Google is testing AI-generated Meet video backgrounds
Illustration: The Verge
I am not big on blurring out or replacing my office background with premade images, but then again, I’m fortunate enough to have a small environment I’m completely in control of at my disposal, and I want people to see the Doctor Zhivago DVD on the shelf behind me. I could, however, see myself using the new AI-generated backgrounds Google is now testing in its Workspace Labs (via XDA-Developers / 9to5Google).
The feature was spotted by Artem Russakovskii, who tweeted about it this afternoon. For those who already have the feature enabled on their account, activating it is as simple as either clicking on the effects icon in the bottom right of your preview video prior to joining a meeting, typing in a prompt describing what you’d like, then choosing from a selection of categories, as seen in this handy GIF from Google:
Image: Google
Then, if you’re already in a meeting and want to change things, the option is tucked away in the “Apply vision effects” option in the three dots menu. I tried to test it, and I am sad to report that I don’t seem to be among those in the initial rollout despite being in Google’s testing program. Google says on its support page that the feature is “rolling out gradually and may not be available to you yet.”
It’s probably just as well, as I would just try to create horrific H.R. Giger-themed rollercoaster backgrounds or something, which is decidedly unprofessional.
But maybe you’ll be luckier than me. If you want to try and aren’t already part of the Workspace Labs testing program, you can request to join on Google’s site. Afterward, if you forget what I said above, just head over to the Google support page describing how to get AI-generated backgrounds for your meeting and check it out for yourself.
There’s a major caveat to be aware of if you sign up, however: Google’s Workspace Labs privacy policy for personal accounts says, “human reviewers read, annotate, and process your Workspace Labs data” to improve the features. You can find similar language on the support page linked above.
U.N. Officials Urge Regulation of AI at Security Council Meeting Security Council members said they feared that a new technology might prove a major threat to world peace.
Hollywood’s writers and actors are on strike
Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld / Getty Images
Hollywood productions will remain at a standstill until media companies can come to an agreement with the writers and actors who make them.
With both writers and actors on strike, Hollywood productions have been ground to a halt. Actors have walked off sets, and writers haven’t been working for months. At the center of it all are two types of technology that have had a major impact on the way content is made: AI and streaming.
The unions representing writers and actors — the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) — went on strike after their contracts expired with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the association that represents media companies like Netflix, Disney, Paramount, Universal, and others. While the WGA began its strike on May 2nd, SAG-AFTRA joined the writers at the picket lines on July 14th, marking the first time since 1960 that both unions have gone on strike at the same time.
The best deals on MacBooks right now
The M2 generation of MacBook Air now comes in two sizes, and both are discounted. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Apple now sells MacBooks equipped with its own M-series chips in a wide range of sizes and price points. The offerings start with the 13-inch MacBook Air from 2020 at $999 and go all the way up to last year’s 16-inch MacBook Pro at $2,499 (not counting anything you can spec out to the stratosphere). And while it’s great to have options, it’s even better to find the right one for you on sale. The good news is that finding a deal on a Mac with an M1 or M2 chip — or a higher-end Pro or Max version — is usually not too difficult.
At this point, we don’t recommend buying any older Intel-based Macs. They’re just completely outclassed by all the newer models unless you have some super-niche Windows Boot Camp needs.
Alternatively, purchasing refurbished is another way to save money on an Apple computer. Apple’s refurbished store provides a one-year warranty on all products and generally offers discounts of up to 15 to 20 percent off the price of a new unit. If you’re looking for a new model, however, here are the best MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini deals available.
The best MacBook Air deals
M1 MacBook Air
The MacBook Air is Apple’s entry-level laptop. It’s best suited for typical productivity work, with a comfortable keyboard, an excellent trackpad, and all-day battery life. The redesigned M2 version of the MacBook Air has been with us for a bit — there’s now even a 15-inch M2 Air — but the 2020 version with an M1 processor and fanless design remains in the lineup as the budget option. For many people, the M1 Air still ticks the right boxes when it comes to performance and price, even if it’s long enough in the tooth to have been finally dethroned in our guide to the best laptops.
The base MacBook Air with the M1 chip comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It typically sells for $999, but Amazon is currently discounting the silver model to $869 ($130 off). That’s not nearly as good as it recently was during Amazon Prime Day when it dropped to an all-time low of $749.99, but it’s not terrible. Even more than two years after its release, it’s hard to beat the M1 Air’s value when it comes to performance and battery life, given its affordable price tag (even at full price).
M2 MacBook Air
As for the newer, fancier 13-inch MacBook Air with M2, the base model with 256GB of storage and an eight-core GPU got a price drop last month. Along with introducing a 15-inch M2 Air, Apple announced during WWDC that the 13-inch model now starts at $1,099 instead of $1,199. As for deals, the 13-incher is currently selling for $999 ($100 off) at B&H Photo and Best Buy. There’s also a slightly better deal available at B&H Photo on an upgraded configuration with a 512GB SSD and 10-core GPU for $1,249 ($150 off), assuming you’re okay with the sleek yet fingerprint-prone midnight color.
The new MacBook Air is a super slim and light laptop with a 1080p webcam that’s actually usable, as well as a handy magnetic charger that frees up one of its precious two USB-C ports. Its M2 processor didn’t kick-start a revolution like the M1 generation, but it’s a great performer for any user outside of more demanding creatives.
It does have some slight downsides, like slower storage in the base configuration and a notch cutout in its otherwise excellent screen. But even so, there hasn’t been a more travel-friendly laptop offered by Apple since the days of the polarizing 12-inch MacBook, and this one’s good enough to be the No. 1 laptop we now recommend in our buying guide.
