theverge--2020-06-17--GE will make taller wind turbines using 3D-printing

GE announced today that it ’ s developing skyscraper-sized wind turbines with massive 3D-printed bases .
The conglomerate plans to work with partners in the construction industry to produce both a printer and materials that could eventually be deployed around the world .
Taller turbines can capitalize on stronger winds at higher altitudes , and the structures support larger blades that generate more power .
But building bigger turbines makes transporting the pieces needed to put it together a logistical nightmare .
GE hopes to 3D print the base of a turbine wherever they want to place it , so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ haul around such a gigantic hunk of concrete or steel .
The company says its onshore turbines could reach up to 200 meters tall , which is taller than the Seattle Space Needle and more than double the average height for wind turbines in the US today .
onshore turbines could reach up to 200 meters tall Onshore wind turbines have had a massive growth spurt since the 1980s , when they averaged a height of about 20 meters in the US — not counting the blades .
Under ideal conditions , those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about 100kW per turbine .
By 2017 , those numbers grew to 84 meters tall with an output of more than 2MW ( 2000kW ) .
Turbines in parts of Europe , where there aren ’ t as strong winds closer to the ground , can reach greater heights .
One of the tallest onshore turbines , in Gaildorf , Germany , towers 178 meters tall .
GE wants to go even bigger .
Since it ’ s one of the world ’ s largest manufacturers of wind turbines , GE could usher @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turbines design and construction .
But it won ’ t be the first company to look into 3D-printing for wind energy .
Startup RCAM Technologies , with $ 1.25 million in funding from the California Energy Commission , set out in 2017 to build two turbine towers in a similar fashion — their research is still ongoing .
That means GE could be the first to make wind turbines with a 3D-printed base commercially available .
The company completed its first prototype in October 2019 , and it plans to begin production in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ looking at is a technology that enables the industry to go to a new level , ” says Paul Veers , chief engineer at the National Wind Technology Center and a senior research fellow at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory , of 3D printing .
The new technology could potentially reduce the amount of time and labor needed to install turbines , especially onshore , where turbines tend to be smaller than their offshore counterparts ( it ’ s easier to transport materials by sea ) .
“ It ’ s a stepping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plants , ” says Veers .
“ It ’ s a stepping stone into the next generation of wind plants ” GE believes it can build a 160-meter tall , 5MW turbine that generates 33 percent more power yearly than a turbine half the size — at a “ significant ” cost savings .
And since it ’ s usually easier to transport a 3D-printer than a 100 to 200 meter tower , it will be able to bring renewable wind energy to new markets , the company tells The Verge .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coming from transporting giant structures too .
“ It ’ s an international collaboration that is really aiming to change the world for the better with renewable energy , as well as with more sustainable technologies to make those products , ” says Matteo Bellucci , advanced manufacturing technology leader for GE Renewable Energy .
GE and its partners in this endeavor — 3D construction printing company , COBOD , and building materials company , LafargeHolcim — are working to 3D-print concrete bases that might run between 10 to 80 meters tall .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the base to make the turbine much taller .
Some turbine towers in Europe are already cast in cement on site to avoid the hassle of transporting them , but 3D-printing eliminates the labor costs that come with putting the concrete pieces together .
3D-printing concrete still comes with challenges .
The stronger the concrete is made to be , the trickier it becomes to place it — or in this case , print it .
“ There ’ s a big trade off between the material characteristics , the material strength @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if you will , to print it , ” explains Owen Roberts , an engineer at National Renewable Energy Laboratory .
A lot of current research is focused on figuring out that balancing act .
The industry hopes that with the help of this next generation of 3D-printing , onshore wind energy could stretch itself to cleaner , more powerful heights .

GE announced today that it’s developing skyscraper-sized wind turbines with massive 3D-printed bases. The conglomerate plans to work with partners in the construction industry to produce both a printer and materials that could eventually be deployed around the world.
Taller turbines can capitalize on stronger winds at higher altitudes, and the structures support larger blades that generate more power. But building bigger turbines makes transporting the pieces needed to put it together a logistical nightmare. GE hopes to 3D print the base of a turbine wherever they want to place it, so that they won’t need to haul around such a gigantic hunk of concrete or steel. The company says its onshore turbines could reach up to 200 meters tall, which is taller than the Seattle Space Needle and more than double the average height for wind turbines in the US today.
onshore turbines could reach up to 200 meters tall
Onshore wind turbines have had a massive growth spurt since the 1980s, when they averaged a height of about 20 meters in the US — not counting the blades. Under ideal conditions, those earlier turbines had a maximum output of about 100kW per turbine. By 2017, those numbers grew to 84 meters tall with an output of more than 2MW (2000kW). Turbines in parts of Europe, where there aren’t as strong winds closer to the ground, can reach greater heights. One of the tallest onshore turbines, in Gaildorf, Germany, towers 178 meters tall. GE wants to go even bigger.
Since it’s one of the world’s largest manufacturers of wind turbines, GE could usher in a whole new era for wind turbines design and construction. But it won’t be the first company to look into 3D-printing for wind energy. Startup RCAM Technologies, with $1.25 million in funding from the California Energy Commission, set out in 2017 to build two turbine towers in a similar fashion — their research is still ongoing. That means GE could be the first to make wind turbines with a 3D-printed base commercially available. The company completed its first prototype in October 2019, and it plans to begin production in 2023.
“What you’re looking at is a technology that enables the industry to go to a new level,” says Paul Veers, chief engineer at the National Wind Technology Center and a senior research fellow at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, of 3D printing. The new technology could potentially reduce the amount of time and labor needed to install turbines, especially onshore, where turbines tend to be smaller than their offshore counterparts (it’s easier to transport materials by sea). “It’s a stepping stone into the next generation of wind plants,” says Veers.
“It’s a stepping stone into the next generation of wind plants”
GE believes it can build a 160-meter tall, 5MW turbine that generates 33 percent more power yearly than a turbine half the size — at a “significant” cost savings. And since it’s usually easier to transport a 3D-printer than a 100 to 200 meter tower, it will be able to bring renewable wind energy to new markets, the company tells The Verge. It would cut down the greenhouse gas emissions coming from transporting giant structures too.
“It’s an international collaboration that is really aiming to change the world for the better with renewable energy, as well as with more sustainable technologies to make those products,” says Matteo Bellucci, advanced manufacturing technology leader for GE Renewable Energy.
GE’s prototype 3D-printed base for wind turbines GE Renewable Energy/Cobod/LafargeHolcim.
GE and its partners in this endeavor — 3D construction printing company, COBOD, and building materials company, LafargeHolcim — are working to 3D-print concrete bases that might run between 10 to 80 meters tall. They can then add a steel tower to the base to make the turbine much taller. Some turbine towers in Europe are already cast in cement on site to avoid the hassle of transporting them, but 3D-printing eliminates the labor costs that come with putting the concrete pieces together.
3D-printing concrete still comes with challenges. The stronger the concrete is made to be, the trickier it becomes to place it — or in this case, print it. “There’s a big trade off between the material characteristics, the material strength, and how easy it is, if you will, to print it,” explains Owen Roberts, an engineer at National Renewable Energy Laboratory.


theverge--2020-06-17--Arrival expands beyond electric delivery vans with a new EV bus

