Meta’s historic loss in court could cost a lot more than $375 million
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez won a historic sum of $375 million in a landmark child safety case against Meta earlier this year. But the next stage of the fight could be even more consequential for Meta and the social media industry at large.
Beginning Monday, attorneys for Meta and New Mexico will return to a Santa Fe courthouse for a three-week public nuisance trial, where they'll argue over the changes the AG wants the judge to order Meta make to Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Those changes include adding age verification for New Mexico users, prohibiting end-to-end encryption for users under 18 and capping their use to 90 …
Spirit Airlines shuts down after Trump’s war on Iran doubled jet fuel prices
The ultra-low-cost air carrier Spirit Airlines shut down operations after 34 years in business and canceled all flights at 3AM ET on Saturday morning. Its website now redirects to spiritrestructuring.com, instructing fliers not to go to airports, with air traffic control records capturing controllers and pilots signing off to each other as its last flights came in for landings after the shutdown was announced.
A statement on its website said that for people who purchased tickets directly, "Refunds for tickets purchased by credit card and debit card have been issued, and will be processed by …
Aura’s delightful Aspen photo frame is on sale for $30 off this weekend
Aura’s digital frames are kind of like living photo albums that get better with time, which is why we often recommend them for Mother’s Day. They’re gifts that keep on giving, in a way, and right now, a number of Aura’s connected frames are on sale ahead of the holiday. One of the best deals is on the Aura Aspen, which is available for $199 ($30 off) from Amazon, Best Buy, and Aura, matching its all-time low.
Although you can preload Aura’s 12-inch LCD frame with photos before it arrives, what really makes the Aspen special is that loved ones around the world can add new images to the frame using the Aura app (or by text message). It also supports Live Photos and can play 30-second video clips — providing a personal touch that traditional frames and albums can’t offer — and allows you to add captions to each photo.
The digital frame is designed to make it easy to display and manage those memories, too. It features adjustable slideshow speeds, automatic brightness that adapts to the room, and an in-app scanner that lets you digitize older printed photos. There are no subscription fees either, meaning you can upload unlimited photos via the Aura app or sync albums from iCloud, Google Photos, and other cloud-based services.
Despite its connected functionality, the Aspen still looks and feels like a traditional picture frame, complete with an adjustable metal stand. The antiglare, paper-like display gives photos a more lifelike quality, and you can display images in either landscape or portrait mode. It’s 1600 x 1200 resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio match most smartphone photos, too, so images fill the screen naturally without awkward cropping.
Read our Aura Aspen hands-on impressions.
Other Aura deals to consider
Aura Carver Mat (10-inch)
The Aura Carver Mat features a 10.1-inch HD (1280 x 800) landscape display with a paper-like matted border. It displays photos, Live Photos, and 30-second video clips, all of which you can upload for free. It also includes portrait pairing, so you can showcase two vertical photos side by side.
Where to Buy:
Aura Walden (15-inch)
The Walden is Aura’s largest digital photo frame, with a 15-inch HD (1600 x 1200) display. It uses a 4:3 aspect ratio and works in both portrait and landscape orientation. It also includes wall mounting and unlimited uploads via the Aura app and other services.
Where to Buy:
Anker’s discounted 2-in-1 USB-C cable is a great way to spend $15
I’ll never stop gushing about 2-in-1 USB-C cables. They’re really nice to have because, at this point, I’ve amassed so many devices that charge via USB-C. It’s also common for more than one to need to be recharged at a time, which is where they come in handy. I can charge my Nintendo Switch 2 and work-issued MacBook Air, or my Google Pixel 9 Pro and Kindle, without taking up more than one port on the power adapter.
A couple of models that offer up to 140W passthrough charging speeds are currently matching their lowest price to date — including Anker’s braided option, which is available from Amazon and Anker in black or white starting at $14.99 ($3 off). If you don’t mind paying a bit more for a slightly longer cable, Native Union’s recycled 6.5-foot Belt Cable, which features an animal-free leather strap, is down to $23.99 ($6 off) in black or a zebra-like pattern directly from the manufacturer.
Anker 140W 2-in-1 USB-C to USB-C Cable
Where to Buy:
While the two cables are slightly different lengths, functionality is identical. Both cables support USB 2.0 speeds topping out at 480 Mbps when connected to a data source, and only the first device connected to the two-headed cable can transfer data. They can also automatically allocate power across devices, depending on the speed of your wall adapter, sending more wattage to the higher-powered of the two devices you have plugged in.
