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But producing so many electric vehicles (often abbreviated to EVs) in a decade would cause a surge in demand for metals like lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese. These metals are essential for making EV batteries, but they’re not found everywhere. Most of the world’s lithium lies under the Atacama Desert in South America, where mining threatens local people and ecosystems. Leading manufacturers of EVs need to keep import costs low and find a reliable source of these raw materials....

But there’s one bit of news that’s more important than the rest. And you guessed it: there’s gonna be an electric Nissan Micra. I can barely compose myself. The 2008 Nissan Micra is the best car ever — and I can’t wait for the new one. No, you’re crying. I bought mine back in 2013, when the Harlem Shake was still a thing. My uni social life was hampered by Athens’ unreliable (and stinky) public transport and I needed to move around the city free as a petroleum bird....

The game (we’ll call it ALJ for short) is a gorgeous mashup of space opera, crew/time management, and deep storytelling. It’s set in a far future that conjures up Firefly, Cowboy Bebop, and The 5th Element in equal parts while also revealing a completely original world. What’s interesting about ALJ is that it’s essentially a queer video game. Crispy Creative describes it as “radically inclusive.” I say it’s essentially a queer video game because I think calling it that relegates it to undeserved nichedom....

And there’s a good reason, you can always do better. Leadership challenges change day to day, and sometimes frankly reminders are in order as it’s easy to get sidetracked by the host of other duties you have. [Read: 3 top tips to help you be a good boss] That’s why we spoke with a select group of tech founders to gain a few invaluable tips to help you hone your leadership skills and be the best boss you can be....

Yep, so at last night’s WWDC, Apple all but confirmed the end of OS X and with it the 10.XX numbering system we’ve all been so accustomed to. In its place, we have a brand new version of an Apple desktop operating system — the first time we’ve had something like this in almost 20 years. In this piece, we’re going to look at the evolution of OS X, its role in Apple’s computing history, and how macOS 11 is likely to shuffle a whole lot of stuff up....

That’s according to blockchain firm Chainalysis, which says it’s tracked roughly 45,000 BTC ($302 million) and 800,000 ETH ($102 million) sent from PlusToken’s operational wallets to individual addresses owned by the scammers themselves. The firm noted — almost ominously — that 20,000 BTC (worth over $134 million) is still waiting to be dumped. “Given this analysis and the effects we’ve observed so far, liquidations of large amounts of illicitly obtained funds are likely to drive down the price of cryptocurrencies,” it said....

According to sleuths at 9to5Google, a code snippet in the Bose Connect app hints an unreleased “QC35 II Gaming Headset,” including an instructional video of the product. The report says the rumored headset’s codename is Tibbers, a tribute to a League of Legends character. The app latest version (12.0) contains code that hints towards a microphone attachment that plugs into the QC 35 II through the aux slot: This is a classic configuration for gaming headsets that makes it easier to chat with your teammates or other players in the game through microphone....

This first came to light (see what I did there?) over the past few days and, since then, I’ve been busy prepping. It’s a long held human tradition to be buried with items that held significant value to you in life, so I’ve been clearing my coffin of useless junk like “heirlooms” and “the bones of my faithful hound” to make space for my Xbox Series X with Night Mode....

In fact, the company claims its new Melomania Touch true wireless headphones offer a whopping 50 hours of total battery life (9 hours per charge, plus an extra 41 in the case) when used in a special low power mode. Even in ‘High Performance Audio Mode,’ the headphones still offer a very respectable 7 hours of battery life per charge, with an extra 33 hours in the case. This time around the headphones use touch controls as opposed to the big buttons on their predecessors....

The President of the United States of America has spent the past few weeks touting a dangerous drug called hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic treatment for COVID-19. Unfortunately, the president’s expertise is in reality TV, not medicine. Several studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine, a drug designed to treat malaria, has dangerous side-effects when used to treat coronavirus, including death. The quest for a COVID-19 drug that will both make Donald Trump and his friends in the pharmaceutical industry rich and not kill the people who take it has, so far, netted no results....

