Last week, major location data broker Gravy Analytics disclosed a data breach that may have resulted in the theft of precise location data for millions of people, reports TechCrunch. That appears to include data from popular mobile games like Candy Crush, as well as dating apps, pregnancy tracking apps, and more, as 404 Media wrote on Thursday, following up its report of the breach two days earlier.
Baptiste Robert, CEO of digital security company Predicta Lab, said in a series of posts Wednesday that the small sample data set published in a Russian forum contained data for “tens of millions of data points worldwide” and included “sensitive locations like the White House, Kremlin, Vatican, military bases, and more.” As TechCrunch notes, the sample alone contained more than 30 million locations.
Visualizing such a massive amount of location data is no easy task.
Google Earth Pro crashed at 500k location points, and our OSINT platform hit its limit at 1.5 million. Even if it is "just" a sample, rendering the entire dataset at once is a real challenge. pic.twitter.com/VTZGjsG79L
Gravy said in its disclosure to the Norwegian Data Protection Authority that it “identified unauthorized access to its AWS cloud storage environment” on January 4th. It says in the disclosure that it’s still investigating how long hackers had access to its cloud environment and whether the hack “constitutes a reportable personal data breach.” As for what or who was affected, the company writes:
Gravy Analytics is working diligently to determine the scope of the incident and the nature of the information involved. Preliminary findings indicate that an unauthorized person obtained certain files, which could contain personal data. These are currently being analyzed. If it is determined that personal data is involved, that personal data is likely associated with users of third-party services that supply this data to Gravy Analytics.
Gravy Analytics was one of two data brokers targeted last month in a proposed FTC order that forbids it from “selling, disclosing, or using sensitive location data in any product or service.” The FTC at the time wrote that its subsidiary, Venntel, collected data from apps and sold access to that data to businesses or government agencies, including the IRS, DEA, FBI, and ICE.
Adobe is launching new generative AI tools that can automate labor-intensive production tasks like editing large batches of images and translating video presentations. The most notable is “Firefly Bulk Create,” an app that allows users to quickly resize up to 10,000 images or replace all of their backgrounds in a single click instead of tediously editing each picture individually.
The tool was created by combining several of Adobe’s Firefly-powered APIs for developers, with the aim of making them more accessible to creatives who lack technical coding experience. Bulk Create is launching in beta today, and split into two separate tools on Adobe’s Firefly web app: “Remove Background” and “Resize.” The first is pretty self-explanatory — users can upload image files into the tool from their computer, Dropbox, or Adobe Experience Manager, and quickly remove the backgrounds.
It should work on any image, but looks especially useful for product marketers. Alongside just removing the background, users can also set the tool to replace backgrounds with a specific image or color (defined by HEX codes) to get variations of each image that are ready for further editing. The file batches can be saved as either PNG or JPEG for now, with Adobe saying that support for Photoshop PSD files will be added in the future.
Image: Adobe
The background expansion for “Resize” might work fine for abstract images like this, but the tool seems to struggle with photographs.
The “Resize” tool presents a selection of preset options for popular ad banner sizes and platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. It uses generative AI to stretch the backgrounds of images to fit these required dimensions, but the demo I saw wasn’t particularly inspiring — there was a lot of obvious warping, with one example strangely copying and blurring wine glasses together that were in the foreground. For simple backgrounds, though, it could spare graphic designers from having to manually resize their marketing assets for each platform. While services like Canva and Adobe Express also have tools that make this easier, Bulk Create can do so in a single click.
Adobe is making some new developer APIs for Firefly Services generally available in the coming weeks that developers can use to speed up video and print production workflows. “Dubbing and Lip Sync” can translate and edit lip movement for video audio into 14 different languages, and a new InDesign tool can automatically format text and images for print and digital media using predefined templates. “Digital avatars” created using text descriptions and voice recordings will also be available in beta this month, which can be used to present videos and product explainers.
The power required to edit batches of 10,000 images is presumably expensive. Adobe says there will be a fee to use these new tools based on “consumption” — which likely means users will need to pay for a premium Adobe Firefly plan that provides generative credits that can then be “spent” on the features.
Decentralized social network Mastodon has announced plans to transfer its ownership to a new nonprofit entity. Ownership of Mastodon will move away from the control of CEO Eugen Rochko, in contrast to the power exerted by other social media CEOs like Meta cofounder Mark Zuckerberg and X owner Elon Musk.
“Simply, we are going to transfer ownership of key Mastodon ecosystem and platform components to a new nonprofit organization,” Mastodon says in a blog post, “affirming the intent that Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual.”
Rochko, who founded Mastodon in 2016, will take on a new role with a focus on product strategy while ownership moves to a new not-for-profit entity based somewhere in Europe, with the exact location still to be finalized. The organization is currently headquartered in Germany, where it was a nonprofit until its charitable status was stripped last year. This move is a way of restoring Rochko’s original intent for Mastodon.
“When founder Eugen Rochko started working on Mastodon, his focus was on creating the code and conditions for the kind of social media he envisioned,” Mastodon says. “The legal setup was a means to an end, a quick fix to allow him to continue operations. From the start, he declared that Mastodon would not be for sale and would be free of the control of a single wealthy individual, and he could ensure that because he was the person in control, the only ultimate decision-maker.”
In the short term, nothing should change for users. Mastodon will continue to host the mastodon.social and mastodon.online servers and support its federated network. Routine code development and bug fixes are ongoing, though the announcement adds that “changes are definitely in the pipeline.”
“Our core mission remains the same: to create the tools and digital spaces where people can build authentic, constructive online communities free from ads, data exploitation, manipulative algorithms or corporate monopolies,” Mastodon says.
Nvidia is cozying up to the incoming Trump administration after criticizing a new AI framework just announced by the Biden administration. The rules are meant to keep advanced chips and AI models under the control of the United States and its allies, but the President-elect will have the final decision on whether to enforce them.
If implemented, the “Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion” announced today would place new limitations on how many artificial intelligence chips companies can send to different countries without making special agreements with the US government. Nvidia will be impacted the most by this, given its estimated 90 percent share of AI chips.
