Technology

samedi 11 mars 2023

This smart oven solved my work-from-home lunchtime conundrum

Tovala reinvents the TV dinner with its connected oven combined with a meal delivery service that cooks healthy, delicious meals in under 20 minutes. But as a smart oven, it’s a disappointment.

The one thing no one tells you about working from home is that you have to make your own lunch. And my midday eating habits have become dire. It’s hard to whip up something in 10 minutes that’s healthy, tastes good, and doesn’t exist between two slices of bread — I hate sandwiches, and I don’t live near any quick lunch spots. I’ve tried all sorts of “easy” options — ready-to-eat supermarket offerings to bland and soggy microwave meals — only to be disappointed, as I always am by TV dinner-style options. Then, I met the Tovala Smart Oven Air Fryer.

Tovala’s latest oven is a $250 smart countertop appliance designed to cook the company’s fresh meal kits perfectly. A built-in scanner lets you just pop the food in, scan a QR code that comes with the kit, and in under 20 minutes, a tasty meal is ready. The oven can also scan a selection of store-bought groceries and works as a standard countertop oven.

The Tovala meals were really good, transforming my weekday meal experiences from an unsatisfying hassle to simple and yummy. I enjoyed Italian sausage and vegetable minestrone on Wednesday, tandoori spiced chicken breast on Thursday, a Korean BBQ salmon bowl on Friday (this was so tasty), and a sweet hoisin beef and veggie bowl the following Monday.

But I didn’t find the oven’s scan-to-cook feature all that helpful outside of Tovala’s meals. With no option to customize the preset cooking functions, I was occasionally left with food that was slightly undercooked for my taste. As an air fryer, the Tovala was nowhere near as good as my $100 Ninja, and it was also underwhelming as a smart oven. (Although, as a category, smart ovens are still finding their way.)

I tested Tovala’s newest model, the Smart Oven Air Fryer ($249). The Wi-Fi-connected oven can toast, air fry (it comes with a basket), bake, reheat, and broil. It’s the company’s third model following its launch on Kickstarter in 2017. Tovala also sells the Tovala Smart Oven Pro ($299, with the addition of a steam oven).

Tovala’s meal kits are what make the Tovala Smart Oven worth buying, and you can really only cook those meals with the Tovala oven — there are no instructions for cooking them any other way. You can buy the oven for just $99 if you sign up for six weeks’ worth of meals — which start at around $60 a week plus shipping — over six months.

It’s not that the Tovala oven can only cook Tovala meals — I could scan to cook various brand-name groceries, follow along with some recipes in the app to make my own dishes from scratch, or just use it as a regular oven. But it’s much better at cooking the Tovala meals than anything else, which makes this more of a meal kit subscription with a connected oven than a true smart oven.

While the concept of a smart oven is still being refined, I expected more than just preprogrammed recipes. The cooking function here is probably the smartest thing about it — custom cook cycles switch between multiple cooking modes and different temperatures automatically.

*The Tovala comes with an air fry basket, a sheet tray, and an oven glove.*

Compared to, say, a June smart oven, which uses AI to identify food and cook it accurately, the Tovala is less impressive (also several hundred dollars cheaper). The Tovala’s only smart home integration is Siri Shortcuts (no Alexa or Google Assistant voice control). App control is limited to sending a program to the oven and getting an alert when it’s done. You can’t start or stop the oven remotely or adjust temperatures on the fly as you can with other connected cookers.

I also couldn’t sync the oven with any of my favorite recipe apps or another meal delivery service — not even to send the correct temperature to the oven. Ecosystem lock-in isn’t unusual in the smart kitchen space, where cross-platform compatibility is fragmented and spotty. But all I want is a smart oven that I can send any recipe to and then cook it with the push of a button with no programming required. Why is that so hard?

While the Tovala does let you manually program any recipe to the oven using the app, its smart features work best with its own food. After testing the oven for two weeks, I would recommend buying it if you plan to use the meal kits at least occasionally, but not as a standalone smart oven.

Tovala’s fresh meals are excellent and easy to cook

*You cook all the parts of the Tovala meal kit at the same time by just scanning a QR code and pressing start.*

Tovala supplied me with eight meals during my test period, delivered fresh to my door in well-thought-out packaging. And everything was very good. Not only were the dishes easy to make but also there were actual flavor profiles, great texture combinations, and plenty of add-ons to make each meal look and taste varied and interesting.

The oven also cooked everything perfectly — doing a better job in a shorter time than I could have managed if I had tried to make any of these from scratch. I enjoyed what tasted like a home-cooked meal every lunchtime with little to no effort on my part. That’s a win in my book.

Unlike some meal delivery services, there’s no chopping, marinading, preheating, or prepping — you put it all in the oven at once, press a button, and out comes a perfectly cooked meal. It’s the microwave oven meal reimagined to taste better. This is clearly a need in the category; Blue Apron recently added ready-to-cook meals, and many services now offer prep-free options.

With Tovala, everything — carbohydrate, protein, veggies — goes in simultaneously (sometimes in different containers). The oven uses custom cook cycles that switch between multiple cooking modes and different temperatures to cook every part of the meal perfectly. Then, once done, you assemble it on a plate or bowl and eat.

For example, to make the pictured Korean BBQ salmon bowl, I unpacked the small brown box that contained everything I needed, including a recipe card, a piece of vacuum-wrapped salmon, a bag of broccoli, some sauce packets, and two aluminum trays, one of which had uncooked rice in it.

Following the directions on the included card (which are also in the Tovala app), I put the broccoli in the tray with the rice, put the salmon in the other tray, and covered it with the sauce. Both trays went in the oven, and I scanned the QR code.

Seventeen minutes later, out came perfectly cooked rice and just-right salmon. I assembled everything in a bowl, stirred in the provided sesame sauce, and added the optional toppings of pickled cucumbers and crunchy noodles.

*The Korean BBQ salmon bowl was very good.*

The app sent a notification to my phone when the dish was done — so I could keep working until the food was ready and then sit down and enjoy my meal rather than spending 20 minutes cooking and trying to eat quickly to get back to work. The one hiccup I had was that the scanning function only works with an internet connection. My Wi-Fi went down one lunchtime, and I couldn’t cook the meal kit by scanning the code. I did eventually find some instructions for cooking without Wi-Fi on the Tovala support site (and the oven still works as a regular oven without internet).

Overall, it was so easy that I wished I could use it for dinner, too, but the Tovala service isn’t designed for my family of four. You can only cook up to two portions at a time, making it best suited for one or two people. But it worked as a solo lunchtime option, and I was impressed with the quality and taste.

