Imagine playing Fortnite, but instead of fighting other players, all you want to do is break into houses to look for caches of slurp juice. Yes, the storm is closing in on you, and there’s a bunch of enemies waiting to kill you, but all you want to do is take a walking tour of Tilted Towers. Then when the match is over, instead of queueing again, you start reading the in-game lore for Peely and Sabrina Carpenter. You can count your number of player kills on one hand meanwhile your number of deaths is in the hundreds. You’ve never achieved a victory royale, but you’ve never had more fun.That’s how I play Elden Ring Nightreign.Nightreign is FromSoftware’s first Elden Ring spinoff, and it’s unlike any Souls game that the developer has done before. Nightreign has the conceit of so many battle royale games — multiplayer combat focused on acquiring resources across a large map that slowly shrinks over time — wrapped in the narrative, visual aesthetics, and combat of Elden Ring. Instead of the Tarnished, you are a Nightfarer. Instead of the expansive Lands Between, you are sent to Limveld, an island with an ever-shifting landscape. And instead of becoming the Elden Lord, your goal is to defeat the Night Lord and end the destructive storm that scours the land.Elden Ring Nightreign aura-farming exhibit A.In Nightreign, gameplay sessions are broken up into expeditions, each of which is divided into three day-night cycles. During the day, you — either solo or with two other players — explore the world looking for weapon upgrades and fighting bosses for the enhancements they reward. You’ll be forced to move as the deadly Night’s Tide slowly consumes the map, whittling your health to nothing if you’re caught in it. When the map is at its smallest, you face a tough midboss. Defeat it to commence day two of the expedition or die and start it all over. Then, on the third day, you face the expedition’s final boss. There are several expeditions to conquer each with different bosses, mid-bosses, weapons to collect, and all kinds of events that make each run unique.I had the opportunity to play Nightreign once before earlier this year (and during a more recent network test) , and it wasn’t the best preview, as the game was plagued with all kinds of issues that didn’t allow me to experience it the way the developers intended. Those technical issues have been ironed out but I still haven’t completed the game’s most basic objective: beat the first expedition. This isn’t because of any technical or gameplay issues I had. For the times I wanted to play as intended, my colleague Jay Peters stepped in to help me and I had no problem finding party members to tackle expeditions with on my own… I just never really wanted to. And part of the reason why I’m enjoying Nightreign so much is because the game lets me play it in a way that’s completely counterintuitive – slowly and alone.Collaborative gaming doesn’t always feel good to me. I want to take things at my own pace, and that’s hard to do when there’s a group of people frustrated with me because they need my help to kill a boss while I’m still delving into a dungeon a mile away. But the ability to solo queue does come with a significant catch – you’re not gonna get very far. I died often and to everything from random enemies to bosses. It’s not often that I even make it to that first boss fight without dying to the warm-up battles that precede it. This should frustrate me, but I don’t care in the slightest. I’m just so pleased that I can go at my own pace to explore more of Elden Ring’s visually gorgeous and narratively sumptuous world.You get by with a little help from your friends. I, however, am built different. Image: FromSoftwareWhich brings me to my favorite part: its characters. Nightreign has eight new classes, each with their own unique abilities. The classes can still use every weapon you find (with some locked behind level requirements) so there’s an option to tailor a character to fit your playstyle. There are certain kinds of classes I gravitate toward, specifically ranged combat, but for the first time in a class-based game, I love every one of them. It is so much fun shredding enemies to ribbons with the Duchess, using her Restage ability to replay the attacks done to an enemy essentially doubling the damage they receive. I love the Raider’s powers of just being a big fuckin’ dude, slamming things with big ass great weapons. And true to my ranged combat loving heart, Ironeye’s specialty with bows makes it so nice when I wanna kill things without putting myself in danger.Then there’s the Guardian. Look at him. He’s a giant armored bird-person with the busted wing and the huge-ass halberd and shield. His story involves being a protector who failed his flock and has found a new one in the other Nightfarers. I fell to my knees reading one of his codex entries and seeing how the Recluse, the mage character, helped him with his damaged wing. Every character has a codex that updates with their personal story the more expeditions you attempt. This is the shit I get out of bed for. The Guardian is the coolest FromSoftware character since Patches and I have a crush on him. Image: FromSoftwareI thought I was going to hate the concept of Nightreign. I want more Elden Ring: I love that world, so any chance I can have to go back, I’ll take but… I just don’t like multiplayer games. Describing Nightreign makes it sound like the reason why it exists is because an out of touch CEO looked at the popularity of Elden Ring and at all the money Fortnite prints and went “Yeah, let’s do that.” Even if that’s the case, Nightreign has been constructed so that it still appeals to lore freaks like me and I can ignore the less savory bits around multiplayer with relative ease. If I can take a moment and borrow a pair of words from my Gen Z niblings to describe Nightreign it’d be “aura” and “aura farming.” Aura is used to describe a person’s general coolness or badassery while aura farming is the activities one can engage in to increase one’s aura. John Wick has aura. In the first movie, when he performs his monologue about getting back in the assassin business spitting and screaming – that’s aura farming.And between the cooperative nature of the game, its rapid-paced combat, and the new characters, abilities, and story, Elden Ring Nightreign has a ton of aura that I’m having a lot of fun farming – just not in the way I expected.Elden Ring Nightreign is out now on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.See More:

Cath Virginia is the senior designer here at The Verge, who creates illustrations and collages for our articles. However, she also has “dabbled” (as she puts it) in feature designs for articles such as 2004 was the first year of the future (which won the 2025 ASME Award for Best News and Entertainment Design), How the Stream Deck rose from the ashes of a legendary keyboard, and The Lurker. “I also designed the branding for Notepad by Tom Warren and recently refreshed the look of Verge Deals,” she explains.When not doing this impressive work, Cath sews. A lot. And so, when I asked her what one of her favorite gadgets was, she said it was her Brother 1034D Serger. If you’re not quite sure what a serger is (I certainly wasn’t), read on.What exactly is a thread serger?A serger, also known as an overlocker, is a type of sewing machine generally used in apparel making. It has two needles and uses up to four strands of thread at a time to create the loops and finished edge you see on the inside of most knitwear, like T-shirts and leggings. It also has a knife that cuts the edge of your fabric at the same time, so the finished product looks clean and professional.When did you buy this one, and what went into the decision?I bought this one this past March as a birthday and tax return present. I’ve been wanting one for a while, because I sew a lot of clothes. I’m picky about style and, being fat, have a hard time finding clothes I like that actually fit me. I also love wearing knits because they’re comfortable, and traditional sewing machines aren’t intended primarily to sew knit garments, which need to have stretchy seams. You can use a zigzag stitch to achieve a stretch in your seam, but the serger sews and cuts all at once, as well as finishes the inside edges, so it saves a lot of time. In choosing a serger, I wanted one that was easy to thread, had an adjustable free arm for sewing cuffs and sleeves, and could sew multiple layers of fabric at a time. I watched a bunch of YouTube reviews of sergers and found this one to be pretty affordable — and it checked my boxes. It also got better reviews than its cheaper sibling, the DX. I was intimidated by it at first because four spools of thread is kind of scary. But it has clearly labeled and color-coded instructions for threading and comes with a manual, so I learned it and had it down in under half an hour.The serger creates a chain of stitches called “overlocking” that goes along the inside edge of your garment and can also be used for decoration. Photo: Cath Virginia / The VergeWhat do you usually create with it?So far, I have hemmed a couple shirts and made a maxi skirt (with pockets!) and a crop top. That was after a long and frustrating period trying to learn how to use it. I also dulled two different knives, learning that you can’t sew over pins with a serger because there is a big metal knife chopping your seam off.What do you like about it?Sometimes when you’re sewing knits on a traditional (lockstitch) machine, the edges become unintentionally ruffle-y (due to its one measly feed dog, which is the moveable plate that pulls the material through from stitch to stitch). This can make your piece look pretty weird and bad. Another great thing about this serger is that it has something called differential feed, which uses two feed dogs to sew your fabric together. It can be adjusted to feed one piece of fabric faster or slower, so it will flatten out your wobbly knitted seams or can be used to create a lettuce hem. It also comes with a gathering foot, which can be used to gather and sew (intentional) ruffles!Is there anything about it that you dislike or that you think could be improved?This is actually on me for not doing quite enough research, but when I bought it, I was excited to finally be able to do the coveted two-thread coverstitch you see on the hems of T-shirts and other knit stuff, only to find out you actually need a whole other machine that literally only does that one thing. That was disappointing to find out, but to compensate, the serger does actually come with a blind hem foot that you can use to do an okay impression of one. It’s kind of a finicky stitch to get right, though, because you’re sewing from the wrong side of the fabric, and I had to do quite a few samples to test it out before I used it on any garments. Who would you recommend it to?If you sew a lot of knitwear clothing, it can be a really useful tool for leveling up your garments and being a bit more efficient! It’s not a total replacement for a lockstitch sewing machine but I’m really liking it so far. Don’t be too intimidated by the four threads: they are your friends. And don’t try to sew over any of your pins. $280Designed for finishing the edges and hems of a wide range of fabrics, especially linens and stretchy fabrics, and for creating ruffles and decorative edges.$280 at Amazon$280 at WalmartSee More:

