2021 – Page 84 – Digital Pulse

News: GM extends Chevy Bolt EV production shutdown another two weeks

September 9, 2021
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GM has extended a shutdown at its Orion Assembly Plant another two weeks due to a battery pack shortage related to the widespread Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV safety recall. GM said the extended downtime at the Orion plant will last through September 20. Orion Assembly Plant in Michigan has been shut down since

GM has extended a shutdown at its Orion Assembly Plant another two weeks due to a battery pack shortage related to the widespread Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV safety recall.

GM said the extended downtime at the Orion plant will last through September 20. Orion Assembly Plant in Michigan has been shut down since August 23.

The recall, which now includes all Chevy Bolt EV and EUV models made since 2017, was issued after the automaker discovered two manufacturing defects in the battery cell that could increase the risk of fire. The possible fire risk prompted GM to recommend Bolt owners set the vehicle to a 90% state of charge limitation and avoid depleting the battery below 70 miles of range. The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration recommends Bolt drivers park their vehicles away from their homes to reduce fire risk.

The automaker said it is working with its supplier LG Chem to “update manufacturing processes.”

Orion was initially shuttered in August because of a shortage of semiconductor chips. GM later notified employees that the plant would continue to be down because of a shortage of batteries related to the recall.

The recall is expected to cost GM $1.8 billion. A GM spokesperson did not provide an update on whether this extended downtime would push that number higher. The automaker has said it will seek reimbursement from LG Chem.

Chip shortages

While the global shortage of semiconductor chips has persisted, GM said it will be able to resume production at several of its plants over the next two weeks.

Full production will begin at its Fort Wayne Assembly and Silao Assembly plants, which produces the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 models, beginning September 13 after being briefly impacted by the global semiconductor shortage, GM said.

All of GM’s full-size truck and full-size SUV plants in North American will be running full production next week.

GM’s Spring Hill Assembly plant in Tennessee will resume production of the GMC Acadia and Cadillac XT5 and XT6 on September 20, after being shuttered since mid-July. That plant will be shut down again as part of a previously scheduled extended downtime beginning the week of September 27 through the week of November 22 for new-model tooling installation.

Cadillac XT4 production, which has been down since February 8, will resume at the Fairfax Assembly in Kansas. GM said production of the Chevrolet Malibu, which is also at Fairfax, will remain down.

The company extended downtimes by one week at Lansing Delta Township and Wentzville, along with an additional week of Chevrolet Blazer production downtime at its Ramos facility.

News: Laser-initiated fusion leads the way to safe, affordable clean energy

September 9, 2021
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Fusion power plants will eventually replace most conventional power plants and related large-scale energy infrastructure that are still so dominant today. There will be no need for coal or gas.

Siegfried Glenzer
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Siegfried Glenzer, a recipient of the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, is a professor and high-energy-density division director at Stanford’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and a science adviser for nuclear fusion company Marvel Fusion.

The quest to make fusion power a reality recently took a massive step forward. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced the results of an experiment with an unprecedented high fusion yield. A single laser shot initiated reactions that released 1.3 megajoules of fusion yield energy with signatures of propagating nuclear burn.

Reaching this milestone indicates just how close fusion actually is to achieving power production. The latest results demonstrate the rapid pace of progress — especially as lasers are evolving at breathtaking speed.

Indeed, the laser is one of the most impactful technological inventions since the end of World War II. Finding widespread use in an incredibly diverse range of applications — including machining, precision surgery and consumer electronics — lasers are an essential part of everyday life. Few know, however, that lasers are also heralding an exciting and entirely new chapter in physics: enabling controlled nuclear fusion with positive energy gain.

After six decades of innovation, lasers are now assisting us in the urgent process of developing clean, dense and efficient fuels, which, in turn, are needed to help solve the world’s energy crisis through large-scale decarbonized energy production. The peak power attainable in a laser pulse has increased every decade by a factor of 1,000.

Physicists recently conducted a fusion experiment that produced 1,500 terawatts of power. For a short period of time, this generated four to five times more energy than what the whole world consumes at a given moment. In other words, we are already able to produce vast amounts of power. Now we also need to produce vast amounts of energy so as to offset the energy expended to drive the igniting lasers.

Beyond lasers, there are also considerable advances on the target side. The recent use of nanostructure targets allows for more efficient absorption of laser energies and ignition of the fuel. This has only been possible for a few years, but here, too, technological innovation is on a steep incline with tremendous advancement from year to year.

