save the platform.??? Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments that a bill passed by Congress banning TikTok on national security grounds violates the First Amendment. The bill gives wide latitude to the president to delay its enforcement if there???s progress being made towards a deal that ensures TikTok isn???t fully controlled by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. But the deadline for that determination is January 19th, which is one day before Trump is set to be sworn in. In his Supreme Court filing, Trump asks for the bill???s January 19th deadline to be stayed, arguing that the deal he???d negotiate ???would obviate the need for this Court to decide the historically challenging First Amendment question presented here on the current, highly expedited basis.??? He offers no details on what said deal would look like, though it would likely have to involve ByteDance selling a signification portion of its ownership in TikTok to an American company. Trump argues that having over 14 million followers on TikTok, along with his ownership of Truth Social, gives him unique ability to ???evaluate TikTok???s importance as a unique medium for freedom of expression, including core political speech.??? He also cites Brazil???s temporary ban of Elon Musk???s X as an example of ???the historic dangers presented??? by a government banning a social media platform. While Trump pushed aggressively for a TikTok ban during his first term, he changed his tune after his campaign successfully used the video app during the 2024 election. He recently met with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at Mar-a-Lago and told a crowd that ???maybe we gotta keep this sucker around for a little while.??? There???s still plenty of political pressure to enforce a TikTok ban, however. A group of senators and congressmen, including Mitch McConnell and Ro Khanna, filed petitions on Friday , joined by 22 U.S. states and former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, urging the Supreme Court to reject TikTok???s appeal.

most recent shift could be strategic. Variety adds that Warner Bros. has rushed to fill that October 2nd, 2026, slot with an unnamed film featuring Tom Cruise and directed by Alejandro G. I????rritu. While that sucks for fans of the bat, one nice consolation is news that Bong Joon-Ho???s Mickey 17 is coming even sooner than expected; it is now scheduled for March 7th, 2025, after delays of its own caused the original 2024 release to slip . Mickey 17 stars Robert Pattinson (who also plays Bruce Wayne in The Batman Part II ) and is directly inspired by the Edward Ashton novel Mickey7 , which follows a willingly and literally disposable employee through his many doors of death. Also starring in the film are Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, and Thomas Turgoose. Warner Bros. reportedly swapped its release date with Ryan Coogler???s Sinners , which now opens April 18th, to give Mickey 17 more time on Imax screens.

process . Both countries have issued extradition requests for Kwon, and have been awaiting Montenegro???s decision for months. ???It was concluded that most of the criteria provided for by law support the extradition request of the competent authorities of the United States of America,??? a machine-translated version of Montenegro???s Ministry of Justice???s statement said. It doesn???t say when Montenegro plans on releasing Kwon to the US. As noted by Bloomberg , it???s also unclear whether this decision is final, since Montenegro ruled to extradite Kwon to South Korea in August. Federal prosecutors in New York charged Kwon with wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy to defraud and engage in market manipulation last year. In June, Terraform Labs and Kwon agreed to pay more than $4.5 billion to settle a separate lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission .

crypto czar David Sacks. It???s pitted Trump???s tech mogul donor class against his older network of far-right influencers like activist and Trump companion Laura Loomer while escalating into racist rhetoric against Indian Americans in particular. The ugly, extremely online fight between the American far-right influence network parallels the immigration debate currently being hashed out more quietly in Washington . Anti-immigrant rhetoric was a cornerstone of Trump???s pitch to voters; on top of promoting false, racist rumors about immigrants and promising mass deportations that could destabilize the American economy , he???s expected to revive an H-1B visa crackdown that he imposed during his first term. At the same time, Trump is leaning heavily on... Read the full story at The Verge.

