The Audi RS7 Sportback remains one of our favorite sport-luxury sedans. It not only looks fantastic in almost any color, but its 4.4-liter V8 engine is a masterpiece. However, German tuning house Mansory has always had a different perspective in the style and performance department. But its latest creation, the Mansory RS7, is both surprisingly subtle and expectedly ultra-powerful. No … Continue reading
ABB has announced the launch of what it calls the world’s fastest electric car charger. The charger is the Terra 360, and it has a modular design allowing it to charge up to four cars at the same time utilizing dynamic power distribution. The key feature of the EV charger is a promise that it can deliver 100 kilometers of … Continue reading
If you’ve been holding out on a possible iPad purchase (or upgrade), this might be the time to strike. Apple’s newest base model iPad is now on sale, and we’ve got a detailed review on what is an incremental upgrade on what is, at heart, the same design we’ve had for many years now.
If you’re looking for an iPad with a design twist — or at least a smaller footprint — there’s the iPad mini, pulling some of the redesigned iPad Pro DNA into a smaller package. That includes something close to an “all-screen” design, with an 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display and power button with TouchID on the edge that supplants the need for a home button.
Meanwhile, the OG iPad design, so very lightly refreshed for 2021, doesn’t put a foot wrong — and it’s the cheapest new iPad you can get. For that $330, as Nate Ingraham’s review lays out, the hardware is powerful and the battery life is outstanding.
It has Apple’s A13 Bionic chip, which first appeared inside the iPhone 11, circa 2019, but still an upgrade from the last vanilla iPad iteration. But yes, it’s not as powerful as the newer chips in the iPad Air and just-updated iPad mini.
If we sidestep the Pro models, tablet shopping will boil down to the iPad mini, Air or this new standard model. You could say this is some degree of choice — I just wish there was more tablet competition that didn’t run an Apple OS. Android tablets are still, typically, cheaper options that always leave me wanting.
— Mat Smith
Amazon was supposed to defend its decision in court to let Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa go last year. The former Amazon employees were outspoken critics of the company, and both were, according to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), illegally fired. The e-commerce giant didn’t have to defend itself, however, because it has settled with the affected parties shortly before the hearing could take place.
The settlement still needs to be approved by the NLRB regional director in Seattle, but Cunningham and Costa are already considering the settlement a victory. In a joint statement, they said the development is a “win for protecting workers’ rights.”
Subaru has shown the first video of its first EV, the 4×4 Solterra crossover, essentially confirming it’s a slightly reworked version of Toyota’s upcoming bZ4X EV. We’re still waiting on key details, like price and battery capacity. It’s set to arrive in the US and other markets next summer. For now, take a closer look at the teaser.
Sonos has added Dolby Atmos support to the original Beam, which turned out to be a popular soundbar for those looking to upgrade their TV sound system in a simple way — and introduce them to the Sonos cinematic universe of speaker add-ons and upgrades.
The new Beam, while more expensive than a lot of the competition, is another compact soundbar that sounds far more immersive than you’d expect. According to Devindra Hardawar, it also does a decent job with music and still works well with other Sonos speakers. Read on for his full review.
Chinese company Nreal has launched a new model of augmented reality glasses called Air, designed with streaming shows and playing mobile games in mind. The glasses still need to be tethered to a phone, like their predecessor, the Light, but they’re a lot lighter (77 grams to Light’s 106 grams) and look more like an ordinary pair of sunglasses.
Nreal also improved the display, which has the capability to project a massive virtual screen up to 201 inches in size, and refreshes at up 90Hz. The new model has no motion tracking at all, and a company spokesperson told us that, based on Light’s usage, Nreal expects most owners to use the Air simply to watch shows on YouTube.
Razer’s latest streaming gear aims directly at newbies, starting with its new Kiyo X USB webcam. As with a lot of current games, you can choose between optimizing your webcam feed for fidelity or framerate with 1080p 30 fps and 720p 60 fps options.
There’s also the Ripsaw X capture card, for footage up to 30 frames per second in 4K. Razer says the device delivers “near-zero latency” through its HDMI 2.0 and USB 3.0 connectivity. You can hook it up to a camera with HDMI output to use it as a high-end webcam or capture gameplay from a console. The Kiyo X cam costs $80, while the Ripsaw X will run you $140. Both are available now.
