A Twitter account that tracked the flights of Elon Musk’s private jet is no more. The company has permanently suspended @ElonJet, as Jack Sweeney, a college student who ran the account, noted.
Sweeney used publicly available flight data to operate @ElonJet and accounts that track flights of other public figures. Over the weekend, Sweeney said screenshots provided by a Twitter employee indicated that the company limited the reach of @ElonJet. On Monday, Sweeney said it seemed there were no longer any restrictions on the account, but Twitter has since dropped the banhammer.
In January, a few months before Musk announced a deal to buy Twitter, he offered Sweeney $5,000 to delete the account. Sweeney rejected the overture, instead asking for $50,000. As CNBCnotes, @ElonJet had more than half a million followers. Sweeney also runs a version of the bot on Instagram.
Self-proclaimed free speech absolutist Musk, who has caused chaos at Twitter since taking over the company, suggested in November that he would not ban @ElonJet, despite claiming the account “is a direct personal safety risk.” It’s unclear whether Musk himself reversed course or one of his employees made the call to suspend @ElonJet. Twitter no longer has a communications department that can be reached for comment.
McLaren may be about to embark on its inaugural Formula E season next month, but the legendary racing outfit didn’t have to start from scratch. The company took over Mercedes-EQ operations at the end of last season, bringing an experienced crew along to develop its first papaya-hued EV street racers. Part of that crew was team principal Ian James, who’s now also managing director for McLaren Electric Racing as a whole. As the team prepares for the debut of Formula E’s Gen3 car in Mexico City, we sat down with James as well as drivers Jake Hughes and René Rast for a status update on development and the challenges ahead for Season 9.
“What’s really helped is that the team that’s been together over the past two or three seasons has largely stayed intact,” James said. “So that experience that we built up, we’re carrying forward into Gen3.” James further explained that he hopes that level of continuity will be key to achieving the goals McLaren has set for Season 9. Due to the limited testing opportunities ahead of the first race, the team may need to rely heavily on that experience.
Teams are only permitted to conduct a handful of on-track testing sessions before the first race of the season in mid-January. Because McLaren is a customer team – they’re running Nissan powertrains instead of building their own – they don’t get “the privilege of doing all the test days that the regulations of the championship dictate,” driver Jake Hughes explained.
Before the official preseason test this week in Valencia (six sessions across three days), Hughes and teammate René Rast have only had one proper test day, a shakedown at Bicester Heritage near McLaren HQ and a few low-power runs for media and staff. Formula E did add an additional shakedown session ahead of the official test dates this week and the championship designated a Wednesday time slot for a mock race that will include qualifying and a test of the new ABB rapid chargers. The Race reports that Formula E is also considering adding another session on Thursday on what was originally scheduled as a day off.
Rast and Hughes inspect the Gen3 car.
Engadget
“We haven’t actually had a lot of on-track running,” Hughes continued. “The simulator has been the bulk of our work.” He argued that the lack of track time won’t make things more difficult for him to prepare for Gen3, even as a Formula E rookie. “It’s going to be challenging no matter what – Formula E is such a difficult championship,” Hughes said. “I'm fully aware of the challenges I have ahead of me and I will do absolutely the best I have with what I have underneath me.”
Hughes arrived in Formula E with experience in both F3 and F2, the junior series that develop talent for Formula 1. Those cars are obviously a lot different, both from a design and a powertrain standpoint. Hughes explained that the “dirty air” aspect of those feeder series and the difficulty with overtaking aren’t part of Formula E. In most races, the races run in a train, nose to tail, and you can pass when you want – so long as you’re willing to spend the extra energy to do so. So for the McLaren rookie, even though he has experience as a Formula E reserve driver, a key challenge is developing new race strategies.
“Strategy is involved in every racing series around the world, but in Formula E, it’s really critical,” he said. “Every decision you make has a huge knock-on effect with how you use your energy later on in the race.”
