How May Mobility went fully driverless while avoiding the pitfalls of robotaxis
Image: May Mobility
You probably haven’t heard of autonomous vehicle operator May Mobility because the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based company is exceptionally good at avoiding the types of headlines generated by other AV companies.
In its six years in operation, there haven’t been any injuries, crashes, blocked intersections, or mass layoffs. While there have been some struggles, the company has proven to be an outlier among AV operators by continuing to raise money while others have seen their funding dry up.
And now, May Mobility is ready to go fully driverless, a milestone that has the company taking stock of its successes — and looking ahead to the future.
“It’s not robotaxis,” May Mobility CEO Edwin Olson said of his company’s business model. “We’re selling long-term transportation contracts, primarily to businesses and governments, which builds us a really easy on-ramp to deploy the technology step by step, keeping our burn rate low. And being really the most capital-efficient AV company that the world has ever seen.”
Robotaxi ventures like Waymo and Cruise say the future of autonomous driving is an Uber-like service in dense cities. They argue that the only way to recoup the costs of developing the technology is to run a 24/7 service without safety drivers, targeting as broad a section of consumers as possible.
That is not May Mobility’s strategy, which is instead focused on fixed-route transportation in geofenced, easily mapped business districts, college campuses, and closed residential communities.
“Our strategy here is to really stack the deck in our favor,” Olson said. “I think most people think about rider-only as being like a technological milestone. And it is, but it’s way more than that.”
May’s first fully driverless service on public roads will launch in Sun City, Arizona, a retirement community outside of Phoenix. The company is working with app-based microtransit service Via to connect it with potential riders. Its vehicles — Toyota Sienna minivans retrofitted with autonomous sensors and hardware — will be free to use but will only operate Monday through Friday in the afternoons.
While Phoenix has its fair share of driverless vehicles — Waymo operates there, as did Cruise before a pedestrian injury in San Francisco forced it to ground its fleet — Sun City hasn’t seen as much activity. But Olson says it’s perfect for May’s first driverless service. The lanes are wide, the pedestrian walkways are separate and protected, and the weather is mostly sunny and clear.
“We want to start in the most slam-dunk kinds of environments,” Olson said.
There has been no shortage of challenges. May’s first vehicle platform was a modified GEM shuttle that could carry around six passengers. But the vehicle struggled in inclement weather and would break down frequently, according to a 2020 story in VentureBeat. Moreover, the company found it difficult to achieve Level 4 operations in which a safety driver could be removed from the vehicle.
And its municipal partners were starting to get frustrated by the slow progress. A top Rhode Island official slammed May in a 2019 interview, criticizing the company’s inability to prove its vehicles were safer than human drivers and failing to equip its shuttles with working air conditions.
But May has shown perseverance. While other companies have shuttered or been shut down, the firm continues to putter along, currently operating in four cities.
“We have had incidents. Most of them not our fault,” Olson said. “You know, these downtown environments can be chaotic and complex.”
Much like other AV companies, May’s driverless vehicles will be monitored by a team of remote employees. The vehicles aren’t being joysticked — which is to say, they aren’t remote-operated — but the remote monitors can send suggestions when problems arise. Even so, the vehicle can choose to override the suggestion if it decides the situation is unsafe, Olson said.
Robotaxi companies like Cruise generated praise from some customers but also outrage for incidents in which its vehicles blocked emergency vehicles or created traffic headaches. Olson said that May won’t have the same problems because its customers are the cities themselves. May is incentivized to address municipal concerns or risk having its contract terminated.
“We take the welfare of cities extremely seriously,” Olson said. “We want to be the good guys in the space. We don’t want to be clogging or adding to congestion.”
E.V. Start-up Founder Could Get Prison Term in Fraud Case Trevor Milton, who founded the truck company Nikola, will be sentenced on Monday in a fraud case that exposed the excesses in the electric vehicle business.
Blue Origin will livestream its first launch in over a year tomorrow
Blue Origin will stream the launch on its site. | Screenshot: The Verge
Space tourism company Blue Origin has set its sights on a New Shepard launch window that starts tomorrow at 9:30AM ET, its first attempt since the rocket booster failed during its September 2022 launch. The company says its New Shepard rocket will launch from its Launch Site One in West Texas. Blue Origin will livestream the launch on its website 20 minutes before the countdown.
This will be the 24th launch of the reusable New Shepard rocket, and will carry 33 science payloads. Most of its launches have been uncrewed, but as Engadget noted, six of them have had human beings on board, including William Shatner. Last year, Blue Origin’s uncrewed NS-23 launch failed, prompting a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigation.
The FAA said in its September report that the “proximate cause” of the failure was an engine nozzle that succumbed to “higher than expected engine operating temperatures,” but that debris from the mishap was entirely contained in the “designated hazard area.” The agency gave the company 21 corrective actions to keep the same failure from happening again, “including redesign of engine and nozzle components” and organizational changes.
