We have big news for listeners of The Vergecast , The Verge’ s flagship podcast. We are now publishing twice a week — on Wednesdays and Fridays! On Fridays, it’ll be the same show you know and love , with Nilay Patel, David Pierce, and Alex Cranz hanging out and talking about tech news. On Wednesdays, we’re going to change it up a bit, and use the show to share even more of the stories The Verge team is covering. David will be joined by The Verge ’s expert staffers in a deep exploration of how gadgets and software affect our lives — and which ones you should bring into yours. So, here is our first Wednesday edition of The Vergecast . David starts the show talking to Verge senior reporter Adi Robertson about the prototype VR headsets from Meta that she previewed this week. David and Adi walk through these new prototypes, the tech behind them, and what they mean for the future of Meta and the metaverse. Later in the show, David brings in Verge editor and … [Read more...] about Welcome to our new Wednesday edition of The Vergecast
Welcomes new reporter
Rocket Report: SpaceX steamroller rolls on; Russian rocket workers are idled
Welcome to Edition 4.47 of the Rocket Report! It has been a big week for NASA, with the near completion of its wet-dress rehearsal test for the Space Launch System rocket. Assuming final preparations go well, this sets up a huge launch in a couple of months that we will be following with great interest. As always, we welcome reader submissions , and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar. South Korea successfully launches its own rocket . The three-stage Nuri rocket, built by the government’s Korea Aerospace Research Institute with hundreds of local companies, blasted off from the Naro Space Center in Goheung on Tuesday, The New York Times reports . Seventy minutes after the liftoff, South Korea announced that Nuri had … [Read more...] about Rocket Report: SpaceX steamroller rolls on; Russian rocket workers are idled
Tesla reportedly doesn’t have enough desks after Musk threatens to fire remote employees
After Tesla CEO Elon Musk commanded remote employees to return to work or else lose their jobs , the company was reportedly ill-prepared to welcome back its workers. According to a report from The Information , employees arrived at Tesla’s Fremont, California facility only to find a lack of parking spots, no desk to sit at, and crappy Wi-Fi ( where’s Starlink when you need it? ). Musk clearly didn’t think this one through. Tesla’s headcount has doubled since 2019, The Information notes, now sitting at 99,210 people. Earlier this month, Musk cited excess hiring and a “super bad feeling” about the economy as reasons for a hiring freeze and company-wide layoffs that reportedly includes both salaried and hourly workers . Salaried workers make up about one-third of employees at the company, although it’s unclear how many of them work at the office or at Tesla’s factories. During the pandemic, most of the employees who used to report to Tesla’s Fremont campus, which … [Read more...] about Tesla reportedly doesn’t have enough desks after Musk threatens to fire remote employees
Rocket Report: ULA starts military lobbying campaign, SLS to launch in 2 months
Welcome to Edition 5.01 of the Rocket Report! The Rocket Report turns 5 years old today, which means we have now published about 200 editions. I've probably written 400,000 words—more than one word for every kilometer to the Moon. That seems like a lot in hindsight, but I also feel like I'm just getting started. Thanks to everyone who has read along, and shared the newsletter with your friends and co-workers. As always, we welcome reader submissions , and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar. Rocket Lab launches first deep-space mission . The company's small Electron vehicle launched the 25 kg CAPSTONE mission on Tuesday, and the rocket placed the spacecraft into a good orbit, Chief Executive Peter Beck said . Since then, … [Read more...] about Rocket Report: ULA starts military lobbying campaign, SLS to launch in 2 months
Spotify’s Joe Rogan controversy: everything you need to know
Audio player loading… Spotify is embroiled in a controversy surrounding its endorsement of podcaster Joe Rogan. His podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience , is the most popular show on the music streaming service , with the company buying the exclusive rights to distribute it for $100 million (around £73 million) back in 2020. The controversy stems from allegations that Rogan’s podcast has spread misinformation around the Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to a number of high-profile musicians removing their music from the platform. While Spotify has attempted to address the furore by issuing content advisory warnings to any podcast that discusses the pandemic, and by publishing its content guidelines, that hasn’t stopped some subscribers leaving the platform in protest. Things went from bad to worse for Spotify when a video compilation highlighting Rogan’s use of racist language during previous episodes of his podcast was posted to Instagram by singer India … [Read more...] about Spotify’s Joe Rogan controversy: everything you need to know
G7 Leaders Debate Alternative to China’s Belt and Road Debt Traps
Leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) nations on Sunday announced a $600 billion infrastructure plan for developing nations – a program clearly intended to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Germany’s Deutsche Welle heard signals from the G7 summit in the Bavarian Alps that their plan would provide financial benefits to developing countries without the debt traps and political interference that characterize China’s loans: Beijing has been accused of trapping low-income countries into unaffordable debts to be part of its trillion-dollar BRI push, which is seen as expanding China’s trade power with Africa, Asia and Europe. The new G7 fund will focus on climate initiatives, among other projects, including a $2 billion solar farm investment in Angola, $320 million for hospital construction in Ivory Coast and $40 million to promote regional energy trade in Southeast Asia. EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said G7 was offering “sustainable, … [Read more...] about G7 Leaders Debate Alternative to China’s Belt and Road Debt Traps
Did I make it harder to sell your crappy, used crypto mining graphics card? Good
There are two things that are guaranteed to get you hate mail in this business: being a woman online with an opinion, and criticizing crypto. The piece I wrote earlier this week dissuading readers from buying a used graphics card right now seems to have hit a nerve with many in the crypto community, and it was utterly predictable. With crypto miners buying up all the best graphics cards to endlessly run ether hashing algorithms, there's been nary a GPU for the many gamers out there, even to the point that Nvidia was forced to implement new software and hardware tricks to try to limit the hash rate of their graphics cards to make more supply available to gamers who were left out in the cold. Even that effort was stymied by crypto miners hell-bent on easy money at the expense of the environment. So now that the crypto bubble has popped and everyone is scrambling to sell the graphics cards they spent thousands of dollars on in an attempt to break even, some did not … [Read more...] about Did I make it harder to sell your crappy, used crypto mining graphics card? Good
DLCC Wants Biden to Campaign for Democrats in State Legislative Races
Despite President Joe Biden’s job approval numbers being in the low 30s, Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) President Jessica Post wants to have the president campaign for legislative candidates to help their chances of winning. In an interview this past weekend, Post urged Biden to campaign for the Democratic state legislative candidates across the country. “We have a great relationship with the Biden White House, so we hope that translates into seeing President Biden out campaigning for us … for state legislatures,” Post said. Watch: However, while Post wants Biden to campaign for Democratic state legislative candidates across the country, his approval rating is at 32 percent, the lowest in his presidency — with a 57 percent disapproval — on the CIVIQS rolling job-approval average, which gave him a total net approval of negative 25. In fact, Biden is underwater in 48 states — including the typically dark blue California and his home state of … [Read more...] about DLCC Wants Biden to Campaign for Democrats in State Legislative Races
Microsoft Exchange servers are being hacked to deploy ransomware
Audio player loading… Every ransomware attack starts with a compromised endpoint, and to that end, threat actors have now started looking into Microsoft Exchange servers. As per a report (opens in new tab) published by the Microsoft 365 Defender Threat Intelligence Team, at least one unpatched and vulnerable server (opens in new tab) was targeted by crooks, and abused to gain access to the target network. After gaining a foothold, the threat actors lurked around, mapping out the network, stealing credentials, and pulling out data to be later used in a double extortion attack. After these steps were successfully completed, the threat actor deployed the BlackCat ransomware via PsExec. (opens in new tab) Share your thoughts on Cybersecurity and get a free copy of the Hacker's Manual 2022 (opens in new tab) . Help us find how businesses are preparing for the post-Covid world and the implications of these activities on their cybersecurity … [Read more...] about Microsoft Exchange servers are being hacked to deploy ransomware
iOS 16 will categorise your SMS in a smarter way
Audio player loading… Apple just announced new features for developers to make filtering SMS messages add more categories in iOS 16 . These features will allow developers to implement additional subcategories under transactions, promotions and junk messages, thus helping you easily remove clutter from your message inbox. According to a report (opens in new tab) by 9to5Mac, the latest API updates adds 12 new subcategories that will help organise messages. The feature was introduced in iOS 14 and currently only filters transactions and junk messages. The company further allowed third-party apps too to use the feature. The latest updates to the API adds subcategories like financial transactions, orders, health services, public health services and even mobile phone recharges or top-ups. Promotional messages would also get their own separate section within the app. These would show any coupons or offers. Any other unwanted messages would be sent into the junk. … [Read more...] about iOS 16 will categorise your SMS in a smarter way