Over at The Markup is an alarming story about a rash of phishing scams that have been targeting gig workers for Postmates. Drivers are receiving phone calls from people claiming to be Postmates employees, who urge the workers to give over their login details — usually under the guise that it’s necessary to keep a driver account in good standing or avoid claims of fraud.
Once the scammers obtain that info, they switch the debit card information on the account — Postmates makes weekly deposits of a worker’s earnings, but instant transfers can also be requested — and then drain the balance of everything that’s in there. The Markup has spoken to many Postmates gig workers who’ve been preyed upon with this scam, and others are using Reddit and social media to warn their fellow drivers about the phishing and social engineering attempts.
The unknown call usually comes in right after an order. (Placing an order allows the perpetrators to easily reach their Postmates driver by phone.) Some scammers have gone so far as to involve restaurants in their scheme.
Drivers say that Postmates isn’t doing enough to make them aware of the phishing threat, which has only grown more common during the COVID-19 pandemic. Scammers are taking advantage of how busy and hurried these gig workers often are, so drivers are asking for more safeguards in the app.
One suggestion is an automatic hold on a driver account whenever the deposit information changes, just to give some more time to prevent a worker’s money from being siphoned out. Another measure that could help would be a caller ID that clearly identifies when a call is coming from a Postmates customer account. Postmates has this support page on protecting accounts, but several drivers told The Markup they’d never seen it before.
Postmates says it has implemented two-factor authentication and can block cashouts if fraud is suspected. But drivers that’ve been hit by the scam say the company is hard to reach, so they have little hope for recouping their lost earnings. The whole story at The Markup is worth a read — and yet more reason to tip well whenever you lean on the gig economy.
The creator of The Oatmeal, Matthew Inman, released a new cat-themed mobile word game called Kitty Letter earlier this week that feels like playing one of his irreverent comic strips. That feeling was intentional, Inman told me.
“My comics have always been rhetorical,” he said. “You don’t interact with the comic, you have no say in it, you’re just experiencing it. So, with [Kitty Letter], I got a chance to introduce some elements where people get to play the comic, and I thought that was a lot of fun.”
Kitty Letter has a structure that Inman described as “Scrabble combined with Clash Royale.” Your goal is to beat your opponent by spelling words from a combination of letters at the bottom of your phone’s screen. When you spell a word, you’ll send a small army of cats up an invisible “lane” toward your opponent. Meanwhile, your opponent is sending armies of cats to try and defeat you.
The game was actually going to be multiplayer-only at first, Inman told me. This might be surprising for those who’ve played the game, since it has a robust story mode spanning 13 chapters. But that story mode was born from creating the game’s tutorial, said Inman.
“I started drawing this tutorial on how to play, and then the tutorial became that single-player mode, where you have this neighbor that moves in and tells the whole story about him,” Inman said. But then, he realized, “I got in too deep. I had written all this stuff, I was like, ‘I have to end this,’ and I ended up writing like 12 chapters. But it became my favorite part of the whole thing.”
Inman also discussed the game’s free-to-play model, which is very generous. Unlike many free-to-play games, Kitty Letter’s single-player story mode and multiplayer are completely free, with no restrictions. The decision to offer all of that came from what Inman disliked about other free games.
“I play free-to-play games, but I play them because I like the games,” Inman said. “The actual mechanics involved, like grinding and unlocking chests and getting gems and coins, I hate them. I fucking hate them. If [developers] were like, ‘pay us $20 and we’ll give you everything,’ I would do that. I much prefer that model.”
The game does offer paid cosmetics for multiplayer, but they don’t provide any gameplay benefit and they’re buried in a menu. And Inman says that revenue from them has been “pretty much non-existent.”
Inman acknowledged that he can offer the game largely for free because of his other successful ventures, which includeThe Oatmealand the hugely successful card game Exploding Kittens. “I’m not just some altruistic guy that doesn’t want to make a living from his work,” he said. “To be completely candid, we make a great living from our card games, and we make a great living from some of the other things that I do. With [Kitty Letter], it felt like we could just get away with making it as enjoyable as possible.
“This app more generates that currency of — and this is so fucking corny — currency of love and joy, like you have a joyful experience with the game,” he said. “So, in turn, you love Exploding Kittens more, and maybe one day, if you want to buy a card game from us, you can.” It’s a business model similar to that of The Oatmeal. Inman offers the comics for free online, but sells books and has offered merch.
Inman has a lot of ideas for what’s next for the game. He’d like to improve the arcade mode, add more single-player levels, and squash bugs. He’d also like to port the game to Steam and the Nintendo Switch, but those might be a little further away. “I would probably call it six months,” he said.
And I had to ask: were cats always the focus of the game?
“It was cats from day one,” Inman said. “It was called Cats Royale, originally.”
Ease your way into the joys of commuting by electric bike
Aventa is a new electric bike with a secret: its battery is removable despite the clean design.
London-based Furosystems just launched the Aventa series of pedal-assist e-bikes into the European market. A more powerful US model is planned for later this year, or early in 2022 if the double whammy of Covid and Brexit creates undue complications.
Aventa is sold in three variations, with the first deliveries starting in mid-March. Each model is priced to include all the accessories needed for typical urban commuting: mudguards, bell, luggage rack, kickstand, and front and rear lights. The standard Aventa ships with a 10.4Ah 375Wh battery, hydraulic disc brakes, and full-sized LCD display for €1,799. If you want more range, then you can opt for the Aventa Max, which costs €1,999 and has a bigger 14Ah 504Wh battery. The Aventa Pure is the entry-level model. It lowers the specs with mechanical disc brakes, a tiny 7.8Ah 281Wh battery, and a miniature LCD display. That also lowers the price to €1,599, which compares favorably to commuter e-bikes from Cowboy (starting at €2,290) and VanMoof (starting at €1,998), and city bikes like the Muto (starting at €1,799).
