According to Musk, “All Tesla Supercharger stations in regions affected by California power outages will have Tesla Powerpacks within next few weeks.” He also said the company is adding Tesla Solar to its stations “as fast as possible,” so that drivers can get “24/7 clean power with no blackouts.” While the power is out, drivers with combustion engines have trouble filling up too, but with Powerpacks, there’s a backup plan.
TikTok allegedly asked its moderators to pull mentions of topics like the Tiananmen Square massacre, Tibet’s calls for independence and other content that challenges the Chinese government’s version of events. The service said it had retired the guidelines in May and that it had been using a “blunt approach” to minimizing drama on TikTok that included banning talk of all topics it deemed controversial, not just those from China.
An American TikTok spokeswoman talking to Reuters maintained that the Chinese government “does not request” censorship on its service. American data is stored in the US, she added, and China wouldn’t have jurisdiction over TikTok since it isn’t used there. Chinese residents instead use Douyin, a virtually identical app that is subject to Chinese censorship.
Whether or not there’s merit to the claims, Rubio has momentum on his side. The US just added eight Chinese tech companies to its Entity List over their help with China’s suppression of Muslim minorities. Moreover, Blizzard is facing a wave of criticism for banning an esports player that declared support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests. Combine that with earlier actions against Huawei and ByteDance may face distrust even if its current practices are above-board.
Ample & growing evidence exists that TikTok’s platform for western markets, including the U.S., are censoring content in line with #China‘s communist government directives.
The publication’s Ethan Douglas went so far as to accuse Tesla of “beta-testing its cars on the general public,” and pointed out the multiple incidents where owners’ Smart Summon use led to minor collisions. It also noted that the NHTSA was looking into the feature for potential problems.
We’ve asked Tesla for comment, although CR didn’t get answers after “repeatedly” inquiring with the automaker.
We wouldn’t count on a warm response. Tesla has disputed CR‘s conclusions more than once, accusing it of using flawed methodology or ignoring subsequent fixes in later production lines and software updates. However, it’s safe to say that Smart Summon’s introduction hasn’t gone as smoothly as Tesla might like, even if it’s poised to improve over time.
How does a DNA testing service like 23andMe convince you to shell out more when the base results are the same? By rolling out the red carpet, it seems. The company has introduced a $499 VIP Health + Ancestry Service that includes two Health + Ancestry kits, faster lab processing, overnight shipping, a year of “premium” support and, crucially, a 30-minute one-on-one walkthrough of your Ancestry results. Effectively, 23andMe wants to offer a concierge for your genes.
Virgin Orbit is a spinoff of Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and is dedicated to low-cost smallsat projects. This new Virgin Orbit endeavor was reportedly inspired by NASA’s recent InSight mission, which successfully sent two cubesats to Mars. Now, the company believes it can send its own similar spacecraft (as light as 110 pounds) into deep space using its LauncherOne rocket.
The potential for small satellites stretches far beyond LEO – and whoever said Virgin’s orbit was limited to the Earth?
We’re above and beyond excited to announce our first mission to the Red Planet. https://t.co/bxiV1RuIAs
Once the cubesats reach the planet, they may take photos, study the atmosphere or look for water. Eventually, Virgin Orbit may examine the moons of Mars, Venus and “maybe a couple of the asteroids in the asteroid belt,” Will Pomerantz, the vice president of special projects at Virgin Orbit, told The Verge.
Virgin Orbit will have to complete its LauncherOne rocket first. The 70-foot-long rocket will be dropped from Virgin Orbit’s Boeing 747 carrier, dubbed “Cosmic Girl.” The rocket will then blast off from mid-air. LauncherOne has completed ‘captive carry’ and drop tests, but it has yet to take its first test flight. The success of these Mars-based cubesat missions will likely depend on LauncherOne.
While it’s a bummer PC owners have had to wait a year to play the new Red Dead, the good news is that they’ll get to take advantage of all the additional work Rockstar has poured into the title. One good example is HDR. When Red Dead Redemption 2 first came out on consoles, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One owners noticed something strange with the game’s HDR implementation. An investigation by Digital Foundry eventually found that Red Dead‘s HDR mode did mostly nothing. Rockstar later fixed the feature when it released the game’s 1.09 patch this past May.
