Twitter locks Kanye West out of his account following anti-Semitic post
Twitter confirmed that it locked Kanye West, who now goes by “Ye,” out of his account after he posted an anti-Semitic tweet on Saturday (via BuzzFeed News). “The account in question has been locked due to a violation of Twitter’s policies,” Twitter spokesperson Katie Rosborough said in a statement to The Verge.
Twitter has since removed Ye’s tweet, but several users screenshotted the post before Twitter took it down. “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” Ye wrote. “The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”
On Friday, Ye posted a screenshot on Instagram showing a text message between him and rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, accusing Diddy of being controlled by Jewish people. This garnered a response from the American Jewish Committee (AJC), which slammed Ye for espousing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
It’s unclear how long Ye won’t have access to his Twitter account, as the platform’s rules say it could place a user’s profile in “read-only mode” for anywhere from 12 hours to seven days depending on the violation. This means that Ye can’t tweet, retweet, or like any posts until the lockout lifts, but other users can still interact with his content.
The iPhone 14’s new Crash Detection feature, which is supposed to alert authorities when it detects you’ve been in a car accident, has an unexpected side effect: it dials 911 on rollercoasters. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the feature has had law enforcement sent to amusement parks on numerous occasions after mistaking a thrill ride’s twists, turns, and hard braking for a real emergency.
Apple rolled out Crash Detection with its new iPhone 14, Watch Series 8, SE, and Ultra last month, equipping the devices with a gyroscopic sensor and high-g accelerometer trained on the impact experienced with simulated car crashes. If the sensors detect that you’ve been in an accident, your iPhone will display an alert and call emergency services if you don’t dismiss it within 20 seconds.
Since the iPhone 14 went on sale, the 911 dispatch center near Kings Island amusement park has received at least six phones calls saying:
“The owner of this iPhone was in a severe car crash...”
When it calls law enforcement, it will play an audio message that alerts authorities you’ve been in a crash, and also provides them with your location. (An Apple Watch with Crash Detection can only notify authorities if you have your iPhone with you, or if it’s connected to a mobile network or Wi-Fi.)
Well, that’s exactly what several users’ Apple devices did, but at the wrong time. In a tweet, WSJ reporter Joanna Stern shares an example of one of the 911 calls placed while an iPhone 14’s owner was strapped to a rollercoaster at Cinninatti’s Kings Island amusement park. As the automated message plays, you can hear muffled screams in the background as the rollercoaster runs its course.
Stern says Warren County, where Kings Island is located, received six emergency calls triggered by park rides since the iPhone 14’s release. She also points out that other users have experienced similar issues in amusement parks across the country. Bringing smartphones on rides isn’t really a smart idea to begin with, but the risk of false 911 calls might be all the more reason to leave the iPhone 14 (and other devices) behind before getting in that bumper car.
Apple could bring USB-C to AirPods and Mac accessories by 2024
Apple’s preparing to adopt USB-C charging across its line of AirPods and Mac accessories within the next couple of years, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The purported shift away from Lightning comes as the European Union looks to mandate USB-C charging on new smartphones, tablets, and headphones released in the region in late 2024. While the legislation still hasn’t yet been signed into law, it received approval from the European Parliament last week.
To comply with the upcoming rules, Gurman believes Apple might bring USB-C to the next-gen AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods by 2024, while Mac accessories, including the Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad could make the switch to USB-C as soon as next year. Apple’s due to refresh its Mac lineup with a new iMac and Mac Pro next year, and since the release of new Macs typically “coincides with accessory updates” Gurman says “it’s a safe bet that those accessories will move to USB-C in their next incarnation.” Gurman similarly believes Apple will swap over its AirPods before the EU’s legislation goes into effect.
Earlier this year, a report from Gurman suggested that Apple has already started testing USB-C charging on its iPhones, but that we shouldn’t expect them to land on devices until 2023 “at the earliest.” Gurman reiterates this belief in this most recent Power On newsletter, once again adding that he thinks Apple will add a USB-C charging port to the iPhone 15, as well as to the entry-level iPad expected to release by the end of this year.
As my colleague Jon Porter points out, Apple technically wouldn’t have to comply with the EU’s upcoming law until it releases the iPhone 17 in the fall of 2025, as there’s a two-year grace period that allows companies (namely, Apple) enough time to make the transition to USB-C. Despite this, Gurman thinks Apple will “handily beat the due date with its most visible products.”
Even if Apple does make the transition to using USB-C, Gurman expects its presence on Apple devices to be short-lived. Gurman believes that Apple will eventually bring inductive charging to the iPhone and iPad “at some point in the next few years” to get around the legislation, as it doesn’t apply to devices that don’t support wired charging.
The PC market needs another reinvention — is Microsoft’s Surface up for it again?
It’s easy to forget now, but Microsoft’s first Surface was a huge risk. By diving into the PC market, Microsoft was competing with its Windows partners. By combining laptop and tablet, it was trying to create an entirely new device category. And by designing new software for Arm-powered Windows computers, it was betting that the mobile era would change the way laptops work and the way people use them.
Microsoft didn’t get it all right, and it took a couple of years for the Surface line to really hit its stride. But a decade in, you can’t argue with the results: the Surface worked. Not only did the whole “attach a keyboard to your tablet and now it’s a laptop” idea become commonplace around the industry, but Surface also became a big business for Microsoft. The Surface Studio is still one of the most ambitious desktop PCs ever made, and even the more straightforward Surface Laptop is a winner. The Surface Pro 8 is a bit expensive, but it’s one of the best Windows PCs you can buy.
