CATL wants to build new battery facilities in Mexico, FCC proposes to increase base internet speeds, and James Webb Space Telescope has less storage than some smartphones.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Monday, July 18, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
CATL, the world’s largest EV battery maker, is looking to set up at least two new manufacturing facilities in Mexico. The plants will focus on making batteries for electric vehicles and may be targeting Tesla and Ford Motors as customers. CATL is considering a $5 billion investment and is considering Ciudad Juarez, a city in Mexico that lies right next to the Texas border. The location is attractive due to its proximity to Tesla’s new factory. CATL isn’t the only one ramping up investment; Panasonic, LG, and Samsung are all competing for supplier agreements.
Source: Automotive News
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed a new internet broadband standard that would see increased speeds. The new proposal would increase download speeds to 100Mbps from 25Mbps, and upload speeds from 3Mbps to 20Mbps. In addition, another proposal to reach 1Gbps download and 500Mbps upload is in the works. That’s a lot faster than the ideal speed set by the CRTC in Canada. The CRTC is currently pushing for 50Mbps download and 10Mbps upload. While it’s available to 90 per cent of Canadians overall, only 53 per cent of residents in rural areas get that level of service.
Source: Ars Technica
The James Webb Space Telescope may be one of the most advanced instruments NASA has ever made, but did you know that it only has 68 gigabytes of storage? That’s less than the storage in most high-end smartphones. But, as PC Gamer explained, the telescope really doesn’t need that much. It collects about 57 gigabytes of data per day, and all the data it gathers is beamed back to Earth on a daily basis. To account for degradation over its 10-year lifespan, the engineers included 10GB of over-provisioning storage.
Source: PC Gamer
Researchers at the University of Colorado have come up with a new way to reduce the emissions from producing cement–by growing them from sea algae. According to the researchers, cement production accounts for 7 per cent of global emissions, exceeding even air travel. The new research wants to use a microalgae called coccolithophores, which use sunlight, seawater and carbon dioxide to produce limestone, which is then turned into cement. To meet the demands of urbanization, the algae would have to be grown in ponds covering about 0.5 per cent of the U.S. land. The researchers hope to begin large-scale cultivation in two years.
Source: Associated Press
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Tom Li.