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Image: NASA

SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission will launch to the International Space Station with only NASA’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos’ Aleksandr Gorbunov on board, according to an update on Friday. Crew-9 will launch “no earlier” than September 24th, with plans to bring delayed Starliner astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams back to Earth next February.
Wilmore and Williams arrived at the ISS in June and were only supposed to stay for about a week while conducting tests. However, helium leaks and valve issues on Boeing’s Starliner delayed their return, and NASA gave up on sending them back on the spacecraft altogether. The agency decided to bring Wilmore and Williams home on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule with the Crew-9 mission instead.
NASA says the other two US astronauts initially chosen for the mission, Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, will be eligible for reassignment. The agency doesn’t specify why it split the crew up. Despite serving as a ride for Starliner’s astronauts, the two Crew-9 members will carry out their original goal of performing research at the ISS during their stay.

Image: NASA
Now only Nick Hague (middle right) and Aleksandr Gorbunov (middle left) will be on Crew 9.

“While we’ve changed crew before for a variety of reasons, downsizing crew for this flight was another tough decision to adjust to given that the crew has trained as a crew of four,” NASA chief astronaut Joe Acaba said in a statement. “I have the utmost confidence in all our crew, who have been excellent throughout training for the mission.”
Meanwhile, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will autonomously undock from the ISS on September 6th at 6:04PM. It won’t have anyone onboard, but teams on the ground will be ready to “remotely command the spacecraft” if needed. The spacecraft is set to land in New Mexico’s White Sands Space Harbor around six hours later.

Image: NASA

SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission will launch to the International Space Station with only NASA’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos’ Aleksandr Gorbunov on board, according to an update on Friday. Crew-9 will launch “no earlier” than September 24th, with plans to bring delayed Starliner astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams back to Earth next February.

Wilmore and Williams arrived at the ISS in June and were only supposed to stay for about a week while conducting tests. However, helium leaks and valve issues on Boeing’s Starliner delayed their return, and NASA gave up on sending them back on the spacecraft altogether. The agency decided to bring Wilmore and Williams home on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule with the Crew-9 mission instead.

NASA says the other two US astronauts initially chosen for the mission, Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, will be eligible for reassignment. The agency doesn’t specify why it split the crew up. Despite serving as a ride for Starliner’s astronauts, the two Crew-9 members will carry out their original goal of performing research at the ISS during their stay.

Image: NASA
Now only Nick Hague (middle right) and Aleksandr Gorbunov (middle left) will be on Crew 9.

“While we’ve changed crew before for a variety of reasons, downsizing crew for this flight was another tough decision to adjust to given that the crew has trained as a crew of four,” NASA chief astronaut Joe Acaba said in a statement. “I have the utmost confidence in all our crew, who have been excellent throughout training for the mission.”

Meanwhile, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will autonomously undock from the ISS on September 6th at 6:04PM. It won’t have anyone onboard, but teams on the ground will be ready to “remotely command the spacecraft” if needed. The spacecraft is set to land in New Mexico’s White Sands Space Harbor around six hours later.

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Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Grzegorz Wajda, Getty Images

A lawsuit aimed at punishing critics of Elon Musk’s X will go forward, thanks to a ruling from a judge with a financial interest in Musk’s success.
On Thursday, Judge Reed O’Connor denied a motion to dismiss X’s lawsuit against Media Matters For America. The suit was filed in Texas last year and alleges that MMFA should be held legally liable for negative reporting that caused companies to pull ads from X. O’Connor dismissed objections that it was filed in a state where neither X nor MMFA is headquartered, saying the fact that MMFA “targeted” two X Texas-based advertisers — Oracle and AT&T — by mentioning them in articles and interviews is sufficient. (X is based in California, though its current San Francisco office will soon close and Musk has discussed moving to Texas.)
O’Connor also determined that X’s claims had enough merit to proceed in court. Which is, to put it gently, concerning.
X wants to make being too negative about a company illegal, and a judge apparently sees nothing wrong with that
Unlike your standard libel lawsuit, X doesn’t say MMFA made a factually incorrect claim; it outright admits that X served ads against racist or otherwise offensive content. Instead, it argues that this situation is rare and the authors “deliberately misused the X platform to induce the algorithm to pair racist content with popular advertisers’ brands.” What constitutes misuse of a platform? Using accounts that had been active for more than a month, following the accounts of racists and major brands, and “endlessly scrolling and refreshing” to get new ads. In other words, X isn’t suing MMFA for lying — it’s suing them for seeking out bad things about a business and not reporting those things in a sufficiently positive light.
This is a painfully tortured argument aimed at establishing that private citizens pushing private businesses to avoid buying ads on a website is illegal censorship. Contra numerous promises that Musk is a “free speech absolutist,” it’s leaning on the legal system to shut down criticism instead of simply answering it with more facts. The ruling doesn’t technically agree with X’s claims; it says MMFA presents a “compelling alternative version” of events by pointing out it’s not lying. But O’Connor says it’s not his job to “choose among competing inferences,” so both versions can get argued at a later stage. MMFA declined to comment on the ruling.
Drawing a weak case out is an unmitigated win for X and Musk, who have effectively infinite legal resources. It’s a win for the Musk-favored strategy of forum shopping. It’s a loss for MMFA, which laid off staffers in the wake of this suit and two equally specious investigations by Republican state attorneys general sympathetic to Musk, both of which have been blocked by other judges.
It’s also coming a few weeks after NPR reported that O’Connor holds between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of stock in Tesla, one of Musk’s other companies. The judge recused himself from a lawsuit Musk filed against advertisers who stopped placing ads on X, but apparently because he owned stock in one of those advertisers. O’Connor (who benefits when Musk’s famously intertwined network of companies prospers) flatly dismissed the argument that Musk (who owns X) or Tesla (which according to a separate lawsuit sent “volunteers” to moonlight at X) has any meaningful legal connection to X.
It’s a striking contrast with the outcome of yet another lawsuit that X filed against its critics. In California, Judge Charles Breyer dismissed a complaint against the Center for Countering Digital Hate, where X used different but equally tortured legal reasoning to attack claims that it wasn’t addressing hateful conduct. “Although X Corp accuses CCDH of trying ‘to censor viewpoints’ … it is X Corp that demands ‘at least tens of millions of dollars’ in damages — presumably enough to torpedo the operations of a small nonprofit — because of the views expressed in the nonprofit’s publications,” it reads, in an observation that could apply equally to MMFA. Elsewhere, the judge is even blunter: “this case is about punishing the defendants for their speech.”

