Technology

A social network where everyone’s a bot

Published

5 days ago

September 22, 2024

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 53, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been reading about Beyoncé and Rosanna Pansino and Bowen Yang, pouring my life back into Todoist, watching the end of The Grand Tour, catching up on some My Brother, My Brother and Me episodes, seeing if the Pixel Recorder app can replace my trusty voice recorder, and moving Headspace to my homescreen to see if it helps me meditate more. (So far… no.)

I also have for you a truly wild new pair of AR glasses, a Batman-adjacent show on HBO, a great new book about the end of Twitter, a funny twist on social networks, and much more. Lotta good new TV this week! Let’s do it.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you super into right now? What should everyone else be reading / playing / watching / buying / downloading / building out of Legos right now? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

SocialAI. The reaction to this “social network” for iOS, where you post and a thousand AI bots immediately reply, was so funny. Some people loved it, some hated it, half seemed to think it was a joke. It’s not a joke, and it’s actually a really thoughtful take on how to interact with LLMs. It also feels alarmingly similar to being on actual social networks these days. Maybe even better.
Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter. An excellent addition to the canon of books about Musk’s takeover and overhaul of the social network we once knew. There’s a lot of great new detail in here about the chaos of becoming X, too — a really good read.
Simple Snapchat. I’d love to tell you to buy Snap’s new Spectacles, but they’re ridiculous and also not available for regular people to buy. But you will be able to get Snapchat’s new design, which is so much cleaner and more approachable than the app has been in recent years. I’m not sure it’ll win many new users, but Snapchat is still one of the best messaging apps out there.
The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds. The AirPods 4 got all the shine this week, but I’ve been a fan of Bose’s earbuds for a while — they sound great, they have great battery, and I love the new “Hey headphones” wake word on the new model. And at $179, these are a solid Apple alternative.
Omni Loop. The read on this time-travel movie starring Ayo Edebiri and Mary-Louise Parker seems to be that sticklers for continuity will be frustrated but there’s some good and thoughtful stuff and a lot of fun to be had. I will be having that fun ASAP.
The Penguin. “Gritty Batman show on HBO” is all you need to tell me for me to be fully in on The Penguin. The reviews so far are a bit mixed — I’ve seen “best show in forever” and “kinda meh,” and a lot of people are comparing it unfavorably to The Sopranos. Personally, I can’t wait.
Tripsy 3.0. I’m traveling a lot this fall, so I’m back on the hunt for a good place to put all my confirmation numbers, flight details, and expenses. Tripit is fine, but Tripsy looks way better. I’m also into the map view, which is a surprisingly helpful way to plot out a day.
Agatha All Along. WandaVision is the only Marvel show I recommend to people who don’t care about Marvel because the whole thing was so unusually structured and smart. This spinoff sounds just as inventive and just as cool. More Kathryn Hahn is always a good thing.
UFO 50. A bunch of developers in 2024 decided to make a bunch of games that look like they’re from the 1980s. Taken together, what they made is kind of a historical document about gaming but also just, like, a bunch of really fun retro-style games. Such a cool concept.
“The Mark Zuckerberg Interview.” You probably saw the pictures from last week of the Acquired podcast hosts interviewing Zuck at the Chase Center in San Francisco. The resulting 90-minute episode is… kind of awkward in spots but also really revealing in spots. I don’t think I’ve heard Zuckerberg talk through his own history as a CEO like this before.

Screen share

Alex Goldman, the excellent podcaster and former cohost of best-tech-pod-ever Reply All, has a new show! It’s called Hyperfixed, and basically, Alex’s job is to fix people’s problems of all kinds. The first two episodes are silly and deep, and this show is going to be great.

I asked Alex to share his homescreen with us as his new show launches because if there’s one thing I know about Alex, it’s that he’s a person of many interests and obsessions. (I always enjoyed him posting about songs he made in his attic, just to name one example.) I was curious what his phone would say about what he’s up to right now.

Here’s Alex’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:

The wallpaper: A picture of my kids being cool on the beach.

The apps: Camera, Weather, Settings, Notes, App Store, FaceTime, Amazon, Proton Mail, Find My, Overcast, Patreon, Koala, Messages, Google Voice, Gmail, Safari.

