British monarchy rocked by bad Photoshop job
Screenshot by Alex Cranz/The Verge
After months of speculation on the whereabouts of Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales and future Queen of England, the Royal Family released an image today that appears to have been edited. It’s so edited that the Associated Press and Reuters issued rare kill notifications for it.
It is incredible in its ineptitude. If the goal was to reassure the public about Middleton’s whereabouts, the image has backfired spectacularly.
The image is unsettling at first glance. Everyone is smiling so brightly they look like a Snapchat filter. Middleton is seated in the image — understandable given she had some sort of undisclosed abdominal procedure in January — but the perspective seems wrong. Are her arms really that long? The more you stare at the image the more you feel like you’re reading Highlights in the waiting room of your dentist. Can you find every problem in the picture?
This image was released months after Middleton disappeared from public view. The Royal Family has been cagey about her health and what has led to her absence, leading to conspiracy theories. Dropping a clearly edited image of her on Mother’s Day in the UK isn’t going to help matters.
And for the British monarchy, image is everything, as revealed in Spare, the memoir by Prince Harry. In it, Middleton’s brother-in-law writes about how he was sacrificed to the British tabloids to distract from stories that might have made his father (King Charles) or his brother (Prince William, heir apparent) look bad. The art of image management is key for the royal family, and has been since Queen Elizabeth’s coronation was broadcast live. An important part of the royals’ jobs is appearing in photos.
The Middleton photo raises some questions. It’s possible this is just a case of shitty Photoshop used to stitch together several photos so that the best expression on each person’s face was used. (Children are notorious for being difficult to photograph.) But the job is so clumsy, particularly around the hands, that one wonders if the intent was to keep us all talking about Middleton’s prolonged absence.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel is coming in 2026
Image: Universal Pictures
The Super Mario Bros. Movie was a huge hit for Nintendo, raking in over $1 billion at the box office, so producing a follow-up movie was an easy decision to make. In a new video, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and Illumination Entertainment’s Chris Meledandri shared that the next movie is in development, with a release date set for April 3rd, 2026.
Meledandri says Illumination Studios Paris, which worked on the first film, is storyboarding the movie under the direction, once again, of Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic. He added that animation is starting soon. And after the movie’s April 3rd release in the US “and many other markets globally,” it will come to “select territories” throughout the rest of the month.
Miyamoto says that the movie will “have a bright and fun story” that expands on the world established in the first movie.
With the November announcement of a live-action Legend of Zelda film, we now have not one, but two confirmed movies in development based on major Nintendo intellectual properties. There’s not much information about the company’s theatrical plans for Link. Wes Ball, director of the Maze Runner trilogy and the upcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, will helm the movie, with Avi Arad and Miyamoto producing.
The perfect music streaming app does not exist
Image: William Joel / The Verge
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 29, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, I promise I don’t always complain about music streaming, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
I also have for you a cheap new smartphone, a cheap(er) electric car, a fun new show on Netflix, a high-end webcam, and yet another reason to watch John Oliver. Let’s dig in.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you playing / watching / reading / coding / sculpting right now? What are you into that everyone else should also be into? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them, and tell them to subscribe here.)
The Drop
The Nothing Phone 2A. It has been a long time since I was this excited about a cheap smartphone. It doesn’t work on every network in the US, but a $350 phone that looks good and makes mostly reasonable compromises? More of this, please.
Last Week Tonight’s Boeing segment. Telling you to watch John Oliver is not groundbreaking information, I know. But this is a really good one! And it tells a story about how companies and products change that will sound like an awful lot of the tech industry.
The Logitech MX Brio. This high-end $200 webcam might be two years too late to really be everywhere, but I’ve been looking for a webcam that is both good and simple for… forever and still haven’t found it. Logitech always nails simple, and this one sounds like it might really be good.
The Gentlemen. A high-budget, high-concept Netflix show about fancy people and drugs based on a deeply silly action movie? I’d watch every second of this even if it was awful — but based on the early feedback, it’s not awful at all.
MyMind. This has long been one of my favorite apps: it’s like a personal Pinterest, a place to keep all the stuff you care about and like and want to remember. The newest feature — Serendipity, which resurfaces stuff you’ve saved in a super-focused way — is only on iOS for now, but the MyMind Android app is also getting better fast.
CleanMyPhone. MacPaw makes some of my favorite device cleanup devices (CleanMyMac and CleanMyPC have saved me a million times), and I’m already digging this as a way to clean up my iPhone’s camera roll. The app’s expensive ($24.99 a year), but you can get a lot done in the three-day free trial… just saying.
“The BEST remote control was made in 2005.” I will never stop wanting great universal remotes to be a thing. Never ever ever. This very funny 16-minute video about the Harmony 880, one of the all-time greats, had me eBay shopping for one of my own.
The M3 MacBook Air. I will always miss the wedge design, but I’m already beginning to talk myself into upgrading — the new Air’s battery and performance both sound ridiculous, and I’m extremely into that midnight color. I don’t need a new computer, I don’t need a new computer, I don’t need a new computer.
The Rivian R3. The new R2 also looks good — cheaper, glove compartments, two scroll wheels?! — and is definitely coming sooner. But I’m really into the R3, which is smaller and sportier and gives me vintage Land Rover vibes in a way I very much enjoy.
Group project
Last week, when I mentioned at the end of the newsletter how silly I feel paying for so many music services, I didn’t expect to hear from anyone — except maybe the folks who like to remind me that I’m an idiot. But it turns out, I’m not alone! I heard from a lot of folks who are also struggling to figure out which music service to use, which to pay for, how to switch, and more.
Also, fun fact: the only music services I heard about at all were Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music,Amazon Music, and Tidal. There are a million others out there, but none seem to matter much. Oh, wait! Except for Qobuz! One person mentioned Qobuz! Big day for Qobuz!
