The future of streaming is ads

The future of streaming is ads

Watching TV has always been mostly ad-supported. And easy to do. Free streaming is bringing that back. | Illustration by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images

Call it FAST, call it AVOD, call it whatever you want. Free ad-supported streaming is having a moment, and it’s only going to get bigger from here.

The big-name streaming services had a really good run. The likes of Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, and all the other Pluses have spent the last decade upending the way we make and consume movies and shows and changing the whole business of Hollywood in the process. For a few (or not so few) bucks a month, more entertainment than ever is now at our fingertips.

But it seems the streaming revolution has hit a bit of a wall. Most services are growing more slowly now that they’ve reached most of their possible audience. The tens of billions they’re spending on content annually seem to be producing diminishing returns. Investors are no longer sure streaming is a great business; the streamers are searching desperately for new ways to make money. The golden age of high-flying, big-spending streaming seems to be over.

In its place, there’s a new thing booming in streaming. Free ad-supported platforms are the fastest-growing part of the streaming business right now, and services like Tubi, Pluto, and The Roku Channel are starting to assert themselves as power players in their own right. Many of these platforms have been around for years, quietly amassing big content libraries and millions of users. And now, as users look for cheaper ways to get their entertainment and studios look for better ways to monetize, they’re starting to make more noise.

The future of TV is free, it has ads, and it involves a lot of channel surfing. It’s a lot like the TV business of old, really. That’s actually kind of the point.

Always-on

When we talk about free streaming services, we’re really talking about two things. Both have silly acronyms. The first is FAST, which stands for Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television — these are programmed always-on streaming channels that run 24/7 and are roughly analogous to the broadcast channels you’re used to. The second is AVOD, or Advertising-Based Video On Demand, which refers to a library of content you can watch whenever you like. (Netflix and Max and the like are SVOD, Subscription Video On Demand.) For our purposes, we’re just going to combine FAST and AVOD into free streaming.

The appeal of free streaming is right there in the name: it’s free! An increasingly large percentage of streaming subscribers say they’re already spending more than they’d like to on their services, and a Deloitte survey last fall found that 44 percent of people had canceled at least one paid service in the last six months. Deloitte also found that 59 percent of users were happy to watch a few ads an hour in exchange for a cheaper, or even free, subscription.

44 percent of people canceled at least one paid service in the last six months

That’s why you’re seeing more and more of the SVOD services start to dabble in ads, too. Netflix has already discovered that it makes more money per user on its ad-supported plan — $6.99 a month with a few ads an hour — than it does from pure subscriptions. Disney Plus has an ad-supported plan now, too. So does the new Max service, Peacock, and increasingly, the rest of the industry. Ads are the future of the entire streaming market, it appears.

Still, there’s something uniquely powerful about the truly free streaming service. Because the free streamers don’t have to try and convince you to part with $8 or $10 or even $20 every month, they’re free to think about their product differently. And in many cases, they land somewhere better. Companies like Tubi and Pluto make money every time you watch something, so they have only one job: get you to watch as many things as possible.

“Number one job for me is engagement,” says Adam Lewinson, the chief content officer at Tubi. “Since we are ad-supported, we don’t have a dual revenue stream. We don’t take credit cards, we never will — we make money when viewers are consuming content.” Scott Reich, the SVP of content at Pluto TV, says the same. “I don’t have to pay anything – if I don’t like it, I can just move on. So it’s our job as the service to give you that reason to come back.”

Image: Pluto/David Pierce

Pluto TV is one of the internet’s best sources of FAST channels.

That changes the way free streamers work in a couple of wonderful ways. For one thing, since these platforms have a massive incentive to get you watching something as quickly as possible, they do away with a lot of the UI cruft you see in most streaming apps. You don’t need to log in, you don’t need to scroll past all the big banners showing new shows you don’t care about. You just hit play. Pluto takes this to a truly delightful extreme: when you load the app, it automatically starts playing the FAST channel you were watching last. It’s the way turning on the TV used to work — you turn it on, and something’s already playing.

Free streamers also need their content to be found, which means they tend to play along with the aggregators and search engines that aim to help users make sense of the streaming world. Whether you use JustWatch or Reelgood or just Google “how to stream” and your favorite new show, the free services are typically well represented. And if the title you’re looking for is streaming on one of them? You don’t need to start a free trial or type in a password to start watching. You just hit play. Yes, you sacrifice some of your on-demand choosiness, and you’re going to have to see ads. But it’s just so much faster.

Personalization tends to be important to these platforms, too. They don’t care what you watch as long as you’re watching, so sending you down an infinite Gordon Ramsay rabbit hole or hooking you on all 11 million episodes of Project Runway is a pretty easy choice. Plus, Lewinson says, it’s a way to bring in viewers who aren’t looking for the same Cultural Moment kinds of shows you see everywhere. “Part of our job, via algorithms and merchandising, is to get the right piece of content to the right viewer, learn about what they’re interested in, and then superserve them more.” He’s not thinking about how to reach the whole audience but, rather, how to convince each individual person to keep watching.

For Pluto, Reich says the big-name shows and movies tend to bring people in, but that’s not why they stay. “What drives a lot of our viewing time are the single series or the franchise channels,” he says. “The Star Treks of the world, CSI, Three’s Company. That drives a lot of viewing time. And what people come back for is a lot of the classic TV and a little more of the niche channels — your food, your home, your lifestyle channels.”

Curating all that, Reich says, is where Pluto can really shine. Think of the way Spotify approaches playlists: it has the same set of songs as everyone else, but it remixes and presents them in new and better ways to keep users engaged. So it is with Pluto and channels. “We have a team of 50 different programmers that curate these channels, and curate the guides of these channels,” he says. “And the audience doesn’t necessarily know that, but they feel it.”

Image: Tubi

Tubi’s huge library is part of its appeal — but it’s getting more into premium content, too.

Playing the hits

There’s a flip side to that strategy, though: free streaming services aren’t exactly generating huge hits. Sure, spending a fortune on Succession just to have a couple million people tweet about it every week may not be a good business on its own, but it brings huge cachet and brand awareness to HBO, which brings more creators with more good ideas, which brings a few more subscribers… follow it out long enough, and there’s a real business there.

The other thing big hits do is drive brand loyalty. Viewers will now sit down and open Netflix or HBO just to see what’s new; nobody’s really coming to The Roku Channel to see what hit original series just dropped. To some extent, all the free services are interchangeable commodities, only as good as the size of their library and whether they have the particular title you’re looking for. There are hundreds of FAST channels available, many of them accessible from multiple platforms. The free streamers have lots of users but not as many fans.

To some extent, all the free services are interchangeable commodities, only as good as the size of their library

Not every free streamer is chasing hits. Reich says Pluto is playing a different game — in part because it’s owned by Viacom, which also owns Paramount Plus, which is doing enough hit-hunting on its own. “We have a gazillion studios and a gazillion channels that make original programming every single day,” he says. “And because we are able to tap into that, we can figure out how we play off each other — how you can catch up on Pluto and we then throw back to Paramount Plus, or one of the linear networks.”

But for Tubi, which is Fox Entertainment’s flagship streaming service, the hits might be coming. “My buying power five years ago was much less than it is today,” Lewinson says. He rattles off some of Tubi’s recent originals: The Stepmother, about a killer mom; Dead Hot, starring Vanessa Hudgens; and a documentary series from Vice, which just launched with an episode about Elon Musk. Is there any Emmy or Oscar bait in there? Probably not. But Lewinson says it’s a definite leap up in ambition for the service, and there’s more to come.

