verge-rss

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A few months ago, I was driving my 2023 Volkswagen ID.4 when, seemingly out of nowhere, my driver-side door made several unusual clicking noises and then popped open.
“That’s not good,” I thought, as I quickly shut the door while also attempting to keep my hands on the wheel. And apparently, I wasn’t the only one experiencing this problem. Hundreds of other VW owners were also struggling to keep their doors closed while driving.
The issue culminated this week with VW halting production of the all-electric ID.4 at its factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as it scrambles to find a fix for the faulty electronic door mechanism. According to the recall, water was seeping into the door and shorting out the electronics, causing the circuitry to issue a faulty “open command.”
The issue culminated this week with VW halting production of the all-electric ID.4
As a fix, VW said it would replace the door handles at no cost to the owners and would issue a software update to improve the “door parameters.”
Earlier this week, VW recalled nearly 100,000 ID.4 vehicles, as well as issued a stop-sale order for the electric crossover. Starting September 23rd, around 200 workers at the Tennessee factory will be furloughed as a result of the production pause, a spokesperson for the company said.
“While we address the issue, we are focused on doing right by our employees, dealers and consumers through this disruption,” said VW spokesperson Mark Gillies in a statement.

And it comes as a pretty bad time for the German company, which is struggling to stay competitive in the face of the looming threat from China. Earlier this month, VW signaled it could close several factories in Europe for the first time ever in a bid to cut 10 billion euros from its balance sheets.
Like most other automakers, VW has walked back from its EVs-only strategy in recent months, saying it will rely more on plug-in hybrids to achieve its climate goals. But Gillies said that the stop-production order shouldn’t be misconstrued as an abandonment of the company’s EV commitments.
“This disruption in no way changes our commitment to the ID.4 and our growing BEV portfolio,” he said. “The ID.4 remains one of America’s best-selling electric vehicles.”

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A few months ago, I was driving my 2023 Volkswagen ID.4 when, seemingly out of nowhere, my driver-side door made several unusual clicking noises and then popped open.

“That’s not good,” I thought, as I quickly shut the door while also attempting to keep my hands on the wheel. And apparently, I wasn’t the only one experiencing this problem. Hundreds of other VW owners were also struggling to keep their doors closed while driving.

The issue culminated this week with VW halting production of the all-electric ID.4 at its factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as it scrambles to find a fix for the faulty electronic door mechanism. According to the recall, water was seeping into the door and shorting out the electronics, causing the circuitry to issue a faulty “open command.”

As a fix, VW said it would replace the door handles at no cost to the owners and would issue a software update to improve the “door parameters.”

Earlier this week, VW recalled nearly 100,000 ID.4 vehicles, as well as issued a stop-sale order for the electric crossover. Starting September 23rd, around 200 workers at the Tennessee factory will be furloughed as a result of the production pause, a spokesperson for the company said.

“While we address the issue, we are focused on doing right by our employees, dealers and consumers through this disruption,” said VW spokesperson Mark Gillies in a statement.

And it comes as a pretty bad time for the German company, which is struggling to stay competitive in the face of the looming threat from China. Earlier this month, VW signaled it could close several factories in Europe for the first time ever in a bid to cut 10 billion euros from its balance sheets.

Like most other automakers, VW has walked back from its EVs-only strategy in recent months, saying it will rely more on plug-in hybrids to achieve its climate goals. But Gillies said that the stop-production order shouldn’t be misconstrued as an abandonment of the company’s EV commitments.

“This disruption in no way changes our commitment to the ID.4 and our growing BEV portfolio,” he said. “The ID.4 remains one of America’s best-selling electric vehicles.”

Read More 

Issa Rae. | Photo by Rodin Eckenroth / WireImage

We still don’t know much about the seventh season of Black Mirror, but at least the show’s return will have a stacked cast. Netflix announced a big list of actors who will appear in the next installment of the anthology when it premieres in 2025, and it includes Doctor Who alum Peter Capaldi, Barbie star Issa Rae, Sunny’s Rashida Jones, and the always delightful Paul Giamatti.
Here’s the full list:

Awkwafina
Milanka Brooks
Peter Capaldi
Emma Corrin
Patsy Ferran
Paul Giamatti
Lewis Gribben
Osy Ikhile
Rashida Jones
Siena Kelly
Billy Magnussen
Rosy McEwen
Cristin Milioti
Chris O’Dowd
Issa Rae
Paul G. Raymond
Tracee Ellis Ross
Jimmi Simpson
Harriet Walter

Of course, how these actors will figure into the new season remains unclear. Netflix hasn’t said anything about the storylines for the six-episode-long season, aside from the fact that there will be a sequel to the “USS Callister” episode from season 4 (which starred returnee Cristin Milioti).
The upcoming season of the anthology was first announced in March, and it follows season 6, which started streaming in 2023 following a long hiatus for Black Mirror. It featured a number of excellent episodes, including the prescient AI-focused story “Joan is Awful” and the dark sci-fi tragedy “Beyond the Sea.”
The announcement was made as part of Netflix’s ongoing Geeked Week event, which also included news of season 2 of Castlevania: Nocturne and a premiere date for The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep.

Issa Rae. | Photo by Rodin Eckenroth / WireImage

We still don’t know much about the seventh season of Black Mirror, but at least the show’s return will have a stacked cast. Netflix announced a big list of actors who will appear in the next installment of the anthology when it premieres in 2025, and it includes Doctor Who alum Peter Capaldi, Barbie star Issa Rae, Sunny’s Rashida Jones, and the always delightful Paul Giamatti.

