ASFANDYAR Magazine

Nacon’s folding steering wheel for the Switch 2 will be priced at around $30. | Image: Nacon

During the Switch 2 reveal, Nintendo teased the next entry in its Mario Kart series. We likely won’t know more details about the follow-up to Mario Kart 8 until Nintendo’s Switch 2 Direct event in April, but Nacon has already announced some of the first accessories for the new handheld designed to improve the ergonomics of its Joy-Con controllers for racing games, as spotted by Nintendo Life.

Several companies were prepping peripherals for the Switch 2 well before Nintendo officially revealed its new design, including Dbrand, Genki, and smaller accessory makers whose cases and screen protectors gave us our first peeks at the console’s redesign.

Nacon’s Switch 2 lineup features several accessories similar to what’s been available for the original Switch for the past seven years. These include carrying cases, screen protectors, silicone wraps, USB-C chargers, and even tiny steering wheels for individual Joy-Cons for using motion controls in Mario Kart.

Image: Nacon
Nacon’s Switch 2 steering wheel looks like a step-up to similar accessories released for the original Switch.

Most interesting is a more elaborate steering wheel accessory for the Switch 2 that looks similar to racing wheels available for PC simulators, but without features like force feedback. For €29.90 (about $30) it features suction cups on the base so it can be secured to a desk or table and a folding design allowing the wheel, which houses both the Switch 2’s left and right Joy-Cons, to be used at different angles.

Unfortunately, while all the new accessories are listed on Nacon’s UK site, none of them are available for preorder or include shipping dates that could give a hint of when Nintendo plans to release the Switch 2.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

The Supreme Court ruled that the law that could oust TikTok from the US unless Chinese parent company ByteDance sells it is constitutional as applied to the company.

“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the court wrote in a per curiam ruling, which is not attributed to any particular justice. “But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”

The ruling means that TikTok is still on track to be banned in the US on January 19th, unless President Joe Biden extends the deadline or ByteDance manages to sell the company in time. The Biden administration now appears poised to hold off on enforcement and leave it to the next administration once President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on Monday — though even that promise might not be enough to overcome the risk service providers like Apple, Google, and Oracle could face if they choose not to comply with the law by continuing to service TikTok once the ban technically takes effect.

Trump has said he’d try to save the app, though it’s not clear how — and he won’t be sworn into office until a day after the sale deadline. The app won’t just disappear from users’ phones; TikTok has reportedly planned to go beyond the law’s requirements and go dark should the ban be upheld.

The justices caution that their ruling should be “understood to be narrowly focused” given that the case involves “new technologies with transformative capabilities.” They emphasized that even though it’s common for companies to collect data, “TikTok’s scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects, justify differential treatment to address the Government’s national security concerns. A law targeting any other speaker would by necessity entail a distinct inquiry and separate considerations.” Ultimately, the government “had good reason to single out TikTok for special treatment.”

The justices found that the law as applied to TikTok is “content neutral” and “justified by a content neutral rationale,” citing the government’s concern over the alleged potential for China to collect vast amounts of data on Americans through the app. They found that the law does not need to satisfy the highest possible form of First Amendment scrutiny and that, as applied to TikTok, it does satisfy intermediate scrutiny because the law furthers “an important Government interest unrelated to the suppression of free expression” and doesn’t burden much more speech than necessary to accomplish that.

The court was not swayed by TikTok’s assurances that the Chinese government was “unlikely” to “compel TikTok to turn over user data for intelligence-gathering purposes, since China has more effective and efficient means of obtaining relevant information.” The justices said that even if China had not already sought to use ByteDance’s relationship with TikTok to access US data, TikTok didn’t offer any good reason for the court to conclude that the US government’s determination that China might seek to exploit that relationship “is not at least a ‘reasonable inferenc[e] based on substantial evidence.’” In the end, the justices afforded a great deal of deference to the government’s assessments, noting, for example, “We are especially wary of parsing Congress’s motives on this record with regard to an Act passed with striking bipartisan support.”

There are some buyers waiting in the wings for this ruling, hoping it will change ByteDance’s calculus on a sale. Billionaire Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty, for example, wants to buy the app without the algorithm to run on its own social network protocol. But it’s still not clear if China would allow a sale, even without the coveted algorithm — perhaps betting that the US will eventually relent or that it can continue to thrive in other countries around the world. Still, reports this week indicate that might be starting to change, as unnamed sources told several outlets that Chinese officials were mulling the idea of getting billionaire Elon Musk to act either as a buyer or broker of a potential deal.

The case pitted free expression and national security concerns against each other. The justices heard oral arguments in the case last Friday, where lawyers for TikTok and a group of creators on the platform described why they believe the law would violate the First Amendment. The US government defended the law, which was passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed by Biden, as important to national security.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch offered their own statements, concurring in the final judgment. Sotomayor disagreed that the court need not determine that the law implicates the First Amendment because she thinks it’s obvious it does. Even so, she agrees that the law can survive such scrutiny.

Gorsuch points out the unusual speed of the case, writing that, “We have had a fortnight to resolve, finally and on the merits, a major First Amendment dispute affecting more than 170 million Americans.” He writes that he’s “pleased” the court did not consider the classified evidence presented to Congress to justify the law in this case, writing that, “Efforts to inject secret evidence into judicial proceedings present obvious constitutional concerns.”

Gorsuch also says he has “serious reservations” about whether the law is actually content neutral, though he finds the government’s interest compelling and the law appropriately tailored to meet its goals. Whether it will actually do so is another matter, he points out. “A determined foreign adversary may just seek to replace one lost surveillance application with another. As time passes and threats evolve, less dramatic and more effective solutions may emerge. Even what might happen next to TikTok remains unclear,” Gorsuch writes. “But the question we face today is not the law’s wisdom, only its constitutionality. Given just a handful of days after oral argument to issue an opinion, I cannot profess the kind of certainty I would like to have about the arguments and record before us. All I can say is that, at this time and under these constraints, the problem appears real and the response to it not unconstitutional.”

The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro is a great video doorbell if you’re embedded in Amazon’s ecosystem and is currently $80 off. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

If you’re looking for a way to protect yourself from porch pirates, it’s a good idea to invest in a solid smart video doorbell. The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro is one of the best on the market, and is available at an all-time low price of $149.99 ($80 off) at Woot until February 1st at 12:59AM ET.

The snappy battery-powered video doorbell is packed with a number of features that provide peace of mind. Its high-resolution 1536p video features a square aspect ratio, which is helpful as it allows you to get a complete view of your entire porch. The doorbell also supports motion detection using three sensors — radar, video analysis, and passive — for an impressive level of accuracy. Other standout features include good color night vision, dual-band Wi-Fi, and smart responses so you can talk to your visitor. The doorbell also integrates well with Amazon devices, allowing you to do things like pull up a live feed of your front door on an Echo Show or Fire TV-enabled television.

The downside is some features are paywalled. So if you want smart alerts for people and packages or recorded footage, you’ll have to fork out at least $4.99 a month (or $49.99 a year) for a subscription. But if you don’t mind that, the Ring Battery Doorbell Pro is an excellent video doorbell that’s particularly ideal for those embedded in Amazon’s ecosystem.

A couple more deals and discounts

You can buy the Vornado MVH Whole Room Heater for $49.99 ($10 off) at Amazon, which is just $2 shy of its all-time low price. The portable heater is easy to use and does a good job of quietly and evenly warming up medium-sized rooms. It also offers three heart settings so you can dial in your ideal temperature and automatically shuts off when it reaches the set temperature.
The 45mm, GPS-enabled Apple Watch Series 9 is down to an all-time low price of $279 ($50 off) at Walmart. The Series 9 lacks the Series 10’s Apple wide-angle OLED display and doesn’t offer built-in water temperature and depth sensors, but is otherwise similar. Like its successor, it sports Apple’s second-gen ultra wideband chip and the speedy S9 SiP, which allows for onboard Siri processing and the double tap gesture. It also supports watchOS 11 so you can take advantage of the new Training Load feature and pause your Activity Rings. Read our review.
The Anker 511 charging adapter is on sale for $12.99 ($10 off) at Amazon and Anker when you apply the code WS7DV2M1LIOU, which matches its all-time low price. The USB-C charger can deliver 30-watts of power to smartphones, tablets, consoles, and other electronics and is small with a collapsible plug, making it travel-friendly.

Comic book and graphic novel Kindle readers get a little reprieve with today’s deal. | Photo: Andrew Liszewski / The Verge

Much of Amazon’s experimentation in the Kindle line has generally led to bigger devices that are easier to read, but the Kindle Colorsoft is the first that ventures beyond a fully monochromatic viewing experience. Of course, that comes with a higher price tag than comparably sized Kindles, but if you’re a Prime member, you can finally save a bit. The Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition has dropped to $229.99 ($50 off) at Amazon in its first sale.

We feel the Kindle Colorsoft’s 7-inch display offers the best color available in an ebook reader yet, thanks to better-than-average vividity and contrast. It makes browsing and reading books more pleasant, if nothing else. But there are other improvements we like, such as faster page-turning performance and smoother zooming. Those benefits aren’t necessarily exclusive to the Colorsoft, however, as all of Amazon’s newer Kindles have achieved similar results, thanks to performance bumps and software updates. This includes the 2024 Kindle Paperwhite, which the Colorsoft takes its design cues from.

But like most newer Kindles, it’s still lacking physical page turn buttons. That’s a bit of a damper for something that costs considerably more and has a display that needs to be kept pristine. And while the color is great, the display’s maximum 300ppi resolution is halved when using it — something to keep in mind, especially if you already have trouble reading standard text sizes on the Kindle’s display at full resolution. Its advertised eight-week battery life also falls short of the 12 weeks you can squeeze out of the Paperwhite. That’s still plenty, though, and you have convenient charging options between USB-C and wireless (the latter requires a separately sold $39.99 dock).

Finally, before you decide whether to purchase one, it’s worth noting that early Kindle Colorsoft units suffered from a display issue that caused yellow discoloration. Amazon says it has since addressed the issue with a combination of hardware and software tweaks. It even halted shipments temporarily while it investigated the issue and has allowed buyers to refund or replace their devices. If you buy one and happen to encounter the defect, Amazon should provide a remedy without much fuss.

If you saw my training load data for January, it would resemble a stock crashing. Hard. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Every January, fitness tech and wearable companies love to remind us about New Year’s Resolutions. For a small number of people, New Year’s features, challenges, and marketing campaigns will be exactly the push they need. For everyone else, they’re another reason to feel bad about yourself.

The start of the new year is when Peloton Bikes go on sale, Apple trots out its annual Ring in the New Year Challenge badge and new Fitness Plus content, and anecdotally, it’s when I see a lot of friends suddenly start logging miles in Strava. But this year, I saw a new marketing tactic: Quitter’s day.

Quitter’s day is the second Friday in January — the day when most people throw in the towel on New Year’s Resolutions, fitness related or otherwise. Apple rolled out an Apple Watch commercial around it, encouraging people to “quit quitting” with a little extra wrist-based motivation. Popular strength training app Ladder also jumped on the trend with a humorous ad hinting that, if you just have Ladder coaches in your ear, you too can avoid quitting.

I was on the ground at the giant CES trade show during this year’s Quitter’s day. CES is a week where I’m lucky if I get one workout in, eat three…

Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Microsoft made a trio of announcements this week that are going to be very important for how the company approaches its big AI bet in 2025. It started off by creating a new AI engineering group to focus its developers on building an AI platform and tools for both Microsoft and its customers. Microsoft then announced pay-as-you-go agents for its relaunched Copilot Chat for businesses, and it finished the week by bundling Office AI features into Microsoft 365 for consumers and raising the subscription price.

All three of these announcements are linked to Microsoft’s insatiable hunger to win at AI. The company still prioritizes security through employee performance reviews, but it increasingly feels like promoting AI is an equally high priority.

The new engineering group is a good example of Microsoft’s priorities. Led by former Meta engineering chief Jay Parikh, the new CoreAI – Platform and Tools division will combine Microsoft’s Dev Div and AI platform teams together. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella described the reorganization as “entering the next innings of this AI platform shift” and said it will “reshape all application categories.” Nadella has regularly said that the pace of…

Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: The Verge, Nintendo

Nintendo’s taking the Switch 2 on tour. With the console now revealed, the next question on everyone’s mind (outside of what games will be available at launch) is when will we be able to get our hands on it. While Nintendo hasn’t shared the release date for the console, it is offering the chance for the public to preview it before launch at a series of live events held across the world. Here’s what you need to know in order to demo the Switch 2.

The Switch 2 will be demoed in several cities across North America: New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Toronto. You can see the exact dates and locations on Nintendo’s website here. (There will also be events across Europe and Asia with registration for London and Tokyo already live.) But getting the chance to play for yourself isn’t as simple as showing up and waiting in line. There’s a registration process to go through first and registering doesn’t guarantee you’ll get in.

First, anyone who wishes to attend must have a Nintendo account, including children aged seven years or older. If you don’t have an account, they’re free to make and young children can be registered under a Nintendo family account. Children younger than seven don’t need to register.

For families or folks who want to attend as a group of up to six people, all members must have a Nintendo account that’s linked to a Nintendo Family group and everyone in the group must attend the same session.

Registration opens on Friday January 17th at 12PM PT / 3PM ET and closes on January 26th. Tickets are free but awarded by lottery, similar to what Nintendo does for admission to its museum. So once you’ve registered, you have to wait. There are multiple hour-long sessions for each day of the event but you can only register for one time slot. (Really, Nintendo?) Trying to sign-up for additional time slots will require you to cancel your previous registration.

The website doesn’t indicate exactly when folks will be notified if they’ve been selected, just that it should happen shortly after the registration window closes.

As with anything Nintendo, demand will be high so if you’re vying for a chance to see the Switch 2 early, good luck. You’ll need it.