And over on Amazon’s Freevee, free streaming’s first true cultural moment seems to already be taking shape. It’s a show called Jury Duty, a mockumentary-style show about a court case in which everyone but the main character knows the whole thing is fake. The show became a hit, and a TikTok sensation, and sparked a huge amount of discussion online — plus a lot of “what in the world is Freevee and how do I watch it” stories. “Almost [every] studio and network passed,” producer Lee Eisenberg told The Daily Beast. ”The only place that stepped up was Freevee … There’s something very gratifying about everyone passing on something that then has turned into something so special.”

It’s hard to know exactly how much Jury Duty will change Freevee’s fortunes, but it certainly helped put the service on the map. The weekend after the show’s first episodes dropped, Google users searched “Freevee” twice as much as they ever had, including when Freevee first launched as a rebrand of IMDb TV. Freevee also cracked the top 75 in the iOS App Store the same weekend, App Annie’s data shows, when a week earlier it hadn’t even been in the top 200.

Hits help, there’s no question about that. But even without the Jury Duty bump, the free streaming flywheel appears to be spinning faster all the time. More people than ever are canceling cable and looking for new things to watch, while also looking for ways to spend less money on all those things. Most of the business of TV has always been advertising, and that advertising is starting to shift to digital platforms. A recent report from the research firm Omdia found that FAST channel revenue grew almost 20 times between 2019 and 2022 — and is set to triple again before 2027, at which point it will be a $12 billion annual business.

That’s still only a fraction of the overall business of movies and shows, but free streamers are well positioned to get more of it over time. They don’t have to convince you to pay for their content; they don’t even have to convince you to sign up. They just have to give you something to watch, sell ads against it, and keep you tuned in. That’s been the TV business for the better part of a century, and it’s coming back in a big way.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom preorder guide

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom preorder guide

This is what it must feel like to preorder for full price and not get at least some small gift or swag for free. | Image: Nintendo

If you’re looking to buy yourself a ticket aboard the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom hype train and preorder the game ahead of its May 12th launch, you might as well get some cool extra bonuses. Some retailers are offering free preorder incentives like a wooden plaque or an art print, which are a nice bonus that doesn’t cost anything extra. Or, super-fans willing to plunk down extra money can get the fancy Collector’s Edition with lots of accouterments (if it ever becomes available again, sadly).

So which way to preorder nets you the most benefit? There’s already one method that allows you to save $20 on the game, but that’s only on the digital version and exclusive to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. Here, we’ll go over the small handful of preorder bonuses for the physical edition of Tears of the Kingdom so you can make your purchasing decision in one place, easy-peasy.

Preordering The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom with free bonuses

These are the best incentives when it comes to preordering Tears of the Kingdom for its regular $69.99 price and getting a little something-something thrown in.

Best Buy is including a free art print with the physical cartridge version of the game. It’s the key art for the game that we’ve all seen frequently, which looks great, but be aware that there’s no indication of its size.

The arguably more interesting preorder incentive is GameStop’s offer of a free wooden plaque that looks pretty cool. But the trade-off with this exclusive preorder gift is GameStop requires you to claim it in-store. I can’t believe GameStop expects me to go outside on the day I should be inside playing the game nonstop.

Walmart’s incentive is a free Master Sword wall scroll. Unfortunately, after Walmart quickly sold out of a golden-colored wall scroll that was limited to 5,000 units, it came back with a black wall scroll that sold out, returned, and sold out again. The black scroll is also “limited,” but there’s no mention that there’s a set number, so perhaps it might crop up once more.

Ordering the Zelda special edition Nintendo Switch OLED

We’ve already got a little explainer on where you can get the Nintendo Switch OLED The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Edition, which is now readily available to order. It’s a beautiful-looking console, with gold Joy-Cons and a white dock all decked out in Zelda graphical adornments. If you want one for its $359.99 asking price (which does not include the game), you can get one now from Amazon, Best Buy, Target, or Nintendo.

Preordering the Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch carrying case

If you’re buying the special Zelda-themed Switch OLED, you might as well complete the look and preorder the Tears of the Kingdom Edition of the Nintendo Switch Carrying Case for $24.99 at Best Buy and GameStop. It’s decorated with matching markings to the special-edition console, includes a screen protector, and is set to launch on May 12th with the game. Unlike the Zelda-themed Switch Pro Controller, this one hasn’t sold out during the preorder window.

Preordering The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Collector’s Edition

Lastly, let’s finally talk about the elusive white whale of Zelda preorders. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Collector’s Edition is the requisite expensive bundle of the game with a bunch of added fancy swag included. In it, the standard cartridge version of the game is accompanied by a metal steelbook case to look fancier on your shelf, along with a poster, collector pins, and a small art book that all together cost $129.99.

The preorders at retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, and Target sold out very quickly and periodically cropped up again for short stints, but it’s still currently unavailable. It’s possible it may come back with more availability like the Metroid Dread Special Edition did, but there’s definitely no guarantee that’s happening before or even after May 12th.

Bluesky is starting to feel like Twitter

Bluesky is starting to feel like Twitter

Photo by Stefan Sauer / picture alliance via Getty Images

Bluesky might be the Twitter-like we’ve been waiting for.

Yes, I know it’s still invite-only. Yes, I know there are only thousands of people on the platform right now. Yes, I know that it’s still missing table-stakes features like video uploads and DMs.

Still, I’m starting to feel that Bluesky is where it’s at.

It happened over the last few days. Bluesky — the decentralized Twitter alternative spun up by Twitter itself — has suddenly filled up with tech media and other people I follow on Twitter. Over and over again, I would check Twitter for one thing or another and see somebody begging for a Bluesky invite, then just a little while later, that person would be in my Bluesky skyline (timeline) and skeeting (tweeting). While that means I might be able to use Bluesky for actual newsgathering, which is what I rely on Twitter most for, I was most happy to see the vast majority of those news hounds and former Twitter obsessives posting with a raw, deranged energy that I haven’t seen in a very long time.

In one day, Bluesky hit viral escape velocity

Then on Thursday, the service hit the viral escape velocity that every new social platform searches for as some of the internet’s biggest names hopped on board. Dril joined. Then, AOC. WeRateDogs, the dog-rating service. Darth, the Sith Lord red panda. Hell, I even found a “Thursday! What a concept!” account and Hard Drive, the satirical video game publication.

In the midst of that busy day, Bluesky even survived a downtime. Shortly before 5:30PM ET on Thursday, the official Bluesky account said the service needed to upgrade databases after seeing “our biggest single-day jump in new users that we’ve experienced.” The downtime took a worrying 20 or so minutes longer than the expected five minutes, but the skyline eventually returned, with everyone posting a collective sigh of relief. Twitter’s fail whale from the platform’s early days is still legendary, so it’s a good sign that people couldn’t wait for it to return.

I’ve already written about how much fun I’ve been having on Bluesky. But I thought the platform, at least in the near term, would remain its niche little thing where only super dorks like me would hang out and post pictures of cats. It’s clearly unfinished — for example, to use the service on the web, Bluesky recommends a link with “staging” in the URL — and I figured the small team of developers would keep tinkering away before opening the floodgates.

I didn’t expect Darth, Dril, and AOC to join Bluesky on the same day less than two weeks after I published that. There’s a real energy about Bluesky right now.

I can’t fully quit Twitter yet. I still rely a lot on the bird app to see up-to-the-minute news. Not everybody I want to follow is on Bluesky. I really wish there were things like DMs and video.