Here’s the full list:

Awkwafina
Milanka Brooks
Peter Capaldi
Emma Corrin
Patsy Ferran
Paul Giamatti
Lewis Gribben
Osy Ikhile
Rashida Jones
Siena Kelly
Billy Magnussen
Rosy McEwen
Cristin Milioti
Chris O’Dowd
Issa Rae
Paul G. Raymond
Tracee Ellis Ross
Jimmi Simpson
Harriet Walter

Of course, how these actors will figure into the new season remains unclear. Netflix hasn’t said anything about the storylines for the six-episode-long season, aside from the fact that there will be a sequel to the “USS Callister” episode from season 4 (which starred returnee Cristin Milioti).

The upcoming season of the anthology was first announced in March, and it follows season 6, which started streaming in 2023 following a long hiatus for Black Mirror. It featured a number of excellent episodes, including the prescient AI-focused story “Joan is Awful” and the dark sci-fi tragedy “Beyond the Sea.”

The announcement was made as part of Netflix’s ongoing Geeked Week event, which also included news of season 2 of Castlevania: Nocturne and a premiere date for The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep.

Read More 

Image: Sony

PlayStation has deftly come up with a way to get more people on board with the PS5 Pro. The company has announced a special 30th anniversary collection for the suite of PS5 consoles and accessories that is unfortunately sick as hell.

“To celebrate this 30th anniversary milestone, we had to create something that honored the history and joy that PlayStation has brought us all,” said PlayStation platform business CEO Hideaki Nishino. All the consoles and accessories are cast in classic PlayStation gray and feature the old-school multicolored PlayStation logo creating a look designed to target every gaming 30-something’s nostalgia organ with surgical precision.

The 30th anniversary collection features a PS5 Pro bundle that includes the console, two controllers, a controller charging station, a console stand, a sticker, and a matching cover if you purchase the Pro disc drive. You can find the details on the rest of the collection here. Sony hasn’t included a price on any of this yet, and preorders begin on September 26th. If you want that PS5 Pro bundle, hop on preorders as soon as you can — Sony’s only making 12,300 of them.

Image: Sony

PlayStation has deftly come up with a way to get more people on board with the PS5 Pro. The company has announced a special 30th anniversary collection for the suite of PS5 consoles and accessories that is unfortunately sick as hell.

“To celebrate this 30th anniversary milestone, we had to create something that honored the history and joy that PlayStation has brought us all,” said PlayStation platform business CEO Hideaki Nishino. All the consoles and accessories are cast in classic PlayStation gray and feature the old-school multicolored PlayStation logo creating a look designed to target every gaming 30-something’s nostalgia organ with surgical precision.

The 30th anniversary collection features a PS5 Pro bundle that includes the console, two controllers, a controller charging station, a console stand, a sticker, and a matching cover if you purchase the Pro disc drive. You can find the details on the rest of the collection here. Sony hasn’t included a price on any of this yet, and preorders begin on September 26th. If you want that PS5 Pro bundle, hop on preorders as soon as you can — Sony’s only making 12,300 of them.

Read More 

Image: Pocketpair

Pocketpair has responded to the lawsuit filed against it by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. The studio that developed Palworld, the game at the heart of the suit, issued a statement early this morning saying it doesn’t know what patents it violated. “At this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details,” the statement read.
According to Nintendo’s press release, the reason for the lawsuit has to do with Pocketpair allegedly infringing on multiple as yet undisclosed patents. The details of the lawsuit have not yet been made public, so we do not yet know which patents, and according to Pocketpair’s statement, it doesn’t know, either.
The news broke last night that Nintendo and TPC were suing the makers of Palworld — an open-world survival crafting game that features a collection of companion monsters players can catch and battle. Since its release in January, the game became an instant hit, racking up over 10 million in copies sold and breaking Steam concurrent player records within its first few weeks. Almost immediately, people noticed striking similarities between Palworld’s “pals” and pokémon from their looks down to their extraordinarily similar character models.
Though Nintendo’s not going after Pocketpair because lamballs look uncomfortably similar to wooloos, we do know the company is famously litigious in protecting its brand. Shortly after Palworld’s release, TPC ordered a programmer to take down a video that featured a mod of Palworld that replaced all the pals with pokémon. It also issued a statement saying it was aware of Palworld — although the statement did not refer to the game by name — and would be investigating the game to “take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon.” Looks like the company found something.

Image: Pocketpair

Pocketpair has responded to the lawsuit filed against it by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. The studio that developed Palworld, the game at the heart of the suit, issued a statement early this morning saying it doesn’t know what patents it violated. “At this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details,” the statement read.

According to Nintendo’s press release, the reason for the lawsuit has to do with Pocketpair allegedly infringing on multiple as yet undisclosed patents. The details of the lawsuit have not yet been made public, so we do not yet know which patents, and according to Pocketpair’s statement, it doesn’t know, either.

The news broke last night that Nintendo and TPC were suing the makers of Palworld — an open-world survival crafting game that features a collection of companion monsters players can catch and battle. Since its release in January, the game became an instant hit, racking up over 10 million in copies sold and breaking Steam concurrent player records within its first few weeks. Almost immediately, people noticed striking similarities between Palworld’s “pals” and pokémon from their looks down to their extraordinarily similar character models.

Though Nintendo’s not going after Pocketpair because lamballs look uncomfortably similar to wooloos, we do know the company is famously litigious in protecting its brand. Shortly after Palworld’s release, TPC ordered a programmer to take down a video that featured a mod of Palworld that replaced all the pals with pokémon. It also issued a statement saying it was aware of Palworld — although the statement did not refer to the game by name — and would be investigating the game to “take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon.” Looks like the company found something.

Read More 

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

Today on Decoder, we’re talking about the big Google antitrust trial that’s currently taking place in a federal courthouse. No, not the one you’re thinking of — it’s the second Google antitrust case in just as many months. The company lost a landmark case in August in which a court ruled that it had an illegal monopoly in search.
This time around, the Department of Justice is claiming Google has another illegal monopoly in the online advertising market.
Unlike the search case, the ads case is both extremely complicated and somewhat harder to see. We all use search all day, and we’re surrounded by online ads all day, but while it’s easy to talk about search, no one really wants to think about how the ads get there or how much they really cost. And there’s added complexity here because of the intricate relationship between Google’s ad products and its search engine, which afforded Google the scale and resources to grow far faster than the competition — especially through aggressive acquisitions.

