Technology

  NEW YORK / AP From billboards to TV ads to endless notifications, Facebook is furiously promoting its live video feature as it tries to get more users to shoot and watch such videos. But will it be a big business for the social network? The prospects for advertisers are uncertain, and even when users do “go live” — broadcasting ...

  Bloomberg Self-driving car prototypes appear to be getting better at negotiating California streets and highways without a human backup driver intervening, according to data made public by California transportation regulators. The data reflect safety-related incidents reported by 11 companies that have been testing more than 100 vehicles on public roads, primarily in the Silicon Valley neighborhoods where the technology ...

  SAN FRANCISCO / AP Slack Technologies, a fast-growing startup trying to wean businesses off email by hooking employees on its more informal messaging service, is now hoping to snare the world’s biggest companies as customers. The company unveiled a new feature intended to let workers in different departments communicate more easily with each other. The new option, called “Enterprise ...

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. attracted a swathe of new iPhone customers over the holiday period, auguring well for a more significant upgrade to its flagship product this year — and the services revenue that these devices are increasingly generating. Existing iPhone users upgraded to the latest iPhone 7 models at about the same rate as the iPhone 6S a year ...

  Bloomberg Nintendo Co. shares slipped to a five-month low after a cut in the company’s operating profit forecast indicated sales of its upcoming Switch console may not make up for weak demand for mobile games and the 3DS gaming device. The stock declined 2.1 percent to close at 22,625 yen, the lowest since Aug. 30. The Kyoto-based company cut ...

  PARIS / AP An Austrian luxury hotel is ditching electronic room cards for old-fashioned locks and keys after having its systems frozen by blackmail-hungry hackers. The management of Romantik Seehotel Jaegerwirt, in the Austrian Alps, said that they’ve been repeatedly targeted by cybercriminals. One recent infection with ransom software on December 6 resulted in a complete shutdown of hotel ...

  Bloomberg Abby Rogers, a 15 year-old from California’s Bay Area, recently took extreme measures to help a buddy in Michigan. The friend had her phone confiscated by parents and biked to a local library where she got on a computer, sent Rogers her Snapchat user name and password, and begged for a big favor. Every day for two weeks, ...

  Bloomberg Late last year, just in time for Christmas shopping, Rachel Rhoads got a nice surprise. One of her secret savings accounts had grown to $900 behind her back. Rhoads, a 37-year-old Los Angeles-based sales director for a jewellery line, has an account with Digit, a financial technology company with an algorithm that tracks users’ income and spending patterns. ...

  Bloomberg Starbucks Corp. will begin letting customers order via voice on their iPhones and Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa system, a bid to bolster its tech capabilities even as the rapid evolution brings headaches to the coffee chain. The new capability works with the barista feature on the Starbucks’ app, which relies on artificial intelligence to interact with customers. Customers can ...

  WASHINGTON / AP The FBI defended its decision to withhold documents on how it unlocked an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters, saying the information could be exploited by “hostile entities” if released to the public. The Justice Department earlier this month released heavily censored records in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit ...