Athletes offered COVID-detecting rings
US basketballers are being invited to wear “Oura rings” to help them detect coronavirus and monitor their health.
Welcome to The Download, The Australian’s new technology blog for the latest breaking tech news. Today, Apple is facing antitrust probes in the EU and The Australian has a new technology podcast.
Chris Griffith 6.05pm: American basketballers to wear “Oura rings” to detect COVID-19
US National Basketball Association players are being invited to wear “Oura rings” to help them detect coronavirus and monitor their health.
The publication The Athletic reports that the association outlined the option in a health and safety manual issued ahead of the resumption of this year’s basketball season on July 30 at Disney World near Orlando, in what’s being termed the “Orlando bubble”.
The Oura ring is a wearable high-tech ring that’s used to monitor sleep and as an activity tracker. However it’s gaining some traction in the fight against COVID-19.
Las Vegas Sands which owns the Venetian and Palazzo resorts is reported to have bought 1000 rings following claims the Finnish smart rings can detect early symptoms of COVID-19.
Researchers at West Virginia University claim that the titanium Oura ring can detect the body’s efforts to fight back against the infection through changes in temperature, sleep patterns and heart rate. The researchers reportedly gave the rings to frontline workers to test.
The NBA is also picking up on the claim with its offer to team members. According to reports, their health data will remain private unless they accrue a high “illness probability score”.
David Swan 4.53pm: Russian ‘fake news’ evolves
A group of Russia-based hackers used sophisticated new techniques to spread disinformation in the US and avoid detection by social media companies for years, according to a new report from an information research firm.
The findings, by the firm Graphika, could indicate how Russian efforts to spread confusion online have changed in the face of attempts to thwart them.
The group of hackers, referred to as Secondary Infektion, started six years ago and was active at least through the start of this year, Graphika said. It avoided detection by spreading its messages in seven languages across more than 300 platforms and web forums, using temporary “burner” accounts that were quickly abandoned and leaving few digital breadcrumbs for investigators to follow, said the report released Tuesday.
David Swan 3.40pm: Cheaper 5G phones on the way
Qualcomm on Tuesday said it is putting 5G technology into chips for smartphones that will sell for as little as $US300 ($500) and that will come to market in the second half of this year.
San Diego-based Qualcomm is the biggest supplier of processors for smartphones and the modem chips that connect the phones to wireless data networks.
The company’s chips featuring fifth-generation (5G) cellular telecommunications technology are currently in many premium-priced smartphones such as Samsung’s Galaxy devices.
But Qualcomm has also been working to get the technology into cheaper devices. The new chip, called the Snapdragon 690, will go into devices that it expects to retail at $300 to $500, Qualcomm said. Phone makers such as HMD Global, the owner of the Nokia phone brand, LG Electronics Inc and Lenovo Group Ltd’s Motorola plan to use the chips, Qualcomm said.
The push into lower price points means higher volumes for Qualcomm. According to data from Counterpoint Research, smartphones with wholesales prices of $US100 to $US400, which are somewhat lower than the prices consumers pay, made up about 50 per cent of the overall smartphone market in the first quarter of 2020.
Reuters
David Swan 3.30pm: Snapchat not scared of TikTok competition
Snapchat's co-founder says he isn't worried about competition from the likes of TikTok and Instagram, telling The Australian that Snapchat users are generally more engaged and use the app for 'real connection' more than their rivals.
Speaking exclusively to The Australian, Snap co-founder Bobby Murphy said that his app's focus on communication between close friends – achieved through augmented reality and the app's heavy focus on the camera – means it will retain its popularity with Generation Z and millennial users.
Chris Griffith 12.05pm: Facebook removes right-wing accounts
Facebook has removed almost 900 accounts associated with the far-right Proud Boys and American Guard. They include the accounts of supporters who marched into a protest zone in Seattle and confronted anti-racist demonstrators. Facebook told Reuters the takedowns of more than 500 Facebook accounts and more than 300 Instagram accounts followed a smaller round of suspensions two weeks ago.