The newly announced 15-inch MacBook Air with M2 is a lot like a blown-up 13-inch Air, and judging from our glowing review, there’s nothing wrong with that. Like its smaller counterpart, it has an M2 chip, two Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C ports, and MagSafe charging, and its base model comes with a 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM. But it differs by having a larger 15.3-inch notched screen with 2880 x 1864 resolution, six speakers instead of four, a 10-core GPU that costs extra on the 13-inch, and a higher starting price of $1,299. Bumping up to a larger, faster 512GB of storage will run you $1,499.
Surprisingly, the 15-inch M2 Air started receiving some slight discounts before it even shipped, which let early adopters save between $50 and $100. As of right now, you can get it for $50 off by ordering it from Amazon or B&H Photo, where it currently starts at $1,249.
The best MacBook Pro deals
M2 and M2 Pro MacBook Pro
The MacBook Pro line has been split into two different segments — for the time being. The M2-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2022 remains the lone Touch Bar holdout. It’s sort of a sibling to the 2020 MacBook Air, with a similar design save mostly for a fan that allows it to run at peak performance for longer. And while it’s still plagued by the Touch Bar and has its shortcomings when it comes to speed (at least on the base model), it features terrific battery life, and we occasionally see discounts up to $150 to $200 that help make it more worthwhile.
Right now, the best deals on the 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro are at Amazon and B&H Photo, where the 256GB model with 8GB of RAM is receiving its best discount of $200 off. That drops the price from $1,299 to $1,099. The 512GB model is also discounted by $200 at B&H Photo and Amazon, making it $1,299. These are excellent deals if the Touch Bar-equipped Mac still floats your boat, but those of you who do intensive creative work may still be better served spending a bit more on the more capable 14-inch MacBook Pro (if you can stretch your budget, of course).
As for the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, the latest models are mostly a spec-bumped refresh from the M1 Pro / M1 Max generation, but they now feature faster M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, with the 16-inch M2 Max MacBook Pro also showcasing some excellent battery life gains thanks to the efficiency of the new chips. And now, we’re finally starting to see some good discounts on the M2-based models.
Right now, you can get the base 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M2 Pro chip, a 512GB SSD, and 16GB of RAM for $1,799 ($200 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo. There’s also good news if you need additional storage, as the 14-inch model with 1TB of storage, a 12-core M2 Pro CPU, and 19 GPU cores is down to $2,299 ($200 off) at B&H Photo and Amazon.
I’m also happy to report that it’s an even better situation with the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 Pro, which is on sale for $2,249.99 (about $250 off) at Amazon in the space gray base configuration with 512GB of storage, 16GB of RAM, a 12-core CPU, and 19-core GPU. However, you can also get that discount on a higher-spec model with 1TB of storage from B&H Photo and Amazon for around $2,449 (also $250 off). It’s still a pricey laptop, but having that larger screen is handy when editing through Adobe Premiere timelines or having more real estate in Photoshop.
M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pro
For now, the older 2021 MacBook Pros remain fine machines, especially if you can get one at a steep discount. However, they’re getting increasingly harder to find in any of their cheaper base and midrange configurations. Currently, you can get a tricked-out 14-inch MacBook Prowith an M1 Max chip that has 10 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores, a 2TB SSD, and 64GB of RAM for $2,699 at B&H Photo. I know that’s a lot of money for a 14-inch laptop, but it’s a whopping $1,400 discount (though, for transparency, you should know B&H had this same laptop for $200 cheaper last month).
As for the 16-inch MacBook Pro from 2021, the best deal on the outgoing model is B&H Photo’s discount of $800 on an expanded configuration with 1TB of storage. That drops the price down to $1,899, which is an excellent deal. The only caveat is that this specific model has extra storage but just the base 16GB of RAM. However, it’s the best value you can get on a 16-inch M1 Pro right now.
Our reviews of Apple’s M1 Pro and Max MacBook Pro lineup were absolutely beaming with praise. Whether it was the beautiful display or the remarkable performance and battery life they exhibited, these premium laptops are investments that we still recommend — at least until the newer M2 generation starts seeing bigger discounts. It’s great to see the return of more ports, an SD card reader, and MagSafe charging to some Mac laptops we can once again say are well poised for actual pros. Just mind the notch — or better yet, make it more useful with software.
The best Mac Mini deals
The new Mac Mini comes in a base configuration with Apple’s M2 processor or in a more powerful configuration with the M2 Pro. It’s an excellent upgrade to one of the most affordable yet performant desktop computers you can get (as long as gaming isn’t your priority). The M2 model Mac Mini starts with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD for $599, while the M2 Pro model features a superior processor plus 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for $1,299.
The latter model also features an expanded port selection, from two USB-C ports to four. It’s almost like getting an M2 Pro-powered MacBook Pro 14 but in desktop form. Though keep in mind that buying any Mac Mini means you have to provide your own mouse, keyboard, and monitor.
The base configuration of the M2 Mac Mini is currently on sale for $529 ($70 off) at B&H Photo, which is the second-best price we’ve seen on Apple’s latest desktop machine so far. The M2 Pro model is receiving a bigger discount of $150 at B&H Photo, knocking it down to $1,149, but we’ve seen it dip as low as $1,099. Even if you’re not getting the lowest price ever, the M2 Pro Mac Mini is like a baby Mac Studio and a great value in terms of performance.
Facebook pivots back to video with more Reels and HDR
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Meta announced a bunch of new updates to its video features on Facebook, including improved editing tools, the ability to upload videos in HDR, and a new Video tab.
Let’s start first with that Video tab, the new name for the tab formerly known as Facebook Watch. Meta says that the tab is now “the one-stop shop for everything video on Facebook, including Reels, long-form and Live content.” You’ll be able to scroll vertically through a “personalized feed” of videos, and as you’re scrolling, there will also be Reels sections with shortform video. The tab will begin appearing in the shortcut bar “soon,” Meta says.
GIF: Meta
Here’s what the Video tab looks like.
