Technology

mardi 6 décembre 2022

Tim Cook and President Biden came to Arizona to announce plans for American-made chips

Tim Cook joined other tech leaders in touting the advantages of buying chips made in the US.

Apple plans to start using processors made in America following the opening of an advanced new chip factory in Phoenix, Arizona.

For the plant’s customers, which also includes AMD and NVIDIA, the new facility means a more secure supply of chips and quicker production timelines. The chip fabricator, TSMC, also said today that it would start construction on a second factory in Phoenix next year, increasing the site’s annual output.

“These chips will power iPhones and MacBooks, as Tim Cook can attest,” President Joe Biden said at an event outside the Arizona factory on Tuesday. “Apple had to buy all the advanced chips from overseas. Now we’re going to do more of their supply chain here at home.”

Biden and Apple CEO Tim Cook were on hand in north Phoenix for TSMC’s “tool-in” ceremony, marking the arrival of production equipment to the first facility.

The factory is a large, modern building surrounded by newly paved roads and cacti that survived the desert bulldozing. In its first public event, TSMC welcomed customers, employees, local leaders, and journalists to see its new factory, or at least the outside of it.

TSMC is a dedicated foundry, meaning it builds the chips designed by other companies. Apple, AMD and NVIDIA are among its largest customers, and even Intel relies on TSMC to make the most advanced processors.

The first Phoenix fab will make 4nm processors (improved from the originally disclosed 5nm), with production slated to begin in 2024. The second fab will come online in 2026 and produce 3nm chips, which are the smallest and most complex processors in production today.

All told, TSMC said it will invest $40 billion in its Arizona capacity, which is among the largest foreign direct investments ever made in US manufacturing. The two fabs will produce more than 600,000 wafers annually by 2026, which White House officials said will be enough to meet the entire US demand for advanced chips.

Top leadership from Apple, AMD, and NVIDIA confirmed on Tuesday that they would be among the first customers to buy chips from the new Arizona fabs.

“TSMC has become a global platform on which the world’s tech industry is built,” NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said. “Bringing TSMC investment to the United States is a masterstroke and a game changing development for the industry.”

TSMC’s first factory in Phoenix, Arizona.

The afternoon featured a slew of speakers hammering the gravity of TSMC coming to Arizona. Red-shirted TSMC employees dotted a crowd of about 200 people, and the speeches were so numerous there was even an intermission featuring a champagne toast to break things up.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, and other members of Arizona’s Congressional delegation were also on hand for the ceremony. They were joined by business leaders including Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, Microchip CEO Ganesh Moorthy, and TSMC founder Morris Chang.

TSMC customers did not disclose how many chips they plan to purchase from these fabs, but at 3nm and 4nm, the Arizona chips will be more advanced than what they currently use. Apple’s A16 chips used in iPhones 14 Pro and Pro Max and its M2 chips for MacBooks are both created with 5nm process technology.

Still, by the time these Arizona fabs are both up and running, TSMC will already be producing more advanced chips at overseas facilities. The company plans to produce 2nm chips by 2025, according to Nikkei Asia.

“The progress we’ve made with Apple Silicon has transformed our devices,” Cook said on Tuesday. “When you stop and think about it, it’s extraordinary what chip technology can achieve. And now, thanks to the hard work of so many people, these chips can be proudly stamped ‘Made in America.’”

The US is in the midst of a semiconductor manufacturing revival, inspired in part by snarled supply chains of the covid pandemic. The vast majority of the world’s semiconductors are produced in Asia with the US producing about 10 percent of the world’s semiconductors.

Apple has spent the past several years working to expand its supply chain beyond China to prevent possible disruptions in the future. It’s now producing some iPhones in India, and it’s looking to expand MacBook and Apple Watch production into Vietnam. The TSMC factories won’t mean full-scale iPhone production in the US, but they will provide critical components used in Apple products.

The semiconductor shortage cost Apple some $6 billion in lost sales, and the company has recently said it plans to buy more chips from Europe and US fabs to counter supply issues.

Recently, American politicians have pushed to reshore manufacturing to avoid reliance on other nations.

This reshoring vigor culminated in the CHIPS and Science Act, a legislative package that contains $52 billion for domestic chip production. Biden signed the bill into law in August, but the funding has yet to be disbursed.

The Commerce Department will allocate the money through its “Chips for America” program, starting next year. Foreign companies will be eligible for these incentives so long as they are building US production capacity, and TSMC has already publicly stated that it will apply for CHIPS funding.

Biden came to Phoenix to tout US manufacturing and the CHIPS and Science Act.

Even without CHIPS funding, there are several major semiconductor projects underway.

Intel, America’s biggest chipmaker, has its largest manufacturing site in Chandler, a major suburb of Phoenix. The company is making progress on a $20 billion expansion at its Chandler campus, which will be fully operational in 2024.

Intel is also planning to build “the largest silicon manufacturing location on the planet” in Ohio, starting with a $20 billion investment. Intel has yet to disclose exactly what it will build in Ohio, but production is expected to begin in 2025.

Micron, which makes memory and storage chips, said in October that it will spend up to $100 billion to build a “megafab” in New York. In Texas, Samsung is investing $17 billion to expand its facilities in Austin in hopes of rivaling TSMC.

Chang, TSMC’s founder, said during his remarks that he had long dreamed of building in America and that TSMC’s current chairman, Mark Liu, is finally bringing that dream to life.

“My dream of 25 years ago will now be fulfilled by Mark.”

Photography by Andy Blye.

Chrome ‘@’ shortcuts search tabs, bookmarks, and history right from the address bar

Google’s illustration visualizes the new shortcuts feature with a google search typing field that only as an “@” symbol along with three magnifying classes that have a favorites star, history clock, and chrome icon in them with lines going to the @ symbol in the field. Background is baby blue. — Image: Google

Chrome tab jockeys and bookmark hoarders, rejoice: you can now quickly swift through your whole browser mess with a new simple “@” shortcut in the address bar. Available on the latest Chrome version 108 for desktops, the feature will help simplify tasks like getting to that article tab you know you left open somewhere without needing to conduct another web search.

If you’re like me, you might have a whole lot of troubleshooting articles saved as bookmarks, but when someone needs help with some specific problem, you just Google it again instead of looking for what you’ve saved. Now, you can type “@bookmarks” or just “@,” then hit the space bar and click “Search Bookmarks,” and start typing some key terms.

*Typing an “@” in the address bar prompts you to select Bookmarks, History, or Tabs to search through.*

The same can be done for tabs and history. You know one of the 78 tabs open across 12 Chrome windows has that gratuitous recipe story you’ve kept open for the game day party. To find it, again, just type “@” and hit the space bar, then click “Search Tabs” or “Search History,” start typing “buffalo wings,” and you should find it in a snap.

