Hello, this is Akito Tanaka from Singapore. Here, various Covid-related restrictions are finally being eased, and life is slowly starting to return to how it was before the pandemic. The Covid contact tracing app, one of the most-used smartphone apps amongst Singapore residents during the pandemic, is being phased out. Mask-wearing in outdoor settings is now optional — a particularly welcome change given the city-state’s endless summer.

But elsewhere, Covid is still rocking the tech industry, and providing fresh reminders of how tenuous supply chains can be.

Dialing back

China’s three leading smartphone makers are all sharply scaling back their orders to suppliers in a response to falling consumer confidence and supply chain turmoil sparked by Covid lockdowns in and around Shanghai, write Nikkei Asia’s Cheng Ting-Fang and Lauly Li.