By Dave Michels Most of the RCS/iOS18 excitement is about Android and iOS users getting better interop. This is nice, but the real excitement is how brands will leverage RCS.
Ambulances rush wounded people to a hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Saida on September 17th. | Photo by Mahmoud Zayyat / AFP via Getty Images
Thousands of people have reportedly been injured by exploding pagers across Lebanon and Syria. Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said nine people, including a child, have been killed, and around 2,800 others have been injured, as reported by Lebanese state media agency NNA.
Israel carried out its operation against Hezbollah on Tuesday by hiding explosive material within a new batch of Taiwanese-made pagers imported into Lebanon, according to American and other officials briefed on the operation.
Reuters reports, based on information from a “senior Lebanese security source and another source,” that this spring, Hezbollah imported 5,000 pagers that were supposedly from Gold Apollo,...
The GSM Association, the organization that develops the RCS standard, said on Tuesday it’s working to enable end-to-end encryption (E2EE) on messages sent between Android and iPhone. E2EE prevents third parties, like your messaging service or cell carrier, from viewing your texts.
In the announcement, GSMA technical director Tom Van Pelt said the next milestone for RCS Universal Profile is the “first deployment of standardized, interoperable messaging encryption between different computing platforms.” The move would help bridge a major gap in interoperability — especially now that Apple’s on board with RCS.
Instagram might roll out a way to share comments on other Instagram posts to Threads, according to Alessandro Paluzzi, who often reverse engineers Meta’s social media apps to find coming features.
Paluzzi shared an image showing that when commenting on an Instagram post, there could be a new dropdown menu that lets users choose to share the comment only to Instagram or “also share on Threads.”
Meta has made a few moves to integrate Threads with its other platforms in the past, such as showing Threads posts on Instagram or Facebook (and, later, letting users opt out of that). The Twitter-like short-posting social network also lacks DMs of its own, but users can still receive or send messages through Instagram.
It looks like the fediverse is continuing to open up. In late March, Meta’s Threads introduced a beta feature that allows users from the US, Canada, or Japan to cross-post and view likes from Mastodon and, presumably, other federated social networks. In June, it added that ability to over 100 countries.
While you can follow a step-by-step process to get to the Fediverse settings dialog, where you can opt in or out of sharing your Threads posts, there is now a single link that will take you right there.
If you want to do it the long way around, you can still do it from the mobile app or the web version:
On Threads’ mobile app, tap your profile icon in the lower-right corner, tap the parallel lines in the upper-right corner, and select A...
You won’t ever need to scrounge for a fresh set of AAs with this universal remote. | Image: Hama
Hama has announced a new 8-in-1 universal remote that can streamline your home entertainment system and save you from occasionally having to scrounge for a fresh set of batteries. The German accessories maker is using Exeger’s Powerfoyle solar cell technology so the remote stays powered as long as it’s regularly exposed to light.
Details on what types of remotes Hama’s 8-in-1 can replace haven’t been shared yet, but the power generated by the solar cell located on top of the remote is stored in a supercapacitor instead of a rechargeable battery. The remote is expected to be available starting sometime in the second quarter of 2025 for €29.99, or around $33 SSD.
The company also plans to release an alternative to Samsung’s own...
In August, the Oakland Unified School District became the first major school district in the country to electrify its entire bus system. | David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Riding an electric school bus seems like it would be an uncanny experience. As a kid, I remember the bus being a loud and smoggy place that left me smelling like diesel. Today there are electric buses on the road that are not only emissions-free but comparatively silent. Kids can not only talk to their friends on the bus, they can breathe.
The first all-electric school bus fleet to serve a major school district started ferrying kids to class in Oakland, California, last week. The 74 buses also act as giant batteries when they’re not moving: They’re plugged in and supplying enough electricity to the local grid to power about 400 homes. I don’t know about you, but my child self would have been thrilled by this futuristic reality and expected flying cars to be right around the corner.
Electric school buses are here and can solve so many problems: prevent diesel pollution from damaging kids’ health, release fewer greenhouse gasses that are warming the globe, and provide energy storage where you wouldn’t expect it.
