The most obvious question is “Why?”

Framework builds modular, repairable laptops that anyone can take apart and put back together again. It’s a big deal in an era where laptops are regularly sold as a single unit that, should one part break, goes in the trash. Since every part of a Framework machine can be swapped out, you can keep one going for as long as your patience, and the supply of spare parts, allows. Desktops, however, are already modular and repairable — company founder Nirav Patel said “desktop PC ethos was one of the core inspirations for the Framework laptop to begin with.” So, if desktops are already modular and repairable, why do we need one from Framework?

When the Desktop was announced, Patel said the genesis of the product came from seeing a preview of AMD’s Ryzen AI Max. It’s an APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) — AMD’s term for a chip combining a CPU, GPU and NPU in a single package, much like Apple Silicon — with plenty of hyped-up claims about its performance. Those claims were so compelling that Patel added the Desktop to the company’s roadmap just to harness that potential power. The big selling point for this chip is the sheer volume of RAM you can employ (up to 128GB) and the massive memory bandwidth (up to 265GB/s) it can take advantage of. AMD described it as a “workstation-level” chip that’ll work in a regular ‘ol PC, with the base model priced at $1,099.

But there’s a devil’s bargain in opting for such a powerful chip, since to get it means Framework has had to give up a lot of its founding principles. As someone probably once wrote, for what shall it profit a computer manufacturer if it shall gain searing power but lose its own soul?

Hardware

The major issue with the Ryzen AI Max is its inflexibility since it’s made as a single package. Much like Apple Silicon products, you’ll need to pick your chip spec in the knowledge that you don’t get to change things later. Consequently, you’ll be ordering the Framework Desktop in one of three unchangeable flavors:

• Ryzen AI Max 385 with 32GB RAM, Radeon 8050S GPU

• Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with 64GB RAM, Radeon 8060S GPU (the model I’m testing).

• Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with 128GB RAM, Radeon 8060S GPU

With every other Framework machine, the mainboard has the CPU and fan soldered in place, but that’s it. Every other component can more or less be removed and reinstalled on the replacement mainboard. Here, if that APU goes or if your needs do evolve, then you’re losing pretty much everything (including the heatsink) since it’s all soldered to the mainboard. We'll get into pricing considerations later, but replacement mainboards from Framework run between $799 and $1,699. Otherwise, the only things you can recover here are the Wi-Fi module, SSD (there’s space for two), power supply and case.

Speaking of which, the Framework Desktop is a Mini-ITX desktop in a 4.5L case, complete with optional carrying handle. It’s less understated than the cases you’d have seen at a LAN party circa 2006, but that’s not the point. While the box itself is a stark black, you can add a big chunk of personality to it with the front panel, which has space for 21 plastic tiles. These tiles come in a variety of colors (including black, green, orange and lavender) for you to mosaic to your heart’s content. You can also pick up single tiles with specific images printed on, including the Framework, AMD and Linux logos, plus this fetching pride heart. Naturally, if you’re crafty, you can also make your own.

Below the front panel and irritatingly small power button, you’ll find two of Framework’s trademark expansion card slots. These are USB-C ducts into which you can slot any of the company’s expansion cards, letting you pick and choose what I/O you have up front. But the flexibility, so necessary on a laptop, is less of an issue here since this is a Mini-ITX mainboard. Lean over to the back and you’ll find two USB-C, two DisplayPorts, two USB-A sockets as well as dedicated connections for HDMI, Ethernet and 3.5mm audio.

Installation

Framework is only selling its desktop in a “DIY Edition,” but that’s less of a big deal than you might initially expect. Whereas the company’s DIY laptops require you to put every component in the chassis, on the Desktop there’s very little to do at all. Everything bar the SSD is already in place, and all you need to do to add that is remove the heatsink and slot your drive into the M.2 slot. After that, you just need to attach the beefy 120mm fan to the equally beefy heatsink, pop the cowl on top and screw in the four screws. Framework’s wonderful iFixit-style guides claimed getting the hardware together would take between 30 and 45 minutes. I hit stop on the watch after 15 minutes and 15 seconds, and can’t imagine many folks will take much more time than that to put everything together. From there, you just need to install your operating system of choice and you’re ready to go.

