Month: September 2024
AI Awkwafina Is Ready to Answer Questions, Deepak Chopra Reads You a Story
Get up to speed on the rapidly evolving world of AI with our roundup of the week’s developments.
Get up to speed on the rapidly evolving world of AI with our roundup of the week’s developments.
Ford targets EV ‘fence-sitters’ with offer of free home charger and installation
Image: Ford
For customers still unsure whether they’re ready to make the switch to an all-electric vehicle, Ford is sweetening the pot.
Today, the company launched a new initiative called the “Ford Power Promise,” in which it will provide a suite of benefits to customers who buy or lease a new EV. And chief among them is a complimentary home charger for all new customers, as well as the costs of standard installation.
The charger that’s being offered is the company’s Ford Charge Station Pro, a $1,310 Level 2 charger that comes with a standard CCS1 connector. Ford declined to put a monetary value on the installation but said it would cover costs up to 60 amps of power and 80 feet of wire run. Customers who need to upgrade their home electrical panel before the installation, however, will need to cover those costs themselves.
Ford’s free charger and installation offer starts October 1st and extends through the end of the year. It will only be available to customers who buy or lease a new EV during that time period. For customers who buy or lease a new EV but already have a home charger installed, Ford will provide them with the cash equivalent of $2,000.
“We’re the only ones doing this,” said Becca Anderson, senior director of customer experience at Ford’s Model e division. “This means less stress and more convenience for our customers, making their home charging set-up up easy.”
“We’re the only ones doing this”
Like most automakers, Ford is struggling to get more customers to consider switching to electric. Even though the company is the number two seller of EVs in the US, behind Tesla, and its EV sales continue to grow, the company is still confronting a lot of headwinds in the form of myths and misconceptions about EV ownership.
“We have a lot of customers open to electric,” said Martin Delonis, senior manager of strategy at Ford Model e, “but they’re sitting on the fence.”
According to market research conducted by Ford and Boston Consulting Group, these so-called “fence-sitters” say they are worried about things like EV range, battery health, and the overall cost of ownership. But they’re also motivated by “quality and convenience,” which aligns then more closely with gas and hybrid shoppers as opposed to early adopters.
“We’ve done the research and found that it’s not range anxiety we’re dealing with,” Delonis added. “It’s change anxiety.”
Most customers overestimate how much range they’ll need in a vehicle, just as they often fail to see the benefits of charging a vehicle at home. They assume they’ll need to use public chargers more often than they do. And they falsely believe that the battery will wear out before the vehicle’s end-of-life.
“Change anxiety”
To help ease their concerns, Ford is upping the ante with new benefits, like a free home charger, and some old ones that customers may not be aware of. Ford said it will now offer 24/7 call and text support for all EV owners who may have questions or concerns about their new purchase. The company is also highlighting a preexisting eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty for the battery of the vehicle.
And to address unease around charging, Ford is emphasizing its Blue Oval Charging Network, which includes a number of third-party charging providers, as well as the Tesla Supercharger network. Ford has been racing to get Tesla adapters to its EV customers so they can access Superchargers across the country. Ford is “ramping up production” of the adapters after some initial delays over the summer, Delonis said.
While Ford has seen its EV sales grow quarter over quarter, the company is still struggling to rein in costs. The company reported a $1.3 billion loss for its Model e EV division in the first quarter of 2024 and a $1.1 billion loss in the second quarter. It also canceled a planned three-row electric SUV and delayed a new electric truck until 2027.
Image: Ford
For customers still unsure whether they’re ready to make the switch to an all-electric vehicle, Ford is sweetening the pot.
Today, the company launched a new initiative called the “Ford Power Promise,” in which it will provide a suite of benefits to customers who buy or lease a new EV. And chief among them is a complimentary home charger for all new customers, as well as the costs of standard installation.
The charger that’s being offered is the company’s Ford Charge Station Pro, a $1,310 Level 2 charger that comes with a standard CCS1 connector. Ford declined to put a monetary value on the installation but said it would cover costs up to 60 amps of power and 80 feet of wire run. Customers who need to upgrade their home electrical panel before the installation, however, will need to cover those costs themselves.
Ford’s free charger and installation offer starts October 1st and extends through the end of the year. It will only be available to customers who buy or lease a new EV during that time period. For customers who buy or lease a new EV but already have a home charger installed, Ford will provide them with the cash equivalent of $2,000.
“We’re the only ones doing this,” said Becca Anderson, senior director of customer experience at Ford’s Model e division. “This means less stress and more convenience for our customers, making their home charging set-up up easy.”
Like most automakers, Ford is struggling to get more customers to consider switching to electric. Even though the company is the number two seller of EVs in the US, behind Tesla, and its EV sales continue to grow, the company is still confronting a lot of headwinds in the form of myths and misconceptions about EV ownership.
“We have a lot of customers open to electric,” said Martin Delonis, senior manager of strategy at Ford Model e, “but they’re sitting on the fence.”
According to market research conducted by Ford and Boston Consulting Group, these so-called “fence-sitters” say they are worried about things like EV range, battery health, and the overall cost of ownership. But they’re also motivated by “quality and convenience,” which aligns then more closely with gas and hybrid shoppers as opposed to early adopters.
“We’ve done the research and found that it’s not range anxiety we’re dealing with,” Delonis added. “It’s change anxiety.”
Most customers overestimate how much range they’ll need in a vehicle, just as they often fail to see the benefits of charging a vehicle at home. They assume they’ll need to use public chargers more often than they do. And they falsely believe that the battery will wear out before the vehicle’s end-of-life.
To help ease their concerns, Ford is upping the ante with new benefits, like a free home charger, and some old ones that customers may not be aware of. Ford said it will now offer 24/7 call and text support for all EV owners who may have questions or concerns about their new purchase. The company is also highlighting a preexisting eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty for the battery of the vehicle.
And to address unease around charging, Ford is emphasizing its Blue Oval Charging Network, which includes a number of third-party charging providers, as well as the Tesla Supercharger network. Ford has been racing to get Tesla adapters to its EV customers so they can access Superchargers across the country. Ford is “ramping up production” of the adapters after some initial delays over the summer, Delonis said.
While Ford has seen its EV sales grow quarter over quarter, the company is still struggling to rein in costs. The company reported a $1.3 billion loss for its Model e EV division in the first quarter of 2024 and a $1.1 billion loss in the second quarter. It also canceled a planned three-row electric SUV and delayed a new electric truck until 2027.
Apple quietly deletes nearly a hundred VPNs that allowed Russians to get around censorship
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submitted by /u/walrus_operator
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Kylian Mbappe joins growing squad of footballers investing in European tech
Gone are the days of elite footballers buying pubs. Today’s star players prefer to put their money into tech. Kylian Mbappe is one of the new generation’s leaders. The French captain has his own investment company, Coalition Capital, which just bought a stake in German electronics giant Loewe Technology. The luxury brand has an ambitious business plan. Over the next few years, the company aims to increase annual revenues from €60mn to €300mn. Mbappe’s investment aims to accelerate these ambitions. His 10% holding could also support a mooted IPO, Bloomberg reports. Loewe has not disclosed the transaction’s value, but Mbappe…This story continues at The Next Web
Gone are the days of elite footballers buying pubs. Today’s star players prefer to put their money into tech. Kylian Mbappe is one of the new generation’s leaders. The French captain has his own investment company, Coalition Capital, which just bought a stake in German electronics giant Loewe Technology. The luxury brand has an ambitious business plan. Over the next few years, the company aims to increase annual revenues from €60mn to €300mn. Mbappe’s investment aims to accelerate these ambitions. His 10% holding could also support a mooted IPO, Bloomberg reports. Loewe has not disclosed the transaction’s value, but Mbappe…
This story continues at The Next Web
Disney’s 4K Blu-rays are finally getting Dolby Vision HDR – including two of this year’s biggest movies
The popular HDR format is set to feature on Disney’s future 4K Blu-ray releases – with support already available on Disney Plus.
Dolby Vision HDR support is finally coming to Disney’s future 4K Blu-ray releases, as reported by Forbes – and the first two releases to include this are both summer blockbusters.
Disney has announced that Deadpool & Wolverine, set for release October 22, and Alien Romulus, set for release on December 3, will both support Dolby Vision HDR, marking the first Disney releases (other than some James Cameron titles) since Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was released in 2018, to support Dolby Vision.
Dolby Vision is a popular HDR format that is seeing increasing support in the best TVs available – even budget models such as the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED support it. Dolby Vision improves picture quality on Dolby Vision compatible displays by improving color, contrast and brightness to give a wider dynamic image and better handling of highlights and dark tones in difficult scenes depending on what your TV’s capable of.
Disney initially only used the standard HDR10 format on its Blu-rays, and it’s not entirely clear why it has now decided to support Dolby Vision (considering it supports it on the Disney Plus streaming platform already) – although it’s possible that Sony’s acquisition of Disney’s physical media production may have something to do with it, as Sony itself is a big user of Dolby Vision in its TVs, including the Sony Bravia 9, and some of the best 4K Blu-ray players.
Whatever the reason why, it’s great news for home theater fans.
More 4K Blu-ray good news
(Image credit: Future)
It’s no secret that the state of 4K Blu-ray and physical media has been looking bleak in recent years, with Disney all-but-signaling a shift away from it when it announced it would no longer sell 4K Blu-ray in Australia last year. It came down to the efforts of publishing houses such as Arrow Video, Criterion Collection and more to keep 4K Blu-ray from dying.
However, earlier this year, 2 big stores in the US announced they would stock discs and in the UK, HMV, a major AV retailer, announced that its physical media sales were on the rise.
With the arrival of Dolby Vision on Disney’s 4K Blu-rays, it hopefully signals even more investment into the field that seemed to be in its ‘dying days’ not too long ago. Starting with a major Marvel release in Deadpool & Wolverine could bring more exposure into the benefits of Dolby Vision in home media, and in turn lead to a further resurgence in the physical media sector – showing streaming sites such as Netflix, Prime Video or Disney Plus and Hulu, both of which recently announced further price hikes, that making streaming platforms more expensive is not a good look.
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MacBook Pro M4 box leak – fake, or not? If it’s real this is another hint that 16GB of RAM for entry-level laptop is happening
This is a somewhat controversial leaked photo – but it could have huge implications for the imminent MacBook Pro M4.
Apple’s MacBook Pro with M4 chip is expected to be unveiled next month, if rumors are right, and a fresh leak backs up that the devices are imminent, coming in the form of a photo of a purported retail box for the next-gen laptop.
This was posted by a regular leaker on X, ShrimpApplePro (hat tip to Wccftech), although it comes laden with some weighty caveats.
M4 14” Macbook Pro ? Not confirmed, take it with a pin of salt. I got sent this. pic.twitter.com/kbIRYurndwSeptember 29, 2024
As you can see in the post, this isn’t an image from the leaker directly, but one that was sent to them, so they can’t vouch for whether it’s genuine or not, and we need to take ShrimpApplePro’s advice of adding a pinch of salt.
Actually, we’d grab something more generous in the way of seasoning here, as there are certainly some points of contention about the leaked pic. Let’s dive in and discuss those next…
Analysis: The case of the MacBook Pro and the optical illusion
First up, we have to bear in mind that the leaker admits we must be cautious with this one, and also that these kinds of images can be faked and Photoshopped, without a doubt. It’s not especially helpful that the pic is blurred, plus the light glare and reflections compound the inability to read the small print blurb easily – that in itself might make you suspicious.
