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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon laptops had the summer all to themselves, but that’s coming to an end. AMD is now shipping its Ryzen AI chips — and Intel has just announced it’ll “launch” its next generation of Core Ultra laptop chips, codename Lunar Lake, on a September 3rd livestream. It sounds like they won’t be available quite that soon, but the full reveal should be just five weeks away.

As we’ve discussed, Lunar Lake is an utterly overhauled chip that ditches the entire idea of plugging swappable memory sticks into your laptop, not to mention several of Intel’s previous ideas about how to achieve the best battery life and performance — plus a tripled NPU if you happen to have generative AI applications you’d like to run locally.
But more importantly, it’s Intel’s laptop answer to Qualcomm and Apple’s Arm-based chips, which offer more battery life than we’ve typically seen from x86 chips like the ones Intel builds. We’re all waiting to see if Intel can deliver a compelling combination of performance, battery life, and features to keep Intel upright as Windows on Arm finally becomes a viable challenger.
We’re currently testing one of the first AMD Ryzen AI 9 laptops to see if “Strix Point” makes for a promising machine in this new climate, and Lunar Lake will be the final piece of this year’s chip war puzzle this fall.
But as usual for chipmakers, you shouldn’t necessarily expect “launch” to mean that Lunar Lake laptops will be available to purchase that day. (“More details to come on availability at the event” is the current vibe, says Intel spokesperson Thomas Hannaford.)
For now, all Intel is confirming is that it “will reveal details on the new processors’ breakthrough x86 power efficiency, exceptional core performance, massive leaps in graphics performance and the unmatched AI computing power that will drive this and future generations of Intel products.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon laptops had the summer all to themselves, but that’s coming to an end. AMD is now shipping its Ryzen AI chips — and Intel has just announced it’ll “launch” its next generation of Core Ultra laptop chips, codename Lunar Lake, on a September 3rd livestream. It sounds like they won’t be available quite that soon, but the full reveal should be just five weeks away.

As we’ve discussed, Lunar Lake is an utterly overhauled chip that ditches the entire idea of plugging swappable memory sticks into your laptop, not to mention several of Intel’s previous ideas about how to achieve the best battery life and performance — plus a tripled NPU if you happen to have generative AI applications you’d like to run locally.

But more importantly, it’s Intel’s laptop answer to Qualcomm and Apple’s Arm-based chips, which offer more battery life than we’ve typically seen from x86 chips like the ones Intel builds. We’re all waiting to see if Intel can deliver a compelling combination of performance, battery life, and features to keep Intel upright as Windows on Arm finally becomes a viable challenger.

We’re currently testing one of the first AMD Ryzen AI 9 laptops to see if “Strix Point” makes for a promising machine in this new climate, and Lunar Lake will be the final piece of this year’s chip war puzzle this fall.

But as usual for chipmakers, you shouldn’t necessarily expect “launch” to mean that Lunar Lake laptops will be available to purchase that day. (“More details to come on availability at the event” is the current vibe, says Intel spokesperson Thomas Hannaford.)

For now, all Intel is confirming is that it “will reveal details on the new processors’ breakthrough x86 power efficiency, exceptional core performance, massive leaps in graphics performance and the unmatched AI computing power that will drive this and future generations of Intel products.”

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Image: Android Headlines

The Pixel Watch 3 looks like it will have a larger screen than the Watch 2, thanks to thinner bezels. Leaked marketing materials shared by Android Headlines suggest that the 41mm Pixel Watch 3 will offer 10 percent more screen than the Watch 2 in the same amount of space.
The Pixel Watch 3 could also have a brighter display — up to 2,000 nits, double the peak brightness of the Pixel 2 — as well as 20 percent faster charging. The spec sheet, if legitimate, confirms the previously leaked 45mm Watch and states that both sizes will have up to 24 hours of battery life with always-on display enabled or up to 36 hours with a new Battery Saver mode.
This could mean that the Pixel Watch 3 won’t use the “hybrid interface” rolled out in Wear OS 4, which is supposed to increase battery life up to 100 hours of regular use. So far, only the OnePlus Watch 2 has this feature.

Image: Android Headlines

The marketing materials also mention new fitness features, including the ability to create custom runs as well as “audio and haptic cues” that tell you when to sprint, cool down, or maintain pace. Additionally, a new Fitbit “morning brief” will offer a summary of health and fitness metrics to help you plan your workouts. These new features may eventually come to older models of the Pixel Watch, something Google has done in the past.
Other changes revealed in the leak include support for offline Google Maps, as well as the ability to view your Nest Cam and Nest Doorbell’s live feeds from the Google Home app. It also looks like you’ll be able to easily swap between photo and video when controlling your Pixel phone’s camera app from the watch. A previous leak suggests the Pixel Watch 3 will get ultra wideband support for better location tracking, but the marketing materials don’t mention that.
With Google’s hardware event coming up on August 13th, we won’t have to wait much longer to see what’s coming with the Pixel Watch 3 and the heavily leaked Pixel 9 lineup.

Image: Android Headlines

The Pixel Watch 3 looks like it will have a larger screen than the Watch 2, thanks to thinner bezels. Leaked marketing materials shared by Android Headlines suggest that the 41mm Pixel Watch 3 will offer 10 percent more screen than the Watch 2 in the same amount of space.

The Pixel Watch 3 could also have a brighter display — up to 2,000 nits, double the peak brightness of the Pixel 2 — as well as 20 percent faster charging. The spec sheet, if legitimate, confirms the previously leaked 45mm Watch and states that both sizes will have up to 24 hours of battery life with always-on display enabled or up to 36 hours with a new Battery Saver mode.

This could mean that the Pixel Watch 3 won’t use the “hybrid interface” rolled out in Wear OS 4, which is supposed to increase battery life up to 100 hours of regular use. So far, only the OnePlus Watch 2 has this feature.

Image: Android Headlines

The marketing materials also mention new fitness features, including the ability to create custom runs as well as “audio and haptic cues” that tell you when to sprint, cool down, or maintain pace. Additionally, a new Fitbit “morning brief” will offer a summary of health and fitness metrics to help you plan your workouts. These new features may eventually come to older models of the Pixel Watch, something Google has done in the past.

Other changes revealed in the leak include support for offline Google Maps, as well as the ability to view your Nest Cam and Nest Doorbell’s live feeds from the Google Home app. It also looks like you’ll be able to easily swap between photo and video when controlling your Pixel phone’s camera app from the watch. A previous leak suggests the Pixel Watch 3 will get ultra wideband support for better location tracking, but the marketing materials don’t mention that.

With Google’s hardware event coming up on August 13th, we won’t have to wait much longer to see what’s coming with the Pixel Watch 3 and the heavily leaked Pixel 9 lineup.

