Roundup: Wheego to launch EV, Twitter battles porn, and more

Here’s the latest action:
Here Wheego! — Electric vehicle startup Wheego announced that it will launch its two-seat, low-speed car on August 1, in hopes that its release will help raise an additional round of capital. Based in Atlanta, the company’s vehicle is called the Whip, and its development has been supported by money from founder Mike McQuary, his private equity firm Ellis, McQuary & Stanley, Brash Music and MindSpring. The Whip differs from cars in the works at Tesla and Fisker in that it runs on lead-acid batteries instead of lithium-ion batteries — supposedly avoiding overheating issues associated with the latter. The car charges in six to eight hours and can travel 40 miles on each charge. It will retail for $18,995. With government funding and more capital, Wheego says it plans to build two assembly plants in the U.S.
AT&T feels the 3GS love — An internal memo surfaced today stating that the release of the iPhone 3GS marked the best day of sales for the mobile company’s retail stores and the highest volume of orders on att.com in history. Another reported milestone: On June 25, following Michael Jackson’s death, 65,000 text messages were sent each second, the largest amount ever registered. Most analysts thought that the 3GS launch would fall short of sales on launch day last year for the 3G, but they were wrong. With AT&T’s contract with Apple set to expire next year, the company may double its efforts to extend the exclusive deal before Verizon horns in on the action.

Justice Dept. looks into Google Books case — Today the U.S. Department of Justice said it is investigating Google’s settlement with book publishers who objected to the digital publishing of some titles. Anti-trust stirrings spurred the investigation. Totaling $125 million, the settlement gave the search giant rights to publish copyrighted books online unless authors chose to opt out. Critics of this result say that Google is so far ahead of any competitor in the space that it essentially has a monopoly. To counter, Google says that any potential rival could negotiate their own terms with the Books Rights Registry, but the government remains skeptical.
Twitter? NSFW? — As Twitter picks up momentum and more users, pornography and explicit content have become more frequent additions to the micro-blogging site. And with so many companies now using it as an integral part of their marketing strategies, several have finally called for the site to begin filtering its content more aggressively. Several companies, including virtual world provider WeeWorld and business-owner social network MerchantCircle, have even discussed pulling their Twitter pages if the situation isn’t cleaned up soon. MediaPost is tracking the issue.
Oracle cuts staff in Europe — The major software provider reported today that it plans to cut 1,000 employees from its European staff — about 1 percent of its global work force — due to poor economic conditions. This is somewhat surprising, as it is one of the last in its market to turn to layoffs to stay in the black. Microsoft, Intel, IBM and Hewlett-Packard have all let employees go since the economic downturn set in. Still, in the past year, Oracle has hired more than a thousand employees at its Redwood City, Calif. headquarters alone. So far, it looks like its U.S. workers will be spared.