Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Tuesday 17 March 2020
Google sibling Verily launches COVID-19 screening website

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — ness may take three to six
Google sister company weeks to recover. In main-
Verily has launched a web- land China, where the virus
site to screen people who first exploded, more than
think they might have CO- 80,000 people have been
VID-19 and point them to diagnosed and more than
testing sites. But you proba- 58,000 have so far recov-
bly can't use it to get tested ered.
quite yet. The screening website is
Verily, a health tech com- managed through Verily's
pany owned by Google Project Baseline, an initia-
parent Alphabet, launched tive to collect more infor-
the screening tool Sunday mation on people's health
night for those that live in to map and bolster com-
or near Santa Clara Coun- munity health.
ty and San Mateo County Verily launched the screen-
south of San Francisco. ing website quickly over the
As of Monday morning, the weekend after President
screening form said it was Donald Trump gave an ex-
"unable to schedule more aggerated and misleading
appointments at this time." account of it during a press
Verily said the actual test- In this Feb. 14, 2018, file photo the logo for Alphabet appears on a screen at the Nasdaq Market- conference last Friday, be-
ing is conducted by health Site in New York. fore Verily had announced
care providers from differ- Associated Press the project.
ent organizations and Ver- Verily announced the
ily is in charge of "clinical through this program is not coronavirus causes only monia. screening process in a blog
oversight." the right fit." It then suggests mild or moderate symp- The vast majority of people post this weekend, saying
Some people won't even medical attention. toms, such as fever and recover from the new virus. it intends to start with the
get that far. Answering "yes" The sites are "not prepared cough. For some, especial- According to the World highest risk people in the
to having severe symp- to provide medical atten- ly older adults and people Health Organization, peo- Bay Area, and hopefully
toms, for instance, leads tion," a Verily spokeswom- with existing health prob- ple with mild illness recover expand the service if test-
the site to explain that "in- an said. lems, it can cause more se- in about two weeks, while ing becomes more widely
person COVID-19 testing For most people, the new vere illness, including pneu- those with more severe ill- available.q

U.S. providers offer France fines Apple $1.2 billion

free Wi-Fi for 60 days for anti-competitive acts

BOSTON (AP) — U.S. inter- free broadband for house- nies in France rely on with
net and wireless providers holds with students through an order that will cause
have announced tempo- college age who don't al- chaos for companies
rary measures to make get- ready have a subscription. across all industries."
ting online less expensive Verizon was among the Two "premium" French Ap-
and onerous as enforced many providers to also an- ple re-sellers, Tech Data
social distancing due to nounce a moratorium on and Ingram Micro, were
the new coronavirus forces late fees and disconnec- also fined a total of 139 mil-
more human interaction tions. lion euros ($155 million). The
online. T-Mobile announced that competition authority said
Most notable is Comcast's it would provide unlimited Apple and the re-sellers
free public Wi-Fi for all for smartphone data to all agreed not to compete.
60 days, effective Satur- current subscribers and in- "Apple abusively exploited"
day. Major metropolitan crease the data allowance distributors' dependence
areas are thick with Com- to schools and students us- on the tech giant, the au-
cast's Xfinity-branded hot- ing their digital learning In this March 15, 2020 file photo, a worker cleans the Apple thority wrote, and "prevent-
spots. programs. Store on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris. ed competition among
"I don't get to say this often: Cox said it would increase Associated Press different Apple distribution
Bravo Comcast!" tweeted speeds on low-cost broad- channels." And that, in turn,
Alex Stamos, a Stanford band plans and Sprint said PARIS (AP) — French regu- The deals did not concern hurt consumers.q
University internet security it would give subscribers lators fined Apple 1.1 bil- iPhones. Calling the fine
expert. unlimited data for 60 days, lion euros ($1.2 billion) on "disheartening," Apple de-
Home-based Xfinity hot- among other changes. Monday for striking deals fended its operations in
spots are not included, said Comcast and AT&T also to keep prices high, in the a statement saying its "in-
Comcast spokesman Joel temporarily lifted data biggest-ever such sanction vestment and innovation
Shadle, but Wi-Fi access caps. by France's Competition supports over 240,000 jobs
points in public locations The announcements fol- Authority. across the country."
and at small businesses are. lowed a plea Thursday to The agency said Apple Apple added that: "It re-
AT&T and Charter Commu- internet providers by Sen. and top re-sellers agreed lates to practices from over
nications also announced Mark Warner of Virginia to align prices with Apple's a decade ago and dis-
free public Wi-Fi for 60 and 17 other colleagues in own pricing for its iPads cards thirty years of legal
days, with Charter offering the Senate.q and some other products. precedent that all compa-