Arrival ’ s all-electric delivery vans have won the UK startup a lot of buzz and ample funding from grownup companies like UPS and Hyundai , all before any of those vehicles have actually been deployed .
But now the startup is ready to reveal it ’ s been working on another type of electric vehicle : buses .
Later today , Arrival will unveil an EV bus that it views as the next step in becoming a major electric transportation company , and The Verge has the exclusive first look .
At a glance , the Arrival bus is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It ’ s a big rounded rectangle on wheels , with large windows and plenty of seating .
But there are many modern ( and some thoughtful ) touches embedded throughout that , according to chief experience officer Kwame Nyanning , will offer something that ’ s “ unparalleled ” and “ pretty radically different ” to riders and fleet operators alike .
Arrival has already pulled down investments from Hyundai and UPS Perhaps unsurprisingly , there are lots of screens .
The top of the bus ’ s exterior is ringed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ indicate things like which doors will be best for boarding .
There are more screens that run along the top of the interior that can offer up information about upcoming stops .
It ’ s easy to imagine these screens being used for more dynamic advertising than is possible on most existing buses , too .
In mockups provided to The Verge , the Arrival bus also features a display panel behind the driver that shows more information about the route .
And a landscape touchscreen panel that looks a lot like the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 3 and Model Y sits to the side of the driver .
Much like in a Tesla , that screen replaces a lot of the standard buttons one would typically find at the front of a bus .
Also gone in these renderings ?
Coin trays and card swipes , replaced with tap-to-pay sensors .
The screens ( and what Arrival wants to do with them ) are a nod to something deeper about the Arrival bus , which is that it will be connected in a way that many current buses aren @ @ @ @ @ @ @ passengers with better real-time information , both on and off the bus .
But Nyanning says it could also make it easier for operators to manage their fleets .
“ Our buses are built for the moment right now , which means that they are connected in ways that your typical bus is not connected , ” he said in an interview with The Verge .
“ So from a fleet management standpoint , you ’ re able to deploy your inventory of buses in a much more intelligent way to forecast and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that we ’ re able to pull from from the buses.
” “ a lot of other bus manufacturers are just making buses.
” “ I think a lot of other bus manufacturers are just making buses .
They ’ re not making systems .
And that ’ s , I think , the thing that distinguishes us , ” he added .
Beyond the hard tech , Arrival has designed its bus to have easily flexible seating configurations .
There ’ s also a skylight running the length of the roof , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ calming soundscape ” that will play throughout the cabin .
Nyanning said the company has also made the bus easier to clean .
“ Every single touchpoint with these vehicles is an opportunity to improve someone ’ s moment , ” he said .
Underpinning all of this is an all-electric platform that powers the Arrival bus .
The company isn ’ t releasing any specifications just yet .
But it has been testing prototypes , footage of which can be seen below .
Arrival has said that the electric vehicle platform that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ able to scale up or down to meet the needs of many customers .
It ’ s not clear if the bus will run on the same platform , but the company is already talking about how it ’ s developing smaller electric taxis and delivery robots as part of its goal of electrifying and modernizing the larger transportation sector .
And all of these will be built at so-called “ microfactories ” that Arrival will build near the places it strikes deals with .
Arrival isn ’ t the first company to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ giant BYD is a major provider of electric buses both in China and around the world ( including in the US ) .
And startups like California ’ s Proterra have found a lot of early success in helping cities turn over their internal combustion fleets to meet ( or get ahead of ) clean air regulations .
Arrival is just five years old , but it has grand ambitions Nyanning said Arrival is aware of the challenges of breaking into an established market , and one that ’ s also so closely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to that much broader selling point during the interview .
Arrival ’ s new bus is a new product that it wants to sell , to be sure , and Nyanning said the company is already in talks with partners to do just that .
But place the bus alongside the van , and the other future vehicles Arrival is now talking about , and it ’ s clear the company ’ s goals are much greater .
This five-year-old startup wants to take the momentum it ’ s already built and use @ @ @ @ @ @ @ company that can offer all sorts of zero-emission transportation solutions to governments and companies , big and small .
It ’ s the kind of ambition that could sink a startup in the difficult , low-margin vehicle manufacturing space .
But Nyanning views that ambition as an advantage , which explains why he thinks the the new bus is such an important step .
“ Yes we want to make this bus , and this bus is an excellent bus .
It ’ s you know , it ’ s the best bus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But the much sort of broader intention is to improve the quality of life for people , and to improve the ability of city managers and municipalities to provide better services for the folks who work for them and for the folks who live in those places , ” Nyanning said .
And if Arrival can do that , he said , the other offerings the company is cooking up will look even more attractive to those same city managers and municipalities .
“ The more robust and expansive our ecosystem grows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” he said .
“ We introduce a van , we introduce the bus , we introduce taxis , we introduce other sort of shared mobility solutions or mobility as a service solutions , and all of a sudden , the cumulative value of all these systems and platforms working together to form a single solution becomes quite compelling .
”

Arrival’s all-electric delivery vans have won the UK startup a lot of buzz and ample funding from grownup companies like UPS and Hyundai, all before any of those vehicles have actually been deployed. But now the startup is ready to reveal it’s been working on another type of electric vehicle: buses. Later today, Arrival will unveil an EV bus that it views as the next step in becoming a major electric transportation company, and The Verge has the exclusive first look.
At a glance, the Arrival bus is not all that different from any other. It’s a big rounded rectangle on wheels, with large windows and plenty of seating. But there are many modern (and some thoughtful) touches embedded throughout that, according to chief experience officer Kwame Nyanning, will offer something that’s “unparalleled” and “pretty radically different” to riders and fleet operators alike.
Arrival has already pulled down investments from Hyundai and UPS
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are lots of screens. The top of the bus’s exterior is ringed with displays that could be used to indicate things like which doors will be best for boarding. There are more screens that run along the top of the interior that can offer up information about upcoming stops. It’s easy to imagine these screens being used for more dynamic advertising than is possible on most existing buses, too.
In mockups provided to The Verge, the Arrival bus also features a display panel behind the driver that shows more information about the route. And a landscape touchscreen panel that looks a lot like the one found in Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y sits to the side of the driver. Much like in a Tesla, that screen replaces a lot of the standard buttons one would typically find at the front of a bus. Also gone in these renderings? Coin trays and card swipes, replaced with tap-to-pay sensors.
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The screens (and what Arrival wants to do with them) are a nod to something deeper about the Arrival bus, which is that it will be connected in a way that many current buses aren’t. This could help provide passengers with better real-time information, both on and off the bus. But Nyanning says it could also make it easier for operators to manage their fleets.
“Our buses are built for the moment right now, which means that they are connected in ways that your typical bus is not connected,” he said in an interview with The Verge. “So from a fleet management standpoint, you’re able to deploy your inventory of buses in a much more intelligent way to forecast and meet and track demand based on data that we’re able to pull from from the buses.”
“a lot of other bus manufacturers are just making buses.”
“I think a lot of other bus manufacturers are just making buses. They’re not making systems. And that’s, I think, the thing that distinguishes us,” he added.
Beyond the hard tech, Arrival has designed its bus to have easily flexible seating configurations. There’s also a skylight running the length of the roof, and what Nyanning described as a “calming soundscape” that will play throughout the cabin. Nyanning said the company has also made the bus easier to clean. “Every single touchpoint with these vehicles is an opportunity to improve someone’s moment,” he said.
Underpinning all of this is an all-electric platform that powers the Arrival bus. The company isn’t releasing any specifications just yet. But it has been testing prototypes, footage of which can be seen below.
Arrival has said that the electric vehicle platform that powers its delivery vans is modular, able to scale up or down to meet the needs of many customers. It’s not clear if the bus will run on the same platform, but the company is already talking about how it’s developing smaller electric taxis and delivery robots as part of its goal of electrifying and modernizing the larger transportation sector. And all of these will be built at so-called “microfactories” that Arrival will build near the places it strikes deals with.
Arrival isn’t the first company to try to electrify buses. Chinese automotive giant BYD is a major provider of electric buses both in China and around the world (including in the US). And startups like California’s Proterra have found a lot of early success in helping cities turn over their internal combustion fleets to meet (or get ahead of) clean air regulations.
Arrival is just five years old, but it has grand ambitions
Nyanning said Arrival is aware of the challenges of breaking into an established market, and one that’s also so closely regulated. But he kept coming back to that much broader selling point during the interview. Arrival’s new bus is a new product that it wants to sell, to be sure, and Nyanning said the company is already in talks with partners to do just that. But place the bus alongside the van, and the other future vehicles Arrival is now talking about, and it’s clear the company’s goals are much greater. This five-year-old startup wants to take the momentum it’s already built and use it to help evolve into a vertically-integrated company that can offer all sorts of zero-emission transportation solutions to governments and companies, big and small.
It’s the kind of ambition that could sink a startup in the difficult, low-margin vehicle manufacturing space. But Nyanning views that ambition as an advantage, which explains why he thinks the the new bus is such an important step.
“Yes we want to make this bus, and this bus is an excellent bus. It’s you know, it’s the best bus anybody’s probably ever ridden on. But the much sort of broader intention is to improve the quality of life for people, and to improve the ability of city managers and municipalities to provide better services for the folks who work for them and for the folks who live in those places,” Nyanning said.


theverge--2020-06-17--Apple’s App Store policies are bad, but its interpretation and enforcement are worse

