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Illustration: The Verge

Google Maps is changing the way it handles your location data. Instead of backing up your data to the cloud, Google will soon store it locally on your device.
In an email sent to users, Google says you have until December 1st to save all your travels to your mobile device before it starts deleting your old data. Timeline — previously known as Location History — is the feature that tracks your routes and trips based on your phone’s location, allowing you to revisit all the places you’ve been in the past.
But now, instead of tying all of this information to your Google account, the company will link it to the devices you use. Google first announced this change in December 2023 as part of its efforts to double down on privacy. The company previously began deleting locations, such as abortion clinics, domestic violence shelters, weight loss centers, and more, from location history and updated Maps to prevent authorities from accessing location history.

Screenshot: The Verge

The transition to on-device storage also means that you’ll no longer be able to access your Timeline from the web in December. If you don’t enable the new Timeline settings by then, Google will attempt to move the past 90 days of your travel history to the first device you sign in to Google on. The company will then delete any data older than that.
If you want to keep using Timeline, open Google Maps on your mobile device, click on your profile picture in the top-right corner of the screen, and choose Your Timeline. From there, select whether to keep you want to keep your location data until you manually delete it or have Google auto-delete it after three, 18, or 36 months. Google will store the information you want to keep on your device.

Illustration: The Verge

Google Maps is changing the way it handles your location data. Instead of backing up your data to the cloud, Google will soon store it locally on your device.

In an email sent to users, Google says you have until December 1st to save all your travels to your mobile device before it starts deleting your old data. Timeline — previously known as Location History — is the feature that tracks your routes and trips based on your phone’s location, allowing you to revisit all the places you’ve been in the past.

But now, instead of tying all of this information to your Google account, the company will link it to the devices you use. Google first announced this change in December 2023 as part of its efforts to double down on privacy. The company previously began deleting locations, such as abortion clinics, domestic violence shelters, weight loss centers, and more, from location history and updated Maps to prevent authorities from accessing location history.

Screenshot: The Verge

The transition to on-device storage also means that you’ll no longer be able to access your Timeline from the web in December. If you don’t enable the new Timeline settings by then, Google will attempt to move the past 90 days of your travel history to the first device you sign in to Google on. The company will then delete any data older than that.

If you want to keep using Timeline, open Google Maps on your mobile device, click on your profile picture in the top-right corner of the screen, and choose Your Timeline. From there, select whether to keep you want to keep your location data until you manually delete it or have Google auto-delete it after three, 18, or 36 months. Google will store the information you want to keep on your device.

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Illustration: The Verge

The US is accusing an alleged member of a Russian smuggling network of using AirTags to stalk his now ex-wife, 404 Media reported based on a recently unsealed indictment.
According to court documents, Tajikistan citizen Ibodullo Muhiddinov Numanovich likely smuggled his ex-wife into the US through the network he supposedly worked for. He was indicted by a grand jury in May for one count of stalking by putting his ex-wife, referred to as S.K. in court documents, under electronic surveillance and “sending threatening voice messages” that made her reasonably fear death or serious injury. He has pleaded not guilty.
Stories of AirTag-enabled stalking are nothing new. There have been several cases involving people using the tiny Apple tracking devices to keep tabs on their exes. And of course, it’s not a problem entirely unique to AirTags. Recently, consumers and government officials have raised alarms about the risks that abusive romantic partners could track their significant others or exes through internet-connected vehicles.
In this case, Numanovich allegedly put seven AirTags on a car that S.K. used between March and April this year. They were concealed all over the car, according to the government, including in the casing of the side mirror and under the front bumper.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation ultimately used the AirTags to monitor Numanovich’s actions, seeing when he’d place or check them. The government claimed that records from Apple linked Numanovich’s to one of the AirTags.
After his indictment, law enforcement executed a search warrant and say they found a folder on his phone with about 140 “sexually explicit photographs and videos” of his ex-wife, which he allegedly threatened to release if she doesn’t follow his demands.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Illustration: The Verge

The US is accusing an alleged member of a Russian smuggling network of using AirTags to stalk his now ex-wife, 404 Media reported based on a recently unsealed indictment.

According to court documents, Tajikistan citizen Ibodullo Muhiddinov Numanovich likely smuggled his ex-wife into the US through the network he supposedly worked for. He was indicted by a grand jury in May for one count of stalking by putting his ex-wife, referred to as S.K. in court documents, under electronic surveillance and “sending threatening voice messages” that made her reasonably fear death or serious injury. He has pleaded not guilty.

Stories of AirTag-enabled stalking are nothing new. There have been several cases involving people using the tiny Apple tracking devices to keep tabs on their exes. And of course, it’s not a problem entirely unique to AirTags. Recently, consumers and government officials have raised alarms about the risks that abusive romantic partners could track their significant others or exes through internet-connected vehicles.

In this case, Numanovich allegedly put seven AirTags on a car that S.K. used between March and April this year. They were concealed all over the car, according to the government, including in the casing of the side mirror and under the front bumper.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation ultimately used the AirTags to monitor Numanovich’s actions, seeing when he’d place or check them. The government claimed that records from Apple linked Numanovich’s to one of the AirTags.

After his indictment, law enforcement executed a search warrant and say they found a folder on his phone with about 140 “sexually explicit photographs and videos” of his ex-wife, which he allegedly threatened to release if she doesn’t follow his demands.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Illustration: The Verge

For parents, it can feel like a no-brainer to let their kids have an iPad thanks to its built-in parental control feature, Screen Time. But the system is also undeniably buggy, as most parents will attest. Now, Apple is fixing one of the software’s worst bugs — an apparently obscure one that would let kids see the worst parts of the internet despite settings to stop that, reports Joanna Stern for The Wall Street Journal.
The bug goes like this: kids can circumvent content restrictions by entering a specific string of characters into Safari’s browser bar. Security researchers Andreas Jägersberger and Ro Achterberg reported this bug twice in 2021 and, both times, were told that it wasn’t a security flaw, Stern writes. She also notes that it doesn’t appear as though this particular bug has seen widespread use.
The researchers were apparently told repeatedly over three years that it wasn’t a security problem and were referred to Apple’s feedback tool for software bugs. But after they contacted Stern to report their findings and their struggle with Apple, the company told her there’s a fix coming in the next iOS software update. Stern writes that the company “maintains the flaw was a software issue, not a security vulnerability.” Well. At least it’s being fixed.

