Microsoft’s next Surface Dock might drop the proprietary connector for USB-C
The rear I/O is similar, but the leaked dock seems to use USB-C to connector a laptop. | Image: eBay
A new leak suggests the next Surface Dock might use Thunderbolt 4 over USB-C to connect to Microsoft’s laptop lineup, rather than the company’s proprietary Surface connector. Windows Central reports that the device is codenamed Bergamo, and says pictures of it have leaked via this eBay listing.
While other accessory manufacturers have embraced USB-C as the single connector of choice, Microsoft still prefers to use its own Surface connector to dock its laptops with external monitors and other accessories. It’s meant that devices like the $259.99 Surface Dock 2 only work with Microsoft’s own gear, an unfortunate limitation given the cost.
Image: eBayOne of the Surface Dock 2’s USB-C ports appears to have been replaced with USB-A.
But on the laptop side, Microsoft’s recent devices have increasingly shipped with both connection types. Last year’s Surface Laptop 5 and Intel-based Surface Pro 9 both supported Thunderbolt 4 in addition to Surface Connect, which means that theoretically they’re already equipped to work with this leaked Surface dock. It’s unclear whether future Surface devices will continue to use Microsoft’s proprietary connector if the company releases a Surface-branded Thunderbolt 4 dock, or whether they’ll drop it entirely in favor of USB-C.
Away from its USB-C connector, the unannounced Surface Dock appears to be slightly slimmer than the Surface Dock 2, and there’s at least one minor port change. One of the USB-C ports on the front of the second-gen dock appears to have been replaced with a USB-A port (which seems sensible given the amount of USB-A accessories that still exist). Around back the I/O selection is similar with a power input, Ethernet port, 3.5mm jack, two USB-A and two USB-C ports.
It’s unclear whether this new dock will be fully supported on non-Microsoft devices, but it seems possible given the company’s other devices like mice and keyboards have no problem with other manufacturer’s hardware. Ditching the proprietary Microsoft connector would be great news for anyone who doesn’t want to be locked into a single hardware ecosystem.
A spokesperson for Microsoft did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.
Going Viral on TikTok Can Get Students an A in These College Classes A marketing professor gave his students a challenge: If they made a video that got a million views, the final exam would be canceled.
Across the Spider-Verge’s new trailer finds Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) doing just fine in his home universe as he balances life between doing fine in school and dealing with friendly neighborhood villains like the Spot (Jason Schwartzman). As always, all Miles’ mother Rio (Luna Lauren Vélez) and father Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry) want is for their son to be happy and open up to them. But rather than telling his parents about his double life, whatever Miles is dealing with brings him face to face with his good friend Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) from another dimension, and this time around she shows up with an invitation to take Miles on an adventure.
Across the Spider-Verse’s first trailer implied that Miles’ journey from one reality to another would be marked by conflict with other Spider-people despite them all ostensibly being on the same team. But the newest spot makes it much more clear why Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) is going to end up leading the charge to catch Miles. Every big Spider-Man story’s been marked by tragic loss, and it seems very much like Miles may have to choose between saving a single person he loves, or saving the entire universe — a difficult decision that’s going to put him at odds with the film’s other webheads.
Heavy as that all is, the trailer also leaves little doubt that Across the Spider-Verse is going to go every bit as hard as its predecessor, which is almost certainly going to make it a must-see when it premieres on June 2nd, 2023.
Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, is reportedly considering a company-wide ban on political advertising in Europe amid fears it could struggle to abide by new EU campaigning laws.
Policymakers in Brussels are proposing rules that would force online tech groups including Facebook and Google to divulge information about political adverts, including how much they cost, who paid for the content and how many people have viewed them.
Apple has reportedly started a small number of corporate layoffs
The Verge
Apple is reportedly laying off a small number of people from one of its retail teams, according to reports from Bloomberg and Business Insider. It’s currently not clear how many people will be affected, but Bloomberg says the number is “likely very small,” and both outlets say that, internally, the company is pitching it as a way to improve its operations rather than as a cost cutting measure.
Still, until now, Apple’s lack of layoffs has set it apart from many big tech companies that have announced major cuts. Those include:
Apple’s layoffs seem to be on a massively smaller scale, but it appears it can no longer act as an example of a company that hasn’t resorted to laying off employees.
According to the Monday reports, the jobs Apple’s cutting are in the division that handles building and upkeep for its retail stores, and affected employees have been told that they have until the end of the week to apply for other positions at the company. Apple is offering up to four months of severance pay for those that aren’t able to stay, according to Bloomberg.
While these are the first reported layoffs of full-time employees at Apple since the big tech cuts began, the company has been paring down costs in other ways, with CEO Tim Cook telling The Wall Street Journal that layoffs were “a last resort.” Last month, Bloomberg reported that it’d been laying off contractors, leaving some newly-opened positions unfilled and slowing down hiring for some departments, delaying bonuses, reducing travel budgets, pushing back projects, and more.
Twitter had a very messy weekend
Twitter no longer officially distinguishes between legacy verified accounts and Twitter Blue subscribers. | Image: Twitter
April 1st was the day Twitter said it would begin winding down its legacy verified program. But like most things done at the company under Elon Musk’s leadership, the process appeared to be chaotically executed, and subject to the whims of its new CEO.
For starters, with the exception of one major corporate account, legacy verified checkmarks don’t appear to have actually started disappearing for any of the accounts we viewed. What has changed is that Twitter has stopped officially distinguishing between legacy verified users and accounts that pay for Twitter Blue. Click on the verified blue badge for Verge Editor-in-chief Nilay Patel, for example, and you’ll now see a message that reads “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.”
In a since-deleted tweet captured by Matt Binder, Musk said that legacy verified accounts would be given “a few weeks grace” before seeing their checkmarks removed. But a report from The Washington Post suggests there may be technical challenges to removing so-called blue ticks quickly at scale:
Removal of verification badges is a largely manual process powered by a system prone to breaking, which draws on a large internal database — similar to an Excel spreadsheet — in which verification data is stored, according to the former employees. Sometimes, an employee would try to remove a badge but the change wouldn’t take, one of the former employees said, prompting workers to explore workarounds. In the past, there was no way to reliably remove badges at a bulk scale — prompting workers tackling spam, for example, to have to remove check marks one-by-one.
“It was all held together with duct tape,” the former employee added.
In a follow-up tweet, Musk called the NYT’s stance “hypocritical” because it charges users a subscription to read much of its content.
Twitter isn’t removing checkmarks from every account that’s said it won’t subscribe to Twitter Blue, however. LeBron James, for example, still has his legacy blue verified badge despite the basketball player publicly saying he won’t pay for it.
Although Elon Musk has characterized the changes to Twitter’s verification system as an attempt to treat users equally, last week a report claimed that the company plans to grant free checkmarks to certain companies. These will reportedly include the top 500 advertisers on the platform, and the 10,000 organizations with the most followers.
