On my radar: Rhian Teasdale from Wet Leg’s cultural highlights
The musician on the artistic commitment of Mitski, the lasting value of Peep Show and her new favourite snacks
Isle of Wight musician Rhian Teasdale formed indie rock duo Wet Leg with Hester Chambers in 2019. The band released two singles in 2021, Chaise Longue and Wet Dream, which became instant hits thanks to their witty lyrics and sense of fun. Wet Leg’s self-titled debut album was released in April and is shortlisted for the 2022 Mercury prize, which is announced on Thursday. Wet Leg tour the UK and Ireland from 13-27 November.
Why it Matters that I just saw a Google Nest Hub control an Apple HomeKit smart plug
A Google Nest Hub (2nd-gen) controlling an Eve Energy smart plug.
Matter, the upcoming standard that’s attempting to give the smart home a single unifying language, is almost here — and I was just treated to an early demonstration of the kinds of cross-platform compatibility that it should enable in the future. The demonstration was given by Eve, which produces a range of smart plugs, radiator valves, lighting, and security devices.
Historically, Eve has only ever worked with Apple’s HomeKit smart home platform. This is because it didn’t want to use cloud-to-cloud platforms, preferring to keep its devices on locally-controlled platforms for privacy and security. Eve has had an iOS app but no Android app, and it didn’t support Samsung’s SmartThings, Amazon’s Alexa, or Google Home. So it was notable to see all four platforms represented as I approached Eve’s booth at the IFA trade show in Berlin.
The reason for the shift is Matter. It’s perhaps the most significant thing to happen to the smart home since its inception, and in theory, we’re just months away from it becoming publicly available. Eve also announced it’s launching an Android app as a counterpart to its existing iOS app, but the big deal with Matter is that you don’t technically need a device manufacturer’s app at all. You can just set up and control your Matter-enabled devices with existing apps, whether it’s Apple HomeKit, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, or Samsung SmartThings apps.
That’s exactly what Eve was demonstrating at IFA. The Matter specification hasn’t been finalized yet, so none of the devices were running their final Matter-enabled firmware, but it was enough to see the kinds of functionality we might be able to expect when Eve’s devices get updated to support it.
A fourth-gen Amazon Echo controlling an Eve Energy.
The Amazon table contained a fourth-generation Echo speaker, along with a typical non-smart bulb plugged into an Eve Energy smart plug. Right now, Echo speakers can’t control Eve products, because the latter aren’t Alexa-enabled. But both products are compatible with Thread, one of the wireless protocols Matter works over and which can run locally. Eve was showing off how Matter will enable these two previously incompatible devices to speak to one another.
Eve’s booth reps were pretty insistent that no one other than them uses voice commands to control each of their smart plugs, so I was reliant on them to issue the commands that would control Eve’s devices. “Alexa, turn off my Eve Energy,” one rep asked a fourth-generation Amazon Echo. After an (admittedly quite long) beat, a bulb plugged into an Eve Energy smart plug clicked off.
Matter’s design makes it simple and seamless for users across different platforms to control the same smart home products natively. The result is a more cohesive experience, where whichever voice assistant you choose to use can control all your Matter-enabled devices and where configuration changes made to a device via one ecosystem will automatically be reflected everywhere else. Each of the four demo stations was using the same model of Eve Energy smart plug, without the need for separate models for different ecosystems. Because the accessory already supports Thread, updating it to support Matter was a relatively seamless process, Eve’s PR Director Lars Felber tells me.
A Nest Hub (2nd gen) turning off an Eve Energy via voice command.
On the Google table, there was both a Thread-enabled second-generation Nest Hub and a Google Pixel 6 Pro running the Google Home app. First, Felber told the Nest Hub, “Ok Google, turn on my lights.” The instant the Google smart display recognized the command, the Eve Energy smart plug behind it clicked on the attached light bulb. The smart display had sent a signal to the smart plug over Thread to turn it on, thanks to Matter.
Using the Android phone running the Google Home app was less seamless in my demonstration. “Phones don’t do Thread,” Felber explained to me. As a result, the handset needed to communicate with the Nest Hub over a local Wi-Fi network for the smart display to send the command to the smart plug via Thread. Unfortunately, attempting to control the smart plug from the phone straight up didn’t work. The icon on the phone responded to my taps, but the light remained unchanged.
It was a shame to not see Matter working flawlessly, but trade show floors are admittedly one of the worst possible places to demonstrate technology like this. Felber told me that there were around 50 overlapping Wi-Fi networks in the trade show hall we were in, and even the least congested Wi-Fi channel still had nine devices on it. The Thread protocol also uses the same 2.4Ghz frequency as Wi-Fi, resulting in more interference. The amount of noise also made issuing voice commands difficult without yelling inches away from the stand’s various smart speakers. Plus, the Matter standard currently isn’t final — so some bugginess is perhaps to be expected.
A SmartThings Hub was hidden underneath the table.
A third table showed off Matter’s integration with SmartThings. Confusingly, there was only a single Samsung phone (a Galaxy S22) on this table, with no Thread border router in sight. But Felber confirmed to me that the company was using an Aeotec-manufactured SmartThings Hub — that for some reason was hidden inside the table — to transmit the signal to the Eve Energy. While totally misleading, the demo worked well. Using the SmartThings app to control the smart plug felt instantaneous.