Microsoft is set to announce a lineup of new Surface products this week as it celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the product. Rumors and leaks suggest we might see a new Surface Studio and a Surface Laptop 5 and Surface Pro 9 with some performance improvements. They’ll surely be nice devices and worthy competitors in the ever-crowded Windows market.
The timing of this event is both terrible and tantalizing for Microsoft. Terrible because the PC market is flagging hard after a huge pandemic boost — everybody bought new computers in 2020 and 2021, it seems, and so far isn’t looking for another upgrade). Tantalizing because the market is once again in need of a big new idea about how PCs are supposed to work. Microsoft reinvented them once; can it do it again?
In recent years, Microsoft has shown off a couple of devices that might fit the bill. In 2019, it made a big push into dual-screen and foldable devices with the Surface Pro X, Surface Neo, and Surface Duo. The Surface Neo died before it hit the market, while the Surface Duo has gotten steadily better over the last couple of years.
The Surface Pro X was that event’s most interesting announcement — an excellent next-generation PC, thinner and cooler and Arm-powered — but it just couldn’t escape its app compatibility and performance problems. Microsoft has been interested in these kinds of devices since at least the Courier days, though, and as foldable phones continue to improve and gain traction, we likely haven’t seen the last of Microsoft’s efforts here.
The other device Microsoft hasn’t quite figured out is the Surface Go, the smaller, lighter, and less expensive model in the lineup. The Go could, and maybe should, be Microsoft’s best answer to the iPad and Chromebook — an actually tablet-like tablet with all the extra productivity that comes with Windows. Even the third generation of Surface Go was crippled by its high price and bad battery life, though. Microsoft just hasn’t quite nailed the balance of performance, portability, and price.
For Microsoft to push the boundaries of the PC market again, it’s going to have to figure out how to make Arm-powered Windows computers work. It has to keep working on devices like the Pro X because that’s where the future is headed. The gap between phones and computers is collapsing, and people want laptops that boot faster, last longer, and work everywhere. Because Arm processors run more efficiently and interact with cellular connections, Arm-powered devices can come in all sorts of thinner, lighter, and more interesting shapes. But, of course, nobody cares unless those devices work. That means solving battery life problems, it means improving general Windows performance on these lower-powered chips, and, most of all, it means fixing app compatibility.
This is obviously not lost on Microsoft — it’s just that the company hasn’t done it very well. The company has been working on various “Windows on Arm” projects for years, even building a native Arm version of Visual Studio and the “Project Volterra” developer kit that developers can use to test their apps on Arm systems. Microsoft has also tried over and over to make a “lighter” version of Windows: first, it was Windows RT, then it was Windows 10X, but neither could succeed without a better app ecosystem.
Windows 11 brought some of those lightweight vibes to the overall operating system, and the most recent update to the OS improves the situation even further. The Windows Store continues to grow, too. You’d never confuse Windows with something like iPadOS or ChromeOS when it comes to simplicity and efficiency, but Microsoft is moving in the right direction here.
What the market needs from Microsoft — what it has needed for years — is a true flagship Arm device. The one that gets it right, that pairs performance and battery and makes it clear that the era of the ultra-mobile, ultra-functional PC is actually here. That’s what would push developers to make their apps work on those devices, manufacturers to actually invest in Arm devices, and users to rethink the way their laptops fit into their lives.
Whether the hardware, the software, or the chips are ready to make that leap is hard to say. But that’s where things are headed. And if Microsoft wants its second decade of Surface to be even bigger and more important than the first, that’s where it needs to go.
And if that device happened to have two screens or fold in some rad and new way? I wouldn’t complain about that, either.
DC Universe Infinite launches Ultra tier so you can read new comics sooner
DC’s adding a new Ultra tier to its Universe Infinite comic book subscription service that lets you digitally read comics just one month after they hit store shelves (via Gizmodo). The new tier launches on Monday at an introductory price of $99 / year, but this price only lasts until November 28th and DC doesn't specify how much it will cost after that.
Currently, users have to wait six months after a new comic hits DC Universe Infinite. While the new tier could make the service more attractive to diehard comic book fans, it’s considerably more expensive than the $74.99 / year or $7.99 / month standard subscription option.
In addition to a shorter launch window, DC’s throwing in 5,000 exclusive titles from Vertigo, DC Black Label, and Collected Editions, bringing the total of available comics to over 32,000 for Ultra subscribers. Anyone upgrading to the new tier will also get a chance to receive one free physical comic book, starting with The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, which features an exclusive cover designed by Ivan Reis.
Adding the new Ultra tier could help the DC Universe Infinite compete with Marvel Unlimited, which cut its digital release window to three months in 2020. It also introduced a $99 / year Plus plan last year that comes with exclusive merch, discounts on Disney’s online shop, and other perks, in addition to its standard $9.99 / month or $69 / year plans.
Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable hit modern consoles in January
The Persona 4Golden and Persona 3 Portable re-releases are scheduled to launch on January 19th, 2023, Persona developer Atlus announced on Twitter. The two JRPGs will arrive on the Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PS5 (via backward compatibility).
