ChargePoint is ready to speed things up. On Thursday, the EV charging company revealed new AC Level 2 EV chargers that it says effectively double the speed of typical Level 2 chargers. The new architecture also supports bidirectional charging, so owners can use their EVs to power their home or business if the need arises. The first new models are expected to arrive in the US later this year. ChargePoint says its next-gen Level 2 chargers are rated for 90 amps and can deliver 19.2kW of power, allowing EV owners to charge their batteries from zero to 100 percent in “about four hours.” This is a noticeable increase based on today’s market.Level 2 chargers are commonly used as home chargers for EV owners, plugged into 220-volt outlets and delivering 15 to 80 amps. The charging rate for most Level 2 chargers can vary dramatically, with a typical 240-volt, 24-amp unit putting out about 6kW of continuous power and faster, 80-amp chargers delivering speeds up to 19.2kW. ChargePoint’s popular Home Flex chargers, for example, are rated for 50 amps and 12kW of power. Today’s announcement represents a “generational leap” in the technology that powers its chargers, the company says.  The company envisions its new architecture being used for a variety of purposes, from residential home chargers, to chargers with multiple plugs for apartment buildings, to public chargers and chargers for commercial fleet owners. ChargePoint didn’t release a price list, but the company said that prices will start below $1,000 and move up from there depending on the model. The company supports both CCS and NACS ports.Bidirectional charging is frequently considered the next big thing for EV owners. Several EVs sold today have bidirectional capabilities, and now, ChargePoint is producing chargers with the same abilities. Bidirectional charging works exactly like it sounds: with unidirectional (one-way) EV chargers, electricity flows from the electric grid into the electric vehicle; with bidirectional (two-way) EV chargers, electricity can flow both ways. In essence, it treats high-capacity lithium-ion batteries not only as tools to power EVs but also as backup storage cells to charge other electric devices, an entire home, or even to send power to the electrical grid for possible energy savings.Several automakers are selling their own vehicle-to-home (V2H) charging equipment so that people who own EVs with bidirectional charging capabilities can use their vehicles to power their homes during blackouts. ChargePoint says its new Level 2 chargers can do the same job, allowing EV owners to power homes or commercial buildings or transfer energy back to the grid. The new chargers also feature dynamic load balancing, automatically accelerating charging speeds when power is not needed elsewhere in the residence. And they will be able to integrate with smart home systems, like solar charging, home batteries, and smart management systems. In addition, the hardware has been significantly upgraded, ChargePoint says. The new Level 2 chargers will feature series wiring capabilities, enabling a fleet depot, a multifamily housing garage, or even a single-family home with two EVs to maximize charging without costly service upgrades. According to the company, ChargePoint possesses 61 percent of the public Level 2 charging market, making it a dominant player in the EV charging space. The company says the new architecture complies with applicable regulations, including the Measuring Instruments Directive (MID) and Eichrecht in Europe and Energy Star in the US.  ChargePoint plans to roll out its new Level 2 chargers starting with Europe this summer, followed by North America at the end of the year.

There's no shortage of PC gaming handhelds out there today from all kinds of brands. Most of those handhelds run Windows 11, so you might think that's the platform of the future for these kinds of devices, but I would argue the opposite. Despite only being carried by the Steam Deck (so far), SteamOS has already won the war against Windows, and I don't know if I really see that changing.

A man’s recent attempt to use an AI-generated avatar in his legal appeal made an immediate impression on a New York courtroom, but probably not the one he was hoping for. Jerome Dewald — a 74-year-old that The Register notes is behind a startup that says it’s “revolutionizing legal self-representation with AI” — was chewed out during an employment dispute hearing on March 26th for failing to inform judges that he had artificially generated the man presenting his oral argument. While the court had approved Dewald to submit a video for his case, Justice Sallie Manzanet-Daniels became confused when the unknown speaker, who clearly wasn’t Dewald, appeared on the screen.“Hold on,” Manzanet-Daniels said, interrupting the video after the avatar had barely finished its first sentence. “Is that counsel for the case?”“I generated that,” Dewald responded. “It’s not a real person.”Dewald told The Register that the avatar — a “big, beautiful hunk of a guy” called Jim — was one of the stock options provided by an AI avatar company called Tavus. Dewald says the video was submitted due to difficulties he experiences with extended speaking, but the courtroom was unaware that the video contents were artificially generated.“It would have been nice to know that when you made your application. You did not tell me that, sir, I don’t appreciate being misled.” said Manzanet-Daniels, responding to Dewald’s admission. “You are not going to use this courtroom as a launch for your business.”This is the latest of several snafus that have occurred when people try to mix legal processes with AI technology. Two attorneys and a law firm were penalized in 2023 for submitting fictitious legal research that had been made up by ChatGPT. DoNotPay, a “robot lawyer” company, was also ordered to pay the FTC a $193,000 settlement in February for advertising, without evidence, that its AI legal representation is as good as a real human lawyer.

