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For a camouflage-style pattern, it’s far from the most try-hard. | Image: Corsair

I’m rarely a sucker for camouflage-print anything, but put it on a game controller and turn it black-and-white and suddenly it warms my heart — especially if it’s a solid deal. That’s just the case with this custom Scuf Instinct Pro controller in a black tiger camo finish, which is on a clearance sale at Best Buy for $155.99 ($84 off).

The Instinct Pro is an excellent step-up controller over the standard Xbox gamepad, as it’s nearly the same great controller with some nice upgrades. It supports the wireless connectivity built into Xbox Series X / S consoles and of course can be used on PC — just like the stock controller — but it also features four rear paddle buttons built into the chassis of the gamepad and lockouts for the shoulder buttons that give them a mouse-click hair trigger feel.
What you’re not getting with the Scuf is Hall effect sticks, so it’s possible the right or left analog stick may drift over time after many hours of use, but it’s frankly the same risk you run on Microsoft’s similarly-priced Elite Series 2 controller. There have been more drift-proof controllers slowly cropping up over time from third-parties, but outside of few exceptions most are wired only.

For a camouflage-style pattern, it’s far from the most try-hard. | Image: Corsair

I’m rarely a sucker for camouflage-print anything, but put it on a game controller and turn it black-and-white and suddenly it warms my heart — especially if it’s a solid deal. That’s just the case with this custom Scuf Instinct Pro controller in a black tiger camo finish, which is on a clearance sale at Best Buy for $155.99 ($84 off).

The Instinct Pro is an excellent step-up controller over the standard Xbox gamepad, as it’s nearly the same great controller with some nice upgrades. It supports the wireless connectivity built into Xbox Series X / S consoles and of course can be used on PC — just like the stock controller — but it also features four rear paddle buttons built into the chassis of the gamepad and lockouts for the shoulder buttons that give them a mouse-click hair trigger feel.

What you’re not getting with the Scuf is Hall effect sticks, so it’s possible the right or left analog stick may drift over time after many hours of use, but it’s frankly the same risk you run on Microsoft’s similarly-priced Elite Series 2 controller. There have been more drift-proof controllers slowly cropping up over time from third-parties, but outside of few exceptions most are wired only.

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You can fill an entire wall with Nanoleaf’s new glowing display cases, which simply need to stack to connect to each other. | Image: Nanoleaf

Nanoleaf’s new Expo Smart Display Cases are an eye-catching way to make a carefully curated collection the focus of any room. Each case features diffused color-changing LED lighting, and multiple cases can be stacked to create a larger display with colors and animated lighting that syncs across hundreds of cases. They’re available now individually for $79.99, or you can save $20 by opting for a four-pack for $299.99.
Made from “premium grade ABS resin,” the cases feature evenly diffused LED lighting to minimize shadows and hotspots around what’s displayed inside. Unlike display cases with a single overhead spotlight, Nanoleaf is taking an approach similar to the product lighting used in professional photoshoots.

Image: Nanoleaf
Each case features its own button controls so that changing lighting settings isn’t completely dependent on the mobile app.

A transparent door keeps dust at bay while triggering “subtle lighting effects” when opened and closed thanks to hidden magnetic sensors. Each display case also has its own control panel, allowing its individual lighting to be adjusted, but the LED effects get even more impressive when you group a few of them together.
The Expo Smart Display Cases can be stacked and arranged either side by side or on top of each other, automatically creating connections that share power between them. Up to eight of the cases can be powered by a single 42W power supply or up to 16 of them with a 75W power source.
When connected to a Wi-Fi network and the Nanoleaf mobile app, the company’s LayoutDetect technology automatically determines the location of each case in a custom layout — up to 300 of them at once — simplifying the setup process for those with lots of figures (or sneakers) to display.

Image: Nanoleaf
Each Expo case features diffused color-changing LED lighting that can be customized in the Nanoleaf app.

By knowing the location of each display case relative to the others, users can activate animated lighting displays that spread across them, including thousands of preset scenes or custom effects created in Nanoleaf’s app. The LEDs in the display cases can even be used as a music visualizer, pulsing to the beat of a song, or as bias lighting, mirroring the colors of what’s on a nearby TV screen.
The only thing that might give collectors pause is the price. If you were to max out the system’s capabilities and fill a giant wall with 300 of them, you’d pay $22,499.25. That’s a lot of money that could be spent on more shoes, more Funko Pops, or more Lego sets.

You can fill an entire wall with Nanoleaf’s new glowing display cases, which simply need to stack to connect to each other. | Image: Nanoleaf

Nanoleaf’s new Expo Smart Display Cases are an eye-catching way to make a carefully curated collection the focus of any room. Each case features diffused color-changing LED lighting, and multiple cases can be stacked to create a larger display with colors and animated lighting that syncs across hundreds of cases. They’re available now individually for $79.99, or you can save $20 by opting for a four-pack for $299.99.

Made from “premium grade ABS resin,” the cases feature evenly diffused LED lighting to minimize shadows and hotspots around what’s displayed inside. Unlike display cases with a single overhead spotlight, Nanoleaf is taking an approach similar to the product lighting used in professional photoshoots.

Image: Nanoleaf
Each case features its own button controls so that changing lighting settings isn’t completely dependent on the mobile app.

A transparent door keeps dust at bay while triggering “subtle lighting effects” when opened and closed thanks to hidden magnetic sensors. Each display case also has its own control panel, allowing its individual lighting to be adjusted, but the LED effects get even more impressive when you group a few of them together.

The Expo Smart Display Cases can be stacked and arranged either side by side or on top of each other, automatically creating connections that share power between them. Up to eight of the cases can be powered by a single 42W power supply or up to 16 of them with a 75W power source.

When connected to a Wi-Fi network and the Nanoleaf mobile app, the company’s LayoutDetect technology automatically determines the location of each case in a custom layout — up to 300 of them at once — simplifying the setup process for those with lots of figures (or sneakers) to display.

Image: Nanoleaf
Each Expo case features diffused color-changing LED lighting that can be customized in the Nanoleaf app.

