MWC-Restrictions Due to Coronavirus; Samsung Unpacked Virus Precautions; Impact on iPhone Production; Tesla Patents Touchscreen Steering Wheel; Facebook Grabs Computer Vision Startup

Some major exhibitors have pulled out of the big Mobile World Congress in Barcelona due to coronavirus worries. Techcrunch.com notes that ZTE, LG, Nvidia, and Ericsson have bailed out. MWC has banned visitors from Hubei province, where the virus is thought to have started. Travelers from China will have to prove they have ben out of the country for over 14 days with a passport stamp or health certificate. MWC will utilize temperature screening as well.

Samsung Unpacked is continuing as planned, but with some modifications due to the coronavirus. 9to5google.com says there will be hand sanitizer stations throughout the venue, and thermal imaging cams will be at all entrances to detect fever. Samsung will also have face masks available. They also have medical workers standing by.

A lot of analysts are trying to determine the impact of the Coronavirus on production coming from China. According to most, authorities there aren’t going to let Foxconn open its Shenzhen facility today. Earlier reports from reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and others have said that could start having a serious impact on Apple’s iPhone production. It may mean shortages of the so-called SE2 or iPhone 9. One bright spot….a second source besides Kuo has now confirmed a $399 base price for the entry level iPhone. That one comes from Fast Company. Foxconn has said most of the workers have returned, and that the plants have been inspected, but there are differing reports on their getting permission to restart. Right now, production has been delayed by ‘at least several days.’ Another Apple supplier in Shanghai, Pegatron, has already resumed work, but Pegatron has not been able to restart their Kushan plant yet…they haven’t received government permission either.

Patents are issued all the time, and a number never see the light of day. Here’s an interesting one from Tesla. Electrek.co says the have patented a steering wheel with small touchscreens and haptic feedback. One screen, on the bottom leg of the wheel, would replace the gearshift stalk…you would just touch the appropriate spot. Other screens on the left and right legs of the wheel would have a menu of controls. Tesla indicates that this would likely not be implemented until the cars are fully self-driving. The patent even includes gestures as well as touching with the haptics. It would sense the user’s digit approaching a control before it was touched!

Facebook has acquired Scape Technologies, a London based computer vision startup. According to techcrunch.com, the company has been working on ‘location accuracy beyond GPS.’ The tech was initially aimed at augmented reality apps, but also could be used in mobility, logistics, and robotics. The company claims they intend to enable any machine equipped with a camera to ‘understand its surroundings.’

Nintendo Switch Delayed by Coronavirus; Facebook Demands Clearview Stop Scraping; Apple’s ‘CarKey’ Feature for iPhone & Watch; Teens Outsmart Instagram

Earlier, there was some speculation that the coronavirus outbreak in China might delay the freshened, smaller iPhone this spring. Now, geekwire.com reports that production of Nintendo Switch units and some accessories actually HAS been delayed due to the virus. The accessories include JoyCon Controllers and a game- Ring Fit Adventure. Nintendo didn’t say how long they expected the delay to last, but said the initial impact would be to devices shipped to Japan and also other places in China.

We’d all love to tell Facebook, Google, and the rest to stop scraping OUR data! Now, Facebook has sent a case and desist letter to facial recognition startup Clearview AI to stop scraping their (our) data! According to engadget.com, Facebook joins Google and Twitter in the C&D. Facebook also includes subsidiary Instagram in its demand. Clearview has apparently been scraping billions of images from sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube without consent to build out a giant facial recognition database, which it then makes available to around 600 police agencies in North America. The startup claims its tech is 99.6% accurate in identifying individuals. So far, no tech has been over 85-90%, and their claim is unverified. In an interesting twist, Facebook board member Peter Thiel was an early investor in Clearview AI. Venmo has also sent a cease and desist to the startup.

In the beta for iOS 13.4 that just went out to developers, eagle-eyed programmers have spotted references to a ‘CarKey’ API, which would make it possible to use an iPhone or Apple Watch to unlock, lock, and start your car! 9to5mac.com says this goes beyond most car apps. I already have an app for my car that can start and stop it, lock and unlock it, etc. from my phone. What’s different about Apple’s CarKey is that it will enable using CarKey in NFC compatible cars that would let you just hold the device near the vehicle to use it as a key. You won’t have to use FaceID like with Express Transit Cards. It will EVEN work with and iPhone or Watch that has a dead battery! The pairing is don’t through the Apple Wallet app, which will need to shake hands with the car manufacturer’s app first. The CarKey will live within the more secure Wallet App on both the phone and Watch.

Even the biggest company with a raft of good programmers can be outsmarted by clever kids. Apparently, teens have been using group accounts on Instagram to feed randomized data to the social network and protect their privacy. Cnet.com reports that the teens are relying on a sophisticated network of trusted Instagram users to post content from multiple different devices, from multiple different locations. Facebook said that this method was not against its policies, but didn’t recommend it to people because of security concerns. Nearly everything you do online is tracked. Tech giants like Facebook and Google follow what you do on their services, as well as off. It’s why you might start seeing more posts related to puppies on Instagram after purchasing dog food on Amazon, for example.

