samedi 21 janvier 2023

More details come out on which departments saw layoffs at Google, Microsoft, and Amazon

More details come out on which departments saw layoffs at Google, Microsoft, and Amazon
Amazon’s hexagonal MK27-2 delivery drone
Amazon’s hexagonal MK27-2 delivery drone | Image: Amazon

Google’s decision to let go of 12,000 employees was only just announced on Friday, but it extended the recent trend of the “Big Tech” companies cutting jobs in previously unheard-of numbers, and now we’ve seen more reports about where those cuts happened.

The Information reports that at Google, layoffs spread through nearly every group, including projects like Chrome, Search, Android, and Google Cloud. Its sources said they affected people who’d previously received “high performance reviews” and some managers making anywhere from $500K to $1 million.

One area of the search and advertising giant that was “relatively unaffected,” however, was the Google Brain division run by Jeff Dean, the senior vice president of research and artificial intelligence. That’s the team developing the machine learning tech Google is already using in many areas. According to the New York Times, its work will also be applied to a number of products we’ll reportedly see at its I/O event in May, including tools to generate images, a YouTube green screen feature, and at some point this year, a chatbot version of its search engine.

Google confirmed to Bloomberg that it decided “to wind down the majority of the Area 120 team.” That incubator, named for Google’s famed but long-dormant policy of allowing employees 20 percent of their time to chase side projects, had already seen large cuts affecting half of its projects late last year. The company said three projects will be folded into Google while the rest appear to be gone.

At Microsoft, where 10,000 people are being laid off, Polygon points out reports of the effects on several game development studios and the responses from some former employees. According to Bloomberg, there were cuts at Starfield developer Bethesda, and reporter Jason Schreier said in a tweet that its Halo studio 343 Industries was reportedly “hit hard.” At the same time, Kotaku noted that The Coalition, which works on the Gears of War games, was also affected.

Amazon confirmed to us months ago that its layoffs included jobs in the devices and services division. Then, in early January, hardware chief Dave Limp said on CNBC’s TechCheck that the cuts affected nearly 2,000 people in his division, which is home to products like Alexa and its Echo smart home devices. Projects confirmed dropped included its video-calling device for kids and telehealth service.

This week, CNBC reports the layoffs also include a “significant number” of employees working on the Prime Air drone delivery project at multiple sites, including its headquarters, and, according to a since-deleted LinkedIn post, as much as half the team at its Pendleton, Oregon test site. Originally announced by Jeff Bezos in 2013, the program is seeing those cuts just as it starts to roll out testing in a few cities and prepares to launch the next-generation MK30 drone that will follow up the earlier MK27-2 unit shown above.

Amazon declined to say to CNBC how many people in the division had been laid off.

Drop Sense75 review: a $350 keyboard without $350 of quality

Drop Sense75 review: a $350 keyboard without $350 of quality

Sanding down those rough edges doesn’t come cheap.

Drop has become a popular retailer of keyboard components like keycaps, but it also has a lineup of fully assembled models for anyone who wants something that’ll just work out of the box. These include the $99 ENTR, $200 CTRL, and $250 SHIFT. Its latest model, the Sense75, is a little different.

With its gasket-mount design, thick double-shot DCX keycaps, and compatibility with the VIA keymapping software, the Sense75 hits all the latest buzzwords to be a premium keyboard for discerning enthusiasts. And its starting price — $349 for the fully assembled version in black — leaves little doubt about the kind of customer that Drop is targeting here.

That’s a lot to spend on a keyboard, and it gives you the right to scrutinize every last detail of the Sense75. But it’s scrutiny that the keyboard is never quite able to withstand.

HOW WE RATE AND REVIEW PRODUCTS

With its subdued colors, the Sense75 could almost pass for an office keyboard when you disable its RGB, but that’s only really half true. After all, the Sense75 offers a familiar combination of current mechanical keyboard design trends, including a 75 percent layout, gasket-mount design, and of course, the increasingly standard issue volume knob. Feature parity is no bad thing, but it also means Drop has its work cut out if it wants to distinguish itself from competing keyboards like the GMMK Pro and Keychron Q1.

I’ve been using the fully assembled black model of the Sense75, which Drop sells for $349, but there are a couple of different versions available. The keyboard’s fully assembled white variant sells for $399, and it’s also available as a bare-bones model without switches or keycaps for $249 in black or $299 in white.

That’s expensive, considering that the Keychron Q1 has an identical layout and nearly identical features — including a gasket mounting system, RGB lighting, and hot-swap sockets — but costs just shy of $180 with keycaps and switches (it’s our current recommendation for the best premium keyboard). There’s an argument that Drop’s keyboard includes as standard the kinds of premium aftermarket components that you might use to upgrade Keychron’s keyboard, though admittedly only if you want the specific components that Drop is offering.

Two Holy Panda switches on a desk.
There’s only one choice of switch here — Holy Panda X.
Close up of the Sense75’s volume dial.
Obviously the keyboard includes a volume dial.

Visually, the Sense75 compares well to the Keychron Q1. Its appearance is crisp and well-considered, and like the Keychron, there’s no distracting branding on the top of the keyboard. Around the volume dial, there’s no awkward square like you see on most of Keychron’s Q-series boards. At a little over 3.1 pounds (1.42kg), the keyboard feels weighty and solid, and I struggle to point out a single rough edge. I’m a big fan of this clean look.

This understated design extends to the Sense75’s RGB lighting. Most mechanical keyboards offer some kind of RGB lighting at this point, which normally shines upwards around (and often through) their keycaps. But while the Sense75 has both per-key RGB lighting as well as an external light strip, its keycaps are entirely opaque, and its external lighting points downwards, meaning that you can’t see evidence of either when they’re turned off. Great news for RGB haters.

As standard, the keyboard comes with a set of Drop’s DCX keycaps, which retail for $99 as a standalone set. I wrote about Drop’s keycap design last year, but the short version is that they represent the company’s attempt to compete with GMK, which produces what many enthusiasts believe to be the gold standard of aftermarket keycaps. That means Drop’s keycaps use thick, high-quality ABS plastic and a double-shot construction with fantastically crisp lettering. The keen-eyed will spot small inconsistencies (my editor Nathan Edwards immediately clocked that the lettering on the left Shift key almost reads “Shif t”), but they’re far better than Keychron’s stock keycaps and are among the best you’ll find on an off-the-shelf keyboard.

Sense75 keyboard.
The keyboard’s DCX keycaps are among the best around.

While Keychron’s boards (even its affordable sub-$100 K-series models) come with both Mac and Windows keycaps in the box, the Sense75 ships with just Windows keycaps. If you’d like the keyboard to have Command and Option keys rather than Alt and “Super” (Drop’s version of the Windows key), you can spend an additional $25 for the Mac keycaps addon. The process of actually flipping the keyboard between its Windows and Mac compatibility modes is handled with a keyboard shortcut rather than the simple hardware toggle Keychron uses. But unless you need to switch between the two operating systems on a regular basis, it’s a fiddle you’ll rarely encounter.

