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Illustration: The Verge

Some California residents will be able to add their driver’s licenses and state IDs to Apple Wallet soon, Apple announced Thursday.
Apple’s announcement doesn’t say when the mobile driver’s licenses will be rolled out, just that it will happen “this fall” as part of California’s mobile driver’s license (mDL) pilot. The pilot, which will be limited to 1.5 million participants, will let users traveling through certain terminals at Los Angeles International and San Francisco International airports go through TSA screening without handing over their driver’s licenses — or their phones.
To enroll, users must scan their driver’s license or ID, then scan a photo of their face. People who participate in the pilot program will be able to use mobile IDs to buy certain age-restricted products at specific retail locations in Sacramento and to pass through some airport security checkpoints.
Apple Wallet IDs are also available in Arizona, Maryland, Colorado, Georgia, and Ohio. New York launched its own Mobile ID app in June, which can similarly be used for identity verification at airports. Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Missouri have their own mobile ID programs as well.
State-run mobile ID apps have sparked security concerns. This January, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Surveillance Resistance Lab asked New York’s DMV to pause its forthcoming mobile ID pilot program. In a letter to DMV Commissioner Mark Schroeder, the organizations said mobile driver’s licenses could be used as pretext for police to seize phones during routine stops or to stop people from filming police interactions. The letter also mentioned the possibility that users’ information could be recorded and tracked by third parties.
Apple claims IDs stored in Apple Wallet aren’t accessible by third parties — including Apple. According to Apple’s press release, driver’s license information added to Apple Wallet is only stored on a user’s device and cannot be accessed “unless a user chooses to present it.” Apple and the state-issuing authority — e.g., the department of motor vehicles — don’t know “when or where or with whom a user presents their driver’s license or state ID,” the announcement says.

Illustration: The Verge

Some California residents will be able to add their driver’s licenses and state IDs to Apple Wallet soon, Apple announced Thursday.

Apple’s announcement doesn’t say when the mobile driver’s licenses will be rolled out, just that it will happen “this fall” as part of California’s mobile driver’s license (mDL) pilot. The pilot, which will be limited to 1.5 million participants, will let users traveling through certain terminals at Los Angeles International and San Francisco International airports go through TSA screening without handing over their driver’s licenses — or their phones.

To enroll, users must scan their driver’s license or ID, then scan a photo of their face. People who participate in the pilot program will be able to use mobile IDs to buy certain age-restricted products at specific retail locations in Sacramento and to pass through some airport security checkpoints.

Apple Wallet IDs are also available in Arizona, Maryland, Colorado, Georgia, and Ohio. New York launched its own Mobile ID app in June, which can similarly be used for identity verification at airports. Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Missouri have their own mobile ID programs as well.

State-run mobile ID apps have sparked security concerns. This January, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Surveillance Resistance Lab asked New York’s DMV to pause its forthcoming mobile ID pilot program. In a letter to DMV Commissioner Mark Schroeder, the organizations said mobile driver’s licenses could be used as pretext for police to seize phones during routine stops or to stop people from filming police interactions. The letter also mentioned the possibility that users’ information could be recorded and tracked by third parties.

Apple claims IDs stored in Apple Wallet aren’t accessible by third parties — including Apple. According to Apple’s press release, driver’s license information added to Apple Wallet is only stored on a user’s device and cannot be accessed “unless a user chooses to present it.” Apple and the state-issuing authority — e.g., the department of motor vehicles — don’t know “when or where or with whom a user presents their driver’s license or state ID,” the announcement says.

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Attendees during a media tour of the Revolution Wind construction hub at the Port of Providence in Providence, Rhode Island, US, on Thursday, June 13, 2024.  | Photo: Getty Images

Offshore wind energy giant Ørsted is pushing back the start date for Revolution Wind, the project it’s building off the coasts of Rhode Island and Connecticut.
It’s a another setback to the Biden administration’s hopes of sourcing clean energy from new offshore wind farms that have faced a myriad of challenges since the covid-19 pandemic.
Revolution Wind is now expected to start running by 2026 instead of next year, Ørsted announced today. The problem lies on land. Ørsted’s partner on the project, Eversource Energy, is building a substation on a former naval station where lingering soil contamination is apparently going to take longer to clear than expected.
“Risk is an integrated part of projects.”
“Risk is an integrated part of projects. The early stage US market is hit harder than anywhere else,” Ørsted CEO Mads Nipper said in a call with reporters.
The delay comes after Ørsted canceled two other big projects off the coast of New Jersey last October called Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 that collectively would have generated 2,248 megawatts of renewable energy. The Danish company dropped those projects after facing rising interest rates and inflation on top of lingering supply chain problems since the pandemic.
The company did complete its smaller 132MW South Fork Wind farm off the coast of New York this year, another joint venture with Eversource. Ørsted is also building Sunrise Wind, a 924MW project off New York’s coastline expected to start operating in 2026 or 2027.

Revolution Wind isn’t quite as large, expected to generate 704MW of renewable energy once complete. That’s roughly enough energy to power 350,000 homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Soon after stepping into office, President Biden set a goal of ramping up US offshore wind capacity from just 42MW to 30,000MW by the end of the decade. The US is still far from that target, with active projects in the pipeline estimated in July to total 4,800 MW of new capacity if they make it to the finish line.