What? Huh? You don’t have a pair of true wireless earbuds? And… what’s that? You own an iPhone too? Damn. Well, you’re in luck, because the latest AirPods are currently on offer. Indeed, rather than paying $160 — like they are on Apple’s own site — you can now get them for a more reasonable $145. Generally, Apple doesn’t reduce even its old products by much, so if you’ve been on a hunt for a pair of the newest AirPods, this is a pretty good deal....

If you’re a writer, blogger, or any other kind of online content creator, you can’t get around it: numbers. You simply can’t hold yourself back from wanting to know how many people consumed your creation, be it pageviews or video views. But there’s another type of number, perhaps even more addictive, which is being formed independent from the publishing platform. It’s the chatter around your content, taking place on social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit....

According to a company announcement made last Sunday, Xpeng has started delivering the vehicle across China, South China Morning Post reports. If you don’t know the P7, it costs just $32,470 compared to the Model 3’s $38,350 (after subsidies), it also has 38 km more range than the Tesla. Understandably people are excited about getting a comparable vehicle for a decent discount. [Read: Don’t get your hopes up, Tesla probably isn’t working on LiDAR for Autopilot] The car received glittering praise in a recent first drive by Fully Charged reporter Elliot Richards....

People take for granted the ability to deal with situations like these on a regular basis. In reality, in accomplishing these feats, humans are relying on not one but a powerful set of universal abilities known as common sense. As an artificial intelligence researcher, my work is part of a broad effort to give computers a semblance of common sense. It’s an extremely challenging effort. Quick – define common sense Despite being both universal and essential to how humans understand the world around them and learn, common sense has defied a single precise definition....

It’s no surprise. Crypto crime has been on the rise – especially since the pandemic began. How are these crimes committed? And what can you do to stay ahead of scammers? Direct theft vs scams There are two main ways criminals obtain cryptocurrency: stealing it directly, or using a scheme to trick people into handing it over. In 2021, crypto criminals directly stole a record US$3.2 billion (A$4.48 billion) worth of cryptocurrency, according to Chainalysis....

Earlier this week, the budget friendly brand started taking orders for its new Spring EV in Germany. Thanks to very generous plug-in car subsidies in the European nation, buyers could pick up the entry level model for just $12,995 (€10,920). Without the subsidy, it would cost $24,384 (€20,490). Even though it’s the base model, it still comes with air conditioning and a Bluetooth enabled radio. The more expensive Comfort Plus model, has a 7-inch touchscreen navigation system, parking sensors, reversing camera, metallic paint, and an optional fast-charger....

Artificial intelligence research lab OpenAI made headlines again, this time with DALL-E 2, a machine learning model that can generate stunning images from text descriptions. DALL-E 2 builds on the success of its predecessor DALL-E and improves the quality and resolution of the output images thanks to advanced deep learning techniques. The announcement of DALL-E 2 was accompanied by a social media campaign by OpenAI’s engineers and its CEO, Sam Altman, who shared wonderful photos created by the generative machine learning model on Twitter....

Dubbed Gato, it’s arguably the most impressive all-in-one machine learning kit the world’s seen yet. According to a DeepMind blog post: And while it remains to be seen exactly how well it’ll do once researchers and users outside the DeepMind labs get their hands on it, Gato appears to be everything GPT-3 wishes it could be and more. Here’s why that makes me sad: GPT-3 is a large-language model (LLM) produced by OpenAI, the world’s most well-funded artificial general intelligence (AGI) company....

Unless you absolutely needed the 360-degree hinge, the regular XPS 13 was usually the better deal, as it offered better performance for the price. On the other hand, like many flip-floppy style laptops, the XPS 13 2-in-1 never felt quite perfect as a tablet due to the exposed keyboard and awkward shape. This year, Dell is taking an altogether different approach for the new XPS 13 2-in-1. And by “different,” I mean it’s basically just a tablet now, albeit one that sports an optional (sighs) iPad-like keyboard case....

China, Israel, and Bahrain have already begun rolling out digital vaccine certificates. On Wednesday, the EU announced its plan to join them. In theory, the passes can provide evidence that someone is safe to travel, return to the office, or enter leisure venues. But critics fear they will exacerbate inequalities and compromise data privacy. They also worry that even inoculated people can spread COVID-19. One of their biggest concerns involves the rollout of vaccines....