By knowing the location of each display case relative to the others, users can activate animated lighting displays that spread across them, including thousands of preset scenes or custom effects created in Nanoleaf’s app. The LEDs in the display cases can even be used as a music visualizer, pulsing to the beat of a song, or as bias lighting, mirroring the colors of what’s on a nearby TV screen.

The only thing that might give collectors pause is the price. If you were to max out the system’s capabilities and fill a giant wall with 300 of them, you’d pay $22,499.25. That’s a lot of money that could be spent on more shoes, more Funko Pops, or more Lego sets.

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Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images

Meta and Google teamed up to run a secret campaign that deliberately targeted 13 to 17-year-olds with Instagram ads on YouTube according to the Financial Times, breaking the search giant’s own rules against advertising to children.
The publication reports that Google directed ads to a subset of users labeled as “unknown” in its advertising systems, in an attempt to disguise the group skewed toward teenagers. According to a Google Ads help page, the “unknown” demographic category refers to people whose age, gender, parental status, or household income are supposedly unidentified, and can allow advertisers to reach “a significantly wider audience” when selected.

However, Google could use app downloads and online activity to determine “with a high degree of confidence” that the “unknown” group was populated by younger users, reports the FT. Google staffers are said to have used this loophole to get around the company’s own policies, having introduced rules that block ad targeting based on “age, gender, or interests of people under 18” back in 2021.
Spark Foundry, a US-based subsidiary of the ad giant Publicis, reportedly worked with the companies to launch the illicit marketing campaign in Canada between February and April this year, before going on to trial the program in the US in May. Meta and Google intended to expand the campaign to international markets and promote additional services like Facebook, according to the FT. The program was initiated amid a decline in Google’s advertising earnings and the migration of Meta’s younger users to rival services like TikTok.
Google has since launched an investigation into the allegations, and the campaign has now been canceled, the FT reports. “We prohibit ads being personalized to people under-18, period,” Google said in a statement to the publication. “We’ll also be taking additional action to reinforce with sales representatives that they must not help advertisers or agencies run campaigns attempting to work around our policies.”

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images

Meta and Google teamed up to run a secret campaign that deliberately targeted 13 to 17-year-olds with Instagram ads on YouTube according to the Financial Times, breaking the search giant’s own rules against advertising to children.

The publication reports that Google directed ads to a subset of users labeled as “unknown” in its advertising systems, in an attempt to disguise the group skewed toward teenagers. According to a Google Ads help page, the “unknown” demographic category refers to people whose age, gender, parental status, or household income are supposedly unidentified, and can allow advertisers to reach “a significantly wider audience” when selected.

However, Google could use app downloads and online activity to determine “with a high degree of confidence” that the “unknown” group was populated by younger users, reports the FT. Google staffers are said to have used this loophole to get around the company’s own policies, having introduced rules that block ad targeting based on “age, gender, or interests of people under 18” back in 2021.

Spark Foundry, a US-based subsidiary of the ad giant Publicis, reportedly worked with the companies to launch the illicit marketing campaign in Canada between February and April this year, before going on to trial the program in the US in May. Meta and Google intended to expand the campaign to international markets and promote additional services like Facebook, according to the FT. The program was initiated amid a decline in Google’s advertising earnings and the migration of Meta’s younger users to rival services like TikTok.

Google has since launched an investigation into the allegations, and the campaign has now been canceled, the FT reports. “We prohibit ads being personalized to people under-18, period,” Google said in a statement to the publication. “We’ll also be taking additional action to reinforce with sales representatives that they must not help advertisers or agencies run campaigns attempting to work around our policies.”

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

It started with a “rage tweet.”
“Gonna start ‘VCs for Democracy,’” Leslie Feinzaig, founder and general partner at Graham & Walker, wrote on X in late July. “Who’s in?”
Turns out more than 1,300 “techies,” including 750 accredited investors, were in as part of a group that came to be known as VCs for Kamala. On Wednesday, that group raised $150,000 to support Vice President Kamala Harris’ path to the presidency during an hour-long Zoom call that reached up to 600 attendees.
About $100,000 of that came from 97 donors, and another $50,000 came in the form of a match from SV Angel founder and managing partner Ron Conway, who helped kick off the call. The group had already raised about $25,000 from its original push to get VCs to sign its pledge to support Harris, bringing its total fundraising to about $176,000 so far.
The donations surged quickly during the call, which also featured prominent Democratic donor and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Over about half an hour, enough donations poured in to unlock the $50,000 threshold for Conway’s match.
It’s the latest in a trend of political organizing on Zoom
It’s the latest in a trend of political organizing on Zoom, including one massive call shortly after Harris joined the race that hosted tens of thousands of Black women. And later, there was the tongue-in-cheek “White Dudes for Harris.” Feinzaig noted the VC call would be a “smaller call than that one, even though there’s a high overlap between those two groups.”
The call took both a positive and somewhat defiant tone. Several VCs made side-glancing comments toward Andreessen Horowitz — whether or not by name — whose founders recently announced their support for former President Donald Trump. The group on Wednesday’s call seemed vexed that the views of a few prominent members of their sector had come to be perceived as representative of the venture capital community’s political leanings.
When Feinzaig sent her “rage tweet,” she said she’d been “feeling frustrated, like many of you, about the growing sentiment that venture capital and all of my colleagues were going MAGA, and I just felt like they didn’t speak for me, and I felt like I wanted my voice to be heard. And more critically, I felt like those loudest voices were not speaking to the hundreds of founders that I talk to on a monthly basis.”
In July, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz posted a blog called “The Little Tech Agenda,” where they identified “bad government policies are now the #1 threat to Little Tech,” which they basically think of as startups. “We support or oppose politicians regardless of party and regardless of their positions on other issues,” they wrote. Just a couple weeks later, it became clear they would support Trump in the election.
“The firm that put this framework out there would have us believe that folks who are backing Kamala Harris are anti-capitalists,” Stephen DeBerry, founder and managing partner of Bronze Investments, said on the call. “That doesn’t make any sense. We’re not opposed to profits. We’re not opposed to high growth. That’s what drives us that’s why we’re here. We’re not opposed to billionaires — there are several of them on this call. What we are opposed to is building a regulatory regime that guts our government and pulls out safeties, so that the system can’t withstand itself and it collapses. And therefore, the wealth in the system is aggregated to only a few and we become an oligopoly society like Russia.”

