The Verge

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge A day after Sonos announced a CEO transition, the company is making more moves. Chief product officer Maxime Bouvat-Merlin will also be leaving his position. Some employees have told me that Bouvat-Merlin shares a significant amount of blame for the brand damage that Sonos has endured over the last year after deciding to release an overhauled mobile app well before it was ready for customers. There have been reports that top executives at the company ignored warnings from engineers and app testers that the new software wasn't up to par ahead of its May rollout. Those alarms didn't stop it from shipping.In an email to staff, interim CEO Tom Conrad - who himself has plenty of product experience - said the CPO position is now redundant" and that Bouvat-Merlin's job is being eliminated. I know this is a lot of change to absorb in two days and I want to thank you for being resilient," Conrad wrote.Max's tenure represents an iconic era for Sonos products, including the award-winning Sonos One, Beam, Move, Ace, Arc, and Arc Ultra, establishing Sonos as the world leader in home theater audio and setting the foundation for our next chapter," Conrad's email reads.Bouvat-Merlin will serve as an adviser to Conrad before fully exiting the company. These major changes within Sonos' ranks suggest that the company is taking its effort to win back trust and right the wrongs of its previous leadership quite seriously.Conrad's full email follows below:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Hackers in North Korea stole a total of $659 million in crypto across several heists in 2024, according to a joint statement issued today by the US, Japan, and South Korea. The report specified five such incidents, like the $235 million theft from the Indian crypto exchange WazirX that is being newly attributed to the Lazarus Group. That organization is estimated to have stolen billions across previous attacks over the last decade, including $625 million stolen from Axie Infinity in 2022.Of the 2024 incidents, Japan's DMM Bitcoin suffered the biggest loss, with $308 million stolen, ultimately resulting in the exchange's closure.

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI is launching a new beta feature in ChatGPT called Tasks that lets users schedule future actions and reminders.The feature, which is rolling out to Plus, Team, and Pro subscribers starting today, is an attempt to make the chatbot into something closer to a traditional digital assistant - think Google Assistant or Siri but with ChatGPT's more advanced language capabilities.Tasks works by letting users tell ChatGPT what they need and when they need it done. Want a daily weather report at 7AM? A reminder about your passport expiration? Or maybe just a knock-knock joke to tell your kids before bedtime? ChatGPT can now handle all of that through scheduled one-time or recurring tasks.To use the feature, subscribers need to select 4o with scheduled tasks" in ChatGPT's model picker. From there, it's as simple as typing out what you want ChatGPT to do and when you want it done. The system can also proactively suggest tasks based on your conversations, though users have to explicitly approve any suggestions before they're created. (Honestly, I feel like the suggestions have the potential to create annoying slop by accident).All tasks can be managed either directly in chat threads or through a new Tasks section (available only via the web) in the profile menu, so it's easy to modify or cancel any task you've set up. Upon completion of these tasks, notifications will alert users on web, desktop, and mobile. There's also a limit of 10 active tasks that can run simultaneously.OpenAI hasn't specified when (or if) the feature might come to free users, suggesting Tasks might remain a premium feature to help justify ChatGPT's subscription costs. The company has monthly $20 and $200 subscription tiers. {props.credit}

For those moments when you don't have time to check your camera footage. | Image: Wyze Wyze's latest AI feature aims to reduce how often you need to manually check security footage by instead just describing what the camera has seen. The new Descriptive Alerts will send notifications that accurately summarize motion events" with more contextual detail than simply telling users that the camera has detected movement or an object, according to Wyze.An example alert provided by the company is a delivery driver wearing a blue hat leaves a package on the doorstep, then leaves. A green SUV is parked in the street." Rival smart home security companies like Ring, Google's Nest, and (to some extent) Arlo provide similar AI summarization features for their own cameras, but Wyze's video-to-text alerts seem to be the only service that specifies detail like color in its descriptions. Image: Wyze Here's an example showing the new alert alongside the footage that's being described. Wyze's Descriptive Alerts are available to Cam Unlimited Pro members - a new $19.99 per month (or $199.99 per year) subscription that bundles other features like facial recognition, searching videos using descriptive keywords, and simultaneously viewing live feeds from multiple Wyze cameras. The Cam Unlimited Pro subscription will also include 60 days of cloud storage, though Wyze says this won't be available until Spring 2025."Just remember, Wyze cameras have suffered from serious security and privacy issues in the past. Choose wisely.

