Amazon’s serious injury rate at its warehouses was nearly twice as high as the rest of the industry in 2020, newly released Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) data shows in reports from both The Washington Post and the Strategic Organizing Center (a collection of unions that represent over 4 million workers around the country).
According to both groups’ analyses of the OSHA data, which spans 2017 through 2020, Amazon workers suffered 5.9 “serious” injuries — defined as incidents where workers received time off or a change in work responsibilities while recovering — per 200,000 hours worked (a metric that encompasses 100 workers working full time for the year). That’s compared to 3.3 injuries for that same metric across the rest of the warehousing industry. Walmart, one of Amazon’s largest retail competitors, had a rate of 2.5 serious injuries per 200,000 hours, more than half of Amazon’s rate of serious injury.
On the one hand, the new data represents an improvement from 2019, when a report from Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting showed that Amazon had an overall rate of 7.7 serious injuries per 100 employees. And that lower rate is despite the surge in overall Amazon shipping in 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a potentially promising trend to see. In fact, the 5.9 serious injuries per 100 employee rate — while still nearly twice as high as the rest of the industry — is actually Amazon’s best year in some time, considering that TheWashington Post and Reveal noted that the company had markedly higher overall injury rates in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
In a statement, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel commented that “while any incident is one too many, we are continuously learning and seeing improvements through ergonomics programs, guided exercises at employees’ workstations, mechanical assistance equipment, workstation setup and design, and forklift telematics and guardrails—to name a few.” Nantel also noted that Amazon invested over $1 billion in new safety measures last year, while expanding its health and safety team.
But it’s particularly telling that even at its lowest serious injury rate in years, Amazon’s warehouses still have a dramatically higher injury rate than the rest of the industry. As one Amazon worker complained to The Washington Post, the company set “unrealistic expectations” in pushing workers to meet productivity rates.
Last fall, Amazon contested the original report from Reveal, arguing that the interpretation of the OSHA data used to classify a “serious” injury — which, in the various reports here, is defined as those that require time off or work reassignments — is skewed by what the company claims is more generous recovery time.
The Samsung and LG-sourced screens for the iPhone 13 are already in production, and there will be support for 120Hz refresh rates. That’s according to Korean news site TheElec.
Production has started a month earlier than last year, suggesting that Apple’s iPhone 13 range will return to its normal launch schedule of September. The iPhone 12 launched a month later last year due to component sourcing issues caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.
The site says Samsung Display started production in the middle of May, with LG Display following “recently”. Samsung is planning on making 80 million OLED screens for the iPhone 13, while LG will make 30 million.
Samsung’s TFT OLEDs (which have a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz) are destined for the top two iPhone 13 models (likely the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max), according to the report. LG’s will be used in the lower-end models (iPhone 13 and 13 Mini).
The report doesn’t explicitly say that the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini won’t have 120Hz refresh rates, but it’s implied.
A 120Hz refresh rate would double that of the handsets in the iPhone 12 range. A higher refresh rate should mean less blur – especially noticeable in fast-moving content like sports and games.
So it appears to be full steam ahead for September, although we expect to see plenty more leaks before then – we’ll bring you the most credible as they arrive.
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It was March 2020, and restaurants across the country were shutting down, setting up takeout windows, or doing whatever they could to absorb the shock of COVID. But it was Chuck E. Cheese, of all places, that had the foresight and steely clarity to see not just what the new era required, but what it permitted. With much of America suddenly interacting with restaurants through delivery apps, the food industry had been transformed into e-commerce, and the arcade better known for its ball pits than its food was free to invent a new identity: “Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings.”
Pasqually’s cover was blown a month later, when Kendall Neff of Philadelphia wrote on Reddit that the pizza she ordered from what she believed was a local mom and pop in fact came from Chuck E. Cheese operating under an alias. But the gambit was a success. This March, the company told the trade publication Food on Demand that Pasqually’s is here to stay. And it is far from alone. In fact, during a period when restaurants closed en masse, restaurant brands proliferated.
Big chains like Denny’s and Red Robin spawned brands like The Burger Den and The Wing Dept., both announced earlier this year. Meanwhile, a new group of companies is aggressively courting restaurant owners and enlisting them to run delivery-only brands out of their existing businesses. Restaurants can choose from a menu of brands with names like Hot Dog Station, Salad Box, Mr. Cheeseburger, or Grilled Cheese Society.
These are called virtual brands, and as with so many pandemic trends, they preceded COVID but were accelerated by it. In the past, restaurants might occasionally use aliases to increase their likelihood of appearing in search results, and Uber Eats has had a program helping restaurants set them up since 2017. But when it came to imagining the future of delivery, most attention and funding focused on the virtual brand’s better-known cousin, the ghost kitchen. Startups like Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick’s CloudKitchens garnered large investments on the premise that multiple delivery-only restaurants sharing specialized commissary spaces would be efficient enough to thrive in the low-margin world of food delivery.
Virtual brands in some ways represented an opposite bet: that there are already too many restaurants, with too much kitchen capacity sitting idle, and that it can be put to use running delivery-only brands. Then came COVID, and every restaurant abruptly had extra kitchen capacity and a desperate need for revenue. There followed a Cambrian explosion of virtual brands. Uber Eats estimates the number of virtual brands on its platform more than tripled in 2020, to over 10,000. Grubhub reports a similar boom. According to a report the company released this year, 15 percent of restaurants operated a virtual brand before the pandemic. By the end of 2020, 51 percent had at least one.
And many have more than one brand. A lot more.
“Now in my little, 1,000-square-foot restaurant, I’m now carrying about 12, 14 brands,” says Ty Brown, with some astonishment.
It started gradually. Brown, a 43-year-old entrepreneur living in Brooklyn, had just opened The Bergen, a small takeout spot in his neighborhood, when he got a call from someone in California who said he was with a company called Future Foods. (Future Foods is actually an arm of Kalanick’s notoriously secretive ghost kitchen company, as food journalist Matt Newberg reported in June, though the two do not publicize their connection.) The pitch was simple: Brown was already making burgers and wings at The Bergen, so Future Foods would set him up with some additional brands — Burger Mansion and Killer Wings — which the company would list on delivery apps. Whenever someone bought from one of these brands, Brown would fill the orders, and Future Foods would send him a check for the revenue, minus its cut of around 20 percent.
The Bergen was Brown’s first restaurant, though far from his first business. He’d long been active in his neighborhood through a variety of ventures, chiefly the Brooklyn United Music & Arts Program, a nonprofit youth center and marching band he founded and runs. The kids in the program were always asking their parents about dinner, he says, so when he noticed the restaurant down the street had closed, he decided to lease it and open a spot of his own. Future Foods seemed like a helpful boost as he got on his feet.
He also hoped it would give him an edge on the apps that dominate delivery. Like many restaurant owners, his relationship with the apps is one of fraught dependence. He relies on them for orders and to handle delivery, but their fees, plus the advertising he says he must buy in order to get noticed, means he ends up paying them up to 25 percent of his revenue. “It’s pay to play,” he says.
In their pitches to restaurant owners, virtual brand companies offer to change this dynamic. Some claim to be able to get better rates with the app companies because they negotiate representing hundreds of restaurants rather than just one. They handle advertising and buy it at scale. Often, sales reps hint at arcane knowledge of platform algorithms. (One restaurant owner had been advised to open on a certain day and keep certain hours to win the algorithm’s favor.) But at the simplest level, they supply the menus, photos, and brand names: Something Fishy Fish and Chips, Hey Burger, Tendies Chicken Tenders.
“With the virtual brands thus far, a lot of it really boils down to search optimization,” says Melissa Wilson, a principal at the food service consulting company Technomic. Just as the incentives and constraints of Google search or Facebook’s News Feed gave rise to certain emergent styles — the keyword-crammed headline, the clickbait tease — digital brands are converging on a distinctive form. Because people search for food on delivery apps in much the same way they search for anything else online — by product type rather than brand — specific restaurant names like The Bergen, named after the street it’s on, or even Denny’s and Red Robin, are too opaque.
(In retrospect, even Chuck E. Cheese’s Pasqually’s feels like a transitional stage on the way to a fully optimized future, one that hasn’t lost its vestigial human name. Insisting it never meant to deceive, the company has pointed out that Pasqually is actually the name of the chef who took in Chuck — or rather, Charles Entertainment Cheese — the orphaned mouse who, according to the character’s surprisingly developed and unexpectedly tragic backstory, throws birthday parties for children to make up for those he never had. “If you’re a brand fan of Chuck E. Cheese, you know who Pasqually is,” an executive assured the trade publication QSR. “They’re curious to know what Pasqually’s might taste like.”)
The newer virtual brands are, paradoxically, distinctively generic. They share an uncanny familiarity, like the name of a restaurant in an airport food court — something that you feel like you’ve heard of before but can’t quite place: Noodle House, Pasta Mania, Chef Burger. It doesn’t take long to develop an ear for them. Technomic’s Wilson picked out two near her: Craftsman Bowls and Craftsman Burgers, spinoffs of a local steakhouse. I first contacted Brown after scanning Grubhub and spotting Wing Dynasty, a name that is both suspiciously bland and contains the truest tell of all: wings.
“Oh my god, I’m so sick of talking about chicken wings!” exclaims Food on Demand’s editor Tom Kaiser, laughing in a way that makes clear he is actually not. “How many wings are people eating in a given week? It’s crazy.”
If virtual brands are the response of an industry transformed abruptly into e-commerce, wings are the iPhone charger, the weighted blanket, the product that is profitable, in-demand, and so close to being a pure commodity that just about everyone is trying for a piece of the action. Just as hundreds of brands with arbitrary names like ASLTW and GOSICUKA will pop up on Amazon to sell identical cables or hair ties made in the same factory, because no one brand dominates and anyone has a shot at winning the algorithmic lottery, wing brands exploded over the last year.
Rishi Nigam, CEO of Franklin Junction, calls it “the great chicken wing rush of 2020.” His company mostly matches established brands with restaurants that have excess capacity — in practice, often chains inside chains, like the Canadian seafood company The Captain’s Boil, which ran for a time out of Ruby Tuesday — but it made an exception for wings, launching Wings of New York, a virtual brand from the hotdog company Nathan’s Famous, as well as WingDepo, which runs out of Frisch’s Big Boy. (With virtual brands, it all gets very complicated very quickly.)
From April 2020 through February 2021, a period when restaurant visits and orders dropped by about 11 percent, wing sales actually rose by 10 percent, according to David Portalatin, senior vice president food industry advisor at NPD. “American restaurants in the United States have served more than a billion servings of wings since the pandemic came along,” Portalatin says. The same period saw wing prices surge far beyond their pre-pandemic level. According to USDA data, wing prices in the Northeast were up nearly 50 percent at the end of February 2021 from where they were the year before, and they have continued to climb. There have been warnings of wing shortages.
Wings, like pizza and unlike, say, tacos, handle delivery well, and some of the restaurants that specialize in wings, like Wingstop, were already adept at digital ordering and particularly well-suited for the pandemic, Kaiser says. Wings are also extremely simple to make. “It’s a one-ingredient menu, right?” says Nigam. “There’s no barrier to entry. You and I could launch a wing brand by 6PM tonight.” Crucially, no one brand dominated the category, and there is no proprietary wing type or sauce, so any given restaurant’s overnight wing brand had a decent chance of winning attention on the delivery apps. This made wings an obvious first target for restaurants that had idle kitchens and needed additional revenue.
“It all added up to a perfect storm,” says Portalatin, “for wings.”
Spencer Rubin, founder and CEO of the New York sandwich chain Melt Shop, had been thinking about testing a wing brand before the pandemic, maybe for football season. Then COVID hit and his walk-in business evaporated. People were ordering dinner more than lunch, Rubin observed, and were particularly interested in “craveable” comfort foods, and there were only a few good wing brands in New York City, so he launched Wing Shop. “We got lucky with that one,” he says, being among the early entrants to the great wings rush. Now “everyone and their mother is launching a wing concept.”
Big chains like Applebee’s jumped in, first with the brand Neighborhood Wings, then with Cosmic Wings, an attempt to establish a proprietary moat through exclusive Cheetos dust. Chili’s launched It’s just Wings. The Smokey Bones barbecue chain launched The Wing Experience.
Meanwhile, virtual franchises started hitting up independent operators and pushing them to take on additional wing brands.
“It was crazy with wings,” says Dawn Skeete, the owner of Jam’it Bistro. She opened her Jamaican restaurant in south Brooklyn in 2019, and when the pandemic hit, Future Foods seemed like an appealing way to test what items at what prices sold in her neighborhood. The barbecue brand, OMG BBQ LOL, didn’t work out, but she kept going with Just Wing It. Then she took on a second wing brand, Wing Spot, after a new virtual franchise company called Acelerate.io approached her.
Acelerate.io is an LA-based company founded by a former DoorDash employee named George Jacobs, who felt that for delivery to be profitable, kitchens had to increase “throughput” by operating multiple restaurants. The company launched in late 2019 — with a wing brand, naturally — and now runs seven brands in “several hundred” restaurants across the US. (It’s spelled “Acelerate” because it’s “more efficient with just one c,” Jacobs says, but also because “accelerate.com” was too expensive.)
Just Wing It and Wing Spot have the same menu, Skeete says, which helped with bulk purchases as wings got more expensive. “Wing prices are going through the roof, and I think it has to do with all these virtual kitchens that are doing wings,” she says. She’s now looking to take on a third wing brand.
Brown always made wings at The Bergen, both under his own name and Future Foods’ Killer Wings. Business was good for much of 2020. The Bergen’s takeout and delivery-focused business was well-positioned for the spring lockdowns. It got publicity for donating meals to families in need, followed by more attention as a local Black-owned establishment during the protests surrounding George Floyd’s murder. The pace was almost more than staff could handle.
But by the end of the year, business was flagging, so in January, Brown responded to a pitch from Nextbite, an arm of the restaurant software company Ordermark. The company recently received a $120 million investment from SoftBank and has been expanding aggressively, offering restaurant owners, which it calls “fulfillment partners,” a selection of “turnkey” virtual brands from which to choose.
“Nextbite, man, the day I opened up that brand, they put out a lot of wings,” says Brown. “I had to go shop for more wings. I had to go open up a credit account in order to just carry enough wings. I had to go buy more freezers.”
The new brands were doing better on the apps than The Bergen, a fact Brown attributes to their ability to game their algorithms. “I call it the wizard behind the curtain,” he says. If a brand’s sales are low, he’ll call his support person at its parent company and ask them what’s going on. “Can the wizard click the magic button?” he jokes. “They start laughing at me, but they tell me that they know the algorithm, they know how to make sure we’re first on these websites.” A few days later, the orders flood in.
