Technology

lundi 30 septembre 2024

Robert Downey Jr. Is a Novelist With a Novel Muse in ‘McNeal’

Robert Downey Jr. Is a Novelist With a Novel Muse in ‘McNeal’ The “Oppenheimer” star makes his Broadway debut in Ayad Akhtar’s timely new play about a literary lion who gets assistance from A.I.

The best smartwatches for Android

Renders of various Android-compatible smartwatches on a green background — Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Wear OS is much better than it used to be, so there’s never been a better time to consider a smartwatch.

Writer’s note: Amazon’s next Prime Day event is officially scheduled for October 8th and 9th. We’ve already assembled a collection of the best early Prime Day deals for those who want to shop ahead, but keep in mind that expect steeper smartwatch savings during the event.

After a long stretch of slim pickings, the last couple of years have been huge for Android smartwatches. Now there are more good options than ever.

But this is still a transitional era. While we’re encouraged by the stronger third-party app options, the market is still fragmented. Wear OS 5 is here for Samsung’s Galaxy Watches and the Pixel Watch 3. However, the larger ecosystem is still catching up. Some features, like Google Assistant, are not yet available on certain Wear OS 3 smartwatches, and Wear OS 4 still isn’t widely available. Even so, the Android wearable ecosystem is barreling ahead.

If you’d rather wait until Wear OS settles down a bit, there are platform-agnostic smartwatches and fitness watches you can buy in the meantime. Otherwise, you’ll want to be aware of the chip and Wear OS version powering your watch. Mobvoi, for instance, took forever rolling out Wear OS 3 to its eligible Wear OS 2 watches. It just announced rollout for Wear OS 4. Speaking of Mobvoi, its TicWatch Pro 5 was the first to sport the new Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Plus in the US, and while it’s a great watch, you may want to wait until there are more W5 Plus watches to choose from. That said, the base W5 chip is also pretty good. The Pixel Watch 3 and OnePlus Watch 2 both sport the W5 and have notably better performance and battery life.

So long as you keep the aforementioned caveats in mind, Android users have more smartwatch options than ever before. I’ve rounded up my top picks, but if none of these is the right fit, you can always check out our fitness tracker buying guide.

Best smartwatch for Samsung phones

Sizes: 43mm, 47mm / Weight: 77g, 85g / Battery life: Up to 30 hours with AOD, 40 without AOD / Display type: Always-on OLED / GPS: Built-in GPS / Connectivity: LTE (optional), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: Up to 50 meters, IP68 / Music storage: 16GB

If you have a Samsung phone, you’ll get the most mileage out of a Samsung smartwatch. And of the four watches Samsung has in its current lineup, I recommend the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic. Although Samsung just released the Galaxy Watch 7, there wasn’t a refresh for the Classic. That means you ought to be seeing some good deals for the Classic soon, if not already. It’s not often that I recommend a last-gen device, but such is my deep love for the physical rotating bezel.

But, if you want the latest and greatest, the Galaxy Watch 7 offers an upgraded 3nm Exynos W1000 chip and a new 3-in-1 BioActive Sensor. It’s a marginal improvement over last year’s models, but I don’t feel like Samsung introduced anything this year that requires having them. It also has Wear OS 5 and One UI 6 Watch, but that’ll eventually make its way back to the older watches, too. Mostly, I recommend the 7 if you prefer a smaller size, don’t care about the rotating bezel, and want something a smidge more futureproof.

The Classic’s rotating bezel is 15 percent thinner than the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. The updated design is sleeker than its predecessor, and the larger display is easier on the eyes and is only slightly bigger at 43mm and 47mm. I have small wrists, but the 47mm was still quite comfortable for everyday wear. It’s launching with Wear OS 4, which adds extended battery life, and — finally — cloud backups. One UI 5 Watch also adds some minor health and sleep tracking improvements, but this will eventually make its way to older models. While I prefer the Classic, the base Watch 6 model may be the better option if you want a smaller, lighter, sleeker, and cheaper smartwatch.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic on top of a tennis racket — *The 40mm Galaxy Watch 6 and the 47mm Watch 6 Classic are iterative updates, but deliver a familiar yet elevated experience.*

For more outdoorsy folks, the $649.99 Galaxy Watch Ultra might be the more sensible choice. Of all Samsung’s watches, it has the best battery life, lasting around three days in our testing. (Though, we never got the full 100-hour estimated battery life.) It’s got dual-frequency GPS, a new multisport activity, an emergency siren, increased durability, 10ATM of water resistance, and a Quick Button, which acts as a customizable shortcut button. It’s basically an Apple Watch Ultra for Android.

Meanwhile, if you’re on a budget, there’s the new $199.99 Galaxy Watch FE, which is essentially a rebadged Galaxy Watch 4.

The Samsung Health app also delivers a good overall fitness tracking experience, especially since you can enable turn-by-turn navigation for hiking and cycling activities. We weren’t too impressed with nightly SpO2 readings, but Samsung’s overall sleep tracking continues to improve. You also get built-in GPS, body composition analysis, irregular heart rate notifications, fall detection, emergency SOS features, and EKGs. Most recently, Samsung’s added a new Energy score, AI-powered wellness insights, FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection, and a confusing AGEs Index metric for metabolic health. While the Energy score is broadly accurate, I found the AI-generated features to be hit or miss and the AGEs Index to be more gimmicky than useful. The latter feature is also limited to the Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra.

We don’t necessarily recommend the Galaxy Watches if you don’t have a Samsung phone. EKGs and sleep apnea detection require the Samsung Health Monitor app, which is limited to Samsung phones. You can work around it, but all Samsung watches work best with other Samsung devices.

Read my full review of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 series.

Best Android smartwatch for non-Samsung users

Sizes: 41mm, 45mm / Weight: 31g for 41mm, 37g for 45mm / Battery life: Roughly 24 hours with AOD enabled / Display type: Always-on OLED / GPS: Built-in GPS / Connectivity: LTE (optional), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Safety Signal with Fitbit Premium / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: 32GB

The $349.99 Google Pixel Watch 3 is done playing catch-up. It’s an annoying truth that if you have a Samsung phone, a Samsung smartwatch is probably the best choice for you. However, for everyone else, I highly recommend the Pixel Watch 3.

There are several updates to the Pixel Watch 3, but the gist is that it’s a more refined watch that also expands into new territory. One major update this year is that there are now two sizes: 41mm and 45mm. You get extra screen real estate on the larger watch, but the bezels are also smaller on the 41mm model this year. (If you’re trying to pick between sizes, I prefer the 45mm.) The displays are brighter as well, ranging from a minimum of 1 nit to a maximum of 2,000 nits.

The 45mm and 41mm Pixel Watch 3 in colorful boxes — *The 45mm model also wears small. The difference between the two sizes isn’t massive as far as wearability.*

Health and fitness also get several updates, especially for runners. There’s a new Cardio Load metric that gauges the cardiovascular intensity of the exercises you’ve been doing over a set period of time. It’s similar to Garmin’s Training Load metric. You’re also given a Cardio Load target based on your fitness goals, readiness, and current activity. Runners also get a new dashboard full of form analysis metrics as well as the ability to program custom workouts. In addition, you can get AI-generated suggested workouts. And if you’re in Europe, the Pixel Watch 3 can now detect if you no longer have a pulse and call emergency services.

