YouTube is testing another perk for its Premium subscribers that offers a higher bitrate than existing 1080p streams. The option, named “1080p Premium,” is currently in testing for a small number of users, and appears to boost the bitrate of video streams by a couple of Mbps. It could be a neat option for subscribers who watch primarily on smartphones, where 1080p-resolution displays are far more common than 4K.
And speaking of video bitrates, the popular LumaFusion video editing software is now widely available on Android and ChromeOS, after previously being available for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Finally, if you missed PlayStation’s State of Play yesterday, my colleague Ash Parrish has a great roundup of the most interesting trailers. Personally I’m most excited by Baldur’s Gate 3 finally getting an official release date: August 31st. It previously had a vaguer “August 2023” release window.
And now, here’s a silly tweet to start your day:
Stay tuned, as we continue to update this list with the most important news of today: Friday, February 24th, 2023.
Would you let ChatGPT control your smart home?
This proof-of-concept video by Josh.ai shows how AI language models could finally make your smart home voice assistant, well, actually smart.
Dish Network’s internal systems are so broken some employees haven’t worked in over a day
The company is blaming an ‘internal system issue’ for the problems.
- J“Get up there, Cybertruck!”
Here’s a video of the long-delayed Tesla Cybertruck “off-roading” over some bushes in front of Tesla’s new engineering HQ in Palo Alto. Check out that giant windshield wiper! (For more on the Cybertruck’s wiper woes, click here.)
- EWhere did voice commands go wrong?
We’ve talked a little bit about how interest rates explain what’s going on in tech, but I really enjoyed this insightful newsletter about why Alexa is suddenly bothering you about how it can make shopping lists:
The other day was the final straw. Someone in my household made a request, and during the follow-on prompt, in a terrifying concert, my wife, my 3 and 6 year-olds, and me, all, in a tone that no parent should ever encourage for their kids, yelled, “Alexa, NO!!!!”
Alexa, what happened?[www.readmargins.com]
- R
Feb 24Richard Lawler, Nilay Patel and 3 more
This week on The Vergecast we talked about Section 230.On the latest episode (you can find the audio feeds here) TC, Nilay, and Alex broke down this week’s Supreme Court hearings that could significantly impact the internet.
After a break and a lineup change, we also dig into the new fraud charges filed against Sam Bankman-Fried, Spotify’s AI DJ (I don’t trust it), the Microsoft vs. Sony battle over Activision, and Tesla’s new California engineering HQ.
Nintendo confirms it won’t be part of E3 2023
The company says the show didn’t fit into its plans, and it’s possible that Sony and Microsoft won’t be showing up, either.
Feb 24James Vincent and Jay Peters
Meta has a new machine learning language model to remind you it does AI too
This isn’t a system you can talk to but, rather, a research tool that Meta is hoping others will use to solve some of the problems that plague AI language models.
Feb 24Brandon Widder and Antonio G. Di Benedetto
The Beats Fit Pro earbuds in new yellow and coral colors are already $30 off
You can also save on Sony’s picnic-friendly SRS-XB33 Bluetooth speaker, one of the more affordable robot vacuum / mop hybrids on the market, and Apple’s last-gen iPad.
- RRemember Ozy Media, the company with splashy New York events, star guests, high-profile writers, and no readers?
Its 2021 shutdown followed this NYT article (called a “hit job” at the time by founder and CEO Carlos Watson) exposing the whole thing as a sham, reporting COO Samir Rao pretended to be a YouTube executive while on a call with potential investors.
Now Rao has pleaded guilty while Watson has been arrested, with prosecutors calling him a con man whose lies didn’t stop there:
Watson directed Ozy’s then-Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to send the bank a fake signed contract between Ozy and the cable network purporting to be for the second season. When the then-CFO refused, Rao, with Watson’s approval, sent the fake contract — which contained terms favorable to Ozy and a forged signature — to the bank, copying the then-CFO.
Later that day, the then-CFO emailed Watson and Rao to say that she was resigning effective immediately. She explained, “this . . . is illegal. This is fraud. This is forging someone’s signature with the intent of getting an advance from a publicly traded bank.” She continued, “To be crystal clear, what you see as a measured risk — I see as a felony.”
Ozy Media and Its Founder Carlos Watson Indicted in a Years-Long Multi-Million Dollar Fraud Scheme[U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of New York]
Feb 24Casey Newton and Zoe Schiffer
Twitter shut off its internal Slack, and now ‘everyone is barely working’
Jira went down, Slack’s gone, and site performance is degraded. What’s next?
Meet the couple that built an EV rock crawler for King of the Hammers
Electrified powertrains are not favored by many fans of rock-crawling, off-roading events like California’s King of the Hammers. But Keith and Melissa Silva pushed themselves and their rig to the limit at this year’s Every Man Challenge.
What is going on with Fitbit?
Longtime Fitbit users are beyond fed up with server outages, nerfed products, and Google sunsetting their favorite social feature.
Popular video editing app LumaFusion now widely available for Android and ChromeOS
The award-winning professional video editor for Apple devices has been rebuilt to get the most out of Android and ChromeOS hardware.
Ampler Axel e-bike review: this is the way
After a year-long struggle, the boutique maker of stealthy electric bikes finally gets it right.
Creed III brings Adonis’ story full circle by trading in one set of daddy issues for another
Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut feels like an experimental remake of Rocky V that finally lets Adonis Creed step outside of his mentor’s shadow.
- AMeta’s next big round of layoffs are coming.
From the newest edition of my Command Line newsletter, which just hit inboxes for paid subscribers:
Meta is planning another round of layoffs, I can unfortunately confirm. Leadership has been coy both internally and externally about what is coming, but I’m told that the current plan is to announce more cuts in March after last year’s performance bonuses are paid out. Given what I’ve heard about plans to cut certain orgs by double-digit percentages, I wouldn’t be surprised if the total number is somewhere in the ballpark of the last layoff, which was about 11,000 people or 13 percent of the company.
Subscribe to Command Line[The Verge]
YouTube says it isn’t messing with 1080p — ‘1080p Premium’ is higher-bitrate
The company also says it’s not changing ‘the existing quality offerings for 1080p.’
The biggest news from PlayStation’s State of Play
Featuring new trailers for Street Fighter 6, Baldur’s Gate 3, Tchia, and more.