Twitter is now marking Substack links as unsafe
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
Twitter has started marking links to Substack as unsafe. If you click on a link on Twitter with substack.com in the URL, Twitter will show a separate notice warning you that “the link you are trying to access has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe.”
Don’t be alarmed — the links we’ve checked appear to be perfectly safe. This notice seems instead to be Twitter’s latest hostile move toward Substack after the email newsletter platform announced its own Twitter-like “Notes” feature on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Twitter blocked people who use Substack from embedding tweets into their stories. Then, late Thursday or early Friday, Twitter started blocking engagement on tweets containing links to Substack; users weren’t able to like or retweet them, but could quote retweet them. Then, on Friday morning, Twitter applied those same restrictions to tweets from the official Substack account.
The warning you get when trying to follow a Substack link from Twitter.
While those moves are clearly unfriendly, I’d classify the unsafe warning as downright aggressive. Twitter’s URL policy hasn’t changed since 2020, according to the last updated note on the page, and Substack’s site appears to be working as it always has, so it’s hard to say what justification Twitter’s using for the warning. CEO Elon Musk hasn’t tweeted anything about Substack recently and, when reached for comment, Twitter’s press email auto-replied with a poop emoji, which it has been doing since mid-March.
The elephant in the room is Substack’s Notes feature, which adds very Twitter-like elements to the newsletter platform. Matt Taibbi, a journalist who has history reporting stories for Musk, said Friday that he was told by an unspecified party that “Twitter is upset about the new Substack Notes feature, which they see as a hostile rival.” He also notes that he was “given the option of posting my articles on Twitter instead of Substack.”
In December, Musk said he considered “relentless advertising of competitors” to be a policy violation, and blocked sharing links to Instagram, Mastodon, Facebook, and others. However, those restrictions were later removed. It’s possible that he’s decided to bring it back now that he feels like Substack is trying to compete with Twitter, though it is worth noting that, for now at least, you still are able to tweet a Substack link. Anyone trying to follow it will just have to click through the warning to get to the content.
Substack didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment on the warning. However, its founders have recently spoken out about how Twitter is treating their platform.
Microsoft locks down game emulation on the Xbox Series X and Series S
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
Microsoft is barring users from running game emulations on the Xbox Series X | S. On Thursday, Twitter user @gamr12, who’s involved with the distribution of the RetroArch emulation software on Xbox, posted the error message they received when attempting to launch emulated content.
“Unable to launch this game or app,” the message reads. “The game or app you’re trying to launch violates Microsoft Store policy and is not supported.” Other userswith emulation software on the Xbox Series X | S report running into the same issue.
As pointed out by @gamr12, you can still emulate games on the Xbox Series X | S, but only if you put the device in Developer Mode, which you have to pay for. Microsoft seems to have only gotten rid of the option when the console’s put in Retail Mode, something all users can switch on for free with a little technical know-how.
While it’s still not clear what prompted the change, Alyanna, an active emulator fan who says she is a Microsoft Azure developer, claims she contacted an unnamed “friend at the Xbox QA team” about the issue weeks ago, who said the reason for the ban is Nintendo.
While the source and claims of the message haven’t been verified or confirmed, it reads, “The primary reason for the ban is related to legal issues with Nintendo.” “While emulating itself is not illegal, it can be used to play games from consoles that are still under copyright protection without permission, which can create issues with Nintendo and its affiliates.”
Microsoft’s rules technically don’t allow emulations, but the company typically looked the other way in the past, according to Kotaku. “We continually evolve our mechanisms for reviewing and taking enforcement actions on content distributed to the Store to ensure alignment with our Microsoft Store Policies,” Microsoft tells Kotaku. “Per 10.13.10, Products that emulate a game system or game platform are not allowed on any device family,” Microsoft says. The company didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.
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.
Samsung’s having a terrible financial year
Samsung's chip business is killing profits. | Photo by JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images
Samsung Electronics is having another bad quarter according to the company’s own preliminary estimates. This time, it’s warning that quarterly operating profit decreased 96 per cent compared to the same period last year, worse than the two-thirds plunge it suffered the three months prior. Not even robust sales of the new Galaxy S23 series could overcome a global plummet in chip demand.
Semiconductor demand has waned since peak covid as everyone splurged on lockdown toys and tools. Now the global economic slowdown has caused consumers to think twice about buying that next gadget resulting in swollen chip inventories for companies like Samsung. And according to my ECON101 professor, prices will fall when there’s more supply than demand putting the hurt on corporate profits. And you can’t get a pardon for that.
