Itâs been a long time since there was much interesting to say about Nokia smartphones. HMD Global, the Finnish firm that produces Nokia-branded handsets these days, is a big hitter in the world of low-cost âfeature phones,â but itâs firmly buried in the âotherâ category when it comes to global smartphone shipments.
However, HMDânot to be confused with Nokia, the telecommunications-equipment manufacturerâjust made a couple of smartphone announcements that are worth flagging for how they play into wider trends.Â
The first is about the new Nokia G22, which is a pretty standard affordable Android phone, except for one thing: You can remove the back to replace certain components if they break. HMD has partnered with iFixit for this, and people in Europe and Australia can easily buy replacement screens, batteries, and charge ports for the G22 to install themselves.
To a certain extent, this gives sustainability-minded European consumers a cheaper alternative to the Fairphone, which is also designed for easy repairability. Fairphone makes way more of its components replaceableâyou can even swap out the cameras and loudspeakers in the Dutch firmâs devicesâbut it does seem the idea is spreading. EU lawmakers are pushing for this to become standard practice, by the way, but the European Commission hasnât yet produced the âright to repairâ proposal theyâve requested.
Meanwhile, with security and sustainability benefits in mind, HMD is taking its âfirst steps in a journey to become the first major global smartphone provider to bring manufacturing to Europe.â Cool! Where in Europe? âWeâre not allowed to say which countries,â said chief marketing officer Lars Silberbauer in a slightly frustrating briefing last week. Thatâs for security reasons, apparently.Â
What are the security benefits of onshoring some production from China and India? Again, no details because of security, but a âcritical partâ of the manufacturing process will happen in Europe, because some of HMDâs European customers want to be âable to visit these factories and see how itâs being produced.â
HMD already moved its data centers to Finland several years ago, to stay in line with EU privacy laws that demand the protection of Europeansâ personal data when itâs sent across the world (hi, U.S.). This latest move isnât entirely analogousâSilberbauer told TechCrunch that HMD saw a âgrowth opportunity for the European marketâ and that existing production sites wouldnât be affectedâbut itâs clear the company sees security and data-protection compliance as a differentiator in Europe. The first stage of the manufacturing shift will involve HMDâs Chinese partner shipping over components for European assembly, calibration, and testing, including security testing.
It remains to be seen whether any of HMDâs peers follow suit, but this is certainly the sort of development that Europeâs leaders are eager to see in their quest to achieve âdigital sovereignty.â Silberbauer also told Reuters that âwhile we canât discuss specific European subsidies, we collaborate with multiple parties in both the public and private sector in Europe to advocate for European manufacturing and R&D.â
This is all part of the same overall narrative that weâre seeing with the U.S. CHIPS Act, which is about to start doling out $39 billion in âmanufacturing incentivesâ for local semiconductor production (the EU is poised to follow suit on that front, too). Thereâs suddenly a ton of money sloshing around, and, slowly, the tech world is starting to fragment.
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David Meyer
NEWSWORTHY
Layoffs at Twitter. The social media company cut around 200 jobs, about 10% of its remaining staff, according to a report in the New York Times. This latest round of layoffs brings the companyâs headcount down from 7,500 before Elon Musk bought the company to now fewer than 2,000 staffers. The job losses affected product managers, data scientists, and engineers who worked on machine learning and site reliability, and the monetization infrastructure team lost 22 people. Esther Crawford, director of product management, reflected on being among the group laid off this weekend. âThe worst take you could have from watching me go all in on Twitter 2.0 is that my optimism or hard work was a mistake,â she tweeted.
Snap and Meta enter the A.I. race. Snapchat Plus subscribers will soon have access to âMy AI,â a chatbot powered by ChatGPT, The Verge reports. The perk for those paying $3.99 a month will appear on the appâs chat tab above chats with friends. CEO Evan Spiegel says the company has a goal of giving all Snap users access to the bot. And thereâs another tool social media users will have to wait for. Meta is launching a tool for A.I. researchers to build chatbots known as LLaMA. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the move late last week, saying, âMeta is committed to this open model of research.â Â
SpaceX launch delayed. About two and a half minutes before a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was set to take off for six months, NASA announced that the mission was postponed owing to a glitch involving the ignition fluid that starts the rocketâs engines. When it eventually takes off, the four-person crew will carry out a science mission at the International Space Station.
Apple gets fined. A Russian antitrust case that alleged Apple abused its dominance in the mobile apps market resulted in the tech giant paying a $12.12 million fine, Reuters reports. Apple previously appealed the decision but ultimately complied with the order, Russiaâs Federal Antimonopoly Service said.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
How to make the job search easier. Ex-staffers at tech companies have used LinkedIn and TikTok to share that theyâve been laid off, and itâs destigmatized the cuts for many. But experts warn that when sharing a job loss on social media, itâs important to not give off red flags to employers. They advise people to highlight achievements and resist the urge to rage post. Instead, show that youâre using time off to improve in some areas. Â
From the article:Â
Alistair Stirling, adviser at Stirling Careers Consultancy, said he always encourages his clients to do volunteer work and short courses while theyâre on the hunt for their next role.
He explained that not only does it give people something to talk aboutâeither in interviews or on platforms like LinkedInâit shows youâre not just sitting around at home.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Amazon driver breaks down the A.I. system watching them for safety violations like drinking coffee while driving and counting the times they buckle their seat belt, by Orianna Rosa Royle
Elon Musk defends âDilbertâ cartoon after cancellation, labeling media and elite schools âracist against whites and Asians,â by Chloe Taylor
American workers have bigger hands, and other lessons Panasonic learned in Teslaâs gigafactory, by Steve Mollman
Some companies are already replacing workers with ChatGPT, despite warnings it shouldnât be relied on for âanything important,â by Trey Williams
âYou are irrelevant and doomedâ: Microsoft chatbot Sydney rattled users months before ChatGPT-powered Bing showed its dark side, by Steve Mollman
A laid-off TikTok employee went viral on the platform after she documented her last day in the officeâand gave viewers a peek inside, by Chris Morris
BEFORE YOU GO
Itâs PokĂ©mon Day. On Feb. 27, 1996, the first PokĂ©mon games were released in Japan. The megafranchise may not be associated with a Game Boy anymore, but itâs still hugely popular. Last year, PokĂ©mon Scarlet & Violet was released for the Nintendo Switch. And on Monday, PokĂ©mon Presents announced that smartphone users will get a taste of the game through an integration with mobile game PokĂ©mon Go, which became popular in 2016 for its superimposed maps of the real world.Â
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