Technology

mercredi 5 juillet 2023

The best floodlight camera to buy right now

An all-in-one security camera with motion-activated light and continuous power, a floodlight camera is a simple way to add safety and security to your home’s perimeter.

When something goes bump in the night in your backyard, you probably want to know about it. While regular security cameras with night vision can show you what’s out there, a floodlight camera can show you and tell that rascal or raccoon to get off your lawn, scaring them away with some powerful lumens and possibly a blaring siren.

While there’s mixed research on whether outdoor lighting is a significant crime deterrent or just potentially annoying for your neighbors, there are plenty of benefits to lighting up your property from a safety and security perspective.

With smart floodlight cameras, you get the added value of better lighting, plus a way to keep an eye on your home. Thanks to sensors, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, smart floodlight cameras can be set only to light up when there’s someone there instead of just when a gust of wind sends a plastic bag through your yard.

A floodlight camera has a few benefits over a standard smart security camera. If you have existing hardwired lighting around your home, it’s an easy swap to add a camera and lighting in place of standard outdoor lights. This removes worries about recharging batteries, installing solar panels, or finding an outdoor outlet. If you’re looking for advice on why you might want a floodlight camera or how to install it, I’ve got more details for you below, as well as tips on how to install a floodlight camera.

Here, I’ve rounded up the seven best floodlight security cameras based on extensive testing over 12 months at a single-family home in South Carolina.

The best hardwired floodlight camera

Video quality: 1080p HD, 8x digital zoom / Lumens: 2,000 / Smart alerts: Person ($) / Field of view: 140 degrees (270 motion) / Siren: Yes (110 decibels) Power options: Hardwired or plug in / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz and 5GHz / Storage: Cloud, local / Subscription fee: $3.99 a month / Works with: Alexa, Ring

Ring’s top-of-the-line floodlight camera has superb video quality, excellent motion detection, and an impressive 2,000 lumens of adjustable light. Its wide horizontal and deep vertical field of view gave a better vantage over my backyard than most of the competition.

While I didn’t find the Bird’s Eye View feature that useful, the radar-powered 3D motion detection was very good. Of all the cameras I tested, this was the most reliable at picking up motion anywhere in its range, even mounted on the eave of my second floor. It’s part of the Ring security ecosystem — which is great in its own right — but it doesn’t integrate with smart home platforms outside of Amazon’s Alexa.

The enhanced motion detection is the main reason to buy the Pro model over the Floodlight Cam Wired Plus, which is $50 cheaper. The other key differences are no HDR imaging on the Plus or the option of 5GHz Wi-Fi. Neither of these makes much difference on a floodlight camera — due to its likely location being up high and far away from your Wi-Fi router — but better motion detection is worth a lot on a security camera.

Ring’s digital zoom is also excellent, and the bumped-up siren is the loudest I tested (at 110dB, 105 on the Plus). You can’t trigger the siren on motion, but there is the unique-to-Ring option to add a verbal warning telling prowlers they’re on camera — less offensive to the neighbors than a motion-triggered siren. I also like that there’s a version that runs off a standard wall outlet if you don’t have a junction box available, but I recommend hardwiring if you can.

*The Ring Floodlight Cam has an excellent field of view.*

You’ll need to pay for a Ring Protect Plus plan for recorded video, starting at $4 a month. This also adds person detection (no other smart alerts) — without it, it’s livestream only. However, the Pro does work with the local storage option of a Ring Alarm Pro, if you have that security system.

Alexa integration is useful; you can view a live feed in the Alexa app and on Alexa-enabled smart displays and have Echo smart speakers announce when people and / or motion is detected. But you can’t control the Ring’s floodlights through Alexa, either with voice or in Routines; you have to use the Ring app for all light control.

In the Ring app, there’s an option to adjust the three motion zones for the lights — which was handy for preventing them from turning on when my neighbor walked in his yard. The lights can also be set on a schedule, adjust the brightness, and link Ring devices so that if a Ring camera on one side of the house detects motion, it can turn on the floodlights on the other.

If you use a smart home system other than Alexa, give the Ring Floodlight Cam a pass, as it only works with Alexa. However, if you are starting on your smart home journey, the Ring app is fast becoming a smart home platform of its own, especially if you add a Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro to your setup.

The best budget floodlight camera

Video quality: 1080p HD / Lumens: 2,600 / Smart alerts: Person, package, vehicle, animal ($) / Field of view: 130 degrees (270 motion) / Siren: 105 decibels / Power options: Hardwired / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz / Storage: Cloud and local (SD card) / Subscription fee: $1.99 monthly / Works with: Alexa, Google Home

Wyze’s superb floodlight camera is less than half the price of the competition. This 2,600-lumen blaster lit up the side of my house like an airport runway. (It’s a harsh white, however.) Moreover, unlike most of the competition, the Wyze Cam Floodlight offers sound detection, useful to highlight anyone trying to creep through the bushes while out of range of any motion sensors.

Wyze uses both PIR and camera-based motion sensors — which means the camera doesn’t have to be in the range of motion for the lights to turn on. Wyze offers 270 degrees of motion sensing, which is the widest range of motion sensing I tested, and it’s adjustable. The cherry on top is the extra USB port, so you can power a second Wyze Cam v3 (sold separately) and put it around the corner for an additional angle. This does look a bit like a Rube Goldberg machine on the side of your house, however.

*Two cameras are better than one. With the Wyze Cam Floodlight, you can connect a second Wyze Cam and leach off the power supply.*

Despite the low price, you’ll want to factor in paying for a Wyze Cam Plus subscription plan ($3 a month), as that’s how you’ll get smart alerts for people, packages, vehicles, and animals. Although 12 seconds of motion-recorded clips are free, there’s a five-minute cooldown period between them where the camera won’t record anything, so unless you pay up for the unlimited length clips and no cooldown included in Cam Plus, you could miss some vital action.

Zoom on the 1080p resolution Wyze is not great, but the starlight sensor-powered night vision is superb. This uses any available light to illuminate a dark scene in color, and I could see more in that mode than with the floodlights turned on. The Wyze Cam also has a loud siren and can pulse the lights to scare off anything creeping around. As a bonus, there’s the option of local storage by adding an SD card, which enables free 24/7 continuous video recording.

As with all Wyze gear, smart home integration outside of the Wyze ecosystem is limited. You can stream footage to Google and Alexa smart displays and have Alexa announce if motion is detected. But you can’t control the lights with either voice assistant, and you don’t get individual control of the floodlights outside of the Wyze app.

The best battery-powered floodlight camera

Video quality: 2K, 12x zoom / Lumens: 2,000 (3,000 when plugged in) / Smart alerts: Person, package, vehicle, pet ($) / Field of view: 160 degrees (130 motion) / Siren: Yes (105 decibels) / Power options: Battery, solar panel, plug in / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz / Storage: Cloud / Subscription fee: $3.99 monthly / Works with: Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home, Samsung SmartThings

If you don’t have access to hardwiring or a nearby power outlet or you want a floodlight camera that works with all the major smart home platforms, the Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Cam is the best option. This camera works with Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, Apple Home, and Alexa. It has better video quality than the Ring, a 12x digital zoom, an option to auto-track and zoom, a motion-activated siren, and more smart alerts.