If you want to post a video, Meta says that it’s bringing over the Reels editing tools to the Facebook feed, meaning you’ll be able to do things like add audio, text, and music to your videos more easily. You’ll be able to upload HDR videos from your phone, which Meta says is “the first of our efforts to bring true HDR video support to our family of apps.” Meta is also tightening the connections across its apps by letting you view and write comments on Instagram Reels while you’re watching them on Facebook.
Meta’s Threads may be the new hot thing, but Facebook is still huge, with 2 billion daily users as of the company’s last earnings report. These new video updates could prove to be a big deal for people who watch and make videos on the app.
‘Millions’ of sensitive US military emails were reportedly sent to Mali due to a typo
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
For over 10 years, millions of emails associated with the US military have been getting sent to Mali, a West African country allied with Russia, due to a typo, according to a report from the Financial Times. Instead of appending the military’s .MIL domain to their recipient’s email address, people frequently type .ML, the country identifier for Mali, by mistake.
Johannes Zuurbier, a Dutch entrepreneur contracted to manage Mali’s domain, tells the Financial Times that this has been happening for over a decade despite his repeated attempts to warn the US government. When Zuurbier began noticing requests for nonexistent domains, like army.ml and navy.ml, he set up a system to catch these misdirected emails, which the Financial Times reports “was rapidly overwhelmed and stopped collecting messages.”
Since January alone, Zuurbier has reportedly intercepted 117,000 misdirected emails, several of which contain sensitive information related to the US military. According to the Financial Times, many of the emails include medical records, identity document information, lists of staff at military bases, photos of military bases, naval inspection reports, ship crew lists, tax records, and more.
Some of the misdirected emails were sent by military staff members, travel agents working with the US military, US intelligence, private contractors, and others, the Financial Times reports. For example, an email from earlier this year reportedly contained the travel itinerary for General James McConville, the US Army’s chief of staff, for his visit to Indonesia. The email included a “full list of room numbers,” along with “details of the collection of McConville’s room key at the Grand Hyatt Jakarta.”
Zuurbier won’t be able to intercept these emails for much longer, however. Once his 10-year contract with Mali ends on Monday, authorities in Mali will be able to gain access to the emails. Russia established a presence in Mali last year through the Wagner Group, a Russian state-backed paramilitary organization that recently staged a rebellion against President Vladimir Putin. In May, the US State Department said the Wagner Group sought to use Mali as a route to transport war supplies to Ukraine.
“The Department of Defense (DoD) is aware of this issue and takes all unauthorized disclosures of Controlled National Security Information or Controlled Unclassified Information seriously,” Tim Gorman, a spokesperson for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, says in an emailed statement to The Verge. Gorman adds that emails sent from a .mil domain to Mali are “blocked” and that the “sender is notified that they must validate the email addresses of the intended recipients.”
Gorman acknowledges that this doesn’t stop other government agencies or those working with the US government from mistakenly sending emails to Malian addresses, though. Still, he notes that “the Department continues to provide direction and training to DoD personnel.”
Ford Slashes Price of Electric F-150 Lightning as Demand Weakens Sales of electric vehicles have slowed recently partly because prices of some models like the F-150 Lightning had risen a lot.
Ford cuts F-150 Lightning prices, taking the cheapest model under $50,000
Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Ford announced price cuts for its F-150 Lightning truck that will reduce the listed price on some trims by almost $10,000. The company’s most affordable “Pro” trim is reduced from its previous MSRP of $59,974 to $49,995, and its highest “Platinum” with extended-range battery has dropped from $98,074 to $91,995.
The new prices aren’t the lowest the F-150 Lightning has been. At launch, the base Pro trim was announced at $40,000, but only a few were made at that price. And opting for an extended-range battery added $10,000 to the original $52,974 price of the XLT edition. Now, the same model’s MSRP starts at $69,995.
By August, Ford reopened its orders with prices that were about $7,000 higher than they were initially. The Lightning’s price jumped two more times that year — in October and again in December — taking the starting price for the all-electric truck to almost $56,000. Now, prices are dropping back to around what they were in August. Ford also just dropped prices on its Mustang Mach-E in May.
The new price cuts come after Tesla announced the first Cybertruck built at its factory in Texas. Tesla’s pickup truck had seen many delays, and Ford CEO Jim Farley had taken jabs at rival CEO Elon Musk for the slow production process. Farley would later warm up to Musk and agree to adopt the Tesla NACS charging port.
Ford said that price cuts are possible thanks to improvements at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan. The company has an annual target of building 150,000 Lighting trucks once the plant reopens this fall. Ford also says that improved battery raw material costs are also to thank for the price decrease.
The electric vehicle market is currently in a period of high inventory and cooled demand, with many dealerships reportedly holding on to more than 90 days’ worth of stock. This follows a long period of high demand from the previous couple of years where it was difficult to find stock of most major EVs on the market — including Ford’s Mach-E and F-150 Lightning.
Ford Slashes Price of Electric F-150 as Demand Weakens Sales of electric vehicles have slowed recently partly because prices of some models like the F-150 Lightning had risen a lot.
Microsoft’s new Xbox Game Pass Core will replace Xbox Live Gold in September
Image: Microsoft
Microsoft is launching a new Xbox Game Pass Core subscription to replace Xbox Live Gold. This new Game Pass Core offering will include the usual Xbox online console multiplayer support, deals and discounts, and a new small catalog of more than 25 games — including Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4, and Psychonauts 2.
Existing Xbox Live Gold members will be automatically transferred across to Xbox Game Pass Core on September 14th, with the service priced at the same rate of $9.99 per month (or $59.99 per year) as Xbox Live Gold.
As part of this replacement subscription, Microsoft is discontinuing Games with Gold on September 1st, the perk that has allowed Xbox owners to grab free games monthly for a decade and add them to their content library. Any Xbox 360 titles that were redeemed in the past will be permanently kept in a library, but Xbox One titles will rely on an ongoing subscription to Xbox Game Pass Core or Game Pass Ultimate.
