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Verge Score
Fairphone’s proper US debut feels like a triumph in the middle of RAMageddon.
Double-decker robovacs, a smartphone that eliminates the screen bezel, and another laptop with an expanding screen.
A more powerful and rugged solar generator on wheels.
We’ve seen everything from smart home to smartphones. What do you want to know?
Ugreen’s HomeAgent combines a NAS, a security camera NVR, and an on-device AI assistant in one box, maxing out with a $9,999 Nvidia Jetson Thor version.
Other countries have been doing it right for over 20 years. It’s about time we caught up.
A mini power plant that turns a standard power outlet into a solar power inlet.
Astronomers warn that a recent FCC decision about mirror-equipped satellites could hinder their ability to observe the cosmos, as well as lead to permanent eye damage.
Too bad this 500W N-Type panel isn’t bifacial and isn’t (yet) available in the US.
The IdeaPad Vibe starts at $700, like the Neo, with either Qualcomm or AMD chips.
The HP OmniBook 3 16 hits different in an era of expensive laptops.
The half-inch thin laptop is joined by a new, much larger Swift Air 16 — both with Intel Wildcat Lake.
The Dell 14S promises an aluminum build, Intel Wildcat Lake chips, and lots of battery life — for a price we don’t know exactly yet.
Can the impact of a conflict be measured? Can we reckon with what’s quantifiable?
The fastest growing companies in the world aren’t AI companies, but the startups that supply them with warm bodies.
Operation Babylift was an earnest attempt to save children during the fall of Saigon. Decades later, a generation of adoptees wrestles with the aftermath.
Experienced white-collar workers are now part of a miserable gig economy.
The KickerSeptember 7
The British automaker is on the hunt for a new demographic with its first electric vehicle.
The Kata Mini is one of those weird AI companions that have little purpose other than to be cute and creepy — speaker and microphone on your keychain plushie, anyone?
But the Mini, a portable, camera-less version of a Kata Friend companion, can also control SwitchBot smart home products. That’s a new way to turn on the lights. It’s coming later this year.
The Mate XT 2 also borrows Samsung’s inward-folding design.
Self-reporting isn’t working, based upon an investigation by Right to Repair Europe. For the last year, tablet and phone manufacturers (and importers) have been required to provide repair instructions and prices for spare parts on a website, but over 80 percent fail to do so. Some leave the field blank, or worse: provide a generic link to temu.com or Aliexpress.com.
They want the AI models built on their works destroyed.
Frequent Martin Scorsese collaborator and the screenwriter behind Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and The Last Temptation of Christ, Paul Schrader, is turning to AI to make the crime noir Three Guns At Dawn. He’s been trying to make the movie about three criminal brothers for a long time, but nobody wanted to star in it. When asked why, he gave The Playlist a… let’s say, revealing answer.
“We sent it out to actors, and no Black actors wanted to play in a movie where there are no good Black people,” he said. “And it sort of died. But then AI came along, and I didn’t need Black actors.”
[The Playlist]
The Boeing 767-300 overran the runway during landing.
We’re expecting the reveal of an all-new iPhone form factor on Wednesday. It will undoubtedly be an expensive beast. So what will it take to make you consider spending your hard-earned money? What features are you hoping to see? What would be a deal-breaker if it were missing?
The president posted an image that purports to show the next generation of United States Space Force dress uniforms and, well… they sure look a lot like Imperial officer garb. (Which itself is inspired in part by German SS uniforms.)
Isar Aerospace gives the continent more options to “buy European” for space launches.
There won’t be magnets and there’s still no word on price, though.
The latest model from OpenAI proved its mettle by tackling Valve’s iconic first-person puzzler. User cozyblaze got the AI to beat the full game in under 24 hours for less than $600! And it probably only required a small swimming pool’s worth of water to boot. There’s a video of a condensed version of the run.
Lenovo’s Project Swan has a screen that literally unrolls. The prototype could use better speakers and some weight balancing, but I love watching it in motion!
