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Image: AltStore

AltStore PAL, a third-party iOS app store that’s available in the EU, is dropping its annual €1.50 (plus tax) subscription after receiving a “MegaGrant” from Fortnite developer Epic Games. AltStore originally charged the subscription to help cover Apple’s Core Technology Fee (CTF), which is a fee third-party app marketplaces have to pay for each annual app install.
Epic uses MegaGrants as a way to “sponsor the development of exciting projects that may not otherwise have enough funding to fully realize,” the company says. The grants are typically meant for smaller teams using Epic’s technologies to “bring bold, challenging, and insanely creative dreams to life,” but in this case, Epic awarded the grant for “innovation in app distribution,” according to AltStore.

AltStore didn’t share the dollar value of the grant, and the company didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Current subscribers won’t be charged when their renewal date rolls around, AltStore says. The AltStore team also plans to “show our appreciation for our existing subscribers in a future update” but didn’t specify what that might look like.
Epic is also working on a version of the Epic Games Store for iOS and said earlier this week that the store, Fortnite, and Rocket League Sideswipe have been submitted to Apple for “final notarization.”

Image: AltStore

AltStore PAL, a third-party iOS app store that’s available in the EU, is dropping its annual €1.50 (plus tax) subscription after receiving a “MegaGrant” from Fortnite developer Epic Games. AltStore originally charged the subscription to help cover Apple’s Core Technology Fee (CTF), which is a fee third-party app marketplaces have to pay for each annual app install.

Epic uses MegaGrants as a way to “sponsor the development of exciting projects that may not otherwise have enough funding to fully realize,” the company says. The grants are typically meant for smaller teams using Epic’s technologies to “bring bold, challenging, and insanely creative dreams to life,” but in this case, Epic awarded the grant for “innovation in app distribution,” according to AltStore.

AltStore didn’t share the dollar value of the grant, and the company didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Current subscribers won’t be charged when their renewal date rolls around, AltStore says. The AltStore team also plans to “show our appreciation for our existing subscribers in a future update” but didn’t specify what that might look like.

Epic is also working on a version of the Epic Games Store for iOS and said earlier this week that the store, Fortnite, and Rocket League Sideswipe have been submitted to Apple for “final notarization.”

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Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Logitech is running a 10 percent off sale on its site through August 17th, extending some solid deals to a wide range of its G Gaming PC and console peripherals (with other retailers matching or beating Logitech’s pricing). Some notable deals include the G Pro X Superlight 2 gaming mouse and Astro A50 X headset. The former is down to $134.99 ($25 off) in white at Amazon and $139.99 at Best Buy (or $143.99 in all three colors from Logitech), while the latter is discounted to $341.99 ($38 off) at Best Buy, Amazon, and Logitech’s online storefront.

While we’ve seen the black version of the Superlight 2 fall a little lower in the past, it doesn’t go on sale very frequently, unlike previous generations. Part of what makes the G Pro X Superlight 2 so good is the way it balances its gaming chops with everyday good looks. It features a new Hero 2 sensor that offers up to 32,000 DPI and weighs just 60 grams, so it’s capable enough for tournament-level play without looking out of place even in a professional work environment (or if you’re just not the type for the flashiest looks on your desk). I’d say it’s closer to a “forever mouse” than whatever Logitech’s own CEO was talking about during her recent interview on Decoder.

As for the Astro headset, this is one of the few times it’s been discounted from its $380 price point since it launched at the end of 2023. The A50 X is a bit pricey for a gaming headset, but if you frequently game on different platforms, it has a unique docking station that allows it to act as a central hub for all your systems. By routing your consoles through its HDMI passthrough ports, you can take up one less HDMI 2.1 port on your monitor or TV and switch between your consoles or PC with a tap of a button on the headset. The earcups are also incredibly comfy for long play sessions, with some great audio coming through the 40mm drivers.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Logitech is running a 10 percent off sale on its site through August 17th, extending some solid deals to a wide range of its G Gaming PC and console peripherals (with other retailers matching or beating Logitech’s pricing). Some notable deals include the G Pro X Superlight 2 gaming mouse and Astro A50 X headset. The former is down to $134.99 ($25 off) in white at Amazon and $139.99 at Best Buy (or $143.99 in all three colors from Logitech), while the latter is discounted to $341.99 ($38 off) at Best Buy, Amazon, and Logitech’s online storefront.

While we’ve seen the black version of the Superlight 2 fall a little lower in the past, it doesn’t go on sale very frequently, unlike previous generations. Part of what makes the G Pro X Superlight 2 so good is the way it balances its gaming chops with everyday good looks. It features a new Hero 2 sensor that offers up to 32,000 DPI and weighs just 60 grams, so it’s capable enough for tournament-level play without looking out of place even in a professional work environment (or if you’re just not the type for the flashiest looks on your desk). I’d say it’s closer to a “forever mouse” than whatever Logitech’s own CEO was talking about during her recent interview on Decoder.

