ShinyShiny snippets: Archer Aviation to make 250 Electric Air Taxis
Archer Aviation Inc said it aims to make about 250 battery-electric air taxis in 2025 and scale up production in the following years, after setting a goal of getting its aircraft certified by the end of 2024. “In our first year, we will build 250 aircraft, our second year will build 500 aircraft, our third year will build 650 aircraft and then we scale it up to around 2,000 aircraft per year,” CEO Adam Goldstein told Reuters in an interview. Archer aims to certify its pilot-plus-four-passenger aircraft, ‘Midnight’, by end-2024, though the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is still in the process of drawing up certification rules for these futuristic aircraft. Reuters
OPPO is reportedly working on the Reno 9 series, which may go official sometime in November. The lineup is expected to include two smartphones— Reno 9, Reno 9 Pro, and Reno 9 Pro+. However, details about the Pro phones are still under wraps. Now, a popular Chinese tipster claims OPPO is working on a new mid-range smartphone that will pack an IMX890 main cam and MariSilicon X chip. Notable tipster Digital Chat Station revealed through a Weibo post that OPPO is working on an unknown mid-range smartphone that will be equipped with Sony’s IMX890 sensor and the company’s self-developed MariSilicon X chip. Gizmochina
A video on TikTok about sexual consent has been swamped with comments from men accusing women of alleging assault. Many of them mention Andrew Tate, the controversial influencer who has been banned from several platforms for his misogynist views. The two-minute video, from an account with about 1,700 followers, has been viewed more than 1.2 million times. Its creator Emmeline Hartley says she believes TikTok’s algorithms are driving more hate towards the film. People using TikTok are served content based on a mixture of videos they have previously liked, and on which people like them have watched and commented. BBC
UK councils are set to install more than 16,500 electric vehicle charging stations over the next 12 months, doubling the number of public chargers currently installed. The research, conducted by British Gas under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to more than 400 UK councils of which 195 responded to all questions asked, revealed that local authorities have installed 16,680 EV charging points to date, with a further 16,563 planned to be installed over the next 12 months. It shows that local authority-owned EV charging capacity is set to more than double in five regions and nations across the UK. London reported the highest uplift in charger numbers (101% increase from 7,848 to 15,753). Fleet News
Select Car Leasing has joined forces with Zap-Map, the UK’s leading charge point mapping service, to help reduce range anxiety when driving an electric vehicle (EV). The popular Zap-Map app lets users search for available EV charge points while viewing live availability information. It also helps to plan journeys, pay for charging, and share updates with other EV drivers. Now every customer that leases an electric vehicle with Select Car Leasing will automatically be handed three months free access to Zap-Map’s ‘Premium’ service. Tech Digest
A hacker who stole unreleased songs from Ed Sheeran and rapper Lil Uzi Vert and offered them for sale online has been jailed for 18 months. Adrian Kwiatkowski stole two songs from Sheeran and 12 songs from American rapper Vert and tried to exchange them for cryptocurrency, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said. The 23-year-old from Ipswich made £131,000, according to police. Kwiatkowski’s laptop was searched and 565 audio files from dozens of artists were found, including Vert and Sheeran’s songs, the CPS said. Sky News
