SAG-AFTRA is further restricting what projects can move forward during the strike

Over 200 interim contracts have been granted by SAG-AFTRA since the strike began last month. | Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

In an act of solidarity with the Writers Guild of America (WGA), the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) will no longer grant permission to independent projects that fall under WGA contracts to continue production during the ongoing strike. On July 14th SAG-AFTRA announced via a statement on its website that going forward, WGA-covered projects will now be excluded from its Interim Agreement policy — which allows approved independent productions with no direct connection to the actors union to continue filming.

According to the statement, the decision was made following several meetings with the WGA alongside the “recommendation of our NED & chief negotiator” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. “We have been advised by the WGA that this modification...

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Tesla reintroduces more affordable ‘Standard Range’ versions of Model S and X

Tesla’s Model S configurator, showing the newly available Standard Range version. | Screenshot by Jon Porter / The Verge

Tesla now sells “Standard Range” versions of its Model S and Model X, lowering the starting price of both vehicles by $10,000 for anyone prepared to compromise on the distance either car can drive before needing to be recharged. The Standard Range Model X starts at $88,490, versus $98,490 for the next model up, while the Standard Range Model S starts at $78,490 versus $88,490. The changes to Tesla’s website were initially spotted by Electrek.

The main compromise with these models is their range. The Model X’s Standard Range version lists an estimated range of 269 miles, a 79 mile reduction, while the Model S’s Standard Range edition has an estimated range of 320 miles, 85 miles less than the step-up version. The Standard Range models...

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WhatsApp starts testing AI-generated stickers

Illustration: The Verge

Meta-owned WhatsApp has started testing a new AI-generated stickers feature. WABetaInfo reports that some testers in the Android WhatsApp beta program have spotted the new AI-powered stickers, allowing WhatsApp users to generate a sticker based on a text description.

Android Police points out that it’s not clear which generative AI model WhatsApp has picked for this feature, as WABetaInfo’s reportonly notes that the stickers are generated using “a secure technology offered by Meta.”

The feature looks like it will work similarly to how Midjoureny or OpenAI’s DALL-E models generate images based on text alone. It seems you’ll be able to use this WhatsApp feature to create a basic and personalized image that can be shared as a sticker with...

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YouTube starts mass takedowns of videos promoting ‘harmful or ineffective’ cancer cures

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube will remove content that promotes “cancer treatments proven to be harmful or ineffective” or which “discourages viewers from seeking professional medical treatment,” the video platform announced today. The enforcement comes as YouTube is attempting to streamline its medical moderation guidelines based on what it’s learned while attempting to tackle misinformation around topics like covid-19, vaccines, and reproductive health.

Going forward, Google’s video platform says it will apply its medical misinformation policies when there is a high public health risk, when there is publicly available guidance from health authorities, and when a topic is prone to misinformation. YouTube hopes that this policy framework will be flexible...

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Aqara’s new Zigbee light strip supports HomeKit Adaptive Lighting and Matter

The Aqara LED Strip T1 is available now. | Image: Aqara

Aqara has released a new Zigbee RGB smart light strip called the LED Strip T1. It costs $49.99, requires an Aqara hub, and is compatible with Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and IFTTT. When paired with certain hubs, including the Aqara Hub M2, the light strip is also compatible with the Matter smart home protocol.

The T1 is one of the very few light strips that support Apple’s Adaptive Lighting feature — and the only one that supports both Adaptive Lighting and Matter. It doesn’t support Adaptive Lighting through Matter, unfortunately; nothing does. Still, it’s nice to see new, Matter-compliant lighting come to market using the solid Zigbee standard. (Whatever happened to that Hue-to-Matter bridge, I wonder?)

The 6.6ft (2m)-long...

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Substack now lets you follow writers before subscribing to them

Illustration by The Verge

Substack now lets you follow writers, offering a way for you to keep tabs on what a writer is doing without having to subscribe to their newsletter. When you follow a writer, “you can stay up to date with what they’re reading, liking, publishing, and subscribing to — through the Notes feed and on their profiles,” Substack says in a blog post.

Substack is perhaps best known as a newsletter platform where writers can make money from getting people to sign up for paid subscriptions. But the platform has also been dabbling with more traditional social networking features such as its tweet-like Notes, and a follow button feels like Substack stepping even more toes into the social networking waters.