It’s the entry-level Aventa Pure model I’ve been testing for the past month in frozen Amsterdam.
First canal freeze in years, so why not?
The Verge is always on the hunt for affordable and attractive electric commuter bikes. But they need to be from reputable companies. After all, if you’re going to spend a couple of grand on an e-bike meant for daily use then it had better be reliable and serviceable for years to come, not sold by some fly-by-night operator on Amazon or Indiegogo that’ll go bust just as soon as you need to make a warranty claim.
Furosystems appears to be a company with staying power. It recently raised £750,000 (about $1 million) from investors ahead of the Aventa launch. That’s pennies compared to the recent funding rounds by Rad Power Bikes ($150 million), VanMoof ($40 million), Cowboy ($26 million), and Super73 ($20 million), but CEO Eliott Wertheimer tells me that the company was already profitable before the November funding round. In addition to the new Aventa e-bikes, Furosystems already sells Fuze scooters and the Furo X folding e-bike.
Last year Furosystems did 60 percent of its sales in the UK, according to Wertheimer, with the remaining 40 percent split across France and Italy. This year the company is planning to grow sales from about 3,000 units to 10,000 by expanding into Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. Aventa e-bikes are being assembled in Portugal with components sourced from around the world. Wertheimer tells me that his ultimate goal is to design and manufacture every part themselves, but to do that now would be too costly.
The Aventa Pure e-bike I’ve been testing is built for European roads. That means a motor with 250W of continuous power (and 500W peak) and a top speed of 25 km/h (15.5 mph). That speed is fine in congested city centers, but too slow for anyone commuting along lonely roads or protected rural bike paths for any great distance. Mind you, that’s criticism of European transportation policy, not the Aventa.
The 25 km/h speed limit can be overridden for markets that allow it.
Furosystems does provide instructions to override the speed limit “to comply with local regulations,” requiring just a few taps on the buttons surrounding the LCD display. With that tweak the Aventa will reach a top speed of between 32 km/h and 36 km/h depending upon the rider’s size, I’m reliably told. But I was a good boy for this review. While I confirmed the speed hack was legit (and thrilling), I stayed within the European limits for my testing now that police are increasingly cracking down on illegally fast e-bikes in cities throughout Europe.
Furosystems says that the Aventa Pure’s 281Wh battery is capable of more than 40 km (25 miles) of range. In my testing, on long stretches of uninterrupted rural roads, I’ve already gone well beyond that estimate since I’m often pedaling at speeds greater than 25 km/h. At those speeds the motor is just idling as it’s not needed to supply power to the pedals. As a result, my battery says it’s still more than 50 percent full after 47 km (29.7 miles) of riding, despite riding at the max of five pedal-assisted levels.
Although the Aventa lacks any kind of throttle or boost button, the sturdy little Bafang motor fitted to the rear wheel hub was able to flatten the steepest hills I could find (which aren’t anywhere close to San Francisco steep) thanks to its ability to generate 500W of peak power.
When riding in stop-and-go traffic, power is provided smoothly and evenly to each downstroke of the pedals despite the lack of any torque sensor like you’ll find on more expensive e-bikes. On flat surfaces, I barely used the nine speeds allowed by the Shimano Altus derailleur. But those gears definitely came in handy when trying to start under heavy loads on inclines or when getting some exercise at top speeds.
The Aventa puts the rider into a somewhat sporty forward lean on a saddle you’ll want to replace if regularly riding long bumpy distances. The ride is almost silent, disrupted only by a thin rattle when riding over some of the bumpiest brick roads I could find. While I wasn’t able to pinpoint the exact source of the rattle, it did go away when I rode without the battery installed.
Removing the battery is an easy, but awkward, procedure as it’s locked into place by a key at the base of the downtube. To extract it the bike has to be laid unceremoniously onto the ground. You can also flip the bike upside down, but at 16.5 kg (36 pounds), the Aventa may be relatively lightweight for a fully loaded e-bike, but it’s definitely not light. Nevertheless, being able to remove the battery for indoor charging is a necessity for many city dwellers who don’t have the space, or strength, to lug a hulking e-bike up narrow stairs to an apartment.
The top image with better cable management is what buyers today will receive in mid-March, compared to the review bike which was sold in December and January.
Now, about the cable management. The Aventa Pure e-bike sent for review has far too many exposed cables and connectors for my liking. Fortunately, that’s being fixed for anyone preordering an Aventa today, as the bikes being manufactured now for delivery starting mid-March will route the cables through the frame. While integrated cabling certainly looks better, the exposed cables and connectors on my review bike make it more modular and therefore easier to service whenever a part needs replacing.
My review unit arrived with a smashed headlight, for example, caused by a clumsy courier. Furosystems sent me a new assembly which I was able to install myself by releasing a pair of screws and unclipping the damaged unit. It took all of two minutes. Ease of repair is an important consideration for a young direct-to-consumer company that lacks a sophisticated global repair network. Shipping a busted e-bike to a foreign country for service is no fun for anyone, least of all the owner. Just ask early adopters of the VanMoof S3.
