By the time the fully electric F-150 and Transit become available, several other carmakers will have had a head start on the EV truck and van market. General Motors announced the coming of their electric truck last December. EV startup Rivian expects to launch their pickup in 2021, despite delays due to COVID-19; they’ve already sold 100,000 delivery vehicles to Amazon. And of course, there’s Tesla’s polarizing entry, the $40,000 Cybertruck, which has collected at least 200,000 deposits in advance of its 2021 release. But Farley isn’t worried. “We are electrifying and we’re a brand people trust.”
The 2021 F-150 will be officially unveiled later this month, ushering in a new generation of the model. Rumors indicate that the truck, which is expected to hit dealerships later this year, will have hybrid and battery-electric engines available. All signs point to the 2022 all-electric truck sharing this new body style.
A Facebook spokesperson told Engadget that the move was a mistake and has since been corrected, but didn’t explain why. “We apologize to those affected by this issue,” the spokesperson said. “These accounts were removed in error and have been reinstated. We are reviewing what happened in this case and are taking steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
The incident may have been relatively brief, but underscores complaints about inconsistencies in Facebook’s moderation of hate speech. It may inadvertently ban anti-racists, but it will occasionally let overt racists slide. Music journalist Guy Shankland told OneZero that you could find Facebook pages devoted to neo-Nazi bands, for instance. Facebook may catch many of the conspicuous hate purveyors, but its methods still aren’t foolproof.
While Volkswagen plans eventually to sell the ID.3 in three different range configurations, the 30,000 “First Edition” variants the company is manufacturing initially will feature a 58kWh battery with 100kW DC or 11kW AC fast charging. Using the WLTP standard, the automaker claims that this model will get about 261 miles on a single charge.
The First Edition will be available in three trims, with the basic one set to cost under €40,000 (approximately $45,400). At the top end, the Max trim will cost under €50,000 (about $56,780) but will come with extras like an augmented reality heads-up display, two additional loudspeakers and driver-assist features.
While it’s not slated to make its way to North America, Volkswagen has a lot riding on the ID.3. It’s the car that’s supposed to launch the automaker’s big electrification push. The MEB platform it’s built on will also form the base of its upcoming North American-bound ID.4 EV.
If you simultaneously drop a feather and a bowling ball in a vacuum, they’ll hit the ground at the same time. In other words, despite their mass, they’re affected by a gravitational field in exactly the same way. The same goes for massive objects like stars, according to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, and astrophysicists have confirmed his inference.
The scientists used radio telescopes to measure how a neutron star orbits two white dwarf stars in a similar system as how the Earth and moon orbit the sun. By comparing the speed, motion and masses of the bodies, they were able to perform a cosmic version of Galileo’s famous (though embellished) tests in the late 1500s. The results show that all three stars are affected in the same way by their gravity fields.
Dozens of Tinder users were banned from the online dating app after mentioning Black Lives Matter in their profiles, according to Buzzfeed News. Some had added Black Lives Matter hashtags to their profiles, while others encouraged matches to sign petitions or donate to causes. According to BBC, Tinder’s guidelines state that accounts can’t be used for “promotional purposes,” so the company may have been enforcing this rule when banning the accounts.
However, it has reversed course, telling Buzzfeed News that it will act upon those terms “in line with our values.” A spokesperson said that Tinder has “voiced our support for the Black Lives Matter movement and want our platform to be a place where our members can do the same.” The company will no longer ban accounts promoting Black Lives Matter, and those who were banned can email its support team to have their accounts reinstated.
According to the email, battery and powertrain production will take place at the Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada. Other work will most likely take place in other states, Musk said. Though, he didn’t reveal which states or when production will ramp up.
Earlier this year, Tesla said the Semi would arrive in 2021, not 2019 as originally planned. Ramping up production now could fit into that timeline.
