The paid release of Deltarune, Toby Fox’s episodic Undertale spinoff, will be available for most people at the same time the Nintendo Switch 2 launches in Japan, Fox says in the Deltarune newsletter for May 2025. Deltarune’s first two chapters, released in 2018 and 2021 respectively, were free, but this new release, which adds chapters 3 and 4, will be a paid version that costs $24.99.
How the release timing will work is a little confusing, but let me explain. For PS4, PS5, Steam, and the original Switch, Deltarune will launch on June 5th at 12AM in Japan, which translates to June 4th at 11AM ET / 8AM PT for people in the US.
The Nintendo Switch 2 version of Deltarune, on the other hand, will launch at midnight local time in most regions on June 5th. This decision actually means that people in New Zealand or Australia who get a Switch 2 at midnight have a slight head start. “But, for convenience’s sake, we’re just going to ignore you guys and pretend that the game is not out… Meanwhile, don’t say anything about it please,” Fox says.
Future updates to Deltarune will be added for free, Fox said in a newsletter last month, and the Switch 2 version will have a special room that takes advantage of the console’s mouse controls.
PS5 users can now buy games in the PlayStation Store using a new payment method: Apple Pay. You could use Apple Pay in the browser or via the mobile app already, but now the method joins other on-console options like using a saved credit or debit card, and PayPal.
As reported by 9to5Mac, you may now see a new option for Apple Pay available at checkout. It’s using the QR code-style method that Apple introduced on iOS 18 last year, and also lets you buy things on third-party browsers like Chrome. The PlayStation support page for using Apple Pay has more information on which regions this works in, which includes the US.
Once you select the game you want on your PS5, choose Apple Pay, then scan the code on your TV screen with your iPhone. iOS will then pull up a checkout screen that lets you confirm the transaction. And if you’re an Apple Card user, that means your PS5 purchases are good for 2 percent cash back as well. 9to5Mac also says Apple Pay may come to PS4 consoles as well after a future software update.
Tech event season is in full swing. This week, Stripe and Figma gathered thousands of people in downtown San Francisco for their respective conferences. I caught up with Figma CEO Dylan Field after his opening keynote at Config, where he announced the most significant product expansion in the company's history.
Below, you'll find our chat about how he sees AI fitting into Figma after a rough start to integrating the technology last year, the new areas he's targeting to grow the platform, and more. And keep reading for how Meta is turning up the heat on its AI team, my thoughts about this week's OpenAI news, and more…
"Design and craft are the differentiator"
These days, it seems like Figma has the entire creative software industry in its sights.
On Wednesday, CEO Dylan Field walked onstage in front of about 8,000 people at the Moscone Center in San Francisco to announce four new products: a ChatGPT-like prototyping tool, a website builder and hosting platform, an AI-branded ad tool that's similar to Canva, and an Adobe Illustrator competitor.
The last time I interviewed Field, he was resetting Figma's internal culture after its $20 billion sale to Adobe was blocked. When w …
Smartwatches have come along way since the first Apple Watch arrived on the scene more than a decade ago. However, despite how ubiquitous they’ve become, they’re still nowhere near as discrete — or long-lasting — as a smart ring like the Samsung Galaxy Ring. Thankfully, if you’re looking to ditch the watch, Samsung’s first-gen smart ring is available with a $100 gift card at Best Buy and Amazon, where you can pick it up in a variety of sizes starting at $299.99 ($100 off), an all-time low.
In many ways, the Android-only Galaxy Ring is more of an accessory for existing Samsung users than it is a standalone device. It’s not as a capable as the Oura Ring 4, our No. 1 pick for the best smart ring, though it does showcase excellent hardware and comes in wide ranges of sizes, from 5 to 15. Plus, unlike the Oura, the Galaxy Ring provides standard activity and sleep tracking without requiring you to pay a monthly fee. That’s a boon for anyone with subscription fatigue.
