Somebody cracked Windows XP activation for offline use
Windows lives on. | Image: Microsoft
The activation algorithm for Windows XP has, incredibly, finally been completely cracked, allowing for totally offline activation, according to The Register (via Ars Technica). A blog post on tinyapps covered a Reddit post discussing it, but the program allowing it has apparently existed for at least several months, possibly floating in the ether as a torrent download.
As for who created the software, nobody in the subreddit post knows, including user retroreviewyt, who first shared it and isn’t even sure where they got it from, speculating it came from from a torrent somewhere.
In the meantime, someone appears to be working on reverse engineering the software. A user calling themselves Neo-Desktop dropped the program into Github and said in a discussion there that they are working to create an open source version.
What training with the Apple Watch Ultra taught me about multiband GPS and failure
Illustration by Hugo Herrera for The Verge
It’s easy to blame trackers when fitness goals don’t go according to plan, but sometimes the problem lies closer to home.
I almost quit this year’s New York City Half Marathon.
The moment is seared into my brain. I’d been running for nearly two hours in freezing temperatures, straight into the wind. The Apple Watch Ultra on my left wrist buzzed to tell me I’d just passed mile nine. On my right wrist, the Garmin Forerunner 265S said I’d only run 8.55 miles. A short-ish distance ahead, I could see the official mile nine marker. I had no idea which distance was “true.” It didn’t matter, though. All I wanted was to beat last year’s time, even by just one millisecond. That had felt like an achievable goal. I’m no math whiz, but what I saw on the official clock meant I’d have to run the last four miles at Eliud Kipchoge-level speeds to match last year’s time. That wasn’t just unachievable. It was impossible.
I broke. If it weren’t for a well-timed cheer from a friend around mile 10, I probably would’ve called it a day. I’m really not sure how I powered through the rest of the race; something inside me died at the finish line. (The watches didn’t die, though; the race barely made a dent in the Ultra’s battery, and that was without any low-power settings.)
Whatever it was, it left a gaping hole that no finisher’s medal could ease. I hadn’t missed my goal by one or two minutes. I was a whole 13 minutes slower than last year. None of it made sense. Sixteen weeks of consistent training should’ve been more than enough for a race I was familiar with. So after 48 hours of moping, I set out to find out what had killed my half-marathon dreams.
Suspect one: GPS
You’re guaranteed to see GPS watches at any road race. In outdoor running, GPS watches help you calculate pace and distance, both of which are crucial when training. The more accurate your GPS watch, the easier it is to trust the results of your training. Maybe I whiffed it on race day because the stars and satellites were misaligned.
Its superior GPS is one reason I picked the Apple Watch Ultra as my primary training watch for the NYC Half. (That and I wanted to spend more time with the new running form metrics in watchOS 9.) Not only is the Ultra geared toward endurance athletes but it’s also one of a handful of smartwatches that have dual-frequency GPS.
The appeal of this new-ish technology is that it’s supposed to deliver next-level accuracy. While I’d been running with the Ultra since it launched, I’d yet to see how it stacked up against a Garmin on longer distances over an extended training period. On my spare wrist, I alternated between the Garmin Fenix 7S Sapphire Solar and Forerunner 265S, which also have dual-frequency GPS, for my long runs. (I’d have done it for the entire 16 weeks, but the plight of a smartwatch reviewer is you have to keep one wrist free at all times for new products.)
Looking back at the data, the Ultra and both Garmins delivered similar results during training. At most, I’d see a difference of maybe a tenth of a mile. That wasn’t the case on race day. The Ultra recorded 13.42 miles, while the Forerunner reported 12.92 miles. Neither of those distances is 13.1 miles, which is the official length of the course. And yet, the maps generated by both were nearly identical. Clearly, something had happened that day. While I consider myself well versed in the practicalities of GPS watches, I wanted to talk to an expert about what happened. So I asked Apple to get into the nitty-gritty of how the Ultra’s multiband GPS works — and why my data was so different on the day it mattered most.
I expected Apple to launch into why the Ultra’s GPS was leagues ahead of the competition’s. To be fair, every smartwatch maker will tell you their GPS tech is the best. That said, I was surprised that the Ultra (plus the Series 8 and SE) doesn’t rely on GPS alone.
“A product like this, that also has network connectivity, enables us to use the entire system in ways that traditional GPS systems can’t,” says Rob Mayor, Apple’s director of motion and location technologies.
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
This thin gray metal band is what enables the Ultra to access the L5 frequency.
Traditional GPS requires downloading a satellite’s estimated position in order to begin tracking. That can create challenges if you’re in an obstructed environment. Signals can be corrupted, take more time to download, or get blocked by objects like skyscrapers, canyons, or tree foliage. Mayor says the Ultra can cache orbit predictions for up to a week. That means you can go offline and still get an immediate location fix because you don’t need to wait for your watch to decode that information; it’s already there.
Similarly, if you fly to another state for a race, the Ultra doesn’t have to go fishing in the sky for the correct satellites. According to Mayor, the watch can acquire GPS more quickly by tapping into Apple’s database of Wi-Fi access points to get a rough idea of your location and figure out which satellites to look for. Maps data also plays into the equation. While most people in the US think of Maps directions in the context of driving, this hybrid approach can help put pedestrians on the right cycling, hiking, or running route — especially in cities. Basically, that extra Maps data ensures your route summary isn’t going to say you’re running through a river or magically ghosting through buildings.
Altogether, the additional L5 signal is cross-referenced with data from Maps and Wi-Fi for what Mayor calls hyper-accurate GPS. It’s important to maintain a healthy skepticism, but it’s hard to argue that this method doesn’t deliver freakishly accurate location data. For instance, the Ultra (plus Series 8, SE, and any watch running watchOS 9) can automatically detect when you arrive at a running track. It also knows which lane you’re running in without calibration. If I hadn’t tried it out myself — multiple times, mind you — I’d be inclined to think it’s too good to be true.
But even if the Ultra uses a blend of tech, it doesn’t piggyback off your phone’s GPS as previous Apple Watches did. Mayor told me the Ultra has gotten to the point where your iPhone’s signal doesn’t add much.
Screenshot: Victoria Song / The Verge
I can definitely see the benefit of Maps data here from my race.
Screenshot: Victoria Song / The Verge
My Garmin data is also still pretty good, but it’s possibly a bit tripped up by tall skyscrapers in Times Square.
