Google hasn’t shown Keep much love since bringing it to Apple Watch in 2019.
The Google graveyard has claimed another victim: the company has killed the Apple Watch version of its Keep app. While the note-taking app is still available for iPhone and iPad, the 2.2025.26200 Google Keep App Store update released on Monday has removed watchOS support, bringing the total number of Google apps for Apple Watch back down to three.
This sours some hope that Google would expand its watchOS app offerings after quietly rolling out a new native Google Calendar app for Apple Watch yesterday, having initially pulled several Google apps from the platform in 2017. The Google Keep app was introduced to watchOS in 2019 but has largely been neglected since, lacking any meaningful updates. Now, Google Calendar, Maps, and YouTube Music are all that remain, with the latter two also in need of modernization.
While outdated, Keep was still functional on Apple Watch, providing a convenient way for users to quickly create lists or jot down information on the go. There doesn’t appear to be a notable third-party alternative on watchOS to replace it. Its removal confirms several reports made by Keep users on Reddit last month, who said Google had notified them that “the watch app would be deprecated soon.” We have reached out to Google to clarify why the app was removed.
Keep is still available for smartwatches running on Google’s own Wear OS platform. That’s unlikely to be of any comfort to Apple Watch users who are disrupted by the removal, however; they will need to wait until Apple brings a native version of the Notes app to watchOS 26 this fall.
Nice generative AI platform you have there. Would be a real shame if the RIAA… happened to it. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
Sure, everyone hates record labels - but the AI industry has figured out how to make them look like heroes. So that's at least one very impressive accomplishment for AI.
AI is cutting a swath across a number of creative industries - with AI-generated book covers, the Chicago Sun-Timespublishing an AI-generated list of books that don't exist, and AI-generated stories at CNET under real authors' bylines. The music industry is no exception. But while many of these fields are mired in questions about whether AI models are illegally trained on pirated data, the music industry is coming at the issue from a position of unusual strength: the benefits of years of case law backing copyright protections, a regimented licensing system, and a handful of powerful companies that control the industry. Record labels have chosen to fight several AI companies on copyright law, and they have a strong hand to play.
Historically, whatever the tech industry inflicts on the music industry will eventually happen to every other creative industry, too. If that's true here, then all the AI companies that ganked copyrighted material are in a lot of trouble.
On June 2nd, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy traveled to Newark Liberty International Airport to celebrate the reopening of runway 4L-22R. This was unusual: few runway openings are glamorous enough to warrant a visit from the airport's CEO, let alone a cabinet secretary. But as we reported last month, few airports have come to symbolize USDOT's mismanagement of the air traffic control system as much as Newark.
The ceremony and press conference was meant to transform Newark into a different symbol - one of progress and action. In his speech, Duffy positioned Newark's problems as solvable, and the people onstage - who included the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)'s Acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, and several other dignitaries - as the problem-solvers.
Together, they'd gotten union labor to rebuild a runway in 47 days instead of 60; they'd convinced Verizon to expedite a new fiber-optic cable; they'd identified and fixed the "glitch in the system" that left Newark's air traffic controllers blind and unable to speak to pilots for several terrifying minutes.
Because of this whirlwind of activity, Rocheleau expected that Newark wou …
The major internet architecture provider Cloudflare will now block known AI web crawlers by default to prevent them from “accessing content without permission or compensation,” according to an announcement on Tuesday. With the change, Cloudflare will start asking new domain owners whether they want to allow AI scrapers, and will even let some publishers implement a “Pay Per Crawl” fee.
The Pay Per Crawl program will let publishers set a price for AI scrapers to access their content. AI companies can then view pricing and choose whether to register for the “Pay Per Crawl” fee or turn away. This is only available for “a group of some of the leading publishers and content creators” for now, but Cloudflare says it will ensure “AI companies can use quality content the right way — with permission and compensation.”
