Enlarge/ Widespread EV charging stations will be critical for New York to feasibly phase-out new fossil fuel vehicles by its 2035 deadline. (credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
New York will ban the sale of fossil fuel vehicles starting in 2035 and require all new cars to produce zero emissions. The new law, signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul last week, will help slash the state’s carbon pollution by 35 percent. It would put New York well on its way to achieving its statewide carbon reduction goals of 85 percent below 1990 levels.
While the sunset date is in line with other plans from the state government, hitting the goal will still require significant planning and coordination. Though EVs aren’t uncommon in New York, the state is effectively starting from zero—around 1 percent of new vehicles sold in the Empire State are fully electric.
The new law doesn’t stop at passenger vehicles. It also requires zero emissions for off-road vehicles and equipment by 2035 and for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles by 2045. There’s some wiggle room with these mandates should batteries or fuel cells for large trucks or construction equipment lag significantly. The law says zero emissions will only be required “where feasible.”
For a brief period of time, control of the U.S.’s capacity to murder millions of people and destabilize the globe in the process was secretly taken out of Donald Trump’s hands by maneuver of the nation’s highest-ranking general—at least according to the two Bobs selling a new book about his presidency (Bob Woodward…
The Nintendo Switch has received its first price cut in certain parts of the world, dropping from €330 in Europe and €280 in the UK down to €270 and €260, respectively. But while fans hoped the same could happen in the U.S., especially with sites like VGC insisting a cut is coming, Nintendo says such a thing is…
New Atlas reports the latest development with Michelin’s airless tire technology, which has been in the works for almost two decades. An anonymous Slashdot reader shares an excerpt from the report: The advantages are pretty clear: firstly, you can never be brought to a stop by a puncture or blowout — Michelin says about 200 million tires every year hit scrapyards early thanks to these. Secondly, you don’t have to look after your tire pressures; that doesn’t just save you time, it also eliminates all early wear caused by underinflation. Their internal spokes are hugely tunable to meet desired performance characteristics. You can individually tune their stiffness under acceleration, braking, cornering and bump handling forces. The bump handling characteristics can even be tuned to eliminate the need for separate suspension in some types of vehicles. You can poke holes right through the tread to let water escape, potentially creating much better resistance to aquaplaning. They take less raw material and less energy to make, making them better for the environment, and Michelin has estimated they’ll last up to three times as long as a regular ol’ hoop.
They have obviously not been easy to commercialize, though; 16 years and counting is a long and difficult birth for a product people are clearly interested in. The Tweel, which replaces the entire wheel assembly, has been available for some time for various off-road vehicles, but it’s still yet to make it to the road. Michelin has teamed up with GM to design and start selling an airless tire for street use on passenger cars. Called Uptis, this product is a full-wheel solution requiring specialized rims. Michelin says it will withstand much greater impacts than a regular tire and wheel, and will have a “dramatically” longer lifespan, while adding no extra rolling resistance, not feeling any different to the driver and adding only around seven percent to the weight of the wheel — less than existing run-flat tires do. GM will begin offering Uptis as an option on certain models “as early as 2024,” and the partnership is working with US state governments on regulatory approvals for street use, as well as with the federal government.
At IAA Munich recently, the Uptis airless tire got its first public outing, in which “certain lucky members of the public” had a chance to ride in a Mini Electric kitted out with a set. By all reports, the experience was about as exciting as driving on a regular set of tires — i.e. not very interesting at all. They felt no different. But that’s kind of the point here, Michelin is hoping to bring in a new and improved technology with zero change in the user experience. Hence this awkward interview with “Automotive lifestyle YouTuber Mr JWW” (James Walker).
A new report surveyed hundreds of delivery workers in New York City and found that many experienced unsteady wages, long hours, theft, and costly injuries. On top of that, they often described harsh treatment from restaurant owners, customers, and even the apps they work with.
Members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous claim to have hacked web registration company Epik, allegedly stealing “a decade’s worth of data,” including reams of information about its clients and their domains.