In terms of basics, Samsung’s IP68 water-resistant ring can measure your blood oxygen level, skin temperature, heart rate, and track your steps and workouts. That being said, you’ll need a Galaxy phone to leverage all of Samsung’s ecosystem-centric tricks, including the ability to access insights about your quality of sleep and Samsung’s Energy Score feature, which attempts to quantify your fatigue levels. If you own a Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 or Ultra, you’ll even get several additional days of battery life, thanks in part to the way Samsung’s Health app prioritizes which device’s sensors to pull from.
All that is to say that the Galaxy Ring remains best suited for existing Samsung users, rather than those tapped into other ecosystems. But if that’s you, the current promo is the best deal we’ve seen.
The holidays might be a ways off, but that also means it’s the best time of the year to load up on discounted decorations. Right now, for instance, Govee’s 50-foot Outdoor Dots String Lights are on sale at Amazon for an all-time low of $89.99 ($90 off) — the lowest price we’ve seen on the Matter-compatible, smart LED string.
I’m a firm believer in bone conduction headphones like the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2, which leave your ears more exposed while working out. Thankfully, if you haven’t tried them before, they’re available at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for $139.95 ($40 off), matching their all-time low. The latest open-ear Shokz still offer big sound and plenty of bass, only this time around, they now support USB-C charging and AI noise cancellation. Read our review.
The Xbox Series X version of Metaphor: ReFantazio, a game that deftly build upon a winning RPG formula with a powerful narrative and harrowing turn-based combat, is going for $24.99 ($45 off) at Woot this weekend. It was easily one of our favorite games of 2024, even if it does feel like a remixed Persona title. Read our review.
A mannequin explodes as part of a live demonstration warning consumers of fireworks hazards. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) held this educational event on June 29, 2023. | Photo by Getty Images
On Friday, Donald Trump abruptly removed the three sitting Democrat appointees on the five-person U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission — the independent watchdog agency that issues recalls and regulates everyday products, including consumer electronics. With no apparent cause for removal, the firings violate existing Supreme Court precedent dating back to 1935, as did Trump’s removals of the Democratic commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) back in March.
The firing comes in the wake of a draft budget proposal that would have eliminated the CSPC, whose commissioners are bipartisan by law and who serve five-year terms. The proposal would have instead rolled the commission’s regulatory powers into the Department of Health and Human Services, which is led by a political appointee — presently, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
The Washington Post reported that the firings came shortly after the three Democrats on the commission — Richard Trumka, Mary Boyle and Alexander Hoehn-Saric, all Biden appointees — voted to publish safety standards for small lithium-ion batteries used in electric bikes and electric scooters, with the two Republicans voting against it. The report specifically noted that these batteries have a record of catching on fire and “resulting in at least 39 fatalities and 181 injuries nationwide.”
The following Thursday, two members of DOGE appeared at the CPSC’s offices. The next day, Trumka and Boyle received letters notifying them that they were fired. Hoehn-Saric did not receive a letter, but according to The Hill,he and his staff found themselves locked out of the building. All three members released statements saying that they planned to appeal their firings to the courts and that Trump had acted illegally.
The three members received support from Consumer Reports, which stated in a press release that the firings were “an appalling and lawless attack on the independence of our country’s product safety watchdog.”
Rather than state a cause for removal, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt once again reiterated the White House’s position that the president “has the right to fire people within the executive branch.”
In March, the president fired the Democrats serving on the Federal Trade Commission, another independent agency, in contravention of the longstanding Supreme Court precedent, Humphrey’s Executor, which limits presidential power to remove officers at independent agencies — like the FTC — that have authority delegated to them from the legislative branch. The White House has consistently asserted that the president has the power to fire anyone under him, andTrump’s Department of Justice has announced its intention to overturn Humphrey’s Executor at the Supreme Court. The new Republican chair of the FTC has also publicly backed this interpretation of the Constitution. Fired FTC commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya have since sued the administration.
