This Week's Top Tech News

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UK jobseekers are offered six months of free broadband

The national programme has been launched by the telecoms company TalkTalk and the Department for Work and Pensions. The scheme aims to tackle digital exclusion and remove barriers to employment. People looking for work can now apply for free broadband to help them search for jobs. 

Jobseekers are being offered a no-contract voucher for six months of TalkTalk’s Fibre 35 broadband, which normally costs £23 a month. Usage is uncapped, meaning there are no data limits aside from the usual “fair usage” rules. Users will get wifi connectivity via a home router, though they are unable to add optional extras such as TV services, and voice calls are not part of the package.

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EU rules to force USB-C chargers for all phones

Manufacturers will be forced to create a universal charging solution for phones and small electronic devices, under a new rule proposed by the European Commission (EC). 

The aim is to reduce waste by encouraging customers to re-use existing chargers when buying new devices.

Around half of chargers sold with mobile phones in the European Union in 2018 had a USB micro-B connector, while 29% had a USB C connector and 21% a Lightning connector, a Commission impact assessment study in 2019 found.

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AI cannot be the inventor of a patent, UK Court of Appeal rules. 

Patents assign the ownership of a new invention to it's creator. At its core, the argument is about whether a law written for human inventors can be applied to machines. 

The appeal court ruled against Stephen Thaler, creator of a system called Dabus, who took a case against the UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) which refused patents to his AI. 

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