Nissan has been racing in Formula E as a partner of the e.dams team since it made its debut at the circuit back in 2018. Now, the Japanese automaker has announced that it's no longer just e.dams' partner: It has acquired the racing team and has become its full owner. According to The Race, Nissan had a minority stake in the team prior to its acquisition from previous owners Olivier and Gregory Driot, children of Jean-Paul Driot, who founded the organization. 

Formula E supplies competitors with the same chassis, and it's up to manufacturers to equip it with their own powertrain. For its debut vehicle back in 2018, Nissan took cues from the Leaf's increased battery range and power — and it plans to continue "transferring knowledge and technology" between its Formula E and consumer cars going forward. Presumably, that means if it discovers a breakthrough technology for electric vehicles while working on a Formula E car, it will apply what it learned to its consumer vehicle models, as well. As Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta said in a statement:

"We have been on the grid for over 85 years, and our desire to win continuously accelerates us forward. We learn as we race, and the relentless pace of technological progression that drives the Formula E championship will provide us with many opportunities to inform and develop even better cars for customers."

In 2021, Nissan announced that it's investing $17.6 billion in the development of new electric vehicles and battery tech over the next five years. Its goal is to develop 23 electrified models by 2030 and to have a fleet that's 40 percent electrified in the US and in China by the same year. 

You can grab a few Anker accessories at a discount today as part of Amazon's one-day sale. The discounted items include an assortment of powerbanks, chargers and cables, with prices marked down for up to 44 percent off. If you're looking for something to help tame all the wires in your home or office, one of the items you can get from the sale is Anker's power strip surge protector that's currently available for $44. That's 37 percent off its usual price of $70 and is the lowest price we've seen for the power strip on the website. It has three outlets on one side, as well as three USB ports and one 45W PowerIQ 3.0 USB-C port on the other. The USB-C port supports fast charging and can power even a 12" MacBook and other similar devices. 

The Anker Nano Pro USB-C charger is also on sale for $30, which is $10 lower than its retail price. It was designed specifically for the iPhone and can provide full-speed 20 watt charging for the iPhone 13. The charger has the capability to adjust power output, ensuring the safety of the device that's plugged in, and comes with a three-feet USB-C to Lightning cable.

But if you're just looking for a UBS-C to USB-C cable for your devices, Anker also has 3.3-feet 100-watt cables on sale in packages of two. The cables support fast charging for up to 100 watts when used with a compatible charger and work with any USB-C device, including MacBook Pros, iPads and Samsung Galaxy phones. You can get the two-pack cables for $15, or $12 less than their usual price of $27. 

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Last year, Honda revealed that it intends to shift all its car sales to electric and fuel cell vehicles by 2040. To make phasing out gas-powered cars feasible, it has to release a wide selection of zero-emission vehicles that customers can choose from. Now, the automaker has announced that it's spending 5 trillion yen or around $40 billion on its electrification efforts over the next 10 years. 

In a live briefing, the company also said that it plans to launch 30 EV models by 2030 with a production volume of 2 million vehicles a year. The aim is for electric vehicles to make up 40 percent of its fleet by the end of the decade,

As TechCrunch reports, Honda plans to get the ball rolling in Japan by introducing an ultra-cheap mini EV model that costs around $8,000 by 2024. It will also release the Prologue and Acura electric vehicles, both being co-developed with GM, in North America in the same year. In early April, Honda and GM announced that they're working together to co-develop a series of affordable EVs based on a global architecture and GM's Ultium battery technology. 

Honda has plans that don't involve GM, however, and is using part of its $40 billion budget to develop its own electrification platform. It's also exploring the possibility of teaming up with other companies for battery production. In addition, it's investing 43 billion yen ($343 million) into building a demonstration line for solid-state batteries by 2024.

Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe has also reiterated that a big part of its electrification efforts is making sure it has a solid presence in China, which is currently the world's biggest EV market. Like the company announced in the past, Mibe said Honda will launch 10 new models in China under its e:N Series branding by 2027. The company will also build plants in Guagzhou and Wuhan to manufacture its electric vehicles for the country.

See that picture up there? It may look like something out of Tron or Blade Runner, but it's actually a CT scan — of a Heinz ketchup cap. A group of "deeply curious engineers" is scanning different types of items every month to give us a deeper appreciation of various engineering marvels surrounding us in every day life. The latest batch of scans includes a Heinz squeeze-bottle cap that took its inventor 185,000 hours and 45 prototypes to finalize. It's quite a complex assembly, which allows for the ketchup to be stored upside-down without leaking — the design was even licensed to NASA to create leak-proof containers for its astronauts.

