Charlotte Henry

There has been lots of controversy and discussion about a video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi circulating online. It to show Speaker Pelosi as apparently unwell, or drunk. It was false, edited to look like that. YouTube chose to take the video off its platform but Facebook did not. In her recent New York Times column, Kara Swisher blasted the social media giant’s decision.

The only thing the incident shows is how expert Facebook has become at blurring the lines between simple mistakes and deliberate deception, thereby abrogating its responsibility as the key distributor of news on the planet. Would a broadcast network air this? Never. Would a newspaper publish it? Not without serious repercussions. Would a marketing campaign like this ever pass muster? False advertising. No other media could get away with spreading anything like this because they lack the immunity protection that Facebook and other tech companies enjoy under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

German officials are considering banning end-to-end encryption in chat apps like Apple iMessage, WhatsApp, and Signal. Currently, law enforcement officers are only allowed to collect communications found on a suspect’s device. An expanded law would include allowing law enforcement access to data from firms that currently provide end-to-end encryption on chat services and software, The Register reported.

True and strong end-to-end encrypted conversations can only be decrypted by those participating in the discussion, so the proposed rules would require app makers to deliberately knacker or backdoor their code in order to comply. Those changes would be needed to allow them to collect messages passing through their systems and decrypt them on demand. Up until now, German police have opted not to bother with trying to decrypt the contents of messages in transit, opting instead to simply seize and break into the device itself, where the messages are typically stored in plain text.

Normally, computer users, do everything they can to avoid getting malware on their machine. However, there is one laptop on sale that contains six of the world’s deadliest viruses, reported The Verge. Artist Guo O Dong produced the work, called The Persistence of Chaos, to bring digital threats into the physical world.

“We have this fantasy that things that happen in computers can’t actually affect us, but this is absurd,” says Guo. “Weaponized viruses that affect power grids or public infrastructure can cause direct harm.” The six viruses in the laptop (a 10.2-inch Samsung NC10-14GB) were chosen for the magnitude of economic damage they’ve caused. They include the ILOVEYOU virus, a computer bug from 2000 that often appeared as a “love letter” attached to emails; and WannaCry, a ransomware attack that shut down computers in hospitals and factories around the world in 2017, and which intelligence agencies blamed on North Korea.

More problems reported for the Samsung Galaxy Fold. According to local outlet The Korean Herald, the launch of the much-maligned device could be delayed beyond June. Samsung has taken longer than expected to fix the problems that beset the Galaxy Fold’s initial rollout.

It has been more than one month since the South Korean tech giant officially announced the postponement of the foldable device’s launch in the United States, but it keeps maintaining that a new schedule will be announced in “coming weeks.” Some telecom officials say that the launch is likely to take place after June, Samsung’s initial goal. Since the firm has been conducting network connection tests on devices with local mobile carriers, the process of addressing the display defect is known by industry sources. However, the company denied such speculation saying, “The improvement process is taking place extremely confidentially, and comments from telecom industry sources can’t be confirmed.”

Shortly after Pegatron reportedly decided to expand Mac and iPad chip production in Indonesia, the firm looks set to make another major investment there. It is thought to be preparing to build iPhone chips in the country too. Reuters reported comments from Indonesia’s  Deputy Industry Minister, who expects a $1 billion investment.

Pegatron plans to assemble the phone chips in partnership with Indonesian electronics company PT Sat Nusapersada at a factory on the island of Batam, Deputy Minister Warsito Ignatius told Reuters. He had earlier said it would produce chips but later clarified by text message that the factory would “assemble the chips for Apple smartphones, while the raw components would be imported.” “The factory might also be used to produce MacBook components as well, but it would not be in the short term,” Ignatius said.

Game subscription service GameClub is set to launch at a similar time to Apple Arcade, putting the two in direct competition. GameClub is though going to focus on bundling old games, reported FastCompany.

GameClub, a startup with $2.5 million in seed funding, plans to launch its own subscription service around the same time. But instead of funding new games, like Apple is doing, GameClub is bundling up old games from the dawn of the App Store, many of which have become unplayable on newer iPhones and iPads. GameClub is also working on an Android version of its service, which presumably won’t face competition from Apple. The goal, CEO Dan Sherman says, is to bring back the kinds of mobile games that have become less viable in a market dominated by ads and in-app purchases.

It’s been an exciting week for Elon Musk. First, a leaked email showed Tesla was on course to beat its Q4 2018 record in Q2 2019. On Friday, BBC News reported, his SpaceX company launched 60 internet satellites. It is the start of the firm’s rollout of its orbiting broadband program.

A Falcon-9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida late on Thursday, packed with 60 satellites capable of giving users on the ground high-speed connections to the internet. Entrepreneur Elon Musk’s firm aims eventually to loft nearly 12,000 spacecraft for its “Starlink” network. SpaceX is one of several commercial outfits with permission to fly an internet mega-constellation. Others include the UK-based start-up OneWeb, which began its roll-out in February with six operational spacecraft.

Samsung is reportedly being lined to up to supply OLED screen for 16-inch MacBook Pros and iPads. AppleInsider reported that negotiations are taking place. Samsung is also said to have sent samples for a 2020, foldable, iPhone.

According to sources of TheElec, Apple is “considering adoption of OLED displays in its high-end Pro models of notebook and tablet PC product lines.” Specifically, Apple is tipped to introduce a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an OLED display, while the 11-inch iPad Pro will switch from LCD to OLED. Samsung has been tipped as a supplier of the OLED panels, but it is apparently negotiating supply of the components using a Thin Film Encapsulation (TFE) method of production, one that offers a number of benefits.