mardi 12 septembre 2023

SpaceX says Starlink ‘network issue’ has been resolved

SpaceX says Starlink ‘network issue’ has been resolved
Starlink dish in the back of a truck
Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge

SpaceX said Tuesday evening that it fixed an outage with Starlink, the company’s satellite internet service. “The network issue has been fully resolved,” the company wrote at 9:39PM ET.

At 8:33PM ET, the company acknowledged the issue and said it was working on a fix. “Starlink is currently in a network outage and we are actively implementing a solution,” SpaceX wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “We appreciate your patience, we’ll share an update once this issue is resolved.”

Downdetector shows there were around 33,000 user reports of problems. Reports started to spike at about 7:30PM ET.

There have been a handful of threads on the Starlink subreddit Reddit about the outage. As of this writing, one thread that’s pinned at the top of the community has more than 900 comments, while another thread has more than 1,400 comments.

We’ve reached out to SpaceX for comment.

Update September 12th, 9:51PM ET: Starlink says things have been resolved.

Apple’s smart home app can now tell you when you’re using clean energy

Apple’s smart home app can now tell you when you’re using clean energy
Grid Forecast is a new feature in the Apple Home app that tells you when your power grid has cleaner energy available. | Image: Apple

Apple’s iPhone 15 launch event had a big focus on the company’s move toward carbon neutrality, but it also introduced a new smart home feature that can help you leave a lighter footprint on the planet.

Arriving with iOS17, Grid Forecast is a new tool in the Apple Home app that shows you when your electrical grid has relatively clean or less clean energy sources available. This could help you decide when to run your tumble dryer or charge your EV to take advantage of “cleaner” energy when you have higher consumption.

Grid Forecast is available in the Home app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch devices running this fall’s soon-to-be-released updates, with iOS 17 set for a public launch on September 18th. It is also available as an iOS widget or a watch face complication and will work in the contiguous United States.

 Image: Reddit hellra1zer02
This screenshot posted by Reddit user hellra1zer02 shows how the Grid Forecast is displayed in the Apple Home app.

Using cleaner energy — that generated by wind or solar or electricity produced using lower emissions — can reduce the impact you have on the climate when you use electricity in your home.

While Apple’s first implementation of this feature is entirely manual — you need to look at the Home app to see when the energy is cleaner and then decide if you want to charge your EV — it’s feasible it could be tied into automation if and when Apple supports energy management features natively in its smart home platform.

Apple already has a clean energy charging feature it introduced with iOS 16.1 that aims to charge your phone when cleaner energy is available. Automating smart home devices to do the same should be a natural next step. Even Microsoft can schedule your Windows Update for a time when more green energy is available.

The smart home is in a unique position to help automate this type of energy management, and other smart home platforms have enabled similar features. For example, Samsung’s SmartThings Energy is a service that lets you view real-time energy usage from your connected appliances and provides tips on ways to reduce energy use.

Samsung recently added AI features that can automate some energy-saving features and integrate with the Electricity Maps service to show real-time information about your energy sources and their carbon intensity, helping you better manage your carbon footprint.

Apple says Grid Forecast uses data that combines grid, emissions, and weather information to show you in a simple graphic when energy is clean or less clean. It’s a good start for home energy management, but adding the ability to automate how and when your home uses this clean energy is essential to make this more than just another data point.

Ford’s newest gassy F-150s include more hybrid configurations

Ford’s newest gassy F-150s include more hybrid configurations
black f-150 platinum truck in a park by trees
PowerBoost badge means its a hybrid. | Image: Ford

Ford’s F-150 truck is adding more hybrid powertrain options to more trims for the 2024 model year. The automaker is also adding extra tech into the truck, including a head-up-display option so you can check your speed without looking down, and a built-in 5G modem that makes over the air (OTA) software updates and media connectivity faster than ever.

Previously, Ford’s cheapest F-150 truck that has a hybrid option, the Lariat, started at $57,480 with a $3,300 add on. Now Ford says the hybrid option, called “PowerBoost,” will “match the starting MSRP on the 3.5-liter EcoBoost engine,” which we’re taking to mean that Ford’s cutting the hybrid add-on from $3,300 to $1,540 instead. (That’s what the 3.5L gasoline engine cost for the 2023 model year.) Importantly, you can also get the hybrid at the less expensive XLT trim level, as well as in the high-end Platinum Plus.

 Image: Ford
The 12-inch screen is now standard across models.

The 2024 model year F-150 is built on the same platform used since the 2021 model year. Ford claims the platform is durable and tested with over 3.75 million “customer equivalent” miles in the automaker’s lab tests.

The F-150 also has a new tailgate called “Pro Access” that can open like a door sideways for quick access to the accessory AC power ports. Ford’s new trucks can offer up to 7.2kW to on-site tools and appliances on PowerBoost F-150 models if equipped with Pro Power Onboard.

Ford’s new F-150 is the second vehicle to get a 5G modem option that brings speedier navigation map loading and enables faster in-car Wi-Fi. Previously, this was only available on the all-work-and-no-play SuperDuty pickup trucks, and there are plans to add it to the next Lincoln Nautilus SUV. And Ford’s OTA updates now can install updated software automatically, if desired. A new voice feedback option is also added where customers can quickly tell Ford about technical problems or use some poor chap at Ford as a sounding board that can’t respond.

The F-150 has Ford’s latest Sync 4 software running on a 12-inch infotainment display, which is now standard on all models. That means no more squinting at an iPhone 5-sized display on base trims when you switch your tough-mobile into reverse gear. Speaking of iPhones, Ford CEO Jim Farley posted on X (formerly Twitter) that today is a “big day for America’s two biggest consumer products,” connecting the new iPhone 15 and the F-150 like all-American blood brothers. These things aren’t quite the same, but we appreciate your posts, Farley!

Ford has had plans to update its infotainment software to use Google software Android Automotive, or underlying services from the search company with Google built-in. But Ford’s last big Sync 4 upgrade on the 2024 Ford Mustang didn’t seem to include it, and the latest F-150 Lightning didn’t get it either. Ford communications manager Dan Barbossa tells The Verge in an email that the new 2024 F-150 runs the same OS as before.

Ford’s adding a new theft recovery service for the F-150, a first of its kind for the automaker in North America (it’s available in Europe). Aptly named Ford Stolen Vehicle Services, the optional connected service can locate and help recover a stolen vehicle with the help of a 24/7 call center and additionally alerts owners on unauthorized tampering of the truck (including towaways) via the FordPass app.

