Matternet has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its Model M2 drone delivery drone design. In a press release, Matternet explains that the Model M2 is the first non-military unmanned aircraft to achieve Type Certification by the FAA, which determines that an aircraft’s design meets regulatory standards.

The California-based Matternet has been testing its Model M2 drone over the past four years in the US as part of the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) program. Matternet says getting the green light from the FAA could help streamline the process of “implementing new networks and getting approvals.”

Image: Matternet

Matternet partnered with UPS in 2019 to deliver medical supplies in North Carolina, and later started delivering prescriptions in Florida. Matternet also expanded its footprint to Switzerland, where it teamed up with the Swiss Post to deliver lab samples and blood tests. The program was briefly suspended in 2019 after its drones suffered two crashes in the country, but Matternet has since announced that it’s taking over the Swiss Post’s drone delivery program starting in 2023.

In a statement, the FAA says Matternet’s Model M2 drone “meets all federal regulations for safe, reliable and controllable operations and provides a level of safety equivalent to existing airworthiness standards applicable to other categories of aircraft.” The four-rotor drone’s been approved to carry four-pound payloads and fly at an altitude of 400 feet or lower with a maximum speed of 45mph.

Matternet’s announcement comes as other tech (and retail) giants begin ramping up efforts to get their own drone delivery services off the ground. In May, Walmart said it’s going to expand its drone delivery network — which it launched last year in partnership with DroneUp — to Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah, and Virginia by the end of 2022. Amazon also announced plans to jumpstart its stalled drone delivery program in June, eventually bringing drone-powered deliveries to Lockeford, California and College Station, Texas. Wing, the drone company owned by Google parent Alphabet, recently launched tests in parts of Texas and started working on drones capable of carrying larger payloads.

At least one of Intel’s forthcoming 13th-generation CPUs will be able to run at 6GHz at stock, Tom’s Hardware reports. The detail was shared in a slide onstage at Intel’s Technology Tour 2022, which also says it’ll be capable of hitting 8GHz when overclocked. Other improvements promised for this new generation, which is named Raptor Lake, include a 15 percent improvement in single-threaded performance, and a 41 percent improvement in multi-threaded performance.

Intel’s 6GHz claim is a shot across the bow at competitor AMD, which recently said that its upcoming flagship 16-core Ryzen 9 7950X will be capable of boosting up to 5.7GHz. Although raw clock speeds aren’t the be all and end all when it comes to performance, breaking the 6GHz barrier would be an important marketing win for Intel, which has been battling with a resurgent AMD in the CPU market in recent years.

Image: Intel

The Raptor Lake CPU lineup is yet to be officially announced, so it’s unclear which or how many of the generation’s processors will be able to hit these kinds of clock speeds. Given Intel’s 12900KS boosted up to 5.5GHz (up 300MHz from the maximum 5.2GHz speed on the regular i9-12900K), Intel’s 6GHz CPU may well be a KS-branded version of its upcoming 13900K chip. Official pricing and release date information has not yet been made public, but Intel is set reveal more details at its Innovation event in San Jose, California on September 27th. In what is unlikely to be a coincidence, that’s also the same day AMD is releasing its Ryzen 7000 processors.

Roku is mostly leaving its hardware lineup untouched for the fall — with a couple exceptions. Today, the company is introducing an enhanced Roku Express that now includes dual-band Wi-Fi for more robust, dependable streaming performance. Still priced at $29.99, the device is available for preorder now and will be in stores on October 16th.

The Express is Roku’s introductory streaming device and accordingly sticks to 1080p quality; you need to move up to the Roku Express 4K Plus — which already includes dual-band connectivity — if you want to watch 4K / Ultra HD content. The basic Express comes with Roku’s simplest remote, so you’ll need to use the company’s mobile app if you want to use the private listening feature with connected headphones. The new Express arrives ahead of a rumored Google Chromecast HD expected at next month’s hardware event.