Cloudflare has been helping domain owners fight AI crawlers for a while now. The company started letting websites block AI crawlers in 2023, but it only applied to ones that abide by a site’s robots.txt file, the unenforceable agreement that signals whether bots can scrape its content. Cloudflare began allowing websites to block “all” AI bots last year — whether they respect a site’s robots.txt file or not — and now this setting is enabled by default for new Cloudflare customers. (The company identifies scrapers to block by comparing them to its list of known AI bots.) Cloudflare also rolled out a feature in March that sends web-crawling bots into an “AI Labyrinth” to deter them from scraping sites without permission.
Several major publishers and online platforms, including The Associated Press, The Atlantic, Fortune, Stack Overflow, and Quora, are on board with Cloudflare’s new AI crawler restrictions, as websites contend with a future where more people are finding information through AI chatbots, rather than search engines. “People trust the AI more over the last six months, which means they’re not reading original content,” Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said during the Axios Live event last week.
Additionally, Cloudflare says it’s working with AI companies to help verify their crawlers and allow them to “clearly state their purpose,” such as whether they’re using the content for training, inference, or search. Website owners can then review this information and determine which crawlers to let in.
“Original content is what makes the Internet one of the greatest inventions in the last century, and we have to come together to protect it,” Prince said in the press release. “AI crawlers have been scraping content without limits. Our goal is to put the power back in the hands of creators, while still helping AI companies innovate.”
Tinder is trialing mandatory facial recognition security features in the US to verify profiles and crack down on impersonation and fake accounts. New users in California are now required to provide a biometric “Face Check” scan to confirm their face matches their profile photos for the dating service, Axios reported on Monday.
The Face Check feature involves taking a short video selfie that’s used to match biometric indicators and prove that the Tinder user isn’t a bot using artificially generated images, providing them with a verified badge upon completion. The scan will also check if the user’s face is being used in multiple accounts, which could help to prevent users from being impersonated or having their likeness used by deceptive “catfish” profiles.
Face Check is separate from Tinder’s ID Check feature, which uses government-issued ID to verify users’ age and identity, while Face Check seemingly only requires users to upload a selfie video. Tinder users have provided video selfies to verify their profiles since 2023, but verification wasn’t a mandatory requirement for creating a Tinder account. This change means that Californians will have to complete some version of verification if they want to use the platform at all.
“We see this as one part of a set of identity assurance options that are available to users,” Match Group’s head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, told Axios. “Face Check … is really meant to be about confirming that this person is a real, live person and not a bot or a spoofed account.”
Tinder says the selfie video is deleted once verification is complete, but that the platform stores a “non-reversible, encrypted face map” to detect duplicate user accounts in the future.
The Face Check feature has already been piloted in Colombia and Canada, with Roth telling Axios that those tests showed “promising” results in “improving perceptions of authenticity” and reducing reports of bad actors. Tinder will now monitor how users in California respond to the Face Check feature before deciding if it should be rolled out more broadly across the US, according to Roth.
Valve has added a new performance monitor to Steam that can help you understand why a game may or may not be running smoothly. Not only does it break out a game’s overall frame rate, it can tell you how many of those frames were generated by techniques like Nvidia’s DLSS or AMD’s FSR, according to a post.
The change is included as part of an update to the Steam Client that’s available now, though Valve notes that this “first version” focuses on “Windows users and on the most common GPU hardware.”
The company says the new performance monitor currently offers up to four different levels of detail: a single FPS value, FPS details, CPU and GPU utilization, and “FPS, CPU, GPU & RAM Full Details.” The more you choose to show, the more of your screen will be taken up by the performance monitor.
Steam previously offered a simple FPS counter, but separating out generated frames from the frames fully rendered by your graphics cores can help you better understand key differences between what you see and how a game feels. “Frame generation can’t help with things like input latency that matter to competitive gamers, but it can make things look visually smoother on today’s high refresh rate monitors,” Valve says in a detailed support document about the performance monitor.
