Victoria Fox's Blog, page 109

Quick-freeze process: Freeze instead of storing everything in stock

The SPD and the FDP have reached an agreement at cabinet level on a long-standing issue of conflict: data storage for investigators. A so-called quick freeze procedure is to be introduced to combat serious crimes. What exactly does this term mean – and what problem does it actually solve? An overview.

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Sims show problems with F1’s plan for moveable wings in 2026

Enlarge / F1 has a few more months before it has to finalize the technical regulations for 2026.Darren Heath/Getty Images

F1 is set to undergo another of its periodic technical rule changes in 2026, undertaken every few years in an effort to keep the racing safe and at least somewhat relevant. The sport is adopting carbon-neutral synthetic fuels and switching to a simplified, if far more powerful, hybrid system, powering cars with much less drag. But early simulation tests have been alarming, with cars that were at times “undriveable,” according to a report in Motorsport.

The FIA, which is in charge of F1’s rules and regulations, wants cars that can race each other closely and entertain an audience, so expect the 2026 cars to generate less aerodynamic downforce, since that is often conducive to processional racing.

Reducing drag is a bigger priority for the FIA, especially since the new hybrid system, which still regenerates energy under braking but no longer also from the engine’s turbocharger, won’t have the energy sufficient to aid the car’s combustion engine throughout the entire lap.

The solution is to evolve the feature currently known as the Drag Reduction System, which has been required on cars since 2011. DRS lowers an element of the rear wing on command, cutting drag to the car. But instead of using it to make overtaking a bit easier, as is the case now, the idea is for the cars to have a low-drag configuration along the straights, then switch into a high downforce configuration for cornering.

But according to Motorsport, when the cars are in their lowest-drag configuration, they become “almost undriveable—with multiple examples of drivers spinning on straights under acceleration or being unable to take the smallest of curves without the rear stepping out.”

The culprit is a huge shift in the car’s center of pressure, which the FIA says is as much as three times greater than the current change in balance when a driver deploys their DRS. There is a solution, though—active front wings to go with the active rear wings, which move in concert to maintain the same balance on the car even as it switches from high downforce to low drag.

Some of you may be asking why, if F1 is supposedly the pinnacle of motorsport, it hasn’t had active front wings all along. But the sport has had a long-held prohibition on active aerodynamic devices—which it even extended to mass dampers—since 1969 (other than when specified by the rules, like DRS, obviously), following a series of crashes shortly after F1 discovered downforce.

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The 2024 Fiat 500e is a $34K EV that appeals to emotion, not logic

Enlarge / For now, Fiat’s sole US offering is the (RED) 500e, but future versions will arrive in “drops.”Stephen Edelstein

It’s cliché to describe an Italian automaker as operating on a slower, more laid-back timetable than its rivals, but that seems to be the case with Fiat’s North American product planning.

The outgoing Fiat 500 brought the brand back to the United States in 2011, but it had been on sale in Europe since 2007. An electric 500e arrived after the gasoline models, but as then-CEO Sergio Marchionne was quick to point out, that was only to satisfy California’s zero-emission vehicle mandate.

Now the 500e is back, once again later than the European version (which was first shown in 2020), but this time, Fiat is skipping the gasoline engines for the line. The 2024 Fiat 500e is no compliance car—it’s now the only version of this retro hatchback you can get and the only Fiat model available in the US—nor is it a mass-market item.

“My ambition is not to replace your sedan or [S]UV,” Fiat CEO Olivier Francois said in a presentation during a 500e drive program in Miami. The new 500e was designed with the same ethos as its predecessor. It is intended to be a stylish second car (Francois calls it the “ultimate fashion accessory”), sharing garage space with something more practical.

Enlarge / The 500e is late arriving to North America, but it’s here now.Stephen Edelstein

That once again puts the 500e in the competitive crosshairs of the modern Mini, which gets redesigned gasoline and all-electric variants for the 2025 model year. But the Fiat’s styling has stayed closer to its inspiration than Mini’s, which seems to have lost the plot. The rounded two-box shape remains, along with the distinctive “face” created by the grille-less, flat front end. New headlights with eyelash-like upper elements give that face a somewhat disapproving look, though. Engineers also tried to tidy up airflow with a few subtle features, including recessed door handles borrowed from Maserati.

The 500e rides on a new EV-specific platform called STLA City, which led to some changes in proportions. The new model is 2.4 inches (60 mm) longer and 2.2 inches (55 mm) wider than its predecessor, with a 0.87-inch (22 mm) longer wheelbase.

Fiat claims the new platform allowed the seating position to be lowered, avoiding the barstool-like feel of the old 500. The driving position did indeed feel a bit more normal, and the fairly short hood and generous side glass enhanced outward visibility. Rear seats are included, but they’re only useful as additional cargo space, which is more generous than you might think. But because the motor and other hardware live under the hood, there’s no frunk.

The interior has a pleasingly simple design, although aside from the red dashboard fascia in our 500e (RED) launch model (so named because of a tie-in with the RED charity), materials seemed more appropriate for a bargain-basement econobox than a vehicle marketed as a chic fashion accessory on wheels.