While Twitter attempts to remove the distinction between legacy verified users and Twitter Blue subscribers, the difference still appears to be visible in the site’s code. Twitter user Isabelle The Jpeg has uploaded a script to GitHub that attempts to expose the difference on the site itself.
ELON TRIED TO HIDE WHO IS SUBSCRIBED TO TWITTER BLUE, BUT I CAN STILL SEE IT WITH THE NERD EMOJI SCRIPT pic.twitter.com/uXRWNzkOom
— Isabelle The Jpeg (@IsabelleDotJpeg) April 2, 2023
Computer-generated inclusivity: fashion turns to ‘diverse’ AI models
Fashion brands including Levi’s and Calvin Klein are having custom AI models created to ‘supplement’ representation in size, skin tone and age
The star of Levi’s new campaign looks like any other model . Her tousled hair hangs over her shouldersas she gazes into the camera with that far-off high-fashion stare. But look closer, and something starts to seem a little off. The shadow between her chin and neck looks muddled, like a bad attempt at using FaceTune’s eraser effect to hide a double chin. Her French manicured fingernails appear scrubbed clean and uniform in a creepy real doll kind of way.
The model is AI-generated, a digital rendering of a human being that will start appearing on Levi’s e-commerce website later this year. The brand teamed with LaLaLand.ai, a digital studio that makes customized AI models for companies like Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, to dream up this avatar.
‘Hot Ones’ Was a Slow Burn All Along This YouTube talk show’s premise is simple: Disarm celebrities with deep-cut questions and scorchingly spicy wings. Nearly 300 episodes later, the recipe still works.
Tesla posts record vehicle deliveries but price cuts fail to supercharge sales
Rising competition and bleak economic outlook drag down sales despite Elon Musk’s price-cutting gamble
Tesla on Sunday posted record quarterly vehicle deliveries, but quarter-on-quarter sales growth was modest despite price cuts as rising competition and a bleak economic outlook weighed.
The electric carmaker delivered 422,875 vehicles for the first three months of this year, up 4% from the previous quarter. This was 36% higher than a year ago. In January, the chief executive, Elon Musk, said Tesla could achieve 2m vehicle deliveries this year, up 52% from last year.
Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, is reportedly considering a company-wide ban on political advertising in Europe amid fears it could struggle to abide by new EU campaigning laws.
Policymakers in Brussels are proposing rules that would force online tech groups including Facebook and Google to divulge information about political adverts, including how much they cost, who paid for the content and how many people have viewed them.
Why can’t more music apps be like Apple Music Classical?
Illustration by Will Joel / The Verge
In 2023, it’s hard to love classical music. Not because of the music itself — it’s just difficult to find it. Searching for George Gershwin is as likely to bring up his own performances as it is to bring up music he composed that’s performed by other artists. The problem is that, in the metadata, classical music doesn’t just rely on the typical stuff like artist, genre, song title, or album title. There are soloists to consider, and composers, and conductors, and pieces performed by an orchestra and a choir. Apple Music Classical, based on the Primephonic app that Apple acquired in 2021, addresses the problem with the metadata and has me wondering why more apps aren’t this rich in the stuff.
I didn’t realize how little classical music was in rotation on my phone until I downloaded Apple Music Classic. I used to love classical music, collecting LPs and bouncing between different performances, marveling at the subtle changes to the music each conductor and musician created. Before streaming became the dominant form of music playback, I had whole playlists of composers I liked with the metadata for each musical file meticulously filled out. MP3 files actually have a lot of places for metadata, and it was useful to know which pianist was taking the solo in which recording of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
But the nuance was lost as streaming became the dominant form of music playback. Streaming needs to be good enough to reach the widest range of people possible, and it takes resources to get as meticulous as I would with my own curated list of pieces.
Direct you attention to the albums suggested. Specifically the last two.
Even now, searching that same concerto in the vanilla Apple Music app gives me only two suggested performances before suggesting organ and ukulele covers. That’s not what I want, and I love that, in Apple Music Classical, I can (and have) spent a couple of hours listening to dozens of performances of Piano Concerto No. 2. Some play it with a somberness of a funeral dirge, others with a breathtaking speed that calls to mind something composed by Franz Liszt, and I can flip between each version with speed and ease. There’s even a little description of the concerto explaining its historical context and the difficulty of the piece.
There feels like a genuine affection for the music in Apple Music Classical. Quite a few pieces I’d consider fairly significant get the same treatment of Rachmaninoff’s work, with dozens of renditions and a neat little explanation. But there are also just a lot of ways to find the music. I can search by composer if I’m feeling like it’s a Ralph Vaughan Williams sort of morning or by artist if I’ve got an urge for more Sviatoslav Richter in my life. I can also search by instrument, orchestra, ensemble, conductor or soloist, or even choir.
I was particularly impressed by the array of choir music, which felt more robust, or at least easier to find, than on other music apps. I spent years looking for a specific arrangement of “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” that I heard in college and finally found it on Music Classical (it’s from Bairstow: Great Cathedral Anthems Vol. 1, and it’s almost embarrassingly emotional — I adore it). I was also able to listen to just the recording of a specific choir I’ve had a fondness for for years.
On quite a few works, you can get details on the piece itself, browse loads of performances, and sort by popularity, name, release date, or duration. It’s also possible to get related works that, in this case, I’d never heard before but did sound related.
Music Classical isn’t always perfect. I was surprised that “Gliding Dance of the Maidens” from the Polovtsian Dances in Prince Igor wasn’t included in Alexander Borodin’s popular works given it’s the basis for the well-known song “Stranger in Paradise” from the 1953 musical Kismet. But that could just be a me thing.
This is all to say, I’m in love with Apple Music Classical, and I just keep wondering why the regular app isn’t more like it. While classical music certainly has a need for a vast array of metadata, I like to think most other music does, too. People like to listen to the works of a single producer, and when they search for Stephen Sondheim, they should be able to just see all the musicals he composed as neatly as I can see all the works of Antonín Dvořák in Music Classical.
I understand why the main app doesn’t provide the same kind of nuance in searching and browsing. It’s covering a lot of different genres of music with a lot of different expectations from listeners, and it has to do a good-enough job for all of them, whereas Music Classical does an excellent job for only really one. But already, I have co-workers wondering where the Jazz version of this app is, and I don’t think they’ll be the only ones. Right now, music streaming apps are trying to differentiate themselves from each other to earn our dollars. Apple is foisting spatial audio upon us, and Spotify is trying to get us to care about podcasts, and YouTube Music is quick to give us a video and remind us of its origins in the main app. But Music Classical remembers that a lot of us are giant nerds, and we just want to go down rabbit holes with our faves.
