The best instant photo printer you can buy right now

The best instant photo printer you can buy right now

Whether you want the best photo quality or ultra-portability, there’s a printer for you.

The little prints

Instant photo printers are sort of the quieter, less-cool sibling of instant cameras, but they’re arguably more practical. They don’t quite tap into the nostalgia-fueled fun of pulling out an Instax camera at a party, but they’re a more versatile means of getting to the final product: a real, live photo print you can touch and feel. In an age where virtually all of our photos live in digital storage on our devices or on social media feeds, a physical print is kind of magic.

There are plenty of ways to turn the photos on your phone into physical prints, but most of them involve waiting for shipping or finding a kiosk in a brick-and-mortar store, both of which are terrible prospects. Mobile photo printers eliminate the wait — they’re small enough to be carried in a purse or a bag so they can go where you go.

A physical print is kind of magic

Our top pick, the Polaroid Hi-Print, isn’t exactly the most portable, but it produces the best color and print quality by far. It’s still small enough to fit into a larger purse or bag, but refill cartridges are on the bigger side and are definitely not going to fit into an evening clutch. For better portability and fun social event-friendly features, we like the Canon Ivy.

We tested instant printers that produce 2 x 3-inch photos, which is about the size of a credit card. There are compact printers that work with bigger 4 x 6-inch photo paper that’s better suited to hanging on your wall and other small size formats, like Fujifilm’s wide Instax, but for the purposes of this guide, only 2 x 3 options were considered. All of our picks come with free iOS and Android apps that you’ll need to download in order to use them, and they all worked without problems on both platforms.

Polaroid Hi-Print

The best instant photo printer

The Polaroid Hi-Print is unique because it’s actually a mini dye-sub printer, which is the technology most bigger color photo printers use. It applies yellow, red, and cyan layers in three separate passes. While this happens, the printer’s companion app indicates what’s happening, and you can watch the print move in and out of the printer as different color layers are applied. It’s not the retro fun of watching an instant photo print develop in front of your eyes, but it’s neat. It also results in high-quality prints with rich, accurate color and good contrast. There’s some banding in areas of solid colors if you look really closely, but it’s only visible from about a foot away — much closer than you’re likely to view it.

The Hi-Print app is also very straightforward and easy to use. There’s no way to sync up your Google Photos or social accounts for direct access; if that’s a priority, you’ll want to look at the Zink printer options below. There are also just a few “sticker” options to apply to your image preprint, but the text typefaces are the best-looking among the printers I tested. They made me want to put funny text on my photos. There are also standard color and exposure adjustments available, along with some colorful frames that, like the text options, surprisingly don’t suck.

Print refills include an entire cartridge that produces an unfortunate amount of waste.

One does not simply add more photo paper to the Hi-Print, either. Each refill is actually an entire printer cartridge with a spool and everything. Each one includes 10 sheets of photo paper ready to go, and they’re sold in boxes of two — so 20 prints per package. The photo sheets come with a little detachable tab on the bottom, so you can grab the photo out of the printer without putting your fingers on the image. You can also have a peel-off backing to make your photo print a sticker.

Unfortunately, the Hi-Print’s system makes for a lot of plastic waste. Every time you add a new cartridge, you have to take the old one out and throw it away. (Polaroid’s support page says the company can’t recycle them for you, and my local curbside recycling guidelines rule it out since it uses more than one kind of plastic.) It’s a shame that you can’t reuse it in some way. The cartridges are also much larger than a pack of Zink or Instax paper, so it’s not the most practical option if you want to carry a lot of paper refills with you.

The Hi-Print produces vivid, accurate colors.

Another downside is that this is a proprietary print format — unlike Zink, which is used by many different mobile printer brands. If Polaroid decides to stop making the Hi-Print, you’ll be stuck with a printer that doesn’t work.

The Hi-Print is also more expensive than other mobile printers. The printer itself costs $100, and a single 20-sheet refill pack costs $17. (Though, at the time of this writing, you can find a three-pack of refills for $50 on Amazon.) That makes the price per print around 85 cents. That’s much higher than the Zink alternatives, which are more like 50 cents per print.

The Hi-Print isn’t the best choice if you’re looking for ultra-portability, an abundance of fun stickers, or the very best cost per print. But the prints are much better than the other options we tested. The text options you can apply to images are modern and fun, and the app is very easy to use. If print quality is a priority, then the Hi-Print is your best option.

Instax Mini Link 2

The best Instax photo printer

Instax film has a certain appeal. For one, it’s really film, so you’ll watch it develop in front of your eyes after your photo leaves the printer. Images have a certain nostalgic look, with inky dark blacks and slight overexposure. Prints also have the classic white frame that holds the film in place. You might associate it with the Polaroid name, but if you want an instant film experience in a convenient package, you’ll want to get familiar with the Instax brand.

That’s all to say that the Mini Link 2 is a unique offering, with plenty of quirks that annoyed me as I tested it, but at the end of the day, it’s Instax. That has a particular draw in itself and for good reason. The prints are very nice, and Instax film is fairly easy to come by at brick-and-mortar retailers and online, though it’s not cheap. Expect to pay around 70 cents per print depending on how you buy refills. The MSRP on a 20-sheet refill pack is about $20, but with current markdowns, it’s selling for $14. Not as expensive as the Hi-Print, but costlier than Zink paper.

Instax film is fairly easy to come by at brick-and-mortar retailers and online, though it’s not cheap

The Mini Link 2 has a sensor inside that detects the printer’s orientation, which plays into some of the printer’s quirkier features. Turning the printer on its side or standing it up vertically changes the “mode” the printer uses, which is reflected in the app — print options are organized into “Print mode” and “Fun mode.” But you can use any print feature no matter what mode you’re in, so there’s really no point to this feature. It just ended up annoying me when I moved the printer and changed its orientation without thinking and had to wait for the app to finish an animation signifying the switch to the other mode.

This function also comes into play if you’re using the camera function in the Mini Link app. You can hold the printer and tip it forward and backward to zoom in and out. It works well enough, but it’s sort of the definition of a pointless gimmick because you can just pinch and zoom on the image preview to use zoom, like any other camera app.

The Instax companion app is a bit much.

There are simply too many options here.

The Mini Link app isn’t exactly user-friendly, either. Tapping the settings icon reveals an absolute avalanche of uncategorized menu options. Frame options are also in a different location than stickers and text. Same goes for collage options; they’re different print modes that you can’t easily jump between. If you decide you’d rather use a frame than make a collage, you need to discard the edits you’re working on and start over.

The printed area of an Instax photo is also smaller than the Zink and Polaroid alternatives. It’s a fine size for snapshots, and the frame actually reinforces the image so it lays flat (the others tend to curl slightly along the edges). But collage images get very small very fast. The same goes for text and stickers.

Instax photos have a trademark de-saturated look with rich black tones.