The meal service is also not cheap. Meals start at $10 each, and most are around $13. There’s a minimum of four meals per week (with a maximum of 16), and including the flat rate of $10 shipping, my four meals cost $60 to $70 per week, around $15 to $17 per meal. That’s much more expensive than a $4 Trader Joe’s frozen chicken tikka masala — but also way tastier and more filling. It’s also cheaper and, on balance, probably healthier than Uber Eats or Grubhub. The menu choices were limited, though, especially if you’re a vegetarian or on any restricted diet. It doesn’t appear to have the breadth of options of some bigger meal services.

As a smart oven, Tovala isn’t so hot

*The Tovala is a pretty standard countertop oven.*

While the oven costs $250 as a standalone purchase, you don’t need to use Tovala’s meal kits or commit to any subscription to use it, so it’s something of a bargain for a smart oven. The June smart oven starts at $900 and the Brava at $1,295. Then there are highly rated “smart” countertop ovens, like the Breville Smart Oven Pro, for around $300. These generally aren’t connected but are more advanced than your standard toaster oven, with preset cooking options, multiple cooking modes, and other features that make cooking easier.

However, all of these options are, first and foremost, very good ovens — the June (which I have tested) and the Brava (which I have not) deploy innovative heating techniques for faster cook times. (The Brava can cook three zones independently.) The Breville is a very well-reviewed oven. It’s a Wirecutter favorite, and my parents have one and love it.

Compared to these ovens, the Tovala felt a bit basic, which shouldn’t be surprising for the price. The times I ventured outside of the meal kits, the results were disappointing. My Eggo waffles were underdone — despite scanning the Eggo box, as were my MorningStar Mozzarella Sticks.

*The Tovala’s air fryer mode was no match for my Ninja. The nuggets on the right were from the Tovala, and the ones on the left were from the Ninja.*

Air frying was lackluster compared to my Ninja Air Fryer. I cooked chicken nuggets in both at the same temperature and for the same amount of time, and the Ninja won hands down. The Tovala specifically bills itself as an air fryer, so this was a disappointment.

Tovala also offers step-by-step recipes in its app for making dishes from scratch. There is a decent selection, and this would be handy for beginner chefs. I didn’t get a chance to test many of these out, as I was feeding four to six people each night, and this oven just can’t handle that. But I did use it for a few side dishes and found the reheat button useful — this also cycles through cooking modes and does a better job than my microwave at evenly reheating and crisping up leftovers.

The couple of Tovala recipes I did try weren’t super successful, however. My deviled eggs popped and leaked all over the oven, and when I tried a second batch, the preset cook cycle wouldn’t let me shorten the cooking time. And the air-fried carrots came out distinctly soggy rather than nicely crisp.

While I like the oven’s simple physical controls (no fiddly touchscreen), I found them a bit limiting. For example, I couldn’t dial in a specific temperature; it only allowed me to enter in temperatures in 25-degree increments, so 375 or 400 degrees Fahrenheit and nothing in between.

*The Tovala Oven has simple, easy-to-use physical controls and a very handy reheat button.*

For a single person or a couple who likes fresh food but is too busy to shop and cook, Tovala offers a useful solution if you’re fine with a more basic countertop oven outside of cooking Tovala meals. (This is not the oven to try if you want to give air frying a whirl.) While there are plenty of other meal kit options out there, the added convenience of an oven that’s specially programmed to cook your meal to perfection takes all the prep and guesswork out of the process.

As a lunch option for a busy work-from-home mom, the Tovala is very tempting. If it could replace my Ninja, this would be a must-buy for me. But my chicken nugget eater roundly rejected Tovala’s attempts to cook her favorite food, and I don’t have room for two countertop ovens. And what is parenting, if not many small sacrifices?

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

For Palestinian Tech Worker in Israel, Pride, Frustration and 4-Hour Commute

For Palestinian Tech Worker in Israel, Pride, Frustration and 4-Hour Commute Moha Alshawamreh is among the few Palestinians who work in Israel’s tech industry. His commute shows both the inequities of life in the West Bank and an exception to them.

vendredi 10 mars 2023

Tesla cuts prices for its most expensive electric vehicles to drive demand

Cuts range from 4% on performance version of Model S to 9% on more expensive Model X

Tesla has cut prices on its two most expensive electric vehicles in the United States, according to the company’s website, days after its chief executive, Elon Musk, said recent price cuts on other models had stoked demand.

The price cuts, Tesla’s fifth adjustment since the start of the year, ranged from 4% on the performance version of the Model S to 9% on the more expensive Model X.

A Representative Goes to A.I. School, and How to Ban TikTok

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jeudi 9 mars 2023

Meta is cutting its Reels Play bonus program on Instagram and Facebook

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Short-form video creators on Instagram and Facebook will soon lose one way of making money on the platforms.

Meta is ending its Reels Play bonus program, which rewards content creators when they hit certain goals for views on their videos. The change, first reported by Business Insider, will affect creators on Facebook and US creators on Instagram. The company won’t offer any new or renewed Reels Play bonus deals, but will honor existing commitments over the next 30 days, according to Business Insider.

“We are evolving the test of our Reels Play bonus on Instagram and Facebook as we focus on investing in a suite of monetization solutions to help creators earn steady streams of income,” Paige Cohen, a Meta spokesperson, told The Verge in an email. “We will look into ways to run the program in a more targeted form, for example in potential new markets.”

The Reels bonus program has had its ups and downs since Meta launched it in 2021 to try to compete with TikTok. Initially, creators saw huge payouts — sometimes tens of thousands of dollars. But over the course of 2022, some creators reported that payments had been shrinking and that it was becoming harder to make the same amount in bonuses.

Cohen noted that creators can still earn money through things like subscriptions and brand partnerships. The Reels bonuses were part of Meta’s two-year, $1 billion pool of money that the company promised would go to creators through 2022.

Similar incentives at other companies have also slowly been shrinking. There was something of a gold rush on Snapchat in 2020 when the company announced it would pay $1 million a day for hit content on its TikTok-esque feature, Spotlight. That amount was gradually cut over the course of 2022, and other monetization methods like ad revenue sharing were introduced. YouTube initially offered cash payouts to get creators to make content for its TikTok clone, Shorts, but announced it was moving to a revenue sharing model last fall.

Other companies like TikTok are retooling creator funds and incentivizing new types of content. The short-form video app recently announced an updated fund that only rewards creators who make videos longer than one minute. Monetization directly from platforms has been an issue: under the original TikTok fund, some creators reported low earnings even for viral videos.

Starbucks sold 2,000 NFTs in 20 minutes — coffee not included

Image: Starbucks

It’s been more than a year since NFT sales peaked — and then collapsed — but that’s not stopping enterprising multi-billion dollar corporations from trying to get in on the action.