Wertheimer tells me that Furosystems is constantly iterating and taking on customer feedback, and is willing to switch back to the external cabling if customer surveys suggest a strong preference.
Other notable specs and observations:
Charges in about 4.5 hours, or as long as 7 hours if you buy the Aventa Max with higher-capacity battery.
The aluminum frame can fit riders between 165 cm (5 feet 4 inches) and 195 cm (6 feet 4 inches) and up to 120 kg (265 pounds).
The lighting kit on the Aventa Pure features an integrated front light that can be controlled from the display pad (which also controls the LCD’s backlight). The rear clamp-on lamp has to be operated manually.
The mini LCD display is fine for showing battery level, speed in km/h or mph, and distance traveled.
There isn’t Bluetooth or an app, which is fine by me — the Aventa is powered on via a button below the LCD.
I hate the giant logo printed on the downtube. I get it, the company is young and needs to build recognition, but it comes at the expense of the buyer who’s transformed into a rolling billboard for a brand without any prestige (yet). One bystander asked me if I got it from some bike-sharing startup. Ugh, the humiliation.
The battery can be inserted backward accidentally. It really should be keyed to make insertion idiot-proof (hi, I’m an idiot).
The quick-release front-wheel and saddle stem are convenient but also magnets for thieves. Be careful out there.
The entry-level Aventa Pure is a lot of bike for the price, coming in at €400 less than the VanMoof S3, which has become a benchmark of sorts for commuter e-bikes. The Aventa Pure also has a removable battery unlike the S3, and that might make all the difference for many buyers. True, the Aventa Pure doesn’t have all the gee-whiz features you’ll find on premium e-bikes at €2,000 and above. But expensive features like integrated security, theft recovery, at-home servicing, crash detection, and apps that can recommend the least polluted bike routes are ultimately just nice-to-haves, not critical functions of an electric bike.
The Furosystems Aventa Pure is an attractive, inexpensive, and bare-bones e-bike for commuters. It will get you from A to B and back safely and reliably, and likely well into the future. And honestly, what more do you need?
The Aventa Pure is a great icebreaker for anyone wanting an introduction to e-bike commuting.
Photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge
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Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Postmates spent over $200 million campaigning for Proposition 22, the most expensive ballot measure in California history, successfully convincing voters that they couldn’t properly pay and protect their workers if they were forced to classify them as full employees — at least, not without cutting back service or substantially raising the price you’d pay.
But now the dust has settled, every single gig economy company that backed Prop 22 has raised those prices anyway. Instacart was the last to join the bait-and-switch today, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Carolyn Said, who previously told us in January exactly how much some of these companies are charging Californians to pay for worker benefits: $1-$2 per meal with Uber, $1.50 with Grubhub, up to $1.50 per ride with Lyft, and a whole additional 3 percent increase per order with Instacart (for a total of 8 percent, though it doesn’t apply to the company’s “Express” subscription plan yet). Postmates is charging as much as $2.50 extra per order, our sister site Eater reported.
Instacart threatened price increases if they lost Prop 22.
Now that they won, they’re raising them anyway.
Gig corporations have no shame.
We cannot let them roll this horrible law out to other States. pic.twitter.com/FAF9LJ91yA
— Gig Workers Rising (@GigWorkersRise) February 19, 2021
Instead of paying their workers, gig corporations pumped $200M to pass prop 22, claiming the worker protections guaranteed under the law would force them to drive up cost & pass it on to customers. Well guess what? They did it anyways. It’s honestly disgusting at this point. https://t.co/tMH2jBjWPE
— California Labor Federation (@CaliforniaLabor) December 14, 2020
Just to be clear, these companies explicitly pushed voters into supporting Prop 22 to avoid higher prices. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi publicly said prices would increase between 20 and 40 percent in big California cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, and up to double in smaller towns. In California’s official Voter Guide, which accompanied mail-in ballots, supporters of the bill warned there would be “significantly higher consumer prices” if Prop 22 failed to pass.
Companies like Uber and Lyft succeeded in part due to those scare tactics, and by appealing to voters that they could help workers get more protections and higher pay this way instead of potentially putting those workers’ jobs at risk. (It probably didn’t hurt that the app companies bombarded both drivers and passengers with messages using their own apps, which triggered a lawsuit from drivers who claimed Uber was bullying them.)
But there’s still an open question whether Prop 22 is actually helping workers, regardless of how much more we’re paying to supposedly make that happen. The Guardian reported yesterday that some drivers claim pay has actually fallen and the job has become less reliable.
In the UK, Uber just lost a five-year legal battle today over a similar issue, which will give workers there a guaranteed minimum wage, paid holiday, and other protections (though they will not necessarily be “employees”). But here in the US where Prop 22 succeeded, it’s opened the door for other parts of the country to potentially replace many regular employees with contractors too. Bloomberg has a good piece you should read about what that future might look like, for better or for worse.
Building your own smart home is easier than ever with a Raspberry Pi. Even companies like MicroNova have recognized the potential of our favorite single-board computer (SBC) by using one inside its home sound system, called AmpliPi.
The crowdfunded AmpliPi box is capable of streaming from four separate sources. Users can interact with it using a web-based interface and output audio to a maximum of 36 stereo output zones.
The system is built on top of the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 and can interface with the likes of Spotify, AirPlay and Pandora. Users can configure speaker zones and playlists using the AmpliPi REST API created by MicroNova.
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(Image credit: MicroNova)
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(Image credit: MicroNova)
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(Image credit: MicroNova)
MicroNova’s web app lets users manage audio sources using a series of tabs. It includes settings to adjust groups and zones to make sure music plays in the intended room.