with the closest approach occurring on December 24th as it flew 430,000 miles per hour past the solar surface. Mission operations were out of contact with the probe during this time. Now that NASA has confirmation of the mission???s success, it expects the Parker Solar Probe to send ???detailed telemetry data on its status??? on January 1st. The close flyby is supposed to help scientists get a better understanding of solar wind, the Sun???s heat, and how ???energetic particles are accelerated to near light speed.??? The Parker Solar Probe was first launched by NASA and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in 2018. It???s designed to why study the corona ??? the atmosphere surrounding the sun ??? gets so hot. To survive these close encounters, the Parker Solar Probe is equipped with a Sun-facing heat shield that reaches around 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, while the probe itself remains just 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

memories I???ve made with previous 5D cameras that have been a huge part of my professional and personal life for well over 15 years, specifically the 5D Mark II. In this review video , I decided to try something a little bit different. Instead of going through every single one of the specs and pixel-peeping every photo I???ve taken over the past month, I???ve picked the top three photos that have taught me something about the new Canon R5. Let us know what you think about the new format. Read the full story at The Verge.

boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul last month, its systems mostly held up during the two NFL games and star-studded performances from Mariah Carey and Beyonc??. Netflix has also confirmed it will add a standalone replay of the ??? Beyonc?? Bowl ??? halftime performance to the service later this week after it registered 27 million live viewers ??? the game???s peak viewership. Now, the league???s broadcast deal will keep Christmas Day games on Netflix for at least the next two years. The NBA, which has traditionally aired basketball without competition from the NFL on the holiday, said that despite the competing Netflix broadcasts, its slate of games delivered the ???most-watched Christmas Day in five years, averaging 5.25 million viewers per game in the U.S.??? All five games up year-over-year, with viewership overall up 84 percent from 2023. On Wednesday, the NFL offered a preliminary glimpse at viewership , saying the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers had already become the second most popular live title on Netflix and that one-third of Netflix???s viewers at the time were watching that game.

other current listings. Another renter was offered a 2023 Chevy Bolt for $18,442, while a Polestar 2 renter says they saw a $28,500 purchase price. The used cars come with a limited 12-month, 12,000-mile powertrain warranty and a buy-back offer within 7 days. Asked by The Verge if this was a special offer for EVs or a typical offer for Hertz???s used cars, c ommunications director Jamie Line confirmed the strategy isn???t new, saying, ??? By connecting our rental customers who opt into our emails to our sales channels, we???re not only building awareness of the fact that we sell cars but also offering a unique opportunity to someone who may be in the market for the same car they have on rent.??? Last year, Hertz decided to scale back its big ambitions to electrify its rental fleet due to low customer demand and repair difficulties on some models, including the Tesla Model 3. Then, in February, Hertz said it would no longer buy Polestar 2 vehicles either before marking 30,000 Teslas to sell off from its rental fleet.

(version 24H2): When using media to install Windows 11, version 24H2, the device might remain in a state where it cannot accept further Windows security updates. This occurs only when the media is created to include the October 2024, or November 2024, security updates as part of the installation (these updates were released between October 8, 2024 and November 12, 2024). This does not affect PCs that received the October or November patches through Windows Update or the Microsoft Update Catalog website. Mitigating the problem will require you to rebuild your Windows 11 media installers with the December 2024 patch update included (released on December 10th) and reinstall Windows. (To avoid it altogether, Microsoft suggests that ???that media used to install Windows 11, version 24H2, includes the December 2024 monthly security update.???) Microsoft says it???s working on a permanent fix. Bleeping Computer reported that Windows 11 24H2 also had other bugs in tow, including problems with specific audio devices, issues launching Outlook with an outdated Google Workspace Sync, and others. There was also that weird 24H2 compatibility issue with some Ubisoft games , which are slowly receiving fixes .

said that ???Sora is now fully operational and we are continuing to monitor. APIs are starting to recover.??? The latest note said it was still working on an overall fix for ChatGPT and its APIs. OpenAI didn???t specify the ???upstream provider??? linked to the issue, but its exclusive cloud provider, Microsoft, reported a ???power issue??? at one of its datacenters that started around the same time as the OpenAI problems and affected North America, and problems with Xbox cloud gaming. Active - Storage latency, timeouts, or HTTP 500 errors in South Central US Impact Statement: Starting at 18:44 UTC on 26 Dec 2024, you have been identified as a customer who was impacted by a power incident in South Central US and may experience a degraded experience. Current Status: There was a power incident in the South Central US AZ03 which affected multiple services. We have applied mitigation and are actively validating recovery to the impacted services. Further updates will be provided in 60 minutes, or sooner as events warrant. This message was last updated at 21:22 UTC on 26 December 2024 Just after 5PM ET, Microsoft said it had ???fully restored??? power to the affected datacenter. ChatGPT has gone down a few times in the past several months. Just days after OpenAI released Sora to ChatGPT subscribers earlier this month, the video generation tool and ChatGPT went down for hours. Meanwhile, a widespread outage affecting AI tools brought down ChatGPT in June . Update, December 26th: Added an update from OpenAI and Microsoft.