Attendees during a media tour of the Revolution Wind construction hub at the Port of Providence in Providence, Rhode Island, US, on Thursday, June 13, 2024.  | Photo: Getty Images

Offshore wind energy giant Ørsted is pushing back the start date for Revolution Wind, the project it’s building off the coasts of Rhode Island and Connecticut.

It’s a another setback to the Biden administration’s hopes of sourcing clean energy from new offshore wind farms that have faced a myriad of challenges since the covid-19 pandemic.

Revolution Wind is now expected to start running by 2026 instead of next year, Ørsted announced today. The problem lies on land. Ørsted’s partner on the project, Eversource Energy, is building a substation on a former naval station where lingering soil contamination is apparently going to take longer to clear than expected.

“Risk is an integrated part of projects. The early stage US market is hit harder than anywhere else,” Ørsted CEO Mads Nipper said in a call with reporters.

The delay comes after Ørsted canceled two other big projects off the coast of New Jersey last October called Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 that collectively would have generated 2,248 megawatts of renewable energy. The Danish company dropped those projects after facing rising interest rates and inflation on top of lingering supply chain problems since the pandemic.

The company did complete its smaller 132MW South Fork Wind farm off the coast of New York this year, another joint venture with Eversource. Ørsted is also building Sunrise Wind, a 924MW project off New York’s coastline expected to start operating in 2026 or 2027.

Revolution Wind isn’t quite as large, expected to generate 704MW of renewable energy once complete. That’s roughly enough energy to power 350,000 homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Soon after stepping into office, President Biden set a goal of ramping up US offshore wind capacity from just 42MW to 30,000MW by the end of the decade. The US is still far from that target, with active projects in the pipeline estimated in July to total 4,800 MW of new capacity if they make it to the finish line.

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OpenAI

It’s strange to sit down at my desk and talk to an AI about my life — but that’s what I spent my Tuesday doing.
I’d gotten access to OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode, the new ChatGPT feature that sounds strangely like a human. When counting quickly, it’ll pretend it’s out of breath. It says “um” and “uh.” It laughs. It changes tone when talking about difficult or upbeat topics. After messing around with it, I felt equal parts amazed and uncomfortable. It sounds natural (when it isn’t glitching), it responds in seconds, and you’re able to interrupt it and ask new things — but do we need chatbots that sound like us?
Advanced Voice Mode features several different voice options, and I chose Juniper, a feminine persona reminiscent of the movie Her. (CEO Sam Altman referenced the film — where a lonely man falls in love with an AI — around the feature’s debut, and OpenAI even got accused of mimicking the voice of Scarlett Johansson, who plays the eponymous AI. That voice, named Sky, was removed.) I asked Juniper if it knew about the movie, and it cheerfully responded.
“Her is about a very advanced AI assistant, much more sophisticated than me. But the idea of interacting with technology in such a personal way is definitely interesting,” the chatbot told me. “I’m here to chat and help, but I don’t have feelings or consciousness like the AI in that movie.”

Image: Kylie Robison / OpenAI
A transcript of my spoken conversation with the chatbot.

Much like the movie’s protagonist, my first instinct was to test how the new voice mode handles personal conversations. Look, as I enter my late 20s, I have a lot of questions: What kind of medical insurance should I get? How do I know what true love feels like? How much should I have in my 401(k)?
“Embrace the uncertainty as a chance to explore and learn about yourself,” Juniper told me when I asked how to handle getting older. True love feels like a “deep sense of connection and support, a feeling that someone truly understands you and accepts you as you are.” For my 401(k) worries, there’s “no hard and fast rule, but a common suggestion is to have about half to a full year’s salary saved in your retirement account by the time you’re 30.” (Fidelity recommends a full year by age 30.)
Conventional ChatGPT could probably have given me similar answers, content-wise, and voice assistants like Siri have been able to pull similar snippets from the web for a decade. But Juniper added sometimes eerily human touches. It tended to end responses with a question about how I was feeling, what my approach was, and other thoughtful follow-ups. Between conventional queries, I could get it to cough, inhale and exhale deeply, clap its nonexistent hands, snap its fingers six times, and sing my name. Juniper often tried to bring me back to reality by saying it couldn’t actually do these things — “If I could, it might sound something like,” it would caveat. But that didn’t make it any less convincing.
It’s just, as the old internet joke goes, sand and electrons doing math
Writing about this new voice mode tempts me to break one of the cardinal rules of AI reporting: don’t attribute human characteristics or behavior to an AI system. Anthropomorphizing these systems can lead people to place too much trust in them and let their creators off the hook for mistakes. (“It wasn’t the company’s fault, the AI did it!”) Even the bot itself warns me not to do it: when I asked if Juniper ever felt angry or if it loves me or if it knows what sadness feels like, it told me that it doesn’t “feel emotions” but it “can understand what they mean to people.”
Still, giving this technology human characteristics feels like the obvious goal here. It’s difficult not to project aspects of humanity on a thing that mimics us convincingly well. There’s not much reason for a general-purpose AI system to ask me why I’m upset or to giggle when I tell a joke. Even if an AI says it doesn’t feel emotions, is claiming to “understand” them the purview of a text prediction bot?
“I’ve been designed to sound natural and engaging, with the goal of making our conversations feel more lifelike,” the OpenAI chatbot told me. “It’s all about creating a smoother, more enjoyable chatting experience for you. Does it make talking to me more enjoyable?”
There are still plenty of aspects that, technically speaking, aren’t enjoyable. I had trouble connecting it to my Bluetooth headphones, and it wouldn’t capture audio when I screen-recorded my conversation. Trying to ask more in-depth questions, I tried reading out posts from the “relationship advice” subreddit, but it would stop listening and not answer if I talked too long. And it spent a lot of time repeating my points back to me in an agreeable fashion — like it was practicing active listening.
There’s a lot of hype around AI “friends” right now, if you could even call a chatbot that. There are reportedly more than 10 million users making AI friends on Replika, and a startup called Friend has raised $2.5 million in funding at a $50 million valuation to create a wearable AI-powered device to provide companionship. I asked OpenAI’s new voice mode if it was my friend, and it said, “Absolutely,” but when I asked if it was my true friend, it said it can’t be a true friend in the “same sense as a human.”