There are a whole lot of other features packed into the Mini Link 2 and its companion app, like a kind of match-making game that rates your “compatibility” with another person and prints it on your photos as a percentage. You can also use the printer’s LED to “draw” a design on a photo or use the app to take a picture of a drawing and convert it to a sticker you can put on images. Some are gimmicky and some are just not for me. Your mileage may vary.

Canon Ivy

The best Zink photo printer

The best mobile printer for parties and social occasions is the Canon Ivy. It takes commonly used Zink paper, and it offers the best photo quality of the Zink printers we tested, with good color reproduction. Its companion app also appears to get timely updates with appealing, seasonally appropriate new “stickers” to apply to photos. When I used the app in late July, it had been updated recently with Pride and Juneteenth art by illustrator Sabrena Khadija.

The printer itself is slimmer and more portable than the Instax or Hi-Print, and it’s more cost-effective, too. The printer retails for $99.99, and 50 sheets of paper cost $24 on Amazon at the time of this writing, working out to about 50 cents per print.

Color accuracy is good, and the sticker options are fun.

I did encounter one problem during testing: using an iPhone 11 running iOS 15.6, the app crashed every time I tapped on the option to connect my Google Photos account. This worked fine on Android, so it seems to be an iOS-specific problem. If you’re an iPhone owner and you rely on Google Photos for image storage, then I wouldn’t recommend the Ivy. I didn’t have any problems accessing photos stored on the iPhone itself or connecting to my Instagram account, which is probably how most iPhone owners would want to use the printer anyway.

Otherwise, the Ivy is a great option for someone looking for portability and value over the best possible print quality.

HP Sprocket

The best cheap instant printer

We considered two Zink printers for this category, the Sprocket and the Kodak Step, both of which are products licensed by C&A Marketing. The $80 HP Sprocket comes out ahead but not by a lot. Print quality is okay, but the printer adds some unattractive sharpening and brightening that looks like a bad HDR effect. It probably won’t bother most people, but if photo quality is a priority, the Canon Ivy is a better choice. But overall color reproduction is acceptable on the Sprocket, and I can’t say the same about the Kodak Step, which adds way too much red to images. You can correct this by adjusting the cyan / red slider in the app, but you need to do this before every single print.

Photo quality isn’t as good, but the Sprocket represents the best value.

The Sprocket has some nice features, too. The onboarding and initial setup that the app takes you through is helpful and clear. Plus, you have the opportunity to rename the printer as it appears in the app and decide which color the printer’s indicator light will glow. It’s not quite as slim as the Canon Ivy, but it is small enough for a large clutch-style purse. A pack of 100 photo sheets retails for $45 on Amazon at the time of this writing, so the cost per print is under 50 cents. If you aren’t too picky about photo quality, then the Sprocket is a good deal.

Today I learned about an easy way to share files between Mac apps

Today I learned about an easy way to share files between Mac apps

No Finder required.

Apple has made macOS very good at handling drag and drops. For example, I often pull a picture right out of the Photos app or Safari and drop it into iMessage or Slack. One thing that’s always slowed me down, though, is moving around more traditional files, like PDFs or other documents.

But then I learned that quite a few apps, including many of the built-in ones, have a quick shortcut to get at the file you’re viewing. Using this shortcut (which is officially called the proxy icon), you can easily do things like upload a PDF you have open in Preview to Google Drive without having to go looking for the file in Finder. Here’s how it works:

GIF of someone dragging a file from Preview to a Safari window with Google Drive.

Nary a Finder window was opened.

The trick is using the title bar, which is the area where Apple puts the traffic light-style window controls and the name of the file you have open as well as other buttons, depending on the app. If you hover over that file name for a second, you may notice that a little icon appears to the left of it. (Some apps don’t require the hover.) This is what lets us do our magic. If you click and drag that icon, you’ll basically be clicking and dragging the actual file as if you were using the file manager.

To be clear, this is not a new feature of the latest macOS beta or anything. I’m pretty sure I learned about it when someone mentioned it in the context of features that have been around so long that young whippersnappers like me have never even heard of them. So, yes, I am a bit late to the party here. But now that I finally learned about it, I use it all the time.

One of my most common use cases is when I have to read through a PDF for work and then upload it to DocumentCloud so I can embed it in an article. I used to do that by minimizing Preview and then hunting around for the document on my crowded desktop, using Quick Look (the thing that previews a document when you press the space bar) to make sure I wasn’t uploading the wrong thing. Now, I can just drag and drop the thing I’m reading straight from Preview, much like I do in the GIF above.

I’ve also found plenty of other ways to use the feature. If I have Finder in a certain mode, I can use it to quickly copy the path of the folder I’m in into Terminal. (Bonus tip: if you drag and drop a file or folder into Terminal, macOS will just insert the path to it.) I even used this feature on QuickTime to make the screen recorded GIFs you’ve been seeing in this article.

Oh yeah, did you know you can just drag files onto the default Choose File button?

While this won’t necessarily apply if you’re just using this feature to share files between apps, I do have one word of caution if you, like me, think “wait, what happens if I drag the file from the title bar into a Finder window?” The answer is that it’ll move the file from wherever it is currently to wherever you dropped it. That’s a reasonable default, I suppose, but it could end up being confusing if you assumed that it would copy and paste the file rather than cut and paste it.

Unfortunately, this isn’t something that every single app can do. I couldn’t find a way to grab files from Obsidian or Photoshop, for example — though the latter isn’t exactly surprising. But there are a fair number of apps that I have been able to use it with, including Pages, Blender, Logic Pro, Nova, and even Microsoft Word of all things. If there’s an app you’re looking at files in frequently, it’s worth checking if it supports this feature; you never know when it’ll come in handy.

But wait, I’ve got one last bonus tip if you’re sticking around in the title bar — though if I’m being honest, it’s a bonus because I haven’t run into any situations where it’d be useful. In addition to being able to drag the file icon, you can also right-click it to see which folder that file lives in (and which folder that folder is in, and so on and so on). From there, you can use the list to quickly open a Finder window navigated to that folder.

Right-clicking on the file icon lets you easily tell where it’s located on your disk.

While discovering this system wasn’t an earth-shattering revelation that 10x-ed my productivity, it has helped cut down on the amount of time I’ve spent searching for files I already have open. And that’s great because having to do that can, ironically, be a real drag.

‘Stop trying to be TikTok’: how video-centric Instagram sparked a revolt

‘Stop trying to be TikTok’: how video-centric Instagram sparked a revolt

Loyal users and Kardashians forced social network to partially retreat by demanding renewed emphasis on photo-sharing

If you’re going to change a social media platform synonymous with celebrity culture, make sure the Kardashian-Jenners are onboard first.

Instagram was forced into a partial retreat last week as influencer royalty joined a user rebellion against the app, driven by complaints that it had become too video-centric and was pushing content from accounts that people did not follow.

