BBC launches an ‘experimental’ Mastodon server

Illustration: The Verge

The BBC has launched its own “experimental” Mastodon server, marking one of the first major news outlets to establish an instance on the Twitter alternative. You can access the server at social.bbc, which encompasses posts from a handful of BBC accounts, including BBC Radio 4, BBC Taster, BBC Research & Development, and a few more.

The BBC says the outlet will try out the server for six months before it decides “whether and how to continue.” While you can’t actually create accounts or posts on the server, you can still leave replies from the instance that you’re using, as well as follow its accounts.

Despite this, the BBC still has some concerns about content moderation, as Mastodon doesn’t have a dedicated moderation team and leaves it...

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MrBeast is suing his ghost kitchen partner over ‘inedible’ MrBeast Burgers

Photo by Dave Kotinsky / Getty Images for MrBeast Burger

YouTube personality MrBeast is suing the company responsible for his branded line of fast food including the MrBeast Burger, citing “inedible” food delivered to customers. The company, Virtual Dining Concepts, partnered with James Donaldson, aka MrBeast, in 2020 to launch the menu out of “ghost kitchens” — storefronts that have no physical presence whose food is made and served out of other existing restaurants.

@MrBBSupport @MrBeastBurger @MrBeast Getting raw meat in these burgers is becoming a common occurrence which is a HUGE issue. This is from my burger which I was about to eat an hour ago. Money wasted and a huge shame. pic.twitter.com/Jkr9IjpHOK

— surviving (@Orlando_Brendan) March 1, 2021

Donaldson’s lawsuit alleges that...

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Uber driver in first-ever deadly self-driving crash pleads guilty

Image: ABC 15

The backup driver in the self-driving Uber vehicle that killed a 49-year-old woman in Tempe, Arizona, in 2018 pled guilty to one count of endangerment and was sentenced to three years’ probation on Friday.

Rafaela Vasquez worked as a safety driver for Uber’s autonomous vehicle test program in Arizona. She was behind the steering wheel when her vehicle ran over Elaine Herzberg, who was pushing a bicycle across the street. The crash, which happened on March 18th, 2018, is believed to be the first fatal collision involving a self-driving car.

Prosecutors described Vasquez as “the eyes and ears” of the vehicle, which was operating in autonomous mode at the time of the collision, according to the Arizona Republic. Police alleged that she...

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Europe’s dark matter-hunting space telescope nabs its first test images

Two early test images from the Euclid space telescope mission. | Image: European Space Agency

Today, the European Space Agency (ESA) showed off the first test images taken from the Euclid space telescope as it approaches its final orbit around the Earth (via Ars Technica). Once in place, scientists at the ESA and its partners in the US, Canada, and Japan hope to gain radical new insights into the very formation and expansion of the universe as well as the role played by dark energy, dark matter, and gravity in all of that.

The first test images, captured by the telescope’s two onboard cameras — the VISible instrument (VIS) and the Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) — are a series of detailed shots of the night sky, showing a vast collection of stars, star clusters, galaxies, and more. Knud Jahnke of the Max Planck...

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Buckle up for some iterative smartwatches this year

I don’t see much of a point in a second-gen Apple Watch Ultra if there isn’t a noticeably better experience. | Photograph by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The next Apple Watch Ultra may come in a darker titanium color. Supposedly. The rumor comes courtesy of Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter — but even Gurman himself doesn’t seem entirely sure about it. Besides that, the second-gen Ultra might be a little lighter and feature a faster processor.

I hate to say it, but if that’s all we can expect to change, perhaps Apple shouldn’t release a second-gen Ultra later this year.

I say this as someone who’s been using the Ultra consistently since it launched. The watchOS 10 beta runs just swell. My Ultra’s battery has yet to crap the bed. I have maybe one minuscule nick on the titanium body, and I’ve gotten used to the weight and size on my petite wrist. Barring new health...

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Elon Musk’s extravagant ‘X’ sign atop the former Twitter HQ has been dismantled

Workers prepare to dismantle a large X logo on the roof of X headquarters on July 31, 2023 in San Francisco, California. Just over 48 hours after a large X logo with bright pulsating lights was installed on the roof of X headquarters in San Francisco, workers dismantled the structure on Monday morning. | Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Well that was fast. Twitter, which is currently rebranding itself to X, is now removing the giant, garishly-lit X logo that was placed on top of its San Francisco headquarters, as previously reported by CNBC and ABC7 Bay Area. The sign, rapidly erected and supported in part by sandbags, had already received complaints from residents living near the building.

