A Uber lançou no Brasil o recurso Preferências de Partida, pensado especialmente para idosos e pessoas com deficiência (PCDs). A novidade visa facilitar o embarque desses públicos ao fornecer orientações mais específicas aos motoristas sobre a melhor forma de encontrá-los, com descrições que ajudem a identificar o passageiro.
A funcionalidade permite que o passageiro indique de maneira prévia como prefere ser identificado e avisado sobre a chegada do motorista. É possível pedir que o motorista pisque os faróis, buzine ou entre em contato pelo próprio aplicativo, o que dispensa a comunicação normalmente feita pelas mensagens da plataforma.
Além disso, o condutor pode ser informado sobre o uso de bengalas, muletas, andadores e cadeiras de rodas.
Araceli Almeida, chefe de operações de segurança na Uber do Brasil, comentou a novidade:
Compreendemos os desafios únicos que passageiros com deficiência e idosos enfrentam todos os dias. É por isso que seguimos criando novas funcionalidades para proporcionar uma experiência melhor e mais personalizada aos nossos usuários.
O recurso pode ser ativado em Conta » Configurações » Acessibilidade » Preferências, e então o app envia a notificação automaticamente quando o passageiro solicitar a corrida.
De acordo com a Uber, a novidade deverá chegar gradualmente ao público brasileiro ao longo dos próximos dias, somando-se a recursos como personalização e indicação de deficiência, identificação de usuários com cão-guia, Uber Conta Sênior (modalidade que oferece textos e ícones maiores, além de menos botões e telas simplificadas para solicitação de viagens), compatibilidade com o VoiceOver e isenção da taxa de espera para passageiros com deficiência.
Com a futura novidade, usuários poderão ativar o navegador integrado direto nas configurações do app. Quando ativado, qualquer link enviado ou recebido na plataforma será aberto nesse browser interno — uma opção que poderá ser desativada a qualquer momento caso o usuário queira voltar para o navegador padrão.
Segundo o site, a sessão de navegação é independente da conversa em que o link foi compartilhado, o que significa que será possível continuar navegando sem se limitar à página enviada ou recebida. Também haverá uma seção para gerenciar dados, com opções para limpar cookies e cache dos sites visitados.
Em termos de segurança e privacidade, o WhatsApp não terá acesso aos links compartilhados ou abertos pelos usuários. Os dados de navegação serão armazenados localmente no dispositivo — como já ocorre com o Safari.
Agendamento de mensagens é liberado para testadores
Em desenvolvimento desde o início deste ano, o recurso que permitirá aos usuários programar o envio de uma mensagem para uma data e/ou um horário específicos começou a ser disponibilizado gradualmente para testadores do app — a etapa que antecede o lançamento público, ainda sem data definida.
Além de texto, será possível agendar o envio de fotos, vídeos e links. O processo funcionará de forma semelhante ao de plataformas como o Telegram, bastando tocar e segurar o botão de envio após escrever uma mensagem (ou na tela de edição de uma foto) para que a interface de seleção de data e hora apareça.
Segundo o site, será possível agendar mensagens com antecedência mínima de dez minutos. As mensagens agendadas ficarão disponíveis na tela de informações do chat, onde poderão ser apagadas ou visualizadas; em grupos, elas só serão enviadas a participantes que já eram membros no momento do agendamento.
Se você é daqueles usuários que não costumam deixar seus aplicativos do Mac abertos continuamente e têm uma rotina de abertura e fechamento bem definida, então o Cybokron Dock Groups pode ser uma mão na roda no seu workflow.
De código aberto, o app mora na barra de menus do sistema e permite, como seu próprio nome bem indica, agrupar programas para abri-los, ocultá-los e encerrá-los todos de uma vez — algo bem simples, rápido e prático.
Caso você tenha aplicativos que costuma abrir sempre que começa o trabalho e fechar no final do expediente, basta um clique no grupo correspondente para realizar uma ação. Inclusive, cada grupo pode ter seu próprio ícone no Dock.
Nesta quarta-feira, economize com nossa tradicional seleção de promoções na App Store!
