Pixel Folder in Production by October; Apple WWDC Recap; Website Outages Early Tuesday Morning; Ford Building Cheap Hybrid Maverick-Truck

We recently reported that Google was looking at building a folding phone…now, it appears that they not only are, but that it will go into production in October. 9to5google.com reports that The Elec has picked up information that Samsung Display will start building folding OLED screens for Google, Vivo, and Xiaomi by October. That would mean that Google will announce the phone in October, but it will not be available until later. The Pixel will probably have a similar style to the Galaxy Z Fold 2, and will have a 7.6 inch internal display. 

Apple announced a number of features to its upcoming operating systems at WWDC yesterday, but to the disappointment of many…no hardware announcements. A MacBook Pro with an M series chip may not be seen until October now. According to engadget.com, a big feature was the expansion of FaceTime. The Apple video calling system gets spatial audio, background blur like in the portrait mode photos, and a grid view (Zoom, anyone?) It will now work with Android and PC devices via a web app, too. iOS will feature more privacy improvements, and Apple has announced Focus…which is really just a way to filter and block notifications so they won’t constantly interrupt you. 

For Mac OS, a cool feature is that your mouse or trackpad for your Mac or MacBook will now automatically control the screen for an iPad nearby if you set it up. You can drag files from screen to screen, use it as a second screen (which I do often, but haven’t had this ability), or cast the iPad display to your bigger Apple screen.

Watch OS didn’t have much new to announce….a Mindfulness app adds to the Breathe app to help you mellow out. Watch will allow you to track more metrics now while you sleep if you wear a watch while sleeping. You can follow time to sleep, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and respiratory rate. 

If you were trying to hit certain big websites at about 2 Pacific Tuesday morning, you probably had trouble. Techcrunch.com says things were back to normal by a bit before 4am Pacific, but the outage was with a provider called Fastly. This wasn’t just a few dinky or rarely hit sites…it included Reddit, Spotify, Twitch, Stack Overflow, GitHub, gov.uk, Hulu, HBO Max, Quora, PayPal, Vimeo, Shopify, Stripe, and news outlets CNN, The Guardian, The New York Times, BBC and Financial Times. A content delivery network (CDN) glitch was apparently the culprit. CDNs act as proxy servers and cache some data as close to the end user as possible.

Ford continues to make waves in the massive pickup market that they dominate. After a big splash, and thousands of preorders for the new electric F-150 Lightening pickup, Dearborn has now revealed an affordable, efficient pickup bearing a heritage name….Maverick. Arstechnica.com reports that the new Maverick will ride on a monocoque chassis instead of a body on frame. It is a small pickup…200 inches compared to 232 for the F-150. The Maverick will run on a hybrid system with a 162 HP four cylinder Atkinson motor (like Honda and Toyota hybrids run), and a 126 HP electric motor. It will drive the front wheels with a continuously variable transmission. The Maverick will be able to haul 1500 lbs and tow loads of up to 2,000 lbs. An upgraded engine model with tow package will be able to drag along 4,000 lbs worth or trailer. Here’s the key…the entry level version starts at $19,995! Deliveries should start this fall, and online preorders are available now!