Anyway, I thought I’d offer some of the thoughts and guidance you all shared over the last week or so. Here’s what I’ve learned:
Maybe all the music services are bad? I heard from a lot of what I’d call “Begrudging Music Streamers” who hate the interface and the lack of high-quality audio in their app but feel stuck for one reason or another. (Family plans keep us all locked in, it seems.) Spotify was the primary offender here, but even folks who use YouTube Music or Amazon Music seem to be perpetually searching for something better. Except something better might not exist.
Apple Music wins on interface. Almost everyone who told me they liked Apple Music told me they liked its tools for managing playlists and libraries. If you’re the organizing type, there’s no better music app.
But Spotify wins on recommendations. Turns out, the same thing keeps you all hooked on Spotify that has me there, too: personalized playlists like Release Radar and the Daily Mixes, along with being able to see what your friends are listening to. Apple’s new “Heavy Rotation Mix” is a good start, but nobody can touch Spotify in this realm.
Spotify is alsoeverywhere. It’s integrated into Bluetooth speakers, Sonos speakers, lots of car interfaces, fitness trackers, voice assistants, and practically everything else. That was important to a lot of folks — your music service should be available everywhere you want music, and Spotify has that pretty much covered.
YouTube wins by being YouTube. I really thought you’d all make fun of me for spending a billion dollars a month on YouTube Premium, but it turns out, I’m not alone! YouTube Music is kind of a meh app, but it’s included, and the overall YouTube corpus of music is just unbeatable. If I leave Spotify, I think this is where I’m headed.
Tidal is still kicking. I honestly think every single Tidal user emailed me this week to remind me that Tidal is good. I believe you! One person, Marcus, said they Plexamp to stream both Tidal and their local music collection, which is a pretty good trick.
My big takeaway is both sort of bleak and very clarifying: there is no perfect music app, which means both that you can happily stick with the one that you have and also easily bail if you want to save money or try something new. And as a few people reminded me, there are practically always ways to get deals on music services, whether you’re getting free Apple Music when you buy a new device or getting Spotify through your wireless carrier.
Personally, I finally finished using Soundiiz to copy all of my playlists to YouTube Music, and I think I’m going to give that a whirl — but I have a feeling I’ll end up back on Spotify. I just can’t leave my Daily Mixes.
Screen share
Sometimes, The Verge’s Liz Lopatto writes about technology. Just as often, she writes about how much she doesn’t like using technology — or about, like, pens. Which I know she would argue counts as technology, so we’ll call that one a tie.
Anyway, I asked Liz to share her homescreen precisely because of her forever-conflicted relationship to her phone. She immediately told me that, well, actually, her homescreen is her *second* homescreen, for reasons even she couldn’t explain. This is the stuff we love here at Installer.
Here’s Liz’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps she uses and why:
The phone: An iPhone 12 Mini.
The wallpaper: A photo of Jeeves from when she came with me to New York for the SBF trial reporting I was doing last October. We stayed in an apartment on the 27th floor, and she was completely obsessed with the view. I have a ton of photos of her looking out the window, including one where she’s looking down so intently that her little ears are bending from where she pressed them against the glass, but this one is my favorite.
The apps: Google Maps, Fantastical, Slack, Carrot Weather, Green Yogi, Gmail, Phone, Safari, Spotify.
This is the second page of my phone, which is functionally my homescreen. Why did I do it this way? Great question, no idea. My best guess is that 10-ish years ago, when I switched away from BlackBerry, I didn’t bother to move any of the Apple preloaded apps and just started on a fresh page.
You’ll notice I have a “$$$$” and “Finance” folder… one of them is my personal money stuff, and the other is apps I use for reporting. My yoga studio has an app for signing up for classes, so that’s one of my most frequently used apps. I like Carrot for weather better than Apple’s preloaded app even though I find its “sassiness” annoying. The reference folder contains the OED app and my favorite search engine, Wikipedia.
The more I type, the more deranged I feel I sound? But yes, I live like this.
I keep all my social media, etc. stuff out of my direct line of sight when I open my phone, which works really well for keeping my use low. Bluesky, etc. are on the third page, in a folder, and deliberately annoying to get to. Also, I have alerts off for every app except my text messages and work Slack. It’s very peaceful; highly recommend it.
I also asked Liz to share a few things she’s into right now. Here’s what she sent back:
Right now, I’m reading the new translation (by Douglas Weatherford) of Pedro Páramo, and I’ve been astonished at how much better I like it than the previous version I read. I’ve kind of been reading it more slowly than I usually read books because I don’t want it to end.
And after writing a goofy pen blog and getting a bunch of reader emails — and a bunch of DMs from my fellow staffers — I bit the bullet and bought a fountain pen, which I quickly fell in love with. Then, I immediately boughtmore. And because the pens are fun to write with, and the ink samples I have are beautiful, I’ve been sending family members old-fashioned mail, pen pal style. I love physical media; touch is such an important sense to me.
In terms of internet stuff, I love “What Makes This Song Stink,” which posts like once every six months — perfect for me, I don’t like trying to keep up with YouTube — and though it seems casual and shaggy, Pat Finnerty actually scripts it tightly. I am so delighted by his writing and editing. Every joke has a payoff! I have inadvertently been learning a bunch of music theory, which has made me appreciate the songs I do like a lot more. I recommend starting with the Weezer episode, which turns out to be a sweet meditation on getting older.
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.comor message +1 203-570-8663 with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week.
