GoPro’s Volta battery grip addresses its cameras’ biggest weakness

You’ll most likely never buy a GoPro camera for its battery life. As we mentioned in our review of the Hero 10, it has never been the brand’s strong suit — in fact, the Hero 9 outlasted the Hero 10 by almost half an hour when we tested out the new model. Now, the company has launched a new grip called Volta that could extend a GoPro camera’s battery life by up to three times. Combined with the GoPro’s own battery, the Volta grip can deliver up to 4 hours of 5.3K recording at 30 fps. When we took the the Hero 10 for a spin, it only lasted for an hour and 15 minutes.

In addition to its built-in 4900 mAh battery, Volta also comes with integrated camera buttons to give you access to one-handed controls while the GoPro is mounted. You can even use it as a remote control for up to 98 feet away. And if you need a tripod for your shoot, you can flip out its built-in legs anytime. Volta is compatible with both Hero 10 and Hero 9, but it will also charge any USB-C device, including the GoPro MAX and older models.

Alone, the Volta grip will set you back $130, or $91 if you’re a GoPro subscriber. However, it also comes bundled with the new GoPro Hero 10 Black Creator Edition. The company has put together a neat package for creators to make it easy to grab everything they need in one go. In addition to the camera itself and a Volta battery grip, the bundle comes with GoPro’s Media Mod and Light Mod. Those modifications add a built-in directional microphone, 3.5mm mic and HDMI-out ports, as well LED lighting with four level of brightness up to 200 lumens to the camera.

As you can guess, the bundle is cheaper for subscribers that pay the company $50 a year. New members will even be able to get the package for $532, which represents quite a substantial discount from the $760-or-so total price of the items when purchased individually. 

BMW’s first all-electric 3 Series is made just for China

BMW has developed the first fully electric 3 series vehicle — but it will only be available in China. In May 2022, the BMW i3 eDrive35L model that’s based on the automaker’s line of compact cars, will enter the Chinese market. It uses BMW’s 5th-gen eDrive powertrain that’s also found in the BMW iX3, BMW i4 and BMW iX. The four-door sedan will also be the first 3 Series car with the company’s OS8 operating system and its features, including Digital Key, which turns the owner’s smartphone into a key for their vehicle.

In its announcement, BMW also shared some key data about the EV, including its 281 horsepower max output and 295 pound-feet of maximum torque. It can apparently go from zero to 62 mph in 6.2 seconds, and it can reach a charge of 80 percent within 35 minutes of being plugged in. Fully charged, it has an estimated range of 327 miles, which is longer than that of the basic BMW i4’s.

The automaker says the 3 Series line led the premium-compact segment in China in 2021, so releasing an electrified version in the region makes sense for the company. BMW even even fine-tuned and customized the EV’s suspension system for Chinese road conditions and will assemble the vehicle at a plant in Lydia, Shenyang.

The i3 eDrive35L EV is BMW’s sixth all—electric model. Similar to rival automakers that are aiming to make a complete shift towards electric vehicles over the coming 10 to 20 years, BMW also ramped up its electrification goals last year. It announced that the last Mini with a combustion engine will be released in 2025 and that it expects its all-electric vehicles to account for 50 percent of its global sales by 2030.

Boston Dynamics begins selling its Stretch warehouse robot

Almost exactly a year ago, Boston Dynamics introduced a new robot called “Stretch.” It’s not quite as exciting or as terrifyingly adorable as the Hyundai-owned company’s Spot robotic dog, but it can make loading, unloading and moving boxes in warehouses a lot easier. Now, Boston Dynamics has announced that Stretch is finally available for purchase. Or, more precisely, it’s now accepting reservations for deliveries in 2023 and 2024, because it’s sold out throughout the year due to strong pre-order demand. 

One of the early Stretch customers is DHL, which signed a $15 million deal with Boston Dynamics to equip its warehouses in North America with the robots over the coming years. TechCrunch says Gap and H&M are equipping their warehouses with the robot, as well.

