Kids living at the bottom of the Nizhuhe Grand Canyon in Yunnan Province once faced a brutal path to school. Steep mountain trails and cliffside routes stretched more than three hours one way across a vertical drop measured in hundreds of meters. Guanzhai Village Primary School sat high above at roughly 1,650 meters elevation. The village of Nizhuhe rested far below. Roughly twenty children from nearby communities made the trip, often as boarding students. Round trips could consume six hours of hard walking on paths that left little room for error.

Fuyao Ladder, a 288-meter glass elevator hammered straight into the rock face, became operational at the end of July. It is approximately 20 meters taller than its neighbor, the Qingyun Ladder, which debuted in 2022 at 268 meters. That makes for quite a duo, which neighbors have affectionately named the Sky School Bus. The final section is a cable car, but you must first get to the base via shuttle bus. Then it’s a quick lift up in the glass cabin before getting into the cable car for the last 30-minute ride.

Fuyao travels at roughly 5 m/s, therefore the journey from base to upper level takes about 50 seconds. It can carry up to 81 passengers at once, nearly tripling the capacity of the previous elevator. When the two lifts are joined, they can now transport an amazing 1,200 people each hour, and the completely transparent glass walls allow passengers to see the canyon walls as they pass by. Ningbo Hongda Elevator developed Fuyao Ladder as part of the Nizhu River Grand Canyon tourism project, which commenced in 2017.

Local children and villages get access for free since a designated school path separates them from the tourist traffic. A reporter caught up with one local kid, Lei Xin, who had recently transferred from Guanzhai Primary School the previous year and was one of the first to arrive in the new cabin. He just shrugged, saying he thot it was faster and more spacious than Qingyun. Parents are also overjoyed because they no longer have to spend the entire day transporting their children down the canyon; instead, they can simply see them pop into a glass box and be at the top in under 60 seconds.

The word Qingyun is taken from the traditional Chinese for “ascending toward the clouds” or “toward opportunity,” and Fuyao comes from the phrase for a whirlwind that sweeps you up and carries you higher. The two elevators are side by side, two parallel shafts of glass and steel ready to convey passengers up and down the canyon walls. Building the thing was not an easy task, as remote settings like this frequently provide challenges like as limited space to build, humidity and fog to contend with, and the need to constantly check the steel structure. In terms of safety, they have redundant power sources and backup systems, as well as independent inspections before granting public access.

On the business side, visitor numbers increased from 4,000 to 15,000 per day when the second lift went active. This has reduced congestion and helped create additional jobs for locals in guiding, transportation, and hospitality. People may now travel up and down the canyon with ease.
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James Whomsley, better known as ProjectAir, has spent nearly a decade turning odd ideas into flying machines. His latest project takes one of the simplest shapes possible and asks whether it might outperform the wings we see every day. He built a giant radio-controlled plane whose main lifting surfaces form complete circles, then put the concept through the same cycle of prototypes, crashes, and rebuilds that defines so much of his work.

The idea began with a paper plane he made as a child. A small ring-shaped flier that flew farther and straighter than his normal dart creations. Several years later, he sought to apply the same techniques to something far larger. The first models were made of lightweight balsa and propelled by elastic bands. One had a standard straight wing, while the other had a circular wing of similar proportions. In a light breeze, the straight wing model fought for around seven seconds before wobbling and tumbling to the earth; in contrast, the circular version remained aloft for more over ten seconds, naturally correcting itself in the wind and landing with far less drama. That tiny triumph paved the way for something far bigger.

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The full-size plane was created in CAD so that the sections could be laser cut from balsa sheets and put together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. The two circular wing frames weighed little over 2 kg. A long box fuselage had bulkheads strong enough to hold the rings in place, and heat shrink film covered the whole surface. Before he ever considered power, early glide tests revealed that the plane required considerable weight in the front and a somewhat steep angle of attack to gain any usable lift from the symmetrical airfoils. After they figured out the balance, it floated fairly nicely.

Then they turned on the power, and two electric motors positioned high up on the aircraft formed a thrust line that pulled the nose down fairly hard, which is when everything began to go wrong. The first powered launches resulted in catastrophic collisions that snapped the main spars. Balsa is good for keeping things light, but it’s not very forgiving if you get the layout wrong. A second attempt used what remained of the rear circle as the primary wing and added a conventional tail for greater control, but the same propulsion problem reappeared, claiming another wing.

At this time, the crew opted to switch materials. A new circular wing made of foam and aluminum tube bent rather than breaking as the motors started up, a central strut protected the ring from expanding under strain, and the motors were anchored down much more securely this time. On the following launch, the plane lifted off cleanly, cruised smoothly thru gusts, and responded to control inputs like a normal plane, even displaying slightly more roll stability than expected. It flew until the batteries died, then returned to a safe landing with everything intact.

Circular wings, sometimes known as annular or ring wings, have appeared on numerous times throughout aviation history. Designers have experimented with them for structural efficiency and reducing those pesky tip vortices, and in the wind tunnel, they’ve discovered some instances where a ring can match or even outperform the efficiency of a conventional wing of the same size, but it’s never as simple as that, because extra drag and pitching behavior muddy the waters. Whomsley’s large-scale model never claimed to be a game changer in terms of aerodynamics. All it did was show that the design is functional, controlled, and controls wind far better than you may expect if you sort out the framework and how the motors are connected.

Having rejected Apple’s initial compromise proposals for App Tracking Transparency in the App Store, Germany says it has made a final agreement that will make the system fair to all developers.