“Two clutch MagSafe mounts for the bathroom: one for next to the mirror and one for the shower. One says JOYROOM on it, which is hilarious in the context of a bathroom, but if you want to listen to a pod in the shower, it’s unbeatable. The Peak Design mount is better — it’s for watching YouTube TV while I shave.” – Nilay
“I’ve been addicted to the new game mode “No Return” in The Last of Us Part II. The goal is to survive a series of encounters involving an impressive number of maps, objectives, modifiers, and characters that can be randomly picked or manually chosen. I had to improvise a lot, cause the enemies are smart, the modifiers can handicap you severely and dying ends the playthrough. Be warned!” – Xyan
“Missing the iPod click wheel? I bought this macro pad mostly to make it so that rotating the knob with one finger scrolls up and down.” – Miguel
“Listening to the smart kitchen Vergecast episode, I thought I’d share the meal planning service I use from Rainbow Plant Life. Since it does a lot of what was mentioned in that episode just without using cameras and sensors. They send you a weekly grocery list, the recipes, tips, storage instructions, what to do on the weekend vs. in the week. Basically everything you would want to know. This one is set up for 2 people but you can scale the recipes as needed.” – Zach
“Check out newsmap.js. It visualizes Google News in a helpful way.” – Jeremy
“This is the best explainer video you can watch about AR smart glasses tech and why it is so difficult to make them look like regular glasses.” – Dhiliphan
“I’ve been getting into Disney’s trading card game Lorcana. It’s a neat, fun, and surprisingly easy-to-learn TCG that I just got my nine-year-old sister to start playing, and she loves it. I can see myself spending a lot of money on it.” – Bryan
“I’ve been rewatching Michael Fisher’s “When Phones Were Fun” series on YouTube, a delightful dive into a much more interesting time in mobile.” – Josh
“The new season of Tokyo Vice is fantastic! The first season was good enough, with some fun ‘fish out of water’ bits and a compelling Yakuza story but season two is really driving the shit out of the character development- especially the side characters. I love it.” – John
“Fell in love again with Fantastical. The free version is damn good. Great design and what makes me love it more than Amie or Notion Cal is the intelligent natural language input and ability to sync with Todoist.” – Irfan
Signing off
Jacob Collier is one of those people I’ve seen a million times on TikTok and YouTube — big wild hair and cool sweaters, always talking about some esoteric musical theory I don’t understand but nonetheless will watch him talk about for an hour — but I know almost nothing about him. But now, with an album coming out, there’s been a glut of great Collier Content: an interview with Colin and Samir, a really fun Switched on Popepisode, and an interview with CBC. However you feel about his music, the way he thinks about creativity, collaboration, the internet, and streaming, is just fascinating. Also: the sweaters just keep getting better.
Elon Musk Has a Giant Charity. Its Money Stays Close to Home. After making billions in tax-deductible donations to his philanthropy, the owner of Tesla and SpaceX gave away far less than required in some years — and what he did give often supported his own interests.
Sam Altman rejoins OpenAI’s board after investigation into sudden firing
Sam Altman.
An independent investigation commissioned by OpenAI’s nonprofit board has found that CEO Sam Altman’s conduct “did not mandate removal.” After surviving an attempted boardroom coup in November, he will now rejoin the board.
In a press release, board chair Bret Taylor said the law firm WilmerHale interviewed board members, employees, and reviewed “more than 30,000 documents” to reach the conclusion that Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman “are the right leaders for OpenAI.”
In addition to Altman, Taylor also announced three more OpenAI board members: Sue Desmond-Hellmann, the former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Nicole Seligman, a former legal executive at Sony, and Fidji Simo, the CEO of Instacart. They will join Taylor, Altman, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, and Larry Summers in governing OpenAI’s nonprofit parent company.
For those seeking to better understand why Altman was suddenly fired from his perch last fall, OpenAI’s public summary of the WilmerHale investigation is frustratingly light on details. The law firm found that the board believed it “would mitigate internal management challenges” by firing Altman suddenly, and that the “decision did not arise out of concerns regarding product safety or security, the pace of development, OpenAI’s finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners.”
The investigation summary uses the same vague language OpenAI’s board published to justify its decision at the time: “Instead, it was a consequence of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust between the prior Board and Mr. Altman.” The law firm found that the prior board moved “without advance notice to key stakeholders, and without a full inquiry or an opportunity for Mr. Altman to address the prior Board’s concerns.”
On a short video call with reporters Friday, Altman apologized for believing that “a former OpenAI board member was harming OpenAI through their actions” but declined to go into more detail.
It has been widely reported that Altman tussled with former board member Helen Toner over an academic paper she co-authored that was critical of OpenAI’s approach to safety, and that others expressed concerns about the conflicts of interest posed by Altman’s other investments.
OpenAI said on Friday that it planned to “strengthen” its conflict of interest policy for employees without elaborating, and that it would also create a whistleblower hotline for employees and contractors.
Altman appeared cheerful while sitting next to Bret Taylor on the call with reporters Friday. He said that recent “leaks in the press” intended “to pit us against each other” had “not worked,” and that he is “pleased this whole thing is over.”
Google fired an employee who protested its contract with the Israeli military
Illustration: The Verge
Google has fired an employee who publicly protested the company’s work for the Israeli military. During a presentation by an executive with Google’s Israel branch on Monday, the now-former Google Cloud engineer stood up and shouted, “I refuse to build technology that powers genocide or surveillance.”
Google confirmed the firing, which was first reported by CNBC, in an email to The Verge. “Earlier this week, an employee disrupted a coworker who was giving a presentation — interfering with an official company-sponsored event,” Google spokesperson Bailey Tomson says in an emailed statement. “This behavior is not okay, regardless of the issue, and the employee was terminated for violating our policies.”
BREAKING—PRO-PALESTINE @googlecloud ENGINEER DISRUPTS @Google ISRAEL DIRECTOR AT GOOGLE-SPONSORED ISRAELI TECH CONFERENCE IN NYC.
— No Tech For Apartheid (@NoTechApartheid) March 4, 2024
The incident occurred at Mind the Tech, an annual Israeli tech conference in New York, during a presentation from Google Israel managing director Barak Regev. The engineer was protesting Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion Israeli government contract for access to cloud services from Google and Amazon. “Project Nimbus puts Palestinian community members in danger,” the employee said. “No cloud apartheid.” The employee was escorted out of the presentation shortly after.
