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There’s now a 45mm (left) Pixel Watch 3 along with the original 41mm size.

The Pixel Watch 3 isn’t the new smartwatch on the block anymore — which is an interesting place for Google to be in. It’s easier to forgive flaws when you’re a newbie, launching a first-gen device in an already crowded market. It’s understandable if a second-gen device is still working out the kinks. But there are expectations when it’s your third time around the block. So I was pleasantly surprised to walk away from my hands-on impressed by the sheer number of features Google’s packed into the Pixel Watch 3.

“We are deeply committed in this space,” says Sandeep Waraich, senior director of product management for Pixel wearables. “It is by far our biggest leap, probably bigger than even introducing the first generation [Pixel Watch].”
You wouldn’t necessarily get that glancing at the Pixel Watch 3. Aside from new colors, the design is identical to last year’s Pixel Watch 2 — though there’s now a larger 45mm option. Internally, the processor sensors are the same, aside from the addition of an ultra wideband chip. (It lets you unlock your Pixel phone, and if you have certain BMW models, you can unlock your car, too.) The main change is the display is bigger and brighter. The bezels are 16 percent thinner, resulting in 10 percent more visible space on the 41mm and 40 percent more on the 45mm. The screens — which Google is now calling Actua displays, like the phones — now have a maximum of 2,000 nits but can also dim to 1 nit with a variable refresh rate of 1 to 60Hz. According to Waraich, the Actua displays are also more power-efficient.

The 45mm version (left) doesn’t overpower my tiny wrist.

It’s hard to notice these changes unless you have a Pixel Watch 2 and both Pixel Watch 3 sizes lined up side by side. Thankfully, I did get to see that. The screens are definitely brighter, and you can in fact fit more information on the 45mm’s display. That said, the Pixel Watch’s watchfaces have always made use of dark backgrounds, so I’ve never had much issue with its chunky bezels. I simply have even less of a problem now. Otherwise, I was pleasantly surprised that it was sort of difficult to tell the 41mm and 45mm watches apart when I wore them individually. The 45mm, of course, has a slightly bigger battery, but we’ll have to see how far that (plus the new battery-saving mode) stretches in real-life testing.
The most impressive thing about the Pixel Watch 3 is the dizzying array of software updates. You can divide them into two buckets: health / fitness and interconnectivity.

You can see the improvements in screen brightness and bezel size when compared to the Pixel Watch 2 (left).

The most ambitious feature of the lot is the ability to detect loss of pulse. It uses the watch’s heart rate and other sensors to detect that someone’s pulse has stopped (think heart attacks, overdoses, respiratory failure, etc.). After checking in with the user, the watch will call emergency services if it detects no sign of motion.
Emergency SOS features aren’t new to smartwatches, but this is a bit different from fall or crash detection. This is saying that if your Pixel Watch 3 detects you don’t have a pulse anymore — as in, you’re dying — it will intervene to potentially save your life. That is a big, big claim, one that requires regulatory clearance, which is why the feature will only be available in Europe at launch.

Image: Google
So far, this will be available in the EU only at launch.

According to Waraich, this feature is possible because the Pixel Watch 3 samples your heart rate more frequently than most wearables on the market. The Apple Watch, for instance, only samples once every few minutes unless you’re exercising. Waraich also says that the feature can differentiate between you simply taking the watch off and a real loss of pulse event.
“It’s a combination of sensors and sensor fusion,” Waraich explains. “It’s looking at pulse, heartbeat, contact with skin, and a bunch of other things like motion.” If a loss of pulse is detected, the watch will also go through a series of escalations — like kicking on more accurate infrared LEDs and looking for motion data — to minimize false alarms. How it’ll work in real-life circumstances, however, is another story.

You’ll be able to view your Nest Cam or Nest Doorbell feed from your wrist.

And while that alone would be an impressive update, Google is also throwing in a bevy of advanced running features. You can program custom workouts on your phone, for example, and send them to your wrist. The watch buzzes when you’re not hitting your target for an interval or when it’s time to switch from speedwork to a cooldown. There’s a new running dashboard in the Fitbit app, which breaks down more advanced metrics like stride length, cadence, vertical oscillation, and other insights into your running performance. The Daily Readiness Score now includes your cardio load — a measure of how hard your heart’s been working during training — and recommends a daily target. When you wake up in the morning, there’s now a “Morning Brief” that summarizes your sleep, various health metrics, your progress toward goals, and the weather. Plus, there’s an AI feature where you’ll receive an automatically generated workout suggestion based on your most recent workouts. Oh, and now there are offline Google Maps capabilities.
Glancing at demos of all of these features, I was struck at how Garmin-like the heretofore casual Fitbit experience had become. But while Google’s clearly taken inspiration from Garmin, it’s not quite as similar as what Samsung did with Apple and its Galaxy Watch Ultra.
Much of the other software updates are distinctly aimed at showcasing the Google ecosystem. You can now view a Nest Cam or Nest Doorbell feed directly from your wrist. I tried a demo of it, and although the Wi-Fi connection was dubious, I could easily have a conversation with the person on the other side. The Pixel Watch 3 can also now control your Google TV and your Pixel phone’s camera. You can record audio from the wrist via the Pixel Recorder app and then view it from your phone.

It looks like last year’s model, but there are a ton of software updates in this year’s Pixel Watch 3.

It’s a little bittersweet. Google positioned the Pixel Watch as the Android smartwatch that worked no matter which phone you had. Some of these features, like the Nest feeds and the Pixel Recorder app, however, require you to have a Pixel phone. Waraich explains that, to a degree, it’s a matter of technical logistics. There needs to be a handshake between devices, but he insists that aside from those few features, everything else “should work beautifully well,” provided you have a compatible Android phone.
Granted, I saw controlled demos of these features, but it was a glimpse into Google’s so-called ambient computing future — a world where gadgets work seamlessly together in the background, provided you’re well ensconced within a certain ecosystem. I’ll be eager to see how well this all works in the real world. Even so, three years ago, this was something we all nodded our heads at while wondering if Google would abandon the Pixel Watch like many other products in the Google graveyard. Now, it’s starting to come together.

There’s now a 45mm (left) Pixel Watch 3 along with the original 41mm size.

The Pixel Watch 3 isn’t the new smartwatch on the block anymore — which is an interesting place for Google to be in. It’s easier to forgive flaws when you’re a newbie, launching a first-gen device in an already crowded market. It’s understandable if a second-gen device is still working out the kinks. But there are expectations when it’s your third time around the block. So I was pleasantly surprised to walk away from my hands-on impressed by the sheer number of features Google’s packed into the Pixel Watch 3.

