The horror and allure of the diagonal monitor

22-degree rotation in macOS: a concept image. | Image: Wes Davis / The Verge

On Windows and Mac, you can rotate your monitor 90 degrees, or even 180 degrees if you’re a vampire, but that’s it. Well, macOS lets you pick 270 degrees, too, but that’s just 90 degrees in the other direction, so don’t get too excited. Linux, on the other hand, has no problem with chaos, so you can rotate your display to any degree you’d like.

Tom’s Hardware published a story about this in late December, pointing to a blog from a developer called xssfox, who said there was one perfect monitor rotation for developers, and it’s not the regular landscape view, nor is it portrait, AKA 90-degree rotation. 22 degrees, they insisted, is perfect — at least on an ultrawide display.

This, they said, is because it “provides the longest line...

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The Castro podcast app and its website is gone

The Verge

Longtime iOS podcasts app Castro has been down since Friday and its website no longer exists a month after the team behind Castro denied rumors that the app was shutting down. Users started reporting on Friday that they’re unable to download new episodes or access Castro’s website. When The Verge reached out to the contacts that were listed on Castro’s site, all of our emails were returned as undeliverable because the domain could not be found.

A Friday Reddit post is full of replies from people unable to use significant parts of the app, and recent reviews from its listing on the iOS App Store tell the same story. When we downloaded the app to verify, we were unable to connect to Castro’s servers to find shows to listen to.

The app has...

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The Acer 57-inch Predator Z57 is a periphery-gobbling curved Mini LED display

The Predator Z57 is very wide. | Image: Acer

Acer announced a few gaming displays ahead of CES 2024 today, but the star of its new lineup is clearly its Predator Z57 — a 57-inch, 120Hz curved display that spans 7680x2160 pixels. It uses MiniLED backlighting for better contrast than a typical LCD monitor, and Acer says it will be out in the second quarter for $2,499.99 in the US and €2,399 in Europe.

The Z57 will come equipped with AMD FreeSync Premium to reduce screen-tearing and gets a 90W USB-C PD port, dual HDMI 2.1 ports, and a single DisplayPort 1.3 port, as well as a built-in KVM switch for using multiple devices with it. Acer says it has 2,304 dimming zones and HDR, with 1,000-nit peak brightness. It’ll also show video from multiple sources at once, using picture-in-picture...

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Acer is bringing its glasses-free 3D screen to a more affordable laptop

This kind of 3D effect is hard to capture in photos, but trust me, the astronaut was popping out of that screen. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Despite the pictures, I solemnly swear that, in person, that astronaut on the new Acer Aspire 3D 15 SpatialLabs Edition was reaching their arms out to me. I’ve rolled my eyes at 3D displays before, but this time, it looked so realistic that I poked the astronaut’s tummy like it was the Pillsbury Doughboy. I wasn’t wearing glasses, and the whole thing was equal parts weird and cool. That’s exactly the sort of thing you expect to see at CES 2024 on some far-out, high-end concept tech, but this 3D laptop is coming out next month for around the same price as a 15-inch M2 MacBook Air.

To be fair, $1,399 for a laptop isn’t nothing — especially when you consider that’s the starting price. However, it’s pretty dang affordable as far as Acer’s...

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Xgimi launches its brightest projector yet, hides another inside a ceiling lamp

It’s a ceiling light, it’s a speaker, it’s a projector, it’s the Xgimi Aladdin. | Image: Xgimi

Xgimi has two new projectors for the US, its brightest ever 4K smart projector and a 3-in-1 unit that’s also a ceiling light and Bluetooth speaker. Both long-throw projectors run Google TV.

Xgimi says its 4K Horizon Max can produce 3,100 ISO Lumens from its “Dual Light 2.0” laser and LED hybrid light source. It’s worth noting, however, that Xgimi has admitted to overstating brightness scores by as much as 27 percent in the past — something it corrected only after facing a lawsuit from Epson.

Its brightness, coupled with the projector’s reported contrast (2000:1), DTS audio support, and color accuracy earned the Horizon Max an IMAX Enhanced certification. That means it can play IMAX Enhanced content from Disney Plus and other streaming...

