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Microsoft's "blue screen" caused the suspension of Paris Olympic card activation; Uniqlo said that Chinese consumers' mentality has changed due to declining performance; Disney showed "Wall-E" robot

Lian Ran 2024/07/21

Summary

Oracle CEO to leave Disney board; Google reportedly develops new glasses with EssilorLuxottica, the company behind Ray-Ban; Xiaomi Mijia Pocket Photo Printer 1S goes on sale for 399 yuan

Microsoft Windows "blue screen" causes Paris Olympic Organizing Committee to suspend Olympic certificate activation service

On July 20, Xinhua News Agency reported that due to Microsoft system problems, the Paris Olympic Organizing Committee issued a notice to the media via email on the 19th local time, announcing the suspension of the Paris Olympic Games certificate activation service.

The email said that Microsoft's system problems have affected the Olympic credentials activation process, so the activation service will be suspended. "The technical department of the Paris Olympics is working hard to reduce the impact and has launched an emergency plan to ensure the normal operation of the system."

Later that day, a card activation station at the Paris Olympics main press center had restarted related services. Staff said that all card activation services were suspended that morning, but resumed after emergency repairs. In addition, the main press center of the Paris Olympics was locked for a while. Volunteers said that the press center conducted a security inspection that day, which was originally scheduled to end at 14:00, but the media center "should not be open that day", and could not give a definite answer as to whether the incident was affected by the Microsoft system problem.

In addition, on July 19, local time, Microsoft system problems have caused more than 2,000 flights in the United States to be grounded and more than 5,300 flights to be delayed. Microsoft's large-scale blue screen crash yesterday affected all walks of life around the world. (Source: IT Home)

Tesla reportedly suspends some production lines in Texas and Nevada due to CrowdStrike failure

Tesla has reportedly halted some production lines in Texas and Nevada due to a massive technical outage from cybersecurity software company CrowdStrike, which caused problems with the company's servers, laptops and manufacturing equipment. Tesla workers have not yet been told when production will resume.

Earlier, Tesla CEO Musk said, "We just deleted CrowdStrike from all systems." He also commented on Microsoft CEO Nadella's tweet about the failure, saying that this had an impact on the automotive supply chain. (Source: Financial Times)

Oracle CEO to leave Disney board

The Walt Disney Company announced on July 19 local time that Oracle CEO Safra Catz will leave its board of directors.

The high-stakes $28 billion deal between Hollywood studio Paramount and Skydance Media Company has fallen into the hands of Oracle CEO Safra Catz, who has run Oracle for the past decade and served on Walt Disney's board for six years.

Disney CEO Robert Iger praised Katz for "helping to shape the company's long-term strategic planning in a rapidly changing technological environment that is affecting our business." Katz also thanked Iger and his leadership team and wished the company and its employees "all the best in the future." (Source: fortune)

Google is reportedly developing new glasses with EssilorLuxottica, the company behind Ray-Ban

On July 20, according to The Verge, Google has contacted EssilorLuxottica (the company behind the Ray-Bans brand) and plans to cooperate in the production of Gemini smart glasses.

EssilorLuxottica is an Italian-French vertically integrated multinational company headquartered in Paris, formed on October 1, 2018 by the merger of Luxottica of Italy and Essilor of France. The Group designs, produces and markets ophthalmic lenses, optical devices, prescription glasses and sunglasses.

EssilorLuxottica has previously collaborated with Meta to launch two generations of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, and the latest news is that Meta is planning to spend billions of dollars to acquire approximately 5% of EssilorLuxottica's shares.

The Verge believes that Meta's investment may hinder the cooperation between EssilorLuxottica and Google, but does not rule out the possibility of cooperation between Google and other brands under EssilorLuxottica. (Source: IT Home)

Survey shows that nearly a quarter of Japanese companies have already used AI in their business, but more than 40% still have no plans

On July 20, Reuters and Nikkei Research jointly released a survey on the 18th local time. The results showed that among the 506 companies surveyed, nearly 1/4 of them have adopted artificial intelligence in their business, but more than 40% of the companies still have no plans to use this cutting-edge technology.

The survey results show that about 24% of respondents said they have introduced AI technology in their business, 35% said they "have plans to introduce it", and the remaining 41% have no such plans, indicating that Japanese companies have different levels of acceptance of technological innovation.