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Image: Sega

For almost 20 years, Nintendo and Sega have released Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games to coincide with the international sporting event. But now, according to a report in Eurogamer, that tradition is at an end. In 2020, the IOC made the decision to not renew the game’s licensing deal, ending a run of games that’s covered most Summer and Winter Olympic Games since 2007.
“Basically the IOC wanted to bring [the licensing] back to themselves internally and look at other partners so they would get more money,” Lee Cocker, a developer who worked on the Mario & Sonic franchise, told Eurogamer.
Strangely though, those “other partners” are NFTs and esports — products that are not currently known for their money-making possibilities. To coincide with the Paris Games, the IOC, in collaboration with Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid studio nWay, has developed Olympics Go! Paris 2024, a mobile game featuring minigames based on Olympic events. According to the game’s website, players are able to claim an “officially licensed, commemorative Paris 2024 NFT Digital Pin.”
Esports at the Olympics isn’t a new concept. The IOC hosted several summits to determine how best to incorporate esports events with the Olympics in 2017 and 2018 — during the height of esports’ popularity (and financial viability). In 2021, the Olympics held its first medal event called the Olympic Virtual Series and featured games including baseball, sailing, cycling, and motorsports. In June, the IOC announced its creation of the Olympic Esports Games to coincide with the 2024 Paris Olympics, with the event held in 2025 and hosted by Saudi Arabia, now a popular, if controversial, esports destination.

Image: Sega

For almost 20 years, Nintendo and Sega have released Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games to coincide with the international sporting event. But now, according to a report in Eurogamer, that tradition is at an end. In 2020, the IOC made the decision to not renew the game’s licensing deal, ending a run of games that’s covered most Summer and Winter Olympic Games since 2007.

“Basically the IOC wanted to bring [the licensing] back to themselves internally and look at other partners so they would get more money,” Lee Cocker, a developer who worked on the Mario & Sonic franchise, told Eurogamer.

Strangely though, those “other partners” are NFTs and esports — products that are not currently known for their money-making possibilities. To coincide with the Paris Games, the IOC, in collaboration with Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid studio nWay, has developed Olympics Go! Paris 2024, a mobile game featuring minigames based on Olympic events. According to the game’s website, players are able to claim an “officially licensed, commemorative Paris 2024 NFT Digital Pin.”

Esports at the Olympics isn’t a new concept. The IOC hosted several summits to determine how best to incorporate esports events with the Olympics in 2017 and 2018 — during the height of esports’ popularity (and financial viability). In 2021, the Olympics held its first medal event called the Olympic Virtual Series and featured games including baseball, sailing, cycling, and motorsports. In June, the IOC announced its creation of the Olympic Esports Games to coincide with the 2024 Paris Olympics, with the event held in 2025 and hosted by Saudi Arabia, now a popular, if controversial, esports destination.

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Apple’s second-gen earbuds are down to $69.99, which is a price we’ve seen only a handful of times. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Amazon Prime Day brought discounts on a whole swath of Apple products, from iPads and AirTags to the latest 15-inch MacBook Air. We also saw deals across Apple’s entire earbuds lineup — including a terrific deal on the second-gen AirPods, which quickly sold out at Amazon. Luckily, if you missed it the first time around, Apple’s entry-level earbuds are once again on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for $69.99 ($60 off), effectively matching their lowest price to date.

Admittedly, Apple’s second-gen earbuds can’t rival the latest AirPods Pro with USB-C or even the third-gen AirPods, for that matter. However, the vanilla buds do offer excellent wireless performance and reliable battery life, allowing you to eke out five hours of music playback or 24 hours with the included Lightning charging case. They also boast hands-free Siri access, audio sharing, and the ability to quickly switch between Apple devices, making them a great budget pick if you’re tapped into Apple’s ecosystem and want a no-fuss pair of wireless earbuds. What you don’t get are more modern perks like active noise cancellation and multipoint pairing, but it’s hard to complain given their current price tag and great ease of use.

Read our AirPods (second-gen) review.

A few more deals and discounts

If you’re not turned off by black geometric wall art, Best Buy is selling Nanoleaf’s Shapes Ultra Black Triangles Smarter Kit for an all-time low of $175.99 ($44 off). The limited edition, nine-panel set functions as an all-black version of its Shapes Triangle panels, meaning the modular LED light bars can still display 16 million colors and work with Apple Home, Alexa, and Google Home. They can also play a host of clever lighting animations in case you prefer the look of a simulated waterfall over a simple color pattern.
Nothing’s newest pair of noise-canceling earbuds, the Nothing Ear, are down to $129 ($30 off) at Amazon when you clip the on-page coupon. They aren’t going to provide the kind of ecosystem tricks you’d get with a pair of Apple or Samsung earbuds, but they can certainly match them in terms of sound. What’s more, the earbuds offer wireless charging, IP54 dust and water resistance, multipoint connectivity, and ChatGPT integration (if you’re using a Nothing phone), which is a lot for the price. Read our initial impressions.
The PlayStation 5 “slim” is on sale at Amazon for $449 ($50 off) while its digital-only counterpart is down to $399 ($50 off) at Walmart, which is an all-time low in both instances. Sony’s midcycle refresh is slightly smaller than the original model released in 2020, yet despite the sleeker build, it can tackle all the same games at the same 4K graphical fidelity. Plus, both the standard configuration and the Digitial Edition come with 1TB of built-in storage (up from 825GB on the OG model). Read our hands-on impressions.

Apple’s second-gen earbuds are down to $69.99, which is a price we’ve seen only a handful of times. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Amazon Prime Day brought discounts on a whole swath of Apple products, from iPads and AirTags to the latest 15-inch MacBook Air. We also saw deals across Apple’s entire earbuds lineup — including a terrific deal on the second-gen AirPods, which quickly sold out at Amazon. Luckily, if you missed it the first time around, Apple’s entry-level earbuds are once again on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for $69.99 ($60 off), effectively matching their lowest price to date.

Admittedly, Apple’s second-gen earbuds can’t rival the latest AirPods Pro with USB-C or even the third-gen AirPods, for that matter. However, the vanilla buds do offer excellent wireless performance and reliable battery life, allowing you to eke out five hours of music playback or 24 hours with the included Lightning charging case. They also boast hands-free Siri access, audio sharing, and the ability to quickly switch between Apple devices, making them a great budget pick if you’re tapped into Apple’s ecosystem and want a no-fuss pair of wireless earbuds. What you don’t get are more modern perks like active noise cancellation and multipoint pairing, but it’s hard to complain given their current price tag and great ease of use.

Read our AirPods (second-gen) review.

