AppleMagazine #554

Forget rummaging through the junk drawer. Soon, Europeans will only need to reach for one cable to charge their smartphones and other devices. European Union officials said they inked a provisional agreement that will require a uniform charging cord in the 27-nation bloc. It’s part of a wider effort to make products sold in the EU more sustainable and cut down on electronic waste. The new rules, which will take effect by fall 2024, mean EU consumers will only need to use a common USB Type-C cable for small and medium-sized rechargeable, portable electronic devices. “European consumers were frustrated with multiple chargers piling up within their homes,” Alex Agius Saliba, the European Parliament’s lead negotiator, said at a press briefing in Brussels. “Now, they will be able to go with a single charger…

A company is seeking to build the country’s first-ever remote air traffic control center, which could handle traffic for multiple airports, on the site of an old Air Force base in Alabama, a newspaper reports. Advanced ATC Inc., an air traffic control academy based in Valdosta, Georgia, announced plans to invest about $4.7 million at Craig Air Field, now a public airport in Dallas County, just southeast of Selma, the Selma Times-Journal reported. The company also announced it will establish an international training academy at the site. The remote tower uses cameras, real-time video and other features, allowing air traffic controllers to remotely accomplish the duties they would previously have carried out in a traditional control tower, the company said. “Remote towers represent an important and innovative step in airspace modernization efforts in…

California regulators gave a robotic taxi service the green light to begin charging passengers for driverless rides in San Francisco, a first in a state where dozens of companies have been trying to train vehicles to steer themselves on increasingly congested roads. The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously granted Cruise, a company controlled by automaker General Motors, approval to launch its driverless ride-hailing service. The regulators issued the permit despite safety concerns arising from Cruise’s inability to pick up and drop off passengers at the curb in its autonomous taxis, requiring the vehicles to double park in traffic lanes. The ride-hailing service initially will consist of just 30 electric vehicles confined to transporting passengers in less congested parts of San Francisco from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Those restrictions are designed to…

U.S. solar manufacturers say they are considering legal challenges after President Joe Biden declared a two-year pause for tariffs on solar imports from Southeast Asia. Biden also invoked the Defense Production Act on Monday as the White House moved to jumpstart solar installations that have been slowed or abandoned amid a Commerce Department inquiry into possible trade violations involving Chinese products. The White House said Biden’s actions would boost an industry crucial to his climate changefighting goals while not interfering with or shutting down the Commerce investigation. But some domestic producers, including a California company that filed a complaint with Commerce about unfair competition from Chinese imports, said Biden’s actions would help China’s state-subsidized solar companies at the expense of U.S. manufacturers. “President Biden is significantly interfering in Commerce’s quasi-judicial process,’’ said Mamun Rashid,…

This year’s bumper Worldwide Developers Conference focused not only on what was next for macOS, watchOS, iPadOS, and iOS, but also lifted the lid on new hardware from the Cupertino company, with Apple showing off the new MacBook Air, powered by the M2 chip. LEAPS FORWARD FOR SOFTWARE Although Apple typically saves hardware announcements for separate events held throughout the year, the company made the unusual move of announcing two new MacBook products at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference. As well as an all-new MacBook Air, which has been redesigned, the firm also bumped the specs of its entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro. That’s, of course, on top of the major announcements across iOS, macOS, and iPadOS, with each operating system given new features and tools designed to make the Apple ecosystem even…

Elon Musk is threatening to walk away from his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter, accusing the company of refusing to give him information about its spam bot and fake accounts. Lawyers for the Tesla and SpaceX CEO made the threat in a letter to Twitter, and Twitter disclosed it in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The letter says Musk has repeatedly asked for the information since May 9, about a month after his offer to buy the company, so he could evaluate how many of the company’s 229 million accounts are fake. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has said that Twitter has consistently estimated that fewer than 5% of its accounts are fake. But Musk has disputed that, contending in a May tweet that 20% or more are bogus. Shares…