Technology

  AP An advertising boycott of YouTube is broadening, a sign that big-spending companies doubt Google’s ability to prevent marketing campaigns from appearing alongside repugnant videos. PepsiCo, Wal-Mart Stores and Starbucks confirmed that they have also suspended their advertising on YouTube after the Wall Street Journal found Google’s automated programs placed their brands on five videos containing racist content. AT&T, ...

  Reuters Augmented reality may sound like something out of a science fiction film, but the technology is changing manufacturing across the world. From aerospace to automotives, AR is not only increasingly being used on the factory floor, it’s revolutionising it. AR overlays virtual reality over real objects, providing all the necessary data a technician needs to make an assessment ...

  Bloomberg Apple Inc.’s App Store has turned countless software developers into millionaires since its launch almost a decade ago. But working with the famously controlling company has often been frustrating. Apps were rejected with little explanation, and Apple has been stingy about sharing customer data that could have helped developers improve their products. Apple can no longer afford to ...

  SAN FRANCISCO / AP Google Maps users will soon be able to broadcast their movements to friends and family — the latest test of how much privacy people are willing to sacrifice in an era of rampant sharing. The location-monitoring feature will be in an update to the Google Maps mobile app, which is already installed on most of ...

  Bloomberg A new camping stove is using mankind’s oldest communal activity—cooking over fire—to power our newest communal obsession: sharing pictures of your meal on social media. The BioLite CampStove 2, available for $130, employs thermoelectric technology to turn cooking heat into electricity. It can run the internal fan that turbocharges your fire, and via the built-in USB outlet, power ...

  SAN FRANCISCO / AP AT&T, Verizon and several other major advertisers are suspending their marketing campaigns on Google’s YouTube site after discovering their brands have been appearing alongside videos promoting terrorism and other unsavory subjects. The spreading boycott confronts Google with a challenge that threatens to cost it hundreds of millions of dollars. But that diverse selection periodically allows ...

  Bloomberg A Swiss-Swedish startup wants to bring the power of big data and social-media analysis to the music business, offering artists instant insight into where and how their songs are playing so they can market more effectively to fans. Utopia Music Group is being billed as a new kind of record company by its founder, Mattias Hjelmstedt. Like an ...

  Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc.’s battle with Apple Inc. over digital assistants is moving to a new venue: hotel rooms, where Alexa and Siri are both vying to be the voice-controlled platform of choice for travellers. Marriott International Inc., the world’s biggest lodging company, is testing devices from the two tech giants at its Aloft hotel in Boston’s Seaport district to ...

  AP Google wants to make it easier for you to find answers and recommendations on smartphones without having to think about what to ask its search engine. Its new feature, called “shortcuts ,” will appear as a row of icons below the Google search box. Instead of having to ponder and then speak or type a request, the shortcuts ...

  Bloomberg Dong Ximiao was buying a meal at KFC in Hangzhou on a recent Sunday and pulled out his phone to pay, like everyone does in China, when the cashier asked: “Alipay or WeChat Pay?” The problem was, Dong wanted to use Apple Pay for the 36 yuan ($5.20) bill, but the cashier told him she had never handled ...