Germany’s federal cartel office, the Bundeskartellamt, has been challenging Apple over its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature. This is the feature that requires users to confirm they allow data tracking by developers, and which is seen as favoring Apple’s own apps.

Apple has previously offered a compromise that chiefly consisted of rewording the warning dialogs displayed when a third-party app is first launched. That compromise was rejected but now the regulator says that it has agreed binding commitments with Apple and has concluded its case.

“Apple is allowed to provide for a level of protection for its users that exceeds the minimum legal requirements,” said Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt in a statement. “However, if Apple sets up additional rules within its ecosystem for the use of data, these rules must, under Germany’s special abuse provision for large digital companies, not treat its own offerings better than those of its competitors.”

“This is precisely where our competition concerns arose,” continued Mundt. “Apple will now align the consent requests much more closely and give third-party app providers more freedom to combine the necessary requests in a sensible way.”

What happens next

Apple now has four months to implement the agreed changes to how ATT works. Those changes are binding commitments that the regulator says run for the next seven years, and will be monitored by a trustee.

It’s not clear exactly what Apple has agreed to that is different to its compromise offerings, however. The new rules are again specifically about the wording of dialogs shown to users.

According to the regulator, the specifics of its ruling are that “Apple will align the consent prompts for its own offerings and for third-party apps much more closely. “

That means “removing possibly discouraging symbols and wording in Apple’s predefined requests for third-party providers.” These prompts must always now be “neutral in terms of content, wording and layout.”

The clearest difference is that developers will be allowed to add more detail about their proposed use of data tracking.

Apple does definitely use ATT to discourage users from granting permission for third-party apps to track them. It also does not do that with its own apps, but the company has previously argued that this is because none of its apps even attempt to track users.

At a lower cost, each of Raj’s delivery meals consistently tastes better than the (admittedly not great) Punjabi restaurant down the street from me—less sugary, more rich, with saffron-tinged basmati and chicken that remains juicy and plump, not overcooked. Raj’s Indian gravies offer the most compelling argument for me to order CookUnity, in a city (Portland) where the best Indian food is often a half-hour drive into the suburbs.

But, of course, Raj’s meals are available only to those served by the Seattle hub. Others, near Los Angeles or Atlanta, may have other local chefs who offer similarly compelling arguments. I wouldn’t know.

Local Mileage May Differ

CookUnity Beef Stroganoff with Truffle & Pappardelle from chef John DeLucie

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

The strength of CookUnity is that each regional hub is basically local. But this is also a potential weakness: Each regional hub is different. Each hub has greater or lesser variety. Each also has a different selection of chefs and meals.

But my good experience with the Seattle hub might translate to what you’ll find in a different kitchen, with different cooks. This may be true even if the same chef’s name and face are on your meal box. Some chefs operate four or five kitchens at different hubs, and different kitchens may have different results, even with the same recipes. And heck, I’ve had different results even from the same chefs. I can only speak to my own good experience and the good experience of my colleague Louryn Strampe, who ordered out of the Chicago hub.

Note that while CookUnity offers a much bigger caloric range than most prepared meal kits, usually the big feasts are heavily carb-loaded: rice, noodles, pasta. Those looking for a focus on proteins and veggies can find them easily, but usually in more moderate portions. Food cost is food cost. Starches are cheap.

But I have reason to believe that CookUnity’s other hubs also offer good cooking—and that has a lot to do with CookUnity’s business model. The overall factor that I think makes CookUnity work is healthy competition.

Each CookUnity chef making prepared meals is, essentially, a competing food business within the same big commissary kitchen. Their name is on each box, and a good number of the chefs have restaurants and reputations to protect. There are many incentives to make each meal interesting and delicious. My experience bears this out.

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The cuts were made even after a preview model went rogue and hacked Hugging Face.

When Apple Intelligence launches in China, it will use a large language model made by Apple, instead of being based on either Google Gemini or the Chinese Qwen.

The Chinese version of Apple Intelligence will utilize Qwen, but according to Reuters, the main LLM will be one trained by Apple. The training was done in partnership with Alibaba, but this is still a departure from Apple predominantly adopting another firm’s models.

In the US and most territories, Apple Intelligence uses Google Gemini technology, although its Foundation Models are still entirely Apple’s. Apple has also offered ChatGPT extensions for Siri, but neither that nor Gemini or Anthropic’s Claude are available in China.

China recently approved Apple Intelligence for use in the country, although it has yet to roll out and there may be further regulatory hurdles. Nonetheless, this new report means that Apple is expected to be the first company to launch a proprietary AI model in China.

Even so, Alibaba’s Qwen model is to be included in some way for Apple devices sold in the country. There will also be technology from Baidu, another local Chinese firm.

All of this is necessary because of how complex China’s laws about AI are. In theory, a US firm could comply with the stringent regulations, but in practice an AI company wanting to enter the Chinese market has to partner with local firms.

There is also the issue of censorship in China. It has previously been reported that Alibaba will censor Apple Intelligence in the country, and that will presumably apply to the use of both Qwen and Apple’s own model.

Apple Intelligence is now expected to be launched in China shortly, although Apple has not announced a schedule. The service did briefly launch in March, apparently accidentally, showing that it is ready.

Similarly, Apple Support recently published a guide to using Qwen on a Mac, but then removed it.

China has always been a major market for Apple, although for many years sales of iPhones declined steeply. That trend has recently been reversed, however, with the iPhone 17 range proving to be even more popular in China than Apple expected.

Slop. The word that people have settled on, and it fits.

LinkedIn posts that say nothing. Investor decks assembled from prompts. Sales outreach that feels personalized but went to thousands of people. Conference presentations that look polished but collapse when someone asks a substantive question.