O Retro Widget 3: Classic Snake é uma proposta que resgata a nostalgia dos celulares clássicos ao levar o jogo da cobrinha diretamente para os widgets do iPhone.
O visual, inspirado nos dispositivos dos anos 2000, reforça a sensação de nostalgia e agrada quem guarda boas lembranças daquela época. Além do clássico jogo, o app se destaca pela personalização dos widgets, que transformam a Tela de Início em um espaço divertido.
Aproveite a oferta e boa viagem no tempo! 🐍
Abaixo outros jogos/apps que, juntos, somam mais de R$70 em descontos:
Jogos
Encontre os emojis.
Gerencie sua equipe de corrida.
Boliche.
Puzzles.
Aplicativos
Fotos estelares.
Adesivos para o iMessage.
Aproveite as ofertas e até amanhã! Lembrando que elas são sempre por tempo limitado, então é bom correr. 🚀
Fotografar em RAW é muito bom para fotógrafos ou entusiastas que querem obter um controle mais preciso de suas suas imagens na edição, mas o tamanho enorme dos arquivos gerados praticamente inviabiliza a sua distribuição nesse formato após a edição.
Por isso, geralmente os arquivos são convertidos para formatos mais eficientes antes de serem compartilhados, e o RawToHEIC é um software projetado especialmente com essa finalidade: transformar arquivos RAW no formato HEIC, amplamente usado pela Apple.
Ele é bem útil principalmente para profissionais que fazem o processo de edição de suas fotos diretamente no iPhone — por imagens em ProRAW capturadas do aparelho ou importadas de câmeras como Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax e Hasselblad.
Funcionando direto pelo menu de compartilhar do app Fotos (Photos), o app permite que você edite a foto direto no iPhone e a converta para o novo formato após a conclusão, mantendo coisas como HDR 1High dynamic range, ou ampla faixa dinâmica. e metadados e ocupando até quase dez vezes menos armazenamento.
O RawToHEIC também funciona no iPadOS e no macOS — o que é ideal para quem gosta de fazer suas edições no aplicativo nativo da Maçã ou simplesmente não tem um aplicativo de edição capaz de exportar fotos em RAW para outros formatos com facilidade.
O app pode ser baixado gratuitamente e oferece até 50 conversões por dia. Para conversões ilimitadas, você pode assiná-lo por R$60/ano ou comprá-lo por R$130.
A HAYLOU anunciou nesta semana o HAYLOU Velo, um novo smartwatch que combina design contemporâneo com recursos práticos para o dia a dia. Com uma estrutura de liga de zinco, carregamento sem fio e duas pulseiras intercambiáveis incluídas na caixa, o Velo oferece uma alternativa versátil para quem deseja um smartwatch que combine com seu estilo pessoal e sua rotina diária.
Uma tela brilhante e um design diferenciado
O Velo conta com uma tela AMOLED de 1,96 polegada, resolução de 410×502 pixels e brilho máximo de até 1.500 nits, trazendo cores vibrantes e detalhes nítidos no pulso, mesmo em condições externos com muita luz.
Divulgação/HAYLOU
Uma estrutura central de liga de zinco, vidro 2.5D e botões de liga de alumínio conferem ao relógio uma aparência limpa e contemporânea. Disponível nas cores preta e branca, o Velo foi desenhado para combinar com uma série de estilos do dia a dia.
Duas pulseiras, mais maneiras de usar
O Velo vem com duas pulseiras intercambiáveis: uma pulseira texturizada com padrão ondulado (para um visual diferenciado) e uma pulseira de silicone macio (para treinos e dias mais ativos). A troca entre elas permite aos usuários adaptar o relógio a diferentes roupas e ocasiões.
Divulgação/HAYLOU
A personalização continua na tela, com mais de 200 mostradores disponíveis online, suporte a mostradores personalizados, quatro layouts para o menu principal e cinco estilos visuais.
Recursos inteligentes para a conveniência diária
O Velo mantém os usuários conectados com chamadas via Bluetooth e notificações inteligentes, além de ferramentas úteis, como controles de música e câmera, assistente de voz e localização do celular. Os usuários de Android também podem responder a mensagens do WhatsApp diretamente pelo pulso.
