Shiny snippets: Google releases first smartwatch, the Pixel Watch

Technology company Google has released the Google Pixel Watch which has a sleek circular face and includes a Fitbit activity tracker. The Google Pixel Watch is the latest edition to the company's Google Pixel collection of digital devices, which includes smartphones, laptops and tablets. The Google Pixel Watch is the company's first smartwatch. Comprising a bulbous dome-shaped glass watch face mounted on…

ShinyShiny snipppets: Elon Musk Twitter deal back on!

Twitter has confirmed that Elon Musk has offered to buy the company for a second time this year. The website said in a statement that it plans to agree to the offer at 54.20 dollars (£47.23) per share, the same price Mr Musk previously put forward. The total value of the deal would be 44…

ShinyShiny snippets: Fitbit devices to require Google account from 2023

Google completed its acquisition of Fitbit last year and rebranded it "Fitbit by Google," but Fitbit continued to launch wearables as it used to before getting acquired. And while customers can currently use Fitbit accounts for new devices and services, things will change from 2023 onwards. Fitbit has updated its support page to reveal that after the launch…

Bosses believe workers aren’t as productive at home, Microsoft report shows

A major new survey from Microsoft shows that bosses and workers fundamentally disagree about productivity when working from home. Bosses worry about whether working from home is as productive as being in the office. While 87% of workers felt they worked as, or more, efficiently from home, 80% of managers disagreed. The survey questioned more…

ShinyShiny snippets: Twitch announces partial gambling ban

Twitch has announced a partial gambling ban, targeting slots, roulette and dice games. The Amazon-owned livestreaming platform will bar videos of gambling sites not licensed in the US or "other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection". The ban includes cryptocurrency gambling sites such as Stake.com, based on the Caribbean island of Curacao. It will take…

ShinyShiny snippets: Hackers steals footage from Grand Theft Auto VI

Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto. Image: Rockstar Games It’s been a giant week for video game news. Nintendo announced a release date of 5 May 2023 for the next Legend of Zelda game (now titled Tears of the Kingdom, certainly not an intentional reference to the death of the Queen); we’ve seen…

2 in 3 Americans unable to get through TV and movie watch list

The average American has 13 TV shows and 16 movies on their watch list to get through — averaging 104 total hours — enough content to last for a globe-trotting flight around the world twice over. That's according to a survey of 2,000 adults which discovered 68% of Americans have a TV show and movie…

Study finds that only 6% of video games feature a female protagonist

A new study has found that only 6% of video games feature a single female character as the lead protagonist.  Online gaming site Solitaired analysed 150 popular video games that were released between 1985 and 2022, and were available across different gaming platforms. The study looked at the campaign or story mode for each of…

ShinyShiny snippets: Google sued for over £20 billion by publishers

Google is being sued for up to €25bn (£21.6bn) over claims it has deprived newspapers and internet bloggers of billions of pounds in advertising revenues. The Big Tech giant is facing class action complaints in the UK and the Netherlands that it used its advertising technology to unfairly sideline publishers while hoovering up ad revenues. …

ShinyShiny snippets: Jeep to launch two electric SUVs

Jeep will start selling two fully electric SUVs in North America and another one in Europe over the next two years. The new EVs, Jeep’s first, are part of the Stellantis brand’s plans to convert half of its U.S. sales and all of its European sales to battery-electric vehicles by 2030. They’re the first for…