In addition to the Heinz bottle cap, the team also scanned a Sriracha nozzle that had such a distinctive design, the family behind the hot sauce chose to trademark it. The engineers scanned a Vita Coco bottle cap, as well, confirming that the foil inside does indeed remain intact until the cap's miniature saw does its job when you open it for the first time. Who knew food packaging could be this fascinating?

Back in December, the team scanned three different AirPods to show how Apple's wireless earbuds have evolved. You'll see how the tech giant kept rearranging the earbuds' internal components over the years, giving each generation a complete redesign. A month later, the team uploaded scans of Nintendo's handheld consoles from the Game Boy to the Switch. Seeing the original Game Boy's processor, which was apparently slower than a TI-83 calculator's, will give you a new appreciation of how far handheld gaming has come. Finally, in February, the team scanned a handful of Polaroid and Fujifilm instant cameras, showcasing their complex internal components and how the small devices can print on pretty large films.

 You can see all all team's 3D scans on their website, where all future projects will most likely be uploaded. 

If your co-workers or friends don't show up within the first five minutes of your scheduled video call, you'll soon be able to blame Google for why you left early. The tech giant will start rolling out an update for Google Meet so that it will prompt you to exit meetings when you're the only person in it. Say, you log into a team meeting, but nobody shows up within five minutes: A notification will show up asking if you're still there and if you'd like to keep waiting or to leave the call. If you don't respond within two minutes, you'll automatically get kicked out. 

Other services like Discord already implement similar measures to prevent wasting bandwidth. Zoom also has a time limit for idle meetings, but it lasts for up to 40 minutes. Google didn't say whether it introducing the new feature as a way to stop wasting resources, but the company is hoping that it can help prevent you from unintentionally broadcasting your video and audio feed. Regardless, you can easily switch it off if you don't want to be prompted to leave your meetings. The feature will be on by default, but you can go to General under Settings to toggle it off. 

Google will gradually roll out the "leave empty calls" feature starting on April 11th, and it will take 15 days to reach all desktop and iOS users. It will also be available for Android users "soon."

Google

Tesla will finally start selling the Cybertruck next year, Elon Musk has announced at the opening party for the company's Giga Texas factory. During his presentation on stage, Musk showed off the production Cybertruck vehicle, which still looks like the previous versions, except its doors no longer have handles. The car will be able to tell that you're there and will know that it's supposed to open the doors. He also apologized for the delay on releasing the Cybertruck that was first announced back in 2019. Tesla's original (and highly optimistic) target release date was 2021, but it delayed the vehicle's launch to 2022, and now to 2023.

The automaker will manufacture the Cybertruck at its Texas Gigafactory, which it expects to become the "highest volume" car factory in America. Musk touched upon its other planned Gigactories around the world, as well, and how manufacturing vehicles near where they're going to be shipped is much more environmentally friendly. This year is all about scaling up production — a scale that "no company has ever achieved in the history of humanity," Musk said during the presentation — while next year is all about releasing a "massive wave of new products." 

In addition to the Cybertruck, the company also plans to release the Tesla Semi EV next year, as well as other products it hasn't revealed yet. The electric big rig that's designed to haul cargo across long distances was supposed to be released in 2019, but its launch also got pushed back a few times. Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot will also start production in 2023, Musk said, and will be designed to accomplish any task humans don't want to do. Another future product we can apparently look forward is a dedicated robotaxi that will be designed to look quite futuristic. Before all those, however, Tesla will be launching a wide beta of its Full Self-driving Technology in North America this year.

You can watch Musk announce Cybertruck's new launch date below:

Ford and Lincoln owners whose vehicles have hands-free access to Alexa don't have to stick to using standard voice commands if they don't want to. The automaker has rolled out enhanced Car Control capabilities, and with it comes the option to teach Alexa commands that reflect their natural way of speaking. For example, they can program in "Alexa, I'm cold," and then teach the voice assistant to respond by asking what course of action it should take, such as "I can increase the temperature by 5 degrees or turn off the AC. What should I do?"

Another example of a personalized phrase would be: "Alexa, set the AC to full blast." The assistant can then ask the owner what they mean by "full blast." Training Alexa to respond to personalized phrases is made possible by the assistant's teachable AI technology. All vehicles with Alexa Built-in will get access to enhanced Car Control when it becomes available to them.

At the moment, the models with access to the hands-free experience are the 2022 F-150, Bronco, Mustang Mach-E, Edge, the new Expedition, Nautilus and newly launched Navigator. The long-awaited 2022 F-150 Lightning will also come with the capability when it launches. Ford debuted the hands-free Alexa capability for its vehicles last year, marking the beginning of its six-year partnership with Amazon. As part of that partnership, it's giving its customers complimentary access to Alexa for up to three years that begin on the new vehicle's warranty start date.

Ford will demonstrate its enhanced Car Control and Alexa capabilities at the New York International Auto Show from April 15th through the 24th.

