Tag: Elon Musk
ShinyShiny snippets: Batteries thrown in household waste cause hundreds of fires
Batteries thrown in household rubbish bins cause about 700 fires every year in dustcarts and waste-processing centres, local authorities say. Lithium-ion batteries can explode if damaged or crushed. The Environmental Services Association says resulting fires cost fire services and waste operators some £158m a year. Non-profit organisation Material Focus, which surveyed local authorities, runs an online search tool…
ShinyShiny snippets: Mercedes offers subscription for faster EV acceleration
Mercedes-Benz is to offer an online subscription service in the US to make its electric cars speed up quicker. For an annual cost of $1,200 (£991) excluding tax, the company will enable some of its vehicles to accelerate from 0-60mph a second faster. It comes after rival manufacturer BMW offered a subscription feature earlier…
ShinyShiny snippets: Mazda hints at electric MX-5
Mazda has previewed a sleek two-seat coupé – which could hint at the next-generation MX-5 – alongside the announcement of an £8.9 billion investment into future electric vehicles. Although the firm did not detail the model...it was shown alongside a series of Mazda MX-5 convertibles. This suggests it could be an early look at the next-generation sports…
ShinyShiny snippets: Trump back on Twitter after poll decision!
Donald Trump is back on Twitter after an online poll voted for his return. The platform's new owner Elon Musk had announced on Saturday evening that, following the vote, the former president would be reinstated, almost two years after he was removed following the 6 January US Capitol riots. On hearing the news, the former…
ShinyShiny snippets: Twitter staff locked out of office until next week
Elon Musk has locked Twitter staff out of offices until next week as hundreds of employees reportedly resigned after being given an ultimatum by the billionaire. The closure until Monday was revealed in an email to staff and no reason was given. Hundreds of employees have quit the company after Mr Musk told staff they…
ShinyShiny snippets: Concerns over speed put people off broadband social tariffs
Concerns about broadband speed are putting eligible households off signing up for discounted broadband deals, research from Which? has shown. It surveyed more than 2,000 people eligible for fixed broadband social tariffs to uncover the barriers to signing up. Worryingly, four in 10 of those surveyed who are eligible for and aware of social tariffs…
ShinyShiny snippets: Virgin sells stake in Hyperloop
Sir Richard Branson is preparing to sell off Virgin’s stake in a US hyperloop start-up as interest in the technology envisioned by Twitter billionaire Elon Musk fades. A source said Virgin will begin stripping its branding from US business Hyperloop One over the coming weeks and will divest its equity stake at the same time.…
ShinyShiny snippets: Elon Musk ‘no choice’ but to slash Twitter staff
Twitter's new owner Elon Musk says he had "no choice" but to slash the company's workforce as the firm is losing more than $4m (£3.5m) a day. Half of the company's staff are being let go, a week after Mr Musk bought Twitter in a $44bn (£38.7bn) deal. Twitter staff have been using the platform…
ShinyShiny snippets: WhatsApp rolls out new features for Groups
WhatsApp groups can now be brought together under one umbrella with the launch of a new communities feature. Rolling out from today, it's designed so that updates can be sent to everyone across all groups in one go, while still allowing for smaller discussions within the individual groups. Think of it like a Russian stacking…
ShinyShiny snippets: Gigafactory startup on brink of administration
The UK government-backed battery startup Britishvolt is on the brink of entering administration with the potential loss of almost 300 jobs, after it struggled to find investors willing to fund its effort to build a giant £3.8bn “gigafactory” in north-east England. The company had considered an administration as early as Monday, two sources with knowledge…
