Bytes: What’s new in tech

Battery tech will beat range anxiety

Electric-vehicle battery improvements could make “range anxiety” seem quaint, said Christopher Mims in The Wall Street Journal. “Significant upgrades” to the batteries that power electric vehicles should hit the market “in the next five years.” In the works are things like “superfast charging,” led by an Israeli tech company, StoreDot, that “is working on new battery tech for making EVs charge so quickly” it will be comparable to filling up at a gas station. Multiple companies, including StoreDot, are working on new materials that can replace the graphite in today’s batteries to improve their energy density. As early as next year, BMW plans to introduce a new battery that it promises will increase energy capacity by 20 percent and charging speed by 30 percent.

Google plays hardball on journalism bill

Google said it is removing links to California news sites for some users as it fights a state bill seeking fees for publishers, said Sophia Bollag in the San Francisco Chronicle. The California Journalism Preservation Act “would make tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft pay news organizations a ‘journalism usage fee’” based on a percentage of the advertising revenue attached to the links for articles. Publishers have long argued that the “tech platforms benefit financially” and have not done enough to compensate journalists. Google said it is blocking the links as “a shortterm test.” The strategy may be taken from the playbook of Meta, which has “blocked news on its platforms for Canadian users” since Canada passed a similar law last year.

AI on your lapel? Not so much

The much-hyped Humane AI pin is a $699 disappointment, said David Pierce in The Verge. The wearable AI-powered device with a camera and microphone has influential backers, such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. But Humane’s attempt felt like it “was trying to do an awful lot and the hardware simply couldn’t keep up.” The battery life was embarrassing. There were far more unsuccessful interactions than successful ones. When I asked it to look up information, the pin often “failed entirely.” The pin’s tiny laser projector, designed to project onto your hand, is “just about invisible” in bright light. Even turning the device on and off demands pinching fingers and your hand to select a series of numbers, like “sliding a tiny trombone.” The only truly reliable thing it can manage “is tell the time.”