In the face of such progress, you may wonder what is still holding us back from making commercial fusion a reality.

There remain two significant challenges: First, we need to bring the pieces together and create an integrated process that satisfies all the physical and technoeconomic requirements. Second, we require sustainable levels of investment from private and public sources to do so. Generally speaking, the field of fusion is woefully underfunded. This is shocking given the potential of fusion, especially in comparison to other energy technologies.

Investments in clean energy amounted to more than $500 billion in 2020. The funds that go into fusion research and development are only a fraction of that. There are countless brilliant scientists working in the sector already, as well as eager students wishing to enter the field. And, of course, we have excellent government research labs. Collectively, researchers and students believe in the power and potential of controlled nuclear fusion. We should ensure financial support for their work to make this vision a reality.

What we need now is an expansion of public and private investment that does justice to the opportunity at hand. Such investments may have a longer time horizon, but their eventual impact is without parallel. I believe that net-energy gain is within reach in the next decade; commercialization, based on early prototypes, will follow in very short order.

But such timelines are heavily dependent on funding and the availability of resources. Considerable investment is being allocated to alternative energy sources — wind, solar, etc. — but fusion must have a place in the global energy equation. This is especially true as we approach the critical breakthrough moment.

If laser-driven nuclear fusion is perfected and commercialized, it has the potential to become the energy source of choice, displacing the many existing, less ideal energy sources. This is because fusion, if done correctly, offers energy that is in equal parts clean, safe and affordable. I am convinced that fusion power plants will eventually replace most conventional power plants and related large-scale energy infrastructure that are still so dominant today. There will be no need for coal or gas.

The ongoing optimization of the fusion process, which results in higher yields and lower costs, promises energy production at much below the current price point. At the limit, this corresponds to a source of unlimited energy. If you have unlimited energy, then you also have unlimited possibilities. What can you do with it? I foresee reversing climate change by taking out the carbon dioxide we have put into the atmosphere over the last 150 years.

With a future empowered by fusion technology, you would also be able to use energy to desalinate water, creating unlimited water resources that would have an enormous impact in arid and desert regions. All in all, fusion enables better societies, keeping them sustainable and clean rather than dependent on destructive, dirty energy sources and related infrastructures.

Through years of dedicated research at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the National Ignition Facility, I was privileged to witness and lead the first inertial confinement fusion experiments. I saw the seed of something remarkable being planted and taking root. I have never been more excited than I am now to see the fruits of laser technology harvested for the empowerment and advancement of humankind.

My fellow scientists and students are committed to moving fusion from the realm of tangibility into that of reality, but this will require a level of trust and help. A small investment today will have a big impact toward providing a much needed, more welcome energy alternative in the global arena.

I am betting on the side of optimism and science, and I hope that others will have the courage to do so, too.

News: Open source backend-as-a-service startup Supabase raises $30M

September 9, 2021
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Supabase, the backend-as-a-service startup, announced this week that it raised a $30 million Series A. Supabase is often described as an open source alternative to Google’s Firebase … which is a pretty good way to put it for those who know what Firebase is. For those who don’t: Supabase is a collection of tools that

Supabase, the backend-as-a-service startup, announced this week that it raised a $30 million Series A.

Supabase is often described as an open source alternative to Google’s Firebase … which is a pretty good way to put it for those who know what Firebase is. For those who don’t: Supabase is a collection of tools that helps developers build projects more quickly by automatically handling a whole lot of the behind-the-scenes work and wiring.

Create a project, and Supabase will give you a Postgres database; an API for interacting with said database that automatically evolves (and documents itself!) as your database changes; a user authentication system that plays friendly with the popular login providers (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Apple, etc.); a storage system for handling things like image and video uploads; and a UI for overseeing and managing it all. It takes a bunch of work you’d need to do to build just about any modern app or service and waves it away with a couple of clicks.

Supabase is free for hobby projects (or when you just want to tinker with it). Once you start needing bigger databases or data backups, the price scales starting at $25 per project per month. Alternatively, you can deploy it yourself, though that’s a bit tougher and currently means losing the management UI.

This Series A comes pretty quickly following the company’s last raise — a $6 million round announced in December 2020. I’m told this round was funded predominantly by Coatue, with some of it reserved for a few new key angel investors, including GitHub co-founder Tom Preston-Werner, PagerDuty co-founder Alex Solomon and Docker co-founder Solomon Hykes.

