Author: Jamiu Akanho

Nomad. Freelance writer.

A Friend of Focs and an all-round writer anywhere I find myself.

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LGBTQ+ Travel: The best countries to visit

LGBTQ+ Travel
LGBTQ+ Travel © Getty Images

Why not take a trip to these LGBTQ+ travel-friendly holiday destinations?

All countries should be safe for LGBTQ+ travel. But, unfortunately, attitudes towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, non-binary and transgender travellers around Europe differ from country to country. That’s why, it’s so important to know which areas are considered safe for LGBTQ+ travellers to visit, and which might be best to avoid. 

2021 saw heightened tensions and public outrage caused by anti-gay laws and policies that were implemented in eastern Europe. From physical attacks to online abuse and legislative setbacks, the LBGT and Gay community in Central and Eastern Europe had little to cheer about.

Politicians and even church leaders in some European countries exploited the global frustration concomitant to COVID-19 to propagate more hate. As a result, these places have made it difficult for LGBTQ+ people to have a seamless and less discriminate travel experiences.

According to Evelyne Paradis, executive director of the European branch of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe); there is an anti-LGBTI trend emerging which includes attacks on the LGBT community, banning information in schools in the Bulgarian capital being led by Far-right political leaders. “Poland and Hungary are not anomalies. In the past year, we’ve seen increased political repression against LGBT people, a stark rise in socioeconomic hardship, and the spreading of LGBT-phobic hatred on the streets and online across the region,” she said.

LGBTQ+ Travel Stock Image
LGBTQ+ Travel Stock Image

The EU and LGBTQI Equality

Despite a concerning recent increase in LGBTQ+ negative politics in some countries, the European Union has pledged its commitment to ensuring the equality of all persons in Europe regardless of gender identification. Some examples of this commitment include announcing new legislation and anti-discrimination laws and launching help lines and quick-response centres.

In a survey held by Open Europa in 2019, 76 % of Europeans agreed that gay, lesbian or bisexual people should have the same rights as heterosexual people, up from 71 % in 2015. In light of new development, all of these gains seem to be withering away in some European countries as more countries double down on their anti-gay legislation.

The Netherlands was the first European nation to legalise same-sex marriage, briefly followed by the UK and others. Now, 18 countries in Europe legally accommodate gay marriage.

However, despite these efforts, the commission has also cautioned people on possibility gender discrimination while travelling.

Malta
Malta © Bengt Nyman

The top 15 Best Countries In Europe To Visit as an LGBTQ+ Person

Research collected by ILGA’s European Rainbow map found that Malta, Denmark and Belgium are the most LGBTI-friendly nations on the continent. Its annual review of 49 European countries ranked them on a scale between 0%  (gross violations of human rights and discrimination) and 100% (respect for human rights and full equality). And, Malta scored an impressive 92%. 

Other countries that ranked highly include Sweden, Norway and France.

The top 15 countries and their scores:

  1. Malta – 92%
  2. Denmark – 74%
  3. Belgium – 72%
  4. Sweden – 68%
  5. Norway – 68%
  6. Luxembourg – 68%
  7. France – 64%
  8. Montenegro – 63%
  9. Iceland – 63%
  10. Portugal – 62%
  11. Spain – 62%
  12. The Netherlands – 56%
  13. Germany – 53%
  14. Ireland – 53%
  15. The UK – 53%

Azerbaijan, Turkey, Armenia and Russia had the lowest scores on the report.

You can view the full Rainbow Map here.

 

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Art + Culture Community Uncategorized

Perfeggt looks like it’s going to produce the world’s most popular vegan egg alternative

Perfeggt announced that it has recently closed its first round of funding at 2.5 million Euros. The food tech company was backed by prominent AgriFood Financial investors that include EVIG Group, Stray Dog Capital, E2JDJ, Tet Ventures, Good Seed Ventures, Sustainable Food Ventures and Shio Capital.

“I really believe we deserve better food,” CEO Bogumil told TechCrunch in a publication. “My mother’s family is from an agriculture background in small-scale farming, so I have always been conscious of uwhere the food we eat comes from. I turned vegetarian at 12 when my uncle brought me to a slaughterhouse to show me that the sausages I ate were not made the right way. I didn’t fully get what was happening there, but it didn’t feel right or humane.”

The berlin-based food startup announced an early 2022 launch of its debuts animal free egg product. The company first product launch will be limited to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, with Europe expansion in the late 2022.