In use

Daniel Cooper for Engadget

With the Desktop, Framework is targeting two groups: gamers, and developers eager to use AMD’s Ryzen AI Max. The pitch to the former group could easily be boiled down to ‘this is a fast PC you don’t need to do much to build.’ That’s an easy enough metric to judge it by, since we can just run some games on it and see how well it performs. I’ll admit that I am not an AI developer, and so can’t speak as authoritatively on the latter or how effective it would be at running large models if you — as the company expects — buy several mainboards to run in a cluster.

I basically ran every title in my admittedly limited game library with the settings dialed up to max, and it didn’t break a sweat. AMD claims the Radeon 8060S GPU inside my machine goes toe-to-toe with an RTX 4070 laptop GPU. This is a ten pound hammer for the one ounce nail that is Fortnite, but even demanding titles like Hardspace: Shipbreaker breezed through. My gut tells me, however, that people wouldn’t be eyeing this up as a primary gaming machine. That’s not where this unit’s power lies, really, but in the more work-y tasks that better suit the APU.

As I said, I’m not an AI developer but I did mess around with LM Studio, which I tested with a chatbot running Google’s Gemma 3 27B model. Performance was a little slower than you may see on a web-based AI client, but not enough for it to be an issue. LM Studio, too, suggested that running this was only taking around a third of the Desktop’s CPU power, so there’s probably plenty more headroom there to run bigger and more demanding models.

I am, however, on surer footing with big workstation tasks, like video editing and exporting, and I was impressed with the results here. For this, I took a 39GB HD video file with a runtime of 2 hours, made a few minor trims, and then compressed and exported it as an MP4 file. Crunching the file down to 6GB took just one hour and 12 minutes, a staggering speed boost for a job that could take half a day to export on lesser hardware. It’s worth remembering, too, that I’m testing the middle-tier version of the Desktop with 64GB RAM.

When announcing the Desktop, Patel said the machine would run quietly even at peak power. He described it as “silent while sitting on your desktop under normal loads, and even under gaming, it’s impressively quiet.” If you’re familiar with Framework’s track record and products so far, that quote will have instantly provoked scoffing. The company does many things well, but it wildly overpromises on how quiet and cool its machines run.

Framework trumpeted how much better its cooling was on its recently-released Ryzen AI 300 mainboard for the Laptop 13, which was noisy and lap roasting. Here, you’ve got a beefy APU expected to run for sustained periods of time at 120W and up to 140W in boost. I half expected to be able to use this thing as a space heater but, mercifully, the company does seem to have made good on its promises. The 120mm fan barely got noisy at all, and I can only recall it becoming noticeable when running heavier AI models in LM Studio and when I started exporting the video file.

Pricing

The starting price for the base model Desktop with the Max 385 and 32GB of RAM is $1,099. For that, you’ll get the case, power supply and mainboard, which includes its own Wi-Fi module. What the company is listing as optional extras, however, includes the SSD, CPU fan, OS and even the power lead. So, if you were looking to buy the base model as an essentially off the shelf purchase, including decorative tiles and two front-facing expansion cards, the price rises to $1,386. If you want to opt for the mid-tier option (the 395 with 64GB RAM) add $500 to the base model price. If you want to go for the high end 395 with 128GB RAM, then you’ll be adding $900 to the base price, bringing the total for an off-the-shelf model to around $2,286.

Because of the distinct nature of the Ryzen AI Max, an apples-to-apples comparison isn’t going to be perfect. But, if you were looking to spend around two grand on a high-performance PC, you could snag something like Lenovo’s Legion Tower 5 with AMD. $2,200 buys you a Ryzen 7 with 16GB DDR5 RAM, a 1TB SSD and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4070 Ti with 12GB RAM. Alternatively, that figure could get you an ASUS ROG G700 with a Ryzen 7, Radeon RX 9070 XT Prime (with 16GB VRAM), 16GB RAM and a 2TB SSD. The real differentiator is how much you would value the faster memory bandwidth and speed the AI Max offers over its discrete rivals.

