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Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

For months, I’ve been thinking about selling my PlayStation VR2. After a damning scoop, I’m finally ready to let it go.
Months ago, I stashed the PSVR 2 away in a closet. I hadn’t played it for a very long time, but I hoped Sony might release new games that would make me want to bring it back out. Based on Android Central’s reporting, I should let those hopes go: apparently, Sony has cut funding for VR games and has just two more PSVR 2 titles in the works. Two!
The future of the headset has been grim for a while. Earlier this year, Sony laid off developers at Firesprite, the studio that made Horizon Call of the Mountain. It closed its London Studio, which made PlayStation VR Worlds, a game that came bundled with the original PSVR. Since its February 2023 launch, Sony’s barely featured any PSVR 2 games in its announcement showcases, and none of those games have been major first-party PSVR 2 titles. Sony isn’t even making a PSVR 2 mode for Astro Bot despite how much people loved Astro Bot Rescue Mission on the PSVR.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
My colleague Adi Robertson using the PSVR 2.

Before it launched, I was genuinely excited for the PSVR 2. I eagerly anticipated new games like Horizon and new VR modes for titles like Gran Turismo 7 and the Resident Evil 4 remake. The price tag stung — I preordered the $599 bundle with Horizon — but I figured I’d get my money’s worth by finally tackling some VR classics like Pistol Whip alongside new PSVR 2 titles. (I knew the PSVR 2 couldn’t play PSVR games, but I didn’t mind.)
I was also excited to finally own and dedicate some time to a VR headset. I had messed around with some VR headsets before — I still remember being blown away by an Oculus Rift demo at a PAX conference — but I really thought the PSVR 2 was going to be particularly awesome. The Verge nerd in me was impressed by the tech: I was champing at the bit to bask in 4K games on the PSVR 2’s dual OLED displays and see how developers might use eye tracking to create new ways to play.
Let’s just say I didn’t get my money’s worth. I did dabble: What The Bat? was delightfully silly, filled with VR mayhem. Runner made me feel like an action hero in an old-school anime. Gran Turismo 7 almost made me a PSVR 2 believer. No Man’s Sky was an immersive but overwhelming trip to space. And Before Your Eyes made me cry in my headset.

But my playtime was mostly just dabbling. Nothing was compelling enough for me to keep coming back to over the long term. The only game I beat was Before Your Eyes, and that’s because it only took about an hour and a half. After reading The Verge’s middling review of Horizon Call of the Mountain, it went to the back of my backlog, and I never got around to it. Resident Evil 4 on PSVR 2 made me sick to my stomach. Looking back at my play history, I only put in about 20 hours into PSVR 2 games.
Getting everything set up to play was a chore, too. The PSVR 2 has to be plugged in to your PS5 to work. That meant that every time I wanted to play, I had to fish out the PSVR 2 from its box, plug it in, and — because the PSVR 2 also doesn’t have hand tracking — cross my fingers that the Sense controllers were charged up so that I could actually play something.
Plus, I didn’t like how the PSVR 2 isolated me in my own house. Since I could only play while tethered to the PS5, I didn’t have the option to go to another room — unlike with Meta’s Quest headsets, which I can use wherever I want in the house. Since my partner and I live in a small condo, we’re usually both sharing the living room when one of us is using the entertainment center. Yes, if I was using the PSVR 2, she could see my game on our TV. But not being able to make easy eye contact when she’s right next to me made me feel like I was shutting her out.
My PSVR 2 is collecting dust
So, my PSVR 2 is collecting dust, and I don’t see any reason to break it out again. (I know Sony is launching an adapter to hook up the PSVR 2 to a PC, but I don’t have a beefy gaming PC, so that’s not important to me.)
I should have known better when I preordered the headset. Sony has a habit of stepping on its own feet when building platforms that aren’t its primary console. Sony’s support for the first PSVR was pretty half-hearted, after all. The PlayStation Vita was beloved in spite of Sony’s first-party support, not because of it. The company took forever to put some flagship games on its PlayStation Now cloud service. It insists on forcing PC players to use PSN accounts for single-player games even after dropping that planned requirement for Helldivers 2 following backlash — the better to funnel you toward a future console purchase.
I think I’ll be taking the PSVR 2 out of the closet sometime soon. But I’ll only be moving it so I can sell it to someone else.

Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

For months, I’ve been thinking about selling my PlayStation VR2. After a damning scoop, I’m finally ready to let it go.

Months ago, I stashed the PSVR 2 away in a closet. I hadn’t played it for a very long time, but I hoped Sony might release new games that would make me want to bring it back out. Based on Android Central’s reporting, I should let those hopes go: apparently, Sony has cut funding for VR games and has just two more PSVR 2 titles in the works. Two!

The future of the headset has been grim for a while. Earlier this year, Sony laid off developers at Firesprite, the studio that made Horizon Call of the Mountain. It closed its London Studio, which made PlayStation VR Worlds, a game that came bundled with the original PSVR. Since its February 2023 launch, Sony’s barely featured any PSVR 2 games in its announcement showcases, and none of those games have been major first-party PSVR 2 titles. Sony isn’t even making a PSVR 2 mode for Astro Bot despite how much people loved Astro Bot Rescue Mission on the PSVR.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
My colleague Adi Robertson using the PSVR 2.

Before it launched, I was genuinely excited for the PSVR 2. I eagerly anticipated new games like Horizon and new VR modes for titles like Gran Turismo 7 and the Resident Evil 4 remake. The price tag stung — I preordered the $599 bundle with Horizon — but I figured I’d get my money’s worth by finally tackling some VR classics like Pistol Whip alongside new PSVR 2 titles. (I knew the PSVR 2 couldn’t play PSVR games, but I didn’t mind.)

I was also excited to finally own and dedicate some time to a VR headset. I had messed around with some VR headsets before — I still remember being blown away by an Oculus Rift demo at a PAX conference — but I really thought the PSVR 2 was going to be particularly awesome. The Verge nerd in me was impressed by the tech: I was champing at the bit to bask in 4K games on the PSVR 2’s dual OLED displays and see how developers might use eye tracking to create new ways to play.

Let’s just say I didn’t get my money’s worth. I did dabble: What The Bat? was delightfully silly, filled with VR mayhem. Runner made me feel like an action hero in an old-school anime. Gran Turismo 7 almost made me a PSVR 2 believer. No Man’s Sky was an immersive but overwhelming trip to space. And Before Your Eyes made me cry in my headset.

But my playtime was mostly just dabbling. Nothing was compelling enough for me to keep coming back to over the long term. The only game I beat was Before Your Eyes, and that’s because it only took about an hour and a half. After reading The Verge’s middling review of Horizon Call of the Mountain, it went to the back of my backlog, and I never got around to it. Resident Evil 4 on PSVR 2 made me sick to my stomach. Looking back at my play history, I only put in about 20 hours into PSVR 2 games.

Getting everything set up to play was a chore, too. The PSVR 2 has to be plugged in to your PS5 to work. That meant that every time I wanted to play, I had to fish out the PSVR 2 from its box, plug it in, and — because the PSVR 2 also doesn’t have hand tracking — cross my fingers that the Sense controllers were charged up so that I could actually play something.

Plus, I didn’t like how the PSVR 2 isolated me in my own house. Since I could only play while tethered to the PS5, I didn’t have the option to go to another room — unlike with Meta’s Quest headsets, which I can use wherever I want in the house. Since my partner and I live in a small condo, we’re usually both sharing the living room when one of us is using the entertainment center. Yes, if I was using the PSVR 2, she could see my game on our TV. But not being able to make easy eye contact when she’s right next to me made me feel like I was shutting her out.

So, my PSVR 2 is collecting dust, and I don’t see any reason to break it out again. (I know Sony is launching an adapter to hook up the PSVR 2 to a PC, but I don’t have a beefy gaming PC, so that’s not important to me.)

I should have known better when I preordered the headset. Sony has a habit of stepping on its own feet when building platforms that aren’t its primary console. Sony’s support for the first PSVR was pretty half-hearted, after all. The PlayStation Vita was beloved in spite of Sony’s first-party support, not because of it. The company took forever to put some flagship games on its PlayStation Now cloud service. It insists on forcing PC players to use PSN accounts for single-player games even after dropping that planned requirement for Helldivers 2 following backlash — the better to funnel you toward a future console purchase.