In practice, what that should mean is that you can see whether your game feels like it’s running at just 30 fps because it actually is running at 30 fps inside the game engine, even though you’re seeing a visually smoother image due to Nvidia and AMD’s added “fake frames.” (It’s a whole debate in the PC gaming community, and it appears Valve isn’t taking sides here.)
Valve has already given handheld gamers a taste of these quick insights by building tools like MangoHud into the Steam Deck and SteamOS, which similarly let you monitor your CPU, graphics, RAM, and carefully ration out your battery life. But having a way to do so built into desktop Steam will make the insights much more accessible to many more gamers.
Valve says that it has plans to “add some additional pieces of data to the performance overlay going forward, to detect certain common bad hardware performance scenarios, and to show a larger summary of your game’s performance in the overlay itself when you hit shift-tab.”
AT&T believes its network wasn’t at fault for a conference call where President Donald Trump accused the company of being “totally unable to make their equipment work properly.” Instead, AT&T is blaming an unnamed “conference call platform.”
Earlier on Monday, President Donald Trump complained on Truth Social about apparent issues with AT&T’s network during a “major conference call with faith leaders from all over the country” that had “tens of thousands of people on the line.” Trump said that “this is the second time it’s happened” and that if “the Boss of AT&T, whoever that may be” would get involved, “it would be good.”
It appears AT&T initially wasn’t sure what was going on, as it replied to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on X to say that it had reached out to the White House ”to quickly understand and assess the situation.”
At 6:53PM ET, the company said that “our initial analysis indicates the disruption was caused by an issue with the conference call platform, not our network. Unfortunately, this caused the delay, and we are working diligently to better understand the issue so we can prevent disruptions in the future.”
AT&T didn’t say which conference call platform it believes is at fault, and didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s question about that. The White House didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Shortly after his original post, Trump followed up to say that the call may be rescheduled and that “we’ll use another carrier next time.”
Apple is considering enlisting the help of OpenAI or Anthropic to power its AI-upgraded Siri, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. As Apple continues to struggle with the development of an upgraded “LLM Siri,” it reportedly asked OpenAI and Anthropic to create versions of their large language models to test on the company’s private cloud infrastructure.
As reported by Bloomberg, Rockwell asked his team to test whether Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, or Google’s Gemini performs better at handling basic requests compared to its own models, with Anthropic’s apparently seen as the most promising. While Google has Gemini AI features for Android and its Pixel lineup, Samsung licenses Google’s AI model for its phones. It is also reportedly close to cutting a deal with Perplexity, which already has a tie-up with Motorola. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported Apple executives had considered acquiring Perplexity to help boost its AI ambitions.
LLM Siri was largely absent from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, where SVP of worldwide marketing Greg Joswiak admitted that the technology “didn’t hit our quality standard.” Bloomberg notes that Apple’s plans to incorporate a third-party AI model into Siri are still at an “early stage” and that it’s still considering using in-house models.
Finding a Nintendo Switch 2 hasn’t been easy since its launch on June 5th, with sporadic availability over the past few weeks at various retailers. Luckily, if you’ve missed chances to pick one up, Best Buy will have more stock at its retail stores across the US starting tomorrow, July 1st. The Verge has reached out to Best Buy as to whether locations will primarily stock the standalone system ($449.99), the console bundle $499.99) that comes with Mario Kart World, or both. We’ll update this post if we hear back. To see a list of participating locations, head on over to Best Buy’s Switch 2 landing page.
While you’ll have to physically go to a Best Buy for a Switch 2, the good news is you won’t have to deal with an online queue or a potentially finicky checkout process. Despite stock being hard to come by in its first month of availability, the Switch 2 has already become the fastest-selling console of all time, surpassing 3.5 million units sold in its first four days. The handheld’s 7.9-inch 1080p LCD display (up from the Switch’s 6.2-inch 720p screen), magnetic Joy-Con controllers, and improved performance make it a solid upgrade over its predecessor. Or, as The Verge’s Andrew Webster referred to it in his Switch 2 review, “exactly good enough.”