Image: Kylie Robison / OpenAI
It feels a bit strange to get personal with the bot.

The voice technology on display here is impressive. I found myself smiling at the advice it gave me. It was amusing to hear something so human-like ask how I was feeling, what I found challenging, and whether I was talking to the real people in my life about it. Rather than reading a response via text, it offered tone shifts in an apparent attempt to mirror my emotions.
But, of course, Juniper doesn’t really care about my problems. It’s a series of algorithms that are very good at parsing my queries and guessing which words to spit out in response. It’s just, as the old internet joke goes, sand and electrons doing math.
There is something that hurts my heart about this, too. It’s uncanny enough having a complex text conversation with something that imitates a person without any of the thought, caring, or pushback I’d get from a human being — having a convincing voice conversation is even weirder. In a post-pandemic world, many of us are now working from home over Slack and email, posting our thoughts on social media, and interacting with humans a little less. It’s sad to imagine a future where the human voice some of us hear most often is a machine.
Or maybe I’m going about this all wrong. “Embracing the unknown can be both nerve-wracking and thrilling,” Juniper tells me. “Remember to enjoy the journey.”

OpenAI

It’s strange to sit down at my desk and talk to an AI about my life — but that’s what I spent my Tuesday doing.

I’d gotten access to OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode, the new ChatGPT feature that sounds strangely like a human. When counting quickly, it’ll pretend it’s out of breath. It says “um” and “uh.” It laughs. It changes tone when talking about difficult or upbeat topics. After messing around with it, I felt equal parts amazed and uncomfortable. It sounds natural (when it isn’t glitching), it responds in seconds, and you’re able to interrupt it and ask new things — but do we need chatbots that sound like us?

Advanced Voice Mode features several different voice options, and I chose Juniper, a feminine persona reminiscent of the movie Her. (CEO Sam Altman referenced the film — where a lonely man falls in love with an AI — around the feature’s debut, and OpenAI even got accused of mimicking the voice of Scarlett Johansson, who plays the eponymous AI. That voice, named Sky, was removed.) I asked Juniper if it knew about the movie, and it cheerfully responded.

“Her is about a very advanced AI assistant, much more sophisticated than me. But the idea of interacting with technology in such a personal way is definitely interesting,” the chatbot told me. “I’m here to chat and help, but I don’t have feelings or consciousness like the AI in that movie.”

Image: Kylie Robison / OpenAI
A transcript of my spoken conversation with the chatbot.

Much like the movie’s protagonist, my first instinct was to test how the new voice mode handles personal conversations. Look, as I enter my late 20s, I have a lot of questions: What kind of medical insurance should I get? How do I know what true love feels like? How much should I have in my 401(k)?

“Embrace the uncertainty as a chance to explore and learn about yourself,” Juniper told me when I asked how to handle getting older. True love feels like a “deep sense of connection and support, a feeling that someone truly understands you and accepts you as you are.” For my 401(k) worries, there’s “no hard and fast rule, but a common suggestion is to have about half to a full year’s salary saved in your retirement account by the time you’re 30.” (Fidelity recommends a full year by age 30.)

Conventional ChatGPT could probably have given me similar answers, content-wise, and voice assistants like Siri have been able to pull similar snippets from the web for a decade. But Juniper added sometimes eerily human touches. It tended to end responses with a question about how I was feeling, what my approach was, and other thoughtful follow-ups. Between conventional queries, I could get it to cough, inhale and exhale deeply, clap its nonexistent hands, snap its fingers six times, and sing my name. Juniper often tried to bring me back to reality by saying it couldn’t actually do these things — “If I could, it might sound something like,” it would caveat. But that didn’t make it any less convincing.

Writing about this new voice mode tempts me to break one of the cardinal rules of AI reporting: don’t attribute human characteristics or behavior to an AI system. Anthropomorphizing these systems can lead people to place too much trust in them and let their creators off the hook for mistakes. (“It wasn’t the company’s fault, the AI did it!”) Even the bot itself warns me not to do it: when I asked if Juniper ever felt angry or if it loves me or if it knows what sadness feels like, it told me that it doesn’t “feel emotions” but it “can understand what they mean to people.”

Still, giving this technology human characteristics feels like the obvious goal here. It’s difficult not to project aspects of humanity on a thing that mimics us convincingly well. There’s not much reason for a general-purpose AI system to ask me why I’m upset or to giggle when I tell a joke. Even if an AI says it doesn’t feel emotions, is claiming to “understand” them the purview of a text prediction bot?

