Tech Digest daily roundup: All mobile owners to get Covid booster message
Every mobile phone owner in the UK will be sent a text message on Boxing Day urging them to get a booster jab if they have not already done so, following a request from ministers to BT and other networks. The appeal to those aged 18 and over is the latest attempt by the Government to encourage take-up of third vaccinations as the omicron coronavirus variant rips through the country. All of the mobile network operators will send out the text messages, the Telegraph understands, including BT owner EE, Vodafone, Virgin Media O2 and Three. Telegraph
Tesla has agreed to make changes to its Passenger Play feature that allowed games to be played on its touchscreen while the car is in motion. It follows an investigation launched by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The agency said it had been informed by Tesla that a software update would disable the feature while driving. Elon Musk’s car firm had faced criticism that the feature was dangerous. The New York Times reported that Tesla had contacted the NHTSA directly. “Passenger Play will now be locked and unusable when the vehicle is in motion,” the agency told the paper. BBC
The most powerful telescope to launch into space is set to finally lift off on Christmas Day following a delay caused by windy weather. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is on the launchpad and due to take off between 12.20pm and 12.52pm UK time. The $10 billion (£7.5bn) device is set to take the title of the largest and most powerful telescope ever sent into space when it blasts off on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The launch was scheduled for Christmas Eve, but a forecast of high-level winds at the Kourou spaceport forced it to be postponed until December 25. Evening Standard
Huawei today unveiled the P50 Pocket with the Snapdragon 888 SoC and a gapless folding screen. Alongside it, Huawei introduced the Watch D we’ve been hearing about for a few weeks. The Huawei Watch D sports a 1.64″ AMOLED color touchscreen of 456×280-pixel resolution and a pixel density of 326 ppi. It’s made of an aluminum alloy case and has two color options – Black and Titanium. The Watch D’s straps are made of fluoro-rubber and come in medium and large sizes. The former is 11.8cm long, and the latter is 13.3cm in length. GSM Arena
As a pointer to where EVs are really going (as opposed to what the naysayers and ‘gas led recovery’ proponents in our current federal government would have us believe) – we only have to look to the European market to see what forward-thinking policy on reducing pollution and climate change-causing emissions can do. Jato Dynamics have just released its analysis of the November European plug-in EV (PEV) sales – and they are quite startling! They found that in their basket of 25 European countries, PEV sales passed 1 in 4 of all new car sales. The Driven
