Google has announced new features in its Maps app designed to help electric car drivers find a charge.
Tech
Spotify unifies desktop, web and mobile designs – MobileSyrup
Spotify is rolling out updates to its two desktop players that bring the design of both versions of the app more in line with its mobile offering.
To start off, I’ll clarify that the desktop app and the web app are now identical, so anytime I refer to the desktop app from here onwards, I mean “both apps” unless specified otherwise.
Starting today, we’re rolling out a redesigned Spotify app for desktop and web, aligning the experience and making both easier to use than ever before. Get to know the new and improved features. ⬇️ https://t.co/c7yduZgka6
— Spotify News (@SpotifyNews) March 25, 2021
The first change you’ll notice in the new app is that it looks a lot like the mobile version. Things aren’t dumbed down in any way, but the visual stylings are a little blockier with a more modern colour palette.
The next thing you’ll notice is that there’s no persistent search bar anymore. This is probably the worst part of the update and unforgivable in a desktop music app. You have the screen space, shove a search bar in there. I’m only able to get the new design on the web app, so perhaps when the actual desktop version rolls out, I’ll be wrong, but so far, it’s not looking good.
Clicking on the ‘Search’ header opens up a search interface that also shows you all the genres and your recent searches.
Spotify did shove a new search bar within each playlist. This makes it a lot easier to find songs within playlists, and I’m glad the company added it.
The company also highlighted its keyboard shortcuts. So if you hit ‘cmd/ctrl + ?’ you’ll now see a full list of all the shortcuts you can use. My favourites are ‘alt+S’ for shuffle and ‘cmd/ctrl + shift + L’ for search.
So far, the actual desktop version hasn’t rolled out to me. I even uninstalled and downloaded a fresh version, but nothing has changed yet. You can view the new version through the Spotify web app here.
Source: Spotify
Tech
Aaron Sluchinski adds Kyle Doering to lineup for next season – The Grand Slam of Curling
Aaron Sluchinski’s team announced Wednesday on social media that Kyle Doering has joined the club for next season.
Sluchinski was searching for a new player after second Kerr Drummond stepped back from competitive curling late last month. The Airdrie, Alta., team also includes third Jeremy Harty and lead Dylan Webster.
Sluchinski had a breakout season, winning the Boston Pizza Cup to represent Alberta at the Montana’s Brier for the first time and also competed in three Grand Slam of Curling events. The team finished 16th in the world rankings and seventh among Canadian clubs.
Doering has spent the past two years playing with Edmonton’s Karsten Sturmay and was also on the lookout for a new squad after his skip announced his departure from competitive curling.
Winnipegger Doering earned a silver medal at the world men’s curling championship earlier this month as the alternate on Team Canada, skipped by Brad Gushue.
Doering captured the Canadian junior title and a world junior bronze medal in 2016 playing with skip Matt Dunstone.
The Canadian men’s curling landscape has seen several shifts in recent days. Brendan Bottcher’s teammates announced Tuesday they were looking for a new skip and Reid Carruthers’ team revealed Wednesday it has parted ways with skip Brad Jacobs.
Skip Glenn Howard also announced his retirement Tuesday.
Meanwhile, skip John Epping unveiled his new team last week, featuring third Tanner Horgan, second Jacob Horgan and lead Ian McMillan.
Tech
New EV features for Google Maps have arrived. Here’s how to use them. – The Washington Post
The updates include a tool to help drivers find nearby chargers with real-time information about availability and charging speed, the ability to find charging stops on longer road trips and more detailed instructions about how to find chargers within parking lots and garages.
Google expects to start rolling out these features “in the coming months,” according to a blog post. Some will come first to people who drive a car that comes with “Google Built-in,” the company’s driver-assistance software. Google updated its other route-finding app, Waze, with information on EV chargers last month.
The update addresses one of Americans’ top concerns about owning an electric vehicle: finding a place to charge. Range anxiety remains a significant barrier for EV sales — especially for drivers who don’t own a house. Among people who don’t drive an EV, roughly half say they think finding a place to charge would be “extremely” or “very” difficult, according to a 2023 Washington Post-University of Maryland poll.
EVs make up roughly 7 percent of new U.S. car sales, which some experts believe is a tipping point at which electric cars will quickly become popular and take over the market. But lately, the EV market appears to be cooling off. Sales slowed in the first quarter of this year.
In addition to building more charging stations, companies can make driving an EV easier by building apps that help drivers find chargers, said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of Industry Insights at Cox Automotive. “That could be really helpful with mitigating some of those concerns about charging anxiety,” she said.
Find available EV charging stations
For electric-car drivers who need a last-minute charge, Google is developing a feature that can find nearby chargers with updated information about how many ports are available and their charging speed. The company says this feature will eventually be available to all drivers but will be available first for drivers with Google Built-in.