The Pixel Watch 3 also adds a bunch of nifty Google integrations. It’s excellent if you have a Google-powered smart home because you can now directly view and interact with your Nest Doorbell or camera feeds. You can also use the watch as a remote for your Google TV, and there are new Google Home Tile / complications that make controlling your home from your wrist a breeze. Also new this year are offline Google Maps, the ability to unlock Pixel phones, and a Call Assist feature that lets a caller know you need an extra minute to pick up your phone.

That said, while the Pixel Watch was initially framed as a watch for any Android phone, several updates this time around mean you’ll get the best experience with a Pixel phone. But compared to Samsung, there isn’t quite as much lock-in. Health features, for example, are available to everyone so long as you have a Fitbit account. Extra good news: Google removed certain metrics, like the Daily Readiness Score, from the Fitbit Premium paywall. Mostly, the features locked to Pixel phones are things like the ability to unlock your phone with the watch and use of the Recorder app.

One thing to be mindful of is durability. While the domed display is beautiful, we cracked the screen on the original Pixel Watch and got deep scratches on the Pixel Watch 2. (Thankfully, we haven’t messed up the Pixel Watch 3.) Google doesn’t offer any repair options, but you can get the Preferred Care extended warranty if you want to be prepared should something happen. It’s not ideal since it’s limited to the US and Canada, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Read my full Google Pixel Watch 3 review.

Best alternative to Google and Samsung smartwatches

Sizes: 47mm with 22mm straps / Weight: 49g case, 80g with strap / Battery life: Up to 100 hours in smart mode, 48 with AOD on, and 12 days in power-saving mode / Display type: OLED touchscreen / GPS: Dual-frequency GPS, Beidou, GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, QZSS / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: 32GB

The $299.99 OnePlus Watch 2 is what a glow-up looks like. While the original OnePlus Watch was horrible, this watch helps fill the void that Fossil left when it said it was pulling out of Android smartwatches — namely, a viable alternative to Google and Samsung.

The 47mm case is big for petite wrists, and unfortunately, it only comes in one size, but it’s made of durable stainless steel and sapphire crystal. Plus, it houses a 500mAh battery. That, plus a dual-chip architecture and novel dual OS system, results in super long battery life. How long a smartwatch lasts will of course depend on your individual usage, but I got nearly four days with normal use. That’s incredible for a flagship.

Close-up of the OnePlus Watch 2 on a red book — *The OnePlus Watch 2 has stupendous battery life.*

It also has Wear OS 4, making it the only third-party Wear OS watch running the latest software. It has Google Assistant from the get-go — a big achievement since that’s been a problem with other third-party Android watches. Plus, you get access to the Google Play Store for a robust app ecosystem. On the fitness side of things, OnePlus added dual-frequency GPS. That’s a plus if you’re outdoorsy and frequent challenging GPS environments like dense forests or crowded cities.

The main things you’re giving up are LTE connectivity and some features like EKGs, atrial fibrillation detection, native period tracking, and fall detection. The lack of cellular is a bummer, as it means you really should keep your phone on you when you’re out and about. Still, the $300 price tag is a competitive one and may be worth the tradeoff given battery life.

Read my review of the OnePlus Watch 2.

Best fitness smartwatch for Android

Sizes: 50mm with 24mm straps / Weight: 44.3g / Battery life: Up to 80 hours / Display type: OLED touchscreen and secondary ultra-low power display / GPS: GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, Beidou / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: 32GB

Mobvoi’s TicWatch lineup has its devoted fans for a reason: super long battery life. The $249.99 TicWatch Pro 5 is no exception. It’s got an estimated 80 hours of battery life with standard use, a secondary ultra-low power display, and a massive (for a smartwatch you wear on your wrist, at least) 628mAh battery. I didn’t quite get 80 hours in my testing, but I did get a solid 48-60 hours even with heavy GPS use. That outclasses most of the watches in this category (except the OnePluS Watch 2) and is useful for backpackers and endurance athletes. It might not hold a candle to a top-of-the-line Garmin, but it’s also a smarter watch for a fraction of the price.

Battery life aside, the Pro 5 is a good option for fitness-focused people who aren’t keen on giving up smart capabilities for a Garmin or Polar. It’s also more durable. This time around, Mobvoi has also added a digital crown so you don’t have to worry about scrolling through menus with sweaty fingers. The flatter side button also reduces the risk of accidental presses.

Close up of the ULP display on the TicWatch Pro 5 — *The ULP display helps to extend battery life.*

The Pro 5 also has an ingenious method of displaying heart rate. When you lift up your arm, the backlight changes color depending on which heart rate zone you’re in. That means you can instantly gauge whether to up the intensity or slow your roll. The Pro 5 also adds new training metrics, like VO2 Max and recovery time.

The TicWatch supports stress tracking, all-day blood oxygen monitoring, fatigue assessments, as well as atrial fibrillation and irregular heartbeat detection. For outdoorsy types, it also has access to multiple GNSS systems, and there’s a new barometer and compass app, as well as a one-tap measurement app that gives you a quick look at five metrics (heart rate, blood oxygen, stress, respiratory rate, and overall heart health).

It’s also pretty capable on the productivity front. You get contactless payments, access to the Play Store, notifications, and the ability to take calls. It’s also the only Android smartwatch available in the US with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Plus chip, which is a plus in terms of futureproofing. The only major concerns are the 50mm case that may not suit smaller wrists and the lack of a digital assistant.

And good news! Mobvoi just announced that Wear OS 4 is rolling out this month.

Read my full review of the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5.

Best hybrid smartwatch

Sizes: 37mm with 18mm straps / Weight: 45g / Battery life: Up to 39 days / Display type: OLED display / GPS: Tethered GPS / Connectivity: Bluetooth / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: N/A

Hybrid smartwatches are an excellent way to keep things simple and subtle. The $249.95 Withings ScanWatch Light gets you the basics like push notifications, timers, and alarms. On the health front, you can track steps, sleep, menstrual cycles, and GPS workouts. (That said, GPS is tethered from your phone, not built in.) The design reminds me of a classier Swatch, particularly if you get the more colorful options in a minty green or pale blue. But the big reason the Light has dethroned our previous pick, the Garmin Vivomove Sport, is its extra-long battery life. Withings estimates it lasts up to 30 days on a single charge, and I got pretty close to that in testing with 25 days. Despite the Vivomove’s more appealing $180 price tag, it only lasts about five days.

Overhead view of person wearing Withings ScanWatch 2 and ScanWatch Light — *The ScanWatch 2 (left) is a fancier version of the Light and has a few more health features.*

If you want a bit more out of a hybrid, you can also opt for the ScanWatch 2. It’s an extra $100, but you get EKGs and atrial fibrillation detection, temperature sensors, SpO2 readings, and an altimeter for measuring elevation. It also looks a bit more elegant on the wrist, partly because of a secondary dial that tracks your daily step progress.

