Germany raised the prospect of closing down the Telegram messaging service over concerns about its use as a platform for extremist groups. Bloomberg reports: The country could seek to block the service if the government reaches the conclusion that it breeches national and European Union law. “A shutdown would be very serious and clearly the last resort,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in an interview with German weekly Die Zeit. Before such a step, all other options would have to be exhausted, but “we can’t exclude this per se,” the SPD politician said. Talks about possible measures against Telegram are ongoing, an Interior Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday, adding that it wasn’t clear what legal and technical procedures would be necessary to switch off Telegram.

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Source: Slashdot – Germany Raises Prospect of Shutting Telegram Over Hate Threats

According to Electrek, the number of Gogoro electric scooter battery swap stations in Taiwan will soon eclipse the country’s total number of gas stations. From the report: Gogoro’s battery swap stations look something like a bright green and white vending machine. Users of Gogoro’s batteries (which include scooters of many different brands thanks to its partnerships), simply roll up to a station and swap out their depleted battery for a freshly charged unit. A subscription service makes it a quick and easy process that takes just a few seconds. At the end of 2021, Gogoro counted a total of 2,215 GoStations nationwide, according to the Taipei Times. The number of gas stations stood barely higher at 2,487. At Gogoro’s current rate of expansion, 2022 very well may be the year that the number of GoStations surpasses the number of gas stations.

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Source: Slashdot – Taiwan Will Soon Have More Electric Scooter Battery Swap Stations Than Gas Stations

Scientists from Lancaster University say that we might be close to combining SSDs and RAM into one component. “UltraRAM,” as it’s being called, is described as a memory technology which “combines the non-volatility of a data storage memory, like flash, with the speed, energy-efficiency, and endurance of a working memory, like DRAM.” The researchers detailed the breakthrough in a recently published paper. Tom’s Hardware reports: The fundamental science behind UltraRAM is that it uses the unique properties of compound semiconductors, commonly used in photonic devices such as LEDs, lasers, and infrared detectors can now be mass-produced on silicon. The researchers claim that the latest incarnation on silicon outperforms the technology as tested on Gallium Arsenide semiconductor wafers. Some extrapolated numbers for UltraRAM are that it will offer “data storage times of at least 1,000 years,” and its fast switching speed and program-erase cycling endurance is “one hundred to one thousand times better than flash.” Add these qualities to the DRAM-like speed, energy efficiency, and endurance, and this novel memory type sounds hard for tech companies to ignore.

If you read between the lines above, you can see that UltraRAM is envisioned to break the divide between RAM and storage. So, in theory, you could use it as a one-shot solution to fill these currently separate requirements. In a PC system, that would mean you would get a chunk of UltraRAM, say 2TB, and that would cover both your RAM and storage needs. The shift, if it lives up to its potential, would be a great way to push forward with the popular trend towards in-memory processing. After all, your storage would be your memory — with UltraRAM; it is the same silicon.

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Source: Slashdot – ‘UltraRAM’ Breakthrough Could Combine Memory and Storage Into One

The Nigerian government has lifted the suspension of Twitter operations more than six months after it first declared a crackdown on the social media giant in the country. From a report: Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the director-general of Nigeria’s tech agency, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), made this announcement via a statement. He was put in charge, as chairman, of the committee (Technical Committee Nigeria-Twitter Engagement) set up by the Nigerian government to oversee talks between the West African nation and Twitter after the ban. […] Abdullahi also noted in the statement that Twitter has agreed to set “a legal entity in Nigeria during the first quarter of 2022.” It was one of the three requests, out of ten, Nigeria said Twitter had failed to meet to reinstate the company’s operations in the country months after the ban, as announced by Nigeria’s information minister Lai Mohammed in August last year.

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Source: Slashdot – Nigeria Lifts Ban on Twitter

Sony will continue producing PlayStation 4 consoles throughout 2022 as it navigates disruptions to the global supply chain that have limited output of its pricier PlayStation 5. Bloomberg reports: The Japanese conglomerate, whose flagship PS5 console has been in scarce supply since its debut in November 2020, told assembly partners late last year that it would continue making its earlier-generation machine through this year, according to people familiar with the matter. While Sony never officially announced when it would stop making the PS4, it had previously planned to discontinue assembly at the end of 2021, they said, asking not to be named as the plans are not public.

The strategy would add about a million PS4 units this year to help offset some of the pressure on the company’s PS5 production, a figure that will be adjusted in response to demand, the people said. The older console uses less advanced chips, is simpler to make and provides a budget-friendly alternative to the PS5. Increasing production orders by adding the cheaper-to-make PS4 would also give Sony more leeway when negotiating with manufacturing partners for a better deal, two of the people said.

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Source: Slashdot – Sony Is Dealing With PlayStation 5 Shortage by Making More PS4s