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Image: Epic games

Epic Games is about to host big in-game event ahead of its next throwback season — and it could be pretty musical.
The event’s title suggests the music theme — “Remix: The Prelude” — and a post from Epic suggests to be at the event with “the volume UP”. Fortnite is already famous for bombastic musical events, so this event to wrap up the latest Marvel-themed season could be quite a show.
But the “Remix” title is also pointing at Epic bringing back and remixing elements of its Chapter 2 seasons, kind of like it did with the Chapter 1-themed “OG” season last year, The company has already teased what some of those remixes might look like, including a character that combines Meowscles, a swole cat (yes), with Midas.
If you want to watch the event, here’s what you need to know.
When is Fortnite’s Remix: The Prelude event?
The Remix: The Prelude event is set to kick off at 6:30PM ET / 3:30PM PT. Epic suggests logging in early so that you don’t miss the event; events have reached capacity in the past.
How do I watch the Fortnite event?
If you’re in the game, jump into a Battle Royale or Zero Build match ahead of the event’s start time and head to the Restored Reels location.
If you aren’t able to watch in-game, there will almost certainly be a bunch of streamers live-streaming the show, so check Twitch or YouTube to find one to watch.

Image: Epic games

Epic Games is about to host big in-game event ahead of its next throwback season — and it could be pretty musical.

The event’s title suggests the music theme — “Remix: The Prelude” — and a post from Epic suggests to be at the event with “the volume UP”. Fortnite is already famous for bombastic musical events, so this event to wrap up the latest Marvel-themed season could be quite a show.

But the “Remix” title is also pointing at Epic bringing back and remixing elements of its Chapter 2 seasons, kind of like it did with the Chapter 1-themed “OG” season last year, The company has already teased what some of those remixes might look like, including a character that combines Meowscles, a swole cat (yes), with Midas.

If you want to watch the event, here’s what you need to know.

When is Fortnite’s Remix: The Prelude event?

The Remix: The Prelude event is set to kick off at 6:30PM ET / 3:30PM PT. Epic suggests logging in early so that you don’t miss the event; events have reached capacity in the past.

How do I watch the Fortnite event?

If you’re in the game, jump into a Battle Royale or Zero Build match ahead of the event’s start time and head to the Restored Reels location.

If you aren’t able to watch in-game, there will almost certainly be a bunch of streamers live-streaming the show, so check Twitch or YouTube to find one to watch.

Read More 

Turns out, taking things apart is still just as much fun as when you were a kid. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

My first DIY smartphone repair project was off to an inauspicious start.
I’d successfully removed the back of the HMD Skyline, but the next instruction called for a T3 screwdriver bit. I had a T4 bit, which worked well enough to turn the screw that popped the corner of the phone’s back panel up. But a T4 was just too big for the tiny screws holding the battery connector cover in place. I needed that T3.
The Skyline is one of HMD’s latest user-repairable phones. It’s a midrange phone, one of the first Android phones with Qi2 wireless charging, plus a 6.55-inch OLED panel, three rear cameras, and a big 4,600mAh battery for $449. In my limited use, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 seems prone to lagginess, and the 1080p screen resolution really isn’t enough for that big panel.
But most notably, the Skyline represents the continuation of a partnership with iFixit. You can buy spare parts for the Skyline on iFixit’s website, follow along with detailed repair instructions, and pick up the tools you’ll need for the job. My review unit arrived from HMD with a basic iFixit toolkit, which has a good set of starter tools — but not the T3 bit I needed.

Did you know you can walk into your local hardware store and buy something called a “smartphone repair kit?” I didn’t, but I’m glad that you can. I bought the kit as a kind of insurance; I’d been in touch with iFixit to get some replacement parts for the Skyline for testing and wasn’t sure if a T3 was coming in my shipment. It was, as it turned out, along with extra tools, a replacement battery, a replacement back cover, and some rad iFixit stickers. So thoughtful!
I spend a lot of my time using phones, holding phones, being near phones, and considering phones, but I rarely look inside phones. That’s mostly because dismantling a $1,000 device that a company is loaning you is generally considered rude. Phone manufacturers would also prefer you go through their official channels rather than self-repair. But also, I’m kind of a weenie. I’m not very handy and I’m nervous about screwing something up — traits I’m slowly learning to overcome as a homeowner.

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge
The green tab is the one that snapped, but I managed to wiggle the battery out with the other two.

I’ll be honest, prying the battery out of the HMD Skyline did make me a little nervous, especially when the disposable tab I was pulling to release it from its adhesive snapped right off. But as with home projects, I’m learning that if you have the right tools on hand, take your time, and consult experts along the way, you can do a lot more than you’d think. iFixit’s guide suggested that the adhesive might be strong enough to require constant, steady pressure. By carefully pulling on the remaining two tabs, I eventually freed the battery from the glue.
I’d successfully followed the steps to remove the phone’s back cover, disconnect the battery, and remove it from the phone. All I needed to do before installing the new battery was to remove a couple of patches of adhesive. I used a spudger and tweezers to peel up most of it, but the sticky remnants needed to go, too. Working one drop at a time, I applied some 90 percent isopropyl alcohol and scrubbed the residue off with a microfiber towel. It was the most tedious and satisfying part of the job.
The most tedious and satisfying part of the job
Incidentally, I’d had to perform the same maneuver in a house project last week, only on a slightly bigger scale. There’s apparently a small crack where the conduit meets our outdoor breaker box that lets a tiny trickle of water into the wall when it rains. It’s something that we’ve had a contractor work on a couple of times, but their fix hasn’t seemed to stick. They’re a big outfit and “tiny crack where a little rain gets into the drywall” is small potatoes for them anyway, so I took it on myself.
That’s how you end up on a ladder outside your house peeling all-weather tape off of a metal box, a few millimeters at a time. But I did as the kind people at the hardware store told me, removing the tape and the residue underneath with some rubbing alcohol and a microfiber towel. The crack is freshly sealed and stood up to a downpour a few days later, and I plan to never shut up about how I fixed the leak in the wall all by myself.
Back to the Skyline. I installed the new battery, swapped in the new back cover, and sealed the whole thing up again. There’s a worrying amount of force and clicking required to get the cover clipped back into place, but I did it. The phone powered up normally and is charging as I write this; iFixit recommends charging it to 100 percent and then keeping it plugged in for an extra two hours to calibrate it.
The ease of this repair wasn’t by accident
The whole process to swap the battery and cover took a couple of hours — including 30 minutes I spent running to the store for some 90 percent isopropyl alcohol. But after taking a look through iFixit’s other phone repair guides, I can appreciate that the ease of this repair wasn’t by accident. If you want to swap out a battery on your Google Pixel 8, you’ll need to complete 42 steps just to get the original battery out; on the HMD Skyline, the whole procedure is just 21 steps.
To be fair, the Pixel 8 is IP68 rated for full dust and water resistance, so it’s just going to be harder to get into. The Skyline is IP54, which is honestly better than I figured considering its repairability status. And unsurprisingly, the Skyline doesn’t feel quite as well made as a less-repairable Pixel or Samsung phone. Maybe you can’t have it all.
If nothing else, the exercise of opening up the Skyline has made me an even bigger proponent of repairable phones. California’s right to repair law, which went into effect over the summer, has surely helped push phone makers to make parts and documentation available to more consumers. But even those technically complying with the law don’t seem to be fully embracing its principles. Maybe those companies should put a little more faith in their customers. After fixing a leak in the wall and replacing a phone battery, my faith in my own self-repair skills is at an all-time high.

Turns out, taking things apart is still just as much fun as when you were a kid. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

My first DIY smartphone repair project was off to an inauspicious start.

I’d successfully removed the back of the HMD Skyline, but the next instruction called for a T3 screwdriver bit. I had a T4 bit, which worked well enough to turn the screw that popped the corner of the phone’s back panel up. But a T4 was just too big for the tiny screws holding the battery connector cover in place. I needed that T3.

The Skyline is one of HMD’s latest user-repairable phones. It’s a midrange phone, one of the first Android phones with Qi2 wireless charging, plus a 6.55-inch OLED panel, three rear cameras, and a big 4,600mAh battery for $449. In my limited use, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 seems prone to lagginess, and the 1080p screen resolution really isn’t enough for that big panel.

But most notably, the Skyline represents the continuation of a partnership with iFixit. You can buy spare parts for the Skyline on iFixit’s website, follow along with detailed repair instructions, and pick up the tools you’ll need for the job. My review unit arrived from HMD with a basic iFixit toolkit, which has a good set of starter tools — but not the T3 bit I needed.

Did you know you can walk into your local hardware store and buy something called a “smartphone repair kit?” I didn’t, but I’m glad that you can. I bought the kit as a kind of insurance; I’d been in touch with iFixit to get some replacement parts for the Skyline for testing and wasn’t sure if a T3 was coming in my shipment. It was, as it turned out, along with extra tools, a replacement battery, a replacement back cover, and some rad iFixit stickers. So thoughtful!

I spend a lot of my time using phones, holding phones, being near phones, and considering phones, but I rarely look inside phones. That’s mostly because dismantling a $1,000 device that a company is loaning you is generally considered rude. Phone manufacturers would also prefer you go through their official channels rather than self-repair. But also, I’m kind of a weenie. I’m not very handy and I’m nervous about screwing something up — traits I’m slowly learning to overcome as a homeowner.

I’ll be honest, prying the battery out of the HMD Skyline did make me a little nervous, especially when the disposable tab I was pulling to release it from its adhesive snapped right off. But as with home projects, I’m learning that if you have the right tools on hand, take your time, and consult experts along the way, you can do a lot more than you’d think. iFixit’s guide suggested that the adhesive might be strong enough to require constant, steady pressure. By carefully pulling on the remaining two tabs, I eventually freed the battery from the glue.

I’d successfully followed the steps to remove the phone’s back cover, disconnect the battery, and remove it from the phone. All I needed to do before installing the new battery was to remove a couple of patches of adhesive. I used a spudger and tweezers to peel up most of it, but the sticky remnants needed to go, too. Working one drop at a time, I applied some 90 percent isopropyl alcohol and scrubbed the residue off with a microfiber towel. It was the most tedious and satisfying part of the job.

Incidentally, I’d had to perform the same maneuver in a house project last week, only on a slightly bigger scale. There’s apparently a small crack where the conduit meets our outdoor breaker box that lets a tiny trickle of water into the wall when it rains. It’s something that we’ve had a contractor work on a couple of times, but their fix hasn’t seemed to stick. They’re a big outfit and “tiny crack where a little rain gets into the drywall” is small potatoes for them anyway, so I took it on myself.

That’s how you end up on a ladder outside your house peeling all-weather tape off of a metal box, a few millimeters at a time. But I did as the kind people at the hardware store told me, removing the tape and the residue underneath with some rubbing alcohol and a microfiber towel. The crack is freshly sealed and stood up to a downpour a few days later, and I plan to never shut up about how I fixed the leak in the wall all by myself.

Back to the Skyline. I installed the new battery, swapped in the new back cover, and sealed the whole thing up again. There’s a worrying amount of force and clicking required to get the cover clipped back into place, but I did it. The phone powered up normally and is charging as I write this; iFixit recommends charging it to 100 percent and then keeping it plugged in for an extra two hours to calibrate it.

The whole process to swap the battery and cover took a couple of hours — including 30 minutes I spent running to the store for some 90 percent isopropyl alcohol. But after taking a look through iFixit’s other phone repair guides, I can appreciate that the ease of this repair wasn’t by accident. If you want to swap out a battery on your Google Pixel 8, you’ll need to complete 42 steps just to get the original battery out; on the HMD Skyline, the whole procedure is just 21 steps.

To be fair, the Pixel 8 is IP68 rated for full dust and water resistance, so it’s just going to be harder to get into. The Skyline is IP54, which is honestly better than I figured considering its repairability status. And unsurprisingly, the Skyline doesn’t feel quite as well made as a less-repairable Pixel or Samsung phone. Maybe you can’t have it all.

If nothing else, the exercise of opening up the Skyline has made me an even bigger proponent of repairable phones. California’s right to repair law, which went into effect over the summer, has surely helped push phone makers to make parts and documentation available to more consumers. But even those technically complying with the law don’t seem to be fully embracing its principles. Maybe those companies should put a little more faith in their customers. After fixing a leak in the wall and replacing a phone battery, my faith in my own self-repair skills is at an all-time high.

