Meta appoints new Trump-friendly policy chief

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

Meta is shaking up its policy team ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, with global policy head Nick Clegg stepping down after seven years at the company. He’ll be replaced by Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican and Meta’s current vice president of policy.

In a post on Facebook, Clegg says it’s the “right time” for him to leave Meta, adding that he’ll spend the next few months “handing over the reins” to Kaplan. “Joel is quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time — ideally placed to shape the company’s strategy as societal and political expectations around technology continue to evolve,” Clegg says.

Kaplan served as the White House deputy chief of staff during George W. Bush’s administration and joined Meta in 2011. He drew some controversy in 2018 when he supported Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during a Senate hearing about sexual assault allegations, which reportedly angered some employees. Kaplan also recently joined Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance at the New York Stock Exchange.

Despite butting heads with Trump in the past, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has attempted to flatter the President-elect in recent months, with M...

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The best deals on MacBooks right now

You can save as much as $200 on an M3 MacBook Air right now. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple currently sells MacBooks equipped with its own M-series chips in a wide range of sizes and price points. It discontinued the M1 MacBook Air to make room for the latest models, but some retailers are still selling the last-gen laptop starting at $649 — a far cry from the $2,499 starting price of the latest 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro. Purchasing a new MacBook can certainly be a pricey endeavor, but thankfully, finding a deal on more recent models is actually not that difficult. Apple has recently shaken up the starting RAM for several models, creating more options than ever before and resulting in steeper discounts on older models.

Although Macs may not experience perpetual discounts, it’s not uncommon to see various models discounted by as much as $400. Alternatively, purchasing refurbished options directly from Apple is another way to save money without waiting for the changing deal winds to blow your way. It’s also the only option to find certain SKUs of older models as Apple continues to move forward on newer releases. Apple’s refurbished store provides a one-year warranty on all products and generally offers discounts of up to 15 to 20 percent off the price of a new unit.

But if you want to buy new and you’re looking to save whatever you can, here are the best MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini deals available.

The best MacBook Air deals

M1 MacBook Air

TheM1 MacBook Air was considered Apple’s entry-level laptop before the M3 model’s arrival prompted Apple to stop selling it directly in its online and brick-and-mortar stores. But while the redesigned M2 version of the MacBook Air (which has been with us for a while as well) seems poised to take over as the top value choice, the 2020 version with an M1 processor and fanless design remains available at some retailers as a solid budget option. It’s best suited for typical productivity work, with a comfortable keyboard, an excellent trackpad, and all-day battery life. For many people, the M1 Air still ticks the right boxes when it comes to performance and price, even if it’s long enough in the tooth to have been fully dethroned in our guide to the best laptops.

The base MacBook Air with the M1 chip comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It’s becoming harder to find in new condition, but Walmart has committed to keeping it around for the foreseeable future and is currently discounting it to $649 ($350 off) — a special sale price that’s hung around since the retailer ran its counter-Prime Day promotions in July. The M1 Air may be a few years old now, but it’s still hard to beat in terms of value, especially when it comes to everyday performance and battery life.

M2 MacBook Air

The M2 MacBook Air is a super slim, lightweight laptop with a 1080p webcam and a handy magnetic charger that frees up one of its two USB-C ports. Although its M2 processor didn’t kick-start a revolution like the M1 generation, it’s a great performer for any user, including more demanding creatives.

It does have some slight downsides, though, including slower storage in the base 256GB configuration and a notch cutout in its otherwise excellent screen. But even so, Apple hasn’t offered a more travel-friendly laptop since the days of the polarizing 12-inch MacBook, and this prior-gen model was once good enough to top our list of the best laptops.

The M2-powered MacBook Air 13 from 2022 seems to be on its way out, with availability for the 15-inch version waning. However, you can get the 13-inch M2 model with 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and an eight-core GPU at Amazon and Best Buy for $799 ($200 off). You can also get the same model at Amazon with 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD starting at $949 ($250 off); however, that’s a significant premium for a configuration that offers less RAM than the base model.

It’s a bit harder to find discounts on the 15-inch MacBook Air M2. You can still find its base configuration with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD at retailers like Best Buy for $1,299 — the MSRP — but you’d be better off going with an M3 model that’s on sale.

M3 MacBook Air

The M1 Air and its wedge had to perish for the M3 MacBook Air to exist. Apple’s updated entry-level laptops arrived in both 13- and 15-inch variants simultaneously this time, bringing with them slightly faster performance and a slate of minor upgrades. Apple added Wi-Fi 6E, for one, along with an additional Thunderbolt port that allows you to use two external displays when the lid is closed. They also continue to offer 18 hours of battery life and a MagSafe charging port, though the M3 Air starts at a slightly higher price than its predecessor at $1,099. That said, Apple recently discontinued the M3 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM and now considers the 16GB / 256GB model as the starting configuration.

Right now, the 13-inch M3 MacBook Air is on sale at Amazon and Best Buy in its new entry-level configuration with an 8-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD for $899 ($200 off), which is only $56 more than the lowest price to date. You can also find a $200 discount on the 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD model with a 10-core GPU, which drops it to $1,099 at Amazon and B&H Photo, which is $50 more than its all-time low.

As for the 15-inch MacBook Air M3, you can currently grab it with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage starting at $1,099 ($200 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. You can also get it in the 16GB / 512GB configuration at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo starting at $1,299 ($200 off).

The best MacBook Pro deals

During its “Scary Fast” event in 2023, Apple announced new MacBook Pros that use M3 processors — including a new 14-inch model that replaced the 13-inch M2 model. Apple followed the M3 models up with M4-based machines in October, and we’re already starting to see the discounts on them. That being said, the last-gen M3 models are often the better bargain, as they’re still relatively easy to find and receive steeper discounts.

M3 and M3 Pro MacBook Pro

The entry point into the MacBook Pro world is a MagSafe-equipped MacBook Pro that uses the existing 14-inch design and slightly pares it down. The 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro has the same 3024 x 1964 resolution display and 120Hz refresh rate as its pricier siblings, and in addition to a MagSafe charging port, it has an SD card slot and HDMI port. However, it starts with just 8GB of RAM and lacks the third USB-C / Thunderbolt port found on the M3 Pro and M3 Max models (as well as Thunderbolt 4 speeds).

The M3 MacBook Pro may be a bit of an odd middle child in some ways, but it’s still a very good laptop — especially if you can find a deal that puts more price distance between the M3 model and the M3 Pro version. Availability for the base model with 8GB and 512GB of storage seems to be waning as Apple standardizes 16GB of RAM across its lineup, though, thankfully, you can still find various configurations on sale, including one with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage at B&H Photo for $1,299 ($500 off), which is an all-time low. If you value storage more than RAM, the 8GB / 1TB model is going for $1,399 ($200 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. Best Buy is also selling the step-up configuration with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for $1,499 ($200 off).

The 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros of late 2023 are another round of spec-bump models, much like their previous 2022 incarnations. Now starting with the M3 Pro chip (or the speedier M3 Max) and 18GB of base RAM instead of 16GB, the new models remain targeted at creatives doing content work like video editing, photo processing, and other graphical work. Like their predecessors and the M1 Pro generation before that, they offer MagSafe charging, three USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI-out, and a full-size SD card slot, with prices starting at $1,999 for the 14-inch and $2,499 for the 16-inch. You can, of course, spec them up the wazoo if you’re willing to pay more, as exhibited by the review unit Apple sent us of the 16-inch model, which cost an eye-watering $7,199.

