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Red Notice. Image: Netflix Filed under: Entertainment Everything from The Witcher to Tiger King By Sep 25, 2021, 3:20pm EDT Netflix held its first Tudum event today, a three-hour livestream that featured, well, a lot of stuff. That means more than 70 series and 28 movies, which is more than anyone should have to keep track of. So we’ve curated the biggest announcements and best trailers right here, from a new look at Stranger Things and a whole lot of The Witcher, to premier dates for the likes of new seasons of Tiger King and Bridgerton. Here’s everything you may have missed. The next project from Studio Colorido Ahead of the main Tudum event, Netflix spent some time outlining its anime lineup, and the biggest reveal was the next feature from Studio Colorido, best-known for 2020’s A Whisker Away. The studio’s latest feature is called Drifting Home, and it’s described as a “story about two childhood friends that drift into a mysterious sea alongside an entire housing complex.” It’ll start streaming in 2022. A fresh look at Red Notice The event opened with some star power, thanks to a new trailer for the heist movie Red Notice starring Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, and Dwayne Johnson. As expected, it features lots of explosions and smart-ass quips — but it also looks like a lot of fun. The new clip primarily focuses on a three-minute-long fight scene between the star trio, where Gadot comes out on top. Another Stranger Things 4 teaser The teases for the fourth season of Stranger Things just keep coming, with the latest showcasing a new locale for the beloved show called the Creel House, along with Dustin doing his best Sherlock Holmes impressio
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The team at iFixit has a new teardown of the iPhone 13 Pro, finding it has an enormous battery and some small internal changes to how the components are laid out to accommodate the smaller notch on this year’s models. First, the battery. After conducting battery swap tests, on the iPhone 13 Pro, iFixit found its tests succeeded, but still got a warning notification. The L-shaped battery echoes the iPhone 12 Pro Max, iFixit notes: This beefy L caps out at an expected 11.97 Wh compared to the 10.78 Wh obelisk found in the iPhone 12 Pro (and non-Pro), but loses out to the standard’s 12.54 Wh rectangular cell. An X-ray image of iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max iFixit/Creative Electron iFixit posits that Apple was able to shrink the screen notch partly by moving the earpiece speaker from the back of the display to inside the chassis. It does make replacing the earp
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great paint — Despite Kia's expertise with electrification, the Carnival only comes as a V6 for now. Kia has replaced the Sedona minivan with the Carnival, new for model year 2022. Jonathan Gitlin I like minivans in general, and I like the way this Kia minivan looks in particular. Jonathan Gitlin The front grille is a tiger's nose. Jonathan Gitlin The hexagonal texture on the C pillar trim stands out when you're up close. Jonathan Gitlin I'd rather sit here than in most SUVs. Kia The rear doors give good access to the middle row. In the case of our test car that's a row of three seats. Jonathan Gitlin There's another row of three in the back. But maybe only two if you're adult-sized. Kia The third row folds flat into the floor, leaving a huge area for cargo. Jonathan Gitlin These seatback screens can mirror your phone wirelessly via Android Auto or CarPlay. Kia There are USB ports integrated into the sides of the front seats. Jonathan Gitlin The captains chairs are optional. Kia A closer look at the digital main instrument display. Kia The center console has places to keep your stuff, and a wireless charging pad for your phone. Kia Will the sun set on the minivan? Just four are on sale today. Jonathan Gitlin I'm not shy about my affection for minivans. And so, despite having no kids and still being in the middle of a pandemic that makes it dangerous to spend time with other people in small enclosed spaces, when Kia asked if I wanted to spend some time with its new $32,100 Carnival minivan I said yes. Because, as already noted, minivans are wonderful. They're handsome, too, at least when we're talking about the Carnival. Kia's designers went with a two-box shape and embraced the boxiness. To my eye the proportions are spot-on, particularly in profile where its shape falls midway between hatchback and station wagon, but scaled up by 20 percent. Distinguishing features include the brand's big "tiger nose" grille up front and, since our text car was the Carnival SX (MSRP: $41,100), a textured chrome panel on the C pillar that gives you something interesting to look at up close. My photos fail to do justice to the optional ($495) ceramic silver paint, which sparkled with pink and gold flecks in the sunlight. Together with the SX's black alloy wheels and the silver accents, it all works rather well. The inside is voluminous in the way you want a people carrier to be, and it's even available in either an eight-seat layout (as was the case for our test Carnival) with a middle row that slides and can be removed or as a seven-seater with a pair of reclining, heated, and ventilated captain's chairs for the middle row. In both cases, the third row can fold flat into the floor to increase cargo room from 40.2 cubic feet (1,138 L) to 86.9 cubic feet (2,460 L). The third row is also only really a three-seat row for small children. As I've written before, Kia's UVO infotainment system is actually pretty decent, with a UI that at times reminds me of the old days of pre-OS X Macintoshes. Being an SX trim, our test Carnival also had screens built into the seatbacks of both front seats. These have a kids mode, and the screens can also mirror a phone via Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. Each row has its own USB-A ports, but phone casting also works wirelessly, and there is a wireless charging pad built into the center console. Beyond that, there's a good suite
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Delta Airlines said in a pair of internal memos to employees this week that it’s asked competitors to share their no-fly lists, to try to keep passengers who cause disturbances on planes from bringing their mayhem to other airlines. Since January 1st, the Federal Aviation Administration says it has received 4,385 reports of unruly behavior by passengers, which includes 3,199 reports of passengers “refusing to comply with the federal facemask mandate.” The FAA has issued more than $1 million in proposed fines, but the agency does not have the authority to conduct criminal prosecutions. Among the incidents, according to the FAA (these are across various airlines): On a May 24th flight from New York to Orlando a passenger was “allegedly throwing objects, including his carry-on luggage, at other passengers; refusing to stay seated; lying on the floor in the aisle, refusing to get up, and then grabbing a flight attendant by the ankles and putting his head up her skirt.” On a May 16th flight from New York to San Francisco, a passenger was “allegedly interfering with crewmembers after failing to comply with the facemask mandate; making non-consensual physical contact with another passenger; throwing a playing card at a passenger and threatening him with physical harm; making stabbing gestures towards certain passengers; and snorting what appeared to be cocaine from a plastic bag, which the cabin crew confiscated.” On an April 12th flight form Boston to Orlando a passenger was “allegedly interfering with crewmembers after refusing to comply with the facemask mandate. She also shouted obscenities at the flight crew, and intentionally bumped into a seated passenger on her way to the lavatory. When the seated passenger objected to this behavior, she punched the passenger in the face.” The passengers in those incidents were referred to law enforcement and the FAA has proposed fines ranging from $29,000 to $45,000. Delta sent its memos to employees the same day that airline industry representatives took part in an “air rage” hearing before the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, asking Congress to encourage the Department of Just
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At its big Tudum event, Netflix confirmed that it will make a third season of The Witcher. No other details were shared, so we don’t know when we might expect it just yet. Netflix also said that it would continue to expand The Witcher with a second anime film and, surprisingly, a series designed for kids and families. The announcements further expand Netflix’s ever-growing slate of Witcher content. At the event, Netflix also shared new clips from the second season ahead of its December 17th premiere and a behind-the-scenes look at The Witcher: Blood Origin, the upcoming live-action preq
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There was a lot of Geralt of Rivia at Netflix’s Tudum event. The upcoming second season of The Witcher was a major presence at the streamer’s big showcase; fans were able to check out a pair of very short teasers, that gave a good look at what life is like on the Continent, and what we can expect from Ciri in particular. Additionally, we got a first glimpse at the prequel series Blood Origin with a behind-the-scenes tour of the set, and a trailer to catch fans up on a season 1 — which also has some new footage from the upcoming season. The first season of the show debuted in 2019 and
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Apple told the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) that its Apple TV Plus streaming platform had fewer than 20 million subscribers, which allowed it to pay lower rates to IATSE workers than bigger streaming platforms, CNBC reported. Apple has never publicly released subscriber numbers for its streaming network, which launched in November of 2019. But Apple TV Plus has fewer original shows than larger, more established streaming rivals like Netflix, which said in August it had 209 million subscribers. “Workers on certain ‘new media’ streaming projects get paid less, even on productions with budgets that rival or exceed those of traditionally released blockbusters,” according to a press release IATSE posted on Tuesday. The release didn’t mention any streaming platform by name, but a spokesman told CNBC that Apple claimed under 20 million subscribers in the US and Canada as of July 1st. The union is preparing for a possible strike after negotiations with production companies have stalled, saying in the release that “the explosion of streaming combined with the pandemic has elevated and aggravated working conditions, bringing 60,000 behind-the-scenes workers covered by these contracts to a breaking point.” Apple TV Plus has several big-budget shows on its roster, including The Morning Show, which stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, and Ted Lasso, its surprise hit comedy about an American coaching an English football club. Ted Lasso had a big showing at the Emmys last week, taking awards for Outstanding Comedy, Lead Actor in a Comedy for star Jason Sudeikis, and supporting acting awards for Brett Goldstein and Hannah Waddingham. The Morning Show reportedly costs Apple $15 million per episode, and many of Ted Lasso’s writers and stars have reportedly negotiated more lucrative contracts for the show’s third season. Apple said in July that it had a net profit of $21.7 billion on $81.43 billion in revenue in its third quarter of 2021. Apple and IATSE didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from The Verge on Saturday. An Apple spokesperson told CNBC that it pays rates comparable to leading streaming services.
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Kicking off these deals on the smart home lighting front, the Nanoleaf Elements light-up wall panels — just released in the summer — have a nice discount at Best Buy. The wood accent hexagon-shaped panels are $50 off for a seven panel kit, bringing them down to $250. If you want to go beyond seven you can opt for a three panel expansion kit for $80 (saving you $20). These panels are customizable and you can connect up to 22 of them in one contiguous pattern. You may be familiar with the colorful Nanoleaf panels that are popular with Twitch streamers and YouTubers, but the Elements promise a more refined look with their wood grain and white illumination that ranges from cool to warm tones. When turned off their subtle wood aesthetic still complements a room without looking like light panels that have gone out. Also on the smart home front, Best Buy is offering several great deals on Philips Hue lighting through their Geek Squad-certified refurbished offers. Our top pick is the multicolor LED Starter Kit with three bulbs, Bridge, and dimmer switch, all for $135. In addition to that, there are some nice options for accent lighting with the Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip 65” for $225 (a savings of $25) and a two pack of Hue Play Smart LED light bars for $100 (saving you $50). Either of those can do wonders to a room or entertainment center setup for some added drama, while the starter kit can outfit an entire bedroom and give you easy control with the dimmer. If you’re in need of a Hue Bridge for some bulbs you have already invested in from a prior deal, Best Buy also has the 2nd-generation Bridge for $40 (saving you $20). Philips Hue LED Starter Kit multicolor The Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance LED Starter Kit is an all-in-one solution for getting into a smart lighting system with enough bulbs and accessories to light a small-to-average size room. The package includes three E26 bulbs, a dimmer switch, and a Hue Bridge for connectivity. $135 at Best Buy (Refurbished) Bose’s line of Bluetooth-enabled audio sunglasses are pretty unique. They come in a few different styles, with some models looking more casual and sleek while others more fitting for action. Right now there are some noteworthy deals on both the Bose Frames Tempo and Bose Frames Tenor at multiple retailers. Both offer wireless audio that does not block your ears or prevent you from hearing things in your vicinity, which can be very helpful when riding a bike, commuting, or just roaming some city streets. Best Buy has both the Tempo and Tenor for a discounted price of $224, knocking $25 off the price of each. Additionally, you can get the same pricing from Amazon for the Tempo and B&H has the Tenor. Read our Bose Frames Tempo review here.