The new rules aim to close loopholes that would allow countries like China and Russia — which are already subject to existing semiconductor trade restrictions — to obtain or develop their own AI technology. The Biden administration wants to keep transformational AI development under the control of the US and 18 of its allies, which include the UK, Canada, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. All other countries will be subject to caps that restrict AI chip imports.
“In the wrong hands, powerful AI systems have the potential to exacerbate significant national security risks, including by enabling the development of weapons of mass destruction, supporting powerful offensive cyber operations, and aiding human rights abuses, such as mass surveillance,” the White House said in a statement. “Today, countries of concern actively employ AI – including US-made AI – in this way, and seek to undermine US AI leadership.”
Nvidia says that the new “AI Diffusion” restrictions threaten to derail worldwide “innovation and economic growth,” and undermine the prior Trump administration’s efforts to create a successful environment for AI development.
“In its last days in office, the Biden Administration seeks to undermine America’s leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review,” Nvidia said in a statement. “This sweeping overreach would impose bureaucratic control over how America’s leading semiconductors, computers, systems, and even software are designed and marketed globally.”
“The first Trump Administration laid the foundation for America’s current strength and success in AI, fostering an environment where US industry could compete and win on merit without compromising national security,” reads Nvidia’s statement. “Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America’s global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the US ahead.”
“We look forward to a return to policies that strengthen American leadership, bolster our economy and preserve our competitive edge in AI and beyond,” Nvidia says in its MAGA conclusion.
In addition to curbing AI chip exports, the rules also set security standards to control the “weights” for AI models — the unique parameters that determine how each AI model makes its predictions. Companies like Microsoft and Google that operate data centers can also apply for special government accreditations that allow them to trade AI chips with fewer restrictions, in exchange for following security standards outlined by the Biden administration.
The new data center rules aim to keep the development of the most advanced AI models within the borders of the United States and its partners. According to the New York Times, Microsoft says it could “comply fully with this rule’s high security standards and meet the technology needs of countries and customers around the world that rely on us,” in a statement attributed to Microsoft president Brad Smith.
Tom Conrad, a longtime veteran of the tech industry who joined Sonos’ board of directors in 2017, has been appointed interim CEO following today’s ouster of Patrick Spence. And in his first letter as the (temporary) new boss, Conrad hits on a number of things that will likely be music to the ears of rank-and-file Sonos employees.
“I’ve heard from many of you about your own frustrations about how far we’ve drifted from our shared ideals,” he says in the letter. “There’s a tremendous amount of work in front of us, including what I’m sure will be some very challenging moments, decisions, and trade-offs, but I’m energized by the passion I see all around me for doing right by our customers and getting back to the innovation that is at the heart of Sonos’ incredible history.”
Conrad says he has already relocated to Santa Barbara — where Sonos is headquartered — and will be in the office daily as he works to reenergize employees after an ordeal that has cratered morale. “I think we’ll all agree that this year we’ve let far too many people down. As we’ve seen, getting some important things right (Arc Ultra and Ace are remarkable products!) is just not enough when our customers’ alarms don’t go off, their kids can’t hear their playlist during breakfast, their surrounds don’t fire, or they can’t pause the music in time to answer the buzzing doorbell.”
In a separate letter to employees, Sonos board chair Julius Genachowski said, “Tom’s mandate is to improve the Sonos core experience for our customers, while optimizing our business to drive innovation and financial performance,” and he noted that Conrad has left his job as CEO of Zero Longevity Science to give his full attention to Sonos. Perhaps the interim pick already has an eye on making this appointment more permanent.
Below is Conrad’s full letter to employees:
Team,
Nearly 18 years ago, in May of 2007, I stepped onto the stage at SFMOMA to launch Pandora for Sonos to an audience of tech journalists. I was 37 years old and my love of Sonos was in its earliest days. Over the decade that immediately followed, and through many ups and downs, we built Pandora into a streaming phenomenon. In those same years Sonos became the most beloved way to enjoy music throughout my home and millions of others.
Eight years ago, I was honored to be asked to join the Sonos board. Five months ago, as the team worked through the app recovery, I was lucky enough to get to know a wider swath of you personally – and to see firsthand your dedication to setting things right.
Last week, I was asked to step in as interim CEO.
Perhaps the most important thing for you to know today is that I’m here because I love this company, this product family and this brand. For nearly two decades, I’ve listened to music throughout my home on Sonos every day. In the last decade, I’ve binged every streaming phenomenon with dazzling surround from our Sonos soundbars. In recent years and when I was traveling, it was a Sonos Roam that made its way into my backpack. These days, every night I’m careful not to wake my sleeping family by watching audio-swapped television on my Sonos Ace.
I know as well as anyone the incredible power of what we can do. A Sonos Move was playing in the delivery room when my daughter (11 months just last week!) was born. Sonos provides a similar soundtrack for millions of lives throughout the world every single day. When it all works, it’s absolute magic.
It’s also true that when it doesn’t work, our customers are taken out of the moment and are right to feel that we’ve let them down. I think we’ll all agree that this year we’ve let far too many people down. As we’ve seen, getting some important things right (Arc Ultra and Ace are remarkable products!) is just not enough when our customers’ alarms don’t go off, their kids can’t hear their playlist during breakfast, their surrounds don’t fire, or they can’t pause the music in time to answer the buzzing doorbell.
I’m here to get us back on track. But is getting back on track enough?
I think the answer is clearly no. Getting back to basics is necessary, but clearly not enough to unlock the future we all envision for Sonos. So as delighted as I’ll be when every Sonos customer I meet tells me “You work at Sonos!? I love my Sonos!”, what really gets me up in the morning is the idea that we can expand the Sonos platform well beyond “out loud audio at home.”
I’ve heard from many of you about your own frustrations about how far we’ve drifted from our shared ideals. There’s a tremendous amount of work in front of us, including what I’m sure will be some very challenging moments, decisions, and trade-offs, but I’m energized by the passion I see all around me for doing right by our customers and getting back to the innovation that is at the heart of Sonos’ incredible history.