And the vibes aren’t quite as good as when I first joined up a couple weeks ago — which is perhaps the most telling signal yet that this could be Twitter 2.0. I’m seeing a lot more performative posts than I used to, as people are chasing clout. Some of the posts have been downright mean — users were threatening to beat writer Matthew Yglesias to death with hammers. Not great!

But I’m hopeful that things mellow over time and necessary features get added soon. That all could help Bluesky keep up its recent momentum and not turn into another flash-in-the-pan app like Peach or Ello. The promised decentralized features like account portability could make Bluesky enticing for more people.

I’m also encouraged by how active the Bluesky team is on the platform itself, and I appreciate hearing directly from the people actually building the product as issues have come up. They said Friday that “we cleared our calendars” to get blocking, which had been highly requested over the course of the week, shipped on the web that day, for example. (Blocking is expected to come to the mobile apps soon, if it hasn’t already by the time you read this.)

I started Thursday by posting a picture of a cat on Bluesky. I didn’t expect to end it pondering the nature of skeets. Bluesky has a long way to go to fully replace Twitter for me, but right now, I think it actually could.

A Towering, Terrifying Demon Horse Isn’t Even the Weirdest Part

A Towering, Terrifying Demon Horse Isn’t Even the Weirdest Part The Denver airport is a magnet for conspiracy theories — and a case study in the line between mass delusion and fun.

UK government ‘hackathon’ to search for ways to use AI to cut asylum backlog

UK government ‘hackathon’ to search for ways to use AI to cut asylum backlog

Three-day quest for innovations to tackle waiting list of 138,052 attacked as ‘wasting time on nonsense ideas that will go nowhere’

The Home Office plans to use artificial intelligence to reduce the asylum backlog, and is launching a three-day hackathon in the search for quicker ways to process the 138,052 undecided asylum cases.

The government is convening academics, tech experts, civil servants and business people to form 15 multidisciplinary teams tasked with brainstorming solutions to the backlog. Teams will be invited to compete to find the most innovative solutions, and will present their ideas to a panel of judges. The winners are expected to meet the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in Downing Street for a prize-giving ceremony.

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The Google Pixel Fold looks nearly gapless in first leaked marketing images

The Google Pixel Fold looks nearly gapless in first leaked marketing images

The Pixel Fold in 4K. | Image via Evan Blass (@evleaks)

You’ve seen renders. You’ve seen a little footage. You’ve heard the marketing leaks. Now, you can feast your eyes on what are almost certainly the first images from Google itself of the leaked Pixel Fold.

Those are the sorts of images that are the bread and butter of Evan Blass, aka @evleaks, and while his Twitter account is still private, he’s a friend of The Verge who’s happy to let us share them with you this fine evening. (Evening for me, anyhow, I’m in California.)

Image via Evan Blass (@evleaks)

Click here for the full 4K image.

Image via Evan Blass (@evleaks)

Click here for the full 4K image.

These 4K images won’t show you anything that hasn’t been leaked before, and you can’t see how high the camera bump is nor peep the inside screen, but they do make this phone look a bit slicker than in that brief real-world video. It’s quite a small gap between the two halves, and the rumored-to-be 5.8-inch front screen looks reasonably substantial — if these renders don’t lie.

Earlier today, Blass also leaked a render of what appears to be a beautiful coral Pixel 7A. And it’s only been two days since he leaked the new folding Razr.

Will a Chatbot Write the Next ‘Succession’?

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Another leak: The Asus ROG Ally will start at $600 with AMD Z1 and 256GB SSD

Another leak: The Asus ROG Ally will start at $600 with AMD Z1 and 256GB SSD

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

Just two days after a substantial leak pegged the price of Asus’ Steam Deck competitor at $699.99 with a Z1 Extreme chip and 512GB of storage, one of the same reliable leakers, SnoopyTech, now says the entry-level model with a vanilla Z1 processor and a 256GB SSD will cost $599.99.

ASUS ROG Ally 7" AMD Z1 (not Extreme) = $599.99
16 GB LPDDR5, 256 GB NVMe M.2 SSD https://t.co/X6hAE6ZtLF pic.twitter.com/ueKYpeMzus

— SnoopyTech (@_snoopytech_) April 28, 2023

If true, that means both configurations are within spitting distance of Valve’s comparative pricing, where a 256GB Steam Deck costs $530 and a 512GB Steam Deck costs $650, respectively. But Valve also sells a $399 Steam Deck that comes with 64GB of eMMC storage, which enthusiasts often open to replace that SSD.

The original ROG Ally leak came from Best Buy, and it might make sense that Best Buy is the source of this one too — the new pricing is similarly in dollars and cents, and Asus only has one stateside retail partner for the handheld. SnoopyTech has seen my DMs and isn’t replying to them, though, so I can’t say for sure.

This will likely be the least expensive configuration of the ROG Ally, though it’s possible Asus could follow Valve’s lead and put out an eMMC model.

You can read what the likely performance difference will be between a Z1 and Z1 Extreme in this story, at least based on AMD’s chosen results. Here’s our ROG Ally preview. Other manufacturers will sell handhelds with a similar chip called the Ryzen 7840U, which AMD warns is not power tuned for handheld use.

‘They’re coming up with devious ways to take your money’: the TV hackers taking on the scammers

‘They’re coming up with devious ways to take your money’: the TV hackers taking on the scammers

Scam calls are an industrial-sized nuisance. Aided by an ‘ethical hacker’, the BBC’s hit daytime breakout show Scam Interceptors is making must-see TV by turning the tables on the con artists

It’s Thursday morning in the Scam Hub – a darkened room at the BBC’s Pacific Quay studio in Glasgow full of glowing screens and people feverishly tapping away on laptops under the glare of TV cameras – and the atmosphere is tense. We’re eavesdropping on a call between a man in the UK and a scammer in Calcutta, India, who has managed to talk her way inside the unwitting scamee’s Amazon account.

Believing that he’s receiving a benevolent customer service call warning of rogue activity, the man has been conned into giving away a private passcode. Worse, the scammer has convinced him to download software to his phone granting remote access to his device, which could allow the harvesting of much more sensitive information including bank details.

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Sony reports strong PS5 hardware sales as it closes in on 40 million units sold

Sony reports strong PS5 hardware sales as it closes in on 40 million units sold

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Sony says it shipped 6.3 million PlayStation 5 consoles in the three months ending March 31st 2022, bringing total sales of the console to 38.4 million, the company reported in its latest earnings release. That’s more than triple what the company shipped in the same quarter the previous year (2 million), and means the Japanese electronics giant shipped 19.1 million PS5 during fiscal 2022, beating its earlier forecast of 18 million.

On the software side things were more mixed, Bloomberg notes. Revenue from game software was up overall, but units shipped fell from 70.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 68 million in the same quarter of 2022. PlayStation Network monthly active users were up slightly from 106 million to 108 million, but the number of PlayStation Plus subscribers were flat at 47.4 million.

Sony’s hardware supply problems seem well and truly over

This disparity partly reflects the lack of major first-party games releases in the quarter. But there are also concerns that the PS5’s earlier hardware supply issues are having a knock on effect on software sales and subscriptions, which are important if the company wants to build a “virtuous cycle” of mutually reinforcing console and game sales.

CNBC notes that the company’s financials were strong overall, reporting an operating profit of a record 1.21 trillion yen (around $8.9 billion) for the year. Revenue in the quarter rose 35 percent to 3.06 trillion yen (around $22.5 billion). Sony hasn’t broken out sales of its PlayStation VR2 headset, which launched during the quarter.

Bloomberg calls Sony’s profit forecast for the current fiscal year “conservative,” noting that it may be hedging against a drop in consumer spending and expectations that it will sell fewer games from its in-house PlayStation Studios this year. The company expects operating profit to come in at 1.17 trillion yen (around $8.6 billion), which would represent a roughly 3 percent drop year-over-year.

Deepfake Drake, HatGPT and Ben Smith on the End of the BuzzFeed Era

Deepfake Drake, HatGPT and Ben Smith on the End of the BuzzFeed Era Is A.I. the future of the music industry? Musicians are split.

You be the judge: should my phone-addicted friend go on a mobile detox?

You be the judge: should my phone-addicted friend go on a mobile detox?

Marley says she uses TikTok for work; her flatmate says 12 hours a day is too much. You decide if this social media habit is antisocial

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a You be the judge juror

My housemate and best friend spends every waking minute on TikTok

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The MTA is abandoning bus and train alerts on Twitter

The MTA is abandoning bus and train alerts on Twitter

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority says it will no longer post service alerts and information on Twitter, citing doubts about the platform’s reliability. It’s directing riders to its website, apps, and email or mobile alerts instead.

“We’ve loved getting to know you On Here, but we don’t love not knowing if we can to communicate with you each day,” the MTA account tweeted in a thread on Thursday evening. “For the MTA, Twitter is no longer reliable for providing the consistent updates riders expect. So as of today, we’re saying goodbye to it for service alerts and information.”

The MTA provides service info in real time, 24/7.

We do this through https://t.co/8rwbuwle0p, our apps, email & text alerts, and, until recently, Twitter.

We've loved getting to know you On Here, but we don't love not knowing if we can to communicate with you each day.

— MTA (@MTA) April 27, 2023

The MTA acknowledged this was a “big change,” and a separate MTA service account alluded to the reasoning in a followup tweet. “Our access to publish service alerts was suspended last week and again this week,” the account explained, directing people to contact the operators via WhatsApp and iMessage instead.

Earlier this month, the MTA was one of numerous accounts that had its automated service alerts disrupted by changes to Twitter’s application programming interface or API. Along with San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit and a number of disaster alert accounts, it was temporarily locked out of posting service updates as part of Twitter owner Elon Musk’s effort to charge for API access. Separately, while the MTA didn’t cite this as a problem, Twitter has also become more turbulent as users attempt to parse Musk’s confusing rollout of paid verification — which has made it more difficult to judge which accounts are trustworthy.

That’s unfortunate for riders. Service alerts are one of the most consistently helpful services Twitter — until recently — provided, and although the MTA’s other options can fill the gap, it’s a loss for the agency and the microblogging platform alike. As of publication time, the MTA has not joined Dril and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Bluesky.

The Hunger Games prequel film gets its first trailer

The Hunger Games prequel film gets its first trailer

Image: Lionsgate

Lionsgate just released a trailer for the Hunger Games prequel movie, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and it promises to be a star-studded return to the land of Panem.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes place 64 years before the events of the main series. Instead of featuring Katniss Everdeen, this movie follows the story of a young Coriolanus Snow (who later goes goes on to become the villain of the original trilogy) and a Hunger Games tribute named Lucy Gray Baird, who he mentors.

I haven’t read the book this movie is based on, but based on this trailer, the film seems like it will be a dramatic return to Panem and the battle royale-style Hunger Games that made the original series such a sensation. It helps that the movie has a pretty stacked cast, including Tom Blyth (who plays Snow), Rachel Zegler (who plays Baird), Peter Dinklage, Hunter Schafer, Josh Andrés Rivera, Jason Schwartzman, and Viola Davis.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will be released in theaters on November 17th.

Samsung’s loses billions on chips as overall profits decline 95 percent

Samsung’s loses billions on chips as overall profits decline 95 percent

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Samsung’s memory chip business just had a terrible quarter, as falling demand and high inventories contributed to a 4.58 trillion won (around $3.4 billion) loss from the division, Bloomberg reports. The loss at the unit, which CNBC reports is typically its largest profit driver, contributed to Samsung’s quarterly operating profit plunging 95 percent in the quarter to 640 billion won (roughly $478 million).

A few different factors contributed to Samsung’s losses at its memory chip division. Smartphone and PC makers stockpiled chips during the pandemic as a hedge against supply issues as demand boomed, but have since been left with large inventory excesses as consumer demand has dropped off amidst high inflation and broader global economic uncertainties.

Samsung’s lowest quarterly operating profit since 2009

Samsung hopes that the chip business will start to pick up in the second half of this year. That’s when existing inventories are expected to have run down, and new smartphone and PC launches will spur demand. That’s tied to hopes of an economic recovery in China, which Bloomberg notes is the largest market for PCs and smartphones worldwide.

Samsung, one of the world’s largest supplier of memory chips, had warned of its rocky quarter in its preliminary earnings earlier this month. In response, it plans to cut memory chip production by a “meaningful” amount to help stem a roughly 70 percent fall in prices over the previous nine months.

But the company doesn’t plan to cut memory chip investment in the same way. “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,” Bloomberg reports Samsung said in a statement. Investment levels in 2023 are expected to be broadly consistent with last year.

It wasn’t all bad news for the South Korean electronics giant. Profit at its smartphone division, which saw the launch of the Galaxy S23 lineup last quarter, rose 3 percent to 3.94 trillion won (around $2.9 billion) versus the previous year. Revenue, however, was down 2 percent to 30.74 trillion won (around $22.9 billion).

Elon Musk Ramps Up A.I. Efforts, Even as He Warns of Dangers

Elon Musk Ramps Up A.I. Efforts, Even as He Warns of Dangers The billionaire plans to compete with OpenAI, the ChatGPT developer he helped found, while calling out the potential harms of artificial intelligence.

Best podcasts of the week: Sex therapist Chantelle Otten is here to save her listeners’ love lives

Best podcasts of the week: Sex therapist Chantelle Otten is here to save her listeners’ love lives

In this week’s newsletter: From couples keen to bring in a third party to exploring your bi-curiosity, the ‘sexologist’ has it all covered in Sex Therapy. Plus: five of the best podcasts with a purpose

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Call Me Disabled
Widely available, episodes weekly
“Drop the euphemisms,” says Poppy Field (below) in this powerful new podcast. Although it’s a term that doesn’t work for everyone, Field is sick of being told how to identify after living with chronic pain and neurodivergence. Her first guest is Jameisha Prescod (who founded You Look Okay to Me) and they talk openly about advocating for themselves and others, asking for a wheelchair and the power of radical rest. Hannah Verdier

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Elon Musk Ramps Up A.I. Efforts, Even as He Warns of Dangers

Elon Musk Ramps Up A.I. Efforts, Even as He Warns of Dangers The billionaire plans to compete with OpenAI, the ChatGPT developer he helped found, while calling out the potential harms of artificial intelligence.

Watch an A.I. Learn to Write by Reading Nothing but Jane Austen

Watch an A.I. Learn to Write by Reading Nothing but Jane Austen We trained six tiny language models starting from scratch to see how they learn.

Leak: The Asus ROG Ally will cost $699.99 with an AMD Z1 Extreme

Leak: The Asus ROG Ally will cost $699.99 with an AMD Z1 Extreme

Image: Asus

Sure, Asus can build a faster Steam Deck-like handheld gaming PC, but there’s no way it could compete with Valve on price, right?

Guess again. The higher-end Asus ROG Ally will apparently cost just $699.99. That’s for the model with an AMD Z1 Extreme chip, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD — meaning that Asus’ 512GB handheld costs just $50 more than a 512GB Steam Deck.