The Market for alternative egg

Along side the sustainability built in alternative beef industry, making waves in developed countries is the vegan eggs market, it undergoing impressive growth with serious actor and innovators getting involved in the sector.

According to ExpertMarketResearch.com, in a report on the market growth and analysis in 2021.

“The global vegan egg substitute market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.6% in the forecast period of 2022-2027 to reach a value of USD 1.48 billion by 2026.”

They went further, on the major drivers of the growth in the sector.

“Over the past few years, the outbreaks of numerous flu in the poultry industry have majorly impacted the prices of eggs, consequently creating a need for producers and food technologies to converge for the probable solution for egg, thereby propelling the market growth further. Moreover, the vegan egg substitute industry has huge opportunities for the manufacturers owing to its increasing growth trends.”

Around the world, over 1.3 trillion eggs are consumed annually with 110 billion eggs in Europe alone. The plant-based liquid egg alternative from Perfeggt is formulated from field bean proteins and can be fried in a pan just like the traditional egg.

In the mean time, Bogumil accepts that more startups coming into the vegan egg space will help Perfeggt’s main goal to move individuals to plant-based food varieties.

Image credits @perfeggt; the founding team. Bernd Becker, Gary Lin, and CEO Tanja Bogumil.

“This is not a one-winner-takes-all market,” she said. “We have never in history seen alternative proteins be so close to the mainstream market. Clearly that is reflected in the capital markets, and not just for developing niche markets, but for the future of food.”

“We are incredibly impressed by the team’s rapid technological progress in developing next-generation alternative proteins and finding solutions that improve human, planetary and animal health,” Stephanie Dorsey, founding partner at E2JDJ, added in a written statement. “The egg market is a massive opportunity and this is just the beginning.”

Tanja Bogumil, CEO of Perfeggt, said: “With Perfeggt, we are offering a real alternative for one of the most popular animal proteins in the world, we’re more than convinced that it’s about time to rethink the egg as part of our daily diet with plant-based proteins and data-driven technology.”
2022 for Perfeggt

CEO Bogumil has made it known that Perfeggt is putting extra care into building perfect replicate for traditional eggs. The team will be navigating its expansion plans and most importantly, launching a well fitted products that meets the expectations in the traditional eggs.

Perfeggt’s first plant-based egg products is a protein-rich fluid option produced using fava beans. It can be made into a fried egg or omelet in the dish. The company will first launch its products with a partnership with food service organisations.

Similarly as with all food, taste is the best, and with this item, the founders attempted to make comparable mouth feel, tactile, flavors and texture — all components that Bogumil says are expected to get individuals to change to a plant-based alternative.

“This is something we spent time on figuring out,” she added. “Our product is built around the fava bean, which is very suited to mimic functionality required for these applications.”

In order to achieve this, Perfeggt’s Research and development site in Emsland, Germany works with Wageningen University and Research, known for its life sciences research, to test plant-based protein sources and their blends that come nearest to the dietary and practical properties of traditional products.

The Berlin-based company’s debut product will initially launch early next year in Germany, Switzerland and Austria markets with further European markets to follow.

Tanja Bogumil, CEO of Perfeggt, states: “With Perfeggt, we are offering a real alternative for one of the most popular animal proteins in the world. We’re more than convinced that it’s about time to rethink the egg as part of our daily diet with plant-based proteins and data-driven technology.”

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Uncategorized

UK Online Safety Bill Means Tighter Rules

 

 

The Palace of Westminster, which houses the Parliament of the United Kingdom. (Jorge Láscar, https://flic.kr/p/PZYa9t; CC BY-SA 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)

 

The end of dark humour. With the new UK Bill dark humour online will face serious policing for reasons credible, but no less diminishing. Tighter rules for online platforms meant tighter rules for participant which the rules targeted on under the awkward terminology of user-to-user services (plainly for user generated contents).

On May 12, one of the hotly anticipated Bill of the online media was published; Online Safety Bill. The bill follows a progression of archives in the beyond couple of years that reported changes in the space of online damages and the guideline of platforms. The Online Safety Bill establishes the UK government aim of taking global regulatory leadership in the internet space.

Since Brussels, whereupon the UK has freed itself from bureaucratic and slow administration, the UK has been trying to demonstrate its “regulatory agility”. With this bill, it intends to make laws where it takes learnings from implementations and observation of the outcome with constant iterations. The bill was recently renamed to “Online Safety Bill” from “Online Harms Bill” which reflect the parliament intention to focus more on safety and the content of the bill mirrors this change.