While Atlus didn’t set a release date for the two former titles at the time, it did confirm that Persona 5Royal is arriving on Xbox, Switch, PS5, and Switch on October 21st, marking the first time a Persona game’s coming to a non-PlayStation console.
Both Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden are remastered versions of their original counterparts, launching for the PSP in 2009 and PS Vita in 2012, respectively. Atlus released Persona 5 Royal in 2020, which we called “the definitive version of an already brilliant RPG” in our review. You can’t preorder either game on newer platforms right now, but Persona 5 Royal is currently available for preorder in both physical and digital copies.
You can get the Google Pixel Buds Pro for their lowest price ever at Wellbots
While everyone is distracted by the recent announcement of the Google Pixel 7 lineup and the Pixel Watch, Wellbots has quietly provided The Verge Deals with an exclusive discount on the charcoal, fog, and lemongrass colorways of the Google Pixel Buds Pro. Normally $199.99, you can grab a pair of the delicious-looking earbuds for just $159.99 when you use the code VERGE40 at checkout — the best price yet. The Pixel Buds Pro are a massive improvement over the standard Pixel Buds, thanks to their enhanced reliability, multipoint Bluetooth support, and improved battery life. While the mic quality could be better and it lacks support for lossless audio, the Pixel Buds Pro remain an excellent choice for noise-canceling earbuds at this price point. Read our review.
If you’re looking for a pair of earbuds that look a little less edible, you can also find Sony’s WF-1000XM4 earbuds on sale atAmazonfor $248 orTargetfor $249.99 instead of its usual $279.99. The XM4s are still one of our top-rated pairs of noise-canceling earbuds, thanks to their extensive battery life, detailed sound, and amazing noise cancellation qualities. Unfortunately, the Sony earbuds don’t support multipoint Bluetooth connectivity, which is becoming par for the course among wireless earbuds, nor are they the best option for voice calls. However, if you’re willing to look past some small pain points, the Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds are easily one of the best pairs of earbuds on the market. Read our review.
If you’re looking for some clinical-strength retail therapy, you can also find the follow-up to the excellent LG C1, the 55-inch LG C2, on sale atTargetandBest Buyfor $1,349.99 instead of its usual $1,799.99. Just like its predecessor, the C2 is an all-around excellent OLED TV, thanks to its slick aesthetic and compatibility with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple HomeKit. However, the robust suite of gaming features is really what sets the C2 apart from its peers. In addition to a 120Hz refresh rate, the C2 also supports AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync for an ultra-smooth gaming experience. Just like the C1, the C2 also includes support for Dolby Vision, HDR10, and the webOS streaming platform, which connects you to all of your favorite services without the need for an external device like a Roku or FireTV Stick.
Okay, we know that Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale is right around the corner, but if you just can’t wait, you can currently find some excellent deals on Amazon’s Fire tablets right now. The standard and Plus sized models of Amazon’s latest Fire HD 8 tablet are currently discounted to their lowest price ever at BestBuy and Amazon. The original price of the 32GB configuration of the standard Fire HD 8 tablet was $89.99, but both retailers have dropped the price to just $44.99, while the 32GB Fire HD 8 Plus has been discounted to $54.99 at Amazon and Best Buy (normally $109.99). The ad-free models of both tablets have also been discounted to $69.99.
The black colorway of the Beats Solo3 Wireless headphones is currently discounted to $99.99 at Amazon from the usual price of $199.95 — matching the best price we’ve seen for the tried and tested Apple-centric headphones. The integrated W1 wireless chip allows the Beats Solo 3 to pair seamlessly with Apple devices, but it’s worth noting that the headphones are compatible with Android devices as well. While the Beats Solo 3 lack the premium look and feel of more expensive headphones, they remain an excellent choice for anyone looking for a lightweight and comfortable pair of headphones with reliable performance. Read our review.
If you need to expand the storage of your PC but don’t want to go through the trouble of installing an M.2 SSD, you might want to check out the Seagate Firecuda 2TB external gaming SSD on sale at Amazon for $283.47 instead of its usual $499.99 — its lowest price to date. The Firecuda costs a bit more than a conventional M.2 SSD of the same size but still offers transfer speeds of up to 2000MB/s and can be hooked up easily using an available USB-C port.
The fitness tracker has industry-leading stress tracking, but pour one out for the future of Fitbit smartwatches
When I reviewed the Fitbit Sense two years ago, it was an ambitious smartwatch. Its successor, the Sense 2? Eh, not so much. It’s hyperbole to say the Sense 2 is a complete downgrade, but I don’t think you can truly call it a smartwatch, either. This, my friends, is what I’d call a premium fitness tracker — and if you view it from that lens, it’s a good one. But is it really $300 worth of fitness tracker, especially since the Pixel Watch is only $50 more, has nearly all the same health features, and is much smarter?
Before I get into why the Sense 2 isn’t a smartwatch, we need to set the stage. In 2020, the Sense was plenty smart. It had a novel stress-tracking electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor, FDA-cleared electrocardiogram (EKG) sensors, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) sensors, temperature sensor, contactless payments, and the choice between Alexa and Google Assistant. It was a viable alternative to the Apple Watch Series 6 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 — even if it didn’t have cellular connectivity and its third-party app ecosystem was meh.
