According to Android specialist Mishaal Rahman, Android miscalculates the storage space taken up by system components, leading to inflated system storage utilization and potentially misleading users. Chandraveer Mathur writes via Android Police. From the report: We usually rely on Android's storage utilization utility to find apps and files eating up storage space, so we can uninstall or delete them if required. However, Android specialist Mishaal Rahman discovered that Google's calculation of the space consumed by Android system components is flawed. He executed shell commands to create a 3GB file in the /data/media/0 storage directory, which isn't a file path used for Android system files. However, the phone's storage breakdown showed a marked 3GB increase under the System heading, suggesting the OS suddenly became bigger.

This happens because Android calculates system storage as the space used up by anything other than what's covered by other categories in the storage breakdown, including audios, videos, images, documents, trash, and games. This means the System heading in the break doesn't just include Android system files. Android 14 also uses this dangerously flawed logic for calculating storage usage. Moreover, the Files app by Google also shows similar storage utilization by Android system components, perhaps because it uses the same incredulous attribution logic. By association, all other Android skins use flawed calculation of used storage space, but Samsung reportedly fixed this issue with the One UI 6 update. After running similar ADB commands as in the previous experiment, Rahman could confirm the increased utilization showed up under the Other files heading in the storage breakdown, instead of the System heading.

Cerabyte, a technology startup pioneering ceramic nanolayer-based storage, claims it will usher in the "Yottabyte Era" and disrupt the $500 billion storage market in the process. Tom's Hardware reports: More specifically, its roadmaps sketch out CeraMemory cartridges (2025-30) storing between 10 PB and 100 PB, and its CeraTape (2030-35) with up to 1 EB capacity per tape. According to the startup, these new formats are poised to address density, performance, and access paradigms, as well as the cost and sustainability demands of datacenters. Cerabyte, a German storage startup, has published an abstract from its upcoming presentation at the 2023 Storage Developer Conference in Fremont, California (h/t Blocks and Files). Here, for the first time, it will detail how it will introduce CeraMemory with inorganic nanolayers, using 50-100 atoms thick ceramics to store information. Scaling ceramic data storage technology from 100nm to 3nm bit sizes will scale the corresponding data density from GB/cm2 to units measured in TB/cm2, reckons Cerabyte.

To record data to CeraMemory, Cerabyte says that a laser beam or particle beam structures data matrices similar to QR codes. Data reading can be done with equipment using high-resolution microscopic imaging techniques or electron beam microscopy. Initially, there will be no need for particle beams/electron microscopy, as those technologies will only be required later in the roadmaps at the highest densities. In its abstract from the 'Ceramic Nano Memory -- Data Storage for the Yottabyte Era' presentation, Cerabyte says its technology can read and write data at GB/s class speeds. These read/write technologies are "low power," according to the storage startup. Another seemingly excellent inherent property of ceramic storage is the touted media durability and longevity. On its website, Cerabyte says that its media can last "5,000+ years" and that the data stored can ensure through "a wide temperature range of -273C (-460F) to 300C (570F)." We have used quotes here, as those are extraordinary figures. Additionally, it is boasted that CeraMemory is resistant to corrosive, acidic, radioactive environments and EMP disruption.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: Toyota says a recent disruption of operations in Japan-based production plants was caused by its database servers running out of storage space. On August 29th, it was reported that Toyota had to halt operations on 12 of its 14 Japan-based car assembly plants due to an undefined system malfunction. As one of the largest automakers in the world, the situation caused production output losses of roughly 13,000 cars daily, threatening to impact exports to the global market.

In a statement released today on Toyota's Japanese news portal, the company explains that the malfunction occurred during a planned IT systems maintenance event on August 27th, 2023. The planned maintenance was to organize the data and deletion of fragmented data in a database. However, as the storage was filled to capacity before the completion of the tasks, an error occurred, causing the system to shut down. This shutdown directly impacted the company's production ordering system so that no production tasks could be planned and executed.