A new parliamentary report has recently sufficed where more tighter measures were suggested and the issue of accountability on the path senior management executive was mentioned. The committee led by chairman Damian Collins, said:

“The Committee were unanimous in their conclusion that we need to call time on the Wild West online. What’s illegal offline should be regulated online. For too long, big tech has gotten away with being the land of the lawless. A lack of regulation online has left too many people assailable to abuse, fraud, violence and in some cases even loss of life.

“The Committee has set out recommendations to bring more offences clearly within the scope of the Online Safety Bill, give Ofcom the power in law to set minimum safety standards for the services they will regulate, and to take enforcement action against companies if they don’t comply.

“The era of self-regulation for big tech has come to an end. The companies are clearly responsible for services they have designed and profit from, and need to be held to account for the decisions they make.”

The committee broadly welcomes the government’s push to go beyond industry self-regulation by enforcing compliance with a set of rules intended to hold tech giants accountable for the content they spread and monetize — including via a series of codes of practice and with the media regulator, Ofcom, given a new major oversight and enforcement role over Internet content.

Ministers will have two months to respond to the committee’s report.

Tighter Regulations, New Offences

Since May, the Online Safety Bill is the most comprehensive attempt to police the online world and bring tech giants to bigger responsibility. In the first draft, tech giants were obligated with what the bill termed “duty of care” on large social platforms to remove illegal, harmful content and protect children.

But the new committee report has declaimed that as vague responsibility and called for OfCom to establish more explicit standards of offence and punishment. It is advocating for more fines for big tech and better chain of responsibility away from the corporates but deeper into the organization’s acme.

Among the many recommendations made over its 191 pages are:

• An explicit duty for all pornography sites to make sure children cannot access them

• Scams and fraud – such as fake adverts designed to trick users – should be covered

• The bill should cover not just content, but “the potential harmful impact of algorithms”

• It should also be expanded to cover paid-for advertising, such as those involving scams

The report, as published by BBC News, also recommends that a wide range of new criminal offences should be created, based on proposals from the Law Commission, and carried in the bill, including:

• Promoting or “stirring up” violence against women, or based on gender or disability

• Knowingly distributing seriously harmful misinformation

• Content “promoting self-harm” should be made illegal

• “Cyber-flashing” – the sending of unwanted naked images – should be illegal

• So, should deliberately sending flashing images to those with epilepsy, with the goal of causing a seizure

According to Mr. Collins, these changes would “bring more offences clearly within the scope of the Online Safety Bill, give Ofcom the power in law to set minimum safety standards for the services they will regulate, and to take enforcement action against companies if they don’t comply”.

The Menace of Prison Sentence

Among the prominent suggestions is the establishment of the office of “Safety Controller”. The office of “Safety Controller” is an idea that is being championed by the new Digital Secretary, Nadine Dorries. She has warned of potential prison sentence for “safety controller” as they will be made liable for “repeated systemic failings”.

“In that role they would be made liable for a new offence: The failure to comply with their obligations as regulated service providers when there is clear evidence of repeated and systemic failings that result in a significant risk of serious harm to users,” the committee suggests.

While no suggestion is bidding on the government, she has assured lawmakers of a listening and told them she’s “open” to their suggestions that can change the direction of internet world for the better.

“I believe there will be huge, huge changes,” she said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Gaming & Tech

Smartphones in 2050: What Will the Future Look Like?

Photo by Becky Fantham

Smartphones in 2050: What Will the Future Look Like?

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Photo by Theo Eilertsen Photography

There’s a massive interest and speculation on the internet about the next breakthrough and general future of smartphones. Apparently, people are getting bored by mini iterations on the current trajectory of smartphones being powered by marketing gimmicks.

Futuristic technologies in the world have been powered by the imaginative powers of sci-fi writers and movie directors; teleportation, air travel, flying cars, robots, etc. Most of the time, science is unable to keep up, as in the case of flying cars.

Now, consumers are already dreaming about a future in mobile telephony technology that will match the promise of an advance future for humanity.

The Current Trajectory

In the last decade, the most significant innovation so far is the Samsung Fold. Samsung Display is pretty certain that this is the future of smartphones. According to an article on the The Elec, the vice president of Samsung Display reportedly said, 

“It [the company] will develop new display form factors such as roll-able and slide-able to cement its leadership in 2021.”