Read More 

Image: Pixelmator

Apple has agreed to acquire Pixelmator, a popular image editing app available on Mac and iOS. Pixelmator announced the news in a post on its blog, saying it will now “have the ability to reach an even wider audience and make an even bigger impact on the lives of creative people around the world.”
Pixelmator issued the following statement about the acquisition (emphasis ours):
Pixelmator has signed an agreement to be acquired by Apple, subject to regulatory approval. There will be no material changes to the Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator apps at this time. Stay tuned for exciting updates to come.
No details about the deal were revealed except that it is still pending, subject to regulatory approval of Apple buying the Lithuanian company. That can be tricky, though — while Microsoft successfully swallowed up Activision Blizzard, deals that melted under regulatory pressure include Nvidia and Arm, Amazon and iRobot, and more recently, Adobe and Figma.
After Apple acquired the popular weather app Dark Sky in 2020, it shut down the app in 2022 and integrated its tech with the first-party weather app. Still, other software packages acquired by Apple, like Final Cut and Logic Pro, remain available many years after they were bought.
Over the years, Pixelmator Pro has become a viable and far cheaper alternative to Adobe Photoshop, as it’s available for a one-time payment of $49.99. It offers a robust suite of tools for editing and retouching photos, creating designs, drawing, and more. The app most recent update reworked its masking process and added the ability to hide an image’s background with AI.

Image: Pixelmator

Apple has agreed to acquire Pixelmator, a popular image editing app available on Mac and iOS. Pixelmator announced the news in a post on its blog, saying it will now “have the ability to reach an even wider audience and make an even bigger impact on the lives of creative people around the world.”

Pixelmator issued the following statement about the acquisition (emphasis ours):

Pixelmator has signed an agreement to be acquired by Apple, subject to regulatory approval. There will be no material changes to the Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator apps at this time. Stay tuned for exciting updates to come.

No details about the deal were revealed except that it is still pending, subject to regulatory approval of Apple buying the Lithuanian company. That can be tricky, though — while Microsoft successfully swallowed up Activision Blizzard, deals that melted under regulatory pressure include Nvidia and Arm, Amazon and iRobot, and more recently, Adobe and Figma.

After Apple acquired the popular weather app Dark Sky in 2020, it shut down the app in 2022 and integrated its tech with the first-party weather app. Still, other software packages acquired by Apple, like Final Cut and Logic Pro, remain available many years after they were bought.

Over the years, Pixelmator Pro has become a viable and far cheaper alternative to Adobe Photoshop, as it’s available for a one-time payment of $49.99. It offers a robust suite of tools for editing and retouching photos, creating designs, drawing, and more. The app most recent update reworked its masking process and added the ability to hide an image’s background with AI.

Read More 

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Apple is taking a 20 percent stake in its iPhone satellite connectivity partner GlobalStar — a stake worth $400 million — as part of an expansion of its deal with the company. GlobalStar will also receive a prepayment of $1.1 billion from Apple that is intended to improve satellite infrastructure.
Apple relies on GlobalStar’s satellites to enable to send emergency text messages, iMessage reactions, and more through the skies in areas with no cell signal. GlobalStar disclosed the details of the deal expansion in an SEC filing, which includes “a new satellite constellation, expanded ground infrastructure, and increased global [mobile satellite services] licensing.”

Apple launched its Emergency SOS feature on the iPhone 14 in 2022 and expanded it with iOS 18, enabling off-grid users to send and receive texts, emoji, and Tapbacks over iMessage and SMS out in the wilderness.
Apple intends to charge owners for satellite connectivity service at some point but still hasn’t. Starting with the iPhone 14, Apple has offered access to its satellite features for free two years with your phone. But last year, iPhone 14 owners were given an extra year, extending free service to as early as November 2025.

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Apple is taking a 20 percent stake in its iPhone satellite connectivity partner GlobalStar — a stake worth $400 million — as part of an expansion of its deal with the company. GlobalStar will also receive a prepayment of $1.1 billion from Apple that is intended to improve satellite infrastructure.

Apple relies on GlobalStar’s satellites to enable to send emergency text messages, iMessage reactions, and more through the skies in areas with no cell signal. GlobalStar disclosed the details of the deal expansion in an SEC filing, which includes “a new satellite constellation, expanded ground infrastructure, and increased global [mobile satellite services] licensing.”

Apple launched its Emergency SOS feature on the iPhone 14 in 2022 and expanded it with iOS 18, enabling off-grid users to send and receive texts, emoji, and Tapbacks over iMessage and SMS out in the wilderness.

Apple intends to charge owners for satellite connectivity service at some point but still hasn’t. Starting with the iPhone 14, Apple has offered access to its satellite features for free two years with your phone. But last year, iPhone 14 owners were given an extra year, extending free service to as early as November 2025.

Read More 

Illustration: The Verge

WhatsApp is adding yet another way to organize all your chats. If you’re tired of struggling to find certain conversations, now you can slot them into custom categories, called Lists.
You can create and label lists dedicated to specific chats, such as those with your family or work colleagues. The messaging app will then display them at the very top of your inbox, alongside the “All,” “Unread,” and “Groups” filters WhatsApp rolled out earlier this year.

Image: WhatsApp

To create a list, tap the “+” icon in the filter bar at the top of your chats tab. You can then enter a name for your list and choose which conversations to add. WhatsApp will let you add both group chats and one-on-one conversations to your lists. If you have multiple lists, you can scroll horizontally on the filter bar to view all of them.
Lists start rolling out today, and I’m already seeing the feature on the Android version of the app. If you don’t see it yet, don’t worry, as WhatsApp says it will become available to everyone in the “coming weeks.”

Illustration: The Verge

WhatsApp is adding yet another way to organize all your chats. If you’re tired of struggling to find certain conversations, now you can slot them into custom categories, called Lists.

You can create and label lists dedicated to specific chats, such as those with your family or work colleagues. The messaging app will then display them at the very top of your inbox, alongside the “All,” “Unread,” and “Groups” filters WhatsApp rolled out earlier this year.

Image: WhatsApp

To create a list, tap the “+” icon in the filter bar at the top of your chats tab. You can then enter a name for your list and choose which conversations to add. WhatsApp will let you add both group chats and one-on-one conversations to your lists. If you have multiple lists, you can scroll horizontally on the filter bar to view all of them.

