Foxconn puts its empty buildings in Wisconsin up for sale

Image: Matt Jewell

Hey, remember when Foxconn bought a bunch of buildings around Wisconsin just before an election and said it was building “innovation centers” around the state in a transparent attempt to build support for the giant tax credits it was given to build an LCD factory that never arrived? Yeah, it’s selling two of those buildings. The news was first reported by Wisconsin Public Radio, which got a quote from Foxconn saying that “selling its Green Bay property, known as the Watermark building, will add to the vibrancy of the city’s downtown.” Very good.

You might recall two of these buildings, in Eau Claire and Green Bay, because The Verge’s Josh Dzieza went and looked in the windows months after they were purchased and noticed they were empty....

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Fire alarms and bleeding audio at Podcast Movement 2023

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

This story originally ran in Hot Pod Insider, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.

Hope everyone who attended Podcast Movement is replenished and recovered! Last week, I sent a special recap of the conference to Insider subscribers of Hot Pod — which we’re now making available to everyone for free.

Tomorrow, I’ll be back with more in-depth news, analysis, and goodies related to the conference and more.

Want more from Hot Pod Insider? Sign up here — the first month is free.

Podcast Movement 2023: the good, the bad, the uneventful

What does being a “podcaster” mean in 2023? It’s a descriptor that covers YouTube-native creators like Ethan and Hila Klein ofthe H3 Podcast. It applies to...

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Sleep gadgets to help you catch those Zzzs

Sleep trackers, earbuds, and smart beds | Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Sleep tech is more than tracking. Here are the best gadgets I’ve tested that help you fall asleep, stay asleep, or wake up earlier.

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Google and Meta are the best-paying Big Tech companies for engineers

Illustration: The Verge

Google and Meta tend to pay their software engineers more than their peers in Big Tech, according to new data from Blind, an anonymous forum for tech employees.

Apple and Microsoft, meanwhile, pay the least for entry-level engineers on average, though compensation tends to become more comparable across Big Tech for senior talent. Amazon’s promotions can take longer than its peers, and its pay ranges for engineers are the widest.

The data is based on self-reported compensation packages from Blind users from January of last year to this month. While public companies have to report the average annual compensation for all their employees compared to what their CEOs make, this kind of level-specific pay data is closely guarded unless you are...

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Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air with M2 processor is selling for just $899

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

The 13-inch Apple MacBook Air with M2 is on sale for its lowest price to date, dropping to just $899 ($200 off) for the base model at Best Buy. The M2 Air starts with 256GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, and an eight-core M2 processor, though if you prefer stepping up to the 512GB model with faster storage and a 10-core chip, that’s also $200 off and selling for an all-time low of $1,199 at Best Buy.

The M2 MacBook Air earned our top rank of all laptops not long after it was released in fall of 2022; at the time, it started at $1,199. It got a $100 price cut once Apple introduced the larger 15-inch version, so getting that same laptop for just $899 is a bit of a steal now. The M2 Air is an excellent everyday machine that’s super thin and light...

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No, they did not do surgery on a banana over 5G

This banana is being operated by a Da Vinci Xi robot located in Los Angeles. No 5G was involved. | Image: Dr. Kais Rona / Instagram

A couple weeks ago, I asked Vergecast listeners to send me real-world examples of meaningful 5G experiences since the 5G hype-industrial complex so intensely overpromised what the tech would deliver. My go-to example is the impressive network capacity at NFL stadiums, which has allowed thousands of people to simultaneously livestream the Eras Tour at every stop, but that’s basically all I can think of.

What I was not expecting was for so many people to send me versions of a video that shows a banana getting stitches in a robotic surgery device, with the captions claiming that the surgery is being done remotely over 5G. This video has had an incredible journey; it has been reposted dozens of times across multiple platforms, all with the...

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Yahoo Mail isn’t dead and adds AI capabilities

Email really can be the treasure trove of potential generative AI uses, so check your old Yahoo Mail address because Yahoo wants to add more AI capabilities.

