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Now that’s a compact camera. | Image: MiNT

The analog film resurgence continues marching forward, as MiNT’s Rollei 35AF camera seems poised to release this year. The Hong Kong-based camera manufacturer first carved its niche making boutique instant film cameras that remixed classics like the Polaroid SX-70. Now, it’s launched a website with a waitlist for potential customers interested in this diminutive 35mm camera.
The Rollei 35AF is a reincarnation of the original Rollei 35 from 1966, but while one foot remains in the analog past, the new design incorporates lidar-based autofocus for its 35mm f/2.8 lens and options for automatic exposures. It’s still built with a boxy metal body like the original and seems to keep a very compact size. According to MiNT, via PetaPixel and Kosmo Foto, the Rollei 35AF is expected to sell for $650 to $800 when it launches later this year.

With Leica rereleasing its M6 rangefinder in 2022 and rumors that a new Pentax film camera may be imminent, new film cameras that are more than just the equivalent of reusable disposables seem to be on trend. I personally shudder at the current prices of film and lab development costs these days, but I still love that analog photography’s bubble hasn’t yet popped.
I recall using the original Rollei 35 in college a bunch of years ago, and it was a fun little camera — albeit one that asked a lot of its users. The original didn’t just have a manual focus lens (which was 40mm on the original), but it relied on zone focusing by way of the focus scale and some muscle memory. It will be really intriguing to see what an autofocus remix of the little Rollei is like.

Now that’s a compact camera. | Image: MiNT

The analog film resurgence continues marching forward, as MiNT’s Rollei 35AF camera seems poised to release this year. The Hong Kong-based camera manufacturer first carved its niche making boutique instant film cameras that remixed classics like the Polaroid SX-70. Now, it’s launched a website with a waitlist for potential customers interested in this diminutive 35mm camera.

The Rollei 35AF is a reincarnation of the original Rollei 35 from 1966, but while one foot remains in the analog past, the new design incorporates lidar-based autofocus for its 35mm f/2.8 lens and options for automatic exposures. It’s still built with a boxy metal body like the original and seems to keep a very compact size. According to MiNT, via PetaPixel and Kosmo Foto, the Rollei 35AF is expected to sell for $650 to $800 when it launches later this year.

With Leica rereleasing its M6 rangefinder in 2022 and rumors that a new Pentax film camera may be imminent, new film cameras that are more than just the equivalent of reusable disposables seem to be on trend. I personally shudder at the current prices of film and lab development costs these days, but I still love that analog photography’s bubble hasn’t yet popped.

I recall using the original Rollei 35 in college a bunch of years ago, and it was a fun little camera — albeit one that asked a lot of its users. The original didn’t just have a manual focus lens (which was 40mm on the original), but it relied on zone focusing by way of the focus scale and some muscle memory. It will be really intriguing to see what an autofocus remix of the little Rollei is like.

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Image: The Verge

OpenAI and Microsoft are teaming up with Oracle to get more compute capacity to run ChatGPT. As part of a partnership announced this week, the three companies are working together so that OpenAI can use the Microsoft Azure Al platform on Oracle’s infrastructure.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hasn’t shied away from the fact that his company needs substantially more infrastructure to power its services. He has even been in discussions to raise billions of dollars for an AI chip venture. In the press release for the Oracle deal this week, he said Oracle’s chips will “enable OpenAI to continue to scale.”
To date, OpenAI has relied fully on Microsoft for its compute needs. In turn, Microsoft has invested $13 billion for a 49 percent stake in OpenAI’s for-profit subsidiary and the exclusive right to commercially license its technology. But as this Oracle deal makes clear, OpenAI needs more compute than Microsoft alone can give if it wants to keep up with demand and prevent future ChatGPT outages.
Microsoft and OpenAI are clearly sensitive about how this Oracle deal is perceived. On Wednesday, OpenAI issued a follow-up statement saying that “our strategic cloud relationship with Microsoft is unchanged” and that the new partnership “enables OpenAI to use the Azure AI platform on OCI infrastructure for inference and other needs.” (Inference refers to the act of running AI models in production through applications like ChatGPT.)
OpenAI also made clear that the pre-training of its frontier models “continues to happen on supercomputers built in partnership with Microsoft.”
There’s another level of awkwardness to OpenAI and Oracle working together: Oracle also provides infrastructure to xAI, Elon Musk’s OpenAI rival.

Image: The Verge

OpenAI and Microsoft are teaming up with Oracle to get more compute capacity to run ChatGPT. As part of a partnership announced this week, the three companies are working together so that OpenAI can use the Microsoft Azure Al platform on Oracle’s infrastructure.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hasn’t shied away from the fact that his company needs substantially more infrastructure to power its services. He has even been in discussions to raise billions of dollars for an AI chip venture. In the press release for the Oracle deal this week, he said Oracle’s chips will “enable OpenAI to continue to scale.”

To date, OpenAI has relied fully on Microsoft for its compute needs. In turn, Microsoft has invested $13 billion for a 49 percent stake in OpenAI’s for-profit subsidiary and the exclusive right to commercially license its technology. But as this Oracle deal makes clear, OpenAI needs more compute than Microsoft alone can give if it wants to keep up with demand and prevent future ChatGPT outages.

Microsoft and OpenAI are clearly sensitive about how this Oracle deal is perceived. On Wednesday, OpenAI issued a follow-up statement saying that “our strategic cloud relationship with Microsoft is unchanged” and that the new partnership “enables OpenAI to use the Azure AI platform on OCI infrastructure for inference and other needs.” (Inference refers to the act of running AI models in production through applications like ChatGPT.)

OpenAI also made clear that the pre-training of its frontier models “continues to happen on supercomputers built in partnership with Microsoft.”

There’s another level of awkwardness to OpenAI and Oracle working together: Oracle also provides infrastructure to xAI, Elon Musk’s OpenAI rival.

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Video doorbells can make for great gifts — just be prepared to provide personal tech support. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

We’re closing in fast on June 16th, which means Father’s Day is right around the corner. If you haven’t already nabbed a gift for your pops or any other dads in your life, well, you’re starting to cut it close. But don’t fret; we’ve got some excellent last-minute gift ideas to consider.