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Netflix sues creators behind The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical following sold-out show

Netflix sues creators behind The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical following sold-out show

Image: Liam Daniel / Netflix

Netflix is suing Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, the duo behind The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical over copyright infringement, as first reported by Deadline. The streaming giant filed the complaint in a Washington, DC district court just days after Barlow and Bear held a live, sold-out show dedicated to their Bridgerton-inspired album.

After Bridgerton’s 2020 debut, Barlow and Bear began creating music based on the Netflix original series and promoting the endeavor on TikTok, where it quickly gained popularity. As fans requested more content, Barlow and Bear soon had enough to create a 15-song album that went on to win a Grammy in April, a first for music originating on TikTok. On July 26th, Barlow and Bear held a concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, featuring live performances and music from the National Symphony Orchestra.

Absolutely blown away by the Bridgerton musical playing out on TikTok

Standing ovation for @abigailbarloww & @nick_t_daly pic.twitter.com/hoHsDtNyAE

— Netflix (@netflix) January 13, 2021

In its complaint obtained by Deadline, Netflix alleges that Barlow and Bear’s content “stretches ‘fan fiction’ well past its breaking point” and that it’s a “blatant infringement of intellectual property rights.” Despite praising Barlow and Bear’s work itself, Netflix claims it repeatedly told the pair that Bridgerton-inspired compositions “were not authorized.”

Netflix alleges that the live Unofficial Bridgerton performance also wasn’t approved by the company, and that Barlow and Bear “refused” to negotiate a license that would allow them to distribute their album and hold live performances without issue.

“Barlow & Bear lacked any license, approval, or authorization to exploit Bridgerton intellectual property in connection with the Kennedy Center performance,” Netflix states. “And to the extent Barlow & Bear ever claimed to believe they had such license, approval, or authorization — despite Netflix’s clear statements to the contrary — it has now been unequivocally revoked.”

Netflix goes on to claim that Barlow and Bear explicitly used the Bridgerton brand during its show, and “attracted Bridgerton fans who would have otherwise attended the Bridgerton Experience,” Netflix’s own Bridgerton-themed event that it holds in six separate cities throughout the year. Barlow and Bear currently have plans to perform alongside the BBC Orchestra at the UK’s Royal Albert Hall this September.

“There is a difference, however, between composing on TikTok and recording and performing for commercial gain”

“Netflix supports fan-generated content, but Barlow & Bear have taken this many steps further, seeking to create multiple revenue streams for themselves without formal permission to utilize the Bridgerton IP [intellectual property],” Netflix said in a statement. “We’ve tried hard to work with Barlow & Bear, and they have refused to cooperate. The creators, cast, writers and crew have poured their hearts and souls into Bridgerton, and we’re taking action to protect their rights.”

Julia Quinn, the author behind the Bridgerton book series says she was “flattered and delighted” when Barlow and Bear started creating TikToks based on the concept at first. “There is a difference, however, between composing on TikTok and recording and performing for commercial gain,” Quinn says. “I hope that Barlow & Bear, who share my position as independent creative professionals, understand the need to protect other professionals’ intellectual property, including the characters and stories I created in the Bridgerton novels over twenty years ago.”

Shonda Rhimes, the producer of the Bridgerton Netflix series issued a separate statement. “What started as a fun celebration by Barlow & Bear on social media has turned into the blatant taking of intellectual property solely for Barlow & Bear’s financial benefit,” Rhimes adds. “Just as Barlow & Bear would not allow others to appropriate their IP for profit, Netflix cannot stand by and allow Barlow & Bear to do the same with Bridgerton.”

Barlow and Bear didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

‘We risk being ruled by dangerous binaries’ – Mohsin Hamid on our increasing polarisation

‘We risk being ruled by dangerous binaries’ – Mohsin Hamid on our increasing polarisation

As we embrace the binary thinking of digital technology the divisions between us are growing ever starker. Can fiction help us imagine a different future?

In 2017, I published my fourth novel, Exit West, and bought a small notebook to jot down ideas for the next one. I thought it would be about technology. I came across an article by Simon DeDeo, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, discussing an experiment he and his colleague John Miller had conducted in that same year. They simulated cooperation and competition by machines over many generations, building these machines as computer models and setting them playing a game together. An interesting pattern emerged. Rather than constant trading for mutual benefit among equals, or never-ending fights to the death among foes, instead a particular type of machine became dominant, one that recognised and favoured copies of itself, and enormous prosperity ensued, built on ever-growing levels of cooperation. But eventually the minute differences that naturally occurred (or were, in the experiment, designed to occur) in the copying process, as they do in organisms when genes are passed on, became intolerable, and war among the machines resulted in near-complete devastation and a new beginning, after which the cycle repeated, over and over.

I remember being struck by this article. Not because I fully understood what the simulation was or even how it worked. No, I was struck by its similarity to a narrative I had already been feeling drawn to myself: that the rise and fall of human society is not merely something that has happened but also something that will continue to happen, that moments of peak cooperation contain within them the tendency for differences to become utterly intolerable, and that the transition from one societal epoch to the next is rarely a series of gently eliding waves, each a bit higher than the previous one – to the contrary, humanity’s trajectory on the way down is often far more steep than it was on the way up.

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Brisbane teenager built spyware used by domestic violence perpetrators across world, police allege

Brisbane teenager built spyware used by domestic violence perpetrators across world, police allege

Jacob Wayne John Keen, 24, is alleged to have created hacking tool when 15 years old and sold it to more than 14,500 people

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Police allege that a teenager living in the suburbs of Brisbane created and sold a sophisticated hacking tool used by domestic violence perpetrators and child sex offenders to spy on tens of thousands of people across the globe – and then used the proceeds to buy takeaway food.

Jacob Wayne John Keen, now 24, was 15 years old and living in his mother’s rental when he allegedly created a sophisticated spyware tool known as a remote access trojan (RAT) that allowed users to remotely take control of their victims’ computers.

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The Vardy Effect: Going to court to deny something a rock could see is true

The Vardy Effect: Going to court to deny something a rock could see is true

Rebekah Vardy probably isn’t buzzing at the ruling, a character assassination that has left her well and truly stung by libel

Oscar Wilde, Barbra Streisand, and now – Rebekah Vardy. When news broke that Vardy had lost her libel case against Coleen Rooney, she joined this heady roster of celebrities who have launched brain-bogglingly misguided and self-wounding legal cases. Like Wilde – who sued the Marquess of Queensberry for revealing his homosexuality – Vardy went to court to deny something that a rock could see was true: she’d passed on private stories about Rooney to the press. And like Streisand – who sued a website for featuring an image of her house, thereby drawing the world’s attention to it – she believed going to court was the best way to control her image. She was wrong.