A big advantage the more affordable fully assembled Keychron Q1 has over the Sense75 is that it’s available with three different switch types. The Sense75 has just one switch option: Drop’s Holy Panda X switches. There’s no option for linear or clicky red or blue switches or less tactile browns. Arguably that’s the point of the Sense75’s barebones version. But if you were to buy the barebones version of the keyboard in black ($249) plus a set of white-on-black DCX keycaps ($99), you’d be spending the same amount as the fully assembled model with no cash left over for switches. It doesn’t look like a great deal.

Meanwhile, if you were to buy the barebones version of the Keychron Q1 and then add the same Holy Panda X switches and Drop DCX keycaps included as standard with the Sense75, you’d be looking at around $365: $161 for the keyboard, $99 for the keycaps, and $105 for the switches. (That last number is a bit misleading, though: Drop is the only vendor for Holy Panda X switches, which it sells for $1 each and only in packs of 35, which means you have to buy three packs to cover a 75 percent board. This is almost comically user-hostile, but there are plenty of nice switches out there for much less money.) This setup gets you a very similar keyboard for not that much more money, plus a complete set of switches and keycaps that could always be repurposed for a future board.

Keyboard with two keycaps and one switch removed.
Drop includes a good quality keycap and switch puller in the box.
Sense75 keyboard with RGB lighting on.
Underglow RGB lighting mean light strips aren’t visible when it’s turned off.

In fairness to Drop, if you had to choose just one set of switches to ship with a keyboard, you could do a lot worse than the Holy Panda X, and their larger tactile bump feels great here. There’s a thunk to them that you don’t get with brown or linear switches, and combined with the aluminum case and plate, the keyboard feels chunky and solid to type on without any of the high-pitched pinging sounds you can sometimes get from metal cases, thanks to gratuitous use of dampening foam.

And yet, side by side with a Keychron keyboard, I far prefer the Keychron Q1. Although both are gasket-mounted, meaning their switch plates are suspended between strips of squishy foam to give it a little bit of give and bounce as you type, Drop’s keyboard doesn’t have nearly the same amount of flex. It gives the Sense75 a stiffer feel compared to the Keychron that doesn’t exactly scream “gasket mount.”

Drop’s PCB-mounted stabilizers (the mechanism that sits under long keys to stop them rattling) are also far more rattly than Keychron’s out of the box. While the space bar on the Q1 has a nice pop sound to it, the Sense75 rattles in a way that doesn’t exactly scream “$349 keyboard.” Overall, it means the typing experience only ever ends up feeling “okay” rather than “great,” and I prefer the feel of Keychron’s sub-$200 Q1.

Sense75 in profile.
The Sense75’s case is weighty and thick.

As well as a lack of switch choices, there’s also no option to get the keyboard with a European ISO layout. This is an ANSI- (read: US-) only board. The Sense75’s switches are south-facing for better compatibility with aftermarket keycaps, and the PCB’s sockets are 5-pin for maximum compatibility. Opening up the keyboard is relatively easy, with just six screws on the underside of the case to unscrew.

The Sense75 also supports remapping, but it’s a bit of a weird thing to get set up. The good news is that you can use the excellent VIA software to remap the keyboard’s keys, set up macros, and adjust the keyboard’s lighting. The bad news is that you’ll need to flash special VIA-enabled firmware onto the keyboard before it’ll support the VIA app. That’s because the keyboard’s stock firmware is designed for use with Drop’s own configurator tool, which isn’t currently compatible with the Sense75. Support is due to go live next month, but I wasn’t able to test the functionality as part of my review.

A final note on accessories: In the Sense75’s box, you get a keycap puller, switch puller, and USB-C cable alongside the keyboard. The pullers are nice. The switch puller has a far larger grip than Keychron’s, which should make it easier on the hands if you ever want to remove the Sense75’s dozens of switches. But the keyboard’s detachable USB-C cable is a bizarrely short 100cm (around 40in) in length, and I had to use an extension cable to get it to look tidy with my desk setup. For comparison, the cable included with my Keychron Q2 was a much more comfortable 180cm (around 70in) in length.

Underside of Sense75 keyboard.
Any Drop branding is kept to the underside of the keyboard.
RGB underglow lighting on the Sense75.
The Sense75 is available in white as well as black.

The Drop Sense75 sits in a bit of an awkward part of the mechanical keyboard market. It’s not that it’s the most expensive keyboard ever sold. But with a starting price of $349, it’s mainly competing against DIY models that you assemble yourself at home, where there’s an expectation that most people will do a certain amount of tinkering and modding to get the exact sound and feel they want.

Meanwhile, Keychron’s Q1 offers very similar specs to the Sense75 for under $200, and I think it’s a nicer typing experience to book. Admittedly the Q1’s stock keycaps are nowhere near as nice as the Sense75’s, but with the money saved, you could buy a set of Drop DCX keycaps — or GMK or MT3 or really any aftermarket keycap set — and still have money left over. Or if you’re prepared to sacrifice build quality but still want VIA programmability, you can spend under $100 on Keychron’s V1 (our current pick for the best keyboard available for most people). Or you could get a wireless keyboard from Epomaker or Ajazz for under $200.

With its fantastically clean design, high-quality stock keycaps, and tasteful underglow RGB lighting, the Sense75 looks every bit as nice as its price point suggests it should. But a combination of rattly stabilizers and stiff gasket means it never quite ends up feeling it, and hobbyists will likely still have some tinkering to do to get the exact feel they want. The Sense75 works out of the box, but I wouldn’t say it feels or behaves like a $350 keyboard out of the box.

Photography by Jon Porter / The Verge

vendredi 20 janvier 2023

Twitter hit by 40% revenue drop amid ad squeeze, say reports

Twitter hit by 40% revenue drop amid ad squeeze, say reports

More than 500 advertising clients have reportedly paused spending since Elon Musk’s takeover in October

Twitter remains in the grip of an advertising squeeze, with the social media platform hit by a 40% drop in revenue after more than 500 clients paused their spending, according to reports.

The company’s daily revenue was down 40% year-over-year, the tech newsletter the Platformer reported, while the news site the Information said staff were told more than 500 of Twitter’s top advertisers had halted spending since Elon Musk bought it in October.

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Twitter will stop forcing you onto its ‘For You’ timeline

Twitter will stop forcing you onto its ‘For You’ timeline
Screenshot of the current Twitter UI with a pinned list selected.
Soon you may be able to more-or-less set one of the tabs as default.

