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Image: Square Enix

Final Fantasy XVI is out today on PC, and its producer is asking players to be chill about it. In an interview with PC Gamer, Naoki Yoshida has woefully underestimated the collective horniness of the internet by requesting that fans not create mods for the game that are “offensive or inappropriate.”
Good luck with that one, buddy.
PC gaming conventional wisdom dictates that once a game is out on PC, it’s only a matter of time before clips start circulating of all sorts of modding shenanigans. Of course, Yoshida probably isn’t talking about the kinds of mods where you turn one of the main characters into a giant baby. Rather, he’s more concerned about the “spicier” mods that’ll have you alt-tabbing to pictures of cats should a relative walk in the room.
We don’t know if Yoshida genuinely wishes the modding community to exercise a little restraint or if he’s touting the company line. When Final Fantasy XV was released on PC back in 2018, director Hajime Tabata expressed a similar sentiment. In an interview with GameSpot, he said that he hoped fans take advantage of the game’s modding abilities “in good taste.”
Still, asking the internet — that bastion of purity — to not make horny mods about a game that stars this tall drink of X-Potion is like asking a chocobo not to “kweh.”

Image: Square Enix

Final Fantasy XVI is out today on PC, and its producer is asking players to be chill about it. In an interview with PC Gamer, Naoki Yoshida has woefully underestimated the collective horniness of the internet by requesting that fans not create mods for the game that are “offensive or inappropriate.”

Good luck with that one, buddy.

PC gaming conventional wisdom dictates that once a game is out on PC, it’s only a matter of time before clips start circulating of all sorts of modding shenanigans. Of course, Yoshida probably isn’t talking about the kinds of mods where you turn one of the main characters into a giant baby. Rather, he’s more concerned about the “spicier” mods that’ll have you alt-tabbing to pictures of cats should a relative walk in the room.

We don’t know if Yoshida genuinely wishes the modding community to exercise a little restraint or if he’s touting the company line. When Final Fantasy XV was released on PC back in 2018, director Hajime Tabata expressed a similar sentiment. In an interview with GameSpot, he said that he hoped fans take advantage of the game’s modding abilities “in good taste.”

Still, asking the internet — that bastion of purity — to not make horny mods about a game that stars this tall drink of X-Potion is like asking a chocobo not to “kweh.”

Read More 

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Meta and eyewear conglomerate EssilorLuxottica plan to work together on smart glasses “into the next decade.” The two announced a long-term agreement today to extend a partnership that started in 2019 and has yielded two generations of Ray-Ban smart glasses.
The collaboration has helped Meta make smart glasses that stand out for their style
So far, the collaboration has helped Meta make smart glasses that stand out for their style. It looks like Meta wants to keep that trend going with its next generations of frames. Aside from Ray-Ban, EssilorLuxottica also owns Oakley and has licensing agreements with luxury brands, including Versace, Prada, Chanel, and others.

“I’m excited about our long term roadmap ahead. We have the opportunity to turn glasses into the next major technology platform, and make it fashionable in the process,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a press release.
My colleague Victoria Song says it best in her review of Ray-Ban smart glasses last year:
More so than any other kind of gadgets, smart glasses have to look stylish. Humanity is vain. If eyes are the windows to the soul — of course, you want your glasses to be a fetching pair of curtains. Ray Ban is great for that because it’s an iconic fashion brand, and Wayfarers are about as close to a universally flattering frame as you can get. If you don’t look good in them, you’re not going to wear them.
Snap is expected to reveal the fifth generation of its Spectacles today during a summit in Los Angeles. Meta will likely also show off its new AR glasses at a conference in Menlo Park, California, next week, according to The Verge’s Alex Heath.

The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are a turning point

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Meta and eyewear conglomerate EssilorLuxottica plan to work together on smart glasses “into the next decade.” The two announced a long-term agreement today to extend a partnership that started in 2019 and has yielded two generations of Ray-Ban smart glasses.

So far, the collaboration has helped Meta make smart glasses that stand out for their style. It looks like Meta wants to keep that trend going with its next generations of frames. Aside from Ray-Ban, EssilorLuxottica also owns Oakley and has licensing agreements with luxury brands, including Versace, Prada, Chanel, and others.

“I’m excited about our long term roadmap ahead. We have the opportunity to turn glasses into the next major technology platform, and make it fashionable in the process,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a press release.

My colleague Victoria Song says it best in her review of Ray-Ban smart glasses last year:

More so than any other kind of gadgets, smart glasses have to look stylish. Humanity is vain. If eyes are the windows to the soul — of course, you want your glasses to be a fetching pair of curtains. Ray Ban is great for that because it’s an iconic fashion brand, and Wayfarers are about as close to a universally flattering frame as you can get. If you don’t look good in them, you’re not going to wear them.

Snap is expected to reveal the fifth generation of its Spectacles today during a summit in Los Angeles. Meta will likely also show off its new AR glasses at a conference in Menlo Park, California, next week, according to The Verge’s Alex Heath.