The more than 25 games that Microsoft is including in Game Pass Core are designed to replace Games with Gold, and Microsoft says it will add new titles two to three times a year.
“We wanted to use this opportunity to reimagine how to include content with this subscription,” says Jerret West, CVP of gaming marketing at Xbox. “We found that the answer to the most compelling catalog was to leverage select titles from our Xbox Game Pass catalog.”
This catalog of games will be a lot more limited than the full Xbox Game Pass subscription ($10.99 a month), and Microsoft is only confirming 19 of the launch list titles today:
Among Us
Descenders
Dishonored 2
Doom Eternal
Fable Anniversary
Fallout 4
Fallout 76
Forza Horizon 4
Gears 5
Grounded
Halo 5: Guardians
Halo Wars 2
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Human: Fall Flat
Inside
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Psychonauts 2
State of Decay 2
The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited
Xbox Game Pass Core could lead to some confusion around the online multiplayer aspects of Game Pass in general, though. While Core includes multiplayer, the regular Xbox Game Pass that’s priced higher does not. You still need Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for the benefits of Game Pass and online multiplayer. Microsoft hasn’t solved the potentially confusing aspect of needing Xbox Live Gold alongside a regular Game Pass subscription, and the rebranding arguably makes it even more confusing.
Either way, the writing has been on the wall for Xbox Live Gold for a couple of years now, so it’s not surprising to see existing subscribers moved over to an Xbox Game Pass-branded subscription. Microsoft rebranded Xbox Live to Xbox network in 2021 but kept the Xbox Live Gold naming for its most basic subscription.
Microsoft then briefly tried to double the cost of a yearly Xbox Live Gold subscription, a move that didn’t go down well with Xbox fans. Microsoft quickly backtracked and offered to remove the paywall for free-to-play multiplayer games. Microsoft then went on to unlock Xbox party chat and Looking for Group (LFG) for anyone without an Xbox Live Gold subscription, alongside allowing anyone to play free-to-play games without Xbox Live Gold.
Image: Microsoft
The new Xbox Game Pass lineup starting September 14th.
The addition of Xbox Game Pass Core comes just weeks after Microsoft bumped its overall Xbox Game Pass monthly prices. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate has moved from $14.99 per month to $16.99 (€14.99 / £12.99). The base Xbox Game Pass for Console pricing has also been increased from $9.99 a month to $10.99 (€10.99 / £8.99). Microsoft has not changed its PC Game Pass pricing, though.
Microsoft also announced plans to end its Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family plan in August. The plan had spread to eight countries, but Microsoft acknowledged this was a “preview program” all along and will cease to exist on August 15th. There’s no sign if it will return at a later date.
Samsung prices its 27-inch 5K monitor at $1,599 — just like Apple’s Studio Display
The ViewFinity S9 is a 27-inch 5K display. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
Seven months after announcing the 27-inch ViewFinity S9 desktop monitor at CES 2023, Samsung is finally circling back around with pricing and availability details. Let’s get right to it: the 5K display, which is being positioned as a prosumer option meant to rival monitors from LG and Apple, will cost $1,599.99 and you’ll be able to purchase it from Samsung and other retailers in August.
$1,599 is the same starting MSRP as Apple’s Studio Display — also a 27-inch 5K monitor. It’s rumored (though not confirmed) that these two screens could be using near-identical panels if not the exact same component. A 5K display is incredibly sharp at 27 inches, but by the rest of today’s standards, this display feels a bit dated: there’s no local dimming, which is a key technical feature for optimal contrast on LCD TVs. Samsung says the ViewFinity S9 covers 99 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, so it’s perfectly suitable for photo editing.
Panel aside, you could make the case that Samsung is giving you a little more for your money with multiple connectivity options and a height-adjustable stand included out of the box; choosing the height-adjustable Studio Display shoots Apple’s pricing up to $1,999.
The ViewFinity also has a “pivot mode,” where it rotates 90 degrees to fit more text on screen with less scrolling. Rather than building a webcam directly into the screen’s bezel, Samsung includes “a built-in 4K SlimFit camera that connects via pogo pin without additional cables or equipment.” The Studio Display’s camera was fairly underwhelming before a firmware update brought it up to just okay, so we’ll see how Samsung’s approach compares.
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
The ViewFinity S9’s 5K panel covers 99 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut.
For I/O, the ViewFinity S9 offers Thunderbolt 4 (with up to 90 watts of passthrough charging), USB-C, and Mini DisplayPort. And as is the case with its SmartMonitor lineup, Samsung is loading this 27-inch 5K display up with its standard mix of TV streaming apps and extra features like its Gaming Hub (with access to Xbox Game Pass and Nvidia GeForce Now). Samsung is also talking up the S9’s calibration process, which uses your phone’s camera for easy adjustments without requiring separate, expensive tools:
The ViewFinity S9 uses the Smart Calibration feature controlled with smartphones, which is the first in the industry. Users can conveniently customize the screen for precise settings without expensive, complex calibration equipment whenever they want. Using the SmartThings app, users can choose to calibrate in Basic mode for a quick and easy adjustment of white balance and gamma settings, or they can use Professional mode for complete control of color temperature, luminance, color space and gamma settings. Users can start this process simply by pointing their smartphone camera at the ViewFinity S9, and after calibration, they can view a report detailing the adjustments made and the Delta E color accuracy.
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
You can calibrate the ViewFinity S9 with a mobile app and your smartphone’s camera.
And although I didn’t get to hear them during my CES preview, this monitor does have built-in speakers. Samsung says they an Adaptive Sound Plus feature “automatically adjusts noise levels.” And yep, there’s an included remote control.
