NFT Sales Plummeting; Musk Will Do Twitter IPO Next 3 Years, Charge Co’s & Gvts; Group 14’s NextGen Battery Tech Gets Cash Infusion; Apple iPad Keyboard Triggers macOS UI

Sales of NFTs, those infamous non-fungible tokens, dropped to a daily average of around 19,000 this week, a sharp dive of 92%. The Wall Street Journal notes that the peak was about 225,000 back in September. In terms of money, Forbes says sales are down from $160 million in January to $26 million last Thursday. The average selling price is now down to $2000. You might as well hold ‘em, ‘cause if you sell now, you are not just getting a haircut, but a full body defoliation!

He doesn’t own it yet…and still may not, but Elon Musk is planning things for Twitter. According to PCMag.com, Musk wants to charge companies and governments to use the platform, although he claims it will always be free for ‘casual users.’ Musk also wants to charge users who embed or quote Tweets from verified individuals or groups on the platform. On top of that, he has said he would probably do an IPO and take Twitter back public again within 3 years. Twitter itself is warning investors the company could face tumultuous changes once Musk takes over. On Monday, the company published an SEC filing that said Twitter could experience an exodus of employees and lose advertisers due to the merger. 

We have reported on Group 14 Technologies before. TheWashington state based company has plans to mass produce their batteries, which use a silicon-carbon composite material that can replace the graphite anodes in lithium-ion batteries….improving performance by 50% and giving users faster recharging. Now, geekwire.com says Group 14 has picked up $400 million in new capital that will help them ‘supercharge’ commercialization of their battery tech. One of the investors is Porsche AG, which plans to use them to power some of their EVs. Group 14 says they have some 40 different customers, so it appears they will have huge demand once they are ramped up. 

It is always best to not that Apple patents lots of stuff that never sees the light of day, but here’s one that is pretty interesting. 9to5mac.com says there is a patent that describes an iPad accessory keyboard that triggers an macOS-like UI when it is connected. The male heir, who works in IT, has been predicting a blurring of Apple OS devices ever since the iPad came out, and if this keyboard actually is produced, it will take things to the next level. You can already use some iOS apps on Macs, and now a Mac-like interface on iPads? Yep, things are really merging if that happens. In the patent drawings, Apple shows the familiar bar at the top, and tiled windows. Again, it may not happen, but if it does, the higher line iPads may flat replace the entry level MacBooks.