But the Arlo is a battery-powered camera, and while this means you can mount it anywhere you need to, it lacks the best feature of hardwired floodlight cams: reliable, continuous power. Arlo has the option of continuous power, but you need a nearby outlet and an additional $50 power cord. It does not mount to a standard outdoor junction box and isn’t a great drop-in upgrade for an existing non-camera floodlight. I tested the Arlo for six months on battery power in a very busy location and had to charge it every two months. A $60 solar panel add-on would help, but you’re paying over $300.

The camera’s software features are also expensive. You have to subscribe to its Arlo Secure service (starting at $3.99 a month) for zoom and track, rich notifications, and smart alerts for animals, vehicles, and packages. I couldn’t even snooze motion alerts without a subscription plan. There is the option of continuous 24/7 recording for an additional fee.

*The Arlo Pro 3 floodlight camera gives off a lot of light despite its small size.*

The Arlo is the least obtrusive-looking floodlight camera I tested. I won’t go so far as to say it looks nice — but it’s not as large or as prominent-looking as the rest (with the exception of the Eve Outdoor Cam and Netatmo).

Despite the camera’s smaller size, the light is very bright and more than enough to light up my entire back patio. It’s one of only two cameras I tested that has the option to pulse its light to scare off intruders, and you can set its 80dB siren to go off on motion. (Be careful with this feature if you don’t want your neighbors to come knocking.)

One issue I ran into was water getting into the floodlight after a heavy rainstorm. I was able to dry it out, and it’s been working fine since then, but I would recommend installing this and any floodlight camera under an eave or some covering where possible to extend its life.

I also find the Arlo app to be finicky. It logs me out frequently and takes way too long to pull up a live view. In comparison, I didn’t have the same issues with the Ring app — despite the camera being installed further from my router than the Arlo.

Unlike some Arlo cameras, the Pro 3 Floodlight Cam doesn’t require an Arlo hub, but it can be used with one to help with range and extend battery life. If you want Apple Home compatibility, you also need that hub, which costs $100. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have HomeKit Secure Video or local storage. There is just no way around that Arlo subscription.

The best pan and tilt floodlight camera

Video quality: 2K / Lumens: 3,000 / Smart alerts: Person / Field of view: 360 degrees (270 motion) / Siren: 100 decibels / Power options: Hardwired / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz / Storage: Local (on-device), cloud / Subscription fee: $3 monthly / Works with: Alexa, Google Home

Eufy has gone for function over form with its beast of a floodlight camera that boasts a camera with a 360-degree field of view that pans and tilts to cover a vast area. This feature — plus its three adjustable, tunable lighting panels, individually addressable PIR motion sensors, and local storage — makes the Eufy Floodlight Cam 2 Pro a great option if you have a large area to cover.

Important note: Eufy recently suffered some security vulnerabilities, which the company was not transparent about. We temporarily removed our recommendations while the company worked on a fix. While the security flaws appear to have been resolved, the company’s lack of transparency is something to consider before purchasing a Eufy camera. You can read more about the issues and Eufy’s solutions here.

The 360-degree pan and tilt feature is well thought out, with subject lock and tracking that follows a person as they walk through your property. While you set the camera to a fixed point, it can detect motion outside its view (thanks to PIR motion sensors in each floodlight panel) and swivel the camera to catch it.

Smart alerts are for people but not animals, vehicles, or packages. You can adjust the sensitivity of each motion sensor and set up activity zones to limit false alerts. Opt-in rich notifications preview the captured clip right in your phone’s notification tray, reducing how often you have to open the app to check-in.

A helpful auto-cruise feature lets you set four preset positions and have the camera auto-rotate through them on a set schedule or on demand. A Look Around button on the main page of the Eufy app sends the camera into a surveillance spin for a quick check on your property.

*The Eufy Floodlight Cam 2 Pro looks like a mall security camera hanging off your house. It only works under eaves (as pictured) not mounted on a wall.*

But it is ugly. And the outdated push-to-talk two-way audio (we’d love some full-duplex here), limited zoom, and no option for continuous video recording are all letdowns.

A neat feature is three lighting panels that deliver a blinding 3,000 lumens of light at up to 5,700 Kelvins, much higher than any competitor. At full brightness, it resembles the lighting of a prison yard, which is not great for most people. Thankfully, you can change the brightness and the color temperature from cool to warm. I set it to warm, and 20 percent brightness, and it was more than bright enough without being harsh.

The 2K video quality is good, although the digital zoom is lacking (surprising with this resolution). The camera works over 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, has a weather rating of IP65, and includes standard and color night vision. It doesn’t require a Eufy hub, but recently became compatible with the Eufy HomeBase 3, which should add AI-powered smart alerts — including animals and vehicles, plus facial recognition. I’ve not tested this feature yet, and the HomeBase costs $150, but will work with multiple Eufy cameras.

Without a HomeBase, there is 4GB of nonremovable onboard storage for around 14 days’ worth of recordings for free, based on about 45 activations a day. You can also use a network-attached storage setup or Eufy’s cloud service for $3 a month per camera. There is no 24/7 continuous video recording, and it works with Google Home and Alexa to stream footage on smart displays and control the camera’s lights in the app.

The best floodlight camera without cloud storage

Video quality: 1080p HD, 8x digital zoom / Lumens: 1,100 / Smart alerts: People, vehicles, animals / Field of view: 100 degrees / Siren: 105 decibels / Power options: Hardwired / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz / Storage: Local (microSD card) / Subscription fee: None / Works with: Apple Home, Alexa, Google Home

For those leery of relying in any way on a company’s cloud to protect their footage, the Netatmo Smart Outdoor Camera is a good option. Netatmo doesn’t have a cloud service: all video is recorded locally, and all smart alerts are processed on the device. You can also opt to store recordings on your personal server (via FTP) or in Dropbox or use Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video service (an Apple Home hub and an iCloud plan is required).

Additionally, Netatmo doesn’t charge any ongoing fees. Its smart alerts for animals, people, and vehicles and rich notifications are all free, which makes up a little for that eye-wateringly high price tag. The built-in siren hits an ear-splitting 105dB, which you can opt out of by getting the non-siren version for $30 less.

The Netatmo camera works with Apple Home, Google Home, or Amazon Alexa, and you can control both the light and camera in Apple Home. It also works with HomeKit Secure Video, but I like the Eve better if you’re an Apple Home user, as it has better video quality, double the lumens, and two-way talk (but no siren).

The Netatmo is a stylish-looking floodlight camera made of aluminum instead of plastic, with a high-end feel that doesn’t look out of place on the side of more modern homes. It comes in black or white and needs to be mounted vertically to the side of a house. (It won’t fit under your eaves.)

