german car manufacturer Porsche has announced its second fully electric car model. The new EV Macan comes in two forms: the Macan 4 and the slightly beefier Macan Turbo.
Both of these all-electric SUVs are powered by high-performance 100-kilowatt-hour batteries. They are also the first Porsches to feature an 800-volt architecture, allowing a 270-kilowatt DC fast charger to charge from 10 to 80 percent in 21 minutes. The car is just as fast on public roads. The Macan 4 puts out the equivalent of 402 hp, and the turbo model puts out 630 hp. The Macan 4 does 0-60 in 4.9 seconds and the Turbo in 3.1 seconds. The firing range is equally impressive. Porsche claims its SUV can travel more than 300 miles on a single charge.
The Macan's interior will feature a network of displays that the company calls the “Porsche Driver Experience.” It combines a display in front of the driver, a display on the console, and augmented reality technology that can overlay digital navigation arrow-like images on the road ahead as you drive.
Porsche's Macan model was originally launched in 2014, so this new electric version marks the model's 10th anniversary. This is Porsche's second all-electric vehicle, following the $150,000 Taycan, which was launched in 2019. Macan 4 prices start at $78,800, with the Turbo model priced at $105,300. (Both he charges $1,650 shipping.) Look for it later this year.
Porsche's Macan is one of many electric cars coming in 2024. It may end up being the most lively electric vehicle, but there is stiff competition.
Here's some other consumer tech news this week:
Apple joins GenAI
It's been just about a year since the generative AI craze took the tech world by storm, and all signs point to Apple getting serious about the technology. According to one story, financial times, Apple has gradually made a series of investments and employee hires, suggesting it is incorporating more AI technology into its products. In another report from 9to5Mac, we found evidence in the iOS 17.4 beta code that Apple is testing some Siri features with the help of ChatGPT. While this development does not guarantee that Apple will use his ChatGPT in its own software, it does say that Apple is tinkering with the technology in general.
While companies like Microsoft, Google, and Meta have been aggressively venturing into the deep end of AI, Apple has largely downplayed the AI revolution with product announcements over the past year, with typical iterative changes to its hardware and software lineup. I've been sticking to updates. But change is coming. It's not clear when Apple will officially announce his AI enhancements, but we expect more details to be revealed at the next WWDC, the developer event that Apple holds every summer.
shazam your ears
Apple's music search app Shazam just got even better. Thanks to a recent update to the iOS app, Shazam can now detect songs playing from your headphones. Previously, this app could only use your device's built-in microphone to recognize songs. And last year, Shazam added the ability to search for music directly on social video apps like his TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
The latest update lets you know what the heck you're hearing, whether it's what you're streaming on YouTube, the backing track of your TikTok dance, or that song you're listening to right now, without having to take out your earbuds. You can hear it from the supermarket's overhead speakers. Works with wired and wireless headphones.
I know what you did with that Bitcoin
The general idea on the dark web is that payments made with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies cannot be traced, so people use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to do all sorts of illegal things online. I am purchasing it at As it turns out, that's not true, and once law enforcement realized they could track illegal transactions, it led to the removal of some of the dark web's biggest kingpins.
This week gadget lab The podcast features WIRED security writer Andy about the codebreaker who debunked the myth that Bitcoin is untraceable and the investigator who used that traceability to bust the world's largest child abuse site. Resurface conversation with Greenberg.Read about it in Andy's book tracer in the dark' has been made into a paperback.