The mobile version of Pokémon Champions isn’t allowed at high-level tournaments, but it’s unclear why.
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Verge Score
Earth Garden takes you around the world using environmental audio from Freesound.
The feature is expected to launch as part of iOS 27 later this month.
Unsurprisingly, while there has been an incredible outpouring of support following Dolly’s passing, there have also been a lot of people trying to exploit it. Stella Parton has finally had enough of the “insensitivity from strangers,” which she said has “been challenging to absorb and or ignore.”
That’s the vote tally at the United Nations to adopt a new world map, the “Equal Earth projection”, that corrects distortions in the centuries-old and well-known Mercator projection. The Mercator map was prized during the era of European imperialism. (This is also a subject in a great episode of The West Wing.) The proposed new map more accurately portrays the relative size of continents.
You can probably guess the only nation that voted against it. Yes, it was the United States, which called this “a radical ideological project.” Perhaps the new map should depict us as an island standing alone against the world’s nations. If you really want to find a radical ideological project in mapping, just look at Trump’s “Lake America” designation.
But don’t think that means people are abandoning streaming.
TikTok user CatJacks created an app for Apple’s headset that allows him to see through walls. When he’s running cable in a house, he’ll peek in the attic, mark where the studs are, then come around the other side and be able to see them and the cavity in 3D.
Remember Frore and its fan-replacing AirJet cooling tech? Sure looks like Lenovo is taking it seriously!
Mainstream headphones are good but boring now. I went to an audiophile show to be reminded why I love headphones.
The company pledged to overhaul their agent ‘misalignment incident’ reporting.
Following the standalone Magic Drawing Pad from 2024, XP-Pen is now launching the Android 16-based Magic Pro 13 next month to tempt creatives away from sketching on iPads. The price hasn’t been announced yet, but it features a 3096 x 2064 resolution LCD display, with 100 percent sRGB coverage, 650-nit brightness, and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz.
Amazon has reportedly canceled Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man detective series that premiered on Prime Video and MGM Plus earlier this year, according to TheWrap. The report adds that Sony and Amazon “will continue collaborating” on more Marvel projects, and “have already identified the next chapter of the franchise.”
And they won’t be making more, meaning there won’t be a way to add Z-Wave devices to a SmartThings smart home. Aeotec, which makes both hubs for Samsung, told me they have about 10,000 left, which may last through the end of the year. Samsung discontinued the V3 last year and replaced it with the Smart Home Hub 2, which has twice the performance, but doesn’t support Z-Wave.
Non-destructive editing, better clip management, and a new look bring the app into the modern age.
The fiercely open-source smart home platform had its first-ever booth at IFA this week and, true to form, didn’t pull any punches.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman apologized earlier today for a “messy” rollout of GPT-6 Astra that left paying users locked out of the new model. Altman says the tool is now available to “all Pro, Enterprise, and Business Premium users.”
Throng turns your Bluesky feed into a 3D walking getting yelled at simulator. The timeline becomes a crowd of people running up to recite each post in your face, then wandering off. Yes, it has ragdoll physics. There is also a giant cow. Happy Friday, everyone.
Along with the chargers and cables, Belkin showed off matching power banks for its colorful laptop at IFA this week. The UltraCharge Pro 20K Power Bank ($99.95) and BoostCharge Pro Magnetic Power Bank 5K ($59.95) in matching Neo colors are Apple Store exclusives. The entire collection could really cheer up my desk on a dreary Monday morning.
Kotaku reports that players have been competing to top CS2 Tracker’s “Slurs Tracking” charts, which record tracked words in players’ chat logs. Players at the top of the charts have used offensive language in Counter-Strike 2 over 10,000 times.
Following its season three finale this week, Apple released a teaser for Silo’s fourth season, premiering in less than a year — but watch out for spoilers if you haven’t seen this week’s episode yet.
If you liked the pilot animatic for Kiana Khansmith’s Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to Be a Magical Girl, you’re going to love the Mercury Filmworks-produced, fully animated version of the first episode that just hit YouTube.
