ZURICH (Reuters) – Chinese telecom giant Huawei is finding it harder to counter U.S. sanctions designed to choke off its access to semiconductors but can continue to serve European 5G network clients, a senior European executive told an Austrian newspaper.
The world’s biggest maker of mobile telecommunications equipment and smartphones was still “looking for a solution” to help millions of Huawei phone users after Google
was banned from providing technical support for new Huawei phone models using mobile operating system Android.
“Since the U.S. sanctions last year, U.S. manufacturers of semiconductors are no longer allowed to supply us so our previous U.S. partners can no longer work with us. Since August it has become even more difficult,” Abraham Liu, Huwaei’s vice-president for Europe, told the Kurier paper.
He said Washington was “blackmailing” chipmakers into shunning ties with Huawei, which denies U.S. allegations that Huawei equipment could be used by Beijing
Even as the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries is busy signing new deals for its retail and platforms ventures, the conglomerate’s deal with Google to develop low-cost smartphones is being actively followed by the telecom industry watchers. “We believe we can design an entry-level 4G or even 5G smartphone for a fraction of its current cost. Google and Jio are partnering to build an Android-based smartphone operating system,” Ambani said at the RIL’s 43rd annual general meeting in July.
Despite having a fair good start with its low-cost feature phone – JioPhone – the chances of emulating that success with low-cost smartphones might be difficult. How? Indian handset market is divided into two parts: feature phone users and smartphone users. As per IDC, the average selling price of smartphones in India is about Rs
LONDON (Reuters) – Branch staff at some of Britain’s biggest banks say rules that require them to store phones in lockers while at work are putting them at undue risk of COVID-19 from colleagues and customers, as they cannot use the country’s tracing app.
Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L>, along with rival TSB, are among those advising employees to deactivate the NHS Track & Trace app during office hours, when they are not allowed to keep phones on their person.
Some banks ask staff and cashiers to store phones away to prevent leaks of sensitive customer data, although this is not formally required by regulator the Financial Conduct Authority.
Under current government guidelines, users of the NHS app are advised to disable bluetooth or pause the app when away from their phones to avoid false notifications.
LAGOS/ABUJA (Reuters) – When the coronavirus outbreak forced shops to close in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos, kiosk store owner Funmilayo Akinola weighed up her safety against the need to make a living.
After deciding that she couldn’t afford to stop working, she faced the challenge of replenishing her stock as the pandemic has made it harder for informal traders to buy wholesale goods due to safety measures disrupting supply chains.
The answer lay in a logistics firm that provides an online marketplace where manufacturers and retailers connect.
Lagos-based Trade Depot delivered goods that she bought using the company’s app.
“(Without Trade Depot) I would have just locked up my shop, because my husband will not allow me to go inside the market to go and be hustling for goods,” said Akinola.
She now uses her phone to order stock delivered by vans or tuk tuks
To bolster their brand and relationship with customers in this evolving environment, emerging fast-casual sandwich chains are accelerating pre-COVID digital trends and doubling down on technology.
“We think of ourselves as a technology enabled [food]service provider,” said David Bloom, chief development officer of Las Vegas-based Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop.
In the two years prior to the initial COVID shutdowns, the 40-year-old sandwich chain was hyper-focused on becoming efficient at off-premise third-party apps and integrated technologies, and getting good at marketing and developing relationships.
“Innovation is more than just the product,” said Bloom. “We’re better at what we do with tech.”
In August, Capriotti’s launched two ghost kitchens in California — the first of several planned for opening around the country later this year — to further optimize its delivery capabilities and expand its reach.
In conjunction with the kitchens, the 110-unit chain is currently testing several “virtual brands,” product lines available
(Bloomberg) — Operating rooms tend to be busy places, often bustling with not just the surgeon, but also a phalanx of aides, students, technical advisers and, yes, medical device sales reps. That’s not exactly an ideal environment for social distancing.
Could your cable TV device spy on you? Vulnerability found and patched in Comcast TV remote.
Security researchers at Guardicore reverse-engineered the firmware update process for a popular Comcast remote to turn the device into a spying tool.
Image: Guardicore
Security firm Guardicore reverse-engineered the firmware update process for Comcast’s XR11 remote to take control of the device. Researchers interrupted the process to turn the voice-control element of the remote into a listening device.
Once the malicious firmware update was in place, researchers used a 16dBi antenna and were able to listen to conversations inside a house from about 65 feet away.
The WarezTheRemote attack could have affected the 18 million remotes in use around the US. After Guardicore disclosed the vulnerability to Comcast, the company developed a fix that was deployed to all units by the end of September.
SEE: Social engineering: A cheat sheet for business professionals (free
Not all businesses experienced a setback due to COVID-19. Cosmose AI, a company that uses machine learning to predict who will go shopping as well as when and where, plus measures the effectiveness of online ads to online and in-person store visits, expanded during the pandemic. Valued at $100 million after a Series A investment round by Tiga Investments, OTB Ventures, and TDJ Pitango, many retailers turned to the insights provided by Cosmose AI’s artificial intelligence-powered service to figure out how to best operate during the pandemic and prepare for a new future.
Smartphone Tracking Data And Artificial Intelligence Turn People’s Movements Into Detailed Insights … [+] And Profits
Adobe Stock
Insights for Retailers from Cosmose AI’s AI-Powered Platform
Founded in 2014, Cosmose AI gathers anonymized mobile phone data including user IDs, location info, and more from more than 1 billion smartphones, more than 400,000 apps, 360,000 stores and then
NFL teams plan to clean stadiums with drones and robots originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the desire to allow fans into their stadium in a limited capacity, the Atlanta Falcons plan to use drones to clean Mercedes-Benz Stadium after each home game for the remainder of the season.
The 71,000-seat stadium has partnered with Lucid Drone Technologies for the use of disinfecting drones to sanitize using electrostatic spraying nozzles that will evenly distribute medical-grade disinfecting chemicals that help fight the virus.
After barring fans from the stadium for their first two home games, the Falcons plan on opening their doors in a limited capacity starting on Oct. 11 against the Panthers. According to Lucid Drone Technologies, one disinfecting drone is the equivalent of 14 workers with backpack sprayers, a 95 percent reduction in time spent cleaning.
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