Starbucks launched its first paid collection of NFTs today, a group of 2,000 digital “stamps,” each priced at $100. Starbucks calls its NFTs “Journey Stamps,” a less technical-sounding term that the uninitiated might use as a way to explain what they just spent money on. And people did buy them — CoinDesk reports that the “stamps” sold out in under 20 minutes.

The coffee company first launched its NFT and Web3 push in December, when it opened up a new membership program called Starbucks Odyssey. An extension of the existing Starbucks rewards program that gives customers perks like free drink upgrades, Odyssey promises to deliver new benefits and “immersive coffee experiences that [customers] cannot get anywhere else” as members complete games, quizzes, and make purchases. Rewards might include virtual classes, access to merchandise, or a trip to a Starbucks coffee farm at higher membership tiers. Free coffee, notably, isn’t listed as a possible reward. Purchasing an NFT gives members additional “points” that they can use to level up their tier.

Dozens of big brands have wrung the NFT towel dry over the past couple years. A non-exhaustive list: Taco Bell, Nike, Adidas, Paramount, GameStop, a bunch of celebrities via a revamped LimeWire, the NBA, CNN, and the list goes on. What’s particularly odd about the Starbucks NFTs is that they’re coming so late, though the most devout Starbucks and crypto fans did scoop them up. According to Nifty Gateway, 1,164 people own an NFT from the new collection.

As a casual Starbucks drinker, seeing a new membership program made me think of one thing: how my Starbucks “stars” are worth less now under the updated rewards program that the company announced earlier this year. You could call it shrink-flation for the original virtual coffee tokens. And when times are tough for rewards programs, I suppose selling off a slew of new digital tokens makes sense — especially when there are people who’ll buy them.

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When Quitting Videos Go Viral

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Green gold: Torrefied biomass to replace coal and oil

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mercredi 8 mars 2023

Sensitive personal data of US House and Senate members hacked, offered for sale

Breach in the systems of DC Health Link, a health insurance company, led to 170,000 records being compromised

Members of the House and Senate were informed Wednesday that hackers may have gained access to their sensitive personal data in a breach of a Washington, DC, health insurance marketplace. Employees of the lawmakers and their families were also affected.

DC Health Link confirmed that data on an unspecified number of customers was affected and said it was notifying them and working with law enforcement. It said it was offering identity theft service to those affected and extending credit monitoring to all customers.

Uh-oh! The crypto collapse has reached the real financial system

Liquidity trouble? | Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Update, March 8th, 7PM ET: Silvergate has announced it is shutting down, the original story follows below.

Silvergate, one of the most important banks in crypto, is in big trouble. Maybe existential trouble.

Silvergate didn’t start in crypto. It started in real estate. But in January 2014, the bank jumped into Bitcoin, a volatile year — Bitcoin started the year at $770 and closed above $300 in December. “Some of the companies that were being formed at the time to provide services to this budding Bitcoin space, many of them were struggling to find and maintain bank accounts,” said Silvergate CEO Alan Lane in a June 2022 episode of the Odd Lots podcast. “So that was really where we started.”

The focus at the bank was institutions — other companies, some of which work with consumers. For instance, Genesis, the now-bankrupt crypto-lending subsidiary of DCG, was among Silvergate’s early clients. The bank developed the Silvergate Exchange Network, which was a way for crypto institutions such as Coinbase, Gemini, and Kraken to transact in dollars 24/7. “We’ve got all of them,” Lane said in 2022. “All of the major ones. Anybody who is serious about regulation.”

Also among Lane’s clients: FTX. Federal prosecutors are now examining Silvergate’s role in banking Sam Bankman-Fried’s fallen empire. The more pressing problem is that the collapse of FTX spooked other Silvergate customers, resulting in an $8.1 billion run on the bank: 60 percent of its deposits that walked out the door in just one quarter. (“Worse than that experienced by the average bank to close in the Great Depression,” The Wall Street Journal helpfully explained.)

In its earnings filing, we found out that Silvergate’s results last quarter were absolute dogshit, a $1 billion loss. Then, on March 1st, Silvergate entered a surprise regulatory filing. It says that, actually, the quarterly results were even worse, and it’s not clear the bank will be able to stay in business.

In response, Coinbase, Galaxy Digital, Crypto.com, Circle, and Paxos have said they will stop using Silvergate — as did other, less notable clients. Tether, the controversial stablecoin that has had its own problems with banking, helpfully popped up to remind us it was not using Silvergate.

The laundry list of customers helps to explain why Silvergate’s woes are frightening. Very few banks will touch crypto because it’s so risky — and most traditional banks don’t let crypto clients transact in dollars 24/7. Access to banking that moves at the pace crypto does is rare, and only one other US bank can do it.

“If Silvergate goes out of business, it’s going to push funds and market makers further offshore,” Ava Labs president John Wu told Barron’s. The issue is how easy it is to get into actual cash dollars, which in finance-speak is called liquidity. Less liquidity makes transactions more difficult. Already there is a broader gap between the price at which a trade is expected to go through at and the actual price at which it executes, Wu said.

So Silvergate’s troubles are a problem for the entire crypto industry.

Stablecoins

Silvergate’s SEN was an important on- and off-ramp from the almighty dollar (and the almighty euro) into crypto. In 2022, Lane said all the “regulated, US-dollar backed stablecoin issuers” banked at Silvergate.

But for stablecoins issued by Circle, Paxos, and Gemini, among others, the SEN was important for making and burning their tokens, which were issued when someone deposited a dollar in their Silvergate bank accounts, Lane said.

Silvergate was a pass-through point for crypto. Stablecoins that are backed by dollars at least theoretically have cash or cash-like assets sitting in reserve somewhere. (The reason Tether is controversial is that there are questions about the existence and value of that reserve.) Silvergate’s job was to create a token when someone put a dollar into, say, USDC and to burn a token when someone took a dollar out. “We are this critical piece of infrastructure where folks, as they’re exiting the ecosystem and wanting to go to cash — those dollars pass through Silvergate,” Lane said in 2022.

You’ll notice I’m saying “was.” That’s because on March 3, Silvergate announced it was suspending SEN, effective immediately.

The dollar side of the transaction meant that Silvergate’s clients had to keep a bunch of cash on hand at the bank in order to pay each other and anyone who wanted to cash out. To make money here, Silvergate could do a few things. The safest is to buy, like, one-month Treasury bills at the Fed and call it a day.

Now, this being finance, taking more risk also may mean more profit. So Silvergate seems to have bought bonds. (Verge favorite Matt Levine at Bloomberg has a more in-depth analysis of how this worked if you want the gory details.) The problem is not that the bonds were super risky — it is that FTX sparked a mass exodus into dollars, and Silvergate suddenly had to come up with a bunch of money. Unfortunately, that meant selling its bonds at a loss in order to pay its obligations. Ironically, the bonds were pretty safe — “if its depositors had kept their money at Silvergate, its bonds would have matured with plenty of money to pay them back,” notes Levine.

