Tech Digest daily roundup: WhatsApp launches ‘Message Yourself’ function
WhatsApp has started rolling out a feature to let you chat with yourself. Sending messages to your own account can be a way to keep a piece of information easily accessible, right next to your other WhatsApp conversations. Called ‘Message Yourself’, the feature lets users send notes, reminders and shopping lists to themselves on WhatsApp. On Monday, the Meta-owned instant messaging app announced the rollout of the new messaging feature that will reach all its Android and iPhone users in the coming weeks. It was initially tested with some beta testers, WhatsApp beta tracker WABetaInfo reported in late October. TechCrunch
The Grand Theft Auto franchise has been a phenomenal success since it was first launched exactly 25 years ago, making billions of dollars for its American owner Take-Two Interactive. So it may come as a surprise to learn that its creators, Dundee-based DMA Design, were far from confident about GTA’s prospects. Colin Macdonald, who joined DMA a few months before the launch of the action-adventure video game in 1997, explains: “In mid-development, there was an informal staff survey on which of the seven titles they were working on would be the most successful and least successful. “The one voted most likely not to succeed was Grand Theft Auto.” BBC
ITVX, the new streaming service from ITV that’s replacing ITV Hub, is already available on several devices – but many users are still suffering from early-day bugs, buffering and crashes. Although the official launch of ITVX is set to December 8, a “soft roll-out” began on November 17, with the new ITVX app already available on quite a few streaming devices, such as Roku, Samsung Smart TVs and web browsers – with more being added every week. Therefore, with ITV Hub no longer available on devices where ITVX is already live, many users are now using the new app, especially with World Cup matches already streaming on ITVX – but for some, ITVX is not working. Cordbusters
Riots at a key iPhone factory in China could leave Apple short of up to six million premium handsets in the vital runup to Christmas, according to concerned bosses. Increasingly violent unrest among workers at Apple supplier Foxconn’s factory in Zhengzhou, eastern China, will slow production of the iPhone 14 Pro, according to internal estimates prepared by managers. Around one-third of production capacity has been lost as angry staff protested against Covid-19 lockdown restrictions at the factory, Reuters reported citing a source with direct knowledge of the estimates. Telegraph
The latest Pokemon games have had the most significant worldwide launch sales in Nintendo’s history, despite players complaining of bugs and poor graphics performance. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, released last week on the Switch, have the lowest user scores in series history on the Metacritic reviews aggregator website. Previously the lowest-scoring game was Pokemon Unite with an average score of 3.7, but Scarlet and Violet have “beaten” that with 2.9 and 3.4 respectively at the time of writing. Sky News
Battery startup Britishvolt has formally abandoned a long-shot plan to build a second factory in Canada, as it focuses on securing new funding for its struggling UK project. Britishvolt’s main project is an attempt to build a factory near Blyth in north-east England capable of producing batteries with a capacity of 30 gigawatt hours (30GWh) every year. That effort has run into serious financial difficulties, with Britishvolt now looking for millions of pounds of new investment to continue operating after narrowly avoiding administration earlier this month. The struggles have been seen as a serious blow to the prospects for the UK car industry. Guardian
