After slamming the Switch emulator Yuzu with a $2.4 million lawsuit that caused it to shut down, Nintendo is now taking aim at its copies. The gaming giant submitted a total of 8,535 takedown notices for Yuzu emulator forks on GitHub, as spotted earlier by TorrentFreak and PCGamer.

When news of Nintendo’s lawsuit against Yuzu first broke, users began preserving the emulator’s code by making copies and uploading it to places like GitHub. But now, a copy of Nintendo’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown request says GitHub took action “against the entire network of 8,535 repositories, inclusive of the parent repository.”

The request says the repositories in question “offer and provide access to the yuzu emulator or code,” adding that “yuzu illegally circumvents Nintendo’s technological protection measures and runs illegal copies of Nintendo Switch games.” Nintendo argues that Yuzu uses “unauthorized” versions of the cryptographic keys required to run Switch games.

Some Yuzu copycats, such as Suyu, attempted to get around Nintendo’s complaints by requiring users to provide their own cryptographic keys from their Switch. However, GitLab later took down Suyu’s repository following a DMCA takedown notice from a “rightsholder.”

Nintendo’s legal team has been very busy over the past few months. In addition to taking down Yuzu and its clones, the company has also targeted the physics sandbox game Garry’s Mod. The game’s developer confirmed in April that it received takedown notices from Nintendo, resulting in the removal of 20 years’ worth of Nintendo-related add-ons.

Retro Nintendo console emulators, like those now available on iOS, have largely avoided Nintendo’s wrath — likely because they’re not emulating the console Nintendo is currently selling.

After years of waiting for Spotify to release the lossless audio tier it promised, some leaked UI elements suggest the project is alive and kicking, if not (dare I say) possibly close to release.

Spotify’s current bitrate tops out at 320kbps, but that could soon change if screenshots taken from version 1.2.36 of Spotify by Redditor OhItsTom are accurate. They show what users could expect from the lossless feature, including a device compatibility checker and lossless streaming quality of up to 1,411kbps, and it could go even higher.

Another section mentions lossless quality of up to 2,117kbps can be achieved, which could consume 15.9MB of data per minute. Listening support of up to 24-bit/44.1kHz may also be available for “limited songs” via the FLAC audio format, something that’s also previously been referenced in Spotify build code samples.

Image: OhItsTom

The screenshots also show a compatibility checker that tells users if their device, connection type, and bandwidth can support lossless audio. This is presented alongside some advisory blurbs that suggest downloading music in lossless quality for the best offline listening experience and warn users that most Bluetooth devices “don’t fully support lossless sound.” Instead, users are prompted to use wired devices or listen wirelessly via Spotify’s Connect feature.

These UI elements are visuals only for now (lossless playback isn’t working yet), according to OhItsTom, who also claims Spotify is internally referring to the feature as “enhanced listening” instead of HiFi now. Other screenshots that reportedly reveal the features’ mobile app introduction screen suggest Spotify is also rebranding HiFi to “Lossless” — one of several names that have been speculated since it was announced back in February 2021, alongside more recent rumors of a “Supremium” tier it may fall under.

Image: OhItsTom

The existence of these UI elements inside the app could indicate that Spotify is finally prepared to release this long-awaited feature, but it’s not easy to forgive three years of ghosting and broken promises. Spotify has made some efforts to reassure its users that HiFi / Lossless / whatever we’re calling this is still “coming at some point.” But other audio streaming services like Amazon Music, Apple Music, and Tidal have long offered high-resolution audio. At this point, we’ll believe it when we see it.

Google has not one but two Department of Justice antitrust trials this year — and the first one, over Google Search, is finally coming to a close. On Thursday, lawyers showed up at the district court in Washington, DC, for the first of two days of closing arguments in the bench trial before Judge Amit Mehta.

This was the first tech anti-monopoly lawsuit the government had filed in two decades since US v. Microsoft. Its outcome directly affects one of the most valuable companies in the world. At this stage, the judge will only determine whether Google is liable for the antitrust charges brought against it. If so, there will be a separate proceeding to determine appropriate remedies. These could be court-ordered constraints on Google’s behavior or something as drastic as breaking up elements of its search business.