Democratic senators are probing whether RealPage, a software company accused of colluding with landlords to raise rents, lobbied for a proposed ban on states regulating AI for the next decade. In a letter to RealPage CEO Dana Jones, five Democratic senators — Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Tina Smith (D-MN) — ask for more information about the company’s “potential involvement” in a provision attached to Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill, which bars state laws that impact AI or “automated decision” systems for 10 years.The senators argue that the provision could scuttle attempts to stop RealPage from feeding sensitive information from groups of landlords into an algorithm and using it to recommend noncompetitive rental prices.In 2022, a report from ProPublica linked RealPage to rising rent prices across the US, alleging that its algorithm allows landlords to coordinate pricing. The Department of Justice and eight states sued the company last year, claiming it “deprives renters of the benefits of competition on apartment leasing terms.” Meanwhile, cities like Minneapolis, Jersey City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco have passed laws meant to ban the use of rent-setting software, and several states, including Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, and Washington, have legislation in the works.“Republicans are trying to give a green light to RealPage’s rent-hiking algorithm.”As it stands, the senators argue the Republican budget reconciliation bill would block pending legislation and stop states from enforcing any regulation that puts limitations on RealPage’s rent-setting algorithm. The bill proposes preventing states from enforcing “any law or regulation” covering a broad range of automated computing systems, which would likely apply to the algorithms used by RealPage.And while the moratorium’s most high-profile proponents are giants like OpenAI, lawmakers believe RealPage might have spent millions pushing for it too. “In light of this, we seek information on RealPage’s lobbying efforts, and on how the Republicans’ reconciliation provision would help the bottom line of RealPage and other large corporations by allowing them to take advantage of consumers,” the letter states.The senators say RealPage “stepped up” its Congressional lobbying in response to local legislation that would affect its business. They cite a report from The Lever, which found that the National Multifamily Housing Council, a trade group that represents RealPage, increased its lobbying spending from $4.8 million in 2020 to $9 million in 2024. The Lever also found that the trade group disclosed that it lobbied on “issues surrounding the risks and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence,” as well as “federal policies affecting usage of data, artificial intelligence, software,” and other technology used in real estate.Related“RealPage ramped up its million dollar spending campaign in Congress and lo and behold, Republicans in Congress passed a provision to block states from protecting renters,” Senator Warren told The Verge. “Americans are being squeezed by rising rents, but instead of helping, Republicans are trying to give a green light to RealPage’s rent-hiking algorithm.”The Senators have asked RealPage how much money the company spent on Congressional lobbying in each year since 2020, as well as which firms and individuals it “engaged or contracted with” during the same period. They also want to know how much it spent on lobbying targeted toward AI legislation, as well as how RealPage would be impacted by the budget reconciliation bill in states with pending legislation on rent-setting software. The senators ask RealPage to respond by June 10th, 2025.If passed, the bill — currently awaiting consideration in the Senate — could have far wider-ranging impacts than RealPage. In addition to blocking states from regulating AI chatbots, it could also affect any laws covering things like deepfakes, automated hiring systems, facial recognition, sentencing algorithms, and more. See More:

Fifteen Iranian students and researchers sued the Trump administration for completely halting student visa interviews while it determines whether to vet all visa applicants’ social media accounts.The suit, filed against Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a Virginia federal court, claims that the pause on student visa interviews violates the Administrative Procedures Act, a law prohibiting capricious rule-making. The complaint is currently sealed. In an email, Curtis Morrison and Hamdi Masri, lawyers for the students, noted that the State Department has required visa applicants to disclose their social media handles since May 2019. Visa applicants from certain Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, are already subject to “extensive social media vetting,” Masri said, adding that Trump seemed to want to “ensure students entering align with his political values.”The students and researchers who brought the suit against Rubio were admitted to universities across the country — including Yale, Ohio State, and the University of South Florida — for graduate programs in computer science, engineering, finance, and other disciplines. Per their attorneys, each of the students had already attended visa interviews, but all of their applications are currently “awaiting national security vetting.” Some of the students were interviewed over a year ago.The pause on student visa interviews is part of the Trump administration’s multi-pronged attack on universities and international students. On Wednesday, Rubio said the State Department would start working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese Students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.” On May 22nd, DHS rescinded Harvard’s access to a federal database used to track foreign students’ enrollment, putting nearly 6,800 people enrolled at Harvard at risk of immediate deportation until a federal judge intervened.Rubio has also suspended the visas of international students involved in pro-Palestine protests on campus. More recently, the State Department restricted visas of “foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected speech in the United States,” i.e., regulators who enforce the European Union’s Digital Services Act.See More:

The Browser Company has said repeatedly that it’s not getting rid of the Arc browser as it moves onto its new AI-centric Dia browser. But what the company also not going to do is develop new features for it. A new blog post from CEO Josh Miller explains why, and what happens next. The Arc browser was a big rethink of what browsers should be like, and it has dedicated users, including yours truly. But a lot of the reasons for ceasing Arc’s development that Miller gives in the blog — like that it’s too complicated to go mainstream, that it was slow and unstable at times (true!), or that The Browser Company wants to recenter the experience on AI — he also gave back in October.  Why not just roll Dia into Arc? One big thing Miller mentions is security. Arc has had at least one big security issue: a security researcher discovered a vulnerability last year that The Browser Company quickly patched, but which let attackers insert arbitrary code into a users’ browser session just by knowing their user ID. According to Miller, The Browser Company has now grown its security engineering team from one person to five. This focus is particularly important, he writes, as AI agents — AI systems that carry out tasks autonomously — become more prevalent.  As for what this all means for Arc and its users, Miller still insists that the browser won’t go away. Arc will still get security and bug fixes, and will be tweaked as the Chromium code it’s based on is updated. But he also says The Browser Company isn’t going to open-source or sell Arc, because in addition to Chromium, it’s built on a custom infrastructure that also underpins Dia. He says the company would like to open the browser up someday, but not until “it no longer puts our team or shareholders at risk.” The Browser Company didn’t immediately respond when The Verge asked whether that same bigger security team is also working to shore up the security of Arc itself. We will update as we learn more.

More upgraded blue slimes are on the way: Square Enix just announced that remakes of Dragon Quest 1 and its sequel are launching on October 3oth. The two games will be bundled together under the name Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake and will be available on the PS5, Xbox, PC, and both the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. This is good news if you’re a fan of the series, given that the remake of DQIII turned out excellent, marrying the classic RPG gameplay with incredible visuals and sound, along with some welcome quality-of-life tweaks. For the new remakes, Square Enix says that “in addition to beautiful HD-2D graphics, a refined battle system, numerous quality-of-life updates, and major story additions, both remakes will feature a variety of new content.” As for what that new content is, details “will be revealed at a later date.” And if you’re wondering why this remake series kicked off with the third entry in the franchise, it’s because that’s how the storylines play out chronologically. DQIII is set years before its predecessors, and in DQI and II players take control of the descendants of the hero from the third game. It’s a little complicated, but in October newcomers will finally be able to complete the story. To that end, Square Enix will also be launching a digital-only collection with all three games, called Dragon Quest HD-2D Erdrick Trilogy Collection. It’ll be available for $99.99.

As policy makers in the UK weigh how to regulate the AI industry, Nick Clegg, former UK deputy prime minister and former Meta executive, claimed a push for artist consent would “basically kill” the AI industry.Speaking at an event promoting his new book, Clegg said the creative community should have the right to opt out of having their work used to train AI models. But he claimed it wasn’t feasible to ask for consent before ingesting their work first.“I think the creative community wants to go a step further,” Clegg said according to The Times. “Quite a lot of voices say, ‘You can only train on my content, [if you] first ask’. And I have to say that strikes me as somewhat implausible because these systems train on vast amounts of data.”“I just don’t know how you go around, asking everyone first. I just don’t see how that would work,” Clegg said. “And by the way if you did it in Britain and no one else did it, you would basically kill the AI industry in this country overnight.”The comments follow a back-and-forth in Parliament over new legislation that aims to give creative industries more insight into how their work is used by AI companies. An amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill would require technology companies to disclose what copyrighted works were used to train AI models. Paul McCartney, Dua Lipa, Elton John, and Andrew Lloyd Webber are among the hundreds of musicians, writers, designers, and journalists who signed an open letter in support of the amendment earlier in May.The amendment — introduced by Beeban Kidron, who is also a film producer and director — has bounced around gaining support. But on Thursday members of parliament rejected the proposal, with technology secretary Peter Kyle saying the “Britain’s economy needs both [AI and creative] sectors to succeed and to prosper.” Kidron and others have said a transparency requirement would allow copyright law to be enforced, and that AI companies would be less likely to “steal” work in the first place if they are required to disclose what content they used to train models.In an op-ed in the Guardian Kidron promised that “the fight isn’t over yet,” as the Data (Use and Access) Bill returns to the House of Lords in early June.See More:

Converting paper documents into digital formats means you’ve got backups of your paperwork should you ever need them. It can also help you clear out a substantial amount of clutter from your home or office — perhaps a whole filing cabinet’s worth.It’s now easier than ever to scan documents using today’s phones — a large flatbed scanner is no longer needed as it was in the past. Receipts, business cards, bills, and any other kind of printed material can be stored digitally.If you’ve got an iPhone, you can do this straight from the built-in Notes or Files apps. If those don’t quite give you the features you need, there are third-party alternatives that will do the job as well.Scan documents with Notes or FilesWhen you scan with Files or Notes, the camera will automatically line the image up. Screenshot: AppleNotes makes it simple to scan a document. Screenshot: AppleThe process of scanning a document is similar in both Notes and Files. To get started in Notes, open or create a note, then tap the paperclip icon at the bottom, then Scan Documents. In Files, tap the three dots (top right), then Scan Documents.This gets you into the scanning interface. By default, you’ll be in auto mode — frame the document in the camera viewfinder, and when it’s lined up, a picture is automatically taken. Line up the next page, and after a moment, another capture is made.Tap Auto (top right) to switch to manual mode, which lets you take each snap using the shutter button manually. The Auto button changes to read Manual, and you can tap it again to switch back to automatic mode.You’ll see a couple of icons at the top. The lightning bolt lets you control the flash, while the three circles lets you switch between Color, Grayscale, Black & White, and Photo for the scanning mode.When all the documents and pages have been captured, tap Save. In Notes, the pages you’ve scanned are then added to the current note, and in Files the pages are saved together as a PDF file (you may be asked where you want to save your file).Scanning documents from a MacYou can scan documents via your iPhone in Mac apps such as Finder. Screenshot: AppleApple’s Continuity suite of features includes a useful little trick that lets you scan documents from your Mac using an iPhone. As with other Continuity features, you must be signed in to the same Apple account on both devices for this to work, and both devices need to have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on.This works in Finder, Mail, Messages, Notes, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, and TextEdit on macOS. There are three options, depending on the app you’re in:Ctrl+click where you want the scan to show, then choose Import from iPhone or iPad > Scan Documents.From the File menu, choose Import from iPhone or iPad > Scan Documents.From the Insert menu, choose Import from iPhone or iPad > Scan Documents.All three methods will launch the document scanner on your iPhone — at which point you’re back to the interface we covered in the previous section. When you tap Save on your iPhone, the documents show up in your Mac app.Third-party scanning appsDropbox lets you tweak the crop of the scan. Screenshot: DropboxDropbox also gives you options for reducing the file size. Screenshot: DropboxThe process in iOS and macOS is very straightforward, but plenty of other apps do document scanning too, if you need them. A couple that I use regularly are Google Drive and Dropbox, so you might find they suit you better if those apps are where you tend to keep your digital archives.With Google Drive, tap the scan document icon in the lower right corner (it looks like a page with a frame around it). This takes you to a camera interface that matches the one you get in Notes and Files, but when you tap Save, you get to choose where in your Google Drive you want the scanned PDF uploaded to.You get a few more options with Dropbox: Tap the blue + (plus) button at the bottom, then Scan files. There’s the Auto and Manual toggle switch again, but as soon as a page is captured, you get taken to a new screen where you can edit the borders of the scan or rotate it, and add further pages. When that’s sorted, you’re able to choose where in your Dropbox you want the scanned PDF to be saved, and how much compression to apply.See More:

Last month, Donald Trump pushed the boundaries of government and financial ethics by announcing a contest: whoever bought and held the highest amount of the $TRUMP meme coin for an entire month would win an invite to a private dinner with the President. That dinner took place on Thursday at the Trump National Golf Course in Virginia, with attendees reportedly dropping nearly $394 million on $TRUMP in order to win the privilege. According to an analysis by The Guardian of the winners’ wallets, over half of them lost money participating in this contest. But that’s only if you’re analyzing the wallets visible on the contest site’s leaderboard. The real money was being made elsewhere.“Bet you 10 percent of dinner participants are doing this”I interviewed an enthusiastic crypto trader who figured out how to win the contest without losing any money: buy enough $TRUMP to get onto the leaderboard — and then in a separate wallet on a separate exchange, buy $TRUMP perpetual futures that would be profitable if (or as he saw it, when) the value of $TRUMP dropped. Yes, he did The Big Short, except with Donald Trump’s meme coin. “Bet you 10 percent of dinner participants are doing this,” he told me before the contest ended. “Everyone knows $TRUMP price will fall inevitably as more supply comes online in the future and gets dumped on retail.” When I spoke to him again after the dinner, he told me that “the majority of people I spoke with, particularly the crypto traders and folks who are very close to the crypto ecosystem, are like, ‘Yeah, I dumped this. I already sold the coin.’” “A lot of people put on the same hedge trade as I did, because they didn’t wanna take risk on the coin,” he added.I can’t reveal his name, his position on the leaderboard, how much he spent, or the dates of specific trades he made. I can say that he did this for shits and giggles. But as he told me, when there’s such a clear and obvious set of financial incentives behind the $TRUMP dinner contest, it’s worth making the gamble.Did it pay off? “Um, I basically was flat,” he said. “I originally wanted to make some money, but I think the shorting I did — it was okay?” He did, however, get a free dinner out of it. The following interview has been edited for clarity.Let’s just start from the beginning. What made you want to enter this? I think meme coins have a lot of staying power because humans just want things to gamble on. What was fascinating when the Trump token launched in January right before the inauguration, was that it effectively was like a black hole that sucked money away from all these other tokens in the ecosystem. That’s why the Trump token ran up to some preposterous number immediately after it was dropped. When I saw this competition launch, it was clear that there was going to be a tremendous amount of grift in this space, and the presidential family was only interested in self-enrichment and all that. 
It was clear that there was going to be a tremendous amount of grift in this spaceBut putting that aside, I’ve just been interested in the Trump token and I think I’ve just been structurally bearish, because the Trump token has a bunch of supply that’s currently controlled by, effectively, the Trump family and the associates. It’s only a matter of time before the supply unlocks. When that supply unlocks, in the crypto community, people call this dumping: they’ll just dump it onto retail and that’s how they get their exit liquidity. So that’s one way the Trump family can make money. The other way is obviously whenever there’s trades that happen, the trading fees also accrue to the family. I know that the Trump token is going to go down. If you put a gun into my head and ask, what will the price be two years from now? It’s going to be much lower than where it is today. When this contest launched, I was like, okay, this is clearly a way for the affiliates and the Trump family to find a way to drive up the price temporarily. And having been in this space for a while, it’s clear that these events only drive the price up for a period of time and then people lose interest. Unless you feed them something else, it’s going to drop. Everyone expects the token to dumpThey launched the contest right around when the first tranche of Trump tokens were going to unlock, which was supposed to be 90 days after the launch of the token back in January. And so this whole contest was kind of timed at an apt moment where it’s like, okay, supply’s going to unlock. Everyone expects the token to dump. But then, on Twitter, they agreed to delay the unlock for another 90 days. But once the unlock happens and they start dumping, that’s when the price is going to drop a lot. 
So this contest was interesting. I was like, okay, well, I feel like I can put on a trade here where I’m not taking on any real risk and I think it’ll be cool to meet random people at this dinner and see who else is interested. It seems like there are a lot of folks from out of the country who are flying in to attend the dinner, and a lot of crypto whales. There’s one that I follow, he’s mentioned in his Telegram that he’s one of the big holders. He’s talked these last few days about how he’s preparing for this dinner. So talk me through how you generated the funds to buy the Trump coin. Did you use your own personal funds?I use my personal funds. All the crypto trading I do is with my personal funds. Some of the trading I do is on Coinbase through a centralized exchange. And the rest of the trading I do is on chain through self-custody wallets. When this opportunity came up, the only way you can actually be in a position to be in the top 220 is if you own $TRUMP tokens in a self-custody wallet. Some of the exchanges, including Coinbase, allow you to buy the $TRUMP token, but that would not count towards this contest. What I did was I moved stablecoins like USDC to my Solana wallet, and then I used a decentralized exchange to buy the $TRUMP token. The way the contest works is you have to register your wallet before you are counted towards the ranking system. And unfortunately, I did that like a couple days late, so I had to size up a little bit more to ensure that I could catch up to the people who had registered a couple days prior. But that’s a nuance. So explain the process of shorting $TRUMP coin on a secondary market. Like how does one do that? I am a dumb person who only understands shorting markets through watching The Big Short. Basically when you short, you’re hoping that the price goes down, right? And the mechanism of shorting here is slightly different than shorting stocks, but we don’t need to go into the specifics here. The way to short [crypto] is, you can do it in two ways. One is through a centralized exchange that offers, effectively, shorting services. And what I mean here by shorting services is, there is a “perpetual future” that is offered at these exchanges. When I talk about exchanges that offer this, it’s mostly going to be like Binance or Bybits and some of the bigger exchanges outside of the US. Coinbase is very far behind when it comes to offering derivative products that goes above and beyond just buying the token. I couldn’t do it through Coinbase, and I can’t short through an exchange like Binance, because there’s a lot of restrictions around who can actually use Binance. I’m in the US and Binance has very strict VPN rules. I can’t just open a Binance account and short. The only real way for me was to short on a decentralized exchangeSo the only real way for me was to short on a decentralized exchange, which has actually become really popular in the last year or so. It’s like the same concept as shorting on Binance, but you can do it on chain. I use a service called Hyper Liquid, which is a very popular decentralized exchange. And on this exchange, they offer derivative products that basically track the movement of different tokens. And so they offer, effectively, $TRUMP perpetual futures, and you can effectively initiate a short position through that. I’m happy to go into the details if you want, but that’s like the high level. Yeah, yes, please please tell me these details. So that is basically how to set up the short position. Conceptually, there’s a few things to keep in mind. First thing is: because I’m shorting in a separate wallet that’s completely detached from $TRUMP, 
I have to put up additional capital in another wallet to do this. It’s not like I can just use my $TRUMP tokens as collateral and use the same pool of money to short. And the way shorting works and the way perpetual futures work in general is you put up a certain margin. So let’s keep it simple: say I put up $100k in margin and I choose to short the $TRUMP token. Now, if $TRUMP goes up in price, then I’m hurting, because I’m betting on the token falling. If the $TRUMP token doubles in price, well, then I will have lost a hundred thousand dollars in which case, my margin gets wiped out and this [futures] contract will have to be closed because I’ve lost all my money. If the token goes down in price, that’s when I profit — as long as I close out the position in the green. So you basically are juggling two wallets. One is the wallet in which you’re holding all this $TRUMP coin. 
The other one is like, how would you describe it? Is that the money that you’re generating in order to pay for participating in the contest? The most important wallet here is the Solana wallet with the $TRUMP tokens, because that’s what’s being used by the contest organizers to determine who makes the top 220. But as I mentioned earlier, I am structurally bearish on the $TRUMP token and I wouldn’t want to go for dinner and like, see my money go down when the $TRUMP token goes down in price. I decided I wanted to basically put on a hedge, where, using the other wallet and the short position, I’m basically agnostic to any sort of price movement. That’s the reason why I set up the other wallet. I could have taken on the price risk, but that’s pretty risky, because typically what happens with these events is that as we get close to the end of the contest date, people start dumping the $TRUMP tokens. The value of the $TRUMP token will have gone down — let’s say it went down to 90,000 — it would be offset by the short wallet, which would be like 110,000. And then they add up to 200,000, which is how much I hypothetically put in from the start. 
Did you make money off of this?Um, I basically was flat. I originally wanted to make some money, but I think the shorting I did — it was okay? I basically just broke even on this entire tradeLet me take a step back.
So initially I shorted the same amount as the token. But then as the time went on, as we got close to the contest end date, I decided to increase the size of the short position, because I thought that based on the thesis I had, people are going to start selling because there’s nothing to look forward to. And so I increased that size. But it just so happened that towards the end of the contest was also when the crypto markets started ripping after May 8th. So net-net, I think I basically just broke even on this entire trade.Define the crypto markets “ripping.”May 8th was basically the Thursday right before that weekend when the US representatives were going to meet the Chinese representatives in Switzerland [for tariff negotiations]. That day was also when the UK deal announcement was made. And so the market basically took that as a bullish sign, and then that got parlayed into the positive euphoria of the US-China negotiations. Everything started going up. Okay. So every market just started getting bullish. 
Yeah, all the tokens ran up a lot. If you look at the token price, $TRUMP coin on May 7th was roughly 11 bucks, and then on May 9th it was like 14 bucks. Over time that token has come down in price. But yeah, it ran up 40 percent in the span of like two days.What was the strategy going into the end game? 
Because it sounds like it was super volatile around the end and that’s why you needed to increase your short position. I thought that towards the end, I could opportunistically make some profits by shorting more than I owned, if that makes sense.[The previous week, the contest organizers announced a new incentive for winners to not sell the coin before the dinner: a rare “TRUMP DIAMOND HANDS” NFT.]What is the point of encouraging people to go diamond hands by offering this NFT? So I think this goes back to the incentives of Trump’s affiliates, right? They have a lot of supply that they own. Last I looked, they own eighty percent of the supply. But all of that, as with many other [crypto] projects, gets locked up and only gets released over time, so that you don’t have all this supply pressure on day one. Because then no one wants to buy the token. The whole point of the NFT and this subsequent rewards program that they’ve talked about, but haven’t given the details for, is to incentivize people to hold the token longer. The longer people hold the token, then the price arguably would not fall as much. 
The only way to keep the price high is if you introduce all these little games to keep retail engagedThe eventual setup, I’m sure, whether that’s in three months or in a year or two, is that the affiliates will then have their supply unlock, and they will want to sell. They obviously want to sell at a higher price. And the only way to keep the price high is if you introduce all these little games to keep retail engaged and interested in holding tokens. How do you get the NFT now? Do you have to rebuy all the coin?Yeah, my understanding based on that tweet they sent is, they basically look at your wallet holdings on the day of the dinner and compare that to your wallet holdings on the last day of the contest. And so if those match or if you own more, then they’ll give you an NFT. I was kind of dumb. What I should have done was, right before the 1:30PM cut off, I should have sold like, 90 percent of my tokens. In this way, on the dinner day, I would only have to buy 10 percent of what I bought previously, and I think I would qualify for this NFT. 
Wow. Have people done that? Well, the NFT hasn’t been dropped yet.
I don’t know the specifics. There are definitely people who sold before the end of the deadline, and that’s clear from even looking at that leaderboard page, right? There’s one column with current holdings and a bunch were zeroed out, but they are still in the top 220 because it’s a time-weighted calculation.Why did they do time-weighted calculations rather than like, just a cumulative amount of money you held at the end? I think this goes back to solving not only how much do you hold, but how long do you hold it for, and rewarding people differently. So if you held $60 over the entire stretch of the contest, you should be rewarded more than someone who held like $200 for one day on the last day. I think the time-weighted calculation effectively is trying to normalize for that. They also gave me a call the same day, which I thought was spam for a secondHow have the organizers been in their interactions with you for the contest and for the dinner and everything?They emailed me the day of, as soon as the
contest ended, saying that I had made it into the top 220. And they also gave me a call the same day, which I thought was spam for a second. But when the voicemail thing came up, I’m like, oh, this is actually a real thing. So I picked up the phone and then they just confirmed that I got the email and that I would have to do a KYC [Know Your Customer check, part of anti-money laundering regulatory compliance for banks, crypto exchanges, and other entities] in order to qualify for the dinner. Please give us your data, references, whatever. 
Yeah, nothing that sophisticated. They outsourced it to another party and I just provided my name, my nationality, where I live. No social security number or anything like that. Plus my birthday. and I think they just ran like an external check to make sure that I wasn’t a criminal or anything like that. I feel like it was pretty light vettingHow thoroughly do you think they’re been vetting you, how professional has the process been? I feel like it was pretty light vetting. I talked to someone about, let’s say, getting into the White House and it’s a lot more strict in terms of, you have to show your passport and all that. And here, you don’t really have to do that. You just have to show your ID at the door. At least that’s what they said. And as long as your ID matches the information you gave, you’re fine. So I don’t think the security is that strict, per se, but it’s good enough, I guess. Have you participated in any contests like this or heard of anything similar? No, I have not.That’s wild. This is rather innovative if one thinks about it in a “divorced from most governmental ethics” manner. Did you read about how it’s possible that Trump just doesn’t show up to this?I did see something that basically said, yeah, based on the terms and conditions, the president does not have to be there, I think. Honestly, I think a lot of people aren’t really there to see Trump. I could be totally wrong, but I get the sense from, let’s say, like looking at the crypto whales’ Telegram, that [they’re] more interested in just meeting other crypto folks so that [they] can network. If Justin Sun is there, that’s pretty good, right? Like being able to talk to him and maybe, you know, get his contact information and all that. RelatedThe many escapes of Justin SunI think for me and probably other people, we’re more interested in seeing if there’s any other interesting news that comes out of this dinner. I will have my wallet ready, and if some great news gets dropped at the dinner, that could potentially positively influence the $TRUMP token price or any other token price, I will buy it on the spot and try to profit. This is something that other attendees are thinking about doing too?I can’t say with certainty, but based on that one Telegram guy, it seemed like it was implied. Like, if they announced a rewards program for a Trump thing – say, the NFT will be used for this, and then the rewards will give you some really impressive thing in three months, that could probably move the price. Then I would take on a short-term trade literally at the dinner table. That’s why after the $TRUMP token dropped right before inauguration, I finally decided to download Truth SocialThat’s a first mover advantage right there.In crypto, half of it is just being a first mover advantage. That’s why after the $TRUMP token dropped right before inauguration, I finally decided to download Truth Social. I only follow Trump. He’s the only guy I follow and I have notifications on, which actually served me well. Was it April 9th when he sent out that tweet saying that tariffs are now delayed for 90 days? That was first out on Truth Social and I saw that immediately, and I’m like, oh, time to trade my equities, because I will be first to the news. So he’s dropped some nuggets for sure on his account. So the dinner itself is a good money making opportunity?Possibly. It’s hard to say, but in the event that it does, there is some information that gets dropped, that could be actionable.Is there anything you’re particularly proud of about the process of executing this short?I don’t know if there’s anything I’d really brag about or be like, super proud of.
I think this hedge trade, for someone who’s pretty involved in crypto, would be fairly obvious. Net-net, I think I broke even because I did basically go a bit big around my short towards the end of the contest. So that made up for some of the fees I had to pay and whatnot. I’m pretty happy.
I feel like I didn’t take on any risk and I’m able to go to this dinner. That’s probably a win in my books. One thing is, if I had real capital, I would have tried to make the top 25. That requires a lot of money, which I don’t have. I don’t really care about seeing Trump at all. I care more about seeing who else is there, of the top 25I think it’s like a couple million.I think you’d have to have 200,000 tokens, so yeah, roughly like two, three million USD. 
And if you want to not take on the risk of the token price moving, you’d want to take a short position of roughly the same size. It would be like a four or five million dollar capital outlay to make it happen. But the benefit of being in the top 25 is you get to meet Trump, and also get to be in a more intimate networking session, which I would actually enjoy being at. I don’t really care about seeing Trump at all. I care more about seeing who else is there, of the top 25. What was the minimum size of the wallet that made 220, do you know? It’s hard to say because what someone could have done is they could have bought a lot initially, and then halfway through they sold most of them, because they were pretty confident that they would make the top 220, because it’s time weighted. [Calculating out loud omitted.] I guess only fifty thousand [if you held the total amount from day one through the end].Honestly, that’s not a lot. It’s not. 
Realistically that number is probably higher. The thing is, this is not like a $50,000 disbursement where you’re never seeing that money again. After the dinner, you could choose to sell your token. Now, maybe the price will have moved from when you first bought it to when you sold it, but the actual loss, or potentially profit, is not obvious.Oh, that makes this some really interesting campaign finance implications. I guess the one thing I’ll say is, the Trump team probably won’t sell for a couple months at very least. And so whatever happens between now and then theoretically doesn’t really impact the team, right? Because if they had not launched this dinner contest and they did nothing, and then right before the unlock happens, they launch another campaign or they do something weird like this, then that will immediately pump up the price because crypto is so reflexive. And they can then sell into the strength of the price movement, theoretically. But here, I think what they want to do is actually show that this $TRUMP token has utility, and that it’s actually useful rather than just being a meme coin. And this is one way of making the $TRUMP token worth holding, because it’s not just a meme. If you buy it, you can go to dinner, you can earn points. You can get an NFT. It’s basically the playbook that a lot of folks will potentially run if they’re launching a meme coin with utility value. Oh, utility value is definitely a good way of saying it. Yeah, utility value in the sense that yeah, you can go to dinner, you can get an NFT, you can earn points that will get you something in the future. But yeah, this is a little bit different from memes like Pepe or Doge or Shiba Inu. Those have zero utility values. They’re literally just a meme. You can’t go to a dinner if you own a lot of it. It’s just a meme. The morning after the dinner:How are you? How was your crazy night out?It was good. And yeah, there was a sponsor who wanted to do an afterparty afterwards. They basically rented out the rooftop bar on top of the Marriott. I stayed out until 1 AM. But it was good. The actual event was quite interesting. The protests outside the dinner obviously were just kind of off-putting. I was like, damn, should I really walk into this thing?Activists staged an “America Is Not For Sale” protest while President Trump hosted the winners of his meme coin contest at the Trump National golf club. Getty ImagesI’ve actually never been to the Trump National. How is it as a venue? It’s on the Potomac River. When you are in the club you can see the really nice golf course and then the river is right there. The room was long and the podium was right up in the front and the tables were almost set up in a way where there were many rows of tables, but not that many columns, if it makes sense.I didn’t recognize this until maybe like, after an hour in, but people started taking seats because they wanted to be closer to the podium. And eventually, I’m like, damn, I gotta get a seat. But all that didn’t end up mattering because when Trump walked in, basically like a celebrity, everyone rushed up to the front and pulled out their phones and started recording. Who did you meet that was interesting or fun?Justin Sun was there, it was just that everyone wanted to talk to him. I guess the only thing I could do was just say hi to him. There were a bunch of international folks. A few folks were from Poland, who came all the way here from Portugal, where they now live. There was a lot of Asian people there. I met some folks from South Korea. Some guys from France, Italy. There was this hedge fund manager from Croatia who came just to check this out. Some guy from Sweden.There were also some market-making firms, like really big in crypto, like Wintermute. And then another guy who works at Kronos Research. The organizers also brought some folks, like the founder of the Moonshot app. I guess Moonshot had partnered with folks with the $TRUMP launch back in January. He said he didn’t buy any tokens because none of the employees are allowed to trade [the meme coins on their own platform, because it would be a conflict of interest], and so he was just invited by the organizers.[According to Crunchbase, Moonshot, an app that enables users to purchase meme coins, was acquired by Jupiter, a Solana trading platform. No named individuals appear to be publicly associated with either enterprise, although Jupiter’s founder is apparently someone going by the name “Meow.” The guest interviewed by The Verge did not recognize Meow from photos. – Ed.]There were a bunch of folks in the crypto ecosystem, now that I think about it, who actually had effectively insider knowledge that Trump was gonna launch a coin. They didn’t know exactly what that was gonna be, but they knew it was coming and it was gonna be a real coin.
For the first hour or two [after the announcement], people were wondering if Trump’s account got hacked. I just thought that was interesting, that it was effectively prewired to a lot of folks. Ah, so like: if those people knew, then they had that first mover advantage for that full hour – that it was a legitimate coin?Yeah, the public didn’t know whether it was an intentional drop or if some hackers hacked the Twitter account. I ended up meeting one of the top winners, and he was telling me how he hedged his tradeDid you find any really diehard MAGA people there?I’m sure that there were a couple of folks.
I just never got a chance to speak with someone who’s like, super pro-Trump. I’d say the majority of people I spoke with, particularly the crypto traders and folks who are very close to the crypto ecosystem are like, yeah, I dumped this. I already sold the coin. A lot of people put on the same hedge trade as I did, because they didn’t wanna take risk on the coin. I ended up meeting one of the top winners, and he was telling me how he hedged his trade. So effectively, he was taking on no price risk. Now the only thing is when you short these tokens, there’s a funding cost, but because he had such a big position the funding was actually pretty significant. 
So he said he paid, I don’t know, like $50,000 in funding costs, but to him it was still worth it, especially since he got a watch that’s supposedly worth $100,000 if you’re in the top four. Wait, they gave out watches?
Yeah. When Justin went up and gave the speech, after that, he got the watch.Honestly $50,000 to meet the president and get a watch that’s twice that amount, is a pretty good deal. Yeah. I had no idea yet that there’s a TrumpWatches.com. I think the host referenced this — like, if you want a watch, just go on the website. I was like, this is real? And then I actually went on the website and it turned out it is. Swiss-made chrono movement – oh my God, there are so many watches. Do you see that one on the very front page? They gave out two of those as prizes for raffle winners. Oh, that’s only $500, man.Yeah, I know, right?Lame. I guess you can’t yet buy the $100,000 watch on this website. They were specially designed and they only were able to have two ready for the event, and the other two will get shipped to the winners. 
[The website currently lists the “Crypto President Tourbillon Watch” for pre-order, claiming that “only 10” have been made. – Ed.]A commemorative hat.Did people post photos or selfies, or was there a sense of discretion?There were obviously crypto traders who didn’t wanna give their real names, and some folks who were trying to be camera shy and avoid the limelight, but I feel like for the most part, people were taking selfies and they were just having a good time. And there were photographers walking around taking photos of everyone. And then at the end, this was after Trump and after all the gifts were given out, the host was like, everyone put on your hat that you got — it’s in my bag,
it’s a Trump meme dinner hat — let’s all put it on and take a photo and then hashtag “trumpmemedinner” or whatever.[The White House is refusing to release the guest list with names of attendees. The New York Times has since said that it has acquired a copy of that list.Although photos of the gifted hats have circulated on social media, no related hashtag seems to have taken off. – Ed.] Oh, okay, so they actually encouraged you to put it on the Internet. 
I guess the host took the photo and it was like a selfie or something. The other funny moment was during the Trump speech. For the most part, it was just him talking about his campaign, and about how he beat Biden, and blah, blah, blah, how we were in a terrible place with crypto before he got elected and now we’re in a great place. That sounds exactly like a thing Trump would say. That was pretty accurate. At one point, the microphone made a cracking sound and then he was like, whoops, my ear. and he made a joke referencing the assassination attempt. A poster promoting the afterparty.How did you figure out about the afterparty? Was it the official afterparty? 
A lot of folks were saying there was gonna be some afterparty exclusive to VIPs, like the top 25 holders. There were a few folks who were trying to get into this party, but then it turns out it was actually not that exclusive. This MemeCore group, the number two holder, they rented out space at the rooftop of this Marriott and effectively invited everyone. So when you were leaving the venue, they had a couple buses that would come every 10 minutes and they were like, yeah, feel free to take this bus and we’ll take you to the after-party. A lot of people ended up going. 
[On TikTok, an attendee wearing a giant mask of what appears to be the MemeCore mascot, was accused of covering his face “to hide their identities” at “Trump’s crypto bribery event.” – Ed.] How was the afterparty? Was it well funded? They had an open bar, free drinks. It was fine, nothing like that noteworthy.
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The Last of Us just wrapped up its second season, and the finale ends in a way that sets up a major change for the show. It’s one that reflects a similar shift in perspective that fans of the game it’s adapting will remember well: one designed to make viewers see the story in a whole new way.This story contains spoilers for the first two seasons of The Last of Us, as well as both games.After the relative peace and respite of season 2’s penultimate episode, which tracked Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) shifting relationship over the course of several years, the finale gets back to the dark stuff. Namely, Ellie’s quest to find and kill Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), who murdered Joel as revenge for killing her own father.Despite being caught in a literal warzone in Seattle, and having a pregnant girlfriend who just suffered a grievous injury, and listening to a speech from Jesse (Young Mazino) about the importance of thinking about the good of their community as a whole, it seems nothing can stop Ellie in her own quest for revenge. So when she learns Abby might be in a nearby aquarium, she abandons everything to go there, only to accidentally kill two of Abby’s friends, one of whom is pregnant herself.This moment is pivotal in that it really drives home just how determined Ellie is, and how much violence she’s willing to create and endure in pursuit of revenge. But it’s also not the end of the episode. The last two minutes suddenly shift to Abby in a massive settlement inside of a baseball stadium. After following Ellie’s three-day-long quest, we see Abby alongside the words “Seattle: Day One.”Image: HBOFor those who have played The Last of Us Part II, this mirrors the structure of the game. In the first half of the game, Abby is a villain to be chased, before players take control of her to see the same period of time through her eyes, turning her into a character that you can both hate and sympathize with, much as Ellie steadily becomes. According to co-showrunner Craig Mazin, one of the challenges of re-creating this moment came down to the differences between games and television. The team wanted to get a similar feeling across, even knowing that it wouldn’t hit quite as hard.“We can’t reproduce the shock of becoming a person,” Mazin said during a press Q&A ahead of the finale. “In the games you are Joel, you are Ellie, you are Abby. When that shift happens it’s jarring because you have been someone. But here we’re watching everybody equally on a screen.” He added, “What we’re doing is honoring the notion that there’s a time period where one person experiences it one way, and another is experiencing it so wildly different, and yet they converge.”The suggestion is that season 3 will largely follow Abby’s side of the story, something that Neil Druckmann, co-showrunner and also creative director of the games, alluded to. “Had we ended this season somewhere else, like a few moments before, I think we wouldn’t be making the right promise of what this is about,” Druckmann said. “We’re telling you that next season, one, there is just an epic nature to what’s about to happen, and two, this other story is going to be really important.”This doesn’t mean there won’t be Ellie in season 3 — or Joel, for that matter — as the TV show has been fairly liberal with shifting moments around to better suit its own style of storytelling. So it’s very unlikely that season 3 will be solely, or even primarily, from Abby’s perspective. But learning her side of the story will be important, particularly for how it both mirrors and differs from Ellie’s perspective and makes viewers root for or against both parties.“We understand that both Ellie and Abby are moving forward in trouble,” explained Mazin. “They are in moral trouble, because their certainty is beginning to fail them, and we can see it here with Ellie for sure. Because faced with the consequences of the thing she’s done, and the people that didn’t deserve to die dying, she’s starting to feel maybe a swing of the pendulum.”Even still, adding in a third major character to sympathize with will mark a major shift for the show going forward, much as killing off Joel was for season 2. And Mazin believes this is a core part of the structure of the series. “This show is going to be a different show every season,” he said.See More:

DJI seems to be preparing three new drones for release in the coming months: a Mini 5 Pro, Avata 3, and a Neo 2, according to DroneXL. The site published leaked images and video of the drones, along with a new FCC filing that suggests DJI is also working on a new action camera called the DJI Osmo Nano. DroneXL published a video showing two drones that may be follow-ups to the Avata 2 and the adorable DJI Neo. DroneXL notes a few differences, like that the Avata 3’s battery sits farther back and it’s got a larger camera unit up front. It also has four-blade propellers rather than the three-blade setup of the Avata 2. Next to the Avata 3 is what the outlet thinks is a Neo 2 prototype, although it’s hard to discern much more than that it appears to have redesigned propeller guards compared to the original. Yesterday, DroneXL pointed to a new FCC filing that revealed some information about the unannounced Mini 5 Pro. The filing shows the Mini 5 Pro will pack a whopping 33.5Wh battery — a big improvement over the 18.9Wh of the Mini 4 Pro — and the outlet writes that the wireless transmissions specs support rumors that it could stream video from as far as 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) away, or 5 kilometers farther than its predecessor. That range edges it closer to that DJI Mavic 4 Pro that wasn’t supposed to launch in the US but somehow went on sale here, anyway. (We’d love to know why, but DJI won’t say.) The Mini 5 Pro is expected to launch in September. Rounding out DroneXL’s rumor post is a newly-published FCC filing for the DJI Osmo Nano, a new wearable action camera that appears to have a modular display like the Action line. The outlet notes that the company is also expected to release a Mic 3 and Osmo 360 camera, though it doesn’t have any solid guesses about when they’re coming.