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Malgorithms — Algorithm made it harder for Black patients to qualify for transplants, other treatments. Getty ImagesFor decades, doctors and hospitals saw kidney patients differently based on their race. A standard equation for estimating kidney function applied a correction for Black patients that made their health appear rosier, inhibiting access to transplants and other treatments. On Thursday, a task force assembled by two leading kidney care societies said the practice is unfair and should end. The group, a collaboration between the National Kidney Foundation and the American Society of Nephrology, recommended use of a new formula that does not factor in a patient’s race. In a statement, Paul Palevsky, the foundation’s president, urged “all laboratories and health care systems nationwide to adopt this new approach as rapidly as possible.” That call is significant because recommendations and guidelines from professional medical societies play a powerful role in shaping how specialists care for patients. A study published in 2020 that reviewed records for 57,000 people in Massachusetts found that one-third of Black patients would have had their disease classified as more severe if they had been assessed using the same version of the formula as white patients. The traditional kidney calculation was an example of a class of medical algorithms and calculators that have recently come under fire for conditioning patient care based on race, which is a social category not biological one. A review published last year listed more than a dozen such tools, in areas such as cardiology and cancer care. It helped prompt a surge of activism against the practice from diverse groups, including medical students and lawmakers such as Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, Richard Neal (D-Massachusetts). Recently there are signs the tide is turning. The University of Washington dropped the use of race in kidney calculations last year after student protests led to a reconsideration of the practice. Mass General Brigham and Vanderbilt hospitals also abandoned the practice in 2020. In May, a tool used to predict the chance a woman who previously had a cesarean section could safely give birth via vaginal delivery was updated to no longer automatically assign lower scores to Black and Hispanic women. A calculator that estimates the chances a child has a urinary tract infection was updated to no longer slash the scores for patients who are Black. The prior formula for assessing kidney disease, known as CKD-EPI, was introduced in 2009, updating a 1999 formula that used race in a similar way. It converts the level of a waste product called creatinine in a person’s blood into a measure of overall kidney function called estimated glomerular filtration rate, or eGFR. Doctors use eGFR to help classify the severity of a person’s illness and determine if they qualify for vari
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At its big Tudum event, Netflix showed off a nice, two-minute-long look at one of its most exciting upcoming movies: Don’t Look Up. Don’t Look Up is one of the more interesting films in Netflix’s slate, a story about astronomers trying to save the world from an impending asteroid collision. it also happens to have a stellar cast. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence play the aforementioned astronomers, while Meryl Streep is the president, Jonah Hill is her chief of staff, and the rest of the lineup includes Ron Perlman, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi, Cate Blanchett, and Tyler Perry. Adam McKay is writer and director. Don’t Look Up is due to hit Netflix on December
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Netflix is sharing a huge amount of news about upcoming series and mo
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We’ve still only caught glimpses of Netflix’s upcoming live-action take on Cowboy Bebop, and today delivers yet another tease: a kinetic opening title sequence for the show. It’s not quite a proper trailer (which we’re still waiting on), but it does give a good sense of the vibe the series is going for. The Netflix adaptation stars John Cho as Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black, and Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine, and last month we got our first proper look at the cast — and Spike’s hair — thanks to a series of photos. It’s been a long time coming, as news of the adaptation was first revealed in 2018, with the cast announced a year later. Earlier this year, Ne
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Netflix is kicking off a massive fan event today. Tudum — named for the ubiquitous chime that plays before Netflix titles — is a global event that will feature a huge slate of news, trailers, c
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Back in black — DeSnake apparently eluded the takedown of AlphaBay and now plans to resurrect it. Enlarge / DeSnake is back, with big promises about keeping AlphaBay up and running this time.Illustration: Elena Lacey | Getty ImagesJust over four years ago, the US Department of Justice announced the takedown of AlphaBay, the biggest dark web market bust in history. Thai police arrested the site's 26-year-old administrator, Alexandre Cazes, in Bangkok, and the FBI seized AlphaBay's central server in Lithuania, wiping out a marketplace that was selling hundreds of millions of dollars a year worth of hard drugs, hacked data, and other contraband to its 400,000-plus registered users. The FBI called the disruption of the site a “landmark operation.” But the fate of one key player in that massive black market scheme was never explained: AlphaBay's former number-two administrator, security specialist, and self-described cofounder, who went by the name DeSnake. Now, four years after his market's demise, DeSnake appears to be back online and has relaunched AlphaBay under his own singular leadership. After four years off the radar, he's not keeping quiet about his return. In an extended chat interview, DeSnake tells WIRED how he walked away unscathed from the takedown of AlphaBay, why he has resurfaced now, and what his plans are for the resurrected, once-dominant online black market. He communicated with WIRED via encrypted text messages, from a frequently changing series of pseudonymous accounts, after proving his identity by signing a public message with DeSnake's original PGP key, which multiple security researchers verified. "The biggest reason I am returning is to make the AlphaBay name be remembered as more than the marketplace which got busted and the founder made out to have committed suicide," DeSnake writes. Cazes was found dead of an apparent suicide in a Thai jail cell a week after his arrest; like many in the dark web community, DeSnake believes Cazes was murdered in prison. He was driven to rebuild AlphaBa
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Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/The Mercury News via Getty Images By leaving them off email threads By Sep 24, 2021, 9:49pm EDT Former Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff was the second employee who testified in Elizabeth Holmes’ trial who kept his work emails. Forwarding work emails to a personal account can violate a non-disclosure agreement, which Rosendorff signed when he joined the company. But, like Surekha Gangakhedkar before him, he was worried he’d be blamed for the company’s problems. He was right to worry: he’s one of the people Elizabeth Holmes’ defense is trying to blame. In opening arguments of US v Elizabeth Holmes, the defense agreed there were problems in Theranos’ lab. But Lance Wade, Homes’ attorney, said that problems in the clinical lab were ultimately the responsibility of the lab director. And besides, that lab director reported to Holmes’ co-defendant,
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Updated Huawei finance chief Meng Wanzhou has reached a deal with the US Justice Department to drop the fraud and conspiracy charges against her in exchange for admitting that she made false statements about her company's business dealings with Iran. The deferred prosecution agreement will end Uncle Sam's attempt to extradite Meng to the United States. It will allow her to depart Canada, where she has been detained since 2018, and return to China, easing a major source of diplomatic tension between Canada, China, and the US. After Canadian authorities arrested Meng at the Vancouver airport in December, 2018, on behalf of the Americans, the US Justice Department indicted her and her manufacturing giant for violating US sanctions on Iran by misrepresenting Huawei's relationship with Hong Kong-based Skycom, which operated in Iran. In entering into the deferred prosecution agreement, Meng has taken responsibility for her principal role in perpetrating a scheme to defraud a global financial institution According to US prosecutors, Huawei has controlled Skycom, which did business primarily in Iran, since February 2007. After a series of Reuters reports in late 2012 and early 2013 about Huawei's ties to Skycom, Huawei and Meng made statements to the press and to financial institutions asserting the two companies were simply business partners. "Those statements were untrue because, as Meng knew, Skycom was not a business partner of, or a third party working with, Huawei; instead, Huawei controlled Skycom, and Skycom employees were really Huawei employees," the US Justice Department said. For those and related statements, Meng was charged in the US with bank fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bank fraud, and wire fraud. Though on Friday she pleaded not guilty in an online hearing with a New York City court, under the terms of her deferred prosecution agreement, she has affirmed the accuracy of a four-page statement of facts that acknowledges lies made to an unidentified bank, and she has agreed not to commit further crimes. "In entering into the deferred prosecution agreement, Meng has taken responsibility for her principal role in p
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Huawei finance chief Meng Wanzhou has reached a deal with the US Justice Department to drop the fraud and conspiracy charges against her in exchange for admitting that she made false statements about her company's business dealings with Iran. The deferred prosecution agreement will end Uncle Sam's attempt to extradite Meng to the United States. It will allow her to depart Canada, where she has been detained since 2018, and return to China, easing a major source of diplomatic tension between Canada, China, and the US. After Canadian authorities arrested Meng at the Vancouver airport in December, 2018, on behalf of the Americans, the US Justice Department indicted her and her manufacturing giant for violating US sanctions on Iran by misrepresenting Huawei's relationship with Hong Kong-based Skycom, which operated in Iran. In entering into the deferred prosecution agreement, Meng has taken responsibility for her principal role in perpetrating a scheme to defraud a global financial institution According to US prosecutors, Huawei has controlled Skycom, which did business primarily in Iran, since February 2007. After a series of Reuters reports in late 2012 and early 2013 about Huawei's ties to Skycom, Huawei and Meng made statements to the press and to financial institutions asserting the two companies were simply business partners. "Those statements were untrue because, as Meng knew, Skycom was not a business partner of, or a third party working with, Huawei; instead, Huawei controlled Skycom, and Skycom employees were really Huawei employees," the US Justice Department said. For those and related statements, Meng was charged in the US with bank fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bank fraud, and wire fraud. Under the terms of her deferred prosecution agreement on Friday, she has affirmed the accuracy of a four-page statement of facts that acknowledges lies made to an unidentified bank and she has agreed not to commit further crimes. "In entering into the deferred prosecution agreement, Meng has taken responsibility for her principal role in perpetrating a scheme to defraud a global financial institution,” said Acting US Attorn
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Tiger King, the hugely popular documentary heavily associated with the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, will premiere on November 17th, Netflix revealed at its Tudum event on Saturday. Netflix just announced the second season, which it is calling Tiger King 2, on Thursday as part of a short trailer revealing many other true crime shows heading to the streaming service. Netflix is promising that it will have “just as much mayhem and madness” as the first season. While it’s unclear exactly what the second season might be about, Netflix’s Tudum trailer showed a brief clip of Joe Exotic, the main focus of the first season, in prison, so it could focus in part on that. Tiger King’s first season was a cultural sensation; in a press release, Netflix said that it “attracted 64
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Netflix has released a new trailer for Arcane, its upcoming series based on the League of Legends universe, and also revealed when the show will premiere: November 6th. But you won’t be able to watch all of Arcane on that day, as Netflix plans to release the season in three separate “acts,” each consisting of three episodes released one week after the last. That means the first act will be out on November 6th, the next will release on November 13th, and the final one will premiere on November 20th. Arcane was first announced in 2019, though League of Legends developer Riot Games delayed the series to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May, the news broke that Netflix had picked up the show and that it would debut in the fall. Earlier this week, Netflix and Riot revealed some o
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Netflix debuted a video from its upcoming series based on Neil Gaiman’s DC comic book series The Sandman. The video was brief, but it gave us a good glimpse at actor Tom Sturridge as Dream. The video was shown during Netflix’s Tudum event that took place Saturday. The show also also featured Gaiman, Sturridge, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste (who plays Death) talking about the series. If you want to get another preview of what to expect from the series, check out the character posters Netflix shared for Sturridge’s Dream, Howell-Baptiste’s Death, and Mason Alexander Park’s Desire in a Twitter thread. The Sandman has been in development for years, with Netflix picking up the show in 2019 in a deal with Warner Bros., which owns DC Entertainment, that was reportedly “massive.” Earlier this year, Netflix announced some of the cast for the show, which also includes Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne and Gwendoline Christie (known for playing Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones and Captain Phasma in Star Wars) as Lucifer. The Sandman is just the latest show based on Gaiman’s work. Amazon adapted Good Omens for Amazon Prime Video, and the show was successful enough that the c
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mask up — Universal masking prevents some school outbreaks and lowers case rates. Enlarge / A second-grade teacher talks to her class during the first day of school at Tustin Ranch Elementary School in Tustin, CA on Wednesday, August 11, 2021.Schools with universal masking were 3.5 times less likely to have a COVID-19 outbreak and saw rates of child COVID-19 cases 50 percent lower in their counties compared with schools without mask requirements. That's according to two new studies published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new data lands as masks continue to be a political and social flash point in the US. And children—many of whom are still ineligible for vaccination—have headed back into classrooms. In one of the newly published studies, health researchers in Arizona looked at schools with and without mask policies in Maricopa and Pima Counties. Together, the counties account for more than 75 percent of the state's population. The researchers identified 210 schools that had universal masking requirements from the start of their school years. They compared those to 480 schools that had no mask requirements throughout the study period, which ran from July 15 to August 30. The researchers tallied 129 school-associated COVID-19 outbreaks in all of those schools during the study period. About 87.5 percent of the outbreaks were in schools without mask requirements. The researchers then ran an analysis, adjusting for school sizes, COVID-19 case rates in each school's zip code, socioeconomics measures, and other f
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Apple’s iPhone 13 lineup launched Friday, and one of the key features of the 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max are their ProMotion displays with variable refresh rates that can top out at 120Hz. But as spotted by 9to5Mac, some app animations in third-party apps are currently only running at 60Hz. That might be frustrating if you were expecting to see buttery-smooth animations across all of your apps with the new phones, but when we asked Apple what was going on, the company shared two reasons why this might be happening. One reason is that developers will need to update their apps to declare that they use the higher refresh rate. This can be done by adding an entry to the app’s plist, Apple tells The Verge, and the company says it plans to share documentation about the entry you need to add soon. But in some cases, animations built with the company’s Core Animation technology are also affected by an issue that will be fixed in an upcoming software update, Apple says. Variable refresh rate screens offer a lot of benefits, including smoother animations and scrolling when you’re using the device and battery savings the screen runs at lower refresh rates. We were impressed with the screens on the 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max in our review, and it’s good to hear that third party apps will be able to take full advantage of what they have to offer — though some may have to wait until after that software update.
