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Power to Liquid: The potential for “excess” electricity

Since there has been a constant debate lately about synthetic fuels (“Power to Liquid”, PtL) as an alternative to battery-electric cars, here is a small calculation. First of all, it is undisputed that the direct use of electricity for driving is many times more energy-efficient than the detour via chemical substances. If the electricity has… Read more

App development: Google's Cloud Functions support the Ruby programming language

Google’s Cloud Functions, a platform for Function as a Service (FaaS), supports the Ruby programming language. The newly released Functions framework for Ruby should enable developers to write idiomatic Ruby functions for the cloud. According to the publisher, it can be used to create business-critical apps and integration layers. Cloud Functions for Ruby is in… Read more

Ubuntu via netboot on the iPhone

Almost anything is possible on an iPhone with a jailbreak. A user on Reddit has now succeeded in booting the Linux distribution Ubuntu on an Apple smartphone. The device was an iPhone 7 from the year 2016, which is one of the Apple products on which the Apple unpatchable “checkm8 “-Bug is present – this… Read more

Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21+ bring new design, modest upgrades

With the Ultra having the clear technological superiority, the Galaxy S21 and S21+ offer to fill smaller pockets and smaller budgets instead. In fact, these two are €50 cheaper than their 2020 predecessors (if you look at the 5G models). The Contour-Cut camera and dual-tone paint jobs help these two stand out from the crowd…. Read more

macOS 11: Apple seems to be rowing back when circumventing the firewall

Apple is apparently taking back a controversial innovation from macOS 11: An exclusion list that has been integrated into the operating system so far, with which the manufacturer filters its own network services exempting local firewalls is apparently being deleted. Programs like the firewall Little Snitch or the data-saving tool Trip Mode are no longer… Read more

After years of following pro sports, League of Legends esports leagues are ‘finally free to be ourselves’

For years, competitive gaming has done its best to mimic professional sports, whether it’s players wearing Nike jerseys, big-name celebrity investors, or ambitious plans for home-and-away games. But Chris Greeley, commissioner of the League of Legends Championship Series — the game’s top professional league in North America — believes that esports has moved beyond mimicking… Read more

Uber and Lyft drivers in California sue to overturn Prop 22 ballot measure

A group of Uber and Lyft drivers in California filed a lawsuit Tuesday in state supreme court to overturn a ballot measure that allows the companies to continue treating its workers like independent contractors. The drivers claim that Prop 22, which was approved by California voters last November, violates the state’s constitution by “stripping” the… Read more

Huawei to announces three new laptops tomorrow, Kirin 820E and new Mate X in March

Huawei will have its first announcement event for the year tomorrow, but it will take place in China, unrelated to the CES 2021 conference. The company will introduce three new Matebooks, one leakster revealed. The company also has a new lineup of smart TVs in the pipeline, a new Kirin 820E chipset for mobile phones,… Read more

LG Debuts 31.5-Inch OLED Monitor At CES 2021

Home News (Image credit: LG CES Videos) For a long time, OLED panels have only been home in TV’s and mobile phones, with PCs often left out in the cold. Of course, there’s a good reason for this — burn-in, and PC users often have static images and want their panels to last five or… Read more

Super Mario 3D World will launch in February alongside a new Nintendo Switch color

Super Mario 3D World, an enhanced version of the original game that bundles in a new expansion called Bowser’s Fury, will launch on February 12th for the Switch. Nintendo announced the news today along with a new Mario Red & Blue Edition console. The upgraded version of Super Mario 3D World features both online and… Read more

Fixed lsass crash bug in Windows 10 20H2

Microsoft provides a remedy for a problem that has existed since October: Some users have been using 10 since the upgrade to Windows H2 plagued by crashes, blue screens and reboots. With certain actions such as listing groups in the computer management, the mmc.exe generates a blue screen with the stop code 0xc 0000374. In… Read more

Sonos introduces $69 battery replacement kit for its Move wireless speaker

Sonos will help customers get more longevity out of its $399 Sonos Move wireless speaker by offering a new battery replacement kit. The Move is Sonos’ first battery-powered speaker, whereas the company’s other products all plug into the wall. The kit costs $69 and includes the battery, a couple tools that help remove the old… Read more

Leaked official images confirm no charger in Galaxy S21 boxes, tout “new dual zoom lens system”

We’re just a couple of days away from the Galaxy S21 Unpacked event and the official pages and press materials are ready to go – and, of course, some of them leaked out. Let’s start with “What’s in the box”, the answer to which is just the phone, basically. What’s in the Galaxy S21 retail… Read more

Yelp lets you tattle on places that don’t enforce masks and social distancing

Yelp is adding a new option that lets customers provide feedback on whether a business is enforcing COVID-19 safety guidelines, the company announced today. Initially, users will be able to report whether staff at a business are wearing masks, and whether they’re enforcing proper social distancing guidelines. The aim is to “instill confidence in consumers… Read more

Oracle 21c: Blockchain and Machine Learning

Oracle secretly made its new database 20 c available in the cloud at the end of the year. The previous version 10 c, which was only available as a preview version, was replaced by a new standard version. The database 21 c supports all previous database services, including the Autonomous Database, the Exadata Cloud Service… Read more