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Verizon’s mobile services are down across the country
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24258362/verizon-mobile-services-down-sos-mode
NBCU’s streaming chief isn’t worried about you canceling cable
https://www.theverge.com/24258301/matt-strauss-peacock-nbc-comcast-olympics-sports-direct-to-consumer-video-streaming
Tesla starts pushing Full Self-Driving access for some Cybertrucks
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24258232/tesla-cybertruck-fsd-early-access-v12-roll-out
Oasis won’t use Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing for North America tour
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24258255/oasis-live-2025-us-tour-no-dynamic-pricing-ticketmaster
Death Stranding 2’s photo mode looks wild
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24258230/death-stranding-2-photo-mode-trailer-tgs-2024
AMD improves Zen 5 CPU latency and performance with BIOS updates
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24258147/amd-zen-5-cpu-performance-latency-bios-updates
How to order free rapid covid tests from the US government — again
https://www.theverge.com/23510740/covid-free-tests-government-how-to
DirecTV and Dish are merging
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24258196/directv-dish-merger-tpg-deal-announcement
Ford targets EV ‘fence-sitters’ with offer of free home charger and installation
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24256072/ford-ev-home-charger-free-installation
California governor vetoes major AI safety bill
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/29/24232172/california-ai-safety-bill-1047-vetoed-gavin-newsom
Marvel and DC lose ‘SUPER HERO’ trademarks
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/29/24257677/marvel-dc-super-hero-trademark-canceled-challenge-superbabies
Razer leans into haptics with a new gaming cushion and vibrating headphones
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/29/24257440/razer-freyja-gaming-cushion-kraken-v4-pro-headphones-haptic-feedback
Spotify is back after a Sunday morning outage
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/29/24257477/spotify-outage-down-website-app
Apple may release an iPad-like smart home display next year
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/29/24257391/apple-smart-home-display-homeos-apple-intelligence-homepod-ipad-robot
The future of AI might look a lot like Twitter
https://www.theverge.com/24255887/social-ai-bots-social-network-chatgpt-vergecast
Matt Strauss, head of Peacock and global streaming, has plans to keep you watching.
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/24258301/matt-strauss-peacock-nbc-comcast-olympics-sports-direct-to-consumer-video-streaming)
Image: Parker Ortolani / The Verge
Some Tesla Cybertruck owners are starting to get Full Self-Driving (FSD) access on their vehicles. The company’s polarizing electric pickup truck has lacked the driver-assistance software feature since its launch in November 2023. Now, members of the Cybertruck Owners Club (https://www.cybertruckownersclub.com/forum/threads/fsd-for-cybertruck-is-released-%F0%9F%98%B1-now-pushing-to-early-access.24449/) (as reported by Electrek) are reporting that the update has been installed on their vehicles.
Tesla had promised that FSD would come to the Cybertruck in September (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/5/24236628/tesla-fsd-full-self-driving-cybertruck-europe-eu-china-launch-regulators), after the launch of the Autopark feature — and with today’s news, it would appear that it just hit that deadline. It’s the latest version of FSD (12.5.5), and to start, it’s coming to Cybertrucks set up for the early access program. The update includes a promised vision-based attention monitoring system for...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24258232/tesla-cybertruck-fsd-early-access-v12-roll-out)
Photo: Getty Images
Oasis announced the North America leg of its 2025 reunion tour (https://oasisinet.com/) this morning, and the band’s management also shared a decision that will be welcome news to fans: they won’t have to worry about inflated “dynamic pricing” rates when ticket sales kick off on October 4th. Dynamic pricing allows for ticket costs to fluctuate based on demand, but all too often, the end result is that prices surge far beyond face value for high-profile performances. This has led many people to bemoan the feature in recent years.
“It is widely accepted that dynamic pricing remains a useful tool to combat ticket touting and keep prices for a significant proportion of fans lower than the market rate and thus more affordable,” the statement reads.
“But, when...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24258255/oasis-live-2025-us-tour-no-dynamic-pricing-ticketmaster)
Image: Kojima Productions
The 2024 edition of the Tokyo Game Show took place over the weekend, and one of the highlights was a presentation from Death Stranding 2 studio Kojima Productions. It included a few interesting details about the weird-as-hell sequel (https://www.theverge.com/24055773/death-stranding-2-ps5-trailer-2025), which the developer has helpfully split up into a series of clips in lieu of a traditional trailer. They feature some of the new characters joining the cast, some dialogue that makes little sense out of context, and what looks like a completely ridiculous photo mode to play around with.