Finally, there was the Apple table, the least surprising of the four because it demonstrated a hardware setup that the HomeKit-exclusive Eve lineup already supports just fine — albeit now updated to use Matter rather than just Apple’s HomeKit. Alongside the smart plug and bulb on that table was an iPhone 13 and a HomePod Mini smart speaker acting as a Thread border router. Controlling the smart plug via either was very responsive.
Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge
The Eve Energy controlled by a HomePod Mini and and iPhone.
Although the launch of the Matter standard means Eve’s devices are about to get a lot more functional, existing owners shouldn’t need to buy new hardware to reap the benefits. Felber says Eve plans to push an OTA update to all its Thread-enabled products (which account for 14 of its 18-strong product lineup) to use Matter. The Eve Energy will be first, hopefully by the end of the year, with other devices like the Eve Door & Window, the Eve Weather, the Eve Motion, and the Eve Thermo following afterward.
Turning light bulbs on and off is a simple smart home party trick, and there are plenty of other examples of smart devices that work across different ecosystems. But seeing a currently Apple-exclusive accessory work (relatively) seamlessly across all these different ecosystems, with both voice and app control, has me pretty excited for what Matter might be able to achieve when it launches this fall.
During its first launch, the SLS will catapult NASA’s Orion capsule into space, where it will embark on a voyage around the Moon that could take anywhere from 39 to 42 days. Last month, NASA rolled the 322-foot rocket to launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida — a four-mile journey that took nearly 10 hours.
Now that the rocket has reached its launch pad, here’s how and when you can watch it lift off into space.
When is NASA’s Artemis I launch?
NASA plans on launching the SLS rocket on Saturday, September 3rd, 2022. It will have a two-hour launch window starting at 2:17PM ET. This means the rocket could take off anytime between 2:17PM ET and 4:17PM ET, if there are no delays.
There will also be a few other ways to follow along on the mission as well. On August 28th, NASA will have a specialized website called the Artemis Real-time Orbit Website (AROW) that will let people track the mission as it happens. You can also get some updates and watch a livestream of the launch from Alexa-enabled devices. Amazon will be flying a version of Alexa on board the mission.
What can I expect during the launch?
Besides the launch itself, NASA is planning to have some special guests during the broadcast. This includes appearances from Jack Black, Chris Evans, and Keke Palmer as well as a performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by Josh Groban and Herbie Hancock.
Update September 3rd, 8:38AM ET:Updated to reflect NASA’s new launch time.
Meta’s chip deal with Qualcomm may reflect its unrealized VR ambitions
The heat may be hitting Meta’s big bet. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Qualcomm and Meta have signed a multi-year agreement promising to team up on custom versions of Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR chips for the "future roadmap of Quest products" and "other devices," as Mark Zuckerberg put it.
While, in some ways, the move is business as usual — the Quest 2 is powered by the Snapdragon XR2 chipset — it could provide insight into Meta's compromises as it faces declines in revenue and tries to keep the spiraling expenses of Mark's metaverse project in check.
What the Qualcomm deal shows is that Meta's upcoming headsets, which reportedly include a high-end headset codenamed Cambria and, later, new versions of its cheaper Quest headset, won't run on completely customized Meta-designed silicon.
This is despite competing companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google making product decisions around custom chip designs like M2, Graviton3, and Tensor — and the fact that Meta's had a team dedicated to doing the same since 2018. This press release says the chips will be "customized" for Meta's needs. Still, we don't know how much space that can put between its "premium" devices and other manufacturers' hardware that hews closely to Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR reference designs.
In April, The Verge reported that Meta employees were working with semiconductor fabs — the companies that actually produce the physical chips — to make custom chips for its as-of-yet unannounced AR headset. That same month, The Information reported that some of Meta’s efforts to create custom chips were hitting roadblocks, pushing it to use a Qualcomm chip for its second-gen Ray-Bay smart glasses instead of its own silicon.
Qualcomm
Qualcomm reference designs for wired and wireless smart glasses
Tyler Yee, a Meta spokesperson, said that the company doesn't discuss details about how its roadmap has evolved and wouldn't comment on any specific plans it may have had for custom chips for Quest products. However, Yee did share a statement on the company's "general approach to custom silicon," saying that Meta doesn't believe in a "one-size-fits-all approach" for the tech powering its future devices.
"There could be situations where we use off-the-shelf silicon or work with industry partners on customizations, while also exploring our own novel silicon solutions. There could also be scenarios where we use both partner and custom solutions in the same product," he said. "It is all about doing what is needed to create the best metaverse experiences possible."
There are other signs showing where Meta has scaled back its VR / AR ambitions. The company currently uses Android to power the Quest, but it was reportedly working on its own operating system for its virtual and augmented reality devices. According to a report from The Information, it suspended work on a specific project called XROS, though the company responded to that article by saying that it was "still working on a highly specialized OS for our devices." Still, the "microkernel-based operating system" that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said was in the works in 2021 hasn't appeared yet.
The backdrop to all this is a company facing a lot of pressure. Meta's revenue has dipped for the first time (thanks in part to Apple's changes to how apps are allowed to track users), and Zuckerberg explicitly stated plans to turn up the heat on employees while admitting, "I think some of you might just say that this place isn't for you. And that self-selection is okay with me." At the same time, he's making a massive bet on the metaverse — the company is spending, and losing, billions of dollars per year on the project, which includes AR and VR headsets.
