my pocket (a problem that’s even worse when you’ve got the cable plugged in), and it made the phone very uncomfortable to hold, even when I was using it like a massive PopSocket.
The obvious solution is to just take the JumpStart off when I’m not using it and put up with the worse ergonomics while I’m charging. The problem with that is that it seriously cuts down on the convenience factor because it means I have to carry the JumpStart around with me in either a pocket, bag, or purse if I want to use it when I find myself running low on juice. And if I have to carry something external around anyways, I’d probably want to go with something that could provide a bit more power.
According to PopSockets’ website, the JumpStart has approximately 2,200mAh of capacity. In my testing, that was enough power to take my phone from around 15 percent charge to around 80 percent (there was one outlier where it only managed to boost my phone by 40 percent, but that was a worst-case scenario where I was using GPS while charging in the cold). Your mileage may vary, though, because my iPhone Mini 12 has an itsy-bitsy battery. I don’t expect you’d get as many percentage points with a larger phone.
To be clear, that’s definitely enough power to get you out of a jam if you suddenly find yourself with a dead battery. But personally, it's just not worth the annoyance of either having to keep track of the JumpStart or trying to use my phone with a bulky spinny thing on the back. That’s especially true since my phone supports MagSafe, meaning I could use Anker’s $50 wireless charging battery bank with over double the capacity — there’s even a version with a built-in PopSocket, though that does cost more.
Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge
I appreciate the USB-C and passthrough charging — but I don’t appreciate how much the JumpStart swivels around when I’m trying to use it.
I do think the combination of too much bulk to be comfortable while not being bulky enough to really charge up your phone is kind of a shame because PopSockets clearly put some effort into this thing. No matter which version you get, you charge the JumpStart via USB-C, a boon for anyone who’s annoyed at Apple for sticking with Lightning on its phones. It also supports passthrough charging, meaning it can charge your phone while it's plugged into the wall — I have two dedicated power banks from Anker and Mophie that don’t have that feature.
At the top, I said I’m not quite sure who this is for. The one exception is someone absolutely dedicated to the PopSocket lifestyle who can’t live without a grip on the back of their phone and who either doesn’t want to use MagSafe or has a phone without it (aka the Android phones PopSockets targets with the USB-C version of the accessory). But I think anyone else will probably want to look at other, more traditional battery banks or go with the even newer magnetic tech.
Best podcasts of the week: What it’s like to lose your unvaccinated father and brother to Covid
In this week’s newsletter: We Were Three, from the makers of Serial, delves into a story of strained family relationships brought to a head by the pandemic – and vaccine misinformation
Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down a Drug Lord
Widely available, episodes weekly From high-flying cocaine dealers to government informants, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and journalist Charlie Webster tell the story of identical twins Jay and Peter Flores, who were responsible for taking down Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, one of the world’s most dangerous drug barons. After 14 years in prison, the twins speak out for the first time to tell this thrilling, high-wire tale. Sammy Gecsoyler
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.
Early access for Kerbal Space Program 2 lifts off on February 24th
The Kerbals prepare for liftoff
After several delays, Kerbal Space Program 2 is finally entering early access on February 24th, 2023. Developer Intercept Games initially announced that it was working on KSP2 back in 2019, but only revealed the early access release date for the Kerbal Space Program sequel last week, outlining its expectations in a roadmap leading up to the eventual 1.0 release. KSP2 is currently available to wishlist on Steam and will also be available on the Epic Games Store, and will cost $49.99
The original Kerbal Space Program is a brutal, rewarding, and occasionally hilarious simulation of the complexities of space flight that allows you to construct your own rockets, shuttles, rovers, and other interstellar vehicles. All manned by the ambitious Kerbals, little green people whose unbridled enthusiasm towards space flight adds some much-needed levity to your failures.
These Kerbals don’t care that I’ve marooned them in orbit, they’re just happy to be here.
While a big part of the KSP experience centers around experimentation and getting things wrong, Intercept Games recognizes some of the pain points of the original KSP, and is working to smooth over some of its rougher parts with the sequel. Currently, with the upcoming early access release, players can expect a drastically improved user experience with a revamped UI, in addition to a new catalog of parts to experiment with, and perhaps most importantly, new tutorials and onboarding systems to get new players up to speed.
