The Register

Also: Hope Probe hopes for lift-off, Virgin teases SpaceShipTwo interior, Ariane 6 slips

In brief  SpaceX's 10th Starlink mission remained resolutely welded to the launchpad over the weekend as the company decided to stand down from a 11 July launch attempt in order to "allow more time for checkouts".…

Counterfeit and repurposed semiconductors still a problem

If you're looking for cheap electronic sensors, the internet has lots of possibilities, but buyer beware: they aren't always exactly legit.…

From happy hour to happy power

As if a few volts were enough to get between a steaming Cornishman and his pint, a pub near the UK pirate haven of Penzance has run an electric fence along the bar to enforce social distancing. And yes, it can be turned on.…

'Project Ubin' might be faster and cheaper than current tools, even for central banks

Singapore’s experimental digital-ledger-powered payments service has proven itself ready to handle actual transactions in multiple currencies, according to the organisations involved in its final tests.…

You wanted an android butler? Well, first it's gotta learn to hold a wire, then we can talk about folding sheets

Video  An MIT team has built a robot that can plug cables into jacks.…

Interested in Helm, service meshes and what’s next for DevOps? Grab your ticket now – there's still time

Event  Mid-July is almost here, and with it the first online edition of our excellent Continuous Lifecycle London conference.…

13 percent growth ain’t bad, but the Chinese giant has previously done better

Huawei has posted its results for the first half of 2020 and the news is mixed.…

Bags, soap, cosmetics covered, Trump admin backs away from President’s threatened wine levy

America is moving ahead with massive 25 per cent tariffs on French products in retaliation for the Euro nation approving a new digital tax aimed squarely at tech giants like Google and Facebook.…

Your order [Ref #RYUGU_REGOLITH | Picked up by probe #HAYABYUSA2] has shipped!

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has announced that its attempt to bring a chunk of asteroid back to Earth will touch down in December.…

Minister declares special economic zones are open to even China and Russian money so long as they do something digital or medical

Pakistan has become the latest Asian nation to declare it will roll out the welcome mat for foreign investors who want to do something to do with technology on its soil.…

Localisation and transformation plan wins prime ministerial approval, but as usual has as much upside for Google as for its generous hosts

Google has unveiled a plan to invest $10bn in India over the next five to seven years.…

Crooks made off with everything needed for ID theft

Hackers infiltrated Collabera, siphoned off at least some employees' personal information, and infected the US-based IT consultancy giant's systems with ransomware.…

Microsoft, Google, Facebook and pals weigh in on F-1, M-1 visa lawsuit

Big Tech has thrown its support behind a legal challenge to a Trump administration rule that will force foreign students to leave the US if their university courses are online-only amid the coronavirus pandemic.…

Yevgeniy Nikulin faces up to 10 years in a US cooler

The Russian hacker accused of raiding LinkedIn, Dropbox and Formspring, and obtaining data on 213 million user accounts, has been found guilty.…

Trio quits immediately, workers under investigation

Three senior Ubisoft execs quit over the weekend amid claims of widespread sexual harassment within the video-games giant's Canadian studios.…

The only winning move is... not to play?

Verizon has turned to Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI to automate its customer-service phone calls and chatbot conversations.…

More native applications we smoke, yo, our rep gets bigger

Microsoft and Google have been working together to help make Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) easier to publish, in the hope that web apps will one day compete with native apps on mobile devices.…

Plus: Teams goes Nationwide and gains new hardware, VS Code updates

In Brief  While many fleshbags won't trouble the inside of an aircraft this summer, Microsoft has thrown those on unplanned staycations a bone with the confirmed release date for its latest Flight Simulator: 18 August.…

CHIEF concerns for customs tech haven't gone away....

The UK government says it has earmarked £115m in spending for new IT systems to help with the management of customs arrangements and border data after the Brexit transition period comes to a close at year end.…

Still won't be as big as Texas Instruments

Analog Devices has confirmed an intent to buy rival Maxim Integrated, saying it'll fork out a whopping $20.9bn in an all-stock deal.…