The Supreme Court has previously signaled a willingness to overturn its own precedent in favor of expanding executive power, but the FTC case has not yet reached the court. Humphrey’s Executor remains the law of the land for now, though that could very well change in the near future. But that only makes it all the more baffling as to why the president is, once again, illegally firing commissioners of independent agencies.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) plans on photographing every single person who leaves the US by car, an agency spokesperson told Wired. The agency says it will start using facial recognition technology at official border crossings to match all outbound travelers’ faces to their passports, visas, or other travel documents, though there’s no public timeline for when this will happen.
“Although we are still working on how we would handle outbound vehicle lanes, we will ultimately expand to this area,” CBP spokesperson Jessica Turner told Wired. It’s an expansion of the agency’s current practice of photographing travelers as they enter the country and matching those photos with “all documented photos, i.e., passports, visas, green cards, etc,” the agency has on record.
CBP has been working on ways to track people as they leave the US for over a decade. After two years of lab tests, CBP experimented with collecting travelers’ biometrics at airports in 2016. That year, the agency partnered with Delta Air Lines to photograph passengers boarding a Tokyo-bound flight at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
The agency’s collection of outgoing travelers’ biometric data has expanded since then. CBP currently uses “biometric facial comparison technology” to process travelers exiting the US at 57 airports, including Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, Los Angeles International Airport, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York — some of the busiest airports in the country. The airport panopticon continues to expand.
“We found that facial recognition was intuitive for people. Everybody knows how to stand in front of a camera and have his or her photo taken,” John Wagner, the deputy assistant commissioner of CBP’s office of field operations, said in an agency article promoting CBP’s biometric technologies. “Not so with iris scans and fingerprints. Every time a traveler does the process wrong, someone has to instruct him or her the right way to do it.”
Collecting passengers’ fingerprints may be less intuitive than taking their pictures, but CBP does that, too. Agents stationed at airports across the country use a handheld device called Biometric Exit Mobile to take certain travelers’ fingerprints before they board their flights. Those fingerprints are then run against law enforcement databases.
If CBP’s role is to process people for entry into the US, why track people on the way out? Wired notes that biometric databases could be used to monitor self-deportations. Having realized that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lacks the resources to arrest, detain, and deport each and every one of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the US, President Donald Trump is encouraging undocumented immigrants to leave the US on their own, offering people $1,000 if they leave the country voluntarily.
But CBP was devising ways to collect travelers’ photos, fingerprints, and other biometric data long before Trump took office. The agency says it collects this data to run people’s biometrics against law enforcement databases, therefore ensuring that people with criminal records are removed from the US. The agency’s promotional article touting its biometric technologies includes a “success story” involving a Polish couple who had “criminal histories with multiple identities” caught leaving the US under false names. Since DHS’s formation in the wake of the September 11th attacks, immigration enforcement has blurred the lines between criminal enforcement and national security. Every international traveler is a potential criminal or terrorist, justifying mass surveillance.
Trump didn’t invent this playbook. But his mass deportation agenda is getting a helpful boost from decades of bipartisan turbocharging of the surveillance state.
Outer Wilds developer Mobius Digital is working on a new game, but it might be a very long time before we hear anything about it, the studio’s head of production tells The Verge.
“It’s going to be quite awhile before we have any news or hints about our next game,” says Jackie Kreitzberg. “Likely on the order of years.” The studio also doesn’t plan to share “public development logs” in order to “preserve the mystery of the next game.”
In 2021, Mobius released the Echoes of the Eye expansion for Outer Wilds, which Kreitzberg says is the game’s last. “We’re excited to make something new.”
Even if Mobius doesn’t want to talk about the new game, it appreciates the recent attention. “We’re thrilled that folks are excited to see what we make next and hope we don’t leave everyone hanging forever,” Kreitzberg says.
It's my final day at The Verge and Vox Media after over 13 years. And as luck should have it, I was able to wrap up my tenure here by interviewing Tom Conrad, the interim CEO of Sonos. I've covered this company more extensively than any other, and as our readers know, Sonos has been through the ringer over the last year - in a mess of its own making, to be clear. But over the last several months, Conrad, a Sonos board member since 2017, has kept the company laser-focused on a turnaround effort with frequent app improvements and bug fixes.
