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The second-gen Philips Hue Play HDMI sync box featuring 8K and 2.1 HDMI is now available | Image: Philips Hue

The rumored Philips Hue Play HDMI sync box 8K has been officially announced and is now available to buy. It’ll cost you $350, though — a $50 bump from the first-gen model. Hue promises this version will bring even more impressive music, movie, and gaming entertainment immersion with no latency and ultra-fast refresh rates.
According to Philips Hue, the new sync box adds support for the HDMI 2.1 video standard, can handle resolutions up to 8K, and refresh rates up to 120Hz. It supports Dolby Vision and HDR10 Plus content at up to 8K at 60Hz for video content and 4K at 120Hz for console gaming.
The sync box uses HDMI inputs to sync your Philips Hue lights in time with the content on your screen, flashing and splashing colorful lighting across your living room. The box works with all of Hue’s color-changing smart lights, and you can adjust the brightness and intensity in the Hue app.

Image: Philips Hue
The new Philips Hue Play HDMI sync box 8K is now available.

It’s a pricey upgrade, but it’s one of the simplest, least intrusive solutions to syncing your smart lights with your TV. Options from companies like Govee and Nanoleaf that achieve similar results use cameras pointed at your TV, whereas Hue’s sync box takes the data directly from the source.
The downside to the HDMI-dependent input is that the box can’t work with content that comes directly through your TV, only through devices connected to it via HDMI — such as streaming boxes and game consoles. Hue does have an app version of the sync box that works exclusively with newer Samsung TVs. That costs a whopping $130, or a marginally more palatable $3 a month.
The Hue app is also getting the option to add multiple bridges without making you create separate accounts for each bridge. This feature could be useful if you want to add up a lot of lights in your living room to work with the Sync box — as each Hue bridge can only support around 50 lights.

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
You will soon be able to add multiple bridges to your Hue account.

This new option will allow you to create multiple homes in the Hue app and add multiple bridges to them — up to 10. The app can then display all the rooms, devices, and sensors associated with each bridge in a single view, allowing you to control and organize them without switching accounts. You’ll also be able to add multiple homes to the Hue app.
Devices on separate bridges can’t cross-communicate — so a sensor on one can’t trigger lights on the other. However, some functions, such as Hue’s security cameras triggering all your lights to flash, can work across bridges, as the commands are routed through the cloud. The multiple bridge feature is currently in internal beta testing but should launch later this year.
Philips Hue Secure cameras will soon work with Amazon Alexa and Google Home. This will let you stream your camera feed to a smart display such as an Echo Show or Google Nest Hub. The company’s lighting and camera-based security system is also getting some software upgrades, including the option to set routines for arming and disarming the system.

The second-gen Philips Hue Play HDMI sync box featuring 8K and 2.1 HDMI is now available | Image: Philips Hue

The rumored Philips Hue Play HDMI sync box 8K has been officially announced and is now available to buy. It’ll cost you $350, though — a $50 bump from the first-gen model. Hue promises this version will bring even more impressive music, movie, and gaming entertainment immersion with no latency and ultra-fast refresh rates.

According to Philips Hue, the new sync box adds support for the HDMI 2.1 video standard, can handle resolutions up to 8K, and refresh rates up to 120Hz. It supports Dolby Vision and HDR10 Plus content at up to 8K at 60Hz for video content and 4K at 120Hz for console gaming.

The sync box uses HDMI inputs to sync your Philips Hue lights in time with the content on your screen, flashing and splashing colorful lighting across your living room. The box works with all of Hue’s color-changing smart lights, and you can adjust the brightness and intensity in the Hue app.

Image: Philips Hue
The new Philips Hue Play HDMI sync box 8K is now available.

It’s a pricey upgrade, but it’s one of the simplest, least intrusive solutions to syncing your smart lights with your TV. Options from companies like Govee and Nanoleaf that achieve similar results use cameras pointed at your TV, whereas Hue’s sync box takes the data directly from the source.

The downside to the HDMI-dependent input is that the box can’t work with content that comes directly through your TV, only through devices connected to it via HDMI — such as streaming boxes and game consoles. Hue does have an app version of the sync box that works exclusively with newer Samsung TVs. That costs a whopping $130, or a marginally more palatable $3 a month.

The Hue app is also getting the option to add multiple bridges without making you create separate accounts for each bridge. This feature could be useful if you want to add up a lot of lights in your living room to work with the Sync box — as each Hue bridge can only support around 50 lights.

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
You will soon be able to add multiple bridges to your Hue account.

This new option will allow you to create multiple homes in the Hue app and add multiple bridges to them — up to 10. The app can then display all the rooms, devices, and sensors associated with each bridge in a single view, allowing you to control and organize them without switching accounts. You’ll also be able to add multiple homes to the Hue app.

Devices on separate bridges can’t cross-communicate — so a sensor on one can’t trigger lights on the other. However, some functions, such as Hue’s security cameras triggering all your lights to flash, can work across bridges, as the commands are routed through the cloud. The multiple bridge feature is currently in internal beta testing but should launch later this year.

Philips Hue Secure cameras will soon work with Amazon Alexa and Google Home. This will let you stream your camera feed to a smart display such as an Echo Show or Google Nest Hub. The company’s lighting and camera-based security system is also getting some software upgrades, including the option to set routines for arming and disarming the system.

Read More 

Philips Hue announced a partnership with Nobilia to bring integrated smart lighting to its new kitchens. | Image: Signify

Philips Hue is finally getting into smart under-cabinet kitchen lighting. But as it’s Hue, they are doing it in the most expensive way possible, and it will be at least a year before it comes to the US. Still, the new fully integrated smart lighting solution looks a pretty sweet solution if you hanker for full-color lighting to go with your avocado and toast — with no plugs or wires in sight.
This week at the IFA tech show in Berlin, Philips Hue’s parent company, Signify, announced a partnership with Nobilia, Europe’s largest kitchen manufacturer, that integrates custom Philips Hue smart lights into its kitchen furniture.
To date, Hue has only offered plug-in light strips controllable by wireless switches, hardwiring them into your kitchen requires using a third-party solution — so this is an exciting step in the right direction. There are some options from other companies for this type of integrated, color-changing smart lighting — GE Cync recently released a smart kitchen lighting system that can be hardwired — but Hue fans have lacked a simple solution.

The Nobilia partnership includes two new Philips Hue lighting options specifically designed for kitchen furniture — color-capable recessed spotlights for cabinets and linear gradient light bars for shelving made specifically for the partnership. These connect to the Hue Bridge to work with your Hue lighting system and sync with other lights.
The new lights are integrated into the Nobilia cabinetry and hardwired into your home’s electrical system, so they will only work for new kitchens; it’s not a simple retrofit or DIY solution — yet.
Philips Hue’s CTO George Yianni told The Verge that this is a first step for the company. He says they hope to learn from the partnership and potentially develop more DIY-type products for kitchen lighting in the future.
While this week’s announcement was just for Europe, with the partnership scheduled to launch early next year, it could come stateside at some point. The Verge spoke to Nobilia’s Steffen Hagemann at the press event, who said Nobilia North America is working on bringing the product to the US, but it won’t be before 2026.
Speaking of better kitchen and dining lighting, Signify also announced that the Philips Hue Ensis pendant light fixture is now available in the US. The $479.99 hardwired chandelier-style light comes in black or white and is designed to hang over a kitchen or dining table. It has two individually controllable lights — a downlight and an upper light that both offer full color and tunable white light.

Philips Hue announced a partnership with Nobilia to bring integrated smart lighting to its new kitchens. | Image: Signify

Philips Hue is finally getting into smart under-cabinet kitchen lighting. But as it’s Hue, they are doing it in the most expensive way possible, and it will be at least a year before it comes to the US. Still, the new fully integrated smart lighting solution looks a pretty sweet solution if you hanker for full-color lighting to go with your avocado and toast — with no plugs or wires in sight.

This week at the IFA tech show in Berlin, Philips Hue’s parent company, Signify, announced a partnership with Nobilia, Europe’s largest kitchen manufacturer, that integrates custom Philips Hue smart lights into its kitchen furniture.

To date, Hue has only offered plug-in light strips controllable by wireless switches, hardwiring them into your kitchen requires using a third-party solution — so this is an exciting step in the right direction. There are some options from other companies for this type of integrated, color-changing smart lighting — GE Cync recently released a smart kitchen lighting system that can be hardwired — but Hue fans have lacked a simple solution.