Silvergate has another way of touching stablecoins besides serving as the on- and off-ramp for their transactions. It bought assets from Facebook’s doomed stablecoin attempt Libra, later renamed Diem, in January 2022. At the time, Silvergate said it would start making Diem available by the end of the year. The goal was a digital payments network.

Of course, that was before FTX blew up, and the Enron guy said it was worse than Enron. That’s the kind of thing that tends to change the regulatory environment.

Lending against Bitcoin

One of the other services Silvergate offered was the ability to lend dollars against Bitcoin. Now, Silvergate said in January on its fourth quarter earnings call that “all of our SEN Leverage loans continued to perform as expected, with no losses or forced liquidations.” Maybe these loans are fine! Silvergate doesn’t appear to have done anything exceptionally risky elsewhere.

But if you want to use your Bitcoin to take out a dollar loan, I think that just got harder.

Real estate

Silvergate had a life before crypto: it was a tiny bank focused on real estate deals in southern California. During that time, it never had more than $1 billion in deposits, according to The Financial Times. And Silvergate needed deposits. When Lane steered the company into crypto, its business ballooned. By 2021, Silvergate had more than $10 billion. The bank went public in 2019 at $12 a share and peaked at over $200 a share in 2021. (Shares closed at $5.77 on March 3.)

Real estate became less and less of a focus because crypto was a rocket ship for the bank. But that real estate connection proved useful for Silvergate in 2022, though. In the last quarter of the year, Silvergate got at least $3.6 billion in funds from Federal Home Loan Banks, a 1930s-era system that also originally dealt in mortgages.

To pay that off, Silvergate sold off more bonds. This is not ideal, and it is part of the reason Silvergate is in trouble. “If you are a bank you do not want to be pointing in the wrong direction, because that becomes self-fulfilling,” writes Bloomberg’s Levine. And indeed, this is why many of Silvergate’s major customers are spooked. Levine thinks that this may get some regulators interested in crypto banking.

Bizarre transactions

In fact, the Justice Department is already interested. There are some questions around bizarre transactions that took place at Silvergate.

For instance, Binance. Its supposedly independent arm, Binance.US, transferred more than $400 million to a trading firm called Merit Peak Ltd, Reuters reported. That firm is managed by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. “The CEO of Binance.US at the time, Catherine Coley, wrote to a Binance finance executive in late 2020 asking for an explanation for the transfers, calling them ‘unexpected’ and saying ‘no one mentioned them,’” Reuters wrote. Those transfers took place on Silvergate’s special network, SEN.

This is similar to some of the problems Silvergate faces around FTX. Alameda Research, the trading firm also owned by Bankman-Fried, opened an account with Silvergate in 2018. Bankman-Fried admitted he used Alameda accounts for FTX funds, commingling customer funds with those for the trading firm.

I don’t know if Silvergate did anything wrong. Possibly it didn’t! But having the Feds start poking around, asking questions? That is a headache and a distraction. It is the last thing a troubled bank needs.

What to expect

A lot of companies that banked with Silvergate have been out here talking about how they have minimal exposure to it, which is historically not a great sign. (See: Bankman-Fried’s notorious “FTX is fine. Assets are fine” tweet.)

But you know what? In this specific case, I’m inclined to believe them. First of all, just a fuckload of money has already left Silvergate. But second, Silvergate was a pass-through bank for crypto; it didn’t hold onto reserves, and it didn’t pay interest. The problem here is less that some exchange or stablecoin is going to suffer a massive loss of customer money and more that it is now even harder for crypto companies to get banking.

The crypto industry desperately needs banks. But both of Silvergate’s competitors, Metropolitan and Signature, were pulling away from the sector even before this debacle. Metropolitan said in January that it was getting all the way out of crypto. And in December, Signature said it was going to get rid of $8 billion to $10 billion in digital asset-related funds.

I don’t know whether Silvergate is going to come through this. But I strongly suspect it has just gotten a lot harder to exchange dollars and crypto. Silvergate dealt in liquidity, and a liquidity problem can become a solvency problem real fast. The entire crypto industry just got a lot more fragile.

Silvergate has collapsed

A coin is set aflame to reveal a digital wireframe underneath. — Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Silvergate Bank, which had been a cornerstone in the crypto world, announced it’s closing and returning deposits. In a press release, the bank’s holding company, Silvergate Capital Corporation, said it made the decision to shut down “in light of recent industry and regulatory developments.”

It’s been clear for a while that the company was struggling along with some of its most high-profile clients like FTX and Genesis. In January, its earnings report revealed that it lost a billion dollars in one quarter after its customers withdrew $8.1 billion. Then, on March 1st, it filed a document saying its financials were even worse than the quarterly report had shown.

There are several concerns about what the crypto landscape will look like without Silvergate, especially when it comes to where companies will turn to get cash. My colleague Elizabeth Lopatto has done an excellent job summarizing a lot of them in this explainer. One of the major concerns is that crypto companies may turn to less regulated institutions for their banking needs, potentially making the space even riskier for everyone involved. In other words, if there isn’t a bank playing by the rules willing to do business with them, they may have to find a bank that doesn’t.

As for the next steps for the bank, it’s liquidating “in an orderly manner and in accordance with applicable regulatory processes” and is “considering how best to resolve claims and preserve the residual value of its assets, including its proprietary technology and tax assets.”

It also shut down its Silvergate Exchange Network, which let crypto exchanges like Coinbase, Gemini, and Kraken move money between themselves and other institutions earlier this month.

As all of this has been going down, companies like Coinbase, Crypto.com, and Paxos have started moving away from the bank. Even the Tether stablecoin took the opportunity to distance itself from the institution. Its list of allies was thin, and the government was scrutinizing it for its role in the FTX meltdown.

Silvergate’s collapse will almost surely draw scrutiny from lawmakers, especially those who are concerned about the crypto contagion reaching the traditional financial sector.

“Today we are seeing what can happen when a bank is overreliant on a risky, volatile sector like cryptocurrencies,” said Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who is the chair of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. “I’ve been concerned that when banks get involved with crypto, it spreads risk across the financial system and it will be taxpayers and consumers who pay the price.”

mardi 7 mars 2023

White House backs bill that could give it power to ban TikTok nationwide

The bill would allow commerce department to impose restrictions on technologies that pose a risk to national security

The White House said it backed legislation introduced on Tuesday by a dozen senators to give the administration new powers to ban Chinese-owned video app TikTok and other foreign-based technologies if they pose national security threats.

