Can you believe Volkswagen used built-in software to cheat US emission standards? Read our first story to get all the gory details. The CEO has resigned and will probably be replaced by the president of Porsche. VW stock prices have plunged 30% on the news and are 50% lower than their highest point of the year.
Apparently the software was programmed to kick in when it detected the car was going through an emissions test. It would reduce certain chemicals in the fuel going to the engine when being tested, then kick them all back to normal when it detected the test was over. It was scientists at West Virginia University who discovered it.
Volkswagen said on Tuesday that 11 million cars worldwide were equipped with the same software that the Environmental Protection Agency said was used to trick emissions tests in the United States. About half a million of those cars are in the United States, and analysts say about 10 million are in Europe.
This cheating was only on the VW diesel cars. But was VW the only company to do it? As an indication that other European officials are growing wary, the European Commission on Thursday urged its 28 member nations to test vehicles on their roads and report the findings. France indicated its intentions to begin random testing.
The fallout from the Volkswagen diesel scandal is spreading fast to the company's other famous brands, including Porsche and Audi, and across the Atlantic to the U.S. The Volkswagen Group represents some of the most well-known car brands in the world, including Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini and of course Volkswagen itself.
This scandal will cost VW millions, if not billions of dollars in repairs to existing cars, plus millions, if not billions of dollars in fines…not to mention lots of class action lawsuits. I think this scandal will get much worse before it bottoms out.
I hope you can get some good info from the rest of this newsletter…and hope you don’t own a VW diesel car. Have a great weekend. -JRC
Tech News and Opinions
Volkswagen Used Software to Cheat on Emissions
The software throttles back the emissions output of the vehicles so that they pass the stringent U.S. requirements. But when the vehicles are used normally, they emit up to 40 times the legal emission amount, placing high levels of pollutants into the air. Huge fines are on their way.
OPM Now Admits 5.6m Feds' Fingerprints Were Stolen By Hackers
The Office of Personnel Management admitted that the number of federal employees’ fingerprints compromised in the massive breach of its servers revealed over the summer has grown from 1.1 million to 5.6 million.
The case against Dropbox looks stronger with each passing day
Ben Thompson, the analyst and author of the Stratechery blog, calls Dropbox "probably the most fragile" of the 10 most highly valued private companies.
The MacBook Air is on a path to extinction
The Air has fallen behind other Apple laptops and Apple isn't helping it up.
Microsoft turns to Dell and HP to help get Surface into the office
Microsoft is trying to get the Surface Pro into more offices. To do that, it's starting a partnership with Dell that'll have Dell selling Surface Pro tablets and offering business services, like device setup and support, alongside them
Computer Tips and Tricks
Firefox 41 arrives, adding instant messaging and personalization tweaks
The new release includes updates which allow users to personalise their Firefox account, so they can share web browsing data such as passwords, bookmarks, history, and open tabs across their desktop and mobile devices. It also lets users add a photo to their account
Google Adding Block and Unsubscribe to Gmail
Google has announced it will improve its Gmail email service with two very useful features, block and unsubscribe, on both the web and mobile clients.
How to Find Section Breaks in a Word Document
Section breaks in Word allow you to break up your document into sections and format each section differently. When you create a new document there is only one section by default, but you can add different types of section breaks as needed.
When will I get Office 2016 under my Office 365 subscription?
The answer is "It depends." What it depends upon is your Office 365 subscription level.
Win10 tweaks to improve computing work and play
If you’ve spent any time working with Windows 10, you’ve doubtlessly figured out that the new OS isn’t perfect. Fortunately, in the Windows tradition, Win10’s behavior can be changed to better fit your computing style. Here are six tweaks that you may find useful
Mobile Computing
Apple Releases iOS 9.0.1 With Multiple Bug Fixes
Apple today released iOS 9.0.1, a minor update that introduces several bug fixes for iOS 9. The iOS 9.0.1 update comes just one week after iOS 9 was released to the public on September 16.
26 iOS 9 Tips for Apple Fanatics
For anyone with the latest iPhones, the jump to iOS 9 is worth it. The following tips and tricks will help you make the most of it. Use this knowledge to become an iPhone (and iPad) master.
Apple iPad mini 4 Review & Rating
The Apple iPad mini 4 is a top-notch small-screen tablet with unparalleled build quality and app support, but it's still hard to justify the jump in price over the iPad mini 2.
Four mega popular messaging apps you've probably never heard of
Want to sell your goods while chatting to friends? China's got the app for you. Need a messenger with 10,000 emoticons? Line from Japan has you covered.
Tom's Guide reviews US carriers, finds T-Mobile to be the best all-around
The folks at Tom's Guide have spent countless hours researching and testing to see how the US carriers compare to each other. The findings reveal that T-Mobile is the best all-around carrier, with Verizon coming in a close second.
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