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Tech Archive

Archives for October 2024

Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
The secret to Tesla’s earnings comeback is energy.

Tesla exceeded expectations by delivering a great third quarter earnings report, but selling more cars wasn’t the reason. As noticed by Sherwood, the real winner was the company’s home energy and storage business, which spiked by nearly 50 percent year over year. And it was significantly more profitable too, with gross margins nearly double that for its automotive business. Maybe Tesla should double down on renewable energy, and not robots?

Tesla drinking in the energy.
Tesla drinking in the energy.
Screenshot: Sherwood
Meta signs its first big AI deal for newsMeta signs its first big AI deal for news
Waymo just raised $5.6 billion to spread robotaxis to more citiesWaymo just raised $5.6 billion to spread robotaxis to more cities
Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Wonder is the weirdest kind of fast food delivery.

Our friends at New York peek into Wonder, the rapidly-expanding fancy food hall / delivery app that partners with fancy chefs and restaurants to bring their signature dishes to more locations. The back-end is, well, food kits?

Once items make it to the larger menu, they’re prepped in a centralized commercial kitchen in New Jersey and sent daily, mostly as kits, to Wonder’s stores, where everything is finished to order. (Not for nothing, Wonder acquired the meal-kit service Blue Apron last year.) It’s not heat-and-eat, as Blue Apron is, or even reheated, Wonder’s CMO, Daniel Shlossman, assured me, but it is true that all of the finishing can be done in the restaurants’ all-electric kitchens by non-chef staffs, which are outfitted with quick-cooking ovens, hot-water baths, and electric fryers. There are no flames in Wonder kitchens.

One the one hand: brilliant. On the other: weird!

Wonder Is Everywhere, But What Is It?

[Grub Street]

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
The Raspberry Pi’s new add-on boosts its AI capabilities.

Following its first AI kit introduced last June, Raspberry Pi announced its new AI HAT+ add-on this week. It’s redesigned to give Hailo’s AI processor improved heat dissipation which boosts performance to 26 tera operations per second (TOPS) for $110. The company says that’s enough power to run more sophisticated neural networks in real time, and even several of them at once.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
LinkedIn now has over 55 million verified users.

The company tells CNBC that it has the “most verified individual human identities of any major social network.” LinkedIn plans to authenticate the identities of 100 million users by 2025 through its free verification process. It will also start showing verification badges on posts within the main feed, CNBC reports.

LinkedIn says it has verified 55 million users in effort to combat AI's spread of scams, misinformation

[CNBC]

Amazon’s Like a Dragon works better as a mob drama than a Yakuza adaptation

Like a Dragon proves that a quality adaptation doesn’t always have to be a faithful one.

Ash Parrish
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
What else can we upgrade with retractable charging cables?

Following leaked images of an Anker car charger with a retractable cable, Baseus has announced a new 5-in-1 desktop charger with a 2.6-foot long USB-C cable that fully retracts when not in use, reducing cable clutter. For $149.99 the charger also includes a wireless Qi2 charging pad, a status screen, and up to 140W of power delivery through one of its additional USB-C ports.

The Baseus Nomos 5-in-1 desktop charger with nothing connected to it against a white background.
You can charge five devices while battling cable clutter with Baseus’ new 140W desktop charger.
Image: Baseus
The confusing state of Apple IntelligenceThe confusing state of Apple Intelligence
Adobe execs say artists need to embrace AI or get left behindAdobe execs say artists need to embrace AI or get left behind
Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Go read how the US government’s big bet on Intel is in jeopardy.

Intel stands to receive $8.5 billion in CHIPS Act funding, ostensibly to make America lead in silicon again, but Intel’s not looking like much of a leader right now. Among other things, Anna Swanson and Tripp Mickle at The New York Times found out Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has asked Big Tech to order chips from Intel fabs — and most of them said no.

The White House Bet Big on Intel. Will It Backfire?

[The New York Times]

Microsoft prepares for OpenAI’s next model as their relationship strainsMicrosoft prepares for OpenAI’s next model as their relationship strains
The company behind Arc is now building a second, much simpler browserThe company behind Arc is now building a second, much simpler browser
OpenAI plans to release its next big AI model by DecemberOpenAI plans to release its next big AI model by December
Kylie Robison and Tom Warren
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
The FCC is reviewing the quality of customer support from internet and phone providers.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, in a statement:

We can and should expect consistent, transparent, and helpful customer service from the communications companies that provide so many services that are so vital in our day-to-day lives. No one should get stuck in a doom loop trying to cancel a subscription or just get a human being to help resolve their service problems.

Let’s hope it leads to the eventual removal of those doom loops.

FCC to Review Broadband, Cable, and Phone Provider Customer Support

[www.fcc.gov]

Most Popular

Most Popular
  1. The US is charging an American citizen for wiping his phone at the border
  2. X Money is launching in the US starting today
  3. Xbox’s huge outage even blocked games on disc
  4. Meta is royally screwing up its smart glasses rollout
  5. This is my new favorite laptop, but thanks to RAMageddon the price already went up by $800