That still didn’t answer why such high-tech devices with fancy GPS gave me results that didn’t match up with the official course. It’s something that I’ve noticed at multiple races, and after my half-marathon debacle, I wondered if this “miscalculation” had in some way left me underprepared.
“A lot of people don’t understand how they map and measure race courses. They assume they’re going to cross the finish line at exactly 13.1 [miles] or 26.2 [miles],” Eric Jue, director of Apple Watch product marketing, told me after I relayed my NYC Half tale. “And they’re a little bit discombobulated when they see something different.”
As it turns out, you’ll run at least 13.1 miles in a half-marathon. The official distance is based on the most optimal route and doesn’t account for zigzagging through other runners, running toward the sides of the road, or stopping at water stations. Most people don’t run the most optimal route and end up running a bit more. By that reasoning, you could argue that the Ultra’s 13.42 miles is closer to what I actually ran than is the Forerunner 265S.
“I think that users’ perceptions [are] like, here, I have this thing that’s very precise and I’m comparing it to things that are potentially less precise, as well as my perception — which is probably less precise as well,” agrees Mayor. “It’s a confluence of those things.”
Okay, okay. It wasn’t the GPS.
Suspect two: training data and features
A couple of weeks later, I found myself at McCarren Park Track in Brooklyn. It was a chilly, overcast day, and I tried to stay warm hopping from one foot to the next. Apple had invited a gaggle of journalists out to demo watchOS 9’s running features. I’d used them before while reviewing the Ultra, but I hoped a refresher would reveal something I’d missed during my own training.
We ran around 3.5 miles, broken up into several shorter runs. Apple had us try the custom workouts, which let you program running routines, including intervals and pace targets, on the watch, while Fitness Plus trainer Josh Crosby demonstrated how certain alerts for heart rate zones, running power, and pace worked. I ran multiple laps around the track, which again highlighted the Ultra’s eerily accurate GPS. But of all the running features, the one that “bothered” me most was the pace alerts.
The feature itself is self-explanatory. Set a target pace — or a pace range — and then run. Whenever I ran too fast or too slow, the Ultra would buzz on my wrist. You’d think, after all these years, I’d have a good sense of what my 10-minute mile feels like versus an 11- or 12-minute mile. You’d think I’d be good at maintaining a consistent pace — a vital skill for running a long-distance race.
Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge
Maps data can help zero in on the exact track lane you’re running in as well as make sure your map doesn’t have you running through buildings.
Turns out, I wasn’t. At least, not that track day. I kept getting alerts that I was slipping in and out of my target ranges. After a few loops at what should have been an easy pace, I found myself breathing harder than normal, wondering why it felt like I was running through molasses even though 3.5 miles was well within my wheelhouse. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, but afterward, that heaviness and the alerts lingered in my mind. Is this what a 10:30 pace really felt like these days? Had I inadvertently underestimated my pace during those 16 weeks with sporadic, intermittent checks?
For my half-marathon training, I only occasionally dabbled with these features. I mostly stuck to a training plan I’d found in Runner’s World. After the day at McCarren, I felt inspired to go all in on the watchOS 9 running features on the Ultra. Custom runs with pace alerts, racing my previous times on common routes, engaging more with the metrics mid-run — you name it, I tried it over the course of a month. I figured I should see some improvement. At the very least, I would have a trove of data to pore over to see if any patterns emerged.
I learned three things. First, I’m not a competitive person. Racing my time on past routes was a unique kind of torture. Second, I’m not as good as I thought at regulating pace for runs that are over an hour long. And third, I was getting slower. Slower! Before you ask if I added strength training and proper recovery during and after half-marathon training — yes, I did.
It’s tempting to lay the blame on the Ultra (and all my other wearables). But the Ultra’s GPS maps continued to match what I got on my iPhone and my Garmin watches. My heart rate matched my Polar H10 strap. My sleep data wasn’t as accurate as the Oura Ring, but it wasn’t too far off either. If I’m honest with myself, I knew none of these devices were at fault.
After a month, I was at a loss. So I gave up. I pared down the Ultra’s running features to custom workouts and put on pace alerts for speed work only. (Mainly so I wouldn’t go too fast out the gate.) I stopped scrutinizing my workout summaries. As it turns out, as soon as I put some boundaries in place, I finally, finally started to improve.
I’d used the features properly — and they’d worked as advertised. The data was reliable. I improved as soon as I stopped trying so hard. I didn’t like what that meant, but it’s like Sherlock Holmes says. Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains must be the truth.
Suspect three, and the culprit: me
All I wanted from this year’s NYC Half was to run it faster than last year. I wanted that because, last year, I ran the race — my first half-marathon — as part of Team ALS. I joined on a whim mere weeks after my mom died from the incurable disease. It felt like rebellion after a year defined by ALS. I had about six weeks of real training, and going from zero to 100 like that was... an experience. Four of my toenails fell off, and I honestly don’t remember much of the race itself. But just as I’ll never look at 2021 without thinking of ALS, I’ll never look back at 2022 without feeling my grief. I wanted to run the 2023 NYC Half Marathon for myself, and without realizing it, I planted the seed in my head that doing well would mean I was finally okay.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.
Loss is exhausting, and I feel most free from its grip while running. Viewed from that lens, I suppose it’s obvious that I’d turn to the Ultra and its training metrics so that I could run the best race of my life. I could list a dozen valid reasons why that didn’t pan out, but I’ve come to accept that, at the heart of it, I didn’t really want to do better this year. Part of me wanted to tie up this chapter of my life with a pretty, symbolic bow. To move on to what’s next. The rest of me isn’t ready.
The thing about wearables — and people — is that they assume health can be measured. If you can read the metrics the right way, if you can interpret the data, then you can compare who you were to who you are becoming. Among smartwatches, the Ultra is a magnificent beast. But for all the impressive tech it packs in its titanium case, it cannot measure grief. Mental health is also health, and as they say, the body keeps the score. It just so happens that the mental side of the equation is much harder for wearables to meaningfully quantify.
It seems silly to spill this much ink over a botched race, but technically, this is how wearables are supposed to work. You collect data over a period of time. Depending on your progress (or lack thereof), you learn something about yourself. We just anticipate that progress to be a linear, ever-rising line. Growth is annoyingly not linear, and facing failure isn’t pleasant. I can’t say these are the lessons I wanted to learn, but I’m grateful for them nonetheless.