Supabase co-founder Paul Copplestone tells me that the team is now made up of 24 people, distributed all over the world. “We were born remote,” he said.

This reasoning is twofold: The company started growing just as the pandemic began to spread, and it’s largely hiring people who are already working on and contributing to the tools that make Supabase possible. Why make them move around the world when they’re already doing a good job?

“We use, I think, six different tools,” Copplestone said. “And we employ lead maintainers of several of those tools. We employ open source contributors, anyone who’s contributing, no matter where they live.”

Supabase was part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2020 class, the accelerator’s first cohort to be entirely remote. Meanwhile, YC classes are growing increasingly large; the S20 batch, for example, came in at over 200 companies. It can be hard to stand out in a group like that, but Supabase seemed to do it — I was hearing chatter about them early and often.

Here’s what it looks like to fire up a Supabase backend:

News: The Marvel Unlimited comics app just got a major overhaul

September 9, 2021
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Marvel is rolling out a brand new version of its Marvel Unlimited comics subscription app. Among the updates are exclusive Infinity Comics: high-res vertical comics designed for phones and tablets.

Kris Holt
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Kris Holt is a contributing writer at Engadget.

News: Plentywaka founder Onyeka Akumah on African startups and global expansion

September 9, 2021
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Plentywaka, a combination of English and Nigerian that means “plenty movement,” has big plans to ameliorate the public transport infrastructure in Africa and beyond.

Plentywaka wants to change the way Africans move. It’s starting with one of the busiest cities on the continent.

The startup, a ride-share and bus-booking platform, is based in Lagos, the Nigerian city where 20 million people and 45% of the country’s skilled workforce live. The public transportation system strains under the weight of 14 million commuters who use it daily.

Relying on the public bus can be more than unpredictable — it also can be dangerous, according to Onyeka Akumah, co-founder and CEO of Plentywaka. The buses are often old, in disrepair and packed beyond safe limits; traffic congestion turns what should be a 30-minute commute into a three-hour journey.

Plentywaka, a combination of English and Nigerian that means “plenty movement,” was founded in 2019. While it’s still young, the startup has big plans to ameliorate the public transport infrastructure in Africa and beyond.

Plentywaka has two models. “Daily Waka” offers riders in a city fixed daily routes from bus stop to bus stop. Riders can view the schedule of buses, how many seats are available and reserve seats via the app, which tracks the movements of SUVs, minivans, vans and buses driven by gig workers, also known as “heroes.” When the bus arrives, riders can check in with a QR code, and when they hop off, the app automatically charges the rider via a wallet system.

“Travel Waka” is a newer model that offers interstate travel. It basically serves as a booking engine for other bus companies that offer city-to-city services.

In March this year, Plentywaka was accepted into the Techstars Toronto accelerator program, securing funding as it looks toward global expansion across Africa and into Canada. Just this month, the company also announced expansion plans into Ghana via an acquisition of Star Bus.

Akumah talks us through what the TechStars funding means to Plentywaka, the startup landscape in Africa and tips for African startups looking for investors.

The following interview, part of an ongoing series with founders who are building transportation companies, has been edited for length and clarity.

Before founding Plentywaka, you were the CEO of Farmcrowdy, another startup that connected investors to farmers via a digital platform. What was the impetus for starting a second business? Are you a serial entrepreneur, or do you plan on sticking with this one?

I was the CEO of Farmcrowdy until the end of May this year, but I’ve handed it over to my other co-founder who is now the CEO, so I’m fully focused on Plentywaka now. We started Plentywaka in January 2019. I was flying back from Qatar, where I spoke at an event, and landed in Lagos around 8:15 a.m. that day. I had to be at a meeting by 10 a.m., and going through traffic in Lagos is a pain. The state has 20 million people and everybody’s rushing to work, so I had to abandon my car and take two bikes to make that meeting. When that was done, to make another meeting, I had to take a boat ride across the lagoon. I tweeted about it saying, “Today, I have flown, I have used two bikes and now I’m on a boat ride. This is the life of an entrepreneur in Lagos.”

What I wasn’t prepared for was the shock my colleagues gave me when they said we should experiment with taking the bus. I hadn’t taken the bus in about 15 years, and I took that trip and had a panic attack. I never knew how frightened I would be getting on a 30-year-old bus with torn-out parts and worn-out chairs. I literally had to hold one of the doors throughout the trip from falling off. That was the day the concept of Plentywaka started.