Lists start rolling out today, and I’m already seeing the feature on the Android version of the app. If you don’t see it yet, don’t worry, as WhatsApp says it will become available to everyone in the “coming weeks.”

Read More 

The Wyze Scale Ultra includes a 4.3-inch color screen that shares more health data. | Image: Wyze

The addition of a 4.3-inch color TFT screen makes the new Wyze Scale Ultra one of the brand’s most expensive smart scales to date, but at $43.99, it’s still considerably cheaper than offerings from companies like Withings. It’s available from Wyze directly or from Amazon in white or black.
The Wyze Scale Ultra says it can track 13 different health metrics, including your heart rate, your metabolic age (a comparison of how your body burns calories at rest to others your age), and measurements of fat, muscle, and water.
Previous versions of Wyze’s smart scales featured simple segmented LED displays to display basic information like weight, BMI, and muscle mass, leaving more detailed breakdowns of your health metrics for an accompanying mobile app. The Wyze Scale Ultra can display more data, including how measurements like weight or body fat have fluctuated over time, and it’s customizable, so it only displays what you want it to.

Image: Wyze
The information displayed on the Wyze Scale Ultra’s full color screen can be customized by each user.

Like the Wyze Scale X introduced in 2022, the Scale Ultra offers modes for easily weighing pets, babies, or luggage and a pregnancy mode that turns off the weak electrical current used for bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA) as an added safety precaution.

Image: Wyze
The Wyze Scale Ultra can also be used to weigh pets, children, and luggage.

Connectivity includes both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and the Wyze Scale Ultra can automatically recognize and sync measured health metrics for up to eight different users — either to its mobile app or to the Apple Health, Google Fit, and Fitbit platforms. It’s not rechargeable, however. It runs on four AA batteries, which Wyze says will keep the scale powered for up to nine months.

The Wyze Scale Ultra includes a 4.3-inch color screen that shares more health data. | Image: Wyze

The addition of a 4.3-inch color TFT screen makes the new Wyze Scale Ultra one of the brand’s most expensive smart scales to date, but at $43.99, it’s still considerably cheaper than offerings from companies like Withings. It’s available from Wyze directly or from Amazon in white or black.

The Wyze Scale Ultra says it can track 13 different health metrics, including your heart rate, your metabolic age (a comparison of how your body burns calories at rest to others your age), and measurements of fat, muscle, and water.

Previous versions of Wyze’s smart scales featured simple segmented LED displays to display basic information like weight, BMI, and muscle mass, leaving more detailed breakdowns of your health metrics for an accompanying mobile app. The Wyze Scale Ultra can display more data, including how measurements like weight or body fat have fluctuated over time, and it’s customizable, so it only displays what you want it to.

Image: Wyze
The information displayed on the Wyze Scale Ultra’s full color screen can be customized by each user.

Like the Wyze Scale X introduced in 2022, the Scale Ultra offers modes for easily weighing pets, babies, or luggage and a pregnancy mode that turns off the weak electrical current used for bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA) as an added safety precaution.

Image: Wyze
The Wyze Scale Ultra can also be used to weigh pets, children, and luggage.

Connectivity includes both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and the Wyze Scale Ultra can automatically recognize and sync measured health metrics for up to eight different users — either to its mobile app or to the Apple Health, Google Fit, and Fitbit platforms. It’s not rechargeable, however. It runs on four AA batteries, which Wyze says will keep the scale powered for up to nine months.

Read More 

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

I regret to inform you that former President Donald Trump has once again filed what is almost inarguably a SLAPP complaint, this time against CBS for editing its own interview of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump’s lawsuit, first reported by Fox News yesterday, escalates a weeks-long crusade against CBS for its 60 Minutes interview with Harris. Trump argues CBS — which published multiple cuts of the interview — deceptively edited Harris’ answer to make her appear more coherent. This is the kind of editing decision it’s reasonable to argue about, and that people in fact constantly argue about with Trump’s own words. It is less reasonable to:

Claim the edit counts as a contribution to the Harris campaign
Call to strip CBS of its FCC broadcast license for election interference (licenses are actually held by individual TV stations, not the network, and they aren’t revoked for basic editorial decisions)

Send a letter to CBS demanding the full transcript of the interview under threat of a lawsuit
File a lawsuit demanding $10 million for alleged violations of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act

All of which Trump has now done.
It would be a waste of your time and mine to parse the legal particulars here. Trump invokes the FCC’s broadcast news distortion rule, which allows the agency to investigate a station that “deliberately distorted” or falsified a “factual news report.” (I might as well note this whole saga began because CBS voluntarily published the content Trump claims it was suppressing, just not in a specific edit.) This policy has been described as “largely symbolic.”
The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of Texas, a state where neither CBS nor Trump are located. The justification is that the interview aired in and “has been viewed by individuals in Texas,” alongside… basically everywhere else in the country. It’s more pertinent to note that this district is home to Trump-friendly judges with no compunctions about accepting absolutely absurd legal arguments from conservative plaintiffs. In other words, it’s blatant forum-shopping.
Lawsuits are one of Trump’s favorite ways to deal with news he dislikes. Last year he tried to wring $475 million out of CNN for using the phrase “the big lie” to describe his repeated election denial, before being unceremoniously shut down by a judge. He was ordered to pay The New York Times’ legal fees for a similar, equally baseless suit. So far judges have correctly recognized these suits as specious, but that’s reliant on a legal system that’s not rebuilt by Trump from the ground up, and it’s still shameless, expensive harassment of the press.
To paraphrase a now-famous description of Trump, there is no reason to take this lawsuit literally. If anyone involved here believed a word of their claims about enforcing impartial news coverage, they’d be supporting a legal standard that would wipe their favorite conservative TV networks off the map. (And let’s be clear: this standard, regardless of what anyone at The Verge thinks of these networks, would be bad.)
There’s every reason to take this lawsuit seriously. It’s the latest in a long string of signals that Trump opposes legal protections for any news coverage he disapproves of. Would-be future Trump apparatchik Elon Musk supports effectively forcing TV stations off the airwaves to repurpose their spectrum. Broadcast TV is somehow a speech battleground again in 2024. For anyone who opposes the government looking over interviewers’ shoulders, the only consolation is that Trump merely wields the power of poorly conceived legal action — for now.