Image: Roku

Roku is also announcing what it calls the Roku Wireless Bass, an affordable subwoofer that costs $129.99. That saves you $50 compared to the Roku Wireless Subwoofer. You can pair the Wireless Bass with a Roku Streambar, Roku Wireless Speakers, or Roku TV Wireless Soundbar. And setting it up is quick and painless since everything is within the company’s ecosystem.

A slimmer profile allows for more versatile placement options compared to the bulky Wireless Subwoofer, but even with a smaller form factor, Roku says the Wireless Bass delivers “rumbling lows” and “rich depth” — all with wireless convenience. It will be available later this fall and start shipping on November 7th from Roku, Amazon, and Best Buy. The Wireless Bass will also be bundled with the Roku Streambar for a combo price of $249.99.

Image: Roku

New Roku OS 11.5 software features

Alongside the new devices, Roku is laying out some significant new software features that customers can expect “in the coming months.” Several of these are designed to improve discoverability and help you find something to watch. There’ll be a new item on the Roku homescreen called “The Buzz,” and here’s how the company describes it:

Users can quickly browse a frequently updated collection of posts featuring entertainment-centric, short-form content from popular streaming services and entertainment brands, such as AMC Plus, Apple TV Plus, BET Plus, Crackle, Hallmark Movies Now, IGN, Plex, Popcornflix, Showtime, Starz, The CW, Tubi, Vevo, and Wondrium, with more to come. Posts within The Buzz may include video clips, images, trailers, interviews, and other content to help users discover movies and shows that match their interests. Users can engage with content featured in The Buzz by liking posts, saving content to watch later, following profiles to view future posts, or immediately streaming the movie or show featured in the post.

Image: Roku

The Buzz is really one of those things you’ll need to try for yourself to see if the new portal has any value. But I think everyone will appreciate two other new features on the way: continue watching and a platform-wide save list. Continue watching is exactly what you expect and will make it simpler to hop back into content from supported apps like HBO Max, Netflix, Paramount Plus, and the company’s own Roku Channel, “with more channels to come.” It won’t be found on the homescreen: instead, you’ve got to navigate to the “what to watch” section, where you’ll find the continue watching row.

Image: Roku

And then there’s the new save list, which lets you “save movies and shows from across the Roku platform” so they’re easier to find later on. Your save list is also located in the “what to watch” section. Once this feature rolls out to you, there will be a “save” option on movie and TV show details pages. Roku says this is “an expansion of the previously launched save list within The Roku Channel and the Roku mobile app,” but to me, it’s clearly a bid to match similar features like Google TV’s watchlist and Apple TV’s Up Next. The big question is whether some services like Netflix will opt out of Roku’s version, as has been the case with others. I’ve asked the company for comment. These features lose a lot of appeal if any one big player decides not to play ball.

Upcoming Roku software updates will also expand Bluetooth private listening to the latest Roku Ultra, Roku Streambar, and Roku Streambar Pro. You’ll be able to pair any Bluetooth headphones or earbuds to these devices and listen to content privately without disturbing others. Private listening is currently available on Roku’s premium remotes and through the mobile app, but it’s nice to see it brought to the actual streamers.

Roku is also making improvements to voice search, revamping search results to be more visual, and adding categories to its live TV guide for more convenient branding. The channel store is also being rebranded as “The Roku Store,” another sign that the company is taking greater control over its hugely popular platform.

Roku isn’t yet sharing a specific release date for the OS 11.5 update and other new features, only promising that they’ll arrive over the next few months.

Comcast plans on bringing multi-gig internet speeds to 34 cities across the US by the end of this year, and will later expand its reach to more than 50 million households by the end of 2025. According to a press release, the company has already started rolling out 2-gig speeds over its broadband network in Colorado Springs, CO; Augusta, GA; Panama City Beach, FL; and Philadelphia, PA.

Customers in these cities will also get to take advantage of upload speeds that Comcast says are five to 10 times faster than what it currently offers. The upload speeds appear to max out at 200Mbps, even with the new Gigabit x2 plan, but Comcast intends to change that. It’s launching multi-gig symmetrical speeds next year, which will enable multi-gig speeds for both downloads and uploads.