Ford’s dropping in a complementary 90-day trial for its BlueCruise hands-free driver assistant software, version 1.2, which can steer you within highway lanes and make lane changes on command. Ford recently said it is offering a similar trial on the new Mustang Mach-E Rally, although that vehicle will launch with the latest BlueCruise 1.3, which has stability improvements to stay engaged longer.

Ford is also making its smaller gas-only EcoBoost engine standard on base offerings. So now the XL model, which usually comes with a 3.3-liter V6 PFDI, will come with the 2.7-liter EcoBoost, which previously commanded a $1,285 upcharge. However, Barnossa tells us the 2024 XL Regular Cab costs $36,570 before destination fees, which costs about $2,000 more than the 2023 base model with an MSRP of $34,585, so don’t expect to save money on the new one if you like the EcoBoost engine.

 Image: Ford
The F-150 Lariat is a pretty truck with the right amount of daytime running LEDs.

Ford’s F-150 hybrid option still does not include a plug-in option, so you’ll need to check out the still 5G-less and HUD-less (but all-electric) F-150 Lightning instead if charging is what you desire. One thing about the top trims of the new F-150s, though, is the front looks a hell of a lot better than the Lightning with the light bar.

The iPhone is getting new ringtones

The iPhone is getting new ringtones
iphone 15 action button
The ringtones might be good enough to keep you from using that Action Button to turn off the ringer. | Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge

Apple’s iPhone is finally getting some new ringtones with iOS 17. As reported by 9to5Mac, the iOS 17 release candidate (RC) has a bunch of additional ringtones, and assuming nothing changes between the RC and the update’s official release, you’re going to have a few additional sounds to choose from very soon.

iOS 17 includes more than 20 new “ringtone options and sound alerts,” 9to5Mac says. I’ve installed the RC and listened to many of the new sounds, and I’m a big fan. I’m particularly drawn to the new “Journey” ringtone, which sounds like something out of a classic RPG. If you want to hear a few of the new tones, 9to5Mac has a short video you can check out.

Some older sounds have been “slightly remastered” as well, according to 9to5Mac. Other older tones have been moved to a “classic” area in the ringtones and sounds settings menus.

iOS 17 is set to be released publicly on September 18th. If you want to download the RC, you just need to get to get on an iOS 17 beta track, and if you want to do that, here’s our guide to do so.


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From ‘Data Dumping’ to ‘Webbing’: How Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Sells Misleading Ideas

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TikTok Shop Aims to Turn Trendsetting Power Into Sales

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lundi 11 septembre 2023

The scooter wars might be over, as Lime claims victory

The scooter wars might be over, as Lime claims victory
Lime and Tier scooter facing each other
Photo by Omar Havana / Getty Images

The shared electric scooter business has gone through a series of ups and downs over the last few years — mostly downs, if we’re being honest — but now, one company is ready to claim the mantle of victor.

Lime released a new set of financial figures that it says proves that last year’s slim profits were no fluke. The company reported gross bookings of $250 million in the first half of the year, a 45 percent increase over the same period last year. And it’s touting an adjusted EBITDA profitability of $27 million — the first time the company has achieved this for the first half of the year and a 45 percent margin increase over last year — and an unadjusted $20.6 million profitability.

To say that Lime is feeling itself would be an underestimate. As other micromobility firms continue to shed staff, exit markets, and burn cash, Lime says it is proudly trending in the other direction. The company is not sharing all of its metrics, like revenue and costs, but it says that it’s on its way to another record year.

“I think historically people always believe there’s demand for micromobility, but this is an industry that is littered with dead bodies of people who just can’t make this business work,” Lime CEO Wayne Ting said in an interview with The Verge. “I think we are going to deliver tremendous profitability and hopefully even get to free cash flow positive.”

Being cash flow positive means Lime has more money going into the business at a given time than going out. But it’s not the same as having net income or being profitable after adjusting your earnings. Ting says being free cash flow positive would mean Lime wouldn’t need to raise venture capital funding (which would be tough in this economic climate anyway) to grow and maintain its fleet of e-scooters.

“We get to the point of sustainability, which is always kind of a dream for business like this,” Ting said.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not wrong. Lime has been flirting with full-year profitability as well as being free cash flow positive for a number of years, but covid kept throwing a wrench in those plans. Also Ting is not saying that Lime is guaranteed to hit those benchmarks by the end of this year. The shared micromobility business tends to slow down during colder months. And Paris recently voted to ban rental scooters from its streets, a setback for Lime and other operators.

Still, Ting said that Lime was still posting impressive ridership numbers in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. And with all of the right numbers trending upward, Lime is positioning itself for a possible IPO, which could bring in a broad cohort of new investors.

For real this time.

“We have all of the ingredients now to tackle, to take advantage of a traditional IPO just as the market is coming up,” Ting said. “So I feel really good.”

An IPO probably isn’t likely before the end of 2022, Ting said, adding that a lot is riding on a bunch of other expected tech IPOs, including Arm, Cava, Stripe, and Instacart. “They are going to set the mood for the reopening of the IPO market,” he added.

Ting has been teasing an IPO for a while now, and for good reason. In the wake of the covid pandemic, a host of startups went public by merging with shell companies called SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, as a shortcut to an IPO. Bird, Helbiz, and a number of other scooter companies merged with SPACs, as did a wealth of transportation startups of dubious origin. And in late 2020, it seemed like Lime would follow suit, reportedly holding talks with investment bank Evercore about going public via SPAC.

But as the SPAC craze died down, Lime remained a private company. Ting said it was the right decision, pointing to the struggles of competitors like Bird and others that have seen their stock price tank as investors grew doubtful about the future of shared micromobility.

“I think a lot of companies [that] should not be public went public,” he said.

Bird, which helped kick off the shared scooter boom in 2017, has been an interesting contrast to Lime. The company’s post-SPAC experience has been pretty rough, including a going concern warning, a disclosure that it had overstated its revenue for two years, and a merger with a Canadian company that licenses its name. Now, it has abandoned its efforts to build its own scooter and is buying them off the shelf from Chinese manufacturers instead. It is also pulling out of markets in an effort to reduce costs and rightsize its finances.

Meanwhile, Lime has doubled down on building its own scooter, which is expensive but necessary, Ting said. Lime needs to build its own bikes and scooters, he argued, because it helps differentiate the company from its competitors, both for riders and cities that regulate the fleets. And because of that, Lime has seen its unit economics (how much revenue each individual scooter brings in for the company) improve over time. Each scooter now lasts on the road for an average of five years, Ting said.