“We initially removed a set of accounts for both organisations on May 30 when we saw that both organisations started posting content tied to the ongoing protests,” said a Facebook spokeswoman who asked not to be identified. “We were continuing the work to map out the full network.”
Facebook had previously banned the groups for promoting hate, but individual members continued to post images with weapons and urging others to attend protests that followed the Minneapolis killing of George Floyd in police custody.
Facebook is under heightened scrutiny as provocateurs use it to coordinate and recruit. It has also acted to make it harder to find groups in the so-called Boogaloo movement. This week, two adherents were charged in connection with the murder of a security guard on duty at a federal building during a protest in Oakland.
Reuters
David Swan 11.10am: 5G subscriptions tipped to soar
5G subscriptions are forecast to top 190 million by end of 2020 and 2.8 billion by the end of 2025, according to a new report from networking giant Ericsson.
Ericsson's June 2020 Mobility Report found that while COVID-19 has slowed 5G subscription growth in some markets, it's set to ramp up rapidly in Australia in the second half of the year.
By the end of 2019 there were 220,000 5G subscriptions in Oceania - mostly concentrated in Australia - but that number will soar this year.
"We believe that by 2025, 30 per cent of mobile subscriptions will be 5G," Ericsson Australia and New Zealand managing director Emilio Romeo told The Australian.
"COVID if anything has demonstrated how important connectivity is, and that momentum will continue because we can see now we will reach 190 million 5G subscribers by the end of the year. We originally thought it would be 100 million, so we've been very encouraged by what we're seeing. Telstra has accelerated its 5G program, too."
The report also found that 83 per cent of respondents from 11 countries claim that ICT helped them a lot to cope with the lockdown, with the results showing increased adoption and usage of ICT services, such as e-learning and wellness apps.
5G handsets are already available from major handset makers including Samsung and Oppo, while Apple is expected to announce a 5G-enabled iPhone this year.
Chris Griffith 10.30am: Basecamp revamps email with “Hey”
Project management software firm Basecamp is the latest to try to reimage email. Many have attempted to tackle the clutter caused by the buckets of SPAM and ill-directed emails that everyday users receive, but success has been limited.
Hey’s approach involves a holding centre containing email sent by people it hasn’t registered before.
Users have to approve a sender so that their subsequent emails arrive in the “imbox” - an inbox of email requiring immediate attention. Alternatively you can reject a user and never receive another email from them. The remaining emails are dispatched either to “the feed” - for reading only, or to the “paper trail” - for receipts.
The idea is that you eliminate SPAM from your “imbox” before you receive it.
Hey costs $US99 per year so it isn’t for everyone, but there is a 14-day free trial.
Unfortunately Hey has come a cropper with Apple which has removed its iOS app from the App store. Wired reports that Basecamp isn’t prepared to pay the 30 per cent commission that Apple charges for App store sales to third parties.
The case is an example of concern about the rules around revenue from the App store that EU antitrust regulators are investigating - see the next blog item.
Apple this week said its App Store ecosystem had generated US$519bn in billings and sales globally last year.
David Swan 10.10am: Apple’s App Store, Apple Pay targeted by EU antitrust regulators
Apple is being investigated by EU antitrust regulators over its App Store and mobile payment system Apple Pay as the bloc turns up the heat on gatekeepers of online platforms on which thousands of companies depend for business.
The European Commission said its investigation would look into Apple’s requirement forcing app developers to sell to customers using its own in-app purchase system and rules preventing them from informing users of cheaper products elsewhere.
The investigation will also cover all apps which compete with Apple in Europe, which could be iCloud and gaming apps, following informal information received by regulators.
The second case focuses on Apple’s terms and conditions on how its mobile payment service Apple Pay should be used in merchants’ apps and websites, and also the company’s refusal to allow rivals access to the payment system.
“It’s disappointing the European Commission is advancing baseless complaints from a handful of companies who simply want a free ride, and don’t want to play by the same rules as everyone else,” the iPhone maker said in a statement.
“We don’t think that’s right — we want to maintain a level playing field where anyone with determination and a great idea can succeed.”
