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Sweden, Finland, Ireland, and Denmark blocked a draft tax proposal aimed at tech giants over the weekend. However, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager continued to push for the tax which would affect Apple as well as Google, Facebook, and Amazon reported AppleInsider.

Vestager has argued that a “global solution” is ultimately needed, but that if results are to come “in a reasonable period of time,” Europe will have to lead the way with a harmonized tax. France’s National Assembly is voting today on a national GAFA tax, which would claim 3 percent from digital ads and other income sources for tech firms with revenues over 750 million euros, or about $842 million. Of concern is the fact that tech companies often escape paying regular taxes, even as they and the demands on government budgets continue to grow.

LONDON – The iconic BT Tower in central London suffered technical problems that left a Windows error message on display for days. The landmark is a key part of the London skyline, but people noticed its screen asking for the system to be reset. The error message said: “Choose operating system to start or press TAB to select a tool: (Use arrow keys to highlight your choice and then press ENTER).” INSIDER noted that the message comes from Windows 7. The tower carries telecommunications transmissions from London to the rest of the UK.

The info board normally displays messages of good cheer, like: “Good morning London,” or “It’s coming home,” referring to England’s short-lived success in the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The display was fixed eventually, however, and a BT spokesperson said: “A technical issue caused the info band on the BT Tower to display an error message.” The tower was the tallest building in London from it’s unveiling in 1965, until 1980.

Not everyone has the luxury of broadband access capable of streaming Netflix. For these 2.7 million Americans, Netflix DVDs are a savior. But it’s not just rural folks.

“People assume that our customers must either be super seniors or folks that live in the boonies with no internet access,” [Netflix spokeswoman Annie Jung] says. “Actually, our biggest hot spots are the coasts, like the Bay Area and New York.”

”Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.” Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Digital fashion is a real and growing business. Vogue Business reported on the growing popularity of digital clothing lines, which are powered by 3D modeling. Scandinavian retailer Carlings released its first digital clothing collection in November 2018.  It included 19 limited-edition genderless, sizeless pieces that cost between €10 and €30. It sold out in a week.

The concept might seem outlandish, but gamers have been spending real money on digital fashion items for years. Glu Mobile’s Covet Fashion game lets players style models with digitally rendered designer clothing and accessories. It brought in $53.4 million in sales last year (a portion of which is from advertising)…But as people live and display more of their lives online — coupled with growing concerns about sustainability — digital clothing has the potential to expand well beyond gaming.

Websites die too, and much of the early internet has been gradually, silently lost. Organizations like the Internet Archive can only do so much.

One major problem with trying to archive the internet is that it never sits still. Every minute – every second – more photos, blog posts, videos, news stories and comments are added to the pile. While digital storage has fallen drastically in price, archiving all this material still costs money.

The heads of social media companies could become personally liable for harmful content that gets published on their platforms under new plans set to be proposed by the British government. The plan, leaked to the Guardian, is also set to call for a new regulator, annual “transparency reports” from social media companies and co-operation with law enforcement.

Under plans expected to be published on Monday, the government will legislate for a new statutory duty of care, to be policed by an independent regulator and likely to be funded through a levy on media companies. The regulator – likely initially to be Ofcom, but in the longer term a new body – will have the power to impose substantial fines against companies that breach their duty of care and to hold individual executives personally liable.

As part of its drive for better publicity, Facebook has been running a series of articles with British broadsheet newspaper The Daily Telegraph. The partnership was reported by Business Insider as something of an exposé. In fact, it looks to be a fairly standard, and clearly marked, sponsored content campaign. However, what struck me as interesting is how seriously Facebook is taking improving its PR. More conventional adverts have appeared in Britain too. After months of bad publicity, it is taking action to get its message across and try and reassure users.

The series — called “Being human in the information age” — has published 26 stories over the last month, to run in print and online, and is produced by Telegraph Spark, the newspaper’s sponsored content unit. “Fake news, cyberbullying, artificial intelligence — it seems like life in the internet age can be a scary place,” the articles say. “That’s why Telegraph Spark and Facebook have teamed up to show how Facebook and other social media platforms are harnessing the power of the internet to protect your personal data.”

Apple is planning to release a 5G iPhone in September 2020. However, its somewhat deteriorating relationship with chipmaker Intel is putting that at risk. Fast Company looked into the situation, and why Intel could decide Apple’s business is just not worth it.

In order to deliver big numbers of those modems in time for a September 2020 iPhone launch, Intel needs to deliver sample parts to Apple by early summer of this year, and then deliver a finished modem design in early 2020. Intel said in November that it expected to ship the 8160 5G modem in the second half of 2019. The company, responding to this story, pointed me to that same statement. “As we said in November 2018, Intel plans to support customer device launches in 2020 with its XMM 8160 5G multimode modem,” a company representative said in an email late Wednesday.

Following on from its teardown of the new iPad Mini, iFixit took its tools to the new iPad Air Wednesday. Essentially, the Air is just a bigger Mini and the teardown revealed many of the same features. Pleasingly, all the screws can again be removed with a single Phillips screwdriver. However, there is also lots of glue holding everything in place, making fixing it that bit more difficult. Like its smaller sibling, the iPad Air received a 2 out of 10 rating for repairability.

This new Air hails from the Pro line, inheriting its dimensions, a Smart connector, and a handful of other features from the 2017 10.5″ Pro….A single Phillips driver takes care of all the screws. Many components are modular and can be replaced independently, but the Lightning port is soldered to the logic board. Battery replacement is possible, but still unnecessarily difficult. Gobs of adhesive hold many parts and cables in place, complicating all repairs.

Fornite has racked up millions of players, and billions of dollars of profit. That is thanks in large part to how devoted players are to the game. It turns out though that the friend you joked is addicted to it might actually be. The Boston Globe spoke to psychologists and other health professionals who explained that Fortnite addiction is a real thing.

Parents worrying about kids spending too much time playing video games isn’t new. But a few significant factors have combined to make today’s games harder to stop playing….More insidious, game makers have taken a lesson from slot-machine designers and started employing a variable reward schedule, according to Ofir Turel, a professor of Information Systems and Decision Sciences at California State University Fullerton. In the case of “Fortnite,” the psychological manipulation combines with the game’s flashy colors, its many potential plots, and the element of social interaction to stimulate the brain and train it to “crave” more, he e-mailed the Globe.