Enlarge / Fiat thinks the 500e makes the perfect second car. Stephen Edelstein

Fiat also kept things simple in the mechanical department. The 500e uses a 42-kWh battery pack that affords 149 miles (240 km) of range. That’s perhaps not the number some EV shoppers want to see, but Fiat notes that it’s more than enough for the roughly 30 miles (48 km) of daily driving most Americans do.

A smaller pack also costs less, uses fewer raw materials, and helps save weight. At just under 3,000 lbs (1,360 kg), the 2024 500e is 50 lbs (23 kg) lighter than the previous-generation 500e. That’s pretty impressive, considering that a gasoline 2025 Mini Cooper S is expected to weigh 3,014 lbs (1,367 kg) and the 500e has a battery pack under the floor.

A 100 percent charge from a Level 2 AC source takes six hours, so cars won’t even need a full overnight charging session, while 85 kW DC fast charging can finish a 0–80 percent charge in 35 minutes. Fiat will offer customers a choice of public charging credits or a free home wallbox unit (installation costs not included).

The powertrain is modest as well. A single electric motor sends 117 hp (87 kW) and 162 lb-ft (220 Nm) of torque to the front wheels, getting the 500e from zero to 60 mph in a Fiat-estimated 8.5 seconds and up to a top speed of 94 mph (151 km/h). While the original 500 had its engine in the back, powering the rear wheels, the 500e retains the front-wheel drive layout of the previous modern 500 to preserve its distinctive proportions and maintain rear cargo space, according to Fiat.

Enlarge / The engine bay is home to power electronics and HVAC machinery. Stephen Edelstein

Acceleration is peppy, with the motor pulling more strongly at low speeds and gradually leveling off in accelerative effort. Full power is available in the Normal and Range drive modes, but Fiat also includes a Sherpa mode that limits the 500e to 76 hp (57 kW) while capping the top speed at 50 mph (80 km/h) and disabling the climate control to stretch range. The 500e didn’t feel like a liability in this mode, and full power is still available via an accelerator pedal kickdown switch, but we’d only use it if we were desperate.

Sherpa and Range modes also dial up regenerative braking to its maximum, allowing for one-pedal driving. And the Fiat’s front-wheel drive layout lets drivers make the most of regen, as most of the braking force in any car is applied to the front wheels. In the 500e’s case, Normal mode is meant to replicate the feel of an internal-combustion car with minimal regenerative braking.

Our test drive was limited to stop-and-go traffic on the streets of Miami, but it was at least a reminder of how handy a small car like this can be if you live in a place like that. The steering’s lack of feel would have probably made the 500e less than fun on a twisty road, but the Fiat’s smallness lent it confidence-inspiring agility while slaloming through slow traffic. And there aren’t many cars of this size currently available in the US, electric or otherwise.

With few corners available on our test route, it was difficult to judge the 500e’s cornering competence. But the suspension at least provided a comfortable ride, easily absorbing impacts from potholes and steel road plates. The overall character felt right for a standard 500. This car is small and agile, but it’s not in a hurry to get anywhere. Fiat’s Abarth performance sub-brand can handle sportiness.

Cinquecentos.”>[image error]Enlarge / The 500e’s interior calls back to the bare-bones interiors of previous Cinquecentos.Stephen Edelstein

The driving experience maintains the status quo, then, but the technology suite reflects the pace of development since the previous-generation 500e was designed. A 10.25-inch touchscreen and 7.0-inch digital instrument cluster are both standard. Stellantis’ ubiquitous Uconnect 5 infotainment system makes another appearance here, augmented by wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, natural language voice recognition, and over-the-air (OTA) firmware updates.

A decent array of driver aids is standard on the RED launch model, including automatic emergency braking, traffic sign recognition, and lane keep assist. Adaptive cruise control, with highway lane centering provided by the lane-keep assist system, will be available on the Inspired By Music and Inspired By Beauty models launching later this year.

As hinted by the unusual names, Fiat isn’t doing traditional trim levels with the 500e. New models will arrive as “drops” two to three times a year, with some styling differences but broadly the same equipment and specs. Fiat says this release plan was inspired by the fashion industry, but it also seems a bit like the periodic special editions automakers launch to maintain interest in unchanged models. Potentially more significant is Fiat’s plan to sell the 500e online, albeit in partnership with its existing franchised dealerships.

The Fiat 500e (RED) arrives first. Cars have already been shipped to the United States from the Mirafiori, Italy, factory that builds the 500e and some Maseratis, with a base price of $34,095 with destination. Inspired by Music and Inspired by Beauty models are available to order now starting at $37,595, with deliveries scheduled to start in the third quarter of this year.

The 500e maintains its traditional two-box shape. Stephen Edelstein
The minimalist driver display. Stephen Edelstein
The uConnect infotainment screen. Stephen Edelstein
The J3400 (NACS) charge port is coming to Fiat EVs, but not until model year 2026. Stephen Edelstein
The styling is muscular, but the handling is not very sporty. Stephen Edelstein

That pricing makes the 500e one of the least expensive new EVs available in the US, but that’s more a reflection of the current lack of affordable models than this Fiat’s value proposition. For $37,285, you could have a Nissan Leaf SV Plus with usable rear seats and an EPA-rated 212 miles (342 km) of range. That would be the logical thing to do, but appealing to logic isn’t the point of the 500e.

