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Image: Sony Pictures

The classic competitive game show Jeopardy! is getting a spinoff series on Prime Video. Sony Pictures Television is producing Pop Culture Jeopardy!, which turns the classic academic quiz show with three challengers into a team-based trivia game that touches on music, movies, culture, sports, celebrities, entertainment, and more.
The new series marks the first time the company’s game show division is expanding the Jeopardy! brand to a streaming platform with a new show. Years ago, the company let watchers binge the main show on Hulu.
While the series sounds like a casual side mission for the franchise, Sony Pictures Television’s president of game shows, Suzanne Prete, states it will “be a nail biter” for fans and that teams will compete “at the highest level.” Pop Culture Jeopardy! is backed by producer Michael Davies, who previously worked on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The show was a huge success when it premiered in the US — giving this new Jeopardy! series some promise.
The mainline Jeopardy! series has had several guest hosts since Alex Trebek’s death in 2020 but is now finally settled on Ken Jennings. A host for Pop Culture Jeopardy! has yet to be announced, but here’s hoping the process isn’t quite as long or dramatic.

Image: Sony Pictures

The classic competitive game show Jeopardy! is getting a spinoff series on Prime Video. Sony Pictures Television is producing Pop Culture Jeopardy!, which turns the classic academic quiz show with three challengers into a team-based trivia game that touches on music, movies, culture, sports, celebrities, entertainment, and more.

The new series marks the first time the company’s game show division is expanding the Jeopardy! brand to a streaming platform with a new show. Years ago, the company let watchers binge the main show on Hulu.

While the series sounds like a casual side mission for the franchise, Sony Pictures Television’s president of game shows, Suzanne Prete, states it will “be a nail biter” for fans and that teams will compete “at the highest level.” Pop Culture Jeopardy! is backed by producer Michael Davies, who previously worked on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The show was a huge success when it premiered in the US — giving this new Jeopardy! series some promise.

The mainline Jeopardy! series has had several guest hosts since Alex Trebek’s death in 2020 but is now finally settled on Ken Jennings. A host for Pop Culture Jeopardy! has yet to be announced, but here’s hoping the process isn’t quite as long or dramatic.

Read More 

The annual rings on the trunk of a conifer tree. | Photo: Getty Images

A summer marked by deadly heatwaves across Asia, Europe, and North America last year turns out to have been the hottest in the Northern Hemisphere in at least 2,000 years, according to a new study published in the journal Nature.
Officially, 2023 went down in history books as the hottest on record for the planet — but those records only started in 1850. To see how drastically the climate has changed over millennia, the authors of the new paper studied ancient tree rings to gauge fluctuations in temperatures over the years.
The results show us how extreme the weather is becoming. And while temperatures have reached unprecedented peaks, they’re also a warning of what’s to come unless policymakers do more to turn down the heat.
The cross section of a tree can tell us about its life and the world in which it lived
“Personally, I’m not surprised, but I’m worried,” Jan Esper, lead author of the study and a professor of climatology at Johannes Gutenberg University, said in a briefing with reporters. “The longer we wait, the more expensive it will be and the more difficult it will be to mitigate or even stop [global warming].”
For this study, Esper and his colleagues were limited to data they could collect from the Northern Hemisphere outside of tropical regions. Most of the oldest meteorological stations, dating as far back as the mid- to late 1800s, are located in the Northern Hemisphere. And of those, 45 of 58 are in Europe. To look further back in time and across a broader area, they relied on tree rings from the wood archives of archaeologists.
The cross section of a tree can tell us about its life and the world in which it lived. Many trees add a layer of light-colored “earlywood” each spring and a layer of dark “latewood” each summer. Counting up the rings shows the tree’s age. Thicker rings might indicate a warmer year in trees that time their growing seasons with changes in temperature.
This is a treasure trove of data in cooler climates with defined seasons. But unfortunately, again, it’s found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere. There’s a dearth of this data in more arid and tropical regions in the Southern Hemisphere, where there might be fewer trees or trees that don’t share the same growing patterns.
A treasure trove of data in cooler climates with defined seasons
Working with what they had, the researchers found that land temperatures in the summer of 2023 in the Northern Hemisphere were 2.2 degrees Celsius higher than average temperatures between the years 1–1890. On paper, that might look like a small difference. When it comes to life on Earth, that is a significant shift.
It’s a steeper rise in temperature than the goal set out in the landmark Paris agreement, which strives to stop global temperatures from climbing more than 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius higher than they were before the Industrial Revolution.
Two degrees Celsius of global warming would be enough to shift 13 percent of Earth’s ecosystems to a new biome, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Much of the Amazon rainforest is in danger of becoming a savannah, for example. Coral reefs would decline by 99 percent, and nearly 40 percent of the world’s population could experience severe heatwaves at least once every five years.