“We’ve made an expensive choice and kept with it for six years now,” he added, “which is we’re going to build our own hardware.”

Ting went on to criticize his competitors for “outsourcing and abandoning” their internal research and development programs in favor of off-the-shelf parts. And he worried the scooter industry would slip back into the bad old days of cheap scooters that would break down after several months of use.

But as Lime pulls away from its competitors, the hope is that it can sustain its growth ahead of a possible IPO and beyond. Lime wasn’t the first to offer shared electric scooters for rent — that distinction goes to Bird — but it may be the last scooter company standing, especially as others merge and the industry continues to consolidate and evolve.

“There’s tremendous growth for the whole industry, not just Lime,” Ting said. Historically, “people have not run good businesses against that growth... We got to be running sustainable businesses that can stand [on] our own two feet. And this is what Lime has been able to prove over the last year and certainly this first half of this year.”

The Tank Museum Has 300 Armored Vehicles and Over 100 Million YouTube Views

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‘Cybersecurity Issue’ Forces Systems Shutdown at MGM Hotels and Casinos

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TikTok accidentally blocked Hollywood writers strike videos while casting a QAnon net

TikTok accidentally blocked Hollywood writers strike videos while casting a QAnon net
The TikTok logo on a black background with pink and blue repeating logos around the edges.
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

TikTok videos about the Hollywood writers strike were temporarily blocked as the platform attempted to moderate QAnon conspiracy theories.

Media Matters for America, a nonprofit media research group, reported today that TikTok users were unable to search for content related to the Writers Guild of America strike. “WGA” and “WGA strike” didn’t return any search results on the app despite continuing waves of coverage of the writers and actors strikes. Within a few hours of MMFA’s report being published, the search results were restored and now appear to be working as usual.

TikTok confirmed that it accidentally blocked searches for the WGA strike content while attempting to block QAnon conspiracy theories; TikTok spokesperson Ben Rathe stopped short of telling us exactly which QAnon phrase was blocked on the record, but we do see the slogan “WWG1WGA” (where we go one, we go all) is a common QAnon phrase.

Under TikTok’s disinformation policy, the company in the past has banned user accounts sharing QAnon content and has blocked QAnon hashtags. Posts containing terms like “Writers Guild of America” were not affected, Rathe says.

TikTok has been a key way that unions and workers have shared news about the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. The strikes have had an impact on content creators and influencers as well, as studios try to hire non-union content creators to do work that union members are not performing and creators try to understand how to comply with union requests.

Disclosure: The Verge’s editorial staff is also unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East.

The Apple Event Quiz

The Apple Event Quiz

Note: This content is not displaying properly in Apple News. Please use this link instead.

Apple’s product events have always been more than sales pitches — they’re essentially technology entertainment: presentations that run as long as feature films and make bold promises about how technology is changing and why Apple’s new products are (supposedly) the ones leading the charge. The events are undeniably popular. Apple’s last iPhone event, in September 2022, has 31 million views on YouTube alone.

If you’re here, you’ve certainly seen coverage of Apple’s keynotes. Maybe you’ve tuned in live for a few of them (or a whole bunch, as all of us at The Verge have). We dug through our memories for some trivia questions to see just how well you remember Apple’s keynotes and the culture around them — or whether you’ve been paying attention at all.

Sony launches ‘foster care’ program for its aging robot dogs

Sony launches ‘foster care’ program for its aging robot dogs
The Sony Aibo robot dog in a logo for a new ‘foster care’ donation program.
A rehoming pound for preloved robot pups. | Image: Sony

Sony is launching a new sustainability program to ensure that even robot dogs are for life, and not just for Christmas. Five years after releasing the ERS-1000 Aibo — a reboot of its popular line of “autonomous entertainment” robot dogs from the late 90’s — Sony Japan is now launching an “Aibo foster parent program” to help ERS-1000 owners who have cancelled their Aibo Cloud Plan to donate the gadget to a worthy cause.

According to a machine translation of the Japanese press announcement, Sony will test and repair ERS-1000 units donated to the program before providing them to medical facilities, nursing homes, and other organizations that could benefit from emotional support robots like Aibo. Sony says it plans to charge Aibo “foster parents” an undisclosed fee for the service and notes that some donations may be used to help maintain and repair other Aibo units, depending on their condition.

Aibo wasn’t exclusively marketed as an emotional support device, but it’s easy to see why it can be used as such. The ERS-1000 responds to voice and touch (with various sensors for petting) and even features a nose-camera to help it recognize family members.

For people who can’t interact with a real dog, Aibo is at least a delightful emulation. Japan is also keen on emotional support robots in general (remember SoftBank’s Pepper and the Paro therapy seal?) so this feels like a good way to retire pre-loved Aibo units while reducing potential e-waste.

Book Review: ‘Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career,’ by Kristi Coulter

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dimanche 10 septembre 2023

Let the robot vacuum wars begin: the newest Roombas tackle the competition’s biggest issues

Let the robot vacuum wars begin: the newest Roombas tackle the competition’s biggest issues
Surprise! More robot vacuums. iRobot launches its new j9 Plus robot vacuum line, featuring a new auto-empty dock that can refill the robot’s water tank. | Image: iRobot

iRobot’s newest robot vacuums are smarter and more powerful, and the mopping bot can scrub your floors more deeply. At least, that’s what the company is claiming as it launches its newest flagships: the $1,399 Roomba Combo j9 Plus vacuum / mop and the $899 j9 Plus vacuum. Both models are available to pre-order now at irobot.com in the US and Canada. iRobot also launched two midrange robot vacuums that can mop last week.

iRobot is clearly feeling the pressure from its many, many competitors. These latest models focus on bringing more smarts, power, and scrubbing action to keep up with the likes of Ecovacs, Roborock, and Dreame, who are launching ever more fantastical home cleaning bots.

The new Roomba Combo j9 Plus is the first robot vacuum mop from iRobot with a dock that can refill the robot’s water tank.

Let’s start with the Combo j9 Plus. It has the same retractable mop system as the Combo j7, which ingeniously lifts the robot mop up and over the vacuum so it won’t touch your carpets. Most of the competition deals with the problem of dragging dirty mops over the carpet by lifting up their mop pads a few millimeters, which can be an issue with higher-pile rugs.