The annual celebration of all things dad is often filled with campy and played-out gifts like ties, socks, and overtly macho power tools. Our Father’s Day gift guide offers plenty of inspiration for last-minute shoppers, but if you need a shortcut, we’ve rounded up some alternative ideas below, along with a few discounted picks ripped directly from our gift guide. Of course, to qualify as one of these “last-minute deals,” they must be discounted and slated to arrive in time, so be sure to double-check the shipping details if you’re concerned about timing.
Smart home deals

Amazon’s colorful Echo Pop smart speaker is still selling for its second-best price of $19.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. The tiny wedge of a speaker sounds pretty good for its size if you want to stream music to it, and it makes a great addition or starting point to an Alexa-powered smart home ecosystem. Read our review.

Headphone, earbud, and speaker deals

JBL’s Charge 5 Bluetooth speaker, which makes a nice gift if your dad likes a fair bit of bass in his tunes, is selling for around $139.95 ($40 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. Its jumbo-sized battery doubles as a power bank, too, which is great for long trips or time spent outdoors.

Sonos’ ongoing Father’s Day deals will continue through June 16th. The promo extends sizable discounts to the Era 100 and Era 300 smart speakers as well as various soundbars. The Era 100 represents the most affordable option, one you can pick up in time for Father’s Day at Amazon and Best Buy for $199 ($50 off).

Apple deals
The second-gen AirPods Pro with USB-C are selling for $189.99 ($60 off) at Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon. Apple’s top-tier earbuds offer excellent sound quality and noise cancellation, not to mention added dust resistance. Apple just announced some nifty new features during its WWDC 2024 keynote, too, including one that will allow you to respond to Siri with a head nod in lieu of talking in public or noisy environments. Read our review.

The new 11-inch iPad Air with an M2 chip and 128GB of storage is on a modest sale for $569 ($30 off) at Amazon and arrives in time for Father’s Day if you’re a Prime member or opt for expedited shipping. The new Air arguably sits in an odd spot between the cheaper 10th-gen iPad and the new OLED iPad Pros, but hey, at least with that M2 processor, your dad will be able to use Apple’s upcoming AI features with it (make of that what you will).

Streaming device deals
If you want to get your dad a 4K streamer for as little as possible, Amazon and Best Buy are selling Amazon’s latest Fire TV Stick 4K for $29.99 ($20 off). It doesn’t have the faster performance and Wi-Fi speeds afforded by the Max version (now $39.99), but it will certainly get the job done.

Gaming deals

The PlayStation Portal is sometimes called the “DadStation” by its fans, as streaming games off your PlayStation 5 to a comfy handheld frees up the TV for family members. But you can also do that with a Backbone controller and a phone for much less. Pretty much all versions of the improved second-gen Backbone One are $20 off through Father’s Day, dropping the price to $79.99. You can get it in black with a USB-C port (Amazon / Best Buy) or in a white PlayStation layout with USB-C (Amazon / Best Buy). You can even grab a discounted model with a Lightning plug at Amazon if your dad uses an older iPhone.
Computer accessory deals

8BitDo’s Retro Mechanical Keyboard has dropped to lower prices before, but the deep-cut Famicom version with its Hiragana sub-legends remains a great value of a nostalgia trip for $89.90 ($10 off) at Amazon. It makes for a great entry-level mechanical keyboard, especially since it comes with fun oversized A and B macro buttons that can be programmed to carry out all kinds of functions. You just want to be sure your dad will be okay with its loud, clicky switches (but really, that’s part of the charm).
Miscellaneous deals

The Fanttik X8 portable tire inflator, one of the car / bike picks from our Father’s Day gift guide, is on sale at Amazon in green for $39.57 (about $20 off) when you clip the on-page coupon. The small automated pump allows you to dial in a desired tire pressure up to 150 PSI, and it charges via USB-C.
Some other fun ideas from our gift guide that are currently discounted include CMYK’s terrific tabletop game Wavelength and the paperback version of Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem trilogy. The lighthearted “geez, you think ya know a guy” game is $31.49 ($8 off) at Amazon and Walmart, while the novels — which recently got the Netflix treatment — are going for $34.49 (around $24 off) at Target, Walmart, and Amazon.
If your dad is a bookworm, he may just love the Glocusent book light, which offers a USB-C LED light to rest on your neck for nighttime reading. And you’ll probably love that it’s on sale at Amazon right now starting at just $17.99 ($15 off).

Video doorbells can make for great gifts — just be prepared to provide personal tech support. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

We’re closing in fast on June 16th, which means Father’s Day is right around the corner. If you haven’t already nabbed a gift for your pops or any other dads in your life, well, you’re starting to cut it close. But don’t fret; we’ve got some excellent last-minute gift ideas to consider.

The annual celebration of all things dad is often filled with campy and played-out gifts like ties, socks, and overtly macho power tools. Our Father’s Day gift guide offers plenty of inspiration for last-minute shoppers, but if you need a shortcut, we’ve rounded up some alternative ideas below, along with a few discounted picks ripped directly from our gift guide. Of course, to qualify as one of these “last-minute deals,” they must be discounted and slated to arrive in time, so be sure to double-check the shipping details if you’re concerned about timing.

Smart home deals

Amazon’s colorful Echo Pop smart speaker is still selling for its second-best price of $19.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. The tiny wedge of a speaker sounds pretty good for its size if you want to stream music to it, and it makes a great addition or starting point to an Alexa-powered smart home ecosystem. Read our review.

Headphone, earbud, and speaker deals

JBL’s Charge 5 Bluetooth speaker, which makes a nice gift if your dad likes a fair bit of bass in his tunes, is selling for around $139.95 ($40 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. Its jumbo-sized battery doubles as a power bank, too, which is great for long trips or time spent outdoors.

Sonos’ ongoing Father’s Day deals will continue through June 16th. The promo extends sizable discounts to the Era 100 and Era 300 smart speakers as well as various soundbars. The Era 100 represents the most affordable option, one you can pick up in time for Father’s Day at Amazon and Best Buy for $199 ($50 off).