Yahoo used Google Cloud’s AI platform to build out its generative AI features. The features were previously tested only on iOS users, but now, it’s available to users on web browsers.

The company said it is adding a shopping feature called Shopping Saver, which finds gift cards, discount codes, and store credits hidden in inboxes and helps draft messages to use those savings even after purchase. Yahoo claims Shopping Saver is “unique to Yahoo Mail.”

Josh Jacobson, senior vice president and general manager of Yahoo Mail, said in a statement that Shopping Saver will “help users save...

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Cheap stuff that doesn’t suck

Art by William Joel / The Verge

Okay, let’s face it — there’s a thrill when you go into a store and try out, or even buy, an $1,800 Samsung Z-Fold 5 or a $999 iPhone 14 Pro. But sometimes, you can feel a real sense of accomplishment when you find that you own something that costs under $50 and turns out to be something you really, really enjoy using.

We asked the staff of The Verge to come up with their favorite inexpensive items, and we got some really interesting answers, ranging from electric screwdrivers and wired earbuds to stick vacuum cleaners and snazzy watch bands.

So here’s some of the neat stuff that we own, use, and like.

Panasonic ErgoFit Wired Earbuds

Jay Peters, news editor

If you just need a pair of affordable headphones that you won’t sweat losing or...

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A Skype app vulnerability could expose your IP address to hackers — and Microsoft has yet to fix it

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Microsoft is reportedly dragging its feet on fixing yet another security vulnerability. This time, it’s a flaw in the Skype mobile app that could let hackers obtain your IP address by opening a message with a link — no clicking required, according to a report from 404 Media.

The flaw, which was uncovered by the independent security researcher Yossi, allows hackers to see a user’s general location by having them open a message containing a link. While Yossi told Microsoft about the flaw earlier this month, 404 Media reports that the company only promised to issue a patch after the outlet reached out.

To attest to the severity of the flaw, it doesn’t seem to matter what website the link takes you to. The researcher demonstrated the flaw...

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The New York Times’ new word game Connections rolls out on mobile

Image: The New York Times

The New York Times’ push into gaming continues as the company is widely launching its next big release: Connections. The game, which has been available in beta since June, is now rolling out basically everywhere the Times games are available. That includes the web, the NYT Games app on both iOS and Android, and “soon,” it will also be available in the “play” tab of the main Times app alongside Wordle, sudoku, and the crossword puzzle.

Connections is essentially a word-matching game. Here’s the official description:

How do you play? You’re presented with 16 words. Your mission? Identify the hidden relationship and organize them into four distinct groups of four. The four category colors are yellow (the most straightforward), green, blue...

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India’s lunar mission beams back video and images from the Moon’s south pole

The Chandrayaan-3 rover leaves India’s lander. | Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been posting images and videos of its lunar rover to X (formerly Twitter) after successfully soft-landing its Chandrayaan-3 lunar module on the Moon’s south pole last week. The posts include footage of the rover’s exit and its first several meters of driving as well as pictures from the rover itself and data from the mission’s instruments.

The first video of the rover, posted on Friday, shows it leaving the Chandrayaan-3 lander on a ramp and driving onto the Moon. The ISRO posted the video in a thread that also included footage from the lander approaching its landing site and kicking up dust as it touched down on the surface.

... ... and here is how the Chandrayaan-3 Rover ramped down...

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Analogue is making a ‘highly limited’ Pocket that glows in the dark

Image: Analogue

The next version of the Analogue Pocket positively glows. Analogue revealed a new edition of its retro handheld today, and while it’s the same as the original functionally, this one glows in the dark. When the lights are on, the device is a pale green color, and the company says that the plastic housing can glow for up to eight hours when charged by various light sources (including incandescent light bulb, direct sunlight, or blacklight). It is, naturally, called the Pocket Glow.

It’ll also likely be pretty tough to get your hands on. The Glow will cost $249.99 (a bump from the $219 of the original version), and the company says it will be available in “highly limited quantities.” It goes on sale on September 1st at 11AM ET on A...