With successful stints at Pandora, Snap, and elsewhere, Conrad has deep software roots. (Yes, he was also the chief product officer at Quibi.) So on Friday, I threw my most pressing questions at the man who clearly hopes to become the permanent CEO of Sonos. We covered some of what I know Sonos' Reddit community is likely curious about and other topics that seemed timely, and I came away encouraged about the company's odds of getting back on track.
The below interview is lightly edited for length and clarity.
Disney is getting ready to launch ESPN’s standalone streaming service – and apparently, it may just be called “ESPN,” according to a report from CNBC. Sources tell CNBC that ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro chose the name “to simplify what’s become a cluttered streaming world, filled with different media products that can be bundled with other services at different price points.”
The upcoming service is reportedly expected to cost anywhere from $25 to $30 per month. It will offer access to a full range of live sports and betting features you can’t find within the existing ESPN Plus service.
As noted by CNBC, Disney will also redesign the ESPN app to become a “gateway” to the streaming service. Disney will also allow people who already pay for ESPN through their TV provider to “authenticate into the new app.” The company plans to launch the standalone ESPN app this fall, which it aims to make available “however the consumer wants it, wherever the consumer wants it.”
Disney CEO Bob Iger said during an earnings call on Wednesday that the company will officially announce the name and pricing of the service next week.
There was a telecommunications outage that impacted communications and radar display at Philadelphia TRACON Area C, which guides aircraft in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport airspace. The outage occurred around 3:55 a.m. on Friday, May 9, and lasted approximately 90 seconds.
After the first outage on April 28th, an air traffic controller who had been on duty that day told CNN it “…was the most dangerous situation you could have.” CNN reports that after a change made last July, the airport’s radar and radio communication flows over a single data feed from a facility in New York, where controllers used to manage Newark’s flights, to Philadelphia.
The FAA has announced a plan to replace the current copper connection with fiber, as well as adding “three new, high-bandwidth telecommunications connections between the New York-based STARS and the Philadelphia TRACON,” and more air traffic controllers. Until those and other changes are made, the agency also said a new backup system is being deployed in Philadelphia, but it’s unclear when that will be available.
NBC News reports the Friday outage affected a limited number of sectors, but it’s another incident in the string of issues that have highlighted the problems with the airport’s aging control system and lack of staffing.
As of 12:30PM ET, FlightAware stats showed 292 total delays for flights into or out of Newark, which is also experiencing delays due to runway construction.
While announcing flight cancellations for Newark after last week’s outage, United CEO Scott Kirby had said issues “were compounded as over 20 percent of the FAA controllers for EWR walked off the job,” but a union spokesperson explained that controllers took absences as a result of experiencing such a traumatic incident. CNN reported that at least five employees took 45 days leave of absence as a result. A statement from the FAA said, “Frequent equipment and telecommunications outages can be stressful for controllers. Some controllers at the Philadelphia TRACON who work Newark arrivals and departures have taken time off to recover from the stress of multiple recent outages.”
San Francisco’s BART subway system is back up and running after service was suspended and shut down on Friday morning due to a “computer networking problem.” The service is back online “system wide” as of about 9:17AM PT, but BART says to “expect major delays in service toward all destinations due to an earlier train control problem.”
The system had initially been suspended “until further notice” around 5AM PT and BART had alerted riders to “seek alternative means of transportation.” As of 9AM PT, BART had suspended service in San Francisco and San Mateo County stations and had enabled limited service again in East Bay. Here is the last service advisory alert before service came back online:
BART is offering limited East Bay service at this time due to a train control problem. Blue Line trains will run between Dublin/Pleasanton and MacArthur stations. Yellow Line trains will run between Antioch and MacArthur stations. Orange Line trains will be normal running. There is no Red or Green Line service at this time.
Arlo is introducing some new AI capabilities that allow its security and doorbell cameras to describe events and alert users when certain concerns are detected. The features are included in Arlo Secure 6, the latest version of Arlo’s home security subscription service, which is set to start rolling out to customers sometime this month.