Thursday’s arguments focused on claims that Google violated anti-monopoly law — Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act — through its allegedly anticompetitive conduct in the market for general search engines. The DOJ has defined the relevant market as “general search engines” — like Google Search, Bing, and DuckDuckGo, as opposed to specialized search engines that focus on one category, like Yelp. Whether that is in fact the relevant market is up to the judge, as is the question of whether Google is a dominant player in that market.

It’s not enough to be dominant — the DOJ must also show that Google used its dominance to box out rivals and maintain monopoly power. Thursday’s arguments also addressed the question of whether Google’s actions were anticompetitive or merely reasonable business decisions. Friday’s closing arguments will focus on the government’s allegations that Google illegally monopolized the market for search advertising.

The government is arguing that Google has maintained its monopoly in the general search market through exclusionary contracts that lock up distribution channels so that rivals can’t become real threats. It alleges that Google’s contracts with phone manufacturers and browser companies for default search engine status make it difficult for rivals to enter the market and reinforce a negative feedback loop that makes it nearly impossible for them to reach scale — particularly devastating since scale is the key to having a quality search engine.

Google says it’s easy to change defaults and that manufacturers want to do deals with it because it’s invested in being the best search engine out there.

Judge Mehta held his cards close to his chest in terms of how he will rule, but his questioning of both the government and Google highlighted where he might see cracks in their cases.

Barriers to entry and business tradeoffs

Mehta seemed pretty on board with the government’s definition of the relevant market as general search engines — the first step in proving a monopoly. He seemed unconvinced that Google could be sufficiently substituted with a search provider for a specific category (like Amazon for shopping) even if they might compete in some areas.

But he seemed to wrestle with whether Google’s business decisions were reasonable versus anticompetitive. For instance, Google Search isn’t as privacy-focused as DuckDuckGo — but isn’t that just a reasonable business decision?

The DOJ’s Kenneth Dintzer said that Google’s decisions at times looked arbitrary. For example, it stored query-related data for 18 months, when most users preferred it be stored for two months or less. Ignoring users “because you feel like it” didn’t look like a business decision, he said.

Mehta also told Dintzer he was “struggling” to reach the conclusion “that Google’s product worsened over the last ten years” specifically due to lack of competition.

The judge also wondered whether the government had effectively proven that Google had erected barriers to entry, pointing to the example of rival search engine Neeva. Though the company eventually failed, Mehta asked why he shouldn’t take Neeva’s entrance to the market in the first place as an indication that the barriers to entry aren’t that high.

Dintzer said that even though Neeva was able to enter the market, it still relied on Microsoft’s Bing to power many of its queries. Furthermore, barriers to distribution — the high difficulty in getting people to use your non-Google search engine, which is likely what killed Neeva — are also barriers to entry. (Neeva, like DuckDuckGo, initially relied on Bing’s API but later created its own search engine from the ground up, at great expense.)

The specter of Neeva reappeared when Mehta addressed questions to Google. In a billion-dollar market like search, “one would think … there would be lots of businesses trying to come in and take that profit away.” But instead, only two new competitors (Neeva and DuckDuckGo) have popped up in the last decade or so. “Doesn’t that tell us everything we need to know?”

Google attorney John Schmidtlein said that massive investments in AI will significantly change how people interact with websites. Mehta conceded that may be true, but “my determination here is about today.”

Google’s multibillion-dollar deals with Apple

Mehta gave Google a particularly tough time over its massive payments to Apple to remain the default search engine on iOS. The trial last year revealed that Google gives Apple 36 percent of search ad revenue from Safari. The New York Times previously reported Google paid Apple about $18 billion in 2021 for the default status.

The judge posited that for another search engine to effectively compete with Google for that default slot, it would not only need to be just as good, it would also need to spend the billions Google pays to be the default — perhaps even more. Mehta noted that there’s just “one example in the last 15 years where somebody has dislodged Google” from a default spot, referring to Yahoo’s short-lived default status on Mozilla’s Firefox browser.

Besides that, Mehta said, “there’s no example of any instance in which any of these providers have seriously considered anyone other than Google.” And in the one area where “Microsoft thought they were making some headway, we heard [Apple executive] Mr. [Eddy] Cue say there’s no price they could have offered us. How is that a competitive marketplace?”