Framework will also sell users the Desktop’s mainboard on its own, with the base model priced at $799. Certainly, if you’ve got boxes full of spare parts and the necessary Mini-ITX case, you could save a chunk of change that way. This will also be the most cost effective way for power users to run clusters of boards for bigger projects. Pre-orders are open, but the company won’t start shipping boards on their own until it’s fulfilled all of its system orders.

Wrap-up

In my time with the Framework Desktop, I’ve flip-flopped a few times on if this product is a hit or a miss. Framework was open about the fact this was something akin to a side project, outside its regular remit to build modular laptops, based on a particularly exciting chip. So while I think the all-in-one approach is a backward step compared to regular PCs, I get the rationale for doing so here.

Where I think Framework whiffed was to pitch this as a machine to make “PC gaming more accessible” by reducing “the mental and physical load” associated with building your own. Nightmares about thermal paste aside, I don’t think that’s a real issue for would-be gamers as they could easily pick up a pre-built system for similar cash. And I suspect most gamers would much rather use a PC with a standalone graphics card rather than slum it with an integrated GPU.

Because even mentioning gaming, really, does the machine a massive disservice, pulling the focus from its real strength. Which is the ease at which this machine handled productivity tasks, like running AI models and crunching video. The effortlessness at which it handled that brought to mind products like the Mac Studio, a creative powerhouse in its own tiny package. It’s this that Framework should have led with, especially since it’ll do all of those tasks and play games on the side.

I’m not sure I’d recommend this product to people who are just looking to buy a powerful PC or a gaming PC. It’s a tool for a specific group of users capable of taking advantage of the AI Max’s benefits that you’d otherwise need a workstation for. So while its review score is justifiably high when the Framework Desktop is judged on its own merits, that doesn’t mean you need to own one.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/framework-desktop-2025-review-powerful-but-perhaps-not-for-everyone-150011909.html?src=rss

©

© Daniel Cooper for Engadget

The minds behind Bo’s sublime e-scooter met each other while working for the advanced engineering arm at (F1 team) Williams. Their mission was to take their knowledge of designing and building some of the world’s fastest cars to build a better e-scooter. But while they no longer work for a Formula One team, they can’t quite shake that desire to build vehicles that travel at preposterously daft speed. Which is why the company has today unveiled The Turbo, a souped-up version of the standard Bo e-scooter with a potential top speed of more than 100 miles per hour and a range of up to 150 miles.

Bo Mobility

The Turbo (surely, the Tur…Bo, non?) is equipped with a 24,000W dual-motor engine, and a 1,800Wh battery. Naturally, given Bo’s focus on safety and balance, the scooter has F1-style air intakes to keep both the electronics and brakes nicely cool. Given the scooter’s light weight, Bo claims it has a higher power to weight ratio than a hypercar like the Bugatti Veyron. It’s already been tested by former professional BMX rider Tre Whyte. Although he hasn’t quite yet been able to breach the 100mph barrier the company thinks that isn’t far off.

Of course, the Turbo is one way to pull the world’s eyeballs to a product, especially as it’s announcing the US availability of its scooters. Customers in the US can now order a Bo M, with vehicles available at some point in August 2025. If you want the standard Bo M, with a range of 25 miles, will set you back $1,990 while the M2, with a range pushing 40 miles, will cost $2,490. And, if you’re the sort of person who thinks that owning a scooter that can go at road car speeds is a good idea, you’ll actually be able to buy a Turbo: It’ll cost you at least $29,500, with the first delivery going to a collector in Madrid next year ahead of that city's inaugural grand prix.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/this-is-the-daftest-e-scooter-in-the-world-131341641.html?src=rss

©

© Bo Mobility

Amazon’s decarbonization goals are being undermined by its push to be a leader in generative AI. Its most recent sustainability report concedes its overall carbon emissions grew for the first time since 2022. It reported a six percent increase in its carbon footprint across 2024, laying much of the blame at the feet of its data center rollout.

The reported increase is significant given Amazon’s method of reporting its own environmental impact. Critics have suggested the mega-retailer “dramatically undercounts” its impact by excluding common metrics. In 2022, Amazon revised its climate reporting methodology which also led to the company’s figures falling dramatically.

