Sajal Choudhary

Audi’s new A2 E-tron is its most affordable and efficient EV yet

The German automaker’s new A2 E-tron compact crossover is inexpensive, starting at just £32,200 (about $45,000). And it absolutely impresses with an ultra low drag coefficient and a range of battery and drivetrain options that, when configured correctly, can produce a range of up to 401 miles.

Perhaps my next car?

Most probably it will be a BYD, at the rate things are going.

First Xiaomi, then the world: why Arm might give phone gaming a huge graphics boost by Sean Hollister

By following Nvidia’s playbook, Arm-powered phones are about to have PC-like technologies to make games run faster, at higher resolution, with advanced lighting techniques, all without using more power than they do today. The jagged edges you see in the mobile versions of popular games might begin to go away.

Seems interesting. The goal is for phones to be a switch like device, or better. Like what the PS portal could be.

Bangalore India hospital flow by Derek Sivers

Medications that cost $50 in New Zealand or $100 in America are only $2 in India. After my surgery, they prescribed a bunch of stuff to keep the pain and infection away. Fulfilled at a local pharmacy, everything all combined cost about $8.

Need a private consultation with a specialist - like a neurosurgeon or dermatologist or cardiologist? $10. You just tap an appointment in their app, pay instantly with your phone, and that’s it. Which leads to the next point.

We have talked about this ourselves. That healthcare in India is so good and cheap, if you have the money. There are already a lot of people undertaking medical tourism in India. This just strengthens that view.

Microsoft slashes Xbox Cloud Gaming to just 15 hours a month for Ultimate subscribers by Tom Warren

If you want to use more than the 15 hours included with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you’ll need to purchase additional cloud playtime through the Xbox store starting in November. Microsoft isn’t revealing exact pricing and details today, but Xbox cloud players will be able to purchase bundles of hours that can roll over if unused in a particular month.

It used to be unlimited before this.

The Safest Job from AI may be Writing

While the programmer's job description is getting completely refactored, writing remains surprisingly unaffected. LLMs have gotten very good at generating code, but I am appalled at the absolute shit they spew as prose. They always follow the same robotic cadence and cliches, and sprinkle the same tired vocabulary all around. They take my broken yet soulful writing and transform it into a plastic soulless word slop in the name of improving prose. Their writing communicates no actual understanding and insight. I think we are all developing a visceral ick reaction to AI writing. It is trapped in the uncanny valley, and it may be stuck there for a long time.

I remember when writing was considered dead after ChatGPT came out. There were many discussions - blogs, podcasts, and otherwise - declaring writing to be dead. And here we are.

There have been multiple instances now of me recognising a piece of writing as having been AI generated. And that's just sad. Of course LinkedIn is full of AI assisted writing. I guess for people who can't write (or don't feel they can write) it is a great tool. But everything ends up feeling the same.

I had a funny feeling just yesterday when Prerna found a typo in my LinkedIn post. And I thought hey, that's just proof that a human wrote this!

Games I want to play (or atleast buy) this year -

1. FC 27
2. GTA VI
3. Control Resonant