We saw a deadly taste of that already last year, with record-breaking heatwaves across Europe, North America, and China that would have been “extremely rare or even impossible without human-caused warming,” according to an international collaboration of researchers called World Weather Attribution.
It was a particularly sweltering year in part because of an El Niño climate pattern that dealt a double whammy alongside climate change in 2023. El Niño hasn’t ended yet, so that combo is already expected to make this summer another scorcher. Meeting the goals of the Paris accord would stop climate change in its tracks, however, if countries around the world can transition to clean energy by 2050.
“I am not concerned about myself because I’m too old, but I have two children and there are many other children out there. And for them [global warming is] really dangerous,” Esper said. “So we should do as much as possible as soon as possible.”

The annual rings on the trunk of a conifer tree. | Photo: Getty Images

A summer marked by deadly heatwaves across Asia, Europe, and North America last year turns out to have been the hottest in the Northern Hemisphere in at least 2,000 years, according to a new study published in the journal Nature.

Officially, 2023 went down in history books as the hottest on record for the planet — but those records only started in 1850. To see how drastically the climate has changed over millennia, the authors of the new paper studied ancient tree rings to gauge fluctuations in temperatures over the years.

The results show us how extreme the weather is becoming. And while temperatures have reached unprecedented peaks, they’re also a warning of what’s to come unless policymakers do more to turn down the heat.

“Personally, I’m not surprised, but I’m worried,” Jan Esper, lead author of the study and a professor of climatology at Johannes Gutenberg University, said in a briefing with reporters. “The longer we wait, the more expensive it will be and the more difficult it will be to mitigate or even stop [global warming].”

For this study, Esper and his colleagues were limited to data they could collect from the Northern Hemisphere outside of tropical regions. Most of the oldest meteorological stations, dating as far back as the mid- to late 1800s, are located in the Northern Hemisphere. And of those, 45 of 58 are in Europe. To look further back in time and across a broader area, they relied on tree rings from the wood archives of archaeologists.

The cross section of a tree can tell us about its life and the world in which it lived. Many trees add a layer of light-colored “earlywood” each spring and a layer of dark “latewood” each summer. Counting up the rings shows the tree’s age. Thicker rings might indicate a warmer year in trees that time their growing seasons with changes in temperature.

This is a treasure trove of data in cooler climates with defined seasons. But unfortunately, again, it’s found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere. There’s a dearth of this data in more arid and tropical regions in the Southern Hemisphere, where there might be fewer trees or trees that don’t share the same growing patterns.

Working with what they had, the researchers found that land temperatures in the summer of 2023 in the Northern Hemisphere were 2.2 degrees Celsius higher than average temperatures between the years 1–1890. On paper, that might look like a small difference. When it comes to life on Earth, that is a significant shift.

It’s a steeper rise in temperature than the goal set out in the landmark Paris agreement, which strives to stop global temperatures from climbing more than 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius higher than they were before the Industrial Revolution.

Two degrees Celsius of global warming would be enough to shift 13 percent of Earth’s ecosystems to a new biome, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Much of the Amazon rainforest is in danger of becoming a savannah, for example. Coral reefs would decline by 99 percent, and nearly 40 percent of the world’s population could experience severe heatwaves at least once every five years.

We saw a deadly taste of that already last year, with record-breaking heatwaves across Europe, North America, and China that would have been “extremely rare or even impossible without human-caused warming,” according to an international collaboration of researchers called World Weather Attribution.

It was a particularly sweltering year in part because of an El Niño climate pattern that dealt a double whammy alongside climate change in 2023. El Niño hasn’t ended yet, so that combo is already expected to make this summer another scorcher. Meeting the goals of the Paris accord would stop climate change in its tracks, however, if countries around the world can transition to clean energy by 2050.

“I am not concerned about myself because I’m too old, but I have two children and there are many other children out there. And for them [global warming is] really dangerous,” Esper said. “So we should do as much as possible as soon as possible.”

Read More 

Workers are producing structural components of EV batteries at a production workshop in Qingkou Automobile Industrial Park in Fuzhou, Fujian province, China, on February 23rd, 2024. | Photo by Costfoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images

