California blocks driverless Waymo expansion, Motorola launches £90 smartphone
California has blocked a Google-backed driverless car company from expanding to more cities after a series of accidents. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has suspended a request by Waymo, which is owned by Google’s parent company, to launch its robotaxi business in more cities within the state. Vehicles from Waymo and Cruise, a rival, have been operating in San Francisco for years. Waymo had been seeking permission to expand to Los Angeles and the wider San Francisco peninsula. Telegraph
Google is racing to fix its new AI-powered tool for creating pictures, after claims it was over-correcting against the risk of being racist. Users said the firm’s Gemini bot supplied images depicting a variety of genders and ethnicities even when doing so was historically inaccurate. For example, a prompt seeking images of America’s founding fathers turned up women and people of colour. The company said its tool was “missing the mark”. BBC
Apple has rolled out an update to iMessage encryption, the likes of which includes post-quantum protections that the company calls the “most significant cryptographic security upgrade” in the messenger’s history. In a blog post published Wednesday, Apple announced the arrival of PQ3, a new encryption protocol designed to seriously enhance the app’s security. Since its launch in 2011, iMessage has offered end-to-end encryption—which is a nice thing to have if you want to keep your chats private. Gizmodo
With most flagship devices from the likes of Apple and Samsung costing well over £700, treating yourself to a new smartphone can put a serious strain on the credit card. Luckily a new device launching soon from Motorola is bringing some pretty impressive features to pockets for less than £90. Considering its ludicrously low price, the moto g04 (pictured above) packs quite a punch with this device featuring a sleek design and 6.6″ HD+ display. That screen even includes 90Hz technology (the iPhone 15 can only muster 60Hz) which means owners should get a silky-smooth experience when scrolling through websites and playing games. The Mirror
iPhone 15 owners seemingly got some great news yesterday: long-term battery health is better than Apple initially claimed. Twice as good, in fact! The company is now advertising a much larger number to represent how long its batteries will last. The trouble is, we’re not exactly sure if the batteries have gotten that much better — or if Apple has just changed how it talks about and tests them. As reported by 9to5Mac, Apple retested the batteries in the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro and now claims they can maintain at least 80 percent of their original capacity for 1,000 charging cycles. The Verge
The artificial intelligence boom is pushing demand for Nvidia’s products past Wall Street’s already lofty expectations. The chipmaker beat analyst expectations on Wednesday by leaps and bounds when it reported fourth-quarter earnings, posting $22.1bn in revenue on an expected $20.55bn and $4.93 in earnings per share against an expected $4.64. Revenue was 22% higher than the previous quarter, up 265% from a year ago. The Guardian