The first includes some returning faces played by Norman Reedus and Léa Seydoux and also provides a proper introduction to one of the stranger elements of Death Stranding 2: a physic medium who has been turned into a...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24258230/death-stranding-2-photo-mode-trailer-tgs-2024)
Image: AMD
AMD is releasing new BIOS updates that will boost performance for its Ryzen 9600X / 9700X processors and address some latency issues. The performance improvements and latency reductions arrive around a month after disappointing Zen 5 desktop CPU reviews (https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/14/24220250/amd-zen-5-cpu-reviews-ryzen-9-9950x) and appear alongside updates to Windows 11 (https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/28/24230321/microsoft-windows-11-update-ryzen-cpu-performance-improvement) that include optimized AMD-specific branch prediction for both Zen 4 and Zen 5 chips.
CPU reviewers have been reporting a higher-than-expected core-to-core latency across the Ryzen 9000-series of desktop processors, and now AMD has addressed this with a new BIOS optimization.
The latest AMD updates for AM5 motherboards include AGESA PI 1.2.0.2 firmware, which AMD says (https://community.amd.com/t5/gaming/bg-p/gaming-blogs) will address some “corner cases” where it takes two transactions to read and...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24258147/amd-zen-5-cpu-performance-latency-bios-updates)
Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge
Autumn is here, and once again, warnings are going up about the spread of the covid-19 virus — along with the flu and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus. To try to minimize the upsurge, the US government is once again offering free home rapid antigen tests (https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/26/24228619/another-indicator-that-covid-has-not-gone-away-more-free-home-tests) to each US household. According to the government website, orders will start shipping this week.
As before, it’s extremely simple to put in your order. You will not need to submit a credit card or any other financial information.
Go to covidtests.gov (http://covidtests.gov/).
Tap on the button reading Order Free At-home Tests.
If you don’t see the button for any reason, you can go directly to the USPS site (which is where the button would send you anyway) at special.usps.com/testkits (https://special.usps.com/testkits).
Fill in your name,...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/23510740/covid-free-tests-government-how-to)
If successful, the merger would create a combined satellite streaming business with around 20 million US subscribers. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
DirecTV has reached an agreement to acquire Dish TV (https://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/8532386/type/dlg/sid/verge/https://www.directv.com/insider/directv-and-dish/), Sling TV, and the rest of Dish parent company EchoStar’s wider TV business, a move that would combine Dish’s roughly 8.1 million subscribers with DirecTV’s 11 million US subscribers, The New York Times reports. The deal is a complicated debt transfer — the transaction price is a single dollar, but DirecTV will assume $9.75 billion of Dish’s debt. The deal serves as a lifeline for EchoStar, which has no means to pay the $2 billion of its overall $20 billion debt due by November 14th.
In a statement, DirecTV chief executive Bill Morrow said a merger between the two companies “will be better able to work with programmers to realize our vision for the future of TV, which is to aggregate,...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24258196/directv-dish-merger-tpg-deal-announcement)
Image: Ford
For customers still unsure whether they’re ready to make the switch (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/1/24232206/ev-sales-slow-hybrid-phev-charging-ford-tesla) to an all-electric vehicle, Ford is sweetening the pot.
Today, the company launched a new initiative called the “Ford Power Promise,” in which it will provide a suite of benefits to customers who buy or lease a new EV. And chief among them is a complimentary home charger for all new customers, as well as the costs of standard installation.
The charger that’s being offered is the company’s Ford Charge Station Pro (https://chargers.ford.com/ford-charge-station-pro), a $1,310 Level 2 charger that comes with a standard CCS1 connector. Ford declined to put a monetary value on the installation but said it would cover costs up to 60 amps of power and 80 feet of wire run. Customers who need to upgrade their home electrical...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24256072/ford-ev-home-charger-free-installation)
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images
California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act (SB 1047 (https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1047)) today. In his veto message (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25178071-sb-1047-veto-message?responsive=1&title=1), Governor Newsom cited multiple factors in his decision, including the burden the bill would have placed on AI companies, California’s lead in the space, and a critique that the bill may be too broad.
“While well-intentioned, SB 1047 does not take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments, involves critical decision-making or the use of sensitive data. Instead, the bill applies stringent standards to even the most basic functions — so long as a large system deploys it. I do not believe this is the best approach to protecting the public from real threats...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/29/24232172/california-ai-safety-bill-1047-vetoed-gavin-newsom)
Photo: John Carl D’Annibale / Albany Times Union via Getty Images
You know how Marvel and DC have held joint ownership over trademarks for “Super Hero” for decades? That time is apparently mostly over, as the US Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the companies’ claim to several of their trademarks, reports Reuters.
The cancellation comes as the result of a challenge from Superbabies Limited, a small company that produces a series of Superbabies comics about, well, superhero babies. Superbabies creator S.J. Richold decided to challenge the two comic giants’ claim to the trademarks after DC “attempted to block Richold’s efforts to promote The Super Babies,” wrote the law firm (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/reichman-jorgensen-lehman--feldberg-triumphs-over-comic-giants-super-hero-trademarks-open-to-public-use-302260374.html) that represented Richold in a release.