But don’t feel too badly for Samsung. It still made a ton of money. Operating profit is estimated at 600 billion won (about $456 million) — the lowest it’s been in 14 years, reports the Financial Times. It’s just not the staggering 14.12 trillion Korean won (about $10.7 billion) raked in last year at this time.
As a result, Samsung says it’s cutting memory chip production to a “meaningful level” to address the oversupply. “We have cut short-term production plans, but as we project solid demand for the mid-to-long term, we will continue to invest in infrastructure to secure essential cleanrooms and to expand R&D investment to solidify tech leadership,” Samsung said in a statement.
One bright spot for the quarter was the new Galaxy S23 series, with sales of about 11 million units. That’s up by 50 percent compared to its predecessor, according to Hanwha Investment & Securities analyst Kim Kwangjin as reported by Bloomberg.
Samsung will issue its final financial statement in a few weeks, but it typically diverges very little, if at all, from preliminary guidance.
This economist won every bet he made on the future. Then he tested ChatGPT
Bryan Caplan was skeptical after AI struggled on his midterm exam. But within months, it had aced the test
The economist Bryan Caplan was sure the artificial intelligence baked into ChatGPT wasn’t as smart as it was cracked up to be. The question: could the AI ace his undergraduate class’s 2022 midterm exam?
Caplan, of George Mason University in Virginia, seemed in a good position to judge. He has made a name for himself by placing bets on a range of newsworthy topics, from Donald Trump’s electoral chances in 2016 to future US college attendance rates. And he nearly always wins, often by betting against predictions he views as hyperbolic.
Senior Twitter Lawyer Resigns, the Latest in a Series of Executive Departures The lawyer had been closely involved in the company’s talks with the Federal Trade Commission over promises it had made on privacy.
The impossibility of logging off
Image: Mengxin Li / The Verge
The logout button has become practically defunct.
On Twitter, the phrase “log off” is often uttered as a contemptuous command, directed toward a perennially online person who needs to put down their phone and go for a walk. Logging off, by this logic, is not a task to be done on one’s device but a mental state to inhabit and idealize. Still, there’s a deep irony to this sentiment: a person who manages to mentally log off, whether it be for an hour or a week, might still remain technically logged in. It’s common practice for users to leave open browser tabs and apps, for devices to ambiently operate in the background, collecting data. Most people don’t spare this fact a second thought. We’re accustomed to staying logged in so that we can continue scrolling exactly where we left off.
The interface of consumer websites and apps, in turn, has reflected this shift. People once prioritized logging in as much as logging out, but now, according to freelance UI designer Jesse Showalter, access to content is of utmost importance, even at the cost of constantly sharing our data. Logging out, by contrast, carries little value for companies or consumers.
The logout button seems to have been rendered practically defunct. I only purposefully sign out of certain accounts when I’m trying to curb my usage of a site or app (usually it’s Twitter or Amazon). Even then, that process isn’t always straightforward. A few months ago, I was using a friend’s laptop to send some emails and realized that I was prohibited from individually signing out of my Gmail account. Doing so would also log my friend out. This is a desktop-specific nuisance that Google has maintained for many years. Instead, I had to use a separate device, like a mobile phone, to revoke account access.
This unexpected logout hurdle only affirmed my conspiratorial suspicion: websites and apps have a profit-bearing incentive to keep users logged in, reflected in mobile and desktop interface design. The logout button, as a result, has been consigned to the depths of the settings menu, as is the case with Discord and YouTube, or even removed as a function entirely, like on the mobile apps for Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. My theory aligns with the history of dark interface patterns quietly pushed by major tech companies. These UI decisions are made with corporate interests in mind “to trick users into doing things they might not otherwise do.” Concealing the logout function by a few clicks is admittedly not as manipulative as tricking a user to agree to be tracked. The logic seemed similar, though. People are less likely to consider signing out if the option isn’t quite so front and center. Otherwise, why would there be a genre of YouTube tutorials with thousands, if not millions, of views detailing the logout process of certain apps?