All that’s left is to take these lessons and apply them going forward. I’ve already signed up for my next race. I will 1,000 percent be testing no less than four devices — including the Ultra — while training. But for once, I have no time goal. I’m trying not to make a narrative of the data. I think I’ll simply run and see what that feels like.
How to watch Nvidia’s Computex 2023 keynote (and what to expect)
Image: Future Publishing via Getty Images
Computex, one of the biggest trade shows of the year for the laptop and PC space, begins in a couple of days. A number of companies will have big announcements, but the most anticipated event of the week is Nvidia’s keynote, which will open the show on Monday morning.
The keynote speaker will be Nvidia’s founder and CEO Jensen Huang, who — in case you missed it — added $7 billion to his net worth a few days ago following the company’s massive Q1 earnings report.
Nvidia hasn’t publicly released much information about the topics Huang will cover; Computex revealed that the talk would include “advanced developments in the fields of accelerated computing and artificial intelligence.” Needless to say, we expect AI to feature heavily. Nvidia’s technology helps to drive popular generative AI products like ChatGPT and Bard. This year’s chatbot explosion has driven unprecedented growth for the company, including what some have called the all-time largest one-day increase in a firm’s valuation.
Rumors have also been swirling that we might see new graphics cards announced. This is looking less likely since the company’s RTX 4060 family of GPUs just hit shelves earlier this week. Still, you never know — it’s possible we could get a sneak peek of more powerful hardware to come.
The fact that the show takes place in Taiwan means that folks in North America will need to stay up late to catch the live event. But if you’re bored after the Succession finale or just happen to be a night owl, you can catch the keynote on YouTube (or right here). It goes live on Monday, May 29th, at 11AM in Taipei, which is Sunday, May 28th, in the US at 8PM PT and 11PM ET. If you’re the sort of person who doesn’t regularly attend technology keynotes at late hours, you’ll also be able to catch a replay on YouTube.
Following the keynote, Nvidia VP of corporate marketing and developer programs Greg Estes will also be giving a talk called “Racing Towards the Industrial Metaverse,” which will cover “how NVIDIA and its partners are using Omniverse, generative AI, and accelerated computing to enable an exciting new era of 3D workflows.” This will take place on Tuesday, May 30th, at 2:30PM in Taipei. It doesn’t look like this will be livestreamed, but a replay will be available, and you can sign up to be notified when that goes live on Nvidia’s website.
Living and working from an all-electric VW ID Buzz
Two humans and a beagle named Hank spent two weeks and 2,000 miles in Europe with a Ququq camping box to preview the future of #vanlife.
Like most people, I’m intrigued by the idea of electric cars but not yet convinced it’s time to make the leap. I can name every Tesla model, a few pickups from Ford and Rivian, and that’s about it. But when Volkswagen announced the production model of the all-electric ID Buzz, which began hitting European roads late last year… well, suddenly, I was very interested.
See, I’m the guy who spent a week living in a VW Transporter T5 “Ventje” last year and once rented a vintage Type 2 VW Microbus named “Fergus” for a summer just to wild camp around Scotland with my family. Generally, I abhor blatant attempts to convert nostalgia into product or ticket sales, but VW had me hooked ever since the ID Buzz was introduced as a far-out concept. That is until I learned the unthinkable: the ID Buzz would launch in passenger and cargo variants only — no “California” campervan. For that, I’d have to wait until 2025 or longer. Ugh!
Then a few months ago, I discovered the aftermarket Ququq BusBox-4 camping box. It converts either the ID Buzz passenger or cargo vans into a two-person camper — and back — in just minutes. It’s available right now, and at €2,790 (about $3,000) costs a fraction of the premium the VW ID California will likely demand.
So, I decided to put the ID Buzz and Ququq to the test to answer two main questions: can today’s ID Buzz already function as an electric campervan, and can it support remote work for an extended period of time?
With that in mind, I packed up my wife and dog and began a nearly 2,000-mile round trip trek across Europe from Amsterdam in the north to Milan in the south, on a loosely planned road trip that still required us to clock in at work each morning. We slept, worked, and ate (minus a few lunches) exclusively from the ID Buzz for a period of two weeks.
The experience was an epiphany for me, a first-time EV driver and aspiring digital nomad, with many lessons learned along the way. The age of e-vanlife is dawning, and our experience with the ID Buzz is a preview of what’s to come.
To be clear, this isn’t a review of the VW ID Buzz electric van — there are lots of places you can get that from people with much more car experience than I have. This is a review of the ID Buzz as an adaptable do-it-all campervan — one vehicle that serves a variety of needs. For that reason, my single favorite feature is an optional (€331) DC-to-AC inverter that places a European standard 230V power socket beneath the front passenger seat (more on that later).
Say hi to Fergus, our trusty Type 2 Microbus in Scotland.
The ID Buzz is built upon the same MEB platform as VW’s first electric car, the ID.3, just like the original Type 2 Microbus derived from the Type 1 Beetle. So, in reality, the ID Buzz is more than just a cheap nostalgia ploy — it’s following the same evolutionary path as its incredibly iconic and successful predecessors. Knowing that makes me feel less like a hapless victim of the sentimentality machine — or so I tell myself.
My review vehicle is a fully loaded ID Buzz 1st Max Edition passenger van with every option possible. It’s priced at almost €80,000 (about $88,000), which includes roughly €14,000 of taxes here in the Netherlands. For comparison, it’s still much cheaper than a €113,990 base Tesla Model X SUV in the Dutch market at the time of publication.
I will say this in summary of the ID Buzz itself: everyone who drove it or saw it loved it. People were so charmed by it that they would engage me with questions when parked at charging stations or pull up alongside while driving to flash thumbs-up and hang-loose gestures. It was smiles all around, very similar to the joy we spread when driving that delightful old Type 2 around Scotland. Hell, if you look at the front end of the ID Buzz just right, even it seems to be smiling.
The ID Buzz’s low center of gravity, optional 21-inch wheels, and rear-wheel drive combine for a surprisingly fun drive. It also offers excellent visibility for a large car that actually feels small, thanks to a windshield that drops down to clearly mark the front of the car and a bevy of sensors and cameras that alert you to nearby objects. It also has a surprisingly tight turning radius which was very useful when navigating narrow Italian streets.