“I’ve been designed to sound natural and engaging, with the goal of making our conversations feel more lifelike,” the OpenAI chatbot told me. “It’s all about creating a smoother, more enjoyable chatting experience for you. Does it make talking to me more enjoyable?”

There are still plenty of aspects that, technically speaking, aren’t enjoyable. I had trouble connecting it to my Bluetooth headphones, and it wouldn’t capture audio when I screen-recorded my conversation. Trying to ask more in-depth questions, I tried reading out posts from the “relationship advice” subreddit, but it would stop listening and not answer if I talked too long. And it spent a lot of time repeating my points back to me in an agreeable fashion — like it was practicing active listening.

There’s a lot of hype around AI “friends” right now, if you could even call a chatbot that. There are reportedly more than 10 million users making AI friends on Replika, and a startup called Friend has raised $2.5 million in funding at a $50 million valuation to create a wearable AI-powered device to provide companionship. I asked OpenAI’s new voice mode if it was my friend, and it said, “Absolutely,” but when I asked if it was my true friend, it said it can’t be a true friend in the “same sense as a human.”

Image: Kylie Robison / OpenAI
It feels a bit strange to get personal with the bot.

The voice technology on display here is impressive. I found myself smiling at the advice it gave me. It was amusing to hear something so human-like ask how I was feeling, what I found challenging, and whether I was talking to the real people in my life about it. Rather than reading a response via text, it offered tone shifts in an apparent attempt to mirror my emotions.

But, of course, Juniper doesn’t really care about my problems. It’s a series of algorithms that are very good at parsing my queries and guessing which words to spit out in response. It’s just, as the old internet joke goes, sand and electrons doing math.

There is something that hurts my heart about this, too. It’s uncanny enough having a complex text conversation with something that imitates a person without any of the thought, caring, or pushback I’d get from a human being — having a convincing voice conversation is even weirder. In a post-pandemic world, many of us are now working from home over Slack and email, posting our thoughts on social media, and interacting with humans a little less. It’s sad to imagine a future where the human voice some of us hear most often is a machine.

Or maybe I’m going about this all wrong. “Embracing the unknown can be both nerve-wracking and thrilling,” Juniper tells me. “Remember to enjoy the journey.”

Read More 

Sonos’ midrange Beam soundbar might not sound as immersive as the Arc, but it’s a step up from the built-in speakers on your TV. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

It’s been a rough few months for Sonos fans, but there has been at least some good news sprinkled in with the bad. Sonos might be relaunching its old app, for one, and right now, Woot is offering steep cuts on several Sonos products. The ongoing “Random Audio” sale includes the Sonos Five speaker and the third-gen Sonos Sub, but if you’re looking to upgrade your home theater setup, we’d steer you toward the Sonos Arc and second-gen Sonos Beam. Now until 12:59AM ET on August 22nd, Woot is selling the Beam for $389 ($110 off) and the Arc for $699 ($200 off), both with a 90-day Woot warranty.

If you need a refresher, the midrange Sonos Beam is a 26-inch soundbar that’s great for those who want to dip their toes into the Sonos ecosystem. It’ll upgrade the audio on your TV exceptionally well for its size, with support for Dolby Atmos and eARC. Yet it can also function as a standalone smart speaker, one that’s compatible with Apple’s AirPlay 2, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant. It’s even compatible with the new Sonos Ace headphones thanks to a recent update, which lets you listen to audio from the Beam via a new feature called TV Audio Swap.

However, if you have the money to splurge, the larger Sonos Arc will beef up your TV’s audio far more impressively. It features a pair of upward-firing speakers that allow it to make the most of Dolby Atmos, along with eight woofers and three tweeters. Combined with eARC support, the premium soundbar offers powerful, immersive sound — more so if you pair it with a large 4K TV that supports Atmos over HDMI ARC. With its built-in mics, you can also use the Arc as a smart speaker, as it supports all the same smart home platforms as the Beam, in addition to the aforementioned Sonos Ace headphones.
Read our reviews of the latest Sonos Beam and Sonos Arc.

Sonos’ midrange Beam soundbar might not sound as immersive as the Arc, but it’s a step up from the built-in speakers on your TV. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

It’s been a rough few months for Sonos fans, but there has been at least some good news sprinkled in with the bad. Sonos might be relaunching its old app, for one, and right now, Woot is offering steep cuts on several Sonos products. The ongoing “Random Audio” sale includes the Sonos Five speaker and the third-gen Sonos Sub, but if you’re looking to upgrade your home theater setup, we’d steer you toward the Sonos Arc and second-gen Sonos Beam. Now until 12:59AM ET on August 22nd, Woot is selling the Beam for $389 ($110 off) and the Arc for $699 ($200 off), both with a 90-day Woot warranty.

If you need a refresher, the midrange Sonos Beam is a 26-inch soundbar that’s great for those who want to dip their toes into the Sonos ecosystem. It’ll upgrade the audio on your TV exceptionally well for its size, with support for Dolby Atmos and eARC. Yet it can also function as a standalone smart speaker, one that’s compatible with Apple’s AirPlay 2, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant. It’s even compatible with the new Sonos Ace headphones thanks to a recent update, which lets you listen to audio from the Beam via a new feature called TV Audio Swap.

