The Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection is an exhaustive bundle of stealth classics

The Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection is an exhaustive bundle of stealth classics

Metal Gear Solid 3 protagonist “Naked Snake.” | Image: Konami

It’s hard to fault the breadth of content Konami has included in its tantalizingly-named ‘Vol. 1’ collection. Just don’t go in expecting many modern upgrades to these decades-old titles.

When discussing his inspiration for the original 1987 Metal Gear game, series creator Hideo Kojima has often referred to the limitations of the MSX2 system it was designed for. With hard limits on the amount of sprites the machine could show on screen and limited support for scrolling graphics, the designer decided to make a game that eschewed all-out combat in favor of the stealth gameplay that would go on to define the Metal Gear franchise.

I thought about this design philosophy a lot while working my way through the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, a sprawling collection of games from the Metal Gear series that spans nearly two decades. I played the collection on the PS5, but it’s also available for the Xbox Series X and S, PC, Nintendo Switch, and PS4.

Obviously, the hardware most of these games were made for was not nearly as limited as the original MSX2. But throughout his career, Kojima has often designed his games with specific hardware in mind, whether it’s the wired controllers of the PS1 or the Blu-ray disc drive of the PS3. These features make porting a game like the original Metal Gear Solid to other consoles trickier than your average rerelease.

Image: Konami

The original Metal Gear Solid looks almost unchanged from its PlayStation original.

But let’s back up a second. The $59.99 Master Collection Vol. 1 doesn’t just include the original Metal Gear Solid. It bundles together anywhere from half a dozen to a dozen or so different releases from the series, depending on how you count them, covering most (but not all) of the games between the original 1987 Metal Gear and 2004’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. So you get the original two Metal Gears from the MSX2, Metal Gear Solid from the PlayStation, and its two sequels — Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater — from the PlayStation 2.

Then there are additional curios like the NES version of the original Metal Gear and its non-canonical sequel Snake’s Revenge, the graphic novel adaptations of MGS1 and 2, and three extra Metal Gear Solid releases containing extra content like VR missions (VR in the sense that the characters are in virtual reality training simulations, I should note, not that they’re played on a VR headset).

It’s a pretty exhaustive collection. Yes, if you want to split hairs, it would have been cool to get the GameCube remake of the original Metal Gear Solid, Twin Snakes, or the Game Boy Color game known as Ghost Babel. But even I’m resigned to the fact that Konami had to draw the line somewhere, and I guess there’s always the implicit second volume of the Master Collection to look forward to.

Twenty years on, I think the core Metal Gear Solid trilogy titles remain three of the greatest action-adventure games ever made. They not only pushed the boundaries of the kind of cinematic storytelling that games are capable of, but revisiting them, I was also surprised by how well their core gameplay — that compelling loop of hiding, sneaking, and boss fighting — holds up. There’s even a lot to like about the relatively unloved middle child in the trilogy, Sons of Liberty, even if my wireless controller did occasionally go to sleep during its particularly lengthy cutscenes.

Image: Konami

Metal Gear Solid 2’s reviled protagonist Raiden.

It’s tough to talk about the specific changes that Konami has made to these three games as part of this Master Collection release because unless you’re really paying attention, it’s easy to miss them.

Sometimes, that’s a good thing because of how well-integrated the limited changes are. There are button prompts that have been updated to match modern controllers while keeping the style of the original game. As an example, just look at how period-appropriate and low-res the PS5 replacement for the “Start” button prompt on the main menu for Metal Gear Solid is.

Screenshot by Jon Porter / The Verge

You’d be forgiven for thinking that options icon was part of the original interface.

But, as I alluded to in my introduction, there are limits to how far this restrained approach can take you with Metal Gear Solid, a game firmly designed with the original PlayStation in mind. Characters will verbally tell you to press buttons that don’t exist on your controller and use controller ports that don’t exist on your console. And, naturally, there’s the infamous puzzle that asks you to look at the back of the game’s original PS1 CD case for the solution.

Konami has done enough to ensure that none of Metal Gear Solid’s fourth wall-breaking features aren’t also game-breaking in the Master Collection. You can toggle a menu overlay to switch the virtual controller port that your gamepad is plugged into if need be, and there are even virtual versions of the games’ retail boxes so you can look at their backs.

(Plus, as a brief aside, I do want to mention what might be the coolest inclusion in the entire Master Collection, which is that it’s possible to create dummy save data for a range of Konami PS1 games like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Vandal Hearts to sit on your virtual memory card while you play through Metal Gear Solid. The option is a little buried in the “Manage Saved Data” menu, but it’s worth doing before you start the game.)

From a technical perspective, Metal Gear Solid feels every bit like an original PlayStation game. Konami may have listed its frame rate as 30fps, but in practice, it often feels much slower, and its original resolution is so low that running it on a modern 4K TV gives its graphics a shifting, wavy quality.

Image: Konami

If you’re doing battle with enemies, you’re playing the game wrong.

There’s something to be said for prioritizing an authentic recreation of the original game rather than attempting to upgrade and improve upon it. Just look at the messy Grand Theft Auto remasters for an example of how this approach can go wrong. It is, I think, a very good thing that Metal Gear Solid is now playable in its (mostly) original form on modern hardware.

But it’s interesting to compare this approach with the versions of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 that have also been included in this collection, which are a great example of how you can remaster and update classic games while keeping true to their original vision. These two games are both based on the HD remasters from Bluepoint released in 2011 for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Although Konami hasn’t upgraded them to support newer features like 4K, I felt like their HD presentation held up just fine on a modern TV.

Obviously, there’s a bigger gulf to cover if you were to try and modernize the original PlayStation-era graphics of MGS1 in a similar way — and that’s before you get into all its explicit references to the original hardware it was designed for. But it seems a shame not to see even technical enhancements like widescreen support, if only as an optional extra.

Image: Konami

Metal Gear Solid 3’s art style has held up fantastically.

Beyond the games themselves, there’s a host of additional Metal Gear content. There are scripts to flip through, a digital soundtrack, and a series of virtual “Master Books” to browse that offer plot summaries, background information on the game’s characters, and even guides to the many easter eggs they contain.

But the odd thing about these Master Books is how they gloss over Hideo Kojima’s role in a franchise that he prominently helmed for almost three decades until his acrimonious split with the company in 2015. In one of the Master Books, we’re told that “in the late 1980s, action games were designed around taking out enemies” and that “Metal Gear turned this concept on its head,” but there’s no mention of the director and team that actually made this happen.

This highlights my core complaint with the Master Collection, which is that, in the absence of the creative forces that shepherded the franchise for almost three decades, Konami has chosen to play things as safe as possible. Rather than make creative decisions about how to tweak and modernize these games, the company has essentially opted out and pursued authenticity at all costs.

