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The AR and VR headsets you’ll actually wear
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/29/24256056/meta-orion-quest-3s-smart-glasses-balatro-mobile-zelda-game-installer
YouTube pulls songs from Adele, Nirvana, and others due to SESAC dispute
https://www.theverge.com/24257157/youtube-sesac-music-licensing-streaming
Amazon may tap Brian Williams to host an election night special
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/28/24256903/amazon-prime-brian-williams-election-night-special
Meta blocks links to the hacked JD Vance dossier on Threads, Instagram, and Facebook
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/28/24256815/meta-blocking-jd-vance-dossier-hack
Trailers of the week: Thunderbolts, Rumors, and Disclaimer
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/28/24256789/trailers-thunderbolts-rumors-disclaimer-sinners-apple-tv-streaming
Apple’s homework is due Monday no matter what, says judge
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/28/24256684/apple-epic-lawsuit-document-production-delay-denied
Samsung’s gorgeous Galaxy Book4 Edge has fallen to its lowest price to date
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/28/24255916/samsung-galaxy-book4-edge-beats-fit-pro-earbuds-deal-sale
Now that Balatro’s on mobile, here are some tips to get started
https://www.theverge.com/24256010/how-to-play-balatro-mobile-localthunk-playstack
Welcome to Meta’s future, where everyone wears cameras
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/28/24256310/meta-ray-bans-cameras-future-connect
The messy WordPress drama, explained
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/27/24256361/wordpress-wp-engine-drama-explained-matt-mullenweg
Threads now lets you tag your location
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/27/24256160/meta-threads-tag-location-instagram
CNN will start locking some articles behind a paywall
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/27/24255900/cnn-paywall-digital-subscription-mark-thompson
Now searches on Google Flights will suggest Amtrak train rides, too
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/27/24255817/google-search-flights-amtrak-train-suggestions-tickets
Steam will let you sue Valve now
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/27/24255841/steam-forced-arbitration-policy-lawsuit
The EufyCam S3 Pro security camera has a built-in spotlight but can also display nighttime footage as if it were daytime without the spotlight. | Image: Eufy
The newest security camera from Eufy (https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1514734&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eufy.com%2F&referrer=theverge.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2024%2F9%2F26%2F24255217%2Feufycam-s3-pro-smart-security-camera-night-vision-apple-home) — Anker’s smart home company — can see clearly in the dark, uses radar motion sensing for fewer false alerts, and records 24/7 when wired. As with other Eufy cams, the new S3 Pro has free facial recognition, package, vehicle, and pet detection, plus locally stored recorded video with no monthly fees.
Unlike most other Eufy cameras, the S3 Pro will work with Apple Home and is compatible with Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video service. (https://www.theverge.com/24074904/smart-home-camera-security-privacy-how-to#:~:text=Safe%20and%20simple%3A%20Apple%E2%80%99s%20HomeKit%20Secure%20Video%C2%A0)
The EufyCam S3 Pro (https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1514734&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eufy.com%2F&referrer=theverge.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2024%2F9%2F26%2F24255217%2Feufycam-s3-pro-smart-security-camera-night-vision-apple-home) launches this week as a two-camera bundle with one HomeBase S380 (https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1514734&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eufy.com%2Fproducts%2Ft80301d1%3Fvariant%3D41846278357178&referrer=theverge.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2024%2F9%2F26%2F24255217%2Feufycam-s3-pro-smart-security-camera-night-vision-apple-home) for $549.99. The HomeBase 3 enables smart alerts and local storage (16GB onboard storage, expandable up to 16 TB). It also connects the S3 Pro to Apple Home, making it the first Eufy camera to...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/26/24255217/eufycam-s3-pro-smart-security-camera-night-vision-apple-home)
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
Some of the most watched and listened to music on YouTube and YouTube Music disappeared on Saturday, replaced by a short message:
Video unavailable
This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.
That is probably not what people expected when they tried to stream Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” or other songs from artists as varied as Kendrick Lamar, Britney Spears, Green Day, Kanye West, and Burna Boy.
This leaves two questions: what is SESAC, and when is the music coming back?