I started this morning all riled up and ready to write a newsletter about how Google is using its market power in one segment — Gmail — to give itself a potentially unfair advantage in another segment : video conferencing .
That was the plan , but then Apple decided to use its market power in one segment — the App Store — to give itself a potentially unfair advantage in another segment : buying digital goods .
I ’ m obviously going to focus on Apple .
But to get Google out of the way quickly , its abuse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Meet into Gmail , but to inflict a giant button on inbox screens for all G Suite users by default .
It can be turned off , but the company is clearly sacrificing user experience to push its own agenda against Zoom .
( I ’ ll come back to Google in a postscript . )
In Apple ’ s case , the decision was to tell the company that makes the brand new email app called Hey that it can not distribute its app on the iPhone unless it makes it possible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s own prescribed methods — which gives Apple a 30 percent cut .
The timing of all this is simply incredible , with so many happenings that I ’ d be nuts to focus on anything else .
Not only does Apple ’ s WWDC developer conference kick off in less than a week , the EU literally opened up an antitrust investigations into App Store and Apple Pay practices the very same day this Hey thing went down !
Tom Warren : And Apple itself was touting a study proclaiming how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the economy on Monday , claiming it created $ 519 billion in commerce last year .
Nick Statt : We ’ re going to run through some of the play-by-play of Hey , digging into what Apple ’ s policies are and how they may or may not apply .
Here ’ s the relevant paragraph from Apple ’ s App Store policy , 3.1.1 : The key thing to know is that the text of this policy is not actually the policy .
Or rather , as with any law , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you need to understand .
You also need to know how it is enforced and how the enforcers interpret that text .
It should not surprise you to know that Apple ’ s interpretation of its text often seems capricious at best and at worst seems like it ’ s motivated by self-dealing .
And the enforcement consequently often seems unfair .
The rule states that if you want to sell digital goods , you have to use Apple ’ s payment system .
Except that ’ s not how how 3.1.1 has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been interpreted as allowing people to access services they paid for elsewhere on their iOS devices , but not allowing those apps to try to get around the Apple payment rules when people sign up on those devices .
That ’ s convoluted , but that interpretation is what keeps Netflix from having an account sign-up in its app .
It ’ s the policy that has enraged Spotify and keeps you from buying Kindle books on your iPhone without jumping through a million weird Safari hoops .
That was already a very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Now , with this email app , Apple is apparently changing its interpretation to be more strict .
David Pierce at Protocol spoke to the folks at Basecamp , who make Hey , about what Apple told them was the reasoning for their app updates getting rejected .
In short , the original app was accepted but updates will not be because somebody inside Apple started enforcing their revised interpretation .
And boy howdy , if you want a masterclass in the real rules being hidden in interpretation and enforcement instead of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : So now the rule is you have to use Apple ’ s system unless you were lucky enough to make a popular subscription app , in which case you could just keep going .
Now , apparently , there are unwritten special classes of apps that are allowed to let you sign up elsewhere but still access the app on the iPhone : “ business services ” and “ Reader apps ” and these terms retroactively apply to those other apps ?
As Pierce tweets : Now we ’ re in full @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Reader ” app somehow and therefore exempt ?
I cracked a joke about the No True Scotsman logical fallacy , but more I think about it , the more it applies .
Figuring out whether or not your app is included in Apple ’ s interpretation of its rules or whether Apple will enforce those rules upon you is a straight up guessing game .
Here ’ s a hint , though : if you ’ re big and powerful and have leverage , you have a better shot .
After all , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some of these rules right now on the Apple TV , even the 30 percent cut !
Remember that kerfuffle ?
Here ’ s the so-called “ established program ” that nobody knew about : Basecamp CTO David Heinemeier Hansson has been popping off about Hey ’ s potential App Store ban on Twitter all day — and rightly so .
He has also testified before congress about Apple ’ s outsized market power .
( Heinemeier Hansson , you may recall , also brought the Apple Card ’ s biases against providing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) To me , arguing over whether the text of Apple ’ s policy is being interpreted or enforced fairly is almost beside the point .
I say “ almost ” because the whole guessing game about rules is unsettling for developers , it lays bare that Apple holds the power to ban their app .
An arbitrary ruler exerts their will more forcefully and more onerously than one who follows the rule of law .
Opaque and arbitrary interpretation and enforcement puts more power into Apple ’ s hands — and it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ text of the rules in the first place .
The real issue is Apple ’ s power , of which this whole Kafkaesque series of changing rules is a symptom .
We all know the score here : Apple needs to protect the 30 percent cut it takes , and if it allows too many apps to circumvent that cut then some sort of dam may break .
From Apple ’ s perspective , it ’ s not so much the money for its services bottom line but that if everybody used a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the iPhone would genuinely be degraded , if not fragmented .
( The money doesn ’ t hurt , though . )
For Apple , the line has to be drawn somewhere .
We just happen to be right on that line , discovering that it ’ s a lot wigglier , grayer , and more porous than we realized .
And given how convoluted the interpretation and enforcement has been in this case , the reasoning for those wiggles is much easier to explain by looking at Apple ’ s business imperatives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s policies .
Google , for what it ’ s worth , draws its line at games .
Other apps are free to link out to other places where people can sign up and pay for their accounts .
Of course , even then there ’ s controversy : Fortnite was denied an exemption and then quit and finally rejoined the Play Store under duress .
Android doesn ’ t restrict users from installing apps from non-Play Store sources , but it does make doing so feel dangerous and scary .
There @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Apple a monopolist .
After all , people are free to buy an Android phone and well over 80 percent of smartphone buyers on the planet do just that .
Apple ’ s marketshare in the US is significantly higher than it is in the rest of the world , but it ’ s not that high .
Ben Thompson at Stratechery has been writing about this for years — he recently pulled his 2018 article on this very issue out from behind the paywall .
In it , he writes that “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ market is smartphones , but rather digital goods and services.
” Indeed .
The monopoly Apple has is a monopoly over the iPhone itself , not over smartphones .
And that is a very strange way to think about a monopoly .
Shouldn ’ t Apple be free to make whatever rules it wants on the devices it sells ?
Is it unfair for Apple to demand a cut of all digital commerce on its platforms ?
Here ’ s how Thompson answered that question , and I ’ m not sure I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about Hey is that it was a very high profile app with a high-profile launch and high-profile executives getting attention over this issue .
But it ’ s surely the tip of a growing iceberg and it feels like one of those unwritten interpretations or enforcement rules have changed .
If you ’ re a developer who ’ s been caught up , feel free to reach out .
P.S .
I asked Google a series of questions about its planned Meet integration into Gmail .
Here ’ s the only one that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comment on the concern that Google is using its market power on popular apps like Gmail and Google Calendar to give its own video conferencing app an unfair competitive advantage ?
And here ’ s Google ’ s response , which I find to be disingenuous but am relaying in full : As for why that integration needs to be a gigantic button at the bottom of your Inbox instead of just showing up in the sidebar , Google says “ A tab is easier to access [ ... ] and testing shows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suspect that real-world testing will show Google something very different .
Disclosure : My wife works on the Oculus Store , including setting policies for that store .
I recuse myself from reporting on Oculus so I am not at all familiar with what Oculus ’ policies are .
More from The Verge ┏ The Lenovo Flex 5G is the world ’ s first 5G laptop you can actually buy .
┏ What ’ s left of Magic Leap ?
.
Adi Robertson looks at what comes after all that hype .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dynamics will now sell any business its own Spot robot for $ 74,500 .
┏ The gadgets Late Night with Seth Meyers uses to keep the show running from home .
Really wonderful story from Andrew Marino .
It ’ s remarkable how the average YouTuber has better equipment than network TV late night hosts .
┏ Google is bringing Microsoft Office and other Windows apps to Chromebooks .
┏ Bose gives up on its augmented reality sound project .

I started this morning all riled up and ready to write a newsletter about how Google is using its market power in one segment — Gmail — to give itself a potentially unfair advantage in another segment: video conferencing.
That was the plan, but then Apple decided to use its market power in one segment — the App Store — to give itself a potentially unfair advantage in another segment: buying digital goods.
I’m obviously going to focus on Apple. But to get Google out of the way quickly, its abuse was deciding not only to build Google Meet into Gmail, but to inflict a giant button on inbox screens for all G Suite users by default. It can be turned off, but the company is clearly sacrificing user experience to push its own agenda against Zoom. (I’ll come back to Google in a postscript.)
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In Apple’s case, the decision was to tell the company that makes the brand new email app called Hey that it cannot distribute its app on the iPhone unless it makes it possible for users to sign up via Apple’s own prescribed methods — which gives Apple a 30 percent cut.
The timing of all this is simply incredible, with so many happenings that I’d be nuts to focus on anything else. Not only does Apple’s WWDC developer conference kick off in less than a week, the EU literally opened up an antitrust investigations into App Store and Apple Pay practices the very same day this Hey thing went down! Tom Warren:
The first investigation will probe whether Apple has broken EU competition rules with its App Store policies, following complaints by Spotify and Rakuten over Apple’s 30-percent cut on subscriptions and sales of ebooks through its App Store. “We need to ensure that Apple’s rules do not distort competition in markets where Apple is competing with other app developers, for example with its music streaming service Apple Music or with Apple Books,” says Margrethe Vestager, the head of the EU’s antitrust division. “I have therefore decided to take a close look at Apple’s App Store rules and their compliance with EU competition rules.”
And Apple itself was touting a study proclaiming how much its App Store has added to the economy on Monday, claiming it created $519 billion in commerce last year. Nick Statt:
In-app advertising, also largely dedicated to mobile gaming, makes up another $45 billion. Of everything else — from ride-hailing software to food delivery apps to mobile retail shops from Best Buy and Target — making up the remaining $413 billion, Apple takes no cut, the study says.
We’re going to run through some of the play-by-play of Hey, digging into what Apple’s policies are and how they may or may not apply. Here’s the relevant paragraph from Apple’s App Store policy, 3.1.1:
If you want to unlock features or functionality within your app, (by way of example: subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access to premium content, or unlocking a full version), you must use in-app purchase. Apps may not use their own mechanisms to unlock content or functionality, such as license keys, augmented reality markers, QR codes, etc. Apps and their metadata may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase.
The key thing to know is that the text of this policy is not actually the policy. Or rather, as with any law, the text is only one of the things you need to understand. You also need to know how it is enforced and how the enforcers interpret that text.
It should not surprise you to know that Apple’s interpretation of its text often seems capricious at best and at worst seems like it’s motivated by self-dealing. And the enforcement consequently often seems unfair.
The rule states that if you want to sell digital goods, you have to use Apple’s payment system. Except that’s not how how 3.1.1 has been interpreted to date. It has been interpreted as allowing people to access services they paid for elsewhere on their iOS devices, but not allowing those apps to try to get around the Apple payment rules when people sign up on those devices.
That’s convoluted, but that interpretation is what keeps Netflix from having an account sign-up in its app. It’s the policy that has enraged Spotify and keeps you from buying Kindle books on your iPhone without jumping through a million weird Safari hoops. That was already a very bad rule, if you ask me. Now, with this email app, Apple is apparently changing its interpretation to be more strict.
David Pierce at Protocol spoke to the folks at Basecamp, who make Hey, about what Apple told them was the reasoning for their app updates getting rejected. In short, the original app was accepted but updates will not be because somebody inside Apple started enforcing their revised interpretation. And boy howdy, if you want a masterclass in the real rules being hidden in interpretation and enforcement instead of in the plain text, buckle up:
Because Hey didn’t qualify as a “Reader” app, Apple said that existing subscribers could log in as normal but Hey needed to make all subscriptions available to new users as in-app purchases. ... Apple told me that its actual mistake was approving the app in the first place, when it didn’t conform to its guidelines. Apple allows these kinds of client apps — where you can’t sign up, only sign in — for business services but not consumer products.
So now the rule is you have to use Apple’s system unless you were lucky enough to make a popular subscription app, in which case you could just keep going. According to clause 3.1.3(a), there are special classes of apps that are allowed to let you sign up elsewhere but still access the app on the iPhone: “business services” and “Reader apps” and these terms retroactively apply to those other apps? As Pierce tweets:
One other distinction: Apple allows “Reader” apps — things like Netflix and Kindle and Dropbox, where you’re using the app to access existing subscriptions — as long as they don’t offer a way to sign up. But email, messaging, etc don’t count as Reader apps
Now we’re in full pretzel mode. Dropbox is a “Reader” app somehow and therefore exempt? 3.1.3(a) refers to “Reader” mode, but it also has an eminently interpretable clause that includes “approved services.” I cracked a joke about the No True Scotsman logical fallacy, but more I think about it, the more it applies.
Figuring out whether or not your app is included in Apple’s interpretation of its rules or whether Apple will enforce those rules upon you is a straight up guessing game. Here’s a hint, though: if you’re big and powerful and have leverage, you have a better shot. After all, Apple is fully letting Amazon get around some of these rules right now on the Apple TV, even the 30 percent cut! Remember that kerfuffle? Here’s the so-called “established program” that nobody knew about:
On qualifying premium video entertainment apps such as Prime Video, Altice One and Canal+, customers have the option to buy or rent movies and TV shows using the payment method tied to their existing video subscription
To me, arguing over whether the text of Apple’s policy is being interpreted or enforced fairly is almost beside the point. I say “almost” because the whole guessing game about rules is unsettling for developers, it lays bare that Apple holds the power to ban their app.
An arbitrary ruler exerts their will more forcefully and more onerously than one who follows the rule of law. Opaque and arbitrary interpretation and enforcement puts more power into Apple’s hands — and it already has the power the set the text of the rules in the first place.
The real issue is Apple’s power, of which this whole Kafkaesque series of changing rules is a symptom. We all know the score here: Apple needs to protect the 30 percent cut it takes, and if it allows too many apps to circumvent that cut then some sort of dam may break. From Apple’s perspective, it’s not so much the money for its services bottom line but that if everybody used a different payment system, the experience on the iPhone would genuinely be degraded, if not fragmented. (The money doesn’t hurt, though.)
For Apple, the line has to be drawn somewhere. We just happen to be right on that line, discovering that it’s a lot wigglier, grayer, and more porous than we realized. And given how convoluted the interpretation and enforcement has been in this case, the reasoning for those wiggles is much easier to explain by looking at Apple’s business imperatives than it is by looking at Apple’s policies.
Google, for what it’s worth, draws its line at games. Other apps are free to link out to other places where people can sign up and pay for their accounts. Of course, even then there’s controversy: Fortnite was denied an exemption and then quit and finally rejoined the Play Store under duress. Android doesn’t restrict users from installing apps from non-Play Store sources, but it does make doing so feel dangerous and scary.
There’s a cognitive dissonance to calling Apple a monopolist. After all, people are free to buy an Android phone and well over 80 percent of smartphone buyers on the planet do just that. Apple’s marketshare in the US is significantly higher than it is in the rest of the world, but it’s not that high.
Ben Thompson at Stratechery has been writing about this for years — he recently pulled his 2018 article on this very issue out from behind the paywall. In it, he writes that “I don’t believe the relevant market is smartphones, but rather digital goods and services.” Indeed.
The monopoly Apple has is a monopoly over the iPhone itself, not over smartphones. And that is a very strange way to think about a monopoly. Shouldn’t Apple be free to make whatever rules it wants on the devices it sells? Is it unfair for Apple to demand a cut of all digital commerce on its platforms?
Here’s how Thompson answered that question, and I’m not sure I can say it better:
What should be restricted, though, is leveraging a win in one area into dominance in another: that means Apple winning in smartphones should not mean it gets to own digital payments, and inventing the App Store does not mean it gets 30% of all digital goods (or be allowed to diminish the user experience of its competitors).
The thing about Hey is that it was a very high profile app with a high-profile launch and high-profile executives getting attention over this issue. But it’s surely the tip of a growing iceberg and it feels like one of those unwritten interpretations or enforcement rules have changed. If you’re a developer who’s been caught up, feel free to reach out.
P.S. I asked Google a series of questions about its planned Meet integration into Gmail. Here’s the only one that really matters:
Do you have any comment on the concern that Google is using its market power on popular apps like Gmail and Google Calendar to give its own video conferencing app an unfair competitive advantage?
And here’s Google’s response, which I find to be disingenuous but am relaying in full:
Google Hangouts, with support for video meetings and direct/group messaging, has been in Gmail and Calendar for years (Gmail on web has had video calling for over a decade). We are now updating the video calling functionality that Hangouts provided with Google Meet and extending the experience to mobile. As always, we will continue to enable user choice and allow users to opt in or out of features to their liking. In addition, as G Suite is a platform, third-party apps have access to integrate with our applications through the G Suite Add-on framework.
As for why that integration needs to be a gigantic button at the bottom of your Inbox instead of just showing up in the sidebar, Google says “A tab is easier to access [...] and testing shows that users like this method.” I suspect that real-world testing will show Google something very different.
Disclosure: My wife works on the Oculus Store, including setting policies for that store. I recuse myself from reporting on Oculus so I am not at all familiar with what Oculus’ policies are.
Verge Deal of the day Apple’s AirPods Pro are $30 off at Amazon Normally $250, the Apple AirPods Pro wireless earbuds are down to $220 at Amazon. Compared to the standard AirPods, these feature better sound quality and noise cancellation. We’ve seen these drop a bit lower in price before, but that’s a pretty rare occurrence. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy . Prices displayed are based on the MSRP at time of posting.
More from The Verge
┏ What’s left of Magic Leap?. Adi Robertson looks at what comes after all that hype. It’s not much!
┏ The gadgets Late Night with Seth Meyers uses to keep the show running from home. Really wonderful story from Andrew Marino. It’s remarkable how the average YouTuber has better equipment than network TV late night hosts.


