Technology

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. is taking another stab at turning its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset into a mass-market phenomenon. Later this year, the company plans to unveil a cheaper, wireless device that the company is betting will popularize VR the way Apple did the smartphone. Currently VR hardware comes in two flavors: cheap headsets that turn smartphones into virtual reality …

Bloomberg Investing in the South Korean equity market has taken an interesting turn: look past the Samsung trade. Foreigners were net sellers of Samsung Electronics Co. even as they bought more than $15 billion of stocks in the past 12 months, helping push the MSCI Korea and Kospi indexes to record highs. Instead of piling into the tech giant, they …

Bloomberg Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. forecast quarterly revenue that trailed estimates, dashing hopes that Apple Inc.’s iPhone will help the world’s largest contract chipmaker pull out of a smartphone industry slump and avert the impact of a strong currency. The Taiwanese maker of the iPhone’s processors forecast third-quarter sales of $8.12 billion to $8.22 billion, short of the $8.6 billion …

Bloomberg Later this year, Apple Inc. will put augmented reality software in as many as a billion mobile devices. Alphabet Inc.’s Google beat Apple by three years in releasing AR tools, but its features are on very few phones and haven’t gained wide acceptance. By contrast, Apple can easily pair its software and devices, an advantage that will help it …

Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co. heads into the latter half of 2017 with record quarterly earnings under its belt, hoping to sustain that momentum as Apple Inc. prepares to debut the 10th-anniversary iPhone. Samsung intends to use its well-received Galaxy S8 to extend its lead against its American rival. But it will also lean heavily on its position as the world’s …

Bloomberg Cyber crime insurers largely avoided costly claims from the recent attacks that hit businesses around the globe. The next global virus could change that. “It’s exceptionally likely that we will see an event over the next months that will seriously affect insurers,” Graeme Newman, chief innovation officer at CFC Underwriting, said in an interview. “It would only need a …

Bloomberg Rambus Inc., a chip designer with a lengthy history of patent litigation, is considering a sale even as it has expanded its business to include sales of its own branded chips, people familiar with the matter said. The Sunnyvale, California-based company is working with a financial adviser to evaluate sale options and seek potential suitors, the people said, asking …

Bloomberg Waymo, Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving car division, dropped three of four patent-infringement claims in its lawsuit against Uber Technologies Inc. over the startup’s autonomous vehicle program. Waymo’s decision to include patent claims in its complaint against Uber was a surprise move for Google parent Alphabet, which normally prides itself on limiting patent fights. The bulk of Waymo’s case is not …

Bloomberg Fitbit Inc., months away from the debut of its smartwatch, has lost several people working on the project and fallen behind on its app store — putting in peril the company’s most important product in years. Hard hit by the sinking popularity of its fitness trackers, Fitbit has bet its future on the smartwatch. But such devices are typically …

Bloomberg The pace of adoption for electric cars over the next few years “could be surprising” and changing the global energy and auto industries faster than people expect, the boss of Europe’s largest utility said. Enel SpA is set to invest nearly 300 million euros ($341 million) to install about 12,000 recharging columns for electric cars across Italy, Chief Executive …