Google has been displaying a penchant for @ symbols throughout its services. In October, it started rolling out new Twitter-style “@” handles for YouTube users. The company also started pushing powerful new developer features in its Workspace / Google Docs products that can call for outside files and third-party applications using “@” tags.

The new feature started its public life in September on the beta version of ChromeOS 106 before graduating to become a full-on feature enabled for everyone. Google’s blog post also points out an existing Chrome feature you can use that lets you make your own custom site search shortcuts:

Do you have favorite sites that you search through often, like YouTube or Google Drive? You can also activate your own custom site search shortcuts to search through them directly from the Chrome address bar on your desktop. Go to “Manage search engines and site search” (chrome://settings/searchEngines) in Chrome settings on desktop and activate them. You can get there quickly using Chrome Actions, by typing in “customize site search,” too.

Alexa’s shopping list feature is now a little easier to use on your phone

A screenshot showing the Alexa widget on an iPhone — *A new Alexa Shopping List widget could make those trips to the grocery store run more smoothly.* | Screenshot by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Adding an item to your shopping list with just your voice is a modern convenience you quickly get used to. But the pain of wrangling the app you added it to on your smartphone while wheeling a shopping cart through a crowded store can have you yearning for simpler days — and paper.

A new homescreen widget for Amazon’s Alexa’s shopping list feature makes it easier to keep an eye on your items while making a beeline for the produce aisle. The widget is available on iPhone and Android and shows your list right on your homescreen. Now the convenience of adding items to your shopping list using Alexa smart speakers doesn’t have to end when you leave the house.

To install the widget, you need to have the latest Alexa app on your phone, then add it to your homescreen just like any other app widget.

*The Alexa Shopping List widget on a Samsung Galaxy Fold.*

On iOS, you get two size options: one that displays two items and one up to seven; each also has a numeric indicator telling you how many items in total are on your list. You can also add the shopping list as a lock screen widget, so it’s accessible by swiping left from the lock screen. Sadly, you can’t cross off items or add them directly on the widget. As soon as you tap the widget, it takes you to the Shopping List in the Alexa app.

This is still better than dealing with the Alexa app directly, where you have to open the app, tap the More button, go to Lists & Notes, then Shopping to get back to your list (unless you get lucky and it shows up on your Alexa app home page as a shortcut).

Using the widget on an Android phone, you get more interaction, including being able to check items off and manually refresh the widget. Plus, the widget is resizable, and you can scroll to see the rest of your list. But tapping the button to add an item does open the app, albeit directly to a text field to start typing in an item.

While this is still not the perfect digital shopping list experience, it’s a nice upgrade over trudging through the Alexa app. I may ditch my AnyList integration and just use Alexa directly now. It might also finally justify all those hours I’ve spent training members of my household to use their voices to add items to the shopping.

lundi 5 décembre 2022

The NLRB says Apple interrogated and coerced employees in Atlanta

The company could be facing another labor board complaint. | Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Apple illegally interrogated and made coercive statements to employees during a union drive at one of its retail stores in Atlanta, Georgia, according to a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board reported on by Bloomberg. The company was being investigated as the result of charges filed by the Communications Workers of America, which has previously claimed that the company’s actions “made a free and fair election impossible” at the location.

The NLRB’s regional director “found merit” to the allegations as well as ones that Apple held captive-audience meetings, according to Kayla Blado, a spokesperson for the regulator. Apple will either have to settle the case or face the NLRB filing a complaint against it. The regulator can’t levy financial penalties, but either path could result in Apple being forced to put up signage at the location and issue other communications that inform workers of their legal rights.

The Atlanta store was the first US location to file for a union election in April 2022. 70 percent of the workers there signed union authorization cards. Less than a week before the vote was scheduled to take place, however, the CWA announced it was withdrawing its request to hold an election. The union claimed it made the move because Apple’s intimidation made it impossible to have a fair contest and because of concerns surrounding covid.

Apple has been accused of violating labor laws several times. In October, the NLRB filed a complaint against the company, saying that it had discriminated against workers trying to organize and interrogated employees in New York City. That case also stemmed from charges filed by the CWA. Organizers have also alleged that the company was withholding new benefits from unionized workers.

Outside of Atlanta, there’s been movement on unionization at other Apple retail locations. Workers in Maryland and Oklahoma have voted to organize with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the CWA, respectively, while other campaigns have sprung up and withered. In other locations, efforts are still ongoing.

Many EA games are borked on Steam Deck, but fixes are on the way

Various games on a Steam Deck screen — Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was one of the Steam Deck’s showcase titles when it first went on sale — now, it’s one of likely dozens of popular EA games that don’t launch properly anymore. Nearly four weeks ago, Valve retroactively revoked the Steam Deck Verified status of most popular Electronic Arts games on Steam, including every modern Battlefield, Need for Speed, Mass Effect, FIFA, and Madden title.

The good news: both Valve and EA tell The Verge that fixes are on the way. There’s also an easy workaround if you’re comfortable navigating the desktop Linux interface and / or willing to risk your savegames.

Here’s a partial list of titles that are no longer Steam Deck Verified, according to SteamDB data:

A Way Out
Battlefield V
Battlefield 4
Battlefield 1
Dead Space 3
FIFA 22
FIFA 21
It Takes Two
Madden NFL 23
Madden NFL 22
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
Mass Effect Andromeda
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst
Need for Speed Heat
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered
Need for Speed Most Wanted
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2
Star Wars Battlefront 2
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
The Sims 4
Titanfall 2

That list is just the start: this’ll likely affect most games that use the EA App, a launcher that Electronic Arts created to replace its previous Origin client. Valve confirms that the issues stem from the EA App, and as Gaming on Linux’s Liam Dawe discusses in the video below, it can interfere with the way Windows games launch on the Linux-based Steam Deck. You’ll likely see a Steam logo circling the drain instead of the game you hoped to play.

Windows games run on the Deck because of Valve’s Proton compatibility layer — which fakes a portion of the Windows filesystem so that games know how to load all their prerequisite parts. And because Proton developers have already shipped EA App fixes to the “Proton Experimental” version, turning on Proton Experimental in your game’s Compatibility tab might be enough to get it to temporarily work.

But as Dawe and I both discovered, it’s not a permanent fix because new updates to the game can break the Proton files and send your game launch spinning down the drain once more.

Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais tells The Verge that Proton devs are working to fix that, too, but it sounds like they may have to tackle some issues on a game-by-game basis.

