Finnish software outfit Jolla has announced that it is attempting to disentangle itself from the Russian state interests that hold a significant stake in its business. Samuli Simojoki, current chair of Jolla’s board, posted (in Finnish) on LinkedIn, saying that Jolla is currently 45-percent owned by Rostelecom. The Russian telecommunications giant is itself 45-percent owned by the Russian government, and so while it’s not a majority stake, it is significant. Simojoki added that Jolla has been “actively” driving down its Russian business through 2021 and, at this point, does not make any money from the nation. But, until it can find a way of buying Rostelecom out, or somehow otherwise arranging a separation, the thorny issue remains.

Those with short memories might not recall that Jolla was the company that rose from the ashes of Nokia’s homegrown smartphone OS, MeeGo. Jolla, itself formed by former Nokia engineers, developed MeeGo into Sailfish, which was intended to offer a second alternative to Android in the then-burgeoning mobile world. After a not-too-successful attempt at launching its own handset in 2013, Sailfish pivoted to supporting Android devices as a replacement operating system for those tired of Google. By early 2015, having failed to make much of a dent in the world with that strategy, Jolla received positive overtures from the Russian government.

Russia’s interest in Sailfish was, broadly speaking, part of a trend back then reflecting a wariness on behalf of other major nations of western technology. Both China and Russia, concerned that computers, tablets, smartphones and industrial applications were becoming entirely dependent on American-owned hardware and software, looked for alternative platforms to adopt. In late 2016, the Russian government approved Sailfish as a platform that could be used by government departments and officials. It subsequently signed similar deals in China and Latin America, where Jolla licensed its source code to a local partner. This was sufficient to help it avoid a second bankruptcy, although its financial woes have always been an issue.

It’s not clear, and we have emailed Jolla for further comment, what this will mean for Jolla’s future as a standalone business. In his LinkedIn post, Simojoki said that the company has received plenty of positive interest from European companies, but they will only sign up after Rostelecom’s stake is gone. That, for now, leaves the company stuck in something of a Catch-22.

Taxpayers can now delete any selfies they submitted to ID.me, the company tasked by the IRS to verify identities. Following uproar from privacy advocates, civil liberties groups and Congress, the federal agency last month axed a new requirement that taxpayers who want to access certain online services must comply with ID.me's facial recognition tool. Users were asked to verify their identity by uploading a selfie and government-issued ID onto ID.me’s portal, which uses automated facial recognition to vet the images. Beginning today, any ID.me account holders who wish to delete their presence on the site can do so by simply visiting account.id.me. Don’t worry if you don’t get around to it. ID.me will automatically delete all facial recognition data from taxpayers on March 11th.

Not all taxpayers were required to use ID.me (only users seeking to look up past tax returns or child tax credit refunds online, and this is only if you don't have a current online IRS account). Unfortunately, if you fall into those two groups, you’ll still need to jump through some extra hoops on ID.me's website. Users will need to schedule a video interview with an IRS agent, as well as submit a photo ID such as a driver’s license, passport or state ID. While a video call may be less of a privacy invasion than facial recognition, you may be in for a long wait. While some users connect to a video agent in a matter of minutes, some have reported wait times of a few hours or more. Automated facial recognition is still an option for those who can’t stand the wait time. The company announced that starting on March 11th, it will begin automatically deleting photos submitted by users within 24 hours. 

Luckily for those who already have an IRS online account, they can skip ID.me altogether. The IRS has promised to roll out a new authentication tool by next tax season that won’t require ID.me, but hasn’t detailed what it is. Tax-related identity theft surged during the pandemic, with many thieves filing fraudulent claims for unemployment benefits. The agency advises taxpayers to file early, and to be on the lookout for any letters from the IRS about potential identity fraud. Taxpayers can also file for an Identity Protection Pin (IP Pin), a special six-digit number issued by the IRS that provides another layer of security in case your social security number is compromised.