The story underscores that Apple’s parental control software remains woefully underserviced. Though it has that glossy Apple sheen, the feature is functionally hampered by bugs like those that Stern mentions: not receiving requests for more time, for instance, or an occasionally blank screen usage chart. These are the key features that make Screen Time useful. (Stern notes that Apple fixed several issues in recent software updates.)
What makes this worse is that Apple doesn’t have much competition, seemingly by design. It limited or removed third-party parental control app alternatives for its ecosystem in 2019 after it first introduced Screen Time in iOS 12. At the time, the company said that the apps were inappropriately taking advantage of its enterprise-focused mobile device management (MDM) profiles that enable control over company-issued iPhones. Apple forbid removed apps that were using the powerful management feature — a not unreasonable move considering the very real dangers that sort of access poses.
The move generated controversy, leading parental control app developers to band together and demand an API for their apps, which would put the company more in control of their access while letting them compete with Screen Time. Apple never provided that, but it did reverse course and let parental control apps use some MDM features under certain circumstances and even unbanned some apps.
But using a third-party parental control app can be far more involved than using the built-in system. For instance, setting up an app that actually offers anything close to Screen Time integration takes a lot of hoop-jumping: for instance, in the Qustodio app, I needed to download an app for my phone and create an account. Then, I had to get a separate app for my kids’ device, log in to it with the account I made, then download and install an MDM profile. To do this with a second device, I’d have to repeat those steps all over again. An official API would have made this easier, and this procedure, I’d imagine, keeps a lot of parents from trying out other apps, leaving Apple effectively without competition — and parents with a broken experience.
This puts users at Apple’s mercy, waiting for it to roll out fixes, as with this year’s bug that wouldn’t save parents’ Downtime limits — limits on when a device can be used — properly. Apple reportedly fixed that in January with iOS 17.1, though that’s not mentioned in the release notes for the update.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Illustration: The Verge

For parents, it can feel like a no-brainer to let their kids have an iPad thanks to its built-in parental control feature, Screen Time. But the system is also undeniably buggy, as most parents will attest. Now, Apple is fixing one of the software’s worst bugs — an apparently obscure one that would let kids see the worst parts of the internet despite settings to stop that, reports Joanna Stern for The Wall Street Journal.

The bug goes like this: kids can circumvent content restrictions by entering a specific string of characters into Safari’s browser bar. Security researchers Andreas Jägersberger and Ro Achterberg reported this bug twice in 2021 and, both times, were told that it wasn’t a security flaw, Stern writes. She also notes that it doesn’t appear as though this particular bug has seen widespread use.

The researchers were apparently told repeatedly over three years that it wasn’t a security problem and were referred to Apple’s feedback tool for software bugs. But after they contacted Stern to report their findings and their struggle with Apple, the company told her there’s a fix coming in the next iOS software update. Stern writes that the company “maintains the flaw was a software issue, not a security vulnerability.” Well. At least it’s being fixed.

The story underscores that Apple’s parental control software remains woefully underserviced. Though it has that glossy Apple sheen, the feature is functionally hampered by bugs like those that Stern mentions: not receiving requests for more time, for instance, or an occasionally blank screen usage chart. These are the key features that make Screen Time useful. (Stern notes that Apple fixed several issues in recent software updates.)

What makes this worse is that Apple doesn’t have much competition, seemingly by design. It limited or removed third-party parental control app alternatives for its ecosystem in 2019 after it first introduced Screen Time in iOS 12. At the time, the company said that the apps were inappropriately taking advantage of its enterprise-focused mobile device management (MDM) profiles that enable control over company-issued iPhones. Apple forbid removed apps that were using the powerful management feature — a not unreasonable move considering the very real dangers that sort of access poses.

The move generated controversy, leading parental control app developers to band together and demand an API for their apps, which would put the company more in control of their access while letting them compete with Screen Time. Apple never provided that, but it did reverse course and let parental control apps use some MDM features under certain circumstances and even unbanned some apps.

But using a third-party parental control app can be far more involved than using the built-in system. For instance, setting up an app that actually offers anything close to Screen Time integration takes a lot of hoop-jumping: for instance, in the Qustodio app, I needed to download an app for my phone and create an account. Then, I had to get a separate app for my kids’ device, log in to it with the account I made, then download and install an MDM profile. To do this with a second device, I’d have to repeat those steps all over again. An official API would have made this easier, and this procedure, I’d imagine, keeps a lot of parents from trying out other apps, leaving Apple effectively without competition — and parents with a broken experience.

This puts users at Apple’s mercy, waiting for it to roll out fixes, as with this year’s bug that wouldn’t save parents’ Downtime limits — limits on when a device can be used — properly. Apple reportedly fixed that in January with iOS 17.1, though that’s not mentioned in the release notes for the update.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The Nothing Phone 3 could have a very different homescreen. | Image: Nothing

Nothing CEO Carl Pei just published a video in which he makes two big claims: that smartphones are in fact the AI gadget of the future and that AI might change the way we use those phones. “People love their phones!” Pei says in the video. But “the user experience hasn’t really changed for a really long time.” Everything’s faster, prettier, and easier, he says, “but the fundamental experience hasn’t changed.” Pei now thinks that’s about to change.
I should note that Pei does casually mention the existence of the Phone 3, which has been rumored for a while and, if Nothing keeps to its typical July launch schedule, could be on shelves soon. According to Pei, the Phone 3 will also be the company’s first true AI phone.
In the video, the Nothing team shows off a couple of demos. One looks like a straight rip of OpenAI’s GPT-4o demo: a personalized voice assistant baked into the operating system. That is what everyone thinks the future of smartphone looks like. The other demo shows a personalized, dynamic homescreen that looks like a combination of app launcher and news feed. It automatically grabs and shows a QR code for a ticket you’ll need soon, pulls content from the web, and shows relevant reminders and weather. The idea, Pei says, is to think about how AI can move smartphones past their app-centric model and into a system that just knows what you need and where it is at all times.