Google faced pushback over its involvement in Project Nimbus when the contract was signed in 2021. Hundreds of Google and Amazon employees published an open letter to speak out against the deal, saying the technologies “allow for further surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians.”
No Tech For Apartheid, an organization rallying against Project Nimbus, published a statement about the engineer’s firing on Friday. “Google’s aims are clear: The corporation is trying to silence workers to hide their moral failings,” the organization said. “As a Cloud Software Engineer on critical technology that enables Project Nimbus to run on sovereign Israeli data centers, this worker spoke from a place of deep personal concern about the direct, violent impacts of their labor.”
Since the Israel-Hamas war broke out last October, employees have staged a “die-in” at the company’s San Francisco offices to protest the cloud services contract, and over 600 employees signed a letter urging Google to stop sponsoring the Mind the Tech conference, according to a report from Wired.
Florida teens arrested for creating ‘deepfake’ AI nude images of classmates
Illustration by Haein Jeong / The Verge
Two Florida middle schoolers were arrested in December and charged with third-degree felonies for allegedly creating deepfake nudes of their classmates. A report by Wired cites police reports saying two boys, aged 13 and 14, are accused of using an unnamed “artificial intelligence application” to generate the explicit images of other students “between the ages of 12 and 13.” The incident may be the first US instance of criminal charges related to AI-generated nude images.
They were charged with third-degree felonies under a 2022 Florida law that criminalizes the dissemination of deepfake sexually explicit images without the victim’s consent. Both the arrests and the charges appear to be the first of their kind in the nation related to the sharing of AI-generated nudes.
Local media reported on the incident after the students at Pinecrest Cove Academy in Miami, Florida, were suspended December 6th, and the case was reported to the Miami-Dade Police Department. According to Wired, they were arrested on December 22nd.
Minors creating AI-generated nudes and explicit images of other children has become an increasingly common problem in school districts across the country. But outside of the Florida incident, none we’d heard of have led to an arrest. There’s currently no federal law addressing nonconsensual deepfake nudes, which has left states tackling the impact of generative AI on matters of child sexual abuse material, nonconsensual deepfakes, or revenge porn on their own.
Last fall, President Joe Biden issued an executive order on AI that asked agencies for a report on banning the use of generative AI to produce child sexual abuse material. Congress has yet to pass a law on deepfake porn, but that could possibly change soon. Both the Senate and House introduced legislation, known as the DEFIANCE Act of 2024, this week, and the effort appears to have bipartisan support.
Although nearly all states now have laws on the books that address revenge porn, only a handful of states have passed laws that address AI-generated sexually explicit imagery to varying degrees. Victims in states with no legal protections have also taken to litigation. For example, a New Jersey teen is suing a classmate for sharing fake AI nudes.
The Los Angeles Times recently reported that the Beverly Hills Police Department is currently investigating a case where students allegedly shared images that “used real faces of students atop AI-generated nude bodies.” But because the state’s law against “unlawful possession of obscene matter knowing it depicts person under age of 18 years engaging in or simulating sexual conduct” does not explicitly mention AI-generated images, the article says it’s unclear whether a crime has been committed.
The local school district voted on Friday to expel five students involved in the scandal, the LA Times reports.
Sam Altman to Return to OpenAI’s Board of Directors Mr. Altman was among new additions to the board announced on Friday, more than three months after he was briefly forced out of the company.
Fortnite’s new season brings Greek gods to the battle royale
Image: Epic Games
Fortnite is going even more old school for its next season. Epic just launched Chapter 5: Season 2 of the battle royale game, dubbed “Myths & Mortals,” and it’s all about Greek mythology. That means playing as Greek gods, fighting across Mount Olympus, and wielding Zeus’ thunderbolt. The launch was preceded by a clever in-game event involving Pandora’s box.
First up, the new locations. A number of mythological locales have been added to the map, including Mount Olympus and the underworld, which, naturally, is guarded by Cerberus. To go along with this are a number of power-ups and items to collect, including the Wings of Icarus so you can fly, Zeus’ bolts which let you “rise into the air and hurl lightning bolts at your target,” and a weapon called the Chains of Hades that’s coming later on.
A new season also means a new battle pass, and those who purchase this season’s will be able to unlock a whole bunch of Greek gods, including Aphrodite, Medusa, and an adorable Slurp Juice version of Poseidon. Later in the season, Korra, from Avatar: The Last Airbender spinoff The Legend of Korra, will be unlockable as well. Here’s the full lineup:
Image: Epic Games
Myths & Mortals follows a major shift for Fortnite with the launch of Chapter 5. While the battle royale mode is still going strong, the new chapter also turned Fortnite into more of a platform for other games as well; it launched with Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival.
Stephen Dubner is bullish on the podcast industry
Stephen Dubner speaking at On Air Fest | Alexa Hoyer
This is an excerpt of an interview that took place at On Air Fest on March 1st between Freakonomics Radio host Stephen Dubner and Hot Pod reporter Ariel Shapiro. The conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Alright so, you know podcasting. You know economics. What do you make of this moment in the podcasting industry?
It really depends on what angle you’re coming at it from. The short version is that there was probably a little bit too much panic, because of the combination of the recession that never quite happened, and then the big iOS adjustment and how it’s playing out in reality and in perception. Additionally, from the platform side, there was just massive, massive acquisition, acquisition, acquisition, consolidation, consolidation, and then it breaks. So it’s confusing. The good news for me is I don’t care that much.
That’s good. Ira Glass was here on Wednesday [February 28th], and he wasquiteupset about iOS.
The thing that I remind myself, and that I really believe and feel, is that we shouldn’t forget that [Apple] essentially plopped down a distribution system that is global, instant, and free. It’s like building railroad tracks to everywhere, and then all of us are free to put whatever trains we want onto those tracks and send them anywhere. And so should we be pissy that they have the control that they do, and sometimes make moves that we don’t like? Sure, you can be if you want.