Explore the AmpliPi GitHub for more in-depth information about how the system works.
If Raspberry Pi projects get you excited, check out our list of Best Raspberry Pi Projects for more fun creations from the maker community.
Last year, AMD released the Ryzen 5000 series desktop processors in one of the most monumental hardware launches of the modern era. This final step completed the Red brand’s ascent back into the forefront of the desktop processor market that began with the launch of the first generation of Ryzen CPUs. Now, while Intel prepares to fire back with the launch of the 11th Generation Intel Core processors, we take a look at a less common specification of the forward-compatible 400 series.
While the 10th Gen Intel Core processors did not support PCIe 4.0 connectivity due to signal integrity issues, many of the 400 motherboards are designed to support the PCIe 4.0 specification. This is accomplished by adding clock generators to help clean up the signal. Generally speaking, when it comes to long-term platform support, AMD has been the trendsetter. Has AMD’s long support of the AM4 socket on its newer generation processors inspired Intel to take similar steps?
So what is the 400 series offering right now? For starters, there has been a large focus on VRM and VRM cooling design. With the top-level Intel Core i9-10900K featuring ten cores along with HyperThreading, the ability to deliver clean, continuous power is going to be one of the primary factors that separates a good 400 series board from the competition. With the introduction of HyperThreading on Intel’s mid-range line-up, power delivery is going to be vital in all segments.
The Vision line from Gigabyte targets content creators with a focus on connectivity, performance, and durability. The Gigabyte W480 Vision D features a direct 12-phase VRM for clean power delivery, as well as a direct-touch heatpipe for optimal cooling. An ample helping of USB ports, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and 2.5 Gb/s Ethernet promote superior connectivity while the white aesthetic lends visual flare. The W480 chipset supports Xeon W and ECC memory at the cost of locked down CPU overclocking.
Let’s take a look at the Gigabyte W480 Vision D and see how it stacks up against its Z490 counterparts!
Specifications
Specifications
CPU Support:
Intel 10th Gen or later Core processors Intel Xeon W series processors
1x DisplayPort In port 2x Thunderbolt™ 3 connectors 1x HDMI port 2x SMA antenna connectors 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red) 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports 2x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 2x RJ-45 ports 1x optical S/PDIF Out connector 5x audio jacks
Apple subpoenaed Valve in November as part of its ongoing litigation with Fortnite developer Epic Games, and it’s demanding that Valve provide extensive sales data for more than 400 games, according to a new filing (via PC Gamer).
The move comes amid Apple’s ongoing fight over Epic’s efforts to avoid paying iOS App Store fees. Apple argues that Valve’s data is necessary to calculate the size of the market of Epic’s “available distribution channels,” as Epic could theoretically offer its games through Steam in addition to other digital marketplaces. But the data is also immensely valuable in assessing the marketplace for games and apps — a space in which Apple’s iOS App Store continues to compete with Valve’s Steam marketplace.
Valve contends that Apple’s demands are extraordinary and is contesting the order.
In one request, Apple calls on Valve to procure documents that show the company’s:
(a) total yearly sales of apps and in-app products; (b) annual advertising revenues from Steam; (c) annual sales of external products attributable to Steam; (d) annual revenues from Steam; and (e) annual earnings (whether gross or net) from Steam.
Apple argues that this data is “crucial” to help it determine “the total size of the market for Epic’s available digital distribution channels.” The courts have already asked Samsung to provide “almost identical” information, Apple said in the filing.
In addition, Apple also demands that Valve procure documents that show:
(a) the name of each App on Steam; (b) the date range when the App was available on Steam; and (c) the price of the App and any in-app product available on Steam
Valve argues that the requests are overly broad. According to Valve’s position statement in the filing, “Apple gave Valve a list of 436 video games it says are available on the Epic Game Store and Steam, and (a) demanded Valve identify, from 2015 to the present, every version and all digital content or items for each of these games on Steam, then (b) provide exhaustive information about all of them.”
The requested information includes dates on sale, price changes, gross revenues for “game version and item, broken down individually,” and Valve’s revenues “related to these versions, content and items.”
Valve argues these demands would “impose an extraordinary burden on Valve to query, process and combine a massive amount of to create the documents Apple seeks” and that it does not keep this data as part of the “ordinary course of business.” (The filing also notes that Apple had reduced its request for data from “all 30,000+ games on Steam over ten years” to “436 games over six years.”)
Valve also argues that “much of what Apple seeks is sales and pricing information for third party games,” but that the company is taking a “shortcut” by subpoenaing Valve instead of getting the information directly from third-party developers.
On Wednesday, Epic filed a formal antitrust complaint against Apple with the European Commission, arguing that Apple has “not just harmed but completely eliminated competition in app distribution and payment processes.”
A series of accidentally posted office videos has become an unexpected viral hit on TikTok. The most popular shows a series of municipal employees bidding farewell to their colleague, Connie, against the backdrop of a prairie-hued office space straight out of Parks & Rec.
“Congratulations from the Orange County clerk’s office,” says the male deputy clerk, before stepping off to the right.
County Clerk Elizabeth Jones steps into the frame: “We wish you the best in your future endeavors.”
“We appreciate the good job that you have done for the state of Indiana,” says another, before making room for a fourth. “Goodbye, Connie!”