The Nobilia partnership includes two new Philips Hue lighting options specifically designed for kitchen furniture — color-capable recessed spotlights for cabinets and linear gradient light bars for shelving made specifically for the partnership. These connect to the Hue Bridge to work with your Hue lighting system and sync with other lights.

The new lights are integrated into the Nobilia cabinetry and hardwired into your home’s electrical system, so they will only work for new kitchens; it’s not a simple retrofit or DIY solution — yet.

Philips Hue’s CTO George Yianni told The Verge that this is a first step for the company. He says they hope to learn from the partnership and potentially develop more DIY-type products for kitchen lighting in the future.

While this week’s announcement was just for Europe, with the partnership scheduled to launch early next year, it could come stateside at some point. The Verge spoke to Nobilia’s Steffen Hagemann at the press event, who said Nobilia North America is working on bringing the product to the US, but it won’t be before 2026.

Speaking of better kitchen and dining lighting, Signify also announced that the Philips Hue Ensis pendant light fixture is now available in the US. The $479.99 hardwired chandelier-style light comes in black or white and is designed to hang over a kitchen or dining table. It has two individually controllable lights — a downlight and an upper light that both offer full color and tunable white light.

Read More 

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Netflix

The Verge spoke with Bill Gates about AI, misinformation, and climate change. Bill Gates has spent billions funding technologies he thinks will shape the future — from fighting climate change to eradicating disease.
Gates gets into the thick of it all in a new Netflix series called “What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates.” It launches on September 18th with episodes on AI, climate change, inequality, misinformation, and global health.
The Verge spoke with Gates to discuss what makes him so optimistic about the technologies covered in the series. And we couldn’t resist asking him about his days leading Microsoft, too.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
In the first episode, you ask ChatGPT to recommend an exercise you can do in your office. Do you use ChatGPT in your day-to-day life, and if so, how?
Well, actually, not for exercise, although that was a good example where it gave quite a good answer.
“The amount of investment by Microsoft and others in the field, it’s hard to overstate.”
You know, I’m often learning about topics, and ChatGPT is an excellent way to get explanations for specific questions. I’m often writing things, and it’s a huge help in writing. I’d say the feature I use the most is the meeting summary, which is integrated into [Microsoft] Teams, which I use a lot. The ability to interact and not just get the summary, but ask questions about the meeting, is pretty fantastic.
Do you think Microsoft should expand its partnership with OpenAI or invest more in its own tech?
I’m an adviser to Microsoft. It’s strengthening the OpenAI relationship, doing a lot of its own. I mean, the amount of investment by Microsoft and others in the field, it’s hard to overstate.
And this comes up in this series — what about all the prophecies of doom? Are you worried about AI destroying the world?
Well, the near-term issues are more using it in a positive way, in areas like health and education. Even in the United States, we have shortages. The idea of the personal tutor, which I’ve been out in Newark to see Khanmigo [Khan Academy’s AI tool], which is based on ChatGPT. Seeing how great that is to help the teachers do their jobs, help the students who are behind or ahead stay engaged. So, for the next decade, we’ll be experiencing increased productivity in a lot of areas, which is overwhelmingly very good news.

As it gets more powerful, and you know, as bad guys are using it, there’ll be issues. But overall, I believe that it’s a beneficial thing, and we need to just shape it in the right way.
Disinformation, that’s something that researchers are also concerned about AI supercharging. Have you given any thought into how you would feel if generative AI tools that Microsoft has worked on have a significant impact on disinformation, on things like climate change and global health?
I think AI, on balance, is super beneficial to work on climate. People can type misinformation into a word processor. They don’t need AI, you know, to type out crazy things. And so I’m not sure that, other than creating deepfakes, AI really changes the balance there. In fact, I’d say that as people talk about reducing misinformation, the role of AI can be a positive role in terms of looking at what’s going on in a superefficient way.
Most of the problems in the series — like how we should think about AI, how we can get rid of malaria and improve global health, and various climate innovations — there’s things that I’m working on that are a big part of solving the problem. Misinformation is the one where I do think the younger generation is going to have to look at the tradeoffs between free speech and misinforming people.
Training AI uses a lot of energy. How do you square that with your ambitions on combating climate change, especially as Microsoft’s greenhouse gas emissions grow?
Microsoft and the other tech companies are very committed to finding clean energy sources, and so they’ll be pioneering customers, even for things like geothermal or fission or fusion, to help bootstrap that green energy generation. The actual increase from the AI data centers, even in the extreme view, would be well under 10 percent.
So, the net benefit we’re getting from AI helping us in our scientific discovery of, okay, how do you make steel? How do you make meat? What’s the weather going to be like? The AI benefits exceed the fact that that’s just another electricity load, but not a load nearly as big as electric cars or electric heat pumps or switching the industrial economy to use electricity instead of direct use of hydrocarbons.

Screenshot: Rhodium Group

You’ve funded technologies that some activists call “false solutions” to climate change because capturing carbon doesn’t get rid of fossil fuels or the other pollution they cause. And nuclear energy is kicking up a fight over uranium mining near Indigenous communities. How do you address those concerns with climate tech?
I’m a big believer that nuclear energy can help us solve the climate problem, which is very, very important. There are designs that, in terms of their safety or fuel use or how they handle waste, I think, minimize those problems.
This can become — although it’s not today — very inexpensive electricity, either using fission or fusion. So, we need to make sure we’re tasteful in how we do mining, how we store the waste. But we need those technologies.
You’re going to need non-weather-dependent sources that can be near to where the electricity loads are to complement an extreme build-out of renewables.
Fission, we can make it cheap. TerraPower is a company trying to show we can make a much safer, but much cheaper form of fission. [Editor’s note: Gates is founder and chairman of the Board of TerraPower.] And people are appropriately skeptical because it’s never been done. But they’ll get to see as we build that plant, and if so, it can make a contribution.

What about concerns about carbon capture? Fossil fuels create not just carbon dioxide emissions, but other pollution. How do you address those environmental justice concerns as well?
Well, coal, definitely, it’s great that in many countries, it’s been out-competed by natural gas. Because in terms of local pollution, natural gas burns very clean. And although it creates CO2 per unit of energy, it creates less. Over time, we’ll even have to get rid of natural gas, but it does not have those local pollution things. [Editor’s note: burning natural gas creates nitrogen dioxide, a smog-forming pollutant and respiratory irritant.]
Here in the US, people are not building new coal plants — they’re switching, and so the health benefits of getting rid of that local particulate are another reason to accelerate those transitions. That’s true all over the world, although they’re not as blessed with cheap natural gas as we are, which is why things like fission and fusion will play an important complementary role to renewables in large parts of the world.
I know a lot of advocates are also concerned about natural gas when it comes to methane leaks from gas infrastructure, and even leaks from gas appliances in the home, and what that means for indoor air quality.

Fusion is exciting. Experts that I’ve talked to who are also hopeful don’t think we’ll see it within the timelines needed in the Paris agreement. What makes you so optimistic about fusion being ready in time?
I’m invested in five fusion companies, which, although their timeframes are further out, I think the role of fusion over time will be very, very critical.
Given the challenge of scaling out both the existing and new technologies, we’ll certainly miss the 1.5 degree goal, and we’ll probably miss the two degree goal. And so we’ll have to be very innovative about adaptation as well, making sure that the health and nutrition and well-being of people, even in the poor countries near the equator, that we’re not letting that get worse.
Despite the fact we’ll have climate challenges over time, I don’t think we’ll have a climate disaster because we will be able to deploy these new technologies. But you know, we’re not going to avoid two degrees of warming, and so we’ll have to mix in some adaptation.
Is there anything you wish you’d done differently when you were running Microsoft?

Well, I learned all the time when I was running Microsoft. And on balance, I feel great about the company and the work that was done. I feel very lucky that my successors carried on the work so it’s still a great company today. A lot of the learning I do about AI to help in areas like global health and education comes from that engaging with Microsoft and talking to the top people there. So, you know, I really value the fact Satya gives me that opportunity.
There’s a lot of focus on antitrust right now, including breaking up tech giants. What would the tech landscape look like today if Microsoft had actually been split up in the early 2000s?
These antitrust suits, I don’t know what will come of them. When you get companies this successful, they ought to assume it’s going to happen. And of course, they can see what Microsoft did well, didn’t do well in their own journey through those challenges.
It’s hard to speculate on those things. I mean, whichever part of the company I went with would have thrived, I think.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Netflix

The Verge spoke with Bill Gates about AI, misinformation, and climate change.

