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Richard Lawler

Richard Lawler

Senior News Editor

Senior News Editor

    More From Richard Lawler

    Apple’s iPhone ‘batterygate’ settlement payments should start going out soonApple’s iPhone ‘batterygate’ settlement payments should start going out soon
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Now everyone can post Telegram Stories.

    After launching a few weeks ago as a Premium-only feature, Telegram rolled out Stories to all users starting today in celebration of its 10th birthday (via TechCrunch).

    While lots of platforms have Stories posts (although Twitter / X isn’t one of them — we miss you, Fleets), this one allows editing of live posts. Also, one feature that’s staying Premium-only for paid users is a “Stealth Mode” that erases their views from anything watched for five minutes before and for the next 25 minutes after.

    Animatiopn showing the process of editing a Telegram stories post, with text and stickers.
    Image: Telegram
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Nikola recalls 209 trucks after determining a battery fire was due to a leak — not sabotage.

    Theranos-adjacent trucking company Nikola Motors admitted late Friday night that “a coolant leak inside a single battery pack was found to be the probable cause of the truck fire” at its HQ on June 23rd. The company blames a supplier component for the leak and says it’s working on a fix for affected trucks, which can stay in service. (via Wall Street Journal).

    Oh, and as for its initial claim that “foul play is suspected”? Here’s the explanation:

    The company’s initial statement on June 23 alluded to foul play as a possible cause of the incident, based on video footage showing a vehicle parked next to the impacted trucks and quickly pulling away after a bright flash and the commencement of the fire. Extensive internal and third party-led hypothesis testing, employee and contractor interviews, and hours of video footage review has since suggested foul play or other external factors were unlikely to have caused the incident.

    Nikola Announces Preliminary Results of Battery Investigations, Voluntarily Recalls 209 Class 8 Battery-Electric Trucks

    [Nikola Motor]

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    eBay recognizes its first union.

    Months after workers at eBay acquisition TCGplayer — known for dealing in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, and Magic: The Gathering cards — won a vote to unionize, the company has finally recognized their union and committed to starting negotiations.

    This follows the NLRB rejecting eBay’s appeal and comes well after worker complaints over its delays, as well as intimidation tactics.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Music labels are suing the Internet Archive too.

    The Internet Archive’s Great 78 project launched in 2017 and streams thousands of digitized 78rpm discs and cylinder recordings for free. Now music labels, including Universal, Sony, and Concord, are suing, citing 2,749 sound-recording copyrights they say it’s infringed and pointing to the Music Modernization Act of 2018 (via Reuters).

    They’re pursuing damages of up to $412 million, while the Archive is also battling book publishers in court over its National Emergency Library program.

    For more information on the Music Modernization Act, check out this episode of The Vergecast.

    iPhone 14, 14 Pro owners complain about battery capacity that’s already falling offiPhone 14, 14 Pro owners complain about battery capacity that’s already falling off
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    What if your mobile apps weren’t spying on you and exposing your data?

    Meet Veilid (pronounced Vay-Lid), an open-source, peer-to-peer application framework launched at Def Con this week.

    Described as “conceptually similar to IPFS and Tor,” the team behind it says it will bring the better parts of those with more performance and security for messaging, file-sharing, or social network apps that don’t harvest user data.

    As proof of concept, the team has posted source code for VeilidChat, a Signal-like messaging app. There’s more coverage from the Washington Post, Engadget, and The Register.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    This shouldn’t have to be said.

    But...

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    How to upgrade the storage on an Apple Silicon device (even if you probably shouldn’t).

    YouTuber Luke Miani previously explained how Apple blocks easy storage swaps in the Mac Studio, but with an assist from dosdude1, now he is showing how to upgrade the storage of this 256GB M1 Mac mini running macOS Ventura (via Apple Insider).

    Taking it to 2TB requires carefully removing the existing chips and soldering on a pair of blank NAND chips. The swap is cheap at $100, assuming you have the know-how and equipment, but not easy. But, if you can do it, Miani notes, you could always double down and upgrade your RAM the same way.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    For your consideration.

    iOS 17 is moving the end call button as it brings in the Contact Poster, but where would things end up with a more significant rework?

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