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Grzegorz Wajda, Getty Images

A lawsuit aimed at punishing critics of Elon Musk’s X will go forward, thanks to a ruling from a judge with a financial interest in Musk’s success.

On Thursday, Judge Reed O’Connor denied a motion to dismiss X’s lawsuit against Media Matters For America. The suit was filed in Texas last year and alleges that MMFA should be held legally liable for negative reporting that caused companies to pull ads from X. O’Connor dismissed objections that it was filed in a state where neither X nor MMFA is headquartered, saying the fact that MMFA “targeted” two X Texas-based advertisers — Oracle and AT&T — by mentioning them in articles and interviews is sufficient. (X is based in California, though its current San Francisco office will soon close and Musk has discussed moving to Texas.)

O’Connor also determined that X’s claims had enough merit to proceed in court. Which is, to put it gently, concerning.

Unlike your standard libel lawsuit, X doesn’t say MMFA made a factually incorrect claim; it outright admits that X served ads against racist or otherwise offensive content. Instead, it argues that this situation is rare and the authors “deliberately misused the X platform to induce the algorithm to pair racist content with popular advertisers’ brands.” What constitutes misuse of a platform? Using accounts that had been active for more than a month, following the accounts of racists and major brands, and “endlessly scrolling and refreshing” to get new ads. In other words, X isn’t suing MMFA for lying — it’s suing them for seeking out bad things about a business and not reporting those things in a sufficiently positive light.

This is a painfully tortured argument aimed at establishing that private citizens pushing private businesses to avoid buying ads on a website is illegal censorship. Contra numerous promises that Musk is a “free speech absolutist,” it’s leaning on the legal system to shut down criticism instead of simply answering it with more facts. The ruling doesn’t technically agree with X’s claims; it says MMFA presents a “compelling alternative version” of events by pointing out it’s not lying. But O’Connor says it’s not his job to “choose among competing inferences,” so both versions can get argued at a later stage. MMFA declined to comment on the ruling.

Drawing a weak case out is an unmitigated win for X and Musk, who have effectively infinite legal resources. It’s a win for the Musk-favored strategy of forum shopping. It’s a loss for MMFA, which laid off staffers in the wake of this suit and two equally specious investigations by Republican state attorneys general sympathetic to Musk, both of which have been blocked by other judges.

It’s also coming a few weeks after NPR reported that O’Connor holds between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of stock in Tesla, one of Musk’s other companies. The judge recused himself from a lawsuit Musk filed against advertisers who stopped placing ads on X, but apparently because he owned stock in one of those advertisers. O’Connor (who benefits when Musk’s famously intertwined network of companies prospers) flatly dismissed the argument that Musk (who owns X) or Tesla (which according to a separate lawsuit sent “volunteers” to moonlight at X) has any meaningful legal connection to X.

It’s a striking contrast with the outcome of yet another lawsuit that X filed against its critics. In California, Judge Charles Breyer dismissed a complaint against the Center for Countering Digital Hate, where X used different but equally tortured legal reasoning to attack claims that it wasn’t addressing hateful conduct. “Although X Corp accuses CCDH of trying ‘to censor viewpoints’ … it is X Corp that demands ‘at least tens of millions of dollars’ in damages — presumably enough to torpedo the operations of a small nonprofit — because of the views expressed in the nonprofit’s publications,” it reads, in an observation that could apply equally to MMFA. Elsewhere, the judge is even blunter: “this case is about punishing the defendants for their speech.”

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Image: The Verge

A senior CrowdStrike executive will testify before the House Homeland Security Committee next month about the IT outage that grounded planes and workplaces to a halt globally on July 19th.
Adam Meyers, CrowdStrike’s senior vice president of counter adversary operations, has agreed to appear before the panel on September 24th at 2PM ET, the committee announced. Committee leaders had previously called on CEO George Kurtz to testify, but he’s not currently listed as a witness.
In a statement, Committee Chair Mark Green (R-TN) said that while he’d hoped Kurtz could attend, “I look forward to hearing testimony from Mr. Meyers, who CrowdStrike assured was the appropriate witness to discuss the details of the outage. Americans deserve to know in detail how this incident happened and the mitigation CrowdStrike is taking to avoid the cascading impacts of outages like this across sectors.”

Green said in a separate statement that the flawed software update that impacted 8.5 million Windows machines “…demonstrates the urgency of promoting cyber hygiene and resiliency amid increased threats,” and that the “growing reliance on interconnected IT systems has expanded the risk surface.”
Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), who chairs the subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, said in a statement that the hearing will be “an important opportunity to learn more about what steps the company has taken in the aftermath of the outage to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” Though the outage wasn’t the result of a cyberattack, Garbarino said adversaries likely watched the event and “learned how a faulty software update can trigger cascading effects on our critical infrastructure.”

Image: The Verge

A senior CrowdStrike executive will testify before the House Homeland Security Committee next month about the IT outage that grounded planes and workplaces to a halt globally on July 19th.

Adam Meyers, CrowdStrike’s senior vice president of counter adversary operations, has agreed to appear before the panel on September 24th at 2PM ET, the committee announced. Committee leaders had previously called on CEO George Kurtz to testify, but he’s not currently listed as a witness.

In a statement, Committee Chair Mark Green (R-TN) said that while he’d hoped Kurtz could attend, “I look forward to hearing testimony from Mr. Meyers, who CrowdStrike assured was the appropriate witness to discuss the details of the outage. Americans deserve to know in detail how this incident happened and the mitigation CrowdStrike is taking to avoid the cascading impacts of outages like this across sectors.”

Green said in a separate statement that the flawed software update that impacted 8.5 million Windows machines “…demonstrates the urgency of promoting cyber hygiene and resiliency amid increased threats,” and that the “growing reliance on interconnected IT systems has expanded the risk surface.”

Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), who chairs the subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, said in a statement that the hearing will be “an important opportunity to learn more about what steps the company has taken in the aftermath of the outage to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” Though the outage wasn’t the result of a cyberattack, Garbarino said adversaries likely watched the event and “learned how a faulty software update can trigger cascading effects on our critical infrastructure.”

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Image: Intel

It’s been a burning question for months — are Intel’s laptop chips susceptible to the same permanent damage that can potentially lay 24 different flagship desktop chips low?
Today, Intel has finally confirmed: its 13th and 14th Gen laptop chips do not seem to have an instability issue. And the company claims they are definitely not affected by the too-high voltage issue, which it’s now calling “Vmin Shift Instability.”

While Intel maintains that Vmin Shift Instability is not necessarily the root cause or only cause of the crashes — it’s still investigating — Intel spokesperson Thomas Hannaford now tells The Verge that laptop chips basically aren’t affected at all. “Confirming 13/14th gen mobile isn’t impacted by the instability issue broadly speaking,” he tells me by email. A game developer, Alderon Games, had raised concerns that laptop chips were affected last month.
Additionally, Intel is saying today that many desktop chips aren’t affected by the specific voltage issue either: 13th and 14th Gen i5 chips that aren’t part of the K-series, i3 chips, and Xeon chips aren’t affected, it claims.
Here’s more info direct from Intel:

Unaffected Products List
Following the recent warranty extension announcement for affected Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen desktop processors, Intel confirms these currently available processors are not affected by the Vmin Shift Instability issue:
12th Gen Intel Core desktop and mobile processors
Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen i5 (non-K) & i3 desktop processors
Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen mobile processors – including HX-series processors.
Intel Xeon processors – including server and workstation processors.
Intel Core Ultra (Series 1) processors
Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen Desktop Processor BIOS Updates
While most Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen desktop processors are not impacted by the Vmin Shift Instability issue, Intel recommends all users continue following guidance:
Ensure the system is running with the latest BIOS, which users can look up through Intel’s Compatibility Tool and/or their motherboard manufacturer’s website. Users can also learn more about how to update their BIOS by visiting the following site: How to Update BIOS.
Utilizing the Intel Default Settings recommendations for their Intel Core 13th and/or 14th Gen desktop processor – including both Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen consumer, commercial, and entry workstation desktop systems.