Rast explained the McLaren duo had probably spent 10 days in the simulator through the end of November with more planned ahead of the Valencia test. “That’s the only thing we can more or less do to prepare ourselves for the car because the testing is very limited and the simulator is the closest you can get,” he said. Simulated running isn’t just for the drivers though, engineers and other parts of the team are also included in those sessions. That will continue throughout the season as simulator work happens before and after every race.
The team is well aware that they’re likely facing “a very steep learning curve” when they arrive at the first E-Prix of Season 9 in Mexico City next month, according to James’ assessment. “I think it’s the teams that deal with that in the most efficient manner are the ones that will come out on top,” he continued. James specifically mentioned the new front powertrain and added regenerative abilities that will change energy management strategies, even for experienced members of the McLaren team. Aside from the updates that a more powerful Gen3 car brings, James said alterations to the race format will “throw a few curveballs in there as well.”
Formula E announced changes to the races last month, getting rid of Fan Boost and replacing Attack Mode with Attack Charge at some races. The new battery technology inside the Gen3 cars allows for quick charging, but while Formula E had planned to bring back pit stops for that purpose, the infrastructure needed to do so isn’t quite race-ready. And on top of the series having to switch things up pretty late in the game, the teams still aren’t entirely sure how the new race format will work, which partially explains the mock race.
McLaren
“Obviously, Attack Mode is still the key ingredient for the race.” Rast said. “But the rest we’re going to see once the season starts.”
James explained that the teams were able to give input on the Gen3 sporting regulations as they were developed by the FIA (Formula E’s governing body). He foresees more excitement in Season 9 due to the increased flexibility in strategy the new format and guidelines will allow. So, in spite of the current unknowns, McLaren’s team principal is optimistic that “the racing this year will be closer than ever.”
“That’s going to make the racing even more exciting,” he continued. “It’s going to be more of a challenge for the engineers, working together with the drivers to make sure that we plan in the right way before the race, but then also to react to changes and the various different situations that can arise.”
And then there are the tires. Formula E is switching from a treaded Michelin tire to a custom-made compound from Hankook for Gen3. Both the old and new tires are designed to be run in both dry and wet conditions, though the Michelin compound would wear down so much on some circuits that it would basically be slick by the end of the race. Hughes explained that the Hankook version “behaves very differently,” and should be more durable.
Rast in the driver's seat.
McLaren
Still, the prospect and challenge of Formula E is as much of a thrill for the drivers as ever. With Gen3, the series has moved from having to change cars during a race to complete the distance to one that will stop for a 30-second charge. It can also hit 200MPH with a 350kW motor and is capable of regenerating 40 percent of its energy. It’s the ability to show off the potential of EVs to people around the world that excites Rast.
“It’s amazingly quick, it’s a proper race car,” he explained. “We try to bring motorsport into the cities to make people aware of what’s actually possible with electrification.”
Hughes agreed, noting that the potential for carryover from technology from Formula E cars to electric road cars is something he’s happy to be part of. “We can basically help develop the future for electric mobility,” he said. “A lot of the stuff we’re developing for Gen3 I wouldn’t be surprised if you see it on road cars within the decade. What we’re doing will have a knock-on effect that even right now we’re not fully aware of.”
Despite the chaos of the offseason prep and limited testing, the work McLaren has put in appears to be heading in the right direction. Hughes was second fastest across both sessions on the first day of testing in Valencia, less than a tenth of a second behind Masterati’s Maximilian Guenther.
Have you wanted to buy the latest MacBook Air, but didn't want to pay the premium over the M1 model? You might not have to. Amazon is selling the base MacBook Air M2 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage at a new all-time low of $999, or the same price you usually see for its older counterpart. You'll find a similar $200 discount for the 512GB model, too. You'll have to choose from certain colors, but your system should arrive before Christmas if you order soon.