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

I regret to inform you that former President Donald Trump has once again filed what is almost inarguably a SLAPP complaint, this time against CBS for editing its own interview of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump’s lawsuit, first reported by Fox News yesterday, escalates a weeks-long crusade against CBS for its 60 Minutes interview with Harris. Trump argues CBS — which published multiple cuts of the interview — deceptively edited Harris’ answer to make her appear more coherent. This is the kind of editing decision it’s reasonable to argue about, and that people in fact constantly argue about with Trump’s own words. It is less reasonable to:

Claim the edit counts as a contribution to the Harris campaign
Call to strip CBS of its FCC broadcast license for election interference (licenses are actually held by individual TV stations, not the network, and they aren’t revoked for basic editorial decisions)

Send a letter to CBS demanding the full transcript of the interview under threat of a lawsuit
File a lawsuit demanding $10 million for alleged violations of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act

All of which Trump has now done.

It would be a waste of your time and mine to parse the legal particulars here. Trump invokes the FCC’s broadcast news distortion rule, which allows the agency to investigate a station that “deliberately distorted” or falsified a “factual news report.” (I might as well note this whole saga began because CBS voluntarily published the content Trump claims it was suppressing, just not in a specific edit.) This policy has been described as “largely symbolic.”

The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of Texas, a state where neither CBS nor Trump are located. The justification is that the interview aired in and “has been viewed by individuals in Texas,” alongside… basically everywhere else in the country. It’s more pertinent to note that this district is home to Trump-friendly judges with no compunctions about accepting absolutely absurd legal arguments from conservative plaintiffs. In other words, it’s blatant forum-shopping.

Lawsuits are one of Trump’s favorite ways to deal with news he dislikes. Last year he tried to wring $475 million out of CNN for using the phrase “the big lie” to describe his repeated election denial, before being unceremoniously shut down by a judge. He was ordered to pay The New York Times’ legal fees for a similar, equally baseless suit. So far judges have correctly recognized these suits as specious, but that’s reliant on a legal system that’s not rebuilt by Trump from the ground up, and it’s still shameless, expensive harassment of the press.

To paraphrase a now-famous description of Trump, there is no reason to take this lawsuit literally. If anyone involved here believed a word of their claims about enforcing impartial news coverage, they’d be supporting a legal standard that would wipe their favorite conservative TV networks off the map. (And let’s be clear: this standard, regardless of what anyone at The Verge thinks of these networks, would be bad.)

There’s every reason to take this lawsuit seriously. It’s the latest in a long string of signals that Trump opposes legal protections for any news coverage he disapproves of. Would-be future Trump apparatchik Elon Musk supports effectively forcing TV stations off the airwaves to repurpose their spectrum. Broadcast TV is somehow a speech battleground again in 2024. For anyone who opposes the government looking over interviewers’ shoulders, the only consolation is that Trump merely wields the power of poorly conceived legal action — for now.

Read More 

Illustration: The Verge

Google is adding a Google Home extension to the Gemini app, allowing you to control your smart home while chatting with the AI assistant. The update, which is available to Android users as part of Google Home’s Public Preview program, will let you use natural language prompts, like “Set the dining room for a romantic date night” to adjust lighting, or “Help me clean up the kitchen” to turn on the vacuum.
Previously, the Gemini app would open Google Assistant if you tried to control your smart home. With the new Google Home extension, you can perform actions across smart lighting, climate control, window coverings, TVs, speakers, and more from within the Gemini app.

The extension in Gemini doesn’t support all smart devices, however. As Google notes, it will link you to the Google Home app for controls related to security devices, including cameras, locks, gates, and doors. It also can’t execute routines.
Like Google, Amazon is also working to add support for natural language commands in Alexa. The company has already rolled out a preview containing elements of this update, but we’ll likely have to wait until next year to see a full AI overhaul for Alexa. And while Apple is planning to upgrade Siri with Apple Intelligence, the assistant doesn’t have a role in the smart home just yet.
If you want access to the Google Home extension feature, you’ll have to follow the steps to join the Google Home Public Preview. It’s also only available in English for now.
Then, to use the feature, sign in to the Gemini app with the same account you use with Google Home. From there, you can ask Gemini to perform a specific action, such as “turn on living room lights.” Google says you may have to include “@Google Home” in your prompt if Gemini doesn’t use the extension automatically.

Illustration: The Verge

Google is adding a Google Home extension to the Gemini app, allowing you to control your smart home while chatting with the AI assistant. The update, which is available to Android users as part of Google Home’s Public Preview program, will let you use natural language prompts, like “Set the dining room for a romantic date night” to adjust lighting, or “Help me clean up the kitchen” to turn on the vacuum.

Previously, the Gemini app would open Google Assistant if you tried to control your smart home. With the new Google Home extension, you can perform actions across smart lighting, climate control, window coverings, TVs, speakers, and more from within the Gemini app.

The extension in Gemini doesn’t support all smart devices, however. As Google notes, it will link you to the Google Home app for controls related to security devices, including cameras, locks, gates, and doors. It also can’t execute routines.

Like Google, Amazon is also working to add support for natural language commands in Alexa. The company has already rolled out a preview containing elements of this update, but we’ll likely have to wait until next year to see a full AI overhaul for Alexa. And while Apple is planning to upgrade Siri with Apple Intelligence, the assistant doesn’t have a role in the smart home just yet.

If you want access to the Google Home extension feature, you’ll have to follow the steps to join the Google Home Public Preview. It’s also only available in English for now.

Then, to use the feature, sign in to the Gemini app with the same account you use with Google Home. From there, you can ask Gemini to perform a specific action, such as “turn on living room lights.” Google says you may have to include “@Google Home” in your prompt if Gemini doesn’t use the extension automatically.

Read More 

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

You just left your house. As you peel out of the driveway and tear down the street in the coolest way possible, your garage door… well, what does it do? The answer’s probably nothing, and that feels like the wrong answer. The smart home was supposed to have fixed this by now.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we didn’t necessarily set out to talk about smart garage doors for as long as we did, but The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern joined the show with a lot of thoughts about Apple Intelligence, notification summaries, and how we all — and in particular, how Apple’s software leader Craig Federighi — manage their own houses. Given the reporting that Apple is gearing up for a big hardware push into the smart home, what does the company really think it can do here? (Make sure you watch Joanna’s recent interview with Federighi for more!)