This is what a Switch 2 looks like with a glossy glass protector attached to its screen. | Image: Cameron Faulkner/The Verge
A glass screen protector is one of a few "set it and forget it" purchases that every Switch 2 owner should make, along with buying a microSD Express card and a protective case for the console. In fact, it should be a priority to stick one onto the console's screen as soon as possible to avoid accidental scratches.
I've been installing and removing Switch 2 screen protectors to test others on my console at an alarming rate, more than any sane person should, and here are the most important takeaways:
Do not buy a flimsy plastic screen protector. They won't protect your Switch 2 enough.
It's impossible to tell different brands' protectors apart once they're on your screen; product packaging and the installation process are the biggest differences (as well as the key factors that increase cost).
Some protectors are glossy and some are anti-reflective, each with its own tradeoffs. For my money, glossy is the way to go. The matte finish looks good, but it reduces the screen's vivid quality and its viewing angles.
Of the options below, it's easiest to recommend amFilm's three-pack of glossy screen protectors. Not only is the pack incredibly affordable ($7.19 from Amazon at th …
The US Department of Justice notched an initial win in its antitrust case against Apple today, with a federal judge rejecting Apple’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit outright. The government’s allegations are “sufficient to demonstrate Apple’s specific intent to monopolize the smartphone and performance smartphone market,“ Judge Julien Neals wrote in an opinion on Monday.
Apple filed to dismiss the government’s lawsuit in August 2024, arguing that the Justice Department failed to show that Apple monopolized the smartphone market or acted in an anticompetitive manner. The lawsuit was based on the “outlandish” premise that Apple’s success comes from “intentional degradation of iPhone to block purported competitive threats,” the company wrote.
The case’s progress is still early, and the judge isn’t ruling on any of the government’s claims just yet. But he is saying that the allegations are “sufficient” to support the claims that Apple acted in an anticompetitive manner.
“We believe this lawsuit is wrong on the facts and the law, and we will continue to vigorously fight it in court,” Apple spokesperson Marni Goldberg wrote in a statement sent to The Verge.
The government’s win here wasn’t necessarily a given. When the Federal Trade Commission sued Meta (then Facebook) for anticompetitive practices in the social media space, the judge initially dismissed its claims and forced it to refile before the case was allowed to proceed.
The DOJ lawsuit against Apple claims that the company monopolizes the smartphone market by limiting the functionality of would-be competitive products, from apps to accessories. Jonathan Kanter, then DOJ Antitrust Division chief, said at the time that Apple used “contractual rules and restrictions” to raise prices on consumers and developers and “throttle competitive alternatives from rival technologies.”
Later this summer NASA Plus’ live programming will be available on Netflix. | Image: NASA
Since it launched in November 2023, you could catch everything from rocket launches to documentaries about space on the NASA Plus streaming service. Starting this Summer, NASA Plus’ live programming will also be available on Netflix, and continue to be ad-free.
NASA Plus’ live programming also includes “astronaut spacewalks, mission coverage, and breathtaking live views of Earth from the International Space Station.” Although you do need a subscription to use Netflix, the NASA Plus content will be a free addition and won’t add to the cost of that subscription.
According to the agency, the goal of the partnership is to make NASA’s work in science and exploration “even more accessible, allowing the agency to increase engagement with and inspire a global audience in a modern media landscape, where Netflix reaches a global audience of more than 700 million people.”
The new Netflix partnership won’t be an exclusive one. NASA Plus will still be viewable for free on the agency’s website and through the NASA app which is available for iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV devices.
In a memo to Meta staff, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company’s new “Meta Superintelligence Labs” group that will head up its AI work, Bloomberg reports.