Vardy traded private details of her husband’s colleagues and their wives in the hope of currying positive coverage in the media. And because of that, Mrs Justice Steyn delivered a verdict that was even more of a character assassination than Vardy’s own memorable description of Rooney to a Daily Mail journalist: “Arguing with Coleen Rooney would be as pointless as arguing with a pigeon: you can tell it that you are right and it is wrong, but it’s still going to shit in your hair.” Well, Rebekah, you’re covered in shit now.

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Uber will start showing drivers how much they’ll be paid for accepting a trip

Uber will start showing drivers how much they’ll be paid for accepting a trip

It says it’s trying to make things more flexible for drivers. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Uber says that it’s “completely reimagined the way drivers accept rides” with a feature called “upfront fares,” which shows drivers exactly how much they’ll be paid for a trip and where they’ll end up after dropping a rider off. In its announcement on Friday, the company says the change is part of its push to make driving for the rideshare service more flexible. Uber’s also planning on rolling out a feature that lets drivers see other ride requests in their area, letting them pick specific trips they’d like to do.

For riders, the changes, which have been tested in select locations, could mean fewer canceled trips because a driver doesn’t actually want to go to the destination, or realizes that it won’t be a very profitable trip.

According to an upfront fee support document, the amount shown to drivers before they accept a trip is based on “several factors, including base fares, estimated trip length and duration, pickup distance, and surge pricing.” The document notes that if the rider changes the drop-off address or there’s “unexpected traffic” along the route, the fare will be adjusted. The number also doesn’t include things like tips or wait times.

Image: Uber

Upfront fares makes it clear how much drivers will actually earn for taking a trip.

The document does warn that the switch to upfront fares, set to roll out “to most of the US over the coming months,” could mean that some types of trips earn drivers less. As examples, it lists “long and relatively quick (traffic-free) trips” and “trips to high-demand areas.” However, it also says that the new system will mean drivers earn more on short trips, trips with lots of traffic, trips where they end up in an area with fewer riders, or trips where they have to travel a long way before getting to the rider.

Uber didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment on what areas of the US wouldn’t be getting upfront fares.

Image: Uber

Trip radar also shows fares.

Alongside upfront fares, Uber says it’ll be more widely rolling out a feature called trip radar, which gives drivers a list of nearby ride requests. Drivers will be able to pick the trips they want from the list, and if Uber decides it’s a good match, it’ll give them the job. (An article from Uber says that it’ll choose which drivers get their picks based on average wait times for drivers and riders.) Uber also says that drivers will still get individual ride requests, but that they’ll be able to use trip radar to find “another trip that might work better for them.”

Elon Musk countersues Twitter over $44bn deal amid fresh legal action by shareholder

Elon Musk countersues Twitter over $44bn deal amid fresh legal action by shareholder

Musk’s 164-page filing is under wraps for now, as Twitter shareholder launches separate action to force entrepreneur to close the deal

Elon Musk has countersued Twitter, escalating his legal fight against the social media company over his bid to walk away from the $44bn purchase.

Musk’s lawsuit was filed on Friday, hours after chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware court of chancery ordered a five-day trial beginning 17 October to determine if Musk can walk away from the deal.

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Helium says its crypto mesh network is used by Lime and Salesforce — it isn’t

Helium says its crypto mesh network is used by Lime and Salesforce — it isn’t

Who uses Helium? | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On Friday, Mashable reported that Helium, a crypto project praised by The New York Times earlier this year and whose parent company is backed by investment firms like Andreessen Horowitz, had been misleading people about the companies it works with. Helium advertises on its homepage that Lime, the mobility company behind those electric scooters and bikes, uses its crypto-powered mesh wireless network. The company, however, told Mashable that it hasn’t had a relationship with the company since 2019, and that it had only ever initial testing with Helium’s tech.

Now, Salesforce, whose logo appeared on Helium’s website right next to Lime’s, says that it also doesn’t use the technology. “Helium is not a Salesforce partner,” Salesforce spokesperson Ashley Eliasoph told The Verge in an email. When I followed up to ask about the graphic below, which appeared on Helium’s website, Eliasoph said that “it is not accurate.”

Helium’s website still listed Lime and Salesforce as customers hours after Mashable’s report released.

Sometime between 4:35 PM ET and 5:30 PM ET, Lime and Salesforce’s logos were removed from Helium’s home page. The Verge sent an email to Helium asking about its relationship with Salesforce at 4:48PM ET, which the company hasn’t responded to at the time of this writing.

Helium’s website no longer mentions Lime or Salesforce.

Unlike many crypto projects, it’s actually relatively easy to understand Helium’s core pitch (though there are absolutely ways to complicate it if you want). The idea is that you put a Helium hotspot — which could cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars — in your house, and the network’s users connect to it when they’re close by and need some data. The more data that goes through your hotspot, the more HNT (Helium’s cryptocurrency) you’d earn.

In short, it’s a sort of decentralized mesh network, where the individuals running the nodes are able to profit from providing their data. (It is worth noting, though, that using your home internet like this violates the terms of service agreements for many internet service providers.) The economics supposedly works because companies or individuals pay to use Helium’s network instead of, say, cellular data.

Members of the r/helium subreddit have been increasingly vocal about seeing poor Helium returns.

On average, they spent $400-800 to buy a hotspot. They were expecting $100/month, enough to recoup their costs and enjoy passive income.

Then their earnings dropped to only $20/mo. pic.twitter.com/0jx2zLUaiA

— Liron Shapira (@liron) July 26, 2022

Now, though, we have to ask: who wants to pay for it? Not many people, it seems. As one Twitter thread points out, a report from The Generalist says that only around $6,500 worth of data credits (or DCs) were spent to access Helium’s network last month. That’s a sharp contrast to the millions of dollars people have spent on equipment to set up hotspots for the network in hopes of profiting, and it’d be shockingly low if Lime were actually connecting its scooters to the network, or if Salesforce customers were using it to monitor warehouses, like Helium pitched in 2017.

“Yes, these actually exist, and they are glorious.”

The New York Times article, which called Helium an example of “how crypto can be quite useful in solving certain types of problems,” listed Lime as well as Victor, a rodent and reptile trap company, as Helium users. Lime’s obviously now denied that’s the case (and says it’s sending a cease and desist to Helium), and Victor didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s questions about whether it uses the network. However, the site that Helium touted as the place to buy Helium-enabled Victor mousetraps in its announcement of the partnership no longer seems to sell them. There also don’t appear to be any mentions of Helium in Victor’s documentation.

Helium’s documentation, however, does hint at Victor’s products, saying, “a Helium Network user requires 50,000 DCs per month to send data for their fleet of Helium-connected mouse traps. (Yes, these actually exist, and they are glorious.)”

We also reached out to Dish, which announced last year that it would use Helium’s 5G network. That announcement is also posted on Helium’s homepage, right near the top under “latest news.”