While symmetrical uploads and downloads are expected with fiber optic internet, cable has lagged behind. But with DOCSIS 4.0, a high-bandwidth broadband standard that allows for up to 10Gbps downloads and 6Gbps uploads, providers like Comcast can enable symmetrical connections over cable. Comcast is currently in the process of transitioning to the new standard and achieved 4Gbps upload and download speeds during a test in January.

Even though companies like AT&T, Frontier, Verizon, and Google are expanding their fiber networks, the service is still largely limited to users located in metro areas. Symmetrical speeds on cable networks could be a welcome option for those in need of a speedier connection, but who aren’t in areas where fiber is available.

For now, customers located in Colorado Springs, Augusta, Panama City Beach, and Philadelphia, won’t have to upgrade their modem to access Comcast’s faster (but not symmetrical) 2-gig speeds. Comcast Cable EVP Elad Nafshi told Fierce Telecom that once Comcast does roll out its symmetrical services next year, customers will need to upgrade their modem.

Disclosure: Comcast is an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.

If you can believe it, Instagram is testing a new feature that mimics other social networks. TechCrunch reports Instagram confirmed tests of “reposts” to bring someone else’s content onto your own timeline. It’s similar to Twitter’s retweets or the kind of reshares that are common on Tumblr and Facebook and are also in testing on TikTok.

TechCrunch writes the “repost” feature was spotted by Matt Navarra, a social media consultant who posted images in a Twitter thread on Wednesday. However, Alessandro Paluzzi noticed it in development back in May, showing Instagram has been working on it for a while.

Sharing someone else’s post for your own followers to see isn’t completely new for Instagram users. Users have been able to share public posts for their followers but only to their Instagram Story or through direct messages. Now, the test would let users share a post on their feeds without having to screenshot it and repost it or go through another source.

Aside from reposts within your own feed, I’ve noticed on my iPhone that Instagram has modified its cross-platform sharing options. Now it’s pushing the buttons to share to Snapchat, Messenger, or WhatsApp ahead of direct-to-DM sharing, which is, again, similar to TikTok’s approach.

Instagram rolled back a test shifting the app toward an AI-powered feed of full-screen pictures and video — part of its apparent slow metamorphosis into TikTok — but isn’t giving up on the effort. Another recent test gives Instagram users the ability to select and mark multiple posts as “not interested” to train the suggestion algorithm toward their preferences.

“We’re exploring the ability to reshare posts in Feed — similar to how you can reshare in Stories — so people can share what resonates with them, and so original creators are credited for their work,” Seine Kim, a spokesperson from Meta told The Verge in an email statement. “We plan to test this soon with a small number of people,” she said, but noted that the feature isn’t publicly available to test yet.

Update September 9th, 8:22 PM ET: Updated with statement from Meta

Elon Musk has sent a third letter to Twitter attempting to terminate his $44 billion acquisition of the company. Musk’s legal team cited Twitter’s multimillion dollar severance payment to former security chief and whistleblower Peiter Zatko as a violation of the merger agreement and a reason to end the deal. The letter, dated September 9th, was sent to Twitter’s chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and was included in a filing Twitter made with the SEC on Friday (which you can read at the bottom of this article).

Last month, Zatko made headlines by accusing Twitter of misleading investors about the number of bots on the service, failing to delete users’ data, and having poor security practices, among other things. Musk jumped on the accusations, citing them in his second termination letter and subpoenaing Zatko to testify in the lawsuit. Zatko was set to be deposed on Friday.

Elon Musk sent his first letter of termination in July, saying that Twitter mislead him about the number of bots on its platform, and that the company wouldn’t give him access to the information he need to make his own determinations. This is despite the fact that he was given access to the “firehose” API that contains every tweet.