Former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, who joined Meta as part of a multibillion dollar deal earlier this month, will head up the group as the company’s chief AI officer. Former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman will “partner with” Wang to help lead the division, according to Bloomberg. Meta has also made 11 new AI-focused hires, including former Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and OpenAI employees.
Zuckerberg has been making huge offers to potential hires – The Verge’s Alex Heath has reported that they’re “well into the eight-figure range” – to bolster its AI efforts, which have fallen behind other big AI companies. Meta has also held talks to buy companies like Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab, Perplexity, and Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence, though “none of these talks progressed to the formal offer stage for various reasons,” Heath reported.
Meta is also planning to “start research on our next generation of models to get to the frontier in the next year or so,” Zuckerberg said in the memo, which was published in full by CNBC.
A summer camping trip is the perfect excuse to stop staring at screens, but it doesn’t mean you need to go completely off the grid. Jackery’s Explorer 1000 Power Station V2 lets you charge your gadgets and have more fun while you’re camping. For instance, you can plug in a projector, speakers, or a space heater. In other words, it’s great for entertainment and for maintaining a certain quality of life you may not be willing to give up while camping. This charging station, which also includes a SolarSaga 200W Portable Solar Panel, costs$698.99 ($601 off), its lowest price ever at Amazon.
Jackery Solar Generator 1000 v2 with 200W Solar Panel
The Explorer 1000 v2 will typically output 1,500 watts, which is enough juice to run a mini fridge, coffee maker, and other small appliances, or recharge a smartphone dozens of times. It can handle 3,000 watt power surges if a gadget draws a lot more energy briefly. The Explorer 1000 has three AC Outlets, two USB-C ports, one USB-A port, and a DC power port, and can power or charge multiple gadgets at the same time. A small screen shows its battery percentage and how much power is being drawn. You can also view that information on your smartphone using the Jackery app.
The Explorer 1000 recharges in under two hours when plugged into an outlet, but you can reduce that time to one hour by enabling its Emergency Charging setting using the Jackery app. Fast charging will sacrifice battery health, which is something to consider. Jackery says the Explorer 1000 can retain up to 70% of its original capacity after 4,000 charges.
The SolarSaga Portable Solar Panel that’s included can refill the generator’s battery in about seven and a half hours with direct sunlight, and you can cut that time in half by connecting a second one. The panel is waterproof, and can be folded up to protect the panels from damage. The panel uses a sensor in the upper-right corner to automatically adjust its positioning to ensure the sun is hitting it at the optimal angle.
Four more deals worth a look
Thousands of games are heavily discounted during the Steam Summer Sale, which is running through July 10th. Indie hit Stardew Valleyis currently $7.49 ($7.49 off), which matches its lowest price ever, and play through the remake Resident Evil 4for its all-time low price of $19.99 ($19.99 off) to whet your appetite for Resident Evil: Requiem’s release early next year.
If you need help working through your Steam backlog, the Lenovo Legion Go handheld is on sale for $499.99 ($200 off) at Amazon. The Windows handheld supports Steam, Epic Games Store, the Xbox PC app, and many other platforms to allow you to play your entire library on the go.
A three-pack of TP-Link’s Deco X75 Wi-Fi 6E routers is down to $249.99 ($100 off) its lowest price ever at Amazon. The tri-band Wi-Fi 6E routers can create a network covering 7,200 square feet, transfer data at up to 2.4Gbps, and connect to 200 devices without throttling. One router must be hardwired to a cable modem, but the others can be installed throughout your home. Devices will automatically connect to the closest router and on the fastest band they support to reduce network congestion. Plus you can select your most important gadgets to get priority bandwidth.