Mac Conwell, managing partner of RareBreed Ventures, questioned the point of “differentiating tech.”
“We’re all supposed to be working together and they’re literally trying to say, we don’t want to work with y’all, we want to work over here,” Conwell said. “And we don’t want any rules. We want growth for growth’s sake with no guardrails, regulations be damned. And as a VC, yes, regulations suck. Right? They get in the way, they make things harder. But they also make sure that this system doesn’t collapse.”
Roy Bahat, a venture capitalist who leads Bloomberg Beta, shared a startup-style pitch deck with the group in support of Harris’ campaign. One slide showed a matrix of the the competition. On the Y-axis was “Stable” and “Unstable.” On the X-axis, “Past” and “Future.” In the “Unstable” and “Past” quadrant, Bahat put an image of former President Donald Trump in a Make America Great Again hat. In the “Stable” and “Future” quadrant? A coconut emoji.
“The competition is funded by Andreessen Horowitz and some other funds, but we all know more capital isn’t necessarily the thing that makes the difference,” Bahat said. “It’s that plus a plan for execution.”
Feinzaig said she’s not a registered Democrat or Republican, and as a naturalized citizen, her “personal politics don’t actually match to American politics in any clean way.” But when she looks at an investment, she asks, “what does the world look like if this company is massively successful?”
“No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, ask yourself, what does the world look like if these candidates are massively successful?” Feinzaig said. “And I think that there’s one vision of that that is exciting. And then there’s one vision about that is that is actually quite terrifying.”

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

It started with a “rage tweet.”

“Gonna start ‘VCs for Democracy,’” Leslie Feinzaig, founder and general partner at Graham & Walker, wrote on X in late July. “Who’s in?”

Turns out more than 1,300 “techies,” including 750 accredited investors, were in as part of a group that came to be known as VCs for Kamala. On Wednesday, that group raised $150,000 to support Vice President Kamala Harris’ path to the presidency during an hour-long Zoom call that reached up to 600 attendees.

About $100,000 of that came from 97 donors, and another $50,000 came in the form of a match from SV Angel founder and managing partner Ron Conway, who helped kick off the call. The group had already raised about $25,000 from its original push to get VCs to sign its pledge to support Harris, bringing its total fundraising to about $176,000 so far.

The donations surged quickly during the call, which also featured prominent Democratic donor and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Over about half an hour, enough donations poured in to unlock the $50,000 threshold for Conway’s match.

It’s the latest in a trend of political organizing on Zoom, including one massive call shortly after Harris joined the race that hosted tens of thousands of Black women. And later, there was the tongue-in-cheek “White Dudes for Harris.” Feinzaig noted the VC call would be a “smaller call than that one, even though there’s a high overlap between those two groups.”

The call took both a positive and somewhat defiant tone. Several VCs made side-glancing comments toward Andreessen Horowitz — whether or not by name — whose founders recently announced their support for former President Donald Trump. The group on Wednesday’s call seemed vexed that the views of a few prominent members of their sector had come to be perceived as representative of the venture capital community’s political leanings.

When Feinzaig sent her “rage tweet,” she said she’d been “feeling frustrated, like many of you, about the growing sentiment that venture capital and all of my colleagues were going MAGA, and I just felt like they didn’t speak for me, and I felt like I wanted my voice to be heard. And more critically, I felt like those loudest voices were not speaking to the hundreds of founders that I talk to on a monthly basis.”

In July, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz posted a blog called “The Little Tech Agenda,” where they identified “bad government policies are now the #1 threat to Little Tech,” which they basically think of as startups. “We support or oppose politicians regardless of party and regardless of their positions on other issues,” they wrote. Just a couple weeks later, it became clear they would support Trump in the election.

“The firm that put this framework out there would have us believe that folks who are backing Kamala Harris are anti-capitalists,” Stephen DeBerry, founder and managing partner of Bronze Investments, said on the call. “That doesn’t make any sense. We’re not opposed to profits. We’re not opposed to high growth. That’s what drives us that’s why we’re here. We’re not opposed to billionaires — there are several of them on this call. What we are opposed to is building a regulatory regime that guts our government and pulls out safeties, so that the system can’t withstand itself and it collapses. And therefore, the wealth in the system is aggregated to only a few and we become an oligopoly society like Russia.”

Mac Conwell, managing partner of RareBreed Ventures, questioned the point of “differentiating tech.”

“We’re all supposed to be working together and they’re literally trying to say, we don’t want to work with y’all, we want to work over here,” Conwell said. “And we don’t want any rules. We want growth for growth’s sake with no guardrails, regulations be damned. And as a VC, yes, regulations suck. Right? They get in the way, they make things harder. But they also make sure that this system doesn’t collapse.”

Roy Bahat, a venture capitalist who leads Bloomberg Beta, shared a startup-style pitch deck with the group in support of Harris’ campaign. One slide showed a matrix of the the competition. On the Y-axis was “Stable” and “Unstable.” On the X-axis, “Past” and “Future.” In the “Unstable” and “Past” quadrant, Bahat put an image of former President Donald Trump in a Make America Great Again hat. In the “Stable” and “Future” quadrant? A coconut emoji.

“The competition is funded by Andreessen Horowitz and some other funds, but we all know more capital isn’t necessarily the thing that makes the difference,” Bahat said. “It’s that plus a plan for execution.”

Feinzaig said she’s not a registered Democrat or Republican, and as a naturalized citizen, her “personal politics don’t actually match to American politics in any clean way.” But when she looks at an investment, she asks, “what does the world look like if this company is massively successful?”

“No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, ask yourself, what does the world look like if these candidates are massively successful?” Feinzaig said. “And I think that there’s one vision of that that is exciting. And then there’s one vision about that is that is actually quite terrifying.”

