PayPal to permit cryptocurrency payments from 2021

PayPal has been granted a licence by the New York State Department of Financial Services, allowing it to roll out cryptocurrency payments via PayPal accounts from early 2021.  The Department granted PayPal a Bitlicense, which regulates any company or individual based in New York which uses virtual currencies. A limited number of companies have been … Read more

Ericsson to replace Huawei in BT’s 5G infrastructure

Ericsson has signed a deal with BT to supply equipment for the non-core parts of its 5G network across UK cities, replacing equipment provided by Huawei.  In July, the UK government announced that it would ban Huawei equipment from any part of the UK’s 5G network. Operators were given until 2027 to remove any existing equipment and … Read more

Intel to sell NAND chip business to SK Hynix

Intel has entered a deal to sell its NAND flash memory business to South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix for $9bn in cash over almost five years.  Under the terms of the deal, Intel would sell all of its NAND business, including its solid-state drive business, NAND component and wafer operation, and its factory in Dalian, … Read more

2D materials tailored to improve optical and electronic devices

Researchers have found that altering 2D materials could improve the capabilities of optical and electronic devices.  The research, led by Shengxi Huang, assistant professor of electrical engineering and biomedical engineering at Penn State University, found that altering the material in two different ways – atomically and physically – could enhance light emission and increase signal strength in many devices that … Read more

AMD powers into the AI chip market’s blowoff top

The AI surge makes the PC processor maker’s purchase of Xilinx look like a one-way bet, but trouble may surface not that long from now.  The parabolic blowoff top is a common feature of stock markets. Sometimes things get so frothy that there is no stopping investors and traders from piling into buying a particular … Read more

Image Formats

GIF Graphics Interchange Format, also known as GIF, was once the most widely used image format. It was developed by CompuServe to fill the need for a cross-platform image format. The GIF format is okay for logos, icons, line art, and other simple images. It doesn’t work as well for highly detailed images because each … Read more

UK scientists develop five-minute Covid-19 antigen test

Scientists at Oxford University have developed a rapid Covid-19 test, which is capable of identifying the virus in less than five minutes.  The researchers behind the test suggested it could be used in mass testing at airports. The university aims to start product development in early 2021 and have an approved device available six months afterwards. … Read more

Heated face mask promises to deactivate the Covid-19 virus

A face mask that comes with a built-in heated copper mesh that can inactivate viruses such as Covid-19 is being developed by MIT researchers.  While N95 masks have already been shown to be effective at filtering out viruses and reducing the risk of infection, the heat mesh could take this level of protection one step … Read more