Daily Tech News and Updates: 2019

Tuesday 31 December 2019

Flipkart Ties Up With Government to Empower Artisans, SHGs

Flipkart on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry's Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) to empower skilled yet underserved sections of society by inducting them into e-commerce.

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Mi Mix Alpha Concept Phone Delayed, Release Date Remains Unknown: Report

Xiaomi has reportedly pushed back the release of its Mi Mix Alpha concept phone and currently has no concrete plans regarding its market arrival.

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Scientists Working on Brain-Like Memory Device

An international joint research team led by National Institute for Materials Science in Japan is currently developing a brain-like memory device using the neuromorphic network material.

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Samsung Galaxy M21 Tipped to Come With Up to 128GB Storage, Three Colour Options

Samsung Galaxy M21 is reported to come with model number SM-M215F. The upcoming phone will reportedly come with 64GB and 128GB storage options – a considerable increase from the 32GB and 64GB options given for the Galaxy M20.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Lite Live Images Surface Online, Show Familiar Hole-Punch Design and Triple Rear Cameras

Alleged live images of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Lite have reportedly been leaked, revealing a familiar design with triple rear cameras and a hole-punch.

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Google to End 'Double Irish, Dutch Sandwich' Tax Scheme

Google parent Alphabet will no longer use an intellectual property licensing scheme, known as the "Double Irish, Dutch sandwich", which allowed it to delay paying US taxes, 2018 tax filings show.

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Google to End 'Double Irish, Dutch Sandwich' Tax Scheme

US Auto Safety Agency to Investigate Fatal Tesla Crash in California

The fatal December 29 crash of a Tesla vehicle in Southern California will be investigated by the US government's auto safety regulator, the agency said on Tuesday.

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2020 Genesis GV80 officially drops on New Year's Eve - Roadshow

The GV80 will go on sale in 2020.

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U.S. auto safety agency to investigate fatal Tesla crash in California

The fatal Dec. 29 crash of a Tesla Inc vehicle in Southern California will be investigated by the U.S. government's auto safety regulator, the agency said on Tuesday.

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Vaping: Death toll climbs to 54 as CDC points to vitamin E acetate as prime culprit - CNET

Get up to date on the acute issues tied to vaping.

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U.S. auto safety agency to probe fatal Tesla crash in Los Angeles

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said late on Tuesday it will investigate a fatal Dec. 29 Tesla Inc crash in Los Angeles that killed two people.

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Toss A Coin to Your Witcher: Here's where to hear the song from Netflix's hit series - CNET

Now pour him some ale.

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Monday 30 December 2019

Lost Phone? Delhi Gets Web Portal to Enable Blocking, Unblocking of Stolen or Lost Mobile Phone

Phones users in Delhi-NCR who lose their mobile phones will now have some respite, with the government launching a portal that will enable blocking and tracing of stolen or lost mobile phones.

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India’s richest man is ready to take on Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart

Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, is ready to take on Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart.

Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio, two subsidiaries of Ambani’s Reliance Industries, said they have soft launched JioMart, their e-commerce venture, in parts of the state of Maharashtra — Mumbai, Kalyan and Thane.

The e-commerce venture, which is being marketed as “Desh Ki Nayi Dukaan” (Hindi for new sore for the country), currently offers a catalog of 50,000 grocery items and promises “free and express delivery.”

In an email to employees, accessed by TechCrunch, the two subsidiaries that are working together on the e-commerce venture, said they plan to scale the service to many parts of India in coming months. A Reliance spokesperson declined to comment.

The soft launch this week comes months after Ambani, who runs Reliance Industries — India’s largest industrial house — had said at a conference that he wants to service tens of millions of retailers and store owners across the country.

More to follow…

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WhatsApp for Windows Phone Will No Longer Be Officially Supported After Today

WhatsApp will withdraw support for all Windows Phone operating system starting today, December 31. The instant messaging app is also set to leave support for the devices running Android version 2.3.7 and older alongside the iPhone models running iOS 8 and older from February 1, 2020.

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Huawei Says 'Survival' Top Priority as Sales Fall Short

Huawei said Tuesday that "survival" was its top priority after announcing 2019 sales were expected to fall short of projections as a result of US sanctions.

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Realme 5i Set to Launch on January 6, Retailer Listing Reveals Key Specifications

Realme 5i has been officially confirmed to launch on January 6 in Vietnam, and it has also appeared on an e-commerce website as well.

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US Retailers Rush to Comply With California Privacy Law

US retailers including Walmart will add "Do Not Sell My Info" links to their websites and signage in stores starting Jan. 1, allowing California shoppers to understand for the first time what personal and other data the retailers collect, sources said.

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New Year’s Eve 2019: Google Ends the Decade With Fireworks Doodle

Google is celebrating New Year’s Eve 2019 with a creative doodle on its homepage. The tech giant is known to celebrate big occasions with artsy Google Doodles, and the latest shows Froggy the weather frog enjoying the fireworks.