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Image: Boeing

During a press conference today, NASA representatives confirmed they have a contingency plan to bring astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams home from the International Space Station (ISS) early next year. If they’re unable to leave sooner aboard the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that brought them there, the backup plan would rely on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, which has had its launch delayed while officials figure out what to do next.
After a successful crewed launch of the Boeing Starliner on June 5th (following several delays), the two astronauts were originally supposed to spend about a week aboard the ISS before parachuting back to Earth. But the Starliner experienced thruster failures and helium leaks while docking with the ISS, plus additional delays that have left the astronauts stuck in orbit for over two months while Boeing and NASA try to determine if the vehicle is still safe to use.

The June crewed test flight was originally scheduled to take place seven years ago, and Boeing’s Starliner program has experienced significant delays and cost overruns. If SpaceX ends up having to bring the two astronauts back to Earth, it’s just one more misstep for Boeing in a year that included a door plug exploding out from one of its planes during a flight and pleading guilty to a criminal fraud charge.
Tests conducted at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility pointed to deformed Teflon seals being a potential cause of the Starliner’s thrusters failing, but the agency isn’t expected to make a final decision on whether or not Williams and Wilmore will return using Boeing’s spacecraft until mid-August.
Using Starliner is still NASA’s preferred solution, according to officials, but the backup plan would see SpaceX send just two astronauts to the ISS aboard a late September Crew-9 launch, leaving two spots available for Williams and Wilmore to use to return in February of next year. Should that happen, Boeing will reconfigure the Starliner craft so that it can return to Earth uncrewed ahead of the SpaceX Crew-9 launch.

Image: Boeing

During a press conference today, NASA representatives confirmed they have a contingency plan to bring astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams home from the International Space Station (ISS) early next year. If they’re unable to leave sooner aboard the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that brought them there, the backup plan would rely on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, which has had its launch delayed while officials figure out what to do next.

After a successful crewed launch of the Boeing Starliner on June 5th (following several delays), the two astronauts were originally supposed to spend about a week aboard the ISS before parachuting back to Earth. But the Starliner experienced thruster failures and helium leaks while docking with the ISS, plus additional delays that have left the astronauts stuck in orbit for over two months while Boeing and NASA try to determine if the vehicle is still safe to use.

The June crewed test flight was originally scheduled to take place seven years ago, and Boeing’s Starliner program has experienced significant delays and cost overruns. If SpaceX ends up having to bring the two astronauts back to Earth, it’s just one more misstep for Boeing in a year that included a door plug exploding out from one of its planes during a flight and pleading guilty to a criminal fraud charge.

Tests conducted at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility pointed to deformed Teflon seals being a potential cause of the Starliner’s thrusters failing, but the agency isn’t expected to make a final decision on whether or not Williams and Wilmore will return using Boeing’s spacecraft until mid-August.

Using Starliner is still NASA’s preferred solution, according to officials, but the backup plan would see SpaceX send just two astronauts to the ISS aboard a late September Crew-9 launch, leaving two spots available for Williams and Wilmore to use to return in February of next year. Should that happen, Boeing will reconfigure the Starliner craft so that it can return to Earth uncrewed ahead of the SpaceX Crew-9 launch.

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Image: Visit Jackson Hole

Wyoming’s Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board has created an open-source Instagram filter to help visitors gauge if they’re at a safe distance from wildlife to take photos. The board hopes the tool will help better protect tourists visiting wildlife destinations — and the animals they’re watching — during the busy summer travel season.
To use the filter, visitors to the valley and wilderness recreation area need to open up the Selfie Control filter in the Instagram app. After selecting the type of wildlife they’re looking at, tourists must align the animal’s outline to its icon. If the real-life animal’s bigger than the icon, then they’re too close and should back up.
Jackson Hole, like nearby Yellowstone National Park and other wildlife destinations, gives tourists guidance about how much space they need to give animals depending upon their type. Visitors should give bears, for instance, at least 100 yards of space, while Jackson Hole tells tourists to give other animals like moose at least 25 yards of space.

However, it can be hard to tell whether or not you’re at least 100 yards away through sight alone, which is why the board developed the filter. It’s also why Jackson Hole made it open-source, so other wilderness destinations can also download the code and create their own versions.
“We want to see the numbers of stunning wildlife images on the rise and incidents and accidents steeply decline,” said Crista Valentino, executive director of the Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board.
Over the years, there have been several highly publicized instances of visitors getting dangerously close to wildlife at national parks. Recently in April, a tourist visiting Yellowstone National Park was injured by a bison and arrested after getting too close.
According to a 2018 study from scientific journal One Health, bison injured more people than other animals at Yellowstone National Park between 2000 and 2015. The National Park Service says Yellowstone is home to the largest bison population on public land in the US, which is likely why. However, the One Health study also noted that 48 percent of injuries occurred after visitors got too close to the animal to take photos.

Image: Visit Jackson Hole

Wyoming’s Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board has created an open-source Instagram filter to help visitors gauge if they’re at a safe distance from wildlife to take photos. The board hopes the tool will help better protect tourists visiting wildlife destinations — and the animals they’re watching — during the busy summer travel season.

To use the filter, visitors to the valley and wilderness recreation area need to open up the Selfie Control filter in the Instagram app. After selecting the type of wildlife they’re looking at, tourists must align the animal’s outline to its icon. If the real-life animal’s bigger than the icon, then they’re too close and should back up.

Jackson Hole, like nearby Yellowstone National Park and other wildlife destinations, gives tourists guidance about how much space they need to give animals depending upon their type. Visitors should give bears, for instance, at least 100 yards of space, while Jackson Hole tells tourists to give other animals like moose at least 25 yards of space.

However, it can be hard to tell whether or not you’re at least 100 yards away through sight alone, which is why the board developed the filter. It’s also why Jackson Hole made it open-source, so other wilderness destinations can also download the code and create their own versions.

“We want to see the numbers of stunning wildlife images on the rise and incidents and accidents steeply decline,” said Crista Valentino, executive director of the Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board.

