Microsoft gaming is no more. We are so back.
Tag: The Verge
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A special series from The Verge that confronts the legacy and mythmaking of the Vietnam War, 50 years after the fall of Saigon. 50 Years After the Fall of Saigon
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Recap: Astronauts became stranded on the ISS after NASA made the choice to not risk their lives in the return trip of the faulty Boeing Starliner capsule last year.
Fast forward to yesterday, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were able to hitch a ride back back after being stranded aboard the ISS since the Startliner ordeal.
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Introducing the Rabbit R1, an AI-powered gadget that can use your apps for you
theverge.com – Priced at $199, the Rabbit R1 features a 2.88-inch touchscreen, camera, and built-in assistant that uses your existing subscriptions and services. Its ambitious design hints at a potential future as a smartphone alternative.
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Asus made a big portable OLED monitor you can fold in half. How do you feel about three screens? At CES, Asus introduced the ZenScreen Fold OLED monitor, a 17.3-inch portable OLED monitor you can fold in half for easy storage.
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Bluesky has a new logo
The (currently) invite-only social network has a new logo! It has other new features as well, such as lists and custom feeds. Ok, the custom feeds have been around for awhile. But, it’s new-ish.
The new logo is basically the 🦋 (butterfly emoji). It’s simple and less non-representational than the nebulous sky/clouds photo or blue cube it was previously. This one seems fitting and easier to grasp (and meme).
Update: the creator of the identity and logo direction is @fonsmans:
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We are now 90 seconds to our doom
We are now 90 seconds to our doom. This is the closest humanity has ever been to its own annihilation, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
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Rockstar Games hacked, leaked footage of upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 game
It was a big weekend with this game leak. GTA 6 peaks and leaks are hyped up so much, they’re about on par with the level of hype Half-Life 3 confirmed memes. It just isn’t going to happen and everyone doubts the claims when users post them on Reddit.
Until it does. The leaks over the weekend were genuine and bold. High-quality footage of the in-development game were stolen from Rockstar. According to The Verge, over 3GBs of videos were obtained by a hacker.
On Sunday morning, the hacker posted a 3GB file containing 90 videos of early GTA VI gameplay footage, which aligns with previous reports that indicate the game could feature a female protagonist for the first time.
Which of course elicited a response from Rockstar:
You know you have the Real McCoy when two things happen:
- There’s an official Twitter response
- Reddit posts start disappearing
For example, this megathread on r/GTA6 was taken offline sometime last night. But, not before the page was archived.
Wayback Machine screenshot of the fabled megathread on r/GTA6 While the gameplay is still in early development, the footage and content looks absolutely fantastic. Game leaks can be a kiss of death from the public. However, support for GTA 6 has been overwhelmingly positive following the leaks. Probably due to the size and variety of what was shared. In previous leaks, such as the Nvidia PC Leak of 2021, not much qualitative data was obtained. This was a gargantuan leak, and according to the hacker, more is yet to come.
The videos (which have been taken down in most of the links on Twitter and Reddit) were very convincing and very Rockstar-esque. But, I found these two still photos from the deleted megathread to be the most convincing evidence:
Redwood Cigarettes are a GTA Staple. This is either the most elaborate fake of all time or the real deal 
MAYBE main character with a different hairstyle It’s bittersweet that these details were leaked. But, not much can be gleaned from the story from these videos and photos. There’s evidence of a male and female lead (which was previously leaked but these photos suggest a confirmation on the Bonnie and Clyde story mode) — but apart from that, not much else is known.
What is known, is the hacker that stole the footage and data from Rockstar (which included source code mind you), is in some very hot water.
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Trump Administration Drops Plan to Strip Visas From Foreign Students in Online Classes Amidst Lawsuits
After 17 States, and the three of the Big Four decide to sue to the Trump Administration, do they rescind their racist plan to strip visas from foreign students. As a backdrop, we’re currently in the midst of colossal pandemic, with nearly half of million dead so far.
Pretty foolish of the Trumpist to try to pull this stunt. In normal times, under a normal president, this would be political suicide months before an election. Hell, I’d normally say this was unbelievable, but honestly this was expected. Look at his racist executive actions with DACA. Thankfully, that order was blocked by the SCOTUS ruling just a month ago. But, DACA recipients still remain in a legal limbo until Congress passes a law to grant them citizenship.