Alphabet Rakes in Increased Cash; Foxconn-Coronavirus ‘Fairly Small Impact’; Toyota & Panasonic Partner on EV Batteries; Cards Against Humanity Buys ClickHole

Google parent Alphabet blew past earnings estimates this week. Zdnet.com reports the tech giant pulled in $15.35 a share, up 17% over the previous year. Analysts had expected $12.59 a share. Google Cloud passed $10 billion in annual income for the first time. YouTube was already over $15 billion. Advertising continues to be the big cash cow, with $37.9 billion raked in 4th quarter, and $134.8 billion for the 2019 fiscal year. My Dad used to say with big numbers ‘It’s not very much if you say it real fast.’ I don’t care how fast you say it, $134 billion is a hell of a lot of cash!

Foxconn, which builds the lion’s share of iPhones and other devices for Apple, says they have seen a ‘fairly small impact’ from the coronavirus thus far. According to macrumors.com, Foxconn has warned that there could be a ‘big impact’ to iPhone production if the government of China forces factories to stay closed for another week or more. Foxconn has stopped ‘almost all’ its production in China through February 9th as commanded by the government, but has been able to cover the lost production with their facilities in Vietnam, India, and Mexico so far. A continued closure of Chinese facilities might impact the start of the new cheaper iPhone SE 2 or 9 or whatever it’s called. Apple will probably keep their schedule anyway, but there may be shortages of the cheaper phone for a while.

Toyota and Panasonic have partnered to develop and manufacture batteries for EVs. Engadget.com says the new entity will be called Prime Planet Energy and Solutions, and will begin building square-shaped prismatic cells by April 1st. Toyota will hold 51% of the battery operation, and they will employ around 5100 people at the start. The entity will make batteries for other carmakers besides Toyota, and they plan to develop new types of power cells moving forward…including ones that are more environmentally friendly.

Cards Against Humanity has bought Clickhole from G/O Media, owner of The Onion, Gizmodo, and Deadspin. According to cnet.com, Cards will turn majority ownership of ClickHole.com over to its employees. The site will continue to function independently, and employees there won’t be writing any of the game companies famous (or infamous to some) cards.

I’m Clark Reid

Possible Video Leak of Samsung Galaxy Z Flip; Huawei Outsells Apple in 2019; iPhone Q1 Shipments Down 10% Due to Coronavirus; Amazon Ring- Opt Out Of Police Partnerships

Over the weekend, a video leaked out that seems to show the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Flip being opened and closed. Businessinsider.com reports that the brief video was first posed by aTwitter user, @BenGeskin, yesterday. The Twitter account claimed it was the ‘first hands on video’ of the Z Flip. The clamshell type flip phone looks about like a large smartphone when open, and is a bit smaller than a wallet closed. The outside screen is really more of a tiny display of the time, etc…not really capable of displaying more than a line or two of text. The inside screen looks beautiful, and even when the user puts a thumb on the area of the hinge to close it, you don’t really see a seam or wrinkles. As we reported last week, the Z Flip will apparently be priced at a wallet deflating $1400.

Huawei was able to outsell Apple in 2019 and vault into second place in the global smartphone race. According to arstechnica.com, Huawei has 16-17% annual growth right now. Samsung is still #1 with 20% of the market, with Huawei now at 16%, Apple at 13%, and Xiaomi and Oppo holding about 8% each. Huawei has primarily made inroads in their home market of China…which has been good for them, since the US Huawei export ban means US companies can’t do business with them right now, effectively collapsing their US market.

Well known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says to look for iPhone shipments to fall 10% in the 1st quarter, due to coronavirus. 9to5mac.com says Kuo also says the 2nd quarter production might be iffy as well. Kuo looks for 36-40 million iPhones this quarter. If second quarter is actually affected, it could crimp the rollout of the smaller iPhone, known right now as the SE 2 or iPhone 9…and could even impact production ramp-up for the iPhone 11 models due out in September. The tariffs in addition to lesser demand in China saw total smartphone shipments to that country down as much as 60% year over year over the New Year holiday period.

More and more people have gotten leery about the surveillance society, and particularly since last year, it was uncovered that Amazon had cut deals with numerous law enforcement agencies to allow access to your Ring doorbell videos. According to mashable.com, you will now be able to opt out of all video request notifications from law enforcement, add or remove shared users from your account, and see your two factor authentication settings. This has been more of an issue with the Ring than some others, since all Ring video is uploaded to the cloud. I purposely bought a different brand that only saves locally and on your phone, but has no cloud storage (or annual fee for same!) In the new Ring update, you will be able to see an ‘Active Law Enforcement Map’ clarifying which local institutions are part of the Neighbor Portal network. The control center update should be rolling out on both iOS and Android in the next few days.

I’m Clark Reid