theverge--2020-06-17--How Apple is making the antitrust case against it stronger

The Interface is a daily column and newsletter about the intersection of social media and democracy .
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Say your company makes a new email platform .
In 2020 , that means building not just a website but also an app — several of them , actually .
You ’ ll probably want clients for Mac and Windows , iOS and Android , the open web , and — if you ’ re showing off — Linux .
In some of these places , like the web , there is no cost for operating this service beyond building @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , such as the Mac and iOS app stores , there is a significant cost : 30 percent of revenue generated from within the app .
This is true even though Apple runs its own email platform , which is free but charges for extra storage , and gets to keep all that revenue for itself .
The above is the situation now unfolding for Hey , a clever and genuinely original email platform released on Monday by the makers of Basecamp .
( I wrote about it at some length for The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trying new productivity apps is a form of self-care . )
Hey costs $ 99 a year , and you can only sign up and pay on its website .
It managed to get its iOS app into the App Store .
But then it tried to submit some bug fixes , and Apple informed the company that it had to begin taking signups on iOS — and give Apple a 30 percent cut of that revenue — or get kicked out of the store .
The reason , writes David Pierce at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Apple ’ s guidelines for app developers , which says in essence that if you want people to be able to buy stuff in your app , you need to do it using Apple ’ s payments system.
” The rule is not uniformly applied .
If you make a music app , like Spotify , or a video app , like Netflix , you can force people to sign up on the web and Apple won ’ t take a cut .
And if you make certain other email apps , such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the author ) , you can put your app in the App Store even though you don ’ t let people pay with an in-app purchase .
On its face , Apple ’ s policy enforcement here feels arbitrary and capricious — and , I suspect , it may become part of the antitrust investigations now underway against the company .
Apple has a duopoly in the smartphone market with Google , and charges developers 30 percent of their revenue to compete with it in certain categories , such as email .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that certainly sounds like a formidable barrier to entry — and one erected by a company that has $ 192.8 billion in cash it has no clear use for , to boot .
Apple declined to comment on the decision , but told Pierce its mistake was in ever permitting Hey into the App Store to begin with .
Still , you could imagine the company saying , look , if you don ’ t want to pay the rent , just don ’ t make an iOS app .
But that ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hansson , the co-founder of Basecamp , in a Twitter message .
“ That ’ s exactly what monopolists always say !
Take it or leave it !
Because they KNOW you can ’ t leave it.
” He went on : I was glad Heinemeier Hansson brought up justice , since it ’ s at the heart of every content moderation decision — and whether an app gets to be in the App Store is a content moderation decision like any other .
Often in this column I ’ ll write about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a controversial video on YouTube , and what makes people so mad is that they fundamentally have no recourse against the platform , even though for many of those people it has become their livelihood .
It might be legal , but it doesn ’ t feel just .
The thing about anti-competitive behavior , though , is that it may be illegal .
Spotify has at least one advantage over Hey , in that it can exist in the App Store even though it doesn ’ t sell subscriptions there .
Instead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Spotify ’ s premium service , you have to go to its website — a fact that , per App Store guidelines , the company is not allowed to advertise .
Meanwhile , Apple offers a mediocre Spotify alternative , Apple Music , which it advertises throughout the operating system .
( I ’ ve received several push notification advertisements inviting me to subscribe ) .
Last May , Spotify filed a formal complaint against Apple with the European Union , alleging that Apple is harming consumers and stifling innovation via the 30 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ barriers to competition .
Competition is particularly difficult in the music industry , given that the lion ’ s share of all revenue that they generate goes to the record labels that own the music .
For Spotify , Apple ’ s businesses could represent an existential threat .
( Among other things , it has pushed Spotify to buy up the crown jewels of American podcasting , to reduce its head-to-head competition with Apple over music streaming . )
In any case , on Tuesday the European Union heeded Spotify ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into Apple .
Here ’ s Tom Warren at The Verge : Vestager opened a concurrent second investigation against the company related to Apple Pay , over fears that the company ’ s policies around which merchants are allowed to use phone payments are similarly anticompetitive .
For its part , Apple was rather hilariously dismissive of the whole affair .
The truth is that many , many developers complain about these policies — but precisely because they are so dependent on Apple , very few are willing to do so publicly .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ playing field , the idea that Apple charges people a 30 percent tax to compete with it in some categories but not others seems laughable on its face .
By now we are more or less used to the European Union taking the lead in regulating the big tech companies .
But since Democrats retook the House of Representatives in 2018 , the United States has also shown a belated interest in competition , and some of those efforts are accelerating .
One of the most significant developments on that front to date @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai told the House Judiciary Committee they are open to testifying about competition .
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has said he will testify as well .
The apparent deal is that the CEOs will show up and testify as long as all of the other guys , do , too , so they can distribute the pain equally .
( This will help ensure that the coverage is nicely generic — “ Congress yells at Big Tech ” — and not “ Congress yells at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and specific reasons . )
But one CEO has yet to confirm his attendance , and if you ’ ve read this far you can probably guess who .
Here ’ s Tony Romm in the Washington Post : If nothing else , agreeing to go before Congress indicates that three of the four Big Tech CEOs feel comfortable defending themselves against charges of anticompetitive behavior .
Given everything unfolding at the moment in Apple ’ s domain , then , it is perhaps unsurprising that Tim Cook has been less willing to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ affect public perception of the big tech platforms .
Trending sideways : Google banned far-right websites ZeroHedge and The Federalist from its ad platform over racist comments posted on the sites .
But then it reversed its decision on The Federalist and undermined its own PR people in the process .
( Adi Robertson / The Verge ) Trending sideways : Facebook rejected a proposal to share ad revenue with news organizations , saying there would “ not be significant ” impacts on its business if it stopped sharing news altogether .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Competition and Consumer Commission which is trying to find ways to level the playing field between social platforms and news outlets .
( Naaman Zhou and Amanda Meade / The Guardian ) ⬇ Trending down : Two black former policy executives at Pinterest revealed a history of racist discrimination at the company .
Ifeoma Ozoma , who pushed Pinterest to enact industry-leading guidelines to remove misinformation about vaccines , wrote a Twitter thread about pay discrimination , harassment , and more .
( Cat Zakrzewski / The Washington Post ) ⭐ Researchers discovered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ documents and a network of burner accounts to spread rumors across Facebook and Reddit .
Content centered around themes that aligned with Russian interests , like the unreliability of Ukraine and hostility to NATO interventions .
Here ’ s Russell Brandom at The Verge : House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged advertisers to use their “ tremendous leverage ” to push social media platforms to crack down on disinformation .
The remarks came during an online forum about COVID-19 and social media disinformation .
Pelosi spent $ 200,000 on Facebook ads this week .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ CNBC ) In a series of new reports from Gallup and the Knight Foundation , 77 percent of Americans say big tech companies like Facebook , Google , Amazon and Apple have too much power .
The reports also have interesting findings about peoples ’ feelings on Section 230 .
Evelyn Douek has a perfect tweet about this report .
( Knight Foundation ) Private Facebook groups are using the name “ Justice for George Floyd ” to hide racist behavior .
Inside the group , they ’ re posting hateful memes and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ neo-Nazis .
( Dara Kerr and Shara Tibken / CNET ) Wikipedia editors are questioning what it means to be a platform committed to “ neutrality.
” This debate played out in the decision to rename the page on George Floyd ’ s murder from “ Death of George Floyd ” to “ Killing of George Floyd.
” ( Stephen Harrison / Slate ) Smartphone location data can be used to identify people attending protests , and even link them to the places they work .
This article , part of the New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ easy it is to de-anonymize datasets of location pings .
( Charlie Warzel and Stuart A. Thompson / The New York Times ) Lawmakers in New York proposed a new law that would prohibit police from using geofence warrants as protests continue to grow .
These warrants compel companies like Google to give up reams of data on who was in a certain location at a certain time .
( Issie Lapowsky / Protocol ) New York Attorney General Letitia James is urging Google and Apple to vet third-party contact tracing apps and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ collecting sensitive health information .
The companies have been having a hard time regulating all the third-party COVID-19 contact tracing apps that popped up on their app stores recently .
( Mariella Moon / Engadget ) Germany launched its coronavirus tracing app .
The system relies on low-energy Bluetooth technology that scans the user ’ s surroundings and records which other smartphones with the app are nearby and for how long .
( Frank Jordans / Associated Press ) Employees at GitHub , a Microsoft-owned company , are pushing leadership to cut ties @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ICE ) .
The company said that while it stands with the Black Lives Matter movement , it ’ s not reconsidering government contracts .
( Suhauna Hussain and Johana Bhuiyan / Los Angeles Times ) The 2020 election can be saved , if we prepare for it like a natural disaster , this piece argues .
Solutions would involve getting as many Americans to vote by mail as possible , and ensuring physical polling places adhere to social distancing .
( Nathaniel Persily / The Wall Street Journal ) ⭐ Amazon released @ @ @ @ @ @ @ assistant ” to notify warehouse workers if they get too close .
It combines a TV screen , depth sensors , and AI-enabled camera to track employees ’ movements and give them feedback in real time .
James Vincent at The Verge explains : Instagram is set to overtake Twitter as the most popular news source , according to the 2020 Reuters Institute Digital News report .
The trend is strongest among young people — nearly a quarter of 18-24-year-olds in the UK use Instagram as a source of news about coronavirus .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a news app to me than ever before since Black Lives Matter protests took over the stories feed this month .
( BBC ) High school students are using social media to call out their peers for racism .
They ’ ve repurposed meme accounts , set up Google Docs and anonymous pages on Instagram , Snapchat and Twitter , and wielded their personal followings to hold friends and classmates accountable .
( Taylor Lorenz and Katherine Rosman / The New York Times ) Facebook , Google and Snap have introduced features to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ polling places and urge friends to vote .
But so far , there is little evidence it has led to higher voter turnout .
( Cory Weinberg / The Information ) WhatsApp finally launched its payments app , starting in Brazil .
The app is free for consumers ( the company doesn ’ t currently take a commission fee on transactions ) .
( Manish Singh and Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch ) Since the pandemic , a five-time US chess champion has channeled his success into a full-time gig streaming and commentating on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ Anastasio / Wired ) Yelp now lets businesses list the COVID-19 safety measures they ’ re taking as many begin to reopen .
( Taylor Lyles / The Verge ) Stuff to occupy you online during the quarantine .
Watch Sundar Pichai ’ s commencement address to the class of 2020 .
The comments are turned off so as not to distract you from the core message !
Play a new free game from Nintendo that uses a pair of Joy-Cons to jump a virtual rope .
It ’ s called Jump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would look like with new art on the walls , using a new augmented reality feature from Etsy .
Users can pull up any painting , photograph , or print that ’ s available on Etsy and project it wherever they want through augmented reality .
Send us tips , comments , questions , and 30 percent of your revenue : casey @ theverge.com and zoe @ theverge.com .