I’d like to wrap this up with a parting thought. The author of the Times story says Helium couldn’t really work without crypto technology attached, citing the fact that the company launched without any sort of crypto integration, and only came up with the idea when it was on the brink of collapse. But for years, underserved communities have had to build their own local networks after being ignored by the government and communications companies. That runs contrary to what this chipper Helium ad implies; that people would only be willing to do something for their community if they’re getting paid for it. Then again, it’s not necessarily surprising that Helium misrepresented a vital piece of the puzzle.

‘Don’t know if they are alive’: anguish of Tigrayan families cut off by telecom shutdown

‘Don’t know if they are alive’: anguish of Tigrayan families cut off by telecom shutdown

The ‘partial blockade’ of the war-torn Ethiopian region has added to Tigrayans’ fears and distress

When the Ethiopian long-distance runner Gotytom Gebreslase won the women’s marathon gold at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon this month, her jubilation was tinged with sadness: she had broken the championship record, but could not celebrate with her family.

“My mother and father would have been delighted,” she said in a brief interview with the BBC, before bursting into tears.

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YouTube’s making it easier for creators to turn longer content into Shorts

YouTube’s making it easier for creators to turn longer content into Shorts

The company’s really pushing Shorts right now. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube is trying to make it even easier for creators to turn their longer videos into Shorts formatted for the platform's TikTok competitor, by adding a new “Edit into a Short” tool to its iOS and Android app. It’ll let creators select up to 60 seconds from one of their videos and bring the clip into the Shorts editor, right from the YouTube app on iOS or Android. From there, they can add things like text, filters, as well as additional videos shot with the Shorts camera or pulled from their photo library.

In an announcement post for the feature, YouTube says that the finished Short will link to the full video it was clipped from, which could help make Shorts an ideal promotional tool for the creator’s longer content — a key incentive for them to dive in while YouTube continues testing monetization options for the feature. If a viewer enjoys a Short created with this tool, they wouldn’t have to go to the creator’s channel and search around for the full video.

Image: Google

Using the tool should be relatively simple.

Unlike other tools like Cut, which lets you use five seconds from a longer video in a Short, or Clips, which can be converted into Shorts, the Edit into a Short tool can’t be used on other users’ uploads. It’ll only show up in the Create menu if you’re viewing a video you uploaded.

YouTube has put a lot of focus on Shorts since it started rolling out the feature in 2020. It’s tried to incentivize creators to use the format by setting up a fund that paid creators if they uploaded Shorts. As TechCrunch notes, the company has also been padding out its library by converting existing videos to Shorts, as long as they were filmed vertically and under 60 seconds long. Last month, YouTube said that over 1.5 billion people watched Shorts each month.

YouTube’s post says the Edit into a Short tool will “allow you to bring fresh life to your classic content” and that access to it is currently rolling out. While it probably won’t completely replace more traditional video editing software when it comes to creating Shorts (like in an instance where a creator wants to splice together multiple clips from the same video), it could encourage creators to take a look at their back catalog and see if there’s anything that would work well as a Short.

The Twitter Blue subscription is getting more expensive

The Twitter Blue subscription is getting more expensive

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

People frequently express their amazement that Twitter is free, but for some people, it isn’t — Twitter Blue launched last year in several countries, tacking on a few extra features for anyone willing to pay $2.99 per month. Today the service told subscribers it’s increasing the price (via Matt Navara), and in the US, it’s jumping up to $4.99 per month. That probably won’t break the pockets of information addicts who are choosing to pay for a service that still includes advertisements in their feed, but it might be enough to make people ask themselves if it’s worthwhile.

The add-ons in the Twitter Blue package range from extremely useful (an undo tweet window to fix typos, a customizable navigation bar, a list of Top Articles shared by people you follow, and ad-free access to articles on sites including The Verge) to trivial (the ability to choose from different app icons) to questionable (NFT hexagon profile pics).

In an email to users, the Twitter Blue team insists the higher rate “helps us continue to build some of the features you’ve been asking for, improve upon the current ones you already love and sustain our mission of supporting journalism.”

Image: Twitter

Twitter Blue’s new subscription rates.

Notably, it doesn’t mention Elon Musk, even though the company just blamed him for a Q2 revenue dip compared to the year prior. Musk is now attempting to exit his deal to acquire Twitter for $44 billion, but in happier times, he’d reportedly floated the idea of an unnamed subscription service outside of Blue that he thought could attract more than 100 million subscribers someday.

The higher price is already taking effect for new subscribers, but for the early adopters, Twitter says they will stay locked in at the original price until October and can expect to receive an opportunity to cancel at least 30 days before the new rate takes effect.

To keep paying customers on the hook, the Twitter Blue email teases a “more frictionless reading experience” in the works, among other features set to launch in Twitter Blue Labs. One reason I might stick around until at least October, if not beyond, is also not listed in the email: editable tweets. Twitter seems to have picked up the pace of feature development under Parag Agrawal’s administration, and with the feature already announced and in testing, I can wait to see if it’s included as a Twitter Blue benefit at launch.

How to fix the Steam Deck’s noisy fan

How to fix the Steam Deck’s noisy fan

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

160-plus hours into Elden Ring, I’m sure of one thing: the single most annoying thing about my Steam Deck is its whiny fan. And now, I’m so happy to report there’s a way to fix it. It takes roughly 15 minutes and $30 — depending on where you live — to install a replacement fan from iFixit.

Recently, the repair company finally got a large shipment of those fans, and I bought one right away. Now, my Steam Deck’s tiny screech is gone.

Here’s how I did it:

@verge

Replacing the Steam Deck's fan makes things just a little quieter. #tiktoktaughtme #SteamDeck #DIY

♬ FUTURE HOUSE - Sergey Wednesday

(If my three-minute video isn’t your thing, you could also read iFixit’s step-by-step guide. TL;DR you’re looking at 13 Philips-head screws and a teensy bit of tweezing and prying; it’s all very straightforward.)

Is the fan still loud? Yes, yes it is, but it’s a whoosh instead of a whine. I like to think of it as the sound of air escaping the Deck’s vents, but mostly, I don’t think about it at all. I can easily tune out the new whoosh, whereas the whine always managed to get my attention even after Valve tweaked its software to bring the fan noise down.

In fact, the new fan has less whine than the electrical tape trick I showed you in April, and — YMMV — seems to be oh-so-slightly quieter overall. I did an admittedly unscientific test with the new fan against both my original whiny fan and one fixed up with the electrical tape, and the new fan measured 2 to 2.5 decibels lower than either in the quietest room in my house.

Each time, I let the Deck’s chip heat up to over 90 degrees Celsius and nearly maxed out its power draw at 28 watts to ensure the fan was blowing as much as possible — which, honestly, is pretty similar to how it runs when I’m playing Elden Ring normally.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

iFixit sells the “good” fan, made by Huaying.