Read More 

The iPhone 15 Pro Action Button: more than meets the eye. | Screenshot: iOS Action Button setting

Apple’s announcement last week that the Action Button is now on all of its iPhone 16 models, rather than just the Pro model that the button debuted on last year, was a little overshadowed by the introduction of the Camera Control button — a capacitive, tactile button for launching and controlling the iPhone 16’s camera. But don’t let that fool you: the Action Button is still one of the most powerful features Apple has added to its phones in years.
One very obvious use of the button is to connect it to the iPhone’s camera app, letting you press and hold to open the app, then press once more to take a picture. But does that mean the Camera Control button has made it obsolete? I don’t think so.
By default, the Action Button serves as a mute toggle — it did replace the mute switch, after all — that you press and hold to mute or unmute your phone. But besides that and using the camera, it can do so much more. To begin with, you can set it to do simple things (by using Settings > Action Button), like flick on the flashlight (or the torch, if you like), set a Focus Mode, or open Apple’s Translate app. With iOS 18, Apple added the ability to map it to a Control Center action or recognize a song with Shazam.
But you can go way beyond simple. For me, it’s a way to help me use my phone less. I don’t mean spend fewer hours on it — I mean it lets me cut out all the extraneous swiping and tapping that I have to do to carry things out on my phone. It’s something I’d been trying to figure out through other means, like adding Shortcuts to my homescreen, but the Action Button has been the missing part of a puzzle I’d been piecing together for years.
Now I use the button several times a day: long-pressing it to get to an option that turns all the lights off before I go to bed; selecting multiple AirPlay speakers at once in an easy-to-use menu format that waits for me to finish choosing before it streams my audio to them; connecting to my AirPods when Apple’s auto-switching feature (all too frequently) doesn’t work right.

Screenshot: iOS
All of these options appear when I hold the Action Button down.

I do all of this by mapping the button to a custom Shortcut — Apple’s powerful automations app that comes included with every iPhone, iPad, and Mac. I use a similar approach to former Verge reviews editor Dan Seifert, who wrote about the button last year. Long-pressing the button runs a Shortcut that brings up a menu of some of the most common actions I take on my phone. These options can do simple things like set my phone to silent or open the Find My app when I need to locate my keys.
They also trigger more complex actions. One of them brings up a quick form to add an appointment to my calendar, rather than having to open the calendar app to do it. And when I tap “Play Podcasts,” it brings up a second menu of all of the AirPlay targets in my house. It’s perfect for when I’m cleaning and I just want to quickly get something playing in every room.
YouTuber Stephen Robles put together a video guide for creating a system like this — and uploaded a template that you can use to get yourself started if you’d rather not begin from scratch. That said, if you do want to do it yourself and don’t want to sit through Robles’ guide, I’ve written up some basic instructions at the bottom of the page.
Listeners offer new ways to use the Action Button
In a recent Vergecast episode, David said that readers of The Verge “overwhelmingly” told him they do not use the Action Button. Not everybody is interested in this sort of streamlining, and that’s fine. But after that episode, my people — the nerds who love coming up with obtuse and clever ways to use the Action Button — posted to social media about how they use it.
Here are some of my personal favorites:

This person probably used the “Open App” Shortcuts action for this, and I’m fully on board with that.

This person’s friend can just long-press the Action Button with their phone in their pocket, and it will automatically send a heart emoji to their girlfriend. All-time great use, especially if you work a physical job where your hands are always dirty and you just want your significant other to know you’re thinking about them.

Screenshot: YouTube
A YouTube commenter takes advantage of the Shortcuts app’s orientation sensing for different actions.

This use, from a comment on the YouTube upload of that Vergecast episode, takes advantage of the fact that Shortcuts can trigger different actions based on the orientation of your phone. So this person made their Action Button a context-sensitive automation trigger. Fantastic.
It’s not that the Action Button is perfect. I still wish that Apple had added other options, like the ability to carry out other tasks by double- or triple-tapping it. But as it stands, the Action Button is the sleeper car of features — unassuming, yet more powerful than it seems at first glance.
What I’ve written here only scratches the surface. How do you, dear Verge reader, feel about the Action Button, and how have you used it? Let us know in the comments.

The iPhone 15 Pro Action Button: more than meets the eye. | Screenshot: iOS Action Button setting

Apple’s announcement last week that the Action Button is now on all of its iPhone 16 models, rather than just the Pro model that the button debuted on last year, was a little overshadowed by the introduction of the Camera Control button — a capacitive, tactile button for launching and controlling the iPhone 16’s camera. But don’t let that fool you: the Action Button is still one of the most powerful features Apple has added to its phones in years.

One very obvious use of the button is to connect it to the iPhone’s camera app, letting you press and hold to open the app, then press once more to take a picture. But does that mean the Camera Control button has made it obsolete? I don’t think so.

By default, the Action Button serves as a mute toggle — it did replace the mute switch, after all — that you press and hold to mute or unmute your phone. But besides that and using the camera, it can do so much more. To begin with, you can set it to do simple things (by using Settings > Action Button), like flick on the flashlight (or the torch, if you like), set a Focus Mode, or open Apple’s Translate app. With iOS 18, Apple added the ability to map it to a Control Center action or recognize a song with Shazam.

But you can go way beyond simple. For me, it’s a way to help me use my phone less. I don’t mean spend fewer hours on it — I mean it lets me cut out all the extraneous swiping and tapping that I have to do to carry things out on my phone. It’s something I’d been trying to figure out through other means, like adding Shortcuts to my homescreen, but the Action Button has been the missing part of a puzzle I’d been piecing together for years.

Now I use the button several times a day: long-pressing it to get to an option that turns all the lights off before I go to bed; selecting multiple AirPlay speakers at once in an easy-to-use menu format that waits for me to finish choosing before it streams my audio to them; connecting to my AirPods when Apple’s auto-switching feature (all too frequently) doesn’t work right.

I do all of this by mapping the button to a custom Shortcut — Apple’s powerful automations app that comes included with every iPhone, iPad, and Mac. I use a similar approach to former Verge reviews editor Dan Seifert, who wrote about the button last year. Long-pressing the button runs a Shortcut that brings up a menu of some of the most common actions I take on my phone. These options can do simple things like set my phone to silent or open the Find My app when I need to locate my keys.