The Biden administration announced much higher tariffs today on key goods from China that the US will need to meet its climate goals. The move targets transportation, clean energy technologies, raw materials, and more.
“To encourage China to eliminate its unfair trade practices regarding technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation, the President is directing increases in tariffs across strategic sectors such as steel and aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, critical minerals, solar cells, ship-to-shore cranes, and medical products,” a White House fact sheet says.
It’s the latest move the US has taken amid efforts to ramp up domestic manufacturing while escalating trade tensions with China. All in all, the increased tariffs are expected to affect around $18 billion in annual imports.
The increased tariffs are expected to affect around $18 billion in annual imports
When it comes to EVs, the Biden administration is doubling down on tactics to lock Chinese manufacturers out of the US. Chinese-made EVs are a lot more affordable than other options — around $10,000 for BYD’s Seagull compared to close to $40,000 for the cheapest Tesla model. But high tariffs have effectively blocked China from importing its EVs to the United States. Now, that tariff rate is jumping to 100 percent from the current level of 25 percent.
Higher tariffs on batteries, semiconductors, and critical minerals could also affect the US EV industry. Tariffs on battery parts and lithium-ion batteries for EVs will increase to 25 percent from 7.5 percent this year. A similar increase for non-EV lithium batteries will go into effect in 2026. By 2025, the tariff rate on semiconductors from China will double to 50 percent.
Tariffs on permanent magnets, natural graphite, and certain other critical minerals are also set to rise to 25 percent from zero over the next couple of years. Graphite is used in batteries, solar panels, and steelmaking. Certain steel and aluminum products will see tariffs rise to 25 percent from today’s zero to 7.5 percent.
Meanwhile, US-based solar manufacturers are celebrating the decision to raise tariffs on solar cells to 50 percent from the previous 25 percent. “The Administration made the right decision to strengthen protections for solar components we seek to build in the U.S.,” Mike Carr, executive director of the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition, said in an emailed petition.
The US already blocks solar imports from China’s Xinjiang region, where roughly 40 percent of solar-grade polysilicon manufacturing takes place, over concerns about forced labor and human rights violations along the supply chain.
Solar manufacturers in the US urged the Biden administration to impose tariffs on solar panels from four countries in Southeast Asia earlier this year, after a Commerce Department investigation determined that Chinese companies were circumventing tariffs by moving goods through other countries.
Still, enforcing those measures has proven tricky for US officials, as has building up domestic manufacturing capabilities. Biden invoked the Defense Production Act back in 2022 to boost manufacturing of solar panels and other clean energy technologies. The CHIPS and Science Act included $52 billion in federal funding for domestic semiconductor manufacturing in 2022. The Inflation Reduction Act signed into law that year also pushes EV manufacturers to ditch battery materials from China if they want to qualify for consumer tax credits.

Workers are producing structural components of EV batteries at a production workshop in Qingkou Automobile Industrial Park in Fuzhou, Fujian province, China, on February 23rd, 2024. | Photo by Costfoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images

The Biden administration announced much higher tariffs today on key goods from China that the US will need to meet its climate goals. The move targets transportation, clean energy technologies, raw materials, and more.

“To encourage China to eliminate its unfair trade practices regarding technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation, the President is directing increases in tariffs across strategic sectors such as steel and aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, critical minerals, solar cells, ship-to-shore cranes, and medical products,” a White House fact sheet says.

It’s the latest move the US has taken amid efforts to ramp up domestic manufacturing while escalating trade tensions with China. All in all, the increased tariffs are expected to affect around $18 billion in annual imports.

When it comes to EVs, the Biden administration is doubling down on tactics to lock Chinese manufacturers out of the US. Chinese-made EVs are a lot more affordable than other options — around $10,000 for BYD’s Seagull compared to close to $40,000 for the cheapest Tesla model. But high tariffs have effectively blocked China from importing its EVs to the United States. Now, that tariff rate is jumping to 100 percent from the current level of 25 percent.

Higher tariffs on batteries, semiconductors, and critical minerals could also affect the US EV industry. Tariffs on battery parts and lithium-ion batteries for EVs will increase to 25 percent from 7.5 percent this year. A similar increase for non-EV lithium batteries will go into effect in 2026. By 2025, the tariff rate on semiconductors from China will double to 50 percent.

Tariffs on permanent magnets, natural graphite, and certain other critical minerals are also set to rise to 25 percent from zero over the next couple of years. Graphite is used in batteries, solar panels, and steelmaking. Certain steel and aluminum products will see tariffs rise to 25 percent from today’s zero to 7.5 percent.

Meanwhile, US-based solar manufacturers are celebrating the decision to raise tariffs on solar cells to 50 percent from the previous 25 percent. “The Administration made the right decision to strengthen protections for solar components we seek to build in the U.S.,” Mike Carr, executive director of the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition, said in an emailed petition.

The US already blocks solar imports from China’s Xinjiang region, where roughly 40 percent of solar-grade polysilicon manufacturing takes place, over concerns about forced labor and human rights violations along the supply chain.

Solar manufacturers in the US urged the Biden administration to impose tariffs on solar panels from four countries in Southeast Asia earlier this year, after a Commerce Department investigation determined that Chinese companies were circumventing tariffs by moving goods through other countries.

Still, enforcing those measures has proven tricky for US officials, as has building up domestic manufacturing capabilities. Biden invoked the Defense Production Act back in 2022 to boost manufacturing of solar panels and other clean energy technologies. The CHIPS and Science Act included $52 billion in federal funding for domestic semiconductor manufacturing in 2022. The Inflation Reduction Act signed into law that year also pushes EV manufacturers to ditch battery materials from China if they want to qualify for consumer tax credits.