I loved the retractable mop when I tested the Combo j7, but the actual mopping was only so-so — it didn’t really scrub, and it was easily outclassed by the oscillating mop pads and spinning mop heads of combo vacs from Roborock and others.

iRobot’s answer to the competition, which it calls SmartScrub, is actually quite smart. Rather than redesign the mopping apparatus, iRobot has the entire robot move back and forth, mimicking the way you scrub the floor with a manual mop.

It doesn’t do this in every room; SmartScrub combines with another new software feature called Dirt Detective (more on this later) to target rooms likely to need it, such as kitchens and entryways. You can also choose to enable it on a room-by-room basis in the app. Best of all, SmartScrub is also coming to the Combo j7 Plus via a software update.

 Image: iRobot
The Roomba Combo j9 Plus is iRobot’s newest flagship robot and features higher suction power and an auto-empty, charging dock that refills its mopping tank reservoir and doubles as a side table.

The Combo j9’s other new feature is a redesigned auto-empty / charging dock that now automatically refills the mop’s water tank. This is something I felt was missing when I reviewed the Combo j7 Plus; you have to refill that mop reservoir manually.

The lower-priced $899 j9 Plus is a vacuum-only version of the Combo j9 Plus and comes with the same dock as the j7. Both new models have the same AI obstacle avoidance that arrived on the Roomba line with the j7 — so will skirt common household clutter and the dog poop that robot vac companies think is all over our homes. It's important to note this feature uses a camera that’s on the vacuum.

The company also says that the j9 Plus models are Roomba’s most powerful to date. iRobot doesn’t release Pa numbers but says it’s 100 percent more powerful than the i series. (That said, iRobot’s suction power claims sometimes feel deliberately obtuse — its website says both the j series and i series are 10 times as powerful as the 600 series, while the s9 is 40 times more powerful. Assuming the j9 is twice as powerful as the i series, that’s still only half as powerful as the s9. We’ve reached out to iRobot for clarification.)

Both new models ship with Version 7.0 of iRobot OS, which introduces an intriguing feature called Dirt Detective. This learns which rooms in your home are the dirtiest and cleans those first. iRobot says this analyzes past cleaning preferences, patterns, and timing to automatically prioritize rooms that need the most attention.

Dirt Detective works with a feature introduced in iRobot OS 6.0 that automatically identifies room types using its onboard camera. So it guesses a room with a fridge and an oven may be the kitchen (you can adjust these names in the app). It is also smart enough to know to clean the bathroom last, avoiding the possibility of smearing any bathroom debris over your rugs.

 Image: iRobot
The Combo j9 dock adds a water tank (top) and a larger storage area for bags and spare mop pads, plus a wood accent table on top.
 Image: iRobot
The j9 Plus has the same dock as the j7 Plus. It charges the robot and automatically empties its bin.

Interestingly, the new dock for the Combo j9 doesn’t have a dirty water tank — a feature on competitor docks from Roborock and Ecovacs. This is because it doesn’t clean the mop pad; instead, you’re expected to remove it and wash it. This does away with the potential for gunky grungy docks, a real hazard with the new multifunction docks if you don't keep them clean. However, the Roomba’s mop pad is thinner and smaller than the competition's, so I'm skeptical as to how effective it will be.

Roomba’s current auto-empty dock, which remains for j9 Plus, is the best-designed of the current crop of docks, looking more like a piece of furniture than others. A fun twist is that the new Combo j9 dock can also be a piece of furniture; they’ve designed the top to be a side table.

iRobot also says its new dock is much quieter than the previous version when auto-emptying — a process that on the current dock sounds a lot like a jet engine taking off in your living room.

Speaking of quiet, iRobot is finally bringing suction-level options to its vacuums. On the j9 models only, you can now choose between low, medium, and high suction levels in the app. An option on every other robot vacuum cleaner out there, iRobot hasn’t let users have this type of control before. The main benefit is being able to let your vacuum run on low when you’re home without it annoying you or your family members.

 Image: iRobot
The Dirt Detective feature on the Roomba j9 line will customize settings like suction power and the number of cleaning passes room by room.

I spoke to Colin Angle, iRobot’s CEO, ahead of the launch, and he explained that the strategy with these new robots is to get back to basics with robot vacuums. “The features you’re ‘supposed’ to want are spinning pads, lasers [lidar navigation], and long battery life,” he said. “But what you really need are cleaning, ease of use, and will it get back to the dock.”

He’s not wrong here — it doesn’t matter how many fancy features a bot has; if it gets stuck, it’s not going to clean your house. In my testing of bots with spinning mops, I’ve noticed they are more prone to getting stuck; big flappy mops sticking out the side are a definite trip hazard. However, they do a good job of scrubbing your floors. We'll have to see whether the Combo j9’s new scrubbing action will make up for that once I get these new models in for testing.

Meta sets GPT-4 as the bar for its next AI model, says a new report

Meta sets GPT-4 as the bar for its next AI model, says a new report
Image of Meta’s logo with a red and blue background.
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Meta has been snapping up AI training chips and building out data centers in order to create a more powerful new chatbot it hopes will be as sophisticated as OpenAI’s GPT-4, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company reportedly plans to begin training the new large language model early in 2024, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg evidently pushing for it to once again be free for companies to create AI tools with.

The Journal writes that Meta has been buying more Nvidia H100 AI-training chips and is beefing up its infrastructure so that, this time around, it won’t need to rely on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to train the new chatbot. The company reportedly assembled a group earlier this year to build the model, with the goal of speeding up the creation of AI tools that can emulate human expressions.

That goal feels like a natural extension of rumored generative AI features Meta has already been working on. A June leak claimed there was an Instagram chatbot with 30 personalities being tested, which sounds a lot like the unannounced AI “personas” the company is said to be launching this month.

Meta has reportedly dealt with heavy AI researcher turnover over computing resources split between multiple LLM projects this year. It also faces heavy competition in the generative AI space. OpenAI said in April that it wasn’t training a GPT-5 and “won’t for some time,” but Apple has reportedly been dumping millions of dollars daily into its own “Ajax” AI model that it apparently thinks is more powerful than even GPT-4. Google and Microsoft have each been expanding the use of AI in their productivity tools and Google wants to use generative AI in Google Assistant. Amazon also has generative AI initiatives underway across its organization that could yield a chatbot-powered Alexa.

WhatsApp is working on cross-platform messaging

WhatsApp is working on cross-platform messaging
WhatsApp logo on a green, black, and white background
Illustration: The Verge

A WhatsApp for Android beta update (version 2.23.19.8) that came out today contains a new screen called Third-party chats, reports WABetaInfo. For now, the screen is neither functional nor accessible by users, according to WABetaInfo. But its title is a strong clue that this is likely the first step to opening Meta’s encrypted messages app to cross-platform compatibility.