Samsung is choosing its future.

These roll-able & foldable phones are looking more and more like the immediate future of technology in the smartphone industry. Do you agree with Samsung?

Because TCL does. This year, the global smartphone maker announced plans to compete with Samsung’s Fold with TCL’s roll-able smart phones. The Phone, made to extend from a 6.7-inch phone into a 7.8-inch tablet at the tap of a finger, will give a different direction to fold. 

On its UK store, OPPO mobile, in an article titled: What Could Your Future Smartphone Look Like in 2030?, made some couple of predictions while pointing to Foldable also as key pointers in smartphone innovations among other innovations such as 6G connection and no-ports phones.

“Foldable phones in the future would be a pretty common thing,” the Company wrote.

 

Predictions For The Future

Is foldable really the future? Or is the smartphone industry merely setting the narrative? With these thoughts in mind, take a peek at what is going around as “the next future.”

Several science fiction movies have prepped us for this one, from The Expanse to Iron Man 2. In the latter, Tony Stark appeared in court with a transparent smartphone, slim enough to look more like a piece of glass. Light, visual and interactive.

The opulent translucent LG mobile-sponsored phone has a lot of functionality in them. The appeal is very strong, but perhaps not to smartphone manufacturers that’d need to figure out how to transcend to this point. It would seem that first, we need to move our minds away from bending phones and towards real innovations.

 

Augmented Reality

In another well-versed alternative argument, technologists believe the world is heading in a different direction. In fact, they say that we may already nearly be here – except this way of communication will no longer include our hands, but through special devices attached to our eyeballs.

“As for what type of ‘phone’ we’ll rely on when AR sets in, it’s hard to say for sure,” wrote Vadim Nekhai, Managing Director of Banuba, back in 2019. “We’re preparing for a time when smart devices as we know them cease to exist, so expect something totally different from what we use today; potentially advanced glasses or contact lenses, all with a focus on camera-centric apps.”

After the release of Oculus Quest 2 by Meta, Android experiences powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon and the involvement of Apple in similar innovations, many technologists are now certain this is where we are headed.

Randon Minkov on Phonearena.com opined that Apple participation in the Augmented Reality space is going to hyper-jump the technology to the mainstream. He wrote, “So how is all of this related to Apple’s AR glasses? And how are those ‘the future’? Well, I believe AR, in general, is the future of mobile technology, because I’ve been experiencing it for a while, and it’s got me excited. And Apple is shaping up to be the first company to introduce AR to the mainstream as a whole, finished product.”

Do you agree with this position?

Photo by Becky Fantham

Holographic Displays

50 years ago, we experience the possibilities of holographic imagery in the debut of R2-D2’s holographic broadcast of Princess Leia to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Sky walker in Star Wars. 

Several phones and game consoles have been released with promises of 3D images that are interactive. Although, they have relied a lot on optical illusions and require a specific angle view point. Earlier this year, IKIN, a company founded by 28-year-old Taylor Scott, announced significant progress in their production of holographic technology. They posit to have the most advanced version of the technology.

IKIN, based in San Diego, is very close to realising the holographic dream with the use of polymers. In a public and investor meet, CTO Scott said, “People for years have thought of holographic communication as sort of idealized magical future and that is actually 2021.”

IKIN’s accessories create 3D holograms viewable in daylight from Android or iOS smartphones with a specialized proprietary chemical polymer lens – Scott’s first patent involved polymers.

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Community

World’s First Animal-Machine Hybrids Start to Reproduce

World’s First Animal-Machine Hybrids Start to Reproduce

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Recreation of the first living robots: Four US scientists have discovered the reproduction of a new life form – a robotic reproduction – through their research.

The research, using AI programmed via supercomputer to reproduce the first living organic robots, began last year. The scientists that developed them at the University of Vermont, Tufts University and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering said they have discovered an entirely new form of biological reproduction different from any animal or plant known to science.

Living robots designed by computers and worked from undeveloped cells have begun to repeat in an advancement which could prompt self-replicating machines, researchers have said.

In 2020, US researchers customized a supercomputer to think of plans for totally new living beings utilizing virtual skin and heart cells, which they then built into reality.

The minuscule creature-machine cross breeds, named “xenobots,” had the option to continue all alone, and stay “alive” for a long time, controlled by their undeveloped energy stores.