Read More 

The Arctis Nova 5 headset’s mic can retract into the earcup when not in use. | Image: SteelSeries

If you hate (or simply can’t be bothered) to adjust your audio profiles when setting up a new gaming headset, then you might be the target demographic for SteelSeries’ latest offering. Introduced on Tuesday, the new Arctis Nova 5 headset is supported by a dedicated companion app that features over 100 game-specific audio presets for Xbox and PlayStation 5 titles like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Minecraft, which SteelSeries says have been “custom-tailored to each game by audio engineers.”
Available starting today for $129.99, SteelSeries describes the Arctis Nova 5 as an “affordable luxury.” It’s a smidge pricier than the $119.99 Arctis Nova 4 wireless headset launched last year, but for that, you get the ability to change audio presets in real time without leaving a gaming session, as well as cross-platform support for Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, PC, Meta Quest, and phones or tablets that support the included USB-C dongle.

Image: SteelSeries
Users will need to connect their mobile device to the headset via Bluetooth to utilize the companion app’s audio presets.

The Nova 5 companion app requires the headset to be connected to a mobile device via Bluetooth, but that shouldn’t interfere with the ability to receive calls mid-game. The “Quick Switch Wireless” feature swaps audio output between 2.4GHz and Bluetooth 5.3 by tapping a button located on one of the earcups, allowing users to take a call via Bluetooth while their in-game audio retains a passive 2.4GHz connection.

Image: SteelSeries
The design isn’t far removed from that of previous Arctis headsets. Note how the microphone slots into the earcup when fully retracted.

Image: SteelSeries
And here’s a better look at the Quick Switch Wireless button, seen here on the right earcup.

SteelSeries says the Arctis Nova 5 can last up to 60 hours per charge and that the headset’s USB-C fast charging can provide six hours of play on a 15-minute charge. It’s powered by neodymium magnetic drivers (which are fairly common in modern headsets), while a new high-bandwidth microphone chipset provides support for 32kHz / 16-bit audio to help keep in-game communications clear.
The microphone itself retracts into the headset when not in use, blending pretty seamlessly into the earcup. The Nova 5 also supports the same AI noise cancellation feature seen on the Nova 4 to help further reduce background noise in loud environments. Considering the Nova 5 is only an additional $10, the extra perks it provides could sway SteelSeries customers to dig around their couches for loose change to fund the upgrade.

The Arctis Nova 5 headset’s mic can retract into the earcup when not in use. | Image: SteelSeries

If you hate (or simply can’t be bothered) to adjust your audio profiles when setting up a new gaming headset, then you might be the target demographic for SteelSeries’ latest offering. Introduced on Tuesday, the new Arctis Nova 5 headset is supported by a dedicated companion app that features over 100 game-specific audio presets for Xbox and PlayStation 5 titles like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Minecraft, which SteelSeries says have been “custom-tailored to each game by audio engineers.”

Available starting today for $129.99, SteelSeries describes the Arctis Nova 5 as an “affordable luxury.” It’s a smidge pricier than the $119.99 Arctis Nova 4 wireless headset launched last year, but for that, you get the ability to change audio presets in real time without leaving a gaming session, as well as cross-platform support for Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, PC, Meta Quest, and phones or tablets that support the included USB-C dongle.

Image: SteelSeries
Users will need to connect their mobile device to the headset via Bluetooth to utilize the companion app’s audio presets.

The Nova 5 companion app requires the headset to be connected to a mobile device via Bluetooth, but that shouldn’t interfere with the ability to receive calls mid-game. The “Quick Switch Wireless” feature swaps audio output between 2.4GHz and Bluetooth 5.3 by tapping a button located on one of the earcups, allowing users to take a call via Bluetooth while their in-game audio retains a passive 2.4GHz connection.

SteelSeries says the Arctis Nova 5 can last up to 60 hours per charge and that the headset’s USB-C fast charging can provide six hours of play on a 15-minute charge. It’s powered by neodymium magnetic drivers (which are fairly common in modern headsets), while a new high-bandwidth microphone chipset provides support for 32kHz / 16-bit audio to help keep in-game communications clear.

The microphone itself retracts into the headset when not in use, blending pretty seamlessly into the earcup. The Nova 5 also supports the same AI noise cancellation feature seen on the Nova 4 to help further reduce background noise in loud environments. Considering the Nova 5 is only an additional $10, the extra perks it provides could sway SteelSeries customers to dig around their couches for loose change to fund the upgrade.

Read More 

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

The second chapter of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune saga is streaming very soon: Max announced that Dune: Part Two will be hitting the service on May 21st.
The film originally premiered in March and — as the title implies — follows the first movie in telling the complete story of Frank Herbert’s original Dune novel. Villeneuve directed both films, and the sequel introduced a number of notable new characters including Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken), and Lady Margot Fenring (Léa Seydoux), along with the somewhat surprise appearance of Alia Atreides (Anya Taylor-Joy).
If you didn’t manage to catch Dune: Part Two in theaters, now is a great time to catch up. A third film is confirmed to be in the works (though details are slim at present) while an open-world survival MMO set in the desert world of Arrakis is in development for the PS5, Xbox, and PC.