This little Fiat remains a niche vehicle of the kind that’s increasingly being swept aside in an auto industry homogenizing around crossover SUVs and the active-lifestyle fantasies they portray. The 500e appeals to new car buyers who have fallen for its adorable styling and the romance of owning an Italian car and are willing to admit they won’t be taking road trips in it or stuffing it full of recreational gear.

Stellantis’ planned North American EV lineup already has plenty of variety, encompassing models ranging from the retro Dodge Charger Daytona to the Jeep Recon off-roader. But where these EVs promise buyers more capability than they need, the 500e makes trade-offs to fill its niche. That makes for a much tougher sales pitch, so it’s remarkable that Stellantis brought the 500e back to the US at all. But buyers looking for a small, basic EV with personality will be glad it did.

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Google challenges AWS and Microsoft in the cloud with an AI offensive

The company, which presents a battery of new features in cloud infrastructure, language models and productivity, announces that companies will be able to connect Gemini AI to the search engine.

Google is redoubling its AI offensive to gain market share in the battle it is waging with AWS and Microsoft in the cloud computing business. The company sees this technological revolution as an opportunity to boost its business in the cloud, where it faces AWS (Amazon) and Microsoft . Google announced today during the opening day of its Google Next event, which is being held this week in Las Vegas, a battery of innovations in infrastructure (with its first chip based on Arm designs ), natural language models, development assistants code, security and intelligent productivity.

Google Cloud is the third largest provider of public cloud services, behind AWS and Microsoft . “We are the provider that is growing the fastest,” remarked Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud , in a meeting with the media prior to the start of the event. Revenue grew 26% to $9,192 million last year, in which it left the red ink behind after posting an operating profit of $864 million. On an annualized basis, Google Cloud is a $36 billion business. “Enterprise adoption of AI expands the size of the market we can capture,” says the executive.

Kurian emphasizes that “more than 60% of start-ups and close to 90% of generative AI unicorns are Google Cloud customers.” Anthropic (a lab in which Google is a shareholder), AI21 Labs, Contextual AI, Essential AI and France’s Mistral are training or running their large language models on Google’s cloud infrastructure. In addition, he says that “hundreds of clients”, such as Deutsche Bank, Puma, Bayer, Mercedes Benz, or Verizon, use Google’s generative AI technology in their businesses. The executive has revealed that companies such as ING, Best Buy, Etsy or Home Depot are creating personalized intelligent agents capable of understanding and processing video, audio and text, which have been built on the basis of their AI platform.

Within the framework of this offensive, Google has announced that companies can now connect their Gemini language models with their search engine , which enriches the quality of the responses generated, which are not restricted only to the information with which the models were trained. . “In this way, AI hallucinations are significantly reduced,” Kurian said.

Additionally, they can use a wizard to create generic AI agents connected to their organization’s data and Google Search. These capabilities are available in its Vertex AI enterprise platform, which allows companies to fine-tune large models with their enterprise data, and connect them to different corporate systems, applications and databases.

The company also announced the public availability of the preview version of Gemini Pro 1.5, a new generation of its mid-size natural language model that matches the quality of the most advanced (Ultra 1.0), but requires less computing power. Additionally, it improves in terms of understanding the context. With this model, companies can, for example, create chatbots that remember conversations and manage complex tasks; analyze hours of video content by locating specific details, or create assistants capable of reasoning through long documents, comparing details in contracts or summarizing research.

AI models

Google Cloud is not limited exclusively to the Gemini. The company offers in Vertex AI access to more than 130 AI models , including Claude 3 from Anthropic, Llama 2 from Meta and Mistral. There are also other proposals from the company’s AI laboratories, such as the Gemma family of open models, which has now been expanded with a version (CodeGemma), designed to help programmers generate code; as well as Image 2 , Google’s image generation AI, which now also allows you to convert text into animated images and include an invisible digital watermark.

Infrastructure

The company also announced the availability of its TPU v5p accelerator chip , in its strategy to advance its own alternative chips to Nvidia, which dominates this market. It has also unveiled Axion, its first general-purpose processor for data centers based on Arm designs instead of x86, which deepens its strategy of creating its own processors, and will be available at the end of the year.

In parallel, it has announced cutting-edge infrastructure based on Nvidia chips, such as the A3 Mega, and has highlighted that it will give its customers access to the expected new Nvidia AI superchips, known as Grace, in early 2025. Blackwell.

Productivity

In the battle it is waging with Microsoft in the field of business productivity tools, the company has also announced AI news in Workspace. The tech giant has introduced Vids , a new app (launching in June for businesses) for collaborative video creation.

In addition, it delves into its strategy of monetizing AI applied to productivity with two new commercial offers, both for $10 per month per user . The first adds AI capabilities to video conferencing and messaging apps, with smart meeting note-taking and instant translation features. Meanwhile, the second offering uses advances in AI to automatically protect information in Google Drive.

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Atos achieves liquidity while seeking agreement with creditors

The French technology group Atos has reached an agreement with several banks, bondholders and the French State to obtain sufficient liquidity to continue operating until it reaches an agreement with creditors with which to reduce its large debt. The company will receive 450 million euros to maintain its operations until it seals an agreement with creditors, something it hopes to complete by the month of July.

The technology company, which until a few years ago was an icon in France for its R&D and commercial ties with the French army or nuclear industry, has been going through a delicate situation since its crisis broke out in 2021 due to accounting irregularities.