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Sonos is bricking old devices with ‘Recycled Mode’
Chris Welch reporting at The Verge writes:
Late last week, Sonos was called out on Twitter by Devin Wilson for its practices around sustainability. The company drew particular attention for a “Recycle Mode” software feature that, once activated, begins a countdown that eventually renders older Sonos devices basically inoperable. Recycle Mode is part of the trade-up program that Sonos announced back in October, which lets customers get a discount on newer Sonos speakers like the One, Beam, or the Port that Nilay just reviewed.
At first glance, the Recycle Mode seems like a good idea. Except for this one crucial feature of the Sonos App:
Recycle Mode is a state your device enters 21 days after recycling confirmation in the Sonos app. In Recycle Mode, all data is erased and the device is permanently deactivated so you can safely and securely dispose of it. Once a device is in Recycle Mode, it cannot be reactivated.
Wait. What the fuck? This is so fucked. I’m all for reducing, reusing and recycling. But, I prefer to do the reducing and reusing first.
Forcing customers to brick their devices, to force them to recycle is not ideal. In fact, forcing consumers to brick their devices should be illegal. It turns out that recycling isn’t even the most effective way to recover materials. Simply put, shipping our recyclables to China (or elsewhere) for processing isn’t working. As a result, many cities are moving away from recycle programs. In fact, many are forced to recover energy from plastics and trash by burning it in furnaces, and in many cases this is the most green scenario. So, why on Earth is Sonos doing this? To edge up profits in this fierce smart-speaker market of course.
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Away CEO Steph Korey Replaced After Verge Investigation
Zoe Schiffer, at The Verge writes:
Away CEO Steph Korey is stepping down, just four days after an investigation from The Verge highlighted the company’s toxic culture. Korey, one of the luggage brand’s co-founders, will be replaced with former Lululemon executive Stuart Haselden, though Korey will still continue on as executive chairman.
Stuart Haselden has impressive credentials. For one, he’s an Army veteran. Changing company culture is hard work, just look at Uber. It doesn’t happen overnight. Perhaps, he is just what Away needs.
His previous work at Lululemon, Saks and J. Crew were pretty long stints, totaling nearly two decades. Almost his entire professional career has been at the crossroads of retail and finance. Something tells me that Haselden, an Auburn alum (Tim Cook’s alma mater), just might be up to the task of turning around Away’s toxic work culture:
Haselden’s mandate will likely involve turning around Away’s company culture, and he may have relevant experience. Lululemon faced its own reports of toxic management, which culminated in CEO Laurent Potdevin’s resignation last year. In the aftermath of the scandal, Haselden took control of the company’s people and culture functions — the teams that are directly responsible for creating a healthy working environment.
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PlayStation Turns 25
The single largest innovator in the video gaming space just turned 25 year old today. Before the PlayStation came around, controllers were bulky, console felt like outcasts in your entertainment center. Joysticks felt clumsy, games were mainly sold in cartridges. Sony brought a whole new edge to the at-home entertainment system market. From The Verge:
There’s plenty of credit to award when it comes to video game controller design. Nintendo pioneered the core button layout with the SNES (D-pad on one side, face buttons on the other), and both Nintendo and Sega beat Sony to shipping an analog thumbstick for their consoles. But ultimately, it’s Sony’s innovations and ideas that would go on to become the elemental base of what we think of as a “video game controller.”
There are two pioneering parts to Sony’s foundation of the modern controller. First is the original PlayStation controller that launched in 1994, which would establish the broad design (elongated palm grips, shoulder buttons, and the D-pad / face button combination). And then there’s the Dual Analog Controller from 1997 (followed by the more well-known DualShock models), which would change 3D games forever by offering a second analog stick: one to control a character and one to look around.
Check out The Verge’s PlayStation 25th Anniversary Issue here.
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The Motorola RAZR is Back
Chaim Gartenberg for The Verge reports:
The hinge is also a bit stiff so you won’t be able to just whip it open with a flick of a wrist — closing it with one hand also involves some more finger contortions to start the closing action. It’s just more practical to close it with your other hand.
Even with these caveats, the whole opening and closing mechanism is supremely satisfying to do, with crisp snaps in both directions. Snapping the phone shut to hang up on a call is a particular delight; there really is no better way to end a call than the classic flip phone snap, and it’s excellent to see that Motorola has kept it alive here. The hardware feels great, too, with solid-feeling stainless steel and glass on the outside and a wonderfully textured back that’s nice and grippy, which is essential for not dropping it while flipping it open and shut. (It is a fingerprint magnet, though.)
