How worried should we be about Disease X?
An unidentified illness has claimed 80 lives in DRC. Investigators are on the scenes to determine what it is — and how much of a threat it poses to locally and globally
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
ahhhhhh, yes. near one of my favorite places in the world
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
Two idiots have grand plans for wrecking the USA.
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Sundar Pichai says Google Search will ‘change profoundly’ in 2025
Image: Laura Normand / The Verge
Google CEO Sundar Pichai says the company’s search engine will “change profoundly” in 2025. “I think we are going to be able to tackle more complex questions than ever before,” Pichai said during the NYT’s DealBook Summit on Wednesday_._
“I think you’ll be surprised, even early in ‘25, the kind of newer things Search can do compared to where it is today.”
Pichai also responded to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s comment from earlier this year, in which he said Google should’ve been the “default winner” in the AI race. “I would love to do a side-by-side comparison of Microsoft’s own models and our models,” Pichai said. He added that Microsoft is “using someone else’s models,” alluding to the company’s partnership with OpenAI.
“When I look at what’s coming ahead, we are in the earliest stages of a profound shift,” Pichai said. “I just think there’s so much innovation ahead. We are committed to being at the state of the art in this field, and I think we are.”
Google started its big AI overhaul of Search this year, which included the addition of AI search summaries and a Lens update that lets you search the web with a video. The company is also preparing to launch a major update to its Gemini model as it aims to compete with Microsoft, OpenAI, and the AI search engine Perplexity.
PUBG’s creator has an ambitious plan for multiple new games
Prologue: Go Wayback. | Image: Krafton
It’s been a while since we heard from Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene, best known as the creator of the global battle royale hit PUBG. But now, Greene’s studio, PlayerUnknown Productions, is detailing what it’s working on — and there are multiple games in the works, all pointing toward a big final project.
First up is a game called Prologue: Go Wayback!, described as a “single-player open-world emergent game within the survival genre,” which was previously teased in 2021. The big hook, it seems, is technical, as the game is being built with “machine-learning-driven terrain generation technology, allowing the instant creation of millions of maps.” Prologue is expected to launch in early access on Steam in 2025, following a series of playtests. To showcase what players can expect, the studio is launching a free tech demo on Steam today called Preface: Undiscovered World. You can check it out right here.
According to the studio, these games are building blocks on the way to a more ambitious game currently codenamed “Artemis,” which will be a “massive multiplayer sandbox experience.” Greene previously talked about Artemis back in 2022; it was originally billed as a game with NFT support, though today’s announcement has no mention of NFTs. Here’s Greene on what players can eventually expect as the studio builds toward its big game:
My vision for Artemis is challenging, but we plan to take it one step at a time and the three games aim to give us a solid tech foundation on which to scale up. After Prologue, two more games are planned for release in the coming years, each addressing critical technical challenges that will bring the studio closer to the final product. With Prologue, we aim to engage players and introduce them to the emergent mechanics and expansive worlds we’re developing.
Greene first stepped away from PUBG with a new studio in 2019 — it was known under the name “PUBG Special Projects” — and two years later announced that he was leaving PUBG parent company Krafton to go independent. “Today, I’m excited to take the next step on my journey to create the kind of experience I’ve envisaged for years,” he said at the time.
Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
astro@webtoo.ls ("Astro") wrote:
Do you know how image srcset and sizes work?
Me neither. And you shouldn’t have to.Let layout="responsive" find the right values based on your source image, no config needed ✨
Now experimental in 5.0
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Nearly 80,000 Anker speakers recalled due to fire hazard
Anker’s Soundcore Bluetooth Speaker was recalled due to a fire hazard.
Anker is recalling its Soundcore and PowerConf Bluetooth Speakers after receiving 33 reports of the speakers’ lithium-ion batteries overheating and, in some instances, emitting smoke or causing small fires.
The affected models — A3102016, A3302011 and A3302031 — were sold exclusively on Amazon in 2023 and cost between $28 and $130, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Approximately 69,000 speakers were sold in the US, and an additional 9,764 were sold i Canada.
Anker and Amazon have contacted all known purchasers, according to the CPSC. The affected speakers can be identified by an SN code that is printed on the underside of the speakers. To check whether your devices were affected, type the SN code on Anker’s website. Anker said it will offer free replacement speakers to those affected.
Consumers who own the recalled speakers are advised to stop using them immediately, power them off, and disconnect them from chargers or other external power sources.
The Verge’s 2024 holiday gift guide
Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
A collection of fun, affordable, and unique gifts fit for everyone on your list.
The Open-World RPG That Looks Like 'Anime Spider-Man Meets GTA' Continues To Have The Best Trailers
Project Mugen was revealed back in 2023 as an open-world fantasy RPG about people with superpowers investigating strange anomalies that threaten their urban paradise. Think Genshin Impact in Manhattan with Spider-Man-like traversal. On Thursday, it got another incredible-looking trailer and a new name.
Overwatch 2 Teases Avatar: The Last Airbender Crossover
We are hours away from the launch of one of Overwatch 2’s most promising competitors in Marvel Rivals. It makes sense, then, that Blizzard would choose this time to drop a new trailer for its hero shooter’s upcoming 14th season, presumably in an attempt to stop some of the bleed. The trailer highlights new tank hero…
NASA’s mission to return humans to the Moon has been delayed again until 2026
Photo by GREGG NEWTON/AFP via Getty Images
NASA has, once again, postponed the Artemis missions that will return humans to the Moon. The Artemis II mission, which will have astronauts orbiting the Moon, had already been pushed from 2024 to September 2025 but is now planned for April 2026. Artemis III, which will return astronauts to the surface of the Moon near its south pole, is now planned to launch the following year in mid-2027.
The 10-day Artemis II mission will send four astronauts to the Moon, including Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen. The mission won’t include a landing, but it will be the first time astronauts launch aboard NASA’s Space Launch System rocket inside the Orion crew capsule that will orbit the Moon before returning to Earth with a planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
It will follow the uncrewed Artemis I mission that finally launched in November 2022 after years of delays due to technical difficulties and even a few hurricanes. Although Artemis I was a success, investigations into unexpected charring on the Orion capsule’s heat shield, critical to protecting astronauts when re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, have contributed to the additional delays.
Following extensive analysis, NASA says it has determined that the Orion capsule’s heat shield “did not allow for enough of the gases generated inside a material called Avcoat to escape,” causing some of it to unexpectedly crack and break off during the Artemis I mission, instead of wearing away gradually as it heats up. Despite the charring, temperature sensors indicated the interior of the Orion capsule remained comfortable and safe for astronauts.
For Artemis II, NASA engineers have decided the capsule “can keep the crew safe during the planned mission with changes to Orion’s trajectory as it enters Earth’s atmosphere” and are preparing the capsule using the heat shield already attached. “The updates to our mission plans are a positive step toward ensuring we can safely accomplish our objectives at the Moon and develop the technologies and capabilities needed for crewed Mars missions,” said Catherine Koerner, associate administrator Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.
However, for the more ambitious Artemis III mission, the agency says it is “implementing enhancements to how heat shields for crewed returns from lunar landing missions are manufactured” based on what it learned from Artemis I.
Amnesty International: Israel Is Guilty of Genocide in Gaza
In a nearly 300-page report released on Thursday, Amnesty International concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide. “Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, said in a statement. […]
Pope Francis goes electric in new eco-friendly popemobile
Pope Francis, who heads the Catholic Church, has doubled down on his commitment to the environment with a new electric popemobile presented by Mercedes-Benz.
Spotify suddenly cut off app developers from a bunch of its data
Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge
Spotify pulled the rug out from developers last week, announcing sudden changes to its API policies just before Thanksgiving that cut new apps and apps in development off from access to the platform’s data.
As of November 27th, the day Spotify revealed the changes, new “Web API use cases” will lose access to certain kinds of music data, according to the announcement. The data includes the ability to access Spotify’s catalog information about related artists and Spotify’s algorithmic and editorially-curated playlists. This change affects apps that are in development mode, meaning they’re under construction or used by up to 25 people, and new apps registered on or after the day of the announcement.
If you already have an app that’s widely available, it appears that your app can still access the affected endpoints as it could before. But for developers who have been working on an app or building one for more limited use, this is a major and disheartening change.