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Federal Statistical Office: Three million Germans do not use the Internet

In Germany, 3.1 million people do not use the Internet. Around five percent of people between the ages of 16 and 74, or about one in 20, will be so-called offliners in 2023, according to the Federal Statistical Office.

Among 65- to 74-year-olds, around 15 percent have never used the Internet, while among 45- to 64-year-olds, the figure was around five percent. In the 16- to 44-year-old age group, two percent were exclusively offline in 2023.

“Everyday life is becoming increasingly difficult for people without internet,” write the statisticians. This is because many services are now offered almost exclusively online – such as making appointments, booking tickets or making bank transfers.

2.6 billion people worldwide without internet

According to the information, Germany is just below the EU average of six percent offliners. In Luxembourg, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, less than one percent of 16- to 74-year-olds said they had never used the Internet. According to the information, the highest proportions were recorded in Croatia with 14 percent, Greece with 13 percent and Portugal and Bulgaria with 12 percent each in this age group.

Around a third of the world’s population had no access to the Internet last year, or around 2.6 billion people, the Federal Office said, citing estimates from the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU). In Europe – including non-EU countries – and the USA, the Internet is comparatively more accessible, but even there, according to estimates, nine percent (Europe) and 13 percent of the population were offline last year.

In Germany, 3.1 million people do not use the Internet. Around five percent of people between the ages of 16 and 74, or about one in 20, will be so-called offliners in 2023, according to the Federal Statistical Office.

Among 65- to 74-year-olds, around 15 percent have never used the Internet, while among 45- to 64-year-olds, the figure was around five percent. In the 16- to 44-year-old age group, two percent were exclusively offline in 2023.

“Everyday life is becoming increasingly difficult for people without internet,” write the statisticians. This is because many services are now offered almost exclusively online – such as making appointments, booking tickets or making bank transfers.

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Jonathan Nolan: "A vision of the future shattered into tiny pieces"

Jonathan Nolan (47) is a director, screenwriter and the younger brother of Oscar winner Christopher Nolan. With him he wrote “Memento”, the “Dark Knight” trilogy and “Interstellar”. His series “Westworld” about a dystopian robot theme park was a success with audiences and critics. ZEIT ONLINE meets Nolan at the German premiere of his new series: a film adaptation of the video game series “Fallout”.

ZEIT ONLINE: Mr. Nolan, when the series The Last of Us was released, which is based on the video games of the same name, some gamers complained that the cast and plot were too diverse. There were racist and homophobic comments and a lot of negative reviews. How are you feeling in the run-up to the release of Fallout ? Are you afraid of shitstorms from the community?

Jonathan Nolan: I learned a long time ago to ignore the comments of certain groups on the Internet. I believe that our Internet is designed to amplify negativity. And so I stopped reading feedback on my work on the Internet a long time ago. I find it far more interesting to have face-to-face conversations and see people’s real reactions. And so far we’ve received a lot of positive feedback from both fans of the Fallout games and people who have never played them.

ZEIT ONLINE: The Batman adaptations by you and your brother were also successful because you did not opt for a typical comic book look, but rather told a darker and more adult Batman story. The games in the Fallout series are about fighting your way through a nuclear-contaminated future. How do you interpret the original?

Nolan: I find the adaptations most interesting, where you can add something or change something. I’m a storyteller, I’ve never been particularly interested in the literal translation of a story. Fallout is perfect for that, because as an open world RPG there is no one story, your experience of the game can be very different to mine. Todd Howard …

ZEIT ONLINE: … the executive producer of Bethesda, the development studio behind the Fallout games.

Noland: He told me at our first meeting: One of the most important characters in the Fallout series is the world itself. And we immediately agreed on that: We wanted to tell a new story that was connected to all the other games in the series through the shared mythology. And that captured the feeling of the games.

ZEIT ONLINE: How would you describe this feeling?

Nolan: Fallout has a dark side, but also a brash and humorous one. The humor was what surprised me most about Fallout 3 at the time. From the cover, which shows a soldier’s head, I expected the series to be very serious. It can be, but then again it is charming, strange and eccentric with its retrofuturistic, satirical view of America. It is Eisenhower’s America, which never had a moment of national self-reflection, everything is nuclear-powered, from toasters to robots. It is a vision of the future that has been blown up into tiny pieces that are now being put back together. That is what gives the series its unique tone.

ZEIT ONLINE: You played video games when you were young. What would your teenage self say about you making a video game adaptation?

Nolan: I think he would have preferred it if I had made a video game! ( laughs ) No, I think my teenage self would be happy. Games were a very important part of my childhood and my adulthood. I don’t play games anymore, but I have kids who play and I love watching them. It’s incredible to me that I’ve seen a whole new art form emerge in my lifetime. As kids, my brother and I played Pong , and from Pong to Fallout, we’ve followed every step and been there.

ZEIT ONLINE: What did you and Christopher play together?

Nolan: We played games whenever we could. We spent our summers in Florida back then, and there were coin-operated arcades like in Stranger Things . My brother and I would beg our parents for coins. We wanted to beat all the games in the arcade! Later, we played together on console. And I think the last time we sat down and played together was Halo on Xbox. Games were always something that bonded us.

ZEIT ONLINE: Were there any games that particularly influenced you?