According to the city’s complaint, Twitter repeatedly denied access to inspectors seeking access to the roof, explaining to them that the X logo was a “temporary lighted sign for an event.”

Videos of the logo over the weekend showed a bright light that pulsed and crawled across the logo, which the company just began using about a week ago. At the same time, crews continued...

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Samsung Galaxy SmartTag 2 tracker’s new design revealed in FCC filing

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag 2 appeared in an FCC listing today, offering us a small preview of what to expect from the forthcoming location tracker (via 9to5Google).

Perhaps most notably, the FCC listing refers to one version of the tracker that will come with ultra-wideband (UWB) connectivity for more precise tracking. That doesn’t rule out Samsung releasing a second variant later. The $39 SmartTag Plus — which combined BLE with UWB — came after the original $29 standard SmartTag, which featured only Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

Another notable difference is that the Galaxy SmartTag’s loop appears significantly larger than that of its predecessor. In fact, it looks bigger than the Tile Pro, which should make it even easier to attach the...

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Hands-free driving is becoming more popular — but is it safe?

Image: GM

Raise your hand if you’ve tried one of those new-fangled hands-free driver-assist systems. Now raise both hands. But for the love of god, keep your eyes on the road!

Love them or hate them, hands-free driving systems are becoming more prevalent on the road. Most major automakers offer hands-free driving as an option or a subscription, from GM’s Super Cruise to Ford’s BlueCruise to Nissan’s ProPilot. (Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems are not technically hands-free, a fact that annoys most Tesla owners to no end.)

But with more hands-free driving entering the realm of what’s possible, more risks inevitably come with it. Last week, GM launched a public education campaign to help customers better understand what...

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A killer ocean heatwave is decimating Florida’s corals

Coral fragments of wild Florida elkhorn and staghorn in the living gene bank at The Reef Institute. | Image: NOAA; courtesy of The Reef Institute.

Federal authorities and scientists are scrambling to relocate corals from Florida’s coastlines before a killer heatwave wipes them out.

The water is unbearably hot for corals, animals whose bodies form the reefs that coastal communities and other marine life depend on. Corals get their color from a symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic algae that provide them with the nutrients they need to survive. Unusually high temperatures, as the Atlantic Ocean is experiencing this summer, drive that colorful algae away. It’s a problem called coral bleaching that, if it lasts too long, ultimately kills corals.

“Our hands-on restoration work is now all that stands between these animals and their extinction.”

Anticipating a mass die-off,...

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How to customize your iPhone’s app icons

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Sometimes an app’s icon just doesn’t look right on your homescreen. For example, let’s say — just for the sake of argument — that the icon for a social networking app was switched from a pretty blue bird to a rather stark “X.” Could you change that icon?

The answer is yes — it’s doable using Apple’s built-in Shortcuts app. You actually won’t be replacing the app’s official icon. Rather, you’ll be creating a separate shortcut that leads to the app. It’s a tedious and time-consuming process, but in the end, you can have a fully customized iPhone homescreen.

Here’s how you do it:

• Before you begin, it’s a good idea to find an icon for your new shortcut. There are a bunch of icon sources online (Flaticon, for example), or if you’re artistic...

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Nintendo’s next-gen console could come as soon as 2024

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

For the last six years, there have been only three things you can count on: death, taxes, and rumors of a new Nintendo console. Now, a new rumor from VGC suggests Nintendo’s eyeing a 2024 release for its next-gen console.

According to sources who spoke to VGC, the new console could feature a cheaper LCD screen instead of a higher-end display like the OLED Switch and continue to include a cartridge slot for loading games. Nintendo executives also hope that the 2024 release window will ensure the console won’t have inventory issues like the ones that plagued the launch of the Xbox Series S / X and PlayStation 5.

Switch sales have been cooling lately, reflecting the console’s age and stiffening competition with the more powerful Xbox,...