“Without warning and on a major holiday, Spotify cut access to a bunch of very useful API endpoints”
“Basically, without warning and on a major holiday, Spotify cut access to a bunch of very useful API endpoints that they’d been providing for years,” Faisal Alquaddoomi, who had been working on an app to visualize music on a DIY LED display, tells The Verge. Alquaddoomi wasn’t aware of the changes until seeing the blog post and says that Spotify didn’t send a proactive notification.
Douglas Adams, a software engineer (who is not the famous author), uses Spotify’s APIs to “measure the therapeutic impact of music on patients undergoing life saving treatments” as part of a project he’s working on with UCLA. He says the APIs are “critical” to the study and that he had to work through the holiday weekend to mitigate the impact of the changes on the project. “The alternative is not a straight-forward replacement and will take weeks of work to approach the capability I had before Spotify’s change,” Adams says.
Broken Holiday, a lo-fi producer, has been working on an app for artists to manage multiple playlists using automation. But with the API changes, the app can’t see what’s on a given playlist, Broken Holiday says.
Spotify has vaguely attributed the need for the API changes to improving security:
- In its blog post, Spotify says that it rolled out the changes with “the aim of creating a more secure platform.”
- In a community forum post, a Spotify employee says that “we want to reiterate the main message from the blog that we’re committed to providing a safe and secure environment for all Spotify stakeholders.” The post has many pages of replies from frustrated developers.
- In a statement to The Verge, Spotify spokesperson Brittney Le Roy says that “as part of our ongoing work to address the security challenges that many companies navigate today, we’re making changes to our public APIs.”
The company hasn’t explained why it changed its policies so suddenly and with no warning. But like with Strava’s recently-announced API changes that restrict data sharing to other apps and Reddit’s API pricing changes that sparked protests last year, Spotify’s API changes are yet another reminder of the tenuousness of building apps for other platforms.
A Pitch Video For A Lego James Bond Game Has Leaked
At one point in time, TT Games—the studio behind the Lego Star Wars franchise—pitched a James Bond game to the toy block brand. That project never happened, but now a video pitch for the proposed 007-themed Lego game has leaked and it lets us look at what might have been.
John Roberts Has a Plan to Deny Transgender Rights
After contemplating a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors Wednesday, the Supreme Court appears likely to greenlight the prohibition on the theory that nine humble justices are not the best arbiters of complex medical questions. It’s a theory of a modest judiciary that stays in its lane and knows the limits of its […]
A powerful 7.0 earthquake strikes off northern California coast
A powerful earthquake has struck off the northern California coast. Several aftershocks continue to rattle the area off Eureka.
DNA Lounge Update, Wherein we wish a Happy Repeal of Prohibition Day to all who celebrate.
https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2024/12/05.html
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Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
JasonAnthonyGuy ("Jason Anthony Guy") wrote:
Tsunami warning? WTF?
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fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
Corporate America politics are fucking terrible.
It’s hard enough just doing your job, but then you also must keep your eye out for that one person who read 48 Laws of Power once, and now thinks email jobs are some machiavellian chess match.
Court rejects Boeing plea deal stemming from 737 Max crashes
A federal judge in Texas has rejected a plea deal between Boeing and the U.S. Justice Department, saying the court should play a bigger role in selecting an independent monitor to oversee the company.
Daredevil: Born Again Timeline Complicates The Post-Netflix MCU
If there’s one thing Marvel has done over the last five years, it’s fuck up your concept of time. Multiversal messes aside, we finally know when the upcoming Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Againtakes place in the Marvel timeline, and things just got a bit more confusing.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s early access period won’t include full ray tracing
Image: Bethesda Softworks
If you pay the premium to play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle early on PC, the game won’t initially include full ray tracing. The game’s early access period for Premium Edition and Collector’s Edition buyers launches at 7PM ET today, but full ray tracing won’t be added until December 9th, when the game launches for everyone else.
“Following the release of the update, shadows, reflections, and global illumination will all be accurately rendered in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle using Full Ray Tracing, elevating image quality,” Nvidia says in a blog post. And DLSS Ray Reconstruction will be “coming soon,” according to an emailed media alert.
The belated addition of the graphics options could sting for early access buyers, especially given that early access isn’t cheap: the Premium Edition, for example, costs $99.99, a $30 increase over the game’s standard $69.99 price.
The game already has hefty PC specs, including that GPU hardware ray tracing is required even at minimum. Jim Kjellin, the CTO of Great Circle developer MachineGames, gave us a reason for as to why that’s the case:
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle uses a technique called global illumination to light the environment and characters. Our engine MOTOR, used by MachineGames, uses hardware raytracing to calculate this. While this isn’t what players may typically think of as “ray tracing,” the compatible hardware is required to do this is in a performant, high fidelity way.
Great Circle will also be available on Xbox Series X / S, and it’s coming to PS5 in spring 2025.
OpenAI’s 12 days of ‘ship-mas:’ all the new announcements
Image: The Verge
OpenAI is planning to launch new features, products, and demos for 12 days straight — starting with the full release of its o1 reasoning model.
OpenAI’s 12 days of “ship-mas” have officially begun, with the company set to reveal some new features, products, and demos during all 12 days starting December 5th, just a few days shy of the second anniversary of ChatGPT’s explosive launch in 2022. According to the company, ChatGPT now has over 300 million weekly users.
The event started with the release of its improved OpenAI o1 reasoning model out of preview, along with a new $200 ChatGPT Pro subscription that offers unlimited access to GPT-4o, Advanced Voice Mode, and an exclusive version of o1 that Sam Altman says “can think even harder for the hardest problems.”
Sources tell The Verge that OpenAI will also launch Sora, its text-to-video AI generator. There’s likely a lot more to come, and we’re keeping track of all the announcements from OpenAI.
You can follow along below as we continue to report on all the latest updates.
James Gunn wants DC Studios to be able to make a little bit of everything
Max / Warner Bros.
Between its reanimated corpses and humanoid animals, HBO’s new Creature Commandos series doesn’t really look or sound anything like Warner Bros.’ other upcoming projects featuring characters from DC’s comics. But DC Studios co-head James Gunn says that’s by design and part of his plan to make the studio a place where any kind of story can be greenlit if it’s got the right script.
While DC Studios has plans for fresh, live-action takes on Batman, Superman, the Green Lanterns, it’s kicking off its latest cinematic universe with Creature Commandos, an animated series about Amanda Waller’s (Viola Davis) secret squad of monster mercenaries. The show will feature a couple of nifty connections to previous DC shows like Peacemaker and films like The Suicide Squad, but its offbeat characters and TV-MA rating are part of why Gunn (DC Studios’ co-hed alongside Peter Safran) sees it as the start of something new.
In a recent interview with Variety, Gunn described Creature Commandos as a “soft intro” that will waste no time establishing how metahumans, monsters, and magic are all core parts of DC Studios’ interconnected world. It took the old DCEU a while and cost it quite a bit of money to introduce some of its more fantastical heroes and villains in ways that felt organic for the big screen. But Gunn noted that part of the reason he felt so bullish about greenlighting Creature Commandos (which he also wrote) boiled down to the simple fact that, in animation it basically “costs as much to create a battlefield as it does to create a kitchen.”
Gunn also explained that Creature Commandos felt like a good jumping off point because of its ability to convey to audiences that DC Studios isn’t limiting its output to family-friendly fare.
“We can make something that’s for general audiences, like Superman,” Gunn said. “We can make something that’s violent and sexual, like [Creature Commandos] — which I didn’t think was that violent and sexual; Peacemaker is both more violent and more sexual — but I want every project to have its own voice. It isn’t about creating a world in which everything is all sex and violence. It’s about creating a world in which we can tell the story about, you know, one type of character in different genres.”
DC Studios wouldn’t exactly be the first to test that idea out — Marvel’s been trying to pull it off for the past few years with mixed results — but it’s interesting to hear that Gunn intends for it to be central to the studio’s brand. And after Creature Commandos premieres tonight on Max, we’ll have a chance to see how the idea actually plays.
Hawk Tuah Girl's Crypto Coin Launches And Crashes Within Three Hours
Viral influencer and podcast host Haliey “Hawk Tuah Girl” Welch’s crypto coin, which launched yesterday, has already crashed, leading some to speculate that the memecoin was a pump and dump scheme. Welch has denied this and claimed everything is above board.
Stop using generative AI as a search engine
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, TurboSquid
A fake presidential pardon explains why you can’t trust robots with the news.