There’s been a lot of hype around AI. Some great, some confusing. It’s great to see new companies rethinking the user experience and form factors. However, there is no doubt that smartphones will remain the main consumer AI form factor for the foreseeable future. With over 4… pic.twitter.com/ERJc7xhwBa— Carl Pei (@getpeid) June 5, 2024

Pei is careful to say that these are brand-new prototypes and that even messing with your homescreen will take a while to happen. “You can’t just ship a new product and be like, ‘here, there’s no more apps, are you going to buy it?’” he says in the video. “Of course they’re not going to buy it.” (I can’t prove that this is a dig at Humane or Rabbit, but… it definitely is.) Pei says Nothing’s job is to build a bridge from the current systems to the next ones. He also compares Nothing to Nintendo, in the sense that the job is not to compete on technology but simply to make fun and good stuff.
Nothing has clearly been thinking about AI for a while: it integrated ChatGPT into the recent Ear headphones, and last year on The Vergecast, Pei told me he was already thinking about a world beyond apps. “We feel like apps have gotten too powerful,” he said then, “and with the Phone 2, we’re trying to at least give users options to take some of that power back.” Last year, that largely meant reskinning the interface and giving users more notification controls, but now that seems to mean AI. “Maybe we can just tell the phone what we need to do,” he continued, “and it would use those apps for us without the apps even being visible in the foreground.”
As to the smartphone point: Pei has always said that the reason Nothing started by building headphones and smartphones is because they’re the gadgets everyone actually uses right now. “A computing device made up of a large screen with some camera capability, I think, is gonna be the dominating form factor for a long time,” he said last year. He believed that building phones was a safer, if more competitive, business, and the Humane and Rabbit experience seems to prove him right. He has been hinting, though, that there might be a next big thing coming soon — now it sounds like it might be the big thing you already have. Just a little different.

The Nothing Phone 3 could have a very different homescreen. | Image: Nothing

Nothing CEO Carl Pei just published a video in which he makes two big claims: that smartphones are in fact the AI gadget of the future and that AI might change the way we use those phones. “People love their phones!” Pei says in the video. But “the user experience hasn’t really changed for a really long time.” Everything’s faster, prettier, and easier, he says, “but the fundamental experience hasn’t changed.” Pei now thinks that’s about to change.

I should note that Pei does casually mention the existence of the Phone 3, which has been rumored for a while and, if Nothing keeps to its typical July launch schedule, could be on shelves soon. According to Pei, the Phone 3 will also be the company’s first true AI phone.

In the video, the Nothing team shows off a couple of demos. One looks like a straight rip of OpenAI’s GPT-4o demo: a personalized voice assistant baked into the operating system. That is what everyone thinks the future of smartphone looks like. The other demo shows a personalized, dynamic homescreen that looks like a combination of app launcher and news feed. It automatically grabs and shows a QR code for a ticket you’ll need soon, pulls content from the web, and shows relevant reminders and weather. The idea, Pei says, is to think about how AI can move smartphones past their app-centric model and into a system that just knows what you need and where it is at all times.

Pei is careful to say that these are brand-new prototypes and that even messing with your homescreen will take a while to happen. “You can’t just ship a new product and be like, ‘here, there’s no more apps, are you going to buy it?’” he says in the video. “Of course they’re not going to buy it.” (I can’t prove that this is a dig at Humane or Rabbit, but… it definitely is.) Pei says Nothing’s job is to build a bridge from the current systems to the next ones. He also compares Nothing to Nintendo, in the sense that the job is not to compete on technology but simply to make fun and good stuff.

Nothing has clearly been thinking about AI for a while: it integrated ChatGPT into the recent Ear headphones, and last year on The Vergecast, Pei told me he was already thinking about a world beyond apps. “We feel like apps have gotten too powerful,” he said then, “and with the Phone 2, we’re trying to at least give users options to take some of that power back.” Last year, that largely meant reskinning the interface and giving users more notification controls, but now that seems to mean AI. “Maybe we can just tell the phone what we need to do,” he continued, “and it would use those apps for us without the apps even being visible in the foreground.”

As to the smartphone point: Pei has always said that the reason Nothing started by building headphones and smartphones is because they’re the gadgets everyone actually uses right now. “A computing device made up of a large screen with some camera capability, I think, is gonna be the dominating form factor for a long time,” he said last year. He believed that building phones was a safer, if more competitive, business, and the Humane and Rabbit experience seems to prove him right. He has been hinting, though, that there might be a next big thing coming soon — now it sounds like it might be the big thing you already have. Just a little different.

Read More 

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

A secret social media influence campaign that attempted to lobby US lawmakers to support Israel’s war on Gaza was organized and funded by the Israeli government, The New York Times reports.
According to the Times, Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs earmarked around $2 million for the campaign, which used hundreds of fake accounts impersonating made up people to target US lawmakers. The accounts posed as Americans and posted pro-Israel messages, calling on members of congress to fund Israeli military operations. The campaigns used OpenAI’s ChatGPT to produce the posts and targeted several Black Democrats, like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment. The Times reports that the office denied involvement in the campaign. The Times says details of the network of accounts came from internal documents and individuals involved in the campaign.
The covert influence campaign was one of the efforts disrupted by Meta, according to its quarterly threat report issued at the end of May. In the report, Meta said it had identified a network of more than 500 fake accounts traced to Israel that posted pro-Israel messages on Instagram and Facebook. Meta noted that the campaign’s accounts impersonated local Jewish students, African Americans, and “concerned” citizens and left messages on the pages of legitimate news organizations and public figures. The topics of the comments included campus antisemitism, calls to release hostages taken during Hamas’ October 7th attack, and anti-Islam material. OpenAI similarly reported it had disrupted a campaign in Israel using its tools. At the time, it wasn’t known that the Israeli government was behind the campaign. The campaign remains active on X, according to the Times.
Political actors regularly try to manipulate public opinion using coordinated campaigns on social media. In May, TikTok reported it had disrupted more than a dozen such campaigns on its platform, including one originating in China. But the Times notes this is the first time the Israeli government has been found to be coordinating a campaign targeting the US government.
Like the war in Ukraine, social media has become a proxy battleground since October 7th, where Israelis and Palestinians have tried to garner support from digital bystanders. More than 37,000 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s siege on Gaza. The US is a key ally for Israel, as well as the largest supplier of weapons to the country. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address Congress sometime this summer.