What makes Stretch a feasible option for any company is that it was built for easy deployment and doesn’t require warehouses to be set up for automation. It doesn’t have to be pre-programmed and doesn’t need information on the box sizes it needs to handle, though they have to weigh 50 pounds and below. Stretch has a wheeled base, so it can move around without the need for fixed infrastructure, and it has an advanced vision system that gives it the power to autonomously identify boxes and its surroundings.

Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter says companies are showing interest in Stretch due to labor shortages, especially since it can be installed and ready to work within existing warehouses in just a few days:

“Labor shortages and supply chain snags continue to create challenges in keeping the flow of goods moving. Stretch makes logistics operations more efficient and predictable, and it improves safety by taking on one of the most physically demanding jobs in the warehouse. Many of our early adopter customers have already committed to deploying the robot at scale, so we are excited Stretch will soon be put to work more broadly, helping retailers and logistics companies handle the continued surging demand for goods.”

You can watch Stretch in action below:

Apple now allows Netflix, Spotify and other ‘reader’ apps to link to their sites for payment

Netflix, Spotify and other similar services will now be able to add a link in their iOS apps that take users to their own websites for payment and account management. Apple now allows developers of “reader” apps to link to a website that they maintain. The tech giant defines reader apps as applications that “provide previously purchased content or content subscriptions for digital magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music and video.” 

Apple first announced that it will allow certain media services to add in-app links last year as part of a settlement with the Japan Fair Trade Commission. The company agreed with the stipulation, because those apps “do not offer in-app digital goods and services for purchase” anyway. While the change was a result of JFTC’s investigation, Apple will apply the new policy to all reader apps around the world. That said, developers will have to request access to the External Link Account Entitlement program first before they’re allowed to add in-app links. Also, while the change gives developers a way to avoid giving Apple a 15 to 30 percent cut, the company will still collect commissions for purchases within the app itself if the service offers any. 

Google also recently launched a pilot program to test third-party billing systems in Android, allowing users to pay for services either via its own payment system or the developer’s. Spotify, one of the apps piloting the feature, will show subscribers Google’s and its own billing system side by side starting later this year. Google will still get a cut even if the user chooses the service’s own billing system, but it will be smaller than the 15 percent commission the tech giant typically collects for subscriptions. 

Record-breaking NASA astronaut makes it safely back to Earth

Mark Vande Hei, who broke the record for the longest single spaceflight by an American astronaut, has safely made it back to Earth. Vande Hei made his way to the International Space Station on April 9th last year and spent 355 days in orbit, eclipsing Scott Kelly’s record of 340 continuous days spent outside our planet’s atmosphere. This concludes Vande Hei’s second spaceflight, bringing his total number of days spent in space to 523. 

The American astronaut made the journey back to Earth with Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov aboard the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft. There were fears that Roscosmos would leave Vande Hei stranded in space after the US imposed sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. NASA would’ve had to rely on private companies, such as SpaceX, to transport him back. Russian space agency Roscosmos issued a statement assuring everyone that it will ferry Vande Hei back home, though, proclaiming that the agency “has never given reason to doubt its reliability as a partner.” 

The three passengers closed the hatch to their Soyuz spacecraft at 11:30PM EDT on March 29th. They undocked at 2:45AM on March 30th and touched down at 7:28AM (5:28AM local time) in Kazakhstan. While he was aboard the ISS, Vande Hei contributed to dozens of studies conducted on the station, including six investigations by NASA’s Human Research Program. His contributions will help the agency and commercial space companies prepare better for long-duration spaceflights to destinations farther than the ISS in the future. 

Lung Association report suggests zero-emission vehicles could save 110,000 US lives

The American Lung Association has released a report detailing the public health benefits of a complete national shift to zero-emission vehicles from 2020 to 2050. Apparently, if all new passenger and heavy-duty vehicles sold by 2035 and 2040, respectively, are zero-emission models, 110,000 deaths could be avoided in the United States over the next 30 years. That figure came from the association’s analysis, which also projects that the Biden administration will achieve its target of having 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035.

