ShinyShiny snippets: Tesla reports record EV sales
Tesla has smashed its previous record for vehicle sales by delivering 308,600 cars in the fourth quarter. The stronger-than-expected results brought total sales in 2021 to 936,000, around 87pc higher than a year earlier. It caps off a successful year for the electric car company, whose valuation passed $1 trillion (£740m) amid a share-price climb of more than a third. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected sales of 263,000 on average. The figures are seen as a key measure of both the company’s strength and wider demand for electric vehicles, given Tesla’s leading position in the market. Telegraph
Many stressed-out workaholics are slaves to their endlessly ticking watch telling them there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. Now a high-tech device that straps on to your wrist can predict when you’re about to become too stressed – an hour before you even notice anxiety levels rising. The gadget is eerily similar to the app invented to monitor stress levels by tech tycoon Peter Isherwell – played by British actor Mark Rylance – in Netflix’s new hit film Don’t Look Up. The Nowatch is the first device on the market to monitor a person’s cortisol levels, the primary stress hormone. Daily Mail
BlackBerry phones, once the height of mobile devices, are finally being shut off. The company announced that services for the older devices will be brought to an end on 4 January. At that point, they will “no longer reliably function”, BlackBerry said, and will be unable to get data, texts or make phone calls, including to emergency numbers. It is just the latest in a series of endings for the once equally beloved and hated name, which helped drive the mobile revolution and was at the forefront of business and technology. Independent
As with last year’s CES, cloud gaming is starting off the new year with a pretty big announcement as Samsung has just announced that Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now will be coming to the company’s smart TV lineup. Samsung today announced that “select” TVs in its 2022 lineup will support apps for Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now for cloud gaming as a part of Samsung’s new “Gaming Hub.” Utomik will be a third cloud gaming service in that hub. Unfortunately, it’s currently unknown if the Stadia app will support 4K. It seems unlikely that the GeForce Now one will, seeing as that resolution is currently limited solely to the Shield TV. Neither app will be pre-installed on these TVs. 9to5Google
A cyber attack – possibly by China or Russia – hit the academic arm of the UK’s Ministry of Defence and had a “significant” impact, the officer in charge at the time has revealed. Air Marshal Edward Stringer, who retired from the armed forces in August, said the “sophisticated” hack – discovered last March – prompted the Defence Academy to accelerate plans for its entire network to be rebuilt and made more resilient. The targeting of an academic institution is a sign of how the frontline in modern warfare can be anywhere, the former director-general of the academy told Sky News. Sky News
Twitter has permanently suspended the personal account of the US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene for repeated violations of its rules around coronavirus misinformation. The action against the Republican lawmaker came under Twitter’s strike system, which identifies posts about the virus that could cause harm. The company had previously suspended the Georgia congresswoman four times. Rep Greene said the ban proved that the company is “an enemy to America”. BBC
