The Verge

For the third time, President Donald Trump will extend the deadline for TikTok to spin out from its Chinese parent company or face a US ban. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed in a statement Tuesday that Trump will sign an executive order this week extending the deadline another 90 days, landing the new deadline in mid-September.

The Trump administration will spend the next 90 days “working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure,” Leavitt said.

The extension, first signed on January 20th, theoretically offers legal cover for TikTok’s US service providers who are subject to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act from the hundreds of billions in penalties they could face for keeping the app online and in US app stores. But that legal cover was already shaky given that Trump’s extensions are not codified into the law, which was passed overwhelmingly by a bipartisan vote in Congress, and upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court.

As The Verge previously reported, ByteDance and an Oracle-led coalition had nearly hammered out a deal in April, but Trump’s tariffs abruptly blew up the tentative agreement. While trade tensions between the US and China have simmered down, there’s been no recent news about resurrecting that deal or another one. Even when a sale seemed likely, it was unclear whether China would allow ByteDance to sell the valuable algorithm that powers TikTok’s video recommendations.

“The whole thing is a sham if the algorithm doesn’t move from out of Beijing’s hands”

Several lawmakers, including those who’ve criticized a divest-or-ban law for TikTok and ByteDance, have warned that Trump’s repeated extensions are untenable and illegal. After Trump’s last extension in April, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-VA) told The Verge the move was “against the law” and said “the whole thing is a sham if the algorithm doesn’t move from out of Beijing’s hands.”

Even before the second extension, Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Cory Booker (D-NJ), who oppose a ban of TikTok, wrote Trump that it would be “unacceptable and unworkable for your Administration to continue ignoring the requirements in the law.” They warned, “any further extensions of the TikTok deadline will require Oracle, Apple, Google, and other companies to continue risking ruinous legal liability, a difficult decision to justify in perpetuity.”

That’s because TikTok service providers in the US can be fined for facilitating access to the app after the ban deadline, and Trump’s extensions fall outside of the mechanisms allowed for in the law. So far, however, these companies appear to be relying on assurances from the administration that they won’t be sued for keeping TikTok online, although it reportedly took a letter from the US attorney general herself to assuage Apple and Google’s concerns.

A court could evaluate whether Trump’s actions are legal, but only if somebody sues to stop the extension — and so far, nobody has. Earlier this month, though, a Google shareholder filed a lawsuit against the company for allegedly failing to share internal records about its decision to flout the law under the Justice Department’s assurances. The same shareholder had already filed suit against the DOJ for allegedly failing to share information about its decision not to enforce the law against Apple and Google.

While members of Trump’s party generally haven’t gone so far as to call his extensions illegal, a dozen House Republicans said in a statement in April that “any resolution must ensure that U.S. law is followed, and that the Chinese Communist Party does not have access to American user data or the ability to manipulate the content consumed by Americans.” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told reporters that month that Trump “ought to enforce the statute and ban TikTok. This middle way, I don’t think is viable.”

But it’s not clear what would prevent Trump from approving indefinite extensions or a deal that doesn’t meet the letter of the law. As Hawley acknowledged while speaking to reporters in April, “Congress, we don’t have an enforcement arm of our own.”

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This week, WhatsApp did something its founders said it would never do: it's putting advertisements inside the app. It ends WhatsApp's decade-plus run of offering an ad-free messaging and calling experience.

Meta, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014, attempted to justify the decision by saying ads will be sequestered to its "Update" tab, where you'll see some sponsored status updates. WhatsApp's status feature allows users to share photos, videos, and text messages that disappear after 24 hours - but now you'll see ones from businesses, too. "If you only use WhatsApp to chat with friends and loved ones there is no change to your experience at all," Meta writes in its announcement.

But the rollout of ads in its status feature could be just the beginning for Meta, which raked in more than $160 billion in ad revenue from across Facebook and Instagram in 2024. Meta says its ads are built with "privacy in mind" and won't draw from your personal messages, calls, and statuses, which will remain encrypted. Instead, WhatsApp is limiting ad targeting to elements like your city, country, language, the channels you're following, and the way you interact with the ads. Still, bringing targeted ads …

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The Senate confirmed Republican Olivia Trusty to serve on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday, installing another nominee by President Donald Trump and ending the brief lack of quorum at the agency. The vote was 53-45, with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) being the only Democrat to vote in her favor.

Trusty will join Republican Chair Brendan Carr and Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez on the panel, with two seats remaining empty. Trump has yet to select other nominees for the roles. No more than three commissioners on the independent agency are allowed to be from the same party, though Gomez had expressed doubt that Trump may nominate another Democrat to the agency. Former Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington endorsed his chief of staff, Gavin Wax, a MAGA loyalist who once said Trump’s return to office would be a “time for retribution,” after announcing he’d be stepping down from his post.

Trusty was a longtime staffer for Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who previously served as the top Republican on the Commerce Committee, which oversees the FCC and related issues. Commerce Committee Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA) said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), Monday, she opposed Trusty’s confirmation largely due to concern with the Trump administration’s actions.  “Although I respect the nominee’s professional background, when I spoke in support of Ms. Trusty’s nomination in Committee on April 30, I explained that my support was not absolute,” Cantwell wrote. “Since then, the Trump Administration has pursued a series of concerning policies, leading me to oppose Ms. Trusty’s nomination.”