I.
Say your company makes a new email platform. In 2020, that means building not just a website but also an app — several of them, actually. You’ll probably want clients for Mac and Windows, iOS and Android, the open web, and — if you’re showing off — Linux. In some of these places, like the web, there is no cost for operating this service beyond building and hosting it. And in others, such as the Mac and iOS app stores, there is a significant cost: 30 percent of revenue generated from within the app. This is true even though Apple runs its own email platform, which is free but charges for extra storage, and gets to keep all that revenue for itself.
The above is the situation now unfolding for Hey, a clever and genuinely original email platform released on Monday by the makers of Basecamp. (I wrote about it at some length for The Verge on Monday, because for me trying new productivity apps is a form of self-care.) Hey costs $99 a year, and you can only sign up and pay on its website. It managed to get its iOS app into the App Store. But then it tried to submit some bug fixes, and Apple informed the company that it had to begin taking signups on iOS — and give Apple a 30 percent cut of that revenue — or get kicked out of the store.
The reason, writes David Pierce at Protocol, is “rule 3.1.1 of Apple’s guidelines for app developers, which says in essence that if you want people to be able to buy stuff in your app, you need to do it using Apple’s payments system.” The rule is not uniformly applied. If you make a music app, like Spotify, or a video app, like Netflix, you can force people to sign up on the web and Apple won’t take a cut. And if you make certain other email apps, such as Newton (no relation to the author), you can put your app in the App Store even though you don’t let people pay with an in-app purchase.
On its face, Apple’s policy enforcement here feels arbitrary and capricious — and, I suspect, it may become part of the antitrust investigations now underway against the company. Apple has a duopoly in the smartphone market with Google, and charges developers 30 percent of their revenue to compete with it in certain categories, such as email. I’m no lawyer, but that certainly sounds like a formidable barrier to entry — and one erected by a company that has $192.8 billion in cash it has no clear use for, to boot.
Apple declined to comment on the decision, but told Pierce its mistake was in ever permitting Hey into the App Store to begin with. Still, you could imagine the company saying, look, if you don’t want to pay the rent, just don’t make an iOS app. But that’s not feasible, says David Heinemeier Hansson, the co-founder of Basecamp, in a Twitter message. “That’s exactly what monopolists always say! Take it or leave it! Because they KNOW you can’t leave it.”
He went on:
They can get to essentially extract any cut they want. They’re under no market pressure to be competitive. This is Monopoly Squeezing 101. As I said in my testimony before congress, why is it that credit card processing fees hover in the 1.8-2.8% range, while Apple’s App Store have sat steady at 30% on the high end? Because there’s no competition! And they have a monopoly grip! There’s zero impetus on Apple to lower prices, stop being abusive, or even enforce their own policies with any sense of consistency or justice.
I was glad Heinemeier Hansson brought up justice, since it’s at the heart of every content moderation decision — and whether an app gets to be in the App Store is a content moderation decision like any other. Often in this column I’ll write about a controversial post on Facebook, or a controversial video on YouTube, and what makes people so mad is that they fundamentally have no recourse against the platform, even though for many of those people it has become their livelihood. It might be legal, but it doesn’t feel just.
The thing about anti-competitive behavior, though, is that it may be illegal.
II.
Spotify has at least one advantage over Hey, in that it can exist in the App Store even though it doesn’t sell subscriptions there. Instead, if you want to subscribe to Spotify’s premium service, you have to go to its website — a fact that, per App Store guidelines, the company is not allowed to advertise. Meanwhile, Apple offers a mediocre Spotify alternative, Apple Music, which it advertises throughout the operating system. (I’ve received several push notification advertisements inviting me to subscribe).
Last May, Spotify filed a formal complaint against Apple with the European Union, alleging that Apple is harming consumers and stifling innovation via the 30 percent tax and other policies that raise barriers to competition. Competition is particularly difficult in the music industry, given that the lion’s share of all revenue that they generate goes to the record labels that own the music. For Spotify, Apple’s businesses could represent an existential threat. (Among other things, it has pushed Spotify to buy up the crown jewels of American podcasting, to reduce its head-to-head competition with Apple over music streaming.)
In any case, on Tuesday the European Union heeded Spotify’s call — and opened an antitrust investigation into Apple. Here’s Tom Warren at The Verge:
The first investigation will probe whether Apple has broken EU competition rules with its App Store policies, following complaints by Spotify and Rakuten over Apple’s 30 percent cut on subscriptions and sales of ebooks through its App Store. “We need to ensure that Apple’s rules do not distort competition in markets where Apple is competing with other app developers, for example with its music streaming service Apple Music or with Apple Books,” says Margrethe Vestager, the head of the EU’s antitrust division. “I have therefore decided to take a close look at Apple’s App Store rules and their compliance with EU competition rules.”
Vestager opened a concurrent second investigation against the company related to Apple Pay, over fears that the company’s policies around which merchants are allowed to use phone payments are similarly anticompetitive.
For its part, Apple was rather hilariously dismissive of the whole affair.
“It’s disappointing the European Commission is advancing baseless complaints from a handful of companies who simply want a free ride, and don’t want to play by the same rules as everyone else,” says an Apple spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “We don’t think that’s right — we want to maintain a level playing field where anyone with determination and a great idea can succeed.”
The truth is that many, many developers complain about these policies — but precisely because they are so dependent on Apple, very few are willing to do so publicly. As for whether there is a level playing field, the idea that Apple charges people a 30 percent tax to compete with it in some categories but not others seems laughable on its face.
III.
By now we are more or less used to the European Union taking the lead in regulating the big tech companies. But since Democrats retook the House of Representatives in 2018, the United States has also shown a belated interest in competition, and some of those efforts are accelerating.
One of the most significant developments on that front to date took place over the weekend, when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai told the House Judiciary Committee they are open to testifying about competition. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has said he will testify as well. The apparent deal is that the CEOs will show up and testify as long as all of the other guys, do, too, so they can distribute the pain equally. (This will help ensure that the coverage is nicely generic — “Congress yells at Big Tech” — and not “Congress yells at Jeff Bezos for some frankly pretty valid and specific reasons.)
But one CEO has yet to confirm his attendance, and if you’ve read this far you can probably guess who. Here’s Tony Romm in the Washington Post:
Apple, meanwhile, told the committee that it would send a senior executive yet did not clearly commit its leader, Tim Cook, to appearing before lawmakers, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter. That approach could ratchet up tensions between the iPhone giant and lawmakers in Washington.
If nothing else, agreeing to go before Congress indicates that three of the four Big Tech CEOs feel comfortable defending themselves against charges of anticompetitive behavior. Given everything unfolding at the moment in Apple’s domain, then, it is perhaps unsurprising that Tim Cook has been less willing to participate.
Correction, 6/18: This article originally stated Superhuman does not enable in-app purchases iOS. It does, and has been removed from the article.
The Ratio
Today in news that could affect public perception of the big tech platforms.
🔃 Trending sideways: Google banned far-right websites ZeroHedge and The Federalist from its ad platform over racist comments posted on the sites. But then it reversed its decision on The Federalist and undermined its own PR people in the process. (Adi Robertson / The Verge)
🔃 Trending sideways: Facebook rejected a proposal to share ad revenue with news organizations, saying there would “not be significant” impacts on its business if it stopped sharing news altogether. The news came in response to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission which is trying to find ways to level the playing field between social platforms and news outlets. (Naaman Zhou and Amanda Meade / The Guardian)
⬇ Trending down: Two black former policy executives at Pinterest revealed a history of racist discrimination at the company. Ifeoma Ozoma, who pushed Pinterest to enact industry-leading guidelines to remove misinformation about vaccines, wrote a Twitter thread about pay discrimination, harassment, and more. (Cat Zakrzewski / The Washington Post)
Governing
⭐ Researchers discovered a Russian misinformation campaign that used forged documents and a network of burner accounts to spread rumors across Facebook and Reddit. Content centered around themes that aligned with Russian interests, like the unreliability of Ukraine and hostility to NATO interventions. Here’s Russell Brandom at The Verge:
Dubbed “Secondary Infektion,” the campaign spanned a number of online platforms, beginning on the Russia-based LiveJournal in 2014, and moving to Twitter and YouTube later that year. In the years that followed, the campaign shifted to Reddit, Medium, and even the user-generated portion of BuzzFeed. All told, the report spans more than 2,500 pieces of content, posted across seven languages and more than 300 different forums, websites, and social networks. “By April 21, 2020, Graphika had identified some 250 images that the operation had planted in its articles, almost all of them suspected forgeries,” the report states. “We expect that more remain to be found.”
Private Facebook groups are using the name “Justice for George Floyd” to hide racist behavior. Inside the group, they’re posting hateful memes and misinformation, while commenters share support for neo-Nazis. (Dara Kerr and Shara Tibken / CNET)
Wikipedia editors are questioning what it means to be a platform committed to “neutrality.” This debate played out in the decision to rename the page on George Floyd’s murder from “Death of George Floyd” to “Killing of George Floyd.” (Stephen Harrison / Slate)
Smartphone location data can be used to identify people attending protests, and even link them to the places they work. This article, part of the New York Times Privacy Project, shows how easy it is to de-anonymize datasets of location pings. (Charlie Warzel and Stuart A. Thompson / The New York Times)
Lawmakers in New York proposed a new law that would prohibit police from using geofence warrants as protests continue to grow. These warrants compel companies like Google to give up reams of data on who was in a certain location at a certain time. (Issie Lapowsky / Protocol)
New York Attorney General Letitia James is urging Google and Apple to vet third-party contact tracing apps and ensure they aren’t capable of collecting sensitive health information. The companies have been having a hard time regulating all the third-party COVID-19 contact tracing apps that popped up on their app stores recently. (Mariella Moon / Engadget)
Germany launched its coronavirus tracing app. The system relies on low-energy Bluetooth technology that scans the user’s surroundings and records which other smartphones with the app are nearby and for how long. (Frank Jordans / Associated Press)
Employees at GitHub, a Microsoft-owned company, are pushing leadership to cut ties with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The company said that while it stands with the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s not reconsidering government contracts. (Suhauna Hussain and Johana Bhuiyan / Los Angeles Times)
The 2020 election can be saved, if we prepare for it like a natural disaster, this piece argues. Solutions would involve getting as many Americans to vote by mail as possible, and ensuring physical polling places adhere to social distancing. (Nathaniel Persily / The Wall Street Journal)
Industry
⭐ Amazon released a new AI tool called “distance assistant” to notify warehouse workers if they get too close. It combines a TV screen, depth sensors, and AI-enabled camera to track employees’ movements and give them feedback in real time. James Vincent at The Verge explains:
Although these solutions will be necessary for workers to return to busy facilities like warehouses, many privacy experts worry their introduction will normalize greater levels of surveillance. Many of these solutions will produce detailed data of workers’ movements throughout the day, allowing managers to hound employees in the name of productivity. Workers will also have no choice but to be tracked in this way if they want to keep their job. Amazon’s involvement in this sort of technology will raise suspicions as the company is often criticized for the grueling working conditions in its facilities. In 2018, it even patented a wristband that would track workers’ movements in real time, directing not just which task they should do next, but if their hands are moving towards the wrong shelf or bin.
Instagram is set to overtake Twitter as the most popular news source, according to the 2020 Reuters Institute Digital News report. The trend is strongest among young people — nearly a quarter of 18-24-year-olds in the UK use Instagram as a source of news about coronavirus. It has definitely felt way more like a news app to me than ever before since Black Lives Matter protests took over the stories feed this month. (BBC)
High school students are using social media to call out their peers for racism. They’ve repurposed meme accounts, set up Google Docs and anonymous pages on Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, and wielded their personal followings to hold friends and classmates accountable. (Taylor Lorenz and Katherine Rosman / The New York Times)
Facebook, Google and Snap have introduced features to make it easier for people to find polling places and urge friends to vote. But so far, there is little evidence it has led to higher voter turnout. (Cory Weinberg / The Information)
WhatsApp finally launched its payments app, starting in Brazil. The app is free for consumers (the company doesn’t currently take a commission fee on transactions). (Manish Singh and Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch)
Things to do
Stuff to occupy you online during the quarantine.
Watch Sundar Pichai’s commencement address to the class of 2020. The comments are turned off so as not to distract you from the core message!
Play a new free game from Nintendo that uses a pair of Joy-Cons to jump a virtual rope. It’s called Jump Rope Challenge.
See what your apartment would look like with new art on the walls, using a new augmented reality feature from Etsy. Users can pull up any painting, photograph, or print that’s available on Etsy and project it wherever they want through augmented reality.
Those good tweets
Talk to us


theverge--2020-06-17--Facebook and Instagram will let users ‘turn off’ all political ads for the 2020 election