The roadblocks preventing every kid from stepping onto an electric school bus aren’t going away however, even as the federal government pours billions of dollars into electrification efforts. Replacing the roughly 480,000 school buses already on the road in the United States is a big enough expense, but the bigger challenge is upgrading the power grid so that it can support the charging infrastructure to keep these fleets on the road.
Figuring out this problem is more than worthwhile. Diesel exhaust, a known carcinogen that can also cause asthma and hurt academic performance, disproportionately affects Black, Latino, Indigenous, and low-income communities, who ride the bus more often and also tend to lack access to health care. Children are especially vulnerable to being harmed by air pollution from diesel school buses, not only because their bodies are still developing but also because they can spend hours inhaling fumes on longer routes. Electric school buses are also much quieter, which is good for the ears of both the kids and the drivers. Cleaner buses have even been linked to higher school attendance.
With more than 26 million children riding every year, school buses make up the nation’s largest mass transit system. For every school bus on the road in the morning and afternoon, there are fewer cars. Nevertheless, as 90 percent of the nation’s school buses are diesel-powered, the fleet’s carbon footprint is significant. Diesel- and natural gas-fueled buses emit about 9 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses a year, which is about the same as the emissions produced by generating the electricity for a million homes annually. Electrifying all of those buses would be the equivalent of removing 2 million cars from the road.
So electrifying this fleet is a no-brainer. Not only would it cut down on massive amounts of toxic emissions, filling the streets with electric school buses would also save a ton of money. School bus manufacturer Blue Bird says that its electric school bus costs 14 cents a mile to operate versus 49 cents for diesel buses.
That’s not counting the revenue that school districts can generate by using these buses as giant batteries. Because they operate on a set schedule, electric school buses are uniquely suited to sell extra energy back to the grid during peak hours, when they’re not being used. In Oakland, the grid needed an upgrade to accommodate these two-way chargers and the 2.7 megawatts required to charge the fleet of buses. While federal funding helped pay for the buses themselves, PG&E, the local utility, covered the grid updates.
But not every school district is like Oakland, sending dozens of new electric school buses out on routes all at once. It’s happening all over the country, too, with school districts committing to electric school bus purchases in 49 states as well as US territories and several tribal nations, with 200,000 students currently being picked up and dropped off by electric school buses. The transition is happening in spits and spurts, as old diesel buses get phased out and school districts bring in electric buses one or five at a time, according to Sue Gander, director of the Electric School Bus Initiative at the World Resources Institute.
“At this stage, we’re in a transition period that’s about replacing your old buses that are wearing out with the new electric versions,” Gander told me. “There’s still a lot of capacity on the grid available to do that.”
The transition to electric school buses is ramping up at an impressive rate thanks, in part, to a surge of state and federal funding to support the effort. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law established the five-year, $5 billion Clean School Bus Program, which is operated by the Environmental Protection Agency, to help local school districts purchase electric buses. Some states have their own rebate programs, while New York has gone a step further by requiring all new school bus purchases to be electric starting in 2027 and provided $500 million to help pay for it.
With an upfront cost of about $350,000, an electric school bus costs three times as much as a diesel one. Some of that difference can be made up by savings on fuel and maintenance savings, not to mention the public money that’s available. That surge in funding has led to a spike in the number of electric school buses. While 485 new electric school buses hit the road in 2020, the number of new buses in 2023 was 3,267. If you count what school districts and private operators have committed to, there are over 12,000 electric school buses on the way. That’s about 2.5 percent of the total number needed to replace the nation’s fleet of diesel school buses.
Despite what you may have read, all of this money does not make electric school buses free. An EPA internal watchdog report last year said that school districts don’t have a problem buying electric buses, but they do have a problem finding enough power from the grid to charge them. The available federal rebates for electric school bus purchases typically do not include the cost of upgrading the local utility infrastructure, including new transformers and more transmission lines, which can take nine months to two years to install.
Still, by the end of the decade, you can expect to see thousands more electric school buses on the road. The big question then is whether kids will ride them.