It's a high-stakes game that Meta would presumably want to play as close to the chest as possible. But for now, it seems the hardware customers access Zuckerberg's Metaverse with (if they're going to do that at all, instead of just playing Beat Saber) will remain powered by somebody else's chips.
Google expands Play Store billing alternatives to many countries
Third-party billing options to Google’s Play Store roll out globally. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Google has quietly expanded its “User Choice Billing” pilot to let more developers of non-gaming Android apps offer third-party payment options as alternatives to Google Play’s. Developers will see their service fees of 15 to 30 percent reduced by 4 percent when users select a new third-party billing option, which the developer — not Google — must support in case of customer issues. The news was first reported by 9to5Google.
Now, as of September 1st, registered developers from the European Economic Area (EEA), India, Japan, Indonesia, and Australia can participate in User Choice Billing, according to this enrollment page. Google contends that 99 percent of developers using the company’s own Play Store billing qualify for the 15 percent service fee rate — but it’s the revenue-generating Spotifys of the world who pay Google the contested 30 percent on each in-app purchase.
The User Choice Billing pilot originally launched in March with Spotify named as its first partner, after Google was forced to offer alternative in-app payments in South Korea. The moves come in direct response to the intense criticism Google and Apple have received globally over the fees they take from the purchases made in their digital stores that locked developers out of third-party in-app payment systems.
There’s no word on when the program will be expanded to game developers or to developers based in the US. Google only says that, “we expect the pilot details to continue to evolve as we learn more and receive additional feedback.”
First-of-its-kind legislation will keep California’s children safer while online
Bill approved Monday will require companies to install guardrails for those under age 18 and use higher privacy settings
California lawmakers passed first-of-its-kind legislation on Monday designed to improve the online safety and privacy protections for children.
The bill, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, will require firms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to install guardrails for users under the age of 18, including defaulting to higher privacy settings for minors and refraining from collecting location data for those users.
Another Apple Store union election is brewing
Nick Barclay / The Verge
Workers at the Penn Square Apple Store in Oklahoma City have filed with the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union election, becoming the third US location to have done so. According to a press release, over 70 percent of the store’s salespeople, genius admins, technicians, creatives, and operations specialists, have signed cards to say they’re interested in being represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
The NLRB’s bar for a sufficient showing of interest for an election is 30 percent of workers signing union cards.
The filing was reported previously by Bloomberg, and the outlet writes that Michael Forsythe, an employee and organizer at the Oklahoma City store, said workers are looking for “more transparency and input on issues like safety, scheduling and pay.”
There has been one successful union drive at Apple’s US retail stores — in June, workers at Apple’s Towson Town Center store in Maryland voted to unionize. Campaigns at other stores, such as one in New York City (which also hopes to organize with the CWA), and another in Louisville, Kentucky haven’t gotten to the point of holding an election. There was an election scheduled in Atlanta, but the CWA called it off, saying it would be impossible to hold a fair election thanks to Apple’s “repeated violations of the National Labor Relations Act.”
Earlier this year, Apple’s vice president of people and retail Deirdre O’Brien tried to convince employees not to unionize, saying that doing so would “put another organization in the middle of our relationship,” one that “does not have a deep understanding of Apple or our business.” (Organizers in Maryland were largely employees of the Apple Store, though the union did work with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.) The company has also been accused of union busting via captive audience meetings, and by not allowing employees to post union flyers.
Given Apple’s apparent efforts against unionization, and the lack of elections or other public union activities, it was easy to assume that the campaign to unionize the company’s retail locations had deflated. However, experts have told The Verge that fast-moving campaigns, like the one to organize Starbucks, aren’t the norm and that it can take years or organize a location. In other words, it wasn't out of the ordinary that there wasn’t news coming out of New York or Atlanta every day. Organizers at Towson Town Center also mentioned that they’ve been hearing from people at other stores, who were quietly trying to organize their own campaigns.
The campaign in Oklahoma City reinforces the idea that union campaigns haven’t gone away at Apple. Now that the petition is filed, the NLRB will have to certify that there’s been a sufficient showing of interest. If it determines there is, Apple and organizers can come to an agreement on how to hold the election (which happened in Atlanta), or the NLRB can hold a hearing and issue a decision on how the election will take place.
Reached for comment, Apple spokesperson Josh Lipton said that the company reiterates its previous statement. Earlier this year, he told The Verge that Apple is “fortunate to have incredible retail team members and we deeply value everything they bring to Apple. We are pleased to offer very strong compensation and benefits for full time and part time employees, including health care, tuition reimbursement, new parental leave, paid family leave, annual stock grants and many other benefits.”
The lawsuit alleged that Apple used its monopoly power as maker of the iPhone and as the company in charge of the App Store to “crush” developers competing with it through “exploitive fees and selective application of opaque and unreasonable constraints.” Eleftheriou also accused Apple of doing little to stem the tide of copycat scam apps that tricked potential users of his app, a swipe-based keyboard for the Apple Watch. (This was, by the way, right around the time that Apple and Epic were also duking it out in court over how much power the iPhone maker should have over how software is distributed on iOS.)
The lawsuit, which you can read more about here, was dismissed at the request of Eleftheriou’s company, Kpaw, earlier this summer. Apple didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment about the settlement.
In an interview with The Verge, Eleftheriou said he wasn’t able to comment on the settlement or his feelings about it. However, he was able to offer some suggestions about what Apple could do to improve the App Store going forward. He said that most of the suggestions my colleague Sean Hollister made last year in his article “Eight things Apple could do to prove it actually cares about App Store users” were still on the table, and would be a start.
