Apple’s App Store is inviting me to ‘search the way you talk’
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
I opened the App Store today to find an emulator I’d read about, and a new prompt appeared under the search bar inviting me to “search the way you talk.” I hadn’t seen the prompt before on my iPhone 13 Pro Max, and quite frankly, I had missed the iOS 18.1 update note about it.
As it describes, Apple's update in October added, “App Store search lets you use natural language to find what you’re looking for more easily.” It’s also not the only place Apple is adding natural language search with iOS 18, in addition to Photos, Music, and Apple TV.
While some others had seen a splash screen in October, I’d only spotted the same simple search prompts as before. When I asked around at The Verge, several others hadn’t seen it before, although closing the app and relaunching it caused the message to appear in at least one case, and a few social media posts have popped up from other people noticing it for the first time.
The prompt in the hint bubble suggested trying something like “Apps that help me work out,” so of course, I gave it a try.
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Screenshot: iOS App Store
How well does it work? When I searched “emulators that feature multiple consoles,” the top result was the multi-console Delta app. Cool. “Apps that only emulate single consoles” gave me the PS Remote Play, PlayStation, and Xbox apps — less good, but it did follow those with Gamma, a PS1 emulator app. And when I asked for “Video games that can help me work out,” well...
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Screenshot: iOS App Store
This isn’t exactly what I was looking for, but I certainly would never have found this otherwise.
Overall, it seems like an improvement to me. Twerk Race 3D is not an app that would help me work out, but it does seem like the search engine worked in spirit. I never felt like the App Store’s search was helpful for anything besides finding an app I already knew the name of. Plus, searching with the usual one-or-two-word terms might not give me the same variety as switching up how I phrase a natural language prompt.
The president of the NCAA calls for a ban on 'prop bets' in college sports
As sports betting has spread across the U.S., college athletes have increasingly faced harassment from bettors. A federal ban on wagers that concern individual performances could help, the NCAA says.
Apple Maps on the web now has Look Around
Look Around Look Around at how lucky we are to have Apple Maps right now. | Screenshot: The Verge
Following the beta launch of Apple Maps on the web in July, Apple has now recently added Look Around street-level views for several cities to the site, 9to5Mac reports. You can activate Look Around as you would in the Apple Maps app on devices like the iPhone or iPad by selecting the binoculars icon on the bottom left of the map window. You can then click and drag on the map to see different first-person perspectives in many big cities.
At launch, the Apple Maps web beta included basic functionality like searching for points of interest, seeing ratings, browsing area Guides, and getting directions. With Look Around, the web version inches closer to matching functionality with the Apple Maps app on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS — albeit without personalization features such as searching addresses from your contacts or saving locations to your Library.
Personally, I use the Apple Maps app on my Mac more often than any other mapping software, and I often find Apple’s Look Around to be a smoother experience than Google’s Street View. However, I sometimes also have to switch to Google Maps anyway since Apple doesn’t support Look Around for my hometown of Baltimore, MD — even though I spotted an Apple Maps van in the city all the way back in 2017.
You can see the full list of cities where you can use Look Around on Apple’s website.
Grubhub pays $25 million for allegedly tricking customers and lying to drivers
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
Grubhub has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit that claimed the food delivery service misled customers and drivers while also damaging the reputation of restaurants. The proposed settlement will require Grubhub to make several changes to the platform, such as showing the total delivery cost when customers place an order.
Along with advertising “highly inflated hourly pay rates for drivers,” the FTC’s initial complaint accused Grubhub of hiding “the true cost of its services” by adding delivery fees that raised the price of customers’ final orders. The agency claimed that starting around 2019, Grubhub began advertising lower delivery fees to attract more customers but then began tacking on a “service” fee that increased the cost of orders anyway.
The FTC also alleged the company charged Grubhub Plus members for delivery despite advertising the subscription as having “free” or “$0” deliveries. The agency claimed Grubhub makes the plan easy to sign up for but difficult to cancel while also allegedly blocking the accounts of users with large gift card balances.
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Screenshot: FTC
The FTC claimed Grubhub charged customers hidden fees, raising their total order price.
Additionally, the FTC accused Grubhub of adding restaurants to the platform even if they never signed up to sell food on the service. “Grubhub has had as many as 325,000 unaffiliated restaurants on its platform — more than half of all of the available restaurants on Grubhub,” the FTC claims. As a result, many customers wound up having issues with their orders, resulting in bad feedback for unaffiliated restaurants.
Grubhub is now required to show customers the full cost of delivery and can no longer add “junk fees” to orders. It’s also banned from listing unaffiliated restaurants on the platform, and can only make driver earnings claims “that it can back up with evidence and in writing.” Grubhub must also notify customers when they’re banned and offer a way to appeal the decision, as well as make it easier to cancel Grubhub Plus.
“While we categorically deny the allegations made by the FTC, many of which are wrong, misleading or no longer applicable to our business, we believe settling this matter is in the best interest of Grubhub and allows us to move forward,” Grubhub spokesperson Najy Kamal said in a statement to The Verge. The company also responded to the settlement in a post on its website.
Though Grubhub was initially ordered to pay $140 million, it is “partially suspended based on the company’s inability to pay the full amount.” The company's $25 million will go toward refunding affected customers, but the FTC says the full judgment will be due “immediately” if Grubhub “is found to have misrepresented its financial status.”
Harris nods to the coconut tree meme that started it all
Vice President Harris had some fleeting meme-mentum in the early days of her campaign. On Tuesday, she nodded to that in remarks to young voters.
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
@molly0xfff I remember proposals, from many years ago, to reduce spam by charging a fee for each email sent. This has effectively been implemented in such a subtle and gradual way that I think it happened without many people realizing it.
People at the time were upset about the fees being upfront, so now instead, we have something opaque and indirect like the banking system. Sure, individuals can technically still run their own SMTP… but, y’know, good luck with that.
Threads starts testing scheduled posts
Image: The Verge
Threads is about to begin testing the ability to schedule posts, according to Instagram’s Adam Mosseri. “Replies cannot be scheduled,” he added, explaining that “we want to balance giving people more control to plan their Threads posts while still encouraging real-time conversation.”
Mosseri also makes sure to note that Instagram has been working on this feature “for months.” I’m choosing to take as a sign that the Instagram chief is fed up with the notion that Bluesky is the motivating factor behind every new improvement that comes to Threads. Last week, Threads introduced curated collections of people to follow, which drew comparisons to Bluesky’s starter packs.
Yesterday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Threads now has over 100 million daily active users, marking the first time that the company has revealed a DAU figure for its Twitter / X competitor. Threads also has more than 300 million monthly active users. No matter how Meta is calculating those figures, Bluesky objectively remains far smaller.
Instagram has long offered the option to schedule feed posts, and this week it announced the same convenience is being extended to DMs.
The Indian Movie Acclaimed Abroad But Snubbed at Home
The film "All We Imagine As Light" is an Indian film that has won rare international acclaim from Cannes and the Golden Globes. But at home in India the international buzz was ignored and it was passed over as India's entry for the Oscars. Our correspondent in Mumbai, where the film was shot, explores why it is not receiving the same acclaim in India.
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
JasonW@social.ridetrans.it ("Jason Weill") wrote:
@publictorsten Sending email is very cheap and open source. Convincing a consensus of corporations and sysadmins that you’re not, by their standards, a spammer, is very expensive and difficult
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
Anyone have things to say about PeerTube? I'm thinking of joining an instance.
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
fauxpen source:
"A description of software that claims to be open source, but lacks the full freedoms required by the Open Source Definition."
I thought I invented a new term, but when I searched “fauxpen source” I found this cool little website dated back to 2009. This term seems to meet the needs of the moment so maybe it’ll catch on. https://www.fauxpensource.org/
Luigi Mangione is charged with murder as an act of terrorism in CEO's death
The man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare's CEO has been charged with murder as an act of terrorism. The indictment could help move along procedural steps toward extraditing the suspect.
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
vkc@linuxmom.net ("Veronica Explains") wrote:
@mausmalone I don't think most rational people ever really think about it. Other than as a means to separate front-end work from other work from a compensation purpose.
Folks on the internet like to make a fuss about it but they literally couldn't design their way out of a paper bag so there's that.
Here's One Thing Marvel Rivals Won't Copy From Overwatch 2
Guangyun “Guangguang” Chen, creative director behind Marvel Rivals, says that while many players have requested a role queue system, a matchmaking option to help create balanced teams, there are currently no plans to implement one in the free-to-play character shooter.
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
vkc@linuxmom.net ("Veronica Explains") wrote:
The question of "is HTML a programming language" is never about definitions.
