Tech Digest daily roundup: BYD steals Tesla’s sales crown
A Chinese firm backed by Warren Buffett has stolen Tesla’s crown after selling more electric cars in the first half of this year than Elon Musk’s company. BYD, which is backed by Mr Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, tripled production of electric vehicles in just one year. It delivered 641,000 cars in the first six months of 2022, almost 100,000 more than Mr Musk’s business. Tesla made 565,000 deliveries between January and June, a gain on the year before but below forecasts. Bank analysts had predicted Tesla would deliver 96,000 more vehicles in the second quarter. Shenzhen-based BYD manufactures a range of electric vehicles including cars, buses and large goods vehicles. Telegraph
Apple has announced a new security feature to protect high-risk users from spyware cyber-attacks. Lockdown Mode will be available in the autumn with the next operating system across all of the company’s iPhones, iPads and Macs. The setting blocks certain functions and prevents unknown users from calling. It comes after Apple devices owned by activists, politicians and journalists were infected with spyware. Apple is currently suing Israeli spyware firm NSO Group, accusing it of targeting victims in 150 different countries with its powerful Pegasus spyware. BBC
The sharing of “downblouse” images and nude photos or videos without consent should be made crimes, the Law Commission has recommended. It said the recommendations would bring laws on intimate image abuse into the smartphone era, adding that a “patchwork” of criminal offences has not kept pace with technology and is failing to protect victims while perpetrators evade justice. The commission is proposing the creation of a base offence, with a maximum of six months’ imprisonment, covering all acts of intentionally taking or sharing a sexual, nude or intimate photo or video without consent. Sky News
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has investigated complaints regarding adverts that appeared in the free-to-play Scrabble Go app. According to complainants, the ads in question made light of sexual assault, even going so far as to actively encourage it. The first ad to be reported was for a mobile game app from OneSoft Studio named Naughty Puzzle: Tricky Test. It showed an animated woman wearing what appeared to be short shorts and a vest top struggling to free herself from a broken fence. Meanwhile, a man was depicted in the foreground, with the user then presented with the option to “HELP” the woman (shown by a picture of the broken fence) or “SLAP” the woman. Eurogamer
The head of the FBI and the leader of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency raised fresh alarms Wednesday about the Chinese government, warning business leaders that Beijing is determined to steal their technology for competitive gain. FBI Director Christopher Wray reaffirmed longstanding concerns in denouncing economic espionage and hacking operations by China as well as the Chinese government’s efforts to stifle dissent abroad. But his speech was notable because it took place at MI5’s London headquarters and alongside the agency’s director-general, Ken McCallum, in an intended show of Western solidarity. AP News
