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Apple Pay hasn’t changed much since 2014, and maybe it hasn’t needed to. | Image: The Verge

When Apple launched Apple Pay in 2014, at an event 10 years to the day before this year’s iPhone launch, Apple promised the feature would “change the way you pay.” The company didn’t just let you save a credit card number on your phone; it let you pay for things with a single tap by transmitting information through an NFC chip. Apple was so bullish on mobile payments that Apple Pay was even one of the key selling points for the also-just-announced Apple Watch.
A decade later, Apple Pay is everywhere. You can use it to buy groceries and coffee; you can use it to ride the New York City subway or rent a Lime scooter. You can use Apple Pay and skip the whole multipage checkout process on lots of online stores. You can use it on your phone, your watch, your computer, countless websites, your TV, and your headset. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimated that 55.8 million Americans made an in-store payment with Apple Pay in the month of April 2023. Apple says Pay works at more than 85 percent of retailers in the US, but anecdotally, I can’t remember the last time I couldn’t pay just by double-clicking the power button on my phone. Apple Pay is so good, it can be dangerous.
Apple Pay is one of the most Apple-y Apple products the company has ever shipped. It was, and is, a study in both the power of integration and Apple’s unique ability to get its way in a competitive industry. While Google flailed around with its own mobile payments system — which has been Google Wallet and Google Pay and Android Pay and I think Google Wallet again, and honestly who can keep track anymore? — Apple just relentlessly iterated on Apple Pay until it became both great and ubiquitous. It’s gotten a little bloated as Apple has looked for more ways to make it profitable: Apple Pay begot Apple Cash and the Apple Card and Apple Pay Later and Apple’s whole idea about digital ID cards, which have all worked somewhere between “kind of fine” and “not at all.”
And maybe most Apple-y of all, Apple Pay has been ruthlessly controlled and locked down by its creator. Other developers haven’t been able to access the tap-to-pay features, so you can’t pay directly from any app other than Apple Wallet. Developers have no other choice but to add cards to Apple Wallet (and thus pay the 0.15 percent fee for each credit transaction). You can’t change the app that appears when you double-tap the power button, either, not that you would, because nobody can build a competitive mobile wallet app without tap-to-pay. Have you ever noticed that there are no Apple Wallet competitors? They simply aren’t allowed to exist.
Apple has argued, as it always does, that these restrictions existed in the name of security and privacy, but critics say they’re actually about processing fees and platform lock-in. Apple Pay was even named as a core tenet of the US government’s antitrust case against Apple. “While Apple actively encourages banks, merchants, and other parties to participate in Apple Wallet, Apple simultaneously exerts its smartphone monopoly to block these same partners from developing better payment products and services for iPhone users,” the Department of Justice wrote in its initial antitrust complaint earlier this year.
Apple Pay is about to become the perfect test case for the future of Apple
A decade after its launch, Apple Pay is about to become the perfect test case for the future of Apple. After the antitrust case in the US and a series of new rules in the EU, Apple announced that beginning with iOS 18.1, third-party developers will be able to enable tap-to-pay transactions in their own apps. Users will also be able to set a default app for contactless payments and change what happens when they double-click the power button. There will be hoops for developers to jump through and fees for them to pay, but the chip will be available.
Opening up NFC access has the potential to turn tap-to-pay into tap-to-everything. For years, Apple and others have talked about wanting to turn all your keys, ID cards, loyalty cards, tickets, gift cards, and more into digital objects that you can transmit or share with a tap. Until now, that hasn’t really taken off, but many developers might now be interested in building these tools because they can build them into their own app. Banks and fintech companies might add tap-to-pay so you can pay from the same place you manage your money. Maybe you’ll be able to get into a bar, on a flight, into your car, or into your office with only a few taps. Maybe every file sharing system will support NFC, so you can tap your friend a photo or PDF. Maybe the NFC chip will become as core a part of the iPhone’s value as the GPS chip or the camera, the ongoing connection between your device and the real world. And maybe, because Apple has such cultural power within the tech industry, it will be the catalyst for digitizing these other systems everywhere.
Opening up NFC access has the potential to turn tap-to-pay into tap-to-everything
Or maybe opening up the system might ruin the whole thing. Maybe, instead of a single place with all your cards that appears anytime you press a button, you have to download, log in to, and manage every single payment option in your life in an entirely different app. Maybe some companies will support third-party wallets and some won’t, so you’ll have to remember that your Visa and AMC Stubs card are here but your Discover card and library card are over there. Maybe there will be huge security flaws in how all of these companies manage things, and companies will begin to collect vast amounts of data you’d rather not give them. Maybe they’ll stop supporting Apple Wallet — because processing fees! — and force you into their ugly, slow, ad-filled, upselling apps. Maybe Apple wasn’t just moneygrubbing and was, in fact, preventing the true moneygrubbers from making mobile payments unusable.
These are plausible outcomes, and there are some less extreme possibilities, too. But we’re about to see Apple confront this new world in so many ways: as the company is pressured to change its App Store rules, give developers access to previously unavailable system features, and allow users to pick more of their own defaults, the question is the same across every surface. Was Apple’s legendarily tight control about preserving user experience and making sure users got the best of everything with the least amount of work, or was it about Apple making its devices worse just to make them harder to quit? No one’s ever had a fair fight with Apple before. But the playing field is beginning to level.

Apple Pay hasn’t changed much since 2014, and maybe it hasn’t needed to. | Image: The Verge

When Apple launched Apple Pay in 2014, at an event 10 years to the day before this year’s iPhone launch, Apple promised the feature would “change the way you pay.” The company didn’t just let you save a credit card number on your phone; it let you pay for things with a single tap by transmitting information through an NFC chip. Apple was so bullish on mobile payments that Apple Pay was even one of the key selling points for the also-just-announced Apple Watch.

A decade later, Apple Pay is everywhere. You can use it to buy groceries and coffee; you can use it to ride the New York City subway or rent a Lime scooter. You can use Apple Pay and skip the whole multipage checkout process on lots of online stores. You can use it on your phone, your watch, your computer, countless websites, your TV, and your headset. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimated that 55.8 million Americans made an in-store payment with Apple Pay in the month of April 2023. Apple says Pay works at more than 85 percent of retailers in the US, but anecdotally, I can’t remember the last time I couldn’t pay just by double-clicking the power button on my phone. Apple Pay is so good, it can be dangerous.