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Xreal’s new AR glasses are aimed at the Apple Vision Pro

The Air 2 Ultra bring back full-fledged tracking capabilities. | Image: Xreal

Augmented reality company Xreal has revealed a new entry in its Air glasses lineup: the $699 Air 2 Ultra. The Air 2 Ultra glasses, which developers can preorder today for shipment starting in March, are ultimately meant to compete with Meta’s Quest 3 and Apple’s Vision Pro headsets. They’re more full-featured than the $399 Air 2 model that Xreal — formerly Nreal — launched late last year, offering full positional (six degrees of freedom, or 6DOF) tracking in Xreal’s typical sunglasses-style form factor. That makes them ripe for not just watching TV or playing flat-screen games on a projected screen but also running immersive AR apps, which is exactly what Xreal hopes developers will do with them.

Xreal pitches the Air 2 Ultra as a...

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A better all-in-one AI app is finally here

Image: William Joel / The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 20, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, hello, welcome, hi, what’s up, how are you, welcome to the gang, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

It’s our first issue of 2024, a number that still feels deeply strange to type — hope you had a good holiday and a nice break! I spent most of mine sick and then caring for a sick kid, which meant a lot of Elmo and The Office and trying as ever to beat my high score in Holedown.

This week, I’ve also been reading about crypto farms and AI influencersand Tara Reid, breaking in my new Instant Pot air fryer (send me recipes!), poring over Matt Mullenweg’s annual “What’s in My Bag” post,...

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The hubless electric motorcycle with sci-fi style and a great name

Verge Motorcycles’ 360-degree sensors could make the wild TS Ultra safer than anything else on two wheels.

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Apple is sending out checks for ‘batterygate’ class action claims

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

Checks are apparently hitting the bank accounts of people affected by Apple’s decision to slow down iPhones with older batteries back in 2017. MacRumors reported that readers of its site said they’d seen checks deposited to their accounts amounting to $92.17, later updating the story with an embedded post from one of the readers. Indeed, the website set up for the settlement was updated in December to say the payments were expected to go out this month.

So ends the batterygate saga. It began in 2017 when a developer showed that certain iOS 10 updates throttled performance for older phones like the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7. The company wasn’t upfront about the purpose of the slowdown before this, but later said the goal was to keep phones...

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Boeing 737 Max planes are grounded after a hole blew in one mid-flight

An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 in Seattle on January 6, 2024. | Photo by Stephen Brashear / Getty Images

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered the “temporary grounding” of 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 airplanes this morning after a section of fuselage separated from the side of an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday, leaving a gaping hole in the plane. The agency said in its announcement that it will send an Emergency Airworthiness Directive out soon to require an inspection of all of the grounded planes that “will take around four to eight hours per aircraft.”

The New York Times reported yesterday that flight 1282 from Portland International Airport had made an emergency landing back at the same airport just 20 minutes later because of a “pressurization issue” that resulted in a wall of the plane blowing out. According to the Times,...

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The luxe DreameBot L20 Ultra vacuum is selling for its lowest price of $1,049

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

The DreameBot L20 Ultra robot vacuum / mop is one of our top picks when it comes to robovacs, as long as you don’t mind spending a fair bit of coin. But there’s good news today, as the L20 Ultra is now cheaper than ever before. As a reader of The Verge, you can get the premium DreameBot for $1,049 ($450 off) at Wellbots when you use promo code DREAMEVERGE150 for an additional $150 off the list price.

The L20 Ultra is about as easy as it gets for managing a hybrid robot vacuum and mop in a single unit. It’s got a high suction power for thick rugs, AI-powered obstacle avoidance, and mapping software. Plus, it’s compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Siri Shortcuts.

Tabletop games are great, but a digital version is sometimes much...

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Jackery’s rooftop tent is also a powerful solar generator

The retractable panels help generate up to 4.96kWh per day in the western US, according to Jackery. | Image: Jackery

Jackery has converted the humble rooftop tent into a powerful solar generator that lets any car escape the grid for a weekend or longer. Although it’s just a concept on show at CES right now, Jackery says it will put the tent into production sometime near the end of 2024.