Intel also reiterated today that its future chips, including those coming this fall on the new Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake architectures, won’t be affected by the Vmin Shift Instability issue. “Intel will ensure future product families are protected against the Vmin Shift Instability issue as well.”
At this point, every motherboard maker should have BIOS updates out that can reduce the potential for your i9, i7, or K-series i5 desktop CPU to be permanently damaged. But if it’s already damaged, it’s toast — and you should contact Intel or your PC builder immediately to get it replaced, now that basically all of them offer a two-year warranty extension on the CPU issue.
We confirmed with practically every PC maker that they’ll honor that warranty extension, and I’d like to hear from you if they don’t.

Image: Intel

It’s been a burning question for months — are Intel’s laptop chips susceptible to the same permanent damage that can potentially lay 24 different flagship desktop chips low?

Today, Intel has finally confirmed: its 13th and 14th Gen laptop chips do not seem to have an instability issue. And the company claims they are definitely not affected by the too-high voltage issue, which it’s now calling “Vmin Shift Instability.”

While Intel maintains that Vmin Shift Instability is not necessarily the root cause or only cause of the crashes — it’s still investigating — Intel spokesperson Thomas Hannaford now tells The Verge that laptop chips basically aren’t affected at all. “Confirming 13/14th gen mobile isn’t impacted by the instability issue broadly speaking,” he tells me by email. A game developer, Alderon Games, had raised concerns that laptop chips were affected last month.

Additionally, Intel is saying today that many desktop chips aren’t affected by the specific voltage issue either: 13th and 14th Gen i5 chips that aren’t part of the K-series, i3 chips, and Xeon chips aren’t affected, it claims.

Here’s more info direct from Intel:

Unaffected Products List

Following the recent warranty extension announcement for affected Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen desktop processors, Intel confirms these currently available processors are not affected by the Vmin Shift Instability issue:

12th Gen Intel Core desktop and mobile processors

Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen i5 (non-K) & i3 desktop processors

Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen mobile processors – including HX-series processors.

Intel Xeon processors – including server and workstation processors.

Intel Core Ultra (Series 1) processors

Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen Desktop Processor BIOS Updates

While most Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen desktop processors are not impacted by the Vmin Shift Instability issue, Intel recommends all users continue following guidance:

Ensure the system is running with the latest BIOS, which users can look up through Intel’s Compatibility Tool and/or their motherboard manufacturer’s website. Users can also learn more about how to update their BIOS by visiting the following site: How to Update BIOS.

Utilizing the Intel Default Settings recommendations for their Intel Core 13th and/or 14th Gen desktop processor – including both Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen consumer, commercial, and entry workstation desktop systems.

Intel also reiterated today that its future chips, including those coming this fall on the new Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake architectures, won’t be affected by the Vmin Shift Instability issue. “Intel will ensure future product families are protected against the Vmin Shift Instability issue as well.”

At this point, every motherboard maker should have BIOS updates out that can reduce the potential for your i9, i7, or K-series i5 desktop CPU to be permanently damaged. But if it’s already damaged, it’s toast — and you should contact Intel or your PC builder immediately to get it replaced, now that basically all of them offer a two-year warranty extension on the CPU issue.

We confirmed with practically every PC maker that they’ll honor that warranty extension, and I’d like to hear from you if they don’t.

Read More 

Image: The Verge

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France last weekend, and a few days later was charged with a number of offenses connected to criminal activity on Telegram. There’s a lot about this story we don’t yet know, but this week’s events seem to signal a shift in how countries and governments plan to hold executives accountable for what happens on their platforms.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we try and make sense of what happened here — and what might happen next. We talk about what makes Telegram different from WhatsApp or Facebook, the ways Durov set up and operated the company that may have made this confrontation inevitable, and whether this will have a ripple effect on the rest of the social internet. Or even the rest of the internet as a whole.

After that, we run down some of the week in regulatory and litigation news, which is more exciting than it sounds! Yelp sued Google after years of complaints, TikTok is headed to court over the blackout challenge, and California’s AI safety bill is headed to the governor’s desk. As Nilay likes to say, there are a lot of really important PDFs floating around right now. We have some thoughts on the PDFs.
Finally, in the lightning round, we talk about AI deepfakes, smart home buyouts, where-to-watch guides, AI gadgets, Bluetooth hair stylers, image captions, and the upcoming Apple event.
Also, programming note: we’re off on Tuesday, and the third episode in our productivity miniseries will be next Sunday, not this Sunday. So we’ll see you next Friday!
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with Telegram:

French authorities arrest Telegram’s CEO
Telegram says CEO has ‘nothing to hide’ after being arrested in France
Why the Telegram CEO’s arrest is such a big deal
Telegram CEO charged in French criminal investigation
French prosecutors explain why they arrested Telegram CEO Pavel Durov
From The New York Times: Can Tech Executives Be Held Responsible for What Happens on Their Platforms?