A freaking… hinge! Did you hear that?!
Photo: The Verge Pretty wild right? What year is this? Check out The Verge’s review video below. At the 1:20 mark, Chaim makes a fantastic point. All the other foldables seem to have run into the same problem. They all have terrible hinge designs, among other unmemorable product design issues. For other unknown reasons, most of the other devices fold hamburger style instead of hotdog. Perplexing really. Remember the Samsung Galaxy Fold? It was atrocious, and If you recall, it failed spectacularly.
Sure, the new RAZR isn’t exactly the most beautiful smart device either. It does after all run on Android and will likely employ Google RCS. Nonetheless, it does raise some eyebrows. It brings Motorola back into the fray, and it brings the flip back to smart phones in such a memorable way. One major upside for this design? No more glass screens, which means no more cracked screens for those that fumble (myself included). I think that’s a bright future we can all hope for.
Overall, I’m not sure if I would love it owning a RAZR (I never owned the original RAZR in the first place, but I did own a Sidekick 3 once upon a time), but it has certainly piqued my interest. I think it’s entirely possible that this foldable mobile-device paradigm just might make a comeback. What do ya’ll think?
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Best Buy’s Rebranding Nightmare
Update: It appears that Best Buy is closing 250 of their smaller branded stores, which typically exist in shopping malls. This is important to note because of two reasons:
- Best Buy is fully embracing going back in time when shoppers were ill-informed and looked to Best Buy for guidance on electronics (despite the fact that no one goes to Best Buy for guidance anymore, they go google.com or Apple Store temples)
- Closing their mobile-targeted stores in malls controls their new narrative. Forcing the more likely, older shopper to venture into their larger stores who have more resources (and merchandise to sell) — which will lead to frustrating customer conclusions: Best Buys are horrible.
Holy shit. This looks terrible. Honestly, I feel bad for Best Buy. They have a business which is being eaten away at by two sides: Amazon and Apple (and brands like Apple that have the capital to open retail locations). I’m honestly surprised Best Buy survived the 2000’s (Blockbuster wasn’t so lucky).
If Best Buy really wanted a re-brand, they should’ve abandoned the color scheme altogether with an iconoclastic rebrand. The blue and white were a bad choice for obvious reasons. And the navy (I guess these are Bud Light Blue polos now?) were a bad idea too — too close to the sacred navy-garb Apple Store employees wear.
Take a look at this nightmarish TV spot. What a ridiculous, outrageous, and just absolutely delicious, cringe-worthy spot. It violates Best Buy’s values, it paints consumers as idiots, and ignores a growing market they should be targeting — millenials and xiennials. What a complete waste of money and creative talent.
From AdAge:
A year after consolidating its marketing department and eliminating the role of chief creative officer, Best Buy is back to bulking up its in-house creative team. In November, the company hired Bruce Bildsten, who spent two decades at agency Fallon, as executive creative director. The brand is in the process of hiring dozens more for the creative team.”We’re proud of the internal team we’re assembling here,” says Alexander.
In a 30-second TV spot “Talk the talk,” Best Buy employees counsel customers. Everything in the video is black and white, save the bright blue shirts of the staffers. A 60-second version will air digitally, while 15-second clips will also debut on TV. Academy Award winner Errol Morris directed the videos.
A whole year? This was a mostly “internal” rebrand effort? What a joke. Just how much external creative input was there from outside agencies? It’s not clear at all. This rebrand could’ve been an investment in millenials minds and wallets, but instead they really screwed the pooch on this one. This rebrand is a failure by all accounts.
Look at how Chobani rebranded. That is what a professional, iterative, healthy design process should produce. Reflective of the brand. Reflective of the future. Reflective of the company.
It’s easy to see that Best Buy’s branding and new spots were designed by committee. They’re chaotic, amateur and insult the consumer. Those TV spots aren’t going to motivate anyone under 55 to go to a Best Buy (or visit bestbuy.com for that matter). Perhaps — maybe it is best that their branding turned out like this. I mean, Best Buy’s financial pitfalls will be designed by committee. Just like Blockbuster.
Further Reading