Month: October 2018

Enlarge / A Tesla Motor Inc. vehicle is displayed outside the company's Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, US, on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (credit: Troy Harvey/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Back in July, Tesla became the first company to sell 200,000 plug-in electric vehicles in the United States. It was a major milestone for Tesla, but it was also a bittersweet one, as it meant the beginning of the end for the $7,500 tax credit that the federal government offers to buyers of plug-in electric cars. This week, Tesla let customers know that they should act quickly if they want to claim the credit.

When Tesla crossed the 200,000 threshold in July, it started the clock on an 18-month phase-out process. All vehicles sold in the second half of 2018 are eligible for the fully $7,500 credit. On January 1, the credit will drop in half to $3,750. Then on July 1 it will drop in half again to $1,875, before going away altogether at the end of the year.

So anyone thinking about buying a Tesla car has a powerful incentive to take delivery of the vehicle before the end of 2018. The problem is that it takes a few weeks for Tesla to deliver vehicles, and the exact delivery time isn't certain. That gave customers reason to worry that they could order a car in October and not have it arrive until January, costing them $3,750 in tax breaks.

Enlarge / Pizzi of SL Benfica in action during the Liga NOS match between SL Benfica and FC Porto at Estadio da Luz on October 7, 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal. (credit: Gualter Fatia/Getty Images)

In April 2018, a professional Portuguese soccer team sued three major American tech companies—Google, Cloudflare, and Automattic—in federal court in Los Angeles.

The soccer club, Benfica, alleged that the American companies were partially responsible for disseminating internal memos, presentations, and emails obtained via a 2017 phishing attack against it.

However, in recent weeks, American lawyers for Benfica agreed to remove the tech firms from the lawsuit, most of whom had formally filed motions to dismiss previously.

Enlarge / Vaping with a satisfying release? (credit: Getty | Bloomberg)

The US Food and Drug Administration made clear on Thursday, October 11, that it has a major bone to pick with an electronic-cigarette vendor that illegally pumped prescription erectile dysfunction drugs into unapproved e-liquid products intended for vaping.

The cocky company, HelloCig Electronic Technology Co. Ltd, even advertised the vape liquids with labels and images using drug brand names. For instance, it sold one of the vaping liquids as “E-Cialis HelloCig E-Liquid” alongside an image of a bottle and tablets of Eli Lilly’s erectile dysfunction drug Cialis. It also sold a product with the brand of an anti-obesity drug that had been pulled from the market in Europe for causing psychiatric disorders. The e-liquid really contained the erectile dysfunction drug in Viagra, the FDA found.

In other instances, the company falsely claimed that e-liquid products were “FDA approved product[s] with FDA.”

First Man movie

First things first: If you're interested in space, don't hesitate before seeing the new movie about Neil Armstrong's life, First Man. I'm passionate about space history, NASA, commercial space, and the whole enterprise of trying to push things and people off this planet and deeper into space. And I absolutely loved this movie. It opens Friday across the United States.

This is a movie of two parts. The first storyline pertains to Armstrong and his family life, his relationship with his wife Janet, a daughter named Karen who died young, and his two boys, Rick and Mark. This part of the film is often a bit melancholy, as Armstrong struggles with Karen's death and how to communicate the risks of his profession with his family. The humanity of these scenes will appeal to some, but not others seeking a purely action movie. I found the scenes between Ryan Gosling, who does a fine job as Armstrong, and Claire Foy as his wife, to be compelling.

Could there be a holiday gift better for the geek in your life than an Ars Technica "nuke it from orbit" mug? Probably! But you'd better buy one anyway—it's the only way to be sure. (Also, the mugs are less expensive than ever.)

Designed by our own Aurich Lawson, our mugs come direct from the Ars Technica Orbiting HQ to your kitchen cupboard, feature spiffy front and back designs, and are dishwasher and microwave safe. You can also get them 11oz and 15oz sizes. Originally $15 or $17, we've been able to cut prices back to $13 and $16, respectively. As always, the mugs ship anywhere in the world.