From The Washington Post: Telegram’s Pavel Durov built a haven for free speech — and child predators

From Platformer: How Telegram played itself

And in legal and regulatory news:

Yelp sues Google for antitrust violations
TikTok must face a lawsuit for recommending the viral ‘blackout challenge’
California State Assembly passes sweeping AI safety bill
Mark Zuckerberg responds to GOP pressure, says Biden pushed to ‘censor’ covid posts

And in the lightning round:

Google Gemini will let you create AI-generated people again
xAI’s new Grok image generator floods X with controversial AI fakes
Smart home company Brilliant has found a buyer
ESPN ‘Where to Watch’ feature helps find where to stream sporting events
Plaud’s NotePin is an AI wearable for summarizing meetings and taking voice notes
The maker of the Palma has a new cheaper e-reader
The Dyson Airwrap i.d. is a smarter hair curler
Snapchat finally launched an iPad app
Instagram adds what photos have always needed: words
Apple’s iPhone 16 launch event is set for September

Image: The Verge

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France last weekend, and a few days later was charged with a number of offenses connected to criminal activity on Telegram. There’s a lot about this story we don’t yet know, but this week’s events seem to signal a shift in how countries and governments plan to hold executives accountable for what happens on their platforms.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we try and make sense of what happened here — and what might happen next. We talk about what makes Telegram different from WhatsApp or Facebook, the ways Durov set up and operated the company that may have made this confrontation inevitable, and whether this will have a ripple effect on the rest of the social internet. Or even the rest of the internet as a whole.

After that, we run down some of the week in regulatory and litigation news, which is more exciting than it sounds! Yelp sued Google after years of complaints, TikTok is headed to court over the blackout challenge, and California’s AI safety bill is headed to the governor’s desk. As Nilay likes to say, there are a lot of really important PDFs floating around right now. We have some thoughts on the PDFs.

Finally, in the lightning round, we talk about AI deepfakes, smart home buyouts, where-to-watch guides, AI gadgets, Bluetooth hair stylers, image captions, and the upcoming Apple event.

Also, programming note: we’re off on Tuesday, and the third episode in our productivity miniseries will be next Sunday, not this Sunday. So we’ll see you next Friday!

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with Telegram:

French authorities arrest Telegram’s CEO
Telegram says CEO has ‘nothing to hide’ after being arrested in France
Why the Telegram CEO’s arrest is such a big deal
Telegram CEO charged in French criminal investigation
French prosecutors explain why they arrested Telegram CEO Pavel Durov
From The New York Times: Can Tech Executives Be Held Responsible for What Happens on Their Platforms?

From The Washington Post: Telegram’s Pavel Durov built a haven for free speech — and child predators

From Platformer: How Telegram played itself

And in legal and regulatory news:

Yelp sues Google for antitrust violations
TikTok must face a lawsuit for recommending the viral ‘blackout challenge’
California State Assembly passes sweeping AI safety bill
Mark Zuckerberg responds to GOP pressure, says Biden pushed to ‘censor’ covid posts

And in the lightning round:

Google Gemini will let you create AI-generated people again
xAI’s new Grok image generator floods X with controversial AI fakes
Smart home company Brilliant has found a buyer
ESPN ‘Where to Watch’ feature helps find where to stream sporting events
Plaud’s NotePin is an AI wearable for summarizing meetings and taking voice notes
The maker of the Palma has a new cheaper e-reader
The Dyson Airwrap i.d. is a smarter hair curler
Snapchat finally launched an iPad app
Instagram adds what photos have always needed: words
Apple’s iPhone 16 launch event is set for September

Read More 

It’s the end of an era. | Image: AnandTech, Future

Hardware enthusiast site AnandTech is shutting down after nearly three decades of covering computers. AnandTech’s final Editor-in-Chief, Ryan Smith, announced the news in a farewell post this morning, writing, “…Few things last forever, and the market for written tech journalism is not what it once was — nor will it ever be again. So, the time has come for AnandTech to wrap up its work, and let the next generation of tech journalists take their place within the zeitgeist.”
AnandTech was founded in 1997 by Anand Lal Shimpi, who led the site until retiring from journalism in 2014 to work for Apple as part of the team that delivered the M series Apple Silicon chips. Before leaving, Shimpi spoke with The Verge in 2011 about his frustrations with the “cable-TV-ification of the internet” — or online media moving away from high-quality, in-depth analysis toward sensationalism and clickbaity content:

Which trend makes you gnash your teeth in frustration?
Something I call the cable-TV-ification of the internet. For the past several years it seems as if there has been a trend away from ultimate understanding in content online and towards the tenets of modern mainstream media (sensationalism and the general silliness you see on US cable TV news). The transition isn’t anywhere near complete, but I feel like that’s the direction things are headed. We have to learn from the mistakes of our predecessors, not repeat them with sweeter technology.

AnandTech as a site made a point of resisting that trend, which Smith also called back to in his farewell note.
Over the years, the site built a loyal audience among hardware lovers due in large part to its detailed reviews of motherboards, chips, and other hardware components. The quality of its analysis made it a resource for PC builders, academics, fellow journalists, and anyone fascinated by the inner workings of a computer.
When any beloved site is shuttered, there’s always a question of what happens to the content. For now, AnandTech fans can breathe a sigh of relief. Smith writes that FutureLLC, AnandTech’s publisher, will keep the site’s archive indefinitely. The active AnandTech Forums will also continue to operate and be moderated by Future’s community team.