If neither matches your style, the Vivomove Sport is still a good option that gets you access to Garmin’s in-depth platform. Its Vivomove Trend is a slightly more upscale option that also supports Qi charging.

Read my full review of the Withings ScanWatch 2 and Light.

Best platform-agnostic fitness smartwatch

Sizes: 41mm with 18mm straps; 45mm with 22mm straps / Weight: 40g for the 3S; 47g for the 3 / Battery life: Up to 10 days for 3S; 14 days for 3 / Display type: OLED touchscreen / GPS: GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Ant Plus, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: 8GB

Garmin is best known for making rugged GPS watches that have excellent fitness features but aren’t so smart otherwise. But the $449.99 Venu 3 caters to people who want top-notch fitness tracking without sacrificing productivity features.

It’s got a colorful and vibrant always-on OLED display and comes in two sizes: 41mm and 45mm. Like its predecessor, the Venu 2 Plus, it also has a microphone and speaker so you can take and make calls directly from the wrist. It also has a clever workaround for digital assistants — it uses Bluetooth to work with whatever assistant is already on your phone. You’d think more fitness trackers would do this, but they don’t. It worked well in testing, though digital assistants aren’t always the smartest at understanding commands.

Person wearing the Garmin Venu 3S while putting their hand in a jeans pocket. — *The Venu 3 series is a little pricey, but it’s the smartest watch Garmin’s got to offer.*

The Venu 3 doesn’t have the best third-party app ecosystem, but it has Spotify, Deezer, and Amazon Music for offline playback. Android users can also send quick responses for texts, and the watch works with either iOS or Android for folks who want to keep their options open. It also has fall detection, live tracking, and contactless payments.

As for health features, it has Garmin’s latest heart rate sensor, which enables its FDA-cleared EKG app to detect atrial fibrillation. Otherwise, you get built-in GPS, continuous heart rate monitoring, all of the advanced coaching features in the Garmin Connect app, and Garmin’s famous in-depth health data. The Venu 3 also improves sleep tracking with nap detection and adds audio-guided meditation sessions. There’s also a new wheelchair mode.

This isn’t the most hardcore Garmin that money can buy, but it’s definitely the smartest. The price is a bit high compared to most smartwatches, but by Garmin standards, it’s middle-of-the-pack.

Read my Garmin Venu 3S review.

Best budget Android smartwatch

Size: 46mm with 22mm straps / Weight: 34g / Battery life: Up to 14 days / Display type: OLED touchscreen / GPS: Dual-frequency and 6 GNSS systems / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: 2.3GB

Amazfit’s made a name for itself making budget wearables that punch far above their weight. I’ve been consistently impressed by the GTR line of smartwatches over the years, and the $199.99 GTR 4 is no exception.

Not only does it have a classic look, but you also get 14 days of battery life and a color, always-on OLED display. New to the GTR 4 is dual-band GPS — a feature that Apple and Garmin only recently introduced to their higher-end smartwatches. Or, if you like to plan your own trail runs or hikes, you can import your own GPS routes, too. It tracks 150 sports and features all-day continuous heart rate monitoring. You can also monitor stress, sleep, and SpO2 levels. For smart features, you can take calls on the wrist, and it has two digital assistants: Alexa and a proprietary offline assistant. The device also syncs with Strava and Adidas Running.

Amazfit GTR 4 on a metal tin — *The Amazfit GTR 4 is a budget option that punches above its weight.*

The GTR 4 isn’t the best smartwatch around. Flagship watches can do everything the GTR 4 can do but in a sleeker, more polished package. However, they can’t do it at this price. If price is your main priority, this gets you incredible bang for your buck. Plus, you can frequently find Amazfit devices on sale. The icing on the cake is it works just as well on Android as it does on iOS.

Read my full review of the Amazfit GTR 4.

Update, September 30: Adjusted prices and availability. Also added a note about Amazon’s fall Prime Day event.

Cerebras Files Prospectus for I.P.O.

Cerebras Files Prospectus for I.P.O. The Silicon Valley company would be among the first A.I. companies to go public since the release of ChatGPT nearly two years ago.

Ford targets EV ‘fence-sitters’ with offer of free home charger and installation

For customers still unsure whether they’re ready to make the switch to an all-electric vehicle, Ford is sweetening the pot.

Today, the company launched a new initiative called the “Ford Power Promise,” in which it will provide a suite of benefits to customers who buy or lease a new EV. And chief among them is a complimentary home charger for all new customers, as well as the costs of standard installation.

The charger that’s being offered is the company’s Ford Charge Station Pro, a $1,310 Level 2 charger that comes with a standard CCS1 connector. Ford declined to put a monetary value on the installation but said it would cover costs up to 60 amps of power and 80 feet of wire run. Customers who need to upgrade their home electrical panel before the installation, however, will need to cover those costs themselves.

Ford’s free charger and installation offer starts October 1st and extends through the end of the year. It will only be available to customers who buy or lease a new EV during that time period. For customers who buy or lease a new EV but already have a home charger installed, Ford will provide them with the cash equivalent of $2,000.

“We’re the only ones doing this,” said Becca Anderson, senior director of customer experience at Ford’s Model e division. “This means less stress and more convenience for our customers, making their home charging set-up up easy.”

Like most automakers, Ford is struggling to get more customers to consider switching to electric. Even though the company is the number two seller of EVs in the US, behind Tesla, and its EV sales continue to grow, the company is still confronting a lot of headwinds in the form of myths and misconceptions about EV ownership.

“We have a lot of customers open to electric,” said Martin Delonis, senior manager of strategy at Ford Model e, “but they’re sitting on the fence.”

According to market research conducted by Ford and Boston Consulting Group, these so-called “fence-sitters” say they are worried about things like EV range, battery health, and the overall cost of ownership. But they’re also motivated by “quality and convenience,” which aligns then more closely with gas and hybrid shoppers as opposed to early adopters.

“We’ve done the research and found that it’s not range anxiety we’re dealing with,” Delonis added. “It’s change anxiety.”

Most customers overestimate how much range they’ll need in a vehicle, just as they often fail to see the benefits of charging a vehicle at home. They assume they’ll need to use public chargers more often than they do. And they falsely believe that the battery will wear out before the vehicle’s end-of-life.

To help ease their concerns, Ford is upping the ante with new benefits, like a free home charger, and some old ones that customers may not be aware of. Ford said it will now offer 24/7 call and text support for all EV owners who may have questions or concerns about their new purchase. The company is also highlighting a preexisting eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty for the battery of the vehicle.

And to address unease around charging, Ford is emphasizing its Blue Oval Charging Network, which includes a number of third-party charging providers, as well as the Tesla Supercharger network. Ford has been racing to get Tesla adapters to its EV customers so they can access Superchargers across the country. Ford is “ramping up production” of the adapters after some initial delays over the summer, Delonis said.

While Ford has seen its EV sales grow quarter over quarter, the company is still struggling to rein in costs. The company reported a $1.3 billion loss for its Model e EV division in the first quarter of 2024 and a $1.1 billion loss in the second quarter. It also canceled a planned three-row electric SUV and delayed a new electric truck until 2027.

