Month: November 2020

Enlarge / TikTok headquarters in Culver City, California. (credit: AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

ByteDance on Tuesday appealed to a federal appellate court seeking to overturn a sweeping Trump administration order requiring the company to divest itself of its popular TikTok platform—at least in the United States. The order is scheduled to take effect tomorrow. But ByteDance says that it has been weeks since it has heard from the government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States about ByteDance's plan to address the government's concerns without shutting TikTok down.

ByteDance has proposed selling a share of TikTok to Oracle and giving the company's US division more autonomy. These changes were designed to address the government concerns that American TikTok users could be subjected to Chinese government surveillance or other meddling.

“For a year, TikTok has actively engaged with CFIUS in good faith to address its national security concerns, even as we disagree with its assessment,” TikTok said in a media statement. “In the nearly two months since the president gave his preliminary approval to our proposal to satisfy those concerns, we have offered detailed solutions to finalize that agreement—but have received no substantive feedback on our extensive data privacy and security framework.”

Enlarge / The issue isn't really the Ring device itself—it's the use of improper screws. Specifically, long pointy ones that might reach places they shouldn't and electrically short-circuit things that absolutely should not be short-circuited! (credit: Amazon / Jim Salter)

Approximately 350,000 Ring doorbells sold in the North American markets are subject to a safety recall issued yesterday. Specifically, improperly installed 2nd-generation Ring doorbells can catch fire, causing property damage and potential burn hazards. This is a fairly unusual recall, however—and one that doesn't require consumers to return their devices.

As long as the Ring doorbells were installed using the screws provided with the devices themselves, they're fine. The issue is that quite a few homeowners substituted their own screws for the ones included in the package—and longer screws may reach places inside the Ring device that they shouldn't, causing a short-circuit that can lead to overheating or fire.

Ring reports to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission that it has received 85 incident reports involving use of improper screws, with 23 cases of ignition involving minor property damage and eight cases of minor personal burns.

Enlarge / From left to right, Federal Communication Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and commissioners Michael O'Rielly, Brendan Carr, Jessica Rosenworcel, and Geoffrey Starks testify before the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee on December 05, 2019 in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla)

Congressional Democrats yesterday called on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to "immediately stop work on all partisan, controversial items" in recognition of Joe Biden's election victory over President Donald Trump.

It has been standard practice to halt controversial rulemakings in the period between an election and inauguration when control of the White House switches from Republicans to Democrats or vice versa. In November 2016, Pai himself called on then-Chairman Tom Wheeler to "halt further action on controversial items during the transition period." Wheeler complied one day later.

But things could be different this time, because Trump is contesting the election despite Biden's clear victory and making baseless allegations that the election was stolen by Democrats. The Trump administration has refused to formally begin the presidential transition and has reportedly continued budget planning and vetting candidates for job openings as if there will be a second Trump term. To comply with Democrats' request to the FCC, Pai would effectively have to concede Trump's defeat before Trump himself does so.

Enlarge / From left to right, Federal Communication Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and commissioners Michael O'Rielly, Brendan Carr, Jessica Rosenworcel, and Geoffrey Starks testify before the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee on December 05, 2019 in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla)

Congressional Democrats yesterday called on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to "immediately stop work on all partisan, controversial items" in recognition of Joe Biden's election victory over President Donald Trump.

It has been standard practice to halt controversial rulemakings in the period between an election and inauguration when control of the White House switches from Republicans to Democrats or vice versa. In November 2016, Pai himself called on then-Chairman Tom Wheeler to "halt further action on controversial items during the transition period." Wheeler complied one day later.

But things could be different this time, because Trump is contesting the election despite Biden's clear victory and making baseless allegations that the election was stolen by Democrats. The Trump administration has refused to formally begin the presidential transition and has reportedly continued budget planning and vetting candidates for job openings as if there will be a second Trump term. To comply with Democrats' request to the FCC, Pai would effectively have to concede Trump's defeat before Trump himself does so.

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  The iX doing SUV things. [credit: BMW ]

A little over two years ago, we got our first look at BMW's next-generation battery-electric vehicle architecture. Concept has now moved into the realm of reality with the official unveiling of the BMW iX. Set for a US launch in early 2022, the iX uses BMW's fifth-generation electric powertrain, with two electric motors capable of producing a combined 500hp (368kW) to propel the SUV from 0 to 100km/h (62mph) in under five seconds.

Despite the lack of an internal combustion engine, the iX looks unmistakably like a BMW, massive black grille and all. It's roughly the same size as the X5, but there are a couple of interesting design choices that make it stand apart from its SUV brethren. First off is the hood—or lack thereof. Unlike just about every other BEV on the market, there's no frunk. As a matter of fact, there's not even a hood to open. This curious design choice means that you add windshield wiper fluid by pressing down on the roundel badge above the grille, which pops open to reveal the fluid container. The grille itself is completely closed off, with lidar, camera, and radar tucked behind a translucent surface underneath the grille.

The other odd choice is a hexagonal steering wheel. BMW claims it makes getting in and out of the iX easier while providing a better view of the dashboard display, but I'm not sold on the concept. The steering wheel isn't the only difference between the iX and X1-7 cockpits. Instead of having separate displays for the instrument panel and infotainment panel, BMW has combined the two into what appears to be a single massive display that is angled toward the driver. The 14.9-inch infotainment display can be controlled by touch in addition to the usual center console dial.