Cheaper Xbox expandable storage cards are on the way
Western Digital is about to launch a new Xbox storage expansion card. | Image: Best Buy
Microsoft appears to be readying new Xbox expandable storage options from other manufacturers. A new Western Digital 1TB expansion card for Xbox Series S / X consoles has been spotted early on Best Buy, priced at $179.99. It’s the first time we’ve seen Xbox expandable storage that’s not manufactured by Seagate.
Microsoft originally launched Xbox expandable storage cards nearly three years ago with its Xbox Series S / X consoles. The 1TB cards were priced at $219.99 and manufactured exclusively by Seagate. While we’ve seen 512GB and 2TB options appear from Seagate, prices have stubbornly remained high, despite similar storage for PS5 consoles dropping significantly.
Image: Best Buy
Western Digital’s Xbox expandable storage also works with the Xbox Series X.
An additional manufacturer for Xbox expandable storage is much-needed and will hopefully help push prices in the right direction. Best Buy’s listing of the Western Digital C50 1TB expansion card is $40 less than the Seagate model. At $179.99 it’s still hugely overpriced for 1TB storage, especially when you can find a Samsung 980 Pro 1TB PCIe Gen4 drive for $79.99 right now.
Microsoft decided to go with proprietary storage for its Xbox Series X / S consoles, which makes the installation a lot more consumer friendly. But pricing has suffered with only a single manufacturer. Sony opted for a rather standard M.2 SSD expandable storage slot instead, which allows PS5 owners to use a variety of drives on the market. You can even use slow PCIe Gen4 drives on the PS5.
It’s not clear when Western Digital’s new 1TB expansion card for Xbox will be available. The Best Buy listing has no preorder dates, so we’ve reached out to both Western Digital and Microsoft to comment on the listing.
Social media analyst Emily Hund: ‘We can never know the truth behind an influencer’s seeming authenticity’
Today influencers sell ideas about science and medicine as well as products. But the integrity on which their status rests, says the US author, is as unknowable as the algorithms that push their content
In the early 00s, Emily Hund dreamed of a career as a journalist at a glossy fashion magazine. But after internships with New York media companies and having witnessed falling circulations and redundancies, she switched to studying one of the catalysts for these changes: social media and the influencers whose YouTube, TikTok and Instagram posts sell ideas, lifestyles and products to their followers. The influencer industry ranges from global stars such as the Kardashians to micro-influencers who post on niche interests. What they have in common is that they work with brands to promote or sell to an audience. Hund is now a research affiliate at Pennsylvania University’s Centre on Digital Culture and Society and her first book on influencers is published in the UK this month.
How did social media take hold in people’s lives? There was a lot of optimism about social media in the 00s when technology first made it easier to share opinions. During the economic crisis of 2008, when people were out of work or looking for ways to make money, it really took off. Bloggers found loyal audiences, so advertisers got interested. This was all happening against a crisis in traditional media and they were looking for new ways to promote products.
Framework’s computers aren’t perfect, but they are exciting
The new Framework Laptop 16. | Image: Framework
It’s not often that I get too excited about new laptops these days. Modern laptops are extremely capable devices, with few glaring flaws. They are thin, light, and finely tuned to get the job done. Exciting, they are not.
But Framework’s laptops are exciting. Under the banner of repairability and sustainability, Framework is making computers that seem to be exactly what enthusiasts have been asking for — for literal decades. Nearly every part of a Framework Laptop can be repaired, replaced, or upgraded by its owner. Want a faster CPU or more RAM? Just swap the board and click in some more RAM sticks, and you’re off to the races. The company is even coming out with a gaming-focused laptop that promises the ability to upgrade its GPU down the line.
And two-plus years into its existence, Framework has already followed through on many of its promises and shown that it is possible to build a modern, svelte laptop that can be fully repaired and upgraded by the end user, something even giants like Dell have been unable to pull off. All of this makes Framework’s computers not only much more sustainable than the average laptop but also, for gadget heads like me, just plain cool.
Image: Framework
The upcoming Framework Laptop 16 will let you swap out its GPU for something newer or faster down the road.
The excitement I feel about Framework’s products reminds me of how I felt about the very first laptop I owned, purchased when I was a senior in high school back in the early 2000s. Most of my peers at the time were getting standard ThinkPads and Dells in preparation for college. They were certainly capable computers for the period, but they weren’t sleek or unique or anything special and didn’t really game well. (Okay, fine, I did have one friend who got a custom Sager gaming laptop that was tricked the hell out because that is the kind of crowd I have always rolled in. Macs were not on our radar.)
But not me. When I was looking for the laptop that would live with me for the next half-decade or more, I wanted something cool, sleek, powerful, and different from everyone else. I wanted it to be portable enough that I could actually take it places, it had to be able to run games like Unreal Tournament and Counter-Strike (remember, this was the early 2000s), and it had to be comfortable and capable to use for the college classes that I would eventually drop out of.
The computer that met all of my requirements came from an extremely unlikely source: Best Buy’s short-lived house brand of computers, VPR Matrix. Just as most people outside of tech nerds have never heard of Framework today, even fewer people were familiar with VPR Matrix back then. But the handful of desktops and laptops that bore the VPR Matrix brand were ahead of their time in all of the right ways. And they were just fucking cool. (Yes, from a Best Buy house brand. I can hardly believe it myself. By all logical reasoning, this computer should not have existed!)
Let me list all the ways this laptop was cooler than its peers:
It was the first Windows laptop with a widescreen LCD display back when everything had 4:3 panels.
It was the first Windows laptop with a slot-loading DVD / CD-RW drive.
It had a magnesium metal case when every other Windows laptop was plastic as hell.
It measured less than an inch thick when powerful laptops were routinely twice that.
It had a discrete Nvidia graphics card that let me bring just my laptop to LAN parties to play games.
It was designed by F.A. Porsche, long before the Porsche Design name was diluted by countless silly products.
A lot of those qualities were similar to Apple’s laptops, and yes, the VPR Matrix was effectively a PowerBook G4 but with an Intel Pentium 4, Nvidia GPU, and running Windows. Hell, it even has two four-pin Firewire 1394 ports. On a Windows laptop! (There is, frustratingly, very little information on VPR Matrix computers to be found on the internet, not even a Wikipedia entry, but I did dig up these reviewsof it from PCMag and Digital Trends. I have no idea what “VPR” stands for.)
I had to have this computer. And when Best Buy decided that it didn’t want to continue making a house brand of computers that no one heard of and no one was really buying, I was able to snag the last one available in the four stores within driving distance of my home for a hefty discount, spending basically all of my graduation gift money on it. (I recall walking into the store, asking for the laptop I wanted, and having to wait for the Best Buy employee to get the big wheeled stairs so they could dig the last one out of the suspended storage cage above the laptop department. They didn’t even have any on display.)
Image: Dan Seifert / The Verge
My 20-year-old VPR Matrix laptop. There were few like it, and this one is mine. RIP to my M key.
