Executive Editor
Jacob Kastrenakes is The Verge's executive editor. He has been with the publication since 2012 as a reporter, editor, and very occasional video host.
Earlier today, we issued a story with the headline “Apple’s new custom emoji come with climate costs.” The story was incorrect, as the emoji are generated locally. We’ve removed the story and regret making the error.
You can now “Call Arc” inside the company’s iOS app to get answers from its AI search feature. If only it were an actual phone number.
Scarlett Johansson told OpenAI not to use her voice — and she’s not happy they might have anyway
OpenAI has denied that its ChatGPT voice is based on Johansson, but it certainly sounds a lot like her.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai just announced that the AI-generated summaries, now known as “AI Overviews,” will be launching to everyone in the US “this week,” with more countries coming soon.
Bloomberg reports that Cook is likely sticking around Apple for “at least another three years.”
The top of the (speculative) list to replace him has long been Apple COO Jeff Williams, but interest has apparently shifted to Apple’s hardware engineering leader, John Ternus. Ternus is a decade younger than Williams, and he could be expected to hold the role for longer.
The app was updated this week with support for homescreen widgets, so you can just tap a button to change up your lighting — no need to open the app.
[MacRumors]
The streaming service shut off access this week, citing “prohibitively expensive” costs. Those costs stem from a tax on high bandwidth services, according to Rest of World:
The [“sender pays”] rule requires companies to compensate the receiving networks for the traffic they send. It’s meant to tax heavy senders like Netflix and YouTube. Livestreaming sites like Twitch face particularly steep fees, as low latency is critical for live content.
[Rest of World]
I needed to create a bootable MacOS installer over the weekend for an older version of the operating system — something Apple’s own instructions don’t actually support. Fortunately, a Reddit comment pointed me to the app Mist, which automated the whole process. It’s always nice to find that someone out there had the same problem as you, then just went ahead and solved it for everyone.
The company put out a new statement today criticizing Spotify’s complaint to the EU about restrictions on its iOS app:
Fundamentally, their complaint is about trying to get limitless access to all of Apple’s tools without paying anything for the value Apple provides.
What kind of computing platform could possibly offer developers that kind of flexibility? Who would make such a thing?