Technology

India’s 400mn social media users to lose anonymity

Bloomberg Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and TikTok will have to reveal users’ identities if Indian government agencies ask them to, according to the country’s controversial new rules for social media companies and messaging apps expected to be published later this month. The requirement comes as governments around the world are trying to hold social media companies more accountable for the content ...

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MWC cancelled over China virus concerns

Bloomberg The wireless industry scrapped its biggest annual showcase after the coronavirus outbreak sparked an exodus of participants, roiling telecom companies just as they’re preparing to roll out new 5G services. It’s the first time in Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona’s 33-year history that organisers have called off the event, which draws more than 100,000 participants from across the world ...

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Ericsson pulls out of biggest mobile event as virus spreads

Bloomberg Ericsson AB withdrew from the telecommunications industry’s biggest annual event to protect its staff and visitors from the coronavirus outbreak. The Swedish maker of mobile networks said it had pulled out of MWC Barcelona, due to be held on February 24 to February 27. As one of the largest exhibitors, with thousands of visitors in its hall each day, ...

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Virus pushes robots to frontlines of hospitals in China

Bloomberg The deadly coronavirus outbreak, which has pushed the Chinese medical community into overdrive, has also prompted the country’s hospitals to more quickly adopt robots as medical assistants. Telepresence bots that allow remote video communication, patient health monitoring and safe delivery of medical goods are growing in number on hospital floors in urban China. They’re now acting as a safe ...

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Bird’s UK chief departs after e-scooters remain banned

Bloomberg E-scooter startup Bird Rides Inc has lost its UK and Ireland boss, Richard Corbett, who left the company after two years at the helm. Since launching in London in 2018, the venture capital-backed startup has struggled to deploy its scooter-rental business as a result of tight regulation, which Corbett says was made impossible to overcome while lawmakers focussed on ...

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Cut back on email if you want to fight global warming

Bloomberg Everyone has seen the warning. At the bottom of the email, it says: “Please consider the environment before printing.” But for those who care about global warming, you might want to consider not writing so many emails in the first place. More and more, people rely on their electronic mailboxes as a life organiser. Old emails, photos, and files ...

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Toyota makes new $394mn bet on flying taxis

Toyota Motor is making a $394 million investment in Joby Aviation, one of the handful of companies with the seemingly implausible goal of making electric air taxis that shuttle people over gridlocked highways and city streets. Toyota is the lead investor in Joby’s $590 million Series C funding, alongside Baillie Gifford and Global Oryx and prior backers Intel Capital, Capricorn ...

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Apple acquires AI firm Xnor.ai

Bloomberg Apple Inc acquired Seattle-based artificial intelligence (AI) company Xnor.ai, bringing on more talent in a key area of technology. The company, founded in 2016, had raised millions of dollars to build tools that help AI algorithms run on devices rather than remote data centres. In recent years, Apple has pushed to run this type of software on its devices ...

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Smart speakers likely to come under new scrutiny in UK

Bloomberg Smart speakers such as those made by Amazon.com Inc are to come under new scrutiny by the UK government when it publishes the results of a consultation into the security features of connected consumer devices. UK digital secretary Nicky Morgan said the results of the public inquiry, which concluded in June, will be released within the next “month or ...

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Apple stole tech for watch, Masimo claims in patent suit

Bloomberg Apple Inc is accused of stealing trade secrets and improperly using Masimo Corp inventions related to health monitoring in its Apple Watch. Masimo, which develops signal processing technology for healthcare monitors, and its spinoff, Cercacor Laboratories Inc, claim in a lawsuit that Apple got secret information under the guise of a working relationship and then hired away key employees, ...

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