Technology

  Bloomberg When a six-year-old boy first “woke up” the Gitamini robot, his parents were surprised he didn’t flinch — robots these days tend to be ominous. But as November leaves swirled around the sidewalk meet-cute, the squat personal droid gave a friendly “chirp” and popped up on its two large wheels, ready to follow a new friend. Service robots ...

Bloomberg Twitter has started to restore accounts that were suspended for breaking platform rules and the company plans to reinstate more over the next 30 days. In a series of tweets, Twitter said it had identified several policies where permanent suspension was a “disproportionate” action for breaking rules. The company said reinstated accounts still need to comply with its rules. ...

  Bloomberg Intel Corp will delay construction of its German chip plant and is seeking more in government subsidies, Volksstimme reported. The US-based chipmaker earlier this year announced plans for a mega site worth $18 billion in Magdeburg. Construction was set to begin by mid-2023, and the government planned to provide €6.8 billion in state aid. The cost has now ...

  Bloomberg A rush of regulation and investor pressure is forcing companies to do a better job of tallying up the environmental impact of their operations and the products they sell. That’s stirring demand for software that helps businesses measure carbon emissions. Salesforce Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have joined at least a dozen startups providing products to help companies calculate ...

Bloomberg Twitter will relaunch its Twitter Blue subscription service for $8 per month on the web, the company said. Users will also get access on iOS for $11 per month to subscriber-only features, including the blue checkmark, the company said in a series of tweets. The days of being constrained to just 280 characters in a tweet may soon be ...

  Bloomberg Microsoft Corp. is ready to fight for its $69 billion acquisition of gaming company Activision Blizzard Inc. if the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) files a lawsuit seeking to block the deal. The Xbox maker hasn’t had conversations with the FTC about remedies or concessions aimed at getting the deal approved. FTC staff is wrapping up its investigation ...

Bloomberg A Salesforce Inc cybersecurity executive has left the company, another shake-up in the top ranks of the software maker that is struggling with slowing revenue growth. The company announced internally in late November that Mark Carter, executive vice president of security, would depart. Carter’s exit from Salesforce’s security division hasn’t been publicly reported. He held leadership roles at Amazon.com ...

  Bloomberg Foxconn Technology Group has begun offering 10,000 yuan ($1,400) to any workers who choose to leave, an unusual decision intended to appease disgruntled new hires who played a central role in violent protests that rocked the world’s largest iPhone factory. Apple Inc.’s main global production partner said in an online notice the sum, to be paid out in ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc is preparing to begin sourcing chips for its devices from a plant under construction in Arizona, marking a major step towards reducing the company’s reliance on Asian production. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook made the disclosure during an internal meeting in Germany with local engineering and retail employees as part of a recent tour of Europe, according ...

  Bloomberg Google agreed to pay a total of $391.5 million to 40 US states to resolve a probe into controversial location-tracking practices that the Alphabet Inc. unit says it already discarded several years ago, in what state officials are calling the largest such privacy settlement in US history. Google will “significantly improve” its location-tracking disclosures and user controls starting ...