Technology

  SAN FRANCISCO / AFP Alphabet, the parent of internet giant Google, on Tuesday announced it was halting the rollout of its Google Fiber — 1 Gbps fiber optic wireless service, in some markets. In cities where service started or is being developed, work will press ahead, said Craig Barratt, head of the Access division that covers the Google Fiber ...

  Relaxnews Global smartwatch sales reportedly stand at 2.7 million units for Q3 2016, down from 5.6 million in Q3 2015 (-51.6%), according to the latest figures from IDC. Could this be a passing dip or a genuine lack of enthusiasm for the product itself? Consumers seem to be snubbing smartwatches of all makes and models. Although Apple hasn’t released ...

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. has dozens of software engineers in Canada building a car operating system, a rare move for a company that often houses research and development projects close to its Cupertino, California headquarters, according to people familiar with the matter. Many of the engineers working in Canada were hired over the past year and about two dozen came ...

  Bloomberg Mass transit, the lifeblood of cities worldwide, is under threat from the biggest innovation in automotive technology since Henry Ford’s assembly line first flooded streets with cars. The self-driving vehicles being pioneered by Tesla Motors Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and others are poised to dramatically lower the cost of taxis, potentially making them cheaper than buses or subways, ...

  Washington / AFP They know how you browse the internet, your favorite TV shows and where you shop and travel. Data collected by internet and media companies is a powerful tool, and the big mergers planned by AT&T with Time Warner and Verizon with Yahoo offer those firms more data that can be used to target consumers with content ...

  NEW YORK / AFP Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus is getting a new camera capability — the blurring of backgrounds to focus attention on people or other objects in the foreground. Apple first announced the “portrait mode” feature in September but it wasn’t available until the company released its iOS 10.1 software update on Monday. It replicates an effect typically ...

  NEW YORK / AP A massive internet attack that paralyzed Twitter, Netflix and other services is being blamed on a specific kind of malware designed to harness the power of ordinary consumer devices. The bad news: Using it isn’t particularly hard and doesn’t require much money. The malware, known as Mirai, was recently posted online for others to adapt ...

  Bloomberg Chinese billionaire Jack Ma proposed that the nation’s top security bureau use big data to prevent crime, endorsing the country’s nascent effort to build unparalleled online surveillance of its billion-plus people. China’s data capabilities are virtually unrivaled among its global peers, and policing cannot happen without the ability to analyze information on its citizens, the co-founder of Alibaba ...

  MANASSAS / AP Think of it as the airborne cousin to the self-driving car: a robot in the cockpit to help human pilots fly passengers and cargo — and eventually even replace them. The government and industry are collaborating on a program that seeks to replace the second human pilot in two-person flight crews with a robot co-pilot that ...

  BEIJING / AP The Canbot can say its name, respond to voice commands, and “dance” as it plays Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” Other robots China is displaying at the World Robot Conference can play badminton, sand cell phone cases and sort computer chips. China is showcasing its burgeoning robot industry at the five-day exhibition in Beijing, part of a ...