Marvel and DC didn’t respond to the challenge by a July 24th, 2024 due date,...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/29/24257677/marvel-dc-super-hero-trademark-canceled-challenge-superbabies)
The Razer Freyja can turn most computer chairs into haptic gaming accessories. | Image: Razer
Razer has released the Freyja gaming cushion (https://razer.a9yw.net/c/482924/642901/10229?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.razer.com%2Fgaming-chairs-accessories%2Frazer-freyja&sharedid=theverge.com), a haptic cushion that you can attach to your gaming chair, the company announced (https://press.razer.com/featured/razercon-2024/). The cushion is $299.99, and it’s available to buy now.
The Freyja is an extension of the vibration you get from gaming controllers — except instead of just jolting your hands, it buzzes several panels positioned behind and beneath you in response to things happening in a game.
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The company says the cushion’s feedback comes from “multi-directional haptics powered by six advanced haptic motor actuators.” It connects via Bluetooth or through Razer’s HyperSpeed Wireless connection.
Most of the time, that vibration...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/29/24257440/razer-freyja-gaming-cushion-kraken-v4-pro-headphones-haptic-feedback)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
Spotify was down earlier on Sunda, with users across social media reporting that the app and website weren’t working, and for those of us at The Verge who tried we saw the same issues.
Downdetector showed a spike (https://downdetector.com/status/spotify/) in the number of reports about problems with the music streaming service that started at about 10:40AM ET. Spotify said it was working on the issue, and now it appears to be resolved, with the number of reports falling off sharply and a new messages from @SpotifyStatus saying “Everything’s looking much better now!”
Everything’s looking much better now! Give@SpotifyCares (https://twitter.com/SpotifyCares?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) a shout if you still need help.— Spotify Status (@SpotifyStatus) September 29, 2024 (https://twitter.com/SpotifyStatus/status/1840445436471210314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
The outage affected both the app and the website — while the app...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/29/24257477/spotify-outage-down-website-app)
The StandBy feature of iPhones offers a hint of how an Apple smart home display could work. | Image: David Pierce / The Verge
Apple is preparing to take a fresh run at the smart home that starts with a rumored smart display that it may release next year. That’s according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who writes (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-09-29/meta-steps-up-pressure-on-apple-vision-with-orion-ar-glasses-and-cheaper-quest-3-m1nkq76p?srnd=undefined) in his Power On newsletter today that the display will use a new operating system, called homeOS, that’s based on the Apple TV’s tvOS (much like the software that drives HomePods now.)
Gurman reports that the display will run Apple apps like Calendar, Notes, and Home, and that Apple has tested prototypes with magnets for wall-mounting. And it will support Apple Intelligence (https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/10/24175405/wwdc-apple-ai-news-features-ios-18-macos-15-iphone-ipad-mac) — something Apple’s HomePods don’t currently do.
Rumors of such a device have been going around (https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/16/24195063/apple-smart-display-rumors-homepod-ipad) for some time now (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-12/apple-working-on-combined-tv-box-speaker-to-revive-home-efforts?cmpid=BBD080722_POWERON&embedded-checkout=true), with form factors ranging from a HomePod with a screen (https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/4/24192346/apples-rumored-homepod-with-a-screen-could-arrive-with-apple-intelligence) to a display a... (https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/14/24220475/apple-next-big-project-tabletop-robot-ipad)
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/29/24257391/apple-smart-home-display-homeos-apple-intelligence-homepod-ipad-robot)
The Verge
Roughly a month ago, Michael Sayman realized he could finally build the app he’d been thinking about for years: a social network where everyone but you is an AI bot. Large language models are finally good enough and cheap enough that the experience might actually feel social and useful, and not like a gimmick or a game. And so, after years of waiting and months of testing the latest models, Sayman got to work.
The app he built is called SocialAI (https://socialaiapp.com/), and it has become something of a viral phenomenon (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/17/24247253/social-ai-app-replace-humans-with-bots) since it launched. (All he’d tell me is that it was downloaded 20,000 times in the first couple of days — but says the number has gone up substantially since then.) Some people thought it seemed fun and useful; other people thought it felt deeply...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/24255887/social-ai-bots-social-network-chatgpt-vergecast)
Image: David Pierce / The Verge
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 54, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reading about AI slop and sports betting and Jony Ive, clearing my schedule for the new season of The Great British Bake Off, watching Sicario and Pirates of the Caribbean and A Quiet Place: Day One on plane-seat screens like their directors intended, insta-subscribing to Hasan Minhaj’s new YouTube show, and just relentlessly trolling people with Vergecast clips through Pocket Casts’ new feature.
I also have for you a couple of new Meta gadgets, the mobile game that will eat up all your free...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/29/24256056/meta-orion-quest-3s-smart-glasses-balatro-mobile-zelda-game-installer)