The biggest downside is that the video quality of the Netatmo Smart Outdoor Camera is nowhere near as good as the competition. This is an older camera, and while it offers 1080p video, it live streams in 720p, and there is no HDR imaging or seemingly any other digital trickery more modern cameras use to produce a more vibrant image.

There is also no two-way audio. You can hear someone through the app but can’t speak to them. The light is also only rated for 1,100 lumens, the lowest by far, but it feels plenty bright in use. I like that you can choose specific types of motion to trigger the lights and have it just come on for people or animals.

The best floodlight camera for Google Home

Video quality: 1080p HD, 6x digital zoom / Lumens: 2,400 / Smart alerts: People, vehicles, animals, familiar faces ($), sound ($) / Field of view: 130 degrees (180 motion) / Siren: No / Power options: Hardwired, plug-in ($) / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz and 5GHz / Storage: Cloud and local / Subscription fee: $6 a month / Works with: Alexa, Google, Samsung SmartThings

There is a lot to like about the Google Nest Cam with floodlight. It has built-in battery backup for when the power goes out, free on-device recording (up to three hours), free smart alerts for people, animals, and vehicles, and the option of 24/7 recording (for a fee).

It’s also got facial recognition if you take the time to add known faces. It’s a lot nicer to get an alert that says, “Sarah the Gardener is in the backyard,” rather than the scarier “There’s a person in the backyard.” You need to pay for a Nest Secure subscription service for this, which starts at $6 a month.

All of these features are part of the Google Nest Cam that magnetically attaches to the two floodlights. The lights have some good control options, including adjustable arms to angle your lighting, app and voice control in the Google Home app, ambient light activation, and the option to dim the beams.

But there is no built-in siren, making it a poor choice for a dedicated security device. It offers 5GHz Wi-Fi, and the on-device machine learning makes for speedier notifications than most cameras I tested. Motion sensors in the floodlights provide a wide 180-degree sensing range, ensuring the lights turn on when anything gets nearby.

The camera works with the Google Home app (not the old Nest app) and can stream to both Google Nest and Amazon Echo smart displays. It doesn’t fit well for an under-the-eave installation (as you can see in my pictures), so only consider it if you can install it on the side of your house and up high.

Read my full Google Nest Cam with floodlight review here.

The best floodlight camera for Apple Home

Video quality: 1080p HD, 6x digital zoom / Lumens: 2,400 / Smart alerts: People, vehicles, animals, familiar faces / Field of view: 157 degrees / Siren: No / Power options: Hardwired / Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz / Storage: Cloud / Subscription fee: $1 a month / Works with: Apple Home

The Eve Outdoor Cam is the best Apple Home floodlight camera. It works with HomeKit Secure Video, which processes all video locally on an Apple TV or HomePod. But it only works with Apple Home and the Eve app, which doesn’t have an Android version yet, so only get this if you use an iPhone.

The Eve camera is compact, svelte, and the smallest camera I tested. It was so small it didn’t completely cover the electrical box for the light it was replacing. (It only mounts on a vertical wall, so you can’t put it under an eave or overhang.) It has a good solid feel and, like the Netatmo, the housing is aluminum (all the other models in this guide are plastic), and it comes in white or black. The Eve Outdoor Cam also looks much less like a mall surveillance camera than many of its competitors.

Its video quality is very good, especially during the day. Images were bright, clear, and only a little pixelated when I zoomed in. With the light on, the image was a little muddy at night, but I could make out faces clearly enough. The regular night vision was slightly better.

Apple’s HomeKit video integration adds a slew of smart alerts, including people, packages, animals, and vehicles. You can also grant access to your Apple Photos library and get alerts when it recognizes people. Facial recognition and package alerts make this a good camera to set up by your front door. It’s also not super bright, as in it won’t blind visitors. But it will light up the scene well enough to see what’s happening. A brightness boost mode adds an extra bump for 30 seconds if you want a stronger floodlight. It’s nothing compared to the Eufy or Wyze lighting, though, which are both like walking down an airport runway.

There is no built-in siren or 24/7 recording, and you have to pay for an iCloud Plus plan (starting at 99 cents per month) to view any recorded video. But there is two-way audio, which was very good, and you can use the light and motion sensor separately to trigger automations in the Apple Home app.

Other cameras we’re testing

*Wyze’s new floodlight camera packs a lot of features in for a very low price.*

There’s been a flood (haha) of new floodlight cameras recently, and I’m currently testing three new models: the Blink Wired Floodlight Camera ($100), the Wyze Pro Floodlight Camera ($150), and the Lorex 2K Wi-Fi Floodlight Security Camera ($250). Here are some early thoughts, but I’ll update this guide with full reviews soon.

The Wyze Pro Floodlight is an upgrade to my current Budget pick, the Wyze Cam Floodlight, and it’s better all around, with higher lumens, tunable light, higher resolution (2.5k), and a wider field of view (a whopping 180). It’s also more expensive, but uses AI-powered light control that can be set only to turn the lights on when a person or vehicle is detected. The video quality is very impressive, especially at this price, but I’ve been getting a lot of false people alerts in early testing.

The Blink Wired Floodlight Camera ($99.99) is a great budget option with on-device processing of people alerts, so nothing has to go to the cloud (although you have to subscribe for this feature). Specs-wise, it's very similar to my current budget pick, Wyze Cam Floodlight; both have local storage options and 1080p video but wok better when you pay a monthly subscription. The Wyze has the option of an extra camera, but the Blink has a nicer design. It also plays well with Alexa but doesn’t work with any other smart home platform.

The Lorex 2K Wi-Fi Floodlight Security Camera has great video quality and local storage on the camera; it also works with 2.4 GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi. It detects animals, vehicles, and people for free and has a built-in siren. But it has a narrow field of view (122 diagonal), and its AI detection is spotty — it told me my cat strolling along in the backyard was a vehicle multiple times and that my dog was a person. I do like its track and zoom feature and that you can adjust the temperature of the lights. It also has some innovative settings for lighting activation, but it’s fiddly to adjust the light panels, and the camera is fixed in place.

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Update Wednesday, July 5th, 2023: Added new details throughout and updated features and prices.

Grand Theft Auto V is back on Game Pass

A screenshot from Grand Theft Auto V. — Image: Rockstar Games

One of the bestselling games in history is back on Xbox Game Pass. As part of the service’s most recent wave of additions, Grand Theft Auto V is available now for subscribers on both console (including Xbox One and Series X / S) and the cloud. The game has had an off and on relationship with Game Pass, though, so it’s unclear how long it’ll stick around this time.

The rest of the lineup for July isn’t quite as exciting but includes Capcom’s upcoming dino shooter Exoprimal, along with the following:

Sword and Fairy: Together Forever - July 5th (cloud, console, and PC)
McPixel 3 - July 6th (cloud, console, and PC)
Common’hood - July 11th (cloud, console, and PC)
Insurgency: Sandstorm - July 11th (PC)
Exoprimal - July 14th (cloud, console, and PC)
Techtonica - July 18th (cloud, console, and PC)
The Cave - July 18th (cloud and console)

If you somehow haven’t played GTAV yet since it launched in 2013 and subsequently been updated for multiple generations of consoles, this is a good way to give it — or its online component — a playthrough as we await more news on Grand Theft Auto VI.