The endorsement boosts efforts by a number of lawmakers to ban the popular ByteDance-owned app, which is used by more than 100 million Americans.

F.T.C. Intensifies Investigation of Twitter’s Privacy Practices

F.T.C. Intensifies Investigation of Twitter’s Privacy Practices The commission is seeking an interview with Elon Musk, who has made major cuts at the company since acquiring it last year.

Twitch says deepfake porn is now grounds for instaban — here’s why

It’s been five full years since most online platforms made it crystal clear that face-swapped porn is not okay — but not Twitch, apparently. Today, in a blog post titled “Addressing Explicit Deepfake Content,” the livestreaming service now says that synthetic non-consensual exploitative images (NCEI) will not be tolerated.

Even a brief unintentional glimpse at those sorts of images “will be removed and will result in an enforcement,” the company writes. And if you intentionally promote, create, or share deepfake porn, that’s grounds for an instaban: doing that “can result in an indefinite suspension on the first offense.”

The company isn’t doing this on a whim — as BuzzFeed News and NBC News reported last month, Twitch recently had its own deepfake scandal. On January 30th, Twitch streamer Brandon “Atrioc” Ewing left a browser window open on stream that reportedly showed the faces of popular female Twitch streamers, including Pokimane, QTCinderella, and Maya Higa, “grafted onto the bodies of naked women,” as BuzzFeed tells it. In a tearful apology stream, Atrioc admitted he visited a deepfake site out of “morbid curiosity” about the images. “I just clicked a fucking link at 2AM, and the morals didn’t catch up to me,” he said while promising never to do anything like that again.

Needless to say, those female streamers weren’t happy.

I want to scream.
Stop.
Everybody fucking stop. Stop spreading it. Stop advertising it. Stop.
Being seen “naked” against your will should NOT BE A PART OF THIS JOB.

Thank you to all the male internet “journalists” reporting on this issue. Fucking losers @HUN2R
— QTCinderella (@qtcinderella) January 30, 2023

pic.twitter.com/VqtcwGlZUq
— Maya (@mayahiga) February 1, 2023

stop sexualizing people without their consent.

that’s it, that’s the tweet.
— pokimane (@pokimanelol) January 31, 2023

This story was how I found out that I'm on this website. I literally choose to pass up millions by not going into sex work and some random cheeto encrusted porn addict solicits my body without my consent instead. Don't know whether to cry, break stuff or laugh at this point. https://t.co/voNoxRyVBd
— Sweet Anita (@sweetanita) January 30, 2023

It’s not clear if Twitch took any enforcement action against Atrioc at the time — the company didn’t immediately respond to a fact-check request — but the new policy makes it clear that at least some action would be taken.

Twitch does tend to clamp down on accounts sharing sexual images, even when they accidentally make their way into a livestream. Atrioc himself was previously banned for showing a flaccid penis on screen, according to streaming news site Win.gg, and Pokimane famously got a warning (not a ban) after accidentally opening PornHub in a browser tab. But Twitch’s previous stance on deepfakes was extremely limited: it only mentioned them in the context of “sharing negative doctored or artistic content to abuse or degrade another person.”

Twitch did previously prohibit “broadcasting or uploading content that contains depictions of real nudity” and threatened instabans for “sexual violence and exploitation,” however.

Originally, QTCinderella vowed to sue the deepfake porn site that Atrioc brought to the world’s attention, but she’s since told NBC News that she’s given up: “Every single lawyer I’ve talked to essentially have come to the conclusion that we don’t have a case; there’s no way to sue the guy.”

We reported on the legality of deepfake porn back in 2018, and... things haven’t necessarily improved much since. According to the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, only four US states have deepfake laws that aren’t specific to political elections. The UK, EU, and China are looking into crackdowns, too.

A New ‘MAS*H’ Scene: Written by ChatGPT, Read by Hawkeye and B.J.

A New ‘M*A*S*H’ Scene: Written by ChatGPT, Read by Hawkeye and B.J. Alan Alda, the star of the long-running sitcom, asked the artificial intelligence software to create a script for him and his former co-star Mike Farrell to read.

Biden F.C.C. Nominee Withdraws

Biden F.C.C. Nominee Withdraws Gigi Sohn, who was first nominated by President Biden in October 2021, said she had faced “unrelenting, dishonest and cruel attacks” on her character and career.

Hyundai’s next-gen Kona EV is a little bigger and goes a tad further

new Kona ev in a gray-blue color parked next to a futuristic angular building with metallic planks, and the car is plugged into a charging station. — *The 2024 Hyundai Kona EV.* | Image: Hyundai

Hyundai’s Kona compact SUV got a glow-up, and now the automaker is revealing new details about the model year 2024 redesign that includes a slight range improvement for the all-electric model.

Kona EV is a relatively unsung mass-market electric SUV compared to the Tesla Model Y and Mustang Mach-E, but now it’s been redesigned from the ground up as primarily an EV. It carries a 65.4 kWh battery that enables about 304 miles (490 km) of range on a full charge based on European WLTP estimates.

The previous 2023 model Kona had a similarly sized 64 kWh battery (long range) with a European WLTP range of 301 miles (484 km). The US Environmental Protection Agency’s range estimates are generally more conservative than the WLTP; the agency rated the 2023 Kona EV’s range at 258 miles on a single charge, for example. In an email to The Verge, Hyundai’s senior manager for product and advanced powertrain PR, Derek Joyce, wrote that the US range has not yet been finalized but will be revealed at this year’s New York auto show, which is in April.

Hyundai announced the new second-generation Kona model during its digital world premiere event yesterday and oddly referred to the compact SUV as a “multiplayer” vehicle. When asked, Joyce told The Verge the company is using the term to describe “exceptional versatility,” which “helps a wide variety of people to live out their lifestyle needs with freedom, versatility and capability.” Why not.

The versatility, of course, points to its various powertrain options that include plug-in hybrid and gas models, plus sporty N-line versions of each. Hyundai Motor Company president and CEO Jaehoon Chang said in a press release that the Kona EV will “play a major role” alongside the automaker’s dedicated Ioniq EV models. The all-electric Kona runs on a 400V platform that doesn’t match the company’s 800V E-GMP platform on the Ioniq 5 and 6, as well as Kia’s EV6 and upcoming EV9 vehicles.

Hyundai says it’s increased the overall size of the 2024 Kona compared to, specifically, the 2017 version. The overall length of the new EV is now 175mm longer at 4,355mm, while the wheelbase is now 60mm longer at 2,660mm. It’s also 25mm wider at 1,825mm and 20mm taller at 1,575mm. In addition, the vehicle has a drag coefficient of 0.27. The front trunk, however, is abysmally small at 0.95 cu-ft compared to the Model Y’s 4.1 cu-ft frunk.