I’m a writer, that’s really all I am, and I happen to write now for audio and interview people and make shows out of that. If you think about in the old days, the production system had all of these hoops and mechanisms and costs. I was at TheNew York Times Magazine. So if I wanted to write a piece for the magazine, it was all the reporting and thinking and writing, etc., and then the layers of editors, and there are probably fewer layers in podcasting than there were layers of editors at a place like The New York Times. Then it had to go through the photo desk, art desk, fact checking, copy editing, all of which is really good and really useful. But then The New York Times used to own newsprint farms in Canada, because they had to own the material on which it was printed. They had to buy that stuff, truck it to their printing presses, which they also owned, and then they owned trucks to deliver it to people. I mean, just think about how many layers that is and how expensive that is. So of all the bad things that have happened with journalism being cratered, which is bad, the fact is that this technology has given rise to a free, instant, global distribution system. It’s there for all of us to use and abuse and exploit however we want. So I don’t feel it’s my place to gripe about that kind of platform issue.
After the success ofFreakonomics[the book], I’m sure there are a couple of different routes you could have gone. Why did you go into podcasting?
You’re absolutely right. We did have opportunities. There was a lot of flirtation with television. And I decided — I’m sorry, if anyone is offended by this — I do not like television. I do not happen to watch a lot of television. That’s not fair — I like watching television. That’s not untrue. But being a content provider in the television ecosystem, not for me. You just have too little control over your material. And if your material is what you care about, like, why would I want to do that?
What wouldFreakonomicsTV have looked like?
The closest we ever got... I won’t name it, it was a big network. And they were perfectly good people. But it’s a volume business. Not that podcast production isn’t a volume business, but even with the best [television production companies], there was a certain degree of velocity and churn and, not dumbing down, but kind of reaching for a center. And not weird in any way. I’m not a super weird person, but I can’t live without at least a little bit of weird.
So you own Freakonomics Radio, the company, correct?
Yeah.
When there was so much money flooding the podcast market, did you get any offers for outright acquisition?
Oh, yeah. Stupid offers. I would never say who, but name a company and they were there. I have a good agent, Ben Davis [at WME]. Ben is really, really smart and helped develop the whole thing.
If you build a company, like, you know, a Gimlet or a Parcast or whatever — and every company is a little bit different — but if you’re building something that is not you and your blood and your brain, and you want to sell it, that’ll work. I mean, it might not work great. It might work for a handful of people and not great for everybody else. But it might work if you’re building a commodity business. If you’re doing something a little bit different, which is “I just want to make my thing,” I’d rather license it or have a partner.
Did you ever entertain any of the offers to sell?
Absolutely not. I think it can be done well. Like, I think what Sirius XM did with Conan was good. It’s a personal services contract, which is long enough so that they’ll get enough value from it, and then he’s not beholden. But then I don’t know what happens to the shows after. That’s kind of what I would worry about. Look, the Rolling Stones get heard on cat food commercials. And if they’re fine with that, then I’m fine with that, too. And I’m not worried that somebody’s going to buy my show and then use my archive to make MAGA commercials. But you could if you wanted to! Everybody has said everything in that show over the course of 14 years, so you could turn it into anything. I feel stupidly proprietary the way a lot of writers do. So I’m not saying never, but like, this is kind of my thing.
What are you listening to right now?
In terms of podcasts, I don’t listen to a ton. I check out a lot of podcasts. I’m always curious to see who’s doing a new thing and how they do it and always trying to learn.
You’re not keeping an ear on the competition?
I don’t think of them as competition! At some point, we’re gonna run out of ears, but we haven’t yet. There’s still a lot of upside. I mean, there are millions of people who would love what you all are making. They just don’t know it. If we want to fight about something, we should fight about discovery. That’s the problem. So no, I would never consider anybody in this room or any other room of podcasters competition at all, because the only discovery mechanism in the world for podcasting right now is other podcasts. So it’s more like getting someone hooked. If you’re heroin, and I’m crack, we’re buddies. We’re not competing.
Chinese National Accused of Stealing AI Secrets From Google Linwei Ding, a Chinese national, was arrested in California and accused of uploading hundreds of files to the cloud.
The biggest stories from Hot Pod Summit
Ira Glass and Ariel Shapiro on stage at Hot Pod Summit. | Alexa Hoyer
This is Hot Pod, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign upherefor more.
Hello! I have almost recovered from Hot Pod Summit. Thank you so much to everyone who came out this year. People from across the industry showed up ready to talk business, and we had a lot of lively and challenging discussions about advertising and business models. Did we solve all of the podcasting’s troubles? Hardly, but I know I am feeling more optimistic about the future of the industry. Below, I have some key takeaways from the events of the day.
I also made my first appearance at On Air Fest interviewing Freakonomics Radio host Stephen Dubner. It was a lot of fun to talk craft (plus business, obviously) and get his perspective on the state of the industry today. I’ll have a Q&A from our discussion for Insiders tomorrow.
Before we get into it, I have some acknowledgements to make. Big thanks to our partners at work x work and the whole On Air Fest team for bringing the event together as well as to Wythe Hotel for hosting us. And I can’t forget to mention my Verge colleagues who helped make Hot Pod Summit happen, including Kara Verlaney, Esther Cohen, Jake Kastrenakes, Amrita Khalid, Nilay Patel, David Pierce, Andru Marino, Andrew Melnizek, and Helen Havlak.
Also, thank you to our official lead sponsors: AdsWizz builds the advertising technology powering the world’s leading audio publishers and podcasters. Simplecast is a hosting, analytics, and monetization platform for indie creators.
Additionally, we’re extending our exclusive discount for Hot Pod Summit and On Air Fest attendees on all new annual subscriptions to Hot Pod Insider. Get 25% off an annual subscription with code HPSBK2024 here. You can access an archive of past issues here. This code expires on Sunday, March 10th, at 3PM ET.