Schmidtlein said Apple had evaluated Bing’s quality against Google’s and ultimately chose Google. But why then, asked Mehta, sign such an expensive agreement with Apple? Schmidtlein said that Apple’s ability to leave the agreement every time it expires is “sufficient to keep Google on its toes and keep Google competing.”

Mehta acknowledged that Apple does not have better alternatives to pick from. Dintzer responded that there is no real competition because Google maintained a monopoly for over a decade.

“Winning agreements lawfully on quality” might dishearten would-be rivals, but that doesn’t mean it was anticompetitive, Schmidtlein argued.

Mehta asked if it was even possible for a nascent competitor to dislodge Google. Yes, said Google’s lawyer, pointing out that nearly 40 percent of the market is not locked up by default contracts.

Mehta countered that it would take a company with massive capital and the ability to create an equally good search engine without user data. “If that’s what it takes for somebody to dislodge Google as the default search engine, wouldn’t the folks that wrote the Sherman Act be concerned about it?”

The trial’s closing arguments will continue on Friday morning.

In an interview with The Verge, the director explains why you need to see his new film, Evil Does Not Exist, multiple times to understand the ending.

The rapturous reception and Oscar nomination for Drive My Car made Ryûsuke Hamaguchi an internationally recognized director. But his newest feature, the eco-conscious rural drama Evil Does Not Exist, is a much smaller work — in fact, it wasn’t even supposed to be a feature film to begin with, but a visual accompaniment for his longtime collaborator Ishibashi Eiko.

Still, Hamaguchi takes the smallest of small-town politics (a 20-minute scene is about the placement of a septic tank at a new glamping site) and spins together a conflict about family, community, and whether humans can actually live peacefully in nature. Speaking through a translator, Hamaguchi sat down with The Verge last October, just after the premiere of Evil Does Not Exist at the New York Film Festival, to talk about the movie’s reception, its surprising origins, and the meaning of its wild ending.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

CMPR

Your profile internationally is much larger since Drive My Car. Do things feel different this time around?

Yes, I definitely feel like it is quite different. I would say that the interview requests have increased exponentially since before Drive My Car, and for that, I’m very thankful. And of course, there’s also the pressure and worry about meeting certain expectations. So last night’s warm reception was really, really wonderful for me.

Did the expectations change the way you wanted to make your next movie?

I don’t know if it has much to do with the reception of Drive My Car, but it did feel like a culmination of about 10 years of work. And so this time, I felt like I wanted to do something a little different.

Different how?

This film was started as a prompt from Ishibashi Eiko to make some live accompanying visuals for her live performances. And so thinking through that process and one where I was asked to make a film without any dialogue was really, really interesting to me. Typically, I write from dialogue. I start with the script and the conversations that the characters are having. And so I had to think very deeply about how to write without starting from that space. I did a lot of research, and I thought that it was a very fresh approach for myself.

How did you find this town, Mizubiki?

The town itself is fictional — an amalgamation of various places that I was researching. But I started from just thinking about what environment would match Ishibashi-san’s music. We went to her studio, a place that’s surrounded by nature. I was trying to think about visual elements that would match her music and visiting her town.

We also encountered the story of the community meeting, which is something that actually happened there. And so that also became part of the research and became part of the film.

The real meeting was about glamping?

Yes.

Is glamping popular in Japan?

The interest is at an incline right now, yes.

Do you feel it’s a post-pandemic interest or...

I’m not sure if it’s a direct response to the pandemic because there was a lot of interest before the pandemic, but that increase in interest maintained itself during the pandemic because it was something that was also something that you can enjoy even during covid.

I felt like a lot of the anxieties in the movie felt like a lot were out of the pandemic. The surprising part to me is when the perspective shifts to the two workers at the talent agency. They hate their office jobs and want to be outdoors. It felt like people who were stuck working from home, and those feelings were brought to the forefront by the pandemic.

I wouldn’t say that the relationship to the pandemic is that direct in the film. In fact, I think about the general mood of the film as being something that’s been progressing in about the last 10 years in Japan, the economic decline, and the fact that the pandemic maybe accelerated these various worsening of society. For instance, the irresponsible plan to bring on a glamping site, that’s more a reflection of an increase in people driving toward short-term profits. And it’s just indicative of that general state of society in Japan.

