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DynamicSpot in action on a Google Pixel 6 Image: Richard Lawler
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Today’s Storystream
Feed refreshed 43 minutes ago • 10 minutes in the clouds
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Andrew J. Hawkins43 minutes ago
If you’re using crash detection on the iPhone 14, invest in a really good phone mount.
Motorcycle owner Douglas Sonders has a cautionary tale in Jalopnik today about the iPhone 14’s new crash detection feature. He was riding his LiveWire One motorcycle down the West Side Highway at about 60 mph when he hit a bump, causing his iPhone 14 Pro Max to fly off its handlebar mount. Soon after, his girlfriend and parents received text messages that he had been in a horrible accident, causing several hours of panic. The phone even called the police, all because it fell off the handlebars. All thanks to crash detection.
Riding a motorcycle is very dangerous, and the last thing anyone needs is to think their loved one was in a horrible crash when they weren’t. This is obviously an edge case, but it makes me wonder what other sort of false positives we see as more phones adopt this technology.
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Andrew J. HawkinsTwo hours ago
Ford is running out of its own Blue Oval badges.
Running out of semiconductors is one thing, but running out of your own iconic nameplates is just downright brutal. The Wall Street Journal reports badge and nameplate shortages are impacting the automaker's popular F-series pickup lineup, delaying deliveries and causing general chaos.
Some executives are even proposing a 3D printing workaround, but they didn’t feel like the substitutes would clear the bar. All in all, it's been a dreadful summer of supply chain setbacks for Ford, leading the company to reorganize its org chart to bring some sort of relief.
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Must Reads
Must Reads
Must Reads
Elon Musk has an actual free speech issue on his hands
Vergecast: Apple Watch Ultra review, next-gen GPUs, and more gadgets
How to use the Apple Watch Ultra’s Action button
The world’s largest carbon removal project yet is headed for Wyoming
Apple AirPods Pro (second-gen) review: same look, better everything else
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Elizabeth LopattoTwo hours ago
Spain’s Transports Urbans de Sabadell has La Bussí.
Once again, the US has fallen behind in transportation — call it the Bussí gap. A hole in our infrastructure, if you will.
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Jay Peters4:28 PM UTC
Doing more with less (extravagant holiday parties).
Sundar Pichai addressed employees’ questions about Google’s spending changes at an all-hands this week, according to CNBC.
“Maybe you were planning on hiring six more people but maybe you are going to have to do with four and how are you going to make that happen?” Pichai sent a memo to workers in July about a hiring slowdown.
In the all-hands, Google’s head of finance also asked staff to try not to go “over the top” for holiday parties.
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Elizabeth Lopatto4:21 PM UTC
Insiders made the most money off of Helium’s “People’s Network.”
Remember Helium, which was touted by The New York Times in an article entitled “Maybe There’s a Use for Crypto After All?” Not only was the company misleading people about who used it — Salesforce and Lime weren’t using it, despite what Helium said on its site — Helium disproportionately enriched insiders, Forbes reports.
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James Vincent2:50 PM UTC
Nvidia’s latest AI model generates endless 3D models.
Need to fill your video game, VR world, or project render with 3D chaff? Nvidia’s latest AI model could help. Trained on 2D images, it can churn out customizable 3D objects ready to import and tweak.
The model seems rudimentary (the renders aren’t amazing quality and seem limited in their variety), but generative AI models like this are only going to improve, speeding up work for all sorts of creative types.
Podcasts
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Podcasts
Vergecast: Apple Watch Ultra review, next-gen GPUs, and more gadgets
Today on The Vergecast: GTA, TikTok, and iPhones.
I tried replacing Google with TikTok, and it worked better than I thought
Can software simplify the supply chain? Ryan Petersen thinks so
Music labels are incorporating old songs into new songs to trigger your nostalgia.
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Most Popular
Most Popular
Most Popular
The Dynamic Island is already available on Android devices
Apple AirPods Pro (second-gen) review: same look, better everything else
Charging your EV at night is about to become more expensive
Apple has picked up the next show from Breaking Bad’s creator
Amazon is tightening its ebook return policy to thwart BookTok
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Richard Lawler1:02 PM UTC
Green light.