Over the years, there have been several highly publicized instances of visitors getting dangerously close to wildlife at national parks. Recently in April, a tourist visiting Yellowstone National Park was injured by a bison and arrested after getting too close.

According to a 2018 study from scientific journal One Health, bison injured more people than other animals at Yellowstone National Park between 2000 and 2015. The National Park Service says Yellowstone is home to the largest bison population on public land in the US, which is likely why. However, the One Health study also noted that 48 percent of injuries occurred after visitors got too close to the animal to take photos.

Read More 

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said the new Ace headphones helped spur “year over year revenue growth” that slightly exceeded the company’s expectations as part of its third quarter earnings on Wednesday afternoon. But Spence quickly moved on to address the company’s ongoing app woes, which will have a negative impact on Sonos’ fiscal guidance for the remainder of 2024.
“This was overshadowed by the problems that our customers and partners experienced as a result of the rollout of our new app,” he said in the press release. “We have a clear action plan to address the issues caused by our app as quickly as possible. While our app setback is regrettable, it is one chapter in our over twenty years of delighting customers. I speak for everyone at Sonos when I say that our number one priority is to make this right and ensure that the next chapter is even better than the previous ones.”
Spence is sure to face a slew of questions about the company’s current predicament during an earnings call scheduled for 5PM ET. Last month, he issued an apology for the bugs, missing features, unstable system performance, and other problems that customers have encountered since the redesigned app first rolled out in May. Just this morning, a temporarily cloud services outage caused problems for some systems.
It’s believed that part of the reason Sonos released the revamped app before it was truly ready is because the Ace headphones are only compatible with the new software — not the prior version of the app.
I’ll update this story with relevant quotes from the call once it gets underway.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said the new Ace headphones helped spur “year over year revenue growth” that slightly exceeded the company’s expectations as part of its third quarter earnings on Wednesday afternoon. But Spence quickly moved on to address the company’s ongoing app woes, which will have a negative impact on Sonos’ fiscal guidance for the remainder of 2024.

“This was overshadowed by the problems that our customers and partners experienced as a result of the rollout of our new app,” he said in the press release. “We have a clear action plan to address the issues caused by our app as quickly as possible. While our app setback is regrettable, it is one chapter in our over twenty years of delighting customers. I speak for everyone at Sonos when I say that our number one priority is to make this right and ensure that the next chapter is even better than the previous ones.”

Spence is sure to face a slew of questions about the company’s current predicament during an earnings call scheduled for 5PM ET. Last month, he issued an apology for the bugs, missing features, unstable system performance, and other problems that customers have encountered since the redesigned app first rolled out in May. Just this morning, a temporarily cloud services outage caused problems for some systems.

It’s believed that part of the reason Sonos released the revamped app before it was truly ready is because the Ace headphones are only compatible with the new software — not the prior version of the app.

I’ll update this story with relevant quotes from the call once it gets underway.

Read More 

Illustration: The Verge

You might have to pay to access some subreddits in the future. During an earnings call on Tuesday, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman hinted at “new types of subreddits that can be built that may have exclusive content or private areas.”
“I think the existing, altruistic, free version of Reddit will continue to exist and grow and thrive just the way it has,” Huffman said. “But now we will unlock the door for new use cases, new types of subreddits that can be built.” Huffman said he doesn’t think these gated communities would “cannibalize” the site, which has seen an increase in users over the past few months. The site’s daily active users jumped 51 percent, bringing its total to 91.2 million, while its revenue also increased by 54 percent to $281.2 million.
Based on a statement from Reddit, it appears the “exclusive” areas mentioned by Huffman could have a paywall. “We’ve had versions of premium community features in the past, like r/goldlounge, that users loved, so we’re exploring new ways to empower moderators and communities to try exclusive spaces and content,” Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt tells The Verge. “We’ll let you know when we have more to share.”

Additionally, Huffman mentioned during the call that Reddit has started to “enhance” its search results using first-party and third-party AI models. We first heard about Reddit using AI for search in February, as its AI training deal with Google includes access to Google’s Vertex AI tool that helps companies improve search results.
Reddit took a harder stance on web crawlers last month, with the company blocking search engines, like Microsoft Bing, that haven’t paid for access to its content. In an interview with The Verge, Huffman said it’s “been a real pain in the ass” to block Microsoft and AI companies, like Anthropic and Perplexity, from scraping the site.
This more aggressive approach to business is part of Reddit’s plan to achieve profitability, but it will need to ensure it doesn’t upset users in the process — something we saw with last year’s sitewide protests against Reddit’s API pricing.

Illustration: The Verge

You might have to pay to access some subreddits in the future. During an earnings call on Tuesday, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman hinted at “new types of subreddits that can be built that may have exclusive content or private areas.”

“I think the existing, altruistic, free version of Reddit will continue to exist and grow and thrive just the way it has,” Huffman said. “But now we will unlock the door for new use cases, new types of subreddits that can be built.” Huffman said he doesn’t think these gated communities would “cannibalize” the site, which has seen an increase in users over the past few months. The site’s daily active users jumped 51 percent, bringing its total to 91.2 million, while its revenue also increased by 54 percent to $281.2 million.

Based on a statement from Reddit, it appears the “exclusive” areas mentioned by Huffman could have a paywall. “We’ve had versions of premium community features in the past, like r/goldlounge, that users loved, so we’re exploring new ways to empower moderators and communities to try exclusive spaces and content,” Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt tells The Verge. “We’ll let you know when we have more to share.”

Additionally, Huffman mentioned during the call that Reddit has started to “enhance” its search results using first-party and third-party AI models. We first heard about Reddit using AI for search in February, as its AI training deal with Google includes access to Google’s Vertex AI tool that helps companies improve search results.

Reddit took a harder stance on web crawlers last month, with the company blocking search engines, like Microsoft Bing, that haven’t paid for access to its content. In an interview with The Verge, Huffman said it’s “been a real pain in the ass” to block Microsoft and AI companies, like Anthropic and Perplexity, from scraping the site.

