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Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a new “voluntary national framework for the evaluation and oversight” of autonomous vehicles, a bureaucratic first step that could eventually open the floodgates for fully driverless cars. But there’s a twist: the agency wants self-driving car companies to cough up more data.
The proposed rules were first announced last year as the ADS-Equipped Vehicle Safety, Transparency and Evaluation Program, also known as AV STEP. This program would allow the agency to authorize the sale and commercialization of more vehicles without traditional controls, like pedals and steering wheels, without hitting the annual cap on the number of exemptions to safety requirements. NHTSA is promising “an exemption pathway that is tailored for ADS-equipped vehicles,” suggesting a less onerous, time-consuming process for the release of fully driverless vehicles.
In exchange, the agency is requesting more data from the companies that operate driverless cars, arguing that greater transparency is needed to foster public trust in the technology.

“AV STEP would provide a valuable national framework at a pivotal time in the development of [automated driving system] technology. Safe, transparent, and responsible development is critical for this technology to be trusted by the public and reach its full potential. This proposal lays the foundation for those goals and supports NHTSA’s safety mission,” NHTSA Chief Counsel Adam Raviv said in a press release. “We encourage everyone to comment on our proposed program.
By kick-starting the rulemaking process, the Biden administration is giving a pretty big end-of-the-year holiday gift to the companies that have been laboring for decades on autonomous vehicle technology without any national regulatory framework to guide them.
The federal government has largely taken a back seat to in regulating autonomous vehicles, leaving states to develop their own rulebooks for safe deployment. Legislation that would dramatically increase the number of AVs on the road has been stalled in Congress for over seven years, with lawmakers at odds over a range of issues, including safety, liability, and the right number of exemptions from federal motor vehicle safety standards.
The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards is the government’s official checklist for everything a car needs before it can be sold to customers, including steering wheels, pedals, and sideview mirrors. Driverless cars typically don’t need these controls, forcing companies to request exemptions to safety rules from the federal government before they can put their vehicles on the road.
Safety regulators keep a tight grip on these exemptions
But safety regulators keep a tight grip on these exemptions. There is a cap of 2,500 exemptions that each company is allowed to request. And to date, only one company, Nuro, has received an FMVSS exemption for its low-speed delivery robots that aren’t large enough for human passengers. General Motors tried for two years to get an exemption for its driverless Cruise vehicles before eventually giving up. (Earlier this month, GM said it would stop funding Cruise.)
Whether AV STEP survives into the next Trump administration, though, is an open question. For one, the incoming president is reportedly looking to quash a Biden-era transparency rule that requires companies operating vehicles with driver assist, as well as self-driving cars, to report crashes and injuries to the federal government. Scrapping the crash reporting rule would greatly benefit Tesla, which to date, has reported the highest number of crashes. And Tesla CEO Elon Musk is a close advisor and donor to Trump.
The fact that NHTSA is choosing to highlight the “enhanced transparency” under AV STEP could lead some to conclude that this rule is dead on arrival. After all, Trump is currently trying to kill the only transparency rule currently on the books for self-driving cars. Still, Musk is also lobbying Trump to ease restrictions on fully autonomous vehicles in advance of Tesla’s plans to produce its own robotaxi in 2026. So anything’s possible.
Safety advocates are calling the notice of proposed rulemaking “premature” and unnecessary. In a statement, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety President Cathy Chase notes that the proposal is oddly timed, coming after the auto industry said it was lobbying NHTSA to scrap a new rule requiring automatic emergency braking in new vehicles by 2029.
“With the auto industry vociferously stating it is not feasible to comply with parts of the AEB rule with widely used braking technologies in five years, allowing far more complex technology to control more driving functionalities without meeting minimum safety standards is incongruous at best and potentially deadly at worst,” Chase said.

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a new “voluntary national framework for the evaluation and oversight” of autonomous vehicles, a bureaucratic first step that could eventually open the floodgates for fully driverless cars. But there’s a twist: the agency wants self-driving car companies to cough up more data.

The proposed rules were first announced last year as the ADS-Equipped Vehicle Safety, Transparency and Evaluation Program, also known as AV STEP. This program would allow the agency to authorize the sale and commercialization of more vehicles without traditional controls, like pedals and steering wheels, without hitting the annual cap on the number of exemptions to safety requirements. NHTSA is promising “an exemption pathway that is tailored for ADS-equipped vehicles,” suggesting a less onerous, time-consuming process for the release of fully driverless vehicles.

