Fully Charged: Tesla plots Model III unveiling, Google’s HQ plans foiled, and Reddit videos

Tesla’s Model III unveiling in March 2016

Anxious to see Tesla Motors’ lower-end electric vehicle, which is rumoured to come in at a price of around US$35,000 (about £23,000)? During an investors’ call yesterday, CEO Elon Musk revealed that the car – the Model III – will likely be shown for the first time next March.

However, while that’ll be the EV’s first public appearance, it probably won’t be available until near the end of the following year. "Late 2017 is probably more realistic" than mid-next-year, he said, according to The Verge. The car is expected to be one-fifth smaller than the Model S, and have a range of 200 miles.

Also revealed today: Tesla has already taken 38,000 reservations for the recently revealed Powerwall home battery, as well as 2,500 orders for the business-centric PowerPack. However, Musk says that the latter orders are averaging upwards of 10 units apiece, so the actual tally seems much higher. "We’re basically sold out through the first half of next year," said Musk.

[Source: The Verge, 2]

Google’s amazing HQ plans foiled

Remember the spectacular concept art and videos of Google’s planned new headquarters in Mountain View, California? The one with the draped glass mesh over the easily rearranged structures? Yeah, it’s not going to happen – not in the intended location, at least.

As noted back when the news first surfaced, LinkedIn was also eyeing the same plot of land with a more traditional office space, and the Mountain View City Council awarded the company 1.5 million square feet of the land. Google, on the other hand, received just 0.5 million square feet, which would only allow for about a quarter of the planned buildings.

Part of what turned the tide towards LinkedIn’s plan was the fact that Google’s proposal potentially required some building technologies that weren’t yet invented or established. Hopefully Google won’t abandon its audacious plans, however: surely there’s a couple million square feet elsewhere in California begging for radical architecture.

[Source: The New York Times]

Reddit planning videos based on AMAs

Reddit calls itself the "front page of the Internet," and for a great many people, that’s the truth. But it may also want to be the home base for your video needs, as evidenced by plans to debut video content based on its celebrity-focused AMA (Ask Me Anything) events, with more to come thereafter.

Reddit apparently snagged a couple of former video guys from The Verge, so it’s at least committing some notable talent and funding to the endeavor. Assuming its viewership is anything like its readership, we’re sure they’ll do just fine with this shift in medium.

[Source: The Next Web]

Portal Pinball coming later this month

Zen Studios’ pinball games – Zen Pinball and Pinball FX – already have the likes of Star Wars and Marvel Comics icons as digital pinball tables, so why not… Portal? Indeed, Valve’s physics puzzler will be the basis of a new table for those games, which will be released during the week of 25 May on various platforms. You can catch a glimpse of the table at the source link below, and like the dozens of other downloadable tables, it should be available for just a couple quid.

[Source: Zen Studios]