Mobile World Congress, best known for phones, next-gen mobile networks and everything related is having a laptop moment. Sure, Honor revealed its latest high-end phone, with the full-fat Android experience, but a lot of the headline devices have been laptops or hybrids or two-in-ones. That’s true of Samsung (Galaxy Book 2 Pro), Huawei (laptops, tablets and a hybrid) and now, Lenovo. It’s revealed its first ThinkPad running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip — the processor family usually used in smartphones. The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 chip is made for these kinds of devices.

It’s got some exciting specs: 5G support built-in, a heady 28 hours of battery life and… a red ThinkPad tracker nub. We’ll wait on a full review to decide whether it lives up to the full ThinkPadTrackPad experience, but the wait won’t be long: The ThinkPad X13s is slated to go on sale sometime in May, starting at $1,100.

— Mat Smith

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Honor says its Magic 4 Pro is a Galaxy S22 rival

But when can I buy one?

Honor

The once-Huawei subsidiary is, unlike its former owner, able to combine high-specced devices with, thankfully, all the Android and Google features we demand. Its latest flagship family, the Magic 4 and Magic 4 Pro are, once again, stylish, competitively priced phones with some notable tricks. Honor’s Eye of Muse-branded camera setup (don’t ask) features two 50-megapixel cameras on both phones, with the Pro packing a 64-megapixel telephoto camera with a 3.5x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom. (The vanilla Magic 4 gets a more humble 8MP periscope camera.)

The Magic 4 Pro also gets a direct time-of-flight (DTOF) sensor to help with focusing and improving image quality. The Magic 4 Pro will cost €1,099 ($1,230) in Europe when it launches. The Magic 4 will cost €899 ($1,006).

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LG's latest CineBeam 4K projectors promise improved daytime viewing

Both are available now.

LG is once again updating its CineBeam 4K projectors, and the upgrades are good news if you tend to watch during the day. Both the HU715Q Ultra Short Throw laser projector and the HU710P laser-LED hybrid promise better daytime viewing, with a new auto-brightness feature on the HU715Q. The HU710P’s move to a wheel-free hybrid offers brighter overall pictures than its predecessor. LG is already shipping both CineBeam projectors, starting at $2,499 for the HU710P and $2,999 for the HU715Q.

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Russia withdraws from European spaceport in response to sanctions

The country has also dropped US involvement in a Venus probe.

Russia is cutting some of its cooperation with international space programs in response to sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. Roscosmos is "suspending" cooperation with European partners on launches from the Guiana Space Centre in retaliation for EU sanctions. The Russian space agency also announced it's pulling staff from the French Guiana-based Spaceport.

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OnePlus 10 Pro is headed to the US, Europe and India in March

The device will also stick with OxygenOS instead of shifting to a unified OS.

While most OnePlus phones had been available globally before "reaching" China, that wasn't the case with the OnePlus 10 Pro, which has so far been China-exclusive since its January launch. That's about to change. The company announced at MWC that its latest flagship phone will finally head to the US, Europe and India "by the end of March."

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Instagram head says iPad 'not big enough' to make app a priority

Adam Mosseri says there aren't enough people using iPads to justify fast-tracking an app.

Godong via Getty Images

It's been more than 11 years since Instagram launched, and there's still no native iPad app. According to Instagram head Adam Mosseri, that's not going to change any time soon. In a series of tweets between Mosseri and prolific tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, Mosseri said there weren't enough iPad users to justify making a dedicated app.

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Pioneering Xerox PARC computer researcher David Boggs has died at 71, The New York Times has reported. He was best known for co-inventing the Ethernet PC connection standard used to link PCs in close proximity to other computers, printers and the internet — over both wired and wireless connections. 

The Xerox PARC research lab in Palo Alto developed much of the PC tech we tech for granted today like the graphic user interface, mouse and word processor. Boggs joined the team in 1973, and started working with fellow researcher Bob Metcalfe on a system to send information to and from the lab's computer. 

In about two years, they had designed the first version of Ethernet, a link that could transmit data at 2.94 Mbps over a coaxial cable. It borrowed in part from a wireless networking system developed at the University of Hawaii called ALOHAnet, tapping into Boggs' passion for HAM radio. "He was the perfect partner for me," Metcalfe told the NYT. “I was more of a concept artist, and he was a build-the-hardware-in-the-back-room engineer.”