While nearly 40 percent of kids rode to school on a bus as recently as 2009, ridership has been on the decline for a number of different reasons, including a bus driver shortage and increasing suburban sprawl pushing schools to the edge of town instead of the middle where children can walk to school.
That’s turning school pick-up lines into a hellscape of idling cars and SUVs spewing their own emissions onto the sidewalk, where the kids wait for their parents. Just imagine if they could spend that time talking to their friends on a quiet, new electric school bus breathing fresh, clean air instead.
A version of this story was also published in the Vox Technology newsletter. Sign up here so you don’t miss the next one!
Pavel Durov. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
Twelve days after he was arrested in France, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has broken his silence with a 600-word statement on his Telegram account that blames “growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform.”
French authorities had charged Durov with enabling various forms of criminal activity on Telegram, including an unnamed person’s distribution of child sexual abuse material on the platform. An unnamed statement from Telegram at the time of his arrest said Durov had “nothing to hide.”
While the vast majority of his statement today paints his arrest as surprising and unfair, he also admits that policing Telegram has become harder. Durov says it’s now his “personal goal” to “significantly improve things in this...
Sonos has released an update to its app as it attempts to reverse the fallout from a disastrous redesign. But while the update adds enhanced accessibility settings and improved stability during the product setup process, the update addresses just a fraction of user complaints.
Sonos is reintroducing the ability to clear your music queue on the Android app — a feature that’s been sorely missed since the app’s relaunch. It also added a Night Mode toggle for sound bars, which enhances dialogue without you having to turn up the volume on your TV.
The ThinQ On is LGs new smart home hub. A smart speaker, it uses generative AI for conversational commands and control of connected devices. | Image: LG
LG has announced the ThinQ ON, the company’s first dedicated smart home hub. The device, which was teased at CES earlier this year, will debut at the IFA 2024 tech show in Berlin, Germany, next week.
The ThinQ ON is an AI-powered hub that can connect and control LG appliances and other smart home devices via Thread, Matter, and Wi-Fi. It works on LG’s ThinQ smart home platform and uses LG’s Affectionate Intelligence to learn from your usage patterns, monitor your appliances, and allow for voice control of connected devices.
A small, circular white hub, the LG ThinQ ON is also a smart speaker with LG’s AI voice assistant onboard. The company says the assistant can understand natural language, interpret context, and learn user...
Verizon is the next big phone company to launch a satellite messaging service — and it’s coming soon. Starting this fall, the service will let “certain smartphones” access emergency messaging and location sharing via satellite in a partnership with Skylo — which is also powering Google’s recently announced Satellite SOS feature.
Sometime next year, Verizon says customers will also be able to send text messages via satellite.
Verizon says the service, which it is launching in partnership with Skylo, won’t cost extra. “There are no additional costs planned for this service,” according to Verizon spokesperson Karen Schulz. “Capable devices can take advantage of this irrespective of price plan.” Schulz confirmed support for the Pixel 9 Pro,...
Cardiff Council has opted to use Avaya Cloud Office within schools prior to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) switch-off.
A recent press release by Avaya explains that this will enhance school communications, business continuity, speed, and cost efficiency, and it is a simpler data analytics tool for IT admins.
The UCaaS and CCaaS service provider hails the council’s resolution to adopt Avaya Cloud Office as “turning PSTN switch-off into an opportunity”.
Huw David, Operational Manager for ICT Services, explained in detail the savings it is now making thanks to Avaya Cloud Office: “We not only needed to transition all the schools ahead of the PSTN switch-off deadline, but we had an opportunity to choose a communications system that would enable economies of scale and a robust business continuity solution if stay-at-home rules were ever put in place again.”
“Our schools’ phone systems had grown organically over many years. They all had different arrangements with their own negotiated contracts, and we were dealing with differing types of handsets and technologies. Everything was done repeatedly.”
David continued:
We did a survey and it looked like around £600,000 was being spent on telephony across Cardiff schools per year but with Avaya Cloud Office, we were looking at potential savings in the region of £350,000, which for a public sector organisation, is money that could be diverted to spend in other much needed areas.”
Avaya Cloud Office
72 out of 128 schools have already been migrated, and the council is reportedly ahead of schedule. 2,500 users have been onboarded.
