Google pulls popular but controversial live video chat app Chamet from the Play Store

September 1, 2023
Google has removed a popular but controversial live video chat app Chamet from the Play Store. The company confirmed the move to TechCrunch saying that the app violated its user-generated content (UGC) policy. The company didn’t provide a statement but pointed to its policy which says, “Apps whose primary purpose is featuring objectionable UGC will […]

Here’s why I am coining the term “embryo tech”

September 1, 2023
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here. This week, I published a story about the results of a study on Parkinson’s disease in which a biotech company transplanted dopamine-making neurons into people’s brains.…

Fisker confirms Foxconn will build its $29,900 Pear EV, but questions remain

September 1, 2023
EV startup Fisker revealed more details about its $29,900 Pear electric urban lifestyle crossover vehicle Thursday at the company’s Product Vision Day. Included in that reveal was confirmation that Foxconn, the consumer electronics manufacturer most well-known for making Apple iPhones, would be producing the vehicle at its Lordstown, Ohio, manufacturing facility. In early August, Henrik […]

Biden offers $15.5B to boost battery and EV manufacturing

August 31, 2023
The United States Department of Energy is dedicating $15.5 billion to support the transition to electric vehicles. As part of President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda, most of the money will go to automakers and suppliers to retool their plants to produce electric, hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, the agency said Thursday. […]

Robotics sales decline for second straight quarter amid economic woes

August 31, 2023
Sooner or later, the numbers were going to contract. Broadly speaking, the pandemic has been a gamechanger for automation broadly and robotics specifically. But not even those categories are immune from macro trends. Per new numbers from the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) — whose job it is to track such things — North American […]

Texas cannot yet enforce ID checks on porn sites

August 31, 2023
A Texas judge issued an injunction today to stall the enforcement of an online age verification bill. The Free Speech Coalition, along with adult video sites like Pornhub, led the legal challenge against Texas’ HB 1181, arguing that the bill violates the First Amendment and infringes on rights guaranteed by Section 230. “The Court agrees […]