With no air pollution affecting people’s health, up to 2.79 million asthma attacks could also be avoided. And perhaps to convince companies to get onboard with the transition, the association also made it a point to mention that up to 13.4 million lost workdays could be avoided with cleaner air. 

Harold Wimmer, National President and CEO of the American Lung Association, said in a statement:

“Zero-emission transportation is a win-win for public health. Too many communities across the U.S. deal with high levels of dangerous pollution from nearby highways and trucking corridors, ports, warehouses and other pollution hot spots. Plus, the transportation sector is the nation’s biggest source of carbon pollution that drives climate change and associated public health harms. This is an urgent health issue for millions of people in the U.S.”

The widespread transition to zero-emission vehicles would generate up to $1.2 trillion in public health benefits, the report noted, and $1.7 trillion in climate benefits. Communities and counties with the highest percentage of lower-income families and People of Color in the US would benefit greatly from the shift, since they have areas with highly concentrated doses of pollution from diesel hotspots, power plants and other fossil fuel facilities. The top metro locations that would benefit the most include Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Jose, Washington, Miami, Houston, Detroit and Dallas Fort-Worth. 

To be able to ensure that all new vehicles sold by 2040 are zero-emission and that the grid can supply the country with pollution-free electricity within 15 years, the association has listed a series of recommendations. They include a call for increased funding for non-combustion electricity generation and transportation, extending and expanding incentives for zero-emission vehicle purchases and “converting public fleets to zero-emission vehicles immediately.” The association is also urging the Congress to pass legislation that would accelerate the transition and for the EPA to adopt standards that would require lower carbon emissions from vehicles before the shift is complete. 

Apple will reportedly no longer fix iPhones flagged as stolen or missing

Apple technicians will decline to fix iPhones that had been reported as stolen or lost, according to MacRumors. The tech giant has reportedly sent out a memo to Apple Stores and authorized providers not to accept a device for repair if they get a notice on their internal MobileGenius or GSX systems that the phone had been marked as missing. Presumably, that means technicians will check a device’s IMEI against the GSMA Device Registry when a customer brings it in for repair. 

The GSMA registry is a global database where owners can register their devices’ IMEI and designate a status for them, such as whether they’d been lost, stolen or were fraudulently obtained. This move expands Apple’s existing policy to decline repairs for devices whose owners cannot disable the Find My iPhone feature. It could discourage more people from buying second-hand devices outside of official and authorized sources in case they unknowingly end up with a stolen unit. That said, users could just as easily go to a third-party repair shop that doesn’t care where they got their devices from. 

Apple’s iPhones have become increasingly cost-prohibitive over the years, giving rise to a market for second-hand units. According to a recent Bloomberg report, though, the tech giant is working on a subscription service for the iPhone and other hardware to make regular upgrades more accessible with monthly fees and no huge upfront costs. 

Gene losses allow vampire bats to live solely on a diet of blood

While bats have been closely associated with vampires for centuries, there are actually only three species of bats that drink blood. Most of them eat fruits, insects, nectar and small animals, like frogs and fish, instead. Blood is low in calories, while being rich in iron, protein and little else, making it a terrible, terrible food source. Now, a team of scientists has figured out how and why those vampire bat species are the only mammals that can live solely on a diet of blood.

Upon comparing the genome of common vampire bats to 26 other species, the scientists found 13 genes in the blood-sucking mammals that either no longer work or are missing. Three of those losses had been reported in another study published in 2014, with all of them indicating a reduced sense of taste reception in vampire bats. The remaining 10 gene losses are new discoveries, according to the team.

The loss of a gene called REP15 indicates enhanced iron uptake in the animals’ gastrointestinal cells, which they also shed and excrete quickly. This prevents iron overload that can have severe detrimental effects. The absence of two other genes allow glucose to remain longer in the bats’ bodies and prevent hypoglycemia, since blood contains minimal carbohydrates. Another absent gene might also be the consequence of the “extensive morphological and physiological modifications” in the stomach of common vampire bats. Instead of being a muscular organ, their stomachs are expandable structures used to store large amounts of liquid and serve as a major site of fluid absorption. 