Epic is suing Google — again — and now Samsung too

Photo illustration of Tim Sweeney in front of Google and Epic logos. — Photo illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Philip Pacheco, Getty Images

Four years after Epic sued Google for running an illegal app store monopoly — a case it won this past December — Epic is suing again. The Fortnite game developer has filed a second antitrust lawsuit against Google, and now additionally Samsung, accusing them of illegally conspiring to undermine third-party app stores.

The lawsuit revolves around Samsung’s “Auto Blocker” feature, which now comes turned-on-by-default on new Samsung phones. While it’s turned on, it automatically keeps users from installing apps unless they come from “authorized sources” — namely, Google and Samsung’s app stores. Epic claims there’s no process for any rival store to become “authorized.”

When Epic filed its original lawsuits against Google and Apple in August 2020, it didn’t yet have its own mobile app store. Now, it does: On August 16th, it launched the Epic Games Store on Android globally and on iPhones in the European Union where the EU Digital Markets Act forced Apple to allow alternate stores.

But a month before it could launch its own store, Epic alleges, Samsung suddenly decided to make Auto Blocker more or less on-by-default — making it harder for new phone buyers to install competing apps themselves.

*Sure enough, I can’t install the Epic Games Store with Auto Blocker on. It works fine with it off.*

Epic claims it now requires “an exceptionally onerous 21-step process” to download a third-party app store onto a Samsung phone, making it that much more likely users will give up somewhere along the way.

While “21 steps” seems like an exaggeration to me (Epic’s own website claims turning off Auto Blocker takes just four!) I can see the company’s point when I try it on my own Samsung phone. Not only does Auto Blocker prevent me from installing the new Epic Games Store, the “can’t install app” pop-up no longer tells me how to turn Auto Blocker off.

When I search for “turn off auto blocker” in my Samsung phone’s universal search bar, there are no relevant search results; when I search for “auto blocker,” I have to tap through several additional screens to shut it off. One of them asks me if I’m really sure, claiming “Auto Blocker keeps your phone safe by blocking threats and other suspicious activity.”

Today, Epic alleges that promise of safety is entirely bogus: “Auto Blocker conducts no assessment of the safety or security of any specific source or any specific app before blocking an installation,” the legal complaint reads.

“The thing’s not designed to protect against malware, which would be a completely legitimate purpose,” says Epic CEO Tim Sweeney. “The thing’s designed to prevent competition.”

In a roundtable interview with journalists, though, Sweeney admits he doesn’t yet have proof that Google and Samsung colluded — he’s hoping that comes out in the legal discovery process, like so very many embarrassing things did in Epic v. Google. He also admits he didn’t actually ask Samsung if the company would freely make the Epic Games Store an “authorized source.”

Like with Sweeney’s previous lawsuits, he claims that’s because he’s fighting on behalf of all app developers, not just Epic.

“If we’d fought Epic v. Apple and Epic v. Google solely on the basis of Epic getting special privileges, perhaps settlement discussions with Apple and Google might have been fruitful,” says Sweeney. “But if we did that, we’d be selling out all developers.”

Instead, he says, he privately asked Samsung to either change Auto Blocker so it’s turned off by default, or to create “an honest whitelisting process” that would automatically let honest apps through Samsung’s new barrier. When Samsung and Epic couldn’t agree on “the basis” of that whitelisting process, he says Epic threatened legal action, even sharing a draft version of today’s legal complaint with Samsung.

We’ve asked Samsung to confirm or deny whether Auto Blocker actually scans an app for threats or suspicious activity, and whether it worked with Google on the feature. We haven’t heard back yet.

I suspect Samsung will point out that it doesn’t secretly or quietly turn on Auto Blocker, though; it lets users choose. “The default setting for Auto Blocker is set to On in the phone’s initial setup wizard, but you can also change this setting to Off during the initial setup,” the company’s support page notes.

It’s also not yet clear whether Epic has been harmed by Auto Blocker. Only two new Samsung phones have shipped since Samsung turned it on-by-default. While Sweeney claims Google’s previous attempts to add friction to third-party apps (“Unknown Sources”) caused half the people who clicked “download” to give up partway, he admits he doesn’t yet have data showing that the Samsung feature is making things worse.

He says the Epic Games Store has now reached 10 million mobile installs, against a “totally achievable” 100 million target by the end of the year. He characterizes that as “traction but not an enormous amount.”

In Epic v. Google, the company argued that the Unknown Sources install flow made it so hard to attract new users to a rival app store, Sweeney was eventually forced to bring Fortnite to Google’s store even though he promised Samsung he wouldn’t. Though the jury wasn’t asked to decide on “Unknown Sources” specifically, they did decide that Epic was harmed by Google’s behavior overall.

Epic is asking for a jury trial this time as well.

Speaking of Epic v. Google, we’re expecting Judge James Donato to issue his final order there any day now, and it’s easy to imagine a world where Epic v. Samsung gets affected by how he decides to change Google’s behavior. If he grants Epic’s biggest asks, the Google Play Store would be forced to carry the Epic Games Store and other app stores inside of it and third-party app stores like Epic’s would also get access to Google Play’s entire app catalog. In that world, Auto Blocker seems a little less relevant.

But a Google appeal is guaranteed, and Epic is positioning today’s new lawsuit as a way to prevent and dissuade Google and partners from pursuing a “malicious compliance strategy” in the meanwhile. You could even argue that’s what Judge Donato asked for: in Epic v. Google, he repeatedly told Epic’s lawyers that he wouldn’t grant their request for an anti-circumvention provision to keep Google from getting creative with workarounds.

“We don’t do don’t-break-the-law injunctions... if you have a problem, you can come back,” he said last November.

Sweeney wouldn’t necessarily commit to suing other companies that erect barriers to third-party app stores, but says Epic is “watching that very closely.”

“Fortunately nobody has done this but Samsung, and we hope to keep it that way.”

Raspberry Pi and Sony made an AI-powered camera module

The Raspberry Pi AI Camera Module, seen from the front. — *The new Raspberry Pi AI Camera uses Sony’s IMX500 image sensor to handle the AI processing.* | Image: Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi and Sony have co-developed a Raspberry Pi AI Camera module that’s launching today for $70. It comes with onboard AI processing that can help Raspberry Pi users develop “edge AI solutions that process visual data” with ease, according to the tiny computer maker.

The new camera builds on Raspberry Pi’s plans to offer chips and add-ons for AI developers, having previously released several non-AI camera modules since its first 5-megapixel offering in 2013. “AI-based image processing is becoming an attractive tool for developers around the world,” Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton said in a press release. “We look forward to seeing what our community members are able to achieve using the power of the Raspberry Pi AI Camera.”

The AI camera is compatible with all Raspberry Pi single-board computers, and pairs the company’s RP2040 microcontroller chip with Sony’s IMX500 image sensor — the latter of which handles AI processing. The combination eliminates the need for additional components like accelerators or a graphics processing unit (GPU), which are typically required for camera modules to handle large-scale visual data.

