UK ‘waters down’ switch to EVs, LinkedIn ‘too dull’ for Under 16s
The Government is poised to water down rules mandating the switch to electric vehicles (EVs) after a backlash from carmakers. Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, will announce a fast-track consultation on potential policy changes to the phase-out of petrol engines at an industry gathering on Tuesday, it is understood. The rethink comes after Mr Reynolds and Louise Haigh, the Transport Secretary, last week met executives from seven carmakers, trade groups and charging firms. Telegraph
Apple engineers are wrestling with where to put the SIM card, battery, and thermal materials in the rumored iPhone 17 “Slim,” according to The Information. Although US iPhones haven’t had SIM cards for a couple of years now, they’re required to in China, making it a tricky, but necessary hurdle to get over. The 17 Slim’s single, center-mounted camera will reportedly be surrounded by a rectangular bump that’s made of aluminum instead of glass. The Verge
Career-networking site LinkedIn has told Australian lawmakers it is too dull for kids to warrant its inclusion in a proposed ban on social media for under 16 year olds. “LinkedIn simply does not have content interesting and appealing to minors,” the Microsoft-owned company said in a submission to an Australian senate committee. The Australian government has said it will introduce “world-leading” legislation to stop children accessing social media platforms. BBC
The UK is in a “new AI arms race” with countries like Russia and North Korea, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said on Monday. Minister Pat McFadden, who was speaking at the NATO Cyber Defence Conference at Lancaster House, warned the UK and its allies that ‘cyber war is now a daily reality’. “Be in no doubt: the United Kingdom and others in this room are watching Russia. We know exactly what they are doing, and we are countering their attacks both publicly and behind the scenes,” he said. Sky News
Jaguar, a 102-year old British car company, is about to reveal a new concept car. Nothing unusual there: car companies make eccentric models to preview their future metal all the time. But what Jaguar’s up to has whipped up a massive, fiery online debate that’s spilled over into politics, evening news and the culture wars. On Tuesday 19 November 2024, Jaguar revealed its fresh ‘brand identity’. Long story short, it’s a new ‘monogram’ badge (a circle housing a ‘J’ and an ‘r’), a sort of Venetian blind leaping cat caged in a barcode, and ‘wordmark’ spelling ‘JaGUar’ in jumbled upper/lower case. Top Gear
Google is in trouble. As my colleague Dan Milmo reported, the US Department of Justice “has proposed a far-reaching overhaul of Google’s structure and business practices, including the sale of its Chrome browser, in a bid to end its monopoly on internet search”. The move follows a major court ruling last August in which a federal judge determined that Google had violated antitrust laws and held an illegal monopoly over search services. The justice department’s suggestion is blunt: “Google must divest Chrome.” The Guardian
Google has announced it’s making more changes to how it displays search results in the European Union in response to continued complaints that it’s failing to comply with the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). This will include what it bills as a “short test” of plain “blue link” style search results for hotel queries in three EU markets (Belgium, Estonia and Germany) which will be akin — the company suggests — to how its search engine originally displayed results. Tech Crunch
