This Week in Business: Coronavirus Could Complicate Everything
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So the impeachment trial is over. Now you’ll be able to make amends for all of the enterprise and tech information you missed whereas President Trump was taking his victory lap. Listed below are the highest tales to prep you for the week forward. (Not included: the Valentine’s Day plans you’ve been which means to make. Go try this afterward.)
What’s Up? (Feb. 2-Eight)
A Rocky Begin
The Iowa caucuses have by no means been easy. (Image plenty of spreadsheets and handbook information entry.) However a brand new smartphone app was alleged to streamline the system when Iowa Democrats chosen their presidential nominee on Monday evening — till the method turned a catastrophe. Get together officers stopped wanting blaming the app for errors that riddled the caucus outcomes, which have been largely attributable to human error, however reviews say the software program was rapidly put collectively and never correctly examined. It’s an inauspicious starting to an election the place the position of expertise already has some voters spooked.
Scholar Surveillance
You’ll have thought it was creepy when the police began utilizing facial recognition surveillance on streets and sidewalks. Now, it’s getting used to observe a brand new inhabitants: youngsters. A public faculty district in Lockport, N.Y., turned one of many nation’s first to put in facial recognition software program on its campus for safety functions. Proponents say it would assist struggle crime, stop mass shootings and cease sexual predators. However critics say that widespread issues about facial recognition expertise — privateness, accuracy and racial bias — are much more worrisome in the case of minors.
Too Good to Be True
What’s Next? (Feb. 9-15)
The Foldable Phone Is Back
And maybe it’ll work this time! Samsung will unveil new products at its annual showcase in San Francisco, including a clamshell smartphone that folds into the size of a pocket square. The design features a touch screen with super-thin glass that’s flexible enough to bend in half — at least, that’s the hope. You may recall that Samsung’s first foray into this type of product, the Galaxy Fold, was a debacle last year when early reviewers found that the screens bulged oddly and died unexpectedly. The new version is known as the Galaxy Z Flip, and rumored to retail at $1,400 — a steal compared with the nearly $2,000 price tag of the original Fold.
China’s Valentine
True to its word in the recent trade pact with Washington, China said it would cut tariffs on $75 billion in United States goods, effective Feb. 14 (aw). The announcement shows that Beijing intends to fulfill its end of the agreement, but the deadly coronavirus outbreak may complicate matters. The deal requires China to make big purchases of American products, but its economy is now reeling from the fallout of the illness, which has infected tens of thousands of people in the past few weeks and caused a widespread lockdown within the country. Since travel to and within China has been restricted (and in some cases, banned), fewer goods are being imported, and its population is staying home and shopping less.
Will Google Cave?
Reports say that Google is considering selling its third-party advertising arm. The company has been under increasing bipartisan pressure from Washington (especially the Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren) to break up its business, which some lawmakers have argued has gotten too big. Regardless of the company’s size, the one-two punch of Google’s advertising and search technologies is a bit like the internet snake eating its own tail. Critics say that the company unfairly combines these tools to lead users back to its own services, like YouTube and Google Maps.
