Canadian Reviewer Weekly Roundup – 5/19 – 5/25

Huawei gets temporary reprieve from US import ban

Report claims Google will pull Huawei’s Android license

Farm Punks’: Farming sim meets ‘Alto’s Odyssey’

‘Dark Pictures: Man of Medan’ to launch this August 30th

Huawei will reportedly have its Android alternative as early as this fall

Disney’s ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ spin-off series might welcome two ‘Civil War’ characters

You can get ‘The Sims 4’ for free on the PC until May 28th

Apple refreshes MacBook Pro, brings 8-core configuration to the laptop for the first time

Bose launches its smallest smart speaker, announces Google Assistant support

Samsung Galaxy S10 might come in a new red colour option

OnePlus 3/3T finally receive stable Android Pie update

Here’s your first look at the new characters from ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’

Netflix will release Henson’s ‘Dark Crystal’ prequel series on Aug. 30th

There’s a ‘Game of Thrones’ edition of the Samsung Galaxy Fold

Instagram’s IGTV now supports landscape videos

Paramount delays release of ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ movie to fix main character’s design

Huawei temporarily loses its membership in the Wi-Fi Alliance

Huawei has also been barred from the SD Association

Huawei has also been barred from the SD Association

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The latest organization to take Huawei out as a member is the SD Association, a trade group that helps standardize SD and microSD card specs. The group confirmed that the Chinese company was taken out because of Trump’s executive order. What this means is future Huawei phones and laptops wouldn’t get official SD or microSD card support. Of course, these devices can still work. But the company won’t be able to use the standard for future products.

The SD Association joins a growing list of companies and groups to cut ties with Huawei. At the moment, we list down Google, ARM, Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and the Wi-Fi Alliance. According to the Nikkei Asian Review, Huawei has also voluntarily left the JEDEC, which is a semiconductor standards group known for defining RAM specifications.

Huawei temporarily loses its membership in the Wi-Fi Alliance

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After the Trump administration added Huawei into its Entity List, the company has slowly been losing access to its US-based partners. The company’s inclusion in the list prevents the Chinese company from doing business with organizations based in the US. It’s already lost access to its partnerships with the likes of Google and its Android platform, Qualcomm, Intel, Microsoft, and recently, ARM. This time, the company has lost its membership in the Wi-Fi Alliance, which could impact Huawei’s future business. According to a statement from the Alliance, “Wi-Fi Alliance is fully complying with the recent U.S. Department Commerce order without revoking Huawei Technologies’ membership. Wi-Fi Alliance has temporarily restricted Huawei Technologies participation in Wi-Fi Alliance activities covered by the order.”

The Wi-Fi Alliance is a consortium of companies that influence the development of new wireless technologies. While Huawei will still be able to develop Wi-Fi products, for now, they won’t have a say on where wireless technology is heading. And if this continues on for an extended period of time, it could mean Huawei could be less competitive in this respect. It could create its own consortium or join those that don’t have connections with the one in the US, but the company might find it difficult to compete on a global scale.

Source: Android Authority

Netflix promotes ‘Black Mirror’ with ‘Little Black Mirror’ video series

Netflix taps Latinx social media stars to promote the upcoming season of Black Mirror with its short video series it’s calling Little Black Mirror. The three mini stories take inspiration from the tech dystopian universe created by Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones. It’s aimed at the Spanish-speaking audiences and stars the likes of Maia Mitchell, Lele Pons, Rudy Mancuso, Hannah Stocking, and Alesso, to name a few. To promote the series, Netflix tapped YouTube personalities from across Latin America to create their own take on the series. These three mini episodes will launch on May 26, June 2, and June 6^th on the Netflix América Latina channel. Meanwhile, Black Mirror’s fifth season is coming out on June 5^th.

Source: Variety