Tech Digest daily roundup: Microsoft unveils Surface Pro 8
Tim Sweeney, CEO of Fortnite maker Epic Games Inc., said Wednesday it’s been told by Apple that the game will be “blacklisted from the Apple ecosystem” until the companies’ legal case is resolved and all appeals are exhausted, which could take as long as five years. Sweeney posted on Twitter that Epic has asked Apple to reinstate Fortnite and promised “that it will adhere to Apple’s guidelines whenever and wherever we release products on Apple’s platforms. Apple spent a year telling the world, the court, and the press they’d ‘welcome Epic’s return to the App Store if they agree to play by the same rules as everyone else.’ Epic agreed, and now Apple has reneged in another abuse of its monopoly power over a billion users,” Sweeney tweeted. AP News
If you were in a tizzy about what to get the devoted Billie Eilish fan in your family for the holidays, Amazon might have just solved your problem — assuming you’re prepared to drop $230 on them. Announced today, the Billie Eilish Limited Edition Echo Studio is available for pre-order and features the melancholy-voiced singer pasted on the side of Amazon’s highest-end Echo speaker, the Studio. Basically, the album cover art from Eilish’s new album “Happier Than Ever” has been printed onto a new beige-hued fabric and wrapped around the Echo Studio. It creates a slightly eerie-looking product that supposedly someone, somewhere, will want to put in their home. This is Amazon’s first foray into celebrity skins; previous attempts to dress up its bulbous smart speakers have focused on pandas and tigers designed for children’s rooms. The Verge
A British start-up has claimed a breakthrough in the development of quantum computers, creating a way for software to work across the next generation machines in a step towards making them more useful. A consortium led by Cambridge-based Riverlane has developed a system that allows one piece of code to operate on different types of quantum computers, seen as a step towards building an “operating system for quantum computing”. Major technology companies and researchers are racing to develop quantum computers, which will be many times more powerful than today’s “classical” machines and can be used for climate, medical and advanced materials research. Telegraph
A vertical farming system is being developed which researchers hope will address global food challenges by using hi-tech growing methods to produce large quantities of nutritious fresh crops all year round. The system grows vegetables, salads and fruit, stacked vertically and without the need for soil. It is being designed and engineered by scientists at Nottingham Trent University, in partnership with Henley Associates Ltd. Two vertical farming units are being created, one about the size of a shipping container and the other about half the size. They will act as an initial proof of concept, paving the way for more to be built for and used by retailers, caterers, local authorities and schools, experts say. Yahoo!