David Swan 9.45am: Forward Slash is out now
2020 has seen the world reshaped at an unprecedented pace. Eras that once spanned a decade fly past in the space of a month. Trends that lasted weeks are lucky to survive an entire day.
And with the COVID-19 outbreak, large chunks of society are being totally redrawn. New vaccines. New ways to work. Energy sources, communication, education, healthcare. It’s all in play.
Technology is accelerating a lot of these changes, but could it also steer us towards a safer, fairer future?
Forward Slash is a podcast series about how massive change and technology are colliding in our present moment. New episodes will be released fortnightly.
The first episode is a look at the race to find a vaccine for COVID-19.
Chris Griffith 5.00pm: Australians turned to gaming in lockdown
Seven in 10 Australians spent time gaming during the COVID-19 lockdown, says research by YouGov.
The survey of Australians aged 16-45 found that more than half of those gaming in lockdown did so to reduce stress and improve their mental health.
On average Australians clocked up more than 10.5 hours per week gaming, and 60pc fancied a career in digital gaming. However, only 19 per cent said they knew the steps needed to “make it” in the industry.
A dream job in gaming was most popular among Western Australians (10pc), and lowest among southern Australians (4pc).
Gamers in Western Australia spent the longest time gaming, clocking just under 11 hours and 50 minutes, compared to gamers in southern Australia with just over 9 hours and 20 minutes.
NSW gamers were most likely to game during lockdown to improve their mental health (28pc), significantly more so than Queensland gamers (15pc).
The survey was commissioned by Lenovo which is promoting “epprenticeships” involving training sessions in the gaming community. It surveyed 1011 Australians.
Chris Griffith 4.15pm: Oppo’s Find X2 Pro takes on the top phones
Oppo has released its Find X2 premium smartphone range, offering consumers three models to fit their budget and needs, Chris Griffith writes.
The Guangdong-headquartered phone maker is renowned for churning out quality Android phones at a cheap price, and has become a darling among consumers seeking a handset that looks and behaves like a higher end phone, but is reasonably priced.
If you’re an Oppo user you’ll like the Find X2 Pro. If you’re an existing Huawei, Samsung, LG or Google premium Android phone user, the Find X2 Pro offers you a new alternative at the top end of the market.
David Swan 3.10pm: eBay sent spiders, roaches to harass couple
Six former eBay employees have been charged with waging an extensive campaign to terrorise and intimidate the editor and publisher of an online newsletter with threats and disturbing deliveries to their home, including live spiders and cockroaches, federal authorities said Monday.
Executives were upset about the newsletter’s coverage, so their employees set out to ruin the lives of the couple who ran the website, sending a funeral wreath, bloody pig face Halloween mask and other alarming items to their home, authorities said. The employees also sent pornographic magazines with the husband’s name on it to their neighbour’s house and planned to break into the couple’s garage to install a GPS device on their car, officials said. “This was a determined, systematic effort by senior employees of a major company to destroy the lives of a couple in Natick all because they published content that company executives didn’t like.
For a while they succeeded, psychologically devastating these victims for weeks as they desperately tried to figure out what was going on and stop it,” Massachusetts US Attorney Andrew Lelling told reporters.
An online article with the same headline as the one described in court documents shows the person described as “Executive 1” as eBay’s CEO, who was then Devin Wenig.
Wenig stepped down in September and is not charged in the case. On Monday, a person who answered at a phone number listed for Wenig said “we’re not interested,” before hanging up.
AP
Ben Packham 2.40pm: US to put screws on China collaborations
Australia will face growing pressure from the US to halt science and technology co-operation with China in critical fields, including artificial intelligence, robotics and quantum computing, to maintain access to the American technology ecosystem, a new report warns.
The bipartisan US push to protect the American technological advantage over China is set to up-end Australia’s already struggling R & D funding model, with huge consequences for universities, scientists and entrepreneurs.
The United States Studies Centre says to satisfy new US requirements, Australia is likely to have to adopt tougher export controls on critical technologies with potential military applications, and introduce laws barring Chinese access to sensitive research.
The US has put technology at the heart of its battle for strategic supremacy over China, slapping export controls over entire fields of technology and reforming foreign investment rules.
