Month: August 2024
Fire at Rivian’s factory damages multiple electric vehicles
Rivian’s factory in 2022. | Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
A fire broke out in a parking lot at Rivian’s Normal, Illinois factory over the weekend, damaging several electric vehicles, local media is reporting. No injuries are being reported at this time.
A spokesperson for the Normal Fire Department told The Verge that a report of a fire was called in at 9:43PM CT Sunday at the Rivian factory. That said, Rivian is now leading the investigation into the nature of the blaze, along with the company’s insurance company, with the town’s fire officials lending their support as needed, Normal Fire Department spokesperson Matt Swaney said in an email.
“It is a very intricate and complex investigation so we do not have a timeline of when and if any origin or cause may be determined at this time,” Swaney added. “The assembly plant itself is unaffected by the incident. There were no injuries to firefighters or Rivian personnel.”
Rivian is now leading the investigation into the nature of the blaze
Meanwhile, witnesses told 25 News Now they could see flames and smoke rising from the factory site at a distance. The factory itself was not damaged, as the fire was contained to the parking lot.
“We are investigating the cause of a fire that damaged a number of vehicles in a parking lot at our Normal plant late Saturday night,” Rivian spokesperson Peebles Squire said in a statement. “The plant itself is unaffected. There were no injuries. We are not providing further details at this time.”
Fire is increasingly becoming a major risk factor for EV manufacturers, as lithium-ion battery cells can burn extremely hot and are resistant to traditional methods of prevention. Over a dozen people have been killed in fires linked to faulty e-bike batteries in New York City. A Tesla Semi caught fire in California last week, causing a major traffic jam.
Of course, gas-powered vehicles can catch fire, and often do at a much higher rate than electric vehicles. But the difficulty in containing and extinguishing EV batteries make them a unique challenge for fire departments, especially as EV sales continue to grow.
First responders are being trained to handle EV battery fires since they can’t be extinguished via some traditional methods. Republican lawmakers, which have largely opposed the subsidization of EV manufacturing, are pushing the message that EVs are uniquely dangerous. And the Biden administration, which is trying to encourage more consumers to buy EVs as a way to fight climate change, is trying to get local departments to share information about the best ways to fight EV battery fires.
Rivian’s factory in 2022. | Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
A fire broke out in a parking lot at Rivian’s Normal, Illinois factory over the weekend, damaging several electric vehicles, local media is reporting. No injuries are being reported at this time.
A spokesperson for the Normal Fire Department told The Verge that a report of a fire was called in at 9:43PM CT Sunday at the Rivian factory. That said, Rivian is now leading the investigation into the nature of the blaze, along with the company’s insurance company, with the town’s fire officials lending their support as needed, Normal Fire Department spokesperson Matt Swaney said in an email.
“It is a very intricate and complex investigation so we do not have a timeline of when and if any origin or cause may be determined at this time,” Swaney added. “The assembly plant itself is unaffected by the incident. There were no injuries to firefighters or Rivian personnel.”
Meanwhile, witnesses told 25 News Now they could see flames and smoke rising from the factory site at a distance. The factory itself was not damaged, as the fire was contained to the parking lot.
“We are investigating the cause of a fire that damaged a number of vehicles in a parking lot at our Normal plant late Saturday night,” Rivian spokesperson Peebles Squire said in a statement. “The plant itself is unaffected. There were no injuries. We are not providing further details at this time.”
Fire is increasingly becoming a major risk factor for EV manufacturers, as lithium-ion battery cells can burn extremely hot and are resistant to traditional methods of prevention. Over a dozen people have been killed in fires linked to faulty e-bike batteries in New York City. A Tesla Semi caught fire in California last week, causing a major traffic jam.
Of course, gas-powered vehicles can catch fire, and often do at a much higher rate than electric vehicles. But the difficulty in containing and extinguishing EV batteries make them a unique challenge for fire departments, especially as EV sales continue to grow.