A security flaw in Travis CI potentially exposed the secrets of thousands of open source projects that rely on the hosted continuous integration service. Travis CI is a software-testing solution used by over 900,000 open source projects and 600,000 users. A vulnerability in the tool made it possible for secure environment variables—signing keys, access credentials, and API tokens of all public open source projects—to be exfiltrated.
Worse, the dev community is upset about the poor handling of the vulnerability disclosure process and the brief “security bulletin” it had to force out of Travis.
Environment variables injected into pull request builds
Travis CI is a popular software-testing tool due to its seamless integration with GitHub and Bitbucket. As the makers of the tool explain:
Another fall Apple event is in the books, and despite a few minor surprises—no AirPods 3 and no post-show “Donda” performance by Kanye West!—what we saw didn’t stray too far from pre-event expectations. A redesigned iPad Mini, a new iPhone 13 lineup (with smaller notch!), and larger Apple Watch Series 7 were all among…
You probably know that fashion week happens eight times per year, twice annually in Paris, Milan, London, and New York. But soon, the so-called “Big Four” will face some serious competition for the limelight when Pokémon Go kicks off its own fashion week event next Tuesday.
Plenty of smartphones have eSIM support to enable cell service without a conventional SIM card, but only for one line — you still need a card if you need two lines. That won’t be an issue with iPhones from now on. 9to5Macobserved the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro both include Apple’s first support for dual eSIMs. In theory, you can use multi-line support without picking up a physical SIM.
There’s still nano-SIM card support if you need it. Apple makes no mention of using the nano-SIM slot alongside the dual eSIMs. We’ve asked Apple for comment, but you shouldn’t expect three-line support at this stage.
The usual caveats apply. Some carriers aren’t fond of eSIMs and might limit your ability to switch carriers. Others might not support eSIMs or even disable them in versions sold by the network. In the right circumstances, though, it could be ideal for international travel, business lines or prepaid service. You might never need to visit a carrier store or wait for a SIM in the mail.
Treehouse, which launched in Portland a decade ago in an ambitious effort to teach software development online, plans to lay off most of its staff by the end of the month. Oregon Live reports: CEO Ryan Carson didn’t answer emailed questions about the cutbacks, but said in a brief reply Tuesday that “we are going to continue to serve our students and customers.” Carson, who moved to Connecticut last month, said Treehouse is no longer based in Portland and that its remaining staff now works remotely. In an announcement sent last week over the company’s internal Slack messaging channel, later viewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive, Treehouse notified employees that their jobs and benefits would end on Sept. 30, without severance. “A small team will be remaining, along with Ryan, to continue to support students,” the company wrote to staff.
Workers later posted an online spreadsheet with the names of 41 employees looking for new jobs. Treehouse has a geographically distributed workforce and the company’s employees live in cities across the country. Treehouse attracted national attention in 2013 and 2015 with two unorthodox management strategies: The company eliminated all layers of management and it moved to a 32-hour-work week. Neither experiment worked. […] It’s not clear what triggered this week’s cutbacks. Online education has been booming during the pandemic.
Activision Blizzard employees represented by the ABetterABK worker group filed a lawsuit against the Call of Duty publisher with the National Labor Review Board yesterday accusing it of union busting. It comes in the wake of a bombshell California lawsuit alleging widespread sexual harassment and discrimination at the…
Enlarge/ President Joe Biden signs an executive order as (L-R) Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Chairperson of the Federal Trade Commission Lina Khan, Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Attorney General Merrick Garland, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, and acting Chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission Jessica Rosenworcel look on at the White House on July 9, 2021, in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | Alex Wong)
President Joe Biden’s failure to nominate a fifth Federal Communications Commission member has forced Democrats to work with a 2-2 deadlock instead of the 3-2 majority the president’s party typically enjoys at the FCC. But things could get worse for Democrats starting in January. If Biden doesn’t make his choice quickly enough to get Senate confirmation by the end of this year, Republicans could get a 2-1 FCC majority despite Democrats controlling both the White House and Senate.
That possibility can be easily averted if Biden and the Senate spring into action, but it’s closer to becoming a reality than anyone expected when Biden became president. The reason is that acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s term expired in mid-2020. US law allows commissioners on lapsed terms to stay until “the expiration of the session of Congress that begins after the expiration of the fixed term,” which means she can stay until the beginning of January 2022.