But rest assured, versions that actual humans buy now receive regular discounts. For instance, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro (11-core CPU / 14-core GPU), 18GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD is going for $1,599 ($400 off) at B&H Photo. It was $500 off not long ago, however, making the current discount good but not that good. The step-up model with 18GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, meanwhile, is down to $2,099 ($200 off) at Best Buy.

As for the base 16-inch Pro — which comes with an M3 Pro chip, 18GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD — it’s on sale starting at $2,199 ($200 off) at Best Buy, which is $200 more than the lowest price to date.

M4 and M4 Pro MacBook Pro

Apple released the M4-series MacBook Pro on November 8th. Notably, the base 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro is the first to launch with 16GB of RAM — double the previous generation’s starting memory — and 512GB of storage for the same $1,599 starting price as the last-gen model. It also picks up a third Thunderbolt 4 port, which is positioned on the right side and supports dual external monitors while the lid is opened. Also new this year is an upgraded 12-megapixel webcam that supports Center Stage and a new Desk View feature, plus the option to add a nano-texture display for an extra $150. It’s also available in space black.

The 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips also received additional RAM, bringing them up to 24GB. They start with 512GB of storage, too, and retail for $1,999 and $2,499, respectively. While the total port selection hasn’t changed compared to their respective M3 Pro and M3 Max counterparts, you’ll get faster Thunderbolt 5 ports on these more substantial models. That’s in addition to the SD slot, dedicated full-sized HDMI port, and 3.5mm jack. They also have the upgraded 12-megapixel Center Stage webcam with Desk View and the optional nano-texture display option.

Deals for the M4 MacBook Pro have already started to roll in. Right now, for example, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is down to $1,459 ($140 off) at Amazon, which is $61 more than the all-time low. Meanwhile, the 24GB / 512GB variant with an M4 Pro chip (12-core CPU / 16-core GPU) is down to $1,819 ($180 off) in select colors at Amazon, which is $120 more than the record low.

The base 16-inch MacBook Pro is also on sale with an M4 Pro chip, 24GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage for $2,249 ($250 off) B&H Photo, which is $50 more than the lowest price to date.

The best Mac Mini deals

There’s a new Mac Mini in town, as M4-based models arrived earlier this year. Apple increased the starting RAM from 8GB to 16GB, as it did with the 2024 MacBook Pro and 2024 iMac. That makes Apple’s newest desktop an excellent value, even if you factor in the more aggressive discounts we’ve recently seen on the M2 Mac Mini.

M2 and M2 Pro Mac Mini

The 2023 Mac Mini comes in a base configuration with Apple’s M2 processor or a more powerful configuration with the M2 Pro, both of which have proven to be some of Apple’s most value-packed computers to date. The M4 version is poised to take that crown, but the M2 Mac Mini is still kicking around and starts with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD for $599, while the M2 Pro model features a superior processor, gigabit ethernet, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage for $1,299.

The latter model also features an expanded port selection, from two USB-C ports to four. It’s almost like getting an M2 Pro-powered MacBook Pro 14 but in desktop form. However, keep in mind that buying any Mac Mini means you have to provide your own mouse, keyboard, and monitor. Right now, the base model with an M2 chip, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD is on sale for $499 ($100 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo.

M4 and M4 Pro Mac Mini

Deals on the last-gen Mac Mini are still available, sure, but we’re also starting to see discounts on the newest models. The M4 Mac Mini starts with an M4 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage for $599. That’s an incredible value for a tiny desktop computer that can rival the Mac Studio and Mac Pro when it comes to certain tasks, including light gaming, 4K video editing, and 3D modeling. Vertically, the M4 Mac Mini is a fair bit thicker than the M2 model at 2 inches tall, yet it measures a mere 5 inches wide and 5 inches deep.

In addition to the odd decision to place the power button on its underside, Apple moved the 3.5mm headphone jack and two of its five USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 ports to the front. The rear features an additional three thunderbolt ports, HDMI-out, and a gigabit ethernet port. You can also get the Mac Mini with an M4 Pro chipset starting at $1,399, which comes with faster Thunderbolt 5 storage and the option to upgrade to 10-gigabit ethernet for another $100.

Right now, you can get the base Mac Mini at Amazon with an M4 chip, 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD for $579.99 (about $19 off). You can step up to the version with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD for $743 ($56 off) at Amazon, which remains its second-best price to date. The M4 Pro model is also a bit cheaper at Amazon, where you can pick it up for $1,369.99 (about $29 off).

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Net neutrality eviscerated by appeals court ruling

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images

Federal net neutrality rules, which briefly came back from the dead under the Biden administration, have been struck down by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The three-judge panel ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not have the authority to impose net neutrality rules on internet service providers (ISPs). The FCC sought to reclassify ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act in order to impose policies meant to prevent them from discriminating against different internet traffic, like by slowing speeds or blocking content.

But the judges disagreed with the agency’s interpretation of how ISPs could be classified and were emboldened by the recent downfall of Chevron deference, a legal doctrine that instructed courts to defer to regulatory agencies in many cases. After the Supreme Court did away with that principle in 2024, courts became more free to favor their own interpretations over the judgment of expert agencies. Net neutrality was immediately seen as a prime target to be struck down without Chevron. While the DC Circuit Court of Appeals upheld previous iterations of net neutrality, the Sixth Circuit judges note that it relied on Chevron to do so. “Unlike past challenges that the D.C. Circuit considered under Chevron, we no longer afford deference to the FCC’s reading of the statute,” they write.

“We acknowledge that the workings of the Internet are complicated and dynamic, and that the FCC has significant expertise in overseeing ‘this technical and complex area,’” the ruling says, citing an earlier decision. After the fall of Chevron, it continues, “that ‘capability,’ if you will, cannot be used to overwrite the plain meaning of the statute.”

This left the judges free to wax philosophical about phrases like “offering of a capability” and “information services,” finely parsing the distinction between those and more heavily regulated telecommunications services. “The existence of a fact or a thought in one’s mind is not ‘information’ like 0s and 1s used by computers,” one part of the ruling reads. It asserts that “speaking reduces a thought to sound, and writing reduces a thought to text ... during a phone call, one creates audio information by speaking, which the telephone service transmits to an interlocutor, who responds in turn,” but “crucially, the telephone service merely transmits that which a speaker creates; it does not access information.”

Net neutrality was already in danger, even before this rulingcame out — in a suit filed against the FCC by broadband industry associations. The appeals court had already blocked the net neutrality rules from taking effect. During oral arguments in October, the three Republican-appointed judges prodded attorneys about the correct interpretation of the Communications Act and about deference to agency expertise. With President-elect Donald Trump — under whom net neutrality was previously repealed — due to take office in mere weeks, this could be the last we hear about the attempt to reclassify broadband providers as common carriers for a while.

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel called on lawmakers to take up the mantle of creating rules to safeguard the open internet. “Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open, and fair,” she says in a statement. “With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open internet principles in federal law.”

Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr, Trump’s pick to lead the agency once he assumes office, issued a lengthy statement calling the ruling “a good win for the country.” He calls net neutrality rules an attempt by the Biden administration to “expand the government’s control over every feature of the Internet ecosystem” and says the push for the rules was a waste of time. While he’s pleased with the ruling, he adds, “The work to unwind the Biden Administration’s regulatory overreach will continue.”