In addition, the company reported an increase in emissions tied to the purchase of power from outside sources. “The increased energy demand is from AI chips,” says the report, which “require more electricity and cooling than traditional chips.” As well as the power to run and cool those chips, Amazon is building big to increase its server capacity. Data center construction, as well as fuel use by logistics contractors, led indirect emissions to increase by six percent. That said, the company’s own fossil fuel emissions increased by seven percent in 2024, which is hardly a ringing endorsement.

Amazon is a co-founder of The Climate Pledge, an initiative to reach net zero emissions by 2040. The initiative now has 549 signatories, including MasterCard, Sony and Snap.inc.

In February, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy pledged to invest $100 billion across 2025, with CNBC reporting the bulk of that cash would be spent on Amazon Web Services (the company’s data center and web hosting arm). Given the increase in construction, it’s likely Amazon’s report for 2025 will follow this same upward trend.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/amazons-ai-push-is-undermining-its-sustainability-goals-160156136.html?src=rss

©

© hapabapa via Getty Images

Stellantis, the automotive giant behind Chrysler, Citroen, Fiat, Jeep and Peugeot, is pulling out of hydrogen. The company said it’s killing its fuel cell development program in the face of “limited availability of hydrogen refueling infrastructure, high capital requirements and the need for stronger consumer purchasing incentives.” To put that another way, it’s realized hydrogen EVs are facing the same set of challenges it’s not been able to overcome in the last two or three decades.

It’s a stark shift in tone from January 2024, when the company promised to roll out a fleet of commercial fuel cell vehicles. Stellantis sells many of Europe’s most popular panel vans including the Citroen Jumper, Fiat Ducato, Opel Movano and Peugeot Boxer. Back then, it said we’d see hydrogen versions of all those vehicles (as well as its smaller siblings) with maximum ranges of 500km (310 miles).

The decision to pull the plug came relatively late, with the company saying it was due to begin production at its plants in France and Poland “this summer.” It added the decision to kill the range will not impact staffing in production or R&D, with employees transferred to other projects. It will, however, have to delicately negotiate its exit with Symbio, the fuel cell maker it bought a one-third share of back in 2023.

Stellantis isn’t the first company that pledged to put its weight behind fuel cells only to pull back. Toyota has thrown a lot of time, effort and money behind hydrogen, believing fuel cells would be preferable to battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Sadly, as time progressed, the company has had to cede more and more of the market to batteries, and only advertises its third-generation fuel cell as a power unit for heavy industrial vehicles.

Hydrogen was, and has been for some time, an article of faith for fossil fuel companies, the car industry and even some countries that lack their own energy reserves. After all, the promise of being able to pull (theoretically limitless), emission-free energy out of water is the stuff of dreams. Not to mention, it requires much of the same knowledge and infrastructure used by the traditional oil and gas industry, and refueling can only take place at a commercial site.

Had hydrogen made more of an impact, it would have likely preserved the status quo or something much like it, for those industries long into the future. But while the hope was that hydrogen could be a cleaner, greener substitute for oil and gas, its inherent flaws always made that a non-starter.

For instance, hydrogen is far less energy dense than oil and gas, and far less physically dense — it’s so prone to leaking that you have to go above and beyond to seal it in. It’s difficult to mass produce cleanly, especially if you want to power every car in the world, unless you use a dirty process like the steam reformation of methane. So, rather than moving away from fossil fuels and emissions, you’d be further entrenching them into the system and adding to the problem.

And if you did want to just use renewable energy to pull hydrogen from water, then you’d require an unprecedented amount of investment. Back in 2021, I asked Tim Lord, who had previously been in charge of the UK’s decarbonization strategy, about that sort of industrial-scale hydrogen generation. He said that you’d essentially need to double your whole electricity generation output to get close.