A lot can happen in two years. Since then, the Series 8 and Galaxy Watch 5 have caught up to the majority of the Sense 2’s health features while widening the gap in terms of smarts. There’s also now the Apple Watch Ultra and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro to contend with. The Sense 2’s main advantage is weeklong battery life, but that all but disappears if you enable the always-on display. In my testing, enabling the AOD meant three days on a single charge at most.
And then there’s the Pixel Watch. It’s clear that Google, Fitbit’s parent company, sees that as the future of its wearable lineup. The Pixel Watch uses Fitbit’s platform for its health and fitness features; Fitbit CEO James Park even introduced the Pixel Watch at the Made by Google event. And it has all the features you’d expect from a smartwatch, including a voice assistant, emergency calling, and smart home control. If you read between the lines, it all feels like a death knell for the Fitbit as a smartwatch.
Fitbit spokesperson Jonathan Moll told The Verge that the Sense 2 was designed to “prioritize the most important features our users care about and use the most, including heart rate tracking, sleep tracking, and stress management.” It makes sense that Google would take steps to differentiate the Sense 2 from the Pixel Watch. There’s no reason for one company to have two competing smartwatch platforms, and it makes sense for Fitbit to to narrow its focus to fitness. But it feels like Google nerfed the Sense 2 a bit too much.
For example, you can’t use Google Assistant on the Sense 2. This is weird. On the original Sense and the Versa 3, you can pick between Alexa or Google Assistant. Now, your only option is Alexa. Fitbit spokesperson Jonathan Moll told me, “At this time there are no plans to deploy Google Assistant on Sense 2 or Versa 4. We look forward to bringing this feature to future devices.”
Regardless of whether you like digital assistants, their presence on smartwatches is a given these days. Sure, there’s Alexa — but that’s a whole other smart home ecosystem. Why wouldn’t you put Google Assistant on a Google smartwatch? The whole theme of the Made by Google event was that all these devices work together! If not, what’s the point exactly? I’m truly lost at the thought process here.
Previously available third-party apps like Starbucks and Spotify don’t seem to be an option anymore. At least, they weren’t listed as compatible with the Sense 2 when I tried to download them from the Fitbit App Gallery. Fitbit’s third-party ecosystem was already paltry, so this is yet another baffling decision.
The addition of Google Maps and Google Wallet takes some of the sting out. Except, I can’t tell you how well either app works because they’re not available yet. It’s not unheard of for companies to launch features after a product hits shelves. But when you combine this with Google taking away previous third-party apps, it sure is a head-scratcher.
The Sense 2 has a combination Bluetooth / Wi-Fi radio, as did the Sense, but the Wi-Fi is deactivated, per Fitbit’s official spec sheet. Moll told The Verge, “Historically, Wi-Fi was used for updating firmware and music storage. Sense 2 and Versa 4 now use Bluetooth to update firmware, and do not have music storage capabilities.” Add offline music — which the Sense supported for Deezer and Pandora — to the casualty list.
All this is odd. The Sense 2’s redesigned UI certainly makes you feel like it’s meant to be a smartwatch. The refreshed design is spiffier than previous versions of Fitbit OS. It looks exactly the same as Wear OS on the Pixel Watch. For example, swiping left and right will let you view widgets. Pressing the button brings up an app list. Swiping up brings up notifications, and swiping down gets you to the quick menu. It’s a great improvement, performance doesn’t lag, and everything looks much nicer as well.
Despite its UI, the Sense 2 isn’t really a smartwatch by 2022 standards. It’s a fitness tracker masquerading as one.
A refined yet comfy redesign
The Sense 2’s software feels like it’s been deliberately limited — or focused, if you prefer — but the physical hardware has been improved all around. You can tell Fitbit’s put a lot of effort into streamlining the design so that it’s more comfortable for everyday wear.
The Sense 2 is lighter than its predecessor, though you may not notice the change in weight. I didn’t when I compared them one after another. I did, however, notice the Sense 2 is much thinner. The Sense had this tapered, trapezoidal shape on the side where the sensor bump dug into your skin. It was a means of masking the thickness when actually on your wrist. The Sense 2 doesn’t need to do that. And as far as numbers go, the Sense 2 is 11.2mm thick, while the Sense is 12.4mm. The difference in thickness is roughly that of a penny.
It was refreshing to wear such a lightweight device after testing the Apple Watch Ultra. It didn’t catch on any sleeves or jacket cuffs, even when I was wearing several layers while hiking. It was also comfy for sleep tracking and all-day wear. I hardly noticed it while running or working out, which is a nice change of pace from the chonkers I’ve been testing as of late.
The new design also means completely different sensor arrays — both on the bottom of the watch and in the display. Where the Sense had a metal top ring for EKG and EDA readings, the Sense 2 builds that capability directly into the display’s bezels. The result is it looks even more like the Apple Watch. And while I wish those bezels were thinner, I’m glad Fitbit is making use of the “wasted” space.
But the best change is that Fitbit replaced the Sense’s infuriating inductive groove with an actual physical button. That groove was a confounding design choice. Not only was it prone to accidental presses, but the haptics also weren’t strong enough if you were trying to use the long-press shortcut. I often sat there pressing, confused why my shortcut wasn’t launching. I eventually got the hang of it, but peruse any Fitbit forum or subreddit, and you’ll find plenty of frustrated users.