The 2024 Kona EV comes with more tech-oriented features, like the one-pedal “I-Pedal” driving mode, and both exterior and interior Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) outlets that let you use AC-powered household appliances using the car as a battery bank. The new Kona vehicles also have two 12.3-inch panoramic instrument and infotainment screens, digital keys, and support over-the-air (OTA) software updates.

Hyundai is also including an advanced driver-assistant system (ADAS) that can help with lane-keeping and traffic-aware cruise control, plus blind spot monitoring. There are also new and fun pixelated light bars on the front and back of the vehicle.

As an EV, the Kona could potentially be very attractive if the price is right — the current model starts at a reasonable $33,550 in the US. And assuming it’ll have a range greater than 258 miles in the US, the 2024 Kona could be a serious contender for those looking to jump into their first EV.

lundi 6 mars 2023

Apple’s iPhone SE 4 may use OLED screens from a Chinese supplier, not Samsung or LG

A hand holding Apple’s 2022 iPhone SE at a slight angle. — *The LCD panel used by the 2022 iPhone SE (above) will likely be replaced by a 6.1-inch OLED from Chinese supplier BOE.* | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

China-based display maker BOE (Beijing Oriental Electronics) has a complicated relationship with Apple. But despite some missteps, it looks like the two companies will be working together for a while longer, at least: a new report from The Elec (spotted by MacRumors) pegs BOE as the display supplier for the rumored iPhone SE 4. This latest report comes as Apple is allegedly working on its own display tech — and trying to lessen reliance on its main display maker and rival, Samsung.

Things got off to a rough start with Apple in 2020 when some of BOE’s screens for the iPhone 12 reportedly failed quality tests. Later, Apple caught BOE making unapproved changes to its iPhone 13 display design. And while BOE eventually secured a deal to make 6.1-inch OLEDs for the iPhone 14, the company has reportedly been unable to produce iPhone 15 screens to Apple’s specifications. Instead, it looks like BOE will be supplying 6.1-inch OLEDs for the next budget iPhone.

That’s good news for the bottom line — the SE will likely use an older OLED design, so BOE can use existing parts inventory. But it’s not great news, as Apple has been trying to reduce its dependence on Samsung for displays. A new report from The Information details just how much power Samsung holds over Apple as one of the only manufacturers able to mass-produce high-end OLEDs to its specifications. Samsung Display reportedly gets away with things that no other Apple component supplier would dream of, like not letting Apple engineers into its facilities and refusing to replace a supply of screens when a minor flaw was identified.

As much as Cupertino would like to cut ties with Samsung, it’ll likely be quite a few years before that becomes a reality. If and when it gets its MicroLED production off the ground, Apple will likely start small and use the tech in watches first. In the meantime, Samsung probably isn’t losing any sleep over the iPhone SE order going to its competitor. As The Elec points out, the modern LTPO OLEDs that Samsung makes for the iPhone 14 (and likely 15) cost more than twice as much as the legacy OLEDs the SE will reportedly use. Maybe things will be different in a few years, but until then, it looks like Samsung’s display production lines will be plenty busy making OLED panels destined for high-end iPhones.

Microsoft’s latest AI CoPilot could be the voice behind a deluge of work emails

Image: The Verge

If you notice that emails from salespeople or responses from customer support agents seem a bit off — or that they’ve gotten a significant bump in writing quality — you may be have AI to thank. Microsoft has announced that it’ll be introducing AI features into Dynamics 365, its set of enterprise apps for customer relationship management and resource planning.

The company calls the set of features “CoPilot,” and is pitching it as a way to help businesspeople “create ideas and content faster, complete time-consuming tasks, and get insights and next best actions.” That involves things like having an AI write customizable emails to customers and automatically generate meeting summaries, write a response to customer service chats and emails based on the previous conversation, and help marketers delve into their data without having to write SQL. The company’s also pitching it as a way to help generate ideas for marketing emails, which means that you could start seeing AI-powered ads in your inbox soon.

Microsoft’s promising even more than that — the company says the system will make it easier to create “virtual agents” for customer support, which can use OpenAI’s tech to search Bing and internal knowledge bases for answers.

Like it has with other AI tools, Microsoft is pitching this as something that humans will use, rather than a way to replace employees. In a LinkedIn post, CEO Satya Nadella called the announcement a step towards “transforming every business process and function with interactive, AI-powered collaboration.”

Microsoft has been pushing generative AI tech in its other business-related apps as well — GitHub, a popular tool for coders, also has a CoPilot feature to help you write code, and Teams uses AI for a variety of things, such as recapping meetings. The company has also started releasing AI-generated “collaborative articles” on LinkedIn.

Similar tech could be coming to software that’s not completely enterprise-focused. There are reports that Microsoft is planning on integrating ChatGPT into apps like Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Its most prominent use of the tech is likely with Bing, its chatbot and search engine that’s currently available to people on a waitlist.

Here are the best AirPods deals you can get right now

Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro buds in front of the charging case against a dark background. — *Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro are on sale for $50 off at Verizon, matching their all-time low.*

If you know where to look, there are often some great discounts available on Apple’s ever-popular AirPods. Since Apple launched the third-gen AirPods toward the end of 2021, we’ve seen the starting price of the second-gen, entry-level model slowly dip to around $100. And now that you can buy the second-gen AirPods Pro at most retailers, we’re seeing even better discounts on the last-gen Pro and other models.

Below, we’ve curated the best deals currently available on each model, including the entry-level AirPods, the AirPods Pro, the third-gen AirPods, and the AirPods Max.

The best entry-level AirPods (second-gen) deals

In 2021, Apple lowered the list price of the second-gen AirPods — now the entry-level model — from $159 to $129. It now only sells the model with a wired charging case, however, which charges via a standard Lightning cable. Despite their age, we found that the easy-to-use, second-gen AirPods still offer great wireless performance and reliable battery life, making them a great pick if you can live without a wireless charging case.

While we’ve seen Apple’s most affordable pair of earbuds drop to as low as $79.99, they’re currently only on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Verizon for $99. Alternatively, if you prefer the model with the wireless charging case, it’s available at Adorama for $139.99 ($20 off).

The best AirPods (third-gen) deals

With support for the company’s MagSafe technology and an asking price of $179, Apple’s third-gen AirPods are often considered the middle child in Apple’s current AirPods lineup. The shorter stems make for a more subtle design, too, while improved sound and features like sweat and water resistance, support for spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, and improved battery life render them a nice improvement over the last-gen model.

In September, Apple quietly introduced a new option for the third-gen AirPods that comes with a Lightning-only charging case, one that retails for a mere $10 less than the option with a MagSafe charging case. However, given the subtle price difference, we recommend that you buy the MagSafe-compatible model, which is available at Costco through March 11th — or while supplies last — for $139.99 ($40 off). Even though that price is only available for Costco members, non-members can still buy them with a 5 percent surcharge for $146.99.