They also trigger more complex actions. One of them brings up a quick form to add an appointment to my calendar, rather than having to open the calendar app to do it. And when I tap “Play Podcasts,” it brings up a second menu of all of the AirPlay targets in my house. It’s perfect for when I’m cleaning and I just want to quickly get something playing in every room.

YouTuber Stephen Robles put together a video guide for creating a system like this — and uploaded a template that you can use to get yourself started if you’d rather not begin from scratch. That said, if you do want to do it yourself and don’t want to sit through Robles’ guide, I’ve written up some basic instructions at the bottom of the page.

Listeners offer new ways to use the Action Button

In a recent Vergecast episode, David said that readers of The Verge “overwhelmingly” told him they do not use the Action Button. Not everybody is interested in this sort of streamlining, and that’s fine. But after that episode, my people — the nerds who love coming up with obtuse and clever ways to use the Action Button — posted to social media about how they use it.

Here are some of my personal favorites:

This person probably used the “Open App” Shortcuts action for this, and I’m fully on board with that.

This person’s friend can just long-press the Action Button with their phone in their pocket, and it will automatically send a heart emoji to their girlfriend. All-time great use, especially if you work a physical job where your hands are always dirty and you just want your significant other to know you’re thinking about them.

Screenshot: YouTube
A YouTube commenter takes advantage of the Shortcuts app’s orientation sensing for different actions.

This use, from a comment on the YouTube upload of that Vergecast episode, takes advantage of the fact that Shortcuts can trigger different actions based on the orientation of your phone. So this person made their Action Button a context-sensitive automation trigger. Fantastic.

It’s not that the Action Button is perfect. I still wish that Apple had added other options, like the ability to carry out other tasks by double- or triple-tapping it. But as it stands, the Action Button is the sleeper car of features — unassuming, yet more powerful than it seems at first glance.

What I’ve written here only scratches the surface. How do you, dear Verge reader, feel about the Action Button, and how have you used it? Let us know in the comments.

Read More 

Ambulances rush wounded people to a hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Saida on September 17th. | Photo by Mahmoud Zayyat / AFP via Getty Images

Thousands of people have reportedly been injured by exploding pagers across Lebanon and Syria in what appears to be an attack targeting Hezbollah members on Tuesday, reports Reuters and other news agencies. Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said at least eight people, including a child, have been killed, and around 2,800 others have been injured, according to CNN.
The explosions occurred as Hezbollah has been engaged in warfare with Israel for months, coinciding with the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and a day after Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said time was “running out” for a diplomatic solution with the group. CNN reports the Israel Defense Forces has said it won’t comment on the detonations.
Reuters and The Wall Street Journal cited anonymous sources saying the pagers that exploded were part of a new shipment the group had recently received and that some people felt the devices heating up, then disposed of them before they exploded. We haven’t seen any reports with confirmed details of how the devices may have been tampered with to make them explode or how they were triggered.
Videos of the explosions and their aftermath have already spread widely across news networks and social media (warning: the video below shows people being injured by the attacks). One appears to show a man looking down to check his pager while checking out at a store before it explodes, sending him flying backward. Another surveillance video from a market posted by The New York Times shows a man injured after a device exploded in his bag at around 3:30PM local time.

Ambulances rush wounded people to a hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Saida on September 17th. | Photo by Mahmoud Zayyat / AFP via Getty Images

Thousands of people have reportedly been injured by exploding pagers across Lebanon and Syria in what appears to be an attack targeting Hezbollah members on Tuesday, reports Reuters and other news agencies. Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said at least eight people, including a child, have been killed, and around 2,800 others have been injured, according to CNN.

The explosions occurred as Hezbollah has been engaged in warfare with Israel for months, coinciding with the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and a day after Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said time was “running out” for a diplomatic solution with the group. CNN reports the Israel Defense Forces has said it won’t comment on the detonations.

Reuters and The Wall Street Journal cited anonymous sources saying the pagers that exploded were part of a new shipment the group had recently received and that some people felt the devices heating up, then disposed of them before they exploded. We haven’t seen any reports with confirmed details of how the devices may have been tampered with to make them explode or how they were triggered.

Videos of the explosions and their aftermath have already spread widely across news networks and social media (warning: the video below shows people being injured by the attacks). One appears to show a man looking down to check his pager while checking out at a store before it explodes, sending him flying backward. Another surveillance video from a market posted by The New York Times shows a man injured after a device exploded in his bag at around 3:30PM local time.

Read More 

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge

Green bubbles, rejoice: your iPhone-using friends are finally going to have a much better time texting you. As part of iOS 18, which was released for everyone on Monday, Apple added support for RCS, the Rich Communication Services protocol for messaging. This means that chats between iPhone and Android users will finally have a bunch of sorely needed features that should have been in place a long time ago.

A big reason I’ve stayed on iOS (and haven’t even considered switching to Android) is because iMessage conversations work especially well for my family group chats, and I don’t want to nerf those chats. This new RCS support is a great step toward making iPhone-to-Android texts work a lot better (though there are still enough drawbacks that I’m planning to stick with iOS).
RCS on iOS improves chats with friends on Android
With RCS on iOS, you’ll get major improvements like high-resolution media, typing indicators, and read receipts when you’re texting with people on other phones that also support RCS. In its iOS 18 press release, Apple also highlights support for “more reliable group messaging compared to SMS and MMS.”