There are smaller graphical enhancements as well (all the screenshots in this article are from the PC release). According to the company, Red Dead Redemption 2 will feature increased draw distances, allowing you to see more of the game world than you can on the console version of the game. Additionally, Rockstar claims both day and night lighting, as well as shadows and reflections, look better. Lastly, plants and animals will look more realistic thanks to improved textures.
Rockstar also listed all the new side activities, horses and items it’s adding to the PC release. Highlights include some weapons that were previously exclusive to Red Dead Redemption 2‘s online multiplayer mode.
To play the game at its minimum settings, you’ll need a PC with components that meet the following baseline: an Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD FX-6300 processor, 8GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GTX 770 or AMD R9 280 graphics card.
For a smoother experience, Rockstar recommends an Intel Core i7-4770K or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X CPU, 12GB of RAM and an Nvidia GTX 1060 or AMD RX 480 GPU. Whether your PC meets the minimum or recommended specs, you’ll also need a massive 150GB of free space to install the game. For the best experience, Rockstar recommends playing the game on Windows 10, though it’ll also work with earlier versions of the operating system, including Windows 7. One thing to keep in mind is that Rockstar has specified what kind of experience the recommended spec will deliver. You’ll likely need a more powerful setup than the recommended configuration if you plan to play the game at both 4K and 60 frames per second.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available to pre-order on the Rockstar Games Launcher starting today. If you pre-order the game directly from Rockstar, you’ll get two free games from the studio’s back catalog. The game will also come to Steam, but in December instead of November.
The finance ministers are scheduled to meet in Washington, where they’ll review proposals by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) — the group tasked with overhauling tax rules that date back to the 1920s. The new rules may create a corporate income tax of a few percentage points, which could make tax havens like Ireland less appealing and benefit countries like the US and France.
Surprisingly, tech companies aren’t necessarily opposed to the looming changes. Amazon called the OECD proposals an “important step forward,” Reuters reports. While large firms have used loopholes to evade taxes (Google sheltered $19.2 billion in 2016), they’ve also faced financial uncertainty. Last month, Google was forced to pay France $1.1 billion because it did not fully declare its tax activities in the country, and after a bit of legal drama, Apple agreed to pay Ireland $15.4 billion in back taxes, plus interest. The uncertainty also led to a brief feud between the Trump Administration and the French Government.
The OECD proposals will outline rules like how much business a company must do in a country to be taxable there and how much profit can be taxed. The companies affected by the new rules would be those with revenue over 750 million euros ($821 million).
After the G20 finance ministers meet in Washington, broader negotiations will begin. The hope is that the 134 countries that originally pushed for reform can reach an agreement in 2020.
When UNICEF receives a cryptocurrency donation, it won’t cash it out for a national currency. Rather, it will hold onto the bitcoin or ether and send the funds to a charitable cause in that same tender. This method will maintain a transparent chain of custody across the donation process and will ensure that the recipient gets a larger percentage of the original contribution compared to cash.
Of course, cryptocurrencies are infamous for their volatility. To avoid losing value between the time of a donation and a disbursement, UNICEF will only leverage bitcoin and ether for short-term programs such as purchasing mosquito nets to prevent ebola or sending food and water to areas struck by famine.
The Ethereum Foundation will be the first contributor to UNICEF’s Cryptocurrency Fund. The donations will help fund three grantees, as well as GIGA, an organization working to connect every school to the internet. UNICEF may have to rely on similar foundations for cryptocurrency donations; individuals who are fascinated by bitcoin and the like don’t frequently part with their hard-earned coins. But hopefully this new donation model will boosts funding for children in need and motivate more charities to accept cryptocurrency.
Each of the vehicles will travel through the athletes’ village at a leisurely 12 miles per hour along a designated loop. As an SAE Level 4-capable autonomous vehicle, the e-Palette will be able to navigate the area all on its own. However, a safety attendant will be onboard each vehicle to ensure nothing goes wrong. Those capabilities put the e-Palette in about the same ballpark as Waymo’s current fleet of autonomous vehicles.