forthcoming One UI 7 update that???s currently in beta , Samsung is giving Galaxy phone owners a system-wide kill switch for disabling HDR content. As covered by 9to5Google , there???s a new ???Super HDR??? toggle in the settings menu. The description ??? ???automatically adjust the display to show the full range of colors and contrast in pictures taken with Galaxy devices??? ??? is a bit misleading, since it turns out that toggling this on will keep your display brightness in check across all apps. But that???s exactly the end result that I???d want. On the iPhone side, Apple currently has no such setting that???s specific to HDR. It???s possible to avoid HDR content by enabling low power mode on your iPhone, but doing so makes a ton of other system changes that might be overkill. If you???re looking for a reprieve from HDR on Instagram in particular, you can disable it in the app???s settings in the ???media quality??? section. (I take credit for this after complaining about the issue a couple years ago.) That only applies to iOS, though. The option doesn???t exist on Android, which makes Samsung???s new toggle all the more useful.

Google. The DOJ and Google have disagreed on how to address Google???s monopoly on general-purpose search engines, but both parties have tentatively accepted cutting or renegotiating its Apple partnership. Last week Google proposed a three-year ban on strict long-term exclusivity deals involving any ???proprietary Apple feature or functionality.??? Cue warns that removing the search deal would ultimately hurt Apple and benefit Google: If this Court prohibits Google from sharing revenue for search distribution, Apple would have two unacceptable choices. It could still let users in the United States choose Google as a search engine for Safari, but Apple could not receive any share of the resulting revenue, so Google would obtain valuable access to Apple's users at no cost. Or Apple could remove Google Search as a choice on Safari. But because customers prefer Google, removing it as an option would harm both Apple and its customers. As reported by MacRumors , Cue said Apple making its own general search engine would be ???economically risky??? and suggests AI chatbots are the next big evolution to search. Apple also noted in the filing that it would have to adopt targeted advertising as a core service to make search viable, which would fit badly with its privacy-focused business model. Cue also says that ???only Apple can speak to what kinds of future collaborations can best serve its users??? and warns that the DOJ???s proposed remedies would ???hamstring??? Apple from fulfilling its customers??? needs.

talked about his work on the Metaphor soundtrack including what went into what is perhaps the coolest piece of video game battle music ever made. Meguro, known for his work producing the pop-y, jazzy vibes of the Persona soundtracks , acknowledged that Metaphor ???s heavy orchestral / choral sound is not something Persona fans would expect from him and definitely outside his own wheelhouse. He said in order to effectively change gears from Persona to Metaphor , he had to relearn classical music theory. ???But that???s what makes creating this score so exciting,??? he said. ???When I was first told about Metaphor: ReFantazio , I was told it would be an epic, high-fantasy RPG. And immediately I heard the sound of great... Read the full story at The Verge.

battery are both pink, though they???re a lighter shade than Mattel???s trademarked Barbie Pink (Pantone 219 ). The phone says ???Hi Barbie!??? when you turn it on. It???s the definition of committing to the bit. The breezy fun of the Barbie aesthetic, Pantone 219 or otherwise, is at odds with the actual experience of using the phone. It???s based on one of HMD???s feature phones, and it runs an operating system called KaiOS. The phone is designed for basic connectivity ??? texting, calling, emails ??? and even includes a web browser. ??? According to HMD, in addition to being cute, the nostalgic design and limited feature set are supposed to encourage you to disconnect and spend time with your friends IRL. There are a series of... Read the full story at The Verge.