From that list, which includes bulking up the App Review team, making sure the top selling apps are on the up-and-up, and automatically refunding people who got scammed, Apple has actually made movement on two items since Eleftheriou filed his lawsuit. For one, it brought back the report button, which could help people who find obviously scammy apps. It’s also made changes to the auto-renew subscriptions system — which both Sean and Eleftheriou suggested should be removed, with users being prompted to renew every time a payment was coming due. Now, Apple will let subscriptions automatically renew even if there was a small price bump. (I didn’t say the company was moving in the direction we’d like to see.)
Eleftheriou also suggested that Apple could be more publicly transparent about why apps were removed. He said that when you visit an App Store URL for an app that’s no longer on the store, it should tell you why it was removed, whether it was because the developer took it down themselves, or because it violated some rule like the ones about fake reviews.
Eleftheriou has famously been finding and pointing out egregious scams on the App Store (something he’s still doing, according to TechCrunch), and he says that this sort of move would help the public get a sense of just how many scams were on the store, and how get many removed. While he doesn’t think Apple would release its own statistics, he says that public pages that say why apps were taken down could be mined for data from companies that monitor the App Store, giving us a rough idea of how prevalent various issues are.
As a user, that sort of info would let me know how careful I need to be while browsing apps. And while on first blush it seems like there’s not a lot of benefit to Apple, it could help the company prove that it’s getting better at stewarding the App Store. As the threat of antitrust regulation mounts, especially around Apple’s role as both the platform owner and the company in control of the store, that could be a valuable thing indeed.
Microsoft confirms new Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family plan and its pricing
The service will cost around €21.99 a month. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
After a leak revealed Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family branding over the weekend, Microsoft has gone official with its new plan and revealed its pricing in Ireland and Colombia. The new subscription will allow Xbox Game Pass members to share with up to four other friends or family members at €21.99 per month in Ireland, and 49,900 COP in Colombia.
Microsoft isn’t restricting this new Game Pass plan to just family members, and the only restriction is that people who are added to the Friends & Family plan need to be in the same country. Microsoft is currently testing this new Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family plan in Ireland and Colombia, with pricing at €21.99 per month instead of the regular €12.99 per month for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. That works out to less than €5 per month per person to share all the usual Xbox Game Pass Ultimate benefits.
Image: Microsoft
The new Friends & Family subscription is official now.
“Currently we are piloting this plan in Colombia and the Republic of Ireland. Future countries / regions might be added in the next months,” says Microsoft in a FAQ. Microsoft hasn’t announced pricing for the rest of Europe, the UK, or the US yet, but it’s likely to be around $25 per month for Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family in the US.
Switching to the plan does mean adjusting the time remaining on your previous plan, and Microsoft will perform a conversion to the Friends & Family plan:
30 days Xbox Game Pass Ultimate = 18 days Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family
30 days Xbox Game Pass (Console) = 12 days Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family
30 days PC Game Pass = 12 days Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family
30 days Xbox Live Gold = 12 days Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family
30 days EA Play = 6 days Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family
Microsoft currently offers Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass for $9.99 per month. Neither subscription includes online multiplayer capabilities, but you can upgrade to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $14.99 and this unlocks Game Pass for console, PC, EA Play access, and Xbox Live Gold online multiplayer.
Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family will include all the same Xbox Game Pass Ultimate benefits for four other friends or family members. That’s five people in total, and it also includes access to Xbox Cloud Gaming, Xbox Live, and even the PC Game Pass versions of games.
The T-Mobile / Sprint merger hasn’t created jobs — it’s cut thousands
T-Mobile has promised that the merger would be “jobs-positive.” | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The Wall StreetJournal reports T-Mobile’s engineering and network operations teams are experiencing waves of layoffs, which have included managers and executives, on top of thousands of jobs eliminated by restructuring after the company merged with Sprint in 2020. T-Mobile execs promised then that the merger was “all about creating new, high-quality, high-paying jobs, and the new T-Mobile will be jobs-positive from Day One and every day thereafter.”
In April 2020, the companies had about 80,000 workers combined; however, as the Journal points out, T-Mobile’s most recent annual report (pdf) said it ended 2021 with 75,000 full- and part-time employees.
Employees
As of December 31, 2021, we employed approximately 75,000 full-time and part-time employees, including network, retail, administrative and customer support functions.
A company spokesperson told the Journal that the layoffs “were part of continuing organizational shifts during the past few months” without exactly saying how many jobs were eliminated or if there would be more layoffs in the future.
T-Mobile said the post-merger company would employ at least 11,000 additional workers by 2024, but so far, it looks like the exact opposite is occurring. Soon after the merger, T-Mobile announced a layoff plan that would affect “hundreds” of former Sprint workers. Since then, T-Mobile has dissolved Sprint’s LTE network and switched Sprint customers over to T-Mobile as the company plans to use its wealth of PCS spectrum to broadcast cellular signals from satellites.
Meanwhile, the Dish Network Genesis 5G service that was supposed to provide new competition is still hard to find. Elsewhere in the industry, other carriers have been experiencing layoffs, too. In early August, CNET reported that T-Mobile, along with its competitor Verizon reported that they were laying off employees to accommodate business needs.