That’s according to data shown to The Verge by reliable gadget leaker Roland Quandt, and an earlier leak by SnoopyTech. The data we’ve seen leaves little room for confusion — even the product number associated with the $699.99 gadget identifies it as the Z1 Extreme model with 512GB of storage, and we’ve got a long list of marketing claims in our possession that also look legitimate. I’m pretty sure it’s the real deal. Though it’s always possible the price is a placeholder; we won’t know for sure until May 11th.

If the Z1 Extreme starts at $699.99, what would a Ally with a vanilla AMD Z1 cost? (Asus confirmed to The Verge this morning that both will go on sale.) Well if Asus really wants to push, the Steam Deck starts at $400 with 64GB of eMMC...

ASUS ROG Ally (AMD Z1 Extreme) = $699.99 https://t.co/GDkz6wZNWI

— SnoopyTech (@_snoopytech_) April 26, 2023

The ROG Ally is 11.02 inches wide, 4.37 inches tall, 0.83 inches deep and weighs 608 grams (1.34 pounds) if the data we’ve seen is correct. A feature list also boasts you can upgrade the M.2 2230 SSD with a single screw, has an IPS screen protected by Gorilla Glass DXC, and that the Ally will charge from 0 to 50 percent in just 30 minutes using a bundled 65W USB-C power brick.

The Steam Deck is slow to charge by comparison, though Valve told us that’s something its handheld intentionally doesn’t do to preserve the longevity of the battery.

My colleague Monica suggested that price, battery, and software were the three big remaining questions with the ROG Ally. We might be down to two as of today.

Asus didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Elon Musk’s statements could be ‘deepfakes’, Tesla defence lawyers tell court

Elon Musk’s statements could be ‘deepfakes’, Tesla defence lawyers tell court

Judge in Autopilot death case says defence argument ‘deeply troubling’ and wants Tesla CEO interviewed under oath on safety claims

A California judge has tentatively ordered Elon Musk to be interviewed under oath about whether he made certain statements regarding the capabilities of Tesla’s Autopilot features after the company questioned the authenticity of the remarks, claiming Musk is a “target for deep fakes”.

The ruling came in a lawsuit against Tesla, filed by the family of Walter Huang who was killed in a car crash in 2018.

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LG’s new ‘SuperSlim’ Gram laptop has a 15.6-inch OLED display

LG’s new ‘SuperSlim’ Gram laptop has a 15.6-inch OLED display

LG’s 15.6-inch Gram SuperSlim laptop. | Image: LG

LG’s Gram line of laptops have always been designed to be lightweight and thin, and now the company has released a new “SuperSlim” model that’s a strong competitor to the likes of Apple’s MacBook Air in the portability department (via Engadget).

LG officially calls its new laptop the Gram SuperSlim (formerly the Ultraslim), which the company touts in its press release as the “thinnest LG Gram ever.” It measures just 0.43 inches thick — thinner than the M2 MacBook Air — and has a 15.6-inch OLED display compared to Apple’s 13.6-inch IPS one. Oh, and LG’s is also lighter at just 2.2 pounds, compared to the MacBook Air at 2.7 pounds.

Image: LG

It is pretty thin, huh?

LG’s Gram Superslim is available now, and it starts at $1,699.99 with a 13th-gen Intel Evo Core i7-1360P processor, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and a 512GB SSD. It also features three USB-C ports (two with Thunderbolt 4 support and one USB 4 only) and a headphone jack.

The better deal comes in at $1,999.99: with a spec bump to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage. LG will also throw in its external USB-C 16-inch +view Portable monitor if you buy either new SuperSlim by May 14th.

It’s worth noting that while the SuperSlim has an OLED screen, the currently-available models only have a 1080p resolution. Apple’s smaller-screened MacBook Air has a higher 2560 x 1664 resolution screen, and still looks great, even if it’s not OLED. Personally, at the price LG has set for the SuperSlim, I’d like to hear more about another 15-inch ultraportable laptop option that’s been rumored.

LG first showed off the SuperSlim in January at CES alongside the rest of its Gram lineup, including the company’s regular 14, 15, 16, and 17-inch options, along with the colorful featherweight LG Gram Style laptops that, like the SuperSlim, also include an OLED screen and have a starting weight of 2.2 pounds.

Twitter restores ‘blue tick’ free of charge to celebrities in U-turn

Twitter restores ‘blue tick’ free of charge to celebrities in U-turn

Decision to reinstate ‘verified’ status without distinguishing paid-for from free users prompts criticism for ‘false advertising’

Twitter has again U-turned over its verification policy, restoring the “blue tick” free of charge to celebrity users of the social network.

But the site’s decision to reinstate the “verified” status without distinguishing between paid-for and free users has led to criticism for false advertising, since the boilerplate disclaimer for those users inaccurately describes their status as being granted “because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue”.

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The digital graveyard: BuzzFeed News joins sites hanging on in eerie afterlife

The digital graveyard: BuzzFeed News joins sites hanging on in eerie afterlife

The site will remain online as an archive, alongside the Gawker reboot, the Toast, and a host of other defunct outlets

The closure of BuzzFeed News this week followed a familiar script for those who have followed the rise and fall of digital media. There were Twitter eulogies from current and former staff and op-eds on who was to blame for the site’s mismanagement.

Bosses promised to keep the BuzzFeed News site online as an archive, which means, like so many other failed online projects, whatever happened to be on the homepage that day will now be frozen in time forever. In this case: a feature on the history of Midge, Barbie’s pregnant sidekick, an explainer on what to do after “overdosing” on weed and a review of Le Creuset’s new “shallot” cookware shade, which called the color “the trend child of millennial pink and Alison Roman’s shallot pasta”.

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Fake accounts, chaos and few sign-ups: the first day of Twitter Blue was messy

Fake accounts, chaos and few sign-ups: the first day of Twitter Blue was messy

Elon Musk’s attempt to make the social media site profitable seemed to flop as the verification check lost all meaning

Friday marked the first full day Twitter’s new policies for verified accounts were applied – and the results were not pretty.

Twenty-four hours after blue checkmarks began to disappear from formerly verified Twitter accounts, chaos reigned on the website, with impersonation and false information running rampant and few people signing up for the service the changes were meant to promote.

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G.M.’s Profits Fell 18.5 Percent in the First Quarter

G.M.’s Profits Fell 18.5 Percent in the First Quarter The decline over the first three months of 2022 was primarily the result of the short-term costs of job cuts and slower sales in China.

BMW adds Digital Key Plus support for Pixel and Samsung devices

BMW adds Digital Key Plus support for Pixel and Samsung devices

Image: BMW

BMW is finally expanding support for its mobile car key technology, dubbed Digital Key Plus, to select Android phones running Android 13.1 or later. Digital Key Plus can now be set up via the My BMW App on compatible Google Pixel and Samsung devices, which includes the Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 6 Pro, Galaxy S23 Plus / Ultra, Galaxy S22 Plus / Ultra, Galaxy S21 Plus / Ultra, Z Fold 3, Z Fold 4, and the Note 20 Ultra. Samsung phones will need to have the Samsung Wallet app installed to use the feature.

Digital Key Plus first debuted on iPhone and Apple Watch in 2021, and relies on ultra wideband (UWB) digital radio technology to allow BMW drivers to replace a traditional car key with their mobile device. The feature can be configured within the My BMW app based on proximity, such as unlocking a vehicle when it detects the user is approaching. Express Mode additionally allows users to lock, unlock, and remotely start their vehicles without needing to touch their phone, even up to five hours after the device dies from having its battery drained.

