Month: February 2021

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  This is the Lotus E-R9, an interpretation of what an electric endurance race car might look like in 2030. [credit: Lotus ]

Regular readers will know that we're pretty enthusiastic about the future of Lotus, the UK-based maker of lightweight sports cars. Beset by financial troubles for much of its existence, Lotus Group is now owned by Geely, the Chinese company that was responsible for Volvo's renaissance. The company has an all-new road car in development—a relatively attainable one called the Type 131 that's in addition to the 1,971hp (2MW) limited-run Evija electric car.

We'll have to wait a while before the Type 131 breaks cover, probably later this summer. In the meantime, Lotus Engineering (an engineering consultancy that's part of Lotus Group, alongside Lotus Cars) has released some images of one of its latest projects. It's an electric endurance racer called the E-R9, and as you might guess, it's like catnip for those of us who think of ourselves as EV enthusiasts as well as racing fans.

"What we’ve tried to do is to push the boundaries of where we are technically today and extrapolate into the future. The Lotus E-R9 incorporates technologies which we fully expect to develop and be practical. Lotus has an amazing history of developing unique solutions, and we’ve done it many times in motorsport and with our road cars," said Richard Hill, Lotus' chief aerodynamicist.

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  The Galaxy S21 Ultra. [credit: Ron Amadeo ]

Next up on the review bench is Samsung's latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Like most Samsung phones, it's technically competent and features a new Snapdragon 888 SoC, a new 10x optical zoom camera, and Samsung's, uh, interesting approach to charging. The big news is that the S21 Ultra is $200 cheaper than the S20 Ultra, and there aren't many features missing. Cheaper is good! But other phones still offer better value for the money.

There's not much new about the Galaxy S21 design. The phone has the usual metal frame with big glass panels on the front and back. The front looks almost exactly like previous models, with slim bezels and a centered front camera hole in the display. The sides of the display are curved ever so slightly, which serves no purpose and makes the edges of videos a tiny bit distorted. This is Samsung's second generation of 120Hz display, and it comes without the tradeoffs of the first generation. Previously, the Galaxy S20 could only run either at max resolution or at 120Hz but not both at the same time. The S21 120Hz display comes with no such compromises.

The back contains most of the major design changes. The most noticeable is the crazy new camera bump, which is integrated with the corner of the phone. The whole camera bump is actually aluminum, as the aluminum sides wrap around the corner of the phone and join another flat aluminum plate that houses all of the cameras. The rest of the back remains glass. This year Samsung offers a matte finish to the glass, which does a great job hiding fingerprints.

Enlarge / At left, a glow can be seen on the horizon just as a Falcon 9 rocket was due to land. (credit: SpaceX webcast)

A Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Monday night carrying its payload of 60 Starlink satellites. After dropping off the second stage in a parking orbit, the first stage reentered Earth's atmosphere for a rendezvous with a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Alas, the rocket never made it to the boat. The company's launch webcast included a video from the drone ship, Of Course I Still Love You, and a distant glow could be seen on the horizon when the rocket was due to land.

"We did get a little bright glow... no longer see a flame there... it does look like we did not land our booster," said launch commentator Jessica Anderson, a manufacturing engineer at SpaceX. "It is unfortunate that we did not recover this booster, but our second stage is still on a nominal trajectory."

Enlarge / Neodymium stones, part of the rare earth group, are used in the tech industry. (credit: RHJ | Getty Images)

China is exploring limiting the export of rare earth minerals that are crucial for the manufacture of American F-35 fighter jets and other sophisticated weaponry, according to people involved in a government consultation.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology last month proposed draft controls on the production and export of 17 rare earth minerals in China, which controls about 80 percent of global supply.

Industry executives said government officials had asked them how badly companies in the US and Europe, including defense contractors, would be affected if China restricted rare earth exports during a bilateral dispute.