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

The second chapter of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune saga is streaming very soon: Max announced that Dune: Part Two will be hitting the service on May 21st.

The film originally premiered in March and — as the title implies — follows the first movie in telling the complete story of Frank Herbert’s original Dune novel. Villeneuve directed both films, and the sequel introduced a number of notable new characters including Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken), and Lady Margot Fenring (Léa Seydoux), along with the somewhat surprise appearance of Alia Atreides (Anya Taylor-Joy).

If you didn’t manage to catch Dune: Part Two in theaters, now is a great time to catch up. A third film is confirmed to be in the works (though details are slim at present) while an open-world survival MMO set in the desert world of Arrakis is in development for the PS5, Xbox, and PC.

Read More 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

AWS CEO Adam Selipsky is stepping down, effective June 3rd, according to a leaked email from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy viewed by The Verge. Matt Garman, the SVP of AWS sales, marketing, and global services at Amazon, will replace Selipsky as CEO.
Garman is a nearly 18-year veteran of Amazon, spending the entire time working on AWS.
Amazon reported that revenue from its cloud unit grew 17 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2024, beating Wall Street expectations, with revenue at $25.04 billion. Most notably, Amazon wrapped up its $4 billion investment in AI startup Anthropic, who use AWS’s proprietary AI chips for training and deploying models.
You can read the full email from Jassy to AWS staff below:

A little over three years ago when Jeff announced my new role, one of my first jobs was to identify who’d take over and lead AWS, It was the business. We had strong leaders in AWS, several of whom could lead the overall business in the long-term, but who’d benefit from a few more years gaining experience and learning under a more seasoned CEO.
Adam Selipsky was one of the first VPs we hired in AWS back in 2005, and spent 11 years excellently leading AWS Sales, Marketing, and Support, before leaving to become the CEO of Tableau. I’ve always had a lot of respect for Adam, and we met several times to discuss the possibility of coming back to lead AWS, In those conversations, we agreed that if he accepted the role, he’d likely do it for a few years, and that one of the things he’d focus on during that time was helping prepare the next generation of leadership.
We were fortunate that Adam agreed to step in and lead AWS, and has deftly led the business, while also developing his leadership team. Adam is now going to move onto his next challenge (after taking a well-deserved respite), and Matt Garman will become CEO of AWS, effective June 3rd.
I’d like to thank Adam for everything he’s done to lead AWS over the past three years. He took over in the middle of the pandemic, which presented a wide array of leadership and business challenges. Under his direction, the team made the right long-term decision to help customers become more efficient in their spend, even if it meant less short-term revenue for AWS. Throughout, the team continued to invent and release new services at a rapid clip, including several impactful Generative Al services, such as Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Q. Adam leaves AWS in a strong position, having reached a $100 billion annual revenue run rate this past quarter, with YoY revenue accelerating again. And perhaps most importantly, AWS continues to lead on operational performance, security, reliability, and the overall breadth and depth of services. I’m deeply appreciative of Adam’s leadership during this time, and for the entire team’s dedication to deliver for customers and the business.
As some of you may know, Matt started at Amazon as an MBA intern during the summer of 2005, and joined the company full-time in 2006 as one of the first AWS product managers. Initially working across all of AWS, Matt helped create our first service level agreements, define new features, and create new pricing plans. He then became our first product manage for EC2, and led EC2 product management in its early, formative years. During that time, he also led the team that defined, launched, and operated EBS. Matt eventually became the general manager of all AWS Compute services in 2016, which he did for about four years. In 2020, arther having been deeply involved in our product organization for 14 years, I asked Matt to move to the demand generation side of AWS to lead Sales, Marketing, Support, and Professional Services.
Matt has an unusually strong set of skills and experiences for his new rol. He’s very customer focused, a terrific product leader, inventive, a clever problem-solver, right a lot, has high standards, and meaningful bias for action, and in the 18 years he’s been in AWS, he’s been one of the better learners I’ve encountered. Matt knows our customers and business as well as anybody in the world, and has senior leadership experience on both the product and demand generation sides. I’m excited to see Matt and his outstanding AWS leadership team continue to invent our future— it’s still such early days in AWS.
Thank you again to Adam for his leadewrship, and please join me in congratulating Matt.
Andy

Developing…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

AWS CEO Adam Selipsky is stepping down, effective June 3rd, according to a leaked email from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy viewed by The Verge. Matt Garman, the SVP of AWS sales, marketing, and global services at Amazon, will replace Selipsky as CEO.

Garman is a nearly 18-year veteran of Amazon, spending the entire time working on AWS.

Amazon reported that revenue from its cloud unit grew 17 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2024, beating Wall Street expectations, with revenue at $25.04 billion. Most notably, Amazon wrapped up its $4 billion investment in AI startup Anthropic, who use AWS’s proprietary AI chips for training and deploying models.

You can read the full email from Jassy to AWS staff below:

A little over three years ago when Jeff announced my new role, one of my first jobs was to identify who’d take over and lead AWS, It was the business. We had strong leaders in AWS, several of whom could lead the overall business in the long-term, but who’d benefit from a few more years gaining experience and learning under a more seasoned CEO.

Adam Selipsky was one of the first VPs we hired in AWS back in 2005, and spent 11 years excellently leading AWS Sales, Marketing, and Support, before leaving to become the CEO of Tableau. I’ve always had a lot of respect for Adam, and we met several times to discuss the possibility of coming back to lead AWS, In those conversations, we agreed that if he accepted the role, he’d likely do it for a few years, and that one of the things he’d focus on during that time was helping prepare the next generation of leadership.

We were fortunate that Adam agreed to step in and lead AWS, and has deftly led the business, while also developing his leadership team. Adam is now going to move onto his next challenge (after taking a well-deserved respite), and Matt Garman will become CEO of AWS, effective June 3rd.

I’d like to thank Adam for everything he’s done to lead AWS over the past three years. He took over in the middle of the pandemic, which presented a wide array of leadership and business challenges. Under his direction, the team made the right long-term decision to help customers become more efficient in their spend, even if it meant less short-term revenue for AWS. Throughout, the team continued to invent and release new services at a rapid clip, including several impactful Generative Al services, such as Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Q. Adam leaves AWS in a strong position, having reached a $100 billion annual revenue run rate this past quarter, with YoY revenue accelerating again. And perhaps most importantly, AWS continues to lead on operational performance, security, reliability, and the overall breadth and depth of services. I’m deeply appreciative of Adam’s leadership during this time, and for the entire team’s dedication to deliver for customers and the business.

As some of you may know, Matt started at Amazon as an MBA intern during the summer of 2005, and joined the company full-time in 2006 as one of the first AWS product managers. Initially working across all of AWS, Matt helped create our first service level agreements, define new features, and create new pricing plans. He then became our first product manage for EC2, and led EC2 product management in its early, formative years. During that time, he also led the team that defined, launched, and operated EBS. Matt eventually became the general manager of all AWS Compute services in 2016, which he did for about four years. In 2020, arther having been deeply involved in our product organization for 14 years, I asked Matt to move to the demand generation side of AWS to lead Sales, Marketing, Support, and Professional Services.

Matt has an unusually strong set of skills and experiences for his new rol. He’s very customer focused, a terrific product leader, inventive, a clever problem-solver, right a lot, has high standards, and meaningful bias for action, and in the 18 years he’s been in AWS, he’s been one of the better learners I’ve encountered. Matt knows our customers and business as well as anybody in the world, and has senior leadership experience on both the product and demand generation sides. I’m excited to see Matt and his outstanding AWS leadership team continue to invent our future— it’s still such early days in AWS.

Thank you again to Adam for his leadewrship, and please join me in congratulating Matt.

Andy

Developing…

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Photo by Rodin Eckenroth / Getty Images

Nicolas Cage is ready to don the Spider-Man Noir suit again — only this time, in live-action. Amazon has confirmed that Cage will be reprising the role that he previously voiced in the animated film Into the Spider-Verse.
The new series, which was first reported last year, is simply called Noir and, according to Amazon, “tells the story of an aging and down on his luck private investigator (Cage) in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero.” Oren Uziel (22 Jump Street) and Steve Lightfoot (The Punisher on Netflix) will serve as co-showrunners, while Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal, who worked on the Spider-Verse films, will be executive producers.
Noir doesn’t currently have a premiere date, but Amazon says it will premiere domestically on MGM Plus’ linear channel, before streaming on Prime Video afterward. It’s also not the only Spidey spinoff in the works at Amazon, joining Silk: Spider Society from showrunner Angela Kang (The Walking Dead).

Photo by Rodin Eckenroth / Getty Images

Nicolas Cage is ready to don the Spider-Man Noir suit again — only this time, in live-action. Amazon has confirmed that Cage will be reprising the role that he previously voiced in the animated film Into the Spider-Verse.

The new series, which was first reported last year, is simply called Noir and, according to Amazon, “tells the story of an aging and down on his luck private investigator (Cage) in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero.” Oren Uziel (22 Jump Street) and Steve Lightfoot (The Punisher on Netflix) will serve as co-showrunners, while Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal, who worked on the Spider-Verse films, will be executive producers.

Noir doesn’t currently have a premiere date, but Amazon says it will premiere domestically on MGM Plus’ linear channel, before streaming on Prime Video afterward. It’s also not the only Spidey spinoff in the works at Amazon, joining Silk: Spider Society from showrunner Angela Kang (The Walking Dead).