The Early Access roadmap for Kerbal Space Program 2 highlights some cool new features to expect
The list of features expected at launch is only a small part of the expansive vision surrounding KSP2. Post-launch updates are set to include off-world colony construction, interstellar travel, and multiplayer options.
Lovingly described by Astrophysicist and Kerbal expert Scott Manley as “a gateway drug to physics,” KSP has a way of teaching you what words like “delta-V” and “apoapsis” mean without you realizing it. The game allows you to make tons of mistakes and learn from them, a parallel that Intercept Games creative director Nate Simpson is keenly aware of as the studio prepares for early access. “We’re going to get some things wrong,” he says “we’re going to fail out loud, and there’s nothing more Kerbal than that”.
As a fan of both early and ongoing space exploration, I’ve spent a good chunk of time creating (and crashing) my own creations in the original KSP. While it is occasionally frustrating, I’m willing to admit that I audibly cheered when I finally managed to perform my first high-orbit intercept, and I can’t wait to send an ambitious new generation of little green people careening into the cosmos.
Republicans sue Google over ‘discriminatory’ spam filtering practices
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is suing Google for allegedly sending “millions” of campaign emails to users’ spam folders (via Axios). According to the lawsuit filed in California’s Eastern District Court on Friday, the RNC accuses Google of “throttling its email messages because of the RNC’s political affiliation and views.”
For months, the RNC has been complaining about Google’s alleged spam filtering bias, claiming it disproportionately puts Republican-backed political emails in spam folders when compared to messages sent by Democrats. The RNC’s frustration was only exacerbated by a North Carolina State University study that suggested Google was sending RNC emails to spam folders more frequently, leading a group of Republicans to introduce a bill that would prevent email providers like Google from filtering political emails using algorithms.
To address the RNC’s concerns, Google rolled out a pilot program in September that’s supposed to help prevent political emails from getting marked as spam. However, as The Verge’s Makena Kelly reported pointed out last week, Republicans haven’t been taking advantage of the program, which would’ve required it to follow security requirements and best practice standards when sending out emails in bulk.
As noted by the lawsuit, the RNC claims Google has continued to send RNC emails “en masse” to users’ spam folders during “pivotal points” for gaining supporters and fundraising for the upcoming midterm elections. It goes on to state that Google’s alleged filtering occurs “at approximately the same time at the end of each month,” and that the end of October is one of the most crucial fundraising periods for Republicans, who have been struggling to meet their fundraising goals in the months leading up to the midterm elections.
“This discrimination has been ongoing for about ten months — despite the RNC’s best efforts to work with Google,” the lawsuit states. “Throughout 2022, the RNC has engaged with Google month after month to obtain an explanation and a solution. But every explanation has been refuted and every solution has failed.”
And while the lawsuit doesn’t explicitly mention the pilot program put in place by Google, it does say the company provided the organization’s digital department with a training session on email best practices on August 11th — the same day the Federal Election Commission approved Google’s spam-proofing pilot. “Despite the RNC following Google’s best practices,” the lawsuit states, “the filtering reoccurred.”
“As we have repeatedly said, we simply don’t filter emails based on political affiliation. Gmail’s spam filters reflect users’ actions,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement to The Verge. “We provide training and guidelines to campaigns, we recently launched an FEC-approved pilot for political senders, and we continue to work to maximize email deliverability while minimizing unwanted spam.”
The RNC claims Google hampered its ability to communicate with voters and cost the organization over $75,000 in lost donations, with alleged long-term losses totaling “in the millions of dollars.”
Update October 22nd, 10:50AM ET:Updated to add a statement from a Google spokesperson.
Apple’s second-gen Magic Trackpad is on sale at Woot for its lowest price ever
Apple’s second-gen trackpad is compatible with Windows or Apple devices via Bluetooth | Image: The Verge
Happy Saturday, everybody! Everyone on the Verge Deals team is enjoying their weekend and we hope you are, too. If you were looking to engage in a little retail therapy or do a little window shopping, we’ve collected a handful of deals we think you’ll want to check out.