OpenAI is charging $200 a month for an exclusive version of its o1 ‘reasoning’ model
Image: OpenAI
OpenAI is creating a new, more expensive tier for its flagship chatbot ChatGPT, and is bringing its “reasoning” model series out of preview with an update.
The company is releasing the full version of its o1 model, which was initially released as a limited preview in September (code-named ‘Strawberry’). The new model will be available for ChatGPT Plus and Team users today, while Enterprise and Edu users will have access to it starting next week.
The company is also introducing ChatGPT Pro, a new $200 monthly subscription tier that includes unlimited access to OpenAI o1, GPT-4o, and Advanced Voice mode. It also includes a version of o1, exclusive to Pro users, that uses more compute to provide the best possible answer to the hardest problems. The company will continue to offer a Plus tier for $20 a month that includes early access to new features, access to all the company’s models (except the more powerful o1 version), and more.
The Verge previously reported on the startup’s plans to kick off a “shipmas” period of new features, products, and demos for 12 days, with announcements that’ll include OpenAI’s long-awaited text-to-video AI tool Sora and a new model.
The company said that compared to o1-preview, users can expect a faster, more powerful, and more accurate model that is better at coding and math. It can also provide “reasoning” responses to images. And OpenAI promises it’s been trained to be more concise, which should result in faster response times than o1-preview.
OpenAI plans to add support for web browsing, file uploads, and more in ChatGPT — though there’s no timeline for these changes.
It also announced a ChatGPT Pro Grant Program that awards 10 grants of ChatGPT Pro to medical researchers at leading institutions, with plans for additional grants across various disciplines.
Memphis police use excessive force and discriminate against Black people, the DOJ finds
A Justice Department investigation launched after the beating death of Tyre Nichols in 2023 found that "Memphis police officers regularly violate the rights of the people they are sworn to serve."
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
CEO Tried to Navigate Hate Incident By Telling Staff His Mentor Was a KKK Member:
"More than 150 employees at the cloud services giant Digital Ocean protested last year after its CEO explained in an all-hands meeting that his former mentor was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, which he said shows how employees can work together despite holding different beliefs." https://www.404media.co/email/12f2e486-e76b-48d0-94d0-da2679f52182/
The pope goes electric with first EV popemobile from Mercedes-Benz
Image: Mercedes-Benz
Pope Francis will be riding in a new, all-electric popemobile after receiving a modified G-Class vehicle from Mercedes-Benz, the company announced Wednesday.
It’s the first electric popemobile from the luxury German automaker, which has been manufacturing vehicles for the Vatican for the last 90 years. For half that time, the popemobile has been based on Mercedes’ G-Class wagon. And now, for the first time, it wil be operating without any pollution, powered by the company’s EV technology.
“With the new Popemobile, Pope Francis is the first pope to be traveling in a fully electric Mercedes-Benz when making public appearances,” CEO Ola Kallenius, who personally delivered the vehicle to Pope Francis this week. “This is a special honor for our company, and I would like to thank His Holiness for his trust. With this Popemobile, we are also sending out a clear call for electromobility and decarbonisation.”
“With this Popemobile, we are also sending out a clear call for electromobility and decarbonisation”
The vehicle was modified to utilize four individual motors at each wheel for low-speed travel as the Pope greets visitors in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, for example. In the rear, the bench seat was replaced by an elevated, swiveling single seat, so the pope can face his followers from all sides. Two other seats were included behind the pope’s spot for additional passengers.
This is the first all-electric popemobile, but it isn’t Pope Francis’ first experience with zero-emission transportation. The Vatican was gifted a Renault Kangoo electric van in 2012, but it wasn’t used for official transport. Pope Francis was driven around in a hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai in Japan in 2019. And Mercedes-Benz has even made hybrid popemobiles for his holiness.
The possibility of an electric popemobile has been floating around for years. The now-defunct EV startup Fisker even proposed building one after founder Henrik Fisker met briefly with Pope Francis in 2021. The company declared bankruptcy earlier this year.
Cryptic words were found on bullet casings at scene of CEO Brian Thompson's killing
Shell casings with the cryptic words "deny," "defend" and "depose" were found at the scene of the fatal shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO outside of a Manhattan hotel, police officials say.
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
_elena ("Elena Rossini ⁂") wrote:
Introducing: "my so-called sudo life"
a new #blog series tracking my journey towards greater digital sovereignty.
"Instead of wallowing in this grief and anger, I have resolved to make this time – these 4 years – matter. It makes me feel better and more empowered to set some high goals, so that by January 2029 I could look back and think to myself: I have grown and helped others during these tumultuous 4 years. I made good use of that time."
https://elenarossini.com/2024/12/introducing-my-so-called-sudo-life/
follow the blog: @ele
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
lindsey@recurse.social ("Lindsey Kuper") wrote:
It's finally done! 🎉 I am so excited to announce "Communicating Chorrectly with a Choreography", the first zine from my research group!
Read online and print your own free copies: https://decomposition.al/zines/
Thread! 👇
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Android 15’s first major update has arrived
More features are coming to Android and Pixel phones starting today. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
New features are on the way for Android phones and Pixel devices thanks to Android 15’s first quarterly platform update. New features for all eligible Android phones include more descriptive video captions, a Gemini-powered update to the Lookout app, and a Spotify extension for Gemini. Pixel owners are getting a few additional updates, including deeper integration of the Pixel Screenshots app for Pixel 9 phones.
The enhanced captions — or Expressive Captions as Google calls them — add descriptive phrases to try and capture non-spoken moments in dialogue; think [gasp] or [applause]. They’ll appear throughout the system wherever you can access video captions, including social media apps and video messages.
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Image: Google
Descriptive Captions will capture more of what’s going on in the audio track.
Another accessibility-minded update targets Lookout, an app that provides audio descriptions of photos and objects for people with low vision or blindness. Google is bringing its Gemini 1.5 model to the Image Q&A portion of the app to offer better descriptions of photos taken or opened with the app. It’s a continuation of an effort Google highlighted at I/O to bring more AI features to Lookout.
On the AI front, Google is adding more extensions to Gemini Assistant. The Spotify extension allows you to play music from Spotify through Gemini. When Gemini Assistant debuted, it was missing basic features like this one — capabilities that the non-AI Assistant has been offering for the better part of a decade. This is one more step toward feature parity between Gemini and the standard Google Assistant. Gemini will also get access to the Utilities extension that’s been rolling out, allowing it to take more actions on your behalf, like making phone calls, sending emails, and changing phone settings.
Other highlights of this update include the ability to create stickers with Emoji Kitchen inside Gboard, share photos with a QR code in Quick Share, and an improved scanning mode for receipts and the like in Google Drive.
Pixel phones get a little more with the December feature drop, with several new features specifically for the Pixel 9 series. The call screening feature gets a potentially useful update with contextual reply suggestions. As the caller speaks to the assistant, you can tap on a response to answer questions without picking up the call.
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Image: Google
Gboard will offer some suggested phrases based on things you add to Screenshots.
The Pixel 9’s Screenshots app also gets a few updates. Now, when you use Circle to Search you’ll have an option to save that search in the Screenshots app, which feels like a logical place to keep tabs on your previous queries. You can also turn on a new feature to show suggested search phrases in Gboard based on things you save to Screenshots. And if you’ve added tickets or credit cards to Google Wallet with a screenshot, you’ll be able to save those in the Screenshots app, too.
There are a handful of other features in the feature drop for previous-gen Pixel phones, including Identity Check, which will require additional authentication if the phone detects it’s in a new location and sensitive settings are being accessed. It all starts rolling out today for phones on Android 15 and Pixel 6 and newer phones.
Microsoft’s Copilot can browse the web with you using AI ‘Vision’
Image: The Verge
Microsoft is starting to test its new Copilot Vision feature today. Originally unveiled in October, Copilot Vision allows Microsoft’s AI companion to see what you see on an Edge webpage you’re browsing. You can then ask it questions about the text, images, and content you’re viewing or use it to assist you.
“When you choose to enable Copilot Vision, it sees the page you’re on, it reads along with you, and you can talk through the problem you’re facing together,” says the Copilot team in a blog post. “Browsing no longer needs to be a lonely experience with just you and all your tabs.”
It’s an entirely optional experience, and you have to explicitly grant permission for Copilot Vision to be able to read webpages in Microsoft’s Edge browser. Microsoft originally demonstrated the feature in October by showing how its AI assistant could read images from a collection on OneDrive on the web and even decipher hand-written recipes and offer up cooking tips. You could also use this feature while you’re shopping on the web to find product recommendations.
