Tech Digest: European Commission bans TikTok on staff devices
Staff working at the European Commission have been ordered to remove the TikTok app from their phones and corporate devices. The commission said it was implementing the measure to “protect data and increase cybersecurity”. TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has faced allegations that it harvests users’ data and hands it to the Chinese government. TikTok insists it operates no differently from other social media. European Union (EU) industry chief Thierry Breton told a news conference that the union’s executive is very focused on cybersecurity, declining to provide further details. BBC
Smartwatches and wearable fitness devices could trigger a heart attack in vulnerable patients and potentially be deadly, a new study has warned. The study carried out by researchers from the University of Utah and published in the Heart Rhythm journal, found that Samsung Galaxy Watch4, Fitbit smart scales, and Moodmetric smart rings, among many others – were some of the devices that could cause potential health risks. Sky News
iPhone 15 models will be equipped with a more power-efficient OLED display driver chip manufactured based on a 28nm process, compared to 40nm for current models, according to a report today from Taiwan’s Economic Daily News.
The primary benefit of the 28nm chip would be reduced power consumption, which could contribute to longer battery life for iPhone 15 models. While no major display upgrades have been rumored for the next iPhones, the Dynamic Island is expected to expand to the standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. The bezels around the display are also expected to be thinner on the iPhone 15 Pro models, which could give those devices a similar appearance as the Apple Watch Series 8.
A revolution in artificial intelligence could slash the amount of time people spend on household chores and caring, with robots able to perform about 39% of domestic tasks within a decade, according to experts. Tasks such as shopping for groceries were likely to have the most automation, while caring for the young or old was the least likely to be affected by AI, according to a large survey of 65 artificial intelligence (AI) experts in the UK and Japan, who were asked to predict the impact of robots on household chores. The Guardian
Apple’s long-running quest to bring blood glucose monitoring to the Apple Watch appears to be moving forward. Bloomberg sources claim the company’s no-prick monitoring is now at a “proof-of-concept stage” and good enough that it could come to market once it’s smaller. The technology, which uses lasers to gauge glucose concentration under the skin, was previously tabletop sized but has reportedly advanced to the point where an iPhone-sized wearable prototype is in the works. Engadget
Today, Google announced a demonstration of quantum error correction on its next generation of quantum processors, Sycamore. The iteration on Sycamore isn’t dramatic—it’s the same number of qubits, just with better performance. And getting quantum error correction isn’t really the news—they’d managed to get it to work a couple of years ago. Instead, the signs of progress are a bit more subtle… In this new iteration, adding more qubits and getting the error rate to go down is possible. Ars Technica