I think I’ll be taking the PSVR 2 out of the closet sometime soon. But I’ll only be moving it so I can sell it to someone else.

Read More 

Image: The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 43, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reading about memexes and telepathy and John Lennon’s wristwatch, watching Presumed Innocent and Ren Faire, testing Genspark for AI search stuff, redoing my homescreen with Dumbify, and experimenting with overnight oats in an attempt to make mornings less chaotic. (Turns out, peanut butter makes pretty much everything 20 percent better.)
I also have for you a new tech podcast, a couple of handy new gadgets, a new calendar app, the game that will take over your weekend, and much more. Let’s get into it.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What great apps / books / podcasts / shows / games / recipes / whatever else have you discovered and loved recently? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

The Asus VivoBook S 15. Copilot Plus PCs cometh. It’s been a weird rollout, what with all the Recall complications, but we’re starting to get a sense of just what this new era of Qualcomm-powered Windows devices can do. So far, I’m pretty optimistic, but I’m still waiting to see how the new Surfaces pan out.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. The overall vibe of this huge new DLC is basically “it’s Elden Ring, only somehow even more so.” Given how deep and big this game already was, and how many hours we’ve all spent in it already, that’s pretty much all you can ask for.

Pissing out Cancer. If all the Dropout Presents stand-up specials are as much fun as this one from Hank Green, we’re about to have a heck of a run of new comedy. Green here is funny and goofy as ever and extremely Hank Green-y. It’s an hour you won’t regret.

The Xreal Beam Pro. Such a fun and different idea about how smart glasses should work: instead of trying to bake everything into the glasses themselves, Xreal is pulling all the smarts and software into a separate fairly cheap smartphone-style device. I’m excited to test this one out.

Backfired: The Vaping Wars. The Juul story might forever be one of the strangest things to ever happen in Silicon Valley. This podcast goes deep on that story, along with the confusing societal debate about vaping, the government’s scramble to keep up, and where things go from here.

Arc for iPad. Still my favorite browser, finally available on almost all my devices. (Android when, Arc people!?!) The app isn’t exactly iPad-optimized — it’s missing some keyboard shortcuts and is really just a blown-up version of the iPhone app — but it syncs and works well and I will absolutely take it.

Amie for Windows. Big week for cross-platform apps! Amie is one of my favorite calendar / to-do apps and has gotten a lot more polished over the last few months. If you’re the all-in-one productivity type and appreciate some delightful design, give this one a whirl.

The Logitech Keys-to-Go 2. I’ve had the original Keys-To-Go in my bag for a few years as a super light and handy way to get some stuff done with my phone or iPad. This looks like a huge upgrade: still light, still small, but with a more proper set of keys. $80 is a lot, but I suspect I’ll end up buying one.

A Sense of Rebellion. An amazingly well-produced and deeply reported podcast on some decades-old ideas about AI and how we might use and live with technology. The story here, about hippies and capitalists and the government and big business, is kind of the story of technology all wrapped up in 10 episodes. Loving this so far.

Clipbud. Clipboard history is helpful and good, but having a place with all the text you type a lot – your shipping address, stock email responses, important links, all of that — is a life-changer. The built-in text replacement and personal dictionary features (on iOS and Android, respectively) do a lot of that, and apps like Snippety are mega-powerful, but this new one is pretty delightful to use.

Screen share
I think Nick Quah has introduced me to more great podcasts than any other person on earth. Whether in the early days of Hot Pod or in his 1.5x Speed newsletter over at Vulture (The Verge’s sister site here at Vox Media), he seems to have listened to all the shows all the time. Just this week, actually, he wrote a fun story about how chat podcasts have taken over and named some of the biggest names in New Radio.
I asked Nick to share his homescreen because a) I was curious what podcast app he used and b) I was hoping he might recommend a new show or two. I got my wish on both counts! Here’s Nick’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:

The phone: Recently upgraded from my trusty ol’ iPhone 12 to an iPhone 15. Seems to be doing fine so far; I’m no longer stressed about losing juice on long flights.
The wallpaper: My sweet, sweet baby boy Siobhan (aka Shooby).
The apps: Calendar, Photos, Clock, Weather, Google Maps, To Do, Google Calendar, Gmail, Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, Steam, Delta, Strava, Discord, Slack, Stocks, LastPass, Messages, Phone, Firefox, Pocket Casts.
Yeah, well, as you can see, I’m pretty vanilla for the most part. All the immediately accessible apps are stuff I hit up with some frequency on any given day. Google Maps for navigation (and snooping). To Do to get my brain in order. TikTok and Instagram for something to do in the bathroom. I’ve been gaming a lot more these days, so I’m constantly trawling Steam for deals. Strava, ‘cuz I’ve somehow become a big runner. I’ve also been hitting up Delta quite a bit, working through a backlog of old JRPGs. And of course, Pocket Casts, which is my go-to for podcast listening.
I also asked Nick to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:

I’m a big rewatcher / replayer of things, and for whatever reason, the summertime is usually when I pick up my annual revisits. Right now, I’m working my way through Halt and Catch Fire for the sixth time. Gosh, that show is so lovely. It’s the 10-year anniversary, you know?
Like the rest of the universe at this point in time, seemingly, I’m digging Chappell Roan. “Red Wine Supernova,” very good.
Slowly making my way through Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love, David Talbot’s 2013 history of San Francisco. I’m finding it quite remarkable.
Catching up on episodes of My Perfect Console, Simon Parkin’s great “Desert Island Discs, but for Video Games” interview show that’s really doubling as a fun historical record for the medium.

Crowdsourced
Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more recommendations than fit here, check out the replies to this post on Threads.
“This little camera. I’ve been going over ways in my mind to justify it because it’s so cute but also the photos are surprisingly decent.” – Daulton
“Check out Ditto. It is a Nostr server that exposes Mastodon API to its clients. So the promise is that you would be able to use your very nice Mastodon app (Ivory, Ice Cubes) and add Nostr connection right into it. It would be like an additional server in the same app where your main Mastodon account is.” – Adnan
“I’ve been slowly getting back into following Pokemón trading cards and have been hooked watching TheBulbaStore on YouTube. It’s super interesting seeing a vendor’s point of view and the prices some cards go for now!” – Peter
“The Hawthorne & Horowitz mysteries by Anthony Horowitz. He recently released the fifth in the series, Close to Death. They all have tortured puns as titles (in this case, “close” being a British word for enclosed area). On top of that, the books are metafiction in which Horowitz himself is the main character, talking about how he is writing the series of murder mysteries that you are reading. Yet, they are some of the best contemporary murder mysteries I’ve read and do a wonderful job paying homage to Agatha Christie, all while playing with the genre.” – Kendrick
“I’m playing and watching chess! Chess is cool now! Lots of great ways to play, but Chess.com is probably the best for beginners. And there’s great YouTube content out there on chess from Eric Rosen, Irina Krush, Levy Rozman, and Hikaru Nakamura. Getting good so I can teach my three-year-old niece to be a master someday.” – Ryan
“I am really enjoying “Jet Lag: The Game” on YouTube. Imagine The Amazing Race, but actually good and not scripted. The hosts are likable and the game has some decent complexity behind it. They are about to wrap up their Australia season, and it has been a nail-biter.” – Dev
“I’m currently reading Hell Divers II: Ghosts by Nicholas Sansbury Smith. Postapocalyptic sci-fi about halo jumpers who dive into radioactive wastelands to scavenge supplies from mutant monsters, and yes, it is as good as it sounds.” – Jesse
“I’ve been obsessed with my new Klydoclock, a digital take on the classic analog clock. It features changing, artist-curated faces and can even tick and chime on the hour if you want it to. Best of all: it has no other functions and isn’t attached to an app or your phone. Minimalism and elegance at its finest.” – Jonathan
“I really believe that a home server or NAS is useful and easily accessible for more people than currently have one. More people should have their own Plex server, Pi-hole, self-hosted cloud storage, Minecraft server, or self-hosted VPN. An old PC is all you need if you want to keep it simple. And if you don’t mind learning how to work with Linux, you could even use an old Android phone or cheap Raspberry Pi clone.” – Voltaire

Signing off
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I absolutely cannot get enough of watching / listening to / reading about how people who are great at their thing do their thing. (The musician Kygo has a series of making-of videos that is always the first example I think of in this genre.) One of my favorite recent ones is this video, with Zane Lowe interviewing Finneas and Billie Eilish about the making of Eilish’s latest album. They talk about process, fear, microphones, editing, and so much more. I will almost certainly never make an album, or shoot a movie, or make it in the NBA, but listening to people talk about how they do it never gets old.
See you next week!

