ShinyShiny snippets: Tesla slashes Shanghai EV production
Tesla has pulled back most of its production in Shanghai as China’s zero-Covid policy wreaks havoc in its supply chain. The electric car company, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, has cut back from making 1,200 units a day to fewer than 200 units, Reuters reported. The plans were outlined in an internal memo sent after the factory reopened following a 22-day closure to comply with Shanghai’s latest lockdown. The factory has reopened on a so-called closed loop system that requires employees to live on the site and work 12-hour shifts for six days a week. Telegraph
Elon Musk aims to increase Twitter’s revenue fivefold to $26.4bn (£21.4bn) by 2028, a presentation to prospective Twitter investors seen by The New York Times (NYT) suggests. Last year, Twitter’s revenue was $5bn. Plans to launch a new service called X are also revealed in the report, with an aim of nine million subscribers in its first year and 104 million by 2028. Tech industry analyst Kyle Rees says the goals are “very tentative given the state of global and industry affairs”. BBC
Nintendo shipped 4.11 million Switch consoles in its January-March quarter, bringing its total to 23.06 million for the financial year, just enough to meet its revised forecast of 23 million. The company had originally predicted 25.5 million units for the year, then 24 million, before reaching its final forecast three months ago. The figure represents a 20 percent decline on the previous year’s figure of 28.83 million consoles shipped, with Nintendo citing shortages of semiconductors and other components. The Verge
Sony has now shipped 19.3m PlayStation 5 consoles worldwide to date, with another 2m shipped during the last financial quarter. However, those figures are lower than expected – by 3.3m consoles – following warnings by Sony it was struggling to get hold of components. Sony had hoped to shift 14.8m PS5 consoles this past financial year (the 12 months ending 31st March 2022) in order to match – if not outpace – the number of PS4s sold at the same point in its lifecycle. Eurogamer
Google’s next Google I/O developer conference is just around the corner—literally, it starts Wednesday. Tune in on May 11 at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET to learn what’s new across Google’s vast portfolio of platforms. If you register for the event, you can even hop in on the sessions to get developer-centric information on what’s coming to a Google phone, smart home device, or other gadget near you. Everyone else will get most of what they need from Google I/O’s keynote, which is when Google teases what it’s working on. It tends to use this venue to debut what’s happening behind the scenes. Expect to hear more about what’s new in Android 13, and whether there’s anything happening to Wear OS ever again. Gizmodo
Strong cyber security is needed to protect the UK, now more than ever, because of global economic concerns and Russia’s war in Ukraine, the head of GCHQ has said. Sir Jeremy Fleming told the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) CyberUK conference in Newport, Wales, that the current “serious global economic situation” means “the need to make the UK the safest place to live and do business online is ever more relevant”.The GCHQ director said the UK must continue to focus on cyber criminals and other bad actors who are constantly adapting their tactics in an effort to make money through illegal activities. Yahoo!