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Tech leaders have spent $800 million trying to build a new city beside San Francisco

Above, a sight that will not be visible from Flannery Associates’ new city. | Photo by Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Over the past five years, a company named Flannery Associates has spent $800 million scooping up land outside San Francisco — without explaining who’s behind the effort or what they plan to do with the land. Now, local officials who’d been looking into the matter finally have their answer: a group of wealthy and recognizable tech leaders are behind the venture, and they’re hoping to use the land to build a brand new city, according to reports from The New York Timesand Bloomberg.

The reports say that LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Andreessen Horowitz investors Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, Emerson Collective founder Laurene Powell Jobs, and other tech leaders and investors have put money into the...

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Samsung prices its 27-inch 5K monitor at $1,599 — just like Apple’s Studio Display

The ViewFinity S9 is a 27-inch 5K display. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Several months after announcing the 27-inch ViewFinity S9 desktop monitor at CES 2023, Samsung is finally circling back around with pricing and availability details. Let’s get right to it: the 5K display, which is being positioned as a prosumer option meant to rival monitors from LG and Apple, will cost $1,599.99 and you can now order it directly from Samsung and other retailers including Amazon.

$1,599 is the same starting MSRP as Apple’s Studio Display — also a 27-inch 5K monitor. It’s rumored (though not confirmed) that these two screens could be using near-identical panels if not the exact same component. A 5K display is incredibly sharp at 27 inches, but by the rest of today’s standards, this display feels a bit dated: there’s no...

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Nothing OS 2.0 is available now for Nothing’s first phone

Last year’s Nothing Phone 1 is getting essential Glyph notifications and more. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Nothing’s Phone 1 got a major OS update, bringing software parity between the company’s first device and its latest Phone 2. Nothing officially announced the Nothing OS 2.0 release on Discord, letting owners of the Phone 1 know that “exciting new features, enhanced customization, and improved functionality” are coming to the early adopters.

As covered last week, this Nothing OS 2.0 update is based on Android 13, which is what currently ships on Nothing’s latest device. Nothing also has a beta OS release that runs atop Android 14, which works on Phone 1.

Nothing OS 2.0 for Phone 1 includes the “monochromatic visual identity” the company has heavily leaned into for its latest device. It includes new Quick Settings widgets that let you flip...

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Samba de Amigo just isn’t quite the same without maracas controllers

The cutely deranged monkey mascot is back, and this time, he’s dancing with Joy-Con-powered maracas. | Image: Sega

The halcyon days of plastic instrument controllers may be long gone, but there hasn’t been a moment in recent memory where I yearned for it more than while playing Samba de Amigo: Party Central on the Nintendo Switch. The new music rhythm game from Sega launching August 29th ($39.99 standard edition / $49.99 deluxe edition) successfully resurrects the long-dormant quirky darling of the Dreamcast. But as fun as it is, I just can’t shake a strange feeling that something is missing — wait, I know exactly what it’s missing. It’s missing the joyous shake of real maracas in your hands.

Back when the first Samba de Amigo came out in 2000 on the Sega Dreamcast (after debuting in arcades in 1999), it was meant to be played with purpose-built...

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The end of the Googleverse

For two decades, Google Search was the invisible force that determined the ebb and flow of online content. Now, for the first time, its cultural relevance is in question.

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WhatsApp could soon let you share original quality pictures and videos

Image: The Verge

WhatsApp is working on a feature that will let you share original quality photos and videos. As spotted by WABetaInfo, the app now includes an option to “select original quality photos or videos” in version 2.23.18.12 of the WhatsApp beta for Android.

The app will treat the images and videos as documents, however. A screenshot taken by WABetaInfo shows a new option to “choose from gallery” in the app’s document picker, which specifically mentions the ability to send original quality photos and videos.

Previously, you had to use a workaround to send original quality media by changing their file extensions to PDF or DOC, but this new feature should help you avoid that process completely. The ability to send original quality photos and...