I’m not going to say I’m disappointed with the results. I think it’s great that such a huge swathe of Metal Gear history is now readily available and easily playable on modern systems. But there’s also a part of me that thinks Konami missed an opportunity to give Metal Gear Solid in particular a fresh coat of paint and update it for a modern audience.

My hope, now that Konami has preserved the games exactly as they were before Kojima left the company, is that this will allow the publisher to take more risks with the future of the franchise. With a full-on remake of Snake Eater named Metal Gear Solid Δ waiting in the wings, maybe we’ll see some bolder swings sooner rather than later.

The best Android phone to buy in 2023

The best Android phone to buy in 2023

Image: The Verge

Whether you want everything but the kitchen sink or top-tier performance for a midtier price, you’ve got options.

The Android ecosystem is all about choice. While iPhone owners have a smaller pool of new devices to pick from when it’s time to upgrade, there’s a huge range of new Android phones every year. Some of them even fold in half! You want a built-in stylus? A flagship processor for less money? Maybe even — dare I say it — an unapologetically pink phone with matching earbuds? You’ve got options on Android.

On the flip side, all that choice can make for some hard decisions. Here’s where I’d like to help; I’ve tested a whole boatload of recent Android phones, and I think there are some real winners in the current crop. It’s all a matter of what you’re looking for, what you’re comfortable spending, and what your definition of a “reasonably sized phone” is. (I have my own, personally.)

Here’s something else to factor in: one of the year’s biggest Android phone launches is likely just around the corner. We’re expecting Google to announce new Pixels this fall, as it tends to do, and rumors point to some substantial upgrades to the camera along with the end of the curved-edge design, at last. If you’re interested in a new Pixel, it’s worth waiting a while to see what’s new this year. Otherwise, most of the year’s major Android phone launches are behind us, and there are some great options on the table.

If you live in the US, I have some bad news about the Android market, though. For complicated reasons having to do with “capitalism” and “geopolitics,” we don’t get nearly as many of the options as you’ll find in Asia and Europe — brands like Huawei, Xiaomi, Honor, and Oppo just aren’t available here. I’ve limited this guide to the devices I’ve personally tested in depth; thus, it is a fairly US-centric set of recommendations.

With that in mind, it’s also worth acknowledging that most people in the US get their phones “for free” from their wireless carrier. If you can manage it, buying a phone unlocked will give you the most flexibility and freedom if you end up wanting to change carriers in the near future. Phone manufacturers also offer financing and trade-in deals to make payment more manageable. But if you’re happy with your carrier and the free phone on offer is the one you really want, by all means, take the free phone. Just make sure you understand the terms, especially if you need to change plans to cash in on the deal.

However you go about it, you have some fantastic options for your next Android phone.

Best Android phone overall

Screen: 6.2-inch 1080p 120Hz OLED / Processor: Tensor G3 / Cameras: 50-megapixel F1.7 main with OIS, 12-megapixel ultrawide, 10.5-megapixel selfie / Battery: 4,575mAh / Charging: 27W wired, 12W wireless / Weather resistance: IP68

There’s more space between Google’s standard and Pro model Pixels in the 8 series than there’s been in the past couple of generations. The Pixel 8 will miss out on some of the showcase AI technologies that the Pro will get in the coming year, but even so, it’s a phone with a lot of smarts and quality-of-life updates that would make just about anyone happy.

A lot has changed here and there from the Pixel 7, starting with the size. In an age of big and bigger phones, the Pixel 8 actually shrank a little year over year, from a 6.3-inch screen to 6.2 inches. This brings the overall device dimensions down just a smidge, too, making it a more comfortable phone to hold one-handed. The screen has been upgraded with a 120Hz top refresh rate, which has become the standard for high-end phones (at least on Android).

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

The Pixel 8 doesn’t have the biggest screen or the most bells and whistles, but it does the basics well with meaningful improvements over the Pixel 7.

Other updates aren’t immediately obvious but make a real difference in how you use the phone in your daily life. Face unlock now works for payments and password managers — not just unlocking your device. Google Assistant is better at understanding pauses and emphasis in natural language, which makes it feel like a more useful tool in general. The camera system is good as always, bolstered this year by the addition of some AI-driven photo editing tools that are creepily good.

Importantly, the Pixel 8 gets the basic stuff right, too. The battery goes all day, there’s an IP68 rating for robust dust and water resistance, and wireless charging is an option if you’re into that. Best of all, Google is promising seven years of OS upgrades, which is a big improvement over the three platform updates it offered on previous models. All of the above makes it a winner if you’re looking for the best phone to get you through your day now — and keep up for a long time to come.

Read my full review of the Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.

Best “small” Android flagship

Screen: 6.1-inch 1080p 120Hz OLED / Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy / Cameras: 50-megapixel F1.8 main with OIS, 10-megapixel 3x telephoto with OIS, 12-megapixel ultrawide, 12-megapixel selfie / Battery: 3,900mAh / Charging: 25W wired, 15W wireless / Weather resistance: IP68

The Samsung Galaxy S23 isn’t really a small phone. It’s just an average-sized phone, but average starts looking awfully small when the biggest phones come with 6.8-inch screens. It’s a little bit bigger than the Asus Zenfone 10, but its bigger 6.1-inch screen compared to 5.9 inches is worth the tradeoff of a slightly taller phone. It also has all the conveniences of a true flagship phone, too: wireless charging, an IP68 rating for thorough water and dust resistance, plus a dedicated telephoto lens.

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

The Galaxy S23 is a smaller sibling to the S23 Plus and a great option if you don’t want a big phone.

The camera system is capable of excellent photos, though Samsung’s processing really likes to lean into vivid colors, and sometimes it’s too much. Portrait photos are excellent, though, particularly with the 3x telephoto lens. Battery life is good enough to get through a full day, but if you plan to do a lot of gaming or other processing-intensive activities, you might need a midday recharge. Small phones, small batteries, etc.

It may not qualify as truly small, but as other phone makers push more features to their bigger, higher-end models, the Galaxy S23 stands out as a well-equipped almost small phone. Just don’t mention it to an iPhone Mini fan — it’s too soon.

Read my full review of the Samsung Galaxy S23.