You can bet that come August, we’ll be pitting the ViewFinity S9 and Apple Studio Display against each other to gauge how similar their 5K LCD panels are — and whether Samsung’s variety of ports and that detachable webcam are enough to overcome Apple’s terrific build quality and system-level macOS integration.
The best thing about my Mac Studio is its mustache
Not to be all Marie Kondo about it, but my Mac Studio sparks joy in me every day, and it’s not because it’s the fastest computer I’ve ever owned. It’s also not strictly about the front-facing ports Apple gave it, nor is it the village of ports that live in the back.
It’s the mustache.
See, I found this mustache sticker in the back of a drawer in my house. I don’t know where it came from, only that it was there, and the moment I found it, I knew immediately where to put it: smack-dab in the middle of my Mac Studio. I’d been thinking for awhile that the Studio has this goofy face on the front, and slapping a curly ‘stache on it just drove that home. It delights me, and recently, I’ve been thinking about why this goofy twee addition to my computer makes me so happy.
When my partner and I sold our old home to relocate to another state a few years ago, we wanted to sell it as is. We’d painted it pink, and on the inside, we’d covered some of the walls with murals — a desert scene I’d painted in the dining room and a geometric pattern my partner had painstakingly covered our bedroom wall with, for instance. When one of our realtor’s colleagues did a walkthrough to give us recommendations, he told us we have to paint everything over with something neutral, like gray or white.
He told us a prospective buyer might be otherwise in love with the house, then walk into the bedroom, see the intricate linework on the wall, and say, “Ohhhh no,” and decide not to buy just because of that. People want to envision themselves in the space, he said, and they aren’t always imaginative enough to see past an already-colorful wall. They need a blank canvas.
It’s since occurred to me that this same idea is at play, at least for some people (myself included), in Apple’s product design, and by extension, the design of so many other tech products from companies that hit the same notes.
So many of Apple’s devices — its laptops, desktops, phones, and so forth — are characterized by these expanses of flat nothingness. Their featureless planes are often only broken when they have to be; by a keyboard or a USB-C port, for example. These days the company no longer even prints “MacBook” under the screen. It’s easy to call that boring, but I disagree.
I’d argue that simplicity gives it far more personality than some of the one-note looks sported by, for instance, basically every gaming router, which often overwhelm you with their thing, whatever it may be.
Some people like that sort of thing — and that’s okay! I do too. But as the saying goes, it takes all kinds to make a world, and design, from my lay perspective, isn’t always about what’s there, but sometimes what isn’t. Where one person sees a big, uncreative flat space in the back of a MacBook Air’s display, another person may see a canvas they can fill to truly reflect who they are, using stickers, a Sharpie, or even paint.
Christopher Nolan wants Oppenheimer to be a cautionary tale for Silicon Valley
Christopher Nolan at a screening of Oppenheimer at the Whitby Hotel in NYC. | Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images For Universal Pictures
Around the time J. Robert Oppenheimer learned that Hiroshima had been struck (alongside everyone else in the world) he began to have profound regrets about his role in the creation of that bomb. At one point when meeting President Truman Oppenheimer wept and expressed that regret. Truman called him a crybaby and said he never wanted to see him again. And Christopher Nolan is hoping that when Silicon Valley audiences of his film Oppenheimer (out June 21) see his interpretation of all those events they’ll see something of themselves there too.
After a screening of Oppenheimer at the Whitby Hotel yesterday Christopher Nolan joined a panel of scientists and Kai Bird, one of the authors of the book Oppenheimer is based on to talk about the film, American Prometheus. The audience was filled mostly with scientists, who chuckled at jokes about the egos of physicists in the film, but there were a few reporters, including myself, there too.
We listened to all too brief debates on the success of nuclear deterrence and Dr. Thom Mason, the current director of Los Alamos, talked about how many current lab employees had cameos in the film because so much of it was shot nearby. But towards the end of the conversation the moderator, Chuck Todd of Meet the Press, asked Nolan what he hoped Silicon Valley might learn from the film. “I think what I would want them to take away is the concept of accountability,” he told Todd.
He then clarified, “When you innovate through technology, you have to make sure there is accountability.” He was referring to a wide variety of technological innovations that have been embraced by Silicon Valley, while those same companies have refused to acknowledge the harm they’ve repeatedly engendered. “The rise of companies over the last 15 years bandying about words like ‘algorithm,’ not knowing what they mean in any kind of meaningful, mathematical sense. They just don’t want to take responsibility for what that algorithm does.”
He continued, “And applied to AI? That’s a terrifying possibility. Terrifying. Not least because as AI systems go into the defense infrastructure, ultimately they’ll be charged with nuclear weapons and if we allow people to say that that’s a separate entity from the person’s whose wielding, programming, putting AI into use, then we’re doomed. It has to be about accountability. We have to hold people accountable for what they do with the tools that they have.”
While Nolan didn’t refer to any specific company it isn’t hard to know what he’s talking about. Companies like Google, Meta and even Netflix are heavily dependent on algorithms to acquire and maintain audiences and often there are unforeseen and frequently heinous outcomes to that reliance. Probably the most notable and truly awful being Meta’s contribution to genocide in Myanmar.
While an apology tour is virtually guaranteed now days after a company’s algorithm does something terrible the algorithms remain. Threads even just launched with an exclusively algorithmic feed. Occasionally companies might give you a tool, as Facebook did, to turn it off, but these black box algorithms remain, with very little discussion of all the potential bad outcomes and plenty of discussion of the good ones.
“When I talk to the leading researchers in the field of AI they literally refer to this right now as their Oppenheimer moment,” Nolan said. “They’re looking to his story to say what are the responsibilities for scientists developing new technologies that may have unintended consequences.”
“Do you think Silicon Valley is thinking that right now?” Todd asked him.
“They say that they do,” Nolan replied. “And that’s,” he chuckled, “that’s helpful. That at least it’s in the conversation. And I hope that thought process will continue. I’m not saying Oppenheimer’s story offers any easy answers to these questions. But at least it serves a cautionary tale.”
