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Photo: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images
The New York Times Tech Guild went on strike at 12:01AM ET today, reports The Washington Post. The guild represents (https://nytimesguild.org/tech-contract-campaign/) over 600 software engineers, product managers, data analysts, and designers for the media company. Its strike leaves the company bereft of crucial technical expertise just one day before Election Day, when the Times’ crucial backend systems will be under very heavy stress.
The guild has been bargaining since 2022 for its first union contract with the company. Negotiations between it and the Times hit logjams over things like a “just cause” provision that prevents the company from firing workers unless it’s for something like misconduct, as well as pay increases, pay equity, and return-to-office policies, reports the Times. T...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/4/24287600/new-york-times-tech-guild-strike-before-presidential-election)
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge
Riot Games’ investment into its Vanguard system is paying off.
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/4/24283482/valorant-is-winning-the-war-against-pc-gaming-cheaters)
Photo illustration by The Verge / Photo: GM
GM’s Baris Cetinok is committed to building a custom experience to rival that of Apple and Google.
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/24285581/gm-software-baris-cetinok-apple-carplay-android-auto-google-cars-evs-decoder-podcast)
The French-language app shows new movies like Terrifier 3 and Venom: The Last Dance. | Image: Thomas Ricker / The Verge
Another illegal streaming app made its way to the App Store for a short while — but it only surfaced pirated films for people in certain regions outside the US, including France, Canada, and the Netherlands.
Though Apple has since removed the app, the App Store listing for “Univer Note” presented the app as a productivity platform that can “easily help you record every day’s events and plan your time.” However, for users in certain countries, the app showed a collection of pirated movies, such as Venom: The Last Dance, Joker: Folie à Deux, and Terrifier 3. Options within the app were labeled in French, while films streamed in their original language with French subtitles or dubbing.
Anyone who downloaded the app in an unsupported region,...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/4/24287574/apple-approved-illegal-streaming-app-univer-note)
Astell & Kern SP3000T review: a tube amp in your pocket
https://www.theverge.com/24285711/astell-kern-sp3000t-review-hybrid-tube-amp-dap
The hardware is chunky and the software is clunky, but this is the best portable audio player I’ve ever heard.
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/24285711/astell-kern-sp3000t-review-hybrid-tube-amp-dap)
Mario’s excellent run continues with Mario & Luigi: Brothership on the Switch
https://www.theverge.com/24287092/mario-and-luigi-brothership-review-nintendo-switch
Perplexity debuts an AI-powered election information hub
https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/3/24287157/perplexity-ai-election-voting-information-tracking-hub-us-presidential-election-2024-trump-harris
Can Nintendo’s Alarmo run Doom? You bet it can
https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/3/24286842/nintendo-alarmo-doom-hack-usb-custom-firmware-instructions
Your favorite musician’s favorite TikTok show
https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/3/24285474/track-star-tiktok-music-game-show-vergecast
US immigration policy has a huge blind spot: climate change
https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/3/24285366/migration-climate-change-biden-election-trump-harris
Rolls-Royce’s first electric vehicle sounds like no other
https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/3/24281754/rolls-royce-spectre-review-ev-price-specs-sound
Donald Trump files yet another censorship lawsuit
https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/1/24285305/trump-lawsuit-cbs-harris-interview-fcc-broadcast-censorship
Google is building smart home controls into Gemini
https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/1/24285283/google-smart-home-extension-gemini-app
The AI garage door mystery
https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/1/24285304/chatgpt-search-apple-mac-mini-smart-home-vergecast
The Verge’s favorite social networks
https://www.theverge.com/24283800/threads-twitter-bluesky-favorites
The New York Times Tech Guild is on strike
https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/4/24287600/new-york-times-tech-guild-strike-before-presidential-election
Valorant is winning the war against PC gaming cheaters
https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/4/24283482/valorant-is-winning-the-war-against-pc-gaming-cheaters
GM software boss: we have ‘high conviction’ ditching CarPlay is the right path
https://www.theverge.com/24285581/gm-software-baris-cetinok-apple-carplay-android-auto-google-cars-evs-decoder-podcast
Oops, Apple approved another illegal streaming app
https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/4/24287574/apple-approved-illegal-streaming-app-univer-note
Image: Nintendo
For a character that’s been around so long, Mario is in something of a golden period. Since last year his mustache has been spotted in theaters (https://www.theverge.com/23669598/super-mario-bros-movie-review), theme parks (https://www.theverge.com/23604504/shigeru-miyamoto-interview-super-nintendo-world), and the best (https://www.theverge.com/23920647/super-mario-bros-wonder-review-nintendo-switch) (and weirdest (https://www.theverge.com/24112724/super-mario-bros-wonder-interview-nintendo-switch)) side-scrolling Super Mario game in a long time. But he’s had a particularly strong run in role-playing games on the Switch, with recent remakes of both Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and the original Super Mario RPG. Now we have Mario & Luigi: Brothership which keeps the streak alive with a blend of charm, humor, and clever gameplay.