Critics say Facebook is actively enabling the spread of political misinformation online , but the social network has now come up with its own idiosyncratic solution : shift responsibility to the public at large by letting users “ turn off ” political ads they don ’ t like .
Facebook announced the feature as part of a campaign ahead of the 2020 US elections , which it hopes will increase voter turnout .
The company is launching a new “ Voting Information Center ” that will tell people how and where to vote , as well as offering information on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to vote by mail .
Users can also turn on alerts that will remind them to vote and direct them to polling places come November .
Facebook says its focus is increasing voter turnout , not moderating political misinformation In a op-ed published in USA Today , Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that although ” many people want us to moderate and remove more of [ politicians ’ ] content , ” he believes “ accountability only works if we can see what those seeking our votes are saying.
” Instead of removing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be on registering voters .
“ Voting is voice , ” writes Zuckerberg .
“ It ’ s the single most powerful expression of democracy , the best way to hold our leaders accountable and how we address many of the issues our country is grappling with.
” These contentious issues include Facebook ’ s own policies on political speech .
It allows politicians to lie in paid adverts to users and has turned a blind eye to threatening posts from President Trump , a policy that has attracted widespread criticism , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ employees and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden .
In an open letter written to Zuckerberg published last week , Biden said the company ’ s decision to allow misinformation from politicians “ [ poses ] a threat to free and fair elections.
” Facebook was also criticized after saying it would not take action against a post by President Trump that responded to widespread protests in the US against racial and police violence by saying “ when the looting starts , the shooting starts.
” Joe Biden says Facebook ’ s policies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fair elections ” Twitter restricted the same message on its platform for “ glorifying violence , ” and , in contrast to Facebook , banned all political ads last year .
As part of that announcement , Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey seemed to take aim at Facebook ’ s policies , tweeting : “ [ I ] t ‘ s not credible for us to say : ‘ We ’ re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info , buuut if someone pays us to target and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ... they can say whatever they want !
’ ’ Facebook says the new options for users to turn off political ads will launch today “ for some people ” and roll out across the US in “ the next few weeks.
” Users will be able to hide ads by clicking on the advertisement itself or going through a menu in the app ’ s ad settings .
The company says users will be able to turn off “ all social issue , electoral or political ads from candidates , Super PACs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Paid for by ” political disclaimer on them.
” The same options will also be available on Facebook-owned Instagram .
Facebook says its goal is to “ register 4 million voters this year using Facebook , Instagram and Messenger , ” double the number of people it estimates it helped register in 2016 and 2018 .
The company notes that giving users clear information on voting will be even more important due to the confusion caused by COVID-19 .

Critics say Facebook is actively enabling the spread of political misinformation online, but the social network has now come up with its own idiosyncratic solution: shift responsibility to the public at large by letting users “turn off” political ads they don’t like.
Facebook announced the feature as part of a campaign ahead of the 2020 US elections, which it hopes will increase voter turnout. The company is launching a new “Voting Information Center” that will tell people how and where to vote, as well as offering information on how to register to vote and how to vote by mail. Users can also turn on alerts that will remind them to vote and direct them to polling places come November.
Facebook says its focus is increasing voter turnout, not moderating political misinformation
In a op-ed published in USA Today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that although ”many people want us to moderate and remove more of [politicians’] content,” he believes “accountability only works if we can see what those seeking our votes are saying.” Instead of removing misinformation, the company’s focus will be on registering voters.
“Voting is voice,” writes Zuckerberg. “It’s the single most powerful expression of democracy, the best way to hold our leaders accountable and how we address many of the issues our country is grappling with.”
These contentious issues include Facebook’s own policies on political speech. It allows politicians to lie in paid adverts to users and has turned a blind eye to threatening posts from President Trump, a policy that has attracted widespread criticism, including from the company’s own employees and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
In an open letter written to Zuckerberg published last week, Biden said the company’s decision to allow misinformation from politicians “[poses] a threat to free and fair elections.”
Facebook was also criticized after saying it would not take action against a post by President Trump that responded to widespread protests in the US against racial and police violence by saying “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Joe Biden says Facebook’s policies pose a threat to “free and fair elections”
Twitter restricted the same message on its platform for “glorifying violence,” and, in contrast to Facebook, banned all political ads last year. As part of that announcement, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey seemed to take aim at Facebook’s policies, tweeting: “[I]t‘s not credible for us to say: ‘We’re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well...they can say whatever they want!’’
Facebook says the new options for users to turn off political ads will launch today “for some people” and roll out across the US in “the next few weeks.” Users will be able to hide ads by clicking on the advertisement itself or going through a menu in the app’s ad settings.
The company says users will be able to turn off “all social issue, electoral or political ads from candidates, Super PACs or other organizations that have the “Paid for by” political disclaimer on them.” The same options will also be available on Facebook-owned Instagram.


theverge--2020-06-17--Images of Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 3 leak online

Images of Samsung ’ s unannounced Galaxy Watch 3 have leaked online , giving us our first look at the company ’ s upcoming wearable .
The images appeared on South Korea ’ s NRRA certification website , where they were spotted by MySmartPrice .
In them , you can see what appears to be a physical rotating bezel ( a feature missing from last year ’ s Galaxy Watch Active 2 ) , and two buttons on the right of the device .
The Galaxy Watch 3 is slated to be Samsung ’ s follow-up to last year ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ best smartwatch to buy if you ’ ve got an Android phone .
The images join a plethora of details that have emerged about the watch in recent weeks .
We learned that it would be called the Watch 3 rather than the Watch 2 thanks to a listing from a Thai regulator , and similar listings from the FCC suggests that there ’ ll be both LTE and Wi-Fi versions of the watch , and that it will come in two sizes — 45mm and 41mm , reportedly corresponding to 1.4 and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is expected to be available with a stainless steel case ( though there may also be a titanium model ) , GPS , and includes a 5ATM rating making it water resistant at a depth of 50 meters for up to 10 minutes a time .
SamMobile reports that the watch will also have heart rate and blood pressure monitors , and an ECG sensor .
The Galaxy Watch 3 is expected to come with 1GB of RAM , 8GB of internal storage , and either a 247mAh or 340mAh battery , depending @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leak suggests an official announcement isn ’ t far away .
With Samsung expected to unveil the latest entry in its Note lineup in a couple of months ’ time , it ’ s easy to speculate that we ’ ll see a wearable announced alongside it .

Images of Samsung’s unannounced Galaxy Watch 3 have leaked online, giving us our first look at the company’s upcoming wearable. The images appeared on South Korea’s NRRA certification website, where they were spotted by MySmartPrice. In them, you can see what appears to be a physical rotating bezel (a feature missing from last year’s Galaxy Watch Active 2), and two buttons on the right of the device.
The images join a plethora of details that have emerged about the watch in recent weeks. We learned that it would be called the Watch 3 rather than the Watch 2 thanks to a listing from a Thai regulator, and similar listings from the FCC suggests that there’ll be both LTE and Wi-Fi versions of the watch, and that it will come in two sizes — 45mm and 41mm, reportedly corresponding to 1.4 and 1.2-inch displays.
The images show a physical bezel... Image: NRRA via MySmartPrice ... paired with two physical buttons. Image: NRRA via MySmartPrice
The Galaxy Watch 3 is expected to be available with a stainless steel case (though there may also be a titanium model), GPS, and includes a 5ATM rating making it water resistant at a depth of 50 meters for up to 10 minutes a time. SamMobile reports that the watch will also have heart rate and blood pressure monitors, and an ECG sensor. The Galaxy Watch 3 is expected to come with 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, and either a 247mAh or 340mAh battery, depending on the size.


theverge--2020-06-17--Fortnite’s new season has flooded the map

The new season of Fortnite is finally here — and it brought with it a flood .
Today Epic Games released the long-delayed third season for Fortnite : Chapter 2 , following a massive event earlier in the week which saw the game ’ s battle royale island surrounded by a wall of water .
Fittingly , the new season has submerged large areas of the island , creating a bigger focus on aquatic gameplay elements .
That includes a new Waterworld-style floating city area , and the ability to water ski — while pulled by a shark .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the map .
The western portion of the island is now mostly underwater , largely eliminating locations like Slurpy Swamp and Weeping Woods .
Meanwhile , the previously destroyed Agency area now appears to be some kind of heavily-fortified base .
The new map makes the game ’ s boats much more viable , while the new season also introduces new mobility options , including the aforementioned water skiing ; you ’ ll be able to latch on to a shark , naturally , by fishing .
Other big additions include new NPC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ teased that later in the season actual cars will be coming to the game , a first for Fortnite .
It appears the flooding isn ’ t necessarily a permanent fixture .
“ As time goes on and water recedes , even more locations will be uncovered , and as the roadways become more open , you ’ ll discover new ways to get around , ” the developer explains .
Along with the changes to the game itself , a new season also means a new battle pass , Fortnite ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for a pass will get a number of characters to unlock , including Aquaman and Kit , a tiny kitten riding a motorcycle that also powers a mech suit .
You know , typical Fortnite stuff .
Just like last season there ’ s a continued focus on customization ; this time players will be able to build their own umbrella over the course of the season , unlocking parts over time .
It ’ s been a long time coming for the new season .
Chapter 2 ’ s second season debuted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then Fortnite has seen some notable changes and events .
That includes a violence-free social space called Party Royale , in-game additions like helicopters , and a surreal virtual concert tour from Travis Scott .
Epic also announced that the game had topped 350 million players , making it among the most popular titles in the world .
The flooding of the map represents the biggest change to Fortnite since the days-long blackhole event that wiped out the original island .
Despite the long wait , Epic managed to hype up the new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ device ” event on Monday , which saw 12 million players participate live , and more than 8 million more watch on Twitch and YouTube .