Cantwell said she’s concerned that Trusty’s nomination was not paired with a Democratic one, which would be “consistent with longstanding practice,” she wrote. She pointed to Trump’s attempted firing of two Democratic commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission, another agency created to be independent from the president and whose commissioners the Supreme Court has said cannot be fired without cause. “I remain seriously concerned that this Administration will try to illegally terminate Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez, refuse to nominate any Democratic replacements, and then operate the Commission on a strictly partisan basis,” Cantwell wrote.

“These are not normal times”

Trusty’s confirmation gives Carr a 2-1 Republican majority to carry out his agenda, including slashing agency regulations and pursuing action against media outlets he views as countering the administration. “I look forward to welcoming Olivia to the Commission as a colleague and advancing an agenda that will deliver great results for the American people,” Carr said in a statement.

Gomez similarly praised Trusty’s experience and welcomed her to the panel. “I have known Olivia for years and have been very impressed with her strong background in communications policy, which will be a great asset to this agency,” Gomez wrote in a statement.

“In normal times, there’d be little reason to oppose the confirmation of a candidate as qualified as Trusty. But these are not normal times.” Matt Wood, VP of policy and general counsel of nonpartisan group Free Press Action, said in a statement. “Trusty’s confirmation gives Carr the majority he needs to radically reshape the media sector in Trump’s image, including offering policy favors to large broadcasters in exchange for their unwavering loyalty to the president.”

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Meta is making a change to how sharing videos works on Facebook. Right now, you can share videos as a video from the post composer or as a reel, and both have different sharing workflows. In “the coming months,” however, “all videos on Facebook will be shared as reels,” according to a blog post.

“Facebook remains a home for all types of video – short, long, and Live,” Meta says. “We will gradually roll out these changes globally to profiles and Pages over the coming months to help you create, share and discover reels more easily on Facebook.”

Meta also plans to remove the length restrictions for reels on Facebook – right now, they’re limited to being 90 seconds long, per a support page.

Additionally, Meta will rename the Video tab to be the Reels tab. “We still value a variety of topics and lengths on Facebook, and this update won’t change what videos we recommend to you, which are personalized based on your interests,” the company says.

The changes to Facebook videos follow Mark Zuckerberg saying this year that he wanted to make Facebook “way more culturally influential than it is today” and to get back to “some OG Facebook.” The company introduced a new full-screen mobile video player for Facebook last year. Meta has also pushed reels in a big way on Instagram, and as of January, reels on that platform can be up to three minutes long.

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Heatwaves, mold, and plastic pollution pose new risks to businesses and insurance companies, a new report by reinsurer Swiss Re warns. What do these things have in common? Fossil fuels make matters worse.

They release the greenhouse gases warming our planet and are the primary ingredients for plastics, of course. Swiss Re’s annual report flags new or changing risks that “could have a major impact on society and industry.” The damage that heat, heat-loving fungi, and plastics can do to our bodies and our environment could take a growing financial and legal toll, the report warns.

“With a clear trend to longer, hotter heatwaves, it is important we shine a light on the true cost to human life, our economy, infrastructure, agriculture and healthcare system,” Jérôme Haegeli, Swiss Re’s group chief economist, said in a press release accompanying the report last week.

“It is important we shine a light on the true cost to human life, our economy, infrastructure, agriculture and healthcare system”

Rising temperatures are a hallmark of human-caused climate change. 2024 beat 2023 as the hottest year on the books yet — a record that’s already expected to be broken again soon. Wildfires become a bigger danger during heatwaves as vegetation dries out into tinder. Heatwaves also put pressure on power grids, raising the risk of energy shortages and outages as people run their air conditioners. Both of those issues drive up property claims, the report says. Heat-related illness can also raise medical, life, and workers’ compensation claims.

Summer blackouts have become more common since the 2000s in the US, for example. Heat happens to be the leading weather-related killer, causing more deaths than hurricanes, tornadoes, and other disasters. Wildfires are growing more monstrous in the west; leading to skyrocketing home insurance rates and some insurers pulling out of California altogether.

Some fungi, on the other hand, are flourishing in warmer temperatures, the report highlights. It forecasts higher claims for toxic mold in buildings in hot, damp environments. Crops are also at risk from mold spreading in a warmer climate, an issue made worse by overreliance on fungicides that can increase the odds of drug-resistant fungal pathogens.

On top of all that, “plastics have become a major environmental and health concern,” the report adds. Some conservationists describe the steady stream of plastic waste making its way into the ocean as an insidious kind of oil spill. Researchers are still trying to understand what impact microplastics have once they make it into the human body. The tiny plastic particles are turning up in our food and even babies’ poop, and Swiss Re writes that “the scale of exposures may currently be underestimated, in our view.”

Plastic pollution is potentially putting companies at risk of a “new wave of litigation,” the report warns. California sued ExxonMobil over plastic pollution last year, following a slew of other lawsuits states have filed against fossil fuel companies for their role in the climate crisis. If new research winds up linking microplastics to specific health conditions, that could lead to new liability lawsuits, Swiss Re writes.