The Quest 3S doesn't look any less alien than the original Quest 3. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Meta Quest 3S VR headset is a great alternative to the Meta Quest 3. The base 128GB version of the Quest 3S starts at $299.99 at Amazon, which is $200 less than the Quest 3 yet delivers essentially the same mixed reality experience. And now, you can step up to the 256GB version of the Quest 3S for just $349 ($50 off) from Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy.Now through the end of April, your purchase includes a copy of Batman: Arkham Shadow (one of the best VR games yet, if I say so myself) and three months of Meta Quest Plus. The service is normally $7.99 a month or $59.99 a year, and grants instant access to more than two dozen free games with new additions every month, plus exclusive discounts.Since the Quest 3S has the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor and Touch controllers as the base Quest 3, you'll have access to all of the same games and mixed reality features. But the displays are not as sharp: the Quest 3S has a lower per-eye resolution of 1832 x 1920 (compared to 2064 x 2208) with a narrower field of view. It also doesn't have a dedicated depth sensor to go along with its pair of triangular camera arrays, and it's a bit heavier than the Quest 3. That said, you do get some exclusive perks like a slightly longer 2.5-hour battery life and a dedicated button to switch between immersive and passthrough modes.Read our Meta Quest 3S review.More deals, discounts, and ways to save

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The FBI hacked about 4,200 computers across the US as part of an operation to find and delete PlugX, a malware used by state-backed hackers in China to steal information from victims, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.In an unsealed affidavit, the FBI says the China-based hacking group known by the monikers Mustang Panda" and Twill Typhoon" used PlugX to infect thousands of Windows computers in the US, Asia, and Europe since at least 2012. The malware, which infects computers through their USB ports, operates in the background while allowing hackers to remotely access and execute commands" on victims' computers.To do this, infected computers contact a command-and-control server run by the hackers, which has its IP address hard-coded into the malware. From there, hackers can remotely access users' files and obtain information about infected computers, such as their IP addresses. At least 45,000 IP addresses in the US have contacted the command-and-control server since September 2023, according to the FBI.The FBI used this very exploit to remove PlugX from infected computers. In collaboration with French law enforcement, which launched a PlugX deletion operation of its own, the FBI gained access to the command-and-control server and requested the IP addresses of infected computers. It then sent a native command to make PlugX delete the files it created on victims' computers, stop the PlugX application from running, and delete the malware after it's stopped.Last year, the FBI similarly dismantled a network of infected Quakbot computers by instructing devices to download software to uninstall the malware. The agency also remotely hacked hundreds of computers to protect them from the Hafnium hack in 2021.

A CloudHQ data center under construction on Waxpool Road in Ashburn, Virginia, US, on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. | Photo: Getty Images President Biden issued an executive order today aimed at speeding the development of AI data centers in the US.It directs the Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Energy (DOE) to lease federal sites to private companies building gigawatt-scale AI data centers and clean power facilities. It also tells federal agencies to prioritize" and speed up permitting of AI infrastructure. The measure could create categorial exclusions" to speed environmental review under the National Environmental Protection Act.Developing new AI tools is an increasingly energy-hungry endeavor. Nevertheless, the Biden administration seems to think it's worth the risk of further derailing US climate goals and putting additional pressure on already stressed power grids.Developing new AI tools is an increasingly energy-hungry endeavorWe will not let America be out-built when it comes to the technology that will define the future," Joe Biden said in a statement today.Prior to the announcement today - in response to reports that the White House was considering measures to fast track data center development - environmental and consumer advocacy groups as well as Democratic lawmakers had urged the White House to avoid exempting AI from typical permitting procedures and environmental standards.We urge you to reconsider any potential executive action that could lead to increased pollution and costs for consumers," says a letter sent by senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Edward Markey (D-MA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), and Peter Welch (D-VT) to the Biden administration on December 17th. We are the United States of America; there is no doubt that we can win the AI race while accelerating our decarbonization efforts," it reads.Electricity demand from data centers has tripled over the past decade, according to estimates published by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) on December 20th. It's likely to double or triple again by 2028, according to the report. Data centers used about 4.4 percent of US electricity in 2023, which could rise to as much as 12 percent by 2028.That rise in demand is the result of the tremendous compute power needed to train AI models. Utilities are already extending the lives of polluting coal and gas infrastructure to try to meet skyrocketing electricity demand. Customers also face rising electricity bills as a result.Developers building new AI data centers on federal land will be required to pay all costs of building and operating AI infrastructure so that this development does not raise electricity prices for consumers," according to the White House.That includes constructing the data center itself, as well as power facilities and transmission lines. Companies will be responsible for sourcing electricity that data centers use from new sources of clean" electricity. They'll also have to assess the security implications of AI models developed at federal sites and purchase an appropriate share" of American-made semiconductors.In the race to dominate AI, we can't lose sight of the very real race to stop the pollution that's warming our planet and harming our health," Johanna Neumann, a senior director at the Environment America Research & Policy Center, said in a December 19th statement.Neumann argued that the focus should be on making sure that new computing facilities are more efficient, and that they run on renewable electricity. Without those guardrails, AI's insatiable thirst for energy risks crashing America's efforts to get off dirty and dangerous fossil fuels," Neumann added.The government already leases federal lands for energy production, including fossil fuel exploration and renewable energy projects. Under the executive order, by February 28th, the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Energy are supposed to find at least three sites each to host new AI data centers on land that their departments manage.

