Technology

  Bloomberg Supercomputers that create 3-D seismic maps of BHP Billiton Ltd.’s oil and gas assets are accelerating work to bring new fields into production and have already notched savings of $500 million in development costs at a project in the Caribbean. The computers are among initiatives aimed at using technology such as drones and robot drills to cut operating ...

  Bloomberg Line Corp. posted a profit in its first earnings report since ushering in the year’s biggest technology debut, as monthly active users rose just 4 percent to 220 million. Japan’s largest mobile messaging service announced 2.56 billion yen ($24.3 million) of net income in the six months through June, from a loss of 5.3 billion yen a year ...

    AP Facebook is once again getting pushy about how people message one another. Two years ago, the social-media giant forced its users to adopt its Messenger app for direct communication, a change it enforced by deactivating messages in the main Facebook app and steering users to the app. There was an uproar, some users thought Messenger violated their ...

  AFP Apple announced the sale of its billionth iPhone, a milestone for the company as it seeks to keep momentum in a competitive smartphone market. Chief executive Tim Cook made the announcement at a staff meeting at the company’s California headquarters. “IPhone has become one of the most important, world-changing and successful products in history,” he said in a ...

  Relaxnews According to new research from Technavio, as the Internet of Things begins to grow in popularity, no smart home will be complete without at least one set of wireless Bluetooth speakers. Portable speakers that sync with tablets, smartphones, PCs and TVs are already a huge hit among consumers and every Consumer Technology Association (formally the Consumer Electronics Association) ...

  AP Samsung Electronics Co. reported second-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates, fueled by stronger sales of Galaxy S7 smartphones and aggressive cost cuts. Net income, excluding minority interests, was 5.83 trillion won ($5.1 billion) in the period, the Suwon, South Korea-based company said in a filing Thursday. That compares with the 5.64 trillion-won average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. ...

  Bloomberg Africa’s startups are seizing an opportunity they say Google and Apple Inc. have missed — making apps for non-smartphones. In a region where the average customer doesn’t own a smartphone or a bank card, hundreds of millions of people do use some kind of basic phone. That’s prompting developers to build no-frills text-based apps, keeping data consumption down ...

  Relaxnews The former Soviet Union is proving to be a productive source of photo and video apps that go viral. The latest is Prisma. The smartphone app can transform your photos — even lousy ones — into something resembling a work of art, stylized as an impressionist or pop-art painting. It’s been downloaded about 16.5 million times since release ...

  Bloomberg With iPhone sales and profits sliding, Apple on Tuesday sought to highlight its growth in services as it seeks to reduce dependence on its main cash driver. In its quarterly update, Apple said profits slumped 27 percent from a year ago to $7.8 billion on a sharp drop in iPhone sales. Apple sold 40.4 million iPhones in the ...

  Relaxnews Google has announced on its blog an update to Google Maps, making some visual changes to the service on desktop, Android and iOS, as well as introducing a few additions to help make it easier for users to get to where they want to go. For a cleaner, clearer look, Google has removed any information that it believes ...