The beta comes just days after the European Commission confirmed that WhatsApp owner Meta meets the definition of a “gatekeeper” under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which requires communication software like WhatsApp to interoperate with third-party messaging apps by March 2024. WABetaInfo tweeted a screenshot of the screen:

The DMA’s goal, per the European Commission’s FAQ about the law, is to keep gatekeepers “from imposing unfair conditions” and to “ensure the openness of important digital services.” Beyond dictating that messaging apps must interoperate, the DMA requires that gatekeepers, among other things, let users remove pre-installed apps or shop alternative app stores.

Both Meta and Microsoft are planning their own mobile app stores in response to the DMA. The European Commission is investigating whether Apple’s iMessage and Microsoft’s Bing search engine, Edge browser, and advertising service meet the bar for the new regulation.

Disney is releasing a very expensive 100-movie Blu-ray collection

Disney is releasing a very expensive 100-movie Blu-ray collection
The Disney logo over a blue and black background with tiled circles in the style of Disney’s logo.
The Verge

Disney is releasing a 100-film Blu-ray collection on November 14th called the Disney Legacy Animated Film Collection (via The Wrap). Preorders will start on September 18th at Walmart.com, and we regret to inform you it will cost $1,500, according to The Wrap.

The collection includes movies from both Disney and Pixar, all crammed into three volumes of discs that span Disney’s entire feature film history from 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to this year’s Elemental.

What’s really impressive is how little filler this package seems to have. Scrolling through the list that The Wrap published, it has every single movie I’d have wanted to see, like all of the Toy Story movies, both of The Incredibles, The Black Cauldron, Frankenweenie, and Robin Hood, but very few of the mediocre direct-to-video snoozers the company produced so many of over the years.

Each volume folds out into a storybook-style presentation, with pages showing poster art for the movies, their release years, and a character quote from each. The collection also comes with digital codes for each movie. (“Sorry, everyone,” you’ll say, “I can’t come out tonight because I’m claiming Disney digital copies.”)

There’s also a lithograph poster for Disney’s upcoming Wish, a numbered certificate of authenticity, and a fancy crystal Mickey Mouse ears cap. According to the certificate shown in the video, the set has “18 Blu-ray discs with bonus content from Pixar.”

We’ve reached out to Disney for more details and will update here if we get a response.

Dynamic Island isn’t such an exciting destination after all — and that’s okay

Dynamic Island isn’t such an exciting destination after all — and that’s okay
Photo of iPhone 14 Pro showing music playback in Dynamic Island.
The iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island is expected to land on all iPhone 15 models this year.

Exciting is overrated, anyway.

Last fall, Apple introduced us to the Dynamic Island with all of the usual hyperbole.

The new free-floating, pill-shaped notch on the iPhone 14 Pro was described as “magical.” It would enable “an entirely new iPhone experience.” And while we take everything with a grain of salt from the company that pitched the Digital Crown as the eighth wonder of the world, the Dynamic Island did seem promising at the time.

It looks good, for starters. In the right light, it really does look like the notch is stretching and shrinking. It wasn’t widely featured in the leaks or rumors leading up to the event, either, so it took us by surprise. But after our first week with the Dynamic Island, it was hard to know what to make of it. Sure, it did a fine job of telling you how long you’ve been on the phone or whether your AirDrop was successful. But the other stuff — the bold new way to interact with your phone stuff — depended on third-party app makers adopting Live Activities and putting time-sensitive information in the Dynamic Island, and that wouldn’t happen until later in the year.

Halfway through the year, the concept was still promising, but its limitations were more evident, too. Sure, watching your timer count down on the top of your screen as you do other things on your phone is helpful. Keeping an eye on your Uber’s arrival is handy, too. But it’s becoming more obvious that despite Apple’s claims, the Dynamic Island was never really meant to be a destination in itself.

For one thing, it’s often overshadowed by another feature introduced on the 14 Pro: the always-on display. When you have a timer or a game score displayed in the Dynamic Island and lock your phone, that info is handed off to the main display. More often than not, if I’m following a game or keeping an eye on a timer, that’s where I see it — not on the Island.

Based on nothing but anecdotal evidence gathered by talking to friends and co-workers, the always-on display has been the more notable feature by far. People either hate it and disable it or find it distracting for a few days and then get used to it. But they all noticed it in a way that they didn’t see the Dynamic Island, which they mostly noticed the first few times they connected their Airpods or scanned for Face ID. Then, it faded right into the background.

I don’t think we’ve seen everything that the Dynamic Island can do. More apps will start using it, especially if the whole iPhone 15 lineup adopts the feature like the rumors suggest. But it’s definitely not an exciting new way to interact with your phone — it’s just a handy tool alongside some other new features that make your phone a little less annoying to use. And that’s fine.

Photo of iPhone 14 Pro showing Verge homepage in web browser and timer in Dynamic Island
Browse the web and keep an eye on your timer — neat! Not life-changing.

On balance, it’s a step in the right direction. Apple has occasionally been known to sacrifice usability for aesthetics, but the Dynamic Island manages both: it looks nice and it’s helpful. It would just be nice for Apple to remember the other, less attention-grabbing things that we want, too. You know, a battery that doesn’t degrade to 90 percent after a year. Or adopting a messaging protocol that would let me send videos to my mom that don’t look like dogshit. Or a little more help managing the nine thousand app notifications I get every day.

Dazzling new UI features are the stuff that keynotes are made of, but the real magic is in the less exciting details. I’m hoping for plenty of those in the iPhone 15 — exciting is overrated, anyway.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge

I never want to be apart from my home espresso machine

I never want to be apart from my home espresso machine
Photo of Breville espresso machine on a counter.
There are many like it, but this Breville Barista Express is mine.

Zen and the art of espresso machine maintenance.

Maybe it’s a hazard of the job, but I’m not one to get too emotionally attached to any gadget I own — I’ve seen too many come and go. It’s just not worth getting your emotions tangled up in something that could be rendered obsolete by a sudden malfunction or put on a list for “sunsetting.” That said, I love — and I mean love — my espresso machine.

Sure, there’s the obvious reason to love it: it makes coffee, and coffee is sweet, beautiful manna from heaven. That’s a fact; you can look it up. But my relationship with my espresso machine isn’t simply transactional. I’ve discovered that I actually enjoy using it and taking care of it, not just the thing it makes. It’s the perfect kind of gadget: complex enough to require some hands-on routine maintenance but not so intimidating that I feel like I need to call in a professional. It fosters the kind of relationship that your TV or toaster could only dream of.