The 12.3 megapixel Raspberry Pi AI Camera can capture footage at either 10 frames per second in 4056 x 3040, or 40fps at 2028 x 1520. It also has a manually adjustable focus, a 76-degree field of view, and measures 25 x 24 x 11.9mm — making it almost identical in size to the Camera Module 3 that Raspberry Pi released last year.

dimanche 29 septembre 2024

California Passes Law Protecting Consumer Brain Data

California Passes Law Protecting Consumer Brain Data The state extended its current personal privacy law to include the neural data increasingly coveted by technology companies.

The AR and VR headsets you’ll actually wear

Images of Balatro, the Meta Smart Glasses, and the Quest 3S on an Installer background. — Image: David Pierce / The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 54, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been reading about AI slop and sports betting and Jony Ive, clearing my schedule for the new season of The Great British Bake Off, watching Sicario and Pirates of the Caribbean and A Quiet Place: Day One on plane-seat screens like their directors intended, insta-subscribing to Hasan Minhaj’s new YouTube show, and just relentlessly trolling people with Vergecast clips through Pocket Casts’ new feature.

I also have for you a couple of new Meta gadgets, the mobile game that will eat up all your free time, a couple of hotly anticipated new movies, the best Spotify feature in forever, and much more. So much going on! Let’s dig in.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What should everyone else be reading / watching / playing / trying / building out of clay this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

Meta’s Quest 3S. My biggest issues with the Quest 3 were the price and the passthrough, and this new model appears to have solved both. It’s back in “totally reasonable game console” range, and the passthrough demos looked much sharper than before. They look great, though not as good as…
The limited-edition Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer. I already own two pairs of Meta’s smart glasses (don’t ask), but I am still lusting over this clear pair. They’re more expensive, and they actually undo some of the good non-gadget vibes of the other models, but they look so good.
Balatro Mobile. This might be the most recommended thing in the history of Installer — I swear, every week someone tells me how much this poker roguelike has taken over their life. And now it’s on your phone! $10, no data collected, no microtransactions, my screen time is about to go through the roof.
Wolfs. This Clooney-Pitt Apple TV Plus movie has a fascinating backstory that says a lot about the future of Hollywood, but I also just love a big-budget flick in which movie stars say cool lines in cool ways. This appears to be exactly that.
The new Roku Ultra. I helped review the Google TV Streamer this week, and I really love that thing. But I’m also psyched to see Roku keep pushing — the new one’s not reinventing the wheel, but it’s faster and better, and that is a very good thing.
The Wild Robot. I’d really like to tell you to go see Megalopolis this weekend, but every single indication is that the movie is hot garbage. But people seem thrilled about this one, an animated flick about a stranded robot that sounds adorable and delightful and like something I’m going to end up watching 100 times.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. A Zelda game… in which you get to play as Zelda. That’s the dream! This game doesn’t seem to be as big or awe-inspiring or platform-defining as Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, but it sounds clever and fun just the same.
Spotify’s AI Playlist feature. This is terrible news for my relentless quest to quit Spotify: the AI playlists are great. Now that the feature is available in the US, I’ve been using it to name a few bands or songs, plus an overall vibe, and it picks a few dozen songs that, at least so far, always seem to hit. Spotify is very, very good at this part of the music game.
Social Studies. Being a kid is hard work. And this doc digs in with a group of students on how much… maybe not always harder, but definitely more complicated, social media has made being a kid in 2024. This comes from a good team, too, and I’m excited about it.
The Nothing Ear Open. Nothing’s headphones have been really solid, and as a recent and aggressive convert to open earbuds, I’m pumped to see how these sound. They look so cool, too! Big week for clear gadgets.

Screen share

Fun fact: Joanna Stern is the main reason I ever got a job at The Verge in the first place. (That story is long and, if I remember correctly, involves her playing a fairy in a video? But I promised her I wouldn’t tell that story.) These days, she’s a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, an Emmy winner, and most recently, the creator of Joannabot, the AI chatbot that will tell you everything you need to know about the iPhone 16. (And apparently also do some other things, if you’re clever enough, but again, we’ll leave that alone.)

I asked Joanna to share her homescreen because she just reviewed the iPhone 16, which means she just had to set up a homescreen. And because she’s forever using new gadgets and switching between things, I was curious what always made it to the top of the pile.

Here’s Joanna’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps she uses and why:

I’m submitting my homescreen and my Control Center screen because I’m proud of the work I did on the Control Center. I may submit it for an award. But really, I’d like to just use this as a forum to complain about the all-in-one connectivity widget in the new Control Center in iOS 18. I don’t like it. I like the single buttons so I can easily just turn them on and off or long-press to get in there. Sadly, they have gotten rid of the single Wi-Fi button, but I read on this great website that it’s coming back in iOS 18.1.

The phone: iPhone 16 Pro Max.

The wallpaper: This is my dog Browser. It isn’t the best shot of him, but the framing is nice for putting him in the middle of the screen. My lockscreen wallpaper is this awesome retro iPod made by a designer named Shane Levine. I bought it through this site last year after featuring it in my newsletter.

The apps: WSJ, ChatGPT, Apple Notes, Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Instagram, YouTube, Clock, Threads, Signal, Photos, Slack, Spotify, Phone, Safari, Messages, Gmail.

My apps are so basic and make me feel so basic. I work (Slack, Gmail). I message (Messages, Signal). I listen and watch things (YouTube, Spotify). I social media (Threads, Instagram). I work more (Google Docs, WSJ). If it isn’t on this main homescreen, I usually just search for it.

Before iOS 18, I had a widget stack on the homescreen with weather and time zone widgets, but I moved it off to another screen. I might move it back. I might not. Got to live a little.

I also asked Joanna to share a few things she’s into right now. Here’s what she shared:

The Devil at His Elbow. I’m currently listening to this audiobook by my wildly talented colleague Valerie Bauerlein. It’s all about the Murdaugh murders. The writing, the details, the whole thing, is so gripping. I find myself just sitting in the garage waiting until a chapter is done.
Full Swing. I know I’m late to Netflix’s popular golf-u-series, but I started playing golf again this summer, and I’m loving the stories of these players and how psychological the sport really is.
Take Your Pet to School Day. My 3-year-old loves this book. I don’t want to spoil it, but the pets take over Maple View Elementary, and, well, Ms. Ellen is pissed.

Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. And for even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads.

