SoftBank’s emergency asset sales, voice network under strain, 2020 MacBook Air
The coronavirus crisis is forcing the EU to redraw its digital strategy and important legislation is now likely to be delayed, according to several people involved in the process, reports Javier Espinoza from Brussels. Brussels set out its strategy for artificial intelligence and data just a month ago, calling for the EU to boost its data sovereignty and even suggesting that European AI algorithms should be trained on European data. But the limitations of such a policy have been quickly exposed by the coronavirus pandemic, said EU officials. “Now with coronavirus, if you’re working on something like a vaccine and you want to move quickly, there is a realisation you need to rely on a much broader set of data,” said one person with direct knowledge of the European Commission’s thinking. “The EU is not backtracking yet on its position but it is thinking more actively about the unintended consequences of what they have proposed in the white paper on AI,” the person said. The consultation on the white paper, due at the end of May, is likely to be pushed back. Other digital legislation will also probably be delayed because of the crisis, including a landmark set of new regulations for platforms, including a reassessment of their liabilities for illegal content. Brussels has already put on ice the publication of a code of conduct on online hate speech. A review of its online privacy rules, expected in May, is also likely to be paused, according to officials. Read more The Internet of (Five) Things 1. SoftBank’s emergency asset sale SoftBank is launching an emergency ¥4.5tn ($41bn) asset sale to fund a share buyback and debt reduction, in a determined effort by Masayoshi Son to stem a collapse in the company’s share price sparked by the coronavirus crisis. Shares in the Japanese technology group soared almost 19 per cent on Monday after it unveiled the programme. Meanwhile, Leon Black’s Apollo Global Management hedge funds have placed a sizeable short bet against SoftBank’s bonds, believing they should not be trading at investment-grade levels and citing concerns about the Japanese conglomerate’s debt load. WeWork’s special board committee also attacked SoftBank’s attempt to walk away from a $3bn investment as “inappropriate and dishonest”. 2. UK voice network under strain And we thought coronavirus would be all about the data demands. A surge of up to 50 per cent in the number of phone calls being made over mobile and landline networks has put Britain’s telephone system under significant strain and led ministers to call for industry action to improve coverage of voice services. The rise in voice calls has led to issues of call quality, dropped calls and a major outage last week. 3. ITV hunker downs for ad slump The UK broadcaster ITV plans to reduce its programme budget by at least £100m to cope with an anticipated fall in advertising revenues as well as restrictions on work that have forced it to put a “significant number” of productions on hold. It said scrapping its dividend would save about £300m, while it withdrew its guidance. 4. Flying taxi start-up soars Lilium, a German flying taxi start-up, has raised $240m from investors led by Chinese technology group Tencent to prepare for large-scale production. Lilium intends to use its five-seater electric aircraft, powered by 36 fans, to run a city-to-city taxi service from 2025. 5. ‘Femtech’ takes off So-called “femtech”, where technology and women’s health collide, is set to be worth $50bn by 2025. There are female founders pioneering products around conception, pregnancy, miscarriage, motherhood, menopause, disease diagnosis and even sexual pleasure. Venture capital is taking notice. Tech week ahead Tuesday: The Disney+ streaming service launches in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain. A launch in France has been delayed due to the coronavirus and Disney is cutting its bandwidth demands on networks by 25 per cent to avoid congestion. Wednesday: Memory chipmaker Micron reports second-quarter results at a time when its semiconductor peers have warned of a bad hit from the coronavirus outbreak, which has caused supply and demand disruptions globally. Thursday: Huawei will launch the P40 series smartphones in an online event, after plans for a physical launch in Paris were cancelled. The new flagship 5G phone will still lack support from Google Mobile Services, including YouTube and Google Maps. Tech tools — the 2020 MacBook Air The MacBook Air seems to have got its mojo back, judging by this glowing review from Apple watcher John Gruber. Much imitated in the Windows world, it’s design has barely changed over the years, but Gruber says the latest iteration offers better performance, more storage on the base model and a great keyboard that makes this laptop “delightfully close to perfection”. The iPad Pro with its amazing keyboard stole all the attention last week, but it has a combo price of from $1098. Starting at the lower price of $999 now, the new Air may have you putting off that laptop replacement move a while longer.