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Amazon’s new Echo Pop has dropped back to its Prime Day price

Amazon’s new Echo Pop comes in a unique semi-circular form yet sounds good for its size. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Since Prime Day was an Amazon event, a lot of the best Prime Day deals we saw earlier this month naturally landed on Amazon’s smart speakers and displays. While Amazon’s deals have since long gone, other retailers are jumping in to give you a second chance if you missed out. Right now, for example, you can buy the latest Echo Dot for $22.99 ($27 off) from Best Buy and The Home Depot. If you prefer a smart display, the latest Echo Show 8 is also on sale at Best Buy for $59.99 ($70 off).

Perhaps one of the most notable deals, though, is this one on the new Echo Pop. At the moment, Amazon’s newest smart speaker is just $17.99 ($22 off) at Best Buy and The Home Depot. The new speaker stands out from others in the lineup thanks to its...

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SAG-AFTRA says interim agreements are ‘a vital part’ of its plan to weather Hollywood’s labor strike

SAG-AFTRA’s striking logo. | Image: SAG-AFTRA

When the Screen Actors Guild began giving independently produced projects clearance to continue production during Hollywood’s two ongoing labor strikes earlier this month, there was a sizable amount of confusion about how the process worked and why the union was doing it, given that it had called for an industrywide work stoppage just days earlier. Now, as more people have begun to question the logic behind the interim agreements being granted, SAG-AFTRA says they’re very much a part of its plan to help its members survive a strike that’s already taken some particularly ugly and telling turns.

On Sunday evening, SAG-AFTRA posted a lengthy statement to its website explaining what its interim agreements are and how they’re being handed out...

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OnePlus’ debut mechanical keyboard is a Keychron with a twist

You get extra keycaps and a combination switch/keycap puller in the box.

OnePlus’ debut mechanical keyboard, the Keyboard 81 Pro, may be little more than a redesigned Keychron Q1 Pro with a couple of tweaks. But the Keychron Q1 Pro is one of the best mechanical keyboards available today, and the tweaks OnePlus has made to its design range from “inoffensive” to “actually kind of neat.” I wouldn’t go as far as to say the Keyboard 81 Pro is better than the Q1 Pro, but it’s a nice alternative version with its own strengths.

As a reminder, Keychron’s Q1 Pro is a wireless version of the Keychron Q1. It’s made of a solid aluminum chassis, with a gasket-mounted switch plate that gives it a premium typing feel and is packed with extra features like hot-swappable switches (helpful if you want to change its typing feel...

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Dell is all in on generative AI

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

It isn’t just software companies looking to enter the generative AI fray.

Dell, the PC maker, is going all in on generative AI and offering hardware to run powerful models and a new platform to help organizations get started.

The company released what it calls Dell Generative AI Solutions for clients to set up access to large language models and create generative AI projects. The company will offer new hardware setups, a managed service platform, and computers to run generative AI projects faster.

Dell is known for releasing laptops and monitors, but the company also produces server racks and other enterprise hardware. While the more public face of the AI arms race is between developers of large language models like Meta, OpenAI, and...

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A plugged-in Tesla can still make front page news somewhere

Local newspaper Ekalaka Eagle thinks it might be the first EV charged in town. | Image: Eric Dietrich / MTFP

A Tesla driver from California thought they could quietly borrow some joules in the EV-barren town of Ekalaka, Montana — population 400 or so — but their Model Y ended up on the front page of the local newspaper, dubbed a UEV (or unidentified electric vehicle). “Borrowed Volts,” read the article title in the Ekalaka Eagle, which mentions that it might be the first electric vehicle ever to charge in the town.

“It was just sitting there, so I plugged in,” the driver told the Montana Free Press.

The port was a NEMA 14-50, the kind often used to power RVs, and despite the passenger’s concern about charging at a random outlet, it was better than their original backup plan of finding a 120-volt plug that might take days to charge the vehicle....

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SEC sues crypto influencer for allegedly buying sports cars and a rare black diamond with investor funds

Image: Richard Heart via YouTube

Crypto influencer Richard Heart is facing a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission over claims he used “at least” $12 million in proceeds from his crypto products to buy luxury products. That includes the purchase of sports cars, luxury watches, and a 555-carat black diamond called The Enigma — supposedly the largest in the world.

Heart was born in the US and currently lives in Finland. He has operated a YouTube channel since 2017, where he promotes his own crypto products, including the Hex token and its sister product PulseChain, which operates on the PulseX protocol.