The rocket will also be carrying 38,000 postcards sent by students participating in Blue Origin’s Club for the Future program promoting STEM education. Club for the Future accepts physical postcards for New Shepard missions, but the club also sends along a hard drive filled with digital submissions.
Peloton’s app now pairs with third-party treadmills for some subscribers
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Peloton is opening up its app to third-party treadmills for running, walking, or Tread Bootcamp classes. Pelo Buddy spotted a new support page on Peloton’s site announcing that the app can now record and display metrics on any treadmill that uses Bluetooth FTMS. The offer is only open to subscribers of the company’s most expensive subscription workout plan, Peloton App Plus.
To pair, you’ll start a Tread class in the Peloton app, then tap the “Connect a Bluetooth Device” option. Pick your treadmill from the list, and a green check mark lets you know when it’s connected.
Peloton says users can check their incline, speed, pace, and distance via the app during a class session. After the class is over, the app will also show estimated calorie burn and elevation gain. Also, sessions on third-party treadmills will still count towards challenges and badges.
The ultimate app for reading the internet
Illustration: William Joel / The Verge
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 18, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, hello, happy holidays, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
I also have for you a new way to play Grand Theft Auto, some new AI-powered note-taking and journaling tools, new stuff to watch this weekend, a look into the creator economy, and much more.
I also have a question. We only have one more Installer this year, so I figured now’s the time to do it: what was your favorite thing of 2023? I promise I won’t hold this to, like, a legal standard of this is your only favorite forever. But when you look back on the last 12 months, what new show / book / blog / app / creator entered your life that you’re particularly happy about? Tell me one, or two, or three! Doesn’t have to be new this year, just new to you. Email installer@theverge.com, or text / WhatsApp me at (203) 570-8663, and tell me everything. All things Favorites, coming your way in two weeks.
(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 want to get Installer in your email inbox a day early, subscribe here.)
The Drop
The NPR app. If you gave me $100, I could not tell you the difference between the NPR One app and the NPR app, or why they both existed. Luckily, they don’t anymore! There is just the new and nice NPR app, which does a good job of both curating stories into newsy playlists and just playing the shows I’m looking for.
TheGTAtrilogy on Netflix. Netflix’s gaming offering is becoming really impressive, really quickly. If you’re a subscriber, you now have free access to a bunch of good games, including three all-timer GTA titles: San Andreas, Vice City, and GTA III. They’re old, but they still rip.
Finalist. One of the niftier to-do list apps I’ve seen in a while. My main issue with Finalist at the beginning was I hated the color choices. With the new version, you can design the app any way you want! And it’s still a super-simple and pretty clever tasks system.
Journaling Suggestions in Day One. When I wrote about Apple’s Journal app — which is out for everyone now in iOS 17.2! — I said that Journaling Suggestions, the API that combs through your photos, activities, locations, music, and more to offer you stuff to journal about, was the most intriguing part of the product. Day One, my favorite journaling app, now integrates Suggestions right into the app. It works really well.
Epic’s holiday sale. This is one of the better “free games!” deals you’ll find: Epic is giving away a series of older titles over the course of the holiday season. Right now it’s the Destiny 2: Legacy Collection, which is a huge amount of Destiny content — and there are 16 more games left to claim. I’ll be keeping an eye on this one over the next few days.
The new Apple TV app. Every day, I swear, my Roku TV gets a little slower. And every day, I get a little closer to just plugging in an Apple TV. I really like what Apple’s trying to do with this app — universal search, cross-platform recommendations, easy buying and renting — even though it’s missing Netflix and a few other important services.
NotebookLM. Google’s AI-powered notes app still doesn’t have many features, and I still don’t totally understand why it’s not just a feature of Keep or Docs… but it’s a nifty app nonetheless. Upload your docs, summarize them, ask questions about them, make studying or researching a little easier.
Xbox Cloud Gaming on Quest 3. This might be the best reason yet to buy a VR headset. If you’re a Game Pass subscriber, you can now connect your controller, fire up a huge virtual TV, and play games from anywhere. This is going to become part of my bedtime routine way too quickly.
Deep dive
For a really long time, Instapaper was the most-used app on my phone. (This was back in the pre-TikTok era, when I spent more time reading and less time scrolling. But let’s not dwell on that change.) I read a lot for work, I will read any celebrity profile anywhere, and I’m forever looking for a better way to manage all the stuff I have to read.
This year, kind of by accident, I wound up doing a tour of all the best options. And good news, there are a bunch of them! Instapaper is still great; Matter is gorgeous; Omnivore is super powerful; Upnext is doing some clever AI stuff; even Pocket still does the job, though I dislike a lot of its recent design changes. We’re sort of spoiled for choice in this department.