It's about excluding a group of laborers from receiving equal compensation to others, as well as a means to justify not teaching engineers how to center web content without several frameworks.
I will not be taking questions.
YouTube says that soon, its tech will be able to find AI copies of celebs and creators
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
YouTube is partnering with the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to help creators identify content using their AI-generated likenesses on the platform and submit removal requests. The company will test the controls with celebrities and athletes early next year before rolling it out to “top YouTube creators, creative professionals, and other leading partners representing talent.”
In September, YouTube announced plans for tools that would help manage AI-generated depictions of creators and their voices. Now, the company says it can give celebrities (and soon, creators) the ability to manage AI copies of their likeness, such as their face, “at scale.”
Last year, CAA introduced the CAAVault, which scans and stores the digital likenesses of its clients, including their faces, bodies, and voices.
YouTube is also working on “synthetic-singing identification technology” that will detect AI content that attempts to replicate creators’ singing voices. YouTube has already started letting music labels request the removal of AI content that simulates an artist’s voice, and also began requiring creators to label videos containing AI-generated content earlier this year.
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
molly0xfff@hachyderm.io ("Molly White") wrote:
Adding to this thread because a bunch of people are asking: newsletters are expensive to run because of mailsending, not because of hosting costs. ~70% of my cost is for bulk email. A plain old static blog can be hosted for a couple bucks a month.
19 Awesome-Looking Games From The Game Awards Day Of The Devs Showcase You Probably Missed
We used to only get a Day of the Devs showcase once a year during the summer. Now we get an encore during the holidays as well. This year’s Day of the Devs: Game Awards 2024 Edition didn’t disappoint either. Every time I think the heavily curated, very personal, extremely intimate showcase can’t possibly top the last…
Reblogged by bcantrill ("Bryan Cantrill"):
Last week @oxidecomputer hosted our (mostly) quadrennial DTrace conference, dtrace.conf. As an unconference we never know quite how it's going to go, but I'm not sure why @bcantrill and I were worried: it was terrific! A huge thank you to all our presenters! https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaakI37KgzsE98Tp-8wV-1MKXw4qm5Y1c&si=Maf1bEgFWCIFn8RG
Senators launch probe into sale-leaseback company, citing NPR's reporting
EasyKnock, the subject of the probe, announced its sudden closure earlier this month.
Gerry Connolly Beats AOC in Race for Key Democratic Congressional Post
The next ranking member of the House Oversight Committee will reportedly be nine-term Democrat Gerry Connolly of Virginia. Connolly, 74, beat out his competitor, 35-year-old Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), 131-84 at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports. The current Oversight ranking member, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), is vacating the post to replace […]
Forbes is cutting ties with freelance writers, citing Google spam policies
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
Forbes will stop using freelancers for some types of stories indefinitely — and has blamed the change on a recent update to Google Search policies.
In recent days, Forbes has said it will stop hiring freelancers to produce content for its product review section Forbes Vetted, according to a journalist who has written for the site. In a note shared with The Verge, an editor at Forbes cited Google’s “site reputation abuse” policy for the change.
Site reputation abuse — also called parasite SEO — refers to a website publishing a deluge of off-brand or irrelevant content in order to take advantage of the main site’s ranking power and reputation in Google Search. Often, this piggybacking is concealed from users browsing the website. (For instance: those weird coupon code sections on newspaper sites that pop up via search engines but aren’t prominently displayed on the homepage.) Sometimes this spammy content is produced by third-party marketing firms that are contracted to produce a mountain of search-friendly content.
Forbes did not respond to multiple requests for comment. It’s not clear what other sections of Forbes the pause extends to. Writer Cassandra Brooklyn described receiving similar news last week.
Many news outlets (including The Verge) hire freelancers to write and report stories. But Forbes has an especially wide pool of outside contributors publishing to its site. Many of these writers are legitimate journalists who do fair, in-depth reporting. But there’s also the Forbes contributor network, a group of thousands of marketers, CEOs, and other outside experts who get to publish questionable content under the trusted Forbes name.
Some editorial content on the site may have drawn the ire of Google, which has been targeting the firehose of search engine-first content on the web. In November, Google further tightened its rules around parasite SEO, specifically taking aim at the “third party” nature of this type of content.
“Our evaluation of numerous cases has shown that no amount of first-party involvement alters the fundamental third-party nature of the content or the unfair, exploitative nature of attempting to take advantage of the host’s sites ranking signals,” the company wrote in a blog post.
Like other testing and review sites, Forbes Vettedmakes money every time a reader makes a purchase using links in the outlets’ articles. A writer who got word of the pause in freelance work says the editorial process on their past stories was rigorous — they would test products, go through multiple rounds of edits, and interview sources. In addition to the pause in work, the writerwas told that some of their stories may need to be completely re-reported and re-published by an in-house staff member.
“They clearly put a ton of resources into Forbes Vetted,” the writer says. “The big product reviews I was doing were $3,000 a piece, which is a huge amount of money to then be like, ‘Oh, we have to rewrite all this with staff in-house.’”
Google’s spam policies state that the existence of freelancer content in and of itself is not a running afoul of the site reputation abuse policy — it’s only a violation if that content is also designed to take advantage of the site’s ranking signals. Google spokesperson Davis Thompson directed The Verge to an FAQ section describing the freelancer policy.
Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
knowler@sunny.garden ("Nathan Knowler") wrote:
Happy birthday #CSS! This year, I have the pleasure of participating in @5t3ph’s 12 Days of Web. I wrote about CSS `content-visibility`. A bit of a longer piece which I guess is fitting because we also touch on the DOM event with the longest name!
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
Memories of Christmas past…all sold now.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/12/17/i-think-i-just-sold-a-house/
Attachments:
Marvel Rivals Players Are Terrified Of Iron Fist
Every hero shooter has characters players loathe to fight against. Marvel Rivals is no exception. Jeff the Land Shark has become an early love-to-hate hero because he literally eats his opponents (and allies) and then spits them off the map. I personally hate to see Hawkeye coming because I know his arrows will find…
Reblogged by pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑"):
brianstorms ("Brian Dear") wrote:
This is why all the QElons celebrating “full self driving” piss me off: the only way to successfully add autonomy to vehicles is to subtract human agency. For Tesla for example, FSD is about letting a corporation take over a new chunk of your life but you don’t just “enable” FSD you have to surrender to it. Screw that. Anyone trusting a corporation to that level is ultimately gonna get what’s coming to them.
“Al is not about technology — it’s about power over you.” Trvth.
AMD may launch its most powerful integrated GPU ever — in a gaming tablet
Did VideoCardz obtain an image of the PC, too? | Image: VideoCardz
In August, an Asus thermal engineer goofed by revealing the existence of possibly the most powerful tablet PC ever made — an Asus ROG Flow Z13 powered by an unannounced AMD “Strix Halo” chip, one boasting an incredible 80 watts of power for its GPU alone.
Now, VideoCardz is reporting that the chip (and tablet) are about to become official at CES 2025 next month — as the AMD Ryzen AI Max 395 Plus, a Zen 5 processor with Radeon 8060S graphics.
With 16 Zen 5 processor cores and an impressive 40 compute units worth of AMD RDNA 3.5 graphics, VideoCardz points out that it should be AMD’s fastest portable chip ever made — far outstripping previous chips in the graphics department in particular. (The Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 had just 16 GPU compute units — this is 2.5 times as many.)
The leaks suggest that not all AI Max / Strix Halo chips will be equal; variants tipped as the AI Max 390, AI Max 385, and AI Max 380 are expected to have as few as six CPU cores and as few as 16 RDNA graphics compute units. But online retailer leaks show the Asus tablet should offer the two highest-end parts with 40 compute units.
Otherwise, the early Asus ROG Flow Z13 leaks describe a tablet running Windows 11 on a 13.4-inch, 180Hz IPS touchscreen display, at a 16:10 aspect ratio, with 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB of storage.
I’m excited for what a huge leap in laptop/tablet graphics might unlock. It wasn’t that long ago that a new wave of AMD integrated graphics paved the way for the handheld PC gaming revolution.
VideoCardz writes that AMD is “set to announce” the new AI Max Plus series at CES.
Amazon’s video game anthology Secret Level is getting a second season
Image: Amazon
Amazon’s push into video game adaptations shows no signs of letting up. Today the company announced that Secret Level — an anthology of animated shorts all based on different video game properties — has been renewed for a second season on Prime Video. No other details about the new season have been announced yet.