I know my homescreen is a mess, but I have long since given up on trying to organize it. It has reached an uneasy stasis in which I know where everything is, and it’s been a while since I’ve downloaded an absolutely essential new app.

Everything I need is on the front page: from games to exercise stuff, apps for watching TV and playing music, social media platforms, and so on. My go-to apps are Notes (every morning, I make a bulleted list of things I need to get done), Voice Memos (it’s super convenient if you’re thinking of an idea or a good melody pops into your head to just go ahead and record it before it’s long gone) and Threes. Threes is a game where you try and combine blocks of the same number on a playing field without running out of space, and I have truly not gotten further in the past three or four years, but I still play it like four times a day. Just out of nervous habit. And then Overcast is the podcast app. Everything else is lame in comparison.

I also asked Alex to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:

Pinball Map. I love pinball. But loving pinball means you’re a pinball snob and you like certain games better than others. For me, the mid-’90s Midway/Williams pinball games were a renaissance, so I’m constantly trying to find copies of Attack From Mars, Medieval Madness, Twilight Zone, Monster Bash, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Bride of Pinbot. Fortunately, the Pinball Map helps me locate them.
Koala. Koala is an incredibly powerful sampler app. You can record sounds directly off your phone or load sounds in, or rip sound directly from a video. It has nearly all the functionality of the classic Roland SP-404 Samplers, except those are $500, but Koala is around $5.
Erica Synths’ LXR-02. A cheap handheld drum machine that you can load sounds on to or make sounds with. I am very much a dude making little beats on public transit.
WFMU’s Beware of the Blog. A blog for a nonprofit radio station in New York City that was shut down almost a decade ago but is full of fantastic obscure recordings, comics, and bizarre culture stories. Probably most famous for being the only place you can find the story of how Paul Simon allegedly stole a bunch of songs on Graceland from Los Lobos.

Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads.

“Funny timing that you’d mention Short Film YouTube three days after I discovered a channel that’s a horror treasure trove. The channel is called Vintage Eight, which is by a film professor from the University of New Orleans by the name of Paul Catalanotto. His most popular videos are The Tangi Virus, The Oracle Project, and The Human Trial, which are also conveniently more interconnected than other videos on the channel.” — Drake

“Hild is the best historical fiction I’ve ever read in my whole life. Anyone jonesing for Game of Thrones but IRL (ish) who is also a fan of Tolkien’s references to ancient languages of Britain / Anglos / Saxons / old Norse will love it.” — Christopher

“Caravan SandWitch is a wonderful cozy game. It’s on everything and is just lovely.” — Iain

“Played around with NotebookLM from Google. One fun but helpful use case is to take research papers and generate podcasts. I’ve been reading a bunch of complex ML papers as an engineering student, so I convert them into podcasts and listen on my commute. Certainly interesting TTS application.” — Kruti

“In the most recent newsletters, someone recommended the No Rolls Barred YouTube channel but neglected to mention their best content: Blood on the Clocktower. It’s a social deduction game by The Pandemonium Institute for 7–20 (!!) players. Think like Werewolf or Mafia, but more fun. There’s endless content on YouTube that I can’t stop watching, and I love hosting big parties for it.” — Greg

“With Today in Tabs on hiatus, Caitlin Dewey’s newsletter Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends has become the most dependable curated reading list around. (Also don’t miss her excellent 10-year retrospective of G*mergate.)” — Kevin

“After years of loyalty to Things 3, I bit the bullet and moved over to Todoist. Natural language input is a big factor, but also fed up with long lists in Things — kanban in Todoist breaks things up nicely. I do miss the UI of Things though.” — Scott

“It’s been great following along with RocketJump on their Patreon as they write, plan, and produce their independent action-comedy film! They go really in-depth on everything from location planning to studio pitch decks.” — Josh

“I can’t stop playing Astro Bot. It feels like a love letter to 30 years of PlayStation, and having been a PlayStation fan my entire life, every level just puts a smile on my face.” — Nick

Signing off

On Wednesday, I was at the Made on YouTube event in New York City (the crowd was made up of me and like 200 extremely cool and fun creators), where CEO Neal Mohan and a bunch of other executives rolled out some new features. But forget the new features — the absolute highlight of the event was the singer / songwriter / creator D4vd, who talked about an AI project and then did a live performance of his mega-popular song, “Here With Me.” It was awesome, and I’ve been reading about and watching his videos ever since. Here’s a great GQ interview with lots of details on his story, here’s his TikTok, and here’s his YouTube channel.