Brothership, once again, starts with the brothers getting whisked away to a fantasy realm in need of help. This time it’s the oceanic world of Concordia, which has been broken apart into a series of islands. The bros end...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/24287092/mario-and-luigi-brothership-review-nintendo-switch)
The Verge
AI search company Perplexity is putting to the test whether it’s a good idea to use AI to serve crucial voting information with a new Election Information Hub (https://www.perplexity.ai/elections/2024-11-05/us/) it announced on Friday (https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-the-election-information-hub). The hub offers things like AI-generated answers to voting questions and summaries of candidates, and on November 5th, Election Day, the company says it will track vote counts live, using data from The Associated Press.
Perplexity says its voter information, which includes polling requirements, locations, and times, is based on data from Democracy Works. (The same group powers similar features from Google). And that its election-related answers come from “a curated set of the most trustworthy and informative sources.”
Perplexity spokesperson Sara Plotnick...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/3/24287157/perplexity-ai-election-voting-information-tracking-hub-us-presidential-election-2024-trump-harris)
This, but blasting demons. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
What do John Deere tractors (https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/15/23306650/def-con-hacker-john-deere-tractors-run-doom-right-to-repair), Ikea smart bulbs (https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/14/22533512/doom-ikea-tradfri-smart-light-bulb-hack), Lego bricks (https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/20/23308217/lego-brick-computer-james-brown), and the MacBook Pro Touch Bar (https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/11/21/13697058/macbook-touchbar-doom-hack-sure-why-not) have in common? They can all run Doom, and naturally, so can Nintendo’s adorable Alarmo alarm clock (https://www.theverge.com/24273422/nintendo-alarmo-review-alarm-clock). It was only a matter of time before someone pulled that off, but what I didn’t expect was that when it happened, it would be playable.
That’s exactly what hacker GaryOberNicht, who recently figured out how (https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/30/24283916/sound-the-alarmo) to run custom firmware on the Alarmo, did in a video posted to Mastodon (garyodernichts/113414373708017840" rel="nofollow">https://social.treehouse.systems/@garyodernichts/113414373708017840) and their X account (https://x.com/GaryOderNichts/status/1852753537001718021) yesterday. In it, they play by turning or pressing the mushroom-shaped blob on top of the Alarmo to move and pressing the other buttons to shoot or open doors. Here, have a look:
Gary said (garyodernichts/113414374157540351" rel="nofollow">https://social.treehouse.systems/@garyodernichts/113414374157540351) it’s “possible to load the shareware version of Doom entirely from...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/3/24286842/nintendo-alarmo-doom-hack-usb-custom-firmware-instructions)
Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge
Guess the artist, win five bucks. Whether you’re a random person on the streets of New York, an A-list celebrity, or the sitting Vice President of the United States, that’s the pitch behind one of the most fun music shows on social media. You show up, you get some headphones and a microphone, and you hope you know what song is playing.
The show is called Track Star, and it’s hosted by Jack Coyne. On this episode of The Vergecast, the first in our three-part miniseries about the future of music, Coyne joins the show to tell us the story of Track Star.
We talk about the show’s beginnings as a trivia show about New York called Public Opinion, how Coyne and his co-creators figured out the show’s structure and pace, how he thinks about his...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/3/24285474/track-star-tiktok-music-game-show-vergecast)
Activists gather in New York City in August 2024. | Photo: Luis Yañez
Joe Biden raised hopes that the US would finally plan for climate-displaced migrants. Today, it’s still a glaring hole in climate and immigration policy.