Secret Level actually just premiered on Prime Video, and comes from the same team behind Netflix’s animated sci-fi anthology Love, Death and Robots. Its 15 episodes span a range of notable video game franchises, including Warhammer 40,000, Dungeons & Dragons, Mega Man, and the recently-shuttered Sony shooter Concord. It also awkwardly straddled the line between TV show and advertisement. In fact, one of Secret Level’s most infamous episodes — a bloody, dark reimagining of Pac-Man — turned out to be tied to an upcoming game.
Seriously, just look at it:
The news comes as Amazon continues to find its footing both developing and publishing video games, as well as adapting them for its streaming service. This year the company had a major hit with Fallout on Prime Video (which is also getting a second season) and followed it up with a live-action take on Yakuza. A Tomb Raider series is also in the works.
Do Car-Free Zones Hurt Disabled People? We Asked Experts.
Dani Izzie, a wheelchair user with quadriplegia, tried to take public transit, as she usually does, when visiting Miami in 2022. Heading to catch a bus, Izzie came to the end of a street without curb cuts—meaning she couldn’t safely cross it to the bus stop. She tried to get an accessible taxi; none were […]
Honda and Nissan explore merger to navigate uncertain EV future
Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida with Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe at a press conference in March. | Image: Honda
Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan are in talks to merge to better compete with electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla, BYD, and others. As reported by Nikkei Asia, the two have discussed signing a memorandum of understanding that outlines plans to split equity into a new holding company from which both will do business, according to anonymous sources.
Both Honda and Nissan are also discussing a plan to pull Mitsubishi into the party, which would be akin to how various Japanese electronics brands banded together — such as Konica Minolta, JVCKenwood, and others. Honda and Nissan were already working together to develop EV technology and software and had invited Mitsubishi to that party as well.
Of the two companies, it’s Nissan that’s really in trouble and reportedly will only survive another year unless another company (Honda) swoops in to buy Nissan shares. According the Reuters, Nissan’s net earnings in the middle of 2024 were down more than 90 percent year over year, and it had to cut its annual operating profit forecast by nearly 70 percent. Nissan and Honda relased statements to Reuters saying:
As announced in March of this year, Honda and Nissan are exploring various possibilities for future collaboration, leveraging each other’s strengths.
EV market growth has slowed worldwide, but Chinese brands are outpacing US, European, and Japanese manufacturers. According to Bloomberg, Japanese automakers are losing big market share in east and southeast Asia from China to Indonesia.
Honda is preparing to launch its new Honda Zero EV platform next year and is finding some success in the US with its GM-based electric Prologue SUV. Meanwhile Nissan had fumbled its early pioneering lead with the 2011 Leaf and has only released one other EV, the Ariya.
Both companies, along with domestic competitor Toyota, have added more hybrid models than full EVs to their product roadmaps. This year Nissan said it would have 16 “electrified” models by 2026, and Honda is looking to launch a really cool hybrid Prelude sports coupe next year.
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
gwynnion ("Nowhere Girl") wrote:
A "centrist" is just a conservative who wants to be invited to better parties.
Leaks: Nvidia’s RTX 5090, 5080, 5070 Ti and 5070 tipped with new ‘neural rendering’
This is the RTX 4080 Super, not the new cards. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge
Nvidia’s new RTX 50 series graphics cards are looking like more of a lock for CES 2025 than ever, with Zotac and Acer now having leaked as many as five new GPUs — ones which may also have a new AI trick up their sleeves that we’ve never seen before.
Inno3D, an Nvidia graphics card partner, says it plans to “highlight” a wide slate of Nvidia AI features at the Las Vegas show, including “Neural Rendering Capabilities” that are allegedly “Revolutionizing how graphics are processed and displayed.” HardwareLuxx spotted the news.
It’s not 100 percent clear from the company’s vague teaser if that’s a new RTX 50-series hardware feature, but it appears alongside other features that are typically attributed to the cards, like “Improved RT cores”:
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Image: Inno3D
Inno3D also writes the cards will feature “Advanced DLSS technology” — perhaps we’ll see higher image quality and faster framerates than ever with a possible announce of DLSS 4.0?
As far as the cards themselves, VideoCardz struck gold seeking out online retailer leaks this week, discovering that both Acer and Zotac had accidentally confirmed the existence of both an upcoming RTX 5090 with an unprecedented 32GB of GDDR7 memory, as previously leaked, and an RTX 5080 with 16GB of the same.
But the Zotac leak goes further, suggesting that Nvidia might announce not two, not three, but as many as five new cards at CES, including the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080, an RTX 5090D for China, the RTX 5070 Ti whose specs have recently continued to leak, and even a base RTX 5070.
We’re not necessarily expecting any of these new cards to aim for affordability, but one can hope. If not, an RTX 5060 Ti and a vanilla RTX 5060 are reportedly on the way, though Wccftech reports that the RTX 5060 may stick with a paltry 8GB of video memory, while the 5060 Ti may be outfitted with 16GB.
32GB of video memory isn’t the only way that the RTX 5090 might physically be a beast: an early prototype leak suggested that its massive cooler might take up four slots in a computer case. But it’s possible that was just a prototype; reliable leaker kopite7kimi stated in September that Nvidia is going for a dual-slot design instead. Just a few days ago, the same leaker suggested its power consumption may have been revised downward from 600W, too.
Delta emulator triples Apple’s prices to encourage external clicks
Image: Riley Testut
The Delta gaming emulator is now providing a link to sign up for Patreon-exclusive membership perks directly within the iOS app in Apple’s US App Store. Developer Riley Testut is heavily encouraging users to click that external link by tripling the price you’d otherwise pay to Apple for In-App Purchase versions of those same Patreon tiers. Testut calls it the “do not buy sale.”
The update both embraces and protests the External Purchase Link Entitlement that Apple introduced in January, which allows developers to link to outside payment platforms in exchange for giving Apple a slightly reduced 27 percent cut of sales. The App Store policy change was made following rulings in the Epic vs Apple lawsuit that found Apple had acted anticompetitively by preventing developers from telling users about payment methods that bypassed its own payment system.
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Image: Delta
Clicking this link within the Delta app settings will take you to the Patreon page to sign up directly.
Testut says Delta is likely the first app to use the entitlement. The $3, $5, and $10 monthly memberships on Patreon — which provide additional benefits like iPad and SEGA Genesis support, and private Discord access depending on the subscription tier — are listed in the iOS app at $10, $15, and $30, respectively.
“We really don’t want people to use in-app purchase,” Testut told The Verge. “We’ve been using Patreon for years, and it allows us to do things Apple’s IAP system can’t — such as issuing refunds and handling customer support — making it much more convenient for creators like us.”
Taking vitamin D is unlikely to prevent falls or fractures. Here's what it does
Vitamin D is good for the immune system, but in older people it doesn't prevent falls or fractures, according to health experts at the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Here's why you need it.
How to add extensions to Gemini
Image: The Verge
I was driving home the other day and wanted to call my partner and let him know that I was stuck in traffic. (Not an unusual event on Brooklyn’s Belt Parkway.) I’ve got a relatively old car (it’s a 2007 model, so we’re talking no real smarts), and so I depend on my phone rather than any built-in intelligence to deal with calls, music, etc. Usually, there’s no problem, but this time, when I called out, “Hey Google — call Jim on his mobile!” my phone informed me — in a very long-winded paragraph — that Gemini doesn’t do that:
I am a large language model and I am able to communicate and generate human-like text in response to a wide range of prompts and questions, but my knowledge about this person is limited.
Oh, right. Gemini.
I had recently installed Google’s new AI virtual assistant to try it out. This meant that Google Assistant, the usual voice-activated service, had been automatically shut down, and that Gemini, which is brand new and not really fully baked, was still missing a lot of the usability of Google Assistant — including, much to my irritation, making phone calls and sending texts.
However, there is a workaround — or rather, a way to increase Gemini’s features. You...
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
@fromjason How lazy, they haven't even bothered to change your name on a number of pages, including the "About" page...
Attachments:
Here Are The Games Kids Are Actually Playing In 2024
Apple has released lists revealing the most downloaded and popular free and paid games on iPhone and iPad. The company also shared data on the most popular Apple Arcade games. Balatro sickos might be surprised!
iRobot’s founder is working on a new kind of home robot
Colin Angle, the former CEO of iRobot, is launching a home robot startup. | Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Colin Angle, the co-founder of iRobot and its CEO for three decades, is getting back into robotics with a new startup called Familiar Machines & Magic. According to The Boston Globe, the company is developing a new kind of home robot focusing on health and wellness that might take the form of an animal or a “familiar.”
The company is currently in stealth mode, Angle tells The Globe, and includes the former CTO of iRobot, Chris Jones, as well as iRobot’s Ira Renfrew, who left the company to work on robotics at Amazon, including the shuttered Scout delivery robot.
Angle was working to turn iRobot and its Roomba robot vacuum cleaners into the brains of the smart home before he left the company following the collapse of its sale to Amazon in January of this year. Since then, iRobot has slashed its R&D budget, cut almost 50 percent of its staff, and refocused its business on home cleaning machines.
Familiar Machines & Magic has raised $15 million from eight investors and is looking for $15 million more, according to TechCrunch. A job listing for the company on LinkedIn describes it as a “well-funded, new embodied AI and robotics startup based outside of Boston.”
It's an interesting pivot for Angle to go from the practical to the personal. To date, robots that can do things for you, such as robot vacuum cleaners, robot litter boxes, and robot lawnmowers, have been more successful than “companion bots.” Jibo, Moxie, and Anki are just a few that have powered down over the years.
However, advances in generative AI could bring more potential to the space. These technologies could make robots such as the lovable Lovot or Sony’s Aibo, which the company recently resurrected, seem more human-like, have conversations with you, and be more useful than simply being cute.
For example, Israeli startup Intuition Robotics has been working on ElliQ, an AI-powered social robot designed to keep the elderly and home-bound company, since 2017. I’ve tested a couple of versions of the tabletop robot, and its third-generation model, which incorporates generative AI, is significantly more lifelike and engaging.
What exact type of magic Angle and his Familars will conjure up remains to be seen. One investor described “furry pets to address loneliness” to The Globe. However, some combination of personality and practicality that positively impacts the health and well-being of household members feels like a good place to start.
Nvidia’s $249 dev kit promises cheap, small AI power
Nvidia announced the latest in its Jetson Orin Nano AI computer line, the Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit. Sort of like a Raspberry Pi but for powerful AI processing, the tiny $249 computer packs more of an AI processing punch than the kit did before — for half the price. It’s available to buy now.
The Jetson Nano line has been a low-cost way for hobbyists and makers to power AI and robotics projects since its introduction in 2019. Nvidia says the Nano Super’s neural processing is 70 percent higher, at 67 TOPS, than the 40 TOPS Nano. It also has 50 percent more memory bandwidth, at 102GB/s, which should speed up those operations.
The Jetson Orin Nano Super kit uses essentially the same hardware as the original Orin Nano kit, and the company says it will get the same performance gains with a new JetPack update. Nvidia says the boost comes from “a new power mode which increases the GPU, memory, and CPU clocks.”
Nvidia’s Jensen Huang showed off the Nano Super in a video:
The developer kit includes a reference carrier board and a Jetson Orin Nano 8GB system-on-module, comprised of an Nvidia Ampere GPU with tensor cores and 6-core Arm CPU. Nvidia calls the Nano Super Developer Kit “an ideal solution” for building chatbots or visual AI agents, as well as AI-based robots.
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
eyeling@mastodon.art ("Eyeling") wrote:
#ArtAdventCalendar - Dec 17th: #Ice (3/4)
Hoar #frost early last January. Ice needles up to 6cm long.
Attachments:
Reblogged by isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:"):
Meyerweb ("Eric A. Meyer") wrote:
What idiot called it “Edge of Tomorrow” when “Groundhog D-Day” was RIGHT THERE
It’s the Middle of December, and Southern California Is a Tinderbox
This story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In Southern California, December wildfires are somewhat uncommon, but not completely out of the norm. And this year, extremely dry conditions and strong Santa Ana winds created the perfect recipe for dangerous late-year fires. On the night of December 9, […]
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
"All words written by me"
What type of author would participate in naked theft of someone else’s words and design? This dude not only stole my website design—graphics and all—he republished all my writings and claims he’s the author.
Motaz Matar, my guy, author of five self-published novels, what are we doing here? I’ve put hundreds of hours of free labor into my design and writing. Could we maybe not steal it?
Attachments:
- M H&10;MATAR&10;FABLES&10;AND SCRIBBLES OF THINGS & STUFF&10;ALL WORDS WRITTEN&10;BY ME...
- Encinitas, California&10;Why do we confine ourselves to a handful of apps? We look to M. Night Shyamalan's The Village for answers.&10;LATEST POSTS&10;Dec The Computational Web&10;Nov Bluesky may have the juice, but we don't have to drink the Kool-Aid&10;Oct Meta's Toaster Problem&10;Sep Data Piggy&10;Aug Raw dog the open web!&10;53 more posts can be found in all posts.
iRobot’s mop-equipped Roomba Combo j7 Plus is nearly matching its best price to date
The Roomba Combo j7 Plus is a highly capable robot vacuum / mop hybrid that comes with its own auto-empty dock. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
Cleaning up after holiday parties can be a real pain, but a robot vacuum like the iRobot Roomba Combo j7 Plus can speed up process. And thankfully right now it’s just $669 ($331 off) at Wellbots, which is just $20 shy of its Black Friday all-time low price. If you want to gift the robot vacuum / mop hybrid, you can get it by Christmas when you buy it for $30 more at Amazon and Best Buy.
Everything about the Roomba Combo j7 Plus is designed to make cleaning easier. Like our favorite Roomba, the newer Roomba Combo j9 Plus, it comes with its own auto-emptying docking station and a retractable mop that lifts itself up over the vacuum to keep carpets dry. It also has features like AI obstacle avoidance, allowing it navigate around shoes, gifts, and other clutter left on the floor, and dual rubber roller brushes that does a great job of sucking up dirt from carpets. And if you run into trouble with it, The Verge’s smart home reviewer says that Roombas have “a history of being easy to repair,” unlike pricier rivals like Dreame X40 or Roborock’s S8 MaxV Ultra that may mop better.
Unlike the Combo j9 Plus, though, the last-gen Combo j7 Plus can’t refill its own mop tank. It also doesn’t come with iRobot’s Dirt Detective system, which lets it prioritize and really hone in on particularly messy areas. That said, given the Combo j7 Plus is currently about half the price of the Combo j9 Plus, we think those are fair-trade offs.
Read our iRobot Roomba Combo j7 Plus review.
More deals we think we are worth a look
- The Loop Experience 2 earplugs are on sale starting at $27.95 ($7 off) at Amazon, which is their all-time low price. The earplugs do a great job of cutting down loud noise, which is why we highlighted them this year in our budget-friendly holiday gift guide. They reduce noise by 17 decibels so you can still hear your surroundings but at a safer volume. The earplugs offer a secure universal fit, too, making them a great gift for frequent concertgoers or anybody else yearning for some peace and quiet.
- If you’re looking for a good video doorbell to keep an eye on porch pirates, the Aqara G4 Video Doorbell is down to its best price of $89.99 ($40 off) at Best Buy. It’s one of our favorites, party because it’s the only battery-powered video doorbell compatible with Apple Home that also works with HomeKit Secure Video. Yet the 1080p doorbell also has other things going for it, including 24/7 local video recording, facial recognition, and smart alerts for people, packages, animals, and vehicles.
- The Beats Solo 4 have returned to their all-time low price of $99.99 (about $100 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. It’s a shame they lack noise cancellation, but the headphones still offer good value with bass-rich sound as well as features like spatial audio and lossless playback over USB-C (or 3.5mm). They also offer native support for both iOS and Android, making them a good buy if you want some platform flexibility. Read our review.
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
I played this damn game a lot in 1975, totally unaware of what a poisonous asshole Gary Gygax was.
Attachments:
- _— GARY GYGAX (USA): "I have been accused of being a nasty old sexist-male- Chauvinist-pig, for the wording in D&D isn't what it should be. There should be more emphasis on the female role, more non-gender names, and so forth. I thought perhaps these folks were right and considered adding wo- men in the 'Raping and Pillaging_ section, in the 'Whores and Tavern Wen- ches' chapter, the special magical part dealing with 'Hags and Crones', and thought of perhaps adding an appendix on 'Medieval Harems, Slave Girls, and Going Viking'. Damn right I am a sexist. It doesn't matter to me if women get paid as much as men, get jobs traditionally male, and shower in the men's locker room. They can jolly well stay away from war- gaming in droves for all I care. I've seen many a good wargame &and war- gamer spoiled thanks to the feir sex. I'll detail that if anyone wishes." (remote)
The Nintendo Switch eShop Is A Bigger Slop Factory Than Ever
If you’ve recently loaded up the Nintendo Switch’s eShop to buy something or search for a specific game, you’ve likely noticed that the digital store is filled with a lot of garbage that was likely made quickly and is only there to cash in on a trend or holiday. And worse, it seems Nintendo doesn’t give a shit, which…
Most U.S. shootings are done by men, but the Wisconsin school attack is an exception
Authorities say a 15-year-old girl carried out the shooting that killed two and wounded several at a Wisconsin school. Female shooters are relatively rare, statistically speaking.