Screenshot: YouTube
SESAC (https://www.sesac.com/) stands for the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, which has been around since 1930 and, according to its website, “...currently licenses the public performance of more than...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/24257157/youtube-sesac-music-licensing-streaming)
Brian Williams during a Meet the Press taping in 2008. | Photo: Alex Wong / Getty Images for Meet the Press
Former news anchor Brian Williams is in talks to host an Amazon Prime election night special, reports Variety. The show would apparently be a “non-partisan discussion” as election night news comes in and could include multiple guests.
Williams has been out of the news game for a while. He lost his role as anchor of NBC’s Nightly News after some of his reporting was found to have been repeatedly embellished (https://www.theverge.com/2015/2/10/8016527/nbc-suspends-brian-williams-six-months). He went on to host MSNBC’s 11th Hour until he resigned from the network in 2021.
If the deal goes through, Williams would begin the November 5th presidential election night broadcast as early as 5PM ET and continue for up to eight hours — or longer if the election is too close to call, writes Variety, citing unnamed sources familiar...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/28/24256903/amazon-prime-brian-williams-election-night-special)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images
Meta is restricting links on Threads, Instagram, and Facebook that lead to Ken Klippenstein’s newsletter containing a JD Vance dossier (https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/read-the-jd-vance-dossier) that was allegedly nabbed in an Iranian hack of the Trump campaign. The company has apparently removed posts containing the link and is seemingly blocking links to PDFs of the dossier being hosted elsewhere.
Meta spokesperson Dave Arnold emailed Meta’s statement to The Verge:
“Our policies do not allow content from hacked sources or content leaked as part of a foreign government operation to influence US elections. We will be blocking such materials from being shared on our apps under our Community Standards.”
A Meta page on privacy violations (https://transparency.meta.com/policies/community-standards/privacy-violations/) forbids users from sharing details “obtained from hacked...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/28/24256815/meta-blocking-jd-vance-dossier-hack)
“So full. So filled.” | Image: Disney
This week, I’ve been slowly catching up on Dark Matter; I’m about 20 hours into Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on the Switch; and I’m still trying to work a trip to the movie theater into my schedule to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
I’m behind, in other words! And this week’s trailers shoveled so much more onto my need-to-watch pile, from the next Marvel MCU film, Thunderbolts, to the amusingly bizarre black comedy Rumours, to Disclaimer, Alfonso Cuarón’s new Apple TV Plus series. That’s to say nothing of all the game trailers from Sony’s State of Play (https://www.theverge.com/24253137/playstation-ps5-state-of-play-september-2024) event this week.
Check out some of my favorite trailers from this week below.
Thunderbolts
Marvel hasn’t said much about Thunderbolts, which sees David Harbour’s Red Guardian and...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/28/24256789/trailers-thunderbolts-rumors-disclaimer-sinners-apple-tv-streaming)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
Apple, the most valuable company in the world, will have to work this weekend to meet a legal deadline on Monday. That’s after Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson on Friday denied (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25177618-govuscourtscand36426510170?responsive=1&title=1) the company’s request for more time to produce 1.3 million documents related to App Store changes it made in January to comply with a 2021 court order (https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/10/22667769/apple-epic-lost-lawsuit-verdict-ruling).
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who presided over the Epic lawsuit that resulted in those changes (https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/16/24040881/apple-outside-payments-app-store-policies-iphone-ipad), told Apple’s legal team on May 31st it would need to produce all documents related to how it decided the new App Store rules after Epic challenged them (https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/13/24099734/epic-v-apple-app-store-outside-payments-motion-enforce-injunction). Document discovery was then referred to Hixson (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25177619-epic-v-apple-discovery-phase-referral?responsive=1&title=1), who quoted part of a transcript from the hearing when he set Monday’s deadline back in August (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25177617-discovery-order?responsive=1&title=1):
“THE COURT: — so let...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/28/24256684/apple-epic-lawsuit-document-production-delay-denied)
Samsung’s Galaxy Book4 Edge offer a vibrant OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. | Photo: Joanna Nelius / The Verge
The portability of a laptop is nice and all, but oftentimes, the tradeoff is a smaller screen that can feel cramped if you’ve got a lot of tabs open. Thankfully, there are laptops like Samsung’s Galaxy Book4 Edge, which offers a 16-inch display in a thin and lightweight package. It typically starts at $1,499.99, but right now, Best Buy is selling it with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for just $999.99 ($450 off (https://howl.me/cnbqQ4ONPK3)), which is a new all-time low price. If you prefer a slightly smaller display, the 14-inch model is also on sale for $899.99 ($450 off) (https://howl.me/cnbqOD9XyqR).