In exchange, the agency is requesting more data from the companies that operate driverless cars, arguing that greater transparency is needed to foster public trust in the technology.

“AV STEP would provide a valuable national framework at a pivotal time in the development of [automated driving system] technology. Safe, transparent, and responsible development is critical for this technology to be trusted by the public and reach its full potential. This proposal lays the foundation for those goals and supports NHTSA’s safety mission,” NHTSA Chief Counsel Adam Raviv said in a press release. “We encourage everyone to comment on our proposed program.

By kick-starting the rulemaking process, the Biden administration is giving a pretty big end-of-the-year holiday gift to the companies that have been laboring for decades on autonomous vehicle technology without any national regulatory framework to guide them.

The federal government has largely taken a back seat to in regulating autonomous vehicles, leaving states to develop their own rulebooks for safe deployment. Legislation that would dramatically increase the number of AVs on the road has been stalled in Congress for over seven years, with lawmakers at odds over a range of issues, including safety, liability, and the right number of exemptions from federal motor vehicle safety standards.

The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards is the government’s official checklist for everything a car needs before it can be sold to customers, including steering wheels, pedals, and sideview mirrors. Driverless cars typically don’t need these controls, forcing companies to request exemptions to safety rules from the federal government before they can put their vehicles on the road.

But safety regulators keep a tight grip on these exemptions. There is a cap of 2,500 exemptions that each company is allowed to request. And to date, only one company, Nuro, has received an FMVSS exemption for its low-speed delivery robots that aren’t large enough for human passengers. General Motors tried for two years to get an exemption for its driverless Cruise vehicles before eventually giving up. (Earlier this month, GM said it would stop funding Cruise.)

Whether AV STEP survives into the next Trump administration, though, is an open question. For one, the incoming president is reportedly looking to quash a Biden-era transparency rule that requires companies operating vehicles with driver assist, as well as self-driving cars, to report crashes and injuries to the federal government. Scrapping the crash reporting rule would greatly benefit Tesla, which to date, has reported the highest number of crashes. And Tesla CEO Elon Musk is a close advisor and donor to Trump.

The fact that NHTSA is choosing to highlight the “enhanced transparency” under AV STEP could lead some to conclude that this rule is dead on arrival. After all, Trump is currently trying to kill the only transparency rule currently on the books for self-driving cars. Still, Musk is also lobbying Trump to ease restrictions on fully autonomous vehicles in advance of Tesla’s plans to produce its own robotaxi in 2026. So anything’s possible.

Safety advocates are calling the notice of proposed rulemaking “premature” and unnecessary. In a statement, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety President Cathy Chase notes that the proposal is oddly timed, coming after the auto industry said it was lobbying NHTSA to scrap a new rule requiring automatic emergency braking in new vehicles by 2029.

“With the auto industry vociferously stating it is not feasible to comply with parts of the AEB rule with widely used braking technologies in five years, allowing far more complex technology to control more driving functionalities without meeting minimum safety standards is incongruous at best and potentially deadly at worst,” Chase said.

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has filed a lawsuit against Zelle and three banks that own it — Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase — claiming they failed “to protect consumers from widespread fraud.” Zelle is a payment network designed to compete with payment platforms like Venmo and Cash App, but the CFPB says the banks “rushed” it to market, enabling fraud that’s cost consumers more than $870 million since it launched in 2017.
The lawsuit cites Zelle’s designs and features, including a “limited” identity verification process that involves assigning a “token” to a user’s email address or mobile phone number that they can use to verify their account with a one-time passcode. This setup makes it easier for scammers to take over accounts, as well as hide their own identities or pretend to be other institutions, the CFPB alleges.

CFPB complaint
Some of the problems the CFPB cites in Zelle’s design.

One of the most common Zelle scams involves bad actors impersonating a financial institution or a federal agency, who then trick customers into sending them money. After facing pressure from the CFPB, the banks backing Zelle started issuing refunds to victims of this type of scam last year. This latest lawsuit follows other CFPB actions to tighten regulation around digital wallet apps and payment networks.