Copilot Vision is in limited testing right now, available only to Copilot Pro subscribers through Microsoft’s Copilot Labs program. It’s clear Microsoft is taking its time on this particular feature as it allows AI models to start reading things you’re seeing onscreen in a web browser, which will naturally generate privacy concerns. I’m sure the security concerns around the new Recall feature, which finally entered testing last month, played a big part in Microsoft treading carefully here.
“As we roll this out, Vision will only interact with a select set of websites to start,” says the Copilot team. “Over time, we will cautiously expand this list. It’s important to stress that Vision does not capture, store or use any data from publishers to train our models. In short, we’re prioritizing copyright, creators, and our user’s privacy and safety — and are putting them all first.”
A limited number of Copilot Pro subscribers will be able to get access to Copilot Vision today in the US as Microsoft works to listen to feedback and iterate on Copilot Vision. It plans to expand access to more Pro subscribers and websites “over time.”
Microsoft and Google are fighting over the future of Xbox
Image: The Verge
In October, it became very clear that Microsoft and Google were at war again. After a six-year truce on legal battles ended in 2021, Google has, in recent months, been voicing its concerns about Microsoft’s cloud business. That particular dispute is at the “lobbying regulators” stage, but another disagreement between the two tech giants has slipped into the courts and the public sphere and could sway the very future of Xbox.
Microsoft revealed last week that it built a new Xbox game store for Android but has been unable to launch it. The store relies on a key court ruling that would force sweeping changes to Google’s Play Store, opening it up to competition and ending the requirement for apps to use Google Play Billing. Microsoft has been desperate for regulators to act and pave the way for its ambitious Xbox mobile efforts. But after the court ruling offered a brief moment of hope, Google won a temporary administrative stay blocking the changes from coming into effect in November.
Microsoft had planned to sell games directly in its Xbox app for Android and allow customers to immediately stream those games directly to their phones and tablets. These two features combined aren’t...
Stay away from Dr. Google, and other lessons learned about hypochondria
Caroline Crampton developed excessive health anxiety after being treated for cancer as a teen. In A Body Made of Glass she chronicles her experience with hypochondria and the history of the condition.
PlayStation kicks off esports tournament series with live event in London
Tekken 8 will be one of the games people can compete in.
Sony is building on its PlayStation esports efforts with a new series of live tournament events called PlayStation Tournaments: XP. The first event will take place on January 18th, 2025 in London and feature Tekken 8, EA Sports FC 25, Fortnite, and Astro Bot.
“Qualifying players from across the globe and the competitive gaming community on PS5 will represent teams Triangle, Circle, Cross, and Square to earn points during the competition and vie for the title of champion, in addition to winning exclusive prizes,” Sony says in a blog post.
Open qualifiers for Tekken 8 and EA Sports FC 25 begin today, while qualifiers for Fortnite start on December 6th and for Astro Bot on December 13th. If you qualify for the live event, Sony will cover flights and lodging. Sony has more details about the qualifying events in a separate blog post.
The January event will also be live-streamed on January 18th on PlayStation’s Twitch and YouTube channels.
Spotify Wrapped Tells Me My Music Habits Are Not Normal
Yesterday, Spotify released its annual Wrapped infographics breaking down individual users’ most-listened-to songs and artists. As the Kotaku staff rolled into Slack, we shared our respective results, and the stark difference between how some of us consume music got two of our writers reflecting on their…
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
Ready, aim, FIRE THE WEB GUN!
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/12/05/sproing-oing-oing/
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Amnesty International accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza, which Israel strongly denies
Amnesty International says Israel has sought to deliberately destroy Palestinians in its war with Hamas, by mounting deadly attacks, demolishing vital infrastructure and preventing aid deliveries.
NZXT responded to the Flex PC rental program controversy, but it’s not over yet
Screenshot: NZXT.com
After a long video published over the weekend by Gamers Nexus called NZXT’s Flex PC rental program “a scam,” the company responded Tuesday with a statement titled “Addressing Your Concerns About the Flex Subscription Program.” “I want to acknowledge that we messed up,” said NZXT CEO Johnny Hou in a video, promising changes like making the names of PCs available for rent or purchase easier to tell apart.
However, what it said has not satisfied Gamers Nexus, which posted its own response, saying NZXT’s statement “not only misrepresents facts, but distorts the reality of their predatory rental computer program. The statement ignores major points and introduces several new concerns.” The post says GN is working on a new investigation into the program that “will take weeks or months to finalize.”
The two main actions NZXT says it’s taking are on the PC names, like switching the name of its “Player: One” rental PC to “Flex: One Subscription PC,” and influencer campaigns “where the statements did not accurately reflect the details of our NZXT Flex program.” NZXT says it has pulled all of its “influencer-led” advertising while it updates the language and process.
NZXT says it is adjusting the language in its subscriber agreement as well and will make it clear that the company doesn’t sell user data on customers’ returned PCs. “Every Flex PC that comes back is fully wiped,” Hou said.
Hou also addressed the rental PC specs that Gamers Nexus said fluctuated “day-to-day,” noting that the Flex program “doesn’t give you fixed specs” due to the changing availability of components. “Sometimes we don’t have more supply coming in, so in the midst of that we actually have to change the specs of our PCs.”
However, this still doesn’t explain why NZXT displayed the same estimated frames per second across builds with different components. The Verge has contacted NZXT about the program, but the company has not responded.
NZXT has posted a statement which not only misrepresents facts, but distorts the reality of their predatory rental computer program. The statement ignores major points and introduces several new concerns. GamersNexus has become aware of deeper elements connected to this story…
— GamersNexus (@GamersNexus) December 5, 2024
Anthem plans to put time limits on anesthesia coverage, alarming doctors
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield says it will put time limits on anesthesia care starting next year. Doctors and elected officials, including in New York and Connecticut, are asking it to change course.
Does Infinity Nikki Have Crossplay?
Infinity Nikki, the fifth installment in the long-running dress-up franchise, is making a lot of waves with its gorgeous open world filled with seemingly endless activities to do. If scoring the most stylish fit while platforming through a magical land sounds like it’s right up your alley, you certainly won’t want to…
EA adds more tech patents to its accessibility program
EA is also releasing a UE5 plugin for it’s Iris photosensitivity tech, which features on games like Madden NFL 24 (Pictured). | Image: Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts is expanding its accessibility program with 23 additional tech patents that other companies and developers can freely use without being slapped with an infringement lawsuit. The expansion more than doubles the total number of patents that EA has opened up since launching the pledge in 2021, and includes generation and recognition tools for speech and audio.
“We believe that games should be accessible to everyone and our industry-leading teams are always looking for new ways to make this a reality,” Kerry Hopkins, SVP of Global Affairs at EA, said in a press release. “By making this technology available to others, we continue to work to enhance accessibility and inclusivity for players around the world by removing unintended barriers to access.”
Some examples of open tech patents include systems that can improve speech recognition, generate expressive speech audio from text data, and generate speech that mimics a player’s voice based on minimal sample speech data. One system uses machine learning to make a player’s voice sound older, while another “infers a player’s emotion while playing a video game” and automatically adjusts the game’s background music to best suit their emotional state.
EA says these patents could be used to improve gaming experiences for players with speech disorders or who struggle with verbally expressing themselves, helping them to communicate in a way that better represents their age, emotion, language, and speaking style. Alongside this announcement, EA is also releasing a Unreal Engine 5 plugin that enables in-engine use of IRIS — EA’s photosensitivity analysis tech — to help game developers identify frames that could impact photosensitive players.
Master & Dynamic revived a pair of wired earphones
Master & Dynamic is bringing back a pair of wired earbuds it first introduced in 2015. | Image: Master & Dynamic
Master & Dynamic has announced an updated version of its ME05 wired earphones. First introduced in 2015, the ME05 were eventually discontinued in early 2022 but the company is reintroducing them with familiar design elements including “precision-machined brass acoustic enclosures” while updating other components to improve their performance. Like the originals, the new ME05 are $199 and are available now through Master & Dynamic’s website, and coming to Amazon “this winter.”
Upgrades made to the new version of the ME05 include “custom high-excursion 8mm bio-cellulose drivers” and a better microphone with “with proprietary wind reduction” to improve the quality of your voice during calls, even while outside.