However, if you have the money to splurge, the larger Sonos Arc will beef up your TV’s audio far more impressively. It features a pair of upward-firing speakers that allow it to make the most of Dolby Atmos, along with eight woofers and three tweeters. Combined with eARC support, the premium soundbar offers powerful, immersive sound — more so if you pair it with a large 4K TV that supports Atmos over HDMI ARC. With its built-in mics, you can also use the Arc as a smart speaker, as it supports all the same smart home platforms as the Beam, in addition to the aforementioned Sonos Ace headphones.

Read our reviews of the latest Sonos Beam and Sonos Arc.

Read More 

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images

Probably you have already heard that astronauts Barry ”Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams may not be able to leave on the Boeing Starliner that brought them to the International Space Station. I have been thinking about it in quiet moments — when I wake up in the morning, on hikes, in the shower.
Those guys popped up there on June 5th, and they were supposed to spend a week on the ISS doing normal astronaut stuff and then go home. But apparently the Boeing Starliner was made about as well as the Boeing 737 Max, and so the astronauts have been on an unplanned vacation in orbit. They might be up there until next February — NASA hasn’t made a decision yet.
Man, I get antsy waiting for a bus, and these two have been cooling their heels for weeks already and may be doing it for months more. I’m sure NASA can cook up lots of little tasks, but there is still an awful lot of time to kill while they’re stuck in that tin can. So I’ve come up with some suggestions for how they can entertain themselves while they wait.

Marathon training. The ISS has a gym on board, and astronauts are required to work out for two hours a day to help ameliorate the breakdown of their bodies in microgravity. But if you’ve got nothing but time, why not train for a marathon? It might be easier than doing that kind of training on Earth, and who knows, maybe you come back with cool new muscle definition as a result.

Polish the equipment until it sparkles. You like cleaning? Great, now’s your chance. Leave it better than you found it, like, way better.

Movie marathons. Hey, have you ever wanted to see the entire oeuvre of Akira Kurosawa?

Get really good at meditating. Floating while tethered to the wall has gotta be at least a little soothing, right?

Social media bits. Outreach — usually to schools — is a part of the ISS deal, so why not use the time to get really good at posting. One of the best things about Kevin Durant is that when he’s not dunking on court, he’s dunking on Twitter. Why not take this opportunity to make an account for low-gravity TikTok dances.

Finally read Proust. À la recherche du temps perdu is a famously-long masterpiece. Many readers, including me, have been putting it off for when they have more free time. Those astronauts have nothing but time. All they need is an e-reader.

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images

Probably you have already heard that astronauts Barry ”Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams may not be able to leave on the Boeing Starliner that brought them to the International Space Station. I have been thinking about it in quiet moments — when I wake up in the morning, on hikes, in the shower.

Those guys popped up there on June 5th, and they were supposed to spend a week on the ISS doing normal astronaut stuff and then go home. But apparently the Boeing Starliner was made about as well as the Boeing 737 Max, and so the astronauts have been on an unplanned vacation in orbit. They might be up there until next February — NASA hasn’t made a decision yet.

Man, I get antsy waiting for a bus, and these two have been cooling their heels for weeks already and may be doing it for months more. I’m sure NASA can cook up lots of little tasks, but there is still an awful lot of time to kill while they’re stuck in that tin can. So I’ve come up with some suggestions for how they can entertain themselves while they wait.

Marathon training. The ISS has a gym on board, and astronauts are required to work out for two hours a day to help ameliorate the breakdown of their bodies in microgravity. But if you’ve got nothing but time, why not train for a marathon? It might be easier than doing that kind of training on Earth, and who knows, maybe you come back with cool new muscle definition as a result.

Polish the equipment until it sparkles. You like cleaning? Great, now’s your chance. Leave it better than you found it, like, way better.

Movie marathons. Hey, have you ever wanted to see the entire oeuvre of Akira Kurosawa?

Get really good at meditating. Floating while tethered to the wall has gotta be at least a little soothing, right?

Social media bits. Outreach — usually to schools — is a part of the ISS deal, so why not use the time to get really good at posting. One of the best things about Kevin Durant is that when he’s not dunking on court, he’s dunking on Twitter. Why not take this opportunity to make an account for low-gravity TikTok dances.

Finally read Proust. À la recherche du temps perdu is a famously-long masterpiece. Many readers, including me, have been putting it off for when they have more free time. Those astronauts have nothing but time. All they need is an e-reader.

Read More 

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

Most Google Pixel phones sold since September 2017 included software that could be used to surveil or remotely control users’ phones, according to a new report from the cybersecurity company iVerify.
The vulnerability was discovered after iVerify’s endpoint detection and response (EDR) scanner flagged an insecure Android device at Palantir Technologies, an iVerify client. After launching a joint investigation, iVerify, Palantir, and Trail of Bits discovered a hidden Android software package — Showcase.apk — across Google Pixel devices. The data-mining firm Palantir, which sells its surveillance products to governments and private companies, banned Android devices across the company in response.
“This was very deleterious of trust, to have third-party, unvetted insecure software on it,” Dane Stuckey, Palantir’s chief information security officer, told The Washington Post. “We have no idea how it got there, so we made the decision to effectively ban Androids internally.”
According to iVerify’s report, the software was developed by a company called Smith Micro Software and appears to have been created for Verizon for in-store demos. The app was inactive by default and had to be manually enabled, the iVerify report found. “When enabled, Showcase.apk makes the operating system accessible to hackers and ripe for man-in-the-middle attacks, code injection, and spyware,” the report reads. “The impact of this vulnerability is significant and could result in data loss breaches totaling billions of dollars.”
In a statement to The Verge, Google spokesperson Ed Fernandez said the software was made “for Verizon in-store demo devices and is no longer being used,” adding that Google has “seen no evidence of any active exploitation.”
iVerify told Google about its report in early May, according to Wired. The company had not publicly disclosed the vulnerability, nor has it released a software update to remove the problem. Wired reported that Android would remove the app from all Pixel devices “in the coming weeks,” which Fernandez confirmed to The Verge.
“It’s really quite troubling. Pixels are meant to be clean,” Stuckey, of Palantir, told the Post. “There is a bunch of defense stuff built on Pixel phones.”