A few more deals and discounts

If you’re not turned off by black geometric wall art, Best Buy is selling Nanoleaf’s Shapes Ultra Black Triangles Smarter Kit for an all-time low of $175.99 ($44 off). The limited edition, nine-panel set functions as an all-black version of its Shapes Triangle panels, meaning the modular LED light bars can still display 16 million colors and work with Apple Home, Alexa, and Google Home. They can also play a host of clever lighting animations in case you prefer the look of a simulated waterfall over a simple color pattern.
Nothing’s newest pair of noise-canceling earbuds, the Nothing Ear, are down to $129 ($30 off) at Amazon when you clip the on-page coupon. They aren’t going to provide the kind of ecosystem tricks you’d get with a pair of Apple or Samsung earbuds, but they can certainly match them in terms of sound. What’s more, the earbuds offer wireless charging, IP54 dust and water resistance, multipoint connectivity, and ChatGPT integration (if you’re using a Nothing phone), which is a lot for the price. Read our initial impressions.
The PlayStation 5 “slim” is on sale at Amazon for $449 ($50 off) while its digital-only counterpart is down to $399 ($50 off) at Walmart, which is an all-time low in both instances. Sony’s midcycle refresh is slightly smaller than the original model released in 2020, yet despite the sleeker build, it can tackle all the same games at the same 4K graphical fidelity. Plus, both the standard configuration and the Digitial Edition come with 1TB of built-in storage (up from 825GB on the OG model). Read our hands-on impressions.

Read More 

Image: OpenAI

OpenAI’s new advanced voice mode for ChatGPT is starting to roll out to a small number of people who subscribe to ChatGPT Plus. The feature, which OpenAI showed off at its GPT-4o launch event in May, was criticized for sounding similar to Scarlett Johansson and was later delayed for safety reasons.
At OpenAI’s event, the new voice mode appeared to be noticeably more capable than ChatGPT’s current voice mode. Onstage, OpenAI employees were able to interrupt and ask the chatbot to tell a story in different ways, and the chatbot took their interruptions in stride to adjust its responses.

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The advanced mode was set to release in alpha in late June, but OpenAI delayed the rollout by one month to “reach our bar to launch.” As part of that delay, the company said it was “improving the model’s ability to detect and refuse certain content.” OpenAI spokesperson Taya Christianson says the company tested the voice model’s capabilities with more than 100 external red teamers (people who try to attack technologies to find weaknesses). The company has recently faced a lot of scrutiny about its safety policies, so this pause may have been the right choice. OpenAI has also “added new filters that will recognize and block certain requests to generate music or other copyrighted audio,” Christianson says.
During OpenAI’s event, one of the key criticisms of the new mode was how much the onstage voice, dubbed “Sky,” sounded like Johansson, who played an AI personality in the movie Her. While the voice had been in ChatGPT before OpenAI’s spring demo, the company pulled it shortly before Johansson revealed she had sent letters to OpenAI asking how the voice was made. Christianson says that ChatGPT’s new mode will only use four preset voices it made with voice actors, adding, “We’ve made it so that ChatGPT cannot impersonate other people’s voices, both individuals and public figures, and will block outputs that differ from one of these preset voices.”
OpenAI plans to bring the new mode to all ChatGPT Plus users in the fall, according to Christianson.

Image: OpenAI

OpenAI’s new advanced voice mode for ChatGPT is starting to roll out to a small number of people who subscribe to ChatGPT Plus. The feature, which OpenAI showed off at its GPT-4o launch event in May, was criticized for sounding similar to Scarlett Johansson and was later delayed for safety reasons.

At OpenAI’s event, the new voice mode appeared to be noticeably more capable than ChatGPT’s current voice mode. Onstage, OpenAI employees were able to interrupt and ask the chatbot to tell a story in different ways, and the chatbot took their interruptions in stride to adjust its responses.

The advanced mode was set to release in alpha in late June, but OpenAI delayed the rollout by one month to “reach our bar to launch.” As part of that delay, the company said it was “improving the model’s ability to detect and refuse certain content.” OpenAI spokesperson Taya Christianson says the company tested the voice model’s capabilities with more than 100 external red teamers (people who try to attack technologies to find weaknesses). The company has recently faced a lot of scrutiny about its safety policies, so this pause may have been the right choice. OpenAI has also “added new filters that will recognize and block certain requests to generate music or other copyrighted audio,” Christianson says.

During OpenAI’s event, one of the key criticisms of the new mode was how much the onstage voice, dubbed “Sky,” sounded like Johansson, who played an AI personality in the movie Her. While the voice had been in ChatGPT before OpenAI’s spring demo, the company pulled it shortly before Johansson revealed she had sent letters to OpenAI asking how the voice was made. Christianson says that ChatGPT’s new mode will only use four preset voices it made with voice actors, adding, “We’ve made it so that ChatGPT cannot impersonate other people’s voices, both individuals and public figures, and will block outputs that differ from one of these preset voices.”

OpenAI plans to bring the new mode to all ChatGPT Plus users in the fall, according to Christianson.

Read More 

Amazon’s new Batman show is a jazzy blend of style, substance, and nostalgia. In an era that was flush with cartoons fighting for kids’ attention, Batman: The Animated Series stood out by using its timeless take on Gotham City to tell stories that were as stylish and zany as they were serious. The show gave birth to some of DC’s most iconic characters, and set a high bar for animated comic book adaptations that many of Warner Bros. newer series have struggled to reach.
Amazon’s Batman: Caped Crusader from co-creators J.J. Abrams, Matt Reeves and Bruce Timm feels like a project created with a deep love for The Animated Series, and an understanding of what made it fascinating to watch back in the 90s. And as often as playing to fans’ nostalgia tends to derail modern superhero stories, Caped Crusader’s approach to paying homage to The Animated Series is a big part of what makes it work so well.
Set in a vision of the 1940s where everyone still speaks like Golden Age comics characters, Batman: Caped Crusader tells a familiar tale of how Bruce Wayne (Hamish Linklater) secretly leads the charge to deal with Gotham’s ever-growing population of costumed super criminals. Whereas The Animated Series — which Timm co-created with Paul Dini — introduced Batman as a well-seasoned vigilante with some experience under his high-tech utility belt, Caped Crusader’s Bruce is new to the hero game, and still learning how to wield his status as a shadowy urban legend.

Rather than fancy gadgets and a gaggle of wards, Bruce’s old-fashioned sleuthing skills and his ability to take punches as well as he throws them are what make him so effective at keeping Gotham’s ne’er-do-wells scared. But with most of the city’s cops being as crooked as the criminals they’re supposed to book, there’s seldom a night when Batman isn’t busy dealing with the problems that police commissioner Jim Gordon (Eric Morgan Stuart) and his prosecutor daughter Barbara (Krystal Joy Brown) simply can’t keep up with on their own.
Aesthetically and sonically, Caped Crusader feels almost like it could be The Animated Series’ prequel as it opens on Gotham in the midst of a simmering gang war that has the city’s residents on edge. But as hard as the new show works to establish itself as a story unfolding in the distant past, there’s a pronounced streak of modernity running through it that’s reflected in the way it reworks a number of its supporting characters.
Here, the Gordons are Black, and psychiatrist Harleen Quinzel (Jamie Chung) is an Asian woman who has far more interesting secrets to keep than the fact that she’s queer. Batman: Caped Crusader presents these facets of its reality with a matter-of-factness that helps illustrate the beauty of DC’s Elseworlds — comics stories set in alternate universes that play with the established canon. The show’s changes to classic characters work to highlight aspects of their identities that Caped Crusader leaves untouched like the way detective Renee Montoya’s (Michelle C. Bonilla) commitment to justice makes her simultaneously untrusting of and grateful for Batman’s presence.