Fairphone’s new ‘ethical’ phone looks less like an ethical phone (in a good way)
Honda announces plans to build electric VTOLs and telepresence robots
This could be ASUS’ long-rumored RTX 3070 with Noctua fans
‘The Watcher’ takes center stage on this week’s ‘What If…?’
‘Lower Decks’ mines the weirder corners of the Star Trek universe
Google’s original Nest Hub drops to $40 at Best Buy
PlayStation Studios adds remake and remaster studio Bluepoint Games
Blue Origin is a ‘toxic environment,’ current and ex-employees say
ABB claims its Terra 360 is the ‘world’s fastest electric car charger’
Film distributor Kino Lorber is launching a movie streaming service today called Kino Cult, with dozens of genre movies just in time for the spooky season. The service is completely free and supported by ads, with new titles promised each month.
Just like here on Earth, the seasons on Mars are changing. The density of the atmosphere on Mars is always significantly less than it is here on Earth, which some feared might prevent the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter from operating on the surface of the Red Planet at all. As it turns out, Ingenuity has been extremely successful in flying on … Continue reading
Apple has been busy showing off new smartphones, tablets, and wearables. One of the devices that many people were interested in is the Apple Watch Series 7. Unfortunately, when Apple announced its new wearable, the only shipping estimate it gave was this fall. A new rumor has surfaced claiming the new Apple Watch will begin shipping in mid-October, only a … Continue reading
SIM swapping scams have been on the rise these past couple of years, and since most online services these days are tied to people’s phone numbers, the technique has the potential to ruin victims’ lives. Now, the Federal Communications Commission is seeking to create new rules that would help prevent SIM swapping scams and port-out fraud, both of which are techniques designed to hijack people’s phone numbers and identities.
The commission said it has received numerous complaints from consumers “who have suffered significant distress, inconvenience and financial harm” as a result of both hijacking methods. SIM swapping is a technique wherein a bad actor convinces a wireless carrier to transfer a victim’s service to a phone they control. When a bad actor successfully transfers the victim’s service and number to another carrier, that’s called port-out fraud.
To make it harder for scammers to gain control of potential victims’ phone numbers, the FCC wants to amend the Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) and Local Number Portability rules. In particular, it wants to require providers to adopt more secure methods in authenticating a person’s identity before agreeing to transfer their service to a new phone or to another carrier. The commission also proposes a rule that would require providers to notify customers whenever a SIM switch or a port-out request is made on their accounts.
As part of the FCC’s rulemaking process, the public can now comment on these proposals. The commission still has to read those proposals and offer the public another chance to make their voice heard before it can decide whether to amend the aforementioned rules.
The future James Bond found a funny way to turn things around.
Earlier this year, GM announced plans to go green by 2035 with the vehicles it produces and by 2030 with how it produces them. Now, the company has announced that it will be well ahead schedule on the “how” part, using 100 percent renewable energy across its US operations by 2025 — five years ahead of schedule.
To achieve the goal, GM said it would increase energy efficiency and source renewables for its facilities. It also plans to create technology to store renewable energy over the medium and long term and “create microgrids that help deploy renewable energy.”
“We know climate action is a priority and every company must push itself to decarbonize further and faster,” said GM Chief Sustainability Officer Kristen Siemen. “That’s what we are doing by aiming to achieve 100 percent renewable energy five years earlier in the US.”
It also detailed plans to work with a company called PJM Interconnection to track energy usage based on carbon output of the grid at any given time. “When the power being supplied consists mostly of fossil fuels, GM can make informed decisions about tapping into stored renewable energy or reduce the amount of power being consumed,” the company said.
As for the vehicles it produces, GM plans to have 30 EVs globally by 2025, and still plans to “eliminate tailpipe emissions for new light-duty vehicles (i.e., cars, SUVs and pickups) by 2035.” The wording suggests that could include hydrogen-powered cars, though GM appears to be focusing mostly on EVs.
GM’s plans to reduce pollution have drifted with the political winds, however. It was one of several automakers that backed the Trump administration’s plan to bar California and other states from setting their own pollution and zero-emission requirements. That would have allowed manufacturers to raise fuel efficiency by just 1.5 percent per year, well below the previous administration’s five percent requirement. GM withdrew from the litigation shortly after Joe Biden was elected President.
It’s not just you. Slack has been down for many people worldwide since late Thursday afternoon and some people are still struggling to access the messaging service via mobile app or even just slack.com on early Friday morning.
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