Kalakshar US

You can own a piece of electric vehicle history from one of the saddest stories in the industry to date. The British electric van maker Arrival was once valued in the billions and had a sweet deal to turn UPS’ fleet of iconic brown vans into electric vehicles. Within a couple of years, Arrival’s warehouse became an empty shell and its sleek electric vehicles and remaining parts were sold off to whoever could afford the highest bid. Now, one of the first Arrival prototypes sold at auction after the company’s downfall has found its way to eBay.

The seller says they worked for Arrival before the company went under earlier this year. They write in the description that the Arrival pre-production van is “the only known running and fully operational Arrival Gamma Van available,” and was purchased in June from Arrival’s liquidation auction for an undisclosed sum.

The Arrival Gamma van appears to be in good working order. It has sliding electric doors and a touchscreen interface on the dashboard. The shelving is still intact and the owner suggests it could be used as a “campervan.” The highest bid as of Friday is £5,600 or approximately $7,368.

Arrival aimed to do for delivery vehicles what the Tesla Model S did for automobiles. The company was founded in 2015 and built 25 vans in 2021 for testing. Arrival committed to building a fleet of 10,000 vehicles for UPS to deliver packages across the US and Europe. The company’s coffers dwindled to $205 million by the end of January of 2023. Its focus was shortened to just the US delivery market and plans were scrapped to expand its electric vehicle fleet to buses and cars for rideshare services. The company continued making cutbacks until Arrival finally closed up shop the following year.

Arrival’s attempt to make delivery vehicles more energy efficient was a noble idea and it wasn’t the only company to do so. Amazon tapped electric van maker Rivian to build 100,000 vehicles for its delivery fleet by 2030. Ford has also designed and released a fully electric E-Transit van for consumers and businesses like Walmart.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/an-arrival-electric-van-prototype-goes-up-for-sale-on-ebay-171045360.html?src=rss 

The Labor Day discounts continue to roll in. You can scoop up a four-pack of Apple AirTags for just $75 via Amazon. That’s a drop of around 25 percent, as the typical cost is $99. It also breaks down to $18 per AirTag, which is a great deal and much cheaper than buying them piecemeal.

For the uninitiated, AirTags are tracking devices that use Bluetooth to send location data to the Find My app on an iPhone or iPad. They have built-in speakers for when something is lost underneath a couch cushion and it’s been driving you mad for weeks. Newer iPhone models also allow for more precise location tracking via Ultra Wideband technology.

In other words, these things are useful. They are so useful, as a matter of fact, that an entire cottage industry of related accessories has popped up. We searched for the best AirTag accessories and came up with all kinds of stuff. There are keychain attachments and wire holders for luggage, as a start. If you have an object you want to track with an AirTag, there’s likely a way to get it done.

We’ve enjoyed using AirTags since they were first released back in 2021. They are smaller than a quarter and get the job done. No muss and no fuss. The only downside is we wish they were slightly flatter, for wallets and the like.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/labor-day-sale-discounts-a-four-pack-of-airtags-to-75-150721797.html?src=rss 

The Sonos app is broken, and it’s been causing not just customers, but also dealers and installers so many problems over the past few months. Now, it’s documenting the app issues it has already fixed in a public Trello board that you can view and browse yourself. The company’s Social & Community manager, Keith Nieves, has announced the Trello board on Reddit, describing it as a way for people to keep updated about its “progress on the path to a normal core app.” While this is the first time Sonos has taken this approach, this isn’t a new idea for the tech industry: Fortnite maintains a Trello board packed with information on bugs plaguing different aspects of the game.

Issues with the Sonos app started popping up after the company pushed a major app redesign back in April. The refreshed app was supposed to make it easier to play different kinds of content and was supposed to introduce more new features. Instead, users discovered that the application was lacking basic features like the ability to set alarms. It was also riddled with performance and reliability issues, such as those that prevented them from rearranging speakers, kept speakers from working altogether and made it difficult for them to add new devices to their home setup.

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence acknowledged that people were experiencing “significant problems” with the company’s new app in a post published in July. He said that Sonos had released updates that improved the app’s performance since May and laid out a timeline for other fixes, including improving alarm consistency and restoring edit mode for playlists, which are rolling out in the next couple of months. 

Nieves is maintaining the Trello board by himself for now, and so far, it contains release notes from previous fixes, as well as a list of patches coming out soon. He said that the cards in the board were sourced from various posts and release notes communications, and he admitted that the board is “not an exhaustive list of every item on [Sonos’] internal roadmap, nor is it a complete view of all known issues.” He seemed to be open to collaboration with users, though, and is asking users to PM him if they are experiencing issues not noted on a card. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/sonos-made-a-public-trello-board-to-track-its-broken-app-fixes-140013331.html?src=rss