Divulgação/HAYLOU
Com mais de 100 modos esportivos e monitoramento diário de atividades, o Velo foi construído para acompanhar os movimentos ao longo do dia, desde as atividades da rotina até os treinos.
Carregamento sem fio, menos complicações
O carregamento sem fio torna a recarga do Velo simples e conveniente. Sua bateria de 300mAh oferece até sete dias de uso, dependendo das configurações e do uso.
Divulgação/HAYLOU
Com classificação de resistência à água de 1ATM, o Velo foi projetado para lidar com respingos cotidianos e chuva leve, mas não é indicado para natação ou banho.
Preço e disponibilidade
O HAYLOU Velo estará disponível nas cores preta e branca por meio dos canais oficiais de venda da HAYLOU e de parceiros varejistas selecionados em todo o mundo. O preço de varejo estimado é de aproximadamente US$45, com o preço final variando de acordo com o mercado, o varejista e o período promocional.
A HAYLOU é uma marca global de tecnologia de dispositivos vestíveis inteligentes e áudio, comprometida em tornar a tecnologia cotidiana acessível. Por meio de produtos de áudio inteligente, dispositivos vestíveis e tecnologias práticas de saúde, a HAYLOU cria experiências confiáveis e agradáveis que ajudam as pessoas a levar vidas mais saudáveis, ativas e conectadas.
NOTA DE TRANSPARÊNCIA: O MacMagazine recebe uma pequena comissão sobre vendas concluídas por meio de links deste post, mas você, como consumidor, não paga nada a mais pelos produtos/serviços ao usar os nossos links de afiliado.
Apple’s iPhone User Guide for iOS 27 explains how to record a phone call when you are talking to one other person, with the recording saved to the Notes app. Apple also lists where call recording is not available: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, the European Union, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, […]
Apple’s iPhone User Guide explains how to share your screen, ask to see someone else’s screen, or remotely control it during a call in the Phone app. Apple says both you and the other participant need iOS 26 or later, and that remote control is not currently available in the European Union. The feature is […]
Apple’s iPhone User Guide for iOS 27 explains how to use Live Translation during a call in the Phone app, so you can hear and read a spoken and text translation in your preferred language. Apple says the feature is powered by Apple Intelligence and works on one-on-one calls in the languages Apple lists, on […]
I’d wager everyone has a rehearsed response to what’s absolutely one of the world’s worst interview questions: “What’s your biggest weakness?” Whenever I’ve gotten it, I take a slow—even pensive—breath and rattle off my line: “I say no to myself too much.”
I won’t lie. It’s a bit shameless—a definite humblebrag. I’m a systems thinker: When an idea pops up, I immediately spin up a feasibility assessment in my head. I run lists, plot timelines, and tally budget line items. Sometimes a rough Gantt chart starts to take shape. (I’m a gas at parties, as you can surely tell.)
My brain, throughout my 20-plus-year career as a science and tech journalist, has played host to a near constant tug-of-war between ambition and reality. Learning to find that balance is a big part of what’s helped me survive in this industry and, ultimately, led me here. This past spring, I had the great privilege of joining the incredible team of journalists behind MIT Technology Review to take the reins of the print magazine.
If you’ve been reading along with us for the last handful of issues, you may have noticed a few changes starting to materialize. We’ve brought back a regular roster of lists and infographics (both things that magazines do particularly well). But the biggest change is only just beginning to take shape, which is why Mat Honan, our editor in chief, asked me to hop in to introduce myself—and the issue you’re holding in your hands right now.
We’re giving ourselves permission to play around and experiment. To be a little … audacious.
Because, practical though I may be, I do still have plenty of ideas. It’s just that I sometimes need a reminder to stop blocking myself and do the thing. That’s the spirit driving this issue in particular.
