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Lucid cuts prices on Air luxury EVs by up to $10,000
Lucid is selling several of its electric vehicle models at a discount until November 30.
Nreal brings its $379 Air augmented reality glasses to the US
The company has redesigned the Nebula OS and beefed up iOS and Mac support.
Nreal's latest smartglasses were designed for watching YouTube
Nreal has launched a new model of augmented reality glasses called Air, which was designed with streaming shows and playing mobile games in mind.
Lucid's limited edition Air EV rated for a Tesla-beating 520 miles of EPA range
Lucid has revealed the EPA range of its first, limited edition Air EV and it's mighty impressive.
DJI unveils the Air 2S drone with 20-megapixel camera
The Mavic Air 2's replacement offers more megapixels and a larger sensor for superior photo credentials.
The Lucid Air EV will be the first car equipped with Dolby Atmos
When the Lucid Air arrives in 2022, some models will be equipped with immersive Dolby Atmos sound -- the first time it will be available in a car.
Apple's new MacBook Air comes with a Magic Keyboard and costs $999
Apple is upgrading the MacBook Air with better internals, its new more reliable Magic Keyboard and is hacking the price down to $999. The upgraded model also gets double the amount of storage, making it a better machine for folks who want to work on the go. Ever since Apple abandoned its much-derided butterfly keyboard in the 16-inch MacBook Pro, people have wondered when the "Magic Keyboard" would trickle down. The MacBook Air is the second recipient of the new-old scissor switch keyboard, which should remove people's concerns around reliability. The company is using the time to boost the refreshed Air's internals, throwing in new 10th-generation Intel Core chips. The base model will ship with a 1.1GHz dual-core i3 CPU, while an extra $250 will net you a 1.2GHz quad-core i7 chip that, with Turbo Boost, can be pushed to 3.8GHz. Apple says that, numbers aside, the new chip will crank out performance twice as fast as on the previous model. Storage has been doubled, up from 128GB on the base model to 256GB, and users can spec their laptop up to 2TB. That's all solid-state storage, and it will be pricey: The 2TB option will set you back an additional $800 on top of the list price. Thankfully, Apple has finally brought the price of the MacBook Air back below $1,000, with a retail price of $999. That puts some clear water between the lower-power, more portable Air and its more powerful Pro siblings. It's also something that we've argued since 2018, saying that Apple's cluster of similarly-priced machines with wildly different specs was too muddled. Education buyers, meanwhile, can snag the new MacBook Air for $899. It's not just the MacBook Air that's getting some love from the company, but also its oft-forgotten sibling, the Mac Mini. Much like the Air, Apple is doubling the amount of storage on the $799 base model up to 256GB, while the $1,099 configuration now gets 512GB of storage as standard. The new MacBook Air will be available to buy in stores at some point next week, but pre-orders are open today. It's worth saying that, with Apple's stores closed due to coronavirus concerns and issues around the current global crisis, ordering online might be the only way to snag one of these for now.
Watch jetpack pilot Vince Reffet set a new altitude record in Dubai
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Jetman Dubai's latest aeronautical achievement in a jet-powered wingsuit. The team says it's reached a major milestone with its Iron Man-like jet suit, flying nearly 6,000 feet in altitude from a standing start and working hovers, turns and maneuvers into the mix, too.
Apple's latest iPad is back down to $250 in Amazon's tablet sale
Amazon has slashed prices across Apple's range of iPads, and there are savings to be had whatever model you might be in the market for. The $250 10.2 inch 32GB deal is back again -- great for people on a budget. It's not the lowest price ever, but a saving of $79 off the usual list price is not to be sneezed at.
Americans consume an alarming amount of microplastics
Americans consume tens of thousands of microplastic particles every year -- and that's just from the food we eat. Microplastics are also found in the air we breathe and the water we drink. Thanks to a study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, we have a better idea of just how much plastic Americans consume.
Google's Street View cars will monitor London's air quality
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has made it one of his missions to curb pollution and improve air quality in the capital. Data plays an important role, and as part of a new project, two Google Street View cars will begin pulling double duty as mobile air quality monitors next month. The vehicles have been fitted with sensors that will measure pollutant levels, as well as temperature, humidity and pressure, once every 30 meters as they wind their way around London. This data will be used to complement readings from another 100 static sensors dotted around the city. London has several veteran sensor networks and is no stranger to shorter-term monitoring projects, but this new initiative is said to be on a different scale, capable of painting a near real-time, "hyperlocal" picture of air quality across the capital.