“Sliding Seas. It’s a match-three (or four!) game but also so much more: there’s real strategy required behind your moves to beat levels at the higher end, but it’s never unfair, and while there are in-app purchases and power-ups you can buy to make a level easier, you crucially never need to. It is the most compelling and well-suited-to-mobile game I’ve ever found and a gem I recommend without reservation.” – Jamie

“Gisnep is another daily puzzle game, this time by David Friedman of Ironic Sans. It appears as a crossword-esque grid, but the words only go across and wrap around. The goal is to reveal both a quote and the source by filling in letters from vertical columns. I’ve gotten a number of my friends hooked already.” – Kyle

“Satisfactory 1.0 launched a week ago or so. A great group of devs have effectively made a game that feels like work but is fun. If you love conveyor belts and staying up all night, this might be for you.” – Matt

“Can’t believe you haven’t mentioned switching to OmniFocus! As a fellow perennial ‘task manager switcher,’ this app is a staple in my rotation.” – Pedro

“I previously recommended App in the Air as a great travel companion, but unfortunately, it’s shutting down. If you’re looking for an alternative, Flighty is excellent, especially for travel stats, and they’re building an importer for App in the Air users.” – Vivian

“We’ve been watching English Teacher on FX. Constant laughs and, so far, each episode has been better than the last. Easily one of the funniest shows on TV right now.” – Danial

“I was gifted the Humanscale FR300 Ergonomic Foot Rocker, which is a very tech-sounding name for a very manual / mechanical rocking footrest. It’s very pleasant to use. I’ve also been standing on it sometimes... which I’m not sure is safe but sure is fun!” – Wisdom

“Repeatedly putting in my Amazon cart the Black Milanese Loop for the Apple Watch Ultra 2. I was so close to buying it like three times. Now it’s out of stock. Even Apple says early November for shipping.” – Scott

“Been playing with different LLMs using LM Studio. Integrated it into my Obsidian vault to help summarize and organize things into specific formats. It’s been extremely cool!” – Cody

Signing off

I’ve had back-to-back-to-back-to-back trips over the last two weeks, and I would just like to quickly shout out my new No. 1 travel hack: a wall charger that doubles as a big-ass portable battery. I have this Anker model, which is $55, charges a USB-C and a USB-A device simultaneously, and also charges itself so I can get 10,000mAh of power when there’s no outlet nearby. (There’s also a newer one with two USB-C ports and even faster charging but less battery capacity.) It’s huge and heavy, but this thing and a long cable are now the only charging gear I travel with, and they’re the only reasons my gadgets have survived trains and plane rides. Here at Installer, we love a sensible charging strategy, and this is as sensible as it gets.

See you next week!

Why Stellantis, Owner of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram, Is Struggling

Why Stellantis, Owner of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram, Is Struggling The automaker, created by a 2021 merger, is dealing with labor unrest, slumping sales and a revolt from its dealers.

samedi 28 septembre 2024

YouTube pulls songs from Adele, Nirvana, and others due to SESAC dispute

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Some of the most watched and listened to music on YouTube and YouTube Music disappeared on Saturday, replaced by a short message:

Video unavailable

This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.

That is probably not what people expected when they tried to stream Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” or other songs from artists as varied as Kendrick Lamar, Britney Spears, Green Day, Kanye West, and Burna Boy.

This leaves two questions: what is SESAC, and when is the music coming back?

YouTube page for Adele’s song “Hello” showing the song is missing with a message that “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.”

SESAC stands for the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, which has been around since 1930 and, according to its website, “...currently licenses the public performance of more than 1.5 million songs on behalf of its 15,000+ affiliated songwriters, composers, and music publishers.”

It’s smaller than similar organizations like BMI and ASCAP, but SESAC lists many big-name artists in its portfolio. In 2017, it was acquired by the private equity firm Blackstone.

Answering the question of when the SESAC music ban on YouTube and YouTube Music will end, or even what music has been removed, is a little harder.

SESAC has a searchable database of its repertory, although not all the songs listed there appear to have been removed. There’s even a 44,267-page PDF available on the site if you’d like to read the complete list. But not all songs were affected in the same way. While one listing for Kanye West’s “Power” is blocked, as of this writing the music video version continues to stream just fine.

The licensing organization hasn't commented publicly, but YouTube did respond to an inquiry from The Verge, as spokesperson Mariana de Felice writes:

We have held good faith negotiations with SESAC to renew our existing deal. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach an equitable agreement before its expiration. We take copyright very seriously and as a result, content represented by SESAC is no longer available on YouTube in the US. We are in active conversations with SESAC and are hoping to reach a new deal as soon as possible.

According to an unnamed source cited by Variety, this could be a negotiating tactic by YouTube because, they say, “the previous deal actually does not expire until next week.”

Now that Balatro’s on mobile, here are some tips to get started

Playstack

Now that Balatro is out on mobile, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. And while it’s a great game, its tutorial doesn’t do the best job of setting you up for the kind of success necessary to hook you. In my first few hours, though I was completing the objectives laid out, it felt like I was stumbling my way to success instead of achieving it through strategy. Onboarding was a bit too abrupt, focused on the barebones of how to play instead of blending that with tips on how to play effectively. With that in mind, here’s some useful info and tips on how to get started.

I was told there would be no math

In Balatro, the main gameplay loop is amassing enough poker chips to beat a set chip total called a blind. To do that, you must create the ideal poker hand that maximizes the number of chips you can earn. I think what I initially had so much trouble with was understanding how scoring worked. Numbers were flying at me, and I didn’t know what they meant or where they came from. Knowing how scoring works is critical to maximizing your chip-earning potential.

Each hand you play is assigned a simple math equation:

Total chips earned = chip value of cards x multiplier score.

Screenshot from Balatro, featuring the equations assigned to each poker hand. — *These are the math equations assigned to every hand. Using special cards, you can modify these base equations to increase your score.*

The math equation is different for every type of poker hand, and the more powerful a hand is, the bigger the equation. You don’t have to remember hand hierarchies or their equation values — simply hitting the “Run Info” button will pull up a reference list. Now, here’s the important part: this math equation changes based on the cards you play and any modifiers you’ve earned. For example, the base equation for two pair is 20 chips x 2 multiplier score. If I play two queens and two 3s, I can figure out my score by adding the total chip value of my cards (10+10+3+3=26) to the equation’s chip value (20) and then multiplying that number by 2, equalling 92 chips.

Gif from Balatro featuring the score total for playing five of a kind. — *Scoring works by adding up all the chip values and all the multiplier values and then multiplying the two numbers together.*

I’m loath to admit how long it took me to understand what was going on, but once I figured it out, everything clicked. I finally got what it was that makes this game hard to put down. Some of these blinds require amassing thousands of chips, so the main point — and honestly the biggest fun factor — of Balatro is beefing up those equations and your cards as much as possible. Which brings me to the next tip.

Cash rules everything around me

I wish the game took more time to explain that, early on, money is everything. For each blind, you have a number of chances or hands to earn enough chips, and if you don’t like the cards in your hand, you have a number of opportunities to discard cards in hopes of getting better ones. You earn the most money by beating blinds in the least amount of hands and with the fewest discards as possible. There are other ways to earn money, too, with special cards and perks you can get. Once you unlock it, use the special deck that starts you off with an extra $10 instead of the regular $4. Look for the perk (called a “tag”) that gives you $25 for beating “boss blinds” — or harder blinds that introduce some kind of negative effect like lowering equation values while requiring you to earn abnormally high amounts of chips. Bank as much as you can, as early as you can in order to...

