Women ‘critical to digital future’
Vogue Australia has kicked off this year’s VOGUE CODES program, with speakers set to discuss how COVID-19 has affected their businesses and more.
Welcome to The Download, The Australian’s technology blog for the latest breaking tech news. Today, Canva co-founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht says they will donate to the US political system, ACER has announced a new flagship laptop with surfaces that repel viruses, and Silicon Valley is complaining about the effect the suspension of immigration will have on the US tech industry.
David Swan 5.15pm: ‘ Why I refuse to monitor my employees at home’
Over the last 12 weeks, the world as we know it has stopped existing. Seemingly overnight, we have been forced to live in ways we never anticipated -- let alone expected. And as we slowly come out of lockdown, in many ways the world awaiting us is irrevocably different to the one we left behind in March.
The way we work now is arguably one of -- if not the -- biggest change we’ve had to adapt to during and post-COVID-19. As working from home has gone from a nice-to-have to a must, companies and managers have been forced to contend with a new reality that demands a new skill set, adjusted expectations and a much more flexible and compassionate approach to managing employees.
Unfortunately, instead of adjusting their expectations in the face of such adversity, some organisations are planning to, or have already installed, software that tracks their employees‘ work hours and movements; which websites they are visiting, when and for how long; and in some cases, even tracking the location of employees by installing complementary apps on their phones.
David Swan 3.45pm: Women ‘critical to tech future’
Vogue Australia Editorial Director Edwina McCann has kicked off an expanded program of events for VOGUE CODES 2020, with a new set of speakers including Adore Beauty founder Kate Morris and PepTalkHer founder Meggie Palmer set to encourage female innovation and discuss how women can be creators of the digital future.
This year‘s program is a free series of virtual webinars, designed to encourage more women to pursue STEAM careers.
McCann said speakers participating in the online series of events will share insights into the impact caused by COVID-19 to their businesses, learnings from this period and thoughts on what the future holds.
“VOGUE CODES is our crusade to see women empowered by technology. With the past few months showing us the importance of technology more than ever, embracing tech and the learning behind it is so important for girls and women, so that we can play a role in our shared digital future. Of course we want women to be decision-makers and influence the direction of our society; this means engaging with the technology that’s driving change,“ she said.
“The response to VOGUE CODES since we launched five years ago has been overwhelmingly positive. Westpac has been our presenting partner from the very beginning and we are thrilled to have them with us again for 2020. We’re excited by the opportunities of our expanded program of virtual events this year, which will allow us to take the campaign across geographic borders and audiences, and play in the virtual world.”
The schedule this year includes:
· June 18 Priti Joshi, Vice President Strategy, Bumble - Topic: The future of business, romance and friendship in a socially-distanced world
· July 14 Kate Morris, Founder, Adore Beauty - Topic: Business of beauty: Lockdown lessons, and what‘s next
· August 11 Meggie Palmer, Founder, PepTalkHer - Topic: Negotiating your next pay rise: How confidence can supercharge your career
· September 15 Kim Culmone, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Design for Barbie and Fashion Dolls, Mattel Inc - Topic: Diversity and inclusion starts here: Designing the future
Details for the remaining VOGUE CODES 2020 program will be announced in July.
Registration for the webinar series is now open, visit http://vogue.com.au/codes
David Swan 12.49pm: TPG shareholders approve merger
TPG Telecom shareholders have nearly unanimously approved a deal to merger with Vodafone Hutchinson Australia (VHA), with the blockbuster deal set to complete by July 13.
Next Tuesday June 30, VHA will list on the ASX as TPG Telecom, with Vodafone boss Iñaki Berroeta set to take the reins of the combined company as chief executive.
TPG founder and executive chairman David Teoh will serve as the company’s non-executive chairman.
The combined entity will be known as TPG but Vodafone will retain its consumer branding, as will TPG subsidiaries iiNet and Internode.
TPG shareholders, which voted overwhelmingly in favour of the merger, will receive a fully-franked special dividend of between 49 and 52 cents per share.
As previously reported by The Australian, Mr Berroeta has pledged to have the nation’s third-biggest telco up and running within weeks as it prepares to switch on its ultra-fast 5G network.
Mr Berroeta, who will become CEO of the new $15bn company, said Australia’s 5G road map could be rewritten now that the Vodafone-TPG merger could go ahead.