First responders are being trained to handle EV battery fires since they can’t be extinguished via some traditional methods. Republican lawmakers, which have largely opposed the subsidization of EV manufacturing, are pushing the message that EVs are uniquely dangerous. And the Biden administration, which is trying to encourage more consumers to buy EVs as a way to fight climate change, is trying to get local departments to share information about the best ways to fight EV battery fires.
Turns out the ‘death’ of the Control Panel in Windows 11 has been greatly exaggerated, as Microsoft issues a clarification
Want to see the back of the Control Panel? You wouldn’t be alone, but this ancient bit of the Windows interface isn’t going anywhere for now.
Windows 11 and Windows 10 aren’t on the brink of seeing the Control Panel shuffling off into the sunset, Microsoft has clarified.
As Ars Technica reports, this follows a string of articles last week that popped up around the Control Panel – which is nearly 40-years-old and plays host to a bunch of settings and options not catered for in Windows 11’s Settings app, many of which are legacy affairs – insisting Microsoft was in the process of killing it off, finally.
That conclusion was mainly based on a sentence in a support article about system tools in Windows that said: “The Control Panel is in the process of being deprecated in favor of the Settings app, which offers a more modern and streamlined experience.”
This official announcement of the deprecation – meaning the feature is frozen, and marked for removal (but still present in Windows) – was the first time we’d heard Microsoft formally talk about pushing the Control Panel out of the exit door. Even if it’s been clear enough that this is the process the software giant is engaged in, and has been for a long time now – it’s just a very slow, drawn out death for the panel.
However, Microsoft has changed the language in that document, and the Control Panel section now reads: “Many of the settings in Control Panel are in the process of being migrated to the Settings app, which offers a more modern and streamlined experience.”
(Image credit: IvaFoto / Shutterstock / Microsoft)
The ghost of Windows past
The change in emphasis is clear, then, moving away from any talk of deprecation or marking the Control Panel for removal, and letting us know that the lifting and shifting of features from the panel to the Settings app is still very much an ongoing process.
As Ars Technica points out, though, we don’t know the reasoning behind the change of wording. Was this a formal decision Microsoft has reversed based on the reports that flooded out last week (and perhaps some negative feedback from some quarters)? Or has Microsoft not made any decision at all, and just badly worded the update to the support document, and had to clarify what it meant – or rather, didn’t mean – as a result?
We strongly suspect the latter, because the Control Panel has never been on Microsoft’s official list of deprecated features for Windows 11 (or 10) – and you’d think it would show up there first, rather than an announcement like this leaking out via a Windows support page.
Besides, we can’t quite see why Microsoft would have to reverse the decision, if it was made, anyway – who doesn’t want to see the back of the Control Panel, if its demise was really happening? Taking a stroll through the Control Panel’s various sections is a bit like being haunted by old versions of Windows, with features and interface graphics that date back to the nineties. (Although, to be fair, there are some niche functions in here which some users really would miss).
At any rate, to sum up: the Control Panel will probably be with us for quite some time yet, and at least until the next version of Windows, whether that’s Windows 12 or something entirely different. And likely it’ll remain in place for a while even in that new OS, while those more important niche features are shuffled across to Settings.
Do note that in the mentioned support document, Microsoft is still encouraging folks to use the Settings app, rather than the Control Panel, wherever possible.
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Telegram Turmoil Threatens Dominant Chronicle of the War in Ukraine
The detention of Telegram’s founder has highlighted the messaging app’s outsized status in Europe’s deadliest war since World War II.
The detention of Telegram’s founder has highlighted the messaging app’s outsized status in Europe’s deadliest war since World War II.
Watch out — those movie downloads could actually just be vicious new Windows malware
Hackers are once again hiding malware in pirated movie files, this time targeting Windows users.
Be careful when looking for pirated movies online – experts have warners many files are out there just to infect your Windows PCs with dangerous malware and infostealers.
Cybersecurity researchers from Mandiant have recently discovered a new malware dropper, infecting victims with Lumma Stealer, Hijack Loader, and CryptBot.
Lumma, for example, is a known piece of malware that’s been extensively covered by the media. It is capable of grabbing passwords stored in popular browsers, cookies, credit card information, and data related to cryptocurrency wallets. Lumma is offered as a service, for a subscription fee ranging between $250 and $1,000.
