#WeeklyRecap: Twitter hacked, Huawei banned, Jio's 5G strides, and more
A lot has happened this week! Twitter suffered a major hack that compromised dozens of high-profile accounts and tricked many others into paying money. Then, Huawei's 5G tech was banned by the UK over security concerns, while Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio announced the ambitious plan to make and launch its own, in-house 5G solution in India. Let's take a look back at everything.
First, that massive Twitter hack
Three days ago, Twitter accounts of celebrities, politicians, businessmen were hijacked in a massive hack. All accounts tweeted out a "money double" scheme to trick unsuspecting followers into paying Bitcoins. Twitter came into action, locking the compromised accounts and deleting the fraudulent tweets, but many had already lost their money/data by then. The company confirmed one of its employee tools led to the hack.
5G: Huawei's tech banned, Jio announces its own solution
Chinese telecom gear provider Huawei suffered a shocking blow this week when the UK ordered its telcos to stop buying 5G equipment from the company after the end of 2020 and remove existing gear by 2027. As Huawei suffered the setback, Indian telco Jio made a surprising announcement that it will have its own solution, made from homegrown technologies, for enabling 5G in India.
New Jio Glass, Google's investment, and much more
Along with the 5G solution, the Mukesh Ambani-led company also announced Jio Glass mixed reality headset, Rs. 33,737 crore investment from Google for building a low-cost smartphone, Jio TV+ app for aggregating content from several OTT platforms, and mega COVID-19 testing for India. Meanwhile, the company's JioMeet video conferencing service also got a competitor in the form of Airtel-Verizon's BlueJeans app for enterprises.
'Google for India' initiatives
The capital that Jio received from Google came as part of the Rs. 75,000-crore Digitization Fund the internet giant committed to India. Beyond that, the company pledged $1 million and also partnered with the CBSE to help teachers learn how to provide virtual and blended learning to students across India. It also announced an edutainment series with Prasar Bharati to help businesses go digital.
Google also announced new apps
Google also showcased a new experimental video shopping platform Shoploop and announced a unified version of Gmail - integrated with Meet, Chat, and Rooms - to take on Slack.
Product updates from Facebook and Microsoft
Facebook, on its part, confirmed the plan to bring its TikTok competitor Reels globally and launched new voting information and screen sharing features for its main and Messenger apps, respectively. Beyond that, WhatsApp messaging service suffered from a short outage, while Microsoft announced the plan to discontinue its Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital consoles.
Threat to COVID-19 vaccine research, new Android malware
Several security risks also came into light this week. The UK, US, and Canada accused a hacker group affiliated with "Russian Intelligence" of trying to steal their COVID-19 vaccine research. Russia denied any involvement in the matter. Meanwhile, two dangerous Android malware, Joker and BlackRock, capable of stealing user data and money also surfaced, along with a Zoom bug that allowed mimicking of organizations.
Finally, some notable hardware launches
In the hardware category, Zoom drew widespread attention by unveiling a new 27-inch touchscreen device, equipped with three webcams and eight mics, for video-conferences. Then, a number of smartphones/tablets were also announced, including TECNO Spark 5 Pro, Realme C11, OPPO A12s, Vivo X50 series, Samsung Galaxy M01s, and Huawei's Honor Tablet 6 and X6. OnePlus Nord, meanwhile, is set to launch on July 21.