The report includes more topics of concern, from deepfake fraud to ultra-processed foods and the use of AI in healthcare. The goal of the annual report is to help businesses prepare and respond to these kinds of risks. But there’s no tackling climate change and plastic pollution without addressing the underlying cause — fossil fuels.

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Some Switch 2 owners have received the error code 2134-4508, which results in their consoles being permanently banned from accessing any of its online services, as spotted by IGN. It’s not a ban hammer from sucking at Mario Kart World, thankfully for me, but one that’s targeting consoles that have used a Mig – a microSD card-equipped Switch cartridge that can be filled with copies of games.

Running games on the Mig requires you to download them from others who have dumped files off of cartridges, or dump the games yourself with something like the Mig Dumper, then load them onto a microSD card. Whether you’ve used one to play pirated games, or to play copies of games that you own, Nintendo’s stance on the matter is broad: It considers both to be violations of its user agreements.

The makers of the Mig cartridge have taken reasonable efforts to distance itself from what a majority of buyers will likely do with it, which is play pirated games. The cartridge’s product page notes that it “serves as a backup and development device solely supporting gaming using personal game backups. […] To maintain the Mig Flash warranty during online play, it’s essential to utilize self-dumped backups with authentic Certificate, UID, and Card Set ID.”

Nintendo isn’t bricking the consoles of offenders, at least, not immediately. YouTube creator Scattered Brain posted a video about their banned Switch 2 in which they tried to find a way around the ban. Attempting to visit the eShop wasn’t possible, nor was unlinking an account from the console, since both activities require the internet. They were able to unlink Virtual Game Cards from their Switch 2 from Nintendo’s account management site and load them onto a Switch OLED, suggesting that the ban is limited to the hardware and not the account. However, a factory reset essentially bricked their Switch 2, as it no longer allowed signing into any Nintendo Account. This is something that Nintendo reserves the right to do per its updated account services user agreement and privacy policy.

No one, but especially Mig users, should be surprised about this ban. Nintendo has a rich history of aggressively pursuing those who pirate its games, as well as those who build emulators that can run pirated copies of games originally made for its platforms. Considering that the Switch 2 is the fastest-selling console of all time, Nintendo’s clearly throwing everything it’s got at making sure gamers are playing by its rules.

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Bungie announced Tuesday that it’s delaying Marathon, its new extraction shooter that had been set for a September 23rd release date. The studio isn’t providing a new release date just yet, though has promised to share it sometime this fall.

The studio outlined a few “immediate focus areas” for the game. It plans to make AI encounters “more challenging and engaging” and make combat “more tense and strategic.” It’s “doubling down on the Marathon Universe” by increasing “visual fidelity,” including “more narrative and environmental storytelling,” and will introduce a “darker tone that delivers on the themes of the original trilogy.” (Bungie may also be making these visual changes after an artist said the company lifted her artwork without permission.) And it plans to add “more social experiences,” including proximity chat and improving things for solo and duo players.

“We’re using this time to empower the team to create the intense, high-stakes experience that a title like Marathon is built around,” according to the post. “This means deepening the relationship between the developers and the game’s most important voices: our players.”

Bungie hosted tests for Marathon earlier this year, and reviews were generally mid. With this delay, we’ll see if Bungie can improve the game so that it doesn’t turn into another big live-service misstep for Sony.

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Choose your fighter.

In case you missed it, the Trump Organization announced yesterday that it plans to release a $499 Trump-branded, "built in the United States" phone later this year. A spokesperson for the Trump Organization doubled down on this claim to The Wall Street Journal, saying "manufacturing for the new phone will be in Alabama, California and Florida."

But unless the organization has somehow hidden an entire domestic mobile device supply chain right under our noses, this is virtually impossible. The T1 Phone, as it's called, lists some decent midrange specs like a 6.8-inch OLED 120Hz refresh rate screen. Offering it for $500 as soon as this fall? That would take a miracle. Case in point: a company called Purism makes a device called the Liberty Phone, which sources many of its parts from US companies and assembles it here. The cost? $2000, and you won't find something as luxurious as an OLED panel there.

More likely the T1 will be a white label device with most or all of its production handled by a Chinese ODM, or original design manufacturer. These dozen or so companies are responsible for as much as 44 percent of smartphone shipments globally, largely handling budget models while OEMs …

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Sony is bringing its PlayStation concerts to the US this fall, where you can hear live performances of tracks from franchises like God of War, The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, and Horizon. Ticket pre-sales for PlayStation: The Concert begin on Wednesday, and you can see the full list of current tour dates on the PlayStation website.

In addition to music from those big tentpole games (and the setlist better include Ghost of Tsushima’s incredible title drop), the concerts will showcase “fan-favorite themes from Bloodborne, Astrobot, Journey, Uncharted, and Helldivers 2, offering a rich and diverse journey through the PlayStation universe. A live band will play the music while “the latest LED technology and state-of-the-art multi-layered projections” will turn the stage into “a mesmerizing visual masterpiece.”

You can get an idea of what it will all look like through a trailer and a behind-the-scenes video.

These sorts of video game concert series are becoming increasingly common. Square Enix put on a FFVII Rebirth-focused tour, for example – I went to it last year, it was fun! Kojima Productions is putting on a Death Stranding 2 concert series that will begin a world tour later this year. And after the brief orchestral performance of Balatro’s soundtrack at The Game Awards last year, I’m hoping that Jimbo hits the road with his band someday, too.