“We are deeply committed in this space,” says Sandeep Waraich, senior director of product management for Pixel wearables. “It is by far our biggest leap, probably bigger than even introducing the first generation [Pixel Watch].”

You wouldn’t necessarily get that glancing at the Pixel Watch 3. Aside from new colors, the design is identical to last year’s Pixel Watch 2 — though there’s now a larger 45mm option. Internally, the processor sensors are the same, aside from the addition of an ultra wideband chip. (It lets you unlock your Pixel phone, and if you have certain BMW models, you can unlock your car, too.) The main change is the display is bigger and brighter. The bezels are 16 percent thinner, resulting in 10 percent more visible space on the 41mm and 40 percent more on the 45mm. The screens — which Google is now calling Actua displays, like the phones — now have a maximum of 2,000 nits but can also dim to 1 nit with a variable refresh rate of 1 to 60Hz. According to Waraich, the Actua displays are also more power-efficient.

The 45mm version (left) doesn’t overpower my tiny wrist.

It’s hard to notice these changes unless you have a Pixel Watch 2 and both Pixel Watch 3 sizes lined up side by side. Thankfully, I did get to see that. The screens are definitely brighter, and you can in fact fit more information on the 45mm’s display. That said, the Pixel Watch’s watchfaces have always made use of dark backgrounds, so I’ve never had much issue with its chunky bezels. I simply have even less of a problem now. Otherwise, I was pleasantly surprised that it was sort of difficult to tell the 41mm and 45mm watches apart when I wore them individually. The 45mm, of course, has a slightly bigger battery, but we’ll have to see how far that (plus the new battery-saving mode) stretches in real-life testing.

The most impressive thing about the Pixel Watch 3 is the dizzying array of software updates. You can divide them into two buckets: health / fitness and interconnectivity.

You can see the improvements in screen brightness and bezel size when compared to the Pixel Watch 2 (left).

The most ambitious feature of the lot is the ability to detect loss of pulse. It uses the watch’s heart rate and other sensors to detect that someone’s pulse has stopped (think heart attacks, overdoses, respiratory failure, etc.). After checking in with the user, the watch will call emergency services if it detects no sign of motion.

Emergency SOS features aren’t new to smartwatches, but this is a bit different from fall or crash detection. This is saying that if your Pixel Watch 3 detects you don’t have a pulse anymore — as in, you’re dying — it will intervene to potentially save your life. That is a big, big claim, one that requires regulatory clearance, which is why the feature will only be available in Europe at launch.

According to Waraich, this feature is possible because the Pixel Watch 3 samples your heart rate more frequently than most wearables on the market. The Apple Watch, for instance, only samples once every few minutes unless you’re exercising. Waraich also says that the feature can differentiate between you simply taking the watch off and a real loss of pulse event.

“It’s a combination of sensors and sensor fusion,” Waraich explains. “It’s looking at pulse, heartbeat, contact with skin, and a bunch of other things like motion.” If a loss of pulse is detected, the watch will also go through a series of escalations — like kicking on more accurate infrared LEDs and looking for motion data — to minimize false alarms. How it’ll work in real-life circumstances, however, is another story.

You’ll be able to view your Nest Cam or Nest Doorbell feed from your wrist.

And while that alone would be an impressive update, Google is also throwing in a bevy of advanced running features. You can program custom workouts on your phone, for example, and send them to your wrist. The watch buzzes when you’re not hitting your target for an interval or when it’s time to switch from speedwork to a cooldown. There’s a new running dashboard in the Fitbit app, which breaks down more advanced metrics like stride length, cadence, vertical oscillation, and other insights into your running performance. The Daily Readiness Score now includes your cardio load — a measure of how hard your heart’s been working during training — and recommends a daily target. When you wake up in the morning, there’s now a “Morning Brief” that summarizes your sleep, various health metrics, your progress toward goals, and the weather. Plus, there’s an AI feature where you’ll receive an automatically generated workout suggestion based on your most recent workouts. Oh, and now there are offline Google Maps capabilities.

Glancing at demos of all of these features, I was struck at how Garmin-like the heretofore casual Fitbit experience had become. But while Google’s clearly taken inspiration from Garmin, it’s not quite as similar as what Samsung did with Apple and its Galaxy Watch Ultra.

Much of the other software updates are distinctly aimed at showcasing the Google ecosystem. You can now view a Nest Cam or Nest Doorbell feed directly from your wrist. I tried a demo of it, and although the Wi-Fi connection was dubious, I could easily have a conversation with the person on the other side. The Pixel Watch 3 can also now control your Google TV and your Pixel phone’s camera. You can record audio from the wrist via the Pixel Recorder app and then view it from your phone.

It looks like last year’s model, but there are a ton of software updates in this year’s Pixel Watch 3.

It’s a little bittersweet. Google positioned the Pixel Watch as the Android smartwatch that worked no matter which phone you had. Some of these features, like the Nest feeds and the Pixel Recorder app, however, require you to have a Pixel phone. Waraich explains that, to a degree, it’s a matter of technical logistics. There needs to be a handshake between devices, but he insists that aside from those few features, everything else “should work beautifully well,” provided you have a compatible Android phone.

Granted, I saw controlled demos of these features, but it was a glimpse into Google’s so-called ambient computing future — a world where gadgets work seamlessly together in the background, provided you’re well ensconced within a certain ecosystem. I’ll be eager to see how well this all works in the real world. Even so, three years ago, this was something we all nodded our heads at while wondering if Google would abandon the Pixel Watch like many other products in the Google graveyard. Now, it’s starting to come together.

Read More 

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by STR / NurPhoto, Getty Images

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union has filed federal labor charges against Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump over their “illegal attempts to threaten and intimidate workers” during Monday night’s interview on X.
At one point in the interview, Trump praised Musk’s response to striking workers. He called Musk “the greatest cutter,” referring to the widespread layoffs the billionaire has issued at Tesla and Twitter.

He’s for the billionaires. Not for you.Donald Trump is a scab. #StandUpUAW pic.twitter.com/hj10zDPbzw— UAW (@UAW) August 13, 2024

“I mean, I look at what you do,” Trump told Musk. “You walk in, you say, ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.’”
Under federal labor laws, it’s illegal to fire workers who participate — or threaten to participate — in a protected strike. The UAW represents more than 400,000 workers in the automotive, aerospace, and agricultural industries in North America.
The union recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential race, after previously endorsing President Joe Biden. Last year, the UAW also launched organizing campaigns at several automakers, including Tesla.

“Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45 million a month to a Super PAC to get him elected,” UAW President Shawn Fain says in a statement. “Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly.”
The federal labor charge is just one of the things that came out of Musk and Trump’s two-hour interview on X, which got off to a rough start due to some technical issues.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by STR / NurPhoto, Getty Images

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union has filed federal labor charges against Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump over their “illegal attempts to threaten and intimidate workers” during Monday night’s interview on X.

At one point in the interview, Trump praised Musk’s response to striking workers. He called Musk “the greatest cutter,” referring to the widespread layoffs the billionaire has issued at Tesla and Twitter.

“I mean, I look at what you do,” Trump told Musk. “You walk in, you say, ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.’”

Under federal labor laws, it’s illegal to fire workers who participate — or threaten to participate — in a protected strike. The UAW represents more than 400,000 workers in the automotive, aerospace, and agricultural industries in North America.

The union recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential race, after previously endorsing President Joe Biden. Last year, the UAW also launched organizing campaigns at several automakers, including Tesla.

“Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45 million a month to a Super PAC to get him elected,” UAW President Shawn Fain says in a statement. “Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly.”

The federal labor charge is just one of the things that came out of Musk and Trump’s two-hour interview on X, which got off to a rough start due to some technical issues.

Read More 

Image: Netflix

Want to try your hand at Squid Game’s Red Light, Green Light but without the mortal danger from the Netflix series or having to participate in the Squid Game reality TV show? Then get ready for Squid Game: The Experience, an in-person “immersive adventure” launching in New York City in October.
“Front Man will dare the brave players, testing their skills and strategy in heart-pounding games, including the iconic Red Light, Green Light under Young-hee’s watchful eye,” Netflix says in a blog post. “While some of the games are inspired by the series, others are brand-new, so expect a surprise around every corner.”
As part of The Experience, you’ll be able to try your hand at Squid Game-inspired activities, grab some Korean food at a night market, and shop at a “Squid Mart” to buy Squid Game-themed goodies. A similar Squid Game destination, Squid Game: The Trials, opened in Los Angeles last year.
The Experience will be located at Manhattan Mall and opens on October 11th — which is more than two months ahead of the second season’s upcoming December 26th debut. You can join a waitlist on The Experience’s website to get early access to buy tickets ahead of general ticket sales on August 21st.
As of late, Netflix has been investing more into in-person experiences, including plans to open retail destinations in 2025 and the creation of a Stranger Things stage play that debuted in London in 2023 and is coming to Broadway next year. And Netflix says that Squid Game: The Experience will be coming to Asia and Europe sometime this fall.
Netflix has a lot more planned for the Squid Game franchise, too. The company already announced that the main series will get a third and final season in 2025, while a second season of the Squid Game: The Challenge reality show is in production. A multiplayer video game, titled Squid Game: Unleashed, is also set to launch this year.

Image: Netflix

Want to try your hand at Squid Game’s Red Light, Green Light but without the mortal danger from the Netflix series or having to participate in the Squid Game reality TV show? Then get ready for Squid Game: The Experience, an in-person “immersive adventure” launching in New York City in October.

“Front Man will dare the brave players, testing their skills and strategy in heart-pounding games, including the iconic Red Light, Green Light under Young-hee’s watchful eye,” Netflix says in a blog post. “While some of the games are inspired by the series, others are brand-new, so expect a surprise around every corner.”

As part of The Experience, you’ll be able to try your hand at Squid Game-inspired activities, grab some Korean food at a night market, and shop at a “Squid Mart” to buy Squid Game-themed goodies. A similar Squid Game destination, Squid Game: The Trials, opened in Los Angeles last year.

The Experience will be located at Manhattan Mall and opens on October 11th — which is more than two months ahead of the second season’s upcoming December 26th debut. You can join a waitlist on The Experience’s website to get early access to buy tickets ahead of general ticket sales on August 21st.

As of late, Netflix has been investing more into in-person experiences, including plans to open retail destinations in 2025 and the creation of a Stranger Things stage play that debuted in London in 2023 and is coming to Broadway next year. And Netflix says that Squid Game: The Experience will be coming to Asia and Europe sometime this fall.

Netflix has a lot more planned for the Squid Game franchise, too. The company already announced that the main series will get a third and final season in 2025, while a second season of the Squid Game: The Challenge reality show is in production. A multiplayer video game, titled Squid Game: Unleashed, is also set to launch this year.

Read More 

Image: Google

We’re covering Google’s Pixel 9 launch event live and in person. Google’s Pixel 9 event is happening today, August 13th, at 1PM ET, and we’re at the company headquarters in Mountain View, California, to cover the event live.
Today’s “Made by Google” event comes earlier than usual this year. Google has already confirmed the Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro Fold as it continues to navigate a whole lot of leaks.
Google launched a teaser video for its Pixel 9 Pro featuring Gemini AI, and there are going to be more models coming out, too. If there’s anything else yet to be revealed, it’s probably fresh new AI features tied to the launch of the new devices.
Whether you’re looking forward to the return of the ear wing in a new Pixel Buds 2 Pro, some thin bezels and larger versions of a new Pixel Watch 3, or even fresh new phone colors, scroll down to see all the updates coming to you live right here!

Image: Google

We’re covering Google’s Pixel 9 launch event live and in person.

Google’s Pixel 9 event is happening today, August 13th, at 1PM ET, and we’re at the company headquarters in Mountain View, California, to cover the event live.

Today’s “Made by Google” event comes earlier than usual this year. Google has already confirmed the Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro Fold as it continues to navigate a whole lot of leaks.

Google launched a teaser video for its Pixel 9 Pro featuring Gemini AI, and there are going to be more models coming out, too. If there’s anything else yet to be revealed, it’s probably fresh new AI features tied to the launch of the new devices.

Whether you’re looking forward to the return of the ear wing in a new Pixel Buds 2 Pro, some thin bezels and larger versions of a new Pixel Watch 3, or even fresh new phone colors, scroll down to see all the updates coming to you live right here!