My espresso machine isn’t the most elegant gadget I own. At $700, it’s far from the cheapest, but also not the most expensive discretionary item I’ve paid for. And you can spend a whole lot more on a fancier machine. But the Breville Barista Express is just right for me, and it’s the thing I miss most from my daily routine when I’m traveling. Nothing says “welcome home” quite like its mechanical rumble when I press the power button after a week away.

Photo of a coffee cup next to sink and espresso machine.
Latte art remains a work in progress.

I’m not the kind of person who gets into hands-on projects; replacing the cabinet pulls in my kitchen is probably the handiest bit of home improvement I’ve managed. But there’s something I find deeply satisfying about espresso machine maintenance. The weekly and monthly cleanings aren’t hard — the most I usually need to do is pop a cleaning tablet into the portafilter, press a few buttons, and let it work its self-cleaning magic.

I got by with these surface-level cleanings for a long time but, after a while, realized I should probably get in there and really scrub it. I’m too embarrassed to admit how long it took me to remove the shower screen from the machine’s group head to give it a good scrub, but I did it recently and let me tell you what — A little Cafiza soak and it was shining like new. It’s magical and also kind of disgusting when you realize your latte tastes better because you were previously getting notes of old coffee residue in your cup.

One of the things that makes maintaining this machine feel approachable even to the DIY-averse like me is that Breville includes most of the tools you’ll need for deep cleaning right in the box. They even sit in a special little tray until you need them, so you’re never hunting for the right Allen key when it’s time to get into that group head.

The Barista Express is also extremely popular, so there are plenty of videos and Reddit threads to help walk you through the finer points. Breville readily sells replacement parts for just about everything on the machine, from the steam wand assembly to the special felt washer that goes inside the burr grinder. A damaged water tank or a cracked drip tray isn’t a death sentence for your machine.

Somewhere in the middle of all this is the secret to the Barista Express’ likeability. It’s simple enough to use on a daily basis with minimal maintenance, but when you do get your hands dirty for some deep cleaning, it’s a rewarding exercise. And even for the more intimidating projects like disassembling the burr grinder (those tiny washers!), there’s someone on YouTube with the exact same model there to hold your hand along the way.

Is this the best home espresso machine? I have absolutely no idea, and I do not care. It’s the one I love, and I plan to keep it running as long as I can.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge

How to use the new web-based editing tools in Google Photos

How to use the new web-based editing tools in Google Photos
Chrome page showing The Verge, with tab groups on top, surrounded by artistic illustrations.
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Google Photos isn’t just a place for storing and sorting your photos and videos — both the web interface and the mobile apps come with a slew of image editing tools so you can spruce up and enhance your pictures before sharing them with the wider world.

Google regularly updates these editing tools, and a significant upgrade just arrived on the web. There are new features here (some of which were previously available only on the Android app), including preset color profiles and more granular control over existing features such as brightness and contrast adjustment.

All you need to do to try them out is open your browser and navigate to Google Photos. Open an image, click the edit button in the top-right corner (it looks like a series of sliders), and you’ll be in the editing interface, which will appear as a sidebar on the right side of the screen.

There are four (five, if you are a Google One subscriber) different editing panels to work through, and we’re going to tell you what each one is about. (And yes, some of the editing options are exclusive to Google One subscribers; those options will be marked on your screen by a 1 in a circle.)

First tab: Suggestions

Photo of stage lit at night with column at right labeled Suggestions and several choices beneath, the one called Warm is highlighted.
Google Photos will have some suggestions about how to enhance your pictures.

Suggestions (the star icon) is a new feature similar to that which has been part of the Android Photos app. It lists tweaks that Google Photos thinks will improve your image. Different suggestions will appear for different images depending on their content. For example, Enhance applies a range of optimizations, while Warm and Cool adjust the overall temperature of a picture.

If you’re a Google One subscriber, your selection of choices will be wider. Some of those features include Blur, which blurs the background; Color pop, which highlights foreground colors; and Dynamic, which applies HDR processing to bring out details in darker and lighter areas.

You just click on any of these suggested options to see how they change the look of the image and click again to remove the processing and go back to the original look. It’s a useful way of letting Google’s analysis algorithms make the decision about how to get your photos looking their best.

Second tab: Crop

Photo of tents with column labeled Aspect ratio on side with various aspect ratios beneath.
The Crop feature can help you put your photo in a better aspect ratio.

The Crop tab (the corner markers and arrows icon) is where you can crop an image and rotate it. Crop was previously available in the editing interface, but what’s new are preset aspect ratios you can pick from — which means you can get to the image shape and size you need more quickly.

  • Select any of the aspect ratios. If it’s not quite right, then use the handles at the corners of the selection to adjust it.
  • Click and drag inside the crop selection window (the cursor changes to a hand icon) to alter which part of the image the crop focuses on.
  • Click and drag along the bar underneath the image, marked with a series of angles, to change the rotation of the image.
  • Click the rotate button to the left of the bar to rotate the image by 90 degrees in an anti-clockwise direction.
  • Click Reset to undo all of the changes that you’ve made on this tab and go back to the original framing and rotation.

Third tab: Tools

Landscape photo with an icon labeled Sky at right.
One of the options in the Tools tab lets you change the look of the sky. The small rainbow circle at the bottom right of the option’s icon shows it’s only available for Google One members.

The center tab, Tools (the hammer and wrench icon), only appears if you’re a Google One subscriber and if Google Photos deems that these tools are relevant and useful for the picture that you’ve opened up. It’s new and really adds to the editing power of the Google Photos web app.

You’ll see different tools for different pictures: a portrait shot of a face may offer a tool called Portrait Light, for example, which lets you introduce an artificial light source, while a photo of a landscape may provide you with a Sky tool where you can add a “style” like Radiant or Storm.

Just click the tool you want to use. A slider under the photo will usually appear that allows you to change the strength of the effect.

Note that there may be some crossover with the Suggestions tab as well, so you could see some of the same options on both tabs.

Fourth tab: Adjust

Landscape photo with a variety of icons and slider controls at right.
You can use the Adjust tab to fine-tune your image in all kinds of ways.

Over on the Adjust tab, you get a long series of sliders that let you change a host of different image characteristics, from its brightness to how skin tones show up.

