Technology

Bloomberg Google and Facebook Inc. dropped plans for an undersea cable between the US and Hong Kong after the Trump administration said Beijing might use the link to collect information on Americans. But the companies quickly submitted a revised proposal that includes links to Taiwan and the Philippines, as envisioned in the application that was withdrawn last week. The new ...

Bloomberg Verily, the Alphabet Inc. life sciences unit that’s previously targeted mosquito-borne illness and launched Covid-19 testing programs, is getting into the health insurance business. The San Francisco Bay Area company announced a new subsidiary named Coefficient Insurance that will also be backed by Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, the commercial insurance unit of Swiss Re Group. The company will sell ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc. terminated Epic Games’s App Store developer account, escalating a bitter legal fight over the iPhone maker’s controversial fees and rules. This means Epic can’t submit new apps or updates to the App Store and it prevents iPhone users from making purchases inside Epic’s popular Fortnite video game via Apple’s payment system. It will also leave the Apple ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc. reversed course on a decision to force popular blogging platform WordPress to add in-app purchases to its app, a move that could help lessen tensions between Apple and developers amid a public battle with Epic Games. The WordPress said that Apple had informed it that it had 30 days to add in-app-purchases to its application, which would ...

Bloomberg Silicon Valley software notables — Unity Technologies Inc., Snowflake Inc. and Asana Inc. — are set to disclose their financials as soon as next week ahead of September trading debuts, according to people familiar with their plans. Palantir Technologies Inc., which also is planning to go public in late September through a direct listing, is nearing disclosure of its ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. told the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that the social-media company needs clear guidance on how to comply with new laws that grant consumers the right to transfer their data, without running afoul of user privacy. Regulators in Europe and California have ruled that consumers have the right to collect and move their personal information to new websites ...

Bloomberg Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced the much-anticipated Gotham Knights, the first new Batman game in five years. The game will be out in 2021. During the event, developers showed footage of Batgirl and other superheroes fighting through Gotham in a setting where Batman is dead. Warner Bros. had been teasing Gotham Knights for nearly a year through Twitter posts ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc joined a growing list of developers to publicly criticise Apple Inc over its revenue-sharing policy for in-app purchases, suggesting the iPhone maker’s fee structure is hurting small businesses during a global pandemic. The social network rolled out a paid events feature in 20 countries, offering businesses the ability to charge users for access to live video streams, ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc is beginning to merge the chat function of its Instagram and Messenger services, the Verge reported. The changes are coming with an update of the company’s apps on Apple Inc’s devices as well as Android devices, said the Verge, citing reports from users. Once updated, the Instagram app embeds Messenger functionality, and adds more emojis and features ...

Bloomberg At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, contact tracing was considered the best hope for getting people back to offices and schools safely without a vaccine. The tech industry was optimistic that apps would provide a faster, more effective alternative to the usual painstaking human process of calling and interviewing the networks of infected people to figure out possible ...