The best AirPods Pro deals

In case you missed it, Apple announced the second-gen AirPods Pro during its “Far Out” event in September, a pair of earbuds that feature a similar build to the first-gen model but offer better noise cancellation. They also sport swipe-based controls, come with Apple’s new H2 chip, and feature an extra-small pair of swappable silicone ear tips for smaller ears. They typically retail for $249, but right now they’re matching their all-time low of $199.99 at Verizon. Read our review.

The first-gen AirPods Pro are also still available for purchase, and sometimes much cheaper than the second-gen model. They have better sound quality than the non-premium models listed above, as well as active noise cancellation. They also come with swappable silicone tips — albeit three, not four — and support Apple’s spatial audio feature, which adds an immersive surround sound effect to select content.

At the end of 2021, Apple launched a new configuration of the first-gen AirPods Pro with a wireless charging case that supports Apple’s MagSafe technology, just like the third-gen AirPods. They used to retail for $249, though they’re available right now for $194.99 at Amazon and B&H Photo. That’s a far cry from their recent low of $129.99 and their typical sale price of around $159, which is why we suggest buying the second-gen AirPods Pro at Verizon or waiting for the first-gen model to drop further in price.

The best AirPods Max deals

The AirPods Max aren’t the iconic in-ears that have become synonymous with the AirPods name. They’re large and luxurious, comprised of aluminum, steel, and mesh fabric that remains comfortable during extended listening sessions. They also sport excellent noise cancellation, Apple’s spatial audio feature, and wide, balanced sound, even if they lag behind some of their peers when it comes to bass response. They’re not the best noise-canceling headphones for most people — blame the $550 sticker price — but it’s hard to find a pair of Bluetooth headphones that sound better and feature more intuitive controls.

Although Woot and other retailers have discounted the AirPods Max to as low as $409 in the past, prices have since increased across the board. Right now, for instance, the Max are only receiving a steep discount at Best Buy and Amazon, where you can pick them up on sale for $479.99.

How Some Gen Z Instagram Users Post to Facebook: Unwittingly

How Some Gen Z Instagram Users Post to Facebook: Unwittingly Teenagers and young adults are flummoxed. The reason it keeps happening involves an online prompt and product design.

Microsoft Edge is getting a video upscaler to make blurry old videos look better

The experimental new feature uses machine learning to remove blocky compression artifacts and increase the resolution of low-quality video. | Image: The Verge

Microsoft has unveiled Video Super Resolution (VSR) — an “experimental” video upscaling feature for its Edge web browser that uses machine learning to increase the resolution of low-quality video. Announced on the Edge Insiders blog, Microsoft’s VSR technology can “remove blocky compression artifacts” and improve text clarity for videos on platforms such as YouTube. The feature is still in testing and availability is currently restricted to half of the users running the Canary channel of Edge in Microsoft’s Insider program.

If you want to try it for yourself, there are a few stipulations: Microsoft VSR will only work on video resolutions of 720p or lower (provided both the height and width of the video exceeds 192 pixels), and the video itself can’t be protected with digital rights management (DRM) technology like PlayReady or Widevine, which makes frames inaccessible to the browser for processing. That particular restriction could impact what content you can upscale with the feature, as most popular streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max all leverage DRM tech for copyright protection.

The device running Microsoft VSR must also contain either an Nvidia RTX 20- / 30- / 40- series graphics card or an AMD Radeon series GPU from the RX5700 through to the RX7800. This support also extends to gaming laptops running discrete versions of these supported GPUs; however, the device must be plugged into a power source, and users will need to adjust their Windows settings to manually force Edge to run on the laptop’s discrete GPU. Microsoft has not mentioned if VSR can boost 720p resolutions to full HD 1080p.

This isn’t the first video upscaling feature to arrive for Edge users. In June last year, Microsoft introduced Clarity Boost spatial upscaling for Xbox Cloud Gaming, designed to make Xbox games streamed on the Edge browser appear clearer and sharper.

Microsoft’s VSR tech is also by no means unique. Intel is similarly developing a video upscaling feature for Chromium-based browsers, and Nvidia has offered an early version of RTX Super Resolution (RTX VSR) — the company’s own AI upscaling technology — on Shield TV devices since 2019. That tech has been well received, and RTX Super Resolution has since rolled out to Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers, albeit restricted to PCs equipped with GeForce RTX 40- and 30-series GPUs. Nvidia also disclosed that Super Resolution may cause a “slight reduction in performance” if used while playing a game or running GPU-reliant creative apps. Microsoft has not mentioned any such performance impacts for VSR. We have reached out to clarify and will update this story should we hear back.

How little green aliens are helping the space flight experts of the future

It may be just a game but some players have gone on to careers in physics, engineering and aeronautics. Now the team behind Kerbal Space Program 2 is working with the European Space Agency to make it even more realistic

When Dr Uri Shumlack was contacted by a video game developer who wanted to discuss his work on interstellar propulsion, for a game about spaceflight, he was wary. A professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the University of Washington, he was a busy individual, and not exactly an avid gamer. He asked some of his engineering undergraduates whether they had heard of a game called Kerbal Space Program, only to discover that half the class were there because of the game.

First playable in 2011, Kerbal Space Program is an idiosyncratic and extremely difficult video game that involves getting little green aliens off the surface of their planet using rockets that you must cobble together from a library of parts. To do this, though – and leave the launchpad without exploding – you have to develop a pretty good understanding of the physics of space travel, calculating orbit trajectories and figuring out how much fuel you need, and whether you can carry it without messing up your thrust-to-weight ratio. It is beloved by space and astrophysics enthusiasts, who have posted thousands of hours of gameplay video showing off their unlikely crafts and ambitious missions in this simulated solar system.

Tesla slashes Model S and X prices in US to again boost demand

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Tesla has lowered the price of its most expensive EV models in the US, reducing the cost of a new Model S by up to five percent and Model X by up to ten percent. The pricing updates are already reflected on the Tesla website, and as Reuters reports, come just days after Chief Executive Elon Musk announced plans to increase production at Tesla’s Shanghai facility in order to meet the soaring demand caused by previous price cuts.

Following the latest cuts, a new Tesla Model S Plaid and Model X Plaid — the performance versions for both vehicles — now share the same price of $109,990. Meanwhile, the base Tesla Model S AWD is now $89,990, down from $94,990. When Tesla first unveiled its redesign for the vehicle back in January 2021, Model S prices started at $79,990.