And a disturbing of natural ecosystems.

Yes, nature is affected as well. In fact, in areas like Tokyo, the more heavily wooded areas are being paved over because of redevelopment, and there are a lot of protests happening around those kinds of issues. And so I think that a lot more people and entities are just thinking about short-term profits and really not considering the long-term effects that has on society and nature.

The meeting scene is very confident. Were you worried it would be boring on screen, or did you just know it was going to be compelling?

When I heard about this real meeting that happened, I found it incredibly interesting. For the film, I actually took a very long meeting and tried to condense it into a 20-minute scene. I was pretty confident that people would find this interesting. And I think that it’s something that when you’re watching it, you may first think that it has nothing to do with yourself, but as you’re watching you realize that there’s a lot to relate to.

Twenty minutes is a long scene.

Twenty-minute scenes are pretty common in my film, so I wasn’t that worried.

CMPR

So you hear about the meeting, and you’ve shot footage for Eiko’s project. At what point did you know you had the start of your next feature-length film?

I began to see this as an independent film while filming. In fact, it was when we were filming the scene at the community meeting because even within the film, it’s one where the dialogue is very important. I noticed just how important each actor’s performance was, and that’s when I thought it needs to be its own thing.

(Brief spoilers follow)

Okay. I do want to ask about the ending. I feel like it takes a pretty sharp turn at the end. What are you trying to say?

There’s nothing that I want to explain in words, to be honest. Last night at the onstage Q&A, I mentioned that perhaps it takes three viewings to understand the ending. But I actually think that two times might be enough to understand that the things that are happening in the film are actually all leading toward and progressing toward that culminating moment.

Yeah, I guess I’ll test my read of it on you. Takumi has this very idyllic notion of this town, and then the ending pulls that ideal away from us. Moving to this town isn’t going to solve his problems.

Okay, okay. I think that is one facet of the ending, but I also think of how perhaps Takahashi was also idealizing himself, and that was also a result in that ending.

And have you ever been glamping?

I would like to go, but I haven’t gone yet.

Evil Does Not Exist opens in select theaters in Los Angeles and New York on May 3rd.

A new report from Microsoft outlines the steps the company took to release responsible AI platforms last year.

In its Responsible AI Transparency Report, which mainly covers 2023, Microsoft touts its achievements around safely deploying AI products. The annual AI transparency report is one of the commitments the company made after signing a voluntary agreement with the White House in July last year. Microsoft and other companies promised to establish responsible AI systems and commit to safety.

Microsoft says in the report that it created 30 responsible AI tools in the past year, grew its responsible AI team, and required teams making generative AI applications to measure and map risks throughout the development cycle. The company notes that it added Content Credentials to its image generation platforms, which puts a watermark on a photo, tagging it as made by an AI model.

The company says it’s given Azure AI customers access to tools that detect problematic content like hate speech, sexual content, and self-harm, as well as tools to evaluate security risks. This includes new jailbreak detection methods, which were expanded in March this year to include indirect prompt injections where the malicious instructions are part of data ingested by the AI model.

It’s also expanding its red-teaming efforts, including both in-house red teams that deliberately try to bypass safety features in its AI models as well as red-teaming applications to allow third-party testing before releasing new models.

However, its red-teaming units have their work cut out for them. The company’s AI rollouts have not been immune to controversies.

When Bing AI first rolled out in February 2023, users found the chatbot confidently stating incorrect facts and, at one point, taught people ethnic slurs. In October, users of the Bing image generator found they could use the platform to generate photos of Mario (or other popular characters) flying a plane to the Twin Towers. Deepfaked nude images of celebrities like Taylor Swift made the rounds on X in January, which reportedly came from a group sharing images made with Microsoft Designer. Microsoft ended up closing the loophole that allowed for those pictures to be generated. At the time, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the images were “alarming and terrible.”

Natasha Crampton, chief responsible AI officer at Microsoft, says in an email sent to The Verge that the company understands AI is still a work in progress and so is responsible AI.

“Responsible AI has no finish line, so we’ll never consider our work under the Voluntary AI commitments done. But we have made strong progress since signing them and look forward to building on our momentum this year,” Crampton says.