Disney Plus will become the new home of CoComelon outside of YouTube starting in 2027, according to Bloomberg. All eight seasons will move over from Netflix, which has hosted the absurdly popular kids show since 2020. CoComelon, essentially a series of mind-numbingly plotless, CG-animated vignettes set to karaoke-quality nursery rhymes, is a giant in the world of programming for children, having accounted for 601 million Netflix views in 2023. According to Bloomberg, it was the second most-streamed show on the platform last year. Despite its popularity, Bloomberg reports that CoComelon views fell by “almost 60% over the last couple of years,” and that compared to all of streaming, it went from the fifth most-watched show in 2023 to not even breaking the top 10 last year. Still, it’s probably going to be a good deal for Disney, which will reportedly pay “tens of millions” a year for it. After all, 2027 is also the year that the first CoComelon movie hits theaters.

I’m feeling a strange sense of pressure as I set up my first bus route in City Bus Manager. I want to get things right for the public transportation users of this city, probably because it’s the city I actually live in. City Bus Manager uses OpenStreetMap (OSM) data to populate its maps, so I can see all the familiar streets and points of interest laid out in front of me. These are my neighbors, who, like me, want an efficient transit service. I want to be able to provide it to them — even if only in a simulation.City Bus Manager is part of a small group of management sims that are using OSM’s community-generated database to make the whole world their game setting. Other examples include Global Farmer, NIMBY Rails, and Logistical: Earth. In these games, players can build farms, railways, or delivery networks all over the globe, using data about real fields, settlements, and infrastructure to inform their decisions.When the idea of using OSM was first raised at PeDePe, the studio behind City Bus Manager, “we had no idea if it would be technically feasible,” says Niklas Polster, the studio’s co-founder. But once established, the license gave them access to an entire world of streets, buildings, and even real bus stops. And these do more than just form the game’s world. They’re also used for gameplay elements like simulating passenger behavior. “Schools generate traffic in the mornings on weekdays, while nightlife areas such as bars and clubs tend to attract more passengers in the evenings on weekends,” ” Polster says.Typically, Polster says, people are drawn to playing City Bus Manager in their local areas. (This seems to be confirmed by looking at YouTube playthroughs of the game, where creators often begin by saying they’re going to dive into their own city or town.) That personal connection appears almost hardwired into people, says Thorsten Feldmann, CEO of Global Farmer developer Thera Bytes. When they showcased the game at Gamescom in 2024, “every single booth visitor” wanted to input their own postal code and look at their own house.Global Farmer. Image: Thera BytesThere’s a specific fantasy about being able to transform a space you know so well, Feldmann says. In addition to your own home or town, the marketing for Global Farmer suggests using famous tourist locations, such as Buckingham Palace, as the beginning of your new agricultural life. “[Players creating their] own stories around those places can be even more impactful than in purely fictional environments,” Feldmann says.There is something inherently fun about being in control of a place you see every day or one that is deeply iconic. In particular, tearing down a perfectly manicured gated garden from which the British royal family takes £510 million per year and turning it into land to grow food for a country where 4.5 million children live in poverty might not be a one-to-one political solution, but it is emotionally compelling.“We’ve heard stories of players who became interested in public transport as a career thanks to the game.”The quality — or lack thereof — of public transportation is another key political topic where I live. The local buses are currently in the process of being nationalized again after what South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard calls a “failed experiment” in privatization. Maybe that’s why, even though these might just be pixels on a screen, I want to do it right. That’s a feeling many players seem to experience. “Our Discord community is full of players who are passionate about public transport,” Polster says. “We’ve heard stories of players who became interested in public transport as a career thanks to the game.”Of course, game developers using OSM data are still making games, rather than exact simulations. The real world is not always a well-balanced game design space. “In smaller towns and villages, routes can be unprofitable with realistic numbers,” Polster says. City Bus Manager compensates for this by giving players more financial support, which is a straightforward and useful bit of game design. But when it comes to treating the games as direct representations of the world, it elides some complexity. For example, according to Polster, some players have reached out to their local transportation agencies with data they’ve gathered from playing in their local areas — despite the fact that the game is not actually designed as a faithful recreation of the real world, even if its map is.NIMBY Rails. Image: Weird and WryAnother challenge is that OSM data isn’t always fully reliable. Polster explains that there can be errors or missing data that break very specific areas in the game, requiring PeDePe to manually find the issues and fix them. But OSM is also a volunteer-run program, meaning players can correct the data at the source. “Many of our players contribute directly to OpenStreetMap,” if they find errors in their local area, Polster says, which improves the dataset for everybody, no matter what they’re using it for.Density of data is also a particular issue for the Global Farmer developers, who found that OSM has a lot more information about roads than field systems. There are plenty of areas where individual field boundaries aren’t mapped, making “total grey areas where gameplay actually couldn’t happen.” The developers compensated for this by making a map editor, where players can copy satellite images from other sources to correct the data, but it means that those who don’t want to build their own maps are limited to the places where OSM has detailed data or where other players have shared their creations.Management sims have often reached for a sense of realism, and OSM data is a useful tool in that toolbox. It also allows players to control environments they know well and can connect with. But it is not a perfect recreation of the world, and even if it was, that isn’t always what games need. According to Feldmann, navigating these factors “can be very frustrating.”But, just like players, developers are drawn to the idea of blurring the lines between places they know and places they simulate. “It is also super rewarding whenever you manage to find a solution and get great results that are connected to the real world,” Feldmann says.See More:

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 84, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about Mubi and Around The Horn and millennial tech, moving all my journals to Diarly, trying out Matt D’Avella’s workout routine, catching up on Clarkson’s Farm, wishing desperately that Philly Justice was a real show, watching a lot of Helper Cars with my toddler, testing the Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones, dusting off my Fortnite skills, and enjoying this unbelievably deep dive into the first Star Wars movie.I also have for you a new blockbuster movie, an old-new blockbuster mobile game, a new season of one of my all-time favorite shows, a cheap set-top box worth a look, and much more. Shockingly busy week! Let’s dig in.(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you playing / reading / listening to / watching / plugging into things / poking with a stick this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here. Subscribers get every issue in their inbox, for free, a day before it hits the website.)The Dropkind of can’t believe it! I fell off the Fortnite wagon pretty hard over the last year or so, but this and my Backbone Pro are going to be very good friends going forward. Zero Build only for me, though, at least on mobile.Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. I am a forever fan of the M:I series, and as silly as I find the whole “AI is the bad guy” bit, I have had a good time watching every single movie in this series. I’ll be in a humungous theater for this one ASAP.Puzzmo for iOS. Puzzmo’s web app is great, so I haven’t exactly been thirsting for a better mobile experience. And, as far as I can tell, the mobile app is just exactly the same thing as the web app. But, hey, I like the icon, and I like any reason to play more Really Bad Chess.The Onn Google TV 4K Plus. “A weirdly named, super-cheap set-top box from Walmart” is not a great pitch. But for $30, you’re not beating this thing’s combination of Google TV, Dolby Vision, and 4K. Onn stuff has been pretty good in the past, so I suspect this one will be pretty compelling.NotebookLM for mobile. The Android and iOS versions are both fine and both useful for the same reason: you can send stuff to your notebooks via the share sheet. If you’re a fan of the podcast-y Audio Overviews, they’re also a great thing to have on the go.. We haven’t had a new season of my favorite unhinged animation sci-fi show in a year and a half, and I am so very excited to get back to some intergalactic and cross-universe shenanigans. I’ve been debating doing a full rewatch of the whole show and might just have to do it after this season.The Virtual Stream Deck. This is so clever: Elgato is turning its collection of smart buttons from a lineup of gadgets to a full-on platform that you can either build into other hardware or just run on a screen. I can’t recommend it enough — spend some time programming all your repetitive computer tasks into a Stream Deck system.Monster Train 2. I love the structure of this game: a deck-building game that is endlessly repeatable but also complex enough that you never quite play the same game twice. I somehow missed the first game in the series entirely, and I’m going to have to give that a whirl, too. Strava routes. Strava’s an Installerverse favorite, and it got a bunch of new features this week. But, for my money, the biggest upgrade is the routing system, which generates the best route between two points; I love a good “map me the run to this donut shop” feature.In all the time I’ve been covering and paying attention to tech, there have been very few companies as bizarre and intriguing as OpenAI. The company is doing impressive, culture-shaking work, but it also seems to have an endless supply of weird internal drama and a total inability to figure out, like, what in the world it’s doing.Karen Hao has been covering the company longer than almost anybody, and she has firsthand knowledge of a lot of OpenAI’s twists and turns. This week, she published a terrific book, called Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, which is about the company’s history and its future. But the book is more than that, too. It’s a really good look at what AI is doing to us as people, to our societies and our planets, and to the brains of the people building what they hope will make them rich or gods — or both.I’ve been a fan of Karen’s work for a long time, so I asked her to share her homescreen with us. I figured she’d either have, like, 30 AI apps or none at all, and I wanted to know. Here’s her homescreen, plus some info on the apps she uses and why:The phone: iPhone XR.The wallpaper: It’s usually a photo of me and my husband laughing hysterically at an inside joke at our wedding. But you’ll just have to imagine it because we’re really big on privacy. Enjoy this orange gradient instead. Orange is the color of creativity, of fire, of the sunrise and sunset, of beginnings and transition.The apps: Messages, Google Calendar, Photos, Camera, Clock, Apple Notes, Contacts, Settings, FaceTime, Calculator, Weather, Reminders, App Store, Gmail, Proton Mail, Phone, Brave.I have a very boring homescreen! I try not to use too many apps. When I set up a phone, the first thing I do is delete as many of the default apps as possible. But probably the two notable apps to call out: a couple years ago, I switched completely to the Brave browser, which is the lion icon at the bottom right of the screen. It’s based on Chrome, so you can keep all your plug-ins, but it blocks sites from tracking you to serve you targeted ads. It’s a simple way to not give up so much of your data and preserve your privacy. Highly recommended. The second: under my Audio folder, I have a guitar-tuning app, GuitarTuna, for the rare moments I fiddle with my guitar at home. Music was a big part of my childhood, but I haven’t made nearly enough time for it as an adult. I keep the app on my homescreen as an aspiration to pick it back up more seriously.I also asked Karen to share a few things that she’s into right now. Here’s what she sent back:The Empire podcast, cohosted by historian William Dalrymple and Anita Anand.Late-night comedy YouTube.CrowdsourcedHere’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now, as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.“YouTube has recently radicalized me to digital minimalism and decentralized tech. What started as deleting ALL social media from my iPhone and relegating the apps to my iPad is now firmly in the realm of buying old iPods from eBay and repairing them with modern parts. I have some replacement parts on the way from Elite Obsolete Electronics and with what I know now I should soon have a functional 6th gen iPod Classic that I can install RockBox on. I also picked up the ToAuto DS90 Soldering Station with the hopes of installing the USB-C mod in the near future.” — Nicholas“I know it was in last week’s Installer but I got the Sony WH-1000XM6s and they’re incredible. The ‘background listening’ feature is such a clever spin on spatial audio, it really does sound like it’s coming from a distance!” — Jamie“What if you could add any plain old QR Code/barcode card to your Apple Wallet? Lucky for you, the greatest minds of our time have come together to solve this inconvenience. Try IntoWallet and get as blown away as I was when it just worked (also the level of customization and the price are great!).” — Teo“I’ve REALLY enjoyed the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds. For lovers of hard sci-fi space operas this is for you. Engaging, dark, wild ideas and concepts, plenty of real and imagined science and physics all weaved into interesting stories.” — Tyler“I’ve personally managed to seriously build my meditation practice in the last two years using both Happier and Calm. I especially enjoy the meditations by teacher Jeff Warren, who strikes the right balance with his light and playful tone.” — Jeroen“I’ve had the Casper Glow lamp since 2019 and it’s still going strong! Love the interaction, twisting it and flipping it to control the light, and I even helped sell two (unsponsored) to an old roommate when he moved to his own place.” — SingYu“Post Andor I’ve been reading through Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire.” — Allen“Setup is (90%) finished! Rocking a Teenage Engineering case, HP G4 Dock, UGREEN USB Switcher, and a $60 standing desk from Facebook Marketplace.” — Jeremy Signing offThe big Installer-y news of the week is that Mozilla is shutting down Pocket. Which, well, sucks. Pocket was a good and popular app that did good and useful things! I heard from a bunch of you who are now looking for a place to go post-Pocket. I only really have three recommendations:Instapaper: the OG of the read-later world and still the simplest and most straightforward app you’ll find for the purpose. Brian, the developer, is good people, and I have high hopes for the longevity of the app.Matter: it’s only for iOS and web, but it’s the best-looking app in this space, and it’s not even close. They’re doing some nifty stuff with AI-enhanced reading, too.Readwise Reader: the power-user tool of choice, and my favorite of the bunch. It just has so many organizational features, great highlighting, and tons of integrations. It just does everything I need. It’s also way too much for most people. I suppose I should give Wallabag an honorable mention, because you can host it yourself, but it’s a much more involved project. If I were just moving over from Pocket and just wanted a nice place to read without a long list of other feature requests, I’d start with Instapaper. But all three are solid options, and they all make it pretty painless to import your old articles. Or just delete them all, start over, and feel the rare freedom of an almost-empty reading list. It’s pretty nice.See you next week!See More:

Users of Whoop’s fitness trackers have been reporting that their Whoop MG fitness trackers are turning unresponsive, in some cases within under an hour of setting them up. Now, the company is apparently replacing the trackers, in some cases before the users even ask, TechIssuesToday reports. Launched alongside the Whoop 5.0 earlier this month, the Whoop MG (which stands for “Medical Grade”) comes with EKG capabilities and blood pressure insights and requires a premium Whoop Life subscription that’s $359 per year. Users started reporting issues with the tracker almost immediately. On May 11th, a user reported in the Whoop community forum that their MG “stopped working overnight after working for 8 hours. No green light, no bluelight nothing. It won’t now pair with the app.” Others replied to say the tracker failed even sooner for them, with one person reporting that it went inert after just half an hour of use. Some also report that their 5.0 has failed. Whoop recommends a few troubleshooting steps — the usual things like making sure your device is charged or trying to reset it — but users in the community thread say it didn’t work. The company appears to be trying to rectify the situation by sending out replacement units, sometimes without users even asking for one, as the Reddit user who posted the screenshot above wrote further down in the thread. The same goes for a user who posted two days ago to say they got the same notification despite having not noticed any problems with their MG. Some in that thread even write that the company replaced their MGs without ever telling them it would be doing so. It’s already been a troubled launch for Whoop. Earlier this month, some users were outraged when Whoop said they would need to add another 12 months onto their memberships to avoid the upgrade fee for the Whoop 5.0. Previously, users only needed to have 6 months left on their subscription to get a Whoop 4.0. The company soon walked its new terms back, posting on Reddit that those who had at least 12 months left would be eligible for an upgrade. Whoop did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

X is back up for most users after what appeared to be a significant outage that spiked early this morning around 9AM ET. Global internet monitor NetBlocks posted this morning that X “has been experiencing international outages for some users for a second time in a week,” adding that the issue isn’t “related to country-level internet disruptions or filtering.” Downdetector showed complaints of an outage rose sharply after 8AM ET before beginning to fall about 45 minutes later. As of this writing, those reports have dropped from tens of thousands of reports to only hundreds. Elsewhere on social media, people had been complaining about issues with the network for a couple of days — one of the top posts on the r/Twitter Reddit community is a screenshot of an error message on the X login screen, with many replies complaining about login issues. The X developer platform site’s incident history log shows that a sitewide outage started Thursday and lasted roughly a day. At the moment, there’s still an error message on the platform status page that reads, “Login with X (OAuth) and other X platform login flows are experiencing degraded performance.” The issue comes after a fire reportedly broke out in an Oregon data center owned by X on Thursday morning. Wired writes that multiple unnamed sources told it that the fire, which forced “an extended response from emergency crews,” involved batteries in one of the data center’s rooms. Following reports of the fire, there were complaints that X was down, but the outage then seemed comparatively small. X did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment. Update May 24th: Outage reports have mostly subsided.