I had none of these issues with the physical button. Plus, it’s so much more satisfying to press something and know it’s registered. The button, while raised, doesn’t protrude too far. I haven’t experienced any accidental presses so far — even while wearing multiple layers and a winter coat.
A thoughtful tool for stress management
Fitbit clearly put a lot of effort into stress tracking. With the Sense 2, Fitbit’s made some meaningful improvements to the lineup’s most unique feature.
Quick refresher: The Sense watches measure stress via an EDA sensor. EDA sensors detect minuscule changes in your skin’s sweat levels. That, along with other metrics like heart rate variation, can be used as an indicator of stress. Or, as Fitbit dubs it, “body responses.” Previously, the EDA features worked more like spot-checks that users had to initiate. The Sense 2 upgrades the original’s EDA sensor to a cEDA sensor. The “c” stands for continuous, meaning you can now get automatic alerts in real time.
Basically, if the Sense 2 detects a body response, you’ll get a nudge to log your mood. You’ll also see prompts to take a few stress-relieving actions like a guided meditation, a two-minute EDA scan, or going on a short walk.
It works! Mostly. In my experience, the alerts lagged a bit and often came at inopportune times. For example, I had a bit of a car rental snafu when I visited Iceland last week. It was 4:30AM ET at Keflavik International Airport, I hadn’t slept on the flight, my phone was malfunctioning, and the car rental agency was so new none of its information was on Google yet. It worked out, but I was one misfortune away from hyperventilating into a paper bag. You’d think the Sense 2 would’ve been buzzing incessantly on my wrist. Instead, it only notified me about 30 minutes after everything was sorted. When prompted to log my mood, I hit the “Frustrated” emoticon.
By that time, I wasn’t able to do a guided meditation session, go on a walk, or sit still enough for a two-minute EDA reading to alleviate my stress. I was in a car, giving my husband directions to our next destination. Another time, I got a body response alert while trekking up Seljalandsfoss waterfall in the freezing rain and wind. I logged my mood as “excited,” but I wasn’t interested in anything but being present in the moment. It became a recurring theme. Whenever I had powerful body responses, I was too preoccupied to do more than note how I was feeling. And that’s if I even noticed the alerts, to begin with.
The execution might be a little clunky, but Fitbit’s stress management feature is still the best I’ve ever tested. I didn’t always respond to alerts as intended, but overall, it is good to take a step back and acknowledge how you feel in a high-stress moment. I appreciated that Fitbit acknowledges that bodily stress can be positive or negative and that it may not always align with your mood.
The stress data is also presented thoughtfully. For instance, you get both a Stress Management score and a weekly summary. The former looks at your body responses, exertion level, and sleep patterns to give you an idea of how your cumulative stress may impact you on a given day. The weekly summary visualizes how many body responses you got each day in the previous week, as well as your most common moods.
Stress management can be challenging, especially if you’re someone who tends to ignore bodily signals until burnout kicks in. (It me.) The mix of quantified data and logging is a helpful visualization tool, and I appreciated it wasn’t linked to athletic performance.
Sleep tracking
Fitbit’s always had some of the best overall sleep tracking features. It’s recently added profiles, which categorize you as a type of animal based on your sleep patterns and give you sleep hygiene insights based on those patterns. (It’s similar to what Samsung does with its Galaxy Watches.) You get a new profile on the 1st of every month. I’d love to tell you how it works, but there’s a catch. You’ve got to wear it for 14 nights out of the month in order to get a sleep profile for the next month, and it only offers profiles on the first of the calendar month. In September, thanks to my review queue, I only got 12, which meant I didn’t get a profile for October and won’t get one until November 1st, six weeks after I started using the Sense 2.
I recognize that I’m an edge case. This reviewer life has me constantly rotating between devices, and I’ve only got two wrists. Customers sticking to one Fitbit will have less of an issue, but there’s no good reason to tie sleep profiles to the first of the calendar month rather than updating them on a rolling basis.
The price is not right
I’ll be blunt. If you want a durable tracker that can withstand extreme elements or one with hyper-accurate GPS data, this ain’t it. The Sense 2 has built-in GPS, but if you really care about accurate route maps, you’re better off with a Garmin or another fitness watchwith multiband GPS. Case in point, you only have to look at these screenshots of a recent hike to see that Fitbit’s GPS isn’t the greatest. The same goes if you’re looking for in-depth training plans and more raw data.
Then again, Fitbit’s always been a platform for general users. Its greatest strength is that it has always presented raw data in a digestible format. That’s what makes the Sense 2 — and other Fitbit devices — great for building healthier habits in a gentle, holistic way. It’s got great recovery tools in its Sleep Score, Daily Readiness Score, and, now, stress management features, as well as simple but convenient tools for logging calories, weight, and water intake. Its Active Zone Minutes metric is excellent for helping beginners visualize whether they’re getting an adequate amount of exercise per week.
So the Sense 2 is a good overall health tracker but a not-so-great smartwatch. Compared to dirt-cheap fitness bands, you’re getting a prettier design and a unique take on stress tracking. I’m just not sure why anyone would pay $299.95 for a fancier fitness tracker with fewer overall features when you can get an entry-level smartwatch for less. I can understand wanting a fitness tracker and not a smartwatch, but in that instance, there are also more affordable options.