But I’ve found the one for me, at least for now. It’s Readwise Reader, which works on iOS, Android, and the web. It’s still technically in beta but is already totally indispensable in my life and workflow. Here’s a few reasons why:
Reader can handleeverything. You can save articles, upload books, add videos, import RSS feeds, subscribe to newsletters, and more. The app does a really good job of sorting things into the right places, so you’re not just stuck with a giant mass of stuff. But it can parse, store, and organize practically anything of any file type, and I love it for that.
It’s more than just a queue. The first thing I loved about Reader was the homescreen, which shows you categories like “quick reads,” “long reads,” and “recently added.” There’s also a Digest feature that just grabs a bunch of stuff you’ve saved and tells you to read it today. I try to get through my digest every day, and so I’m actually reading stuff I saved more than ever.
It’s also kind of a note-taking app. Readwise’s original shtick was to compile all your notes and highlights from places like Kindle and Pocket into a searchable, reviewable archive. With Reader, I can highlight anything I upload, or any live webpage altogether, and everything goes into that same notes archive — all of which can sync to Notion, Obsidian, or other note-taking apps, too. All my reading, and all my notes, now live in the same place.
You can… read… video. I watch a lot of YouTube, for, uh, journalism. Reader adds a (good but not perfect) transcript to every video you save, so you can highlight and take notes just like on an article. Everything gets time-stamped, too, so you can find it later. It’s so helpful.
It’s super fast. One reason I’ve stopped using Reader in the past is that the app was kind of sluggish. One of those apps that always felt like it was working, you know what I mean? But recently it has been slimmed down and sped up, and now it feels pretty zippy — except when it’s loading the AI voice to read an article aloud, which takes forever, but I don’t care for that feature much anyway.
I only have two ongoing issues with Reader, really. One, it’s not the most attractive app; it feels more Productivity Tool than Beautiful Reading Space, you know? (I hate the app icon, too. Fingers crossed there’s a better one coming.) And two, it actually might have too many features for my taste. You can add tags, there’s an Inbox and a Feed and Library and a Later and an Archive, there are a million Views, just figuring out where everything goes takes a while. Oh, and a bonus third thing: it’s not cheap. The whole Readwise service — note syncing, Kindle integration, all that — costs $8 a month. Well worth it, if you ask me, but not cheap.
Speaking of: if you use this link, I think you’ll get two free months before you start paying instead of just one. Give it a whirl, let me know what you think and what you use to read on your devices!
Screen share
Tom Warren’s home office is probably cooler than yours. It’s definitely cooler than mine! He has a teleprompter, an outrageously cool custom-built PC, some sick wall art, and more. Tom is a setup connoisseur, in addition to being The Verge’s main authority on all things Microsoft, and I appreciate him for both things.
If you want all the desk-setup deets, you can find them on Reddit or ping Tom on Threads. But I wanted to know if he cares for his small screen as much as the big ones, so I asked him to share his homescreen with us.
Here’s Tom’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:
The phone: iPhone 15 Pro.
The wallpaper: One of The Verge ones I think. (Editor’s note:it’s this one.)
The two widgets are smart ones that rotate between Spotify and my 30-min electricity cost on the right, and my calendar and the weather on the left. The electricity one is there to monitor the best times to run appliances and charge my EV, because electric costs in the UK spiraled after the invasion of Ukraine. I also have quick access to my security cameras through Google Home, which itself has widgets for smart home controls. I have X, Threads, and Bluesky all in one easily accessible folder because I can’t decide which one replaces Twitter!
I also asked Tom to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he shared:
The Wombles. I was a huge fan of The Wombles growing up as a kid, so when I’m not listening to EDM loudly in my headphones, you’ll find me listening to an episode of The Wombles on BBC Sounds. It’s delightfully relaxing, thanks to the voice acting of Richard E. Grant.
TeeDee. TeeDee came on my radar when he did a mix of Dave and Secondcity’s “I Wanna Feel” last year. Since then I’m fully invested in his SoundCloud because he constantly produces absolute bangers.
The Finals. I’m obsessed with The Finals at the moment. It’s a destructive first-person arena shooter that’s blowing up on Twitch and Steam. It’s a big break from the usual Call of Duty, Overwatch, or battle royale formula, and I can’t stop smiling when I find some new way to explode buildings in the game.
Crowdsourced
Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Emailinstaller@theverge.comwith your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week.