In its lawsuit, the SEC alleges Heart raised over $1 billion through his unregistered Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX crypto securities. According to the SEC,...

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eBay charged with multiple unfair labor complaints in struggle with its first union

Image: eBay

eBay is the latest company to be hit with unfair labor complaints as this year’s hot labor summer continues amid strikes, threats of strikes, and workers all over the country organizing for better working conditions. The complaints were filed on behalf of workers at TCGplayer, a company eBay acquired in 2022 that’s known for selling and authenticating trading cards from games like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, and Magic: The Gathering. The complaints allege that after workers at TCGplayer won their union election back in March, management of eBay and TCGplayer has refused to acknowledge the union and engaged in tactics designed to impede or delay workers’ ability to negotiate for a fair contract.

“My colleagues and I haven’t had a cost-of-living...

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Amazon’s best Fire TV streaming stick is back down to its lowest price of $24.99

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is on sale once again for its all-time low price of $24.99 ($30 off) at Best Buy and Target. It’s one of the best streaming devices you can buy, especially if you prefer one that can neatly hide behind your TV and has excellent support for voice controls. Its Fire TV operating system highlights Prime Video content a lot, and it does have some ads, but its speedy performance and Wi-Fi 6 speeds at this low price are a worthwhile tradeoff. Plus, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max has a tight integration with Amazon smart home accessories, allowing you to ask Alexa to set the mood by dimming the lights in addition to calling up apps or searches with your voice.

Another notable deal on Amazon hardware is the latest Echo Show 8...

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8BitDo’s first mechanical keyboard is a love letter to the NES

The N Edition and Fami Edition of the keyboard. | Image: 8BitDo

Nintendo doesn’t make keyboards, but 8BitDo’s Retro Mechanical Keyboard might be the next best thing. The $99.99 device comes in two color schemes: an “N Edition,” which has the same gray color scheme the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) had in the West, and a red and white “Fami Edition” that draws obvious inspiration from the Japanese Famicom. Preorders open today, and the keyboard is expected to ship on August 10th.

The keyboard comes with a pair of “Super Buttons” — giant red versions of the buttons found on the original NES controller. They’re programmable and come equipped with clicky Gateron Green switches that should make them feel suitably chunky to press. The Super Buttons connect to the keyboard via a 3.5mm cable, and there...

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Twitter gets special permission to be ‘X’ in the iOS App Store

Illustration: The Verge

Twitter, which is rebranding as X, is now listed as X in the iOS App Store, suggesting the app got special treatment from Apple to allow a single-character name. The renaming was briefly hindered by a rule forbidding single-character app names within the App Store — the actual app name on iPhones and iPads already showed up as X.

The exception could be a sign Apple wants to keep the hatchet buried with X owner Elon Musk. Late last year, the then-CEO of Twitter accused Apple of threatening to remove the Twitter app from the store. After meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Musk later said it was a simple “misunderstanding.”

Alongside the X rebranding, the company also updated its tagline in the store, from “it’s what’s happening” to “blaze...

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Twitter threatens to sue anti-hate organization for reporting on Twitter hate speech

Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge

Twitter — now called X — is threatening to sue the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) for its research into hate speech on Twitter that the company claims is driving away advertisers. In a letter to the CCDH, which was first reported by The New York Times, Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro claims that the CCDH “regularly posts articles making inflammatory, outrageous, and false or misleading assertions” about Twitter with the goal of harming its reputation.

The CCDH is an organization that aims to hold social media companies accountable for the spread of hateful material online. Since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the CCDH has published numerous reports that suggest the platform is failing to protect users from hate speech. In its...

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Loki season 2 looks like a race through time and space in new trailer

Image: Disney

Loki’s first season ended by cracking the multiverse so wide open that it seemed like all of existence might be in serious jeopardy or at least on the verge of being conquered by a certain Kang. Both of those possibilities have seemed like they’re becoming realities judging from Marvel’s recent films, but in the first trailer for Loki’s upcoming second season, there appears to be some hope that things can still be put right.

After two Spider-Verse movies about people traveling to other dimensions and glitching out because they’re not supposed to be there, it’s interesting to see Loki (Tom Hiddleston) “time slipping” in Loki’s new season 2 trailer, both because of the visual similarities between the two phenomena and because it’s...