Marvel Rivals Still Doesn't Have Cross-Progression But The Devs Are Working On It
On seas awash with the wreckage of lesser online multiplayer shooters, Marvel Rivals has managed to not only stay afloat but maintain some momentum following its big free-to-play launch earlier this month. However, the live-service game is still missing one very big feature: cross-progression.
Astronaut Don Pettit shows how to take long-exposure photos from the ISS
A 15-second time exposure image. | Image: Don Pettit
NASA astronaut Don Pettit created his own device to help him take photos of the stars while on the International Space Station — and the results are pretty impressive. In a Reddit thread spotted by Space.com, Pettit describes how he brought a homemade star tracker with him to space, allowing his camera to capture long-exposure photos without the stars leaving any trails behind.
Star trackers are designed to rotate with the Earth — or in Pettit’s case, the ISS — to prevent distortion when taking pictures of the night sky. One of Pettit’s photos, which you can see above, was a 15-second time exposure. He says his tracker completes a rotation every 90 minutes to match the ISS’s pitch rate. “Without this tracker, you can not take photo[s] longer than 1/2 sec without star blur due to the rate of orbital motion,” Pettit writes.
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Image: Don Pettit
A photo of a “large Magellanic Cloud visible in the southern hemisphere.”
In a separate post, Pettit notes that aligning the tracker on a moving platform isn’t an easy task, adding that he can currently take up to 30-second exposures “without significant star motion.” Taking photos through the ISS’s windows also presents another challenge. “Looking through 4 panes of glass, two of which are 30mm thick, at an angle makes for some distortion and relative optically induced star motion,” Pettit says.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25794363/orbital_sidereal_tracker.jpeg){kind=tracking}
Image: Don Pettit
A photo showing Pettit’s homemade sidereal orbital tracker.
If you want to see even more incredible images captured by Pettit, you can browse through them on his Reddit account page, X, and Instagram. Many show what photos from the ISS look like without compensating for its movement.
Walmart starts its own Game Informer-style gaming site
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
The ever-dwindling field of games media has a new player: Walmart. Restart is new website run by Moonrock — a marketing company specializing in bringing brands to video games — and sponsored by the largest retailer in the United States.
A new games site sponsored by Walmart doesn’t seem inherently bad, especially as the games media landscape continues to shrink. Publications are shutting down, ad revenues are drying up, and existing sites now operate with fewer and fewer employees. Earlier this year, Ziff Davis, IGN’s parent company, acquired a handful of media sites including Eurogamer; Rock, Paper, Shotgun; and VG247. In the time since, there have been staff departures and layoffs including buyouts offered to employees earlier this month. According to a report in Aftermath, this latest round of buyouts has apparently left GamesIndustry.biz, a site that’s been around for over 20 years, with only one full-time employee.
Restart’s business model isn’t wholly unique. Before it was unceremoniously shut down earlier this year, Game Informer magazine was owned and operated by GameStop, and for decades Nintendo ran its own magazine. Other websites like IGN, Polygon, and The Verge also run sponsored content and include affiliate links in articles. To survive in the current digital media landscape, the support of deep-pocketed individuals or corporations is all but required. In this regard, Restart is just like any other publication.
According to its editorial mission, “Restart is sponsored by Walmart, but we operate as an independent site.” The mission statement explains that while its articles will feature affiliate links to Walmart products, the site itself will receive no portion of the sale. “We hope you can see this gives us zero incentive to provide biased review scores or other information about a game.”
“Restart is sponsored by Walmart, but we operate as an independent site.”
But Restart is also entering a media landscape where the wall between corporate interests and editorial independence has become perilously thin, and with a few rare exceptions, games media has slowly shifted away from providing readers thoughtful discussion and critique to providing a product that can be monetized to hell and back. That driving ethos is clearly outlined in a post by Moonrock on its Substack. “Restart.run serves as a dynamic hub where gaming content meets retail opportunities, allowing gamers to transition effortlessly from discovering new games to purchasing them on Walmart’s platform.”
Amy Klobuchar isn’t done with antitrust reform
Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Nearly three years ago in January of 2022, the Senate seemed poised to reform antitrust law and place a check on Big Tech’s power. The Senate Judiciary Committee had just voted to advance the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA), led by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA). The bill would have forced major changes to how many tech businesses operate, including by prohibiting them from self-preferencing their own products on their marketplaces.
But the bill’s momentum petered out in the months to come. Congress did manage to pass two important competition updates that year, the first allowing state attorneys general to choose which courts they filed antitrust suits in, and the second raising merger filing fees on the largest transactions to raise money for federal enforcers.AICOA, though, never passed through the Senate — let alone into law.
Klobuchar has been one of the leading advocates of antitrust reform. After House lawmakers launched a probe into Big Tech companies in 2019, she and several other lawmakers concluded the monopoly-busting system was broken. Existing antitrust rules were theoretically powerful, their theory went, yet decades of lax enforcement and unfavorable case law left courts and enforcers with flimsy tools for keeping the industry in check. Congress needed to step in and get it back on track.
Legislative efforts to overhaul the system have failed — yet in 2024, antitrust enforcement is experiencing something of a boom. Apple, Amazon, Meta and Google each face a federal anti-monopoly suit (two, in Google’s case.) The Department of Justice secured a win in its Google Search case, while Epic Games won a ruling against Android’s Play Store. The DOJ and Federal Trade Commission under the Biden administration have tightened merger guidelines and aggressively scrutinized deals.
Klobuchar is now reaching the end of her time chairing the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust. While its mission might look a bit less urgent these days, she argues it’s as important as ever. “It would be a lot easier to have some set rules of the road in place instead of this laborious, long litigation process,” she tells The Verge in a phone interview. Today, she’s overseeing a hearing about how to continue a bipartisan path to reform as the Trump administration prepares to take over.
Whilethe most groundbreaking legislation hasn’t passed, she says, antitrust issues have still garnered more interest from congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle in recent years. “Maybe because of the bipartisan support and the good work that’s being done, we do keep bringing these cases,” she says. “But the lesson from the last four years is aggressive enforcement matters.”
Klobuchar expresses hope that President-elect Donald Trump’s antitrust watchdogs will continue pursuing important cases. While the Senate won’t hold new hearings to approve existing FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson’s ascendance to chair, she noted that FTC commissioner nominee Mark Meador wrote a positive article about the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster. “I consider that a good sign,” she says. Klobuchar adds that former Democratic enforcers have told her that Trump’s pick to lead the DOJ Antitrust Division, Gail Slater, “gets it.”
Republicans will get to set the subcommittee’s agenda next year when they take over the majority in the Senate. But while she’ll no longer be chairing the panel, Klobuchar says, she’s going to continue to work for reforms. “It couldn’t be more important right now, with a new administration coming in, that we find ways to work across the aisle to get this done.”
Borderlands 4 Dev Promises Less Toilet Humor
Borderlands 4 is coming out in 2025 but still holding most of its cards close to the vest. Following the release of its gameplay reveal trailer at The Game Awards 2024, we do know a bit more about the upcoming loot shooter though, in part due to new comments from a member of the narrative team who’s promising fewer…
Marvel Rivals' Confusing Use Of The Term 'Ace,' Explained
Marvel Rivals is the latest game to make a splash in the hero shooter scene, and it’s easy to see where it takes its inspiration from. That’s not to say the developers didn’t put enough of a unique spin on things. Team-up abilities, for example, are a special mechanic and there are quite a few other distinct terms to…
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
Some straight jacked my whole website and mad a worse version of it.
Attachments:
Microsoft Says The Quiet Part Loud About Xbox
Microsoft’s newest sales pitch to prospective gamers is that everything—your TV, computer, or phone—can be an Xbox. It’s part of a new strategy aimed at reaching more people, and potentially making a lot more money. It’s also a major shift for the millions of people who have been Xbox fans for decades now, and the…
The suspect in the Gilgo Beach killings is charged in the death of a 7th woman
The New York architect facing murder charges in a string of deaths known as the Gilgo Beach killings was charged in the death of Valerie Mack, 24, whose remains were found on Long Island in 2000.
Gemini, GTA, and the search for the next big thing
Google announced a bunch of new stuff last week, from Gemini 2.0 and Project Mariner to Android XR and Project Moohan. As ever with Google, it feels like a lot of stuff without necessarily a coherent plan behind it. But if you look closely enough, and start to put some of the pieces together, the combination of those announcements might up to something like Google’s vision for the future of everything.