Former FCC Chair Ajit Pai, who led the movement to repeal the rule during the first Trump administration, took a victory lap on X. “For a decade, I’ve argued that so-called ‘net neutrality’ regulations are unlawful (not to mention pointless),” he wrote. “Today, the Sixth Circuit held exactly that.”

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The US government announced a ‘historic’ nuclear energy deal

Two cooling towers being rehabilitated for nuclear power generation under Microsoft at Crane Clean Energy Center, previously known as Three Mile Island, stand tall over the residential and farm lands to the east across the Susquehanna River, on Wednesday, October 30th, 2024, in Middletown, Pennsylvania. | Photos by Wesley Lapointe for The Washington Post via Getty Images

The General Services Administration (GSA), which manages government buildings, just announced a major nuclear energy contract. The announcement comes on the heels of several big tech companies making a flurry of nuclear energy deals last year.

The 10-year, $840 million contract is for 10 million megawatt-hours of electricity, which the GSA says is the equivalent of what’s needed for more than 1 million homes annually. The agency awarded the contract to Constellation, which operates the nation’s largest nuclear fleet, and recently announced an agreement with Microsoft to restart a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island. Nuclear energy makes up a significant portion of the GSA deal, about 4 million megawatt-hours, according to Constellation spokesperson Paul Adams**.**

Silicon Valley is increasingly turning to nuclear energy to satiate rising electricity demand from AI data centers. The federal government is the nation’s single largest energy consumer, making this contract a big boon to the nuclear industry.

“This agreement is another powerful example of how things have changed.”

“Frustratingly ... nuclear energy was excluded from many corporate and government sustainable energy procurements. Not anymore. This agreement is another powerful example of how things have changed,” Joe Dominguez, Constellation president and CEO, said in a press release. “The United States government joins Microsoft and other entities to support continued investment in reliable nuclear energy that will allow Constellation to relicense and extend the lives of these critical assets.”

Constellation says it generates 10 percent of the nation’s carbon pollution-free energy. A majority of its output is nuclear energy, but it also produces hydro, wind, and solar power. It also generates electricity from gas-fired power plants, although the company has set a goal of reaching 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040 compared to close to 90 percent today.

Constellation and the GSA declined to answer questions about how much of the electricity included in the contract will come from each source aside from nuclear power plants**.** Altogether, it’s the biggest energy procurement contract the GSA has signed in its history.

“This historic procurement locks in a cost-competitive, reliable supply of nuclear energy,” GSA administrator Robin Carnahan said in a press release. “We’re demonstrating how the federal government can join major corporate clean energy buyers in spurring new nuclear energy capacity and ensuring a reliable, affordable supply of clean energy for everyone.”

The contract will allow Constellation to extend licenses for existing nuclear power plants as well as “invest in new equipment and technology” that should result in 135 megawatts of additional capacity. The GSA agreed to purchase 2.4 million megawatt-hours of electricity from that added capacity over 10 years. Outside of GSA buildings, the deal also extends to 13 other agencies, including the departments of Veterans Affairs and Transportation as well as the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the National Park Service, the Social Security Administration, and the US Mint.

The GSA is framing the contract as a way to lock in more affordable prices as data centers drive up electricity demand and increase competition for limited clean energy sources:

In the face of uncertainty over future electricity prices and increasing electricity demand from data centers and AI facilities, for instance, this contract provides federal agencies with budgetary stability and protections from future price increases by keeping their electricity costs fixed for 10 years, while also continuing to bolster the domestic nuclear industry.

Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft have all inked splashy nuclear energy deals over the past year. In September of last year, Microsoft and Constellation announced a plan to restart a shuttered reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, the site of the worst nuclear energy accident in US history.

The Biden administration has also made nuclear energy a key part of its plan to transition the US away from fossil fuels to energy sources that don’t cause climate change. Last October, the Department of Energy announced a $1.52 billion loan to help restart a retired nuclear generating station in Covert Township, Michigan. And while President-elect Donald Trump plans to undo progress made toward clean energy, the Trump campaign agenda included efforts to “support nuclear energy production.”

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Microsoft has a new ergonomic keyboard, but it’s expensive and made by Incase

Image: Incase

Incase, the brand that took over Microsoft’s accessories line, has revealed a compact ergonomic keyboard designed by the company. With a price of $119.99, the wireless keyboard features a split, contoured design, a cushioned palm rest, and a dedicated Copilot button.

The keyboard also comes with “ultra-responsive” scissor keys with 1.3mm travel, meaning you won’t have to press down very far when typing. You can connect up to three devices to the keyboard via Bluetooth, and it’s powered by two AAA batteries that Incase says will last up to 36 months.

Image: Incase

After Microsoft discontinued its non-Surface line of mice, keyboards, and other PC accessories in 2023, Incase partnered with the tech giant to bring back its designs while using the same components and supply chain as Microsoft.

Though this Incase ergonomic keyboard is nearly as expensive as the $129.99 Logitech Ergo K860, it’s still much cheaper than higher-end ergonomic options, like the Nuio Flow and ZSA Voyager, both of which cost $365.

Incase says it will release the keyboard in “early 2025.” The company has several other Microsoft-designed accessories planned as well, but it currently only has two mice and a Bluetooth keyboard available for purchase on its website.

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Apple will pay $95 million to people who were spied on by Siri

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple has agreed to a $95 million settlement with users whose conversations were inadvertently captured by its Siri voice assistant and potentially overheard by human employees. The proposed settlement, reported by Bloomberg, could pay many US-based Apple product owners up to $20 per device for up to five Siri-enabled devices. It still requires approval by a judge.

If approved, the settlement would apply to a subset of US-based people who owned or bought a Siri-enabled iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook, iMac, HomePod, iPod touch, or Apple TV between September 17th, 2014 and December 31st, 2024. A user would also need to meet one other major criteria: they must swear under oath that they accidentally activated Siri during a conversation intended to be confidential or private. Individual payouts will depend on how many people claim the money, so if you apply, you could end up receiving less than the $20 maximum cap.

The initial class action suit against Apple followed a 2019 report by The Guardian, which alleged Apple third-party contractors “regularly hear confidential medical information, drug deals, and recordings of couples having sex” while working on Siri quality control. While Siri is supposed to be triggered by a deliberate wake word, a whistleblower said that accidental triggers were common, claiming something as simple as the sound of a zipper could wake Siri up. Apple told The Guardian that only a small portion of Siri recordings were passed to contractors, and it later offered a formal apology and said it would no longer retain audio recordings.

The plaintiffs in the Apple lawsuit — one of whom was a minor — claimed their iPhones had recorded them on multiple occasions using Siri, sometimes after they hadn’t uttered a wake word.

Apple wasn’t the only company accused of letting people hear confidential recordings. Google and Amazon also use contractors that listen in on recorded conversations, including accidentally captured ones, and there’s a similar suit against Google pending.

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Windows 11’s dynamic wallpapers revealed by former Microsoft designer

Image: Sergey Kisselev (Behance)

Microsoft has been working on dynamic animated wallpapers for Windows 11 for a few years, and now a former designer has revealed exactly what they look like. Sergey Kisselev, a former motion designer and 3D artist at Microsoft, has detailed his work on the dynamic animations for Windows 11 that were originally supposed to ship in 2023 but have likely been canceled now.

