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Image: Meta

Soon, when WhatsApp users are added to group chats by someone they don’t know, the group will display a “context card” with key information such as who created the group, when it was created, the group description, and if the user was added by someone in their WhatsApp contact list. The idea of the feature is to better protect users against spam or scam activity in group messages.
There’s also a button to allow users to quickly leave the group message, plus a link to additional information about WhatsApp’s safety tools.

Image: Meta
The new context card lets WhatsApp users quickly identify red flags when added to a group chat.

The new feature — which resembles the current experience when WhatsApp users are individually messaged by someone they don’t know — should allow users to avoid chats with people they’d rather steer clear of and more quickly identify if they’ve been added to groups operating scams or engaging in other fraudulent activities.
The group chat context cards have already started rolling out globally and will be available to all users “over the coming weeks,” according to WhatsApp’s press release.

Image: Meta

Soon, when WhatsApp users are added to group chats by someone they don’t know, the group will display a “context card” with key information such as who created the group, when it was created, the group description, and if the user was added by someone in their WhatsApp contact list. The idea of the feature is to better protect users against spam or scam activity in group messages.

There’s also a button to allow users to quickly leave the group message, plus a link to additional information about WhatsApp’s safety tools.

Image: Meta
The new context card lets WhatsApp users quickly identify red flags when added to a group chat.

The new feature — which resembles the current experience when WhatsApp users are individually messaged by someone they don’t know — should allow users to avoid chats with people they’d rather steer clear of and more quickly identify if they’ve been added to groups operating scams or engaging in other fraudulent activities.

The group chat context cards have already started rolling out globally and will be available to all users “over the coming weeks,” according to WhatsApp’s press release.

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This is only the second time Heritage Auctions has offered a Nintendo PlayStation prototype controller. | Image: Heritage Auctions

In 2020, a rare prototype of the never-released Nintendo PlayStation console sold for $360,000 at auction. Another unit may never be found, but a second prototype controller from the failed Nintendo and Sony collaboration is going up for auction in August.
The Nintendo PlayStation was Sony’s first attempt to break into the gaming market. It was more or less a Super Nintendo console upgraded with a CD-ROM drive, allowing games to incorporate more multimedia content from Sony’s proprietary Super Disc format.
The collaboration collapsed after Nintendo announced a partnership with Philips in 1991, and the 200 prototypes of the Nintendo PlayStation were thought to have all been destroyed — at least until one surfaced in 2015 and was eventually sold at auction to the founder of Pets.com and Toys.com.
Heritage Auctions hasn’t shared the provenance behind this second Nintendo PlayStation auction but describes the prototype controller as having “the familiar casing of a Super Nintendo controller but branded with ‘Sony PlayStation’ in dark gray on the front.” Despite a “few little dings on the back,” the prototype is in “very nice condition,” but Heritage Auctions can’t confirm if it’s functional given the extreme scarcity of the console it’s designed to work with. As a result, there will be no returns for the winning bidder.
An even bigger question than where this prototype was discovered is how much it will sell for. In 2020, a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. sold for $114,000, and less than a year later, another copy sold for $660,000. But spending that much money on a game you never intend to play seems like a bargain compared to the copy of Super Mario Bros. that sold in 2021 for a staggering $2 million.
Demand for retro collectibles hasn’t cooled since then, and while this controller may not go for as much as the Nintendo PlayStation console did, it’s still incredibly rare hardware that may never turn up again.
According to Heritage Auctions, bidding on this prototype will start on August 2nd and will end on August 24th, when we’ll find out what a probably unusable controller is worth to one lucky bidder.

This is only the second time Heritage Auctions has offered a Nintendo PlayStation prototype controller. | Image: Heritage Auctions

In 2020, a rare prototype of the never-released Nintendo PlayStation console sold for $360,000 at auction. Another unit may never be found, but a second prototype controller from the failed Nintendo and Sony collaboration is going up for auction in August.

The Nintendo PlayStation was Sony’s first attempt to break into the gaming market. It was more or less a Super Nintendo console upgraded with a CD-ROM drive, allowing games to incorporate more multimedia content from Sony’s proprietary Super Disc format.

The collaboration collapsed after Nintendo announced a partnership with Philips in 1991, and the 200 prototypes of the Nintendo PlayStation were thought to have all been destroyed — at least until one surfaced in 2015 and was eventually sold at auction to the founder of Pets.com and Toys.com.

Heritage Auctions hasn’t shared the provenance behind this second Nintendo PlayStation auction but describes the prototype controller as having “the familiar casing of a Super Nintendo controller but branded with ‘Sony PlayStation’ in dark gray on the front.” Despite a “few little dings on the back,” the prototype is in “very nice condition,” but Heritage Auctions can’t confirm if it’s functional given the extreme scarcity of the console it’s designed to work with. As a result, there will be no returns for the winning bidder.

An even bigger question than where this prototype was discovered is how much it will sell for. In 2020, a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. sold for $114,000, and less than a year later, another copy sold for $660,000. But spending that much money on a game you never intend to play seems like a bargain compared to the copy of Super Mario Bros. that sold in 2021 for a staggering $2 million.