If you’re constantly misplacing all the important things in your life, it might be time to invest in a set of Bluetooth trackers. Right now, you can pick up a four-pack of Tile Pro trackers from Tile for just $49.99 ($50 off), the lowest price we’ve seen for the bundle to date. The Tile Pro is Tile’s most powerful tracking fob, with a range of up to 400 feet and a louder ring than its smaller counterparts. Just like other Tile trackers, the Pro is also water-resistant, works with voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, and is compatible with both Android and Apple devices — something that can be said of Apple’s AirTags.
The Xbox Elite 2 Core bears a striking resemblance to the more expensive Elite Series 2 but doesn’t come packaged with the additional D-pad, the charging case, back paddles, or thumbsticks. The Core still supports these components with the same swappable design, however, the extra accessories must be purchased separately. Otherwise, the Core is functionally the same controller as the standard Elite 2, offering custom profiles, adjustable tension thumbsticks, three-point trigger stops, and custom button mapping.
The Anker 615 USB Power Strip is a smarter power strip that knows how to keep things tidy. Normally $69.99, you can currently pick up the 65W strip at Amazon for $48.99 when you clip the on-page coupon before checkout. The charging station comes equipped with a pair of AC outlets, two USB-C ports, and a single USB-A port, allowing it to top off a variety of devices. Just note that while you can technically charge five devices at once, this may delay charging depending on the power needs of your devices.
Perhaps the best part of the charging station, however, is the integrated cable management solution hidden under the charger’s silicon “skirt,” which allows you to hide any unsightly slack in the cable and neatly pack it up if you need to stash it in your bag. The 615 Power Strip is also part of Anker’s latest lineup of GaNPrime charging accessories, which gives it increased efficiency over the older lithium-ion models.
A couple more weekend deals
A slick-looking power strip may not be at the top of your wishlist, but just in case it is, Amazon is selling the versatile Anker 525 Charging Station for 25 percent off when you clip the on-page coupon, reducing its price to $44.99 at checkout. This power strip is equipped with a trio of AC outlets in addition to a pair of USB-A and USB-C outlets. It even provides surge protection and will alert you if it isn’t grounded.
TiVo is making its case as a smart TV platform
TiVo OS looks like other interfaces you might be familiar with. | Image: Xperi
Remember TiVo? It still exists, even if you probably haven’t used a TiVo device in quite awhile. (Unless you’re one of the few who tried the company’s Android TV dongle.) Even though the vast majority of people have since moved to TV software that is built into their device or runs on a dedicated piece of hardware like the Apple TV, TiVo owner Xperi is getting into the TV software game with TiVo OS.
Yes, that means there will be yet another company vying to run the software that powers your TV. But TiVo’s angle with TiVo OS is to be a “first-of-its-kind neutral platform,” which means in part that equipment manufacturers will have more control over the experience.
Right now, the US TV software market is largely dominated by Roku, which said at the beginning of this year that it’s the top-selling smart TV OS in the country for the second year running. Roku hasn’t been shy about actually being an advertising company, which means that it earns a lot of money from customers who see advertising on its OS and in the ad-sponsored Roku channel while watching things on a TV by a vendor like TCL or Hisense. And companies like Samsung and LG have their own software platforms that they use with their own TVs, so they own that customer relationship from beginning to end.
With TiVo OS, Xperi wants to give more power back to the equipment manufacturers (or at least the ones that aren’t on the level of a Samsung or LG. “You’re at a huge disadvantage competitively if you’re not participating in shaping the experience and retaining some level of customer ownership during the life of the product,” Geir Skaaden, Xperi’s executive vice president and chief products and services officer, said in an interview with The Verge. “So our platform allows them to brand the experience, retain the customer relationship, and have a rev share on the monetization on the platform.” For consumers, TiVo OS will also offer an alternative to software made by companies like Roku, Apple, or Amazon.
The thing is, TiVo still seems a long way from making that vision a reality. You can’t actually buy a TiVo OS-equipped TV yet, as there aren’t any on the market right now. Vestel, which makes TVs sold under licensed brands like Toshiba and JVC, is the first OEM that has committed to shipping TVs with TiVO OS, but those won’t be released until 2023, and they’re coming to Europe first. Xperi hasn’t announced a launch date for TiVo OS in the US, but that’s “definitely on the roadmap,” according to Skaaden.