To be fair, D4vd is already very popular, so maybe I’m the last one to discover him. But I figured I’d share just in case. I’m a huge fan.

Technology

Agatha All Along’s practical effects were key to bringing its magic to life

Published

9 hours ago

September 26, 2024

Press Room

Agatha All Along’s practical effects were key to bringing its magic to life

While WandaVision featured a smorgasbord of digital VFX, the series’ clever practical effects were a huge part of what established it as one of Marvel’s most imaginatively crafted projects. The show’s use of old-school Hollywood tricks made each episode feel like a different kind of classic sitcom, all while teasing out its major magical twists.

Instead of WandaVision’s references to sitcoms like I Love Lucy and Bewitched, Disney Plus’ new follow-up series, Agatha All Along, pays homage to supernatural horrors like Rosemary’s Baby and The Craft. It tells the story of how parasitic witch Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) sets out to regain her powers with the help of an unlikely team of friends and enemies. After being freed from a years-long hex that convinced her she was living in a gritty crime drama, Agatha realizes that her one hope of getting back on top is to put together a new coven and walk the Witches’ Road — a magical dimension only accessible (by song, naturally) to covens of magic users.

The show’s premise makes it seem like the sort of Marvel joint that would involve a lot more of the (at times very iffy) CGI that the studio’s live-action projects have become known for. But during the series’ recent press junket, showrunner Jac Schaeffer and executive producers Mary Livanos and Brad Winderbaum said that, in order to make Agatha All Along feel distinct and like a deep dive into the MCU’s mystical underbelly, they wanted to lean even more heavily into practical effects.

Much of WandaVision’s emphasis on practical effects stemmed from the show’s need to evoke the visual styles of shows from specific decades throughout the 20th century. But Schaeffer saw Agatha All Along as an opportunity to pay homage to the big-screen fantasies that shaped her storytelling sensibilities — many of which were known for their intricate sets and use of puppetry.

“On WandaVision, it was very precise which shows we were [mimicking,’] but [Agatha All Along] is really kind of broken open. It’s a lot of my personal influences. I’m a NeverEnding Story, Dark Crystal, Labyrinth kind of gal,” Schaeffer said.

There are flashes of witchiness sprinkled all throughout Agatha All Along’s premiere, but you can see the otherworldly whimsy Schaeffer’s talking about most clearly in the show’s third episode. “Through Many Miles of Tricks and Trials” transports Agatha’s coven from a New Jersey basement to the Witches’ Road where it’s perpetually twilight and the ground comes to life, ready to swallow people up if they aren’t careful about where they step.

Though the Witches’ Road — a realm that features largely in James Robinson and Vanesa Del Rey’s 2016 Scarlet Witch comic series — feels like the sort of glowy, metaphysical place Disney would usually create using Volume VFX sets, Livanos said that Agatha All Along’s effects were “almost wholly practical.” Winderbaum added that, for the Road itself, where much of Agatha All Along takes place, “there wasn’t a single green screen in sight on that set.”

Patti LuPone as Lilia Calderu and Sasheer Zamata as Jennifer Kale.

Disney Plus / Marvel

Marvel’s past use of green screens and other digital effects has prompted some of the studio’s stars to speak out about how difficult it can be to deliver solid performances while acting in a neon void. WandaVision’s Elizabeth Olsen recently opened up about her own frustrations performing inside the physical nothingness required to bring Marvel’s big-budget projects together in post-production. But Hahn pointed to the Witches’ Road set as one of the big reasons why working on Agatha All Along felt like an immersive acting experience that didn’t require her “to shake off the outside world.”

“You felt so implanted in this magical place, and because it was mostly practical, it wasn’t something you had to imagine,” Hahn said. “It was like right there, which was very helpful and unexpectedly trippy.”

Because it’s a Marvel show about people casting spells and fighting demons, Agatha All Along still features its fair share of digital wizardry that works to make some of its more action-packed scenes pop. As a fan of stories that highlight characters’ physical transformations, though, Schaeffer jumped on every opportunity to put her witches through a crucible that left them literally “filthy, scarred, and scratched” by the show’s end.

