Tesla Cybertruck mass production won’t start until 2024

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge

Tesla’s long-anticipated Cybertruck won’t be seeing full volume production until 2024, Elon Musk said during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call today.

During the call, Musk was asked whether the forthcoming vehicle would meet a mid-2023 production target that was set in Q2 last year. Musk cagily confirmed that Cybertruck manufacturing would start “sometime this summer,” but concluded that mass production of the polarizing pickup won’t start until next year. “I always try to downplay the start of production,” Musk said. “It increases exponentially, but it is very slow at first.”

Cybertruck was originally announced in 2019 to widespread interest, but has seen its production delayed several times. Pre-production was originally...

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Elon Musk thinks Twitter is real life

Laura Normand / The Verge

This should come as no surprise, but Elon Musk doesn’t see a downside to being extremely online.

Asked whether his recent tweets — spreading tawdry conspiracy theories about the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, embracing COVID misinformation, mocking trans people, making groan-inducing, jokes, and exposing himself as a right-wing troll — has harmed Tesla’s brand image, Musk responded with characteristic mocking defiance.

Okay, so I’ve got 127 million followers and it continues to grow very rapidly

“Let me check my Twitter account,” he said in a Tesla earnings call Wednesday evening. “Okay, so I’ve got 127 million followers and it continues to grow very rapidly.”

Apparently the steady growth of his own Twitter presence is all the...

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Elon Musk testified it’s ‘easy’ to raise money, so where are his Twitter investors?

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Photo: Getty Images

Elon Musk is trying to cut back on costly unsecured loans tied to his $44 billion Twitter purchase by selling $3 billion worth of Twitter shares, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. But despite what Musk has said recently about his “track record” of raising money, the paper claims investors aren’t immediately getting in line to grab the pieces of Twitter he’s offering.

Sources tell the WSJ that in December, the billionaire’s team sent out emails to potential investors trying to raise $3 billion to pay off “an unsecured portion” of Twitter’s $13 billion debt with the highest interest rate. The WSJ reports some backers “balked at the terms” due to the state of Twitter’s finances but also notes it couldn’t determine the...

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Joe Manchin is trying to derail the EV tax credit he helped craft

Photo by: William B. Plowman / NBC via Getty Images

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (D) introduced a new bill that would halt the current electric vehicle tax credit until strict new battery requirements are put in place. It’s the latest move by the conservative Democrat to limit the government’s ability to incentivize car buyers to shift to less polluting vehicles.

Manchin, who had a hand last year in crafting the EV tax credit that was included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), placed the blame on the Internal Revenue Service for blowing past its December 31st, 2022 deadline to release guidance on the battery requirements.

Under the IRA, only electric vehicles with battery materials sourced from the US and its approved trading partners would qualify for the $7,500 credit. The...

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Meta allows Trump back on Facebook and Instagram

Photo by Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Meta announced Wednesday that it will allow former President Donald Trump back on Facebook and Instagram two years after his initial suspension.

In a Wednesday blog post, Meta announced that it would reinstate Trump’s accounts sometime over the next few weeks. If Trump once again violates Meta’s content policies, the company said that his accounts would be subject to additional suspensions, ranging from one month to two years, “depending on the severity of the violation.”

“As a general rule, we don’t want to get in the way of open, public and democratic debate on Meta’s platforms – especially in the context of elections in democratic societies like the United States,” Clegg said in Wednesday’s blog post. “The public should be able to...

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Elon Musk’s Twitter is caving to government censorship, just like he promised

Prime Minister Narendra Modi | Getty Images

Tech companies — including Twitter — are following the Indian government’s demands to suppress a BBC documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As reported by The Intercept and TechCrunch, Twitter and YouTube both locally blocked The Modi Question, which investigates claims of Modi’s involvement in India’s deadly 2002 Gujarat riots. It’s one of Twitter’s first tangles with India under the ownership of billionaire Elon Musk, but contrary to some writing, the documentary’s ban isn’t an example of Musk violating a vocal “free speech absolutist” ethos. It’s a reminder that Musk has always been fine with government censorship.

Over the weekend, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting senior advisor Kanchan Gupta tweeted that both...

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Tesla made more money in 2022 than ever before, but its future still looks rocky

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amid flagging demand, steep price cuts, and ongoing drama surrounding Elon Musk’s stewardship of Twitter, Tesla published its fourth quarter earnings report in which the company said it earned $3.7 billion in net income on $24.3 billion in revenue. That represents a 59 percent increase year over year compared to $2.8 billion in revenue in Q4 2021.

It was also Tesla’s third year ending in the black, with $14.1 billion in net income for 2022, compared to $5.5 billion in profit in 2021 and a mere $721 million in 2020. Tesla turned that profit on over $81.5 billion in revenue.