See, while Google figured out search advertising all by itself, it had to acquire its expertise in many of the other forms of online advertising, like display and video ads, by buying competitors. It then spent many years integrating and combining those companies and their products into a wildly complicated system known as an ad tech stack, basically an all-in-one shop for businesses and websites of all sizes to buy and sell ads, and creating, arguably, the world’s most sophisticated digital ad network.
To hear the rest of the industry tell it, Google maintained the dominance of that network pretty ruthlessly — most people don’t see the side of Google that makes the money, and that side is just as cutthroat and competitive as any big business.
Verge senior policy reporter Lauren Feiner has been at the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, basically every day this month to hear testimony from news publishers, advertising experts, and Google executives — and, ultimately, to see whether a federal judge hands the company another antitrust defeat. I brought Lauren on the show this week to help me break it all down and to get her take on which direction she thinks this case is headed next.
If you want to know more about everything Lauren and I discuss in this episode, check out these stories for deeper context and analysis on the trial and the history of Google’s ad business:

Google and DOJ return for round two of their antitrust fight | The Verge

Judge rules that Google ‘is a monopolist’ in US antitrust case | The Verge

In US v. Google, YouTube’s CEO defends the Google way The Verge

Google and the DOJ’s ad tech fight is all about control | The Verge

How Google altered a deal with publishers who couldn’t say no | The Verge

Google dominates online ads, says antitrust trial witness, but publishers are feeling ‘stuck’ | The Verge

US considers a rare antitrust move: breaking up Google | Bloomberg

This deal helped turn Google into an ad powerhouse. Is that a problem? | The New York Times

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

Today on Decoder, we’re talking about the big Google antitrust trial that’s currently taking place in a federal courthouse. No, not the one you’re thinking of — it’s the second Google antitrust case in just as many months. The company lost a landmark case in August in which a court ruled that it had an illegal monopoly in search.

This time around, the Department of Justice is claiming Google has another illegal monopoly in the online advertising market.

Unlike the search case, the ads case is both extremely complicated and somewhat harder to see. We all use search all day, and we’re surrounded by online ads all day, but while it’s easy to talk about search, no one really wants to think about how the ads get there or how much they really cost. And there’s added complexity here because of the intricate relationship between Google’s ad products and its search engine, which afforded Google the scale and resources to grow far faster than the competition — especially through aggressive acquisitions.

See, while Google figured out search advertising all by itself, it had to acquire its expertise in many of the other forms of online advertising, like display and video ads, by buying competitors. It then spent many years integrating and combining those companies and their products into a wildly complicated system known as an ad tech stack, basically an all-in-one shop for businesses and websites of all sizes to buy and sell ads, and creating, arguably, the world’s most sophisticated digital ad network.

To hear the rest of the industry tell it, Google maintained the dominance of that network pretty ruthlessly — most people don’t see the side of Google that makes the money, and that side is just as cutthroat and competitive as any big business.

Verge senior policy reporter Lauren Feiner has been at the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, basically every day this month to hear testimony from news publishers, advertising experts, and Google executives — and, ultimately, to see whether a federal judge hands the company another antitrust defeat. I brought Lauren on the show this week to help me break it all down and to get her take on which direction she thinks this case is headed next.

If you want to know more about everything Lauren and I discuss in this episode, check out these stories for deeper context and analysis on the trial and the history of Google’s ad business:

Google and DOJ return for round two of their antitrust fight | The Verge

Judge rules that Google ‘is a monopolist’ in US antitrust case | The Verge

In US v. Google, YouTube’s CEO defends the Google way The Verge

Google and the DOJ’s ad tech fight is all about control | The Verge

How Google altered a deal with publishers who couldn’t say no | The Verge

Google dominates online ads, says antitrust trial witness, but publishers are feeling ‘stuck’ | The Verge

US considers a rare antitrust move: breaking up Google | Bloomberg

This deal helped turn Google into an ad powerhouse. Is that a problem? | The New York Times

Read More 

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

Google employees liberally labeled their emails as “privileged and confidential” and spoke “off the record” over chat messages, even after being told to preserve their communications for investigators, lawyers for the Justice Department have told a Virginia court over the past couple of weeks.
That strategy could backfire if the judge in Google’s second antitrust trial believes the company intentionally destroyed evidence that would have looked bad for it. The judge could go as far as giving an adverse inference about Google’s missing documents, which would mean assuming they would have been bad for Google’s case.
Documents shown in court regularly display the words “privileged and confidential” as business executives discuss their work, occasionally with a member of Google’s legal team looped in. On Friday, former Google sell-side ad executive Chris LaSala said that wasn’t the only strategy Google used. He testified that after being placed on a litigation hold in connection with law enforcers’ investigation, Google chat messages had history off by default, and his understanding was that needed to be changed for each individual chat that involved substantive work conversations. Multiple former Google employees testified to never changing the default setting and occasionally having substantive business discussions in chats, though they were largely reserved for casual conversations.
LaSala also used that default to his advantage at times, documents shown by the government in court revealed. In one 2020 chat, an employee asked LaSala if they should email two other Google employees about an issue and, soon after, asked, “Or too sensitive for email so keep on ping?” LaSala responded, instructing the employee to “start a ping with history turned off.” In a separate 2020 exchange, LaSala again instructed his employee to “maybe start an off the record ping thread with Duke, you, me.”

DOJ exhibit
A chat discussion between Google employees about how to communicate potentially sensitive information.

