Tech Digest daily round up: EE main winner in Rootmetrics awards
EE has once again won the most awards in RootMetrics’ UK mobile network tests, however all four of the country’s big operators appear to be making their services more reliable and faster as they continue to rollout 5G technology across their infrastructure. RootMetrics, which conducted 650,000 tests across all four UK nations and in 16 major cities during the first half of 2021, said EE offered consistently fast speeds and excellent reliability. It also said the BT-owned firm provided the strongest combination of 5G availability and speeds. Tech Radar
A senior US Roman Catholic Church official has resigned after allegations he had used gay dating app Grindr. Roman Catholic newsletter The Pillar alleged de-anonymised data it had obtained showed visits to gay bars and use of the location-based dating app. The Reverend Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill was general secretary of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The USCCB said it took the allegations seriously but there were no accusations of misconduct with minors. “In order to avoid becoming a distraction to the operations and ongoing work of the conference, Monsignor Burrill has resigned, effective immediately,” it said. BBC
Devastating floods across central China temporarily affected the power supply to the world’s biggest iPhone manufacturing plant in Henan province. The plant in Zenghzhou Technology Park is operated by Foxconn of Taiwan and employs up to 120,000 people. It is the single biggest single manufacturer of devices for Apple globally and, together with two other campuses in the same city, produces over half of the world’s iPhones. Foxconn said it had been forced to implement an emergency response plan in the city of over 10 million people where at least 25 people have died, although it said iPhone manufacturing activities have not been affected. Evening Standard
Konami has officially renamed the Pro Evolution Soccer series eFootball, and it will become a digital-only, free-to-play game coming to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC this Autumn – with iOS and Android versions to follow (Konami refused to comment on any potential Nintendo Switch version). By this winter, all versions of the game will feature cross-play, although mobile players will need to use controllers to play against console and PC players. It’s a major move for the football series (now called eFootball globally, rather than PES in the west and Winning Eleven in Japan), and it’s been matched with a shift from Konami’s FOX Engine to a custom-built new engine created with Unreal 4. IGN
Facebook and Twitter should fund the police to catch online trolls as part of a “polluter pays” levy, a House of Lords committee has found. Peers said tech giants should also have a legal requirement to preserve deleted posts for a period to help officers investigating the deluge of crimes being committed on social media. The call comes as social media companies are facing mounting pressure to tackle the racist abuse on their platforms, such as the hate sent to England footballers Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho after the Euro finals. Telegraph
Worldwide progress to improve physical activity has stalled, and overall deaths associated with inactivity remain at more than five million people per year, a new study suggests. Researchers also found that the Olympics remain a missed opportunity to increase physical activity in host countries. They argue that physical activity public health initiatives should be incorporated into Olympic and mass sporting event planning. It comes as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics are due to get under way later this week. According to the study, no progress has been made to improve adolescent physical activity since 2012, with 80% still not meeting World Health Organisation activity guidelines. Yahoo!