flights from departing. A notice published on the Federal Aviation Administration website at 6.50AM ET said that the airline grounded all flights nationwide. An FAA update posted at 7.50AM ET has since announced that the nationwide groundstop has been canceled. The airline hasn???t given any details on what caused the technical issues. ???We???re currently experiencing a technical issue with all American Airlines flights,??? American Airlines said in a statement on X before flights resumed. ???Your safety is our utmost priority, once this is rectified, we???ll have you safely on your way to your destination.??? Update, December 24th: American Airlines flights have now resumed nationwide.

magnetic hall effect switches are also available for $1,600 ??? the same price as a new 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro . The keyboard base comes in two colors ??? clear or black ??? with the latter option costing an additional $500. Serene Industries hasn???t provided an ETA on delivery, but says production will begin when pre-orders close on January 28th. Image: Serene Industries The design is very striking if you like a Cybertruck kinda vibe. Image: Serene Industries The keycaps appear lightly textured, alongside being ergonomically shaped for fingertips. The Icebreaker comes in a 65 percent layout and measures 450 x 44 x 24mm (around 17.7 x 1.7 x 0.9 inches). It sports a configurable integrated EC11 rotatory dial, dual silicone dampeners to help reduce noise and vibrations, and a 4,000 mAh battery that supports a battery life of around three months according to Serene Industries. The specifications don???t mention how much the keyboard weighs or what ???full height??? switches it comes with. We???ve asked Serene Industries to clarify and will update this piece if we hear back. Image: Serene Industries Here???s a look at the Icebreaker???s rear and side profiles, showing its aggressive wedge-shaped. There???s also premium features like ???micro-perforations??? on each keycap to allow the LED backlight to shine through, and 1/4-20 inch mounting points ??? three on the USB-C port face, and four at the base ??? for users to attach accessories like tripod mounts, monitor arms, or???axe handles. The design was partly inspired by the Flatiron Building in New York City, according to Serene Industries founder Denis Agarkov. When the Icebreaker was first announced in January 2024, Agarkov told Null Society that he aimed ???to create a keyboard that goes against the prevailing trends, adopting a more distinctive and challenging design.??? It???s certainly an expensive conversation starter for any keyboard collectors who want something more niche than your typical DIY kits.

details, payment cards, and other info. The shortest breach lasted 14 months before it was detected, while the longest one saw attackers maintain access for four years, starting in 2018. The beefed-up security programs they've agreed to establish include creating policies to only keep information for as long as it???s needed and publishing a link allowing US customers to request the deletion of information tied to their email address or loyalty account. Hotels have been one of many key targets for hackers, with one breach last year catching FTC Chair Lina Khan among the many people left waiting to check in when a ransomware attack forced MGM Resorts to fall back on using pen and paper. The FTC announced its charges in October , accusing the companies of having ???deceived consumers??? with false claims of ???reasonable and appropriate data security.??? Their alleged failures included having bad password and firewall practices and not patching outdated software and systems. The same day the FTC revealed the charges, the Connecticut Attorney General???s office announced Marriott had agreed to a $52 million settlement. Beyond improving their security, the companies are now forbidden ???from misrepresenting how they collect, maintain, use, delete or disclose consumers??? personal information; and the extent to which the companies protect the privacy, security, availability, confidentiality, or integrity of personal information.??? Other requirements include that they keep compliance records and submit to FTC inspections. The order will stay in effect for 20 years.

find a code, or offers a Honey-branded one, even if a simple internet search will cover something better. The Honey website???s pitch is that it will ???find every working promo code on the internet.??? But according to MegaLag???s video, ignoring better deals is a feature of Honey???s partnerships with its retail clients. MegaLag also says Honey will hijack affiliate revenue from influencers. According to MegaLag, if you click on an affiliate link from an influencer, Honey will then swap in its own tracking link when you interact with its deal pop-up at check-out. That???s regardless of whether Honey found you a coupon or not, and it results in Honey getting the credit for the sale, rather than the YouTuber or website whose link led you there. Paypal VP of corporate communications Josh Criscoe said in an email to The Verge that ???Honey follows industry rules and practices, including last-click attribution.??? MegaLag isn???t the first to make such claims. A 2021 Twitter post advises using Honey???s discount codes in a different browser to avoid it taking the affiliate credit. A Linus Media Group employee also explained in a 2022 forum reply that Linus Tech Tips dropped Honey as a sponsor over its affiliate link practices. Honey???s convenience has resulted in the extension being recommended widely, including in almost 5,000 Honey-sponsored videos across about 1,000 YouTube channels, according to MegaLag. We???ve even recommended it here at The Verge; now we do not. Here is Criscoe???s full statement: Honey is free to use and provides millions of shoppers with additional savings on their purchases whenever possible. Honey helps merchants reduce cart abandonment and comparison shopping while increasing sales conversion.

