Samsung Cancels Vietnam Event; Apple Cams Affected by C. Virus; Walgreens App Leak; Facebook Expands 3D Photo Feature

South Korea’s Samsung has started building a $220 million research and development center in Vietnam, the Vietnamese government said on Monday. Businessinsider.com reports that a ground-breaking ceremony, scheduled for this past Saturday, was canceled because of a virus outbreak that led to travel restrictions on South Koreans.
Construction of the center in Hanoi will be completed by the end of 2022, Samsung Vietnam said in a statement, adding that the center will employ between 2,200 and 3,000 people. Samsung is the single largest foreign investor in Vietnam, with investments totaling $17 billion.

Apple continues to be affected by the coronavirus outbreak around the world. Reuters reports this weekend that LG Innotek, which supplies camera modules for the iPhone, has been forced to shut down one of its factories due to a worker contracting the virus. According to 9to5mac.com, both Samsung and LG Innotek have been forced to shut down factories in South Korea over the weekend. The closure of the LG Innotek factory is more important to Apple, as LG Innotek supplies camera modules for the iPhone. Whether or not that means it will reopen on Tuesday after disinfection remains to be seen. More than anything, this situation underscores that even though Cook thinks the the situation is “under control” in China, supply chain disruptions to Apple are still possible as coronavirus becomes a global problem.

Walgreens, the second-largest pharmacy chain in the US, says its mobile app contained a bug that exposed the personal details of some of its users. Cnet.com says the leak, described as “an error within the Walgreens mobile app personal secure messaging feature,” exposed details such as first and last name, prescription details, store number, and shipping addresses, where available for a week in January. Walgreens said it fixed the bug on the day it learned of the error, which was January 15th. The company did say that sensitive drugs prescription details were only exposed for a small percentage of the total users who were affected. The app’s messaging feature has temporarily been disabled.

Imagine if every photo in your Facebook news feed looked alive, like something out of a Harry Potter universe newspaper. That’s the reality Facebook is moving toward with a new feature that makes 3D photos available to everyone, according to mashable.com. First launched in 2018, the feature let people give their photos the appearance of a “moving” 3D background, provided the source image was shot using some manner of portrait mode. Now, the company confirms that portrait mode photos are no longer necessary. With the help of artificial intelligence, your boring, old 2D photos can now join the 3D party as well. Any photo you have, no matter how old, should play nice with Facebook’s newly upgraded 3D photos.