The company stresses that follows, which...

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Want a $4,000 smart door? The Home Depot has you covered

The first smart door has landed at The Home Depot, and if you’re good with dropping at least $4,000 on your front door, then you can order one today. That price doesn’t include installation, though, and no matter how handy you are, this one needs the pros — including an electrician to wire it up.

First showcased at CES 2022, the Masonite M-PWR Smart Door is the first residential door to come with a Yale smart door lock and Ring video doorbell built in, but the big selling point is they are all powered by your home’s electrics, so there’s no need to worry about recharging or replacing batteries — a common issue with most smart locks and some video doorbells.

Image: Masonite

Integrated LED smart lighting on the...

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Apple’s iPhone ‘batterygate’ settlement payments should start going out soon

Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus | Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

Just as some iPhone 14 owners are raising concerns about a possible battery issue, the original lawsuit over 2017’s batterygate saga is nearing an end. One of the firms representing Apple customers in the suit, Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, announced that the 9th Circuit dismissed two cases from people appealing the terms of what it called “the largest all-cash recovery in a computer intrusion case in history” (via 9to5Mac and Mercury News).

This clears the way for millions in payments to be distributed to affected owners of covered iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, 7, 7 Plus, or first-generation iPhone SE devices. According to the terms of the settlement, Apple would have to pay a minimum of $310 million and up to $500 million, depending on...

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The Biden administration urges the Supreme Court to take up content moderation cases

Image: Getty Images

The Biden administration has requested the US Supreme Court review Florida and Texas laws restricting how social media companies like Facebook moderate the content users post on their platforms.

In briefs filed on Monday, the US solicitor general urged the court to take up a pair of lawsuits led by the tech trade group NetChoice. Both Florida and Texas passed laws making it illegal for large social platforms to suspend or punish users, citing long-standing allegations that major platforms are biased against conservatives. A series of temporary injunctions have left the future of these laws in limbo, and Monday’s briefs add new pressure on the Supreme Court to resolve the suits.

“The platforms’ content-moderation activities are protected...

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AI companies must prove their AI is safe, says nonprofit group

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Nonprofits Accountable Tech, AI Now, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) released policy proposals that seek to limit how much power big AI companies have on regulation that could also expand the power of government agencies against some uses of generative AI.

The group sent the framework to politicians and government agencies mainly in the US this month, asking them to consider it while crafting new laws and regulations around AI.

The framework, which they call Zero Trust AI Governance, rests on three principles: enforce existing laws; create bold, easily implemented bright-line rules; and place the burden on companies to prove AI systems are not harmful in each phase of the AI lifecycle. Its definition of AI...

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The Elon Musk versus Mark Zuckerberg beef has reached a new level of absurdity

Image: The Verge

Now that the proposed cage match between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk isn’t going to happen, Musk is saying he will show up unannounced at Zuckerberg’s home to fight.

“For the Tesla FSD test drive in Palo Alto tonight, I will ask the car to drive to @finkd’s house,” Musk posted today on X, or the service formerly called Twitter. “If we get lucky and Zuck my actually answers the door, the fight is on!”

Musk, who once compared a user broadcasting his jet’s location to sharing “assassination coordinates,” says he’ll livestream the “adventure” on X.

Zuckerberg, it turns out, is having none of it.

“Mark is traveling right now and isn’t in Palo Alto,” a spokesperson for Zuckerberg at Meta, Iska Saric, tells The Verge. “Also, Mark takes...

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Now you can get food delivered to your gate at some of the biggest US airports

OTG’s Flo ordering system will be accessible from QR code cards placed at airport food spots. | Image: OTG

Some major US airport terminals like JFK now have options for ordering food for delivery to your gate, Bloomberg reports. This is made possible by airport food management company OTG, which is planning to shed the 21,000 iPads it manages for its bars, restaurants, and fast food offerings across various terminals and instead invite hungry travelers to order food on the devices they already carry. Travelers can scan QR codes at venues, select the food they want, pay on their device using options like Apple Pay and credit cards, and get it delivered to the gate they’re walking toward.

The features are similar to ordering apps like Uber Eats and Grubhub, but OTG isn’t going to mandate another app for people to download. Instead, QR codes...

