Garmin Restores Limiting Functionality Following Multi-Day Outage

Garmin Restores Limiting Functionality Following Multi-Day Outage
Number	1189
Broadcast Date	JULY 27, 2020
Episode Length	5:02
Hosts	Rich Stroffolino

Garmin announces to return limited functionality to services following a multi-day outage, big tech CEO reportedly rescheduled to testify before US House antitrust subcommittee on July 29th, and Google extends its work from home policy through at least July 2021.

Headlines

• Garmin begins to restore Garmin Connect features, services, says customer data not impacted

Garmin announced it began restoring limited functionality to Garmin Connect, after suffering an outage that began on July 22nd. Garmin Connect can now display activity details and uploads, register devices, show the dashboard, produce reports and segments. On Garmin's Strava service, Strava Beacon integration is working, but segments, routes and uploaded activities can only be queued to sync. A Garmin employee speaking to Bleeping Computer said the outage was caused by WastedLocker ransomware, with the attackers asking for a $10 million ransom.

• Exclusive: Big Tech antitrust hearing gets new date

Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Apple's Tim Cook, and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg were scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee on July 27th. This was postponed for a private memorial and public viewing of US Representative and civil rights leader John Lewis. Axios reports that, according to sources, the rescheduled session will take place on July 29th.

• Google to Keep Employees Home Until Summer 2021 Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced that Google will extend its work from home policy until at least July 2021. This extends to Google's roughly 200,000 full time and contract employees in its major office in Mountain View, Calif., as well as other offices in the U.S., U.K., India, and Brazil. Google has partially reopened some smaller offices in countries relatively unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic, including Australia, Greece and Thailand.

• Exclusive: More than 1,000 people at Twitter had ability to aid hack of accounts

Two former Twitter employees tell Reuters that more than a thousand employees and contractors had access to internal tools as of early 2020 that could change user account settings and hand control to others, including contractors like Cognizant that work with Twitter. Twitter says it's seeking a new head of security, working to better secure its systems and train employees on resisting tricks from outsiders.

• No grace period after Schrems II Privacy Shield ruling, warn EU data watchdogs

Following the European Court of Justice ruling that invalidated the EU-US Data Protection Shield framework, the European Data Protection Board published that “Transfers on the basis of this legal framework are illegal,” with no regulatory grace period. The regulator warns that entities wishing to transfer EU personal data to the US will need to use alternative mechanisms like Standard Contractual Clauses or Binding Corporate Rules, both of which require upfront assessments to determine if the entity can meet the legal requirement to protect the data from U.S. surveillance.

• The NBA is using Microsoft Teams to bring basketball fans courtside

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is using Microsoft Teams’ new Together Mode to create a virtual experience for fans during live games, using AI to segment faces and shoulders to recreate the experience of being in a venue. Fans will be able to watch a live feed of the game within Teams and see other fans at the same time.

• One in Three Smartphones Sold was a 5G Phone in China in Q2 2020

A new report from Counterpoint research shows that smartphone sales in China fell 17% on the year in Q2, but that compared to Q1, sales increased 9%. Huawei increased its marketshare in the quarter to 46%, and still grew sales 14% on the year. Apple was the fastest growing OEM in the quarter, increasing sales 32% on the year. Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi saw sales decresae 29%, 31% and 35%, respectively. In Q2, 33% of smartphones sold were 5G enabled.

• State of the Stream June/Q2 2020: Livestreaming is getting much larger and more global, non-gaming content is on the rise, and nature channels are a thing

A new report on game streaming from StreamElements and the streaming analytics firm Arsenal shows that Twitch streaming in Q2 grew 56% from Q1, peaking at 1.8 billion hours watched in April, and surpassing 5 billion hours in the quarter. In June, streaming hours watch on Twitch increased 60% on the year. Facebook gaming saw streaming in June up 200% on the year to 334 million hours. In Q2 Facebook streaming was up 75% from Q1. The report also found that the top 4 Twitch streamers and top 10 on Facebook Gaming come from outside the US. Just Chatting content was the most watched in the quarter, up 94% from Q1. The top three games in Q2 were League of Legends, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Fortnite.

• India has banned 47 more Chinese apps including a TikTok clone and is eyeing hundreds more

Last month, India banned 59 Chinese smartphone apps, including TikTok. India Today now reports that, according to sources, an additional 47 apps have been banned. These apps were mostly clones of the already banned apps that would let Indian users still access the services, like TikTok Lite. The Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is also reportedly reviewing over 250 Chinese apps for any user privacy or national security violations, including the popular game PUBG.

• Qualcomm's Quick Charge 5 promises more power and super fast speeds

Qualcomm announced Quick Charge 5, which it claims is 70% faster than Quick Charge 4, and supports 100W smartphone charging. The new charging tech uses 12 separate voltage, current and temperature protections, and runs 10 degrees Celsius cooler than Quick Charge 4. Quick Charge 5 cables will be backward compatible with earlier versions and it supports USB Power Delivery and Type-C.

Links

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Preceded by: "Week in Review for the Week of 7/20/20"

Garmin Restores Limiting Functionality Following Multi-Day Outage

Followed by: "CES Goes All-Digital in 2021"