Read More 

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Grzegorz Wajda, Getty Images

During their glitchy, rambling, two-hour “conversation” on X last night, Elon Musk made the case to Donald Trump that climate change was real and maybe electric cars weren’t as bad as the former president has been making them out to be on the campaign trail. The result was a feeble attempt by a once-lauded environmentalist to launder the former president’s disastrous record on climate change.
Musk, who endorsed Trump following the failed assassination attempt and is helping fund a super PAC supporting his election, tried to placate Trump by offering his own support for oil and gas drilling and minimizing the threat posed by climate change. But he also attempted to win over Trump by offering a more MAGA-friendly pitch for his own EVs.
A more MAGA-friendly pitch for Musk’s EVs
“When you look at our cars, we don’t believe that environmentalism, that caring about the environment, should mean that you have to suffer,” Musk said. “So, we make sure that our cars are beautiful, that they drive fast, they’re, you know, sexy, cool.”
It’s not clear that Trump can be convinced. Sure, the former president has sounded a more positive note on EVs since Musk’s endorsement, but he continues to make the same arguments against them: they take too long to charge, they can’t go that far, and they’ll cost auto workers their jobs. And his record on the environment has been, to put in Trump’s words, a complete disaster.
During their conversation, Trump repeated many of these same attacks while also praising Musk for making a car that many people want to buy. (To be sure, Tesla’s sales have been slumping.)
“You do make a great product,” Trump said to Musk during the two-hour-long lovefest. “I have to be honest, that doesn’t mean everybody should have an electric car.”
On the campaign trail, Trump has falsely accused President Joe Biden of making the purchase of gas-powered cars illegal and trying to force all Americans to switch to EVs. In reality, the Environmental Protection Agency’s new fuel economy standards will require automakers to release less polluting vehicles, many of which will be battery-powered, but in no way mandate EV-only sales. The administration has also introduced consumer incentives to help bring down the cost of EVs.
“You do make a great product,” Trump said to Musk
But if anyone has shifted positions on EVs and climate change, it appeared to be Musk. The Tesla CEO seemed to be trying to get Trump and his supporters to support his company’s mission to usher in a more sustainable future — but in the same breath, he also downplayed the urgency of that mission.
“I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry and the people that have worked very hard in those industries to provide the necessary energy to support the economy,” Musk said.
Trump’s campaign has received millions of dollars from the oil and gas industry. Many of their chief executives are banking on Trump rolling back Biden’s environmental policies should he win in November.
He later claimed that the planet can transition to a sustainable energy economy in “50 or 100 years” — despite the scientific community warning that humanity is quickly reaching climate tipping points.
And Trump argued that EVs aren’t a perfect solution because the power required to charge their batteries will come from fossil fuels until electrical grids transition to clean energy.
Trump’s campaign has received millions of dollars from the oil and gas industry
“Even to create your electric car and create the electricity needed for the electric car, you know, fossil fuel is what really creates that at the generating plants,” the former president said. “You sort of can’t get away from it at this moment.”
Generating electricity used to charge EVs can create pollution, but EVs themselves have no tailpipe emissions and are widely seen as preferable to gas-powered vehicles. Many states are in the process of switching from fossil fuel-powered electricity generation to more renewable sources, like solar and wind power.
Musk and Trump seemed to be in agreement that combatting climate change shouldn’t come at the expense of anyone’s personal inconvenience. We don’t need to “stop farmers from farming,” Musk said, adding, “People can still have a steak, and they can still drive gasoline cars.”
Of course, these statements ignore the reality of climate change. Fighting climate change will require huge systemic change, as well as small behavioral changes by individuals. Cattle and livestock are tremendous contributors to climate change, creating methane that becomes trapped in the atmosphere, which then causes the planet to warm significantly. Meanwhile, cars create carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas that is responsible for global warming. We all need to eat less red meat and drive less to live more sustainable lives.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s policies have been geared toward forcing major industries to transition to less polluting sources of energy, whether it’s power plants, automakers, or construction. Trump’s record is one of rolling back these measures and inviting major industries to pollute more. And his Supreme Court picks have cast decisions that will make it harder for any administration to protect the environment in the future.
And yet Musk is hitching his wagon to Trump’s candidacy, a fact that throws into question the former’s commitment to clean energy. During their interview, Musk mildly pushed his chosen candidate to support renewable energy, like solar power — but instead, Trump expressed skepticism that climate change was even the most pressing threat.
“One thing that I don’t understand is that people talk about global warming, or they talk about climate change, but they never talk about nuclear warming,” Trump said, switching the subject. It was time to move on.

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Grzegorz Wajda, Getty Images

During their glitchy, rambling, two-hour “conversation” on X last night, Elon Musk made the case to Donald Trump that climate change was real and maybe electric cars weren’t as bad as the former president has been making them out to be on the campaign trail. The result was a feeble attempt by a once-lauded environmentalist to launder the former president’s disastrous record on climate change.

Musk, who endorsed Trump following the failed assassination attempt and is helping fund a super PAC supporting his election, tried to placate Trump by offering his own support for oil and gas drilling and minimizing the threat posed by climate change. But he also attempted to win over Trump by offering a more MAGA-friendly pitch for his own EVs.

“When you look at our cars, we don’t believe that environmentalism, that caring about the environment, should mean that you have to suffer,” Musk said. “So, we make sure that our cars are beautiful, that they drive fast, they’re, you know, sexy, cool.”

It’s not clear that Trump can be convinced. Sure, the former president has sounded a more positive note on EVs since Musk’s endorsement, but he continues to make the same arguments against them: they take too long to charge, they can’t go that far, and they’ll cost auto workers their jobs. And his record on the environment has been, to put in Trump’s words, a complete disaster.

During their conversation, Trump repeated many of these same attacks while also praising Musk for making a car that many people want to buy. (To be sure, Tesla’s sales have been slumping.)

“You do make a great product,” Trump said to Musk during the two-hour-long lovefest. “I have to be honest, that doesn’t mean everybody should have an electric car.”

On the campaign trail, Trump has falsely accused President Joe Biden of making the purchase of gas-powered cars illegal and trying to force all Americans to switch to EVs. In reality, the Environmental Protection Agency’s new fuel economy standards will require automakers to release less polluting vehicles, many of which will be battery-powered, but in no way mandate EV-only sales. The administration has also introduced consumer incentives to help bring down the cost of EVs.

But if anyone has shifted positions on EVs and climate change, it appeared to be Musk. The Tesla CEO seemed to be trying to get Trump and his supporters to support his company’s mission to usher in a more sustainable future — but in the same breath, he also downplayed the urgency of that mission.

“I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry and the people that have worked very hard in those industries to provide the necessary energy to support the economy,” Musk said.

Trump’s campaign has received millions of dollars from the oil and gas industry. Many of their chief executives are banking on Trump rolling back Biden’s environmental policies should he win in November.

He later claimed that the planet can transition to a sustainable energy economy in “50 or 100 years” — despite the scientific community warning that humanity is quickly reaching climate tipping points.