Bill Gates has spent billions funding technologies he thinks will shape the future — from fighting climate change to eradicating disease.

Gates gets into the thick of it all in a new Netflix series called “What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates.” It launches on September 18th with episodes on AI, climate change, inequality, misinformation, and global health.

The Verge spoke with Gates to discuss what makes him so optimistic about the technologies covered in the series. And we couldn’t resist asking him about his days leading Microsoft, too.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

In the first episode, you ask ChatGPT to recommend an exercise you can do in your office. Do you use ChatGPT in your day-to-day life, and if so, how?

Well, actually, not for exercise, although that was a good example where it gave quite a good answer.

You know, I’m often learning about topics, and ChatGPT is an excellent way to get explanations for specific questions. I’m often writing things, and it’s a huge help in writing. I’d say the feature I use the most is the meeting summary, which is integrated into [Microsoft] Teams, which I use a lot. The ability to interact and not just get the summary, but ask questions about the meeting, is pretty fantastic.

Do you think Microsoft should expand its partnership with OpenAI or invest more in its own tech?

I’m an adviser to Microsoft. It’s strengthening the OpenAI relationship, doing a lot of its own. I mean, the amount of investment by Microsoft and others in the field, it’s hard to overstate.

And this comes up in this series — what about all the prophecies of doom? Are you worried about AI destroying the world?

Well, the near-term issues are more using it in a positive way, in areas like health and education. Even in the United States, we have shortages. The idea of the personal tutor, which I’ve been out in Newark to see Khanmigo [Khan Academy’s AI tool], which is based on ChatGPT. Seeing how great that is to help the teachers do their jobs, help the students who are behind or ahead stay engaged. So, for the next decade, we’ll be experiencing increased productivity in a lot of areas, which is overwhelmingly very good news.

As it gets more powerful, and you know, as bad guys are using it, there’ll be issues. But overall, I believe that it’s a beneficial thing, and we need to just shape it in the right way.

Disinformation, that’s something that researchers are also concerned about AI supercharging. Have you given any thought into how you would feel if generative AI tools that Microsoft has worked on have a significant impact on disinformation, on things like climate change and global health?

I think AI, on balance, is super beneficial to work on climate. People can type misinformation into a word processor. They don’t need AI, you know, to type out crazy things. And so I’m not sure that, other than creating deepfakes, AI really changes the balance there. In fact, I’d say that as people talk about reducing misinformation, the role of AI can be a positive role in terms of looking at what’s going on in a superefficient way.

Most of the problems in the series — like how we should think about AI, how we can get rid of malaria and improve global health, and various climate innovations — there’s things that I’m working on that are a big part of solving the problem. Misinformation is the one where I do think the younger generation is going to have to look at the tradeoffs between free speech and misinforming people.

Training AI uses a lot of energy. How do you square that with your ambitions on combating climate change, especially as Microsoft’s greenhouse gas emissions grow?

Microsoft and the other tech companies are very committed to finding clean energy sources, and so they’ll be pioneering customers, even for things like geothermal or fission or fusion, to help bootstrap that green energy generation. The actual increase from the AI data centers, even in the extreme view, would be well under 10 percent.

So, the net benefit we’re getting from AI helping us in our scientific discovery of, okay, how do you make steel? How do you make meat? What’s the weather going to be like? The AI benefits exceed the fact that that’s just another electricity load, but not a load nearly as big as electric cars or electric heat pumps or switching the industrial economy to use electricity instead of direct use of hydrocarbons.

Screenshot: Rhodium Group

You’ve funded technologies that some activists call “false solutions” to climate change because capturing carbon doesn’t get rid of fossil fuels or the other pollution they cause. And nuclear energy is kicking up a fight over uranium mining near Indigenous communities. How do you address those concerns with climate tech?

I’m a big believer that nuclear energy can help us solve the climate problem, which is very, very important. There are designs that, in terms of their safety or fuel use or how they handle waste, I think, minimize those problems.

This can become — although it’s not today — very inexpensive electricity, either using fission or fusion. So, we need to make sure we’re tasteful in how we do mining, how we store the waste. But we need those technologies.

You’re going to need non-weather-dependent sources that can be near to where the electricity loads are to complement an extreme build-out of renewables.

Fission, we can make it cheap. TerraPower is a company trying to show we can make a much safer, but much cheaper form of fission. [Editor’s note: Gates is founder and chairman of the Board of TerraPower.] And people are appropriately skeptical because it’s never been done. But they’ll get to see as we build that plant, and if so, it can make a contribution.

What about concerns about carbon capture? Fossil fuels create not just carbon dioxide emissions, but other pollution. How do you address those environmental justice concerns as well?

Well, coal, definitely, it’s great that in many countries, it’s been out-competed by natural gas. Because in terms of local pollution, natural gas burns very clean. And although it creates CO2 per unit of energy, it creates less. Over time, we’ll even have to get rid of natural gas, but it does not have those local pollution things. [Editor’s note: burning natural gas creates nitrogen dioxide, a smog-forming pollutant and respiratory irritant.]

Here in the US, people are not building new coal plants — they’re switching, and so the health benefits of getting rid of that local particulate are another reason to accelerate those transitions. That’s true all over the world, although they’re not as blessed with cheap natural gas as we are, which is why things like fission and fusion will play an important complementary role to renewables in large parts of the world.

I know a lot of advocates are also concerned about natural gas when it comes to methane leaks from gas infrastructure, and even leaks from gas appliances in the home, and what that means for indoor air quality.

Fusion is exciting. Experts that I’ve talked to who are also hopeful don’t think we’ll see it within the timelines needed in the Paris agreement. What makes you so optimistic about fusion being ready in time?

I’m invested in five fusion companies, which, although their timeframes are further out, I think the role of fusion over time will be very, very critical.

Given the challenge of scaling out both the existing and new technologies, we’ll certainly miss the 1.5 degree goal, and we’ll probably miss the two degree goal. And so we’ll have to be very innovative about adaptation as well, making sure that the health and nutrition and well-being of people, even in the poor countries near the equator, that we’re not letting that get worse.

Despite the fact we’ll have climate challenges over time, I don’t think we’ll have a climate disaster because we will be able to deploy these new technologies. But you know, we’re not going to avoid two degrees of warming, and so we’ll have to mix in some adaptation.

Is there anything you wish you’d done differently when you were running Microsoft?

Well, I learned all the time when I was running Microsoft. And on balance, I feel great about the company and the work that was done. I feel very lucky that my successors carried on the work so it’s still a great company today. A lot of the learning I do about AI to help in areas like global health and education comes from that engaging with Microsoft and talking to the top people there. So, you know, I really value the fact Satya gives me that opportunity.

There’s a lot of focus on antitrust right now, including breaking up tech giants. What would the tech landscape look like today if Microsoft had actually been split up in the early 2000s?

These antitrust suits, I don’t know what will come of them. When you get companies this successful, they ought to assume it’s going to happen. And of course, they can see what Microsoft did well, didn’t do well in their own journey through those challenges.

It’s hard to speculate on those things. I mean, whichever part of the company I went with would have thrived, I think.

Read More 

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

A coalition of consumer protection and anti-waste groups wants the Federal Trade Commission to go after “software tethering,” or the practice of tying hardware’s functionality to external software — which often renders products unusable after software updates stop.
The groups, including Consumer Reports, iFixIt, US PIRG, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Economic Justice, and Californians Against Waste, have signed onto a letter asking the FTC to “create clear guidance” on software tethering. “While the FTC has taken some limited actions with regard to this issue, a lack of clarity and enforcement has led to an ecosystem where consumers cannot reliably count on the connected products they buy to last,” the letter reads.
The letter calls out a number of products whose functionalities have been limited — or eliminated altogether — by this practice. In some cases, as was the case with the $1,695 Snoo bassinet, customers “discovered that some of the features that were originally advertised with the product” would soon be locked behind a monthly subscription service. In other instances, like the Juicero juicer, the products became unsupported and effectively unusable after the startups behind them shut down.