It worked so well he signed up for another company, The Local Culinary, a Miami-based business that started as a ghost kitchen but pivoted to the virtual franchise model last year. Next came Virtual Dining Concepts, that one run by Robert Earl, the former CEO of Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood. Earl launched Virtual Dining Concepts in 2019 after becoming disillusioned with the economics of ghost kitchens. It started, as all things do, with a wing brand, Wing Squad, being run out of Buca di Beppos and other restaurants he owns. But during the pandemic, he began licensing brands to other restaurants as well as coupling them with celebrities, an attempt to bring the power of fame and virality to the search-dominated delivery sector. Recent innovations include Tyga Bites and MrBeast Burger, which Earl says will be operating out of over 1,000 kitchens by the second half of this year.
Brown found it to be a polished operation: video modules to train staff on how to prepare the food and a requirement that they send in a photo of it packaged with branded stickers.
Soon, he was selling burgers under the names of Chef Burger, Burger Mansion, Hey Burger, and MrBeast Burger. Wings were sold under the names CHICKS, Wild Wild Wings, Crispy Wings, Killer Wings, Firebelly Wings, and The Wing Dynasty. It is a mathematically daunting array of burgers and wings, and that is to say nothing of newer additions like Hot Dog Station and Hot Potato.
Yelp reviews for The Bergen show complaints over late and mixed-up orders, including several in which orders are confused for other brands. “So I ordered from a restaurant called Hook, Line and Seafood, and some time later I received a call from The Bergen,” reads one of several one-star reviews. “Evidently they’re at the same address.” Brown has begun offering raises to employees who can memorize all the menus.
Yet, from another perspective, it is all very simple: burgers, chicken sandwiches, wings. “They’re branded differently but they’re made the same,” Brown says. “A cheeseburger with egg and bacon is called a Morning Glory. Somebody else calls it a breakfast sandwich. Somebody else calls it the Egg-o-nomitor — I don’t know, I’m making it up, but it’s the same exact thing, it just depends on who’s calling it what.”
“Instead of saying buffalo wings, they might say classic wings,” he goes on. “It’s the same exact wing, man. One might have one sauce different. My wings, their wings, the other wings — they’re all the same wings. I even stopped making my wings the way I used to make them. I’m a Black guy. We used to season our wings. I stopped because nobody else is doing it.”
Other elements of The Bergen’s menu have begun to resemble its corporate guests. If a brand has a burger that’s selling well, Brown will add it to his own menu — he’s already buying the same ingredients, after all — under yet another name.
Proponents of digital brands and ghost kitchens often pitch them as a way for chefs to experiment. When you don’t have to lease new space or hire new staff, it becomes less costly to try something new. At the same time, the availability of data about what works, platforms that algorithmically reward success with more success, and the way people search for generic products all create evolutionary pressure in the same direction. It’s a push-pull we’ve seen play out on other platforms. In theory, people are free to try weird things; in practice, most everyone makes wings.
Other restaurant owners are warier of the trend. Robert Guarino, who owns several restaurants in New York and is the CEO of Five Napkin Burger, started a virtual brand last summer (wings, of course) but is winding it down now. He warns that grafting delivery brands onto an existing restaurant can be harder than the pitches make it out to be. Capitalizing on excess kitchen capacity seems simple until owners realize everyone is ordering from all their menus between 6 and 8PM, or that multiple items need the same equipment, or that staff can’t keep up. “Restaurants are in some ways little factories; in some ways, they’re not,” he says.
His other concern is longer term, and one shared by many in the industry: that the delivery apps themselves will launch virtual brands. They have the data on what foods perform well, and they control what restaurants rank highly in search; what’s to stop them from launching a virtual brand themselves, asks Guarino, or offering brands to restaurants willing to pay them higher fees? “That’s the moment that the independent restaurant community has always been afraid of,” he says.
Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, compares it to Amazon’s practice of using data gleaned from its Marketplace to identify successful products and sell its own version. “It’s kind of the next logical step,” says Rigie. “It’s like Amazon Basics, where they say, ‘Okay, we’ll continue to sell your burgers, but now we’ve learned how to make our own burgers, and if you want your burgers to be listed above our burgers, you’re going to have to pay an additional premium.”
It’s not an unreasonable fear. None of the delivery apps have managed to make the business consistently profitable, and while margins in the restaurant industry are thin, it represents at least a possible path to financial viability. The apps are also facing the threat of defections over their high fees, as some restaurants start handling orders and delivery themselves. Running virtual restaurants would be one way to maintain a baseline selection on the platform.
The apps and the franchises are already working closely together. In December, Grubhub launched a program called Branded Virtual Restaurants, a partnership with Virtual Dining Concepts and the Chicago restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, and began running Facebook ads and sending emails courting owners. “These are simple, low-risk solutions for adding a new revenue stream to your business without increasing your overhead costs,” reads one Grubhub email inviting restaurant owners to sign up for brands like Pauly D’s Italian Subs or Mario’s Tortas Lopez. “Each Branded Virtual Restaurant is backed by a celebrity and national marketing campaign that’s sure to attract new customers to your restaurant.”
Brown received the pitch and is enthusiastic about the partnership for the same reason other restaurant owners are wary: he believes Grubhub’s involvement will give him an advantage. Searching for ways to open more brands, he recently expanded into a second Brooklyn location and is setting up outposts in Orlando and Atlanta. He hopes to open each with 15 to 20 brands. He feels the virtual restaurant boom is just beginning. He’s getting more and more ads and inquiries inviting him to sign up with brand after brand.
Recently, he learned about yet another company joining the rush. Google is testing a partnership with Nextbite and will be placing orders using its delivery service from Brown’s shop, among others. (Nextbite said it had no information to share at this time. Google did not respond to a request for comment.) It’s an ominous sign for the delivery apps which, after inserting themselves between customers and restaurants, now face the prospect of a yet bigger company doing the same to them. But for Brown, it’s a vote of confidence from one of the largest companies in the world that the future he’s betting on is the right one.
It’s a strange future, one where restaurants find a way to thrive in the low-margin world of delivery by becoming something else, something more like a food factory optimized for maximum output, with its production lines determined by an assortment of technology platforms and branding companies. It’s a more opaque world than the industry seemed to be headed toward a few years ago, when restaurants were advertising locally sourced ingredients and gesturing toward transparency in their supply chains. Instead, it will have some of the mystery of e-commerce, where a single click summons an item — from where exactly is unclear, and less important than the speed with which it arrives. In exchange for the specificity of physical restaurants, consumers will have an abundance of ever-changing choices, though perhaps all made in the same kitchen, and will find whatever it is they search for, especially if it’s wings.
So tonight is the finale for Mare of Easttown and there are so many threads that need to be tied up that I legitimately don’t know how they’ll answer all the open questions. I have a theory of who the killer is, and I don’t think it’s the same person who fathered Erin’s baby. Will Mare ever find happiness? It seems unlikely, I’m afraid. But maybe she’ll find answers or closure.
I realized that in this week’s trailer roundup that— in addition to a time-traveling theme— we have two movies that feature Sam Richardson, who played Richard Splett, arguably the best supporting character on the late great HBO show Veep. Please cast him in all the things, Hollywood, he’s hilarious.