As for the Astro headset, this is one of the few times it’s been discounted from its $380 price point since it launched at the end of 2023. The A50 X is a bit pricey for a gaming headset, but if you frequently game on different platforms, it has a unique docking station that allows it to act as a central hub for all your systems. By routing your consoles through its HDMI passthrough ports, you can take up one less HDMI 2.1 port on your monitor or TV and switch between your consoles or PC with a tap of a button on the headset. The earcups are also incredibly comfy for long play sessions, with some great audio coming through the 40mm drivers.

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Detecting an offside violation can be difficult. | Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images

The UK’s top soccer league is switching up the tech it uses to detect offside violations on the football pitch. The English Premier League (EPL) has contracted with a company called Genius Sports, which will use dozens of iPhones combined with machine-learning models to help game officials make an offside call.
Offside violations aren’t always clear-cut, especially when players are grouped in a way that blocks officials and even multiple camera angles from seeing enough detail to accurately call them. That’s where video assistant referee (VAR) systems usually come in, ostensibly filling in the gaps using cameras and machine learning.

Soccer leagues have used VAR systems for years. FIFA, soccer’s global league, started officially using machine learning-powered limb-tracking tech and embedded soccer ball sensors in 2022 after a trial run the previous year. The software could track 29 points of players’ bodies, but those systems have limits and often cause “extensive delays and human process errors” and “concerns about the precision of in-game calls,” writes Wired in a report about EPL’s deal with Genius Sports.
Genius calls its offside detection tech “Semi-Assisted Offside Technology” (SAOT), chief product officer Matt Fleckenstein told The Verge in an interview. It’s part of the company’s GeniusIQ system, which also powers its fan-facing offerings that create features like real-time, dynamic graphics (think trails that follow a soccer ball).
Genius says its SAOT tech can accurately create 3D renders of each player, and that this helps officials define exactly where the offside line is on the field and where all the players are in relation to it. To do that, the company needs a lot of cameras.
“We were moving away from 4K cameras that were significantly more expensive,” Fleckenstein said. “We wanted to see if we could move to a more off-the-shelf mobile phone.” The company ended up using iPhones, largely because it’s what the company’s employees were most familiar with when it comes to things like software development.
Fleckenstein said that “the key is to deploy 24 to 28” iPhones — mostly iPhone 15 Pros — to get even coverage of the pitch and the sidelines, usually in pairs of custom rigs that each hold two phones at a time, and are angled slightly differently to make sure an area is covered.
This approach apparently gives Genius “between 7,000 and 10,000” data points that allow it to generate a kind of 3D virtual mesh of each player. Having so many data points means the system can tolerate missing details from things like lighting issues, Fleckenstein said.
On top of that, iPhones can record at very high framerates — Genius records at 100fps but has tested as much as 200fps — and the phones offer some local computer vision processing, too. All of the data is sent to an on-premise server to be processed by its GeniusIQ system.
GeniusIQ’s computer vision and predictive algorithms process the data to identify individual body parts — down to players’ individual fingers — and predict where they are when they’re blocked from view. The company trained its system on “several seasons” of soccer matches to be able to do this, according to Wired.

Image: Genius Sports
The difference between center of mass, skeletal, and object semantic mesh tracking.

All of this is in service of figuring out where every player is in relation to each other, the ball, and the goalkeeper. Offside calls are made “when the ball leaves the offensive player’s foot,” Fleckenstein said, so having more frames captured makes it more likely the cameras will capture the exact moment that happened.
The official rules of soccer are very specific about what makes a player “offside,” but its not clear if more granularity makes GeniusIQ better than existing alternatives. Fleckenstein wouldn’t offer any performance comparisons but pointed out that other VAR systems may only use “30 or 40 points of the body,” building a sort of rough stick figure version of the player. Or they may only use “center of mass” tracking, where each player is represented by a single data point.
We’ll find out soon enough if Genius Sports’ offside detection technology really can do a better job than the VAR systems of the last few years. It’s expected to go into full use by the EPL before the end of this year and continue through the season. Fleckenstein said the exact date hasn’t been announced.

Detecting an offside violation can be difficult. | Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images

The UK’s top soccer league is switching up the tech it uses to detect offside violations on the football pitch. The English Premier League (EPL) has contracted with a company called Genius Sports, which will use dozens of iPhones combined with machine-learning models to help game officials make an offside call.

Offside violations aren’t always clear-cut, especially when players are grouped in a way that blocks officials and even multiple camera angles from seeing enough detail to accurately call them. That’s where video assistant referee (VAR) systems usually come in, ostensibly filling in the gaps using cameras and machine learning.

Soccer leagues have used VAR systems for years. FIFA, soccer’s global league, started officially using machine learning-powered limb-tracking tech and embedded soccer ball sensors in 2022 after a trial run the previous year. The software could track 29 points of players’ bodies, but those systems have limits and often cause “extensive delays and human process errors” and “concerns about the precision of in-game calls,” writes Wired in a report about EPL’s deal with Genius Sports.