We wanted to end 2026 with a slate of stories that check in on impossible ideas. Why? Because it’s frankly a lot of fun to dream about living on the moon or uploading our brains. Because losing sight of ambition is all too easy when it feels as if we’re playing whack-a-mole with the world’s problems. But also because the scientists and engineers who absolutely refuse to give up on even the most daring endeavors—like making synthetic blood or decoding animals’ speech—remind us what this whole technology thing is supposed to do to begin with.
It’s supposed to take cutting-edge research and development and apply it to make life better, safer, healthier, even more joyful. And when we eff up and make things worse (see: forever chemicals, traffic deaths, and AI that encourages potentially dangerous user behavior), we’re supposed to dig back in, assess the damage, and find ways to fix what we’ve broken. Even when unraveling the mess might itself seem impossible.
Right before I came to MIT Technology Review, I edited a newsletter about individual actions that can help address the climate crisis, which some would call—and have called—a fool’s errand, given the sheer scale of the problem. They might say it’s as implausible as an AI kill switch, practical nuclear fusion, or a superconductor that works at room temperature. But if I learned nothing else from three years spent finding ways for li’l old me (or li’l old you!) to chip away at one of humanity’s biggest existential threats, it’s that focusing on what we can’t do only makes the darkness darker.
So yeah, this one’s for the folks who have the audacity to try, and who refuse to let anyone—themselves included—tell them no.
Just before the Artemis II crew began its historic slingshot around the moon this past April, NASA announced plans to build Space Reactor-1 Freedom. SR-1, the first-ever nuclear-reactor-powered interplanetary spacecraft, is meant to fly an uncrewed mission to Mars by the end of 2028, arriving in 2029. A successful mission would herald a new era of more efficient, potentially faster spaceflight—saving astronauts time and cutting their exposure to harmful cosmic radiation as they travel to Mars and beyond. “You wake up to that announcement, and it puts a big smile on your face,” says Simon Middleburgh, co-director of the Nuclear Futures Institute at Bangor University in Wales.
The sticking points
Running a nuclear reactor in space may sound like lunacy, but it’s not. The Soviet Union sent dozens of reactors into orbit, often to power spy satellites. And experts say there aren’t any major technical obstacles to making nuclear space propulsion happen. “I think it’s a very doable technology,” says Philip Metzger, a spaceflight engineering researcher at the Florida Space Institute.“I’m happy to see them finally doing this.”
Still, developing space propulsion using reactors has been slow going. The US has started—and terminated—several programs looking into it over the past 75 years. The latest casualty was DRACO, a collaboration between NASA and the Department of Defense, which ended in 2025. The project was canceled because of high experimentation costs, an inability to compete with conventional rocket propulsion on price, and difficulty ensuring that ground tests could be performed safely and effectively. (You are creating an incredibly powerful nuclear reaction, after all.)
The progress
After much wavering, it now appears that nuclear-powered interplanetary travel is a $2 billion bet NASA is willing to make. The agency is pursuing an approach called nuclear electric propulsion, which uses the neutrons produced in a self-sustaining, uranium-atom-splitting reaction to create heat and ultimately electricity. The electricity is used to ionize a gas, which is blasted out of the spacecraft with the help of magnetic fields, generating thrust. The approach “is very low thrust, but very efficient,” says Sebastian Corbisiero, the US Department of Energy’s national technical director of space reactor programs. “So you can use it for a long period of time.”
What might such a rocket look like? A presentation by Steve Sinacore, program director of NASA’s SR-1 program, offers some clues. So far, the concept art makes the craft look like a colossal fletched arrow. The back will house the power-and-propulsion system, while the tip will hold a uranium-filled nuclear reactor with a capacity of at least 20 kilowatts. (For context, a typical nuclear plant on Earth is about 50,000 times more powerful.) The “fletches” on SR-1 are large fins that help cool the reactor by radiating heat into space.
Like many other pieces of space hardware, the reactor will need to be put through its paces on the ground before it’s cleared for the rough rocket trip to space. “Going through the launch safely is going to be a challenge,” says Middleburgh. “You are being shaken, rattled, and rolled.” For safety reasons, the reactor will be switched on around two days post-launch, when it’s comfortably far from Earth. Uranium isn’t tremendously dangerous by itself, but that can’t be said of the waste products that emerge when the reactor is running. If SR-1 works as planned, its journey to Mars will take about a year.