Android users, this one's for you!
For the first time, the BMW Digital Key Plus is now available for compatible Samsung and Google Smartphones!

With it, selected up to extended functions of your car key can be replaced by your smartphone.
Learn more: https://t.co/y2SZXR257f pic.twitter.com/Cr5WcHkCQc

— BMW (@BMW) April 24, 2023

It’s been over two years since Samsung first teased that it was partnering with automakers like BMW, Audi, and Ford to bring the convenience of UWB to digital car keys. BMW Digital Key was released for Google Pixel 6 and Samsung Galaxy S21 devices in December 2021, though that version of the technology worked via NFC rather than UWB, requiring users to hold their phone next to the handle of the driver’s door to unlock the vehicle.

BMW claims that the precise localization of UWB virtually eliminates the risk of relay attacks that might try and jam or intercept radio signals. Users can also share access to their vehicle with up to five other people who have a supported Android or iOS phone. Right now Digital Key Plus for Android is only available for BMW vehicles produced from November 2022, though the German automaker has promised to eventually expand support to older compatible vehicles through future software updates.

Shoot ’em up! California’s retro games arcades – in pictures

Shoot ’em up! California’s retro games arcades – in pictures

From Pac-Man to pinball, French photographer Franck Bohbot transforms the neon chaos of amusement arcades into stunning works of art

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As Carlson and Lemon Exit, a Chapter Closes on Cable’s Trump War

As Carlson and Lemon Exit, a Chapter Closes on Cable’s Trump War The two hosts took very different approaches, but the decisions by Fox News and CNN to shed the stars marks at least a temporary shift in the excesses of Trump-era coverage.

Fresh concerns raised over sources of training material for AI systems

Fresh concerns raised over sources of training material for AI systems

Investigations reveal limited efforts to ‘clean’ datasets of fascist, pirated and malicious material

Fresh fears have been raised about the training material used for some of the largest and most powerful artificial intelligence models, after several investigations exposed the fascist, pirated and malicious sources from which the data is harvested.

One such dataset is the Colossal Clean Crawled Corpus, or C4, assembled by Google from more than 15m websites and used to train both the search engine’s LaMDA AI as well as Meta’s GPT competitor, LLaMA.

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Twitter claims dead celebs are subscribing to Blue from beyond the grave

Twitter claims dead celebs are subscribing to Blue from beyond the grave

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

After chief twit Elon Musk made good on his promise to remove Twitter accounts’ legacy verification blue ticks last week, numerous high-profile accounts now appear to be re-verified — including a number of dead celebrities.

It’s likely that the re-appearance of their blue ticks is part of a wider (but unannounced) scheme by Twitter to restore verification to users with over one million followers. But hover over the blue ticks of the accounts of dead celebs, and Twitter will tell you they’re verified “because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”

Michael Jackson, Chadwick Boseman, Kobe Bryant, Barbara Walters, Anthony Bourdain, and Paul Walker are just a few of the many deceased stars to have regained their verification status. The platform is even claiming that prominent journalist and columnist Jamal Khashoggi is forking over $8 a month despite having been murdered in 2018.

Image: The Verge

Kobe Bryant died in 2020, but Twitter’s UI claims his account has verified their phone number.

This is the company’s boilerplate message, but in the context it seems insensitive to apply it to the accounts of dead users. In some cases it might be true that the organizations that manage dead users’ accounts have applied for verification (Bosewick’s account, for example, mostly retweets the Chadwick Boseman Foundation for the Arts). But many of the accounts being re-verified have been dormant for years.

Verifying users’ accounts posthumously is also inconsiderate given the blue tick has become an unwanted status for some. A number of celebrities like LeBron James and Stephen King have said they wouldn’t pay for verification status. Instead, Musk himself paid for their ticks — a move that both undermines his claim that paid verification is egalitarian and purposefully antagonizes the high-profile users that create value for his website.

Some users also noted that restoring blue ticks to the accounts of dead celebrities also gives unwarranted prestige to the new paid verification system. Popular user Dril (who has been having his own battle with Twitter trying to get rid of his blue tick) noted: “its ok he fired the people in charge of telling him its illegal” — quote-tweeting a screenshot of the Lanham Act, which forbids false endorsement of goods and services in the US.

In other words, it’s business as normal for the new Twitter: chaos reigns, verified or not.

3 Big Generative AI Problems Yet To Be Addressed

3 Big Generative AI Problems Yet To Be Addressed

This week, let's focus on three things we should begin discussing that represent some of the bigger risks of generative AI before substantial damage is done. The three issues are data center loading, security, and relationship damage. The post 3 Big Generative AI Problems Yet To Be Addressed appeared first on TechNewsWorld.

The digital graveyard: BuzzFeed News joins sites hanging on in eerie afterlife

The digital graveyard: BuzzFeed News joins sites hanging on in eerie afterlife

The site will remain online as an archive, alongside the Gawker reboot, the Toast, and a host of other defunct outlets

The closure of BuzzFeed News this week followed a familiar script for those who have followed the rise and fall of digital media. There were Twitter eulogies from current and former staff and op-eds on who was to blame for the site’s mismanagement.

Bosses promised to keep the BuzzFeed News site online as an archive, which means, like so many other failed online projects, whatever happened to be on the homepage that day will now be frozen in time forever. In this case: a feature on the history of Midge, Barbie’s pregnant sidekick, an explainer on what to do after “overdosing” on weed and a review of Le Creuset’s new “shallot” cookware shade, which called the color “the trend child of millennial pink and Alison Roman’s shallot pasta”.

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Tron: Identity review: moody sci-fi detective game is all light, no cycle

Tron: Identity review: moody sci-fi detective game is all light, no cycle

PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch; Bithell Games
This visual novel spins a passable yarn in a noirish atmosphere, but would benefit from more space to explore it

Tron: Identity jacks players in with an alluring premise, a noirish detective adventure set inside the neon-soaked sprawl of Disney’s retro-futurist vision of cyberspace. Assuming the role of a detective program named Query, you investigate an apparent break-in at a structure known as the Repository, a vast and secretive datacentre at the heart of a Grid long abandoned by the Users who created it. The ensuing mystery is lightly intriguing, but as a slice of interactive detective fiction, Identity struggles to give its idea the breathing space it needs.

The story is divided into around 20 interactive scenes, through which Query interrogates the Repository’s various inhabitants while the player makes decisions based on their responses. Although the solution to the central mystery is fixed, Query’s relationships with the game’s suspects, witnesses, and victims are anything but. Within the three to four hour running time, your decisions can make you lifelong friends, sworn enemies, and quite possibly result in the “derezzing” (Tron’s equivalent of death) of just about every character in the story.

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Pokimane, the Queen of Twitch, Wonders What Turns Teenage Fans Into Trolls

Pokimane, the Queen of Twitch, Wonders What Turns Teenage Fans Into Trolls “I’ve seen people realize things they said weren’t OK,” says Pokimane, the most-followed woman on the livestreaming platform. “It does make me think there can be redemption.”

Thousands of Meta workers hit by new round of layoffs as company cuts costs

Thousands of Meta workers hit by new round of layoffs as company cuts costs

Social media firm will cull 4,000 jobs immediately as part of larger plan to cut 10,000 jobs amid tech industry slump

Meta workers are bracing for thousands of additional layoffs as the embattled social media firm continues to cut costs.