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Microsoft is confirming today that it’s working on a next-gen Xbox console in partnership with AMD. Xbox president Sarah Bond made the announcement in a minute-long video posted to YouTube, promising to deliver “an Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to one device.”

Bond says Microsoft is partnering with AMD for a “strategic multi-year partnership” that will include the pair co-engineering silicon “across a portfolio of devices — including our next-generation Xbox consoles in your living room and in your hands.” The pair will also work together to build the next generation of Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Microsoft is making it clearer than ever that its next-gen Xbox platform will be focused on multiple devices and not locked to its own store for games. “This is all about building a gaming platform that’s always with you, so you can play the games you want across devices anywhere you want — delivering you an Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to one device,” says Bond. “That’s why we’re working closely with the Windows team to ensure that Windows is the number one platform for gaming.”

The confirmation comes just days after Microsoft announced a partnership with Asus to launch two Xbox Ally handheld devices later this year — complete with a new full-screen Xbox experience on Windows. This new Xbox experience runs on top of Windows, and means that the Xbox Ally devices can access other stores like Steam, and it appears that Microsoft is signaling the same for its next-gen Xbox console.

I wrote last week in my Notepad newsletter that I’m more convinced than ever that Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox console will be powered by Windows and be part of a number of devices from third parties that Microsoft also considers Xbox consoles. Bond’s comments appear to suggest Windows is key to Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox console plans, but one missing piece of the puzzle was backward compatibility for Xbox console games.

Bond says this next generation of Xbox includes “maintaining compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games.” So while the Xbox Ally devices won’t run Xbox console games that don’t have a PC counterpart later this year, next-gen Xbox consoles will.

Here’s Bond’s full statement on Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox console plans:

At Xbox our vision is for you to play the games you want with the people you want, anywhere you want. That’s why we’re investing in our next-generation hardware lineup — across console, handheld, PC, cloud, and accessories. I’m thrilled to share we’ve established a strategic multi-year partnership with AMD to co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices — including our next-generation Xbox consoles in your living room and in your hands. Together with AMD we’re advancing the state of art in gaming silicon to deliver the next generation of graphics innovation, to unlock a deeper level of visual quality and immersive gameplay and player experiences enhanced with the power of AI. All while maintaining compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games. This is all about building you a gaming platform that’s always with you, so you can play the games you want across devices anywhere you want — delivering you an Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to one device. That’s why we’re working closely with the Windows team to ensure that Windows is the number one platform for gaming. The next-generation of Xbox is coming to life and this is just the beginning, we can’t wait to show you what’s next.

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LG’s C4 OLED TV is over half off.

It’s official: Amazon’s Prime Day event is just three weeks away, and it’s possible we’ll see a number of great TV deals during the four-day event. But if you’d rather not wait and see, LG’s C4 OLED TV has hit a new low price, starting at $699.99 ($800 off) for the 42-inch model at Amazon and Best Buy. Some larger configurations like the 77-inch model are on sale too, with the 77-inch model going for $1,799.99 ($1,899 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.

Given how similar the last-gen models are to the newer LG C5 OLED TVs, these are excellent deals. You’ll still enjoy the same stunning OLED picture quality as you would on the newer TVs, complete with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support for a cinematic experience. The last-gen models offer the same intuitive navigation too, with a wand-like Magic Remote plus built-in voice control via Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Plus, the C4 boasts a number of gamer-friendly features, including a fast 144Hz refresh rate, four HDMI 2.1 ports, and AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility.

That said, the LG C5 OLED does bring a few incremental upgrades worth noting. Its display is slightly brighter, which can be helpful in well-lit rooms, and it comes with a newer processor that may offer slightly faster performance. However, the C5 also starts at $1,295 ($103 off), making the C4 a better value for most users, as it delivers a high-end OLED experience at less than half the price.

Some more ways to save

The latest Motorola Razr Ultra flip phone with 512GB storage is available unlocked at Amazon starting at $1,169.99 ($130 off), its first cash discount to date. The phone is one of the best-looking on the market, courtesy of its unique wood back panel. The snappy phone also sports a  useful four-inch 1080p outer screen with a seven-inch inner display, along with long battery life and a decent dedicated AI button. Read our review.The slim Ring Battery Doorbellis $49.99 ($50 off) at Amazon, which is its best price to date. The 1080p camera builds upon the original model with improved color night vision and longer battery life. It also offers a taller 150-degree field-of-view, making it easier to spot packages and people on your porch. It doesn’t have a removable battery like its higher-resolution sibling, the Plus, but it’s a decent basic buzzer for the price.You can buy the Anker MagGo USB-C Adapteron sale for $11.99 ($13 off) at Amazon, as well as Anker with code WS7DV2Y2FE3N. That marks a new low price on the MagSafe-compatible device, which is a useful tool for creators on the go. Not only does it function as an SD and microSD card reader, but you can also power up your gadgets via its USB-C port, which supports up to 42.5W of power. Plus, if you’re using a compatible iPhone 15 or 16 and a high-speed memory card (at least 220MB/s write speed and 256GB capacity), it can even handle 4K ProRes video recording at 60fps.