The combination of broadband specialist TPG with mobile carrier Vodafone is set to create a genuine third player in the market to compete against telco giants Telstra and Optus.
David Swan 12.30pm: New Bathurst cyber security centre launched
The NSW government has announced a Cyber Security Vulnerability Management Centre, to be established in Bathurst and operated by Cyber Security NSW.
It comes a week after the government announced it was under widespread attack by a foreign nation state.
“The Cyber Security Vulnerability Management Centre will provide the NSW Government with an increased awareness of vulnerabilities in internet-facing services and assets,” Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello said.
“It will deliver a vital, sector-wide management capability and is critical to ensuring enhanced monitoring of at-risk government systems, as well as early identification and remediation of known vulnerabilities.”
The centre will become operational in July.
David Swan 12.09pm: COVID-19’s biotech opportunity
Australian biotech outfit eWater Systems has passed the milestone of replacing 100 million litres of cleaning chemicals, with high-profile chef Neil Perry bullish on the Melbourne company’s prospects.
eWater’s high-tech water-based cleaning system is being used by Masterchef, Taronga Zoo and the Rockpool group of restaurants, and company founder Phil Gregory told The Australian that COVID-19 had shifted the way that hospitals, restaurants and cafes approach sanitisation.
Gregory’s system is a wall-mounted, single-outlet unit that produces cleaning and sanitising solution using water electrolysis technology. It’s a technology that has saved customers more than 23 million plastic cleaning bottles, a figure rising every day.
“We are more focused on health, safety and protecting the world around us than ever before. eWater is a natural evolution for consumers and businesses who recognise that we all need to take better care of each other, and it’s an evolution that has already saved our partners over $10m,” he said.
eWater Systems is now looking to raise capital for a global expansion, as it looks to sell its tech into other markets.
“Doing good and making money aren’t mutually exclusive,” Mr Gregory said. “So many businesses now need to look at how they’re approaching sustainability, and we offer a product that is demonstrably sustainable, and saves money.”
Chef and entrepreneur Neil Perry, the founder of Rockpool Group, said eWater had already had a significant impact on his kitchens.
He said Australia’s kitchens will have a far greater emphasis on sanitisation post-COVID.
“The difference between eWater and other products is that one’s natural and one just isn’t,” he said. “For us to have a simple water-based cleaning and sanitising product is much better than pouring chemicals into the water table, and we just think it’s far more preferable.
“Sustainability is a part of our complete DNA, and that’s one of the reasons we sought out eWater and got involved with the system in the first place. Sustainability and doing our part to look after the planet, producing less packaging waste and not introducing chemical waste into water systems is super important to me personally and to my businesses.”
Geoff Chambers 10.46am: PM recruits Trump aide Kirstjen Nielsen for cyber war
Former US secretary of homeland security Kirstjen Nielsen, who led the global campaign against Huawei, has been recruited by the Morrison government to prepare its cyber security strategy amid rising tensions with China and mass cyber attacks targeting Australian governments and companies.
Ms Nielsen, an early mover on cyber security who called out the threat posed by “actors” linked to the Chinese Ministry of State Security, is working with the government’s advisory panel chairman, Telstra chief Andy Penn, to develop Australia’s 2020 Cyber Security Strategy.
The former White House deputy chief of staff has worked closely with Australian politicians and national security chiefs in recent years, attending a Five Eyes meeting hosted by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton on the Gold Coast in 2018.
10.30am Top German court reimposes data curbs on Facebook
Facebook must comply with an order by Germany’s antitrust watchdog to curb data collection from users, a top German court ruled on Tuesday, in a setback for the US social network company that could set a wider precedent.
The Federal Court’s stay order, which suspends a decision by a lower court, backs the Federal Cartel Office’s view that Facebook abused its market dominance to gather information about users without their consent.
Lead judge Peter Meier-Beck, explaining the decision, said there was no serious doubt that Facebook had a dominant market position in Germany, nor that it had abused terms and conditions banned by the cartel office.
“Facebook must give users the choice to reveal less about themselves - above all what they reveal outside of Facebook,” Meier-Beck said.
Welcoming the ruling, cartel office President Andreas Mundt said it showed that “if data are collected and exploited illegally, it should be possible to take antitrust action to prevent the abuse of market power.”
Facebook said the ruling did not relate directly to appeal proceedings which continue.