Will this novel form of space propulsion actually reach the Red Planet by 2029? It’s possible. NASA says the Idaho National Laboratory, which is building SR-1’s reactor, is making progress and is on target for a late-2028 launch. “Procurement of major components is underway, and integration work on the power and propulsion element is advancing steadily,” Sinacore told MIT Technology Review. The outlook will get even sunnier if the Artemis program, which aims to start laying the foundations for a base on the lunar south pole by the decade’s end, keeps to its own bold deadline.
“It’s an aggressive timeline,” says Lindsey Holmes, who is vice president of advanced projects at Analytical Mechanics Associates, an aerospace company in Virginia. She suspects the push is being driven partly by China’s and Russia’s own deep-space nuclear ambitions. The two countries have spoken about plans to place a reactor on the moon’s surface in the mid-2030s to power a jointly operated lunar base. Whether it flies or fails in space, SR-1’s development should help NASA put its own reactor on the moon; the technology involved in the two projects is broadly similar, given that the lunar surface, like space itself, is a vacuum. If an interplanetary nuclear-powered spacecraft works, a nuclear reactor on the moon should too.
Progress meter . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Most of the technology for SR-1 already exists; it’s going to come down to piecing it all together and then seeing how it performs in space.
We all know exercise is good for us. It builds muscle, strengthens bones, lowers blood pressure, and boosts mood. By deciphering how movement benefits the body, researchers hope to develop medicines that can offer some of the same perks—without the workout. The idea isn’t to replace exercise but to bring its upsides to people who struggle with frailty, disability, or chronic illness.
The sticking points
It will take a lot of experimentation to untangle the myriad pathways by which exercise promotes health. But IDing the cascade of hormones, enzymes, and other molecules related to physical activity is just the first step. Scientists need to figure out how to turn that knowledge into safe and effective drugs. That’s a tall order: More than 90% of treatments that enter human studies fail.
There are regulatory hurdles too. The FDA approves medications to treat diseases, not to enhance wellness, says Thomas Burris, a pharmacologist at the University of Florida whose work focuses on diseases that respond to exercise, like obesity, type 2 diabetes, and dementia.
The progress
There may never be a pill that delivers all the benefits of exercise, but research could lead to new medicines that mimic some aspects of working out. Scientists have already identified many important exercise-related signals and have even developed compounds to regulate them. (Some preliminary results have been so promising that doping authorities have proactively banned the compounds.)
Burris and his colleagues are focused on a receptor that’s always switched on, even without exercise. Working out appears to boost that receptor in muscle cells, which in turn helps bolster endurance over time. Burris’s lab has spent years designing a drug that cranks up the receptor’s activity directly, and mice treated with the drug ran longer and farther than mice that weren’t. They “become marathon mice without having to do any type of exercise,” Burris says. There are even indications—also in mice—that the compound mimics some of the cognitive benefits of exercise and could help treat heart failure. Burris founded a company called Pelagos to carry the work forward into a clinical trial.
Other workout-mimicking drugs have already entered human studies. In June, the biotech firm Cambrian Bio reported that its experimental drug ATX-304 boosted metabolism and reduced liver and belly fat in people with obesity and prediabetes. It activates a metabolic switch that helps cells sense when energy supplies dip and coordinates the production of more fuel—the same switch that helps us sustain long sessions jumping rope or swimming laps. Cambrian hopes it will help people lose weight without losing muscle, a common concern with GLP-1 medicines.
Progress meter ………… 5
Our understanding of how exercise benefits the body is still coming into focus, and drug development is prone to failure.
Humans are far from the only species with a gift for gab, and our furry, feathered, and finned friends could have a lot to tell us. Decoding how animals communicate with one another could offer a window into the inner lives of other species and help humans realize that “animals are sentient creatures who think, who have hopes and dreams of their own,” says Con Slobodchikoff, the founder of Zoolingua, a company working on dog-to-human speech.
