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Tesla bulks up checking account ahead of Model III production run

They’ve got some robots they need to buy

Tesla is gearing up for mass production of its “affordable” Model 3 electric car with a fundraiser of sorts. Despite its popularity, Elon Musks’ electric car company operates pretty close to the bone financially, so they’re issuing stock to pad their checking account with just over a billion dollars, although Wall Street thinks they’re hoping to raise about $2.5 billion. Sources say Musk is actually buying about $25 million dollar in stock himself. Always nice to see the boss buy some of the baked goods.

Musk says Model 3 production is scheduled to hit 5,000 cars a week this year and 10,000 a week by next year. They’ll need the capacity as pre-orders for the $35,000 car hit nearly 500,000 units after it was announced. Tesla also noted they’re working on plans for Gigafactory numbers 2,3,4 and 5 as well, so as usual, all of Tesla’s plans are… really big plans.

When is the “Pringle” line coming out?

Hot on the heels of their Ryzen 7 series of CPUs, AMD has announced the 5 series, which take aim at Intel’s Core i5 line of silicon chips. AMD hasn’t revealed full performance specs for the series yet, but expect them to be on par or a bit better than Core i5 stats at a slightly lower price. The base 3.2ghz Series 5 chip will go for $169, with the top-spec 3.6ghz, 6-core “1600X” variant selling for $249.

All the chips can be overclocked or “boosted” for more performance, providing you can properly cool it inside your PC. The new chips will be available on April 11th, and later this year, AMD plans to introduce an even more affordable “3-series” line of CPUs, so stay tuned.

I can see clearly now

Anyone think the iPhone 8 or iPhone Pro or whatever it’s going to be called won’t be a big deal? Don’t tell that to Netflix, which Mac Rumors says it is planning to offer High Dynamic Range mobile content soon – especially in light of what is expected to be a very, very high-quality OLED screen on the next iPhone. How much that will enhance your Iron Fist viewing experience while riding a commuter train is up for debate, but hey, better is always… better, right?

Well, we should probably just get ready for HDR content pretty much everywhere. The new LG G6 halo phone has an AMOLED screen that is both HDR 10 and Dolby Vision HDR compliant, and new tablets from just about everyone are expected to start incorporating HDR-spec performance in top level models. No complaints here, and we’ll know much more about the iPhone 8 in September.

We’ve got more news on our Facebook page and YouTube channel, and be sure to tune in to this week’s DT podcasts: Close to the Metal (computers and such) on Tuesday, Trends with Benefits (general tech shenanigans)  on Thursdays, and Between the Streams (movie and TV topics) every Friday.

Bill Roberson
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I focus on producing Digital Trends' 'DT Daily' video news program along with photographing items we get in for review. I…
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