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

A secret social media influence campaign that attempted to lobby US lawmakers to support Israel’s war on Gaza was organized and funded by the Israeli government, The New York Times reports.

According to the Times, Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs earmarked around $2 million for the campaign, which used hundreds of fake accounts impersonating made up people to target US lawmakers. The accounts posed as Americans and posted pro-Israel messages, calling on members of congress to fund Israeli military operations. The campaigns used OpenAI’s ChatGPT to produce the posts and targeted several Black Democrats, like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment. The Times reports that the office denied involvement in the campaign. The Times says details of the network of accounts came from internal documents and individuals involved in the campaign.

The covert influence campaign was one of the efforts disrupted by Meta, according to its quarterly threat report issued at the end of May. In the report, Meta said it had identified a network of more than 500 fake accounts traced to Israel that posted pro-Israel messages on Instagram and Facebook. Meta noted that the campaign’s accounts impersonated local Jewish students, African Americans, and “concerned” citizens and left messages on the pages of legitimate news organizations and public figures. The topics of the comments included campus antisemitism, calls to release hostages taken during Hamas’ October 7th attack, and anti-Islam material. OpenAI similarly reported it had disrupted a campaign in Israel using its tools. At the time, it wasn’t known that the Israeli government was behind the campaign. The campaign remains active on X, according to the Times.

Political actors regularly try to manipulate public opinion using coordinated campaigns on social media. In May, TikTok reported it had disrupted more than a dozen such campaigns on its platform, including one originating in China. But the Times notes this is the first time the Israeli government has been found to be coordinating a campaign targeting the US government.

Like the war in Ukraine, social media has become a proxy battleground since October 7th, where Israelis and Palestinians have tried to garner support from digital bystanders. More than 37,000 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s siege on Gaza. The US is a key ally for Israel, as well as the largest supplier of weapons to the country. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address Congress sometime this summer.

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Image: Google

Google is acquiring software virtualization company Cameyo in a push to deeply integrate virtualized Windows app support into ChromeOS. Google was already working closely with Cameyo, and now it’s bringing this key virtualization expertise and technology in-house.
Google partnered with Cameyo last year to deliver a virtual application experience for legacy Windows desktop apps that was integrated into ChromeOS. This included local file system integration, virtual apps as progressive web apps, and even enhanced clipboard support.
Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery (VAD) integration into ChromeOS is designed for businesses that are looking to move away from Windows or even add some ChromeOS devices into the mix. It allows businesses to continue running virtualized Windows apps on ChromeOS without exposing a full version of Windows so that apps just feel like they’re running on ChromeOS side by side with Chrome and other web apps.
“This acquisition will lead to even deeper integration of these virtualized apps into ChromeOS,” says Cameyo co-founder and CMO Robb Henshaw in a statement to The Verge. “Further integrations will improve not only the end user experience, but also make it even simpler for IT admins to deploy and push those apps out to their users.”
As more and more apps move to the cloud and web-based technologies, Google has a big opportunity to entice more businesses to consider ChromeOS over Windows — especially with improved virtualized app support from Cameyo.
Google has been on a mission to push Chromebooks in education and business after a rather lukewarm response from consumers to ChromeOS. Most of Google’s Chromebook growth has come from the US education sector, with US shipments accounting for more than 80 percent of global Chromebook shipments in Q2 2023, according to Canalys.

Image: Google

Google is acquiring software virtualization company Cameyo in a push to deeply integrate virtualized Windows app support into ChromeOS. Google was already working closely with Cameyo, and now it’s bringing this key virtualization expertise and technology in-house.

Google partnered with Cameyo last year to deliver a virtual application experience for legacy Windows desktop apps that was integrated into ChromeOS. This included local file system integration, virtual apps as progressive web apps, and even enhanced clipboard support.

Cameyo’s Virtual App Delivery (VAD) integration into ChromeOS is designed for businesses that are looking to move away from Windows or even add some ChromeOS devices into the mix. It allows businesses to continue running virtualized Windows apps on ChromeOS without exposing a full version of Windows so that apps just feel like they’re running on ChromeOS side by side with Chrome and other web apps.

“This acquisition will lead to even deeper integration of these virtualized apps into ChromeOS,” says Cameyo co-founder and CMO Robb Henshaw in a statement to The Verge. “Further integrations will improve not only the end user experience, but also make it even simpler for IT admins to deploy and push those apps out to their users.”

As more and more apps move to the cloud and web-based technologies, Google has a big opportunity to entice more businesses to consider ChromeOS over Windows — especially with improved virtualized app support from Cameyo.

Google has been on a mission to push Chromebooks in education and business after a rather lukewarm response from consumers to ChromeOS. Most of Google’s Chromebook growth has come from the US education sector, with US shipments accounting for more than 80 percent of global Chromebook shipments in Q2 2023, according to Canalys.

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Screenshot: NASA

The third attempt at a crewed launch of the Boeing Starliner was a success. On Wednesday at 10:52AM ET, the spacecraft lifted off atop the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and now has reached a “safe, stable orbit.”
The Starliner will bring NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams to the International Space Station about 24 hours from now, where they’ll “test the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system, including launch, docking, and return to Earth.” The two astronauts will stay at the ISS for about a week before parachuting down in the western portion of the US.