Shop till you drop

The amazing thing about Balatro is that it’s managed to effectively reproduce the thrill of opening loot boxes without needing to spend a single dime on microtransactions. At the end of every blind, you get to visit the shop where you buy cards that add to or modify your deck, vouchers that impart powerful perks like the ability to increase your hand size, or jokers that have all kinds of score-modifying abilities. Go for the jokers that increase bonuses every round based on meeting certain criteria so your scoring potential can grow exponentially. My most successful run featured a joker that added a +1 to my multiplier every time I didn’t play a face card. By the end of that run, I was scoring upwards of 10,000 chips from the weakest hands played with the cheapest cards. If you see jokers that don’t work with your strategy, don’t forget that you can spend money to reroll the shop for new ones.

Screenshot from Balatro featuring the card shop and a selection of modifying cards to choose from. — *In the shop, you can buy cards that modify other cards or increase the value of specific hands.*

Unlike most other roguelikes that let you keep some abilities or items when you die, when you fail a run at Balatro, all your special cards, vouchers, perks, and cash go away. You can’t take cash with you, so spend it.

Lastly, if you want to make sure you have a good time with Balatro...

Screenshot of a tweet from the official Balatro account that reads, “Hope you all had a productive day at work/school today.” — *Even* Balatro’s developer knows this game is a problem.

Install an app blocker (seriously)

Runs in Balatro are short and seamless, making it trivial to get into a groove even after having to start over after a failed attempt. And if you’re an adult with responsibilities, that’s going to be a problem — especially on mobile. Three hours in real time feels like only 20 minutes, making Balatro the closest human beings have gotten to legitimate time travel. After wrapping up my first day with the game sometime around 5AM without feeling the slightest bit tired, I added it to my app blocker, setting it to cut off access every day at midnight. Those jokes about Balatro being a productivity problem aren’t that far off the mark, so if you want to try to get some sleep or work done, put guardrails in place so you can.

Welcome to Meta’s future, where everyone wears cameras

*See that little circle? That’s a camera.* | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

All around Meta’s Menlo Park campus, cameras stared at me. I’m not talking about security cameras or my fellow reporters’ DSLRs. I’m not even talking about smartphones. I mean Ray-Ban and Meta’s smart glasses, which Meta hopes we’ll all — one day, in some form — wear.

I visited Meta for this year’s Connect conference, where just about every hardware product involved cameras. They’re on the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses that got a software update, the new Quest 3S virtual reality headset, and Meta’s prototype Orion AR glasses. Orion is what Meta calls a “time machine”: a functioning example of what full-fledged AR could look like, years before it will be consumer-ready.

But on Meta’s campus, at least, the Ray-Bans were already everywhere. It was a different kind of time machine: a glimpse into CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s future world where glasses are the new phones.

I’m conflicted about it.

The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses on a table. — *The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.*

Meta really wants to put cameras on your face. The glasses, which follow 2021’s Ray-Ban Stories, are apparently making inroads on that front, as Zuckerberg told The Verge sales are going “very well.” They aren’t full-fledged AR glasses since they have no screen to display information, though they’re becoming more powerful with AI features. But they’re perfect for what the whole Meta empire is built on: encouraging people to share their lives online.

The glasses come in a variety of classic Ray-Ban styles, but for now, it’s obvious users aren’t just wearing glasses. As I wandered the campus, I spotted the telltale signs on person after person: two prominent circle cutouts at the edges of their glasses, one for a 12MP ultrawide camera and the other for an indicator light.

This light flashes when a user is taking photos and videos, and it’s generally visible even in sunlight. In theory, that should have put my mind at ease: if the light wasn’t on, I could trust nobody was capturing footage of me tucking into some lunch before my meetings.

But as I talked with people around campus, I was always slightly on edge. I found myself keenly aware of those circles, checking to see if somebody was filming me when I wasn’t paying attention. The mere potential of a recording would distract me from conversations, inserting a low hum of background anxiety.

Then, when I put a pair on for myself, the situation suddenly changed. As a potential target of recording, I’d been hesitant, worried I might be photographed or filmed as a byproduct of making polite eye contact. With the glasses on my own face, though, I felt that I should be recording more. There’s something really compelling about the experience of a camera right at the level of your eyes. By just pressing a button on the glasses, I could take a photo or video of anything I was seeing at exactly the angle I was seeing it. No awkward fumble of pulling out my phone and hoping the moment lasted. There might be no better way to share my reality with other people.

Meta’s smart glasses have been around for a few years now, and I’m hardly the first person — or even the first person at The Verge — to be impressed by them. But this was the first time I’d seen these glasses not as early adopter tech, but as a ubiquitous product like a phone or smartwatch. I got a hint of how this seamless recording would work at scale, and the prospect is both exciting and terrifying.

The camera phone was a revolution in its own right, and we’re still grappling with its social effects. Nearly anyone can now document police brutality or capture a fleeting funny moment, but also take creepshots and post them online or (a far lesser offense, to be clear) annoy people at concerts. What will happen when even the minimal friction of pulling a phone out drops away, and billions of people can immediately snap a picture of anything they see?

Personally, I can see how incredibly useful this would be to capture candid photos of my new baby, who is already starting to recognize when a phone is taking a picture of her. But it’s not hard to imagine far more malicious uses. Sure, you might think that we all got used to everyone pointing their phone cameras at everything, but I’m not exactly sure that’s a good thing; I don’t like that there’s a possibility I end up in somebody’s TikTok just because I stepped outside the house. (The rise of sophisticated facial recognition makes the risks even greater.) With ubiquitous glasses-equipped cameras, I feel like there’s an even greater possibility that my face shows up somewhere on the internet without my permission.

There are also clear risks to integrating cameras into what is, for many people, a nonnegotiable vision aid. If you already wear glasses and switch to prescription smart glasses, you’ll either have to carry a low-tech backup or accept that they’ll stay on in some potentially very awkward places, like a public bathroom. The current Ray-Ban Meta glasses are largely sunglasses, so they’re probably not most people’s primary set. But you can get them with clear and transition lenses, and I bet Meta would like to market them more as everyday specs.

Of course, there’s no guarantee most people will buy them. The Ray-Ban Meta glasses are pretty good gadgets now, but I was at Meta’s campus meeting Meta employees to preview Meta hardware for a Meta event. It’s not surprising Meta’s latest hardware was commonplace, and it doesn’t necessarily tell us much about what people outside that world want.

Camera glasses have been just over the horizon for years now. Remember how magical I said taking pictures of what’s right in front of your eyes is? My former colleague Sean O’Kane relayed almost the exact same experience with Snap Spectacles back in 2016.

But Meta is the first company to make a credible play for mainstream acceptance. They’re a lot of fun — and that’s what scares me a little.

vendredi 27 septembre 2024

The messy WordPress drama, explained

An image of Matt Mullenweg at WordCamp 2024 in Europe — *Matt Mullenweg at WordCamp 2024 in Europe.* | Screenshot: WordCamp

WordPress is essentially internet infrastructure. It’s widely used, generally stable, and doesn’t tend to generate many splashy headlines as a result.

But over the last week, the WordPress community has swept up into a battle over the ethos of the platform. Last week, WordPress cofounder Matt Mullenweg came out with a harsh attack on WP Engine, a major WordPress hosting provider, calling the company a “cancer” to the community. The statement has cracked open a public debate surrounding how profit-driven companies can and can’t use open-source software — and if they’re obligated to contribute something to the projects they use in return.