Nolan: Without a doubt! I moved from the UK to the US when I was 11, which was a huge change for me. After we arrived I got a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), which helped me a lot. Later the Nintendo 64 came along, along with GoldenEye . I’ve always liked first person shooters, and role playing games, which is maybe why Fallout suited me so well. The first thing I played was Fallout 3 , I’d never heard of it before. I was on a break between watching The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises , I put the disc in and was completely blown away. I spent a lot of time in that world!

ZEIT ONLINE: Have games influenced how you work today as a director and screenwriter?

Nolan: They gave me a different perspective. For a while I felt that games were often a pastiche of movie cliches. And then, slowly, for me, from the first Half-Life of   1998, they became increasingly complex until the late 2000s. When I was asked about my favorite film of the year, I often named a game. In my opinion, all media goes through cycles: from innovative to avant-garde to conservative. In the late 2000s, the film business felt more conservative, and I found the stories in games more interesting. Fallout 3 is a good example of this because it is irreverent, political, subversive in the best sense of the word. You couldn’t find that in the cinema or on TV back then.

Jonathan Nolan (47) is a director, screenwriter and the younger brother of Oscar winner Christopher Nolan. With him he wrote “Memento”, the “Dark Knight” trilogy and “Interstellar”. His series “Westworld” about a dystopian robot theme park was a success with audiences and critics. ZEIT ONLINE meets Nolan at the German premiere of his new series: a film adaptation of the video game series “Fallout”.

ZEIT ONLINE: Mr. Nolan, when the series The Last of Us was released, which is based on the video games of the same name, some gamers complained that the cast and plot were too diverse. There were racist and homophobic comments and a lot of negative reviews. How are you feeling in the run-up to the release of Fallout ? Are you afraid of shitstorms from the community?

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Social networks: Is anyone still there?

At the port of Hamburg there is a glass office complex that looks like the hull of a ship, 3,000 square meters flooded with light, you feel very small when you enter the atrium. Behind a security gate there are designer sofas in visible meeting rooms, there is a fitness studio and a rehearsal room for the staff band, from the roof terrace you can see the cranes and containers at the terminal. “It felt like working for Facebook or Google,” says a former employee. “There was a lot of power here,” says another who was once a manager here.

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“Google Vids” is Google’s fourth big productivity app for Workspace

Is that Google Slides? Nope it’s Google Vids, the new video editor that seems to just make souped-up slideshows. Google
Google’s demo starts with an existing slideshow and then generates an outline. Google
Choose a theme, which all look like PowerPoints. Google
Write a script, preferably with the help of Google Gemini. Google
You can record a voiceover, or pick from Google’s robot voices. Google
This is a Google Workspace app, so there’s lots of realtime collaboration features, like these live mouse cursors that were brought over from Slides. Google
Comments work too. Google
It’s interesting you get a “stock media” library while apps like Slides would use generative AI images here. Google
Record a talk from your webcam. Google
Embed your video in the slideshow. Google

If you had asked me before what Google’s video editor app was, I would say “YouTube Studio,” but now Google Workspace has a new productivity app called “Google Vids.” Normally a video editor is considered a secondary application in many productivity suites, but Google apparently imagines Vids as a major pillar of Workspace, saying Vids is an “all-in-one video creation app for work that will sit alongside Docs, Sheets and Slides.” So that’s editors for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and videos?

Google’s demo of the new video editor pitches the product not for YouTube videos or films, but more of as a corporate super slideshow for things like training materials or product demos. Really this “video editor” almost looks like it could completely replace Google Slides since the interface is just Slides but with a video timeline instead of a slideshow timeline.

Google’s example video creates a “sales training video” that actually starts with a Slides presentation as the basic outline. You start with an outline editor, where each slideshow page gets its own major section. Google then has video “styles” you can pick from, which all seem very Powerpoint-y with a big title, subheading, and a slot for some kind of video. Google then wants you to write a script and either read it yourself or have a text-to-speech voice read the script. A “stock media” library lets you fill in some of those video slots with generic corporate imagery like a video of a sunset, choose background music, and use a few pictures. You can also fire up your webcam and record something, sort of like a pre-canned Zoom meeting. After that it’s a lot of the usual Google productivity app features: real-time editing collaboration with visible mouse cursors from each participant and a stream of comments.

Like all Google products after the rise of OpenAI, Google pitches Vids as an “AI-powered” video editor, even though there didn’t seem to be many generative AI features in the presentation. The videos, images, and music were “stock” media, not AI-generated inventions (Slides can generate images, but that wasn’t in this demo). There’s nothing in here like OpenAI’s “Sora,” which generates new video out of its training data. There’s probably a Gemini-powered “help me write” feature for the script, and Google describes the initial outline as “generated” from your starting Slides presentation, but that seemed to be it.

Google says Vids is being released to “Workspace Labs” in June, so you’ll be able to opt in to testing it.

Listing image by Google

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Moments of totality: How Ars experienced the eclipse

Enlarge / Baily’s Beads are visible in this shot taken by Stephen Clark in Athens, Texas.Stephen Clark

“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”

The steady rhythm of the night-day, dark-light progression is a phenomenon acknowledged in ancient sacred texts as a given. When it’s interrupted, people take notice. In the days leading up to the eclipse, excitement within the Ars Orbiting HQ grew, and plans to experience the last total eclipse in the continental United States until 2045 were made. Here’s what we saw across the country.

