After banning US companies from selling goods to ZTEÂ in April, causing the Chinese electronics company to basically suspend most operations, the United States Department of Commerce has signed an agreement with the company that could lead to the sanctions being lifted.
The company reached an agreement with the Commerce Department last month that includes ZTE paying a $1 billion fine, making leadership changes, and putting $400 million into an escrow account. US officials say that all that’s left at this point is for ZTE to deposit the funds into the escrow account.
That should allow ZTE to resume manufacturing and selling smartphone sand other gadgets in the US and abroad… although the move has proven controversial, with some lawmakers pushing to block a deal.
If you need a refresher on why the sanctions were put in place, it’s because ZTE violated US trade sanctions by selling products with US-made components to North Korea and Iran… and then reached a settlement with the US government… which the US government determined ZTE hadn’t been abiding by… which led to the new round of sanctions.
Anyway, enough about ZTE, here’s a roundup of tech stories from around the web.
- China’s ZTE clears hurdle to lifting U.S. ban (Reuters)
ZTE moves one step closer to having US sanctions lifted, being able to resume normal operations. - Magic Leap One will ship this summer with Nvidia Tegra X2 processor (VentureBeat)
Magic Leap’s augmented reality headset will ship this summer - Kuo: Apple planning 11″ iPad Pro, Mac mini update, 1.57″ & 1.78″ Apple Watch, AirPower for fall (9to5Mac)
Rumor has it a new Mac Mini is finally on the way, along with a bunch of other new gear. - Graduation Day: Loon and Wing take flight (X Blog)
Google’s Loon and Wing projects to deliver internet access by air (via balloons and drones) graduate from X projects to become their own businesses - Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17713 (Windows Experience Blog)
Latest Windows Insider Preview will dump Skip Ahead testers into the Fast Ring in prep for the Windows 10 RS5 release, adds Edge, Notepad updates, biometric logins for remote desktop sessions, and more. - Xperia XA2 Plus announced with 6-inch 2:1 display and hi-res audio (Xperia Blog)
Sony Xperia XA2 Plus mid-range phone announced (6 inch, 2160 x 1080px display, Snapdragon 630, 4GB/32GB or 6GB/64GB variants) - This could be the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 (Liliputing)
Update: More Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 images leaked, showing the keboard cover and pen - Up in arms! Arm kills off its anti-RISC-V smear site after own staff revolt (The Register)
Update: Arm takes down its anti-RISC-V website in response to employee backlash.
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