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Netflix debuted a new teaser trailer for Stranger Things season 4 as part of its Tudum event on Saturday. It opened on a family going into an old-timey house, but in classic Stranger Things fashion, things quickly got spooky and, well, strange. The new season will premiere sometime in 2022. The fourth season has been a long time coming. Stranger Things’ third season debuted more than two years ago, on July 4th, 2019, so fans have been waiting for quite a while to see what happens next in Netflix’s hit series. (Season 3 was quite popular — just four days after it launched, Netflix said
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China has once again banned cryptocurrencies. It's not even the first time this month Beijing's done so, let alone the first time ever, yet word of the reiterated crackdown sent coin prices tumbling, which may have been the ultimate goal. Bitcoin fell by 5.5 per cent, Ethererum by 7.4 per cent, and Dogecoin by 14.9 per cent, for instance, after this latest announcement and have since rebounded somewhat. "Virtual currency-related business activities are illegal financial activities," the People's Bank of China stated today (translated), reiterating what it earlier asserted on September
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Kate: Collateral Damage isn’t the first gaming tie-in we’ve seen for a Netflix original, but now that it’s seriously entering the space, each title feels a little different. Developed by Ludic Studios, the new game is a “time-attack action roguelike” that relates to the movie Kate, a Netflix movie starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead about an assassin who has 24 hours to find the antidote to a poison that is killing her. The plot of the movie makes the game’s time attack approach easy to understand as players take over the central character on her quest. As its Steam description rev
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Twitter’s poor video quality has been a long-running frustration for users on the platform, but on Friday, the company shared some potentially promising news: videos uploaded to the service will now “appear less pixelated for a better watching experience,” Twitter said in a tweet from its support account. Twitter removed a pre-processing step in its video pipeline when you upload, the company tells The Verge, which could mean that the fidelity of a video is closer to the original version. But beyond that, we don’t know much about what’s changing, and it’s unclear why the company is being so vague about what should be a change worth celebrating from the rooftops. App researcher Jane Manchun Wong uploaded a video to put the supposed improvements to the test, and the resulting
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Twitter is looking for input on two new potential features that could give users more control over the tone and quality of replies to their tweets. Filter and Limit, as shared by Twitter designer Paula Barcante, would intelligently hide offensive or harmful replies or prevent repeat offenders from replying at all. Based on the concept images Barcante shared, Twitter would detect whether or not you’ve received harmful replies and then prompt you to turn on Filter or Limit. “If you have Filter on, potentially harmful replies to your Tweet wouldn’t be shown to you or anyone else,” Barcante writes. With Limit enabled, accounts with a history of offensive or “repetitive, uninvited tweets” would be prevented from replying at all.
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If you’ve updated your computer from Windows 10 to Windows 11, you may find that your taskbar isn’t quite as configurable — and perhaps not quite as useful — as it was before. For example, the old, familiar Start menu with its configurable Live Tiles is now gone. The search box is no longer within the taskbar but is accessed by first clicking on the Start menu — an extra step. (Although the fact that Cortana is no longer automatically part of that search box can be considered, by many at least, as a plus.) Another thing: the taskbar is now permanently affixed to the bottom of the screen — so if you were more comfortable having it on top of the screen, or on either side, you’re out of luck. As you might imagine, Windows users are already posting fixes for at least some of
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Zombie power plants — Bitcoin is breathing new life into another ailing power plant. Aurich Lawson / GettyBitcoin’s massive power consumption is the cryptocurrency’s dirty secret. To mine bitcoin, computers across the globe chew through enough electricity to power a medium size country, somewhere on the order of the Netherlands or Poland depending on the estimate. In fact, electricity has become such a significant factor that one private equity firm bought an entire power plant to mine bitcoin. The company, Greenidge Generation, said at one point that they could mine one bitcoin for less than $3,000. Even today—at $40,000 per bitcoin, some 30 percent of
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It’s Friday, it’s fall, there’s a breeze in the air (hopefully), and there’s fresh, I’d argue ridiculous, renders of Samsung’s expected Galaxy S22 Ultra to show you. The renders come courtesy of @OnLeaks and Digit, and they feature a new Samsung flagship with what looks like a Galaxy Note 20-inspired body and back that... well you should see for yourself. Since deciding to skip the Galaxy Note in 2021 — apparently much to the chagrin of T-Mobile — Samsung’s been seeding Note features across its popular phones. Both the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Fold 3 offer stylus support. If these new renders are to be believed, the Galaxy S22 Ultra will go even further. According to OnLeaks and Digit, the new phone will come with the hole-punch selfie camera and candy
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Giant Pay – an umbrella company used by contractors across the UK – has confirmed "suspicious activity" on its platform is behind a days-long ongoing outage that has left folk fretting about whether they'll get paid this month. In an update on its website today, the firm said: "Upon detection of suspicious activity on our network on 22nd September 2021, we immediately assembled a response team including IT data experts and specialist lawyers, and we are currently working with the highest priority to resolve this issue. "As part of the investigation and as a measure of caution, we have proactively taken our systems offline and suspended all services temporarily." It also confirmed it had contacted regulatory authorities and assured contractors they would get paid. "As an interim
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Retina — The new laptops are still expected to launch by the end of the year. Enlarge / The 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro.Samuel AxonThe seventh beta of macOS Monterey contains what appear to be references to new screen resolutions suitable for the MacBook Pro line, as discovered by MacRumors. In a list of supported graphics resolutions within macOS, there are two new resolutions: 3,456 by 2,234 and 3,024 by 1,964. Each carries a "Retina" marker, which Apple typically only applies to its own devices' screens. The aspect ratio for these new resolutions is very close to the current aspect ratios on the MacBook Pro computers sold today, but they're lower than what we
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Upset with Apple's handling of its Security Bounty program, a bug researcher has released proof-of-concept exploit code for three zero-day vulnerabilities in Apple's newly released iOS 15 mobile operating system. The bug hunter, posting on Thursday to Russia-based IT blog Habr under the name "IllusionOfChaos" and to Twitter under the same moniker, expressed frustration with Apple's handling of vulnerability reports. "I've reported four 0-day vulnerabilities this year between March 10 and May 4, as of now three of them are still present in the latest iOS version (15.0) and one was fixed in 14.7, but Apple decided to cover it up and not list it on the security content page," the researcher wrote. "When I confronted them, they apologized, assured me it happened due to a processing iss
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If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. Razer’s latest keyboard, the Huntsman V2, is all about speed. It’s equipped with optical mechanical switches that can theoretically register key presses far faster than their traditional mechanical counterparts. Then, its 8,000Hz polling rate means it can report that key press to your PC nearly instantaneously. So yes, it’s theoretically very fast, arguably faster than most people will notice. But this speed doesn’t come at the expense of any other important elements of a modern mechanical keyboard. There’s RGB lighting support, software to customize the keyboard’s key maps and lighting effects, and — in the case of the full-size model — a volume wheel and dedicated media c
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Disney-owned Marvel is suing relatives of Steve Ditko and other Marvel comics creators to retain control of classic characters, including Iron Man, Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Black Widow. The lawsuits, covered earlier today by The Hollywood Reporter, were filed in New York and California against the heirs of Steve Ditko, Don Rico, Don Heck, and Gene Colan, as well as Stan Lee’s brother and Marvel collaborator Lawrence Lieber. They ask courts to declare that Disney has sole ownership of comics like The Avengers, Iron Man, Amazing Spider-Man, Strange Tales, and Tales of Suspense — including the characters and story elements that have formed the basis for Disney’s lucrative Marvel Cinematic Universe. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the suits follow Lieber and others sending terminat
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Twitter is bringing Topics to Spaces so that hosts can tag their Spaces with up to three relevant Topics, according to the Spaces Twitter account. It’s a small addition to start: there are only 10 Topics to choose from, limited to English, for some people on the Android app. Twitter says it will expand to iOS and add more Topics and languages soon. The initial 10 Topics — including Entertainment, Gaming, and World News — align with the ones that currently exist across Twitter, which people can choose to follow to get related content on their timelines. Adding Topics to Spaces brings it even closer to how Clubhouse works, with different topics to explore and clubs to join based around those topics. new in Spaces: Topics!when creating or scheduling a Space, some of you on Android
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Distributed relational database Yugabyte has launched a database-as-a-service product following a rush of inspiration from Facebook, Google and the world of FOSS. While the open-source DBaaS impressed one analyst, it will have to cope with competition from well-funded CockroachDB, which has had its DBaaS on the market for nearly three years. Yugabyte is sort of a double-decker database. It is inspired by Google Spanner underneath and compatible with PostgreSQL on top. As Yugabyte founder and CTO Karthik Ranganathan, a former Facebook technical lead, explained to The Register earlier this year: “We took the lessons from Google Spanner [in] the lower half. This is something that we'd been running at Facebook in a massively distributed manner with NoSQL databases. Xpand your horiz
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maybe start acknowledging these, idk — Public disclosure comes in wake of other grumblings about Apple's bug bounty behavior. Enlarge / Pseudonymous researcher illusionofchaos joins a growing legion of security researchers frustrated with Apple's slow response and inconsistent policy adherence when it comes to security flaws.Aurich Lawson | Getty ImagesYesterday, a security researcher who goes by illusionofchaos dropped public notice of three zero-day vulnerabilities in Apple's iOS mobile operating system. The vulnerability disclosures are mixed in with the researcher's frustration with Apple's Security Bounty program, which illusionofchaos says chose to cover up an earlier-reported bug without giving them credit. This researcher is by no means the first to publicly express their frustration with Apple over its security bounty program. Nice bug—now shhh illusionofchaos says that they've reported four iOS security vulnerabilities this year—the three zero-days they publicly disclosed yesterday plus an earlier bug that they say Apple fixed in iOS 14.7. It appears that their frustration largely comes from how Apple handled that first, now-fixed bug in analyticsd. This now-fixed vulnerability allowed arbitrary user-installed apps to access iOS's analytics data—the stuff that can be found in Settings --> Privacy --> Analytics & Improvements --> Analytics Data—without any permissions granted by the user. illusionofchaos found this particularly disturbing, because this data includes medical data harvested by Apple Watch, such as heart ra
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With all the carriers dangling sweet, sweet trade-in and upgrade offers to essentially give you a “free” iPhone 13 (or two) this year, one can’t help but wonder: which one is the best deal? In this case, that would be the offer that costs you the least money but gets you the iPhone you want. Between all the convoluted conditions and confusing industry jargon, the carriers certainly don’t make it easy to compare different offers or make clear what you’re signing up for. Carriers might be eager to sign up new customers for their bottom lines, but you need to look out for yours too. After all, is it better to opt for a cheaper unlimited plan that requires a 36-month commitment or get instant trade-in credits to pay a little less sales tax upfront? Should you look for deals that give you instant trade-in credits or get trade-in credits in the form of bill credits over the course of your agreement? It’s sometimes hard to understand all the details until you’ve already signed the contract. To save you the trouble, I took a closer look at the fine print of these deals and did some back-of-the-napkin calculations to find out. Many of the carrier trade-in offers are so aggressive that you can get an iPhone 13 Pro for “free.” Sean Hollister In this case, I wanted to figure out which deal offers the best overall value over the long term. For example, what are my upfront and long-term costs in getting the newest iPhone for as low as free? For the sake of this exercise, I pretended to be a new customer in New York City, shopping for a s
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The European Commission shook the iPhone world to its roots this week, announcing a new policy that would require all smartphones to adopt USB-C ports for physical charging in an effort to reduce e-waste. Apple, of course, doesn’t offer a USB-C iPhone, having argued to the European Commission in the past that “Legislation would have a direct negative impact by disrupting the hundreds of millions of active devices and accessories used by our European customers and even more Apple customers worldwide, creating an unprecedented volume of electronic waste and greatly inconveniencing users.” Switching to USB-C, Apple says, would actually be more wasteful than sticking with Lightning, since customers would need new cables and adapters — despite the fact that Apple already offers USB-C ports on its iPads and its MacBooks and has managed to switch over those popular products without major issues or customer revolts. Notably absent from Apple’s argument, though, is the fact that cutting out a Lightning port on an iPhone wouldn’t just create more e-waste (if you buy Apple’s logic) or inconvenience its customers. It also means that Apple would lose out on the revenue it makes from every Lightning cable and accessory that works with the iPhone, Apple-made or not — along with the control it has over what kinds of hardware does (or doesn’t) get to exist for the iPhone and which companies get to make them. Apple’s MFi program means that if you want to plug anything into an iPhone, be it charger or adapter or accessory, you have to go through Apple. And Apple takes a cut of every one of those devices, too. Want to connect an external display? You’ll need an Apple-approved adapter. Import photos and videos from an SD card or flash drive? An Apple-approved adapter. Want to use a DAC to take advantage of Apple Music’s new hi-res lossless audio? Again, you’ll either need an MFi device or an Apple-approved USB dongle. The same, of course, isn’t true of Apple’s USB-C-based devices, which have a robust ecosystem that can broadly be defined as virtually every product that uses USB-C. With a USB-C iPad, you can simply plug in flash drives and keyb