Demand for retro collectibles hasn’t cooled since then, and while this controller may not go for as much as the Nintendo PlayStation console did, it’s still incredibly rare hardware that may never turn up again.

According to Heritage Auctions, bidding on this prototype will start on August 2nd and will end on August 24th, when we’ll find out what a probably unusable controller is worth to one lucky bidder.

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Image: The Washington Post

The Washington Post is sticking a new climate-focused AI chatbot inside its homepage, app, and articles. The experimental tool, called Climate Answers, will use the outlet’s breadth of reporting to answer questions about climate change, the environment, sustainable energy, and more.
Some of the questions you can ask the chatbot include things like, “Should I get solar panels for my home?” or “Where in the US are sea levels rising the fastest?” Much like the other AI chatbots we’ve seen, it will then serve up a summary using the information it’s been trained on. In this case, Climate Answers uses the articles within The Washington Post’s climate section — as far back as the section’s launch in 2016 — to answer questions.

Image: The Washington Post

“We have a lot of innovative and original reporting,” Vineet Khosla, The Washington Post’s chief technology officer, said during an interview with The Verge. “Somewhere in the years and years of the data-rich reporting we have done, there is an answer buried in one of the things we have written.”
Beneath the answer, you’ll find links to the articles that the chatbot used to produce its answer, along with the relevant snippet it pulled its information from. The tool is based on a large language model from OpenAI, but The Washington Post is also experimenting with AI models from Mistral and Meta’s Llama.

Image: The Washington Post

When asked about the possibility of misinformation, Khosla said Climate Answers won’t produce a response for questions it doesn’t have an answer for. “Unlike other answer services, we really are baking this into verified journalism,” Khosla said. “If we don’t know the answer, I’d rather say ‘I don’t know’ than make up an answer.” However, we plan to try the tool when it launches today to get a sense of its guardrails.
The Washington Post isn’t the only news outlet that’s relying on its archive of information to power an AI chatbot. In March, the Financial Times started testing Ask FT, a chatbot that subscribers can use to get answers about topics related to the outlet’s reporting. Meanwhile, other publishers, like News Corp, Axel Springer, Dotdash Meredith, and The Verge’s parent company, Vox Media, have jumped into licensing partnerships with OpenAI.
The Washington Post has been gradually building on its use of AI; according to Khosla, the outlet has also rolled out AI-powered summaries for some of its articles. Even though The Washington Post’s new chatbot is only able to field climate-related questions for now, Khosla didn’t rule out the possibility of expanding it across other topics the outlet covers. “We absolutely expect this experiment to extend and scale to everything The Washington Post does,” Khosla said.

Image: The Washington Post

The Washington Post is sticking a new climate-focused AI chatbot inside its homepage, app, and articles. The experimental tool, called Climate Answers, will use the outlet’s breadth of reporting to answer questions about climate change, the environment, sustainable energy, and more.

Some of the questions you can ask the chatbot include things like, “Should I get solar panels for my home?” or “Where in the US are sea levels rising the fastest?” Much like the other AI chatbots we’ve seen, it will then serve up a summary using the information it’s been trained on. In this case, Climate Answers uses the articles within The Washington Post’s climate section — as far back as the section’s launch in 2016 — to answer questions.

Image: The Washington Post

“We have a lot of innovative and original reporting,” Vineet Khosla, The Washington Post’s chief technology officer, said during an interview with The Verge. “Somewhere in the years and years of the data-rich reporting we have done, there is an answer buried in one of the things we have written.”

Beneath the answer, you’ll find links to the articles that the chatbot used to produce its answer, along with the relevant snippet it pulled its information from. The tool is based on a large language model from OpenAI, but The Washington Post is also experimenting with AI models from Mistral and Meta’s Llama.

Image: The Washington Post

When asked about the possibility of misinformation, Khosla said Climate Answers won’t produce a response for questions it doesn’t have an answer for. “Unlike other answer services, we really are baking this into verified journalism,” Khosla said. “If we don’t know the answer, I’d rather say ‘I don’t know’ than make up an answer.” However, we plan to try the tool when it launches today to get a sense of its guardrails.

The Washington Post isn’t the only news outlet that’s relying on its archive of information to power an AI chatbot. In March, the Financial Times started testing Ask FT, a chatbot that subscribers can use to get answers about topics related to the outlet’s reporting. Meanwhile, other publishers, like News Corp, Axel Springer, Dotdash Meredith, and The Verge’s parent company, Vox Media, have jumped into licensing partnerships with OpenAI.

The Washington Post has been gradually building on its use of AI; according to Khosla, the outlet has also rolled out AI-powered summaries for some of its articles. Even though The Washington Post’s new chatbot is only able to field climate-related questions for now, Khosla didn’t rule out the possibility of expanding it across other topics the outlet covers. “We absolutely expect this experiment to extend and scale to everything The Washington Post does,” Khosla said.

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Image: Sling TV

Sling TV will now put ads on your screen when you pause live or on-demand content, according to an announcement from its parent company, Dish. But you won’t have to deal with this extra dose of ads if you don’t want to — the pause ad example shared by Sling TV says you can “turn off Pause Ads” from the settings menu.
That comes as a relief in an industry where it’s getting harder and harder to escape intrusive pause ads. Want to stop a show to get a closer look at something on your screen? Or maybe you want to admire a close-up of your favorite actor for a little bit? Well, pause ads make that nearly impossible, as they often take up all or part of your screen.

