This week, German Car manufacturer Audi has introduced a new electric car model called A6 Avant e-tron. Modeled after Audi’s Sportback, the Avant was intended to be a luxury EV with room to carry all sorts of equipment. It looked sleek, like someone had knocked down a Subaru Crosstrek and smashed a glass roof over it. Audi says the car is built on a premium platform electric system (or PPE, confusingly), developed in conjunction with Porsche. The battery technology aims to allow the Avant to drive 186 miles on just 10 minutes of charging, with an estimated total range of more than 400 miles on a full charge.
Sure, it’s just a concept now. But unlike other automakers—Tesla Cybertruck is anyone there? —Audi has a real history of bringing its concepts to market. So here’s an EV you’ll likely drive one day, although US models may vary slightly from this design.
Here’s some more device news this week:
Google IO In progress
On Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced it’s the company’s annual IO . Developer Conference will take place May 11 and 12. The event will be held at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, with a limited number of live spectators watching from the seats. For others who want to participate, IO will also streaming.
The key event is usually the big attraction of the conference, where Google executives announce a flurry of new software updates, hardware releases, and exotics. Tuesday afternoon booth. Google also tends to reveal some big details about the upcoming version of its Android mobile operating system at IO. Released by the company second developer preview of Android 13 this week and the final version of the operating system is expected by the end of summer, so expect a rollout of new features in May.
To review, check out everything Google announced at the event last year. All our updates on the event will be this.
Netflix may start charging for shared logins
Look at your ex’s Netflix account and despair, idiots. Netflix announced that they are testing a new policy on extra charge for users who share their accounts with others outside of their own home.
In it brief news (filed under “Innovation”), Netflix says the filings are “affecting our ability to invest in great new movies and TV.” Apparently, every time your father-in-law logs into your account, another person restart bad execution lost wings.
Netflix says it has no plans to block users from sharing passwords, but it is strongly recommended they have to pay for doing so. Users can add up to two “sub-accounts” with an extra $3 for each “sub-account”.
For now, Netflix’s sharing crackdown is only happening in Costa Rica, Chile, and Peru, but the company says the policy could soon expand to other countries.
It’s hard to say goodbye to Amazon
A report from Business Insider revealed that Amazon deliberately make it more difficult for some users to cancel their Prime membership. Based on Leaked documents, Amazon’s so-called Project Iliad intentionally added to the hassle of canceling a Prime account by making users wade through multiple steps before they could finally opt out. Activists say this kind of labyrinthine user experience is intentionally designed to frustrate the user is trying to cancel a paid service. (Here’s how to make sure you don’t be fooled by these dark patterns online.) After the project was launched, Prime cancellations dropped 14% in 2017.
In other Amazon news, workers at three Amazon warehouses went on strike This week, asking for a raise and longer leave.
Standard problem of Smart-Home see delay
Problemoffer connection standard that will allow smart home devices from different manufacturers to talk to each other, is Delayed months. Matter was supposed to arrive in the middle of the year, but for now Community Standards Alliance—The partnership between smart home giants like Apple, Google and Amazon that oversees the standard — told the Verge that Matter will now be on the market in the fall of 2022. The delay comes after multiple More than expected manufacturers expressed interest in participating. Until then, you’ll have to keep juggling apps every time you want to tweak your thermostat or smart light bulb.
Listen Utility Lab Audio files
On this week’s show, our guest is WIRED senior writer Khari Johnson. Khari introduced us to machine intelligence and facial recognition technology, and in two recent stories he wrote about some of the problems that can arise when law enforcement agencies depend on too much into facial recognition software to identify suspects. That’s a problem exacerbated by the fact that facial recognition technology often finds it difficult to accurately identify women, children, and people with darker skin — basically, anyone who isn’t White skin-man.
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