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Image: 9to5Google

Google is seemingly about to move on from the HDMI dongle design of all its past streaming devices in favor of a more conventional set-top box. 9to5Google has published images of the upcoming product, which is apparently called the “Google TV Streamer.” So not only is the look of past Chromecasts going away, but so is the name.
The new device has a slanted top, and the overall design is in keeping with Google’s other recent hardware. As for the included remote, it’s mostly similar to what came with the last-gen Chromecast, though this one is longer and has a volume rocker right on the face.
The Google TV Streamer is likely to debut at the company’s August 13th hardware event alongside a litany of other products including the Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Pixel 9, Pixel Watch 3, Pixel Watch 3 XL, and probably some other surprises.
I’ve been waiting for Google to build a more powerful streaming player that could be a formidable competitor to the Apple TV 4K. The Chromecast with Google TV, introduced back in 2020, never quite got there and left the Nvidia Shield as the best alternative in terms of performance. In a few weeks, we’ll all have a better sense of whether the Google TV Streamer ups the ante or keeps the specs in check to reach Google’s usual under-$100 price point.

Image: 9to5Google

Google is seemingly about to move on from the HDMI dongle design of all its past streaming devices in favor of a more conventional set-top box. 9to5Google has published images of the upcoming product, which is apparently called the “Google TV Streamer.” So not only is the look of past Chromecasts going away, but so is the name.

The new device has a slanted top, and the overall design is in keeping with Google’s other recent hardware. As for the included remote, it’s mostly similar to what came with the last-gen Chromecast, though this one is longer and has a volume rocker right on the face.

The Google TV Streamer is likely to debut at the company’s August 13th hardware event alongside a litany of other products including the Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Pixel 9, Pixel Watch 3, Pixel Watch 3 XL, and probably some other surprises.

I’ve been waiting for Google to build a more powerful streaming player that could be a formidable competitor to the Apple TV 4K. The Chromecast with Google TV, introduced back in 2020, never quite got there and left the Nvidia Shield as the best alternative in terms of performance. In a few weeks, we’ll all have a better sense of whether the Google TV Streamer ups the ante or keeps the specs in check to reach Google’s usual under-$100 price point.

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Illustration: The Verge

Google is putting the brakes on a change that would have made it more difficult to track users across different web sites to serve them targeted ads. After years of testing, planning, and delays, Google has scrapped a plan to turn off third-party cookie tracking by default like Safari and Firefox already do. The change was supposed to reach Chrome users soon, despite concerns raised by competitors, regulators, and privacy advocates.
Now, Chrome will ask users to “make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing” instead of deprecating third-party cookies, writes Google Privacy Sandbox VP Anthony Chavez. That could work more like Apple’s app tracking opt-in, a setting that reportedly cost social media platforms nearly $10 billion when it rolled out in 2021. Putting a prompt in front of Chrome’s billions of users wouldn’t be as drastic as changing the default entirely, but it still might cut the number of users allowing third-party tracking significantly.

On Monday, the Google Ads team also released a whitepaper (pdf) showing the results of early tests with the Privacy Sandbox tech that’s positioned as a replacement or alternative to cookie tracking. Results showing returns on investment with Google Display Ads showed a 97 percent recovery, which Ad Age called strong, but effectiveness dropped in attempts to engage the same customers with follow-up ads, showing only a 55 percent recovery in spending for re-marketing audiences.”

#Google has confirmed a new approach to third-party cookies. Instead of removing them from #Chrome, it will introduce a user-choice prompt. We’re considering the impact of this announcement and welcome views until 12 August.Read more: https://t.co/ZMI1qsOOle pic.twitter.com/XQUvWIln4j— Competition & Markets Authority (@CMAgovUK) July 22, 2024

Criticism of Google’s plan to deprecate third-party cookies and roll out other ad-targeting tech in the Privacy Sandbox, like FLoC or Topics API, pointed to the possibility of new privacy risks or the potential of harming competition and unfairly benefiting the search giant’s own advertising business.
In response to the news, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority writes that Chrome “will be introducing a user-choice prompt, which will allow users to choose whether to retain third party cookies.” There aren’t details on exactly how that will work, as Google said it is “proposing” a new approach, and the CMA plans to accept comments on the change for a few weeks.
The Movement for an Open Web, an ad industry group that filed the CMA complaint to block the Privacy Sandbox tech rollout, issued a statement saying the change “is a clear admission by Google that their plan to enclose the Open Web has failed.”
Movement for an Open Web co-founder James Rosewell:
We’ve long called for Privacy Sandbox to be allowed to compete on its merits. If advertisers prefer its approach, and consumers value the alleged privacy benefits, then it will be universally adopted. What wasn’t acceptable was for a solution like this to be forced on the market whilst removing any alternative choices.
Google says it will continue to make Privacy Sandbox APIs available and add anti-IP tracking protection for people using Incognito Mode to add an additional layer of privacy.

