Doodle generative compositions in your browser with Musical Spirograph
I remember having a Spirograph as a kid and being obsessed with it. Its geometric patterns are hypnotic and gorgeous. I also love generative music composition. So bringing those two things together in a browser tab, I'm hooked. Musical Spirograph is a relatively simple concept. A set of points dash around the screen according to mathematical equations, generating hypotrochoids and epitrochoids. Those points pass through a series of concentric rings which trigger specific notes.
Honestly, that alone is fun enough, but you can customize it quite a bit. There are six different virtual rotors to pick from, you can have up to three arms drawing …
W. Kamau Bell has the most practical ‘most indispensable tool’
W. Kamau Bell is one of those people who has always just seemed to be there. From Totally Biased, to Politically Re-Active, United Shades of America, and We Need to Talk About Cosby, his blend of comedy, social commentary, and political activism has helped him stand out. He's won a Peabody and four Emmys, been a Celebrity Jeopardy! champion, received honors from the ACLU, and been crowned the Ambassador of Fishbone by founding member Chris Dowd. Bell is, if nothing else, a busy man.
So we're very grateful that he took time between episodes of his podcast Who's With Me, his comedy tour, and Substack of the same name, promoting his upcoming …
Amazon just hiked the prices for Echo, Fire TV, and Kindle products by up to 60 percent
Citing "significant increases in memory and storage component costs," Amazon has raised prices on Echos, Kindles, Fire TVs, and Eeros by up to 60 percent, as first reported by Fortune.
The cheapest products in Amazon's lineup were hit hardest, with the Echo Dot smart speaker jumping from $49.99 to $79.99. The Fire TV Stick 4K Max also rose by over 40 percent to $84.99, and the base level Kindle now costs $149.99, a nearly 37 percent increase.
In a statement to The Verge, Kristy Schmidt, senior communications manager of Amazon's Devices & Services divison, said, "The consumer electronics industry is facing significant increases in memory an …
An okay laptop with 16GB of RAM is better than a nice laptop with 8GB, and this $520 HP OmniBook proves it
Laptop prices are out of whack. $500 used to get you a tolerable laptop, and $900 got you a really good one. They often had similar CPU, RAM, and storage options because that stuff was comparatively cheap; the difference was often in build quality and screen rather than power. But RAMageddon has thrown everything off. Even laptops like the $950 Surface Laptop now start with 8GB of RAM, which isn't enough. And on the lower end, where manufacturers are struggling to compete with the $700 MacBook Neo, they're cutting corners on storage, CPU, and build quality too.
However, one low-cost laptop has bucked this and genuinely surprised me. HP's 16 …
Two great new repairable gadgets
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 141, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, I'm newish here too, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I've been getting back into the Installer groove, trying out some ergonomic Switch 2 grips I bought on Etsy, researching bike stuff because I'm about to get a Velotric e-bike, inching my way through the fourth book in The Dark Tower series, trying to figure out what feels off about Sonic in the new Fortnite season, wondering why Mark Zuckerberg needs a castle, and swatting at a few too many flies that have snu …
HoverAir’s transforming modular drone has already been halted in the US
I am so sorry, fellow US gadget fans: the FCC's drone ban appears to have struck again. The HoverAir Versa - a baby steadycam with snap-on propeller wings that transform it into a drone - has already stopped taking US orders just three days after its Indiegogo debut, and may be forced to abandon shipping plans in the US.
HoverAir is now telling backers it's only shipping its camera to the US, not the piece that turns it into a drone, "due to a few remaining logistics updates with the Flight Kit." But those "logistics" may actually be a euphemism for "we've been banned by the federal government." The FCC's database no longer has an entry for …
TikTok will pay $400 million to settle DOJ child privacy lawsuit
The US Department of Justice announced on Friday that TikTok will pay $400 million to settle a lawsuit filed in 2024 over allegedly violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). In the lawsuit, the DOJ alleged that TikTok collected data from children without notifying parents or obtaining consent and did not delete the accounts when parents requested.
TikTok is set to pay $300 million right away and will pay a further $100 million "upon entry of an order vacating a prior consent decree entered against TikTok's predecessor, Musical.ly," the DOJ says in a press release. The settlement is "one of the largest recoveries ever o …
Over 1 million people have clicked LinkedIn’s AI slop button
LinkedIn actually announced a "Seems like AI slop" button on July 30th, and the company says that a lot of people have already used it. According to a Thursday post from chief product officer Hari Srinivasan, "over a million people" have clicked on the button, which is accessible from the three dots menu on a post.
LinkedIn announced the button a few weeks after AI detector Pangram determined that 41 percent of LinkedIn's longform posts were flagged as fully AI generated, which 404 Media reported on. Alongside the AI slop button, LinkedIn introduced "new and improved" classifiers to identify posts as AI and removed a feature that would "en …
Apple is laying off staffers working on the Vision Pro and Siri
Apple is laying off staff on the Siri and the Vision Pro teams, according to Bloomberg. The cuts include "largely shutting down" a Vision Pro gaming team and "reducing the size" of the team that makes Vision Pro immersive content, the publication says. More than 200 jobs were cut.
Apple said in a statement to Bloomberg it was making the changes to "to evolve our business to deliver the best experiences for our users," though it will be making new roles. The company didn't immediately reply to a request for comment from The Verge.
The Vision Pro launched in early 2024 as Apple's big bet on "spatial computing," but the $3,499 headset doesn't …
$100 Best Buy gift cards will be $60 at stores Saturday
The best gift card deal we’ve spotted this year is happening Saturday, August 22nd, at Best Buy stores for one day only. In celebration of the retailer’s 60th anniversary, you can purchase a $100 Best Buy gift card for $60. The deal is only good for as long as supplies last at your local store, so you might want to plan on getting there no later than opening time to boost your chance of getting one.
There are some limitations on how you can use the gift card. You can’t use them to buy other gift cards, like iTunes or Google Play credit, and they also can’t be used to buy prepaid or open-loop debit cards. However, they can be used in combination with other discounts or promotions on products from Best Buy, and any returns or cancellations you make will credit back to the gift card.
We’ve found a number of deals during Best Buy’s 60th anniversary sale that you can apply that gift card to. The iPad Air M4 dropped to $649, the lowest we’ve seen since the prices went up this summer, and the AirPods Max 2 are only $429, $120 lower than their usual price. There are a variety of discounts on Windows and macOS laptops too, like this HP OmniBook X Flip 2-in-1 for $749.99, a $450 discount from the typical price.