Xerox PARC

At this point, a networking system called Arpanet already existed, but was designed for connections over longer distances. Ethernet beat out competing technologies for near-proximity connections thanks to its clever packet technology. That allowed data to be sent over wires or wirelessly, and it would continue to work even if some packets were lost. 

Metcalfe eventually founded the Ethernet networking giant 3Com, while Boggs stayed at PARC as a researcher. He later moved to mini-computer giant DEC, then started an Ethernet company called LAN Media.

Ethernet became the standard protocol for wired devices in the '80s and is the foundational tech used for WiFi that first proliferated in the 1990s. Nearly 50 years later, it has never been replaced and is ubiquitous in nearly all digital devices. So why did it survive and thrive? "Seems Ethernet does not work in theory, only in practice," Boggs once said, Metcalfe told the NYT.

Google is the latest to join the growing list of tech companies blocking access to Russian state media across Europe. In a tweet, the company has revealed that it's blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik in Europe following the European Commission's announcement that it will "ban the Kremlin's media machine in the EU." European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the declaration a few days ago, adding that RT, Sputnik and their subsidiaries will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin's war."

The tech giant said it'll take time for its systems to fully ramp up, so EU residents may still be able to access channels affiliated with the media organizations at the moment. It also said that it has a team monitoring the situation around the clock to take swift action, perhaps to ensure no new channels pop up to take the place of the ones being blocked. 

YouTube barred the outlets from being able to monetize their content on the platform a few days ago, citing sanctions against their home country. In addition, it made sure their videos appear less frequently as recommendations and made their channels inaccessible in Ukraine following a request from the country's government. Eastern European media outlet Nextatweeted out a copy of the letter Alexander Tkachenko, Ukraine's Minister of Culture and Information Policy, sent to YouTube, in which he asked the website to "block access of the aggressor state's propaganda channels not only in Ukraine, but around the world." So far, YouTube has only blocked RT and Sputnik in Ukraine and the EU.

Facebook restricted access to the state-owned media outlets across the EU a few days ago after it removed their ability to monetize their pages with ads. Twitter halted ads in Ukraine and Russia, as well, "to ensure critical public safety information is elevated and ads don't detract from it." Microsoft followed suit, banning the publications from its ad network, pulling their news apps from the Windows store and de-ranking them in Bing's search results. Google started downranking results from the outlets in 2017, though it's unclear if that has changed over the years. Earlier, TikTok also made the RT and Sputnik accounts inaccessible to audiences within the EU.

In February, Respawn revealed that it's rolling out Apex Legends Mobile in 10 countries this week as part of a "limited regional launch." Now, the developer has announced that it's pushing back the game's initial release "due to current world events" and is now aiming for a March 7th launch. While Respawn didn't expound on what it meant by "world events," it was most likely talking about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Apex Legends Mobile has been in the works over the past three years and was supposed to arrive in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Colombia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines and Singapore this week. The limited regional launch, which will run throughout the spring, will help the developer fine-tune gameplay and features, as well as discover any last minute fixes it needs to do. Respawn is asking players in the test countries to share their feedback and will only announce a wide release after it has "made informed decisions coming out of the limited regional launch."

The mobile game's character roster is similar to the original Apex Legends game when it first came out, but Respawn stresses that cross-play with the console and PC versions won't be available. It's "being built specifically for mobile," the company said. Although the initial launch has been pushed back, interested players in the aforementioned regions can now pre-register by looking for the game on Google Play or on the iOS App Store. 

Major crypto exchanges including Coinbase and Binance are refusing a request by Ukraine to freeze all Russian accounts, saying that doing so would harm civilians and be counter to their ideals. "To unilaterally decide to ban people’s access to their crypto would fly in the face of the reason why crypto exists,” a Binance spokesperson told CNBC. 