EA is looking into it as well: “While we don’t officially support the Steam Deck, we understand the player frustration and we’re always looking for ways to improve their experience everywhere our games appear. We are working closely with our partners at Valve to resolve these issues as quickly as possible and hope our players can get back to enjoying their favorite EA games shortly,” reads a statement from EA spokesperson Charlie Fortescue to The Verge.

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order running on a Steam Deck, purple lightsaber in a poncho-clad jedi’s hand — *You can absolutely still get* Jedi: Fallen Order *working on the Deck.*

In the meanwhile, you can still get these games to load with one simple trick — if you’re comfortable potentially deleting your save files. To protect your savegames, hold the Steam Deck power button and switch to desktop mode, then follow the instructions in Dawe’s video to locate your saves and make a copy elsewhere.

Then, you can pick a game, hit the gear icon, and select Developer > Delete Proton Files. That should recreate everything the game needs to run, including the EA App, and the game should launch afterward.

Developer > Delete Proton Files is visible in a Steam Deck screenshot. — *Don’t delete your Proton files unless you’re certain your savegames are safe.*

In my experience, Jedi: Fallen Order was able to redownload its savegames from the Steam cloud after deleting Proton files, but I lost hours of progress with Mirror’s Edge Catalyst.

Musk’s Neuralink faces federal inquiry after killing 1,500 animals in testing

Brain-implant company accused of causing needless suffering and deaths amid pressure from CEO

Elon Musk’s Neuralink, a medical device company, is under federal investigation for potential animal-welfare violations amid internal staff complaints that its animal testing is being rushed, causing needless suffering and deaths, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and sources familiar with the investigation and company operations.

Neuralink Corp is developing a brain implant it hopes will help paralyzed people walk again and cure other neurological ailments. The federal investigation, which has not been previously reported, was opened in recent months by the US Department of Agriculture’s inspector general at the request of a federal prosecutor, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation. The inquiry, one of the sources said, focuses on violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which governs how researchers treat and test some animals.

Twitter Keeps Missing Its Advertising Targets as Woes Mount

Twitter Keeps Missing Its Advertising Targets as Woes Mount Under Elon Musk, the company has cut its financial expectations as some advertisers request discounts and are offered incentives.

Around 300 QA workers at Microsoft-owned ZeniMax are organizing a union

As labor movements in the video game industry build up momentum, over 300 quality assurance workers at ZeniMax Online Studios, former Bethesda parent company and current subsidiary of Microsoft, are in the process of organizing a union. The workers are organizing in collaboration with CODE-CWA, which has assisted in the formation of Activision Blizzard’s two unions.

In a statement on Twitter, ZeniMax Workers United posted: “Today we, a majority of QA workers at ZeniMax, are proud to announce the launch of our union with [CODE-CWA]. We are the first group of workers at Microsoft to formally unionize. We are empowered to advocate for ourselves & build a future where we can thrive alongside the company.”

The move comes just days after QA workers at Blizzard’s Albany studio voted unanimously for their union after weather delays and alleged union-busting attempts by parent company Activision Blizzard. However it seems that ZeniMax’s path to unionization might not be hindered by Microsoft, which bought ZeniMax and its several subsidiaries back in 2021.

After Microsoft announced its plans to purchase Activision Blizzard earlier this year, it shared principles that would guide its response to the organizing activities of its employees. The principles included the same “direct dialogue” lines used by companies before while also stating that it does not believe there’s any benefit to “resisting” employees’ unionizing efforts.

It seems to signal Microsoft is adopting a “hands off” approach while also acknowledging the attempts its potential future subsidiary, Activision Blizzard, has made to hinder the organization process there. In fact, in an email to The Verge announcing the union, the CWA said that Microsoft would voluntarily recognize the union should the majority vote pass.

If the vote passes, ZeniMax Workers United would become the largest video game union in the United States and Microsoft’s first. The Verge has reached out to Microsoft for comment.

Facebook threatens to ban news in the US over journalism bill

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Facebook warns it could ban news in the US if Congress passes a bill that would require the platform to negotiate with and compensate publishers for their content. Andy Stone, Meta’s head of policy communications, said on Twitter that Facebook will “be forced to consider removing news” from Facebook if the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) is passed. Facebook previously threatened to block news in Canada and Australia when similar laws were proposed.

Introduced last year with bipartisan support, the JCPA would allow publishers to negotiate with platforms like Facebook and Google over the distribution of their content. It’s supposed to give news publishers leverage against Big Tech and could require Facebook to pay for including news on its platform, something that Facebook has fiercely fought in the past in other countries.

“If Congress passes an ill-considered journalism bill as part of national security legislation, we will be forced to consider removing news from our platform altogether rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscription,” Stone writes. “The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act fails to recognize the key fact: publishers and broadcasters put their content on our platform themselves because it benefits their bottom line — not the other way around.”

Meta statement on the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act: pic.twitter.com/kyFqKQw7xs
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) December 5, 2022

Last February, Facebook pulled news from the platform in Australia over similar legislation and even ripped down pages belonging to government agencies. While news was later restored when Australia’s bill was amended, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company may have intentionally implemented the chaotic ban to win favorable changes. The amended version of the law gives publishers and platforms two months to strike a deal or otherwise be forced into arbitration. Facebook issued a similar threat in response to Canada’s Online News Act, which would also require the platform to pay for sharing news.

The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act in September by a 15 to seven vote, but it still has to pass through the full Senate. Facebook isn’t the only entity opposing the bill. A total of 26 organizations, including Public Knowledge and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, wrote a letter to lawmakers to advocate against the bill. On the other side, a wide alliance of publishing organizations has supported the bill, including The Verge’s parent company, Vox Media.

Cutting off news in one of Facebook’s largest markets would be a dramatic escalation — but the company has proven it’s willing to use scorched earth tactics to stop news payment laws around the world.

dimanche 4 décembre 2022

AI bot ChatGPT stuns academics with essay-writing skills and usability

Latest chatbot from Elon Musk-founded OpenAI can identify incorrect premises and refuse to answer inappropriate requests

Professors, programmers and journalists could all be out of a job in just a few years, after the latest chatbot from the Elon Musk-founded OpenAI foundation stunned onlookers with its writing ability, proficiency at complex tasks, and ease of use.

The system, called ChatGPT, is the latest evolution of the GPT family of text-generating AIs. Two years ago, the team’s previous AI, GPT3, was able to generate an opinion piece for the Guardian, and ChatGPT is significantly more capable again.

Taylor Swift fans are suing Ticketmaster over presale disaster

Taylor Swift at the 2022 American Music Awards — *Swifties clearly don’t mess around.* | Photo by Tommaso Boddi/WireImage

A group of 26 Taylor Swift fans are suing Ticketmaster following last month’s ticketing fiasco that left users unable to buy tickets for Swift’s The Eras Tour (via Deadline). In a lawsuit submitted to a California court, the fans accuse Ticketmaster’s parent company, LiveNation of “anticompetitive conduct” that let scalpers snap up a surplus of tickets, resulting in higher ticket prices for the fans who could actually get their hands on them.

In addition to alleging that Ticketmaster forces fans to “exclusively” use the service to purchase tickets at prices “above what a competitive market price would be,” the suit claims Ticketmaster also profits off the resale of those tickets through its secondary marketplace. As outlined on Ticketmaster’s website, the company adds a service fee to each ticket sold on its fan-to-fan exchange — but doesn’t specify how much — that’s paid by the buyer in addition to the ticket price. The lawsuit claims Ticketmaster has “conspired” with stadiums “to force fans to buy more expensive tickets that Ticketmaster gets additional fees from every time the tickets are resold.”

It also takes issue with the way Ticketmaster distributed the presale codes that fans had to use to purchase tickets. The suit says the company “intentionally and purposely mislead TaylorSwiftTix presale ticketholders by providing codes to 1.4 million ‘verified fans’” when it actually didn’t have enough seats to go around. According to Ticketmaster, 3.5 million people pre-registered as Verified Fans to gain access to the sale, but it had to put 2 million of these fans on a waitlist for a chance to pick up any remaining tickets.

“Millions of fans waited up to eight hours and were unable to purchase tickets as a result of insufficient ticket releases,” the lawsuit states. “Ticketmaster intentionally provided codes when it could not satisfy demands.”

The complaint seeks $2,500 per violation, which may not seem like a lot but could add up to a huge fine with the millions of people who attempted to purchase tickets for Swift’s tour. Jennifer Kinder, one of the lawyers representing the fans, told The Verge that while the case hasn’t yet been accepted by the court at this time of writing, it should be on Monday. The Verge reached out to Ticketmaster with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

Ticketmaster caused a stir when its site crashed amidst “historically unprecedented demand” for tickets during the presale for Swift’s upcoming tour. The whole ordeal forced Ticketmaster to delay some of its presales until it eventually sold out of tickets before it could even hold a public sale. At the time, Swift expressed frustration at the situation on Instagram, stating that it “really pisses me off” that fans felt like “they went through several bear attacks” just to get tickets to one of her shows.

It also caught the attention of lawmakers, including Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT), who said that they’re holding a hearing to “examine the lack of competition in the ticketing industry.” Meanwhile, a report from The New York Times indicates that the Department of Justice is looking into Live Nation over antitrust concerns. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called Ticketmaster a “monopoly” on Twitter and said that its 2010 merger with LiveNation “should have never been approved.”

Labour calls for crackdown on rip-off UK Christmas broadband and mobile ads

Watchdog must stop misleading ads locking consumers into deals up to £240 more than thought, says opposition party

Labour has called on the advertising watchdog to fast-track new rules to protect consumers from misleading marketing that could encourage them sign up to mobile and broadband deals this Christmas that will cost them hundreds of pounds more than they expected.

The call follows the closure of a consultation by the Committees of Advertising Practice (Cap) – which writes the codes that all UK advertisers have to follow when running ads in any media – investigating whether telecoms companies are clearly telling consumers about looming price rises in their campaigns.

Going, going gone: how Made, millennials’ favourite sofa-maker, wound up under the hammer

It gave its customers low prices by making them wait. So why did the dream of affordable luxury end with a mountain of boxes in a Port Talbot warehouse?

Every day since 16 November, 25 lorryloads of sleek, Scandinavian-inspired furniture have arrived at Europe’s largest indoor auctioneers in Port Talbot, south Wales. Staff at John Pye Auctions normally work from 8.30am to 5pm, but until Christmas the warehouse will be staffed from 5am to 2am as workers unload beige box after beige box into the 316,000 sq ft facility. From a metal balcony overlooking the warehouse, the stacked boxes look not unlike a towering cityscape. On the side of each is a white plus sign inside a circle – the logo of former furniture retailer Made.com.

Seven days before the first truck arrived, Made.com went into administration. Launched in London in 2010, until very recently Made was a success story: a disruptive e-commerce model combined with a desirable mid-century style helped the brand earn £100m in sales by 2017. You have probably encountered Made.com furniture if you’ve ever been inside a millennial’s home or even so much as glanced at Instagram – bright velvets, tapered wooden legs and gold accents put Made.com on the map. But now, seemingly overnight, the brand has been unmade.

Fortnite: Chapter 4 has a new island, dirt bikes, and Geralt of Rivia

A screenshot from Fortnite: Chapter 4 — Image: Epic Games

Following a live event that saw the previous version of the island explode, Fortnite: Chapter 4 is now here — and it includes plenty of big changes for the long-running battle royale.

The most notable change is the brand-new island, which includes a number of new points of interest such as a citadel housing a character known as “the Ageless,” a mine full of a new material called kinetic ore, and some kind of abandoned farm.

Other additions include a new vehicle in the form of dirt bikes (called a “trail thrasher” in the game), the ability to roll around in a giant snowball, “reality augments” that give you randomized buffs as the match goes on, flying jellyfish that can restore your health, brand-new guns including a rifle that shoots blades, and a melee weapon called the “shockwave hammer.” You can check out the full list of changes here.

Epic also says that with Chapter 4, Fortnite has moved to Unreal Engine 5.1, which means that a number of high-end visual features — including high-quality ray-tracing and more lifelike lighting — will now be available to players on PC and next-gen consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Finally, for those who purchase this season’s battle pass, unlockable characters include the Doom Slayer from Doom and the witcher himself, Geralt of Rivia. These are joined by Fortnite originals like a skater dude named Massai and an axe-wielding girl obsessed with boba. The Incredible Hulk will also be able to purchase in the item shop “soon.”

Fortnite’s previous chapter launched almost exactly a year ago, and introduced features like a Zero Build mode, a live event featuring a giant pink mech, and collaborations with everyone from Ralph Lauren to Dragon Ball.

Is it worth taking out personal cyber insurance in case you are caught up in a data hack?

Experts say investing in identity theft protection may provide peace of mind, but won’t help recover lost information

Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

The recent Optus and Medibank data breaches in which thousands of Australians had their personal information stolen have heightened public consciousness of the threat of identity fraud.

Information including names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, passport and Medicare numbers, and even healthcare claims have been posted online in the past few months as a result of the high profile breaches.

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samedi 3 décembre 2022

Kanto’s YU2 desktop speakers are a great gift for $190

The Kanto YU2 speaker sits on top of a desk while an artist composes sounds with an electronic instrument. — *The Kanto YU2 desktop speakers come in multiple color schemes. You also have the option between a glossy or matte finish.* | Image Credit: Kanto

With Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and all of Cyber Week behind us, it’s time to let off the gas a little. These deals are going to be a little different. For the main pick of today’s roundup, I found a significant deal on a pair of Kanto’s YU2 minimalist desktop speakers that I own and enjoy. I was disappointed not to find any Black Friday deals on them, but thankfully, they’re available for a good price right now.

Amazon, Walmart, Adorama, and Target are offering sets in multiple color schemes for $190, a big price drop from their usual $270 price. There are countless desktop speaker options, but this particular unit fits the bill for me with its low-profile design, great sound, and USB DAC. The speakers connect to each other with standard speaker wire, and as far as other ports go, there’s a 3.5mm auxiliary input, as well as an output in case you want to expand with Kanto’s equally fetching subwoofer. Here’s a page that lists the specs.

Speaking of speakers, Sonos is having another one of its sale events on some refurbished audio gear. To set expectations, these aren’t the lowest-ever prices we’ve seen, but they’re still pretty good if you were hoping to gift some Sonos stuff. Its first-generation Beam soundbar from 2018 in the deep gray color scheme is $239, which is an $80 price reduction from the usual price this refurbished product sells for. It lacks Dolby Atmos support found in the second-gen model, but hey, that newer Beam costs $200 more than this one.

To provide some surround sound support, you can get the Sonos One SL (similar to the second-generation model, but without a microphone for voice controls) for $119, which is $80 less than the new price.

I mentioned that these were smaller discounts than we’ve seen in the past, but they can sure add up if you’re building up a new audio setup at home.

I need only one thing to put me to sleep, no matter what time it is: my white noise fan. The particular model that I use and really enjoy is discounted (via Slickdeals), so I figured I’d share the good news. The LectroFan white noise machine in white or black (the black color won’t ship until mid-January, but the white one is available now) is about $30 at Amazon, down from about $50. It includes a power cable that ends in a USB-A port, so you can power it with a computer, or by supplying your own USB wall wart.

This is another product category that’s filled with many, many options, but this one stood out during my search because it offers non-looping sounds and it can get loud with surprisingly deep sound. I can’t guarantee that it’ll satisfy all sleepers who need noise to fall asleep, but it has certainly helped me throughout the years. I’ve brought it on every vacation domestically and abroad and it has survived for about five years so far.

Here are a few loose ends

We’re not sure how long this will remain in stock, but you can get the disc-based version of Sony’s PS5 console at GameStop in refur bished condition for $459 ($40 off). Keep in mind that it only includes a 30-day warranty, which is far less than the one-year warranty that each new PS5 comes with by default. Paying GameStop $54.99 for a one-year warranty basically negates the price difference between this and a new model, which can readily purchase through Sony itself.
If you’re reading this Sunday, December 4th (or if you remember to come back) Target will reactivate that amazing Black Friday deal on the second-generation AirPods Pro, dropping from $229.99 to $199.
Check out this flash sale on downloadable songs for Beat Saber, the fun rhythm game that comes included with new Meta Quest 2 headsets. This promo that sets any song at half-price ends December 6th.

Lessons learned after living in an off-grid rental

*Inforest Esther off-grid home pictured from above in a great expanse of Swedish forest.* | Photo: Inforest

InForest’s Swedish cabins are completely off the grid, relying on solar power, battery backup, and a limited amount of water. Living in one for a week required some compromises, but fewer than expected.

Confession: when I booked a working vacation at an InForest cabin this summer, I wasn’t looking for an introductory course on sustainable living. I just wanted to escape the city without sacrificing the creature comforts my three teenagers demand. I got that, but took away so much more.

I thrive on the reenergizing effects of nature, and escape to the mountains, beach, or desert whenever I can. It’s something that’s become increasingly possible for many thanks to advances in solar panels, battery storage, data coverage, and flexible work-from-anywhere policies that have proliferated in the days since COVID-19. Now people can get their work done from just about any place that brings them joy.

*InForest cabins are completely off the grid, but that doesn’t mean you have to go without modern luxuries thanks to advances in solar power and Starlink internet. Can you spot the dish?*

I knew going in that my energy demands would push the already-well-equipped solar-powered cabin to its limits. I had all the gear I needed to work remotely while also keeping my family entertained. That means one e-bike, a video projector, two Bluetooth speakers, five phones, two laptops, one tablet, three smartwatches, and a Starlink RV internet-from-space kit to keep it all connected. That’s on top of the lights and full suite of kitchen appliances and utility devices already inside the cabin.

For one week this summer I was able to work and play from the middle of a forest in Sweden, despite being totally disconnected from the grid. The experience gave me a taste of what’s currently possible with off-grid tech, and a better understanding of the compromises required when resources are scarce — lessons I’ve since applied to daily life now that energy prices in Europe have gone through the roof.

The Concept

InForest is owned and operated by Jesper (40) and Petra Uvesten (41) who had the dream of creating a series of off-grid cabins for people looking to get closer to nature. The couple opened the doors of their first eco-friendly and self-sufficient cabin, Ebbe, in 2020. The Vilgot and Esther cabins soon followed. Each is named after one of their three children.

*Jesper and Petra in front of one of the InForest cabins named after their three children.*

Jesper also works a full-time job with the EU working on rural development, while Petra is a dedicated triathlete. The two run InForest alone, although they also have occasional part-time help so they can take holidays. Their goal is to expand from three to 10 houses.

The three small cabins are situated in a dense forest dotted with tranquil lakes and hunting blinds in the hills of southern Sweden, about two hours east of Gothenburg or three hours west of Stockholm. The cabins are handmade by Treesign, a local builder of tiny homes. Each house had to be hauled into position by a truck along several miles of dirt roads.

I booked Esther, named after Jesper and Petra’s daughter and oldest child who (rightly) insisted that the biggest of the three houses carry her name.

The Tech

The Esther house is powered by a large solar array on the rooftop, with six 320W panels helping to keep a pair of 2.4kWh lithium-ion batteries charged. Each house is fitted with an inverter to provide 220V AC to wall outlets located everywhere you’d hope to find one.

Power generation benefits immensely from Sweden’s long summer days. Jesper tells me that their solar system is configured to provide about 1.5kW of charge per hour, which is enough to recharge half-empty batteries to full in about two hours. All excess energy is then diverted to the outlets. When the sun goes down, the house is wholly dependent upon the batteries for electricity.

Sweden’s short winter days present a real challenge for the cabins as the low, weak sun can’t keep the batteries charged. That means InForest cabins can only be booked from about March to mid-October. Jesper hopes to extend the season by purchasing an EV with bi-directional charging capabilities.

Ideally he'd like to buy a Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck but it’s not scheduled to come to Sweden any time soon, so maybe the new Volvo EX90 SUV coming in 2024 instead. Whatever he buys, he can charge its relatively large 100kWh-plus battery at home before driving to each cabin every few days to charge their much-smaller batteries. Jesper or Petra already have to visit each cabin every two to three days anyway to clean them and refill the water tanks.

*Jesper stands in front of the utility closet where all technology can be found. A water hose connects at the back of the house to replenish the 250-liter tank. We brought our own clothesline.*

Fresh water comes from a 250-liter (66 gallon) water tank. The house is also fitted with a 10-liter (2.6 gallon) water heater, which is enough for about five to seven minutes of hot water.

The cabin’s LED lights, a kitchen fan, a DC refrigerator / freezer, heating fan, and water pump all require electric power. Jesper estimates that each house consumes about 100W per hour when idle, allowing the batteries to power the house for about two days without any charging.

The houses require more than just electricity, however. They’re also equipped with a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) system for the combined air and water heater and also for the stove and oven. There’s also a waterless composting toilet from Separett that InForest takes care of after guests check out.

InForest houses are designed to be serviced, which is why all of the technology is housed in a utility closet that can be accessed from the outside to avoid interrupting guests. External connectors allow the water to be refilled and, eventually, the batteries to be recharged, just as soon as Jesper and Petra find a suitable EV.

The Experience

I’ve never been so aware of my water usage, thanks to a gauge mounted on the wall inside the bathroom. InForest says its 250-liter tanks provide enough water for about three days of average usage by two adults. Jesper says guests typically use about 41.6 liters (11 gallons) of water per person per day when staying in their cabins, compared to 140 liters (27.5 gallons) per person in the typical Swedish household. I was traveling with a family of five, including three image-obsessed teenagers. So, challenge accepted!

*This water gauge is my mortal enemy* — and *agent of change, as it turns out.*

Seeing how much water we had left on that gauge accomplished more than any amount of scolding could. In our seven days in the house, we only had to have the water refilled once, I’m proud to say. But that meant a fairly severe (but simple) change in behavior, like shutting off the water while lathering up in the shower or brushing teeth. Things I never did before, I must admit. It also meant devising a dishwashing method that would conserve as much energy and water as possible.

I just wish the cabin was also equipped with a power meter. I have no idea how close we came to emptying its batteries, or how much surplus power all those panels produced during the day. As I’ve learned when reviewing solar generators, it’s easier to modify energy consumption habits when you see them mapped over time. Having said that, not knowing if the power would shut off at any moment was a strong motivator for everyone to keep their social media consumption devices plugged in during the day while the sun was actively powering the ports.

The urine-diverting toilet also lacked a meter, but seeing paper begin to sprout from the poop chute on our last day was a pretty good indicator that it was getting full. Fortunately, it’s ventilated so it was odorless. The toilet collects solid waste in a biodegradable bag that is tossed onto an off-site compost heap after guests depart.

Purists who quote Thoreau often tell me that I’m doing it wrong when I share my off-grid experiences. I’m supposed to totally disconnect and leave my gadgets at home. But I prefer to strike a balance, bending the will of nature to my needs at one moment, then giving myself over to its wilderness at the next. The grass can’t be greener on the other side if I’m living life on the fence.

Lessons learned in that week at my InForest rental have turned into new habits upon my return. I still shut off the tap when brushing my teeth and while lathering up in the shower. I’ve unplugged a dozen rarely used gadgets that had been slowly leeching power. I’m also investigating having my home fitted with solar panels and battery backup. Although I have access to what seems like a never-ending supply of electricity and hot water here in Amsterdam, high energy prices make resources I’ve previously taken for granted suddenly feel scarce.

Of course, I’ve known I should do these things for years. But somehow, attaching emotional memories (stress!) to the idea has made it easier to change my behavior. And let’s be honest, saving money is a strong motivator as well.

My biggest takeaway is this: technologies have progressed so much that off-grid living is a more viable option than I had previously thought, without having to make too many compromises. But it’s a good idea to try it for yourself before fully committing.

InForest isn’t alone in providing off-grid getaways. A Google search will likely yield multiple local providers near you. Otherwise, Airbnb’s May redesign makes it easier to find experiences like off-the-grid living for those who want to go to the woods to try living a bit more deliberately.

EU raises prospect of big fine or ban if Twitter fails to follow new legislation

Elon Musk has been warned he has ‘huge work ahead’ to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act

The EU has raised the prospect of a substantial fine or ban for Twitter after warning that it must “significantly increase” efforts to comply with new online legislation.

Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, was told he had “huge work ahead” to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act, which requires tech firms to tackle problems including abusive posts and disinformation.

vendredi 2 décembre 2022

Elon Musk’s promised Twitter exposé on the Hunter Biden story is a flop that doxxed multiple people

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Free-speech crusader Elon Musk isn’t happy with Twitter’s years-old decision to suppress a news story about Hunter Biden’s laptop just ahead of the 2020 presidential election. So in an effort “to restore public trust” in Twitter, Musk indicated last month that he would release internal communications showing how it all went down.

That arrived Friday night in the form of a lengthy and arduously slow tweet thread (it took a full two hours to complete) from journalist Matt Taibbi, who Musk appears to have leaked the documents to and coordinated for his findings to be posted to Twitter.

Taibbi’s thread includes screenshots of emails between Twitter’s leadership, members of the Biden campaign, and outside policy leaders. At one point, there’s even a “confidential” communication from Twitter’s deputy general counsel.

The emails show Twitter’s team struggling with how to explain their handling of the New York Post story that broke the news of Hunter’s leaked laptop files — and whether they made the correct moderation decision in the first place. At the time, it was not clear if the materials were genuine, and Twitter decided to ban links to or images of the Post’s story, citing its policy on the distribution of hacked materials. The move was controversial even then, primarily among Republicans but also with speech advocates worried about Twitter’s decision to block a news outlet.

While Musk might be hoping we see documents showing Twitter’s (largely former) staffers nefariously deciding to act in a way that helped now-President Joe Biden, the communications mostly show a team debating how to finalize and communicate a difficult moderation decision.

“I’m struggling to understand the policy basis for marking this unsafe,” one former communications staffer wrote. “Will we also mark similar stories as unsafe?” asked another.

Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of trust and safety at the time, said the company had decided to err on the side of caution “given the SEVERE risks here and lessons of 2016.” Jim Baker, Twitter’s deputy general counsel, weighed in to agree that “it is reasonable for us to assume that they may have been [hacked] and that caution is warranted.”

The emails don’t show how the initial decision was reached — just that there were emails afterward in which leaders at Twitter discussed whether it was the correct choice. Taibbi reports that Jack Dorsey, who was then Twitter’s CEO, was not aware of the decision.

Musk seems to read the events as proof of government meddling. “If this isn’t a violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment, what is?” he wrote in response to one leaked email. But the email appears to show the Biden campaign, which is not a government entity, flagging tweets to Twitter for “review” under their moderation policies before the election took place. Taibbi says, “there’s no evidence — that I’ve seen — of any government involvement in the laptop story.”

Meanwhile, Taibbi’s handling of the emails — which seem to have been handed to him at Musk’s direction, though he only refers to “sources at Twitter” — appears to have exposed personal email addresses for two high-profile leaders: Dorsey and Representative Ro Khanna. An email address that belongs to someone Taibbi identifies as Dorsey is included in one message, in which Dorsey forwards an article Taibbi wrote criticizing Twitter’s handling of the Post story. What appears to be Khanna’s personal Gmail address is included in another email, in which Khanna reaches out to criticize Twitter’s decision to restrict the Post’s story as well.

The story also revealed the names of multiple Twitter employees who were in communications about the moderation decision. While it’s not out of line for journalists to report on the involvement of public-facing individuals or major decision makers, that doesn’t describe all of the people named in the leaked communications. And given the fervor around Hunter’s laptop, the leaked materials could expose some of those people to harassment. “I don’t get why naming names is necessary. Seems dangerous,” Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote tonight in apparent reference to the leaks.

Taibbi later deleted the tweet that included Dorsey’s email address. The one including Khanna’s is still up as of this writing. The Verge reached out to Taibbi for comment but didn’t immediately hear back. Twitter, which had its communications team dismantled during layoffs last month, also did not respond to a request for comment. Khanna and Dorsey also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Twitter moderators turn to automation amid a reported surge in hate speech

New head of trust and safety Ella Irwin says Elon Musk is urging Twitter ‘to take more risks’ in the wake of mass layoffs

Elon Musk’s Twitter is leaning heavily on automation to moderate content according to the company’s new head of trust and safety, amid a reported surge in hate speech on the social media platform.

Ella Irwin has told the Reuters news agency that Musk, who acquired the company in October, was focused on using automation more, arguing that Twitter had in the past erred on the side of using time and labour-intensive human reviews of harmful content.

You deserve more than $2 for running your phone’s data through Amazon

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon is offering some users a whole $2 a month for only one teeny, tiny thing in return: that they route their traffic through an Amazon server so the company can keep track of which Amazon ads they’ve seen. It’s apparently been doing this for months.

I’m not sure who needs to hear this, but you Should! Not! Do! That!

The offer is part of Amazon’s Shopper Panel app, an “invitation-only” program that gives you up to $10 a month in Amazon credit for uploading receipts for purchases you made at places other than Amazon and filling out surveys. I’ll say again: even if you were willing to basically give up your privacy, which you probably shouldn’t be, why would you do it for just a few dollars? If there’s anything more personal than your internet traffic, it’s a list of the things you’ve bought. Receipts can and have been used as evidence in court.

Screenshot of Amazon’s Shopper Panel app, with the “earn rewards for opting into ad verification” screen open. — *That’s a lot of descriptive text for a single toggle.*

If you were to join the waitlist for the Shopper Panel program, get accepted, and then turn on Ad Verification, you’d then be asked to turn on an always-on VPN for your phone, according to an FAQ on Amazon’s site. The company says this isn’t actually installing a VPN on your device; instead, it’s making it so all your DNS traffic goes to an Amazon server, which lets the company know when you see “Amazon’s own advertising or ads from third-party businesses that advertise through Amazon Ads.”

In my opinion, that’s not much better than if it were running a VPN. Sure, all of your traffic won’t be going through Amazon, but in theory your phone is still asking Amazon for directions every time it tries to connect to a server. (That’s what DNS does.) Amazon says the app “will only use the app permissions to confirm the ads from Amazon that you see” and that it “does not receive or share any personal information with third-parties,” but you’ve really got to trust it on that.

And, again, the upside of this (provided that you’ve kept the “VPN” on for the vast majority of the month) is that at the end you get... $2.

Amazon is far from the first company to have a program like this. Facebook had one that gave users $20 gift cards each month to run a VPN on their phone, and in 2012 Google said it’d pay users $5 every three months for running a Chrome extension that tracked their usage. Another part of the program offered $20 a month if you used a special router that tracked your entire household’s internet usage.

The thing that stands out about all of these programs, Amazon’s included, is just how little money they pay the people who willingly submit to a big tech panopticon. If you’re the type of person who’s not bothered by a lack of privacy, you should at least demand more from some of the most valuable companies in the world.

Macron says he had ‘clear and honest’ discussion with Musk on Twitter policy

The French president had flagged concerns over the platform’s content moderation just a day before

Emmanuel Macron said he had a “clear and honest” discussion with Elon Musk about Twitter’s content moderation policies, just a day after the French president had flagged his concerns on the issue.

“Transparent user policies, significant reinforcement of content moderation and protection of freedom of speech: efforts have to be made by Twitter to comply with European regulations,” Macron said in a tweet after his meeting with Musk on Friday afternoon.

jeudi 1 décembre 2022

#ClimateScam: denialism claims flooding Twitter have scientists worried

Many researchers are fleeing the platform, unnerved by the surge in climate misinformation since Musk’s chaotic takeover

Twitter has proved a cherished forum for climate scientists to share research, as well as for activists seeking to rally action to halt oil pipelines or decry politicians’ failure to cut pollution. But many are now fleeing Twitter due to a surge in climate misinformation, spam and even threats that have upended their relationship with the platform.

Scientists and advocates have told the Guardian they have become unnerved by a recent resurgence of debunked climate change denialist talking points and memes on Twitter, with the term #ClimateScam now regularly the first result that appears when “climate” is searched on the site.

Tesla delivers first electric Semi trucks — three years late

Elon Musk and the Tesla Semi trucks — Screengrab: Tesla

Five years after they were first revealed, the first Tesla Semi trucks were delivered to customers at an event at the company’s Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, Thursday.

The trucks, which were first unveiled in concept form back in 2017, were supposed to go into production in 2019 but were delayed for a variety of reasons, including the COVID-19 pandemic and a global parts shortage. Representatives from PepsiCo, which reserved 100 Semis shortly after its reveal, were on hand to receive the first batch of trucks.

Tesla says the Semi is powered by four independent motors on the rear axles, can accelerate 0-60mph in 20 seconds, and has a battery range of up to 500 miles. Prices may start at $150,000, and there have been a number of orders from businesses like Walmart and FedEx in the low-dozens range.

Standing on a stage flanked by four Tesla Semis, two of which wrapped in Pepsi and Frito Lay logos, Musk spoke about the need to reduce the amount of carbon emissions produced by the shipment of goods across the planet. But after paying lip service to the mission of fighting climate change, he quickly pivoted to his distinct brand of showmanship.

“It looks sick,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on stage at the event. “You want to drive that. I mean, that thing looks like it came from the future.” Musk later referred to the Semi as “a beast.”

Musk ticked off a number of features he said will make the Semi the most efficient, most desirable, and most driveable truck on the road. The truck will feature a new 1,000-volt powertrain architecture that Musk said will factor into future product development at Tesla. The Semi has traction control to prevent jackknifing, regenerative braking for increased battery efficiency, and an automatic clutch for seamless highway driving.

Semi has a tri-motor system & carbon-sleeved rotors just like Plaid. 1 unit for efficiency, 2 acceleration units for torque pic.twitter.com/MDn4cj0jzO
— Tesla (@Tesla) December 2, 2022

“It’s a step-change in technology in so many ways,” Musk said.

Over the weekend, Musk revealed that one of Tesla’s battery powered class 8 semi-trucks had completed a 500-mile trip fully loaded with 81,000 pounds of cargo. The trip took place from Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, to San Diego at the southern tip of the state. At the event, Musk clarified that the trip was accomplished without needing to recharge the battery.

Tesla is positioning the Semi as the future of trucking. But while the company has struggled to get production started, the rest of the trucking industry has already embraced EVs. Major equipment manufacturers like Daimler, Volvo, Peterbilt, and BYD, have been working on their own electric long-haulers. The Tesla Semis delivered today were the final piece of a $30.8 million project partially funded by the California Air Resource Board, according to Bloomberg. Even Nikola Motors, which has struggled with fraud allegations and executive turnover, has delivered a hydrogen-powered truck before Tesla.

Still, battery-powered electric vehicles will face steep challenges, from weight restrictions to the availability of convenient charging stations, before they can be widely adopted. Truck stops, for example, are largely unprepared to handle the power needs of electric tractor-trailers and their gigantic batteries.

Two years ago, Bill Gates said that “even with big breakthroughs in battery technology,” electric vehicles were simply not ready to tackle long-haul trucking. “Electricity works when you need to cover short distances, but we need a different solution for heavy, long-haul vehicles,” Gates wrote. (Musk’s response to Gates was to post crude memes on Twitter, of course.)

Slide showing a graph of Tesla’s V4 charging cable charging ampacity, which reaches 35 amps per square millimeter, and showing how the conductors are immersed in coolant tubes. — *Tesla’s “V4” charging cable immerses the conductors in coolant tubes.*

Musk addressed charging during the event, revealing that Tesla has developed a new liquid-cooled charging connector capable of delivering 1 megawatt of direct current power. “It’s going to be used for Cybertruck, too,” Musk added to cheers from the audience. (The similarly much-delayed Cybertruck is expected to go into production in the latter half of 2023.) He also spoke about needing to uncouple Tesla’s Superchargers from the grid to ensure they can continue to deliver power during an outage.

Trucks are a key component of Musk’s “Master Plan Part Deux,” in which he vowed to expand the company’s lineup of vehicles to “cover the major forms of terrestrial transport,” including a semi truck.

During the event, Musk spoke about Tesla’s current product lineup, which has been criticized as stale as compared to other automakers that frequently release refreshed versions of past models. Standing in front of an image of Tesla’s vehicle lineup, including the forthcoming Cybertruck and a shrouded vehicle labeled “robotaxi,” Musk said Tesla wasn’t like other car companies.

“So what’s our actual mission? Our actual mission is to accelerate the advent of sustainable energy,” Musk said. “So that’s why we’re making this wide range of cars that don’t really make sense from a brand standpoint.”

The Crypto Crowd Holds a Glittery Awards Night, Despite Fiascoes

The Crypto Crowd Holds a Glittery Awards Night, Despite Fiascoes The Crypties was intended as a gala evening in Miami to celebrate the currencies of the future. It turned out to be more of a roast.

Netflix is expanding its early feedback program to more subscribers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Netflix currently has a relatively small group of about 2,000 subscribers who it invites to preview upcoming projects and provide feedback about them ahead of release, but that number’s about to grow significantly as the streamer looks to maximize its profits in an increasingly competitive streaming market.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Netflix plans to open up its Preview Club program to “tens of thousands” more subscribers across the globe in order to glean reactions from people that might end up being used to make last-minute tweaks to the streamer’s films and movies ahead of their broader release.

That’s reportedly what happened with Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up after a small Netflix test audience said that they thought the movie was too self-serious, prompting the creative team to make adjustments designed to brighten its tone.

Studios soliciting responses from enthusiastic audience members isn’t a new practice by any means, but Netflix’s push to grow the Preview Club comes at a time when the platform has moved to cap its annual spending on content at $17 billion. While Netflix wants to know if people are enjoying all of the content its spending money to create, it also wants to know as much as it can about how best to capitalize on its investments.

Netflix has been transparent about how hyper-focused it is on churning out more worldwide megahits like Squid Game or Stranger Things, which is an imprecise science because the studio can never truly know when one of its projects is going to take off. But as Netflix continues its search for more ways to keep people paying for its increasingly more expensive and harder-to-share services, it’s going to start by reaching out to more of its subscriber base and inviting them to become part of the larger machine.

Amazon’s poached Mike Flanagan from Netflix with an exclusive TV production deal

Two men in black button down shirts and dark blazers — one black and the other gray — standing in front of a Saturn Awards backdrop. — Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy at the 46th Annual Saturn Awards. | Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images for ABA

While Mike Flanagan’s forthcoming The Fall of the House of Usher series based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe is still headed to Netflix, the Haunting of Hill House creator is getting ready to take his talents to another streaming platform that’s likely looking to beef up its horror catalog.

Deadline reports that Mike Flanagan and Intrepid Pictures CEO Trevor Macy (who has also executive produced the whole of Netflix’s “Flanaverse”) have signed a new exclusive, multi-year overall TV production deal with Amazon Studios. Under the new deal, Intrepid Pictures will create new series and films for Amazon Prime similar to how the indie production house crafted series like The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Midnight Club for Netflix.

In a public statement about their jump to Amazon, Flanagan and Macy said that they’ve “long admired” the Netflix competitor and explained that they feel Amazon Studios and Intrepid share similar visions.

“Their commitment to engaging in groundbreaking series and content aligns with the ethos of what we have built at Intrepid,” Flanagan and Macy said. “We are looking forward to working with the entire Amazon team as we bring our brand of genre productions to the service and audiences around the globe.”

While there’s currently no word on what specific projects will come out of the deal, it stands to reason that fans of Flanagan and Macy’s Netflix work can expect to see similar stories coming out of Amazon in the near future.