Regardless of when or where the Tesla Semi is produced, it will likely face competition from Nikola, which plans to sell both electric and hydrogen big rigs. As Reuters points out, Musk’s email arrived shortly after Nikola Corp. began trading on the NASDAQ and saw its share prices more than double. There’s plenty of other electric-semi competition from companies like Daimler and Cummins, too.
Don’t expect to find Gone With the Wind on HBO Max for a little while. The streaming service has temporarily pulled the 1939 movie from its catalog to address the racism in the movie. It’ll come back with a “discussion” and denunciation of the racist stereotypes and their historical context, a spokesperson told Variety. You won’t see edits to the film itself, however, as HBO Max parent WarnerMedia wants to acknowledge that the racism existed.
The company didn’t say if anything prompted the event. It comes amid widespread protests against racism and police violence, however, and soon after 12 Years A Slave screenwriter John Ridley called for Gone With the Wind’s removal. It both furthers racist stereotypes and romanticizes the Civil War-era American South, Ridley said.
Most smartwatches these days have battery lives measured in the hours or days, especially the big flagship wearables. The Ruputer, however, didn’t even come with a rechargeable cell, but used a pair of standard CR2025 watch batteries. If you activated the aggressive power-management system, you could get three months of standby time out of it. But if you did anything beyond checking the time, that figure could fall to as far as just 30 hours before you’d need to swap out the cells.
“I like to glance at my watch to know the time,” wrote the author of EW’s Gadget Zone, “on the OnHand, I can do that, but at a high cost to battery life.” It’s the same issue so many users struggle with using contemporary smartwatches with high-resolution displays. It took Apple five generations of devices before it offered one with an “always-on” screen. Activate the always-on display on Fitbit’s Versa 2, and you’ll crunch the battery life to just three days, down from the six it’s rated for.
Often, smartwatches get bigger and chunkier to accommodate more features and bigger batteries. The Gadgeteer’s review from January 2000 says the Ruputer was “large and bulky on [the] wrist,” and you had to wear it over a shirt cuff, not underneath. But despite the massive size, it wasn’t blessed with features, although there are a number of third-party apps available for it — including a version of Paint and, uh, a stick-figure version of the Kama Sutra.
EW’s Gadget Zone review added that trying to write text on the device was a chore, especially navigating around that on-screen keyboard. It didn’t help that the device’s display was a piddly two-inch, 102 x 64 LCD. “Imagine entering your name as a high score on one of those arcade game machines using a joystick,” they wrote “now imagine doing that with a single thumb.” It’s worth saying that most watches these days prefer voice typing or force you to make text edits, calendar appointments and the like with your smartphone instead.
The first time we build a new piece of technology, we try to force it to conform to the old world’s way of thinking. In the days of PDAs, it made sense to take the paper diary, digitize it and shrink it on to the wrist, even if using it was far less intuitive or speedy. It wouldn’t be until we let these devices find their own purpose that they really began to flourish, and even that was short-lived.
The notion that a watch would replace our diaries and address books fell by the wayside a long time ago. Smartwatches are now primarily fitness trackers that pull double duty as a second screen for our phones. After all, when was the last time you tried to get some work done using just your watch? Even though their purpose has changed dramatically, the technology still struggles with battery life and functionality, all these years later.
Both models promise to give perfect results every time, circulating water at exact temperatures to ensure food is never undercooked or overdone. Cook everything from chicken and fish, to eggs, vegetables and beef, with the accompanying Anova app giving you access to thousands of recipes.
Both the Pro and standard versions operate in the same way, attaching to your own pot or container and communicating the cooking process to your smartphone via WiFi. The main difference between them is size. The 1,200-watt Pro is able to heat up to 20 gallons of water and will run for a minimum of 10,000 hours before shutting down, making it a solid choice for big families or regular entertainers. The more compact 1,000-watt standard model will run for up to 5,000 hours, and is just the right size for most home chefs, cooking for up to eight people at once. However, with Amazon’s massive discount on the Pro bringing it down to the usual price of a standard, choosing the more powerful option is a no-brainer, especially as it touts better durability — drop it on the floor or dunk it underwater (both feasible kitchen scenarios) and it’ll keep on cooking.