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Image: Master & Dynamic
An included USB-C to 3.5mm adapter serves as a digital to audio converter.
The new ME05 also offer improved compatibility, says Master & Dynamic, with the inclusion of a 3.5mm to USB-C adapter featuring a built-in digital to analog converter that supports hi-res audio up to 32-bit/384kHz resolutions. For comparison, Tidal’s hi-res streaming audio maxes out at 24-bit / 192 kHz.
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Image: Master & Dynamic
The new version of the ME05 come in four different color options.
The earphones come with foam ear tips in two sizes and silicone tips in five different sizes, and are available in four color options including gold and black, gunmetal and black, palladium and black, and palladium and white.
Although Master & Dynamic has focused on premium wireless headphone offerings in recent years (amongst other headphone makers), wired headphones, including Apple’s iconic tethered EarPods, still remain popular. But while Apple still sells wired earphones for $19, Master & Dynamic’s revived ME05 are priced more in line with wired offerings from companies like Shure and Sennheiser that are targeted at audiophiles or musicians.
It's Time To Go Fishing For Grapes In Disney Dreamlight Valley
Disney Dreamlight Valley initially launched with a smorgasbord of unique ingredients to find and harvest to make its many meals.Its collection has only grown in the years since its release. So it goes without saying that major expansions like The Storybook Vale are likely to offer up a ton of fresh stuff to discover…
Failed Party Shooter Foamstars Is Ending, But Getting A Better Death Than Concord
Foamstars was Final Fantasy maker Square Enix’s attempt at a live-service party game. The shooter took some inspiration from Splatoon but had its own twist on goo-based arena combat. Unfortunately, the finished game struggled to find an audience. Like Sony’s failed hero shooter Concord, it’s now being abandoned. Unlike…
Avian Flu Could Define Trump’s Second Presidency
The bird flu’s been around for decades. But this year, concerns have spiked after it jumped to humans and other mammals, leading to at least 58 confirmed cases in the United States among mostly farmworkers. Another, more obvious, cause for worry: The response to the prospective health crisis will soon be under the direction of […]
Why investors don’t mind that AI is a money pit
Image: The Verge
AI investment is massive even though AI profits are not. How are investors justifying this pricey gamble on the future?
Amazon’s Secret Level is a hollow anthology of video game cutscenes
Pac-Man. | Image: Amazon
Ever since it was announced, there has been some confusion over just what Secret Level actually is. The video game-themed anthology streaming on Prime Video — helmed by Love, Death & Robots creator Tim Miller — is a collection of animated shorts, each based on a different gaming property. So there’s a Mega Man episode that explores the character’s origin and a Spelunky episode that attempts to create a metanarrative around the concept of a roguelike.
It’s an interesting idea let down by a lack of interesting ideas. The 15 shorts are almost universally dull and manage to neither make their source material seem compelling nor provide new insights for existing fans. The real confusion is who this is actually for.
The main problem is how homogenous Secret Level is. Working directly with game publishers, the show pulls from an oddball but also impressively global list, with titles like Chinese megahit Honor of Kings and Korean shooter Crossfire. But despite featuring a large variety of video games, its episodes all feel very samey. It’s kind of the opposite of Love, Death & Robots, which featured a number of different styles and tones as it explored horror and sci-fi. That’s how we...
30 PlayStation 1 Games We'll Never Forget
The original PlayStation was never supposed to happen. Sony had intended to team up with Nintendo on a disc-based, next-gen successor to the SNES. Then the Mario maker decided to stick with cartridges at the last minute, completely changing the console gaming timeline in the process. A new machine was born, one that…
Waymo’s next robotaxi city will be Miami
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images
Waymo is making the moves on Magic City.
Alphabet’s robotaxi service said it would launch in Miami in 2026. The company has been testing its autonomous vehicles in the Florida city on-and-off since 2019, and more recently has begun to lay the groundwork in earnest.
Waymo plans to start “reacquainting” its autonomous Jaguar I-Pace vehicles to Miami’s streets in 2025. And in 2026, it expects to start making its vehicles available to riders through its Waymo One ridehail app.
Waymo plans to start “reacquainting” its autonomous Jaguar I-Pace vehicles to Miami’s streets in 2025
The vehicles will be maintained by a company called Moove, which provides fleet services, as well as a range of financial products for mobility companies. The African company (it has several offices in Nigeria) is backed by Uber and was recently valued at $750 million.
Moove will start out by taking over Waymo’s fleet management operations in Phoenix. That includes cleaning the vehicles, charging them, and making sure that the sensors are calibrated and unobstructed.
Waymo’s robotaxi business is slowly growing. It currently operates fleets of driverless cars in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Phoenix. It also plans to launch a robotaxi service in Atlanta in an exclusive partnership with Uber. Waymo said recently it crossed the threshold of providing 150,000 paid trips per week.
Miami once played host to Ford-backed ArgoAI’s autonomous vehicle testing, but the company shut down when Ford pulled its funding.
This new smart thermostat from Meross works with Matter
The Meross Matter Smart Thermostat is the company’s first thermostat compatible with North American heating and cooling systems. | Image: Meross
Smart home company Meross announced its first Matter-certified smart thermostat and its first to work with North American whole-home heating and cooling systems. The Meross Matter Smart Thermostat costs $99.99, works over Wi-Fi, and features a white glass panel with a touch screen, smart scheduling, and can track system usage through the Meross app.
The thermostat requires a C-Wire, and Meross says it’s compatible with 95 percent of heating and cooling systems. It also appears it will work with Meross’ smart temperature and humidity sensors, which are Matter-compatible. They cost $30 each, although you’ll need a Meross hub to use them.
Matter compatibility means the thermostat can integrate with platforms such as Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings locally over your Wi-Fi network without requiring a cloud connection. You should also be able to set up and use the thermostat directly on those platforms without requiring the Meross app.
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Image: Meross
The new smart thermostat from Meross can track the heating and cooling usage of your HVAC system.
Surprisingly, despite the popularity of smart thermostats — which take a lot of the pain out of programming your heating and cooling system and can use their smarts to help save you energy — there are only two Matter-compatible smart thermostats for US HVAC systems. Those are the Nest Thermostat ($129.99) and the new Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen) ($279.99) — both from Google. Other popular brands in the space, such as Ecobee, Amazon, and Honeywell Home, have not added Matter support to their thermostats.
This means that if you're interested in using a Matter device to control your HVAC, Meross’ new thermostat is now your least expensive option. While it doesn’t come with the Nest Thermostat’s smarts that will automatically adjust your schedule, it is the only thermostat with Matter-compatible room sensors. The Nest Learning Thermostat has room sensors, but they're not compatible with Matter.
One reason for the lack of support for more thermostats in Matter could be the limited controls Matter allows for. Currently, you can only adjust the temperature and change the mode on compatible platforms. However, the most recent spec release for Matter (1.4) added support for scheduling and preset modes such as home / away and vacation settings. This addition means that once a platform supports 1.4, it will be easier to set up and use a Matter smart thermostat directly in your smart home platform of choice and not need to use the manufacturer’s app.
The Meross Matter Smart Thermostat costs $99.99 and is available now, with a launch price of $69.99 from the Meross store.
Ikea’s smart lights can now automatically adjust throughout the day
Ikea has updated its smart home app to bring dynamic lighting to its smart lights. | Image: Ikea
Ikea updated its Home smart mobile app this week with a new dynamic lighting feature that will automatically adjust the color temperature and brightness of its smart lights throughout the day. It’s similar to the natural light scene that Philips Hue introduced in late 2022, and is designed to provide warmer illumination in the mornings and evenings, with cooler hues in the day time.
The new feature is mentioned in the version history notes of a recent update to the iOS version of the Ikea Home smart app, and is described as a way to “keep your home in balance” that’s “great for mind, body, and soul.” The Android version of Ikea’s app was updated on the same day, according to Notebookcheck, but there’s no mention of the new adaptive lighting feature there, only bug fixes and minor improvements.
Given the feature is specifically tied to Ikea’s Home smart app, it’s only compatible with lighting products that connect to Ikea’s Matter-ready Dirigera smart home hub that launched in the latter half of 2022. That includes products like its Sonos-compatible Symfonisk speaker lamp. However, it’s not known if the feature will work with third-party smart lights through Matter, and The Verge has reached out to Ikea to confirm if it’s compatible with the Adaptive Lighting feature in Apple’s Home app.