Illustration: The Verge WhatsApp is rolling out some new features and design improvements to help you become faster and more creative when messaging. Starting today, WhatsApp users can double-tap to react to messages in chats rather than tapping and holding, with their most-used emojis now being displayed in the scrolling pop-out menu instead of the generic selection that was previously provided.It's a similar quality-of-life feature that Discord provides: placing your favorite reactions within easy reach to prevent you from having to hunt through a massive wall of emojis. WhatsApp users can still easily access their other emoji options by clicking the plus symbol on the reaction bar. On the other hand, Meta's Messenger app still only displays the same five emojis as reactions for each message - I'd like to see this update carried over from WhatsApp in the future. Image: WhatsApp A few small, but welcome upgrades to personalize chats. The filters and virtual backgrounds that WhatsApp introduced for video calls last year are now coming to its messages, allowing users to edit shots using 30 different visual effects when they take a photo or video in chats. Sticker packs can now also be shared directly to chats, and users can turn their selfies into custom stickers by tapping on the sticker icon. The Sticker selfies feature is currently only available on Android, with iOS support coming soon," according to WhatsApp.

Image: Netflix Popular YouTube toddler learning show Ms. Rachel is coming to Netflix. It will start with a four-episode season of curated compilation" videos on January 27th, the company announced today.Netflix says this first batch of research-backed" educational videos aimed at early child development will cover topics like learning to talk or read. Here's the list from Netflix's announcement:

The Multi-Drill incorporates three tools commonly used by DIYers. | Image: Dremel Dremel has announced a new multi-functional drill designed for DIYers working on smaller projects around their homes like attaching a TV mount to a wall. The Blueprint Multi-Drill can be used to drill holes or drive screws but also features an integrated stud sensor and a removable laser level.The Multi-Drill is available now through Dremel's online store for $99.99, but can also be found at retailers like Amazon and The Home Depot.Powered by a 12V brushless motor and an included rechargeable battery, the Multi-Drill has a top speed of 800 RPM and produces 175 inch-pounds of torque. For comparison, Amazon also sells a $100 18V Milwaukee drill (without a battery) with a top speed of 1,800 RPM and 500 inch-pounds of torque. You won't want to tackle building a shed or deck with Dremel's new tool, but it's powerful enough for lighter tasks like drilling into studs or driving screws while assembling Ikea furniture. Image: Dremel The Multi-Drill's integrated stud sensor detects the edges of hidden beams. The drill's knuckle guard includes an LED light targeted at the tip of its drill bit for extra illumination, as well as a stud sensor for finding the edges of a wooden beam hidden behind drywall. Its functionality is basic compared to dedicated stud sensors that can indicate the center of a beam and even warn when hidden electrical wires are detected. But this stud sensor will never be misplaced in the middle of a project.The Multi-Drill's integrated but removable leveling tool features two bubble levels ensuring it's properly positioned vertically and horizontally before projecting a level laser reference line. So as not to leave marks or holes behind when attached to a wall, Dremel's tiny laser level uses reusable mounting putty. It also features its own rechargeable battery that can be topped off with a standard USB-C cable.The multi-functional approach Dremel is taking here isn't going to appeal to professionals. The Multi-Drill is designed to give amateur renovators a basic set of tools and features for tackling smaller projects without the need for a toolbox to keep them all organized. In addition to a rechargeable battery and the laser level, Dremel also includes a set of nine driver bits of varying sizes and standards, plus three drill bits.

A general view of destroyed houses in a neighborhood that was destroyed by the Eaton Fire which remains without electricity or water on January 12, 2025 in Altadena, California. | Photo by David McNew/Getty Images As wildfires across Los Angeles continued to burn, some residents are already starting to point fingers at the local power utility as the culprit. Southern California Edison is facing multiple lawsuits alleging the company is responsible for the deadly Eaton fire that nearly leveled Altadena.While officials continue to investigate the cause of the fire, at least four suits allege that SCE failed to de-energize power lines, the Los Angeles Times reports. A lawyer for one of the plaintiffs said they filed suit early in an effort to preserve evidence.We have video, we have photographs, we have eyewitness accounts."Utilities have faced a string of lawsuits in recent years in the wake of devastating wildfires, typically over power lines sparking blazes. SCE alone has had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements for at least seven previous blazes, according to NPR.We have video, we have photographs, we have eyewitness accounts, not just from our clients but other residents that were there and alleged to have seen sparking, to have seen arcing occurring on those lines that subsequently triggered a fire," Ali Moghaddas, an attorney representing an Altadena resident... Read the full story at The Verge.

Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images DirecTV is launching MySports, a sports-focused streaming package offering access to live NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL games across more than 40 channels, including ESPN, Fox Sports, TNT Sports, and USA Network, along with local ABC, Fox, and NBC stations. The service will cost $69.99 per month and is available to stream from DirecTV's app on mobile and smart TV platforms - no satellite TV subscription required.The announcement comes just days after the Disney-owned ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery called off their live sports streaming venture, Venu, after facing an antitrust lawsuit from Fubo. Though Fubo dropped its lawsuit after Disney agreed to merge Hulu + Live TV with the service, DirecTV and EchoStar weren't happy about the decision.DirecTV bills MySports as a cheaper alternative to competitors like YouTube TV, which starts at $82.99 per month, and Fubo, which costs $79.99 / month and up.Despite offering access to dozens of channels, MySports is still working to add local CBS content. Vince Torres, DirecTV's chief marketing officer, told Bloomberg the company is in early discussions" with the network about a potential deal. MySports should help fix the fractured sports streaming landscape, which currently scatters live NFL, NBA, and MLB games across different services like Prime Video, Netflix, Peacock, Apple TV Plus, and Paramount Plus.To start, a beta version of MySports will only be available in 24 metro areas, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, and others. The MySports app is supported by several smart TV platforms like Roku, Amazon Fire, and Apple TV, and also offers unlimited DVR. DirecTV says it will add additional networks, local stations, and ESPN Plus to MySports at a later date for no extra cost."Along with this sports streaming package, DirecTV plans to launch similar streamlined bundles soon. This is the first of several genre-based options we plan to launch over the coming months on our path towards a brighter TV future for consumers." DirecTV CEO Bill Morrow said in the press release.

