Thursday’s top tech news: an Apple ecosystem for all

Well, that was quick.

After just a few years on the market, Mercedes-Benz’s “EQ” brand for electric vehicles — which currently includes the EQS, EQE, and a host of others coming soon — may be on the way out. The news was first reported by Germany’s Handelsblatt daily newspaper and has since been confirmed by Reuters and other outlets.

Congress has denied the Army’s request to buy up to 6,900 headsets based on Microsoft’s HoloLens technology, according to a report from Bloomberg. The military was apparently asking for around $400 million — instead, it’s getting around a tenth of that to go toward improving the system, as previous versions reportedly caused “mission-affecting physical impairments,” such as headaches and nausea during tests.

It was those results that reportedly led to the budget for new headsets, called Integrated Visual Augmentation Systems or IVAS by the Army, not being included in the government’s $1.75 trillion spending bill. The Army says it plans to fix those, though, with a version 1.2 that will include “a new form factor” meant to address the physical symptoms, as well as “a lower profile heads-up display with distributed counterweight for improved user interface and comfort” and software improvements.

ExxonMobil predicted rising global temperatures with remarkable accuracy even as it attempted to downplay the existence of climate change, new research shows. It comes with damning data visualizations that put hard numbers on just how much ExxonMobil knew about the climate crisis it was creating.

There’s been a litany of evidence about how ExxonMobil rejected mainstream climate science, even though the company’s own research and internal communications acknowledged that burning fossil fuels would cause global warming. Now, a paper published today in the journal Science gives us the first comprehensive review of decades of ExxonMobil climate models. And the company’s projections for how much global temperatures would rise over the years were pretty much on the dot.

Madden NFL 23’s newest title update briefly locked players out of the game on Thursday, EA confirmed on Twitter. It’s the latest in a string of issues to plague the popular football title over the past few weeks.

At 11:43AM ET Thursday, EA’s Madden NFL Direct Twitter account shared that “we are aware of players being unable to access the game after downloading the latest Title Update.” Many players reported problems on Downdetector, while fans on the Madden Reddit posted threads expressing their frustrations with the issues. At 12:12PM ET, the Madden NFL Direct account said the issue had been resolved.

HBO Max is the next streaming service to get a price increase, its first one since launching in 2020. Starting Thursday, the cost of a new subscription to HBO Max will increase from $14.99 to $15.99 per month. Existing subscribers will pay the new price with their next billing cycle “on or after” February 11th.

“This price increase of one dollar will allow us to continue to invest in providing even more culture-defining programming and improving our customer experience for all users,” HBO Max wrote in a press email.

The smart home at CES wasn’t all Matter, Matter, Matter. At The Verge, we covered the launch of literally dozens of new products at the big consumer tech show. From innovations in smart lighting and exciting products in smart home energy management to flying cameras and wirelessly charging smart locks, there was a lot of great new tech to see.

But there were a few that we didn’t highlight during the show, as well as a couple of genuine surprises we discovered roaming the show floor. Here’s a round-up of some of the other innovations, gadgets, and new products that caught our eye in Las Vegas. And in case you missed it, catch up on all our smart home coverage from the show floor here.

Almost until the moment of his arrest in the Bahamas a month ago, Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) post-FTX collapse media tour included days of back-to-back Twitter Spaces and Zoom calls. Now, top executives of companies in his crypto empire have pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges of fraud and money laundering and are cooperating with the prosecution, while Bankman-Fried — free on a $250 million bond and still giving interviews — pleaded not guilty to eight similar charges and has followed up by launching a newsletter while he awaits trial.

Published this morning on Substack, the “FTX Pre-mortem Overview” message from the former CEO says, among other things, that “I didn’t steal funds, and I certainly didn’t stash billions away.”

Airbus is testing out a suite of new automated technology that it says has the potential to improve the safety and efficiency of flying.

The automated technology, which has been branded as the company’s DragonFly project, includes “automated emergency diversion in cruise, automatic landing, and taxi assistance,” Airbus says.

Intel is launching its fastest desktop processor to date, breaking the 6GHz barrier at stock speeds for the first time. The new Core i9-13900KS is based on the 13th Gen Core i9-13900K that came close to the 6GHz barrier with its 5.8GHz turbo frequency last year. The new i9-13900KS will be available in stores today, priced at $699.

The 13900KS is the first CPU to reach 6GHz without overclocking, using Intel’s Thermal Velocity Boost technology to reach that 6GHz barrier and improve PC gaming performance. It does it by using more electricity, though. The base power of the 13900K was 125 watts, and Intel has bumped this up to 150 watts on the 13900KS. At max turbo power, it will hit slightly above 250 watts — just like the 13900K.

The PC market is in rough waters, and it was for much of last year. Worldwide PC shipments fell by 16 percent in 2022, according to recent analysis by Canalys, while Gartner reported a 28.5 percent year-over-year drop in Q4 — the largest quarterly shipment decline since Gartner began tracking the PC market. Every PC maker except Apple saw year-over-year decline. Laptop sales are said to have suffered the most.

This all made for a somewhat uncertain backdrop heading into CES 2023, the annual conference where tech companies show off the products they’ll be releasing in 2023. Throughout the show, executives and representatives from various PC manufacturers acknowledged that the industry has a big task ahead of it this year: keep the laptop exciting.

Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series is expected to be unveiled for the first time at the upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event on February 1st, but we already have a solid idea of what the device will look like. Leaked renders posted by WinFuture reveal both the design and color options available for the base model Galaxy S23 handset.

According to WinFuture’s Roland Quandt, these are official marketing images from Samsung, and not fan-made renders based on previous models or design predictions. If you want a better look at the new handset, WinFuture has other images listed on its report.

The next generation of Apple’s popular AirPods headphones could launch in the second half of 2024, or first half of 2025, according to a new prediction from noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The lineup will reportedly include a more affordable pair of AirPods priced at $99, as well as a new model of Apple’s over-ear AirPods Max headphones (released in 2020).

The rumored $99 AirPods would undercut the price of Apple’s current most affordable AirPods (its second-generation model) by $30. Meanwhile, the third-generation AirPods currently sell for $169 for a model that charges via a wired Lightning cable only, or for $179 with a case that can charge wirelessly via MagSafe. Reducing the price of the entry-level AirPods model mirrors what Apple did with its Apple TV lineup last year, when it launched a new set-top box that was $50 cheaper than its previously most affordable version.

Apple’s Music and TV apps for Windows have made an appearance, with preview versions of the apps being spotted on the Microsoft Store by The Verifier (via MacRumors). Last October, Microsoft announced they were coming to the platform, letting users finally ditch the old iTunes app and Apple TV web player for native software that is closer to the experience embedded in macOS.

There’s also a third preview of an app called Apple Devices, which is meant to let you manage and sync things like iPods and iPads — functionality that’s currently handled by iTunes on Windows and Finder on the Mac. It also, apparently, contains some references to Reality OS and xrOS, two codenames that have reportedly been associated with Apple’s virtual reality headset.

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked to the International Space Station (ISS) began leaking coolant early last month, leading to concerns about whether the vehicle would be safe to transport ISS crew members back to Earth.

NASA and Russian space agency Roscosmos have now announced they will be sending a replacement spacecraft for NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin in which to travel home. A SpaceX Crew Dragon is also available as a contingency option should it be required.