In a research publication on the site of the Proceeding of the National Academic of Science of the United States of America, the researchers mentioned the significance of this technology. Robotic life, compared to common technologies the world is accustomed to, such as: steel, concrete, chemicals, and plastics, that eventually degrade and pollute the atmosphere, are self-renewing and biocompatible.

“…It would thus be useful to build technologies using self-renewing and biocompatible materials, of which the ideal candidates are living systems themselves,” the research claims.

Presently, researchers have shown that if the xenobots are put in a petri dish with early stage frog foundational microorganisms, the bots clear the cells up into minimal round heaps which transform together into new organic entities and furthermore start to move.

The cycle, known as kinematic replication, has been seen in atomic machines however never at more significant levels of science.

In an interview with CNN, Michael Levin, a professor of biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University who was co-lead author of the new research, said he was ‘astounded by it,”. He want on expressing insight over the work:

“Frogs have a way of reproducing that they normally use but when you … liberate (the cells) from the rest of the embryo and you give them a chance to figure out how to be in a new environment, not only do they figure out a new way to move, but they also figure out apparently a new way to reproduce.”

 

Process of formation

Bongard said, “[Scientists] found that the xenobots, which were at first circle moulded and produced using around 3,000 cells, could recreate. However, it happened once in a blue moon and just in explicit conditions. The xenobots utilized “kinetic replication” – an interaction that is known to happen at the sub-atomic level however has never been seen before at the size of entire cells or creatures,” Bongard said.

With the assistance of artificial intelligence, the analysts then, at that point, tried billions of body shapes to make the xenobots more powerful at this kind of replication. The supercomputer thought of a C-shape that looked like Pac-Man, the 1980s computer game. They observed it had the option to track down little foundational microorganisms in a petri dish, assemble many of them inside its mouth, and a couple of days after the fact the heap of cells turned out to be new xenobots.

For a long time, autonomous machines capable of kinematic replication via a combination of materials into functional self copies have been established has a possibility. By introducing an AI method with the aim of extending replication cycles by designing the shape of the progenitor reconfigurable organisms, robotic life reproduction was made possible.

“If we could make 3D biological form on demand, we could repair birth defects, reprogram tumours into normal tissue, regenerate after traumatic injury or degenerative disease, and defeat aging,” said the researchers’ website. This research could have “a massive impact on regenerative medicine (building body parts and inducing regeneration.)”

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Art + Culture

NFT Accidentally Sold for $3,000 Instead of $300,000

NFT Accidentally Sold for $3,000 Instead of $300,000

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An NFT holder, due to a ‘fat finger’ error, sold their NFT for ~$3,000— about $297k less than they are worth.

An in-demand non-fungible token (NFT) has been accidentally sold for a little more than $3,000 (£2,270) – one-hundredth of its market price.

On Saturday, when posting the NFT available to be purchased on the web, the proprietor of Bored Ape number 3,547 made a “fat fingered” mistake — a keyboard input blunder or mouse mis-click that implies somebody makes a trade online for the wrong thing, or for an incorrect sum.

The owner, maxnaut, let Cnet know that he intended to list his Exhausted Chimp for 75 ethereum (ETH-USD), or around $300,000, yet accidentally recorded it for 0.75 — 100th of its market cost.

 

Bored Ape number 3,547: No Way Home

“Fat finger errors” are a common thing in traditional finance, in their case the transactions are immediately halted when possible or they can be reversed either by legal or social means.

One example of a “fat fingers error” in finance was when someone at Samsung Securities Co., one of South Korea’s largest brokerages, tried to pay employees 1,000 won (93 U.S. cents) per share in dividends under a company compensation plan, but instead gave them 1,000 company shares worth, on paper, about 112.6 trillion won, more than 30 times the company’s market value.

Things got worse when 16 employees sold the stock, spurring a rout of as much as 12 percent in the space of minutes on April 6, the biggest decline since the global financial crisis. But these transactions were rooted by the exchange and were reversed, stock price bounced back when the market found out it was a human error.

 

The Bored Ape number 3,547 listed for sales on Opensea

For Max, there’s no way back for his cash or his valuable Ape, due to the most important fact of blockchain – decentralisation and lack of regulation.

When speaking with CNET, he noted that it was a mistake from his “lapse of concentration.” Maxnaut is “solo-traveller, bored ape, marketing agency owner & NFT investor.”