Best phone with everything but the kitchen sink

Screen: 6.8-inch 1440p 120Hz OLED / Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy / Cameras: 200-megapixel main with OIS, 10-megapixel 10x telephoto with OIS, 10-megapixel 3x telephoto with OIS, 12-megapixel ultrawide, 12-megapixel selfie / Battery: 5,000mAh / Charging: 45W wired, 15W wireless / Weather resistance: IP68

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s pricey, starting at $1,199, and thanks to a 6.8-inch screen, it’s huge. It’s also the most powerful Android phone you can buy in the US right now, with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, S Pen stylus support with a built-in silo for storage, and two — count ’em, two — telephoto cameras on the rear panel. It’s kind of hard to imagine what else Samsung could possibly stuff into this phone.

The screen at the center of this spec monster is a 6.8-inch OLED with a variable refresh rate up to 120Hz and 1440p resolution. It’s lovely, and the even better news is that it’s more battery-efficient than last year’s model. Between that and the new chipset, the S23 Ultra gets through a full day of heavy use with a little more wiggle room than its predecessor could.

Image: Allison Johnson / The Verge

The S23 Ultra stands alone.

The S23 Ultra’s camera system is a major reason to consider putting in the extra cash for this model rather than the S23 Plus. There’s nothing quite like it available on any other flagship phone: there’s both a 3x and 10x telephoto camera plus an ultrawide and, oh yeah, a 200-megapixel main camera.

The 200-megapixel thing is only partially a stunt — most of the time, you’ll be getting a 12-megapixel file from it, but the extra data from all those pixels seems to help the system come up with some fantastic images. It occasionally makes some weird judgments or turns the HDR up to 11, but it’s often very good and, here and there, is even capable of stunning “I can’t believe it’s not a ‘real’ camera” photos.

Our complaints about Samsung software stand, unfortunately, and its faults are even more glaring on a very pricey phone. Why the spammy clickbait links in the weather app? And who on earth wants push notifications from the Samsung Galaxy store? You don’t get that kind of thing on a Pixel phone. Still, there are enough impressive things about the S23 Ultra that it’s worth some minor software annoyances.

Read my full review of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Best foldable phone

Screen: 7.6-inch 2176p 120Hz OLED inner screen, 6.2-inch 2316p 120Hz OLED cover screen / Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 / Cameras: 50-megapixel F/1.8 main with OIS, 10-megapixel 3x telephoto with OIS, 12-megapixel ultrawide, 10-megapixel selfie (cover screen), four-megapixel under-display selfie (inner screen) / Battery: 4,400mAh / Charging: 25W wired, 15W wireless / Weather resistance: IPX8

Samsung’s flagship foldable isn’t the only show in town anymore, but it’s still the best choice for most people looking for a folding phone. Its multitasking capabilities are second to none, and it’s lighter and easier to wield than Google’s Pixel Fold. The narrow dimensions of the cover display make it a little awkward to use for regular phone stuff, but that’s a reasonable tradeoff considering everything that the Fold 5 can do.

There are some important things to consider, though, starting with the $1800 price. That’s what the Pixel Fold costs, too, but it doesn’t matter how you look at it — that’s a lot to pay for a phone. The Fold 5 isn’t dust-resistant, either, so you’ll want to be somewhat careful with your investment.

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

The Fold 5’s unusually long-and-narrow aspect ratio when it’s closed is a turn off for some.

The Fold 5 isn’t exactly teeming with technological improvements over last year’s model, either. There’s a new hinge that folds flat rather than with a gap between the two halves of the phone, and that’s about it. A couple of software updates that it offers will come to older Fold devices in the future, so there’s not much reason to rush out and trade in your Fold 4 for a Fold 5.

If you’re a devoted Pixel fan or averse to the Fold 5’s narrow form factor when closed, Google’s foldable might be a better choice. But for most people, the Galaxy Fold 5’s versatility and good recent track record for durability make it a better bet.

Read my full review of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5.

Best alternative to Google and Samsung

Screen: 6.7-inch 1080p 120Hz OLED / Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 / Cameras: 50-megapixel F/1.9 main with OIS, 50-megapixel ultrawide, 32-megapixel selfie / Battery: 4,700mAh / Charging: 45W wired, 15W wireless / Weather resistance: IP54

The Nothing Phone 2 doesn’t offer the very best value proposition in its upper-midrange category. For sheer ROI, the Pixel 7 is the better pick. But if it’s style you’re after and something a little different, then the Phone 2 is an easy pick.

It offers a good 6.7-inch screen, great daily performance and battery life, and a capable camera system. But that’s the usual stuff — what’s unusual about the Phone 2 is its set of LED light strips on the back panel. They illuminate in combinations called “glyphs,” and you can set them to alert you to certain notifications. It’s neat but ultimately isn’t as helpful as the system’s customizable always-on display.

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

The Phone 2’s UI is on-theme.

On the downside, the Phone 2 is only splash-resistant rather than fully resistant to water submersion like virtually all other phones over $500. It’s also not fully supported on Verizon’s network, which takes it out of contention for a lot of the US population.

If neither of the above is a deal-breaker, and the Phone 2’s styling appeals to you, then it’s an excellent choice. One thing’s for sure — it definitely stands out from the crowd.

Read my full review of the Nothing Phone 2.

Other Android phones worth considering

There are many more great Android devices that weren’t covered here, and a few are worth calling out that didn’t quite make the cut for a recommendation.

There’s the Galaxy Z Flip 5, Samsung’s clamshell-style foldable. It’s much more useful than its predecessors, thanks to a bigger 3.4-inch cover screen that allows you to type out texts and emails on a full QWERTY keyboard. It’s not as versatile as the Fold 5, but it also costs a much more reasonable $999. Another flip phone worth considering: the Motorola Razr Plus. It’s not as durable as the Flip 5, and its cover screen widgets aren’t as useful, but it runs full apps on the outer display more easily. And it’s just plain fun, gosh dang it.

On the other side of the foldable spectrum, the OnePlus Open is a welcome addition to the mix with the best screen format on a book-style folding phone. It’s thin and light, and the software includes some thoughtful approaches to multi-tasking — a crucial part of the folding phone experience. At $1,700, it’s just $100 shy of the Pixel Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 5 and misses a couple of key features that both of those other options include: wireless charging and an IPX8 rating. But if those omissions don’t bother you and the form factor appeals, it’s a lovely device to use.

There’s one more Pixel phone to consider: the Google Pixel 7A. It’s $499 and has the same Tensor G2 processor as the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. The 7A is definitely the best phone camera you can get for the money, and it comes with nice creature comforts not usually seen in budget devices, like wireless charging. It’s on the pricey side of the “budget” category, but it’s designed to go the distance.

Update October 22nd, 2023, 1:20PM ET: Replaced the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus with the Google Pixel 8 as the best Android phone overall. Removed the Google Pixel 7 and added the Samsung Galaxy S23 as the best small flagship phone. Removed the Google Pixel 7 Pro as an also-consider and added the OnePlus Open.