The Tomorrow War
Chris Pratt is drafted into a war where he has to go into the future and fight aliens that sound and look (from the brief glimpse we get) like the Aliens aliens, because if present-day people don’t help, all human beings will be wiped/disappear “from the face of the Earth” (which we know is Very Serious because two separate characters say so in the trailer). Lots of guns, lots of Pratt wisecracks (which somehow don’t quite land here), and lots of stuff blowing up, plus an Independence Day weekend release date ensure many people will watch this movie. And what a cast: J.K. Simmons, Betty Gilpin, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Yvonne Strahovski, and Sam Richardson all join Pratt, so hopefully they can breathe life into what seems like a movie we’ve seen once or twice before. The Tomorrow War comes to Amazon Prime July 2nd.
Werewolves Within
Based on the Ubisoft VR game of the same name, Werewolves Within takes place in the small town of Beaverfield, and stars Sam Richardson as new-in-town Forest Ranger Finn, who discovers a dead body that may have been the victim of a wolf attack. But not just any wolf! A snowstorm forces a group of the very weird townspeople to hole up in an inn with Finn, and oh yeah one of them is probs a werewolf. Horror/comedy combos aren’t always easy to pull off, but the trailer shows Richardson’s comedy chops are in fine form. Werewolves Within will release in theaters June 25th and on demand July 2nd.
Eternals
As my colleague Chaim Gartenberg noted earlier this week, this trailer doesn’t really tell us much about the plot of Eternals, the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We see how the Eternals, a band of immortal heroes, have helped humans across the centuries. But something is amiss, because as Salma Hayek says in the voiceover “We have watched and guided. We have helped them progress and seen them accomplish wonders. Throughout the years, we have never interfered — until now.” The all-star cast includes Gemma Chan, Angelina Jolie, Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Hayek, Lia McHugh, Don Lee, Richard Madden, and Kit Harington, and it’s directed by Chloé Zhao, whose Nomadland garnered Best Picture and Best Director Oscars. Eternals is set for a November release.
Infinite
Mark Wahlberg stars as a man haunted by memories he doesn’t recognize because surprise! he’s an Infinite, a person who has had multiple past lives and is part of a secret group of warriors who are trying to save humanity from one of their own, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. This is one of the many movies whose release date was pushed back from last summer by the pandemic, but oddly isn’t getting a theatrical release. Based on the book The Reincarnationist Papers byD. Eric Maikranz, Infinite also stars Sophie Cookson, Jason Mantzoukas, Rupert Friend, Toby Jones, and Dylan O’Brien, and was directed by Antoine Fuqua. It hits Paramount Plus on June 10th.
Old
This is the first official trailer for the latest M. Night Shyamalan flick (we got a teaser during the Super Bowl (and side note, what is the difference between teasers and trailers anymore?). A family (and others) on a beach vacation begins aging rapidly, adding years in a matter of hours. Is it something in the water? We don’t know! Gael Garcia Bernal, Eliza Scanlen, Thomasin McKenzie, Aaron Pierre, Alex Wolff, Vicky Krieps, Abbey Lee, Embeth Davidtz, Rufus Sewell, and Ken Leung star in Old, which comes to theaters July 23rd.
Jungle Cruise
A movie based on a Disneyland ride starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. OK sure, why not, we base movies on books, video games, and board games, so this is the next logical step, right? And the second trailer for this movie gives a glimpse of Jesse Plemons, usually a sign that things are headed in the right direction. Jungle Cruise comes to theaters and Disney Plus (with Premier Access) on July 30th.
Building robots is an awesome way to learn electronics and programming. We have the excitement of making something move, along with learning life-long coding skills that will help us create many different projects. Robots are made using two disciplines. The first is the engineering of building a chassis and connecting electronic components together. The second discipline is the code that reads the inputs, which is interpreted by the brain and then controls the motors.
While there are many robotics projects out there for regular Raspberry Pi, the Raspberry Pi Pico is a good choice because of its low cost, low power requirements and instant-on capability (no OS required). Below, we’ll show you how to build a simple, Pico-powered robot that navigates through a room by touch and uses Kitronik’s Pico Motor Driver to interface between the Pico and its DC motors.
For this we are going to assume that you already know how to get your Raspberry Pi Pico up and running with MicroPython and that you know how to solder.
For This Project You Will Need
A Raspberry Pi Pico
Kitronik Motor Driver Board
Robot chassis
2 x DC TT motors with wheels
A caster wheel for the front
1 x 4 AA Battery pack
4 x AA Batteries
1 x Microswitch / push button
Soldering equipment
You can find the chassis, motor, battery pack and caster wheel together in an expensive package such as this one, which goes for around $13 on Amazon.
Building the Raspberry Pi Pico Robot
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Your build will differ, depending on the robot chassis that you use but at the most basic level we have to connect the motors to the terminals of the driver board, connect the bump sensor and supply power from the batteries.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
In our build we used a microswitch, commonly used in arcade joysticks and mice to give a clicky feedback, but you can use a simple pushbutton or an arcade button to achieve the same result.
Connecting the Components to Your Raspberry Pi Pico Robot
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
DC “TT” style motors (the kind in the yellow plastic housing) are common in the maker community. They work from around 5V to 9V and draw their power from the driver board.
1. Insert the Pico into the female headers on the Kitronik board.
2. Strip the ends of four wires, leaving 10mm of bare wires on each end. Twist the wires and then flow a little solder onto each end. This is called “tinning” and it ensures that no stray ends cause a short. If your TT motors already have wires attached to them, only strip the opposite ends of those wires and skip to step 3.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
3. Solder one end of each of the wires to the motors metal terminals.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
4. Insert the remaining ends into the Motor 1 and Motor 2 terminals on the Kitronik driver board. The wires from one motor will connect to a corresponding motor terminal. For example the left motor connects to the Motor 1 terminals, the right motor to Motor 2. You’ll notice that we added ferrules to our motor wires, this improves the strength and stability of the wires but it is entirely optional.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
5. Solder two wires to the microswitch / button. One wire should be soldered to COM (Common) and the other to NO (Normally Open). This means that when the switch is pressed, the normally open circuit is closed, connecting the 3V terminal on the driver board to GP0.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
6. Insert the COM wire into the 3V terminal of the driver board, then insert the remaining wire into the GP0 terminal on the boad. Secure the switch to the front of the robot so that the metal contact is clear of the chassis.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
7. Connect your battery pack to power terminals. Ensure that you observe the correct polarity. The red wire is positive (+) and the black wire is negative (-). For now do not insert the batteries.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
8. Secure the motor driver board and battery pack to the chassis.
Coding Your Raspberry Pi Pico Robot
Kitronik’s motor driver board has its own MicroPython library which abstracts the control of the motors and so we start by first installing that library. Please note that it is important that you do not have the power switch set to ON while the driver board is connected to your computer as this may damage the Pico or your computer.
1. Connect your Raspberry Pi Pico to your computer and open the Thonny application. Press STOP to ensure that the Pico is connected.
