Guo Ping, Huawei’s rotating chairman, said on Friday that the Shenzhen-based company’s performance in the past 30 years has proved that it has the best security record in the telecom industry.

Huawei will spend $2 billion over the next five years on enhancing its software engineering capabilities, making “both the company’s coding processes and results secure and trustworthy”, he said.

Guo’s comments came after Huawei was criticized in a report from a board that monitors Huawei’s activities in the United Kingdom. The report said the board can only provide “limited assurance” that all national security risks stemming from Huawei’s involvement in local networks can be “sufficiently mitigated long-term”.

Guo said the report shows that Huawei’s presence in the UK is subject to the toughest and most rigorous regulation in the world, and the report did not suggest that the UK networks are more vulnerable than they were last year.

“We’re confident about our continuous work with foreign authorities in ensuring network safety,” he said, adding that in the past two years, the company has not had a single major cyberattack.

On Friday, Huawei also unveiled its revenue goal for 2019. Guo said the company is highly likely to achieve double-digit growth this year, despite growing geopolitical pressure amid the worldwide security debate over 5G.

In the first two months of 2019, revenue has risen by over 30 percent. Last year, Huawei posted revenue of $105.2 billion, up 19.5 percent year-on-year, on the back of strong momentum from its smartphone businesses. It was the first time the company surpassed $100 billion in revenue.

Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Information Consumption Alliance, said Huawei is now making its “biggest” push to boost engineering capabilities to ease the concerns of foreign regulators and mobile operators.

“No factual evidence has been given to support the accusation of Huawei cybersecurity risks. As long as the Chinese company maintains its technological edge, more countries will embrace Huawei’s products,” Xiang said.

This week, the European Commission published a recommendation on 5G security that did not include a ban on Huawei products. Although the United States has repeatedly called for such a ban, the European Commission left the decision in the hands of the member states.

Huawei said its products and services are available in more than 170 countries and regions. It also has more than 13,000 suppliers around the world in Japan, the US and other countries.

Guo said on Friday that the company has a backup plan to ensure normal operations in case the US decides to prevent US companies from supplying chips to Huawei. But he did not disclose details.

Google also unveiled a new controller and its own studio.

Apple says Apple Arcade games will redefine games and be curated based on originality, quality, creativity, fun and their appeal to players of all ages.

Apple Arcade will give customers the freedom to try any game from its collection of titles that are all-you-can-play, have no ads, ad tracking or additional purchases, and respect user privacy.

The App Store has nearly 300,000 free and paid games. Free games, supported by advertising or in-app purchases, are enjoyed by hundreds of millions of players around the world. Paid games are often acclaimed and beloved by the people who play them, but competing with free material is hard, so even the best of these games have only reached a smaller audience.

With the simplicity of a single subscription, Apple Arcade will bring games like these to the App Store’s more than 1 billion gaming customers. Apple Arcade complements the popular catalogue of free games on the App Store.

Apple Arcade will introduce an innovative way to access a collection of brand new games that will not be available on any other mobile platform or in any other subscription service. Rather than pay up front for each game, a subscription to Apple Arcade will give players the opportunity to try any game in the service without risk.

Since every game includes access to the full experience, including all game features, content and future updates, no additional purchases will be required. Every game will be playable offline, and many games will offer support for game controllers.

Because subscribers can play Apple Arcade games across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV, they can pick up where they left off in a game, even if they switch devices. New games will be added to the service on a regular basis.

Apple Arcade will launch this year in more than 150 countries from a new tab on the App Store across iOS, macOS and tvOS.

Google’s Stadia platform will open to gamers later this year in the United States, Canada, Britain and other parts of Europe. For now, Google is focused on working with game makers to tailor titles for play on Stadia, saying it has already provided the technology to more than 100 game developers.

The Stadia tech platform aims to connect people for interactive play on personal computers, tablets, smartphones and other devices.

Google also unveiled a new controller that can be used to play cloud-based individual or multiplayer games.

Stadia controllers mirrored those designed for Xbox or PlayStation consoles, with the addition of dedicated buttons for streaming live play via YouTube or asking Google Assistant virtual aide for help beating a daunting puzzle or challenge.

Google’s hope is that Stadia could become for games what Netflix or Spotify are to television or music, by making console-quality play widely available.

Yet it remains unclear how much Google can grab of the nascent, but potentially massive industry.

As it produces its own games, Google will also be courting other studios to move to its cloud-based model.