On this episode of The Vergecast(our last Tuesday episode of the year), The Verge’s Kylie Robison and Victoria Song join the show to do some Google puzzling. They describe their experiences with all of Google’s new projects and experiments, and explain why Google thinks XR could be the killer app for AI — and vice versa.
After that, Chris Grant, group publisher for The Verge and Polygon, joins to talk about the two biggest 2025 stories in gaming: the impending launches of Grand Theft Auto VIand the Nintendo Switch 2. He explains why GTA is such an important and enduring gaming franchise, why he’s confident the Switch 2 won’t be like the Wii U, and why the whole gaming world is waiting for these two things so intently.
Finally, we answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!), with some help from The Verge’s publisher Helen Havlak. Helen mentioned last week that she uses Figma to manage her garden, and let’s just say you all had some follow-up questions about that. So Helen came back to explain her whole system.
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with Google:
- Google’s AI enters its ‘agentic era’
- I saw Google’s plan to put Android on your face
- Gemini 2.0: what’s new in Google’s new flagship AI model
- Google announces Android XR, a new OS for headsets and smart glasses
And in games:
- GTA VI: all the news on Rockstar’s next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series
- Switch 2: all the news and rumors on Nintendo’s next console
Also, here is some screenshot inspo of Helen’s Figma garden in all its to-scale glory.
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A New Social is a new non-profit that wants to help bridge platforms
Image: A New Social, NASA
The open social web still isn’t as open as we all might want, but a non-profit is being formed to try and change that. The non-profit, called A New Social, is being headed up by Ryan Barrett, the founder of Bridgy Fed, and Anuj Ahooja, an engineering leader and writer.
“We believe that a healthy ecosystem competes on innovative features, not critical mass,” A New Social says on its mission page. “The social web should be centered around people, not platforms, and artificial walls should not deny them the relationships they’ve built online.” The organization is “betting on services built on open protocols like ActivityPub and ATProto” and says it will “work directly with developers to continue ensuring competition in the open social web, with a focus on advocating for users every step of the way.”
The non-profit is still in its very early stages; Barrett and Ahooja will be “recruiting a Board of Directors, identifying cross-protocol projects, and reaching out to developers to collaborate on tools and services needed for cross-protocol community building,” according to a press release.
But they’ve already identified A New Social’s first project: Barrett’s own Bridgy Fed, which you can use to have your Bluesky posts appear on ActivityPub-based platforms like Mastodon (aka the fediverse) and vice versa. And A New Social is already talking with big players in the open social web, including Bluesky, Flipboard, Mastodon, and Meta.
“All of these platforms are making some big important promises to their users,” Ahooja says in an interview with The Verge. He points out that Threads has made promises to federate (which it is doing in baby steps), while Bluesky has promised that its end goal is decentralization. “Us sitting in the middle puts us in a place where we have to be loud when they are not keeping those promises up.” He says that Bridgy Fed is an “implementation of a larger user advocacy problem that we’re trying to solve.”
I think it’s a cool idea, but I was a touch skeptical during our interview — just before we talked, I had read about how another promising fediverse project Ahooja worked on, sub.club, would be shutting down. How can users put their faith in open social web projects like Bridgy Fed long term if those projects might just fizzle out?
Ahooja says that’s part why they’re working with platforms, not just users. “We think that top-down education is more important than anything,” he says. That’s also why they’re taking a cross-network approach, according to Barrett; individual platforms and tools will grow and shrink, but overall, decentralized social media platforms are gaining mindshare, he says. If they can help the overall space get connected and stay connected, “then that’s net positive,” he says.
Nest Learning Thermostat review: pretty smart
The fourth generation of the Nest Thermostat improves on the original in almost every way, and it’s still a stunner.
The FTC is officially banning hidden junk fees from hotel and ticket prices
Illustration by Hugo Herrera / The Verge
The Federal Trade Commission has approved a new rule preventing hotels and ticket sellers from hiding extra fees associated with a purchase. Under the rule, businesses must provide “up-front disclosure” of the total price of a hotel stay, vacation rental, or live event tickets before checkout.
The rule, which was first proposed last year, targets the “resort,” “convenience,” and “service” fees that often covertly raise the final price of a hotel stay or tickets for a live concert or sporting event. It doesn’t ban companies from charging these kinds of fees; it just requires them to disclose the total cost of a purchase (including fees) when advertising or displaying their price.
Additionally, businesses must display the total price of a purchase “more prominently than most other pricing information.” Though businesses can still exclude shipping fees and taxes from advertised prices, they must now show these fees before customers start entering their payment information. The rule is set to go into effect in April 2025.
“People deserve to know up-front what they’re being asked to pay — without worrying that they’ll later be saddled with mysterious fees that they haven’t budgeted for and can’t avoid,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in the press release. “The FTC’s rule will put an end to junk fees around live event tickets, hotels, and vacation rentals, saving Americans billions of dollars and millions of hours in wasted time.”
With Andrew Ferguson set to replace Khan as FTC Chair under the Trump administration, the agency has approved several last-minute changes that will directly impact consumers. In addition to approving a new “click-to-cancel” rule that should make it easier to cancel subscriptions, the FTC also expanded its Telemarketing Sales Rule to cover tech support scam calls.
Pokémon TCG Pocket Just Changed Everything With New Mew Set
It’s Mewsday! That could be a thing, right? Let’s all say it until it’s a thing? No? Oh. Well fine, but you should still open Pokémon TCG Pocket this morning, because it’s just added its first new cards since launch. And they’re going to mess up everything.
The Best New Cards In Pokémon TCG Pocket's Mythical Island
The arrival of Mew and its Mythical Island special set in Pokémon TCG Pocket brings with it some very disruptive cards. Clearly intended to mess with the current meta and mix things up for people relying on the same three decks in all their battles, it should make online competition far more interesting until the…
Path Of Exile 2 Makes It Easy To Play With Friends On Other Platforms
If you’re a fan of action-RPGs like Diablo 4 or Torchlight you may have already checked out Grinding Gear Games’ beloved title Path of Exile. After years of success with its deep and customizable game, the team has finally moved on to Path of Exile 2, bringing plenty of changes and challenges to an all-new experience.
One Of The Best Skills To Learn In Marvel Rivals Is How To Shut Down An Ultimate
Marvel Rivals’ 33 heroes each have a high-impact ultimate ability to wipe a team, save allies from near death, or power up your friends and tip the scales of a fight. One of the most important skills to learn is how to react when you hear one of these abilities coming, whether that’s running for cover when you hear Sca…
Syrian families scour hospitals and morgues for loved ones lost under Assad's rule
People in Syria are looking for their relatives and friends in prisons, hospitals and morgues. The U.N. estimates over 100,00 people have gone missing in Syria under the Assad regime.
The Honda Prelude returns as a sporty hybrid with a new drive mode
Image: Honda
Out to prove that the sports coupe is far from dead, Honda announced the return of the Prelude with an all-new hybrid-electric powertrain.
It’s been over two decades since Honda last released a new Prelude, but the company began laying the groundwork for its return with the release of a concept version last year. Now, a hybrid Prelude is scheduled to arrive in the US in 2025.
It will also mark the debut of Honda S+ Shift, a new drive mode that the company says “further advances Linear Shift Control to deliver maximum levels of driver engagement.”
The company is describing the Prelude as having “two motors,” but that doesn’t make it dual-motor or AWD. Honda’s hybrid powertrain has had two motors for several generations, both of which sit adjacent to the internal combustion engine.
The debut of Honda S+ Shift
“One electric motor acts as a generator, creating electricity for the battery and propulsion,” Honda spokesperson Chris Naughton said, “and the other is a traction motor that propels the vehicle — and captures regen when slowing.”
There’s not much else to note about the Prelude’s return; Honda is probably waiting until closer to the production to release key specs.
I’m sure there will be some bemoaning the fact that Honda had an opportunity to release a fully electric Prelude that would have been rad as hell. To be sure, the company says it’s still committed to achieving carbon neutrality for all of its “products and corporate activity” by 2050 — and that includes 100 percent of EV sales by 2040.
But Honda also has a pretty good track record for hybrid vehicles, which it considers an important bridge to full EVs. And clearly, the US is heading toward a dark period for EV sales with the incoming Trump administration expected to roll back a lot of the incentives and regulations aimed at growing EV adoption.
Hybrid-electric trims currently make up more than 50 percent of Accord and CR-V sales, Honda says, and the newly introduced Civic hybrid is expected to ultimately represent about 40 percent of Civic sales. Cumulative sales of Honda electrified vehicles top 1 million.