And Trump argued that EVs aren’t a perfect solution because the power required to charge their batteries will come from fossil fuels until electrical grids transition to clean energy.

“Even to create your electric car and create the electricity needed for the electric car, you know, fossil fuel is what really creates that at the generating plants,” the former president said. “You sort of can’t get away from it at this moment.”

Generating electricity used to charge EVs can create pollution, but EVs themselves have no tailpipe emissions and are widely seen as preferable to gas-powered vehicles. Many states are in the process of switching from fossil fuel-powered electricity generation to more renewable sources, like solar and wind power.

Musk and Trump seemed to be in agreement that combatting climate change shouldn’t come at the expense of anyone’s personal inconvenience. We don’t need to “stop farmers from farming,” Musk said, adding, “People can still have a steak, and they can still drive gasoline cars.”

Of course, these statements ignore the reality of climate change. Fighting climate change will require huge systemic change, as well as small behavioral changes by individuals. Cattle and livestock are tremendous contributors to climate change, creating methane that becomes trapped in the atmosphere, which then causes the planet to warm significantly. Meanwhile, cars create carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas that is responsible for global warming. We all need to eat less red meat and drive less to live more sustainable lives.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s policies have been geared toward forcing major industries to transition to less polluting sources of energy, whether it’s power plants, automakers, or construction. Trump’s record is one of rolling back these measures and inviting major industries to pollute more. And his Supreme Court picks have cast decisions that will make it harder for any administration to protect the environment in the future.

And yet Musk is hitching his wagon to Trump’s candidacy, a fact that throws into question the former’s commitment to clean energy. During their interview, Musk mildly pushed his chosen candidate to support renewable energy, like solar power — but instead, Trump expressed skepticism that climate change was even the most pressing threat.

“One thing that I don’t understand is that people talk about global warming, or they talk about climate change, but they never talk about nuclear warming,” Trump said, switching the subject. It was time to move on.

Read More 

Image: Flipboard

Flipboard is making good on a major fediverse promise. Late last year, at the same time it announced it would be switching user accounts to ActivityPub, Flipboard said it planned to let users follow users on federated platforms that used ActivityPub from the Flipboard app. Starting Tuesday, that feature is here, meaning that you can follow people from places like Mastodon, Threads, and Pixelfed right inside Flipboard.
Flipboard will feature fediverse profiles in a few different ways in the app. Flipboard’s search will show fediverse accounts, for example, while the Explore tab will have editorially curated recommendations, according to a press release. In a screenshot shared by Flipboard, the Explore section has a “Fediverse” tab that’s populated with profiles like Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel’s Threads account and Mike Masnick’s Mastodon account, and you can follow those accounts with a tap.

Image: Flipboard

While you’ll be able to see posts from federated accounts on other platforms, you won’t be able to reply to or like those posts from Flipboard unless your Flipboard account is also federated, which may not be the case for everyone. Flipboard has only turned that on for some accounts so far, and if yours isn’t federated yet, you’ll be able to request for that to happen, Flipboard’s Marci McCue tells The Verge.
Still, Flipboard’s fediverse expansion could make the app a one-stop shop for your news and social media posts from the people you’re most interested in. I’m intrigued by the idea; I usually keep my article feeds and my social feeds in separate apps, but I can see how it could be useful to combine them both.
Flipboard has been a vocal supporter of federation. The company created its own Mastodon instance (Flipboard.social) in 2023, and CEO Mike McCue has written and talked about how big a deal he thinks federation is. But thanks to things like this Flipboard update and the newly added ability in Threads to see replies to your federated posts, the lofty promises of federated social networking are becoming more of a reality.

Image: Flipboard

Flipboard is making good on a major fediverse promise. Late last year, at the same time it announced it would be switching user accounts to ActivityPub, Flipboard said it planned to let users follow users on federated platforms that used ActivityPub from the Flipboard app. Starting Tuesday, that feature is here, meaning that you can follow people from places like Mastodon, Threads, and Pixelfed right inside Flipboard.

Flipboard will feature fediverse profiles in a few different ways in the app. Flipboard’s search will show fediverse accounts, for example, while the Explore tab will have editorially curated recommendations, according to a press release. In a screenshot shared by Flipboard, the Explore section has a “Fediverse” tab that’s populated with profiles like Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel’s Threads account and Mike Masnick’s Mastodon account, and you can follow those accounts with a tap.

Image: Flipboard

While you’ll be able to see posts from federated accounts on other platforms, you won’t be able to reply to or like those posts from Flipboard unless your Flipboard account is also federated, which may not be the case for everyone. Flipboard has only turned that on for some accounts so far, and if yours isn’t federated yet, you’ll be able to request for that to happen, Flipboard’s Marci McCue tells The Verge.

Still, Flipboard’s fediverse expansion could make the app a one-stop shop for your news and social media posts from the people you’re most interested in. I’m intrigued by the idea; I usually keep my article feeds and my social feeds in separate apps, but I can see how it could be useful to combine them both.

Flipboard has been a vocal supporter of federation. The company created its own Mastodon instance (Flipboard.social) in 2023, and CEO Mike McCue has written and talked about how big a deal he thinks federation is. But thanks to things like this Flipboard update and the newly added ability in Threads to see replies to your federated posts, the lofty promises of federated social networking are becoming more of a reality.

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Struggling to squeeze more adapters onto a power strip? Anker’s upcoming 65W charger could be the solution. | Image: Anker Japan

Anker has come up with a clever design for a new 65W charger that’s thin enough to squeeze between larger power adapters on a power strip, potentially making an over-crowded outlet useable again.
Thin chargers aren’t a new idea, but they typically feature a set of folding prongs on the flat side of the adapter, allowing them to plug into outlets behind furniture and sit flush against the wall. Anker’s approach is to instead position a pair of folding prongs on the end of its new charger, taking advantage of the thin design in a different way.

GIF: Onesuite
The charger’s prongs not only fold flat — they can pivot from side to side, allowing it to also be plugged into wall outlets.

Anker recently announced new additions to its Prime lineup of chargers, and although this slim solution will eventually be part of that collection, it’s currently only listed on Anker Japan’s website with a scheduled release sometime in the winter of 2024 and a ¥6,990 (around $47 USD) price tag. There are no details on how it’s designed to work aside from sharing up to 65W of power between two USB-C ports, but a Japanese news outlet got some hands-on time with it and demonstrated the charger’s folding prongs in a video shared to X.
Given the prongs can also rotate from side to side, the slim charger should also be useable on wall outlets without the weight of the charger causing it to slowly unplug itself. That was an issue on older Anker wall chargers that the company has only recently addressed with a redesigned 100W compact charger featuring thicker prongs and an improved center of balance.