That’s before you get to the other factors, like hydrogen’s efficiency as a store of energy or the investment necessary to equip every gas station on the planet with a hydrogen tank. Which is not likely going to pay off given that Toyota’s Mirai, arguably the flagship hydrogen fuel cell EV, has only sold 28,000 models since its launch in 2014. In the US market, there's only the Mirai, the Hyundai Nexo and the Honda CR-V e-FCEV knocking around, nothing compared to how many BEVs are on sale. I think it’s time for everyone to admit that we’re done with hydrogen fuel cell EVs and focus their attention elsewhere.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/another-big-car-company-gives-up-on-hydrogen-133011978.html?src=rss

©

© Stellantis

It’s been a little over a year since Form released its second-generation smart swim goggles into the world. Since then, the company has been working on a way to ensure its headgear is even more attractive to swimmers who like to get out in the rough. Today, it’s announcing the Smart Swim 2 Pro, a modest upgrade on its predecessor with a focus on durability.

The 2 Pro’s lenses are now made of Gorilla Glass 3, which adds a gram or two more weight but should keep them scratch-free for far longer. Given the amount of open-water swimmers that use Form’s goggles, having faith that your lenses can take nature’s elbows is probably worth it.

If you’ve ever used a pair of regular goggles for a long time, you might notice how the anti-fog coating starts to wear off. Especially if you, like me, absentmindedly commit the sin of wiping the inside of their goggles with a finger when your view is obscured. Form may be proud of its current anti-fog coating, but realized there was a better way to keep the lenses clear for longer.

Consequently, the 2 Pro comes with a bottle of anti-fog spray that users need to apply before a swim. This isn’t a way of squeezing more cash out of the user base, however, as the company is proud to admit it’s just baby shampoo diluted with water. But Form has tested the correct ratio for optimal application and there are markings on the bottle showing you what you need to refill.

At the same time, Form is rolling out new features for its premium subscribers, including more data-driven program planning and more tips on where you need to improve. The company also revealed that its premium features are paying off, with swimmers seeing 1.4 times the gains in speed compared to the users who use the hardware alone.

The Form Smart Swim 2 Pro is available to buy July 15 for $329 in the US, $449 in Canada and €329 in Europe.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/form-makes-its-smart-swimming-goggles-tougher-with-gorilla-glass-lenses-060019264.html?src=rss

©

© Form

E-scooters could be a vital tool to eliminate unnecessary car journeys, cutting emissions and journey times. Unfortunately, the UK is the last major European nation to not allow them to be ridden on most public roads. They've proliferated illegally anyway, and are now an issue the country can no longer afford to drag its heels on.

The benefits of e-scooters are obvious: They’re cheap to buy and maintain, cost very little to run and have a small physical and environmental footprint. In 2022, the Fraunhofer Institute found that e-scooters contributed to a drop in carbon emissions in several cities that embraced micromobility. The raw materials that go into making one EV could be used for more than one hundred e-scooters. Collaborative Mobility UK (CoMoUK), the national organization for shared transport, found that 21 percent of all shared e-scooter trips in the UK were made in place of using a car. Richard Dilks, CEO of CoMoUK said that e-scooters “plumb directly into so many policy goals that [the] government has,” most notably its need to reach net zero emissions by 2050: CoMoUK’s research indicates more than half of all car trips could be replaced by e-bikes or scooters, eliminating one megaton of CO2 emissions per year.

Unfortunately, the UK does not have a vehicle class addressing personal transportation outside the realm of bikes, motorcycles and cars. E-scooters, Segways, “hoverboards,” gas-powered kick scooters, u-wheels (like the OneWheel) and electric unicycles are all in this gray zone. In the UK, they’re given the umbrella term of “Powered Transporters,” but have no strict legal definition. Consequently, they’re legally defined as motor vehicles, but because they lack most of the key features of a motor vehicle — which includes both a lack of safety equipment like seatbelts and airbags as well as the owner paying road tax, having insurance and being licensed to drive one — it’s illegal to use them on public roads and sidewalks. The absurdity of the situation is made worse given that e-bikes have fairly minimal regulations on speed and motor output power — and have consequently become ubiquitous.

Despite this classification issue, it’s legal to buy e-scooters at a number of major retailers. All a seller has to do is provide “accurate information about the legal restrictions on their use” — that they're only allowed to be used on private land — and they’re in the clear. Take this retail listing for the Pure Air 5, which even advises users it’s good for “quick trips,” “comfortable rides” and “daily use.” It’s only at the very bottom of the page, hidden below the cart pop-up, that the disclaimer saying they cannot be used on public highways, is displayed. As you can imagine, technically illegal use of e-scooters on roadways is rampant.

