Tech Digest daily roundup: Sega to buy Angry Birds owner for £625 million
The maker of Angry Birds video games has agreed to be bought by the Japanese gaming giant behind the Sonic the Hedgehog character. Japan’s Sega Sammy Holdings is paying €706m (£625m) for Finland-based Rovio Entertainment. Rovio has said Angry Birds was the first mobile game to be downloaded one billion times, and the brand has also produced two Angry Birds movies. Sega is seeking to tap into Rovio’s expertise in mobile gaming. Last year, Rovio – which has about 550 employees across its eight game studios around the world – said downloads across its stable of games had reached five billion. BBC
Sideloading apps is one of the many comforts Android users have enjoyed for years. It’s when you can download an app from stores and resources other than Google’s official Play Store. On the other hand, Apple’s infamous walled garden has always kept iPhone users away from third-party app stores. It seems iOS 17 will finally bring a change to Apple’s years of sideloading restriction. According to Bloomberg’s recent leak about everything coming to WWDC 2023, iOS 17 could lay the groundwork for sideloading apps on iPhones. Android Authority
Google’s chief executive has admitted that the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) keeps him up at night, despite the company pushing ahead with the technology. Sundar Pichai said he did not fully understand AI but said it would one day “be far more capable than anything we’ve seen before”. In an interview with the US network CBS, he said: “I’ve always thought of AI as the most profound technology humanity is working on. More profound than fire or electricity or anything that we’ve done in the past.” However, the tech executive admitted he was concerned about the technology’s rapid, unchecked advancement. Telegraph
Small businesses in Cornwall are nursing thousands of pounds in losses after the sudden collapse of Virgin Orbit. Sir Richard Branson’s satellite launch company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US this month, extinguishing any lingering hope that it could become a mainstay on the Cornish coast. Court documents reveal creditors include many local businesses, such as catering firms and hotels. Simon Dean, who runs All-pac Packaging Supplies in Newquay, is owed £1,300. ‘I have been sending emails to people, but they are not being answered,’ he said, adding that to chase the money he would have to go to Virgin Orbit’s head office in Long Beach, California. ThisIsMoney
SpaceX will launch its Starship rocket system for the first time today. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued Elon Musk‘s company with a licence to put its most powerful rocket system through its paces, saying it met all safety and environmental requirements. The Starship rocket is due to blast off for its debut orbital test from Brownsville, Texas, on Monday, 8am Central Time (2pm UK time) with the flight test window opening an hour before. Sky News
T-12 hours until the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy rocket; targeting ~8:00 a.m. CT for liftoff → https://t.co/bJFjLCilmc pic.twitter.com/dZTNuOnKPr
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 17, 2023
Elon Musk has claimed the US government had full access to everything on Twitter, including DMs, before he took over the social media platform. In an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Mr Musk claimed he was shocked to find the extent of the government’s access on the platform. “The degree to which government agencies effectively had full access to everything that was going on on Twitter blew my mind,” Mr Musk said in a clip of the interview posted on Twitter. Independent