Keeping your technology secure is essential. We have phones, computers, tablets, smart TVs, and more. But threats lurk everywhere, and you don't want to be hacked or have data stolen. You are the IT department at home, and you might think your devices are private and secure. However, there are some things you are overlooking, and you will want to change. There are several security settings and features I wish I had implemented sooner. If you aren’t utilizing these practices at home, you might regret not using them sooner.

Canva is launching its latest smorgasbord of generative AI-powered workspace tools in its attempt to cram everything that Microsoft, Google, and Adobe can do into a single platform. Canva’s Visual Suite is being redesigned to combine its design and productivity tools into a single interface, alongside adding new coding, photo editing, spreadsheet, and AI chatbot features.These join the collection of office suite tools that rolled out in 2022, such as Canva Docs and Canva Whiteboards — Canva’s answer to services like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and FigJam. Having made a name for itself as a marketing and design platform, Canva is now hoping to add more office teams and businesses to its community of 230 million users by providing a visual spin on traditional workspace apps.The Visual Suite 2.0 update allows users to build and edit documents, presentations, animations, and websites into a single design, providing a unified format for teams to collaborate on multiple tasks simultaneously. “This eliminates the need for separate tools, fragmented workflows, and disconnected files,” Canva said in its press release. “Entire campaigns – from planning and briefing to design and delivery – can now happen in one seamless, collaborative space.”Canva Sheets is a more creative take on typical spreadsheet-building applications, allowing users to combine text with visual assets. Data can be imported from HubSpot, Statista, Google Analytics, and more, according to Canva, while the company’s AI-powered “Magic Insights” feature automatically scans the data to identify notable patterns or takeaways. Data can also be transformed into a variety of interactive graphs using “Magic Charts,” which aims to make it easy for users to turn raw numbers into infographics, reports, and animated visualizations.Canva Code is a generative AI coding assistant akin to Gemini Code Assist or the Microsoft-owned GitHub Copilot. Users can give it a text prompt to generate widgets, websites, and other interactive content “with no coding or external tools required,” according to Canva.Meanwhile, Canvas’s new AI chatbot — which the company describes as a “conversational creative partner” — brings all of Canva’s generative AI tools into one window to make them easier for users to quickly access. From there, you can use voice or text prompts to edit photos, resize designs, and generate text, slides, and images.On the creative side of things, Canva has also updated its Photo Editor with similar features to those that Adobe has introduced in its professional Photoshop software. The Photo Editor now allows users to automatically modify or remove background objects by clicking on them, and create AI-generated backgrounds that “account for lighting and layout,” according to Canva.

China says it will look elsewhere to meet demand for foreign films.China says it will cut the number of US films that are imported into the country in retaliation against the latest wave of tariff increases imposed by the Trump administration. A statement issued by the Chinese Film Administration (CFA) on Thursday, which we’ve translated using Google, said that the decision to increase tariffs against China to 125 percent was “the wrong move,” and will “further reduce the domestic audience’s favorability” towards American-made movies.“We will follow market rules, respect the audience’s choice, and moderately reduce the number of American films imported,” The CFA said. “China is the world’s second-largest film market. We have always adhered to a high level of opening up to the outside world and will introduce more excellent films from the world to meet market demand.”Predictions about a potential ban on American film imports into China have been circulating in recent days since Trump ramped up his trade war against the country. Under previous trade agreements, China agreed to release 34 foreign films per year and provide overseas studios with a 25 percent share of ticket sales. It’s unclear how significantly these allowances may be reduced going forward.While US movies no longer rake in the Chinese audiences they once did, they still managed to gross $585 million in China last year. That’s no small sum for such a limited number of films, but only made up around 3.5 percent of the $17.71 billion Chinese box office.