Fitbit’s other trackers muddy the water even more. The $229.95 Versa 4 has the vast majority of the Sense 2’s features, and even the $179.95 Charge 5 has an EKG sensor. If you just want a basic tracker, the Inspire 3 is out here for $99.95. Unless you find the Sense 2 on sale for under $200 or really want stress tracking, this isn’t a good deal.
Somebody at Fitbit (or Google) didn’t do the math right. It would’ve been a smarter move to retire the Versa line and let the Sense 2 take the place of the Versa 4, especially if you were going to nerf the smarter features on both devices. But that’s not what happened, and even if it had, it’d just be delaying the inevitable. The Sense 2 is a casualty of Google’s ambitions for the Pixel Watch. And it’s possible that we’re only a Pixel Band away from all Fitbit trackers sharing a similar fate.
Tech firms say laws to protect us from bad AI will limit ‘innovation’. Well, good | John Naughton
For too long, the industry has escaped legal liability in the pursuit of its own interests – and the EU has had enough
Way back in May 2014, the European court of justice issued a landmark ruling that European citizens had the right to petition search engines to remove search results that linked to material that had been posted lawfully on third-party websites. This was popularly but misleadingly described as the “right to be forgotten”; it was really a right to have certain published material about the complainant delisted by search engines, of which Google was by far the most dominant. Or, to put it crudely, a right not to be found by Google.
On the morning the ruling was released, I had a phone call from a relatively senior Google employee whom I happened to know. It was clear from his call that the company had been ambushed by the ruling – its expensive legal team had plainly not expected it. But it was also clear that his US bosses were incensed by the effrontery of a mere European institution in issuing such a verdict. And when I mildly indicated that I regarded it as a reasonable judgment, I was treated to an energetic tirade, the gist of which was that the trouble with Europeans is that they’re “hostile to innovation”. At which point the conversation ended and I never heard from him again.
Rivian recalls 13,000 EVs over loose fastener that could affect steering
Rivian’s recalling about 13,000 electric vehicles (EVs) over a loose fastener that could affect drivers’ ability to control the car (via CNBC). The recall affects nearly every vehicle Rivian has produced this year, and spans the carmaker’s entire lineup, covering certain 2022 R1T pickup trucks, R1S SUVs, as well as the electric delivery vans (EDVs) it's building for Amazon. Rivian produced a total of 14,317 vehicles in the first three quarters of 2022 and delivered over 12,000.
According to a notice filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the fastener connecting the front upper control arm and steering knuckle may not have been “sufficiently torqued.” This could potentially result in separation, “causing a loss of vehicle control and increasing the risk of a crash.” The safety report says drivers with affected vehicles may notice excessive noise, vibration, harshness from the front suspension, and a change in steering performance or feel.
“It’s important not to minimize the potential risks involved and why we are volunteering to conduct this recall,” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe wrote in an email to customers viewed by CNBC. “In rare circumstances, the nut could loosen fully. I want to reiterate that this is extremely rare, but it does reinforce why we are acting with such urgency and caution.”
Rivian issued the recall after investigating seven reports related to the defect, none of which involved any injuries. The EV maker says it will properly secure the steering knuckle fasteners in the vehicles affected by the recall at no added cost. This is Rivian’s second recall this year, with the company recalling about 500 R1T electric pickups in May due to a faulty airbag system that may fail to deactivate when detecting a child in the front passenger seat.
Maybe it is the name that is the problem. Climate change. It doesn’t sound that bad. The word “change” resonates quite pleasantly in our restless world. No matter how fortunate we are, there is always room for the appealing possibility of improvement. Then there is the “climate” part. Again, it does not sound so bad. If you live in many of the high-emitting nations of the global north, the idea of a “changing climate” could well be interpreted as the very opposite of scary and dangerous. A changing world. A warming planet. What’s not to like?
Perhaps that is partly why so many people still think of climate change as a slow, linear and even rather harmless process. But the climate is not just changing. It is destabilising. It is breaking down. The delicately balanced natural patterns and cycles that are a vital part of the systems that sustain life on Earth are being disrupted, and the consequences could be catastrophic. Because there are negative tipping points, points of no return. And we do not know exactly when we might cross them. What we do know, however, is that they are getting awfully close, even the really big ones. Transformation often starts slowly, but then it begins to accelerate.
Blizzard will be taking the Overwatch 2 servers offline once again to fix more of the issues that have cropped up during the game’s rocky launch. The company plans to shut the game down at about 9PM ET (6PM PT), and expects the downtime to last for an hour. This downtime will be the third in two days, as Blizzard had to take the game offline twice on Thursday.
Blizzard detailed the fixes in the works and some updates on a few of the bigger issues in a post on its forums. In Friday evening’s downtime, Blizzard plans to fix Watchpoint Packs not appearing as available for players who preordered them, and to address the LC-208 error that is preventing some players from logging in.
In Friday’s post, Blizzard confirmed that the change to its SMS Protect phone number requirements is now officially in effect. Originally, Overwatch 2 players were required to have a postpaid phone number registered to their accounts to be able to play. However, in response to players’ outcry, Blizzard said it would be softening the policy so that people who had played the first Overwatch with a connected Battle.net account no longer needed to register a phone number to play the sequel.
The company is also looking into the long wait times players might be experiencing before matches. To address them, “we are changing configurations within this system today and hope to somewhat shorten that wait throughout the day,” Blizzard said in the post.