2. Copy the text of this motor driver library file.
3. Create a new file in Thonny and paste the text. Save the file as PicoMotorDriver.py to your Raspberry Pi Pico.
4. Create a new file for the project code.
5. Import two libraries. PicoMotorDriver and utime. PicoMotorDriver is the library that we just created and utime is used to pause and control the timings necessary for controlling the robot.
import PicoMotorDriver
import utime
6. Create two objects. The first, “board” is used to enable control of the motor driver board. The second, “forward_bumper” creates a connection between the driver board and the microswitch. We set this pin as an input, and ensure that the pin is pulled low (0V).
7. Create a function called forward. This function has one argument and that is the speed at which we want the robot to move. Inside the function we have two lines of code. The first controls the motor connected to Motor 1. We specify the direction of travel as forwards “f”, and the speed variable is passed when the function is called.
The second line is almost identical, but with Motor 2 specified and the direction of travel set to reverse, as the motor will be seated on the opposite side of the robot. if the “f” and “r” values don’t work for you then swap them. But only change one set of values, for example the forward function, and test before moving on.
9. Create two more functions for moving the robot left and right. For this we need the motors to work in opposing directions so that the robot turns on the spot.
11. Add a five second delay to the code. This delay will give us the time to place the robot on the floor and move out of its way.
utime.sleep(5)
12. Create a while True loop to continuously run the code.
while True:
13. Inside the loop, add a conditional test. This test will check the GPIO pin used for the bumper microswitch. If the robot has bumped into an object, then the switch is closed, connecting the 3V terminal to GP0 and changing the value from 0 to 1.
if forward_bumper.value() == 1:
14. Write code for what happens if the robot bumps into something. On bumping, it will first print a message to the Python shell. Then it will use the reverse function at 75% power for one second. We then stop, print another message to the shell before turning left at 75% power for one second. The robot then stops.
15. Add an else condition for when the robot is just moving forward. This will print a message to the Python shell, then using the forward function, set the speed to 75% and set the code to wait five seconds, which will move the robot forwards for five seconds.
else:
print("Forward")
forward(75)
utime.sleep(5)
16. Save the code to your Raspberry Pi Pico as main.py, this will force the code to run when the Pico is powered on.
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There are plenty of buying guides for figuring out the best phone to buy at a given time, across a wide variety of prices. We have two of them, in fact. But if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool phone enthusiast, you don’t need a guide that’s going to give you the best rational recommendation. You need something that’s going to help you scratch your new gadget itch in the most satisfying way.
I’m here for you because, well, I’m one of you. This is the internet’s premiere buying guide for phone enthusiasts. We’re not going to focus on practical, rational choices, nor are we going to concern ourselves with budgets. These are the dream phones, the ones you buy not as a utilitarian tool, but for the fun of playing with a new piece of tech that you’ll probably sell or trade in for a loss in six months. I’m not even going to single out a specific model that you should buy, because you’re likely buying a new phone every year (or maybe more!) anyway. This is all about throwing caution to the wind, diving deep into a hobby, and buying something you don’t need but absolutely want. Budgets be damned.
Grab your cargo shorts, we’re going shopping.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5GPhoto by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
1. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G
The best folding phone because you know you need one in your collection
Folding phones are the future, right? You can’t call yourself a Real Phone Enthusiast without one in your life. Hands down, the best folding phone you can buy right now is Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G. It’s got everything you might want from a modern smartphone, but it also opens up into a tablet-sized screen that lets you put more than one app side-by-side or look at a giant version of Google Maps. It’s easy to justify because you can tell yourself that you will get SO MUCH WORK done on it, right after you finish watching that YouTube video. Promise.
The Fold 2 costs more than most laptops, you have to baby it, and there’s a really good chance the screen will crack or break on you even if you are careful, but that’s just the price you have to pay to be on the bleeding edge.
Apple iPhone 12 MiniPhoto by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge
2. Apple iPhone 12 Mini
The best iPhone for when you’re double-fisting an Android phone
Look, I know that you know that everyone in the world has an iPhone and it’s the farthest thing from an “interesting” phone. But at the same time, it’s hard to ignore what Apple’s doing, and really, iMessage and the Apple Watch are pretty great. Lots of people carry an iPhone alongside an Android phone, and you could be one of them.
The best iPhone for doing this is the iPhone 12 Mini. It does everything its bigger siblings can do, but it can easily fit in a secondary pocket and isn’t a burden to carry around. The battery life is kinda lousy, but who cares, that’s why you have a second phone on you anyway, right?
The Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate comes with a clip-on fan and has 18GB of RAM.Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge
3. Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate
The best phone for seeing what this “gaming phone” trend is all about
Gaming phones are so hot right now (unless they’ve got a great cooling system) — it seems like a new model is released every three months. You can’t call yourself a true phone enthusiast without being up on this trend, and the best one to dip your toes into it with is the Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate.
The ROG Phone 5 Ultimate has a ton of features that can make any mobile accomplisher swoon. A massive battery. A ridiculously high refresh screen. An OLED screen on the back you can customize to show whatever you want. A bunch of accessories to make gaming better. 18GB of RAM! How could you not buy this phone?
Asus ROG Phone 5
$1,000
Prices taken at time of publishing.
The Asus ROG Phone 5 is the quintessential example of a modern gaming phone. It has over-the-top specs, lots of gaming accessories, and a head-turning design.
$1,000
at Asus
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 UltraPhoto by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
4. Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
The best phone for pretending you’re going to use a stylus
Writing on a phone screen with a pen is so cool! It feels futuristic and is just so natural. At least, it is for the first week until you forget about it and it never leaves the little garage built into the side of the phone again.
If you’ve been telling yourself that little “I’m gonna be a stylus person” lie, you need a phone that supports one and it’s hard to see buying anything other than Samsung’s Galaxy Note 20. It’s got a low latency S Pen, a bunch of software features that can utilize the stylus, and all of the other bells and whistles of a modern smartphone, which means it works quite well long after you’ve forgotten about the stylus.
The Google Pixel 4A
5. Google Pixel 4A
The best phone for messing around with the Android 12 beta
Okay, I said I wasn’t going to recommend anything rational in this guide, but this is perhaps the recommendation that makes the most sense: if you want to mess around with the Android 12 beta but don’t want to install it on your main phone, you should just buy a Google Pixel 4A. It’s only $350 (that’s just $20 more than it costs to fix a broken screen on an iPhone 12 Pro Max) and can work with Google’s latest and greatest software even before it’s released to the public.
You know the Android betas are going to be messy — battery life is going to be bad, there will be lots of bugs, certain apps might not work correctly — so you don’t want to put it on a device you actually need to rely on. Once the beta period is over, the Pixel 4A is a great device for experimenting with the aftermarket ROM world. Get a Pixel 4A and flash those ROMs to your heart’s content.
The Microsoft Surface DuoPhoto by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
6. Microsoft Surface Duo
The best phone for making people go “Whoa, is that a phone?”
As a phone enthusiast, you already know this harsh truth: the Microsoft Surface Duo is not a good phone. It has an old processor. The camera is worse than any iPhone of the past five years. The battery life is decidedly Not Great. It gets hot doing simple tasks. There are SO MANY software bugs. It’s got a generation-old version of Android. It doesn’t even support wireless charging or NFC payments! Oh yeah, and there’s that questionable build quality to worry about.