How can a replacement fan make such a difference? It’s a long story, but the Steam Deck community figured out many months ago that Valve shipped its gaming handheld with one of two different fans. One is made by Delta, the other by Huaying, and it’s long been suspected that the Delta fan is an inferior part that Valve didn’t initially design for. But while Valve has attempted to alleviate the issue with software, it’s definitely a hardware problem as well.

Last month, GamersNexus all but settled the question, putting both fans to the test and providing excellent audio samples of what the “whine” actually sounds like in practice (skip to 8:51 for that):

So when iFixit announced it had found a supply of the Huaying fans, there was reason for excitement. Would fixing it be as simple as buying the “better” fan, popping the Deck open, swapping the fans and re-fastening 13 screws? I think I’ve now seen enough to say the answer is yes.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

The $30 iFixit kit comes with picks to open the Deck, a screwdriver and ESD-safe tweezers, and the fan.

I won’t attempt to re-write iFixit’s fan replacement guide, which you can find right here, but I will say that it was quick and easy with those instructions and the kit — which includes a simple screwdriver with the right Philips bits, a pair of tweezers, and a handful of blue picks to pop open the Steam Deck’s plastic shell clips. It did take a couple tries to figure out how to use those blue picks to pop open the case, and I found it easier to pull out the fan’s electrical connector with my fingernails than tweezers, but every piece got used and I didn’t need anything that wasn’t in the box.

I spend a lot of time playing the Deck in quiet rooms where family members are trying to doze off. So for me, it’s $30 well spent. I just wonder why Valve isn’t doing something about the fan itself — it’s pretty clear now that the whiny fan isn’t the intended experience.

Apparently some Steam Deck owners have lucked out with the better fan after an RMA, too — but when I returned my 64GB model, it came with another Delta. I’m only getting to try the Huaying now.

In case you’d like to hear some of my own audio samples (you’ll need to turn the sound up and/or wear headphones!), I took recordings of the bare Delta fan, a taped-up Delta fan, and the Huaying fan all at the same distance from the microphone.

Delta fan

Delta fan ramping up (whine more obvious)

Delta fan with electrical tape (very slight whine in background)

Huaying fan, aka “the good one”

At the time I’m writing these words, iFixit still has the Steam Deck replacement fan in stock.

Update July 28th, 8:36PM ET: Added video. iFixit still has the fans in stock, by the way.

As Congress Debated Landmark China Bill, Beijing Surged Ahead

As Congress Debated Landmark China Bill, Beijing Surged Ahead Experts are still assessing how China apparently leapfrogged ahead in its effort to manufacture a semiconductor that rivals those made in Taiwan, which supplies both China and the West.

Meta will stop paying US publishers to put their content in Facebook’s News tab

Meta will stop paying US publishers to put their content in Facebook’s News tab

Facebook News tab (2019) | Image: Facebook

As you’ve probably heard, Facebook and Instagram will lean heavily into AI-curated creator content going forward, and the News Tab project Facebook launched a few years ago doesn’t seem to be a big part of that. As reported by Axios and confirming earlier rumors, Facebook’s parent company Meta is telling publishers it no longer plans to pay for the content it has been aggregating in the news tab.

According to the report, Meta spent about $105 million in three-year content deals for news (plus another $90 million for news videos), including $10 million for the Wall Street Journal, $20 million for the New York Times, and $3 million for CNN in arrangements that sometimes included unlocked access to paywalled content. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the rise of regulation forcing Facebook and other internet giants to pay for news caused the company’s waning enthusiasm and cited a source today saying the paid news push was an “experiment that ultimately didn’t pay off.”

“Most people do not come to Facebook for news”

While the News tab itself will remain — you can read about how it works right here — the overall initiative follows podcasts, Novi cryptocurrency, the “Campus” reboot of classic Facebook, and the HouseParty clone Bonfire as projects that came and went in the last few years.

A statement from an unspecified Facebook spokesperson given to Axios said, “a lot has changed since we signed deals three years ago to test bringing additional news links to Facebook News in the U.S. Most people do not come to Facebook for news, and as a business it doesn’t make sense to over-invest in areas that don’t align with user preference.”

The response to Instagram’s attempt at a TikTok impression — and its shocking retreat — shows that the definition of user preference can vary depending on who you ask, but it certainly doesn’t seem like there’s been a massive impact from Facebook’s paid aggregation push in the News tab since it launched in 2019.

When Facebook introduced the News tab in 2019, it talked up the potential of a section with daily top stories “chosen by a team of journalists” that could avoid the pitfalls of other News Feed adventures that sometimes boosted fake news, the Instant Articles that publishers didn’t appreciate, or its infamous “pivot to video.” For me, it was just another section of Facebook that I visited once and never went back to.

Valve won’t allow awards and reviews on Steam store images starting in September

Valve won’t allow awards and reviews on Steam store images starting in September

Valve’s new rules will prohibit text like this on an image. | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Valve is making a big change to the way developers can market their games on Steam. Beginning September 1st, graphical assets developers use in their store listings will only be able to include game artwork, the game’s name, and any official subtitle. Images won’t be able to include review scores, award names or logos, text that markets discounts, or text promoting a different product.

The new rules could prove to be a drastic shift for some developers, as they may rely on reviews or awards on their images in an effort to stand out from the humongous number of games available on Steam. Even some developers of well-known games will have to make changes — while writing this article, I saw promotional images of Hades and It Takes Two on Steam that featured awards.

Here’s Valve’s reasoning for the changes, from a blog post:

It’s our goal to make it as clear and straightforward as possible for customers to find games to buy and play on Steam. Recently, we’ve noticed more text, award logos, and even review scores being included by game developers in their graphical asset images. This made us realize our guidelines haven’t been as clear as they should be. As a result of not having clearly-defined rules, we’ve seen additions to graphical assets that are creating a confusing and sometimes even inaccurate experience for customers.

For example, some game logos themselves have become so small that it’s hard for players to tell what the name of the game is. In other cases, graphical asset images are so cluttered with award logos and ratings that it is distracting and hard to read. Some capsules include review scores that are no longer accurate. We also see that in most cases this additional text on assets is presented in English language only, isolating much of the Steam audience that doesn’t speak English.

And Valve argues that review quotes, scores, and awards have dedicated spots on Steam store pages where developers can still include that information. But you might not see those if you’re just browsing through Steam in search of something new to play.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

These awards will need to be removed from the It Takes Two image.

Valve isn’t entirely banning text on assets; you can still include a game’s title or subtitle, and in one example in the blog post, the company encourages using text in artwork to promote a new update or content for your game. But any text you include will have to be localized into the languages that your game supports. You can read Valve’s full documentation here.

This isn’t the first time Valve has laid down a mandate with big ramifications for developers. In 2018, after some controversy about what games should and shouldn’t be allowed on Steam, Valve said that it would allow “everything” on the store except for “things that we decide are illegal or straight up trolling.” Valve has also since banned blockchain games and NFTs. But the company has worked to improve its recommendations to help you see smaller titles you might like, which could help you see something new while you’re looking for your next game.