Apple deals

The second-gen AirPods Pro with USB-C are selling for $189.99 ($60 off) at Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon. Apple’s top-tier earbuds offer excellent sound quality and noise cancellation, not to mention added dust resistance. Apple just announced some nifty new features during its WWDC 2024 keynote, too, including one that will allow you to respond to Siri with a head nod in lieu of talking in public or noisy environments. Read our review.

The new 11-inch iPad Air with an M2 chip and 128GB of storage is on a modest sale for $569 ($30 off) at Amazon and arrives in time for Father’s Day if you’re a Prime member or opt for expedited shipping. The new Air arguably sits in an odd spot between the cheaper 10th-gen iPad and the new OLED iPad Pros, but hey, at least with that M2 processor, your dad will be able to use Apple’s upcoming AI features with it (make of that what you will).

Streaming device deals

If you want to get your dad a 4K streamer for as little as possible, Amazon and Best Buy are selling Amazon’s latest Fire TV Stick 4K for $29.99 ($20 off). It doesn’t have the faster performance and Wi-Fi speeds afforded by the Max version (now $39.99), but it will certainly get the job done.

Gaming deals

The PlayStation Portal is sometimes called the “DadStation” by its fans, as streaming games off your PlayStation 5 to a comfy handheld frees up the TV for family members. But you can also do that with a Backbone controller and a phone for much less. Pretty much all versions of the improved second-gen Backbone One are $20 off through Father’s Day, dropping the price to $79.99. You can get it in black with a USB-C port (Amazon / Best Buy) or in a white PlayStation layout with USB-C (Amazon / Best Buy). You can even grab a discounted model with a Lightning plug at Amazon if your dad uses an older iPhone.

Computer accessory deals

8BitDo’s Retro Mechanical Keyboard has dropped to lower prices before, but the deep-cut Famicom version with its Hiragana sub-legends remains a great value of a nostalgia trip for $89.90 ($10 off) at Amazon. It makes for a great entry-level mechanical keyboard, especially since it comes with fun oversized A and B macro buttons that can be programmed to carry out all kinds of functions. You just want to be sure your dad will be okay with its loud, clicky switches (but really, that’s part of the charm).

Miscellaneous deals

The Fanttik X8 portable tire inflator, one of the car / bike picks from our Father’s Day gift guide, is on sale at Amazon in green for $39.57 (about $20 off) when you clip the on-page coupon. The small automated pump allows you to dial in a desired tire pressure up to 150 PSI, and it charges via USB-C.
Some other fun ideas from our gift guide that are currently discounted include CMYK’s terrific tabletop game Wavelength and the paperback version of Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem trilogy. The lighthearted “geez, you think ya know a guy” game is $31.49 ($8 off) at Amazon and Walmart, while the novels — which recently got the Netflix treatment — are going for $34.49 (around $24 off) at Target, Walmart, and Amazon.
If your dad is a bookworm, he may just love the Glocusent book light, which offers a USB-C LED light to rest on your neck for nighttime reading. And you’ll probably love that it’s on sale at Amazon right now starting at just $17.99 ($15 off).

Read More 

Illustration: The Verge

Somebody, call Tom Cruise — several Roku TV owners say that motion smoothing is suddenly enabled on their TVs with no way to turn it off.
Contributors on Reddit and in Roku’s community forum reported seeing the change on TCL TVs running on Roku OS 13, as did a few staffers on The Verge. However, for others who have access to “Expert” picture settings, the same update is in place without a change, and the settings to control it are still available.
For some people experiencing the problem, they said this is the first time their TV offered Roku’s motion smoothing feature at all and that there’s nowhere in any menu (either the standard settings or the picture settings available while watching TV) to turn it off. The update notes for Roku OS 13 mention a new “Roku Smart Picture” feature that will optimize based on the content being watched, so there may be a bug there. However, people in older threads have reported similar issues with some Roku devices before.
A Roku community moderator responded on the forum that the team is looking into the incident. Roku also offered its typical instructions for disabling the settings, which involves clicking the Star button on the remote during playback and heading to the Action Smoothing submenu under Advanced Picture Settings.

The Verge has reached out to Roku for further comment and will update this story when we hear back.
The smooth motion feature has been known by many brand names over the years, like Action Smoothing for Roku, TruMotion for LG, Motionflow for Sony, and Auto Motion Plus for Samsung TVs. It attempts to reduce motion blur by inserting fake frames that increase frame rates for TVs with high refresh rates. It can be useful while watching fast-motion sports, but some complain it can take away the cinematic look of movies made for 24fps and create a hyperrealistic soap opera vibe instead.
Naturally, a lot of people who work in film and television aren’t a fan. Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson once went so far as to say it makes “movies look like liquid diarrhea.”

Illustration: The Verge

Somebody, call Tom Cruise — several Roku TV owners say that motion smoothing is suddenly enabled on their TVs with no way to turn it off.

Contributors on Reddit and in Roku’s community forum reported seeing the change on TCL TVs running on Roku OS 13, as did a few staffers on The Verge. However, for others who have access to “Expert” picture settings, the same update is in place without a change, and the settings to control it are still available.

For some people experiencing the problem, they said this is the first time their TV offered Roku’s motion smoothing feature at all and that there’s nowhere in any menu (either the standard settings or the picture settings available while watching TV) to turn it off. The update notes for Roku OS 13 mention a new “Roku Smart Picture” feature that will optimize based on the content being watched, so there may be a bug there. However, people in older threads have reported similar issues with some Roku devices before.

A Roku community moderator responded on the forum that the team is looking into the incident. Roku also offered its typical instructions for disabling the settings, which involves clicking the Star button on the remote during playback and heading to the Action Smoothing submenu under Advanced Picture Settings.

The Verge has reached out to Roku for further comment and will update this story when we hear back.