This tab isn’t new, but it has had a bit of a redesign, and some new features have been added. They include HDR (for keeping very dark and very bright areas of a picture visible — unfortunately, it’s for Google One users only) and White point (for adjusting the white balance in the photo). Again, it adds to the range of edits you can make right in your browser.

  • Click and drag on any of the sliders to make adjustments — the blue line shows where you’ve got above or below the original settings.
  • Any changes you make are instantly previewed in the image to the left.
  • Once an adjustment is made, the icon next to the slider turns blue. Click this icon to undo the changes and set the value back to its default.

For example, you can use Highlights to reduce the brightness of the lighter areas in the image or Shadow to brighten up the darker spots.

Fifth tab: Filters

Photo of table with glass of bear and buildings at night in background; at right, different versions of the same photo.
The Filters tab offers several different looks for your picture.

The tab on the far right is Filters (a small star inside a rectangle), and this is carried over from the old interface. These filters transform the look of your image with a single click — they’re similar to the filters you may have played around with on Instagram.

  • Filters come with a thumbnail image previewing their effects. Click on any filter to see how it changes the look of the picture.
  • Click and drag the slider underneath the image to change the strength of the selected filter.
  • Click None to remove the filter and restore the image back to its original look.

When you’re done with all your editing, click Save (top right) to save your changes. If you want to save the updated image as a new file, leaving the original in place, click the three dots next to the Save button and then Save copy.

A new-old camera, Clubhouse pivots, and smart home apps galore

A new-old camera, Clubhouse pivots, and smart home apps galore
An all-black version of the Installer logo.

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 5, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, first of all, hi, hello, welcome, and second of all, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been reading about the remarkable pettiness of Disney CEOs and the crypto world’s most obvious scams, watching a whole lot of US Open tennis and this wild home-renovation show that’s all about VR, drafting fantasy football teams, nodding vigorously at this story about the scourge that is Rotten Tomatoes, trying to figure out how to keep my car off the internet after reading this new Mozilla study, shouting from the rooftops that everyone needs to stop using LastPass and change all their passwords, and throwing my life away for a few more minutes to play Ridiculous Fishing EX.

This week, I also have a new camera, some new speakers, the smart home controller all others should copy, the next big AI music track, some thoroughly modern football-watching tips, and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy’s homescreen. Let’s go.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What do you want to know more about? What awesome tricks do you know that everyone else should? What app should everyone be using? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)


The Drop

  • Polaroid I-2. Kudos to Polaroid for refusing to let the instant camera dream die. Less kudos for the $599.99 price of the I-2 and the nearly $2 a shot you’ll pay for prints. (The Verge’s Becca Farsace made a super fun video if you want to see how it all works.) But still, I love the idea that not only are instant cameras worth making but they’re also worth making better.
  • Inside Elon Musk’s struggle for the future of AI. Walter Isaacson’s book about Elon Musk, cleverly titled Elon Musk, is coming out on Tuesday, and we’ve gotten a couple of excerpts so far. This one, from Time, is about Musk’s work with DeepMind and OpenAI; The Wall Street Journal had one about his Twitter acquisition; CNBC ran one about Tesla’s self-driving efforts. Not much groundbreaking news so far, but this book should be an interesting read.
  • Taste Bud. This is a charming little AI recipe chatbot — plug in “what’s a good twist on cold brew coffee,” and it’ll pop up a recipe. Don’t like it? Click “try again” and get another. It’s also a fun tool for typing in all the ingredients you have on hand and seeing what comes back. The “pepperoni penne pasta” I made yesterday was a bit odd but pretty good!
  • The UE Epicboom. For my money, the UE Booms are the best Bluetooth speakers on the market. The new one, the Epicboom, is big and expensive ($350!) but is rugged and lasts for hours. The new Sonos Move 2 fits in the same category. I’ll be sticking with my house full of Wonderbooms, personally, but these both look pretty good.
  • Spy Ops on Netflix. A fun fact about me is that I can never get enough of spy stuff. Spy novels? James Bond movies? Movies that try to be Bond-like but instead just kind of suck? Voice-changed interviews with former spies? I’ll take them all, please and thank you. This new series on Netflix is like a true-crime doc crossed with a spy thriller, and I’m going to watch every single episode this weekend.
  • The Lutron Caséta Pico Paddle Remote. This is the smart home controller I’ve been waiting for. It looks like a light switch (as all smart home controllers should), it only costs $20, and it can control most smart objects in your house. You’ll need an existing Caséta setup to use it, but Lutron’s stuff is generally pretty good, so I suspect I’m going to end up with a bunch of these.
  • “Whiplash” by Ghostwriter977. The mysterious creator behind the AI Drake song that set the internet on fire is back, y’all. Kind of? There’s like a 40 percent chance that link won’t work because, once again, an AI-generated song has created a fascinating copyright battle around the internet. And just like the last time, the song’s a jam.
  • Clubhouse. I am forever fascinated by Clubhouse, the social-audio app that got hugely popular for like 10 minutes and then promptly disappeared off the radar forever. But the company has totally redesigned the app and is embracing voice messaging in a big way. No idea if it’ll work, but it’s a cool concept.

Pro tips

Happy football season to all who celebrate! This weekend is the beginning of the NFL season, and a lot of people are going to be watching games in a new place: YouTube. The company paid a reported $2 billion for Sunday Ticket this year and has some fun plans for how people can watch games.

I asked Christian Oestlien, YouTube’s vice president of product management, to give us some tips and tricks for how to get the most out of YouTube’s football programming. (Did I do this just so I can watch football all Sunday and call it work? Who’s to say.) Here’s what he came back with:

  • Toggle between YouTube and YouTube TV with the same account. Whether you subscribed to NFL Sunday Ticket through YouTube or YouTube TV, you’ll be able to connect your account on both platforms to unlock more features, such as live chat and polling on YouTube and unlimited DVR and the live guide on YouTube TV.
  • Catch replays of all NFL Sunday afternoon games. Subscribers will be able to watch condensed on-demand replays of all local and out-of-market NFL Sunday afternoon games, available as early as midnight after the games air to Wednesday night.
  • Avoid spoilers with spoiler mode. On YouTube TV, hide scores for specific sports teams and leagues so you can avoid information such as final scores or live previews from appearing before you’re ready to start watching.
  • Connect your NFL fantasy accounts. Link your NFL.com fantasy accounts to YouTube TV so you can keep up in real time with your team and league performance while watching your games.
  • Filter your multiviews. If you want to browse multiview combinations that include a specific game, start playing the single game and click down to find the “multiview” section in the player. You’ll then see multiviews that only include the currently playing game.