Apple Pay is one of the most Apple-y Apple products the company has ever shipped. It was, and is, a study in both the power of integration and Apple’s unique ability to get its way in a competitive industry. While Google flailed around with its own mobile payments system — which has been Google Wallet and Google Pay and Android Pay and I think Google Wallet again, and honestly who can keep track anymore? — Apple just relentlessly iterated on Apple Pay until it became both great and ubiquitous. It’s gotten a little bloated as Apple has looked for more ways to make it profitable: Apple Pay begot Apple Cash and the Apple Card and Apple Pay Later and Apple’s whole idea about digital ID cards, which have all worked somewhere between “kind of fine” and “not at all.”

And maybe most Apple-y of all, Apple Pay has been ruthlessly controlled and locked down by its creator. Other developers haven’t been able to access the tap-to-pay features, so you can’t pay directly from any app other than Apple Wallet. Developers have no other choice but to add cards to Apple Wallet (and thus pay the 0.15 percent fee for each credit transaction). You can’t change the app that appears when you double-tap the power button, either, not that you would, because nobody can build a competitive mobile wallet app without tap-to-pay. Have you ever noticed that there are no Apple Wallet competitors? They simply aren’t allowed to exist.

Apple has argued, as it always does, that these restrictions existed in the name of security and privacy, but critics say they’re actually about processing fees and platform lock-in. Apple Pay was even named as a core tenet of the US government’s antitrust case against Apple. “While Apple actively encourages banks, merchants, and other parties to participate in Apple Wallet, Apple simultaneously exerts its smartphone monopoly to block these same partners from developing better payment products and services for iPhone users,” the Department of Justice wrote in its initial antitrust complaint earlier this year.

A decade after its launch, Apple Pay is about to become the perfect test case for the future of Apple. After the antitrust case in the US and a series of new rules in the EU, Apple announced that beginning with iOS 18.1, third-party developers will be able to enable tap-to-pay transactions in their own apps. Users will also be able to set a default app for contactless payments and change what happens when they double-click the power button. There will be hoops for developers to jump through and fees for them to pay, but the chip will be available.

Opening up NFC access has the potential to turn tap-to-pay into tap-to-everything. For years, Apple and others have talked about wanting to turn all your keys, ID cards, loyalty cards, tickets, gift cards, and more into digital objects that you can transmit or share with a tap. Until now, that hasn’t really taken off, but many developers might now be interested in building these tools because they can build them into their own app. Banks and fintech companies might add tap-to-pay so you can pay from the same place you manage your money. Maybe you’ll be able to get into a bar, on a flight, into your car, or into your office with only a few taps. Maybe every file sharing system will support NFC, so you can tap your friend a photo or PDF. Maybe the NFC chip will become as core a part of the iPhone’s value as the GPS chip or the camera, the ongoing connection between your device and the real world. And maybe, because Apple has such cultural power within the tech industry, it will be the catalyst for digitizing these other systems everywhere.

Or maybe opening up the system might ruin the whole thing. Maybe, instead of a single place with all your cards that appears anytime you press a button, you have to download, log in to, and manage every single payment option in your life in an entirely different app. Maybe some companies will support third-party wallets and some won’t, so you’ll have to remember that your Visa and AMC Stubs card are here but your Discover card and library card are over there. Maybe there will be huge security flaws in how all of these companies manage things, and companies will begin to collect vast amounts of data you’d rather not give them. Maybe they’ll stop supporting Apple Wallet — because processing fees! — and force you into their ugly, slow, ad-filled, upselling apps. Maybe Apple wasn’t just moneygrubbing and was, in fact, preventing the true moneygrubbers from making mobile payments unusable.

These are plausible outcomes, and there are some less extreme possibilities, too. But we’re about to see Apple confront this new world in so many ways: as the company is pressured to change its App Store rules, give developers access to previously unavailable system features, and allow users to pick more of their own defaults, the question is the same across every surface. Was Apple’s legendarily tight control about preserving user experience and making sure users got the best of everything with the least amount of work, or was it about Apple making its devices worse just to make them harder to quit? No one’s ever had a fair fight with Apple before. But the playing field is beginning to level.

Read More 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Snapchat is the app of choice for criminals targeting kids for sextortion or child sexual abuse material (CSAM), New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez alleges in a new lawsuit filed against the app’s owner, Snap.
The suit accuses Snap of violating New Mexico law against unfair practices and public nuisance based on design elements like its “disappearing” messages and alleged failure to police predators. “Snap has misled users into believing that photos and videos sent on their platform will disappear,” Torrez said in a statement. “But predators can permanently capture this content and they have created a virtual yearbook of child sexual images that are traded, sold, and stored indefinitely.”
Torrez’s office ran an undercover investigation similar to an earlier one it carried out against Meta, who it similarly sued for creating a “marketplace for predators.” In the investigation, Torrez’s office created a decoy Snapchat account that looked like it belonged to a 14-year-old named Heather. That account messaged other Snapchat profiles with names like “child.rape” and “pedo_lover10,” according to the attorney general’s office, which said several of the accounts tried to persuade the decoy into sharing CSAM.
Snap’s claims that its app is “more private” and “less permanent” than other social media apps is misleading, the attorney general alleges. While the app’s disappearing message feature may lead kids and teens to believe their photos are ephemeral, the attorney general claims they’re easily and frequently captured by predators. Torrez’s office said it found more than 10,000 records related to Snap and CSAM on the dark web in 2023 and added that “Snapchat was by far the largest source of images and videos among the dark web sites investigated.”
Torrez is repeating a strategy that has so far yielded success in his litigation against Meta by targeting the design of Snapchat’s product and thereby (in theory) avoiding some thornier questions about speech. Torrez says that Snapchat’s design features, including its disappearing messages and “Quick Add” button that let predators message minors, help make it “a primary platform used by criminals to carry out sextortion.” In the suit against Meta, a judge said the complaint could not be dismissed on the grounds of Section 230, the legal liability shield that protects tech platforms from being held responsible for their users’ speech.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals also recently handed down a legal victory for suits based on misleading product claims. It allowed a lawsuit to proceed against a Snapchat-based anonymous messaging app called Yolo, saying the app had falsely promised it would expose the accounts of harassing users.
In this Snap lawsuit, Torrez is asking the court to order the company to stop its allegedly illegal behavior, pay penalties, and disgorge any unjustly obtained profits. Snap did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Snapchat is the app of choice for criminals targeting kids for sextortion or child sexual abuse material (CSAM), New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez alleges in a new lawsuit filed against the app’s owner, Snap.