Screenshot by Alex Cranz / The Verge
RCS in iOS 18 means photos you send to your friends on Android won’t be blurry.

RCS chats are still missing many features Apple bakes in for iMessage conversations, like being able to schedule messages to send later or add animated text effects to what you write. But with RCS support, a lot of the basics are now available.
How do you know if you’re in an RCS chat?
When you’re texting somebody not on an iPhone, take a look at the text-entry box. In gray letters, you’ll see the words “Text Message,” then a dot, and then “RCS” or “SMS.” If you see RCS, you’re having an RCS chat! You might see similar “RCS” or “SMS” indicators in the middle of a conversation thread.

Screenshot by David Pierce / The Verge
You can see if you’re having an SMS or RCS chat.

There may be, however, at least one catch: it seems that not all carriers support RCS on iPhone yet. While, according to 9to5Google, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all support the feature in the US, I’m on Mint Mobile, and instead of saying “RCS,” my iPhone-to-Android conversations still say “SMS.” At least I have good-looking Tapbacks, which are available on SMS. But on the whole, SMS conversations haven’t changed, so if you’re forced to chat with your Android friends over SMS, you’ll have to deal with the limitations that have been in place for years.
If, for some reason, you want to turn RCS off, you can do that from Settings > Apps > Messages > RCS Messaging.

Screenshot by Alex Cranz / The Verge
The iPhone settings for RCS.

RCS on iOS isn’t as secure as it could be
Apple is only supporting the basic RCS standard, called RCS Universal Profile, which isn’t encrypted. That means if you’re texting your friend who use Google Messages, those messages won’t be encrypted like they are if you’re texting with another iPhone user over iMessage.
While disappointing, it’s not too surprising. Apple would probably still prefer that everyone buy an iPhone. But let’s hope Apple makes RCS texts encrypted in a future iOS release.

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge

Green bubbles, rejoice: your iPhone-using friends are finally going to have a much better time texting you. As part of iOS 18, which was released for everyone on Monday, Apple added support for RCS, the Rich Communication Services protocol for messaging. This means that chats between iPhone and Android users will finally have a bunch of sorely needed features that should have been in place a long time ago.

A big reason I’ve stayed on iOS (and haven’t even considered switching to Android) is because iMessage conversations work especially well for my family group chats, and I don’t want to nerf those chats. This new RCS support is a great step toward making iPhone-to-Android texts work a lot better (though there are still enough drawbacks that I’m planning to stick with iOS).

RCS on iOS improves chats with friends on Android

With RCS on iOS, you’ll get major improvements like high-resolution media, typing indicators, and read receipts when you’re texting with people on other phones that also support RCS. In its iOS 18 press release, Apple also highlights support for “more reliable group messaging compared to SMS and MMS.”

Screenshot by Alex Cranz / The Verge
RCS in iOS 18 means photos you send to your friends on Android won’t be blurry.

RCS chats are still missing many features Apple bakes in for iMessage conversations, like being able to schedule messages to send later or add animated text effects to what you write. But with RCS support, a lot of the basics are now available.

How do you know if you’re in an RCS chat?

When you’re texting somebody not on an iPhone, take a look at the text-entry box. In gray letters, you’ll see the words “Text Message,” then a dot, and then “RCS” or “SMS.” If you see RCS, you’re having an RCS chat! You might see similar “RCS” or “SMS” indicators in the middle of a conversation thread.

Screenshot by David Pierce / The Verge
You can see if you’re having an SMS or RCS chat.

There may be, however, at least one catch: it seems that not all carriers support RCS on iPhone yet. While, according to 9to5Google, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all support the feature in the US, I’m on Mint Mobile, and instead of saying “RCS,” my iPhone-to-Android conversations still say “SMS.” At least I have good-looking Tapbacks, which are available on SMS. But on the whole, SMS conversations haven’t changed, so if you’re forced to chat with your Android friends over SMS, you’ll have to deal with the limitations that have been in place for years.

If, for some reason, you want to turn RCS off, you can do that from Settings > Apps > Messages > RCS Messaging.

Screenshot by Alex Cranz / The Verge
The iPhone settings for RCS.

RCS on iOS isn’t as secure as it could be

Apple is only supporting the basic RCS standard, called RCS Universal Profile, which isn’t encrypted. That means if you’re texting your friend who use Google Messages, those messages won’t be encrypted like they are if you’re texting with another iPhone user over iMessage.

While disappointing, it’s not too surprising. Apple would probably still prefer that everyone buy an iPhone. But let’s hope Apple makes RCS texts encrypted in a future iOS release.

Read More 

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

With each operating system update, our computers get further away from their earliest, text-based interfaces, when copying files and launching programs required typing out specific commands rather than double-clicking on icons. But although a lot of today’s users won’t know these command line interfaces ever existed, and others will have forgotten all about them, they’re still present in macOS and in Windows. More than that, they’re still actually useful.
In this article, I’ll look at some ways you can access and use Terminal, a throwback to the days before macOS. There are two ways of launching it:

In Spotlight, start typing Terminal, and when Terminal.app comes up, hit return.
In Finder, go to the Utilities folder (you’ll find that in Applications) and look for Terminal.app.

There are a variety of commands you can use in Terminal. What follows are nine commands that make it worth firing up. Simply type them in at the prompt and hit Enter to confirm. To get more information about any command, use the following syntax, replacing “command” with the name of the specific command you’re interested in (and keep the quotes):
man “command”

Screenshot: Apple
Terminal can teach you more about its commands.