Downloading malware
The dropper is dubbed PEAKLIGHT. It appears to be brand new, and works as a memory-only dropper: “This memory-only dropper decrypts and executes a PowerShell-based downloader,” Mandiant said in a technical write-up.
The researchers saw the dropper in .ZIP archives on the internet, pretending to be pirated movies. These archives contained a Windows shortcut file (.LNK) which, when ran, connects to a content delivery network (CDN) hosting an obfuscated, memory-only, JavaScript.
“PEAKLIGHT is an obfuscated PowerShell-based downloader that is part of a multi-stage execution chain that checks for the presence of ZIP archives in hard-coded file paths,” Mandiant added. “If the archives do not exist, the downloader will reach out to a CDN site and download the remotely hosted archive file and save it to disk.”
Pirated content, including movies, music, software, and books, have been used to distribute malware for years. During the Covid lockdowns, as people were stuck inside and looking for ways to kill the time, many turned to pirated content – and hackers took advantage, distributing malicious cryptocurrency-mining malware via fake film torrents.
The movie John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum – which was a blockbuster hit at the time, was one of the movies used to distribute malware.
Via The Hacker News
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How Pavel Durov, Telegram’s Founder, Went From Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg to Wanted Man
Pavel Durov’s anti-establishment streak helped him create one of the world’s biggest online platforms, which emphasizes free speech. It also put a target on his back.
Pavel Durov’s anti-establishment streak helped him create one of the world’s biggest online platforms, which emphasizes free speech. It also put a target on his back.
Sony’s new budget wireless earbuds give you voice isolation and fast pairing
Image: Sony
Sony has announced the $59.99 WF-C510 wireless earbuds, the latest budget offering in its “Truly Wireless” line. They’re fairly bare-bones but improve on their predecessor with voice isolation and slightly longer battery life while costing $30 less. The earbuds come in four colors — black, blue, white, and yellow — and are available for preorder now on Sony’s website or at Amazon.
The WF-C510 earbuds, besides having a name that rolls right off the tongue, come with Ambient Sound Mode (Sony’s transparency mode, which pipes in external sound) in addition to voice isolation. They’re also the “smallest ever closed type earbuds” Sony says it has produced. According to Sony’s specs list, they’ll get as long as five hours of “continuous communication time” or up to 11 hours of general use, when Ambient Sound is off. The charging case can add another 11 hours.
Image: Sony
The new Sony WF-C510 comes in four colors.
Sony says the earbuds will connect to up to two Bluetooth devices at once and will support Google’s Fast Pair and Microsoft’s Swift Pair features for quick device connections. They’re also IPX4-rated, which means they can take water splashes or a sweaty run (but you shouldn’t drop them in a pool).
The WF-C510 are expected to ship to customers starting September 9th.
Image: Sony
Sony has announced the $59.99 WF-C510 wireless earbuds, the latest budget offering in its “Truly Wireless” line. They’re fairly bare-bones but improve on their predecessor with voice isolation and slightly longer battery life while costing $30 less. The earbuds come in four colors — black, blue, white, and yellow — and are available for preorder now on Sony’s website or at Amazon.
The WF-C510 earbuds, besides having a name that rolls right off the tongue, come with Ambient Sound Mode (Sony’s transparency mode, which pipes in external sound) in addition to voice isolation. They’re also the “smallest ever closed type earbuds” Sony says it has produced. According to Sony’s specs list, they’ll get as long as five hours of “continuous communication time” or up to 11 hours of general use, when Ambient Sound is off. The charging case can add another 11 hours.
Image: Sony
The new Sony WF-C510 comes in four colors.
Sony says the earbuds will connect to up to two Bluetooth devices at once and will support Google’s Fast Pair and Microsoft’s Swift Pair features for quick device connections. They’re also IPX4-rated, which means they can take water splashes or a sweaty run (but you shouldn’t drop them in a pool).
The WF-C510 are expected to ship to customers starting September 9th.