The suit accuses Snap of violating New Mexico law against unfair practices and public nuisance based on design elements like its “disappearing” messages and alleged failure to police predators. “Snap has misled users into believing that photos and videos sent on their platform will disappear,” Torrez said in a statement. “But predators can permanently capture this content and they have created a virtual yearbook of child sexual images that are traded, sold, and stored indefinitely.”

Torrez’s office ran an undercover investigation similar to an earlier one it carried out against Meta, who it similarly sued for creating a “marketplace for predators.” In the investigation, Torrez’s office created a decoy Snapchat account that looked like it belonged to a 14-year-old named Heather. That account messaged other Snapchat profiles with names like “child.rape” and “pedo_lover10,” according to the attorney general’s office, which said several of the accounts tried to persuade the decoy into sharing CSAM.

Snap’s claims that its app is “more private” and “less permanent” than other social media apps is misleading, the attorney general alleges. While the app’s disappearing message feature may lead kids and teens to believe their photos are ephemeral, the attorney general claims they’re easily and frequently captured by predators. Torrez’s office said it found more than 10,000 records related to Snap and CSAM on the dark web in 2023 and added that “Snapchat was by far the largest source of images and videos among the dark web sites investigated.”

Torrez is repeating a strategy that has so far yielded success in his litigation against Meta by targeting the design of Snapchat’s product and thereby (in theory) avoiding some thornier questions about speech. Torrez says that Snapchat’s design features, including its disappearing messages and “Quick Add” button that let predators message minors, help make it “a primary platform used by criminals to carry out sextortion.” In the suit against Meta, a judge said the complaint could not be dismissed on the grounds of Section 230, the legal liability shield that protects tech platforms from being held responsible for their users’ speech.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals also recently handed down a legal victory for suits based on misleading product claims. It allowed a lawsuit to proceed against a Snapchat-based anonymous messaging app called Yolo, saying the app had falsely promised it would expose the accounts of harassing users.

In this Snap lawsuit, Torrez is asking the court to order the company to stop its allegedly illegal behavior, pay penalties, and disgorge any unjustly obtained profits. Snap did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read More 

Image: Flic

Shortcut Labs has been openly working toward the goal of turning its smart home hubs — the Flic Hub LR and the Flic Hub Mini — into Matter controllers for quite a while, and now the company tells The Verge it has done it. On Friday, Shortcut will release an update that, according to the company, lets its devices easily act as independent hubs for Matter devices without being part of the ecosystems from companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, or Samsung.
It’s a compelling idea: a way to build out a smart home without turning to one of the big tech companies and the privacy concerns and attempts at lock-in that come with that. Part of the promise of the Matter standard is that it gives users freedom of choice, but we’ve still mostly had to use at least one of those big ecosystems. Flic’s Matter controller update hints at a fuller version of that promise.

Image: Flic
The Flic Hub Mini (left) and Flic Hub LR (right) both gain Matter controller capability this week.

Shortcut Labs cofounder Joacim Westlund Prändel wrote in an email to The Verge that while the Flic with Matter can (for instance) control Apple Home devices after they’re paired with Flic, it’s not quite a two-way street. You can’t, for example, add a Flic device to the Apple Home app using Matter. You can, however, add Flic 2 buttons to Apple’s app through the devices’ already-existing HomeKit integration (though only with the Flic Hub LR, as the Hub Mini isn’t HomeKit certified).
“You have to use our products to control other Matter things,” Prändel told me in an interview, “but at least you won’t be at all dependent on any privacy concerns or any big tech.” Shortcut Labs doesn’t sync device data with any cloud servers, CTO Oskar Öberg, who was also in the interview, wrote in an email afterward. (You can review the Flic privacy policy here.)
No new hardware or other purchase is necessary; Matter controller functionality is coming to Shortcut’s hubs as a free update starting on Friday. And every Flic product is getting Matter support, said Öberg. He added that the company’s controller will “literally support everything that is in the Matter standard.”
Creating a Matter controller also allows the company’s Flic Twist, a smart button with a dial that’s useful for things like dimming lights or controlling smart blinds, to work with other products that use the standard. That’s because Matter doesn’t already support devices like the Twist. “In effect, our Flic Twist is the first rotational thing that you can do with Matter, which I think is really cool,” Prändel said.

GIF: Flic app
Flic’s app tells you what it’s doing at each stage of onboarding.

Öberg says one thing his team wanted to do is make setting up a device less opaque compared to the experience on other platforms, where a device can fail to onboard and it’s difficult to figure out why. But when you set a Matter device up through the Flic app, you can see what’s going on throughout the automated process, as shown in the screen recording above, making it easier to troubleshoot failures.
Shortcut Labs is relatively unknown in the tech world, and that’s part of what’s exciting about its Matter controller rollout. If such a small company can pull it off, maybe others will follow suit, bringing clever concepts and ideas along with them.

Image: Flic

Shortcut Labs has been openly working toward the goal of turning its smart home hubs — the Flic Hub LR and the Flic Hub Mini — into Matter controllers for quite a while, and now the company tells The Verge it has done it. On Friday, Shortcut will release an update that, according to the company, lets its devices easily act as independent hubs for Matter devices without being part of the ecosystems from companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, or Samsung.

It’s a compelling idea: a way to build out a smart home without turning to one of the big tech companies and the privacy concerns and attempts at lock-in that come with that. Part of the promise of the Matter standard is that it gives users freedom of choice, but we’ve still mostly had to use at least one of those big ecosystems. Flic’s Matter controller update hints at a fuller version of that promise.

Image: Flic
The Flic Hub Mini (left) and Flic Hub LR (right) both gain Matter controller capability this week.

Shortcut Labs cofounder Joacim Westlund Prändel wrote in an email to The Verge that while the Flic with Matter can (for instance) control Apple Home devices after they’re paired with Flic, it’s not quite a two-way street. You can’t, for example, add a Flic device to the Apple Home app using Matter. You can, however, add Flic 2 buttons to Apple’s app through the devices’ already-existing HomeKit integration (though only with the Flic Hub LR, as the Hub Mini isn’t HomeKit certified).