1. Change how screenshots are saved
defaults write com.apple.screencapture name “New Screen Shot Name”
By default, screenshots use the file name format “Screen Shot [date] at [time].png” and are saved on the desktop. Using the Terminal command above, changing “New Screen Shot Name” to the file of your choice, you can change this format.
The date and time will still be included, but the “Screen Shot” part will change. It can be useful if you’re putting together a batch of screenshots for one particular purpose that you need to keep separate.
2. Keep your Mac awake
caffeinate -t <length of time>
You can always change your Mac’s power settings through the Lock Screen panel in System Settings, but using the Terminal can be quicker, especially for temporary tweaks. Use the command above to keep your system awake for the specified amount of time in seconds (so 300 would equal five minutes).
You can also use the “caffeinate” command on its own, which will put off sleep mode until the Terminal window is closed. It can be handy if you’ve got lengthy tasks or downloads on the go on your Mac and don’t want them to be interrupted.
3. Get detailed system status readings
top
The simple “top” command can be used as an alternative to the Activity Monitor in macOS, giving you a wealth of real-time stats about the state of your system, including how much CPU time and memory each application is using. It’s great for getting a quick, at-a-glance overview of the strain your Mac is under.

Screenshot: Apple
Get a reading on the status of your macOS system.

4. Force-quit apps
killall AppName
Being able to force-quit applications from the Terminal window can be useful in all kinds of troubleshooting scenarios, especially if the rest of your system has frozen. Just replace “AppName” with the name of the app to shut down, without the quotes. For example, “killall Finder” would force-quit the Finder interface.
5. Put a message on the login screen
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText “Custom Text Here”
Use the command above and replace “Custom Text Here” (while keeping the quotes) to put a message on the macOS login screen. Maybe you want to leave yourself a motivational message to start each day or maybe you want to put your email address onscreen in case your MacBook gets lost.
To remove the message, run the command again with nothing between the quotation marks.
6. Shut down or restart your Mac

sudo shutdown -h now
sudo shutdown -r now

The commands listed above will either shut down (top) or restart (bottom) your Mac, which you may find easier than going through the menus. Even better, you can add a number at the end of the statement to do a timed restart or shutdown (which is handy if you’re going to be away from your computer. For example, “sudo shutdown -r +10” will restart your computer in 10 minutes’ time.

Screenshot: Apple
Terminal can display a calendar for any month you’d like.

7. Show a simple calendar
cal
The “cal” command will bring up a basic calendar onscreen showing the current month, which can be helpful for quickly checking days and dates. The function really comes into its own when you need specific months and years — “cal 1980” will show you a calendar for 1980, for example, while “cal 1 2030” will show you a calendar for January 2030 (just use the number of the month to specify it).
8. Software update

softwareupdate -l
sudo softwareupdate -i -a

There are various clever Terminal commands you can use for updating the macOS operating system. The first in the list above checks for updates for macOS, while the second installs any available updates. (You can also specify specific update names instead of the “-a” flag.)

Screenshot: Apple
You can add spaces to the dock using Terminal and right-click to remove them.

9. Change the dock spacing
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add ‘{“tile-type”=”spacer-tile”;}’; killall Dock
This is a classic example of the under-the-hood tweaks that Terminal is really good at: use the syntax above, and you’ll find a blank tile is added to the dock, giving you some space between your app shortcuts.
You can drag the space around the dock and carry on adding extra ones as needed. To get rid of a separator you’ve added, right-click on it and choose Remove from Dock.
That’s it for now. If you use Terminal in other ways to make things faster or easier, let us know in the comments!

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

With each operating system update, our computers get further away from their earliest, text-based interfaces, when copying files and launching programs required typing out specific commands rather than double-clicking on icons. But although a lot of today’s users won’t know these command line interfaces ever existed, and others will have forgotten all about them, they’re still present in macOS and in Windows. More than that, they’re still actually useful.

In this article, I’ll look at some ways you can access and use Terminal, a throwback to the days before macOS. There are two ways of launching it:

In Spotlight, start typing Terminal, and when Terminal.app comes up, hit return.
In Finder, go to the Utilities folder (you’ll find that in Applications) and look for Terminal.app.

There are a variety of commands you can use in Terminal. What follows are nine commands that make it worth firing up. Simply type them in at the prompt and hit Enter to confirm. To get more information about any command, use the following syntax, replacing “command” with the name of the specific command you’re interested in (and keep the quotes):

man “command”

Screenshot: Apple
Terminal can teach you more about its commands.

1. Change how screenshots are saved

defaults write com.apple.screencapture name “New Screen Shot Name”

By default, screenshots use the file name format “Screen Shot [date] at [time].png” and are saved on the desktop. Using the Terminal command above, changing “New Screen Shot Name” to the file of your choice, you can change this format.

The date and time will still be included, but the “Screen Shot” part will change. It can be useful if you’re putting together a batch of screenshots for one particular purpose that you need to keep separate.

2. Keep your Mac awake

caffeinate -t <length of time>

You can always change your Mac’s power settings through the Lock Screen panel in System Settings, but using the Terminal can be quicker, especially for temporary tweaks. Use the command above to keep your system awake for the specified amount of time in seconds (so 300 would equal five minutes).

You can also use the “caffeinate” command on its own, which will put off sleep mode until the Terminal window is closed. It can be handy if you’ve got lengthy tasks or downloads on the go on your Mac and don’t want them to be interrupted.

3. Get detailed system status readings

top

The simple “top” command can be used as an alternative to the Activity Monitor in macOS, giving you a wealth of real-time stats about the state of your system, including how much CPU time and memory each application is using. It’s great for getting a quick, at-a-glance overview of the strain your Mac is under.