Struggling to squeeze more adapters onto a power strip? Anker’s upcoming 65W charger could be the solution. | Image: Anker Japan

Anker has come up with a clever design for a new 65W charger that’s thin enough to squeeze between larger power adapters on a power strip, potentially making an over-crowded outlet useable again.

Thin chargers aren’t a new idea, but they typically feature a set of folding prongs on the flat side of the adapter, allowing them to plug into outlets behind furniture and sit flush against the wall. Anker’s approach is to instead position a pair of folding prongs on the end of its new charger, taking advantage of the thin design in a different way.

GIF: Onesuite
The charger’s prongs not only fold flat — they can pivot from side to side, allowing it to also be plugged into wall outlets.

Anker recently announced new additions to its Prime lineup of chargers, and although this slim solution will eventually be part of that collection, it’s currently only listed on Anker Japan’s website with a scheduled release sometime in the winter of 2024 and a ¥6,990 (around $47 USD) price tag. There are no details on how it’s designed to work aside from sharing up to 65W of power between two USB-C ports, but a Japanese news outlet got some hands-on time with it and demonstrated the charger’s folding prongs in a video shared to X.

Given the prongs can also rotate from side to side, the slim charger should also be useable on wall outlets without the weight of the charger causing it to slowly unplug itself. That was an issue on older Anker wall chargers that the company has only recently addressed with a redesigned 100W compact charger featuring thicker prongs and an improved center of balance.

Read More 

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge

While the notion lingers that “the internet is forever,” it can also feel like it’s written on water. If you’re an internet-based creative, the company that publishes your writing or exhibits an online gallery of your work can suddenly fold (see: Gawker or Game Informer), migrate content management systems, or simply unpublish older work. In that case, the article you researched for a month, the story you carefully constructed, or the gallery of photos that you painstakingly put together could, in that moment, be forever unavailable. And if you’ve linked to your work in a blog or social network, that link has now become useless.
So what do you do? You can save a PDF of each of your works to a local drive, an online storage service, or to your preferred productivity app. You can create your own website to showcase your favorite works. You can use the paid tier of bookmarking services such as Pocket Premium or Raindrop Pro, which automatically save copies of the sites you bookmark.
Or you can archive and / or exhibit your work using a service created for that purpose. These archiving services offer a place where you can exhibit some or all of your work to potential fans or employers, and even (for a price) automatically find and save your work for you.
In this article, I’m going to concentrate on resources for writers and other text-based creatives. There are also resources out there for photographers and other visual artists, such as Flickr and 500px. We’ll cover those separately in the future.
The Wayback Machine

Screenshot: Internet Archive
The Wayback Machine can save copies of your online work — except when it can’t.

The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine has been archiving webpages since 1996, and if you’ve been putting your work online that long — or longer — there’s a good chance you can find it somewhere in the archive. However, not everything has been archived, and archived pages can be removed if the owners of the site request it.
You can request that a specific page be archived by using a browser extension (for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, iOS, or Android). The extension saves the page to the archive, allowing you to access it later, even if the original disappears. However, since the publisher of the site can, as mentioned, ask that the archive be removed, you may want to use the Wayback Machine to find pages you may have missed and archive them using a safer method.
In addition, at the time this was written, it was possible that the Chrome extension could itself disappear — when I last looked, a notification on the download page read, “This extension may soon no longer be supported because it doesn’t follow best practices for Chrome extensions.” (Part, no doubt, of the change in Google’s extension specification.) There are other, if less handy, ways to save your work to the archive, detailed in a blog written in 2017.
The Wayback Machine is free to use, although you can donate if you choose.
Authory

Screenshot: Authory
Authory can track specific sites and automatically add your contributions.

Authory is a long-standing app used by writers to preserve their writing. (Note: I’ve been using Authory for several years, ever since one of the publications I had written for decided to pull its archive off the internet and a colleague told me about the app.) Authory will automatically back up links to your material along with the actual text by scouring the online publications that you’ve specified; because it picks up anything you’ve written for those publications automatically, you don’t have to worry about losing any of your work. Authory also archives videos, podcasts, and individual social media posts or emails.
You can also use Authory as a portfolio to exhibit your content to others. By default, people who click on an article link in your portfolio are sent to the original source, but you can also choose to have them read it from the Authory backup — very useful if that source no longer exists.
Free plan: 10 items max, no auto-import
Paid plans: Standard plan ($15 / month or $144 / year) includes unlimited items, automated import of past and future items, searchable content, and more. Professional plan ($24 / month or $216 / year) adds custom domain support, Zapier app, and higher updates frequency.
Free trial: 14 days of Standard or Pro plan
Journo Portfolio

Screenshot: Journo Portfolio
Journo Portfolio can create good-looking sites that list articles, videos, and other media.

Despite the name, Journo Portfolio touts its ability to be used by almost any creative who wants to show off work, including visual artists such as photographers and videographers. The emphasis (as can be guessed from its name) is more on creating a portfolio site than archiving, although, if you subscribe to its Pro or Unlimited plan, it will automatically back up saved articles, create an archive of screenshots, and let you import older articles.
And Journo Portfolio does offer a lot of resources for individualizing that portfolio: you can choose a theme for your homepage and, afterward, tweak that theme by adding blocks of content types, including images (with a gallery, if you so choose), quotes, maps, subscriptions, and a wide variety of other features. Its Unlimited plan even allows you to sell your art or other products from your site.
Free plan: A homepage with your name in the URL along with 10 portfolio items
Paid plans: Plus plan ($8 / month or $60 / year) offers a five-page site with 50 portfolio items. The Pro plan ($12 / month or $96 / year) adds the ability to store 1,000 portfolio items and do article backups as well as up to two collaborators, automatic article imports, and more. The Unlimited plan ($18 a month or $168 /year) gives you unlimited pages, portfolio items, collaborators, and more.
Free trial: A seven-day trial of the Plus plan on signup
Conifer

Screenshot: Conifer
Conifer is managed by a nonprofit arts organization and offers a robust free plan.

