Technology - Google News

Windows 10 update deleting files and causing Blue Screen of Death errors - TechSpot
Apple Aims to Sell Macs With Its Own Chips Starting in 2021 - Bloomberg
Ford builds a 1,400hp electric Mustang drag racer - Ars Technica

Windows 10 update deleting files and causing Blue Screen of Death errors - TechSpot

Posted: 23 Apr 2020 05:18 AM PDT

Facepalm: In these uncertain times, one thing we can still rely on is Microsoft releasing Windows updates that cause massive problems for some users. A recent 'fix' pushed out by the company could be one of the worst yet, resulting in Blue Screen of Death errors and deleting or moving files.

Microsoft released Windows 10 KB4549951 on April 14 to introduce several security fixes, but, as so often is the case, a number of users found it introduced more problems than it corrects.

As per usual, plenty of people found they couldn't install the update at all, and some who did kept running into Blue Screen of Death errors. As noted by Windows Latest, the most common of these are:

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED
ACPI_BIOS_ERROR
INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE
MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION
Portcls.sys

Many of the Blue Screens of Death are appearing intermittently, requiring a PC reboot, but other users are experiencing a loop of BSOD errors, meaning their computer crashes isntanty on every startup.

In addition to these major issues, users have reported files being deleted or moved to other folders following the update.

"This update is a disaster. It deleted my files, pictures, documents saved in system drive and as well as my apps which I downloaded from Windows Store," wrote one user.

"My system automatically updated on the 19th of April. I lost some important word files of my university. And a folder. I have looked on the temporary folders and I have tried to uninstall the update but they do not appear," said another angry Windows 10 user.

Not everyone is experiencing problems with the update, but those who do are advised to uninstall it. Microsoft hasn't commented on the reports, but it wouldn't be the first time the company releases an update to fix the problems a previous update caused.

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Apple Aims to Sell Macs With Its Own Chips Starting in 2021 - Bloomberg

Posted: 23 Apr 2020 04:08 AM PDT

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Ford builds a 1,400hp electric Mustang drag racer - Ars Technica

Posted: 23 Apr 2020 08:24 AM PDT

The battery-powered Mustang Cobra Jet 1400 prototype is purpose-built and projected to deliver over 1,400 horsepower and over 1,100 ft.-lbs. of instant torque to demonstrate the capabilities of an electric powertrain in one of the most demanding race environments.

Ford
Ford has built some electric Mustang one-offs before, but this one is the most hardcore, with no pretense at being able to drive on the street.

Ford
The main reason for the Cobra Jet 1400 is to raise awareness of EVs, which remains appallingly bad in the US.

Ford
This strange-looking orange city car is the fastest street-legal electric car you may ever encounter.

Jonny Smith
The Enfield's diminutive size and shape were often a source of mirth, but sitting on bigger wheels, it looks purposeful.

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
With two occupants aboard, you get some idea of just how small the Flux Capacitor really is.

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
In 2019, Ford and Webasto built this Mustang Lithium for SEMA. It has less power and more torque than the Mustang Cobra Jet 1400.

Ford
The Mustang Lithium has a full interior and a six-speed manual transmission and remains street legal.

Ford

If you want to go from a standstill to very fast as quickly as possible, there's nothing quite like an electric motor. They're compact, powerful, efficient, and they can make all their torque almost instantly, so they're pretty darn good at drag racing. Which is convenient for automakers who still need to convince 98 percent of American car buyers that battery electrics are worth a look, given the emotional resonance of the quarter-mile among the nation's car enthusiasts. That's why Ford Performance has put together the Mustang Cobra Jet 1400 prototype.

"This project was a challenge for all of us at Ford Performance, but a challenge we loved jumping into. We saw the Cobra Jet 1400 project as an opportunity to start developing electric powertrains in a race car package that we already had a lot of experience with, so we had performance benchmarks we wanted to match and beat right now. This has been a fantastic project to work on, and we hope the first of many coming from our team," said Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Performance Motorsports.

The specs make the Mustang Shelby GT500 we tested last year seem pretty tame. The Cobra Jet packs more than a megawatt of power (1,400hp) and 1500Nm (1,100lb-ft) of torque, with its electric motor and inverters supplied by Cascadia Motion, which also builds high-end electric motors and control hardware for race cars in F1, Formula E, Le Mans, and Pikes Peak. The powertrain software comes from well-known AEM, which recently added a new line of performance EV systems to its range of motorsport and tuning products.

Sadly, the specs that Ford is prepared to release end there—we're not sure what kind of battery the Mustang Cobra Jet 1400 uses, but since it has been built as a pure racer for the drag strip and nothing else, we imagine it's small, light, and maximized for power density, not energy density.

Ford says it should be able to run the quarter-mile (400m) in the low-eight-second range with a terminal speed of 170mph. That would make it significantly faster than the Mustang Lithium that Ford built for last year's SEMA. That electric pony car conversion boasted 671kW (900hp) and an even greater 1,356Nm (1,000lb-ft) at the rear wheels. But with a full production interior, six-speed manual transmission, and the need to remain street legal, the Mustang Lithium is at least a couple of seconds slower at the drag strip.

The Cobra Jet 1400 should also be more than a second faster than one of my favorite electric cars, the tiny orange Flux Capacitor. This started life in the 1970s as an Enfield 8000, a short-lived electric city car built on the Isle of Wight and funded by a Greek shipping magnate. But a few years back, UK journalist Jonny Smith got hold of one and turned it into the world's fastest street-legal BEV when he ran the quarter-mile in 9.87 seconds.

Ford says it plans to debut the car officially later this year, but in the meantime it released this short testing video at what looks like the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It certainly appears to be going a lot faster than I did on the same drag strip last year in the GT500, and much more quietly, too.