The sticking points
Teasing all this out is complex. To decipher howls, squeaks, and clicks, researchers must match the creatures making sounds with what’s happening around them. Prairie dogs, for example, utter a different series of yips when a coyote approaches than when a hawk is nearby. It’s painstaking work, especially for difficult-to-observe species, like deep-diving whales or subterranean mole rats.
There are other hurdles. Many animals communicate not just through sound but through visual cues, touch, pheromones, or a combination of signals, some of which might be difficult for us to perceive. And without a multispecies Rosetta stone, it’s hard to know if translations are accurate.
The progress
Over the past 50 years, a growing arsenal of devices has made it easier to observe the sophisticated ways animals communicate. Hydrophones at the bottom of the ocean can capture humpback whale song, and tiny wearable “biologgers” can record a bat’s every squeak.
In the last decade, advances in AI have leveled up our ability to make sense of it all. The technology can detect different calls, distinguish which sounds belong to which animal, and spot patterns. Researchers at the Earth Species Project (ESP), a nonprofit founded in 2018 to decode animal communication, recently used machine learning to detect vocalizations of carrion crows and determine which bird made which call.
They suspect that more advanced AI could translate critters’ chatter. Large language models like Claude and ChatGPT excel at finding relationships between words, explains Sara Keen, one of ESP’s behavioral ecologists. ESP hopes its own NatureLM—trained on human speech, music, and animal sounds—will be able to interpret the vocalizations of a variety of species.
That promise, however, is still theoretical. Yossi Yovel, a neuroecologist at Tel Aviv University, worries that these models will put too much emphasis on acoustic similarities and make mistakes—like lumping together similar sounds that have different meanings.
As for a two-way convo? It’s not clear when—or whether—that will happen. Still, “a lot of animals have an evolutionary structure that is similar enough that we should be able to understand what they’re saying,” Slobodchikoff says.
Progress meter ………… 4
Researchers have amassed heaps of data on animal communication, but they’re still trying to figure out how to decipher it all.
Scrubbing Earth of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—a.k.a. PFAS or forever chemicals—could eliminate a list of woes for people and planet. Used for decades in everything from nonstick pans to firefighting foams, PFAS have been linked to increased risks of fertility challenges, developmental delays, cancer, and reduced immune response. They are known for a strong bond between carbon and fluorine, which the environment struggles to break down.
The sticking points
PFAS are everywhere: They spew from factories and slough off products and into water with normal use. Scientists have found them in everything from human blood to Antarctic snow. One 2022 report found that 89% of the US population had PFAS in excess of two nanograms per milliliter of blood plasma, a common threshold for potential adverse health effects, and 9% of the population had passed the riskier level of 20 nanograms per milliliter.
The PFAS monster is also a moving target. New compounds are still being created and used. There are more than 12,000 of them, and much of the cleanup research focuses on only a small handful.
The progress
Cleansing PFAS-contaminated soil is a project in its infancy, but it is possible to prevent more buildup by pulling the chemicals out of water systems. There are two ways to handle this: trap or destroy. Some scientists have found reverse osmosis—a process that pushes water through supertight filters—useful in point-of-use cases, like water filters at kitchen sinks.
Other techniques in the pipeline might be more suitable for large-scale removal—for example, at water treatment facilities. One, called foam fractionation, generates bubbles that capture PFAS. More approaches, like ensnaring the chemicals in nanothin layers of charged metal, are also under investigation.
Trapping, though, is imperfect. You’re left with PFAS-filled brine, which if not properly destroyed (an expensive and energy-sucking endeavor) can still end up in the environment.
Jack Huang, a professor of crop and soil sciences at the University of Georgia, is working on destruction. He’s testing a method called electrochemical degradation, which uses electrodes to break down the bonds that hold PFAS together. The product destroyed more than 90% of PFAS mass in tests and has already been licensed by the engineering consulting firm AECOM.
Ridding life of PFAS is also a policy challenge. There are alternatives; we just need the push to use them. And we’ve had success before: The EPA’s 2010/2015 PFOA Stewardship Program has helped slash the release of water-repellent perfluorooctanoic acid by 95%. More recently, Minnesota, Maine, and New Mexico have passed bans on PFAS in products like cookware and dental floss.