Apple may be planning a surprise October M3 iMac announcement

Apple may be planning a surprise October M3 iMac announcement

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

October starting to slip away, and so far, all we’ve gotten was a very confusing Apple Pencil, despite rumors of iMacs and iPads. Well, it sounds like that new 24-inch M3-powered iMac is on its way this month after all. Mark Gurman thinks so, having written in his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg today that it’s coming very soon — as early as October 30th, in fact. That would end, as Gurman notes, an over 900-day drought since the M1 iMac launched in the first half of 2021.

Gurman writes that he was “told that Apple is planning a Mac-centered product launch around the end of this month.” He adds that if you try to order the iMac, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and either of the other higher-end Pro models, several of their configurations aren’t shipping until November. Gurman calls this, and the fact that Apple is posting its earnings in November, a “clear sign” that something is afoot in Cupertino. As he says, the last time Apple held off on discussing this quarter’s earnings until after October, it had just held a Mac and iPad announcement.

As Gurman acknowledged, the 14- and- 16-inch Pro laptops were refreshed in January, so they may still be on a 2024 release timeline, but it’s been over a year since the 13-inch MacBook Pro was updated, and the iMac, again, is creeping toward its third year on the same chip.

At the end of the subscriber version of Power On, Gurman responded to a reader's question asking if he thinks the next MacBooks will see changes beyond internal upgrades. He says he doesn’t expect significant differences apart from processors and perhaps “minor improvements to displays,” but predicts the next real change will be a new iMac Pro in 2025, then OLED MacBook Pros in 2026, probably with updated designs and features.

Mario and Spider-Man are both back in a big way

Mario and Spider-Man are both back in a big way

Image: William Joel / The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 11, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome to the Installerverse, which is officially a thing now — we did it, everybody — and you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

I’m traveling this week, so I’ve got a slightly abbreviated issue for you. But there’s just way too much good stuff not to share.

This week, I’m spending all my free time playing Subpar Pool, testing Twine as my new go-to Android RSS reader, watching Zane Lowe talk music with Blink-182, learning about the incredible work of the masters of film set design, reading Cory Doctorow’s new book, The Internet Con, finally for real canceling some too-expensive streaming services, and preparing for my kid’s first flight by downloading every Sesame Street episode I can find.

I also have for you a new Mario game, an old tech magazine, overlooked TV shows, AI image makers, and much more.

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: if you’re getting this in your inbox, just reply to this email and tell me everything. Otherwise, you can always hit up installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.

Alright, Mario has waited long enough. Let’s go.

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The Drop

• Super Mario Bros. Wonder. The thoroughly modern side-scrolling Mario game that so many of us have been waiting for. Wonder is a really neat mix of a simple game with simple mechanics but also plenty of room for exploration and improvisation. I am going to play a lot of this game.
• The OnePlus Open. Yay, foldable phones! I really love the design of the Open, and OnePlus has some really cool feature ideas — but the whole thing is definitely let down by the price and durability issues. But smush this together with the Pixel Fold and Samsung’s Z Fold, and there’s a kickass foldable phone in there somewhere.
• Search Engine’s “Is there a sane way to use the internet?” I’ve probably recommended Search Engine before, but it’s the first podcast in a while to make it into my “listen to every episode no matter what it’s about” rotation. This episode, with Ezra Klein, is a particularly thoughtful and helpful way of thinking about the internet now.
• Meta in Myanmar. This is a terrific four-part series about the rise of Facebook, WhatsApp, and the internet in general in Myanmar and the genocide that occurred in the country. Erin Kissane doesn’t really do a history lesson but more of a long, deep study about how communities are built online — and how they fall apart. It’s a tough read in spots, but it’s worth it.
• Trust & Safety Tycoon. Ever wondered what it’s like to try and make moderation, policy, and business decisions on the fly? Wonder no longer! This game from Techdirt is like a corporate training manual… but a good and useful one. (Techdirt’s other game, Moderator Mayhem, is similarly useful and fun.)
• The Wedding Scammer. A true-crime podcast about a guy who joined a media startup that turned out to be a scam — and not even a particularly clever one. But the scammer behind it all had lots of other moves, and they all kept working! Only one of the show’s seven episodes is live so far, but it’s off to a really fun start.
• Franz. Imagine a Tamagotchi or a Neopet, but, like, super-duper cursed. That’s essentially the premise of this Android and iOS app in which you interact with and try to help a little AI companion that is pretty much always trying to take advantage of you in some way. It’s weird, y’all, but it’s a fascinating story and game.
• Whole Earth Index. The rabbit hole to end all rabbit holes for any tech-history buff: the entire archive of Whole Earth Catalog, the counterculture journal that was at the beginning of so much of Silicon Valley and tech and blogging and the internet and everything, is now online.
• Spider-Man 2. I absolutely loved the first Spider-Man game, which made “spending a long time moving from place to place” more fun than any game I can remember. The new game is more of the same, and I mean that in the best way: big action sequences, lots of quests, oh so much fun swinging from buildings. It’s PS5-only, which might be a problem for some users, but this is a heck of a reason to upgrade.
• The secret life of Jimmy Zhong. Meet the man who stole 50,000 Bitcoin from the Silk Road, became a billionaire, stored a ton of money in a Cheetos popcorn tin (who knew that was even a thing!), and spent it all so lavishly he got caught. This is about the crypto-iest crypto story you’ll ever watch.

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Screen share

Remember a few weeks ago when everyone on Threads was sharing their homescreens? There were a lot of cool ones, but I was taken with one in particular: it had an amazing wallpaper, this super-clean set of icons, and a really nice widget. The vibes, as they say, were immaculate. I messaged its owner, hoping they’d tell me more.

That person turned out to be Bart Claeys, a designer at Meta. I needed Bart to tell me everything, and he did!

Here’s Bart’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:

The phone: A Pixel 7 — I may switch to Pixel 8 (Pro) using my $400 Google Fi credit (but I’ve got until January 2024 for this, so waiting things out until there are more Pixel 8 reviews).

The wallpaper: “Mountastic” by Kxnt from the Backdrops app. I picked this particular image because it strikes a great balance between being inspirational, matches the Cascade and Olympic mountains where I live, and has areas allowing for icons and widgets. Additionally, it matches my phone case.

The launcher: I am a loyal user of Nova Launcher, allowing me to customize a lot of parts of the user interface, among which is setting a custom grid, removing app labels, and changing each icon individually. I’ve got two areas for icons: a 4 x 4 grid featuring my most-used apps — all using the Whicons icon pack — located at the lower half of the phone, optimized for single-hand usage. Then, you have smaller icons on the bottom from the Min icon pack. Removing colors from icons allows me to be more intentional about which app to use without being lured in by color. And finally, I have two additional mini clock widgets from the regular Google Clock app.