Genius calls its offside detection tech “Semi-Assisted Offside Technology” (SAOT), chief product officer Matt Fleckenstein told The Verge in an interview. It’s part of the company’s GeniusIQ system, which also powers its fan-facing offerings that create features like real-time, dynamic graphics (think trails that follow a soccer ball).

Genius says its SAOT tech can accurately create 3D renders of each player, and that this helps officials define exactly where the offside line is on the field and where all the players are in relation to it. To do that, the company needs a lot of cameras.

“We were moving away from 4K cameras that were significantly more expensive,” Fleckenstein said. “We wanted to see if we could move to a more off-the-shelf mobile phone.” The company ended up using iPhones, largely because it’s what the company’s employees were most familiar with when it comes to things like software development.

Fleckenstein said that “the key is to deploy 24 to 28” iPhones — mostly iPhone 15 Pros — to get even coverage of the pitch and the sidelines, usually in pairs of custom rigs that each hold two phones at a time, and are angled slightly differently to make sure an area is covered.

This approach apparently gives Genius “between 7,000 and 10,000” data points that allow it to generate a kind of 3D virtual mesh of each player. Having so many data points means the system can tolerate missing details from things like lighting issues, Fleckenstein said.

On top of that, iPhones can record at very high framerates — Genius records at 100fps but has tested as much as 200fps — and the phones offer some local computer vision processing, too. All of the data is sent to an on-premise server to be processed by its GeniusIQ system.

GeniusIQ’s computer vision and predictive algorithms process the data to identify individual body parts — down to players’ individual fingers — and predict where they are when they’re blocked from view. The company trained its system on “several seasons” of soccer matches to be able to do this, according to Wired.

Image: Genius Sports
The difference between center of mass, skeletal, and object semantic mesh tracking.

All of this is in service of figuring out where every player is in relation to each other, the ball, and the goalkeeper. Offside calls are made “when the ball leaves the offensive player’s foot,” Fleckenstein said, so having more frames captured makes it more likely the cameras will capture the exact moment that happened.

The official rules of soccer are very specific about what makes a player “offside,” but its not clear if more granularity makes GeniusIQ better than existing alternatives. Fleckenstein wouldn’t offer any performance comparisons but pointed out that other VAR systems may only use “30 or 40 points of the body,” building a sort of rough stick figure version of the player. Or they may only use “center of mass” tracking, where each player is represented by a single data point.

We’ll find out soon enough if Genius Sports’ offside detection technology really can do a better job than the VAR systems of the last few years. It’s expected to go into full use by the EPL before the end of this year and continue through the season. Fleckenstein said the exact date hasn’t been announced.

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Image: The Verge

Valve has started publicly testing sorting reviews in the Steam store based on how well they help players make purchase decisions about games.
Historically we’ve sorted reviews by the number of ‘helpful’ votes given to each review by other players. However, we’ve seen that many players use reviews for sharing jokes, memes, ascii art and other content that might not be the most helpful for a potential purchaser.
Its solution to the problem is the new “helpfulness system,” which introduces an enabled-by-default “most helpful” toggle that skips past highly upvoted ASCII art or memes to show reviews Valve deems more informative.

Screenshot: Steam
These are some of the top reviews for popular games if you look with Valve’s new filter disabled.

Valve says it uses a combination of machine learning algorithms, user reports, and the assistance of the Steam moderation team to categorize reviews and consider both positive and negative comments. The platform’s already started the process but says it will “likely take quite a while” to evaluate the more than 140 million existing reviews as well as newly published ones.
Users have the option of returning to the old review categorization system if they choose. They just need to head to the “Display” drop-down located right above user reviews and unselect the “Use new helpfulness system” checkbox.
The news comes just a day after Valve also announced it will no longer allow Steam store descriptions to include links starting in “early” September. Steam says it’s trying to prevent its store pages from becoming advertisements for other Steam store pages, as well as prevent confusion over “prologue” games.

Image: The Verge

Valve has started publicly testing sorting reviews in the Steam store based on how well they help players make purchase decisions about games.

Historically we’ve sorted reviews by the number of ‘helpful’ votes given to each review by other players. However, we’ve seen that many players use reviews for sharing jokes, memes, ascii art and other content that might not be the most helpful for a potential purchaser.

Its solution to the problem is the new “helpfulness system,” which introduces an enabled-by-default “most helpful” toggle that skips past highly upvoted ASCII art or memes to show reviews Valve deems more informative.

Screenshot: Steam
These are some of the top reviews for popular games if you look with Valve’s new filter disabled.

Valve says it uses a combination of machine learning algorithms, user reports, and the assistance of the Steam moderation team to categorize reviews and consider both positive and negative comments. The platform’s already started the process but says it will “likely take quite a while” to evaluate the more than 140 million existing reviews as well as newly published ones.

Users have the option of returning to the old review categorization system if they choose. They just need to head to the “Display” drop-down located right above user reviews and unselect the “Use new helpfulness system” checkbox.