While I’m here today as “interim” CEO, please make no mistake: I’m here to move us forward. This is not a time for Sonos to be stuck in limbo. I’ve relocated to Santa Barbara and my family will join me here shortly. I’m in the office today and for as long as the job is mine. I’m counting on your help in making today the first day in our collective future. I’ll greet you all live tomorrow (see calendars for the meeting invite). It will be recorded and shared with those who aren’t able to attend. I’ll also be visiting our offices outside of California in the coming weeks. I can’t wait to meet all of you and start building towards a new chapter for Sonos.
Onward!
Tom
PS: As you get to know me in the coming weeks and months, you’ll find that I have many of the clichéd interests of an aging technology hipster, including an arm full of tattoos (see also: “Can I tell you about my interest in light roast espresso, vinyl records and Leica photography?”). While all of this rightfully might inspire some eye rolls (including from my wife), I hope it will make at least some of you smile to know that my most prominent tattoo is a pair of Sonos Ace on my left forearm.
In 2024, Sonos gave everyone a valuable lesson on the worst way to introduce a redesigned app. It was too soon, too buggy, and too careless.
In May 2024, Sonos released a completely rebuilt and overhauled mobile app for Android and iOS. The new software was meant to improve performance, make the app feel more customizable, and allow for new features in the future. But customers immediately complained about countless bugs, degraded Sonos speaker system performance, and features that had gone missing.
The controversy effectively torpedoed Sonos’ reputation with many customers. In the months since, Sonos has worked to regain their trust, address issues with the redesigned app, and bring back features that were absent at launch. The company still hasn’t fully recovered from its enormous mistake. On January 13th, 2025, Sonos announced CEO Patrick Spence would step down after he was unable to turn things around.
As chief executive, Spence oversaw many successful products. But there was no coming back from last year’s app debacle: it has finally led to his ouster.
Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is resigning from the company today, effective immediately, with board member Tom Conrad filling the role of interim CEO. It’s the most dramatic development yet in an eight-month saga that has proven to be the most challenging time in Sonos’ history.
The company’s decision to prematurely release a buggy, completely overhauled new app back in May — with crucial features missing at launch — outraged customers and kicked off a monthslong domino effect that included layoffs, a sharp decline in employee morale, and a public apology tour. The Sonos Ace headphones, rumored to be the whole reason behind the hurried app, were immediately overshadowed by the controversy, and my sources tell me that sales numbers remain dismal. Sonos’ community forums and subreddit have been dominated by complaints and an overwhelmingly negative sentiment since the spring.
In October, Sonos tried to get a handle on the situation, which, by then, had spiraled into a full-on PR disaster, by outlining a turnaround plan. The company vowed to strengthen product development principles, increase transparency internally, and take other steps that it said would prevent any mistake of this magnitude from ever happening again. I can also report for the first time that Sonos hired a crisis management public relations firm to help navigate the ordeal.
Image: Sonos
But three months later, Sonos’ board of directors and Spence have concluded that those steps weren’t enough: the app debacle has officially cost Spence his job. No other changes are being made today, however. So for now, chief product officer Maxime Bouvat-Merlin, who some employees have privately told me deserves a fair share of the blame for recent missteps, will remain in his role.
“We’re going to initiate a search for the next CEO, and we’ll work on finding a leader who’s going to continue to build on our legacy and work with the team to move the company forward,” Sonos spokesperson Erin Pategas told me by phone on Sunday afternoon. She described the leadership change as “turning a page on the chapter that we’re in and forging a path ahead that gets us in the direction that we want to be going for ourselves and our customers.”
In case you were wondering, that direction will not include a return to the old Sonos app; Pategas said the company remains fully committed to the new software, which has received a slew of bug fixes and gradually added back previous features over the last several months. It’s gotten better, but even this far along, complaints remain about speakers randomly vanishing from the app and other problems.
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge
Spence during happier times, back when the original Sonos Move was released.
Spence joined Sonos in 2012 as chief commercial officer. As CEO, he oversaw a wide range of successful hardware products: Sonos released several impressive soundbars (including the still-new Arc Ultra), pushed into portable audio with the Move and Roam, and debuted the forward-looking Era 300 spatial audio speaker. But the app stumbles — and Spence’s failure to apologize in the immediate aftermath — ultimately soured his reputation with the company’s most loyal customers. There was no overcoming that.
Spence will technically remain with Sonos until June 30th of this year, during which time he’ll receive a base salary of $7,500 per month for providing the company with “strategic advisory services.” And when that end date rolls around, he’ll be granted a severance of $1,875,000. Those numbers come from an 8K filing that Sonos made with the SEC regarding today’s news.
It now falls on Conrad, who joined the Sonos board in 2017, to rally disenchanted employees and make good on winning back consumer trust. Conrad’s career includes a 10-year tenure as chief technology officer at Pandora and two years as VP of product at Snapchat. He worked on Apple’s Finder software during the ’90s. Most recently, Conrad served as chief product officer for the ill-fated Quibi streaming service. Pategas believes he’s a great fit for the interim CEO position because he’s keenly aware of the company’s current predicament; Conrad and chief innovation officer Nick Millington have already been spearheading Sonos’ fix-the-app effort for months.
Despite this seismic shift at the top, Sonos’ future product pipeline remains “full steam ahead,” Pategas told me. The company’s next major new product is rumored to be a streaming video player, which would pit it against the likes of Apple, Roku, Amazon, and Google in the living room.
Amid all this, Pete Buttigieg, who oversaw much of Biden’s EV policies, is trying to put on a brave face. While the incoming Trump team sharpens its knives, the transportation secretary is finishing out his days by approving as much spending as he can from the administration’s two landmark laws, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the climate-focused Inflation Reduction Act, before Trump can claw the rest back.
He’s also holding on to hope that Republican lawmakers, especially those who have directly benefited from the administration’s spending on EVs and clean energy, will resist Trump’s efforts to undo his predecessor’s accomplishments.
“For every conservative legislator publicly threatening to reverse our work, there’s two or three who look like they’re trying to take credit for it,” he said in an exit interview with The Verge. “And as long as that ratio keeps up, I think the bulk of our work will endure.”
