Jony Ive Working on Secret Project with Sam Altman; X Cries Uncle in Brazil Legal Battle; BMW Puts More Cash in Super Efficient Electric Motor Tech; New Tech Makes Windows into 5G Antennas

Since leaving Apple, genius designer Jony Ive has worked on several projects, but the only one that was hardware was his infamous but fabulous $60,000 turntable. Now, engadget.com reports that Ive is collaborating with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT. In an interview over the weekend, Ive confirmed that his firm, LoveFrom, is leading the design on an AI product being built with Altman. Also on board are Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, both of whom held big design roles at Apple. A small team of about 10 is working out of a San Francisco office building…one of several buildings Ive has bought up on a single city block. There is no firm word on what the AI hardware device is or how soon it will be out, but it appears to be moving forward. The only cryptic description we have is that it is based on an idea for a product that uses AI to create a computing experience that is ‘less socially disruptive than the iPhone.’

After squabbling legally with Brazil, X apparently made a court filing late Friday night agreeing to the Brazil Supreme Court’s request to take down accounts on the platform that the Court said threatened Brazil’s democracy, and in addition pay fines and name a new formal representative in the country. According to theverge.com, X has been blocked the last 3 weeks by Brazilian ISPs…they even tried to get around the blocking using Cloudflare, but got caught. If X continues to comply and furnishes documents demanded by the court to be submitted in the next 5 days, they could be back in business in Brazil. Brazil is one of X’s largest markets. 

A startup in Germany called DeepDrive has raked in a fresh 30 million Euros to scale up their electric motor tech. Thenextweb.com notes that the electric motors made at scale could really supercharge EV sales. They claim to boost EV range to over 497 miles! That would mean electric vehicles could have smaller battery packs potentially. The DeepDrive motors have higher torque and power density than any motors on the market today, and also low noise and importantly…use far fewer rare earth materials. They are claiming 20% more energy efficiency…that’s where you could end up with smaller battery packs and lighter, cheaper EVs. Besides BMW, 7 other of the world’s 10 largest automakers are working with DeepDrive. Some analysts think the motors and smaller battery packs could halve the price gap between internal combustion engine vehicles and EVs. 

It’s a fact that 5G cellular coverage, with its blinding data speeds just hasn’t spread as far and fast as old 4G LTE did. There are technical reasons for this, and now there may be a cool tech solution. Bgr.com reports that a company in Japan claims it has figured out a way to implant transparent 5G antennas between layers of glass in windows. They even think they can build the base stations inside the window frames, so they won’t take up space in buildings. The windows are similar in construction to laminated windshields on cars. The layers of glass should protect the antennas and give them great durability…likely outlasting 5G as the world moves on to the Next Big Thing in cellular. There are still issues with the height of antennas being optimum and some other details, but it’s a pretty clever way to solve a problem…and much less unsightly that a forest of 5G antennas on top of building after building or the fake trees…and even cacti…that are being used to somewhat conceal 5G antennas. 

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