25
All of The Verge news from their Twitter Feed If you have a suggestion contact @gilalexandel
The Verge’s favorite home office keepsakes
https://www.theverge.com/24248065/favorites-desk-toys-keepsakes
X is capitulating to Brazil’s Supreme Court
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/21/24250697/x-complies-brazil-supreme-court
What to expect at Meta Connect 2024 — the next Quest VR headset
https://www.theverge.com/24250169/meta-connect-2024-stream-quest-3s-vr-ar-ai
The Plucky Squire is an adorable adventure that mixes 2D and 3D
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/21/24249299/the-plucky-squire-art-interview-switch-ps5-xbox-steam
Meta has a major opportunity to win the AI hardware race
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/21/24250020/ray-ban-meta-smart-glasses-ai-hardware-meta-connect
Ford’s new Digital Experience brings Android and Apple into balance
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/21/24229743/lincoln-nautilus-ford-digital-experience-infotainment-review
The Bio Bidet BB-1200 can be controlled using a wireless remote or through the Bemis Living app. | Image: Bemis
Bemis has announced (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240919529385/en/Bio-Bidet-Announces-the-First-North-American-App-Controlled-Bidet-Toilet-Seat/?f) its Bio Bidet BB-1200 toilet seat (https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1514734&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbiobidet.com%2Fproducts%2Fbb-1200-bidet-seat-1%3F_pos%3D1%26_sid%3D8bf128dea%26_ss%3Dr&referrer=theverge.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2024%2F9%2F20%2F24250077%2Ftoilet-bidet-seat-app-ios-android-smarthome) is now available, allowing luxuries like unlimited warm water, a heated seat, and an air dryer to be activated using a smartphone app.
The company claims the BB-1200, which first debuted at CES 2024 last January, is “the first North American bidet toilet seat that is controlled by an app and affordably priced.” Kohler announced a similar product (https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/5/24022366/kohler-purewash-e930-bidet-atmo-anthem-ces-2024) at CES 2024 with its PureWash E930 bidet seat (https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1514734&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kohler.com%2Fen%2Fproducts%2Ftoilet-seats-bidet-seats%2Fshop-toilet-seats-bidet-seats%2Fpurewash-e930-elongated-bidet-toilet-seat-w-remote-control-28821%3FskuId%3D28821-0&referrer=theverge.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2024%2F9%2F20%2F24250077%2Ftoilet-bidet-seat-app-ios-android-smarthome) that can be operated using the Kohler Konnect app or through voice commands. It was immediately available to order in January for $2,149, but its price has since dropped to $1,597.50.
Image: Bemis
The Bemis Living app allows multiple users to configure profiles that cater to...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24250077/toilet-bidet-seat-app-ios-android-smarthome)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
On Friday afternoon, The Wall Street Journal reported Intel had been approached by fellow chip giant Qualcomm about a possible takeover. While any deal is described as “far from certain,” according to the paper’s unnamed sources, it would represent a tremendous fall for a company that had been the most valuable chip company in the world, based largely on its x86 processor technology that for years had triumphed over Qualcomm’s Arm chips outside of the phone space.
The New York Times corroborated the report on Friday evening, adding that “Qualcomm has not yet made an official offer for Intel.”
If a deal were made — and survived regulatory scrutiny — it would be a massive coup for Qualcomm, which reentered the desktop processor market...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24249949/intel-qualcomm-rumor-takeover-acquisition-arm-x86)
The Echo Hub offers an easy way for the whole household to control smart home gadgets, including the tech-averse. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
In case you missed the news, Amazon recently announced a second Prime Day event (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/17/24244180/amazon-october-prime-day-big-deal-days-fall-dates-2024) for the fall. The two-day deal blitz, dubbed Prime Big Deal Days once again, will run from October 8th through the 9th, offering Prime subscribers a chance to save on all sorts of tech ahead of Black Friday. It’s still a few weeks away, but in typical fashion, Amazon has already rolled out a selection of early deals and discounts.
Admittedly, there aren’t that many gadgets on sale yet — and we’ll likely start to see better deals trickle in as we get closer to the event — but we’ve still managed to dig up a few solid deals, particularly for those already embedded in the Amazon ecosystem. These include sizable discounts on the new Echo Hub (https://www.amazon.com/Echo-Hub/dp/B0BCR7M9KX?tag=theverge02-20) and Amazon’s latest... (https://www.amazon.com/release-Charcoal-bundle-Sengled-Smart/dp/B0CNWMCF1R?tag=theverge02-20)
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/24248182/amazon-october-prime-day-best-early-deals-echo-speakers-displays-fire-tablets-sale)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Twitch is changing the way it enforces its community guidelines. In an announcement posted on its website (https://blog.twitch.tv/en/2024/09/20/everything-we-announced-at-twitchcon-san-diego/), Twitch said that it will introduce a new enforcement strategy in which strikes for certain offenses will depreciate over time, users will receive more information regarding their strikes, and users will be able to take educational courses to reduce the severity of enforcement actions. In an interview with The Verge, Rob Lewington, Twitch’s VP of safety operations, and Kristen Murdock, the director of safety risk and response, spoke about the new program and what it means for moderating communities on Twitch.