Still, you can tell the election results and the coming turnover was weighing on Buttigieg, who seemed a lot more downbeat than in his previousinterviewswith The Verge. We also asked him what he wasn’t able to accomplish while in office and to describe his hopes for himself — and us — for the future.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Donald Trump has said he’s going to end the “EV mandate” on day one. Which of your policies do you see as the most endangered, and which are more likely to survive for the next four years?
I’m not that worried about having an EV mandate since there isn’t one, but I am concerned that he might take steps to make EVs more expensive for American consumers. And that would be unfortunate. The work we’ve done to make EVs more affordable is part of why there are more and more jobs being created in the industrial Midwest, in places like where I grew up that are seeing a level of auto industry growth that we haven’t had since the ’60s. And I think that needs to be kept up, especially because there is clearly a ferocious innovation competition with China. They’re using all the tools in their tool kit to try to edge us out, and we can’t let that happen.
I think the thing that has been the most effective in the short term has been the tax credits and making them more affordable. I think in the medium term, the thing that will matter the most is the charging network. Even though 80 percent of EV charging happens at home, we know that the other 20 percent really matters. And most of the projects that we set into motion will be physically online by 2027.
Given that it’s likely EVs are going to become more expensive over the next few years, how do you think the auto industry should respond to the elimination of these incentives? And how do you think customers are going to respond?
What we’ve seen lately is, despite some of the coverage and the stories that are out there every single year, more Americans choose EVs. I think that trend will continue even if there’s policy fluctuation because of the benefits in terms of the total cost of ownership. Having a vehicle with fewer moving parts and fewer fluids involved and that’s just cheaper to fuel will, in the long run, be why the market sends us in that direction.
Regardless, I think the important thing is to continue supporting a “Made in America” EV industry. And I’m concerned about that. The OEMs are going to do what makes the most sense to them in the given policy environment. They’ve made a lot of choices that there’s really no turning back for them. But of course, they’re going to need to modulate that up or down from year to year based on the market. That’s what businesses do, and that’s totally appropriate.
What sort of dangers do you feel exist for the climate from a transportation perspective, considering we’ve got an incoming administration that is rejecting the idea that climate change is an accepted science and seems ready to enact policies that will help worsen the effects of climate change?
The climate doesn’t care whether people care about it or not. It’s going to keep changing. And we need to keep adapting and doing what we can to prevent it from being worse than it already is. Obviously, it matters when you have an administration that cares about it versus one that doesn’t.
My experience as a mayor was that if cities, representing the bulk of global GDP, got together and said, “We’re not going to wait on our national capitals. We’re going to take action ourselves.” That’s how the C40, which became the climate mayors, was born. So I have a lot of confidence that state and local work will continue and that there are new stakeholders, including red states, working-class auto manufacturing families, who will be perhaps a surprisingly strong backstop on the continued importance of the growth of the industry in our country.
Have you heard specifically from any of these red state lawmakers in the so-called Battery Belt where these factories are going up, places like Tennessee and Kentucky? Have they told you anything that gives you confidence that maybe there’s going to be more pushback on the elimination of these policies?
Often, it’s more in what they don’t say than what they do say. The conspicuous decision of leaders in places like Georgia and Indiana not to try to pile on the anti-EV ideology because, of course, governors like cutting ribbons on good-paying building trades and manufacturing jobs. And that’s exactly what’s happening because of our work. If anything, I think there will be an attempt for others to try to take credit for it. But the most important thing is that happens at all.
Was the politicization of EVs over the course of the presidential campaign inevitable? Or do you think there was more the administration could have done to push back against that?
I think we did everything we could to stress that this shouldn’t be a Republican or Democratic thing. That when you’re in a high-stakes innovation competition with a country like China, you have nothing to gain by kind of over-indexing on old technology or telling people that what we did in the last century is going to work in this one without modernizing. I’ve just never seen a country win out by looking only to its past.
As we’ve seen in our time, everything from public health to transportation policy can get politicized. But again, I think the market will actually point in a pretty powerful direction here. And part of how I know that is you’ve got a country like China, which is conspicuously not enthusiastic about environmental protection, and they’re all in there doing that for a reason. The reason is economic strategy. And we better not be caught sleeping when it comes to our economic strategy. That’s a bipartisan concern.
The Trump team is also reportedly looking into canceling the standing general order on autonomous vehicle and advanced driver-assist crash reporting. That was another notable thing that happened under your watch. What do we stand to lose there if this sort of transparency is eliminated and we don’t have insight into some of these crashes?
To put it simply, I think kneecapping a safety initiative is not a good idea. I’ve seen lots of second-hand reporting on that. I don’t know what will actually happen. But what I know is that we need to make sure we have good information about the safety of this technology coming onto our roadways. And I say that not because I’m against that technology. On the contrary, I think it’s precisely because of the theoretically lifesaving potential that we need to get the rollout right as a country.
Trump also seems to be considering policies that favor his new best friend, Elon Musk. What concerns do you have seeing someone like Musk, with all of his conflicts and government entanglements, so close to power?
When you consider the power of any federal agency — certainly one like the USDOT, which has a lot of life-and-death responsibility — it’s incredibly important that that power be used in ways that are fair and objective. And we’ve sought to do that by calling balls and strikes without fear or favor. Sometimes that has meant that in the same month we are congratulating a company for some partnership with us in one realm, we’re also launching enforcement actions against them for some concern or violation in another realm. You have to be ready to call balls and strikes. And I hope there is enough public and congressional scrutiny to make sure that happens no matter who’s in charge here.
Do you think the Biden administration could have courted Musk a little more gently or strategically, given how he has emerged as this force in terms of his support for Trump and how much Tesla has been influential in the EV market?
Maybe, it’s hard to say in hindsight. One thing I’ve observed is that a lot of the players in this space — even though you would think it is hyper-rational given how technical and how economic it is — the truth is, there’s a pretty big emotion factor there, too. And I think it’s important to take that into account.