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The Asus ROG Ally X alongside an original ROG Ally and Steam Deck. | Photo: Sean Hollister / The Verge

I love modern handheld gaming, and I recommend it to anyone and everyone. Just maybe not today? If you decided today was the day to finally drop hundreds of dollars on your first handheld, I might advise you to wait.

Four reasons:

The best handhelds are sold outThe second-best handhelds just got more expensiveThird-tier handhelds are riddled with compromisesThe entire state of gaming handhelds will improve if you wait

The best handhelds are sold out

If you're reading this story, I suspect you've been on the fence about handheld gaming machines - until the Nintendo Switch 2, the fastest-selling game console of all time, caught your attention. Perhaps you liked the idea of bigger Mario Kart or smoother Fortnite and Pokémon; perhaps you liked the idea of taking graphically intensive games like Cyberpunk 2077 on the go.

Unfortunately, the $450 Nintendo Switch 2 is sold out everywhere as of this writing, and its alternatives may not offer the experience you'd hope.

The $550 Steam Deck OLED is the best, most Switch-like handheld you can buy thanks to its pick-up-and-play SteamOS operating system, its similarly decent battery life, and an eye-popping HDR OLED screen. …

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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 10: In an aerial view, Waymo cars are seen parked at a Waymo facility on June 10, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Waymo is continuing its slow and steady approach to the robotaxi business by gradually expanding its service area in the key cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The company said that starting June 17th, it would begin accepting passengers further south along the San Francisco Peninsula in cities like Brisbane, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Millbrae, and Burlingame. In Silicon Valley, riders in Palo Alto and Menlo Park will now be able to hail of the Waymo’s driverless vehicles.

And in Los Angeles, Waymo is launching June 18th in neighborhoods like Playa del Rey, Ladera Heights, Echo Park, Silver Lake, and the entirety of Sunset Boulevard. The company briefly shut down its service in Los Angeles earlier this month after anti-ICE protesters set several robotaxis on fire.

Waymo said that it was growing its borders in both cities by 80 square miles, bringing its total coverage area in California to 250 square miles. The company recently reported reaching the milestone of 10 million paid rides, and is now serving 250,000 rides each week in all four of its markets: SF, LA, Austin, and Phoenix. For those keeping track, Waymo got rid of the waitlist and went public in San Francisco in June 2024 and Los Angeles in November 2024.

Waymo operates its ridehail service in California exclusively through its app, Waymo One. In Austin and soon Atlanta, the company has opted to partner with Uber by making its vehicles only available through that company’s app.

The service map expansion comes as the company is getting ready to more than double the size of its vehicle fleet. The Alphabet company said it currently has 1,500 Jaguar I-Pace SUVs operating across its four main markets, and it plans on adding 2,000 more vehicles into 2026, for a total fleet size of 3,500.

But Waymo is still moving slowly when it comes to highway driving and airport access — two crucial domains if the company wants to outmaneuver Uber and Lyft in the future. Waymo spokesperson Chris Bonelli said the company was still testing its vehicles with employees on the highways in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and is in active talks with both cities’ airports about potential future service. Waymo has been conducting airport trips at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport since late 2022, but it has yet to bring its driverless vehicles to either SFO or LAX.

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Were it not for Neil Gaiman getting caught up in a sexual misconduct scandal, Netflix’s live-action adaptation of The Sandman comics could have run for much longer given how much source material there is to be pulled from. But you can see in the new trailer for the show’s second and final season that the streamer is going to try to fit in as many of Dream’s remaining stories as it possibly can.

Though the dead aren’t meant to be able to escape hell, there is nothing Dream (Tom Sturridge) won’t do to free his beloved Nada (Deborah Oyelade) from eternal damnation in The Sandman‘s new trailer. Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie) would like nothing more than to make good on their promise to one day murder Dream — an action that would plunge the mortal and magical realms into chaos. But with so much on the line, it seems like all of Dreams’s Endless siblings — Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Destiny (Adrian Lester), Destruction (Barry Sloane), Despair (Donna Preston), Desire (Mason Alexander Park), and Delirium (Esmé Creed-Miles) — are going to be willing to help him do the impossible.

As Gizmodo notes, the trailer’s shots make it clear that the new season is going to tackle a number of classic The Sandman comics stories including “Tales in the Sand,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and “The Song of Orpheus” over the course of its 12 episodes. That’s probably going to make the season feel pretty dense, but Netflix has (smartly, to be honest) decided to release the episodes in a few batches. Volume 1 debuts with six episodes on July 3rd, Volume 2 drops July 24th, and The Sandman‘s final episode premieres on July 31st.

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Max — soon to be called HBO Max again — is rolling out an update that automatically plays video previews when you hover over shows and movies. The video previews are launching to users in the US now, but Max is still working on an “AI-assisted” tool to pick the clips that go in them.

In the “coming weeks,” Max says its AI tool will automatically identify “standout” scenes from its shows and movies, which its team will then use to choose the clips featured in video previews. “This AI-driven technology will enable us to identify Drop-in Moments for the vast catalog of content on Max and significantly reduce the manual time needed to curate previews,” Avi Saxena, Warner Bros. Discovery’s chief technology officer, said in the press release.

The streaming service will also include an option to turn off the audio or video in the autoplaying content, similar to Netflix.