The news comes just a day after Valve also announced it will no longer allow Steam store descriptions to include links starting in “early” September. Steam says it’s trying to prevent its store pages from becoming advertisements for other Steam store pages, as well as prevent confusion over “prologue” games.

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

The Federal Trade Commission has announced a final rule banning companies from creating or selling fake reviews, including AI-generated ones. Once it goes into effect, the FTC can take action against companies that violate the policy.
The new rule could help address AI-generated reviews that pop up on sites across the web, including Amazon. Here are the types of deceptive practices the FTC’s new rule prohibits:

Offering incentives to customers in exchange for writing positive or negative feedback.
Reviews and testimonials written by “insiders” at a company who fail to “clearly and conspicuously” disclose their affiliation with the business.
Company-controlled review websites, which often advertise themselves as providing independent opinions on products they actually own.
Threatening or intimidating customers into removing negative reviews.
Buying or selling fake followers or views on social media.

The FTC first proposed a ban on fake reviews last year. However, it’s still not clear how the agency will enforce this rule on global marketplaces like Amazon, where many businesses that post fake reviews are located outside the US. Amazon has long struggled with fake reviews on the platform and has attempted to use AI to detect inauthentic feedback. In 2022, Amazon took action against the admins of thousands of Facebook groups selling fake product reviews, while the FTC also fined an Amazon seller for “review hijacking” last year.

3. Thanks to the rule, @FTC will be able to more effectively combat fake reviews by levying penalties on lawbreakers and returning money to those harmed.As @POTUS notes, Americans should be able to trust online reviews when looking to buy a product.https://t.co/0TeG5I6ika— Lina Khan (@linakhanFTC) August 14, 2024

“Fake reviews not only waste people’s time and money, but also pollute the marketplace and divert business away from honest competitors,” FTC Chair Lina Khan says in the announcement. “The final rule will protect Americans from getting cheated, put businesses that unlawfully game the system on notice, and promote markets that are fair, honest, and competitive.”
The FTC’s finalized rule, which was approved with a 5–0 vote, will go into effect 60 days after it’s published in the federal register. Under the rule, the FTC can seek a maximum of up to $51,744 per violation.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

The Federal Trade Commission has announced a final rule banning companies from creating or selling fake reviews, including AI-generated ones. Once it goes into effect, the FTC can take action against companies that violate the policy.

The new rule could help address AI-generated reviews that pop up on sites across the web, including Amazon. Here are the types of deceptive practices the FTC’s new rule prohibits:

Offering incentives to customers in exchange for writing positive or negative feedback.
Reviews and testimonials written by “insiders” at a company who fail to “clearly and conspicuously” disclose their affiliation with the business.
Company-controlled review websites, which often advertise themselves as providing independent opinions on products they actually own.
Threatening or intimidating customers into removing negative reviews.
Buying or selling fake followers or views on social media.

The FTC first proposed a ban on fake reviews last year. However, it’s still not clear how the agency will enforce this rule on global marketplaces like Amazon, where many businesses that post fake reviews are located outside the US. Amazon has long struggled with fake reviews on the platform and has attempted to use AI to detect inauthentic feedback. In 2022, Amazon took action against the admins of thousands of Facebook groups selling fake product reviews, while the FTC also fined an Amazon seller for “review hijacking” last year.

“Fake reviews not only waste people’s time and money, but also pollute the marketplace and divert business away from honest competitors,” FTC Chair Lina Khan says in the announcement. “The final rule will protect Americans from getting cheated, put businesses that unlawfully game the system on notice, and promote markets that are fair, honest, and competitive.”

The FTC’s finalized rule, which was approved with a 5–0 vote, will go into effect 60 days after it’s published in the federal register. Under the rule, the FTC can seek a maximum of up to $51,744 per violation.

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The Roto VR Explorer chair can make VR feel more immersive by spinning in response to the user’s head movements. | Image: Rotovrltd

The Roto VR Explorer chair is designed to make VR experiences feel more immersive (and less nauseating) by pairing real-world movements with what’s seen in a headset. By simply spinning a sitting user in place, it’s able to do that in a much smaller footprint than other solutions like the Virtuix Omni treadmill or Disney’s Holo Tile treadmill.
It looks like an office chair, but the Roto VR Explorer is distinguished by an oversize wheeled base with an integrated electric motor that can spin a seated user at speeds of up to 21 revolutions per minute. The chair will automatically rotate left and right to match the head turns of a user wearing a Meta Quest headset, but instead of relying on movement data captured by the Quest, the Roto VR Explorer uses its own motion-sensing head tracker attached to a head strap.
The Roto VR Explorer comes with the Made for Meta stamp of approval, meaning it’s “authorized by Meta to meet our high-quality standards,” but since the head tracking is all handled by a proprietary sensor, the chair should also work with other VR headsets, as long as you’ve got a head strap to attach it to.