Adding to the object detection capabilities introduced in Arlo Secure 5, this latest update includes advanced audio detection features that notify users when the device hears a scream, gunshot, bark, glass break, or smoke/CO alarms. Alerts will also be issued if a flame is detected by the video camera. These updates should help users to be immediately aware of any dangerous or illegal activity in the area, allowing them to view a live video feed from the camera and contact emergency services if necessary.
Arlo Secure 6 also adds some features that help to bring its offerings more in line with Google Nest products. AI-generated captions will be provided that describe events that are detected in video footage, allowing users to be informed of what’s happening quickly without watching the clip. A new video search tool akin to Ring’s Smart Video Search is also available that lets Arlo users find specific moments in their devices’ video history by searching for descriptions, keywords, or time frames to avoid manually combing through every clip in their library.
These features will only be available to users who are paying for an Arlo Secure Plus or Premium subscription, which start at $9.99 per month or $29.99 per month, respectively. These prices have jumped considerably since Arlo started offering AI-powered features, having once charged just $2.99 for cloud storage for a single camera. That’s a blow for Arlo customers who may never use these AI capabilities but are nevertheless forced to pay them if they want to save their video history for 60 days.
It’s been a few years, but Peacemaker is finally about to make its return to streaming: Max announced that the DC series will back for eight episodes starting on August 21st. The news came along with a teaser trailer that includes the titular lead (played again by John Cena) seemingly struggling to join a new superhero team, while the rest of friends are similarly dealing with the aftermath of having just saved the world. Also, there’s a very timely Grand Theft Auto joke.
In addition to Cena, it looks like most of the cast is also returning, including Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Holland, Freddie Stroma, Steve Agee, and Robert Patrick, alongside newcomers like Tim Meadows. DC Studios’ co-CEO James Gunn is back as well; he wrote all eight episodes, according to Warner Bros., and directed three of them. (It’s a big year for Gunn, who also wrote and directed the upcoming Superman reboot.)
While the new trailer provides a good idea of what to expect in season 2, it is missing one critical detail: will the amazing opening credits scene remain the same? We’ll have to wait until this summer to find out.
Spotify is working on an update that could allow iPhone users in the US to purchase audiobooks through external links. In a post on Friday, Spotify says it has submitted the update to Apple, and if approved, it would also let Premium users buy “top-ups” for additional audiobook listening time.
The change comes in response to last week’s order issued by Epic Games v. Apple Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who found Apple was in “willful violation” of a 2021 injunction. The judge ordered Apple to stop taking an up to 27 percent commission on purchases made through external links, and also blocked the company from restricting how developers direct users toward purchases outside the App Store.
Adding links and pricing info for audiobooks would be a major change to the app. Spotify previously attempted to get around Apple’s restrictions by not displaying the price of audiobooks in the app, and instead emailing users a link to purchase the audiobook they want on the web. Spotify eventually pulled audiobook purchases from iOS altogether.
“It helps level the playing field by allowing developers to offer basic pricing information and easy-to-access links to purchase digital goods through iPhones with no unnecessary steps or additional taxes levied by Apple,” Spotify says in the post. “In short, this freedom is a win for authors, audiences, and developers everywhere — if Apple approves and if the legal ruling stands despite Apple’s continued attempts to stop it.”
A leaked brochure shared to Reddit reveals more details about Eufy’s first smart display. | Image: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/eufy/comments/1k5dfbj/embrace_our_brandnew_allinone_smart_display_e10/">Reddit</a>
According to the brochure, the Smart Display E10 features an eight-inch touchscreen with an HD resolution. It includes a charging station dock that draws power over USB-C, but the smart display also has a 5,000mAh battery that Eufy says will last up to 24 hours. You can carry it from room to room to keep an eye on what’s happening around your house or mount it to a wall in your home.
The E10 can simultaneously display up to four live camera feeds and prioritizes feeds where motion has been detected. A live feed from one of Eufy’s smart doorbells or door locks will also automatically pop up when someone presses the doorbell, with their presence and name being announced if their face is recognized.
