Technology

Ulrich Kranz, a former BMW executive and the recently departed CEO and co-founder of EV startup Canoo, has been hired by Apple, the company has confirmed to The Verge. Kranz will reportedly work on the Silicon Valley behemoth’s electric car under Doug Field, the former Tesla executive who runs the day-to-day operations of the project, which is codenamed “Project Titan.” News of Kranz joining Apple was first reported by Bloomberg. Kranz was one of the executives who helped launch BMW’s all-electric i3 hatchback and hybrid i8 sports car. Shortly after he left the German automaker at the end of 2016, he and fellow BMW executive Stefan Krause were tapped to help turn around struggling EV startup Faraday Future. The pair clashed with Faraday Future’s founder, though, and in late 2017, they left...

Tesla will hold a delivery event for its new, high-performance “Plaid” version of the Model S on Thursday. It’s an effort by Elon Musk’s company to reignite interest in its nearly decade-old electric sedan, which is also facing stiff competition from Porsche and Mercedes-Benz. When its released, Musk claims the Plaid Model S will be the “quickest production car ever made.” The event, which will be held at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, CA, will be livestreamed for the public starting at 7PM PT / 10PM ET (though the event may not actually begin until closer to 8:30PM PT). It was originally scheduled for June 3rd, but Musk pushed it to the 10th after tweeting that the vehicle needed “one more week of tweak.” The delivery of the refreshed Model S has also been delayed, with the company originall...

Our first look at Kevin Smith’s revival of He-Man is here: today, Netflix debuted the first trailer for Masters of the Universe: Revelation, which will hit the streaming service on July 23rd. Unlike She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, which also streamed on Netflix, the new He-Man series isn’t a reboot of the classic cartoon. Instead, it’s a continuation, which picks up right after the original show ended in 1985, with the excellent addition of Mark Hamill as Skeletor. Here’s how Smith, who is serving as showrunner, describes it: Narratively our show is set up as the next episode in the legacy ‘80s animated series that aired from 1983-1985. This is a continuation of that story. We’re playing with the original mythology and characters, and revisiting and digging deeper into some of the unre...

Following Apple’s acquisition of popular weather app Dark Sky in March 2020, Dark Sky’s iOS app and website will be available until the end of 2022, co-founder Adam Grossman said in a Monday update to Dark Sky’s blog (via 9to5Mac). The update about the 2022 shutdown hit the same day that Apple announced new weather features coming to iOS 15 as part of its WWDC keynote presentation. The stock Weather app is getting a new design, full-screen weather maps, next-hour precipitation notifications, and even new animated backgrounds. Dark Sky shut down the Android and Wear OS versions of its apps on August 1st, 2020. But the iOS app is still available for $3.99 on the App Store, if you’re interested in buying it ahead of next year’s shutdown. The Dark Sky API will also continue to work for existin...

Netflix’s expansion into anime continues. Today, the streaming service announced details for a number of exciting shows, ranging from a horror series with characters designed by Final Fantasy’s Yoshitaka Amano to the next chapter in the Gundam franchise to another Godzilla show. Here’s everything that was announced: Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway [embedded content] The headliner was the return of classic mech franchise Gundam, with a series called Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway. “After Char’s rebellion, Hathaway Noa leads an insurgency against Earth Federation, but meeting an enemy officer and a mysterious woman alters his fate,” the description reads. It’s listed as coming soon and will eventually be joined by a live-action Gundam film from director Jordan Vogt-Roberts. Shaman King [embedded co...

Apple had its WWDC keynote on Monday, where it showed off the big new features coming to its platforms, but it didn’t have time to show off everything coming to the new versions of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. So we’ve combed through the preview pages, Twitter, and a good chunk of the internet to see what interesting features got left out of the presentation. The big features in iOS and iPadOS were the updates to notifications, FaceTime, and multitasking, but it appears Apple may have been really focusing on the platforms themselves, too. There are a ton of quality-of-life improvements including: Spanish speakers will be able to choose whether their devices refer to them using masculine, feminine, or neutral words. Mail is getting a widget, and there’s also a widget to show you how poorly you s...

