Twitter Down After Trump Dump; Apple-Hyundai Deal-March?; Lenovo Smart Glasses; Ford & Nissan Cut Production-Chip Shortage

Twitter stock dropped over 10% as of this morning after the permanent ban of Donald Trump from the platform last week. According to yahoo.com, the stock initially dropped 12.3% at the market open. The tech company suspended Trump’s account on Friday in a move to prevent him from using the platform to incite further unrest among his supporters following the violent protests at the U.S. Capitol last week, according to Twitter. At the time of this writing, San Francisco police have a substantial presence at Twitter headquarters, and barricades up. Twitter says most staff is still working from home anyway. 

More on the Apple-Hyundai possible deal. 9to5mac.com reports that Korea IT News is claiming that Apple and Hyundai are shooting for making a deal to build autonomous cars by this March. Production could apparently begin as soon as 2024 in the US. The cars would likely be built at the Kia plant in Georgia, or the companies may “jointly invest in a new factory in the United States.”

Lenovo has unveiled ThinkReality A3 smart glasses for CES 2021. Engadget.com says the the specs are powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon XR XR! SoC systems. They can show up to 5 virtual reality 1080p displays and rock an 8MP camera that can provide 1080p video. The headset still needs to be connected to either a PC or a Motorola smartphone running a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 series processor or better. No pricing as yet, but Lenovo says it will be available in select markets worldwide starting mid-2021.

For years, cars have been loaded with computer chips. Now, a shortage is actually affecting auto production. According to engadget.com, both Ford and Nissan are cutting production due to semiconductor shortages. Ford is hitting pause at an SUV factory in Louisville, KY this week. Nissan is cutting production at its Oppama factory in Japan. Volkswagen, Fiat Chrysler, and Toyota are also talking about production issues. So far, General Motors hasn’t had to cut production, but they say they are keeping an eye on chip-related issues.