Starliner to the stars! ✨At 10:52am ET, @BoeingSpace #Starliner lifted off on a @ULALaunch Atlas V for the first time with @NASA_Astronauts aboard. This Crew Flight Test aims to certify the spacecraft for routine space travel to and from the @Space_Station. pic.twitter.com/WDQKOrE5B6— NASA (@NASA) June 5, 2024

This launch has been in the works since the start of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program in 2014, picking Boeing and SpaceX as its two private partners to shuttle astronauts to the ISS and back. Boeing received $4.2 billion to develop Starliner, but since then, it’s had years of problems, while SpaceX’s Crew Dragon soared ahead.
Starliner’s first uncrewed launch in 2019 ended in failure, but it finally docked with the ISS in 2022. Starliner later made its first launch attempt with astronauts on board in May 2024, but NASA scrubbed the mission due to a faulty oxygen relief valve on the ULA Atlas V rocket’s second stage. The second attempt, on June 1st, was scrubbed just minutes before takeoff because of issues with one of the ULA’s ground computers.

Screenshot: NASA

The third attempt at a crewed launch of the Boeing Starliner was a success. On Wednesday at 10:52AM ET, the spacecraft lifted off atop the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and now has reached a “safe, stable orbit.”

The Starliner will bring NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams to the International Space Station about 24 hours from now, where they’ll “test the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system, including launch, docking, and return to Earth.” The two astronauts will stay at the ISS for about a week before parachuting down in the western portion of the US.

This launch has been in the works since the start of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program in 2014, picking Boeing and SpaceX as its two private partners to shuttle astronauts to the ISS and back. Boeing received $4.2 billion to develop Starliner, but since then, it’s had years of problems, while SpaceX’s Crew Dragon soared ahead.

Starliner’s first uncrewed launch in 2019 ended in failure, but it finally docked with the ISS in 2022. Starliner later made its first launch attempt with astronauts on board in May 2024, but NASA scrubbed the mission due to a faulty oxygen relief valve on the ULA Atlas V rocket’s second stage. The second attempt, on June 1st, was scrubbed just minutes before takeoff because of issues with one of the ULA’s ground computers.

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Sometimes less is more, and that’s the territory Amazon’s soundbar occupies. | Image: Amazon

Not every viewing situation calls for an expensive sound system that can make your home sound like a mini theater. Maybe you’re just looking to equip a guest room with an easy audio upgrade, or perhaps you just need to amplify the dialog and sound effects of your favorite movies and shows. Most simple soundbars will do the trick much better than the relatively small speakers inside most TVs.

Something like the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar is an interesting option, especially when you can get it for just $64.99 at Woot, which is the price of a new open-box model that’ll only be available through the end of today. That’s $55 off compared to its base price and $35 cheaper than Amazon’s current price. It also comes with Woot’s 90-day limited warranty, making it easily the best deal we’ve seen so far.
The two-channel Fire TV Soundbar doesn’t earn points on the strength of its audio prowess. If you’re looking for a Dolby Atmos or system that can blow your roof off and immerse you in precise surround sound, this ain’t it. However, it’ll do if all you need is satisfying loudness and a bit of extra bass. (And you do get DTS Virtual:X, even if the limiting hardware might not make the most of it.)
The Fire TV Soundbar has HDMI eARC and can also accept audio directly from your smartphone, tablet, or other devices via Bluetooth, which makes it great as a music player for some afternoon cleaning. It’s more compact than the more substantial models, too, which makes it easier to fit in smaller entertainment setups. If you have a Fire TV, you can control it and the soundbar using the same remote, which is a nice convenience if you’re decidedly on team Amazon for your home theater needs.

Read our hands-on impressions.

More great deals to check out

If you need a solid gaming headset that can work with PlayStation 4 and PS5, the Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile, you should look into the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max, which is down to $129.99 ($50 off) in cobalt blue at Best Buy. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen on the PlayStation-specific version of the wireless headset, which lasts up to 40 hours per charge and supports both 2.4GHz low-latency wireless (via a USB dongle for PlayStation and Switch) and Bluetooth. The integrated microphone automatically mutes whenever you flip it upward into its hiding spot, and its 50mm drivers are specially tuned for the PS5’s 3D Audio engine.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds FE are a decent-sounding pair of earbuds with active noise cancellation, and they’re down to $69.99 ($30 off) at Best Buy, matching the all-time low. They’re on the lower end of Samsung’s lineup. To get them so low compared to its flagship pair, the company sacrificed a couple of nice-to-haves like wireless charging and Bluetooth multipoint. But it did bring back the wing fin design that many people feel offers a more comfortable in-ear fit. Battery life can get up to six hours with ANC on and up to 8.5 hours otherwise, and the case adds about three to four extra charges. Read our review.
Modern coffee makers prioritize convenience over more ritualistic coffee making techniques. If you miss the hands-on approach, try out the AeroPress “Original” coffee maker. It’s a favorite coffee gadget among Verge staffers and is down to $31.95 ($8 off) at Amazon. It features French press, pour-over, and espresso brewing options in a compact travel-ready kit that’s easy to clean and use and only requires hot water to function. If you’re planning summer travels, it can be a lot more fun than cleaning and running the hotel coffee maker three times to ensure some other stranger’s old grind doesn’t seep into your morning drip.

Sometimes less is more, and that’s the territory Amazon’s soundbar occupies. | Image: Amazon

Not every viewing situation calls for an expensive sound system that can make your home sound like a mini theater. Maybe you’re just looking to equip a guest room with an easy audio upgrade, or perhaps you just need to amplify the dialog and sound effects of your favorite movies and shows. Most simple soundbars will do the trick much better than the relatively small speakers inside most TVs.