Blizzard is optimistic about the fixes it implemented on Thursday. The changes “resulted in a quadrupling of our capacity and an eventual reduction in login queues overnight,” according to the forum post. Blizzard will continue monitoring things over the coming days, as “weekend gamer hours will be its biggest test yet.” Hopefully, things might be starting to smooth over for Overwatch 2.
Elizabeth Holmes sentencing date delayed amid request for new trial
Theranos founder, convicted of fraud and facing 20 years in prison, requested new trial because of key prosecution witness concerns
A judge has agreed to move the sentencing date for Elizabeth Holmes to evaluate the Theranos founder’s request for a new trial.
Holmes, who was convicted on four of 11 counts of fraud for her role in the blood-testing company, was to be sentenced on 17 October. She requested a new trial in September after a key witness for the prosecution said he regretted the role he played in her conviction.
Acer’s Swift Edge could be the 16-inch OLED laptop we’ve all been waiting for
The race to market a truly portable, affordable, and long-lasting OLED laptop is on. Asus is currently the major player. Not only has it made several attempts this year, but it’s come the closest so far with its AMD-powered Zenbook S 13.
But Acer, today, is throwing its hat in the ring. The new Swift Edge is a 16-inch, 3840 x 2400 OLED device that weighs just 2.58 pounds — which would make it the lightest 16-inch laptop in the current market (though LG’s Gram 16 is very close).
And here’s the really good news: it’s got AMD Ryzen inside. Specifically, the model being sold in North America includes the Ryzen 7 6800U, the same eight-core processor that powers the Zenbook S 13.
It’s always exciting to see OLEDs becoming more accessible and more portable. But among a number of promising OLED notebooks that have been released this year, including Dell’s XPS 13 Plus and Asus’ Vivobook S, battery life has proven to be a challenge. The former model only lasted me five hours to a charge, while the latter tended to die around four and a half.
One thing those models have in common, in addition to the OLED screen: Intel processors. Across the board, Intel’s 12th Gen chips have suffered on the efficiency front this year — and that’s all the more apparent in high-resolution OLED laptops, which are notorious battery guzzlers.
But there is a machine out there that’s bucked that trend and one that still gives me hope for this form factor: the aforementioned Zenbook S 13. That OLED, 2880 x 1800 13-incher is also powered by AMD’s Ryzen 7 6800U. Not only did this laptop display some of the best performance we’ve ever seen from integrated graphics, but it also lasted almost eight hours to a charge under my workload.
This Zenbook is, of course, a sample size of one, but it’s not at all a surprising result; AMD laptops have produced better battery life across categories this year. I have more faith in an AMD-powered OLED laptop than I do in an Intel-powered one at this point in the cycle, so I’m all for this Swift Edge — and a groundbreaking OLED 16-incher that’s truly portable, powerful, and efficient would be a great thing to have on the market.
Meta’s flagship metaverse app is too buggy and employees are barely using it, says exec in charge
Meta’s VR social network Horizon Worlds — the company’s flagship “metaverse” app — is suffering from too many quality issues and even the team building it isn’t using it very much, according to internal memos obtained by The Verge.
In one of the memos to employees dated September 15th, Meta’s VP of Metaverse, Vishal Shah, said the team would remain in a “quality lockdown” for the rest of the year to “ensure that we fix our quality gaps and performance issues before we open up Horizon to more users.”
“Since launching late last year, we have seen that the core thesis of Horizon Worlds — a synchronous social network where creators can build engaging worlds — is strong,” Shah wrote in a memo last month. “But currently feedback from our creators, users, playtesters, and many of us on the team is that the aggregate weight of papercuts, stability issues, and bugs is making it too hard for our community to experience the magic of Horizon. Simply put, for an experience to become delightful and retentive, it must first be usable and well crafted.”
Though Meta has teased its work on more lifelike avatars, the current quality of Horizon’s graphics pales in comparison to some of its non-VR competitors like Fortnite. Zuckerberg himself was recently memeified after he posted a screenshot of his Horizon avatar to celebrate the launch of Horizon for Quest users in France and Spain. He quickly posted a follow-up image of a more advanced avatar, saying he would share “major updates to Horizon and avatar graphics” at the company’s annual Connect conference which is scheduled for October 11th.
A key issue with Horizon’s development to date, according to Shah’s internal memos, is that the people building it inside Meta appear to not be using it that much. “For many of us, we don’t spend that much time in Horizon and our dogfooding dashboards show this pretty clearly,” he wrote to employees on September 15th. “Why is that? Why don’t we love the product we’ve built so much that we use it all the time? The simple truth is, if we don’t love it, how can we expect our users to love it?”
In a follow-up memo dated September 30th, Shah said that employees still weren’t using Horizon enough, writing that a plan was being made to “hold managers accountable” for having their teams use Horizon at least once a week. “Everyone in this organization should make it their mission to fall in love with Horizon Worlds. You can’t do that without using it. Get in there. Organize times to do it with your colleagues or friends, in both internal builds but also the public build so you can interact with our community.”
He went on to call out specific issues with Horizon, writing that “our onboarding experience is confusing and frustrating for users” and that the team needed to “introduce new users to top-notch worlds that will ensure their first visit is a success.”