Google collaborated with French video game titan Ubisoft last year in a limited public test of the technology powering Stadia, and its chief executive was in the front row at the platform’s unveiling.

A coming new version of blockbuster action game “Doom” tailored to play on Stadia was teased at the event by iD studio executive producer Marty Stratton.

The reliability and speed of Internet connections is seen as a challenge to cloud gaming, with action play potentially marred by streaming lags or other disruptions.

Google said its investments in networks and data centres should help prevent latency in data transmissions.

The US video game industry generated a record

US$43.4 billion in revenue in 2018, up 18 per cent from the prior year, according to data released by the Entertainment Software Association and The NPD Group.

Due to the fierce competition in the Thai e-marketplace, tarad.com says it plans to become a total e-commerce solutions service provider with the launch of U-Commerce, a platform aimed at turning its competitors into partners.

U-Commerce results from a joint venture with various leading companies and has come to the market under the concept of offering total solutions for e-commerce, including e-marketplace, payments, logistics and fulfilment, advertising and marketing, customer service and support.

It is connected to e-commerce operators Lazada and Shoppee, and also with social commerce platform Facebook. The move represents a return to the market by former e-commerce market leader tarad.com and, as such, is a big turning point in the history of the 20-year-old firm.

Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, founder and chief executive officer of tarad.com, said that the intensely competitive e-marketplace had impacted the company. It thus shifted its focus to offering total solutions for e-commerce by providing synergies with companies and partners in the e-commerce ecosystem.

U-Commerce is operated by tarad.com. It has partnered with Facebook Lazada and Shoppee; as well as with start-ups in the e-commerce ecosystem to offer choices of payment for e-commerce. It can offer six channels of payment, both online and offline, and logistic services.

It is a one-stop service platform for e-commerce and is free to users. Its business model is freemium. E-commerce will be charged as an annual fee when they reach out the free numbers of product and services.

U-Commerce will allow users to manage their online stores in one place by connecting them together. For instance, U-Commerce can connect e-marketplaces such as Lazada and Shopee with social media and users’ websites. It is connected with e-payment and allows users to pay through credit cards, debit cards, in instalments, or offline such as with Prompt Pay or Pay Solutions. Also, it is connected with more than 10 logistics companies through shippop.com and warehouse and courier service from SiamOutlet.com. Moreover, it also offers complete online advertising services with partners such as Google, Facebook and Line.

These services will reduce the complexity of store management and allow U-Commerce’s clients, especially SMEs, to effectively compete with the vigorous competition in the e-commerce world.

The main target group of U-Commerce is SMEs and large corporates and brands. Many businesses and brands need to go online and do e-commerce, and U-Commerce is designed to serve the total e-commerce solutions for this target group.

Usually, SMEs and brand/business do e-commerce on three platforms: their own e-commerce website, on an e-commerce platform, and on social media platforms. When they go to U-Commerce, all their products will be spread to all platforms instantly.

“Our mission is to help Thai businesses easily go online to take advantage of e-commerce. Our U-Commerce in the next phase will connect to giant platforms like Amazon and eBay, and Rakuten,” says Pawoot.

U-Commerce facilitates brands to easily manage their online business with a variety of e-commerce and e-marketplace platforms. Its goal for this year is to encourage 300 brands and corporates to benefit from the platform.

“We are not starting from zero. We add value on top of the existing resources of tarad.com, which has 200,000 merchants, the majority of whom are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and make up about 4 million members. We have data and resources. This will enable us to move towards the next step,” says Pawoot.

He spent a year to build U-Commerce, since he admits tarad.com cannot compete in the same way with the giant e-marketplace operators that can spend a lot to gain traction. Recognising this, he saw the need to change the way of doing business. As an e-marketplace operator he could be beaten by the giant players, but with the new platform, the company can become a partner of the industry giants. Real benefits will flow to customers and local businesses, he says.

In Thailand, e-commerce is fragmented, he says. U-Commerce will integrate all these fragmented e-commerce services into a one-stop service that is easy to use and will help business save time and costs.

One-stop servIce

“We use ‘profile pool’ to utilise startups that we invested in to offer services. U-commerce can offer a one-stop service with the freemium model,” says Pawoot.  This move marks not only the return of tarad.com to e-commerce but will strengthen Thailand’s e-commerce competitiveness. The country’s e-commerce is still growing but that growth is mainly in the form of products flowing from overseas, especially China, to Thailand.

U-Commerce aims to empower Thai products, Pawoot says.

