ASFANDYAR Magazine

Image: Honda

Honda set up a demonstration facility in Japan to show off its plans to mass-produce solid-state batteries at lower costs, which could be crucial to unlocking higher-range, longer-lasting electric vehicles for the future.

Solid-state batteries have been elusive for many companies due to the complexity of scaling up production. The technology swaps out the liquid electrolytes found in current lithium-ion batteries with dry conductive materials, promising higher energy density and longer lifespans. But it will require a whole new production process to be successful.

Several companies are actively pursuing solid-state batteries, including Volkswagen-backed QuantumScape, Nissan, and Factorial, which is testing semi-solid-state batteries that…

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

After its foray into headphones, the next major new product category from Sonos is rumored to be a video streaming box similar to a Roku, Amazon Fire TV, or Apple TV. Such a device has been rumored for ages now, with Bloomberg previously reporting that its price is expected to fall between $150 and $200. And today we got confirmation (or at least something close to it) that the Sonos streamer will run an operating system built by The Trade Desk, a digital advertising business.

Janko Roettgers first reported on a partnership between the two back in September, noting that The Trade Desk is “supplying Sonos with the core smart TV OS, and facilitating deals with app publishers, while Sonos is designing its own hardware, and customizing the…

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Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy were officially appointed the co-leads of President-elect Donald Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) last week, and on Wednesday, the two men spelled out their plans for the advisory group in a long article in The Wall Street Journal.

Musk and Ramaswamy say they will “serve as outside volunteers” making recommendations that allow the Trump administration to “cut the federal government down to size.” Their primary focus is on cutting down federal agencies, which they view as wasteful and “antidemocratic.”

“Most legal edicts aren’t laws enacted by Congress but ‘rules and regulations’ promulgated by unelected bureaucrats,” write the two unelected men who have been tasked with cutting trillions…

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The SEL trim of the Hyundai Ioniq 9. | Image: Hyundai

The South Korean automaker unveiled its newest EV ahead of the LA Auto Show.

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This year, the toy drive will support nearly 200 Ukrainian children in the Central Okanagan.

Image: The Verge

Reddit appears to be having some issues, as many users can’t get the platform to load reliably. “There was a bug in a recent update we made, but a fix is in place and we’re ramping back up,” Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt said in a statement to The Verge.

Its status page says Reddit is experiencing “degraded performance” across the web and mobile apps, and that it’s “currently investigating the issue.” For many Reddit users, myself included, the site doesn’t load at all and simply displays the error message: “upstream connect error or disconnect/reset before headers. reset reason: connection failure.”

On Reddit’s mobile app, users are…

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A conceptual rendering of Blue Origin’s cargo lander. | Image: Blue Origin / NASA

After asking both SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop cargo landers for its Artemis missions, NASA has announced plans to use those landers to deliver heavy equipment to the Moon.

The agency wants Elon Musk’s SpaceX to use its Starship cargo lander to deliver a pressurized rover to the Moon “no earlier” than 2032, while Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will be tasked with delivering a lunar surface habitat no sooner than 2033. Both launches will support NASA’s Artemis missions, which aim to bring humans back to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years.

Both companies are developing human landing systems for Artemis missions — SpaceX for Artemis III and Blue Origin for Artemis V. NASA later asked both companies to develop cargo-hauling variants…

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

SafeRent, an AI screening tool used by landlords, will no longer use AI-powered “scores” to evaluate whether someone using housing vouchers would make a good tenant. On Wednesday, US District Judge Angel Kelley issued final approval for a roughly $2.3 million settlement to prevent SafeRent from discriminating against tenants based on income and race.

The settlement stems from a 2022 class action lawsuit filed in Massachusetts. The suit alleged that SafeRent’s scoring system disproportionately harmed people using housing vouchers — specifically Black and Hispanic applicants. In addition to violating Massachusetts law, the complaint also accused SafeRent of breaking the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits housing discrimination.

As outlined…

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