There is no accurate data on precisely how rampant, but the UK government believes more than one million privately-owned e-scooters are used on public roads. These e-scooters, not part of a sharing scheme and therefore illegal, are nevertheless used with impunity. The London Assembly believed that, in 2021, there were more than 150,000 privately-owned e-scooters in London alone. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police, the force covering greater London, seized only 1,067 e-scooters between 2021 and mid-2024. It’s an all too common sight to see people riding these scooters despite the risks, which are severe. It varies between police forces, but riders caught face losing their e-scooter, a fine of up to £300 (around $400) and having at least six penalty points put on their driving licence. Easy availability and limited enforcement mean the rules on e-scooter use isn’t clear in the public’s mind. Last year, the UK government published data showing almost half the people polled incorrectly believed private e-scooter use on public highways was legal.

Finnbarr Webster via Getty Images

In 2020, as part of its strategy to broaden public transit options during the COVID lockdowns, the UK authorized a series of short-term e-scooter trials. As well as offering people low-carbon ways of traveling that didn’t involve sharing other people’s air, the trials would inform how the government regulated e-scooters. These trials were run by sharing companies in 30 areas, which were subject to speed limits, age restrictions and were only allowed to be ridden on roads or cycle paths, rather than walkways. Many companies insisted only riders with driving licenses were allowed to participate.

Two years later, the country stated its intention to classify and regulate powered transporters at the start of that legislative period. But the collapse of the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet meant it was put on hold. Then the UK went through three Prime Ministers in the following three years, and micromobility has not been a priority for any of them so far. In fact, the only thing the government has done is repeatedly extend the deadline for the trial operations — most recently to May 2026. And that’s where we’re at. Late last year, transport secretary Louise Haigh said that the government "will look to legislate" at some point in the future. The earliest that could happen is at the next legislative session, which would not begin until the fall of 2025. Naturally, the passing of such a law would not be a swift process, and would likely be held up as e-scooters are their own front in the culture war.

The UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Accidents (RoSPA) believes, not unsurprisingly, that the legal regime should impose strong safety standards and vehicle checks. It also advocates a system to train riders, which has to be completed before they are permitted to operate an e-scooter. Additionally, given its concern for other users, it wants to see safe and accessible parking implemented in order to prevent the issue of e-scooters dumped in the street.

I myself would go further, insisting upon mandatory helmet use, a licensing system and the requirement for insurance. I’d like e-scooters to be able to share segregated routes alongside bicycles rather than forcing riders to vie with traffic. It would also be beneficial if drivers were potentially at risk of additional penalties to encourage them to further respect e-scooters. It would also, perhaps, be worth unifying the legal regime for powered transports and e-bikes since they are all similarly capable of traveling at injurious speed.

The one thing I wouldn’t advocate is a cap on maximum power output given the risk it may hamper e-scooter development. After all, the UK has plenty of steep hills that e-bikes, capped at 250W maximum output, simply will not climb even at full power. This is why a cap on overall speed, rather than power — for every device in this category — since it’ll enable manufacturers to at least make sure their vehicles can manage elevation changes. This is a minor issue, but one that’s likely to get lost in the clamoring when uninformed voices get to shout louder than the rest.

The UK government doesn’t know how many privately-owned e-scooters are on its roads, but it is starting to collect data about its effects. The Department for Transport published statistics through to the end of 2023, but admitted the numbers aren’t entirely accurate. Still, the trends are obvious: Accident tallies spike each summer, mostly taking place between 4 and 6pm – during the evening rush hour. And young people are being injured in far greater numbers — males between the ages of 10 and 29 make up the majority of those affected. Earlier this year, BBC News reported two children, aged 16 and 9, died as a result of their e-scooter being struck by a car. In short: the lack of regulation hasn't just stunted an environmentally preferable alternative to cars, it seems to also be putting young riders at risk.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/the-uk-needs-to-deal-with-its-e-scooter-problem-133056724.html?src=rss

©

© Mike Kemp via Getty Images

The so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” has passed with plenty of nasty treats for the US technology and manufacturing industries. As well as swinging the sword at basic environmental protection measures, the bill sticks its thumb in the eye of the EV industry. Tim Stevens takes you on a tour of the most salient changes, like the imminent end of the EV tax credit. Joining that on the bonfire is the used EV incentive, as well as the rebates for the purchase of commercial EVs.