The 2025 Moto G Power is tougher than it looks. | Image: Motorola Motorola has announced the first 2025 updates to its Moto G line of budget phones, with new versions of the Moto G and Moto G Power. The latter is the standout, with an IP69 water-resistance rating that surpasses most flagship phones despite a price tag of just $299.99.The 2025 Moto G Power combines both IP68 and IP69 ratings, meaning it's rated for both submersion in water and exposure to high-pressure water jets and steam, in addition to full protection from dust. It's a level of protection that until recently was restricted to the bulkiest rugged phones, with last week's OnePlus 13 the first mainstream phone in the US to adopt the rating. At $899, that phone costs triple the new Motorola.Like 2023's ThinkPhone, co-branded with Lenovo, the G Power has also passed MIL-STD-810H certification for exposure to harsh environments. Motorola claims the phone has been tested to survive falls from nearly four feet, temperatures from -4 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and up to 95% humidity. This is all, to be clear, tougher than most people need their phones to be, but there's nothing wrong with a little peace of mind.At less than 9mm thick, the new G Power is surprisingly svelte for how tough it is, but it's by no means a small phone - the 6.8-inch LCD display, covered in Gorilla Glass 5, makes this about the same size as Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra. A large 5,000mAh battery and wireless charging make the most of the extra space, which Motorola has also used to squeeze in a 3.5mm headphone jack, a rare treat in 2025. Image: Motorola The 2025 Moto G is the spitting image of its tougher sibling. The G Power is joined by the $199.99 Moto G, which looks similar but with a 6.7-inch display runs just a little smaller, and is limited to IP52 protection and Gorilla Glass 3. However, both phones share the same MediaTek chipset and similar 50 megapixel rear cameras, so performance should be comparable if you don't need the Power's added durability.The big question for Motorola is on software. We were fans of the 2024 Moto G Power's hardware, but felt the phone was spoiled by excessive pre-installed bloatware. Here's hoping Motorola has reined that in a little this year.The unlocked Moto G will be available online at Motorola.com, Amazon, and Best Buy starting January 30th, with the Power following on February 6th. Both will be stocked by all the major carriers over the following months.

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Goodbye to our personal Chinese spies. With five days left until the date by which TikTok is to be either sold or banned in the United States, millions of users are reckoning with what happens when one of the internet's most important media platforms just up and disappears. (Or, more likely, sticks around for a while, consistently gets worse, and then dies with a whimper.)On this episode of The Vergecast, we reckon with how we got here, and where we go next. The Verge's Lauren Feiner walks us through the years-long history of the fight over TikTok, and takes us inside last week's Supreme Court hearing, where the country's highest court appeared to be in favor of the ban. Even with a few days left, though, the story's not over: Donald Trump has said he wants to save the app, and he'll be inaugurated as president the day after the ban is set to go into effect. And now there are rumors Elon Musk might be involved with the app's future, too. If we've learned one thing about the TikTok ban, it's that it's always coming and seemingly never actually here. But it sure feels close now.After that, we chat with Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor about a different kind of creator platform.... Read the full story at The Verge.

