Microsoft
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Microsoft’s next Xbox console is coming in 2020
Microsoft has officially announced Project Scarlett, its next-generation Xbox console, due to launch in 2020’s holiday season (Polygon). There will be both “Lockhart”, a light-weight streaming-focused device, and “Anaconda”, a traditional console based on AMD’s Zen 2 processor and Navi graphics hardware.
Also revealed during Microsoft’s E3 presentation, Keanu Reeves is acting in The Witcher 3 studio CD Projekt Red’s forthcoming Cyberpunk 2077 and Xbox Game Pass is coming to Windows, giving subscribers access to over 100 games for £4 a month.
G20 will work to close big tech tax avoidance loopholes
This weekend, finance ministers representing the G20 group of economic powers agreed to codify a set of rules to eliminate tax loopholes exploited by major technology firms including Facebook, Google and Amazon (Reuters). Companies currently arrange to have their profits taxed in low-tax countries such as Ireland, regardless of where they make the money.
China warns global tech firms of retaliation if they accede to US trade restrictions
New York Times sources say that Chinese government representatives have warned key tech firms including Microsoft, Dell and Samsung that they may face commercial consequences if they cooperate with a US ban on selling technology to Chinese companies. (Gizmodo). China’s Commerce Ministry is in the process of drawing up a list of “unreliable” foreign firms. Ministry spokesperson spokesman Gao Feng says that “if the U.S. keeps escalating trade frictions, China will follow to the end.”
There’s a lot Wikipedia can teach us about fighting disinformation
In March 2018, editors on Wikipedia English noticed that someone had been making odd changes to an article about Maria Butina, a Russian woman suspected of being an agent of the Kremlin in the US (WIRED). Butina would go on to plead guilty, but before that, a Wikipedia user called Caroline456 deleted information about Butina and Alexander Torshin, another Russian national accused of trying to funnel Russian money to the Trump campaign through the National Rifle Association.
Nasa invites private astronauts to visit the ISS for $35,000 a day
Nasa has announced that it’s opening the International Space Station up to more private businesses, allowing them to buy space, time and resources on the USS to produce, market and test their commercial products (The Verge). That includes having Nasa astronauts work on companies’ projects and, potentially as early as 2020, firms may send their own astronauts up to the station at a cost of around $35,000 per day.