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Video As autumn arrives in the northern hemisphere, scientists have shown how tiny connected semiconductors can be distributed on the wind in a similar way to the seasonal spreading of airborne seeds. Researchers led by Professor John Rogers of the US's Northwestern University designed printed circuits able to manifest rotational behaviours, as seen in helicopter and spinner seeds, that enhance the stability and flying behaviour. In a paper published in Nature this week, they argue that simple electronics can be integrated into the designs, with one example containing a circuit to detect airborne particles. In simulations and wind tunnel experiments, the researchers examined how aerodynamics are affected by changing design parameters such as the diameter, structure, and wing type of the flyers ranging from the microscale, below 1mm, to the macroscale, above 1 mm. Youtube Video The researchers claim to have demonstrated a range of 3D spinning seed-like devices which can house active electronics and sensors that could be used for environmental monitoring. Speaking to The Register, Rogers said the greatest opportunities for applications are likely to be detecting airborne pollution, ground-water contamination and agricultural agents, for
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Chemists have discovered four new materials based on ideas generated from a neural network, according to research published in Nature. Uncovering new materials is challenging. Scientists have to search for combinations of molecules that lead to useful compounds that can be manufactured. Traditional methods rely on fiddling around with known materials, and although these techniques narrow down the search for materials that work well, they don’t always produce something useful, according to Matt Rosseinsky, a chemistry professor at England's University of Liverpool who co-wrote the research paper. "To date, a common and powerful approach has been to design new materials by close analogy with existing ones, but this often leads to materials that are similar to ones we already have," he explained "We therefore need new tools that reduce the time and effort required to discover truly new materials, such as the one developed here that combines artificial intelligence and human intelligence to get the best of both." Rosseinsky and his colleagues turned to a neural network made up of nine layers and over 50,000 parameters. The team fed the software examples of known solid state materials from the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database, a dataset containing at least 200,000 inorganic compounds. The neural network shuffles the combinations of chemicals to generate new ones for scientists to study. These outputs are ranked by the software on how likely they are to produce materials that are novel and possible to produce in a lab. “A material is only discovered once it has been made and measurements have confirmed what it is,” Rosseinsky told The Register. “Four materials with elements highlighted by this model have already been synthesised in the laboratory. Material discovery cannot be a purely computational exercise, and experimental realization is the only true validation of the model.” Only 'natural persons' can be recognized as patent inventors, not AI systems, US judge rules Australian court rules an AI can be considered an inventor on patent filings I'm doing this to stop humans ripping off brilliant ideas by comp
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The only constant is change — How much you like the series may depend on whether you're a stickler for staying faithful to the source material. Jared Harris stars as visionary mathematician Hari Seldon. Apple TV+ The Empire is ruled by the Cleons, a trio of clones: (l-r) Brother Dawn (Cooper Carter), Brother Day (Lee Pace), and Brother Dusk (Terrance Mann). Apple TV+ The Cleons enjoy a quiet family dinner. Apple TV+ Lou Llobell as Gaal Dornick, Seldon's gifted new protege. Apple TV+ Alfred Enoch plays Raych Foss, Seldon's adoptive son and right-hand man.
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At least Microsoft can't forcefully reboot my Android phone — Microsoft's rocky introduction to Android continues with worst-in-class update speed. The Microsoft Surface Duo. It's very big. Ron Amadeo
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Reuters and the CBC report that Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou will appear in a Brooklyn federal courtroom today via streaming and plead guilty to US charges against her. Canadian authorities arrested the Chinese executive in December 2018 on suspicion of violating US sanctions, and she has remained there on house arrest ever since, fighting US attempts at extradition. Hearings in her extradition case ended in August, with the ruling scheduled for October 21st. Meng was indicted on fraud charges claiming the Chinese technology and telecommunications company misrepresented its relationship with an
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Yuan to invest in something else — Move comes as government seeks to limit fallout of looming real estate collapse. Enlarge / China has cracked down on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in a bid to limit capital outflows.China’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies intensified today, with the country’s central bank announcing that all crypto-related transactions are illegal. “There are legal risks for individuals and organizations participating in virtual currency and trading activities,” the People’s Bank of China said in a statement jointly issued with nine other government bodies. Even Chinese nationals working overseas weren’t exempt, with the government saying that they, too, would be “investigated according to the law,” according to a report in the Financial Times. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies dropped on the news. Currently, bitcoin was down 4.5 percent at the time of publication, and ethereum was down 7.5 percent. The move follows earlier Chinese Communist Party messaging that banned cryptocurrency mining and warned financial institutions not to participate in such transactions. The crypto crackdown comes as China’s real estate developers are facing a liquidity crunch that risks infecting the rest of the economy. Domino effect Real estate represents almost a third of China’s gross domestic product, and developers have borrowed heavily to ride the wave. But in recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has turned on the sector after President Xi Jinping said in 2017 that “houses are for living in, not for speculation.” Xi may not simply be motivated by ideology here—as migration to cities has slowed and birthrates have fallen, the country has become riddled with unfinished or unoccupied housing. The Rhodium Group estimates that the market’s excess could house as many as 90 million people. Local governments have slowed land sales substantially, down 90 percent year over year. Since they rely on land sales for about a third of their revenues, the loss could have a domino effect, reducing local governments’ abilities to repay the $8.4 trillion in debt they’ve issued. In August, Beijing attempte
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it's coming — Near-final preview release demonstrates how the upgrade will be offered to PCs. Enlarge / The "official" Windows 11 update, complete with the UI that regular people will see, is now available in the Release Preview channel for Windows Insiders.Andrew CunninghamYesterday, Microsoft released a near-final build of Windows 11 to Windows Insiders in the Release Preview channel, which (as the name implies) is generally the last stop for a major new Windows version ahead of its release to the general public. The official release date for Windows 11 is October 5, but Microsoft is planning to roll it out gradually over the next few months to prevent widespread problems. The build number in the Release Preview channel is 22000.194, the same version released to the Beta channel on September 16. While Beta- and Dev-channel builds of Windows 11 are simply downloaded and installed like regular Windows Updates, the version in the Release Preview channel gives you the same upgrade message that will be offered to the public when Microsoft offers the Windows 11 upgrade for their PCs. This includes a system notification that users can click through to learn more about Windows 11's new features and a special update message in Windows Update that will give you the opportunity to waive the Windows 11 upgrade and stay on Windows 10 (seen above). Windows 10 can run on pretty much any PC that could run Windows 7 or Windows 8, but Windows 11 comes with s
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The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, said Friday that cryptocurrency transactions are illegal, saying such currencies “do not have legal tender status” and therefore “cannot be circulated as currency in the market.” In a statement, the bank said that bitcoin and other virtual currency transactions have disrupted economic and financial order, contributing to a rise in “money laundering, illegal fund-raising, fraud, pyramid schemes, and other illegal and criminal activities.” Crypto transactions are now considered criminal financial activity in China, the bank said, and the country will “resolutely curb the hype of virtual currency transactions, severely crack down on illegal financial activities and illegal criminal activities related to virtual currencies, protect the safety of the people’s property in accordance with the law, and make every effort to maintain economic and financial order and social stability.” Friday’s announcement is the culmination of an ongoing crackdown on crypto in the country; the Chinese government began issuing warnings about trading in mining cryptocurrencies in May, and in June, the bank told financial institutions to stop processing digital currency transactions. Bloomberg reports that one major reason for the Chinese crackdown on cryptocurrencies is the amount of energy needed to mine cryptocurrency transactions. China is in the midst of an energy crisis that has already affected many other industrie
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Artemis automobile — Among the options NASA is considering is modifying the Astrovan. This is the way. Enlarge / NASA first began using the 1983-model Airstream for space shuttle missions in 1984.NASANASA has asked industry for ideas to develop an "Artemis Crew Transportation Vehicle" that will take its astronauts from suit-up facilities to the launch pad on launch day. The space agency, of course, has not launched its own astronauts on a NASA-built vehicle since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011. From 1984 through the end of the shuttle era, the agency used a modified Airstream motor home, known as the "Astrovan," to ferry crews to the launch pad. This iconic vehicle had a shiny, silvery exterior but a fairly spartan interior. "The current vehicle's appeal is rooted in its tradition rather than its décor," the agency acknowledged in 2011. Now, NASA is gearing up for a new era of deep space exploration, and it plans to launch four astronauts at a time inside the Orion spacecraft, on top of a Space Launch System rocket. The first human flights on these vehicles could occur in late 2023 or early 2024, NASA administrator Bill Nelson recently said. While it has taken literally decades and tens of billions of dollars to develop the spacecraft and rocket, NASA is hoping its launch pad ride can be furnished a little more quickly. In its solicitation, released Friday, NASA says its "Artemis CTV" should be delivered no later than June 2023. NASA is considering three different options for the new vehicle. A provider can custom-build a vehicle, modify a commercially available vehicle, or repair and refurbish the venerable Astrovan. As part of its solicitation, NASA has a lengthy list of requirements for its Artemis transport vehicle. Among them: It must be a zero-emission vehicle, such as battery-electric, plug-in hybrid electric, or fuel cell electric It must have a carrying capacity of eight passengers, including four fully suited astronauts It must have extensive capacity for equipment, including large bags for helmets, ice-based cooling units, and more Have sufficiently wide doors of 24 to 36 inches for ingress and egress by suited astronauts According to Ars automotive editor Jonathan Gitlin, it is unlikely that any existing zero-emissions vehicle meets these requirements, even with modifications. Ford's forthcoming electric Transit Van may come close, Gitlin added.Enlarge / NASA astronauts Doug Hurley, Chris Ferguson, and Sandy Magnus inside the Astrovan in 2011. NASA The best option, in fact, may be renovating the old Airstream. This is because the vehicle will not be called upon for particularly long journeys—it's only a few kilometers to and from the launch pad—and this demand would be well within the capabilities of a couple Tesla drive units and a slab of batteries. With the Artemis program, NASA is going back to the Moon like it did in the 1960s. It's using a capsule design, not
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What's that coming over the hill? Is it new hardware? Is it new hardware? Microsoft has followed up a lacklustre Surface hardware event with a Windows 11 Release Preview for Windows Insiders. Assuming, of course, those Insiders are possessed of an "eligible PC" – for Microsoft does not appear to be backing down on its vendor-delighting and customer-frustrating hardware requirements for the new operating system. The build in question is 22000.194, which emerged last week in the Beta Channel to the disappointment of users trying to run Windows 11 on a virtual machine that is not to Microsoft's liking. Its arrival in Release Preview yesterday, just over two weeks from general availability on 5 October, is an indicator that fans should expect little more than patches and updates until then. The to-ing and fro-ing over the hardware requirements of Windows 11 have muddied the waters over the operating system's launch, particularly over what can and can't work in a virtual machine. Mac VM outfit Parallels got in touch with The Register and, after extolling the virtues of its Desktop 17 app on both Intel and M1-based Apple Mac kit, told us: "While we can't comment specifically on another company's statement, it's not unusual for software manufacturers to have policies regarding the hardware requirements and environments they officially support. Microsoft does and doesn't require VMs to meet hardware requirements for Windows 11 Microsoft releases new Windows 11 builds, confirms running on an Apple M1 'is not a supported scenario' Don't like the new Windows 11 Start or Taskbar? Don't worry – Microsoft's got your back Windows 11 will roll out from October 5 as Microsoft hypes new hardware "And throughout the tech industry there are many examples of software use cases and configurations that may not be officially supported, but remain very popular in both corporate and individual end user environments." That sounds to us like resigned acceptance that Microsoft is unlikely to be giving an official nod to Windows 11 running anywhere outside of its now somewhat restrictive list of chippery. Windows 10 21H2 remains for customers lacking hardware deemed fit for Windows 11. Microsoft released build 19044.1263 (at the same time as the equivalent for Windows 10 21H1) with a swathe of fixes as part of KB5005611, including a Group Policy for the PointAndPrint registry key. Printing has, after all, become somewhat of a nightmare for Windows administrators. ® Other stories you might like Fukushima studies show wildlife is doing nicely without humans, thank you very much