“It was just how we spoke. Everyone used the phrase ‘off the record ping,’” LaSala testified. “My MO was mostly off the record, so old tricks die hard.”
“It was just how we spoke. Everyone used the phrase ‘off the record ping.’”
Still, LaSala said he “tried to follow the terms of the litigation hold,” but he acknowledged he “made a mistake.” Shortly after a training about the hold, he recalled receiving a chat from a colleague. Though LaSala said he turned history on, he wasn’t sure the first message would be preserved. LaSala said he put that message in an email just in case. In general, LaSala said, “We were really good at documenting … and to the extent I made a mistake a couple times, it was not intentional.”

Image: DOJ exhibit
A 2019 document addressed to two business leaders labeled “PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL.”

Brad Bender, another Google ad tech executive who testified earlier in the week, described conversations with colleagues over chat as more akin to “bumping into the hall and saying ‘hey we should chat.’” The DOJ also questioned former Google executive Rahul Srinivasan about emails he marked privileged and confidential, asking what legal advice he was seeking in those emails. He said he didn’t remember.
Google employees were well aware of how their written words could be used against the company, the DOJ argued, pointing to the company’s “Communicate with Care” legal training for employees. In one 2019 email, Srinivasan copied a lawyer on an email to colleagues about an ad tech feature and reminded the group to be careful with their language. “We should be particularly careful when framing something as a ‘circumvention,’” he wrote. “We should assume that every document (and email) we generate will likely be seen by regulators.” The email was labeled “PRIVILEGED and CONFIDENTIAL.”

DOJ exhibit
An email from a Google sell-side executive reminding colleagues to “communicate with care” about sensitive topics.

While the many documents shown by the DOJ demonstrate that Google often discussed business decisions in writing, at other times, they seemed to intentionally leave the documentation sparse. “Keeping the notes limited due to sensitivity of the subject,” a 2021 Google document says. “Separate privileged emails will be sent to folks to follow up on explicit [action items].”
“We take seriously our obligations to preserve and produce relevant documents,” Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels said in a statement. “We have for years responded to inquiries and litigation, and we educate our employees about legal privilege. In the DOJ cases alone, we have produced millions of documents including chat messages and documents not covered by legal privilege.”
The judge in Google’s first antitrust battle with the DOJ over its search business declined to go as far as an adverse inference, even though he ruled against Google in most other ways. Still, he made clear he wasn’t “condoning Google’s failure to preserve chat evidence” and said, “Any company that puts the onus on employees to identify and preserve relevant evidence does so at its own peril. Google avoided sanctions in this case. It may not be so lucky in the next one.”

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

Google employees liberally labeled their emails as “privileged and confidential” and spoke “off the record” over chat messages, even after being told to preserve their communications for investigators, lawyers for the Justice Department have told a Virginia court over the past couple of weeks.

That strategy could backfire if the judge in Google’s second antitrust trial believes the company intentionally destroyed evidence that would have looked bad for it. The judge could go as far as giving an adverse inference about Google’s missing documents, which would mean assuming they would have been bad for Google’s case.

Documents shown in court regularly display the words “privileged and confidential” as business executives discuss their work, occasionally with a member of Google’s legal team looped in. On Friday, former Google sell-side ad executive Chris LaSala said that wasn’t the only strategy Google used. He testified that after being placed on a litigation hold in connection with law enforcers’ investigation, Google chat messages had history off by default, and his understanding was that needed to be changed for each individual chat that involved substantive work conversations. Multiple former Google employees testified to never changing the default setting and occasionally having substantive business discussions in chats, though they were largely reserved for casual conversations.

LaSala also used that default to his advantage at times, documents shown by the government in court revealed. In one 2020 chat, an employee asked LaSala if they should email two other Google employees about an issue and, soon after, asked, “Or too sensitive for email so keep on ping?” LaSala responded, instructing the employee to “start a ping with history turned off.” In a separate 2020 exchange, LaSala again instructed his employee to “maybe start an off the record ping thread with Duke, you, me.”

DOJ exhibit
A chat discussion between Google employees about how to communicate potentially sensitive information.

“It was just how we spoke. Everyone used the phrase ‘off the record ping,’” LaSala testified. “My MO was mostly off the record, so old tricks die hard.”

Still, LaSala said he “tried to follow the terms of the litigation hold,” but he acknowledged he “made a mistake.” Shortly after a training about the hold, he recalled receiving a chat from a colleague. Though LaSala said he turned history on, he wasn’t sure the first message would be preserved. LaSala said he put that message in an email just in case. In general, LaSala said, “We were really good at documenting … and to the extent I made a mistake a couple times, it was not intentional.”

Image: DOJ exhibit
A 2019 document addressed to two business leaders labeled “PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL.”

Brad Bender, another Google ad tech executive who testified earlier in the week, described conversations with colleagues over chat as more akin to “bumping into the hall and saying ‘hey we should chat.’” The DOJ also questioned former Google executive Rahul Srinivasan about emails he marked privileged and confidential, asking what legal advice he was seeking in those emails. He said he didn’t remember.

Google employees were well aware of how their written words could be used against the company, the DOJ argued, pointing to the company’s “Communicate with Care” legal training for employees. In one 2019 email, Srinivasan copied a lawyer on an email to colleagues about an ad tech feature and reminded the group to be careful with their language. “We should be particularly careful when framing something as a ‘circumvention,’” he wrote. “We should assume that every document (and email) we generate will likely be seen by regulators.” The email was labeled “PRIVILEGED and CONFIDENTIAL.”

DOJ exhibit
An email from a Google sell-side executive reminding colleagues to “communicate with care” about sensitive topics.

While the many documents shown by the DOJ demonstrate that Google often discussed business decisions in writing, at other times, they seemed to intentionally leave the documentation sparse. “Keeping the notes limited due to sensitivity of the subject,” a 2021 Google document says. “Separate privileged emails will be sent to folks to follow up on explicit [action items].”