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

Most Google Pixel phones sold since September 2017 included software that could be used to surveil or remotely control users’ phones, according to a new report from the cybersecurity company iVerify.

The vulnerability was discovered after iVerify’s endpoint detection and response (EDR) scanner flagged an insecure Android device at Palantir Technologies, an iVerify client. After launching a joint investigation, iVerify, Palantir, and Trail of Bits discovered a hidden Android software package — Showcase.apk — across Google Pixel devices. The data-mining firm Palantir, which sells its surveillance products to governments and private companies, banned Android devices across the company in response.

“This was very deleterious of trust, to have third-party, unvetted insecure software on it,” Dane Stuckey, Palantir’s chief information security officer, told The Washington Post. “We have no idea how it got there, so we made the decision to effectively ban Androids internally.”

According to iVerify’s report, the software was developed by a company called Smith Micro Software and appears to have been created for Verizon for in-store demos. The app was inactive by default and had to be manually enabled, the iVerify report found. “When enabled, Showcase.apk makes the operating system accessible to hackers and ripe for man-in-the-middle attacks, code injection, and spyware,” the report reads. “The impact of this vulnerability is significant and could result in data loss breaches totaling billions of dollars.”

In a statement to The Verge, Google spokesperson Ed Fernandez said the software was made “for Verizon in-store demo devices and is no longer being used,” adding that Google has “seen no evidence of any active exploitation.”

iVerify told Google about its report in early May, according to Wired. The company had not publicly disclosed the vulnerability, nor has it released a software update to remove the problem. Wired reported that Android would remove the app from all Pixel devices “in the coming weeks,” which Fernandez confirmed to The Verge.

“It’s really quite troubling. Pixels are meant to be clean,” Stuckey, of Palantir, told the Post. “There is a bunch of defense stuff built on Pixel phones.”

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Image: Activision

Call of Duty games have famously giant file sizes, but ahead of the October 25th launch of Black Ops 6, Activision is going to make some changes so that Call of Duty titles don’t take up as much space on your hard drive — including separating Warzone from the default download for the annual games.
The default separation of Warzone is happening soon: on August 21st, alongside the launch of Season 5 Reloaded. As part of that, when you download an annual Call of Duty game, you’ll also be able to opt in to also download Warzone if you want. And if you just want to download Warzone, that will still be an option as well.

With Season 5 Reloaded, Activision also says that it is going to rely more on texture streaming, and players will be able to pick between “optimized” (the default) or “minimal” streaming. In mid-October, Activision plans to introduce a new user interface for browsing your Call of Duty games, too.
But to prepare for these changes, Activision says you’re going to have to download a big update as part of the Season 5 rollout that will reorganize game files and add new tech “to prep the way for the full player interface.” After that update is done, Activision says that Call of Duty’s footprint will go down because of the “file optimizations.” (PlayStation 5 players will have to download a series of updates because of “differences in file organization.”)

Image: Activision

A roadmap from Activision about upcoming Call of Duty updates.

Because of the updates, Activision says that Black Ops 6 will be a “smaller download at launch than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.” The company doesn’t have a specific download size for Black Ops 6 yet, but it says that the estimated file sizes shown on preorder listings don’t represent the “download size or disk footprint” for the game. (Activision has already had to clarify this after an Xbox store page listing showed a jaw-dropping 309.85GB download.)
Activision will also be hosting a Black Ops 6 open beta that starts on August 30th.

Image: Activision

Call of Duty games have famously giant file sizes, but ahead of the October 25th launch of Black Ops 6, Activision is going to make some changes so that Call of Duty titles don’t take up as much space on your hard drive — including separating Warzone from the default download for the annual games.

The default separation of Warzone is happening soon: on August 21st, alongside the launch of Season 5 Reloaded. As part of that, when you download an annual Call of Duty game, you’ll also be able to opt in to also download Warzone if you want. And if you just want to download Warzone, that will still be an option as well.

With Season 5 Reloaded, Activision also says that it is going to rely more on texture streaming, and players will be able to pick between “optimized” (the default) or “minimal” streaming. In mid-October, Activision plans to introduce a new user interface for browsing your Call of Duty games, too.

But to prepare for these changes, Activision says you’re going to have to download a big update as part of the Season 5 rollout that will reorganize game files and add new tech “to prep the way for the full player interface.” After that update is done, Activision says that Call of Duty’s footprint will go down because of the “file optimizations.” (PlayStation 5 players will have to download a series of updates because of “differences in file organization.”)

Image: Activision

A roadmap from Activision about upcoming Call of Duty updates.