At the beginning of the show, though, we talk about some of the week’s AI news. We discuss the just-launched search engine inside of ChatGPT, which may be a threat to Google but is definitely a statement about how we use the internet now. We also talk about this week’s Big Tech earnings, and what they taught us about how AI is actually being used — and how it makes money.
With Joanna, we dig into not just garage doors but also the rest of Apple’s big week of Mac announcements. After seeing the new Mac Mini, the new iMac, the new MacBook Pro, and some new accessories, a lot of people were left with the same question: they put the power button and charging port where? So we talk about power buttons, and chip bumps, and why the Mac Mini feels more important than ever.
Finally, in the lightning round, we talk about Netflix’s gentle push into the social era, and Tony Fadell’s decidedly curse-filled thoughts on AI. Then we talk briefly about The Verge’s presidential endorsement and all our election coverage, which you should read. And read the comments!

If you want to know more on everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with AI:

OpenAI’s search engine is now live in ChatGPT
Meta is reportedly working on its own AI-powered search engine, too
Google Maps will use AI to answer questions about the new restaurant you want to try
Microsoft’s gaming revenue keeps going up, even though hardware sales are down
Reddit is profitable for the first time ever, with nearly 100 million daily users
More than a quarter of new code at Google is generated by AI

And in Apple news:

Apple’s Mac week: everything announced
Apple announces redesigned Mac Mini with M4 chip — and it’s so damn small
Apple’s new Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad have USB-C
Apple put the Magic Mouse’s charging port on the bottom again
Apple updates the MacBook Pro with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips
Apple updates the iMac with new colors and an M4 chip
Apple’s first smart home display could pay homage to a classic iMac
From The Wall Street Journal: Apple’s Craig Federighi Explains Apple Intelligence Delays, Siri’s Future and More

And in the lightning round:

David Pierce’s pick: Netflix is making it easier to bookmark and share your favorite parts of a show

Nilay Patel’s pick: Tony Fadell calls out Sam Altman for “spouting shit.”

The Verge’s guide to the 2024 presidential election
A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for school shootings and measles

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

You just left your house. As you peel out of the driveway and tear down the street in the coolest way possible, your garage door… well, what does it do? The answer’s probably nothing, and that feels like the wrong answer. The smart home was supposed to have fixed this by now.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we didn’t necessarily set out to talk about smart garage doors for as long as we did, but The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern joined the show with a lot of thoughts about Apple Intelligence, notification summaries, and how we all — and in particular, how Apple’s software leader Craig Federighi — manage their own houses. Given the reporting that Apple is gearing up for a big hardware push into the smart home, what does the company really think it can do here? (Make sure you watch Joanna’s recent interview with Federighi for more!)

At the beginning of the show, though, we talk about some of the week’s AI news. We discuss the just-launched search engine inside of ChatGPT, which may be a threat to Google but is definitely a statement about how we use the internet now. We also talk about this week’s Big Tech earnings, and what they taught us about how AI is actually being used — and how it makes money.

With Joanna, we dig into not just garage doors but also the rest of Apple’s big week of Mac announcements. After seeing the new Mac Mini, the new iMac, the new MacBook Pro, and some new accessories, a lot of people were left with the same question: they put the power button and charging port where? So we talk about power buttons, and chip bumps, and why the Mac Mini feels more important than ever.

Finally, in the lightning round, we talk about Netflix’s gentle push into the social era, and Tony Fadell’s decidedly curse-filled thoughts on AI. Then we talk briefly about The Verge’s presidential endorsement and all our election coverage, which you should read. And read the comments!

If you want to know more on everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with AI:

OpenAI’s search engine is now live in ChatGPT
Meta is reportedly working on its own AI-powered search engine, too
Google Maps will use AI to answer questions about the new restaurant you want to try
Microsoft’s gaming revenue keeps going up, even though hardware sales are down
Reddit is profitable for the first time ever, with nearly 100 million daily users
More than a quarter of new code at Google is generated by AI

And in Apple news:

Apple’s Mac week: everything announced
Apple announces redesigned Mac Mini with M4 chip — and it’s so damn small
Apple’s new Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad have USB-C
Apple put the Magic Mouse’s charging port on the bottom again
Apple updates the MacBook Pro with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips
Apple updates the iMac with new colors and an M4 chip
Apple’s first smart home display could pay homage to a classic iMac
From The Wall Street Journal: Apple’s Craig Federighi Explains Apple Intelligence Delays, Siri’s Future and More

And in the lightning round:

David Pierce’s pick: Netflix is making it easier to bookmark and share your favorite parts of a show

Nilay Patel’s pick: Tony Fadell calls out Sam Altman for “spouting shit.”

The Verge’s guide to the 2024 presidential election
A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for school shootings and measles