Toyota explains that its main servers and backup machines operate on the same system. Due to this, both systems faced the same failure, making a switchover impossible, inevitably leading to a halt in factory operations. The restoration came on August 29th, 2023, when Toyota's IT team had prepared a larger capacity server to accept the data that was partially transferred two days back. This allowed Toyota's engineers to restore the production ordering system and the plants to resume operations.

The British Conservative government has eased planning rules and lifted restrictions that had effectively prohibited the construction of new onshore wind farms in England. The Independent reports: Rules introduced in 2015 by then-Prime Minister David Cameron, who also led a Conservative administration, allowed a single objection to a wind turbine application to block its development. The regulations led to a dramatic decline in the number of new turbines granted planning permission. Some Conservatives pressured the current government to overturn the rules. Lawmaker Alok Sharma, who was president of the 2021 U.N. climate change conference and led the lobbying campaign, called them "outdated" and "not a sensible way for a planning system to operate."

Authorities said Tuesday that the eased restrictions mean that onshore wind projects supported by local residents will get approved more quickly. They said elected local officials will have the ability to make final decisions based on the prevailing view of their communities, not just a small number of objectors. Communities that back wind turbines in their areas will also benefit from cheaper electricity, officials said, adding that the way such energy discounts work would be considered later.

An anonymous reader shared this report from the Washington Post: On April 26, 1986, the infamous explosion at a Chernobyl nuclear power plant unleashed large amounts of radiation into the atmosphere, an event that contaminated wildlife across country lines. The radiation levels seen in animals as a result has decreased in recent years — with the exception of one animal: the wild boar. For years, scientists questioned why levels of a radioactive isotope known as cesium-137 have remained surprisingly high in wild boars rooting around Germany and Austria, while decreasing in other deer and roe deer. In a new study released last week, a team of researchers finally solved this "wild boar paradox."

They uncovered that the main radioactive source is not the Chernobyl accident but nuclear weapons testing from the 1960s...

Radioactive cesium results from both nuclear weapons explosion and nuclear energy production. The element comes in different isotopic composition, cesium-135 and cesium-137, depending on the source. By analyzing the ratio of these amounts, the researchers can pinpoint the source of the radiation... In the nearly 50 collected meat samples, the team found 88 percent of the samples were above Germany's regulatory limits for radioactive cesium in food. Calculating the ratio of cesium isotopes in the samples, they found that nuclear weapons testing accounted for 10 to 68 percent of the contamination. Even if the Chernobyl accident had never happened, "some of the wild boars would actually still exceed the regulatory limits for food safety limits only because of the weapons tests today," said Georg Steinhauser, a radiochemist at TU Wien and author of the new study. "I think this is pretty mind-blowing because they were 60 years ago."

Steinhauser said the wild boars probably ingested the cesium from contaminated deer truffle mushrooms, which they dig up and eat during the winter when corn and acorns on the ground are scarce. Cesium seeps through the soil and is absorbed by the mushrooms, as if it were a nutrient. This also explains why observations show radioactivity levels in wild boar are higher in the winter. While cesium from both the nuclear weapons testing and the Chernobyl accident spread through the soil, Steinhauser said, the mushrooms appear to have fully absorbed the source from the nuclear weapons testing so far. Cesium seeps very slowly through the soil, sometimes only one millimeter per year, he said. Deer truffles, located between 20 and 40 centimeters, have already absorbed the "older" cesium from six decades ago. The "younger" cesium from Chernobyl has likely not fully integrated or is just now integrating at the soil depths where the mushrooms are located. But it could be bad news when the cesium from Chernobyl does reach the mushrooms — radioactivity levels could go up higher.
The study's author says his study isn't arguing for or against the use of nuclear energy — but does say that "it has to be done responsibly." He calls the study's results "a cautionary tale that we have to take good care of our environment," said Steinhauser. "Once released, a radioactive substance can never be unreleased again — and nature doesn't forget."

The BBC has an article about Japan's release into the sea of treated waste water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant. "Scientists largely agree that the impact will be negligible, but China has strongly protested the release. And disinformation has only fuelled fear and suspicion in China." A report by a UK-based data analysis company called Logically, which aims to fight misinformation, claims that since January, the Chinese government and state media have been running a coordinated disinformation campaign targeting the release of the waste water. As part of this, mainstream news outlets in China have continually questioned the science behind the nuclear waste water discharge. The rhetoric has only increased since the water was released on 24 August, stoking public anger... Japan's foreign ministry even warned its citizens in China to be cautious and to avoid speaking Japanese loudly in public...

