Tech Digest daily roundup: Twitter staff locked out of offices until Monday
Elon Musk has locked Twitter staff out of offices until next week as hundreds of employees reportedly resigned after being given an ultimatum by the billionaire. The closure until Monday was revealed in an email to staff and no reason was given. Hundreds of employees have quit the company after Mr Musk told staff they “need to be extremely hardcore” or leave the company, according to The Verge. The social network’s self-styled “Chief Twit” had already laid off half of the company’s workforce after taking over, before having to ask some of them to return in order to build the platform he envisaged. Telegraph
Google revealed some initial details about Search with Live View in September, but now it’s announcing the Google Maps augmented reality feature will begin rolling out in London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Tokyo on Android and iOS beginning next week. The feature shows you things like coffee shops and ATMs when you’re holding up your phone and pointing it at the world around you. If you’re in a city where Search with Live View is available, just tap the camera button in the Google Maps search bar, point your phone’s camera at the buildings and places nearby, and look for the dots that pop up indicating where landmarks are. The Verge
EV powerhouse Nissan is “concerned” about the government’s decision to introduce a vehicle excise duty for electric car owners from 2025. “While we are pleased to see a growing EV market in the UK, we’re concerned about the effect that withdrawing this customer incentive could have on the electric car market, just as it is accelerating,” a company spokesperson told City A.M. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced this morning that EVs will no longer be exempt from paying the tax as part of today’s Autumn Budget, which seeks to fill a £55bn gap in the state’s finances. City AM
Last week, I was invited to get my hair done in the metaverse. In what was the strangest PR email I’d received for some time, a leading haircare manufacturer offered up a seat in a virtual salon, where my avatar would get a luxury treatment the real me could only dream of. Blurring the lines between the physical and the digital, the idea is that this will become a way for people to “test run” new looks on themselves before perhaps choosing to go ahead with it. Sky News
ITVX, the new streaming service from ITV, is now live in the UK, three weeks earlier than its original December 8 launch date. However, the new service is only available – for now – on ITV’s website. (The “ITVX.COM” address now sends people to ITV’s website). ITV Hub’s app on mobile phones, Smart TVs and streaming devices will be updated within the coming days and weeks, therefore the new ITVX experience is only available via web browsers at this time. Cord Busters
World of Warcraft, Overwatch and Diablo 3 are among the big Activision Blizzard video-games titles that will disappear in China in January 2023. The games developer and NetEase, the company that provides access to the games in China, have failed to renew their 14-year-old licensing agreement. All games require a local publisher and licences from the Chinese government to operate there. Activision said it was looking for alternatives. BBC
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