Progress meter ………… 6
Scientists are making strides toward removing and destroying PFAS—but it’ll be all for naught if we don’t turn off the tap.
The rise of the lithium-ion battery, which powers everything from the smallest personal electronics to gargantuan energy storage systems, has been nothing short of revolutionary. But as anyone who’s boarded a plane in the last decade could tell you, storing and pumping out energy by moving charged lithium ions through a liquid electrolyte soup has its drawbacks, not least that the batteries have a troubling tendency to catch fire. Enter the solid-state battery, which swaps liquid for a solid ceramic or polymer, creating power packs that charge faster, last longer, cram more energy into smaller spaces, and (crucially) run cooler. A new generation of companies aim to bring such batteries to market, and if their bets pan out, the tech could substantially ease the shift away from fossil fuels.
The sticking points
Solid-state batteries have been “just a few years away” for more than a decade now. In laboratories, the technology works. But there have been challenges. In designs that pair the solid electrolyte with a lithium-metal anode (the side of the battery that releases electrons into an electrical circuit), needlelike filaments called dendrites tend to grow during charging, and they eventually push through the electrolyte and short the cell. Solid electrolytes are supposed to physically block the formation of dendrites, but many of them crack as the treelike projections break through like roots in a concrete foundation.
Then there’s the problem of manufacturing at scale. Mass production requires large quantities of defect-free sheets of ceramic-like material to make the electrolytes as well as dry rooms for assembly, since those electrolytes have a tendency to react with water. Would-be manufacturers quote a range of potential prices for solid-state batteries, but most expect them to fall in line with lithium-ion packs sometime in the mid-2030s.
The progress
Nascent as the technology is, solid-state batteries have already seen high-profile missteps. But one of America’s most advanced solid-state-battery companies says it’s closing in on being able to bring its product to market. The Bill Gates–backed QuantumScape launched in Silicon Valley in 2010 and built its battery around a class of ceramic materials that it says is compatible with lithium—meaning no dendrite formation. “We spent, then, like 10 years learning how to process it to satisfy all of the other requirements,” says Tim Holme, QuantumScape’s cofounder and chief technology officer. In 2025, the startup announced a proprietary, large-scale manufacturing method for quickly producing and heat-treating the ceramic electrolytes used in its batteries. “Nobody has ever done this in the field of ceramics before,” Holme claims. For 10,000 years, producing ceramics has involved slowly cooking the starting materials in an oven over the course of days. “We figured out a way to shorten that down to several minutes,” he says.
Plenty of other companies are pushing the tech forward as well. Toyota, the world’s biggest automaker, launched a research program on solid-state batteries way back in 2010. It’s now partnering with the global energy and petroleum company Idemitsu Kosan on a pilot plant, promising cars that can travel up to 745 miles after charging 10 minutes or less—a huge leap, if it works out. In China, CATL, the giant behind roughly 40% of the global battery market, is aggressively pursuing solid-state batteries too, pumping nearly $2.6 billion into a research program in 2024 alone. Mercedes, meanwhile, equipped one of its EQS sedans with solid-state batteries last fall; after driving nonstop for 750 miles, the car still had some range to spare.
Will the tech gain traction? Investing in vehicle batteries makes sense given the size of the potential market. But any little uptick in cost typically gets passed on to buyers, so the first solid-state EV batteries will inevitably be more expensive.
Grid storage buyers, who are working to meet the increasing demands posed by data centers, may also hesitate to purchase new technologies that still haven’t come down the cost curve. Then again, the promise of energy storage that lasts longer than lithium-ion’s typical eight hours could make them easier to persuade.
Some companies are taking a page from a playbook employed by outfits pursuing fusion: Focus on near-term markets with better margins to help fund development and bring down costs. Solid-state firms including California-based Solid Energies and Arizona-headquartered Sion Power are looking at selling batteries to the aviation industry or the military. “Those are sectors that are less sensitive to cost, and they typically require lower volumes as well,” says Evelina Stoikou, head analyst for battery technologies and supply chains at the consultancy BloombergNEF. “It’s a good way to prove your concept, then go through and fund the pilot plant where you can make that and eventually scale up.”