Screenshot: Apple
Get a reading on the status of your macOS system.

4. Force-quit apps

killall AppName

Being able to force-quit applications from the Terminal window can be useful in all kinds of troubleshooting scenarios, especially if the rest of your system has frozen. Just replace “AppName” with the name of the app to shut down, without the quotes. For example, “killall Finder” would force-quit the Finder interface.

5. Put a message on the login screen

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText “Custom Text Here”

Use the command above and replace “Custom Text Here” (while keeping the quotes) to put a message on the macOS login screen. Maybe you want to leave yourself a motivational message to start each day or maybe you want to put your email address onscreen in case your MacBook gets lost.

To remove the message, run the command again with nothing between the quotation marks.

6. Shut down or restart your Mac

sudo shutdown -h now

sudo shutdown -r now

The commands listed above will either shut down (top) or restart (bottom) your Mac, which you may find easier than going through the menus. Even better, you can add a number at the end of the statement to do a timed restart or shutdown (which is handy if you’re going to be away from your computer. For example, “sudo shutdown -r +10” will restart your computer in 10 minutes’ time.

Screenshot: Apple
Terminal can display a calendar for any month you’d like.

7. Show a simple calendar

cal

The “cal” command will bring up a basic calendar onscreen showing the current month, which can be helpful for quickly checking days and dates. The function really comes into its own when you need specific months and years — “cal 1980” will show you a calendar for 1980, for example, while “cal 1 2030” will show you a calendar for January 2030 (just use the number of the month to specify it).

8. Software update

softwareupdate -l

sudo softwareupdate -i -a

There are various clever Terminal commands you can use for updating the macOS operating system. The first in the list above checks for updates for macOS, while the second installs any available updates. (You can also specify specific update names instead of the “-a” flag.)

Screenshot: Apple
You can add spaces to the dock using Terminal and right-click to remove them.

9. Change the dock spacing

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add ‘{“tile-type”=”spacer-tile”;}’; killall Dock

This is a classic example of the under-the-hood tweaks that Terminal is really good at: use the syntax above, and you’ll find a blank tile is added to the dock, giving you some space between your app shortcuts.

You can drag the space around the dock and carry on adding extra ones as needed. To get rid of a separator you’ve added, right-click on it and choose Remove from Dock.

That’s it for now. If you use Terminal in other ways to make things faster or easier, let us know in the comments!

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Image: EA Games

Reports about a movie based on The Sims have been circulating for a while now, but Electronic Arts has just officially announced that a big-screen adaptation of the hit game series is in the works.
In a lengthy blog post detailing some of its upcoming projects, EA announced today that Amazon MGM Studios will be the studio behind a film based on The Sims cowritten by Briony Redman and Kate Herron, who will also direct. Previously, the duo wrote together for the new Doctor Who series, and Herron directed the entirety of Loki’s first season for Disney Plus.
EA did not share any story details or tease when the movie might hit theaters, but the fact that the project is being coproduced by Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap suggests that it might have a certain Barbie quality to it when it ultimately releases. It’s easier to imagine The Sims lending itself to a compelling movie than, say, Monopoly — another game-inspired feature LuckyChap is currently producing.

Image: EA Games

Reports about a movie based on The Sims have been circulating for a while now, but Electronic Arts has just officially announced that a big-screen adaptation of the hit game series is in the works.

In a lengthy blog post detailing some of its upcoming projects, EA announced today that Amazon MGM Studios will be the studio behind a film based on The Sims cowritten by Briony Redman and Kate Herron, who will also direct. Previously, the duo wrote together for the new Doctor Who series, and Herron directed the entirety of Loki’s first season for Disney Plus.

EA did not share any story details or tease when the movie might hit theaters, but the fact that the project is being coproduced by Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap suggests that it might have a certain Barbie quality to it when it ultimately releases. It’s easier to imagine The Sims lending itself to a compelling movie than, say, Monopoly — another game-inspired feature LuckyChap is currently producing.

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U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation Chair Mr. Jason Neubauer speaks at a press conference ahead of the Titan submersible hearing in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Sept. 15, 2024. | Photo: US Coast Guard

An eerie image of the sunken Titan submersible was made public this week by the US Coast Guard, which opened an investigation into the vessel’s demise.
The submersible was attempting to ferry tourists to the wreckage of the Titanic when it vanished
The submersible was attempting to ferry tourists to the wreckage of the Titanic when it vanished on June 18th of last year. After days of scouring the Atlantic, the Coast Guard determined that the Titan had suffered a “catastrophic implosion.”
A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) discovered debris from the Titan on June 22nd, 2023 about 500 meters (1640 feet) from the bow of the Titanic. The Coast Guard shared an ROV image of the Titan’s tail cone protruding from the seafloor as part of a presentation during the first day of a public hearing that started on September 16th.

Image: US Coast Guard
ROV image of TITAN tail cone. Source: Pelagic Research Services, June 2023

“This discovery led to the conclusive evidence of the catastrophic loss of the submersible TITAN and the death of all five members aboard,” the presentation (available as a powerpoint or PDF document online) says.
The youngest passenger was 19-year-old Suleman Dawood, the son of 48-year-old British Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood who was also on board the Titan. British billionaire Hamish Harding, who was 68 and had previously flown on a Blue Origin suborbital flight, was the third tourist on board. The Titan’s co-pilot, 77-year-old Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and pilot, 61-year-old Stockton Rush, also perished. Rush was CEO of the company OceanGate that owned and operated the vessel. The Coast Guard recovered human remains from the wreck site and brought the wreckage of the Titan to shore “for analysis.”
The US Coast Guard is still investigating whether any misconduct, negligence, or violation of law occurred that contributed to the loss of the vessel and deaths of everyone on board. It also wants to know whether there is any evidence of a physical failure or design flaw dooming the vessel, so it can craft any safety recommendations in response.