The apps: Facebook, Threads, Hue Lights, Starbucks, Messages, Chrome, Google Maps, WhatsApp, Calendar, Google News, Google Photos, Google Keep, Google Tasks, Instagram, YouTube Music, Authy.

I also asked Bart to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he said:

• TryCamel, which doesn’t do much besides offering a sharing target allowing me to track the price history of products by sharing Amazon links to it.
• As an X / Twitter escapee, my most recently installed app is Threads, which has some fun trends going on, like people sharing their mobile homescreen (inspiring this post) and, more recently, people generating DALL-E images based on their bio. I also regularly look through the eBay app to find vintage-pressed steel toy airplanes and airplane inspection panels for an art project I hope to finish one day.
• More recently, I’ve been playing with the Coohom web app modeling our living room. It’s really fun, and honestly, I went a little crazy on the details, like adding our actual furniture and plants. Next step would be to convert this somehow to a VR experience so we can try out some remodeling ideas as close to reality.
• And finally, we’ve got a Lego wildflower bouquet gifted by overseas friends, which we’re trying to finish, at least when Mochi, our cat, does not obstruct our plans.

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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.

“Checking out Halloween Horror Nights tomorrow! And you can bet I’ll be streaming The Exorcist tonight, then browsing the horror catalog of Peacock afterward.” – Christian

“With the mention of Roblox last week, I’d be remiss not to send in People Make Games’ two-part video series, ‘How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers.’” – Michael

“I think of Remix as Instagram meets AI. I’ve had a lot of fun with it, as my prompting skill improves the more I use it. There’s also the concept of ‘remixing,’ which creates threads of related posts. Quite fun!” – Jason

“As a Canadian, we often are introduced to the pros (and cons) of culture from both the United States and the English Commonwealth. These two series — Gangs of London and Mr Inbetween — are sorely overlooked in the US, one from the UK and the other from Australia. Among my group of friends, these two are among our favorite shows, and both top my top five shows of the last decade.” – Don

“As a Simpsons fan, this book just hit preorder stages, and I’m very excited to eventually get into it. It’s basically a collection of various memorabilia and merchandise throughout the course of the lifetime of the show.” – Joseph

“Killers of the Flower Moon opens this weekend.” – Junbo

“Catchup is a simple but polished utility for keeping track of when you last talked to people close to you. You set how frequently you want to be in touch with each person (weekly, monthly, etc.) and see who’s due for a call. Catchup helping me FaceTime friends more regularly makes me more of the person I want to be, especially while living abroad right now, so it’s central on my iPhone homescreen as a push toward one of the most rewarding uses of my iPhone.” – Lachlan

“Just finished Cocoon on PS5. Brilliant puzzle adventure game where you’re carrying orbs that house different realms and traversing between them. It’s also by one of the minds behind Inside and Limbo. Short, sweet, and a perfect precursor to Spider-Man 2.” – Jackson

“Offsuit, AI offline poker app. Really clean interface, leaderboards, etc.” – Jonathan

“Putting all my social apps in a folder on my homescreen has completely prevented the weird, ‘automatic opening’ I used to do. That single layer of not having the app within one click has completely tanked my random clicking of apps, and my screen time has gone down a bit. Still monitoring to see if it stays down long term, but it’s been very noticeable so far!” – Nicholas

---

Signing off

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks deep down the self-hosting rabbit hole working on some Vergecast stuff coming soon. I have this idea that I might be able to replace a lot of the (increasingly unreliable) cloud services I use with some self-hosted ones. So far, I have mostly failed. But I did buy a mini PC and turn it into a Plex server and a Nextcloud file-storage system, so I’m already feeling like a capital-h Hacker over here. But the best thing I’ve found so far is Derek Sivers’ step-by-step guide to “Tech Independence”: it’s a super-detailed manual for setting up your own domain, moving all your services to systems you own, and ditching the tech giants for good. I didn’t do everything Sivers recommended — I’m good with Gmail, honestly — but if you’re looking for a fun and empowering weekend project, this is an excellent one.

See you next week!

The Race to Avert Quantum Computing Threat With New Encryption Standards

The Race to Avert Quantum Computing Threat With New Encryption Standards Quantum technology could compromise our encryption systems. Can America replace them before it’s too late?

So long, small phones

So long, small phones

The 2013 Moto X, Nexus 4, and iPhone 13 Mini. I pine for the days this size was normal. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Ever Googled for “Best Small Phones”? I’ll save you the click: the guides you’ll find feature phones that are old, underpowered, or simply not small to begin with.

I’ve long been a small phone guy. I loved my 2013 Moto X, with its 4.7-inch screen, and I’ve used a 5.4-inch iPhone Mini for years. But when Apple discontinued the Mini last month, I decided it was time to jump ship. I saved my money for the Pixel 8, figuring I’d eventually learn to live with a “new normal” of 6.2-inch handsets.

But for gadget enthusiasts like me, Google had other plans: it’s arbitrarily pushing buyers to the ginormous Pixel 8 Pro instead, bragging about how its larger handset can handle niftier features even though both phones have the same cameras and chips.

That’s why I began my hunt for the last good small phones — but gosh is it slim pickings.

For example, perhaps you’ve heard the Asus Zenfone 10 is a small phone because it has a 5.9-inch screen — smaller than 6.1, 6.5, or 6.7. But did you know the phone itself is almost identically sized to a “normal” Galaxy S23 or iPhone 15, not counting camera bumps?

Images by CompareSizes.com

From left to right: Zenfone 10, Galaxy S23, iPhone 15. The Zenfone is slightly narrower — but thicker.

Some guides suggest the 2022 iPhone SE, perhaps because it’s got a 4.7-inch screen — even smaller than a 5.4-inch iPhone Mini, right? Wrong:

Images by CompareSizes.com

The iPhone SE is smaller than a “normal” phone in 2023, but not by much.

Pixel 6A and Pixel 7A? Absolutely nope — both are bigger than a standard Samsung or Apple phone. Even unlocking their under-display fingerprint sensor feels like a stretch for my average-sized hand.

Images by CompareSizes.com

How are these Pixels making their way into “Best Small Phone” guides?

While Android Police calls the Sony Xperia 5 V “the compact flagship Android phone enthusiasts always wanted,” I think this size comparison speaks for itself:

Images by CompareSizes.com

The Xperia is slightly narrower than the competition, but taller.

And if you think folding flip phones are small, well...