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Google’s AI-powered note-taking app is the messy beginning of something great

Illustration: The Verge

What if you could have a conversation with your notes? That question has consumed a corner of the internet recently, as companies like Dropbox, Box, Notion, and others have built generative AI tools that let you interact with and create new things from the data you already have in their systems.

Google’s version of this is called NotebookLM. It’s an AI-powered research tool that is meant to help you organize and interact with your own notes. (Google originally announced it earlier this year as Project Tailwind but quickly changed the name.) Right now, it’s really just a prototype, but a small team inside the company has been trying to figure out what an AI notebook might look like. Ultimately, if NotebookLM sticks around, it’ll probably...

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Google might recreate Apple’s satellite SOS on Android

A Pixel Fold. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Google appears to be working on a satellite SOS feature for Google Messages that would let users text emergency services from remote areas without a conventional cell signal. As spotted by developer Neïl Rahmouni, early code in the Google Messages app shows work on an integration with Garmin and its emergency Garmin Response service. Google also appears to have started work on a UI for messaging emergency responders.

Garmin’s emergency service uses the Iridium satellite network, which Iridium says is capable of delivering a signal “anywhere on Earth.” There is a big catch, though, when it comes to using satellite SOS services from Garmin: it requires a $15 per month subscription on Garmin’s own devices. So while this would be a great...

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iRobot’s two newest Roombas bring more mopping

The Roomba Combo i5 Plus (left) and Combo j5 Plus (right) are new robot vacuum mops from iRobot. | Images: iRobot

iRobot is beefing up its robot mop offerings by launching two new combo models: the Roomba Combo j5 Plus ($799) and the Roomba Combo i5 Plus ($549). These are combination cleaning bots that can mop and sweep simultaneously and come with a charging dock that also automatically empties their dustbins.

When the company’s first robot mop / vacuum, the Combo j7 Plus, launched last year, it was a few years behind the competition and slightly underwhelming. While the robotic arm on the j7 that raises and lowers the mop up and over the robot to avoid your carpets entirely is pretty cool, the mopping itself is less than stellar. (iRobot has had a very effective mopping-only line, the Braava Jet, for several years.)

These new models don’t have...

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UK flights delayed after air traffic control suffers ‘technical issue’

British Airways and other flights are affected during this busy bank holiday. | Photo by Urbanandsport / NurPhoto via Getty Images

The UK is suffering a major disruption to air travel due to unspecific “technical issues” affecting flight control computer systems. Britain’s National Air Traffic Services (NATS) says it has “applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety,” with several airlines reporting disruptions felt at airports across the world. Hundreds of flights in and out of the UK have been delayed, according to The Guardian, with delays of up to 12 hours reported.

Despite the disruption, NATS says that UK airspace is not currently closed (as of 12:40PM UK time) during this very heavily traveled bank holiday Monday. NATS provided no indication for when the issue might be resolved.

We are currently experiencing a technical issue and have applied...

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Dolby might have found a way to make built-in TV speakers sound much better

Image: Dolby

Dolby Atmos is about to get a whole lot more adaptable. Today, Dolby is announcing Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, which it describes as “a new feature that seamlessly pairs together a TV’s sound system with accessory wireless speakers to deliver a more extensive and immersive Dolby Atmos sound experience.” Since it factors your TV speakers into the equation, FlexConnect doesn’t necessarily require a soundbar at the center of everything. TCL will become the first TV manufacturer to offer FlexConnect with its upcoming 2024 TV lineup, and it also plans to release a line of wireless speakers optimized to support the feature.

Dolby says that FlexConnect “intelligently optimizes the sound for any room layout and speaker setup, offering the freedom...

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The iPad Pro could get bigger screens and OLED next year, but it should do more

My 2021 iPad Pro 11-inch. | Image: Wes Davis / The Verge

As the third tier of Apple’s connected personal computing devices, the iPad sits in an awkward place in 2023. It’s a supremely capable product, there’s no doubt about that. It’s powerful and responsive; most of the models have beautiful screens; and its interface is friendly. But it’s also incomplete and insistent on doing things the Apple-prescribed way. And even as it dominates the tablet landscape, sales of iPads have withered since 2020, as Mark Gurman noted in Bloomberg today. In short: it needs more.