Meanwhile, the fully electric Honda Prologue (based on GM’s Chevy Equinox EV) is already enjoying brisk sales since its US launch earlier this year. And the company plans to unveil a production-ready Honda Zero model at CES next year.
Earning 'SVP' In Marvel Rivals Is A Pretty Sweet Way To Lose
Marvel Rivals might not feature a post-match ”Play of the Game” like Overwatch, but every match highlights the most valuable player, or MVP at the end. You can also see the MVP highlighted on the match summary screen if you were on their team. If you weren’t, you would instead see another player with an SVP title.
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
Every word is true.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/12/17/i-do-love-a-good-spleen/
Attachments:
- Why these fucking bozos piss me the fuck off 1 was drafting stuff for this book and it kept turning into short historics where I kept adding “[TK add detail]” and it felt like giving myself homework. That makes for text that bores the reader ‘cos it bores the author. So no. I'm writing from the spleen here. It's the only way this can work and have power. What I hate about AT hype is that it’s by the same shitty bozos who fuck up everything clse. They have no approach to the world other than fucking stuff up with money and power via technology. As a technologist myself (a Unix/Linux system administrator for a few decades), I'm even more pissed off because the technologies are actually interesting, They do things! You could do good things with them! Even the gencrative stuff, you could play with it and make interesting things! But no — these bozos being who they are, all they can think of is how to turn it to abuses. Machine learning is for systemic bias. Generative Al is for reducing artists’ labour conditions. And the power consumption, my God! These bozos were bad enough when they were pushing crypto, and in Al they've even managed to replace the ghastly power waste! Al is not about technology — it's about power over you. (remote)
![Why these fucking bozos piss me the fuck off 1 was drafting stuff for this book and it kept turning into short historics where I kept adding “[TK add detail]” and it felt like giving myself homework. That makes for text that bores the reader ‘cos it bores the author. So no. I'm writing from the spleen here. It's the only way this can work and have power. What I hate about AT hype is that it’s by the same shitty bozos who fuck up everything clse. They have no approach to the world other than fucking stuff up with money and power via technology. As a technologist myself (a Unix/Linux system administrator for a few decades), I'm even more pissed off because the technologies are actually interesting, They do things! You could do good things with them! Even the gencrative stuff, you could play with it and make interesting things! But no — these bozos being who they are, all they can think of is how to turn it to abuses. Machine learning is for systemic bias. Generative Al is for reducing artists’ labour conditions. And the power consumption, my God! These bozos were bad enough when they were pushing crypto, and in Al they've even managed to replace the ghastly power waste! Al is not about technology — it's about power over you.](https://files.mastodon.social/cache/media_attachments/files/113/668/626/718/797/410/original/06c022b182967f40.png){kind=link}
The Best Shooters Of 2024
Last year I said we were leaving the golden era of modern shooters. But, as it turns out, I might have spoken too soon! 2024 provided a huge list of great third- and first-person shooters across console and PC, from devs both big and small. This year had so many awesome games that deciding which shooters to recognize…
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
Don't try to tell me I'm happy.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/12/17/i-guess-im-supposed-to-be-happy/
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Deadly Wisconsin school shooting. And, a pig kidney transplant surgery provides hope
A Wisconsin school shooting left multiple people dead and several injured. Here's the latest. And, a milestone pig kidney transplant provides doctors with hope for the future of transplant surgeries.
Google Home tests access tiers for everyone in your smart home
Illustration: The Verge
Google Home is testing a new feature that will allow friends and family members to help manage smart devices around your home. Two access levels are available: “Admin” which provides full control over account and device permissions, and “Member” for people who require more limited access.
Google says that Admin access is for “trusted partners or people who co-manage the home with you.” Admins can add, remove, and manage users, add and remove devices, and link subscriptions to the home account. Members can manage basic device controls like viewing live security camera feeds, and adjusting personal settings like voice and face match assistant features.
Two further permission tiers are available for Members: “Settings” to fully control devices and home-wide settings like automation and Nest Wifi device network features; and “Activity” to authorize access to device and home-wide history for things like cameras, locks, and sensors.
The customizable Member access was first announced in November alongside the Google Home extension for Gemini. Only users who are enrolled in the Google Home public preview can send invitations to the new access levels.
Participants can add someone as an Admin or a Member by opening the Google Home app settings, tapping “Household and access,” and selecting the plus icon to invite a new home member. Those you invite don’t need to be enrolled in public preview themselves, but will need to be running the latest version of the Google Home app.
At the Florida Senior Games, pickleball is the crown jewel. Here's why
Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport and it's also popular with older athletes. All Things Considered went to the Florida Senior Games to find out why.
How the holidays could be affecting your medical care
A new study suggests that holidays can affect your provider's decision making.
Here's what we know about the deadly school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin
The suspect is likely to have died from a gunshot wound, but the cause of death has yet to be confirmed by a medical examiner.
Apprenticeships are a trending alternative to college — but there's a hitch
Apprenticeships are becoming a popular alternative to college as a career path. But demand is outpacing the supply of employers who offer them.
FBI warns Americans to keep their text messages secure: What to know
The U.S. believes hackers affiliated with China's government are infiltrating telecoms and stealing users' data. The FBI has urged people to use end-to-end encryption to keep their info safe.
'Fake electors' from 2020 are casting 2024 votes for Trump while facing felony charges
Eight of the Republicans set to cast Michigan and Nevada's 2024 Electoral College votes for President-elect Donald Trump still face felony charges related to efforts to reverse Trump's 2020 loss.
A transplanted pig kidney offers a grandmother hope for life without dialysis
The patient was in kidney failure and her immune system would reject a human organ. Scientists hope genetically modified pig organs prove safe and will alleviate the organ shortage and save lives.
'Love Is Blind' cast are employees, labor board says. Could a reality TV union be next?
The case could have big implications for what glues reality show fans to the tube. A pending ruling, whatever the outcome, would set a precedent that other unscripted TV cast members could follow.
Magnitude 7.3 earthquake causes widespread damage in Pacific island nation of Vanuatu
The earthquake was centered 10 miles west of Port Vila, the largest city in Vanuatu, a group of 80 islands that is home to about 330,000 people.
dnalounge@sfba.social ("DNA Lounge") wrote:
Drink Special @ Death Guild: Sweaty Peter Thiel - Herradura, Honey, Lemon, Soda Water.
Attachments:
An explosion kills the head of Russia's nuclear defense forces in Moscow
An explosive device planted close to an apartment block in Moscow killed the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defence Forces, Russia's Investigative Committee said.
Reblogged by keul@fosstodon.org ("Luca Fabbri"):
moh_kohn@mastodon.scot ("Alistair Davidson") wrote:
Mastodon should ask you to pick a "moderator" not an "instance".
The latter is obscure technical detail. The former is about people, and power, and explainable to anyone.
"You pick which person or organisation you want to decide who and what is banned. You can change it later."
Canada's finance minister resigns, posing biggest test of Trudeau's political career
The stunning move raised questions about how much longer the prime minister of nearly 10 years — whose popularity has plummeted due to concerns about inflation and immigration — can stay on.
New York judge says Trump is not immune from hush money conviction
A spokesperson for President-elect Trump said the case should never have been brought, called for its immediate dismissal.
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
&udm=14 | the disenshittification Konami code:
"Ever use a de-Googled Android phone? Here’s a de-Googled Google, or as close to one as you’re going to get on the google.com domain."
Search Google from this site and it gets rid of everything—AI answers, dropdowns, etc.—and just shows you web results. It does this by appending Google’s search results link with &udm=14. https://udm14.com/
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
jdp23@blahaj.zone ("Jon") wrote:
"Well, for better or worse, Mastodon doesn't "ask" you to pick anything since 2023"
Looking at the numbers since you made this change, it's really hard to see it as "for better" from a decentralization perspective.
* mastodon.social now has 32% of active Mastodon users, so the ecosystem is less decentralized than it was
* overall active Mastodon usage has decreased, so it didn't address that problem either.
As I wrote in A faux "Eternal September" turns into flatness
"The biggest strength of Mastodon (and the Fediverse) is that people with niche interests and from marginalized identities, cultures, and communities can find (or work with others to create) an instance that match their priorities and preferred norms. Why not lean into that?
But no."
The biggest strength of Mastodon (and the Fediverse) is that people with niche interests and from marginalized identities, cultures, and communities can find (or work with others to create) an instance that match their priorities and preferred norms. Why not lean into that?
Reblogged by kornel ("Kornel"):
nileane@nileane.fr ("Niléane") wrote:
techno-yodel is real https://youtube.com/watch?v=luUb_nVyPHE&t=85
Waymo is sending autonomous vehicles to Japan for first international tests
Photo by Andrej Sokolow / picture alliance via Getty Images
Waymo’s autonomous vehicles are going to Tokyo, marking the first time that the Alphabet company is deploying vehicles on public roads in a foreign market.
