PAKISTAN NEWS:
PTA Unveils Framework for Testing & Development of 5G Networks:
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has unveiled the framework for testing and development of future technologies, particularly 5G wireless networks, in the country. The framework enables the use of radio spectrum on trial basis for non-commercial purposes to carry out trials for innovative use of radio frequency spectrum, apparatus/equipment and academic purposes including but not limited to scientific research, radio concepts and new systems demonstrations.
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Facebook and Google Join Hands to Create New Benchmarks for AI:
A consortium of 40 tech companies, including Facebook and Google, has released a set of universal benchmarks for evaluating the performance of artificial intelligence tools, aiming to help businesses navigate the fast-growing field. These benchmarks, named MLPerf Inference v0.5, are centered around three common machine learning tasks: image recognition, object detection, and voice translation.
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Google Might Lose 800M Customers Due to Huawei Ban:
In the wake of Huawei’s tussle with Trump’s government, a few companies had to give in to the pressure and stop doing business with the Chinese phone maker. One of those companies is Google, who is not going to license Android to Huawei anymore. Google banning Huawei is a massive blow to the Shenzhen based firm and it will also cost Huawei about $30 billion. However, during the 90-day grace period effective until August, Huawei has been trying to recover from the loss with its own operating system called HongMeng OS (Oak OS in other countries).
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Duolingo Now Teaches You 5 Most Common Languages For Free:
Duolingo, a language learning platform that also provides a digital language proficiency exam has been expanding its language collection over the years. It provides free basic courses on its website and its apps for both iOS and Android. The platform is specifically developed for English speaking individuals and teaches multiple languages from around the world including French, Chinese and Portuguese. Recently, Duolingo has started offering a course that teaches Arabic to English speakers.
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Samsung Wants Apple to Pay for the OLED Orders it Cancelled:
By the looks of it, the Korean tech giant Samsung and Cupertino based Apple are getting into another legal tussle. Samsung is vexed that Apple did not meet its minimum OLED panel orders and wants the company to pay a massive penalty. Since Samsung has a massive lead in the OLED market, Apple had no choice than to reach out to Samsung for manufacturing OLED displays for the iPhone X. Samsung expected to make billions from this order, however, things went south due to the poor iPhone X demand and sales.
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Is this the World’s Fastest USB-C External SSD?:
OWC has just revealed its latest external SSD, the Envoy Pro EX. The Envoy Pro EX works with both Macs and PCs and promises pretty ridiculous transfer speeds for an external drive. The company claims that its new Envoy Pro EX is the fastest USB-C based SSD on the planet, with its NVMe-based storage offering transfer speeds as high as 980MB/s. For context, even SanDisk’s Extreme 900 Portable SSD peaks at 850MB/s in ideal conditions. It’s a drive that could handle 4K video editing one moment and sit in your pocket the next.
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MediaTek Launches a Mid-range Helio P65 Chipset With Enhanced AI:
MediaTek, a Taiwanese chipset manufacturer has just unveiled its mid-tier processor called Helio P65. The new chipset lies between the P60 and P70 and is built on a 12nm process. This new P-series chipset claims to be 25 percent faster than its predecessor and is also supposed to provide a better gaming experience. With a 100 percent boost in AI performance, it also brings 30 percent improvement AI-assisted camera tasks including scene recognition, scene detection, and application of bokeh effects.
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The First Phone With an Under Display Selfie Camera:
Last week at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai 2019, Chinese phone maker Oppo has made one of its biggest announcements of the year. The Dongguan-based manufacturer introduced its first-ever Under-Screen front facing Camera that was teased earlier this month. To make this possible, Oppo has introduced both a customized display and camera module. The part of the screen that is above the lens is made out of a unique highly transparent material with redesigned pixel structure to make sure an adequate amount of light can pass through it.
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Vivo Unveils 5G-Ready Innovations, AR Glass, 120WSuper FlashCharge:
Vivo has unveiled its latest cutting-edge innovations at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai 2019 as part of its new strategy to deliver a richer mobile experience in the 5G era. Aligning with MWC’s theme of “Intelligent Connectivity” this year, Vivo is showcasing several 5G enabled smart devices and applications, as well as new technology breakthrough, demonstrating its commitment to empowering the next-generation of mobile experience.
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Microsoft and Intel will Continue to Support Huawei Laptops:
Huawei laptop users can breathe a sigh of relief – for now at least. Both Microsoft and Intel have confirmed that they will continue to support Huawei laptops despite the Chinese company’s blacklisting by the US. This will be welcome news for anyone who owns a Huawei laptop as there was growing concern that the laptops would stop receiving critical Windows updates after the company was blacklisted by the US Department of Commerce.