Twitter’s next update should make it less insistent that you use the “For You” algorithmic timeline, according to a tweet from Elon Musk. He says the app will “stop switching you back to recommended tweets,” and remember if you left it on the reverse-chronological “Following” timeline or a pinned list.

Musk’s promises should be taken with a grain of salt, but I hope the company delivers on this one. Until last month, Twitter had a button that let you set a preference on which version of the timeline you wanted to use. That option went away when the company rolled out a UI that let you swipe between the two timelines, with the app defaulting to opening on the algorithmic one.

Musk also says users will get the ability to arrange the top bar at some point, creating a custom order for the “For You” and “Following” tabs, as well as any pinned lists you have.

TikTok confirms that its own employees can decide what goes viral

TikTok confirms that its own employees can decide what goes viral
The TikTok logo on a white background with repeating circle imagery scattered throughout.
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

TikTok has confirmed to Forbes that some of its US employees have the ability to boost videos in order to “introduce celebrities and emerging creators to the TikTok community.” The statement comes as part of a report about TikTok’s “Heating” button, which Forbes says can be used to put selected videos onto users’ For You pages, helping boost views by sidestepping the algorithm that supposedly drives the TikTok experience.

Jamie Favazza, a spokesperson for TikTok, told Forbes that increasing views to particular videos isn’t the only reason for heating. TikTok will also “promote some videos to help diversify the content experience” (read: make sure your feed isn’t entirely made up of one or two trends), he said. Favazza also suggests TikTok doesn’t do it that often, claiming only “.002% of videos in For You feeds” are heated. According to an internal document obtained by Forbes, however, heated videos reportedly make up “around 1-2 percent” of “total daily video views.”

Heated videos don’t come with a label to show that they’ve been boosted by TikTok like ads or sponsored posts do, according to the report. Instead, they appear like any other videos that the algorithm would’ve selected for you.

The news isn’t necessarily a surprise. There have been reports for years that TikTok used promises of promoted content to convince politicians and businesses to use its platform, and companies, especially in the music industry, have made no secret of using the platform to promote their brands.

TikTok would also be far from the only social media company to boost videos unnaturally. Facebook allegedly knew it was showing inflated view counts and didn’t fix it right away to help entice advertisers and media companies to its platform. (It ended up paying $40 million to settle a lawsuit over the issue.) While that’s not exactly the same scenario — TikTok videos do actually seem to get genuine views, even if they’re not going viral organically — the effect could be similar; people end up thinking that they’ll do better on TikTok than they actually will.

It also means that TikTok is picking winners and losers: creators and brands may lose a spot on someone’s For You page to someone that has a tighter relationship with the company. According to Forbes, there have been incidents where employees heated content they shouldn’t have, promoting videos from friends, partners, and even their own accounts.

Creators might also lose interest in the platform if their videos underperform compared to ones that are being boosted, as TikTok’s lack of transparency around heating makes it hard to tell which videos got to the top organically.

The report comes as TikTok is facing heavy competition from platforms like YouTube, which has recently started enticing creators by giving them a cut of ad revenue made off Shorts, and Instagram’s push to pay creators for Reels (though the latter admitted on Friday that it’s recently been pushing video too hard). Meanwhile, TikTok has a selective creators fund and a very limited ad-sharing model, which could give its competitors a leg up.

Elon Musk Testifies That His Tweets Did Not Drive Tesla’s Stock Price

Elon Musk Testifies That His Tweets Did Not Drive Tesla’s Stock Price The chief executive of Tesla testified in a federal civil trial about a 2018 plan to take the automaker private that fizzled out.

Dating burnout: meet the people who ditched the apps – and found love offline

Dating burnout: meet the people who ditched the apps – and found love offline

Internet dating can feel soul-destroying, unnerving and transactional. Couples explain how their love lives were transformed when they finally stopped swiping

When Georgie Thorogood’s date made a sleazy joke about “horsey girls carrying whips”, she knew it was time to make a hasty exit. After meeting Tom through a dating app in the summer of 2021, she had been hoping for some polite conversation over a few drinks, maybe some romantic chemistry if she was lucky. What she got was a two-hour rant about his ex-wife and some creepy innuendo. “I knew straight away he wasn’t for me. I politely told him I didn’t want to see him again, but he took the rejection really badly. I work in music communications and at the time I was setting up a festival. He started getting aggressive and telling me that I was destined to fail,” she says. “I don’t know how he could possibly know that, as he didn’t ask me a single question about myself all night.”

Her bad experience, which came after months of mindless swiping, was the final straw for Georgie, 40. “Not only did I find dating apps soul-destroying, I was also happy with my single life, so I decided to quit them completely and focus on that instead,” she says. “I found so many of the men on apps had serious issues, too. Another guy became abusive when I turned down an offer to meet for a walk in a remote location because it didn’t feel safe. You never know who people are online.” While Georgie acknowledges that people with emotional baggage aren’t exclusive to dating sites, she feels the apps give them a chance to hide their bad behaviour. “The problem is that you don’t have to reflect or make changes when something goes wrong – you can just swipe to the next person.”

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jeudi 19 janvier 2023

Apple has hiked HomePod Mini and iMac prices in some countries

Apple has hiked HomePod Mini and iMac prices in some countries
Top-down picture of a black HomePod Mini
Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Depending on where you live, the HomePod Mini and the iMac may have just gotten more expensive. The Apple Post noted that the company’s small smart speaker went from £89 to £99 in the UK, and outlets like MacRumors and 9to5Mac have reported a similar €99 to €109 jump in other European countries like Austria, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

In the UK, each pre-made iMac configuration also went up in price by £150. In France, iMac prices went up by €100 for the base model and €110 for the other models, though they stayed the same in Germany and Ireland.

It’s hard to find a pattern in the increases. In New Zealand, the HomePod Mini’s price went from NZ$159.00 to NZ$179.00, while it stayed the same in neighboring Australia. Meanwhile, people in the Netherlands have been paying the “increased” €109 price since it became available in the country in March, 2022.

Apple didn’t immediately reply to The Verge’s request for comment on why the price hikes were happening in certain locations. In the US, the HomePod Mini is still $99, the same price it launched at.

It’s relatively rare for already-released Apple hardware to get a price bump; the company will typically raise the price when it introduces a new generation instead, like it’s done with MacBooks and iPhones. (While it announced on stage that the iPhone 14 would have the same starting price as its predecessor, that wasn’t true in the UK and several European countries, many of which are also affected by the HomePod Mini increase.)

While Apple did technically add new software features to its smart speakers this week, giving them the ability to sense temperature and humidity, it’d be hard to argue that justifies raising the price, given that the hardware was already included. If you bought a HomePod Mini the day it launched for €99, you’re getting this feature too via a software update.

T-Mobile Says Hacker Got Data From 37 Million Customer Accounts

T-Mobile Says Hacker Got Data From 37 Million Customer Accounts The breach exposed information like names, addresses and phone numbers and lasted more than a month, the company reported in a securities filing.