Sony agrees to a Call of Duty deal with Microsoft
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Sony has agreed to a deal for Call of Duty with Microsoft to keep the franchise on PlayStation after the proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says Sony and Microsoft have agreed to a “binding agreement” to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. It’s not immediately clear if this is a 10-year deal, like Microsoft has signed with Nintendo and other cloud providers.
This ends a bitter battle between the companies that has been waged both privately and publicly over the past year after Microsoft announced its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard in January 2022.
We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and @PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games.
From Day One of this acquisition, we’ve been committed to addressing the concerns of regulators, platform and game developers, and consumers. Even after we cross the finish line for this deal’s approval, we will remain focused on ensuring that Call of Duty remains available on… https://t.co/hMWjC58wRi
The deal could be similar to a 10-year agreement between Microsoft and Nintendo as well as the various deals Microsoft has struck with cloud gaming platforms to bring Call of Duty to rival services, but Microsoft isn’t commenting on the terms of the deal right now.
Sony had resisted signing a Call of Duty deal with Microsoft after the company first offered a 10-year contract in December 2022. Instead, in filings to regulators, Sony has repeatedly maintained that it fears Microsoft could make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox or even sabotage the PlayStation versions of the game.
But we heard a bombshell email from PlayStation chief Ryan read out in court during the FTC v. Microsoft hearing, revealing that he wasn’t actually worried about Call of Duty exclusivity and was “pretty sure we will continue to see Call of Duty on PlayStation for many years to come.” Microsoft’s lawyers argued Ryan didn’t initially have concerns about the deal and had spoken to Xbox chief Phil Spencer to seek assurances about Call of Duty in January 2022.
The deal comes after months of discussions and counteroffers over the past 18 months between Microsoft and Sony over the future of Activision content on PlayStation. During the FTC v. Microsoft hearing, it was also revealed that an August 26th email from Xbox chief Spencer to PlayStation chief Ryan included a list of Activision games that would remain on PlayStation, and Ryan wasn’t happy:
“It was not a meaningful list. This list represented a particular selection of older titles that would remain on PlayStation, for example Overwatch is on there but Overwatch 2 is not on there, the current version of the game.
This email clearly led to a breakdown in communications between Spencer and Ryan. Just days after it was sent, Spencer told The Verge that Call of Duty would remain on PlayStation “for at least several more years beyond the current Sony contract.” Ryan wasn’t happy about Spencer going public with contract negotiations and said the offer was “inadequate on many levels and failed to take account of the impact on our gamers.”
Ryan also said at the time that he “hadn’t intended to comment on what I understood to be a private business discussion, but I feel the need to set the record straight because Phil Spencer brought this into the public forum.”
Tensions over the fate of Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal really came to a head when Jim Ryan spoke to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick on February 21st, 2023 — the same day Microsoft, Activision, Sony, and others were meeting with EU regulators.
Ryan said to Kotick, “I don’t want a new Call of Duty deal. I just want to block your merger.” Jim Ryan confirmed the meeting during testimony in the FTC v. Microsoft hearing. “I told him [Bobby Kotick] that I thought the transaction was anti-competitive, I hoped that the regulators would do their job and block it.” Kotick had apparently wanted to “cover himself” with an extended Call of Duty deal with Sony just in case the Microsoft transaction didn’t go through.
Microsoft has always maintained it would keep Call of Duty on PlayStation, arguing it doesn’t make financial sense to pull the game from Sony’s consoles. Xbox chief Spencer tried to settle the argument in November before appearing in court last month and reiterating, under oath, that Call of Duty would remain on PlayStation 5.
All eyes are now on the regulatory situation in the UK, after Microsoft’s proposed deal was blocked there earlier this year. Microsoft is participating in a case management conference at the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) tomorrow, alongside the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA). The conference has been called “to consider the application made jointly by all parties to adjourn these proceedings pending further discussions between the CMA and Microsoft.”
Both the CMA and Microsoft agreed earlier this week to pause their legal battles to negotiate how the transaction might be modified in order to address the CMA’s cloud gaming concerns. The CMA also warned earlier this week that Microsoft’s proposals may “lead to a new merger investigation” and that discussions with Microsoft were at an early stage.
Despite that, the CMA went on to issue a notice of extension for its overall investigation into the deal, moving the date for a final order from July 18th to August 29th. Microsoft is hoping to close its Activision deal by its July 18th deadline, but it’s possible we’ll see a small delay to the close to allow for the UK situation to be resolved.
A New Job for Electric Vehicles: Powering Homes During Blackouts Some energy experts say battery-powered vehicles will increasingly help keep the lights on and support electric grids, rather than straining them.
The Beats Studio Buds Plus are still available at an all-time low
The translucent pair of Beats Studio Plus are on sale this weekend, along with other shades. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
Technically, Amazon Prime Day ended a couple of days ago, but it appears Amazon and other retailers didn’t get the memo. Quite a few of the best deals are still kicking around, including one on the Beats Studio Buds Plus that’s available to Prime members and non-Prime members alike. Right now, you buy the terrific wireless earbuds at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for just shy of $150 ($20 off).
In addition to a unique translucent option, the Studio Buds Plus offer better sound and noise cancellation than their predecessor, the Beats Studio Buds. They also offer longer battery life and are designed to be platform-agnostic, so you can use Android features like Fast Pair. Of course, as Beats is an Apple-owned company, they can take advantage of iOS features, too, making them a great pair of earbuds if you’re someone who owns both Android and Apple devices. Just be aware that the Android support comes at the expense of a few iOS capabilities, such as personalized spatial audio.
Smartwatches like the Apple Watch Series 8 may be popular, but they’re also overkill if all you really need is a fitness tracker that can keep tabs on the basics. Instead, a more appropriate fitness tracker might be something like the Fitbit Inspire 3, which is available for $79.95 ($20 off) at Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target.