The CFPB accuses Zelle and the banking trio of failing to track and quickly stop criminals on the platform, as they allegedly didn’t relay information about known fraudulent transactions with other institutions in the payment network. It also alleges Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo didn’t properly address the risk of fraud despite the “hundreds of thousands” of complaints they received.
Zelle pushed back on the lawsuit in a statement published on Friday. “The CFPB’s attacks on Zelle are legally and factually flawed, and the timing of this lawsuit appears to be driven by political factors unrelated to Zelle,” Zelle spokesperson Jane Khodos said. “The CFPB’s misguided attacks will embolden criminals, cost consumers more in fees, stifle small businesses and make it harder for thousands of community banks and credit unions to compete.”
The CFPB is asking the court to stop Zelle’s parent company, Early Warning Services, and the banks from violating consumer protection laws, and compensate users, among other penalties.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has filed a lawsuit against Zelle and three banks that own it — Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase — claiming they failed “to protect consumers from widespread fraud.” Zelle is a payment network designed to compete with payment platforms like Venmo and Cash App, but the CFPB says the banks “rushed” it to market, enabling fraud that’s cost consumers more than $870 million since it launched in 2017.

The lawsuit cites Zelle’s designs and features, including a “limited” identity verification process that involves assigning a “token” to a user’s email address or mobile phone number that they can use to verify their account with a one-time passcode. This setup makes it easier for scammers to take over accounts, as well as hide their own identities or pretend to be other institutions, the CFPB alleges.

CFPB complaint
Some of the problems the CFPB cites in Zelle’s design.

One of the most common Zelle scams involves bad actors impersonating a financial institution or a federal agency, who then trick customers into sending them money. After facing pressure from the CFPB, the banks backing Zelle started issuing refunds to victims of this type of scam last year. This latest lawsuit follows other CFPB actions to tighten regulation around digital wallet apps and payment networks.

The CFPB accuses Zelle and the banking trio of failing to track and quickly stop criminals on the platform, as they allegedly didn’t relay information about known fraudulent transactions with other institutions in the payment network. It also alleges Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo didn’t properly address the risk of fraud despite the “hundreds of thousands” of complaints they received.

Zelle pushed back on the lawsuit in a statement published on Friday. “The CFPB’s attacks on Zelle are legally and factually flawed, and the timing of this lawsuit appears to be driven by political factors unrelated to Zelle,” Zelle spokesperson Jane Khodos said. “The CFPB’s misguided attacks will embolden criminals, cost consumers more in fees, stifle small businesses and make it harder for thousands of community banks and credit unions to compete.”

The CFPB is asking the court to stop Zelle’s parent company, Early Warning Services, and the banks from violating consumer protection laws, and compensate users, among other penalties.

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Terradot’s pilot program in Brazil involves spreading crushed basalt over farmland. | Image: Terradot

To try to counteract the impact their pollution has on the climate, Google and other big companies have bought into a plan to trap carbon dioxide using rocks. They recently announced multimillion dollar deals with a Sheryl Sandberg-backed startup called Terradot.
Google, H&M Group, and Salesforce are among a gaggle of companies that collectively agreed to pay Terradot $27 million to remove 90,000 tons carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The deals were brokered by Frontier, a carbon removal initiative led by Stripe, Google, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability.
Separately, Google announced its own deal to purchase an additional 200,000 tons of carbon removal from Terradot. Both companies declined to say how much that deal is worth. If the cost is similar to the Frontier agreement — roughly $300 per ton of CO2 captured — it could add up to $60 million, although Google says it expects the price to come down over time for this larger deal.
“It’s a big deal.”
Google says it’s the biggest purchase yet of carbon removal through enhanced rock weathering (ERW), the strategy Terradot uses to try to slow climate change. It’s a relatively low-tech tactic for taking carbon dioxide out of…
Read the full story at The Verge.

Terradot’s pilot program in Brazil involves spreading crushed basalt over farmland. | Image: Terradot

To try to counteract the impact their pollution has on the climate, Google and other big companies have bought into a plan to trap carbon dioxide using rocks. They recently announced multimillion dollar deals with a Sheryl Sandberg-backed startup called Terradot.

Google, H&M Group, and Salesforce are among a gaggle of companies that collectively agreed to pay Terradot $27 million to remove 90,000 tons carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The deals were brokered by Frontier, a carbon removal initiative led by Stripe, Google, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability.

Separately, Google announced its own deal to purchase an additional 200,000 tons of carbon removal from Terradot. Both companies declined to say how much that deal is worth. If the cost is similar to the Frontier agreement — roughly $300 per ton of CO2 captured — it could add up to $60 million, although Google says it expects the price to come down over time for this larger deal.