“I used this shelf app called Anybox. This app is a box to quickly access any type of item: image, text, document, and links. The app allows customization for default action based on saved item type, we can preview, copy, share, and so on.” — Krishna
“Watching Fisk on Netflix. This Australian quirky comedy just released a second season this month. I love the short 25-minute episodes, makes it easy to watch and enjoy.” — Carter
“As you were talking about media organization / collection apps, please check out the game-tracking app developed by IGN called Playlist. It is free and I am liking it.” — OK
“AI wallpapers on the Google Pixel! I’ve been hooked on creating AI wallpapers and it feels like the combinations are truly endless. Going from an AI-generated painting of a mountain and spaceships to a surreal castle made of muslin with different color shades is wildly fun!” — Michael
“Listening to TheVergecastpodcast on how Twitter officially died this year and Watching Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes animation.” — Paul
“If it hasn’t been mentioned yet, or even if it has, you should check out the show Scavengers Reign on Max. Brilliant and freaky sci-fi wonderfulness!” — Edward
“Using Calibre to subscribe to newsletters / newspapers and have them appear on my kindle every morning gives me a beautiful little ‘slow internet’ experience while I sip my coffee.” — Jon
“This week I discovered Mammoth, an insanely gorgeous Mastodon app. Until now I’ve not been able to see past Ivory. Also Longplay is a brilliant iOS app to rediscover my album collection in Apple Music.” — Chris
“Spotify audiobooks. I know you don’t own the audiobooks after but it is really convenient to get 15 hours for free. It’s enough to get me through at least one medium-sized book each month. I use it with Libby and Audible to read a bunch during the month!” — Harrison
Signing off
This week, The Verge published one of my favorite packages we’ve ever done, all about the death of Twitter. The stories are good, read them all, but seriously, y’all: you have to go to The Great Scrollback of Alexandria and spend a few minutes / hours / months scrolling through thousands of the best tweets of all time. The list reorders every time you open the page, and if there’s a bottom of the list, I sure haven’t found it. Twitter was truly a deranged, horrible, wonderful place. And if you get to the 3944 tweet (you’ll know it when you see it), just know that I laughed for fully 15 minutes at that tweet. I hope you do, too.
We’re off next week for the holiday. Hope you have a great one, and see you in two weeks!
Ro Khanna Reminds Democrats: Americans Love Money “Maybe economics is one way of starting to unify this country,” says the congressman, often mentioned as a possible 2028 presidential candidate.
US Congress pushes warrantless wiretapping decision off until April next year
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Congress has extended Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for a few more months to April 2024. According to The New York Times, the program was included in the $886 billion National Defence Authorization Act, which passed the House by a vote of 310 to 118, with support from the majority of both parties, on December 14th. FISA was due to expire on December 31st, 2023.
Senator Ron Wyden wrote in a press release on December 8th that the vote to reauthorize FISA was inserted into the NDAA “without a vote or debate” before the Senate authorized and passed it to the House. Now, the vote has headed to the desk of President Biden, who has called for it to be reauthorized.
Section 702 empowers US intelligence agencies to spy on foreign targets’ communications without a warrant and is behind much of the US intelligence community’s behind-the-scenes data collection. According to the Center for Strategic & International Studies, although it was introduced in 2008 as a counterterrorism measure, Section 702 is now used for other illicit activity like cyberattacks, foreign espionage, and, as the Biden administration notes in a release last month, drug trafficking.
Privacy advocates say the tools it provides to US spy agencies enable spying on American citizens. Such as revelations earlier this year that the FBI used it inappropriately to gather details on US citizens 280,000 times in 2020 and 2021.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and other privacy advocates wrote in a letter urging Congress not to renew Section 702 on November 21st that the FBI has used it to access the communications of “tens of thousands” of American citizens, including protestors, activists, political donors, and Congressional members.
However, the EFF sees some hope, writing yesterday that the stalemate that led to its temporary authorization “means that the pro-surveillance hardliners of the intelligence community were not able to jam through their expansion of the program.” The group has called for reform of Section 702, including requiring warrants to access Americans’ communications, closing a loophole that lets spy agencies buy Americans’ data on the open market, and placing “reasonable limits on the scope of intelligence surveillance.”
California settles Activision Blizzard gender discrimination lawsuit for $54 million
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
A California regulator has settled its blockbuster lawsuit that alleged a culture of sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard. Now under the ownership of Microsoft, the gaming company will pay about $54 million as part of the settlement, according to a press release from California’s Civil Rights Department (CRD).
The CRD (formerly known as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing or DFEH) filed this lawsuit in July 2021, alleging that Activision Blizzard had a “frat boy” culture where women were subject to sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination. Following the suit, employees walked out, executives including then-Blizzard president J. Allen Brack and Blizzard’s former SVP of HR left the company, and, months later, The Wall Street Journal reported that CEO Bobby Kotick had known of sexual misconduct allegations for years.
However, as part of the settlement agreement, the CRD said that “no court or any independent investigation has substantiated any allegations” of sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard and that there wasn’t evidence of wrongdoing by Kotick, according to The New York Times. (The company told the SEC last year that an internal investigation found “no evidence to suggest” that senior executives ignored allegations of gender harassment.) The WSJ also reported on the lawsuit on Friday.
If a court approves the settlement, Activision Blizzard will pay about $54,875,000 to “cover direct relief to workers and litigation costs,” with $45,750,000 of that going to “a settlement fund dedicated to compensating workers,” the CRD says.
Months after California’s lawsuit, Microsoft announced that it intended to acquire Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion deal. Following a series of regulatory hurdles, that deal finally closed in October. Kotick will stay at Activision Blizzard until the end of the year.
Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now
The Apple Watch Series 9 isn’t a massive step up from the prior model, but it does offer a few new features. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
A few months ago, Apple launched its latest batch of smartwatches, introducing the Apple Watch Ultra 2 ($799) alongside the new Apple Watch Series 9 ($399). Each wearable has its own pros and cons, as does the second-gen Apple Watch SE ($249), but the introduction of the new wearables also means there are now more Apple Watch models on the market than ever before — and a lot more deals to be had.
But with all of those options, which one should you pick? Generally speaking, you want to buy the newest watch you can afford so that it continues to receive software updates from Apple. The latest update, watchOS 10, just launched on the Apple Watch Series 4 and newer, though no one can say with certainty whether the Series 4 will get the next big software update or whether it will be exclusive to newer watches.
Picking up a watch from the latest (or a recent) generation ensures you’re getting a smartwatch with an updated design, a robust number of features, and plenty of sensors. Now, let’s get into the deals.
The best Apple Watch Series 9 deals
The Apple Watch Series 9 represents the latest wearable in Apple’s flagship Series lineup. It introduces a slightly faster S9 SiP chip and a second-gen ultra wideband chip, which allow for onboard Siri processing and precision finding with your iPhone. It also offers a brighter, 2,000-nit display and works with Apple’s new “double tap,” a feature that lets you tap your thumb and index finger together to carry out various actions. While the improvements are welcome, the Series 9 isn’t a vast departure from the prior model, the Series 8.
The Apple Watch Series 9 only just arrived, but the GPS-equipped model is already on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy in the 41mm sizing for $329 ($70 off) or in the larger 45mm configuration at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for as low as $359 ($70 off). As for the LTE model with cellular connectivity, it’s currently available at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy starting at $429 ($70 off), matching its all-time low.
The Apple Watch SE received a refresh in late 2022. It has the same chipset as the Series 8, which is great, but with fewer sensors, no always-on display, and a slightly outdated design compared to the Series 8 and Series 9. Those omissions might take this out of the running for some people, but it still may be exactly what you’re after. Best of all, it starts at $249 for the 40mm Wi-Fi / GPS model, which is $30 less than the previous generation’s baseline cost. Opting for cellular connectivity bumps up the starting price to $299 for the 40mm size (44mm adds $20 to each configuration).
Right now, the 40mm Apple Watch SE with GPS is on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for $199 ($50 off); it’s also available in the 44mm sizing for $229 ($50 off) at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. And if you want the LTE configuration, it’s available at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy starting at $249 ($50 off), one of its lowest prices to date.
Apple’s latest Apple Watch Ultra launched at $799 in September with GPS and LTE support, much like the original model. The ultra-capable smartwatch has the most features, sensors, and ruggedness of any Apple Watch model available thus far, along with a display that’s 50 percent brighter than the first Ultra. The 49mm smartwatch also packs Apple’s new S9 SiP and second-gen ultra wideband chips, just like the Apple Watch Series 9, while maintaining long-lasting battery life, precise GPS tracking, and a bevy of diving-friendly sensors.
We recently saw the Apple Watch Ultra 2 dip to $739 for Black Friday. Thankfully, it’s currently on sale for even less at Amazon, where you can grab it starting at just $699 ($100 off) when you clip the on-page coupon. The current promo only applies to the model with an Alpine Loop strap, however, you can also pick up Apple’s latest wearable with either a Trail Loop or an Ocean Band for around $729 ($70 off) using a similar on-page coupon.
While all of the Apple Watch models and colorways covered here are encased in aluminum (except the Ultras, which have a titanium build), Apple does make a more premium range built out of stainless steel and titanium. These offerings are functionally and aesthetically similar to their aluminum counterparts, with slightly refined colors and finishings — polished for the stainless steel and brushed for the titanium. However, they start at much steeper prices of $749 and above. They, too, can often be found on sale, but they’re never discounted as low as the standard base models, so we don’t include them here.
Apple fixed the iPhone’s Flipper Zero problem
Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Apple has blocked a Bluetooth attack carried out with the Flipper Zero that sent a barrage of pop-ups to iPhones, causing them to lock up and crash. While Apple hasn’t formally announced the change, it appears the company has rolled out a fix in iOS 17.2, according to tests from ZDNET and 9to5Mac.
The attack, which allowed users to crash nearby iPhones running iOS 17.0, involved the Flipper Zero, a tiny, jack-of-all-trades hacking device. A third-party firmware called Flipper Xtreme included a feature that allowed the Flipper’s built-in Bluetooth radio to blast an overwhelming number of Bluetooth alerts to devices.
Until now, the only way to prevent the attacks was to completely disable Bluetooth on the iPhone, but it looks like Apple has finally addressed the vulnerability. When attempting to lock up an iPhone running iOS 17.2 with the Flipper Zero, both ZDNET and 9to5Mac found that only a few pop-ups appeared on the device. Fortunately, the number of notifications wasn’t enough to cause the device to crash.