Overwatch Contenders teams ‘go on strike’ mid-broadcast

Overwatch Contenders teams ‘go on strike’ mid-broadcast

Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard is facing another walkout of sorts; this time, it’s players in the regional Overwatch Contenders tournament. After a competitive ruling ended a match prematurely, players in the European Overwatch Contenders Summer Series tournament refused to play.

In the off-week of the Overwatch League as teams rest up from the beautiful chaos of the Midseason Madness tournament last week, Blizzard ran an Overwatch Contenders tournament to fill the time. Just like Midseason Madness, the Overwatch Contenders Summer Series is a double-elimination tournament with a winner’s bracket and a loser’s bracket. Today’s European winner’s bracket final — the game that would determine which team would go on to the grand final and which team would fall to the loser’s bracket final — was between 01 Esports and Munich Esports and was, according to several players involved and the tournament’s rules website, listed as a best of seven.

In Overwatch League proper, it’s not typical for matches other than the grand finals to be a best of seven. Knowing that, a player from Munich Esports reached out to a Blizzard tournament administrator to confirm if the match was indeed best of seven and received confirmation and reassurance that the winner’s finals match was best of seven.

And with that, the two teams played.

Munich Esports went up 3-0, however 01 Esports hit the gas and started to turn it around winning the next two maps bringing the score 3-2. It’s here when all hell breaks loose.

Blizzard tournament admins abruptly called the match, citing that the game was intended to be a best of five, not a best of seven. Since Munich Esports was the first team to three maps, they were awarded the win. This caused a major and furious backlash against Blizzard on social media as players from Munich Esports and 01 Esports started sharing screenshots of conversations with tournament admins confirming that they had been told the match would be best of seven.

View post on imgur.com

Since 01 Esports was immediately scheduled to play in the loser’s bracket against another team, they coordinated with their new opponents, Ex Oblivione, to essentially strike.

pic.twitter.com/zMEZNri9S0

— Ex Oblivione (@ExOblivioneOW) July 28, 2022

Aron “ANJ” de Jong, a main tank player on 01 Esports, spoke to The Verge about what happened.

“Because of our loss, we had to play against Ex Oblivione in the losers bracket,” he said. “We made an agreement with them that this was unacceptable, and that Blizzard can’t treat the players like this. We agreed with Ex Oblivione to not play the game, but we wanted to make a statement so we decided to play the game but not actually compete.”

In the broadcast below, you can see that neither team is playing earnestly; players stand around and refuse to play the objective. It’s a fantastic bit of collective action that’s also pretty funny, especially as the casters start to realize that nobody’s taking this seriously.

After this demonstration, the broadcast was paused and subsequently ended. Shortly after that, a tweet from Ex Oblivione player Helv text of an in-game chat in which a tournament admin threatened to disqualify both teams if they refused to play.

pic.twitter.com/M572a2zyzD

— Helv (@Helv_OW) July 28, 2022

Players and fans starting using the hashtag #ContendersStrike to bring attention to the issue, and it gained enough traction to become a trending topic on Twitter:

Twitter / The Verge

Overwatch Contenders did put out a statement on Twitter explaining what happened and the next steps.

#OWSUMMERSERIES pic.twitter.com/Caz9P2ggRM

— Overwatch Path to Pro (@owpathtopro) July 28, 2022

Ex Oblivione and 01 Esports will not be disqualified for their demonstration, and Munich Esports and 01 Esports will be able to continue the match as a best of seven. Though this is players’ desired outcome, others feel that the miscommunication and subsequent fallout is indicative of a larger problem of Blizzard and its treatment of semi-pro Overwatch esports.

“[Blizzard] needs to own up to their lack of communication between Blizzard staff and the teams,” @kevhx_, general manager of Ex Oblivione, tells The Verge over Discord. “It happens way too often that we lack semi-critical information or receive it very late.”

Think of Overwatch Contenders as minor league baseball. It has its own structure, is run by third-party tournament organizers, and it’s the well from which future Overwatch League players are tapped. Unfortunately, players, coaches, and fans of Contenders feel like it’s not given the proper support from Blizzard, especially given that without a thriving amateur ecosystem, teams in the League would have a hard time finding talent to fill their ranks.

“It’s important to note that just this decision made by Blizzard isn’t the only reason for the out roar,” 01 Esports tank @kraandopOW tells The Verge in a DM. “Blizzard has done a polite put poor job at communicating with the [Contenders] participants and this felt like the last drop.”

You can finally see a live feed of your Google Nest cameras on your TV

You can finally see a live feed of your Google Nest cameras on your TV

Google’s latest Nest security cameras can stream a live feed to a Chromecast with Google TV. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Google is finally bringing an old feature to its new Nest cameras. Starting this week, you can stream the video feed from all your Nest cameras and video doorbells to your TV using a Chromecast with Google TV. Google announced the feature in a blog post on the Google Nest Community forum Wednesday morning.

“What?” You ask. “Couldn’t you already do this?” Well, yes and no. It was possible to view the video feed from older Nest cameras — such as the Google Nest Doorbell (wired), the now discontinued Nest Cams, and the camera inside the Nest Hub Max — on the biggest screen in your home.

But, as I noted in my review of the new Nest Cam (indoor, wired), none of Google’s newer cameras could stream to Chromecast devices. (All Nest cameras can stream to both Google smart displays and Amazon’s Echo smart displays).

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Starting this week, you can view a live stream from your Nest Doorbell (battery) on your TV using a Chromecast with Google TV.

The blog post confirms that “All Nest Cams and Nest Doorbells will be supported, including our latest devices that were released in 2021: the Nest Cam (outdoor or indoor, battery), Nest Cam (indoor, wired), Nest Cam with floodlight and Nest Doorbell (battery).”

However, Google only singles out the newer Chromecast with Google TV as supported, so we don’t know yet if it will work on other Chromecast and Google TV devices.

The new integration is rolling out this week, according to Google. And there’s nothing to enable to activate it. Just make sure your Chromecast is on the same Wi-Fi network as your cameras. You can either use the Google TV voice remote by pressing the Assistant button and saying, “show me the front door camera.” Or ask your Nest speaker or smart display, by saying, “hey Google, show me the front door camera on my TV.”

Now, we just need Google to follow through with its promise to add a web portal option to its new Nest cameras, so they can finally gain feature parity with its old Nest cameras.

Facebook and Instagram are going to show even more posts from accounts you don’t follow

Facebook and Instagram are going to show even more posts from accounts you don’t follow

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you already have strong feelings about your Instagram feed increasingly showing Reels from accounts you don’t follow, just wait until next year.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company will more than double the amount of content from recommended accounts people see while using Instagram and Facebook by the end of 2023. He said that such recommendations currently account for roughly 15 percent of the content on Facebook, and that the percentage is already higher on Instagram.