“Manufacturers increasingly use software to lock us into only using our tech in ways that just-so-happen to generate the most profits for them,” Lucas Rockett Gutterman, Designed to Last director with US PIRG, said in an emailed statement. “If we want to stop the tech industry from pushing us into replacing products that still work, we need to stand up for consumers’ right to get what we’ve paid for in the age of connected devices.”
The authors also note that even major, established companies like Google kill certain products — and their support — leaving customers with waste, and note that smart home products like major appliances are particularly vulnerable to this. “With larger products, uncertainty about when these products might fail represents the loss of a substantial investment and the creation of literal tons of waste,” the letter reads. A forthcoming Consumer Reports study cited in the letter found that of 22 major smart appliance makers, only three provided a set time period over which they’d provide cybersecurity and software updates. Four others said they’d provide support and firmware updates for the products over an unspecified time period.
“We expect the problem to get worse over time as more companies build ‘smart’ products that connect to the internet or are app controlled,” the letter reads. To remedy this, the groups are proposing the FTC:

require companies to guarantee minimum support time for products, and to clearly state this time on product packaging
require companies to ensure that products’ core functionality will work even if the internet connection fails or if the corresponding software stops being updated
encourage tools and methods to enable reuse if and when software support ends
protect “adversarial interoperability,” or the practice of allowing competitors or third parties to modify old devices
educate manufacturers on how to build longevity into product design

“Consumers are already being burned by software obsolescence,” the letter states, “and absent guidance and enforcement, we are seeing companies role the dice on selling connected devices that they have no intention of standing behind.”

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

A coalition of consumer protection and anti-waste groups wants the Federal Trade Commission to go after “software tethering,” or the practice of tying hardware’s functionality to external software — which often renders products unusable after software updates stop.

The groups, including Consumer Reports, iFixIt, US PIRG, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Economic Justice, and Californians Against Waste, have signed onto a letter asking the FTC to “create clear guidance” on software tethering. “While the FTC has taken some limited actions with regard to this issue, a lack of clarity and enforcement has led to an ecosystem where consumers cannot reliably count on the connected products they buy to last,” the letter reads.

The letter calls out a number of products whose functionalities have been limited — or eliminated altogether — by this practice. In some cases, as was the case with the $1,695 Snoo bassinet, customers “discovered that some of the features that were originally advertised with the product” would soon be locked behind a monthly subscription service. In other instances, like the Juicero juicer, the products became unsupported and effectively unusable after the startups behind them shut down.

“Manufacturers increasingly use software to lock us into only using our tech in ways that just-so-happen to generate the most profits for them,” Lucas Rockett Gutterman, Designed to Last director with US PIRG, said in an emailed statement. “If we want to stop the tech industry from pushing us into replacing products that still work, we need to stand up for consumers’ right to get what we’ve paid for in the age of connected devices.”

The authors also note that even major, established companies like Google kill certain products — and their support — leaving customers with waste, and note that smart home products like major appliances are particularly vulnerable to this. “With larger products, uncertainty about when these products might fail represents the loss of a substantial investment and the creation of literal tons of waste,” the letter reads. A forthcoming Consumer Reports study cited in the letter found that of 22 major smart appliance makers, only three provided a set time period over which they’d provide cybersecurity and software updates. Four others said they’d provide support and firmware updates for the products over an unspecified time period.

“We expect the problem to get worse over time as more companies build ‘smart’ products that connect to the internet or are app controlled,” the letter reads. To remedy this, the groups are proposing the FTC:

require companies to guarantee minimum support time for products, and to clearly state this time on product packaging
require companies to ensure that products’ core functionality will work even if the internet connection fails or if the corresponding software stops being updated
encourage tools and methods to enable reuse if and when software support ends
protect “adversarial interoperability,” or the practice of allowing competitors or third parties to modify old devices
educate manufacturers on how to build longevity into product design

“Consumers are already being burned by software obsolescence,” the letter states, “and absent guidance and enforcement, we are seeing companies role the dice on selling connected devices that they have no intention of standing behind.”

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The Voice Mate H1 is a small button-like microphone you lift to activate and then can issue smart home commands to. | Image: Aqara

Smart home company Aqara has announced the Voice Mate H1 — a home automation voice control system activated by picking up a small puck rather than its microphone always listening for its wake word. The company is also launching its first outdoor camera, the Camera Hub G5 Pro, which, like its other cameras, will work with Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video.
These products, along with a new garage door controller, smart valve shut-off device, and new smart switches (for Europe only), were announced at the IFA tech show this week. Aqara hasn’t provided pricing or availability yet.
While smart speakers and phones with built-in voice assistants are easy ways to control your smart home, by design, they are always listening for their wake word. Aqara’s new Voice Mate H1 only activates its microphones when you pick up the small puck-like device.
The Voice Mate is integrated with Aqara Co-Pilot, Aqara’s LLM-powered assistant, and the company says it can execute smart home scenes and adjust device settings using natural language commands. There are no speakers on board, so it doesn’t talk back. This is an interesting idea, and while it does sacrifice the hands-free nature of a voice assistant you’re gaining the feeling of more privacy.
It also requires Aqara’s Hub M3 to operate, and Aqara says all commands are cleared from the hub after completion. The Hub M3 is Aqara’s flagship hub for its smart home. It’s a Matter bridge and Thread border router and can work with select Matter devices from other manufacturers. Aqara is further expanding the hub’s capabilities with a new Advanced Matter Bridging feature that will let you port the Aqara app’s powerful conditions and actions to other Matter apps.
According to Aqara, this means you can integrate advanced features such as auto cruise for its pan and tilt cameras into other Matter-compatible platforms, such as Apple Home or Google Home.

Image: Aqara
The Camera Hub G5 Pro is one of only a handful of outdoor cameras that work with HomeKit Secure Video. Others are offered by Logitech and Eve.

And speaking of cameras, the Camera Hub G5 Pro is the first outdoor Apple HomeKit Secure Video compatible camera I’ve seen that can work over PoE as well as Wi-Fi (2.4GHz/5GHz, with a USB-C power cable). The IP65-rated camera offers 1520p resolution (although it downgrades to 1080p if you use it through Apple Home), color night vision, a spotlight, a siren, and a 133-degree field of view.
Interestingly, you can still benefit from end-to-end encryption if you use it outside of HKSV (which allows you to store recorded video in your iCloud account). Aqara says the G5 Pro is its first camera capable of this secure form of communication. It has encrypted eMMC storage that can be synced to clouds (Aqara’s for a fee and iCloud) and to a local NAS system (for free). It doesn’t have onboard microSD card storage, but it can record to a network video recorder using RTSP (Aqara’s first camera capable of this).
The G5 Pro offers free on-device AI that can detect faces, vehicles, pets, packages, and motion and use them as triggers to start recording video.
Alongside Apple Home compatibility, the G5 works with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings. It’s also an Aqara Zigbee hub and a Matter bridge — making it one of the first outdoor smart home hubs I’ve seen.

Image: Aqara
The Aqara T2 Bulb is a smart bulb that can work with Thread or Zigbee.

Here’s a look at the other new products Aqara announced at IFA this week:

The LED Bulb T2 is Aqara’s first line of smart bulbs that works over Thread and Zigbee. The T2 series includes E26/A19, E27, and GU10 bulbs with full color and tunable white options as well as white-only. It can work with an Aqara Zigbee hub or with Matter using a Thread border router.
The Light Switch H2 series are Aqara’s newest in-wall smart switch for Europe. These are also Zigbee and Thread. Aqara appears to be hedging its bets here, offering users “the choice between the native Matter-over-Thread support and the wider, Zigbee-enabled feature set.” The implementation of Matter-over-Thread has been bumpy, so I can see why Aqara is taking this route, but it doesn’t help with the overall aim of simplifying the smart home. The good news is that you can switch between protocols and try each one out to see what works best in your home. The switches work with or without a neutral wire, which supports features such as power monitoring, overload protection, and a configurable LED indicator.

Image: Aqara
The H2 switches include up to four wireless switches that can control smart devices or scenes such as curtains or a security system, either through Aqara or a compatible third-party Matter platform.

The Garage Door Controller T2 Kit is Aqara’s first smart garage door opener and the first to support Matter. It has wireless sensors and supports up to two garage doors. You can close and open them remotely in the Aqara app, or use geofencing to do this automatically based on location, plus there’s the option of app or voice control. The T2 works directly with Apple Home, Google Home, and other Matter-compatible platforms through an Aqara hub.

Image: Aqara
The automatic valve controller can be set to respond to automation, put on a schedule, controlled remotely by an app, or opened and closed physically.