News: Roku’s first original film continues NBC’s canceled series ‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’

September 9, 2021
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Roku’s expansion into original content continues with news that the streaming platform and device maker will debut its first original feature-length film during the 2021 holiday season. In partnership with Lionsgate, Roku announced it will introduce a movie based on the Emmy-winning TV series “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” which will air on its free streaming hub,

The new movie, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas,” will continue where the series left off following its season 2 finale and series cancellation, which had upset fans who had taken to social media in hopes of saving the show by finding it a new home. Roku, as it turns out, is that home — not only will it air the new film, it will also make all 25 episodes of the series available to stream for free on The Roku Channel in the U.S. later this fall.

The feature film, meanwhile, begins production this month in Vancouver, and will see a number of actors reprising their roles, including Jane Levy, Skylar Astin, Alex Newell, John Clarence Stewart, Andrew Leeds, Alice Lee, Michael Thomas Grant, Kapil Talwalkar, David St. Louis, Mary Steenburgen, Peter Gallagher, and Bernadette Peters. Details of the film’s plot are still limited, however, noting only that it will be a continuation of Zoey’s journey as she “navigates work, family, love and everything in between.”

While a significant move for fans who simply wanted more of their favorite show, it’s a bigger step forward for Roku and its original content strategy. The company had already tested consumers’ appetite for original series by acquiring the content catalog from the short-lived streaming service Quibi earlier this year, whose shows then launched to The Roku Channel as the company’s first set of Roku Originals. The debut lineup included 30 titles, but Roku is continuing to roll out more shows as the year progresses. Last month, for instance, it released 23 more of those shows to its collection. The company also recently decided to reinvest in at least one previously Quibi-owned series by greenlighting a second season of “Most Dangerous Game.”

But until now, Roku has not invested in full-length movies.

Movies make a good fit for The Roku Channel, of course, as the free streaming is supported by advertising — and movies, due to their length, offer more ad slots to be filled. In fact, The Roku Channel got its start as free movies hub, before later expanding to include TV shows and other types of content, like news and sports.

So far, Roku’s original programming seems to be connecting with viewers. The company says its top 5 streamed TV shows this summer (May 20-July 18) were all Roku Originals.

The new film is produced by Lionsgate in association with the Tannenbaum Company, Feigco Entertainment, and Universal Music Group’s Polygram Entertainment and Zihuatenejo Productions. The series creator Austin Winsberg will write and executive produce. Richard Shepard, who filmed the show’s pilot, will direct. Kim Tannenbaum, Eric Tannenbaum, Paul Feig, David Blackman, and Daniel Inkeles will also serve as executive producers.

The movie will air on The Roku Channel during the holidays in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

News: Ford builds leadership team of commercial vehicle unit ahead of E-Transit launch

September 9, 2021
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Ford has hired six senior-level executives to its newly minted commercial vehicles and services business unit as the automaker prepares to bring to market the E-Transit cargo van and the F-150 Lightning Pro pickup truck — two electric vehicles it’s betting will become commercial customers’ new workhorses. Ford pulled from within its ranks and outside

Ford pulled from within its ranks and outside the company to fill out the leadership team for the new business unit, Ford Pro. Among the new hires is Muffi Ghadiali, the CEO of Electriphi, the battery management and fleet monitoring software startup that Ford acquired in June. Ghadiali will continue to serve in his role with Electriphi and head up Ford Pro’s charging department.

Ford also hired Tim Baughman, Ford’s former controller for U.S. marketing, sales and service, to be the general manager of Ford Pro North America. Ford Pro’s new CFO will be Navin Kumar, who was previously at Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC.

Tracey Pass, who comes from The Walt Disney Company, has been hired as the chief human resources officer, and Rahul Singh, who was head of software development for Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC, is the unit’s CTO. Wanda Young, chief marketing officer of Samsung Electronics America, has taken a similar position at Ford Pro.

Ford previously announced that Hans Schep will be the general manager of Ford Pro Europe.

Ford Pro is focused on more than just commercial vans. The division, led by Ted Cannis, aims to sell fleet management, maintenance and charging services to commercial clients as well. Ford Pro has said it expects to generate $45 billion in revenue from hardware and adjacent and new services by 2025 — up from $27 billion in 2019.

That’s a hefty hike in revenue and a target that Ford plans to meet by selling a mix of combustion-engine, hybrid, and soon all-electric versions of its vans and full-size pickup trucks; and offering depot and home charging for the EVs, digital services for customers to manage and maintain their fleets, a network of service centers, and, of course, financing.