The hearing is scheduled to take place through September 27th and is being livestreamed on the US Coast Guard’s YouTube account. It’ll include testimony from crew members and technical experts, as well evidence gathered on the Titan’s design, operation, and safety protocols.

U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation Chair Mr. Jason Neubauer speaks at a press conference ahead of the Titan submersible hearing in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Sept. 15, 2024. | Photo: US Coast Guard

An eerie image of the sunken Titan submersible was made public this week by the US Coast Guard, which opened an investigation into the vessel’s demise.

The submersible was attempting to ferry tourists to the wreckage of the Titanic when it vanished on June 18th of last year. After days of scouring the Atlantic, the Coast Guard determined that the Titan had suffered a “catastrophic implosion.”

A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) discovered debris from the Titan on June 22nd, 2023 about 500 meters (1640 feet) from the bow of the Titanic. The Coast Guard shared an ROV image of the Titan’s tail cone protruding from the seafloor as part of a presentation during the first day of a public hearing that started on September 16th.

Image: US Coast Guard
ROV image of TITAN tail cone. Source: Pelagic Research Services, June 2023

“This discovery led to the conclusive evidence of the catastrophic loss of the submersible TITAN and the death of all five members aboard,” the presentation (available as a powerpoint or PDF document online) says.

The youngest passenger was 19-year-old Suleman Dawood, the son of 48-year-old British Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood who was also on board the Titan. British billionaire Hamish Harding, who was 68 and had previously flown on a Blue Origin suborbital flight, was the third tourist on board. The Titan’s co-pilot, 77-year-old Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and pilot, 61-year-old Stockton Rush, also perished. Rush was CEO of the company OceanGate that owned and operated the vessel. The Coast Guard recovered human remains from the wreck site and brought the wreckage of the Titan to shore “for analysis.”

The US Coast Guard is still investigating whether any misconduct, negligence, or violation of law occurred that contributed to the loss of the vessel and deaths of everyone on board. It also wants to know whether there is any evidence of a physical failure or design flaw dooming the vessel, so it can craft any safety recommendations in response.

The hearing is scheduled to take place through September 27th and is being livestreamed on the US Coast Guard’s YouTube account. It’ll include testimony from crew members and technical experts, as well evidence gathered on the Titan’s design, operation, and safety protocols.

Read More 

Epomaker’s TH80 Pro offers perks like RGB lighting and customizability for just $53.99. | Image: Jon Porter / The Verge

A mechanical keyboard can spruce up any home office, but a lot of the best models don’t come cheap — well, except for one: Epomaker’s TH80 Pro. It’s our top pick for people on a budget, and right now, it’s even more affordable at Amazon, where you can buy it for $53.99 ($36 off). That’s a new record-low price and is available on all versions of the keyboard, including those with Gateron and Budgerigar switches.

The 75 percent mechanical keyboard boasts an impressive set of features for its price. It offers a fun and terrific typing experience, with colorful per-key RGB lighting. Yet it’s highly customizable, too, with hot-swappable switches and keys that can be programmed. The TH80 Pro also comes with other helpful perks, like a volume knob and multiple connectivity options, including Bluetooth and even support for 2.4GHz wireless via a dongle.
Admittedly, its plastic build doesn’t feel as high-end as some of its expensive rivals, it’s not as long-lasting, and the board doesn’t offer as many advanced software tricks. Still, if you’re on a budget, few mechanical keyboards offer as much value for just half a Benjamin.

A few more ways to save

Amazon’s mountable Echo Hub smart home controller has returned to its all-time low price of $144.99 ($35 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo. The Echo Hub’s eight-inch touchscreen makes it easy for the whole household to control smart lights, thermostats, security devices, and other smart home gadgets with just a simple tap. It also supports Matter and Thread, so you can connect it to other smart home platforms beyond Amazon’s Alexa. As an added plus, it can even play music and stream videos. Read our review.
You can buy the Meross Matter Smart Wi-Fi Plug Mini in a two-pack for $26.99 ($8 off) when you clip the on-page coupon, which is the bundle’s second-best price to date. If you own a compatible hub, the smart plug supports a wide range of smart home ecosystems, thanks to support for Matter. The design makes it difficult to fit two in one duplex outlet, but if you can overlook that, the plugs otherwise offer a great, inexpensive way to add basic smarts to traditional lamps, TVs, fans, coffee makers, and more.
You can buy iRobot’s refurbished Roomba j7 Plus robot vacuum with an auto-empty dock and a two-year warranty for just $312.49 from iRobot’s eBay storefront, which costs $587 less than buying it new. Despite being discontinued, the j7 Plus remains one of our favorite robot vacuums. It’s a powerful cleaning machine that offers helpful features like AI-powered obstacle avoidance and even cool extras, such as the ability to double as a livestreaming security camera. Read our Roomba j7 Plus review.

Epomaker’s TH80 Pro offers perks like RGB lighting and customizability for just $53.99. | Image: Jon Porter / The Verge

A mechanical keyboard can spruce up any home office, but a lot of the best models don’t come cheap — well, except for one: Epomaker’s TH80 Pro. It’s our top pick for people on a budget, and right now, it’s even more affordable at Amazon, where you can buy it for $53.99 ($36 off). That’s a new record-low price and is available on all versions of the keyboard, including those with Gateron and Budgerigar switches.