GIF: Sling TV
The pause ads could contain a video or static content.

Many services already use pause ads, including Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, Max, YouTube, and Hulu (which has become notorious for showing the Charmin toilet paper bear during pause breaks). And, according to Marketing Brew, Netflix could be next to hop on the pause ad bandwagon.
Like other streamers, Sling TV is leaning into advertising to rake in more revenue. The service’s pause ad format will let advertisers show videos or static content and could even include a QR code that links viewers to a product. You can press any button to resume the content you’re watching.
As dreadful as pause ads are, it’s nice to see Sling TV giving users a choice to opt out — other streamers, take note.

Image: Sling TV

Sling TV will now put ads on your screen when you pause live or on-demand content, according to an announcement from its parent company, Dish. But you won’t have to deal with this extra dose of ads if you don’t want to — the pause ad example shared by Sling TV says you can “turn off Pause Ads” from the settings menu.

That comes as a relief in an industry where it’s getting harder and harder to escape intrusive pause ads. Want to stop a show to get a closer look at something on your screen? Or maybe you want to admire a close-up of your favorite actor for a little bit? Well, pause ads make that nearly impossible, as they often take up all or part of your screen.

GIF: Sling TV
The pause ads could contain a video or static content.

Many services already use pause ads, including Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, Max, YouTube, and Hulu (which has become notorious for showing the Charmin toilet paper bear during pause breaks). And, according to Marketing Brew, Netflix could be next to hop on the pause ad bandwagon.

Like other streamers, Sling TV is leaning into advertising to rake in more revenue. The service’s pause ad format will let advertisers show videos or static content and could even include a QR code that links viewers to a product. You can press any button to resume the content you’re watching.

As dreadful as pause ads are, it’s nice to see Sling TV giving users a choice to opt out — other streamers, take note.

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Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Netflix is continuing its push into live events, this time with a comedy special from Joe Rogan. Called “Burn the Boats,” the event will stream live from San Antonio, Texas, on August 3rd at 10PM ET. Netflix says this will be Rogan’s first comedy special in six years, and it will be the podcaster and former Fear Factor host’s third with the streamer; he previously released two taped events in 2016 and 2018.

The announcement is notable in particular as Netflix continues to make live events a major part of its service. Previously, that has included comedy specials from Chris Rock and John Mulaney, and last year, the company became a player in live sports. So far, it has signed broadcast deals with the NFL and WWE and will also livestream boxing and competitive eating.
The company has also made moves to diversify its offerings beyond streaming by adding games to its catalog and with the planned launch of immersive entertainment and retail experiences next year.

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Netflix is continuing its push into live events, this time with a comedy special from Joe Rogan. Called “Burn the Boats,” the event will stream live from San Antonio, Texas, on August 3rd at 10PM ET. Netflix says this will be Rogan’s first comedy special in six years, and it will be the podcaster and former Fear Factor host’s third with the streamer; he previously released two taped events in 2016 and 2018.

The announcement is notable in particular as Netflix continues to make live events a major part of its service. Previously, that has included comedy specials from Chris Rock and John Mulaney, and last year, the company became a player in live sports. So far, it has signed broadcast deals with the NFL and WWE and will also livestream boxing and competitive eating.

The company has also made moves to diversify its offerings beyond streaming by adding games to its catalog and with the planned launch of immersive entertainment and retail experiences next year.

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Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images

AI leaders are increasingly optimistic about the technology’s potential in the health sector, especially when it comes to personalized bots that can comprehend and address individual health concerns.
OpenAI and Arianna Huffington are now jointly funding the development of an “AI health coach” through Thrive AI Health. In a Time magazine op-ed, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Huffington stated that the bot will be trained on “the best peer-reviewed science” alongside “the personal biometric, lab, and other medical data you’ve chosen to share with it.”
The company tapped DeCarlos Love, a former Google executive who previously worked on Fitbit and other wearables, to be CEO. Thrive AI Health also established research partnerships with several academic institutions and medical centers like Stanford Medicine, the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University, and the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. (The Alice L. Walton Foundation is also a strategic investor in Thrive AI Health.)
AI-powered health coaches have become a popular fad: Fitbit is working on an AI chatbot coach, and Whoop added a ChatGPT-powered “coach” to give users more insight into their health metrics. In San Francisco, health data obsession is a staple. You won’t go far without seeing someone wearing an Oura Ring or bragging about their sleep data from their Eight Sleep mattress.
Thrive AI Health’s goal is to provide powerful insights to those who otherwise wouldn’t have access — like a single mother looking for quick meal ideas for her gluten-free child or an immunocompromised person in need of instant advice in between doctor’s appointments. Personally, I’d use it to ask about every unusual headache, rather than relying on WebMD’s often alarming diagnoses.
But one doesn’t have to think hard to come up with reasons to be cautious: sharing your health data with anyone other than a primary care doctor could result in a leak of that information. Then there’s the potential for the bot to provide dangerous or even fatal misinformation as well as the risk that quality care could be reduced to quick and flawed responses without human oversight.
The bot is still in its early stages, adopting an Atomic Habits approach. Its goal is to gently encourage small changes in five key areas of your life: sleep, nutrition, fitness, stress management, and social connection. By making minor adjustments, such as suggesting a 10-minute walk after picking up your child from school, Thrive AI Health aims to positively impact people with chronic conditions like heart disease. It doesn’t claim to be ready to provide real diagnosis like a doctor would but instead aims to guide users into a healthier lifestyle.
“AI is already greatly accelerating the rate of scientific progress in medicine — offering breakthroughs in drug development, diagnoses, and increasing the rate of scientific progress around diseases like cancer,” the op-ed read.
Advancing the medical system with AI could be tremendously beneficial for society, provided it actually works. While a bot that tells you to get more sleep isn’t exactly on par with AI miracle cures, there has been some promising AI progress in the health sector, such as a study suggesting that a radiologist supported by a specialized AI tool can detect breast cancer from mammogram images as accurately as two radiologists. There are also AI-designed drugs currently in clinical trials, like one to treat fibrosis, and a team of M.I.T researchers used AI in 2020 to discover an antibiotic capable of killing E. coli.
For Altman and Huffington, the challenge will be building trust for a product that handles some of your most private information while navigating the limits of AI’s power.