“We take seriously our obligations to preserve and produce relevant documents,” Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels said in a statement. “We have for years responded to inquiries and litigation, and we educate our employees about legal privilege. In the DOJ cases alone, we have produced millions of documents including chat messages and documents not covered by legal privilege.”

The judge in Google’s first antitrust battle with the DOJ over its search business declined to go as far as an adverse inference, even though he ruled against Google in most other ways. Still, he made clear he wasn’t “condoning Google’s failure to preserve chat evidence” and said, “Any company that puts the onus on employees to identify and preserve relevant evidence does so at its own peril. Google avoided sanctions in this case. It may not be so lucky in the next one.”

Read More 

The Pokemon Company

When Pokémon TCG Pocket was first teased a few months back, it looked like yet another mobile app meant to capitalize on the physical card game’s recent wave of unexpected popularity. With Pokémon TCG Live already on the market, it was hard to suss out how The Pokémon Company envisioned Pocket fitting into the larger franchise. And while titles like Marvel Snap and Hearthstone have proven to be big hits, it wasn’t clear that Pocket would be able to appeal to newcomers and hardcore Pokémon fans alike.
We’re still a few weeks out from Pokémon TCG Pocket’s general release. But during the hands-on time I recently spent testing the game out, it felt like a promising — if slightly daunting — attempt at reinventing the classic card collecting experience for a new generation of budding pokemaniacs. The battles are quicker, flashier, and clearly designed to be picked up with relative ease as you fill up digital binders with immaterial cards that look like the real thing.
At times, the game’s emphasis on making its virtual cards look and feel real makes it seem like The Pokémon Company’s foray into the NFT space. The big difference here, though, is that you can actually do stuff with Pokémon TCG Pocket’s collectibles besides staring at them on your phone.

At its core, Pokémon TCG Pocket is a game focused on giving people a new way of collecting cards, showing them off, and using them to battle other players in fast-paced matches. For free, players can log on every day to receive two booster packs containing five cards apiece and then show them off in customizable digital binders or specialized display boards. Like the physical card game, Pokémon TCG Pocket’s cards differ in rarity (indicated by a new diamond and star rarity system) and feature a range of increasingly elaborate illustrations from a variety of artists.
Rather than relying on different physical textures or holographic foil to convey a card’s value, though, Pokémon TCG introduces a number of new 3D effects to make rare pulls pop. Genetic Apex — the first expansion players will be able to access at launch — features over 200 cards, many of which reuse art from previously released physical sets. But the pulls most players will likely be keen on hunting for are the new immersive cards, which allow you to essentially dive into their art in order to see details that wouldn’t normally be visible.
Because collecting (rather than battling) is what initially draws a lot of people to the physical card game, Creatures Inc. and game developer DeNa wanted that to be the game’s main selling point, particularly for folks who haven’t been tapped into the franchise for a while.
“There’s a kind of a wide audience out there of people who, in general, maybe aren’t interacting with Pokemon cards right now,” Creatures creative director Ryo Tsujikawa explained during a Q&A session. “That’s what we were thinking about with [Pocket] being in a game / app form — that we would be able to reach a wider audience including people who might have played when they were younger.”

Though Pocket shares a number of similarities with Pokémon TCG Live — another mobile game where users can redeem codes from physical packs to receive digital copies — the idea for an app focused entirely on digital cards began coming into focus right around the time Pokémon Go was first released. Executive corporate officer Keita Hirobe said that making the game more approachable and keeping its barrier to entry low were two of The Pokémon Company’s biggest priorities during development. And for those simply looking for a casual way to dip a toe into the Pokémon waters, it can be as simple as opening the app and seeing what the RNG has in store.
Ripping into a pack by sliding your finger across its top edge is actually a pretty satisfying experience, accompanied by a soft rumble intended to replicate the feel of tearing into a packet of foil stuffed with shiny bits of cardboard. The packs themselves (which aren’t guaranteed to contain rare cards like their physical counterparts) can be flipped over before you open them, giving you the choice of revealing the last (rarest) card first. And while you can reveal the cards one by one to build suspense, the game also allows you to tilt them while they’re still stacked in order to sneak a peek at their borders, which are one of the indicators of a card’s rarity.
Even though Pocket will give players two packs a day (one every 12 hours) for free, folks coming from the physical card game where booster packs contain 10 randomized cards may balk at the mobile pack’s five — a number that may change in the future. But for those looking to fill out their card-dexes more quickly, the game will also offer players the option to purchase Poké Gold — an in-game currency that can be used to buy more packs or reduce the countdown timer between receiving your free packs for the day. Bundles of Poké Gold start at 99 cents. Additionally, there will be an optional monthly Premium Pass $9.99 subscription that grants players a free third daily pack and access to promotional cards.
Though Poké Gold and subscription sales sound like key components to The Pokémon Company’s plan for Pocket’s profitability, from what I’ve seen, there’s still quite a bit available to players who don’t spend. You can start learning the basics of the game’s new streamlined battle system using premade Rental Decks and fighting against computer opponents. And once you have enough cards of your own, you can start building customized decks to use against other players in the game’s online mode.

Whereas the traditional Pokémon TCG involves two people facing off with decks consisting of 60 cards each, Pocket streamlines things by making decks much smaller and simplifying battle mechanics in order to keep things moving at a brisk pace. Damage is now automatically calculated by the game’s computer, and the first player to earn three points by knocking out their opponent’s pokémon (regular pokémon count for one point while EX monsters count for two) wins.
Though Tsujikawa stressed that Pocket’s development team is mainly focusing on the game’s collection aspect at launch, they understand that more competitive play is something users may be interested in as new expansions are introduced. There are no concrete plans just yet for Pocket to become a new fixture at the Pokémon World Championships, but it’s not hard to imagine the app fitting in right alongside Pokémon Go and the physical card game.
That could be necessary for giving the game some longevity once the initial lure of pure collecting wears off. And when Pokémon TCG Pocket launches on October 30th, that might be enough to make the app a hit.