If you’re planning on going snorkeling, biking, or adventuring this summer, GoPro’s HERO13 Black Ultra Wide Edition is $349.99 ($130 off) at Amazon. This is the lowest price we’ve seen yet for this model. The camera can record video in 5.3K and up to 240 frames per second in 1080p resolution. It can also capture 27-megapixel still photos and video frame grabs. You can take it underwater to depths of up to 33 feet, and attach it to a grip or helmet using the included mount. The Ultra Wide Edition has a 177 degree field of view, which is 36 percent wider and 48 percent taller than the regular HERO13. Video and photos you take are stored on a microSD Card, and can be transferred to a device wirelessly over Wi-Fi or using a USB-C cable.
Microsoft will soon no longer let you use its Authenticator app to store or autofill passwords. Starting in July, you won’t be able to autofill saved passwords using Authenticator, and you’ll have to use Microsoft Edge or another password management solution instead.
Microsoft also plans on deleting your saved payment information in Authenticator this July before erasing passwords in August. Last month, Microsoft Authenticator stopped accepting new passwords as part of plans to consolidate its password autofilling feature within Edge.
Microsoft will automatically sync saved passwords to your account, allowing you to access them in Edge. You can set Edge as your device’s default autofill provider by finding the option in your device’s settings and selecting Edge instead of Authenticator. If you don’t want to use Edge, make sure to export your passwords to another service by August.
Microsoft Authenticator launched as a multifactor authentication solution in 2016, and it added support for password storage in 2020. Though Microsoft Authenticator is ending support for passwords, it will continue to support passkeys, the solution that lets you use your device’s authentication method to sign into accounts, such as a PIN, fingerprint, or face scan.
You can find more information about how to export your passwords or make Edge your default autofilling provider from Microsoft’s website.
Date Everything! isn't the dating sim it appears to be. Though the game's cutesy art style and lighthearted premise indicate an unserious game that's making yet another joke at the expense of the genre, Date Everything actually contains novel explorations of human relationships and sharp-as-shit political critique.
Date Everything (the title technically includes an exclamation point) is a game where you, with the help of special glasses called "dateviators," can turn everyday household objects into potential romantic partners. Every in-game day you're given five opportunities to find new and talk to already discovered characters called dateables. As you interact with them, the things you say and do influence their feelings for you. Winning a dateable's love, hate, or friendship will also increase the level of one of your personality traits - smarts, poise, empathy, charm, and sass - which unlocks more advanced dialogue responses. Say the right thing, and Dorian (your door, voiced by Ben Starr) will be your best friend boosting your poise. Say the wrong thing and your toilet Jean-Loo Pissoir (Max Mittelman) will swear eternal enmity, boosting your sassiness.
Kallie Plagge, The Verge’s senior copy editor, has been working in the media for over 10 years now, mainly at gaming websites. She was primarily a video game critic for a lot of that time and was the reviews editor at GameSpot for about three years, before eventually becoming the senior copy editor at Polygon. “I was there for three years before Vox Media sold the brand, and I was fortunate enough to be offered the same role at The Verge,“ she explains.
We asked Kallie to tell us about her home office setup.
That looks like a great space. Where in your home is it?
I currently live with my parents, and they were generous enough to give me a separate office space. It’s next to my bedroom, and then my dad’s office is just down the hall. When I lived here during the covid lockdown, I worked from the dining room table, so it’s a big upgrade!
Could you tell us about your L-shaped desk? It looks like you have separate working and gaming spaces.
I was intent on getting an L-shaped desk when I bought this a few years ago from Target, and I can’t go back. At my old desk, I had a KVM switch so I could use just one monitor and keyboard with both my work laptop and my gaming PC, and that worked fine. But once I’d been working from home for a while, I realized I preferred to have “separate” work and gaming spaces, even if it only involved swiveling my chair 90 degrees. That bit of mental separation helped me really feel like I was transitioning out of work mode.
Even with all the space of an L-shaped desk, I still wanted a big drawer unit for all my spare cables and stationery. This one is the Ikea Alex drawer unit on casters, and it doubles as even more surface real estate for things like my PC tower and personal laptop. I just really need to be able to spread out to focus.