BP makes an order for EV charging stations from US-based Tritium

BP makes an order for EV charging stations from US-based Tritium
Two charging stations are in a production facility with people working in the background. The chargers have Tritium logos on the top and BP Pulse logos on the center, and each have two charging plugs.
BP Pulse branded charging stations built by Tritium. | Image: Tritium

BP Pulse, the EV branch of oil and gas conglomerate BP, placed a new order for DC fast chargers from electric vehicle power supply maker Tritium. The companies have not specified how many chargers are in the new order, but Tritium calls it its “largest ever order from a single customer.” The transaction means there will soon be even more available chargers as EV adoption grows and government-mandated deadlines to eliminate combustion cars looms closer.

“We’re looking forward to putting these chargers to work across three continents,” BP Pulse CEO Richard Bartlett states in a press release. BP Pulse currently operates about 60 charging locations in the UK based on its online map and is working to expand in Australia, Europe, and the United States.

BP and Tritium entered a multiyear contract in April last year with a goal of growing BP Pulse’s network of fleet and public-accessible fast charging stations. Tritium recently partnered with DC-America in October to help build a nationwide fast charging network in the US. The American-based company also sells chargers to other customers like Osprey in the UK.

Tritium builds its DC chargers, ones that are capable of 50 and 150 kWh speeds, largely in its plant in Lebanon, Tennessee, that opened in August. It also has a plant in Brisbane, Australia, where it plans to build chargers for BP Pulse deployments that land down under. The company’s US plant is said to be capable of 30,000 units per year “at full maturity,” while the Australian one is capable of 5,000. Tritium did not specify when its plants would reach production capacities.

BP established its footing in the EV charging business through the acquisition of California-based Amply power in 2021, which was then renamed to BP Pulse. Thanks to the former company’s fleet and charging management platform, the new BP Pulse then secured a partnership with Hertz to help build out its EV charging fleet network.

BP’s deals with Hertz and Tritium highlight a growing interest for legacy fossil fuel companies to pivot harder toward supporting EV growth. Just this week, big oil company Shell acquired EV charging network Volta. Both of these transactions just might set a tone for 2023 that electric cars are gaining steam — though some states could get in the way of that.

Samsung Display shows off a new folding phone hinge that can rotate 360 degrees

Samsung Display shows off a new folding phone hinge that can rotate 360 degrees
Samsung Display prototype folded outwards being held in somebody’s hands.
Samsung Display prototype. | Image: Samsung Display

Samsung has a new prototype display that could send its folding phones in a new direction: 360 degrees.

Samsung Display, the subsidiary that makes the company’s screens, showed off the new prototype display and hinge at CES 2023. The “Flex In & Out” display can rotate 360 degrees, meaning it can be folded inward and outward, company spokesperson John Lucas told The Verge in an email.

In addition, the display comes with a different hinge design that supposedly creates a significantly less visible crease. That’s because the “water-drop hinge” could allow the display to form a looser shape — like a waterdrop — when folded inward. This subtler hinge would also put less stress on the display.

Samsung Display prototype folded inwards and on with a less visible crease. Image: Samsung Display
Samsung Display prototype.

It’s not the first time Samsung Display has shown off a “Flex In & Out” prototype embracing the fold-in-all-directions design. In 2021, a “Flex In & Out” display also made an appearance at South Korea’s International Meeting for Information Displays (IMID), reports Tom’s Guide. However, the approach was different, and the display folded like an “S” with multiple segments. As of the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which was released in August 2022, Samsung’s Fold line is still using displays that only fold flat in one direction.

 Image: Samsung Display
The prototype.

It’s possible the new screen could show up in the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, though. Rumors have suggested the device could feature a less visible crease thanks to a similar hinge design.

 Image: Samsung Display
The new hinge (on the bottom) and a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold phone on top.

The design would fix what some see as the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4’s flawed “U”-shaped hinge, which creates a prominent crease. It would also make the Galaxy Z Fold 5 more similar to foldable smartphone rivals with less prominent creases, like the Oppo Find N2 and the third-gen Motorola Razr.

It’s not known yet when Samsung will release the Z Fold 5, though we expect the company to release it alongside the Galaxy Z Flip 5 in August. In the meantime, all eyes are on the new Samsung Galaxy S23 series, which Samsung will launch during its upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event on February 1st.

Twitter officially bans third-party clients with new developer rules

Twitter officially bans third-party clients with new developer rules
An illustration of the Twitter logo.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter has updated its developer rules to ban third-party clients, almost a week after it unceremoniously blocked the apps’ access to its platform, offering almost no explanation to what was going on (via Engadget). The new rules state that you can’t use Twitter’s API or content to “create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications.”

The rules, updated on Thursday, make it clear what that means: “Twitter Applications” refers to the company’s “consumer facing products, services, applications, websites, web pages, platforms, and other offerings, including without limitation, those offered via https://twitter.com and Twitter’s mobile applications.” The clause banning alternative services was added to the rules with the most recent update, according to the Wayback Machine.

The rule change comes after Twitter silently broke several popular third-party Twitter clients like Tweetbot and Twitterific starting on January 12th. At the time, the developers behind the apps (many of which have historically shaped the entire Twitter user experience) said they had received no communication whatsoever from the company about what was happening. Then, on January 17th, the company’s developer account tweeted that it was “enforcing its long-standing API rules,” which “may result in some apps not working.”

The statement was not positively received. Several commentators and developers pointed out the lack of clarity about what rules were actually being broken and the fact that the apps had been running for years before Elon Musk purchased Twitter and started espousing plans to turn it into an “everything app.” In 2021, former Twitter developer platform lead Amir Shevat told me that the company was specifically trying to make it easier for developers to compete with Twitter’s first-party apps with a recent rule change.

“We have been respectful of their API rules, as published, for the past 16 years,” wrote Ged Maheux, a co-founder of Twitterific developer The Iconfactory, in a blog post about the app being down. “We have no knowledge that these rules have changed recently or what those changes might be.”

Craig Hockenberry, principal at Iconfactory, put it more bluntly on his personal blog: “There was no advance notice for its creators, customers just got a weird error, and no one is explaining what’s going on. We had no chance to thank customers who have been with us for over a decade. Instead, it’s just another scene in their ongoing shit show.”

Money is likely one of the reasons behind the rule change and third-party client ban. Twitter has been struggling financially since Musk took over, saddling it with billions in debt, and third-party clients don’t earn it any money. The company doesn’t serve ads via its API, and people using third-party clients may not be as interested in the Twitter Blue subscription service, which mainly adds features to the official Twitter app.

There seemingly hasn’t been any official announcement of the rule change, either from Twitter Dev or Elon Musk. Twitter doesn’t have a communications department to contact.