The 75 percent mechanical keyboard boasts an impressive set of features for its price. It offers a fun and terrific typing experience, with colorful per-key RGB lighting. Yet it’s highly customizable, too, with hot-swappable switches and keys that can be programmed. The TH80 Pro also comes with other helpful perks, like a volume knob and multiple connectivity options, including Bluetooth and even support for 2.4GHz wireless via a dongle.

Admittedly, its plastic build doesn’t feel as high-end as some of its expensive rivals, it’s not as long-lasting, and the board doesn’t offer as many advanced software tricks. Still, if you’re on a budget, few mechanical keyboards offer as much value for just half a Benjamin.

A few more ways to save

Amazon’s mountable Echo Hub smart home controller has returned to its all-time low price of $144.99 ($35 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo. The Echo Hub’s eight-inch touchscreen makes it easy for the whole household to control smart lights, thermostats, security devices, and other smart home gadgets with just a simple tap. It also supports Matter and Thread, so you can connect it to other smart home platforms beyond Amazon’s Alexa. As an added plus, it can even play music and stream videos. Read our review.
You can buy the Meross Matter Smart Wi-Fi Plug Mini in a two-pack for $26.99 ($8 off) when you clip the on-page coupon, which is the bundle’s second-best price to date. If you own a compatible hub, the smart plug supports a wide range of smart home ecosystems, thanks to support for Matter. The design makes it difficult to fit two in one duplex outlet, but if you can overlook that, the plugs otherwise offer a great, inexpensive way to add basic smarts to traditional lamps, TVs, fans, coffee makers, and more.
You can buy iRobot’s refurbished Roomba j7 Plus robot vacuum with an auto-empty dock and a two-year warranty for just $312.49 from iRobot’s eBay storefront, which costs $587 less than buying it new. Despite being discontinued, the j7 Plus remains one of our favorite robot vacuums. It’s a powerful cleaning machine that offers helpful features like AI-powered obstacle avoidance and even cool extras, such as the ability to double as a livestreaming security camera. Read our Roomba j7 Plus review.

Read More 

Mitch Lowe in HBO’s MoviePass, MovieCrash documentary. | Image: HBO

MoviePass ex-CEO Mitch Lowe pleaded guilty to securities fraud on Monday over his involvement in a scheme to mislead investors, as reported earlier by Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. With the plea, Lowe admits to making false representations about the sustainability of a $9.95 monthly plan that promised “unlimited” access to movies in theaters.
Lowe, who took over as CEO of MoviePass in 2016, started allowing users to see a movie a day through an unlimited subscription in 2017. But the money-burning tactic eventually led to MoviePass’s demise, with the service shutting down in 2019 and later filing for bankruptcy.

Following a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Lowe and Ted Farnsworth, the former CEO of MoviePass parent company Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY), a year later. The agency alleged the pair lied about the unlimited subscription to artificially inflate HMNY’s stock:
These representations, which were made to artificially inflate HMNY’s stock price and fraudulently attract new investors, were materially false and misleading… In truth and in fact, and as Coconspirator 1 [Farnsworth] and LOWE knew… The $9.95 “unlimited” plan was a temporary marketing gimmick to drive subscriber growth, and MoviePass was losing money as a result.
In addition to a $250,000 fine, Lowe faces up to five years in prison (although a lighter sentence is expected for his cooperation with the investigation, THR reports). Farnsworth remains in federal custody, with his trial over securities fraud scheduled for March 2025.
“Mitch is a good man who is looking to move forward with his life,” Lowe’s attorneys, Margot Moss and David Oscar Markus, said in a statement to Variety. “He has accepted responsibility for his actions in this case and will continue to try to make things right.”
MoviePass got a reboot last year — and while it still offers a plan at $10 per month, it now puts a cap on the number of movies you can see.

Mitch Lowe in HBO’s MoviePass, MovieCrash documentary. | Image: HBO

MoviePass ex-CEO Mitch Lowe pleaded guilty to securities fraud on Monday over his involvement in a scheme to mislead investors, as reported earlier by Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. With the plea, Lowe admits to making false representations about the sustainability of a $9.95 monthly plan that promised “unlimited” access to movies in theaters.

Lowe, who took over as CEO of MoviePass in 2016, started allowing users to see a movie a day through an unlimited subscription in 2017. But the money-burning tactic eventually led to MoviePass’s demise, with the service shutting down in 2019 and later filing for bankruptcy.

Following a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Lowe and Ted Farnsworth, the former CEO of MoviePass parent company Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY), a year later. The agency alleged the pair lied about the unlimited subscription to artificially inflate HMNY’s stock:

These representations, which were made to artificially inflate HMNY’s stock price and fraudulently attract new investors, were materially false and misleading… In truth and in fact, and as Coconspirator 1 [Farnsworth] and LOWE knew… The $9.95 “unlimited” plan was a temporary marketing gimmick to drive subscriber growth, and MoviePass was losing money as a result.

In addition to a $250,000 fine, Lowe faces up to five years in prison (although a lighter sentence is expected for his cooperation with the investigation, THR reports). Farnsworth remains in federal custody, with his trial over securities fraud scheduled for March 2025.

“Mitch is a good man who is looking to move forward with his life,” Lowe’s attorneys, Margot Moss and David Oscar Markus, said in a statement to Variety. “He has accepted responsibility for his actions in this case and will continue to try to make things right.”

MoviePass got a reboot last year — and while it still offers a plan at $10 per month, it now puts a cap on the number of movies you can see.

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