Tell us about your chair.
My dad actually bought this chair for me during lockdown. Because I’d been working in the dining room, I was using a dining room chair, and he could tell it wasn’t very comfortable. This is a Respawn gaming chair, and I added foam pads from Amazon to the armrests for extra comfort.
Here’s the long one: tell us about the various tech devices you’re using.
Hoo boy. On the work side, I have a Keychron K2 wireless mechanical keyboard with red switches. I chose it mainly because it has a Mac mode with Mac-compatible keycaps, which means I can easily use shortcuts that require the Command key. My mouse is just one I had on hand — a Razer Mamba wireless gaming mouse, though I use it wired because I prefer wired mice. Please ignore my dirty mouse pad.
On the gaming side, I have a Logitech G713 wired mechanical keyboard with GX red linear switches. It came with the cloud wrist rest, which was admittedly the main reason I bought it over other keyboards. (I got a rainy day-themed mouse pad from a small stationery shop called Unicorn Eclipse to complete the look.) I also liked the tenkeyless layout; my previous keyboard had a number pad and two rows of programmable keys, and even though setting up macros was nice, it took up way too much space on my desk. Plus, I only ever used the number pad to input the PC shortcut for em dashes.
Logitech G713 keyboard
Wired mechanical keyboard with RBG lighting, tactile switches, and palm rest.
I also got the matching Logitech G705 wireless gaming mouse, which, again, I use wired. I was worried it would be too small — it’s specifically marketed as having a “smaller fit,” and my hands are a pretty average size — but I actually love it! It’s comfortable and made me realize the Razer mouse is slightly too big for me.
The Dell monitor is a hand-me-down, and I’m not really particular about monitors. I only wish it had a second HDMI port, because right now, I just manually switch the HDMI cable from my Xbox Series X to my gaming PC and back, depending on what I’m playing. It’s not a huge deal, but an extra port would make it easier to set up my Nintendo Switch 2 dock at my desk.
Because I have two stations at this desk, I also have two pairs of headphones. For everyday use, I have the Bose QuietComfort 35 II noise-canceling headphones that I wear constantly. (I don’t even listen to anything. I just really like dampening outside noise!) And for gaming, I have a SteelSeries Arctis 7X wireless headset that’s compatible with both PC and Xbox. It also has a dial on the right ear cup that lets me fine-tune the balance between game and chat audio, which is necessary for me when I’m playing multiplayer games with friends.
My gaming PC is a whole other thing, and I don’t have to get into the specs, which are pretty midrange. But since you can see the chassis: it’s a Cooler Master MasterBox NR200 Mini-ITX case. It was a gift, and I love its form factor.
That’s an adorable Pikachu — love the suit!
Thank you! I have a massive collection of Pokémon merch, including a lot of Pikachus in different outfits and with different themes, and the rest of them live in my bedroom. But I like having businessman Pikachu on my desk! I imported him from Japan in early 2015; his official name in the US is Intern Pikachu, but I think that’s underselling his qualifications.
And a Pokémon tabletop fan, as well!
I am obsessed with this Poliwhirl fan. I also imported this from Japan — it was part of a recent onsen-themed collection, and a lot of these collections never come to the US for a variety of reasons, so I pulled the trigger right away. It has three speed settings, there are felt pads on the feet so it doesn’t slip or wobble while it’s on, and you can angle it upward. I love getting useful items that also have a clever and cute design, and this is the epitome of that.
You have a nice, comfortable-looking couch.
I love this couch! It’s from Article. It’s comfortable, but it’s not so squishy that you sink into it, and that was the goal.
Is that a desk bike? Do you use it much?
It is! It’s a Flexispot V9 Pro desk bike. I’m using it more now that it’s getting hotter outside, since taking a walk is less appealing in 100-degree heat. I do find that I have a hard time focusing on editorial work while riding the bike, so it’s really only good for when I’m in a meeting with my camera off. But I do like it — I have very bad ankles, and I can’t really run, so it’s a nice way to get some more intense cardio.