but it also plans to open up the development process via a Discord server , where users can give feedback once they start trying Halide Mark III. So far, Lux has detailed three upcoming features for Halide Mark III that subscribers will be able to try early: Color Grades, HDR photos, and an app redesign. Color grades will operate a lot like they do in Kino, with users able to quickly load an aesthetic look / color palette based on Lux???s own creations, film stocks, and imported recipes cooked by other users. In addition to what sounds like Lux???s take on Fujifilm???s film emulations, Halide Mark III will also include the developer???s take on HDR photos ??? now that iOS 18???s Adaptive HDR feature is making it easier to view HDR images on more platforms. Closing out the year doing things a bit different: sharing our Halide 3.0 roadmap, including its three major features! We???re also launching a Halide community Discord so we can bounce ideas off fans, solicit feedback on early buil

Kona Electric, Ioniq hatchback, Ioniq 5, and Ioniq 6. It also includes the 2025 Ioniq 6, 2025 Ioniq 5 N, 2025 Kona Electric, and Genesis brand EVs (a full list will be revealed next year). You can request the free adapter through the My Hyundai owner portal . Hyundai???s sister brand, Kia, is also giving free NACS adapters to some owners starting in early 2025 . Meanwhile, the 2025 Ioniq 5 with a native Tesla port will have Supercharger access as soon as it ships to customers. Tesla posted on X that it has already flipped the switch , enabling the 2025 Ioniq 5 to charge at Superchargers. Still, owners with older CCS-native models must wait for the Hyundai-approved adapters to get access. 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 drivers with NACS native charging ports now have access to 20k+ Tesla Superchargers through the Tesla App, drivers with existing CCS charging will have access with a Hyundai approved adapter in Q1. Download the Tesla app to charge ??? https://t.co/JRMxRtmK7p https://t.co/neOFxPNm6T ??? Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) December 23, 2024

far simpler proposal : prohibit those default placement deals, and only for three years. A court found Google liable for unlawfully monopolizing online search, and its remedies are supposed to reset the market, letting rivals fairly compete. Google (obviously) disagrees that it???s running a monopoly, but before it can appeal that underlying conclusion, it???s trying to limit the fallout if it loses. Google???s justification is that search deals were at the heart of the case, so they???re what a court should target. Under the proposal, Google couldn???t enter deals with Android phone manufacturers that require adding mobile search in exchange for access to other Google apps. It couldn???t require phone makers to exclude rival search engines or... Read the full story at The Verge.

at wastewater treatment facilities. And $48 million will go to another startup called CO280 that retrofits pulp and paper mills with controversial carbon capture technologies. The two agreements were facilitated by a carbon removal initiative called Frontier that???s led by led by Stripe, Google, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability on behalf of those founding companies and other brands trying to meet their own sustainability goals. Companies are increasingly looking for ways to try to cancel out the damage caused by their greenhouse gas emissions Companies are increasingly looking for ways to try to cancel out the damage caused by their greenhouse gas emissions. They???ve funneled millions into startups building new-fangled industrial... Read the full story at The Verge.

and Rog Strix G16 laptops. New STRIX, January 6, 8PM PST Save the date https://t.co/mS9trt2BCn #UnlockTheROGLab #CES2025ROG #CES2025 pic.twitter.com/y4hb43gRdY ??? ROG Global (@ASUS_ROG) December 23, 2024 While the Rog Strix Scar 18 is rumored to come with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 285 HX processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 graphics chip, the Rog Strix G16 could feature the same CPU options but with up to a GeForce RTX 5080, as noted by NotebookCheck . Asus may have more to share than just a pair of new Rog Strix laptops at CES, which is just a couple of weeks away. Recent leaks also indicate that Asus is getting ready to reveal an upgraded Rog Flow Z13 hybrid tablet / gaming laptop equipped with AMD???s next-gen ???Strix Halo??? processor .

