After recently signing deals to purchase electric vehicles from GM and Polestar, Hertz is turning its attention to the infrastructure needed to support those cars. On Tuesday, the company announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with energy giant BP (formerly British Petroleum) to build a national charging network across the United States. At this stage, there aren’t a lot of details on the buildout Hertz and BP are considering, but the agreement calls for the oil company’s Pulse subsidiary to manage the potential network.

Hertz currently has EVs available at 500 locations across 38 states. The company says the partnership will allow it to significantly expand its national charging footprint. That’s something Hertz will need to do if it plans to meet its goal of converting at least a quarter of its fleet to electric vehicles by the end of 2024. Even if you don’t end up renting an EV from Hertz anytime soon, you could benefit from the partnership. In addition to serving its customers, the network will be open to the general public – provided, of course, Hertz and BP move forward with their plan.

Source: Engadget – Hertz and BP plan to build a nation-wide EV charging network in the US

Samsung may not have left its battery troubles completely in the past. YouTuber Mrwhosetheboss (aka Arun Rupesh Maini) and others have noticed that batteries in Samsung phones are swelling up at a disproportionately high rate. While this most often affects older devices where ballooning batteries are more likely, some of them are only a couple of years old — the 2020-era Galaxy Z Fold 2, for instance. It’s usually obvious (the phone back pops loose), but it can be subtle enough that you may not realize your battery is in a dangerous state.

Battery swelling isn’t a new problem, or unique to Samsung. As lithium batteries age, their increasingly flawed chemical reactions can produce gas that inflates battery cells and increases the risk of a fire. This author has had two non-Samsung phones meet their ends this way. It’s more likely to happen if you leave a battery without charging or discharging for a long time, and many companies (such as Apple) recommend that you keep batteries at a roughly 50 percent charge if you won’t use a device for extended periods.

Probably the biggest change Apple announced with iPadOS 16 earlier this year is Stage Manager, a totally new multitasking system that adds overlapping, resizable windows to the iPad. That feature also works on an external display, the first time that iPads could do anything besides mirror their screen on a monitor. Unfortunately, the feature was limited to iPads with the M1 chip — that includes the 11- and 12.9-inch iPad Pro released in May of 2021 as well as the M1-powered iPad Air which Apple released earlier this year. All other older iPads were left out.

That changes with the latest iPadOS 16 developer beta, which was just released. Now, Apple is making Stage Manager work with a number of older devices: it’ll work on the 11-inch iPad Pro (first generation and later) and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro (third generation and later). Specifically, it’ll be available on the 2018 and 2020 models that use the A12X and A12Z chips rather than just the M1. However, there is one notable missing feature for the older iPad Pro models — Stage Manager will only work on the iPad’s build-in display. You won’t be able to extend your display to an external monitor.

Apple also says that developer beta 5 of iPadOS 16. is removing external display support for Stage Manager on M1 iPads, something that has been present since the first iPadOS 16 beta was released a few months ago. It’ll be re-introduced in a software update coming later this year. Given that some of the iPad community has been pretty vocal about issues with Stage Manager, particularly when using it with an external display, it makes sense that Apple is taking some extra time to keep working on it. 

Obviously, we’ll need to try Stage Manager on an older iPad Pro before we can say how well it works, but the A12X and A12Z chips are still plenty powerful, so the experience should hopefully not be any different than on an M1 iPad. It’s a bummer that external monitor support isn’t included, but this should still be welcome news to people who bought Apple’s most expensive iPads in the last few years.

Apple provided Engadget with the following statement about this update:

We introduced Stage Manager as a whole new way to multitask with overlapping, resizable windows on both the iPad display and a separate external display, with the ability to run up to eight live apps on screen at once. Delivering this multi-display support is only possible with the full power of M1-based iPads. Customers with iPad Pro 3rd and 4th generation have expressed strong interest in being able to experience Stage Manager on their iPads. In response, our teams have worked hard to find a way to deliver a single-screen version for these systems, with support for up to four live apps on the iPad screen at once.

External display support for Stage Manager on M1 iPads will be available in a software update later this year.

Source: Engadget – The latest iPadOS 16 beta brings Stage Manager to older iPad Pro models

The Google Play Store is notorious for making it difficult to find apps optimized for non-phone devices —you’ve often had to guess and hope for the best. Now, however, it just involves a couple of taps. Google says it recently added Play Store home pages to its Android app with recommendations for Android Automotive, Android TV and Wear OS apps. Visit “other devices” and you can find a health tracker for your Galaxy Watch 5, or a video service for your Chromecast.

New search filters also limit results to those that support non-phone hardware. If you find something you like, you can remotely install it from your handset. Google also noted that it previously revised the Play Store website to improve navigation and features like remote installs.

The move follows efforts to accommodate tablet users, and could be helpful if you can’t (or just don’t want to) search for apps on the device where you’ll use them. That’s particularly helpful for Wear OS users who might have to browse apps on a tiny screen. You might find more apps for your devices and (as Google no doubt hopes) increase your chances of sticking to the Android ecosystem.

It’s also difficult to ignore the timing. Google is formally debuting the Pixel Watch at its New York City event on October 6th, and just revamped the 1080p Chromecast. The improved app discovery could help sell these products to customers wondering if their favorite app is available. Not that you’ll likely mind if you prefer third-party gear — this might boost Android as a whole.

Source: Engadget – Google Play Store finally makes it easier to find Android TV and Wear OS apps