The smooth motion feature has been known by many brand names over the years, like Action Smoothing for Roku, TruMotion for LG, Motionflow for Sony, and Auto Motion Plus for Samsung TVs. It attempts to reduce motion blur by inserting fake frames that increase frame rates for TVs with high refresh rates. It can be useful while watching fast-motion sports, but some complain it can take away the cinematic look of movies made for 24fps and create a hyperrealistic soap opera vibe instead.

Naturally, a lot of people who work in film and television aren’t a fan. Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson once went so far as to say it makes “movies look like liquid diarrhea.”

Read More 

Photo by Walid Berrazeg / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Intel, Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm are the household names in chips — but in 2025, the popular but lesser known MediaTek might make a play to join them. Reuters reports that the Taiwanese chip company is now preparing an AI PC chipset to launch in late 2025 specifically for Windows PCs. Currently, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite is the alleged MacBook Air-beating talk of the town, and MediaTek wants a piece of that action.
According to Reuters, the new MediaTek chip will reportedly be aimed at the same Microsoft Copilot Plus PC program that Qualcomm helped kick-start with Microsoft. There’s apparently an opening for chipmakers like MediaTek there now that Microsoft’s exclusivity arrangement with Qualcomm for Arm-based versions of Windows is finally ending this year.
MediaTek isn’t the only one taking advantage of the lapsed Qualcomm deal; Nvidia and AMD plan to have Arm PC chips in 2025, too. But that Nvidia chip may be partially powered by MediaTek as well! That’s what we heard in a report from Taiwan’s United Daily News last month, and Reuters now confirms MediaTek is helping with that separate chip, too. There’s even a rumor floating around that MediaTek and Nvidia may be working on a Steam Deck-sized gaming chip.

Why would Nvidia need MediaTek when it already builds its own Arm chips? (The Nintendo Switch has used Nvidia Tegra chips from the start.) I’m not entirely sure. MediaTek is a fabless chipmaker, meaning it doesn’t manufacture chips itself. As far as MediaTek’s own separate chip goes, Reuters says it uses Arm’s “ready-made designs,” likely meaning it adopts Arm’s already-designed processing cores instead of something MediaTek came up with on its own.
And speaking of those ready-made designs, they may power yet another Windows+Arm competitor for Qualcomm, too. “Executives at Arm have said one of its customers used the ready-made components to build a chip in roughly nine months for a design that is already complete, which MediaTek’s is not,” writes Reuters.
Feels like things are heating up again in the laptop space!

Photo by Walid Berrazeg / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Intel, Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm are the household names in chips — but in 2025, the popular but lesser known MediaTek might make a play to join them. Reuters reports that the Taiwanese chip company is now preparing an AI PC chipset to launch in late 2025 specifically for Windows PCs. Currently, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite is the alleged MacBook Air-beating talk of the town, and MediaTek wants a piece of that action.

According to Reuters, the new MediaTek chip will reportedly be aimed at the same Microsoft Copilot Plus PC program that Qualcomm helped kick-start with Microsoft. There’s apparently an opening for chipmakers like MediaTek there now that Microsoft’s exclusivity arrangement with Qualcomm for Arm-based versions of Windows is finally ending this year.

MediaTek isn’t the only one taking advantage of the lapsed Qualcomm deal; Nvidia and AMD plan to have Arm PC chips in 2025, too. But that Nvidia chip may be partially powered by MediaTek as well! That’s what we heard in a report from Taiwan’s United Daily News last month, and Reuters now confirms MediaTek is helping with that separate chip, too. There’s even a rumor floating around that MediaTek and Nvidia may be working on a Steam Deck-sized gaming chip.

Why would Nvidia need MediaTek when it already builds its own Arm chips? (The Nintendo Switch has used Nvidia Tegra chips from the start.) I’m not entirely sure. MediaTek is a fabless chipmaker, meaning it doesn’t manufacture chips itself. As far as MediaTek’s own separate chip goes, Reuters says it uses Arm’s “ready-made designs,” likely meaning it adopts Arm’s already-designed processing cores instead of something MediaTek came up with on its own.

And speaking of those ready-made designs, they may power yet another Windows+Arm competitor for Qualcomm, too. “Executives at Arm have said one of its customers used the ready-made components to build a chip in roughly nine months for a design that is already complete, which MediaTek’s is not,” writes Reuters.

Feels like things are heating up again in the laptop space!

Read More 

An Alamo Drafthouse theater. | Image: Sony and Alamo Drafthouse

Sony Pictures Entertainment has acquired the popular movie theater chain Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, the two companies announced on Wednesday.
Sony, which will oversee the theaters under a new Sony Pictures Experiences division, says it “will preserve Alamo Drafthouse’s distinctive movie-dining experience,” according to a press release. Alamo will continue to operate “all 35 of its cinemas across 25 metro areas under the Alamo Drafthouse brand,” and current CEO Michael Kustermann will remain in that role. Alamo’s Fantastic Fest film festival will still be operated by the company.
Sony is acquiring Alamo Drafthouse from Altamont Capital Partners, Fortress Investment Group, and Alamo founder Tim League — a group that took ownership of Alamo after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2021.
Sony’s acquisition is particularly notable given that it’s happening after the 2020 termination of the Paramount Consent Decrees. The decrees, resulting from a 1948 Supreme Court decision, forced movie companies to sell the theaters they owned to spur competition and create consumer choice. With so many ways for viewers to see films nowadays, the decree was reversed by the Department of Justice.
Since then, Sony isn’t the only movie distributor that has purchased theaters; Netflix has cinemas in New York and Los Angeles.

An Alamo Drafthouse theater. | Image: Sony and Alamo Drafthouse

Sony Pictures Entertainment has acquired the popular movie theater chain Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, the two companies announced on Wednesday.

Sony, which will oversee the theaters under a new Sony Pictures Experiences division, says it “will preserve Alamo Drafthouse’s distinctive movie-dining experience,” according to a press release. Alamo will continue to operate “all 35 of its cinemas across 25 metro areas under the Alamo Drafthouse brand,” and current CEO Michael Kustermann will remain in that role. Alamo’s Fantastic Fest film festival will still be operated by the company.

Sony is acquiring Alamo Drafthouse from Altamont Capital Partners, Fortress Investment Group, and Alamo founder Tim League — a group that took ownership of Alamo after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2021.

