Bloomberg Kong Tse has seen first-hand how the global uproar over flammable Samsung Note 7 smartphones is playing out with consumers. The 26-year-old, who hawks devices in the warrens of Hong Kong’s Wanchai Computer Center, says sales of the company’s handsets have tumbled 30 percent since the controversy began, including the high-end S7 Edge. “Once betrayed, eight times avoided,†...
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Billionaire looks at Siri-like Software, 3D printed cars
Bloomberg Li Ka-shing, the billionaire who made early investments in the likes of Siri and Facebook Inc., is examining startups involved in artificial intelligence and 3D printing to find the next company that could shake up the technology world. Through his charity, Hong Kong’s richest man has most recently been looking at investing in the field of carmaking via ...
Read More »Electrics up front at Paris car show
FRANKFURT / AP Carmakers are finding the Paris auto show, held in a city whose mayor wants to ban diesels to reduce pollution, to be a fine place to show off new zero-emission electric vehicles. Most prominently, Volkswagen will unveil a small electric car as part of its pivot from diesel to more electric models as it struggles to ...
Read More »Pilots, air traffic controllers shifting to text messaging
CHANTILLY / AP Airline pilots and air traffic controllers are on schedule to switch to text communications at most of the nation’s busiest airports by the end of the year, a milestone that holds the potential to reduce delays, prevent errors and save billions of dollars in fuel cost, says the Federal Aviation Administration. Controllers and pilots will still ...
Read More »Twitter opens ‘Moments’ feature to the public
Relaxnews Twitter has released a new feature that allows all Twitter users to create their own “Moments,†made up of collections of Tweets connected by common subject matter. The feature was first introduced to the social platform in October 2015, originally curated solely by Twitter employees and certain publishing partners, but has been slowly opening up to the public. ...
Read More »Facebook expands reach with buy-and-sell ‘Marketplace’
San Francisco / AP Facebook launched on Monday a “Marketplace†trading platform that lets users of the vast social network buy and sell goods with each other in a mighty challenge to the likes of eBay and Craigslist. The new feature puts Facebook — with a global base of 1.7 billion users — squarely in competition with local online ...
Read More »Google combines cloud, corporate software offerings
Bloomberg Google has repackaged its cloud services and corporate software and hardware offerings into a new unit called Google Cloud, the internet search provider’s latest attempt to catch leaders in the sector Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The new group, run by Google executive Diane Greene, includes web-based work software such as Docs and Sheets, machine-learning and digital-mapping tools ...
Read More »Facebook launches ‘lite’ Messenger overseas
NEW YORK / AP Facebook is launching a “lite†version of its Messenger chat app. It is aimed at emerging markets, where many people use older phones that don’t have enough room to store or ability to run the full-featured application due to slower internet speeds or other issues. “Messenger Lite†will be available on Android devices in Kenya, Tunisia, ...
Read More »Google to tap Lazard to review potential bid for Twitter
Bloomberg Google is working with a financial adviser to consider a potential bid for Twitter Inc., as the social-media company continues to explore a sale, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. In tapping Lazard Ltd., Google hasn’t indicated it will definitely make an offer for Twitter. But the move suggests that Google is evaluating the option, pitting ...
Read More »Spotify’s 40 million tunes won’t go far with CD-happy Japanese
AP On a recent muggy afternoon in Tokyo, 21-year old Shintaro Naganuma joined several hundred customers browsing CDs at the eight-story downtown outpost of music retail chain Tsutaya. Having discovered a couple of new rock artists on YouTube, the third-year university student hit Tsutaya Co.’s flagship store in trendy Shibuya to look up their albums. That process encapsulates the ...
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