Google says it’s the biggest purchase yet of carbon removal through enhanced rock weathering (ERW), the strategy Terradot uses to try to slow climate change. It’s a relatively low-tech tactic for taking carbon dioxide out of…

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Image: Netflix

In Squid Game, schoolyard games are turned into nightmares, as players compete to survive and — if they’re lucky — earn a massive cash prize. But in Unleashed, a new mobile spinoff that’s part of the streamer’s fledgling gaming efforts, those games are fun. It’s a strange experience that sands off much of the appeal of Squid Game in service of making a multiplayer party game.
Unleashed is sort of like Fall Guys but in a Squid Game wrapper. You compete against 31 other players across three random games pulled from the show, like “red light, green light” or racing across a bridge made of glass. Slowly other players die off, and by the end one wins a whole bunch of money.

Aesthetically, the game mostly follows the show. There are a bunch of characters to play as — some pulled from the show, others new for the game — and even though there’s a cartoon aesthetic, things still get bloody, with players being shot for breaking the rules or crushed under some obstacle. There are the familiar green track suits and masked guards.
But the connections to the show are really only surface level. There’s no story element, so if you haven’t watched the show, you’d have no idea the kind of personal anguish many of the characters are going through.

In fact, many of the elements that make Unleashed a pretty fun mobile game are also what keep it from being a good adaptation of what Squid Game is all about. In order to reduce frustration, most of the games have respawning. So even if you fail at “red light, green light” and get shot by a guard, it’s not game over. It simply slows you down in a race to be one of a pre-determined number of players to cross the finish line and move on.
Similarly, the games can all be completed in a few minutes. This is great for playing short sessions on the go; being stuck in a 30 minute multiplayer match on your phone typically sucks. But when you put elements like the short run time and respawning together it, completely erases any of the tension that’s so core to Squid Game’s appeal.
And despite having no in-app purchases — Unleashed is completely free for Netflix subscribers and, for a limited time, non-subscribers — it’s still structured like a typical free-to-play game. You earn cash from winning matches and completing various goals, which is used to unlock new characters, costumes, and emotes. Every time I log on I’m greeted with a jarring number of pop-ups and notifications letting me know I just unlocked a zombie costume or that there’s a Christmas-themed event going on. Just this morning I was gifted a twerking emote.
Yes, now I can make Kang Sae-byeok, whose death was one of the most tragic moments of season 1, twerk in the middle of a deadly obstacle course.
Unleashed isn’t a bad game. In many ways, it’s a clever reinterpretation of online party games for mobile. But, like most of Netflix’s expansions of the Squid Game universe, it also completely misses the point of the show. It’s sort of like what Fortnite is to the original movie Battle Royale: a playful, colorful take on a brutal, piercing story.
Fortnite largely avoided the tonal dissonance by creating a cartoon-ish, multiversal world that is far away from an island full of kids killing their classmates. Unleashed, on the other hand, is another part of Squid Game — one that doesn’t seem to understand why the series exists.

Image: Netflix

In Squid Game, schoolyard games are turned into nightmares, as players compete to survive and — if they’re lucky — earn a massive cash prize. But in Unleashed, a new mobile spinoff that’s part of the streamer’s fledgling gaming efforts, those games are fun. It’s a strange experience that sands off much of the appeal of Squid Game in service of making a multiplayer party game.

Unleashed is sort of like Fall Guys but in a Squid Game wrapper. You compete against 31 other players across three random games pulled from the show, like “red light, green light” or racing across a bridge made of glass. Slowly other players die off, and by the end one wins a whole bunch of money.

Aesthetically, the game mostly follows the show. There are a bunch of characters to play as — some pulled from the show, others new for the game — and even though there’s a cartoon aesthetic, things still get bloody, with players being shot for breaking the rules or crushed under some obstacle. There are the familiar green track suits and masked guards.

But the connections to the show are really only surface level. There’s no story element, so if you haven’t watched the show, you’d have no idea the kind of personal anguish many of the characters are going through.

In fact, many of the elements that make Unleashed a pretty fun mobile game are also what keep it from being a good adaptation of what Squid Game is all about. In order to reduce frustration, most of the games have respawning. So even if you fail at “red light, green light” and get shot by a guard, it’s not game over. It simply slows you down in a race to be one of a pre-determined number of players to cross the finish line and move on.

