Skip to main content

Archives

J
Samsung’s latest foldables and wearables are now (mostly) available.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6, Galaxy Z Flip 6, Galaxy Watch Ultra, Galaxy Watch 7, Galaxy Ring, and Galaxy Buds 3 revealed at Samsung’s Unpacked event went on sale globally today, though some regions / carriers may vary.

The exception is the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, which are delayed (until August 28th in the US) due to quality issues with the removable ear tips.


R
We have a drone scandal at the Paris Olympics.

Really.

NZOC:

On July 22, a drone was flown over the New Zealand women’s football team training session in St Etienne.

Team support members immediately reported the incident to police, leading to the drone operator, who has been identified as a support staff member of the wider Canadian Women’s football team, to be detained.

Canada -- the defending champ -- plays New Zealand Friday. TSN notes Honduras accused Canada's men's team of drone spying in 2021, while France's prime minister said security is intercepting six drones per day.


W
Foggy.

Apple has released Lake Vrangla, one of two Vision Pro Environments that have spent months marked “coming soon,” and boy is it moody.

So what is Lake Vrangla? Well, it’s a small lake roughly 25 miles west (as the crow flies) of Oslo, Norway. You can see it fog-free on YouTube. Seems pretty!


A screenshot of the Lake Vrangla environment for the Vision Pro.
Lake Vrangla in VR.
Screenshot: Lake Vrangla Environment
R
Getting a phone upgrade the hard way.

Samsung gave 17,000 of its Galaxy Z Flip 6 phones to athletes and others around the Olympic and Paralympic games, and here’s one more unboxing.

The phone itself isn’t more impressive than anyone else’s, but British rower Imogen Grant chose a tough upgrade path — the phone she’s replacing was another freebie from Samsung that she picked up at the Tokyo Olympics.


E
Alphabet will invest up to $5 billion in Waymo.

During Alphabet’s earnings call on Tuesday, CFO Ruth Porat said the company will “commit to a new multi-year investment of $5 billion” into Waymo, which has launched its robotaxi service in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix.


U
Elon Musk says new Tesla Roadster is going into production next year.

During an earnings call, the Tesla CEO said the company has “completed most of the engineering” on the next-gen Roadster with “upgrades” being made. The Roadster was announced way back in 2017 and opened to preorders that require potential buyers to put down a $50,000 deposit towards the expected price of $250,000.


red car
Image: Tesla
A
Tesla’s robotaxi event gets a new date.

The company will unveil its purpose-built autonomous vehicle October 10th, after previously delaying the event to allow more work on the prototype, Elon Musk said during an earnings call. The reveal was originally schedule to take place August 8th. “I wanted to make some important changes that I think would improve the vehicle,” Musk added.


S
More drones should flap like real birds.

I’m not saying you should go crowdfund a Bionic Bird X-Fly, as you’ll hear in my hands-on video below. I’m just saying that biomimetic ornithopters are surprisingly fun — and way less disruptive than your typical whiny quad-propeller drone!


S
Beloved indie game publisher Humble Games has reportedly laid off all staff without warning.

They published gems like Slay the Spire, Signalis and Void Bastards, just released Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus, and were set to publish Monaco II here’s a full list of games.

But now Humble Games, an offshoot of the Humble Bundle, is apparently just the latest casualty of crippling video game industry layoffs.


E
Peacock’s subscriber numbers are down, but its revenue is up.

Comcast’s earnings report today revealed that Peacock lost 500,000 subscribers in the months leading up to the Olympics — and Peacock’s planned price hike. Despite this, Peacock is pushing toward profitability with $1 billion in revenue and losses narrowing to $348 million.


W
Everything old is new again.

I recently wrote about using Windows XP on my iPad Pro and Verge commenter cindrBear helpfully pointed out that in 2001, Microsoft announced Tablet PC.

Like with Copilot Plus PCs, the Tablet PC initiative encouraged manufacturers to make hardware for specific features — in this case, a Windows XP edition for touchscreen tablets. Seeing it in action in this video, I’m clearly using the wrong version of XP.


L
Top congressional Democrats endorse Harris as Biden announces plans to address the nation.

Vice President Kamala Harris now has the support of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) for the top job. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden said he would issue an Oval Office address at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, “on what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people.”


E
AI is catching the attention of antitrust watchdogs around the globe.

Alongside the FTC and the DOJ, the UK and EU’s antitrust authorities have issued a joint statement saying they will work to ensure fair competition in the AI industry.

One potential issue highlighted by the enforcers is the possibility that AI chipmakers could “exploit existing or emerging bottlenecks,” giving them “outsized influence over the future development” of AI tools.


U
Nubia’s new smartphone has OIS OIS OIS.

The company’s “Z60 Ultra Leading Version” (yes, that’s the name) has optical image stabilization on all its rear cameras, including two 50MP main and wide-angle ones, and the 64MP “Portrait Prime” shooter.

Nubia’s Leading phone has an overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, while its running mate model Z60S “Pro” has a Gen 2. As for OIS on the Pro, well, only on the Telephoto.


rear of z60 ultra with three cameras
The Nubia Z60 Ultra Leading Version is a squared-off slab with a big 6.8-inch AMOLED display on the other side.
Image: Nubia
W
Is HTC teasing a new Vive Focus headset?

Whatever this “Vision for you” is, the silhouette HTC shows at the end looks very pointedly Vision Pro-like, while also looking like it fits into the HTC Vive Focus 3 design mold.

The video hints at “a new kind of power.” Perhaps it involves that new Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2 headset chip with 4.3K-per-eye resolution support, which Qualcomm said it’s working with HTC (among others) on.


R
Why is there slowing growth in EV sales?

On the Decoder podcast, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe points the finger at automakers for copying instead of seeking out customers who want a vehicle with a slightly different profile than Tesla’s alphabet series of Models.

Oh, and he had some news about the R3X and why you probably won’t see CarPlay in a Rivian anytime soon.


A
The summer scares aren’t over yet.

It’s been a pretty good period for horror with the likes of MaXXXine and Longlegs, and that run looks to continue with Cuckoo, which hits theaters on August 9th.


W
Apple’s new docuseries is about drug cartels and horse racing.

Cowboy Cartel, which debuts on Apple TV Plus on August 2nd, is a four-part documentary show about a rookie FBI agent who took down the leaders of the Los Zetas drug cartel by tracking their money as it was laundered through a US horse racing enterprise.


W
A look at Meta AI running on a Quest 3 headset.

Demos on this Meta blog show how the company will implement its promise to bring AI to its VR headsets. Like the company’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, you can ask it questions about things you see (in passthrough), and it will answer.

The experimental feature rolls out in English next month, in the US and Canadia (excluding the Quest 2).


The 78 minutes that took down millions of Windows machines

CrowdStrike’s faulty update has kicked off questions about how to avoid a similar tech disaster.