Rather than aiming for comics or previous series-accuracy, Caped Crusader feels like it’s trying to tap into the essence of its heroes and villains as they become entangled in one another’s lives. This, coupled with the show’s art direction and its score from composer Frederik Wiedmann, helps make Caped Crusader’s first season feel like classic animated Batman storytelling that emphasizes how well the Dark Knight works as a simple detective chasing down other costumed weirdos.
Though Caped Crusader’s being yet another Batman vehicle might exhaust some viewers, the show’s simplicity and more measured plays to nostalgia immediately set it apart from Warner Bros.’ other recent iterations on the character. And while its pacing might leave some viewers wishing things moved a bit more briskly, with a second season already on the way, Amazon seems to know that it’s got a good thing with Batman: Caped Crusader that’s primed to get better with time.
Batman: Caped Crusader also stars Christina Ricci, Diedrich Bader, Bumper Robinson, Jason Watkins, John DiMaggio, Mckenna Grace, Tom Kenny, Haley Joel Osment, Paul Scheer, Reid Scott, and Toby Stephens. The show’s first season hits Amazon Prime on August 1st.

Amazon’s new Batman show is a jazzy blend of style, substance, and nostalgia.

In an era that was flush with cartoons fighting for kids’ attention, Batman: The Animated Series stood out by using its timeless take on Gotham City to tell stories that were as stylish and zany as they were serious. The show gave birth to some of DC’s most iconic characters, and set a high bar for animated comic book adaptations that many of Warner Bros. newer series have struggled to reach.

Amazon’s Batman: Caped Crusader from co-creators J.J. Abrams, Matt Reeves and Bruce Timm feels like a project created with a deep love for The Animated Series, and an understanding of what made it fascinating to watch back in the 90s. And as often as playing to fans’ nostalgia tends to derail modern superhero stories, Caped Crusader’s approach to paying homage to The Animated Series is a big part of what makes it work so well.

Set in a vision of the 1940s where everyone still speaks like Golden Age comics characters, Batman: Caped Crusader tells a familiar tale of how Bruce Wayne (Hamish Linklater) secretly leads the charge to deal with Gotham’s ever-growing population of costumed super criminals. Whereas The Animated Series — which Timm co-created with Paul Dini — introduced Batman as a well-seasoned vigilante with some experience under his high-tech utility belt, Caped Crusader’s Bruce is new to the hero game, and still learning how to wield his status as a shadowy urban legend.

Rather than fancy gadgets and a gaggle of wards, Bruce’s old-fashioned sleuthing skills and his ability to take punches as well as he throws them are what make him so effective at keeping Gotham’s ne’er-do-wells scared. But with most of the city’s cops being as crooked as the criminals they’re supposed to book, there’s seldom a night when Batman isn’t busy dealing with the problems that police commissioner Jim Gordon (Eric Morgan Stuart) and his prosecutor daughter Barbara (Krystal Joy Brown) simply can’t keep up with on their own.

Aesthetically and sonically, Caped Crusader feels almost like it could be The Animated Series’ prequel as it opens on Gotham in the midst of a simmering gang war that has the city’s residents on edge. But as hard as the new show works to establish itself as a story unfolding in the distant past, there’s a pronounced streak of modernity running through it that’s reflected in the way it reworks a number of its supporting characters.

Here, the Gordons are Black, and psychiatrist Harleen Quinzel (Jamie Chung) is an Asian woman who has far more interesting secrets to keep than the fact that she’s queer. Batman: Caped Crusader presents these facets of its reality with a matter-of-factness that helps illustrate the beauty of DC’s Elseworlds — comics stories set in alternate universes that play with the established canon. The show’s changes to classic characters work to highlight aspects of their identities that Caped Crusader leaves untouched like the way detective Renee Montoya’s (Michelle C. Bonilla) commitment to justice makes her simultaneously untrusting of and grateful for Batman’s presence.

Rather than aiming for comics or previous series-accuracy, Caped Crusader feels like it’s trying to tap into the essence of its heroes and villains as they become entangled in one another’s lives. This, coupled with the show’s art direction and its score from composer Frederik Wiedmann, helps make Caped Crusader’s first season feel like classic animated Batman storytelling that emphasizes how well the Dark Knight works as a simple detective chasing down other costumed weirdos.

Though Caped Crusader’s being yet another Batman vehicle might exhaust some viewers, the show’s simplicity and more measured plays to nostalgia immediately set it apart from Warner Bros.’ other recent iterations on the character. And while its pacing might leave some viewers wishing things moved a bit more briskly, with a second season already on the way, Amazon seems to know that it’s got a good thing with Batman: Caped Crusader that’s primed to get better with time.

Batman: Caped Crusader also stars Christina Ricci, Diedrich Bader, Bumper Robinson, Jason Watkins, John DiMaggio, Mckenna Grace, Tom Kenny, Haley Joel Osment, Paul Scheer, Reid Scott, and Toby Stephens. The show’s first season hits Amazon Prime on August 1st.

Read More 

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

The Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (also known as COPPA 2.0), the first major internet bills meant to protect children to reach that milestone in two decades. A legislative vehicle that included both KOSA and COPPA 2.0 passed 91-3.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called it “a momentous day” in a speech ahead of the vote, saying that “the Senate keeps its promise to every parent who’s lost a child because of the risks of social media.” He called for the House to pass the bills “as soon as they can.”
KOSA is a landmark piece of legislation that a persistent group of parent advocates have played a key role in pushing forward — meeting with lawmakers, showing up at hearings with tech CEOs, and bringing along photos of their children who, in many cases, died by suicide after experiencing cyberbullying or other harms from social media. These parents say that a bill like KOSA could have saved their own children from suffering and hope it will do the same for other children.
The bill works by creating a duty of care for online platforms that are used by minors, requiring they take “reasonable” measures in how they design their products to mitigate a list of harms, including online bullying, sexual exploitation, drug promotion, and eating disorders. It specifies that the bill doesn’t prevent platforms from letting minors search for any specific content or providing them resources to mitigate any of the listed harms, “including evidence-informed information and clinical resources.”