Read More 

Image: Alex Parkin / Getty Images

Smartmatic and Dominion are trying to debunk false stories and rebuild trust — but that’s a tall order in 2024. Ed Smith still remembers the weeks after Election Day 2020. The elections compliance expert worked for voting technology provider Smartmatic at the time: a mostly low-profile company that had supplied ballot-marking devices to Los Angeles County. As the polls reported their vote counts, though, then-President Donald Trump lost to challenger Joe Biden — and Trump launched an all-out war on the results. Companies like Smartmatic found themselves under siege.
Trump and his allies accused Smartmatic and its competitor Dominion Voting Systems of a conspiracy to rig the vote for Biden. And as Trump’s attorneys, Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, piled up false claims in court, armies of online supporters descended on employees like Smith. Twitter users found his work history at several voting tech companies and concluded, “This must be the guy,” he recalls. People were “threatening me, wanting to come to my house and show me some love.” Smith had been proud of his years of experience — work he considered a public benefit. But as Trump undercut trust in the system, Smith’s own mother believed the election had been stolen. The misinformation and online attacks “just created a climate that led me to be very sad.”
Four years later, Trump is again on the ballot. He’s preemptively claimed his rivals want to steal the election and refused to guarantee he’ll accept the results. Dominion, Smartmatic, and other election tech providers are going on the offensive, trying to convince the public of their trustworthiness. But they’re contending with a problem that seems sometimes insurmountable: fighting conspiracy theories amid a crisis of trust.
Communications was once an “afterthought” in election tech
Communication was an “afterthought for election commissions” when Smartmatic began working in the industry two decades ago, says Samira Saba, communications director for the company. The job of election commissions was pretty much just about making sure votes were counted and voter rolls were up to date. “Today, election administrators around the world recognize that disinformation is among the largest challenges they face—if not the largest,” Saba told The Verge in an email.
While there had long been some activists sowing doubt in the voting system, Smith says that in 2020, the industry was “caught off-guard by the volume and the ferociousness of the misinformation.” False claims weren’t coming just from fringe figures but the then-sitting president and leader of the Republican Party. Major networks like Fox News were repeating their claims.
The companies’ first move was a blitz of defamation lawsuits against news outlets and conspiracy theorists — one that’s been fairly successful in court. Newsmax settled with Smartmatic in September, and judges have allowed Smartmatic suits to proceed against Fox, One America News (OAN), and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell. Dominion reached a $787 million defamation settlement with Fox last year, and cases are proceeding against OAN, Newsmax, Lindell, Powell, and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy put a Dominion lawsuit on pause late last year, but a judge ended his bankruptcy this summer, letting the case advance.
Election lies aren’t gone from conservative news outlets, according to the left-leaning media watchdog group Media Matters, but the tactics have changed. “The difference that we’ve seen so far in 2024 is that MAGA personalities appear to have been able to steer conversations away from specific potential defamatory claims, particularly about voting companies — even as those sorts of claims continue to circulate on social media,” Media Matters senior adviser John Whitehouse says in a statement. “The lesson for MAGA media seems to be that the core audience wants more election denial — and they’re gonna give it to them.”
But the court of public opinion is just as important. For this election, Smartmatic and Dominion both maintain pages on their websites fact-checking false claims about their technologies and explaining how their companies work. Smartmatic began publishing a handbook for fighting mis- and disinformation in 2016. Its latest edition walks election officials through steps like auditing media channels where citizens get information, building relationships with journalists and influencers, and creating a crisis communications plan. It advises that election officials “show empathy and concern” and “make sure your explanation isn’t more complicated than the falsehood.”
Voting technology companies aren’t the only ones trying to explain how these systems work and defend their reliability. State governments operate fact-check pages that “pre-bunk” election misconceptions. Election authorities have emphasized ways that voters can observe the system — like livestreams of ballot processing facilities. Local election offices also run extensive public testing of voting machines in the weeks and months leading up to the election.
Still, convincing voters that they can trust the system can be tricky — especially when it means proving something isn’t happening.
“Make sure your explanation isn’t more complicated than the falsehood”
Letting voters observe the process themselves can help, says Sara Cutter, executive director of the nonpartisan trade group American Council for Election Technology (ACET). Chester County resident Jay Schneider was one of those skeptics about the election process in 2020. “To be honest, when the 2020 election came around I was thinking, ‘This seems a little sketchy, what’s been going on. There’s some shenanigans going around and around the country,’” he told Spotlight PA in a 2023 story. But after working the polls himself, he became so persuaded by the strength of the checks and balances in the system that he decided to take on a bigger role in the process as a judge of elections.
Smith agrees that personal experience with the system is valuable. “When you are aware of those sorts of checks and balances, you know that throwing the election in the manner that people are saying it’s thrown would just be an impossible dream,” he says.
Successful persuasion depends on the person and situation, though, in Smith’s experience. Many people are content with learning more about the checks on the election system that prevent fraud, he says, but for “some percentage of people … you can tell them whatever you want to tell them, you can show them whatever you want to show them, it just doesn’t seem to sink in.”
Part of the problem is that conspiracy theorists — including Trump and allies like Giuliani — have undercut trust in the very institutions trying to restore it. Smith says people are not “as willing to go to the Secretary of State’s website and say, ‘Oh, well, Secretary X said that vote by mail is safe, and here’s why.’ Now, people just simply don’t believe that individual.”
Election technology companies don’t “shy away” from scrutiny, says Cutter. “But when scrutiny becomes suspicion and then public trust erodes, that’s when mis- and disinformation begins to fill the void.”
Some false claims may stem from misunderstandings. The industry was “surprised” by calls for paper ballots, says Cutter, since “98 percent of jurisdictions” do use paper — some just have those ballots marked with electronic devices designed for greater accessibility.
Likewise, while ensuring voting machines are secure is important, these machines are just one part of a larger system. “American elections have built-in checks and balances,” says Cutter, much like the government itself. “Basically no two jurisdictions are going to have the exact same mix of technology and election administration procedures that allow them to be compromised at a systemic level.”
To do significant nationwide damage, an attacker would need to familiarize themselves with countless combinations of hardware and software. And by the same token, a single company like Dominion couldn’t simply flip a switch to change election results because there are processes to catch machinery that’s not working as expected.
The backlash against voting tech companies “is steeling their resolve,” Cutter says — “once elections get into your blood, a lot of folks don’t ever leave this space.” But it’s still taken a toll. Some ACET members have installed extra security cameras, she says, and a few have even made emergency plans for moving offices.
They aren’t the only ones preparing for the possibility of violence. Across the country, election officials have stepped up security, anticipating threats. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that election workers in Arizona have undergone active shooter drills, and an election office in Maricopa County now has armed guards and metal detectors. And even before Election Day, Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, have seen fires at ballot boxes damage hundreds of ballots.
Cutter has a question for people who believe false narratives about rigged elections: “why is it that you want that to be true? Because I still believe in America. I believe in our innovation, in the hope that we give the world. And I believe in American resiliency and in the accountability that we have built into our systems.”
“Every American deserves fair, free, and safe and secure elections,” she says. “They’ve got them. We’ve got the receipts.”

Image: Alex Parkin / Getty Images

Smartmatic and Dominion are trying to debunk false stories and rebuild trust — but that’s a tall order in 2024.

Ed Smith still remembers the weeks after Election Day 2020. The elections compliance expert worked for voting technology provider Smartmatic at the time: a mostly low-profile company that had supplied ballot-marking devices to Los Angeles County. As the polls reported their vote counts, though, then-President Donald Trump lost to challenger Joe Biden — and Trump launched an all-out war on the results. Companies like Smartmatic found themselves under siege.