Kisselev worked on Windows design elements and Microsoft’s Fluent design system for more than eight years before departing to Amazon in 2022. In his post on Behance, Kisselev describes the dynamic wallpapers as “part of the Windows Creative Direction Team’s efforts to celebrate a new centered signature composition for Windows 11, highlighting its centered Start Menu and taskbar.” The dynamic wallpapers were part of an effort that was “explored for Microsoft’s low-cost devices, primarily targeting educational users,” according to Kisselev.

Windows Central reports that these dynamic wallpapers were originally supposed to ship as part of the 23H2 update for Windows 11, but that never happened. Windows watcher Albacore says the dynamic wallpapers feature has been scrapped, and that unfinished parts of it shipped in both Windows 11 version 22H2 and 23H2, but were removed in the latest 24H2 update.

These dynamic wallpapers look very similar to what Microsoft does with its Xbox dashboard, and the only way to currently get animated wallpapers in Windows is to install a third-party app like Wallpaper Engine. It’s surprising to see Microsoft do all of this design work and then never ship these dynamic wallpapers.

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Apple’s AirTags add new child safety battery warnings

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple has added warning labels to AirTags and their boxes to comply with a law requiring the labels on products with button cell or coin batteries that could be ingested by children, according to a US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) press release.

AirTags imported to the US after March 19th, 2024, which was when the law, known as “Reese’s Law,” went into effect, did not “have the required on-product and on-box warnings concerning the severe risk of injury from battery ingestion if these small batteries are not kept out of reach of children,” the CPSC says.

Now, the AirTag battery compartment has a “warning symbol,” and Apple has updated AirTags boxes to “include required warning statements and symbols,” per the CPSC. In the Find My app, Apple has also updated the instructions you see when you’re prompted to change an AirTag battery so that they include “a warning about the hazards of button and coin cell batteries.”

Apple launched AirTags in 2021 and is rumored to launch a new version this year.

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Microsoft’s mini AI PCs are on the way

Asus’ upcoming mini PC has a Copilot button. | Image: Asus

Ever since Microsoft first introduced its Arm-based Copilot Plus laptops in June, I’ve been wondering when we might see Copilot Plus features appear on desktop PCs. Six months on, it’s clear we’re about to see mini PCs that deliver the AI performance required for features like Recall, Click To Do, and AI-powered image generation and editing in Windows 11. These mini PCs might even help Microsoft compete with Apple’s latest Mac Mini.

Asus became the first PC manufacturer to announce a mini PC that’s Copilot Plus capable in September. It then revealed the full specs of its upcoming NUC 14 Pro AI last month, ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that kicks off next week. Asus’ mini PC even has a Copilot button on the front and is almost identical to the size of Apple’s latest Mac Mini.

The timing of Asus’ spec drop came on the same day that Taiwanese company Geekom revealed three new mini PCs that it will showcase at CES. Geekom is releasing a mini PC with AMD’s Strix Point CPUs inside and one with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite processor, meaning both will be Copilot Plus compatible. The third model is powered by Intel’s unannounced Arrow Lake-H laptop processors, which are...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Amazon’s Echo Show 5 and Show 8 are up to 50 percent off right now

The Echo Show 8 can be a smart home controller by day and a digital clock and photo frame by night. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

If you have a New Year’s resolution to enhance your smart home, buying a smart display isn’t a bad way to kick things off. The Echo Show 5 is one of the most cost-effective ways to add a visual interface to control your devices, especially since it’s receiving a 50 percent discount that brings it down to $44.99 ($45 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. That’s only $5 more than its all-time low. You can also get the larger Echo Show 8 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for $84.99 ($65 off), which is also $5 more than its lowest price to date.

The Show 5 makes for a meaningful upgrade if you already own a dedicated Echo speaker. Although it only has a 5.5-inch screen, the Alexa-enabled smart display can still function as your primary smart home hub. You can use it to monitor and manage smart home devices, play and control music, make video calls with its 2-megapixel camera (with integrated privacy shutter), and even stream shows and movies. The small size makes it ideal as a bedside alarm clock or smart photo frame if you later upgrade to a bigger device.

Speaking of which, the Show 8 is what you want if you plan to make the display the centerpiece of your smart home. Not only does the bigger screen allow you to use up to four widgets concurrently, but it also supports Matter and Thread, and doubles as a Zigbee hub. These widely standardized protocols allow compatible smart home devices to work well with the smart display as if they were natively built to do so. Plus, the Show 8 has a more powerful speaker with a satisfying sound for impromptu jam sessions.

Read our Amazon Echo Show 8 review.

A few more deals to start the new year

• You don’t need the holidays to justify a decorative lighting up. You can create fun scenes all year round with Govee’s LED Strip Light M1 Matter, which is on sale at Amazon in either a 6.56-foot strand for $35.99 ($24 off) or a 16.4-foot strand for $59.99 ($40 off), both with an on-page coupon. You can splice multiple of the smaller strips up to 16.4 feet, but the bigger strip offers greater versatility as you can cut it in segments of 6.56 feet or connect two for up to 32.8 feet of lighting. Once set up using your smart home platform of choice (Alexa, Google Home, etc.), you can create custom scenes and colors with 17 different effects, including one that responds to music playback.
• Today only, you can get Hoto’s 35-in-1 Rotary Tool Kit for $46.99 ($53 off) at Best Buy. It has a wide variety of attachments for carving, polishing, sanding, grinding, etching, and more. The small stature makes it suitable for small-scale building projects or creating and refining custom products and gifts. It can get up to 25,000 RPM across five selectable speeds, and there’s a handy LED ring embedded in the head of the tool to help with visibility. Battery life lasts up to 50 minutes before it needs to be dropped on the included charging base.
• Anker’s three-port 735 Charger (Nano II 65W) is available for its all-time low of $29.99 ($26 off) at Amazon and Anker (with promo code WS7DV21DBLJG). The two 65W USB-C Power Delivery ports on the travel-friendly charger can supply power for smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other devices at speeds that won’t make you rage. It has a third USB-A port for gadgets that still use the older connector, too, though it maxes out at just 22.5W.

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Samsung’s cheap Galaxy Fit 3 fitness tracker is coming to the US

Image: Samsung

Samsung is bringing the Galaxy Fit 3 to the US. The budget-friendly fitness tracker will cost $59.99 when it launches on January 9th, 2025.

Samsung first released the Galaxy Fit 3 in several countries outside the US last February. The device comes equipped with a 1.6-inch display surrounded by an aluminum body and lasts up to 13 days on a single charge.

The Galaxy Fit 3 has some of the same fitness-tracking features as the pricier Galaxy Watch 7, including the ability to monitor your sleep patterns, detect snoring, check blood oxygen levels, and measure your heart rate. It can also track over 100 types of workouts, with a case coming in gray, silver, or pink gold.

Image: Samsung

The Galaxy A16 5G has a 6.7-inch OLED display with an up to 90Hz refresh rate.

Alongside the Galaxy Fit 3, Samsung is releasing the more affordable Galaxy A16 5G phone in the US on January 9th for $199.99. The device comes with a 6.7-inch FHD Plus OLED display with an up to 90Hz refresh rate. It also has an Exynos 1330 processor with a 50MP main camera sensor, 5MP ultra-wide lens, and a 2MP macro lens. The Galaxy A16 5G is available in gray, silver, and pink gold colors.