Something like the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar is an interesting option, especially when you can get it for just $64.99 at Woot, which is the price of a new open-box model that’ll only be available through the end of today. That’s $55 off compared to its base price and $35 cheaper than Amazon’s current price. It also comes with Woot’s 90-day limited warranty, making it easily the best deal we’ve seen so far.

The two-channel Fire TV Soundbar doesn’t earn points on the strength of its audio prowess. If you’re looking for a Dolby Atmos or system that can blow your roof off and immerse you in precise surround sound, this ain’t it. However, it’ll do if all you need is satisfying loudness and a bit of extra bass. (And you do get DTS Virtual:X, even if the limiting hardware might not make the most of it.)

The Fire TV Soundbar has HDMI eARC and can also accept audio directly from your smartphone, tablet, or other devices via Bluetooth, which makes it great as a music player for some afternoon cleaning. It’s more compact than the more substantial models, too, which makes it easier to fit in smaller entertainment setups. If you have a Fire TV, you can control it and the soundbar using the same remote, which is a nice convenience if you’re decidedly on team Amazon for your home theater needs.

Read our hands-on impressions.

More great deals to check out

If you need a solid gaming headset that can work with PlayStation 4 and PS5, the Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile, you should look into the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max, which is down to $129.99 ($50 off) in cobalt blue at Best Buy. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen on the PlayStation-specific version of the wireless headset, which lasts up to 40 hours per charge and supports both 2.4GHz low-latency wireless (via a USB dongle for PlayStation and Switch) and Bluetooth. The integrated microphone automatically mutes whenever you flip it upward into its hiding spot, and its 50mm drivers are specially tuned for the PS5’s 3D Audio engine.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds FE are a decent-sounding pair of earbuds with active noise cancellation, and they’re down to $69.99 ($30 off) at Best Buy, matching the all-time low. They’re on the lower end of Samsung’s lineup. To get them so low compared to its flagship pair, the company sacrificed a couple of nice-to-haves like wireless charging and Bluetooth multipoint. But it did bring back the wing fin design that many people feel offers a more comfortable in-ear fit. Battery life can get up to six hours with ANC on and up to 8.5 hours otherwise, and the case adds about three to four extra charges. Read our review.
Modern coffee makers prioritize convenience over more ritualistic coffee making techniques. If you miss the hands-on approach, try out the AeroPress “Original” coffee maker. It’s a favorite coffee gadget among Verge staffers and is down to $31.95 ($8 off) at Amazon. It features French press, pour-over, and espresso brewing options in a compact travel-ready kit that’s easy to clean and use and only requires hot water to function. If you’re planning summer travels, it can be a lot more fun than cleaning and running the hotel coffee maker three times to ensure some other stranger’s old grind doesn’t seep into your morning drip.

Read More 

Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, speaks during a press conference at the UN Climate Change Conference COP28. | Photo: Getty Images

The climate as we know it may be in the rear-view mirror, and there is precious little time to change course before careening past a dangerous threshold for global warming.
That was the sentiment expressed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres during fiery remarks, which followed new data released today by the World Meteorological Organization and the European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
“Like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, we’re having an outsize impact. In the case of climate, we are not the dinosaurs. We are the meteor,” Guterres said in the speech he delivered from American Museum of Natural History in New York City — where dinosaur skeletons tower above visitors in the lobby — on World Environment Day today. “We are not only in danger. We are the danger. But we are also the solution,” he said.
Last month was officially the hottest May in history, marking 12 straight months of the hottest on record
Last month was officially the hottest May in history, marking 12 straight months of the hottest on record. We’ve seen that play out with record-smashing heatwaves around the world, and there’s not much relief in sight.
Policymakers and UN climate scientists are focused on a key milestone: the point at which global average temperatures are consistently 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than they were before the Industrial Revolution. The most ambitious target of the landmark Paris accord is to keep the world from breaching that threshold. Otherwise, the effects of climate change grow markedly worse — straining and potentially surpassing the world’s ability to adapt.
2023 was already the hottest year on record, but likely not for much longer. There’s now an 80 percent chance that at least one of the next five years will be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than the preindustrial average, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). When the Paris agreement was struck in 2015, there was a near 0 percent chance of that happening.
While one year of extreme heat certainly takes its toll, climate scientists are most worried about those temperatures becoming the new norm. The WMO says there’s now a roughly 50 percent chance that average temperatures over the next five years will also be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than the preindustrial era. Last year, there was only a 32 percent chance of that happening.
The odds are rising against us because greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels continue to climb. Scientists have calculated how much planet-heating carbon dioxide can still be released before that pollution is enough to push the world beyond a permanent 1.5 degrees of warming. That carbon budget is now down to 200 billion metric tons of pollution, Guterres said today. That’s actually a small number considering global carbon dioxide emissions reach about 40 billion metric tons a year.
At those numbers, we have about five years left of business as usual before that Paris target is out of reach. And while there’s much political wrangling about what it would take to avoid 1.5 degrees of warming, Guterres reminded people that there are real-world consequences.
“It is not a goal. It is a physical limit,” he said. “Every fraction of a degree of global heating counts. The difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees could be the difference between extinction and survival for some small island states and coastal communities.”
Compared to 1.5 degrees, 40,000 more people could see their homes inundated at 2 degrees of warming. The proportion of the global population exposed to extreme heatwaves at least once every five years jumps from 14 to 37 percent with just half a degree of warming at the global level.

