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We didn’t want to talk about Sunday… So that’s why this week’s installment of your latest tech news is coming to you on a Wednesday. Read on for your latest fill of news that you may have missed.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has issued a passionate endorsement of the right-to-repair movement, despite the company's opposition.
The movement wants laws passed to guarantee users access to information and parts to repair their own devices.
"We wouldn't have had an Apple had I not grown up in a very open technology world," Mr Wozniak, its co-founder with Steve Jobs in the 1970s, said. "It's time to recognise the right to repair more fully."
Existing right-to-repair rules in Europe and the US are limited to appliances and vehicles, respectively. And right-to-repair advocates say Apple is one of the fiercest opponents to expanding the legislation to cover consumer electronics.
It allows repairs by its own authorised technicians only and does not generally provide spare parts or repair information. And it has reportedly engaged lobbyists to persuade lawmakers repairing devices can be extremely dangerous.
But Mr Wozniak, 70, said: "Companies inhibit [the right to repair] because it gives the companies power, control, over everything. "It's time to start doing the right things."
Pension scam victims are losing over £50,000 on average, more than double the typical figure reported last year.
Action Fraud said complaint data showed that the average loss this year so far has been £50,949, compared with £23,689 during 2020.
But the losses in each case ranged from less than £1,000 to as much as £500,000, and the real figures could be higher as many scams go unreported.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) wants pension savers to "flip the context" if they are approached online with tempting offers.
This means imagining how they would react if the same offer was made to them by a stranger in a pub, for instance.
Just 1.1% of pension holders would take advice from a stranger, but 9.95% would accept financial advice online.
Websites of Iran’s transport and urbanisation ministry went out of service on Saturday after a “cyber-disruption” in computer systems, the official IRNA news agency reported.
On Friday, Iran’s railways also appeared to come under cyber-attack, with messages about alleged train delays or cancellations posted on display boards at stations across the country. Electronic tracking of trains across Iran reportedly failed.
The Fars news agency reported “unprecedented chaos” at stations with hundreds of trains delayed or cancelled. In the now-deleted report, it said the incident followed “a widespread disruption in … computer systems that is probably due to a cyber-attack.”
Sadegh Sekri, a spokesman for Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, told ISNA news agency on Saturday that “there has been no disruption or cyber-attack for passenger, cargo or intercity trains”. But the Fars report had included a picture of a station’s departures and arrivals board showing rows of cancelled trips with a message reading “long delays due to cyber-attacks”.
The free and open internet is under attack in countries around the world, Google boss Sundar Pichai has warned.
He says many countries are restricting the flow of information, and the model is often taken for granted. In an in-depth interview with the BBC, Pichai also addresses controversies around tax, privacy and data.
And he argues artificial intelligence is more profound than fire, electricity or the internet.
Pichai is chief executive of one of the most complex, consequential and rich institutions in history.
Be sure to read the full interview here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57763382
The UK’s largest producer of semiconductors has been acquired by the Chinese-owned manufacturer Nexperia, prompting a senior Tory MP to call for the government to review the sale to a foreign owner during an increasingly severe global shortage of computer chips.
Nexperia, a Dutch firm owned by China’s Wingtech, said on Monday that it had taken full control of Newport Wafer Fab (NWF), the UK’s largest producer of silicon chips, which are vital in products from TVs and mobile phones to cars and games consoles.
Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative MP for Tonbridge and Malling and the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, told CNBC on Monday that he would be very surprised if the deal was not being reviewed under the National Security and Investment Act, new legislation brought in to protect key national assets from foreign takeover.
“The semiconductor industry sector falls under the scope of the legislation, the very purpose of which is to protect the nation’s technology companies from foreign takeovers when there is a material risk to economic and national security,” he said.