Kevin Purdy (watched from Buffalo, New York)
3:19 pm on April 8 in Buffalo overlooking Richmond Ave. near Symphony Circle. Kevin Purdy
A view of First Presbyterian Church from Richmond Avenue in Buffalo, NY. Kevin Purdy
The cloudy, strange skies at 3:12 pm Eastern time in Buffalo on April 8. Kevin Purdy
A kind of second sunrise at 3:21 p.m. on April 8 in Buffalo. Kevin Purdy
A clearer view of the total eclipse from Colden, New York, 30 minutes south of Buffalo on April 8, 2024. Sabrina May

Buffalo, New York, is a frequently passed-over city. Super Bowl victories, the shift away from Great Lakes shipping and American-made steel, being the second-largest city in a state that contains New York City: This city doesn’t get many breaks.

So, with Buffalo in the eclipse’s prime path, I, a former resident and booster, wanted to be there. So did maybe a million people, doubling the wider area’s population. With zero hotels, negative Airbnbs, and no flights below trust-fund prices, I arrived early, stayed late, and slept on sofas and air mattresses. I wanted to see if Buffalo’s moment of global attention would go better than last time.

The day started cloudy, as is typical in early April here. With one hour to go, I chatted with Donald Blank. He was filming an eclipse time-lapse as part of a larger documentary on Buffalo: its incredible history, dire poverty, heroes, mistakes, everything. The shot he wanted had the First Presbyterian Church, with its grand spire and Tiffany windows, in the frame. A 200-year-old stone church adds a certain context to a solar event many of us humans will never see again.

The sky darkened. Automatic porch lights flicked on at 3:15 pm, then street lights, then car lights, for those driving to somehow more important things. People on front lawns cheered, clapped, and quietly couldn’t believe it. When it was over, I heard a neighbor say they forgot their phone inside. Blank walked over and offered to email her some shots he took. It was very normal in Buffalo, even when it was strange.

Benj Edwards (Raleigh, North Carolina)
Benj’s low-tech, but creative way of viewing the eclipse. Benj Edwards
So many crescents. Benj Edwards

I’m in Raleigh, North Carolina, and we were lucky to have a clear day today. We reached peak eclipse at around 3:15 pm (but not total eclipse, sadly), and leading up to that time, the sun slowly began to dim as I looked out my home office window. Around 3 pm, I went outside on the back deck and began crafting makeshift pinhole lenses using cardboard and a steel awl, poking holes so that myself and my kids could see the crescent shape of the eclipse projected indirectly on a dark surface.

My wife had also bought some eclipse glasses from a local toy store, and I very briefly tried them while squinting. I could see the eclipse well, but my eyes were still feeling a little blurry. I didn’t trust them enough to let the kids use them. For the 2017 eclipse, I had purchased very dark welder’s lenses that I have since lost. Even then, I think I got a little bit of eye damage at that time. A floater formed in my left eye that still plagues me to this day. I have the feeling I’ll never learn this lesson, and the next time an eclipse comes around, I’ll just continue to get progressively more blind. But oh what fun to see the sun eclipsed.

Beth Mole (Raleigh, North Carolina)Enlarge / Another view from Raleigh.Beth Mole

It was a perfect day for eclipse watching in North Carolina—crystal clear blue sky and a high of 75. Our peak was at 3:15 pm with 78.6 percent sun coverage. The first hints of the moon’s pass came just before 2 pm. The whole family was out in the backyard (alongside a lot of our neighbors!), ready with pin-hole viewers, a couple of the NASA-approved cereal-box viewers, and eclipse glasses. We all watched as the moon progressively slipped in and stole the spotlight. At peak coverage, it was noticeably dimmer and it got remarkably cooler and quieter. It was not nearly as dramatic as being in the path of totality, but still really neat and fun. My 5-year-old had a blast watching the sun go from circle to bitten cookie to banana and back again.

Jonathan Gitlin (Washington, DC)Enlarge / Colander as pinhole camera.Jonathan M. Gitlin

If you asked me this morning, I was a bit blasé about the eclipse. DC would only get a partial eclipse with 87 percent coverage, and I was able to see one of those last October in the middle of a sportscar race. Luckier still, in 1999, I saw, through some hazy clouds, a total solar eclipse on a ship in the middle of the English Channel. In fact, I was so indifferent to today’s eclipse in the lead-up that I gave away some eclipse glasses to a friend, thinking I’d have no need for them.

But when it starts getting unreasonably dark outside at far too early an hour, it’s hard to resist the temptation to go and see what’s going on. With no eclipse glasses on hand, we resorted to both old-school and high-tech methods of viewing the sun getting mostly eaten by the Moon. While it’s hard to argue with an array of crescent-shaped shadows cast by the round holes in a colander, the video recorded by my iPhone wasn’t too shabby either.

Andrew Cunningham (Philadelphia)Enlarge / Eclipse as seen from Philadelphia at 3:12 pm EDT.Andrew Cunningham

My kid’s preschool sent everyone home after a half-day today for eclipse viewing. I didn’t think to acquire glasses until it was too late to do it, but we took a recently emptied box of Corn Chex and went outside around 2:45 pm anyway to see what we could see.