At $439, the DJI Flip could be a good starting point for people who don't typically buy drones at all. You can unfold it, launch it from your hand with a single button, land it on your hand again, or optionally use joysticks, all while capturing higher quality photos and video than the immediate competition.In August, my colleague Thomas Ricker told you how DJI rival Hover had changed the game by selling a $349 flying camera that doesn't require people to learn joysticks; with the $199 DJI Neo, DJI looked poised to muscle in on that in a big way. But the $439 Flip not only lets you launch and film basic dronies, orbits, and follow-me shots from the drone itself, it dramatically increases camera quality, flight stability, battery life (a quoted 31 minutes), and lets you launch it faster. You just won't be able to fly it FPV like some of us were hoping.Not only is the Flip the first DJI drone to look like a Star Wars AT-AT walker or a penny-farthing bicycle when folded, it's also the first to automatically power on when you unfold it, saving two button presses. And when you flip out each of its four spoke-filled full-coverage propeller guards - which DJI says are a first for its folding drones - they join an auto-braking, forward-facing 3D infrared sensor to protect the camera from any front impacts as well.And while that camera isn't quite as impressive as the 1.0-inch type found on DJI's Osmo Pocket 3, I was impressed by my first results in good light! It's smaller 1/1.3-inch 4K60 sensor with 4:3 aspect ratio is capable of taking 2.7K vertical video or 48 megapixel stills behind a fast f/1.7 aperture lens. Here are a couple of my unedited early flights, a drone selfie, and a photo, to give you an idea: An aerial photo from the DJI Flip. Frankly, the DJI Neo - which costs less than half as much - can't come close to this level of performance; over the same lake and the same park, the Neo couldn't even maintain a smooth level shot as the breeze blew its lighter frame around, and its images were muddy and washed out by comparison. The Flip has a three-axis gimbal to help maintain that stability. Also, pros can record in 10-bit D-Log M.But other, pricier DJI drones could offer better performance still, plus true vertical shooting by rotating the gimbal - and it'd be hard to imagine a drone enthusiast picking the Flip instead of waiting to see what DJI's unannounced Mini 5 might bring to the table.There are currently no plans to retire the Mini Series. The DJI Flip is a new entry-level drone series that will be offered alongside the DJI Neo and DJI Mini. Each of these drones are designed to meet the needs of different types of beginners," DJI spokesperson Daisy Kong confirms to The Verge.I am continually surprised by how large the Flip is; while it stays under the 249-gram weight limit that typically triggers government compliance standards like publicly broadcasting your location. Despite its folding arms, it doesn't fold down smaller than a Mini so there's no way I'm fitting it into any but the biggest cargo pants pockets I own. It's also quite loud despite its ducted propellers - absolutely not among the quieter drones that the company sells.And despite costing more than the $199 DJI Neo, it doesn't support any FPV headsets to let you virtually soar like a bird.But the Flip does cost just $439 complete with a basic RC-N3 joystick controller that lets you use your phone as a screen, plus the launch-it-from-your-hand modes; a $779 kit comes with three batteries, a carrying case, and a more capable DJI RC 2 controller with a built-in daylight visible 700-nit screen. The DJI Mini 4 Pro versions of each of same kits cost $959 and $1,099 respectively, a $320 difference.The DJI Flip should be available to buy and ship today, from DJI's website.Photography and video by Sean Hollister / The Verge

The Galaxy S23 phones are the most recent in its flagship line currently eligible for trade-in. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Samsung has announced a change to its Galaxy Trade-In program that allows consumers to trade in select Galaxy smartphone models to the company year-round, without the need to make a new purchase at the same time.The new program is set to start today in South Korea and France, with other markets to follow later in 2025. The company says that its aim is to boost the value of Galaxy devices" in the long-term by providing amazing savings" through the trade-in process.There are two key changes to the program, which will be operated by insurance and repair company Likewize. The main change is the purchase requirement: before this policy shift, trade-ins to the company have required a new purchase from samsung.com or the company's app, with the option to start a trade-in only appearing during the checkout process.The second change is year-round" availability. Trade-ins are already available at any time in the US and most other Western markets, but in South Korea they've previously been locked to specific windows - usually just after major new product launches like next week's S25 reveal, for example.There's still one big limit to the scheme however: you can only trade in specific Samsung flagship phones. Right now, that's limited to the Galaxy S20 series through to the S23, and foldables from the Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3 through to the Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5. Curiously, last year's Galaxy S24 and Z Flip/Fold 6 aren't included, so you can't sell anything too recent.

The seventh-gen iPad is the cheapest tablet in Apple's current lineup to support Apple Intelligence. | Photo: David Pierce / The Verge If you're in the market for a highly portable tablet, Apple's smallest tablet has fallen to its lowest price to date at multiple retailers. Right now, the latest iPad Mini is on sale at Amazon and Best Buy with Wi-Fi and 128GB of storage starting at $399 ($100 off). If you need more storage, you can also buy the step-up model with 256GB of storage for $499 ($100 off) or the 512GB variant for $699 ($100 off).With its 8.3-inch screen and lightweight design, the latest iPad Mini is closer in size to the iPhone than any other tablet in Apple's lineup. As a result, it's easier to carry on the go and hold with one hand, making it an excellent option if you read a lot on your tablet. Its small size doesn't come at the expense of performance, though. In fact, the onboard A17 Pro chip is snappier than the A14 Bionic chip found in the entry-level iPad, even if it's not as speedy as the processors in the M4-powered iPad Pro or M2-powered Air.Unlike the base iPad, the seventh-gen Mini supports Apple Intelligence, so you can take advantage of a host of AI-based features - such as AI-assisted summaries, Genmoji, ChatGPT, and the ability to erase unwanted objects in photos. It also supports the newer Apple Pencil Pro, along with Wi-Fi 6E and faster USB-C performance. They're pretty iterative updates overall; however, they're also a lot more appealing at $399 than they are at the tablet's typical retail price of $499.Read our iPad Mini review.

Illustration: The Verge Google is adjusting the profile sharing" feature in its Google Messages app to allow users to set custom contact names and photos on their own devices for their stored contacts and others they send text messages. As reported by 9to5Google, a change rolled out late last year that overrode your custom names and photos with each individual's broadcasted profile, but now you can change it back to give friends, colleagues, and family members the names and avatars that you think they should have.The profile-sharing feature was announced in late 2023, as Google continued to push the rollout of RCS, and works similarly to Contact Posters on iPhones. Android Authority found a reference in Android code in October that Google was working to allow for customer profile photos yet again.Google's updated support page for profile sharing now outlines steps to set a local contact photo that replaces the one shared by your contact. To customize their name or appearance, tap on a contact name or picture of a person in a Google Messages chat, then tap their photo on the details page. From there, you can switch between their shared one or your own custom one for them.