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Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now

The Apple Watch Series 8 isn’t a massive step up from the prior model, but it does offer a few new features. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

In September, Apple launched its latest batch of smartwatches, introducing the first-ever Ultra ($799) alongside the Series 8 ($399) and a new Apple Watch SE ($249). Each wearable has its own pros and cons, but the introduction of the high-end Ultra also means there are now more Apple Watch models on the market before than ever before — and a lot more deals to be had.

But with all of those options, which one should you pick? Generally speaking, you want to buy the newest watch you can afford so that it continues to receive software updates from Apple. The latest update, watchOS 9, launched on the Apple Watch Series 4 and newer models in September, and watchOS 10 will offer the same compatibility when it arrives in the fall. Also, keep...

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Amazon’s hardware boss running Alexa and Echo plans to retire

Dave Limp. | Image: Getty

Dave Limp, Amazon’s SVP of devices and services, plans to retire in the coming months, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. His retirement marks the end of a more than 13-year career at the company.

Amazon published emails to staff from CEO Andy Jassy and Limp addressing the departure on its website. Jassy says that Limp will stay in his role “for the next few months” and that the company plans to announce a successor “in the coming weeks.”

“I remain excited and quite optimistic about the products and services we’re building in Devices and Services — we’re at the relative beginning of what’s possible and what I believe these businesses will add for customers and the company,” Jassy wrote.

Limp’s organization manages popular products...

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Saudi group reportedly abandoned $2 billion deal with the Lord of the Rings game company

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Embracer Group was forced to halt its breakneck pace of acquisitions after a mysterious partner left a $2 billion deal intended to drive its continued gaming ambitions. Now, we might know who the partner is: Axios reported today that Savvy Games Group is the party that backed out of the deal in May. Savvy is owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth Public Investment Fund and is the vehicle through which the Middle Eastern country funnels investments in the video games industry.

After the deal blew up, Embracer announced it was “restructuring” and that it would shut down or sell studios and pause some game development. In a filing, the group said it expects to finish that process on October 1st and has already begun its studio pruning.

P...

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Humane will share more about its mysterious ‘Ai Pin’ the same day as October’s eclipse

Image: TED

Humane, a startup founded by ex-Apple employees, plans to share more about its mysterious AI-powered wearable on the same day as a solar eclipse in October, co-founder Imran Chaudhri said in a video on the company’s Discord (via Inverse). The solar eclipse is set to happen on October 14th.

The device, officially called the “Humane Ai Pin” (in the Discord video, Chaudhri pronounces that middle word like you would say the word AI), is being promoted as something that can replace your smartphone. In a wild demo at this year’s TED conference, Chaudhri uses the device, which is somehow attached to his jacket at chest height, to do things like:

• Answer a phone call from his wife and fellow Humane co-founder, Bethany Bongiorno, though without...

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Controversial carbon removal technology just got $1.2 billion from the Biden administration

Shovels during a groundbreaking ceremony at the Occidental Petroleum and 1PointFive Direct Air Capture (DAC) plant in Ector County, Texas, on Friday, April 28th, 2023. | Photographer: Jordan Vonderhaar / Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Department of Energy chose the first two locations for “hubs” it envisions for industrial plants that suck planet-heating carbon dioxide out of the air. Projects in Texas and Louisiana will receive up to $1.2 billion from the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop direct air capture (DAC) facilities, backing a purported climate solution that not all environmental advocates support.

The Biden administration is funneling billions into direct air capture, a relatively new technology that some governments and companies are beginning to turn to as a way to address pollution they’ve already emitted. This is the first round of funding in a bigger plan to dole out $3.5 billion to develop at least four DAC hubs across the US.

This is the first...

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Young people who sued their state over climate change notch their first victory

Lead plaintiff Rikki Held, 22, arrives for the nation’s first youth climate change trial at Montana’s First Judicial District Court on June 12th, 2023, in Helena, Montana. | Photo by William Campbell / Getty Images

A group of young people who sued the state of Montana for violating their right to a clean environment can claim a big victory today.

A state court ruled in their favor, finding that the plaintiffs “have experienced past and ongoing injuries resulting from the State’s failure to consider [greenhouse gases] and climate change, including injuries to their physical and mental health, homes and property, recreational, spiritual, and aesthetic interests, tribal and cultural traditions, economic security, and happiness.”