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
Israel is a genocidal regime, there is no credible argument otherwise.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/12/05/are-you-still-denying-that-israel-is-genocidal/
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Twos is a handy to-do list app with exactly the right amount of AI
A perfect example of the good and bad of Twos AI: paper towel prices are helpful, eBay listings, less helpful. | Image: Twos
A lot of AI tools promise something like magic. Just write down all the stuff you need to do, or better yet, just let the tool record every second of your life, and presto manifesto, it’ll do… something. Buy plane tickets, maybe, or magically reorder your calendar to maximize your flow state. The idea is huge and enticing, that you could just live your life and your AI assistant will make everything happen on your behalf. But hardly any of it works.
The developers of the app Twos are taking a much more cautious and, as a result, much more actually useful approach. Twos is an app for taking notes, managing to-dos, and generally making lists of any and every kind — Parker Klein, the app’s creator, just calls it “a place to write things down.” Klein has been working on the app for nearly a decade, first as a tool just for himself and most recently as a true startup. I’ve been using Twos off and on for a couple of years, and there’s a lot to like about the app.
The Twos AI approach, which Klein and cofounder Joe Steilberg call “smart suggestions,” is to use AI to help you simply take the first step in getting something done. If you write down the name of a movie, Twos might offer you a link to a JustWatch search or the IMDb page for that movie. If you write a person’s name and phone number, it can add them to your contacts with one tap. If you’re making a grocery list, it’ll send you to Amazon or Walmart or Instacart to buy it.
The logic behind all these suggestions is really simple: Twos looks for certain words and phrases to determine what you’re trying to do and which integration makes the most sense. (You can pick and choose, too — I never use Uber Eats, for instance, so I turned that off entirely.) All the smart suggestions really do is take the first step. They’re definitely not perfect — when I type “bake blueberry muffins,” it offers me an Allrecipes link, which is helpful and relevant, and a Google Maps search for “blueberry muffins around me,” which is not. But even in the feature’s early days, I’ve found it way more useful than almost every other, vastly more ambitious productivity tool.
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Image: Twos
Like any to-do list app worth its valuation, Twos now has an AI chatbot.
Twos also has a built-in chatbot, which you can use to ask questions about your notes. If you use your note-taking app like a journal, this can be really cool — “what was the name of that Thai food place we went to a few weeks ago?” is a surprisingly common question in my life. Lots of apps have something like this, and they all suffer from the same problem: if you don’t put everything in the app, the search isn’t that useful. But whether it’s Notion or Dropbox or Twos, the AI integrations reward the heaviest users.
AI turns Twos into not just my to-do list but the jumping-off point for all my tasks. Since the app works across platforms — it’s fundamentally a web app, but there are versions for Android and iOS, Windows and Mac, and more — it’s easy to just dump information into. Then, when it’s time to leave for the restaurant I wrote down and promptly forgot the name of, I open Twos, tap the sparkles that appear next to any item with a smart suggestion, and it opens Google Maps and directs me there. You can store and organize things inside of Twos, but I find myself using it transiently, just for the small things in day-to-day life. I need to make bread: click the sparkles, bread recipes appear. Remember to buy those Sesame Street bath toys for the kid: click the sparkles, Amazon search done. Ollie’s birthday is December 7th: click the sparkles, in my contacts.
For now, the Twos smart suggestions are only available in beta testing, and there’s a waitlist for new users. (Though Klein did tell me that if you sign up and use the code “Verge,” you’ll be able to skip the line.) Klein and Steilberg are working on more integrations and more ways to do even more with just a few words of your writing. They’re obviously enticed by how far this might go. Why not automatically buy the toys or start the grocery delivery and take a cut for themselves? It’s an age-old idea, that one. Any.do tried it years ago; there was even a frenzy of apps like Magic that would do it all via text message. Even the Alexa business model used to depend on you being willing to just shout “buy toilet paper” at your speaker and trust it to do the rest.
There’s just one problem with the idea: it doesn’t work. There are too many logistical questions, too many ways to screw it up, and too many consequences for getting it wrong that it’s not going to work anytime soon. If ever.
In the meantime, the best AI tools work the way Twos does: by just helping you get started. Some apps help you search for information even when you don’t know exactly how to ask for it; others write the first draft of code or an email to get you started. AI as a complete solution to just about anything still feels like fiction. AI as a first step? Pretty useful.
Add Some Personality To Your Pokémon TCG Pocket Experience By Unlocking More Profile Icons
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Oura’s smart rings can now tell when you’re getting sick
Symptom Radar flags when you have no signs, minor signs, or major signs of respiratory illness. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
At the height of the covid-19 pandemic, many wearable companies rushed to see if their devices could detect early signs of the disease. Now, four years later, Oura is officially launching a feature that can flag when you may be coming down with a respiratory illness.
Technically, Symptom Radar isn’t diagnostic in nature — though its development does have roots in Oura’s illness prediction research during the pandemic. It can’t tell you if you’re catching a cold or the flu versus covid-19. Instead, it’s more of an “illness warning light” that flags when your body is showing early signs that something’s up.
“What we saw through all of the research and science that we’ve done is that your physiology actually starts changing a day or two before you start feeling symptoms,” Shyamal Patel, Oura’s head of science, tells The Verge. From there, the idea is to take precautionary measures.
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Image: Oura
Symptom Radar is moving out of beta.
Essentially, Symptom Radar works by evaluating metrics like resting heart rate, heart rate variability, temperature trends, and breathing rate to detect significant changes from your long-term baselines. When users sync their data in the morning, they’ll be notified if no signs, minor signs, or major signs of strain related to respiratory symptoms have been identified. In the case of minor or major signs, the Oura app will encourage users to turn on Rest Mode and take steps to prioritize rest.
Symptom Radar was actually introduced as a beta feature in April through Oura’s recently launched Labs program for experimental features. Patel says that’s been a valuable part of developing the feature for prime time. On the one hand, the Oura team was able to develop a new algorithm based on a much bigger data set. Even so, Patel acknowledged that the algorithm isn’t 100 percent accurate and that false positives and negatives were possible; Oura didn’t provide specific accuracy data.
Beta users also noted that they actually wanted to be notified when symptoms weren’t detected. Given that, Patel says the official version of Symptom Radar will now include a historical graph so that people can see how their health is trending over time.
“It will also be interesting to see how [people] recover from [illnesses]. That’s where I see some interesting things that we could kind of evolve towards,” Patel says. He notes that aside from flagging illness, Symptom Radar could be a useful tool in helping people identify what factors help in recovering from illnesses faster.
Symptom Radar will be available to all Oura Ring Gen 3 and Oura Ring 4 users by Monday, December 9th.
Pantone's 2025 color is Mocha Mousse: How the company sold color to the world
Pantone isn't the only color system of its kind. But thanks to an innovative founder and savvy marketing, it's become the industry standard.
Rivian opens up its charging network to other EVs for the first time
Image: Rivian
Rivian’s latest EV charging station is the first to be open to other companies’ vehicles.
The new station located in California’s Joshua Tree National Park will be the companies’ first that’s available to non-Rivian electric vehicles. The station features a new design, including larger displays with a tap-to-pay option, that can accommodate any car brands’ EVs.
Currently, the Rivian Adventure Network, which comprises 560 chargers at 92 sites across the country, are exclusive to owners of the company’s R1T and R1S vehicles. This was a similar approach to Tesla, which initially built its own Supercharger network so it could offer exclusive charging to its own customers.
But with billions of dollars in federal funding at stake, automakers are now reassessing this exclusivity. One of the requirements for receiving federal funding for EV charging installation is that chargers need to be available to all EVs, not just a single brand.
Rivian Adventure Network comprises 560 chargers at 92 sites across the country
Tesla began opening its network to non-Tesla EVs in 2023. Soon after, it open-sourced its charging plug, renaming it the North American Charging Standard (NACS), and began making a series of deals with the rest of the auto industry (including Rivian) to use it for their EVs.
Rivian’s EV chargers use the standard CCS connector for DC fast charging. But the stations are still exclusive to Rivian vehicles thanks to proprietary software. With today’s announcement, the company is beginning the process of unwinding that exclusivity.
Rivian has also said that it would adopt Tesla’s NACS charging standard. Current Rivian customers can buy an adapter if they want to use the Supercharger network. In 2026, Rivian said it will begin producing vehicles with a native NACS port.