“You have to use our products to control other Matter things,” Prändel told me in an interview, “but at least you won’t be at all dependent on any privacy concerns or any big tech.” Shortcut Labs doesn’t sync device data with any cloud servers, CTO Oskar Öberg, who was also in the interview, wrote in an email afterward. (You can review the Flic privacy policy here.)

No new hardware or other purchase is necessary; Matter controller functionality is coming to Shortcut’s hubs as a free update starting on Friday. And every Flic product is getting Matter support, said Öberg. He added that the company’s controller will “literally support everything that is in the Matter standard.”

Creating a Matter controller also allows the company’s Flic Twist, a smart button with a dial that’s useful for things like dimming lights or controlling smart blinds, to work with other products that use the standard. That’s because Matter doesn’t already support devices like the Twist. “In effect, our Flic Twist is the first rotational thing that you can do with Matter, which I think is really cool,” Prändel said.

Öberg says one thing his team wanted to do is make setting up a device less opaque compared to the experience on other platforms, where a device can fail to onboard and it’s difficult to figure out why. But when you set a Matter device up through the Flic app, you can see what’s going on throughout the automated process, as shown in the screen recording above, making it easier to troubleshoot failures.

Shortcut Labs is relatively unknown in the tech world, and that’s part of what’s exciting about its Matter controller rollout. If such a small company can pull it off, maybe others will follow suit, bringing clever concepts and ideas along with them.

Read More 

Image: SwitchBot

Air purifiers are great and all, but they only really do one thing, and they usually don’t look elegant doing it. SwitchBot is trying to change this by making an air purifier that also serves as a table, a wireless charger, and a light source.
The device, aptly named the SwitchBot Air Purifier Table, costs $269.99 and puts a small platform atop the air purifier. You can place a Qi-compatible phone on the platform to charge it wirelessly or simply use it to set down your cup of coffee. Beneath the platform is a light that looks like it could come in handy for subtle nighttime illumination. You can choose from 10 different colors, with options for soft, moderate, and bright lighting; the light will also change color by itself — from green to blue to red — depending on air quality.

Image: SwitchBot
It may look a little silly, but it seems convenient!

As for the air purifier, it operates at a quiet 20Db and passes air through a prefiltration layer, HEPA filter, and carbon filter. SwitchBot is also launching a cheaper $219.99 version of the air purifier that swaps out the charging table for a bowl-like platform where your cat can sit. You can control either device from the SwitchBot app and with voice commands, and Matter compatibility should arrive later this year.
SwitchBot is launching a couple of other devices, including the $799.99 K10 Plus Pro Combo system, which includes the company’s tiny K10 Plus robovac, along with an auto-emptying base station and a cordless vacuum for spot cleaning. There’s also a $199.99 Matter-compatible adjustable roller shade that can be cut to fit a variety of window sizes. It also lets you easily swap out the fabric.

Image: SwitchBot

Air purifiers are great and all, but they only really do one thing, and they usually don’t look elegant doing it. SwitchBot is trying to change this by making an air purifier that also serves as a table, a wireless charger, and a light source.

The device, aptly named the SwitchBot Air Purifier Table, costs $269.99 and puts a small platform atop the air purifier. You can place a Qi-compatible phone on the platform to charge it wirelessly or simply use it to set down your cup of coffee. Beneath the platform is a light that looks like it could come in handy for subtle nighttime illumination. You can choose from 10 different colors, with options for soft, moderate, and bright lighting; the light will also change color by itself — from green to blue to red — depending on air quality.

Image: SwitchBot
It may look a little silly, but it seems convenient!

As for the air purifier, it operates at a quiet 20Db and passes air through a prefiltration layer, HEPA filter, and carbon filter. SwitchBot is also launching a cheaper $219.99 version of the air purifier that swaps out the charging table for a bowl-like platform where your cat can sit. You can control either device from the SwitchBot app and with voice commands, and Matter compatibility should arrive later this year.

SwitchBot is launching a couple of other devices, including the $799.99 K10 Plus Pro Combo system, which includes the company’s tiny K10 Plus robovac, along with an auto-emptying base station and a cordless vacuum for spot cleaning. There’s also a $199.99 Matter-compatible adjustable roller shade that can be cut to fit a variety of window sizes. It also lets you easily swap out the fabric.

Read More 

Image: Waymo

How do you convince a skeptical public that your autonomous vehicles are not only safer than human drivers but also a better way to get around? If you’re Waymo, the answer is data — and lots of it.
The Alphabet-owned company revealed a new safety hub today, complete with glossy graphics and a multitude of charts that will be periodically updated, with the overarching message that its autonomous vehicles are not to be feared. The move comes as Waymo seeks to expand its footprint, win over new customers, and cement its lead in the race to deploy more driverless cars. It also comes as safety regulators have begun to take a harder look at the whole autonomous vehicle industry — including Waymo.
“This matters a lot to us”
“This matters a lot to us,” said Trent Victor, director of safety research and best practices at Waymo, “to be trusted.”
To be sure, self-driving cars have an image problem. They stumble into construction zones, block ambulances, run red lights, and even injure the occasional bicyclist or pedestrian. Numerous public opinion polls have shown declining support for autonomous vehicles over the years and a rise in outright hostility toward the technology.
Waymo thinks its new approach to transparency can help turn the tide in its favor. The hub contains a lot of new, previously unreported information, including the number of driverless miles Waymo has racked up in each of the four cities in which it operates (or, as the company calls it, “RO miles” for “rider-only miles”). As of June 2024, Waymo has driven 15.4 million miles in Phoenix, 5.9 million miles in San Francisco, 855,000 miles in Los Angeles, and 14,000 in Austin.
The last time Waymo released its safety data, in December 2023, the company had only driven 7.1 million rider-only miles. Now, it has over 22.2 million miles across four cities — which reflects a 212 percent increase over eight months. The company says it has around 300 vehicles operating each in San Francisco and Phoenix, its two main markets.