Illustration: The Verge Meta announced last week that it would be ditching fact-checkers in favor of X-like Community Notes, and self-described leaker" Alessandro Paluzzi shared screenshots on Monday showing what the feature might look like in Threads.Based on the screenshots, it appears you'll be able to start the process of writing a Community Note from the three-dots menu on a post, which is where you can already access features like muting an account or reporting a post. Another screenshot shows that when you write a Community Note, your note will be anonymous.A third screenshot appears to show an Instagram help center page about Community Notes that has a button to join a waitlist for the program. However, the layout of the page looks different from other live help center pages I can see right now.Meta didn't immediately reply to a request for comment.Meta said last week that it plans to phase in Community Notes in the US first over the next couple of months" and then improve it over the course of the year," but it hasn't specified exactly when the feature might be available on Threads. My colleague Alex Heath reported Sunday that Community Notes was not on the product roadmap before this week."In addition to the move to Community Notes, Meta said it's also getting rid of a number of restrictions" on topics like immigration and gender, and phasing civil content" back into Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Instagram boss Adam Mosseri published a video today showing how to set the amount of political content you see on Threads.

Image: Games Done Quick Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 has concluded, raising just over $2.5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Every Games Done Quick event is worth tuning in to either live or later via VODs, but this AGDQ was uniquely fantastic, filled with runs that'll go down as some of the best GDQ has to offer. Here are some of our favorites:New Super Mario Bros. WiiThe great thing about the speedrunning community is that it's often not enough to be the fastest runner of a particular game. That's boring. For Wes, simply running New Super Mario Bros. Wii wasn't enough to satisfy him. He had to get creative with it, deciding to master playing the game as fast as possible while playing the piano. But how can someone play a video game if both their hands are occupied, you ask? The answer is obvious: by controlling the game with your head and feet. I don't know what inspires a human to do this kind of thing, and I don't care. All that matters is that Wes put the depth of human ability (and multitasking) on display, and it was brain-breaking to watch.Elden Ring bonus showcaseSpeaking of incredible human talent, how about playing Elden Ring - a game known for its punishing difficulty - with a saxophone. I was looking forward to this run all week, and Dr. Doot did not disappoint, but not for the reason I expected. It's one thing to beat the likes of Malenia, Blade of Miquella with a specially programmed aerophone. But nothing could have prepared me for every input, from landing an attack to using consumables, sounding a hilarious doot" noise. I cried laughing it was so funny.Super MetroidSuper Metroid is a GDQ staple, often anchoring the event's last day in a week's worth of programming. But lately, GDQ has gotten away from featuring a mere run of the game to instead showcase all the work the Super Metroid modding community has put into keeping this game from 1994 fresh and interesting. This four-way race of Super Metroid included a map randomizer, meaning the game's normal layout had been shuffled around and put together in an all-new configuration.Map randomizers for a Metroid game are uniquely dangerous because all of the abilities you need to progress are no longer laid out in a logical fashion. Samus might run into the fiery pits of Lower Norfair long before finding the heat-shielding Varia suit. And with the map randomized, it's now way harder (and takes way longer) to find where the suit is. Now add an element of competition, and you've got one of the finest races in AGDQ history.Crazy Taxi with live backing bandIt used to be that if you wanted to avoid DMCA strikes for playing a game on Twitch with licensed music, you just turned the music off. But AGDQ has come up with a novel way to get around this old problem. For this run of Crazy Taxi, every song was played by a cover band that transformed AGDQ from a speedrunning video game event into an impromptu punk rock show - mini-mosh pit and all - and it ruled. I'm not gonna share any details. Just go watch it for yourself.GDQ is a uniquely special event for more reasons than featuring cool, creative, or crazy-ass runs. In a world where cowardly corporations have decided it's okay to call women and LGBTQ+ people slurs, and one where gamers have a unique reputation for being awful to each other for differences beyond our control, Games Done Quick has been very vocal in its support of marginalized people. Whether it be its diverse programming with Frame Fatales or Black in a Flash or the mere fact that every other donation featured a message of Trans Rights," which was enthusiastically read aloud and enthusiastically cheered by the live crowd.Games Done Quick has been a shining example of how intentionally curated communities can foster acceptance and be a source of joy and goodness in a climate that needs it, and AGDQ 2025 was one of the best.

