Panasonic joins a growing list of companies turning their backs on Huawei, Facebook doubles down on deleting fake accounts, and Comcast is working on an in-home device that tracks health.
First up from Reddit is news that Panasonic has become the latest company to sever ties with Chinese tech giant Huawei. Despite the U.S. easing up on blacklisting the company in the near future, Panasonic says it will stop supplying Huawei with tech components and cease all business with it. The decision from the Japanese company comes just days after 4 Japanese and one British mobile carrier said they would delay releasing new Huawei handsets. Panasonic joins the likes of Google, Intel, Qualcomm and Lumentum in turning their backs on Huawei. Some are calling this a “tech cold war” between the US and China.
Next up from Twitter is Facebook’s battle against fake accounts. The social media giant has announced it’s deleted around three billion fake or abusive accounts between this past October and March 2019. That’s about double the number it deleted in the previous 6 months. Facebook says it’s seen a “steep increase” in the creation of fake accounts. While most of them are shut down almost immediately, the company is warning that for as many as it catches, there are others that squeeze through the cracks. Facebook says around five per cent of its 2.4 billion monthly active users are fake – or about 119 million.
And last but not least from LinkedIn, American telecommunications conglomerate Comcast is reportedly building a device that will help people track their health at home. CNBC cites anonymous sources and says the device won’t be a voice assistant like Amazon’s Alexa, but it is expected to have a similar personality. The new health monitoring device will apparently be able to make emergency calls and detect falls. It’ll use ambient sensors to focus on whether someone is making frequent trips to the bathroom or spending more time than usual in bed. The device is supposed to begin pilot-testing this year, and the intention is to roll it out in full next year. Comcast is already in talks with hospitals about taking on shared savings — if it can keep people from expensive emergency room visits.