Trump and his allies accused Smartmatic and its competitor Dominion Voting Systems of a conspiracy to rig the vote for Biden. And as Trump’s attorneys, Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, piled up false claims in court, armies of online supporters descended on employees like Smith. Twitter users found his work history at several voting tech companies and concluded, “This must be the guy,” he recalls. People were “threatening me, wanting to come to my house and show me some love.” Smith had been proud of his years of experience — work he considered a public benefit. But as Trump undercut trust in the system, Smith’s own mother believed the election had been stolen. The misinformation and online attacks “just created a climate that led me to be very sad.”

Four years later, Trump is again on the ballot. He’s preemptively claimed his rivals want to steal the election and refused to guarantee he’ll accept the results. Dominion, Smartmatic, and other election tech providers are going on the offensive, trying to convince the public of their trustworthiness. But they’re contending with a problem that seems sometimes insurmountable: fighting conspiracy theories amid a crisis of trust.

Communication was an “afterthought for election commissions” when Smartmatic began working in the industry two decades ago, says Samira Saba, communications director for the company. The job of election commissions was pretty much just about making sure votes were counted and voter rolls were up to date. “Today, election administrators around the world recognize that disinformation is among the largest challenges they face—if not the largest,” Saba told The Verge in an email.

While there had long been some activists sowing doubt in the voting system, Smith says that in 2020, the industry was “caught off-guard by the volume and the ferociousness of the misinformation.” False claims weren’t coming just from fringe figures but the then-sitting president and leader of the Republican Party. Major networks like Fox News were repeating their claims.

The companies’ first move was a blitz of defamation lawsuits against news outlets and conspiracy theorists — one that’s been fairly successful in court. Newsmax settled with Smartmatic in September, and judges have allowed Smartmatic suits to proceed against Fox, One America News (OAN), and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell. Dominion reached a $787 million defamation settlement with Fox last year, and cases are proceeding against OAN, Newsmax, Lindell, Powell, and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy put a Dominion lawsuit on pause late last year, but a judge ended his bankruptcy this summer, letting the case advance.

Election lies aren’t gone from conservative news outlets, according to the left-leaning media watchdog group Media Matters, but the tactics have changed. “The difference that we’ve seen so far in 2024 is that MAGA personalities appear to have been able to steer conversations away from specific potential defamatory claims, particularly about voting companies — even as those sorts of claims continue to circulate on social media,” Media Matters senior adviser John Whitehouse says in a statement. “The lesson for MAGA media seems to be that the core audience wants more election denial — and they’re gonna give it to them.”

But the court of public opinion is just as important. For this election, Smartmatic and Dominion both maintain pages on their websites fact-checking false claims about their technologies and explaining how their companies work. Smartmatic began publishing a handbook for fighting mis- and disinformation in 2016. Its latest edition walks election officials through steps like auditing media channels where citizens get information, building relationships with journalists and influencers, and creating a crisis communications plan. It advises that election officials “show empathy and concern” and “make sure your explanation isn’t more complicated than the falsehood.”

Voting technology companies aren’t the only ones trying to explain how these systems work and defend their reliability. State governments operate fact-check pages that “pre-bunk” election misconceptions. Election authorities have emphasized ways that voters can observe the system — like livestreams of ballot processing facilities. Local election offices also run extensive public testing of voting machines in the weeks and months leading up to the election.

Still, convincing voters that they can trust the system can be tricky — especially when it means proving something isn’t happening.

Letting voters observe the process themselves can help, says Sara Cutter, executive director of the nonpartisan trade group American Council for Election Technology (ACET). Chester County resident Jay Schneider was one of those skeptics about the election process in 2020. “To be honest, when the 2020 election came around I was thinking, ‘This seems a little sketchy, what’s been going on. There’s some shenanigans going around and around the country,’” he told Spotlight PA in a 2023 story. But after working the polls himself, he became so persuaded by the strength of the checks and balances in the system that he decided to take on a bigger role in the process as a judge of elections.

Smith agrees that personal experience with the system is valuable. “When you are aware of those sorts of checks and balances, you know that throwing the election in the manner that people are saying it’s thrown would just be an impossible dream,” he says.

Successful persuasion depends on the person and situation, though, in Smith’s experience. Many people are content with learning more about the checks on the election system that prevent fraud, he says, but for “some percentage of people … you can tell them whatever you want to tell them, you can show them whatever you want to show them, it just doesn’t seem to sink in.”

Part of the problem is that conspiracy theorists — including Trump and allies like Giuliani — have undercut trust in the very institutions trying to restore it. Smith says people are not “as willing to go to the Secretary of State’s website and say, ‘Oh, well, Secretary X said that vote by mail is safe, and here’s why.’ Now, people just simply don’t believe that individual.”

Election technology companies don’t “shy away” from scrutiny, says Cutter. “But when scrutiny becomes suspicion and then public trust erodes, that’s when mis- and disinformation begins to fill the void.”

Some false claims may stem from misunderstandings. The industry was “surprised” by calls for paper ballots, says Cutter, since “98 percent of jurisdictions” do use paper — some just have those ballots marked with electronic devices designed for greater accessibility.

Likewise, while ensuring voting machines are secure is important, these machines are just one part of a larger system. “American elections have built-in checks and balances,” says Cutter, much like the government itself. “Basically no two jurisdictions are going to have the exact same mix of technology and election administration procedures that allow them to be compromised at a systemic level.”

To do significant nationwide damage, an attacker would need to familiarize themselves with countless combinations of hardware and software. And by the same token, a single company like Dominion couldn’t simply flip a switch to change election results because there are processes to catch machinery that’s not working as expected.

The backlash against voting tech companies “is steeling their resolve,” Cutter says — “once elections get into your blood, a lot of folks don’t ever leave this space.” But it’s still taken a toll. Some ACET members have installed extra security cameras, she says, and a few have even made emergency plans for moving offices.

They aren’t the only ones preparing for the possibility of violence. Across the country, election officials have stepped up security, anticipating threats. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that election workers in Arizona have undergone active shooter drills, and an election office in Maricopa County now has armed guards and metal detectors. And even before Election Day, Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, have seen fires at ballot boxes damage hundreds of ballots.

Cutter has a question for people who believe false narratives about rigged elections: “why is it that you want that to be true? Because I still believe in America. I believe in our innovation, in the hope that we give the world. And I believe in American resiliency and in the accountability that we have built into our systems.”

“Every American deserves fair, free, and safe and secure elections,” she says. “They’ve got them. We’ve got the receipts.”

Read More