Max updated its interface in January to move the options from its top menu bar to the left side of the screen — basically the opposite of what Netflix is doing in its upcoming homepage redesign. Max will have another big change sometime this summer, as that’s when the switch back to HBO Max will be official.

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Peak Design’s new tripods are designed for larger camera gear but still fold down small enough to fit in a backpack. | Image: Peak Design

Peak Design has announced three new tripods with features and functionality that cater to professional photographers and videographers. The company’s first tripod was a travel model that folded to be as slim as a soda can to prioritize portability. Its new pro tripods, available in three versions, are slightly thicker when collapsed, but they can also support twice as much weight and stand a bit taller.

The company is once again launching the new tripods through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign today. The new pro versions range in price from $799.95 to $999.95 — a big jump from the starting price of its original Travel Tripod at $349.95. However, the earliest backers can preorder them with discounts up to 27 percent off.

The three new models include the standard Pro Tripod and two variants. The Pro Lite Tripod is lighter and packs down smaller, thanks to its legs and center column being scaled down. The Pro Tall Tripod features elongated legs so it stands taller, but it also maximizes stability since the center column may not need to be extended as high.

Ranging in weight from 3.7 to 4.5 pounds, the new pro models are only slightly heavier than Peak Design’s aluminum Travel Tripod, which weighs 3.44 pounds. But they all stand much taller, up to 77.7 inches for the Pro Tall Tripod, and can support up to 40 pounds of camera equipment, although the smaller Pro Lite Tripod maxes out at 35 pounds.

Despite their thicker and sturdier legs made of carbon fiber, you can still squeeze the new pro tripods into a backpack’s side pocket because the largest model measures just 3.66 inches in diameter when folded down. (Peak Design’s Travel Tripod was 3.25 inches, for comparison.) But they may stick out a bit more since they’re 4 to 7 inches taller.

Peak Design is carrying forward some of the more unique features of its Travel Tripod, including a smartphone mount and a hex multitool that both fold down so they can be stowed inside the tripod’s center column. They’ll also have better Arca-compatible quick-lock grips that hold a camera more securely while making it easier to attach and remove. And you can get an optional $149.95 Tilt Mod accessory that converts the pro tripods’ easily adjustable ball head into a fluid pan and tilt head for smoother camera movements.

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The Threads team at Meta has spent the past year working on supporting the broader fediverse and social web, and is launching its biggest integrations yet: a new dedicated feed for fediverse posts, and a way to search for fediverse users inside of Threads.

Starting today, if you’ve turned on fediverse sharing in Threads, there will be a new section at the top of your Following feed that takes you to a list of posts from folks you follow on Mastodon, Flipboard, or wherever else you’ve connected your Threads account. It’s very much a separate feed, which Meta software engineer Peter Cottle tells me is deliberate. “For everything from integrity to user impersonation, just for user understanding, it’s nice to have it as kind of a separate thing.” The fediverse feed isn’t algorithmically ranked, or subject to any of Threads’ rules or moderation; it’s just a reverse-chronological feed of stuff you follow.

Over time, Cottle says, Meta could mix the posts more, but he’s not sure that’s the right idea. “There’s actually kind of a different use case for fediverse consumption,” he says, that’s more like old-school RSS readers. “I might want to subscribe to Ghost publications, or subscribe to different authors, so I have this dedicated place to catch up on my across-the-web content, separately from a Following feed or a For You feed.” Even internally at Meta, he says, there’s some debate about whether Threads wants to be a fully open social network or should just act as a repository for all that external content.

When you set up fediverse sharing, Threads automatically connects to whatever accounts you’ve followed, but you can also now search for users on Mastodon and elsewhere from the Threads search bar. If you follow them, you’ll start to see their posts in Threads too. This kind of easy discovery has long been one of the biggest challenges for Mastodon in particular, since people are distributed across so many separate servers, but Cottle says Threads can do something like universal fediverse search.

This is certainly the most visible fediverse content has ever been inside of Threads, but the world of ActivityPub is still not a first-class citizen inside of Threads. You still have to opt-in to sharing your posts, you still have to have a separate account to connect to, and you’ll still have to go to the dedicated feed to see what’s new. (If you post something and get fediverse replies, those are still separate too.)

Cottle argues that this separation is a useful way to understand different perspectives. But it seems clear there’s just still a lot of work to be done both on bringing content into the platform and on showing it to users in a way that makes sense.

In general, Cottle says, there’s still a lot of work to be done educating people on how the fediverse works, and even what it is in the first place. That’s why Meta has been a bit slower in rolling out fediverse features, even as the Threads team has more aggressively shipped things like DMs, spoiler alerts, and links in bio. But Cottle says the team is still committed to bringing Threads and the fediverse together — whatever that ends up looking like.

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Last September, all eyes were on Senate Bill 1047 as it made its way to California Governor Gavin Newsom's desk - and died there as he vetoed the buzzy piece of legislation.

SB 1047 would have required makers of all large AI models, particularly those that cost $100 million or more to train, to test them for specific dangers. AI industry whistleblowers weren't happy about the veto, and most large tech companies were. But the story didn't end there. Newsom, who had felt the legislation was too stringent and one-size-fits-all, tasked a group of leading AI researchers to help propose an alternative plan - one that would support the development and the governance of generative AI in California, along with guardrails for its risks.