“We will continue to defend our position that there is no antitrust abuse,” Facebook said. “There will be no immediate changes for people or businesses who use our products and services in Germany.”
Legal experts said the ruling could have wider ramifications, because Germany is the first country to explore whether data dominance is an antitrust issue.
“The cartel office is attempting to tame the tech giants and to stop the build-up of economic power through integration of data to ‘super profiles’,” said Rupprecht Podszun at the Institute for Competition Law at Heinrich Heine University in Duesseldorf. “This is something new in terms of antitrust law.”
The cartel office had objected to how Facebook pools data on people from third-party apps - including its own WhatsApp and Instagram - and online tracking of people who do not have accounts via Facebook “like” or “share” buttons.
In its original order in Feb. 2019, the cartel office said Facebook would only be allowed to assign data from WhatsApp or Instagram to its main Facebook app accounts if users consented voluntarily.
Reuters
Chris Griffith 9.40am: Can ACER’s laptops kill off coronavirus?
Taiwan’s ACER has launched a new flagship laptop together with a swag of gaming notebooks, Chromebooks, desktops and accessories. Top billing goes to the 2020 Acer Swift 5, one of a breed of new ultra thin laptops than come in under one kilogram.
It has an all metal chassis, the latest Intel chips, a very narrow bezel (border) around the display and something I imagine we’ll see more in the COVID-19 age - “antimicrobial” coatings. ACER says the screen comprises “antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass” and purchasers can opt for an antimicrobial coating on other surfaces.
These surfaces attempt to reduce or stop germs, fungi and viruses sticking to them and surviving. We don’t know how successful they will be or whether they will repel viruses. Coronavirus is supposed to typically survive five days on metal and four days on glass so maybe ACER is onto something.
Maybe wiping down your devices is still the way to go, and I wouldn’t wager my life on anti-virus coatings, but it is a trend that might gather momentum with tech and appliances.
The ACER line-up also includes Predator Triton, Orion and Helios gaming notebooks, the Acer Chromebook Spin 311, gaming monitors and ConceptD laptops. Some will be available in July, others about September while the Swift 5 is available in late Q4/2020. Pricing is not yet available.
9.10am: Silicon Valley criticises Trump visa restrictions
Silicon Valley executives criticised President Trump’s order suspending new immigration on several employment-based visas programs, warning it could damage the US tech industry’s competitiveness and ultimately jeopardise domestic job creation.
The temporary ban, announced Monday, includes the H-1B type of visa for high-skilled workers many tech companies employ. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Sundar Pichai, boss of Google-parent Alphabet., were among the executives who criticised the action.
Mr Cook on Tuesday said on Twitter he was “deeply disappointed by this proclamation.” Amazon called the measure shortsighted.
Tech companies are among the biggest employers of foreign workers in the US, leaning on the H-1B program to fill software development, engineering and other roles requiring specialised skills that aren’t always widely available in the US.
Critics of the H-1B program say it has allowed companies to avoid hiring American workers in favour of cheaper foreign labour. The Trump administration said Monday’s order would preserve jobs for unemployed Americans amid economic weakness — and soaring unemployment — stemming from lockdowns designed to contain the new coronavirus.
David Swan 8.50am Canva founders to put their billions to greater good
Canva co-founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht will donate their billions to “the greater good”, with the cashed-up young couple declaring their first target is the US political system.
The engaged pair, 32 and 34 respectively, are now the youngest billionaire duo in Australia after their graphic design firm’s latest blockbuster $US60m ($87m) funding roundgave them an estimated combined wealth of $2.5bn and Canva a $US6bn value. Canva chief product officer Cameron Adams is also now a billionaire based on his shareholding.
Canva’s latest raising, from existing shareholders including Australia’s Blackbird Ventures and China’s Sequoia Capital, doubles its previous value, and its founders will focus even more on their previously stated intent to promote social causes and “bring a little more equality to the world”.
Regulators ‘overlap’ in scam prevention draft
The draft Scam Prevention Framework could penalise telcos for abiding by one code while breaking another, the Communications Alliance has warned.
TPG aims rapid fire broadside at NBN
TPG Telecom is targeting apartment owners with its cheap and fast broadband offering – some 10 times faster than the NBN – that is achieved by ‘hot-rodding up’ old copper wire.