James Dyson attacks Rishi Sunak’s ‘shortsighted, stupid’ tax policies

James Dyson attacks Rishi Sunak’s ‘shortsighted, stupid’ tax policies

UK entrepreneur says economic strategy has left Britain in a ‘Covid inertia’ and calls for growth plan

Sir James Dyson, the billionaire businessperson, has launched a withering attack on Rishi Sunak’s government, saying its “shortsighted” and “stupid” economic policies have left the country in a state of “Covid inertia”.

The founder of the eponymous vacuum cleaner firm said “growth has become a dirty word” under the current leadership and that on current trends, the average British family will be poorer than their Polish counterpart by 2030.

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mercredi 18 janvier 2023

TikTok is overrun by amateur sleuths – so which clues should I leave in case I go missing? | Michael Sun

TikTok is overrun by amateur sleuths – so which clues should I leave in case I go missing? | Michael Sun

Everyone from awkward boyfriends to supposedly nefarious fiances are being held to account. The jurors? A million deranged zoomers

If I was a more dedicated podcast listener, I am certain I would be a nutter for true crime, a genre with which I share many core values: a zeal for prying into the lives of total strangers, a generally melodramatic way of talking, an overactive imagination which crafts grand, paranoid narratives from the most quotidian of events. (These are also the traits of anyone who did theatre in high school.)

TikTok, apparently, agrees. When Serial exploded the genre in 2014, the power of amateur sleuths – and the sway they possessed over the real-world results of justice – was still a novelty. Now, nearly a decade on, new mysteries sweep through TikTok at dizzying pace. Everyone from awkward boyfriends to supposedly nefarious fiances are held to account on the platform by users conducting their own frenzied investigations, hoping to catch their suspects cheating, philandering and premeditating. The jurors: a million deranged zoomers. The tone: nothing short of fever pitch – the type that accompanies all good conspiracy theories.

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Amazon’s OSHA fine for warehouse safety violations could be about $60K

Amazon’s OSHA fine for warehouse safety violations could be about $60K
Illustration of Amazon’s wordmark on an orange, black, and tan background made up of overlapping lines.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, has issued a citation against Amazon, alleging that the company violated safety laws and failed to keep workers in three warehouses safe. The regulator has also proposed $60,269 in penalties related to the violations — a drop in the bucket for a company that recorded over $127 billion in sales during the third quarter of 2022 alone but a relatively high penalty compared to many of the ones it faced from OSHA before.

According to a press release, the citation stems from inspections at three warehouses located in Deltona, Florida, Waukegan, Illinois, and New Windsor, New York. OSHA says that Amazon “exposed workers to ergonomic, struck-by hazards” in the location, putting them at “high risk for lower back injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders.”

Doug Parker, assistant secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, laid part of the blame on the pace that Amazon sets for its warehouse employees. “Each of these inspections found work processes that were designed for speed but not safety,” he said, pointing out that the system at the warehouses seemed geared toward getting packages shipped out rather than worker safety.

It’s a criticism Amazon has faced for years, including from OSHA itself. Last year, advocacy group The Strategic Organizing Center released a report saying that Amazon workers make up a disproportionately high percentage of all warehouse industry injuries in the US. Outside of the warehouse, a 2019 report from Buzzfeed and ProPublica accused the company of trading safety for speed in its delivery network, and that point was reiterated last year by the SOC.

A statement from the activist group Athena Coalition quotes Daniel Olayiwola, an Amazon warehouse worker in San Antonio: “OSHA’s findings are a reflection of the experience of Amazon workers like me in warehouses all over the country.” Olayiwola says that workers have been “speaking out for years about the grueling pace of work and exploitative policies that directly cause burnout, severe stress on our bodies, and unsafe situations.”

For its part, Amazon doesn’t agree with OSHA’s latest allegations. “We take the safety and health of our employees very seriously, and we strongly disagree with these allegations and intend to appeal,” reads a statement from spokesperson Kelly Nantel. “We’ve cooperated fully, and the government’s allegations don’t reflect the reality of safety at our sites.” Nantel also cites an improvement in the company’s injury rates between 2019 and 2021 (a claim similar to one Amazon made in response to the 2022 SOC report) and says that “We look forward to sharing more during our appeal about the numerous safety innovations, process improvements, and investments we’re making to further reduce injuries.”

According to OSHA, Amazon received citations for 14 record-keeping violations last year for “failing to record injuries and illnesses, misclassifying injuries and illnesses, not recording injuries and illnesses within the required time, and not providing OSHA with timely injury and illness records.” Those came with proposed fines of around $29,008 and were part of the same investigation as the citations announced Wednesday.

The regulator dinging Amazon is rare but not unheard of. The company received a citation in 2015 for failing to properly record work-related injuries and illnesses, as well as a handful of covid-related citations in 2020.

OSHA says that it’s also conducting investigations at three other Amazon warehouses in Aurora, Colorado, Nampa, Idaho, and Castleton, New York, after the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York referred it to do so last summer.

Cyber-attacks have tripled in past year, says Ukraine’s cybersecurity agency

Cyber-attacks have tripled in past year, says Ukraine’s cybersecurity agency

UK security minister Tom Tugendhat warns of ‘persistent threat’ of Russian attacks on country’s infrastructure

Ukraine has suffered a threefold growth in cyber-attacks over the past year, with Russian hacking at times deployed in combination with missile strikes, according to a senior figure in the country’s cybersecurity agency.

The attacks from Russia have often taken the form of destructive, disk-erasing wiper malware, said Viktor Zhora, a leading figure in the country’s SSSCIP agency, with “in some cases, cyber-attacks supportive to kinetic effects”.

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Apple is reportedly working on an iPad-like smart display

Apple is reportedly working on an iPad-like smart display
Image of the Apple logo surrounded by gray, pink, and green outlines
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Apple is working on a brand-new slew of smart home devices, at least according to a report by Bloomberg.

In addition to the very similar but Matter-equipped relaunch of the original HomePod, Apple appears to be pushing deeper into the home space with a smaller display akin to a Google Nest Hub or Amazon’s Echo Show. According to sources close to the discussions, the device would be similar to an iPad but less expensive, oriented toward home use, and would include a magnet for mounting. The device would appear to be more limited in scope than an iPad and would mainly be used for FaceTime chats, as well as controlling other smart home devices. Here’s hoping it can solve the multi-user problem that makes current iPads unpleasant for home control use. There have also been talks about larger smart home displays down the line.

An image of a Google Nest Hub. Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Apple’s new display seems to be aimed squarely at offerings by Google and Amazon

In addition, Apple appears to be exploring a refresh of the Apple TV with a faster processor for the first half of 2024, but the device will not support 8k. The combination HomePod / Apple TV project also appears to have suffered setbacks but is still in the works, according to the source. The smart displays are still a long way away and will not launch until early next year or possibly later.

