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The band are up for two awards, including Best Alternative for "Hold Me Like a Grudge" and Best Visual Effects for "Love From the Other Side"View the full article

The Colombian superstar — who performed "Tá OK" and "Oki Doki" — is also nominated for Artist of the YearView the full article

The K-pop octet, who are up for a Best K-Pop award, make their VMAs live performance debutView the full article

The singer is nominated for three awards, including Best New ArtistView the full article

The rapper and business mogul delivered a career-spanning performance of hits with appearances from Yung Miami, Keyshia Cole, and his sonView the full article

The singer stunned with a show-stopping medley of hits from "Ojos Así" to "TQG"View the full article

The rapper has also served as emcee for the MTV Video Music Awards throughout the nightView the full article

Yesterday, Doja Cat’s “Paint The Town Red” became the first #1 rap song on the Billboard Hot 100 in more than a year. In about a week, she’ll release the new album Scarlet, which features “Paint The Town Red,” “Demons,” and “Attention.” Tonight, at the 2023 MTV VMAs, taking place at the Prudential Center in Newark, a skirt-suit-clad Doja Cat performed a Scarlet medley, including “Attention,” “Paint The Town Red,” and “Demons.” View the full article

Rumors started flying today that iconic Y2K boy band *NSYNC would be reuniting tonight at the 2023 MTV VMAs. The group, which hasn’t released music together since 2002, have recently been rumored to be prepping new music for the upcoming film Trolls Band Together after posters were spotted in NYC teasing *NSYNC’s logo. Tonight, at the VMAs, the reunited *NSYNC gathered on stage to present the Best Pop award to Taylor Swift for Midnights single “Anti-Hero.” View the full article

What a week for Olivia Rodrigo. Just days after releasing the much-anticipated sophomore album Guts, Rodrigo performed “get him back!” on TODAY, unveiled hidden vinyl-variant songs, and shared an iPhone-shot video for “get him back!” Tonight, Rodrigo performed both “Vampire” and “get him back!” amid a choreographed stage malfunction at the 2023 MTV VMAs, which was held at the Prudential Center in Newark. View the full article

On Saturday, the final two days of this year’s Blue Rock Ridge Festival were canceled due to a severe storm that swept through Virginia. Before everything closed, Oliver Anthony, Shinedown, and Papa Roach performed together in the parking lot, playing Papa Roach’s “Scars” and “Last Resort,” Shinedown’s “Sound Of Madness,” “Second Chance,” and “45,” Anthony’s “Rich Men North Of Richmond,” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man.” Now, Anthony has canceled an upcoming performance in Knoxville, citing high ticket prices. View the full article

Enlarge (credit: Coca-Cola) Coca-Cola has taken a fizzy leap into the future of AI hype with the release of Coca‑Cola Y3000 Zero Sugar, a "limited-edition" beverage reportedly co-created with artificial intelligence. Its futuristic name evokes flavor in the year 3000 (still 977 years away), but its marketing relies on AI-generated imagery from 2023—courtesy of the controversial image synthesis model Stable Diffusion. Stable Diffusion, a technology which is mentioned by name when launching the "Coca-Cola Y3000 AI Cam" mobile app, gained its ability to generate images by scraping hundreds of millions of copyrighted works found on the Internet without copyright holder permission and is currently the subject of litigation related to copyright infringement. But there is no hint of that controversy in Coca-Cola's marketing materials, which lean heavily into today's buzzy, AI-centered tech zeitgeist. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Now, this is what you call effective cross-promotion. Today, Apple debuted its iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro. Simultaneously, Olivia Rodrigo (who just released her critically acclaimed sophomore album Guts) released the music video for “get him back!,” which was — you guessed it — shot on an iPhone 15 Pro. Directed by Jack Begert, “get him back!” features photography direction by Xiao “X” Liu, who used the “crash zoom technique” with the 15 Pro’s 5x Telephoto camera. View the full article

Enlarge / The Microsoft Surface Duo. (credit: Ron Amadeo) RIP to the Surface Duo 1. As spotted by Windows Central, Microsoft is killing off support for its first self-branded Android phone. The device was an unmitigated disaster, and now the "three year" update plan, which only featured two exceedingly late major OS updates, means the Surface Duo will go down in history as the worst-supported premium Android phone ever. The $1,400 device never ran a current version of Android. Things were weird with the Surface Duo from the very start. Microsoft unveiled the phone in October 2019 and didn't ship it until September 2020. After a long wait, the phone debuted to mostly negative reviews. Android couldn't take advantage of the ultra-fat 4:3 displays, and having two of them didn't help much when it made things like typing extremely difficult (there was no split keyboard). A massive amount of software issues made it the buggiest device in recent memory and coupled with the sky-high price, the sales pitch was not great. It was pretty to look at, though. The fire sale started almost immediately. The phone had a $200 price drop a month after its launch, then a 50 percent price drop to $699, and eventually a 70 percent collapse to $409—an incredible $1,000 off the MSRP. Inexplicably, a second version was made, and support for that device ends in October 2024. It looks like a third version, at least following this form factor, is not in the cards. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