Meta Unveils Threads App to Take on Twitter

Meta Unveils ‘Threads’ App to Take on Twitter Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, teased a new app called Threads that is set to take on Twitter for real-time digital conversations.

This environmentally conscious smartphone is finally coming to the US

Three Fairphone 4 smartphones against an orange background — *You won’t get the standard Android experience with the Murena version, but that, too, could eventually make its way to the US.* | Image: Murena / Fairphone

The Fairphone 4 — a user-repairable smartphone built using ethically sourced materials — is finally coming to the US, almost two years after it first debuted back in September 2021. Well, sort of anyway. Fairphone is partnering with Murena, a company best known for de-Googling Android phones, to launch the US pilot of the Murena Fairphone 4 — a variant of the handset that runs on a privacy-oriented Android-based operating system: /e/OS.

There are two configurations available: one with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for $599 and another with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $679. The storage of both models can be expanded via microSD, and the phone features a modular design that can be easily disassembled using a standard Phillips #00 screwdriver to replace broken components. It also has an IP54 rating, meaning the device is protected against dust and water sprays.

The Murena Fairphone 4 will ship to US customers with 5G and dual SIM support, a removable 3905mAh battery, a 48-megapixel main camera, a 48-megapixel ultrawide, and a 25-megapixel selfie camera. The phones will be available to order exclusively from Murena’s webstore starting today.

The Murena Fairphone 4 also comes with the /e/ operating system preinstalled, which is described as a privacy-focused, Google-free mobile ecosystem for folks who want to avoid handing any data over to the search giant. Instead of the usual Google apps, the Fairphone 4 will come with a range of default Murena Cloud apps for things like email, calendar, and cloud storage as well as a dedicated app store that highlights the privacy ratings of each app to help users monitor how their online activity is being tracked.

A screenshot of the Murena App Lounge on the Fairphone 4. — *The Murena App Lounge basically looks like the Play Store if it were stripped of all its usual Google branding.*

We should note, however, that /e/OS isn’t entirely Google-free. The Murena “App Lounge” technically does allow you to install major Android apps, including those made by Google, but Murena claims that it fetches apps directly from the Play Store without giving Google any of your private information.

The Fairphone comes unlocked, but the press release mentions that T-Mobile and other operators based on T-Mobile’s network are the only US carriers recommended to be used with the device. Fairphone is also providing an extended five-year warranty for the hardware, and /e/OS is similarly committed to fixing bugs and supporting security and feature updates for five years.

The Murena version is the only Fairphone 4 model being introduced to the US, and there’s no mention of the standard Android OS model joining it anytime soon. “We know based on feedback we have received that there are many people interested in Fairphone in the US. However, currently our main focus is on the European market,” said Fairphone CEO Eva Gouwens in a press release. “This collaboration with e/OS/ is a great opportunity for us to pilot selling devices in the US market with a longstanding partner and learn more about the American market.”

A Tech Checklist for the Dark Side of Summer Weather

A Tech Checklist for the Dark Side of Summer Weather This season has seen excessive heat, violent storms and hazardous smoke already, but you can prepare for future events with a few apps and tools.

Instagrams Twitter competitor Threads is already live on the web

Instagram’s Twitter competitor Threads is already live on the web

Screenshot of Instagram’s Twitter competitor — *The Threads web interface.* | Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge

Instagram’s new Threads app, a Twitter competitor, isn’t supposed to launch until July 6th but the web interface is live right now for everyone to explore. It provides an early look at what to expect from the full Threads app that will launch on iOS tomorrow and presumably Android too.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has created his first thread (is that what we call them?!) using the app, and many other brands and creators have been given early access — including Netflix, Gary Vee, and Instagram obviously.

Post by @zuck

View on Threads

The web interface is fairly basic right now for viewing threads, with options to like, comment, repost, and share — all prompting you to download the mobile app for the time being. If you’re in an unsupported country, like markets in the EU, then you’ll only be able to view threads right now. Much like Twitter you can view an account’s main posts in one section and the full reply history in another.

The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, already has nearly 2,500 followers and Zuckerberg has less than 2,000 so it’s safe to say that early Threads access has only been provided to a few thousand testers so far. Alessandro Paluzzi has discovered some of the brands and creators that got early access.

Here are some content creators who had early access to #Threads

Mark Zuckerberg (@ ) #1
Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) #2
Lauren Godwin (@ ) #214
Adam Waheed (@ ) #242
Joana Jamil (@ . ) #607
Wonho Chung… https://t.co/JpkkwZyVsx
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) July 5, 2023

Fediverse integration won’t be available immediately at the launch of Threads, but it’s clear Instagram is looking to add this soon. Profiles include an Instagram username and link, with a threads.net label that includes the following description:

Soon, you’ll be able to follow and interact with people on other fediverse platforms, like Mastodon. They can also find people on Threads using full usernames, like @zuck@threads.net.

Instagram has been teasing the launch of Threads all week long with App Store and Google Play Store listings revealing the launch date and the main threads.net homepage counting down to the launch of the service. Threads is launching during a particularly chaotic period for Twitter, after unregistered users were blocked from viewing tweets last week, temporary rate limits caused issues, and major changes to TweetDeck rolled out after it broke completely.

mardi 4 juillet 2023

US Judge blocks Biden officials from contacting social media sites

A US federal judge ruled that a slew of Biden administration officials are prohibited from contacting social media companies about moderating posts protected by the First Amendment.

Judge Terry A. Doughty wrote in a 155-page memorandum ruling that he believes the plaintiffs are likely to prove that federal government officials are targeting and suppressing “millions of protected free speech postings by American citizens.”

Doughty:

The Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the Government has used its power to silence the opposition. Opposition to COVID-19 vaccines; opposition to COVID-19 masking and lockdowns; opposition to the lab-leak theory of COVID-19; opposition to the validity of the 2020 election; opposition to President Biden’s policies; statements that the Hunter Biden laptop story was true; and opposition to policies of the government officials in power. All were suppressed. It is quite telling that each example or category of suppressed speech was conservative in nature. This targeted suppression of conservative ideas is a perfect example of viewpoint discrimination of political speech. American citizens have the right to engage in free debate about the significant issues affecting the country.

As the Washington Post reports, Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri suing President Joe Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the CDC, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, claim that “starting in 2017 — four years before Biden was president — officials within the government began laying the groundwork for a ‘systemic and systematic campaign’ to control speech on social media.”

The New York Times cites Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, responding to the ruling saying, “It can’t be that the government violates the First Amendment simply by engaging with the platforms about their content-moderation decisions and policies... If that’s what the court is saying here, it’s a pretty radical proposition that isn’t supported by the case law.”

