Hollywood's Secret AI Obsession & 18-Second EV Charging

Ultra-Fast EV Battery Technology

• ⚡ VeraVolt, a new battery from RML Group, has achieved conformity of production certification for mass production.
• 🚀 This battery can fully charge or discharge in approximately 18 seconds, a significant leap from current EV capabilities.
• 🏎️ While initially targeted for race cars and supercars like the Zinger 21C, there's hope this technology will trickle down to consumer vehicles.
• 💡 The modular design allows car makers to prioritize either range or power based on their needs.

Hollywood's Hidden AI Usage

• 🎭 A Vulture report reveals that generative AI is being secretly used in Hollywood productions for tasks like creating pitch decks, storyboards, and cutting trailers.
• 🤫 Many industry professionals are ordered to keep AI usage off the books and out of public discussion due to legal and union concerns.
• 🎨 Artists are sometimes tasked with cleaning up AI-generated images or rewriting AI-generated treatments, blurring lines of authorship and transparency.
• ⚖️ The core issues revolve around trust, transparency, and creative ethics, rather than just the technology itself.
• 💡 While studios may see AI as an optimization tool, creatives hope it can also be an innovation tool for new possibilities.

Tech Briefs and Updates

• ⌚ Samsung is preparing a beta test for One UI 8 for Galaxy Watch users, introducing features like bedtime guidance and a running coach.
• 📈 WhatsApp will begin displaying ads on its status screen, similar to Instagram Stories, using first-party data for targeting.
• 📺 Amazon and Roku are partnering to allow advertisers to place ads across 80% of connected TV households through their combined platforms.
• 🎬 TikTok is now offering advertisers the ability to create 5-second video clips from text or image prompts using generative AI.
• 💻 Apple is offering free repairs for a limited number of Mac Minis with M2 chips experiencing power issues.
• 🧬 23andMe's assets were acquired by a nonprofit public benefit company founded by co-founder Anne Wojcinski for $35 million.
• 🎮 Minecraft is releasing a major visual update with directional lighting and volumetric fog, enhancing biome atmospheres without changing gameplay.
• 📱 A new Trump-branded mobile service, the '47 plan, is being launched by the Trump Organization, featuring a $499 phone.
• 😴 Anker's new Soundcore Sleep A30 earbuds offer active noise cancellation and snoring detection for better sleep, with a $229.99 price tag.
• 🔊 A Windows 11 dev channel build accidentally included the Windows Vista startup sound, which Microsoft later acknowledged as a bug.
• 📜 New York's layoff reporting rules now include a checkbox to indicate if technological innovation or automation was the cause of job losses, though it has not yet been used.

Network Security and Device Management

• 🔍 Run Zero, a company founded by HD Moore, offers a free version for security professionals to inventory and track up to 100 devices on a network.
• 🏠 This tool helps identify devices and their activity, useful for detecting unauthorized network access.