A mess of its own making: Google nerfs second Pixel phone battery this year

People don’t upgrade phones every year anymore—longevity matters.

Google's Pixel phones have grown from a curiosity to become some of the best smartphones you can buy, featuring excellent cameras and lengthy support. Unfortunately, they are also gaining a reputation for battery defects. For the second time in a year, Google has announced that it will render some of its past phones almost unusable with a software update, and users don't have any choice in the matter.

After nerfing the Pixel 4a's battery capacity earlier this year, Google has now confirmed a similar update is rolling out to the Pixel 6a. The new July Android update adds "battery management features" that will make the phone unusable. Given the risks involved, Google had no choice but to act, but it could choose to take better care of its customers and use better components in the first place. Unfortunately, a lot more phones are about to end up in the trash.

Bad batteries

Lithium-ion has become the technology of choice for rechargeable batteries because it has very high energy density and reliability compared to other options. However, storing and releasing energy day after day causes inevitable wear and tear. Electrolytes that transport electrons can decompose into flammable gasses and puff up your battery into a spicy little pillow, for example. Batteries also form clumps of lithium ions called dendrites, which grow and can cause internal shorts. This damage is accelerated by heat, and batteries get warmer the faster and longer they charge.

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HMD is winding down its phone business in the US market

After Nokia got out of the smartphone business, a Finnish company called HMD Global picked up the torch and started selling a line of Nokia-branded smartphones and feature phones. More recently HMD transitioned to using its own name for its smartphones…

After Nokia got out of the smartphone business, a Finnish company called HMD Global picked up the torch and started selling a line of Nokia-branded smartphones and feature phones. More recently HMD transitioned to using its own name for its smartphones. But good luck getting one in the future if you live in the United States. […]

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RFK Jr. may be about to demolish preventive health panel, health groups fear

The fear is that the USPSTF will go the same way as the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel.

Health and medical groups around the country are bracing for another grievous blow to America's infrastructure of evidence-based health, this time targeting preventive medicine.

Earlier this week, health secretary and ardent anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly canceled a meeting of the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a scientifically independent panel of up to 16 volunteer experts that issues rigorous, evidence-based recommendations on preventive care—on everything from colonoscopies to folic acid supplements in pregnancy. The panel uses a highly transparent and rigorous framework, grading recommendations on an A to D scale. Recommendations with an A or B grade are adopted nationwide, and health insurance plans are required to cover them at no cost to patients.

The meeting scheduled for Thursday was reportedly going to focus on cardiovascular disease. Kennedy canceled it without explanation.

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NovaCustom NUC Box mini PC has an Intel Meteor Lake processor and open source firmware

NovaCustom is a Dutch company that sells computers that put an emphasis on privacy and security features. For the past few years the company has been selling laptops that are available with a choice of Windows or several different GNU/Linux distributio…

NovaCustom is a Dutch company that sells computers that put an emphasis on privacy and security features. For the past few years the company has been selling laptops that are available with a choice of Windows or several different GNU/Linux distributions. And more recently the company started loading its notebooks computers with open source firmware […]

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Lamborghini follows successful racing Huracan with new Temerario GT3

A Lamborghini just won the 24 Hours of Spa, but there will soon be a new car.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is currently taking place in the UK; the event is part garden party, part hill climb, and plenty of auto show as car makers small and large unveil their vehicle du jour. Among those whipping satin covers off new machinery was Lamborghini. It's replacing the venerable Huracan and its howling naturally aspirated V10 engine with the plug-in hybrid Temerario, another wedge-shaped all-wheel drive mid-engined supercar, now with even more power. The road-going car has been public for some time now, but today it was the turn of the Temerario GT3, which is coming to race tracks in 2026.

Critics and badge snobs sometimes look down on Lamborghini because, unlike the other Italian sports car builders, it didn't start life as a race team. That's not to say the company hasn't had racing success, but it's all happened this century, thanks to a category called GT3, for racing versions of performance coupes ranging from Ford Mustangs to Porsche 911s. GT3 cars are designed to be driven by amateurs, so they feature driver assists like antilock brakes and traction control. They're "performance balanced" so that they're all fairly equivalent in terms of lap times.

That's not to say they're slow: In the hands of a top-level professional driver, GT3 cars based on road cars are now as fast as the mighty Group C prototypes of the 1980s. Lamborghini's current car is old, but it's still notching up wins—two weekends ago, Grasser Racing took victory at the 24 Hours of Space with its Huracan GT3. Some of the same drivers had the potential to do well the weekend before at the Nürburgring until one of them chose to ignore multiple red flags during a practice session that rightfully earned that car a grid penalty.

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Parlamentarische Anfrage: Bundesregierung will oberes 6 GHz an Mobilfunk geben

Die Bundesregierung kommt einer Forderung der Mobilfunkbetreiber nach dem Frequenzbereich entgegen. Die Linke sieht die WLAN-Konnektivität in Gefahr. (Bundesregierung, Fritzbox)

Die Bundesregierung kommt einer Forderung der Mobilfunkbetreiber nach dem Frequenzbereich entgegen. Die Linke sieht die WLAN-Konnektivität in Gefahr. (Bundesregierung, Fritzbox)