Illustration: The Verge

Google is putting the brakes on a change that would have made it more difficult to track users across different web sites to serve them targeted ads. After years of testing, planning, and delays, Google has scrapped a plan to turn off third-party cookie tracking by default like Safari and Firefox already do. The change was supposed to reach Chrome users soon, despite concerns raised by competitors, regulators, and privacy advocates.

Now, Chrome will ask users to “make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing” instead of deprecating third-party cookies, writes Google Privacy Sandbox VP Anthony Chavez. That could work more like Apple’s app tracking opt-in, a setting that reportedly cost social media platforms nearly $10 billion when it rolled out in 2021. Putting a prompt in front of Chrome’s billions of users wouldn’t be as drastic as changing the default entirely, but it still might cut the number of users allowing third-party tracking significantly.

On Monday, the Google Ads team also released a whitepaper (pdf) showing the results of early tests with the Privacy Sandbox tech that’s positioned as a replacement or alternative to cookie tracking. Results showing returns on investment with Google Display Ads showed a 97 percent recovery, which Ad Age called strong, but effectiveness dropped in attempts to engage the same customers with follow-up ads, showing only a 55 percent recovery in spending for re-marketing audiences.”

Criticism of Google’s plan to deprecate third-party cookies and roll out other ad-targeting tech in the Privacy Sandbox, like FLoC or Topics API, pointed to the possibility of new privacy risks or the potential of harming competition and unfairly benefiting the search giant’s own advertising business.

In response to the news, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority writes that Chrome “will be introducing a user-choice prompt, which will allow users to choose whether to retain third party cookies.” There aren’t details on exactly how that will work, as Google said it is “proposing” a new approach, and the CMA plans to accept comments on the change for a few weeks.

The Movement for an Open Web, an ad industry group that filed the CMA complaint to block the Privacy Sandbox tech rollout, issued a statement saying the change “is a clear admission by Google that their plan to enclose the Open Web has failed.”

Movement for an Open Web co-founder James Rosewell:

We’ve long called for Privacy Sandbox to be allowed to compete on its merits. If advertisers prefer its approach, and consumers value the alleged privacy benefits, then it will be universally adopted. What wasn’t acceptable was for a solution like this to be forced on the market whilst removing any alternative choices.

Google says it will continue to make Privacy Sandbox APIs available and add anti-IP tracking protection for people using Incognito Mode to add an additional layer of privacy.

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Yes, the Cowboy Cross comes in “zune brown.” | Image: Cowboy

Cowboy is rolling out a free over-the-air update to its single-speed, belt-driven e-bikes that promises to flatten steeper hills while also making its 250W rear-hub motor more efficient when the road levels out — no gear changes required.
Specifically, Cowboy says its AdaptivePower 2.0 update will help take riders up hills that are 50 percent steeper while saving 10 percent more power on flat roads. These improvements are compared to the company’s first-generation adaptive power tech that Cowboy launched just over a year ago, which automatically adjusts power delivery based on incline, headwind, or extra hauling weight.
As Cowboy explains it, adaptive power relies on a proprietary (and once contested) algorithm that monitors the electrical output of the motor controller and the real-time data collected from the torque sensor. And as I recently wrote, a torque sensor without optimization on a single-speed e-bike is no joy to ride.
“This represents a new level of intelligence for all our e-bikes that already think for themselves,” says Tanguy Goretti, Cowboy’s cofounder and chief technology officer. “Thanks to connectivity and over-the-air updates, even a three-year-old Cowboy model will now have a better ride feel than when it left the production line.”
The software update will be released to existing Classic, Cruiser, and Cross e-bike owners “in the coming days” and will ship standard on all new Cowboy e-bikes starting today.

Yes, the Cowboy Cross comes in “zune brown.” | Image: Cowboy

Cowboy is rolling out a free over-the-air update to its single-speed, belt-driven e-bikes that promises to flatten steeper hills while also making its 250W rear-hub motor more efficient when the road levels out — no gear changes required.

Specifically, Cowboy says its AdaptivePower 2.0 update will help take riders up hills that are 50 percent steeper while saving 10 percent more power on flat roads. These improvements are compared to the company’s first-generation adaptive power tech that Cowboy launched just over a year ago, which automatically adjusts power delivery based on incline, headwind, or extra hauling weight.

As Cowboy explains it, adaptive power relies on a proprietary (and once contested) algorithm that monitors the electrical output of the motor controller and the real-time data collected from the torque sensor. And as I recently wrote, a torque sensor without optimization on a single-speed e-bike is no joy to ride.

