Author: Shivendra Singh

Alex Jones and his conspiracy theories are allowed back on X

Technology

Alex Jones and his conspiracy theories are allowed back on X

Alex Jones is back on X five years after then-Twitter made the decision to permanently ban him and his show, Infowars, for violating the site’s policy on “abusive behavior.” Elon Musk — who last year said he wouldn’t unban Jones because of the conspiracy theorist’s insistence on calling the Sandy Hook massacre a hoax — created a poll on X over the weekend asking users to vote on whether Jones should be reinstated. 

The poll closed with a majority vote for “Yes.” As of Sunday, Jones’ personal account was once again active, and already retweeting Andrew Tate.

Jones is well known for pushing disturbing conspiracy theories, which in some cases have led to real world harm. He was sued by the families of Sandy Hook victims, who won close to $1.5 billion in legal judgments after testifying in court that they’d been harassed and sent death threats by his followers. But after Jones appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show on X last week, the conversation about his ban was reignited.

Responding to one …read more

Technology

Offworld ‘company towns’ are the wrong way to settle the solar system

Company Towns — wherein a single firm provides most or all necessary services, from housing and employment to commerce and amenities to a given community — have dotted America since before the Civil War. As we near the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, they’re making a comeback with a new generation of ultra-wealthy elites gobbling up land and looking to build towns in their own image. 

And why should only terrestrial workers be exploited? Elon Musk has long talked of his plans to colonize Mars through his company SpaceX and those plans don’t happen without a sizeable — and in this case, notably captive — workforce on hand. The same Elon Musk who spent $44 billion to run a ubiquitous social media site into the ground, whose brain computer interface company can’t stop killing monkeys and whose automotive company can’t stop killing pedestrians, wants to construct entire settlements wholly reliant on his company’s largesse and logistics train. Are we really going to trust the mercurial CEO with people’s literal air supplies?

In this week’s Hitting the Books, Rice University biologist and podcaster Kelly Weinersmith and her husband Zach (of Saturday Morning Breakfast …read more

Technology

Google finally gives ChatGPT some competition

A screenshot of the Installer logo on a green background.
Image: William Joel / The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 17, 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 watching A Murder at the End of the World and (finally!) Barbie, reading about Gary Gensler’s war on crypto, robot trucks, and Taylor Swift’s world takeover, playing Puzzmo’s Really Bad Chess, and catching up on all the super-popular TikToks I missed this year.

I also have for you a new Mastodon app, a bunch of new AI tools, a whole new Fortnite universe, an espresso maker, and much more. And I have some thoughts about messaging. Let’s dig in.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas…

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Apple confirms it has blocked iMessage exploit

Technology

Apple confirms it has blocked iMessage exploit

It was never going to last. Ever since it was launched this week, the Beeper Mini app, which let Android users get iMessage text support, was expected to be in trouble as soon as it caught Apple’s attention. And catch Apple’s attention it has. Yesterday, the entire Beeper platform appeared to be on the fritz, resulting in speculation that the iPhone maker had been shutting down the iMessage workarounds. As of this morning, Beeper Mini was still posting on X (formerly Twitter) that it was working on and potentially fixing the outage, but with an announcement from Apple today, all that may be for naught. 

“We took steps to protect our users by blocking techniques that exploit fake credentials in order to gain access to iMessage,” Apple said. “These techniques posed significant risks to user security and privacy, including the potential for metadata exposure and enabling unwanted messages, spam, and phishing attacks. We will continue to make updates in the future to protect our users.”

Though Apple does not mention any apps by name, it stands to reason that, given the timing of Beeper Mini’s launch and recent troubles, that this refers to the loophole the platform …read more

Technology

Apple responds to the Beeper iMessage saga: ‘We took steps to protect our users’

The chats show messages in blue bubbles.
Beeper Mini brought iMessage to Android. It didn’t last long. | Image: Beeper

A few days after the team at Beeper proudly announced a way for users to send blue-bubble iMessages directly from their Android devices without any weird relay servers, and about 24 hours after it became clear Apple had taken steps to shut that down, Apple has shared its take on the issue.

The company’s stance here is fairly predictable: it says it’s simply trying to do right by users, and protect the privacy and security of their iMessages. “We took steps to protect our users by blocking techniques that exploit fake credentials in order to gain access to iMessage,” Apple senior PR manager Nadine Haija said in a statement.

Here’s the statement in full:

At Apple, we build our products and services with industry-leading privacy and…

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