The E10 will also provide daily summaries of all the activities it detected, including who may have stopped by and whether or not they dropped off packages. You can use a timeline view to navigate all the videos saved throughout the day.
You don’t need to pay for a cloud storage subscription. The E10 comes with 8GB of built-in storage, which can be expanded using a microSD slot, for saving video clips locally.
Other features include a microphone and speaker allowing you to communicate with people at your door through Eufy’s smart locks and doorbells, and a time of flight sensor for potentially detecting when a person approaches the display. There’s also a dedicated SOS button and, while the brochure doesn’t detail its exact function, a video captured during the recent Eufy event shows that holding the button for three seconds triggers cameras to sound an alarm, if they support that feature.
It’s unclear how much the Eufy Smart Display E10 will cost or when it will be released. We also don’t yet know if it will support cameras, doorbells, or camera-equipped smart home devices from other companies.
Upgrading from the Whoop 4.0 to the 5.0 hardware is no longer free for most existing customers.
Whoop just announced its new Whoop 5.0 fitness tracker yesterday, but some existing users are already calling foul. Previously, Whoop said people who had been members for at least six months would get free upgrades to next-generation hardware. Now, the company says that members hoping to upgrade from a Whoop 4.0 to 5.0 will have to pay up.
Whoop is a bit different from other fitness trackers in that it runs entirely on a subscription membership model. Most wearable makers that have subscriptions will charge you for the hardware, and then customers have the option of subscribing to get extra data or features. A good example is the Oura Ring, where you buy the ring and then have the option of paying a monthly $6 subscription. Whoop, however, has until now said that you get the hardware for “free” while paying a heftier annual subscription.
Previously, Whoop promised users that whenever new hardware was released, existing members would be able to upgrade free of charge so long as they’d been a member for at least six months. However, that has since been scrubbed from Whoop’s site — though it was there as recently as March 28th this year, according to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
On Whoop’s current official “How to upgrade” site, the company states that existing members have one of two options. They can either extend their membership by another 12 months and receive new Whoop 5.0 hardware “at no extra cost,” or if they’d rather not extend, they can pay a one-time upgrade fee of either $49 for the regular Whoop 5.0 or $79 for the Whoop 5.0 MG, which includes EKG sensors. An official Reddit thread also notes that people who either joined or extended their membership in the past 30 days are eligible for a free upgrade.
Understandably, Whoop fans are none too pleased. The r/Whoop subreddit is full of angry users who are accusing the company of misleading them.
“One of the main reasons I chose a Whoop over an Apple Watch was due to the free hardware upgrades,” writes one Redditor. “Conveniently my 12 month subscription is up around the same time the Apple Watch is released. The cost isn’t the issue, it’s them changing what was promised.”
“I’m definitely cancelling mine now, over the Whoop hype. Was excited to see they had a nice update and deflated after I saw they went back on their word about not charging for future hardware,” writes another.
The Verge reached out to Whoop for comment about why its changed its hardware upgrade policy, but didn’t immediately receive a response. We’ll update when we hear back.
It’s another example of how changes to subscriptions often results in customer backlash. Garmin recently angered its customer base by introducing a paid tier to the Garmin Connect app after years of touting its lack of a paywall. Oura also received hefty backlash when it introduced a subscription with its third-gen smart ring.
Smart home controller maker Brilliant NextGen has launched its second generation of touchscreen panels that replace traditional light switches.
The new hardware, which looks like the previous model, has a 4x higher resolution screen and dual-band WiFi (2.4GHz and 5GHz) to help curb interference.
It also has a more powerful processor that Brilliant says is ready “for the next phase of AI-powered smart home evolution,” although the company has not said when it plans to launch such features or what it could do. (As-is, there are currently no new software features from the previous gen.)
In an email to The Verge, Brilliant’s head of marketing Erin Wright says the new version also reduces latency with integrations, which sounds promising since the previous model was sluggish with some devices in our testing. Brilliant’s smart panels control smart bulbs like Philips Hue lights and Sonos speakers, among other smart home devices.