Similarly, the games can all be completed in a few minutes. This is great for playing short sessions on the go; being stuck in a 30 minute multiplayer match on your phone typically sucks. But when you put elements like the short run time and respawning together it, completely erases any of the tension that’s so core to Squid Game’s appeal.

And despite having no in-app purchases — Unleashed is completely free for Netflix subscribers and, for a limited time, non-subscribers — it’s still structured like a typical free-to-play game. You earn cash from winning matches and completing various goals, which is used to unlock new characters, costumes, and emotes. Every time I log on I’m greeted with a jarring number of pop-ups and notifications letting me know I just unlocked a zombie costume or that there’s a Christmas-themed event going on. Just this morning I was gifted a twerking emote.

Yes, now I can make Kang Sae-byeok, whose death was one of the most tragic moments of season 1, twerk in the middle of a deadly obstacle course.

Unleashed isn’t a bad game. In many ways, it’s a clever reinterpretation of online party games for mobile. But, like most of Netflix’s expansions of the Squid Game universe, it also completely misses the point of the show. It’s sort of like what Fortnite is to the original movie Battle Royale: a playful, colorful take on a brutal, piercing story.

Fortnite largely avoided the tonal dissonance by creating a cartoon-ish, multiversal world that is far away from an island full of kids killing their classmates. Unleashed, on the other hand, is another part of Squid Game — one that doesn’t seem to understand why the series exists.

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The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus lack USB-C ports. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Starting December 28th, all new phones sold in the European Union must have USB-C. And while that deadline is still about a week away, Apple has begun pulling the iPhone SE, iPhone 14, and iPhone 14 Plus — the last models with Apple’s proprietary lightning port — from its Swiss online store.
The removal was first spotted by MacRumors, based on a report earlier this month from French publication iGeneration. The Verge has since confirmed that the Swiss online Apple Store will state that any configuration of the iPhone SE, iPhone 14, and iPhone 14 Plus is “currently unavailable” if you try to put it in your cart. However, other online Apple Stores in EU countries, such as France and Spain, currently still have the phones in stock.

Screenshot: Apple
The Swiss online Apple Store says the iPhone 14 is currently unavailable.

Given the December 28th deadline, Apple’s other EU stores will soon follow suit. That said, it’s unclear why Apple decided to pull stock from Switzerland a week early or if it will do the same with other countries. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
The EU regulation is also why Apple finally switched over the USB-C for the iPhone 15 in 2023. As for the iPhone SE, a fourth-gen model is rumored for early 2025 with USB-C and other upgrades like an OLED display.

The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus lack USB-C ports. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Starting December 28th, all new phones sold in the European Union must have USB-C. And while that deadline is still about a week away, Apple has begun pulling the iPhone SE, iPhone 14, and iPhone 14 Plus — the last models with Apple’s proprietary lightning port — from its Swiss online store.

The removal was first spotted by MacRumors, based on a report earlier this month from French publication iGeneration. The Verge has since confirmed that the Swiss online Apple Store will state that any configuration of the iPhone SE, iPhone 14, and iPhone 14 Plus is “currently unavailable” if you try to put it in your cart. However, other online Apple Stores in EU countries, such as France and Spain, currently still have the phones in stock.

Screenshot: Apple
The Swiss online Apple Store says the iPhone 14 is currently unavailable.

Given the December 28th deadline, Apple’s other EU stores will soon follow suit. That said, it’s unclear why Apple decided to pull stock from Switzerland a week early or if it will do the same with other countries. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.

The EU regulation is also why Apple finally switched over the USB-C for the iPhone 15 in 2023. As for the iPhone SE, a fourth-gen model is rumored for early 2025 with USB-C and other upgrades like an OLED display.

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Image: The Verge

Google Fiber is changing up its internet plans in Huntsville, Alabama and Nashville, Tennessee. The new Core 1 Gig, Home 3 Gig, and Edge 8 Gig plans appear to have launched last month and streamline the company’s existing options, as spotted earlier by 9to5Google.
These options replace the 1 Gig, 2 Gig, 5 Gig, and 8 Gig plans currently available in other supported cities. Like the existing 1 Gig plan, Google Fiber’s new Core 1 Gig option costs $70 / month with symmetrical 1 gigabit per second upload and download speeds. It comes with GFiber’s Multi-Gig Wi-Fi 6E Router and supports up to one mesh extender.