Image: The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 43, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been reading about memexes and telepathy and John Lennon’s wristwatch, watching Presumed Innocent and Ren Faire, testing Genspark for AI search stuff, redoing my homescreen with Dumbify, and experimenting with overnight oats in an attempt to make mornings less chaotic. (Turns out, peanut butter makes pretty much everything 20 percent better.)

I also have for you a new tech podcast, a couple of handy new gadgets, a new calendar app, the game that will take over your weekend, and much more. Let’s get into it.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What great apps / books / podcasts / shows / games / recipes / whatever else have you discovered and loved recently? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

The Asus VivoBook S 15. Copilot Plus PCs cometh. It’s been a weird rollout, what with all the Recall complications, but we’re starting to get a sense of just what this new era of Qualcomm-powered Windows devices can do. So far, I’m pretty optimistic, but I’m still waiting to see how the new Surfaces pan out.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. The overall vibe of this huge new DLC is basically “it’s Elden Ring, only somehow even more so.” Given how deep and big this game already was, and how many hours we’ve all spent in it already, that’s pretty much all you can ask for.

Pissing out Cancer. If all the Dropout Presents stand-up specials are as much fun as this one from Hank Green, we’re about to have a heck of a run of new comedy. Green here is funny and goofy as ever and extremely Hank Green-y. It’s an hour you won’t regret.

The Xreal Beam Pro. Such a fun and different idea about how smart glasses should work: instead of trying to bake everything into the glasses themselves, Xreal is pulling all the smarts and software into a separate fairly cheap smartphone-style device. I’m excited to test this one out.

Backfired: The Vaping Wars. The Juul story might forever be one of the strangest things to ever happen in Silicon Valley. This podcast goes deep on that story, along with the confusing societal debate about vaping, the government’s scramble to keep up, and where things go from here.

Arc for iPad. Still my favorite browser, finally available on almost all my devices. (Android when, Arc people!?!) The app isn’t exactly iPad-optimized — it’s missing some keyboard shortcuts and is really just a blown-up version of the iPhone app — but it syncs and works well and I will absolutely take it.

Amie for Windows. Big week for cross-platform apps! Amie is one of my favorite calendar / to-do apps and has gotten a lot more polished over the last few months. If you’re the all-in-one productivity type and appreciate some delightful design, give this one a whirl.

The Logitech Keys-to-Go 2. I’ve had the original Keys-To-Go in my bag for a few years as a super light and handy way to get some stuff done with my phone or iPad. This looks like a huge upgrade: still light, still small, but with a more proper set of keys. $80 is a lot, but I suspect I’ll end up buying one.

A Sense of Rebellion. An amazingly well-produced and deeply reported podcast on some decades-old ideas about AI and how we might use and live with technology. The story here, about hippies and capitalists and the government and big business, is kind of the story of technology all wrapped up in 10 episodes. Loving this so far.

Clipbud. Clipboard history is helpful and good, but having a place with all the text you type a lot – your shipping address, stock email responses, important links, all of that — is a life-changer. The built-in text replacement and personal dictionary features (on iOS and Android, respectively) do a lot of that, and apps like Snippety are mega-powerful, but this new one is pretty delightful to use.

Screen share

I think Nick Quah has introduced me to more great podcasts than any other person on earth. Whether in the early days of Hot Pod or in his 1.5x Speed newsletter over at Vulture (The Verge’s sister site here at Vox Media), he seems to have listened to all the shows all the time. Just this week, actually, he wrote a fun story about how chat podcasts have taken over and named some of the biggest names in New Radio.

I asked Nick to share his homescreen because a) I was curious what podcast app he used and b) I was hoping he might recommend a new show or two. I got my wish on both counts! Here’s Nick’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:

The phone: Recently upgraded from my trusty ol’ iPhone 12 to an iPhone 15. Seems to be doing fine so far; I’m no longer stressed about losing juice on long flights.

The wallpaper: My sweet, sweet baby boy Siobhan (aka Shooby).

The apps: Calendar, Photos, Clock, Weather, Google Maps, To Do, Google Calendar, Gmail, Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, Steam, Delta, Strava, Discord, Slack, Stocks, LastPass, Messages, Phone, Firefox, Pocket Casts.

Yeah, well, as you can see, I’m pretty vanilla for the most part. All the immediately accessible apps are stuff I hit up with some frequency on any given day. Google Maps for navigation (and snooping). To Do to get my brain in order. TikTok and Instagram for something to do in the bathroom. I’ve been gaming a lot more these days, so I’m constantly trawling Steam for deals. Strava, ‘cuz I’ve somehow become a big runner. I’ve also been hitting up Delta quite a bit, working through a backlog of old JRPGs. And of course, Pocket Casts, which is my go-to for podcast listening.

I also asked Nick to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:

I’m a big rewatcher / replayer of things, and for whatever reason, the summertime is usually when I pick up my annual revisits. Right now, I’m working my way through Halt and Catch Fire for the sixth time. Gosh, that show is so lovely. It’s the 10-year anniversary, you know?
Like the rest of the universe at this point in time, seemingly, I’m digging Chappell Roan. “Red Wine Supernova,” very good.
Slowly making my way through Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love, David Talbot’s 2013 history of San Francisco. I’m finding it quite remarkable.
Catching up on episodes of My Perfect Console, Simon Parkin’s great “Desert Island Discs, but for Video Games” interview show that’s really doubling as a fun historical record for the medium.

Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more recommendations than fit here, check out the replies to this post on Threads.

“This little camera. I’ve been going over ways in my mind to justify it because it’s so cute but also the photos are surprisingly decent.” – Daulton

“Check out Ditto. It is a Nostr server that exposes Mastodon API to its clients. So the promise is that you would be able to use your very nice Mastodon app (Ivory, Ice Cubes) and add Nostr connection right into it. It would be like an additional server in the same app where your main Mastodon account is.” – Adnan

“I’ve been slowly getting back into following Pokemón trading cards and have been hooked watching TheBulbaStore on YouTube. It’s super interesting seeing a vendor’s point of view and the prices some cards go for now!” – Peter

“The Hawthorne & Horowitz mysteries by Anthony Horowitz. He recently released the fifth in the series, Close to Death. They all have tortured puns as titles (in this case, “close” being a British word for enclosed area). On top of that, the books are metafiction in which Horowitz himself is the main character, talking about how he is writing the series of murder mysteries that you are reading. Yet, they are some of the best contemporary murder mysteries I’ve read and do a wonderful job paying homage to Agatha Christie, all while playing with the genre.” – Kendrick

“I’m playing and watching chess! Chess is cool now! Lots of great ways to play, but Chess.com is probably the best for beginners. And there’s great YouTube content out there on chess from Eric Rosen, Irina Krush, Levy Rozman, and Hikaru Nakamura. Getting good so I can teach my three-year-old niece to be a master someday.” – Ryan

“I am really enjoying “Jet Lag: The Game” on YouTube. Imagine The Amazing Race, but actually good and not scripted. The hosts are likable and the game has some decent complexity behind it. They are about to wrap up their Australia season, and it has been a nail-biter.” – Dev

“I’m currently reading Hell Divers II: Ghosts by Nicholas Sansbury Smith. Postapocalyptic sci-fi about halo jumpers who dive into radioactive wastelands to scavenge supplies from mutant monsters, and yes, it is as good as it sounds.” – Jesse

“I’ve been obsessed with my new Klydoclock, a digital take on the classic analog clock. It features changing, artist-curated faces and can even tick and chime on the hour if you want it to. Best of all: it has no other functions and isn’t attached to an app or your phone. Minimalism and elegance at its finest.” – Jonathan

“I really believe that a home server or NAS is useful and easily accessible for more people than currently have one. More people should have their own Plex server, Pi-hole, self-hosted cloud storage, Minecraft server, or self-hosted VPN. An old PC is all you need if you want to keep it simple. And if you don’t mind learning how to work with Linux, you could even use an old Android phone or cheap Raspberry Pi clone.” – Voltaire

Signing off

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I absolutely cannot get enough of watching / listening to / reading about how people who are great at their thing do their thing. (The musician Kygo has a series of making-of videos that is always the first example I think of in this genre.) One of my favorite recent ones is this video, with Zane Lowe interviewing Finneas and Billie Eilish about the making of Eilish’s latest album. They talk about process, fear, microphones, editing, and so much more. I will almost certainly never make an album, or shoot a movie, or make it in the NBA, but listening to people talk about how they do it never gets old.