The speed of the chair matches the speed and intensity of a user’s head movements. A small head turn will result in barely noticeable turns or, in some cases, no movement at all, but a fast head turn will have the chair quickly accelerating to its maximum speed.
The chair claims to reduce motion sickness — a long-standing issue for many users of devices like the Meta Quest — because it adds real-world movements that coincide with what’s seen in a VR experience so the brain is less disoriented. Could you recreate a similar experience by just rotating a regular office chair with your legs? Potentially, but the movements wouldn’t be as closely matched as what’s claimed here.

Image: Rotovrltd
The height-adjustable chair features a leather upholstered seat and backrest.

The Roto VR Explorer won’t eliminate motion sickness entirely. Users may still experience it when moving forward or backward or quickly teleporting to other areas in a VR world using a controller. Being able to physically walk around while experiencing VR is still a better approach, but the chair is designed as a compromise for smaller spaces, where full-body movements may be restricted.
Other useful features include a rumble pack mounted under the seat, providing force feedback, a modular design for attaching other unannounced accessories, and a USB port at the base of the chair that rotates so users can keep a VR headset charged without cables getting wrapped up. Locking wheels also ensure the Roto VR Explorer doesn’t slide around during intense VR experiences.
It’s available for preorder now for $799 (or £799 in the UK), and according to TechCrunch, it’s expected to ship as early as October. If VR fans are experiencing a sense of deja vu, it’s because the company introduced a more complex version back in 2020, which sold for over $2,000.

The Roto VR Explorer chair can make VR feel more immersive by spinning in response to the user’s head movements. | Image: Rotovrltd

The Roto VR Explorer chair is designed to make VR experiences feel more immersive (and less nauseating) by pairing real-world movements with what’s seen in a headset. By simply spinning a sitting user in place, it’s able to do that in a much smaller footprint than other solutions like the Virtuix Omni treadmill or Disney’s Holo Tile treadmill.

It looks like an office chair, but the Roto VR Explorer is distinguished by an oversize wheeled base with an integrated electric motor that can spin a seated user at speeds of up to 21 revolutions per minute. The chair will automatically rotate left and right to match the head turns of a user wearing a Meta Quest headset, but instead of relying on movement data captured by the Quest, the Roto VR Explorer uses its own motion-sensing head tracker attached to a head strap.

The Roto VR Explorer comes with the Made for Meta stamp of approval, meaning it’s “authorized by Meta to meet our high-quality standards,” but since the head tracking is all handled by a proprietary sensor, the chair should also work with other VR headsets, as long as you’ve got a head strap to attach it to.

The speed of the chair matches the speed and intensity of a user’s head movements. A small head turn will result in barely noticeable turns or, in some cases, no movement at all, but a fast head turn will have the chair quickly accelerating to its maximum speed.

The chair claims to reduce motion sickness — a long-standing issue for many users of devices like the Meta Quest — because it adds real-world movements that coincide with what’s seen in a VR experience so the brain is less disoriented. Could you recreate a similar experience by just rotating a regular office chair with your legs? Potentially, but the movements wouldn’t be as closely matched as what’s claimed here.

Image: Rotovrltd
The height-adjustable chair features a leather upholstered seat and backrest.

The Roto VR Explorer won’t eliminate motion sickness entirely. Users may still experience it when moving forward or backward or quickly teleporting to other areas in a VR world using a controller. Being able to physically walk around while experiencing VR is still a better approach, but the chair is designed as a compromise for smaller spaces, where full-body movements may be restricted.

Other useful features include a rumble pack mounted under the seat, providing force feedback, a modular design for attaching other unannounced accessories, and a USB port at the base of the chair that rotates so users can keep a VR headset charged without cables getting wrapped up. Locking wheels also ensure the Roto VR Explorer doesn’t slide around during intense VR experiences.

It’s available for preorder now for $799 (or £799 in the UK), and according to TechCrunch, it’s expected to ship as early as October. If VR fans are experiencing a sense of deja vu, it’s because the company introduced a more complex version back in 2020, which sold for over $2,000.

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Tesla

The US National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is recommending Tesla expand an existing service bulletin that aims to fix older Tesla Model S and X vehicles suffering suspension failures. The suggestion comes from the agency’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI), which just concluded its probe into the matter after finding 426 instances of the particular defect on Tesla vehicles.
As reported by Ars Technica, the defect is known in the larger Tesla community as the “whompy wheel,” which is caused by fore links failing on either the right or left sides of the front suspension — often when traveling at low speeds. The affected models include Model S (2015-2017) and Model X (2016-2017) vehicles.
The formal ODI probe was opened in 2020, and in its investigation, the agency narrowed the issue down to two part numbers that go bad. If the fore link breaks, the tire can end up rubbing against the Tesla’s wheel well, a problem ODI says hasn’t resulted in any loss of vehicle control.
NHTSA started looking into Model S suspension issues back in 2016 after finding out Tesla had customers sign NDAs to not talk about fixing their car’s suspension under “Goodwill.” Tesla eventually opened a service bulletin in 2017 to start fixing the issue on some cars built within about a four-month timeframe, but not always without blaming customers for the damage (a trend that continues today).