The plaintiffs “have experienced past and ongoing injuries resulting from the State’s failure to consider [greenhouse gases] and climate change”

Montana’s constitution includes rights to a “clean and healthful environment”...

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OnePlus’ new screen knows where you’re touching it, even when it’s wet

The Ace 2 Pro “Rain Water Touch” feature in action. | Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge

The OnePlus Ace 2 Pro has a new screen design that can tell where you’re touching it even when it’s wet. OnePlus posted a video to Weibo of the new impeccably named “Rain Water Touch” feature, which uses a special chip to algorithmically determine when and where your finger is touching the screen, according to 9to5Google.

That’s something current smartphones fail miserably at, including the pricey flagships from Apple and Samsung. To drive the point home, the company shows someone using both the Ace 2 Pro and an iPhone 14 Pro while water is pouring all over them. We’re all probably well familiar with the frustration of trying to just unlock an iPhone that’s even a little wet, and the video knows it, starting with that very thing. That’s...

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All the news about Netflix’s gaming efforts

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Netflix is deep into video games.

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Ford’s hands-free BlueCruise feature is now available as a monthly or annual subscription

Image: Ford

Ford is changing how it sells its hands-free BlueCruise driver-assist feature to its customers.

Previously, customers had to decide at the dealership whether they wanted to purchase a new Ford vehicle with BlueCruise hardware installed — and they couldn’t go back and change their minds if they opted not to include it. Now, the hardware will come standard on many new vehicles, and customers can decide at any time whether they want to activate it. Most notably, they can choose to pay for it as a monthly or annual subscription.

Most notably, they can choose to pay for it as a monthly or annual subscription

The news comes as the broader auto industry is shifting to subscription products as a major new source of revenue. Everything from...

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Netflix finally streams video games, too

Oxenfree is one of two games available as part of Netflix’s initial cloud gaming test. | Image: Night School Studio

Netflix is kicking off the first public tests of its cloud-streamed games. Beginning Monday, some Netflix subscribers in Canada and the UK will be able to check out Netflix games streamed to select TVs, connected TV devices, and on the web from Netflix.com.

In a blog post, Netflix VP of games Mike Verdu characterized this as a “limited beta test” to a “small number of members,” so not all subscribers in Canada and the UK will have it right away. But even though this initial launch is small, it marks a potentially huge moment for Netflix’s gaming ambitions.

The company first launched its mobile gaming offerings as a free perk for subscribers in November 2021. So far, the company’s titles have only been available on iOS and Android. By...

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Assassin’s Creed Mirage is coming out a week early

Image: Ubisoft

Assassin’s Creed Mirage will now be released on October 5th, which is a week ahead of its original October 12th release date, Ubisoft announced on Monday. The game has also gone gold, indicating that it’s locked for release.

This new title in the Assassin’s Creed series takes place in Baghdad and stars Basim Ibn Ishaq, who appeared in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. It’s supposed to hew a bit closer to the action-adventure nature of earlier Assassin’s Creed games instead of the titles with more RPG mechanics like Valhalla or Odyssey.

Mirage’s new release date also gives a bit more breathing room to what’s already promising to be a packed October. Other games coming out that month include Detective Pikachu Returns, Forza Motorsport, Alan Wake...

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Verizon says it’s weeks away from a major upgrade to rural 5G

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Verizon says its up to 200MHz C-band 5G spectrum has been cleared for use four months ahead of schedule — an upgrade it says will bring more bandwidth and faster throughput to its customers, particularly those in rural areas. The company will use the new spectrum to expand its 5G-based home and business internet business in addition to improving its wireless phone service. The spectrum is available after the FCC validated satellite communications company SES’s move to using higher C-band spectrum earlier this month.

On X (formerly Twitter), people have recently reported seeing 100MHz of spectrum for its 5G Ultra Wideband (UW) service in rural places like Intercourse, Pennsylvania, and Bristol, Virginia, showing Ookla Speedtest...

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Here are the best AirPods deals you can get right now

Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro are currently $50 off, matching their all-time low.