We still don’t know exactly what Apple did to make the fix, but The Verge reached out to Apple with a request for more information, and we’ll update this article if we hear back. For now, though, it’s a good idea to update your iPhone to iOS 17.2 if you haven’t already.
Studios are loosening their reluctance to send shows to Netflix. When building their own streaming companies, many entertainment studios ended lucrative licensing deals with Netflix. But they missed the money too much.
Vivo’s X100 Pro offers another massive camera sensor to an international audience
The Vivo X100 Pro in blue. | Image: Vivo
Even in tiny smartphone cameras, lenses matter. Vivo seems to agree since lens improvements are a major emphasis on its new flagship smartphones: the Vivo X100 and Vivo X100 Pro. They launched in China first on November 13th, and now Vivo is releasing them internationally with matching 6.78-inch 120Hz OLED screens.
The X100 will be available in Southeast Asian markets, including India and Indonesia, and the higher-tier X100 Pro will also be available in European markets. And no surprise — the US isn’t getting either of the devices.
Like the X90 Pro before it, the X100 Pro offers a 50-megapixel one-inch-type main camera — a huge sensor by smartphone standards. Vivo says it’s been tuned with “Optical Precision Calibration” for “consistent sharpness and quality.” The X100 Pro’s 50-megapixel telephoto camera also gets a bump up to 4.3x optical magnification versus 2x on the previous model. It comes with a new APO designation, which is Zeiss’ terminology for a lens designed to reduce chromatic aberration. There’s also a floating lens element — which, no, doesn’t literally float — to enable close-up photography with the tele lens.
Image: Vivo
The non-Pro X100, which isn’t coming to Europe.
The X100 has a more pedestrian 50-megapixel 1/1.49-inch-type main camera sensor, as well as a 64-megapixel 3x optical telephoto. There’s no floating element here, but Zeiss coatings have been applied to lenses on both devices. Both phones have 50-megapixel ultrawide cameras as well as a secondary imaging chip, but the X100’s is an older V2 while the Pro gets the newest V3, enabling 4K cinematic portrait video.
The X100 and X100 Pro are both built on MediaTek’s Dimensity 9300 flagship chipset. Most other flagship series put a smaller screen in the “lesser” model. Not so with Vivo — both use that same 6.78-inch OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. They both come with an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, too. So the primary differences are the camera ones detailed above.
Vivo’s X90 Pro showed a lot of promise when I tested its camera earlier this year against the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. The company is sticking with the big image sensor strategy, which has certain advantages like better baseline noise performance and more natural bokeh. But at the time, Samsung still came out ahead in most situations with its more-pixels-more-better ethos and savvy computational processing. It’s nice to see Vivo doubling down on lens quality — in my tests, the X90 Pro showed some lens aberrations that spoiled some of my images. In any case, it probably won’t be too long until the X100 Pro and the seemingly imminent Galaxy S24 Ultra meet for a rematch.
Vivo declined to share European pricing information under embargo but said that the X100 Pro will retail for HK$7,998 in Hong Kong, which translates to around €937 or $1,024. The non-Pro X100, meanwhile, will cost HK$5,998 (around $768 / €702).
The Last of Us Multiplayer Video Game Is Scrapped The video game studio Naughty Dog said The Last of Us Online was too resource-intensive to complete without delaying the development of future single-player versions of the game.
Naughty Dog cancels its The Last of Us multiplayer game
Image: Sony
Naughty Dog announced Thursday that it’s canceled the multiplayer game it was building in The Last of Us universe.
The studio says it has been in pre-production on The Last of Us Online even while working on The Last of Us Part II. “We were enthusiastic about the direction in which we were headed,” according to a blog post about the news.
However, “to release and support The Last of Us Online we’d have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come, severely impacting development on future single-player games,” Naughty Dog says. “So, we had two paths in front of us: become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage.”
Clearly, Naughty Dog is picking the latter path — it also says it has “more than one” big new single-player title in the works.
The Last of Us Online development already seemed to be in some trouble, as Naughty Dog announced a delay to the game in May shortly after Bloomberg reported that Sony was re-evaluating the game’s direction. (In that same delay announcement, Naughty Dog also revealed it was working on a “brand-new single player experience.”) In Kotaku’s October report about Naughty Dog laying off some contractors, the publication said that The Last of Us’ Online was “basically on ice.”
The cancellation of The Last of Us Online adds to Sony’s broader pushback of its live service ambitions. Instead of releasing 12 live service games by March 2026, it now only plans to release six.
Sony and Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II Remastered will be released on January 19th, 2024. The second season of the hit HBO show is set to debut in 2025.
The Tesla Cybertruck’s infamous wiper will reportedly cost $165 to replace
Parker Ortolani / The Verge
The Verge, your source for Tesla Cybertruck windshield wiper news, is unreasonably happy to potentially reveal: a Cybertruck windshield wiper replacement may cost as little as $165 for the entire arm and blade assembly, or $75 for just the wiper blade itself.