Sony’s acquisition is particularly notable given that it’s happening after the 2020 termination of the Paramount Consent Decrees. The decrees, resulting from a 1948 Supreme Court decision, forced movie companies to sell the theaters they owned to spur competition and create consumer choice. With so many ways for viewers to see films nowadays, the decree was reversed by the Department of Justice.

Since then, Sony isn’t the only movie distributor that has purchased theaters; Netflix has cinemas in New York and Los Angeles.

Read More 

Illustration: Lille Allen / The Verge

On Thursday, Tesla shareholders will face a stark choice: approve Elon Musk’s enormous pay package, the largest ever awarded to a chief executive, or risk him picking up his ball and going home.
The shareholder meeting on Thursday is a referendum on Musk’s tumultuous leadership, in which he took a relatively niche startup, wrested it away from its founders, and turned it into what is arguably one of the most consequential car companies in modern history. To reward him for this feat, shareholders are being asked to cast an unprecedented vote on Musk’s compensation — to the tune of $50 billion — for the second time.
Last January, a Delaware court judge invalidated Musk’s pay package, first approved in 2018, arguing that the process was flawed because shareholders lacked insight into its development and that Tesla’s board was too chummy with its already very rich CEO. Incensed, Musk pulled some strings to set up another vote, while also pushing for a proposal to reincorporate Tesla in Texas as a way to avoid the scrutiny of Delaware’s shareholder-favoring court system.
Tesla’s board says the pay package is needed to secure Musk’s attention — even as it becomes less clear that money is what really motivates him.
“If I were a shareholder, I would be asking myself for starters whether the $50 billion Elon Musk is requesting in exchange for his full attention would in fact secure it,” said Gregory Shill, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law, “or if, as some colleagues have argued, it would be unlikely to.”
“One simple purpose”
In a letter to shareholders last week, Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm argued that for Musk to receive his historic compensation, he needed to hit certain operational thresholds and boost the company’s stock and valuation — and he did. In 2020, the company became the most valuable automaker in the world with a market capitalization of over $400 billion. In 2021, it briefly reached a $1 trillion valuation.
The original proposal “had one simple purpose,” Denholm said, “to keep Elon focused on Tesla and motivated to achieve the Company’s incomparable ambitions.” Tesla must “retain Elon’s attention and motivate him to continue to devote his time, energy, ambition and vision to deliver comparable results in the future,” she added.
Musk, in typical fashion, was more blunt: give me 25 percent of the company or I’ll spin out the AI division into another company, he said on X.

The question of the CEO’s “attention” and “focus” is unique among Fortune 500 companies. No other company has a chief executive who seems so uninterested in the job he is most known for. Musk spreads himself dangerously thin, overseeing SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, X Corp., and xAI, the AI startup that just received $6 billion in financing. And while Tesla is the source of Musk’s wealth and popularity, it’s obvious his attention has wandered considerably in recent years.
On Wednesday, Tesla posted a lengthy list of its accomplishments under Musk, including vehicle delivery growth and milestones in developing the company’s Full Self-Driving software that Musk has argued will eventually lead to fully autonomous vehicles.
The company makes no mention of the last six months of turbulence, including several rounds of layoffs, a nearly 30 percent drop in share price, and rampant price cutting, leading to the lowest profit margins in six years. Many observers have noted that the recent slowdown in EV sales growth appears to be entirely localized within Tesla, which still commands over 50 percent of the market. Unsold Teslas are piling up in parking lots in numbers so large they can be viewed from space.
The question of the CEO’s “attention” and “focus” is unique among Fortune 500 companies
Samantha Crispin, a partner at Texas-based law firm Baker Botts and chair of the corporate department, said these difficulties could sway certain investors, depending on when they bought into the Tesla story.
“A recent investor that hasn’t seen the type of return on investment, like somebody who would have invested pre-2018, they may well have a very different point of view,” Crispin told The Verge.
“Unpredictable”
The vote has quickly emerged as a showdown between institutional investors — large funds that include Tesla shares in their pooled investments — and retail investors, also known as mom-and-pop shareholders, who own individual stocks.
Tesla has the largest share of retail investors in the S&P 500, according to Reuters, to the tune of 43 percent. On X, Musk claims he has the vast majority of their support, which comes as little surprise. Musk actively courts the favor of mom-and-pop investors, sparing with them on Twitter, allowing them to ask questions during earnings calls, and inviting them to lavish events at his factories. This time around, Tesla is offering factory tours led by Musk himself to a select group of shareholders to entice them to vote.
The only problem is that retail investors have historically proven apathetic about voting their shares. When they do vote, they tend to favor management. But most often, they don’t even bother.
“Retail investors can be much more unpredictable,” Crispin said, “in terms of how they may end up voting on a matter [or] whether or not they actually show up to vote.”
Meanwhile, several top proxy advisory firms have recommended voting against the proposal, arguing it is too “excessive” and would dilute the value for individual shareholders — which bodes poorly for Musk’s chances.
“A known quantity”
Even if Musk wins the vote, he wouldn’t automatically become $50 billion richer. That’s because Tesla has yet to file its appeal to the Delaware court’s ruling, which it would need to do in order to allow Musk to receive his compensation. A positive outcome would feature prominently in said appeal and could lead to the judge’s ruling being overturned.
Tesla shareholders are also being asked to approve a proposal to reincorporate the company in Texas. That could work against Tesla’s effort to convince the Delaware courts to reverse its ruling. And it could sink its support among institutional investors, which have long preferred Delaware because of its predictability.
“Retail investors can be much more unpredictable”
“It’s a known quantity with many decades of established legal precedent that people respect, and Texas is an unknown quantity in that regard,” said Stephen Diamond, an expert on corporate governance at Santa Clara University’s law school. Diamond also noted that reincorporation to Texas requires a higher vote threshold than the compensation vote, which may also make it harder to accomplish.
All of these issues will be on display at Tesla’s Austin factory on Thursday. The fanboys will be there, as will the average shareholders alongside the big investors, the sovereign wealth funds, and money managers. Musk has long argued that Tesla isn’t a simple car company — it’s really a tech company. In fact, it’s an AI and robotics company attempting to capture the zeitgeist alongside tech’s other big players.
He’s clearly a true believer. Tomorrow’s vote will be the ultimate decision on whether everyone else buys it, too.