Ford’s commercial vehicle business has a head start in Europe, where it has been the leading commercial vehicle brand for six consecutive years. In North America, Ford’s share of Class 1 through Class 7 full-size commercial trucks and vans exceeds 40%, according to the company.

A new opportunity to grab more market share has opened up as governments, particularly in Europe, place stricter emissions regulations in urban areas. The E-Transit cargo van, which is expected to ship to customers later this year, and the commercial variant of the F-150 Lightning Pro play a critical role in Ford Pro’s plans. The Lightning pickup truck is expected to come to market in spring 2022.

News: Review: Facebook’s Ray-Ban Stories make the case for smart glasses

September 9, 2021
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Facebook’s first pair of smart glasses doesn’t feel like much of a Facebook product. You won’t find the Facebook logo emblazoned on them or even its name in small print by the serial code. They aren’t Facebook Stories or Ray-Ban’s Facebook Stories or even Ray-Ban Stories in collaboration with Facebook. Unlike other Facebook-designed hardware like the

Facebook’s first pair of smart glasses doesn’t feel like much of a Facebook product.

You won’t find the Facebook logo emblazoned on them or even its name in small print by the serial code. They aren’t Facebook Stories or Ray-Ban’s Facebook Stories or even Ray-Ban Stories in collaboration with Facebook. Unlike other Facebook-designed hardware like the Quest 2 or Portal, the Ray-Ban Stories feel more self-aware and restrained as though the company knew exactly what use cases they needed to hit, and stopped themselves from trying to do much more than that.

The glasses made in partnership with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica are certainly the most basic device Facebook has shipped. They only do a few things, you can take photos and videos, you can take phone calls and you can listen to music. That’s it. But bringing audio into the mix via near-ear speakers embedded in the arms of the frames makes these a much more realized device than Snap’s Spectacles which shipped five years ago.

Ray-Ban’s classic dumb Wayfarers (left) next to the smart Ray-Ban Stories Wayfarers (right)

Let’s dig a bit into what this device does and how it feels to use it in daily life.

One thing to note about the $299 Ray-Ban Stories is that they can be worn pretty inconspicuously. People are probably more likely to notice the cameras than their slightly inflated dimensions. That’s already a revolutionary advance, which pushes these past the level of “toy” which Spectacles never really seemed to eclipse. The Ray-Ban partnership was particularly savvy given the thicker-than-average frames on their standard Wayfarer design.

What onlookers are more likely to notice is you tapping the frame of your glasses to control them. Pressing the button on the right arm will take a 30-second video, a long-press will snap a photo. You can also use the voice command, “Hey Facebook, take a video” and do the same for photos — for the record, I’m not sure whether this is a sentence I’d feel great about hearing a stranger nearby me in public say. A small LED light sparks up when the camera is capturing footage though it’s a pretty low-key indicator.

The photo and video quality of the glasses is pretty middling, but plenty of forgiveness can be levied given the size of the device. The twin 5 MP cameras can shoot 2592 x 1944 pixel photos and 1184 x 1184 pixel square format videos. The quality seems to be about on-par with where smartphone cameras were about ten years ago, so it’s clear there’s plenty of room for improvement. Post-processing on the phone during upload enhances the photos and hides some of their struggles with low-lighting while making the photos pop a bit more with saturation.

The twin camera setup is used to add 3D effects to your photos, but at the moment the filters aren’t great and there’s honestly not much there. Hopefully, Facebook invests a bit more in the software over time but with fairly low quality photos, I don’t completely see the reasoning in having two cameras to begin with.

Also worth noting, is that using the glasses requires linking them to a new Facebook app called View, which is basically a simple media viewer app which gets around limitations in how media from external devices can be uploaded to your phone. This is where you can also make quick edits to your photos and videos before dumping them to your photo roll or sharing them to Facebook or Instagram.

Audio is probably the most interesting bit of these glasses. The near-ear speakers will surprise you with their quality in a quiet spaces and leave you dissatisfied once you find yourself in a noisier environment. Unfortunately for Facebook, most outdoor spaces are a bit louder and sunglasses are mostly being used outdoors. The audio will work in a pinch outdoors for listening to tunes, but I honestly can’t see them replacing my AirPods anytime soon. The audio is much better suited for low-fidelity activities like phone calls, but I also had some issues with the three-microphone array picking up too much background noise while I was walking outdoors.