The council sought help from FourNet, a CX specialist and an Avaya ecosystem partner, to find the right solution.
In 2019, Avaya and RingCentral announced a new UCaaS partnership that resulted in the end of the popular “Powered by Avaya” IP solution and the creation of the Avaya Cloud Office.
The following year, Avaya Cloud Office gained availability in the UK and the company has been on a mission to advertise the benefits of cloud communications over on-premises setups.
Although cloud PSTN solutions are possible, such as Webex’s Cloud Connect service, the PSTN is soon to be switched off in the UK by the country’s leading communications provider, BT. Therefore, it makes sense for businesses and organisations to find an alternative solution in advance.
It is not long now! In May this year, BT postponed the PSTN switch-off date to the end of January 2027. It plans to transition to a modern fibre network as legacy network technologies and devices are becoming increasingly rare from both a business and consumer perspective.
Therefore, it is looking to move over 14 million copper lines onto the fibre network, simultaneously ending the legacy services and wholesale line rental products connected to them.
Steve Joyner, VP at Avaya’s UK and Ireland division, commented on the benefits that lie ahead for the Cardiff-based schools: “The PSTN switch-off is a great opportunity to rethink the tools schools use for communication, and what could be possible if all the separate siloed pieces of technology worked together in an integrated and holistic way.
Cardiff Council had the vision to recognise this, and its schools will be well positioned to take advantage of all the communication and collaboration benefits that a world-class cloud phone system has to offer for many years to come.”
The new additions range from options that the average Threads user might appreciate to content management tools that feel more directly aimed at brands. Threads, which just passed the one-year mark since its official launch on July 5th, 2023, now has more than 200 million monthly active users, including some celebrities and brand accounts.
The most useful new feature, in my opinion, is the ability to have multiple posts saved as drafts. Currently, Threads only allows for one draft — you have to post it or replace it. With the update, users will be able to save up to 100 drafts.
Users will also get new ways to customize their Threads...
People shop at a grocery store in Brooklyn on July 11, 2024, in New York City. Stocks rose on Thursday following a morning report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that inflation eased more than expected in June. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Economic data released this week suggests inflation is continuing to cool, paving the way for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, which would relieve some of the pressure high borrowing costs put on consumers and businesses.
According to the July Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released Wednesday, year-over-year inflation dipped to 2.9 percent overall, lower than any month since March 2021. The CPI captures the change in prices of representative goods and services purchased by consumers compared to the same month in the previous year and is considered a standard measure of inflation. Though the report found costs associated with child care and renting a home continue to rise at a higher rate than prices overall, inflation has dropped significantly since its peak of 9.1 percent in June 2022, and it is now inching closer to the Fed’s 2 percent target rate. And if it were not for rental inflation, the overall inflation rate would be below that 2 percent target.
It follows another good day of data on Tuesday, when the latest Producer Price Index report, which measures the change in prices for goods and services sold by producers to retailers, indicated that wholesale inflation had also come down to 0.1 percent, on par with low pre-pandemic levels. High wholesale inflation can sometimes indicate that prices will rise for consumers because retailers have to recoup higher costs.
These numbers suggest a better economy for consumers, but the overall picture certainly isn’t perfect. The US only added 114,000 jobs in July, below expectations of about 150,000, and unemployment rose to 4.3 percent — higher than any month since October 2021.
These numbers are not in and of themselves a crisis: The unemployment rate is still relatively low, and the underperformance in hiring isn’t catastrophic, but both have been taken as signals that the US economy might be showing some cracks.
What low inflation means for the economy and interest rates
This week’s news has many economists and finance experts arguing that the time has come for the US Federal Reserve — which sets interest rates, manages the money supply, and purchases assets as a steward of the US economy — should cut interest rates.
“Today’s inflation data provides further support for aggressive Fed rate cuts beginning in September,” said Morningstar’s chief US economist Preston Caldwell.
An interest rate cut would make it easier for consumers and businesses alike to pay off debt and borrow money. That could eventually improve hiring and lead to overall economic growth. But there’s some uncertainty about just how much a rate cut would help the overall economy.