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images

AI leaders are increasingly optimistic about the technology’s potential in the health sector, especially when it comes to personalized bots that can comprehend and address individual health concerns.

OpenAI and Arianna Huffington are now jointly funding the development of an “AI health coach” through Thrive AI Health. In a Time magazine op-ed, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Huffington stated that the bot will be trained on “the best peer-reviewed science” alongside “the personal biometric, lab, and other medical data you’ve chosen to share with it.”

The company tapped DeCarlos Love, a former Google executive who previously worked on Fitbit and other wearables, to be CEO. Thrive AI Health also established research partnerships with several academic institutions and medical centers like Stanford Medicine, the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University, and the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. (The Alice L. Walton Foundation is also a strategic investor in Thrive AI Health.)

AI-powered health coaches have become a popular fad: Fitbit is working on an AI chatbot coach, and Whoop added a ChatGPT-powered “coach” to give users more insight into their health metrics. In San Francisco, health data obsession is a staple. You won’t go far without seeing someone wearing an Oura Ring or bragging about their sleep data from their Eight Sleep mattress.

Thrive AI Health’s goal is to provide powerful insights to those who otherwise wouldn’t have access — like a single mother looking for quick meal ideas for her gluten-free child or an immunocompromised person in need of instant advice in between doctor’s appointments. Personally, I’d use it to ask about every unusual headache, rather than relying on WebMD’s often alarming diagnoses.

But one doesn’t have to think hard to come up with reasons to be cautious: sharing your health data with anyone other than a primary care doctor could result in a leak of that information. Then there’s the potential for the bot to provide dangerous or even fatal misinformation as well as the risk that quality care could be reduced to quick and flawed responses without human oversight.

The bot is still in its early stages, adopting an Atomic Habits approach. Its goal is to gently encourage small changes in five key areas of your life: sleep, nutrition, fitness, stress management, and social connection. By making minor adjustments, such as suggesting a 10-minute walk after picking up your child from school, Thrive AI Health aims to positively impact people with chronic conditions like heart disease. It doesn’t claim to be ready to provide real diagnosis like a doctor would but instead aims to guide users into a healthier lifestyle.

“AI is already greatly accelerating the rate of scientific progress in medicine — offering breakthroughs in drug development, diagnoses, and increasing the rate of scientific progress around diseases like cancer,” the op-ed read.

Advancing the medical system with AI could be tremendously beneficial for society, provided it actually works. While a bot that tells you to get more sleep isn’t exactly on par with AI miracle cures, there has been some promising AI progress in the health sector, such as a study suggesting that a radiologist supported by a specialized AI tool can detect breast cancer from mammogram images as accurately as two radiologists. There are also AI-designed drugs currently in clinical trials, like one to treat fibrosis, and a team of M.I.T researchers used AI in 2020 to discover an antibiotic capable of killing E. coli.

For Altman and Huffington, the challenge will be building trust for a product that handles some of your most private information while navigating the limits of AI’s power.

Read More 

Aidan Monaghan

After 24 years, Ridley Scott is back with a follow-up to Gladiator, and the sequel’s new trailer promises bread, circuses, and buckets of blood.
Set decades after the events of the first film, Gladiator II will tell a new legend about how a now-grown Lucius Verus (Paul Mescal) becomes an enslaved gladiator, despite his being the Roman empire’s former heir. Though Lucius can vividly recall some moments from his childhood, his memories of his mother Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) seem to have faded by the time he’s crossed paths with power broker Macrinus (Denzel Washington).
As a man who deals in weapons and warriors, Macrinus can see great potential in Lucius as he watches him take on a rhino in the Coliseum. But as skilled as Lucius is at killing animals, what he truly wants is to take down Rome itself — or at least its new leaders, Emperor Geta (Joseph Quinn), Emperor Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), and General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal).
Between the sand-throwing, roaring crowds, and knock-down, drag-out battles, the trailer makes Gladiator II look like exactly what fans of the first film have been yearning for. And it’s going to be very interesting to see the movie duke it out for box-office supremacy against Wicked when Gladiator II hits theaters on November 22nd.