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The iPhone 13 Mini is out Friday, and while it has a number of welcome improvements over the 12 Mini, it shares one limitation with its predecessor: the 13 Mini is still limited to peak power delivery of up 12 watts over MagSafe wireless charging, according to an Apple support document (via MacRumors). That means it, like the 12 Mini, has a lower maximum MagSafe charging speed than the rest of the iPhone 13 lineup, which can all charge at up to 15 watts over MagSafe. While it might be disappointing to hear that the smallest iPhone can charge slower over MagSafe, it does have improved battery life. Apple says you should get up to 1.5 hours more battery life than you would with the iPhone 1
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The Elizabeth Holmes trial has made me more determined than ever to avoid doing crimes. I’ll be sticking to the law from here on out, thank you very much. It’s not for any noble reason — I do
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The lives of delivery workers in major US cities are dangerous, surprisingly expensive, and largely only possible because of the support app-based laborers offer each other. But a new editorial series from Rest of World shows that the experiences of US-based gig workers aren’t unique — trying to make a living while at the whims of indifferent platforms is difficult no matter what country you’re in. Rest of World’s overview is based on a survey of over 4,000 gig workers across the world. The publication’s findings are extensive — there’s plenty to examine from just about every angle you can imagine — but the similarities drawn between workers in different countries is strik
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I don’t know about you, but pumpkin spice lattes just aren’t cutting it for me as motivation to get excited about the fall. One thing I can rally around: fat baby bears. There’s an adorable
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Comment Hewlett Packard Enterprise has posted a "UK Public Sector Manifesto" with nine themes, alongside a campaign hyping the value of hybrid cloud. The bugbear for HPE is that UK government introduced a "cloud first" policy in 2013. The current version was revised in 2017 but it mandates that central government, when buying new IT services, must consider a cloud solution – and specifically a public cloud, rather than "a community, hybrid or private deployment model" – before any other option. Departments remain free to choose non-cloud solutions but only if they can demonstrate that it is better value for money. HPE takes (selected) questions regarding its Consciously Hybrid campaign HPE, whose business is largely on-premises - following a biref flirtation with public cloud that ended in early 2016 - argues the cloud-first policy has been unsuccessful and the "policy placed too much focus on 'where' data and workloads should be hosted as opposed to 'how' and the desired outcomes." The campaign includes a film (directed by Daniel Tremayne-Pitter, a "behavioural strategist" for his company Dark Matter) as well as a report. It used a Freedom of Information request to discover that "63 per cent of organisations still do not have a dedicated cloud strategy." According to HPE, departments have attempted lift-and-shift (simply moving legacy applications to the cloud without attempting to redesign them) and discovered that compliance, security, and compatibility make "public cloud only" non-viable. HPE claims that more than 70 per cent of public-sector IT infrastructure and 73 per cent of data remains on-premises, and would like to see "cloud first" replaced by a conscious policy embracing hybrid computing, where on-premises workloads intermingle with cloud solutions. Hence the name of its campaign, "Consciously Hybrid." Since "cloud first" already allows for non-cloud deployments when justified by cost, the difference is not as great as it first appears, but HPE may feel that government policy has handed the US public cloud giants a marketing advantage in their public-sector pitches, such that it has to work harder to make a case for its on-premises solutions. When former Ministry of Justice technology professional Steve Holt said in the recording that "there is a terrible waste of public money" in government IT, that is easy to believe. Is this anything to do with the cloud-first policy? In the film and paper, HPE failed to prove its point, and listening to some of its arguments felt like going back in time, to the early days of cloud when there was more anxiety about using shared computing resources than there is today. HPE claims the efficiency of public cloud is a mirage. Public-sector advisor Russell Macdonald said: "By definition, hyperscalers are hyper scale. And so there are hundreds of thousands and millions of servers running all of the time. Whether you're using them or not." It is of course possible to over-provision cloud services but this statement seems to miss the point that hyperscale providers can in principle achieve greater utilisation rates than on-premises. AWS, as you
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Elon Musk and Claire “Grimes” Boucher have “semi-separated,” according to the SpaceX founder. Musk told Page Six that the two would continue to co-parent their one-year-old son, X Æ A-Xii, but that working in different parts of the country had led to them taking more separate paths. “We are semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently, and are on great terms,” Musk told Page Six. “It’s mostly that my work at SpaceX and Tesla requires me to be primarily in Texas or traveling overseas, and her work is primarily in LA. She’s staying with me now, and B
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California will require all light-duty autonomous vehicles (AV) to emit zero emissions starting in 2030. On Thursday, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill sponsored by environmental groups that would eventually prohibit gas- and hybrid-powered autonomous vehicles from operating in the state. It was the latest move by Newsom to restrict the sale and use of internal combustion engine vehicles amid a broader effort to rein in greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, the governor signed two executive orders: one requiring all commercial trucks and vans sold in the state to be zero-emission
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Studies of biodiversity around the former Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan have shown that a decade after the nuclear incident there in March 2011, the local wildlife, at least, is mostly thriving. The incident at the Fukushima Daiichi site – in which three of the site's six reactors suffered meltdowns due to damage from an earthquake-induced tsunami – was one of only two events in history to be rated at level 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (the other being Chernobyl). This scale is not related to the quantity of radioactive material released (although that was considerable), but by the number of people affected by the event. Following the incident, 154,000 people were evacuated from the area surrounding the plant due to the risk of radioactive contamination, a number second only to the 335,000 evacuated from the environs of the Chernobyl plant in 1986. This removal of the human population has created a unique environment for wildlife, with nature having reclaimed the evacuated area, and with much of it now dominated by apparently indestructible radioactive boar/pig hybrids, as we noted back in July. However, other species and ecosystems are also having a great time in the absence of humanity. Surveys have shown that along with the irascible porkers, rare and threatened species are returning to swamps and rice paddies in Fukushima prefecture, with biodiversity also surging on farmland in the area. Evacuees from the Fukushima area have been reluctant to return to their former homes due to continuing concerns about radioactive contamination. And, presumably, the threat of being run off of their own property by the hellish razor-tusked intruders now squatting there. The Asahi Shimbun notes that produce from Fukushima prefecture still receives a negative reaction from consumers due to the reputational fallout from the 2011 incident. A February survey by Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency found that 8.1 per cent of 5,000 respondents would hesitate to buy agricultural products from Fukushima due to continuing fears of radioactive contamination. In reality, according to the government's own safety limits, no Fukushima rice has failed to pass the standards since 2015. Unfortunately, 2015 also saw the arrival in Fukushima prefecture of another unwanted addition to the landscape: American Bullfrogs. This inexplicable, gormless invasive species, which has turned up in South America, Europe, China, South Korea and just about everywhere else it isn't wanted, has a voracious appetite, a prodigious reproduction rate and few predators in most of its adopted new homes. Massive 3D catzilla gets crowds purring in busy Shinjuku district of Tokyo Radioactive hybrid terror pigs break out of nuclear hellscape home and into people's hearts Toyota resumes autonomous Paralympics buses after vehicle hit judo competitor, forced him out of match Japan's bullet trains replace smoking rooms with Zooming rooms A dedicated effort to eradicate this pest, combined with the reduction in the human population, seems to have led to an increase in waterborne biodiversity in the region since then. Chi
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Technology Genie — The new iPhone offers better battery life, superior cameras, and great screens. Enlarge / The iPhone 13 Pro Max, photographed by the iPhone 13 Pro in low light.Imagine you were visited by a genie who would grant you three wishes, but they all had to be about what you want from your next smartphone. As market research and surveys tell it, almost everyone would make the same three wishes: great battery life, excellent cameras, and big, beautiful screens. This year, Apple is that technology genie, because that’s exactly what the iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max deliver when they hit store shelves today. Cupertino’s flagship phone lineup might seem like an iterative “S”-style update, given that the phones look almost the same as last year's models and that there are no major new features apart from screens with higher refresh rates in the priciest models. But since Apple zeroed in on most people's highest priorities, this seemingly iterative update ends up being a noteworthy one. Apple iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro (Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.) Specifications Specs at a glance: iPhone 13, 13 mini, 13 Pro, 13 Pro Max Screen 2532×1170 6.1-inch OLED (13/Pro), 2778x1284 6.7-inch OLED (13 Pro Max), 2340x1080 5.4-inch OLED (13 mini) OS iOS 15 CPU Apple A15 Bionic RAM 4GB (13/mini); 6GB (13 Pro/Max) GPU Apple A15 Bionic Storage 128, 256, or 512GB for 13/mini; 128, 256, 512GB, or 1TB for 13 Pro/Max Networking Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5, 5G Ports Lightning Camera Two 12MP rear cameras (wide-angle, ultra-wide-angle) for 13/mini; three 12MP rear cameras (wide-angle, ultra-wide-angle, telephoto) for 13 Pro/Max; 7MP front camera; Dolby Vision HDR 4K video capture Size 146.7×71.5×7.65mm (13/13 Pro), 160.8×78.1×7.65mm (Max), 131.5×64.2×7.65mm (mini) Weight 173 g (13), 204 g (Pro), 240 g (Max), 140 g (mini) Starting price $699 (mini), $799 (13), $999 (Pro), $1,099 (Max) Other perks MagSafe, Face ID Last year, I stopped short of recommending the iPhone 12 Pro because the iPhone 12 offered enough. The two phones were not significantly differentiated beyond nicer materials and the inclusion of a zoom lens and a lidar sensor in the pricier phone. This time around, the Pro model has some more going for it: a better camera system, faster graphics, and markedly improved battery life over the iPhone 13. Now it’s the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max that aren’t all that different from each other. For reference, last year saw the Max get the better camera system. Now they're the same, so it's just about screen size and battery life. Battery life Apple claims that the iPhone 13 mini can last fo
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Overruled — Boosters also OK'd for frontline workers, day care providers, teachers, grocery workers. Enlarge / CDC Director Rochelle Walensky testifies during a Senate committee hearing in July 2021. Just past midnight last night, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overruled a committee of independent advisers, allowing for use of a Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine booster dose in people with increased risk of occupational and institutional exposure to the pandemic coronavirus. That includes health care workers, front-line workers, teachers, day care providers, grocery store workers, and people who work or live in prisons and homeless shelters, among others. Hours earlier, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) concluded a two-day meeting on booster recommendations—and voted 9-6 against recommending boosters for this group. "As CDC Director, it is my job to recognize where our actions can have the greatest impact," Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. "At CDC, we are tasked with analyzing complex, often imperfect data to make concrete recommendations that optimize health. In a pandemic, even with uncertainty, we must take actions that we anticipate will do the greatest good." She further noted that the inclusion of people at high risk of COVID-19 from occupational and institutional exposure "aligns with the FDA’s booster authorization." The Food and Drug Administration last Wednesday issued an amended Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which allowed booster doses for people 65 and older as well as people ages 18 to 64 who are at high risk of COVID-19 either from underlying medical conditions or occupational and institutional exposures. Though the CDC's advisory committee was torn over endorsing that use, they ultimately decided that the need was not there—vaccine effectiveness against severe disease and hospitalization remains very strong in those under age 65. And recommending boosters for anyone with a conceivable occupational or institutional risk could create a booster free-for-all. By taking the unusual move to overrule the ACIP's decisions, Walensky puts the booster efforts more in line with the Biden administration's preliminary plans to offer booster doses to all vaccinated adults, starting this week. Still, the current recommendations only apply to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and those who received that vaccine for their two-dose "primary series." Those who initially received two doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine or one shot of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine are advised to wait for further booster data and recommendations. For now, here are the CDC's official recommendations of who should get a Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine booster—to be given at least six months after the primary Pfizer/BioNTech series. (Emphasis added by CDC). people 65 years and older and residents in long-term care settings should receive a booster shot
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Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories. Last week on the show, The Vergecast went through all of the announcements at Apple’s fall hardware event. This week on the show, it’s review time! Nilay and Dieter are joined by Verge managing editor Alex Cranz and senior editor Tom Warren to discuss what they learned from spending time with the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 Pr
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The new and very good iPhone 13 Pro lineup has a thicker camera bump than previous generations (7.65mm vs. 7.4mm in the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max). It sounds negligible, but it’s enough to cau
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Special series After a great first episode, the MCubed webcast will be back on October 7, 2021 to tackle a whole other beast: Continuous Delivery in Machine Learning. While you might be familiar with the intricacies of Puppet, Ansible, and co to speed up and secure your project delivery, transferring that knowledge into the ML operations space isn’t exactly easy. After all, it’s not just application code and maybe config files you have to be aware of anymore. There are more disciplines involved than usual, which means you also need to consider training data, models, and the tools and processes needed to create such artifacts when setting up (at least partly) automated processes. Luckily