I also wanted to ask you about the ARPA project with infrastructure. That was a big announcement over the last four years. How do you see that sort of progressing into the next administration? Do you feel like there’s still going to be support for a Skunk Works-style project around infrastructure?
I think so. I hope so. I think there’s enormous potential here. I mean, some of the technologies that we use for transportation haven’t changed that much since the days of the Romans. And yet we know there’s evidence that everything from 500-year concrete to self-healing bridge components is potentially within our grasp. I mean, it could come to fruition in my lifetime. So given that some of those things are trillion-dollar ideas, we should continue investing the modest, comparatively modest millions that make it possible. And this is something, too, I hope is bipartisan. Innovation should be bipartisan. So far, I haven’t seen a strong Democrat / Republican valence about unlocking some of those technologies. We just need to be smart about which things the market can take care of and which things just don’t happen unless there’s government support.
A common criticism I heard about the Inflation Reduction Act was that a lot of money was being spent to incentivize cars, but not enough to get people out of their cars and walking and biking. There was an announcement today about $45 million for some active transportation. But compare that to the tens of billions of dollars spent on EVs, it seems kind of like a drop in the bucket. Do you feel like this was the right balance to strike, or do you think more could have been done?
That would be true if you looked at the IRA in a vacuum. But the truth is, even though we think we call the IRA the climate bill, in many ways the infrastructure bill was our climate bill as a department. What I mean by that is a lot of the things that went into supporting transit or supporting a new, better way to design our highways and bridges will mean just as much or more for carbon pollution reduction as what’s in the IRA. EVs help, but that’s only part of the story.
How are you personally feeling seeing all of these policies that you spent so much time on — so much effort, so much political capital to get enacted — now that they’re all on the chopping block or endangered?
I just can’t speculate or predict what will happen next. But what I do know is what we did was good policy and good work. One of the most flattering and convincing pieces of evidence I see for that is for every conservative legislator publicly threatening to reverse our work, there’s two or three who look like they’re trying to take credit for it. And as long as that ratio keeps up, I think the bulk of our work will endure.
And for those folks who are waiting with dread about what’s going to come down the pike in terms of transportation policy and climate policy — are we screwed, or do you think there’s some hope for the future?
As a federal official, I have sometimes been impatient with the limitations of the federal level compared to the power that our system places in state and local hands. I think going forward, maybe I’ll go back to my mayoral mentality and remember how much of our salvation comes from the local in this country. Again, some things are good policy in a way that endures no matter who’s in charge, even if they have a different vocabulary or a different emphasis. I actually think the realm of transportation work is one of the ones that will be the most durably bipartisan, even if, obviously, the next administration will show less interest in issues like climate change, labor union support, or racial and economic justice compared to this one.
As a last question, if you had another four years on this job, what are some things you would like to have done?
I just launched our Project Delivery Acceleration Council. And it sounds strange to launch something on your way out the door, but what I reminded that team of is that their work is going to be wildly important under the next administration, to make sure that we pay more attention to delivery. It’s critically important to fund these things, but you also have to bring out a lot more efficiency in the project delivery process. And it isn’t sexy, but it’s wildly important to get more value for our taxpayer dollar.
So as I think about the second half of this decade, when the bulk of these projects actually enter construction, that’s something I would have wanted to work on. I think I’ll continue to find some way to work on it on the outside, and I hope it gets continued bipartisan interest in [Washington, DC] because I think delivery is vitally, vitally important, not just on the legislative side.
The infrastructure law was a five-year bill and year five is coming up. Congress and the administration will have to negotiate what comes next. And it’ll be important to learn from everything good, bad, and indifferent that we’ve learned from the first infrastructure bill. And then from a safety perspective, I think the biggest piece of unfinished business remains the rail safety legislation — bipartisan, cosponsored by JD Vance, completely deserving of a vote and of being passed into law. And if the next administration is the one to do it, I’ll be the first to cheer for that because it’s just the right thing to do.
At this point, it’s pretty clear what Donald Trump wants from Mark Zuckerberg. But what does Zuckerberg, who has now gone to Mar-a-Lagotwice since the November election, want from the President-elect?
That’s the question I’ve been asking sources in and around Meta over the last several days. They all described Meta’s relationship with the outgoing Biden administration as incredibly hostile. It’s safe to assume that Zuckerberg wants a reset for the MAGA regime, especially since Trump threatened not that long ago to imprison him for life.
In Trump’s America, removing tampons from the mens’ restrooms on Meta’s campuses, — a real thing that just happened — is as much a business decision as a political one. Destroying ‘woke’ ideology is a key pillar of Trump’s stated mandate. Others who know they need to play the game, like Amazon, are also starting to fall in line. Even still, Zuckerberg is transforming Meta for this new political reality at a speed that’s unusual for a company of its size and influence. Founder mode.
Roborock’s Saros Z70 looks set to be the first robot vacuum with an articulating arm to come to market. It’s designed to pick up light items like socks and tissues. (Not actual size) | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
CES saw wild innovations from Roborock and Dreame and helpful upgrades from the rest of the pack, all of which are set to make 2025 a banner year for those who’d rather leave the cleaning to the robots.
Apple may have settled on iPhone 17 Air as the name for the rumored skinny iPhone that’s expected this fall, reports Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter. He writes that the phone will be “a testing ground for future technologies,” including the tech that leads to the company’s first foldables.
The name wouldn’t be surprising — both the MacBook Air and iPad Air were the thinnest versions of their lines when they were released. The iPhone 17 Air is expected to carry that forward by being “about 2 millimeters thinner” than current iPhones, Gurman has written. Other recent rumors have put it between 5.5mm and 6.25mm thick, which is close to the M4 iPad Pro’s depth and less than the thinnest iPhone so far, the iPhone 6.
The thinness isn’t just a flex — realizing it will help Apple along toward future foldable iPads and iPhones, Gurman writes. And he says the phone could be one of Apple’s first proving grounds for its in-house cell modem, codenamed Sinope, after it debuts in the iPhone SE this spring. This year’s iPhone lineup is also expected to debut Apple-designed Wi-Fi / Bluetooth chips, though Gurman doesn’t go as far as saying that includes the 17 Air.