Toyota adds that it consulted with athletes to adapt the vehicle to their needs. It can transport up to four passengers in wheelchairs at the same time, and includes an electric ramp to facilitate easy and quick boarding. The automaker also made the interior elements of the Tokyo 2020 Version contrast to help colorblind individuals.
The company will also have a smaller version of the vehicle, called the Field Support Robot, at throwing events to move shot puts and javelins. For Toyota, the e-Palette, in all its various forms, will serve as marketing for the company’s technical abilities. In an interview with Engadget from CES 2018, CEO Akio Toyoda said what he’s most afraid of is companies like Google coming into the automotive space. The e-Palette is the company’s bet that it can not only survive but succeed against tech’s big juggernauts.
Blizzard is assessing the situation for now, a spokesperson told Engadget. The studio hasn’t otherwise spoken up about the issue since posting its decision to ban Chung on October 8th.
Blizzard’s reaction to Chung’s words is extreme. The company cites Hearthstone Grandmasters rules prohibiting “any act that, in Blizzard’s sole discretion, brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard.” However, many fans and critics attribute Blizzard’s response to its relationship with Chinese organizations, which are ostensibly opposed to the anti-China protests in Hong Kong. Particularly, Tencent Games, regularly one of the top 10 companies in the world by revenue, owns 5 percent of Activision Blizzard.
Tencent has a much larger stake in Fortnite studio Epic Games — 48.4 percent — though that company today said it wouldn’t ban or punish any player for expressing views on politics or human rights.
“The protests in Hong Kong have lasted for almost four months,” Chung said. “I love Hong Kong, this is my home where I live and grow up. I can’t just sit there doing nothing and watching our freedom being destroyed bit by bit.”
“I can’t just sit there doing nothing and watching our freedom being destroyed.”
For months, the streets of Hong Kong have been alight with protesters and tear gas. At first, millions of residents rallied against legislation that would have granted China the power to extradite individuals in the region, a move that opponents said would’ve violated Hong Kong’s autonomy. Hong Kong is a special administrative region tied to China, but with its own limited democracy, as opposed to the mainland’s communist party. Although that legislation was withdrawn, the movement has now grown to “five demands,” including full democracy in Hong Kong.
The 2019 protests don’t exist in a bubble. The dramatic and dedicated response from protesters follows years of strife between Hong Kong residents and encroaching Chinese authority. The 2014 Umbrella Movement saw 100,000 people occupy the streets outside of Hong Kong’s Central Government Complex for more than two months, in protest of proposed changes to the region’s electoral system that would have implemented one-man-one-vote, but with a candidate pre-screening process similar to that used by the Chinese Communist Party. The changes failed in 2015.
Thirty years on, Chinese authorities refuse to acknowledge the People’s Liberation Army’s slaughter of hundreds of people at Tiananmen Square in 1989, censoring any mention of it on the mainland. Hong Kong, meanwhile, has held a candlelight vigil for the massacre every year since 1990. In August of this year, Hong Kong police attacked people at the Prince Edward subway station after a protest, and the violence was caught on camera.
Prince Edward, the Umbrella Movement, the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and a widely-suspected mob attack on protesters in Yuen Long are all highlighted in a new, user-made Hong Kong protest video featuring one of Blizzard’s own characters, Mei from Overwatch. The video, posted to Reddit on r/HongKong, is an edited version of Mei’s background story — she’s canonically Chinese and her narrative arc is well-suited for protesters’ goals. Creators have superimposed phrases like “FREE HK” and “Five Demands” in the video, making Mei’s struggle Hong Kong’s.
China is a massive money-making market for video game developers, with an audience of 620 million players, compared with the United States’ pool of 166 million. The plan, as far as Reddit is concerned, is to make Mei the face of the Hong Kong protests in order to get Overwatch banned in China, delivering a blow to Blizzard’s bottom line and pressuring them to rethink their approach to Blitzchung’s case, and any that may follow.