This week Friday brings the debut of Apple’s other new hardware. We’ve reviewed both the new AirPods Pro and this chonky Apple Watch Ultra, and now you’ll decide if you’re picking them up, or not.
Otherwise, we’re preparing for Netflix’s Tudum event this weekend and slapping Dynamic Island onto Android phones.
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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
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Jess Weatherbed12:31 PM UTC
Japan will fully reopen to tourists in October following two and a half years of travel restrictions.
Good news for folks who have been waiting to book their dream Tokyo vacation: Japan will finally relax Covid border control measures for visa-free travel and individual travelers on October 11th.
Tourists will still need to be vaccinated three times or submit a negative COVID-19 test result ahead of their trip, but can take advantage of the weak yen and a ‘national travel discount’ launching on the same date. Sugoi!
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Thomas Ricker11:00 AM UTC
Sony starts selling the Xperia 1 IV with continuous zoom lens.
What does it cost to buy a smartphone that does something no smartphone from Apple, Google, Samsung can? $1,599.99 is Sony’s answer: for a camera lens that can shift its focal length anywhere between 85mm and 125mm.
Here’s Allison’s take on Sony’s continuous-zoom lens when she tested a prototype Xperia 1 IV back in May:
Sony put a good point-and-shoot zoom in a smartphone. That’s an impressive feat. In practical use, it’s a bit less impressive. It’s essentially two lenses that serve the same function: portrait photography. The fact that there’s optical zoom connecting them doesn’t make them much more versatile.
Still, it is a Sony, and like.no.other.
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Corin Faife10:44 AM UTC
If God sees everything, so do these apps.
Some Churches are asking congregants to install so-called “accountability apps” to prevent sinful behavior. A Wired investigation found that they monitor almost everything a user does on their phone, including taking regular screenshots and flagging LGBT search terms.
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James Vincent8:41 AM UTC
Shutterstock punts on AI-generated content.
Earlier this week, Getty Images banned the sale of AI-generated content, citing legal concerns about copyright. Now, its biggest rival, Shutterstock, has responded by doing ... absolutely nothing. In a blog post, Shutterstock’s CEO Paul Hennessy says there are “open questions on the copyright, licensing, rights, and ownership of synthetic content and AI-generated art,” but doesn’t announce any policy changes. So, you can keep on selling AI art on Shutterstock, I guess.
How Shutterstock Is Charting a Path for AI-Generated Media
[The Shutterstock Blog]
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Thomas Ricker6:58 AM UTC
This custom Super73 makes me want to tongue-kiss an eagle.
Super73’s tribute to mountain-biking pioneer Tom Ritchey has my inner American engorged with flag-waving desire. The “ZX Team” edition features a red, white, and blue colorway with custom components fitted throughout. Modern MTBers might scoff at the idea of doing any serious trail riding on a heavy Super73 e-bike, which is fine: this one-off is not for sale.
You can, however, buy the Super73 ZX it’s based on (read my review here), which proved to be a very capable all-terrain vehicle on asphalt, dirt, gravel, and amber fields of grain.
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Richard Lawler12:25 AM UTC
The sincerest form of flattery.
I had little interest in Apple’s Dynamic Island, but once a developer built their spin on the idea for Android, I had to give it a try.
Surprisingly, I’ve found I actually like it, and while dynamicSpot isn’t as well-integrated as Apple’s version, it makes up for it with customization. Nilay’s iPhone 14 Pro review asked Apple to reverse the long-press to expand vs. tap to enter an app setup. In dynamicSpot, you can do that with a toggle (if you pay $5).
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Richard LawlerSep 22
TikTok politics.
Ahead of the midterm elections, TikTok made big changes to its rules for politicians and political fundraising on the platform, as Makena Kelly explains... on TikTok.
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Richard LawlerSep 22
The Twitter employee who testified about Trump and the January 6th attack has come forward.
This summer, a former Twitter employee who worked on platform and content moderation policies testified anonymously before the congressional committee investigating the violence at the US Capitol on January 6th.
While she remains under NDA and much of her testimony is still sealed, Anika Collier Navaroli has identified herself, explaining a little about why she’s telling Congress her story of what happened inside Twitter — both before the attack, and after, when it banned Donald Trump.
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