Rivian spokesperson Evan Barbour said that the company’s future EV charging sites will also be open to non-Rivian EVs. Rivian plans to open additional charging sites in Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Montana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New York before the end of 2024.
Meanwhile, current stations will be retrofitted with software updates to accommodate other brands, as well as hardware updates to add NACS charging plugs. In the meantime, the Joshua Tree location and others will be available to Tesla owners with NACS-to-CCS adapters.
EV ownership is currently a tangle of competing standards, subpar software experiences, and dueling payment apps. And while some customers admit that the EV charging experience is slowly improving, this next phase of adapters and formerly proprietary chargers going universal has really only just begun.
OpenAI strikes content deal with Tom’s Guide owner Future
Illustration: The Verge
OpenAI is partnering with Future, the publisher behind Tom’s Guide, PC Gamer, TechRadar, Marie Claire, and many other websites and magazines. The deal will give ChatGPT users access to news and lifestyle content from Future’s more than 200 media brands, while also displaying “attribution and links to the full original articles.”
This adds to the string of content licensing agreements OpenAI has made in recent months. In addition to The Verge’s parent company Vox Media, OpenAI has also struck deals with The Wall Street Journal owner News Corp, People publisher Dotdash Meredith, Politico parent Axel Springer, the Financial Times, and The Atlantic. However, some publishers, like The New York Times, The Intercept, and a group of Canadian outlets including the CBC, have sued OpenAI over allegations of copyright infringement.
OpenAI says its deal with Future builds on the company’s “existing deployment of OpenAI’s technology,” as it has already launched AI chatbots within Tom’s Hardware and Who What Wear. Future also plans to use OpenAI’s tech for sales, marketing, and editorial purposes.
“This partnership enables us to enhance the ChatGPT experience by providing more access to engaging, up to date, and reliable information from a range of specialist sources,” OpenAI chief operating officer Brad Lightcap said in the announcement. “Our goal is to help publishers and content creators both benefit from advanced AI technology and expand their reach.”
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
it is the time of year to confess & shed myself of sins:
I am a mass murderer.I let that poor yeast culture starve in the back of the fridge. an entire culture destroyed, en masse. 😿 so very sad.
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How one creator visualized AI by using very little AI
Photo: Stormy Pyeatte for The Verge
The artist behind The Verge’s ‘Friend or Faux?’ feature explains the practical effects behind its design.
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
Steal your art directly from the British Museum, rather than letting AI do it for you.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/12/05/who-needs-ai/
Attachments:
Syrian opposition forces enter strategic city of Hama
Syrian rebels have entered a second city in yet another blow to the President Bashar al-Assad after they took over Syria's second city only days before.
Syrian opposition forces enter the strategic city of Hama
Syrian rebels have entered another major city, in a further blow to President Bashar Assad after they took over Aleppo days earlier.
Why do kids with cancer in the Global South have such low survival rates?
In wealthy countries, a child diagnosed with cancer often has an excellent chance of survival. But in lower resource countries, survival rates are dramatically lower. What's going on?
Hegseth fights to keep Defense nomination. And, police search for gunman who shot CEO
President-elect Donald Trump's defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth is fighting to keep the nomination. And, a New York City manhunt is underway for the killer of UnitedHealthcare's CEO Brian Thompson.
Uber will deliver your Christmas tree — and even a troupe of carolers — to your front door
Uber is getting into the holiday spirit with a new update that will enable customers to order on-demand Christmas trees, and even a troupe of carolers, to their front door. The company is also rebranding its same-day delivery service as Uber Courier and expanding its feature that allows parents of small children to book a vehicle with a car seat.
Uber has offered limited Christmas tree delivery, off and on, since 2015 — usually through partnerships with local vendors. This year, the company is expanding the service nationwide. Customers can order a fresh-cut Christmas tree — or a selection of other holiday-themed decorations, including wreaths — through the Uber Eats app.
Not available nationwide is the company’s offer to send a group of singers to your home to serenade you with Christmas carols. That service will only be available to Uber customers in New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, and Washington, DC, starting on December 7th. The carolers will also bring you a boozy treat, courtesy of a partnership with alcohol provider Diageo.
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Holiday gimmicks aside, Uber is rebranding its same-day delivery service, Uber Connect, as Uber Courier. Deliveries can be scheduled ahead of time, and Uber offers live trip tracking as well as a PIN verification system to confirm receipt of the package.
And lastly, Uber is expanding its car seat offering to more cities, including Orlando, DC, Atlanta, Miami, and San Francisco. The service, which provides Nuna car seats to drivers, has been live in New York City and Los Angeles since 2023.
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
MicroSFF@mastodon.art ("Micro SF/F by O. Westin") wrote:
"I see you were fond of playing the Devil's Advocate," Saint Peter said.
"Er... The name isn't really..."
"No, I know. 'Devil's Advocate' is a specific job, and that is allowed."
"So I'm good?"
"No, because you weren't doing that specific job, you were just being a dick online."
Build a SolidJS app with Deno
Learn how to build a simple SolidJS application with Deno.
How sweet! A daily dose of dark chocolate may cut your risk of diabetes
A new study finds people who eat a small, daily serving of dark chocolate have a reduced risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. People who ate milk chocolate did not have a lower risk. Here's why.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy take their DOGE government efficiency pitch to the Hill
The leaders of the so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" are calling for large-scale layoffs of federal workers and the elimination of some federal agencies during Trump's second term.
Trump’s Climate and Abortion Policies Have Americans Flocking for Vasectomies
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Chris Peterson wasn’t surprised that Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. But he was surprised by how quickly he and his wife started asking one another: Should we try to have another baby before a possible nationwide abortion ban takes effect? […]
Cradle and All
Daniel Espinoza first saw his future wife from across the room at a dim Las Vegas casino. It was New Year’s Eve 2014, and a beautiful woman with big brown eyes and dirty-blond hair was playing slots. Espinoza, a construction worker and party boy who was about to turn 30, sat down next to her. […]
Vodafone and Three clear to merge and form the UK’s biggest mobile operator
Image: Getty
Vodafone and Three have been cleared to create the UK’s biggest mobile operator after committing to address concerns around network upgrades and price hikes. The proposed £16.5 billion merger (about $20.9 billion) was approved by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Thursday following months of regulatory scrutiny, and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025.
“Having carefully considered the evidence, as well as the extensive feedback we have received, we believe the merger is likely to boost competition in the UK mobile sector and should be allowed to proceed – but only if Vodafone and Three agree to implement our proposed measures,” Stuart McIntosh, chair of the inquiry group leading the antitrust investigation, said in a statement.
The approval was subject to both companies signing binding commitments to invest billions into expanding their combined 5G network over the next eight years. The agreement also requires the new entity to cap some mobile tariffs and offer preset contractual terms to mobile virtual network operators for three years, addressing previous CMA concerns that the merger could harm competition and lead to higher prices for customers.
“Today’s approval releases the handbrake on the UK’s telecoms industry, and the increased investment will power the UK to the forefront of European telecommunications,” Vodafone CEO Margherita Della Valle said in a statement.
The plan to combine two of the country’s top four mobile operators was first announced in 2023, and will create a network with 27 million customers once complete. Vodafone will own 51 percent of the merged entity, and is expected to buy out the remaining 49 percent after three years. The deal follows similar large-scale mergers between companies like Orange and T-Mobile in 2010, and Virgin Mobile and O2 in 2021.
rust@social.rust-lang.org ("Rust Language") wrote:
Time for the annual State of Rust Survey! 📝✨
Whether you've just begun using Rust, are an experienced Rust user, stopped using Rust, or might use Rust in the future, we'd like to hear from you!
Available in seven languages and open until December 23rd:
https://blog.rust-lang.org/2024/12/05/annual-survey-2024-launch.html
An unknown infant was rushed to a Gaza hospital. A nurse gave her a name, and a home
The newborn, found by rescuers after an Israeli attack, was rushed to a hospital. Nurse Amal Abu Khatleh gave her the name Malak, meaning angel. She is raising the baby until relatives can be found.
Long before this week, South Korea had a painful history with martial law
In 1980, violent clashes between government forces and pro-democracy demonstrators in the southwestern city of Gwangju created lasting scars that continue to shape South Korea to this day.
The best games of 2024, picked by NPR's staff
NPR staff and contributors share their favorite video games of 2024 so far.