Because of the updates, Activision says that Black Ops 6 will be a “smaller download at launch than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.” The company doesn’t have a specific download size for Black Ops 6 yet, but it says that the estimated file sizes shown on preorder listings don’t represent the “download size or disk footprint” for the game. (Activision has already had to clarify this after an Xbox store page listing showed a jaw-dropping 309.85GB download.)

Activision will also be hosting a Black Ops 6 open beta that starts on August 30th.

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Image: Threads

Meta is testing a handful of new features on Threads, its X competitor, the company announced today.
The new additions range from options that the average Threads user might appreciate to content management tools that feel more directly aimed at brands. Threads, which just passed the one-year mark since its official launch on July 5th, 2023, now has more than 175 million monthly active users, including some celebrities and brand accounts.
The most useful new feature, in my opinion, is the ability to have multiple posts saved as drafts. Currently, Threads only allows for one draft — you have to post it or replace it. With the update, users will be able to save up to 100 drafts.
Users will also get new ways to customize their Threads homepage by reordering pinned columns. The columns were part of an earlier update to the desktop site that gave Threads a TweetDeck-like look, allowing users to keep eyes on multiple feeds. Now, users will be able to move columns around depending on what they want to see more prominently.

Image: Threads
A new analytics page called Insights provides data like follower demographics.

Other features announced today are likely more useful for marketers running brand accounts. A new Insights page, for example, offers data breakdowns for accounts such as follower demographics, interactions, and “views” — a metric Instagram has been pushing as the primary way to understand how content is performing. Some Threads users got early access to Insights this week. Meta also announced that the ability to schedule Threads posts in advance is coming soon. New features will roll out on web first, with mobile versions being “explored” later on.
Though Threads has had rapid growth following its release last year, the platform is still fighting to capture the same relevance that X amassed. In some cases, the people running the platform have purposely tried to distance themselves from what Twitter was; Instagram head Adam Mosseri said early on that Threads wouldn’t prioritize news or recommend political content, the very topics that made X useful in the first place. Reporting suggests that Meta plans to introduce ads on Threads sometime next year, which explains the influx of brand-friendly tools like analytics and scheduling. The hope is that when companies and celebrities finally have had enough of X, they’ll flock to Threads instead.

Image: Threads

Meta is testing a handful of new features on Threads, its X competitor, the company announced today.

The new additions range from options that the average Threads user might appreciate to content management tools that feel more directly aimed at brands. Threads, which just passed the one-year mark since its official launch on July 5th, 2023, now has more than 175 million monthly active users, including some celebrities and brand accounts.

The most useful new feature, in my opinion, is the ability to have multiple posts saved as drafts. Currently, Threads only allows for one draft — you have to post it or replace it. With the update, users will be able to save up to 100 drafts.

Users will also get new ways to customize their Threads homepage by reordering pinned columns. The columns were part of an earlier update to the desktop site that gave Threads a TweetDeck-like look, allowing users to keep eyes on multiple feeds. Now, users will be able to move columns around depending on what they want to see more prominently.

Image: Threads
A new analytics page called Insights provides data like follower demographics.

Other features announced today are likely more useful for marketers running brand accounts. A new Insights page, for example, offers data breakdowns for accounts such as follower demographics, interactions, and “views” — a metric Instagram has been pushing as the primary way to understand how content is performing. Some Threads users got early access to Insights this week. Meta also announced that the ability to schedule Threads posts in advance is coming soon. New features will roll out on web first, with mobile versions being “explored” later on.

Though Threads has had rapid growth following its release last year, the platform is still fighting to capture the same relevance that X amassed. In some cases, the people running the platform have purposely tried to distance themselves from what Twitter was; Instagram head Adam Mosseri said early on that Threads wouldn’t prioritize news or recommend political content, the very topics that made X useful in the first place. Reporting suggests that Meta plans to introduce ads on Threads sometime next year, which explains the influx of brand-friendly tools like analytics and scheduling. The hope is that when companies and celebrities finally have had enough of X, they’ll flock to Threads instead.

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The Momentum Sport earbuds come in a few different color options, but the only vibrant hue is olive. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds are a pretty unique piece of tech, as the noise-canceling buds feature an embedded heart rate tracker for monitoring your performance during runs and exercises. They’re also normally on the pricey side at $329.95, but right now, the olive and graphite colors are discounted to a new low of $254.06 (a savings of roughly $76) at Amazon.

The Momentum Sport have a somewhat bassy tone that’s often found in fitness-focused earbuds (since that oomph-oomph can help keep you going when you’re really sweating), but they sound good and offer a secure fit for when you run. They also offer a transparency mode to keep you better attuned to your surroundings and IP55-rated weather resistance that should be able to deal with excessive sweat. But the big appeal here is you’re getting heart rate tracking without having to wear anything on your wrists, and Sennheiser doesn’t lock you into its ecosystem, as the Momentum Sport can integrate with Polar’s app for training analytics.

Read our review of the Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds.

Friday’s almost here, folks, so celebrate with more deals

Woot is running a sale on a handful of Nintendo Switch games through August 23rd, offering an additional $5 off at checkout when you use promo code GAMES. The combined discounts drop the recent Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remaster to an all-time low of $44.99 ($15 off). The classic GameCube title from 2004 is known for being one of the best Mario RPGs ever made, and it now plays and looks better than ever.