Less than a week ahead of its much-anticipated iPad hardware event, Apple shared its Q2 2024 earnings today, and the numbers paint a predictable picture for the increasingly dated tablet line. iPad revenue fell substantially yet again (by 17 percent year over year) amid the longest-ever wait for new models — something Apple is days away from finally rectifying. At the same time, iPhone sales tapered off a bit (down 10 percent), while the company’s services business remains the star of the show. It was up 14 percent compared to the year-ago quarter.

Apple also released its Vision Pro headset during this quarter, but CEO Tim Cook didn’t offer any indication of how things are going. “During the quarter, we were thrilled to launch Apple Vision Pro and to show the world the potential that spatial computing unlocks,” he said in this afternoon’s press release.

This is the last earnings report before Apple’s WWDC conference in June; that’s where the company will reveal its approach to bringing generative AI software features to iOS, macOS, iPadOS, and its other platforms. “We believe in the transformative power and promise of AI, and we believe we have advantages that will differentiate us in this new era,” Cook said on the earnings call with analysts.

Apple is said to be exploring potential partnerships with Google and OpenAI. The initial wave of AI features is expected to run on-device, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has reported, which could help them work faster while adhering to Apple’s privacy standards.

But before all that, Apple is expected to announce new iPad Pros (with OLED displays for the first time) and revamped iPad Airs this coming Tuesday — with a bevy of new accessories to go with the long-awaited devices. The Verge will be covering the virtual event live as it happens, so you’ll want to join us next Tuesday morning to get the full scoop.

If you know where to look, you can often score discounts on Apple’s ever-popular AirPods. Since Apple launched the third-gen AirPods at the end of 2021, we’ve seen the starting price of the second-gen, entry-level model consistently dip below $100. And now that the second-gen AirPods Pro have been on the market for over a year, we’re also seeing their price fall more often, too. We’re even seeing great deals land on the updated AirPods Pro with USB-C.

Here, we’ve curated the best deals currently available on each model, including the entry-level AirPods, the AirPods Pro, the third-gen AirPods, and the AirPods Max.

The best AirPods (second-gen) deals

In 2021, Apple lowered the list price of the second-gen AirPods — now the entry-level model — from $159 to $129. It now only sells the model with a wired charging case, however, which charges via a standard Lightning cable. Despite their age, we found that the easy-to-use, second-gen AirPods still offer great wireless performance and reliable battery life, making them a great pick if you can live without a wireless charging case.

For Black Friday, Apple’s most affordable pair of earbuds dropped to an all-time low of $69 ($60 off) at numerous retailers. Right now, however, the second-gen earbuds are only on sale with a Lightning charging case for $89 ($49 off) at Amazon and Walmart. The model with the wireless charging case, meanwhile, is on sale at Adorama for $119.99 ($30 off).

Read our AirPods (second-gen) review.

The best AirPods (third-gen) deals

With support for the company’s MagSafe technology and an asking price of $179, Apple’s third-gen AirPods are often considered the middle child in Apple’s current AirPods lineup. The shorter stems make for a more subtle design, too, while improved sound and features like sweat and water resistance, support for spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, and improved battery life render them a nice improvement over the last-gen model.

In 2022, Apple quietly introduced a new, slightly cheaper option of the third-gen AirPods that comes with a Lightning-only charging case, which is currently only available at Amazon and B&H Photo for $161.99 ($8 off). That’s a far cry from their all-time low of $139.99, however, which is why recommend picking up the earbuds with a MagSafe charging case for just $8 more at B&H Photo. You can also pick up the MagSafe option at Costco for $159.99 ($20 off), assuming you’re already a member.

Read our AirPods (third-gen) review.

The best AirPods Pro (second-gen) deals

In 2022, Apple announced the second-gen AirPods Pro, which feature a similar build to the first-gen model but offer better noise cancellation, swipe-based controls, and an extra-small pair of swappable silicone ear tips for smaller ears. Apple followed them up last year with a minor refresh, one that features a USB-C charging case and an upgraded IP54 rating for water and dust resistance. The newest model also supports lossless audio when used with Apple’s new Vision Pro headset.

You can currently buy the updated AirPods Pro for $189.99 ($60 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. Although that’s $10 shy of the all-time low we saw at the end of April, it’s still one of their better prices to date.