But there’s something undeniably cool about the Surface Duo, like it’s a device from the future coming here to bless us in the early 21st century. It’s so thin, it has two screens, the hinge is incredibly neat. Open it up in public and you’re sure to get someone to ask “wow, is that a phone?” which we all know is the ultimate goal here. You can then show them all of its cool features, right after it’s done rebooting itself for the fifth time that day.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro MaxPhoto by Becca Farsace / The Verge
7. Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max
The best phone for telling yourself that you don’t need an actual camera
For years now we’ve been told that phone cameras are so good that you don’t need an actual camera. The iPhone 12 Pro Max might be the best example of that yet. It’s got a bigger sensor! It’s got three focal lengths! It can shoot video in Dolby Vision HDR!
At the end of the day, it’s still a phone camera and can’t really hold a candle to the image quality or creative control you get with a larger mirrorless camera. But hey, it’s fun to live in that lie and you can totally see the difference between the 12 Pro Max images and other phones. When you blow them up on a big screen. And zoom in.
Oppo Find X3 ProPhoto by Sam Byford / The Verge
8. Oppo Find X3 Pro
The best phone for saying “you can’t get this in the US”
Perhaps the ultimate phone flex is pulling a phone out of your pocket that nobody else is going to have. If you’re in the US, the Oppo Find X3 Pro is that phone. It’s got features you can’t get on any American phone and a design you won’t see everywhere, like a microscope camera and softly rounded camera bump. Sure, it won’t really work great on the cellular networks here, importing it is an expensive hassle, and you won’t have any warranty whatsoever. But just think of the envy on your friends’ faces when you tell them they can’t have this phone.
Oppo Find X3 Pro
$1,178
Prices taken at time of publishing.
Oppo’s Find X3 Pro is the company’s latest flagship and it’s not sold in the US. It has a unique camera system and head-turning design that you won’t see on American phones.
$1,178
at Amazon
OnePlus 9 ProPhoto by Becca Farsace / The Verge
9. OnePlus 9 Pro
The best phone for when you realize that Pixel phones aren’t great, but you don’t want a Samsung either
Google’s Pixel phones have such great software and then… mediocre everything else. Samsung phones have incredible hardware but are laden with heavy software and actual ads inside of the stock apps. The OnePlus 9 Pro splits that difference — it has software that’s similar to Google’s on hardware that’s virtually a Samsung with a different logo on it.
The 9 Pro is just what the phone enthusiast ordered: a high-end, bells-and-whistles device with All Of The Specs but none of the cruft.
Samsung Galaxy Z FlipPhoto by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
10. Samsung Z Flip 5G
The best weekend phone for when you’re “disconnecting”
Here comes the weekend, with all of its promises of relaxation and enjoyment. You don’t need a phone that’s going to make you more productive, you need something that’s going to slip into your pocket and won’t distract you with a colorful display unless you absolutely need it to.
The Z Flip 5G is this phone. You can flip it closed to ignore it and then pop it open and have a full smartphone inside, complete with every feature you get on non-flippy phones. You’re making a compromise without really making a compromise, because we all know that you had no intention of actually disconnecting for the weekend.
Two tech industry organizations have sued Florida over its newly passed rules for social networks. NetChoice and the CCIA — which represent Amazon, Google, Intel, Samsung, Facebook, and other tech giants — say SB 7072 violates private companies’ constitutional rights. They’re asking a court to prevent the law from taking effect, calling it a “frontal assault on the First Amendment.”
SB 7072, which Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed earlier this week, restricts how large social apps and websites can moderate user-generated content. It makes banning any Florida political candidate or “journalistic enterprise” unlawful, lets users sue if they believe they were banned without sufficient reason, requires an option to “opt out” of sorting algorithms, and places companies that break the law on an “antitrust violator blacklist” that bars them from doing business with public entities in Florida. Notably, it includes an exception for companies that operate a theme park.
NetChoice and the CCIA say SB 7072 conflicts with both constitutional protections and federal Section 230 rules. “As private businesses, Plaintiffs’ members have the right to decide what content is appropriate for their sites and platforms,” their complaint says. “The Act requires members to display and prioritize user-generated content that runs counter to their terms, policies, and business practices; content that will likely offend and repel their users and advertisers; and even content that is unlawful, dangerous to public health and national security, and grossly inappropriate for younger audiences.”
The lawsuit claims Florida lawmakers and DeSantis specifically tailored the law to punish services whose moderation policies they disagreed with, while adding the arbitrary theme park exception to pacify Disney, Comcast NBCUniversal, and a handful of other big companies. “The law is crony capitalism masquerading as consumer protection,” said NetChoice vice president and general counsel Carl Szabo in a statement.
The law’s supporters argue it fights “deplatforming” of users based on political speech, saying social networks have “morphed into the town square” and become public spaces. Courts have contradicted the latter claim outside extremely specific exceptions, determining that Section 230 mostly lets social networks make their own moderation decisions — and states can’t simply supersede that federal rule. However, the Florida bill let lawmakers and DeSantis signal support for a Republican backlash against Silicon Valley, whether or not it actually takes effect.
One of the most beloved Sonic the Hedgehog games is making a return. Sega announced today that a remaster of Sonic Colors — called Sonic Colors: Ultimate — will be coming to the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on September 7th.
The platformer originally launched in 2010, garnering a cult following, and Sega says the new version will feature “stunning visuals, additional features, a new mode, and improved gameplay enhancements.” The game will also be getting a two-part animated tie-in called Rise of the Wisps. The first episode will be out later in the summer.
The announcement was the headlining piece of a Sonic-focused event, which included the reveal of several other games. Sega also announced that the next flagship Sonic title is in the works from Sonic Team — though no real details are available yet, aside from a 2022 release window — as well as a new collection of classic games called Sonic Origins, which will compile the first three games along with Sonic CD. Oh, and the animated Netflix series has a name: Sonic Prime.
Elsewhere, existing games are jumping to new platforms: Sonic Mania and Team Sonic Racing just launched on Amazon’s Luna cloud service; both of those games and Sonic Forces will be on PlayStation Now on June 1st; and Sonic Mania will be available through the Epic Games Store on June 24th.
Binge-watching Netflix on your smartphone just got easier. The streaming service is letting some users of its Android app try ‘Play Something’, a feature that suggests content for you to watch, Engadget reports.
The feature is already live on Netflix’s TV apps but it’s only being tested on select Android users for now, ahead of a wider rollout. If you’ve been selected, you’ll see the Play Something button appear on both adult and child profiles.
Play Something uses your viewing history and algorithms to suggest movies, documentaries, and TV shows that you might like. Hit the Play Something button and you’ll jump right in, no endless scrolling required.
Don’t like what you see? With another click, Netlfix will pick something else – this will either be from your queue, something you haven’t finished watching, or something else new based on your viewing habits.
Given the rise in rival streaming services such as Disney+, Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video, Netflix appears to be looking for extra ways to distinguish itself from the competition. What will it think of next?
MORE:
Streamers do battle: Amazon Prime Video vs Netflix – which is better?
Are you ready for a Netflix gaming service?
Check out the best Netflix Originals to watch right now
The 105th Indy 500 date is set and the race underway this Sunday, live from the world famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The biggest oval race of the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series will see 135,000 fans (in face masks, of course) cheer on defending Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato and pole-sitter Scott Dixon as they compete for the Borg-Warner Trophy and a bottle of ice-cold milk.
Ready to lay down some rubber at the Brickyard? Carb day (final practice) starts at 4pm BST on Friday, followed by the epic, 200-lap Indy 500 race on Sunday for an Indy 500 start time of 5.45pm BST (12.45pm ET). Make sure you know how to watch an Indy 500 live stream wherever you are in the world.