Screenshot: Google

The $100 / month Home 3 Gig plan sits between the $100 / month 2 Gig and $125 / month 5 Gig options, offering up to 3-gig speeds, a GFiber Multi-Gig Wi-Fi 6E router, up to two mesh extenders, along with priority room optimization that brings “additional wired connectivity to the rooms that matter most.” Subscribers can also add an internet battery backup for an extra $10 per month, which offers up to two hours of “full-bandwidth uptime, with no internet slow downs” in case a power outage knocks out your router or fiber jack.
Lastly, Google’s $150 / month 8 Gig Edge “always-on” plan comes with upload and download speeds of up to 8 gigabits per second, the same GFiber Wi-Fi 6E router, and up to two mesh extenders. It also offers up to 5,000 square feet of coverage, priority room optimization, an included internet backup battery, and a 25 percent refund if your internet goes down for over 45 minutes.
It’s not clear whether Google will bring these plans to more cities, and the company didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for more information. Since Google Fiber’s inception in 2010, the company has been gradually expanding its fiber footprint across the US while achieving faster speeds. Google rolled out a 20-gig Wi-Fi 7 plan in select cities last year.

Image: The Verge

Google Fiber is changing up its internet plans in Huntsville, Alabama and Nashville, Tennessee. The new Core 1 Gig, Home 3 Gig, and Edge 8 Gig plans appear to have launched last month and streamline the company’s existing options, as spotted earlier by 9to5Google.

These options replace the 1 Gig, 2 Gig, 5 Gig, and 8 Gig plans currently available in other supported cities. Like the existing 1 Gig plan, Google Fiber’s new Core 1 Gig option costs $70 / month with symmetrical 1 gigabit per second upload and download speeds. It comes with GFiber’s Multi-Gig Wi-Fi 6E Router and supports up to one mesh extender.

Screenshot: Google

The $100 / month Home 3 Gig plan sits between the $100 / month 2 Gig and $125 / month 5 Gig options, offering up to 3-gig speeds, a GFiber Multi-Gig Wi-Fi 6E router, up to two mesh extenders, along with priority room optimization that brings “additional wired connectivity to the rooms that matter most.” Subscribers can also add an internet battery backup for an extra $10 per month, which offers up to two hours of “full-bandwidth uptime, with no internet slow downs” in case a power outage knocks out your router or fiber jack.

Lastly, Google’s $150 / month 8 Gig Edge “always-on” plan comes with upload and download speeds of up to 8 gigabits per second, the same GFiber Wi-Fi 6E router, and up to two mesh extenders. It also offers up to 5,000 square feet of coverage, priority room optimization, an included internet backup battery, and a 25 percent refund if your internet goes down for over 45 minutes.

It’s not clear whether Google will bring these plans to more cities, and the company didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for more information. Since Google Fiber’s inception in 2010, the company has been gradually expanding its fiber footprint across the US while achieving faster speeds. Google rolled out a 20-gig Wi-Fi 7 plan in select cities last year.

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The 14-inch MacBook Pro looks just as nicely as it performs. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

In recent years, base MacBook Pro models have felt like an automatic skip. It made more sense to pay just a few hundred more for upgrades that truly justify the “Pro” moniker, or save money by stepping down to a MacBook Air without many sacrifices. But that’s changed as of the M4 model. With the base MacBook Pro with M4 matching its all-time low price of $1,399 ($200 off) at Amazon and B&H Photo right now, it’s quite possibly the best value of any MacBook available.

The 10-core M4 chipset has a decent speed advantage over the 8-core M3 inside last year’s MacBook Pro, of course. Apple claims its CPU has the strongest single-threaded performance of anything out there, not to mention a neural engine that’s two times faster than the M3’s. Our benchmarking certainly corroborates that it’s faster, although depending on what you’re doing on the laptop, you may not notice much difference. But what really sets the 2024 model apart is its starting allotment of 16GB of RAM, which is double that offered by previous generations. That helps with the Apple Intelligence features seeding into macOS Sequoia and also makes it suitable for heavier tasks than most average workloads require.
The M4 MacBook Pro also picked up a third Thunderbolt 4 port this cycle, plus an upgraded 1080p webcam that has a taller field-of-view for the new Desk View feature. Those are all very good advantages for the money, and you should only feel compelled to step up further if you have stronger needs such as heavy 4K or 8K video editing, photo editing, programming, or other intensive tasks.