Logically's data also showed that, since the beginning of the year, state-owned media have run paid ads on Facebook and Instagram, without disclaimers, about the risks of the waste water release in multiple countries and languages, including English, German, and Khmer. "It is quite evident that this is politically motivated," Hamsini Hariharan, a China expert at Logically, told the BBC. She added that misleading content from sources related to the Chinese government had intensified the public outcry...

Dozens of posts on Chinese social media Weibo showed panicked crowds buying giant sacks of salt ahead of the Fukushima water release. Some worried that future supply would be contaminated. Others believed — falsely — that salt protected them against radiation. A restaurant in Shanghai, in an apparent effort to profit off the hysteria, advertised "anti-radiation" meals with errant claims of reducing skin damage and cell regeneration. A social media user asked wryly, "Why would I pay 28 yuan for tomato with seasoning?"

"France and Germany lead the camps in disagreeing on the future of nuclear in Europe," write two climate policy journalists. On the Energy Post blog they explore why — citing energy experts and politicians.

Germany "ultimately completed its nuclear exit in April 2023," while France "has the highest share of nuclear in the energy mix of any country in the world." [A] major concern is that more nuclear means less renewables, at a time when wind and solar need all the scale they can get... In a joint attempt to provide greater technical clarity on the nuclear power debate, French think tank IDDRI and German Agora Energiewende set out in 2018 to understand how nuclear energy will influence the transformation of energy systems in both countries. They found that if a high share of coal or nuclear based conventional power capacity stays online in both countries, this will likely to delay the time when market prices allow renewable power operators to cover their production costs and run the operations at a profit. They also found that exporting surplus electricity with conventional plants bites into renewable power investments abroad. At the same time, the growing share of renewables would eventually render most conventional plants unprofitable. "In order to avoid stranded assets, it is essential to gradually reduce conventional capacities," the bi-national report concluded...

Xavier Moreno, president of French think tank Ecological Realities and Energy Mix Study Circle (Cereme) and former vice president of French utility company Suez, said the all-renewables approach was complicated by a lack of viable electricity storage technologies. "Technically speaking, it would be necessary to store up to 20 percent to be able to smoothen renewable power supply." Those who believe that this will be possible through a combination of different storage options are chasing "a dream," Moreno argued.
The issue comes up when trading power in Europe's integrated energy market: should gate closure times be based on a decentralised, flexible renewables-based system, or a centralised grid based on nuclear baseloads? Rainer Hinrichs-Rahlwes, European policy expert for the German Renewable Energy Federation lobby group, says "Nuclear power plants and their inflexible output can cause grid congestion, the opposite of what is needed to accommodate large shares of wind and solar in a modern and flexible grid system."

The article notes that France plans to eliminate coal use by 2038, and already has one of the lowest emissions per head of any rich country. But "In mid-2023, 800 French scientists warned against the risks of the country's new nuclear programme, pointing to unresolved questions of radioactive waste management, which remain largely unresolved in most of the EU, including in France. The scientists also warned against risks of accidental contamination or meltdown."

Thanks to Slashdot reader AleRunner for submitting the article.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ExtremeTech: Slowly but surely, sales of electric cars have crept upward as traditional automakers finally embrace EVs. Nissan was early to the electric future with the venerable if modest Leaf. Nissan is now looking to turn old Leafs into something new by harvesting their batteries. The company has begun selling portable power banks built around refurbished automotive batteries, which could give these expensive Leaf cells a new lease on life. The Lithium-ion cells in vehicles have the same properties as the battery in your phone. They start out with a specific power rating, but successive discharge-recharge cycles cause physical stress to the internal structure. Eventually, this results in reduced capacity and voltage. However, Nissan says most Leaf owners stop driving the car before the battery stops working. In fact, many of the individual cells are still in good shape when the vehicles are discarded.

