We might look at the far side of the moon, and then change our socks

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week. Meta and its AI glasses hardware partner EssilorLuxottica are getting ready to launch the next generation of their Ray-Ban AI glasses. That’s according to a series of FCC filings for…

YouTube has started to block third-party mobile browsers from using a background playback loophole. Background playback is supposed to be limited to YouTube Premium subscribers through the official iOS or Android app, but many people have been using browsers like Brave, Vivaldi, and Edge to get background playback without a subscription. Not anymore. “Background playback…

BuzzBallz was founded by teacher Merrilee Kick, but was bought by the Sazerac Company, whose CEO is Jake Wenz, in 2024. BuzzBallz’s UK’s mission statement, which was deleted after the BBC contacted the company about this story, said it “loves our planet as much as we love a good cocktail” and partnered with TerraCycle to…

In a bid to stave off a major investigation by the European Commission, Meta said on Thursday that it would allow AI companies to offer their chatbots on WhatsApp via its business API for the next 12 months in Europe. The move comes a month after the European Commission told Meta that it intended to…