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Umar Shakir

Umar Shakir

News Reporter

Umar Shakir is a news reporter for The Verge, covering electric cars and more. He's spent over 15 years in IT support beforehand, including managing Macs for a University and also fixing them at the Genius Bar. Umar likes collecting video game cartridges, watching football, and hanging in shopping center parking lots waiting for his EV to charge.

From ChatGPT to Gemini: how AI is rewriting the internet

How we use the internet is changing fast thanks to the advancement of AI-powered chatbots that can find information and redeliver it as a simple conversation.

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Here’s what it’s like to watch a personal spatial video in a Vision Pro headset.

Apple’s upcoming mixed reality headset can play back stereoscopic 3D video shot on iPhone 15 Pro, and CNET’s Scott Stein got to load up some of his own spatial videos on a Vision Pro and watch them:

[My mom] sort of raised her eyebrows a bit, and the way she looked at me in 3D — at a scale close to normal size, with her seeming to make eye contact — made me feel like I was almost there. It made me want to climb through that fuzzy-bordered window and join my family again on the other side.


So now I know I have too many iMessages backed up.

In the new iOS 17.2 update, you can easily see how many messages are backed up to iCloud alongside how much storage they’re taking up by going to Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Show All > Messages in iCloud.

I’m not sure if I truly need to hold on to these forever. What is your iMessage backup looking like?


messages in the cloud, 100.66GB used, keep forver, 355,488 messages
How much is iCloud storage per month again?
Screenshot: Umar Shakir / The Verge
DJI’s 2021-announced 8K professional camera is finally shipping.

The Ronin 4D-8K combo rig comes kitted with a Zenmuse X9-8K gimble camera on a vertically-stabilized main body (4-axis stabilization), a LIDAR range finder, DJI’s 17-28mm lens, 1TB SSD, monitor, battery, and all the mounts and grips for $12,838. that’s more than the originally announced $11,499 price, but DJI says the 8K comes with a RAW license key, unlike the 6K version.


camera rig with stabilized camera
DJI’s Ronin 4D-8K combo is not for consumers or prosumers.
Image: DJI
Drone follow cams and high fives to make friends, in Meta Horizon Worlds.

Update v140 allows you to stay “present in the moment” and record yourself in the third person (rolling out now). You can also follow new people by high-fiving them for two seconds, like an iPhone NameDrop in the not real world.

Even with the new high-five, there are new personal boundaries that keep people from feeling like they’re too close to you (adjust in Settings > Safety).


avatar in a virtual phone recording self
New “drone mode” hands-free video capture.
Image: Meta
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So, what’s the statute of limitations on false advertising?

The California DMV accused Tesla of misleading customers with brand names like “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving” into believing the company’s EVs are capable of autonomous driving.

Tesla’s defense is that the DMV was aware of the branding since 2014 / 2016 and gave “implicit approval” since it never said Tesla’s advertising was problematic after all these years.