We'll be frank: the MacBook Air M2 is the definition of a well-rounded laptop. It's thin and light, of course, but it's also fast for media editing and day-to-day productivity. There's a great display, surprisingly robust speakers and strong battery life. And did we mention that it's completely silent? While you wouldn't get the Air M2 for gaming or heavy-duty content creation, it's a treat to use for most other tasks.
There are some considerations before you jump in. As the MacBook Air M2 doesn't have a fan, it will throttle under extended heavy workloads. You'll want to buy a MacBook Pro if you're frequently editing movies or music. The 8GB of RAM on these configurations is more useful than it sounds, but it might prove limiting if you routinely juggle multiple demanding apps. You won't get higher-end MacBook Pro perks like an SD card slot or a 120Hz screen, either. At this price, though, the new Air makes sense even if you occasionally need to test its limits.
And if $999 is still too much, don't fret. Amazon currently has the MacBook Air M1 on sale at $799. You won't get the M2 model's added performance, sleeker profile, trip-resistant MagSafe power cable or larger display, but it's still a capable system with lengthy battery life and silent operation. It's just a question of whether or not you're willing to compromise in the name of the best possible price.
YouTube is rolling out updates today around toxic comments that violate community guidelines, TechCrunch has reported. Previously, it has used tools like popups to encourage "respectful" interactions, but it's now taking a (slightly) more assertive approach with warnings and timeouts.
If YouTube detects and removes abusive comments, it will notify the user that they've violated community guidelines. If the same person continues to post toxic comments, they'll receive a "timeout" and be unable to leave further comments for 24 hours. If users believe their comments shouldn't have been pulled, they can share that feedback — though YouTube didn't say if that would help remove the timeout.
Prior to the rollout today, YouTube trialed the featured and found it to be effective. "Our testing has shown that these warnings/timeouts reduce the likelihood of users leaving violative comments again," it wrote in the blog post.
YouTube famously has one of the more toxic comments sections in social media, and is also overrun with bots offering fake giveaways, crypto and more. To address that problem, YouTube said that it's "improving our automated detection systems and machine learning models to identify and remove spam." It noted that it removed over 1.1 billion spammy comments in the first half of 2022, and said its machine learning models are continuously improving as spammers change tactics.
Fans of several Spotify live audio shows will soon have to say goodbye to their favorite programs. According to Bloomberg, the music and audio streaming service is ending the production of shows such as Doughboys: Snack Pack, Deux Me After Dark, which describes itself as the "place for the latest tea on your favorite celebrities," The Movie Buff with comedian Jon Gabrus, and A Gay in the Life, which provides a safe space for conversations about the LGBTQ+ experience. The aforementioned shows have either already ended or have announced that they're going off the air soon.
A company spokesperson has confirmed the cancellations to Bloomberg. The news organization also heard from sources that Spotify ended some of the programs before their creators' contracts were up but that the service will still pay them the entire amount it promised.
Several companies, including Spotify, saw live audio programming a new area for growth during the height of the pandemic when Clubhouse blew up in popularity. In Spotify's case, it gave Locker Room, the audio-based social network for sports fans that it acquired in March 2021, an overhaul and renamed it Greenroom. It launched a dedicated Greenroom app last year before rebranding it again as Spotify Live in April and integrating live audio inside of its main app. While cancelling multiple shows indicate that the company is stepping back from live audio, it's not killing the format completely. Bloomberg says The Fantasy Footballers and The Ringer MMA Show will continue as usual.
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple’s software and services teams are redesigning the platform to "open up key elements." That could lead to the company giving iPhone and iPad users the option to download third-party apps without going through the App Store. Developers could then avoid the company's infamous 30- and 15-percent commission on payments.
This could be to prepare for the European Union’s Digital Markets and Services Act. The act calls for interoperability between messaging platforms and equal access for outside developers to core operating system features, as well as allowing for sideloading – the ability to install on a device outside official app stores. Apple maintains this will be a security and privacy risk. US lawmakers are considering similar legislation to the Digital Markets Act, but their version, the Open App Markets Act, has yet to pass.