Image: Dan Seifert / The Verge
The silver and black color scheme is very similar to Framework’s. No, I do not know what the mystery substance is on the back, and it didn’t wipe off easily.
Needless to say, I was the only person I ever knew to own a VPR Matrix laptop, and I never saw another one in the wild. I used the hell out of that computer, eventually loading various Linux distributions on it many years later. I still have it in my closet, even though it’s not really useful for anything now and has the scars of many years of use (there are dings on the lid, the rubber feet on the bottom are long gone, and a couple of keycaps no longer stay on) because I can’t bring myself to ever get rid of it.
Though the VPR Matrix didn’t have the repairability and upgradability that Framework provides now (I might have upgraded the RAM and hard drive at some point, and I did replace the battery when it stopped holding a charge, but those were things you could do on most laptops of the period), it had the same level of in-the-know factor and was exactly what gadget enthusiasts like me were looking for. It also came with the same sleek silver and black color scheme that Framework appears to be fond of as well.
These days, I’m much less enthusiastic about my laptop. Sure, the MacBook Pro I’m writing this article on works incredibly well — it’s objectively the best laptop I’ve ever owned — but it’s also the same thing everyone else has. I don’t feel like I made a particularly special or unique decision when I bought it — there’s nothing different or novel to really show anyone on it. It’s just a very capable laptop that lets me get my job done.
I don’t know if I will ever buy a Framework laptop. Most of my workflows now revolve around macOS, and so far, Framework’s computers have not been as competitive as Apple’s MacBooks in areas such as battery life. It’s hard to justify buying a Framework when the MacBook Air is just so good, though maybe the new models will change that somewhat.
But I still get a little excited and feel the gadget lust welling whenever I read something about a Framework or see someone completely dismantle it in a matter of minutes to upgrade the CPU or other components. The budding community of modders that are taking Framework’s components and building completely new things with them is something I’d love to participate in, even if the reality is I never actually would create any of those things myself.
Even if I don’t ever own one, it’s still fun to be excited about a laptop computer in a way that I haven’t felt in a very long time.
WeWork mugs for $500: 10 of the strangest merch items from companies that crashed
FTX fortune cookies and Theranos gift cards offer souvenirs from recent business disasters
You’ve just been laid off from your job at a once mighty startup that was going to change the world. The New York Times has exposed your CEO’s fraudulent business model. Investors have freaked. The stock market is hemorrhaging. Your office keycard doesn’t work. What you do next is very important: go raid the merch closet.
By now, we’ve all seen enough rise-and-fall documentaries to know how this sort of thing plays out. First come layoffs, then lawsuits, and perhaps a prison sentence for bosses like Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes or Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling. One thing we hear less about: the killer resale market that comes with an era-defining financial disaster.
Super73 launches Adventure Series and first e-bike for danger babies
All Adventure Series e-bikes (like this RX) have the battery on the down tube for lower center of gravity and improved handling. | Image: Super73
California’s Super73 now offers more ruggedized models of its Super73 Z, S, and R series of e-bikes and a new K1D electric balance bike for kids — and parents stoked at the thought of putting their four- to eight-year-old on a vehicle that can go over 16mph.
The so-called Adventure Series of e-bikes brings a refreshed design, suspension, gear box, seats, tires, and lights across Super73’s existing Z (entry-level commuter), S (multipurpose cruiser), and R (flagship power) e-bikes. All the electric bikes in the series feature front suspension, while some offer fully adjustable front and rear suspension. S and R models also had their battery moved to the down tube, which should improve handling thanks to a lower center of gravity.
Image: Super73
The Adventure Series.
Meanwhile, the Super73 K1D (get it, sk8er?) is an electric balance bike with regenerative braking and throttle aimed at four-to-eight-year-olds. It offers 60 minutes of ride time (after a 45-minute charge) from its small and swappable 92.8Wh lithium iron phosphate battery (LFP or LiFePO4).
LFP batteries are safer and last longer than the traditional lithium-ion batteries most e-bike makers use, including Super73. The K1D is the first Super73 e-bike to use LFP, and the company is exploring its wider adoption. “Our engineering team is looking into incorporating LFP in the future,” says Super73 spokesperson Mike Whitmark, “but it has not been something we have committed ourselves to yet.”
Image: Super73
The K1D electric balance bike comes in four colors.
The K1D can be put into three different speed modes. Mode one goes up to seven mph, mode two up to 13mph, and mode three “up to 16+ mph,” according to data provided by Super73. The lower two modes can be easily changed by the kid, but “Track Mode” is locked and meant to be unlocked by parents for use on a closed course. Parents can do this by holding the appropriate buttons for the correct amount of time, which means kids will eventually figure it out as well.
You can preorder the Super73 K1D now for $1,295 for delivery in early June.
The Super73 Z Adventure starts at $2,695 in the US and €3,599 in tax-inclusive Europe, the S Adventure starts at $3,595 / €4,399, and the R Adventure starts at $3,995 / €5,399. You can preorder now with deliveries expected in six to 10 weeks, depending on the colorway chosen.
Image: Super73
The Super73 ZX in new aluminum colorway.
The company also announced new colors for its non-Adventure Series e-bikes, including this sick “aluminum” Super73 ZX.
Programmers, beware: ChatGPT has ruined your magic trick | John Naughton
The generative AI tool can write code on request, making the specialist skill of programming open to everyone
Benedict Evans, a tech analyst whose newsletter is required reading for those who follow the industry, made an interesting point this week. He had, he said, been talking to generalist journalists who “were still under the impression that ChatGPT was a trivial parlour trick and the whole thing was about as interesting as a new iPhone app”. On the other hand, he continued, “most people in tech are walking around slowly, holding on to the top of their head with both hands to stop it flying off. But within that, I think we can see a range of attitudes.”
We certainly can – on a spectrum ranging from the view that this “generative AI” is going to be the biggest bonanza since the invention of the wheel, to fears that it augurs an existential risk to humanity, and numerous opinions in between. Seeking a respite from the firehose of contradictory commentary, I suddenly remembered an interview that Steve Jobs – the nearest thing to a visionary the tech industry has ever had – gave in 1990, and dug it out on YouTube.
From Hamas warnings to VIP perks and criminal clients: the US regulator’s claims against Binance
Just months after the FTX collapse, a US watchdog is suing Changpeng Zhao’s firm, the world’s biggest digital-asset market, over a slew of allegations that make jaw-dropping reading
Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and a cornerstone of the $1tn digital asset market. It has 128 million customers, handles $65bn in daily trades and its commercial partners include Cristiano Ronaldo, Italy’s Lazio football team and TikTok megastar Khaby Lame. So when a US regulator announced last week it was suing Binance for “wilful evasion of US law”, it was a significant moment for a sector still reeling from the collapse of FTX.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed the civil enforcement action in a federal court in Chicago, seeking punishments including fines and permanent trading bans. It is suing Binance’s Canadian founder and chief executive, Changpeng Zhao, and three entities that operate the Binance global trading platform over numerous alleged violations of its regulations and of the Commodity Exchange Act. Binance’s former chief compliance officer, Samuel Lim, is also being sued.