This more aggressive approach to business is part of Reddit’s plan to achieve profitability, but it will need to ensure it doesn’t upset users in the process — something we saw with last year’s sitewide protests against Reddit’s API pricing.

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Image: Tim Walz

Vice President Kamala Harris’ pick for running mate is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a former teacher and football coach whose straightforward manner of speaking has endeared him to many and helped launch his name into the public consciousness.
Walz’s public persona has what many would describe as dad energy. He makes unsubtle jokes and regularly posts pictures of his dogs. During a widely shared television appearance, he described Republicans as “weird,” a line of attack that resonated with Democrats. Walz comes off as humble, restrained, and eloquent in an everyman way.
A few weeks ago, I explained “Brat summer” and how the Harris campaign was tapping into a cultural moment that has swept across a certain Millennial and Gen Z demographic. Now, I’m cutting straight to the point: Tim Walz is Midwest Princess.
This became clear on Tuesday night, shortly after Harris and Walz’s first rally in Philadelphia, when the campaign listed for sale a $40 camo-printed hat. Emblazoned with bright orange letters reading “HARRIS WALZ,” it likely wouldn’t have drawn much attention in the pre-meme age. Camo and orange are standard colors for hunting gear and wouldn’t look out of place in the wardrobe of a Midwestern Democrat.
I’m here to tell you, however, that this otherwise benign hat is part of a calculus by the Harris campaign to appeal to a new set of voters.

Image: Red Star Merch

Image: Harris Victory Fund

Last fall, a relatively obscure pop artist named Chappell Roan released her debut album titled, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.” Roan, who was born in Missouri, wears her Midwest roots like armor, often reflecting on her conservative upbringing alongside unabashed lyrics about her sexuality (she identifies as a lesbian).
Roan has seen explosive and sudden career growth this year — not unlike Walz — that has catapulted her into the public eye. Her merch store sells a camo hat with orange letters reading “MIDWEST PRINCESS” that has been popular this summer and come to define her aesthetic.
Roan has seen explosive and sudden career growth this year — not unlike Walz
The Harris/Walz campaign knows this. The product description for the campaign hat reads, “You asked, we answered. The most iconic political hat in America” — a likely reference to memes that were circulating that put Walz’s face on Roan’s body.
The campaign didn’t respond to my questions about the inspiration behind the hat. But it doesn’t really need to. The has already sold out and is now not shipping again until mid October. Teen Vogue reports that more than $1 million worth of these hats have been sold so far.

is this real https://t.co/4HBBEQuo7q— Chappell Roan (@ChappellRoan) August 7, 2024

The camo hat is emblematic of Harris running multiple, niche campaigns on the back of meme culture. A hunting-themed hat could speak to rural dads who want their kids to have access to abortion just as much as it might to a first-time voter who likes sapphic pop music. The former doesn’t need to understand the Chappell Roan reference and the latter need not care about hunting. Everyone else can just move along if they don’t get it.
This approach to campaigning is also visible when you examine how the Harris/Walz camp is approaching different social media platforms. The caption for a video on Instagram showing Walz making a JD Vance couch joke is more restrained with a single couch emoji. On X, the campaign simply quotes Walz next to the clip. On TikTok, that same video has a caption reading “omg Tim Walz WENT THERE,” with several laughing emojis.
It’s nothing new for political campaigns to carefully tailor their messaging depending on who they’re talking to. But it feels like the Harris campaign is taking this approach to a new level. And it’s working: the Harris/Walz ticket has gotten the attention of young people by using a specific color in a few images and now doing a one-off merchandise release.
Anyone who operates online should know that attention is fickle, viral moments die, and adoration can quickly slip into backlash. How long can stunts like these last before they feel tired? The Harris campaign has attention of young people. Now, they need to win and keep their trust.

Image: Tim Walz

Vice President Kamala Harris’ pick for running mate is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a former teacher and football coach whose straightforward manner of speaking has endeared him to many and helped launch his name into the public consciousness.

Walz’s public persona has what many would describe as dad energy. He makes unsubtle jokes and regularly posts pictures of his dogs. During a widely shared television appearance, he described Republicans as “weird,” a line of attack that resonated with Democrats. Walz comes off as humble, restrained, and eloquent in an everyman way.

A few weeks ago, I explained “Brat summer” and how the Harris campaign was tapping into a cultural moment that has swept across a certain Millennial and Gen Z demographic. Now, I’m cutting straight to the point: Tim Walz is Midwest Princess.

This became clear on Tuesday night, shortly after Harris and Walz’s first rally in Philadelphia, when the campaign listed for sale a $40 camo-printed hat. Emblazoned with bright orange letters reading “HARRIS WALZ,” it likely wouldn’t have drawn much attention in the pre-meme age. Camo and orange are standard colors for hunting gear and wouldn’t look out of place in the wardrobe of a Midwestern Democrat.

I’m here to tell you, however, that this otherwise benign hat is part of a calculus by the Harris campaign to appeal to a new set of voters.

Last fall, a relatively obscure pop artist named Chappell Roan released her debut album titled, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.” Roan, who was born in Missouri, wears her Midwest roots like armor, often reflecting on her conservative upbringing alongside unabashed lyrics about her sexuality (she identifies as a lesbian).

Roan has seen explosive and sudden career growth this year — not unlike Walz — that has catapulted her into the public eye. Her merch store sells a camo hat with orange letters reading “MIDWEST PRINCESS” that has been popular this summer and come to define her aesthetic.

The Harris/Walz campaign knows this. The product description for the campaign hat reads, “You asked, we answered. The most iconic political hat in America” — a likely reference to memes that were circulating that put Walz’s face on Roan’s body.

The campaign didn’t respond to my questions about the inspiration behind the hat. But it doesn’t really need to. The has already sold out and is now not shipping again until mid October. Teen Vogue reports that more than $1 million worth of these hats have been sold so far.

The camo hat is emblematic of Harris running multiple, niche campaigns on the back of meme culture. A hunting-themed hat could speak to rural dads who want their kids to have access to abortion just as much as it might to a first-time voter who likes sapphic pop music. The former doesn’t need to understand the Chappell Roan reference and the latter need not care about hunting. Everyone else can just move along if they don’t get it.