Battery life is surprisingly solid, but they also have the benefit of a charging battery case which is incidentally the best place to store them. The case is a little bulky but they also include a microfiber pouch to protect the lenses. Facebook says you can get 6 hours of straight audio and “all-day” usage otherwise.

One of their weirder quirks is their lack of water-proofing or even splash-proofing, something that doesn’t seem like a great quality for a pair of sunglasses. It’s just one more thing indicating that while the thicker frame aesthetic of sunglasses makes more sense for a smart glasses design, this product really thrives more indoors.

This isn’t first rodeo when it comes to hardware and you can see the company’s maturation.

They aren’t an AR/VR device, but you can also see generations of Oculus products in the Ray-Ban Stories‘ design. On-ear audio born from the Oculus Go, a touchpad interface reminiscent of the Gear VR, simple and restrained audio controls first launched on the Quest. The hardware is a distillation of features and lessons learned from selling VR to a generally indifferent public that has seemed to warm up to it a bit over the years.

Meanwhile, you can also see years of Facebook screwing up its messaging and torching its brand name in the process, making itself the boogeyman of both political parties, courting enemies in the press and earning an outsized amount of distrust from the average internet user, something that probably led to these carrying so little Facebook branding. The Ray-Ban Stories will certainly have their detractors, but Facebook choosing to be conservative in their functionality and not toss in too many future-flung passive sensors will likely do them a favor. The Facebook View app is bare bones and Facebook details that photos and videos captured using the Stories won’t be used to serve ads. All that said, while we’ve certainly come a long way since the Google Glass debut in 2013, face-mounted cameras still feel icky when it comes to privacy in public and this device will undoubtedly reignite that conversation in a major way.

Baggage aside, my broadest takeaway is that the Ray-Ban Stories feel like a very important product — one that actually sells the idea of face-worn wearables.

The glasses are smartly designed and can be worn discreetly. That said, it’s clear Facebook made plenty of sacrifices to achieve such an aggressive form factor; the glasses honestly don’t do anything particularly well — photo and video quality is pretty lackluster, the in-frame speakers perform poorly outdoors and calls aren’t the most pleasant experience. For $299, that might make the first-generation a tough sell for some, but all that said, I think Facebook mostly made the right compromises for a product that they’ve repeatedly indicated is meant to be a stepping stone on the road towards an augmented reality future.

Facebook’s smart Ray-Ban Stories alongside my pair of classic Ray-Ban 2140 Wayfarers

Facebook debuts its Ray-Ban Stories smart sunglasses

News: Facebook debuts its Ray-Ban Stories smart sunglasses

September 9, 2021
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Facebook announced their long-awaited foray into the smart glasses space Thursday morning, launching the Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses in partnership with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica. The svelte frames are some of the most low-profile yet available to consumers and will allow users to snap photos and videos with the two onboard 5 MP cameras, listen to

Facebook announced their long-awaited foray into the smart glasses space Thursday morning, launching the Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses in partnership with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica.

The svelte frames are some of the most low-profile yet available to consumers and will allow users to snap photos and videos with the two onboard 5 MP cameras, listen to music with in-frame speakers and take phone calls. The glasses need to be connected to an iOS or Android device for full functionality, though users can take and store hundreds of photos or dozens of videos on the glasses before transferring media to their phones via Facebook’s new View app. The twin cameras will allow users to add 3D effects to their photos and videos once they upload them to the app.

The lightweight glasses weigh less than 50 grams and come with a leather hardshell charging case. The battery lift is advertised as “all-day” which TechCrunch found to be accurate during our review of the frames.

Users will be able to control the glasses with a couple physical buttons including a “capture” button to record media and an on-off switch. A touch pad on the right arm of the glasses will allow users to perform functions like swiping to adjust the volume or answering a phone call. An onboard white LED will glow to indicate to the people around the wearer that a video is being recorded.

The glasses, notably, are neither waterproof nor splash-proof.

The smart sunglasses sport come in three classic Ray-Ban styles, with a number of color and lens combinations. The Ray-Ban Stories are fully compatible with prescription lenses. The glasses will start at $299, with polarized and transition lens options coming in at a higher price point.

The glasses notably do not have in-lens displays that will allow users to see digital augmented reality content like competitor Snap’s latest Spectacles prototype.