How to change the region on an HP OfficeJet printer in 57 easy steps (printer companies hate this!)
Why would you region-lock a printer? | Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge
A couple of weeks ago, Nilay wrote about the Brother laser printer everyone else has. It’s cheap, reliable, and the toner lasts a long time. Get a Brother laser printer, he said, and basically never think about your printer again. You know what part of Nilay’s post sounded really nice? This part right here:
It has been connected to our Wi-Fi for like six years straight, and I have never replaced the toner. It prints Amazon return labels from my phone without complaining, and it does not feel like the CEO of Inkjet Supply and Hostage Situations Incorporated is waiting to mug me or enable DRM at the slightest provocation.
I, on the other hand, spent a couple dozen hours between September 2021 and February 2022 trying to defeat the region lock on my HP printer so I could go back to not thinking about it.
Hey, did you know most inkjet printers are region-locked?
Let me back up. In 2019, I was living in the Netherlands. I needed a printer, so I paid 192 euros (about $213 at the time) for an HP OfficeJet Pro 8720 — the Wirecutter pick for all-in-one printers at the time, shoutouts to my old crew. The Wirecutter article (which I probably edited when I worked there) even warned that a laser printer would be less trouble. Liam McCabe’s cri de cœur about printers was fresh in my mind. And yet, I went for the inkjet all-in-one anyway.
It was fine at first. Aside from being too big to fit on my office cabinet, it did everything I needed it to do. It had a flatbed scanner and a sheet-fed scanner that could scan both sides of a document. It had 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and an ethernet port, and an insecure secure web interface. It had Google Cloud Print (until that stopped working the next year). It had AirPrint. It also had two separate scanner apps, one of which could save OCR’d PDFs, which was very handy before everyone built that into their operating systems. It had a Windows app, the main function of which seemed to be to try to sell me an ink subscription. It could print in color. It could print on both sides of the page. It could print photos, though not like amazing ones. It was fine.
In April 2020, I paid 85 euros (about $93) for replacement ink cartridges. Now, for most of that time, I was not printing a lot of stuff. I was using the scanner a bunch and, especially after the schools closed down because of covid, I printed a lot of coloring sheets and activity pages for my kids. Paying that much for ink so soon after buying the damn thing wasn’t great. In retrospect: lol.
The next summer, my family moved back to the US somewhat earlier than intended. We had some extra room in our flat-rate shipping container, so rather than sell the printer and buy a new one in the US, or fill the empty space with vintage Gispen chairs or hagelslag or something useful, I brought the printer. Waste not, want not! I swapped the power cable for a US one, and away we went.
It was fine until my yellow ink cartridge (allegedly) ran out, and the printer stopped printing in color. I soldiered on with the black cartridge. Until one day I tried to print a return label (in black and white!) and the printer decided it wouldn’t. Not until I replaced the yellow ink cartridge. Fine. I paid 207 goddamn dollars for replacement cartridges, put them in, and discovered that HP region-locks its printers.
If you need a refresher: region-locking is a form of DRM mostly used by media and software publishers so they can sell the same content at different prices in different regions. If you buy a DVD in Europe, you need a DVD player that can play Region 2 discs.
DVDs and Blu-rays are region-locked. (CDs aren’t, which is probably why DVDs are.) Game consoles used to be. Streaming media is region-locked. Software is often region-locked. Kindle books are region-locked unless the publisher requests otherwise. But outside of, like, entertainment devices, it’s rare for hardware to be region-locked. Except, as it turns out, printer cartridges.
The genuine HP ink cartridges, for which I paid as much as I paid for the actual printer, would not work with the printer they were designed to work with because I bought it in a different part of the world. It wasn’t even a cheaper part of the world unless we’re talking healthcare or midcentury furniture.
I bought an HP printer when I lived in the Netherlands. Took it back to the US with me.
Needs new ink.
Turns out HP sells different cartridges in different regions.
No problem; got the US equivalents of the old cartridges. Installed them.
Printer is region-locked.
Now, I realize this is an edge case. Most people don’t move across the world and bring a printer with them. But region-locking is only one of many ways printer companies use DRM to squeeze money out of their customers, and if you have an inkjet printer you might have already run into one of them. Blocking third-party ink cartridges, preventing people from refilling their cartridges, and remotely bricking workingprintersif they reach “end of life” or if you cancel your ink subscription? Just a day’s work for Inkjet Supply and Hostage Situations Incorporated.
Anyway. Having just paid two hundred bucks for new ink cartridges for a perfectly functional printer that I had already hauled halfway around the world, I was determined to get the printer and the cartridges working together. (This is known as the sunk cost fallacy.)
And I did get them working — after spending dozens of hours over five months. Here’s how it went down, as reconstructed from a tweet thread, some hastily jotted notes, a few screenshots, and some emails. (Names have been changed, except for Ferdinand and John, who were patient and helpful respectively.)
Day one
I start by complaining on Twitter. Cory Doctorow eventually retweets it, which is how you know you’ve made it in complaining-about-DRM Twitter.
I make an account on the HP Support website. I register my printer’s model and serial number, date of purchase, etc. The website tells me I’m out of warranty — I know! — and directs me to a support chatbot.
The support chatbot tells me that I’m out of warranty, then suggests that I buy the ink cartridges I already have, which don’t work because the printer is region-locked. Then it suggests that I join HP’s Instant Ink program. Instant Ink is a subscription service that HP really wants you to use. Instead of buying cartridges outright, you pay monthly to use the printer you already own — $5.99 for 100 pages is apparently popular — and they ship you more ink when your printer tells them you’re running low. No, thank you!
I google some more and learn that the printer’s region lock can be reset. All I need to do is start a warranty claim on the new cartridges, get a case number, connect to the printer with a USB cable, and then get in touch with HP Support. Easy!
SIDE QUEST: dig up a USB A-to-B cable. All of my stuff is in boxes since we just moved, and the only cable I find is USB 3.0, not 2.0. It has the extra data hat (technical term), so it won’t work. I know I have one somewhere, possibly at my in-laws’ house.
I call my mother-in-law, who lives 20 minutes away. She brings me the correct cable. It’s about four feet long.
The printer is on the other side of the room from my desktop, and I don’t want to move either of them.
SIDE QUEST: find a working laptop.
Day two
I dig up my 2013-era Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro and apply several years’ worth of Windows updates.
I connect the laptop to the printer with the USB cable. This feels like progress. I’m ready to contact HP.