Tesla

The US National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is recommending Tesla expand an existing service bulletin that aims to fix older Tesla Model S and X vehicles suffering suspension failures. The suggestion comes from the agency’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI), which just concluded its probe into the matter after finding 426 instances of the particular defect on Tesla vehicles.

As reported by Ars Technica, the defect is known in the larger Tesla community as the “whompy wheel,” which is caused by fore links failing on either the right or left sides of the front suspension — often when traveling at low speeds. The affected models include Model S (2015-2017) and Model X (2016-2017) vehicles.

The formal ODI probe was opened in 2020, and in its investigation, the agency narrowed the issue down to two part numbers that go bad. If the fore link breaks, the tire can end up rubbing against the Tesla’s wheel well, a problem ODI says hasn’t resulted in any loss of vehicle control.

NHTSA started looking into Model S suspension issues back in 2016 after finding out Tesla had customers sign NDAs to not talk about fixing their car’s suspension under “Goodwill.” Tesla eventually opened a service bulletin in 2017 to start fixing the issue on some cars built within about a four-month timeframe, but not always without blaming customers for the damage (a trend that continues today).

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Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Apple reportedly has “a team of several hundred people” working on a new product that attaches an iPad-style display to a robotic arm that uses actuators to tilt up and down as well as spin 360 degrees, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
The tabletop device could reportedly serve multiple purposes, letting you control your smart home, attend video conferences, monitor home security, and more.

Gurman has reported rumors of the company exploring home robotics more than once over the last several months and now says the project is proceeding with Kevin Lynch, Apple’s vice president of technology, at the helm. Sources tell Bloomberg the company is aiming for a launch in 2026 or 2027 and that it may cost around $1,000.

The device will reportedly be capable of responding to commands using Siri or features inside Apple Intelligence, like “look at me,” which could tilt the screen to face a user during a video call. Apple is currently testing models that run a “customized version” of iPadOS, according to Bloomberg.
This push would come after the cancellation of its rumored car project and the launch of the pricey Vision Pro earlier this year and make Apple the latest tech giant to dive into home robotics — remember Samsung’s Ballie? Meanwhile, Amazon recently discontinued the business version of its Astro bot following rumors of a big generative AI upgrade on the way.

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Apple reportedly has “a team of several hundred people” working on a new product that attaches an iPad-style display to a robotic arm that uses actuators to tilt up and down as well as spin 360 degrees, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The tabletop device could reportedly serve multiple purposes, letting you control your smart home, attend video conferences, monitor home security, and more.

Gurman has reported rumors of the company exploring home robotics more than once over the last several months and now says the project is proceeding with Kevin Lynch, Apple’s vice president of technology, at the helm. Sources tell Bloomberg the company is aiming for a launch in 2026 or 2027 and that it may cost around $1,000.

The device will reportedly be capable of responding to commands using Siri or features inside Apple Intelligence, like “look at me,” which could tilt the screen to face a user during a video call. Apple is currently testing models that run a “customized version” of iPadOS, according to Bloomberg.

This push would come after the cancellation of its rumored car project and the launch of the pricey Vision Pro earlier this year and make Apple the latest tech giant to dive into home robotics — remember Samsung’s Ballie? Meanwhile, Amazon recently discontinued the business version of its Astro bot following rumors of a big generative AI upgrade on the way.

