Month: September 2023

Enlarge / If luxury means having stuff that makes your life easier or more pleasant but which isn't absolutely necessary, then the Genesis Electrified GV70 is very much a luxury car. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

Among the definitions of "luxury" are descriptions such as "great comfort," and something that adds pleasure of comfort that isn't absolutely necessary. Those seem like perfect descriptions of the Genesis Electrified GV70, a handsome electric vehicle that maintains the Korean brand's seemingly perfect hitting streak.

That may come as a surprise, because some electric vehicle purists have a tendency to look down on EVs like the Electrified GV70. That's because it uses a platform that was designed to be powertrain-agnostic rather than riding on a bespoke EV architecture. Genesis has access to one of those—one of the best in the industry in fact, called E-GMP. It underpins the quirky-looking GV60 crossover, as well as some very good EVs from Hyundai (which owns the Genesis brand), but not the GV70.

That hardline take might feel intellectually rigorous, but it's misguided. Both BMW and the Korean OEMs have developed rather fine platforms that can be used to build pure EVs or cars with combustion engines, and I'll go as far as to say the Kia Niro EV, BMW i4, BMW i7, and Genesis G80 are each better than their hybrid or gas-burning variants, albeit more expensive.

Enlarge / If luxury means having stuff that makes your life easier or more pleasant but which isn't absolutely necessary, then the Genesis Electrified GV70 is very much a luxury car. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

Among the definitions of "luxury" are descriptions such as "great comfort," and something that adds pleasure of comfort that isn't absolutely necessary. Those seem like perfect descriptions of the Genesis Electrified GV70, a handsome electric vehicle that maintains the Korean brand's seemingly perfect hitting streak.

That may come as a surprise, because some electric vehicle purists have a tendency to look down on EVs like the Electrified GV70. That's because it uses a platform that was designed to be powertrain-agnostic rather than riding on a bespoke EV architecture. Genesis has access to one of those—one of the best in the industry in fact, called E-GMP. It underpins the quirky-looking GV60 crossover, as well as some very good EVs from Hyundai (which owns the Genesis brand), but not the GV70.

That hardline take might feel intellectually rigorous, but it's misguided. Both BMW and the Korean OEMs have developed rather fine platforms that can be used to build pure EVs or cars with combustion engines, and I'll go as far as to say the Kia Niro EV, BMW i4, BMW i7, and Genesis G80 are each better than their hybrid or gas-burning variants, albeit more expensive.

Enlarge / A selection of images drawn in water (linear scales: 250 µm) using an ion-exchange bead as a "pen." (credit: Thomas Palberg, Benno Liebchen/CC BY-NC-ND)

Human writing and drawing dates back at least 30,000 years and incorporates traditional techniques such as carving, engraving, and printing/writing with ink, as well as more novel methods such as electron lithography. Now a team of German physicists has figured out a unique method for writing in water and other fluid substrates, according to a recent paper published in the journal Small.

According to the authors, most classical writing methods involve the same basic approach, in which a line is carved out or ink deposited. On a solid substrate, strong intermolecular forces help the written figures hold their shape, but that's not the case for surfaces submerged in fluids. Prior research has used scanning probe lithography to "write' on self-assembled monolayers submerged in fluids, or to bring structures at the micron scale using two-photon polymerization. "There are now even commercial scuba diver slates available for underwater writing on a substrate," they wrote.

All of these methods still rely on a substrate, however. The German team wanted to devise a means of literally "writing into a fluid." Such a method would need to be robust enough to counter the rapid dispersion of drawn lines, and they would need a very tiny "pen" that didn't stir up lots of turbulence as it moved through the fluid medium. (The smaller the object moving through a fluid, the fewer vortices, or eddies, it will create.)

Enlarge / A selection of images drawn in water (linear scales: 250 µm) using an ion-exchange bead as a "pen." (credit: Thomas Palberg, Benno Liebchen/CC BY-NC-ND)

Human writing and drawing dates back at least 30,000 years and incorporates traditional techniques such as carving, engraving, and printing/writing with ink, as well as more novel methods such as electron lithography. Now a team of German physicists has figured out a unique method for writing in water and other fluid substrates, according to a recent paper published in the journal Small.

According to the authors, most classical writing methods involve the same basic approach, in which a line is carved out or ink deposited. On a solid substrate, strong intermolecular forces help the written figures hold their shape, but that's not the case for surfaces submerged in fluids. Prior research has used scanning probe lithography to "write' on self-assembled monolayers submerged in fluids, or to bring structures at the micron scale using two-photon polymerization. "There are now even commercial scuba diver slates available for underwater writing on a substrate," they wrote.

All of these methods still rely on a substrate, however. The German team wanted to devise a means of literally "writing into a fluid." Such a method would need to be robust enough to counter the rapid dispersion of drawn lines, and they would need a very tiny "pen" that didn't stir up lots of turbulence as it moved through the fluid medium. (The smaller the object moving through a fluid, the fewer vortices, or eddies, it will create.)

Enlarge / President Joe Biden at the White House on September 6, 2023. (credit: Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla )

The White House and FBI likely violated the First Amendment by coercing social media platforms into moderating content and changing their moderation policies, the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also acted improperly but did not "coerce" social networks, the ruling said.

However, the appeals court threw out the majority of a controversial preliminary injunction that ordered the Biden administration to halt a wide range of communications with social media companies. The injunction issued by a US District Court judge in July was far too broad and vague and applied to too many government officials, a three-judge appeals court panel unanimously decided.

The ruling on Friday involves a case in which the states of Missouri and Louisiana and other plaintiffs sued President Biden and his administration.

Enlarge / Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

For most of the last year, the rumor mill has indicated that the first wave of Apple’s M3 Macs will be hitting sometime this fall—perhaps in October, a month Apple has often used for iPad and Mac announcements that can’t be crammed into its iPhone and Apple Watch-focused product events in September.

But according to reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the company won't launch those models before the end of the year. Kuo didn't share specifics, but he has sources inside Apple's manufacturing supply chains that often give him reliable information about the company's plans.

Apple's timing shifted similarly last year when M2-based MacBook Pro and Mac mini designs that were apparently intended for late 2022 launched in January 2023 instead.

Enlarge (credit: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Qualcomm has extended a deal to supply 5G modems for Apple’s smartphones, in a sign the iPhone maker is still struggling to perfect the technology in-house.

Apple has been trying to make modems—which govern how its devices communicate with cellular mobile networks—for its iPhones since 2018. The plan is an extension of its multibillion-dollar effort to develop more of its semiconductor components itself instead of relying on external suppliers.

Qualcomm said on Monday that it will supply Apple with its chips for its smartphone launches in 2024, 2025, and 2026. The terms of the deal were not made public but Qualcomm said they were similar to the original deal struck in 2019.