Illustration: Lille Allen / The Verge

On Thursday, Tesla shareholders will face a stark choice: approve Elon Musk’s enormous pay package, the largest ever awarded to a chief executive, or risk him picking up his ball and going home.

The shareholder meeting on Thursday is a referendum on Musk’s tumultuous leadership, in which he took a relatively niche startup, wrested it away from its founders, and turned it into what is arguably one of the most consequential car companies in modern history. To reward him for this feat, shareholders are being asked to cast an unprecedented vote on Musk’s compensation — to the tune of $50 billion — for the second time.

Last January, a Delaware court judge invalidated Musk’s pay package, first approved in 2018, arguing that the process was flawed because shareholders lacked insight into its development and that Tesla’s board was too chummy with its already very rich CEO. Incensed, Musk pulled some strings to set up another vote, while also pushing for a proposal to reincorporate Tesla in Texas as a way to avoid the scrutiny of Delaware’s shareholder-favoring court system.

Tesla’s board says the pay package is needed to secure Musk’s attention — even as it becomes less clear that money is what really motivates him.

“If I were a shareholder, I would be asking myself for starters whether the $50 billion Elon Musk is requesting in exchange for his full attention would in fact secure it,” said Gregory Shill, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law, “or if, as some colleagues have argued, it would be unlikely to.”

“One simple purpose”

In a letter to shareholders last week, Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm argued that for Musk to receive his historic compensation, he needed to hit certain operational thresholds and boost the company’s stock and valuation — and he did. In 2020, the company became the most valuable automaker in the world with a market capitalization of over $400 billion. In 2021, it briefly reached a $1 trillion valuation.

The original proposal “had one simple purpose,” Denholm said, “to keep Elon focused on Tesla and motivated to achieve the Company’s incomparable ambitions.” Tesla must “retain Elon’s attention and motivate him to continue to devote his time, energy, ambition and vision to deliver comparable results in the future,” she added.

Musk, in typical fashion, was more blunt: give me 25 percent of the company or I’ll spin out the AI division into another company, he said on X.

The question of the CEO’s “attention” and “focus” is unique among Fortune 500 companies. No other company has a chief executive who seems so uninterested in the job he is most known for. Musk spreads himself dangerously thin, overseeing SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, X Corp., and xAI, the AI startup that just received $6 billion in financing. And while Tesla is the source of Musk’s wealth and popularity, it’s obvious his attention has wandered considerably in recent years.

On Wednesday, Tesla posted a lengthy list of its accomplishments under Musk, including vehicle delivery growth and milestones in developing the company’s Full Self-Driving software that Musk has argued will eventually lead to fully autonomous vehicles.

The company makes no mention of the last six months of turbulence, including several rounds of layoffs, a nearly 30 percent drop in share price, and rampant price cutting, leading to the lowest profit margins in six years. Many observers have noted that the recent slowdown in EV sales growth appears to be entirely localized within Tesla, which still commands over 50 percent of the market. Unsold Teslas are piling up in parking lots in numbers so large they can be viewed from space.

Samantha Crispin, a partner at Texas-based law firm Baker Botts and chair of the corporate department, said these difficulties could sway certain investors, depending on when they bought into the Tesla story.

“A recent investor that hasn’t seen the type of return on investment, like somebody who would have invested pre-2018, they may well have a very different point of view,” Crispin told The Verge.

“Unpredictable”

The vote has quickly emerged as a showdown between institutional investors — large funds that include Tesla shares in their pooled investments — and retail investors, also known as mom-and-pop shareholders, who own individual stocks.

Tesla has the largest share of retail investors in the S&P 500, according to Reuters, to the tune of 43 percent. On X, Musk claims he has the vast majority of their support, which comes as little surprise. Musk actively courts the favor of mom-and-pop investors, sparing with them on Twitter, allowing them to ask questions during earnings calls, and inviting them to lavish events at his factories. This time around, Tesla is offering factory tours led by Musk himself to a select group of shareholders to entice them to vote.

The only problem is that retail investors have historically proven apathetic about voting their shares. When they do vote, they tend to favor management. But most often, they don’t even bother.

“Retail investors can be much more unpredictable,” Crispin said, “in terms of how they may end up voting on a matter [or] whether or not they actually show up to vote.”

Meanwhile, several top proxy advisory firms have recommended voting against the proposal, arguing it is too “excessive” and would dilute the value for individual shareholders — which bodes poorly for Musk’s chances.

“A known quantity”

Even if Musk wins the vote, he wouldn’t automatically become $50 billion richer. That’s because Tesla has yet to file its appeal to the Delaware court’s ruling, which it would need to do in order to allow Musk to receive his compensation. A positive outcome would feature prominently in said appeal and could lead to the judge’s ruling being overturned.

Tesla shareholders are also being asked to approve a proposal to reincorporate the company in Texas. That could work against Tesla’s effort to convince the Delaware courts to reverse its ruling. And it could sink its support among institutional investors, which have long preferred Delaware because of its predictability.

“It’s a known quantity with many decades of established legal precedent that people respect, and Texas is an unknown quantity in that regard,” said Stephen Diamond, an expert on corporate governance at Santa Clara University’s law school. Diamond also noted that reincorporation to Texas requires a higher vote threshold than the compensation vote, which may also make it harder to accomplish.

All of these issues will be on display at Tesla’s Austin factory on Thursday. The fanboys will be there, as will the average shareholders alongside the big investors, the sovereign wealth funds, and money managers. Musk has long argued that Tesla isn’t a simple car company — it’s really a tech company. In fact, it’s an AI and robotics company attempting to capture the zeitgeist alongside tech’s other big players.

He’s clearly a true believer. Tomorrow’s vote will be the ultimate decision on whether everyone else buys it, too.

