Folding iPhone-Touch Sense Anywhere; Tesla Opening 7500 Charging Stations to Other Cars; Alaska Air-Electronic Bag Tags; Twitter Jams Musk Tweets on You

Who knows when or if Apple will release a folding iPhone, but with Samsung and others offering them for the last couple years, they are definitely thinking about it. In fact, and new patent granted to Cupertino is for touch sensitive control areas, including solid state buttons on any surface of the current iPhone and a folding one. The touch sensitive areas would include the side and edge of the devices. In the patent description, the phones have curved sides where the touch sensors will live, but there won’t be any touch sensitive areas on the top or the bottom. Of course, the vast number of phone users put the expensive little devils in cases to protect them…so touch sensitive sides may not be terribly handy. As with all patents (and Apple files tons of them), this may not ever make production…nor may a folding phone…but with Samsung having more success with those, an eventual iFoldPhone (ok…I made that up…pay me a royalty if you use it, Apple) seems more likely.

The Biden administration has unveiled new initiatives revolving around installation of 500,000 EV chargers in the US by 2030. The funds from the bill passed last year total some $7.5 billion. According to engadget.com, as part of the initiative, Tesla has committed to open up some 7,500 of its Superchargers to non-Tesla vehicles by the end of 2024. Tesla has been piloting open access in Europe since 2021. Tesla will get funds to equip the charging stations with the so-called Combined Charging System and offer smartphone-friendly payments to non-Tesla owners. GM, Ford, and ChargePoint are also combining to add 40,000 fast charging stations. At present, there are 130,000 public charging stations spread across the US highway system. 

We may be nearing the end of the road for those long, sticky tags airlines tag your luggage with. Geekwire.com says that Alaska Air is making electronic bag tags available to elite plan members, and will roll the things out more broadly the first half of this year. How it works…you leave the electronic tag on your bag all the time. When you get near the kiosk or the desk for the airline, it uses Near Field Communication to update an E-Ink display (like on a Kindle) on the tag with your information. The info stays on the screen until it’s updated for the next flight. Right now, Alaska hasn’t said what the tab will be for the electronic tags, but in Europe the one-time fee is generally $60-$70. The tags also contain an RFID transmitter for an airline to track and route bags, but many airports still don’t support that feature yet. 

Apparently Elon Musk had a hissy fit when President Biden got more engagement over the Big Game weekend than Elon. Theverge.com reports that engineers were tasked with fixing the problem, so to speak. Now, whether or not you have Musk blocked or hidden, you will see his Tweets on Twitter. Never followed Elon? You get his Tweets too! Will this make his little fee-fees less hurt? Who knows? Meanwhile, Twitter has also had a number of accounts leave Twitter Blue rather than pay $8 a month…including Tesla! Here’s the weird part. A lot of these accounts have noticed that their Blue checkmark doesn’t go away. Apparently, Twitter doesn’t want anyone to know they are losing Twitter Blue subscribers. Researcher Travis Brown has determined that in the last week, 26, 319 users have unsubscribed or were removed. 

I’m Clark Reid, and you’re ‘Technified’ for now!