See you next week!

Read More 

Image: Bandai Namco

But he thinks players will be able to handle it. As I work my way through Shadow of the Erdtree, the new DLC for Elden Ring, I can’t help but think that game director Hidetaka Miyazaki is trolling the shit outta me.
Speaking with him at Summer Game Fest two weeks ago, Miyazaki said that Erdtree is “by far the biggest in scale in volume” than any other FromSoftware DLC before it. But he also said Erdtree is “about the same volume as the Limgrave part of the base game,” the starting area of Elden Ring, containing “slightly more content.”
I don’t buy it. While it’s impossible to accurately compare scale in game, I’ve played the game for 30 hours and have already found the new areas in the DLC to be more expansive than Limgrave. Not only is the map itself large, it’s layered, with huge areas propped up on plateaus above, in deep valleys below, and on islands that take some creative platforming to reach.
I’d say it’s far, far larger than Limgrave, with plenty more to do as well. Shadow of the Erdtree honestly feels like it’s big enough to be its own game with its own story — one that was originally intended for Elden Ring but wound up being cut for time before being added back as DLC content.

Image: FromSoftware

Erdtree follows the story arc of Miquella, brother of uber boss Malenia and one of the demigods important to Elden Ring lore. To focus on Miquella was, Miyazaki told me, born of the desire to honor George R. R. Martin’s contributions to the game. “[He] gave us all this great mythology to work with,” Miyazaki said. Packaging Miquella’s story as a standalone DLC was essentially “closing the loop” on Martin’s involvement in the game. “It’s really about completing Elden Ring’s circle,” he said.

But understating the size of Shadow of the Erdtree is just one of the ways it feels like Miyazaki is misleading me. I know he’s trolling me when it comes to difficulty.
I cannot beat Rellana, Twin Moon Knight, the boss ensconced in Castle Enis that players can face five or 50 hours in depending on their exploration choices. (I met her after about 15.) None of my strategies nor any of the game’s built in assistance features — using Mimic Tear Ashes, summoning help from an NPC, changing my weapons or spells, inflicting damaging status effects — seem to work. My best attempt got her down to half of her health and I cannot seem to progress further. And she’s only major boss number two.
According to Miyazaki, this is by design. He said that Erdtree contains “10 plus boss encounters” — honestly, another hilariously absurd understatement, I’ve seen estimates of 55 bosses and up to 80. Thankfully only a small handful of those bosses are necessary to progress the story, while the rest are optional.
“And the ones that [are optional] are especially difficult,” Miyazaki said.
Whenever a new FromSoftware game releases, there’s nearly always a discussion of difficulty. With the DLC, other reviewers have suggested that its difficulty is too extreme. “It’s true that this distinct type of FromSoft-engineered frustration is an indispensable part of the Souls experience,” wrote Alexis Ong in Eurogamer. “This, however, feels like difficulty for difficulty’s sake, turned up to eleven.”
I agree. But while I think Shadow of the Erdtree could better straddle the line between pleasantly challenging and frustratingly impossible, the game was tuned to Miyazaki’s intentions, representing the lessons the development team learned from the original game’s feedback.
“Traditionally we’ve always liked the higher difficulty curve type of games and experiences, but I think that nature in and of itself alienates a good portion of the game playing audience,” he said.
A contradictory thing to say considering his comments in a recent interview with The Guardian: “If we really wanted the whole world to play the game, we could just crank the difficulty down more and more, but that wasn’t the right approach. Turning down difficulty would strip the game of that joy, which, in my eyes, would break the game itself.”
He’s not wrong. Elden Ring ceases to be the game of the year it was if it lacks the kind of difficulty FromSoftware is known for. So Erdtree must be hard, but not so hard that it’ll turn players off. But it also can’t be too easy because that will break the game. What to do? The answer, according to Miyazaki, is freedom.
“The amount of freedom that we give players helps offset that difficulty curve and makes the game more accessible and engaging,” he told me.
I think that worked for Elden Ring, less so for this DLC. In the base game, difficulty could be circumvented with leveling up — the player freedom, as it were. But with the addition of the new DLC-exclusive consumables that increase your attack and defense, becoming more powerful is now dependent on your ability to find those scarce items. As a result, I’ve often found myself fearful of the simplest enemies as encountering more than one at a time will kill me outright.
“I try to imagine different ways I would want to die as a player or be killed.”
In addition to ensuring that players die a lot, Miyazaki also said that how players die is just as important.
“I try to imagine different ways I would want to die as a player or be killed,” he said, explaining that those thoughts manifested in Elden Ring and in other FromSoftware games as his signature poison swamps. But for Erdtree, he confessed to cutting back on that indulgence — “In the original Elden Ring, I went a little too far.”
There are still poison swamps in Erdtree, “but in other parts of gameplay, there are still many ways to die.”

Image: FromSoftware / Ash Parrish
One of Hidetaka Miyazaki’s signature poison swamps in Shadow of the Erdtree.

Too many it seems. I’ve been bludgeoned, exsanguinated, frostbitten, and burned. I’ve fallen off cliffs, had cliffs fall on me — beware the fiery rocks the Furnace Golems spew — and I’ve even accidentally killed myself eating an item that refilled my HP while also inflicting poison.
Despite my tribulations, Miyazaki, like a benevolent god, has faith in me and his players, only giving us trials he believes we can bear.
“We’ve really pushed the envelope in terms of what we think can be withstood by the player,” Miyazaki said.
He clarified that one of the biggest lessons brought forward from Elden Ring into Erdtree was what the audience found fun over what was stressful. “ We tried to make that the foundation of the boss encounters of the DLC, so hopefully players will find it much more engaging and fun,” he said.
“But if that is not the case,” he added. “Then I’m sorry.”

Image: Bandai Namco

But he thinks players will be able to handle it.

As I work my way through Shadow of the Erdtree, the new DLC for Elden Ring, I can’t help but think that game director Hidetaka Miyazaki is trolling the shit outta me.

Speaking with him at Summer Game Fest two weeks ago, Miyazaki said that Erdtree is “by far the biggest in scale in volume” than any other FromSoftware DLC before it. But he also said Erdtree is “about the same volume as the Limgrave part of the base game,” the starting area of Elden Ring, containing “slightly more content.”

I don’t buy it. While it’s impossible to accurately compare scale in game, I’ve played the game for 30 hours and have already found the new areas in the DLC to be more expansive than Limgrave. Not only is the map itself large, it’s layered, with huge areas propped up on plateaus above, in deep valleys below, and on islands that take some creative platforming to reach.

I’d say it’s far, far larger than Limgrave, with plenty more to do as well. Shadow of the Erdtree honestly feels like it’s big enough to be its own game with its own story — one that was originally intended for Elden Ring but wound up being cut for time before being added back as DLC content.

Image: FromSoftware

Erdtree follows the story arc of Miquella, brother of uber boss Malenia and one of the demigods important to Elden Ring lore. To focus on Miquella was, Miyazaki told me, born of the desire to honor George R. R. Martin’s contributions to the game. “[He] gave us all this great mythology to work with,” Miyazaki said. Packaging Miquella’s story as a standalone DLC was essentially “closing the loop” on Martin’s involvement in the game. “It’s really about completing Elden Ring’s circle,” he said.

But understating the size of Shadow of the Erdtree is just one of the ways it feels like Miyazaki is misleading me. I know he’s trolling me when it comes to difficulty.