factories and furloughing employees while it worked ???to finalize securing the capital necessary to move forward with its operations.??? As TechCrunch notes, the company reported that it had only about $700,000 left in the bank last month. Also on Friday, the company announced a 1-for-20 reverse stock split, effective December 24th. Canoo says the consolidation aims to keep its stock listed on the Nasdaq exchange and attract ???a broader group of institutional and retail investors.??? Canoo was founded in 2017 to sell electric vans and trucks to adventure-seeking customers but has mostly only ever made vehicles for the US government. As The Verge ???s Andrew Hawkins wrote last year , analysts have warned of its risk of insolvency as it???s teetered on the edge of running out of cash since 2022. Canoo has lost a steady stream of executives since then, including all of its founders and, more recently, its CFO and general counsel .

camera would be equipped with the company???s Secure Enclave chip that stores and processes Face ID information separately from the rest of the system???s hardware. Gurman writes that this device will ???likely??? work with existing third-party HomeKit smart locks and that the company may also partner with a smart lock company ???to offer a complete system on day one.??? He expects the camera will make use of Apple???s in-house ???Proxima??? combination Wi-Fi / Bluetooth chip that???s rumored for new HomePod Mini and Apple TV devices next year. This doorbell camera joins a broader collection of rumors surrounding a renewed Apple push into the smart home that???s centered around Apple Intelligence. Those include another new smart home camera, a possible Apple-branded TV, and new smart home displays ??? one a simple iPad-like device that magnetically attaches to wall mounts or speaker bases, while another display sits on the end of a robotic arm attached to a larger base.

organize apps when I had like, ten of them. There are sixty on the iPhone I???m using now, and I set it up from scratch a few months ago. Naturally, living off-grid or in a non-traditional homescreen arrangement has been possible for much longer on Android. Google???s OS lets you keep your screen clear and just find your apps in the app drawer, which is always a swipe away. You can even replace the launcher entirely . But iOS ??? where every new app you download winds up on your homescreen by default ??? hasn???t exactly made it easy to abandon the grid. That started to change when iOS 14 added widgets, an app library, and the ability to hide apps from your homescreen ??? though I haven???t developed the muscle memory to use it much. Now, iOS 18 adds even more flexibility . You... Read the full story at The Verge.

recommendations, told me I???m a lunatic about to-do lists, and generally been part of the Installerverse this year. Making this newsletter is so much fun, and I???m so thrilled to get to do it with you. Bigger and better next year! This week, I???ve been reading about Spotify???s ghost artists and Formula 1 and Mufasa and the deeply silly New York Jets , watching Hot Frosty (you can judge me, it???s fine) and re-watching 30 Rock , beating Balatro for the very first time, and trying to convince my toddler that it???s actually not fun and cool and great to wake up at 4am every day. I also have for you a nifty new smart home controller, a new app for the future of social networks, the next Sonic movie, and much more. Plus,... Read the full story at The Verge.

that lets you ask questions about the file, the same way you might ask ChatGPT about a PDF. Google first announced this screen-aware feature during its I/O developer conference in May. Rahman posted a screenshot of what it looks like in action: Other context-aware Gemini features include the ability to ask about web pages and YouTube videos. For apps or file types without Gemini???s context-aware support, the assistant instead offers to answer questions about your screen, using a screenshot it takes when you tap ???Ask about this screen.???

facilities that include two new ???leading-edge logic fabs and an R fab??? in Taylor, Texas, and the expansion of its plant in Austin. The company was originally slated to receive $6.4 billion. In a statement reported by Bloomberg , the company said that its ???mid-to-long-term investment plan has been partially revised to optimize overall investment efficiency,??? which suggests the company has dialed back its plans, according to the outlet. Texas Instruments will receive $1.61 billion to bolster the $18 billion it plans to spend on projects like constructing two wafer fabs in Texas and a third in Utah. The Commerce Department announced smaller awards this week too, including $407 million in funding for Amkor Technology, a US-based company that... Read the full story at The Verge.