Tech Digest daily roundup: Apple staff ‘must be in office 3 days a week’
Apple has told employees that they must get back in the office for at least three days every week. Like many companies, it is attempting to figure out what role its offices have after remote working prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Apple previously attempted to get staff back in the office in June 2021, only to have its plans foiled by another coronavirus wave. In a memo sent to employees by chief executive Tim Cook on Monday, the company stressed that “in-person collaboration” is “essential to our culture”. Sky News
Four iPhone 14 models are widely expected to be unveiled in mid-September, but there are still a lot of questions around the sort of upgrades we’re going to get. One key spec that it seems, won’t be upgraded this year (despite previous rumors to the contrary) is storage space. According to analyst Jeff Pu from Haitong International (via MacRumors), the Pro versions of the iPhone 14 will follow the lead of the current iPhones: specifically, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. Tech Radar
Zap-Map has highlighted England’s most popular public charging locations, with Gridserve’s Electric Super Hub in Rugby topping the list. The electric vehicle (EV) charging app has published its findings based on the analysis of more than 1.6 million charging sessions. The rankings reflect the second quarter of 2022 and cover around 70% of the UK’s public EV charging network. Melanie Shufflebotham, Zap-Map co-founder & COO, said: “With over 500,000 pure-electric cars on UK roads, and the number of EV drivers joining their ranks showing no signs of slowing, high-power charging hubs are becoming increasingly popular.” Fleet News
Chinese internet giants including Alibaba, Tiktok-owner ByteDance and Tencent have shared details of their algorithms with China’s regulators for the first time. Algorithms decide what users see and the order they see it in – and are critical to driving the growth of social media platforms. They are closely guarded by companies. In the US Meta and Alphabet have successfully argued they are trade secrets amid calls for more disclosure. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has published a list with the descriptions of 30 algorithms. BBC
A test car with autonomous steering capability veered into oncoming traffic in Germany, killing one person and seriously injuring nine others, police said Tuesday. A spokesman for police in the southwestern town of Reutlingen said the electric BMW iX with five people on board, including a young child, swerved out of its lane at a bend in the road, triggering a series of collisions involving four vehicles Monday afternoon. After brushing an oncoming Citroen, the BMW hit a Mercedes-Benz van head-on, resulting in the death of a 33-year-old passenger in that vehicle. AP News
A US private equity firm has launched a multibillion-pound takeover bid for the cybersecurity company Darktrace in the latest American raid on British tech. Darktrace said this evening that it is in the early stages of negotiations with Chicago-based Thoma Bravo, which previously bought fellow UK cyber company Sophos for £3.1bn in 2019. Darktrace – which was founded by entrepreneur Mike Lynch, who is fighting fraud allegations at a separate business – said that there was no guarantee a deal would go ahead. Telegraph