It’s the end of an era. | Image: AnandTech, Future

Hardware enthusiast site AnandTech is shutting down after nearly three decades of covering computers. AnandTech’s final Editor-in-Chief, Ryan Smith, announced the news in a farewell post this morning, writing, “…Few things last forever, and the market for written tech journalism is not what it once was — nor will it ever be again. So, the time has come for AnandTech to wrap up its work, and let the next generation of tech journalists take their place within the zeitgeist.”

AnandTech was founded in 1997 by Anand Lal Shimpi, who led the site until retiring from journalism in 2014 to work for Apple as part of the team that delivered the M series Apple Silicon chips. Before leaving, Shimpi spoke with The Verge in 2011 about his frustrations with the “cable-TV-ification of the internet” — or online media moving away from high-quality, in-depth analysis toward sensationalism and clickbaity content:

Which trend makes you gnash your teeth in frustration?

Something I call the cable-TV-ification of the internet. For the past several years it seems as if there has been a trend away from ultimate understanding in content online and towards the tenets of modern mainstream media (sensationalism and the general silliness you see on US cable TV news). The transition isn’t anywhere near complete, but I feel like that’s the direction things are headed. We have to learn from the mistakes of our predecessors, not repeat them with sweeter technology.

AnandTech as a site made a point of resisting that trend, which Smith also called back to in his farewell note.

Over the years, the site built a loyal audience among hardware lovers due in large part to its detailed reviews of motherboards, chips, and other hardware components. The quality of its analysis made it a resource for PC builders, academics, fellow journalists, and anyone fascinated by the inner workings of a computer.

When any beloved site is shuttered, there’s always a question of what happens to the content. For now, AnandTech fans can breathe a sigh of relief. Smith writes that FutureLLC, AnandTech’s publisher, will keep the site’s archive indefinitely. The active AnandTech Forums will also continue to operate and be moderated by Future’s community team.

Read More 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google Play Store can now download, install, and update multiple Android apps simultaneously. Previously, if you attempted to run all your updates manually, Play Store would only process a single app at a time. Now, as we’ve tested, it can do up to three.
As reported by Android Police, Google has tested concurrent app updates for Play Store before, starting as far back as 2019 and as recently as last March. Now it looks like the speedier updates are rolling out to more users, which could be a huge time saver for people setting up new phones or restoring from a backup. Apple has also supported up to three iOS app installs from the App Store for many years.

Screenshot: Richard Lawler / The Verge
Three simultaneous downloads and installs in action.

Google does not have an announced launch timeline or indication that the feature has arrived on any specific device, which means the limitations on simultaneous downloads and installs are likely server-side. You’ll just have to try updating all your apps manually to see if it’s there.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google Play Store can now download, install, and update multiple Android apps simultaneously. Previously, if you attempted to run all your updates manually, Play Store would only process a single app at a time. Now, as we’ve tested, it can do up to three.

As reported by Android Police, Google has tested concurrent app updates for Play Store before, starting as far back as 2019 and as recently as last March. Now it looks like the speedier updates are rolling out to more users, which could be a huge time saver for people setting up new phones or restoring from a backup. Apple has also supported up to three iOS app installs from the App Store for many years.

Screenshot: Richard Lawler / The Verge
Three simultaneous downloads and installs in action.

Google does not have an announced launch timeline or indication that the feature has arrived on any specific device, which means the limitations on simultaneous downloads and installs are likely server-side. You’ll just have to try updating all your apps manually to see if it’s there.

Read More 

Image: The Verge

TikTok is giving users a way to more precisely shape what kind of content they see on their feeds — or at least signal to the algorithm what they’re interested in.
Under Content preferences > Manage topics (which can be found in “Settings and Privacy”), users can adjust sliders to signal they want more or less of certain topics in their For You Page. Topics include “creative arts,” “current affairs,” “humor” and more. Sliders are set to a default middle ground at first, and users can tweak it from there.
TikTok’s hyper-targeted For You Page is famously a bit of a black box, built on a trove of user data that sometimes makes it feel like the algorithm is reading your mind. This new slider feature gives us a peak behind the curtain, especially regarding how TikTok categorizes content. It’s interesting, for example, that “dance” is its own distinct topic separate from other arts — not totally surprising given TikTok’s early role as the kids dance app.

Image: TikTok

Over the years, TikTok has rolled out different features to give users a sense of control over their own algorithm. The “not interested” button on videos is meant to signal to the system that you want to see less of something, and users can also block certain keywords or hashtags from their feeds entirely. Last year, TikTok also began testing a way to reset your For You Page to start fresh.
It’s not yet clear how effective adjusting the sliders will be — historically this kind of tool isn’t necessarily a hard and fast rule for what kind of content recommendation systems return. Prior research into YouTube’s “dislike” button, for example, has found that the algorithm kept recommending similar content regardless.

Image: The Verge

TikTok is giving users a way to more precisely shape what kind of content they see on their feeds — or at least signal to the algorithm what they’re interested in.