Indy 500 live stream
Start time: 5.45pm BST / 12.45am ET / 2.45am AEST
Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana
US streams: NBC Sports | FuboTV (free trial)
Watch anywhere: Try ExpressVPN risk-free today
UK stream: Sky Sports F1 | Now
AUS stream: KayoSports
Buy tickets: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
This year’s 500-mile extravaganza will take about 3 hours to complete, depending on pitstops, crashes and safety cars. The 33-car field will be led away by six-time IndyCar champ – the greatest driver of his generation – Scott Dixon. The Iceman secured pole last weekend by just 0.03 seconds in a thrilling Fast Nine.
“It was pretty hairy, glad it’s over. It was definitely pretty tense,” Dixon told Fox News. “I could see the mechanics working on the car as we rolled through, adjusting the wings. I asked them not to tell me. It’s definitely a roller coaster of emotions for everybody and I’m actually really relieved that that’s all over.”
Colton Herta captured second place. The 21-year-old Andretti Autosport driver put in a monster lap to bump 20-year-old Dutchman Rinus VeeKay into third place. The aptly-named Will Power smacked the wall on the final lap but will still make the race. Simona de Silvestro will get her first start since 2015 (last year’s race lacked a female driver for the first time in 20 years).
Anything can happen in IndyCar, but with Dixon set for his sixth front row start in his 19th Indy 500, the No. 9 Dallara-Honda is now odds-on favourite to the take the honours once more.
The 2021 Indy 500 presented by Gainbridge starts at 5.45pm UK time on Sunday. You can even stream the action on your TV and a host of devices including Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Xbox, PlayStation, iOS and Android devices.
Make sure you know how to watch an Indy 500 live stream from anywhere in the world.
Feast your eyes on the best TVs you can buy
Indy 500 live stream for only €9.99
(Image credit: Wikipedia / TPSDave – indianapolis-motor-speedway-1848561 archive copy)
Those in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Cyprus and Israel can watch an Indy 500 live stream using DAZN, the subscription-based sports streaming service. The price varies from region to region and there’s also a free trial which means you could watch the Indy 500 for free!
Those in the Czech Republic will be able to sign up for €9.99 per month to watch the Indy 500 live stream. There’s no lock-in contract, so you can cancel anytime.
Going to be outside the CR this weekend? Simply use a VPN to access your chosen Indy 500 live stream without being blocked. Try ExpressVPN risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Free trial available
Indy 500 live stream on DAZN for €9.99
DAZN has the rights to the Indy 500, UFC, Bundesliga, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, US Sports, Fightsports, and much more live and on demand in selected countries. Try for 1 month. Cancel at anytime.
The DAZN app is available on Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Sticks, as well as selected smart TVs including Android TV, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Philips.
If you have a games console, look for the DAZN app on Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. You can also download the DAZN app for Android and iOS mobile devices.
Watch an Indy 500 live stream using a VPN
Even if you have subscribed to the relevant Indy 500 rights holders, you won’t be able to access them when outside your own country. The service will know your location based on your IP address, and will automatically block your access.
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) helps you get around this obstacle. A VPN creates a private connection between your device and the internet, such that the servers and services you’re accessing aren’t aware of what you’re doing. All the information passing back and forth is entirely encrypted.
There are many VPN providers out there, with some more reliable and safe than others. As a rule, we’d suggest a paid-for service such as ExpressVPN which offers a 100 per cent risk-free money back guarantee. If you’re not happy with the service any time within the first 30-days, then you can cancel with no penalties at all.
Try ExpressVPN risk-free for 30 days ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money back guarantee with its VPN service. You can use it to watch on your mobile, tablet, laptop, TV, games console and more. There’s 24/7 customer support and three months free when you sign-up. Try it – you’ll be surprised how simple it is.
How to watch the Indy 500 in the USA
(Image credit: Wikipedia / Greg Hildebrand from Plymouth, IN – 2011 Indy 500874)
The Indy 500 race will air on NBC. Pre-race coverage starts at 9am ET on NBCSN, moving to NBC at 11am and finishing at 4pm. It also will be available to stream via the NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com.
Not got cable? US fans also have to option to watch the Indy 500 via FuboTV, a streaming service that carries NBC and offers a free 7-day trial.
FuboTV supports Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad and Android phones/tablets. You can also use FuboTV to watch the Indy 500 on your TV using Google Chromecast or Apple Airplay.
After the FuboTV trial ends, you’ll be bumped onto the $65 a month plan, which includes access to a host of premium TV channels. There’s no lock-in contract, so you can cancel at any time – and before the free trial ends, if you so wish.
Can I watch the Indy 500 in 4K?
FuboTV is a great way to watch the the occasional sporting event in 4K Ultra HD, but, sadly, not the 2021 Indy 500.
How to watch the Indy 500 in the UK
(Image credit: Sky)
Sky has the rights to show the Indy 500 in the UK. You can watch live on Sky Sports F1, or via the SkyGo app. The build-up starts at 3.45pm with the race set to get underway at 5.45pm.
Not a Sky subscriber? Anyone can enjoy the Indy 500 using Sky’s pay-per-view platform, Now. Now is available on all good smart TVs and set-top-boxes. A one-day pass costs from £9.99 gets you live coverage of F1, football, golf and more.
Now Sports Pass Watch the Indy 500 from just £9.99 A day pass for sports on Now can cost as little as £9.99, with a monthly pass coming in at £33.99 for those wanting to see the Indy 500 plus a few F1 grand prix, as well as football, golf and tennis.
How to watch the Indy 500 in Australia
(Image credit: Kayo)
Fox Sports has the rights to screen the 2021 IndyCar Series down under. Aussies seeking an Indy 500 live stream should click onto Kayo Sports.
The streaming platform’s premium package costs AU$35 per month but you can grab a free 14-day trial here.
Indy 500 schedule
5am ET – Garage opens
6am ET – Gates open
6.30am ET – Tech inspection
8.15am ET – Cars pushed to pit lane
10.30am ET – Cars on the starting grid
11:47am ET – Driver introductions
12.38pmET– Command to start engines
12.45pm ET – Green flag for the 105th Indy 500
Why does the Indy 500 winner drink milk?
The tradition dates to 1936, when Louis Meyer won his third Indy 500. It’s said that Meyer used to drink buttermilk to refresh himself on hot days, and when a photographer snapper a picture of him guzzling from a glass bottle in victory lane, the picture appeared in several newspapers.
It wasn’t long before a canny marketing executive representing the Milk Federation realised that ‘winners drink milk’ was a great way to sell the American public yet more milk. Ever since then, aside from a short hiatus between 1946-55, the winner of the Indy 500 has been presented with a bottle of ice-cold milk (actually it was a whole churn last year).
There was uproar in 1993 when contrary Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi mugged off the milk in favour of a bottle of orange juice. Some sections of the audience booed but Fittipaldi had the last laugh when he was revealed as the owner of a 500,000-acre orange grove in Brazil. Fittipaldi was later forced to issue an apology.
Dell’s Summer Sale Event is officially underway, and if you’re looking for a 1440p panel to support your newfound gaming habits, the Dell 27 S2721DGF Gaming Monitor is an excellent bet. The 27-inch peripheral is currently on sale at Dell for $380 — more than $200 off the initial list price — and it touts a 165Hz refresh rate, HDR, and support for both FreeSync and G-Sync, helping to smooth gameplay and reduce unwanted tearing. A 1ms response time and decent port selection round out the monitor’s feature set alongside the sleek accent lighting on the back, which, like it or not, will douse your wall in a subtle shade of blue.