Opened, the Samsung Z Flip and Moto Razr are roughly as big as the Pixel 8 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max, two of the biggest flagship handsets out there.

Images by CompareSizes.com

Folding screen phones are many things, but “small” is not yet among them.

Closed, the Z Flip’s girth doubles, making it that much harder to wrap a hand around — and it’s plenty wide, too. Plus, Samsung doesn’t actually let you use it like a small phone by default — you’ve gotta jump through hoops to use apps on the outer screen. Even with the Z Flip 5’s larger cover screen, it’s awkward.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Because I’m feeling nostalgic, here’s a 2013 Moto X vs. a 2023 Z Flip 5.

There is one company doggedly still pursuing small phones. It’s called Unihertz, and its Jelly line is tiny and has nifty features like a BlackBerry keyboard or programmable buttons and extra LEDs. But they’re also exceptionally budget, designed for minimalists, not those who want a great processor and a great camera like me.

Why isn’t someone building the iPhone Mini of Android, you might ask? They’re trying! But the latest dispatches from the Small Android Phone Project are... not great. The project hasn’t had a meaningful update in five months, and team leader Benjamin Bryant admits he had to pause to look for consulting work on the side.

Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Bryant clarified to us that BOE is responsible for the Find N, not the Find N2.

In some ways, they’re still at square one: the entire design revolves around the phone’s display, but display manufacturers don’t publicly offer the kind of small, high-end screen Bryant’s team is looking for — those are typically produced under contract to specific manufacturers.

“The problem is Apple has exclusive rights to [the iPhone Mini’s] display — so, even with the line being discontinued, [Samsung Display] isn’t going to give us access,” he told supporters last month.

The situation has slightly improved since then: Bryant says his team just had its first real call with Samsung Display US. “Samsung Display US is willing to champion us; the challenge will be convincing the Korean HQ that we are a viable enough project for them to invest time and resources into,” Bryant tells me.

Other options: there are “apparently more than enough” refurbished iPhone Mini displays on the market to fill the Small Android Phone Project’s needs; the external cover display on the Oppo Find N2 looks promising; and there are other displays that could work if they’re willing to build a phone with a chin.

But I would not expect a phone out of them anytime soon. Bryant admits that, in general, the small phone outlook is “bleak” and that some of his prospective customers “will be forced to upgrade in the coming year.”

Personally, I don’t feel forced: I could theoretically replace the battery in my Mini yet again and keep it running another year. But instead, I impulsively nabbed a Z Flip 5 at its Prime Day price to try something different for a change.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

This is my life now. I call it the Z Flip Raptor Grip.

I’m on day four, and while I’m definitely not satisfied with the size, I don’t want to be stuck on small phones the way I was stuck on physical keys. A decade ago, smartphone manufacturers pulled the physical QWERTY keyboard from my cold Droid hands. This time, I’m getting out before I get left in the past.

Twitch will now let streamers simultaneously stream on any service they want

Twitch will now let streamers simultaneously stream on any service they want

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Twitch will now let its creators simultaneously stream across any live streaming service, the company announced on Friday as part of a big batch of news from TwitchCon. Previously, streamers could simulcast on mobile platforms like TikTok and Instagram, but as of Friday, Twitch is significantly broadening where streamers can simultaneously go live. (Well, assuming the streamers don’t have a Twitch exclusivity agreement in place.)

As of late, some Twitch streamers have been exploring options on other platforms. Big names like xQc, Amouranth, and Nickmercs have signed major deals with Twitch competitor Kick this year; xQc’s and Nickmercs’ deals are non-exclusive, and given that Amouranth has a video on her Twitch account from a couple months ago, it seems hers is non-exclusive, too. Ninja dropped his exclusive contract with Twitch in September 2022 so he could simulcast on multiple platforms. (He dined with Twitch CEO Dan Clancy earlier this month and seems pleased with Friday’s news.)

There are a few guidelines for Twitch’s new simulcasting policy, according to a support document. Streamers will have to make sure the quality of their stream on Twitch is “no less than the experience on other platforms or services.” Streamers “should not” share links to their Twitch community to their simulcasts on other platforms. (Streamers can still share links to third-party websites on their About pages on their channels, they just can’t link out to their other simulcasts while they’re also live on Twitch.) And streamers can’t use third-party services to do things like merge chat across platforms.

At some point in the future, Twitch says it will add a tool so that streamers can indicate that they are simulcasting.

Twitch also announced a big update to its off-service conduct policy. “To further protect our streamers, we’re adding doxxing and swatting to the list of Off-Service Conduct behaviors we will enforce against,” the company says (emphasis Twitch’s), and the changes are in effect as of Friday. The addition of doxxing to the policy follows a recent controversy involving YouTuber Jacksfilms accusing SSSniperWolf of doxxing him in an Instagram story; on Friday, YouTube announced it would be temporarily demonetizing SSSniperWolf’s channel and SSSniperWolf posted an apology on X (formerly Twitter).

Twitch revealed some product changes, too. Guest Star, which lets streamers host co-streams with others, will now be named Stream Together and will be getting features like the ability to merge chats. Twitch says a version of its TikTok-style Discovery Feed that surfaces live channels is in testing. And Twitch’s own alerts system for notifications like subscribers and Bits donations will “soon” support a streamer’s custom animated emotes.

My six-month dive into podcasting’s very chaotic year

My six-month dive into podcasting’s very chaotic year

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

This is Hot Pod, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.

Well, this is a weird email to write — today is technically my last day at Hot Pod. But you’ll still see my byline around from time to time because I’m joining The Verge’s news team in November. Starting next week, the newsletter will entirely be back in the very capable hands of lead Hot Pod reporter Ariel Shapiro. Although I’m sad to leave, I’m also really excited to see her take the reins again and continue to churn out the coverage that Hot Pod is known for.

It’s probably not a surprise to most of you that I knew very little about podcasts before taking this job back in April — a time that also coincided with some seismic changes in the podcast industry itself. Although my background is in tech reporting, I’m normally known for writing stories like this and stories like this. Weirdly enough, I also covered Spotify’s acquisition of Podsights and Chartable way back in 2019 for Engadget — a story that I have no memory of actually writing. I learned a ton in a short period of time by relying on the work of my Hot Pod predecessors, which include Ariel, Ashley Carman, and Nicholas Quah — as well as the help of my editor, Jake Kastrenakes. But I also relied on the tips and expertise of numerous Hot Pod readers. So thanks for your help over these past several months — as well as trusting me to tell your stories.