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Matter speakers could stream music and tell you when the wash is done

Dutch startup Legato is leading an effort to bring support for streaming speakers to Matter. | Image: Legato

An effort to add Wi-Fi-powered speakers to the smart home standard is being led by a former Sonos executive looking to disrupt the smart speaker market.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Telegram adds third-party verification to combat scams

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Telegram is trying to crack down on scams with a new feature that lets official third-party services assign verification icons to users and chats, the messaging service announced on Wednesday.

This is separate from the verification process Telegram has for public figures and organizations. Instead of displaying a blue checkmark, accounts and chats verified by third-party services will have a unique icon appear to the left of their name. If you click on the profile of a third-party verified chat or account, you can see which service verified it and why.

GIF: Telegram

The profile of a verified account or chat might say something like, “Verified by the Learning Standards Authority for quality language education.”

Telegram says only services with an official bot verified by Telegram can apply to become a third-party verifier, helping to “prevent scams and reduce misinformation.” X has a similar feature that lets verified organizations assign affiliation badges to related accounts.

The update comes just months after French authorities arrested Telegram CEO Pavel Durov over claims he enabled illegal activity on the platform. Since then, Telegram has updated its privacy policy, disabled “misused” features, and changed its tone surrounding moderation. Durov said Telegram reached profitability last year, with total revenue surpassing $1 billion.

Along with this update, Telegram is also rolling out new search filters that should make it easier to find certain chats, the ability to scan QR codes using Telegram’s in-app camera on iOS and Android, as well as a way to turn digital gifts into NFTs.

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Tesla’s sales fell year-over-year for the first time

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Tesla’s production and delivery numbers for 2024 are out, and the numbers are pretty sobering.

The premiere EV company in the US produced 1.77 million cars this year, a drop of about 4 percent compared to the previous year, and delivered 1.79 million vehicles this year, or about 1 percent less than 2023. Tesla also deployed 31.4 GWh in energy storage.

That said, the company said it had a “record” fourth quarter for deliveries, with 495,570 vehicles making their way to customers. Tesla also said it deployed 11 GWh of energy storage products, which it also said was a record. And it produced 459,445 vehicles, most of which were Model 3s and Ys.

Q4 2024

Production: 459,445
Deliveries: 495,570
Energy storage deployments: 11 GWh

A record for both deliveries & deployments

–

Full year 2024

Production: 1,773,443
Deliveries: 1,789,226
Energy storage deployments: 31.4 GWh

→ https://t.co/YF9iWpPuud

— Tesla (@Tesla) January 2, 2025

But the late year rally wasn’t enough to bring the company’s full-year numbers in line with 2023. And indeed, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had warned at the beginning of the year that increased competition and reduced demand for the company’s aging lineup of vehicles was going to be an overall drag on its performance in 2024. Not even the relative popularity of the Cybertruck, which began deliveries late last year, was enough to lift Tesla’s fortunes for the year.

And despite setting records for deliveries and energy deployment for Q4, the company still came in below Wall Street’s expectations of 504,800 vehicles delivered, according to Wedbush’s Dan Ives. Tesla’s stock price was down about 5 percent on the gloomy news.

It’s unclear how Tesla will navigate the new environment after Donald Trump resumes the presidency. Much has been said about Musk and Trump’s burgeoning alliance, but the incoming president is likely to eliminate a lot of the incentives that helped make Tesla vehicles more affordable to consumers, including a $7,500 tax credit on new EVs.

Musk has said that a more affordable Tesla is on deck for 2025, and a fully autonomous Cybercab for 2026 — though both projects face a lot of hurdles. And of course, China looms over everything, as the country’s surging domestic EV production continues to put pressure on US manufacturers who do business there. China is Tesla’s largest and most important market, and the company is continuing to lose market share to BYD and other major players.

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Samsung bets big on OLED and gaming with its 2025 monitor lineup

Image: Samsung

Just a few days after LG announced its CES 2025 lineup of monitors, Samsung is doing the same. The company just introduced several new models, and perhaps the most impressive among them is the Odyssey OLED G81SF. It’s a 27-inch 4K monitor with a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz, 0.03ms response time, a glare-free display, and rear-core lighting with 52 color options. Samsung is also including a number of burn-in protection measures to ensure that the Odyssey G81SF’s screen looks pristine for years to come. The G8 is likely to be using the latest and greatest OLED panel from Samsung Display.

Next up is the Odyssey OLED G60SF — also a 27-inch OLED monitor — with a QHD resolution and an impressive 500Hz refresh rate that Samsung says effectively “eliminates lag and motion blur for ultra-smooth gameplay during critical moments.”

In 2025, Samsung is also finally shipping the Odyssey 3D monitor it first teased at least year’s CES. It lets you experience 3D visuals without any special glasses by using a lenticular lens on the front panel. “Eye tracking monitors the movement of both eyes using a built-in stereo camera, while view mapping continuously adjusts the image to enhance depth perception,” Samsung said in its press release. The Odyssey 3D only comes in a 27-inch 4K size; the larger 37-inch display mentioned last year has apparently been scrapped. The company says it offers “a rapid 1ms gray-to-gray response time, and a 165Hz refresh rate.”

Image: Samsung

Samsung’s Smart Monitor series is making the switch to OLED.

That does it for the gaming-focused monitors, but Samsung is also announcing two others that are more focused on everyday productivity. The SmartMonitor series is finally going OLED with the new Smart Monitor M9. And this year, Samsung is throwing in a ton of AI capabilities including AI Picture Optimizer. Like on its TVs, this feature “analyzes input signals to determine the type of content being viewed — such as gaming, video, or productivity applications — and automatically adjust the display settings for the best visual experience.” This also works for gaming and can detect the genre of what you’re playing.

AI Upscaling Pro can make lower-res content look crisper at the M9’s 4K resolution, and the monitor has a maximum refresh rate of 165Hz. That’s a significant upgrade from the M8, which topped out at 60Hz. Samsung says moving to OLED also allows for a new “ultra-slim” design for the Smart Monitor M9 that should take up considerably less desk space.

The last monitor being announced (at least for today) is the only non-OLED model of the bunch. The new 37-inch ViewFinity S8 has a 16:9 aspect ratio, a built-in KVM switch, 90W USB-C passthrough charging, and covers 99 percent of the sRGB color gamut. Peak brightness for this 4K display tops out at 350 nits, which should be perfectly suitable for anything you’ll be doing at a desk.

Pricing and release dates are still to come, but The Verge will be in Las Vegas for CES 2025 in a matter of days. So you won’t have to wait much longer for some first-hand impressions of Samsung’s new monitors.

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Asus, Samsung, and MSI announce world’s first 27-inch 4K OLED 240Hz monitors

MSI’s new 27-inch 4K OLED monitor. | Image: MSI

27-inch 4K OLED 240Hz monitors seem to be like buses: you wait ages for one and then three turn up at once. Asus, Samsung, and MSI are all announcing the industry’s next-generation QD-OLED gaming monitors that offer the benefits of 4K OLED 240Hz panels at the smaller 27-inch size instead of 32 inches.