According to Lewington, safety is Twitch’s highest priority. He said Twitch hosts over 105 million users per month with 1.3...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24249913/twitch-depreciating-strike-twitchcon-trust-and-safety)
Masimo is keen to offer its expertise to Wear OS smartwatch makers for biosensing tech. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Last week, medical device maker Masimo announced new deals with Google and Qualcomm (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/15/24245243/the-company-blocking-blood-oxygen-features-on-apple-watch-has-new-deals-with-google-and-qualcomm) to bring its biosensing tech to Wear OS smartwatches. That’s pretty inside baseball for the wearable industry, but it takes an interesting turn when you realize Masimo is also the reason why the new Apple Watch Series 10 (https://www.theverge.com/24246464/apple-watch-series-10-review-smartwatch-wearables) doesn’t have blood oxygen features in the US.
From the outside, it sort of looks like the company battling Apple over blood oxygen is now setting the terms for how that exact tech is used by Apple’s smartwatch rivals. Securing the bag, so to speak, against other alleged patent infringement.
Masimo CEO Joe Kiani says that’s not exactly how he sees it. As part of the deals, Masimo is creating a reference platform where its tech is...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24249934/masimo-wear-os-smartwatches-google-qualcomm)
There’s three motors inside this one. | Image: Rivian
Rivian is now shipping its electric trucks and SUVs with a tri-motor configuration, adding an extra power boost over the dual-motor version. The new 850 horsepower powertrain uses Rivian’s new in-house Enduro motors, with one in the front axle and two in the rear axle.
The new tri-motor setup underpins Rivian’s newly redesigned Gen 2 models (https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/6/24172761/rivian-r1t-r1s-refresh-update-motor-battery-price), which launched earlier this year in just a dual-motor configuration.
As reported by Inside EVs, these 2025 Rivian models are the first from the company to get a tri-motor setup, as the previous generation only came in dual and quad-motor setups. Rivian will start shipping its Gen 2 quad-motor version early next year.
Image: Rivian
Rivian’s R1T lineup right now.
...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24249829/rivian-2025-r1t-r1s-tri-motor-shipping-gen-2)
Anker is recalling three additional power banks, citing a manufacturing defect in their lithium-ion batteries. | Image: Anker
Anker has issued a recall notice (https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1514734&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.anker.com%2Fa1642-a1647-a1652-recall&referrer=theverge.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2024%2F9%2F20%2F24249805%2Fanker-recall-maggo-magsafe-iphone-battery-power-bank) for its Anker 334 MagGo Battery (PowerCore 10K, model number A1642), Anker Power Bank (model number A1647), and Anker MagGo Power Bank (model number A1652). The company says a manufacturing defect can cause the power banks’ lithium-ion batteries to overheat and potentially cause a fire risk.
It’s the same issue that triggered a recall in June (https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/8/24174271/anker-321-power-bank-powercore-5k-a1112-recall) for another Anker power bank. The company says only a small number of batteries were affected by the defect but that it’s recalling all of the portable chargers “out of an abundance of caution.”
Image: Anker
The recalled power banks can be identified by looking for their name, model, and serial numbers on the back or bottom of each device.
T...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24249805/anker-recall-maggo-magsafe-iphone-battery-power-bank)
The fifth-generation Snap Spectacles were described as “a disaster” by a developer who helped create them. | Photo by Nalani Hernandez-Melo for The Verge
Snap’s latest generation of augmented reality Spectacles (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/17/24245572/snap-spectacles-ar-developers-evan-spiegel) have been lambasted by one of the engineers who helped to create them. The glasses, revealed earlier this week, were described as “a disaster” by Sterling Crispin, a former design engineer for Snap.
“I worked on these for about a year at Snap, and I have a million negative things to say about the experience and the device, but I think the product speaks for itself and is obviously bad,” Crispin said on X (https://x.com/sterlingcrispin/status/1836497008598692119) in response to the new Spectacles being unveiled. “I hate these things.”
While Crispin noted that AR and VR devices all face conflicting limitations around things like size, weight, performance, battery life, and production scale, he criticized the balance of features offered by...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24249807/snap-spectacles-ar-glasses-developer-bad-comment)
Image: Microsoft
Microsoft is overhauling the illustrations it uses throughout its products and services to make them less flat and more playful and interesting. The previous iteration of illustrations was heavily vector-based, with a flat illustration style that can be found throughout apps like Microsoft Teams, Skype, Office, and even parts of Windows. Now, Microsoft is shifting toward 3D designs that bring back skeuomorphism, together with more colorful and playful designs.