Fed chair Jerome Powell has been making statements in the last month that left open the possibility the Fed will cut rates at its September 17 meeting without fully committing. “The overall sense of the committee … is that we’re getting closer to the point at which it will be appropriate to begin to dial back restriction. We’re not at the point yet,” he said on August 1. “We want to see more good data.”
Caldwell said that Morningstar is projecting a 0.25 percent cut in September, rather than the 0.5 percent cut that other analysts are expecting.
The urgency of cutting rates has increased in recent weeks given the troubling job numbers as well as a brief global stock market meltdown linked to trading activity in Japan. Both were seen as signs the economy could use a little stimulation. But even lower interest rates might not immediately relieve the existing pressures on the economy.
There is growing unease, among both financial analysts and consumers, that a recession is on the horizon. Caldwell said Morningstar is projecting a deceleration in economic activity in the next year. Some other analysts warn that the US economy could see a downturn even without an official recession — which is defined as two straight quarters of negative economic growth. And there’s a question of how much Fed policy can actually avert that.
Consumer confidence also dipped in July, with 3 in 5 Americans falsely believing the US is already in a recession in a recent survey by Affirm.
The fundamentals of the economy are still relatively strong. As Matt Colyar, an economist at Moody’s Analytics, recently told me, households and businesses have handled their debt relatively well, and hiring has remained solid for much longer than most people anticipated. But it might take a while before individuals struggling with inflation or to find jobs in a tough market feel the relief they’re looking for.
Sonos has explored the possibility of rereleasing its previous mobile app for Android and iOS — a clear sign of what an ordeal the company’s hurried redesign has become. The Verge can report that there have been discussions high up within Sonos about bringing back the prior version of the app, known as S2, as the company continues toiling away at improving the performance and addressing bugs with the overhauled design that rolled out in May to a flood of negative feedback. (The new Sonos app currently has a 1.3-star review average on Google Play.)
Letting customers fall back to the older software could ease their frustrations and reduce at least some of the pressure on Sonos to rectify every issue with the new app. At least for now, the...
By Dave Michels Last Thursday, Five9 announced its quarterly results, launched Genius AI, and announced an acquisition. These events illustrate four industry trends occurring in CX.
Both vendors offered to help Delta, but didn't get responses.
Delta's creaky infrastructure and IT practices shouldn't be put on vendors.
Delta has to explain why it couldn't recover when competitors restored operations faster.
What's next? More volleying between a customer and two vendors and a handful of lawsuits. The discovery process on Delta's technical architecture is going to be fascinating to watch and fodder for IT management case studies in the future.
Tesla owners won’t need to use their own adapter at Omni Port-capable stations. | Image: ChargePoint
ChargePoint has a new plug system for its charging stations that will make it easier for EV drivers to select the correct connecter for their electric vehicle. The new plug, called Omni Port, works by automatically installing an adapter (or excluding one) to the tip of the connector when you’re ready to charge, which means Tesla owners won’t need to bring out their adapter.
In a press release, ChargePoint CEO Rick Wilmer says Omni Port solves “the challenges associated with a multiple connector environment” and gives Tesla and non-Tesla drivers a “world-class” experience. As North American automakers transition to use the new NACS standard that’s based on Tesla’s connector, current drivers will continue needing access to J1772 Level 2...
Logitech is dismissing the idea it might charge ongoing fees for a mouse. | Image: Logitech
“There are no plans for a subscription mouse,” said Logitech communications head Nicole Kenyon in a statement provided to The Verge and other publications.
The statement came in response to immediate backlash over a concept described by Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber shared her company’s early concept of a “forever mouse” with The Verge’s EIC Nilay Patel on the Decoder podcast. Faber described the potential mouse as a high-quality, software-enabled mouse that lasts as long as a good wristwatch.
Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber says the “forever mouse” might be a product you never have to replace, but it could come with a subscription for updates. #computers#tech#business#gaming#logitech
Javed Khan has departed as Cisco‘s SVP and GM of Collaboration, and Anurag Dhingra, Cisco Collaboration’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, has stepped into the role.