Image: Waymo

In searching for the best way to communicate its safety message, Waymo zeroed in on a formula that compares its driverless vehicles to human driver benchmarks in crashes that cause injuries and crashes that result in police reports. Last year, Waymo determined that its vehicles were 6.7 times less likely than human drivers to be involved in a crash resulting in an injury, or an 85 percent reduction, and 2.3 times less likely to be in a police-reported crash, or a 57 percent reduction. The company is only presenting this data for Phoenix and San Francisco, the two cities where it has the most miles traveled.
Now, it’s applying these formulas to a larger set of data — and the numbers still look pretty good. As of June 2024, Waymo’s robotaxis have 73 percent fewer injury-causing crashes as compared to human benchmarks and 48 percent fewer police-reported collisions. It also added a new category: airbag deployment crashes. Waymo says it has 26 fewer airbag deployments than the human benchmark, or a decrease of 84 percent. It also breaks out each of these figures for Phoenix and San Francisco specifically.

Image: Waymo

Another section of previously unreported data is the percentage of Waymo’s crashes that are extremely low speed. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requires autonomous vehicle operators to report all crashes and collisions, regardless of severity. For Waymo, that means reporting a lot of extremely minor bumps and scraps, which the company thinks can skew the public’s perception of its vehicles. There is now a large repository of crashes involving self-driving cars, but much of it lacks crucial context.
Waymo zeroed in on a formula that compares its driverless vehicles to human driver benchmarks
The company decided to bring more nuance to the government’s data by including a section in its safety hub that highlights the percent of collisions with a Delta-V — a metric used to measure the change in velocity during a collision — that’s less than 1mph. Waymo found that 43 percent of the crashes disclosed to NHTSA had a Delta-V of less than 1mph. This includes crashes only in Phoenix and San Francisco.
“One mile per hour Delta-V is like a very insignificant crash,” said Kristofer Kusano, staff safety researcher at Waymo. “So this is usually so minor of a crash that it’s not actually even moving the vehicle much.”
This all looks pretty good for Waymo, which is obviously the ultimate goal. But the company knows that it needs independent groups to verify this data — and replicate it — if it’s ever going to achieve mainstream acceptance. To that end, Waymo has produced dozens of research papers outlining its safety approach and has submitted many of them to peer-reviewed journals for publication — several of which have already been accepted.
“We’re really excited about that,” Victor said. “I feel privileged to have the opportunity to publish.”
With the introduction of this new safety hub, Waymo is also making its methodologies available for download, so more outside researchers can look at the raw numbers. “[We’re] allowing people to replicate the results,” Victor added. “See what we did, extend it, look at it through new lenses, add more complexity, and just advance the science.”

Image: Waymo

How do you convince a skeptical public that your autonomous vehicles are not only safer than human drivers but also a better way to get around? If you’re Waymo, the answer is data — and lots of it.

The Alphabet-owned company revealed a new safety hub today, complete with glossy graphics and a multitude of charts that will be periodically updated, with the overarching message that its autonomous vehicles are not to be feared. The move comes as Waymo seeks to expand its footprint, win over new customers, and cement its lead in the race to deploy more driverless cars. It also comes as safety regulators have begun to take a harder look at the whole autonomous vehicle industry — including Waymo.

“This matters a lot to us,” said Trent Victor, director of safety research and best practices at Waymo, “to be trusted.”

To be sure, self-driving cars have an image problem. They stumble into construction zones, block ambulances, run red lights, and even injure the occasional bicyclist or pedestrian. Numerous public opinion polls have shown declining support for autonomous vehicles over the years and a rise in outright hostility toward the technology.

Waymo thinks its new approach to transparency can help turn the tide in its favor. The hub contains a lot of new, previously unreported information, including the number of driverless miles Waymo has racked up in each of the four cities in which it operates (or, as the company calls it, “RO miles” for “rider-only miles”). As of June 2024, Waymo has driven 15.4 million miles in Phoenix, 5.9 million miles in San Francisco, 855,000 miles in Los Angeles, and 14,000 in Austin.

The last time Waymo released its safety data, in December 2023, the company had only driven 7.1 million rider-only miles. Now, it has over 22.2 million miles across four cities — which reflects a 212 percent increase over eight months. The company says it has around 300 vehicles operating each in San Francisco and Phoenix, its two main markets.

Image: Waymo

In searching for the best way to communicate its safety message, Waymo zeroed in on a formula that compares its driverless vehicles to human driver benchmarks in crashes that cause injuries and crashes that result in police reports. Last year, Waymo determined that its vehicles were 6.7 times less likely than human drivers to be involved in a crash resulting in an injury, or an 85 percent reduction, and 2.3 times less likely to be in a police-reported crash, or a 57 percent reduction. The company is only presenting this data for Phoenix and San Francisco, the two cities where it has the most miles traveled.

Now, it’s applying these formulas to a larger set of data — and the numbers still look pretty good. As of June 2024, Waymo’s robotaxis have 73 percent fewer injury-causing crashes as compared to human benchmarks and 48 percent fewer police-reported collisions. It also added a new category: airbag deployment crashes. Waymo says it has 26 fewer airbag deployments than the human benchmark, or a decrease of 84 percent. It also breaks out each of these figures for Phoenix and San Francisco specifically.

Image: Waymo

Another section of previously unreported data is the percentage of Waymo’s crashes that are extremely low speed. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requires autonomous vehicle operators to report all crashes and collisions, regardless of severity. For Waymo, that means reporting a lot of extremely minor bumps and scraps, which the company thinks can skew the public’s perception of its vehicles. There is now a large repository of crashes involving self-driving cars, but much of it lacks crucial context.

The company decided to bring more nuance to the government’s data by including a section in its safety hub that highlights the percent of collisions with a Delta-V — a metric used to measure the change in velocity during a collision — that’s less than 1mph. Waymo found that 43 percent of the crashes disclosed to NHTSA had a Delta-V of less than 1mph. This includes crashes only in Phoenix and San Francisco.

“One mile per hour Delta-V is like a very insignificant crash,” said Kristofer Kusano, staff safety researcher at Waymo. “So this is usually so minor of a crash that it’s not actually even moving the vehicle much.”

This all looks pretty good for Waymo, which is obviously the ultimate goal. But the company knows that it needs independent groups to verify this data — and replicate it — if it’s ever going to achieve mainstream acceptance. To that end, Waymo has produced dozens of research papers outlining its safety approach and has submitted many of them to peer-reviewed journals for publication — several of which have already been accepted.

“We’re really excited about that,” Victor said. “I feel privileged to have the opportunity to publish.”

With the introduction of this new safety hub, Waymo is also making its methodologies available for download, so more outside researchers can look at the raw numbers. “[We’re] allowing people to replicate the results,” Victor added. “See what we did, extend it, look at it through new lenses, add more complexity, and just advance the science.”

