Durov's Code

😱 Astonishingly Realistic Graphics // Artist Ostap Gordon recreated a realistic winter town in Unreal Engine 5. We asked him how he managed to do that. @kod_ae

🚘 a 'Tank' from Tesla // After modification, the total weight amounted to 6 tons. It took only one month to modify the electric car. @kod_ae

📄 Elon Musk is in Trouble with the Law Again // Twitter has accused Elon Musk of breaching a non-disclosure agreement after the businessman revealed details about checking the number of bots on the platform. Elon Musk's team intends to check a random sample of 100 followers to identify bots because that's what Twitter uses to calculate <5% fake/spam/duplicate. @kod_ae

📞 e& Aims to Operate Globally // Emirates Telecommunications Group Company PJSC purchased a 9.8% stake in Vodafone Group for $4.4 billion. e&, formerly known as Etisalat Group, offered about 130 pence ($1.59) per share for the stake, up about 10% from Vodafone's closing price of 117.82 pence on Friday, according to Bloomberg calculations. The company becomes one of Vodafone's largest shareholders, ahead of BlackRock Inc, Vanguard Group Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc. @kod_ae

💸 Start-Up Investments in MENA // Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt continue to lead in fundraising. @kod_ae

🛫 Income from Travel // Dubai-based travel technology company Alike.io intends to have income from the growing number of travel content creators who share their travel experiences on social media. @kod_ae

📱 iPhones with USB-C Ports // Apple is currently testing a prototype of a new iPhone that will have a USB Type-C port instead of the usual Lightning charging port for the company's devices, Bloomberg reports. Apple is also working on an adapter that would allow future iPhone models equipped with a USB-C port to be used with accessories designed for the Lightning connector. Apple does not plan to make the switch from Lightning to USB-C until 2023 at the earliest, with this year's iPhones continuing to offer a Lightning port. @kod_ae

UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed dies aged 73 // United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has passed away. The ministry announced 40 days of mourning with flags at half-mast from Friday, with work suspended in the public and private sector for the first three days, starting Saturday. @kod_ae

🛰 Starlink for 32 Countries // The company has released an interactive map of Starlink's satellite coverage, highlighting the regions where it already provides internet services. @kod_ae

🤷🏻 The Deal Has Been Suspended // Elon Musk has said that the deal to buy Twitter for $44bn has been put on hold. Apparently, the entrepreneur doubts that the social network gave him correct information about the number of spam/fake accounts on the platform. @kod_ae

🔋 Extremely fast charging // StoreDot, an Israeli developer of extreme fast-charging (XFC) battery technology for electric vehicles, has demonstrated technology that can charge an electric car battery in just 10 minutes. StoreDot plans to create charging technology that will enable electric vehicles to travel 100 miles (160.93 km) in five minutes of charging by 2024, reducing that time to three minutes by 2028 and to two minutes by 2032. The demonstration involved a 300×100 mm pouch cell that was charged within 10 minutes, exceeding the 0% to 80% capacity set for the demonstration. The cell maintained a charge rate capable of increasing range by 100 miles (160.93 km) for every five minutes of charging. @kod_ae

👨‍💻 Hub71 Ecosystem Expansion // Hub71 has accepted 16 start-ups into its growing community. @kod_ae

📲 Instant Payments Boom in the Gulf // Bahrain turns out to be the leader in introducing instant payments in the Gulf, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE lagging far behind. @kod_ae

🏇 Is the Crypto Wild West Over? // Next year global market regulators are likely to create a new body to co-ordinate cryptocurrency rules. Chair of the International Organization of Securities Commissions says a global group that may align crypto rules is clearly needed. According to the official, the world now faces three C's: COVID, climate change and crypto. @kod_ae

🔬 Israeli Cultured Meat Startup Raises $250 mln // Four months ago Israeli startup Redefine Meat, which produces 3D-printed animal-free meat substitutes, raised $135 mln. Now it is set to get another $250 mln from Bank of America. With this latest round, Redefine Meat will take its total funding over the past three rounds to $430 million. The company uses plant-based ingredients and technology to produce texture, flavor, and eating experience of beef and other high-value meat products. The cultured meat market size was valued at $133 mln in 2021, and is estimated to reach $500 mln by 2030. @kod_ae

📈 Bloody Cryptobath // Bitcoin price started another decline and traded below the key $30,000 level. BTC even broke the $28,500 level to move further into a bearish zone. It is currently down 12% and is trading near $27,400. BTC is also down 32% in a week. Most of the major altcoins are declining as well. ETH is down 21% to under $2,000, it trades for $1,900. XRP is down 28% and is trading at $0.365. SOL has fallen 35% in the last 24 hours and is now worth $42.540. Many altcoins are down over 20%, including ADA, DOT, AVAX, SHIB, MATIC, CRO, LTC, NEAR, BCH, UNI, XLM, ALGO, VET and SAND. Meanwhile, LUNA is down by 97% and is trading near $0.40 and its stablecoin UST, which should always be worth $1, at some periods fell as low as 30 cents and has no recovered so far. @kod_ae

🛫 Digital Currencies and Metaverse in Airline // Emirates plans to use advanced digital technologies such as blockchain, metaverse and cryptocurrency as part of its strategy to engage with customers faster and more flexibly. The Dubai-based airline will hire new employees to work with the metaverse and NFT to develop applications to monitor customer needs. Emirates intends to use Bitcoin as a payment service and also add NFT collectibles to the company's websites for trading. @kod_ae

📦1 Billion Meals Initiative // Millions of people are currently suffering from hunger. The UAE has launched a 1 Billion Meals Initiative - a campaign that will provide people in need with meals in 50 countries. Pavel Durov has contributed 12 million meals. Everyone can join the campaign to end hunger and achieve food security. @kod_ae

📸 Sharp Criticism over Zoom IQ // More than 25 Privacy Rights Groups have called on Zoom to drop its new Zoom IQ feature. It allows the analysis of speaker sentiment after a conversation, based on artificial intelligence. The tool, designed for salespeople, provides metrics such as engagement or patience in an attempt to improve future communication and closing deals. Activists warn that Zoom Video Communications Inc.'s new emotion and engagement analysis feature could introduce bias and violate privacy. Zoom has responded to public pressure in product decisions in the past. At the beginning of the pandemic, the company dropped a feature that tracked meeting participants' engagement, such as when they stepped outside the chat window. @kod_ae

ℹ️ Dubai Council Meeting Decisions // Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced a number of decisions supporting Dubai's vision to advance sustainable development. @kod_ae