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Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

The new iPads are out, and they’re terrific. They’re also expensive, and they’re a lot of iPad. Do you really need an OLED screen, an M4 processor, all that engineering to make it so thin and light, and the increasingly great but also increasingly expensive new controllers?
On this episode of The Vergecast, we explore that very question with The Verge’s Chris Welch, who uses the iPad in as varied and powerful a way as you’ll find. We talk about the upsides of OLED, the pros and cons of huge screens, and what really makes an iPad an iPad.

After that, we chat with Chris about what’s going on at Sonos. It appears we’re only a few weeks away from the launch of the company’s first headphones, which will be called Ace and look very nice. We’re also about a week into the lifespan of the new Sonos app, which is… less nice. So we discuss how Sonos is changing, what kind of company it wants to be, and whether it can make a dent in the headphone market.
After that, Vergecast producer Will Poor joins the show to tell us about his latest adventures in the right-to-repair world. New bills are passing, corporate policies are changing, and we’re still trying to figure out what it all means to regular people who just want their stuff to work. Will bought some broken phones and tells us about what happens next.
Finally, we answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (866-VERGE11 or vergecast@theverge.com, we love hearing from you!) about why so many people want the iPad to be more than just an iPad. The answer is complicated — it’s a little about the iPhone and a lot about the fact that making a device that does everything is just really hard to do.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, first on the new iPads:

Apple iPad Pro (2024) review: the best kind of overkill
The new Apple iPad Air is great — but it’s not the one to get
Apple iPad event: all the news from Apple’s ‘Let Loose’ reveal

And on Sonos:

Sonos announces redesigned app that puts everything on your homescreen
The new Sonos app is missing a lot of features, and people aren’t happy
Sonos says its controversial app redesign took ‘courage’
This is the Sonos Roam 2 portable speaker
These are the upcoming Sonos Ace wireless headphones
Sonos Ace headphones will have magnetic ear cushions and 30-hour battery life

And on right to repair:

Right to repair: all the latest news and updates
Oregon’s governor signs right-to-repair law that bans ‘parts pairing’
Apple will open the iPhone to repair with used parts
The EU’s new right-to-repair rules make companies fix your device after a warranty expires

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

The new iPads are out, and they’re terrific. They’re also expensive, and they’re a lot of iPad. Do you really need an OLED screen, an M4 processor, all that engineering to make it so thin and light, and the increasingly great but also increasingly expensive new controllers?

On this episode of The Vergecast, we explore that very question with The Verge’s Chris Welch, who uses the iPad in as varied and powerful a way as you’ll find. We talk about the upsides of OLED, the pros and cons of huge screens, and what really makes an iPad an iPad.

After that, we chat with Chris about what’s going on at Sonos. It appears we’re only a few weeks away from the launch of the company’s first headphones, which will be called Ace and look very nice. We’re also about a week into the lifespan of the new Sonos app, which is… less nice. So we discuss how Sonos is changing, what kind of company it wants to be, and whether it can make a dent in the headphone market.

After that, Vergecast producer Will Poor joins the show to tell us about his latest adventures in the right-to-repair world. New bills are passing, corporate policies are changing, and we’re still trying to figure out what it all means to regular people who just want their stuff to work. Will bought some broken phones and tells us about what happens next.

Finally, we answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (866-VERGE11 or vergecast@theverge.com, we love hearing from you!) about why so many people want the iPad to be more than just an iPad. The answer is complicated — it’s a little about the iPhone and a lot about the fact that making a device that does everything is just really hard to do.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, first on the new iPads:

Apple iPad Pro (2024) review: the best kind of overkill
The new Apple iPad Air is great — but it’s not the one to get
Apple iPad event: all the news from Apple’s ‘Let Loose’ reveal

And on Sonos:

Sonos announces redesigned app that puts everything on your homescreen
The new Sonos app is missing a lot of features, and people aren’t happy
Sonos says its controversial app redesign took ‘courage’
This is the Sonos Roam 2 portable speaker
These are the upcoming Sonos Ace wireless headphones
Sonos Ace headphones will have magnetic ear cushions and 30-hour battery life

And on right to repair:

Right to repair: all the latest news and updates
Oregon’s governor signs right-to-repair law that bans ‘parts pairing’
Apple will open the iPhone to repair with used parts
The EU’s new right-to-repair rules make companies fix your device after a warranty expires

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After gestating in the mind of writer / director Francis Ford Coppola for the better part of the last century, Megalopolis is finally making its way to the big screen at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. And from the looks of the sci-fi epic’s first teaser trailer, it might be just about everything Coppola always dreamt it would be.
Set in a sprawling metropolis that’s been devastated by a cataclysmic natural disaster, Megalopolis tells the story of how architect Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) tries to rebuild the city using his unusual ability to control time. There seems to be no stopping or reversing the shower of flaming meteors that descend upon the city in the new trailer as Cesar and other citizens watch in horror. But as imperiled as the city may be, Cesar appears to be dead set on trying to convince people how it could be remade as a utopia if only they would understand his visions for a better future.
With the present being so filled with chaos, glamorous excess, and destruction, the future Cesar wants to make real probably feels something like a dream that others can’t fully wrap their minds around. The trailer makes that feel somewhat true of Megalopolis as a whole as well, but that may wind up being part of the film’s appeal when it eventually makes its theatrical debut after premiering at Cannes.

