Tech News Roundup for July 6, 2020
Here are just a few of the things I found interesting over the weekend.
iOS 14 Exposing Overzealous Use of Device Clipboards
iOS 14 includes a new feature that displays a notification any time an app accesses the device clipboard. This is meant as a security feature, and as users are testing the developer preview of iOS, some apps are being shown to be accessing the clipboard on a very frequent basis. There are many legitimate uses for clipboard access, and some apps do use it automatically to pass information from one app to another, but in the case of some apps, it appeared they were accessing the clipboard any time a user entered text, instead of only when needed. Tik Tok, Reddit, and Linkedin are 3 of the more high profile apps that have been found to be making frequent access. In many cases, the developers say that this is a bug, and the apps are being fixed. Whether or not they are believed, this feature in iOS will lead to more responsible apps, and is a good thing for everyone.
Tesla’s Quest to End The Use of Cobalt
Most of the rechargeable batteries in our devices today are Lithium-ion batteries. One of the components of these batteries is small amounts of cobalt, which is a rare, expensive, and dangerous to mine mineral. Lithium is not without issues either, but cobalt is a highly problematic mineral. In small batteries the amounts of cobalt in each cell are minute, but in a battery large enough to power a vehicle, significant amounts of cobalt are needed. Tesla has been working for years on developing a new battery that does not use cobalt, and it appears they are close. These batteries could be more energy dense, but also cheaper due to not needing minerals like cobalt. The article below estimates that an electric vehicle battery make up 40% of the cost of the vehicle, so getting the cost of the battery down is vital, and is likely the biggest step needed to make electric vehicle not only viable, but even cheaper than a traditional gas powered vehicle.
Chrome 86 Might Bring Battery Life Improvements
Google Chrome is easily the most widely used web browser on the planet. But one of the major complaints in the last couple years about the browser is that it is very inefficient and can reduce a laptop’s battery life significantly. Microsoft and Apple have often compared their Edge and Safari web browsers to Chrome in terms of battery life. Some users report that battery life on a modern MacBook Air is nearly twice as long using Safari compared to Chrome.
Google is apparently finally appearing to address this in a meaningful way. Changes made to some “under the hood” components in the beta version of Chrome allege to get up to 28% battery life compared to Chrome 85. This will of course depend on usage, but any improvements to battery life while using the most popular browser in the world are welcome.
Humans Produced Record Amounts of e-Waste in 2019
This is not a surprising story, but one worth noting. As our thirst for new electronic devices increases, so does the waste from older devices. While some progress is being made, safely recycling and disposing of the many discarded electronic devices remains difficult and expensive. The need to develop the methods and technologies to more easily recycle is becoming more urgent every year.
Uber Announces Plan to Buy Postmates
This interests me because there are currently many options for food delivery, and it felt like consolidation was eventually coming. Postmates is not a well known name in many parts of Canada, as it was only available in Ontario, but the US based company is a competitor to SkipTheDishes, Uber, and DoorDash, among others. This is Uber’s second attempt to buy Postmates. I’m not sure how I feel about the consolidation of these services. On one hand, competition is good, but too many of these services means that it can be hard to know which restaurant is on which services, which can cause confusion and frustration for users. This market is far from mature, and I’m sure there are still many, many changes coming in the long term, so we will see if consolidation ends up being a benefit or not.