The Pokemon Company

When Pokémon TCG Pocket was first teased a few months back, it looked like yet another mobile app meant to capitalize on the physical card game’s recent wave of unexpected popularity. With Pokémon TCG Live already on the market, it was hard to suss out how The Pokémon Company envisioned Pocket fitting into the larger franchise. And while titles like Marvel Snap and Hearthstone have proven to be big hits, it wasn’t clear that Pocket would be able to appeal to newcomers and hardcore Pokémon fans alike.

We’re still a few weeks out from Pokémon TCG Pocket’s general release. But during the hands-on time I recently spent testing the game out, it felt like a promising — if slightly daunting — attempt at reinventing the classic card collecting experience for a new generation of budding pokemaniacs. The battles are quicker, flashier, and clearly designed to be picked up with relative ease as you fill up digital binders with immaterial cards that look like the real thing.

At times, the game’s emphasis on making its virtual cards look and feel real makes it seem like The Pokémon Company’s foray into the NFT space. The big difference here, though, is that you can actually do stuff with Pokémon TCG Pocket’s collectibles besides staring at them on your phone.

At its core, Pokémon TCG Pocket is a game focused on giving people a new way of collecting cards, showing them off, and using them to battle other players in fast-paced matches. For free, players can log on every day to receive two booster packs containing five cards apiece and then show them off in customizable digital binders or specialized display boards. Like the physical card game, Pokémon TCG Pocket’s cards differ in rarity (indicated by a new diamond and star rarity system) and feature a range of increasingly elaborate illustrations from a variety of artists.

Rather than relying on different physical textures or holographic foil to convey a card’s value, though, Pokémon TCG introduces a number of new 3D effects to make rare pulls pop. Genetic Apex — the first expansion players will be able to access at launch — features over 200 cards, many of which reuse art from previously released physical sets. But the pulls most players will likely be keen on hunting for are the new immersive cards, which allow you to essentially dive into their art in order to see details that wouldn’t normally be visible.

Because collecting (rather than battling) is what initially draws a lot of people to the physical card game, Creatures Inc. and game developer DeNa wanted that to be the game’s main selling point, particularly for folks who haven’t been tapped into the franchise for a while.

“There’s a kind of a wide audience out there of people who, in general, maybe aren’t interacting with Pokemon cards right now,” Creatures creative director Ryo Tsujikawa explained during a Q&A session. “That’s what we were thinking about with [Pocket] being in a game / app form — that we would be able to reach a wider audience including people who might have played when they were younger.”

Though Pocket shares a number of similarities with Pokémon TCG Live — another mobile game where users can redeem codes from physical packs to receive digital copies — the idea for an app focused entirely on digital cards began coming into focus right around the time Pokémon Go was first released. Executive corporate officer Keita Hirobe said that making the game more approachable and keeping its barrier to entry low were two of The Pokémon Company’s biggest priorities during development. And for those simply looking for a casual way to dip a toe into the Pokémon waters, it can be as simple as opening the app and seeing what the RNG has in store.

Ripping into a pack by sliding your finger across its top edge is actually a pretty satisfying experience, accompanied by a soft rumble intended to replicate the feel of tearing into a packet of foil stuffed with shiny bits of cardboard. The packs themselves (which aren’t guaranteed to contain rare cards like their physical counterparts) can be flipped over before you open them, giving you the choice of revealing the last (rarest) card first. And while you can reveal the cards one by one to build suspense, the game also allows you to tilt them while they’re still stacked in order to sneak a peek at their borders, which are one of the indicators of a card’s rarity.

Even though Pocket will give players two packs a day (one every 12 hours) for free, folks coming from the physical card game where booster packs contain 10 randomized cards may balk at the mobile pack’s five — a number that may change in the future. But for those looking to fill out their card-dexes more quickly, the game will also offer players the option to purchase Poké Gold — an in-game currency that can be used to buy more packs or reduce the countdown timer between receiving your free packs for the day. Bundles of Poké Gold start at 99 cents. Additionally, there will be an optional monthly Premium Pass $9.99 subscription that grants players a free third daily pack and access to promotional cards.

Though Poké Gold and subscription sales sound like key components to The Pokémon Company’s plan for Pocket’s profitability, from what I’ve seen, there’s still quite a bit available to players who don’t spend. You can start learning the basics of the game’s new streamlined battle system using premade Rental Decks and fighting against computer opponents. And once you have enough cards of your own, you can start building customized decks to use against other players in the game’s online mode.

Whereas the traditional Pokémon TCG involves two people facing off with decks consisting of 60 cards each, Pocket streamlines things by making decks much smaller and simplifying battle mechanics in order to keep things moving at a brisk pace. Damage is now automatically calculated by the game’s computer, and the first player to earn three points by knocking out their opponent’s pokémon (regular pokémon count for one point while EX monsters count for two) wins.

Though Tsujikawa stressed that Pocket’s development team is mainly focusing on the game’s collection aspect at launch, they understand that more competitive play is something users may be interested in as new expansions are introduced. There are no concrete plans just yet for Pocket to become a new fixture at the Pokémon World Championships, but it’s not hard to imagine the app fitting in right alongside Pokémon Go and the physical card game.

That could be necessary for giving the game some longevity once the initial lure of pure collecting wears off. And when Pokémon TCG Pocket launches on October 30th, that might be enough to make the app a hit.

Read More 

DJI’s Osmo Action 5 Pro. | Image: DJI

DJI’s response to GoPro’s new Hero 13 lineup is the Osmo Action 5 Pro. It justifies that professional moniker with a new image sensor that promises to improve image quality and low-light performance. It also features a built-in pressure sensor, the ability to capture super slow motion at an unbelievable 1080p/960fps, and a new power-sipping 4nm chip that enables up to four hours of continuous recording off a single charge.
The camera is fitted with DJI’s next-gen 1/1.3-inch sensor that can capture 40-megapixel stills and an industry-first 13.5-stop dynamic range to capture high-dynamic, low-light video at 4K/60fps. And while 960fps slow-mo is impressive, DJI gets there by capturing 240fps and then making an intelligent guess as to how to generate the fill frames on either side.