I was worried for a bit that the cloud cover here would be too heavy for us to see anything, but we managed to get a few minutes where it was shining through strongly enough that our Chex viewer worked perfectly. My kid did a… mostly fine job of not staring at the sun, and in any case, it doesn’t seem to have affected his ability to watch Bluey.

Philadelphia was scheduled to hit about 90 percent coverage at 3:23 pm, at which point the clouds were too heavy to see much of anything. We didn’t get the cool nighttime effect that people in the totality zone did—it just looked super overcast, which wasn’t very strange because it was overcast. But around 10 minutes before that, the sun was screened by just enough cloud cover that I could get a good phone-camera picture of it.

The few people walking up and down our street didn’t care enough about the eclipse to pause and look, but all my Discords and Slacks with any kind of East Coast or Midwest contingent were all popping off about the same thing at the same time. Pretty neat!

Aurich Lawson (Los Angeles)Enlarge / A handful of crescents.Aurich Lawson

We didn’t get much of the eclipse in Southern California, maybe a third or so of the sun was obscured. But the crescent we got let me see one of my favorite things about partial eclipses.

When I was a kid, it really blew my noggin to realize the dappled shadows under trees were actually projecting the shape of the sun. We see it almost every day, and don’t really think about it, because that’s just what soft shadows through leaves look like.

But when you see the ground covered in little crescents through the pinholes, the pattern of the leaves reveals it pulls back the curtain on that everyday phenomenon and reminds you how cool the daily world around you really is.

I did have a pair of eclipse glasses, I did look up and see the sun, but the shape of the sun projected onto my hand was more magical to me than looking up.

Kyle Orland (Cleveland)
Kyle has his eclipse glasses handy, and he really knows where his towel is at. Kyle Orland
Kyle helpfully points out the eclipse. Kyle Orland

For the last week or so, I’ve been obsessively checking the forecast for our Airbnb just outside Cleveland to see if we’d need to desperately try to outrun cloud cover during the eclipse. All week those forecasts were calling for chilly conditions with either cloudy or partly cloudy conditions (depending on when I checked the forecast). So of course, when the day came, we got 69° F weather with only a thin layer of high clouds that didn’t block our view at all. Go figure.

The move from partial to total eclipse felt like it dragged on after a while. Don’t get me wrong; it’s cool to see the sun turn slowly into a crescent moon shape through approved glasses. But the “slowly” part of that equation meant I started to get a little impatient waiting for totality to come. We bided our time by munching on popcorn, taking photos, and observing some extremely sharp shadows developing near the end of the wait.

When the big moment arrived, I was panning a video from friends and family gathered in a suburban front yard to the quickly shrinking point of light in the sky. But the phone image, of course, didn’t do justice to the extremely sharp ring of light I could see in the now-dark sky. My 9-year-old started running around screaming, “This is crazy!” as I stared at the beads of light peeking out around the edge of the eclipse. Near the low point of the sun there was a bright red point that we guessed was a solar flare coming off the “bottom” of the sun (maybe our space correspondents can confirm?).

I was surprised how quickly the temperature cooled down even before totality, and happy to get some relief after sitting in 70° weather for over an hour. I was also surprised by how many confused birds seemed to appear out of nowhere during totality, flying in low, erratic patterns over the suburban yards.

In the end, I don’t think I’ll become one of those people who flies around the world chasing down as many eclipse experiences as I can. But I’m still glad I got to see this relatively rare occurrence for myself and that my week-long worrying about cloud cover was for naught.

Stephen Clark (Athens, Texas)Enlarge / Totality in Texas.Stephen Clark

Seeing a once-in-a-lifetime event for a second time really takes the edge off.

In 2017, my wife and I traveled with some friends to catch that year’s total solar eclipse. Until the night before, we weren’t sure where we would end up. Seemingly, every hour, our group would be checking the latest computer model or satellite picture to find the place in Wyoming or Idaho with the best chance of clear skies. In the end, we found ourselves in the right place at the right time, and we banked the memory.

On Monday, the path of totality crossed my hometown of Athens, Texas. For more than a week, the forecast looked bleak, with cloud cover blanketing the state from the Rio Grande to the Red River. But I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see this eclipse with my parents and family, so despite the temptation of going somewhere with better weather, I decided to stick it out in rural East Texas, freeing myself from the stress and burden of eclipse chasing.

The decision paid off. Despite some early morning anxiety over the evolving cloud conditions, the day’s biggest patch of blue sky appeared overhead a few minutes before totality. I invited aunts, cousins, and friends to view it from my backyard, and the payoff was sweet. Shadows became fuzzy, and the fading light turned the flourishing green landscape to a soft sepia tone. Then, the lights went out. On cue, there was a collective gasp, camera shutters started clicking, and someone exclaimed, “Oh my God.”

Incredibly, just before totality, it was clear enough to see Baily’s Beads, the flickering sunlight passing through the mountains and valleys of the Moon. with the darkness, red-hot tongues of plasma appeared around the edge of the Sun. These prominences are larger than Earth, a fact I eagerly shared with anyone around me who would listen.

The temperature noticeably cooled during the 2 minutes and 40 seconds of darkness. We watched from our family’s farm, and I took a moment to see if the livestock in a nearby field responded to the event, but I couldn’t pick up much of a reaction as they continued grazing. A stray cloud passed in front of the Sun in the final seconds of totality, and daylight returned. The only sacrifice here: A few minutes of time we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.