“The e-commerce market in Thailand has seen a massive growth this year with a total market value of Bt3.15 trillion, or a14.04 per cent increase from last year.

“With the ever rising number of Internet users in Thailand, at 45 million people, we expect to see more expansion within the e-commerce market as brands switch to online shopping.”

Google also unveiled a new controller and its own studio.

Apple says Apple Arcade games will redefine games and be curated based on originality, quality, creativity, fun and their appeal to players of all ages.

Apple Arcade will give customers the freedom to try any game from its collection of titles that are all-you-can-play, have no ads, ad tracking or additional purchases, and respect user privacy.

The App Store has nearly 300,000 free and paid games. Free games, supported by advertising or in-app purchases, are enjoyed by hundreds of millions of players around the world. Paid games are often acclaimed and beloved by the people who play them, but competing with free material is hard, so even the best of these games have only reached a smaller audience.

With the simplicity of a single subscription, Apple Arcade will bring games like these to the App Store’s more than 1 billion gaming customers. Apple Arcade complements the popular catalogue of free games on the App Store.

Apple Arcade will introduce an innovative way to access a collection of brand new games that will not be available on any other mobile platform or in any other subscription service. Rather than pay up front for each game, a subscription to Apple Arcade will give players the opportunity to try any game in the service without risk.

Since every game includes access to the full experience, including all game features, content and future updates, no additional purchases will be required. Every game will be playable offline, and many games will offer support for game controllers.

Because subscribers can play Apple Arcade games across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV, they can pick up where they left off in a game, even if they switch devices. New games will be added to the service on a regular basis.

Apple Arcade will launch this year in more than 150 countries from a new tab on the App Store across iOS, macOS and tvOS.

Google’s Stadia platform will open to gamers later this year in the United States, Canada, Britain and other parts of Europe. For now, Google is focused on working with game makers to tailor titles for play on Stadia, saying it has already provided the technology to more than 100 game developers.

The Stadia tech platform aims to connect people for interactive play on personal computers, tablets, smartphones and other devices.

Google also unveiled a new controller that can be used to play cloud-based individual or multiplayer games.

Stadia controllers mirrored those designed for Xbox or PlayStation consoles, with the addition of dedicated buttons for streaming live play via YouTube or asking Google Assistant virtual aide for help beating a daunting puzzle or challenge.

Google’s hope is that Stadia could become for games what Netflix or Spotify are to television or music, by making console-quality play widely available.

Yet it remains unclear how much Google can grab of the nascent, but potentially massive industry.

As it produces its own games, Google will also be courting other studios to move to its cloud-based model.

Google collaborated with French video game titan Ubisoft last year in a limited public test of the technology powering Stadia, and its chief executive was in the front row at the platform’s unveiling.

A coming new version of blockbuster action game “Doom” tailored to play on Stadia was teased at the event by iD studio executive producer Marty Stratton.

The reliability and speed of Internet connections is seen as a challenge to cloud gaming, with action play potentially marred by streaming lags or other disruptions.

Google said its investments in networks and data centres should help prevent latency in data transmissions.

The US video game industry generated a record

US$43.4 billion in revenue in 2018, up 18 per cent from the prior year, according to data released by the Entertainment Software Association and The NPD Group.

The companies signed a memorandum of understanding in Havana aimed at speeding up connectivity to help bring communications on the island into the 21st century, a key policy of President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Cuba’s internet provider is currently dependent on a submarine fiber-optic cable link to Venezuela, but service is often overloaded and slow.

Engineers from the two companies will now work together toward achieving a faster, direct internet connection. The island would benefit from connecting to submarine cables between the US and Latin America.

“We are creating a working group which is comprised of engineers from Google and ETECSA who would work together to analyze ways to implement the direct internet connection,” said Google’s chief in Cuba, Brett Perlmutter.

ETECSA vice president of investments Luis Adolfo Iglesias told reporters the companies would work toward better connectivity “when technical conditions allow.”

Mobile internet has been available on the island since December and nearly two million of ETECSA’s five million-plus customers have already subscribed to the 3G service.

For most Cubans however, internet access is still only available in internet cafes or outdoor wifi hotspots.

Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt met with Diaz-Canel last year to discuss improving Cuba’s connectivity.

Relations between Havana and Washington have cooled under US President Donald Trump after a diplomatic thaw under his predecessor Barack Obama briefly raised hopes of a lifting of a trade embargo in place since 1962.

