Yes, you can drill a keyring hole into Apple's AirTags

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It's Monday, May 03, 2021.

Apple’s AirTag item trackers are reasonably priced, petite and already rather useful. (I’ve got one attached to my keys and slid one into my wallet). They do, however, demand some sort of extra peripheral to keep them attached to things. Yes, there are official (and cheaper, unofficial) keychains and things, but the lack of a keyring hole is a frustration. So can I just do-it-myself, and drill a hole?

According to a recent iFixit teardown, yes. It laid out how you can drill a hole in an AirTag — just don’t forget to remove the battery first. Naturally, that also erases the water resistance of an untampered with AirTag. Precision is crucial, too, otherwise you could easily mangle the finely packed electronics inside.

— Mat Smith

Volkswagen will design its own chips for self-driving cars

Just like Tesla.

You know what’s cool right now? Designing your very own chips. Apple does it, as does Tesla. Now VW wants in. The automaker will reportedly design its own high-performance chips for autonomous vehicles and while it wouldn't build the chips itself, it does want to own the patents. VW has plenty of time to figure out chip architecture: the company doesn’t expect to sell self-driving cars until 2025, if not later. Continue reading.

Neuralink co-founder leaves the company

Elon Musk's firm has yet to ship a product.

Neuralink co-founder Max Hodak quietly left the company "a few weeks ago." He didn't say why he left the brain-machine interface firm, but said he was still a "huge cheerleader" for his former employer's work. This doesn't necessarily mean the company is in trouble, but Hodak's exit could complicate attempts to translate Neuralink's work to practical products — and we’re yet to see a product appear, even if a monkey can now play pong with its mind. Continue reading.

Apple Watch could get blood-sugar monitoring thanks to a UK tech deal

The agreement could be a boon for diabetics

The longstanding rumors of an Apple Watch with blood-sugar monitoring won’t go away. The latest nod towards it actually coming to fruition? Reports that UK health tech firm Rockley Photonics recently confirmed in an SEC filing that Apple has been its largest customer for the past two years, and that it has a continuing deal to develop future products. Rockley's focus has been on sensors that track blood glucose, pressure and even alcohol levels. Don’t expect anything too soon: Non-invasive blood sugar tracking remains a major challenge.Continue reading.

Tesla's Powerwall+ is a higher-power battery for off-grid living

It has almost double the max output, but only in some cases.

Tesla is teasing an upgraded Powerwall aptly called Powerwall+. In a post on Reddit spotted by Electrek, a user posted a spec sheet for the battery, along with photos of what it would look like when installed. The upgraded version's battery capacity is still 13.5kWh, but its max power output is now 9.6kW, up from 5kW continuous and 7kW peak output. That boost in power is only possible when you're in off-grid mode, though. Continue reading.

Epic witness claims Apple's App Store profit reaches 78 percent

Apple disagrees.

Epic Games is using its lawsuit against Apple to accuse the iPhone maker of being particularly greedy. Expert witness Eric Barns testified that Apple supposedly had an App Store operating margin of 77.8 percent in 2019, itself a hike from 74.9 percent in 2018. He also rejected claims from Apple’s witness that you couldn't practically calculate profit. Apple unsurprisingly disagreed and says the margin calculations are wrong, according to comments received by The Verge. It plans to fight the allegations at trial. Continue reading.