The NYT also has a statement from an unnamed White House official saying, “Our consistent view remains that social media platforms have a critical responsibility to take account of the effects their platforms are having on the American people, but make independent choices about the information they present,” and notes that the Justice Department is reviewing the ruling while evaluating its next steps.

The injunction bars people like DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) leader Jen Easterly, and FBI Foreign Influence Task Force leader Laura Dehmlow, as well as employees of those agencies and several others, from contacting, working with, or asking social media companies about posts protected by the First Amendment.

Exceptions listed include:

Posts about criminal activity or criminal conspiracies
National security threats
Threats to election security
Permissible public government speech promoting government policies or views on matters of public concern
Public safety threats
Efforts to detect, prevent, or mitigate malicious cyber activity

Those named in the suit are also barred from working with academic groups that focus on social media, like the Election Integrity Partnership, the Virality Project, and the Stanford Internet Observatory.

Edward Fredkin 88 Who Saw the Universe as One Big Computer Dies

Edward Fredkin, 88, Who Saw the Universe as One Big Computer, Dies An influential M.I.T. professor and an outside-the-box scientific theorist, he gained fame with unorthodox views as a pioneer in digital physics.

Leaked Pixel 8 Pro photos give first real look at Googles upcoming flagship

Leaked Pixel 8 Pro photos give first real look at Google’s upcoming flagship

A screenshot showing the back of Google’s Pixel 8 Pro smartphone. — *The design featured in the new testing images is near-identical to the version that Google accidentally leaked (pictured) earlier this year.* | Screenshot: 91mobiles (YouTube)

Poor Google doesn’t have much luck with keeping its unreleased Pixel devices under wraps, and the Pixel 8 Pro is no exception. Two leaked photos of Google’s upcoming Pixel flagship were posted to Reddit on Monday, giving us our first look at the front and rear of what appears to be a real Pixel 8 Pro out in the wild. Those original pictures were swiftly removed from Reddit, but thankfully, not before Droidlife could grab a copy.

The design is recognizably that of a Pixel device, though there are a few notable differences compared to its predecessor, the Pixel 7 Pro. The photo of the back of the Pixel 8 Pro gives us a clear view of the new triple-camera setup, which is now housed entirely in a single glass oval, unlike the 7 Pro’s separate telephoto lens. A new sensor that can measure the user’s body temperature can also be seen under the flash. There’s no additional information regarding the camera specifications, though previous leaks suggest it’ll be equipped with a 50-megapixel main sensor, 64-megapixel ultrawide, and a 48-megapixel telephoto.

Two pictures of a Google Pixel 8 Pro smartphone being tested in leaked photographs. — *The camera island looks a little thicker than the one featured on the Pixel 7 Pro, but its otherwise difficult to judge the overall size.*

There’s also a sticker on the back identifying the phone as a prototype test unit marked with “Zuma” — the code name for Google’s Tensor G3 processor. A pattern of lines can be seen on the lower half of the phone but it’s not entirely clear what this might be, or if it will make it into the final design later this year.

The image displaying the front of the Pixel 8 Pro shows the phone’s fastboot screen, which mentions “Husky” (the rumored codename for the Pixel 8 Pro) and lists 12GB of Samsung LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It also looks like Google has scrapped the curved display in favor of a flat one.

This isn’t the first time we’ve had a glimpse at the handset — renders of the Pixel 8 Pro depicting a similar design appeared in March, and the phone made its first unofficial appearance in an internal Google video leaked back in May. Most of what we’re seeing in these new hands-on images reinforce the changes identified in those previous leaks ahead of its official announcement later this year.

How A.I. Is Influencing Astrology

How A.I. Is Influencing Astrology A new machine furthers a technology company’s aims at providing astrological readings using artificial intelligence.

Musk y Zuckerberg pelearán en una jaula? Tal vez no sea broma

¿Musk y Zuckerberg pelearán en una jaula? Tal vez no sea broma Han ido avanzando las charlas en torno a un posible enfrentamiento en jaula entre los multimillonarios y pronto podría haber detalles del evento.

lundi 3 juillet 2023

Samsungs AI Moment Is Here but Is It Ready?

Samsung’s AI Moment Is Here, but Is It Ready? Foreign investors betting on artificial intelligence are pouring money into the company’s shares. Analysts say it will have a hard time keeping up with rivals.

Suicide Squad is getting an anime adaptation

An image from Suicide Squad Isekai. — Image: Warner Bros. Discovery

Suicide Squad is the next franchise to get an anime adaptation — and it looks pretty good. The new series, Suicide Squad Isekai, was revealed at Anime Expo 2023, according to IGN, and you can watch a trailer for the new anime right now.

The trailer is brief, and it prominently features anime-styled versions of Harley Quinn and the Joker. It also hints at how the series will live up to its Isekai name and transport the characters to another world: one shot features a close-up shot of a flying dragon, for example, and there are some brief glimpses of floating islands throughout. (The series seems like it could be a new entry in James Gunn’s “Elseworlds” strategy for DC movies and shows that aren’t directly tied to the mainline DC Universe, but I haven’t seen that branding connected to the project yet.)

Unfortunately, it might be awhile until we can see Suicide Squad Isekai for ourselves, given that the trailer and website don’t include any sort of release window. And given that the new Suicide Squad game, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, was recently delayed from May to February, it might be awhile before we see something new from DC’s band of villains.

Suicide Squad Isekai adds to an increasingly large pile of franchises that getting the anime treatment. Netflix in particular has been a big fan of the idea, with shows like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, and the forthcoming adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

Pornhub blocks access in Mississippi and Virginia over age verification laws

Illustration Of Porn Websites — Photo Illustration by Adrien Fillon/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Pornhub is now blocking people in Mississippi and Virginia from visiting its website over laws that would require the service to verify their age. The company says it’s blocking users to protest unfair enforcement of these new laws, claiming that sites enforcing the new rules will lose traffic to “irresponsible platforms” that “don’t follow the law, that don’t take user safety seriously, and that often don’t even moderate content.”

Traffic dropped by 80 percent for Pornhub after it began enforcing age verification in Louisiana earlier this year, the company writes. After that experience, it decided to start taking its sites offline instead of enforcing an age gate. In May, it blocked access to users in Utah over a similar law. Techdirt reports that the blackout also applies to other websites operated by Pornhub’s owner, such as RedTube.

Age verification laws are increasingly been introduced and passed across the US, particularly in more conservative areas of the country, as a way to prevent children from accessing porn. A trade group for the adult entertainment industry, the Free Speech Coalition, notes similar laws passing in Texas, Montana, and Arkansas, with legislation being introduced — but failing to pass — in several other states.

The laws generally require that adult websites verify their visitors’ ages in a manner more that’s more rigorous than having them check a box saying they’re over 18. That can include checking government-issued IDs.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has pushed back against age verification mandates, criticizing the laws as “surveillance systems” that pose privacy issues to anyone who uses them. “Once information is shared to verify age, there’s no way for a website visitor to be certain that the data they’re handing over is not going to be retained and used by the website, or further shared or even sold,” the group wrote in March.