Screen share

I sometimes wonder how anything in Jennifer Pattison Tuohy’s house actually works. Luckily, she’s better at it than I am. She’s The Verge’s expert on all things smart home, which means she’s constantly rigging up new systems, installing new sensors, and trying to do things like set her smart oven to automatically bake a turkey every time she opens the garage three times in four hours. Or something, I don’t know.

I asked Jen to share her homescreen with us, hoping it would reveal the true chaos that comes with all her smart home testing and reporting. It’s even better than I hoped. Here’s Jen’s homescreen, plus some information on the apps she uses and why:

The phone: iPhone 14. I like small phones and small iPads (preferably in purple), so I find a standard-size phone with an iPad Mini that can fit in my purse the best combo.

The apps: I currently have 364 apps on my phone. I didn’t realize how unusual that was until an informal survey of The Verge crew put me at about 150 apps more than most of my colleagues (only one other person was even close… David). But it’s the price I pay for a life as a smart home reviewer, where every gadget I test generally requires downloading a new app.

I manage this chaos by using the swipe down and search function 90 percent of the time, but the top two rows of apps on my homescreen are surfaced by the Siri Suggestions widget. This is surprisingly effective in offering up the right app at the right time. I use two mail apps (work and home), Life360 is how my family keeps track of each other (Apple‘s Find My is just… bad), and the ATP WTA Live app is for the US Open. I’m currently testing robot vacuums and security cameras, hence Roborock, Tapo, and Eufy Security.

The second two rows are my constant go-tos — Slack for work, Evernote for throwing my life and work into quickly, and Todoist for the same but in a slightly more organized fashion. I’ve been using Evernote for over a decade, and while it has its flaws, it also is my life, literally. Citymapper is the best app for navigating any city in the world, and having just been in Berlin for IFA and London, Bruges, and Paris for fun, it earned itself a spot on my homepage (for now).

Then, the main three smart home platform apps I use for testing — Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, and Google Home — are always on my homescreen. (I also use SmartThings but test that on a Galaxy S22). Untappd is on my homescreen as my neighborhood hangout spot uses it for their daily tap menu. And in the dock, Phone, Safari, Messages, and WhatsApp.

The wallpaper: Pets and kids would be on my wallpaper if I could, but as I take so many screenshots that I publish in my articles, I prefer something less personal. I love the “Earth” live wallpaper that updates based on where you are. (I’ve been traveling so much recently that it’s actually been helpful in reminding me where I am when I wake up bleary-eyed and jet-lagged.)

The widgets: World Clock, essential for keeping track of deadlines when you’re in a different timezone from your boss, and the Apple Podcasts app. I’m a huge podcast addict and am never without one chattering away at me.

I also asked Jen to share a few things she’s into right now. Here’s what she came back with:

  • The US Open. There’s always tennis on somewhere, and I am always watching it. Right now, it’s the US Open, the last Grand Slam of the season, and it’s been a corker of a tournament, which wraps up with the women’s final this Saturday and the men’s on Sunday. About a year ago, the Association of Tennis Professionals launched the ATP WTA Live app, and it’s the best place to easily access every current tournament’s draws, scores, and schedules in one spot. It gets heavy use by me from January through mid-September, when college football takes over.
  • Ed Sheeran’s Subtract. His latest album really hit home for me, and I even added it to my smart home “morning work” routine (a high honor for an album). I’m eagerly anticipating Autumn Variations, which comes out later this month.
  • Trust by Hernan Diaz. My book club roped me into this, and it’s been a fascinating read so far. I’m only halfway through, but Diaz’s portrayal of a brilliant mind slowly descending into madness is fascinating and chilling.

Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week.

“One of my favorite websites is Deku Deals. It brings together the PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo stores and allows you to track games that are on sale really easily. You can sign up for email alerts whenever a game is discounted. They also have an iOS and Android app in development. The beta is available through their Patreon and has cemented a homepage space on my phone. – Jon

Omni Crosswords fetches daily crosswords from major outlets without you having to subscribe to any of them. The only con of this app is that it does not have a hint system. If you like playing tennis games, Australian Open Game is a decent game to kill some time.” – Shivam

“The bookmarking app I never see but highly recommend is Pinboard, which markets itself as ‘Social Bookmarking for Introverts.’ It’s blazing fast because there are no images or lazy loading; it’s just webpages with text links you can add notes and tags to — that’s it. The extensions are great, you can sync to Instapaper and Pocket to extend its ‘Read Later’ functionality, and it’s only $22 a year and promises no tracking or ads. Have I mentioned it’s fast? That’s what did it for me. Every page loads instantly.” – Ethan

“Regarding link buckets: I was a longtime faithful user of del.icio.us (and then Pinboard) for many years, but maintenance on Pinboard has slowed to a halt in spite of its subscription pricing. This led me to seek out alternatives, and I eventually settled on linkding. This is a bookmark bucket service that you must host yourself, which may be an impediment to the majority of your readers, but I love it.” – Josh

“I want to recommend an app I am obsessed with these days: it’s called Yuka. It allows you to scan food items, and it rates food about how good / bad that food is and why.” – Shubham

“I’m really enjoying Read.cv and their little social network app Posts.cv — mostly centered around designers, but it’s fun seeing all the apps and web design all these people are coming up with.” – Christopher

New World on Netflix. A Korean reality show on a ‘utopian island,’ sort of like a video game turned TV show. They’re gaining virtual currency, and then one of the contestants finds out he can rewind time and undo all the gambling. Fun, inventive, weird show.” – Glenn

“Came across Finalist on Threads, a really slick to-do app that works well for my brain. Focused on daily lists that are easy to carry over, just recently released.” – Rigel

Who Is Erin Carter? Netflix. Brilliant.” – Faisal


Signing off

After literally a year of having it pinned on my to-read list, I finally sat down and plowed through The Wrap’s huge retrospective on what happened with the movie John Carter. It’s a really interesting read and made me wonder how many more movies might have gone through the same chaos. And there’s a surprisingly rich genre of YouTube devoted to this exact topic! I’ve been plowing through the channel It Was a Sh*t Show, which chronicles all the mess behind everything from Mad Max: Fury Road to Cats to Arrested Development. The stories are wild, the videos are great, and I’m now completely convinced that it’s a minor miracle that anything good ever gets made at all. But I’m glad it does.

See you next week!

samedi 9 septembre 2023

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