Messaging, too, could be an uphill struggle. RCS integration in iMessage is currently not on the table. Google has pushed the messaging protocol for years, going so far as to criticize Apple for not adopting it. Apple’s responses in the past have even included telling a reporter to buy their mom an iPhone.
– Mat Smith
The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.
As a sequel to the highest-grossing film ever – the original Avatar was criticized for its formulaic story (and the small impact it had on pop culture) – the new movie is, according to Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar, a genuine surprise. It's a sweeping epic that avoids the wobbly dialogue of the first film. From a technical perspective, James Cameron has arguably made the best high frame rate (HFR) movie yet. Certain scenes play back at 48 frames per second, giving them a smoother and more realistic sheen compared to the standard 24 fps. That leads to incredibly immersive 3D action scenes in the three hour and twelve minute runtime.
It’s a breakthrough, but the technology is still years from deployment.
A team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has created the first known fusion reaction with a net energy gain – that is, it produced more energy than it consumed and resulted in ignition. On December 5th, the researchers achieved the feat when they used 192 lasers at the National Ignition Facility to blast a cylinder containing frozen hydrogen surrounded by diamond.
The reaction, which generated a flurry of X-rays, struck a fuel pellet of deuterium and tritium with 2.05 megajoules of energy. That led to a wave of neutron particles and 3.15 megajoules of output. The gain was 'only' equivalent to about 1.5 pounds of TNT, but it was enough to meet the criteria for fusion ignition.
Amazon will offer Prime Gaming members a batch of PC games later this month at no extra cost. Along with a few Metal Slug titles, SNK 40th Anniversary Collection and a few others, you can snap up Arkane Studios' Dishonored 2 between December 27th and January 3rd.
It's not yet clear whether Amazon will offer the title through Steam, the Epic Games Store or the Amazon Games app. However, it's worth noting Steam Deck doesn’t support this game, if that was your plan. And if you’ve got a Netflix sub, the streaming service is also offering a few free games as well.
Measures in the House and Senate would also block other social apps from China and Russia.
Members of the House and Senate have introduced matching bills to block transactions from any social media company in or influenced by China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, North Korea or Venezuela. The ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act (Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party – pithy) wants to shutter access to TikTok and other apps that could theoretically funnel American user data to oppressive governments, censor news or otherwise manipulate the public.
Just ahead of the holidays, Nintendo and Sony have unveiled their 2022 year in review tools for PlayStation and Switch, letting you see stats, a summary of your favorite games and more. As in previous years, you'll not only be able to see a resume of your year in gaming, but share highlights with friends and see how you compare with other players around the world.
On PlayStation, you'll see trophy totals, the number of games played, total hours across PS4 and PS5 games and the number of PlayStation Plus games downloaded if you're a member. You'll also see stats achieved collectively by the global PlayStation community, like total miles driven in Gran Turismo 7 and the number of axes thrown in God of War Ragnarok. At the end of the experience, you’ll receive a summary card (below) that can be shared with other players.
Sony
Nintendo has a similar tool for the Switch, with a report showing which games you played the most and for how long. You can also see which titles you were playing on a month by month basis, and share images of the report on social media. You'll also see an overall year in review showing which games were played most and for how long in 2022.
It's time for your year in review with #NintendoSwitch! Check the link below to learn about your most-played games, hours played, and more!
TikToksaid last year that it reached one billion monthly active users worldwide, so whatever it's doing is clearly working. That hasn't stopped the ByteDance-owned company from testing and introducing new features, though, including those that put it in direct competition with YouTube. Case in point, its latest experiment that gives select users worldwide access to a horizontal full screen mode for videos they watch on their phones.