We were struck by how stunning the Galaxy Book4 Edge is. Along with being spacious, the laptop boasts a lovely OLED display that makes colors pop, while its chassis is beautiful. The screen...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/28/24255916/samsung-galaxy-book4-edge-beats-fit-pro-earbuds-deal-sale)
Playstack
Now that Balatro is out on mobile, I wanted to see what all the fuss (https://www.theverge.com/24082252/balatro-review-poker-roguelike-videogame) was about. And while it’s a great game, its tutorial doesn’t do the best job of setting you up for the kind of success necessary to hook you. In my first few hours, though I was completing the objectives laid out, it felt like I was stumbling my way to success instead of achieving it through strategy. Onboarding was a bit too abrupt, focused on the barebones of how to play instead of blending that with tips on how to play effectively. With that in mind, here’s some useful info and tips on how to get started.
I was told there would be no math
In Balatro, the main gameplay loop is amassing enough poker chips to beat a set chip total called a blind. To do that, you must...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/24256010/how-to-play-balatro-mobile-localthunk-playstack)
See that little circle? That’s a camera. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
All around Meta’s Menlo Park campus, cameras stared at me. I’m not talking about security cameras or my fellow reporters’ DSLRs. I’m not even talking about smartphones. I mean Ray-Ban and Meta’s smart glasses, which Meta hopes we’ll all — one day, in some form — wear.
I visited Meta for this year’s Connect conference, where just about every hardware product involved cameras. They’re on the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses that got a software update (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/25/24253712/meta-rayban-ai-features-reminders-translation-transparent-style), the new Quest 3S virtual reality headset (https://www.theverge.com/24252316/meta-quest-3s-hands-on-connect-2024), and Meta’s prototype Orion AR glasses (https://www.theverge.com/24253908/meta-orion-ar-glasses-demo-mark-zuckerberg-interview). Orion is what Meta calls a “time machine”: a functioning example of what full-fledged AR could look like, years before it will be consumer-ready.
But on Meta’s campus, at least, the Ray-Bans were already everywhere. It...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/28/24256310/meta-ray-bans-cameras-future-connect)
Matt Mullenweg at WordCamp 2024 in Europe. | Screenshot: WordCamp
WordPress is essentially internet infrastructure. It’s widely used, generally stable, and doesn’t tend to generate many splashy headlines as a result.
But over the last week, the WordPress community has swept up into a battle over the ethos of the platform. Last week, WordPress cofounder Matt Mullenweg came out with a harsh attack on WP Engine, a major WordPress hosting provider, calling the company a “cancer” to the community. The statement has cracked open a public debate surrounding how profit-driven companies can and can’t use open-source software — and if they’re obligated to contribute something to the projects they use in return.
The conflict has escalated in the days since with a barrage of legal threats and has left swaths of...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/27/24256361/wordpress-wp-engine-drama-explained-matt-mullenweg)
Illustration: The Verge
Meta is rolling out the ability to tag your location on your Threads posts. If you have the feature, you’ll see a pin in the post composer that you can tap so you can include where you are.
Note that adding your location to a Threads post doesn’t share an exact pin on a map. Instead, the feature lets you give your users an approximate idea of your location by sharing things like a city name, a neighborhood, or a restaurant. And if you see a Threads post that includes a location, you can tap that location to see other posts from the same place.