After gestating in the mind of writer / director Francis Ford Coppola for the better part of the last century, Megalopolis is finally making its way to the big screen at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. And from the looks of the sci-fi epic’s first teaser trailer, it might be just about everything Coppola always dreamt it would be.

Set in a sprawling metropolis that’s been devastated by a cataclysmic natural disaster, Megalopolis tells the story of how architect Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) tries to rebuild the city using his unusual ability to control time. There seems to be no stopping or reversing the shower of flaming meteors that descend upon the city in the new trailer as Cesar and other citizens watch in horror. But as imperiled as the city may be, Cesar appears to be dead set on trying to convince people how it could be remade as a utopia if only they would understand his visions for a better future.

With the present being so filled with chaos, glamorous excess, and destruction, the future Cesar wants to make real probably feels something like a dream that others can’t fully wrap their minds around. The trailer makes that feel somewhat true of Megalopolis as a whole as well, but that may wind up being part of the film’s appeal when it eventually makes its theatrical debut after premiering at Cannes.

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

T-Mobile is bringing more of the perks of postpaid phone plans to its prepaid lineup. The company announced new plans for its prepaid business, Metro by T-Mobile, that come with a free phone for signups and ongoing access to the same trade-in deals that it offers new customers for some devices.
There are three plans in the new Metro Flex lineup: Flex Start ($50 per month); Flex Up ($60 per month); and Flex Plus ($70 per month). The company tacks on an extra $5 monthly for folks not using autopay. It’s also an extra $5 for the first month.
All three plans get unlimited 5G, talk, and text as well as T-Mobile’s Scam Shield robocall blocker and a bundled 100GB subscription to Google One, Google’s all-in-one subscription that includes storage for Gmail, Drive, and Photos. The Start plan comes with 8GB of mobile hotspot data, while the Flex and Plus plans each offer 25GB of hotspot data. At the top end, Flex Plus comes with bundled Amazon Prime membership.

The big perk of the plans is supposed to be the ability to upgrade your phone at a discount. T-Mobile says customers on these plans can trade in their phones every one, two, or three years — as long as they still work — to get discounts on phones “from top brands like Apple, Samsung, Motorola and REVVL.” (You know, well-known and popular phone brand Revvl?)
T-Mobile isn’t clear about exactly how these trade-ins work, though. The company just says that your trade-in options “expand” if you wait multiple years. Subscribers are supposed to get access to “the same” deals that new customers would.
In the press release shared with The Verge, T-Mobile says customers “may notice slower speeds when our network is busy” if they use more than 35GB per month. Video on these plans streams in standard definition. The company offers its Flex deals for up to four lines, and if customers who sign up want to switch plans within six months of starting one, it will cost $50 to do so.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

T-Mobile is bringing more of the perks of postpaid phone plans to its prepaid lineup. The company announced new plans for its prepaid business, Metro by T-Mobile, that come with a free phone for signups and ongoing access to the same trade-in deals that it offers new customers for some devices.

There are three plans in the new Metro Flex lineup: Flex Start ($50 per month); Flex Up ($60 per month); and Flex Plus ($70 per month). The company tacks on an extra $5 monthly for folks not using autopay. It’s also an extra $5 for the first month.

All three plans get unlimited 5G, talk, and text as well as T-Mobile’s Scam Shield robocall blocker and a bundled 100GB subscription to Google One, Google’s all-in-one subscription that includes storage for Gmail, Drive, and Photos. The Start plan comes with 8GB of mobile hotspot data, while the Flex and Plus plans each offer 25GB of hotspot data. At the top end, Flex Plus comes with bundled Amazon Prime membership.

The big perk of the plans is supposed to be the ability to upgrade your phone at a discount. T-Mobile says customers on these plans can trade in their phones every one, two, or three years — as long as they still work — to get discounts on phones “from top brands like Apple, Samsung, Motorola and REVVL.” (You know, well-known and popular phone brand Revvl?)

T-Mobile isn’t clear about exactly how these trade-ins work, though. The company just says that your trade-in options “expand” if you wait multiple years. Subscribers are supposed to get access to “the same” deals that new customers would.

In the press release shared with The Verge, T-Mobile says customers “may notice slower speeds when our network is busy” if they use more than 35GB per month. Video on these plans streams in standard definition. The company offers its Flex deals for up to four lines, and if customers who sign up want to switch plans within six months of starting one, it will cost $50 to do so.

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