Xperi expects to announce more TiVo OS hardware partners before or around the Consumer Electronics Show (which takes place in early January), according to Skaaden. But it’s unclear when those might hit the market or how many offerings there will be. And even if more TiVo OS devices are announced and actually come out next year, I just don’t think many people are chomping at the bit to switch over.
Roku is immensely popular, Samsung is licensing its Tizen smart TV OS, and big tech companies like Amazon and Google use their TV software in smart TVs as well. Xperi does tout TiVo OS’ integration with linear content, so perhaps that could be an advantage over those other platforms, which prefer to focus on streaming. “A TV Powered by TiVo can deliver better viewer engagement with an unbiased content-first user experience where live hybrid TV and streaming services are fully integrated,” Xperi said in a press release in August. But since we can’t actually use TiVo OS yet, we’ll have to wait and see if the promises of a neutral platform turn into a compelling argument for TV buyers.
And that being said, Xperi is aiming TiVo OS more at OEMs that don’t already have a smart TV platform that they rely on. “We do not expect people that have their own operating platform to switch to ours,” he said, but Xperi does expect that TiVo OS will win marketshare among OEMs that “are not developing their own platform.”
In addition to TiVo, Xperi owns brands including the DTS audio compression technology, HD Radio, and the IMAX Enhanced standard. Xperi’s recent split separated its patents business into a separate company called Adeia.
Who Gets the Last Word on Steve Jobs? He Might. When Laurene Powell Jobs unveiled a website dedicated to the story of her late husband, historians wondered if it could change how influential people burnish their legacies.
Belkin’s MagSafe Continuity Camera mount is an easy webcam upgrade
And you might actually want to keep it on your phone, solving the issue of having to carry it around and remember it
Belkin’s iPhone Mount with MagSafe for Mac Notebooks has a bad name but is a very good accessory. It lets you clip your iPhone onto your laptop so you can make use of macOS Ventura and iOS 16’s Continuity Camera feature, which turns your phone into a webcam that absolutely crushes pretty much anything that’s built into MacBooks these days. And if that was all it did, I’d still be happy with it — but its design and features are what truly make it worth considering, even though there’s already a flood of other accessories meant to do the same job.
Using the mount to turn your phone into a webcam is easy: you magnetically snap it on, flip out a little foot with Belkin’s logo on it, and rest it on top of your computer. Then you just choose your iPhone as the camera in whatever video chat app you’re using. It’s a pretty simple mechanism that works well, and because the mount is circular, you can attach your phone in either portrait or landscape mode.
Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge
Portrait mode actually isn’t great with the current version of Continuity Camera, but I’ll leave those impressions for a more in-depth look at the software.
Its versatile shape does, however, mean that there’s not that extra stabilizing magnet at the bottom like some other MagSafe accessories have. That probably won’t cause a strength problem; my iPhone 12 Mini never slid off Belkin’s mount or anything, even when I tested it without a case, and none of my colleagues who have used the mount with bigger phones noted any issues. But it does mean that you may have to spend a second twisting the mount a tiny bit to make sure your video doesn’t end up slightly crooked.
Where the mount really shines is its build quality and bonus kickstand / grip ring (unfortunately, the kickstand can’t really be used if you want to prop your phone’s camera up on a table instead of your computer; it’s just not in the right place). The whole thing feels very smooth and solid, like a rock that’s been polished by moving water. It’s also coated in a sort of grippy rubber, which feels great and is very unobtrusive. When I’m using it with my phone on, the low-profile dome fits pretty much perfectly into my palm, and I barely notice it’s there. If you actually want Continuity Camera to be useful, you have to make sure you’ve always got a mount with you. The Belkin is nice enough that I want to keep it on my phone, which means I won’t forget it when I leave the house.
With that said, I don’t think this mount and Continuity Camera are going to revolutionize my casual FaceTimes or Discord calls with friends and family for one simple reason: when my laptop is actually on my lap, putting a phone at the top of the lid makes it very tippy, even with my mini phone. When I was using it with my legs crossed, it my laptop would easily fall over and yeet my phone across the room if I didn’t catch it. Even if I’ve got my arm on the palm rest, it only takes the slightest bump for the weight of the phone to pull my 13-inch MacBook Pro’s screen back to its maximum open position, usually resulting in a very unflattering angle (and perhaps an uncomfortable amount of force on my display?).