Under Content preferences > Manage topics (which can be found in “Settings and Privacy”), users can adjust sliders to signal they want more or less of certain topics in their For You Page. Topics include “creative arts,” “current affairs,” “humor” and more. Sliders are set to a default middle ground at first, and users can tweak it from there.

TikTok’s hyper-targeted For You Page is famously a bit of a black box, built on a trove of user data that sometimes makes it feel like the algorithm is reading your mind. This new slider feature gives us a peak behind the curtain, especially regarding how TikTok categorizes content. It’s interesting, for example, that “dance” is its own distinct topic separate from other arts — not totally surprising given TikTok’s early role as the kids dance app.

Over the years, TikTok has rolled out different features to give users a sense of control over their own algorithm. The “not interested” button on videos is meant to signal to the system that you want to see less of something, and users can also block certain keywords or hashtags from their feeds entirely. Last year, TikTok also began testing a way to reset your For You Page to start fresh.

It’s not yet clear how effective adjusting the sliders will be — historically this kind of tool isn’t necessarily a hard and fast rule for what kind of content recommendation systems return. Prior research into YouTube’s “dislike” button, for example, has found that the algorithm kept recommending similar content regardless.

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Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge

I’m something of a hoarder when it comes to interesting facts — I’ll see something online or in a photo, and a small voice in my brain says, “You’ll be able to use that reference somewhere, somehow. Save it so you can find it later!” Which is fine if it’s just a line or two of text, but what if that info is within an image — a photo, say, or even a drawing?
Luckily, back in 2021, Apple introduced a feature in iOS 15 called Live Text, which makes it possible for iPhone users to grab text, email addresses, phone numbers, and more from images. Live Text works with both handwritten and typed text and supports a variety of languages.
Once you’ve captured text from an image, you can paste it into a document, an email, a text message, etc., just as you would any copied text. (A suggestion: you might want to proofread it before you send or post it, especially if you’ve copied handwritten text — Live Text is pretty good, but it’s not perfect.) Just press on the selected text and choose Copy. You can also select Translate if you want to translate it to another language or Look Up to get more information.
You can use Live Text with your camera app or directly from Photos or Safari. Here’s how to capture the text in these three apps.
Capture text using the camera app
One of the handiest ways of using Live Text is on documents or objects that are around you in real time. If you have an iPhone XS or later, you can use the camera app to quickly grab some text — say, the name on a product label, or of a book you want to remember to buy — and drop it into another app. You don’t even have to snap a photo. It’s very easy:

Open the camera app and point it at the text you want to copy. You’ll see a faint outline around the text, and a live text button will appear in the corner of the viewfinder.
Hit the button, and you’ll get a pop-up with the text inside. Highlight the part of the text you want to copy (or hit Select All) and choose Copy.
If there is an email address, phone number, or link, you will be given the option of interacting with it directly.

Screenshot: Apple
When you point the camera at some text, it will be outlined; use the symbol in the lower right corner to grab it.

Screenshot: Apple
If the text has an email address or phone number, you can use it to send an email or a text message.

Capture text from photos
If you’re viewing any pictures with text in the Photos app, you can select and interact with text there. It works just like selecting actual text anywhere else on iOS: tap and hold on the text in an image and you’ll see the familiar-looking blue highlights pop up.
The search bar in Photos will also search for text within images in your photo library, which is handy if you know you took a screenshot or photo of a receipt and just aren’t sure when. Once you find it, you can copy it using the steps above.

Screenshot: Apple
You can capture text from photos….

Screenshot: Apple
…or from screenshots

Capture from web images in Safari
Text can also be selected directly from images on the web in Safari. To grab text, just highlight the text in the image as you would any text, and hit the Copy button.
Update, August 30th, 2024: This article was originally published on July 1st, 2021, and has been updated to account for changes in the OS.

Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge

I’m something of a hoarder when it comes to interesting facts — I’ll see something online or in a photo, and a small voice in my brain says, “You’ll be able to use that reference somewhere, somehow. Save it so you can find it later!” Which is fine if it’s just a line or two of text, but what if that info is within an image — a photo, say, or even a drawing?

Luckily, back in 2021, Apple introduced a feature in iOS 15 called Live Text, which makes it possible for iPhone users to grab text, email addresses, phone numbers, and more from images. Live Text works with both handwritten and typed text and supports a variety of languages.

Once you’ve captured text from an image, you can paste it into a document, an email, a text message, etc., just as you would any copied text. (A suggestion: you might want to proofread it before you send or post it, especially if you’ve copied handwritten text — Live Text is pretty good, but it’s not perfect.) Just press on the selected text and choose Copy. You can also select Translate if you want to translate it to another language or Look Up to get more information.

You can use Live Text with your camera app or directly from Photos or Safari. Here’s how to capture the text in these three apps.