I am an elder millennial, which means I am not going to pick up the phone if I can help it. Fortunately, HP Support has already replied to my tweet and asks me to DM them. I oblige.
HP tech support asks me to install either HP Smart or the full printer software suite and sends directions for accessing a secret zone in the printer app where I can reset the printer region. All I have to do is hold down Ctrl and Shift and right-click on an empty area to the right of the ink level indicator.
This is where the ink cartridge level indicator would be, except it isn’t.
I cannot access the secret menu in the ink levels menu in the HP Smart app because the ink cartridges are incompatible.
HP Support asks for my printer serial number and suggests that I download the full HP printer software, rather than HP Smart, and try again.
I download and install the full HP printer software. I open it. The software suggests that I use the HP Easy Start utility.
I install the HP Easy Start utility.
The HP Easy Start utility downloads and installs the full HP printer software.
I run the software. It suggests that I use the HP Easy Start utility.
I give up and try a different computer.
I am able to access the secret Set New Region menu. This menu — which warns it’s supposed to be used in conjunction with support — lists the printer serial number, the total page count, something called an RX code, and the nine-digit serial numbers for each of the four cartridges. It has five text input fields at the bottom, labeled 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, and 51.
Here is what’s supposed to happen: I give support the information above. Support plugs it into a key generation utility and generates five four-digit numbers. I plug those numbers into boxes 41 through 45, which generates a five-digit hash in box 51. I read that number back to support. If it matches the box 51 number in their software utility, I hit Reset Device, and the printer region resets.
I send the serial numbers, page count, and RX code to HP Support via Twitter DM.
It is revealed that either Twitter or the software HP uses to interact with Twitter DMs is redacting the serial numbers.
Some software in the chain redacted the serial numbers I sent to HP via Twitter DM.
I send a screenshot of the serial numbers instead.
I send the serial numbers in plain text with spaces between the digits.
The HP tech plugs the information into the reset utility. The utility gives an error.
The tech says we’ve reached the limits of the help they can offer via Twitter DM and asks me to call the phone support team.
It is 5PM. I have to pick up my kids from their after-school program.
Day three
I bite the bullet and pick up the telephone. The first rep, who I’ll call Alice, points out that my printer is out of warranty. I agree but point out that the ink is still in warranty (a technique suggested by the posts I found online) and ask for a regionalization reset on the printer so I can use the ink.
Alice does not know how to help. Since the problem is ink-related, she transfers me to the Instant Ink support line.
Bertrand, the Instant Ink rep, tells me they cover ink, not printers, and transfers me back to the general support line. I have been on the phone for 45 minutes, which feels like a long time because I do not yet know what lies ahead.
Cecile in general support gives me a phone number for the technical support line.
Somewhere around here (my notes aren’t specific) someone asks for my street address.
At the one-hour mark, Ferdinand from technical support suggests having a different team remote into my PC to run a local script to fix the printer. I decline. There’s no way in hell I’m letting someone remote into my computer, especially because the documented procedure for resetting the printer region doesn’t mention anything of the sort.
At this point, I have to go to the grocery store. Ferdinand promises to call back.
I have now spent about four hours on this and I am quite upset about it! There is no reason this should have taken longer than the twenty seconds it takes to swap old cartridges for new ones.
Five hours later, during dinner, I get a call back from Ferdinand. We spend one hour on the phone, during which I send them the serial numbers for my EU and US printer cartridges, they plug those into a software utility, and they send me a series of reset codes to try.
My first indication that they are using the wrong utility is that they are asking for eight-digit serial numbers. My ink cartridges have nine-digit codes. I realize there may be different region reset utilities for different printer product lines.
Ferdinand is adamant that it is the right tool. There are four possible printer zones, according to the software they’re using. Just for the hell of it, we try all four zones with both sets of cartridges. We try over USB and via an ethernet connection. I have pages of code variants in my notes. I dutifully plug in the numbers generated by the tool. Sometimes box 51 matches, sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, when I hit the Reset Device button, the operation fails.
Ferdinand says that it may not be the right tool after all, but they don’t have access to any other tools.
They advise me to call the technical support team at yet another phone number. It is bedtime for my kids. I call it a day.
Day four
(Two days later)
I spend several hours on the phone with the technical team. They cannot generate a working reset code either and suggest a “semi-full reset” of the printer. I comply. It does not reset the printer region.
They offer to send me a completely different printer, an OfficeJet 8210. It’s slightly slower and has half the print resolution, but even if it were better, my resolve is unwavering: this printer should work. I will not rest until it does work.
Day five
My youngest kid gets sick, and a series of stressful events unfolds. I no longer care to pursue the printer situation.
The following week, I borrow a working printer (an Epson inkjet I left behind when I moved to the Netherlands) from my mother-in-law and forget about the HP.
Five months later
Something annoys me about the Epson. I can’t remember what. Probably I am also procrastinating on a freelance assignment. I log back in to the HP website and generate a new support ticket. See you in hell.
New case number in hand, I call HP Support.
After navigating a byzantine phone tree, I am connected to someone who sounds like they’re standing on the side of a mountain during a windstorm. Neither of us can make out what the other is saying. I hang up.
I call back. I endure the phone tree again. I am placed on hold. After a long time, the automated system hangs up on me.
I call again. I finally reach a human. John really wants to fix this.
(n.b. The exact order of events here is a little fuzzy here because my notes are sparse.)
We might be getting somewhere. John emails me a link to a webpage.
The link is to a page on the HP Support internal site, which I cannot access.
He sends me a second one. It is to a different page on the HP Support internal site.
He sends me a third link. From the URL, it seems like it’s the actual keygen utility that generates the region reset codes. I can’t access it because it is on the HP Support internal site.
John wants to see what’s going on with my printer. He asks to do a remote desktop session. We compromise on a video call from my phone. I point the phone at the region reset dialog so he can make sure he has the serial numbers typed down correctly.
In addition to the printer serial number and the four nine-digit serial numbers of the cartridges, which I can get from the secret menu, he asks for a separate six-digit number that’s printed on each cartridge. Maybe this is the information that finally lets us access the correct key generation software.
John plugs some numbers into the key generation utility. He gives me the five four-digit numbers for boxes 41 through 45. I plug them into the dialog box on my computer. A number appears in box 51.
Box 51 matches the number John got from the utility. I try not to get my hopes up.
I hit “Reset Device.” A dialog box pops up: Region Successfully Reset.
Image: Nathan Edwards
This screenshot of a phone video of a laptop screen is the only record I thought to make of the occasion.
John asks me to pull the plug on the printer, wait one minute, and turn it back on. He says if this doesn’t fix it, the problem is with the ink cartridges, not the printer. I am skeptical.
I turn the printer back on. John asks me to print a test page.
IT WORKS! Our long national ordeal is over and I can print again.
I thank John profusely for his help.
