Tech Digest daily roundup: US tries to block Nvidia $40bn Arm takeover
The US Federal Trade Commission has challenged the proposed takeover of chip designer Arm by Nvidia. The FTC said the proposed acquisition would give Nvidia too much control over computing technology that competitors rely on. Arm licenses its designs and technology to big tech companies, including Apple, Qualcomm, Sony and Samsung. Nvidia said it would “work to demonstrate that this transaction will benefit the industry”. The company produces high-performance graphics cards for gaming, chips for mobile computing and also develops software and artificial intelligence systems. Originally a British firm, Arm was sold to Japan’s SoftBank in 2016. BBC
Google is planning to release its first branded smartwatch next year, according to inside sources – and it might actually be a Fitbit. Business Insider, which first broke the story, claims that there are currently no plans for the new watch to carry the Fitbit brand, but other hints suggest otherwise. Most significantly, a source speaking to The Verge claimed that the new smartwatch (currently codenamed Rohan) would cost more than the current line of Fitbit devices – an odd comparison to make if there’s no connection. Tech Radar
One of the studios responsible for Call of Duty’s success is laying off QA testers that are reportedly earning $17 an hour for their work on the franchise Activision Blizzard said brought in $3 billion dollars in 2020. Raven Software, known for its work on Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and CoD: Warzone has now laid off a third of its contract QA testers, according to reports by Kotaku and The Washington Post. The Verge
According to figures from BuyaCar.co.uk, EVs registered in 2020 have been representing up to 27% of all one-year-old car sales in recent weeks. BuyaCar says that the confidence its customers are showing in the used EV market is one of the strongest signs yet that full battery-powered cars have crossed the tipping point into becoming a mainstream motoring choice. Meanwhile, the rapid slowdown in diesel sales continues – especially among cars in the one-to-three year old bracket – where less than one in four buyers are searching for or buying a diesel. Interest in used EVs on BuyaCar.co.uk has grown fast over the past 12 months, with 14% of visitors to the site initially searching for electric cars during November compared to just 8% during November 2020. MotorTrader
The International Space Station (ISS) was forced to swerve away from a fragment of a US launch vehicle on Friday, the Russian space agency has said. The manoeuvre comes as the latest in a series of incidents in which space debris has forced astronauts to respond. Calls to monitor and regulate space debris, or space junk, have grown since Russia conducted an anti-satellite missile test last month. This generated a debris field in orbit that US officials said would pose a hazard to space activities for years. Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, said on Friday that the ISS had been forced to move due to space junk from a US launch vehicle sent into orbit in 1994. Sky News