Similarly, for all of this administration’s talk of bringing manufacturing back to the US, the bill is a middle finger for domestic solar companies. The US is the only credible manufacturing rival to China in solar panels, but the bill cuts these businesses off at the knees. I spoke to people inside the US solar industry who know that, despite whatever tariffs are implemented, this bill opens the door to a flood of cheap, Chinese-made solar panels to usurp their US rivals.

An earlier version of the bill also contained moves that could only be described as weirdly vindictive. It previously proposed an annual EV tax of $250 (and $100 for hybrid owners) as well as a general levy on all wind and solar projects. Why? A cynic might suggest it was due to the bill being drafted to benefit fossil fuel companies at the expense of literally everyone else.

Anyway, hopefully you can enjoy the holiday and won’t need to spend it panic-buying an EV and US-made solar panels. Although that’s not actually a bad way to spend a long weekend.

— Dan Cooper

Get Engadget's newsletter delivered direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

The news you might have missed

• Here are the letters that let Apple and Google ignore the TikTok ban
  AG Pam Bondi offered a written guarantee they would incur no legal liability.

• Xbox was funding Romero Games' new game, but layoffs have left the project in crisis
  Turns out Microsoft was backing John Romero’s new studio.

• Uber drivers in British Columbia, Canada have unionized
  This will be interesting.

Get two months of Paramount+ for only $2 right now

Catch up on all that new Star Trek.

Paramount+

You can snag two months of Paramount+ for just $2, allowing you to take advantage of the new season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The deal applies to both the Essential and Premium plan, so you can easily have a little run of ad-free Star Trek as a treat. And, if you don’t like the idea of binging Strange New Worlds, you can always watch Star Trek: Lower Decks instead.

Continue Reading.

Microsoft gaming division suffers further layoffs

Even before the Xbox layoffs, there was 'tension' at Halo Studios

Halo Studios

Microsoft has announced it will cut 9,000 jobs from its global workforce, with much of that focus on its gaming division. Engadget's Jessica Conditt got the inside scoop from employees at Halo Studios, who reveal all is not well at what should be one of Microsoft’s crown jewels. Sadly, the company was already gutted back in 2023, and the lukewarm reception of its work since then is a sign of how badly things are going.

Continue Reading.

Crunchyroll's lazy AI subtitles have anime fans furious

Friends don’t let friends subtitle shows with ChatGPT.

Igor Bonifacic for Engadget

Translating a work of art is a delicate task requiring nuanced knowledge of both the culture and the languages you’re translating from and to. Unless you’re Anime-favoring streaming service Crunchyroll, which just dumped subtitle files into ChatGPT and hoped for the best. As well as a general sloppiness, Engadget’s Igor Bonifacic found instances of lines beginning with “ChatGPT said:” at the start of a line. Crunchyroll said the subtitles were the result of the unauthorized action of a "third-party vendor," and it is working to rectify the error right now.

Continue Reading.

PlayStation needs Neil Druckmann more than HBO does

Our take on the ‘Last of Us’ changes

Neil Druckmann, head of Naughty Dog and co-creator of The Last of US and its TV adaptation, is stepping down from the HBO series. He said he’s shifting his focus back to video games full time to work on the studio’s next big title, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. The Last of Us Part II co-writer Halley Gross is also stepping down at the same time, and that got our staff TLoU superfan Nathan Ingraham’s antennae twitching. He feels the video game industry, currently suffering body blow after body blow, needs Druckmann (and Gross) far more than the TV world does.

Continue Reading.

Nothing Phone 3 hands-on: A tiny, playful dot-matrix screen in the company's most expensive phone yet

It’s another quirky gimmick on the back cover.

