Was Ukraine really to blame for X outage? Used Tesla prices plummet
Experts have cast doubt on Elon Musk’s claim that a large-scale outage which hit X was caused by hackers in Ukraine. Platform monitor Downdetector says it had more than 1.6 million reports of problems with the social media site from users around the world on Monday. “We’re not sure exactly what happened but there was a massive cyber-attack to try and bring down the X system with IP [Internet Protocol] addresses originating in the Ukraine area,” Musk said in an interview with the Fox Business channel. However, Ciaran Martin, professor at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government told the BBC that explanation was “wholly unconvincing”. BBC
Amid the market volatility sparked by Donald Trump’s on-off tariff plans, during which the benchmark S&P 500 index fell by 3.1% last week and the Nasdaq entered ‘correction’ territory, no stock has been more badly hit than Tesla. Shares of Elon Musk‘s electric vehicle maker have fallen for seven straight weeks, the longest losing streak since the company floated on the stock market 15 years ago. On Monday, the Tesla share price plunged by at least 15% to $222. Since the price peaked at $479.86 on 17 December, it has fallen by over half, wiping more than $800bn from its stock market value. Sky News
It’s a complicated time for car shoppers. President Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten to increase new car prices, and the used car prices are expected to rise in turn. That is, of course, unless you’re shopping for Teslas, which are getting more affordable versus the rest of the car market. Forbes reports that a used Model Y has dropped $6,000 on average over the last year. In March 2024, a Model Y with decent mileage would’ve gone for around $36,000. That price has dropped to $30,000, with a steady decrease coming since the U.S. elections in November. Mashable
Microsoft is ending support of its Remote Desktop app for Windows on May 27th. If you use the Remote Desktop app to connect to Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop, or Microsoft Dev Box machines then you’ll have to transition to the Windows app instead. The new Windows app, which launched in September, includes multimonitor support, dynamic display resolutions, and easy access to cloud PCs and virtual desktops. The Verge
Google‘s infusion of its Gemini AI across its services continues with Google Calendar. As someone who often relies on that calendar to ensure I get where I need to be on time, I was intrigued about the possibilities for Gemini in this context. It is being pitched as a way for Gemini to check your schedule, find event details, and even create events for you through natural language prompts. Here’s the deal, though. Gemini in Calendar is supposed to make life easier by letting you simply ask for what you need. No more scrolling through endless event entries or manually adding things like “Lunch with Sarah”. Tech Radar
The iPhone 16e is a solid phone that offers most of the core iPhone experience with a few things left out for a lower cost. Many of these things, such as slower wifi, a slightly less powerful chip, no camera control button and an older-style notch probably don’t matter much to most people. But the lack of MagSafe and only a single camera on the back may be deal breakers for some. The advantage the 16e has over the iPhone 15 and older, cheaper models still available from third-party retailers is the Apple Intelligence features, some of which are useful but many are underwhelming. The Guardian