“I list a lot of items every day and just wasn’t paying attention properly. I instantly saw the error as my finger clicked the mouse but a bot sent a transaction with over 8 eth [$34,000] of gas fees so it was instantly sniped before I could click cancel, and just like that, $250k was gone.”

A suspected Automated-bot was the buyer. It paid a very high “gas” fees – which determine how quickly the Ethereum network processes a transaction – of 8 ETH ($32,000), to ensure the sale went through almost instantly, and not get snapped by another buyer.

 

The Bored Ape Yacht Club

Bored Ape is one of the most popular and highly valued Non-fungible Token projecsts on Opensea, alongside Cryptopunks and Afropunks. One of the best collections in the NFT space, BAYC launched in April and comprises of 10,000 Bored Apes. At the present time the least expensive you can get one for is 49 ether – $231,000. They regularly sell for substantially more.

The group behind the collection just marked an arrangement to team up with Adidas, and one Ape from the Club last month graced the front of Rolling Stone Magazine.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), a collection of 10,000 NFTs that goes about as both a avatar and a pass to a social media based elite club. If you spend any amount of time on the web, especially Twitter, you’ve likely seen a Bored Ape Yacht Club. DJ Khaled, Steph Curry, Post Malone and most recently Jimmy Fallon are among the individuals who own a Bored Ape NFT and use it as their profile picture on social media.

 

 

Not withstanding the loss, Max seems to be taking things calmly. He’s mentally strong, not bothered by the loss and reiterated his belief in the project and market. He wrote: “It’s going to happen. But, letting it occupy your mind for even one second after you can no longer affect the outcome is purely hurting yourself twice”.

 

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Gaming & Tech

UK Phasing Out 2G and 3G by 2033

UK Phasing Out 2G and 3G by 2033

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The UK to stop supporting 2G and 3G networks by the end of the decade.

 

The UK is shutting down 2G and 3G mobile services by 2033. The phasing out, which will begin at the end of year 2022 with BT, owners of EE, scheduled to shut down its 3G services across the UK, will end by the year 2033, with the 2G service taking the last lap; a decade from now.

In July, EE announced customers would be able to receive 5G “anywhere” in the country by 2028.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said the move will benefit the UK in terms of bringing up of necessary future investment into the telecommunications space, free up resources, bring more energy efficient and faster networks like the 6G.

She said: “5G technology is already revolutionising people’s lives and businesses – connecting people across the UK with faster mobile data and making businesses more productive.

“Setting a date to end 2G and 3G services will make it easier for new equipment makers to enter the market because they will not have to support legacy technologies,” the government said.

“Today we are announcing a further £50m to put the UK at the forefront of mobile connectivity and to make sure our telecoms networks are safe and secure now and in the future.”

The announcement of funding was made ahead of her meeting with her US counterpart, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, on Wednesday 9th of December. The funding is an investment into Open Access Networks (Open RAN) projects.

 

Good News—Operators will be able to fully convert to more high-capacity networks

With 5G steadily increasing globally for businesses and customers, it’s only a matter of time before 4G and 5G become the norm. The rate of adoption is high and various tech companies working on 2G platform are already moving their customers and businesses upward.

In July, Amazon announced to its users some of its older Kindle models would no longer be supported for Internet connectivity.

“Starting in 2021, some prior generation Kindle e-readers will not be able to connect to the internet using cellular connection through 2G or 3G networks,” the technology giant told its US customers.

Hamish MacLeod, director of industry association Mobile UK, which represents all the major UK networks, said it a welcomed development.

“Switching off 2G and 3G will enable operators to transition fully to more energy-efficient and high capacity networks to the benefit of customers,” he said.

In an interview with BBC News, Assembly Research founder Mathew Howett, lauds the government pro activity and said he believed the change would come sooner than the government’s deadline.

He urged the government on inclusion of all stakeholders as it would be crucial for the government to help slow adopters to change to the new networks. He said:

“There is an important consumer-protection dimension to all this,” he said.

“You will of course have some people who may still rely on a 2G/3G-enabled handset to make calls in emergencies but also because devices such as smart meters run off the 2G network.

“Involving these stakeholders will be crucial to avoid disruption.”

This move will put the UK at forefront of Internet connectivity and telecommunications and free up radio waves for 5G and eventually 6G services that will power technologies such as driverless vehicles, drones and virtual reality

The UK authority wants to end the country’s dependence on few providers, after China’s Huawei was restricted from new networks last year.

