Apple's been trying (in vain?) to sell iPad users a Magic Keyboard for six years and add a windowing system to iPadOS to pretend it's a real operating system, so I suppose they're trying to bridge the gap from the opposite (Macbook) side.
However, testing seems to show that the clean air flow is neither wide nor far; it would only be effective right next to your face and you can't really move:
My aunt is immunocompromised and carries one around with her in crowded situations, keeping it pointed right at her face 8-12in away. It works well for her, especially since she's had a lung transplant and doesn't do well with a mask.
The filter cost for the AirFanta 3 doesn't seem particularly high? In fact it seems cheaper than competitors.
All the purifier companies realized they make more money selling overpriced filters, so $60+ for the OEM filters is common nowadays. Despite it just being a standard HEPA filter cut to a specific size.
Airfanta 3 Pro filters (four) - $57
Coway Mighty Filter - $60
Coway Mighty2 Filter - $70-$80
I'd be concerned about the availability of filters after a few years. Some of these companies have been changing their models and filter type every year to add some nebulous feature. Others just go out of business.
Yeah, the retail prices of filters is all over the place because of the popularity of razor/blade model of pricing. I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about the BOM itself -- this device is using 4x the filter media of comparable filters, which would typically have one filter that size.
HEPA media itself is a commodity and aftermarket filters (and the BOM cost to the OEM) tend to level out at whatever rate is minimally profitable per area of filter media.
The upfront cost of this device is high for what you get, because you're mostly buying filter media. The device itself is not much of a polished product. I'm sure it works fine but I wouldn't want one in my living room.
The linked PC-fan purifier has been tested and shown to purify air faster than the conventional alternatives, and are not makeshift, so I'm not sure what you are referring to.
The idea that Subaru could build a viable electric car 20 years ago seems like a stretch. Many other companies may have had electric car concepts that were scrapped because they could neither figure out how to build them, nor was there a strong market for them.
Subaru is not a large car manufacturer. Toyota sells over 10x the amount of cars and Nissan sells 3x-5x, they are not equals. And Nissan did build an electric car 16 years ago and the company is currently circling the drain.
It was never going to be a jump straight to EV (although the concept car model type still doesn't exist to this day), they knew the path was to go hybrid first. They've made some weak attempts at hybrids but they have fallen so far behind in EV development at this point that they soon will only be selling rebadged Toyotas. There's no way that's sustainable for an auto manufacturer.
I wouldn't call it sustainable, but Subaru can persist for quite a while without an EV platform. Their main markets are the US (72%) and Japan (11%), neither of which have significant EV penetration. They are, and will continue to be, a bit player worldwide.
EV development also gets easier every year as it becomes more common. Companies don't have to have cutting-edge technology to compete, and Subaru has plans to release their own EV platform in 2029. I do not expect it to be cutting edge, but loyal Subaru owners won't be expecting that either.
For reference, Subaru had "plans" to release an EV car back in 2005. Let's see if they finally follow through 24 years later.
And their US market just happens to overlap with the EV early adopter market. Symmetrical all-wheel drive, the thing that snow drivers need, is easy peasy for an electric.
just a data point: i have a 2026 Subaru Uncharted, awd EV, and it's superlative.
For context, i had a 2014 BMW i3 for about 8 years, the design was neat, the engineering undependable, an Audi A5 for 2.x years, truly excellent and i loved it like my old used SAAB 900 turbo of long ago, and a BMW i4 xdrive40 for 3 years, truly shitty engineering, but pretty shape and paint job.
The Subaru EV does share components with Toyota/Lexus(/Subaru) but handles __way__ better than the BMW for 2/3 the price, has vastly nicer EV component design (like heat pump and periphery, which is outsourced by BMW and failed on both my i3 and i4).
In Berkeley, CA, restrictive zoning in the early 1900s was used to reinforce and codify those outcomes that separated the rich and the poor. Those laws stayed in place for over 100 years, far longer than the term of a single elected official. So you have to be careful what kind of laws you pass.
Given the rent required to live in Berkeley, its basically the nightmare scenario that we are all talking about. The only people who benefit from Berkeley's laws are the landowners/landlords. Everyone else suffers including the local businesses and especially the renters. Even taxpayers in other states are penalized as lots of federal money is used to subsidize poor renters which ends up both increasing the rental prices even more while benefiting the landowners even more. Basically, whatever Berkeley is doing, do the opposite and you will be fine.
reply