Khan, who had been at Cisco for nine years and head of Webex for four, has left Cisco to become President of an AI, mobility and connected edge business. The opportunity would allow Khan to follow his “passion for leveraging technology to create experiences that transform industries”, as he said on LinkedIn.
Today was the toughest All-Hands meeting I’ve had in my four-year tenure as the leader of Cisco Collaboration as I said goodbye to the hardest-working team in the business. No matter how big the challenge, this team always figured it out and got stuff done. Today, we have the best products in the business and the most advanced devices in the industry, a testament to our collective efforts and achievements.”
As the SVP, GM, and Chief Product and Technology Officer for Cisco Collaboration, Dhingra spearheads the global team responsible for the extensive Webex software suite, encompassing Meetings, Calling, Team Collaboration, and Contact Center solutions. Prior to this role, Dhingra was the Vice President of Webex Meetings, overseeing the delivery of the preeminent video conferencing platform.
“Javed, thank you for everything you’ve done for Cisco collaboration,” Dhingra commented on Khan’s LinkedIn post. “I’ve learnt a lot from you and it has been a pleasure to know you as a boss & friend. We will surely miss you. Good luck for your next adventure!”
Khan has been widely praised for his leadership in advancing Webex’s portfolio of products and services. He spearheaded the integration of AI and machine learning to enhance video and audio quality, introduced real-time translation and transcription, and added significant security enhancements.
Khan also expanded Webex’s ecosystem with third-party app integrations—most notably, Microsoft Teams—bolstered the user interface and launched Webex Suite, consolidating calling, messaging, meetings, and events into a unified platform. His focus on hybrid work solutions has been credited with positioning Webex as a versatile tool for diverse business needs.
“Javed has left a lasting impact on Webex – one of the most effective executives I have seen,” Analyst Dave Michels assessed on LinkedIn. “Fixed portfolio gaps, at least four acquisitions, and developed/promoted lots of staff. Perhaps the most significant was the pivot he executed regarding #MicrosoftTeams.”
As Michels alluded to, as well as his product contributions, Khan was also praised for the exec team he built around him, as emphasised by Jeetu Patel, EVP & GM of Security and Collaboration Business Units at Cisco, under Khan’s LinkedIn post: “We’re definitely going to miss you Javed Khan but thanks for building such a deep bench of leaders who will do you proud and I am confident the business won’t miss a beat.”
Cisco Appoints New Chief Executive for UK and Ireland
Walker takes over from David Meads, who is transitioning to a role overseeing company operations in the Middle East and Africa. According to Cisco, Walker brings extensive experience in the technology and communications industry, with 25 years in various leadership positions across the public and private sectors.
“Sarah brings not only a proven track record in leveraging technology to solve problems and create value for organisations across the public and private sectors but also a wealth of energy and innovative thinking,” said Oliver Tuszik, President of Europe, Middle East and Africa atCisco. “I could not be more confident in her ability to lead the Cisco team in the UK and Ireland to create an even greater impact through our solutions, benefiting our customers, partners and the community.”
A federal judge has ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly in the US. “The market reality is that Google is the only real choice” as the default search engine, Judge Amit Mehta said in his decision, and he determined it had gotten that way unfairly. It’s a ruling that could portend big changes for the company, but we yet don’t know how big, and we might not for years.
Mehta declared on Monday that Google was liable for violating antitrust laws, vindicating the Department of Justice and a coalition of states that sued the tech giant in 2020. The next step — deciding on remedies for its illegal conduct — begins next month. Both parties must submit a proposed schedule for remedy proceedings by September 4th and then appear at a status...
Microsoft made it clear earlier this year that it was planning to make security its top priority, following years of security issues and mounting criticisms. Starting today, the software giant is now tying its security efforts to employee performance reviews.
Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s chief people officer, has outlined what the company expects of employees in an internal memo obtained by The Verge. “Everyone at Microsoft will have security as a Core Priority,” says Hogan. “When faced with a tradeoff, the answer is clear and simple: security above all else.”
A lack of security focus for Microsoft employees could impact promotions, merit-based salary increases, and bonuses. “Delivering impact for the Security Core Priority will be a key...