“This represents a new level of intelligence for all our e-bikes that already think for themselves,” says Tanguy Goretti, Cowboy’s cofounder and chief technology officer. “Thanks to connectivity and over-the-air updates, even a three-year-old Cowboy model will now have a better ride feel than when it left the production line.”

The software update will be released to existing Classic, Cruiser, and Cross e-bike owners “in the coming days” and will ship standard on all new Cowboy e-bikes starting today.

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Only 26 copies of this gold-finished cartridge were ever produced. | Image: Goldin

Starting tonight, Goldin will be auctioning off one of the rarest Nintendo Entertainment System cartridges of all time. Nintendo originally created only 26 of these gold cartridges as prizes for Nintendo Power magazine readers in 1990. They’re so hard to come by that one sold on eBay for $100,088 a decade ago.
Hundreds of cartridges were created for the 1990 Nintendo World Championships, an event that toured the United States trying to find the country’s best gamers. Players competed for high scores in timed versions of Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and Rad Racer, which were all bundled onto special cartridges featuring physical switches, allowing the games’ time limits to be modified.
Most of these cartridges featured standard gray NES shells, but 26 of them were upgraded with a shiny gold housing and given away to winners of Nintendo Power magazine’s “Player’s Poll Contest” that same year.
According to Goldin, this particular gold cartridge was the one awarded to Patrick King of Cheyenne, Wyoming, whose name appeared in volume 18 of Nintendo Power, along with the other Player’s Poll Contest winners.
These games were never sold in packaging, which partly explains why this particular cartridge, which appears worn and is missing its label, was given just a 4.0 grade by CGC Grading. (A grading of 10 would indicate mint condition.)
Despite the cartridge’s rough shape, bidding tonight will start at $10,000. According to the FAQ page on the auction house’s website, at that level, potential buyers will be prescreened to ensure they can pay up. That will help protect the cartridge’s unknown seller, but what about buyers?
Faking a rare cartridge like this and fooling CGC Grading would be a huge but profitable undertaking given the current demand for rare retro games and hardware. The easiest way to confirm that this one is legit is to win the auction and plug the cartridge into an actual NES, but that could end up being a budget-busting approach best left to deep-pocketed collectors.

Only 26 copies of this gold-finished cartridge were ever produced. | Image: Goldin

Starting tonight, Goldin will be auctioning off one of the rarest Nintendo Entertainment System cartridges of all time. Nintendo originally created only 26 of these gold cartridges as prizes for Nintendo Power magazine readers in 1990. They’re so hard to come by that one sold on eBay for $100,088 a decade ago.

Hundreds of cartridges were created for the 1990 Nintendo World Championships, an event that toured the United States trying to find the country’s best gamers. Players competed for high scores in timed versions of Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and Rad Racer, which were all bundled onto special cartridges featuring physical switches, allowing the games’ time limits to be modified.

Most of these cartridges featured standard gray NES shells, but 26 of them were upgraded with a shiny gold housing and given away to winners of Nintendo Power magazine’s “Player’s Poll Contest” that same year.

According to Goldin, this particular gold cartridge was the one awarded to Patrick King of Cheyenne, Wyoming, whose name appeared in volume 18 of Nintendo Power, along with the other Player’s Poll Contest winners.

These games were never sold in packaging, which partly explains why this particular cartridge, which appears worn and is missing its label, was given just a 4.0 grade by CGC Grading. (A grading of 10 would indicate mint condition.)

Despite the cartridge’s rough shape, bidding tonight will start at $10,000. According to the FAQ page on the auction house’s website, at that level, potential buyers will be prescreened to ensure they can pay up. That will help protect the cartridge’s unknown seller, but what about buyers?

Faking a rare cartridge like this and fooling CGC Grading would be a huge but profitable undertaking given the current demand for rare retro games and hardware. The easiest way to confirm that this one is legit is to win the auction and plug the cartridge into an actual NES, but that could end up being a budget-busting approach best left to deep-pocketed collectors.

Read More 

Photo: Evo / Stephanie Lindgren

Evo 2024 wrapped up late Sunday night with Victor “Punk” Woodley beating Adel “Big Bird” Anouche in Street Fighter 6. With his victory, Woodley became the first American to win a mainline Street Fighter tournament at Evo in over 20 years.
The match was nail-bitingly close with Anouche, who made it to the grand finals via the loser’s bracket, beating Woodley 3-0 to reset or “flip” the bracket requiring another best-of-5 match to determine the winner. Their second match went the distance, with each player having two set wins a piece and tied 1-1 in the final match. A well-executed super move from Woodley’s Cammy ended the match and America’s long Street Fighter Evo championship drought along with it.

Americans actually fared exceedingly well at Evo 2024, taking home championships in four of the eight main tournaments: Street Fighter 6 ( Victor “Punk” Woodley), Mortal Kombat 1 (Dominique “SonicFox” McLean), Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising (Aaron “Aarondamac” Godinez), and Guilty Gear Strive (Shamar ”Nitro” Hinds).
Additionally, Street Fighter 6 wasn’t the only Street Fighter tournament at Evo where memorable moments were made. Over in the Street Fighter III: Third Strike tournament, Hayao, a player from Japan, memed his way into our hearts with his infectious enthusiasm and over-the-top celebrations. During one celebration, he bent his body clean in half, touching head to floor in a pose only characters from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure seem capable of. In another, he bust it open on the main stage completing a full split — notable, as Hayao is 41 years old.

idc, Hayao won Evo 2024 pic.twitter.com/4uBtaxYGNz— Wide Drink Of Water (@JoetheBald197) July 21, 2024

But Hayao cemented his place in the Evo history books with playing skill. During the loser’s quarterfinal with only a pixel’s worth of health, Hayao pulled off an astounding parry — in mid-air — then deftly sailed over his opponent’s follow-up super attack to come back and beat his opponent, advancing to the next round.

“WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?” #Evo2024 pic.twitter.com/FKlprooTFT— Evo (@Evo) July 21, 2024

Hayao unfortunately didn’t win the tournament, falling in his next match to finish in fourth place. But his incredible display of skill was so electrifying that some are referring to it as “Evo Moment 38,” or the spiritual successor to Evo Moment 37 — perhaps the greatest clip of fighting game competition of all time. Even though he didn’t win, Hayao still won.
There was a smattering of other hype Evo 2024 moments. Twitch streamer LilyPichu won a Tekken 8 show match against the game’s producer Katsuhiro Harada. Tekken 8 resurrected the franchise’s longtime villain Heihachi Mishima despite Harada remarking more than once that the character was well and truly dead. Evo also plans to add two new events in 2025 with the first Evo Awards taking place in Los Angeles and Evo France, marking the tournament’s first appearance in Europe. Evo is already the biggest, most exciting fighting game tournament in the world, and it’s good to see that it continues to grow.

Photo: Evo / Stephanie Lindgren

Evo 2024 wrapped up late Sunday night with Victor “Punk” Woodley beating Adel “Big Bird” Anouche in Street Fighter 6. With his victory, Woodley became the first American to win a mainline Street Fighter tournament at Evo in over 20 years.

The match was nail-bitingly close with Anouche, who made it to the grand finals via the loser’s bracket, beating Woodley 3-0 to reset or “flip” the bracket requiring another best-of-5 match to determine the winner. Their second match went the distance, with each player having two set wins a piece and tied 1-1 in the final match. A well-executed super move from Woodley’s Cammy ended the match and America’s long Street Fighter Evo championship drought along with it.

Americans actually fared exceedingly well at Evo 2024, taking home championships in four of the eight main tournaments: Street Fighter 6 ( Victor “Punk” Woodley), Mortal Kombat 1 (Dominique “SonicFox” McLean), Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising (Aaron “Aarondamac” Godinez), and Guilty Gear Strive (Shamar ”Nitro” Hinds).

Additionally, Street Fighter 6 wasn’t the only Street Fighter tournament at Evo where memorable moments were made. Over in the Street Fighter III: Third Strike tournament, Hayao, a player from Japan, memed his way into our hearts with his infectious enthusiasm and over-the-top celebrations. During one celebration, he bent his body clean in half, touching head to floor in a pose only characters from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure seem capable of. In another, he bust it open on the main stage completing a full split — notable, as Hayao is 41 years old.

But Hayao cemented his place in the Evo history books with playing skill. During the loser’s quarterfinal with only a pixel’s worth of health, Hayao pulled off an astounding parry — in mid-air — then deftly sailed over his opponent’s follow-up super attack to come back and beat his opponent, advancing to the next round.

Hayao unfortunately didn’t win the tournament, falling in his next match to finish in fourth place. But his incredible display of skill was so electrifying that some are referring to it as “Evo Moment 38,” or the spiritual successor to Evo Moment 37 — perhaps the greatest clip of fighting game competition of all time. Even though he didn’t win, Hayao still won.

There was a smattering of other hype Evo 2024 moments. Twitch streamer LilyPichu won a Tekken 8 show match against the game’s producer Katsuhiro Harada. Tekken 8 resurrected the franchise’s longtime villain Heihachi Mishima despite Harada remarking more than once that the character was well and truly dead. Evo also plans to add two new events in 2025 with the first Evo Awards taking place in Los Angeles and Evo France, marking the tournament’s first appearance in Europe. Evo is already the biggest, most exciting fighting game tournament in the world, and it’s good to see that it continues to grow.

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Yep, still bad at Minesweeper. | Photo: Wes Davis / The Verge

Apple recently approved a new emulator app called UTM SE that enables your iPhone or iPad (or Vision Pro!) to masquerade as PC hardware and run honest-to-goodness computer desktop operating systems. Some of you asked in the comments section of my last story how it runs — a fair question that I couldn’t answer at the time. But now that I’ve tried it a little, I have answers, and I can say this much: it’s better than I expected, but I wouldn’t count on it for too much.
That’s because it doesn’t use a just-in-time (JIT) compiler, which translates software into code that your device understands before it’s executed. JIT compilers go against Apple’s software guidelines for the App Store, so you’d have to jailbreak your phone to install a version of UTM that uses the technique.

@verge Apple greenlit PC emulation on the iPad. Guy number one is wrong; this rules. #pc #apple #emulator #techtok ♬ original sound – The Verge

UTM SE will be generally slow on an iPad for anything besides running old OSes on old hardware, but XP runs surprisingly well — and UTM offers plenty of documentation for getting started.
I tried it out on my M1 iPad Pro, a device I’ve always wished could do more than it does. Making a virtual machine on which to run Windows is especially easy if you use one of UTM’s pre-built machines, which you can download and tweak. I grabbed this one and gave it more RAM and storage, but otherwise used it the way it came. Then I pointed it at a Windows XP .iso file from the IDE Drives option in that machine’s settings and booted it up. And waited. For so long.
It took two and a half hours for my iPad to crawl through installation. But at the end of it all, I was treated to the old “bliss” desktop background and the Windows XP startup sound (which I didn’t realize I’m nostalgic for). Things were slow after everything finished loading; new windows took a few seconds to open; nested Start menu items did, too. None of it was outrageous, though, and I genuinely think it’s faster than the Compaq machine we had when I was a teen (Those old spinning-disk hard drives really took a toll.)

Screenshot: Windows XP / UTM SE
I should be able to make all operating systems look this bad.

Putting aside performance and nostalgia, using Windows XP on an iPad really highlights how much farther iPadOS has to go when it comes to multitasking. And despite some improvements to homescreen customization in iPadOS 18, it’s still far behind Windows XP when it comes to personalizing things. XP doesn’t mind at all if I want my title bar pink and the text inside neon green or different fonts for every button, menu, or window. The world is my terrible oyster! I miss ruining my computer; that was the dream.

Apple allowing emulators on iPhones and iPads has made a big difference for my iPad Pro. I’ve always liked using my iPad, but rarely wanted to; now, I don’t think I’ve ever picked it up more.

Yep, still bad at Minesweeper. | Photo: Wes Davis / The Verge

Apple recently approved a new emulator app called UTM SE that enables your iPhone or iPad (or Vision Pro!) to masquerade as PC hardware and run honest-to-goodness computer desktop operating systems. Some of you asked in the comments section of my last story how it runs — a fair question that I couldn’t answer at the time. But now that I’ve tried it a little, I have answers, and I can say this much: it’s better than I expected, but I wouldn’t count on it for too much.

That’s because it doesn’t use a just-in-time (JIT) compiler, which translates software into code that your device understands before it’s executed. JIT compilers go against Apple’s software guidelines for the App Store, so you’d have to jailbreak your phone to install a version of UTM that uses the technique.

UTM SE will be generally slow on an iPad for anything besides running old OSes on old hardware, but XP runs surprisingly well — and UTM offers plenty of documentation for getting started.

I tried it out on my M1 iPad Pro, a device I’ve always wished could do more than it does. Making a virtual machine on which to run Windows is especially easy if you use one of UTM’s pre-built machines, which you can download and tweak. I grabbed this one and gave it more RAM and storage, but otherwise used it the way it came. Then I pointed it at a Windows XP .iso file from the IDE Drives option in that machine’s settings and booted it up. And waited. For so long.

It took two and a half hours for my iPad to crawl through installation. But at the end of it all, I was treated to the old “bliss” desktop background and the Windows XP startup sound (which I didn’t realize I’m nostalgic for). Things were slow after everything finished loading; new windows took a few seconds to open; nested Start menu items did, too. None of it was outrageous, though, and I genuinely think it’s faster than the Compaq machine we had when I was a teen (Those old spinning-disk hard drives really took a toll.)

Screenshot: Windows XP / UTM SE
I should be able to make all operating systems look this bad.

Putting aside performance and nostalgia, using Windows XP on an iPad really highlights how much farther iPadOS has to go when it comes to multitasking. And despite some improvements to homescreen customization in iPadOS 18, it’s still far behind Windows XP when it comes to personalizing things. XP doesn’t mind at all if I want my title bar pink and the text inside neon green or different fonts for every button, menu, or window. The world is my terrible oyster! I miss ruining my computer; that was the dream.

Apple allowing emulators on iPhones and iPads has made a big difference for my iPad Pro. I’ve always liked using my iPad, but rarely wanted to; now, I don’t think I’ve ever picked it up more.