Despite its low price, the entry-level wearable offers some impressive perks, including a color OLED display. Along with the standard set of health and fitness features, it also boasts advanced sleep tracking and stress management capabilities. Combine that with 10 days of battery life, and it’s easy to see why this is our favorite budget-friendly Fitbit. It offers everything you might need in a basic tracker, provided you don’t require bells and whistles like built-in GPS and support for digital assistants like Alexa.
If you need a far more capable webcam than the one your laptop offers, the Insta360 Link is currently available for $254.99 ($45 off) at B&H Photo and direct from Insta360. The Link stands out from many of its rivals thanks to the fact it sits on a three-axis gimbal, which allows it to freely move around. That means you’ll be able to stay centered in the frame even while walking around the room to, say, display your work as you live stream. It can also capture 4K resolution at 60fps, making for great picture and video quality once you dial in the webcam’s versatile desktop software.
If you’re on the hunt for a portable iPad, you can’t go wrong buying the smallest iPad Apple currently makes — the 2021 iPad Mini. And right now, the Wi-Fi-enabled version of the sixth-gen Mini is on sale at Walmart with 64GB of storage in pink for $399.99 ($89 off).
The redesigned iPad Mini is one of the best tablets you can buy for reading thanks to its 8.3-inch screen, which is much easier to hold than a 10-inch iPad display. Plus, unlike the latest entry-level iPad, it works with the second-gen Apple Pencil. Other convenient features include a USB-C port for fast charging and a speedy A15 Bionic chip.
The Google Pixel 7 is still on sale for $499 ($100 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, which makes it just $50 more than the midrange Pixel 7A. The 6.3-inch Android phone comes with Google’s fast second-gen Tensor CPU, along with a more capable camera system and robust waterproofing, rendering it a flagship worthy of the competition. Read our review.
Speaking of Xbox, the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2Core is down to $98.52 ($48 off) in red at Walmart and the Microsoft Store. The gamepad features the same adjustable-tension thumbsticks and wraparound rubberized grip as the Xbox Elite 2, however, you’ll have to pay extra for rear paddles, more thumbsticks, and a carrying case.
I almost can’t believe it, but Google Tasks is finally kind of good
Tasks is still pretty basic — but at least it now has all your tasks! | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Google has spent the last half-decade cruelly teasing me with its to-do list app. Google Tasks first launched as a standalone app in 2018, and Google seemed to have big plans for its task manager tool. And then… nothing. Actually, worse than nothing: Google launched and developed so many disconnected reminder-setting products that it became nearly impossible to figure out where your tasks were, what they are, and how you were supposed to get anything done.
But in the last couple of months, something miraculous happened: Google actually fixed it. The company spent this spring combining all its many Tasks and Reminders products into a single tool that is accessible almost everywhere and via almost any Google product. There are still some holes in the system and still a lot of task management features missing. But Google Tasks also has some unique upsides, and for the first time ever, I’m actually using it and enjoying it.
The big change Google made was to funnel all reminders into Google Tasks. So now if you say to Google Assistant, “Remind me to switch the laundry in an hour,” that goes into Google Tasks. Add a task from your Nest Hub Max, and it shows up in Tasks. If someone assigns you a task in a Google Doc, it’ll appear in your Tasks list with a link to that document. Creating a task in Google Calendar? It shows up in Google Tasks, too. Where there used to be several back-ends, now there is only Google Tasks.
This is an unequivocally better idea than whatever chaos Google had before, not to mention the obviously correct answer — it’s almost bizarre that it took Google this long to make such a simple change. It never made sense that “Remind me to bring in the trash bins tonight” would go anywhere but Tasks. But hey! Now it goes to Tasks.
Google Tasks isn’t remotely close to being a powerful project management tool on par with Todoist or some of the other apps out there. Even Apple’s Reminders app can do more. It’s much closer in spirit to a paper to-do list — just a bunch of things written down that you need to get done.
But Google has one crucial thing going for it: ubiquity. Unlike the piece of paper I scribble my lists on and then lose or the apps I set up and then forget to check for days at a time, Google Tasks is effectively unavoidable if you use Google products. It’s in the sidebar of Gmail, Docs, and other Google products, tasks show up right into Google Calendar, the mobile app is simple but works fine, and I love being able to bring up Google Assistant and just say, “What are my tasks for today?”
That kind of integration helps make sure you don’t miss stuff on your list, but even more importantly makes it easy to put stuff on the list. I am perpetually swinging between ultra-powerful to-do list apps that turn out to be too complicated and tools that don’t do much but at least make it easy to add to my list. Google Tasks is all the way at the latter end of that spectrum. Plus, opening Assistant and saying, “Remind me in three days to pick up my dry cleaning,” is the best capture tool I’ve ever found. A second later, that task is in my list and on my calendar and right there next to my inbox. I might even remember to do it now.
The only remaining holdout is Google Keep, which is still very weird: you can add a reminder to a note Keep, but it doesn’t show up in Tasks. This integration could be great — Tasks could even grab all the checklist items in your Keep notes, add due dates, and so on — but I can at least live with the idea that I have a notes app and a tasks app, and they’re separate things. Besides, Keep is at the top of the list of “apps I’m not even sure Google remembers it makes,” so I’m not shocked it’s not part of the new setup.
My main ongoing gripe is the same one I have for just about every other Google product: everything’s too complicated if you have more than one Google account. There’s simply no way to see all your tasks in one place if you have multiple accounts, which makes it hard to manage everything. Tasks really ought to have a view akin to the Gmail app’s “All inboxes” feature, but all you get on mobile is quick switching between accounts. I’d also like to have a way to subscribe to Tasks, like I subscribe to things in Google Calendar, which is how I’m currently able to see my work and personal events in one place. But no dice there, either. You’re basically stuck with identical but totally separate to-do lists for each of your accounts.