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Uber and Postmates claim gig worker bill AB-5 is unconstitutional in new lawsuit

Postmates and Uber have filed a complaint in California federal district court, alleging that a bill limiting how companies can label workers as independent contractors is unconstitutional. The complaint, which includes two gig workers as co-plaintiffs, was filed in U.S. District Court on Monday, days before Assembly Bill 5 (AB-5) is due to go into effect on Jan. 1. It asks for a preliminary injunction against AB-5 while the lawsuit is under consideration.

The complaint argues that AB-5 violates several clauses in the U.S. and California constitutions, including equal protection because of how it classifies gig workers for ride-sharing and on-demand delivery companies compared to the exemptions it grants to workers who do “substantively identical work” in more than twenty other industries.

AB-5 was authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a Democrat representing the 80th Assembly District in southern California and signed into law in September by Governor Gavin Newsom. It is intended to uphold the ruling in Dynamex Operations West Inc. v Superior Court of Los Angeles, a landmark 2018 decision by the California Supreme Court about how employees and independent contractors should be classified, and ensure that gig economy workers are entitled to benefits like minimum wage, health insurance and workers’ compensation.

But the suit’s opponents, which includes tech companies whose business models rely on the gig economy, as well as groups of gig workers and freelance journalists, argue that it restricts their work opportunities and ability to earn money.

In addition to Uber and Postmates, the complaints’ plaintiffs also include Lydia Olson and Miguel Perez, drivers for on-demand companies. In a post on Postmates’ blog, Perez wrote that he joined the suit because AB5 “is threatening the freedom and flexibility I have relied on in recent years to support my family.”

A statement from Postmates said “AB5 is a blunt instrument, which is why lawmakers exempted 24 industries, seemingly at random, from its requirements.”

The company added that does not want to be exempted from AB-5 or reverse the Dynamex standard, but “call for industry and labor talks with the California legislature to modernize a robust safety net designed specifically for the needs of on-demand workers, that establishes a new portable benefits model, creates earnings guarantees higher than minimum age, and gives all workers both the strong voice they need and flexibility they demand—a framework not currently contemplated under state and federal law.”

As proof that AB-5 violates the equal protection clause, the complaint argues that “the vast majority of the statute is a list of exemptions that carve out of the statutory scope dozens of occupations, including direct salespeople, travel agents, grant writers, construction truck drivers, commercial fisherman, and many more. There is no rhyme or reason to these nonsensical exemptions, and some are so ill-defined or entirely undefined that it is impossible to discern what they include or exclude.”

The complaint also alleges that AB-5 violates due process by preventing people from choosing to work for gig companies, and the contracts clause because mandating companies like Uber and Postmates to reclassify contractors as employees will either invalidate or substantially change their existing contracts.

In statement about the lawsuit, Gonzalez said “the one clear thing we know about Uber is they will do anything to try to exempt themselves from state regulations that make us all safer and their driver employees self-sufficient. In the meantime, Uber chief executives will continue to become billionaires while too many of their drivers are forced to sleep in their cars.”

The lawsuit follows several efforts to stop or limit AB-5. In October, a group of drivers for Lyft, Uber and DoorDash announced they had submitted a California ballet initiative for the November 2020 ballot in response to AB-5. The measure which received substantial financial support from those companies, seeks to enable drivers and couriers can continue to be independent contractors while guaranteeing benefits like a minimum wage, expenses, healthcare and insurances.

Earlier this month, several organizations representing freelancer writers filed a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles alleging AB5 places unconstitutional restrictions on free speech, the day after Vox Media announced it will cut hundreds of freelance positions in California as it prepares for the bill.

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Privacy Fears as Police Use Facial Recognition at PM Modi's Ramlila Maidan Rally

Police in Delhi used facial recognition software to screen crowds at a recent political rally - a first for India - raising concerns about privacy and mass surveillance amidst nationwide protests against a new citizenship law.

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Facebook Disables Some Misleading Ads on HIV Prevention Drugs, Responding to Growing Outcry

Facebook has quietly started removing some misleading ads about HIV prevention medication, responding to a deluge of activists, health experts and government regulators who said the tech giant had created the conditions for a public-health crisis.

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Indonesia plans fixed fees for e-wallet transactions: sources

Indonesia plans to impose fixed fees on some e-wallet transactions, five people familiar with the matter said, in a move that could choke a key revenue stream and raise costs for payment startups backed by the likes of Alibaba's Ant Financial.

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Huawei’s revenue hits record $122B this year despite U.S. sanctions, forecasts ‘difficult’ 2020

Huawei reported resilient revenue for 2019 on Tuesday as the embattled Chinese technology group continues to grow despite prolonged American campaign against its business, but cautioned that growth next year could prove more challenging.