I cannot beat Rellana, Twin Moon Knight, the boss ensconced in Castle Enis that players can face five or 50 hours in depending on their exploration choices. (I met her after about 15.) None of my strategies nor any of the game’s built in assistance features — using Mimic Tear Ashes, summoning help from an NPC, changing my weapons or spells, inflicting damaging status effects — seem to work. My best attempt got her down to half of her health and I cannot seem to progress further. And she’s only major boss number two.

According to Miyazaki, this is by design. He said that Erdtree contains “10 plus boss encounters” — honestly, another hilariously absurd understatement, I’ve seen estimates of 55 bosses and up to 80. Thankfully only a small handful of those bosses are necessary to progress the story, while the rest are optional.

“And the ones that [are optional] are especially difficult,” Miyazaki said.

Whenever a new FromSoftware game releases, there’s nearly always a discussion of difficulty. With the DLC, other reviewers have suggested that its difficulty is too extreme. “It’s true that this distinct type of FromSoft-engineered frustration is an indispensable part of the Souls experience,” wrote Alexis Ong in Eurogamer. “This, however, feels like difficulty for difficulty’s sake, turned up to eleven.”

I agree. But while I think Shadow of the Erdtree could better straddle the line between pleasantly challenging and frustratingly impossible, the game was tuned to Miyazaki’s intentions, representing the lessons the development team learned from the original game’s feedback.

“Traditionally we’ve always liked the higher difficulty curve type of games and experiences, but I think that nature in and of itself alienates a good portion of the game playing audience,” he said.

A contradictory thing to say considering his comments in a recent interview with The Guardian: “If we really wanted the whole world to play the game, we could just crank the difficulty down more and more, but that wasn’t the right approach. Turning down difficulty would strip the game of that joy, which, in my eyes, would break the game itself.”

He’s not wrong. Elden Ring ceases to be the game of the year it was if it lacks the kind of difficulty FromSoftware is known for. So Erdtree must be hard, but not so hard that it’ll turn players off. But it also can’t be too easy because that will break the game. What to do? The answer, according to Miyazaki, is freedom.

“The amount of freedom that we give players helps offset that difficulty curve and makes the game more accessible and engaging,” he told me.

I think that worked for Elden Ring, less so for this DLC. In the base game, difficulty could be circumvented with leveling up — the player freedom, as it were. But with the addition of the new DLC-exclusive consumables that increase your attack and defense, becoming more powerful is now dependent on your ability to find those scarce items. As a result, I’ve often found myself fearful of the simplest enemies as encountering more than one at a time will kill me outright.

In addition to ensuring that players die a lot, Miyazaki also said that how players die is just as important.

“I try to imagine different ways I would want to die as a player or be killed,” he said, explaining that those thoughts manifested in Elden Ring and in other FromSoftware games as his signature poison swamps. But for Erdtree, he confessed to cutting back on that indulgence — “In the original Elden Ring, I went a little too far.”

There are still poison swamps in Erdtree, “but in other parts of gameplay, there are still many ways to die.”

Image: FromSoftware / Ash Parrish
One of Hidetaka Miyazaki’s signature poison swamps in Shadow of the Erdtree.

Too many it seems. I’ve been bludgeoned, exsanguinated, frostbitten, and burned. I’ve fallen off cliffs, had cliffs fall on me — beware the fiery rocks the Furnace Golems spew — and I’ve even accidentally killed myself eating an item that refilled my HP while also inflicting poison.

Despite my tribulations, Miyazaki, like a benevolent god, has faith in me and his players, only giving us trials he believes we can bear.

“We’ve really pushed the envelope in terms of what we think can be withstood by the player,” Miyazaki said.

He clarified that one of the biggest lessons brought forward from Elden Ring into Erdtree was what the audience found fun over what was stressful. “ We tried to make that the foundation of the boss encounters of the DLC, so hopefully players will find it much more engaging and fun,” he said.

“But if that is not the case,” he added. “Then I’m sorry.”

Read More 

The superior way to ask Siri to set a timer when you’re not at home or in the car. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

There’s a time and place for everything. In the privacy of my own home, I’ve got no problem saying “hey” to Google, Alexa, Siri, Meta, and on occasion, Bixby. But out in public? Where other people can perceive me? I’d rather crawl under a rock.
This has been one of my biggest problems with AI gadgets these past few months. All of them seem convinced that the best way to interact with AI assistants is to actually talk to them, not unlike the movie Her. In reality, I’ve rarely seen my friends and family use their phone’s assistants when we’re hanging out privately and never out in public. So it felt like a tiny “Aha!” moment when, during last week’s WWDC keynote, Apple mentioned that iOS 18 will let you type to Siri instead.
Technically, you can already do this via the iPhone’s accessibility settings. (Go to Accessibility > Siri > Type to Siri.) This brings up a fairly bare-bones window and keyboard for you to type a command in. But in iOS 18, Apple embraces the feature, letting you double-tap the bottom of the screen to bring up a Siri keyboard. You’ll also be able to see quick suggestions that you can simply tap instead of having to type (or say) a whole query out.

There are a ton of reasons why this just makes sense. While digital assistants have gotten better at understanding commands, it’s still tough to talk to them naturally. At home, I feel myself affecting a certain pitch and tone when I use a wake word. I find myself thinking beforehand about how I want to word a query. In spite of myself, I still occasionally botch it when asking Google to turn my living room lights to 25 percent brightness. I feel even more self-conscious if I have to do this in public.
Outside, it’s also incredibly noisy. While testing the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses’ multimodal AI features, I often had the AI tell me that the glasses couldn’t hear me properly. Either my environment was too loud, or I was subconsciously so embarrassed I spoke too quietly for the device to clearly pick up what I was saying. That led to a ton of frustration, which, in turn, caused me to whip out my phone — the exact opposite of what AI hardware wants me to do.

Image: Apple
What the new Siri keyboard will look like in iOS 18.

It’s not just newfangled AI gadgets, either. Speaking into a smartwatch looks cool if you’re James Bond. Most of us are not. If anything, most people I see doing it look a little confused and frustrated. Is this vain? Yes. But self-consciousness is a big reason why people may be hesitant to experiment with voice-controlled assistants when they’re out and about. A 2018 PwC survey into voice assistant use found that 74 percent of consumers prefer to use voice assistants at home, with participants saying that using them in public “just looks weird.” In the same survey, lack of trust was identified as another major hurdle to using voice assistants in general — people just didn’t believe that a voice assistant would correctly understand commands. If experience tells you an AI assistant likely won’t understand you, why would you bother trying to use it in a place where you’re more likely to be judged? (Also, imagine saying “Hey Siri” and activating your fellow commuters’ iPhones. New nightmare unlocked.)
Tech logistics aside, typing to your AI assistant also affords you a greater degree of privacy. I don’t need people to know what I’m doing on my phone, even if it’s something as innocuous as playing a song or setting a timer. I especially don’t want to dictate texts aloud when others can hear me. Typing those kinds of queries allows me to keep my business to myself — and, for that, I’m happy to sacrifice some hands-free capabilities.
I’m not denying that there are reasons why you might need to speak to an assistant, even in public settings. Voice commands are especially useful if you don’t have use of your hands or are driving a car. But having multiple ways to interact with AI assistants lets them fit more seamlessly into how we want to use our gadgets — instead of forcing everyone to adopt new paradigms. Maybe one day, it won’t feel weird to talk to a chatbot out loud while walking down the street. For most people, that day isn’t today. And until such a time comes, I’ll happily type to Siri instead.

The superior way to ask Siri to set a timer when you’re not at home or in the car. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

There’s a time and place for everything. In the privacy of my own home, I’ve got no problem saying “hey” to Google, Alexa, Siri, Meta, and on occasion, Bixby. But out in public? Where other people can perceive me? I’d rather crawl under a rock.

This has been one of my biggest problems with AI gadgets these past few months. All of them seem convinced that the best way to interact with AI assistants is to actually talk to them, not unlike the movie Her. In reality, I’ve rarely seen my friends and family use their phone’s assistants when we’re hanging out privately and never out in public. So it felt like a tiny “Aha!” moment when, during last week’s WWDC keynote, Apple mentioned that iOS 18 will let you type to Siri instead.