Conifer, formerly called Webrecorder, is a web archiving service maintained by Rhizome, a nonprofit arts organization. This service works a little differently than Authory or Journo Portfolio, which archive screenshots or PDFs of your articles but can lose links and other interactive parts in the process. Instead, Conifer saves your pages as clickable “sessions” — including workable links — and organizes them into collections. According to Conifer, “viewers of a collection should be able to repeat any action during access that were performed during capture.” You can either keep your collection private or create a public listing of specific items from a collection in order to create a portfolio.
Conifer feels like a work in progress. It’s not as simple to master as either Authory or Journo Portfolio, and it doesn’t provide any kind of automated saving, but its free plan makes it a viable alternative, especially because it lets you save as many items as you can fit in 5GB of space, while Authory’s and Journo Portfolio’s free plans limit you to just 10 items.
Free plan: 5GB of storage
Paid plans: For $20 a month, you get 40GB of storage and the option to add more for $5 / month per 20GB. For an annual payment of $200, you get the same 40GB, along with the option to add the 20GB for $50 a year.
Free trial: N/A

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge

While the notion lingers that “the internet is forever,” it can also feel like it’s written on water. If you’re an internet-based creative, the company that publishes your writing or exhibits an online gallery of your work can suddenly fold (see: Gawker or Game Informer), migrate content management systems, or simply unpublish older work. In that case, the article you researched for a month, the story you carefully constructed, or the gallery of photos that you painstakingly put together could, in that moment, be forever unavailable. And if you’ve linked to your work in a blog or social network, that link has now become useless.

So what do you do? You can save a PDF of each of your works to a local drive, an online storage service, or to your preferred productivity app. You can create your own website to showcase your favorite works. You can use the paid tier of bookmarking services such as Pocket Premium or Raindrop Pro, which automatically save copies of the sites you bookmark.

Or you can archive and / or exhibit your work using a service created for that purpose. These archiving services offer a place where you can exhibit some or all of your work to potential fans or employers, and even (for a price) automatically find and save your work for you.

In this article, I’m going to concentrate on resources for writers and other text-based creatives. There are also resources out there for photographers and other visual artists, such as Flickr and 500px. We’ll cover those separately in the future.

The Wayback Machine

Screenshot: Internet Archive
The Wayback Machine can save copies of your online work — except when it can’t.

The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine has been archiving webpages since 1996, and if you’ve been putting your work online that long — or longer — there’s a good chance you can find it somewhere in the archive. However, not everything has been archived, and archived pages can be removed if the owners of the site request it.

You can request that a specific page be archived by using a browser extension (for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, iOS, or Android). The extension saves the page to the archive, allowing you to access it later, even if the original disappears. However, since the publisher of the site can, as mentioned, ask that the archive be removed, you may want to use the Wayback Machine to find pages you may have missed and archive them using a safer method.

In addition, at the time this was written, it was possible that the Chrome extension could itself disappear — when I last looked, a notification on the download page read, “This extension may soon no longer be supported because it doesn’t follow best practices for Chrome extensions.” (Part, no doubt, of the change in Google’s extension specification.) There are other, if less handy, ways to save your work to the archive, detailed in a blog written in 2017.

The Wayback Machine is free to use, although you can donate if you choose.

Authory

Screenshot: Authory
Authory can track specific sites and automatically add your contributions.

Authory is a long-standing app used by writers to preserve their writing. (Note: I’ve been using Authory for several years, ever since one of the publications I had written for decided to pull its archive off the internet and a colleague told me about the app.) Authory will automatically back up links to your material along with the actual text by scouring the online publications that you’ve specified; because it picks up anything you’ve written for those publications automatically, you don’t have to worry about losing any of your work. Authory also archives videos, podcasts, and individual social media posts or emails.

You can also use Authory as a portfolio to exhibit your content to others. By default, people who click on an article link in your portfolio are sent to the original source, but you can also choose to have them read it from the Authory backup — very useful if that source no longer exists.

Free plan: 10 items max, no auto-import

Paid plans: Standard plan ($15 / month or $144 / year) includes unlimited items, automated import of past and future items, searchable content, and more. Professional plan ($24 / month or $216 / year) adds custom domain support, Zapier app, and higher updates frequency.

Free trial: 14 days of Standard or Pro plan

Journo Portfolio

Screenshot: Journo Portfolio
Journo Portfolio can create good-looking sites that list articles, videos, and other media.

Despite the name, Journo Portfolio touts its ability to be used by almost any creative who wants to show off work, including visual artists such as photographers and videographers. The emphasis (as can be guessed from its name) is more on creating a portfolio site than archiving, although, if you subscribe to its Pro or Unlimited plan, it will automatically back up saved articles, create an archive of screenshots, and let you import older articles.

And Journo Portfolio does offer a lot of resources for individualizing that portfolio: you can choose a theme for your homepage and, afterward, tweak that theme by adding blocks of content types, including images (with a gallery, if you so choose), quotes, maps, subscriptions, and a wide variety of other features. Its Unlimited plan even allows you to sell your art or other products from your site.

Free plan: A homepage with your name in the URL along with 10 portfolio items

Paid plans: Plus plan ($8 / month or $60 / year) offers a five-page site with 50 portfolio items. The Pro plan ($12 / month or $96 / year) adds the ability to store 1,000 portfolio items and do article backups as well as up to two collaborators, automatic article imports, and more. The Unlimited plan ($18 a month or $168 /year) gives you unlimited pages, portfolio items, collaborators, and more.

Free trial: A seven-day trial of the Plus plan on signup

Conifer

Screenshot: Conifer
Conifer is managed by a nonprofit arts organization and offers a robust free plan.

Conifer, formerly called Webrecorder, is a web archiving service maintained by Rhizome, a nonprofit arts organization. This service works a little differently than Authory or Journo Portfolio, which archive screenshots or PDFs of your articles but can lose links and other interactive parts in the process. Instead, Conifer saves your pages as clickable “sessions” — including workable links — and organizes them into collections. According to Conifer, “viewers of a collection should be able to repeat any action during access that were performed during capture.” You can either keep your collection private or create a public listing of specific items from a collection in order to create a portfolio.

Conifer feels like a work in progress. It’s not as simple to master as either Authory or Journo Portfolio, and it doesn’t provide any kind of automated saving, but its free plan makes it a viable alternative, especially because it lets you save as many items as you can fit in 5GB of space, while Authory’s and Journo Portfolio’s free plans limit you to just 10 items.

Free plan: 5GB of storage

Paid plans: For $20 a month, you get 40GB of storage and the option to add more for $5 / month per 20GB. For an annual payment of $200, you get the same 40GB, along with the option to add the 20GB for $50 a year.