Parent advocates believe this legal duty of care will protect children, but digital rights, free speech, and some LGBTQ+ advocates believe that the bill could actually harm marginalized kids by creating a chilling effect and pressuring platforms to limit free expression on the internet. In a recent letter to senators, groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), LGBT Tech, and industry groups like NetChoice, wrote that the duty of care could result in “aggressive filtering of content by companies preventing access to important, First Amendment-protected, educational, and even lifesaving content” to avoid liability. They also fear it will lead platforms to impose age verification systems, raising additional privacy and constitutional concerns.
These concerns are not coming out of left field. Lead cosponsor Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has previously justified the bill on the basis that “we should be protecting minor children from the transgender in this culture.” Since then, the bill was been amended in response to the concerns of LGBTQ advocates, and the revisions were sufficient to get some organizations — like GLAAD and the Trevor Project — to drop their opposition to the bill.
In a speech on the Senate floor ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), another of the bill’s lead sponsors, said the law not aiming to block or censor content. “We’re simply creating an environment that is safe by design. And at its core, this bill is a product design bill.” Blumenthal compared KOSA to other efforts throughout his career to “protect consumers against defective products that are designed to make more money and more profits at the risk or expense of injury to people,” including by targeting cigarettes and car manufacturers.
Blackburn said that while “there are laws that protect children from buying alcohol, buying tobacco, buying pornography,” the same kinds of protections are lacking on the internet. “When you look at the social media platforms, there are no guardrails.”
The duty of care is probably the most controversial, but KOSA contains a host of other provisions. KOSA also requires safeguards for kids on the internet, like preventing unknown adults from communicating with kids or viewing their personal data, restricting the ability to share minors’ geolocation data, and letting kids’ accounts opt out of personalized recommendations or at least limit categories of recommendations. Platforms would also need to default kids’ accounts to the strictest level of privacy settings and make it easy to delete their personal data and limit the time they spend on the service. The law would also require a handful of parental control tools, allowing parents to view their children’s privacy and account settings, restrict their purchases, and limit how much time they spend.
COPPA 2.0, which builds on a 1998 children’s privacy law by the same name, would raise the age covered by those protections from those under 13 to those under 17. It would also ban targeted advertising to kids covered by the bill. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), the lead sponsor of the new bill, was also the lead sponsor of the original COPPA. Markey said in a speech on the Senate floor that covering kids under 13 was “all I could get” in 1998. Markey said the original law “has done a lot of good, but as the years have passed, and technology has evolved, our online world once again, started to look like the Wild West.”
The House recently decided to adjourn a week early
Two of the senators who voted no — Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rand Paul (R-KY) — said they had concerns that KOSA could potentially be used to censor information. Wyden wrote in a thread on X that while changes to the bill have made it “less likely that the bill can be used as a tool for MAGA extremists to wage war on legal and essential information to teens,” he still worries it “could be used to sue services that offer privacy technologies like encryption or anonymity features that kids rely on to communicate securely and privately without being spied on by predators online.” Paul called it a “pandora’s box of unintended consequences.” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) also voted no.
The bills now move to the House, which had about a week left to take them up before the August recess — except that the chamber recently decided to adjourn a week early. Prior to Thursday’s procedural vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said in a statement to The Verge that he was “looking forward to reviewing the details of the legislation that comes out of the Senate. Parents should have greater control and the necessary tools to protect their kids online. I am committed to working to find consensus in the House.” But it will be harder to pick up momentum after Congress’ break, given the political dynamics of passing substantive policy in the months right before a presidential election.
Should the bills become law, KOSA is still likely to face opposition in the courts. NetChoice, which represents major tech platforms like Google and Meta, has sued to block several other laws throughout the country with similar goals of protecting kids. NetChoice has (in many cases, successfully) argued that such bills pose a risk to free expression that would not withstand First Amendment scrutiny. If challenged, KOSA will also have to contend with a recent Supreme Court ruling, where the majority opinion said that content moderation and curation are protected forms of expression.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

The Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (also known as COPPA 2.0), the first major internet bills meant to protect children to reach that milestone in two decades. A legislative vehicle that included both KOSA and COPPA 2.0 passed 91-3.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called it “a momentous day” in a speech ahead of the vote, saying that “the Senate keeps its promise to every parent who’s lost a child because of the risks of social media.” He called for the House to pass the bills “as soon as they can.”

KOSA is a landmark piece of legislation that a persistent group of parent advocates have played a key role in pushing forward — meeting with lawmakers, showing up at hearings with tech CEOs, and bringing along photos of their children who, in many cases, died by suicide after experiencing cyberbullying or other harms from social media. These parents say that a bill like KOSA could have saved their own children from suffering and hope it will do the same for other children.

The bill works by creating a duty of care for online platforms that are used by minors, requiring they take “reasonable” measures in how they design their products to mitigate a list of harms, including online bullying, sexual exploitation, drug promotion, and eating disorders. It specifies that the bill doesn’t prevent platforms from letting minors search for any specific content or providing them resources to mitigate any of the listed harms, “including evidence-informed information and clinical resources.”

Parent advocates believe this legal duty of care will protect children, but digital rights, free speech, and some LGBTQ+ advocates believe that the bill could actually harm marginalized kids by creating a chilling effect and pressuring platforms to limit free expression on the internet. In a recent letter to senators, groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), LGBT Tech, and industry groups like NetChoice, wrote that the duty of care could result in “aggressive filtering of content by companies preventing access to important, First Amendment-protected, educational, and even lifesaving content” to avoid liability. They also fear it will lead platforms to impose age verification systems, raising additional privacy and constitutional concerns.

These concerns are not coming out of left field. Lead cosponsor Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has previously justified the bill on the basis that “we should be protecting minor children from the transgender in this culture.” Since then, the bill was been amended in response to the concerns of LGBTQ advocates, and the revisions were sufficient to get some organizations — like GLAAD and the Trevor Project — to drop their opposition to the bill.

In a speech on the Senate floor ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), another of the bill’s lead sponsors, said the law not aiming to block or censor content. “We’re simply creating an environment that is safe by design. And at its core, this bill is a product design bill.” Blumenthal compared KOSA to other efforts throughout his career to “protect consumers against defective products that are designed to make more money and more profits at the risk or expense of injury to people,” including by targeting cigarettes and car manufacturers.

Blackburn said that while “there are laws that protect children from buying alcohol, buying tobacco, buying pornography,” the same kinds of protections are lacking on the internet. “When you look at the social media platforms, there are no guardrails.”

The duty of care is probably the most controversial, but KOSA contains a host of other provisions. KOSA also requires safeguards for kids on the internet, like preventing unknown adults from communicating with kids or viewing their personal data, restricting the ability to share minors’ geolocation data, and letting kids’ accounts opt out of personalized recommendations or at least limit categories of recommendations. Platforms would also need to default kids’ accounts to the strictest level of privacy settings and make it easy to delete their personal data and limit the time they spend on the service. The law would also require a handful of parental control tools, allowing parents to view their children’s privacy and account settings, restrict their purchases, and limit how much time they spend.