Technically, you can already do this via the iPhone’s accessibility settings. (Go to Accessibility > Siri > Type to Siri.) This brings up a fairly bare-bones window and keyboard for you to type a command in. But in iOS 18, Apple embraces the feature, letting you double-tap the bottom of the screen to bring up a Siri keyboard. You’ll also be able to see quick suggestions that you can simply tap instead of having to type (or say) a whole query out.

There are a ton of reasons why this just makes sense. While digital assistants have gotten better at understanding commands, it’s still tough to talk to them naturally. At home, I feel myself affecting a certain pitch and tone when I use a wake word. I find myself thinking beforehand about how I want to word a query. In spite of myself, I still occasionally botch it when asking Google to turn my living room lights to 25 percent brightness. I feel even more self-conscious if I have to do this in public.

Outside, it’s also incredibly noisy. While testing the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses’ multimodal AI features, I often had the AI tell me that the glasses couldn’t hear me properly. Either my environment was too loud, or I was subconsciously so embarrassed I spoke too quietly for the device to clearly pick up what I was saying. That led to a ton of frustration, which, in turn, caused me to whip out my phone — the exact opposite of what AI hardware wants me to do.

It’s not just newfangled AI gadgets, either. Speaking into a smartwatch looks cool if you’re James Bond. Most of us are not. If anything, most people I see doing it look a little confused and frustrated. Is this vain? Yes. But self-consciousness is a big reason why people may be hesitant to experiment with voice-controlled assistants when they’re out and about. A 2018 PwC survey into voice assistant use found that 74 percent of consumers prefer to use voice assistants at home, with participants saying that using them in public “just looks weird.” In the same survey, lack of trust was identified as another major hurdle to using voice assistants in general — people just didn’t believe that a voice assistant would correctly understand commands. If experience tells you an AI assistant likely won’t understand you, why would you bother trying to use it in a place where you’re more likely to be judged? (Also, imagine saying “Hey Siri” and activating your fellow commuters’ iPhones. New nightmare unlocked.)

Tech logistics aside, typing to your AI assistant also affords you a greater degree of privacy. I don’t need people to know what I’m doing on my phone, even if it’s something as innocuous as playing a song or setting a timer. I especially don’t want to dictate texts aloud when others can hear me. Typing those kinds of queries allows me to keep my business to myself — and, for that, I’m happy to sacrifice some hands-free capabilities.

I’m not denying that there are reasons why you might need to speak to an assistant, even in public settings. Voice commands are especially useful if you don’t have use of your hands or are driving a car. But having multiple ways to interact with AI assistants lets them fit more seamlessly into how we want to use our gadgets — instead of forcing everyone to adopt new paradigms. Maybe one day, it won’t feel weird to talk to a chatbot out loud while walking down the street. For most people, that day isn’t today. And until such a time comes, I’ll happily type to Siri instead.

Read More 

Image: The Verge

AT&T can’t pull the plug on landline service for customers across California. In a ruling on Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) rejected AT&T’s request to release it from its obligations as a Carrier of Last Resort (COLR), as reported earlier by Ars Technica and CBS News.
AT&T has had a COLR designation in California since 1996, which ensures everyone in the state has access to affordable and reliable telephone service. Some people in California — especially those who live in remote areas — have come to rely on their landline service, as it allows them to make emergency calls even when the power is out or cellular service isn’t available.
Earlier this year, AT&T asked CPUC to be released from its duties as a designated carrier, citing the wide availability of mobile service and VoIP. In its request, AT&T argues the “economic justification” for COLR no longer exists because alternative voice services with “reasonable rates” and “based on superior technologies” are available throughout the state. The company adds that it “bears substantial cost to maintain and operate” the copper landline network, while competitors don’t have to. AT&T says it would continue providing landline service in areas where there is no alternative available.
“AT&T failed to demonstrate the availability of replacement providers willing and able to serve as COLR.”
However, CPUC rejected AT&T’s request. The agency says “AT&T failed to demonstrate the availability of replacement providers willing and able to serve as COLR.” The decision also cites public commenters who brought up the “unreliability” of mobile service and VoIP. AT&T is now pushing for new rules that would change the way California designates a COLR.
“No customer will be left without voice and 911 services,” Marc Blakeman, president of AT&T California, says in an emailed statement to The Verge. “We are fully committed to keeping our customers connected while we work with state leaders on policies that create a thoughtful transition that brings modern communications to all Californians.”
Concerns surrounding the reliability of cellular service aren’t unfounded. In February, AT&T went down for thousands of people nationwide, while an issue earlier this month cut off calls between Verizon and AT&T customers.

Image: The Verge

AT&T can’t pull the plug on landline service for customers across California. In a ruling on Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) rejected AT&T’s request to release it from its obligations as a Carrier of Last Resort (COLR), as reported earlier by Ars Technica and CBS News.

AT&T has had a COLR designation in California since 1996, which ensures everyone in the state has access to affordable and reliable telephone service. Some people in California — especially those who live in remote areas — have come to rely on their landline service, as it allows them to make emergency calls even when the power is out or cellular service isn’t available.

Earlier this year, AT&T asked CPUC to be released from its duties as a designated carrier, citing the wide availability of mobile service and VoIP. In its request, AT&T argues the “economic justification” for COLR no longer exists because alternative voice services with “reasonable rates” and “based on superior technologies” are available throughout the state. The company adds that it “bears substantial cost to maintain and operate” the copper landline network, while competitors don’t have to. AT&T says it would continue providing landline service in areas where there is no alternative available.

However, CPUC rejected AT&T’s request. The agency says “AT&T failed to demonstrate the availability of replacement providers willing and able to serve as COLR.” The decision also cites public commenters who brought up the “unreliability” of mobile service and VoIP. AT&T is now pushing for new rules that would change the way California designates a COLR.

“No customer will be left without voice and 911 services,” Marc Blakeman, president of AT&T California, says in an emailed statement to The Verge. “We are fully committed to keeping our customers connected while we work with state leaders on policies that create a thoughtful transition that brings modern communications to all Californians.”

Concerns surrounding the reliability of cellular service aren’t unfounded. In February, AT&T went down for thousands of people nationwide, while an issue earlier this month cut off calls between Verizon and AT&T customers.

Read More 

Image: Tesla

A 20-month-old child was rescued after being trapped in a Tesla Model Y in Scottsdale, Arizona — where temperatures have exceeded 100 degrees this week — after its 12-volt battery died, according to a report from Arizona’s Family.
The child was safely removed from the car after firefighters used an ax to smash through a window. But the issue raises concerns about why there isn’t an easy way to open the car from the outside when its 12-volt battery — the one that powers things like its door locks and windows — loses power.
The car’s owner, Renee Sanchez, was taking her granddaughter to the zoo, but after loading the child in the Model Y, she closed the door and wasn’t able to open it again. “My phone key wouldn’t open it,” Sanchez said in an interview with Arizona’s Family. “My car key wouldn’t open it.” She called emergency services, and firefighters were dispatched to help.
It is possible to open doors in a Model Y if you’re inside the vehicle when it has no power; there’s a latch to open a front door and a cable to open a back door. But that wasn’t an option for the young child, who was buckled into their car seat while Sanchez was stuck outside the car. You can jump-start a dead Tesla to be able to get into it, but it can be a complex process.
Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment; it has dissolved its press office.
Earlier this week, Arizona’s Family reported on an instance of a woman getting trapped in her Model Y, though she was able to get out of the car once she learned of the latch. Last year, an Arizona driver said he was trapped in his Model Y on a hot day and got out thanks to help from his sister.

Image: Tesla

A 20-month-old child was rescued after being trapped in a Tesla Model Y in Scottsdale, Arizona — where temperatures have exceeded 100 degrees this week — after its 12-volt battery died, according to a report from Arizona’s Family.

The child was safely removed from the car after firefighters used an ax to smash through a window. But the issue raises concerns about why there isn’t an easy way to open the car from the outside when its 12-volt battery — the one that powers things like its door locks and windows — loses power.

The car’s owner, Renee Sanchez, was taking her granddaughter to the zoo, but after loading the child in the Model Y, she closed the door and wasn’t able to open it again. “My phone key wouldn’t open it,” Sanchez said in an interview with Arizona’s Family. “My car key wouldn’t open it.” She called emergency services, and firefighters were dispatched to help.