The new season of Fortnite is finally here — and it brought with it a flood. Today Epic Games released the long-delayed third season for Fortnite: Chapter 2, following a massive event earlier in the week which saw the game’s battle royale island surrounded by a wall of water. Fittingly, the new season has submerged large areas of the island, creating a bigger focus on aquatic gameplay elements. That includes a new Waterworld-style floating city area, and the ability to water ski — while pulled by a shark.
The biggest change is, of course, the map. The western portion of the island is now mostly underwater, largely eliminating locations like Slurpy Swamp and Weeping Woods. Meanwhile, the previously destroyed Agency area now appears to be some kind of heavily-fortified base. The new map makes the game’s boats much more viable, while the new season also introduces new mobility options, including the aforementioned water skiing; you’ll be able to latch on to a shark, naturally, by fishing. Other big additions include new NPC enemies called Marauders.
Epic has also teased that later in the season actual cars will be coming to the game, a first for Fortnite. It appears the flooding isn’t necessarily a permanent fixture. “As time goes on and water recedes, even more locations will be uncovered, and as the roadways become more open, you’ll discover new ways to get around,” the developer explains.
Along with the changes to the game itself, a new season also means a new battle pass, Fortnite’s seasonal subscription-like service. Players who splurge for a pass will get a number of characters to unlock, including Aquaman and Kit, a tiny kitten riding a motorcycle that also powers a mech suit. You know, typical Fortnite stuff. Just like last season there’s a continued focus on customization; this time players will be able to build their own umbrella over the course of the season, unlocking parts over time.


theverge--2020-06-17--Logitech to display carbon impact labels on product packaging and online

Logitech announced today that it plans to put labels communicating the carbon impact of products on all product packaging and on its website .
The company says it expects labels will appear first on its gaming products later this year .
The goal is to include labels across its full product portfolio by 2025 , Logitech tells The Verge .
“ Just like calories went on the packaging in the food industry years ago , we believe that carbon content level should be a choice factor for the consumers who are interested in it , ” said Logitech ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Verge .
The number you ’ ll see on the label represents the total carbon life cycle of the product .
That indicates the amount of carbon emitted in the entire life of the product , including the sourcing of a product ’ s materials , in its manufacturing , in its distribution , and in the actual use of the product .
You can see what Logitech ’ s carbon impact label will look like on packaging in the image at the top of this post , and here ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Logitech designed the label itself , Prakash Arunkundrum , Logitech ’ s head of global operations , told The Verge .
Logitech will be calculating carbon impact internally , but will work with third parties including Natural Capital Partners , iPoint Group , and an independent verifier to “ verify and validate product-level carbon impacts to DEKRA certification standards , ” Logitech said in a press release .
Logitech also says it will share its methodology and protocol applied to measure the carbon impacts online .
In December , Logitech announced other sustainability @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of gaming products was carbon neutral .
That means Logitech cut down on the amount of carbon emissions those products produce and offset whatever was left .
The moves to make the company more sustainable were almost entirely internally driven , Darrell and Arunkundrum said .
“ At some point I think in the last few years , we , both Prakash and I , our interests flipped from , ‘ Well , this would be really good to do ’ to ‘ This was a must , ’ ” Darrell said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ really believe in global warming is being driven by humans.
” “ We ’ re a little mouse company , ” he continued , “ but we can do a little bit , make a little bit of a difference .
”

Logitech announced today that it plans to put labels communicating the carbon impact of products on all product packaging and on its website. The company says it expects labels will appear first on its gaming products later this year. The goal is to include labels across its full product portfolio by 2025, Logitech tells The Verge.
“Just like calories went on the packaging in the food industry years ago, we believe that carbon content level should be a choice factor for the consumers who are interested in it,” said Logitech’s CEO Bracken Darrell in an interview with The Verge.
The number you’ll see on the label represents the total carbon life cycle of the product. That indicates the amount of carbon emitted in the entire life of the product, including the sourcing of a product’s materials, in its manufacturing, in its distribution, and in the actual use of the product.
You can see what Logitech’s carbon impact label will look like on packaging in the image at the top of this post, and here’s a closer look at it below. Logitech designed the label itself, Prakash Arunkundrum, Logitech’s head of global operations, told The Verge.
Image: Logitech
Logitech will be calculating carbon impact internally, but will work with third parties including Natural Capital Partners, iPoint Group, and an independent verifier to “verify and validate product-level carbon impacts to DEKRA certification standards,” Logitech said in a press release. Logitech also says it will share its methodology and protocol applied to measure the carbon impacts online.
In December, Logitech announced other sustainability initiatives, including that its entire lineup of gaming products was carbon neutral. That means Logitech cut down on the amount of carbon emissions those products produce and offset whatever was left. The moves to make the company more sustainable were almost entirely internally driven, Darrell and Arunkundrum said.
“At some point I think in the last few years, we, both Prakash and I, our interests flipped from, ‘Well, this would be really good to do’ to ‘This was a must,’” Darrell said. “And it’s because we really believe in global warming is being driven by humans.”


theverge--2020-06-17--Sony’s slick PS5 reveal graphics are practically identical to the work of a Russian artist

In the image above , a field of pulsating blue spheres rearranges itself into geometric patterns .
If that looks familiar , that means you probably watched Sony ’ s PlayStation 5 reveal last week .
The ultra-modern vibe of the graphics and their white , black , and blue color scheme set the stage perfectly for the reveal of the actual PS5 console .
But the image above actually isn ’ t Sony ’ s .
It ’ s the work of Maxim Zhestkov , a Russian media artist — and the similarities between his work and the graphics @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us think his studio was commissioned to make those graphics .
Let ’ s take a look at some of what was shown in the PS5 video and compare it to his work .
Check out the below GIF from the PS5 video , for example .
Here , a column of thousands of tiny spheres lit by a stark overhead light forms the shape of the classic PlayStation circle with cool blue illumination shifting through the column : Now , check out this GIF from a work of Zhestkov ’ s called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of tiny spheres lit by a stark overhead light fades into different shapes with cool blue illumination shifting through the column — look familiar ?
Check out these side-by-side of spheres creating canyons against a black wall taken from the PS5 video and “ Computations.
” Can you tell which is originally from Sony ’ s video ?
( I ’ ll say which is in the caption . )
Let ’ s look at something slightly different .
Here ’ s a GIF from the PS5 reveal of a cubical monolith in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up to reveal a colorful , layered inside : That looks awfully similar to a scene from a work of Zhestkov ’ s called “ Layers ” featuring a rectangular monolith in an empty , ceiling-lit room that opens up to reveal a colorful , layered inside : Sony hasn ’ t replied to a request for comment about Zhestkov ’ s participation — but Zhestkov does list Sony as a client on his studio ’ s About page .
And when we reached out to the studio to see if they could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ we can ’ t yet confirm or deny our participation in Sony ’ s reveal.
” So we can ’ t be completely certain that Zhestkov made the motion graphics .
But I ’ d have to say it seems pretty likely .

In the image above, a field of pulsating blue spheres rearranges itself into geometric patterns. If that looks familiar, that means you probably watched Sony’s PlayStation 5 reveal last week. The ultra-modern vibe of the graphics and their white, black, and blue color scheme set the stage perfectly for the reveal of the actual PS5 console.
But the image above actually isn’t Sony’s. It’s the work of Maxim Zhestkov, a Russian media artist — and the similarities between his work and the graphics in Sony’s PS5 video make us think his studio was commissioned to make those graphics. Let’s take a look at some of what was shown in the PS5 video and compare it to his work.
Check out the below GIF from the PS5 video, for example. Here, a column of thousands of tiny spheres lit by a stark overhead light forms the shape of the classic PlayStation circle with cool blue illumination shifting through the column:
Now, check out this GIF from a work of Zhestkov’s called “Computations.” A column of thousands of tiny spheres lit by a stark overhead light fades into different shapes with cool blue illumination shifting through the column — look familiar?
Check out these side-by-side of spheres creating canyons against a black wall taken from the PS5 video and “Computations.” Can you tell which is originally from Sony’s video? (I’ll say which is which in the caption.)
PS5 reveal (left) vs. “Computations” (right)
Let’s look at something slightly different. Here’s a GIF from the PS5 reveal of a cubical monolith in an empty, ceiling-lit room that opens up to reveal a colorful, layered inside:
That looks awfully similar to a scene from a work of Zhestkov’s called “Layers” featuring a rectangular monolith in an empty, ceiling-lit room that opens up to reveal a colorful, layered inside:
Sony hasn’t replied to a request for comment about Zhestkov’s participation — but Zhestkov does list Sony as a client on his studio’s About page. And when we reached out to the studio to see if they could confirm their participation, a producer said “we can’t yet confirm or deny our participation in Sony’s reveal.”