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Disney wants a Florida court to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit at a Disney-affiliated restaurant based on terms of service for the entertainment giant’s website and streaming video services. The company argues that a couple agreed to an arbitration clause when one of them bought tickets to Disney World — and in an even more distant connection, when signing up for Disney Plus years before.
The lawsuit, filed in February, concerns a 42-year-old woman named Kanokporn Tangsuan, who died due to an allergic reaction that occurred after eating at one of the restaurants at Walt Disney World Resort’s Disney Springs area in October 2023. As noted in the suit, Tangsuan and her husband, Jeffrey Piccolo, allegedly chose the restaurant because it advertises “the accommodation of persons with food allergies” as a “top priority.” Tangsuan was “highly allergic” to nuts and dairy.
Piccolo, who represents Tangsuan’s estate, is suing Disney for damages of more than $50,000. However, in a motion filed in May, Disney alleged that Piccolo accepted a forced arbitration agreement when signing up for Disney Plus in 2019. The streaming video service’s terms of use state that “any dispute between You and Us, Except for Small Claims, is subject to a class action waiver and must be resolved by individual binding arbitration.” And the agreement folds in another agreement to Disney’s broader terms of use, including a similar waiver covering “all disputes” involving Disney and its affiliates.
Arbitration is a private legal process that involves settling a dispute outside of court. While it’s a suitable option in some cases, it’s risky in others, as the National Association of Consumer Advocates says “arbitrators aren’t required to take the law and legal precedent into account,” and you can’t appeal their decision.
The response argues that Piccolo’s clicking of a box to create an account shouldn’t bind his wife to the same agreement
Disney argues Piccolo agreed to the arbitration clause outside of Disney Plus as well. The motion says he accepted the “My Disney Experience Terms and Conditions” when purchasing tickets to Epcot in September 2023, and that agreement includes Disney’s terms of use. But in a response to Disney’s motion filed earlier this month, Piccolo’s legal team argues the overarching Disney terms were made effectively invisible. He “would have had no notice” when signing up for Disney Plus, it says, because Disney put the link to its terms of use within another link on the agreement page. And when he was accepting the “My Disney Experience” terms, the filing claims he wouldn’t have seen them either since Disney assumed he’d already seen them four years ago.
Either way, the response argues that Piccolo’s clicking of a box to create an account shouldn’t bind his wife to the same agreement. And neither of these agreements were necessary to eat at the restaurant because you don’t need to buy tickets for Disney Springs.
“There is simply no reading of the Disney+ Subscriber Agreement, the only Agreement Mr. Piccolo allegedly assented to in creating his Disney+ account, which would support the notion that he was agreeing on behalf of his wife or her estate, to arbitrate injuries sustained by his wife,” the lawsuit reads. “Frankly, any such suggestion borders on the absurd.”
Unfortunately, mandatory arbitration agreements like the one in Disney’s terms have become increasingly common and even come into play when purchasing physical products. To make matters worse, most people don’t read the lengthy terms they’re agreeing to, as a 2023 study found that 99 percent of people aren’t aware they’re subject to forced arbitration when using services like Netflix, Hulu, or Cash App. That means they’re unknowingly waiving their right to a trial in court. When sprawling companies like Disney set these terms, it becomes even harder to tell what you’re signing up for when you click a box marked “I agree.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Disney wants a Florida court to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit at a Disney-affiliated restaurant based on terms of service for the entertainment giant’s website and streaming video services. The company argues that a couple agreed to an arbitration clause when one of them bought tickets to Disney World — and in an even more distant connection, when signing up for Disney Plus years before.

The lawsuit, filed in February, concerns a 42-year-old woman named Kanokporn Tangsuan, who died due to an allergic reaction that occurred after eating at one of the restaurants at Walt Disney World Resort’s Disney Springs area in October 2023. As noted in the suit, Tangsuan and her husband, Jeffrey Piccolo, allegedly chose the restaurant because it advertises “the accommodation of persons with food allergies” as a “top priority.” Tangsuan was “highly allergic” to nuts and dairy.

Piccolo, who represents Tangsuan’s estate, is suing Disney for damages of more than $50,000. However, in a motion filed in May, Disney alleged that Piccolo accepted a forced arbitration agreement when signing up for Disney Plus in 2019. The streaming video service’s terms of use state that “any dispute between You and Us, Except for Small Claims, is subject to a class action waiver and must be resolved by individual binding arbitration.” And the agreement folds in another agreement to Disney’s broader terms of use, including a similar waiver covering “all disputes” involving Disney and its affiliates.

Arbitration is a private legal process that involves settling a dispute outside of court. While it’s a suitable option in some cases, it’s risky in others, as the National Association of Consumer Advocates says “arbitrators aren’t required to take the law and legal precedent into account,” and you can’t appeal their decision.

Disney argues Piccolo agreed to the arbitration clause outside of Disney Plus as well. The motion says he accepted the “My Disney Experience Terms and Conditions” when purchasing tickets to Epcot in September 2023, and that agreement includes Disney’s terms of use. But in a response to Disney’s motion filed earlier this month, Piccolo’s legal team argues the overarching Disney terms were made effectively invisible. He “would have had no notice” when signing up for Disney Plus, it says, because Disney put the link to its terms of use within another link on the agreement page. And when he was accepting the “My Disney Experience” terms, the filing claims he wouldn’t have seen them either since Disney assumed he’d already seen them four years ago.

Either way, the response argues that Piccolo’s clicking of a box to create an account shouldn’t bind his wife to the same agreement. And neither of these agreements were necessary to eat at the restaurant because you don’t need to buy tickets for Disney Springs.

“There is simply no reading of the Disney+ Subscriber Agreement, the only Agreement Mr. Piccolo allegedly assented to in creating his Disney+ account, which would support the notion that he was agreeing on behalf of his wife or her estate, to arbitrate injuries sustained by his wife,” the lawsuit reads. “Frankly, any such suggestion borders on the absurd.”

Unfortunately, mandatory arbitration agreements like the one in Disney’s terms have become increasingly common and even come into play when purchasing physical products. To make matters worse, most people don’t read the lengthy terms they’re agreeing to, as a 2023 study found that 99 percent of people aren’t aware they’re subject to forced arbitration when using services like Netflix, Hulu, or Cash App. That means they’re unknowingly waiving their right to a trial in court. When sprawling companies like Disney set these terms, it becomes even harder to tell what you’re signing up for when you click a box marked “I agree.”