It is possible to open doors in a Model Y if you’re inside the vehicle when it has no power; there’s a latch to open a front door and a cable to open a back door. But that wasn’t an option for the young child, who was buckled into their car seat while Sanchez was stuck outside the car. You can jump-start a dead Tesla to be able to get into it, but it can be a complex process.

Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment; it has dissolved its press office.

Earlier this week, Arizona’s Family reported on an instance of a woman getting trapped in her Model Y, though she was able to get out of the car once she learned of the latch. Last year, an Arizona driver said he was trapped in his Model Y on a hot day and got out thanks to help from his sister.

Read More 

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

TikTok mistakenly posted a link to an internal version of its new AI digital avatar tool without guardrails, letting users create videos that say just about anything. The hiccup was first spotted by CNN and allowed the outlet to generate videos containing quotes from Hitler and a message telling people to drink bleach, among other phrases. TikTok has since taken this version of the tool down, while the version TikTok intended to launch remains available.
Launched earlier this week, TikTok’s Symphony Digital Avatars let businesses generate ads using the likeness of paid actors. It also uses AI-powered dubbing that lets advertisers enter a script to make the avatars say what they want within TikTok’s guidelines. Even though only users with a TikTok Ads Manager account can access this tool, the version CNN found let anyone with a personal account try.

TikTok placed zero content restrictions on the app. Any words we put in created a video with a peppy “Stock AI” Avatar reciting them. That included:-The 14 words-An excerpt from Mein Kampf-Osama Bin Laden’s Letter to America-A video telling people to drink bleach from “a… pic.twitter.com/I2QbqbDFnw— Jon Sarlin (@jonsarlin) June 21, 2024

In a statement to The Verge, TikTok spokesperson Laura Perez says TikTok has resolved the “technical error” that “allowed an extremely small number of users to create content using an internal testing version of the tool for a few days.”
When CNN discovered the internal tool, it let the outlet generate videos reciting Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America,” a white supremacy slogan, and a video telling people to vote on the wrong day. None of the videos CNN produced had a watermark disclosing that the video is AI-generated, which is something the proper version of TikTok’s Symphony Digital Avatars does.
CNN didn’t post the videos it created to TikTok, but Perez notes that if it had, the content “would have been rejected for violating our policies.” Even though TikTok has since taken this version of its tool down, it calls into question whether people will find other ways to abuse the digital avatar creator — and if TikTok is ready for it.

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

TikTok mistakenly posted a link to an internal version of its new AI digital avatar tool without guardrails, letting users create videos that say just about anything. The hiccup was first spotted by CNN and allowed the outlet to generate videos containing quotes from Hitler and a message telling people to drink bleach, among other phrases. TikTok has since taken this version of the tool down, while the version TikTok intended to launch remains available.

Launched earlier this week, TikTok’s Symphony Digital Avatars let businesses generate ads using the likeness of paid actors. It also uses AI-powered dubbing that lets advertisers enter a script to make the avatars say what they want within TikTok’s guidelines. Even though only users with a TikTok Ads Manager account can access this tool, the version CNN found let anyone with a personal account try.

In a statement to The Verge, TikTok spokesperson Laura Perez says TikTok has resolved the “technical error” that “allowed an extremely small number of users to create content using an internal testing version of the tool for a few days.”

When CNN discovered the internal tool, it let the outlet generate videos reciting Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America,” a white supremacy slogan, and a video telling people to vote on the wrong day. None of the videos CNN produced had a watermark disclosing that the video is AI-generated, which is something the proper version of TikTok’s Symphony Digital Avatars does.

CNN didn’t post the videos it created to TikTok, but Perez notes that if it had, the content “would have been rejected for violating our policies.” Even though TikTok has since taken this version of its tool down, it calls into question whether people will find other ways to abuse the digital avatar creator — and if TikTok is ready for it.

Read More 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against Amazon in Seattle that alleges the company “unlawfully disciplined and terminated an employee” after they assisted in organizing walkouts last May in protest of Amazon’s new return-to-work directives, issued early last year.
In February 2023, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent an email to the company’s staff outlining new return-to-work guidelines. Previously, individual teams within the company could decide where employees were expected to work, but Jassy’s email revealed that starting on May 1st, 2023, most Amazon employees were expected to work from the office at least three days per week. (Some roles, such as salespeople and customer support, were exempted.)
In response, thousands of Amazon employees signed petitions against the new mandate and staged a walkout several months later. Despite the protests and pushback, according to a report by Insider, in a meeting in early August 2023, Jassy reaffirmed the company’s commitment to employees returning to the office for the majority of the week.
The NLRB complaint alleges Amazon “interrogated” employees about the walkout using its internal Chime system. The employee was first put on a performance improvement plan by Amazon following their organizing efforts for the walkout and later “offered a severance payment of nine weeks’ salary if the employee signed a severance agreement and global release in exchange for their resignation.”
According to the NLRB’s lawyers, all of that was because the employee engaged in organizing, and the retaliation was intended to discourage “…protected, concerted activities.”
The name of the employee in the NLRB complaint is redacted. Last year, The Seattle Times profiled one of the walkout organizers, who was — after the walkout — put on a performance improvement plan that the paper describes as “known for being nearly impossible to escape.” A detail describing how investigators questioned this particular person over allegedly encouraging other employees “to be angry at Amazon” is mentioned both in the complaint and in the article.

The NLRB’s general counsel is seeking several different forms of remediation from Amazon, including reimbursement for the employee’s “financial harms and search-for-work and work related expenses,” a letter of apology, and a “Notice to Employees” that must be physically posted at the company’s facilities across the country, distributed electronically, and read by an Amazon rep at a recorded videoconference. The contents of the “Notice to Employees” was not specified.
Amazon responded to the NLRB’s complaint today, and Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesperson, shared the following statement with The Verge:
“The facts of this situation are clear and have nothing to do with whether this former employee opposed our return-to-office guidance. She consistently underperformed over a period of nearly a year and repeatedly failed to deliver on projects she was assigned. Despite extensive support and coaching, the former employee was unable to improve her performance and chose to leave the company.”
If Amazon and the employee do not settle, a hearing is planned with an NLRB Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) in Seattle on February 4th, 2025.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against Amazon in Seattle that alleges the company “unlawfully disciplined and terminated an employee” after they assisted in organizing walkouts last May in protest of Amazon’s new return-to-work directives, issued early last year.

In February 2023, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent an email to the company’s staff outlining new return-to-work guidelines. Previously, individual teams within the company could decide where employees were expected to work, but Jassy’s email revealed that starting on May 1st, 2023, most Amazon employees were expected to work from the office at least three days per week. (Some roles, such as salespeople and customer support, were exempted.)

In response, thousands of Amazon employees signed petitions against the new mandate and staged a walkout several months later. Despite the protests and pushback, according to a report by Insider, in a meeting in early August 2023, Jassy reaffirmed the company’s commitment to employees returning to the office for the majority of the week.

The NLRB complaint alleges Amazon “interrogated” employees about the walkout using its internal Chime system. The employee was first put on a performance improvement plan by Amazon following their organizing efforts for the walkout and later “offered a severance payment of nine weeks’ salary if the employee signed a severance agreement and global release in exchange for their resignation.”

According to the NLRB’s lawyers, all of that was because the employee engaged in organizing, and the retaliation was intended to discourage “…protected, concerted activities.”

The name of the employee in the NLRB complaint is redacted. Last year, The Seattle Times profiled one of the walkout organizers, who was — after the walkout — put on a performance improvement plan that the paper describes as “known for being nearly impossible to escape.” A detail describing how investigators questioned this particular person over allegedly encouraging other employees “to be angry at Amazon” is mentioned both in the complaint and in the article.

The NLRB’s general counsel is seeking several different forms of remediation from Amazon, including reimbursement for the employee’s “financial harms and search-for-work and work related expenses,” a letter of apology, and a “Notice to Employees” that must be physically posted at the company’s facilities across the country, distributed electronically, and read by an Amazon rep at a recorded videoconference. The contents of the “Notice to Employees” was not specified.