SpaceX can't start expanding its launch facilities in Boca Chica, Texas anytime soon. According to documents obtained by Bloomberg and CNBC, the Army Corps of Engineers has closed its review of the company's application to build a new launch pad, landing pad and other related infrastructure in Boca Chica. SpaceX reportedly failed to provide the Army Corps with the environmental information it requested, and the permit process can't continue without it. 

The company was planning to build new infrastructure on 17 acres of land that includes wetlands and mud flats. As CNBC notes, the Army Corps has stewardship over wetland areas that serve as habitat for fish and wildlife in the country. It oversees any development over wetlands to ensure it doesn't cause significant impact on the endangered species living in them, as well as on drinking water for people in the area. It's also in charge of examining whether it's feasible for companies applying for a permit to move construction elsewhere.

In the letter it sent to the company, the Army Corps listed the information it's seeking from SpaceX, including how its expansion would impact the wetlands exactly. It's also asking for data on threatened or endangered species that may be significantly impacted by the construction, as well as the company's current knowledge on the presence or absence of historic properties on the land. While the Army Corps suspended the company's application, SpaceX can reinitiate the permit process if it can provide all the information being requested. 

The Federal Aviation Administration is also conducting a separate review of the facility to determine whether launching the Starship out of Boca Chica will cause safety issues or have significant environmental impact on the area. SpaceX was supposed to hear from the FAA last year, but the agency has delayed its decision quite a few times since then: Its latest target date of completion is April 29th. Without permission from the FAA, it won't be able to launch its massive spaceship from Boca Chica for its first orbital test flight that's expected to take place in the next few months. Elon Musk previously said that if SpaceX fails to secure the permits company needs in Texas, it will move Starship launches to Cape Canaveral in Florida. 

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland has revealed that the United States secretly removed malware from computer networks around the world over the past few weeks to pre-empt Russian cyberattacks. As The New York Times reports, Garland's announcement comes shortly after the White House warned companies that Russia could attack critical infrastructure in the country, such as financial institutions and the electric grid. Apparently, the malware the US removed enabled the intelligence arm of the Russian military called the GRU to create botnets out of the infected computer networks. 

According to the Justice Department, the malware was designed to infect firewalls and made the compromised networks part of a botnet called Cyclops Blink. It's controlled by Sandworm, a notorious group that the US government had previously connected to the GRU. Cyclops Blink is Sandworm's latest known botnet, and it only came to light back in February. It's still unclear what Russia was planning to do with the hijacked computers, but botnets are typically used to perform large-scale Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, as well as to send spam and to compromise sensitive information. 

In its press release, the DOJ said the FBI notified owners of infected devices in the US before Cyclops Blink was identified in February 23rd. It also notified companies outside the country through local law enforcement partners. However, US authorities didn't want to wait to find out what the botnet would be used for. 

The Justice Department and the FBI obtained secret court orders in the US and secured the help of governments worldwide to quietly remove the malware from infected devices. Those court orders even gave them the power to remotely remove the malware from American companies' networks without their knowledge. After the feds disinfected the compromised machines, they also closed the external management ports Sandworm was using for access.

Over the past months, the Biden administration has been exposing as much intelligence on Russia as possible without giving away its actions to catch Putin off guard. This disclosure is just its latest effort to send a message to the Russian president. The fact that Sandworm infiltrated networks around the world to create a botnet just shows, however, that there's a cyber warfare going on that might end up affecting countries other than Ukraine. If you'll recall, a major cyberattack took down Ukraine's government websites before the Russian invasion of the country began. Ukraine's government, as well as US and UK authorities, blamed the attacks on the GRU.

You can already play Mario Golf on the Switch thanks to Super Rush, but soon you'll also be able to play the original game that started the series if you're feeling nostalgic. Nintendo is giving Switch Online subscribers paying extra for the Expansion Pack tier access to the first Mario Golf published in 1999. 

The Nintendo 64 game lets you choose from characters that include Mario, his friends and allies, as well as his enemies, and play golf on Mario-themed courses. It has several gameplay modes, such as Tournament, Speed Golf and Mini Golf, though it was developed to be easy to play, even for kids. 

Nintendo launched the Switch Online Expansion Pack in October 2021 as a higher tier subscription that costs $50 a year. That's $30 more than an individual basic subscription, but it will give you access to classic N64 and Sega Genesis games. The basic subscription only includes access to Nintendo's NES and SNES titles. 

While the gaming giant launched the service with a limited number of games, it has added quite a few more since then. They include the original Paper Mario, Banjo-Kazooie and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Nintendo has also rolled out some improvement updates that fix several emulation issues plaguing the service since its debut, such as bad input lag.

The original Mario Golf will be available to Expansion Pack members on April 15th.