There are plenty of wall adapters that pair well with these cables, too, the kind that deliver zippy charging speeds to your connected devices. One example is Anker’s own four-port 140W charger, which offers three USB-C ports and a USB-A port. Normally $99.99, it’s currently down to $79.99 at Amazon for Prime members.
Playing Esoteric Ebb is like rolling the dice with a great DM
It took me a while to get into Esoteric Ebb, a new CRPG from developer Christoffer Bodegård. The elevator pitch is basically Disco Elysium, but in the fantasy style of Dungeons & Dragons: You play as a cleric wandering around a small town who's trying to figure out, among other things, the mystery of why a tea shop in town exploded, and all the while, you're having conversations with different character traits in your head. Like Disco Elysium, you see the world from an isometric, top-down perspective. Also like Disco Elysium, Esoteric Ebb requires a lot of reading, weighing the opinions of your competing voices, and making some bold dice rol …
The things we’re building
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 126, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, I need 10 or 15 skirts from Calvin Klein, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
Happy Ruthless Self-Promotion Week! We're dedicating almost all of this issue to the stuff we've been making recently. Personally, I've been reading about the Tesla diner and Dwarkesh Patel and The Rest Is History, starting a Ted Lasso rewatch to get ready for season 4, watching a robot injure Joanna Stern, continuing down the rabbit hole of gorgeous Japanese stationery, wondering if those cool shoes …
Splatoon Raiders preorders for the Switch 2 are nearly 20 percent off
Nintendo recently announced a new pricing policy, which knocks $10 off the cost of digital versions of future first-party titles exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2. Splatoon Raiders, for instance, is available for preorder ahead of its July 23rd release for $49.99 digitally or $59.99 for the physical edition. However, Amazon and Walmart are the exception in how they’re pricing preorders for the cartridge version. Right now, you can reserve the upcoming title at both retailers for $49.94, which is a few cents cheaper than the digital version. Raiders isn’t a sequel to Splatoon 3, but rather a spinoff that has similar third-person, paint-splatting gameplay set in new locales.
Splatoon Raiders
Where to Buy:
The same $10 discount is in effect for Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, a side-scrolling adventure with a gorgeous storybook art style that comes out on May 21st. The price of the physical version is $69.99, but Amazon and Walmart are currently offering it for $59.88, which is similar to the digital edition’s price. Given that prices on many tech and gaming-related products are increasing, it’s nice to see notable discounts on physical Switch 2 games. If you’re looking for other gaming deals, we’ve pulled together the best discounts from Amazon’s weeklong Gaming Week sale.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book
Where to Buy:
Update, May 1st: Updated price and availability to reflect the fact that Amazon is now matching Walmart’s preorder promotion on both Switch 2 titles.
Microsoft tests redesigned Windows 11 Run menu with dark mode and more
Microsoft is testing its much-needed refresh for the Windows 11 Run menu, offering a modern interface that the company says is faster and comes with support for dark mode. The redesign is rolling out now to Windows 11 Insiders in the new Experimental Channel.
In a blog post explaining the changes, Microsoft says it decided to drop the Run menu's "Browse" button - a shortcut to user files - after finding "very low usage." Instead, Microsoft added support for a new "~\" command, which leads to your user directory.
Microsoft says it built the new Run menu using code from Command Palette, a utility available through PowerToys that allows you t …
Apple raises the Mac Mini’s starting price
Apple's Mac Mini now starts at $799 after the company pulled the $599 option with 256GB of storage from its online store, as spotted earlier by MacRumors. The model's discontinuation comes just one day after Apple CEO Tim Cook said during an earnings call that a chip shortage will impact its Mac products in the coming months.
"If you look forward to June, the majority of our supply constraints will be on several Mac models," Cook said. "We think looking forward that the Mac Mini and the Mac Studio may take several months to reach supply-demand balance." He added that both devices saw "higher-than-expected demand" as well, with many people b …
All the evidence revealed so far in Musk v. Altman
The Musk v. Altman trial is underway, and that means exhibits, or the evidence to be presented in court, are being revealed piece by piece. So far, email exchanges, photos, and corporate documents are circulating from the earliest days of OpenAI - and from before the AI lab even had a name. Some high-level takeaways: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gave OpenAI an in-demand supercomputer, Musk largely drafted OpenAI's mission and heavily influenced its early structure, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared to want to lean heavily on Y Combinator for early support for OpenAI, OpenAI president Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever worried about Musk's level of con …