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Showing posts from September, 2020

Tesla Supercharger flaw lets rival EVs top up for free in Europe

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       Tesla’s Supercharger stations normally aren’t very welcoming places to competing electric cars, but European chargers may be another story — for now. Electrek pointed to reports from Nextmove and others that Supercharger V3 stations in Europe are letting people with non-Tesla EVs (like the VW ID.3 and Hyundai Kona Electric) charge for free. V3 outlets in Europe use the CCS charging standard and are supposed to limit top-ups to Tesla cars through a software “handshake,” but that apparently isn’t happening.      As that handshake also links the charge to a driver’s Tesla account, these drivers aren’t paying for their top-ups. It’s not clear whether this affects all stations      We’ve asked Tesla for comment. It has previously welcomed the possibility of allowing Supercharger access to non-Tesla vehicles, but only if they can agree on costs. There’s no agreement so far.      As Electrek suggests, this could easily be a bug or some other flaw. Tesla only allows free Supercharger us

Xbox Series S coming out on November 10th, at $299!

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       It must be Tuesday, because there is too much hype happening today. The Xbox Series S, Microsoft’s all-digital next-gen console, will land on November 10th for $299. After a brief tease this morning, Microsoft revealed a trailer and details about the Series S, including the fact that it’s nearly 60 percent smaller than the Xbox Series X.      The Series S is targeting 1440p gameplay at up to 120fps. It shares a handful of stats with the Series X, including raytracing, variable rate shading and refresh rate, and support for ultra-low latency. The Series S features 4K streaming media playback and 4K upscaling for gameplay, compared with native 4K gaming on the Series X.      The main downgrade on the tiny new console is the SSD. The Series S has just 512GB of storage, compared with 1TB for the Series X (and 825GB for the PlayStation 5). The Series X will have a custom port that allows for storage expansions and it’s possible the Series S will have this functionality as well, thoug

Epic Games asks a court to make Apple put 'Fortnite' back in the App Store

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       In the latest development of the legal battle between Apple and Epic Games, the Fortnite developer announced it has filed for a preliminary injunction that would put its game back in the app store and restore its developer account.      In case you missed how things started, Epic’s Fortnite Mega Drop on mobile devices last month included an offer to pay the company directly for in-game currency — bypassing payment systems from Apple and Google that demand a cut of the profits — and offering players a discount to do it. Apple and Google quickly removed the game from their officially supported App Stores, and on iOS, that left players with no way to install the game or even remove updates.      Termination of Epic’s developer account also removed its other games from the App Store, including some Apple had previously used to show off its development platforms. The judge already ruled that Apple can’t kick Unreal Engine as a whole off of its platform, for now, and now Epic is pushi

Qualcomm is bringing 5G to its entry-level Snapdragon 4-series chipsets

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       This summer, Qualcomm announced a new 5G-capable Snapdragon 690 chipset. Bringing 5G to 6-series phones means cheaper devices have access to the tech. But Qualcomm isn’t stopping at the 6-series. Today, it announced plans to bring 5G to its Snapdragon 4-series in early 2021. The move will bring 5G to even more affordable phones.       Details are still sparse, but Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said the company plans to be one of the first OEMs to introduce a smartphone powered by Snapdragon’s 4-series 5G mobile platform. Motorola and OPPO also made statements supporting Qualcomm’s plans to scale 5G tech to the 4-series.      5G is available on more than 80 commercial networks in 35 countries. “Our Snapdragon 4-series is expected to address regions that currently have approximately 3.5 billion smartphone users combined,” said Qualcomm president Cristiano Amon.      As we’ve noted before, smartphones that use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8-series chipsets, like the OnePlus 8 and Galaxy