Is there anything we didn’t cover that you’d like to add?
TheInsta360 Link 2 is more than just a webcam — it’s a smart camera that actively follows your movements whether you’re presenting, streaming, or pacing during a call. It’s also packed with an impressive array of productivity features. And right now, it’s available at a new all-time low of $149.99 ($50 off) at Amazon.
The webcam is a modest upgrade over the original Link, which was our favorite 4K webcam when it launched in 2022, boasting all the same impressive features with slight refinements. Like the original, it offers sharp, detailed 4K/30fps video even in low-light settings. But what really sets the Link 2 apart is its motorized three-axis gimbal, which keeps you perfectly centered in frame as you move around the room. The Link 2 also comes with a magnetic mount, letting you attach it to a wider range of surfaces without the need for additional mounting gear.
In addition to its exceptional tracking abilities, the Link 2 features an AI-powered framing tool that automatically zooms and adjusts the shot to focus on your head, upper body, or full body, depending on your distance from the camera. It now supports customizable “no-follow zones,” allowing you to prevent the camera from tracking movement in specific areas of the room for greater framing control. The Link 2’s also far better suited for group presentations than its predecessor, thanks to an upgraded tracking system that can now follow multiple presenters simultaneously.
At the same time, the webcam retains a suite of software features that help cut down on the extra gadgets typically needed for presentations. DeskView angles the camera slightly downward to showcase your workspace, while Overhead Mode captures top-down shots perfect for demos or unboxings. Whiteboard Mode utilizes included stickers to lock onto a presentation surface, keeping it in focus throughout meetings or tutorials.
Insta360 Link 2
The Insta360 Link 2 offers the same auto-swiveling design as its predecessor, but is now smaller with new features like group tracking and no-follow zones.
Apple’s native calendar app on watchOS includes customization options that let you see alternate views, like a week summary and a full month. But the Google Calendar app only shows a week’s worth of events on your Apple Watch with their time and location, as well as Google Tasks in a simple list view showing the day of the week in the upper corner as you scroll.
You can click on an event to see additional details, but it’s very limited. You’re prompted to instead “Open Calendar on your phone to view more” if you want more specifics. According to 9to5Google, the app’s functionality is very similar to what’s offered on Wear OS devices.
There are also two home screen complications offered. The circular Today’s date shows the abbreviated day of the week and the date, while What’s next, which can be a circle, rectangle, or Smart Stack widget, shows your next appointment. Both complications can be tapped to open the Google Calendar watchOS app.
Although it may be a welcome option for those who want as much Google on their Apple Watch as possible (Google Keep, Maps, and YouTube Music are the only other watchOS apps the company offers) the standard calendar app can already sync with your Google Calendar and lets you see more details for a given event.
Automattic’s plan to move Tumblr’s backend over to WordPress is now “on hold,” Automattic founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg says in a Decoder episode published today.
The company announced the plan to move over the more than half a billion blogs on Tumblr last year, saying that the change would “make it easier to share our work across platforms.” But Mullenweg says on Decoder that, “what we decided is that we want to focus as much on the things that are going to be noticeable to users and that users are asking for.”
It seems as if the move might be on the table in the future, though. “I still want to do it,” Mullenweg says. “It’s just cleaner. But right now, we’re not working on it.”
The decision to halt the change also appears to mean that Tumblr posts won’t be available in the fediverse in the near future. WordPress.com currently offers an ActivityPub plug-in, so Tumblr moving onto WordPress would theoretically let people bring Tumblr posts to the fediverse. “That would’ve been a free way to get it,” Mullenweg says. “And so that was one of the arguments for migrating everything to WordPress.”
In the meantime, however, “I think if there was a big push to implement fediverse, we would just do it on the Tumblr code base,” according to Mullenweg.
