Elon Musk defends his title as ‘technoking’ of Tesla, but not Twitter CEO

Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge

Apparently, Elon Musk doesn’t want to be CEO of any company.

Or so he claimed in testimony at a trial Wednesday challenging his giant compensation package at Tesla. Musk, who is the CEO of multiple companies, including most recently, Twitter, was answering questions from lawyers representing Tesla when he made the offhand comment.

“I frankly don’t want to be the CEO of any company,” he said.

“I frankly don’t want to be the CEO of any company”

The trial, which kicked off Monday, is focused on whether Tesla’s board acted appropriately when it approved a pay package for Musk that is now worth about $52 billion at recent share prices and whether Musk had any undue influence over that decision.

But Musk’s testimony also stretched into...

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Evernote’s getting acquired by mobile developer Bending Spoons

Image: Evernote

Evernote is getting a new owner. In an announcement on Wednesday, the note-taking app announced that it’s getting acquired by the Italian mobile developer Bending Spoons in a transaction that’s set to take place early next year.

As part of the acquisition, Evernote will join Bending Spoons’ existing lineup of apps, which includes the video editing app Splice and the AI image enhancement app Remini. Evernote CEO Ian Small says the deal will let the company take advantage of Bending Spoons’ “proven app expertise and wide range of proprietary technologies” so it can work on building new features.

“We are grateful to our customers and employees, and are excited to team-up with Bending Spoons,” Small said in a statement. “This strategic...

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Giving a bat flowers might preempt a pandemic

A black flying fox (Pteropus alecto) takes flight in an urban flying fox roost in Queensland, Australia. | Image: Pat Jones

Stressed, hungry bat populations are linked to growing cases of an emerging zoonotic disease in Australia, new research finds. The bats have learned to adapt to more persistent food shortages by roosting closer to humans. That raises the risk of the potentially fatal Hendra virus jumping from bats to horses to people, according to a study published today in the journal Nature.

“We want to be able to keep the reservoir hosts [aka bats] happy”

Nevertheless, the research tells a story about why it’s important to protect bats that have gained a somewhat unfair bad rap for exposing humans to new kinds of viruses. At the end of the day, we actually influence each other’s ability to live in a healthy environment.It’s part of a concept called “O...

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Apple and Major League Soccer will launch their soccer streaming service on February 1st

MLS Season Pass is coming soon. | Image: Apple

Apple and Major League Soccer will launch their dedicated soccer streaming service, MLS Season Pass, on February 1st, 2023, Apple announced on Wednesday. The service will cost $14.99 per month during the season or $99 for an entire season, and if you have an Apple TV Plus subscription, you can get it for cheaper at $12.99 per month or $79 per season.

With MLS Season Pass, you can watch every live regular season match, all of the playoffs, and the Leagues Cup with no blackouts. The service will also offer an “exclusive live match whip-around show” that sounds a lot like NFL’s RedZone: the idea is that fans will “fans never miss an exciting goal or save,” and it will also feature “game replays, highlights, and analysis.” You’ll be able to...

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Google Fi’s throwing in a free year of YouTube Premium for Unlimited Plus subscribers

Illustration: The Verge

If you’re subscribed to Google Fi’s Unlimited Plus plan, you can now enjoy an extra perk in addition to unlimited data: one year free of YouTube Premium.

Starting today, new and existing members enrolled in Google Fi’s premium plan won’t have to pay the $119.99 annual fee for one year of the increasingly popular service, Patrick Seybold, Google’s global PR lead for Stadia, AR and Project Starline, told The Verge in an email.

Even better? You won’t have to share the service with others if you opt for the family plan either, as each person will get their own YouTube Premium subscription.

“Wireless consumers are increasingly opting for unlimited plans to fuel growing appetites for media, games, and other high-bandwidth applications...

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Ubisoft and Riot Games are working together to combat toxic chats

Promotional art for League of Legends_._ | Image: Riot Games

Ubisoft and Riot Games are teaming up on a new research project that’s intended to reduce toxic in-game chats.

The new project, called “Zero Harm in Comms,” will be broken up into two main phases. For the first phase, Ubisoft and Riot will try to create a framework that lets them share, collect, and tag data in a privacy-protecting way. It’s a critical first step to ensure that the companies aren’t keeping data that contains personally identifiable information, and if Ubisoft and Riot find they can’t do it, “the project stops,” Yves Jacquier, executive director at Ubisoft La Forge, said in an interview with The Verge.

Once that privacy-protecting framework is established, Ubisoft and Riot plan to build tools that use AI trained by the...

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Amazon confirms cuts to hardware and services teams

“Some roles will no longer be required.” | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Amazon is cutting jobs in its devices and services division, SVP Dave Limp said in an email to employees on Wednesday.

“After a deep set of reviews, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programs,” Limp wrote. “One of the consequences of these decisions is that some roles will no longer be required.” Amazon will provide support for those affected by the cuts, and if somebody can’t find a new role internally, the company will provide a severance package with “a separation payment, transitional benefits, and external job placement support,” according to Limp.

In an email to The Verge, Amazon spokesperson Kristy Schmidt didn’t share exactly how many people would be impact but did say the changes will affect a very small...

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The best smart locks you can buy right now

Illustration: The Verge

Never get locked out again with a smart lock you can control from your phone, with your voice, or with just a touch of your finger

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Fire Emblem Engage’s story trailer introduces heroes old and new

Image: Nintendo

After the disappointment of Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, I could not be more excited to engage (heh) with the next installment in the Fire Emblem series. This morning, Nintendo revealed the newest trailer for Fire Emblem Engage, sharing more of the story fans can expect when the game launches early next year.

In the story trailer, we were reintroduced to Alear, the protagonist whose entire aesthetic is reminiscent of the striped toothpastes of yesteryear. (In fact, the fandom has already dubbed them with the nickname Toothpaste-chan.) After a long slumber, Alear awakens to the world of Elyos, which has its long years of peace threatened by the return of the villainous Fell Dragon. To aid Alear in the fight, they’re given the task...

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Nostalgia is at the core of Pokémon, even as it moves into the future

The Pokémon: Art Through the Ages exhibition at The Trafford Centre in Manchester. | Photo: Jay Castello

No matter where the series goes, much of its appeal lies in the past, and that tension was on display at a recent exhibition in Manchester.

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Meta’s Oversight Board says Facebook should change the rules for wartime posts

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

The Meta Oversight Board has overturned a Facebook moderation decision about a post comparing Russian soldiers to Nazis, saying Meta should take special care with moderation during an “unlawful military intervention.”

The semi-independent board’s decision, published today, involves a Facebook post published by a Latvian user. The post shows an image of a person killed in Bucha, Ukraine, paired with Russian text saying Russia’s army “became fascist.” (Notably, the picture does not depict violent wounds and thus would not normally trigger policies on graphic content.) The post ends with a 1940s Soviet poem including the lines “kill the fascist... Kill him! Kill him! Kill!”

Meta removed the post for violating its hate speech guidelines but...

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The 20-year boondoggle

Just a week after 9/11, while the country was still reeling, a series of letters began arriving at news organizations and Senate offices. The envelopes were innocuous, indistinguishable from other mail, but inside was a white powder, a rare bacteria that can be fatal if inhaled — anthrax. Five people died, and 17 were sickened in one of the most deadly biological attacks in US history. Yet anthrax had the potential to inflict far more harm: if the spores had been released from a rooftop in downtown Washington, DC, it might have infected hundreds of thousands of people. One letter included the message, “DEATH TO AMERICA,” perhaps indicating more to come. But how could we plan for a silent, odorless killer?

Responding to the universe of...

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Samsung’s 2021 smart TVs are getting Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce Now apps

Image: Samsung

Samsung is expanding access on its older smart TVs to Xbox Cloud Gaming, Nvidia’s GeForce Now, and other game streaming services. Starting today and rolling out through the end of the year, apps for Xbox Cloud Gaming, Amazon Luna, GeForce Now, and Utomik will be available on select 2021 Samsung smart TVs.

Samsung originally launched a gaming TV hub for its 2022 smart TVs and monitors earlier this year that included access to Xbox Cloud Gaming, Stadia, and GeForce Now. “When Samsung Gaming Hub rolled out earlier this year on 2022 TV models, the number one question we received was ‘when is cloud gaming coming to my 2021 TV?’ Today we’re happy to share with our eager fans that they’ll be able to play the games they love before the end of...

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Major crypto brokerage Genesis suspends withdrawals in wake of FTX collapse

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The lending arm of the cryptocurrency brokerage Genesis is suspending redemptions and new loan originations as it deals with a wave of withdrawals following the fall of FTX. In a statement on Twitter, Genesis says the “abnormal withdrawal requests” have exceeded its “current liquidity.”

FTX, which was once the third biggest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, filed for bankruptcy last week, causing panic to ripple through the crypto community as investors pull their funds from other exchanges in fear that they might suffer the same fate. This influx of withdrawals hit Genesis as well, which revealed last week that it has $175 million locked up in FTX.

However, FTX has created unprecedented market turmoil, resulting in abnormal...

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Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro are $20 off at multiple retailers

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

They might look exactly like the first-gen model, but Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro sound better and have noticeably improved active noise cancellation. In short, they’re the ones you should get if you’re in the market for AirPods. And right now, Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart have them available with a small $20 off discount. At $229, this is as good as it gets for now. It’s anyone’s guess if Black Friday and Cyber Monday will bring a better price.

Beyond the audio improvements that I already mentioned, it’s possible to adjust the volume by touching the earbuds (you’d be surprised how many wireless earbuds don’t let you do this!). The charging case included with this newer AirPods Pro model got a few upgrades, too. It has a built-in...

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Microsoft Surface Pro 9 (SQ3) review: Windows on Arm is not ready

Exceptional hardware is still marred by incompatibilities

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The Verge’s favorite holiday gifts under $50

Photography by Joel Goldberg for The Verge

Great gifts don’t always command a high price tag. If you’re looking to limit your spending this holiday season, we’ve mustered a selection of affordable picks suited for everyone on your list.

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Amazon Alexa Voice Remote Pro review: the best clicker for your Fire TV

With perks like customizable buttons, backlighting, and a new remote finder feature, Amazon’s $35 remote is worth the upgrade for Fire TV owners.

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Waabi announces ‘plug-and-play’ autonomous trucking solution

Image: Waabi

Waabi, the autonomous vehicle startup founded by former chief scientist at Uber’s Advanced Technology Group Raquel Urtasun, announced a new turnkey solution for semi truck manufacturers who want to transform their big rigs into robot trucks.

The product, which is called Waabi Driver, is intended as a full-stack autonomy solution for semi truck OEMs to integrate into their vehicles during the manufacturing process. “It’s very plug-and-play, very sleek, and you know, very lightweight,” Urtasun said in an interview last week, “so that it can be built or directly integrated into the assembly line for OEM integration.”

When it first launched last year, Urtasun said that Waabi’s approach will be to focus on trucking using its proprietary...

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Microsoft Teams now has Solitaire and Minesweeper in a games for work push

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is adding a bunch of casual games to Microsoft Teams today, months after The Verge exclusively revealed the company’s plans. Favorites like Solitaire, Minesweeper, Wordament, and IceBreakers are all now part of Teams, allowing co-workers to play against each other during Teams meetings.

All four games are interactive and support multiple players and have been developed by Microsoft Casual Games — part of Xbox Game Studios. The games are available in a new Games for Work app in Microsoft Teams and range from supporting two players all the way up to 250.

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft Minesweeper is 30 years old.

Solitaire has a head-to-head competition mode for perhaps challenging your boss during those...

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Backbone’s excellent phone controller is now shipping for Android

It’s the same controller, but with USB-C ports. | Backbone

The Backbone One mobile gaming controller is now shipping for Android. There isn’t much that’s different from the iOS version that launched in 2020; it’s $99.99, the Lightning ports have been swapped for USB-C ports, and it has a polished, feature-packed companion app that makes gaming on your phone feel like you’re using a console. Inserting your phone will allow you to play native Android games, as well as cloud-based titles from Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now.

Backbone says that the One should work with most Android phones, assuming that yours has a USB-C port and is running Android 8.0 or higher. The company mentions the Google Pixel 7 and Samsung Galaxy S22 lineups as being compatible, though its product page lists phones...

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The unbearable lightness of BuzzFeed

Illustration by Daniel Jurman for The Verge

BuzzFeed built a digital media empire in part by aggregating viral content from social media. A decade later, what’s next?

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Notion is using AI to automatically write your blog posts, job descriptions, and poetry

Notion’s AI turns your prompt into blog posts, poems, to-do lists, and brainstorms. | Image: Notion / David Pierce

Someday soon, Notion will be able to write your notes for you. The company is starting to test a new feature today called Notion AI, which Notion CEO Ivan Zhao tells me could ultimately change the way people use the app — and do their jobs. With Notion AI, all you have to do is tell the app what you want (a blog post, a recruiting email template, a list of great business books to read), and the app actually creates the content right in front of your eyes.

The first thing Notion AI is for, Zhao says, is writing. Lots of work requires writing, some of it repetitive (like creating new job descriptions) and some of it creative (like writing blog posts or brainstorming new ideas). Zhao thinks Notion AI can help in both cases. “For many users...

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Tapo takes on Arlo, Eufy with a low-cost smart security camera system

The Tapo C420S2 smart security camera has AI detection, 2K video resolution, and the option of local storage. | Image: TP-Link

Tapo, TP-Link’s other smart home brand, has a new security camera. The Tapo Smart Wire-Free Security Camera System (Tapo C420S2) is an impressively inexpensive setup that includes two indoor/outdoor cameras and a hub for $200. The wireless cameras feature video resolution up to 2K, six months of battery life, full-color night vision, AI detection, and have a spotlight and siren built in.

TP-Link’s original smart home brand, Kasa (which is its fewer-frills, more budget range), has even less expensive outdoor cameras, but those work solely over Wi-Fi. The difference here is that the Tapo C420S2 cameras use a proprietary, low-power wireless protocol to communicate with the hub, which helps improve connectivity and lengthen battery life....

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Where to buy Nvidia’s RTX 4080 GPU

Just like the 30-series, the RTX 4080 is likely to sell out fast. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

I still get flashbacks of the nightmarish launch of Nvidia’s 30-series graphics cards, with stock selling out faster than you could enter your credit card info. The cards were getting gobbled up by bots and crypto miners, leaving many gamers stuck with the option of buying them secondhand at a ridiculous markup.

Hopefully, some retailers have learned from their mistakes and can provide a more streamlined experience because Nvidia’s 40-series graphics cards are here, and while the cost of admission is high, with the Founders Edition of the RTX 4080 going for $1,199.99, that won’t be enough to dissuade PC gamers hungry to be on the bleeding edge of performance.

Nvidia’s new card officially goes on sale at 9AM ET today, and while Newegg...

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DuckDuckGo’s App Tracking Protection beta is now available to all Android users

DuckDuckGo’s new App Tracking Protection tool aims to prevent apps from tracking Android users and then selling the collected data. | Image: DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo’s App Tracking Protection is now available for public beta testing on all Android devices after launching in a limited beta almost one year ago.

App Tracking Protection for Android is a free feature from the privacy-focused company that blocks third-party trackers within apps, even when said apps aren’t actively being used. When enabled in DuckDuckGo’s browser, it detects when apps are about to send data to a list of third-party tracking companies on DuckDuckGo’s publicly available blocklist and then blocks most of those data requests. It all happens on the device without routing your data through DuckDuckGo’s servers.

Image: DuckDuckGo

With the App Tracking Protection “Activity Report,” you can see...

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Elon Musk demands Twitter employees commit to ‘extremely hardcore’ culture or leave

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Elon Musk gave Twitter employees an ultimatum in a midnight email: commit to a “hardcore” culture at Twitter or leave with severance. The Washington Post reports that Musk has asked Twitter employees to sign an online form by 5PM ET today committing to “long hours at high intensity.” If Twitter employees refuse to sign the form then they will reportedly receive three months of severance pay.

Former Uber engineer Gergely Orosz, who has been reporting on Twitter’s internal changes this week, says Musk’s email outlines a “Twitter 2.0” that will be driven by engineers with “those writing great code” taking a more important role inside the company.

Scoop: Elon Musk just sent an email to all staff outlining "Twitter 2.0", writing it...

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NASA’s Artemis 1 mission is finally headed towards the Moon

NASA’s SLS takes off on its first flight. | NASA

With a roar that lit up the night sky, NASA sent its colossal next-generation rocket soaring into space for the first time on Wednesday. The Space Launch System rocket, or SLS, took off at 1:47AM ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida, signaling the start of a bold new era for the US government’s space program.

It also marks a major success for NASA’s Artemis program to return to the Moon, which has been plagued by years of delays, development mishaps, and billions of dollars in budget overruns. During the past few months both hurricanes and technical difficulties caused launch delays — including two scrubs. Then, tonight, engineers managed to fix both an intermittent hydrogen leak and a “bad ethernet switch” in the hours just before launch.

...

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Apple is reportedly looking to buy chips from US and European fabs

Arizona is getting a few new fabs within the next two years. | Nick Barclay / The Verge

Apple is reportedly planning to start buying chips made in the US and Europe, according to a report from Bloomberg that cites comments made by Tim Cook at an internal meeting. Apple has “already made a decision to be buying out of a plant in Arizona” that’s due to begin production in 2024, meaning that the company could start using those chips in around two years, according to the reported comments from Cook. He also said that Apple hopes to “source from Europe as those plans become more apparent.”

Apple’s custom-designed chips, such as the M2 chip that powers its newest MacBooks and the iPhone’s A-series processors, are mainly produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC. As the company’s name implies, most of its...

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Microsoft will amp up its anti-harassment rules after investigation following Gates affair

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft’s adjusting its sexual harassment policies in response to findings from ArentFox Schiff, the law firm it hired to evaluate the company’s practices over concerns about sexual misconduct and discrimination in the workplace. The 50-page report lays out a series of recommendations that Microsoft will implement by June 30th, 2023, with some coming into force earlier than that.

In a post on the Microsoft blog, the company’s response commits to publishing an annual report on the company’s sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies, which will include the number of reported incidents and the actions taken as a result. It also aims to revise its anti-harassment and discrimination policy, as well as revamp the way it conducts...

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