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The Biden administration has unveiled new initiatives in its $7.5 billion plan to install 500,000 EV chargers on US roads by 2030. As part of that, it announced that Tesla has committed to to open up 7,500 of its charging stations to non-Tesla vehicles by the end of 2024. 

In 2021 Tesla announced that its open-access Supercharger program (currently being piloted in 16 European nations) would be coming to the US. With a firm date now in hand, the White House has revealed details of the plan. Of 7,500 chargers available for all compatible EVs, 3,500 will be new and existing 250 kW Superchargers along highway corridors. The rest will be Level 2 Destination Charging stations (22 kW max) at hotels, restaurants and other urban and rural locations. Tesla will also boost its US Supercharger network by 300 percent, officials said. 

In order to tap into the $7.5 billion in funding, companies must adopt the Combined Charging System (CCS) that dominates in the US, while offering smartphone-friendly payment options. “No matter what EV you drive, we want to make sure that you will be able to plug in, know the price you’re going to be paying and charge up in a predictable, user-friendly experience,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters. Tesla currently uses proprietary chargers, but has committed to adding the CCS standard as well.

Tesla’s commitment is part of the White House’s larger plan to have at least 500,000 EV chargers on US roads by 2030. To hit that goal, the administration has received commitments from EV manufacturers like GM and Ford, along with ChargePoint and other EV charger manufacturers. Those will add more than 100,000 public chargers available to all EVs. 

For example, GM has already committed to install up to 40,000 Level 2 stations across the US and Canada as part of its Ultium Charge 360 network. It will also install a coast-to-coast network of 2,000 350 kW fast chargers along US roads in partnership with Pilot Company and EVgo. Ford, meanwhile, plans to install DC fast chargers at 1,920 dealerships by January 2024. Hertz also plans to install thousands of BP’s Pulse chargers in US cities for Hertz customers and the public. 

Early last year, the White House revealed its plan to ensure that 500,000 EV chargers are publicly available in the US as part of $7.5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program. That’s motivated by an overall plan to convert half of all new US vehicle sales to zero-emissions by 2030. There are now over 130,000 public chargers serving over three million EVs now on the road — still not nearly enough, critics have said. The first tranche of NEVI funds will be delivered to states in the coming weeks.

 

Despite recently saying it would lay off more than 18,000 people, Amazon is still looking to expand its empire – which could mean more physical stores. CEO Andy Jassy told the Financial Times that Amazon still plans to “go big” on its brick-and-mortar grocery store business.

The company’s physical store division accounts for 3.4 percent of the overall business and has grown only around 10 percent since the Whole Foods acquisition. Jassy noted that many Amazon Fresh locations opened in the COVID-19 pandemic, so Amazon hasn’t “had a lot of normalcy” to see what works. That’s also been true for other facets of its physical retail business. Almost a year ago, Amazon said it was closing all of its pop-ups, bookstores and four-star shops across the US and UK.

In the interview, Jassy said: “We have a history of doing a lot of experimentation and doing it quickly. And then, when we find something that we like, doubling down on it, which is what we intend to do.”

– Mat Smith

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Update your Apple devices now to patch a security flaw

The issue “may have been actively exploited,” according to Apple.

Apple released security updates to its operating systems on Monday to resolve a security flaw. The company said the issue “may have been actively exploited,” meaning hackers could’ve taken advantage of the issue to access devices. However, Apple does not have additional details to share on the exploits beyond the update release notes, spokesperson Scott Radcliffe told Engadget.

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IKEA made a smart air quality sensor

It gauges particulate matter levels humidity, temperature and more.

IKEA is introducing a smart indoor air quality sensor, the Vindstyrka, which gauges pollutant levels. Vindstyrka works by itself, but it unsurprisingly becomes more useful when connected to IKEA’s Dirigera smart home hub. You can check air quality through the company’s app and have the monitor control other devices, like telling IKEA’s Starkvind purifier to increase fan speed based on particulate levels. There’s no price yet, but the sensor will launch in April.

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Watch the teaser for ‘Ted Lasso’ season 3

The biggest show on Apple TV+ returns March 15th.