Read More 

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro speaks at Tioga Marine Terminal on October 13th, 2023, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. | Photo: Getty Images

With the US facing the prospect of another four years of former President Donald Trump rolling back environmental protections at the federal level, the Biden administration is putting billions of dollars of climate funding into the hands of local governments.
The Biden administration announced $4.3 billion in funding today for locally led climate projects across the US. The money will fund 25 different initiatives led by state, municipal, and tribal governments as well as coalitions of local governments working to transition to cleaner energy and reduce greenhouse gas pollution. The money can be used to deploy a wide array of clean energy technologies — from solar and wind farms to EV chargers and heat pumps.
All in all, the projects are expected to cut around 971 million metric tons of planet-heating CO2 emissions by 2050. That’s like erasing the climate pollution from roughly 5 million American homes each year over the same time period, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
States and cities can play a crucial role in helping the US meet climate goals
States and cities can play a crucial role in helping the US meet climate goals set under the Paris agreement, especially if Trump returns to office pushing an even more fervent deregulatory agenda than he did during his first term as president. Already, the Supreme Court that Trump previously packed with conservative appointees has curtailed the ability of federal agencies to craft sweeping pollution regulations in recent landmark decisions.
“I’m proud to announce that thanks to our partnership with the Biden Administration, Pennsylvania has been awarded $396 million in federal funding to start a new initiative called RISE PA,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said in a press release today. “This investment will help us reduce toxic air pollution, create thousands of jobs, invest in our energy sector, and continue Pennsylvania’s legacy of energy leadership.”
It’s one of the biggest federal grants Pennsylvania has ever gotten, according to Shapiro. It’ll fund a variety of different ways to decarbonize industrial facilities, the state’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions. That could include electrifying buildings, replacing fossil fuel-burning equipment with electric appliances like heat pumps, installing technologies to capture CO2 emissions on-site, or turning to renewable energy. Today, Pennsylvania is the nation’s second largest gas producer and a key battleground state for the presidential election. EPA administrator Michael Regan traveled to Pennsylvania today to announce the grant awardees from Pittsburgh.
The 25 different applications receiving funding encompass projects across 30 states. They include efforts to slash pollution from transportation, the power grid, agriculture, waste, buildings, and industry. For example, one project with nearly $250 million in funding aims to build out EV charging infrastructure for commercial vehicles traveling along I-95 in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Maryland. Alaska’s southern coastal communities, meanwhile, will receive more than $38.6 million to replace oil-burning heating systems with more efficient electric heat pumps.

The funding comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, the US’s largest investment in climate and clean energy to date. It’s also tied to the Biden administration’s Justice40 initiative, a commitment to ensure that at least 40 percent of the benefits of from certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities.
The announcement comes a day after Joe Biden bowed out of the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in his place, highlighting the climate stakes in a tumultuous election cycle. Pennsylvania governor Shapiro is reportedly a potential candidate to run alongside Harris as VP.
While the US remains the world’s biggest oil and gas producer, the Biden administration has pledged to reduce US carbon emissions by at least 50 percent by 2030 as part of the Paris climate agreement. Trump has said that he’ll attempt to pull the US out of the Paris agreement a second time if reelected president. During his last term, bipartisan coalitions of cities, states, and other local groups formed to try to keep the US moving toward its climate goals despite the Trump administration’s backpedalling.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro speaks at Tioga Marine Terminal on October 13th, 2023, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. | Photo: Getty Images

With the US facing the prospect of another four years of former President Donald Trump rolling back environmental protections at the federal level, the Biden administration is putting billions of dollars of climate funding into the hands of local governments.

The Biden administration announced $4.3 billion in funding today for locally led climate projects across the US. The money will fund 25 different initiatives led by state, municipal, and tribal governments as well as coalitions of local governments working to transition to cleaner energy and reduce greenhouse gas pollution. The money can be used to deploy a wide array of clean energy technologies — from solar and wind farms to EV chargers and heat pumps.

All in all, the projects are expected to cut around 971 million metric tons of planet-heating CO2 emissions by 2050. That’s like erasing the climate pollution from roughly 5 million American homes each year over the same time period, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

States and cities can play a crucial role in helping the US meet climate goals set under the Paris agreement, especially if Trump returns to office pushing an even more fervent deregulatory agenda than he did during his first term as president. Already, the Supreme Court that Trump previously packed with conservative appointees has curtailed the ability of federal agencies to craft sweeping pollution regulations in recent landmark decisions.

“I’m proud to announce that thanks to our partnership with the Biden Administration, Pennsylvania has been awarded $396 million in federal funding to start a new initiative called RISE PA,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said in a press release today. “This investment will help us reduce toxic air pollution, create thousands of jobs, invest in our energy sector, and continue Pennsylvania’s legacy of energy leadership.”