The Valve Controller T1 is an automatic shut-off valve that can work with water and gas pipes. It can be set to respond to any leak detected by a smart sensor by automatically shutting off a valve. The T1 is a retrofit device with no plumbing or wiring required (it uses 4 AA batteries Aqara says will last up to a year). It works over Zigbee and requires an Aqara hub, through which it works as a Matter device in supported Matter ecosystems such as Apple Home, Google Home, Home Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings.
All these new gadgets help round out the company’s offerings in the smart home, bringing it close to a complete ecosystem. Combined with its wide compatibility, innovative automation options, and increasing support for Matter, Aqara is making a very good case for itself as a major player in the smart home.

The Voice Mate H1 is a small button-like microphone you lift to activate and then can issue smart home commands to. | Image: Aqara

Smart home company Aqara has announced the Voice Mate H1 — a home automation voice control system activated by picking up a small puck rather than its microphone always listening for its wake word. The company is also launching its first outdoor camera, the Camera Hub G5 Pro, which, like its other cameras, will work with Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video.

These products, along with a new garage door controller, smart valve shut-off device, and new smart switches (for Europe only), were announced at the IFA tech show this week. Aqara hasn’t provided pricing or availability yet.

While smart speakers and phones with built-in voice assistants are easy ways to control your smart home, by design, they are always listening for their wake word. Aqara’s new Voice Mate H1 only activates its microphones when you pick up the small puck-like device.

The Voice Mate is integrated with Aqara Co-Pilot, Aqara’s LLM-powered assistant, and the company says it can execute smart home scenes and adjust device settings using natural language commands. There are no speakers on board, so it doesn’t talk back. This is an interesting idea, and while it does sacrifice the hands-free nature of a voice assistant you’re gaining the feeling of more privacy.

It also requires Aqara’s Hub M3 to operate, and Aqara says all commands are cleared from the hub after completion. The Hub M3 is Aqara’s flagship hub for its smart home. It’s a Matter bridge and Thread border router and can work with select Matter devices from other manufacturers. Aqara is further expanding the hub’s capabilities with a new Advanced Matter Bridging feature that will let you port the Aqara app’s powerful conditions and actions to other Matter apps.

According to Aqara, this means you can integrate advanced features such as auto cruise for its pan and tilt cameras into other Matter-compatible platforms, such as Apple Home or Google Home.

Image: Aqara
The Camera Hub G5 Pro is one of only a handful of outdoor cameras that work with HomeKit Secure Video. Others are offered by Logitech and Eve.

And speaking of cameras, the Camera Hub G5 Pro is the first outdoor Apple HomeKit Secure Video compatible camera I’ve seen that can work over PoE as well as Wi-Fi (2.4GHz/5GHz, with a USB-C power cable). The IP65-rated camera offers 1520p resolution (although it downgrades to 1080p if you use it through Apple Home), color night vision, a spotlight, a siren, and a 133-degree field of view.

Interestingly, you can still benefit from end-to-end encryption if you use it outside of HKSV (which allows you to store recorded video in your iCloud account). Aqara says the G5 Pro is its first camera capable of this secure form of communication. It has encrypted eMMC storage that can be synced to clouds (Aqara’s for a fee and iCloud) and to a local NAS system (for free). It doesn’t have onboard microSD card storage, but it can record to a network video recorder using RTSP (Aqara’s first camera capable of this).

The G5 Pro offers free on-device AI that can detect faces, vehicles, pets, packages, and motion and use them as triggers to start recording video.

Alongside Apple Home compatibility, the G5 works with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings. It’s also an Aqara Zigbee hub and a Matter bridge — making it one of the first outdoor smart home hubs I’ve seen.

Image: Aqara
The Aqara T2 Bulb is a smart bulb that can work with Thread or Zigbee.

Here’s a look at the other new products Aqara announced at IFA this week:

The LED Bulb T2 is Aqara’s first line of smart bulbs that works over Thread and Zigbee. The T2 series includes E26/A19, E27, and GU10 bulbs with full color and tunable white options as well as white-only. It can work with an Aqara Zigbee hub or with Matter using a Thread border router.
The Light Switch H2 series are Aqara’s newest in-wall smart switch for Europe. These are also Zigbee and Thread. Aqara appears to be hedging its bets here, offering users “the choice between the native Matter-over-Thread support and the wider, Zigbee-enabled feature set.” The implementation of Matter-over-Thread has been bumpy, so I can see why Aqara is taking this route, but it doesn’t help with the overall aim of simplifying the smart home. The good news is that you can switch between protocols and try each one out to see what works best in your home. The switches work with or without a neutral wire, which supports features such as power monitoring, overload protection, and a configurable LED indicator.

Image: Aqara
The H2 switches include up to four wireless switches that can control smart devices or scenes such as curtains or a security system, either through Aqara or a compatible third-party Matter platform.

The Garage Door Controller T2 Kit is Aqara’s first smart garage door opener and the first to support Matter. It has wireless sensors and supports up to two garage doors. You can close and open them remotely in the Aqara app, or use geofencing to do this automatically based on location, plus there’s the option of app or voice control. The T2 works directly with Apple Home, Google Home, and other Matter-compatible platforms through an Aqara hub.

Image: Aqara
The automatic valve controller can be set to respond to automation, put on a schedule, controlled remotely by an app, or opened and closed physically.

The Valve Controller T1 is an automatic shut-off valve that can work with water and gas pipes. It can be set to respond to any leak detected by a smart sensor by automatically shutting off a valve. The T1 is a retrofit device with no plumbing or wiring required (it uses 4 AA batteries Aqara says will last up to a year). It works over Zigbee and requires an Aqara hub, through which it works as a Matter device in supported Matter ecosystems such as Apple Home, Google Home, Home Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings.

All these new gadgets help round out the company’s offerings in the smart home, bringing it close to a complete ecosystem. Combined with its wide compatibility, innovative automation options, and increasing support for Matter, Aqara is making a very good case for itself as a major player in the smart home.

Read More 

The Ki standard could help reduce the number of power cables clogging your kitchen. | Screenshot: YouTube

The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) has announced that it’s releasing the finalized specifications for the Ki wireless power transfer standard that will allow smaller kitchen appliances such as toasters and blenders to operate without the need for power cords. It’s not available to consumers just yet but could be just around the corner, as appliance makers will be able to submit products for Ki certification before the end of the year.
By now, many of us already take advantage of the convenience of Qi and Qi2 wireless chargers. Using a principle called electromagnetic induction where a magnetic field is used to generate an electrical current, Qi devices allow smaller electronics like smartphones and headphones to be simply positioned on pads or stands to charge, instead of having to be plugged in to a power cable with a specific connector.
The WPC’s new Ki standard also relies on electromagnetic induction to wirelessly transfer power to appliances but with some key differences. With Qi, the power from the wireless charger is only used to charge the battery in a mobile device. Remove the battery from a phone, place it on a Qi charger, and the device will still be dead. With Ki, the current that’s generated is used to directly power the motors, heating elements, and electronics that make an appliance run.
A slow trickle of wireless power is all that’s needed to charge the battery in a mobile device, but kitchen appliances that are chopping, cooking, and blending need significantly more. So while the Qi and Qi2 standards can deliver up to five and 15W of power, respectively, the Ki standard, through the use of much larger coils, can transmit up to 2,200W of power. That’s more than enough for even power-hungry devices like air fryers.
The WPC initially expects Ki power transmitters to be integrated with products like induction cooktops that already use similar technology, further expanding their usefulness in the kitchen.

Screenshot: YouTube
Ki power transmitters embedded beneath countertops can be almost entirely invisible when not in use.

But the Ki technology can also wirelessly transmit power through materials like granite, quartz, marble, and even wood up to 1.5 inches thick, allowing the wireless power transmitters to eventually be integrated into kitchens while remaining out of sight. “The benefits of the Ki standard will get people to reimagine how kitchens are designed and used. Whether it is new homes being built, existing homeowners remodeling their kitchens, or simply the growing number of people eager to enjoy the benefits of a smart home,” says Paul Struhsaker, executive director of the WPC, in a release today.