Labor Board Official Says Amazon Effort to Overturn Staten Island Warehouse Election Should Be Rejected The labor official concluded that Amazon’s objections to the election should be set aside and that the Amazon Labor Union should be certified to represent workers at the warehouse.
Cryptocurrency ethereum plans to cut carbon emissions by 99% with upgrade
The ‘merge’ project will end role of miners in blockchain ecosystem to help reduce electricity usage
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, will complete a plan to lower its carbon emissions by more than 99% in the next month, the foundation that controls the platform has confirmed.
The project, called “the merge”, will result in ethereum switching the underlying technology it uses for validating crypto transactions to a new process that requires less energy to manage.
On 1 February 2021, reporter Ko Zin Lin Htet received a panicked phone call from a source in Yangon, Myanmar’s most populous city. The caller said the military had seized power and was arresting opposition politicians, then hung up. Ko Zin Lin Htet remembered what he did next: “I checked my phone and my internet connection. There was nothing there.”
He got on his motorbike and drove to the parliament, where he saw military personnel, not police, guarding the buildings. At that moment, Ko Zin Lin Htet realised there had been a coup – and that by cutting internet access, the new junta had thrown the country back into the pre-internet era.
The Sony Xperia 5 IV puts powerful features in all three rear cameras
Sony’s excellent autofocus capabilities come to all three rear cameras in the Xperia 5 IV. | Image: Sony
Sony is renewing its “compact” phone for another season with the announcement of the Xperia 5 IV. It’s a step down from the 1 IV in size, price, and features but shares the same emphasis on parity across its camera system. That means all three of the phone’s rear cameras — standard wide, ultrawide, and telephoto — include the company’s excellent Real-time Eye AF for better portraits and are capable of super-fast burst shooting speeds even with HDR enabled. It has other flagship specs to back up its camera features, too, and comes with an equally flagship-y price: $999.
The Xperia 5 IV (side note: what are they going to call next year’s phone? The 5 V?) includes a 24mm-equivalent standard wide, 16mm-equiv ultrawide, and 60mm-equiv telephoto on the rear panel. That tele lens is fixed, by the way; it’s not the optical zoom lens in the 1 IV. Each uses a 12-megapixel sensor — a lower resolution than most 50 or even 100-megapixel flagship cameras these days. Heck, even Apple looks like it will start moving away from 12 megapixels. Sony spokesperson El Deane Naude says that’s an intentional move to make those high readout speeds possible on all of its cameras and to maximize low light sensitivity with bigger pixels.
Each of those rear cameras is capable of 120 fps readout speeds, enabling video recording at 4K / 120p on each one. They can also shoot still photos at 20 fps with autofocus, auto exposure, and HDR enabled. There’s also a new 12-megapixel sensor in the selfie camera.
Outside of photography features, the Xperia 5 IV includes a 6.1-inch 1080p OLED with 120Hz refresh rate and a tall 21:9 form factor, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, and a 5,000mAh battery — now, with wireless charging. It comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, an IP65 / 68 rating, and it hangs on to a couple of fast-disappearing hardware features: a headphone jack and a microSD card slot. There’s sub-6GHz 5G support — no mmWave — and a set of new, more powerful stereo speakers on the handset. The 5 IV is scheduled to ship on October 27th.
Portal 2 is the last free Xbox 360 Games with Gold title
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Portal 2 will be the last Xbox 360 game available free to Xbox Live Gold subscribers through Microsoft’s Games with Gold program. Microsoft announced last month that Xbox Games with Gold will no longer include Xbox 360 games in October, simply because the company has “reached the limit of our ability to bring Xbox 360 games to the catalogue.”
The Games with Gold for September, spotted by Ars Technica, lists Portal 2 for Xbox 360, the last title before the October 1st cutoff point. Valve’s classic puzzle-platform game was released more than 10 years ago on Xbox 360, so it’s a fitting end to the nearly decade-long program of free Xbox 360 games for Xbox Live Gold subscribers.
Games with Gold is a monthly benefit for subscribers of Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Microsoft hand picks free games each month, which subscribers can download and keep forever, and all Xbox 360 titles are playable on the latest Xbox Series X / S consoles and Xbox One.
Image: Microsoft
September’s Games with Gold titles.
Microsoft has reached the limit on new Xbox 360 games through its Games with Gold offering simply due to its Xbox backward compatibility program coming to a halt. Microsoft returned with 76 new backward compatible games last year, but the company said at the time it had “reached the limit of our ability to bring new games to the catalog from the past due to licensing, legal and technical constraints.”
If you’ve already downloaded or redeemed Xbox 360 games through the Games with Gold program, they’ll still be available after October 1st. Microsoft’s change just means Portal 2 will be the last game you can claim for free with the Games with Gold offer.
Xbox Live Gold is still an incredibly popular subscription, but Microsoft has switched its focus to Xbox Game Pass. The software maker briefly attempted to double the cost of a yearly Xbox Live Gold subscription last year, but a backlash forced it to backtrack on the pricing changes and even remove the Xbox Live Gold requirement for free-to-play games.
The best £6 I ever spent! 31 small items that could make your life a tiny bit better
Ducky toast tongs, candle sharpeners and an apple tree … our writers name one gadget, gizmo or thing they didn’t know they couldn’t live without
“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful,” William Morris said. I’m fussier. Have nothing in your wardrobe that you do not know to be useful and believe to be beautiful.