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Microsoft argues its Activision Blizzard case with UK regulators

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Microsoft has submitted a new change of circumstances document to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK, arguing its case for its proposed Activision Blizzard deal to be reconsidered for approval.

The CMA first blocked Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard in April, with the regulator making it clear it had concerns over the effect Microsoft’s acquisition could have on the emerging cloud gaming market. Weeks later, the European Commission then approved the deal thanks to Microsoft’s cloud gaming agreements with Nvidia, Boosteroid, and others and a commitment to the EU to open up cloud licensing access to Xbox and Activision Blizzard games.

Microsoft now argues the UK regulator should take into...

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Windows 11 is getting multiple monitor refresh rate improvements

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Microsoft is making it a lot more convenient to use multiple high refresh rate monitors with Windows 11. The software giant has started testing a Windows 11 update that automatically adjusts refresh rates on multiple monitors depending on what content is being displayed, which should improve power usage and could even result in some GPUs spinning up their fans less often.

“We have improved refresh rate logic to allow different refresh rates on different monitors, depending on the refresh rate for each monitor and content shown on the screen,” explains Microsoft in a Windows Insider blog from last week, spotted by Neowin. “This will help most with refresh rate-dependent multitasking, like playing a game and watching a video at the same...

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Sony’s latest PS5 beta supports Dolby Atmos and up to 8TB of M.2 SSD storage

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Sony has started testing a new PlayStation 5 software beta that includes Dolby Atmos support, up to 8TB of M.2 SSD storage support, and a variety UI improvements. The beta is rolling out in select countries today and Sony typically makes beta features available to all PS5 consoles within a few months.

The biggest addition is Dolby Atmos support. In PS5 games it looks like Sony’s 3D Audio implementation (Tempest 3D AudioTech) will be compatible with Dolby Atmos devices like sound bars, TVs, or home theater systems. Media apps like Netflix can also update their apps on PS5 soon to support Dolby Atmos audio. “Tempest 3D AudioTech specifically renders to the Dolby Atmos audio devices in use – including overhead channels – allowing for even...

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Apple confirms bug stops Screen Time limits from sticking for kids

Illustration: The Verge

If your kid has been mysteriously busting through the Screen Time limits you set on their Apple device, the Wall Street Journalmight know why: the publication found that a bug has been preventing certain Screen Time limits set via the Family Sharing system from saving correctly for months. Apple was supposed to fix the issue back in May, but apparently the problem has persisted.

Apple’s Family Sharing system allows parents to put usage limits on their kids’ devices, with one of the key controls being the ability to monitor and limit their usage of specific apps and the device as a whole through a feature called Screen Time. The Journal reports finding that a specific setting known as Downtime, which blocks access to the entire device,...

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iPhone 15 Pro might get a titanium frame, thinner bezels, and a price hike

An iPhone 14 Pro Max. | Image: Nilay Patel / The Verge

Some big changes are expected to come to this year’s iPhone 15 Pro lineup — but they might come alongside a price hike, too. In Bloomberg this morning, reporter Mark Gurman confirmed a handful of details that have been floating around all year about what to expect when the next iPhone lineup is announced in just over a month.

The new Pro models will both come with titanium frames, instead of stainless steel, making them stronger and lighter, according to Gurman. Their screens will also have thinner bezels, thanks to a new display technology, shrinking the size of the black border by about a third. (Earlier leaks show what that might look like.) And as previously reported, expect the mute switch to be swapped out for a customizable button...

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Never mind, tweets should be called posts now

X is coming for every last mention of Twitter. | The Verge

Last week Elon Musk announced the death of Twitter as a brand. He had the sign on the HQ taken down and replaced with a garish X, he axed the logo on the website and in the app too. Lingering longer was the “Tweet” button itself. Today the Tweet button briefly changed to Post, hinting that soon every evidence of the little blue bird and its associated twitter will scrubbed from the every place X, the company formerly known as Twitter, can touch.

But that’s not why I think it’s time to retire the “tweet.” I wanted to save it. I felt that it was clearly becoming independent of the brand that had adopted it. I argued we should call all microblog posts tweets to avoid this goofy cycle of toots, skeets, threets, and now xeets. But with every...

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The buttons on Zenith’s original ‘clicker’ remote were a mechanical marvel

A 1970s-era model of the Zenith Space Command. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Space Command didn’t rely on infrared — or batteries.

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