John tries to upsell me on an Instant Ink subscription. I decline.
John asks if there’s anything else he can help me with. That’s it, man. We’re good.
He asks for my mailing address, which I provide.
I take the post-call survey. My praise for John borders on the effusive.
I pick my kids up from daycare and take them to the playground. The February air tastes sweeter somehow.
One week later, a padded envelope arrives from HP. It contains a free high-capacity black ink cartridge.
That was last February. The printer has been working fine since then. Until Nilay wrote his piece about the Brother laser printer, I hadn’t thought much about it, which is the ideal relationship between a person and their printer.
But the journey changed both of us. I can’t go back to the person I was in late 2021, and I think you can only reset your printer region three times. I didn’t add a working printer to the world’s growing pile of e-waste, but now I think I’m stuck with it until one of us dies.
The printer software estimates that I have 600 pages left on my cyan, yellow, and back cartridges and 800 pages left on magenta. That should last me a year or two. After that? I have that free black ink cartridge from HP, but high-capacity color cartridges are $40 a pop. Or, as the HP website cheerily points out, I could sign up for Instant Ink.
Plastic transistor amplifies biochemical sensing signal The molecules in our bodies are in constant communication. Some of these molecules provide a biochemical fingerprint that could indicate how a wound is healing, whether or not a cancer treatment is working or that a virus has invaded the body. If we could sense these signals in real time with high sensitivity, then we might be able to recognize health problems faster and even monitor disease as it progresses.
Twitter to no longer only promote paid-for accounts after backlash
Elon Musk says he ‘forgot to mention’ other users would be visible on ‘for you’ timeline as well
Twitter has reversed course on plans to limit presence on its “for you” timeline to paying users only, with Elon Musk claiming he “forgot to mention” that other users would be visible as well.
When the company’s owner first announced the plan on Tuesday he said it would limit the tab that algorithmically curates tweets for users to only display accounts who had paid £8 a month for “Twitter Blue” and linked their account to a working phone number.
Amazon workers in Coventry announce six fresh strike dates
April dates come as GMB union prepares to test support for stoppages at five other sites
Workers at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse have announced six fresh strike dates, as the GMB union prepares to test support for stoppages among staff at another five of the delivery company’s sites.
Strikes at the vast Coventry centre, known as BHX4, began in January – the first industrial action ever taken against Amazon in the UK. Staff are demanding pay of £15 an hour.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai promises Bard AI chatbot upgrades soon: ‘We clearly have more capable models’
Illustration: The Verge
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has responded to criticism of the company’s experimental AI chatbot Bard, promising that Google will be upgrading Bard soon.
“We clearly have more capable models,” Pichai said in an interview on The New York Times’Hard Fork podcast. “Pretty soon, perhaps as this [podcast] goes live, we will be upgrading Bard to some of our more capable PaLM models, which will bring more capabilities; be it in reasoning, coding, it can answer maths questions better. So you will see progress over the course of next week.”
Pichai noted that Bard is running on a “lightweight and efficient version of LaMDA,” an AI language model that focuses on delivering dialog. “In some ways I feel like we took a souped-up Civic and put it in a race with more powerful cars,” said Pichai. PaLM, by comparison, is a more recent language model; it’s larger in scale and Google claims it is more capable when dealing with tasks like common-sense reasoning and coding problems.
Bard was first released to public users on March 21st, but failed to garner the attention or acclaim won by OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing chatbot. In The Verge’s own tests of these systems, we found that Bard was consistently less useful than its rivals. Like all general purpose chatbots it is able to respond to a wide range of questions, but its answers are generally less fluent and imaginative, and fail to draw on reliable data sources.
Pichai suggested that part of the reason for Bard’s limited capabilities was a sense of caution within Google. “To me, it was important to not put [out] a more capable model before we can fully make sure we can handle it well,” he said.
Pichai also confirmed that he was talking with Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin about the work (“Sergey has been hanging out with our engineers for a while now”) and that while he himself never issued the infamous “code red” to scramble development, there were probably people in the company who “sent emails saying there is a code red.”
Pichai also discussed concerns that development of AI is currently moving too fast and perhaps poses a threat to society. Many in the AI and tech communities have been warning about the dangerous race dynamic currently in play between companies including OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google. Earlier this week, an open letter signed by Elon Musk and top AI researchers called for a six month pause on the development of these AI systems.
“In this area, I think it’s important to hear concerns,” said Pichai regarding the open letter calling for the pause. “And I think there is merit to be concerned about it ... This is going to need a lot of debate, no-one knows all the answers, no one company can get it right.” He also said that “AI is too important an area not to regulate,” but suggested it was better to simply apply regulations in existing industries — like privacy regulations and regulations in healthcare — than create new laws to tackle AI specifically.
Some experts worry about immediate risks, like chatbots’ tendency to spread mistruths misinformation, while others warn about more existential threats; suggesting that these systems are so difficult to control that once they are connected to the wider web they could be used destructively. Some suggest that current programs are also drawing closer to what’s known as artificial generally intelligence, or AGI: systems that are as least as capable as a human across a wide range of tasks.
“It is so clear to me that these systems are going to be very, very capable, and so it almost doesn’t matter whether you’ve reached AGI or not,” said Pichai. “Can we have an AI system which can cause disinformation at scale? Yes. Is it AGI? It really doesn’t matter. Why do we need to worry about AI safety? Because you have to anticipate this and evolve to meet that moment.”
You can listen to the interview in full and read a transcript here.
Google C.E.O. Sundar Pichai on Bard, A.I. ‘Whiplash’ and Competing With ChatGPT “Am I concerned? Yes. Am I optimistic and excited about all the potential of this technology? Incredibly.”
TechScape: How the world is turning against social media
France has banned not only TikTok from government phones, but Facebook and Twitter, too. Could this be a tipping point for big tech? Plus, AI-generated pictures of the pope signal a new type of viral image
Government workers in the UK, US, Canada and European Union (the list will have grown by the time you read this) are banned from installing TikTok on their phones.
On Friday, France joined that list, preventing its civil servants from installing TikTok – and everything else. From the government’s press release (original in French):
After an analysis of the issues, in particular security, the government has decided to ban the downloading and installation of recreational applications on professional telephones provided to public officials from now on.
Recreational applications do not have sufficient levels of cybersecurity and data protection to be deployed on government equipment. This ban applies immediately and uniformly. Exemptions may be granted on an exceptional basis …
E3 2023: video game industry’s biggest expo cancelled
The annual event, which faced years of Covid disruption, will not return in 2023
E3, the video game industry’s biggest annual expo, has been cancelled.
The show had been due to make a return after years of Covid-19 disruption this June in Los Angeles, but in a joint statement, the US’s Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and events company Reedpop announced it would no longer be going ahead.