COPPA 2.0, which builds on a 1998 children’s privacy law by the same name, would raise the age covered by those protections from those under 13 to those under 17. It would also ban targeted advertising to kids covered by the bill. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), the lead sponsor of the new bill, was also the lead sponsor of the original COPPA. Markey said in a speech on the Senate floor that covering kids under 13 was “all I could get” in 1998. Markey said the original law “has done a lot of good, but as the years have passed, and technology has evolved, our online world once again, started to look like the Wild West.”

Two of the senators who voted no — Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rand Paul (R-KY) — said they had concerns that KOSA could potentially be used to censor information. Wyden wrote in a thread on X that while changes to the bill have made it “less likely that the bill can be used as a tool for MAGA extremists to wage war on legal and essential information to teens,” he still worries it “could be used to sue services that offer privacy technologies like encryption or anonymity features that kids rely on to communicate securely and privately without being spied on by predators online.” Paul called it a “pandora’s box of unintended consequences.” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) also voted no.

The bills now move to the House, which had about a week left to take them up before the August recess — except that the chamber recently decided to adjourn a week early. Prior to Thursday’s procedural vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said in a statement to The Verge that he was “looking forward to reviewing the details of the legislation that comes out of the Senate. Parents should have greater control and the necessary tools to protect their kids online. I am committed to working to find consensus in the House.” But it will be harder to pick up momentum after Congress’ break, given the political dynamics of passing substantive policy in the months right before a presidential election.

Should the bills become law, KOSA is still likely to face opposition in the courts. NetChoice, which represents major tech platforms like Google and Meta, has sued to block several other laws throughout the country with similar goals of protecting kids. NetChoice has (in many cases, successfully) argued that such bills pose a risk to free expression that would not withstand First Amendment scrutiny. If challenged, KOSA will also have to contend with a recent Supreme Court ruling, where the majority opinion said that content moderation and curation are protected forms of expression.

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Amazon’s new Echo Spot strikes a good balance between smart speaker and smart display. I’ve been looking for a good alarm clock with voice control for years now — and with Amazon’s newest smart speaker, I think I’ve found it. The Nest Hub is too big for my nightstand and the Echo Show 5 is too bright, but the new Echo Spot ($79.99) is just right.
While it’s not perfect, the Spot’s small footprint, minimalist display, impressive sound for its size, built-in voice assistant, and snappy responses fill most of my needs. These features make it a good option if you want the benefits of a smart speaker and some basic visual information in your bedroom without the distractions of a large screen.
As the sequel to the original Echo Spot that was discontinued in 2019, the new Echo Spot ditches the camera, which was our main gripe with the earlier version. It also replaces the full circular screen with a semicircular display that shows the clock. While that display is a bit too small (and slightly cheap-looking), overall, the Spot is a capable smart alarm clock for a good price, especially when it’s on sale.

Small screen, big personality
An Alexa-powered smart speaker, the Spot follows the design cues of the Echo Pop with its flat circular front, but it adds a small 2.83-inch display above the speaker grille. This is a touchscreen display that shows a clock or various animations when playing music, telling the weather, setting timers, and controlling smart home devices. It’s very responsive to touch, although it’s limited in terms of what you can do with it.
The Spot also responds well to Alexa’s voice commands with minimal lag and can trigger Alexa Routines with presence detection using an ultrasound sensor. It’s a Bluetooth speaker (there’s no line-out) and an Alexa Matter controller (over Wi-Fi), but unlike the Echo Dot, there’s no temperature sensor, and it doesn’t act as an Eero mesh Wi-Fi extender.

The new Echo Spot (right) is surprisingly chunky and bigger than the original Spot (left).

The Spot’s screen is primarily designed as a clock — showing just enough information to be useful and not so much to be annoying. Instead of the rotating content you find on the Echo Shows that sometimes push ads for Amazon’s services, the Spot just shows the current time and the time your next alarm is set. There’s also an option to show the weather and date.
The display is small enough to not be distracting at night thanks to a nighttime mode that switches to a simple red LED display. It has six fun clockfaces for daytime, although two of them feel a bit squished in the small rectangle allotted to them. It would look better if the screen took up the entire upper semicircle instead of just two-thirds of it. This could have enabled the neat Echo Show sunrise alarm clock feature that gradually brightens the whole screen.
The Spot will have too much screen for you if you liked the no-frills LED dot-matrix look of the Dot with Clock
The Spot’s small screen means that the clock either goes away or becomes very small when it’s being used for anything other than a clock, which can be annoying. When it plays music, it shows a graphic visualizer and playback controls. When you’re listening to a book, it shows the title (oddly, no controls), and for timers, it displays the countdown. If I want the full-screen clock to show up while doing any of these tasks, I have to say, “Alexa, go Home” or swipe down and tap the Home button.
This speaks to the fact that the Spot isn’t a smart display; it’s more of a smart speaker with a screen. It’s closer in function to the now-discontinued Echo Dot With Clock than to the Echo Show 5. I found the Spot’s display easier to read on my nightstand than the Dot, and I liked the additional control options, but if you prefer the no-frills LED dot-matrix look of the Dot with Clock, then the Spot will have too much screen for you.

The Spot’s touchscreen allows for basic control over things like music playback and smart home devices. But while it shows a button to turn a light on or off and a slider to adjust brightness for, say, a lamp, I have to use my voice to get those controls to show up. I also couldn’t use the screen to set an alarm on the Spot’s screen. Again, I had to use voice or the Alexa app. This feels like a miss in a device designed to be an alarm clock.

The Echo Spot has a similar shape to the Echo Pop and the same physical buttons: volume up and down and mute.

Otherwise, the Spot’s alarm clock function is very good. There’s a wide array of wake-up tones, including a classic ring. I can also say, “Alexa, wake me up at 6AM to Taylor Swift” or ask it to wake me up to a specific radio station. Plus, I can have the smart lights in my bedroom turn on with the alarm or have an Alexa Routine run.
Annoyingly, the “snooze” and “stop alarm” buttons on the screen are tiny — too small to easily hit when you wake up bleary-eyed. But using voice or tapping the top of the Spot to snooze works fine. Also, there’s no backup battery, which isn’t easy to find on any smart speaker / alarm clock but is an important feature for my family.
As far as audio is concerned, the Spot’s forward-facing 1.73-inch mono driver makes it a good speaker for listening to music, sleep sounds, or an audiobook in bed. It’s not as room-filling as the Dot but has clearer vocals and delivers a richer sound than the smaller Echo Pop.
The Spot also works with Alexa audio calling, and I can use it as a home intercom with the Alexa Drop In feature — useful when I want to tell my teenager to turn his music down. It’s the only dedicated smart alarm clock I’ve tested that has this feature. There are a number of third-party smart alarm clocks with built-in Alexa, but none support Drop In.