Eric Xu, Huawei’s rotating chairman, wrote in a New Year’s message to employees that the company’s revenue has topped 850 billion Chinese yuan ($122 billion) this year, a new record high for the Chinese group and an 18% increase over the previous year.

Xu said Huawei, the second largest smartphone maker globally, sold 240 million handsets this year, up from 206 million last year.

“These figures are lower than our initial projections, yet business remains solid and we stand strong in the face of adversity,” he wrote.

He acknowledged that Huawei is confronting a “strategic and long-term” campaign against its business by the U.S. government. If the campaign persists for long, it would create even more “difficult” environment for the 32-year-old firm to “survive and thrive,” he said.

Survival would be the company’s first priority in 2020, he said.

The U.S. added Huawei to the Commerce Department’s trade blacklist this year, and placed new restrictions on its ability to sell to — and maintain commercial relations with — American companies. The U.S. government has also urged its allies to not use Huawei products in building the next generation of their telecom network infrastructure, alleging that the Chinese company poses a threat to national security.

In October, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a conference in New Delhi that he hopes that India, the world’s second largest telecom market, “does not inadvertently subject itself to untoward security risk” by using 5G equipment from Huawei.

But not all U.S. allies have heeded its advice. On Monday, Huawei secured a major victory in India, which approved Huawei’s request to participate in trials of its 5G spectrum.

“We thank the Indian government for their continued faith in Huawei,” Jay Chen, the company’s India CEO said in a statement. “We firmly believe that only technology innovations and high quality networks will be the key to rejuvenating the Indian telecom industry,” he added.

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Uber, Postmates sue to block California gig worker law, claiming it's unconstitutional

Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc and courier services provider Postmates Inc asked a U.S. court to block a California labor law set to go into effect on Wednesday, arguing the bill violates the U.S. Constitution.

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Uber sues California to block gig-worker law going into effect this week - CNET

Complaint says AB 5 unfairly targets companies and workers in the on-demand economy.

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Google's New Year's Eve 2019 Doodle features familiar frog - CNET

Froggy the weather frog finds the fireworks ribbitting.

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The five biggest rounds in tech in 2019 and what they mean

Funding for tech startups has been on an inevitable upswing for years, a result of a virtuous circle where wildly successful tech companies on the public markets whet the appetites of investors and investors’ backers to find more diamonds, a push met by a pull from the rush of talent with entrepreneurial aspirations out to put that money to work. 2019 has felt a bumper year in that longer trend, with 9-figure rounds ($100 million or more) and “unicorn” statuses so prevalent that the numbers have started to cease to be news items in themselves.

With 2020 now just days away, a look at the 50 biggest funding rounds for start-ups in the past year draw out some trends. We’re pulling out the top five below for a closer look, but it’s interesting too to see some of the other trends emerging across the rest of the pack.

Automotive remains a huge pull when it comes to raising big bucks: part of the reason is because the space is capital intensive, as it straddles both software and hardware (that is, not just equipment but cars). Capex is another reason for some of the other big investment rounds of the year, such as the biggest of them all, for an internet data center startup.

Asian companies figure massive in the list, and account for 7 of the 10 biggest rounds in the list.

Small players: there were only three companies in health tech in the top 50, only one in education technology, and only three in the areas of AI and robotics. I don’t know if that means these areas simply don’t require as much capital investment, or if these challenges are simply not as interesting right now for investors as those more squarely focused on revenue generation and business needs. Hopefully the former, as the wider tech world faces a lot of cynicism and skepticism from the public, and could use a better profile from solving actual problems.

Note: for this piece we have focused on investments made in pre-IPO technology companies, and on new equity investments rather than secondary or debt rounds.

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Tech 2019: Our biggest technology stories

Social media scandals dominate the list of the most-read news stories by the Tech desk this year.

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Another director leaves the Uncharted movie

The Uncharted movie, based on the massively popular Indiana Jones-like game series, has lost another director, according to Deadline. Its release date has also been pushed back.

Deadline says Travis Knight, who most recently directed Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, had to drop from the Uncharted movie because of scheduling difficulties. The movie is set to star Tom Holland as protagonist Nathan Drake. Holland, however, is also committed to playing Spider-Man in the next Marvel iteration of series, which apparently begins shooting this summer. Deadline reports that Sony still plans to release the Uncharted movie, but with a new director and later release date. (It was originally slated for a December 18th, 2020 release.)

The Uncharted...

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Syd Mead, sci-fi visual artist known for Blade Runner and Tron, dies at 86 - CNET

The legendary Mead once called science fiction "reality ahead of schedule."

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Huawei's 2019 revenue to jump 18%, forecasts 'difficult' 2020

Huawei Technologies on Tuesday said its full-year revenue would likely jump 18% in 2019 to 850 billion yuan ($121.72 billion), lower than its earlier projections, as a U.S. trade blacklisting curbed growth and disrupted its ability to source key parts.