Given the pic quality, you may think – why didn’t the originator just take another shot, and make sure they had a decent photo of the purported MacBook Pro box? Well, it’s possible whoever took the photo didn’t have long to do so, or rather, wasn’t supposed to be doing so – and they grabbed a quick phone snap while no one was looking.
(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
The mentioned bones of contention are first, as raised in that X thread, the box blurb still mentions an ‘Apple ID’ rather than its new name, the ‘Apple Account’ – but as ShrimpApplePro points out, it’s actually the case that the iPhone 16 tech specs still talk about the Apple ID.
This box also has a QR code on it (iPhone-style), which isn’t on the current packaging for MacBook Pro laptops – this could be a fresh addition to the notebook range from Apple, of course.
There’s also a real oddity in the descriptive blurb whereby the box looks like it says “Includes 16-inch MacBook Pro” in some lights, though if you look a bit harder, and zoom in, you can see it possibly says 14-inch. We can kind of see both, actually, depending on which we’re looking for – a bit like one of those weird optical illusions. Still, it could state 16-inch, we’ve got to admit, which obviously would mark it as a fake (Apple wouldn’t have a mistake like that on a retail box).
Ultimately, the image looks somewhat convincing at first glance, but due to the points raised, and the glare and blurriness, there are definite doubts, and we have to remain pretty skeptical here – but still, we can be hopeful. Speaking of which, the spec on the box marks this as a MacBook Pro M4 with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, which aligns with the M4 chip in high-end iPad Pros currently, and rumors that this will be one of the CPUs used with the next-gen MacBook Pro.
More excitingly, this is a MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 shown with 16GB of RAM, and as also pointed out on X, custom configurations of MacBooks (where the RAM or storage has been upgraded) don’t show the memory loadout on the box. So, with 16GB printed on the box, this could be the base model, and represents another hint that maybe – just maybe – Apple is going to have the entry-level MacBook Pro 14-inch with M4 equipped with 16GB of Unified Memory.
Of all the rumors flying around about the MacBook Pro M4, this one makes the most sense to us – as it really is about time that a professional-targeted notebook was shipped with 16GB as an absolute minimum. Particularly with Apple putting a lot of eggs in the AI basket with Apple Intelligence going forward on Macs and iOS devices alike.
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The UK says goodbye to coal production
The UK’s last coal plant will sigh out its final pollutants Monday before shutting down for good and officially ending the country’s century and a half of coal production. Nottinghamshire’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant was the last of its kind following Britain’s 2015 commitment to close all coal power plants by 2025. Ratcliffe was originally scheduled to shut down in 2022 but stayed open after Russia invaded Ukraine and Europe entered a gas crisis.
The Ratcliffe plant once had 3,000 engineers but only employs 170 staff now. That group will gather to watch a livestream of the plant being turned off, and over 100 of them are set to work on decommissioning the plant over the next two years. Many of the other employees will enter new jobs at different power plants owned by Uniper, Raticliffe’s German owner, while others will enter training programs to work on other aspects of the industry.
Britain opened the world’s first coal power plant in 1882, London’s Holborn Viaduct, with the help of Thomas Edison’s Edison Electric Light Company. Coal has played a major part in the UK until very recently. According to a report from energy think tank Ember, coal was responsible for 39 percent of the UK’s energy supply in 2012 but shrunk to just two percent in 2019. The decrease in coal production was reportedly equal to double the amount of all greenhouse gases used in the UK in 2023. Between 2012 and 2023, wind and solar generation also increased from six percent to a 34 percent share of the UK’s energy. Britain still has a long way to go, but this step has made it the first G7 country to remove all coal power production.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-uk-says-goodbye-to-coal-production-114520865.html?src=rss
The UK’s last coal plant will sigh out its final pollutants Monday before shutting down for good and officially ending the country’s century and a half of coal production. Nottinghamshire’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant was the last of its kind following Britain’s 2015 commitment to close all coal power plants by 2025. Ratcliffe was originally scheduled to shut down in 2022 but stayed open after Russia invaded Ukraine and Europe entered a gas crisis.