At a time when many towns don’t have a daily newspaper and many of the remaining papers don’t have a dedicated music writer, Taylor Swift is now such a huge deal that one of America’s biggest newsrooms is devoting an entire reporter to her. Gannett properties USA Today and the Nashville-based The Tennessean are hiring “an experienced, video-forward journalist to capture the music and cultural impact of Taylor Swift.” The person on the T-Swift beat can live anywhere in the continental United States and must be willing to travel internationally. “Seeing both the facts and the fury, the Taylor Swift reporter will identify why the pop star’s influence only expands, what her fanbase stands for in pop culture, and the effect she has across the music and business worlds,” the job description reads. View the full article

Enlarge / The iPhone 13 mini. (credit: Samuel Axon) Alongside the announcement of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro, Apple quietly ended the iPhone 13 mini's run today. That marks the end of life for arguably the best premium small phone designed for one-handed use. It's not a surprise, of course. It became clear shortly after the launch of the first iPhone with the "mini" label—the iPhone 12 mini—that it wasn't selling that well. Market research has consistently shown that most users want bigger screens and batteries, which are incompatible with a smaller phone. Further, the mini split the small-phone market with the much cheaper iPhone SE—even though the mini offered drastically improved features, like an OLED screen and better cameras. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Enlarge (credit: Apple) While new iOS releases always come out in September, Mac owners usually need to wait nearly a month to get the same improvements for their laptops and desktops. But the wait will be much shorter this year—Apple says that macOS 14 Sonoma will be available on September 26, just over a week after iOS 17 releases to the public on September 18. It will be the first update since 2018's Mojave to release in September rather than October. A longer gap between releases can occasionally make things awkward for people who like to update on day one, since Apple sometimes adds new features to iCloud-connected apps like Notes, Reminders, and Photos that will only work in the latest OS releases. A shorter gap between releases will reduce that kind of awkwardness. Sonoma is generally a low-key release, but it does include a few headlining features, including desktop widgets that can sync with your iPhone. A new Apple-made Game Porting Toolkit will make it easier for Windows game developers to get their titles up and running on Macs. Better screen sharing, revamped screen savers, an improved password manager, and a few other additions flesh out the update. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Enlarge (credit: Apple) CUPERTINO, Calif.—Apple's annual release cadence is like clockwork: Each September brings new iPhones as well as a new version of iOS for new and old iPhones—at least, those that are still supported. iOS 17 didn't get a mention during the show, but the official website is up with a September 18 date. Whereas some recent annual iOS updates focused on rethinking or redesigning existing parts of the experience (like the home screen or widgets), iOS 17 is mostly about adding a plethora of new features. For example, it introduces a new mode called StandBy that allows it to act as a sort of smart clock with special widgets when it's placed in landscape mode while connected to power—"clock radio mode," if you will. It also adds a new journaling app, improved search and other tweaks for Messages, greatly improved autocorrect, offline Maps, FaceTime video voicemails, a safety feature for keeping your friends or family updated about your status called "Check In," and an overhaul of AirDrop. Further, it will now transcribe voicemails as they come in, allowing you to screen calls like in the olden days. You can even invoke Siri without saying "hey" first. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Enlarge / All the colors of the new iPhone 15. (credit: Apple) Apple announced its next flagship smartphone during a livestreamed event today. The iPhone 15 mostly resembles its predecessor but swaps the top-of-screen notch for the "Dynamic Island" Apple introduced with the iPhone 14 Pro last year, and it ditches Apple's proprietary Lightning port in favor of the industry-standard USB-C. Like the iPhone 14, the iPhone 15 comes in two screen sizes: 6.1 inches for the standard phone, and 6.7 for the iPhone 15 Plus. The two models are the same apart from the screen sizes. The iPhone 15-series' overall design is also similar to that of its predecessor, with a glass back and front and an aluminum enclosure. The iPhone 15 Plus (left) and iPhone 15 (right). (credit: Apple) Apple iPhone 15 series $799 iPhone 15 at Apple $899 iPhone 15 Plus at Apple (Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.) The edge of the aluminum enclosure has a new contoured design that looks a bit different from the iPhone 14, though. Apple also claims the iPhone 15 devices are the first phones to have a "color-infused back glass." Apple's announcement said that it strengthened the phones' back glass with a "dual-ion exchange process" and then polished it with nanocrystalline particles and etched it for a "textured matte finish." The new iPhones still have a Ceramic Shield front cover and are water and dust-resistant. Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Enlarge / The iPhone 15 and its titanium frame. (credit: Apple) Details about the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max were revealed in a live broadcast from Apple today, and we're looking at a mostly modest update—apart from the long-awaited switch to USB-C. Apple iPhone 15 Pro series $999 iPhone 15 Pro at Apple 199 iPhone 15 Pro Max at Apple (Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.) The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will go up for preorder on Friday, September 15. Both will be available on September 22. The 15 Pro starts at $999 for 128GB, the same starting price as last year's iPhone 14 Pro. The Pro Max technically gets a price hike, but only because Apple has axed the 128GB version—a 256GB iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at $1,199, the same price as the 256GB model from last year. The most noticeable change is a shift from a stainless steel frame to one made out of a brushed "grade 5 titanium," which Apple says makes the phone more durable and lighter. The phone is also a little smaller than past models thanks to slimmer display bezels. The screen sizes stay the same—6.1 inches for the base model and 6.7 inches for the larger iPhone 15 Pro Max one. Apple didn't announce any changes to the phones' actual screens, so expect the same resolution, ProMotion refresh rate, and brightness as before. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Tori Zietsch, the Melbourne musical artist known as Maple Glider, has shared another new single today from her upcoming album I Get Into Trouble. “Two Years” starts out as a sort of psychedelic soul track then transforms into something slower and more languid. The spirit of Lana Del Rey hangs heavy over it all. View the full article