For installations where the location of the transmitters is not immediately obvious, the Ki standard includes several safeguards. Ki-compatible appliances communicate with the transmitters over NFC, and power is only generated while an appliance is detected. Should a blender be knocked over, power delivery is immediately turned off, and the transmitters can’t be activated by other kitchen hardware like metal knives placed atop them.
The standard also requires that the underside of appliances or the surface of a countertop never get hot enough to burn or cause damage. Even if a Ki-compatible pan is used to cook food directly on a countertop, the specification requires additional insulation on the bottom of the pan to protect the countertop from the heat. The elimination of cords also reduces tripping hazards in a kitchen, the fire risks that come with power cables that may fray over time, and the general nuisance of wires while cooking.
With appliance makers like Philips, Midea, and Miele already being members of the WPC, we will hopefully start to see Ki-compatible appliances being introduced to consumers in the coming year as devices become Ki-certified. None have been announced just yet.
However, a truly cord-free kitchen experience will require new hardware and existing appliances to be replaced. The WPC expects the additional components will add about $8 to $9 to the price of a Ki-compatible appliance, but there will be other costs that come into play, including the transmitters and potential renovations needed to route power to where they’re installed.
Will it be worth all the upgrades? Without knowing how many appliance makers will adopt Ki-compatibility, you shouldn’t start gutting your kitchen just yet. But given the popularity of wireless charging, consumers may eagerly welcome another way to rid themselves of more power cords cluttering their homes.

The Ki standard could help reduce the number of power cables clogging your kitchen. | Screenshot: YouTube

The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) has announced that it’s releasing the finalized specifications for the Ki wireless power transfer standard that will allow smaller kitchen appliances such as toasters and blenders to operate without the need for power cords. It’s not available to consumers just yet but could be just around the corner, as appliance makers will be able to submit products for Ki certification before the end of the year.

By now, many of us already take advantage of the convenience of Qi and Qi2 wireless chargers. Using a principle called electromagnetic induction where a magnetic field is used to generate an electrical current, Qi devices allow smaller electronics like smartphones and headphones to be simply positioned on pads or stands to charge, instead of having to be plugged in to a power cable with a specific connector.

The WPC’s new Ki standard also relies on electromagnetic induction to wirelessly transfer power to appliances but with some key differences. With Qi, the power from the wireless charger is only used to charge the battery in a mobile device. Remove the battery from a phone, place it on a Qi charger, and the device will still be dead. With Ki, the current that’s generated is used to directly power the motors, heating elements, and electronics that make an appliance run.

A slow trickle of wireless power is all that’s needed to charge the battery in a mobile device, but kitchen appliances that are chopping, cooking, and blending need significantly more. So while the Qi and Qi2 standards can deliver up to five and 15W of power, respectively, the Ki standard, through the use of much larger coils, can transmit up to 2,200W of power. That’s more than enough for even power-hungry devices like air fryers.

The WPC initially expects Ki power transmitters to be integrated with products like induction cooktops that already use similar technology, further expanding their usefulness in the kitchen.

Screenshot: YouTube
Ki power transmitters embedded beneath countertops can be almost entirely invisible when not in use.

But the Ki technology can also wirelessly transmit power through materials like granite, quartz, marble, and even wood up to 1.5 inches thick, allowing the wireless power transmitters to eventually be integrated into kitchens while remaining out of sight. “The benefits of the Ki standard will get people to reimagine how kitchens are designed and used. Whether it is new homes being built, existing homeowners remodeling their kitchens, or simply the growing number of people eager to enjoy the benefits of a smart home,” says Paul Struhsaker, executive director of the WPC, in a release today.

For installations where the location of the transmitters is not immediately obvious, the Ki standard includes several safeguards. Ki-compatible appliances communicate with the transmitters over NFC, and power is only generated while an appliance is detected. Should a blender be knocked over, power delivery is immediately turned off, and the transmitters can’t be activated by other kitchen hardware like metal knives placed atop them.

The standard also requires that the underside of appliances or the surface of a countertop never get hot enough to burn or cause damage. Even if a Ki-compatible pan is used to cook food directly on a countertop, the specification requires additional insulation on the bottom of the pan to protect the countertop from the heat. The elimination of cords also reduces tripping hazards in a kitchen, the fire risks that come with power cables that may fray over time, and the general nuisance of wires while cooking.

With appliance makers like Philips, Midea, and Miele already being members of the WPC, we will hopefully start to see Ki-compatible appliances being introduced to consumers in the coming year as devices become Ki-certified. None have been announced just yet.

However, a truly cord-free kitchen experience will require new hardware and existing appliances to be replaced. The WPC expects the additional components will add about $8 to $9 to the price of a Ki-compatible appliance, but there will be other costs that come into play, including the transmitters and potential renovations needed to route power to where they’re installed.

Will it be worth all the upgrades? Without knowing how many appliance makers will adopt Ki-compatibility, you shouldn’t start gutting your kitchen just yet. But given the popularity of wireless charging, consumers may eagerly welcome another way to rid themselves of more power cords cluttering their homes.

Read More 

Illustration: The Verge

X has won an appeal to block parts of California’s content moderation law, which requires social platforms to publicly post policies against hate speech and misinformation, as well as submit semiannual reports on their enforcement efforts. A federal appeals court decided on Wednesday that the reporting aspect of the law likely violates the First Amendment, as reported earlier by Bloomberg Law.
In the lawsuit, filed against California last year, X alleged the state’s social media law violates free speech because it “compels companies like X Corp. to engage in speech against their will.” A California judge later denied X’s request for a preliminary injunction of the law, arguing that the enforcement reporting requirement doesn’t appear to be “unjustified or unduly burdensome within the context of First Amendment law.”

Today, a bipartisan panel of judges unanimously ruled in favor of X and against a California law that seeks to regulate speech on social media platforms.This is not just a victory for our platform, but also for free speech nationwide.Whether in the United States or around the…— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) September 4, 2024

The appeals court has now overturned this decision. The decision says the law’s requirements are “more extensive than necessary to serve the State’s purported goal of requiring social media companies to be transparent about their content-moderation policies.”
X owner Elon Musk gutted the platform’s content moderation team shortly after his takeover. Since then, X has been criticized for failing to remove misinformation and hate speech from the platform, despite having policies on both.
In a statement to Bloomberg Law, the office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta says they are “reviewing the opinion and will respond appropriately in court.” Meanwhile, X called the decision a “victory” for the platform and “free speech nationwide.”

Illustration: The Verge

X has won an appeal to block parts of California’s content moderation law, which requires social platforms to publicly post policies against hate speech and misinformation, as well as submit semiannual reports on their enforcement efforts. A federal appeals court decided on Wednesday that the reporting aspect of the law likely violates the First Amendment, as reported earlier by Bloomberg Law.

In the lawsuit, filed against California last year, X alleged the state’s social media law violates free speech because it “compels companies like X Corp. to engage in speech against their will.” A California judge later denied X’s request for a preliminary injunction of the law, arguing that the enforcement reporting requirement doesn’t appear to be “unjustified or unduly burdensome within the context of First Amendment law.”

The appeals court has now overturned this decision. The decision says the law’s requirements are “more extensive than necessary to serve the State’s purported goal of requiring social media companies to be transparent about their content-moderation policies.”

X owner Elon Musk gutted the platform’s content moderation team shortly after his takeover. Since then, X has been criticized for failing to remove misinformation and hate speech from the platform, despite having policies on both.

In a statement to Bloomberg Law, the office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta says they are “reviewing the opinion and will respond appropriately in court.” Meanwhile, X called the decision a “victory” for the platform and “free speech nationwide.”

Read More 

Image: NSA

The National Security Agency (NSA) will start sharing stories about some of the agency’s past missions in a new podcast. Dubbed No Such Podcast, the podcast will initially focus on foreign signals intelligence and cybersecurity in the first two episodes, both of which will be available to listen to starting tomorrow, September 5th.
For years, the work of the NSA has been a closely kept secret. Then, in 2013, former agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked secret information about surveillance programs like PRISM and Boundless Informant. Outrage and intense debate over the agency’s actions quickly followed, and it continues to this day.
Now, we’ll find out what the NSA chooses to reveal in interviews with its experts.
The pilot episode of “No Such Podcast” features a declassified story of NSA’s signals intelligence (SIGINT) contributions to the U.S. government effort to take down Osama bin Laden, one of the architects of the September 11, 2001 attacks. This discussion will be followed by interviews with leaders on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, advanced research, and more.