This approach to campaigning is also visible when you examine how the Harris/Walz camp is approaching different social media platforms. The caption for a video on Instagram showing Walz making a JD Vance couch joke is more restrained with a single couch emoji. On X, the campaign simply quotes Walz next to the clip. On TikTok, that same video has a caption reading “omg Tim Walz WENT THERE,” with several laughing emojis.

It’s nothing new for political campaigns to carefully tailor their messaging depending on who they’re talking to. But it feels like the Harris campaign is taking this approach to a new level. And it’s working: the Harris/Walz ticket has gotten the attention of young people by using a specific color in a few images and now doing a one-off merchandise release.

Anyone who operates online should know that attention is fickle, viral moments die, and adoration can quickly slip into backlash. How long can stunts like these last before they feel tired? The Harris campaign has attention of young people. Now, they need to win and keep their trust.

Read More 

An Intel Core i9-13900K CPU, one of the first types identified to sometimes crash this way. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

There is no fix for Intel’s crashing 13th and 14th Gen Raptor Lake desktop processors. If your chip isn’t yet damaged, please apply motherboard BIOS updates early and often to prevent issues. If it’s already damaged, your only option is to exchange it.
But what if you didn’t buy a chip — but, rather, an entire PC? Will PC makers have your back? Will they pass along the extra two years of warranty that Intel just theoretically granted them or perhaps try to save money at your expense?

Image: Intel

On Tuesday, Intel confirmed it will extend its warranty by two entire years for 24 different CPUs that may be affected.

We asked over a dozen desktop computer companies that last question. Some agreed to extend their warranty to meet or beat Intel. Some were more vague.
Here’s what they told The Verge.
Acer — would not promise warranty extension
We are currently investigating which models of Acer desktops may have these specific chipsets, but as of today, we haven’t heard of any widespread customer reports of crashes or instability on our Intel-based desktops. Once we complete our investigation, we’ll determine if any modifications will need to be made to our warranty offerings, but this may take us a week to complete.
Asus — two-year warranty extension

We will also offer a two-year extended warranty for affected Desktop CPU. More information can be found here: Warranty Policy for Intel® Boxed and Tray Processors and Additional Warranty Updates on Intel Core 13th/14th Gen Desktop Processors – Intel Community. (Note: the maximum warranty period for affected CPU can be up to five years only. Further details on this will come later.)
ASUS deeply cares about our customers’ satisfaction and we remain committed to providing the highest level of quality and service. If you have any questions, contact your local customer service center. Please stay tuned for further updates.

Dell and Alienware — would not promise warranty extension but “all costs are covered”
Any customers experiencing instability issues with their Intel Core 13th/14th Gen desktop processors should reach out to Dell Technical Support. Processors diagnosed with this issue will be replaced and Dell Technologies will work with Intel to ensure that all costs are covered for our impacted customers.
HP — two-year warranty extension
HP is aware of Intel’s recent announcement extending warranties on 13th and 14th Generation desktop processors experiencing microcode instability issues. We will honor Intel’s extended warranty of two years on impacted processors and we are working closely with Intel on how to best manage this process for our customers.
Lenovo — no reply
We received out-of-office messages from two PR contacts and no reply from a third.
MSI — no reply
We received no reply from two PR contacts.
Corsair — four-year total CPU warranty

I’m happy to let you know that Corsair and Origin PC are providing a 4-year CPU warranty on all Intel 13th gen and 14th gen processors from date of purchase for our customers.
If any of our customers have questions or concerns, we encourage them to contact our customer service department; we are more than happy to help.

Digital Storm — five-year CPU warranty
Thank you for reaching out. We’re committed to supporting our customers. All previous and new systems with Intel 13th and 14th Gen CPUs will include an extended 5 year warranty coverage for the processor only.
(Digital Storm did not clarify whether the warranty had been extended by five additional years or is now five years in total, though the latter seems more likely.)
Falcon Northwest — five-year total CPU warranty
Yes. Falcon Northwest passes along manufacturer’s warranties in addition to our own warranty. Intel 13th & 14th Gen desktop processors on Intel’s list will now be covered for a full 5 years. Falcon Northwest has always offered a 3 year warranty on all of our desktops, including the first year with our “Falcon Overnight” service where we pay overnight shipping both ways in the event a major repair is needed. Lifetime technical support is always standard.
Maingear — five-year total CPU warranty
Committed to providing exceptional service and product quality, MAINGEAR, in response to Intel’s recent warranty update, will be extending the processor warranty on all PCs equipped with affected 13th and 14th Gen Intel Core processors to five (5) years from the date of purchase. This extension also applies to systems featuring delidded 14900KS processors.
Also:
In the coming weeks, MAINGEAR will be alerting customers of the processor warranty extension and will proactively guide affected customers through the necessary update procedures.
Origin PC — four-year total CPU warranty

I’m happy to let you know that Corsair and Origin PC are providing a 4-year CPU warranty on all Intel 13th gen and 14th gen processors from date of purchase for our customers.
If any of our customers have questions or concerns, we encourage them to contact our customer service department; we are more than happy to help.

Note: Corsair owns Origin PC and had the same reply for both.
NZXT — would not promise warranty extension

We are aware of the instability reports regarding Intel’s 13th and 14th generation processors. NZXT is committed to delivering a great customer experience and we are currently working with Intel on details to best serve impacted customers. We will share an update as soon as possible.
If any of our customers suspect they are having issues with these affected Intel CPUs, please reach out to NZXT Customer Service for support.

Puget Systems — three-year total CPU warranty
We are extending our warranty on affected CPUs to 3 years for any customer affected by this issue, regardless of warranty purchased. With a Puget Systems PC, you should be able to count on it working for you. If we no longer have supply of 13th or 14th Gen processors, we’ll upgrade you to a more current generation.
CyberPowerPC — no human reply
Emails to CyberPowerPC, which sells prebuilt PCs at Best Buy and elsewhere, were met with an automated response that linked to the company’s standard warranty — which only includes a one-year parts warranty.
iBuyPower — five-year total CPU warranty
Our company has been in close communication with Intel to resolve this issue. We can confirm we will honor Intel’s extended warranty. We are establishing processes for impacted customers to receive assistance from iBUYPOWER on their CPUs and will share details directly with customers and the public soon. We will share this process once it is finalized.
When we asked for clarification, the company added:
The parts warranty for the affected 13th and 14th gen desktop processor models will be extended to 5 years from invoice date.