I reached out to some interface designers to see if my theory held any weight, only to learn that the reality is not as nefarious as I’ve made it out to be. User behavior informs design decisions and vice versa. Since our devices are treated as extensions of our cognitive selves, people shift constantly between mobile and desktop interfaces, even simultaneously using both. These days, users expect their session data to be seamlessly transferred across devices: “This productivity handover results in people needing to stay constantly logged in,” said Tom McLean, the lead UX designer at technology and design consultancy Door3. The login experience, too, becomes less of a hassle, and service providers like Google or Meta can gather browsing data and habits on their users, even when they’re not using the app.
This relationship is more symbiotic than antagonistic, McLean added. Most interfaces are designed to be user-friendly. Businesses benefit from customers engaging with their product. A positive interface experience increases the amount of time spent on an app, which translates to increased advertising revenue. In some cases, a user doesn’t necessarily need to make an account to be “logged in.” They simply have to permit a site to create a session cookie (usually by checking a box) that gathers data on the user’s activity. These cookies are often not cleared when the browser is closed, so the person can technically stay logged in for an extended period of time. Few users manually clear out their cache. In the end, convenience is always something the user pays for, said Sara Vienna, vice president of design at the interface design firm MetaLab, in the form of money or personal data for targeted ads.
Most sites aren’t purposefully sending users on a wild goose chase before logging out.
The sign-out process might seem more confusing or challenging because users are less familiar with contemporary interface designs, Vienna said, which have only grown more customized and sophisticated in the past decade. Designers are not as often relying on “cookie-cutter, bootstrap-like interfaces,” Vienna added. “When people pull from familiar design patterns, there’s a benefit from a UX perspective because familiarity means people know where to find things.”
Developers simply don’t think about logging out as much, unless they’re building platforms that contain sensitive user information. With healthcare or financial services apps, for example, logging out is an automated, built-in feature. User sessions are programmed to quickly time out or expire for privacy. Or in the case of news sites with paywalls, like The New Yorker and New York Magazine, users complain about being routinely booted out.
Vienna imagines an inevitable future where users will be more thoughtful about their data, demanding more control over how it’s used and collected. The side effect of that? An internet that allows for more states than the binary of being logged in or logged out. “When we think of states, it’s the way the interface should change and evolve depending on the user’s location, time, actions, and anticipated needs,” Vienna said.
Until then, when we take a break from our screens, leave our homes and go for a walk, to go touch grass even, our devices at home will remain logged in, with the promise of a seamless and continuous experience for whenever we might return — the expectation that, no matter what, we always will.
OneNote is getting Microsoft’s new AI Copilot to help you write your notes
Illustration: The Verge
Microsoft is planning to add its new Microsoft 365 Copilot assistant to OneNote. The software giant originally announced Copilot for apps like Teams, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint last month, and it’s now ready to demo how note taking will be impacted by an AI-powered assistant.
“As your notetaking partner, Copilot uses your prompts to draft plans, generate ideas, create lists, organize information, and more,” explains Greg Mace, a product manager for OneNote.
Image: Microsoft
How the Copilot integration works in OneNote.
Much like Copilot’s integration in Word, the AI assistant can rewrite, format, or summarize existing text in OneNote based on prompts in a sidebar interface. You can also ask the AI assistant to create a plan for an event or generate topics and talking points for meetings.
Microsoft hasn’t shown off Copilot’s inline integration in OneNote yet, though. In the Word version you can highlight paragraphs and the Copilot assistant will appear when you mouse over a section of the paragraph to offer up rewritten text automatically.
currently playing around with Microsoft's AI Copilot for Word, thanks to @XenoPanther. It's only supposed to be available in "private preview" for "select Microsoft 365 enterprise customers," but a few registry keys here and there and you can get the basics working pic.twitter.com/TSO1KgnqwH
Microsoft also hasn’t announced exactly when Copilot will be available in OneNote. A small number of Microsoft 365 enterprise customers are currently testing a preview version of Copilot in apps like Word and Outlook, and some of these early versions can be enabled in beta copies of Word right now.
I’ve been playing around with the private preview of Copilot in Word recently, using it to generate text. It’s a very early implementation right now, so there’s lots of missing functionality that needs sorting before it’s ready for public preview. Microsoft is testing this heavily before rolling it more broadly, and the company hasn’t committed to any dates for Copilot just yet.
Microsoft brings its Bing chatbot to your fingertips with SwiftKey on Android
Illustration: The Verge
Microsoft has added Bing Chat AI to its popular SwiftKey keyboard for Android. The integration started appearing on Wednesday and allows SwiftKey Beta users to quickly access Microsoft’s Bing chatbot at the tap of a button in any app.