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/3/24285366/migration-climate-change-biden-election-trump-harris)
Tim Stevens
My favorite feature of the new $420,000, all-electric Rolls-Royce Spectre isn’t the cosseting ride quality or the illuminated stars embedded in the headliner of the insanely ornate interior. It isn’t the 577 horsepower or the 266 miles of range. It’s neither the “yes, that’s the spot” massaging seats nor the curbside presence of that upright, chromed front grille. It isn’t even the aerodynamically refined yet classically styled Spirit of Ecstasy statuette perched atop.
My favorite feature of the Spectre is the sound it makes. As an EV, it doesn’t really make any engine sound on its own. It’s a rolling cocoon made inherently anti-acoustic thanks to the tireless work of some surely big-eared scientists. So, to inject a little more life...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/3/24281754/rolls-royce-spectre-review-ev-price-specs-sound)
Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
I regret to inform you that former President Donald Trump has once again filed what is almost inarguably a SLAPP complaint (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation), this time against CBS for editing its own interview of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump’s lawsuit, first reported by Fox News (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-sues-cbs-news-10-billion-alleging-deceptive-doctoring-harris-60-minutes-interview) yesterday, escalates a weeks-long crusade (https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/22/media/trump-strip-tv-station-licenses-punish-media/index.html) against CBS for its 60 Minutes interview with Harris. Trump argues CBS — which published multiple cuts of the interview (https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/kamala-harris-responds-60-minutes-edit-controversy-cbs-1236173842/) — deceptively edited Harris’ answer to make her appear more coherent. This is the kind of editing decision it’s reasonable to argue about, and that people in fact constantly argue about (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/28/insider/trump-speeches-2024-election.html) with Trump’s own words. It is less reasonable to:
Claim the edit counts as a contribution to the Harris campaign
Call to strip CBS of its FCC...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/1/24285305/trump-lawsuit-cbs-harris-interview-fcc-broadcast-censorship)
Illustration: The Verge
Google is adding a Google Home extension (https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/15335456) to the Gemini app, allowing you to control your smart home while chatting with the AI assistant. The update, which is available to Android users as part of Google Home’s Public Preview program (https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/12494697), will let you use natural language prompts, like “Set the dining room for a romantic date night” to adjust lighting, or “Help me clean up the kitchen” to turn on the vacuum.
Previously, the Gemini app would open Google Assistant if you tried to control your smart home. With the new Google Home extension, you can perform actions across smart lighting, climate control, window coverings, TVs, speakers, and more from within the Gemini app.
The extension in Gemini doesn’t support all smart devices,...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/1/24285283/google-smart-home-extension-gemini-app)
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge
You just left your house. As you peel out of the driveway and tear down the street in the coolest way possible, your garage door... well, what does it do? The answer’s probably nothing, and that feels like the wrong answer. The smart home was supposed to have fixed this by now.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we didn’t necessarily set out to talk about smart garage doors for as long as we did, but The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern (https://www.wsj.com/news/author/joanna-stern) joined the show with a lot of thoughts about Apple Intelligence, notification summaries, and how we all — and in particular, how Apple’s software leader Craig Federighi — manage their own houses. Given the reporting that Apple is gearing up for a big hardware push into the smart home (https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/27/24280830/apple-intelligence-smart-home-display-imac-g4-design), what does the...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/1/24285304/chatgpt-search-apple-mac-mini-smart-home-vergecast)
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge
Social networking has become more disconnected, to say the least. Two years ago, Elon Musk began transforming Twitter into what is now X, and the ensuing chaos drove a lot of former users elsewhere — elsewhere being several places, including Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, and even Facebook or Instagram.
We were curious as to where our staff members were going for their social networking fix these days — or whether they had given up on it altogether. Here are some of their answers.
I just don’t think any single platform is going to be the one-stop shop that Twitter once was
Jay Peters, news editor
I primarily use microblogging social networks, and I bounce between many of them because 1) I need to for my job and 2) because none has really...
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/24283800/threads-twitter-bluesky-favorites)
Image: Alex Parkin / Getty Images
Smartmatic and Dominion are trying to debunk false stories and rebuild trust — but that’s a tall order in 2024.
Continue reading… (https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/1/24284887/smartmatic-dominion-voting-machine-companies-trust-disinformation)