Read our hands-on impressions of the AirPods Pro with USB-C.

The best AirPods Max deals

The AirPods Max aren’t the iconic in-ears that have become synonymous with the AirPods name. They’re large and luxurious, comprised of aluminum, steel, and mesh fabric that remains comfortable during extended listening sessions. They also sport excellent noise cancellation, Apple’s spatial audio feature, and expansive, balanced sound, even if they lag behind some of their peers when it comes to bass response. They’re not the best noise-canceling headphones for most people — blame the sticker price — but it’s hard to find a pair of Bluetooth headphones that sound better and feature more intuitive controls.

Woot and other retailers have discounted the AirPods Max as low as $409 in the past. Right now, though, the best you can do is $519 ($30 off) at Amazon, and B&H Photo.

Read our AirPods Max review.

The Federal Communications Commission is asking for more funding to help internet service providers rip and replace equipment made by Huawei and ZTE. In a letter to Congress, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel says the government has only allocated $1.9 billion to reimburse providers, which is $3.08 billion less than the $4.98 billion the FCC estimates it will need.

After designating the China-owned Huawei and ZTE as national security risks in 2020, former President Donald Trump signed a law forcing telecom providers to “rip and replace” the equipment from their networks. However, a lack of funding has slowed the project. In January, the FCC reported that only five program participants had fully removed, replaced, and disposed of the equipment in their networks that was manufactured by Huawei or ZTE.

In the letter, Rosenworcel says almost 40 percent of providers in the program can’t afford to replace their equipment without additional money. She adds that several companies may have to shut down if they don’t receive additional funding to replace equipment, potentially leaving some areas without service.

“Moreover, the inability of any Reimbursement Program recipient to fully remove, replace, and dispose of its covered equipment and services would raise national security concerns by leaving insecure equipment and services in our networks,” Rosenworcel writes. The FCC is required to first distribute funds to providers with less than 2 million customers, and it can only cover 39.5 percent of their costs due to the funding shortfall.

Companies that have started to receive funds have a deadline to finish removing and replacing covered equipment. The deadlines range from May 29th, 2024, to February 4th, 2025, based on when companies first received their funds.

If your main gaming platform is the Xbox Series X or S and you have a particularly deep library, bring it in for a hug. The markups on its proprietary storage cards are exorbitant, but regular discounts are starting to make them a little more affordable. For example, Seagate’s 2TB Storage Expansion Card is on sale for $226.76 (down from $359.99) at Amazon, which beats the all-time low by three whole dollars.

The expansion cards are officially licensed by Microsoft and support Xbox’s speedy NVME-based Velocity Architecture to enable quicker data streaming and features like Quick Resume. They’re the only type of storage you can use to play games built for the Series X / S. It’s also worth putting older games on the faster storage, though, to speed up load times.

Take it from someone who’s been in the trenches. I have close to 2TB of storage between the Series X’s 1TB of internal storage (a good chunk of which the system claims) and the 1TB Seagate card I picked up shortly after launch, yet I’m constantly reshuffling my library to make room for new 100GB-plus titles and massive surprise updates. The Seagate card is pricey, but it’s worth the added headroom, and today’s deal marks a great opportunity to find some relief — especially with summer game sales coming up.

A few more can’t-miss deals

• Until May 5th, Costco is selling a bundle that includes the 40mm Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and two fast chargers for $209.99 ($80 off). You don’t need to be a member to buy it unless you want to pick one up from the warehouse. The stylish Classic variant with its rotating bezel is the first watch we recommend for those with Galaxy smartphones, but this sportier model stands on its own merits with the same sizable list of fitness tracking capabilities. For example, it features always-on heart rate monitoring with ECG, plus a bioelectrical impedance sensor that can more accurately track body fat, body mass index, and bodily water content. The Galaxy Watch 6 represents a solid if iterative update compared to the previous generation and boasts better battery life, Wear OS 4 out of the box, and 30 percent slimmer bezels. Read our review.
• You can buy the CRKD Nitro Deck for $44.98 (about $15 off) from Amazon. We haven’t noticed a better price on the Nintendo Switch handheld controller so far. It features zero stick drift thanks to its Hall effect analog sticks, and you can swap out the tops for added customization. There are also four programmable back buttons, USB-C passthrough charging, and a built-in kickstand of its own. This is a good Joy-Con replacement if the original feels a little too petite for comfort. Read our review.
• Epomaker’s TH80 Pro 75 percent keyboard in white with Gateron Pro Brown switches is on sale for $71.99 ($18 off) at Amazon after clipping the coupon. The hot-swappable mechanical keyboard supports three connectivity modes, including USB for no latency, 2.4GHz wireless for low latency, and Bluetooth. It’s compact and features PBT keycaps, RGB per-key lighting, and a volume knob, and you can customize macros and lighting effects with the accompanying software. It’s hard to find that much in an affordable wireless 75 percent keyboard, which is why it’s one of our favorites.