All three appear to be using the same fourth generation QD-OLED panel from Samsung Display, which Asus says offers “a longer lifespan over previous-gen OLEDs.” Both the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27UCDM and the MSI MPG 272URX QD-OLED (who names these things?) include DisplayPort 2.1a (UHBR20), which offers 80Gbps of bandwidth to support 4K at 240Hz without the need for Display Stream Compression (DSC). Samsung’s press release about its Odyssey OLED G8 (G81SF) doesn’t mention DisplayPort 2.1a compatibility, but it’s reasonable to assume it’s part of the spec list.

Image: Asus

Asus’ latest OLED monitor has a 26.5-inch viewable display.

Image: Samsung

Samsung’s Odyssey G8 now comes in a 27-inch OLED 4K 240Hz variant.

MSI and Asus’ models both support DisplayHDR True Black 400, and Asus also supports Dolby Vision HDR. Both MSI and Asus are offering a three-year warranty that includes burn-in protection, but Samsung hasn’t confirmed its warranty situation for its latest G8 model. Samsung also hasn’t fully detailed the specs of its latest G8 OLED model, but it’s reasonable to assume it will support DisplayHDR True Black 400 at the minimum.

Interestingly, Asus’ model only has a 26.5-inch viewable display, but both MSI and Samsung are marketing their monitors as 27-inch ones. With all three offering the 0.03ms response times of OLED, 240Hz refresh rates, and above 160PPI, the choice will really come down to design, features, and pricing. Unfortunately, Samsung, Asus, and MSI haven’t announced release dates or pricing yet.

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US soldier arrested after allegedly posting hacked Trump and Harris call logs

Illustration: Beatrice Sala

The United States has arrested a US Army soldier and charged him with being part of a hacking scheme to sell and distribute stolen phone records. An indictment alleges that 20-year-old Cameron John Wagenius knowingly sold “confidential phone records” over online forums and other communications platforms last November.

The indictment doesn’t detail the hacked material, but KrebsOnSecurity reports that Wagenius appears to be connected to a series of high-profile data breaches linked to the online alias “Kiberphant0m.” Kiberphant0m claimed to have hacked 15 telecom firms and was working with the person allegedly behind the Snowflake data breach to sell the stolen information.

In November, Kiberphant0m posted what they claimed were AT&T call logs for President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. It’s not clear if the data was genuine, but AT&T did suffer a major theft of customer data as part of the Snowflake breach last year. In 2023, the hacker is also alleged to have sold “remote access credentials for a major U.S. defense contractor,” according to Krebs.

Krebs reports that Wagenius worked on communications at an Army base in South Korea. After the alleged leak of Trump and Harris data, Krebs did a deep dive into Kiberphant0m’s online communications and identified that they were likely a US soldier. In this latest report, Krebs spoke with Wagenius’ mother, who confirmed his connection to the alleged Snowflake hacker.

Cybersecurity experts reportedly received harassment for trying to track down Kiberphant0m’s identity, leading to this incredible quote from Allison Nixon, the lead researcher at cybersecurity firm Unit 221B, who was part of the work. “Anonymously extorting the President and VP as a member of the military is a bad idea,” Nixon told Krebs, “but it’s an even worse idea to harass people who specialize in de-anonymizing cybercriminals.”

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A Cybertruck ‘blew up’ outside Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas

A Tesla Cybertruck appeared to explode outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday morning. A video shared on X shows the truck engulfed in flames just outside the hotel’s lobby, with the person who captured it saying the Cybertruck “blew up.”

It’s still not clear what caused the fire, or if there were any injuries. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said they are “investigating” and that the fire had been put out. Local news station KSNV News 3 Las Vegas said a vehicle fire was first reported at 8:41AM local time and that police and firefighters were responding.

The news of the fire comes amid numerous reports about Tesla CEO Elon Musk getting closer to President-elect Donald Trump. Musk spent New Year’s Eve at Mar-a-Lago and reportedly sat in during Trump’s dinner with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Musk has also been staying at a cottage on Trump’s Florida property since around Election Day, according to a report from The New York Times.

Cybertruck blew up in front of Trump hotel in Las Vegas. Those are our luggage by the door and that’s where we were when it happened. pic.twitter.com/KaVZXfGLNK

— ayackle (@kaaaassuu) January 1, 2025

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US sanctions Russian group over AI-generated election disinformation

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images

The US has issued sanctions on organizations in Russia and Iran for attempting to interfere with the 2024 presidential election. The Treasury Department said on Tuesday that the groups tried to “stoke socio-political tensions” and influence voters.

One group, the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise, has ties to Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), and built a server to host its own AI tools “to avoid foreign web-hosting services that would block their activity.” The organization then used these tools to “quickly create disinformation” that it spread across dozens of fake online news outlets, while also providing US-based companies with money to maintain its AI server and operate a network of “at least 100 websites” used in its campaign.

Additionally, the Russian organization manipulated a video to “produce baseless accusations concerning a 2024 vice presidential candidate”. In October, the US accused Russia of creating a video that attempted to smear Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz.

The Treasury Department also sanctioned the Cognitive Design Production Center, a subsidiary of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), for planning to interfere with the election “since at least 2023.” In the weeks leading up to the election, the US Department of Justice indicted Iranian nationals accused of waging a cyberattack against President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign, while OpenAI reported banning ChatGPT accounts linked to an Iranian influence operation.

“The Governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,” Bradley Smith, the Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in the press release.

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Popeye and Tintin are now in the public domain

Popeye’s first appearance in E.C. Segar’s Thimble Theatre comic strip. | Image: King Features

It’s a new year, and that means more works are headed to the public domain. This year, thousands of copyrighted works created in 1929, including the earliest versions of Popeye and the Belgian comic book character Tintin, are now free to reuse and repurpose in the US.

Duke Law School’s Center for the Study of Public Domain has once again rounded up all the most iconic works that have been freed from the bounds of copyright, which also includes sound recordings from 1924. As pointed out by Duke Law School, 1929 was a particularly pivotal year for film, as it was the first with sound.

These are just some of the works entering the public domain this year (you can view the full catalog here):

• The Skeleton Dance from Disney’s Silly Symphonies short film series
• Alfred Hitchcock’s first sound film Blackmail
• Nacio Herb Brown’s Singin’ in the Rain and the film it appeared in, The Hollywood Revue of 1929
• On With the Show, the first all-talking feature-length film in color
• William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury
• Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials Mystery
• Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms
• Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own
• Various works from Salvador Dali, including Illumined Pleasures, The Accommodations of Desire, and The Great Masturbator

The list also includes Popeye, who first appeared in E.C. Segar’s Thimble Theatre comic strip, with a story titled “Gobs of Work.” But this Popeye isn’t the one that eats spinach to grow big muscles; the brawny sailor didn’t start eating spinach to gain strength until 1932 (though the very first Popeye could still pack a punch).

“Everything that he says, all of his characteristics, his personality, his sarcasm… that’s public domain,” Jennifer Jenkins, the director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, told NPR. “The spinach, if you want to be on the safe side, you might want to wait.”

The earliest version of the young reporter Tintin and his pup Snowy (or “Milou” if you speak French) from Hergé’s Les Aventures de Tintin are also headed to the public domain. But folks in the European Union, where protections apply throughout an author’s life and 70 years after death, will have to wait a little longer for a copyright-free Tintin. Since Hergé died in 1983, the EU won’t see Tintin in the public domain until 2054, according to Duke University.