Hey, maybe with those magnets in the back, I could snap it to the fridge and make it a smart fridge.

A Space for the Unbound review – Indonesian school adventure has a fantastical twist

A Space for the Unbound review – Indonesian school adventure has a fantastical twist

PC, Mac, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch (version played); Mojiken Studio/Toge Productions
The story of Atma and his reality-warping girlfriend Raya demonstrates a flair for the dramatic and will keep you guessing right up to the end

The video game charts tend to be dominated by titles from US, European and Japanese studios, and as such the games we play are awash with those cultural influences. So it’s a welcome treat to play something from an Indonesian developer, infused with less familiar references. For example, I now know that keroncong is a genre of music based around a ukulele-like instrument.

A Space for the Unbound tells the tale of Atma and Raya, two high-school students growing up in late-90s Indonesia. In many ways it’s similar to Attack of the Friday Monsters!, a much-loved, nostalgia-heavy 2013 Nintendo DS title about children exploring their Japanese home town in the 1970s. Like that game, A Space for the Unbound’s beautiful anime art style captures the spirit of idyllic childhood memories, where it’s always summer and the sky is forever cerulean blue. It also shares a penchant for the fantastical, blurring the line between the imaginary and real.

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Logitech’s new $69.99 webcam is a stylish alternative to its aging C920s

Logitech’s new $69.99 webcam is a stylish alternative to its aging C920s
Logitech Brio 300 webcam mounted to a monitor.
Logitech’s new Brio 300 webcam. | Image: Logitech

Logitech is adding a new webcam to its Brio lineup in the form of the Brio 300. At $69.99 (£74.99), it’s at the low end of Logitech’s Brio lineup and only offers up to 1080p / 30fps capture rather than 4K / 30fps or 1080 / 60fps like the $199.99 Brio 4K Pro. It has a single microphone built in and is available in a choice of gray, off-white, or pink. Alongside the Brio 300, Logitech has also announced a business-focused variant, the Brio 305.

The Brio 300’s price and specs put it in the same ballpark as Logitech’s ubiquitous C920s Pro HD webcam, which also has an MSRP of $69.99. But the Brio 300 benefits from a sleeker, more modern design and a neatly integrated privacy shutter that can be manually swiveled around to cover its camera when not in use. The C920s Pro HD still has a privacy shutter, but its design is nowhere near as neat.

Animation of Brio 300 privacy shutter. Image: Logitech
There’s a built-in privacy shutter for when you’re not using the webcam.

The Brio 300 connects via USB-C, which is something to bear in mind if your computer only has USB-A ports available. But based on people’s experiences with Logitech’s other USB-C webcams, you should be able to use a USB-C to USB-A adaptor as a workaround. (Just remember to factor in the price of buying an adaptor.) We’ve followed up with Logitech to confirm this will work.

Versus the $129.99 Brio 500, the Brio 300 lacks stereo microphones, has a narrower 70-degree field of view (versus 90 degrees on the Brio 500), and there’s no mention of support for Logitech’s auto-framing feature. But at nearly half the price of the Brio 500, these could be tradeoffs worth making if you’re on a tighter budget.

The Brio 300 is on sale now.

mardi 17 janvier 2023

Samsung will unveil two ‘premium’ mobile devices at Unpacked, says TM Roh

Samsung will unveil two ‘premium’ mobile devices at Unpacked, says TM Roh
Samsung S22 Ultra on a chess board with rear facing upward.
The Galaxy S22 Ultra marked a turn in the product line’s evolution as it gobbled up the Note series. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Samsung has just published a blog post by TM Roh setting the stage for February 1st, when the company will hold its first in-person launch event since the start of the pandemic. Roh doesn’t offer many concrete details but specifically mentions improvements to its smartphone camera system and tells us to expect two new devices that “set the new premium standard for innovation.”

Reading between the lines, it looks like that means two new Ultra devices — a lot like last year when we got the Note-esque S22 Ultra and massive Tab S8 Ultra tablet.

TM Roh:

For Samsung, Ultra means big. Ultra means bold. Ultra means the best of the best in performance.

To take everyday experiences further, we redefine the essentials.

The upcoming Galaxy is all about camera, performance and sustainability. That’s why our pro-grade camera system is getting smarter. Our performance is getting more powerful.

And our connectivity is getting more seamless.

Our upcoming Galaxy redefines performance and quality, which is how we build on your trust.

Between this blog post, previous leaks, and an earlier hint from Samsung, it seems highly likely that we’ll see the company’s new 200-megapixel sensor in the S23 Ultra. Leaks and rumors also point to a brighter display, a second periscope telephoto lens, and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 at the center of it all (at least in the US). The S22 Ultra already has one of our favorite mobile cameras of the past year, so we’ll be very interested to see what these camera updates look like.

As for the other Ultra, it’s very likely to be a Galaxy Book; Samsung’s preorder reservation site lists Galaxy Smartphone and Galaxy Book options (or both if you’re an overachiever).

Roh breaks down Samsung’s definition of Ultra like this: “For Samsung, Ultra means big. Ultra means bold. Ultra means the best of the best in performance.” But maybe in this next generation, Ultra will take on another informal definition: “has a stylus.” The S22 Ultra absorbed the Note and its S Pen integration, and it would make sense for a Galaxy Book with the Ultra name to carry the stylus integration through. All will be revealed soon enough: on February 1st, it’ll be pencils down as we find out exactly what Samsung has to offer.

Want a Giant Neon Twitter Bird? It’s One of Many Items Up for Auction.

Want a Giant Neon Twitter Bird? It’s One of Many Items Up for Auction. The company’s artwork, high-end furniture and espresso machines are for sale in an online auction that evoked a more flush era when its tastes reflected its status as a hot tech-world employer.

Google reportedly working on AirTag-like location trackers

Google reportedly working on AirTag-like location trackers
Google logo with colorful shapes
Leaks suggest Google is working on its own first-party tracking tags to use alongside its in-development Finder Network. | Illustration: The Verge

Google is reportedly working on a location tracking tag to compete with the likes of Apple’s AirTags and Tile trackers, according to developer (and reliable leaker) Kuba Wojciechowski. Wojciechowski discovered references that indicate Google is working on support for locator tags in Fast Pair — Google’s method for quickly pairing nearby Bluetooth devices — and claims in a Twitter thread that Google is developing its own first-party tracker to use with the feature (seen via Sammobile).

The tracker, according to Wojciechowski, is codenamed “Grogu” (the name of the baby Yoda character from the Star Wars series The Mandalorian) alongside the alternate names “GR10” and “Groguaudio,” and is currently being developed by the Google Nest team. That doesn’t mean it’ll launch as a Nest-branded product, but Wojciechowski suggests the tracker might be released in multiple color options and include an onboard speaker to help users locate a missing device via sound, similar to that of an Apple AirTag.