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
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What’s next for Amazon’s family of Alexa-powered devices? A little bit of everything, according to a new report from Bloomberg News, which has a great overview of products the company is reportedly working on. The e-commerce giant has never been afraid of throwing products at the wall to see what sticks, and its plans certainly seem to follow this ideology. Indeed, they even include a new big-screen Echo device that can be mounted on walls. Very appropriate. Here’s what Amazon has in the hopper, according to Bloomberg: Wall-mounted Echo: Following the launch of the display-equipped Echo Show line, Amazon is supersizing the screen with a “roughly 15-inch display.” The device is designed to be either mounted on the wall or placed on a stand and would serve all the usual Echo functions, as well as acting as a control panel for smart home devices. It’s also reportedly going to be kitchen-friendly — for watching recipes or Netflix while you cook. Alexa-powered soundbars: Amazon has reportedly been working on an Alexa-equipped soundbar with an integrated camera, designed to make video calls easier in the home, as with Facebook’s Portal devices. Second-generation Echo Auto. Not many details here, but Bloomberg says an updated Echo Auto “will have a new design and may be able to charge a user’s device with inductive technology.” We were not fans of the original Echo Auto, which was a better Bluetooth adapter and speakerphone than it was an actual navigation tool. Echo robot woes: Bloomberg was first to report that Amazon was working on a mobile Echo device with a display that is supposed to follow users around the home. But it seems the product’s future is in jeopardy. “The robot has drawn concerns over its viability from staff,” says Bloomberg. A report earlier this year from Insider noted similar issues. “People are very skeptical — we’re worried it could turn into another Fire Phone,” said one source. Karaoke with Alexa: I’m including this one, but it unfortunately seems like it’s not a goer. “The company has explored building an Alexa-powered karaoke microphone codenamed Jackson and planned to release the device
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There’s no shortage of accolades for the latest MacBook Air with its vaunted M1 CPU. Our review last November simply stated that “the new MacBook Air with Apple’s M1 chip is a triumph.” And right now, both the 256GB and 512GB configurations are available at Amazon and Best Buy for $150 off, their largest discount to date. This version of the MacBook Air marks some of the most profound improvements to Apple’s hardware architecture and specs. Whisper-quiet operation, a faster processor, and extensive battery life make the 2020 Air the perfect travel companion, even for Windows die-hards. This deal must be popular, as most configurations are backordered until mid-October currently. Some are available sooner; make sure to check both retailers before you buy the one you want. If you’re a mobile gamer, the Razer Kishi is a must-own accessory. This snappy Android controller is currently available at Amazon for $55 — down from $70 — and is a great way to elevate your mobile gaming experience, especially if you subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The controller expands to snugly fit around your phone, providing you with a more traditional and comfortable control scheme. Besides freeing up screen space that would otherwise be occupied by your thumbs, the dual analog s
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Giant Pay – an umbrella company used by contractors across the UK – has confirmed "suspicious activity" on its platform is behind a days-long ongoing outage that has left folk fretting about whether they'll get paid this month. In an update on its website today, the firm said: "Upon detection of suspicious activity on our network on 22nd September 2021, we immediately assembled a response team including IT data experts and specialist lawyers, and we are currently working with the highest priority to resolve this issue. As part of the investigation and as a measure of caution, we have proactively taken our systems offline and suspended all services temporarily." It also confirmed it had contacted regulatory authorities and assured contractors they would get paid. "As an interim measure, and to ensure that payment is made to your account on 24 September, we will pay you the same amount that was paid to you last week. This will be paid via Faster Pay and will be in your account by the end of the day. As soon as possible, we will confirm that your payroll is back to normal. We appreciate that this is not ideal, but we wanted to ensure that you receive a payment." A number of employees – including tech contractors – have contacted The Register fuming at the lack of information from the company and its failure to respond to emails. Giant Umbrella has been down "since Tuesday and are failing to pay contractors wages. No phone, no emails and they are failing to respond to webchats," said one, adding: "It’s lucky UK gov didn’t force most contractors to go inside IR35 and need umbrella services. How many contractors have been hit by this and what can they do to get paid?" Another Reg reader added that the umbrella company had clearly had "some kind of major outage this week which is affecting a lot of IT contract staff." Giant Umbrella is a subsidiary of Giant Group PLC, and claims its "long-term clients – since 1992 and ongoing – include Page Group and Barclays Bank." A notice on its portal simply reads: "Portal Downtime. We are experiencing technical difficulties and are working to get them resolved as quickly as
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Wearables company Jawbone is long-dead — it went out of business in 2017 — but its patents live on, and someone is using them to sue Apple and Google. As first reported by Bloomberg News, an entity named Jawbone Innovations LLC filed lawsuits against the two tech giants this week in federal court in Waco, Texas. The suits allege that Apple and Google infringed eight patents previously belonging to Jawbone and focused around noise-isolation algorithms originally developed for DARPA. The suit against Apple names the infringing devices as “all versions and variants of Apple iPhone, iPad, AirPods Pro, and HomePod products,” while the suit against Google is similarly broad, naming “all versions and variants of Google smartphones [...] tablets and/or notebooks [...], earbuds [...] smart home devices [...] and other Android Devices.” Both suits demand a preliminary injunction against the companies to stop them from selling the allegedly infringing products, and future royalties for the use of these patents. If all this seems like a little bit of legal skulduggery, well, who are we to disagree. As Bloomberg notes, exactly who or what is behind the lawsuits is unclear, but it’s not the first time Jawbone Innovations LLC has made such claims. The same entity — which does not appear to be contiguous in any meaningful way with the original Jawbone, apart from owning the latter’s intellectual property — sued Samsung in June for similar infringements. And, as Protocol noted in its reporting of that case, the manager of Jawbone Innovations LLC, one York Eggleston, also seems to have prior form, with an individual of that name also managing other LLCs that were assigned old IBM patents before suing Lyft and Uber. As Bloomberg notes, filing such lawsuits in Waco, Texas makes sense, as it’s “a district that’s the most popular in the nation for its patent-friendly judge and juries.” Though even the patent-friendly might reject these particular claims. A spokesperson for Google told Bloomberg: “We dispute the claims, and will defend ourselves vigorously.” We’ve reached out to Apple for comment.
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If you’re an Apple Music user and recently bought a new iPhone 13 model, new ninth-generation iPad, or a sixth-generation iPad Mini, there’s an important update to download to avoid an annoying bug. A new Apple support document says a bug affecting those devices restored from a backup can prevent users from accessing the Apple Music catalog, Apple Music settings, or using the services’s Sync Library feature. My colleague Chris Welch reports that he ran into this bug on iOS 15. Thankfully, the fix is very simple, according to Apple. Just head into the “General” section of the “Settings” app, select the “Software Update” option and hit “Install Now,” to get the update. MacRumors notes that its release notes don’t explicitly mention the Apple Music bug, but this is
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Activate Windows and put up a parking lot Bork!Bork!Bork! Sometimes only the freshest of borks will do, and sometimes the best laid plans of administrators can go awry. Click to enlarge Windows, it seems, gets everywhere. This example, spotted by Register reader James, can be found in the Queen Anne Terrace car park, a 570-space facility in Cambridge with an impressively byzantine range of charges for customers. Stay over six hours and pitch up at the wrong time, you could be on the hook for £17.50. A mere trifle for drivers stung by the eye-watering charges of London's car pa
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i can't believe it's not btrfs — This btrfs filesystem overview highlights some longstanding shortcomings. Enlarge / We don't recommend allowing btrfs to directly manage a complex array of disks—floppy or otherwise.Btrfs—short for "B-Tree File System" and frequently pronounced "butter" or "butter eff ess"—is the most advanced filesystem present in the mainline Linux kernel. In some ways, btrfs simply seeks to supplant ext4, the default filesystem for most Linux distributions. But btrfs also aims to provide next-gen features that break the simple "filesystem" mold, combining the functionality of a RAID array manager, a volume manager, and more. We have good news and bad news about this. First, btrfs is a perfectly cromulent single-disk ext4 replacement. But if you're hoping to replace ZFS—or a more complex stack built on discrete RAID management, volume management, and simple filesystem—the picture isn't quite so rosy. Although the btrfs project has fixed many of the glaring problems it launched with in 2009, other problems
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The sound and the fury — "Point blank, in our view, it is unacceptable." Enlarge / The Inspiration4 mission, inside a Crew Dragon, splashes down on Saturday in the Atlantic Ocean. Interest in such tourist missions is soaring.Welcome to Edition 4.17 of the Rocket Report! After the successful conclusion of the Inspiration4 mission this past weekend, we can now look ahead to some significant launches in the days ahead. First up is NASA's Landsat 9 mission on an Atlas V rocket. And in a little less than two weeks, Russia launches a film crew on a Soyuz vehicle to make a movie in space. As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar. Astra licenses rocket engines from Firefly. Astra, the small launch company that recently went public, has signed a roughly $30 million deal for the rights to manufacture Firefly Aerospace's Reaver rocket engines in-house, The Verge reports. Under the deal, which closed earlier this year, Firefly will send up to 50 of its Reaver rocket engines to Astra's rocket factory in Alameda, California, where a development engine was already delivered in late spring for roughly a half-million dollars. From five engines to two ... Astra engineers have been picking apart the engine for detailed inspection, said a person familiar
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After months of testing, Microsoft is releasing the final version of Windows 11 to its Release Preview channel today. It’s the final step before it’s released more broadly to existing devices on October 5th. If you don’t want to wait until October 5th, you can switch to the Release Preview in Windows 10 today and get the free Windows 11 upgrade early. Here’s how to upgrade to Windows 11 early: Check to see if your PC is compatible with Windows 11, using Microsoft’s PC Health App (download here). If your PC is supported, you’ll need to register as a Windows Insider over at Microsoft’s site to get the Windows 11 upgrade early. On your existing Windows 10 PC, head into Settings > Update & Security > Windows Insider Program The Windows Insider section in Windows 10. Click the Get Started button and link the Microsoft account you used to sign up to be a Windows Insider. When prompted to pick your Insider settings, select the Release Preview ring. Confirm and agree to Microsoft’s terms, and then reboot your PC. Head back into Settings > Update & Security, and you should see a new banner with the optional update to Windows 11. Click the download and install option and follow the prompts to get Windows 11 early. The Windows 11 upgrade prompt for Release Preview
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Review One of the reasons Linux has never caught on as a desktop operating system, as Linux fans know, is that Linux isn't a desktop operating system, it's a kernel. And assembling it into a coherent package users can install is the job of a distribution. This is a very different distribution model than the one Apple or Microsoft uses, and it confuses newcomers. Windows and macOS are easier to understand, they are single things made by single companies. Canonical and Red Hat notwithstanding, Linux is not packaged and presented this way at all. I've long believed that this difference is one of
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Microsoft Edge’s new tab grouping feature arrived this month with version 93 of the browser. It was officially detailed alongside a grab bag of new tools for September, which include new shopping and vacation planning options. Tab groups have existed in Edge for a few months as an optional feature you could manually enable in the browser’s settings, but now they’re rolling out to all users. To use the tab grouping feature, hold down Ctrl and left click all the tabs you want to group together, then right click and select “Add tabs to new group.” Tab groups can be given names and di
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Boatnotes II As HMS Severn continues hosting the Royal Navy's Fleet Navigating Officer's course, The Register has taken a closer look at the precision demanded of naval officers conning their ships in and out of one of the most cramped ports where the Navy routinely operates. Entering and leaving Plymouth, home to Devonport naval base, is a tricky operation under naval rules as we observed. Plymouth, Devon, England, UK: Devonport naval dockyard in the Hamoaze Estuary "Nobody in their right mind would build a naval base here today," quipped one officer. The entrance to Devonport consists of a
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Something for the Weekend, Sir? Something is out of place; it does not quite fit. I reach down and give it a gentle tug. Ah, that's better. If you are expecting a harmless reveal of a desperately contrived euphemism, as per usual, you are going to be disappointed. This time I really am talking about my underwear. I am experiencing a clothing comfort conflict below the waist. To misparaphrase an ailing Oscar Wilde, either these new chuddies or my nuts will have to go. It is my fault, of course, for having purchased the wrong size or whatever. Am I wearing them back to front? It's a bit difficult to tell as I removed the labels. When I say "labels", I am referring to the three-dozen nylon razor blades that were sewn into the hem, each adorned with iconographic instructions helpfully remindi
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Microsoft is rolling out a new Xbox dashboard that includes an updated version of the Edge browser. After six months of testing, the Chromium version of Edge is now available to all existing Xbox One and Xbox Series S / X consoles, and the new capabilities allow Xbox owners to stream Google Stadia games, access Discord on the web, and lots more. The Xbox version of Edge looks almost identical to the version available on PC or Mac. It even includes features like vertical tabs and Collections. Like Edge on PC and mobile, the Xbox version also syncs all your settings, favorites, tabs, and web history. The only feature it’s really missing is extensions, and the ability to switch into developer mode to alter User Agent strings or access a console.