A new round of layoffs began on Wednesday, according to a report from CNBC that was confirmed by Meta. The company will cull 4,000 jobs immediately as part of a larger plan to cut 10,000 jobs announced earlier this year, focusing largely on technical roles.

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Every gadget we’ve X-rayed with a Lumafield CT scanner

Every gadget we’ve X-rayed with a Lumafield CT scanner

See inside a few of our favorite things — retro, modern, you name it.

When Lumafield told me I could stick anything I liked into its $54,000 a year CT scanner, I filled an entire backpack with gadgets — because I knew I wanted to share my newfound Superman X-ray vision with you.

Here, we’re collecting every video we’ve filmed of those scans so far — showcasing what you can see inside the latest gamepads, a vintage Polaroid camera, a Stream Deck, and more. Soon, we’ll add the very first Android phone and an original PalmPilot.

From pope’s jacket to napalm recipes: how worrying is AI’s rapid growth?

From pope’s jacket to napalm recipes: how worrying is AI’s rapid growth?

Google boss says issue keeps him up at night, while thousands have urged six-month pause on creation of ‘giant’ AIs

When the boss of Google admits to losing sleep over the negative potential of artificial intelligence, perhaps it is time to get worried.

Sundar Pichai told the CBS programme 60 Minutes this month that AI could be “very harmful” if deployed wrongly, and was developing fast. “So does that keep me up at night? Absolutely,” he said.

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Grad student helps design 'artificial muscles' you can toss in the compost bin

Grad student helps design 'artificial muscles' you can toss in the compost bin Say "hello" to the robots of the future: They're soft and flexible enough to bounce off walls or squeeze into tight spaces. And when you're done with them, you can toss these machines into a compost bin to decompose.

Tesla misses revenue mark as lowered car prices results in few takers

Tesla misses revenue mark as lowered car prices results in few takers

Drop in company’s gross margins in first-quarter earnings signal price cuts could hurt financials with share prices taking a tumble

Tesla narrowly missed Wall Street expectations in the first quarter of 2023 and gross margins dropped significantly in a signal that a series of price cuts could hurt the company’s financials. The company posted a revenue of 85 cents a share on $23.33bn total revenue, just below analysts’ prediction of 86 cents a share on $23.34bn.

Gross margins, a figure that investors are paying close attention to this quarter, dropped from 29.1% to 19.3% year-over-year after the company rolled out a series of recent price cuts.

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TikTok cashing in on sale of counterfeit cosmetics and prescription skin creams

TikTok cashing in on sale of counterfeit cosmetics and prescription skin creams

Fake perfumes and restricted items are being touted on social media platform despite bans

TikTok is profiting from the sale of illegal and potentially dangerous beauty products, including counterfeit cosmetics and prescription-only skin creams, despite claiming to take a “zero tolerance” approach to rogue sellers.

Counterfeit versions of Dior perfumes, Vaseline lip balms and Maybelline mascaras are among products being touted by third-party vendors via TikTok’s in-app marketplace.

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‘These alarms save lives’: Guardian readers on the UK public warning test

‘These alarms save lives’: Guardian readers on the UK public warning test

On Sunday 23 April at 3pm Britons will receive an alert on their mobile phone

Guardian readers share their views and concerns about the planned first UK nationwide test of the government’s public warning system that will send alerts to UK mobile phones in the event of a disaster. The test will take place at 3pm on Sunday.

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Rivian R1S review: king of the mountain

Rivian R1S review: king of the mountain

The R1S is one of the most comprehensively well-designed and engineered vehicles ever.

A trip to Big Bear in Rivian’s electric SUV showcases why it’s one of the most compelling vehicles on sale. As a first effort from a new automaker, it’s even more impressive.

The biggest compliment I can give to the Rivian R1S is that it makes life easy. Exemplified by a recent trip I took to Big Bear with friends — prior to the record-breaking snowstorms that slammed Southern California — the R1S is one of the most comprehensively well-designed and engineered vehicles I’ve ever experienced.

Rivian’s first sucker punch against established automakers is the R1S’s styling. Being a from-scratch startup is one of the company’s biggest advantages, as there’s no design heritage that has to be pulled from and no old platform or technology that needs to be adapted with compromises.

This is one of the best-looking SUVs on sale — maybe ever — with perfect proportions and interesting detailing. Its oh-so-cute face bucks the ever-growing trend of trucks and SUVs looking imposing and aggressive, and the body has wide fenders and clean surfacing.

The R1S’s best view is the rear three-quarter angle, which showcases the chrome-accented roofline’s perfect curves. At 200.8 inches long and 77.3 inches tall, the R1S is about the same size as a new Land Rover Defender 110 and a smidge smaller than a Chevy Tahoe; its 121.1-inch wheelbase is 14.7 inches less than the R1T pickup, and the R1S is 16.3 inches shorter overall.

Its oh-so-cute face bucks the ever-growing trend of trucks and SUVs looking imposing and aggressive.

Practicality isn’t always boring

Interior quality is impeccable. Rivian uses high-quality vegan leather, real metal, and open-pore ash wood trim to great effect throughout the cabin, especially in the flowing design of the dashboard. The driving position and view out are fantastic, and the R1S’s door panels are ergonomically perfect for resting your elbow on the top of the door or the actual armrest. I personally love the tinted panoramic glass roof, which extends all the way back to the standard third row, but some may be put off by the lack of a sunshade. Personally, I’d also spend the $2,000 to get the Ocean Coast white or Forest Edge green interior color schemes, which really help make the cabin look more interesting.

Heated and ventilated front seats, a heated steering wheel and second-row bench, an excellent 19-speaker Meridian sound system, eight USB-C ports, multiple power outlets, wireless charging, and Wi-Fi connectivity are all standard. A removable Bluetooth speaker is built into the center console, and there’s an air compressor located in the rear cargo area. The only feature I’m really left wanting is massaging seats, which Rivian currently doesn’t offer.

This is one of the best-looking SUVs on sale — maybe ever

The interface of the R1S’s 15.6-inch center touchscreen is snappy and easy to use, and I don’t encounter any glitches or other software issues that have plagued Rivians in the past — chalk that up to Rivian releasing consistent updates about once a month. Rivian’s infotainment still doesn’t support Apple CarPlay or Android Auto yet — nor is it likely to, at least according to comments made by CEO RJ Scaringe in a recent interview with Marques Brownlee — but this is a case where I don’t really mind. The native navigation system is pretty great, and Rivian offers integrated Spotify, TuneIn, and Tidal.

The R1S’s 15.6-inch center touchscreen’s interface is snappy and easy to use.

Rivian’s infotainment is powered by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, and the graphics are wonderful. Unlike with most other brands, the screen shows fully rendered and animated images of the vehicle in its exact spec, and I appreciate how the visuals change depending on the drive mode. The menus are easy to navigate, and there’s plenty of nerdy information available on the trip computer and performance pages. I do wish there were a sort of homescreen that could display a combination of different apps instead of having to switch between full-screen tabs to control nav or music. Climate vent, steering wheel, and mirror adjustment are all done through the screen, which can be annoying.

Interior quality is impeccable

Thanks to the huge power-operated frunk and ample rear cargo area, I’m able to fit six people in the R1S, including a weekend’s worth of luggage for each person, without impacting outward visibility. Even my friends relegated to the third row have enough headroom and legroom and never complain about comfort, and there’s a separate climate control panel for the second row.

The second and third rows fold almost completely flat, and the split tailgate makes loading and unloading easy — plus, with a 500-pound weight limit, it’s great for tailgating. You don’t get a gear tunnel like in the R1T, but both the cargo space and frunk have covered storage compartments. Third-row passengers have their own armrests, cup holders, and storage cubbies, the door cards and seatbacks have clever pockets, and the front seats have hidden compartments underneath.