Each of the four organizations – EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three – have consented to the schedule, they said.

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Community

Myanmar Rohingyas Sue Facebook for $150 billion over Hate Speech

Myanmar Rohingyas Sue Facebook for $150 billion over Hate Speech

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Rohingyas are seeking $150 billion in damages, claiming that the social media behemoth encouraged violence against the oppressed minority. 

Facebook was dragged to court on Monday as, in wake of the new week, the social media giant got sued for $150 billion over allegations of promoting hate speech and inflammation of violence in Myanmar.

In a coordinated effort, Rohingyas Muslim communities in the UK, US and Bangladesh dropped letters to Facebook’s office in UK and US simultaneously. The migrants accused Facebook of enabling “the propagation of vile and harmful falsehoods to continue for years,” according to the BBC.

They are seeking $150 billion in damages, claiming that the social media behemoth encouraged violence against the oppressed minority. The complaint said the algorithms that power the US-based company promote disinformation and extreme thought that translates into real-world violence.

“Facebook is like a robot programmed with a singular mission: to grow,” the court document states.

The undeniable reality is that Facebook’s growth, fuelled by hate, division, and misinformation, has left hundreds of thousands of devastated Rohingya lives in its wake.

According to the BBC, a British legal company representing some Rohingyas wrote a letter to Facebook claiming Facebook’s algorithms of “amplified hate speech against the Rohingya people.”

In 2018, after Reuter’s published investigation that named Facebook as a major culprit in the systematic killings of civilians in Myanmar, the company admitted to not doing enough to curb the spread of misinformation and bigotry on its platform.

More than 1,000 examples of posts, comments, images and videos denigrating and attacking the Rohingya and other Muslims were on the social media platform according to the Reuter’s report.

There were numerous posts that call the Rohingya and other Muslims dogs and rapists, and urge they be exterminated.

Researchers and human rights activists say they have been warning Facebook for years about how its platform was being used to spread hatred against the Rohingya and other Muslims in Myanmar.

Some 700,000 Rohingya fled their homes in 2018 after a military crackdown that the US denounced as ethnic cleansing. A campaign that the United Nations tagged as “crimes against humanity”.

A UN investigative body was established by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council in September 2018 with a mandate to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law committed in Myanmar.

The Rohingya now live in teeming refugee camps in Bangladesh. Many others remain in Myanmar, where they are not permitted citizenship and are subject to violence, as well as official discrimination by the military that seized power in February.

 

Is Facebook doing enough? 

Experts and activists have warned that Facebook is very slow to respond to hate speech and divisive posts on the social network. Social media influences the way the world perceives everything, from politics to pop culture.

Tech companies have since taken a relaxed approach, arguing users should be able to judge content for themselves.

Popular criticism against the media giant has critics saying; even when alerted to hate speech on its platform, Facebook always fails to act or act too sluggishly.

The social media giant has previously promised to step up its efforts to fight hate speech in Myanmar, promising to hire more local language speakers and fact checkers after it banned a couple of organizations and senior military accounts from the country propagating hate and division.

They charge that the web-based media giant permits deceptions to amplify, affecting the existences of minorities and slanting decisions in popular governments like the US, where unwarranted charges of misrepresentation flow and heighten among similar companions.

A huge leak by a company insider this year has sparked several articles arguing Facebook, whose parent company is now called Meta, knew its sites could harm some of their billions of users – but executives chose growth over safety.

Whistleblower Frances Haugen told the US Congress in October that Facebook is “fanning ethnic violence” in some countries.

 

Facebook has yet to respond to the complaint filed against the company

Facebook has said it is protected from liability over content posted by users by a U.S. internet law known as Section 230, which holds that online platforms are not liable for content posted by third parties. The complaint says it seeks to apply Myanmar law to the claims if Section 230 is raised as a defence.

The Rohingya lawsuit, in anticipation of such a defence, argues that where applicable, the law of Myanmar — which has no such protections — should prevail in the case.

Categories
Gaming & Tech

Top Tech Deals You Should Check Out This Black Friday

Top Tech Deals You Should Check Out This Black Friday

 

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2021 Black Friday deals are upon us. We are already seeing early deals from different platforms. We will be dropping great deals as we come across them through the week and down to the end of the weekend.