As of press time, more than 40,000 users have liked the video, and it has been viewed more than 300,000 times. The @deputyclerk account, which was only launched yesterday, has already amassed nearly 3,000 followers, despite having only eight videos, all of which are variations on the same goodbye message.
The videos have inspired a wave of spinoff content, as users look to put their own spin on the burgeoning meme. In most cases, users take on the role of Connie, imagining themselves to be as loved and appreciated as her.
In other cases, users have lip-synced over the audio. “New Trend alert: which voice fits u best,” asks one such video. “Charli u have 24 hours.”
The sudden internet fame has been a whirlwind for the clerk’s office, which was not even aware the videos were being posted online. Based in Paoli, Indiana (population 3,677), the clerk’s team is still unsure why the videos have attracted so much attention.
“We didn’t know that it was on TikTok,” says Elizabeth Jones, who leads the clerk’s office for Orange County Clerk. “Somehow it got in the for you page, and it got send to a lot of people.”
“People were like, why did I get this,” Jones continued. “It was really meant just to be her goodbye video.”
The videos begin on Thursday morning, when the office heard news that beloved Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson was retiring. A number of state employees were recording farewell videos for Lawson, and the Orange County office decided to record its version using TikTok to take advantage of the app’s native filter capabilities. But while several clerks were TikTok users, none had ever made a video using the app.
“We all had issues with one or the other so we just did it seven or eight times,” says Deputy Clerk Olivia Griffith, the last woman to speak in the video. “It said ‘save to my device,’ so I thought it was just going to the photo gallery on my phone.”
Many had assumed that the rejected videos would disappear entirely. “The one where I’m singing…that definitely wasn’t supposed to be seen by anybody else,” says Jones.
With 3,000 followers, the office now has a surprising level of TikTok clout, although they’re still undecided on whether they will try to expand on their newfound fame with more videos.
“I don’t know,” says Griffith. “We haven’t thought about it. We may.”
Some Disney Plus users trying to watch WandaVisionthe minute it landed were met with loading issues as outage problems affected the streaming platform.
A number of accounts mostly located on the West Coast of the United States were affected by a surge in traffic on the platform that caused an outage of roughly 10 minutes, according to the company. Reports about the length of the outage ranged on Twitter, with some people experiencing problems for closer to 30 minutes, leading to trending topics with names like “NOT DISNEY” and “DISNEY+ DOWN.
Other reports from people on the East Coast and in the UK also made rounds. Concerns about issues with the specific episode, like encoding problems, are false, according to the company. A screenshot of Down Detector for Disney Plus can be seen below. The outage peaked around 3:05AM ET.
Screenshot of Disney Plus going down, via Down Detector.Image: Down Detector
This is not the first time that Disney Plus has faced loading issues. When the service launched, alongside the premiere of The Mandalorian’s first episode, reports of Disney Plus not loading circulated social media. Since then, the app has remained mostly fine, with few reports of widespread outages.
Other Disney streaming platforms, however, have faced outage issues. Most recently, a number of customers using ESPN Plus to watch UFC 257 faced ongoing outage issues leading up to the main title fight. A Disney spokesperson told The Verge on January 24th that teams were “aware that a technical issue prevented a portion of users from accessing the early part of the ESPN+ pay-per-view event, and we apologize for that experience.”
“We worked as quickly as possible to identify and resolve the issue,” the spokesperson added.
While WandaVision isn’t the same thing as a Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier fight, the show is one of the most popular series around the world, according to data from Parrot Analytics supplied to The Verge. Over the last couple of weeks, the show has become 90.9x as popular (or more in-demand) than the average show globally, analyst Wade Payson-Denney told The Verge. It is a top show in 10 different countries on five different continents. So, yes — WandaVision is popular.
Image: Parrot Analytics
The show has also landed on Nielsen’s most-watched list of streaming originals, seeing millions of streams between the first and second week of the show’s debut. While Nielsen ratings aren’t perfect (they only measure viewership in the United States and don’t count certain methods of watching like on tablets), it goes to show that WandaVision’s weekly release strategy is working. The first two episodes averaged between 6.5 million and 8.5 million streams, depending on how many people watched the end credits all the way through, according to Nielsen data.
This doesn’t fully explain why WandaVision went down this week and not in other weeks prior, or why The Mandalorian’s season 2 finale didn’t cause the streaming platform to stutter. It’s possible Disney ensured that servers were better prepared for the finale because of expected viewership, and it could be that WandaVision’s weekly viewing at exactly 12AM PT / 3AM ET was unexpected, even by Marvel’s standards. What we do know from the House of Mouse is that it mainly affected West Coast accounts for a short period of time.
How much information should a legal conflict between Apple and Epic Games reveal about Steam? Apple seems to think the answer is “a lot,” according to a report from PCGamer, but Valve maintains that its platform isn’t directly related to the dispute.
The companies made their positions clear in a joint discovery letter filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Thursday. Lawyers for both companies said they “have been unable to reach an agreement” on the issue.
Let’s back up a bit. This all started in August 2020 when Epic Games claimed Apple and Google’s app distribution policies and monetization were anti-competitive. The developer has since made similar complaints in the UK, Australia, and EU.
Apple subpoenaed Valve in November 2020 to gather information about Steam that might help its case. The letter filed yesterday made it clear that Valve provided some of this information but was unable or unwilling to provide everything Apple wanted.
It’s not hard to guess why. This is how Apple characterized two of its requests:
“Apple’s Request 2 is very narrow. It simply requests documents sufficient to show Valve’s: (a) total yearly sales of apps and in-app products; (b) annual advertising revenues from Steam; (c) annual sales of external products attributable to Steam; (d) annual revenues from Steam; and (e) annual earnings (whether gross or net) from Steam. Apple has gone as far as requesting this information in any readily accessible format, but Valve refuses to produce it.