An Intel Core i9-13900K CPU, one of the first types identified to sometimes crash this way. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

There is no fix for Intel’s crashing 13th and 14th Gen Raptor Lake desktop processors. If your chip isn’t yet damaged, please apply motherboard BIOS updates early and often to prevent issues. If it’s already damaged, your only option is to exchange it.

But what if you didn’t buy a chip — but, rather, an entire PC? Will PC makers have your back? Will they pass along the extra two years of warranty that Intel just theoretically granted them or perhaps try to save money at your expense?

Image: Intel

On Tuesday, Intel confirmed it will extend its warranty by two entire years for 24 different CPUs that may be affected.

We asked over a dozen desktop computer companies that last question. Some agreed to extend their warranty to meet or beat Intel. Some were more vague.

Here’s what they told The Verge.

Acer — would not promise warranty extension

We are currently investigating which models of Acer desktops may have these specific chipsets, but as of today, we haven’t heard of any widespread customer reports of crashes or instability on our Intel-based desktops. Once we complete our investigation, we’ll determine if any modifications will need to be made to our warranty offerings, but this may take us a week to complete.

Asus — two-year warranty extension

We will also offer a two-year extended warranty for affected Desktop CPU. More information can be found here: Warranty Policy for Intel® Boxed and Tray Processors and Additional Warranty Updates on Intel Core 13th/14th Gen Desktop Processors – Intel Community. (Note: the maximum warranty period for affected CPU can be up to five years only. Further details on this will come later.)

ASUS deeply cares about our customers’ satisfaction and we remain committed to providing the highest level of quality and service. If you have any questions, contact your local customer service center. Please stay tuned for further updates.

Dell and Alienware — would not promise warranty extension but “all costs are covered”

Any customers experiencing instability issues with their Intel Core 13th/14th Gen desktop processors should reach out to Dell Technical Support. Processors diagnosed with this issue will be replaced and Dell Technologies will work with Intel to ensure that all costs are covered for our impacted customers.

HP — two-year warranty extension

HP is aware of Intel’s recent announcement extending warranties on 13th and 14th Generation desktop processors experiencing microcode instability issues. We will honor Intel’s extended warranty of two years on impacted processors and we are working closely with Intel on how to best manage this process for our customers.

Lenovo — no reply

We received out-of-office messages from two PR contacts and no reply from a third.

MSI — no reply

We received no reply from two PR contacts.

Corsair — four-year total CPU warranty

I’m happy to let you know that Corsair and Origin PC are providing a 4-year CPU warranty on all Intel 13th gen and 14th gen processors from date of purchase for our customers.

If any of our customers have questions or concerns, we encourage them to contact our customer service department; we are more than happy to help.

Digital Storm — five-year CPU warranty

Thank you for reaching out. We’re committed to supporting our customers. All previous and new systems with Intel 13th and 14th Gen CPUs will include an extended 5 year warranty coverage for the processor only.

(Digital Storm did not clarify whether the warranty had been extended by five additional years or is now five years in total, though the latter seems more likely.)

Falcon Northwest — five-year total CPU warranty

Yes. Falcon Northwest passes along manufacturer’s warranties in addition to our own warranty. Intel 13th & 14th Gen desktop processors on Intel’s list will now be covered for a full 5 years. Falcon Northwest has always offered a 3 year warranty on all of our desktops, including the first year with our “Falcon Overnight” service where we pay overnight shipping both ways in the event a major repair is needed. Lifetime technical support is always standard.

Maingear — five-year total CPU warranty

Committed to providing exceptional service and product quality, MAINGEAR, in response to Intel’s recent warranty update, will be extending the processor warranty on all PCs equipped with affected 13th and 14th Gen Intel Core processors to five (5) years from the date of purchase. This extension also applies to systems featuring delidded 14900KS processors.

Also:

In the coming weeks, MAINGEAR will be alerting customers of the processor warranty extension and will proactively guide affected customers through the necessary update procedures.

Origin PC — four-year total CPU warranty

I’m happy to let you know that Corsair and Origin PC are providing a 4-year CPU warranty on all Intel 13th gen and 14th gen processors from date of purchase for our customers.

If any of our customers have questions or concerns, we encourage them to contact our customer service department; we are more than happy to help.

Note: Corsair owns Origin PC and had the same reply for both.

NZXT — would not promise warranty extension

We are aware of the instability reports regarding Intel’s 13th and 14th generation processors. NZXT is committed to delivering a great customer experience and we are currently working with Intel on details to best serve impacted customers. We will share an update as soon as possible.

If any of our customers suspect they are having issues with these affected Intel CPUs, please reach out to NZXT Customer Service for support.

Puget Systems — three-year total CPU warranty

We are extending our warranty on affected CPUs to 3 years for any customer affected by this issue, regardless of warranty purchased. With a Puget Systems PC, you should be able to count on it working for you. If we no longer have supply of 13th or 14th Gen processors, we’ll upgrade you to a more current generation.

CyberPowerPC — no human reply

Emails to CyberPowerPC, which sells prebuilt PCs at Best Buy and elsewhere, were met with an automated response that linked to the company’s standard warranty — which only includes a one-year parts warranty.

iBuyPower — five-year total CPU warranty

Our company has been in close communication with Intel to resolve this issue. We can confirm we will honor Intel’s extended warranty. We are establishing processes for impacted customers to receive assistance from iBUYPOWER on their CPUs and will share details directly with customers and the public soon. We will share this process once it is finalized.

When we asked for clarification, the company added:

The parts warranty for the affected 13th and 14th gen desktop processor models will be extended to 5 years from invoice date.

Read More