So where are we all supposed to go now?

A picture of a neon Like button on Facebook — Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

An era of the internet is ending, and we’re watching it happen practically in real time. Twitter has been on a steep and seemingly inexorable decline for, well, years, but especially since Elon Musk bought the company last fall and made a mess of the place. Reddit has spent the last couple of months self-immolating in similar ways, alienating its developers and users and hoping it can survive by sticking its head in the sand until the battle’s over. (I thought for a while that Reddit would eventually be the last good place left, but… nope.) TikTok remains ascendent — and looks ever more likely to be banned in some meaningful way. Instagram has turned into an entertainment platform; nobody’s on Facebook anymore.

You could argue, I suppose, that this is just the natural end of a specific part of the internet. We spent the last two decades answering a question — what would happen if you put everyone on the planet into a room and let them all talk to each other? — and now we’re moving onto the next one. It might be better this way. But the way it has all changed, and the speed with which it has happened, has left an everybody-sized hole in the internet. For all these years, we all hung out together on the internet. And now that’s just gone.

Why is this all happening right now? Lots of reasons, actually, most of them at least somewhat defensible. The economy has gone sour, and after more than a decade of low interest rates and access to nearly unlimited and nearly free money, companies are finding their funding sources to be fewer and more finicky than ever. Those investors are also asking for real returns on that funding, so all these companies have had to switch from “growth at all costs” to “actually make some money.” Few social networking companies have ever made real money, and so they’re scrambling for new features and pivoting to whatever smells like quarterly results.

The rise of AI is also sending all these companies into a tizzy. Large language models from companies like OpenAI and Google are built on top of data collected from the open web. Suddenly, having all your users and content publicly available and easily found has gone from a growth hack to capitalistic suicide; companies around the industry are closing their walls, because they’re hoping to sell their data to AI providers rather than have it all scraped for free. Much of Reddit’s current chaos started with CEO Steve Huffman saying that the company realized that the platform is filled with good information, and “we don’t need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free.” On Saturday, Elon Musk introduced Twitter’s new login gate and view count restrictions “to address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation.”

Add it all up, and the social web is changing in three crucial ways: It’s going from public to private; it’s shifting from growth and engagement, which broadly involves building good products that people like, to increasing revenue no matter the tradeoff; and it’s turning into an entertainment business. It turns out there’s no money in connecting people to each other, but there’s a fortune in putting ads between vertically scrolling videos that lots of people watch. So the “social media” era is giving way to the “media with a comments section” era, and everything is an entertainment platform now. Or, I guess, trying to do payments. Sometimes both. It gets weird.

As far as how humans connect to one another, what’s next appears to be group chats and private messaging and forums, returning back to a time when we mostly just talked to the people we know. Maybe that’s a better, less problematic way to live life. Maybe feed and algorithms and the “global town square” were a bad idea. But I find myself desperately looking for new places that feel like everyone’s there. The place where I can simultaneously hear about NBA rumors and cool new AI apps, where I can chat with my friends and coworkers and Nicki Minaj. For a while, there were a few platforms that felt like they had everybody together, hanging out in a single space. Now there are none.

I’d love to follow that up with, “and here’s the new thing coming next!” But I’m not sure there is one. There’s simply no place left on the internet that feels like a good, healthy, worthwhile place to hang out. It’s not just that there’s no sufficiently popular place; I actually think enough people are looking for a new home on the internet that engineering the network effects wouldn’t be that hard. It’s just that the platform doesn’t exist. It’s not LinkedIn or Tumblr, it’s not upstarts like Post or Vero or Spoutable or Hive Social. It’s definitely not Clubhouse or BeReal. It doesn’t exist.

Long-term, I’m bullish on “fediverse” apps like Mastodon and Bluesky, because I absolutely believe in the possibility of the social web, a decentralized universe powered by ActivityPub and other open protocols that bring us together without forcing us to live inside some company’s business model. Done right, these tools can be the right mix of “everybody’s here” and “you’re still in control.”

But the fediverse isn’t ready. Not by a long shot. The growth that Mastodon has seen thanks to a Twitter exodus has only exposed how hard it is to join the platform, and more importantly how hard it is to find anyone and anything else once you’re there. Lemmy, the go-to decentralized Reddit alternative, has been around since 2019 but has some big gaps in its feature offering and its privacy policies — the platform is absolutely not ready for an influx of angry Redditors. Neither is Kbin, which doesn’t even have mobile apps and cautions new users that it is “very early beta” software. Flipboard and Mozilla and Tumblr are all working on interesting stuff in this space, but without much to show so far. The upcoming Threads app from Instagram should immediately be the biggest and most powerful thing in this space, but I’m not exactly confident in Meta’s long-term interest in building a better social platform.

So if not that, what? There’s a good case to be made for apps like WhatsApp and Signal, which at least bring some extra privacy muscle to the table. WhatsApp has been adding more social features over time, particularly Channels, a one-to-many way for creators and brands to talk to all their followers at once. (Telegram is also doing some interesting stuff in this space.) But that’s not social, that’s a news feed. These are still chat apps, meant for talking to one or a few people at a time.

Discord is probably the tool best-suited to capture users’ social needs right now. It’s definitely the best Reddit alternative we have. It’s a clever mix of chat app and broadcast tool, a place where lots of like-minded people could conceivably hang out and connect. But, uh, have you ever been in a Discord with thousands of people? It’s pure chaos, and requires you to either devote your life to keeping up or resolve yourself to missing everything. Discord’s moderation tools are a mess, too, and everyone’s still mad about changing their username.

For all its mess, the social networking era did a uniquely good job of just putting people together in a single place. You didn’t have to pick a server or declare your interests ahead of time; you just showed up, set a password, and got to work. Because everyone was together, these platforms were able to make it trivially easy to find people you like and content that interests you. They were able to learn about you over time, and proactively show you those people and that content before you even had to ask.

This all, of course, came with huge downsides. Retweets and quote tweets made it easy for good content to travel, but also made it easy to mass-harass anyone on Twitter. Meta’s knowledge of its users makes your Explore page more interesting, and only extends the dossier on you available to advertisers. I’m not sure it’s possible to have the good without the bad, and I think the bad might outweigh the good. (As a white guy in America, I also experience the bad far less than many users, and I suspect I’d feel differently about the end of this era if I weren’t quite so privileged here.) But I can’t help but think it’s possible to at least do better.

Maybe we should all embrace the downfall of social networks, and maybe my (and our) need for a global water cooler is just a vestigial feeling we’ll all be rid of in a few years. But even before this era fully ends, before Twitter and Reddit turn into MySpace and Friendfeed and basically disappear from my life, I find myself longing for what they once were. Still are, maybe, just not for long. I miss everybody, and I don’t know if I’ll ever find them again.