I’ve tried a lot of devices as smart alarm clocks, and I like the Spot’s size and small display for my nightstand. Clockwise from bottom left: Echo Dot with Clock, Echo Show 5, Echo Spot (first-gen), iPhone 15 Pro in StandBy mode, Nest Hub (second-gen), Echo Spot.

This is not a smart display
As I mentioned previously, the Spot is not really a smart display (despite that being what Amazon calls it). You can’t use it as a digital photo frame or video calling device or watch a livestream from a security camera or video content on it. But I didn’t miss any of these features in a bedside device. If they’re important to you, consider the Echo Show 5, which can do everything the Spot can plus all of the above but is bigger and brighter with its larger screen.
Overall, I like the direction is taking Amazon with its newest Echos, creating more defined use cases for its smart speakers and displays beyond streaming music and setting timers. First, there was the Echo Hub, a smart home controller; now, there’s the Echo Spot, a smart alarm clock.
While $80 is expensive compared to the $50 Echo Dot, you’re getting more functionality with the Spot. Plus, if you can find it on sale (like the recent deep discount for Prime Day), it’s an easy buy. There’s room for improvement, but if you’ve been looking for a better voice-controlled smart alarm clock, the Spot deserves a spot on your nightstand.
Photography by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Amazon’s new Echo Spot strikes a good balance between smart speaker and smart display.

I’ve been looking for a good alarm clock with voice control for years now — and with Amazon’s newest smart speaker, I think I’ve found it. The Nest Hub is too big for my nightstand and the Echo Show 5 is too bright, but the new Echo Spot ($79.99) is just right.

While it’s not perfect, the Spot’s small footprint, minimalist display, impressive sound for its size, built-in voice assistant, and snappy responses fill most of my needs. These features make it a good option if you want the benefits of a smart speaker and some basic visual information in your bedroom without the distractions of a large screen.

As the sequel to the original Echo Spot that was discontinued in 2019, the new Echo Spot ditches the camera, which was our main gripe with the earlier version. It also replaces the full circular screen with a semicircular display that shows the clock. While that display is a bit too small (and slightly cheap-looking), overall, the Spot is a capable smart alarm clock for a good price, especially when it’s on sale.

Small screen, big personality

An Alexa-powered smart speaker, the Spot follows the design cues of the Echo Pop with its flat circular front, but it adds a small 2.83-inch display above the speaker grille. This is a touchscreen display that shows a clock or various animations when playing music, telling the weather, setting timers, and controlling smart home devices. It’s very responsive to touch, although it’s limited in terms of what you can do with it.

The Spot also responds well to Alexa’s voice commands with minimal lag and can trigger Alexa Routines with presence detection using an ultrasound sensor. It’s a Bluetooth speaker (there’s no line-out) and an Alexa Matter controller (over Wi-Fi), but unlike the Echo Dot, there’s no temperature sensor, and it doesn’t act as an Eero mesh Wi-Fi extender.

The new Echo Spot (right) is surprisingly chunky and bigger than the original Spot (left).

The Spot’s screen is primarily designed as a clock — showing just enough information to be useful and not so much to be annoying. Instead of the rotating content you find on the Echo Shows that sometimes push ads for Amazon’s services, the Spot just shows the current time and the time your next alarm is set. There’s also an option to show the weather and date.

The display is small enough to not be distracting at night thanks to a nighttime mode that switches to a simple red LED display. It has six fun clockfaces for daytime, although two of them feel a bit squished in the small rectangle allotted to them. It would look better if the screen took up the entire upper semicircle instead of just two-thirds of it. This could have enabled the neat Echo Show sunrise alarm clock feature that gradually brightens the whole screen.

The Spot’s small screen means that the clock either goes away or becomes very small when it’s being used for anything other than a clock, which can be annoying. When it plays music, it shows a graphic visualizer and playback controls. When you’re listening to a book, it shows the title (oddly, no controls), and for timers, it displays the countdown. If I want the full-screen clock to show up while doing any of these tasks, I have to say, “Alexa, go Home” or swipe down and tap the Home button.

This speaks to the fact that the Spot isn’t a smart display; it’s more of a smart speaker with a screen. It’s closer in function to the now-discontinued Echo Dot With Clock than to the Echo Show 5. I found the Spot’s display easier to read on my nightstand than the Dot, and I liked the additional control options, but if you prefer the no-frills LED dot-matrix look of the Dot with Clock, then the Spot will have too much screen for you.

The Spot’s touchscreen allows for basic control over things like music playback and smart home devices. But while it shows a button to turn a light on or off and a slider to adjust brightness for, say, a lamp, I have to use my voice to get those controls to show up. I also couldn’t use the screen to set an alarm on the Spot’s screen. Again, I had to use voice or the Alexa app. This feels like a miss in a device designed to be an alarm clock.

The Echo Spot has a similar shape to the Echo Pop and the same physical buttons: volume up and down and mute.

Otherwise, the Spot’s alarm clock function is very good. There’s a wide array of wake-up tones, including a classic ring. I can also say, “Alexa, wake me up at 6AM to Taylor Swift” or ask it to wake me up to a specific radio station. Plus, I can have the smart lights in my bedroom turn on with the alarm or have an Alexa Routine run.

Annoyingly, the “snooze” and “stop alarm” buttons on the screen are tiny — too small to easily hit when you wake up bleary-eyed. But using voice or tapping the top of the Spot to snooze works fine. Also, there’s no backup battery, which isn’t easy to find on any smart speaker / alarm clock but is an important feature for my family.

As far as audio is concerned, the Spot’s forward-facing 1.73-inch mono driver makes it a good speaker for listening to music, sleep sounds, or an audiobook in bed. It’s not as room-filling as the Dot but has clearer vocals and delivers a richer sound than the smaller Echo Pop.

The Spot also works with Alexa audio calling, and I can use it as a home intercom with the Alexa Drop In feature — useful when I want to tell my teenager to turn his music down. It’s the only dedicated smart alarm clock I’ve tested that has this feature. There are a number of third-party smart alarm clocks with built-in Alexa, but none support Drop In.

I’ve tried a lot of devices as smart alarm clocks, and I like the Spot’s size and small display for my nightstand. Clockwise from bottom left: Echo Dot with Clock, Echo Show 5, Echo Spot (first-gen), iPhone 15 Pro in StandBy mode, Nest Hub (second-gen), Echo Spot.

This is not a smart display

As I mentioned previously, the Spot is not really a smart display (despite that being what Amazon calls it). You can’t use it as a digital photo frame or video calling device or watch a livestream from a security camera or video content on it. But I didn’t miss any of these features in a bedside device. If they’re important to you, consider the Echo Show 5, which can do everything the Spot can plus all of the above but is bigger and brighter with its larger screen.

Overall, I like the direction is taking Amazon with its newest Echos, creating more defined use cases for its smart speakers and displays beyond streaming music and setting timers. First, there was the Echo Hub, a smart home controller; now, there’s the Echo Spot, a smart alarm clock.