Past rumors have said the new 17 Air will get a 6.6-inch ProMotion OLED display — Apple’s 120Hz variable refresh rate screen used only on iPhone Pro models so far — and that it will have just a single 48-megapixel camera lens on the back, with a 24-megapixel selfie camera. It may have Apple’s A19 chip and, like the iPhone SE 4, is expected to pack 8GB of RAM to run Apple Intelligence AI features.
It’s getting increasingly difficult to avoid AI when you open up your phone or laptop — as soon as I started this article in Google Docs, I was immediately offered some AI assistance to write it (which I didn’t take). And with the rollout of Apple Intelligence, that now applies to iPhones, iPads, and Macs, too.
But if you aren’t seeing much value in the Apple Intelligence features that have launched so far, you’re not alone: around three-quarters of iPhone owners can’t see what all the fuss is about, according to a recent survey. It’s also worth bearing in mind that these AI add-ons take up 7GB of local storage (and counting) on every device you want to use them on.
The good news is that Apple Intelligence is both opt-in and reasonably easy to disable, which isn’t something every company does with their AI tools (looking at you, Google and Microsoft). So if you find features like Writing Tools and mangled notification summaries superfluous to your needs, you can turn them off.
Assuming you’ve already turned it on, here’s how to turn off specific features of Apple Intelligence. And if you really don’t like it, here’s how to turn it off completely.
The Cell BioPrint is designed to be used in retail spaces and dermatology offices. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge
Las Vegas is punishingly dry. The arid winter air means I woke up on Day 3 of CES 2025 with a nosebleed, chapped lips, and ashy legs. This in spite of the fact I slathered myself with two pumps of a fermented bean essence, eye cream, moisturizer, and a lip mask. Staring at my face in the hotel mirror, I wonder if any of those products were doing what they’re supposed to — and if maybe, I should try something different.
For anyone who’s struggled with their complexion, the Cell BioPrint feels like a holy grail gadget. The device is a mini-lab setup that analyzes a skin sample to generate a report about your skin’s current condition. It’ll also “grade” your skin with regard to oiliness, wrinkles, skin barrier function, pore size, and uneven skin tone. Based on the proteins in your skin, you’ll also see whether you’re more likely to be susceptible to those issues down the line — even if they aren’t issues now. The test also determines whether you’re responsive to retinol, a popular and well-studied skincare ingredient that nevertheless causes a ton of confusion online.
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 66, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, happy 2025, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
I also have for you a big report from CES in Las Vegas. This edition of Installer is a little different than most, just because we saw so many new things, and so many new things launched, and in many cases, it’s hard to know whether any of it will ever hit shelves. So think of this as part Installer, part CES recap, part “David hopes desperately these things actually ship” list. But I tried hard to pick out the stuff I’m confident will actually end up on sale at some point soon and might be worth your money. I’m sure I’ll be wrong about a few...
‘We view what we are doing as a public service,’ says the cofounder of the nonprofit that millions of people are relying on to stay safe.
If you live in Los Angeles, you are probably already intimately familiar with Watch Duty, the free app that shows active fires, mandatory evacuation zones, air quality indexes, wind direction, and a wealth of other information that everyone, from firefighters to regular people, have come to rely on during this week’s historic and devastating wildfires.
Watch Duty is unique in the tech world in that it doesn’t care about user engagement, time spent, or ad sales. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit behind it only cares about the accuracy of the information it provides and the speed with which the service can deliver that information. The app itself has taken off, rocketing to the top of Apple’s and Google’s app stores. Over 1 million people have downloaded it over the last few days alone.
The elegance of the app lies in its simplicity. It doesn’t scrape user data, show ads, require any kind of login, or track your information. Its simple tech stack and UI — most of which is maintained by volunteer engineers and reporters — has likely helped save countless lives. While Watch Duty is free to use, the app accepts tax-deductible donations and offers two tiers of membership that unlock additional features, like a firefighting flight tracker and the ability to set alerts for more than four counties.
With plans to expand the service across the United States, as well as overseas and into other emergency services, Watch Duty may eventually replace some of the slower and less reliable local government alert systems for millions of people.
Photo by Lokman Vural Elibol / Anadolu via Getty Images
An app born from fire
The idea for Watch Duty came to cofounder John Mills while he was trying to protect his off-grid Sonoma County home from the Walbridge fire in 2020. He realized there wasn’t a single source for all the information people needed to protect themselves from the blaze, which ultimately killed 33 people and destroyed 156 homes. John and his friend David Merritt, who is Watch Duty’s cofounder and CTO, decided to build an app to help.
“This came out of an idea that John had, and he talked to me about it four years ago,” Merritt tells The Verge. “We built the app in 60 days, and it was run completely by volunteers, no full-time staff. It was a side project for a lot of engineers, so the aim was to keep it as simple as possible.”
Fire reporting is piecemeal at best in fire-prone areas and frequently scattered across platforms like Facebook and X, where fire departments and counties have verified pages sharing relevant updates. But increasingly, social media platforms are putting automated access for alert services behind paywalls. Governments also use a wide variety of alert systems, causing delays that can cost lives, especially in fast-moving fires like the Palisades and Eaton fires that have forced evacuations for more than 180,000 people. And sometimes, these government-run alerts are sent out mistakenly, causing mass confusion.
Watch Duty simplifies all that for millions of people.
“We view what we are doing as a public service,” says Merritt. “It is a utility that everyone should have, which is timely, relevant information for their safety during emergencies. Right now, it’s very scattered. Even the agencies themselves, which have the best intentions, their hands are tied by bureaucracy or contracts. We partner with government sources with a focus on firefighting.”
One of the biggest issues around fires, in particular, is that they can move quickly and consume large swaths of land and structures in minutes. For example, the winds that drove the Palisades fire to spread to more than 10,000 acres reached 90 miles per hour on Tuesday. When minutes matter, the piecemeal alert system that Watch Duty replaces can cause delays that cost lives.
