On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that it would pull an additional 15 million barrels of oil out of the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to help juice up oil supplies and keep gas prices low in the face of the global energy crisis.
Meta is chugging along on their Universal Speech Translator, which hopes to train an artificial intelligence to translate hundreds of languages in real time. Today, the tech giant claims to have generated the first artificial intelligence to translate Hokkien, which is a language primarily spoken and not written.
On November 11, a new character will become Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But is it Shuri? Is it Nakia? Okoye? We don’t know for sure, but apparently everyone in Wakanda has their own opinion about it.
News flash everyone: public trust in tech companies isn’t exactly thriving. While it doesn’t take an expert to smell the bad blood that’s been brewing between tech and its users, research released this week from Edelman provides new, clear insights into just how much the relationship has soured over the years.
Google’s iOS 16 lock screen widgets are officially available. As outlined in September, the widgets give you at-a-glance info and shortcuts for some of the company’s core apps. Gmail can show your new message counts, while Maps can either provide a link to favorite trips (like the commute home) or searches for destinations like restaurants. Widgets for Chrome and the Google app, meanwhile, can help you start web searches, issue voice commands or launch features like Lens translation and Chrome’s Dino game.
Other widgets are more specialized, but still helpful. Google News can show the latest headlines. Drive provides quicker access to suggested and starred cloud files. It’s also much easier to listen to YouTube Music, as you can quickly start a playlist when you’re heading out for a walk.
YouTube and YouTube Music also have home screen widgets. You can quickly browse your YouTube video subscriptions, or search for a YouTube Music tune.
The widgets should automatically surface when you’re customizing your lock screen. As usual, they make the most sense for the always-on display of the iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max. Regardless of the device you use, they could make Google’s apps more compelling. In some cases, they’ll even provide an edge over those Android phones that only show a limited amount of info before you unlock the device.
The comedian got lots of love from Patton Oswalt, Josh Gad and Jenna Fischer.
On the red carpet for his newest work, The School for Good and Evil, a kind of campy fairy fantasy TV series adapted from the mid aughts-YA novels, Laurence Fishburne was asked about The Matrix Resurrections. I mean, the film is nearly 12 months past its release date and if Mister Fishburne had something to say he wou…
NASA astronauts are getting ready to spacewalk once again. The space agency put a hold on the extravehicular activities while it investigated a potentially life-threatening problem with the suits, but NASA says spacewalks outside the International Space Station can resume.
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The Department of Energy is awarding $2.8 billion in grants to 20 companies across the US that will promote the production of materials to make EV batteries domestically, the Biden administration announced today. The funding comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and it’ll be part of a new “American Battery Materials Initiative,” which aims to secure a supply of minerals for EVs and electric infrastructure (potentially things like home batteries). Given that the Biden administration wants to make EVs half of new US car purchases by 2030, we’ll need a serious boost in battery production before then.
“The U.S. and its allies currently do not produce enough of the critical minerals and battery materials needed to power clean energy technologies,” the Biden admin wrote in a briefing. “China currently controls much of the critical mineral supply chain and the lack of mining, processing, and recycling capacity in the U.S. could hinder electric vehicle development and adoption, leaving the U.S. dependent on unreliable foreign supply chains.”
The new funding will support projects that aim to develop enough battery-grade lithium to build 2 million EVs annually, as well as enough graphite and nickel to produce 1.2 million and 400,000 EVs annually. It’ll also enable some groundbreaking endeavors, like building the first lithium iron phosphate cathode facility, as well as the first large-scale lithium electrolyte salt production facility, in the US.
After being matched by recipients, the Biden admin says the $2.8 million grants will lead to an investment of more than $9 billion towards building EV batteries. Car makers will also need more local supply sources if they want to build EVs that take full advantage of the Biden admin’s new $7,500 tax credit, which require batteries and minerals produced in the US.
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