On Tuesday, that report was published.

The authors of the 52-page "California Report on Frontier Policy" said that AI capabilities - including models' chain-of-thought "reasoning" abilities - have "rapidly improved" since Newsom's decision to veto SB 1047. Using historical case studies, empirical research, modeling, and simulations, they suggested a new framework that would require more transparency and independent scrutiny of AI models. Their report i …

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The Philips Hue Play Wall Washer lights are available in black or white finish and can be purchased in a two-pack that can be synced. | Image: Signify

Signify has officially announced its new Philips Hue Play Wall Washer light, which was previously leaked by Amazon UK earlier this month. The company has also launched its new Philips Hue AI assistant in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, with a broader global release expected by the end of August.

Available now in Europe, the US, and Canada in a black or white finish, the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer is $219.99 for a single unit or $384.99 for a two-pack, which is slightly cheaper than the $270 for a single unit suggested in the leak. That’s still quite a bit more expensive than the $89.99 Philips Hue Light Bar that offers similar functionality, but the new Wall Washer is over twice as bright, projecting up to 1,035 lumens of white or colored light.

Featuring an aluminum matte finish, the Wall Washer uses LEDs angled upwards to cast a wider dispersion of light and its intensity, brightness, and position can be adjusted using an “intuitive 3D drag-and-drop feature in the Hue app,” so it shines exactly where you need it. It also works with the Hue HDMI Sync box and Sync apps so the light responds and complements what you’re watching or listening to, and is compatible with voice assistants, including Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google Assistant.

First announced earlier this year, Philips Hue’s new generative AI assistant creates new lighting scenes, or recommends existing ones, based on prompts that are either spoken or typed into the Hue app, like “Give me a scene for a spooky Halloween party.” The assistant can also be used to adjust the brightness and color settings of Hue lights, while additional features like creating automations and schedules, and “in-app support via a chatbot,” are coming “later this year,” according to Hue.

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Satechi’s new SSD enclosure can be used as a standalone external drive or be paired with Apple’s Mac Mini M4. | Image: Satechi

Satechi has announced a new SSD enclosure with an aluminum design that matches the black and silver finish and dimensions of Apple’s Mac Mini M4, but thinner so it can perch atop the tiny desktop computer or be used as a matching stand. But since it connects using an included braided USB-C cable, the enclosure is compatible with any device that supports external storage drives.

The USB4 Slim NVMe SSD Enclosure looks familiar to Satechi’s Mac Mini M4 Stand & Hub that launched last January for $99.99, but is $20 more expensive at $119.99, available now through its online store. Both can be used to expand the storage of the Mac Mini M4 using an SSD, but while the Stand & Hub accessory offers slightly more functionality with extra USB ports and an SD card reader, Satechi’s new enclosure offers much faster transfer speeds.

The enclosure is compatible with all but the largest NVMe SSD sizes — 2230, 2242, 2260, and 2280 — and supports capacities ranging from 1TB to 8TB. Satechi’s Stand & Hub offers transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps, but the USB4 Slim NVMe SSD Enclosure pushes that to 40Gbps, assuming the device you’re connecting to also supports USB4. If it doesn’t, the enclosure is backwards compatible, and you’ll just see slower transfer speeds.

You can insert an SSD by removing the bottom of the enclosure after giving it a short twist, which also reveals a storage compartment for the short included USB-C cable. Its minimalist design also integrates a thermal pad and cooling vents to “maintain peak performance without thermal throttling.”

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The new video-focused tripod is all about the new and improved ball head.

Whenever Peak Design releases a new product, whether it's a backpack, a camera strap, or even a wallet, I'm always looking forward to seeing what kind of genius engineering tweaks the San Francisco-based company came up with. And while there are some clever tricks here, the newly released line of video tripods is more about applying lessons the team learned from its first tripod release over six years ago. The legs are sturdier, there's an improved center column, a redesigned ball head, and many other improvements worth going through.

First, the basics: there are three variants to choose from: the Pro Lite, Pro, and Pro Tall, all of which share the same core features but differ in max height and weight. The whole lineup of tripods is available on Kickstarter, but they won't be cheap - the Pro Lite, Pro, and Pro Tall cost $799, $899, and $999, respectively. Discounts for backing them on Kickstarter range from 23 percent off the Pro Lite to 27 percent off the Pro and Pro Tall.

I had a chance to test all of them over a few weeks.

The Pro Lite is the lightest model and weighs 3.7 lbs. You'll notice the added heft compared to the 2.81 pounds of the carbon fiber Travel Tripod - Peak …

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Crazy Taxi Classic is one of nine Sega retro games now free on mobile devices. | Image: Sega

Although there has been no official announcement, Sega has revealed that it’s discontinuing support for nine retro games that were ported to iOS and Android several years ago. Before that happens, the company has made all the games completely free and removed all in-app purchases, as spotted by Android Authority.

The list includes the following titles, which are still available for download through Apple’s and Google’s mobile app stores:

Crazy Taxi Classic (iOS/Android)Streets of Rage Classic (iOS/Android)Streets of Rage 2 Classic (iOS/Android)Super Monkey Ball: Sakura Ed. (iOS/Android)Virtua Tennis Challenge (iOS/Android)Golden Axe Classics (iOS/Android)Shining Force Classics (iOS/Android)Sonic CD Classic (iOS/Android)Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Ep. II (iOS/Android)

The discounted titles have been recently updated with a pop-up message explaining that “support for this game will be discontinued, but you can continue playing offline!”