Each Nissan Leaf has around 48 lithium-ion battery modules -- the exact number depends on model. While some may be in poor shape at the end of a car's life, Nissan has taken to disassembling the battery packs to refurbish working modules. The result is the Nissan portable power station, which was developed in partnership with JVCKenwood Corp. and 4R Energy Corp. The bulky 32-pound portable chargers contain two Leaf battery modules with about 80% of their original capacity intact. They're no longer suitable for driving an EV, but they can still charge your phone. Nissan sells the battery packs in Japan for 170,500 yen (about $1,170). That might sound like a lot, but it's actually not bad for a super high-capacity battery pack. Each of Nissan's current-gen battery modules is 1.67 kWh, which converts to 112 Ah (112,000 mAh). Assuming a 20% loss in capacity, two of them would have enough juice to charge the largest current iPhone more than 40 times.

Lenovo's upcoming 27-inch 4K monitor offers a unique experience unlike any other display: glasses-free 3D that can be toggled on and off. According to Ars Technica, the monitor features a lenticular lens and real-time eye-tracking to create the effect. It's being targeted at content creators, like 3D graphic designers and developers. From the report: Like other glasses-less 3D screens, [Lenovo's ThinkVision 27 3D Monitor] works by projecting two different images to each of your eyes, resulting in a 3D effect where, as PR images would have you believe, it appears that the images are popping out of the screen. Lenovo says the monitor's 3D resolution is 1920x2160. The lenticular lens in the monitor is switchable, allowing for normal, 2D viewing at 3840x2160, too. The ThinkVision's 27-inch display gives workers a bigger palette. It also means the monitor can be a regular 2D monitor when needed. [...]

As a regular 2D monitor, the ThinkVision's specs are pretty standard. It's a 4K IPS screen claiming a 60 Hz refresh rate, 310 nits, a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, and 99 percent DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB color coverage with a Delta E under 2. Like a proper workplace monitor, there's also a strong port selection: two HDMI 2.1, one DisplayPort 1.4, four USB-A (3.1 Gen 1) ports, one USB-C port (3.2 Gen 1) with up to 15 W power delivery, RJ45, a 3.5mm jack, plus an upstream USB-C port with up to 100 W power delivery.

According to Bloombeg's Mark Gurman (paywalled), Apple is experimenting with a new 3D-printing manufacturing process for some device production, starting with the upcoming Apple Watch Series 9 models. MacRumors reports: The new manufacturing process that Apple is testing would use less material than the large slabs of metal that are needed for traditional CNC manufacturing, plus it would cut down on the time that it takes to make new devices. With a technique called "binder jetting," Apple is able to print a device's outline at close to its actual shape using a powdered substance. A second process uses heat and pressure to squeeze the material into a substance that feels like steel, and it is then refined with milling.

Gurman's information echoes what we've already heard from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Back in July, Kuo said that the upcoming second-generation Apple Watch Ultra will include 3D printed mechanical parts. Specifically, he claimed that Apple is "actively adopting 3D printing technology," and that some of the titanium components in the new Apple Watch Ultra would be 3D printed. Gurman claims that Apple plans to use this new 3D printing method for the chassis of the stainless steel Apple Watch Series 9 models rather than components for the Ultra but either way, it sounds like Apple is more actively testing this manufacturing method as of 2023. Gurman says that Apple plans to 3D print titanium devices in 2024. The report notes that the shift to 3D printing would also "allow Apple to improve manufacturing times and potentially cut down on costs."

Mark Zuckerberg posted a video to his personal Instagram profile showing clips of himself and Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth trying a surface-locked virtual keyboard in a Quest 2 headset. UploadVR reports: Zuckerberg claims he was able to achieve around 100 words per minute, while Bosworth says he reached 119 words per minute. The average person types at around 40 words per minute on a traditional keyboard, whereas professional typists reach between 70 and 120 words per minute depending on their skill level. If future headsets could turn any flat surface into a virtual keyboard, it would bring partial haptic feedback and allow you to rest your wrists as with physical keyboards, without the need to carry around a physical keyboard.

