Toyota has dropped a whopping $1.3 billion into its facility in Georgetown, Kentucky. According to Arstechnica.com, that’s where Toyota will produce its upcoming three row electric SUV. Now, Toyota will also add a battery pack assembly line as well as make other changes to the plant. Toyota…and Honda as well…have largely hung back in the EV race up to now, but in 2023, the company announced plans to sell 3.5 million EVs by 2030. Still, Chairman Akin Toyoda believes that EVs may only reach 30% market share. 

While Samsung has gone through several generations of folding phones, all has been quiet about them at Apple. Well, the information reports that Apple has secretly been working on at least 2 folding phones after 5 years of research and development. Both prototype iPhones fold widthwise, like a clamshell. Sources indicate that there are no plans to mass produce them yet this year or in 2025, so the earliest we might see them would be 2026. Of course, Apple may can the whole idea if they can’t build them to their standards. The company is reportedly concerned about technical challenges and offering sufficiently appealing features on the device that would justify its high price point compared to non-foldable devices. As with Samsung and others, the pesky crease in the middle of the screen is an issue…especially when trying to use the Apple Pencil on the 8 inch screen the prototypes have. 

Microsoft is giving its Copilot a makeover, with a new, more streamlined design on the web and in mobile apps. Engadget.com says Microsoft points to  a cleaner look and feel for the chatbot’s responses, while Copilot will display a carousel of suggested prompts to highlight what it can do. The new designs drop right before the Super Bowl, and not coincidentally Redmond is running an ad in the big game for the first time in 4 years. Copilot now has more image-editing and creation options. Designer in Copilot (at least in some territories) now allows you to edit images you’ve generated without having to leave the chatbot. You can turn an image into pixel art or blur the background, for instance. Copilot Pro subscribers can resize images between landscape and square formats and regenerate them without having to exit the chat.

Ford has a ‘skunkworks’ project underway to develop a low-cost EV, and it’s being helmed by former Tesla development boss Alan Clarke. Techcrunch.com reports that the disclosure came in an earnings call. The so-called skunkworks project is being run from Irvine, CA, and has been going for a couple years. Besides Clarke, there are engineers from AMP, the EV startup Ford snapped up last Fall. The former CEO of AMP also worked previously with Clarke at Tesla. The project is focused on cost, smaller EVs and efficiency, including the battery. Whichever EV maker gets a good, reliable EV with decent range for under $30 grand first is going to really hit it big…and Ford wants it to be them. By the way, Skunkworks originally referred to Lockheed Martin’s secret Advanced Development Projects, which built the highly secret planes for the US government…notably the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.