One of my cousins said he was “floored” by the experience. “I’ve never seen anything close to that. Being able to witness it here, in East Texas, there’s something cool about that,” he said. “I think the coolest part was seeing the flare at the bottom, that bright spot; that was neat.”

“I would say I was non-plussed by it until it was at full totality,” said a friend who took in the event with us. “This whole week, I’ve been kind of a little jaded about it. Once it actually hit totality, I was like, ‘Oh, I understand now.’ Once you hit that moment, it is worth it.”

A few minutes after the Moon’s shadow passed over us, my mother said: “We saw the beauty of it, and the rarity of it, and I will never see another one. I don’t figure anybody here will.”

John Timmer (Effingham, Illinois)
Just before the celestial festivities kicked off in central Illinois. Louise R. Howe
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Just a sliver. Louise R. Howe
Totality. Louise R. Howe
As totality ended. Louise R. Howe
On the way back to normal. Louise R. Howe

I’ve had phenomenal luck with three partial eclipses—blazing blue skies that allowed me to step outside from work throughout the day to track the progress.  And they were interesting. Your brain (or at least my brain) finds it fundamentally unsettling to have so many indications that it’s midday while experiencing the dimness of dusk.

Traveling to see totality was something that initially didn’t register as an option. But over the years, I spoke to a number of people who had, and absolutely none of them voiced an instant of doubt about having done so. In some difficult-to-describe manner, they gave me the impression that totality is in a whole different category. I wanted in on it.

Unfortunately, something that was never a problem when partial eclipses came to me turned out to be an issue when I wanted to see one: the weather. The original plan was to spend the night before next to an interstate near Pittsburgh, which would put a big crescent of eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania within reach. I could check the forecast on the morning of the eclipse and pick the destination with the best weather. But, as the big day approached, Eric Berger’s daily updates made it clear that the best weather was somewhere else entirely.  We were all looking enviously at the large hole in the clouds developing over Eric Bangeman’s intended destination: central Illinois.

So, after a mad scramble to rearrange plans, I ended up in a public park just inside the line of totality in central Illinois. I was committed, and the weather cooperated—just thin wisps of high clouds that the sun shone right through.

Until it didn’t.

Totality is, in fact, a tough experience to describe because there are so many inputs competing for your attention. There’s the bizarre darkness at ground level and nighttime activities starting in midday, like automatic streetlights turning on. There’s the lack of warmth at midday, even as the parking lot was still radiating heat from the now-vanished sunshine. There’s the overall sweep of the sky, with darkness toward the line of deepest totality and brighter blue off in the opposite direction. And then there’s the actual eclipse itself, which looked remarkably like all the best pictures you’ve ever seen of one. And all of that’s competing for your attention with the annoying part of your brain that’s telling you to take it all in because it’s going to be gone in a minute or two.

Layered on top of that are the emotions: the awe at what’s going on, the relief that the weather cooperated, the satisfaction that everything came together for you to be there.

It’s a lot to take in all at once, and I’m still digesting it.

Eric Bangeman (Effingham, Illinois)
Eclipse watchers in Effingham’s Community Park. Eric Bangeman
Eric (left) and John (right) squinting despite the lessened sunlight in Effingham, Illinois. Kerry Bangeman

The two eclipses I’ve seen so far were not that impressive. The first was the annular eclipse of 1994, and I honestly can’t remember much about it. For the total eclipse of 2017, I thought about making the six-hour drive from one end of Illinois to another to watch it in Carbondale but ended up staying home and stepping outside to observe the rare astronomical event under disappointingly cloudy skies.

This time, given a favorable forecast, access to our family’s place outside of Shelbyville. (99.3 percent eclipse coverage and 30 miles from the edge of totality), and a 21-year wait until the next total eclipse visible from the continental US, we decamped to downstate Illinois, joined at the last minute by Ars Science Editor John Timmer and his wife (who took the pictures in the gallery above.

When we arrived at Community Park in Effingham about 15 minutes before the beginning of the eclipse (about 12:45 pm CDT, with totality occurring at 2:03 pm), there were maybe a dozen people there. By the time of totality, there were maybe 70 people sitting on lawn chairs or laying on their backs and gazing at the sun through eclipse glasses. What clouds there were in the sky were close to the horizon, making for ideal viewing conditions.

Noticing the sunlight, unfiltered by clouds, growing dimmer was odd. As totality neared, it suddenly felt like dusk, and I noticed streetlights coming on. I was torn between the competing desire to watch the Sun be swallowed by the Moon or look around to take in the effects of the sudden, early-afternoon evening.

And 40 seconds later, it was over.

Despite understanding what was happening and why, I still felt a sense of awe and wonder. Perhaps the most unexpected feeling was seeing Venus make a brief cameo in the darkened sky on a 73° April afternoon. It felt wrong on a visceral level, and I could relate to the dread ancient people must have felt watching the sun gradually disappear and darkness fall.

Aaron Zimmerman (somewhere in Indiana via Slack)

Saw the totality, fucking amazing, holy shit.

Did you watch the eclipse? We’d love to hear about your experiences viewing it and see your photos in the discussion thread!

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