Developers can technically already build surface-locked virtual keyboards on Quest today, by using hand tracking and getting the user to tap the surface to calibrate its position. But in practice, even the slightest deviation of the virtual surface height from the real surface results in false key presses. Meta didn't share yet exactly how its research solves this issue. However, fiducial markers can be seen on the desk in the clip. If the system is preprogrammed with the exact dimensions of these markers, this may act as a robust dynamic calibration system.

Quest 3 will add a depth sensor to a Meta headset for the first time, and a leaked setup clip shows the headset generating a 3D mesh of its environment. If this mesh is precise enough, Quest 3 could potentially eventually support this kind of virtual keyboard. For now though, Meta is solely describing this as research, not a demo of a near term product experience. Meta will likely show off more of its VR and AR research at Meta Connect, which starts September 27 this year.

According to DigiTimes, Apple will receive all TSMC's first-generation 3-nanometer process chips this year for its upcoming devices. MacRumors reports: As early as May, Apple was known to have booked nearly 90% of the Taiwanese pure-play foundry for its upcoming next-gen devices. However, Apple is now projected to take 100% of TSMC's capacity in 2023, due to delays in Intel's wafer needs owing to later modifications to the company's CPU platform design plans. Intel's lack of orders means TSMC's sales of 3nm chips will be significantly lower this year. While TSMC is still expected to experience significant growth in the fourth quarter as it starts mass producing 3nm chips for Apple's needs, they too have been downgraded, according to DigiTimes' industry sources.

The report suggests TSMC's 3nm process output may be reduced to 50,000-60,000 wafers monthly in the fourth quarter, down from the 80,000-100,000 units previously anticipated, due to a cutback in Apple's orders. The current monthly output of TSMC's 3nm process is estimated at approximately 65,000 wafers, the outlet's sources said. Apple's upcoming iPhone 15 Pro models are expected to feature the A17 Bionic processor, Apple's first iPhone chip based on TSMC's first-generation 3nm process, also known as N3B. The E3nm technology is said to deliver a 35% power efficiency improvement and 15% faster performance compared to 4nm, which was used to make the A16 Bionic chip for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max.

The PC market is expected to return to growth in 2024, according to estimates from IDC analysts. From a report: Still, industry players might want to taper their enthusiasm. PC shipments are forecast to grow 3.7 percent year-on-year to hit 261.4 million units in 2024, putting them above 2018 levels, but not quite on par with 2019 demand. Meanwhile, 2023 is predicted to sink by 13.7 percent to 252 million units. Research manager Jitesh Ubrani called demand "tepid at best" and said 2023 will be the year with the "greatest annual decline in consumer PC shipments since the category's inception."

IDC recognizes the market still faces challenges including "concerns around the consumer market refresh cycle, businesses pushing device purchases forward, and education budgets that are not rebounding in many markets." Market hesitancy, as always, boils down to uncertainty. For one, processors are seeing what IDC called "some of the biggest shifts in commercial PC history" as AMD market share hit 11 percent in 2022 and Apple pulled in just over 5 percent that year. Apple device sales have been on a decline for multiple quarters now. Q1 2023 saw new Macs plummet more than 40 percent year-on-year, compared to an overall 25-30 percent among PC vendors. The quarter before that saw Apple shipments outperform the PC market as a whole, declining a mere 2.1 percent while other manufacturers experienced 37 percent reductions.

Intel says its upcoming "Sierra Forest" data center chip due out next year will have 240% better performance per watt than its current generation chip. It's the first time the company has disclosed such figures, notes Reuters. From the report: The company is for the first time splitting its data center chips into two categories: A "Granite Rapids" chip that will focus on performance but consume more power, and the more efficient "Sierra Forest" chip. Ronak Singhal, a senior fellow at Intel, said the company's customers can consolidate older software onto a smaller number of computers inside a data center.

"I may have things that are four or five, six years old. I can get power savings by moving something that's currently on five, 10 or 15 different servers into a single" new chip, Singhal said. "That density drives their total cost of ownership. The higher the density, the fewer systems they need."

