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Apple may finally abandon its controversial butterfly keyboard design
Since 2015, the keyboards of Apple's MacBooks have used an underlying butterfly design to allow key presses. Now, after the departure of Jony Ive, it's emerged the company may replace the mechanism, which has been fraught with issues since it was introduced (9to5Mac). Users have consistently complained that keys stop working when dust finds its way into the system. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has reported that from later this year a new design based on scissor switches will be introduced. The new system is said to include fibre glass to reinforce the keys.
India's ride-hailing service Ola is set to launch in London
Yet another competitor is challenging Uber's dominant ride-hailing position in the UK's capital (The Telegraph). SoftBank-backed Ola, which is based in India, has been granted an operating licence by Transport for London, the city's transport regulator. In March, the company was valued at $5.3bn (£4.2bn) and is already available in Liverpool, Birmingham, Cardiff, Reading, Bath, Bristol and Exeter. It claims it has 10,000 drivers across the UK and when in London it will allow black cabs to use its service. It's expected Ola will start its ride-hailing in September when it will join Bolt, Kapten and ViaVan as new alternatives to Uber.
Billions of new trees could remove two-thirds of all human CO2 emissions
Planting billions of trees across the world's unused land is a cheap and effective way to tackle the global climate crisis, scientific analysis has found (The Guardian). Researchers from Swiss university ETH Zürich found there are currently 1.7 billion hectares of treeless land across Earth – excluding urban areas and fields used for crops – and 1.2 trillion trees could be planted. The increased carbon dioxide emissions that could be absorbed by billions of new trees would be able to remove two-thirds of all the CO2 that's been pumped into the atmosphere by human activities.
How China can save Tesla from missing its 2019 production goals
It’s been a good quarter for Tesla, but – according to Elon Musk, the chief executive of the electric car company – it’s not enough (WIRED). Between April and June this year, the company made 87,048 cars and delivered about 95,200, as logistics capacity – getting vehicles to customers – is finally catching up with production. However, to hit its yearly goal of 360,000 cars delivered it will have to be more productive going forward. A new Chinese Gigafactory may be Musk's secret weapon.
Samsung's phone division is expecting huge losses
In the three months ending in June, Samsung Electronics says its expected operating profits have more than halved from the year before (CNBC). In the second quarter, the company made $5.5bn (£4.37bn). The cause of the decrease? The firm says the demand for its memory chips – which are used in its own phones plus those of competitors and other electronic products – has fallen off a cliff. After announcing the guidance, Samsung's shares were down 1.2 per cent in the US stock markets.
The hunt for an Alzheimer's vaccine
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