A couple of people at Podcast Movement noted that all of the Hot Pod writers have had very distinct styles. Obviously, we’re all different people — but we all took over during very distinct periods for the industry at large. In my view, Nicholas and Ashley covered the promises and failed hopes of the “golden” era of podcasting and the rush of dumb money that made it possible. For me and Ariel, our challenge seems to be how to document an industry that is in the middle of a contraction — but also figuring out how to survive and reinvent itself.

During the time I was in charge of Hot Pod, Spotify laid off hundreds and effectively killed its in-house podcast production units, Gimlet and Parcast. It seemed like every entity, from public radio to news publishers, made cuts to their podcast units. Companies folded, and left their creators hanging. The film industry effectively went on hiatus this summer as both the unions for screenwriters and actors went on strike, which, living in Los Angeles, I saw firsthand. The loss of Hollywood ad dollars led to real consequences for public radio — both WNYC’s president LaFontaine Oliver and former Southern California Public Radio chief Herb Scannell cited it as a factor in layoffs. A few celebrities lost podcast deals — but it seems like every day, a new famous person gets a podcast.

To that end, it’s still a mystery to me why most popular podcasts got that way. I don’t know why Joe Rogan’s weekly drop of three hours of unedited babble is always one of the top podcasts in the country. I don’t know why so many people like Morbid or Alex Cooper. When I look at the top podcast charts, I see a mix of disposable true crime, news podcasts from major media outlets like NPR or The New York Times, and buzzworthy celebrity-led efforts like Strike Force Five or SmartLess or that one hosted by Taylor Swift’s boyfriend and his brother. But while the titles that have wide appeal may be a mystery to me, they clearly resonate with others.

I was heartened to see Heavyweight, a former Gimlet podcast hosted by Jonathan Goldstein and now made by Spotify Studios, do well now that it’s available widely on all players — it currently ranks number 36 on Apple Podcasts. But it was also kind of surprising, given that many interpreted Spotify letting go of Gimlet and Parcast as a sign that narrative podcasts were over. I’m sure Goldstein’s ties to the early days of Gimlet and This American Life no doubt plays a factor in its success.

But at the end of the day, I do think people still have an appetite for good stories. It’s easy to forget that, I guess, during an age where “everything is content” and virality is the key to survival. The number of views or streams on a video or news article or a post often seems like the only thing that matters. While algorithms can be tweaked — I do think certain concepts are timeless.

YouTube’s uncertain podcast future

Can audio-only podcasts actually thrive on YouTube? Despite an ongoing effort by YouTube to cater to traditional podcasters this year, the answer to that question is still uncertain — and YouTube’s idiosyncratic approach to ads and RSS remains the big reason why.

Google sunset Google Podcasts this year and announced plans for those users to migrate to YouTube Music, which will effectively double as both a video platform and a conventional audio podcast player by adding RSS support later this year. Many popular traditional podcasts have already made the transition to YouTube and YouTube Music, with very mixed results.

Rob Walch, vice president of podcaster relations at Libsyn, told Hot Pod that he viewed a webinar on Thursday that YouTube Music hosted for podcasters. He said that as the webinar progressed, a Slack channel he was a part of for podcasters “filled with expletives.” The overall reaction was very negative.

“No one I talked to is going to recommend [YouTube Music] to podcasters,” said Walch.

A sizeable dilemma for audio-only podcasts is how YouTube will handle their ads. Neither YouTube nor YouTube Music allows dynamically inserted ad spots. YouTube’s terms of service explicitly state that podcast content can’t contain ad formats that compete with YouTube’s own. Technically, there’s an exception that applies for host-read ads or baked-in ads — podcasters can disclose them by checking the paid promotions box. But even if podcasters are able to keep their original ads, YouTube will still run its own ads against the videos, splitting revenue with the creator, rather than the dynamic ones a podcaster may want served and that would pay out only to themselves.

“Nobody will accept ads on their content that they have no control over,” said Walch.

It’s not a surprise to many in the podcast industry that “putting your podcasts on YouTube” is harder than it sounds. “It’s always been a little strange to me that people understand that video-only platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok work in fundamentally different ways, and that content between them is not interchangeable, but still expect podcasts to automatically work on YouTube,” noted Bikram Chatterji, CEO of Maximum Fun in an email to Hot Pod. Max Fun has experimented with putting some of its podcasts like FANTI on YouTube but notes that YouTube’s practice of inserting its own ads “could be a problem” for them on YouTube Music.

There’s a growing sentiment in the podcast world that YouTube’s podcast vision is (perhaps unsurprisingly) designed for video-first content creators.

There’s a growing sentiment in the podcast world that YouTube’s podcast vision is (perhaps unsurprisingly) designed for video-first content creators. The company’s messaging doesn’t jibe with the day-to-day reality of most people who make audio-only podcasts, as well as the numerous hosting, distribution, and monetization services that form the traditional podcast ecosystem in place for decades. Surveys from Edison Research and others that concluded that YouTube was the number one platform for listening to podcasts failed to capture what kind of podcasts those people were listening to.

Hot Pod reached out to a number of different podcasts and podcast networks to see what their plans were for YouTube Music. Some still plan on making their podcasts available on YouTube and YouTube Music, if only for discovery purposes. Others are taking a “wait and see” approach for now.

“We have asked for more info, and gotten very little so far from our YouTube rep,” wrote The Vergecast’s supervising producer, Liam James, to Hot Pod in a Slack message.

The Vergecast only uses YouTube’s ads for now — but wants to eventually bake ads into its videos. The podcast only started publishing on YouTube in the beginning of the year. “Right now we make peanuts on YouTube. It’s a loss for us overall but we are looking at it as an investment,” wrote James.

Betches Media plans to put its audio-only podcasts on YouTube Music when it rolls out RSS ingestion. “We see any new distribution platform as an opportunity to reach new audiences, but as YouTube’s strategy becomes clearer, we’ll continue to evaluate and see what is right for Betches and our podcast network,” wrote David Spiegel, chief revenue officer of Betches Media, in an email. Betches currently relies on YouTube to run pre- and mid-roll ads.

“While YouTube’s decision to not allow podcasters to monetize their ads directly isn’t what we’d prefer, it is not surprising at all, at the end of the day, restricting podcaster’s ability to monetize will affect their interest in promoting the platform,” noted Spiegel.

But the challenges with YouTube Music and RSS ingestion — as well as YouTube and podcasts more broadly — go beyond just ads.

“YouTube uses a different language than us,” Bryan Barletta, the founder of podcast research group Sounds Profitable, told Hot Pod.

One example: when YouTube talks about podcasts on YouTube, what it’s talking about is a cached video that is audio-first that can have a full video component or static video. And even when YouTube adds RSS support, it won’t work as a traditional podcast player. “They’re pulling from your RSS feed, caching it, so it’s one call from YouTube and that’s it,” said Barletta.