Apple has revealed the third season of Ted Lasso will premiere March 15th, with a new episode (12 in total) arriving every week. In season three, AFC Richmond is now in the Premier League but pitted against one of its former allies — Nate is now working for Rebecca’s ex, Rupert, at West Ham United.

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Google Fiber launches 5Gbps service for $125 per month

But it’s only available in four cities at launch.

Google Fiber is finally launching its 5Gbps internet plan in Kansas City, West Des Moines and Utah. Google says the $125-per-month service will expand to other areas later this year. The service offers symmetrical upload and download rates, an upgraded 10 Gig Fiber Jack and includes professional installation, a WiFi 6 router and up to two mesh network extenders. For comparison: Comcast already offers 6Gbps service in some areas, which costs $300 a month and doesn’t include symmetrical uploads.

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James Webb telescope captures a Milky Way-like galaxy a billion light-years away

A spiral star system like ours.

Astronomers at the European Space Agency (ESA) used the James Webb Space Telescope to capture an image of a spiral galaxy that resembles our home, the Milky Way. The star system, LEDA 2046648, is a billion light-years away and comprises thousands of galaxies, trillions of stars and countless planets. Of course, an image of anything one billion light-years away means we’re viewing the galaxy’s light from a billion years ago.

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Apple will rely on your previous purchases and spending habits to decide how much it will lend you for its upcoming “buy now, pay later” service, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Apparently, the tech giant intends to evaluate your eligibility based on your purchases at its retail stores, your App Store transactions and even the peer-to-peer transfers you’ve made using Apple Cash. 

Whether or not you’ve applied for an Apple Card in the past will also reportedly factor into the amount the company will lend you, along with your spending habits using any other card linked to your Apple Pay. The company will take which Apple devices you own into account, as well, Bloomberg says. Apple Financing, the subsidiary the company established last year, is expected to be in charge of conducting customer background checks and loan approvals. 

The tech giant first announced the “buy now, pay later” functionality for Apple Pay at its WWDC event in June 2022 with the intention of launching it later that year. While Apple didn’t explain why it didn’t arrive with iOS 16 like it originally intended, Gurman said at the time that the delays were caused by “fairly significant technical and engineering challenges in rolling out the service.” To test the feature, Apple reportedly gave its retail employees access to it for their own purchases. In Gurman’s latest report, he says testers have been seeing loan approvals for as much as $1,000. 

When it first announced the pay later offering, Apple said it will give you a way to split the cost of purchases into four equal installments that you can pay over six weeks. That’s a short amount of time, but you at least won’t incur any additional interest or fees. The company reportedly plans to offer another option later on that would let you pay for larger purchases over several months, though that one will charge you interest on top of the base amount. 

 

In a new update, Virgin Orbit has confirmed that the launch failure of its first UK mission was likely caused by a fuel filter that had been “dislodged from its normal position.” That created a cascade of events that led to the shutdown of the second stage rocket, which ultimately fell back to Earth along with its payload, according to data gathered so far. The investigation is being led by United Launch Alliance’s Jim Sponnick and Virgin Chief Engineer Chad Foerster, with oversight from the US FAA, UK Air Accidents Investigation branch and other authorities. 

The company’s historic “Start Me Up” mission launched from Spaceport Cornwall on January 9th and Virgin confirmed things went well at the start. “The ignition, first stage flight, stage separation, second stage ignition and fairing deployment of the LauncherOne rocket were nominal,” it wrote. “Each of these milestones constituted a first-of-its-kind achievement for any orbital launch attempt from western Europe.”

That pesky $100 filter highlights the challenges of spaceflight, though. After it dislodged from its proper place in the fuel feedline, a downstream pump was starved for fuel and began operating at a significantly higher-than-rated temperature, investigators found. Parts downstream of that and in the vicinity eventually malfunctioned, causing the engine to stop. “The early thrust termination ended the mission, and the second stage and its payloads fell back to Earth, landing in the approved safety corridor in the Atlantic Ocean.”

Virgin Orbit is portraying the failure as a learning experience, but as the first UK orbital launch ever, the timing wasn’t ideal. The company noted, however, that all four prior operational flights succeeded, sending 33 payloads to their required orbits. 

The company is now creating a plan to replicate flight conditions to determine the root cause or causes of the failure, it said. “Numerous tests are underway to support the investigation and help lead to definitive conclusions. Ultimately, all credible causes of the failure will be addressed prior to the next LauncherOne mission.”

 

Platformer has interviewed Twitter employees to figure out why people’s For You feeds turned into The Elon Musk show, and they said the company’s engineers truly did build a system that benefited their CEO alone. According to the publication, Elon’s cousin and Twitter employee James Musk sent an urgent message on the company’s Slack on Monday morning. “We are debugging an issue with engagement across the platform,” he wrote, calling the situation “high urgency” and asking everyone who can write code to help. The situation? President Biden’s tweet about rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles got more engagement than Musk’s. 

Apparently, the president’s tweet generated almost 29 million impressions, whereas Musk’s generated 9.1 million only before he deleted it. Musk’s issue with his tweets not getting as much engagement as he would like started before the Super Bowl, however. Platformer previously reported that he fired one of Twitter’s two remaining principal engineers because he suggested that Musk’s tweets aren’t generating as many impressions anymore because people are no longer that interested in what he’s saying. 

Around 80 Twitter employees were reportedly tasked to investigate the possible reasons for Musk’s waning engagement numbers, and they did consider the possibility that a lot of people had blocked and muted him in recent months. They also looked into legitimate potential technical issues, though, because tweets from users whose posts typically perform well should’ve been automatically promoted by the website’s system. 

The fix they came up with, Platformer says, is to deploy code that would artificially boost Musk’s tweets by a factor of 1,000, ensuring that they rank higher than everyone else’s in people’s feeds. As a result, over 90 percent of Musk’s 128.9 million followers saw his tweets, and even those who don’t follow the Twitter owner kept seeing his posts on their timeline. 

While Musk didn’t speak at length about the issue, he did acknowledge the change in his own way, specifically by posting the “forced to drink milk” meme. He also asked people to stay tuned while Twitter made adjustments to the “algorithm” (his quote, not ours) after users started complaining of seeing all Elon all the time. “Adjustments” reportedly didn’t mean removing his advantage completely, though: according to Platformer, Elon’s tweets are still artificially boosted, but by a factor less than 1,000. Bottom line, users will still see his tweets a lot, unless they choose to move over to the Following tab instead. 

 

Meta isn’t done pulling back some of its shopping features. Instagram has warned users that live shopping will shut down on March 16th. From that day on, shops can’t tag products during livestreams — you’ll have to wait until afterward (or rely on less-than-elegant links) to buy must-have items. The social network explained the move as a way to “help [it] focus” on core features.

The move comes right as Instagram is removing the shopping tab from the home screen, and months after Facebook wound down Live Shopping and pointed stores toward Reels. Shopping is still part of these social media apps in posts, Reels and Stories, but Meta has increasingly taken a back-to-basics approach. Live shopping first reached Instagram in 2020, right as many people were forced to shop online during the pandemic.

The decision isn’t surprising. Meta is looking for ways to cut costs as a tough economy and an expensive metaverse pivot affect its bottom line, and it’s particularly eager to slash initiatives that perform poorly. As Gizmodoexplains, that might include Instagram’s live shopping. Social-based shopping was only expected to represent five percent of US e-commerce in 2022, according to Insider Intelligence. If that’s true, Meta isn’t earning much from purchases during live broadcasts.

Meta isn’t alone in struggling with shopping features. TikTok was set to bring live shopping to North America late last year, but only using outsourced technology. The Financial Timessources claimed last summer that TikTok was scaling back its plans between a poor UK uptake and a mass exodus of employees. Simply speaking, there may not be as much of an audience for social shopping as tech giants expect.

 

Google Fiber is launching the 5Gbps internet plan it began testing in October. The service will initially cover four cities, but Google says the $125-per-month service will expand to other areas later this year.

The new plan is available today in Kansas City,West Des Moines and Fiber’s Utah cities. It has symmetrical upload and download rates, an upgraded 10 Gig Fiber Jack (the small box housing the fiber cable’s entrance into your home), professional installation, a WiFi 6 router and up to two mesh network extenders.

