Technology

Bloomberg The pandemic has many of us acting in unusual ways, and the world’s largest e-commerce company is no exception. In a stunning reprieve from the prerogatives of capitalism, Amazon.com Inc. has begun discouraging users from buying things they don’t need. Amazon is suppressing extraneous consumption in various ways, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. It isn’t ...

Bloomberg By mid-March, John Lyotier’s travel software business Left Technologies Inc. was cratering with the spread of the pandemic. Seeking to cut costs, he reached out to his office landlord, who offered rent relief. Then he contacted Amazon.com Inc., asking to “explore creative financing opportunities” for his monthly cloud-computing bill. The response was succinct. “’Nope, that’s the way it is,’” ...

Bloomberg Twitter Inc. lost its six-year legal battle to let the public know exactly how many requests it received from the FBI to snoop on private user accounts. A federal judge said the government convinced her that granting the request “would be likely to lead to grave or imminent harm to the national security.” Twitter broke ranks with other large ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc and Google unveiled a rare partnership to add technology to their smartphone platforms that will alert users if they have come into contact with a person with Covid-19. People must opt in to the system, but it has the potential to monitor about a third of the world’s population. The technology, known as contact-tracing, is designed to ...

Bloomberg Latin America’s delivery app wars are intensifying as Brazil’s iFood and a unit of Delivery Hero SE said they will merge operations in Colombia, setting up a battle with SoftBank-backed Rappi Inc on its home turf. Sao Paulo-based iFood and Domcilios.com, a subsidiary of Delivery Hero, said the merger will create one of the largest food delivery companies in ...

Bloomberg With the vast majority of flights out of New York currently canceled and citizens sheltering in place, it would seem there isn’t much use for a helicopter service that’s made a name for itself by transporting the city’s elite above Manhattan gridlock. But Blade Urban Air Mobility Inc quickly adapted to the new way of the world—both to aid ...

Bloomberg Alphabet Inc’s Wing unit is seeing a dramatic increase in the number of customers using its drone delivery service in rural Virginia during the Covid-19 pandemic. Wing, which began routine deliveries under a test programme approved by the federal government last October, has added new vendors and expanded the items customers can order to better serve people during the ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc’s most important manufacturing partner has reassured investors it can still get the latest 5G-enabled iPhones ready for an autumn launch despite global Covid-19 upheaval. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, which makes most of the world’s iPhones, told investors it’s lost time to travel restrictions and other disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But with months to go ...

Bloomberg A group of German startups are working on an application that will help the government track people who have been exposed to the novel coronavirus and, ultimately, ease restrictions when the pandemic begins to subside. Startups including insurance firm Wefox Group Services GmbH, software provider Finleap and artificial intelligence platform Arago announced the app in a website. Arago, which ...

Bloomberg Spotify Technology SA is offering parents cooped up at home a new way to entertain their kids. The Swedish audio streaming giant will roll out a kids app in the US, Canada and France, the company said. The new app includes more than 8,000 songs, as well as audio books and bedtime stories, all of which are handpicked by ...