But I agree with reviewers who say the infotainment system is underpowered and convoluted with a mix of interfaces that leave you wondering if a push, pull, or touch is the expected input (things you’ll eventually develop muscle memory for). The button for the hazard lights, for example, is touch sensitive for some reason resulting in three accidental triggers.
(Not so free) Range
I’m not a car guy, but I do love a big rolling battery that can power all my gadgets. So when I look at the ID Buzz, I see a giant power plant. But as large as the VW ID Buzz is, the battery maxes out at just 82kWh, of which only 77kWh is usable. That’s not a lot for its size, especially when you consider that it’s the same battery capacity found inside the smaller VW ID.4 and ID.5.
The battery capacity was a concern for me — a first-time EV driver — given the conditions I planned to drive in. See, EVs perform optimally in warmer temps around 21C (70F) and at city speeds where regenerative braking can do its thing. My planned route was likely to be cold and fast along great swaths of alpine highway to cover as much of the European charging network as possible. I also planned to regularly tap into the VW’s high-voltage battery while working in order to keep the van heated and all my gear powered on. It wasn’t long until I understood what range anxiety felt like, and I hadn’t even left the house!
Temperatures on my route ranged from -3C to about 17C (27F to 63F) during my two weeks of testing, but mostly they hovered between 3C and 12C (37F to 53F) on average. That meant that the car needed to be continuously heated, which lowered my overall range since the ID Buzz lacks a heat pump found on more efficient EVs. And yes, I can confirm that the ID Buzz has a top speed of 150km/h (93mph), which I verified a few times on the German autobahn.
Based upon my usage — which included siphoning about 5kWh per day to support living and working from the ID Buzz — I was burning through an average of 23.9kWh every 100km (60 miles), or nearly a third of my battery capacity, as reported by the ID Buzz’s infotainment system. That equates to 239Wh consumed per kilometer traveled or 2.6 miles per kWh, putting it much closer to a Ford F-150 Lightning in terms of efficiency than a Tesla Model 3. My driving yielded a range of around 322km (200 miles) per charge — well short of the heavily asterisked 423km (263 miles) WLTP range that VW quotes in its European marketing but in line with the 330km real-range data reported by EV Database.
But here’s the thing: despite these rather underwhelming figures and being a total EV novice, after just one or two days of travel, I never again felt anxious about my range. Mostly because we’re spoiled with choice of fast chargers here in Europe, something I quickly discovered as I meandered my way through the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, and Italy.
Charging at an ultra-fast Ionity station just steps from a McDonalds. Gross, but convenient.
I found Europe’s network of ultra-fast DC chargers (300kW and greater) offered by companies like FastNed, Shell, Ionity, GoFast, and yes — Tesla — to be surprisingly robust. They were plentiful, located conveniently next to food, shops, and space to run our high-energy dog. And not once did I have to wait for a stall at any DC charging stations we pulled into, even when traveling during the long Easter weekend. In fact, I usually arrived to find the majority of stalls unoccupied and available for immediate ultra-fast charging. And unlike what many have experienced in the US, I can only recall seeing a single broken charger on my entire 3,000km journey.
The ID Buzz supports a stated maximum of 170kW DC fast charging from its CCS port, with a relatively flat charging curve that allows it to go from 5 to 80 percent in about 30 minutes. My stops often lasted longer though, about 45 minutes to an hour, because we wanted to charge to 100 percent and because the stops were a welcome and enjoyable break after two to three hours of driving, especially when you can just open the tailgate and cook up a quick meal.
Cookoo for Ququq
VW says a camper version of the ID Buzz is coming — someday — but it hasn’t committed to a firm timeline yet. That’s where Ququq (pronounced kookook) comes in. It’s a small German company that’s been making all-in-one camping boxes for a variety of vehicles for more than a decade. As an official VW accessory supplier, its party trick is the ability to convert the ID Buzz — cargo or passenger van — into a functional camper complete with a kitchen and bed in less than 10 minutes.
Ququq ready to prepare some penne arrabbiata with a local wine purchased at a vineyard we stayed at outside Milan.
I tested the Ququq BusBox-4 camping box designed specifically to turn the ID Buzz into a tiny mobile home. It really is a marvel of ingenuity — value, too, if you force your brain to squint a little.
See, when VW does finally deliver a true ID California campervan based on the Buzz, it could easily add tens of thousands to the already steep price, same as VW’s current California camper series can more than double the price of a base Transporter today. The Ququq BusBox-4, however, costs just a fraction of that at €2,790 (about $3,000) while making it easy to convert that five-seater into a weekend campervan for mom and dad and their dog while the kids sleep outside in a tent.
The Ququq weighs 62kg (137 pounds) and requires two people to lift the camping box into the back of the ID Buzz. It fits just behind the passenger bench, where it’s secured to the van’s lashing points with included ratchet straps. It’s a little inelegant, but it gets the job done, and it’s easy enough for a couple of sturdy humans to swap in and out of the van whenever the desire strikes.
The 10cm-thick mattress sleeps two comfortably, measuring 125 x 195cm when unfolded over the collapsed passenger bench. That makes for a rather snug arrangement that my wife and I nevertheless found to be sufficiently roomy. Unfolding the three-part bed requires the perfect combination of strength and finesse, which we could each do solo (and safely — watch your fingers!) after a few days of practice.
Paid a dairy farmer to camp on their property about 30 minutes outside of Lucerne, Switzerland.
Inside the BusBox-4, you’ll find a compact but efficient kitchen. Open it up, and the door folds down to create a convenient table. On the left, you can slide out a two-burner gas stove with space beneath for things like spices, coffee and tea supplies, cutlery, and cooking utensils. Fold up the windscreen and lock the small butane cartridges into place, and you’re ready to start cooking with fire.
In the middle of the opened Ququq is a slide-out drawer holding a small 12V fridge that can be controlled with a Bluetooth app (it’s not needed). It’s powered by a cable that snakes through the vents of the Ququq box and back to the 12V socket near the Buzz’s lift gate. The fridge can also be a freezer, but it’s either or — not both at the same time. It’s nothing special, and not very big at 15 liters, but still proved suitable to our needs. If you need more space, then a 20-liter fridge is also available.
Lastly, on the right of the open BusBox-4, you have a pair of 10-liter (2.6-gallon) freshwater tanks with a simple screw-on valve attachment. This section also includes two useful stainless steel trays for help with washing up and two reasonably comfortable chairs that tuck away neatly into a recess when not in use.