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The latest macOS Monterey beta contains clues about the resolution of Apple’s rumored 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, MacRumors reports. The seventh beta of the upcoming operating system contains references to “3456 x 2234 Retina” and “3024 x 1964 Retina,” which are two resolutions not supported in any of Apple’s current Macs. MacRumors theorizes that the two new resolutions correspond to Apple’s much rumored 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, which are widely expected to launch this year with new designs and a new Arm-based Apple processor called the M1X. For reference, the current 16-inch MacBook Pro has a resolution of 3072 x 1920, while the current 13-inch MacBook Pro’s display sits at 2560 x 1600. If the new resolutions are accurate, both laptops should see an increase in
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The Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC) is worried its guidance on preventing the internet and all it connects becoming a casualty of war is being misinterpreted. The GCSC works to create global behavioural norms that hopefully find their way into the diplomatic documents that govern nation-states' behaviour. The organisation does so because conventions governing kinetic warfare prohibit attacks on hospitals or schools, but many nations are yet to formalise recognition that information warfare could easily disrupt hospitals. The GCSC therefore wants nations to recognise that information warfare needs rules that match the intent of those governing kinetic conflict. The Commission has had considerable success in those efforts, having defined eight norms. The first, the N
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On Call Fire up the Cossie*! We're going back to the '80s with an On Call tale that combines the drama of a fast Ford motor with the eldritch horror of Unix serial port settings. "Neil," today's Regomised reader, ran a consultancy specialising in Uniplex, an office automation suite compromising the usual suspects: word processing, spreadsheets, email, database and so on. It predated Microsoft's efforts in the integration arena by a good few years. "It supported printers from the FX-80 upwards," Neil explained, "but by far the most popular was the HP LaserJet series with its 8-bit ECMA-94 charset." Hard though it may be to believe, the first HP LaserJet turned up in the 1980s. Compared to the dot matrix or daisywheel-based alternatives, it was fast and quiet. The output quality was
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The UK Armed Forces are looking to restart a £1.7bn procurement for recruitment and onboarding of personnel to cover extensive IT investments as well as process outsourcing. The move follows in the footsteps of an earlier Army deal which saw Capita under-perform on a £1.3bn recruiting project. Under a 10-year contract, the UK services are looking for a single, common, tri-service recruiting process under the banner of the Armed Forces Recruiting Programme. In a contract notice published this week, the Ministry of Defence said it is looking for significant IT investment and "a culture of innovation" as well as outsourcing the recruitment services. "The Digital Solution will be the core enabler to a candidate centric experience from Expression of Interest to r
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Promo Kubernetes has made developing and managing cloud native applications at scale a far less complex undertaking. The result has been increased agility and flexibility for devs, a productivity boost and lowered risk for ops, and happy C-level execs as time to market for new apps and services is slashed. But that’s not to say that getting up and running with Kubernetes itself can’t be just a little ...complex. It’s not just about the technology – that’s gotten easier and easier over time. It’s also about managing the broader changes that adopting Kubernetes necessitates, from who gets to define overall strategy, deciding how teams should collaborate to implement it, and settling on the right platform to do so. And given Kubernetes’ potential to unleash innovation, s
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Polymers can transmit at 53Gbps without error correction overheads, and could be just the thing for electric cars Boffins at Japan's Keio University reckon they've built viable optical fibers from plastics. Optical fibers are most often made of glass and are, as attested by the awesome data-schlepping capacity of undersea cables, freaking amazing. But while boffins have made optical fibers very resilient, they've not been able to address all the fragilities in glass. Enter Professor Yasuhiro Koike of the University’s Photonics Research Institute, which today announced i
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Apple has warned iPhone and Mac users that it's aware of a zero-day bug that's being actively exploited. The iGiant has thanked Google for spotting CVE-2021-30869, which the ad giant seems to have noticed because it also impacts the WebKit browser engine. It's a nasty flaw, as it's in the XNU kernel at the heart of Apple's operating systems including macOS and iOS. As Apple's advisory explains, that means "A malicious application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges". The fruit-themed company says the flaw existed thanks to a "type confusion issue" that was sorted out "with improved state handling". The kicker: "Apple is aware of reports that an exploit for this issue exists in the wild." The fix is Security Update 2021-006 C
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Norman Reedus and the magic fetus — This extras-packed release is the one to play—if you're onboard with Kojima's crazy ideas. Sam's Odradek acts as a sensor for BTs. This is how the game looks in normal widescreen...
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DJI may be about to upend the world of aerial photography yet again — by introducing a drone with drastically improved battery life and two cameras instead of one. DroneDJ and leaker Jasper Ellens are both independently reporting that the Mavic 3 Pro is real, coming this November, and it sounds like it’ll have some significant improvements over the three-year-old Mavic 2 Pro and even the Mavic Air 2S introduced earlier this year. While DJI’s standard-sized drones have typically topped out at just half an hour in the air before requiring a battery swap or recharge, DroneDJ’s source says we’re now looking at up to 46 minutes of flight time. And that’s despite the additional hardware on board: an entire second camera (with its own sensor and lens) so you can have telephoto and
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India's Telecoms Regulatory Authority has revealed that the nation has over 800 million active broadband subscribers. The Authority's Highlights of Telecom Subscription Data [PDF] for the month ending on July 31st 2021 revealed that the nation started the month with 792.78 million broadband subscribers and ended it with 808.6 million – two per cent growth within a month. Wireless subscriptions jumped by 14.78 million, with wired subs up by a mere 490,000. Interestingly, fixed wireless services grew 83.53 per cent in the month, jumping from 650,000 subs to over 1.19 million. Pause for a moment, dear reader, and imagine the challenges of adding even the 490,000 subscribers that took up wired subs in July 2021. Never mind nearly 15 million new wireless subs. It's like the entire pop
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"Apple lied" — The ban on Epic's games could last years. Enlarge / A Fortnite loading screen displayed on an iPhone in 2018, when Apple and Epic weren't at each other's legal throats.Weeks after Epic's apparent "win" against Apple in the Epic Games v. Apple case, Apple issued a letter denying Epic's request to have its developer license agreement reinstated until all legal options are exhausted. This effectively bans Fortnite and any other software from the game maker from returning to Apple's App Store for years. Epic was handed an initial victory when the US District Court for Northern California issued an injunction on September 10 ordering Apple to open up in-game payment options for all developers. At the time, the injunction was something of a moral victory for Epic—allowing the developer to keep its in-game payment systems in its free-to-play Fortnite intact while avoiding paying Apple a 30 percent fee that had previously covered all in-app transactions. But now Epic has faced a significant reversal of fortune. In a letter sent on September 21 to Epic's legal counsel, Apple's lawyers said the company refused to reinstate Epic's account until the courts issue a final, non-appealable verdict. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney revealed Apple's decision in series of tweets posted on September 22. Sweeney claims the appeals process for the case could take as long as five years. Apple's revocation of Epic's developer license—required to develop and distribute games to the App Store—was "valid, lawful, and enforceable," Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Roger
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Image: Apple Verge editors discuss the debut episodes of Apple TV Plus’ new series By Sep 23, 2021, 9:00pm EDT Ever since Game of Thrones, every network seems to want something similar: an expensive genre epic that they can point to as our big thing. This is especially true in the world of streaming. Netflix has The Witcher, Amazon is spending an unseemly amount on Lord of the Rings, and Apple has Foundation, a sci-fi series based on the classic Isaac Asimov novels that kicks off with two episodes on September 24th. (New episodes will debut weekly on Apple TV Plus after that.) In many ways, Foundation fits that tentpole epic formula quite well. It’s a story about the downfall of a galactic empire, with lots of political intrigue to follow. It’s also a lavish production, with incredible special effects and gorgeous production design. You can tell it’s expensive in every frame. Apple clearly has big plans for it; showrunner David S. Goyer recently said that he’s plotted out eight seasons already. But it’s also a pretty weird story, one where you’ll spend more time seeing people doing calculations than anything resembling action. Ahead of the premiere, Verge editors Chaim Gartenberg and Andrew Webster were able to watch the first two episodes to determine just how interestin
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Folks in the US will see the transformative effects of 5G first in the areas of online gaming and fixed wireless broadband internet connections, Ericsson North America CEO Niklas Heuveldop said on Thursday. "When it comes to new services, look at gaming as one of the sectors that holds promise for 5G. You need the unique throughput that 5G offers ... and the instant response," he said during a webcast hosted by The Washington Post. And yes, Heuveldop works for the Ericsson that makes and sells 5G network equipment. 5G networks – which promise increased capacity as well as high throughput and low latency – could move game console hardware from the edge of your furniture to the edge of a network, he said, adding that is already happening in places such as South Korea, where high-performance 5G networks are operational. That is to say, the gameplay processing is done remotely and piped to a relatively simple terminal in your home, potentially using 5G if the connectivity is available. You can have basically a virtual gaming console sitting on the network and the relatively thin client and device "Now that the network compute platform is being pushed out into the far edge ... you can have basically a virtual gaming console sitting on the network and the relatively thin client and device," Heuveldop said. "So, my kid wouldn't have to buy a new gaming console every 18 months. You can literally rely on the cloud infrastructure with instant responsiveness over 5G. I think gaming is one of those really exciting spaces in the consumer category." Putting the gaming console on the network will also spawn a new generation of headsets and goggles for immersive experiences, he said. The top three cloud service providers, Amazon, Microsoft and Google, are also investing heavily in online gaming, and this would help drive the market, he explained. The latest Apple iPhone and Samsung devices can be gaming platforms, too, Heuveldop added. The benefits of 5G, combined with artificial intelligence for automation, will be profound in manufacturing, said Carolyn Lee, executive director of The Manufacturing Institute. Factory workers will find their
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Recommendations — Pfizer boosters OKed for 65+, long-term care residents, those with medical conditions. Enlarge / Signage outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, March 14, 2020. An independent committee of experts that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted Thursday to recommend booster doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine for persons ages 65 and older; residents of long-term care facilities ages 18 and up; and those ages 50 to 64, who have underlying medical conditions that put them at high risk. Additionally, the committee recommended that people ages 18 to 49 with such underlying medical conditions should have the option to receive a booster dose after weighing their individual benefits and risks. The Pfizer/BioNTech boosters are recommended to be given at least six months after the initial two doses. And they are intended only for people who received an initial series of two Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines—not those who received Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines. The recommendations by the committee—the Advisory Committee on Immuniz
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*snap of fingers* — Also featured: Bayonetta 3's gameplay debut, Kirby's first open-world 3D adventure. Get ready for the Super Mario film, hitting theaters in a little over one year. International release dates have not yet been confirmed, but Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto was on hand to clarify the North American launch date. Nintendo Instead of footage, we get the cast. Will Pratt use his normal speaking voice? Imitate the classic video game version perfected by Charles Martinet? Imitate Bob Hoskins? All this and more will be answered in about a year. Nintendo Will Princess Peach get a British accent in the film and thus establish new canon? Or will Taylor-Joy adopt an American accent? Nintendo My expectations ab
