New York City has purchased 184 all-electric Mustang Mach-Es, and they’re all going to be used for law enforcement and emergency response purposes. As Electrek noted, the move is part of the city’s plans to buy over 1,250 electric vehicles in 2022. That, in turn, is part of a larger endeavor to “drastically cut citywide climate emissions” with the help of a $420 million investment.
In its announcement, the local NYC government said the Mach-Es will be used by the New York Police Department (NYPD), the New York City Sheriff’s Office, the Department of Correction, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Department of Environmental Protection, NYC Emergency Management, DCAS Police and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. They’ll be replacing those agencies’ gas-powered vehicles after the city receives them by June 30th, 2022.
NYC also said that its Mach-E purchase is part of its biggest EV purchase to date, though that may not be the case for long. The city has also approved the option to buy up to 250 Tesla Model 3 vehicles any time over the next five years.
Earlier this month, Ford announced that it’s increasing the production of the Mach-E to 200,000 vehicles per year in the US starting in 2022 and in Europe by 2023. Company CEO Jim Farley said there’s a huge demand for the electric vehicle, and Ford is reportedly delaying its Explorer and Aviator EVs to ensure that it can manufacture enough Mach-Es to keep up with the demand.
Not even an ongoing pandemic with a brand new ultra-contagious variant can stop the world’s biggest technology trade show. In January, CES will be held in person despite the omicron covid-19 variant rapidly spreading around the globe. Yes, CES 2022 will be a physical event, but only for some. Gizmodo (and various…
Its ease of use, end-to-end encryption, and cross-platform support have helped WhatsApp rack up a ton of users, and if you use it on the web, there are a growing number of browser extensions you can install to help you get more out of the platform. All of these add-ons are compatible with both Google Chrome and…
While I didn’t get it in time for our best buys of 2021, I am now the proud owner of an LG C1 OLED TV. It is beautiful, does 4K, HDR, variable refresh rates and more. Everything looks amazing on it.
As I bought it, I thought about how I’ve never been at the vanguard of TV tech, and how it would only last a couple of weeks until LG ruins it all with even newer TV models.
And like clockwork, here it comes. LG Display’s next generation of OLED tech, called “OLED EX,” that’s supposed to “enhance brightness up to 30 percent compared to conventional OLED displays,” The company also upgraded the TV’s designs too, reducing the thickness by 30 percent and bezel size from 6 to 4mm on 65-inch OLED displays.
In defense of my new 55-inch OLED, this is LG Display, not LG, the part of the multinational company that brings this new TV tech to stores, so that doesn’t mean it’s landing in a new TV immediately. It’s just, sigh, already on the horizon.
If you had tried to play Fortnite yesterday, you may have had issues. Many players were unable to log in to their accounts and play games. At 1:13PM ET, Epic Games said it was investigating “an issue,” and roughly six hours later, the battle royale hit was back online.
Epic Games said that it would have “more details next week on what we’re doing to help you make up for lost time.”
China has filed a complaint with the United Nations over two reported near-collisions between the in-progress Tiangong space station and Starlink vehicles. According to Chinese officials, the station had to perform evasive maneuvers on July 1st and October 21st this year to minimize the chance of a collision. In its complaint, the country asked the UN Secretary-General to remind countries (read: the US) that parties in the Outer Space Treaty are responsible for incidents beyond Earth, even if they involve private companies.
The accusations line up with astronomer Jonathan McDowell’s conjunction observations for both days. China further argued that SpaceX’s satellites weren’t always predictable. During the October incident, the Starlink craft was “continuously” maneuvering in a way that made it difficult to predict the orbital path.
Not just an impressive EV, but an impressive truck.
Announcing a vehicle is one thing, actually following through and building that vehicle at a factory and then selling it, that’s an almost impossible feat for a new company. But like Tesla before it, Rivian has pulled it off and in doing so has built one of the best trucks on the road today, EV or otherwise. Roberto Baldwin gives it a test drive.
They’re only available in some countries right now.
Jabra only just launched its Elite 3 wireless earbuds, but here’s their sequel. The Elite 4 Active is a step-up model that adds active noise cancellation and improved IP57 water resistance (up from IP55).
Expect to get a claimed seven hours of battery life from the buds themselves and 28 hours when you include the charging case. The Elite 4 Active is available now in the UK for £120 (about $161), but they haven’t been announced for the US just yet.
More audio devices will be able to automatically pair with Roku TVs.
Roku TVs will be able to pair quickly with even more audio products in the future. The company has expanded its TV Ready Certification Program, adding Element, JVC, Pheanoo and Philips this year, with Polk Audio and Westinghouse joining the list in 2022. Roku also opened the program internationally, and partners like Bose are expected to launch TV Ready devices in the United Kingdom, Canada and Mexico soon.
The TV Ready initiative makes it easy to connect soundbars and speakers to Roku TVs — so long as the audio device supports the feature, it will automatically be detected as soon as you plug it in.
Tumblr has restricted what its users can see on its iOS app in an effort to make sure it doesn’t get kicked out of Apple’s App Store again. One of the steps it has taken to comply with Apple’s guidelines is to limit the results for certain tags or search terms that Tumblr says “may fall under the expanded definition of sensitive content.” The website will even completely block some of them — make that more than some, based on this pretty lengthy list of banned and limited terms collected by Tumblr users that TechCrunch posted.
While the inclusion of specific words in the list is self explanatory, it also has some curious entries, such as “Eugene Levy” and “Tony the Tiger.” The restriction will also make it harder to search for content related to mental health, such as PTSD, depression and anxiety, as well as issues like racism and transphobia. Those searching for a blocked tag will get a screen that says “This content has been hidden” instead of a page with results. They’ll see the same notification if they try to access a blog that’s been flagged as “explicit” on the app. Users may also see fewer suggestions under the “stuff for you” and “following” sections due to the new restrictions.
Tumblr has implemented these changes three years after it started completely blocking adult content on its platform. If you’ll recall, Tumblr prohibited adult content in 2018 after Apple pulled its app from iTunes in response to finding child exploitation photos on the website. The social network said these changes only apply to its iOS app and that they won’t affect anyone browsing Tumblr on the web or on Android. A spokesperson also told TechCrunch that the company is “working on more thoughtful solutions which will be rolled out in the near future.”
A man accused of killing five people in Denver is believed to have written fictional books self-published online that named some of his real-life victims.
Have you ever tried to learn the guitar by yourself? It might be a bit tricky because the diagrams you read online to show you the chords will look different when you’re holding the guitar. Of course, we imagine that eventually you should get the hang of things, but what if there could be an easier way?
That’s something Samsung is trying to address with its C-Lab, where they have unveiled the ZamStar. This is a smart electric guitar, called the ZamString, that actually comes with LEDs built into the fretboard itself that can be used to light up the positions needed for chords. This means that instead of trying to figure out the chord shapes from online or book diagrams, you just place your fingers where the LEDs light up and you’re good to go.
The lights will also help guitarists figure out the chords they need to play in a song, so just follow the lights and you should be strumming along to tunes in no time. There is also an accompanying smartphone app that lets you add effects and you can even sync up with other musicians around the world.
This isn’t an entirely brand new concept but it’s still interesting nonetheless. The company should be showing it off at CES 2022 which kicks off next week, so check back with us then if you’d like to learn more.
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