There’s nothing fancy here, and it does look slightly incongruous to the clean, modern lines of ID Buzz. Still, it’s a smart design that’s executed with durable and easy-to-clean materials like treated plywood and aluminum. VW’s so high on the Ququq x ID Buzz pairing that the two have been featured in official press materials.
Power to the people
I had hoped that VW would give the ID Buzz a Tesla-like Camp Mode, whereby you can stay inside the van for hours while still enjoying powered jacks, lights, music, and heating. Sadly, that was not the case, and there’s no indication if VW will ever offer this, at least not until the ID California campervan arrives.
VW doesn’t offer a Camp Mode so I needed to bring this BioLite solution to keep the Starlink RV operating for hours at a time.
And while the fully maxed out ID Buzz I was driving was fitted with a single 230V jack under the front passenger seat, it’s only active for about 30 minutes when the ignition is on and then for another 15 or 20 minutes after the ignition automatically shuts off due to inactivity. That presents a real problem when trying to charge a laptop or keep Starlink internet operating without interruption.
Nevertheless, living and working from an ID Buzz fitted with a Ququq is not only possible, but it also requires fewer compromises than you might think, just as long as you’re packing the right gear.
On the power side, I brought along a small BaseCharge 1500 battery and solar panel from Biolite, a company best known for making fire pits in the past. I had planned to bring a larger and more capable AC200Max solar generator from Bluetti, but when I plugged it into the Buzz’s 230V socket, it tripped the VW’s breaker. Unfortunately, the AC200Max draws a steady 500W, and the Buzz’s inverter can only produce 300W with a 450W surge. The BaseCharge 1500 pulled just 112W, and its smaller physical size turned out to be just right for our needs.
Without a camp mode, I also hoped that the ID Buzz’s bidirectional charging — a vehicle-to-home charging feature that appeared on my infotainment system but requires a future firmware update to activate — would be ready for my journey. That would give me another way to keep the solar generator charged or power my Starlink’s router and dish via an adapter. Alas, the update never arrived, and the firmware release is still TBD.
The Ququq opens to form a convenient desktop.
So my strategy was to charge the Biolite BaseCharge 1500 off the ID Buzz’s 230V jack whenever I could and tap into the Biolite’s 1,521Wh capacity battery and its numerous AC (1200W with 2400W surge) and DC outputs (USB-C, USB-A, wireless charging pad, and 12V) to provide on-demand power to all the gear we carried for work and play. I always charged it when driving and soon got into the habit of repeatedly hitting the ignition button throughout the workday to keep the juice flowing. When away from the van, I’d supplement charging with a 100W Biolite solar panel that I’d place on the roof with the cable snaked back through a cracked window to the BaseCharge battery.
I even bought a €120 Type 2 adapter cable that let me charge the BaseCharge battery from public EV chargers. I never had to use it, though, except once as an early proof-of-concept test.
The strategy worked well. I was able to keep the Biolite battery charged at over 80 percent most of the time while also keeping all my office gear running. I only allowed the BaseCharge 1500 to drop as low as 30 percent once, but that’s only because I had a 12-hour drive coming up which was plenty of time for the VW’s 230V port to easily return the Biolite’s charge to 100 percent.
The Biolite BaseCharge 1500 did have some quirks, though. The fan would come on every 10 minutes or so and then run for 30 seconds at too high a pitch despite the AC load only pulling around 50W — that’s a pretty low threshold for an inverter fan. Once, I had a USB overload error that required me to reset the device, and multiple times the display showed low input power readings that could be corrected by reinserting the AC or solar power charging cables.
Hit the road, jacks
The ID Buzz’s USB-C ports (no USB-A anywhere) offered a mixed bag of capabilities that I never did fully figure out. The two USB-C ports located on the dashboard offered charging and data (for CarPlay and Android Auto) but failed to keep my Apple and Android phones charged despite claiming to support up to 15W of charge. That’s bad because I needed at least one phone to supplement VW’s stuttery satnav.
Fortunately, the USB-C ports in the front passenger door and each sliding door provide up to 45W of USB-C PD power. That meant snaking a 10-foot-long USB-C cable from my phone mounted to the left of the steering wheel all the way to the front passenger door on the right.
The USB-C ports, like the 230V AC jack, only had power when the ignition was on and for a few minutes after it was turned off. The 12V / 120W cigarette lighter jack in the back powering the Ququq’s fridge had continuous power, however, as it pulled straight off the Buzz’s small 12V starter battery. VW says its intelligent onboard supply management system automatically takes various actions to prevent the 12-volt vehicle battery from discharging when subjected to a heavy load.
Staying connected while disconnecting
On the data side, I reactivated my Starlink RV subscription that I put on hold at the end of last summer. My wife and I also brought three phones with big data plans from three different providers. These would act as backup to my Starlink internet or for whenever we didn’t feel like taking the 10 minutes required to reconfigure the van for Elon Musk’s space internet.
Starlink RV kept us connected with fast downloads, even on this remote Swiss farm.
Starlink was bulletproof the entire journey, with downloads averaging over 150Mbps and uploads averaging 20Mbps no matter where my wife and I decided to set up an office, though I was careful to avoid tree coverage. Nevertheless, it seemed to handle overhead branches and other obstructions even better than last summer’s Starlink RV review. From the perspective of our work colleagues, we appeared to function no differently than when we were working from home, at least until the Matterhorn — the real one in Switzerland — showed up in a Zoom call.
Otherwise, 5G data was often available and provided faster uploads in situations where I needed to upload video, for example. I only tried to use the Buzz’s 4G hotspot a few times: once, it failed to connect with my iPhone and another, it was just too slow to bother using from my MacBook. Still, I guess it was good to have a fifth connectivity option. I ignored public Wi-Fi at places like campsites as it was generally much slower than anything I had in tow.
Drive, sleep, work, repeat
As a rule of thumb, the smaller a vehicle, the more often it needs to be reconfigured throughout the day. And compared to vanlifer platforms like the Ford Transit and Mercedes Benz Sprinter, the VW ID Buzz is definitely on the small side.
On any given day, my wife and I would reconfigure the van through a progression of three modes: driving, sleeping, and working. Fortunately, the Ququq’s kitchen was always available whenever parked.
The passenger bench goes flat for the Ququq’s bed to be unfolded.