That four hours of continuous recording claim for the 1,950mAh battery comes with a few caveats. While it’s definitely an improvement and should easily beat GoPro battery life, that stat was achieved in a lab at 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius) while recording 1080p/24fps (16:9) video with Rocksteady stabilization on, Wi-Fi off, and the front and back displays off. We’ll have to see how it holds up in the real world, where 4K capture is preferred. DJI says the Action 5 Pro can operate reliably in temperatures ranging from -4F (-20C) to 113F (45C), though runtime drops to 3.6 hours at the lower extreme.
DJI’s latest cam also replaces the dual LCDs of the Action 4 it supplants with slightly larger OLED displays (and reduced bezels) on the front and back that produce “richer and more vibrant” colors.
It also comes with 47GB of fast built-in storage. That means you can use your new action camera straight out of the box, giving you time to find your old microSD card to research if it can keep up with modern bitrates. The Action 5 Pro now supports a pair of DJI Mic 2 Bluetooth microphones, which can be useful when capturing interview audio.

Other improvements include waterproofing down to 20 meters (almost 66 feet), 4k/120fps capture in 4:3, Wi-Fi 6 and USB 3.0 connectivity, an in-camera 360-degree horizon lock, and a new feature that can center and track a human subject in video that’s automatically cropped in postproduction. There’s no built-in GPS, but location data and sports tracking can be added when paired with devices like DJI’s Osmo Action GPS Bluetooth Remote Controller.
DJI’s Osmo Action 5 Pro is available today starting at $349 / £329 / €379 for the standard combo kit, which includes the horizontal-vertical protective frame, battery, USB-C cable, and a number of accessories for mounting and cleaning your new action cam.

DJI’s Osmo Action 5 Pro. | Image: DJI

DJI’s response to GoPro’s new Hero 13 lineup is the Osmo Action 5 Pro. It justifies that professional moniker with a new image sensor that promises to improve image quality and low-light performance. It also features a built-in pressure sensor, the ability to capture super slow motion at an unbelievable 1080p/960fps, and a new power-sipping 4nm chip that enables up to four hours of continuous recording off a single charge.

The camera is fitted with DJI’s next-gen 1/1.3-inch sensor that can capture 40-megapixel stills and an industry-first 13.5-stop dynamic range to capture high-dynamic, low-light video at 4K/60fps. And while 960fps slow-mo is impressive, DJI gets there by capturing 240fps and then making an intelligent guess as to how to generate the fill frames on either side.

That four hours of continuous recording claim for the 1,950mAh battery comes with a few caveats. While it’s definitely an improvement and should easily beat GoPro battery life, that stat was achieved in a lab at 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius) while recording 1080p/24fps (16:9) video with Rocksteady stabilization on, Wi-Fi off, and the front and back displays off. We’ll have to see how it holds up in the real world, where 4K capture is preferred. DJI says the Action 5 Pro can operate reliably in temperatures ranging from -4F (-20C) to 113F (45C), though runtime drops to 3.6 hours at the lower extreme.

DJI’s latest cam also replaces the dual LCDs of the Action 4 it supplants with slightly larger OLED displays (and reduced bezels) on the front and back that produce “richer and more vibrant” colors.

It also comes with 47GB of fast built-in storage. That means you can use your new action camera straight out of the box, giving you time to find your old microSD card to research if it can keep up with modern bitrates. The Action 5 Pro now supports a pair of DJI Mic 2 Bluetooth microphones, which can be useful when capturing interview audio.

Other improvements include waterproofing down to 20 meters (almost 66 feet), 4k/120fps capture in 4:3, Wi-Fi 6 and USB 3.0 connectivity, an in-camera 360-degree horizon lock, and a new feature that can center and track a human subject in video that’s automatically cropped in postproduction. There’s no built-in GPS, but location data and sports tracking can be added when paired with devices like DJI’s Osmo Action GPS Bluetooth Remote Controller.

DJI’s Osmo Action 5 Pro is available today starting at $349 / £329 / €379 for the standard combo kit, which includes the horizontal-vertical protective frame, battery, USB-C cable, and a number of accessories for mounting and cleaning your new action cam.

Read More 

Integrating IVAS with Anduril’s Lattice software aims to keep soldiers informed of battlespace threats. | Image: Anduril

Anduril Industries, the military tech company started by Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey, is teaming up with Microsoft to improve the mixed-reality headsets used by the United States Army. The project announced by Anduril will embed the company’s Lattice software into the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), allowing the HoloLens-based goggles to update soldiers with live information pulled from drones, ground vehicles, and aerial defense systems.
The partnership marks a return to the VR headset space for Luckey, having sold Oculus to Meta for $2 billion in 2014. Luckey started Anduril in 2017 with support from venture capitalist Peter Thiel.
The Lattice integration with IVAS could alert wearers to incoming threats picked up by an air defense system, for example, even when outside of visual range. “The idea is to enhance soldiers,” Luckey said in an interview with Wired, “Their visual perception, audible perception — basically to give them all the vision that Superman has, and then some, and make them more lethal.”
Luckey likened the IVAS project to the infantry headsets that featured in Robert Heinlein’s 1950s Starship Troopers novel, telling Wired that the headset is “already coming together exactly the way that the sci-fi authors thought that it would.”
The initial IVAS headset developed by Microsoft in 2021 combined integrated thermal and night-vision imaging sensors into a heads-up display, but reportedly caused headaches, nausea, and eyestrain during testing. Microsoft improved the design to correct these issues last year, and told Wired that the IVAS platform will be “refined further” following additional tests taking place in early 2025. The US Army previously said it plans to spend up to $21.9 billion over the 10-year IVAS project contract.