“The cast were such troopers because all of that was real. There’s no adding digital blood and digital mud. These ladies were messed up for a long time. Cold; wet; muddy. Chocolate pudding all over their heads.”

Technology

Ukraine shows off capabilities of new drone-dropped, flamethrowing robotic war dogs: video

Published

10 hours ago

September 26, 2024

Press Room

Ukraine shows off capabilities of new drone-dropped, flamethrowing robotic war dogs: video

The Ministry of Defense in Ukraine took the opportunity this week to highlight the capabilities of its newest assets to help in the fight against Russia: robotic dogs with the option of adding flamethrowers to their arsenal.

The robotic “war dogs” were provided to Ukraine by the United Kingdom, and according to manufacturer Brit Alliance, the dogs have already exhibited exceptional mobility and agility crucial for traversing complex and hostile environments.

The dogs have the ability to navigate through debris, climb obstacles and move stealthily across open ground.

In a video posted to X on Monday by UkraineNewsLive, a drone is shown delivering a “combat robot scout” to a field in an undisclosed location. Once on the ground, the robotic dog rises onto its feet and walks in place.

DOGS OF WAR: BRITAIN’S NEW ROBOTS AIDING UKRAINE, TERRORIZING RUSSIA AS DRONES CONTINUE DOMINATING BATTLEFIELD

Ukraine shared video of its newest asset, a robotic war dog. (Ukraine Ministry of Defense)

Another video shared by the Ministry of Defense in Ukraine and posted by the armed forces Khortytsia unit shows a dog accompanying a Ukrainian soldier. The soldier is then seen using the dog’s thermal imaging camera to conduct surveillance in a wooded area.

The dogs in both videos are part of Ukraine’s combat unit dubbed “Medoid.”

In August, Ukraine unveiled the British second-generation Brit Alliance Dog (BAD2), which took to the battlefield, utilizing remote-sensing technology and a thermal-infrared camera to navigate the tricky landscape and perform a wide range of wartime tasks, such as delivering equipment or reconnaissance.

COLORADO POLICE DEPARTMENT SHOWS NEW WAYS TO USE DRONES FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT

Ukraine shared video of its newest asset, a robotic war dog. (Ukraine Ministry of Defense)

Ukrainian troops have taken over 30 of the dogs, which are effectively sophisticated land drones. Each unit costs around $9,000 to produce, and Brit Alliance has promised to update the units based on feedback from the Ukrainian troops.

Brit Alliance said in August that it believes the battlefield demonstration of the BAD2 unit will help turn it into a “cornerstone of modern military logistics.” The unit can move at just over 9 mph and move for five hours to a distance of over two miles, according to East2West.

Cleveland, Ohio-based Throwflame sells a version of the robotic dog called the Thermonator, which is outfitted with a flamethrower. The dog sells for about $9,420.

US, UK AND AUSTRALIA TAKE NEXT STEP IN INTEGRATING AI DEFENSE SYSTEMS

According to the company, the dog can be used for things like controlling and preventing wildfires and removing snow and ice.

Drones have increasingly played a pivotal role in the conflict for Ukraine, which has found drones a means of getting better return on its investment as the conflict drags on, and each side needs to prove more resourceful.

Ukraine deployed the “Sea Baby” drone earlier this year to try to destroy the Crimean Bridge, causing structural damage with the naval drone that has a one-ton payload and can travel up to 62 mph, according to Ukrainian outlet EuroMaiden Press.

Russia has responded in kind with its own land-based drones, but those models resemble remote-controlled cars. The drone, known as Scorpion-M, also has kamikaze capabilities and has seen increased use in the Donetsk region over the summer.

The Scorpion-M can carry up to 55 pounds of explosives and has been used to destroy underground hideouts and other facilities that conventional bombing has had trouble hitting. Experts touted the drone’s maneuverability, but they noted that the real advantage is the difficulty in jamming the units.

In that sense, the BAD2 will have similar advantages, plus better maneuverability: Christopher Alexander, a U.S. Army vet with experience in Strategic Operations Command, previously told Fox News Digital that he found it difficult to imagine “anyone in the current state of technology or deploying these things at the company/battalion level.”