Amazon responded to the NLRB’s complaint today, and Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesperson, shared the following statement with The Verge:

“The facts of this situation are clear and have nothing to do with whether this former employee opposed our return-to-office guidance. She consistently underperformed over a period of nearly a year and repeatedly failed to deliver on projects she was assigned. Despite extensive support and coaching, the former employee was unable to improve her performance and chose to leave the company.”

If Amazon and the employee do not settle, a hearing is planned with an NLRB Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) in Seattle on February 4th, 2025.

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Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

The Biden administration announced sanctions against 12 executives and senior leaders of Kaspersky Lab, a Russia-based cybersecurity company, on Friday. The announcement comes on the heels of the Commerce Department’s ban on the sale of Kaspersky’s antivirus software in the US, citing national security concerns.
“Today’s action against the leadership of Kaspersky Lab underscores our commitment to ensure the integrity of our cyber domain and to protect our citizens against malicious cyber threats,” said Brian E. Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in a statement. The sanctions make it harder for these individuals to start businesses in the US. As TechCrunch notes, CEO and founder Eugene Kaspersky is not on the list of sanctioned individuals, nor is the company itself.
On Thursday, the Commerce Department banned Kaspersky from conducting new business in the US. The ban also prohibits existing users of Kaspersky’s antivirus software from downloading software updates. Those using Kaspersky’s software have until September 29th to find alternatives. In a press release, the Commerce Department urged anyone using Kaspersky software to “expeditiously transition to new vendors to limit exposure of personal or other sensitive data to malign actors due to a potential lack of cybersecurity coverage.”
The individuals sanctioned by the Treasury Department include members of the boards of directors of Kaspersky Lab and Kaspersky Group. The Commerce Department placed Kaspersky’s US, Russian, and United Kingdom operations on its Entity List over their “cooperation with Russian military and intelligence authorities in support of the Russian government’s cyber intelligence objectives.”
In 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia stole classified information from the personal computer of a government contractor. The contractor, who was working with the National Security Agency, had improperly stored the files on his personal computer, on which Kaspersky’s antivirus software was installed. In a statement to The New York Times, Kaspersky denied knowledge of or involvement in the incident. Later that year, the Department of Homeland Security forbade all federal agencies from using Kaspersky products on government servers.

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

The Biden administration announced sanctions against 12 executives and senior leaders of Kaspersky Lab, a Russia-based cybersecurity company, on Friday. The announcement comes on the heels of the Commerce Department’s ban on the sale of Kaspersky’s antivirus software in the US, citing national security concerns.

“Today’s action against the leadership of Kaspersky Lab underscores our commitment to ensure the integrity of our cyber domain and to protect our citizens against malicious cyber threats,” said Brian E. Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in a statement. The sanctions make it harder for these individuals to start businesses in the US. As TechCrunch notes, CEO and founder Eugene Kaspersky is not on the list of sanctioned individuals, nor is the company itself.

On Thursday, the Commerce Department banned Kaspersky from conducting new business in the US. The ban also prohibits existing users of Kaspersky’s antivirus software from downloading software updates. Those using Kaspersky’s software have until September 29th to find alternatives. In a press release, the Commerce Department urged anyone using Kaspersky software to “expeditiously transition to new vendors to limit exposure of personal or other sensitive data to malign actors due to a potential lack of cybersecurity coverage.”

The individuals sanctioned by the Treasury Department include members of the boards of directors of Kaspersky Lab and Kaspersky Group. The Commerce Department placed Kaspersky’s US, Russian, and United Kingdom operations on its Entity List over their “cooperation with Russian military and intelligence authorities in support of the Russian government’s cyber intelligence objectives.”

In 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia stole classified information from the personal computer of a government contractor. The contractor, who was working with the National Security Agency, had improperly stored the files on his personal computer, on which Kaspersky’s antivirus software was installed. In a statement to The New York Times, Kaspersky denied knowledge of or involvement in the incident. Later that year, the Department of Homeland Security forbade all federal agencies from using Kaspersky products on government servers.

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Traffic moves along Highway 11 near the airport as viewed opposite Volcanoes National Park on December 12th, 2016, in Hilo, Hawaii. | Photo by George Rose/Getty Images

A group of young plaintiffs reached a historic climate settlement with the state of Hawaii and Hawaii Department of Transportation in a deal that will push the state to clean up tailpipe pollution.
The 13 youth plaintiffs filed suit in 2022 when they were all between the ages of 9 and 18. In the suit, Navahine F. v. Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT), they alleged that the state and HDOT had violated their right to “a clean and healthful environment,” which is enshrined in Hawaii’s constitution.
“We got what we came for, and we got it faster than we expected.”
The settlement, reached on Thursday, affirms that right and commits the DOT to creating a plan to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by 2045. To hit that goal, the state will have to dedicate at least $40 million to building out its EV charging network by the end of the decade and complete new pedestrian, bicycle, and transit networks over the next five years. The settlement also creates a new unit within HDOT tasked with coordinating CO2 emission reductions and a volunteer youth council to advise HDOT.
“I am so proud of all the hard work to get us to this historic moment. We got what we came for, and we got it faster than we expected,” the lead plaintiff, Navahine F., said in an emailed statement.
This is the first settlement agreement in which “government defendants have decided to resolve a constitutional climate case in partnership with youth plaintiffs,” according to nonprofit legal groups Our Children’s Trust and Earthjustice, which represent the plaintiffs.
Back in 2018, Hawaii committed to reaching net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2045 — in line with what climate research determined was necessary to meet the Paris climate accord goal of stopping global warming. But the state wasn’t doing enough to reach that goal, the plaintiffs alleged. Transportation makes up the biggest chunk of the state’s greenhouse gas pollution.

“Climate change is indisputable,” Ed Sniffen, HDOT director of transportation, said in a press release. “Burying our heads in the sand and making it the next generation’s problem is not pono.”
Youth in Montana scored another historic legal win last year after the first climate case of its kind to go to trial. A state court found that a Montana policy that barred officials from considering the consequences of climate change when permitting new energy projects violated the rights of the plaintiffs to a “clean and healthful environment.” The lawsuit in Hawaii was expected to be the next landmark youth climate case to go to trial in the US. Several other state and federal youth climate suits are still pending in the US.

Traffic moves along Highway 11 near the airport as viewed opposite Volcanoes National Park on December 12th, 2016, in Hilo, Hawaii. | Photo by George Rose/Getty Images

A group of young plaintiffs reached a historic climate settlement with the state of Hawaii and Hawaii Department of Transportation in a deal that will push the state to clean up tailpipe pollution.

The 13 youth plaintiffs filed suit in 2022 when they were all between the ages of 9 and 18. In the suit, Navahine F. v. Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT), they alleged that the state and HDOT had violated their right to “a clean and healthful environment,” which is enshrined in Hawaii’s constitution.

The settlement, reached on Thursday, affirms that right and commits the DOT to creating a plan to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by 2045. To hit that goal, the state will have to dedicate at least $40 million to building out its EV charging network by the end of the decade and complete new pedestrian, bicycle, and transit networks over the next five years. The settlement also creates a new unit within HDOT tasked with coordinating CO2 emission reductions and a volunteer youth council to advise HDOT.

“I am so proud of all the hard work to get us to this historic moment. We got what we came for, and we got it faster than we expected,” the lead plaintiff, Navahine F., said in an emailed statement.

This is the first settlement agreement in which “government defendants have decided to resolve a constitutional climate case in partnership with youth plaintiffs,” according to nonprofit legal groups Our Children’s Trust and Earthjustice, which represent the plaintiffs.

Back in 2018, Hawaii committed to reaching net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2045 — in line with what climate research determined was necessary to meet the Paris climate accord goal of stopping global warming. But the state wasn’t doing enough to reach that goal, the plaintiffs alleged. Transportation makes up the biggest chunk of the state’s greenhouse gas pollution.

“Climate change is indisputable,” Ed Sniffen, HDOT director of transportation, said in a press release. “Burying our heads in the sand and making it the next generation’s problem is not pono.”

Youth in Montana scored another historic legal win last year after the first climate case of its kind to go to trial. A state court found that a Montana policy that barred officials from considering the consequences of climate change when permitting new energy projects violated the rights of the plaintiffs to a “clean and healthful environment.” The lawsuit in Hawaii was expected to be the next landmark youth climate case to go to trial in the US. Several other state and federal youth climate suits are still pending in the US.

Read More