The company nearly went out of business in 2024 before it was purchased by two private investment firms, Almeida Strategic Investments and Cullinan Holdings, for an undisclosed sum.
Most of the new Brilliant panels are available to order and ship today. There are bundles that include three screenless switches (usually $69.99 each), saving you up to $96. The company is also selling a plug-in version of the panel for $329, which comes with two smart plug outlets, for anyone who’d rather not do any electrical work.
For the past three decades, multidisciplinary artist Jonathan Zawada has produced art across various mediums: sculptures, paintings, videos, installations, and more. He's also been making visualizations with his friend Mark Pritchard, a record producer and experimental musician. They became close friends, talking nearly every day. But the relationship changed when Pritchard brought him a new, daunting project: a collaborative album with Thom Yorke, the frontman of Radiohead.
"I'm a massive fan, and I've found he's kind of a terrifying person," Zawada says. But despite being intimidated, he found Yorke to be a great collaborator. "He's so switched on, and he's so clear and concise… Yeah, I was very nervous a lot of the time."
Before the record, Tall Tales, was even a complete album, Zawada was working on a visual accompaniment to it. Songs would arrive in his inbox - oftentimes just sketches or demos - and Zawada would send back pictures or start a collaborative whiteboard. It's just whatever popped into his mind after listening to the music: Dutch painters Pieter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch came up a lot. Five years later, the album is now available and Zawada's accompanying "v …
Some parts of the notification for X, formerly known as Twitter, have been down since Thursday afternoon, preventing users from getting an alert when certain accounts they follow have posted something new. User reports can be seen across Reddit, Downdetector, and X, and my colleagues at The Verge have noticed zero new notifications even with alerts enabled on accounts that have posted multiple times since yesterday.
We haven’t seen a public response or comment from X, but at around 11AM ET, the notifications appear to have resumed, based on our observations and reports across social media.
Outside of hindering updates from celebrities, influencers, or sports news breakers, busted notifications could disrupt essential alerts about local weather, public transportation, or government services.
Guys… the Twitter notifications don't work. It's been 16 hrs (or more) since it stopped working… I hope they will fix it soon… I don't want to lose anyone…
While we confirmed some pings for user tags are working, users also reported not receiving notifications for new likes and followers for almost a day. In some instances, users said notifications appeared several hours after they should have been received.
It’s unclear what caused the issues. At 6:04AM ET on Friday, X owner Elon Musk posted that users “should be noticing some improvements to the quality of recommendations in your timeline.”
Update, May 9th: Noted the problem appears to be resolved.
Former Apple designer Jony Ive says the work on his next product is driven by owning the “unintended consequences” associated with the iPhone. During an interview with Stripe, Ive said there’s “not anything that I can be more preoccupied or bothered by” than the potentially adverse effects smartphones have on their users.
“I think when you’re innovating, of course, there will be unintended consequences,” Ive said. “You hope that the majority will be pleasant surprises. Certain products that I’ve been very, very involved with, I think there were some unintended consequences that were far from pleasant.”
Ive spent more than two decades at Apple, where he led the design of many products, including the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and iPod. He left the company in 2019 to co-found the design firm LoveFrom. Ive confirmed last year that he’s working on a new device with OpenAI, which he seemed to allude to during this interview.
“I think even if you’re innocent in your intention, I think if you’re involved in something that has poor consequences, you need to own it,” Ive said. “That ownership, personally, has driven a lot of what I’ve been working on that I can’t talk about the moment, but look forward to being able to talk about at some point in the future.”
When talking about AI, Ive mentioned that he finds it encouraging that “it’s very rare for there to be a discussion about AI, and there not to be the appropriate concerns about safety.” He adds that he was “extremely concerned about social media, and there was no discussion whatsoever.”
Details about what Ive is working on with OpenAI are still slim, but The New York Times reported that LoveFrom is leading the device’s design with Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, who helped design the iPhone. Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have reportedly discussed how AI has allowed them to create a new device “because the technology could do more for users than traditional software.”