LG’s first bendable OLED TV lets you pick between flat or curved modes
Image: LG
LG has announced its first bendable OLED TV which works either completely flat or as a curved display. The LG OLED Flex (model LX3) is a 42-inch OLED TV that bends into a curved (900R) TV thanks to LG’s latest display technology. Curved displays are suited for a more immersive gaming experience, while flat screens are better for watching TV broadcasts or streaming services.
LG OLED Flex owners can automatically bend and adjust the TV into its curved mode using a dedicated button on the TV remote. (As opposed to some morphing monitors which have to be manually adjusted). There are two presets or owners can adjust the curve of the display in five percent increments through 20 different levels.
Image: LG
LG is focusing on gamers for its Flex TV.
LG is really marketing its 42-inch bendable display towards gamers, thanks to a host of features that console or PC gamers will find appealing. The LX3 supports Dolby Vision gaming at 4K 120Hz, and includes all the latest HDMI 2.1 features like variable refresh rate (VRR) and auto low latency mode (ALLM). LG is also supporting Nvidia’s G-Sync or AMD’s FreeSync technologies to reduce tearing and stuttering during games.
This TV certainly looks more like a giant monitor, and there’s even a height-adjustable stand that also lets you tilt the display towards or away from you. There are also gaming modes that let you shrink the 42-inch display down to 32- or 27-inch sizes if you don’t want to play certain games at the full size of the TV. LG also has a built-in game app that includes custom screensavers and shortcuts to Twitch and YouTube.
Image: LG
The LG Flex bends into place.
Gamers can also use LG’s Multi View mode to view content from two different sources at the same time. So, you could use the LG Flex to play a PC or console game, while watching a YouTube video streamed to the TV from a phone at the same time.
LG is one of the first to introduce a truly bendable OLED TV. Corsair just announced its 45-inch bendable gaming monitor, and Chinese TV manufacturer Skyworth announced its own flexible transforming TV last year. If you’re struggling to pick between a flat or curved monitor or TV, manufacturers are clearly gearing up for TVs and monitors that can offer both modes.
LG hasn’t released pricing for its new LG OLED Flex TV, nor a release date. The LG Flex will be on display at IFA in Germany this week. We’ll take a closer look at this new bendable TV once IFA opens later this week.
‘Your account has been disabled’: the real impact of a Facebook ban
Meta is finally taking the impact of a Facebook ban seriously. Plus, Joe Rogan and Zuck have a heart to heart
Would you rather be banned for life from Tesco or Apple? Or, to go further: would you find it easier to cope with losing access to all major supermarkets, or Google alone? The answer will depend on your particular circumstances, but there’s no denying that losing access to a major technology company can be catastrophic. In my case, losing Apple’s services would render my smartphone near-useless, while losing access to Google would take out my email account. An Amazon ban would block me from reading thousands of pounds worth of purchased books and comics linked to my Kindle, while a Microsoft one would turn my Xbox Series X into an expensive paperweight.
The number of non-tech businesses who could inflict equivalent harm is slim. If Sainsbury’s banned me from its supermarkets, I’d have to walk a bit further to Waitrose, but I wouldn’t have to return all of the groceries I’d already bought from the store. If my bank blocked me, it would be wildly inconvenient, but strict regulations mean it would be hard for the company to close my account and keep my money.
Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. is building a customer-service division to help users of its social networks who have had posts or accounts removed unexpectedly.
The effort is in the early stages, and has taken on a higher priority thanks to feedback Meta has gotten from the oversight board, the independent body set up in 2020 by the company to review some of its decisions on questionable or problematic content. The board has received more than a million appeals from users, many of them related to account support.
Doug Mastriano’s Extremely Online Rise to Republicans’ Governor Nominee in Pa. The G.O.P. candidate for governor of Pennsylvania deftly used Facebook to build a loyal right-wing fan base at the height of the pandemic. Will it be enough to win a competitive general election?
Some Carmakers Say Recycling Car Parts Is the Future. But Is It Realistic? “Circular manufacturing” has the promise to reduce waste by reusing parts to make new cars. There are glimmers of hope, but they are currently outweighed by challenges.
The best £6 I ever spent! 31 small items that could make your life a tiny bit better
Ducky toast tongs, candle sharpeners and an apple tree … our writers name one gadget, gizmo or thing they didn’t know they couldn’t live without
“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful,” William Morris said. I’m fussier. Have nothing in your wardrobe that you do not know to be useful and believe to be beautiful.
Huawei founder sparks alarm in China with warning of ‘painful’ next decade
Ren Zhengfei writes in leaked memo that ‘chill will be felt by everyone’ and company must focus on survival
The founder of Huawei has delivered a stark warning for the tech company’s future, sparking alarm with the frankness of his assessment and what it signals for smaller businesses amid China’s economic troubles and a global downturn.
In a leaked internal memo, Ren Zhengfei told Huawei staff “the chill will be felt by everyone” and the company must focus on profit over cashflow and expansion if it is to survive the next three years, indicating further job cuts and divestments.
California Approves Bill to Punish Doctors Who Spread False Information Weighing into the fierce national debate over Covid-19 prevention and treatments, the state would be the first to try a legal remedy for vaccine disinformation.
Meta links Instagram’s NFT posts to Facebook as the market for ‘digital collectibles’ tanks
Photo by MTV VMA 22/Getty Images
Meta has been testing support for NFT “digital collectible” posts on Instagram since May, and if you’re among the expanding group of people with access, then you can now share posts with your blockchain-verified items on Facebook as well. According to an updated blog post from the company, it’s “started giving people the ability to post digital collectibles that they own across both Facebook and Instagram,” after they connect their digital wallets to either platform.