The Cybertruck’s entire windshield will also be replaceable, of course, and will cost you a cool $1,900, assuming these prices are accurate and assuming they’re consumer prices rather than internal prices. (I am not sure if that’s a safe assumption, but if so, they seem reasonable for a $60K-and-up vehicle.)
Now Microsoft PowerPoint for the web can add videos with closed captions
Illustration: The Verge
PowerPoint for the web now lets users insert videos with closed captions and subtitles into presentations, reports Windows Central. It should make presentations created in the Microsoft 365 suite more accessible to Deaf people or those hard of hearing, but the feature also offers other benefits.
You can add closed captions in multiple languages, allowing users to connect with audiences worldwide, and captions also make it easier to watch videos in loud environments or quietly without disturbing people around you. It’s also become a feature people expect to see as support for subtitling expands in apps like TikTok, Netflix, Zoom, and more.
To embed a video and insert captions, users must first create closed caption files in the WebVTT format by either using a caption-creation tool or a text editor like Notepad.
After doing so, users can sign into PowerPoint for the web with their Microsoft account and create a new presentation. Upon selecting Video, they then need to click on Insert and choose Insert Video. Once they’ve added the video file, they need to select the captions file by clicking on Video and Insert Captions.
To add captions in multiple languages, you’ll need to insert multiple caption files. You’ll also need to rename the end of the file title to the standard locale, so it looks something like “MyClosedCaptions.en.vtt” for English or “MyClosedCaptions.es.vtt” for Spanish.
Microsoft has increasingly prioritized accessibility, recently calling Windows 11 its most “inclusive version” of the Windows operating system. It highlighted updates that allow users to generate live captions in even more languages and employees to sign in to PCs with just their voices. Meanwhile, in March, Microsoft introduced an “Accessibility Assistant” for Microsoft 365 to let users know when they’re writing inaccessible content, along with 3D-printed attachments and grips for the Surface Pen.
Political Debate Is Rife on TikTok. Politicians? Not So Much. Very few politicians, including the top candidates for president, are on the hugely popular video app — perhaps ceding much of the political discussion to others.
Starlink loses out on $886 million in rural broadband subsidies
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The FCC announced today that it won’t award Elon Musk’s Starlink an $886 million subsidy from the Universal Service Fund for expanding broadband service in rural areas. The money would have come from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program (RDOF), but the FCC writes that Starlink wasn’t able to “demonstrate that it could deliver the promised service” and that giving the subsidy to it wouldn’t be “the best use of limited Universal Service Fund dollars.”
That was the same reason the FCC gave when it rejected Starlink’s bid last year, which led to this appeal. SpaceX had previously won the bidding to roll out 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload “low-latency internet to 642,925 locations in 35 states,” funded by the RDOF.
“The FCC is tasked with ensuring consumers everywhere have access to high-speed broadband that is reliable and affordable,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said. “This applicant had failed to meet its burden to be entitled to nearly $900 million in universal service funds for almost a decade.” FCC commissioner Brendan Carr dissented, writing that “the FCC did not require — and has never required — any other award winner to show that it met its service obligation years ahead of time.”
President Biden has promised more equitable internet access since taking office. But his funding plan was slashed by the time it became law, with the final version offering no money for locally-run internet service.
Christopher Cardaci, head of legal at SpaceX, writes in a letter to the FCC that “Starlink is arguably the only viable option to immediately connect many of the Americans who live and work in the rural and remote areas of the country where high-speed, low-latency internet has been unreliable, unaffordable, or completely unavailable, the very people RDOF was supposed to connect.”
Those who subscribe to Snapchat’s $3.99 plan can use the feature by tapping the “AI” button from the toolbar on the right side of the camera interface. This opens up a window where users can type a text prompt or choose from one of the premade options, like “a futuristic disco” or “a rocket preparing for liftoff.”
Image: Snap
From there, Snapchat’s AI will spit out an image based on the prompt, allowing users to edit it and add a message before sending it off to friends and family on the app. Snapchat is rolling out some other AI-powered perks for subscribers as well, including a way to make the subject of a photo appear farther away from the camera by using AI to fill in the background. Users can try the feature by taking a close-up, pressing the “crop” icon in the camera interface, and selecting “extend.”
Google Loses Antitrust Court Battle With Makers of Fortnite Video Game The ruling could reshape the rules of how other businesses can make money on the Android operating system.
Google is finally saying goodbye to Google Play Movies & TV
Illustration: The Verge
Google is about to fully move on from the Google Play Movies & TV. It had already moved Android and iOS users to the Google TV app, removed the app from every Roku and most smart TVs, and pulled the app from Android TV in October. In a recently published support document, however, Google detailed the ways you’ll be able to watch the shows and movies you’ve bought through Google Play Movies & TV once the brand is gone for good in January.