Ira Glass is as frustrated with the iOS 17 update as you are
I knew Ira Glass would be willing to get into the nitty gritty of the podcast business, and he delivered. We discussed This American Life’s early embrace of online distribution, how he took the company private after co-owning it with WBEZ for two decades, and what he thinks it takes for a podcast to succeed right now.
Although This American Life has weathered the industry turbulence better than other audio outlets, it’s not immune. He said that the show was impacted by the advertising downturn experienced by everyone else and that, like so many other podcasts, This American Life’s downloads dropped by 20 percent after the iOS 17 update cut down on automatic downloads.
“I’m not crazy about losing money. If those are our numbers, those are our numbers. But it’s sad. It’s emotional. The numbers are emotional,” Glass said. “A year ago, if I called somebody, I could have said ‘here’s the deal, here’s who we are: 4.5 million people hear us each week.’ And now I have to say 3.5 million, which still sounds like a lot. But it is a pain in my heart every time I say it.”
Glass also gave the audience a peek into his own listening habits. In his library: Search Engine, Hacks on Tap, Shameless Acquisition Target, and one of my favorites, Unholy: Two Jews on the News. He claims he has never met another person who listens to Unholy, but we are out here! You can see the full list on Spotify (kindly compiled by Descript’s Arielle Nissenblatt).
Podcasting’s programmatic future
It has been a rough year for podcast advertising, and I was lucky enough to be joined by Kelli Hurley, global head of revenue partnerships at SiriusXM, and Tomas Rodriguez, senior director of audio partnerships at The Trade Desk, to discuss what went wrong and how to move forward. It was a long conversation (an hour!) and included lots of incisive questions from the audience.
Now that money is no longer flowing fast and furious into podcasting, the main problem, everyone agreed, is finding a way to support mid-tier podcasts. It’s the key to sustainable growth in the industry (there can only be so many Joe Rogans or Conan O’Briens), and much easier said than done.
Representing the sell side, Hurley talked about the matchmaking that happens between brands and shows. She advised that creators have advertising plans in mind as they develop their shows. Even so, it’s a high bar to get that kind of direct ad spend. “I would say we’d like to see 100,000 [downloads] at minimum per episode. That’s ideal,” she said. “Now, certainly, we have shows that are smaller than that. I think if you have a niche audience that is more diverse… that’s where I think those smaller audiences hold incredible value.”
On the buy side, Rodriguez pitched programmatic. Programmatic gets a bad rap in podcasting (there have been horror stories about ads not firing off and ads completely mismatched with podcasts), but he argues that it is a way to entice larger companies to put their money into the podcasting space. It also takes the pressure off individual shows to hit certain download metrics, since a brand buying programmatically will have their ads featured on a bunch of different shows. So as long as they get their return on investment, it doesn’t matter if an individual show experiences a listening downturn (like what happened with iOS 17). The CPMs podcasts can charge through programmatic are lower, but they also spend less in time and labor costs scripting and producing host-read ads.
“When I think about how podcasts kind of take that next level, like, I want us to get a little bit bigger,” Rodriguez said. “I want us to make it easier for brands to come into the door and scale against podcasting. I think that’s the role programmatic has.”
Co-ops, so hot right now
Following the layoffs that have hit every part of the industry, from corporate giants like Spotify to public radio outlets like NPR and WNYC to indie darlings like Pushkin Industries, podcasters are becoming increasingly skeptical of traditional models. I was joined by Jasper Wang, Defector Media’s VP of revenue and operations, Eric Silver, creative lead at Multitude Productions, and Yooree Losordo, Radiotopia’s director of network operations. Each was able to speak to a different kind of nontraditional structure, with Wang discussing Defector as a worker-owned cooperative, Silver talking about forming a collective, and Losordo explaining how a network of independents functions.
Defector, which was built by the former staff of Deadspin, has been seen as a success story and representative of how cooperatives can work in media, in no small part because Normal Gossip has become a massive hit. But it is not as utopian as it may appear from the outside. Wang said that if your co-op limits outside investment (which Defector does), then there is no safety net if your product doesn’t work. “Ultimately, it’s sort of like, how much shit are you willing to eat up until the point at which your dream comes true? The answer might be ‘not that much shit’ or ‘the dream is never gonna come true.’”
Radiotopia, which is part of PRX and operates as a network for independent creators, gives podcasters the opportunity to connect with advertisers without relinquishing rights to their shows. “They don’t have to give up IP. Everybody remains in control of their feeds, and their fates,” said Losordo. “When we do sponsorships and sales, we work with an outside agency, they take a cut, and then PRX takes a cut of the net. But the lion’s share still goes to the shows.”
A collective like Multitude splits the difference. Silver said that in addition to helping independent creators sell ads on their shows, Multitude offers consulting and encourages developing multiple streams of income through live shows and subscriptions. But it also expects the creators in the collective to reinforce each other by touring together and featuring fellow Multitude shows in their midrolls. “It’s like a network without top down power,” Silver said.
We had a lot of interest from the audience in how these work, so feel free to send additional questions my way! I will do my best to answer them (maybe enlisting our three panelists for follow-ups).
That’s all for now! I’ll be back tomorrow for Insiders. As for the rest of you, have a great week.
Big American Tech Profits From Chinese Ad Spending Spree Temu, Shein, and streaming and gaming apps looking to break into the U.S. market are spending huge sums to get their wares in front of American consumers.
Google engineer indicted over allegedly stealing AI trade secrets for China
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
A federal grand jury has indicted a Google engineer, Linwei Ding, aka Leon Ding, for allegedly stealing trade secrets around Google’s AI chip software and hardware on March 5th, before he was arrested Wednesday morning in Newark, California. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement that Ding “stole from Google over 500 confidential files containing AI trade secrets while covertly working for China-based companies seeking an edge in the AI technology race.”