Trump has instead blasted Cuba as part of a “Troika of Tyranny” along with the leftist governments in Venezuela and Bolivia, over its support for Venezuelan socialist president Nicolas Maduro.

He has worked to tighten the six-decade embargo, threatening to extend it to apply to foreign companies trading with Cuba.

 The exhibition, under way at the Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre (BITEC), ends on Sunday.

Pornchai Jantarasupasang, assistant general manager of ARIP, said that the firm is presenting the 2019 event under the concept of Connected life, with displays covering around 14,000 square metres.

The company believes that gaming notebooks will be the most popular products at the event.

The exhibition includes a digital pavilion to showcase “the new era of lifestyles and the next generation of digital life”. It features innovative technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G as well as the concepts of smart government, smart car, smart city smart life, smart security and smart home.

The firm expects that around 600,000 visitors will attend, generating around Bt3 billion in revenue for the 150-plus brands displaying their wares.

Pornchai said that the most popular products to be sold during the event will be high-end notebooks with an average price of Bt70,000 for gaming, followed by IT components and mobile devices.

“I think that Commart Connect comes as part of the events that will drive power purchasing for IT products in the country. Over 150 IT brands will create promotional and marketing campaigns to encourage sales and support the demand of customers,” said Pornchai.

He said that workstations will also be popular, since customers are willing to spend much more money to buy high-performance computers to handle video editing and short movies to promote their lifestyles on social media.

He also said that the high-end notebooks in the Thai market have the potential for high growth, since customers want to make purchases that match their lifestyles. The firm plans to conduct another Commart exhibition from July 4-7.

Somyot Chaowalit, chief executive of JIB Computer, said that the firm expects that it will generate revenue of around Bt150 million from the event, with gaming notebooks the top sellers, followed by display monitors and PC products.

The firm this year plans to distribute its IT products and accessories via online channels. It has generated over 15,000 transactions per month with revenue of Bt100 million a month. The firm by the end of this year expects to post revenue of around Bt10 billion, with online sales contributing about 11 per cent of the total.

Some 3 million visitors access its information products via online channels, Somyot said.

The company is going all out to respond to safety concerns about its top-selling plane, and after hundreds of hours of testing will roll out the fix to the stall-prevention software, once it’s been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Below are the changes it is making:

– Two AOA sensors –

The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) flight control software was installed on the 737 MAX because the heavier engines forced a shift in the placement of the engines. It is designed to push the nose of the plane down if it detects the risk of a stall. With the changes, the MCAS will no longer react to input from a single “angle of attack” sensor, but only when two sensors agree, within a small margin of error.

– Disagree light –

The pilot will be alerted if the left and right AOA sensors are contradicting each other with a “disagree light.” Boeing will no longer charge airlines to install this feature.

– Pilot override –

The MCAS will no longer continue to try to override the pilot and will engage only once, nor will it have sufficient power to counteract the actions of the flight crew. The pilots will continue to always have the ability to override MCAS and manually control the airplane.

– Pilot training –

Boeing has updated its training for pilots flying the MAX to give them an “enhanced understanding” of the systems, including the MCAS and associated procedures. This will be a computer-based training program.

Pilots not rated to fly the 737 must complete at least 21 days of instructor-led training, including classroom and simulator training.

– Timing –

Mike Sinnett, Boeing’s vice president of product strategy, told reporters the fix was not released until now because they were taking time to ensure they would get it right. It will take only about an hour to install and can be rolled out as soon as the company receives FAA approval.

The ban will be enforced starting next week at the leading online social network and its image-centric messaging service Instagram.

“It’s clear that these concepts are deeply linked to organized hate groups and have no place on our services,” the social network said in a statement.

Facebook policies already banned posts endorsing white supremacy as part of its prohibition against spewing hate at people based on characteristics such as race, ethnicity or religion.

The ban had not applied to some postings because it was reasoned they were expressions of broader concepts of nationalism or political independence, according to the social network.

Facebook said that conversations with academics and “members of civil society” in recent months led it to view white nationalism and separatism as linked to organized hate groups.

“Going forward, while people will still be able to demonstrate pride in their ethnic heritage, we will not tolerate praise or support for white nationalism and separatism,” Facebook said.

People who enter search terms associated with white supremacy will get results referring them to resources such as Life After Hate which focus on helping people turn their backs on such groups, according to the social network.

Amid pressure from governments around the world, Facebook has ramped up machine learning and artificial intelligence tools for finding and removing hateful content while remaining open to free expression.

“Unfortunately, there will always be people who try to game our systems to spread hate,” Facebook said.

