Chevrolet shows off E-10 electric concept at SEMA

Forward-looking: As with many of the vehicles at SEMA, the E-10 is a concept that remains in the testing stage for now. Still, it is fun that Chevy is even willing to experiment with something like this. The hope is that one day, we’ll get crate-style electric powerplants ready to drop into your next project without the need for a specialty shop.

Ford wasn’t the only American automaker turning heads in Las Vegas this week with an electric powerplant . Rival Chevrolet

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Researchers develop a better membrane for storing renewable energy

What just happened? Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a new battery membrane technology that could lead to low-cost batteries with long lifecycles – perfect for storing renewable energy in large quantities.

As Berkeley Lab highlights , the utility industry is keen on using giant batteries called flow batteries to store electricity in tanks of liquid electrolyte. The problem is that current implementations aren’t exactly cost efficient. The Lab’s new technology could solve those shortcomings.

The

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Smartwatch shipments jump almost 50% as Apple still leads the pack

In a nutshell: Remember a time when smartwatches were starting to look like a fad that would soon die out? That’s now firmly in the past, with global shipments growing 42 percent year-over-year to 14 million units in the third quarter.

According to Strategy Analytics , Apple continues to lead the pack by a wide margin. The Cupertino firm shipped 6.8 million of its Apple Watches in Q3 2019, up 51 percent compared to the 4.5 million

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Juul has stopped the sale of its mint-flavored vapes

In brief: Juul, an industry leader in the e-cigarette market, is stopping sales of its mint-flavored vape products after a study showed they were especially popular among teen users.

As reported by CNBC , studies by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that more than half of the teenagers that vaped used Juul, with mint being the most popular flavor among high school kids.

In a statement , Juul said that in light of the studies, it would immediately stop accepting orders from retail partners for mint


Open Source LLM

OpenAI publishes text-generation tool that can write believable fake news

Something to look forward to: While OpenAI withheld the full public release of its GPT-2 AI for fear that it might fall into the wrong hands, the organization is now hopeful that it might actually help researchers develop tools to combat online misinformation and spam.

Back in February, OpenAI revealed an artificial intelligence dubbed GPT-2 that's capable of writing convincing fake news using snippets as a starting point. The organization saw the high potential for misuse, so it decided to do a staged release that allowed limited use


Lego launching a 3,300-piece Batmobile based on the 1989 movie version

Something to look forward to: Most people these days associate the character with Christian Bale, but those of a certain age will remember when Michael Keaton was Batman. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Tim Burton’s movie, Lego is releasing a new Batmobile based on the one from the 1989 title.

Like other expensive Lego products, the model comes with plenty of pieces—

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GTA V has sold over 115 million copies

Bottom line: Take-Two Interactive has had a stellar latest quarter with revenue increasing by 74 percent YoY to $859 million. While most of its newer titles like Borderlands 3, NBA 2K20 and WWE 2K showed strong performances, GTA V continued to be the publisher's cash cow as it managed to sell another five million units since May this year.

Rockstar's massively popular and profitable GTA V never expanded on its single-player story (and it doesn't look

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Disney+ will be available on Amazon Fire TV

Why it matters: After it looked like they had reached an impasse, Amazon and Disney have shaken hands and made up. It means the upcoming Disney+ streaming service will be available on Amazon Fire TV devices when it launches on November 12th.

Last month brought news that an advertising dispute could result in Amazon’s TV service not supporting Disney+. It was reported that the retail giant wanted more of an ad presence throughout Disney’s existing family of Fire TV-supported video apps, including ABC,


Uber will 'likely' be forced to license Waymo's self-driving car tech or redesign its own

In context: Uber's self-driving car technology has proven to be quite controversial over the past several years. It's been at least partially responsible for numerous crashes -- one of which was notoriously fatal -- and the company has faced scrutiny for allegedly using Waymo's trade secrets (provided by a former employee) to develop its own tech.

That last controversy is escalating now, in the wake of an "expert review" of Uber's software. According to a recent Reuters report,

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Intel

Infamous Tech Industry Predictions and Quotations


#ThrowBackThursday The tech industry is known for its predictive pronouncements and verbal sparring as for its actual innovation. Many have felt compelled to follow Intel co-founder Gordon Moore (of Moore's Law fame) in bringing their judgements and observations into the public eye… with varying degrees of success.

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