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Twitter had agreed to pay Zatko roughly $7 million before he left the company, in relation to lost compensation after he and the company negotiated about pay for months. Musk’s lawyers are citing it as yet another reason why his deal to purchase the social media company shouldn’t go through. The purchase agreement bars Twitter from providing any out-of-the-ordinary severance or termination payments. According to the Journal, the settlement isn’t particularly strange, given that Zatko was an executive leaving the company, but it seems like Musk doesn’t agree. (The letter also mentions Musk didn’t learn about the separation agreement until Twitter filed it with the court.)

Whether Musk is actually allowed to terminate the deal is a matter for a court in Delaware after Twitter sued Musk in July for trying to abandon the deal. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick has already ruled that Musk will be allowed to use Zatko’s allegations to support his case, and that there will be a “limited” discovery on documents related to the whistleblower’s report. In August, Musk filed the second notice of termination, citing the original reports.

The trial is set to begin on October 17th. Twitter didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

United Airlines is investing $15 million in Eve Air Mobility, an electric aviation startup owned by Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer. As part of the deal, United will purchase 200 of Eve’s electric air taxis, which can seat four passengers and take off and land vertically like a helicopter.

This is the second major investment from United in the nascent world of electric air mobility after investing an undisclosed amount of money in Archer last year. These companies propose to develop small, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that can fly from rooftop to rooftop in a dense city as a taxi service. But so far, none have received clearance from federal aviation regulators to fly passengers.

But Eve may have to meet certain benchmarks before fulfilling its order with United, as the airline described it as a “conditional purchase agreement.” (United did not elaborate on the conditions in its press release.) Delivery of Eve’s first aircraft, which has a range of 60 miles, is expected in 2026.

The investment will come from United’s venture arm, United Airlines Ventures, which the airline is using to further its goal to reach net zero emissions by 2050 without the use of traditional carbon offsets.

United said it is investing in Eve primarily due to its ties to Embraer, which can provide access to parts and supplies for its air taxi service. Previously, Embraer said it would make flying taxis for Uber before the ride-hailing company sold off its eVTOL division to another startup.

Eve is the latest startup to receive United’s stamp of approval. Last year, the airline said it would purchase 15 supersonic aircraft from Boom Supersonic, with an option to increase that order to 50 jets.

Ford is rolling out its first major update to its BlueCruise advanced driver-assist system, adding hands-free lane changing and several other new features, the company announced Thursday.

BlueCruise, which Ford is positioning as a viable competitor to GM’s Super Cruise and Tesla’s Autopilot systems, first launched in 2021 with the Ford Mustang Mach-E and has since rolled out to 75,000 Ford and Lincoln owners.

The software update, BlueCruise 1.2, will arrive this fall, starting with the 2023 Mustang Mach-E before landing with other models. (For Lincoln owners, the update will roll out as ActiveGlide 1.2.) Both updates will include three new features: lane change assist, predictive speed assist, and in-lane repositioning.

Lane change assist will automatically perform a lane change when requested by the driver tapping the turn signal and can even suggest a lane change if the vehicle appears to be in slow-moving traffic. Predictive speed assist automatically adjusts the speed as drivers approach a sharp curve and will signal the driver ahead of time when a speed change is about to occur. And in-lane repositioning keeps the vehicle in its lane while subtly shifting its position away from adjacent vehicles, especially bigger ones like semi trucks.

“These improvements are just the beginning of a constant journey toward improving safety and giving customers valuable time back,” Doug Field, who runs Ford’s electric and autonomous division Model e, said in a statement.

But Ford is slightly behind the rest of the pack when it comes to these features. Tesla added automatic lane changing to Autopilot in 2019, and GM updated Super Cruise to include the feature in 2021. Last year, GM filed a lawsuit against Ford, arguing that the name BlueCruise was too close to Super Cruise. The two companies are reportedly trying to work out a settlement.