That being said, both the Pro and standard may well offer a little too much power for the more casual cook, so it could be worth waiting for the budget Nano model to come down in price. This 750-watt version runs for up to 3,000 hours and operates via Bluetooth, and will take up considerably less space in your kitchen. It’s $129 at the moment, the highest price we’ve seen for months, but it won’t stay there forever — at the end of last year we saw it drop to a much lower $79, so you can probably expect a similar deal in the future.
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The company may finally confirm this move at its WWDC developer conference, according to Bloomberg. Earlier leaks suggested the new chips would be built around the ARM-based A14 processor used in iPhone and iPad devices. Apple has apparently seen big improvements in Mac performance with the ARM chips, especially with AI and graphics performance. Better performing chips could mean thinner, lighter and more power-efficient Macs.
Apple
And Intel is still struggling, stuck using the same 14-nanometer chip tech, while AMD, Apple and Qualcomm will forge ahead with far more advanced 5-nanometer technology by 2021. Smaller nanometers mean power and efficiency improvements. Last year, Intel even admitted it won’t even catch up to AMD’s current 7-nanometer tech until at least next year. Apple is taking matters into its own hands, and it would make a lot of sense to reveal the news at WWDC, giving developers time to prepare for some very new Mac PCs.
When Apple made the switch from PowerPC to Intel chips, the biggest issue was app compatibility. Your favorite Mac programs and tools would need optimizing for new chips.
— Mat
Razer’s Kishi is the Switch-style phone controller I’ve been waiting for
True gaming controls for your favorite mobile games.
Engadget
Razer’s GameVice-style controller accessory doesn’t sync with your phone over Bluetooth. Instead it plugs straight into the device, reducing latency — and the need for any internal battery. As cloud gaming services gather pace, we need more controllers like this for gaming on the go. Razer’s attempt isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty good. Continue reading.
SpaceX’s next Starlink launch will help improve satellite imagery of Earth
Planet’s six new SkySats will photograph Earth up to 12 times a day.
When Planet purchased the SkySat constellation from Google in 2017, it did so with the aim of becoming the most agile and comprehensive satellite imaging company in the world. Now, with a little help from Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the company is gearing up to provide the most detailed and up-to-the-minute imaging of Earth yet.
Recently, Planet lowered its satellite fleet from an altitude of 500km to 450km, increasing Planet’s image resolution from 80cm to 50cm. That’s enough to identify vehicles as cars or trucks, and the kind of fidelity needed to help bolster infrastructure for the eventual arrival of autonomous vehicles.
Now with SpaceX’s help, in the next two months Planet will launch six more SkySat satellites into low Earth orbit with a Falcon 9 rocket. Having 21 satellites in orbit, Planet will be able to take images of some global locations up to 12 times a day, with a global average of seven times a day. (Planet’s already-speedy response times were highlighted last week when it was the first to provide a satellite image of the Black Lives Matter message on the street leading up to the White House.) Continue reading.
Cyberattack forces Honda to suspend global production for a day
The company detected a virus on internal servers in Tokyo.
Honda
A cyberattack on the company’s internal servers in Tokyo forced Honda to suspend global production for a day. Honda detected the virus on Monday and sent some employees home for the day as the attack impacted email and other systems in plants around the world.
Production at some US plants halted on Monday and while most work has resumed, car plants in Ohio and Turkey and motorcycle factories in Brazil and India reportedly remain closed. Continue reading.
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Wynn Las Vegas and Resorts World are seeking approval for stations of their own.
The Boring Company
Right now, Elon Musk’s Boring Company has only dug enough tunnel to transport passengers to and from different parts of the Las Vegas Convention Center. But a local paper reports that two casinos have sought approval for stations of their own, which would extend the system’s reach from Paradise Rd. all the way to the Strip. Continue reading.