Read More 

Nanoleaf’s Blocks come in two sizes and can integrate with fabric panel covers, pegboards, and shelves. | Image: Nanoleaf

Nanoleaf is giving its popular smart lighting panels a major refresh. The Nanoleaf Blocks (starting at $199.99) feature edge-to-edge lighting that the company says eliminates hot spots and dark corners, bringing a smoother, more even look. The new Blocks can also be customized with pegboards, shelves, and textured light panels to bring more function to your wall art. They’re available for preorder now and ship in October.
The company announced the new panels during its Nanoleaf Live event on YouTube and will show them off at the IFA tech show in Berlin this week. Nanoleaf is also adding two new features to its desktop app that work with the Blocks, as well as its entire line of smart lights, to offer more immersive lighting experiences.

Nanoleaf Blocks are square LED light panels with a modular design that allow you to create personalized wall art and display some of your favorite collectibles on integrated shelves and pegboards. They come in two sizes, which can be combined with textured covers, backlit pegboards, and shelves to light up your space while also showing off your Funko Pops, plants, favorite keyboard, or whatever else you think deserves pride of place on your wall.
The lights themselves have been significantly upgraded, adding edge-to-edge illumination for the first time. In a preview ahead of the launch, Nanoleaf CEO Gimmy Chu demoed the panels to The Verge. The lighting appeared smooth and clean with no dark spots, and each square gave off a diffuse light that extended beyond the panels, casting light onto the wall behind it, creating a soft glow effect.
The Blocks work over Wi-Fi and are compatible with Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung SmartThings. Matter support is planned, but Chu says the company is waiting for the smart home standard to support dynamic lighting scenes. The panels have a physical controller for manual control of power, brightness, and scene selection.
A Squares Smarter Kit with six squares costs $199.99, a Combo XL Smarter Kit with squares, small squares, light pegboards, and shelves costs $249.99, and add-on kits for additional shelves, pegboards, squares, and textured squares cost $29.99 each. You will need to drill into your wall if you want to use the pegboard or shelving.

Image: Nanoleaf
Nanoleaf’s Orchestrator software matches your lights to music in real time.

Nanoleaf’s desktop app for managing the smart lights is getting two new features: Orchestrator and Scenescapes.
Orchestrator — which was announced at CES — is now available in beta. This deploys advanced music synchronization to not only pulse the lights in time with a beat but to also create color palettes and animated motions that match individual songs. Scenescapes combines lighting scenes with audio to create ambient background noise, such as ocean waves or a crackling fireplace.
The Blocks are available for preorder at shop.nanoleaf.me and are coming to Best Buy, Amazon, and The Home Depot in October.

Nanoleaf’s Blocks come in two sizes and can integrate with fabric panel covers, pegboards, and shelves. | Image: Nanoleaf

Nanoleaf is giving its popular smart lighting panels a major refresh. The Nanoleaf Blocks (starting at $199.99) feature edge-to-edge lighting that the company says eliminates hot spots and dark corners, bringing a smoother, more even look. The new Blocks can also be customized with pegboards, shelves, and textured light panels to bring more function to your wall art. They’re available for preorder now and ship in October.

The company announced the new panels during its Nanoleaf Live event on YouTube and will show them off at the IFA tech show in Berlin this week. Nanoleaf is also adding two new features to its desktop app that work with the Blocks, as well as its entire line of smart lights, to offer more immersive lighting experiences.

Nanoleaf Blocks are square LED light panels with a modular design that allow you to create personalized wall art and display some of your favorite collectibles on integrated shelves and pegboards. They come in two sizes, which can be combined with textured covers, backlit pegboards, and shelves to light up your space while also showing off your Funko Pops, plants, favorite keyboard, or whatever else you think deserves pride of place on your wall.

The lights themselves have been significantly upgraded, adding edge-to-edge illumination for the first time. In a preview ahead of the launch, Nanoleaf CEO Gimmy Chu demoed the panels to The Verge. The lighting appeared smooth and clean with no dark spots, and each square gave off a diffuse light that extended beyond the panels, casting light onto the wall behind it, creating a soft glow effect.

The Blocks work over Wi-Fi and are compatible with Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung SmartThings. Matter support is planned, but Chu says the company is waiting for the smart home standard to support dynamic lighting scenes. The panels have a physical controller for manual control of power, brightness, and scene selection.

A Squares Smarter Kit with six squares costs $199.99, a Combo XL Smarter Kit with squares, small squares, light pegboards, and shelves costs $249.99, and add-on kits for additional shelves, pegboards, squares, and textured squares cost $29.99 each. You will need to drill into your wall if you want to use the pegboard or shelving.

Image: Nanoleaf
Nanoleaf’s Orchestrator software matches your lights to music in real time.

Nanoleaf’s desktop app for managing the smart lights is getting two new features: Orchestrator and Scenescapes.

Orchestrator — which was announced at CES — is now available in beta. This deploys advanced music synchronization to not only pulse the lights in time with a beat but to also create color palettes and animated motions that match individual songs. Scenescapes combines lighting scenes with audio to create ambient background noise, such as ocean waves or a crackling fireplace.

The Blocks are available for preorder at shop.nanoleaf.me and are coming to Best Buy, Amazon, and The Home Depot in October.

Read More 

Construction equipment during a groundbreaking ceremony at the Occidental direct air capture plant in Texas on April 28th, 2023. | Photo: Getty Images

A major project to capture and store carbon dioxide pollution for companies including Microsoft and Amazon just took a significant step forward — the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued draft permits for wells that would store the CO2 underground. The EPA issued the permits to Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum that has landed big carbon removal deals with major tech companies.
Oxy is building a massive industrial plant called Stratos to filter CO2 out of the air in Ector County, Texas, where the three proposed wells are located. This is the first time the EPA has issued draft permits in Texas for the Class VI wells used specifically to sequester carbon dioxide.
These wells could be a key piece of companies’ efforts to hit sustainability goals
If the project makes it to the finish line, these wells could be a key piece of companies’ efforts to hit sustainability goals, even as their greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow. They’re relying on new technologies that are supposed to suck huge amounts of planet-heating CO2 out of the atmosphere. But all of that carbon dioxide has to be permanently stored away for these technologies to help keep climate change from getting worse.
Stratos is expected to be one of the world’s first large carbon removal facilities, also called a direct air capture (DAC) plant. It’s scheduled to start running during the middle of next year and is supposed to have the capacity to capture up to 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year for clients looking to cancel out some of their carbon footprint. For comparison, that’s still only a small fraction of the 15.357 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions Microsoft reported in its last fiscal year. Oxy issues carbon credits to represent the tons of CO2 drawn down and sequestered.
Oxy has agreed to sell 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide removal credits to Microsoft over six years, amounting to the largest such agreement of its kind yet, according to the announcement made in July. Microsoft has a goal of reaching negative emissions by 2030, meaning it would take more pollution out of the atmosphere than it adds by burning fossil fuels. The company’s greenhouse gas emissions, however, have actually grown roughly 30 percent since it set that goal in 2020. Microsoft’s race to deploy new generative AI tools is an energy-intensive endeavor, and its data centers will keep generating greenhouse gas emissions as long as the power grids they plug into still run on fossil fuels.