Wojciechowski also claims that the “Grogu” trackers could support Bluetooth LE and ultra-wideband (UWB). Google’s flagship Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro mobile devices both support UWB connectivity, but its application so far has been limited to features like Nearby Share. While UWB offers far greater precision than Bluetooth for locating lost items, providing the ability to show both distance estimations and directions to a tag, Wojciechowski claims that “Even though Google’s tracker most likely has UWB, it’s not a requirement for the “Finder Network” they’re working on — BLE is enough.”

Wojciechowski estimates that Google may announce the product during the Google I/O Developer Conference sometime in May 2023 and that the trackers could be released alongside new Pixel devices during a Google event in the fall.

The Last of Us review – one of the finest TV shows you will see this year

The Last of Us review – one of the finest TV shows you will see this year

This desperately moving drama set in a zombie-ravaged US is a phenomenal blend of horror and heart, with a cast that could not be more perfect

The Last of Us recap episode one – welcome to the mushroom apocalypse!

What if it wasn’t a flu-like virus that threatened the existence of humankind, but a parasitic fungus that used rising temperatures to evolve and switch hosts, from ants to humans? That is the terrifying premise of The Last of Us, another post-apocalyptic prestige drama in a TV landscape that, for understandable reasons, is stuffed with game-over scenarios. While its zombie skeleton brings immediate comparisons to The Walking Dead, its beating heart is more in line with last year’s Station Eleven, with which it shares a surprisingly steady and meditative pace.

Much has been made of its origins as a video game, in part because the source material looked as if it might offer the best chance yet of a convincing transition from console to screen. The series was adapted by the game’s creator, Neil Druckmann, and Chernobyl’s showrunner, Craig Mazin, a combination that suggested it might buck the trend of video games reworked into another format. (Thirty years on, the Super Mario Bros film is still cited as a cautionary tale.)

The Last of Us is on Sky Atlantic and Now in the UK, HBO in the US and Binge and Foxtel in Australia.

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Elon Musk Faces Trial Over His 2018 Plan to Take Tesla Private

Elon Musk Faces Trial Over His 2018 Plan to Take Tesla Private Investors are seeking billions of dollars in damages for their losses after Mr. Musk posted a proposal on Twitter that never materialized.

Samsung new 200-megapixel camera sensor is almost certainly inside the new Galaxy S23 Ultra

Samsung new 200-megapixel camera sensor is almost certainly inside the new Galaxy S23 Ultra
An illustration of the new camera sensor.
Samsung’s new sensor, the ISOCELL HP2. | Image: Samsung

The Samsung ISOCELL HP2 is a new 200-megapixel camera sensor whose specs precisely match what’s rumored to be in the Galaxy S23 Ultra. These include a size of 1/1.3” and 0.6-micrometer (μm) pixels. It’s been announced just weeks before the Galaxy S23 Ultra is widely expected to be unveiled on February 9th.

Samsung has been producing 200-megapixel sensors for years, but so far it’s yet to include such a high resolution sensor on its own flagship smartphones. Last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra, for example, included a 108-megapixel sensor for its main camera, but its new sensor almost doubles the resolution. Here’s my colleague Allison Johnson on why this matters:

It’s not all about big numbers; moving to higher-pixel-count sensors has real image quality benefits. In this chapter of the megapixel race, it’s all about pixel binning. Samsung already employs this with its 108-megapixel sensor, and taking a super high-res photo isn’t the point — rather, combining individual pixels into four-by-four or two-by-two configurations is.

Binning pixels like this increases their effective size, allowing them to gather more light and detail. So the ISOCELL HP2 can bin every four pixels to effectively make them 1.2μm in size and produce 50-megapixel images, or bin 16 for even larger 2.4μm pixels and 12.5-megapixel images. This 1.2μm mode is used to record 8K video at 30fps, and the sensor also supports filming in 4K HDR at 60fps.

Away from raw specs, the sensor uses a new technology Samsung is calling “Dual Vertical Transfer Gate” which it says helps the sensor reduce overexposure and produce better colors in bright conditions. Meanwhile in low light it’s equipped with “Super QPD” for faster auto-focusing.

Samsung says the new sensor has already entered mass production — just in time for the launch of its upcoming flagship smartphone.

lundi 16 janvier 2023

The Last of Us: TV finally has the perfect video game adaptation

The Last of Us: TV finally has the perfect video game adaptation

Inspired casting, excellent acting, hugely inventive storytelling … no console-to-screen journey has ever been this good. And it’s one of the year’s best television shows to boot

The Last of Us came out in 2013 on the PlayStation 3 and is considered one of the best video games ever made. I know this because the week it came out I drew the curtains on the front room of my shared house, forbade all of my housemates from entering the zone unless they were going to watch in reverent silence, and completed it.

In the game you play Joel – finally, some Joel representation! – through a post-apocalyptic US, 20 years after a pandemic event. Every human you encounter is trying to stab you or scavenge bullets off you or recruit you to one side of a conflict between the citizen army and the underground uprising. Every monster you meet is infected with a brain fungus that makes them blind, bulbous and very bitey. But what made the game stand out was the story: Joel is escorting Ellie, a fungus-proof teenage girl and humanity’s last hope, across a long trail that will take them both to safety. The classic dynamic – gruff old-timer, chatty teen innocent – softens and deepens as they crawl further into the sprawl of what’s left of the world. I really liked it; a lot of dyed-in-the-wool players felt there was too much story. Where’s Sonic! Where’s the infinite ammo machine gun! Where’s the open map with infinite exploration! This sucks!

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The Hottest Robots at CES Had Nvidia Brains

The Hottest Robots at CES Had Nvidia Brains
robot
Robotics has advanced considerably over the last decade, partially thanks to the leading work Nvidia has done with autonomous vehicles, much of which translated into autonomous robotics. This year at CES, the top robots all seemed to have Nvidia brains, starting with a robotic tractor from John Deere and ending with GlüxKind, an AI-powered baby stroller I want to buy for my aging dog. The post The Hottest Robots at CES Had Nvidia Brains appeared first on TechNewsWorld.

Games Done Quick charity speedrun event raises $2.6 million

Games Done Quick charity speedrun event raises $2.6 million
The Awesome Games Done Quick logo
A total of $2,642,493 was raised over AGDQ 2023 for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. | Image: Games Done Quick

Games Done Quick has raised more than $2.6 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation at its first video game speedrunning event of 2023. While falling short of matching the $3.4 million raised during AGDQ 2022 last year, the cash raised at AGDC 2023 brings the total amount raised for charity to date by Games Done Quick to $43 million (seen via Kotaku).