Capture text using the camera app

One of the handiest ways of using Live Text is on documents or objects that are around you in real time. If you have an iPhone XS or later, you can use the camera app to quickly grab some text — say, the name on a product label, or of a book you want to remember to buy — and drop it into another app. You don’t even have to snap a photo. It’s very easy:

Open the camera app and point it at the text you want to copy. You’ll see a faint outline around the text, and a live text button will appear in the corner of the viewfinder.
Hit the button, and you’ll get a pop-up with the text inside. Highlight the part of the text you want to copy (or hit Select All) and choose Copy.
If there is an email address, phone number, or link, you will be given the option of interacting with it directly.

Capture text from photos

If you’re viewing any pictures with text in the Photos app, you can select and interact with text there. It works just like selecting actual text anywhere else on iOS: tap and hold on the text in an image and you’ll see the familiar-looking blue highlights pop up.

The search bar in Photos will also search for text within images in your photo library, which is handy if you know you took a screenshot or photo of a receipt and just aren’t sure when. Once you find it, you can copy it using the steps above.

Capture from web images in Safari

Text can also be selected directly from images on the web in Safari. To grab text, just highlight the text in the image as you would any text, and hit the Copy button.

Update, August 30th, 2024: This article was originally published on July 1st, 2021, and has been updated to account for changes in the OS.

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The new version of the voice assistant, dubbed “Remarkable Alexa,” is expected to launch in October and require a subscription fee. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

The improved version of Alexa that Amazon’s expected to release this year will primarily be powered by Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence model, according to Reuters. The publication reports that initial versions of Amazon’s smarter, subscription-based voice assistant that used the company’s own AI proved insufficient, often struggling with words and responding to user prompts.
Amazon’s minority stake in Anthropic is currently under investigation by the UK’s competition regulators. The company invested $4 billion into the startup last year with the promise that Amazon customers will get early access to the company’s AI tech.
The development of the new Alexa technology, dubbed “Remarkable Alexa,” has been rife with issues since it was announced last September, according to Fortune. Mihail Eric, a former machine learning scientist for Alexa AI, also said on X that the division was “riddled with technical and bureaucratic problems.” Meanwhile, Amazon’s currently dated but market-leading voice assistant is facing greater competition from challengers like OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT, Google Gemini’s voice chat mode, and even Siri’s upcoming Apple Intelligence update.

The new Alexa built around Claude reportedly performs better than the version powered by Amazon’s in-house AI models.
“Amazon uses many different technologies to power Alexa,” the company told Reuters. “When it comes to machine learning models, we start with those built by Amazon, but we have used, and will continue to use, a variety of different models — including (Amazon AI model) Titan and future Amazon models, as well as those from partners — to build the best experience for customers.”
Following release delays, Remarkable Alexa will reportedly arrive sometime in mid-October. Expected features include daily AI-generated news summaries, a child-focused chatbot, and conversational shopping tools, according to a report from The Washington Post earlier this week. Reuters reported back in June that Amazon was considering placing the new Alexa behind a $5 to $10 monthly subscription in a bid to make the assistant profitable but would keep the current “Classic Alexa” offering available as a free-to-use service.
A demo of the new Alexa will be presented during Amazon’s annual devices and services event, according to Reuters, which is typically held in September.

The new version of the voice assistant, dubbed “Remarkable Alexa,” is expected to launch in October and require a subscription fee. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

The improved version of Alexa that Amazon’s expected to release this year will primarily be powered by Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence model, according to Reuters. The publication reports that initial versions of Amazon’s smarter, subscription-based voice assistant that used the company’s own AI proved insufficient, often struggling with words and responding to user prompts.

Amazon’s minority stake in Anthropic is currently under investigation by the UK’s competition regulators. The company invested $4 billion into the startup last year with the promise that Amazon customers will get early access to the company’s AI tech.

The development of the new Alexa technology, dubbed “Remarkable Alexa,” has been rife with issues since it was announced last September, according to Fortune. Mihail Eric, a former machine learning scientist for Alexa AI, also said on X that the division was “riddled with technical and bureaucratic problems.” Meanwhile, Amazon’s currently dated but market-leading voice assistant is facing greater competition from challengers like OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT, Google Gemini’s voice chat mode, and even Siri’s upcoming Apple Intelligence update.

The new Alexa built around Claude reportedly performs better than the version powered by Amazon’s in-house AI models.

“Amazon uses many different technologies to power Alexa,” the company told Reuters. “When it comes to machine learning models, we start with those built by Amazon, but we have used, and will continue to use, a variety of different models — including (Amazon AI model) Titan and future Amazon models, as well as those from partners — to build the best experience for customers.”

Following release delays, Remarkable Alexa will reportedly arrive sometime in mid-October. Expected features include daily AI-generated news summaries, a child-focused chatbot, and conversational shopping tools, according to a report from The Washington Post earlier this week. Reuters reported back in June that Amazon was considering placing the new Alexa behind a $5 to $10 monthly subscription in a bid to make the assistant profitable but would keep the current “Classic Alexa” offering available as a free-to-use service.

A demo of the new Alexa will be presented during Amazon’s annual devices and services event, according to Reuters, which is typically held in September.

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