Technology

  Bloomberg Spurred by technology advances and demand for transportation alternatives in increasingly congested cities, entrepreneurs around the globe are vying to become the first to develop a commercially viable “flying car.” The designs vary greatly, and most aren’t actually cars capable of driving on roads. Here are some examples: VAHANA European aircraft manufacturer Airbus is working at its Silicon ...

  Bloomberg Microsoft Corp. and other major technology companies and banks are forming an alliance to advance the adoption of Ethereum blockchain database technology in corporations, potentially offering better security for recording transactions, according to two people familiar with the plans. The companies have been working on the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance for months, according to one of the people, and ...

  Bloomberg The Google Chromebook, a type of stripped-down laptop, isn’t a practical mobile device for many people — mostly because it basically turns into an expensive paperweight whenever it can’t find a Wi-Fi connection. Yet Chromebooks have defied expectations and made major inroads in an unexpected environment — US schools. In retrospect, that shouldn’t be too surprising. Chromebooks are ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business While we continue to make all Facebook apps a great experience, we heard from people they want an even more lightweight option. In many areas, networks can be slow and not able to support everything found in other Facebook apps. To help make sure everyone can have a great Facebook experience regardless of where they ...

  NEW YORK / AP Many people have heard of Twitter. Not enough of them are signing up to use it. Twitter’s role as a megaphone for the US president, countless celebrities and businesses hasn’t attracted regular people to the service — not in the way Facebook has, or even Instagram and Snapchat. The San Francisco company’s latest earnings report ...

  Bloomberg When our robot overlords arrive, will they decide to kill us or cooperate with us? New research from DeepMind, Alphabet Inc.’s London-based artificial intelligence unit could ultimately shed light on this fundamental question. They have been investigating the conditions in which reward-optimizing beings, whether human or robot, would chose to cooperate, rather than compete. The answer could have ...

  Bloomberg Microsoft Corp. will help cloud customers fend off patent lawsuits and expand coverage of related litigation costs, seeking to distinguish its services from rivals in the fast-growing market for internet-based computing. As more companies host their applications and services on Microsoft’s Azure and other cloud providers, they are increasingly becoming the target of lawsuits from companies seeking to ...

  Bloomberg BlackBerry Ltd. is opening up some of its secure messaging and file sharing technology for developers to use in building apps, creating a new revenue stream for the company as it works to boost sales. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said the software development kit is releasing this month will include tools for building chat apps, video and voice ...

  Bloomberg Venture investors are clamoring to back cybersecurity startups after record hacking last year and calls by US President Donald Trump and other global leaders to do more to protect against digital attacks. VC firms invested $3.1 billion in a record 279 cybersecurity startups in 2016, according to research firm CB Insights. That compares to $3.7 billion in 272 ...

  Bloomberg Of all the lasting effects of Edward Snowden’s leaks, there’s one photo that leaves a particularly strong mark. In it, US federal employees in T-shirts and blue jeans are seen intercepting network equipment from Cisco Systems Inc. at a shipping facility. The feds in the photo, their faces obscured, were reprogramming the machines to spy on people’s activities. ...