The push, which Zuckerberg calls building the “Discovery Engine,” is a radical departure from Facebook and Instagram’s historical focus on showing posts from a user’s social graph, or list of friends. The shift is intended to compete with TikTok’s heavy use of AI to serve up videos regardless of where they come from. That approach has quickly made TikTok one of the most used apps in the world and spawned a whole new creator economy.

During Meta’s second quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Zuckerberg explained that as “Al finds additional content that people find interesting, that increases engagement and the quality of our feeds.” He said Meta will use AI to recommend all the content people publicly share on its service, such as links or photos.

“In that sense, I think what we’re doing is going to be pretty unique,” he said, alluding to TikTok’s singular focus on short videos. “I don’t think people are going to want to be constrained to one format.”

Facebook’s last big shift in how it recommends content was in 2018, when Zuckerberg announced a strategy focused on encouraging “meaningful social interactions” (MSI) between friends in the News Feed. When it was introduced, Zuckerberg predicted that it would lead to a decrease in time spent on the social network but leave users feeling better.

“The research shows that when we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for our well-being,” he said at the time. “On the other hand, passively reading articles or watching videos — even if they’re entertaining or informative — may not be as good.”

Now that Meta’s business is slowing and Facebook’s user base is aging, Zuckerberg appears to be throwing out the past four years of how the feed was architected. On Wednesday, he said that people were shifting away from sharing in feeds altogether and instead communicating over private messages.

“One social trend that we’re seeing is that instead of people just interacting in comments in feeds, most people find interesting content in their feeds and then message that content to friends and interact there.”

Doug Mastriano Faces Criticism Over His Backing From Antisemitic Ally

Doug Mastriano Faces Criticism Over His Backing From Antisemitic Ally The founder of Gab, a far-right social media network, recently made bigoted remarks defending his ties with Mr. Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania.

Xbox is campy now

Xbox is campy now

Enjoying the outdoors, absolutely decked out in Xbox gear. | Image: Microsoft

Xbox has released a clothing and accessory collection dedicated to camping. No, not the video game kind that esports organization 100 Thieves lambasted with its own clothing line — Microsoft’s is about actually getting outside and touching grass. The camper collection includes a variety of shorts, shirts, and headgear, along with things like a hammock and camping chair.

Given that most people don’t usually associate gaming with going outdoors, some of the items in the lineup actually seem decent. Xbox’s camp chair looks like a clone of the design popularized by the Helinox Chair Zero (to be fair, so does pretty much every other camp chair), but electric green and twice as heavy. Given that it’s significantly cheaper than the Helinox, though, it’s hard to complain about weight.

The hammock also seems fine — again, people who count every ounce probably wouldn’t want it, but it seems perfectly suitable for slinging up between two trees at a campsite. And while I love that Microsoft is trying to get people to drink more water with this Nalgene water bottle, I just wish it wasn’t charging double normal retail price for it now that its admittedly very cool topographical branding has been slapped on.

As an outdoorsy person myself, though, I’m not sure Microsoft’s “camper” marketing lines up with how some of these products are actually made. It says that its T-shirts, hats, and sweaters are for “exploring the great outdoors,” but they’re made of 80 to 90 percent cotton, according to their spec sheets. If you’ve ever even been within spitting distance of an REI or other outdoor shop, you might recognize that’s a bit of a problem — the phrase “cotton kills” is probably one of the most-cited pieces of advice in the hiking and camping community.

It is, to be clear, an overdramatic slogan. Cotton clothing has been implicated in a few deaths from exposure over the years, but it’s not like you’ll immediately die if you step foot on a trail wearing this ABXY heather tee. However, if you get caught out in bad weather, you could have a real problem on your hands — cotton doesn’t keep you warm when it gets wet. Making matters worse, it dries out very slowly, so even if the rain stops, your sopping cotton shirt may keep sapping warmth from your body. And while that probably won’t kill you unless you’re in a pretty remote area, in the words of Sans Undertale, “you’re gonna have a bad time.” Also: moisture won’t necessarily come from precipitation. I’ve had plenty of hikes where a cotton tee soaked up all my sweat and then proceeded to chill me to the bone once I got to a shady section of trail.

Image: Microsoft

Does this person look like they’re enjoying their time outdoors?

I don’t want to overstate the danger here. You don’t need a shirt made of wool or fancy athletic fabrics to go hiking; you’ll just have a more enjoyable experience if you do. (And for the prices Microsoft is charging for these shirts, you could definitely get a nice hiking shirt if you’re going to be spending a lot of time outdoors.) What’s weird, though, is that other pieces of clothing in Microsoft’s collection, like this nylon windbreaker or these nylon shorts are made out of a material that is actually suited to hiking.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t buy any of this gear — I’ll even admit that the Xbox-y outdoors-y patterns look pretty cool. But if you do pick them up to add them to your Microsoft clothing collection, perhaps leave the shirts at home on your next camping trip, unless your definition of “camping” is sitting near a spawn point in Call of Duty. You monster.

London paid a record price for electricity during its heatwave

London paid a record price for electricity during its heatwave

Photo by Richard Baker / In Pictures via Getty Images

Last week, the UK reached its highest temperature on record — 40 degrees Celsius, or more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit. On July 20th, as the record-breaking “Red Extreme” heatwave continued to linger, a Bloomberg op-ed reports officials made the decision to pay a record price of £9,724.54 (about $11,685) per megawatt to ensure electricity for South London residents — about 5,000 percent higher than its usual average price of £178 per megawatt hour.

To avoid an energy short squeeze in 2021, the UK paid about £1,600 (more than $1,900) per megawatt to import energy.

Yesterday #gas produced 43.0% of British electricity, more than wind 23.5%, nuclear 15.1%, biomass 7.2%, solar 6.0%, imports 3.8%, coal 0.8%, hydro 0.7%, other 0.0% *excl. non-renewable distributed generation pic.twitter.com/cRzVsCUKfP

— National Grid ESO (@NationalGridESO) July 21, 2022

But this time, BBC reported, the combination of the heatwave, a storm in Belgium affecting solar power output, and maintenance on overhead all played a part, forcing the National Grid’s Electricity System Operator (ESO) to make the higher-than-usual purchase to avoid blackouts. A spokesperson from the National Grid ESO said a specific circuit was needed to get the energy to the right place.

The power purchased at that rate was only enough to supply about eight households for a year, Bloomberg says, keeping the system stable over the course of an hour, and additional power was purchased at lower rates.

The Bloomberg op-ed argues that power from elsewhere in the country or even turning to offshore wind farms in Scotland should have been a solution. But failures to invest in grid upgrades and resistance to installing more above-ground equipment may have left the system vulnerable. The worry is that next time, even high prices may not be enough, and as an inevitable side effect of a warming planet, residents could face blackouts in the future.