If you have a TV or streaming device powered by Android TV, you can watch things you’ve purchased or things you want to rent from the Shop tab starting January 17th, according to Google. If you have a cable box or a set-top box that runs Android TV, you’ll watch / rent from the YouTube app starting that same day. And on a browser, YouTube is the place to go, too.
Google has been slowly pushing users away from Google Play Movies & TV for quite awhile, and 9to5Google reports that the Google Play Movies & TV app on Android TV has already started pointing to the Shop tab, so hopefully these changes won’t make for too jarring of a transition. Notably, you’ll still be able to watch the things you’ve purchased even though you’ll be getting the content from a different place, which is better than Sony’s announcement that it will be removing Discovery content that users paid for from their libraries.
Google isn’t the only one consolidating its entertainment apps and platforms. Apple introduced a refreshed TV app that lets you access things like Apple TV Plus as well as buy and rent shows and movies all in one app.
The Nation Magazine to Become Monthly The progressive publication will move to the new schedule in January, and each issue will be 84 pages instead of 48.
What Ails Offshore Wind: Supply Chains, Ships and Interest Rates Government officials and energy developers misjudged the difficulty of building huge clean energy projects in the United States, which has built very few of them.
Be skeptical about QR codes, warns the FTC
Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warned the public against scanning any old QR code in a consumer alerts blog last week. Naturally, the warning comes down to security and privacy — bad actors can put QR codes in inconspicuous places or send them via text or email, then just sit back and wait for a payday in the form of money, logins, or other sensitive information.
The New York Times reported that John Fokker, who heads threat intelligence at cybersecurity company Trellix, says Trellix found over “60,000 samples of QR code attacks” in the third quarter this year alone. The Times wrote that the most popular scams involved payroll and HR personnel impersonators and postal scams, among others. Early last year, police in several Texas cities said they’d found fraudulent QR codes placed on parking meters, directing people to a false payment site.
To avoid being victimized by a bad code, the FTC suggests ignoring unexpected emails or other messages you weren’t expecting that come with some sort of urgent request. It’s also good to check the URL that shows up on your screen when scanning to make sure it’s a site you trust. Then again, even a legitimate QR code can show you a garbled and meaningless shortened web address, so if you know what site you want to visit, it’s best to go there directly.
The Commission also recommends the old standby of updating your devices and ensuring you have good, strong passwords and multi-factor authentication in place for sensitive accounts. If you’re unsure how to do that second part, check out our two-factor authentication guide, which has instructions for several of the most popular sites and services.
Beyond the FTC’s recommendation, there are other things you can do. Don’t download a QR code scanning app, for one — built-in camera apps for Android and iOS already do that, and apps can sometimes be made for nefarious purposes themselves. The FBI also has a list of recommendations in a similar blog it published in September, but in general, if you aren’t sure about a code, don’t scan it.
Apple’s iPad plans for next year could be a lot less confusing
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Apple is reportedly making some changes next year that it hopes will make it easier for people to fit a specific iPad to their needs. For instance, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman wrote in his Power On newsletter today that the next iPad Air will get an M2 chip in addition to the larger second model that’s been rumored.
One of the other ways Apple is reportedly tackling the issue is to drop the 9th-generation model that’s been dangling off of the front of the lineup since last year’s pricier 10th-generation iPad redesign launched. Gurman says sending the 9th-gen iPad out to pasture will let the company “slowly phase out some of its older Pencils.” Presumably, the 2015 Apple Pencil will be the first to go, once there’s no Lightning port iPad to awkwardly plug it into.
Gurman has pegged March for the launch of the new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Air, which would keep Apple’s mid-level on a two-year upgrade cycle. His report today that the Air will get an M2 chip while the Pro models get the M3 nod would firmly put the Air one processor generation behind. But that doesn’t mean the iPad Air will suffer for it, nor that Apple even should give it an M3 chip. Barring any drastic changes in how iPadOS functions that turns iPads into practical laptop replacements for more varied and compute-intensive tasks, the OLED screen that’s rumored for the iPad Pro will be a bigger differentiator for most people than which Apple silicon chip is doing the work.
Gurman also wrote that the new 12.9-inch Air will work with the same Magic Keyboard that’s available today for the iPad Pro. If that’s true, it would make sense if Apple gives the next iPad Air models iPad Pro-like camera arrays. After all, I doubt we’ve phased into an alternate dimension where it wouldn’t drive the company bonkers to see a keyboard case with a big square camera hole on the Air’s single tiny, round camera.
These are good moves for Apple, even if the updates don’t fully sort out the iPad’s awkward situation. Today’s iPads are just too different from one another. Picking based on power needs and hardware features is so much easier if certain other features, like screen size, are the same or at least close enough. But if you really want a big tablet and don’t give a hoot about high refresh rate or high-contrast displays, it’s been annoying that only the iPad Pro offers it — the bigger Air fixes that. Now, if only the company could rectify the iPad accessory situation.
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