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by STR / NurPhoto, Getty Images

Eight former SpaceX engineers filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk on Wednesday alleging sexual harassment and retaliation.
Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, “knowingly and purposefully created an unwelcome hostile work environment based upon his conduct of interjecting into the workplace vile sexual photographs, memes, and commentary that demeaned women and/or the LGBTQ+ community,” says the employees’ complaint, which was earlier reported by Bloomberg.
The complaint — which cites many of Musk’s Twitter posts making sexually explicit jokes — claims that Musk fostered “a perversely sexist culture at SpaceX.” Several of the plaintiffs say they “experienced direct harassment that mimicked Musk’s posts.” According to the suit, senior engineers often used phallic language during technical meetings, referring to mechanical parts as “chodes” and “schlongs.”
Engineers allegedly used sexual jokes as product names
“It was also common for engineers to apply crude and demeaning names to products in an attempt at humor, often at the expense of women and LGBTQ+ individuals. For example, the name ‘Upskirt Camera’ was used for a camera on the first stage of the Falcon rocket that views the bottom of the second stage.” The complaint also cites a video “starring SpaceX’s upper management, including Vice President of Human Resources (HR) Brian Bjelde, President and CEO Gwynne Shotwell, and Elon Musk that mocks and makes light of sexual misconduct and banter.”
The former employees, who are also pursuing a National Labor Relations Board complaint against SpaceX, collaborated on an open letter in 2022 that raised concerns about Musk’s behavior and the broader company culture at SpaceX. The employees were subsequently fired — and their lawsuit alleges the order to terminate them came from Musk himself. Per Bloomberg, after a human resources official suggested SpaceX conduct an investigation, Musk replied, “I don’t care, fire them.”
After the letter was published, Shotwell emailed two of the letter writers telling them to “stop flooding employees [sic] communications channels immediately,” the complaint claims. Shotwell later sent a companywide email “with the subject line ‘Please stay focused on the SpaceX mission,’ in which she called the Open Letter ‘overreaching activism’ and stated that ‘[w]e performed an investigation and have terminated a number of employees involved,’” according to the suit.
The complaint targets both Musk and SpaceX. “Musk thinks he’s above the law. Our eight brave clients stood up to him and were fired for doing so. We look forward to holding Musk accountable for his actions at trial,” Laurie Burgess, an attorney representing the former engineers, said in a statement.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of a Wall Street Journal report that Musk had sexual relationships with two SpaceX employees, including a former intern he later hired onto his executive team. A third woman who spoke to the Journal said Musk asked her several times to have his children and complained about her work performance after she said no. The woman said she was also denied a raise.
Shotwell accused one of the women of having an affair with her husband, according to the Journal. After the woman reported this to HR, Shotwell reportedly “told the HR department at SpaceX that she wanted the woman removed from the office of the chief executive,” the Journal’s article says. In a statement to the Journal, Shotwell said the report paints “a completely misleading narrative” of SpaceX’s company culture.
Some former SpaceX employees disagree. In 2021, after a former SpaceX employee published an essay detailing multiple instances in which she was groped by her male colleagues, five former employees claimed there was a culture of sexual harassment at the company. The employees said HR handled complaints poorly. In 2022, Business Insider reported that a flight attendant on Musk’s private jet claimed he exposed himself to her.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by STR / NurPhoto, Getty Images

Eight former SpaceX engineers filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk on Wednesday alleging sexual harassment and retaliation.

Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, “knowingly and purposefully created an unwelcome hostile work environment based upon his conduct of interjecting into the workplace vile sexual photographs, memes, and commentary that demeaned women and/or the LGBTQ+ community,” says the employees’ complaint, which was earlier reported by Bloomberg.

The complaint — which cites many of Musk’s Twitter posts making sexually explicit jokes — claims that Musk fostered “a perversely sexist culture at SpaceX.” Several of the plaintiffs say they “experienced direct harassment that mimicked Musk’s posts.” According to the suit, senior engineers often used phallic language during technical meetings, referring to mechanical parts as “chodes” and “schlongs.”

“It was also common for engineers to apply crude and demeaning names to products in an attempt at humor, often at the expense of women and LGBTQ+ individuals. For example, the name ‘Upskirt Camera’ was used for a camera on the first stage of the Falcon rocket that views the bottom of the second stage.” The complaint also cites a video “starring SpaceX’s upper management, including Vice President of Human Resources (HR) Brian Bjelde, President and CEO Gwynne Shotwell, and Elon Musk that mocks and makes light of sexual misconduct and banter.”

The former employees, who are also pursuing a National Labor Relations Board complaint against SpaceX, collaborated on an open letter in 2022 that raised concerns about Musk’s behavior and the broader company culture at SpaceX. The employees were subsequently fired — and their lawsuit alleges the order to terminate them came from Musk himself. Per Bloomberg, after a human resources official suggested SpaceX conduct an investigation, Musk replied, “I don’t care, fire them.”

After the letter was published, Shotwell emailed two of the letter writers telling them to “stop flooding employees [sic] communications channels immediately,” the complaint claims. Shotwell later sent a companywide email “with the subject line ‘Please stay focused on the SpaceX mission,’ in which she called the Open Letter ‘overreaching activism’ and stated that ‘[w]e performed an investigation and have terminated a number of employees involved,’” according to the suit.

The complaint targets both Musk and SpaceX. “Musk thinks he’s above the law. Our eight brave clients stood up to him and were fired for doing so. We look forward to holding Musk accountable for his actions at trial,” Laurie Burgess, an attorney representing the former engineers, said in a statement.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a Wall Street Journal report that Musk had sexual relationships with two SpaceX employees, including a former intern he later hired onto his executive team. A third woman who spoke to the Journal said Musk asked her several times to have his children and complained about her work performance after she said no. The woman said she was also denied a raise.

Shotwell accused one of the women of having an affair with her husband, according to the Journal. After the woman reported this to HR, Shotwell reportedly “told the HR department at SpaceX that she wanted the woman removed from the office of the chief executive,” the Journal’s article says. In a statement to the Journal, Shotwell said the report paints “a completely misleading narrative” of SpaceX’s company culture.