As with previous years’ works, this latest round of media could’ve appeared in the public domain much earlier, but US lawmakers in 1998 extended copyright protections to works from 1923 and beyond for an additional 20 years — conveniently protecting Disney’s mascot Mickey Mouse. But Disney couldn’t keep its iconic mouse all to itself forever, as the Steamboat Willie-era Mickey entered the public domain last year. We’re getting even more Mickey Mouse animations in 2025, including the short film The Karnival Kid, where Mickey Mouse dons his white gloves for the first time and speaks his first words: “hot dogs.”

Just like with Mickey and Winnie the Pooh, we’re bound to see games and movies starring Popeye and Tintin as people try to draw attention with the freshly available characters. Even Netflix is preparing an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1929 novel The Seven Dials.

There will be an even wider range of classic characters to use next year, with Betty Boop and Pluto set to enter the public domain in 2026.

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Is Sleep’s Dopesmoker still the heaviest album of all time?

A sojourn though the heaviest music I could find | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Tee Pee Records

An attempt to crush myself to death.

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Apple Watch Series 10 has returned to its Black Friday sale price

Apple’s 42mm flagship is down to just $329 with various bands. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Whether or not you subscribe to them, New Year’s resolutions are a capital-T Thing for many people in the US. Thankfully, if your goals for 2025 revolve around health and fitness, the 42mm Apple Watch Series 10 is on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy starting at $329 ($70 off), matching its Black Friday low. You can also pick it up in the 46mm sizing at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy starting at $359 ($70 off), which remains the best price we’ve seen on the larger model.

While there are certainly better fitness trackers for hardcore athletes, none of them offer the kind of robust third-party support you’ll get with a flagship Apple Watch, nor do they integrate as well with Apple’s larger device ecosystem. The Series 10 is a pretty minor update over the previous model, but it’s still a solid bet for casual athletes, with a terrific wide-angle OLED display, sleep apnea detection, a thinner design, and a larger charging coil that lets you juice it from zero to 80 percent in just 30 minutes.

The more substantial fitness updates come in the form of watchOS 11, Apple’s latest software update for the Apple Watch, which brings a selection of new training features to the midrange wearable. These include the new Training Load feature, an app called Vitals that can contextualize a set of recovery metrics, and the long-overdue ability to pause your Activity Rings (praise be). I wouldn’t say any of them are revolutionary, but if you’re upgrading from an older model or you’ve never owned an Apple Watch before, they’re certainly welcome.

Read our Apple Watch Series 10 review.

More deals, discounts, and ways to save

• Nomad is still running its annual Holiday Hangover Sale, offering you a chance to save 20 percent on select items with coupon code HOLIDAY20. The promo applies to an assortment of Apple Watch bands and mobile accessories, including Nomad’s Traditional Leather Case for the iPhone 16 Pro (now $48), the keychain-friendly ChargeKey (now $20), and the second-gen Stand One charger (now $88). You can even grab a sleek leather case for the latest AirPods Pro for $32, assuming you want something a bit more rustic.
• Anker’s Soundcore Sport X10 earbuds are available from Amazon and Anker (with promo code WS7DV2YU66HE) for $49.99 ($30 off), matching their all-time low. The relatively cheap pair of earbuds offers quite a bit for the money — including powerful bass response, an IPX7 rating for water and sweat resistance, and flexible, wraparound hooks — all of which make them a great pick if you want a pair of wireless workout buds for the new year.
• Looking for an Android-based alternative to the Apple Watch Series 10? The Google Pixel Watch 3 is currently on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and the Google Store starting at $299.99 ($50 off), which remains its second-best price to date. The handsome third-gen smartwatch is one of the best fitness trackers you can buy thanks to a host of excellent Google integrations and a slew of running features, not to mention a new battery-saver mode that activates when your watch falls below 15 percent. Read our review.

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2024: a year in art on The Verge

Image: Verge staff

We take a look back at 20 of our favorite projects from 2024.

Read the full story at The Verge.

LG’s lightweight Gram laptops get new Intel chips and offline AI features

The 17-inch LG Gram Pro weighs 3.3 pounds while the 16-inch model weighs 2.73 pounds. | Image: LG

LG has announced additions to its ultra-light Gram and Gram Pro laptop lineup, adding cloud-based and on-device AI-powered features that go beyond its current Gram laptops.

The 16-inch Gram Pro will also be the first Copilot Plus PC in the LG Gram lineup and is further distinguished as the only model using the Intel Lunar Lake Core Ultra V-Series processors. The 17-inch Gram Pro and 16-inch 2-in-1 use Intel’s Arrow Lake Core Ultra H-Series processors.

Image: LG

The three LG Gram Pro laptops, including the 2-in-1.

The LG Gram Pro will be available in 17-inch and 16-inch models featuring 2,560 x 1,600 displays, up to 32GB of LPDDR5X memory, and up to 2TB Gen4 NVMe SSDs. The 16-inch Gram Pro and the 16-inch LG Gram Pro 2-in-1 will have Intel Arc GPUs, while the 17-inch Gram Pro will instead feature an Nvidia GeForce RTX4050 graphics card.

Gram Chat On-Device, which uses a “small language model derived from LG AI Research’s EXAONE large language model,” powers offline features, including Time Travel, which lets users quickly revisit “web pages, documents, videos and audio files” they’ve recently accessed. LG’s software is adding tools similar to Microsoft’s Copilot Plus suite and Apple Intelligence, but given the trouble Microsoft has had with Recall, we’ll have to wait and see how it all measures up.

It also might make those features available on more PCs, but LG hasn’t specified which AI features will be available on which laptops in the new Gram lineup.

Gram Chat Cloud is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o and responds to inquiries using “vast web-based datasets for detailed and comprehensive responses” while integrating with calendar and email services. It requires an active internet connection and will only be free for the first year.

All of the new Gram laptops also support LG’s Gram Link 2.0, which streamlines document and file sharing with other PCs and iOS or Android-based smartphones. It also allows incoming phone calls to be answered through the Gram laptops, so you don’t have to swap headsets or Bluetooth headphones to another device temporarily.

LG will also introduce its entry-level Gram Book to the US market next year. Powered by an Intel Core i5 processor, it features a 15.6-inch 60Hz full HD display, a 720p webcam, and configurations of up to 1TB of SSD storage and 16GB of DDR4 memory.

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The US Treasury Department was hacked

Hugo Herrera / The Verge

The US Treasury Department suffered a “major” security incident after a China state-sponsored hacker broke into the third-party remote management software it uses, as reported earlier by The New York Times.

In a letter to lawmakers seen by The Verge, the Treasury Department said BeyondTrust, the company behind its remote management software, notified the agency of a breach on December 8th.

The threat actor stole a key used by BeyondTrust “to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users.” With the key, they overrode the security to remotely access those users' workstations and “some unclassified documents” they maintained.

The Treasury Department said it worked with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI following the attack, which has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) hacker. “The compromised BeyondTrust service has been taken offline and there is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury systems or information,” US Treasury Department spokesperson Michael Gwin said in a statement to The Verge.

The attack seems to be linked to a security incident BeyondTrust disclosed earlier this month, impacting customers using its remote support software. At the time, BeyondTrust attributed the attack to a compromised API key for its remote support software, adding that it “immediately revoked the API key, notified known impacted customers, and suspended those instances the same day.” The Verge reached out to BeyondTrust with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

“Treasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems, and the data it holds,” Gwin said. “Over the last four years, Treasury has significantly bolstered its cyber defense, and we will continue to work with both private and public sector partners to protect our financial system from threat actors.”