Bafta Games Awards: God of War wins six but Vampire Survivors is best game
The were gasps in the crowd as a cult indie shooter beat the blockbusters to the key award of the night
It must be one of the biggest shock wins in the history of the Bafta Games Awards. Up against huge blockbuster titles such as Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarök, the best game winner at this year’s ceremony, which took place on Thursday evening, was Vampire Survivors, a shoot-’em-up largely developed by lone coder Luca Galante.
There were gasps in the crowd at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London when the title was read out, with Galante’s small team accepting the award on his behalf and looking shaken. The game, in which players attempt to survive as long as possible in an ever-changing landscape swarming with monsters, had earlier won the game design award.
Best podcasts of the week: The hidden history of the American right’s anti-trans agenda
In this week’s newsletter: The Anti-Trans Hate Machine returns with a second series looking back at America’s record of violence toward transgender people. Plus: five of the best pop culture podcasts
The Lesser Dead
All episodes on Wondery+ now, available weekly elsewhere The life of a vampire in 1978 is a good one, according to this scripted podcast starring Minnie Driver (below) and Jack Kilmer. Spending days watching TV, then partying in underground clubs – they’ve got it all worked out. Joey Peacock (Kilmer) is only out to steal a bit of blood and means no harm, but when he witnesses a disturbing incident on Valentine’s Day his bliss is shattered and an enthralling, atmospheric story starts. Hannah Verdier
Marshall, the iconic amp manufacturer, is being acquired by Marshall speaker maker Zound
Jimi Hendrix with a Marshall amp in 1967. | Image: JJs / Alamy Stock Photo
Marshall Amplification, the 60-year-old company that’s produced iconic guitar amps used by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Slash, and Kurt Cobain, is being acquired by Zound Industries, the Swedish company that’s previously licensed the Marshall brand for its headphones and speakers. Exact financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the resulting company will be the privately owned Marshall Group. The Marshall family will serve as its largest shareholder with a 24 percent stake.
Jeremy de Maillard, who currently serves as Zound’s CEO and who will be CEO of Marshall Group going forward, said in an interview with The Verge that the deal is as much about acquiring Marshall’s engineering expertise as it is about acquiring the brand name. “The way I like to think about it is that Zound has been making products to listen to music, and Marshall has been making products to make music or to play music,” de Maillard says, calling them “very complementary businesses.”
In the immediate future, the CEO doesn’t expect much to change for either company. All of Marshall Amplification’s brands and subsidiaries — including Natal Drums, Marshall Records, and Marshall Live Agency — are included as part of the deal, and the CEO says they’re “100 percent committed” to both the company’s existing UK-based premium amp manufacturing facility and their factory in Vietnam.
Victoria Marshall, who was Marshall CEO from 2002 to 2008, and Terry Marshall, who built the first Marshall amplifier with his father, Jim Marshall, in 1962, will sit on the board of the Marshall Group to help guide the company’s high-level strategy.
There also won’t be any immediate changes to how Zound’s headphones and Bluetooth speakers are developed. “We’ve already been working in close collaboration for the past 12 years,” de Maillard tells me. “We haven’t done a single product from Zound that hasn’t been approved by the acoustic engineer at Marshall Amps… It’s a complete continuation of what we do, except now we’re one and the same.”
Image: Zound Industries
A selection of Zound’s Marshall-style speakers, which draw inspiration from the guitar amps.
“Since my father and I created the original Marshall amp back in 1962, we have always looked for ways to deliver the pioneering Marshall sound to music lovers of all backgrounds and music tastes across the world - and I’m confident that the Marshall Group will elevate this mission and spur the love for the Marshall brand,” Terry Marshall said in a statement.
“Having worked alongside my father during his later years, I know he would be excited at this direction and the potential to reach a larger worldwide audience,” added Victoria Marshall.
Although the Zound name is disappearing in favor of Marshall, the Swedish company doesn’t plan to abandon its other product lines like Urbanears. But de Maillard tells me that Marshall-branded items represent over 90 percent of Zound’s existing sales, so it makes sense to double down on the brand.
In the long term, de Maillard says he hopes the merger will help speed up development, help them approach their product range “more holistically,” and ultimately share the manufacturing and product development knowledge gained from working across two very different industries. “What we are buying is basically the ability to make one entity greater than the sum of its parts,” de Maillard says. But he adds that “nothing has been decided” about the newly formed company’s long-term goals.
When Zound first started licensing the Marshall name back in 2010, it was an unknown startup that had only started shipping products the previous year. It was the iconic Marshall brand that helped put it on the map. But now, over a decade later, de Maillard suspects that Zound’s Marshall-branded speakers and headphones may be the ones helping to promote Marshall’s guitar amps.
“We brought the Marshall brand to over 90 countries through the headphones and the speakers. So it became a much more known brand by the masses than it was before,” de Maillard claims. “Before it was the in-the-know, the musicians, people who were really into music who knew about the brand. But through this partnership, we’ve managed to touch a lot more people.”
“I don’t have the number, but I’m pretty sure that drove a lot of people to start playing guitar as well,” he says.
Caught in the FTX storm: how a crypto high-flyer fell to Earth
The Maps payments app run by British-educated cryptocurrency tycoon Alex Grebnev, who was backed by Sam Bankman-Fried, has lost its Mastercard partnership amid a row over Russian users
As western brands began the stampede out of Russia a year ago, its citizens found themselves unable to pay for the international goods and services with which they had become so familiar.
Among the first firms to sever ties were the credit card companies Visa and Mastercard, leaving Russians struggling to spend their cash on services from Netflix to Amazon.
Elon Musk is now the most-followed person on Twitter
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Photo: Getty Images
Elon Musk has dethroned former President Barack Obama as the most followed person on Twitter. As of right now, the billionaire has 133,068,709 followers compared to Obama’s 133,042,819, according to the follower counts reported on their respective Twitter profiles.
In between posting random and sometimes offensive memes, Musk uses his account to communicate various changes coming to Twitter. He has also polled followers about some major decisions, like letting Donald Trump back onto the platform and whether or not Musk should step down as CEO of Twitter.
Musk’s posting habits stand in stark contrast to Obama’s, who mainly uses his account for professional purposes, such as promoting an important cause or highlighting some of the work he did as president. The same goes for Justin Bieber and Katy Perry, who occupy the third and fourth most-followed spots, respectively.
Panera to adopt palm-reading payment systems, sparking privacy fears
Bakery is first restaurant chain to use Amazon One biometric technology, which faces scrutiny from lawmakers and activists
The US bakery and cafe chain Panera will soon allow customers to pay with the swipe of a palm, marking the first restaurant chain to implement the new technology and raising alarm among privacy advocates.
The company announced last week it would roll out biometric readers in coming months that will allow customers to access credit card and loyalty account information by scanning their palms. Called Amazon One, the system was developed by Amazon and is in use at some airports, stadiums and Whole Foods grocery stores.
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