Month: May 2025

Brembo’s new brakes cut particulate emissions by 90 percent

Called “Greentell,” the brakes and pads feature a laser metal deposition coating.

As electric vehicles reduce car exhaust as a source of particulate emissions, people are increasingly focusing on other vehicular sources of pollution that won't go away with electrification. Tires are one of them, particularly as we grapple with overweight EVs with tire-shredding torque. And brakes are another—even an EV with regenerative braking will occasionally need to use its friction brakes, after all.

Over in Europe, the people responsible for writing regulations have taken this into consideration with the upcoming Euro 7 standard, which sets new limits on 10- and 2.5-micron particulate emissions on all new vehicles—including EVs—starting next year. And to help OEMs achieve that target, Brembo has developed a new brake and pad set called Greentell that it says cuts brake dust emissions by 90 percent, improving durability in the process.

"We started 10 years ago to investigate a different solution. The main topic that we had in mind was to develop a disk that is greener than the current production of cast iron," said Fabiano Carminati, VP of disc technical development at Brembo.

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SilverStone is back with a beige PC case that looks just like your crappy old 486

FLP02 has a throwback facade but can fit a thoroughly modern PC inside.

SilverStone's first '80s throwback PC case started life as an April Fools' joke, but the success of the FLP01 was apparently serious enough to merit a follow-up. The company brought another beige case to the Computex trade show this week, the vertically oriented FLP02 (via Tom's Hardware).

If the original horizontally oriented FLP01 case called to mind a 386-era Compaq Deskpro, the FLP02 is a dead ringer for the kind of case you might have gotten for a generic 486 or early Pentium-era PC. That extends to having a Turbo button built into the front—on vintage PCs, this button could actually determine how fast the processor was allowed to run, though here, it's actually a fan speed control instead. A lock on the front also locks the power switch in place to keep it from being flipped off accidentally, something else real vintage PCs actually did.

Despite its retro facade, the FLP02 is capable of fitting in even higher-end modern PC parts than the original FLP01. Front USB-A and USB-C ports are hidden behind a magnetic door on the front of the case, and its faux-5.25-inch floppy drives are just covers for drive bays that you could use for an optical drive or extra front I/O.

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Vodafone-Netz: Simon Mobile startet mit neuem Tarif

Die Vodafone-Marke führt einen Smartphone-Tarif mit 70 GByte ein. Dazu läuft eine Aktion beim Discounter, Neukunden erhalten 30 GByte extra Datenvolumen. (Vodafone, Smartphone)

Die Vodafone-Marke führt einen Smartphone-Tarif mit 70 GByte ein. Dazu läuft eine Aktion beim Discounter, Neukunden erhalten 30 GByte extra Datenvolumen. (Vodafone, Smartphone)

Meta hypes AI friends as social media’s future, but users want real connections

Two visions for social media’s future pit real connections against AI friends.

If you ask the man who has largely shaped how friends and family connect on social media over the past two decades about the future of social media, you may not get a straight answer.

At the Federal Trade Commission's monopoly trial, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attempted what seemed like an artful dodge to avoid criticism that his company allegedly bought out rivals Instagram and WhatsApp to lock users into Meta's family of apps so they would never post about their personal lives anywhere else. He testified that people actually engage with social media less often these days to connect with loved ones, preferring instead to discover entertaining content on platforms to share in private messages with friends and family.

As Zuckerberg spins it, Meta no longer perceives much advantage in dominating the so-called personal social networking market where Facebook made its name and cemented what the FTC alleged is an illegal monopoly.

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Toyota debuts all-new RAV4 with hybrid and PHEV powertrains only

New software platform enables Toyota Safety Sense 4.0 and better infotainment.

An all-new version of Toyota's best-selling RAV4 crossover debuted last night. For generation six, Toyota North America is going all-electrified, with hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains on offer. And while the RAV4 isn't quite a software-defined vehicle as we understand the term, it features an all-new software platform tying everything together.

Toyota has grouped the various RAV4 configurations into three groups: core, rugged, and sport. And there are three different powertrain options: front-wheel drive hybrid, all-wheel drive hybrid, and all-wheel drive PHEV, although some trims are only available in certain configurations.

Front-wheel drive hybrid RAV4s feature a 226 hp (168 kW) 2.5 L engine, with all-wheel drive hybrid models offering a slight increase at 236 hp (176 kW). The PHEV generates a combined 320 hp (239 kW), and Toyota says it can go 50 miles (80 km) on a single charge.

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