When asked about the purpose of adopting AI, 60% of respondents said it was to cope with labor shortages, 53% said it was to reduce labor costs, and 36% said it was to accelerate research and development. (Source: IT Home)

Performance suddenly declined, UNIQLO Greater China CEO: Chinese consumers’ mentality has changed

According to the financial report recently released by Fast Retailing, the parent company of Uniqlo, in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2024, the revenue in Greater China was 522.469 billion yen (about 24 billion yuan), accounting for 22.1% of the total revenue. During the third quarter, the revenue of the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong markets declined, the operating profit dropped sharply, and the same-store sales shrank.

Regarding UNIQLO's performance in the Chinese market in the third quarter, UNIQLO Greater China CEO Pan Ning specifically mentioned "parity" in his briefing. "The cost-effective consumption is particularly evident among the younger generation. Under the consumption value of 'parity', consumers no longer choose branded products, but choose more affordable products with little difference in quality." Pan Ning believes that UNIQLO has the potential to become the first choice brand for Chinese consumers.

Although Uniqlo is not expensive, in China, where the clothing supply chain is strong, it is easy to find Uniqlo "substitutes" with similar quality and lower prices. (Source: Daily Economic News)

The world's first Android 15 folding screen, Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold officially announced

On July 19, Google announced that it will launch the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold foldable screen in India on August 14.

The official poster shows that the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold adopts a rounded rectangular camera Deco design, equipped with a right-angle metal middle frame, and is available in black and gold.

In terms of core configuration, Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold uses a 6.4-inch external screen and a 7.9-inch internal screen. The thickness when folded is 10.54mm, and the thickness when unfolded is 5.27mm. It is equipped with a Google Tensor G4 processor and 16GB of memory. At the same time, Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold will be the world's first launch of Android 15. This will be the industry's first Android 15 folding screen, and Google will provide 7 years of software maintenance updates.

In terms of AI experience, Google's own Gemini AI large model will be available on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. The integration of Gemini AI will greatly enhance the functionality of the Android operating system. It is not limited to a single application, but can provide services across applications, such as allowing users to directly drag and drop images from Gemini to other applications, thereby improving the user experience. (Source: Fast Technology)

Xiaomi Mijia Pocket Photo Printer 1S is now on sale: custom border watermark/AR photo, 399 yuan

On July 20, it was reported that Xiaomi Mijia Pocket Photo Printer 1S went on sale on the evening of the 19th, priced at 399 yuan. This product has features such as custom border watermark, multi-person sharing, AR photos, self-adhesive backing, inkless printing, and one-time imaging.

The printer can be used in conjunction with the Mi Home App, has built-in multiple border styles, and supports custom avatars and signature watermarks. Users can create their own "photo wall" (such as photo templates, multiple puzzle templates, picture-taking gameplay, etc.).

It has 8 built-in filters, and you can select associated videos or audios for photos to create "AR photos". You can select associated videos or audios for photos in the App.

In addition, it supports multi-person connection sharing function, does not require Wi-Fi and supports up to 3 people to connect via Bluetooth at the same time and print in sequence; it uses ZINK self-adhesive photo paper, supports arbitrary cutting, tear and stick; uses ZINK inkless technology for printing, does not require ribbon cartridges, and the print head can be heated to form an image.

This product contains 5 sheets of adhesive-backed photo paper, which can be used with photo paper (50 sheets) with a suggested retail price of 99 yuan. It is claimed that a single sheet of photo paper is as low as 1.98 yuan. (Source: IT Home)

Disney demonstrates a new bipedal robot that can navigate complex terrain such as slopes and steps

On July 20, the Disney research team designed and produced a new bipedal robot that can traverse unstructured terrain such as slopes and steps in theme parks.

Through this bipedal robotics project, Disney hopes to design and program a walking character that can perform these unique gaits and characteristics by combining procedural animation, modular hardware, and reinforcement learning.

The bipedal robot is similar to Wall-E, the main character in the 2008 film "Wall-E," except it has a flat head and a boxy body.

Disney said the design focus of the project is the mechanical characteristics of character driving, and proposed a control architecture based on reinforcement learning to robustly execute artistic movements conditioned by command signals. The command signals for the robot's movements are generated by an animation engine, which synthesizes and mixes multiple animation sources to form an intuitive operator interface that enables real-time performances of the robot. (Source: IT Home)

Disney Xiaomi Uniqlo