ESA's air-breathing thrusters help keep satellites alive longer
Satellites could soon remain in orbit for years on end thanks to new technology that turns air molecules into propellant. A European Space Agency (ESA) team has developed an electric thruster that collects molecules from the top of the atmosphere and gives them electric charges so they can be accelerated and ejected to provide thrust. This could create a new class of satellites able to operate in orbit for long stretches.
Pros and cons: Our quick verdict on DJI's Mavic Air
If you have a checklist for a camera drone, it probably includes things like portability, image quality, battery life and cost. DJI has been in the game long enough to know the things you want, and the result is the Mavic Air. Not to give you any spoilers, but the Mavic Air does well on all the above, and offers a whole lot more to boot. It's not all up-sides though (okay, it is mostly upsides, but you'll probably want to watch our "pros and cons" video above all the same).
Get your hotel rooms and flights right from Google search
Google Flights is already a great place to search when you're headed out on vacation or business trips. It uses AI to predict possible flight delays, too, and helps you find rate information on hotels and airline tickets based on peak travel times. Now some new updates will help you find and book hotels and flights right in a Google search.
DJI Mavic Air review: Aerial photography's next small thing
When DJI revealed the Mavic Pro in late 2016, it ended up being a turning point for the company. DJI was already the dominant name in consumer drones thanks to the Phantom series, but the Mavic Pro was cheaper, smaller and downright meaner-looking. The combination of price, features and cool-factor made it an instant success. Then there was the Spark, which was smaller, but less powerful and lacked some of the basic features that a budding aerial photographer wants. Enter the Mavic Air, a quadcopter that slots between the Mavic Pro and Spark on DJI's roster.
Origami-like soft robot can lift 1000 times its weight
Soft robotics allow machines to move in ways which mimic living organisms, but increased flexibility usually means reduced strength, which limits its use. Now, scientists at MIT CSAIL & Harvard have developed origami-like artificial muscles that add much-needed strength to soft robots, allowing them to lift objects as much as 1,000 times their own weight using only water or air pressure. One 2.6 gram muscle is able to lift a 3 kilogram object, which is the same as a duck lifting a car.
Dyson's updated air purifiers remove more harmful gases
It's been a little over a year since Dyson launched its first connected air purifier, the Pure Cool Link, and to celebrate this occasion, the company is about to update its entire line of air purifiers with improvements aimed at the Chinese market. Well, what's going to be different is really just the replaceable cylindrical glass HEPA filter: the new version's inner layer will pack three times more specially treated graphite crystals than before, which helps remove more gaseous pollutants (and odors) in addition to the usual particulates as small as PM 0.1.
Flow is a wearable that helps you avoid nasty air pollution
While humanity has made strides to cut down its greenhouse emissions, the fact remains: We produce a lot of harmful gases every day. If you live in a city, however, it's easy to forget the quality of the air around you and the impact it might be having on your health. Flow, by Plume Labs, could change that. The tiny air-quality sensor looks like a portable thumb drive with a leather strap that lets you hang it from bags and clothing. It can measure dust, exhaust fumes and other harmful gases, as well as the household chemicals you might encounter indoors.
Flow tracks air quality for crowdsourced pollution maps
You might not have heard of Plume Labs, but you can probably recall their pollution monitoring pigeons that flew over London earlier this year. The part research project, part publicity stunt was designed to drum up interest in a new air quality sensor the company has been working on for two years. Now, it's ready to unveil the final version. The device is called Flow, and it looks like a small thumb drive from a few years back. Inside its grey, aluminium shell you'll find a bunch of sensors for measuring dust, exhaust fumes and other harmful gases, as well as temperature and humidity.
Riding inside the Lucid Air luxury EV
Exposed wires and metal beams are typically not what you want to see in a car. But as a Lucid engineer punched the accelerator (only Lucid employees are allowed behind the wheel), the preproduction Air I sat in tore down the road of the Fremont industrial park. The vehicle was only operating at half power.