The Ratcliffe plant once had 3,000 engineers but only employs 170 staff now. That group will gather to watch a livestream of the plant being turned off, and over 100 of them are set to work on decommissioning the plant over the next two years. Many of the other employees will enter new jobs at different power plants owned by Uniper, Raticliffe’s German owner, while others will enter training programs to work on other aspects of the industry.
Britain opened the world’s first coal power plant in 1882, London’s Holborn Viaduct, with the help of Thomas Edison’s Edison Electric Light Company. Coal has played a major part in the UK until very recently. According to a report from energy think tank Ember, coal was responsible for 39 percent of the UK’s energy supply in 2012 but shrunk to just two percent in 2019. The decrease in coal production was reportedly equal to double the amount of all greenhouse gases used in the UK in 2023. Between 2012 and 2023, wind and solar generation also increased from six percent to a 34 percent share of the UK’s energy. Britain still has a long way to go, but this step has made it the first G7 country to remove all coal power production.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-uk-says-goodbye-to-coal-production-114520865.html?src=rss
Paranoid about Windows 11’s Recall feature even being on your PC? Here’s some good news – you’ll be able to fully uninstall it
Microsoft appears to backtrack again as Copilot+ PC owners will now get the option to uninstall the Recall feature.
After an apparent back and forth on the issue, it looks like Microsoft will allow Copilot+ PC owners to uninstall the controversial Recall feature from their Windows 11 devices.
In fact, the choice to remove Recall was recently flagged up by keen-eyed observers of Windows 11 preview builds, but Microsoft was quick to clarify that this capability was in fact a mistake or bug of sorts.
Confusingly, it turns out that this wasn’t a mistake after all, and that as part of Microsoft’s announcement about Recall coming to Copilot+ PCs in November, the company noted that as well as the feature being strictly opt-in (rather than being on by default), it will also be fully removable.
Microsoft wrote that: “Users can also remove Recall entirely by using the optional features settings in Windows.”
Windows Central reports that Microsoft clarified that the option to remove Recall being a bug only referred to it mistakenly being included in the specific preview build it was spotted in – and that the company did not mean upcoming builds wouldn’t have the uninstall Recall choice. (Although for what it’s worth, Microsoft’s wording at the time hardly suggested this).
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Recall removal – how to banish the AI-powered search for good
How do you remove Recall, then? Well, for those who have a Copilot+ PC – which are the only devices Recall will be on (at least initially) – you’ll find the option present in the ‘Turn Windows features on and off’ menu (locate that via the taskbar search box). And yes, that’s exactly where it was seen in testing.
Once you locate the ‘Recall’ ability in that menu you can uncheck it and click OK – your system will prompt for a reboot, after which Recall and all processes relating to it will be removed from your PC. That’ll go a long way towards pleasing those who are particularly paranoid about privacy, and don’t even want Recall on their system at all, even if it’s disabled.
Windows Recall, for those not familiar with it, is an upcoming AI-powered Windows 11 feature that takes regular snapshots (screenshots) of your device activity and makes these searchable.
When first revealed, Recall wasn’t received well at all, with both Windows 11 users and security experts alike quite rightly raising some major security and privacy concerns. That led to Microsoft putting the deployment of Recall on hold, and it’s only just recently revealed that the feature will be put back into testing next month – following a rollout to Copilot+ PCs in November, as mentioned (or that’s the current plan).
Microsoft has promised that it’s made some big changes to Recall, and outlined a host of various security and encryption-related improvements, which collectively represent a big stride forward to be fair to the company.
All in all, Microsoft appears to be giving users total control over Recall in terms of not just disabling it, but totally stripping the feature out of Windows 11. Especially given the frosty reception Recall has received so far, Microsoft has a lot to prove when it comes to how useful and helpful it is, and how secure Recall is when it comes to keeping user data safe.
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