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The Weekender: buying Beats, updating Upcoming, and making moral machines

The Weekender: buying Beats, updating Upcoming, and making moral machines

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The best of the week gone by

By Jacob Kastrenakes, a deputy editor who oversees tech and news coverage. Since joining The Verge in 2012, he’s published 5,000+ stories and is the founding editor of the creators desk.

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Welcome to The Verge: Weekender edition. Every Saturday, we'll bring you some of the best and most important reads of the past seven days, from original reports, to in-depth features, to reviews and interviews. Think of it as a collection of some of our favorite pieces that you may have missed — or that you may just want to read again. You can follow along below, or keep up to date on Flipboard.

  • Photo Essay

    Swimming in luxury: an iconic pool is reborn in Paris

    A legendary French hotel and pool reopened last week after falling into ruin throughout the ’90s. Now it's as brilliant and beautiful as ever, but the Piscine Molitor's former cool — which brought the bikini into existence — is still a ways away from coming back.

  • Report

    Arizona wants to watch Mexico with an army of radar towers

    SkyMall founder Bob Worsley is now a senator in Arizona, and he wants to install an automated system for spotting illegal immigrants across its 387 miles of border with Mexico. The technology is impressive, but it's also extremely expensive — and even Worsley admits that it won't solve the big issue of immigration.

  • Review

    Leica T review: form minus function

    Leica's cameras are renown for their quality and beloved for their idiosyncrasies and exclusivity, but they've long been a bit too exclusive. Now Leica is making a huge effort to take that premium experience down to a more affordable range. Can Leica reinvent itself with the T, or is its inventive new camera still not meant for everyone?

  • Report

    The brilliant life, stupid death, and improbable return of Upcoming.org

    Upcoming.org was one of the early stars as the web became more personal and more social in the 2000s. It slowly withered away after being acquired by Yahoo in 2005, but now its creator is bringing it back. Here's the story of Upcoming's past and the potential for its brilliant return.

  • Report

    Apple didn't want Beats, it needed Beats

    Apple made its biggest purchase ever this week, buying Beats' headphones, speakers, and subscription music service for $3 billion. But it's that last product that really matters to Apple, which is now trying to save iTunes as competitors like Spotify rise to power.

  • Report

    Google's self-driving car isn't a car, it's the future

    Self-driving cars are coming, and Google — one of the leaders in the field — just revealed that it's built one of its very own earlier this week. It's a modest start, but it's going to mean huge things for the road in the not-so-distant future.

  • Preview

    ‘Halt and Catch Fire’ preview: AMC swaps meth for microchips

    With Breaking Bad over, AMC needs a new hit, and it may have just found something special in Halt and Catch Fire, a new series following the ’80s computer revolution. The show premieres this weekend, and we've taken a look at its first episode to see how it holds up.

  • Report

    This cheap and beautiful machine is 3D printing's best chance at going mainstream

    Advocates will tell you that 3D printers are going to be everywhere soon, but it's still hard to imagine why any normal person would want to own one. Now, it's a whole lot easier: New Matter's printer is inexpensive and gorgeous, and it'll make it easier than ever to actually find something that you'll want to print.

  • Report

    Can a robot learn right from wrong?

    Researchers want robots to be able to make the right choice in a moral crisis, and they hope to have something working in just five years. That's no easy task though: one way or another, robots will have to maneuver ethical conundrums that even humans struggle with.

  • Review

    HTC One mini 2 review: average by design

    HTC has time and again made some of the best and most beautiful smartphones on the market, but bringing those into a tinier and less expensive package has been a struggle. Its latest effort, the One mini 2, looks just as good as the flagship One, but its tiny differences may add up to one big reason for disappointment.

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