“Our studies showed that while our illustrations could be described as colorful, inclusive, and genial on a surface level, they were received within consumer culture as uninteresting and emotionless,” explains the Microsoft Design team in a blog post (https://microsoft.design/articles/embracing-vibrant-universality-in-fluent-illustrations) outlining the new...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24249735/microsoft-fluent-design-illustrations-3d-overhaul)
Image: The Verge
Brazilian fan account owners (https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/30/24232568/come-back-to-brazil) might have a reason to rejoice, as X could be returning to Brazil. According to the New York Times, in a court filing Friday night the company agreed to abide by the Supreme Court’s request in order to have the countrywide ban lifted:
Now, X’s lawyers said the company had done exactly what Mr. Musk vowed not to: take down accounts that a Brazilian justice ordered removed because the judge said they threatened Brazil’s democracy. X also complied with the justice’s other demands, including paying fines and naming a new formal representative in the country, the lawyers said.
The company has spent the last three weeks fighting the ban and continuing to distribute content from members of the far right community in...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/21/24250697/x-complies-brazil-supreme-court)
Image: Meta
Meta is holding its annual Connect developers conference next week, and it’s going to showcase a bunch of expected and perhaps some surprise new VR and AR hardware — alongside what might be a heavy Meta AI showcase featuring the company’s newest Llama large language model (https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/23/24204055/meta-ai-llama-3-1-open-source-assistant-openai-chatgpt) and image generator in apps like WhatsApp (https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/18/24134079/meta-real-time-ai-image-generation-whatsapp).
And as Meta sunsets custom tools for AR filters (https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/27/24229643/meta-spark-ar-effects-face-filters-shutdown-tiktok-snapchat), we could end up seeing a whole new set of developer tools designed to harness generative AI experiences. Perhaps it will all come together in Meta’s next big push into its alternative reality ideas (and namesake) in the metaverse, including significant Horizon Worlds updates.
However, the most anticipated products expected to appear during the conference are the successor to the...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/24250169/meta-connect-2024-stream-quest-3s-vr-ar-ai)
Image: All Possible Futures
The Plucky Squire is a game that leaps off the page — literally. It takes place in a storybook world rendered in an adorable two dimensions thanks to codirector and former Pokémon artist James Turner (https://www.instagram.com/jamesturner_42/). But at certain points, the heroic lead character can venture into the real world and solve puzzles that mix 2D and 3D in inventive ways. Sometimes, you’re moving objects between dimensions; other times, you’re rearranging the words in a book to create new outcomes. It’s as cute as it is creative, and it follows Sony’s Astro Bot in what is turning out to be a very good year for family-friendly games.
The game puts you in the role of Jot, the titular plucky squire, who has the unusual ability to exist outside of the book he stars in. The two...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/21/24249299/the-plucky-squire-art-interview-switch-ps5-xbox-steam)
Of all the AI wearables this year, the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses made the most sense.
The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses exceeded expectations in a year when AI gadgets flopped. But can it keep the momentum going?
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/21/24250020/ray-ban-meta-smart-glasses-ai-hardware-meta-connect)
Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge
Ford has a good thing going with its next-gen infotainment system — whether you use CarPlay or not.
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/21/24229743/lincoln-nautilus-ford-digital-experience-infotainment-review)
This little box provides on-demand power when off the grid
https://www.theverge.com/24248887/ecoflow-alternator-charger-review-boondock-power
EcoFlow’s Alternator Charger helps keep all your tools and toys charged when driving away from civilization.
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/24248887/ecoflow-alternator-charger-review-boondock-power)
This app-controlled toilet seat is a cheaper excuse to use your phone in the bathroom
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24250077/toilet-bidet-seat-app-ios-android-smarthome
Qualcomm wants to buy Intel
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24249949/intel-qualcomm-rumor-takeover-acquisition-arm-x86
The best deals you can get ahead of Amazon’s October Prime Day sale
https://www.theverge.com/24248182/amazon-october-prime-day-best-early-deals-echo-speakers-displays-fire-tablets-sale
Twitch introduces new depreciating strike program
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24249913/twitch-depreciating-strike-twitchcon-trust-and-safety
Wear OS watches might soon have an edge when it comes to blood oxygen
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24249934/masimo-wear-os-smartwatches-google-qualcomm
Rivian is now shipping its Gen 2 R1T and R1S EVs with tri-motor powertrains
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24249829/rivian-2025-r1t-r1s-tri-motor-shipping-gen-2
Anker recalls MagSafe iPhone batteries over fire risk
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24249805/anker-recall-maggo-magsafe-iphone-battery-power-bank
Former Snap Spectacles engineer says the new glasses are ‘obviously bad’
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24249807/snap-spectacles-ar-glasses-developer-bad-comment
Microsoft’s new Fluent illustrations are more 3D and playful
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/20/24249735/microsoft-fluent-design-illustrations-3d-overhaul