Waymo is billing the excursion as a simple “road trip” for collecting data about the nuances of Japanese driving, including left-hand traffic and navigating a dense urban environment. The vehicles will be driven manually for the purposes of gathering mapping data and will be managed by a local taxi fleet operator, Nihon Kotsu. About 25 vehicles will be sent, with the first set to arrive in early 2025.
And while the tests will undoubtedly be seen as laying the groundwork for a future Tokyo-based robotaxi service, Waymo said it isn’t ready to announce anything quite yet.
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“While we look forward to bringing the life-saving benefits of the Waymo Driver global, we have no plans to serve riders in Tokyo at this time,” Waymo spokesperson Sandy Karp said. “Rather, we’re bringing our technology to learn and understand how Waymo fits into the existing transportation landscape and learning how to best partner with local officials and communities.”
The inclusion of GO, a popular taxi app in Japan, in the strategic partnership could signal Waymo’s intention to put its autonomous vehicles into service through a locally based mobility provider. Waymo is already doing this in the US, making its autonomous vehicles available on Uber’s ridehail app in Austin and Atlanta.
“We have no plans to serve riders in Tokyo at this time”
Waymo’s robotaxi business in the US is growing, albeit slowly. The company currently has approximately 700 vehicles in operation in several cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Phoenix. It also plans to launch a robotaxi service in Atlanta in an exclusive partnership with Uber and is planning to launch in Miami in 2026. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai recently said that Waymo was providing 175,000 paid trips per week, or about a million miles.
In Tokyo, Waymo’s vehicles will be operated by trained autonomous specialists employed by Nihon Kotsu. Once the company feels like it’s ready, it will transition to hands-free autonomous driving with a safety driver behind the wheel. Karp wouldn’t say whether that would eventually progress to fully driverless operations. The vehicles will be geofenced to certain neighborhoods in Tokyo, including Minato, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Chiyoda, Chūō, Shinagawa, and Kōtō.
In bringing its vehicles to its first foreign country, Alphabet is trying to project confidence in its technology, especially at a time when companies are pulling back on costly robotaxi projects. General Motors recently announced that it would no longer fund Cruise and would instead pivot to driver-assist technology and personally owned autonomous vehicles.
Several companies have tested their autonomous vehicles in Japan, but the country is a bit of a backwater compared to China and the US. Part of the problem seems to be the country’s robust auto industry is focusing its testing in countries other than its native one. Toyota and Nissan are both seeking to deploy robotaxis in China in collaboration with local operators.
The Framework Laptop 16 just got a modular gadget that enables quadruple SSDs
Framework’s double SSD caddy for its Framework 16 expansion bay. | Image: Framework
The most ambitious laptop ever made just got a long-promised modular upgrade. Starting today, you can pay $39 to add two extra M.2 slots to the Framework Laptop 16 — letting you potentially carry around an AI accelerator, an eGPU adapter, or a grand total of four solid state storage sticks for ludicrous capacity.
As Framework’s blog post points out, the new “Dual M.2 Adapter” is Framework’s first new modular component since launch that takes advantage of the Laptop 16’s big expansion bay around back. At launch, you only had two options: a Radeon RX 7700S discrete graphics card for extra money, or a mostly empty bay that only contained fans.
But now, you can add the Dual M.2 Adapter to that mostly empty bay to fit an additional pair of M.2 2280, 2260, 2240 or 2230 modules, with four lanes of PCIe 4.0 each, on top of the twin SSD slots (M.2 2280 and M.2 2230) that come with the laptop to begin with.
With current stick SSD capacities topping out at around 8TB (2280) and 2TB (2230) respectively, that means you can theoretically cart around 26TB of storage at once... not counting any 1TB Framework Expansion Cards you stick into the sides of the laptop, or any giant SD cards you plug into the $25 full-size SD card modules that Framework finally released this fall.
(With 2TB SD cards on the market, I guess the actual maximum capacity of the Framework Laptop 16 is now 38TB.)
And while those who bought the Radeon discrete GPU won’t be able to take advantage without swapping out that module, swaps are thankfully quick and easy:
In addition to the adapter, Framework has swapped out the Framework Laptop 16’s liquid metal cooling for Honeywell PTM7958 thermal paste, and will help provide that for any customer who asks; while Framework characterizes this as a change to fix possible “performance degradation over time,” I definitely encountered uncomfortable levels of heat and fan noise right away in my review and long-term tests.
Find more about Framework’s recent updates in its full blog post — like the new “Framework Mystery Boxes” tinkerers can buy to try out an assortment of random, possibly non-functional parts that users have returned to the company.
The best smartphone you can buy for under $500
You can get a great device for less than $500 these days if you know how to pick your priorities. | Image: The Verge
You can’t have everything at this price, but you can get a great smartphone. Whether you want an iPhone, a 120Hz screen, or water resistance, you’ve got options.
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
If the government were worried about civil unrest to the point they thought uprisings could happen, I’d guess they’d try to ban drones outright.
Mark Zuckerberg says Threads has more than 100 million daily active users
Illustration: The Verge
Threads now has more than 100 million daily active users, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Monday. It’s a notable milestone not just because it’s a big number; it’s also the first time Meta has a daily active user figure publicly.
In recent weeks, Meta has been very vocal about Threads’ growth after a lot of people flocked to Bluesky. While Bluesky tracker says that that platform currently has a little over 25 million total users, Zuckerberg shared Monday that Threads has more than 300 million monthly active users. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, but it’s clear that Threads is still much larger than Bluesky.
Threads has also ramped up its feature releases, including updates that appear to be inspired by Bluesky like custom feeds and curated collections of accounts to follow. Meta is also testing the ability to choose your own default feed, which is a much-needed change. But it’s not all good; Threads might get ads early next year.
hubba_hubba_revue ("Hubba Hubba Revue") wrote:
THIS THURSDAY, at @dnalounge
WHAT COULD BE BETTER than a Nightmare Before Christmas movie screening? How about a Nightmare Before Christmas *SING-ALONG* movie screening!
T I X: https://www.dnalounge.com/calendar/2024/12-19.html
Doors 7:30, Movie 8:00. Dance party with DJ Starr & DJ Melting Girl 10PM. COSTUME CONTEST at 11PM! 💀🎅
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TikTok CEO meets with Trump as the platform tries to avoid a ban
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to meet with President-Elect Donald Trump on Monday as the platform faces a ban in the US, according to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. The move makes Chew the latest tech executive — following Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — to meet with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
TikTok already lost in appeals court while fighting the ban-or-divest law that goes into effect on January 19th, and today, it asked the Supreme Court to intervene.
Though Trump initially led the ban on TikTok over claims about national security concerns, he started to reverse course earlier this year. In March, Trump said he didn’t want a TikTok ban because “...without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people.” He later joined TikTok in June.
When asked about the TikTok ban during a press conference on Monday, Trump said he would “take a look.” Along with meeting with Trump, tech giants, including Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI, have donated to Trump’s inauguration fund as well.
Fediverse creator payment platform sub.club is shutting down
Sub.club, which lets fediverse creators offer paid subscriptions and premium content and launched at the end of August, is already shutting down. “With regret, we will be winding down this project over the next few weeks,” the sub.club team announced last week. Creators using the service will be “fully paid,” but sub.club feeds will stop working “by the end of January.”
As I wrote when I first covered sub.club, the service seemed like an interesting way to let people on the fediverse more easily monetize their audience without having to point them toward other platforms like Patreon. But the group that built it, The BLVD, has run out of funding.
“Unfortunately we were not able to quickly achieve sufficient traction with product-market fit / adoption for sub.club, or to attract investors, partnerships, etc.,” Bart Decrem, The BLVD’s founder, tells The Verge in an email. He says more than 150 creators were on sub.club. “Still bullish on the fediverse, and the success of Bluesky is a great thing, but it does look like it will take a while to connect all the pieces.”
“As we see more users onboard to platforms like Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads and the open ecosystem grows, the need will eventually arise for a subscription service that isn’t tied to a single platform, is protocol-based, and allows for user portability,” sub.club adviser Anuj Ahooja says. “Hopefully, sub.club, or a service like it, can fill the gap at that time.”
Because of The BLVD’s lack of funding, it is pulling the plug on two other projects, too: Mammoth, an open-source iOS app for Mastodon, and moth.social, a Mastodon instance that is the companion server to Mammoth. Late in November, the Mammoth Mastodon account said that Mammoth was “now operating without funding or a paid team.”