The games were originally ported to iOS and Android through Sega’s Forever program, which was discontinued in late 2023. Several years ago the company removed several games, including Phantasy Star Classics, from the Google Play and iOS app stores, and it’s expected that these nine will also eventually be removed, although Sega hasn’t specified when that will happen. However, any games that have already been downloaded and installed on a tablet or mobile device can still be played even after they’re delisted.

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We don’t know an exact date, but the first Netflix House venues open later this year. | Image: Netflix

Netflix has announced that its first two Netflix House venues will open in late 2025. There’s still no specific opening date yet.

The venues were first announced in late 2023 and later confirmed for two initial locations in the US including the King of Prussia Mall outside Philadelphia and the Galleria Dallas mall in Texas. They’ll be taking over the locations of former department stores.

The streaming platform also announced it’s already planning to expand the idea with a third Netflix House set to open sometime in 2027. It will be located on the Vegas strip at the Blvd Las Vegas shopping center, which is next to the MGM Grand resort. That’s where the temporary Netflix Bites restaurant is currently operating until early 2026, but Netflix says there will be permanent locations of the restaurant at its two venues opening later this year.

Both venues will each feature their own “experiences, offerings and programming” that will be “updated regularly giving fans a different adventure every time they visit,” according to a press email sent by Sabryna Phillips Oliver. But Oliver also shared more details about what each will open with.

The Dallas location will include Stranger Things: Escape the Dark and Squid Game: Survive the Trials experiences, as well as a Netflix RePLAY arcade featuring “physical challenges, immersive story rooms, and retro-style games where you can take on your friends, or play as a team.”

The Philadelphia Netflix House sounds like it will be the larger of the two initial locations with Wednesday: Eve of the Outcasts and One Piece: Quest for the Devil Fruit experiences, Netflix Virtuals with VR games from Sandbox VR, a nine-hole mini golf course, and the TUDUM Theater, which will show Netflix series, movies, and fan events like trivia on a big screen.

In addition to the larger experiences, the Netflix House’s “expansive spaces” will also feature elements from other shows and movies available on the streaming platform, including Bridgerton, Love Is Blind, Big Mouth, Knives Out, and Floor Is Lava.

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Adobe’s Firefly apps, now available on iPhone and Android.

The all-in-one platform for Adobe’s Firefly-branded generative AI models is now available on iPhone and Android devices. The new Firefly mobile app allows users to generate images and videos using text descriptions and experiment with popular AI photo editing tools, enabling creatives to generate assets for their projects on the go. Adobe is also introducing new third-party AI models and video generation support to Adobe’s FigJam-like Firefly Boards platform.

The Firefly app for iOS and Android includes access to Adobe’s text-to-image, text-to-video, and image-to-video tools, alongside the Generative Fill and Generative Expand features that can also be found in Adobe’s Photoshop software. Users can additionally choose from a selection of third-party AI models when using Firefly features, including Google’s Imagen 3 and 4 image models, Veo 2 and 3 video models, and OpenAI’s image generator.

Anything generated using the Firefly mobile app will automatically sync to the user’s Creative Cloud account, making it easier to continue working on the web or in Adobe’s creative desktop apps. As with the desktop Firefly web app, some of the Adobe AI tools on mobile will require users to spend Firefly generative credits, which are obtained as monthly allocations, either via paid Creative Cloud plans or a dedicated Firefly credit subscription.

Adobe has also rolled out new video capabilities to the public beta of its collaborative Firefly Boards whiteboard platform that launched in April. Users can now remix uploaded clips and generate new footage via Adobe’s Firefly video model or third-party tools like Google’s Veo 3. New partner models, including Luma AI’s Ray 2, Ideogram 3.0, Runway’s Gen-4 image, and Pika’s text-to-video generator, are being introduced to Firefly Boards, and will be available in other Firefly app features “soon,” according to Adobe.

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Blue Prince, the architectural mystery puzzle roguelite, is coming to a Mac near you. In a press release from the game’s publisher Raw Fury, it was announced that Blue Prince is getting an update that will add Mac support (via Steam) coming “later this year.”

Blue Prince released earlier this year and quickly became an early GOTY candidate with folks (i.e. me) drawing comparisons to the runaway hit Balatro. The game is kinda like Brewster’s Millions with a heaping helping of intricate puzzles to solve and roguelite mechanics to keep you on your toes.

In it, your recently deceased uncle has given you the keys to his beloved Mt. Holly manor and has stipulated in his will that the house will be yours if you can find the secret 46th room. The manor is mysterious and its layout shifts and changes every night. Build rooms and solve puzzles to get closer to discovering that 46th room while solving other, deeper mysteries along the way. It’s a great game, and definitely well-suited to play sessions on a Macbook Air.

In addition to the new platform – which joins PC, PS5, and the Xbox Series X / S – starting today the game’s subtle but vibey soundtrack will be available for purchase on Steam. You can buy it either standalone for $10 or, if you don’t already own the game, it’s being bundled with the soundtrack for $36.

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