The loss of one gene even contributed “to the evolution of vampire bats’ exceptional social behaviors.” Since they can’t survive too long without feeding, seeing as blood is very low in calories, vampire bats can regurgitate their meals and share with others. They can also keep track of who shared with them in the past and will extend extend help to them in the future if needed. Hannah Kim Frank, a bat researcher at Tulane University, told AP: “It’s totally bizarre and amazing that vampire bats can survive on blood — they are really weird, even among bats.”

The study revealing the loss of genes that allow them to live off blood doesn’t make vampire bats any less weird, or intriguing. You can read the whole study in the Science Advances journal.

FAA extends environmental review of SpaceX Boca Chica launch site (again)

SpaceX has to wait even longer to find out if it can launch Starship flights out of its Boca Chica facility in Texas. The US Federal Aviation Administration has delayed its decision on the environmental review of the launch site yet again, pushing back its target date of completion to April 29th. SpaceX must secure the FAA’s approval, along with a vehicle operator license, before it can launch Starship missions out of Boca Chica as planned. 

Specifically, the agency is looking into whether launching the massive reusable vehicle out of the facility will have a significant environmental impact on the area and will be a public safety threat. Its original target date for completion was December 21st, 2021, but it pushed the date back to February 28th, 2022 and then again to March 28th. On the official page for the environmental assessment, the FAA said it’s updating its target date to April 29th “to account for further comment review and ongoing interagency consultations.” The FAA received 19,000 comments for the draft version of the review published last year.

SpaceX chief Elon Musk recently revealed that the company hopes to send Starship into orbit for the first time in May. If the FAA finishes its review on time, and with a favorable result for the company, then there’s a chance the launch could happen in a couple of months. It’s worth noting that Musk’s timeline could be too optimistic.

In case the Boca Chica site fails the FAA’s environmental review or if the agency issues an environmental impact statement (EIS) to dig deeper into the company’s plans over the next few years, then SpaceX could shift to its backup plan. During a Starship presentation earlier this year, Musk said SpaceX already has approval to launch the Starship from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The move would delay the vehicle’s first flight by six to eight months since the company has to build a launch tower at the site, but at least the wait wouldn’t last for years. 

NVIDIA’s NeRF AI instantly turns 2D photos into 3D objects

A new technology called Neural Radiance Field or NeRF involves training AI algorithms to enable the creation of 3D objects from two-dimensional photos. NeRF has the capability to fill in the blanks, so to speak, by interpolating what the 2D photos didn’t capture. It’s a neat trick that could lead to advances in various fields, such as video games and autonomous driving. Now, NVIDIA has developed a new NeRF technique — the fastest one to date, the company claims — that only needs seconds to train and to generate a 3D scene. 

It only takes seconds to train the model, called Instant NeRF, using dozens of still photos and the camera angles they were taken from. After that, it’s capable of generating a 3D scene within just “tens of milliseconds.” Like other NeRF techniques, it requires images taken from multiple positions. And for photos with multiple subjects, pictures taken without too much motion is preferred, otherwise the result would be blurry. 

Check out Instant NeRF in action below:

NVIDIA explains that early NeRF models don’t take too long to produce results either. It only takes them a few minutes to render a 3D scene, even if the subject in some of the images is obstructed by things, such as pillars and furniture. However, training them took hours. NVIDIA’s version only takes seconds to train, because it relies on a technique the company developed called multi-resolution hash grid encoding that’s optimized to run efficiently on its GPUs. It can even run on a single GPU, though it’s fastest on cards with tensor cores that provide a performance boost for artificial intelligence. 

The company believes that Instant NeRF could be used to train robots and to help autonomous driving systems understand the sizes and shapes of real-world objects. NVIDIA also sees a future for the technique in entertainment and architecture, where it can be used a way to generate 3D models of real environments that creators can modify during the planning process.