Microsoft pushes monthly updates to its PowerToys tool every month, adding many new features that help users be more productive on Windows. Not only that, but the software giant also teases what's coming next in future PowerToys updates, just as it did before rolling out features like the ability to transcode audio and video files, and many more in the past.

If you've got a dozen big projects on the go, juggling the tasks and responsibilities of each is nearly impossible without a good project management (PM) app. And while you could do all the planning in Excel or set up Kanban boards in Obsidian, nothing quite beats a fully featured PM suite. The best project management tools give you all the planning you need while keeping out of your way, so the project is being managed, not a million settings.

It's not uncommon for video game franchises to have a ton of sequels, with franchises like Final FantasyFinal Fantasy and Assassin's CreedAssassin's Creed well into the double digits. But for every game that becomes a franchise, there are many more that have never seen a single sequel. For some games, they didn't due to poor sales and/or critical reception, but other well-liked--and in some cases profitable--games don't get sequels for one reason or another.

A screenshot from Vampire Survivors’s new SaGa-themed DLC.Vampire Survivors is finally launching cross-saves today, but they won’t be available on PlayStation to start and have a “very slim” chance of coming to the platform because of a “legal issue.” “Last month, we told everyone that cross-save would be available on PlayStation 4 / 5, PC, Xbox, Android and iOS alongside our next free VS update in April,” according to a Steam post from Poncle, the game’s developer. “But at last [sic] minute, we’ve run into a legal issue on PlayStation we weren’t aware of that requires us to share info on our partners that we’re unable to. The chances of Cross-Save coming to PlayStation consoles are now very slim, but not impossible, so we’re going to keep working alongside PlayStation to resolve these problems.”Poncle and PlayStation didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.Cross-saves are now available on Android, iOS, PC, and Xbox, Poncle says. Vampire Survivors on Nintendo Switch will also get cross-saves, but “at a later date.” Poncle wants to bring them to the Apple Arcade version of the game, but only “if we can do so without breaching any privacy commitments.” If you want to turn on cross-saves, check out Poncle’s guide. Note that cross-saves aren’t automatically synced, meaning you’ll have to manually save and load your save data across platforms as needed.Alongside the cross-saves news, Poncle also released a free Vampire Survivors DLC expansion based on the Square Enix’s SaGa franchise titled Emerald Diorama and a chicken-themed update to the main game that Poncle calls “The Coop.”

Three years after signing an overall TV production deal with Amazon, Mike Flanagan is finally developing a new project for the studio.Deadline reports that Amazon is moving forward with a Carrie series adaptation from Flanagan based on Stephen King’s 1974 novel about a girl born with telekinetic powers. In addition to writing and showrunning the project, Flanagan will direct a selection of its eight episodes.Flanagan, who connfirmed the news on his Bluesky page today, will also executive produce alongside Trevor Macy. No official casting announcements have been made just yet, but actresses Summer H. Howell (Curse of Chucky) and Siena Agudong (Netflix’s Resident Evil) are reportedly in talks to portray Carrie White and cheerleader Sue Snell, respectively.In a statement about the project, Amazon MGM’s head of TV Vernon Sanders noted how Carrie “has withstood the test of time with continued cultural relevance.” That’s a positive way of spinning the fact that there have been many Carrie adaptations (and a sequel) following Brian De Palma’s 1976 feature starring Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, and Piper Laurie. Though very few of those films were especially great, Flanagan has a solid track record adapting King’s classics, including The Life of Chuck, Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game. Stretching Carrie’s story out over eight episodes will likely to lead to some unexpected narrative changes, but it’s all (probably) still going to go down in flames when the series ultimately debuts.

The Epic Games Store is well-known for giving away games for free; it's one of its major marketing points over competitors like Steam. Today is no different, as Epic gets ready to release more content for free. However, this time is a little different; alongside a free game comes free content for games that are already free to play. And if you snap them all up, you'll have over $100 worth of content under your belt for absolutely nothing.