Free trial: N/A

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Photo by Daniel Golson for The Verge

Rivian isn’t offering phone mirroring features like Apple CarPlay in its electric vehicles, so the company is instead pushing a new software update today that adds built-in Apple Music streaming support, which might scratch customers’ connectivity itch.
Last month, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said on Decoder that CarPlay can’t leverage other parts of the vehicle experience and takes control away from automakers. In this case, control comes in the form of a paid subscription service needed to enjoy some of the features available on Rivian’s big Android-based infotainment screen.
The new native Apple Music app, which includes support for spatial audio and Dolby Atmos, is launching after Rivian introduced its new Connect Plus data subscription in June. In an email to The Verge, Rivian product spokesperson Courtney Richardson wrote that Connect Plus is needed for Gen 2 vehicles to have “native app experiences like Apple Music and streaming connectivity no matter where the vehicle travels.”
Control comes in the form of a paid subscription service
When asked about the difference between connectivity for Gen 1 owners, who already can listen to music in apps like Spotify on the go with no additional subscription, Richardson shared the same information available on Rivian’s website. Many Rivian owners have enjoyed the included data services thanks to the Rivian Membership, which the company has said it’s phasing out.
It seems all owners of R1T and R1S vehicles will soon need Connect Plus to stream their media apps on the go and to continue using the vehicle’s built-in Wi-Fi hotspot. Rivian vehicles can run apps like TuneIn and Amazon Audible and will soon have native YouTube and support for Google Cast — as long as owners subscribe to Connect Plus.
To help ease the change, Rivian is extending a new two-month free trial of Connect Plus for all Rivian owners starting today. That means drivers with Apple Music subscriptions can go ahead and jam out with the car’s built-in data for a bit before needing to pay extra for the privilege. After the free trial, Connect Plus will cost $14.99 a month or $149.99 annually.

Rivian isn’t the only company pushing customers toward connectivity subscriptions. Tesla had long included unlimited data on its vehicles before switching over to a $99 per year Premium subscription (although early Tesla owners continue to enjoy grandfathered unlimited plans).
But neither company offers CarPlay or Android Auto, which can mirror one’s phone screen and use its services on the car’s display — so you never need to worry about unpredictable changes in the automotive world.
For those who aren’t looking to pay extra, RivianTrackr reports the company will allow native media apps to work when connected to a separate Wi-Fi hotspot. You could also try mounting your phone and connecting audio with Bluetooth for a more 2013-feeling experience.

Photo by Daniel Golson for The Verge

Rivian isn’t offering phone mirroring features like Apple CarPlay in its electric vehicles, so the company is instead pushing a new software update today that adds built-in Apple Music streaming support, which might scratch customers’ connectivity itch.

Last month, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said on Decoder that CarPlay can’t leverage other parts of the vehicle experience and takes control away from automakers. In this case, control comes in the form of a paid subscription service needed to enjoy some of the features available on Rivian’s big Android-based infotainment screen.

The new native Apple Music app, which includes support for spatial audio and Dolby Atmos, is launching after Rivian introduced its new Connect Plus data subscription in June. In an email to The Verge, Rivian product spokesperson Courtney Richardson wrote that Connect Plus is needed for Gen 2 vehicles to have “native app experiences like Apple Music and streaming connectivity no matter where the vehicle travels.”

When asked about the difference between connectivity for Gen 1 owners, who already can listen to music in apps like Spotify on the go with no additional subscription, Richardson shared the same information available on Rivian’s website. Many Rivian owners have enjoyed the included data services thanks to the Rivian Membership, which the company has said it’s phasing out.

It seems all owners of R1T and R1S vehicles will soon need Connect Plus to stream their media apps on the go and to continue using the vehicle’s built-in Wi-Fi hotspot. Rivian vehicles can run apps like TuneIn and Amazon Audible and will soon have native YouTube and support for Google Cast — as long as owners subscribe to Connect Plus.

To help ease the change, Rivian is extending a new two-month free trial of Connect Plus for all Rivian owners starting today. That means drivers with Apple Music subscriptions can go ahead and jam out with the car’s built-in data for a bit before needing to pay extra for the privilege. After the free trial, Connect Plus will cost $14.99 a month or $149.99 annually.

Rivian isn’t the only company pushing customers toward connectivity subscriptions. Tesla had long included unlimited data on its vehicles before switching over to a $99 per year Premium subscription (although early Tesla owners continue to enjoy grandfathered unlimited plans).

But neither company offers CarPlay or Android Auto, which can mirror one’s phone screen and use its services on the car’s display — so you never need to worry about unpredictable changes in the automotive world.

For those who aren’t looking to pay extra, RivianTrackr reports the company will allow native media apps to work when connected to a separate Wi-Fi hotspot. You could also try mounting your phone and connecting audio with Bluetooth for a more 2013-feeling experience.

Read More 

Image: Google

Google’s getting ready to reveal its entirely new Pixel phone lineup on Tuesday, including the already (and probably begrudgingly) confirmed Pixel 9 Pro and a new 9 Pro Fold foldable phone. The company is yet again dealing with a whole lot of leaks that have revealed everything from possibly the full lineup and their specs to new colors like bubblegum pink and fresh AI features that will continue to make you ask what a photo is.
We may never know why Google keeps suffering leaks of its portfolio of new products year after year, but there’s still plenty to learn at the upcoming Made by Google event. Beyond new phones, we might learn new details on the (also leaked) next Pixel Watch, new wireless Buds, and fresh Gemini features.
How to watch the Made by Google event
The Google Pixel 9 event will take place on August 13th, 2024, starting at 1PM ET / 10AM PT. Google will host an in-person audience at its headquarters in Mountain View, California, but you can follow along by watching the livestream on Google’s website or YouTube channel or via the video embedded at the top of this article.
And, if you can’t watch the stream, you can follow along with us on our live blog.

Image: Google

Google’s getting ready to reveal its entirely new Pixel phone lineup on Tuesday, including the already (and probably begrudgingly) confirmed Pixel 9 Pro and a new 9 Pro Fold foldable phone. The company is yet again dealing with a whole lot of leaks that have revealed everything from possibly the full lineup and their specs to new colors like bubblegum pink and fresh AI features that will continue to make you ask what a photo is.

We may never know why Google keeps suffering leaks of its portfolio of new products year after year, but there’s still plenty to learn at the upcoming Made by Google event. Beyond new phones, we might learn new details on the (also leaked) next Pixel Watch, new wireless Buds, and fresh Gemini features.

How to watch the Made by Google event

The Google Pixel 9 event will take place on August 13th, 2024, starting at 1PM ET / 10AM PT. Google will host an in-person audience at its headquarters in Mountain View, California, but you can follow along by watching the livestream on Google’s website or YouTube channel or via the video embedded at the top of this article.

And, if you can’t watch the stream, you can follow along with us on our live blog.

Read More