To be clear, I like my 2021 iPad Pro a lot. It’s a nice device for reading and solid for watching TV in bed. It’s also indispensable for following recipes while I’m cooking. But when Steve Jobs first introduced the iPad in 2010, saying...

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Xiaomi’s 13 Ultra camera kit is more fun than it should be

Honestly, I’d keep this grip attached at all times just for the wrist strap.

Camera grips are back, baby.

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Threads for web, AI for bookmarks, and the best new car tech

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 3, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. Thanks to everyone who sent stuff in this week — we’re starting to get the hang of how this all works, and I really hope it’s fun and useful! I know I’ve already downloaded a terrifying number of new apps thanks to y’all.

Only one housekeeping thing today: Installer now has an RSS feed! You can add this link to any RSS reader, and it should work (let me know if you run into issues). Also, Installer’s new homepage has every edition ever — all two of them so far. We’re still working on some cool new ways you can subscribe and contribute to Installer, but hopefully, we’ve got all the basics covered now.

This week, I’ve been watching season 3...

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SpaceX’s delayed Falcon 9 has launched four astronauts into orbit

The Falcon-9 launches NASA’s Crew-7 mission into space. | Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge

SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center this morning at 3:27AM ET, NASA announced today. The rocket pushed four astronauts on NASA’s Crew-7 mission into orbit before a scheduled Sunday morning dock with the International Space Station (ISS).

The mission brings astronauts from four countries to the ISS — Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA, the European Space Agency’s Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furakawa, and Konstantin Borisov, a Russian cosmonaut. When the Dragon spacecraft — named Endurance — autonomously docks with the ISS, it will bring the station’s crew number up to 11 for a few days until board the capsule and return to Earth in a few days.

“Aboard station,” says NASA...

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Judge dismisses Republican lawsuit against Google over Gmail’s spam filtering

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A federal judge in California’s eastern district has dismissed the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) lawsuit against Google over the company’s alleged “discriminatory” spam filtering, according to The Washington Post.

The suit complained Google intentionally sent RNC political emails to Gmail users’ spam folders, and the RNC sought restitution for “donations it allegedly lost as a result” of those lost emails. The RNC cited a North Carolina State University study that found Gmail was more likely to mark emails from Republican campaigns as spam. One of the study’s authors spoke to the Postin May last year, saying its findings had been misrepresented. Muhammad Shahzad noted that it only tested default email settings — in tests on...

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Linus Sebastian addresses error handling and ethics in a new video

Linus Sebastian discusses changes coming to Linus Tech Tips. | Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge

Linus Media Group (LMG) founder Linus Sebastian explained LMG’s HR policies and how it will improve accuracy and ethics in a video posted to YouTube last night.

Following a 10-day pause to evaluate its processes, Sebastian said the company held meetings with team members to “dig through every misstep” and identify “communication and ... teamwork challenges” that resulted in accusations of LMG’s quality issues. He added that the company will no longer insist on uploading videos daily and will slow down to verify its content is accurate.

Sebastian did not directly address sexual harassment allegations recently levied by a former employee, Madison Reeve. Sebastian detailed changes to its HR structure over the year, including hiring...

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The last-gen Blink Outdoor security camera is half off today

It may not feature person detection like the new model, but the third-gen Blink Outdoor is still a good security camera.for the price. | Image: Amazon

As we enter the last week of August, it’s time to prepare for a jam-packed fall gadget season. Many companies, including Apple, will likely release new gadgets. Shopping events like Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days and Black Friday are set to take place, and of course, we can’t forget the holidays. Altogether, it amounts to a very busy season, particularly for the mail carriers who’ll be delivering all your purchases – and for the porch pirates, who’ll try to steal all of them.

If you want to keep your packages secure, the third-gen Blink Outdoor security camera with the Sync Module 2 included is on sale starting at $49.99 ($50 off) from Amazon and Best Buy. The last-gen budget-friendly camera will help you keep tabs on your goods even...

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