In driving mode, the Ququq and bedding materials were folded up and secured, the rear passenger seats flattened for Hank to roam around and for the Biolite battery plugged into the 230V socket and placed behind the front passenger seat where its ports could still be accessed.
Sleeping mode meant moving the Biolite battery (and some other bulky items) to the driver’s seat where it could power the Starlink (cable running through a slightly cracked window) and recharge our phones and laptops overnight. I usually unplugged the Starlink’s AC cable before falling asleep to prevent the Biolite’s irritating inverter fan from turning on. After flattening the bench seat, we could unfold and make the bed. Hank slept in a large portable crate, resting mainly on the front passenger seat. And since I couldn’t rely upon the Buzz’s lighting, we used a rechargeable Biolite lantern to keep the interior illuminated with light that varied from a warm candle glow to tripping balls.
Work mode meant removing Hank’s crate and folding the bed back up to lift the right-side rear passenger seat to create a second interior workstation. The ID Buzz is fitted with two rather flimsy folding tables on the backs of the front seats that still proved useful throughout the workday. When the weather was good, we could work outside in the folding Ququq chairs using the kitchen’s door as a makeshift desktop. The ID Buzz was far more comfortable and flexible than it might appear, usually with much better views than any office cubicle.
It was all a little messy at first, but soon all our gear found a home with help from the ID Buzz’s numerous door and seat pockets. After about three days, we had each reconfiguration mode down to a reasonably fast routine.
The biggest annoyance was covering the windows at night while parked at crowded campsites. Since VW isn’t yet offering a camper version of the ID Buzz, I had to invent my own privacy solution: a yoga mat for the front window and aluminum foil everywhere else — items we were carrying anyway.
At night I’d unfurl the yoga mat inside the front windshield where it could be gingerly held in place by the visors. I then squirted a little all-purpose cleaner on the inside of the other windows, which allowed the foil to “stick.” It worked surprisingly well at first, installing in about five to 10 minutes. But in our attempt to keep waste to a minimum, we reused the foil each day, causing it to become less sticky the more it was crumpled and torn. Soon we were tasked with trying to piece together a giant vertical jigsaw puzzle each night. If I did it all again, I’d find a third-party solution with magnets or suction cups before heading out.
Conditioning the air
Without the kind of Camp Mode found on Teslas, heat — which VW lumps under the confusing catchall of “air conditioning” — was always going to be an issue when trying to work and sleep in temperatures that often hovered around freezing. And just like with the 230V outlet and USB-C ports, I had to keep hitting the ignition button throughout the workday to keep the heat flowing from the ID Buzz’s vents. In this way, I could heat the van for about 45 minutes at a time before needing to hit the ignition button again.
At night, I discovered I could repurpose the Buzz’s preheat feature — designed to warm the van to a preset temperature for the daily commute — to keep the cabin hospitable while we slept even when temps dropped to -2C (28F) on the Swiss mountain farms where we parked. Using VW’s WeConnect ID app while lying in bed, I set the heater to come on at 3:30AM and then again at 6AM. You can also configure the preheat function directly from the VW’s infotainment system.
I did bring along a small space heater but never had to use it.
Off the grid
Keeping the heater running and Biolite battery changed also had an impact on driving range. The ID Buzz’s battery drained from 92 percent to 79 percent over the course of two days while parked at one particularly cold and wet campsite in lovely Kaysersberg, France. During that time, I was trying to keep the Biolite’s battery charged under the strain of all our office gear and toys while also heating the front passenger seat for my wife and maintaining the air temperature at 21C (70F) for several hours each day.
Now, if VW’s estimate is correct, then 13 percent of the Buzz’s 77kWh (usable) battery capacity equates to 10kWh consumed. That means we were using about 5kWh per day to live and work from an ID Buzz at the onset of spring. Put another way, the ID Buzz can support a couple for almost two weeks of off-grid boondocking, assuming you’ve got enough food and water and can quickly get to a charging station once you decide to rejoin society.
Incidentally, we never ran out of water** on this trip and only depleted two of the six butane cooking gas canisters we carried.
**Some water, usually extracted from inexpensive Negronis and local wines, was acquired along the way. Hank, who is known to eat his own poo, also drank from puddles.
The ID Buzz parked next to some of its gasoline-powered VW California cousins.
The Ququq BusBox-4 turns the full-time ID Buzz five-passenger van into a capable two-person (plus dog) camper whenever you feel like it while also likely saving you a bundle over the expected price of VW’s dedicated ID California campervan… whenever that might launch.
Yes, there are compromises to make, especially since the ID Buzz will only power your electronics for about 45 minutes at a time. That means bringing along a modestly-sized solar generator like the Biolite BaseCharge 1500 for uninterrupted power to AC devices like Starlink internet for the duration of a workday. Things should get easier once VW releases the long-promised software update (and adapter) to enable bi-directional charging. But given VW’s Microbus heritage, the lack of a Tesla-like Camp Mode to keep the ID Buzz’s AC inverter, USB jacks, lights, music, and heating operational while parked is a real oversight, in my opinion.
Spending a few weeks living and working from the ID Buzz in seven countries around Europe has me excited for the electric future of vanlife, especially now that Mercedes Benz has announced its new modular VAN.EA electric platform that should enable e-campers of all sizes starting in 2026. We’ve also got Winnebago and EcoFlow teaming up for a July announcement of what could be a production version of the all-electric eRV built atop an extended-range Ford E-Transit.
But for VW fans, a long-wheelbase version of the ID Buzz specced for the US is being announced on June 2nd ahead of sales in 2024. It’s expected to feature even more internal space, a bigger battery, and — fingers crossed — better performance from the infotainment system, which has reportedly been vastly improved on VW’s new ID.7. Notably, it’s the LWB ID Buzz that VW says will one day underpin the future ID California campervan.
But there’s no need to wait if you live in Europe, where e-vanlife in a Voltswagen Microbuzz — if I may be so bold — is already a reality.
Google’s Magic Compose beta is here — but it sends your messages to Google
Image: Google
Google has finally started to roll out the beta of Magic Compose, its new Messages feature that uses AI to help you write text messages. However, as pointed out by Android Police, the feature comes with a pretty big caveat: it will send up to “20 previous messages” to Google’s servers to generate suggestions — even if you’re using RCS with end-to-end encryption (E2EE).
Google outlines these conditions on its Magic Compose support page, noting that it will send these messages, along with any included emoji, reactions, and URLs, to its servers to help its AI craft an appropriate response. The company adds that it won’t send any messages with attachments, voice messages, and images but notes “image captions and voice transcriptions may be sent.”