Integrating IVAS with Anduril’s Lattice software aims to keep soldiers informed of battlespace threats. | Image: Anduril

Anduril Industries, the military tech company started by Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey, is teaming up with Microsoft to improve the mixed-reality headsets used by the United States Army. The project announced by Anduril will embed the company’s Lattice software into the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), allowing the HoloLens-based goggles to update soldiers with live information pulled from drones, ground vehicles, and aerial defense systems.

The partnership marks a return to the VR headset space for Luckey, having sold Oculus to Meta for $2 billion in 2014. Luckey started Anduril in 2017 with support from venture capitalist Peter Thiel.

The Lattice integration with IVAS could alert wearers to incoming threats picked up by an air defense system, for example, even when outside of visual range. “The idea is to enhance soldiers,” Luckey said in an interview with Wired, “Their visual perception, audible perception — basically to give them all the vision that Superman has, and then some, and make them more lethal.”

Luckey likened the IVAS project to the infantry headsets that featured in Robert Heinlein’s 1950s Starship Troopers novel, telling Wired that the headset is “already coming together exactly the way that the sci-fi authors thought that it would.”

The initial IVAS headset developed by Microsoft in 2021 combined integrated thermal and night-vision imaging sensors into a heads-up display, but reportedly caused headaches, nausea, and eyestrain during testing. Microsoft improved the design to correct these issues last year, and told Wired that the IVAS platform will be “refined further” following additional tests taking place in early 2025. The US Army previously said it plans to spend up to $21.9 billion over the 10-year IVAS project contract.

Read More 

Photo by Abigail Bassett for The Verge

BMW of North America struck a deal to recycle lithium-ion batteries from all of its electrified vehicles with Redwood Materials, the companies announced today.
The German automaker said it would instruct its dealers to send old batteries from all of its electrified models, including battery-electric, hybrid, mild hybrid, and plug-in hybrid vehicles from brands like BMW, Mini, and Rolls-Royce, to Redwood for recycling.
Redwood, which was founded by Tesla cofounder and ex-chief technology officer JB Straubel, will handle the end-of-life batteries at its two facilities. One facility is in Reno, Nevada, and the other, which is still under construction, will be in Charleston, South Carolina — somewhat near BMW’s Spartanburg and Woodruff plants. The automaker’s battery cell manufacturer, AESC, is also located nearby in Florence, South Carolina.

Redwood wouldn’t share which specific materials from BMW will be recycled, but in past deals, the company has processed cathode and anode material, which are key ingredients in lithium-ion batteries. The company takes the materials and transforms them into “high-quality” battery materials that can then be sold back to its many partners to make new EV batteries. Around 95–98 percent of these materials are eventually recovered and returned to the supply chain, Redwood says.
Redwood praised BMW as a “pioneer in electrification,” citing the introduction of the i3 hatchback EV in 2013. (BMW later discontinued the i3.) The automaker has said that by 2030 it will have at least six all-electric models under production in the US. BMW currently has several electric models for sale in the US, including the i7, the i4, and the iX SUV.
Redwood Materials was founded in 2017 by Straubel. In addition to breaking down scrap from BMW’s battery-making process, the company also recycles EV batteries from Tesla, Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Nissan, Specialized, Amazon, Lyft, Rad Power Bikes, and others. Redwood is also recycling stationary batteries, like at a storage substation in Hawaii.
Many of the batteries from those first-wave electric vehicles, like the Nissan Leaf, the Tesla Model S, and the BMW i3, are just now reaching the end of their lifespan and are in need of recycling. After receiving batteries from its various partners, Redwood begins a chemical recycling process in which it strips out and refines the relevant elements, like nickel, cobalt, and copper.

Photo by Abigail Bassett for The Verge

BMW of North America struck a deal to recycle lithium-ion batteries from all of its electrified vehicles with Redwood Materials, the companies announced today.

The German automaker said it would instruct its dealers to send old batteries from all of its electrified models, including battery-electric, hybrid, mild hybrid, and plug-in hybrid vehicles from brands like BMW, Mini, and Rolls-Royce, to Redwood for recycling.

Redwood, which was founded by Tesla cofounder and ex-chief technology officer JB Straubel, will handle the end-of-life batteries at its two facilities. One facility is in Reno, Nevada, and the other, which is still under construction, will be in Charleston, South Carolina — somewhat near BMW’s Spartanburg and Woodruff plants. The automaker’s battery cell manufacturer, AESC, is also located nearby in Florence, South Carolina.

Redwood wouldn’t share which specific materials from BMW will be recycled, but in past deals, the company has processed cathode and anode material, which are key ingredients in lithium-ion batteries. The company takes the materials and transforms them into “high-quality” battery materials that can then be sold back to its many partners to make new EV batteries. Around 95–98 percent of these materials are eventually recovered and returned to the supply chain, Redwood says.

Redwood praised BMW as a “pioneer in electrification,” citing the introduction of the i3 hatchback EV in 2013. (BMW later discontinued the i3.) The automaker has said that by 2030 it will have at least six all-electric models under production in the US. BMW currently has several electric models for sale in the US, including the i7, the i4, and the iX SUV.

Redwood Materials was founded in 2017 by Straubel. In addition to breaking down scrap from BMW’s battery-making process, the company also recycles EV batteries from Tesla, Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Nissan, Specialized, Amazon, Lyft, Rad Power Bikes, and others. Redwood is also recycling stationary batteries, like at a storage substation in Hawaii.

Many of the batteries from those first-wave electric vehicles, like the Nissan Leaf, the Tesla Model S, and the BMW i3, are just now reaching the end of their lifespan and are in need of recycling. After receiving batteries from its various partners, Redwood begins a chemical recycling process in which it strips out and refines the relevant elements, like nickel, cobalt, and copper.

Read More