Mat Smith for Engadget

Nothing has launched its third-generation flagship, the $799 Nothing Phone 3, complete with a new eye-catching gimmick. Whereas previous models had the Glyph Interface, a series of flashing lights on the rear cover, the 3 gets a tiny dot-matrix display called the Glyph Matrix. Wanna find out if it’s going to be worth your cash? Check out Mat Smith’s detailed hands-on.

Continue Reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-111523433.html?src=rss

©

© Alexander Spatari via Getty Images

The so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” will, if passed, make sweeping changes to the US’ clean energy market. While some of the worst provisions affecting the industry were stripped out during Senate proceedings earlier this week, it’s still pretty bad. In fact, the current language of the bill might as well be a middle figure to the domestic solar manufacturing industry.

As it stands, the bill guts many of the clean energy programs of Joe Biden's signature 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. That includes killing off incentives for domestic and utility-scale solar power as well as the Clean Electricity Production Credit. Even worse, the bill axes the Domestic Content bonus that incentivized the use of US-made gear.

There were a number of provisions that did not survive its journey through the Senate, like the excise tax on renewable energy. As CBS News reported, the levy would have imposed an additional charge on projects that used materials from foreign countries. As CNN explained, this would have cut renewable energy projects in favor of extending the life of coal and gas turbine plants.

Rob Gardner is Vice President of Congressional and Regulatory Affairs for SEMA, the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America coalition. He walked me through the bill, explaining the effects of the changes for the US solar industry. “A positive is that it maintains production tax credits for manufacturers of clean energy components,” he said.

One tweak from an earlier version of the bill was the speed at which the existing tax credits would be withdrawn. As it stands, projects that are already approved will qualify for the present regime, as will any project beginning construction before June 2026. “Basically, a year after enactment [companies have] to begin construction on utility-scale solar projects to receive the full amount of the credit,” said Gardner. And, according to § 70512 (4)(a) those plants will need to be “placed in service” no later than December 31, 2027.

The bigger issue, however, is that the bill creates “uncertainty for long-term demand for US products,” according to Gardner. Put simply, American-made solar panels are more expensive than their Chinese counterparts due to higher manufacturing costs. By removing the incentives, including the Domestic Content bonus, the US is opening the door for Chinese-made alternatives. Gardner added “after the tax credits that incentivize domestic production and consumption expire, you will see a flood of Chinese product [in the market.]”

The US's Environmental Information Administration projects that the US’ total domestic energy consumption will grow by almost two percent in the next year. A slowdown in new energy additions is the last thing the US needs, especially as renewables made up almost 90 percent of all new power generation capacity in 2024. But it’s likely that even with all of the changes in the bill, solar will remain the biggest technology used to implement new power generation capacity.

Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association pulls no punches in her statement. She said the bill “undermines the very foundation of America’s manufacturing comeback.” Hopper added that “families will face higher electric bills, factories will shut down, Americans will lose their jobs and our electric grid will grow weaker.”

Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association described the bill as a “step backward” for American energy policy and an “intentional effort” to undermine “one of the fastest-growing sources of electric power.”

Environmental groups also believe the bill’s passing marks a dark day in the world’s fight against climate change. Greenpeace USA Deputy Climate Program Director John Noël, said in a statement that “this is a vote that will live in infamy” for its role in “doling out fossil fuel industry handouts.”

Environmental Defense Fund’s Vice President for Political and Government Affairs Joanna Slaney agreed. She said that the bill is “effectively cutting off supply of cheap energy right when the US needs it most.” In contrast, the bill offers a “10-year reprieve from paying a fee on wasteful methane pollution,” a gas significantly more harmful than carbon dioxide to the environment.

Research by clean energy company Cleanview suggests the bill may jeopardize up to 600GW of new renewable energy capacity. This is because of the tight deadlines the bill imposes to qualify for the existing credits, which again, need to begin construction before June 2026. That 600GW figure includes solar farms and battery storage projects in California and Texas that would need to be rushed to get working.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/trumps-big-beautiful-bill-is-a-middle-finger-to-us-solar-energy-152042835.html?src=rss

©

© Voyagerix via Getty Images