Shah said the teams working on Horizon needed to collaborate better together and expect more changes to come. “Today, we are not operating with enough flexibility,” his memo reads. “I want to be clear on this point. We are working on a product that has not found product market fit. If you are on Horizon, I need you to fully embrace ambiguity and change.”
He said that employees working on Horizon will their targets for growing users in VR lowered and that the coming 2D version of Horizon for web wouldn’t likely have a user target but instead a “high quality bar.”
In a statement shared with The Verge, Meta spokesperson Ashley Zandy said the company is “confident that the metaverse is the future of computing and that it should be built around people.” She said the company is “always making quality improvements and acting on the feedback from our community of creators. This is a multiyear journey, and we’re going to keep making what we build better.”
Tesla promises that the Semi can accelerate from 0 to 60mph in 20 seconds even when “fully loaded” and keep up “highway-level speeds even up steep grades.” It also promises that you’ll be able to recharge up to 70 percent of its 300 or 500-mile range in 30 minutes. And according to Musk, it’s “super fun to drive.”
There’s also Tesla’s full self driving technology, which Musk promised was just around the corner for years; currently, the feature is in beta (though in some ways that’s a generous term). When it was announced, Tesla said the Semi would feature at least semi-autonomous driving, though there’s currently no information about it on the truck’s webpage.
How the Pixel, Apple, and Galaxy watches compare on paper
Google has announced the Pixel Watch, its first flagship wearable. While it has a clean circular design, the company is just now getting into a field that competitors like Apple and Samsung have been succeeding in for years. While detailed impressions of the Pixel Watch’s real-world performance and battery life will have to wait for a full review, let’s take a look at how it compares on paper.
The Pixel Watch’s design vs. the Apple Watch
Aesthetics are obviously subjective, but there are some design aspects that we can compare and contrast objectively. One of the most notable is shape and controls; like the Galaxy Watch 5 series, the Pixel Watch has a circular design, whereas the Apple Watch’s case is a rounded rectangle. Like Apple’s wearable, though, Google’s adorned its watch with a rotating crown, a button, and a touchscreen for controls, while Samsung uses a two-button plus touch-sensitive bezel and touchscreen interface.
Size is also relatively important when it comes to wearables; big watches can dominate thinner wrists, while small watches can look a bit like toys on larger arms. The Pixel Watch comes in one size, 41mm, which is roughly similar to the smaller sizes of the Apple Watch Series 8, SE, and Galaxy Watch 5. Both Apple and Samsung offer bigger models for a slight price bump, an option Google currently isn’t giving us.
In terms of materials, the Pixel Watch is made out of stainless steel and is available in gold, matte black, and silver. The Apple Watch Series 8 is available in both aluminum and stainless steel (with the latter at a hefty markup), and the SE is only available in aluminum. Samsung builds its standard Watch 5 out of aluminum as well but steps up to titanium for the sports-focused Watch 5 Pro.
How good is the Pixel Watch’s fitness tracking?
Speaking of sports, one of the main selling points of the Pixel Watch (and most smartwatches) is its usefulness as a fitness tracker. Compared to the Apple Watch Series 8 and Galaxy Watch 5, the Pixel Watch has a similar bevy of sensors; it has an optical sensor for tracking heart rate, can take ECGs, and can read your blood oxygen level. All the watches offer sleep tracking as well. Samsung’s sensor, however, does have some additional capabilities, like the ability to estimate metrics like body fat, mass, and water, and Apple added temperature-based retrospective ovulation estimates to the Series 8.
It’s worth noting that the Pixel Watch locks some fitness features away behind a $9.99 a month Fitbit Premium subscription while including six months of the service with the watch. After that time period, you’ll have to pay if you want to keep getting a readiness score, sleep score breakdown, or wellness reports. The subscription also offers access to guided workouts and mindfulness exercises, similar to Apple’s $9.99 a month Fitness Plus service — though it’s worth noting that Apple doesn’t gate any data or analytics behind its subscription (not that its watch understands the concept of readiness or rest days). Samsung doesn’t charge extra to give you a sleep score or sleep coaching.
Like the Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch, the Pixel Watch does offer some level of automatic workout tracking for activities like walking and running. It also comes with three free months of YouTube Music.
What sorts of features does the Pixel Watch have versus Apple and Samsung?
The Pixel Watch and Galaxy Watch both run the same operating system, WearOS 3, so they should broadly support the same apps and features. All the watches we’re comparing today offer hard fall detection and an emergency SOS feature, though it’s worth noting that Google’s fall detection isn’t coming until later this year. You can also buy a cellular version of each watch as well; here are the carriers Google’s supporting with its wearable.
Unlike the Apple Watch SE, the Pixel Watch features an always-on display, just like the higher-end Apple Watch and Samsung’s models.
Google isn’t currently offering a rugged, sports-focused watch like the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro or Apple Watch Ultra (which we didn’t include in this roundup due to its much higher price point). The Watch 5 Pro includes features like a sapphire crystal covering the display — the Pixel has a “Custom 3D Corning Gorilla Glass” — and GPS backtracking, which is also available on the Apple Watches.
What phones can I use the Pixel Watch with?
Google pitches the Pixel Watch as a companion to its phones, but its site says the wearable is compatible with any phone running Android 8.0 or newer, the same as the Galaxy Watch 5 (the two watches use the same OS, after all). Unfortunately, that means it’s not compatible with iPhones — and the Apple Watch won’t work with Android phones.