Read our Apple MacBook Pro M4 review.

More fun Friday deals

The Beats Studio Buds Plus in silver are matching their all-time low of $119.99 ($50 off) at Amazon, which is only $10 more than the lowest price to date. If you want to join the translucent revolution and get it in clear (or other colors), those are just $129.99 ($40 off) right now at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. The wireless earbuds offer pretty good sound quality and effective noise cancellation, though not quite as good as the second-gen AirPods Pro. They last longer than Apple’s flagship earbuds, however, with up to nine hours of battery life in the buds and 36 hours total with the case. They also pair nicely with both iOS and Android devices, supporting several native features for each platform. Read our review.
You can get a four-pack of Apple AirTags for $69.99 (about $29 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, which is matching the lowest price to date. These Bluetooth trackers can be a popular stocking stuffer option for the iPhone owners in your life, or to pair with your own keys, bags, luggage, and other things you’d rather not lose. Not only will they constantly report their last known location, but on iPhones with ultra wideband radios (iPhone 11 and newer), Precision Find My will offer guided compass directions that’ll lead you within inches of the item once you’re in range.
If you want some floral home decor that doesn’t need babysitting, Lego’s flowers are a fun alternative to artificial plants. Take the 608-piece Lego Icons Poinsettia set, which is down to $34.98 (about $15 off) at Amazon right now. The resulting construction depicts a bouquet of the popular flowers sprouting from a woven basket, and you can adjust its various petals and leaves for posing however you like. As of this writing, it’s still shipping fast enough to arrive before Christmas, making it a great option for last-minute gifts or to add to your festive holiday decorations.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro looks just as nicely as it performs. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

In recent years, base MacBook Pro models have felt like an automatic skip. It made more sense to pay just a few hundred more for upgrades that truly justify the “Pro” moniker, or save money by stepping down to a MacBook Air without many sacrifices. But that’s changed as of the M4 model. With the base MacBook Pro with M4 matching its all-time low price of $1,399 ($200 off) at Amazon and B&H Photo right now, it’s quite possibly the best value of any MacBook available.

The 10-core M4 chipset has a decent speed advantage over the 8-core M3 inside last year’s MacBook Pro, of course. Apple claims its CPU has the strongest single-threaded performance of anything out there, not to mention a neural engine that’s two times faster than the M3’s. Our benchmarking certainly corroborates that it’s faster, although depending on what you’re doing on the laptop, you may not notice much difference. But what really sets the 2024 model apart is its starting allotment of 16GB of RAM, which is double that offered by previous generations. That helps with the Apple Intelligence features seeding into macOS Sequoia and also makes it suitable for heavier tasks than most average workloads require.

The M4 MacBook Pro also picked up a third Thunderbolt 4 port this cycle, plus an upgraded 1080p webcam that has a taller field-of-view for the new Desk View feature. Those are all very good advantages for the money, and you should only feel compelled to step up further if you have stronger needs such as heavy 4K or 8K video editing, photo editing, programming, or other intensive tasks.

Read our Apple MacBook Pro M4 review.

More fun Friday deals

The Beats Studio Buds Plus in silver are matching their all-time low of $119.99 ($50 off) at Amazon, which is only $10 more than the lowest price to date. If you want to join the translucent revolution and get it in clear (or other colors), those are just $129.99 ($40 off) right now at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. The wireless earbuds offer pretty good sound quality and effective noise cancellation, though not quite as good as the second-gen AirPods Pro. They last longer than Apple’s flagship earbuds, however, with up to nine hours of battery life in the buds and 36 hours total with the case. They also pair nicely with both iOS and Android devices, supporting several native features for each platform. Read our review.
You can get a four-pack of Apple AirTags for $69.99 (about $29 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, which is matching the lowest price to date. These Bluetooth trackers can be a popular stocking stuffer option for the iPhone owners in your life, or to pair with your own keys, bags, luggage, and other things you’d rather not lose. Not only will they constantly report their last known location, but on iPhones with ultra wideband radios (iPhone 11 and newer), Precision Find My will offer guided compass directions that’ll lead you within inches of the item once you’re in range.
If you want some floral home decor that doesn’t need babysitting, Lego’s flowers are a fun alternative to artificial plants. Take the 608-piece Lego Icons Poinsettia set, which is down to $34.98 (about $15 off) at Amazon right now. The resulting construction depicts a bouquet of the popular flowers sprouting from a woven basket, and you can adjust its various petals and leaves for posing however you like. As of this writing, it’s still shipping fast enough to arrive before Christmas, making it a great option for last-minute gifts or to add to your festive holiday decorations.