“Our challenge is to stay ahead by continuing to improve our technologies, evolve our policies and work with experts who can bolster our own efforts.”

Facebook said the new ban would not apply to topics such as American pride and Basque separatism, which “are an important part of people’s identity,” according to the statement.

Difficult to enforce

Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, believed Facebook’s new ban could limit the spread of white nationalist rhetoric but doubted it would rid the world of the ideology.

“We’ll see if they are able to enforce this,” Potok said.

“There are thousands of white nationalists posts on Facebook every day. They weren’t able to stop the Christchurch video so it will be challenging to do this” he said, referring to the stream of the deadly attacks at New Zealand mosques earlier this month.

The New Zealand massacre demonstrated the global reach of a white nationalist movement that preaches an imagined “European” ideal, rejects immigration and shares often vicious threats over the internet.

Some analysts say it is a cohesive movement bound together online that stretches across Europe into Russia, has a deep following in the US and Canada.

They say it poses as much of an international threat as Islamic extremism, and even more so in the United States where white nationalist attacks have outpaced those by jihadists for years.

According to some researchers, white nationalists have been emboldened by the rise of politicians espousing traditionalist views and a tough line on immigration — from Marine Le Pen in France and Viktor Orban in Hungary to Russian President Vladimir Putin; and the UKIP party in Britain.

The same holds true in the United States where President Donald Trump campaigned for the White House on an anti-immigration platform, backed by an overwhelmingly white voter base.

Trump notoriously appeared to sanction the march by white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, and has avoided condemning violence from the far-right.

And customers hardly ever ask about them if they’re not. While these missed opportunities may seem inconsequential, they are starting to add up in this competitive retail environment where every sale counts.

According to the Thai Retailers Association, Thailand’s retail industry reported growth at only 3.1 per cent in 2018, while according to the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), e-Commerce has grown consistently between 8-10 per cent per year based. This shows that retailers are now required to make greater use of technology, along with other services and activities, to expanding sales opportunity and further business growth.

There is hope. Many retailers are now taking steps to directly address the frustration of a wasted trip by combining the convenience of online shopping with the delight of the instore experience. Enter alternative fulfilment.

The Paths to Alternative Fulfilment

The oldest, most proven method is to offer discounts to customers if they come back to the store when the item is replenished. This rewards customer loyalty while also offering an incentive. Unfortunately though, according to Zebra’s Global Shoppers study, only 44 percent of retailers currently offer this service even as research shows 61 percent of shoppers globally want it.

The benefit of this method is that retailers can also build customer loyalty through personal shopping experiences. In stores where customers are looking for multiple items like groceries or tools, they can be given a personal shopping solution like Zebra’s PS20 that can guide them through the store giving additional product information while also alerting them with location-based vouchers.

As people’s time becomes even more important, we are seeing convenience increasingly trump cost, and retailers must respond. They are starting to do so by offering fast home delivery should an item not be in stock. The Zebra Shopper Study found 62 percent of shoppers globally want this method when they shop, but only 42 percent of surveyed retailers have it in place.

It is clear then that the challenge for retailers lies in delivery or what is often referred to as the “last mile.”

Supply Chain Superiority

The conventional supply chain requires fluid movement between stores and the warehouse. When a retailer wishes to add home delivery or to re-stock discounted items quickly, an exponentially more powerful logistics system becomes essential.

This system must be able to instantly, reliably assess the status of any stock item. No matter whether it is location (warehouse or store), size or readiness to ship – a retailer needs to have this insight. Customers offered home delivery expect items to be dispatched with speed that matches their online alternatives.

It must also empower warehouse workers with tools for rapid item location and processing. Retailers attempting to implement alternative fulfilment strategies instore will struggle if operatives tasked with quickly locating, scanning and shipping items are working with outdated technology. Hence the growth and investment in recent years in warehouse technologies like

mobile computing and RFID solutions.

Making Sales from the Warehouse

In the face of incredible competition, innovative retailers are recognising a need to offer solutions that match rising customer demands for speed and flexible fulfilment. Tried and trusted methods such as promotions and discounts are now more targeted and personalised with logistical supply chains becoming more flexible and visible. This is driving retailers to invest in and build a greater understanding of the tools and processes that enable such insight and agility – all of which sit at the core of Zebra’s solutions.

All retailers know they must focus on the customer, brick-and-mortar stores especially. But, realising that the very best instore experiences start in the warehouse is what will keep retailers profitable in 2019.