Dell 27 S2721DGF Gaming Monitor
$380
$610
38% off
Prices taken at time of publishing.
A 27-inch 1440p gaming monitor with a design that looks like a blend of Dell’s Alienware and XPS styles on the rear. This monitor is also compatible with Nvidia’s G-Sync software.
$380
at Dell
Mass Effect’s legendary starship may be available to No Man’s Sky for a limited time, but if you truly want to experience the heydey of Mass Effect on your PC, there’s no better way than with Mass Effect Legendary Edition. On sale at Eneba for $40 with offer code MASSEFFECTLEG, the remastered collection contains all three titles in Shepard’s original trilogy, as well Mass Effect 3’s extended cut and the 40-odd DLC packs released throughout the series’s run. With BioWare’s beloved sci-fi series set to return in the (hopefully) not-so-distant future, now might be the perfect time to revisit the classic saga.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
$40
$60
34% off
Prices taken at time of publishing.
A compilation of the first three Mass Effect games repackaged and optimized for 4K with reduced load times, improved performance, and various gameplay tweaks.
$40
at Eneba
Microsoft’s Surface Headphones are a generation old at this point, but they still provide a comfortable fit, pleasant sound, and active noise cancellation. They also have a very intuitive dial control system on each cup for adjusting volume or the strength of the noise cancellation. Originally $350, Woot is selling brand-new Surface Headphones for just $80 today, making them one of the best values in noise-canceling headphones right now.
The 2020 Roku Ultra may not be considered our favorite streaming device, however, it’s also not one to scoff at. It’s the most capable device in the Roku lineup, equipped with both a USB port for external media and an ethernet port for those times when your Wi-Fi is acting up or overloaded. It also supports a range of content, from 4K to HDR to Dolby Vision, and features quick performance, thanks to its quad-core processor. Better yet, it’s currently available at Amazon and Walmart for $69 or $70 at Best Buy, the lowest price we’ve seen on Roku’s premium device. If you’re looking for bells and whistles, the Roku Ultra has them in spades.
Roku Ultra (2020)
$69
$100
31% off
Prices taken at time of publishing.
The Roku Ultra is the most capable of Roku’s streaming devices. It features support for 4K, HDR, and Dolby Vision, while offering up a host of other unique incentives, including a programmable remote and both a USB and ethernet port.
The Moto G30 arrived in Europe in February and later it expanded its availability to India. Now, the phone has gone on pre-order in the United States on Amazon, revealing its price – $299.99.
The phone was initially launched with 128GB storage, but the US version is getting downgraded to 64GB, as well as just 4GB RAM. At this point the only available in Black with the flashier Pastel Sky color missing.
Other specs of the phone include a Snapdragon 662 chipset, a 5,000 mAh battery and four cameras on the back, with the main one having a 64MP sensor. This device is not 5G-enabled, maxing out at LTE networks but it does support NFC and Bluetooth 5.0.
The Moto G30 will start shipping on July 30 according to the listing. This is more than two months from today, but at least the phone is not tied with any telecoms and is sold unlocked for all carriers.
Samsung has been growing the number of displays it sells over the last few years, adding professional-grade and gaming monitors to its line-up. Now, Samsung is attempting to add another category to its list – Smart Monitors.
Samsung’s Smart Monitor range is expanding this week, with a new 43-inch 4K M7 model and a smaller, 24-inch M5 model with 1080p resolution. The key thing that sets these monitors apart is the introduction of Smart TV technology, powered by Samsung’s own Tizen processors.
Samsung wants these to be “do-it-all” displays, good for work, gaming and general entertainment, which will be accessible through a Smart TV style UI with support for apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. These Smart Monitors also feature apps for remote desktop connections and productivity apps like Microsoft Office. This functionality essentially turns the monitor into its own all-in-one computer.
Samsung now has Smart Monitors in 43-inch and 32-inch 4K options, as well as 1080p versions from 24-inches up to 32-inches, with prices starting at $229.99.
KitGuru Says: The lines between PC monitors and TVs has been getting blurry over the years. What do you think of Samsung’s ‘Smart Monitors’?
If you’re struggling with your audio quality, you may be tempted to buy a dedicated microphone to improve your work calls, live streaming, content creation. Some of you may not want to splash too much cash however, so today we’re taking a look at a very affordable microphone by Tonor, the TC30 USB microphone, which comes in at just £37.99. With over 8500 4.5-star ratings on Amazon, it comes with absolutely everything you need to get started, including a pop-shield, shock mount and desk stand. Is it actually any good – or should you pass on this one?
Watch via our Vimeo channel (below) or over on YouTube at 2160p HERE
Specifications:
Microphone type: Condenser
Cardioid Polar Pickup Pattern
Frequency Response 50Hz – 20kHz
Input Sample Rate 48kHz
Bit Rate 16Bit
Output Impedance 2.2kΩ
S/N Ratio >68dB
Sensitivity: -32dB±3dB
Cable Length 2m
Detachable cable
Cable Type: USB-C to USB-A 2.0
Included desk stand, shock mount and pop filter
Plug and play, no software needed
You can purchase the Tonor TC30 on a limited-time offer from Amazon for £26.99 HERE! The usual price is £37.99.
Tonor have also let us know that KitGuru readers can get 15% off on the Amazon US store with code USBMIC15.
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Pros:
Plug and play, you get everything you need including a shock mount.
Detachable USB-C to USB-A 2.0 cable.
Excellent price point.
Brilliant audio quality when used correctly.
Cons:
No gain control knob or mute button on the mic itself.
Plastic threading on the shock mount.
Fully plastic design.
KitGuru says: If you’re on a restricted budget this is the microphone for anyone looking to improve the quality of their business meeting calls, gaming with friends online, content creators doing voice overs and more. With the very affordable nature of the Tonor TC30 at just £38, we definitely recommend it as the audio quality really is very good considering its price point.
Owners of Amazon’s Eero 6 and Pro 6 routers will now be able to isolate their HomeKit IoT devices from the rest of their home network and the wider internet, thanks to a new integration with Apple’s HomeKit that’s now rolling out (via MacRumors). The new feature is coming as part of a firmware update, and makes the routers some of the first Wi-Fi 6 systems that support Apple’s integration.
The added feature may be welcome, but it’s probably not a surprise for those who have been paying attention: Eero’s other, cheaper routers were updated to support it in February, 2020, and an Eero Support account mentioned in November that the router was going through Apple’s certification process.
Setting up your Eero (or any other supported routers) with HomeKit lets you manage how much data your other HomeKit devices are allowed to share over the network. If, for example, you had some smart window blinds that were a bit shady, you could use HomeKit to only allow them to talk to your local HomeKit Hub, and not connect to the internet (or other apps). It’s a niche benefit, to be sure, but if you were holding off on an Eero 6 purchase until it was available, it looks like the time has finally come.
It’s worth noting that, to use the feature, a separate HomeKit Hub is required: this can be either an Apple TV, HomePod (regular or Mini), or iPad that stays in the house. If you want to activate HomeKit on your Eero router, the company has a support page laying out all the details.
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