October 20, 2023

IN THIS ISSUE

🚘 Toyota joins 'Tesla plug' club

🤖 Meet Amazon's humanoid robot

💰 Two new paid tiers coming to X

❓ Puzzle game fans, this one's for you

UP FIRST

Toyota the latest automaker to adopt Tesla charging connector

One of Toyota's first EVs to be fitted with the connector will be built at its massive plant in Kentucky

Toyota has become the latest major automaker to ink a deal with Tesla to adopt the North American Charging Standard (NACS) – also known as "the Tesla plug" – for its fully electric vehicles from 2025.

The agreement follows more than a dozen other automakers that have also adopted Tesla’s charging connector, among them General Motors, Ford, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo, and Honda.

The move toward NACS greatly increases the convenience for owners of the growing number of electric vehicles as it will give them access to more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers across the U.S.

The Japanese car giant said it will incorporate the NACS port into “certain” EVs, adding that its existing electric vehicles with the Combined Charging System (CCS) plug will get Tesla Supercharger access via an adapter that will be supplied in 2025 ...

ROBOTICS

Amazon starts testing humanoid robot worker called Digit

The online shopping giant is testing its first humanoid robot for tasks in its warehouses, but insists it won't replace human workers

Amazon currently deploys more than 750,000 robots in its warehouses, most of them robotic arms or wheel-based machines designed to take care of repetitive tasks.

But the company's latest robot may have some of its pickers and packers looking over their shoulders as this particular contraption looks and moves more like them.

Digit is a humanoid robot that’s capable of moving between locations while grasping and handling packages destined for customers, and the company is now testing it out.

It’s been developed by Oregon-based startup Agility Robotics, which has received investment from Amazon, among others.

While many observers believe Amazon dreams of the day when it will be able to run its entire warehouse operation using robots, the company insists that it wants its machines to be collaborative and to support employees rather than replace them ...

SOCIAL MEDIA

Elon Musk announces two new tiers for X

The move chimes with recent reports that X plans to split its Premium subscription into three separate tiers

X, formerly Twitter, will soon get two additional tiers, owner Elon Musk announced on Thursday.

“Two new tiers of X Premium subscriptions launching soon,” Musk said in a post on the platform late last night, adding: “One is lower cost with all features but no reduction in ads, and the other is more expensive but has no ads.”

The current Premium tier, which costs from $84 a year and shows 50% fewer ads, looks set to become the middle tier of the three.

The news comes just a few days after the platform began testing another tier – first in New Zealand and the Philippines – for unverified users, costing $1 a year. Those opting not to pay will only be able to view content on X rather than post and interact in other ways ...

ONLINE PUZZLE GAMES

If you love Wordle and Connections, Puzzmo may be your next obsession

The new platform offers six games, with more on the way

If you’ve added puzzle games like Wordle and Connections to your routine in the past year, you might have another daily obsession coming your way.

Puzzmo is a new platform that brings the idea of a newspaper puzzle page to a responsive web page that works across devices. Players began signing up for the free platform yesterday, and it offers a $40 annual subscription option that unlocks bonus features like experimental games and leaderboards.

The ambitious new project is a collaboration between Orta Therox and Zach Gage, a game designer who’s gained popularity over the years with mobile titles like Knotwords and Good Sudoku.

His latest project has been in the works for years, and it acts as a sort of one-stop shop for Gage’s puzzle catalog that looks to beat popular hubs like The New York Times at their own game ...

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