Reuters reports: Tests of seawater near Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant have not detected any radioactivity, the environment ministry said on Sunday, days after authorities began discharging into the sea treated water used to cool damaged reactors.

Japan started releasing water from the wrecked Fukushima plant into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, sparking protests in Japan and neighbouring countries, in particular China, which banned aquatic product imports from Japan.

Japan and scientific organisations say the water is safe after being filtered to remove most radioactive elements except for tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Because tritium is difficult to separate from water, the Fukushima water is diluted until tritium levels fall below regulatory limits.

The ministry's tests of samples from 11 points near the plant showed concentrations of tritium below the lower limit of detection — 7 to 8 becquerels of tritium per litre, the ministry said, adding that it "would have no adverse impact on human health and the environment". Monitoring would be carried out "with a high level of objectivity, transparency, and reliability" to prevent adverse impacts on Japan's reputation, Environment Minister Akihiro Nishimura said in a statement.

"The green energy revolution still faces a huge obstacle: a lack of long-term, cost-efficient renewable storage," writes the Washington Post.

But then they check in on a Finnish start-up running the world's first commercial-scale sand battery, which uses solar panels and wind turbines to heat sand-filled vats (up to 1,000 degrees) to back up district heating networks: The sand can hold onto the power for weeks or months at a time — a clear advantage over the lithium ion battery, the giant of today's battery market, which usually can hold energy for only a number of hours.

Unlike fossil fuels, which can be easily transported and stored, solar and wind supplies fluctuate. Most of the renewable power that isn't used immediately is lost. The solution is storage innovation, many industry experts agree. In addition to their limited capacity, lithium ion batteries, which are used to power everything from mobile phones to laptops to electric vehicles, tend to fade with every recharge and are highly flammable, resulting in a growing number of deadly fires across the world. The extraction of cobalt, the lucrative raw material used in lithium ion batteries, also relies on child labor. U.N. agencies have estimated that 40,000 boys and girls work in the industry, with few safety measures and paltry compensation. These serious environmental and human rights challenges pose a problem for the electric vehicle industry, which requires a huge supply of critical minerals.

So investors are now pouring money into even bigger battery ventures. More than $900 million has been invested in clean storage technologies since 2021, up from $360 million the year before, according to the Long Duration Energy Storage Council, an organization launched after that year's U.N. climate conference to oversee the world's decarbonization. The group predicts that by 2040, large-scale, renewable energy storage investments could reach $3 trillion. That includes efforts to turn natural materials into batteries. Once-obscure start-ups, experimenting with once-humble commodities, are suddenly receiving millions in government and private funding. There's the multi-megawatt CO2 battery in Sardinia, a rock-based storage system in Tuscany, and a Swiss company that's moving massive bricks along a 230-foot tall building to store and generate renewable energy. One Danish battery start-up, which stores energy from molten salt, is sketching out plans to deploy power plants in decommissioned coal mines across three continents...

But in order to succeed, natural batteries will need to provide the same kind of steady power as fossil fuels, at scale. Whether that can be achieved remains to be seen, say energy experts. And the industry may be subject to the same pitfalls that loom over the renewables energy sector at large: Projects will need to be constructed from scratch, and they might only be adopted in developed countries that can afford such experimentation. Lovschall-Jensen, the CEO of a Danish molten salt-based storage start-up called Hyme, says the challenge will be maintaining the same standards to which the modern world has become accustomed: receiving power, on demand, with the flip of a switch.

He believes that natural batteries, though still in their infancy, can serve that goal.

According to a recent Apple press release, some developers are reacting with an "audible gasp" when first using the company's upcoming Vision Pro headset. ZDNet reports: Michael Simmons, who's led the team behind popular productivity apps Fantastical and Cardhop described his experience as "like seeing Fantastical for the first time. It felt like I was part of the app." By the time his test session was over, the big takeaway was that "Experiencing spatial computing not only validated the designs we'd been thinking about -- it helped us start thinking not just about left to right or up and down but beyond borders at all." "The first time you see your own app running for real, that's when you get the audible gasp," adds David Smith, podcaster and developer of Widgetsmith.