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Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Sonos has explored the possibility of rereleasing its previous mobile app for Android and iOS — a clear sign of what an ordeal the company’s hurried redesign has become. The Verge can report that there have been discussions high up within Sonos about bringing back the prior version of the app, known as S2, as the company continues toiling away at improving the performance and addressing bugs with the overhauled design that rolled out in May to a flood of negative feedback. (The new Sonos app currently has a 1.3-star review average on Google Play.)
Letting customers fall back to the older software could ease their frustrations and reduce at least some of the pressure on Sonos to rectify every issue with the new app. At least for now, the redesigned version is all that’s available, which makes it impossible for some customers to avoid its flaws. The situation has gotten substantially better with recent updates and the app has turned a corner for many, but there’s still plenty of work to be done.
CEO Patrick Spence has remained insistent that rebuilding the Sonos app from the ground up was the right choice and will make it possible for the company to innovate more frequently and expand into new product categories.

But he has also readily acknowledged that Sonos severely let down its customers. “While the redesign of the app was and remains the right thing to do, our execution — my execution — fell short of the mark,” he said during last week’s earnings call. He went on to say:
The app situation has become a headwind to existing product sales, and we believe our focus needs to be addressing the app ahead of everything else. This means delaying the two major new product releases we had planned for Q4 until our app experience meets the level of quality that we, our customers and our partners expect from Sonos.
One of those two delayed products is the successor to the Sonos Arc soundbar — codenamed Lasso — and sources tell The Verge that Sonos still hopes to release that product sometime in October. (Sonos’ fiscal year ends in late September, so October would bring the company into fiscal year 2025 and line up with Spence’s statement.)
Last week, Spence estimated that righting the ship is likely to cost between $20 and $30 million in the near term as Sonos works to assuage current customers and keep them from abandoning the company’s whole-home audio platform. The new app is being updated every two weeks with improvements, and Spence has said that cadence will continue through the fall. S2’s potential return would not change this. Restoring the old app could prove to be a technical headache since Sonos’ new software shifts a lot of core functionality to the cloud.
This has unquestionably become one of the most turbulent times in Sonos’ history. In the span of just a few months, the company has gone from a well-regarded consumer tech brand to a painful example of what can happen when leadership pushes on new projects too aggressively. Spence himself admitted that the app controversy has completely overshadowed the release of Sonos’ first-ever headphones, the Sonos Ace. Just today, Sonos laid off around 100 employees as the fallout from its rushed app makeover continues.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Sonos has explored the possibility of rereleasing its previous mobile app for Android and iOS — a clear sign of what an ordeal the company’s hurried redesign has become. The Verge can report that there have been discussions high up within Sonos about bringing back the prior version of the app, known as S2, as the company continues toiling away at improving the performance and addressing bugs with the overhauled design that rolled out in May to a flood of negative feedback. (The new Sonos app currently has a 1.3-star review average on Google Play.)

Letting customers fall back to the older software could ease their frustrations and reduce at least some of the pressure on Sonos to rectify every issue with the new app. At least for now, the redesigned version is all that’s available, which makes it impossible for some customers to avoid its flaws. The situation has gotten substantially better with recent updates and the app has turned a corner for many, but there’s still plenty of work to be done.

CEO Patrick Spence has remained insistent that rebuilding the Sonos app from the ground up was the right choice and will make it possible for the company to innovate more frequently and expand into new product categories.

But he has also readily acknowledged that Sonos severely let down its customers. “While the redesign of the app was and remains the right thing to do, our execution — my execution — fell short of the mark,” he said during last week’s earnings call. He went on to say:

The app situation has become a headwind to existing product sales, and we believe our focus needs to be addressing the app ahead of everything else. This means delaying the two major new product releases we had planned for Q4 until our app experience meets the level of quality that we, our customers and our partners expect from Sonos.

One of those two delayed products is the successor to the Sonos Arc soundbar — codenamed Lasso — and sources tell The Verge that Sonos still hopes to release that product sometime in October. (Sonos’ fiscal year ends in late September, so October would bring the company into fiscal year 2025 and line up with Spence’s statement.)

Last week, Spence estimated that righting the ship is likely to cost between $20 and $30 million in the near term as Sonos works to assuage current customers and keep them from abandoning the company’s whole-home audio platform. The new app is being updated every two weeks with improvements, and Spence has said that cadence will continue through the fall. S2’s potential return would not change this. Restoring the old app could prove to be a technical headache since Sonos’ new software shifts a lot of core functionality to the cloud.

This has unquestionably become one of the most turbulent times in Sonos’ history. In the span of just a few months, the company has gone from a well-regarded consumer tech brand to a painful example of what can happen when leadership pushes on new projects too aggressively. Spence himself admitted that the app controversy has completely overshadowed the release of Sonos’ first-ever headphones, the Sonos Ace. Just today, Sonos laid off around 100 employees as the fallout from its rushed app makeover continues.

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