TweetDeck is falling apart after Twitters rate-limiting fiasco

TweetDeck is falling apart after Twitter’s rate-limiting fiasco

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Twitter’s power-user focused TweetDeck interface is experiencing major issues after owner Elon Musk announced limits on the number of tweets users can view daily. The Verge has experienced these issues first hand with our publication’s Twitter accounts, and multiple users across the platform (including at least one Twitter Blue subscriber, spotted by TechCrunch) are reporting seeing an empty interface that would normally be filled with tweets. Users are reporting varying aspects of the interface being broken, with notifications, mentions, likes, and lists failing to load.

While users have been reporting issues with Twitter throughout the weekend, problems with TweetDeck are likely to create issues for professional and power users of Twitter, who rely on the service to build their brands, promote their work, and — in the case of many newsrooms — as a reporting tool.

The issues are thought to relate to the new limits on viewing tweets that Elon Musk announced on July 1st. Musk claimed that the limits, which he called “temporary” were needed “to address extreme levels of data scraping [and] system manipulation” on the platform. With the new limits applied, Verified accounts (essentially those subscribed to Twitter Blue) were limited to reading 6000 posts a day, while other accounts would be limited to either 600 or 300, depending on their age.

Musk later announced increases in these limits to 10,000 tweets for verified subscribers, and between 1,000 and 500 tweets for other users. Away from TweetDeck, Twitter’s main website and apps appear to be functional as of Monday morning.

A paying user: This is what Tweetdeck looks like now. You remain a genius product innovator. pic.twitter.com/7TDnP0B39G
— Philipp Kloeckner (@pip_net) July 2, 2023

The limits were announced a day after Twitter started blocking unregistered users from reading tweets for similar reasons. “Several hundred organizations (maybe more) were scraping Twitter data extremely aggressively, to the point where it was affecting the real user experience,” Musk said as justification for the change. Musk is likely referring to AI companies here, with the suggestion that they’re scraping Twitter to train large language models.

Although Musk is characterizing the limits as an intentional measure, it’s the latest example of the platform’s reliability having suffered in recent months. In early March, Twitter experienced an outage that left many users unable to view images or follow links posted on the platform. The problem is believed to have been caused after the sole engineer working to shut down free access to the Twitter API made a “bad configuration change” that “basically broke the Twitter API.”

Shortly after taking ownership of the company, Elon Musk embarked upon a series of layoffs that “left teams in charge of Twitter’s most critical infrastructure and user experience with a skeletal staff.” In total, Musk says he’s laid off over 6,000 employees at Twitter, bringing its total headcount down from a little under 8,000 to around 1,500. The social media network also reportedly stopped paying Google Cloud for its services last month until Twitter’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino mended the relationship, Bloomberg reported.

When contacted for comment, Twitter’s press line responded with an automated poop emoji, as it has done since shortly after Elon Musk took over the company and gutted its communications department.

Why Car Repairs Have Become So Expensive

Why Car Repairs Have Become So Expensive More technology and creature comforts, as well as a parade of new electric vehicles, have complicated the job after accidents.

dimanche 2 juillet 2023

Russia Seeds New Surveillance Tech to Squash Ukraine War Dissent

Russia Seeds New Surveillance Tech to Squash Ukraine War Dissent Russia is incubating a cottage industry of new digital surveillance tools to suppress domestic opposition to the war in Ukraine. The tech may also be sold overseas.

Tesla Sales Surge as Tax Credits Fuel Demand

Tesla Sales Surge as Tax Credits Fuel Demand Incentives and price cuts made Tesla electric cars cheaper than comparable gasoline models. But the company faces growing competition in China, a key market.

Apple considered a finger-worn controller for the Vision Pro

The Apple Vision Pro headset on display at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino. — *The Vision Pro almost had a dedicated controller.* | Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple’s new Vision Pro headset, which is coming later this year, will use hand-tracking and eye-tracking for control, but at one time, Apple considered a finger-worn input device, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter.

Gurman said that early in the Vision Pro’s development cycle, Apple tested third-party virtual reality controllers from companies like HTC. Later, it looked into the finger-worn device — indeed, in 2015 a smart ring patent from the company emerged, though at the time seemed more intended as a general wearable device, not something specific to a mixed reality headset.

Apple Vision Pro first look.

In the end, Gurman says, the company decided that using eye-tracking and hand motions to control the Vision Pro was the “more elegant solution.” When our own Nilay Patel tested the headset, calling it the “best headset demo ever,” he thought the eye tracking was solid, and confirmed that you can keep your hands down at your sides or in your lap, tapping your thumb and forefinger together to make selections — no waving your hands in the air or pointing at things here.

Of course, Apple said at WWDC 2023 that the Vision Pro will still have support for external input devices, including third-party game controllers and keyboards, so you’ll still have the option to skip the hand controls for certain types of input.

Apples next AirPods Pro may check your hearing health and take your temperature

Apple’s next AirPods Pro may check your hearing health and take your temperature

A pair of AirPods in an open charging case — *AirPods Pro may be getting new hearing health features.* | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Some AirPods will be gaining a new hearing health feature, supported by iOS 17, that can check yourself for potential hearing issues and may be able to determine your body temperature via your ear canal, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter. He also says all of Apple’s new headphones will include USB-C, and that the company is planning new AirPods Pro and AirPods Max models — but he doesn’t think new hardware is coming soon.

AirPods already support audiograms — audio profiles that tell the AirPods where your hearing may be weakest so that they can tune themselves to your hearing abilities. Right now, you can generate an audiogram using the app Mimi, which Apple would be Sherlocking — an infamous Apple tendency to fold third-party features and apps into its operating system — with a built-in hearing test feature.

Other wireless earbuds have similar capability built in as well. The Jabra Elite 75t added a feature in 2020 called MySound that creates custom sound profiles after playing a series of tones in each ear and prompting wearers to tap their screen when they hear a noise, and the Nothing Ear 2 launched with its own hearing test and audio profile feature this year.

Gurman says Apple is also exploring positioning the AirPods as hearing aids, now that the FDA has approved over-the-counter sales of hearing aids without a prescription.

Next, Gurman added that future AirPods could take your temperature with your ear canal. Rumors that Apple would do this go as far back as late 2021, and the Apple Watch Series 8 introduced something similar last year, albeit as a relative temperature that’s only really used for menstrual cycle tracking.

Expanding temperature tracking to the AirPods could be more accurate, he says, and would potentially let Apple more accurately tell a wearer if they’re starting to get sick. Gurman didn’t say whether this would be exclusive to the AirPods Pro, but it seems likely.

The bad news from the Power On newsletter is that the updated AirPods Pro might not be coming soon. Gurman believes the new health features are “several months or even years away,” and that although USB-C AirPods may be coming soon, AirPods Pro themselves are so far on a three-year refresh cycle. A sample size of two is hardly enough to say that’s how it will always be, but the fact that the 2nd gen AirPods Pro were released only last year doesn’t bode well for a new pair this year.