"It instantly got me thinking about how 3D offerings and visuals could come forward in our experiences," says Chris Delbuck, principal design technologist at Slack, in the Apple press release. Delbuck had first planned to test the iPadOS version of Slack on the Vision Pro, only to realize how much more potential there was in upgrading the UX to suit VisionOS' added layer of depth.

Dropbox, a provider of online data storage, is ending its unlimited option, saying a small handful of customers were using massive amounts of resources that had the potential to degrade the cloud service for the rest of its clients. From a report: The company's highest-tier "all the space you need" storage plan will be capped at about 5 terabytes per user for new customers, the company said in a blog post.

While the plan was designed for businesses, some clients were instead using it for cryptocurrency mining, pooling storage with strangers, or re-selling the cloud service, Dropbox said. These uses "frequently consume thousands of times more storage than our genuine business customers, which risks creating an unreliable experience for all of our customers," the company said. [...] The change follows Alphabet's Google removing "as much storage as you need" product branding for its highest-tier Workspace plan in May, according to copies of its website hosted on the Wayback Machine.

samleecole shares a report from 404 Media, a new independent media company founded by technology journalists Jason Koebler, Emanuel Maiberg, Samantha Cole, and Joseph Cox: Apple told a California legislator that it is formally supporting a right to repair bill in California, a landmark move that suggests big tech manufacturers understand they have lost the battle to monopolize repair, and need to allow consumers and independent repair shops to fix their own electronics. "Apple writes in support of SB 244, and urges members of the California legislature to pass the bill as currently drafted," Apple wrote to Susan Eggman, the sponsor of the bill, in a letter obtained by 404 Media. "We support SB 244 because it includes requirements that protect individual users' safety and security, as well as product manufacturers' intellectual property. We will continue to support the bill, so long as it continues to provide protections for customers and innovators."

This is a landmark shift in policy from Apple, the most powerful electronics manufacturer in the world and, historically, one of the biggest opponents of right to repair legislation nationwide. It means, effectively, that consumers have won. "If California votes yes and continues to raise the bar on electronics repair from other states, it's becoming obvious the fight is over, and that we've won," said Nathan Proctor, Senior Director of consumer rights group U.S. PIRG Campaign for the Right to Repair. "It's going to be show over for consumer electronics. There are other industries where this fight is going to continue, but if a strong bill passes in California, we're winning."

"I would think that passage in California means there'd be a lot of pressure on manufacturers to kind of set the line there and say 'no farther,' because we've now proven to them we can pass laws and change the ways they have to operate," Proctor added. "This shows state advocacy is a good way to deal with large problems that are hard to get through Congress. It shows you can really spread big tech thin if you have a real grassroots network behind you."

iFixit and TechCrunch first reported the news.

Last week we wrote about a lawsuit against Western Digital that alleged that the firm's solid state drive didn't live up to its marketing promises. More lawsuits have been filed against the company since. ArsTechnica: On Thursday, two more lawsuits were filed against Western Digital over its SanDisk Extreme series and My Passport portable SSDs. That brings the number of class-action complaints filed against Western Digital to three in two days. In May, Ars Technica reported about customer complaints that claimed SanDisk Extreme SSDs were abruptly wiping data and becoming unmountable. Ars senior editor Lee Hutchinson also experienced this problem with two Extreme SSDs. Western Digital, which owns SanDisk, released a firmware update in late May, saying that currently shipping products weren't impacted. But the company didn't mention customer complaints of lost data, only that drives could "unexpectedly disconnect from a computer."

Further, last week The Verge claimed a replacement drive it received after the firmware update still wiped its data and became unreadable, and there are some complaints on Reddit pointing to recent problems with Extreme drives. All three cases filed against Western Digital this week seek class-action certification (Ars was told it can take years for a judge to officially state certification and that cases may proceed with class-wide resolutions possibly occurring before official certification). Ian Sloss, one of the lawyers representing Matthew Perrin and Brian Bayerl in a complaint filed yesterday, told Ars he doesn't believe class-action certification will be a major barrier in a case "where there is a common defect in the firmware that is consistent in all devices." He added that defect cases are "ripe for class treatment."