BlueCruise and ActiveGlide are Level 2 systems, as defined by the Society for Automotive Engineers’ levels of automation, which generally work in concert with a number of distinct features, like adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, lane keep assist, blindspot detection, pedestrian monitoring, and stop sign detection. These systems do not make the vehicle autonomous, as drivers are required to stay vigilant and keep their eyes on the road.

Ford says that BlueCruise can be activated only on prequalified divided highways, of which there are currently 130,000 miles. The company says it is “continually improving maps with over-the-air updates identifying prequalified sections of divided highways where BlueCruise can be used.”

The Verge’s Nilay Patel found BlueCruise to be “deeply confusing” when he reviewed the F-150 Lightning but also found that it “worked great” when active.

YouTube is introducing a handful of new features for creators and institutions using the platform for educational content.

In a blog post today, YouTube says it’s launching an embeddable video player for education apps that removes ads, external links, and recommendations so viewers can “avoid distractions.” Having a player without YouTube’s recommendation algorithm — built to keep you watching and serve you new content — is probably good for students using the platform for school. YouTube’s recommendation algorithm has been the subject of scrutiny for years over how it can serve up extreme content and misinformation.

The ad- and recommendation-free player will be open to select partners to start, including education tech companies like EDpuzzle, Google Classroom, Purdue University, and Purdue Global.

YouTube also announced new tools for creators making educational content on the platform — including ways to charge viewers for their videos. Beginning next year, certain creators will be able to make free or paid “courses,” with playlists of videos set up for audiences. If a viewer buys a course, they’ll be able to watch the content ad-free and play the videos in the background. Courses will come to the US and South Korea first in beta.

Finally, YouTube announced a new quiz feature that creators can set up in the community tab on their channel that relates to the educational content they make. The company will introduce quizzes in beta in the coming months, with creators getting access to the feature next year.

YouTube has introduced other initiatives and features in recent years around learning on the platform, like a $20 million fund for creators making education videos and recommendation-free playlists for topics like math, science, and music.

Uber Eats customers in California and Texas may soon have their takeout delivered by a driverless delivery pod after the company signed a 10-year deal with autonomous driving startup Nuro.

Today’s announcement is the culmination of over four years of start-and-stop negotiations between the two companies. Uber wanted to use Nuro’s vehicles to make deliveries in Houston back in 2019, but those plans never panned out. Now, the two companies have struck a decade-long deal to expand robot deliveries to more customers than ever.

Starting this fall, Uber and Nuro will deploy autonomous delivery vehicles in two cities: Mountain View, California, and Houston, Texas. Neither company would disclose the number of vehicles nor the expected number of customers who will participate in these early tests, but they did say they eventually hope to expand the service area to the greater Bay Area in California.

Nuro’s second-generation R2 vehicle is not your typical delivery robot designed only for sidewalk travel. It’s much larger, about half as wide as a compact sedan, but shorter than most cars. And there’s no room inside for human passengers or drivers, making it fully driverless in the truest sense. It has a top speed of 45 mph, making it ideal for residential travel but not allowing it to go on highways. It can carry a total of 500 lbs, with space for about 24 grocery bags in its compartments.

Nuro, which is valued at $8.6 billion, was founded in 2016 by Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, two veterans of the Google self-driving car project that would go on to become Waymo. It is one of the few companies to be operating fully driverless vehicles — that is, vehicles without safety drivers behind the wheel — on public roads today. It was the first company to receive a special exemption from certain federal safety requirements and was also the first to charge money for its driverless deliveries in California.

The permit, issued by the California DMV, only allows the company to operate its delivery service in parts of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, which would mean most of the Silicon Valley and its tech workers would be within its domain but not San Francisco or Oakland. That means the company will need to obtain additional permission from the DMV before expanding its service area.

Nuro isn’t the only autonomous delivery company to work with Uber. The company is also working with Serve Robotics and Motional to test out robot deliveries. Serve Robotics operates delivery robots that travel on sidewalks, while Motional uses electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 SUVs with two safety drivers in the front seats. Serve and Motional’s respective pilots with Uber Eats are available to customers in the Los Angeles area.