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Image: Alex Parkin/ The Verge

We started making this video with one question in mind: “What makes iPhone repair so difficult?” And immediately the answer was: a lot.
I’ve never repaired a phone before, so I was particularly nervous that the first one I was opening was an iPhone. This wasn’t just because I didn’t want to destroy a phone with a mistake but also because I was somewhat familiar with Apple’s reputation with repairability. However, I wanted to test out a new repair feature Apple introduced recently with iOS 18 called “repair assistant” to see if it fixes a years-long practice of Apple’s that makes iPhones incredibly difficult to repair.
Before iOS 18, replacing components of an iPhone like the display or battery without going through Apple’s repair channels would reduce the functionality of the device because iPhones are programmed to recognize when parts are swapped out. This is because of a design choice called “parts pairing.”
Apple uses parts pairing to assign serial numbers to parts inside a device and tie those parts to the logic board. This means you can’t replace any of these parts on your own or at a repair shop without having a way to pair a new part’s serial number to the device. If a…
Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: Alex Parkin/ The Verge

We started making this video with one question in mind: “What makes iPhone repair so difficult?” And immediately the answer was: a lot.

I’ve never repaired a phone before, so I was particularly nervous that the first one I was opening was an iPhone. This wasn’t just because I didn’t want to destroy a phone with a mistake but also because I was somewhat familiar with Apple’s reputation with repairability. However, I wanted to test out a new repair feature Apple introduced recently with iOS 18 called “repair assistant” to see if it fixes a years-long practice of Apple’s that makes iPhones incredibly difficult to repair.

Before iOS 18, replacing components of an iPhone like the display or battery without going through Apple’s repair channels would reduce the functionality of the device because iPhones are programmed to recognize when parts are swapped out. This is because of a design choice called “parts pairing.”

Apple uses parts pairing to assign serial numbers to parts inside a device and tie those parts to the logic board. This means you can’t replace any of these parts on your own or at a repair shop without having a way to pair a new part’s serial number to the device. If a…

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Life’s busy enough without wasting time on calls that are trying to scam you or sell to you. Unfortunately, stats from Hiya show that 28 percent of the calls you get are going to be suspected spam or fraud.
On an iPhone, you don’t have the option to have an AI assistant answer calls for you, as you can on Android — at least not yet. But there are ways to screen calls to some extent and cut down on the number of scammers, sellers, and robots you have to talk to.
These guidelines have been written using an iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 18.2.
Identify incoming calls

Screenshot: Apple
iOS gives you several options for managing incoming calls.

Screenshot: Apple
You can choose to silence unknown callers and send them straight to voicemail.

A good place to start when it comes to avoiding unwanted calls is to flag calls from numbers that aren’t in your contacts list. It’s not a perfect way of spotting spam but will catch quite a lot of it.
From Settings on your iPhone:

Tap Apps > Phone > Silence Unknown Callers.
Toggle on Silence Unknown Callers.

Any calls that aren’t from a registered contact won’t make a sound or create a…
Read the full story at The Verge.

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Life’s busy enough without wasting time on calls that are trying to scam you or sell to you. Unfortunately, stats from Hiya show that 28 percent of the calls you get are going to be suspected spam or fraud.

On an iPhone, you don’t have the option to have an AI assistant answer calls for you, as you can on Android — at least not yet. But there are ways to screen calls to some extent and cut down on the number of scammers, sellers, and robots you have to talk to.

These guidelines have been written using an iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 18.2.

Identify incoming calls

A good place to start when it comes to avoiding unwanted calls is to flag calls from numbers that aren’t in your contacts list. It’s not a perfect way of spotting spam but will catch quite a lot of it.

From Settings on your iPhone:

Tap Apps > Phone > Silence Unknown Callers.
Toggle on Silence Unknown Callers.

Any calls that aren’t from a registered contact won’t make a sound or create a…

Read the full story at The Verge.

Read More 

Photo illustration: The Verge

Our end-of-year special, featuring guest Nilay Patel. 
Read the full story at The Verge.

Photo illustration: The Verge

Our end-of-year special, featuring guest Nilay Patel. 

Read the full story at The Verge.

Read More