The retractable solar panels are said to produce up to 1000W when the car is parked and the tent is open and facing south. That’s enough to generate 4.96kWh per day in the western US, or 4kWh as you move east, according to Jackery’s estimates. There’s no mention of its resilience to wind, but that’s hardly a concern for a concept parked on ugly carpet inside the Las Vegas convention center.

Image: Jackery

A closer look at the system with a...

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Apple revives old fight with Hey after rejecting new calendar app

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The new year was supposed to begin with a brand spanking new calendar app. But roughly 72 hours after the premium email service Hey announced its latest feature — an integrated calendar — co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson received some unwelcome news from Apple: it was rejecting a standalone iOS app for Hey Calendar, because non-paying users couldn’t do anything when they opened the app up.

New users can’t sign up for Hey Calendar directly on the app — Basecamp, which makes Hey, makes users first sign up through a browser. Apple’s App Store rules require most paid services to offer users the ability to pay and sign up through the app, ensuring the company gets up to a 30 percent cut. The controversial rule has a ton of gray areas and...

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Max’s live sports add-on will be free for a few more months

Image: The Verge

Warner Bros. Discovery’s add-on sports tier for Max is going to remain free for a little longer than originally planned, as reported by Deadline. The Bleacher Report Sports add-on was added last October, and while it’s been available at no cost to subscribers so far, it was set to become a paid add-on on February 29th, 2024. However, the switch to a $9.99 monthly fee has been pushed out a few months as Warner Bros. Discovery works out some tech issues.

“The B/R Sports Add-On will continue to be made available to Max subscribers on us for a few more months as we finalize some tech integrations that will ensure a more seamless customer experience with our platform partners,” Max spokesperson Jeff Cusson said in a statement to The Verge.

T...

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Here are the best Kindle deals right now

Amazon’s note-taking Kindle Scribe is on sale starting at $269.99. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your phone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality.

Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its ever-expanding Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons. The bulk of the devices function as simple ebook readers; however, with the Kindle Scribe, Amazon looks to be moving...

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Podcast downloads are down (again) thanks to iOS 17

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apologies for sounding like a broken record, but the numbers are down again. This time by a lot, although that is not unusual for the end of the year. Podtrac reports that, among the top 20 publishers, downloads fell 19 percent month over month and down 24 percent year over year. The report states that the drop is “due largely to modified download behavior by iOS 17 as it continues to be adopted by podcast listeners.”

In September, Apple introduced iOS 17, which included a small change that has had a big impact on downloads. It used to be that if you subscribed to a show, forgot about it for a while, and then returned, all of the intervening episodes would download automatically. But iOS 17 has made it so downloads pick up where you left...

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Apple might be the next Big Tech company facing antitrust charges in the US

Illustration: The Verge

Apple could soon be the subject of a federal antitrust lawsuit, according to a report from The New York Times. The publication says that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is in the “late stages” of an investigation into Apple and its moves to keep customers locked into its ecosystem.

The DOJ’s investigation is looking at how Apple blocks rivals from using iMessage as well as how the Apple Watch works better when used with the iPhone when compared to watches from other brands, the Times reports. Additionally, investigators are reportedly examining how Apple prevents other financial providers from using iPhone-specific payment services.

The investigation isn’t set in stone just yet, as senior DOJ officials are still reviewing the...

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The internet copyright machine wasn’t made for Mickey Mouse

Disney

Earlier this week, Disney’s film Steamboat Willie entered the US public domain after nearly a century — and so did its star Mickey Mouse. It was a turning point for one of the 20th century’s most iconic and rigorously protected pieces of intellectual property, and it was celebrated by an explosion of irreverent Mickey reinterpretations, including at least two film trailers, a horror game, a custom AI model, and a slew of predictably tasteless memes. The original cartoon was also uploaded in full on platforms like YouTube, letting anyone watch it for free.

The change has also been marked by a confusing string of moderation decisions. In the first days of January, Techdirt noted that Disney was apparently still filing claims to block the...

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Read up on Apple’s tremendous Godzilla series, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Image: Apple

Catch up on all of The Verge’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters news updates, reviews, and interviews.

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Google’s Nest Wifi Pro has returned to its best price yet

Google’s Nest Wifi Pro are Wi-Fi 6E-capable mesh routers that come in a range of colors. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

When you’re in the middle of a task, there’s nothing more frustrating than suddenly losing your internet connection — take it from somebody who lost their Wi-Fi signal while writing this very sentence. Thankfully, Google’s Nest Wifi Pro is currently on sale in select colors at Amazon and Best Buy, where a single unit is going for an all-time low of $139.99 ($60 off). Other shades are on sale for $20 more, or you can pick up a set of two or three for around $239.99 ($60 off) and $319.99 ($80 off), respectively.

With its resemblance to a Nest Audio speaker, Google’s mesh router is an attractive gadget that’ll blend in with the rest of your home. At the same time, it’s highly capable, with support for Wi-Fi 6E as well as Thread and...

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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ new titans were inspired by the weird, freakiness of nature

Image: Apple TV Plus

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters VFX supervisor Sean Konrad opens up about the challenges of creating new nightmares for Godzilla’s kaiju canon.

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MSI’s Steam Deck competitor has leaked, and it’s powered by an Intel Meteor Lake chip

Image: @wxnod (X) / VideoCardz

MSI is reportedly readying a new handheld gaming PC to rival Valve’s Steam Deck and competitors like the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go. After a brief teaser yesterday, pictures of MSI’s Claw handheld have appeared on X (formerly Twitter), spotted by VideoCardz. (Yes, Claw is the actual name, so get your GIFs ready in the comments section.)

The Claw looks similar to Asus’ ROG Ally, complete with offset thumbsticks with what appears to be RGB lighting. Leaked benchmarks suggest MSI’s handheld will be powered by one of Intel’s latest Meteor Lake processors, a surprise choice given both Lenovo and Asus opted for AMD’s Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor instead.

pic.twitter.com/XqPU0ECprz

— Алексей (@wxnod) January 5, 2024

Intel doesn’t...

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What to expect at CES 2024

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

No single event of the year delivers more tech news than CES. The annual trade show is the starting point for each year in tech, giving companies a chance to announce their next wave of products or tease the ambitious, far-out, and often strange new projects they’ve been working on behind the scenes.

This year’s show kicks off from Las Vegas on Tuesday, January 9th and runs through Friday, January 12th, but you should expect news to start coming out as soon as, really, right now. Companies have been trickling out announcements over the past week, and many will try to preempt the conference with announcements in the days before the show floor opens up.

There’s also an entire day of keynote presentations ahead of the show’s official start....

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Aurora finalizes design of self-driving trucks it will make with Continental

Image: Aurora

Autonomous vehicle company Aurora Innovation announced the finalization of the design, architecture, and hardware for its Aurora Driver. The technology will power its future lineup of driverless semi trucks that it’s producing with German auto supplier Continental starting in 2027.

Aurora says it still plans on deploying a handful of fully driverless trucks by the end of 2024. But having reached the milestone of finalizing the design of its self-driving hardware and software stack, the company says it’s poised to deploy “thousands” of trucks in just three years.

Aurora — which was founded in 2017 by alumni of Uber, Tesla, and Waymo — has said it plans to deploy 20 fully autonomous trucks this year, with an eye on expanding to about 100...

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Enjoy talking to your new voice-controlled smart bidet

The PureWash E930 gets you the majority of smart toilet features for a fraction of the price. (It’s still pricey, though.) | Image: Kohler

For most people, flushing $10,000 down the drain for an entire smart toilet is a bit much. But if you’ve always wanted a fancy toilet, Kohler is kicking off CES 2024 with a more accessible option. The $2,149 PureWash E930 is a voice-controlled bidet seat that lets you transform your existing toilet into a much smarter one. As in, you can now boss your toilet around.