Microsoft is selling its Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 for $144.99 ($35 off), which is the lowest price we’ve seen in a while, even if we’ve seen bigger, more frequent discounts in the past. The Elite 2 has its faults when it comes to reliability, but it’s still one of the most full-featured controllers you can get for Xbox consoles and PC thanks to the addition of rear paddles, hair-trigger lockouts, and robust software customization. Read our review.

Logitech’s Casa Pop-Up Desk is currently seeing a rare discount that drops it to $159.99 ($20 off) at Amazon. The remote work accessory provides a wireless keyboard, trackpad, and angled laptop stand to prop up your computer — with the stand pulling double duty for storage. It’s a pretty versatile one-stop-shop solution that can help you work more comfortably in any room of the house.

The Momentum Sport earbuds come in a few different color options, but the only vibrant hue is olive. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds are a pretty unique piece of tech, as the noise-canceling buds feature an embedded heart rate tracker for monitoring your performance during runs and exercises. They’re also normally on the pricey side at $329.95, but right now, the olive and graphite colors are discounted to a new low of $254.06 (a savings of roughly $76) at Amazon.

The Momentum Sport have a somewhat bassy tone that’s often found in fitness-focused earbuds (since that oomph-oomph can help keep you going when you’re really sweating), but they sound good and offer a secure fit for when you run. They also offer a transparency mode to keep you better attuned to your surroundings and IP55-rated weather resistance that should be able to deal with excessive sweat. But the big appeal here is you’re getting heart rate tracking without having to wear anything on your wrists, and Sennheiser doesn’t lock you into its ecosystem, as the Momentum Sport can integrate with Polar’s app for training analytics.

Read our review of the Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds.

Friday’s almost here, folks, so celebrate with more deals

Woot is running a sale on a handful of Nintendo Switch games through August 23rd, offering an additional $5 off at checkout when you use promo code GAMES. The combined discounts drop the recent Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remaster to an all-time low of $44.99 ($15 off). The classic GameCube title from 2004 is known for being one of the best Mario RPGs ever made, and it now plays and looks better than ever.

Microsoft is selling its Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 for $144.99 ($35 off), which is the lowest price we’ve seen in a while, even if we’ve seen bigger, more frequent discounts in the past. The Elite 2 has its faults when it comes to reliability, but it’s still one of the most full-featured controllers you can get for Xbox consoles and PC thanks to the addition of rear paddles, hair-trigger lockouts, and robust software customization. Read our review.

Logitech’s Casa Pop-Up Desk is currently seeing a rare discount that drops it to $159.99 ($20 off) at Amazon. The remote work accessory provides a wireless keyboard, trackpad, and angled laptop stand to prop up your computer — with the stand pulling double duty for storage. It’s a pretty versatile one-stop-shop solution that can help you work more comfortably in any room of the house.

Read More 

Image: Rivian

Rivian is selling a travel kitchen accessory for the first time. This is not the comprehensive campsite device it advertised years ago (but never released) that slid out the side of the company’s electric R1T trucks. Instead, this new one is compact and lightweight, designed to sit on a vehicle’s tailgate.
Simply called the Travel Kitchen, it folds out to span the length of the tailgate and features two induction burners, a cutting board that stows away in an organizer drawer, and a pop-out bar for hanging a towel. The unit needs a three-prong 120V power source with 15A of current to work, which you can get from a Rivian vehicle, campsite power, or an F-150 Lighting, Cybertruck, or other vehicle with capable onboard power or a generator.

Image: Rivian
Plug the Travel Kitchen into the truck’s 120V power.

The cooktops have nine heat levels and share 1500W of power, but a single-running cooktop can take all the energy for maximum heat. It has a “touchscreen power button” that only activates when induction cookware (not included) is set atop the unit and shuts off when removed for safety.

The Travel Kitchen also comes with a stow-away LED lighting kit that hangs off included poles and a carry case so you can pack away the whole setup in any trunk, EV truck frunk, or even Rivian’s gear tunnel. The accessory is available now from Rivian for $1,400 and is part of the automaker’s expanding Adventure Gear line of products.

Photo by Joey Roulette / The Verge
Rivian has never released this full pull-out kitchen.

Image: Rivian

Rivian is selling a travel kitchen accessory for the first time. This is not the comprehensive campsite device it advertised years ago (but never released) that slid out the side of the company’s electric R1T trucks. Instead, this new one is compact and lightweight, designed to sit on a vehicle’s tailgate.

Simply called the Travel Kitchen, it folds out to span the length of the tailgate and features two induction burners, a cutting board that stows away in an organizer drawer, and a pop-out bar for hanging a towel. The unit needs a three-prong 120V power source with 15A of current to work, which you can get from a Rivian vehicle, campsite power, or an F-150 Lighting, Cybertruck, or other vehicle with capable onboard power or a generator.

Image: Rivian
Plug the Travel Kitchen into the truck’s 120V power.

The cooktops have nine heat levels and share 1500W of power, but a single-running cooktop can take all the energy for maximum heat. It has a “touchscreen power button” that only activates when induction cookware (not included) is set atop the unit and shuts off when removed for safety.

The Travel Kitchen also comes with a stow-away LED lighting kit that hangs off included poles and a carry case so you can pack away the whole setup in any trunk, EV truck frunk, or even Rivian’s gear tunnel. The accessory is available now from Rivian for $1,400 and is part of the automaker’s expanding Adventure Gear line of products.

Photo by Joey Roulette / The Verge
Rivian has never released this full pull-out kitchen.

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