“Some of the delivery systems for push notifications and text messages that government agencies use had a 15-minute delay, which is not good for fire,” says Merritt. “We shoot to have push notifications out in under a minute. Right now, 1.5 million people in LA are getting push notifications through the app. That’s a lot of messages to send out in 60 seconds. In general, people are getting it pretty much all at the same time.”
Image: Watch Duty
Image: Watch Duty
A simple tech stack
For Watch Duty, this kind of mass communication requires reliable technology as well as a group of dedicated staff and skilled volunteers. Merritt says that Watch Duty relies on a number of corporate partners with whom it has relationships and contracts to provide its service.
The app is built on a mix of technology, including Google’s cloud platform, Amazon Web Services, Firebase, Fastly, and Heroku. Merritt says the app uses some AI, but only for internal routing of alerts and emails. Reporters at Watch Duty — those who listen to scanners and update the app with push notifications about everything from air drops to evacuation updates — are mostly volunteers who coordinate coverage via Slack.
“All information is vetted for quality over quantity,” he says. “We have a code of conduct for reporters. For example, we never report on injuries or give specific addresses. It’s all tailored with a specific set of criteria. We don’t editorialize. We report on what we have heard on the scanners.”
According to Merritt, the app has 100 percent uptime. Even though it started with volunteer engineers, the nonprofit has slowly added more full-time people. “We still have volunteers helping us, but it’s becoming more on the internal paid staff as we grow, as things get more complex, and as we have more rigorous processes,” he says.
He says there are no plans to ever charge for the app or scrape user data. The approach is kind of the Field of Dreams method to building a free app that saves people’s lives: if you build it well, the funding will come.
“It’s the antithesis of what a lot of tech does,” Merritt says. “We don’t want you to spend time in the app. You get information and get out. We have the option of adding more photos, but we limit those to the ones that provide different views of a fire we have been tracking. We don’t want people doom scrolling.”
Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP via Getty Images
Collecting information in the era of Trump
Watch Duty relies heavily on publicly available information from places like the National Weather Service and the Environmental Protection Agency. Should the incoming Trump administration decide to execute on threats to dismantle and disband the EPA (which monitors air quality) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the parent agency to the National Weather Service, such moves would impact Watch Duty’s ability to operate.
Even still, Merritt is optimistic. “We will be pretty well insulated from any change to policy,” he says. “We are either buying that information ourselves already or we are happy to buy it, and we will take that cost on. The fact that we’re soon going to be covering the entire US will defray the cost of anything that shifts from a policy perspective. Our operation costs are mostly salaries. We are trying to hire really good engineers and have a really solid platform. If we need to raise a grant to buy data from the National Weather Service, then we will.”
Regardless of what the next administration does, it’s clear that Watch Duty has become a critical and necessary app for those in Southern California right now. The app currently covers 22 states and plans to roll out nationwide soon.
“We got 1.4 million app downloads in the last few days,” according to Merritt. “I think we have only received 60 support tickets, so that shows that something is working there. We are really just focused on the delivery of this information.”
Amazon will be winding down its Prime Try Before You Buy program, which let Prime members try on clothes before paying for them, reports The Information. It will shutter on January 31st, according to a banner at the top of the service’s landing page.
Amazon spokesperson Maxine Tagay said in a statement emailed to The Verge that the company is discontinuing the service because it only worked for a “limited number of items” and customers have been “increasingly using our new AI-powered features” to decide what to buy.
Tagay gave examples like Virtual Try-On AR feature that puts 3D renders of shoes from certain brands on your feet using your smartphone’s camera. She also mentioned the company’s LLM-powered “personalized size recommendations” that tweak size recommendations based on customer reviews.
Prime Try Before You Buy launched in 2018 for all Prime subscribers as Amazon Wardrobe before the company later changed its name. Through it, Prime members can order up to six items, try them for seven days, then pay for what works and send back the rest — like a very basic version of Stitch Fix’s curated clothing service. But a big part of that is returns, which is something the company has been trying to cut back on.
The discontinuation of Prime Try Before You Buy comes after years of cost-cutting at the company, as CNBC points out. That’s included massive layoffs and shuttering physical stores, as well as scaling back some of its efforts in the grocery industry.
Here is the full statement Tagay provided to The Verge:
Given the combination of Try Before You Buy only scaling to a limited number of items and customers increasingly using our new AI-powered features like virtual try-on, personalized size recommendations, review highlights, and improved size charts to make sure they find the right fit, we’re phasing out the Try Before You Buy option, effective January 31, 2025. Of course, customers will continue to enjoy fast, free shipping, with easy, free returns on our full apparel selection.
Anker’s latest GaN offering sports four USB ports on the bottom, which isn’t where they’re typically relocated. | Image: Anker
The inventive gadgets and gizmos at CES can often define the year, but most everything that appears on the showroom floor isn’t going to be available until later in the year, if at all. Fortunately, that’s not the case with Anker’s 140W GaN charger, which is already available in black or silver for $79.99 ($10 off) when you clip the on-page coupon at Amazon or use promo code WSCPV2LBR7KR at Anker’s online storefront.
Out of all the chargers to come out of CES this year, the Anker Charger (140W) easily offers one of the more refreshing designs. The wall charger is unique in that it positions all four USB ports on the underside of the device, thus reorienting its center of gravity and helping prevent it from falling out when loaded with weighty cables. Two of those ports are USB-C ports that supply up to 140W of power — letting you top off everything from a Nintendo Switch to the latest MacBook Pro — while a third USB-C port maxes out at 40W. It also features a single USB-A port limited to 33W, as well as a built-in info display for viewing temperature data and the power output for each port.
More ways to save this weekend
Amazon is selling its Smart Air Quality Monitor for $49.99 ($20 off), which is only $5 more than its best price to date. The compact device uses phone and voice alerts (via Echo speakers) to let you know when it detects abnormal changes in particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, humidity, and temperature. It can even automatically trigger Alexa-enabled air purifiers, along with humidifiers and other connected devices.