I have the feature, and I’ve been messing around with it. When I tap the pin in the post composer, Threads shows me a range of options: I can stay broad by tagging myself in Portland, OR, which is...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/27/24256160/meta-threads-tag-location-instagram)
CNN chairman Mark Thompson announced plans to introduce a digital subscription business in July. | Image: CNN
CNN will put some of its digital content behind a subscription paywall starting next month, The New York Times reports. The experiment will test similar subscription models to those used by publications like The New Yorker, Wired, and The Wall Street Journal, with CNN reportedly hoping to bring in additional revenue amid a decline in cable TV viewership.
A “metered” paywall feature is set to launch sometime in early October that will require CNN’s more frequent readers to pay for access after exhausting a nonspecified number of free articles. CNN is the most visited news website in the US, attracting 441.4 million visits per month, according to Press Gazette. The price of this subscription model hasn’t been disclosed but will initially...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/27/24255900/cnn-paywall-digital-subscription-mark-thompson)
Trains are cool but aren’t always cheaper to ride. | Image: Amtrak
Amtrak fares and trip suggestions are getting integrated into Google Search (https://media.amtrak.com/2024/09/amtrak-debuts-new-integration-with-google-to-support-more-sustainable-transportation-choices/) as part of Google’s efforts to offer greener ways of travel over flights. Now, when you search for airline fares on Google or Google Flights between destinations with Amtrak terminals, you’ll also get suggestions for train rides that you can click through to Amtrak’s site for purchase.
Google has been (https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/sustainability/google-transportation-energy-emissions-reduction/) working on offering sustainable transport (https://blog.google/products/search/find-more-sustainable-ways-to-get-around-with-new-maps-and-search-updates/) options for a while now, and it has previously shown train ride suggestions but without the fares and the easy redirection to Amtrak’s site to purchase the specific tickets — although it didn’t work every time I tried it.
Google also calculates how much more carbon emissions are saved when taking a train to your destination....
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/27/24255817/google-search-flights-amtrak-train-suggestions-tickets)
Image: The Verge
Steam just removed its forced arbitration policy, opening the door for lawsuits against its parent company, Valve. In an update on Thursday (https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/4696781406111167992?utm_source=SteamDB), Steam says its subscriber agreement (https://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement?snr=2_groupannouncements_detail_#10) “now provides that any disputes are to go forward in court instead of arbitration.”
Many companies include a forced arbitration clause in their user agreement, waiving a person’s right to a trial in court. Arbitration involves settling a dispute outside a legal system before an impartial third party. This method is often faster but may not get the best results for consumers, as arbitrators don’t need to consider the law (https://www.consumeradvocates.org/for-consumers/arbitration/#:~:text=Arbitration%20is%20a%20private%20system%20without%20a%20judge%2C%20jury%2C%20or%20a%20right%20to%20an%20appeal.%C2%A0Arbitrators%20aren%27t%20required%20to%20take%20the%20law%20and%20legal%20precedent%20into%20account%20in%20making%20their%20decisions.%20There%20is%20no%20appeal%20or%20public%20review%20of%20decisions%20to%20ensure%20the%20arbitrator%20got%20it%20right.) when issuing a decision.
Many services put mandatory arbitration agreements in their terms of service, which people may not even read or fully... (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4521064)
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/27/24255841/steam-forced-arbitration-policy-lawsuit)
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge
You can’t buy Meta’s most impressive new product, the smart glasses codenamed Orion. You might be able to buy something sort of like them a few years from now, but most of us will never get to so much as wear them. That doesn’t necessarily make them less impressive, though, or less important. Orion is a statement of purpose from Meta: that AR glasses really are the future and that we’re eventually going to get there.
On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge’s Alex Heath (https://www.theverge.com/authors/alex-heath) joins the show to tell us all about his experience with Orion (https://www.theverge.com/24253908/meta-orion-ar-glasses-demo-mark-zuckerberg-interview) — two hours in the glasses of the future, playing Pong with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and making smoothies and doing all sorts of other things. He also tells us about his conversation with Zuckerberg... (https://www.theverge.com/24253481/meta-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-ar-glasses-orion-ray-bans-ai-decoder-interview)
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/27/24255557/meta-orion-quest-smart-glasses-ar-connect-vergecast)
This Eufy security camera can show nighttime as if it were daytime
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/26/24255217/eufycam-s3-pro-smart-security-camera-night-vision-apple-home