Google first rolled out E2EE on the app in 2020 and made it available for group chats late last year. Toggling on the feature means third parties — not even Google — will see your messages. While using Magic Compose with E2EE will send your messages to Google’s servers, the company maintains that it still can’t actually read them.
Google spokesperson Justin Rende further clarified to The Verge that “conversation data used by Magic Compose is not retained” and that “suggested response outputs are not retained once they’ve been provided to the user.” Once you turn Magic Compose off, Google won’t send your messages to its servers.
Magic Compose is just one of the many AI-powered features Google showed off at its I/O event earlier this month. According to Google, you can use the feature to reply to text messages using “stylized, suggested responses with the context of your messages.” The feature is currently rolling out to users in the Google Messages beta program.
If you have access to the feature, you’ll see a chat bubble next to the app’s message composer. From there, you can pick a suggested response and then continue to rewrite the text using various preset styles, like “chill,” “excited,” or “Shakespeare.” The feature only seems to be available with RCS messages for now, and there’s no word on when it might support SMS / MMS.
Microsoft also rolled out a similar feature in its keyboard app, SwiftKey. This allows you to select the Bing icon within the app’s toolbar to compose text messages and emails, as well as change the tone, format, and length of the suggested messages.
Netflix might ruin password sharing for everyone
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Netflix is betting that a password-sharing crackdown will reverse its dwindling revenue and wavering subscriber count. The company has historically never enforced its policy of one account per household. Now, by making members pay to share their subscriptions with people who live in other homes, Netflix will cash in on all those users they’ve been missing out on for all these years, right?
Many questions remain about how Netflix will actually implement this — and whether it will actually help increase the company’s bottom line. Netflix has warned its investors of a “cancel reaction” several times in the past when talking about paid sharing, meaning that some people will cancel their subscriptions in response to the rollout in their locations. It has already seen that kind of reaction in Spain, where data from the analytics group Kantar found that the streamer lost 1 million users following the crackdown.
But to Netflix execs, the “improved overall revenue” will ultimately outweigh those lost subscriptions. In its last earnings report in April, Netflix said it was “pleased with the results” of its password-sharing crackdown in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain while adding that its subscriber base in Canada is “now growing faster than in the US.” While Netflix assures investors that its results in Canada are a “reliable indicator” of what will happen here, Dan Rayburn, a streaming media expert and industry analyst, tells The Verge “that’s not a fair comparison,” as the number of subscribers and households in both countries are just “so different.”
Netflix also doesn’t take into account the number of subscribers who will choose to lower their plans instead of cancel them altogether, something Rayburn says also poses a big problem for the company. Without password sharing, Netflix’s more expensive plans lose some of their value, as some users might only subscribe to these plans just because of the perk that lets multiple people watch Netflix at once from different devices — and across different households.
While Netflix’s $15.49 per month Standard plan lets you watch Netflix on two devices at a time, the $19.99 per month Premium plan allows up to four simultaneous viewers. The shift toward password sharing could mean that some users will opt to go for the $9.99 per month Basic plan instead of canceling their subscription, which allows users to watch Netflix on just one device at a time. This potential trend could deal a blow to Netflix’s average revenue per user (ARPU), which sat at $16.18 in its last earnings report. “The cancellations will hurt, but the downgrades will hurt as well because Netflix can’t make that up in advertising,” Rayburn explains.
Whether or not paid sharing ends up hurting Netflix’s balance sheet, it could have huge implications for the entire streaming industry. Other companies, like Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Paramount, are likely looking to see how consumers respond to Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown. If all goes well, other services might want to follow suit, similar to the way we saw several streamers hop on the price hike bandwagon last year.
“All streamers face the same quandary of how to deal with password sharing,” Paul Erickson, the principal at Erickson Strategy and Insights, tells The Verge. “Everybody is going to take a look at this or take their cues from how Netflix handles this, how the American consumer reacts, or how they react and push ahead themselves.” With a streamer as big as Netflix getting into paid sharing, there’s always a chance that it will become an industry norm. Erickson says that he sees paid sharing as “part of the maturation” of the streaming industry, noting that “it had to be sorted out at some point, and it’s taking place now.”
Aside from Netflix’s investors, I don’t think anyone is happy about this change — especially since Netflix is the only service that’s making users pay extra. It’s still far too early to tell how many subscribers the streamer will lose over the change, how many will pick a cheaper plan, or how many will actually purchase add-on accounts. But Netflix has to be careful how it implements the change. After all, it doesn’t want to alienate all the paying customers who helped put the service in front of more eyeballs by sharing their passwords.
Iconic yellow school bus maker opens new electric bus factory
Image: Blue Bird
Blue Bird, a century-old manufacturer of America’s iconic yellow school buses, has opened a new production facility to meet the rising demand for electric school buses. Announced via a press release (and an adorable promotional video) on Thursday, a new 40,000 square foot “Electric Vehicle Build-Up Center” has been opened at Blue Bird’s main manufacturing plant in Fort Valley, Georgia, designed to increase the company’s production of electric school buses from 100 per year to 5,000.
Electric versions of Blue Bird’s “Vision” (a classic “Type C” bus with capacity for 77 passengers) and “All American” (a flat-fronted “Type D” bus for 84 passengers) buses will be assembled at the new facility, each equipped with a 155kWh battery that provides around 120 miles of range and takes between three to eight hours to recharge. There are nearly 1,000 Blue Bird electric buses currently in operation, making up six percent of the company’s total volume. The company currently builds four electric school buses each day, but hopes that its new EV facility will increase production to 20 buses a day.
Image: Blue Bird
Electric versions of the Blue Bird Vision (pictured left) and All American (right) will be produced at the new facility in Georgia.
Blue Bird is anticipating a significant increase in demand for electric school buses. School districts across the US and Canada have already begun replacing their traditionally powered bus fleets with all-electric models in a bid to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions, save on fuel costs, and improve the health of students. In the US especially, sales of electric school buses are expected to increase due to the billions of dollars in incentives available under President Biden’s infrastructure plan.
“Based on the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law alone we anticipate thousands of additional electric school bus orders valued at an estimated $1 billion over five years,” said Phil Horlock, president and CEO of Blue Bird Corporation. “Our new EV Build-up Center reflects Blue Bird’s steadfast commitment to school districts across the U.S. and Canada to meet increasing demand and deliver clean, safe, and reliable student transportation when they need it.”