The posts will basically look like normal posts, according to a screenshot the company tweeted, but will have a badge marking them as a “digital collectible.”
Image: Meta
NFT Posts on Instagram that link to Facebook
The FAQ has a lot of details about how the connections work and keeping your account secure, which is important since linking NFTs to Facebook and Instagram likely increases the possibility that people who post them will be targeted with phishing attempts, which have successfully hijacked wallets and their associated items on multipleoccasions.
The timing of this latest expansion and sharing across Facebook is conspicuously timed, popping up the day after Eminem and Snoop Dogg performed their Bored Ape Yacht Club-linked collaboration at MTV’s VMAs. Judging by the responses to that event, existing NFT fans seemed energized, but other music lovers weren’t as impressed.
This was one of the first stories I read after leaving the dentist today. Now I'm wishing the tooth drilling went on for a few more hours...
lmao this isn't historic it's kinda depressing. this looks like the same sort of awkward video we saw constantly in the late '90s when everyone was so excited to test the boundaries of 3d CG stuff in videos...and they all look dated now.
Despite the performance, or perhaps because owners wanted to hold onto their NFTs and hope the values appreciate this afternoon, the BAYC ranked only fourth in a list of most active collections.
Forbes reports data listed on DappRadar shows trading volume on one of the largest NFT marketplaces, OpenSea, has fallen by 99 percent in the last four months alone. On May 1st, the marketplace had over $2.7 billion in transactions, compared to $9.34 million worth on Sunday. Another tracker on Dune Analytics shows how far sales volume has fallen from the peak. Somehow, this makes it the perfect time for social networks like Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook / Instagram to belatedly hop in — according to Reddit’s CEO, the secret is to not say NFT.
Tesla can’t stop employees from wearing union swag, labor board rules
Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge
Union swag at Tesla is in. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said that Tesla’s current dress code policy was unlawful. Specifically, the part where it only allowed employees to wear Tesla or other pre-approved black tee shirts. That policy meant union swag was not allowed — a hindrance to anyone trying to organize or show union solidarity.
Tesla’s policy went into effect in 2017, and employees were reportedly told they couldn’t wear shirts baring the United Auto Workers logo. Tesla attempted to justify its dress policy to the board claiming that its black shirts prevent damage to cars and it needed to maintain “visual management” of its employees. The NLRB rejected this.
“With today’s decision, the Board reaffirms that any attempt to restrict the wearing of union clothing or insignia is presumptively unlawful,” said NLRB Chairman Lauren McFerran. Special circumstances continue to exist and allow employers to apply minor restrictions, such as size and location of the union insignia.
A prominent example of a “special circumstance” classification is how Wal-Mart argued that customer-facing employees needed to maintain professional attire. While it might be difficult for union supporters at Tesla to wear a red shirt (the common color for union solidarity) with the UAW logo, Tesla cannot restrict them from wearing the logo itself.
Tesla enforced a rule prohibiting the wearing of t-shirts with any logo besides the Tesla logo during a union drive.
The employer would allow employees to wear their own black t-shirts with supervisory approval, but not black t-shirts with a union logo.
Labor organizing at Tesla wasn’t halted by the dress code. In 2019, a judge ruled that the company had been sabotaging unionization efforts. The NLRB also forced Musk to delete anti-union tweets from 2018. In March of this year Tesla CEO Elon Musk even invited the UAW to hold a union vote. That was less a call for protecting labor rights at the company and more an apparent dare on Twitter to prove unionization isn’t necessary at Tesla. “I’d like hereby to invite UAW to hold a union vote at their convenience. Tesla will do nothing to stop them.” Musk said at the time.
While no vote has happened, organizers should have an easier time showing solidarity thanks to the NLRB’s latest ruling.
Samsung’s Z Fold 4 passes durability tests, but how will it hold up long term?
Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is the latest in the line of Samsung’s foldables to endure JerryRigEverything’s torture test that subjects devices to razor blades, lighters, and handfuls of dirt. Like the Fold 3 and Fold 2 before it, the Fold 4 managed to survive the test, albeit with quite a few scratches and some burnt-up pixels.
But the real question is whether the Fold 4 can pass the test of time. Samsung has taken significant steps toward improving the durability of its lines of foldables, making them water resistant, as well as adding stronger screens with a more rigid aluminum frame. And while the company has released videos — both this year and the last — designed to inspire confidence about the durability of its devices, they still don’t indicate how well they’ll fare with years of use.
Users reported experiencing several issues, including crackedscreens and noticeable creases, shortly after purchasing new Galaxy Z Flip 3 or Fold 3 devices last year. But even if users didn’t have issues upon purchasing the foldable last year, for some owners, they’re starting to crop up now. Zoe Kleinman, a technology editor at the BBC, posted on Twitter that her Galaxy Z Flip 3 has developed a crack where the device creases, making both the bottom and top half of the device unusable. SeveralusersonReddit have also been put in similar situations months out from their purchase.
The release of the first Galaxy Z Fold in 2019 was notably delayed due to a faulty screen, and Samsung has obviously come a long way since then. While Samsung advertises its Z Fold 4 as “unbelievable tech built to last,” it describes its Z Flip 4 as having “serious durability [that] lets you flex and flip to your heart’s content” and lasts you 200,000 folds. While that may be true in lab conditions, everyday wear and tear over an extended period of time can be harder to predict.