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How New York state is defying Donald Trump’s plans to roll back climate action

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2023/06/29: Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a press briefing at office on 3rd Avenue in Manhattan. | Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

New York governor Kathy Hochul signed landmark climate legislation into law last week, showing how states can keep holding polluters accountable even when President-elect Donald Trump rolls back environmental protections.

New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act will require the biggest multinational oil and gas companies to contribute to a fund that’ll be used for infrastructure projects meant to protect New York residents from increasingly dangerous climate disasters like storms and sea level rise.

“New York has fired a shot that will be heard round the world”

Trump will soon step back into office and is expected to dismantle existing climate policies and gut the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), having openly disparaged clean energy and federal environmental regulations on the campaign trail. So for the next four years at least, Americans will have to rely on local and state efforts like this to deal with the pollution from fossil fuels that’s causing climate change.

“New York has fired a shot that will be heard round the world: the companies most responsible for the climate crisis will be held accountable,” State Senator Liz Krueger said in a statement after Hochul...

Read the full story at The Verge.

The best robot vacuums

Image: The Verge

Floor-sweeping robots are only getting better, with new mopping skills, better navigation chops, and more automation, meaning less work for you. We picked the best bots you can buy right now.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Volkswagen leak exposed location data for 800,000 electric cars

Image: Tim Stevens / The Verge

For months, the location information of around 800,000 electric Volkswagen vehicles was available online due to a data leak, according to a report from the German news magazine Der Spiegel. The leak reportedly stemmed from the software running inside Volkswagen vehicles and could've allowed a bad actor to trace a driver’s exact movements, as noted by Electrek.

A whistleblower first notified Der Spiegel and the European hacking association Chaos Computer Club of the vulnerability, which also affects EVs from Volkswagen-owned car brands on a global scale, including Audi, Seat, and Skoda.

Der Spiegel found that Cariad, the Volkswagen subsidiary behind the automaker's software, made it possible for an attacker to find and access driver data housed in Amazon’s cloud storage service. The data, which “could be linked to the names and contact details of the drivers,” reportedly included details about when EVs were switched on and off, along with the emails, phone numbers, and addresses of drivers in some cases.

It included the “precise” locations of about 460,000 vehicles, as Der Spiegel says the data was “accurate to within ten centimeters” for Volkswagen and Seats vehicles, and within 10km (~6 miles) for Audi and Skoda models.

Cariad has since addressed the issue, telling Der Spiegel customers have ”no need to take any action, as no sensitive information such as passwords or payment details are affected.” The Verge reached out to Cariad and Volkswagen with requests for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

If anything, this leak serves as yet another reminder of the immense amount of data collected by modern-day vehicles, which Mozilla has called a “privacy nightmare.”

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Apple promised next-gen CarPlay in 2024, so where is it?

Apple’s new CarPlay is still just a concept. | Screenshot: Apple

We still haven’t seen the “next generation of CarPlay” that Apple first announced in 2022 and continues to say on its CarPlay webpage is arriving in 2024, as MacRumors points out. And barring some spectacular surprise, it’s not coming today or tomorrow. What gives?

So far, we’ve only seen changes like CarPlay mapping directions appearing in the instrument cluster in cars from manufacturers like Polestar, Porsche, and Lincoln. That’s even the case for vehicles like the 2024 Lincoln Nautilus, which has the screen real estate to support Apple’s vision for its dashboard-spanning infotainment software. Porsche and Aston Martin had announced their cars would be the first to get the new CarPlay, but both recently declined to give Wired a timeline for its rollout.

Screenshot: Apple

Apple’s website still says “First models arrive in 2024,” which seems... unlikely.

Other companies that Apple said would support its new CarPlay have been noncommittal about the software since it was announced. Some have closed the door on full support more forcefully since then, like when Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius told The Verge’s Nilay Patel in April that Apple won’t be taking over all the screens in its cars.

Outside of Apple’s initial pronouncement that so many cars would use its big CarPlay update, automakers like General Motors and Rivian have taken a stand against both it and Google’s Android Auto. That’s not a popular position, particularly for GM, but both have indicated it’s about having more control over their vehicles.

Despite the lukewarm reception of Apple’s ideas, the company has continued to talk about its plans for the software. It’s just not clear what cars, if any, it will ever show up in.

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A two-pack of refurbished Blink Outdoor 4 cameras is more than half off right now

You can use the battery-powered Blink Outdoor 4 indoors, too. | Image: Amazon

As we head into 2025, there aren’t many things preventing homeowners from building out a basic home security system. You can start small and cheap with the battery-powered Blink Outdoor 4. If you don’t mind that they’re refurbished (with the same one-year warranty as the new models), you can get two of them with a Sync Module 2 for $74.99 ($90 off) at Amazon, which is only $10 more than the all-time low. A single Blink Outdoor 4 retails for $99.99 new, and its lowest price is $39.99, so you’re still getting a slightly better value than usual.

The weatherproof Blink Outdoor 4 offers a 1080p wide-angle feed with motion detection, infrared night vision, and two-way audio. If you opt for a Blink Subscription Plan ($10 a month or $100 a year for Blink Plus, which is required to run multiple cameras), you’ll get person detection, up to 90 minutes of continuous live view, and unlimited cloud storage for up to 60 days. But if you have subscription fatigue, you can also save clips locally to a USB drive thanks to the included Sync Module 2. Blink says the cameras can last up to two years on just two AA batteries, too, which should make them easy to maintain over the long haul.

More Monday deals to mull over

• You can get the Anker 321 Power Strip with a five-foot cable for as little as $13.99 ($12 off) at Amazon, which is an all-time low price. The 10-foot version is also matching its best price to date at $17.99 ($12 off). The cuboid charger has three AC outlets occupying their own sides of the block, with the fourth side dedicated to two USB-A ports and a 20W USB-C Power Delivery port. It’s a great alternative to a traditional extension cable if you’re looking for one that’s easy to travel with.
• The 8Bitdo Ultimate Wireless Controller is one of the best Nintendo Switch controllers. If you’ve been waiting for a good chance to see for yourself why, Amazon and Best Buy are selling it for $50.99 ($19 off), which is only a few dollars more than the lowest price we’ve seen. It has a pair of drift-free Hall Effect sticks, is easily configurable with custom mappings and profiles thanks to 8Bitdo’s excellent software support, and lasts up to 22 hours (it comes with a charging base, too). In addition to Switch compatibility, you can also use it on Windows PCs, Steam Deck, mobile, and other devices that support Bluetooth controllers.
• The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless is a great multi-platform gaming headset with tons of features and a hefty price tag to match. But thankfully, you can get the PlayStation version starting at $259 ($91 off) at Amazon right now, which is an all-time low. The Xbox version is also on sale for $263.99 ($86 off), which is its second-best price to date. The multiplatform headset has a retractable noise-canceling microphone, and I can confirm it’s comfortable to wear for hours. The included base station can charge one of two included hot-swappable batteries, but it also recharges over USB-C. It also enables PC and console connectivity (plus Bluetooth devices), includes line-in and line-out ports, and has an OLED display with a dial and button for customizing EQ, sound modes, volume levels, and more. Read our review.

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