Apple facing iPad ad backlash, EV used car sales up 70%
Apple is facing a backlash online over an advert in which objects including musical instruments and books are crushed into oblivion by a hydraulic press. The video is meant to demonstrate how their creativity has been compressed into the latest iPad. But celebrities including Hugh Grant and Justine Bateman have reacted with horror to the destruction on view. Apple boss Tim Cook has been called tone deaf, external for his post on X, formerly Twitter, about the device, where he asked people to, external “imagine all the things it’ll be used to create”. BBC
Crushing a piano, trumpet & guitar evokes the same primal horrific sacrilege as watching books burn.
Surprisingly tone-deaf from Apple, who’ve previously enabled & championed creativity.
But I imagine they’ll see how out of tune this is once they turn off the autotune. https://t.co/ZdRmVrcOZl
— Crispin Hunt (@crispinhunt) May 9, 2024
Ford is prepared to restrict the sale of petrol models in the UK in order to hit the country’s stretching electric targets, a move that is likely to push up prices for consumers, its European boss has warned. Martin Sander also pushed back plans to sell only electric cars in Europe by 2030, saying the old target was now “irrelevant” because sales were “below expectations”. He told a Financial Times summit that weak sales meant the company’s only option to avoid crippling fines under the UK’s new electric vehicle quota rules was to divert sales to other countries. FT.com
Increasing numbers of used electric cars from company fleets are hitting auctions and dealers, making fully-electric powertrains the fastest-growing sector of the used car market. Overall, the UK used car market rose 6.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2024. According to the official numbers, a total of 41,505 electric cars entered the used market in the first three months of this year. It’s an increase of more than two-thirds on the same period in 2023 taking the overall number of used EV transactions to a still small but increasingly significant 2.1 per cent. Autoexpress
It is a situation that has now become frustratingly familiar. You need to file your tax return, or make a GP appointment, or book a boiler service. Instead of simply picking up the phone and speaking to a human being, you are dragged through a labyrinthine series of online contact forms and AI chatbots. At the same time, even if a company did actually ring you up, a large section of society would instantly decline the call. Research published this week by Uswitch found that a quarter of 18 to 34-year-olds have never answered their phone. Telegraph
When Google unveiled its Find My Device network – Android’s riff on Apple’s Find My network – one Pixel 8-exclusive feature caught the eye. Even if your Google Pixel 8 is switched off, or its battery has died, it can be found on the network. Now Google has revealed a few more details about the feature – and it already sounds a lot less impressive. On its official support page, under ‘Step 4: Find offline devices and devices without power’ Google explains that there are a handful of caveats to finding these devices. Tech Radar
Volvo will introduce mega-casting into the production of its next-generation electric cars, due in 2026 – a move it says will greatly improve efficiency and create more freedom for future vehicle design and manufacturing. The firm says the advanced manufacturing process will be introduced on the next-generation EVs produced at its main Torslanda plant in Sweden. Although the manufacturer has given no technical details, this will tie in with the planned introduction of the SPA3 platform. Autocar