Much of the stolen data allegedly revolves around Google’s tensor processing unit (TPU) chips. Google’s TPU chips power many of its AI workloads and, in conjunction with Nvidia GPUs, can train and run AI models like Gemini. The company has also offered access to the chips through partner platforms like Hugging Face.
Image: Justice Department
Software designs for both the v4 and v6 TPU chips, hardware and software specifications for GPUs used in Google’s data center, and designs for Google’s machine learning workloads in data centers are among the allegedly stolen files.
Amid a growing arms race around AI technology and US government efforts to ban China from accessing chips built for AI, some Chinese companies have turned to local chip producers to power AI platforms. Late last year, intelligence chiefs of the so-called Five Eyes alliance of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand warned US tech companies about companies in China potentially stealing intellectual property related to AI, quantum computing, and robotics.
The government accuses Ding of transferring those files to a personal Google Cloud account between May 2022 and May 2023.
He allegedly did so “by copying data from the Google source files into the Apple Notes application on his Google-issued MacBook laptop,” and then converting them from Apple Notes to PDFs to avoid detection by Google’s “data loss prevention systems.”
The government says that less than a month after he began stealing files, a Chinese machine learning company named Rongshu offered to make him CTO, he flew to China for five months to raise funds for the company, and he subsequently founded and led a machine learning startup named Zhisuan, all while still working for Google. He resigned from Google in December 2023 — and reportedly booked a one-way ticket to Beijing scheduled to depart two days past his end date — after the company began asking him about his uploads.
The DOJ also claims that in December 2023, he allegedly faked being present at Google’s office in the US by having another employee scan his badge at the door while he was actually in China. Ding has been charged with four counts of theft of trade secrets, so he’s facing up to ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count if convicted.
Apple Podcasts now includes transcripts
Image: Apple
Apple Podcasts will auto-generate transcripts for podcasts beginning today, thanks to the 17.4 update for iPhones and iPads. Transcripts will automatically appear for new podcast episodes shortly after their publication, while Apple will transcribe podcast back catalogs over time.
The podcast transcripts are searchable, allowing users to type in a specific word or phrase and skip to that part of an episode. Users can find transcripts for individual podcast episodes on the bottom-left corner of the “Now Playing” screen.
Image: Apple
Transcripts are now on Apple Podcasts.
After Spotify rolled out auto-generated transcripts last fall, it’s no surprise that Apple wants its native podcast player to keep up features-wise.
While transcripts are convenient for users (as well as a nonnegotiable for people who are deaf or hard of hearing), many podcasters are wary of the errors that can happen with automated transcription tools. Apple seems to have prepared for this. Podcasters who don’t want to use Apple’s automated transcription can opt to upload their own transcripts via RSS tags or in Apple Podcasts Connect for premium episodes, or they can download and edit Apple’s transcript before reuploading.
Transcripts will be available for Apple Podcasts in over 170 countries, written in English, French, German, and Spanish, but they won’t translate podcast transcripts from one language to another.
Here are the best iPad deals right now
Select iPad models go on sale quite frequently, but some discounts on aging models are getting harder to find. | Image: Procreate
While the best iPad deals usually land during major sale events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Amazon’s various Prime Days, many of the best iPad deals from the holiday season have persisted into 2024. The discounts come and go like changing winds, but you can still take advantage of sales on many models today, particularly on the more affordable iPads. What’s more, prices are likely to drop even further when Apple ushers in a new slate of iPad Pro and iPad Air models, which could happen this month according to the latest rumors.
Forthcoming models aside, it’s difficult to know where exactly you can find the most notable iPad deals unless you’re scouring the major retailers on a daily basis. But that’s often what our deal hunters at The Verge are doing each and every day, so let us help you out. Below, we’ve listed the best deals you can get on each iPad model that is currently available, from the cheapo ninth-gen iPad of 2021 to the latest models equipped with Apple’s powerful M1 and M2 chips.
Announced alongside the iPhone 13, the 2021 iPad is Apple’s aging entry-level tablet that still makes a fine device for doing the basics today. The ninth-gen model starts at $329 with 64GB of storage, though the base configuration with Wi-Fi is available right now for around $249 ($80 off) in silver at Amazon and Walmart, which is just $20 shy of its lowest price to date.
As for the 256GB model that normally retails for $479, Amazon and Walmart are both selling it for $379 ($100 off), which is another second-best price. If you prefer your iPad to include cellular connectivity, the LTE model is also often on sale; there aren’t many discounts available right now, but you can get the 256GB configuration at Amazon for $579 ($30 off).
The last-gen iPad uses an A13 Bionic processor and a 12MP wide-angle camera with Center Stage, a feature designed to keep you framed up and centered while on video calls. The tablet also carries over a number of features from its predecessor, such as the 10.2-inch display, a Touch ID fingerprint sensor built into the home button, and a Smart Connector for connecting a Smart Keyboard.
Although the newer 10th-gen iPad came out in late 2022, the last-gen model is still an excellent tablet — one we consider to be a better value in most instances. The latest iPad modernizes the design with a switch to USB-C, uniform bezels with no home button, a side power button with a fingerprint sensor, and a larger display, but it excises the headphone jack and retails for a much steeper $449. That’s not much of an entry-level price, so hopefully the ninth-gen model sticks around and continues to see moderate discounts.
However, if you do prefer the latest model, the 10th-gen iPad is on sale at Amazon and Target right now in the 64GB base configuration for $349.99 ($100 off). As for the 256GB / Wi-Fi version that normally costs $599, Amazon and Target are currently offering it at $499.99 (about $100 off). These are actually worthwhile deals for the 10th-gen model, which makes it worth considering over the cheaper ninth-gen model if you prefer a more modern design and support for USB-C charging.
