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Toyota has revealed its plans for the future under a new CEO, and it looks like the company is finally prioritizing electrification. In his announcement, new President and CEO Koji Sato said the automaker is going to create new electric vehicles unique to Toyota and Lexus, its luxury division. He also said that the company is developing its "next-generation" battery electric vehicles, which will launch under the Lexus brand in 2026. It's not quite clear what "next-generation" means, but Sato said Toyota is working on "everything from the battery and platform to how a car is built optimized for BEVs" while also expanding its current EV lineup.

As Reuters notes, Toyota is getting flak for dragging its feet when it comes to embracing electric vehicle technology and for its reluctance to move beyond its hybrid models, such as the Prius. Sato explained during the press conference that the automaker's slow EV adoption was mostly caused by communication issues. He also announced that the automaker will continue its "multi-pathway" and "omni-directional" approach, which means it's not going to drop its hybrid vehicles anytime soon. However, Toyota intends to accelerate its EV plans under its new management and to take on "a BEV-first mindset"

So far, the automaker has only released one vehicle, the bZ4X, based on its e-TNGA BEV platform. The company previously vowed that it was going to be the first among the seven "Beyond Zero" electric vehicles it plans to release by 2025. Meanwhile, Lexus has yet to start selling the RZ, the brand's first model that was built from the ground up as an EV.

If you've been using Twitter's "For You" instead of the chronological "Following" tab as God intended, you may have noticed a problem. A number of users have remarked that the algorithmic feed has been showing a lot of Elon Musk's tweets and replies, whether they follow him or not. Twitter's CEO effectively confirmed the matter, tweeting "please stay tuned while we make adjustments to the uh... 'algorithm.'"

I'd assume that by putting "algorithm" in quotes, Musk is joking that a person, possibly himself, may actually be responsible for the change. That's not too far-fetched, considering that the Elon-forward feed arrived shortly after Musk complained about a drop in his own engagement and even reportedly fired an engineer over the issue. 

Following that episode, Musk tweeted that a fix was coming after a "long day at Twitter HQ with eng team." He said that 95 percent of his tweets weren't getting delivered to the Following feed due to an issue with something called "Fanout," so that's now been shunted to another service. He also noted that the Recommendation algorithm wasn't working correctly, "causing accounts with many followers to be dumped." 

There's no word yet on why Twitter went from "Musk lite" to "all Elon all the time," but it appears that issue is being addressed. In the meantime, you could either mute Musk (at least temporarily) or simply use the Following feed to see only the tweets you want to see, precisely when they happen. 

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T-Mobile suffered network outages on Monday night, leading to intermittent issues with its voice, text and data services, according to Reuters. Based on reports submitted to Downdetector, over 80,000 subscribers in several areas in the US were experiencing problems by around 10:14PM ET on February 14th. T-Mobile responded to users' complaints on Twitter, initially to tell people that the carrier was working on a fix for the disruption and then to update everyone about its progress. Shortly after midnight on February 14th, Neville Ray, the company's President of Technology, announced that T-Mobile has seen "significant improvement and are operating at near normal levels."

Indeed, the number of outage reports on Downdetector dramatically went down after its peak at 10PM on Monday. Ray said the outage was caused by a third-party fiber interruption issue that affected its services — for some people, even emergency numbers were inaccessible. The outages also seemed to have affected not just T-Mobile's own customers, but people who use MVNOs that rely on the carrier's network, as well. 9to5Google says Google Fi users have also been experiencing intermittent access to its services, though they'll likely be able use them as usual soon, if T-Mobile truly was able to fix the problem. 

Twitter is once again delaying the rollout of its paid API. In a tweet spotted by AppleInsider, the company said Tuesday it needs more time to complete work on the redesign. “As part of our efforts to create an optimal experience for the developer community, we will be delaying the launch of our new API platform by a few more days,” Twitter posted.

When the company first announced it was shutting down its free APIs, Twitter said it would cut access off on February 9th. It later pushed back the cutoff date to February 13th without warning. Elon Musk hasn’t said much about how paid access to Twitter’s APIs could work other than to suggest the company will charge $100 per month and add “ID verification” to limit bot abuse. The company has also said it plans to introduce a free access tier that will allow “good” bots to tweet up to 1,500 times a month.

It’s worth noting that third-party clients and the creators of automated accounts aren’t the only people who use Twitter’s APIs. Researchers frequently use the data the platform generates for a variety of purposes. For instance, in the aftermath of the recent 7.8-magnitude earthquake that has killed at least 36,000 people in Turkey and Syria, members of the Turkish diaspora have used tweets to create heatmaps that show where survivors could be located, with the intention of sharing their findings with rescue crews and aid organizations.

In a recent interview with Time, data scientists and people involved with the rescue effort said Elon Musk’s cost-cutting measures, including the multiple rounds of layoffs he has ordered since taking over the company in October, have slowed their work. The company’s API changes are likely to further impact the rescue effort. “If the API stops, the flow of data will stop and people will have to rely solely on slower ways of coordination for the relief efforts,” Sedat Kapanoglu, one of the software engineers involved in the project, told Time. “That can have life-altering effects. It’s that important.”

One of the Bay Area’s most popular ferry routes is going electric. The Angel Island Ferry is partnering with Pacific Gas and Electric Company to retrofit one of its watercraft, The Angel Island, as an EV. As part of the partnership, PG&E will help install charging infrastructure at the Angel Island ferry terminal and boost electrical transmission to the facility, so that the 59-foot-long Angel Island can carry residents and tourists without polluting the San Francisco Bay. Another company called Green Yachts will carry out the work of retrofitting the ship with an electric propulsion system.

According to PG&E, the electrified Angel Island will be California’s first zero-emissions, short-run ferry once it starts carrying passengers sometime in 2024. California is one of a few places where electric ferries are about to become a more common sight. In Canada, British Columbia’s BCFerries service recently began rolling out battery-hybrid ferries that can carry 47 vehicles between the mainland and outlying islands. Outside of North America, Stockholm, starting this year, plans to trial one of the world’s fastest electric passenger vehicles. The Candela P-12 will carry passengers between the city center and the suburban island of Ekerö.

TikTok might use a simple strategy to keep growing: help creators make extra money. The Informationsources claim TikTok is developing a paywall feature that would let producers charge $1 (or a price of their choice) to access a given video. While it's not clear exactly how the system would work, this would help influencers profit directly from their hottest clips.

The social network is also considering a revamp of its Creator Fund amid complaints about low payouts, according to the sources. TikTok would require a much larger follower count (100,000 versus 10,000), but could pay eligible creators more as a result. The fund might also reward users who produce longer videos that make good use of the recently raised 10-minute limit.

In a statement to Engadget, TikTok didn't directly comment on the supposed plans but said it was "committed" to devising new ways to make the service "valuable and rewarding" for creators. It's not clear when the paywall would be available, but the revised Creator Fund could launch as soon as March. The company is reportedly testing the new funding system in Brazil and France.

The additional rewards might be necessary. While TikTok's American user base surged during the pandemic, that audience levelled off in 2022. Paywalls and a new Creator Fund could keep social media stars posting videos on TikTok where they'd otherwise drift toward Instagram or Snapchat. The firm already has a YouTube-style program that shares ad revenue, but it's only available to a handful of top-tier users.

Any boost is contingent on TikTok surviving allegations that it's a national security threat, mind you. Federal and state politicians are pushing to ban TikTok on at least government devices over concerns the Chinese government might use the app for spying and propaganda. The company has long denied these accusations, and its CEO is poised to testify before a House committee in March. If it can't persuade officials, however, any US growth strategy could quickly fall apart.

An artificial intelligence agent recently flew the Lockheed Martin VISTA X-62A training aircraft for over 17 hours. VISTA (which stands for Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft) can use software to simulate the performance characteristics of other aircraft. On this occasion, it mimicked a human pilot instead.

The flight took place during a testing period in December. This is the first time that AI has been engaged in such a way on a tactical aircraft, Lockheed says. The aim is to use the platform to test aircraft designs that can be flown autonomously. 

"VISTA will allow us to parallelize the development and test of cutting-edge artificial intelligence techniques with new uncrewed vehicle designs," US Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS) director of research Dr. M. Christopher Cotting said in a statement. "This approach, combined with focused testing on new vehicle systems as they are produced, will rapidly mature autonomy for uncrewed platforms and allow us to deliver tactically relevant capability to our warfighter."

Lockheed's skunk works division worked with Calspan to build VISTA for the USAF TPS at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Among other things, the VISTA program has been used to develop the virtual heads-up display and voice command input system for the F-35 Lightning II.

The USAF recently upgraded the VISTA X-62A with Lockheed's Model Following Algorithm (MFA) and System for Autonomous Control of the Simulation (SACS). When integrated, these systems help VISTA carry out advanced flight tests that harness autonomy and AI.

After far too many delays to count, Dead Island 2 has a new release date once more. This time, however, publisher Deep Silver is pushing the game up by a week. Instead of arriving on April 28th as previously planned, the game will now hit consoles and PC on April 21st. “You asked for it, you got it. Dead Island 2 went gold and it’s coming out a week early,” the company said on Twitter.

Notably, the change of release date means Dead Island 2 won’t land on the same day as Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. The two games were scheduled to hit consoles and PC on the same day after Electronic Arts delayed Respawn’s new game at the end of last month. Deep Silver didn’t say as much, but after years of development hell, the last thing it likely wanted was for Dead Island 2 to compete directly against the big new Star Wars release.

Dead Island 2 was first announced all the way back in 2014. Over that time, it moved to two different studios before re-emerging this past August. The sequel to 2011’s Dead Island will be available on PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC via the Epic Games Store. It will be the first game to feature Amazon’s Alexa Game Control technology.

Whether or not Blue Origin puts a lander on the Moon, it might play a key role in sustaining lunar operations. Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company has revealed that it can produce solar cells and transmission wire using simulated Moon regolith. The firm's Blue Alchemist technique uses molten electrolysis to separate the lunar soil's aluminum, iron and silicon from bound oxygen to extract key materials. The process can build solar cells, cover glass and aluminum wire using only sunlight and the reactor's silicon.

This approach would not only save explorers the trouble of importing material, but would be kinder to both the Moon and Earth. There are no carbon-based emissions, no chemicals and no need for water. The resulting solar cells can operate on the Moon for over a decade despite a "harsh" environment, Blue Origin claims.

As Ars Technicaexplains, Blue Origin is pitching this as a solution for NASA's Artemis program and missions to Mars. The space agency could establish bases or other long-term installations while minimizing the environmental impact. While the concept of using regolith to build outposts isn't new, earlier efforts have largely focused on habitats rather than the power supplying those off-world facilities.

Whether or not Blue Origin's tech reaches NASA is another matter, as the company has a mixed relationship with the US administration. While NASA is backing the Orbital Reef space station and will use New Glenn to fly a science mission to Mars, it lost a key lunar lander contract to SpaceX and failed in its challenge of the $2.9 billion deal. As novel as Blue Alchemist tech may be, it's not guaranteed to win business.