Thankfully, Samsung has lowered the cost to repair the screens on a Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Fold 4 to $29 — but only if you’re subscribed to Samsung’s Care Plus service, which costs $8 to $11 / month, depending on the device you’ve purchased. Without the plan (and if you’re not covered under warranty), you could wind up paying $499 to replace the Z Fold 4’s inner screen or $357 to repair it. The Z Flip 4 is slightly less expensive, costing $349 for an inner screen replacement and $219 for a repair. First and second-gen Flip and Fold devices (assuming you still have one that hasn’t needed a replacement yet) are eligible for cheaper one-time screen replacements that start at $119, however.
When Myanmar’s military ordered telecom companies to shut down access to Twitter in February 2021, one Twitter user in Mumbai who was posting critically about the Indian government realised he had lost access to the social media platform. He sent a message on Signal to a friend: “Am I imagining this? I may be being paranoid, but why am I having access difficulties with Twitter?” He was not paranoid. Myanmar’s Twitter block had accidentally cut Twitter access to at least half a billion internet users. The same dynamic was repeated in March 2022, when Russia inadvertently cut access to Twitter across Europe with a block designed for its own people.
The mechanics of the internet mean that blocks on access imposed by one country may leach over the borders on to neighbouring populations, or even be felt half a world away by users in different continents.
On 1 February 2021, reporter Ko Zin Lin Htet received a panicked phone call from a source in the Burmese capital, Yangon. The caller said the military had seized power and was arresting opposition politicians, then hung up. Ko Zin Lin Htet remembered what he did next: “I checked my phone and my internet connection. There was nothing there.”
He got on his motorbike and drove to the parliament, where he saw military personnel, not police, guarding the buildings. At that moment, Ko Zin Lin Htet realised there had been a coup – and that by cutting internet access, the new junta had thrown the country back into the pre-internet era.
Movie tickets at many theaters will cost just $3 on National Cinema Day
National Cinema Day has 3,000 participating theaters so far. | Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images
Movie tickets across the US will cost just $3 on Saturday, September 3rd in celebration of National Cinema Day (via Associated Press). If you’ve never heard of such a holiday before (at least in the US), that’s because it never existed until now, apparently.
The $3 ticket price (not including tax) applies across all tickets, formats, and showtimes — and yes, this includes IMAX and 3D movies. So far, a growing list of 3,000 theaters, including popular chains, like Regal, Cinemark, and AMC, have agreed to take part in the new holiday.
You might not want to count out your local, independently-run theaters, either. In a list of participating theaters viewed by The Verge, we spotted several smaller locations, like the Starmax Cinemas in Vandalia, Illinois, and the Wellfleet Cinema drive-in (a personal favorite) on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. You can find out if theaters near you are participating by entering your location on the National Cinema Day website. Participating theaters will also show a “special sneak peek” of upcoming movies from various studios, including Disney, Universal, Lionsgate, Paramount, Warner Bros., and more.
The Cinema Foundation, a nonprofit organization created by the National Association of Theatre Owners earlier this year, came up with National Cinema Day as a way to encourage people to return to the theaters. Labor Day weekend is a notoriously slow time for movie theaters due to a lack of new releases, but perhaps National Cinema Day could help change that. I, personally, haven’t seen a movie in theaters since 2019’s Joker, so maybe this is the universe’s way of telling me it’s time for a trip to the theaters.
But this summer had an impressive number of people returning to theaters, thanks to blockbusters like Thor: Love and Thunder and Jordan Peele’s horror film Nope. According to data from Comscore, this summer’s box office raked in $3.027 billion, a 134.6 percent increase when compared to last summer. The imminent return of the Moviepass subscription could perhaps play a role in getting people back to theaters in the future, too (potentially to the dismay of theaters).
“After this summer’s record-breaking return to cinemas, we wanted to do something to celebrate moviegoing,” Jackie Brenneman, the Cinema Foundation’s president said in a statement. “We’re doing it by offering a ‘thank you’ to the moviegoers that made this summer happen, and by offering an extra enticement for those who haven’t made it back yet.”
Trademark filings point to ‘Reality’ branding for Apple’s mixed reality headset
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Trademark filings spotted by Bloomberg suggest Apple might incorporate “Reality” in the name and branding of its long-rumored mixed reality headset. Three separate filings show trademarks for “Reality One,” “Reality Pro,” and “Reality Processor,” matching the realityOS name that cropped up in Apple’s code and a trademark application that potentially refers to the headset’s operating system.
The applications weren’t filed by Apple itself, but by a company called Immersive Health Solutions, LLC. Companies like Apple often use the names of shell companies when filing for a patent or trademark to help keep their plans private. But, as Bloomberg points out, the Delaware-based Immersive Health Solutions was registered by Corporation Trust Co. — another shell company that also appeared on the realityOS trademark.
In addition to the US, applications were also filed in the EU, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, and Uruguay. All three filings mention “virtual and augmented reality headsets, goggles, glasses, and smartglasses.” It’s possible that the “Reality One” trademark refers to the name of the headset itself, while “Reality Pro” indicates a spec-boosted version that Apple has planned down the road, in line with the same “Pro” moniker Apple applies to its higher-end devices. Meanwhile, the name “Reality Processor” may allude to the headset’s processing unit, which is rumored to be an M2 chip.
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