History says that this is the last time Google will care about Tasks for a while, none of the remaining problems will get fixed for another half-decade, and it’ll never become the true productivity powerhouse it could be. Even if that’s the case, it’s finally an app worth using. It’s not a power-user tool, but it doesn’t need to be. It just needs to be a place you can dump everything without worrying you’ll never find it again. In some ways, having a bunch of reminder tools is actually worse than having none. Google finally just has one.
Well, two. I don’t think I’m ever getting the perfect Keep integration I’ve been waiting for. But I’ll take what I can get.
Data Revolts Break Out Against A.I. Fed up with A.I. companies consuming online content without consent, fan fiction writers, actors, social media companies and news organizations are among those rebelling.
Court denies FTC’s last-ditch attempt to stop Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard
Image: Getty Images
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has lost what may be its final attempt to block Microsoft from buying Activision Blizzard. It’s the second loss for the FTC after a US federal judge denied its request for a preliminary injunction earlier this week to block Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard until the conclusion of a separate FTC administrative case.
The FTC appealed the decision by Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, and now the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied its request for emergency relief to prevent Microsoft from closing the deal until the result of the FTC’s appeal is complete.
Image: US Courts
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals filing.
Microsoft welcomed the denial late on Friday. “We appreciate the Ninth Circuit’s swift response denying the FTC’s motion to further delay the deal. This brings us another step closer to the finish line in this marathon of global regulatory reviews,” says Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, in a statement to The Verge.
This means Microsoft is now free to close its Activision Blizzard deal after a temporary restraining order, part of Judge Corley’s order, expires at 11:59PM PT tonight. Microsoft has until July 18th to close its deal; otherwise, it needs to renegotiate terms with Activision Blizzard or pay $3 billion in breakup fees.
Microsoft might not be able to close the deal immediately, though. There’s still the complicated matter of the deal being blocked in the UK. The Competition and Markets Authority in the UK blocked Microsoft’s deal earlier this year, citing competition fears in the emerging cloud gaming market. Both the CMA and Microsoft have agreed to pause their legal battles to figure out how the transaction might be modified in order to address the CMA’s cloud gaming concerns.
The UK regulator also warned this week that Microsoft’s proposals may “lead to a new merger investigation” and that discussions with Microsoft were at an early stage. The CMA has also issued a notice of extension for its overall investigation into the deal earlier today, moving the date for final undertakings or a final order from July 18th to August 29th.
The CMA’s extension comes hours after Bloomberg reported that Microsoft is considering selling UK cloud-gaming rights to a telecommunications, gaming, or internet company to allow the Activision deal to close in the UK.
Update, July 15th at 8PM ET: Article updated with Microsoft comment.
The Biden administration can talk to social media sites again — for now
Ten days after a federal judge in Missouri barred the Biden administration from contacting tech companies about posts protected by the First Amendment, the White House is temporarily no longer under that ban. Today, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals paused that judge’s order — at least until the higher court has time to weigh in more fully itself.
Originally, Judge Terry Doughty suggested that the Biden administration may be suppressing “millions of protected free speech postings by American citizens,” writing that the government had already “used its power to silence the opposition” by suppressing speech opposed to covid-19 vaccines and the validity of the 2020 election, among other things.
(It’s true that, for a time, social networks did resist amplifying the spread of major lies.)
The appeals court hasn’t said much on the matter yet — today’s order simply fast-tracks the appeal and grants a “temporary administrative stay...until further orders of the court.” That’s the part which lifts the original ban.
The ban kept quite a few specific agencies from engaging with social media firms, including the CDC, HHS, Census Bureau, FBI, DOJ, CISA, DHS, State Department, and many named officials. It did have exceptions for threats to national security, election security, cybersecurity and public safety, however.
Social Media Restrictions on Biden Officials Are Paused in Appeal A Fifth Circuit panel temporarily lifted a judge’s order that had blocked the administration from contacting platforms about most of their content.
Back in 2006, South Park finally made itself relevant to me with its World of Warcraft episode. In the episode, the boys take up the MMO and try to recruit Butters to join them. He refuses, explaining that he has simpler tastes, preferring to play Hello Kitty Island Adventure instead.
It’s a throwaway line, meant to elicit nothing more than a sneer from the gamers watching that Butters would dare admit aloud to playing something so childish. But though the game sounded exactly like a PlayStation 2 Japanese-only launch title or something that was on a CD-ROM for Windows 98, it didn’t actually exist.
That is until now.
Announced late last month, Sanrio, in collaboration with Sunblink, is making an actual factual Hello Kitty Island Adventure game exclusively for the Apple Arcade. But before you leap from your seat to cry, “South Park did it!” be advised that it’s actually just a coincidence.
“Sanrio has no affiliation with South Park,” said Chelsea Howe, chief product officer at Sunblink, during a press preview of the game. “Hello Kitty Island Adventure is basically the perfect title for this multi-player, island centric game that we created. But yeah, no tie-in or affiliation with South Park.”
The answer seems obvious. Of course Sanrio executives wouldn’t want the wholesomeness of Hello Kitty anywhere near South Park, of all things. But it’s definitely worth asking if Hello Kitty Island Adventure is an unintentional way of adding a cute punchline to a joke made 16 years ago.
The game itself seems quite adorable — a mix of Disney Dreamlight Valley and Animal Crossing but with Sanrio characters instead of emotionally unavailable cats.
During the preview event, I saw that you’ll be able to explore a tropical island and make friends with Hello Kitty, Dear Daniel, and more, building your new best friends houses that you can then decorate according to their tastes. If you’re in need of a twee life sim (yes!), Hello Kitty Island Adventure seems like it’ll scratch that itch.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure launches exclusively on Apple Arcade on July 28th.
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