The sixth-gen iPad Mini has a larger screen than its predecessor, along with a top-of-the-line processor, support for USB-C, and options for 5G. It has forfeited its 3.5mm headphone jack and dedicated home button in the process, but overall, it’s a solid device that brings a fully refreshed design to Apple’s small tablet form factor.
The changes and refinements to the newest iPad Mini come at a heftier price, however, and the new 64GB Wi-Fi model now starts at $499. Electing 256GB of storage brings the price up to $649, while the 5G cellular models are $649 for 64GB and $799 for 256GB. These are some big numbers for a small iPad, and the larger iPad Air might be worth considering if you prefer your dollar to go further with more screen real estate. But if you want the latest and greatest from Apple in a smaller format, this is where the action is.
As of right now, P.C. Richard & Son is selling the 64GB base model of the iPad Mini for $399 ($100 off). If you need additional storage, Amazon and B&H Photo also have the 256GB / Wi-Fi model for $617 ($32 off). As for the cellular version, you can often find the 64GB model with 5G on sale for $549.99 ($100 off), but no retailers are offering discounts on it as of writing. If you want the step-up 256GB version with LTE, however, it’s on sale at Amazon in pink for $629 (about $170 off).
The latest iPad Air usually costs $599, but right now, it’s on sale for around $449 ($150 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, matching its all-time low. The Air is our top iPad recommendation for most people thanks to its speedy M1 processor, modern design, and midrange price. For those who crave more storage, the 256GB variant is also available for $599.99 ($150 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target.
The 2022 iteration of Apple’s lightweight tablet is similar in terms of its capabilities when measured against the previous-gen model but still offers a handful of iterative upgrades. The most pronounced improvement is the M1 processor, which offers better performance, and the front-facing 12MP camera comes equipped with Apple’s Center Stage feature that helps to keep a moving subject centered when recording video or during video calls.
The latest generation of iPad Pros looks a whole lot like the prior model from 2021, as the changes are primarily on the inside. The new Pros still come in 11-inch and 12.9-inch sizes, with the better-looking Mini LED panel once again reserved for the larger model, though both now pack Apple’s newer M2 CPU for even better processing power.
The striking resemblance to the prior generation aside, there are a few reasons to opt for a Pro over something like an Air, such as Face ID unlocking and additional base storage. If display quality is the most important factor in your purchasing decision, the 12.9-inch version is the way to go, as its Mini LED display achieves deeper blacks and better contrast, much like an OLED panel.
Aside from that, as well as a nifty new hover feature that shows where your second-gen Apple Pencil’s tip will land before you touch the screen, they’re very similar to the older models from 2021. The 128GB base models even start at the same price — the 11-inch and 12.9-inch models retail for $799 and $1,099, respectively, and go up from there. As for 5G cellular versions, the 11-inch model starts at $999 and the 12.9-inch model at $1,299.
ChatGPT can read its answers out loud
Illustration: The Verge
OpenAI’s new Read Aloud feature for ChatGPT could come in handy when users are on the go by reading its responses in one of five voice options out loud to users. It is now available on both the web version of ChatGPT and the iOS and Android ChatGPT apps.
Read Aloud can speak 37 languages but will auto-detect the language of the text it’s reading, and the feature is available for both GPT-4 and GPT-3.5. It’s an interesting example of what OpenAI can do with multimodal capabilities (the ability to read and respond through more than one medium) revealed soon after a competitor, Anthropic, added similar features to its AI models.
ChatGPT launched a voice chat feature in September 2023 where users can directly ask the chatbot prompts without typing. But the new feature will let people have ChatGPT read written answers aloud, and users can set up the chatbot to always respond verbally when responding to prompts.
On mobile apps, people can tap and hold the text to open the Read Aloud player, where they can play, pause, or rewind the readout. The web version shows a speaker icon below the text.
ChatGPT can now read responses to you.
On iOS or Android, tap and hold the message and then tap “Read Aloud”. We’ve also started rolling on web - click the "Read Aloud" button below the message. pic.twitter.com/KevIkgAFbG
Fired Twitter execs are suing Elon Musk for over $128 million
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images
Elon Musk fired a lot of people after he took over Twitter, but the first ones to go were several of its top executives. Now former CEO Parag Agrawal, former CFO Ned Segal, former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and former general counsel Sean Edgett are suing Musk and the company now known as X, saying they’re owed more than $128 million in severance payments, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Under Musk’s stewardship, X’s aversion to paying those it owes has practically become a trope (this is referenced in the lawsuit, along with a link to a page that tracks lawsuits against Twitter for non-payment and a note that the person who runs the site has been banned by X).
But this time, it’s the same execs who forced Musk to close his $44 billion acquisition in the first place, who are now claiming his goal was to “cheat” them out of $200 million before their stock options vested the next morning. They also have a remarkably thorough source to explain why he closed the deal and fired them when he did: Elon Musk himself, as quoted by Walter Isaacson in the biography released last year, Elon Musk.
“There’s a 200-million differential in the cookie jar between closing tonight and doing it tomorrow morning,” he told me late Thursday afternoon in the war room as the plan unfolded.
Another passage cited from the book calls out a conversation between Musk and his lawyer, Alex Spiro. “[H]e tried to resign ... but we beat him,” they said, specifically referring to Agrawal. By firing Agrawal before he was able to send a resignation letter, they apparently believed it would mean the company wouldn’t have to pay his severance package.
Despite claims made by Elon Musk’s X about negligence, waste, and misconduct, the lawsuit argues it was authorized by the company’s board and necessary to do things like pay $90 million to the lawyers who forced Elon Musk to pay $44 billion for Twitter.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25325785/IMG_3658.png)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25323373/C5S2_Battle_Pass_Lineup_EN.jpg)
Image: Epic Games
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25321965/Screenshot_2024_03_06_at_4.33.27_PM.png)
Image: Justice Department
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25319986/Apple_Podcasts_transcripts_static_transcript.jpg){kind=spacer}
Image: Apple