In a tweet, Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Federov asked major crypto exchanges to freeze all Russian and Belarus accounts, not just the accounts of sanctioned oligarchs. "It's crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also to sabotage ordinary users," he said. 

Such a move would be in line with US and European Union sanctions against Russian banks and leadership designed to cripple the nation's economy. However, freezing crypto holdings could directly impact regular Russian citizens.

Coinbase said it's already sanctioning any persons or entities in Russia as required by law, but won't go any further. "A unilateral and total ban would punish ordinary Russian citizens who are enduring historic currency destabilization as a result of their government’s aggression against a democratic neighbor," it told Motherboard. Binance similarly stated that it wouldn't "unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users’ accounts." 

Binance, on the flip side, said it has committed to donate at least $10 million in humanitarian aide to Ukraine and launched a fundraiser with the goal of raising $20 million. The company is also currently under investigation by the US government for alleged money laundering and insider trading.

Other exchanges including KuCoin also said they wouldn't go beyond anything required by law. Kraken exchange CEO Jesse Powell said that such a move would violate the company's "libertarian values." 

One exception is Dmarket, a Ukraine-based platform that allows people to trade NFTs and virtual in-game items. The company said in a tweet that it had cut "all relationships with Russia and Belarus due to the invasion of Ukraine." 

Toyota has reportedly halted vehicle production at all its plants in Japan following a cyberattack against a major supplier, Nikkei has reported. "Due to a system failure at a domestic supplier (Kojima Industries Corporation), we have decided to suspend the operation of 28 lines at 14 plants in Japan on Tuesday, March 1st," Toyota wrote on its global website. 

Kojima supplies both exterior and interior parts, including components used in its air-conditioning system and steering wheel. The parts weren't affected but Kojima was reportedly unable to communicate with Toyota or monitor production. The issue affected Toyota's "just in time" manufacturing system that requires parts be delivered just before they're installed so they don't have to be stocked. 

Toyota didn't mention a cyberattack on its website, but Kojima confirmed the issue. "It is true that we have been hit by some kind of cyberattack. We are still confirming the damage and we are hurrying to respond, with the top priority of resuming Toyota's production system as soon as possible," a Kojima official told Nikkei. 

Two other Toyota partners were reportedly hit, including truck manufacturer Hino Motors and Daihatsu Motor. The origins of the cyberattack, type of malware and other details have not been revealed. Toyota didn't say when it expects to restart the manufacturing lines, but the Japanese government is reportedly involved in the investigation. 

Earlier this month, Amazon announced that vaccinated warehouse workers (but not unvaccinated ones) were no longer required to wear masks. Now, the company is making face masks optional at its operations facilities across the US regardless of vaccination status starting today, according to a notice sent to workers seen by CNBC. "[This] is an exciting step in our path to normal operations," the letter states.

Workers will still have to mask up in states that mandate mask usage at work regardless of vaccination status, including Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon and Washington. Other states like California only require unvaccinated individuals to wear masks. 

The move comes amid a steep drop in Omicron COVID-19 infections across the US. Amazon confirmed that the notice was real, but told CNBC it still strongly recommends that unvaccinated employees continue to wear masks. 

Amazon had previously dropped mask restrictions toward the end of the COVID-19 Delta variant outbreak, but was forced to revive them in December as Omicron began to surge. Unlike Google and other tech companies, Amazon never required vaccinations for workers. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new guidance last week allowing around 70 percent of Americans to remove face coverings in areas where COVID-19 hospitalizations were low. However, some medical professionals are still concerned about protection for the elderly, immunocompromised and other vulnerable individuals. 

TikTok has joined Facebook in blocking access to two Russian state media outlets in the European Union. Sputnik and RT are no longer able to post to audiences within the EU, and their pages and content will no longer be accessible to users in the bloc, a TikTok spokesperson confirmed.

TikTok’s move comes as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft have also cracked down on the outlets, which have large followings on social media platforms. Facebook also said Monday that it was blocking access to the publications, and Twitter said it would label all tweets from Russian state media accounts.Those actions come after a broader order from EU officials to ban RT and Sputnik.