School buses are an ideal candidate to transition away from traditional fuels like diesel (which now makes up less than half of Blue Bird’s volume). Besides preventing school children from being exposed to harmful emissions, the short, fixed route of school buses are well suited for range-limited EVs. They also have long periods outside of the twice-daily school runs where they’re not in operation, giving them plenty of time to recharge.
In the face of overwhelming demand, the Biden-Harris administration almost doubled the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) cash pool for its Clean School Bus Program rebate last year from $500 million to $965 million. According to the EPA’s newly proposed greenhouse gas emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles, the agency anticipates that 45 percent of all school buses produced by 2032 will be EVs.
The FDA will apparently let Elon Musk put a computer in a human’s brain
Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge
Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface company Neuralink says it has received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to launch its first in-human clinical study. If this is true, it means that actual humans could be getting a device from Neuralink implanted in their heads.
The news follows Elon Musk’s November claim that Neuralink was about six months away from its first human trial — which suggests it’s the rare Musk promise that’s actually coming true on time. The announcement of a future human trial isn’t nearly as much of a milestone as the results of that trial. But this isn’t just any trial. This represents Elon Musk, of all people, getting to attach a device to a human brain.
We are excited to share that we have received the FDA’s approval to launch our first-in-human clinical study!
This is the result of incredible work by the Neuralink team in close collaboration with the FDA and represents an important first step that will one day allow our…
And it makes us wonder: who would sign up for such a thing, and why? Will it be someone who might have an important medical reason or someone who wants to draw the world’s attention at Musk’s side, and is there any chance it’s Elon Musk himself? Musk has claimed he will get the device implanted in his own head at some unspecified time in the future.
Meanwhile, Neuralink has been accused of abusing its monkey test subjects, a claim the company denies, and is under investigation for allegedly transporting contaminated devices removed from monkeys. The FDA rejected an early 2022 Neuralink application for human trials, as reported by Reuters, apparently outlining “dozens of issues” the company needed to address.
If you’re thinking that you, yourself, would like to be part of the Neuralink trial, there’s nothing for you to do for now. Neuralink says that recruitment isn’t open yet and that it will announce more information “soon.”
YouTube will let you watch unlimited NFL Sunday Ticket streams, but only at home
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
YouTube on Thursday announced a big upgrade to its NFL Sunday Ticket offering: if you’re at home, you’ll now be able to watch unlimited simultaneous streams of NFL Sunday Ticket content across both YouTube and YouTube TV, according to a tweet.
Previously, YouTube was going to limit NFL Sunday Ticket content to two screens maximum, as detailed in a support article. This change could mean that some houses will be watching a lot more football when the regular season rolls around in September — especially if they take advantage of YouTube TV’s new multiview feature, which is set to be available with NFL Sunday Ticket. If you’re not at home, the two-stream limit will still be in place, YouTube wrote in a follow-up tweet.
This just in! We’ve heard your feedback about @NFL Sunday Ticket streaming limits and we’re excited to share that we’re including unlimited simultaneous streams at home for @NFL Sunday Ticket content, on both YouTube TV and @YouTube.
YouTube landed NFL Sunday Ticket in December, ending a monthslong process to determine where the broadcasting package would end up after DirecTV. Apple had long been rumored to be the new home for the package, but YouTube ended up getting it instead. YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket plans currently start at $249, but that’s a promotional price; the plans will get more expensive once the promotional pricing goes away after June 6th.
If you’re a business, DirecTV will still be selling NFL Sunday Ticket, which might come as a relief to sports bar owners who didn’t want to sign up for YouTube TV.
Tesla leak reportedly shows thousands of Full Self-Driving safety complaints
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
A Tesla whistleblower has leaked 100GB of data to the German outlet Handelsblatt containing thousands of customer complaints that raise serious concerns about the safety of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) features.
The complaints, which were reported across the US, Europe, and Asia, span from 2015 to March 2022. During this period, Handelsblatt says Tesla customers reported over 2,400 self-acceleration issues and 1,500 braking problems, including 139 reports of “unintentional emergency braking” and 383 reports of “phantom stops” from false collision warnings.
Some of the incidents mentioned by Handelsblatt include descriptions of how cars “suddenly brake or accelerate abruptly.” While some drivers safely gained control of their vehicle, Handelsblatt says others “ended up in a ditch, hit walls or crashed into oncoming vehicles.”
The documents obtained by the outlet also outline Tesla’s policies when responding to the issues customers experience and suggest that Tesla likes to keep its vehicles’ data under wraps. Here are some of the policies described by Handelsblatt (translated with Google Translate):
For each incident there are bullet points for the “technical review”. The employees who enter this review into the system regularly make it clear that the report is “for internal use only”. Each entry also contains the note in bold print that information, if at all, may only be passed on “VERBALLY to the customer”.
“Do not copy and paste the report below into an email, text message, or leave it in a voicemail to the customer,” it said. Vehicle data should also not be released without permission. If, despite the advice, “an involvement of a lawyer cannot be prevented”, this must be recorded.
According to a note from Handelsblatt editor-in-chief Sebastian Matthes, the outlet’s editorial team sent Tesla several questions about the data it received. Instead of answering them, Matthes says Tesla “demanded that the data be deleted and spoke of data theft.” We still don’t know who provided Handelsblatt with the leaked information, but Matthes notes that the outlet received it from “several informants.”
Here’s 44 seconds of the Moto Razr Ultra because an entire ad has leaked
Three images from the Motorola Razr Ultra leaked video. | Images: Motorola via Evan Blass (@evleaks)
The Moto Razr Ultra foldable still isn’t official — but thanks to reliable gadget leaker Evan Blass, who’s been on top of this phone for months, we now have what appears to be an official 44-second commercial for the phone.
It’s well past my bedtime, so I won’t revisit all the other leaks — mostly, suffice it to say that Blass (whose Twitter account remains private) has been instrumental in revealing almost every aspect of this phone.
We don’t know price or most specs — except that a Motorola executive revealed the outer screen will measure 3.5 inches. Blass previously tweeted that one of these phones will be branded as the Razr 40 Ultra globally, but called the Razr+ in the US. There will not be a “Razr Lite,” but rather a “Razr 40,” Blass says.
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Image: Blue Bird