While $80 is expensive compared to the $50 Echo Dot, you’re getting more functionality with the Spot. Plus, if you can find it on sale (like the recent deep discount for Prime Day), it’s an easy buy. There’s room for improvement, but if you’ve been looking for a better voice-controlled smart alarm clock, the Spot deserves a spot on your nightstand.

Photography by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

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The LimeBike (left) and the LimeGlider (right). | Image: Lime

Lime is testing two new e-bikes designed to make bike-sharing accessible to a wider range of riders. Alongside throttles that mean you don’t have to pedal to move, the LimeBike and the LimeGlider both offer 20-inch wheels with fat tires for better traction, step-through frames to make getting on and off easier, and lower centers of gravity for more stability.
The LimeBike is meant to “complement” the pedal-assist Gen4 e-bike that Lime launched in 2022. It comes with pedals as well as a handlebar throttle, allowing riders to either pedal with electric assist or move with electric power only. Its seatpost has a quick-adjust clamp to make it easier to move up or down, among other improvements.

Image: Lime
The LimeBike lets you choose between using pedal assist or a throttle.

The LimeGlider, on the other hand, swaps the pedals for footrests and is throttle-only. It also has a larger padded seat that’s lower to the ground, making for a more comfortable ride than the company’s e-bikes or the seated e-scooter Lime launched last year.
Both the LimeGlider and LimeBike offer larger baskets and better phone holders than the company’s existing models. “The LimeGlider and LimeBike offer a glimpse at the future of micromobility, designed with a wider rider audience in mind to help us draw closer to our mission of building a future where transportation is shared, affordable and carbon-free,” Lime CEO Wayne Ting says in a press release.
For now, Lime is testing the LimeBike in Atlanta and Zurich, while the LimeGlider will be available as a pilot in Seattle in mid-August and Zurich later this summer.

Image: Lime
The LimeGlider has footrests in place of pedals.

The LimeBike (left) and the LimeGlider (right). | Image: Lime

Lime is testing two new e-bikes designed to make bike-sharing accessible to a wider range of riders. Alongside throttles that mean you don’t have to pedal to move, the LimeBike and the LimeGlider both offer 20-inch wheels with fat tires for better traction, step-through frames to make getting on and off easier, and lower centers of gravity for more stability.

The LimeBike is meant to “complement” the pedal-assist Gen4 e-bike that Lime launched in 2022. It comes with pedals as well as a handlebar throttle, allowing riders to either pedal with electric assist or move with electric power only. Its seatpost has a quick-adjust clamp to make it easier to move up or down, among other improvements.

Image: Lime
The LimeBike lets you choose between using pedal assist or a throttle.

The LimeGlider, on the other hand, swaps the pedals for footrests and is throttle-only. It also has a larger padded seat that’s lower to the ground, making for a more comfortable ride than the company’s e-bikes or the seated e-scooter Lime launched last year.

Both the LimeGlider and LimeBike offer larger baskets and better phone holders than the company’s existing models. “The LimeGlider and LimeBike offer a glimpse at the future of micromobility, designed with a wider rider audience in mind to help us draw closer to our mission of building a future where transportation is shared, affordable and carbon-free,” Lime CEO Wayne Ting says in a press release.

For now, Lime is testing the LimeBike in Atlanta and Zurich, while the LimeGlider will be available as a pilot in Seattle in mid-August and Zurich later this summer.

Image: Lime
The LimeGlider has footrests in place of pedals.

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Image: The Verge

Texas announced a massive settlement with Meta over the use of facial recognition on Facebook, resolving a lawsuit filed in 2022 claiming that the “Tag Suggestions” feature on photos uploaded to Facebook violated the state’s Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier (CUBI) Act and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Meta has agreed to pay $1.4 billion over five years to settle the suit, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office said today.
It’s the largest settlement ever resulting from an action brought by a single state, according to Paxton. It’s also the first lawsuit and settlement under CUBI and serves as a warning to other companies in violation of the state’s privacy rights, he says.
“Any abuse of Texans’ sensitive data will be met with the full force of the law,” Paxton said in a press release.
At issue are suggestions Facebook made for tagging people on photos. “In 2011, Meta rolled out a new feature, initially called Tag Suggestions, that it claimed would improve the user experience by making it easier for users to ‘tag’ photographs with the names of people in the photo,” according to the press release.

That was two years after Texas passed the CUBI Act, which prohibits companies from capturing biometric data like face geometry without receiving prior informed consent. Facebook turned on tag suggestions automatically — “capturing and using the personal biometric data of millions of Texans without the authorization required by law,” the attorney general’s office says.
The suit initially sought $25,000 in civil penalties per CUBI violation plus an added $10,000 per violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, The Verge previously reported. Those penalties could have reached hundreds of billions of dollars, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2022.
The company did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement. In 2017, Facebook introduced an “on/off” control for tag suggestions, which it replaced with broader facial recognition settings in 2019. Then, it stopped automated facial tagging in photos in 2021.
“We are pleased to resolve this matter, and look forward to exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including potentially developing data centers,” Meta spokesperson Christopher Sgro said in an email.

Image: The Verge

Texas announced a massive settlement with Meta over the use of facial recognition on Facebook, resolving a lawsuit filed in 2022 claiming that the “Tag Suggestions” feature on photos uploaded to Facebook violated the state’s Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier (CUBI) Act and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Meta has agreed to pay $1.4 billion over five years to settle the suit, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office said today.

It’s the largest settlement ever resulting from an action brought by a single state, according to Paxton. It’s also the first lawsuit and settlement under CUBI and serves as a warning to other companies in violation of the state’s privacy rights, he says.

“Any abuse of Texans’ sensitive data will be met with the full force of the law,” Paxton said in a press release.

At issue are suggestions Facebook made for tagging people on photos. “In 2011, Meta rolled out a new feature, initially called Tag Suggestions, that it claimed would improve the user experience by making it easier for users to ‘tag’ photographs with the names of people in the photo,” according to the press release.

That was two years after Texas passed the CUBI Act, which prohibits companies from capturing biometric data like face geometry without receiving prior informed consent. Facebook turned on tag suggestions automatically — “capturing and using the personal biometric data of millions of Texans without the authorization required by law,” the attorney general’s office says.

The suit initially sought $25,000 in civil penalties per CUBI violation plus an added $10,000 per violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, The Verge previously reported. Those penalties could have reached hundreds of billions of dollars, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2022.

The company did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement. In 2017, Facebook introduced an “on/off” control for tag suggestions, which it replaced with broader facial recognition settings in 2019. Then, it stopped automated facial tagging in photos in 2021.

“We are pleased to resolve this matter, and look forward to exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including potentially developing data centers,” Meta spokesperson Christopher Sgro said in an email.

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