It was also Tesla’s third year ending in the black

The earnings come on the heels of a production and delivery report in which Tesla said it delivered 405,278...

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Quick fixes: how to transfer iPhone videos to a Windows PC when it keeps disconnecting

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Issue

Your iPhone keeps disconnecting from your Windows PC or Mac when you’re trying to import photos or videos. You may see the error “A device attached to the system is not functioning.”

Quick fix

Stop your iPhone from automatically converting the video to the legacy H.264 format by going to Settings > Photos > Transfer to Mac or PC and tapping Keep Originals.

Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

I repeatedly got this “A device attached to the system is not functioning” error on my Windows PC. The iPhone didn’t say anything.

The full story

My iPhone 13 mini was running out of space, but I couldn’t just wipe it; I had important videos I needed to save. But every time I plugged my iPhone into my Windows PC,...

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Redfall gets a May 2nd release date and more gameplay footage

Image: Bethesda

Bethesda’s upcoming vampire shooter Redfall is now releasing on May 2nd. Redfall was originally delayed last year, alongside Starfield, to the first half of 2023. Microsoft and Bethesda are now committing to a May 2nd release date, and it will be available exclusively on Xbox Series S and X and PC.

We got to see a good amount of gameplay footage for Redfall, from the team behind Dishonored, during the Xbox and Bethesda showcase last year, and today’s Developer Direct stream has offered up even more.

We got to see a brief look at a lighthouse story mission, where you fight through enemies and vampires known as the shroud, which can shift through the floor to avoid damage. The gameplay included a moment where you have to defeat vampires...

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Hi-Fi Rush, a new rhythm-action game from the developers of The Evil Within, is out today

Art from Hi-Fi Rush_, the new game from Tango Gameworks._ | Image: Microsoft

Tango Gameworks, a Bethesda studio known for The Evil Within series and last year’s Ghostwire: Tokyo, announced a new rhythm-action brawler during Wednesday’s Xbox Developer Direct called Hi-Fi Rush. And best of all, it will be available on Wednesday.

In the game, you’ll explore a colorful animated world and smash baddies and robots in your way. Because of the rhythm-action focus, you’ll do better as you string hits in time with the music.

And things around the world also pulse in time with the music, which looks like it will really add to the game. (Watching the video during the Developer Direct, I found myself regularly bobbing my head in time with the music.) Hi-Fi Rush will also include licensed music from real bands such as The...

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Here’s a fresh look at the next-gen Forza Motorsport, coming in 2023

Forza Motorsport. | Image: Xbox Game Studios

The next Forza is called, well, Forza Motorsport. The next mainline game in the series is coming to the Xbox Series X / S and PC sometime in 2023. Microsoft made the announcement at a developer showcase today, while also showing off a fresh trailer.

Developer Turn 10 Studios describes it as “the most technically advanced racing game ever made.” At launch, the game will include over 500 cars and will feature all kinds of nitty-gritty details, like realistic dirt accumulation and paint chipping. There will also be 20 environments, including five that are brand new to the series, like one set in South Africa and “fully dynamic” weather and day / night cycles. For graphics nerds, the game will be rendered at 4K at 60fps and will, of course,...

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Lauren Sánchez will lead an all-woman crew to space on Blue Origin

Image: Raymond Hall/GC Images

Lauren Sánchez is best known for her TV and news appearances — and a relationship with Jeff Bezos (that had a few publicly dramatic turns) — but now, she could soon be known as the first person to lead an all-woman space mission on Blue Origin. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Sánchez reveals that she’s wanted to fly on earlier missions but Bezos is now encouraging her and thrilled to put together the female crew.

Sánchez isn’t saying who the five women are who will be joining her, something that will be revealed closer to the planned early 2024 flight. “It’s going to be women who are making a difference in the world and who are impactful and have a message to send,” Sánchez tells the Journal. And Bezos won’t be getting an...

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DoNotPay chickens out on its courtroom AI chatbot stunt

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

DoNotPay isn’t bringing its robot lawyer to the courtroom anytime soon. Joshua Browder, the creator and CEO of DoNotPay, announced on Twitter that the company is “postponing our court case and sticking to consumer rights” after receiving threats from “State Bar prosecutors” about the potential legality of the stunt.

The company, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help people challenge parking tickets and sue people, had been planning to use the technology to fight a client’s speeding ticket in court this February. Browder says the AI would’ve “listened” to the case and generated responses using large language models (LLMs) and GPT-3, the same platform used by OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot. The client would then hear these responses...