It’s one of the biggest federal grants Pennsylvania has ever gotten, according to Shapiro. It’ll fund a variety of different ways to decarbonize industrial facilities, the state’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions. That could include electrifying buildings, replacing fossil fuel-burning equipment with electric appliances like heat pumps, installing technologies to capture CO2 emissions on-site, or turning to renewable energy. Today, Pennsylvania is the nation’s second largest gas producer and a key battleground state for the presidential election. EPA administrator Michael Regan traveled to Pennsylvania today to announce the grant awardees from Pittsburgh.

The 25 different applications receiving funding encompass projects across 30 states. They include efforts to slash pollution from transportation, the power grid, agriculture, waste, buildings, and industry. For example, one project with nearly $250 million in funding aims to build out EV charging infrastructure for commercial vehicles traveling along I-95 in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Maryland. Alaska’s southern coastal communities, meanwhile, will receive more than $38.6 million to replace oil-burning heating systems with more efficient electric heat pumps.

The funding comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, the US’s largest investment in climate and clean energy to date. It’s also tied to the Biden administration’s Justice40 initiative, a commitment to ensure that at least 40 percent of the benefits of from certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities.

The announcement comes a day after Joe Biden bowed out of the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in his place, highlighting the climate stakes in a tumultuous election cycle. Pennsylvania governor Shapiro is reportedly a potential candidate to run alongside Harris as VP.

While the US remains the world’s biggest oil and gas producer, the Biden administration has pledged to reduce US carbon emissions by at least 50 percent by 2030 as part of the Paris climate agreement. Trump has said that he’ll attempt to pull the US out of the Paris agreement a second time if reelected president. During his last term, bipartisan coalitions of cities, states, and other local groups formed to try to keep the US moving toward its climate goals despite the Trump administration’s backpedalling.

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Image: Rivian

Rivian’s R3X electric SUV will arrive before the base model, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says on today’s episode of Decoder. Even though Scaringe still doesn’t provide an exact date when the performance variant will roll out, it will be “as soon as we possibly can.”
“We’re launching R2 first, allowing some time to get that stable, and then launching R3,” Scaringe says. “I will say this: The first R3 that we’re launching, it’s going to start with R3X.” We first got a glimpse at the upcoming R3 lineup during the EV maker’s R2 reveal event in March.

R2 / R3X launch event

Rivian hasn’t released many details about the R3 or the R3X, but it has said the more compact SUV will cost less than the R2, which starts at $45,000, along with “more dynamic abilities, both on and off road.” It’s also tagged for “dramatically enhanced autonomous capabilities,” NACS charging port, and Rivian’s new 4695 cylindrical battery cells.
The R2 is supposed to go into production in the first half of 2026 with an estimated range of more than 300 miles and the ability to go from 0 to 60mph in three seconds. The R3 lineup isn’t expected to launch until 2027.

Image: Rivian

Rivian’s R3X electric SUV will arrive before the base model, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says on today’s episode of Decoder. Even though Scaringe still doesn’t provide an exact date when the performance variant will roll out, it will be “as soon as we possibly can.”

“We’re launching R2 first, allowing some time to get that stable, and then launching R3,” Scaringe says. “I will say this: The first R3 that we’re launching, it’s going to start with R3X.” We first got a glimpse at the upcoming R3 lineup during the EV maker’s R2 reveal event in March.

Rivian hasn’t released many details about the R3 or the R3X, but it has said the more compact SUV will cost less than the R2, which starts at $45,000, along with “more dynamic abilities, both on and off road.” It’s also tagged for “dramatically enhanced autonomous capabilities,” NACS charging port, and Rivian’s new 4695 cylindrical battery cells.

The R2 is supposed to go into production in the first half of 2026 with an estimated range of more than 300 miles and the ability to go from 0 to 60mph in three seconds. The R3 lineup isn’t expected to launch until 2027.

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Along with being an excellent fitness tracker, Amazfit’s GTR 4 is a good smartwatch with a sharp OLED display. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

From the Apple Watch Series 9 to Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6, many of the best wearables on the market received steep discounts during Prime Day. While those deals have since disappeared, those who missed out now have the opportunity to score an excellent deal on the Amazfit GTR 4, our favorite fitness tracker and the best budget Android watch on the market. If you’re a My Best Buy Plus member, you can buy the smartwatch on sale for $139.99 at Amazon and Best Buy, which marks a new all-time low from its regular price of $199.99.