With a shrinking carbon budget, global CO2 emissions would now have to fall by 9 percent every year this decade to stop global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius. That is a greater plunge in pollution than the world experienced in 2020, when the covid-19 pandemic curbed economic activity and slashed CO2 emissions by more than 5 percent. Emissions would need to fall to net zero by 2050.
Guterres, at least, is still holding out hope that countries can change course with a sharp turn toward renewable energy. After all, solar and onshore wind farms are already the cheapest source of electricity for most of the world.
Clean energy investments have nearly doubled over the past decade, reaching a record high last year. That progress needs to accelerate, he urged. Renewables make up 30 percent of the world’s electricity mix. But there are big inequities in how that’s rolling out, with only 15 percent of clean energy investments in emerging and developing economies outside of China. Less than 1 percent of new renewable energy capacity was installed in Africa last year.
There’s also a lack of funding to adapt to the effects of climate change, building homes and cities that are more resilient to rising seas and temperatures. There’s only about five cents of funding available for every dollar needed to adapt to extreme weather, Guterres warned.
“If money makes the world go round, today’s unequal financial flows are sending us spinning toward disaster,” he said. “We cannot accept a future where the rich are protected in air-conditioned bubbles, while the rest of humanity is lashed by lethal weather in unlivable lands.”

Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, speaks during a press conference at the UN Climate Change Conference COP28. | Photo: Getty Images

The climate as we know it may be in the rear-view mirror, and there is precious little time to change course before careening past a dangerous threshold for global warming.

That was the sentiment expressed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres during fiery remarks, which followed new data released today by the World Meteorological Organization and the European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

“Like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, we’re having an outsize impact. In the case of climate, we are not the dinosaurs. We are the meteor,” Guterres said in the speech he delivered from American Museum of Natural History in New York City — where dinosaur skeletons tower above visitors in the lobby — on World Environment Day today. “We are not only in danger. We are the danger. But we are also the solution,” he said.

Last month was officially the hottest May in history, marking 12 straight months of the hottest on record. We’ve seen that play out with record-smashing heatwaves around the world, and there’s not much relief in sight.

Policymakers and UN climate scientists are focused on a key milestone: the point at which global average temperatures are consistently 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than they were before the Industrial Revolution. The most ambitious target of the landmark Paris accord is to keep the world from breaching that threshold. Otherwise, the effects of climate change grow markedly worse — straining and potentially surpassing the world’s ability to adapt.

2023 was already the hottest year on record, but likely not for much longer. There’s now an 80 percent chance that at least one of the next five years will be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than the preindustrial average, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). When the Paris agreement was struck in 2015, there was a near 0 percent chance of that happening.

While one year of extreme heat certainly takes its toll, climate scientists are most worried about those temperatures becoming the new norm. The WMO says there’s now a roughly 50 percent chance that average temperatures over the next five years will also be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than the preindustrial era. Last year, there was only a 32 percent chance of that happening.

The odds are rising against us because greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels continue to climb. Scientists have calculated how much planet-heating carbon dioxide can still be released before that pollution is enough to push the world beyond a permanent 1.5 degrees of warming. That carbon budget is now down to 200 billion metric tons of pollution, Guterres said today. That’s actually a small number considering global carbon dioxide emissions reach about 40 billion metric tons a year.

At those numbers, we have about five years left of business as usual before that Paris target is out of reach. And while there’s much political wrangling about what it would take to avoid 1.5 degrees of warming, Guterres reminded people that there are real-world consequences.

“It is not a goal. It is a physical limit,” he said. “Every fraction of a degree of global heating counts. The difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees could be the difference between extinction and survival for some small island states and coastal communities.”

Compared to 1.5 degrees, 40,000 more people could see their homes inundated at 2 degrees of warming. The proportion of the global population exposed to extreme heatwaves at least once every five years jumps from 14 to 37 percent with just half a degree of warming at the global level.

With a shrinking carbon budget, global CO2 emissions would now have to fall by 9 percent every year this decade to stop global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius. That is a greater plunge in pollution than the world experienced in 2020, when the covid-19 pandemic curbed economic activity and slashed CO2 emissions by more than 5 percent. Emissions would need to fall to net zero by 2050.

Guterres, at least, is still holding out hope that countries can change course with a sharp turn toward renewable energy. After all, solar and onshore wind farms are already the cheapest source of electricity for most of the world.

Clean energy investments have nearly doubled over the past decade, reaching a record high last year. That progress needs to accelerate, he urged. Renewables make up 30 percent of the world’s electricity mix. But there are big inequities in how that’s rolling out, with only 15 percent of clean energy investments in emerging and developing economies outside of China. Less than 1 percent of new renewable energy capacity was installed in Africa last year.

There’s also a lack of funding to adapt to the effects of climate change, building homes and cities that are more resilient to rising seas and temperatures. There’s only about five cents of funding available for every dollar needed to adapt to extreme weather, Guterres warned.

“If money makes the world go round, today’s unequal financial flows are sending us spinning toward disaster,” he said. “We cannot accept a future where the rich are protected in air-conditioned bubbles, while the rest of humanity is lashed by lethal weather in unlivable lands.”

Read More 

Image: Netflix

Netflix is continuously adding to its diverse portfolio of games, announcing a new slate of titles set to launch on the platform this summer and beyond. And while the “serious gamer” might be enticed by the pending arrival of The Case of the Golden Idol or Don’t Starve Together — games that have enjoyed success on other platforms — it’s interactive fiction games that are the most exciting both for Netflix and its gaming community.
“Expanding the worlds of beloved Netflix series and films is our greatest opportunity in games,” wrote Leanne Loombe, head of external games at Netflix, in a recent blog post.
Everybody’s getting into gaming right now. The New York Times, LinkedIn, YouTube, and now possibly even Uber are offering games as a part of their services in order to drive subscriptions and user engagement. For some, it’s working. For others, not so much. A lot of these gaming initiatives feel like they’re just being tacked on to whatever service, like how your favorite Chinese takeout restaurant also has fries and chicken wings. Even though LinkedIn’s new games are entertaining, it’s hard to imagine folks spending more time on the site where CEOs announce layoffs like YouTube apology videos just to play them.
But Netflix is unique in that, even though it’s not a gaming company, its products do lend themselves to a specific kind of highly popular but underserved gaming experience. “We’ve seen a lot of success with interactive fiction games like Selling Sunset, Perfect Match, and The Ultimatum,” Loombe said in an interview with The Verge.