I’m able to fit six people in the R1S, including a weekend’s worth of luggage for each person, without impacting outward visibility.

King of the mountain

Good design still needs to be backed up by the driving experience, and in that area, the Rivian excels. The R1S has an electric motor at each wheel for a total of 835 horsepower and 908 pound-feet of torque, making it the second most powerful SUV on sale behind the Tesla Model X Plaid. It takes just three seconds flat for the R1S to hit 60mph, and the quad-motor setup enables wonderful torque vectoring that constantly adjusts how much thrust is going to each wheel independently.

There’s no artificial “engine” noise piped into the cabin, with Rivian’s engineers opting to highlight the nice whirs genuinely made by the motors. But the R1S is just as enjoyable toddling around town as it is launching from stoplights and getting tossed into corners. Regenerative braking is strong enough for excellent one-pedal driving, and in the Conserve drive mode, the R1S deactivates the rear motors for an even calmer experience.

Rivian’s infotainment is powered by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, and the graphics are wonderful

Twenty-inch wheels with Pirelli Scorpion all-terrain tires are a $3,600 option bundled together with underbody shields and a full-size spare tire, which is money well spent if you want to maximize the R1S’s off-road capabilities. (To note, 21s with all-season tires are standard, while 22s with slightly sportier rubber also cost $2,500.) The all-terrain tires have a super chunky tread and are snow rated, which means I don’t have to fit chains when driving around the mountain, and they’re more than capable enough for the vast majority of off-roading that customers will do. Opting for the all-terrain rubber does come with a hit to efficiency: the EPA estimates a range of 289 miles versus 321 with the standard 21s.

The all-terrain tires have a super chunky tread and are snow rated, which means I don’t have to fit chains when driving around the mountain.

Rivian recently added a Snow drive mode to the R1 models via an over-the-air update, and it makes a noticeable difference. To make driving in the white stuff a much smoother, steadier, and easier experience, Snow mode softens pedal response and introduces a new low regenerative braking setting to reduce wheelspin. With Snow mode engaged, I encounter zero traction or slip issues; even in the grossest slush and hilliest terrain, driving the R1S is effortless. But no matter what drive mode it’s in, the R1S always feels sure-footed and stable, and it’s hard to think of another vehicle I’d rather drive through an intense winter.

Good design still needs to be backed up by the driving experience, and in that area, the Rivian excels

Air suspension is standard on the R1S, providing more than six inches of selectable height adjustment and automatic leveling for towing. In its highest setting, the R1S has 14.9 inches of ground clearance, more than enough to bash over snow banks or crawl over big rocks. The R1S’s variable active dampers have two different stiffness settings, and Rivian uses an electrohydraulic roll control system in place of traditional mechanical anti-roll bars to minimize lean and body roll both on and off the road.

While the R1S feels much lighter and more nimble than its near 7,000-pound curb weight would suggest and its electronic power steering is among the best out there in terms of feedback, the R1S does have some ride quality issues not present in its R1T truck sibling. The R1S’s ride can get choppy over rough tarmac or expansion joints, with occasional unsettling floatiness and porpoising.

The R1S does have some ride quality issues not present in its R1T truck sibling.

At least the R1S is well insulated and quiet at highway speeds despite the chunky tires; only a small amount of wind noise enters the cabin. Rivian’s standard Driver Plus suite of driver-assist features includes adaptive cruise control with steering assist, automatic high beams, blind spot monitoring, lane departure warnings and lane-keep assist, forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking, trailer assist, and rear cross-traffic alert. All of it works fairly well, though the Highway Assist function that handles steering, acceleration, and braking on select freeways can be overly sensitive. Parking sensors and a 360-degree camera system are standard, but the image quality is some of the worst on the market.

The R1S does have a Tesla-like motion-activated Gear Guard sentry function that monitors and records what goes on outside of the car, saving videos to the onboard computer, and there’s a super cute Sasquatch mascot to go with it. A new lawsuit has just been levied against Tesla for the inappropriate sharing of videos taken by the cameras of owners’ cars, as they are accessible by employees — Rivian says that the Gear Guard’s videos aren’t shared with the company or any third party, and owners can add further privacy protections by restricting location data.

Using a DC fast charger, the Rivian’s 135kWh battery pack can gain 140 miles of range in 20 minutes.

The R1S’s range estimates are accurate, if a little conservative, and the navigation system can automatically direct you to a charging station or pick an alternative route for better efficiency. Using a DC fast charger, the Rivian’s 135kWh battery pack can gain 140 miles of range in 20 minutes or go from 10 percent to 80 percent charge in around 45 minutes.

The second night at our cabin, I plug the R1S into a regular wall outlet using the included weatherproof charge cable; left to charge in below-freezing temperatures in the snow and sleet, the R1S gained 20 miles overnight. The previous night, when left outside in the same conditions without being plugged in, the R1S lost about 10 percent of its charge.

The R1S’s ride can get choppy over rough tarmac or expansion joints

Rivian’s smartphone app can control many major functions of the R1S, from locking and unlocking and checking charge status to preconditioning the climate control and sending navigation routes straight to the car’s infotainment. (The cabin preconditioning is particularly lovely in winter, as the Rivian’s flush door handles can get annoyingly frozen shut.) The key fob looks awesome, with a design that doubles as a carabiner, but the buttons are hard to read at night, and I always hold it the wrong way. Leaving the key at home and just using my phone is more appealing to me anyway.

The interior is impeccable.

Range estimates were a little conservative.

In a class of its own

The quad-motor R1S starts at $93,800 including a $1,800 destination charge, with the All-Terrain Upgrade and $1,750 Glacier White paint on my R1S adding up to a $99,150 as-tested price. Rivian will soon start deliveries of the dual-motor R1S, which uses electric motors built in-house by Rivian. The 600hp dual-motor R1S starts at $79,800 and uses a smaller battery pack that has a 260-mile max range, but the larger 340-mile pack that comes standard on the quad-motor R1S is available for an extra $6,000. Rivian also recently introduced a new Performance dual-motor model that offers 700hp and a zero to 60mph time of 3.5 seconds for a $5,000 upgrade over the standard large pack dual-motor model.

The R1S’s range estimates are accurate, if a little conservative

It helps that the R1S has no real competition. The electric Mercedes-Benz EQG and Land Rover’s Range Rover and Range Rover Sport EVs won’t be unveiled until next year, and the GMC Hummer EV SUV is more like a supercar than an actual practical vehicle. (Plus, the Hummer doesn’t have a third row, and the EQG won’t either.) The fantastic BMW iX is priced competitively to the R1S, but it’s only got two rows of seats and minimal off-road capability — and extremely divisive looks. Mercedes’ EQS SUV is available with a third row, but it’s much more luxury-oriented and a lot more expensive than the Rivian, with a starting price of over $105,000. Kia recently unveiled the awesome three-row EV9, which will be more affordable than all of those other SUVs, but it’s still months away and will have tamer performance.

But I don’t think the onset of more direct competitors will dull the Rivian’s shine. Its combination of on-road performance, off-road capability, and thoughtful design is remarkable, and as a first effort from a new automaker, it’s even more impressive. More R1 variants and updates — both hardware and software — will be rolled out in the coming months, and Rivian is currently working on new, more affordable model lines that will be built in Georgia. In the meantime, the R1S will continue to reign as king of both the literal and figurative mountain.

Photography by Daniel Golson for The Verge