The Apple Watch Ultra 2. [credit: Apple ] Apple Watch Ultra 2 $799 at Apple (Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.) The Apple Watch Ultra was first announced just last year, and it brought more specialized fitness and outdoor features and a more durable, expensive design to the popular wearable. Today, Apple revealed its plans for the first refresh to the device. It's calling the new device the "Apple Watch Ultra 2." The Ultra 2 has the same new S9 chip as the cheaper Apple Watch Series 9 and the same new "double tap" feature, which lets you tap your fingers together to trigger an action on the watch. There's a new display that hits a whopping 3,000 nits, a jump over even the 2,000 nits in the Series 9. There's also a new "modular ultra" watchface that uses the edge of the display, support for Bluetooth cycling accessories, and ANT+ support. The battery is the same as last time, hitting 36 hours on a single charge and 72 hours in low-power mode. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Enlarge If you were hoping for a radical new Apple Watch design or a plethora of new features, 2023 won't be your year. That said, the Apple Watch Series 9—which was just announced in Apple's September livestream—brings some welcome, if modest, tweaks to the popular wearable. The most notable of these is the inclusion of the new S9 chip, which promises improved performance—but more importantly, better battery life. It promises 60 percent more transistors in its CPU than the Series 8 and 30 percent more in its GPU. Perhaps most importantly, its neural engine offers big boosts to on-device processing for Siri requests, including 25 percent faster voice dictation. (credit: Apple) Apple Watch Series 9 $399 Aluminum at Apple $699 Steel at Apple 249 Hermes Edition at Apple (Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.) Using your Apple Watch to find your iPhone gets a bit easier, too, with the Series 9 incorporating Ultra Wide-Band (UWB) to show you the distance and direction to your phone, rather than simply having your phone make a loud ping noise. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Before the computer scientists, marketing agencies, and self-described “disruptors” had their way with it, the Santa Clara Valley used to be known as the Valley Of Heart’s Delight. The Northern California region was so nicknamed because its abundance of orchards, plants, and flowering trees made it a leading exporter of canned fruit — and presumably because of the multi-sensory splendor that tends to accompany so much well-tended nature. In practice, the Valley Of Heart’s Delight is no less a branding exercise than Silicon Valley, but the former name spoke to far different qualities, ones that might never be coming back now that big tech has proven to be a more profitable harvest. View the full article

Enlarge / As usual, Internet forum denizens are picking apart the teaser image for clues. (credit: Apple) View Liveblog At 1 pm EST on Tuesday, September 12, Apple will begin broadcasting its annual event focused on new flagship iPhones and Apple Watch wearables. As has long been a tradition here at Ars Technica, we'll be liveblogging the proceedings right here. Head back to this page when the event starts to see the updates roll in! Apple hasn't talked publicly about what it plans to announce, but given the timing and past history, you can bet we'll see the iPhone 15 family of phones—likely including the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Ultra, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Max. The Apple Watch will also get some airtime, with new updates to the Apple Watch Series 8 and possibly the Apple Watch Ultra. We're expecting the big news to be Apple's inclusion of a USB-C port in the iPhone 15—thrilling, right? But there are surely other new features and tweaks planned. We know comparatively little about what to expect from the Watch lineup, though. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article