The organization, which holds two charity video game marathons each year — Awesome Games Done Quick in January, and Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ), usually held in late June or early July — announced the total sum raised on Twitter, alongside the hashtag “#ThankYouMike.” Games Done Quick founder Mike Uyama announced last week that he would be stepping down from the charity after 13 years due to health reasons, making AGDQ 2023 likely to be his last event for a while.

The online AGDQ 2023 event was livestreamed on Twitch between January 8th and 15th, and featured some of the world’s most talented speedrunners. Four speedrunning world records were broken during the event, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (co-op Any% Arcade Old Patch by Benja and Paul-Knives) and Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Any% with Bank Run by Jhay). Videos of other speedrunning records and footage from the wider event can be found on the Games Done Quick YouTube channel.

The January event was originally intended to be the first in-person event for GDQ in three years, scheduled to take place in Florida in front of a live audience. The organization later decided to remain online only, alluding to the state’s covid policies and “increased aggression” towards LGBTQ+ individuals. “We do not believe it is a safe place for our community at this time,” said GDQ via an announcement on its website.

Monday’s top tech news: Twitter’s third-party client ban seems like no accident

Monday’s top tech news: Twitter’s third-party client ban seems like no accident
The Twitter logo on a red and black background.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Plus new rumors about the fifth Galaxy Fold.

Although Twitter is yet to issue an official statement on why most major third-party clients broke last week, it increasingly seems as though the outage is intentional. The Information reported over the weekend that the outage is no accident, meaning Twitter has effectively just kneecapped several apps designed to help people use its service without having the decency to let their developers know. I think John Gruber says it best when he calls this behavior “absurdly disrespectful.

ICYMI, my colleague Alex Heath wrote up an interesting analysis piece about who in the world could actually be brought in to lead Twitter if and when Elon Musk steps down as CEO.

In gadget news, Samsung is reportedly developing a new hinge design for its fifth-generation Galaxy Fold device (due to be announced later this summer) that could decrease its visible screen crease when unfolded. I’m generally of the opinion that display creases aren’t particularly visible when you’re actually using existing foldables, but making them less visible should help the devices feel more premium.

For now, here’s a silly tweet to start your day.

Stay tuned, as we continue to update this list with the most important news of today: Monday, January 16th, 2023.

Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach

Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach With the rise of the popular new chatbot ChatGPT, colleges are restructuring some courses and taking preventive measures.

Lawyers Barred by Madison Square Garden Found a Way Back In

Lawyers Barred by Madison Square Garden Found a Way Back In MSG Entertainment resorted to facial recognition technology to kick out legal foes, but some have undermined the ban using a law passed to protect theater critics in 1941.

Guardian confirms it was hit by ransomware attack

Guardian confirms it was hit by ransomware attack

Media firm says personal data of UK staff members was accessed in ‘highly sophisticated’ cyber-attack last month

The Guardian has confirmed it was hit by a ransomware attack in December and that the personal data of UK staff members has been accessed in the incident.

The Guardian Media Group’s chief executive, Anna Bateson, and the Guardian’s editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, confirmed the news in an update emailed to staff on Wednesday afternoon.

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dimanche 15 janvier 2023

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 may finally get the crease right

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 may finally get the crease right
An image showing the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 in an unfolded state
The crease is still pretty noticeable on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

The upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 could come with a much less visible crease thanks to a potential design change. According to a report on the Korean site Naver, Samsung could adopt a “droplet”-style hinge that allows the display to form a teardrop shape when closed, making for a much gentler curve that leaves less of a crease (via SamMobile).

While Samsung has certainly made improvements to the crease over the years, it’s still pretty noticeable on its fourth-gen foldables. Both the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 use a “U”-shaped hinge design that puts the display at a sharper angle when closed. This creates a more prominent crease and also puts more stress on the display.

Other folding smartphones have already transitioned to a droplet-style hinge to avoid these issues, like the Oppo Find N2, which has a noticeably unnoticeable crease when unfolded, along with the third-gen Motorola Razr.

 Image: Samsung Electronics via Naver
This is the droplet display Samsung patented in 2016.

As noted by Naver, Samsung initially patented a teardrop hinge in 2016, although we don’t know why it hasn’t decided to utilize it until now. SamMobile speculates that Samsung wanted to wait until it could bring an IPX8 water resistance rating to the new display, which it first introduced to its third-gen folding devices in 2021. That could help makes Samsung’s folding phones stand out against Oppo’s Find N2 and the Motorola Razr, as neither device is rated for water resistance.

In addition to a more subtle crease, Naver reports that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 design could also make both halves of the display sit flat against each other when the phone’s shut, unlike previous generations of the Galaxy Z Fold that leave a small gap. This should (hopefully) make the device a little bit easier to fit in your pocket.

It’s still not clear whether Samsung will bring the droplet-style hinge to the Galaxy Z Flip 5, and we’re going to have to wait a bit longer to find out, as Samsung’s expected to reveal the new folding phones in August. At least we have next month’s Galaxy Unpacked event to look forward to, where the company will likely take the wraps off the Galaxy S23.

Tweetbot is (mostly) working again

Tweetbot is (mostly) working again
An illustration of the Twitter logo.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Tweetbot is mostly up and running after an outage locked users out of major third-party Twitter clients. While users can now sign in to Tweetbot and browse through tweets, some say they still can’t post anything to Twitter through the service without getting an error message stating they’ve reached a “data limit.”

The client isn’t back online because of anything that Twitter did, though. Tweetbot co-creator Paul Haddad tells The Verge that they still haven’t heard anything from Twitter, so they’ve “decided to start using new API keys and see if it fixes the problem.” This could allow Tweetbot to temporarily avoid any disruptions to the service, even if it puts it in a semi-working state.

As pointed out by iOS developers Mysk, Tweetbot is likely having issues because it’s using different API keys that put significantly lower limits on its activity. “Twitter API restricts new apps to low limits,” Mysk explains. “All Tweetbot users now share a limit of 300 posts per 15 minutes.”

Things started breaking last Thursday when users noticed that they no longer had access to third-party Twitter apps, including Tweetbot, Twitterific, and the Android version of Fenix. Despite widespread confusion, Twitter and CEO Elon Musk have yet to acknowledge the outage publicly, nor have they reached out to developers to let them know what’s going on. Meanwhile, Twitterific and Fenix on Android are still suspended.

According to a report from The Information, Twitter may have disabled third-party apps purposefully. Internal messages viewed by the outlet reveal a senior software engineer saying that the outage is “intentional.” Another message reportedly says Twitter’s getting ready to issue statements to developers affected by the outage, although it’s unclear when that’ll be ready.

Max, Hulu, and Paramount Plus are all heavily discounted for Black Friday

Max, Hulu, and Paramount Plus are all heavily discounted for Black Friday Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge If you’re looking to ...