Amazon struck a similar deal with Oxy last year, committing to buying 250,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide removal credits over a decade. The company’s reported greenhouse gas emissions fell slightly last year but are still around 34 percent higher than they were in 2019 when Amazon set a target for reaching net-zero emissions.
Credits from both deals are expected to come from Stratos, the first of Oxy’s DAC plants under construction. The three wells near Stratos could store up to 722,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, some 4,400 feet under former ranch land. To ensure that shooting the CO2 underground doesn’t inadvertently contaminate drinking water sources, the EPA has to issue permits for the new wells under the Safe Drinking Water Act Underground Injection Control program.
The draft permits will be open for public comment until October 7th, and the EPA has a public hearing scheduled for October 3rd. The agency will take all the comments it gathers into consideration before making a final decision on whether to grant the permits. It says its initial review of the permit applications “indicates no endangerment” to underground sources of drinking water.

Oxy has bigger plans at King Ranch in south Texas, where it is developing a federally funded direct air capture hub with the ability to capture up to 30 million tons of CO2 per year and store a total of 3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Construction equipment during a groundbreaking ceremony at the Occidental direct air capture plant in Texas on April 28th, 2023. | Photo: Getty Images

A major project to capture and store carbon dioxide pollution for companies including Microsoft and Amazon just took a significant step forward — the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued draft permits for wells that would store the CO2 underground. The EPA issued the permits to Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum that has landed big carbon removal deals with major tech companies.

Oxy is building a massive industrial plant called Stratos to filter CO2 out of the air in Ector County, Texas, where the three proposed wells are located. This is the first time the EPA has issued draft permits in Texas for the Class VI wells used specifically to sequester carbon dioxide.

If the project makes it to the finish line, these wells could be a key piece of companies’ efforts to hit sustainability goals, even as their greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow. They’re relying on new technologies that are supposed to suck huge amounts of planet-heating CO2 out of the atmosphere. But all of that carbon dioxide has to be permanently stored away for these technologies to help keep climate change from getting worse.

Stratos is expected to be one of the world’s first large carbon removal facilities, also called a direct air capture (DAC) plant. It’s scheduled to start running during the middle of next year and is supposed to have the capacity to capture up to 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year for clients looking to cancel out some of their carbon footprint. For comparison, that’s still only a small fraction of the 15.357 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions Microsoft reported in its last fiscal year. Oxy issues carbon credits to represent the tons of CO2 drawn down and sequestered.

Oxy has agreed to sell 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide removal credits to Microsoft over six years, amounting to the largest such agreement of its kind yet, according to the announcement made in July. Microsoft has a goal of reaching negative emissions by 2030, meaning it would take more pollution out of the atmosphere than it adds by burning fossil fuels. The company’s greenhouse gas emissions, however, have actually grown roughly 30 percent since it set that goal in 2020. Microsoft’s race to deploy new generative AI tools is an energy-intensive endeavor, and its data centers will keep generating greenhouse gas emissions as long as the power grids they plug into still run on fossil fuels.

Amazon struck a similar deal with Oxy last year, committing to buying 250,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide removal credits over a decade. The company’s reported greenhouse gas emissions fell slightly last year but are still around 34 percent higher than they were in 2019 when Amazon set a target for reaching net-zero emissions.

Credits from both deals are expected to come from Stratos, the first of Oxy’s DAC plants under construction. The three wells near Stratos could store up to 722,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, some 4,400 feet under former ranch land. To ensure that shooting the CO2 underground doesn’t inadvertently contaminate drinking water sources, the EPA has to issue permits for the new wells under the Safe Drinking Water Act Underground Injection Control program.

The draft permits will be open for public comment until October 7th, and the EPA has a public hearing scheduled for October 3rd. The agency will take all the comments it gathers into consideration before making a final decision on whether to grant the permits. It says its initial review of the permit applications “indicates no endangerment” to underground sources of drinking water.

Oxy has bigger plans at King Ranch in south Texas, where it is developing a federally funded direct air capture hub with the ability to capture up to 30 million tons of CO2 per year and store a total of 3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Read More 

Image: Larian Studios

The long-awaited Patch 7 for Baldur’s Gate 3 is now live. The update adds new, gruesome cinematics for some of the game’s evil endings, new legendary actions for Honor Mode encounters, and official in-game mod support.

Patch 7 is now live on PC! New Evil Endings Cinematics Split Screen Improvements New Honour Mode Legendary Actions ️ Official Modding ToolsPlus game improvements and bug fixes!Read the full patch notes: https://t.co/DmlF8cUM5a pic.twitter.com/Cmn2Tv4zZF— Baldur’s Gate 3 (@baldursgate3) September 5, 2024

However, with Patch 7 comes a big ole asterisk from the game’s maker, Larian Studios. The patch is currently only available for PC, meaning that players will be unable to load cross-platform save files from PC on their console versions. PC / Mac multiplayer is also disabled. Larian says that it intends to launch Patch 7 on consoles and Mac sometime in October, so if you like to hop between desktop and console to play BG3, you’ll have to wait about a month. The compatibility issues can be avoided by simply declining to update the game on PC, but with all the other Patch 7 improvements, that might prove a difficult choice.
The official mod support will allow players to browse, download, and manage user-made mods directly in the game. Enterprising players will also be able to use the new toolkit to create their own mods that will work across PC and console (once Patch 7 is available on consoles).
Patch 7 also includes the requisite host of tweaks, improvements, and bug fixes. You can check out all the specifics here.