“Request 32 asks for documents sufficient to show: (a) the name of each App on Steam; (b) the date range when the App was available on Steam; and (c) the price of the App and any in-app product available on Steam. This is basic information relating to the identity and availability of games over time on Steam, is necessary to determine the scope and breadth of the digital distribution marketplace, and is ‘relevant to showing competition’ between these platforms.”
See? All the company’s looking for is detailed information about everything sold on Steam and how much money Valve has made from sales via the platform. Apple seems to believe that isn’t a big request; Valve has disagreed. The company said:
”In response to Apple’s 46 documents requests, Valve already produced documents regarding its revenue share, competition with Epic, Steam distribution contracts, and other documents. Apple was not satisfied and demands—without offering to cover Valve’s costs, which would be significant—that Valve (i) recreate six years’ worth of PC game and item sales for hundreds of third party video games, then (ii) produce a massive amount of confidential information about these games and Valve’s revenues. Valve objected.”
Valve also noted that it’s being drawn into a legal conflict that’s primarily about mobile app distribution and monetization, even though its focus is on PC gaming. (With the notable exception of a Steam Link app that’s had its own troubles.)
The letter made it clear that Apple wants the court to force Valve to share more info about Steam. Valve, meanwhile, said that “Apple’s demands for further production should be rejected.” Now it’s up to the court to decide who’ll get their way.
(Pocket-lint) – The Wahoo Kickr Climb is a simple yet innovative product – but one that’s likely to split opinion. While some people will see it as an expensive gimmick with appeal that will soon wear off, others will view it as the next step along the road to making indoor riding even more immersive and, well, just a bit more fun.
The Climb is essentially an accessory for owners of a Wahoo trainer – it is compatible with all Wahoo’s turbos from 2017 onward: Snap, Core, Kickr — but, unfortunately for owners of other branded trainers, you don’t get to join in the fun this time. Yes, it’s strictly for those in the Wahoo club.
The Kickr Climb allows you to simulate climbing a gradient of up to 20 per cent or descending down to 10 per cent on your bike by attaching your front forks to it, where your front wheel would normally sit. It then lifts or drops the front end, pitching you forwards or backwards in the saddle as you roll up and down the virtual open road.
So does it the Climb take indoor training up a level?
Out of the box
The Climb is a cinch to get set up. It comes ready with adaptors for quick release or thru-axles, so it is simply a case of choosing the correct ones for your bike, removing your front wheel and attaching your frame to it. You then have to link the Climb to your Wahoo trainer by using the Climb’s remote control, then register via the app.
Pocket-lint
As per all Wahoo products, the Climb looks good, featuring slender lines and two-tone graphite and black colouring. Although it feels solid, it’s also a little top-heavy and it doesn’t take too much to knock it over if it isn’t attached to your bike – so you’ll need to take care if you leave it standing alone, particularly if you have pets or young children around.
In the saddle
There are two ways you can use the Climb. The first is via the remote control, which sits neatly in a recess on the top of the Climb. From this rubberised unit – which is hardwired to the Climb and includes a handy strap to attach it to your handlebars – you can manually increase or decrease the height of the front of your bike, simulating a climb or decent.
We found this to be a nice feature when we were first testing out exactly what the Climb could do, and of course some people might want to set a particular degree of slope for a workout, but that’s not how most people will use it.
Pocket-lint
The Climb truly comes to life when it’s being used with apps such as Zwift or Sufferfest. Within these environments the front of your bike rises and falls with the road as you see it on screen, increasing your feeling of immersion in the virtual landscape; we found it really does add another dimension to your workouts and virtual rides.
We also found it helped to reduce the feeling of fatigue you can get from sitting in the same position while using the trainer, and it encourages you to transition between a seated and standing position as you hit the slopes, adding a further element to your training. For people who are specifically preparing for outdoor events that involve a significant amount of climbing, it means you can train your body in the correct position, fine tuning your posture and muscular adaptation.
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That’s not to say it’s perfect though. The way that Zwift’s landscape is designed, detailed as it is, does not have the same natural undulations as a real world road, so there is a noticeable “lift” as you hit a ramp, then the reverse as you crest the hill, or begin to descend, with little in the way of variation in between.
This is all quite noticeable at first, as you begin to get used to the Climb, as is the nagging worry that the Climb doesn’t quite feel as stable as your front wheel. Rather than have a flat-bottomed base, the Climb is slightly curved, to allow it to rock backwards a small amount as it climbs, then forwards as you descend.
Pocket-lint
Wahoo advises that you should lift and reset the Climb after every ride, to ensure it is positioned correctly, which at first can leave you questioning whether you’ve set it perfectly.
Added altogether this made for a few slightly uneasy rides at first, with maybe just a slight feeling of motion sickness added in too. Once we learned to trust that it wasn’t going to slip or give way, we soon forgot all about it and were perfectly happy getting out of the saddle and sprinting full gas in intervals or for the finish line in races.
Verdict
All in all, we think that the Kickr Climb is an appealing upgrade for Wahoo trainer owners looking to further enhance and add realism to their indoor riding in environments such as Zwift. It offers another level of engagement for riders who enjoy training and racing in the virtual world.
However, its inability to connect to other brand trainers, the high asking price and relatively limited function mean it’s certainly not going to appeal to everyone.
