The European Parliament Approves Resolution on a Common Charger Standard
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| The European Parliament Approves Resolution on a Common Charger Standard | |
| Number | 1037 |
| Broadcast Date | JANUARY 31, 2020 |
| Episode Length | 5:31 |
| Hosts | Rich Stroffolino |
The European Parliament approves resolution on a common charger standard, Apple’s redesigned Maps app rolls out to US users, and Reuters reports that the FBI is investigating NSO Group.
Headlines
- The European Parliament voted 582-40 in favor of the resolution on a common charger for mobile radio equipment. Lawmakers now have until July to adopt an act related to the charger "harmonization" directive from 2014 or introduce a similar legislative measure. The resolution hopes the adoption of a common charger will cut down on e-waste, and warns against fragmentation in the wireless charging space as well.
- Huawei's Austrian country manager Fred Wangfei told Austrian newspaper Der Standard that it does not intend to return to using Google Play services even after restrictions are lifted. He said Huawei wants to develop its own ecosystem on Android, something it already has to do domestically since Google Play services are not offered in China. Huawei says it replicates 24 of the 60 Google Play APIs through its Huawei Mobile Services. It's also considering starting a European proxy company to let US companies like Facebook submit apps to the Huawei App Gallery. However, responding to The Verge, a Huawei spokesperson wrote, “Our first choice is the open Android ecosystem, including GMS (Google Mobile Services)."
- Apple's redesigned Maps app has rolled out to all users in the US, with better views of roads, buildings, and parks. Apple announced the redesign back in June 2018. Apple also says the new maps will arrive for users across Europe “in the coming months.”
- The Indian ride-hailing company Ola announced it will begin service in London on February 10th, after receiving a 15-month license to operate in the city back in July. Ola says it will have 20,000 registered drivers in London at launch, and will not take commission on rides for the first 6 weeks, with claims that it will offer “the best commission rate” on the market after that. Ola began service in the UK in August 2018, and currently offers service in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, and Reading.
- Reuters reports that, according to sources, the FBI is investigating the Israeli spyware company NSO Group for possible hacks of US citizens, companies, and gathering intelligence of foreign governments. The investigation reportedly began in 2017 to look into if NSO Group obtained code from American hackers to crack into smartphones. Sources say the FBI is now looking into how NSO Group provides technical support to customers, which could be prosecuted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act if they had knowledge of improper use. NSO Group previously stated its technology can't target US customers, and that its government customers are the ones who do any alleged hacking.
- Beta builds of Microsoft Edge show a new adware blocking feature in testing on the browser. This would block things like toolbars and cryptominers. Edge already offers SmartScreen Filter to protect against phishing and malware, and Microsoft has offed similar unwanted app blocking to enterprise customers through Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection.
- Amazon reported it earned $6.47 per share on revenue of $87.4 billion, beating analysts expectations of $86.01 billion in revenue on earnings of $4.04. Amazon Web Services revenue grew 34% on the year to $9.95 billion, but saw revenue growth slow for the 6th consecutive quarter. Subscription revenue increased 32% to $5.24 billion. Other revenue, which mostly consists of advertising, increased 41% to $4.78 billion. Amazon announced on its earnings call that Prime members now receive free Amazon Fresh deliveries, which previously cost $14.99 a month.
- Microsoft launched a bug bounty program for its Xbox gaming platform. Anyone can submit bugs on the Xbox Live Network and Services, with payouts ranging from $500 to $20,000 based on severity, quality of the submission, and impact on the service.
- Apple's WebKit team published a proposal on GitHub to standardize the format of one-time passcodes sent over SMS, used in two factor authentication. The format would send a two line SMS, one for human verification with the code, and confirmation of what website sent it, the second line would have the site URL and the code preceded by a pound sign. The goal is to have browsers and messaging apps recognize the domain automatically from the message, and extract the code to complete the login without user interaction. The proposal claims feedback from Google has been positive, with Google Product Manager Steven Soneff and software engineer Sam Goto providing feedback in development.
- Facebook will launch a new toolkit for game streamers and video creators to better manage communities, as well as new chat rules developed in partnership with the Fair Play Alliance. These preset rules include be accepting, respect boundaries, don't criticize, don't be rude, don't flood the chat, don't self-promote, keep it clean, and no profanity. Users can remove or add to the rules in the streamer dashboard, and the rules are visible to viewers directly in chat. The toolkit will continue to let streamers and moderators remove comments, mute a user, and ban them from the stream or page. Banned users will still be able to watch the stream, but not interact.
Links
| Preceded by: "Avast Ends Access of User Data for Subsidiary Jumpshot" |
The European Parliament Approves Resolution on a Common Charger Standard |
Followed by: "Week In Review for the Week of 1/27/2020" |