Fox News’ Peter Aitken contributed to this report.

Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.

Story tips and can be sent to Greg.Wehner@Fox.com and on Twitter @GregWehner.

Technology

SteelSeries is launching $160 gaming earbuds for your Xbox, PlayStation, or PC

Published

20 hours ago

September 26, 2024

Press Room

SteelSeries is launching 0 gaming earbuds for your Xbox, PlayStation, or PC

SteelSeries has created new earbuds that are designed to pair with Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch consoles, or even PCs and mobile phones. The $159.99 Arctis GameBuds include active noise cancellation (ANC), Qi wireless charging, and the ability to instantly swap between mobile Bluetooth usage and console or PC gaming.

I’ve been trying them out for the past few days, and so far, I’m impressed, but I’ll need more time for a full review.

The Arctis GameBuds look very similar to most earbuds on the market, complete with a variety of silicone tips to fit different ear shapes. SteelSeries is using a four-microphone ANC system to block out sounds while you’re gaming, and there’s a transparency mode if you want to hear the environment around you.

The Arctis GameBuds fit into a wireless charging case.

Image: SteelSeries

The GameBuds connect to an Xbox or PlayStation through a tiny USB-C dongle that provides 2.4GHz wireless connectivity. You can triple-tap a button on the earbuds to swap between Bluetooth 5.3 for mobile devices and the 2.4GHz wireless signal for consoles and PCs. It’s surprisingly quick at swapping the audio over, but it doesn’t support simultaneous audio over Bluetooth and 2.4GHz like Sony’s Pulse Explore earbuds do.

I’ve been immediately impressed with the EQ settings in the mobile companion app. It includes more than 100 audio presets for popular games like Call of Duty, Destiny 2, EA Sports FC 24, Fortnite, and Valorant. These largely mirror the same EQ presets that can be found in SteelSeries’ GG desktop PC app with Sonar, and the results are impressive in games like Valorant, where you need to hear every footstep possible.

You can also toggle ANC and transparency modes in the mobile app or adjust the level of how much noise is being canceled out or allowed in. Both the mobile and desktop SteelSeries apps will allow you to control these settings and show the battery life levels for each earbud and the charging case.

The GameBuds come with a useful mobile app.

Image: SteelSeries

The ANC does a good job of filtering out sounds around you if you’re playing music or a loud game, but you’ll still hear some ambient sounds if you have the volume low or your game doesn’t have a ton of audio.

SteelSeries promises that the charging case delivers 40 hours of battery life, with 10 hours for each use and three extra charges thanks to the case. I’ve found that the battery drains at around 10 percent an hour using the 2.4GHz connection, so the battery life looks like it will be solid. The case also offers wireless Qi charging (not Qi2) and a USB-C connection at the rear that will provide around three hours of play with 15 minutes of fast charging.

While the GameBuds work across consoles and PC, there are separate models for both Xbox and PlayStation. If you purchase the PlayStation model, it will only work on Sony’s consoles, PC, and mobile, but the Xbox version works across all platforms. The Xbox variant includes an additional chip to adhere to Microsoft’s security policies and a slider button to switch to Xbox compatibility. The white model is exclusive to PlayStation, and there is a black variant for both Xbox and PlayStation.

There is a black version of the GameBuds for Xbox players.

Image: SteelSeries

SteelSeries is entering an increasingly crowded earbud market for gaming, going up against Sony, Razer, and Logitech. The $159 price of the Arctis GameBuds is less than the $199 Sony asks for the PlayStation Pulse Explore, and the GameBuds even include the ANC support that Sony surprisingly omitted. Sony offers ANC on its $199 InZone Buds with impressive 12-hour battery life, but those still lack the wireless charging case that SteelSeries provides.

While the $149 Razer Hammerhead HyperSpeed buds include ANC, they only deliver three hours per charge. Logitech’s $179 G Fits have better battery life at seven hours but lack ANC. SteelSeries has clearly found a gap in the market where it can offer low-latency earbuds with Bluetooth connectivity, a mobile app, ANC, and a wireless charging case, all for $159.

The Arctis GameBuds are available to preorder today in black and white versions, priced at $159.99 (€169.99). The GameBuds will be released worldwide on October 29th.