Image: Larian Studios

The long-awaited Patch 7 for Baldur’s Gate 3 is now live. The update adds new, gruesome cinematics for some of the game’s evil endings, new legendary actions for Honor Mode encounters, and official in-game mod support.

However, with Patch 7 comes a big ole asterisk from the game’s maker, Larian Studios. The patch is currently only available for PC, meaning that players will be unable to load cross-platform save files from PC on their console versions. PC / Mac multiplayer is also disabled. Larian says that it intends to launch Patch 7 on consoles and Mac sometime in October, so if you like to hop between desktop and console to play BG3, you’ll have to wait about a month. The compatibility issues can be avoided by simply declining to update the game on PC, but with all the other Patch 7 improvements, that might prove a difficult choice.

The official mod support will allow players to browse, download, and manage user-made mods directly in the game. Enterprising players will also be able to use the new toolkit to create their own mods that will work across PC and console (once Patch 7 is available on consoles).

Patch 7 also includes the requisite host of tweaks, improvements, and bug fixes. You can check out all the specifics here.

Read More 

Welcome to the future of laptops. | Image: Lenovo

Lenovo is back with another twisting laptop, and this time, it can twist itself. Today at IFA, the company showed off its Auto Twist AI PC concept, which has a motorized hinge. It can track your movements and rotate its display to face you as you walk around it and can transform itself into different modes in response to voice commands. The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy got a hands-on — well, hands-off — demonstration.

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A post shared by The Verge (@verge)

The Twist AI is a motorized take on the twistable form factor, which dates back more than 20 years. Most 2-in-1 laptops today have 360-degree hinges that let them fold backward into tablet mode with the keyboard facing outward on the bottom. But earlier convertible laptops rotated on a center hinge and then folded over the keyboard. HP and Acer were making them at least as far back as 2002. When HP and Lenovo briefly revived the form factor in 2012, we called them “traditional convertible tablets.” Lenovo did it again in 2023 with an OLED display on one side and an E Ink screen on the other. (That one sounded great, but it didn’t live up to its potential when I reviewed it.)
The concept unit responded to voice commands within a second or two, but the motors are slow, taking about 10 seconds to transform. The follow-me feature is more useful, especially during video calls.

Image: Lenovo
Lenovo’s Auto Twist AI PC concept.

But what problem does this solve, exactly? Lenovo communication director Jeff Witt told The Verge, “We’re still experimenting with that. A lot of these concepts don’t come to market, but you may see elements of them down the line. It’s got face tracking; it’s basically a video conferencing system built into a laptop. There’s a lot of accessibility potential.”
If the Auto Twist AI, or something like it, does come to market, it could be practical for people who might have difficulty manually transforming this kind of convertible laptop themselves. Also, commanding your laptop to switch between modes on its own is just cool.

Welcome to the future of laptops. | Image: Lenovo

Lenovo is back with another twisting laptop, and this time, it can twist itself. Today at IFA, the company showed off its Auto Twist AI PC concept, which has a motorized hinge. It can track your movements and rotate its display to face you as you walk around it and can transform itself into different modes in response to voice commands. The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy got a hands-on — well, hands-off — demonstration.

The Twist AI is a motorized take on the twistable form factor, which dates back more than 20 years. Most 2-in-1 laptops today have 360-degree hinges that let them fold backward into tablet mode with the keyboard facing outward on the bottom. But earlier convertible laptops rotated on a center hinge and then folded over the keyboard. HP and Acer were making them at least as far back as 2002. When HP and Lenovo briefly revived the form factor in 2012, we called them “traditional convertible tablets.” Lenovo did it again in 2023 with an OLED display on one side and an E Ink screen on the other. (That one sounded great, but it didn’t live up to its potential when I reviewed it.)

The concept unit responded to voice commands within a second or two, but the motors are slow, taking about 10 seconds to transform. The follow-me feature is more useful, especially during video calls.

Image: Lenovo
Lenovo’s Auto Twist AI PC concept.

But what problem does this solve, exactly? Lenovo communication director Jeff Witt told The Verge, “We’re still experimenting with that. A lot of these concepts don’t come to market, but you may see elements of them down the line. It’s got face tracking; it’s basically a video conferencing system built into a laptop. There’s a lot of accessibility potential.”

If the Auto Twist AI, or something like it, does come to market, it could be practical for people who might have difficulty manually transforming this kind of convertible laptop themselves. Also, commanding your laptop to switch between modes on its own is just cool.

Read More 

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is holding a OneDrive digital event on October 8th that will cover the “latest innovations in AI across Microsoft 365 and OneDrive.” It’s the second annual event after Microsoft held a similar stream last year to introduce a big new design update for the cloud storage service, AI Copilot integration, and lots more.
This year, Microsoft is promising to announce “what’s coming for Copilot in OneDrive,” alongside enhancements to the OneDrive mobile app and an “improved photos experience.” The event will also cover OneDrive features across work and personal accounts.
The OneDrive digital event will be hosted on Microsoft Teams and will include the ability to ask the OneDrive product team questions about the cloud storage service. It follows a special Copilot event on September 16th, where Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and vice president of AI at work Jared Spataro will focus on what’s next for Microsoft’s AI assistant.
Microsoft is expected to announce a subtle rebranding of its business-focused Copilot assistant and introduce new Copilot features for Microsoft 365 that will try to tempt more businesses to sign up for the $30 per user per month service.

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Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is holding a OneDrive digital event on October 8th that will cover the “latest innovations in AI across Microsoft 365 and OneDrive.” It’s the second annual event after Microsoft held a similar stream last year to introduce a big new design update for the cloud storage service, AI Copilot integration, and lots more.

This year, Microsoft is promising to announce “what’s coming for Copilot in OneDrive,” alongside enhancements to the OneDrive mobile app and an “improved photos experience.” The event will also cover OneDrive features across work and personal accounts.

The OneDrive digital event will be hosted on Microsoft Teams and will include the ability to ask the OneDrive product team questions about the cloud storage service. It follows a special Copilot event on September 16th, where Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and vice president of AI at work Jared Spataro will focus on what’s next for Microsoft’s AI assistant.

Microsoft is expected to announce a subtle rebranding of its business-focused Copilot assistant and introduce new Copilot features for Microsoft 365 that will try to tempt more businesses to sign up for the $30 per user per month service.

Read More