If a podcaster wants to change the audio after an episode is published, they only need to update the audio file on their hosting platform — which automatically carries over to all podcast players. Except, it turns out, for YouTube. Podcasters will have to manually update the audio on YouTube Studio.

Listener stats are another issue with YouTube podcasts. In a video titled “Why YouTube Music ingesting podcast RSS feeds could be a huge mess,” Justin Jackson, the co-founder of hosting platform Transister.fm, highlights some of those problems. Whenever a listener presses play in a podcast player like Spotify or Overcast or Apple Podcasts, it requests the RSS feed from a hosting platform. Hosting platforms, therefore, hold a ton of data on who listeners are and where they’re coming from. But YouTube is doing something very different from other podcast players in that it will literally host the audio — instead of redirecting listeners to the hosting platform.

This also means hosting platforms won’t be able to access any of a podcast’s YouTube listener stats. While it’s true that you can see listener stats on YouTube Studio, the data offered by hosting platforms is much more detailed.

“This will make it harder for podcasters to analyze where their listeners are coming from, which episodes are most popular, and how episodes perform over time,” wrote Jackson in an email.

Lightning Round

Jon Stewart and Apple are reportedly parting ways over creative differences, including the host’s intention to cover topics such as AI and China. I’ll be curious to see what happens with the podcast, considering it performed so much better than the TV show.

Speaking of former Daily Show hosts, Trevor Noah’s podcast on Spotify is set to launch on November 9. The show, which is hosted and distributed by Megaphone, will be released across podcast platforms as part of Spotify’s shift away from exclusivity.

Audioboom is still making deals, announcing yesterday that it has signed exclusive partnerships with Girls Next Level, The Bulwark Podcast, We’re Here to Help, and Out of the Pods.

On October 26, Serial will debut The Kids of Rutherford County, a new investigative podcast that examines how a juvenile court in Tennessee abused its power. The show was produced in partnership with ProPublica and WPLN Nashville Public Radio, and is hosted by WPLN reporter Meribah Knight.

Suge Knight is making a podcast from prison, and according to TMZ, it’s all about personal beef.

Triton released its September podcast ranking, with Dateline NBC ranked number one. Two caveats to the ranking, which is that NPR is excluded temporarily because of a data migration. The second is that it also does not include Spotify podcasts, so Joe Rogan (the real number one) is not on there.

Spotify reports earnings on October 24, and will be followed by Cumulus Media on October 27 and SiriusXM on October 31 (spooky!).

- Ariel

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Trial Reveals New Details of How FTX Died

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Trial Reveals New Details of How FTX Died Prosecutors in the criminal fraud case have built the most intricate account to date of the cryptocurrency exchange’s frantic final days.

Slack is retiring its status account on X

Slack is retiring its status account on X

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Slack is retiring its status account on X that previously shared updates about issues and outages on the platform, the company announced on Thursday. “We made the decision to retire the @SlackStatus account in order to consolidate our communications around incidents and focus resources on those most widely used by our customers,” Kevin Albers, VP of customer experience at Slack, said in a statement to The Verge.

The account was a useful way to be notified when Slack was investigating problems, especially for those of us at The Verge who end up writing about those issues. (It was also a good account to monitor with TweetDeck — which is now called XPro and is only available to paying X Premium subscribers.) If you want to keep tabs on Slack’s status moving forward, Albers pointed to Slack’s main status page and said that “we’re also happy to answer any questions related to incidents from our main account, @SlackHQ.” You can also get alerts by subscribing to Slack’s RSS and Atom feeds.

X sent an autoreply to my request for comment: “Busy now, please check back later.”

We have made the decision to retire this account. Moving forward, the Slack Status site, https://t.co/pvGy3wW3MN, will be the source of truth for all incident news. Alerts will also be available through the RSS and Atom feeds linked at the bottom of the Slack Status home page.

— Slack Status (@SlackStatus) October 19, 2023

Other companies have also reduced their investment in X. American Express, for example, made its @AskAmex account private and began telling customers it was inactive as early as August 1st. Air France, according to an April message, no longer does customer service over X direct messages “since Twitter has changed their conditions” (perhaps referring to X’s API pricing tiers it implemented earlier this year).

Israel-Hamas war: how social media companies are handling the response

Israel-Hamas war: how social media companies are handling the response

Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The war in Israel presents content moderation challenges for the most popular social media sites.

Following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, social media companies are facing increased pressure to crack down on violent content, hate speech, and disinformation.

Some social platforms are already sharing details of their response: Meta is tightening security measures amidst an increase in content violating its rules, while TikTok has also committed to stepping up its moderation in the wake of the attacks.

Despite this, both Meta and TikTok are facing scrutiny from the European Commission over whether their response complies with the Digital Services Act, a set of rules that hold large social media companies accountable for preventing illegal content from being posted to their platforms.

The European Commission is looking into the way X (formerly Twitter) is handling the Israel-Hamas war as well and also sent a letter to YouTube to remind the company of its responsibility to keep illegal content and disinformation off its platform.

Here are all the updates on what social platforms are doing in response to the Israel-Hamas war.

An Industry Insider Drives an Open Alternative to Big Tech’s A.I.

An Industry Insider Drives an Open Alternative to Big Tech’s A.I. The nonprofit Allen Institute for AI, led by a respected computer scientist who sold his company to Apple, is trying to democratize cutting-edge research.

WhatsApp will soon let you stay logged in to two accounts at once

WhatsApp will soon let you stay logged in to two accounts at once

Illustration: The Verge

If you use two different WhatsApp accounts, you’ll soon be able to access both from just one device. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday that WhatsApp is rolling out the ability to switch between accounts on Android, and you won’t need to lug around an extra device or continuously log out of your account to be able to do so.

This new feature should make it easier to manage your conversations across multiple accounts, like if you have one WhatsApp account for work and another for messaging friends and family members. It’s rolling out in the coming weeks.

Meta notes that you’ll still need a separate phone number and SIM card (or a phone that accepts multi-SIM or eSIM) if you want to set up a second account. You’ll also need the second phone or its SIM card to receive the one-time passcode that WhatsApp will send via SMS to gain access to your second account on a different device. After this initial verification, the app will continue to work for both accounts without the second device or SIM, says WhatsApp spokesperson Ellie Heatrick.

Meta has been working to make it easier to access your WhatsApp account on different devices, rolling out a multi-device feature in 2021 that lets you use your account across Android tablets, browsers, or computers. Meta recently expanded this feature to include additional smartphones as well, which no longer limits you from using your account on a single phone.