Alternatives to consider
Elite
Elite Sterzo Smart
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The Climb is a unique product at the moment, but if it’s added realism you’re after you could try the Elite Sterzo Smart. The ANT+ connection can directly link to Zwift to allow realistic steering in the app.
Wahoo
Wahoo Kickr Bike
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If you’re in the market for a new trainer plusscor the Climb, why not go the whole hog and buy the KickrBike? You can save yourself the faff of ever having to set your outside bike up on the trainer ever again, though it’s certainly not a budget option.
The Sennheiser Ambeo Immersive Audio division behind the awesome Sennheiser Ambeo soundbar has teamed up with 3D-printing company Formlabs to develop moulded, custom-fit earbuds that allow owners to “affordably and easily customize their earphones to fit their unique ears”.
There are already plenty of companies out there offering custom-fit earbuds, but the process typically involves a visit to an audiologist, who takes a plasticine cast of your ears. Formlabs plans to achieve this ear-scanning process simply with a smartphone app.
The scan takes about 60 seconds and can be done at home. The data is sent to a 3D printer, which then creates a pair of 3D-printed ear tips to match the contours of your ears. You can even have your initials printed on the buds, lest someone mistake them for ordinary, off-the-shelf tips – heaven forbid.
So far, there’s no word on when the product might be available, but Formlabs already offers a similar service through a hearing aid firm. According to Formlabs and Sennheiser’s statement, the working prototypes are able to “refine an immersive sound experience”.
So, will the wireless earbuds of tomorrow ship with custom, 3D-printed ear tips? We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, here’s a rundown of the best Sennheiser headphones…
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Braun’s return to home audio is to be celebrated, but the LE03 isn’t quite on par with any of its past successes
For
Decent amount of detail
Nice midrange
Google Assistant
Against
Harsh treble
Boxed-in sound
Muddled sound overall
Braun bowed out of the home audio market in 1991, but the company has decided that now is the right time for a return, with its first audio offering in almost 30 years.
Wireless speakers must have seemed as futuristic as flying cars back in the early 1990s, yet the Braun Audio LE03 and its two other siblings in the company’s range (the LE01 and LE02) are based upon Braun speakers from even longer ago than that – though their forebears in 1959 were presumably much lighter on the technology.
Build and features
(Image credit: Braun Audio)
This current crop, of which the Braun Audio LE03 is the baby, is fully immersed in the Google ecosystem. That means Google Assistant with the use of the speaker’s onboard mics – far-field voice recognition ensures you’re heard from the other side of the room, while you can also turn the microphones off.
Google Chromecast is also built-in for easy wi-fi streaming, multi-room and stereo pairing possibilities via the Home app, too.
Not that you’re restricted to the Google network to achieve up to 24-bit/96kHz streaming, the LE03 also has Apple AirPlay 2 connectivity, Bluetooth 4.2 and a 3.5mm aux-in for physical tethering.
Braun Audio LE03 tech specs
(Image credit: Braun Audio)
Bluetooth version 4.2
Inputs 3.5mm aux
Apple Airplay 2 Yes
Google Chromecast Yes
Finishes x2
Dimensions (hwd) 17 x 17 x 8.4cm
Weight 1.65kg
Inside is a 4cm full-range Balanced Mode Radiator drive unit, which aims to produce non-directional sound and allow for great versatility in terms of positioning and orientation of the speaker. That is combined with a 9cm aluminium cone woofer and a 13cm x 8cm passive radiator to help this mid-size speaker put on a little extra weight.
Braun also provides its own app, where you can adjust controls for bass and treble, as well as opt for whichever environment setting best suits the location of the speaker. These are essentially profile presets, rather than the LE03 creating a bespoke EQ to complement your actual room, but useful nonetheless.
For an extra £169, you can also pair the LE03 with its pole floor stand. That’s quite an outlay, but it has a design nod to its 1950s predecessors, which is a nice touch given that the rounding off and modernisation of these speakers has sadly lost quite a bit of the character of the older ones. In truth, there’s little aesthetically to distinguish the LE03 from many of its competitors in a crowded market.
Sound
(Image credit: Braun Audio)
That lack of distinction carries over into the sonic performance too. The positive thing is that there’s not a huge amount to complain about – this isn’t a speaker that will have you jumping up to turn it off. It’s an easy listen, and that does still count for something when it comes to wireless speakers.
That’s thanks largely to a relatively full and engaging midrange, which is no doubt helped by the effort applied by Braun to beef up the low end. Certainly, if you want to hear this speaker at its best, it is about playing vocal-led recordings without much distraction from the tone or melody of the voice.
The LE03 isn’t bereft entirely of detail either – there is texture to that midrange and a decent amount of insight for a speaker this size. That applies elsewhere in the frequency range, but the problem is things there aren’t quite as sweet. Treble in particular is rather coarse and becomes harsher at higher volumes. There isn’t the richness you find in lower octaves.
The main issue, though, is how boxed-in the LE03 sounds. For a speaker claiming a wide-open, 180-degree soundfield, it’s really quite disappointing. And the more you have going on in the mix, the more cluttered it gets.
A less expansive soundstage can sometimes help in terms of focus or tying instruments together, but here it is just rather muddled. Organisation hasn’t gone completely out the window, but describing the presentation as tidy would be well wide of the mark.
That means rhythmically it is fairly unimpressive, too, and there isn’t much room for dynamic expression when a full orchestra is jostling for position in the mix. The price doesn’t help Braun much here, either, dropping the LE03 right in the mix with the superb Audio Pro Addon wireless multi-room speakers.