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California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed Assembly Bill 701, establishing new protections for workers at warehouse distribution centers. The new law requires employers operating large warehouses in the state to disclose worker production quotas. It also prohibits disciplinary action against workers for missing quotas as a result of health- or safety-related breaks. AB 701, which takes effect on January 1, 2022, was drafted with an eye toward Amazon's warehouse management practices. "Amazon’s business model relies on enforcing inhumane work speeds that are injuring and churning through workers at a faster rate than we’ve ever seen," said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), who proposed the bill, in a statement. "Workers aren’t machines. We’re not going to allow a corporation that puts profits over workers’ bodies to set labor standards back decades just for ‘same-day delivery.'" Gonzalez characterized the bill as an effort to give workers basic dignity, to help them stay safe, and to regulate algorithmic job surveillance and target setting. Amazon, the second largest employer in the US behind Walmart, has attracted attention from state and federal Democratic legislators as a result of ongoing news reports about its treatment of workers and its anti-union efforts. Amazon warehouse workers are seriously injured more frequently than those at similar companies – unions Amazon claims victory after warehouse workers in Alabama vote to reject union US labor official suggests Amazon's Alabama workers rerun that unionization vote What price your home delivery? Amazon accused of hiding real injury rate in its overworked warehouses In February, 2020, 15 Democratic US senators wrote an open letter to CEO Jeff Bezos expressing concern about the safety of Amazon workers. The letter said the company's own injury reports suggested Amazon was prioritizing productivity over worker health and safety. "Amazon’s dismal safety record indicates a greater concern for profits than for your own workers’ safety and health," the letter said, and it challenged the company to treat workers better by making th
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Valve promised it would work with anti-cheat software makers EAC and BattlEye to ensure some of the most popular games will run on its upcoming Steam Deck Linux-based gaming handheld, and one of those companies is now officially on board — Epic Games announced today that its Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) now supports Linux and Mac. Not only that, it’s specifically set up to work with the Proton and Wine compatibility layers that Valve’s relying on to bring Windows games to the Deck. While developers would still need to patch their games, this immediately means some of the most popular games
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In preparation for the busy holiday season, the latest Nintendo Direct was filled with what fans can expect on the Switch in the near future. We already knew about some of the big titles — including new Metroid and Mario Party games — but there were a handful of surprises, including a new Kirby game, an expansion of Switch Online, and a star-studded cast for the Super Mario animated movie. If you missed the event, here’s all the big news. The Super Mario movie has a date — and a cast It’s been a long time since we’ve heard about the Super Mario movie, which is being made in coll
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Cambridge Analytica fallout continues — Shareholders say the overpayment was an "express quid pro quo." Enlarge / Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. Zuckerberg, 33, was called to testify after it was reported that millions of Facebook users had their personal information harvested by Cambridge Analytica.In a newly unsealed lawsuit, Facebook shareholders allege that the company intentionally overpaid a $5 billion Federal Trade Commission fine to protect CEO Mark Zuckerberg from further government scrutiny. "Zuckerberg, Sandberg, and other Facebook directors agreed to authorize a multi-billion settlement with the FTC as an express quid pro quo to protect Zuckerberg from being named in the FTC's complaint, made subject to personal liability, or even required to sit for a deposition," the lawsuit says (emphasis in the original). An early draft of the order obtained by The Washington Post through the Freedom of Information Act shows that the commission was considering holding Zuckerberg responsible. The FTC levied the fine in July 2019 in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which saw political operatives harvesting the personal data of 50 million Facebook users without their consent. (The lawsuit says only 0.31 percent of the affected users consented.) The fine (which was a record for privacy-related penalties) was 50 times larger than the maximum prescribed by a previous FTC consent decree, the lawsuit alleges. It was also well in excess of the previous record fine of $168 million. "Facebook's maximum monetary exposure was $104,751,390—about $4.9 billion less than it agreed to pay," shareholders said in the lawsuit. The overpayment, they said, is a breach of fiduciary duty. Insider trading The lawsuit also alleges that, by withholding information about the Cambridge Analytica leak, executives and board members, including Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg, engaged in insider trading. "After Zuckerberg learned of Cambridge Analytica's massive extraction of Facebook user data, he and the entities controlled by him significantly accelerated his sales of
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autocompromise — A flaw in the Autodiscover protocol can expose email passwords to third parties. Enlarge / If you own the right domain, you can intercept hundreds of thousands of innocent third parties' email credentials, just by operating a standard webserver.Security researcher Amit Serper of Guardicore discovered a severe flaw in Microsoft's autodiscover—the protocol which allows automagical configuration of an email account with only the address and password required. The flaw allows attackers who purchase domains named "autodiscover"—for example autodiscover.com, or autodiscover.co.uk—to intercept the clear-text account credentials of users who are having network difficulty (or whose admins incorrectly configured DNS). Guardicore purchased several such domains and operated them as proof-of-concept credential traps from April 16 to August 25 of this year: Autodiscover.com.br Autodiscover.com.cn Autodiscover.com.co Autodiscover.es Autodiscover.fr Autodiscover.in Autodiscover.it Autodiscover.sg Autodiscover.uk Autodiscover.xyz Autodiscover.online A web server connected to these domains received hundreds of thousands of email credentials—many of which also double as Windows Active Directory domain credentials—in clear text. The credentials are sent from clients which request the URL /Autodiscover/autodiscover.xml, with an HTTP Basic authentication header which already includes the hapless user's Base64-encoded credentials. Three major flaws contribute to the overall vulnerability: the Autodiscover protocol's "backoff and escalate
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Let’s go boys! At long last, there is finally a new Bayonetta 3 trailer. Revealed during a primetime Nintendo Direct showcase, the new Bayonetta 3 trailer puts an end to four years of near radio silence on Platinum Games’ leggy, fashionable, witch. Bayonetta first debuted back in 2009 as a sexy, raunchy beat ‘em up to rival Capcom’s Devil May Cry. In 2012, Platinum Games announced the sequel, Bayonetta 2, would release exclusively on Nintendo’s Wii U. We got an initial glimpse of Bayonetta 3 way back during 2017’s Game Awards. The clip was little more than a 50-second teaser featuring a wounded Bayonetta and a fractured logo. In the years since a dearth of updates sparked rampant speculation about the game’s status. On several occasions, Bayonetta 3 director Hideki Kamiya urged patience and expressed confidence that Platinum would have something to share before the end of 2021. “I hope we can give an update during the year,” Kamiya said in an interview with Video Games Chronicle. He also said revealing any news about Bayonetta 3 was ultimately up to the publisher and suggested it might be better if fans “forget” about the game so when the news finally is revealed it’d make for a nice surprise. When Bayonetta 3 didn’t make an appearance during this year’s E3 and rumors swirled that the game’s development had been troubled or delayed, Nintendo itself stepped in to reassure fans the development was proceeding apace. It seems all that quiet h
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Two IT trade groups on Wednesday challenged the constitutionality of Texas' new social media law, arguing that it compels companies to host speech they disagree with in violation of their First Amendment rights. The Texas law, HB 20, was signed by Governor Greg Abbott on September 9, 2021 and takes effect on December 9, 2021. It prohibits large social media platforms from removing content posted by users based on any viewpoint, or the user's location in Texas, unless the content is unlawful. The law puts politically manipulative misinformation on equal footing with good-faith opinion and verifiable facts. If you choose to say that vaccines are poison or that racial superiority is proven, HB 20 will prevent major social media platforms from interfering. The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and NetChoice, a business group focused on free speech, have filed a lawsuit [PDF] in the Western District of Texas seeking an injunction to prevent the law from being enforced and a declaration that that law violates the US Constitution. “By tying digital services’ hands, this unconstitutional law will put Texans at greater risk of exposure to disinformation, propaganda, and extremism," said CCIA President Matt Schruers in a statement. "There are few First Amendment fouls clearer than regulating based on viewpoint." Schruers said the law, by limiting free speech rights of social media firms, would force companies to treat Nazi propaganda, white supremacist theories, and anti-American rhetoric no differently than any other speech. CCIA and NetChoice in May filed a similar lawsuit against similar legislation (FL SB 7072) that bans the policing of political speech, with exceptions for Florida theme park owners Disney and Comcast. In June, a federal judge blocked the Florida law. Upon signing HB 20 earlier this month, Texas Governor Abbott justified his support by claiming "there is a dangerous movement by social media companies to silence conservative viewpoints and ideas." Someone doth protest too much A study [PDF] published in February by the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights earlier this year found such claims, common in conservative media, to be false. In fact, it found the opposite, that social media sites amplify right leaning voices. Another NYU-affiliated study in March found that, on average, far right-wing misinformation on Facebook got more engagement that centrist or left-wing misinformation, both of which were penalized while far-right content wasn't. Big Tech has a big problem with Florida passing a law that protects politicians from web moderation Facebook gardening group triumphs over slapdash Zuck censorbots Apple's bright idea for CSAM scanning could start 'persecution on a global basis' – 90+ civil rights groups Apple, Google yank opposition voting strategy app from Russian software stores In a blog post, Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman said like blocked Florida law, HB 20 is "brazenly unconstitutional." "Like other #MAGA-inspired bills, Texas’ law was never intended to survive critical scrutiny," said Goldman. "It is purely perfor
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The Apple Watch Series 7 has a new 60.5GHz module that works with a secret, corresponding dock, according to FCC filings (via MacRumors). The new wireless data transfer feature is designed to pair with a corresponding dock that Apple will use for currently unknown internal purposes. When the Series 7 watch is placed on that pad, it’ll activate the module — customers won’t actually be able to use it. Now, this is technically nothing new for the Apple Watch, which has included a hidden physical diagnostic port since its inception. Without actually seeing an Apple Watch Series 7 in person (and checking to see if Apple is removing the physical port), it’s hard to say whether this is some new, nascent Apple technology or just a more convenient method for running hardware diagnostics for Genius Bar employees. But the news comes just as the European Commission has announced plans to require all smartphone manufacturers to exclusively use USB-C ports on their devices in an effort to reduce e-waste. Combined with existing rumors that Apple has plans to remove all the ports on its iPhones — something that would be a more pressing concern if Apple was looking to sidestep the new EU proposal — and there’s been a lot of theorizing around the new 60.5GHz tech. The argument is that Apple could potentially be looking to incorporate the new wireless data transfer technology into its existing charging standards, like MagSafe, on a future iPhone, selling a proprietary dock that enables wireless data transfer to a linked computer to replace a physical Lightning cable. Pretty timely piece of news! To me, this pretty much confirms 1) future iPhones will be port-less, and 2) that Lightning will be replaced with a 60.5GHz wireless USB-substitute through a MagSafe-like attachment. I’m surprised this was added to Apple Watch first? iPhone teardown? https://t.co/vqqMIEx0yW— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) September 23, 2021 It’s a theory that has some merit; the port-less iPhone rumors have been around for a while, and they come from the generally accurate analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. It’s hard to imagine Apple giving in and suddenly offering a USB-C iPhone that would circumvent both its MFi licensing fees and its control over its most important (and lucrative) devices. That said, the timing is probably a little too convenient here; it seems highly unlikely that Apple was working to lay the groundwork for a replacement standard that would slot neatly into a port-less iPhone, revealed on the exact day that the EU standard was announced. There are also plenty of past internal Apple features that have similarly never come to fruition for any compelling consumer use. There’s the aforementioned Apple Watch diagnostic port, which has lain dormant for half a decade now despite dreams of battery life-extending bands and other accessories. Or, consider the Apple TV’s hidden USB-C or Lightning ports, which can’t even accomplish a task as simple as charging an Apple TV remote after all these years. Then again, one never does know with Apple. If the company is looking to ditch charging ports — due to EU rules or its own whims — then
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Microsoft has a new phone of its own, the Surface Duo 2, arriving October 21st — and if you buy an optional “Surface Duo 2 Pen Cover,” you’ll be able to magnetically dock and wirelessly charge the company’s optional $130 Surface Slim Pen 2 stylus and use it with the Android phone. The need for a special cover wasn’t quite made clear during the company’s presentation last week, nor a price or release date, but Microsoft confirmed to Windows Central today that it’ll cost $65 on October 21st. While that’s the same day the Surface Duo 2 is slated to launch, it strangely didn’t go up for pre-order alongside the phones, and still isn’t available to add to a cart now. You c
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Still waiting on that Pixel 6 release date — Google stops by the Linux Plumbers Conference for an Android update.
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Nintendo and Illumination’s upcoming Mario movie just got a big update during today’s Nintendo Direct presentation: it’ll hit theaters on December 21st, 2022, with Chris Pratt set to voice Mario. The upcoming film will also feature a ridiculously star-studded cast of voice actors, including Anya Joy-Taylor as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong. Charles Martinet, who’s voiced Mario in Nintendo’s games for over three decades, will also appear in the film for “surprise cameos.” Also set to appear in the film are Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, and Sebastian Manisc
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The gas must flow — It comes with a long list of recommendations for avoiding a repeat.
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