Although 5Gbps speeds could be overkill for most households, they could come in handy for creative professionals, gamers or others who need minimal latency or transfer large files frequently. For example, a 150GB Microsoft Flight Simulator download that takes 11 minutes at 2Gbps would only take about three minutes at 6Gbps (under ideal conditions, anyway).

The upgraded speeds are part of Google’s rejuvenated focus on Fiber. The company also recently announced its first network expansion in years. But, perhaps more crucially, it reestablishes Fiber as an industry disrupter pushing competitors to upgrade speeds and lower prices (maybe) on existing plans. Comcast already offers 6Gbps service in some areas, but it costs a whopping $300 and doesn’t include symmetrical uploads.

Google also reiterated that Fiber’s 8Gbps option, also announced late last year, is still “coming soon.” That service will also include symmetrical uploads and downloads.

 

TuneIn is adding a new way for users to discover the more than 100,000 radio stations available to stream on its service. This week, the company – in honor of World Radio Day, which fell on February 13th – began rolling out TuneIn Explorer (via Android Police).

The feature plots everything TuneIn offers on an interactive map allowing you to see where some of the world’s most famous radio stations are based out of. You can access the map by visiting TuneIn’s website on your computer or mobile device. The company has included handy filters along the top of the interface, allowing you to narrow down the stations you see based on genre and language. You can apply multiple filters if you want more specific results. The map also includes a search feature and even displays emergency broadcast stations.

There’s no word yet on when the feature will arrive in the TuneIn app. In the meantime, we can imagine a few fun use cases for the map. You could turn to it if you want to rediscover a radio station from your hometown or as a way to immerse yourself in a language you want to learn.

 

IKEA already has a side table that doubles as an air purifier, but now it has a way to gauge just how clean that air really is. The home store has introduced a smart indoor air quality sensor, the Vindstyrka, that gauges particulate matter levels (those smaller than 2.5 micrometers), humidity, temperature and the load of gaseous pollutants. Ideally, you’ll know if your cleaning or cooking habits are making you sick.

Vindstyrka works by itself, but it unsurprisingly becomes more useful when connected to IKEA’s Dirigera smart home hub. You can check air quality through the company’s app, and have the monitor control other devices. It can tell a Starkvind purifier to ramp up the fan speed based on particulate levels, for instance.

IKEA plans to release Vindstyrka in all its markets starting in April. The company hasn’t revealed pricing as we write this, but the feature set suggests it will be more affordable than high-end air quality monitors (such as Airthings’ $299 View Plus) that also track CO2, radon and air pressure. It may be a viable option if the temperature and humidity sensors built into your smart speaker aren’t enough.

 

Astronomers at the European Space Agency (ESA) used the James Webb Space Telescope to capture an image of a spiral galaxy that resembles our home, the Milky Way. The star system, LEDA 2046648, sits a billion light-years away from ours in the constellation Hercules; it contains thousands of galaxies, trillions of stars and countless planets.

The ESA released the picture on January 31 (highlighted this week by The NY Times). The space agency described it as a mere calibration image to “verify the telescope’s capabilities as it was prepared for science operations.” ESA astronomers snapped it on May 22, 2022, with the Webb telescope’s Near InfraRed Camera (NIRCam).

That ultra-powerful camera can detect longer infrared wavelengths produced by light from this far away. Redshifting describes the stretching of light’s wavelength as it moves away from us, increasing until it appears redder than expected. It occurs because of the universe’s expansion: Distant systems like LEDA 2046648 keep moving farther from Earth.

Most of the visible blobs surrounding LEDA 2046648 are also galaxies, although several stars can be discerned by their diffraction spike patterns. Some objects in the image could be as old as 300 million years after the Big Bang. Of course, an image of anything one billion light-years away means we’re viewing the galaxy’s light from a billion years ago. So astronomers are eager to study early galaxies like this one (and even older ones) to help clarify the types of stars that condensed out of the Big Bang — and how supermassive black holes ended up in most galaxies’ centers.