You’ll be able to use a USB mouse with the Nintendo Switch 2 in at least one game, as a Koei Tecmo developer commentary video for the upcoming Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition revealed this week. That’s great news if your wrists, like mine, started preemptively cramping the first time you saw video of someone tipping a Joy-Con 2 controller on its edge for mouse mode. While demonstrating the game’s use of the Joy-Con 2 as a mouse, producer Michi Ryu stops and plugs in a USB mouse. The Switch 2 displays a message that says a mouse has been connected, and he continues to play with both a mouse and his left Joy-Con 2, switching between them seamlessly, the same way you’ll be able to go back and forth between gyro and mouse control in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. As VideoGamesChronicle notes, the original Switch had mouse and keyboard support, though only some games took advantage, like the Nightdive-developed Turok port. (If you own that game and never noticed the “Mouse” option in its input settings, go plug in a USB mouse and keyboard and try it out — you won’t want to go back.) This time around, Nintendo is embracing mouse support more. For instance, the company published a video to its Nintendo Today app earlier this month, showing that when you put a Joy-Con 2 on its edge for mouse mode, an onscreen pointer appears for navigating the system’s menu. So does the Nobunaga’s Ambition video, mean a standard mouse works interchangeably with a Joy-Con 2 controller anywhere where mouse control is supported? I sure hope so, but we don’t know that yet. And Nintendo didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s email asking if that was the case.

It’s finally time to upgrade for many owners of the earliest Amazon Fire TV devices, as Netflix is ending support for them next month, reports German outlet Heise. The cutoff for US users is June 3rd, according to ZDNet, which writes that the company has been emailing those who would be affected by the change. Netflix is specifically ending support for the 1st-generation Fire TV streaming box and Fire TV Stick, as well as the 2016 Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote, ZDNet writes. If you didn’t get the email but want to be certain whether your Fire TV device is one of those reportedly losing Netflix, the outlet writes that you can check the “About” section under Settings > My Fire TV. According to Heise, Amazon is offering discounts on new Fire TV Sticks to those affected by the change. Amazon didn’t immediately respond when The Verge reached out to ask whether that’s true for US users, as well. In a FAQ added to a Netflix help page sometime in the last couple of months (March 15th is when it first showed up on The Internet Archive), the company says it may end support for devices that “can no longer get necessary updates from its manufacturer or support new features.” The company also added new references to error codes R4, R12, and R25-1. Netflix did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer, and if you somehow managed to skip your spring cleaning earlier this year, the turning of the season offers a fresh chance to declutter your space. Thankfully, the Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe offers a stylish way to organize your desk or bedside table, and it’s currently available for a new low of $79.99 ($20 off) from Amazon and Twelve South.Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe$80$15047% off$80Twelve South’s 3-in-1 charging stand offers full 15W MagSafe iPhone charging and can simultaneously top up a set of AirPods while fast-charging a compatible Apple Watch. The charger includes a power supply (with travel adapters) to deliver enough juice over its five-foot / 1.5m USB cable.$80 at Amazon$80 at Twelve SouthTwelve South’s sturdy HiRise 3 Deluxe is a great 3-in-1 charging stand for a number of reasons. Not only can it deliver up to 15W of power to MagSafe-compatible iPhones, but it’s also capable of fast-charging an Apple Watch Series 7 and newer models. It includes a 7.5W wireless charging pad as well, which you can use to top off a pair of AirPods or any other Qi-compatible device you might have on hand, including a second phone, a Samsung Galaxy Watch, or other electronics.What truly sets it apart from a lot of other 3-in-1 chargers, though, is its design; instead of placing the charging pads side-by-side, Twelve South has arranged them in a front-to-back layout to reduce desk clutter. Plus, thanks to the charger’s support for StandBy mode — an ultra-handy feature Apple first introduced in iOS 17 — you can also use your phone as a mini smart display when you place it horizontally on the adjustable charging pad, allowing you to quickly check the time, view your daily schedule, and take advantage of useful widgets with ease.RelatedMore Memorial Day savingsThe Sony ULT Field 3 is available at Amazon and Walmart for $148 ($52 off), which is its best price to date. The portable Bluetooth speaker features a dedicated ULT button to boost bass and volume, and delivers up to 24 hours of playback on a single charge. With a detachable shoulder strap and an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance, it’s also a great companion for beach days. You can purchase Lego’s Polaroid OneStep SX-70 Camera for $67.99 ($12 off) at Amazon, Target, and Walmart, which is $8 shy of its all-time low. The 516-piece set allows you to build a replica of Polaroid’s classic SX-70 camera. It’s a true delight to behold, thanks to details like a shutter button that ejects one of three illustrated “photos” — including one of Polaroid inventor Edwin H. Land.You can buy the latest Apple Watch SE with GPS at Amazon and Walmart starting at $169 ($80 off), which is its best price of the year. The entry-level wearable includes a host of essential health and safety features, including heart rate tracking, fall detection, and emergency SOS. It also offers Apple Pay and a variety of watchOS 11 features, such as support for the Vitals app and rest day tracking, though it lacks some of the more advanced sensors and the larger display found on the newer Series 10. Read our review.See More:

Even at first glance, there’s something off about the body on the street. The white sheet it’s under is a little too clean, and the officers’ movements are totally devoid of purpose. “We need to clear the street,” one of them says with a firm hand gesture, though her lips don’t move. It’s AI, alright. But here’s the kicker: my prompt didn’t include any dialogue.Veo 3, Google’s new AI video generation model, added that line all on its own. Over the past 24 hours I’ve created a dozen clips depicting news reports, disasters, and goofy cartoon cats with convincing audio — some of which the model invented all on its own. It’s more than a little creepy and way more sophisticated than I had imagined. And while I don’t think it’s going to propel us to a misinformation doomsday just yet, Veo 3 strikes me as an absolute AI slop machine.AI generated video: Made with Veo 3Google introduced Veo 3 at I/O this week, highlighting its most important new capability: generating sound to go with your AI video. “We’re entering a new era of creation,” Google’s VP of Gemini, Josh Woodward, explained in the keynote, calling it “incredibly realistic.” I wasn’t completely sold, but then, a few days later, I had Veo 3 generate a video of a news anchor announcing a fire at the Space Needle. All it took was a basic text prompt, a few minutes, and an expensive subscription to Google’s AI Ultra plan. And you know what? Woodward wasn’t exaggerating. It’s realistic as hell.I tried the news anchor prompt after seeing what Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, was able to produce. One of her clips features a news anchor announcing the death of US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. He is not dead, but the clip is incredibly convincing. A post including a string of videos with AI-generated characters protesting the prompts used to create them has 50,000 upvotes on Reddit. The scenes include disasters, a woman in a hospital bed using a breathing tube, and a character being threatened at gunpoint — all with spoken dialogue and realistic background sounds. Real lighthearted stuff!Maybe I’m being naive, but after playing around with Veo 3 I’m not quite as concerned as I was at first. For starters, the obvious guardrails are in place. You can’t prompt it to create a video of Biden tripping and falling. You can’t have a news anchor announce the assassination of the president, or even generate a video of a T-shirt-and-chain-wearing tech company CEO laughing while dollar bills rain down around him. That’s a start.That said, you can generate some troubling shit. Without any clever workarounds I prompted Veo 3 to create a video of the Space Needle on fire. Starting with my own photo of Mount Rainier, I generated a video of it erupting with smoke and lava. Coupled with a clip of a news anchor announcing said disaster, I can see how you could seed some mischief real easily with this tool.AI generated video: Made with Veo 3Here’s the better news: it doesn’t seem like a ready-made deepfake machine. I gave it a couple of photos of myself and asked it to generate a video with specific dialogue and it wouldn’t comply. I also asked it to bring a pair of giant boots in a photo to life and have them walk out of the scene; it managed one boot stomping across the sidewalk with some comical crunching noises in the background.AI generated video: Made with Veo 3I had an easier time generating videos when my prompts were less specific, which is how I confirmed something my colleague Andrew Marino pointed out: Veo 3 is excellent at creating the kind of lowest-common-denominator YouTube content aimed at kids.If you’ve never been subjected to the endless pit of garbage on YouTube Kids, let me enlighten you. Imagine watching the worst 3D rendering of a monster truck driving down a ramp, landing in a vat of colored paint. Next to it, another monster truck drives down another ramp into another vat of paint — this time, a different color. Now watch that again. And again. And again. There are hours of this stuff on YouTube designed to mesmerize toddlers. These videos are usually harmless, just empty calories designed to rack up views that make Cocomelon look like Citizen Kane. In about 10 minutes with Veo 3, I threw together a clip following the same basic formula — complete with jaunty background music. But the clip that’s even more troubling to me is the two cartoon cats on a pier.AI generated video: Made with Veo 3I thought it would be funny to have the cats complain to each other that the fish aren’t biting. In just a couple of minutes, I had a clip complete with two cats and some AI-generated dialogue that I never wrote. If it’s this easy to make a 10-second clip, stretching it out to a seven-minute YouTube video would be trivial. In its current form, clips revert to Veo 2 when you try to extend them into longer scenes, which removes the audio. But the way that Google has been pushing these tools forward relentlessly, I can’t imagine it’ll be long before you can edit a full feature-length video with Veo 3.Honestly, I wonder if this sort of use for AI-generated video is a feature and not a bug. Google showed us some fancy AI-generated video from real filmmakers, including Eliza McNitt, who is working with Darren Aronofsky on a new film with some AI-generated elements. And sure, AI video could be an interesting tool in the right hands. But I think what we’re most likely to see is a proliferation of the kind of bland imagery that AI is so good at generating — this time, in stereo.See More: