A new proof of concept emergency mobile broadband network is being developed for Australia to help emergency services access a unified and data rich communications environment when dealing with critical events in real-time. The NSW government is managing the trial on behalf of all states and the Commonwealth, with the announcement naming TPG, Nokia and Optus as the contracted technology partners to develop the feasibility assessment.

Group communication platform Discord has released an update on its efforts to remove extremist groups from its platform. In the second half of 2020, Discord removed over 2,200 communities for extremist or violent content, almost double the number of groups removed for this reason in the first half of 2020. In total, almost 30,000 communities were removed for various forms of criminal or abusive content. The report comes at a time when Discord is said to be close to a potential $10B deal to be purchased by Microsoft.

Secure messaging app Signal has announced it will add payment support to its platform that will allow users to send money back and forth while maintaining high-level security and privacy by using a cryptocurrency to perform the transactions. The encrypted communication tool will use MobileCoin, a privacy-oriented cryptocurrency designed to work well on mobile with minimal storage requirement and fast transaction speeds. However, MobileCoin is not yet widely supported by crypto exchanges.

Rounding out a run of communication platform stories, a new beta update for popular chat tool WhatsApp has revealed the software will soon allow users to migrate between iOS and Android and take their messaging history with them. Until now users have often resorted to using third-party tools, with the associated security risks, so it is a positive step to see WhatsApp close to supporting this user requirement sometime soon.

Bloomberg has a fascinating report on delays in the digital world caused by shortages in some of the smallest, simplest computer chips in the business. Looking at production of essential display driver integrated circuits that cost a mere $1, the hardware is being made on production lines that are running non-stop, but more lines cannot be made because the chips are not worth enough and makers cannot be certain increased demand will last long enough to be worth the effort. But these simple chips cause delays for anything with an LCD screen. Which is everything.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-05/why-shortages-of-a-1-chip-sparked-crisis-in-the-global-economy

Owners of Google Pixel phones have a new software update available that should dramatically improve graphics performance on the Pixel 5. The phone has been notoriously poor on the GPU side of performance since launch last year, with this update bringing the handset up to a better standard for its Snapdragon 765G processor.

TikTok has announced it is adding automatic captioning for English and Japanese users in an upcoming update to improve accessibility in the app. Creators can edit automated captions to fix errors while viewers will be able to switch captions on or off in their own settings. TikTok already features text-to-speech features as well as automated detection to offer photosensitivity warnings to viewers.

Finally, in videogames, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, E3, will return in June this year in a digital only format. The event was cancelled entirely in 2020 due to the pandemic, but this year E3 has announced its return with companies including Nintendo, Microsoft, Capcom, Konami, Ubisoft, Take-Two and more set to participate. Alongside the news, E3 announced its commitment to return to having a real show floor in 2022.

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