Then again, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in March that he expects a USB-C version of the AirPods Pro to come later this year, in the second or third quarter, and that Apple didn’t seem to have plans for either the original AirPods form factor or the more bulbous AirPods 3. It’s possible the new hardware could only be a new case with the updated charging port, similar to what Apple did when it introduced a standalone MagSafe case for the AirPods Pro in 2021.

Kuo also predicted in January that $99 AirPods and a new set of AirPods Max will come soon, as early as next year.

Update July 2nd, 2023 9:15AM ET: Added that other earbuds have hearing test features, such as the Jabra Elite 75t and the Nothing Ear 2.

New Uncensored Chatbots Ignite a Free-Speech Fracas

New Uncensored Chatbots Ignite a Free-Speech Fracas A new generation of chatbots doesn’t have many of the guardrails put in place by companies like Google and OpenAI, presenting new possibilities — and risks.

samedi 1 juillet 2023

Musk Says Twitter Is Limiting Number of Posts Users Can Read

Musk Says Twitter Is Limiting Number of Posts Users Can Read The change on Saturday came as thousands of users complained about getting an error message that they had “exceeded” their “rate limit.”

Valve wont approve Steam games that use copyright-infringing AI artwork

Valve won’t approve Steam games that use copyright-infringing AI artwork

Image: The Verge

On Thursday, various outlets reported on a June Reddit post from user potterharry97 saying that Steam would no longer be publishing games with AI-generated content. Later in the month, another game dev penned a similar post. Valve says that’s not quite right.

In a statement emailed to The Verge, Valve PR representative Kaci Boyle said the company’s goal is “not to discourage the use of [AI] on Steam; instead, we’re working through how to integrate it into our already-existing review policies.” She went on to say that the company’s current review process takes into account current copyright law, and that “while developers can use these AI technologies in their work... they can not infringe on existing copyrights.”

Boyle added that Steam will refund app-submission credits for any developers whose games were rejected over AI copyright issues as the company refines its review process. It made the same offer to potterharry97.

Valve’s developer submission rules disallow “content you don’t own or have adequate rights to.” Potterharry97 included the rejection message in their post, which said their game “contains art assets generated by artificial intelligence that appears to be relying on copyrighted material owned by third parties.”

The emergence of AI has added a new, complicated dimension to discussions around copyright. The change has lead to lawsuits over things like uncredited open source code usage and infringement of copyrighted artwork, and Valve heading this off with an aggressive policy surrounding AI-created assets isn’t too much of a surprise.

Smart lights smart mugs and a handful of other weekend discounts

Smart lights, smart mugs, and a handful of other weekend discounts

A series of glowing Nanoleaf light panels on a wall beside a pair of headphones and a computer monitor. — *Nanoleaf only manufactured a thousand units of its Ultra Black Triangles light panels, but they’re still available at some retailers.* | Image: Nanoleaf

Whether you celebrate the “Fourth” or not, Independence Day weekend is oft considered one of the best times of the year to save on everything from TVs and laptops to the humble Toyota Camry. That’s still the case, however, with Amazon Prime Day kicking off in a little over a week, we expect many of this weekend’s best discounts to hang around just a bit longer than they might have otherwise.

Take our first deal of the day, as an example. Right now, you can pick up Nanoleaf’s Shapes Ultra Black Triangles at Amazon and Best Buy for $199.99 ($20 off), which matches the lowest price we’ve seen on the nine-panel kit since it made its debut last year. The modular light panels are nearly identical to the originals aside from the fact they appear all-black when dormant, meaning they can still display 16 million colors and work with Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, and Google Assistant. Plus, they’re outfitted with Wi-Fi and Thread radios, meaning they can also act as a Thread Border Router — a vital component of the new Matter smart home standard.

While I’d like to think most students aren’t thinking about going back to school quite yet — the school year only just ended in many parts of the country, after all — I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Dell’s XPS 13 is seeing one of its steepest discounts to date. Right now, the school-ready laptop is on sale at Dell for $849 ($250 off) with 16GB of RAM, a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1250U processor, 512GB of storage, and a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter for those times when a shoddy pair of wireless headphones just won’t cut it.

As one of our top suggestions for both high school and college students, the XPS 13 has a lot going for it. The ultraportable Windows laptop remains one of the best alternatives to Apple’s MacBook Air thanks to its price-to-performance ratio, not to mention its gorgeous chassis, its 16:10 display, and the kind of lightweight build that makes it a dream to tote around from class to class. All the aforementioned specs also render it a great daily driver, even if you’re not someone who is planning on taking a freshman composition class come the fall.

Read our Dell XPS 13 (2023) review.

Mosquitos are a seasonal fact of life, whether you live in the South or you’re a Northwest city dweller like me. Thankfully, Thermacell’s E90 Mosquito Repeller is nearly matching its best price to date at Amazon, where you can currently pick it up for $39.96 ($10 off).

The straightforward, rechargeable device is a welcome alternative to the Deet- and- butane-heavy products of yesteryear, and should allow you to thwart pesky bugs within a 20-foot radius for up to nine hours at a time thanks to its built-in battery. Keep in mind that the repeller comes with a single, nine-hour repellent cartridge, though there is a 40-hour cartridge available if you really need to keep ‘em at bay for longer.

A few more cool, summer savings

The Ember Mug 2 continues to be one of our guilty pleasures, one that’s on sale at Woot right now starting at $97.99 ($52 off). The app-controlled smart mug doesn’t do anything other than keep your drink warm, but there’s a small comfort in knowing your coffee is going to be the exact temperature you set it to any time you reach for it in the morning.
iOttie’s wireless car charger — one of our favorite car gadgets — is currently on sale at Amazon for $34.99 ($15 off), which is just $1 shy of its all-time low. Not only is the handy, Qi-equipped mount wide enough to accommodate pretty much any iPhone or Android phone on the market, but it also features a one-touch design that lets you easily snap your phone in place. It’s a steal of a price if you’re okay with basic charging speeds, especially since the few Apple-approved MagSafe mounts still cost north of $100. Ouch.
Anker’s Soundcore Liberty 4 NC are currently seeing their first discount, dropping them to just $79.99 ($20 off) at Amazon when you clip the on-page coupon or to the same price at Anker with offer code WSCPXLFXWN. Although we haven’t tested them yet, Anker’s newest earbuds look to be an excellent value thanks to features like adaptive noise cancellation and ear detection, the latter of which automatically pauses what’s playing when you take them out. We were big fans of the Liberty 3 Pro, and while I imagine the new earbuds might not be on par with the Pro model when it comes to sound, they still off a few features that are rare at this price point.
Apple’s ninth-gen iPad is on sale at Amazon at checkout for $249.99 ($79.01 off) in the 64GB base configuration, matching its lowest price to date. The entry-level model remains a great kid-friendly pick if you’re looking for something less expensive than the latest iPad Air or Pro models, especially since it still packs a 10.2-inch screen, a robust selection of apps, and an A13 Bionic chip that’s still plenty fast enough for most people’s needs. Read our iPad buying guide.