This is the second time this year that Tesla has made significant reductions to its prices, having cut the cost of its Model Y, Model X, and Model S vehicles back in January by up to 20 percent. Following those initial reductions, Musk has since expressed plans to halve production costs for future EVs during Tesla’s Investor Day on March 1st. “The desire for people to own a Tesla is extremely high,” said Musk. “The limiting factor is their ability to pay for a Tesla.”

The EV producer has regularly tampered with its vehicle pricing over the last few years, having previously made increases across its entire range several times between 2021 and 2022. The recent price cuts haven’t been especially welcome by existing buyers, however. Protests were staged in China earlier this year following reductions of up to 17 percent in the region, with Tesla customers who had purchased at the higher price demanding refunds. Some Tesla owners in the US were also displeased with similar price cuts, with existing customers citing concerns regarding the sudden loss in vehicle value.

dimanche 5 mars 2023

Idle no more: how automatic mouse jigglers are taking on nosy bosses

Mouse movers have existed for years, but have recently become a symbol of resistance against workplace surveillance

Watching Premier League matches can be difficult when you live in the US. For midweek games, the kickoff is often in the middle of the work day, posing a challenge even for remote workers: how do you keep your online status from going idle?

The solution is a mouse mover: a tool that keeps your cursor jiggling even as you turn your full attention to the game. And last month, the Premier League’s US Twitter feed endorsed goofing off by offering a “PLinUSA mouse mover” to a lucky winner.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is reportedly getting a major update soon

An image showing CS:GO agents — Image: Valve

Valve’s on the precipice of launching a major update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, according to a report from esports journalist Richard Lewis (via Forbes). Sources close to the situation tell Lewis that Valve could finally release a new version of the game on the company’s Source 2 engine as early as this month.

Lewis, who has broken big CS:GO stories in the past, says he’s told that Valve already enlisted a group of professional CS:GO players to try out the updated game at the company’s Seattle headquarters. Migrating the game to the Source 2 engine, which is used by some of Valve’s other games, like Dota 2 and Half-Life: Alyx, could allow for better performance and graphics.

Something weird just happened. Latest NVIDIA drivers introduced support for unknown app executables called "csgos2.exe" and "cs2.exe". Why project is called Counter-Strike 2 and what are you cooking @csgo? https://t.co/U9YKlAjwgy pic.twitter.com/PU8Op9uGLq
— ‎Gabe Follower 2 (@gabefollower) March 1, 2023

That’s apparently not the only upgrade Valve’s been working on. Lewis adds that the “new” CS:GO could come with an improved matchmaking system that more closely resembles the third-party platforms where players can find and join CS:GO matches, like FACEIT or ESEA. Valve’s also expected to increase the tick rate of the servers used by the game from 64 to 128, potentially making for less latency during online matches.

It’s hard to believe that over 10 years after the release of CS:GO (and over 20 since the release of the original title) that Valve would spring a huge update on us with little to no fanfare. But this isn’t the only evidence of a possible upgrade. Last week, u/DAOWAce on Reddit discovered a suspect pair of executable files, named “csgos2.exe” and “cs2.exe,” included in recent drivers released by Nvidia.

While it may sound like Valve’s releasing an entirely new game, Twitter users @gabefollower and @aquaismissing explain that this could simply indicate that Valve’s moving the game over to the Source 2 engine and that developers may have been a bit lazy with the file-naming. We hopefully won’t have to wait too much longer to see what the so-called Counter-Strike 2 is all about, though, as Lewis says the game’s “about ready to go.”

DJI quietly discontinues its drone-detecting AeroScope system

An image showing the DJI Mavic Air 2S drone on pavement — Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

DJI’s no longer producing AeroScope, the drone-detecting system accused of helping Russians target and attack Ukrainian drone pilots, as first spotted by UAV Hive (via DroneDJ). The device’s product page now displays a pop-up that reads: “The Aeroscope is no longer in production. For the latest in DJI technology, please view our product recommendations below.”

You can close out of the notification and view the entirety of AeroScope’s product page, which still has an order form for DJI dealers at the bottom. The China-based DJI hasn’t formally announced the discontinuation of the product, and it’s still not clear whether existing AeroScope devices will lose functionality, or if the platform’s going away forever. According to UAV Hive, rumors indicate that DJI’s working on a second version of the receiver, however, DJI didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for more information.

DJI describes its AeroScope technology as a “comprehensive drone detection platform” that can identify and track drones in real time using the receiver signals broadcasted by newer DJI drones. This signal provides AeroScope users with information like flight status, path, and pilot location from drones up to about 30 miles away.

While the product was originally intended for use by law enforcement or other government agencies to monitor drones flying in potentially dangerous areas (like around an airport runway) and to track down their pilots, the technology became a cause for concern in the midst of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Last year, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov blamed DJI for “helping Russia to kill the Ukrainians,” as Russian soldiers allegedly used the company’s AeroScope receivers to find and attack Ukrainian drone operators with aerial strikes. To make matters worse, the signals broadcasted by DJI drones aren’t encrypted — even though DJI initially told The Verge they were — allowing other kinds of receivers to pick them up. DJI ended up blocking shipments to both Russia and Ukraine over concerns about the weaponization of its products last year, and also discontinued the portable version of its AeroScope system months later.

I don't work there anymore, but probably two reasons:
1. It doesn't make sense to continue supporting a feature that was created to assist US security interests when being constantly attacked by US security agencies.
2. FAA Remote ID is being implemented.https://t.co/qOXXGMxzvj
— Brendan Schulman (@dronelaws) March 4, 2023

Brendan Schulman, the former vice president of policy at DJI, says on Twitter that there are “probably two reasons” behind DJI’s decision to discontinue AeroScope. “It doesn’t make sense to continue supporting a feature that was created to assist US security interests when being constantly attacked by US security agencies,” Schulman writes, while also citing the Federal Aviation Administration’s implementation of Remote ID.

This is the upcoming standard that the FAA, law enforcement, and other agencies will use to detect and track “most drones operating in US airspace,” giving them information about the drone’s identity, location, altitude, take-off location, control station location, and more.

Starting on September 16th, 2023, most drone operators in the US will only be able to fly aircraft with built-in remote broadcast capabilities or a retrofitted remote ID broadcast module — essentially what DJI has already been doing with its newer drones and AeroScope. The only time drone operators can use a device that doesn’t emit remote ID signals is if they’re flying in FAA-recognized identified areas.

Just days before AeroScope’s apparent discontinuation came to light, a report from Wired revealed that researchers have created a tool that receives signals from DJI drones through more affordable third-party devices, letting them pick up on the GPS locations of the device and its pilot without the need for an AeroScope system. The engineers working on the project tell Wired they have only tested the tool with drones 15 to 25 feet away, but believe they can track drones from even further away with more testing.