Some former SpaceX employees disagree. In 2021, after a former SpaceX employee published an essay detailing multiple instances in which she was groped by her male colleagues, five former employees claimed there was a culture of sexual harassment at the company. The employees said HR handled complaints poorly. In 2022, Business Insider reported that a flight attendant on Musk’s private jet claimed he exposed himself to her.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

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Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

As TikTok becomes a more popular news source for Americans, young adults increasingly believe the platform exposes them to information they’re unlikely to see elsewhere, according to a new survey of Americans’ news habits.
The survey, released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, looks at the role major social media platforms — Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X — play in Americans’ news diets. According to the survey, TikTok is the second most popular source of news after X, though most TikTok users don’t primarily think of the shortform video app as a news source.
Among TikTok users, only 15 percent say keeping up with the news is a major reason they use the app. Still, 35 percent of those surveyed said they wouldn’t have seen the news they get on TikTok elsewhere. And unlike other apps, the news users see on TikTok is just as likely to come from influencers or celebrities as it is from journalists — and it’s far more likely to come from total strangers. (Meanwhile, most Facebook and Instagram users say the news that pops up on their feeds is posted by friends, relatives, or other people they know; on X, users are more likely to see news posted by media outlets or reporters.)
Though most TikTok users don’t primarily use the platform with news in mind, the Pew survey suggests that its popularity as a news source is on the rise — as are lawmakers’ concerns about the information users see on the app. In April, President Joe Biden signed a bill that would ban TikTok unless its China-based parent company divests from the app within a year. Some supporters of the so-called TikTok ban (who often emphasize that the legislation is not a ban since ByteDance can prevent it by selling TikTok) say the issue lies in TikTok’s powerful algorithm and the role the Chinese government could play in shaping what information, including news, 170 million American users see.

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

As TikTok becomes a more popular news source for Americans, young adults increasingly believe the platform exposes them to information they’re unlikely to see elsewhere, according to a new survey of Americans’ news habits.

The survey, released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, looks at the role major social media platforms — Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X — play in Americans’ news diets. According to the survey, TikTok is the second most popular source of news after X, though most TikTok users don’t primarily think of the shortform video app as a news source.

Among TikTok users, only 15 percent say keeping up with the news is a major reason they use the app. Still, 35 percent of those surveyed said they wouldn’t have seen the news they get on TikTok elsewhere. And unlike other apps, the news users see on TikTok is just as likely to come from influencers or celebrities as it is from journalists — and it’s far more likely to come from total strangers. (Meanwhile, most Facebook and Instagram users say the news that pops up on their feeds is posted by friends, relatives, or other people they know; on X, users are more likely to see news posted by media outlets or reporters.)

Though most TikTok users don’t primarily use the platform with news in mind, the Pew survey suggests that its popularity as a news source is on the rise — as are lawmakers’ concerns about the information users see on the app. In April, President Joe Biden signed a bill that would ban TikTok unless its China-based parent company divests from the app within a year. Some supporters of the so-called TikTok ban (who often emphasize that the legislation is not a ban since ByteDance can prevent it by selling TikTok) say the issue lies in TikTok’s powerful algorithm and the role the Chinese government could play in shaping what information, including news, 170 million American users see.

Read More 

Image: Xbox

Microsoft is rolling out an Xbox update that lets you view game art with any Xbox Home background. That means you’ll continue to see your dynamic or regular background when you’re not scrolling through different games.
Previously, Microsoft only let you view game art with the default Xbox Home background. Now, you can keep your background and view game art without having to decide between the two. Microsoft first started testing this feature in April, and you can see how it looks in this embedded post from my colleague Tom Warren.

Microsoft is testing a new Xbox Home UI dashboard update that lets you enable game art backgrounds with any dynamic or regular background. Much better than having to use a default background to get the game art feature pic.twitter.com/DhdIGPZgCl— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) April 29, 2024

To enable this option, head to your Xbox’s Settings menu, and then select General > Personalization > My Background. From there, choose Show selected game art. You can also now update your dynamic background color without changing the color of your profile.
Microsoft is rolling out a few other updates, too, including the ability for your Xbox to remember up to 10 Wi-Fi networks, saving you from having to set up the network information and passwords all over again each time you move your console from one place to another.
It’s also rolling out a controller update that allows the Xbox Adaptive Controller to have “expanded support for more connected USB accessories,” with each port now supporting up to 12 buttons, a second stick, and a hat switch, plus more stable audio connections for headsets plugged in to an Elite Wireless 2 gamepad.
Additionally, Microsoft is making mouse and keyboard support in Xbox Cloud Gaming available to everyone and will now allow players to self-manage game data and cloud saves for titles played on their browser, Xbox’s website, or the Xbox app on Samsung TVs.

Image: Xbox

Microsoft is rolling out an Xbox update that lets you view game art with any Xbox Home background. That means you’ll continue to see your dynamic or regular background when you’re not scrolling through different games.

Previously, Microsoft only let you view game art with the default Xbox Home background. Now, you can keep your background and view game art without having to decide between the two. Microsoft first started testing this feature in April, and you can see how it looks in this embedded post from my colleague Tom Warren.

To enable this option, head to your Xbox’s Settings menu, and then select General > Personalization > My Background. From there, choose Show selected game art. You can also now update your dynamic background color without changing the color of your profile.

Microsoft is rolling out a few other updates, too, including the ability for your Xbox to remember up to 10 Wi-Fi networks, saving you from having to set up the network information and passwords all over again each time you move your console from one place to another.

It’s also rolling out a controller update that allows the Xbox Adaptive Controller to have “expanded support for more connected USB accessories,” with each port now supporting up to 12 buttons, a second stick, and a hat switch, plus more stable audio connections for headsets plugged in to an Elite Wireless 2 gamepad.

Additionally, Microsoft is making mouse and keyboard support in Xbox Cloud Gaming available to everyone and will now allow players to self-manage game data and cloud saves for titles played on their browser, Xbox’s website, or the Xbox app on Samsung TVs.

Read More