The Morning After: France’s plans for an EV lease program

France’s Budget Minister Gabriel Attal announced plans for a lease program to open up EV use. “We know that for many French, [EVs] remain very expensive,” he said, adding the government was working to figure out how quickly it could implement the measure. 

At the moment, under a subsidy scheme similar to the one introduced by the US Inflation Reduction Act, French car buyers can receive as much as €6,000 off electric vehicles less than €47,000. Under this new electric vehicle subsidy program, people could lease an EV for €100 ($100) per month.

– Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

Chromebooks aren’t always the answer.

You probably don’t think of cheap Windows laptops when you think of daily drivers. But it would be a big mistake to ignore these devices – if not for yourself, for someone close. There’s a reason the big PC companies, like Acer, ASUS and Dell, make Windows devices for under $500. We lay out what to look out for (things like an SSD with at least 128GB of space, a 1080p display and a mostly metal design) and share our top choices.

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But it’s getting the job done.

While Senior News Editor Billy Steele wanted a White Mountain ice cream maker, they’re hard to pick up. Eventually, he received Cuisinart’s Pure Indulgence two-quart ice cream maker as a gift. It’s a compact countertop model that takes up about the same space as a food processor. It has a bowl insert you stick in the freezer to chill, and a plastic dasher churns your ice cream. You just really need to ensure the mixing bowl is properly chilled and homemade ice cream is all yours.

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It registered ‘Reality One,’ ‘Reality Pro’ and ‘Reality Processor’ in the US and elsewhere.

Apple may again be looking to nail down “Reality” trademarks ahead of the launch of its much-anticipated AR/VR headset. While Apple didn’t directly request the trademarks, law firms the company has previously used applied for “Reality One,” “Reality Pro” and “Reality Processor” in the US, EU, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica and Uruguay. With realityOS as a potential name for the operating system, Reality One and Reality Pro could be naming options for the actual headsets. “Reality Processor” could be an M2-based chip to power those.

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It’s jumping into mobile gaming.

Sony has announced a fresh push into mobile gaming with the launch of a new division inside PlayStation Studios, aptly called PlayStation Studios Mobile, and the acquisition of Savage Game Studios. Sony said the new studio will be “providing more ways for more people to engage with our content.” Savage Game Studio doesn’t appear to have produced any games yet, but its co-founders had a hand in mobile franchises like Clash of Clans and Angry Birds. It will join PlayStation Studios Mobile, which will operate separately from its console division and create “new experiences” based on PlayStation IP and franchises. You know, like .

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Together at last.

Meta has followed through on its promise to bring NFT (non-fungible token) support to Facebook. Users can now post digital collectibles they have in their digital wallets across Facebook and Instagram. After they connect digital wallets to one app, they’ll be able to access NFTs from both of them. Meta is moving deeper into NFT territory even though the market for the digital tokens has nosedived in recent months.

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