For its price, the GTR 4 offers an impressive number of features. It does a good job of tracking all kinds of health and fitness metrics, from heart, sleep, and stress to your menstrual cycle, while boasting over 150 sport modes and multiband GPS. Aside from being an excellent fitness tracker, the GTR 4 is also a good smartwatch with a crisp OLED display, long battery life, and support for Amazon Alexa and turn-by-turn navigation. Even better, unlike some of its rivals, you don’t need to be locked into a particular ecosystem to take advantage of its features. The wearable is platform-agnostic, after all, making it a good investment whether you’re an Android or iOS user.

Read our Amazfit GTR 4 review.

Along with being an excellent fitness tracker, Amazfit’s GTR 4 is a good smartwatch with a sharp OLED display. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

From the Apple Watch Series 9 to Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6, many of the best wearables on the market received steep discounts during Prime Day. While those deals have since disappeared, those who missed out now have the opportunity to score an excellent deal on the Amazfit GTR 4, our favorite fitness tracker and the best budget Android watch on the market. If you’re a My Best Buy Plus member, you can buy the smartwatch on sale for $139.99 at Amazon and Best Buy, which marks a new all-time low from its regular price of $199.99.

For its price, the GTR 4 offers an impressive number of features. It does a good job of tracking all kinds of health and fitness metrics, from heart, sleep, and stress to your menstrual cycle, while boasting over 150 sport modes and multiband GPS. Aside from being an excellent fitness tracker, the GTR 4 is also a good smartwatch with a crisp OLED display, long battery life, and support for Amazon Alexa and turn-by-turn navigation. Even better, unlike some of its rivals, you don’t need to be locked into a particular ecosystem to take advantage of its features. The wearable is platform-agnostic, after all, making it a good investment whether you’re an Android or iOS user.

Read our Amazfit GTR 4 review.

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Illustration: The Verge

The European Union says it has notified Meta that its “pay or consent” model for Facebook and Instagram might violate consumer protection laws. The EU’s Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network says the company has until September 1st, 2024, to propose changes to its model, which it calls “misleading” and “confusing” for users, or face potential fines.
Meta’s “pay or consent” model, which was introduced last year, gives users a choice: pay as much as €12.99 per month to use Facebook and Instagram without ads or consent to letting the company collect and use personal data to serve personalized ads. The EU doesn’t like what it sees as privacy-violating data usage and has already hit Meta separately with Digital Markets Act charges over its model and record fines under the GDPR for transferring user data overseas.

CPC regulators, who began their investigation after complaints from consumer watchdog groups, claim the company uses confusing language to explain how both the paid and “free” versions of Facebook and Instagram work and that its rollout pressured people to make a choice without enough time to consider how it would affect them. They also say that calling the ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram “free” is misleading since it still requires users to consent to the use of their data for targeted ads.
Didier Reynders, EU Commissioner for Justice, says customers shouldn’t be “lured into” thinking they won’t see ads if they pay the subscription, or that it’s free despite the company profiting from their personal data. Companies must be transparent upfront about how they use user data, he added.
“Subscriptions as an alternative to advertising are a well-established business model across many industries,” Meta spokesperson Matt Pollard told The Verge in an email, “Subscription for no ads follows the direction of the highest court in Europe and we are confident it complies with European regulation.”
The CPC accuses Meta of breaching its Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and Unfair Contract Terms Directive. Fines for those could be as much as 4 percent of the company’s annual revenue for the EU countries it’s accused in.

Illustration: The Verge

The European Union says it has notified Meta that its “pay or consent” model for Facebook and Instagram might violate consumer protection laws. The EU’s Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network says the company has until September 1st, 2024, to propose changes to its model, which it calls “misleading” and “confusing” for users, or face potential fines.

Meta’s “pay or consent” model, which was introduced last year, gives users a choice: pay as much as €12.99 per month to use Facebook and Instagram without ads or consent to letting the company collect and use personal data to serve personalized ads. The EU doesn’t like what it sees as privacy-violating data usage and has already hit Meta separately with Digital Markets Act charges over its model and record fines under the GDPR for transferring user data overseas.

CPC regulators, who began their investigation after complaints from consumer watchdog groups, claim the company uses confusing language to explain how both the paid and “free” versions of Facebook and Instagram work and that its rollout pressured people to make a choice without enough time to consider how it would affect them. They also say that calling the ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram “free” is misleading since it still requires users to consent to the use of their data for targeted ads.

Didier Reynders, EU Commissioner for Justice, says customers shouldn’t be “lured into” thinking they won’t see ads if they pay the subscription, or that it’s free despite the company profiting from their personal data. Companies must be transparent upfront about how they use user data, he added.

“Subscriptions as an alternative to advertising are a well-established business model across many industries,” Meta spokesperson Matt Pollard told The Verge in an email, “Subscription for no ads follows the direction of the highest court in Europe and we are confident it complies with European regulation.”

The CPC accuses Meta of breaching its Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and Unfair Contract Terms Directive. Fines for those could be as much as 4 percent of the company’s annual revenue for the EU countries it’s accused in.

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