By Daniel Cooper
The so-called 鈥淏ig, Beautiful Bill鈥 has passed with plenty of nasty treats for the US technology and manufacturing industries. As well as swinging the sword at basic environmental protection measures, the bill sticks its thumb in the eye of the EV industry. Tim Stevens takes you on a tour of the most salient changes, like the imminent end of the EV tax credit. Joining that on the bonfire is the used EV incentive, as well as the rebates for the purchase of commercial EVs.
Similarly, for all of this administration鈥檚 talk of bringing manufacturing back to the US, the bill is a middle finger for domestic solar companies. The US is the only credible manufacturing rival to China in solar panels, but the bill cuts these businesses off at the knees. I spoke to people inside the US solar industry who know that, despite whatever tariffs are implemented, this bill opens the door to a flood of cheap, Chinese-made solar panels to usurp their US rivals.
An earlier version of the bill also contained moves that could only be described as weirdly vindictive. It previously proposed an annual EV tax of $250 (and $100 for hybrid owners) as well as a general levy on all wind and solar projects. Why? A cynic might suggest it was due to the bill being drafted to benefit fossil fuel companies at the expense of literally everyone else.
Anyway, hopefully you can enjoy the holiday and won鈥檛 need to spend it panic-buying an EV and US-made solar panels. Although that鈥檚 not actually a bad way to spend a long weekend.
鈥 Dan Cooper
Get Engadget’s newsletter delivered direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!
The news you might have missed
Here are the letters that let Apple and Google ignore the TikTok banAG Pam Bondi offered a written guarantee they would incur no legal liability.Xbox was funding Romero Games’ new game, but layoffs have left the project in crisisTurns out Microsoft was backing John Romero鈥檚 new studio.Uber drivers in British Columbia, Canada have unionizedThis will be interesting.
Get two months of Paramount+ for only $2 right now
Catch up on all that new Star Trek.
You can snag two months of Paramount+ for just $2, allowing you to take advantage of the new season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The deal applies to both the Essential and Premium plan, so you can easily have a little run of ad-free Star Trek as a treat. And, if you don鈥檛 like the idea of binging Strange New Worlds, you can always watch Star Trek: Lower Decks instead.
Microsoft gaming division suffers further layoffs
Even before the Xbox layoffs, there was ‘tension’ at Halo Studios
Microsoft has announced it will cut 9,000 jobs from its global workforce, with much of that focus on its gaming division. Engadget’s Jessica Conditt got the inside scoop from employees at Halo Studios, who reveal all is not well at what should be one of Microsoft鈥檚 crown jewels. Sadly, the company was already gutted back in 2023, and the lukewarm reception of its work since then is a sign of how badly things are going.
Crunchyroll’s lazy AI subtitles have anime fans furious
Friends don鈥檛 let friends subtitle shows with ChatGPT.
Translating a work of art is a delicate task requiring nuanced knowledge of both the culture and the languages you鈥檙e translating from and to. Unless you鈥檙e Anime-favoring streaming service Crunchyroll, which just dumped subtitle files into ChatGPT and hoped for the best. As well as a general sloppiness, Engadget鈥檚 Igor Bonifacic found instances of lines beginning with 鈥淐hatGPT said:鈥 at the start of a line. Crunchyroll said the subtitles were the result of the unauthorized action of a “third-party vendor,” and it is working to rectify the error right now.
PlayStation needs Neil Druckmann more than HBO does
Our take on the 鈥楲ast of Us鈥 changes
Neil Druckmann, head of Naughty Dog and co-creator of The Last of US and its TV adaptation, is stepping down from the HBO series. He said he鈥檚 shifting his focus back to video games full time to work on the studio鈥檚 next big title, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. The Last of Us Part II co-writer Halley Gross is also stepping down at the same time, and that got our staff TLoU superfan Nathan Ingraham鈥檚 antennae twitching. He feels the video game industry, currently suffering body blow after body blow, needs Druckmann (and Gross) far more than the TV world does.
Nothing Phone 3 hands-on: A tiny, playful dot-matrix screen in the company’s most expensive phone yet
It鈥檚 another quirky gimmick on the back cover.
Nothing has launched its third-generation flagship, the $799 Nothing Phone 3, complete with a new eye-catching gimmick. Whereas previous models had the Glyph Interface, a series of flashing lights on the rear cover, the 3 gets a tiny dot-matrix display called the Glyph Matrix. Wanna find out if it鈥檚 going to be worth your cash? Check out Mat Smith鈥檚 detailed hands-on.