Pro and Tell…that’s the somewhat cryptic invite from Apple for their next event October 28th. Actually, it isn’t all that cryptic, since we already know they are launching new MacBook Pros imminently. 9to5mac.com reports that the expected tentpole devices with be new, top line MacBook Pro’s with OLED touch screen displays. Other than the touch screens and better displays, the laptops are expected to look much like the present ones as far as form factor. They will be powered by M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. We can expect wallet-crushing prices for the very top models, of course…made worse by the chip shortage caused by all the data centers AI companies are building out.
Waymo will expand their robotaxi fleet from the 4,000 currently on the roads to 8,000 by the end of this year, and 20,000 by the end of 2027. According to thenextweb.com, most of the vehicles will be Ojai, the Waymo EV built by Zeekr, one of the brands from Chinese maker Geely. Waymo takes the cars and installs their self-driving system in their plant in Mesa, Arizona. Waymo currently operates in 15 US cities. They are expanding to Madrid, Spain. WeRide and Uber are already testing in Madrid.
Look out, Patreon…a big player is about to horn in on your turf. Engadget.com says that Spotify is rolling out its Membership program, which lets users get exclusive content in exchange for a subscription fee. Spotify’s Memberships program was introduced back in May during the company’s Investor Day event. At the time, it was only detailed as a way for creators to “build recurring revenue directly from their most engaged fans on Spotify.” Similar to Patreon’s membership tiers and YouTube’s six Channel membership levels, Spotify creators can also bundle Membership benefits into specific tiers with different price points. Spotify said creators get to keep 90 percent of the revenue earned from Memberships, much like how Patreon takes a 10 percent platform fee. With all the journalists that have bailed or been canned through takeovers of media companies and systems by billionaires lately, it’s good to have another platform for good writers and truth-tellers. Of course, subscribe to a liar or lousy writer if that is your thing. I’m not here to judge.
The first lithium plant in the US in 50 years will open in Texas. It’s run by a company called Element3, and the US Department of Energy is involved, with support from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Bgr.com notes that there isn’t any actual mining involved…although the US does have lithium deposits in the Southern California desert. The project takes wastewater from oil mining facilities within the Permian Basin (an oil field in western Texas) and filters out the lithium chloride it contains. Element3 then uses ORNL proprietary technology to transform the material into battery-grade lithium carbonate. The National Lab’s calculations are that Element3’s installation can produce around 3,000 tons of lithium every year. To put that into perspective, in 2022, the sole lithium mine in the U.S., located in Silver Peak, Nevada, was reported to produce around 5,000 tons of lithium annually.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