Gif by Mitchell Clark / The Verge
Be careful using this accessory with your laptop on your lap.
To be clear, this probably won’t be a problem on a desk unless you’re using the diminutive 12-inch MacBook. One of my co-workers said that his MacBook Air was perfectly stable when sitting on a table with an iPhone 13 attached to it, and the same was true for another co-worker who used the mount with a Pro Max and 16-inch MacBook Pro. But it does mean that I’ll probably only use this accessory for more formal video calls where I’ll be at a desk or counter rather than the far more frequent ones that I do from the couch. That’s not Belkin’s fault; it’s just physics, and really, I don’t think my mom or sister are going to mind seeing me in fuzzy 720p (or, at least, I haven’t gotten any complaints in the past few years).
Gif by Mitchell Clark / The Verge
No, it’s not the force of my stare that’s pushing the laptop down. But hey, points to the Belkin mount to keeping my iPhone attached through the bump.
Even with this limitation, I still feel like the Belkin mount is worth its $29.95 price tag for anyone who cares what they look like on video, has an iPhone, and plans on upgrading to macOS Ventura when it comes out on Monday (and who doesn’t want the hassle of setting up a dedicated camera / tripod / light).
However, if you mostly work from a desk with a monitor, it may be worth waiting for the desktop version, which Belkin says will let you tilt your phone to reframe the shot. That version is “coming soon,” according to Belkin’s press release, though it doesn’t mention whether it’ll feature some sort of power delivery that’s more elegant than just plugging your phone in using a Lightning cable. That sort of feature wouldn’t make sense on the portable version, but it’d probably be a nice add for those who are in meetings all day long.
Ahead of Midterms, Disinformation Is Even More Intractable Ahead of the midterm elections, the proliferation of alternative social media sites has helped cement false and misleading information as a defining feature of American politics.
Bayonetta 3 developer reiterates support for replacement voice actor after controversy
Bayonetta 3 is scheduled for release on October 28th. | Image: PlatinumGames / Nintendo
Bayonetta 3 developer PlatinumGames has responded to the controversy that’s embroiled its upcoming game after it replaced longtime protagonist voice actor Hellena Taylor with Jennifer Hale. The studio published a statement saying, “We give our full support to Jennifer Hale as the new Bayonetta,” and asking people to “please refrain from any further comments that would disrespect Jennifer or any of the other contributors to the series.”
The studio also says that it agrees with a statement recently posted by Hale herself. The actor, who is best known for voicing the female version of Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect series, recently posted a tweet emphasizing her support for the right of actors to be properly paid. She asked for people to keep an “open mind” about the forthcoming game, which she says was created by “an entire team of hard-working, dedicated people.”
The controversy originally erupted after Hellena Taylor, who voiced protagonist Bayonetta across the series’ first two games, called for a boycott of the upcoming Bayonetta 3 over the “insulting” pay offer she was given to reprise her role. “The final offer, to do the whole game as a buyout, a flat rate, was $4,000,” said Taylor in a video posted to Twitter. “This is an insult to me, for the amount of time that I took to work on my talent and everything that I have given to this game and to the fans.”
PlatinumGames hasn’t responded directly to Taylor’s claims. Prior to Taylor calling for a boycott, game director Yusuke Miyata told Game Informer (via Nintendo Everything) that “various overlapping circumstances made it difficult for Hellena Taylor to reprise her role.”
However, sources speaking to Bloomberg have disputed Taylor’s version of events, and claimed that she was instead offered $3,000 to $4,000 per session for at least five sessions. Negotiations reportedly fell apart when Taylor asked for a “six-figure sum” and residuals, after which Platinum offered to pay her for one session as a cameo. Taylor told Bloomberg that this account was “an absolute lie.”
In response to the criticism directed at Hale for taking on the role, other voice actors within the industry have rallied to her defense. Perhaps most notably, David Hayter, who voiced Metal Gear Solid protagonist Solid Snake until he was unceremoniously replaced with Kiefer Sutherland in MGS5, tweeted that “to put the blame on another actor is unjust. And Jennifer Hale is the absolute best of us.”