Photo Illustration by Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images RedNote, the Chinese social media app also known as Xiaohongshu, rose to the number one spot on the Apple App Store as a US ban closes in on TikTok. The app offers a mix of pictures, short-form videos, and text posts across follow," explore," and nearby" feeds.A cursory scroll through RedNote's Explore page shows English-language posts scattered among those written in Chinese. Many American users call themselves TikTok refugees" in videos, while others write in text posts that they're in search of a new community because of the potential TikTok ban. Some are even asking questions to Chinese users, such as What are some popular memes in China?" Screenshot: The Verge RedNote, which launched in 2013 as a shopping-focused app, now has more than 300 million monthly active users and surpassed $1 billion in profit last year, according to Bloomberg.Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over whether to uphold the law that will ban TikTok or force its China-based owner, ByteDance, to sell it to an American company. The Supreme Court has until January 19th to issue a decision.TikTok users may be flocking to RedNote now, but the ban also implicates other Chinese-owned apps, including RedNote, WeChat, and the other apps run by ByteDance like Lemon8 and CapCut.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Another day, another announcement from Nintendo that isn't the next Switch. Today the company revealed that its alarm clock, Alarmo, will be available at select retailers starting this March. The announcement includes the US, UK, and Europe.The $99 alarm clock launched late last year, but is currently only available to those with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Today's news opens that up to the larger public. The motion-controlled device lets users turn it off simply by getting up, though in my experience, that functionality wasn't much use if you share a bed. It also includes a number of sounds and themes based on Nintendo properties, including Mario Kart 8 Deluxe through a recent update.The news comes the same week that Nintendo is widely expected to detail its next console, which could happen on January 16th. It also follows a series of other announcements in recent months from the company. Most recently, Nintendo announced that a Lego Game Boy was in the works, which was preceded by announcements covering a museum, music service, and a test for a mysterious MMO.

Image: Free Our Feeds Technology advocates and celebrities are backing the launch of Free Our Feeds, a campaign designed to save social media from billionaire capture." The project aims to raise $30 million over three years to support the development of a social media ecosystem powered by the AT Protocol, or the decentralized network powering Bluesky.The raised funds will go toward launching a public interest foundation to support the project, while creating an independently hosted infrastructure" giving Bluesky users, developers, and researchers access to the content and data posted no matter what the company decides to do in the future."After starting as a research project under former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Bluesky became an independent company in 2021 and went on to create the AT Protocol, an open-source infrastructure that aims to create a social ecosystem with interoperable apps. Bluesky built its own social network atop the framework, raising millions in funds and attracting a growing number of users.Despite these efforts, Free Our Feeds believes social infrastructure run in the public interest cannot be governed by a private social media company" forever.Bluesky's underlying technology, the AT Protocol, could offer a new pathway for the social web. Yet as it stands, it is still venture-capital backed," Sherif Elsayed-Ali, the executive director at the Future of Technology Institute, said in a statement. This important initiative aims to safeguard Bluesky's underlying technology and put it on an independent pathway, so that the future of social media can be freed from the whims of any one company or group of billionaires."Free Our Feeds will be led by nine custodians - including the Mozilla Foundation's Nabiha Syed and Mark Surman - who will oversee the project's major governance decisions."Mastodon is also moving away from the single ownership model used by social platforms like Mark Zuckerberg's Meta and Elon Musk's X. On Monday, Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko announced that he will transfer the ownership of the decentralized social network to a nonprofit organization because Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual."With Meta making drastic changes to its content moderation policy, and X's transformation under Musk's ownership, the Free Our Feeds project couldn't come at a better time - even if it might take some time for its efforts to come to fruition.Correction, January 13th: A previous version of the article misattributed a quote to Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales due to an error from Free Our Feeds. The quote is from Sherif Elsayed-Ali.

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Samsung is making the Galaxy Ring available to more people by adding size 14 and 15 rings to its options starting on January 22nd. With the expansion, which was rumored last month, the company says its ring sizes now run from five to 15, though it caveats that both size and color availability will vary by market.The new sizes bring the Galaxy Ring closer to competitor Oura, which already offers its smart ring in sizes four to 15. Samsung's announcement didn't include details about the ring's weight or battery life, but the current lineup's larger size 12 and 13 rings use bigger batteries and can last an extra day versus the others.The bigger options will be nice for those at the upper end of its size range, particularly if they're only a half-size up. As my colleague Victoria Song wrote in her smart ring sizing guide, even if you're able to slide the ring on, it could be hard to take it off again as your fingers swell in response to things like the food you've eaten or the environment you're in.Samsung also announced it's going to sell its smart ring in 16 more countries, including Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand, Greece, and South Africa, starting on February 7th, though the exact date for each release will vary, it writes.

Mercedes-Benz's MBUX Virtual Assistant will use Google Gemini on the cloud. | Image: Mercedes-Benz / Google Google Cloud's new Automotive AI Agent platform promises to continue conversations and reference information" throughout users' drives, and the first car announced with it is the new Mercedes CLA. That car has the next-generation MB.OS operating system with an upgraded MBUX Virtual Assistant.When Mercedes revealed it at CES in 2024, it didn't say which company's LLM it was running on. Meanwhile, the existing MBUX Voice Assistant system that could handle about 20 commands triggered with Hey Mercedes" now includes results provided by OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing, but it's not a conversational platform. According to Mercedes, there's a plan to roll out this upgraded system to further models" that run the older Voice Assistant, but it didn't specify which ones.The new MBUX Virtual Assistant will feature four personality traits," including natural, predictive, personal, and empathetic. It can also ask you questions for additional clarity to get you what you need.Google's new AI Agent is tailor-made to automotive uses, leveraging Google Maps data to find points of interest, look up restaurant reviews for you, give you recommendations, answer follow-up questions, and more. Google says MBUX Virtual Assistant users will get access to nearly real time" Google Maps updates. It also says it can handle complex, multi-turn dialog."The agent uses Gemini and runs on Google Cloud's Vertex AI development platform, designed to help companies build out AI experiences. This is just the beginning of how agentic capabilities can transform the automotive industry," Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated in a press release.