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
Second US town pays up to ransomware hackers:
A town in Florida has paid $500,000 (£394,000) to hackers after a ransomware attack. The total paid by Florida municipalities over ransomware in the last two weeks now stands at $1.1m. Officials in Lake City voted to pay hackers in Bitcoin after suffering downed computer systems for two weeks. Coastal suburb Riviera Beach recently paid hackers $600,000 following a similar incident that locked municipal staff out of important files.
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US meteorologists worried over 5G roll-out:
Signals from weather satellites could be disrupted by 5G mobile data networks in the US, meteorologists have warned.US forecasters have expressed concerns about 5G radio interference before, but now a group of scientific bodies has written to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over the issue. The joint letter, spotted by news site The Register, says the situation is “deeply concerning”. It asks for an auction of radio spectrum for 5G uses to be delayed.
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Body found in search is missing YouTuber:
Police investigating the disappearance of YouTuber Etika have confirmed that they have found his body. The gamer, 29, whose real name is Desmond Amofah, was reported missing six days ago. His belongings were found on Manhattan Bridge last Monday. He had uploaded an eight-minute YouTube video in which he talked about suicide. Etika was popular for playing and discussing Nintendo games on YouTube and the streaming platform Twitch.
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US Huawei supplier resumes some shipments:
US chipmaker Micron has restarted some shipments to Huawei despite a ban on selling products to the Chinese firm. The US banned companies from selling components and technology to Huawei and 68 affiliates on 15 May. But boss Sanjay Mehrotra said Micron had found it could lawfully “resume shipping a subset of current products”. Intel and other market leaders have also reportedly restarted selling some products to the world’s biggest telecoms equipment manufacturer.
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Google city sparks fresh controversy:
Sidewalk Labs, a sister company of Google, has published its plans to build a smart city in Toronto, sparking fresh controversy. In a 1,500-word document, the company laid out its ambitions to “improve the urban environment” with a variety of high-tech innovations. Waterfront Toronto, the body that will decide if the bid is successful, has questioned the proposals.
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Robots ‘to replace up to 20 million factory jobs’ by 2030:
Up to 20 million manufacturing jobs around the world could be replaced by robots by 2030, according to analysis firm Oxford Economics. People displaced from those jobs are likely to find that comparable roles in the services sector have also been squeezed by automation, the firm said. However, increasing automation will also boost jobs and economic growth, it added. The firm called for action to prevent a damaging increase in income inequality.
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Facebook to identify French hate speech suspects:
Facebook has agreed to give the names of French users who are suspected of using hate speech on its platform to the courts when requested. The deal is believed to be the first of its kind in the world. In the past, the tech giant has revealed IP addresses and other forms of identification to French judges — but only in cases relating to terrorism and violent acts. Cedric O, French minister for digital affairs, called the deal “huge news”.
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Chinese viewers watch webcast tour of tiny village museum:
Nearly half a million people in China tuned in to watch a live stream tour of a tiny English village museum. FeixueHuangdu, a Chinese student at Nottingham Trent University, visited Ruddington’s Village Museum as part of a series of heritage-themed webcasts. The humble Nottinghamshire attraction has only had 75,000 visitors since it opened in 1968.
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Global phone networks attacked by hackers:
Hackers targeted mobile phone networks around the world to snoop on specific users, according to a report. The level of access they gained to the networks meant they could have shut them down had they wanted to.US-Israeli security firm Cybereason concluded “with a high level of certainty” that the hackers were based in China, probably sponsored by the government. The attack – dubbed Operation Softcell – began in 2017.
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Dutch emergency line hit by KPN telecoms outage:
The Netherlands has been hit by its largest telecommunications outage in years, with the 112 emergency number knocked out across the country. The disruption, which lasted four hours, originated from national carrier KPN, and affected other providers linked to its network. KPN said the cause was still unclear but it did not appear to be a hack. “We have no reason to think it was (a hack) and we monitor our systems 24/7,” a company spokeswoman told Reuters.
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‘Jet in a box’ powers remote Halley Antarctic base:
The UK has managed to get one of its major Antarctic bases operating in an automatic mode for the first time. Halley station, on the Brunt Ice Shelf, is remotely running experiments that include the monitoring of the ozone layer and of “space weather”. The base would normally be crewed year-round, even through the permanent darkness of winter. But staff have had to be withdrawn because of uncertainty over the stability of nearby ice.