If nothing else, the incident has shown how voice actors who bring characters to life in bestselling games can earn relatively small feels of just a few thousand dollars (and no residuals). “Some people might think that getting paid $4,000 to do a game sounds amazing,” John Schwab, a voice actor from the Witcher series of games, told The Guardian. “But the commitment that it takes to get a game done – we’re talking dozens and dozens of hours of recording. And on top of that, the travel that nobody pays for, the agents’ fees, the tax … People think you show up, work for two hours and a game comes out. Absolutely not.”
Instacart Is Said to Pull Plans to Go Public This Year The food delivery company had been moving toward a public offering, but the window for such deals is shutting amid market turmoil.
Elon Musk plans to cut 75% of Twitter staff if he takes over company – report
The news comes at a difficult time for the company, which had announced hiring freezes and has seen low employee morale
Elon Musk told prospective investors that he plans to eliminate nearly 75% of Twitter’s staff as part of his deal to take over the social media company, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
Job cuts are expected in the coming months no matter who owns the company, according to the report, which cited interviews and documents.
The all-electric automaker put out the invitation to vote on new locations via its Tesla Charging Twitter account but had originally announced its intention to democratize Supercharger station expansion last month. Tesla owners can log in to participate via their user accounts and can vote for up to five locations in the list of 183 possible sites. There’s even a page where you can suggest a location that’s not on the list yet.
Currently, Lake Okeechobee, Florida, is in the lead with 558 votes (at the time of writing). The town of about 5,000 people doesn’t have any Supercharging station, with the closest one being 32 miles east in Fort Pierce. There aren’t any Tesla Level 2 destination charging in town, either, according to PlugShare.
Lake Okeechobee does, however, have a DC fast charging station near the center of town that plays nice with all other EV manufacturers. Tesla customers in the US can buy an adapter to convert CHAdeMO plugs, and Tesla recently released a CCS Combo 1 adapter as well, but not all cars can support the latter without a Tesla service upgrade. In that regard, Lake Okeechobee seems to be a good candidate for a new Supercharging station.
Image: PlugShare
With no Supercharging stations around, PlugShare user William charged their Model S with a CHAdeMO adapter at this Okeechobee, FL FPL EVolution station.
In fourth place, we have Starbase, Texas, at 451 votes at time of writing. That is SpaceX’s spaceport in Boca Chica, where the company produces rockets like the Falcon Heavy and has many fans living nearby to observe everything SpaceX is doing. Other big votes include: Big Bear Lake, California, with 537 votes; Bolzano, Italy, with 454 votes; Laguna Beach, California, with 379 votes; Princeton, New Jersey, with 286 votes; and Philadelphia with 295 votes — which I’ll personally vote for only because the Eagles are undefeated.
Tesla owns and operates one of the largest EV charging networks in the world, consisting of 4,283 Supercharging stations and 38,883 connectors in total, according to its Q3 2022 earnings report this week. The chargers are only available to Tesla owners, though it has started to accept EVs from other companies in Europe. And Tesla is planning to do the same in the US, but it might need to alter some of the stations to work with the North American CCS1 connector standard.
It’s an easier task to open up Superchargers in Europe and Asia to non-Tesla EVs since there is a standard EV connector. In North America, however, Tesla still uses a proprietary connecter to charge its cars.
Hopefully, as the Supercharger network grows, Tesla will start adding stations that support other EVs in the US soon. It’s at least warming up to the idea; Tesla just started selling a new version of its at-home Level 2 Wall Connector charger that has the widely used J1772 plug.
Cherry’s latest mechanical keyboard switch is inspired by the community
Cherry’s new MX Ergo Clear switch. | Image: Cherry
For its latest mechanical keyboard switch, German manufacturer Cherry has taken inspiration from a popular modification of one of its existing switches. The new MX Ergo Clear was announced by the company in a press release this week, but the design dates back to a DIY mod posted to the mechanical keyboard forum GeekHack way back in 2011.
The original, community-made Ergo Clear is what’s known as a “frankenswitch,” where users mix and match components of different switches to create new and interesting typing feels. The original Ergo Clear mod combined the stem of a Cherry MX Clear with the spring of a Cherry MX Black switch. It meant that it inherited the satisfying tactile bump of the MX Clear (which is far more pronounced than the bump of Cherry’s other tactile switch, the MX Brown), but with a lighter spring that makes it far easier to press.
