Tech Digest daily round up: Aston Martin pledges electric future to UK
Luxury car giant Aston Martin has pledged to manufacture all of its electric cars in the UK from 2025. As first reported in the Financial Times, owner Lawrence Stroll said all of its battery sports cars will be made at its plant in Gaydon, Warwickshire. Its electric SUV models will be made at St Athan in Glamorgan, he confirmed. The company is due to start making hybrid versions of its cars over the next four years, followed by battery-only models.
Russia accused Facebook on Monday of violating citizens’ rights by blocking some media outlets’ content in the latest standoff between a government and Big Tech. Communications watchdog Roskomnadzor at the weekend threatened Facebook with a minimum 1 million rouble ($13,433) fine and demanded it restore access to content posted by TASS news agency, RBC business daily and Vzglyad newspaper. It said Facebook blocked posts pertaining to Russia’s detention of alleged supporters of a Ukrainian far-right group. See story on Reuters.
An autonomous version of the historical Mayflower ship that’s powered by artificial intelligence (AI) is set to make its maiden voyage across the Atlantic next month. On April 19, Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) – pictured above – will depart from Plymouth, England and arrive at Plymouth, Massachusetts about 3,000 miles and two weeks later. The original ship, which transported 102 passengers known as the Pilgrims, took 10 weeks to reach its destination in the autumn of 1620. The new 50-foot ship, which won’t carry any human passengers or even crew, will roughly take the same route as its predecessor. Powered by AI and solar energy, it will gather critical scientific data about the ocean. See The Daily Mail.
The US is expressing growing concern over a hack on Microsoft’s Exchange email software that the tech company has blamed on China. “This is an active threat,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday. “Everyone running these servers – government, private sector, academia – needs to act now to patch them.” Microsoft said hackers had used its mail server to attack their targets. It is reported that tens of thousands of US organisations may be impacted. See full story on the BBC. See: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56304379
Honor looks to be prepping a new smartwatch and fitness band, which would be the first wearables launched since the former Huawei off-shoot was sold by the Chinese tech giant. Details of an Honor Smart Watch and Honor Smart Band were discovered in US FCC listings, which appears to confirm the pair of devices are on the way. Along with revealing the type of wearable form factors we can expect, it also lists that the smartwatch will pack an 180mAh capacity battery and the band will host a smaller 100mAh battery. See full story on Wearable.
According to The Times, Labour has ordered all of its MPs to sign up to TikTok in a belated attempt to prevent parliamentarians from falling foul of online pranksters. Opposition officials wrote to all Labour MPs to ask them to “secure your username” on the Chinese-owned social network after a spate of malicious parodies. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, is among those whose identity has been appropriated by users of varying levels of artistic ability. The party is now lobbying TikTok to remove the accounts. “We are aware of a number of parody MP TikTok accounts that have been set up recently,” officials wrote. “We would encourage all MPs to create a TikTok account (even if you aren’t planning on using it).”