Samsung’s budget-friendly Galaxy Buds FE are down to $59.99 ($40 off) at Amazon, nearly matching their lowest price to date. They’re a good bet if you could care less about multipoint support and wireless charging, as they offer reliable performance, enjoyable sound, and surprisingly good noise cancellation for the price. They also sport a wing tip design, which can provide a more secure fit if you struggle with traditional in-ears. Read our review.
Note: Quentyn Kennemer also contributed to this post.
Leaks and rumors supported by multiple third-party manufactures make up the bulk of info out there about the new Switch.
Nintendo’s announcement of the Switch successor is imminent. Just how imminent is anyone’s guess, with the company stating that it would reveal info on the console before the end of its fiscal year in March. With just over two months to go until the promised deadline, speculation about the console, its specs, physical profile, and more have reached a fever pitch. So before the official reveal, here’s everything we think we know about Nintendo’s next console.
The only concrete, Nintendo-confirmed piece of information we know about the new console is that it’ll be backward compatible with the Switch. Everything else has come by way of leaks and info supplied by third-party manufacturers. Late last year, one such manufacturer, Dbrand, debuted its Killswitch carrying case meant for the Switch 2. According to Dbrand CEO Adam Ijaz, the Killswitch is based on the “actual dimensions” of the new console obtained from a “3D scan of the real hardware.” But in an interview with The Verge, he declined to say exactly how or where Dbrand obtained such information.
Image: Dbrand
Dbrand’s render of its Killswitch 2 case.
If the Killswitch’s design is indeed derived from the real thing, the new console will be larger than the Switch OLED with an 8-inch screen, and feature a kickstand that will span the length of the console similar to the OLED model. That the new Switch will be larger than previous iterations is supported by leaks and info from other accessory manufacturers as well as the idea that the Joy-Con controllers will attach via magnet instead of sliding and snapping into place. The new controller design will also incorporate magnets in the joysticks to combat against the dreaded “Joy-Con drift” that plagues the Switch even now.
CES 2025 provided even more fodder for the rumor mill, with accessory manufacturer Genki showing off a 3D printed mock-up of the console on the show floor. In an interview with The Verge, Genki CEO Eddie Tsai went into detail about what he knows about the new Switch reaffirming rumors regarding its larger size, magnetic Joy-Con, and more.
While there’s a lot of speculation and potential evidence about what the new console will look like, there’s less circulating about what it can actually do. Beyond an alleged photo of the console’s motherboard, there hasn’t been much out there about the console’s hardware specifications. Because Nintendo has never made consoles at the bleeding edge (or, honestly, even the cutting edge) of graphics or processing power, it’s hard to guess how well the console will perform or what additional features, like a microphone, it’ll have.
Though the console’s internals remain a mystery, we do know that it’ll be backward compatible with Switch games. We can also reasonably guess at least one game that’ll be a launch title: Metroid Prime 4. Announced in 2017, and undergoing a change of studio and a development reboot two years later, Nintendo debuted gameplay footage for the first time last year and shared a soft launch window of 2025. When Twilight Princess launched in 2006, it debuted on both the GameCube and served as a launch title for the Wii. Breath of the Wild was also cross-gen, debuting on the Wii U while launching with the Switch in 2017.
Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
At CES 2025, The Verge saw a 3D printed mockup of the Nintendo Switch 2, here it is next to the Steam Deck.
Knowing that the new Switch and Metroid Prime 4 both launch in 2025 and with Twilight Princess and BotW as examples, it’s speculated that the reason for Metroid 4’s long stint in development hell was, at least in part, because the game was being tooled for both the Switch and its successor. Also, you just can’t have a new Nintendo console without a Mario game. Super Mario Odyssey came out the same year the Switch debuted, and though there’s been other new releases like Super Mario Wonder, there hasn’t been a new, standalone (put down your pitchforks Bowser’s Fury fans) 3D Mario game since then. It’s all but assured one will be announced with the new Switch. The recently announced Pokémon Legends: Z-A is also a good launch title candidate as Nintendo curiously worded the game’s debut trailer with “releasing simultaneously worldwide on Nintendo Switch in 2025.”
For all the rumors and reasonable guesses supported by increasingly convincing evidence, it’s helpful to remember that at the end of the day, we’re still talking about Nintendo. The company has always tread a separate and unpredictable path from the other two major console manufacturers and that oddball strategy has mostly worked very well. Though the company is not immune to the same layoffs and delays (the Switch 2 was originally pegged for a 2024 release) plaguing its peers and indeed has its own manifoldissues with how it treats and pays its employees and contractors, it seems to be the major publisher that is best navigating the current crisis ravaging the industry.
It is folly trying to predict what Nintendo will do, and that applies to its new console. All we can count on is that it’s coming soon, and when it arrives, it’ll be big.
Corrections, January 12th: This story initially misstated the timing of Super Mario Odyssey’s launch and how close the Switch 2 deadline is. Odyssey debuted the same year as the Switch; it was not a launch title. The Switch 2 deadline is just over two months away, not under.
New renders of the Samsung Galaxy S25 series have appeared in a leak from Android Headlinesahead of Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event later this month. The most obvious change here is that Samsung has tweaked the design of the S25 Ultra, rounding off the phone’s corners a bit.
From the renders, it looks like you’ll be able to get the non-Ultra S25s in light blue, dark blue, light green, and silver. The Ultra will come in black, gray, and two silvery colors with either a white or blue tint.
Here are a couple of the images — you can see the rest at Android Headlines:
Apart from the new colors, the non-Ultra phones are almost indistinguishable from the S24 line. But one finer detail that’s changed is the way the camera bumps seem to nod at the look of a traditional camera lens barrel that flares out at the end. Internally, look for a CPU bump from Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chips to new Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile processors, but not much else. You can read more about the internals in a separate specs leak that Android Headlines also published yesterday.
Stay tuned for our coverage of the next Galaxy Unpacked event on January 22nd, at which we expect the company will reveal plenty of details about these phones. Naturally, you can bet it will talk about new AI features, too. Maybe by then, I’ll have stopped thinking about connecting “to compatible ships” through Matter with SmartThings.
Update January 11th: Removed the image gallery and replaced with two images.