The Bing Chat integration inside SwiftKey includes the usual chat mode that offers access to the chatbot, or a tone mode that will rewrite any text right within the keyboard. If you were only using the Bing mobile app to access the chatbot, this new integration makes that app rather redundant if, instead, you’re willing to install and use SwiftKey everywhere.
To access this new Bing Chat integration you’ll need to download the beta version of SwiftKey on the Google Play Store. Pedram Rezaei, Microsoft’s CTO of mobile and commerce, confirmed on Twitter that the feature is “slowly rolling out,” but there’s no word on when SwiftKey iOS users will be able to try it out.
Bing Chat is coming to SwiftKey. Download the latest SwiftKey beta and sign in to your MSA.
Reposted with cleaner screenshots. pic.twitter.com/dBss7gnOzn
Microsoft discontinued support for SwiftKey on iOS last year, before quickly returning the app to the App Store. At the time Rezaei said Microsoft will be “investing heavily in the keyboard,” just as the company was preparing to publicly launch an AI-powered version of Bing.
While the iOS version of SwiftKey hasn’t been updated regularly, Microsoft’s AI push will likely see this Bing integration appear on the iPhone keyboard side soon. Microsoft might also be responding to competition from a number of AI-powered keyboards on iOS that include ChatGPT integration. Paragraph AI includes an interface that lets you generate text everywhere and is already rising in popularity on iOS.
Microsoft originally acquired SwiftKey in 2016, after the third-party keyboard soared in popularity on Android and iOS. It was the second best Android keyboard in The Verge’s roundup in 2015, thanks to its tracing, autocorrect, and theme support.
The List of Absolutely Everything That Might Kill You
Widely available, episodes weekly Fireworks, bees, volcanoes, theme parks … there are many dangers in life. DJ Matt Edmondson and This Is Going to Hurt author Adam Kay’s new podcast explores just how likely some things are to kill you. While Kay has seen a lot of death as a doctor, his co-host has only dealt with a deceased pet rabbit, so the contrast between the two offers up many moments of comedy. Hannah Verdier
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.
Twitter’s Logo Changes to Doge as Users Await Blue Check-Mark Removal The promised changes to the platform’s verification program have been slow. Attention has focused instead on the image of a doge in place of the blue Twitter bird.
If crime doesn’t pay, some cybercriminals wouldn’t know it. A top team member in a cybercrime outfit like Conti can make an estimated US$1.1 million a year, according to a report released Monday by Trend Micro. Since cybercrime groups don’t file reports with the SEC, the salary earned by a top money maker in a […] The post Top Salary for Cybercriminals Can Exceed $1M appeared first on TechNewsWorld.
At its Amplify Partner Conference 2023 in Chicago, HP unveiled several new laptops with a focus on productivity, along with new peripherals, including printers and genuinely wireless headphones. The post HP Affirms ‘Better Together’ at Its Amplify Event appeared first on TechNewsWorld.
This Historically Black University Created Its Own Tech Intern Pipeline A new program at Bowie State connects computing students directly with companies, bypassing an often harsh Silicon Valley vetting process.
Robots predict human intention for faster builds Humans have a way of understandings others' goals, desires and beliefs, a crucial skill that allows us to anticipate people's actions. Taking bread out of the toaster? You'll need a plate. Sweeping up leaves? I'll grab the green trash can.
Letter signed by Elon Musk demanding AI research pause sparks controversy
The statement has been revealed to have false signatures and researchers have condemned its use of their work
A letter co-signed by Elon Musk and thousands of others demanding a pause in artificial intelligence research has created a firestorm, after the researchers cited in the letter condemned its use of their work, some signatories were revealed to be fake, and others backed out on their support.
On 22 March more than 1,800 signatories – including Musk, the cognitive scientist Gary Marcus and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak – called for a six-month pause on the development of systems “more powerful” than that of GPT-4. Engineers from Amazon, DeepMind, Google, Meta and Microsoft also lent their support.
Kobo’s all-you-can-read subscription coming to the US could challenge Amazon
Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge
Kobo is bringing its Kobo Plus service, which lets you read unlimited ebooks and audiobooks for a flat monthly fee, to the US. There are three different plans available; for $7.99 a month, you can get access to ebooks or audiobooks with the “Read” and “Listen” plans, or you can get both for $9.99 a month.