Virtual private networks (VPNs) can offer an additional layer of security and privacy for your online activity. Whether you’re working on a public Wi-Fi network and want to escape prying eyes, or you’re worried about privacy in general, a VPN can offer a lot of benefits. In a nutshell, a VPN establishes a secure, encrypted connection between your device and a private server, hiding your traffic from being seen by others. Of course, the VPN itself can still see your traffic, which is why you should choose a VPN from a company you trust. (A good rule of thumb is to avoid free VPNs, because if they’re not charging you a fee, they may be monetizing in some less desirable way.) In addition, law enforcement can get its hands on your information through the VPN company. However, for the most part...

Google is using machine learning to help design its next generation of machine learning chips. The algorithm’s designs are “comparable or superior” to those created by humans, say Google’s engineers, but can be generated much, much faster. According to the tech giant, work that takes months for humans can be accomplished by AI in under six hours. Google has been working on how to use machine learning to create chips for years, but this recent effort — described this week in a paper in the journal Nature — seems to be the first time its research has been applied to a commercial product: an upcoming version of Google’s own TPU (tensor processing unit) chips, which are optimized for AI computation. “Our method has been used in production to design the next generation of Google TPU,” write the...

The Roku Ultra 4K HDR streaming device is $30 off at Walmart, Best Buy, and Amazon today, which drops the price to $69. This is currently Roku’s high-end model, and it apparently has 50 percent more range than the previous model, with a faster quad-core processor that makes channels launch faster. The 2020 Ultra offers 4K playback at up to 60 frames per second, as well as support for Dolby Atmos content and Atmos-ready home entertainment gear. For HDR support, it boasts Dolby Vision and HDR10 compatibility. This device has an ethernet port for the fastest streaming possible in your home, and it includes a wireless remote and a set of earbuds for private listening. Roku Ultra (2020) $69 $100 31% off Prices taken at time of publishing. The Roku Ultra is the most capable of Roku’s streaming d...

iOS 4 originally appeared nearly 10 years ago as Apple’s first mobile operating system to drop the iPhone OS naming convention. An 18-year-old developer has now lovingly recreated iOS 4 as an iPhone app, and it’s a beautiful blast from the past. If you never got the chance to use iOS 4, or you’re a fan of the iPhone 3G, OldOS almost flawlessly pulls off the experience of using an iPhone from a decade ago. OldOS is “designed to be as close to pixel-perfect as possible,” says Zane, the developer behind the app. It’s all built using Apple’s SwiftUI, so it includes buttery smooth animations and even the old iPhone home button that vibrates with haptic feedback to make it feel like a real button. Apple’s built-in iOS 4 apps have also been recreated here, and it’s a real flashback to the skeuomo...

Netflix has released the first five minutes of its upcoming anime series Trese, which is based on the Philippine horror comic of the same name. In the clip (which I’ve embedded at the top of this post), you’ll get a brief look at some of the show’s terrifying-looking monsters and be introduced to detective Alexandra Trese, the show’s protagonist. Here’s the official synopsis of Trese, from Netflix: Set in Manila where the mythical creatures of Philippine folklore live in hiding amongst humans, Alexandra Trese finds herself going head to head with a criminal underworld composed of malevolent supernatural beings. Count me intrigued. The monsters seem quite scary, and I love the supernatural elements hinted at even in these initial minutes. If you’re interested in another look at Trese before...

Samsung has announced a new image sensor for smartphone cameras that it says has the smallest pixels in the industry. The ISOCELL JN1 is a 50-megapixel sensor with a relatively tiny 1/2.76-inch format, meaning its pixels are just 0.64μm in size. For comparison, Samsung already broke records in 2019 with the slightly larger ISOCELL Slim GH1, another 50-megapixel sensor with 0.7μm pixels. Conventional camera wisdom says that smaller pixels usually result in worse image quality with higher noise, so why is Samsung doing this? According to the company, it’s about form factor versatility. The sensor’s smaller size means it can be used in ultrawide or telephoto camera modules — which are challenging to design when size is at a premium — or as a way to reduce the height of the primary camera bump...