Verdict
It’s a shame, because the return of Braun to the audio sphere could have been an exciting prospect. However, judging by the performance of the LE03 alone, those too young to remember Braun’s previous efforts are likely to assume that this is just another electronics manufacturer trying to muscle in on a congested wireless speaker market.
Acast, a podcast host and ad network, is looking to improve its tech and broaden its reach. The company announced today that it’s acquiring RadioPublic for an undisclosed amount with the goal of using RadioPublic’s tech to bring more creators to the Acast platform and make inroads in the US market. RadioPublic’s podcast app will remain live, and its team will stay based in the US.
Among the tools that RadioPublic created — and that intrigued Acast — is something called Podsite, which helps podcasters set up a complimentary website for their show as well as a feature called Affinity Promotions, which helps podcasters target their most loyal listeners with text-based messages. They can use these messages to promote a newsletter, for example, or highlight new merch. RadioPublic, more than anything else, homed in on podcast creators and designed tools especially for them, similarly to Acast.
The Acast team operates a hosting platform, ad network, and listening app and is mostly interested in the creator side of the business. It partnered with Patreon to host its users’ shows and more easily distribute their private RSS feeds, as one example, and it makes hosting free at its most basic level. And while RadioPublic understands the US podcasting market well, which Acast plans to target moving forward, Acast is better known in other places around the world, which RadioPublic would like to reach.
“I think it was a match made in heaven,” says Leandro Saucedo, Acast’s chief business and strategy officer, in an interview with The Verge. He also points out that beyond RadioPublic’s consumer-facing tools, their technology was superb.
“It’s hard for me to explain because you get so down to the technical side, but let’s say within the car that’s Acast there’s a gearbox, which you never see but you definitely feel it if you drive, and there’s some nice gearbox stuff in RadioPublic that you wouldn’t think of, but once we put that gearbox into our car, our car runs smoother,” he says. “I think there’s a lot of that behind the scenes, which really makes sense for us, which is deep tech within the realm of podcasts.”
Broadly, Acast’s goals mirror Spotify’s. The team wants to bring as many creators to its platform as possible so that it can learn from their data and monetize their programming by selling ads through its advertiser marketplace. The more shows it has, the larger inventory it can sell. Spotify, comparatively, has tried to create a similar situation through Anchor and Megaphone, which offer sponsorships and access to an ad marketplace, respectively. The only difference in Spotify’s case is Anchor itself, which makes creating a show easier through software. Acast hasn’t focused on the actual creation toolset yet.
Still, Saucedo claims to The Verge that Acast is “the largest podcasting business in the world,” based on its revenue and investments. He says he can’t share specifics but points to the company’s $120 million in funding and says that, if backtracked, someone could figure out the brand’s valuation, which he wouldn’t divulge. Whether Saucedo is accurate in his claim is somewhat irrelevant, as it speaks to Acast’s ambitions and the wider race to the top in podcasting. Everyone wants to capture the podcast advertising market and ride that revenue to being the biggest name in podcasting. Acast is taking its shot now, and RadioPublic is one way it thinks it’ll win.
Uber has lost the final appeal in a long running UK legal battle over whether its drivers are self-employed or legally-recognized workers with all the attendant rights, Bloomberg reports. The ruling is the conclusion of the company’s five-year legal fight in the country and a major setback for Uber that could affect all gig workers in the UK, regardless of employer.
The ruling could have a significant impact on the UK’s estimated 4.7 million gig economy workers, affecting not just tech giants like Uber and food delivery firm Deliveroo, but also less well known companies like couriers CitySprint and plumbing outfit Pimlico Plumbers.
In response to the ruling, Uber’s regional general manager for northern and eastern Europe Jamie Heywood said that the company respect’s the court’s decision, but added that it “focused on a small number of drivers who used the Uber app in 2016,” and that the ruling doesn’t reclassify all of its UK drivers as workers.
“Since then we have made some significant changes to our business, guided by drivers every step of the way,” Heywood said. “These include giving even more control over how they earn and providing new protections like free insurance in case of sickness or injury. We are committed to doing more and will now consult with every active driver across the UK to understand the changes they want to see.”
In a blog post, Uber said that the ruling classifies the drivers as “workers” rather than “employees,” which is a legally distinct category. It also says that certain elements of its service which were described in the judgement no longer apply, including penalties for drivers who reject multiple trips.
The original case against Uber was brought in 2016 by two drivers for the company, James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam. They argued that Uber controlled nearly all the aspects of their working conditions, including who they could accept for rides and how much they would be paid, meaning the company was acting as their employer.
Uber lost three cases against Farrar and Aslam in 2016, 2017, and 2018. But today’s judgement from the Supreme Court, the UK’s final court of appeal, ends their legal options. The dispute will now return to a specialty tribunal, according to Bloomberg, which will decide how much to award the 25 drivers. Uber also faces another 1,000 similar claims that had been stayed pending today’s ruling.
In a statement, the GMB Union, which helped bring the case against Uber, welcomed the “historic” win. “The Supreme Court has upheld the decision of three previous courts, backing up what GMB has said all along; Uber drivers are workers and entitled to breaks, holiday pay and minimum wage,” Mick Rix, GMB national officer, said in a statement.
“Uber must now stop wasting time and money pursuing lost legal causes and do what’s right by the drivers who prop up its empire,” Rix said, adding that the union now plans to work towards helping its members claim compensation.
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