Reality television shows are still one of the most popular kinds of entertainment. They’re relatively cheap to produce and are uniquely positioned to create the kinds of high-drama moments that go viral on social media. And with popular shows, its audience is naturally incentivized to seek out related content. After the wild success of Amazon’s Fallout TV show, the games exploded in popularity, appearing on bestseller lists and at the top of Steam player charts.
Netflix’s gaming offerings are poised to take advantage of that same phenomenon. Because where a Fallout fan has to go outside Amazon to play the games (or, as Amazon vainly hopes, use its cloud gaming service Luna) Netflix’s games channel the enthusiasm of a show’s community right back into the app, creating what Loombe calls a seamless “connective tissue between the TV show and the game.” In this new economy of attention, where companies are competing to have as many eyeballs on their apps or services as possible, that Netflix fans don’t have to leave the app to continue their fandom experiences is potentially a huge advantage.

Image: Netflix
MCU, meet the NRU — the Netflix Reality Universe.

Another advantage is the games themselves. Adapting games can be tough, with the results often failing to engage an audience with the same level of success as its original. Uncharted was a critically acclaimed adventure game series; the movie — less so. That quality gap is closing with shows like The Last of Us and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. And Netflix is strategic in how it picks which of its shows to adapt into a game to ensure an experience that faithfully recreates the essence of the show.
“Unscripted reality shows are really great because it has that fantasy element,” Loombe said. “Players are able to pretend to be one of those characters and play that fantasy out like a choose your own adventure and a romance novel combined.”
It’s a fantasy players take with them and share elsewhere. Too Hot to Handle, for instance, has a dedicated community on Reddit with traditions like “Main Character Monday” in which players post pictures of their in-game avatars. “We have a really deep customization system in Too Hot To Handle,” Loombe explained. “So you can choose, from a variety of different items, to prosthetics, to different hairstyles, different hair colors, and body types. It really is quite deep.”
Netflix’s gaming library started with titles like Shooting Hoops, Teeter (Up), and Card Blast. Three years later, it’s grown into one that includes big-name commercial powerhouses and indie-developed critical darlings. We only know what Netflix shares about exactly how popular its games are, and as a proportion of its overall user base, Netflix’s gaming audience is quite small. And while Netflix’s interactive fiction games don’t generate the same kind of attention the Grand Theft Auto trilogy or Hades might, they are quietly one of the platform’s biggest success stories.

Image: Netflix

Netflix is continuously adding to its diverse portfolio of games, announcing a new slate of titles set to launch on the platform this summer and beyond. And while the “serious gamer” might be enticed by the pending arrival of The Case of the Golden Idol or Don’t Starve Together — games that have enjoyed success on other platforms — it’s interactive fiction games that are the most exciting both for Netflix and its gaming community.

“Expanding the worlds of beloved Netflix series and films is our greatest opportunity in games,” wrote Leanne Loombe, head of external games at Netflix, in a recent blog post.

Everybody’s getting into gaming right now. The New York Times, LinkedIn, YouTube, and now possibly even Uber are offering games as a part of their services in order to drive subscriptions and user engagement. For some, it’s working. For others, not so much. A lot of these gaming initiatives feel like they’re just being tacked on to whatever service, like how your favorite Chinese takeout restaurant also has fries and chicken wings. Even though LinkedIn’s new games are entertaining, it’s hard to imagine folks spending more time on the site where CEOs announce layoffs like YouTube apology videos just to play them.

But Netflix is unique in that, even though it’s not a gaming company, its products do lend themselves to a specific kind of highly popular but underserved gaming experience. “We’ve seen a lot of success with interactive fiction games like Selling Sunset, Perfect Match, and The Ultimatum,” Loombe said in an interview with The Verge.

Reality television shows are still one of the most popular kinds of entertainment. They’re relatively cheap to produce and are uniquely positioned to create the kinds of high-drama moments that go viral on social media. And with popular shows, its audience is naturally incentivized to seek out related content. After the wild success of Amazon’s Fallout TV show, the games exploded in popularity, appearing on bestseller lists and at the top of Steam player charts.

Netflix’s gaming offerings are poised to take advantage of that same phenomenon. Because where a Fallout fan has to go outside Amazon to play the games (or, as Amazon vainly hopes, use its cloud gaming service Luna) Netflix’s games channel the enthusiasm of a show’s community right back into the app, creating what Loombe calls a seamless “connective tissue between the TV show and the game.” In this new economy of attention, where companies are competing to have as many eyeballs on their apps or services as possible, that Netflix fans don’t have to leave the app to continue their fandom experiences is potentially a huge advantage.

Image: Netflix
MCU, meet the NRU — the Netflix Reality Universe.

Another advantage is the games themselves. Adapting games can be tough, with the results often failing to engage an audience with the same level of success as its original. Uncharted was a critically acclaimed adventure game series; the movie — less so. That quality gap is closing with shows like The Last of Us and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. And Netflix is strategic in how it picks which of its shows to adapt into a game to ensure an experience that faithfully recreates the essence of the show.

“Unscripted reality shows are really great because it has that fantasy element,” Loombe said. “Players are able to pretend to be one of those characters and play that fantasy out like a choose your own adventure and a romance novel combined.”

It’s a fantasy players take with them and share elsewhere. Too Hot to Handle, for instance, has a dedicated community on Reddit with traditions like “Main Character Monday” in which players post pictures of their in-game avatars. “We have a really deep customization system in Too Hot To Handle,” Loombe explained. “So you can choose, from a variety of different items, to prosthetics, to different hairstyles, different hair colors, and body types. It really is quite deep.”

Netflix’s gaming library started with titles like Shooting Hoops, Teeter (Up), and Card Blast. Three years later, it’s grown into one that includes big-name commercial powerhouses and indie-developed critical darlings. We only know what Netflix shares about exactly how popular its games are, and as a proportion of its overall user base, Netflix’s gaming audience is quite small. And while Netflix’s interactive fiction games don’t generate the same kind of attention the Grand Theft Auto trilogy or Hades might, they are quietly one of the platform’s biggest success stories.

Read More