The company has confirmed to TechCrunch that users chosen to be part of this test will see a button on square or rectangle videos in their feed. If they tap on that button, the video will expand horizontally to take up the whole screen. TikToks are famous for being short vertical videos, and creators still have to put a "turn your phone" message at the beginning of theirs if they filmed in landscape mode. If the company does launch this feature, they wouldn't have to do that anymore, and other creators might be more inclined to film landscape videos. Of course, a wide release depends on testers' response to the feature, among other factors.
This is but the latest move the company has made in an effort to capture audiences who might like YouTube's format better. Earlier this year, for instance, TikTok extended its maximum video length from three minutes to ten minutes. That said, it's not exactly lagging behind the Google-owned video platform: According to a previous TechCrunch report, kids and teens have been spending more time on TikTok than YouTube since the middle of 2020.
ARM won't sell its latest Neoverse V series chips to Chinese tech giant Alibaba after concluding that the US and UK would not approve licenses to export them, according to The Financial Times. The decision follows new US government rules restricting China and Russia exports of powerful chips that could be repurposed for military use.
Softbank-owned ARM reportedly believes that Neoverse V would fall into the category of high-performance processors affected by the new rules. While it could apply for a license, it would likely be turned down, according to FT's sources with knowledge of the sale process. It may be the first time that ARM has decided not to sell it's most advanced chip designs to China.
ARM designs the advanced RISC architecture for chips used in products ranging from smartwatches to advanced supercomputers. It doesn't build the processors itself, but sells the designs to manufacturers like TSMC and Samsung. Its latest Neoverse V2 core has the highest performance to date, with a design said to have originated in the US.
The Biden administration is also reportedly set to put Chinese chip manufacturer YMTC on its entity list as early as next week, according to a separate FT article. The company reportedly violated US export controls by supplying Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei with NAND memory chips.
The US government had YMTC on an "unverified" entity list, meaning it was unable carry out checks to confirming that domestic technology wasn't being used illegally. Thirty Chinese companies including YMTC had 60 days to comply to avoid being placed on an entity list that severely restricts exports. The Chinese government now allows such checks, but not all companies are necessarily cooperating.
The US unveiled sweeping tech export controls in October. "This includes preventing China’s acquisition and use of US technology in the context of its military-civil fusion program to fuel its military modernization efforts, conduct human rights abuses, and enable other malign activities," it said at the time. When the rules were announced, analysts said that memory chipmakers like YMTC would be most affected.
China filed a dispute with the World Trade Organization earlier this week over those export controls. The US government considers YMTC to be a "national champion" in China, so the latest move is likely to be met with a strong reaction.
Back in February, Tesla chief Elon Musk revealed on Twitter that the automaker is working to bring Steam to its vehicles. Now, the company is officially rolling out Steam integration for the latest versions of its Model S and X cars as part of its holiday update. In its promo video of the feature, you'll see Tesla's infotainment system running Steam Beta and even graphically demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077.
By "new" Model S and X vehicles, Tesla likely means their "Plaid" versions, which started deliveries last year. Both models' infotainment systems use AMD's RDNA 2 GPUs, which are also the technology behind PlayStation 5, and AMD's Ryzen chips. Tesla has been building its library of in-vehicle games over the past few years and has added titles such as Cuphead, PUBG Mobile and Fallout Shelter to its offerings. By bringing Steam to its vehicles, though, Tesla is adding more than just a game or two to the growing list. The automaker said in its announcement that the integration will bring thousands of games to the aforementioned cars.
Tesla previously got into trouble with the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for allowing people to play games even while driving. It disabled the capability following the agency's investigation, however, so people most likely can't play Steam games while the vehicles are in motion.
In addition to Steam integration, Tesla's holiday update also gives owners access to Apple Music integration for their infotainment systems. It gives them the ability to schedule Light Shows on multiple vehicles simultaneously, as well, and to view their cabin camera from the Tesla app while in Dog Mode or Sentry Mode.