The appeal of bidet seats is that they let you turn your boring toilet into a much fancier one for a fraction of the price. Kohler’s had bidet seats for years, but the difference with the PureWash E930 is that it has Amazon Alexa and Google Home compatibility, which means you can use your digital assistant of choice to activate the bidet spray, warm air dryer, and UV cleaning...

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Tesla lowers Model Y, S, and X range estimations following exaggeration complaints

Two trims of the Tesla Model Y (pictured) have had their estimated mileage lowered in the US. | Image: Tesla

Tesla has lowered the range estimates across several Model Y, S, and X vehicles in the US, reducing the figure on certain trims by up to six percent. As reported by Electrek, Tesla’s online configurator now displays an estimated range of 285 miles for the Model Y’s Performance trim, down 37 miles from its previous 303-mile estimate.

The Model Y Long Range is down to 310 miles from 330 while the Model X’s Plaid has dropped from 333 miles to 326. Estimates for the Model S Plaid have also been updated — more specifically, the configuration with 19-inch wheels which has fallen from 396 miles to 359. These changes have not been made to Tesla’s UK and EU listings, and ranges across other vehicles like the Cybertruck, Model 3, and the Model Y...

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Microsoft’s keyboards and mice will live on under a unique new partnership

Image: Incase

Microsoft surprised everyone last year by deciding to discontinue its range of popular mice, keyboards, and PC accessories. After decades of Microsoft-branded PC hardware, the software giant has decided to focus on the Surface brand instead. Now a unique partnership will see Microsoft’s PC accessories live on, thanks to accessory maker Incase.

“The products will be the same products, but instead of saying Microsoft they’ll say Incase, designed by Microsoft,” explains Onwards Brands CEO Charlie Tebele in an interview with The Verge. Onwards Brands is the parent company responsible for the Incase, Incipio, Griffin, and Survivor brands that make accessories for laptops and phones.

This is the first time Incase will be offering PC...

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Google broke labor laws when it refused to bargain with YouTube Music contract workers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The National Labor Relations Board ruled that Google’s refusal to bargain with a group of unionized YouTube Music contractors is illegal. The three-member panel decided that despite denials by Google, which owns YouTube Music, and its subcontractor Cognizant, the two are, in fact, joint employers of the Austin-based workers who perform data-related tasks, like finding errors in its charts algorithm.

“At all material times, Respondents Cognizant and Google have codetermined the essential terms and conditions of employment of employees employed at the E. Parmer Lane facility and have been joint employers,” writes the board in its decision (PDF).

Google’s troubles with its YouTube Music contractors first began last year, after a group of...

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Tesla’s first smart home partner is Samsung SmartThings

A “simulated” image from Samsung showing what the Tesla connections in the SmartThings app may look like. | Image: Samsung

Ahead of CES 2024, Tesla and Samsung announced today that they’re teaming up on energy management for smart homes. Users of Samsung’s SmartThings platform will be able to connect to Tesla products like the Powerwall home battery so that you can keep track of things like energy production and your usage.

When connected to the Powerwall, SmartThings Energy can sync with the “Storm Watch” feature so that you’re notified of heavy weather on a Samsung phone or TV, for example. In addition to the Powerwall, SmartThings Energy will be able to connect to other Tesla products, including its electric vehicles, Solar Inverter, and Wall Connector charging solutions.

The collaboration is possible thanks to Tesla’s API, which Samsung claims...

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Why was one of the biggest law podcasts shut down?

The Verge

Just before the holidays, Law360 canceled its long-running and well-regarded podcast Pro Say, much to the surprise of people in law and legal media. Pro Say, which debuted in 2017, was considered one of the top legal news podcasts on the market and was particularly popular among lawyers and law students. It even had its Hollywood moment in 2022 when the titular character of Disney Plus’ She-Hulk: Attorney at Law was shown listening to the podcast.

The decision to cut the show came, seemingly, out of nowhere. Pro Say co-host and Law360 senior reporter Alex Lawson told Hot Pod that the team was notified only two days before they recorded the show’s last episode, which published on December 21st. According to senior producer Steven Trader,...

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