The conflict has escalated in the days since with a barrage of legal threats and has left swaths of website operators caught in the crossfire of a conflict beyond their control. WP Engine customers were cut off from accessing WordPress.org’s servers, preventing them from easily updating or installing plugins and themes. And while they’ve been granted a temporary reprieve, WP Engine is now facing a deadline to resolve the conflict or again have their customers’ access fall apart once again.

WP Engine is a third-party hosting company that uses the free, open-source WordPress software to create and sell its own prepackaged WordPress hosting service. Founded in 2010, WP Engine has grown to become a rival to WordPress.com, with more than 200,000 websites using the service to power their online presence.

Mullenweg leads two different WordPresses. There’s WordPress.org, the open source project that develops the backbone of the WordPress publishing platform, and then there’s WordPress.com, a company that sells a hosted version of the open-source WordPress software — just like WP Engine. Mullenweg runs Automattic, which owns WordPress.com. Data suggests that around 43 percent of all websites use WordPress, but it’s not clear how many are hosted by WordPress.com or another party.

Along with selling plans on WordPress.com, Automattic contributes a lot of development effort to the open source project, which itself relies on donations and community contributions to run. According to Mullenweg, the team contributes 3,988 hours per week. The company may not have to pay to use WordPress, but it certainly pays to develop and improve it.

WP Engine operates a bit differently. It says it focuses on investing in the community through sponsorships and encouraging the adoption of the platform. The hosting platform was acquired by the private equity firm Silver Lake in 2018, and Mullenweg views it as a business that profits off of open-source code without giving anything back.

That frustration came to a head last week when Mullenweg took the stage at WordCamp — a WP Engine-sponsored WordPress conference — and took direct aim at WP Engine. “The company is controlled by Silver Lake, a private equity firm with $102 million in assets under management,” Mullenweg said. “Silver Lake doesn’t give a dang about your open source ideals — it just wants return on capital. So, it’s at this point I ask everyone in the WordPress community to go vote with your wallet. Who are you going to give your money to: someone who is going to nourish the ecosystem or someone who is going to frack every bit of value out of it until it withers?”

Mullenweg followed up this statement with a September 21st blog post, where he lambasted WP Engine for contributing just 40 hours per week to the WordPress.org open source project. “WP Engine is setting a poor standard that others may look at and think is ok to replicate. We must set a higher standard to ensure WordPress is here for the next 100 years,” Mullenweg wrote in the blog. He ripped into WP Engine even more, saying it’s “strip-mining the WordPress ecosystem” and giving users a “crappier experience so they can make more money.”

Mullenweg doesn’t appear to be wrong about WP Engine’s contributions. But WP Engine is ultimately abiding by the rules of WordPress’ open-source license: it’s generally free to use, and WP Engine doesn’t have to give back to the WordPress community just because it’s banking off the open-source code. Of course, it’d be nice if WP Engine did, but nothing requires that it do so.

Complicating this further: Mullenweg isn’t just defending the ethos of open source — he’s also defending his competing WordPress provider. In his blog post, he claims WP Engine is “profiting off of the confusion” caused by the company’s branding. Mullenweg alleges that WP Engine is promising to give customers WordPress but that the company is actually offering a distilled version of the service. He goes on to say WP Engine will need a commercial license for the “unauthorized” use of the WordPress trademark, which is controlled by the WordPress Foundation and later sent a cease and desist letter in an attempt to make the company pay up.

WP Engine isn’t staying silent. It sent a cease and desist letter that tells a very different story of what has been going on behind the scenes. In its letter, WP Engine claims Automattic demanded a “very large sum of money” days before Mullenweg’s keynote at the September 20th WordCamp convention — and if the company didn’t receive it, Mullenweg allegedly threatened to carry out a “scorched earth nuclear approach” toward WP Engine.

WP Engine alleges Mullenweg harassed the company through text messages and calls, with one screenshotted text saying: “If I’m going to make the case to the WP community about why we’re banning WPE I need to do it in my talk tomorrow.” The texts, which Mullenweg confirmed he sent in an interview with Twitch streamer ThePrimeagen, say he prepared several presentation slides for his WordCamp talk, with the working title “How Private Equity can Hollow out and Destroy Open Source Communities, a Story in 4 Parts.”

After WP Engine refused to pay WordPress, the company alleges Mullenweg followed through on his threats. “Mr. Mullenweg’s covert demand that WP Engine hand over tens of millions to his for-profit company Automattic, while publicly masquerading as an altruistic protector of the WordPress community, is disgraceful,” WP Engine’s letter states. “WP Engine will not accede to these unconscionable demands which not only harm WP Engine and its employees, but also threaten the entire WordPress community.”

WordPress.org has now made it clear that it’s going after WP Engine for not only failing to give back to the WordPress project but also for its alleged misuse of the WordPress trademark. Mullenweg now says Automattic has given WP Engine two ways to “pay their fair share”: either by paying a licensing fee or making contributions to the open source WordPress project. “This isn’t a money grab: it’s an expectation that any business making hundreds of millions of dollars off of an open source project ought to give back, and if they don’t, then they can’t use its trademarks,” Mullenweg said.

The WordPress Foundation — the charitable organization that backs the open source WordPress project — is led by Mullenweg and other lesser-known board members who aren’t displayed on its website. It seems the WordPress Foundation has made some tweaks to its trademark guidelines in recent days. As of September 19th, the policy said you are “free” to use the WP abbreviation in “any way you see fit.” But now WordPress has deleted that language, replacing it with a line that says not to use WP “in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is ‘WordPress Engine.’” The updated policy also explicitly states: “If you would like to use the WordPress trademark commercially, please contact Automattic, they have the exclusive license.”

WordPress.org banned WP Engine from accessing its servers free over their “legal claims and litigation” — a move that has made it more difficult for customers to use WP Engine. However, Mullenweg decided to temporarily remove the block just two days later. He’s given WP Engine until October 1st to create their own mirror or resolve the conflict. “Why should WordPress.org provide these services to WP Engine for free, given their attacks on us?” Mullenweg wrote. WP Engine says it only sent a cease and desist order to WordPress and has not yet filed a lawsuit.

When asked about the ban on WP Engine, Automattic spokesperson Megan Fox said in a statement to The Verge that “trademark violations have resulted in the company being blocked from some WordPress resources.” WP Engine pointed The Verge to its statements on X when reached for comment.

The fight has garnered a mix of reactions. On one side, people think WP Engine is in the wrong, with some saying the company should contribute more to the open source project and that its use of “WP” is misleading. On the other, some WordPress community members are calling on Mullenweg to step down and accuse of him abusing his power over WordPress.org and WordPress.com. Others believe the situation could result in a fork of WordPress and brought up concerns about whether WordPress will take action against other companies using the “WP” abbreviation or trademark.

But in a dispute that’s meant to clarify what is and isn’t WordPress, Mullenweg risks blurring the lines even more. WordPress.org and WordPress.com both have a point — but it looks an awful lot like they’re working together to make it.