The right (and wrong) things to say to a grieving friend
It can be hard to find the right words to say to a friend whose loved one has died. Experts share the dos and don'ts of expressing condolences.
How a staffing shortage can make special education jobs more dangerous
Special educators are more likely to experience violence or aggression from students. That can make hiring a challenge, at a time when schools nationwide are struggling to fill these positions.
The Black Gate: Vanished in the Night
In the Xinjiang region of western China, the government has rounded up and detained hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups, including the wife and young children of a Uyghur businessman named Abdullatif Kucar. NPR correspondent Emilly Feng follows Kucar as he desperately searches for his missing family. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Mexican troops seize a record fentanyl haul in northern Sinaloa state
Mexican soldiers and marines have seized over a ton of fentanyl pills in two raids in the north, with officials calling it the biggest catch of the synthetic opioid in the country's history.
Legendary Medellin cartel drug lord released from U.S. prison after serving 25 years
One of Colombia's legendary drug lords has been released from prison and is expected to be deported. Ochoa was first indicted in the U.S. for his alleged role in the 1986 killing of a DEA informant.
A major power plant fails in Cuba, plunging the island into darkness — again
The blackout, on Wednesday, affected the entire nation, leaving millions without electricity and forcing authorities to suspend classes and work activities indefinitely.
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats - POLITICO Magazine (2014):
"And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last."
A decade later, the rich decided to instead build bunkers. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014/
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
ieure@retro.social ("egregious philbin") wrote:
Hardware that promotes good posture: ergonomic
Software that provokes bad attitudes: aggronomic
Reblogged by kornel ("Kornel"):
MostlyHarmless@thecanadian.social wrote:
Mechanically impossible yet highly accurate.
Attachments:
Bitcoin just hit $100,000
Nick Barclay / The Verge
Bitcoin has passed $100,000, marking its highest price since the cryptocurrency launched more than a decade ago, and as of this writing, it has reached $103,359.00, according to Kraken. Despite its triumphs, Bitcoin’s value is still being measured in USD, emerging as an alternate payment option or investment rather than a replacement for fiat currency.
The price of Bitcoin spiked following the news that Donald Trump won the 2024 US Presidential Election. Bitcoin sat around $69,000 on Election Day but later shot to $75,000 following the news that Trump won, according to data from CoinDesk. Its price has been rising since, as investors expect a more crypto-friendly environment under the Trump administration.
Trump, who has launched his own cryptocurrency platform, has promised to hold onto the Bitcoin owned by the federal government while also vowing to fire Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler, who has fought to regulate crypto firms. Gensler later announced that he would step down from the position in January.
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Image: Dune Analytics
The final push past the $100k mark occurred a few hours after Trump announced several nominations for his administration, which included adding former Republican Securities and Exchange Commissioner Paul Atkins as his pick to lead the agency. Atkins has served as co-chair of the Chamber of Digital Commerce’s Token Alliance, and Trump said he “recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.”
Other factors contributed to the Bitcoin spike as well, including the start of options trading on Blackrock’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, which saw $1.9 billion traded during its first day.
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
yes, I am a Zappatista
the world is a dimmer place without ya, Frank
https://music.apple.com/us/album/inca-roads/1440928474?i=1440928876
As the Supreme Court Weighs Trans Care for Minors, Adults Are in the Crosshairs
After the Supreme Court ruled nine years ago that the Constitution protected same-sex marriage, far-right groups, in need of a new rallying cry, turned their attention to transgender people—in particular, kids. That strategic shift has met with devastating success: In recent years, 24 states have made it illegal for doctors to provide trans youth with […]
Bitcoin hits $100,000 for the first time. 3 things to know about an incredible ride
From how it got here to why critics are alarmed, here's what to know about the spectacular milestone for bitcoin.
QasimRashid ("Qasim Rashid, Esq.") wrote:
While making tens of billions in profit, UnitedHealth fired its intake team & enacted faulty AI tech to process claims. It rejected more than 90% of claims for senior citizens, resulting in several deaths b/c elders didn't get the critical meds they needed.
Just thought I'd share for no reason.
Humane wants to put the AI Pin’s software inside your phone, car, and smart speaker
Image: Humane
Humane, which makes the not-great AI Pin, wants other companies to build AI devices and gadgets that use its CosmOS operating system, and it has released a video that appears to show that the company already has it working in a car, TV, smart speaker, and phone.
But note that the video, according to Humane’s own fine print, is for “illustrative purposes only” — it shows “working prototypes” and some “simulated experiences,” and the print says that all “designs, features, and specifications” are subject to change. So don’t take it entirely at face value.
In one example, the video shows a person talking to CosmOS in their car (with a blurred out logo on the steering wheel) to turn the heat up at their house and figure out what time people are coming over. They ask their (blurred out) smart speaker about a guacamole recipe, and their TV about how many goals a soccer player onscreen has scored. The video also shows CosmOS reading an email on the person’s phone and responding to a question about whether the person can attend a meeting.
If you’ve been following recent AI hype, especially around agents, none of these examples should feel particularly novel — Humane wants to demonstrate that CosmOS is capable of powerful agent-like capabilities, and for companies to consider it as a possible backbone for their devices. But the items in this video aren’t Humane’s own products, and Humane clearly isn’t promising to make them. It’s building an SDK for others to do so.
That CosmOS SDK isn’t available publicly yet — the company’s website only says that it’s “coming soon,” though you can click a button to “sign up to build with us,” which takes you to a form to fill out. Humane doesn’t mention any partners building devices that rely on CosmOS — the blurred-out logos on the car and smart speaker suggest the company may have not gotten that far yet. We’ve asked Humane if it can share any examples.
Humane may be looking for a new line of business after the AI Pin flopped; we reported in August that daily returns of the device were outpacing sales. The product initially launched in April, but the company dropped the price of the Pin just six months later. Earlier this year, Humane was reportedly looking for a buyer, with HP at one point being a contender.
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
Defiance@sfba.social ("Defiance!") wrote:
Neo Boys - “Under Control” (1982)
One of the best bands from the early 80s underground scene of Portland, Oregon. They were an all female group featuring two teenage sisters on vocals and bass.
They were active from 1978-1983 and released very few recordings during this time. But a retrospective compilation album released by the always awesome K Records in 2013 brings together all their official releases, and a ton more demos, outtakes, etc. I like that this anthology comp is arranged chronologically, since their sound evolved / improved over their five year existence.
This track is from around 1982 and is one of my favorites.
Launching the 2024 State of Rust Survey
It’s time for the 2024 State of Rust Survey!
Since 2016, the Rust Project has collected valuable information and feedback from the Rust programming language community through our annual State of Rust Survey. This tool allows us to more deeply understand how the Rust Project is performing, how we can better serve the global Rust community, and who our community is composed of.
Like last year, the 2024 State of Rust Survey will likely take you between 10 and 25 minutes, and responses are anonymous. We will accept submissions until Monday, December 23rd, 2024. Trends and key insights will be shared on blog.rust-lang.org as soon as possible.
We invite you to take this year’s survey whether you have just begun using Rust, you consider yourself an intermediate to advanced user, or you have not yet used Rust but intend to one day. Your responses will help us improve Rust over time by shedding light on gaps to fill in the community and development priorities, and more.
Once again, we are offering the State of Rust Survey in the following languages (if you speak multiple languages, please pick one). Language options are available on the main survey page:
- English
- Simplified Chinese
- French
- German
- Japanese
- Russian
- Spanish
Note: the non-English translations of the survey are provided in a best-effort manner. If you find any issues with the translations, we would be glad if you could send us a pull request to improve the quality of the translations!
Please help us spread the word by sharing the survey link via your social media networks, at meetups, with colleagues, and in any other community that makes sense to you.
This survey would not be possible without the time, resources, and attention of members of the Survey Working Group, the Rust Foundation, and other collaborators. We would also like to thank the following contributors who helped with translating the survey (in no particular order):
- @albertlarsan68
- @GuillaumeGomez
- @Urgau
- @Jieyou Xu
- @llogiq
- @avrong
- @YohDeadfall
- @tanakakz
- @ZuseZ4
- @igaray
Thank you!
If you have any questions, please see our frequently asked questions.
We appreciate your participation!
Click here to read a summary of last year's survey findings.
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
gsuberland@chaos.social ("Graham Sutherland / Polynomial") wrote:
and now, a tribute to Darude - Sandstorm