Aidan Monaghan

After 24 years, Ridley Scott is back with a follow-up to Gladiator, and the sequel’s new trailer promises bread, circuses, and buckets of blood.

Set decades after the events of the first film, Gladiator II will tell a new legend about how a now-grown Lucius Verus (Paul Mescal) becomes an enslaved gladiator, despite his being the Roman empire’s former heir. Though Lucius can vividly recall some moments from his childhood, his memories of his mother Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) seem to have faded by the time he’s crossed paths with power broker Macrinus (Denzel Washington).

As a man who deals in weapons and warriors, Macrinus can see great potential in Lucius as he watches him take on a rhino in the Coliseum. But as skilled as Lucius is at killing animals, what he truly wants is to take down Rome itself — or at least its new leaders, Emperor Geta (Joseph Quinn), Emperor Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), and General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal).

Between the sand-throwing, roaring crowds, and knock-down, drag-out battles, the trailer makes Gladiator II look like exactly what fans of the first film have been yearning for. And it’s going to be very interesting to see the movie duke it out for box-office supremacy against Wicked when Gladiator II hits theaters on November 22nd.

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Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

Welcome to the inaugural meeting of the board of The Vergecast Inc. The one and only item on the agenda for today? Build the greatest tech company in the history of the universe. We will borrow, steal, and buy the best products and businesses from tech companies around the world in order to offer the best possible line of products. Money is no object, though we’d like to make some at some point. Let’s begin.
On this episode of The Vergecast, our cohosts — Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and David Pierce — ditch their mics and headphones for suits and ties and spend an hour starting a tech company. (Shout out to The Big Picture for some inspiration on the format.) The rules are simple enough: we get to take one product in each category we’re choosing to enter, though we can only take one product from a given company. At the end of the exercise, we’ll have our lineup of gadgets, apps, B2B moneymakers, and more.

Make sure you listen before you read the list below because it completely spoils the whole episode.
But if you want a refresher, here’s the official product lineup of The Vergecast Inc.:

Smartphone: Apple iPhone
Tablet: Amazon Kindle
PCs: Lenovo’s lineup
Wearables: Meta’s Quest and smart glasses
Headphones — sorry, “audio solutions”: Sony’s lineup
App platform: Adobe Creative Cloud
Messaging app: Google Chat
Streaming service: TikTok
Wild card gadget: Fujifilm X100
Startup we’re going to buy: Anthropic

What do you think we got right? What did we miss? Please let us know, and we’ll bring it to the attention of the board ahead of the next meeting.

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

Welcome to the inaugural meeting of the board of The Vergecast Inc. The one and only item on the agenda for today? Build the greatest tech company in the history of the universe. We will borrow, steal, and buy the best products and businesses from tech companies around the world in order to offer the best possible line of products. Money is no object, though we’d like to make some at some point. Let’s begin.

On this episode of The Vergecast, our cohosts — Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and David Pierce — ditch their mics and headphones for suits and ties and spend an hour starting a tech company. (Shout out to The Big Picture for some inspiration on the format.) The rules are simple enough: we get to take one product in each category we’re choosing to enter, though we can only take one product from a given company. At the end of the exercise, we’ll have our lineup of gadgets, apps, B2B moneymakers, and more.

Make sure you listen before you read the list below because it completely spoils the whole episode.

But if you want a refresher, here’s the official product lineup of The Vergecast Inc.:

Smartphone: Apple iPhone
Tablet: Amazon Kindle
PCs: Lenovo’s lineup
Wearables: Meta’s Quest and smart glasses
Headphones — sorry, “audio solutions”: Sony’s lineup
App platform: Adobe Creative Cloud
Messaging app: Google Chat
Streaming service: TikTok
Wild card gadget: Fujifilm X100
Startup we’re going to buy: Anthropic

What do you think we got right? What did we miss? Please let us know, and we’ll bring it to the attention of the board ahead of the next meeting.

Read More 

Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge

Spotify is launching the ability to leave comments on podcasts. The company already lets Spotify podcasters offer polls and Q&As, so this new feature could give creators new ways to interact with their audiences.
Comments will be private by default (similar to Q&A responses), so creators will have to approve each comment they want to appear. Creators can choose to have comments available for their whole show or just for specific episodes, and, if they don’t want to allow comments at all, they can opt out of the feature.

Image: Spotify

Creators can manage comments on the Spotify for Podcasters web app starting Tuesday and as part of a revamped Spotify for Podcasters mobile app that is being introduced in a phased rollout over the next few days, according to Maya Prohovnik, Spotify’s VP of podcast product. Comments for podcast listeners will also become available as part of a phased rollout beginning Tuesday in most Spotify markets, Prohovnik says.

Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge

Spotify is launching the ability to leave comments on podcasts. The company already lets Spotify podcasters offer polls and Q&As, so this new feature could give creators new ways to interact with their audiences.

Comments will be private by default (similar to Q&A responses), so creators will have to approve each comment they want to appear. Creators can choose to have comments available for their whole show or just for specific episodes, and, if they don’t want to allow comments at all, they can opt out of the feature.

Image: Spotify

Creators can manage comments on the Spotify for Podcasters web app starting Tuesday and as part of a revamped Spotify for Podcasters mobile app that is being introduced in a phased rollout over the next few days, according to Maya Prohovnik, Spotify’s VP of podcast product. Comments for podcast listeners will also become available as part of a phased rollout beginning Tuesday in most Spotify markets, Prohovnik says.

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The bigger, better cover screen is a delight to use — but familiar problems persist. It’s rare to feel delighted by a phone in 2024, but that’s the Motorola Razr Plus, baby.
Sure, phones are amazing little computers. For $999, which is what the Razr Plus costs, they should be. But they’re mature products — tools rather than objects of delight — and for the most part, they’ve blended into the background noise of our lives. But the Razr Plus is different, and not just because it folds in half.
I’ll give you an example: one of the background options for the media controls on the cover screen is a turntable. When music is playing, the record spins with one of the camera cutouts at the center. Press pause and the needle will lift off the record and stop. Are you kidding me? That’s adorable.

There’s so much I like about the Razr Plus that the disappointments sting a little more than if this was just any old slab-style phone. The cover screen is incredibly handy — even more so this year with some helpful UI improvements. It comes with an IPX8 rating, significantly upgrading its water resistance. And improvements to the hinge this time around make the crease all but disappear when you’re using the inner screen. Important stuff! But meaningful improvements and moments of delight don’t quite outweigh the Razr Plus’ shortcomings in the long run.
If you’re new to modern flip phones, let me give you the elevator pitch: big phone inside, small phone outside. With the phone flipped open, you have a normal smartphone with a big screen that does all the typical stuff. But when you close it, the cover screen almost acts like a second phone so you can get basic things done like check notifications and respond to texts without opening up your phone and coming face to face with everything on the big screen. Personally, I love ‘em.
Motorola sells two versions of its modern take on the classic flip phone: the Razr Plus and a more basic Razr. This year, both Razr models come with bigger cover screens. The Razr Plus’ is a generous four inches on the diagonal versus last year’s 3.6-inch screen. It might even be about the same size as the screen on your first iPhone, even though it feels compact compared to a modern phone display. The bezel on top of the screen (are we calling that a forehead?) is much smaller than on the previous generation. It almost makes last year’s model look like a prototype.

Cover screen panels like this one occupy more of the screen this time around.

There are also a lot more ways to customize the cover screen this time around. You can pick a handful of app shortcuts to put right on the cover screen’s main page — previously, you had to swipe to a separate panel before you could access any apps. The calendar panel is much improved, surfacing more information with a few more viewing configurations.
Even the flow for allowing apps to open on the cover screen is better. On last year’s model, you had to open the phone to approve an app for the cover screen — just once per app, but for every single app. Now, you can approve and open the app right from the cover screen notification. You have three options actually: allow, not allow, or — my favorite — “not right now,” which allows me to just slowly back away without making a commitment when I mindlessly tap on a Threads notification. Not right now, Satan.

There’s a whole other phone attached to this phone.

Overall, the cover screen experience is miles better than the previous generation; more mature and less like you’re testing beta software. I’d take this every time over the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, and yes I know about Good Lock. Motorola put a lot of thought into every aspect of the display, and it shows. Oh, and before we get to the whole other phone attached to this phone, shout out to two other cover screen additions: Google Assistant (including Gemini!) and an always-on display. All of my dreams are coming true.
The cover screen is a delight, but the inner screen is much more pedestrian. It’s a 6.9-inch 1080p OLED, and while the resolution didn’t bother me much in my testing, this screen is big enough to benefit from a higher pixel count. It doesn’t get quite as bright as I’d like outside, either. It’s fine, but you can definitely get a better display on a slab-style phone for the same amount of money — or even a bit less.

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge
The crease is only visible when you really go looking for it.

The good news is that Motorola adopted a new hinge design this year that minimizes the appearance of the crease when the phone is fully unfolded. There’s also the upgraded IPX8 rating; there’s no official dust resistance. The Razr Plus is certified to withstand full immersion in fresh water, a big improvement over the previous gen’s “splashproof” rating. Importantly, an IPX8 rating also puts the Razr Plus on level ground with the Galaxy Z Flip 5 (and, very likely, the Z Flip 6, which is due out soon).
The soft touch on the back panel is a nice touch as always, but the hot pink model I tested comes with a new “vegan suede” material, and I don’t think it’s a change for the better. It feels more papery, and I don’t think it’s going to wear well over time; my review unit has a couple of faint scratches that don’t budge when I try to buff them out with my finger. Considering this isn’t some bougie case — it’s the actual phone — that seems pretty bad. The other colors — peach fuzz, midnight blue, and spring green — come with a vegan leather finish like last year’s pink model, and for what it’s worth, that seems to have held up fine.

The ‘vegan suede’ back panel collected a few scratches while I used it.

The Razr Plus uses a Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 chipset, which occupies a kind of upper-mid-tier, low-flagship space in Qualcomm’s increasingly confusing lineup. In the US, the Razr Plus comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage — healthy numbers. The combination is plenty for my day-to-day, and an extended Pocket City 2 session didn’t tax it much. And I have zero complaints about battery life, which is a real compliment for a flip phone since they tend to come with smaller batteries. The Razr Plus’ 4,000mAh cell provided enough power to get through a day of heavy use and then some.
But I am once again asking Motorola to work on its software support. The Razr Plus comes with three years of OS upgrades and four years of security updates. That’s fine; four years is probably as long as most people will want to hang onto this phone. But Samsung and Google now promise seven years for their high-end phones — even the $499 Pixel 8A comes with seven years of support. I can’t help but want more from a $999 phone. Motorola’s track record for timeliness isn’t great, either; 2023 Razr Plus owners only just started getting their Android 14 update — not a good look when Android 15 is just a few months away.

Camera performance has been another weak area for Motorola in the last few years, and I’m sorry to say that hasn’t changed in the Razr Plus.
Motorola seems like it’s trying to address the issue with a new feature called photo enhancement engine, which it says uses AI to improve noise reduction in low light, improve bokeh on portrait mode photos, and boost dynamic range. That just sounds like a list of everything phone makers have been using AI for over the past decade. Regardless, the new photo processing pipeline hasn’t addressed some core problems: portrait mode subjects are poorly isolated, background blur isn’t convincing, and color reproduction is uneven.

The system knows what to do with bright, abundant light — I got some great photos from the summit of a hike. But medium light continues to be a challenge, with flat over-brightened images and reds saturated to the point of clipping.
The Razr Plus trades last year’s ultrawide for a 2x telephoto lens, providing some nice zoom options for portraits. There’s also a 4x digital zoom for more reach, and quality is decent as long as there’s plenty of light. Without the ultrawide on the rear panel, you don’t have the same opportunity for get-everyone-in-the-photo group selfies, but the main camera is wide enough to get a couple of people in the shot.

Fun only goes so far.

So, here’s the dilemma: I love using the Razr Plus, but I find it very hard to recommend. The cover screen is a major part of the flip phone experience, and everything about it is better this time around. It’s easier to use, does more helpful things, and is much more customizable. If you’re a flip phone enthusiast like me, it has all the right moves.
But I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who’s more casually interested in a flip phone or finds the nostalgic factor appealing. You can get a much better camera in a slab-style phone that costs a lot less, and a good camera matters when it’s the one you carry every day. Motorola’s track record for timely software updates remains spotty, too. And the inner screen just isn’t up to the standards of a modern flagship phone.
It’s worth looking at the standard 2024 Razr if $999 seems steep for the Plus. Unlike last year, it comes with a big cover screen like its sibling, and it’s also IPX8-rated. I haven’t tested it yet, but $699 is awfully compelling for that set of features. In the meantime, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 is just around the corner. Motorola could learn a thing or two from Samsung’s software approach, with quick updates and long support timeframes. Then again, Samsung could take a few cues from the Razr Plus, too — it’s a delightful phone.
Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge

The bigger, better cover screen is a delight to use — but familiar problems persist.

It’s rare to feel delighted by a phone in 2024, but that’s the Motorola Razr Plus, baby.

Sure, phones are amazing little computers. For $999, which is what the Razr Plus costs, they should be. But they’re mature products — tools rather than objects of delight — and for the most part, they’ve blended into the background noise of our lives. But the Razr Plus is different, and not just because it folds in half.

I’ll give you an example: one of the background options for the media controls on the cover screen is a turntable. When music is playing, the record spins with one of the camera cutouts at the center. Press pause and the needle will lift off the record and stop. Are you kidding me? That’s adorable.

There’s so much I like about the Razr Plus that the disappointments sting a little more than if this was just any old slab-style phone. The cover screen is incredibly handy — even more so this year with some helpful UI improvements. It comes with an IPX8 rating, significantly upgrading its water resistance. And improvements to the hinge this time around make the crease all but disappear when you’re using the inner screen. Important stuff! But meaningful improvements and moments of delight don’t quite outweigh the Razr Plus’ shortcomings in the long run.

If you’re new to modern flip phones, let me give you the elevator pitch: big phone inside, small phone outside. With the phone flipped open, you have a normal smartphone with a big screen that does all the typical stuff. But when you close it, the cover screen almost acts like a second phone so you can get basic things done like check notifications and respond to texts without opening up your phone and coming face to face with everything on the big screen. Personally, I love ‘em.

Motorola sells two versions of its modern take on the classic flip phone: the Razr Plus and a more basic Razr. This year, both Razr models come with bigger cover screens. The Razr Plus’ is a generous four inches on the diagonal versus last year’s 3.6-inch screen. It might even be about the same size as the screen on your first iPhone, even though it feels compact compared to a modern phone display. The bezel on top of the screen (are we calling that a forehead?) is much smaller than on the previous generation. It almost makes last year’s model look like a prototype.

There are also a lot more ways to customize the cover screen this time around. You can pick a handful of app shortcuts to put right on the cover screen’s main page — previously, you had to swipe to a separate panel before you could access any apps. The calendar panel is much improved, surfacing more information with a few more viewing configurations.