A federal agency trying to tell its own stories isn’t a new concept. Last year’s movie Killers of the Flower Moon includes an FBI radio show, which references an actual series from the 1930s, The Lucky Strike Hour. It was just one of many media efforts by the FBI during that era, which included the J. Edgar Hoover-endorsed This is Your FBI radio crime drama that started in 1945.
The NSA will run six subsequent weekly episodes of No Such Podcast through mid-October, available on the usual platforms, like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, and YouTube.
“Because it’s sensitive, we can’t talk about some of our work, but it’s time to start telling more stories that we can talk about, sharing more of that expertise, and highlighting these incredible public servants,” Sara Siegle, NSA’s chief of strategic communications, said in a press release.

Image: NSA

The National Security Agency (NSA) will start sharing stories about some of the agency’s past missions in a new podcast. Dubbed No Such Podcast, the podcast will initially focus on foreign signals intelligence and cybersecurity in the first two episodes, both of which will be available to listen to starting tomorrow, September 5th.

For years, the work of the NSA has been a closely kept secret. Then, in 2013, former agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked secret information about surveillance programs like PRISM and Boundless Informant. Outrage and intense debate over the agency’s actions quickly followed, and it continues to this day.

Now, we’ll find out what the NSA chooses to reveal in interviews with its experts.

The pilot episode of “No Such Podcast” features a declassified story of NSA’s signals intelligence (SIGINT) contributions to the U.S. government effort to take down Osama bin Laden, one of the architects of the September 11, 2001 attacks. This discussion will be followed by interviews with leaders on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, advanced research, and more.

A federal agency trying to tell its own stories isn’t a new concept. Last year’s movie Killers of the Flower Moon includes an FBI radio show, which references an actual series from the 1930s, The Lucky Strike Hour. It was just one of many media efforts by the FBI during that era, which included the J. Edgar Hoover-endorsed This is Your FBI radio crime drama that started in 1945.

The NSA will run six subsequent weekly episodes of No Such Podcast through mid-October, available on the usual platforms, like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, and YouTube.

“Because it’s sensitive, we can’t talk about some of our work, but it’s time to start telling more stories that we can talk about, sharing more of that expertise, and highlighting these incredible public servants,” Sara Siegle, NSA’s chief of strategic communications, said in a press release.

Read More 

Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge

Elon Musk is a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist.” He’s declared himself so committed to the unfettered, open exchange of ideas that he’s said the only way X would let a government suppress speech on its platform is “at gunpoint.” All of this explains why Musk recently allowed X to be banned in Brazil rather than comply with the country’s mandate that the social media platform block certain accounts.
It does far less to explain Musk’s history of doing that very thing in other countries — often at the behest of right-wing or authoritarian regimes.

By “free speech”, I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect.Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2022

Musk has been open to following government orders from nearly the beginning. In January 2023 — a little over two months after Musk’s takeover — the platform then known as Twitter blocked a BBC documentary critical of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi. India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting confirmed that Twitter was among the platforms that suppressed The Modi Question at the behest of the Modi government, which called the film “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage.”
Musk later claimed he had no knowledge of this. But in March, after the Indian government imposed an internet blackout on the northern state of Punjab, Twitter caved again. It suppressed Indian users’ access to more than 100 accounts belonging to prominent activists, journalists, and politicians, The Intercept reported at the time.
Later that year, Twitter’s Global Government Affairs account announced it had “taken actions to restrict some content in Turkey” to ensure the website “remains available to the people of Turkey.” As Slate noted at the time, Twitter imposed restrictions on certain accounts on the eve of Turkey’s national elections — and it did so amid rampant social media criticism of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Twitter representatives later said the company had filed objections to court orders requiring the website to ban access to some posts and accounts. Still, Twitter suppressed the accounts and posts. “We received what we believed to be a final threat to throttle the service — after several such warnings,” Twitter said in a statement, adding it “took action” on four accounts and 409 tweets “in order to keep Twitter available over the election weekend.”
Musk has previously said that despite his personal beliefs about free speech, his “preference is to hew close to the laws of countries in which Twitter operates.” In a 2023 interview with the BBC, Musk said Twitter “can’t go beyond the laws” of the countries in which it operates. He reiterated the claim in an interview with CNN, in which he said the platform has “no actual choice” but to comply with government censorship requests.

Like I said, my preference is to hew close to the laws of countries in which Twitter operates. If the citizens want something banned, then pass a law to do so, otherwise it should be allowed.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2022

Under Musk, the website now known as X has complied with such requests readily. Between October 2022 and April 2023, Twitter received 971 requests from governments and courts to suppress specific content and identify private information about anonymous accounts, according to Lumen data analyzed by Rest of World. It complied, to some degree, with 99 percent of those. The majority of these requests came from countries with restrictive speech laws, including India, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.
But X isn’t always amenable to government moderation requests, nor is it particularly vigilant about removing illegal content. In January 2023, a European anti-hate speech group filed a lawsuit in Germany, alleging the platform had failed to properly moderate antisemitic content and Holocaust denial on its platform, violating both its own policies and German law. There has been a marked rise in hate speech on X since Musk’s takeover, due in no small part to Musk’s decision to fire the content moderation team and X’s Trust and Safety Council.
Musk has also been at odds with European Union regulators over disinformation on X. In 2022, Musk said he was “very much on the same page” as the EU regarding the Digital Services Act (DSA), a far-reaching law that requires major online platforms to remove posts containing illegal content and holds them legally accountable if they don’t. But the following year, X pulled out of the EU’s voluntary Code of Practice against disinformation, a voluntary agreement that in effect functioned as a precursor to the DSA.
EU regulators have since criticized X for allowing disinformation and illegal content to remain on the platform, and EU Commissioner Thierry Breton has warned Musk that regulators are keeping tabs on the platform. Musk has, for his part, occasionally antagonized Breton and the EU regulators over their stance on X.
This April, after an Australian judge ruled that X was required to block a video showing a bishop being stabbed in a Sydney church, Musk accused the country of censorship. X’s Global Government Affairs account said the company believed the order “was not within the scope of Australian law” and said the country “does not have the authority to dictate what content X’s users can see globally.”
Some of the inconsistencies in X’s compliance with government censorship requests could be attributed to technicalities. (X did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment on its decisions.) Turkey and India requested that it suppress content only in their countries, while Australia tried to censor a video globally. But it’s worth noting that the video played into one of Musk’s pet causes: combating the so-called “great replacement” of white people by immigrants and people of color. Australian authorities said they believed the stabbing was a religiously motivated terrorist attack. More broadly, Musk has a history of antagonizing governments and politicians he considers too “woke.”
Musk’s other business interests may also be relevant. Erdoğan asked Musk to build a Tesla factory in Turkey last fall, just a few months after X suppressed critics’ posts. And this April, the Financial Times reported that Tesla is exploring locations for a $3 billion factory in India. The man who once said he’d only allow one of his companies to suppress speech “at gunpoint” is far less firm in his beliefs than he claims.

Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge

Elon Musk is a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist.” He’s declared himself so committed to the unfettered, open exchange of ideas that he’s said the only way X would let a government suppress speech on its platform is “at gunpoint.” All of this explains why Musk recently allowed X to be banned in Brazil rather than comply with the country’s mandate that the social media platform block certain accounts.

It does far less to explain Musk’s history of doing that very thing in other countries — often at the behest of right-wing or authoritarian regimes.

Musk has been open to following government orders from nearly the beginning. In January 2023 — a little over two months after Musk’s takeover — the platform then known as Twitter blocked a BBC documentary critical of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi. India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting confirmed that Twitter was among the platforms that suppressed The Modi Question at the behest of the Modi government, which called the film “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage.”

Musk later claimed he had no knowledge of this. But in March, after the Indian government imposed an internet blackout on the northern state of Punjab, Twitter caved again. It suppressed Indian users’ access to more than 100 accounts belonging to prominent activists, journalists, and politicians, The Intercept reported at the time.

Later that year, Twitter’s Global Government Affairs account announced it had “taken actions to restrict some content in Turkey” to ensure the website “remains available to the people of Turkey.” As Slate noted at the time, Twitter imposed restrictions on certain accounts on the eve of Turkey’s national elections — and it did so amid rampant social media criticism of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Twitter representatives later said the company had filed objections to court orders requiring the website to ban access to some posts and accounts. Still, Twitter suppressed the accounts and posts. “We received what we believed to be a final threat to throttle the service — after several such warnings,” Twitter said in a statement, adding it “took action” on four accounts and 409 tweets “in order to keep Twitter available over the election weekend.”

Musk has previously said that despite his personal beliefs about free speech, his “preference is to hew close to the laws of countries in which Twitter operates.” In a 2023 interview with the BBC, Musk said Twitter “can’t go beyond the laws” of the countries in which it operates. He reiterated the claim in an interview with CNN, in which he said the platform has “no actual choice” but to comply with government censorship requests.

Under Musk, the website now known as X has complied with such requests readily. Between October 2022 and April 2023, Twitter received 971 requests from governments and courts to suppress specific content and identify private information about anonymous accounts, according to Lumen data analyzed by Rest of World. It complied, to some degree, with 99 percent of those. The majority of these requests came from countries with restrictive speech laws, including India, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

But X isn’t always amenable to government moderation requests, nor is it particularly vigilant about removing illegal content. In January 2023, a European anti-hate speech group filed a lawsuit in Germany, alleging the platform had failed to properly moderate antisemitic content and Holocaust denial on its platform, violating both its own policies and German law. There has been a marked rise in hate speech on X since Musk’s takeover, due in no small part to Musk’s decision to fire the content moderation team and X’s Trust and Safety Council.

Musk has also been at odds with European Union regulators over disinformation on X. In 2022, Musk said he was “very much on the same page” as the EU regarding the Digital Services Act (DSA), a far-reaching law that requires major online platforms to remove posts containing illegal content and holds them legally accountable if they don’t. But the following year, X pulled out of the EU’s voluntary Code of Practice against disinformation, a voluntary agreement that in effect functioned as a precursor to the DSA.

EU regulators have since criticized X for allowing disinformation and illegal content to remain on the platform, and EU Commissioner Thierry Breton has warned Musk that regulators are keeping tabs on the platform. Musk has, for his part, occasionally antagonized Breton and the EU regulators over their stance on X.

This April, after an Australian judge ruled that X was required to block a video showing a bishop being stabbed in a Sydney church, Musk accused the country of censorship. X’s Global Government Affairs account said the company believed the order “was not within the scope of Australian law” and said the country “does not have the authority to dictate what content X’s users can see globally.”

Some of the inconsistencies in X’s compliance with government censorship requests could be attributed to technicalities. (X did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment on its decisions.) Turkey and India requested that it suppress content only in their countries, while Australia tried to censor a video globally. But it’s worth noting that the video played into one of Musk’s pet causes: combating the so-called “great replacement” of white people by immigrants and people of color. Australian authorities said they believed the stabbing was a religiously motivated terrorist attack. More broadly, Musk has a history of antagonizing governments and politicians he considers too “woke.”

Musk’s other business interests may also be relevant. Erdoğan asked Musk to build a Tesla factory in Turkey last fall, just a few months after X suppressed critics’ posts. And this April, the Financial Times reported that Tesla is exploring locations for a $3 billion factory in India. The man who once said he’d only allow one of his companies to suppress speech “at gunpoint” is far less firm in his beliefs than he claims.

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The Verge

The Russian government is once again trying to influence the US presidential election, the Biden administration says.
In a series of actions across the government on Wednesday, several agencies sought to crack down on alleged disinformation campaigns targeting the November election. The government alleges that Russian actors operated websites and social media accounts that spread propaganda furthering Russian interests and even created fake social media personas to comment on posts to make their efforts more believable. In one of the alleged influence campaigns, Russian-controlled media outlet RT financed a Tennessee company that gained millions of views on videos posted to YouTube, according to the US. The announcements came as the Justice Department hosted a task force meeting on election threats.
In one of the alleged operations, the Russian government directed Russian companies to spread propaganda across several websites in an effort to reduce support for Ukraine, bolster Russian interests, and influence voters in the US presidential election, according to the DOJ. The US government announced an “ongoing seizure” of 32 internet domains connected to the influence campaign known as “Doppelganger,” which it says violates US money laundering and trademark laws.
The influence campaign, which was allegedly directed by members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, created media brands or closely mimicked existing ones to spread Russian government propaganda, according to the US. They also allegedly created fake social media personas of non-Russian citizens to post comments.
“[T]he Russian government and its proxies are aggressively accelerating the Kremlin’s covert efforts to seed false stories”
“This seizure illustrates vividly what the U.S. government and private sector partners have warned for months: the Russian government and its proxies are aggressively accelerating the Kremlin’s covert efforts to seed false stories and amplify disinformation directed at the American public,” DOJ National Security Division chief Matthew G. Olsen said in a statement.
The Treasury Department also sanctioned 10 people and two entities allegedly connected to the scheme. The State Department announced a new policy to prohibit issuing visas to people who engage in covert influence activities on behalf of ”Kremlin-supported media organizations.”
In a separate action, the DOJ accused two employees of the Russian state-controlled media outlet RT of conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and commit money laundering. In a newly unsealed indictment, the DOJ alleged that RT financed a “Tennessee-based online content creation company” with nearly $10 million to post videos across TikTok, X, and YouTube. On YouTube alone, that unnamed company allegedly gained nearly 16 million views on its videos posted since 2023. The videos vary in their perspectives, according to the DOJ, but touch on topics like immigration and inflation and “most are directed to the publicly stated goals of the Government of Russia and RT — to amplify domestic divisions in the United States.”
RT allegedly financed a ‘Tennessee-based online content creation company’ with nearly $10 million to post videos across TikTok, X, and YouTube
It’s not the first time the US has accused Russia of interfering with elections. After the 2016 election, law enforcement accused Russian agents of election interference-related crimes, including computer hacking. In 2020, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report finding Russian President Vladimir Putin condoned a influence campaign meant to support Donald Trump’s ascendance to the White House in 2016.
The Biden administration used Wednesday’s announcements to warn malicious actors against interfering with US elections. “The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement alongside the announcement of the RT employees’ indictment, “and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing.”

The Verge

The Russian government is once again trying to influence the US presidential election, the Biden administration says.

In a series of actions across the government on Wednesday, several agencies sought to crack down on alleged disinformation campaigns targeting the November election. The government alleges that Russian actors operated websites and social media accounts that spread propaganda furthering Russian interests and even created fake social media personas to comment on posts to make their efforts more believable. In one of the alleged influence campaigns, Russian-controlled media outlet RT financed a Tennessee company that gained millions of views on videos posted to YouTube, according to the US. The announcements came as the Justice Department hosted a task force meeting on election threats.

In one of the alleged operations, the Russian government directed Russian companies to spread propaganda across several websites in an effort to reduce support for Ukraine, bolster Russian interests, and influence voters in the US presidential election, according to the DOJ. The US government announced an “ongoing seizure” of 32 internet domains connected to the influence campaign known as “Doppelganger,” which it says violates US money laundering and trademark laws.

The influence campaign, which was allegedly directed by members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, created media brands or closely mimicked existing ones to spread Russian government propaganda, according to the US. They also allegedly created fake social media personas of non-Russian citizens to post comments.

“This seizure illustrates vividly what the U.S. government and private sector partners have warned for months: the Russian government and its proxies are aggressively accelerating the Kremlin’s covert efforts to seed false stories and amplify disinformation directed at the American public,” DOJ National Security Division chief Matthew G. Olsen said in a statement.

The Treasury Department also sanctioned 10 people and two entities allegedly connected to the scheme. The State Department announced a new policy to prohibit issuing visas to people who engage in covert influence activities on behalf of ”Kremlin-supported media organizations.”

In a separate action, the DOJ accused two employees of the Russian state-controlled media outlet RT of conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and commit money laundering. In a newly unsealed indictment, the DOJ alleged that RT financed a “Tennessee-based online content creation company” with nearly $10 million to post videos across TikTok, X, and YouTube. On YouTube alone, that unnamed company allegedly gained nearly 16 million views on its videos posted since 2023. The videos vary in their perspectives, according to the DOJ, but touch on topics like immigration and inflation and “most are directed to the publicly stated goals of the Government of Russia and RT — to amplify domestic divisions in the United States.”

It’s not the first time the US has accused Russia of interfering with elections. After the 2016 election, law enforcement accused Russian agents of election interference-related crimes, including computer hacking. In 2020, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report finding Russian President Vladimir Putin condoned a influence campaign meant to support Donald Trump’s ascendance to the White House in 2016.

The Biden administration used Wednesday’s announcements to warn malicious actors against interfering with US elections. “The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement alongside the announcement of the RT employees’ indictment, “and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing.”

Read More