Ending in 6 days, Amazon is slashing prices by 50% this year, AO is doing a whooping 70% discount on tech deals, Best Buy, John Lewis, Argos, etc. We are in for a major weekend this season. 

Looking for the top tech deals? Awesome! We have put together this article to guide you towards the best of them this week. This piece will be pointing you to the exact home of best deals coming through this week in tech – Laptops, gaming, 4k HDTVs, Sony headphones, Airpods, and more.

Latest in tech deals with multiple updates per day: 

Check out Amazon Friday sale – up to 50% off until 29 November.

Check out AO.com Black Friday sale – up to 70% off small and large appliances.

Check out the Curry’s Black Friday sale –  cheap 4K TVs, coffee machines and more.

Check out the John Lewis Black Friday sale – save on fashion, electricals, home and gifts.

Check out the Argos Black Friday sale – save on tech, appliances, beauty and more.

 

Best deal we have found so far is:

Pyrolytic self cleaning oven by Samsung on AO.com and Google may have reduced the Pixel 5a for its Black Friday deals, but it has not included either of its new flagships. 

By contrast, Best Buy is selling all Pixel 6 configurations for US$100 of their MSRP. Hence, the Pixel 6 is available from US$499 in Stormy Black, Kinda Coral and Sorta Seafoam. Accordingly, all 256 GB configurations now cost US$599, too.

 

Gaming deals in 2021 Black Friday sales 

The best gaming deals are out for gaming chairs, gaming monitors, gaming accessories and consoles, Nintendo Switch discounts offers, Xbox series and more. Amazon brought out their best deals on BenQ gaming monitor & gaming consoles, software and gaming accessories.  Argos has special offers for Nintendo Switch Neon Console & Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Bundle. 

 

Best Smart phones this Black Friday season 

The Apple iPhones, Samsung Galaxy Ultra, pixel 6, etc. are on amazon shaving off 20% in prices for this Amazon Black Friday Deals. 

John Lewis is alive offering the best gadgets gifts collection for friends, lovers and family.

 

The Cheapest TVs deals for 2021 Black Friday deals 

Just like last, the Currys Black Friday sale here with another deep pocket discount on smart TVs, cheap 4K HDTV and many more. Challenging and racking up numbers is the black Friday deals from AO.com. AO.com is offering cheap discounts on smart TV deals, and offers this year. AO.com TV deals link.

 

HOT Airpods Deals on sale 

If you’re looking for a bargain we’ve rounded up the best Apple Airpods on offer for Black Friday this year from retailers such as Robert Dyas, Amazon, John Lewis, and more. Black Friday is ending on the 29th of November and is predicted to be even bigger than last year with sales already in full swing. 

 

Big deals Smartwatches

Smartwatches are getting better every year. They can now last for more than a day on a single charge, track your workouts, take calls, play music and much more.

This is the list of the very best deals we’ve come across.

 

  1. Huawei Watch 3 (Active Edition)

From: Amazon. Now: £279  (£70.99 off)

 

  1. Garmin Venu 2

From: Amazon. Now: £265.43  (£94.56 off)

 

Amidst Garmin’s most recent timepieces, the Venu 2 offers up one of the richest feature sets in the company’s wearable portfolio. It’s also one of the few smartwatches with Amazon Music playback support and currently enjoys one of its biggest discounts on Amazon to date.

 

  1. Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 (44mm)

From: Amazon. Now: £219  (£70 off)

 

  1. Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 (40mm, cellular)

From: AO. Now: £239  (£50 off)

 

Top Laptops deals 

Black Friday laptop deals are the leading most popular rate around, with the big day itself now only a few days away. Because of this influx on deals for laptops, Chromebooks, 2-in-1s and more, it can be difficult to find the very best offers – that what’s this article is for. 

That means we have the very best offers on Windows laptops, Chromebooks and MacBooks to get you your perfect device for the right price. 

BLACK FRIDAY LAPTOP SALES: QUICK LINKS

In the UK:

 

Amazon: up to 43% off laptops by ASUS, HP, Samsung, Microsoft and more.

Argos: same-day click and collect available on many budget laptops.

Box: high-spec ultrabooks and 2-in-1 machines from £250.

Dell: up to 35% off Inspiron and XPS laptops in the Black Friday sneak peek sale.

Ebuyer: get up to 44% off various laptops.

Very: early Black Friday sale features a vast selection of discounted laptops.