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Messenger could be the dawn of third-party Windows widgets

Image: Microsoft

One of the first third-party widgets for Windows 11 may end up being Meta’s Messenger. Microsoft announced on Wednesday that there’s now a preview version of the app in the Microsoft Store with support for the widget system, letting you see your latest messages right from the widget tray.

The widget doesn’t appear to be available unless you’re running the latest Insider Preview build, so most people won’t be able to try it out just yet. If you are, it may be a bit of a spotty experience — Microsoft says the preview has a few known issues where “third-party widgets may occasionally disappear from the widgets board” or get unpinned.

If you are running the preview, you can try the Messenger widget out by downloading or updating the app,...

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Apple MacBook Pro 14 and 16 (2021) review: return to form

Apple’s new pro laptops right the wrongs of the past half decade

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The best laptop you can buy in 2023

Image: William Joel/The Verge

The best laptops for you, from ultraportables to high-powered editing machines

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Meet the former Tesla director who wants to pull carbon dioxide out of the air

Carbon removal technology at a Climeworks facility in Iceland. | Photo by Halldor Kolbeins / AFP via Getty Images

Microsoft, Stripe, Shopify, H&M — hell, even Coldplay — are some of the big-name clients paying Swiss company Climeworks to take carbon dioxide out of the air. Climeworks became the first company to sell the service, using its new-fangled “direct air capture” technology, in 2017.

There’s still protest from some environmental advocates over this strategy for tackling climate change. They’d rather see these brands stop pumping out pollution. Unfortunately, that’s not happening nearly fast enough to keep global temperatures from rising. And demand is rising for ways to clean up all the carbon dioxide pollution building up in our atmosphere.

“Demand is rising for ways to clean up all the carbon dioxide pollution building up in our...

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The Verge made a beautiful magazine, and you can preorder it now

The Homeland anthology and its slipcase. | Photos by Amelia Krales

The Homeland anthology collects some of our most ambitious investigative journalism, with stunning art and photography.

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CNET found errors in more than half of its AI-written stories

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

CNET issued corrections on 41 of the 77 stories the outlet published that were written using an AI tool. In a note published today, CNET editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo defended the use of the AI writing tool but said that an internal review of stories uncovered numerous errors in the articles at the center of the controversy.

Articles with corrections include ones titled “What Is Compound Interest?,” “How Much Should You Keep in a CD?,” “Does a Home Equity Loan Affect Private Mortgage Insurance?” and dozens more. A handful of articles, like this one, had the correction note reading, “We’ve replaced phrases that were not entirely original,” indicating that some of their language may have been plagiarized.

Earlier this month, Futurism...

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Netflix’s real-life Squid Game show is slightly safer than the original

Fewer than five players are reported to have required medical attention while participating in a game of Red Light, Green Light. | Image: Netflix

A handful of contestants for Netflix’s in-development reality show Squid Game: The Challenge needed medical attention on Monday after enduring freezing temperatures on set. The series is currently being filmed across two studios in the UK, where temperatures reportedly reached a low of 30 Fahrenheit (negative 1 Celsius) on Monday while filming a game of Red Light, Green Light and resulted in at least one contestant being stretchered off.

A total of 456 global contestants have been cast for the reality spinoff to compete in various challenges inspired by the Netflix series in order to win a $4.56 million (£3.7 million) cash prize. The Red Light, Green Light game, as featured on the original Squid Game series, requires participants to...

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Twitch is going to make pre-roll ads way less annoying

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Twitch is sharing a road map for features it’s working on for 2023. Among them are changes to the way ads are run, new first-party tools to help with chat engagement, and tools to help streamers manage their brand deals. But the biggest is making pre-roll ads less annoying.

For 2023, Twitch is working on changing how ads are displayed during a stream. As described in an open letter from chief product officer Tom Verrilli and chief monetization officer Mike Minton:

In the first half of this year, we’re making two changes to improve the way ads work for viewers and channels: First, we’re updating the way disabling pre-roll works for channels. Running three minutes of ads per hour in any way will disable all pre-rolls – they no longer have...

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Google changes its rules for the Android platform in India

Illustration: The Verge

Google will let Android users in India use third-party billing options starting next month as part of its compliance with a ruling from the country’s antitrust authority, the company announced in a blog post on Wednesday. The search giant will also give users the ability to choose their default search engine “via a choice screen” whenever they start setting up a new Android phone or tablet.

In October of last year, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) hit Google with a $162 million fine for “abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in the Android Mobile device ecosystem.” The CCI also imposed a series of directives, forcing Google to allow users to pick their own search engine as well as let users uninstall the Google-owned...