Progress meter ………… 7
The technology works, the capital is there, and demand is not far behind. But as with anything in manufacturing, unknown unknowns remain.
Every year, traffic crashes kill more than one million people, and they’re the leading cause of death for children and young adults. In the US, 100 people a day lose their lives this way, in many cases not on highways but on rural and local streets. “Traffic deaths are a leading cause of preventable death, yet we treat it like it’s inevitable,” says Leah Shahum, founder and director of the Vision Zero Network, a nonprofit focused on making streets less deadly.
The sticking points
The causes of a crash can be muddy. Drivers make mistakes like speeding or getting distracted, but infrastructure fails them too: Perhaps they were on a road built for speed and not safety, in a screen-filled vehicle, or at an intersection where pedestrians, cyclists, and other cars aren’t visible.
Cheap and proven traffic-calming opportunities abound—from using planters to tighten intersections to lowering speed limits—but government logjams and red tape can be speed bumps. “There’s so many moving parts,” says Laura Sandt of the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center. “On the flip side, it shows that we have so many opportunities for injury prevention.”
The progress
The total number of traffic deaths has increased over the last century. And though the US rate has dipped from a peak of 30.8 deaths per 100,000 people in the 1930s, the past decade has seen a concerning jump in deadly pedestrian incidents. At the same time, communities are waking up to the essential role of traffic safety policy, Shahum says.
One success story is Hoboken, New Jersey, which hasn’t had a traffic fatality since 2017. This is due to a combination of efforts like boosting investment in public transit, promoting walkability by extending curbs, and using cameras to identify crash-prone intersections in need of a redesign. But even there, obstacles remain. If an intersection hasn’t been proved to be deadly, for example, it can be an uphill battle to argue for removing parking spaces to widen curbs. “You’re kind of selling insurance through these improvements, and that’s not always easy,” says Greg Francese, the city’s acting director of transportation and parking.
There’s also no silver bullet that will work everywhere. Situated directly across the river from New York City, Hoboken is a highly transit-oriented city of less than 60,000 people. Success there might not translate to traffic-death hot spots like Memphis or Dallas. But it’s not impossible. Take Edmonton, Alberta, a sprawling, car-centric Canadian city of around one million people: Between 2015 and 2020, it cut traffic fatalities by 63% and serious injuries by 40% by adjusting speed limits and improving signals at crosswalks.
Progress meter ………… 6
We know how to tweak intersections and adjust traffic signals. Getting the funding and will to roll out those changes is the big red light.
Last week, Meta faced backlash after legal experts warned that the tech giant’s sweeping new commercial terms of service seemed to give Meta permission to endlessly scrape websites linked on business pages. Talking to Nieman Lab, experts suggested that Meta could possibly use the policy to avoid millions in licensing fees from news organizations by requiring all business users to share a wealth of AI training data simply for running a business page.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed that Meta did not alert users to the changed language following backlash. This potentially only adds to confusion ahead of the policy rollout. In response to backlash, Meta's spokesperson provided a statement to Ars, acknowledging Nieman Lab's initial report but not its follow-up report reiterating experts' concerns:
WhatsApp is working on a simpler way to find out where your friends are. Right now, if you want someone to share their address or pinpoint where they are on a map, you have to type out a message and wait. A new update spotted in early testing shows the popular chat app is building […]
We’ve released NetNewsWire 7.2 for Mac with a new column view layout: choose View > Use Column Layout to switch.
I really missed this feature from the old NetNewsWire, so I was happy to see its return. Now that I’m using it, I have mixed feelings. I love the columns, how I can scan the titles without the feed names and dates getting in the way. But some titles aren’t very informative, so I miss how the iOS-style view shows a little preview of the article’s body. I wish I could see that, either appended after the title itself or in a second line below it.
We’ve also added a second long-requested feature: you can now hide unread counts or replace them with a •, so you don’t have to deal with the anxiety of an ever-increasing unread count and the feeling like you have to get caught up.
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