Tech Times Weekly Wrap: Northern Lights in Tristate Area, Meta's Paid Verification Tiers, Tesla Lower-Priced EVs

The previous week saw a somewhat rare cosmic sighting right in North America, centering on the beautiful Northern Lights, a.k.a. the Aurora Borealis, which appeared on the tristate area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Moreover, Meta has also introduced the new paid verification tiers on its platform to which users can subscribe.

Tesla also makes the weekly wrap-up for its massive plans to lower the prices of its electric vehicles following a drastic restructuring of the company. 

Northern Lights Appear in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut

Last late Friday night and early Saturday morning, the famed Northern Lights, usually found in Iceland, Canada, and Alaska, showed their colors over the tristate areas of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

It was a rare sighting as the last time the geomagnetic storm magnitude reached these high levels, capable of portraying the Auroras, over New York was in 2005. 

New Yorkers, Jersey citizens, and people from Connecticut were given a chance to see this majestic display of lights over their states last weekend. 

The peak took place at around 2-3 AM, when it reached up to 9kp, according to the Planetary K-Index. An Aurora Borealis only needs 7kp to form. 

Read Also: OpenAI Set to Unveil a Game-Changing Multimodal AI Model: Report 

Meta's New Paid Verification Tiers

Meta unveiled its latest paid verification tiers to its subscribers. These tiers grant the user a blue checkmark, considered a social media status symbol, to indicate that they are the real deal. 

The Meta Verified was previously under testing in areas including Australia, New Zealand, and Canada before its wide rollout, with three tiers available. 

Under the tier, accounts, including influencers or creators, would be turned into business accounts, which offer improved search ranking, impersonation protection, adding links to images, customer support, and more. 

The Standard plan is available for $14.99, and the three new additional ones are the Plus plan at $44.99, the Premium plan at $119.99, and the Max plan at $349.99 per month. 

Tesla Lower EV Prices Coming?

The renowned EV company, Tesla, is planning to lower the prices of its electric vehicles for sale in the market, and this was made possible through its recent layoffs and restructuring within the company.

Bonne Eggleston, Tesla's new chief of 4680 battery development, revealed it. Tesla also tasked him with helping drive down the costs of its EVs. 

The plan centers on two models that use the 4680 batteries, including the Model Y, its cheapest electric vehicle in the lineup, and its renowned electric pickup, the Cybertruck.

It was also unveiled that the 4680 battery division would no longer see job cuts, and all hands are on deck to reduce the costs of EVs by the end of the year. 

Related Article: Microsoft Copilot Automates Prompt Creation, Makes AI Easier Than Ever