Australia is yet to be exempted by the US from the new export controls, and may have to introduce parallel changes to maintain access to key US technologies.
Chris Griffith 1.15pm: Apple snares more than half a trillion
Apple says its App Store ecosystem generated US$519bn in billings and sales globally last year. That’s not revenue or profit, as Apple says more than 85 per cent of it goes to third-party developers and businesses who create the content.
It says a study by Analysis Group found that the highest value categories are mobile commerce (m-commerce) apps, digital goods and services apps, and in-app advertising across 175 countries.
The study found that sales from physical goods and services accounted for the largest share of the US$519bn – some US$413bn. Within that category, m-commerce apps generated the vast majority of sales, and of those, retail was the largest, at US$268bn. Retail apps include those that represent brick-and-mortar stores such as Officeworks and Cotton On, and virtual marketplaces that sell physical goods, such as Showpo, but do not include grocery delivery, which is its own category.
Apple CEO Tim Cook says the App Store is providing enduring opportunities for entrepreneurship, health and wellbeing, education, and job creation in what are challenging times.
Chris Griffith 11.20am: Macquarie expands government data centres
Macquarie Telecom Group will build a new data centre at its Canberra campus as the demand for Macquarie Government’s cloud and cyber security services rises.
Macquarie says construction will begin in July with an initial investment of $17 million to build stage one – 1.5 megawatts (MW) – by December 2020. Once completed, the full Canberra campus of two centres will be 4MW, with more capacity to be added if required.
It says Macquarie Government business has expanded in recent months, with 42 per cent of government agencies and personnel now using its cyber security, secure internet gateway (SIG) and cloud services. This includes a recent $20 million deal with the tax office to protect it from security threats.
“Risk to Government of a cyber breach and the dependency on cloud services are at an highest – we’re not just going to return to the ‘norm’ after this pandemic and facilities of this calibre are an essential requirement in Canberra,” said Aidan Tudehope, Managing Director, Macquarie Government.
The investment will tap into the federal government’s ‘Instant Asset Write-Off’ and ‘Backing Business Investment’ stimulus measures.
David Swan 10.30am: TikTok to build out Australian office
China-owned viral video application maker TikTok is opening a local office, with former Google and YouTube executive Lee Hunter joining as General Manager for TikTok Australia alongside former Google executive, Brett Armstrong, who is the company’s new General Manager for Global Business Solutions.
The Sydney office will have a focus on “overseeing the implementation of safety policies and resources, as well as driving growth, partnerships and the local product experience,” Hunter said.
Over the past 18 months TikTok has hired General Managers in the US, UK, India, Japan, and Canada.
Statistics from Roy Morgan show TikTok has more than 1.6 million users in Australia, with girls and women representing two-thirds of those.
David Swan 10.20am: Fortnite maker Epic games worth $24.5bn
Epic Games, the creator of the popular video game “Fortnite”, is close to raising a $US750 million round of funding at a valuation of about $US17 billion ($24.5bn), according to Reuters.
New investors T. Rowe Price Group and Baillie Gifford will contribute to the round, while existing investors including KKR & Co will also participate.
David Swan 10.05am: SAP conference crashes
SAP’s biggest customer event, Sapphire Now, got off to a rocky start on Monday as the site hosting this year’s “reimagined” event, held online due to the coronavirus pandemic crashed.
As Reuters reports it was hardly an advertisement for Europe’s most valuable tech company, whose pitch to its 440,000 customers promises seamless integration in support of a new kind of “intelligent enterprise”.
After a delay, SAP directed viewers to a link that worked on Twitter – inviting a slew of ironic comments on the microblogging platform.
“Have you tried turning it off and on again?” tweeted Steve Rumsby, an SAP solution architect at Britain’s University of Warwick.
Microsoft, Meta stare down DeepSeek threat
DeepSeek will not derail Microsoft and Meta spending a combined $US145bn on AI this year, with Mark Zuckerberg steaming ahead to build a data centre almost the size of Manhattan.
China’s DeepSeek kicks off AI arms race
The US and China are now in a global AI race. The revolution is coming a lot faster than many executives have anticipated.