If you know where to look, there are often some great discounts available on Apple’s ever-popular AirPods. Since Apple launched the third-gen AirPods toward the end of 2021, we’ve seen the starting price of the second-gen, entry-level model slowly dip to around $100. And now that the second-gen AirPods Pro have been on the market for nearly a year, we’re seeing their price fall more often, too.

Here, we’ve curated the best deals currently available on each model, including the entry-level AirPods, the AirPods Pro, the third-gen AirPods, and the AirPods Max.

The best AirPods (second-gen) deals

In 2021, Apple lowered the list price of the second-gen AirPods — now the entry-level model — from $159 to $129. It now only sells the...

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Apple TV Plus is getting a new series about Lionel Messi in Miami

Photo by Hector Vivas / Getty Images

The love affair between Lionel Messi and Apple continues. Now that the star is playing in MLS for Miami, with games broadcast across Apple’s streaming service, the company is doing its best to maximize Messi’s appeal. The latest bit of brand synergy comes in the form of a docuseries that will air on Apple TV Plus and be specifically focused on Messi’s move from Paris to Miami. Apple describes the six-part series as “the first and only behind-the-scenes account of Messi’s new chapter.”

If you’re counting, this is actually the second Messi series slated for Apple TV Plus; the first will track his exploits in Qatar leading Argentina to a World Cup victory. Neither series has a title or release date.

Since the deal was made official, Apple...

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Samsung’s Galaxy A54 phone with a lovely 120Hz display is $100 off

The Galaxy A54 takes some cues from the pricier S23 line, but it makes sacrifices for a much lower cost. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Samsung’s midrange sleeper hit of a midrange Android phone is on sale and matching its lowest price to date. The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G is just $349.99 ($100 off) at Amazon in either its black or violet colors, matching its Prime Day Lightning Deal price from a month ago.

The A54 is a midranger with some highlight specs and design elements trickled down from the flagship Galaxy S23 models. Its biggest strength is no doubt the excellent 6.4-inch 1080p OLED screen, which, in addition to being big and bright, also supports a supersmooth 120Hz refresh rate. Considering the screen is the thing you constantly interact with on your phone at just about all times, it’s great to have such a good panel at this kind of price. The A54 also complements...

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Amazon adds AI-generated review summaries so you don’t have to read the comments

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon is using AI to make it easier to see if a product is any good. The company is now rolling out AI-generated review summaries, which boil down hundreds or thousands of Amazon reviews into a one-paragraph blurb explaining what most people like or dislike about a product.

The summaries have been in testing for at least a couple of months, and they’re now more widely available to a “subset” of users in the US on Amazon’s mobile app. Amazon says they’re available “across a broad selection of products.” So far, we’ve seen them on TVs, headphones, tablets, and fitness trackers. But the feature’s availability isn’t completely consistent. The Galaxy Tab A7 has a review summary, but the newer Galaxy Tab A8 does not.

Amazon’s summaries are...

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Saving sites: Pocket’s bookmarking app and its alternatives

Screenshot: Barbara Krasnoff / The Verge

It’s hard to keep up with all the interesting, important, or just plain fun things you come across on the web. You may come across something you just don’t have time to read right now or want to save because it will come in handy later. But as most of us have discovered, creating a bookmark on a browser for each article and site that we want to read later can result in a huge bookmarky mess.

Years ago, I started getting the better of this issue by signing in to Pocket, a popular and long-standing app that allows you to save a bookmarked article to a separate server and then retrieve it to read at your leisure using either a computer or a mobile device. Pocket has been around since 2007. Originally called Read It Later, it started life as...

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The Pixel Watch 2 may not get UWB support after all

The rumored UWB feature was absent from the FCC filing. | Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

You won’t have to wait too much longer for the Pixel Watch 2. Not only have rumors and leaks been gaining steam in recent weeks but FCC filings for the watch also arrived over the weekend. FCC filings generally happen shortly before the official launch and can sometimes reveal new information about a forthcoming product. Unfortunately, based on the filing, it doesn’t look like the rumored ultra wideband (UWB) will be a feature on the next-gen Pixel Watch.

The filings, spotted by 9to5Google, refer to three models: the G4TSL, GC3G8, and GD2WG. The first is the Wi-Fi / Bluetooth model, while the latter two are cellular models. However, references to UWB were nowhere to be found, despite previous rumors. Given that UWB is a form of wireless...

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