8BitDo's mobile controller offers a little more grip than others we recommend. | Image: 8BitDo While the cradle-style Backbone One is a great mobile controller we often recommend, it's not the right choice for everyone. Thankfully, 8BitDo's Ultimate Mobile Gaming Controller is a cheaper alternative for Android users, one that's available at Amazon in black for $39.99 ($10 off) for the first time. That's well below the Backbone One's $100 MSRP and its typical sale price of $69.99.The 8BitDo Ultimate Mobile doesn't connect via a USB-C or Lightning port like other mobile options. Instead, it uses Bluetooth for wireless compatibility with most smartphones running Android 9.0 or later. (Sorry, iPhone users!) That does mean you'll need to recharge it occasionally, but 8BitDo says it only requires a 1.5-hour charge for 15 hours of gameplay. It can also accommodate any phone measuring between 100mm and 170mm in length.In terms of hardware, 8BitDo's mobile gamepad offers an Xbox-style button layout and ergonomics, with four face buttons, a clicky D-pad, dual bumpers, and drift-free Hall effect sticks and triggers that should be less prone to failure over time. It also features two rear buttons, a dedicated profile button, and turbo functionality, all of which are customizable with 8BitDo's excellent Ultimate Software.More Monday deals

Image: The Verge Microsoft is creating a new engineering group that's focused on artificial intelligence. Led by former Meta engineering chief Jay Parikh, the new CoreAI - Platform and Tools division will combine Microsoft's Dev Div and AI platform teams together, alongside some employees on the Office of the CTO team, to focus on building an AI platform and tools for both Microsoft and its customers.Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella outlined his vision for this new team in an internal memo today, using a cricket reference (his favorite sport) to note that we're entering the next innings of this AI platform shift" in 2025 that will reshape all application categories." Nadella believes that every part of the application stack will be impacted by AI, and that thirty years of change is being compressed into three years!"To get ready for all this change, Nadella sees the need for an AI-first app stack" inside Microsoft that will impact how its own developers use and build AI apps and tools in the future. In this world, Azure must become the infrastructure for AI, while we build our AI platform and developer tools - spanning Azure AI Foundry, GitHub, and VS Code - on top of it," says Nadella. In other words, our AI platform and tools will come together to create agents, and these agents will come together to change every SaaS application category, and building custom applications will be driven by software (i.e. service as software")."Parikh will lead this new group as the executive vice president of CoreAI - Platform and Tools, after previously being instrumental to Meta's engineering efforts for more than a decade. Microsoft announced Parikh's hire in October, and this is the first major engineering shakeup since he joined the software giant. Parikh also reports directly to Nadella and is a member of Microsoft's senior leadership team. He now has a number of other Microsoft executives reporting up to him in his new role, including AI platform chief Eric Boyd, deputy CTO of AI infrastructure Jason Taylor, head of Microsoft's developer division Julia Liuson, and head of developer infrastructure Tim Bozarth.Microsoft is essentially taking its entire developer division and ensuring it's focused on AI. While there's a mention of Azure AI Foundry, GitHub, and VS Code, Nadella doesn't call out Visual Studio or .NET in his memo. That's probably because the mission, as Nadella describes it, is for this new CoreAI team to now build the end-to-end Copilot & AI stack for both our first-party and third-party customers to build and run AI apps and agents."

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge 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.

Photo illustration by The Verge / Photo: Amazon AWS chief Matt Garman says Amazon is already seeing the benefits of its massive AI investments. Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: Adobe 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.

Image: The Verge 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.Mastodon's announcement comes at a time when the WordPress open-source project and its cofounder have been embroiled in a months-long legal feud, and Meta's Zuckerberg has made headlines for stripping back Facebook and Instagram's fact-checking and content moderation before lying about it to Joe Rogan.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge 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:

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge 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.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg at the Department of Transportation offices in Washington, DC. | Photo by Cheriss May for The Verge The outgoing transportation secretary on EVs, robotaxis, Trump, Musk, and the work still left to do. The outlook for electric vehicles looks shaky. Sales are up for most companies not named Tesla," but with Donald Trump promising to eliminate all of the generous subsidies and tax credits put in place by the Biden administration, that momentum could falter. Trump is also getting ready to unleash a flood of tariffs on foreign imports, including auto supplies. And he's expected to relax tailpipe emission rules that could slow down EV sales even more - and allow car companies to sell more polluting vehicles.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.I think the bulk of our work will endure"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 previous interviews with 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.I am concerned that [Trump] might take steps to make EVs more expensive for American consumers."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.The climate doesn't care whether people care about it or not."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.I've just never seen a country win out by looking only to its past."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.

Image: Blue Origin Blue Origin is preparing for its biggest launch yet, but on Monday morning the attempt was scrubbed for technical reasons after several delays were made throughout the three-hour launch window. The window originally opened at 1AM ET.It's unclear when the Jeff Bezos-owned commercial space company will next attempt to send its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket into space for the first time.