X was down for an hour last night, WhatsApp is coming out with a new feature and more than 50 million copies of the PlayStation 5 have been sold. This is The Quick Hap of Thursday, December 22, 2023.
Welcome to The Quick Bite, our column in which we list the news from the previous night for you Tuesday through Friday morning. This way you’ll quickly be up to date on everything surrounding technology and pop culture.
Today we tell you about Tesla falsely accusing customers of car problems, a new WhatsApp feature and we finally know when the Apple Vision Pro will be released.
X was down for an hour last night
X is in the corner where the hits are. Advertisers are pulling out because of Elon Musk’s statements and users are switching to Instagram Threads. Then, of course, it doesn’t help when the website is offline.
The latter happened last night. According to reports, more than 47,000 users could not access their accounts. There were also reportedly problems in the United Kingdom and Asia.
Fortunately, everything worked again after an hour. Why there were problems is still unknown.
Tesla falsely accuses customers of breaking parts
We stay with Elon Musk and that is his other flagship company: Tesla. Reuters has investigated the company showing that Tesla unfairly accuses its customers when parts on their car break down.
Tesla invoked “Driver Abuse,” charging repair costs to the owner. This even though the company had already discussed internally that those parts were defective. So Tesla should have paid for it themselves, even if they had just bought the electric car.
Those problems mainly occurred with the suspension and steering. Only when Chinese regulators put pressure on the automaker did it issue a recall, though only four years after launch. In Europe and the United States, the company did not do so for the parts in question.
Apple Vision Pro likely to arrive in February
We actually now know that the Apple Vision Pro is the gadget of 2024. Whether positive or negative, many people will be talking about Apple’s $3,499 glasses.
We already know a lot about the Apple Vision Pro, as the company exhibited the headset to the world last June. My colleague Mark was impressed, as you can see in the video below.
For everything to go according to plan, there are still a lot of preparations to be made. Apple Store employees need to be trained, for example. Developers were told to be ready for the launch. This will be in February, according to sources.
WhatsApp wants to let you easily share your media with others
WhatsApp is testing a new feature in its beta version that lets you share your screen and audio with others. This works in conjunction with the previously rolled-out update that allows you to share your screen during a video call.
For example, with the new version, if you play audio on your phone, such as a song, others can listen in on a video call.
This feature is ideal for watch parties, a feature of streaming services at the time of corona. It allowed you to watch Netflix or Disney+ together. So possibly in the future that will also be possible with WhatsApp. As mentioned, the feature is still in beta, so it is still hard to say when it will come to the final version.
More than 50 million copies of the PlayStation 5 sold
The PlayStation 5 can rightly be called a success. Not only have some top-notch games come out on it, the sales numbers are proving to be good.
Sony has now announced that it has crossed the 50 million sales mark. So that’s three years after launch. That’s extra clever since for a long time it was almost impossible to get your hands on one.
There will be even more in the future. Recently the PlayStation 5 Slim version was released and a Pro version is also planned for later.