Plan a road trip with EV charging stops
The Maps update will allow EV owners with Google Built-in to plan where they can power up when taking long trips with multiple stops, such as a cross-country road trip. The feature will access information about your car’s battery life to suggest the best places to charge up.
The company also announced a search feature that allows travelers to look for hotels with electric car chargers.
Locate hard-to-find EV charging stations
Some EV chargers are tucked in hard-to-find corners of parking garages. The Maps update will crowdsource information from Google reviewers to generate more detailed instructions about how to get to a charger. According to the company’s blog post, the instructions might read something like, “Enter the underground parking lot and follow the signs toward the exit. Just before exiting, turn right.”
Tech
Cytiva Showcases Single-Use Mixing System at INTERPHEX 2024 – BioPharm International
The Xcellerex magnetic mixer, single-use mixing system was designed to address challenges in large-scale mAb, vaccine, and genomic medicine manufacturing processes.
Cytiva unveiled the Xcellerex single-use magnetic mixer at INTERPHEX 2024 in New York City on April 16, 2024. The single-use mixing system was designed to combat challenges in large-scale monoclonal antibody (mAb), vaccine, and genomic medicine manufacturing processes. The mixer is offered in 2000 L and 3000 L capacities and can be configured in several ways to accommodate diverse mixing processes. Its compact size benefits facilities with space constraints or complicated installation of large-scale consumables.
According to the company, minor leaks may cause significant delays and losses. “When dealing with a 3000 L batch of cell culture media, the estimated financial loss can cost between $60k to upwards of $100k” (1). The system helps prevent expensive leaks with a novel mixer biocontainer that incorporates user-centered design elements to improve durability and ease of use. The design provides enhanced safeguards and added protection from leaks that may occur during shipping, storage, and operation.
Time taken to mix batches can inhibit product development times, specifically the challenge of mixing floating powders such as cell culture media. Current systems have underpowered impellers with circular or cubical shapes that make producing large volumes challenging, according to Cytiva. This new single-use system “has a powerful impeller that when combined with the mixer’s hexagonal shape creates a vortex, enhancing the interaction at the liquid surface. This vortex effectively pulls down the floating powders into the main body of the liquid to allow for a more efficient and shorter mixing process,” the company stated in a press release.
“We’re tapping into our differentiated portfolio to solve a wide range of challenges for our customers. Our new magnetic mixing system is flexible and capable of meeting the many demands and constraints during buffer and cell culture media preparation,” said Amanda Halford, president, Bioprocess at Cytiva in the release. “By reimagining the design, we’ve tackled some of the biggest obstacles to downtime.”
Advertisement
Cytiva is also working to advance messenger RNA (mRNA) manufacturing. In an interview with Pharmaceutical Technology EuropeTM , Scott Ripley, general manager, Nucleic Acid Therapeutics and Precision Nanosystems at Cytiva, discussed technology that enables the “democratization” of mRNA manufacturing (2). Many mRNA therapies and other types of genetic medicines in clinical development are designed to be delivered with the help of lipid nanoparticles. One such platform is Cytiva’s Precision Nanosystems NanoAssemblr microfluidic-based nanoparticle manufacturing platform, which enables the development of genetic medicines with potentially increased stability, efficacy, yield, and quality of non-viral genetic medicines, according to Ripley.
Ripley was enthusiastic about this platform’s ability to “democratize” the good manufacturing practice (GMP) manufacturing aspects for advanced therapies, while managing to cope with the increased molecular diversity of the molecules being handled.
“For example,” Ripley says, “the mRNA platform is unique in that, on one end of the spectrum, it is vaccinating the planet, on the other end, it’s personalized cancer vaccines.”
Reference
1. Cytiva. Cytiva Unveils Latest Innovation for Large Scale Mab, Vaccine, and Advanced Therapy Manufacturing Processes–The Xcellerex Compact Single-Use Magnetic Mixing System. Press Release. April 16, 2024.
2. Spivey, C. Democratizing GMP Manufacturing for the New Therapeutic Pipeline. PharmTech.com. Nov. 21, 2023.
-
Tech20 hours ago
iPhone 15 Pro Desperado Mafia model launched at over ₹6.5 lakh- All details about this luxury iPhone from Caviar – HT Tech
-
Sports20 hours ago
Lululemon unveils Canada's official Olympic kit for the Paris games – National Post
-
Science23 hours ago
Astronomers discover Milky Way's heaviest known black hole – Xinhua
-
Media22 hours ago
NPR's liberal bias: Editor exposes media's lack of viewpoint diversity – USA TODAY
-
News18 hours ago
Toronto airport gold heist: Police announce nine arrests – CP24
-
Tech18 hours ago
Venerable Video App Plex Emerges As FAST Favorite – Forbes
-
News15 hours ago
Loblaws Canada groceries: Shoppers slam store for green onions with roots chopped off — 'I wouldn't buy those' – Yahoo News Canada
-
Science24 hours ago
'Almost hit my son' – Space junk crashes through Florida home – BBC.com