To ensure a 3-2 Democratic majority in January, Biden has to nominate a third Democrat, renominate Rosenworcel or nominate a replacement for Rosenworcel, and hope that the Senate confirms both nominations in time. As president, Biden can promote any commissioner to chair, but the Senate decides whether to confirm each newly nominated commissioner. That process usually takes a few months or longer. Tom Wheeler was confirmed as FCC chairman in October 2013, six months after his nomination.
Ubisoft plans to revive the Driver franchise, the company announced today…with a live-action streaming series. Those sounds you just heard were millions of excited fans collectively scooting forward in their seats and then immediately slumping back in disappointment.
Facebook served dangerous “abortion reversal” ads viewed 18.4 million times since January 2020, according to a new report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Abortion reversal, deemed unethical and unscientific, is so concerning that accredited researchers were unable to subject patients to a study.
The most important thing that the COVID vaccines do is prevent deaths and severe illness from COVID-19. The next most important thing they do is prevent many cases of milder illness—a job they’re not perfect at, but it’s still far better to be vaccinated than not. But what about long COVID, the still-mysterious…
Only three things in life are certain for a shonen otaku: tournament arcs, Studio Trigger series finales ending in space, and One Piece continuing until the heat death of the universe. I’d made prior attempts to read One Piece, but each time I got too intimidated by its length, which has now surpassed 1,000 chapters.…
Apple kicked off its fall hardware release slate with “California Streaming,” an event dedicated to its newest iPhone and Apple Watch models. And while those devices obviously headlined the event, the company also announced a new iPad and iPad mini. Here’s everything the company showed off on Tuesday.
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max
Apple
The iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max include a host of improvements aimed at content creators, including a more capable camera system and a new Cinematic mode that can blur the background of your videos while keeping the subject in focus. However, the enhancement that’s most likely to get current iPhone owners to upgrade is the addition of Apple’s ProMotion display technology. The feature allows the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max to adjust the refresh rates of their displays up to 120Hz for smoother scrolling. The Pro lineup starts at $999, with pre-orders scheduled to open on September 17th and general availability to follow on September 24th.
iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini
Apple
Apple’s more affordable pair of iPhones didn’t get as many upgrades as their Pro siblings, but the ones they did receive are still notable. Internally, the devices feature the company’s new A15 Bionic chips and bigger batteries. Apple also redesigned its TrueDepth camera array to make it smaller, leading to a less prominent but still noticeable notch on both devices. The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini will start at $799 and $699 when they go up for pre-order on Friday and then go on sale on September 24th.
Apple Watch 7
Apple
The Apple Watch is about to get bigger yes, but perhaps the more important story with the Series 7 is that Apple has made the wearable more durable. The Series 7 is the first Apple Watch to include dust resistance. The screen is also more crack-resistant thanks to the refreshed design. When it arrives sometime this fall, the Series 7 will start at $399.
iPad mini
Apple
After two and a half years without a refresh, Apple’s iPad mini got a substantial update on Tuesday. In short, the company took essentially everything that made the 4th-generation iPad Air so compelling and gave it to its smallest iPad. We’re talking about an updated design, USB-C connectivity, support for the company’s second-generation Apple Pencil and a brighter and more colorful display, among various other upgrades. You can pre-order the iPad mini starting today for $499 before it ships on September 24th.
iPad
Apple
It may not look different from the company’s previous entry-level tablet, but the 9th-generation iPad includes some handy upgrades. The most important of those is a new 12-megapixel front-facing camera with an ultra-wide lens that comes with the iPad Pro’s Center Stage feature. The inclusion of Center Stage allows the camera to crop into the subject intelligently so that they’re always at the center of the frame. The 9th-generation iPad will start at $329 when it becomes available on September 24th.
Everything else
Outside of new hardware, Apple announced it will release iOS 15 on September 20th. It will also push out iPadOS 15 and watchOS 8 that same day. Last but not least, the company said it plans to update Fitness+ to make it easier for users to take part in shared virtual classes with friends and family members.
Follow all of the news from Apple’s iPhone event right here.