Snap announces a new generation of Spectacles, streamlined glasses to experience the world in AR

This is a major launch for Facebook, which announced early details about the Ray-Ban partnership and product at its AR/VR focused developer conference last September. The company has indicated that the device is a stepping stone for its AR ambitions and an effort to get users acquainted with the idea of high-tech glasses.

“Ray-Ban Stories are an important step towards a future when phones are no longer a central part of our lives and you won’t have to choose between interacting with a device or interacting with the world around you,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg says in a launch video for the product.

News: Storz & Bickle new Mighty+ vape features faster heating, USB-C and UL certification

September 9, 2021
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Storz & Bickle finally updated the Mighty vaporizer. The original hit the market in October 2014 and quickly became a fan favorite despite its unwieldy form factor and market-topping price. Users point to the quality of the vapor, airflow, and its certification as a medical device as primary reasons for buying the vape. The new

The new version is called the Mighty+ and features a ceramic-coated chamber, USB-C charging, a 60-second startup time, and a new mode that will quickly boost the current temperature. And yes, this version has little feet so that it can stand vertically on a table. The Mighty+ carries a $399 MSRP and is available for purchase on September 16.

The company also updated two of its other products. The Volcano is now available in matte black, and the Crafty+ comes with a ceramic filling chamber and USB-C charging that reduces charging time by 25 minutes.

Storz & Bickle managed to get the Mighty+ certified by UL, a US-based global safety certification company. The Mighty+ conforms to UL8139, becoming the first dry herb vaporizer to carry UL logo officially. To S&B, the UL certification is significant. The company has long differentiated itself from its competitors with a certification from TUV certifying two of its vapes, the Mighty and Volcano, as medical devices. The UL nod certifies the Mighty+’s components comply with the testing agency’s safety standards covering the electrical, heating, battery, and charging systems.

“The Underwriters Lab (UL) came out with a certification,” said Andy Lytwynec, VP of Global Vape Business at Canopy Growth, “and it created a bullseye target for us. It took a lot of collaboration with them, and we just recently achieved certification.”

Lytwynec explained that S&B sees consumers increasingly scrutinizing vaporizer options and feels the UL certification gives owners additional peace of mind that the device will not implode in their pocket. “For S&B, we think it’s the beginning of a trend within the vaporizer market for consumers to be a bit more diligent and thoughtful, saying ‘Well, hold on a second, like, has a third party actually gone through the rigors of testing this.’”

The Mighty+’s new features are incremental updates developed from customer feedback. The device charges over USB-C, which can deliver an 80% charge in 40 minutes. It also heats up in 60 seconds, and hitting the temperature button three times activates an even quicker so-called Superbooster mode that quickly bumps the temp by 59 degrees. The filling chamber is now coated in ceramic which, if nothing else, should make maintaining a clean oven a bit easier.

Mighty loyalists will be disappointed to hear the bright LED remains from the original. Some users find the screen too bright in a dark room and susceptible to UV light that dims the screens when outside. The battery system appears to be a carry-over from the original too.

The form factor is the same, except for the addition of tiny feet. The original cannot stand on its own, making filling the top-mounted bowl challenging without a 3rd party stand. Now there are little fins to help the Mighty+ stand on its own.

How do the changes impact performance? Unfortunately, I can’t tell you until I get the device next week.

I asked Lytwynec about the Mighty’s use of plastic in the top-mounted cooling chamber. Competitors are moving to glass or ceramic for improved taste, I pointed out. Lytwynec notes the Mighty+ is made of a new plastic polymer, and S&B is focused on using materials that allow its devices to be certified as medical devices. The company is aware of third-party accessories but feels the current cooling chamber offers the right benefits to the consumer.

The company also unveiled a new version of the Crafty+, its smaller dry herb vape. The new model features many of the improvements found in the new Mighty+. There’s also a new version of the company’s original vape, the desktop Volcano. This new version is finished in a scratch-free matte black finish and will retail for $699 starting September 9.

Jürgen Bickel and Markus Storz founded Storz & Bickle in 2002 and in 2018, sold the company to Canadian cannabis giant Canopy Growth Corporation. Jürgen Bickel remains with S&B and continues to run the day-to-day and drive product development.

Storz & Bickle sits atop Canopy Growth Corporation’s device segment. According to Canopy’s latest financial release, S&B recorded $24.1 million in the first fiscal quarter of 2022. This marks a 41% ($7 million) year-over-year increase. This growth is attributed to an expansion of its distribution network.

Yearly Archives: 2021