As keyboard-focused YouTuber Glarses points out in his review of the Ergo Clear mod from last year, it’s subsequently become more common for modders to use the lighter springs found in Cherry MX Blue, Brown, or Red switches, rather than the MX Black spring listed in the original GeekHack post. But either way the principle remains the same — combining a big tactile bump with a lighter spring.
That brings us to Cherry’s announcement this week. In a press release, the company says that producing its own official version of the MX Ergo Clear switch will “save less experienced users from having to modify it manually.” But being an official switch means that the new Ergo Clear has gone through Cherry’s quality control process, which allows it to guarantee that the switch will survive 50 million actuations “without any loss of typing feel.” The company says it’s using “high-performance grease” to lubricate its official version of the MX Ergo Clear, rather than the PTFE lubricant used in the original mod, which it claims results in “reliable long-term lubrication.”
A spokesperson for the company did not respond to specific questions about the exact weight of the spring used in the new MX Ergo Clear switch, but it’s listed with 40cN of actuation force (the amount of force needed to get a key to register a press), and 55cN of operating force (the amount needed to push past the tactile bump). For reference, Cherry’s MX Brown has slightly higher 45cN of actuation force, but the same 55cN of operating force. The pre-existing MX Clear has 55cN of actuation force and 65cN of operating force.
Image: Cherry
A cross-section of the MX Ergo Clear switch showing its stem (the white block in the middle) and spring.
Although Cherry argues that offering the official Ergo Clear switch will save users the hassle of performing the mod themselves, the fact is that many people were already avoiding it by buying one of the many third-party Ergo Clear-style switches that have cropped up over the years to capitalize on demand. One notable early imitator was the Zealio, which was manufactured by Cherry competitor Gateron. Numerous manufacturers now produce switches based on Cherry’s MX switch design after the company’s patent expired.
With its official version of the MX Ergo Clear, Cherry appears to finally be responding to the demand for a tactile switch that, until now, has only been available via DIY modifications or competing manufacturers. Cherry’s press release doesn’t list exact pricing or a release date for the new switches (we’ve followed up for more details and will update this story if we hear back) but notes that they’ll be available from “official distributors” as well as being built directly into upcoming off-the-shelf keyboards. The switch will be available in both RGB and non-RGB varieties, as well as in three and five-pin versions.
Antony Blinken’s visit to Silicon Valley underscores US cybersecurity concerns
The secretary of state was meeting tech executives to discuss national security even as US public is increasingly skeptical of industry
The US secretary of state visited Silicon Valley this week, on a trip that experts say highlights the Biden administration’s growing concerns over cybersecurity and officials’ push to collaborate more closely with the US’s powerful tech industry.
Antony Blinken on Monday spoke at Stanford University and was scheduled to meet with tech executives to “highlight the key role for technology diplomacy in advancing US economic and national security”, according to the state department.
Ceefax is dead, long live Ceefax! Meet the fans resurrecting the ingenious service
101, 102, 103, 104 … It wasn’t fast, but it was breathtakingly revolutionary, and Ceefax still has its share of devotees, 10 years after it was turned off. They explain how they are keeping the newsfeed alive
It is 10 years since Ceefax ceased to be, at 23:32:19 BST on 23 October 2012, when the last analogue TV signal was switched off in Northern Ireland. It seems longer ago than that – probably because most of us had stopped using it years earlier. With its pixelated graphics and agonisingly slow rolling screens, it had long since been usurped by new media.
But if Ceefax was a relic by the end, it’s easy to forget that its birth was an information revolution, and a breathtaking technological accomplishment. It was a precursor to the world wide web, only without the porn and arguments. In his eulogy to the service, Guardian columnist Barney Ronay pithily referred to it as “the horse-drawn internet”.
Best podcasts of the week: What it’s like to lose your unvaccinated father and brother to Covid
In this week’s newsletter: We Were Three, from the makers of Serial, delves into a story of strained family relationships brought to a head by the pandemic – and vaccine misinformation
Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down a Drug Lord
Widely available, episodes weekly From high-flying cocaine dealers to government informants, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and journalist Charlie Webster tell the story of identical twins Jay and Peter Flores, who were responsible for taking down Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, one of the world’s most dangerous drug barons. After 14 years in prison, the twins speak out for the first time to tell this thrilling, high-wire tale. Sammy Gecsoyler
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