Even the flow for allowing apps to open on the cover screen is better. On last year’s model, you had to open the phone to approve an app for the cover screen — just once per app, but for every single app. Now, you can approve and open the app right from the cover screen notification. You have three options actually: allow, not allow, or — my favorite — “not right now,” which allows me to just slowly back away without making a commitment when I mindlessly tap on a Threads notification. Not right now, Satan.

Overall, the cover screen experience is miles better than the previous generation; more mature and less like you’re testing beta software. I’d take this every time over the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, and yes I know about Good Lock. Motorola put a lot of thought into every aspect of the display, and it shows. Oh, and before we get to the whole other phone attached to this phone, shout out to two other cover screen additions: Google Assistant (including Gemini!) and an always-on display. All of my dreams are coming true.

The cover screen is a delight, but the inner screen is much more pedestrian. It’s a 6.9-inch 1080p OLED, and while the resolution didn’t bother me much in my testing, this screen is big enough to benefit from a higher pixel count. It doesn’t get quite as bright as I’d like outside, either. It’s fine, but you can definitely get a better display on a slab-style phone for the same amount of money — or even a bit less.

The good news is that Motorola adopted a new hinge design this year that minimizes the appearance of the crease when the phone is fully unfolded. There’s also the upgraded IPX8 rating; there’s no official dust resistance. The Razr Plus is certified to withstand full immersion in fresh water, a big improvement over the previous gen’s “splashproof” rating. Importantly, an IPX8 rating also puts the Razr Plus on level ground with the Galaxy Z Flip 5 (and, very likely, the Z Flip 6, which is due out soon).

The soft touch on the back panel is a nice touch as always, but the hot pink model I tested comes with a new “vegan suede” material, and I don’t think it’s a change for the better. It feels more papery, and I don’t think it’s going to wear well over time; my review unit has a couple of faint scratches that don’t budge when I try to buff them out with my finger. Considering this isn’t some bougie case — it’s the actual phone — that seems pretty bad. The other colors — peach fuzz, midnight blue, and spring green — come with a vegan leather finish like last year’s pink model, and for what it’s worth, that seems to have held up fine.

The Razr Plus uses a Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 chipset, which occupies a kind of upper-mid-tier, low-flagship space in Qualcomm’s increasingly confusing lineup. In the US, the Razr Plus comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage — healthy numbers. The combination is plenty for my day-to-day, and an extended Pocket City 2 session didn’t tax it much. And I have zero complaints about battery life, which is a real compliment for a flip phone since they tend to come with smaller batteries. The Razr Plus’ 4,000mAh cell provided enough power to get through a day of heavy use and then some.

But I am once again asking Motorola to work on its software support. The Razr Plus comes with three years of OS upgrades and four years of security updates. That’s fine; four years is probably as long as most people will want to hang onto this phone. But Samsung and Google now promise seven years for their high-end phones — even the $499 Pixel 8A comes with seven years of support. I can’t help but want more from a $999 phone. Motorola’s track record for timeliness isn’t great, either; 2023 Razr Plus owners only just started getting their Android 14 update — not a good look when Android 15 is just a few months away.

Camera performance has been another weak area for Motorola in the last few years, and I’m sorry to say that hasn’t changed in the Razr Plus.

Motorola seems like it’s trying to address the issue with a new feature called photo enhancement engine, which it says uses AI to improve noise reduction in low light, improve bokeh on portrait mode photos, and boost dynamic range. That just sounds like a list of everything phone makers have been using AI for over the past decade. Regardless, the new photo processing pipeline hasn’t addressed some core problems: portrait mode subjects are poorly isolated, background blur isn’t convincing, and color reproduction is uneven.

The system knows what to do with bright, abundant light — I got some great photos from the summit of a hike. But medium light continues to be a challenge, with flat over-brightened images and reds saturated to the point of clipping.

The Razr Plus trades last year’s ultrawide for a 2x telephoto lens, providing some nice zoom options for portraits. There’s also a 4x digital zoom for more reach, and quality is decent as long as there’s plenty of light. Without the ultrawide on the rear panel, you don’t have the same opportunity for get-everyone-in-the-photo group selfies, but the main camera is wide enough to get a couple of people in the shot.

So, here’s the dilemma: I love using the Razr Plus, but I find it very hard to recommend. The cover screen is a major part of the flip phone experience, and everything about it is better this time around. It’s easier to use, does more helpful things, and is much more customizable. If you’re a flip phone enthusiast like me, it has all the right moves.

But I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who’s more casually interested in a flip phone or finds the nostalgic factor appealing. You can get a much better camera in a slab-style phone that costs a lot less, and a good camera matters when it’s the one you carry every day. Motorola’s track record for timely software updates remains spotty, too. And the inner screen just isn’t up to the standards of a modern flagship phone.

It’s worth looking at the standard 2024 Razr if $999 seems steep for the Plus. Unlike last year, it comes with a big cover screen like its sibling, and it’s also IPX8-rated. I haven’t tested it yet, but $699 is awfully compelling for that set of features. In the meantime, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 is just around the corner. Motorola could learn a thing or two from Samsung’s software approach, with quick updates and long support timeframes. Then again, Samsung could take a few cues from the Razr Plus, too — it’s a delightful phone.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge

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