You can access the books through Kobo’s e-readers (though do note that not all of them support audiobooks) or the company’s iOS, Android, and desktop apps. You also don’t have to be constantly connected to Wi-Fi to read them — a Kobo FAQ says that “you can read a maximum of 15 Kobo Plus books while offline over a 30-day period.”
Kobo Plus has been around for a while in a few countries, including Canada, New Zealand, and Portugal, but I’m happy to see it coming to the US. As someone who loves reading but tries to avoid giving Amazon money, I’ve always been jealous of the Kindle Unlimited subscription, which is $9.99 a month and is similar to Kobo’s offering. It’s good to see some more competition in the book subscription space.
However, I will say that my excitement’s been tempered a bit by the selection of books that’s currently available. Like Kindle Unlimited, Kobo Plus doesn’t give you carte blanche access to every ebook on the store, only select titles. I signed up for the free trial and scrolled through the top non-fiction Kobo Plus reads, and I’m pretty sure I could keep myself entertained with what’s available there for a while.
When I checked the 72 books on my wishlist, though, I could only get four through the subscription (and three of those were from the same author, Samuel R. Delany, so the variety was extremely limited). It is possible that I just have extremely niche tastes, though, because when I did the same experiment with Kindle Unlimited, it also only scored four out of 72. It’s also worth noting that I did this before the Kobo Plus had officially launched, so it’s possible I didn’t have access to the full catalog.
According to Kobo, the library accessible to subscribers includes 1.3 million ebooks and 100,000 audiobooks, and the company says it’s adding more each month. For reference, Amazon boasts “over three million digital titles” that are included with Kindle Unlimited, so Kobo does have some catching up to do if it wants to match that figure.
PS: I’d be remiss if I wrote about book subscriptions without mentioning Libby, a free app that gives you access to tons of ebooks and audiobooks via your local library. The catalog is dependent on how good your library is, but it’s worth checking out if you’re not familiar with it already.
Kobo launches the Kobo Elipsa 2E, a huge e-reader you can also write on
Image: Kobo
Kobo’s launching a new 10.3-inch E Ink e-reader and writing device, the Kobo Elipsa 2E, on April 19th. The new Kindle Scribe and Onyx Boox Nova Air C rival will retail for $399.99 and comes with an upgraded stylus that you can use to write directly on the pages of ebooks and documents.
Those eager to get their hands on Kobo’s latest e-reader can preorder it from Kobo starting today. As an added incentive, the Rakuten-owned Kobo’s throwing in a $25 Kobo e-gift card for customers preordering the device in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.
On paper, the Kobo Elipsa 2E appears to be a minor upgrade from its predecessor, the Kobo Elipsa. They both sell for $399 bundled with a stylus, though only the original Elipsa throws in an included cover. The two e-readers also offer 10.3-inch glare-free displays with built-in tech to minimize blue light exposure along with Bluetooth support. Both additionally sport 32GB of storage and can convert handwriting to typed text. They both integrate with cloud services so you can export notes as well and, sadly, neither device is waterproof.
Image: Kobo
The Kobo Elipsa 2E comes with a stylus that magnetically attaches to the side.
However, the Elipsa 2E does come with an upgraded stylus and other improvements that should provide “a better and faster writing experience,” or so Kobo claims. For one, the redesigned Kobo Stylus 2 magnetically attaches to the Kobo Elipsa 2E. It’s also rechargeable, which means it doesn’t come with AAA batteries that you would previously have to keep replacing. Meanwhile, the eraser is located on the back now, as opposed to closer to the tip near the highlight button, for more intuitive use.
In addition, annotations will now always be visible even if users change settings like font size or page layout. Before, changing page layout settings would hide annotations within an icon you’d have to click on to view, so this new update will save users an extra step. Other improvements include an easier-to-search built-in notebook feature as well as longer battery life it says “should last weeks,” though we’ll have to test it ourselves to see if this claim holds true.
Like the new Kobo Clara 2E, the e-reader is also more eco-friendly as a part of Kobo’s larger goal to reduce its environmental footprint. The e-reader, for example, is now made from over 85 percent recycled plastic, with 10 percent from ocean plastic. Meanwhile, the new Kobo Elipsa 2E SleepCover — which puts the e-reader to sleep when closed — is made from over 97 percent recycled plastic.
Along with the Elipsa 2E, Kobo also announced the launch of its own take on Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited, the Kobo Plus service, in the US today. The three-tier subscription grants members access to over a million ebooks and hundreds of thousands of audiobooks starting at $7.99 per month.
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.
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.
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