My breaking point with promotional emails and desktop alerts finally happened a few weeks ago. I woke up at 7AM to an automated Legacy.com email with my friend’s death-a-versary in the subject line. The email itself was annoying enough, but what it said made it a cold, thoughtless annoyance: “Being remembered matters. The flowers you sent last year were a comforting gesture of sympathy and support.”

I didn’t send flowers. I planted a tree. That’s what my friend wanted. It was right there on the obituary guestbook Legacy.com was asking me to sign again.

Actually, the Legacy.com email was just the last straw. Things were kicked off a few months earlier by a Microsoft OneDrive notification. I had just switched from Google Drive, and instead of making a new email address, I used an ancient Hotmail account that’s been tied to my Xbox account for over a decade. If you had told me I had photos in that email’s cloud storage, I wouldn’t have believed you. I’d swear up and down I never used cloud storage under that email address. Yet, a day after I updated my subscription, an “On this day” memories alert popped up.

I clicked on it — and, oh my, was that a mistake. Microsoft OneDrive wanted me to remember one of the darkest times of my life by shoving photos of an abusive ex in my face — photos I had forgotten existed. In a rush of anger, I erased every single one of those photos from digital existence and canceled my OneDrive subscription. There are some things you don’t need to be reminded of because you’ll never forget them.

Intrusive but necessary

Notifications can intrude into every moment of our lives, fighting for our attention without tact. Yes, we can turn them off or click “unsubscribe” on emails that never made it into the junk folder, but the point is they shouldn’t be happening in the first place. Would we be okay with a stranger holding up a sign that read, “Hey! Remember when your friend died?” as they ran up to us in a cemetery? Would we accept our ex-partner shouting, “It was supposed to be me!” in the middle of our wedding ceremony? Enough intrusive thoughts go through my head on a daily basis. I don’t need an algorithm reinforcing them because it mathematically concluded I want to see what it wants to show me.

On the other hand, like all technology, notifications are tools. Receiving too many can distract and overwhelm us, but we might forget something important if we receive too few. And while we have some ability to adjust which notifications we get, the companies that create those apps don’t have much incentive to hand over control because they want us to use their products as much as possible. (Seriously, Duolingo, chill out. You don’t need to cry over my missed Klingon lesson.) It’s further complicated by having to figure out what buttons to tap in your settings to find the best middle ground between which notifications you want versus which deserve the silent treatment.

I’ve now reined in my smartphone notifications (largely by buying a “dumb phone”), but emails and cloud storage alerts have stuck around like an endless game of Wacky Gator — even though I don’t remember signing up for most of them. And the moment they pop up, it’s easier for me to dismiss them than to figure out how to turn them off for good. I always intended to dig into my email and cloud drive settings, but a week became a month, then a month became a year — and now, I have 414 active email subscriptions and a cloud drive I never log in to because I dread its pop-ups.

But there’s something more nefarious about using your own photos and memories — even the good ones — to capture your attention. It’s convenient to store them in the cloud, even if you disable all “On this day” notifications. But that cloud is a server owned by a tech company that can lock you out of your memories if you cancel your subscription. What then?

An extreme solution by today’s standards is to store everything on an external drive where no one has access to them but you. You lose the convenience of accessing them from any device anywhere at any time, but you gain something much better in return: privacy. So, that’s where I will store all my photos from now on. I’ve avoided getting a NAS because it seems like too much work, but it’d be nice to still be able to access my stuff from anywhere. I’m done dealing with emotionally unaware algorithms and automated emails feigning sympathy to get me to engage with websites. My memories are not marketing tools.