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The Verge’s favorite desktop accessories

Image: Jay Peters / The Verge

Most of us keep more on our desks than our laptops, monitors, and keyboards. Gamers will have a high-end microphone and / or camera, not to mention their various consoles and keyboards; tech enthusiasts will have video setups, Stream Decks, and multiple monitors; and many of our desktops are covered with a variety of stuff, anything from a bullet journal and a favorite mug to a cool windup toy.

We asked the staff of The Verge what they keep on their desks. Here are some of the answers we got.

Pen holder

Photo by Barbara Krasnoff / The Verge

Levenger pen holder

Years ago (more than I care to remember), a freelance writer who was both excellent at her craft and one of the nicest people I’ve known gave me a...

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LG’s funky, square-ish DualUp monitor is over $100 off

You could save $206 if you’re up for a dual DualUp setup and get two of them. | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

Feeling up for a deal on a strange gadget? The LG DualUp monitor is currently on sale for $596.99 at Amazon and B&H Photo or $599.99 at Best Buy. That’s a little over $100 off this 27.6-inch monitor that’s particularly good at helping you get work done. It has an almost square vertical aspect ratio of 16:18 and QHD resolution of 2560 x 2880, letting you view and stack multiple windows with ease. It also supports USB-C video with 90W of charging support to keep your laptop battery full while plugged in.

Computer monitors have been getting more interesting recently, especially in the gaming space with OLEDs. But I’d argue there isn’t a monitor more unique and interesting in the productivity or creative space than the DualUp. It comes with...

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Best gaming laptop in 2023: seven laptops to get your game on

The best gaming laptop is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales/ The Verge

All the best gaming laptops at every size and price

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Poker Face is Peacock’s first truly great original series

Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale. | Image: Peacock

Rian Johnson’s new murder mystery comedy series is aflush with intrigue, great storytelling, and a constellation of knockout guest stars.

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Why Google is facing its most serious antitrust challenge to date

Illustration: The Verge

Today let’s talk about a major new antitrust case against Google, and the increasing likelihood that something at the company is going to have to give.

I.

I’ll dive into some of the specifics of the case shortly. But the first thing to note is the growing consensus around the world that Google is too dominant, which has put more pressure on the United States to act.

Since 2017, when the European Commission fined Google a then-record $2.73 billion for self-preferencing with its comparison shopping service, the company has faced a steady drumbeat of regulators accusing it of antitrust violations.

In 2018, EU antitrust regulators fined Google $4.3 billion for requiring smartphone makers to bundle and include the company’s apps with Android.

...

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GoldenEye 007 is coming to Nintendo Switch and Xbox on January 27th

Image: Rare

GoldenEye 007 is finally coming to Xbox and Nintendo Switch this week. Rare is releasing GoldenEye 007 HD on Xbox as a remaster of the legendary Nintendo 64 title that first launched in 1997. The game will be available on January 27th for both Xbox and Nintendo Switch, with a remastered version of Xbox that includes 4K resolution, smoother frame rates, and even split-screen local multiplayer.

Online multiplayer modes will be exclusive to the Nintendo Switch version of the game, as Nintendo is using the original game. Microsoft has made a “faithful recreation” of GoldenEye 007 for the Xbox, but it will include a local multiplayer mode for split screen with friends. Xbox One and Xbox Series S / X consoles will be able to access the G...

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Can you ‘hack’ your dating app to get better matches?

Illustration by Tony Johnson / The Verge

Asking a dating exec how their matchmaking algorithm works is like asking Coca-Cola for its top-secret formula: they’ll tell you it’s a mystery, that it’s too hard to explain, that they simply cannot talk about it, Fight Club style.

Tinder says that it looks at things like app usage, profile details, and swipe history to find your matches. Bumble also says it looks at your swipe history, while Hinge didn’t say much, except that its “proprietary algorithm” was based on work done by two Nobel Prize-winning mathematicians.

But there’s a reason why these companies are so cagey about their code. Mathematician Cathy O’Neil says she thinks that if daters really knew how basic the algorithms are, they might not put so much blind faith into...

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Honda says all Acura EV sales will be ‘100 percent online,’ starting with ZDX

The electric Acura ZDX, due out in 2024 and seen here in camouflage, will be the automaker’s first EV sold exclusively online. | Image: Acura

Honda is restructuring its business as it looks ahead to achieving 100 percent electric vehicle sales by 2040. As such, the company announced that all of its Acura-branded EVs will be sold exclusively online, starting with the ZDX SUV, due out next year.

The company is shaking up its leadership roster and creating a new division to handle sales, marketing, and communications for its budding EV business. And it is positioning its luxury and performance brand Acura as the “tip of the spear” in its shift to EVs, which includes improved software services and, most notably, e-commerce.

That’s all starting with the RDX and RDX Type S, presales of which begin later this year, with customer deliveries expected in 2024. The Acura ZDX, a luxury...

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