Technology

NYC awaits Apple as FB, Google pounce in tech office boom

Bloomberg One year after the tech giant announced it would bring hundreds of jobs to New York, and on the heels of major Manhattan lease announcements by Facebook Inc and Amazon.com Inc, the city’s real estate industry is wondering when the iPhone developer will make its move. “The absence is surprising,” Jim Underhill, chief executive officer of commercial-property firm Cresa. ...

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Apple, Google, Amazon want one language for smart devices

Bloomberg Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Amazon.com Inc — three of the biggest smart-home and voice-assistant providers — are joining forces to make internet-connected homes easier to set up and safer to use. The rivals announced that they’re working with the Zigbee Alliance, a foundation that promotes standards for the Internet of Things, and its members including Samsung Electronics ...

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Pichai now has a title fitting his role

If you want to know how Alphabet Inc’s new Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai will run the company you don’t need to look very far — he’s essentially been doing it for several years already. Pichai, a 47-year-old engineer, grew up in India and immigrated to the US to attend graduate school. His resume reads like the typical Silicon Valley ...

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LinkedIn executive quits over compliance issues

Bloomberg LinkedIn’s senior executive in charge of human resources has resigned after breaking “compliance” rules, according to people familiar with the matter. Christina Hall left the Microsoft Corp-owned company because of an internal “compliance” issue, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details aren’t public. LinkedIn Chief Executive Officer Jeff Weiner announced the move to staff, they ...

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Microsoft votes against gender pay gap proposal

Bloomberg Microsoft Corp shareholders voted against a proposal calling for the company to report more information on gaps in employee pay, ranked according to gender and race. Less than 30% of shares represented voted in favour of the measure at Microsoft’s annual meeting. Arjuna Capital, which praised progress the company has made, tabled a measure calling for it to give ...

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TikTok craze is minting celebrities and ruining lives in India

Bloomberg Arpita Chaudhary, a newly recruited police constable in India’s western Gujarat state, became an overnight celebrity after posting a clip of her 15-second gambol — clad in her civvies — on the smash-hit social video app, TikTok. Then she paid the price. A snippet of her gyrating to a Bollywood song against the backdrop of a prison cell went ...

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There are things to be thankful for in tech

Iwould like to enumerate what I’m thankful for in technology. I know, it sure doesn’t feel like there are many things to feel good about. Tech tools have allowed misinformation, bullying and social division to spread like a virus. They have empowered tyrants and monsters, and created an underclass of impossible jobs. Some days I want to do a Road ...

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Sky plans new UK studio for online streaming war

Bloomberg Sky plans to build a major new studio in the UK, as the global streaming war forces media companies to secure more space for upcoming productions. Comcast Corp’s European pay-TV business will build 14 sound stages on a 32-acre (13-hectare) site north of London, the company said in a statement, without disclosing the cost. The development would be on ...

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Robot vacuums are the big hit, says Kohl’s CEO

Bloomberg Move over, Instant Pots. Robot vacuums are also now at the top of the most-sought after items this holiday season, according to Kohl’s Corp Chief Executive Officer Michelle Gass. Their popularity was “a litttle bit more surprising,” Gass said in an interview. “We’re seeing a lot of demand this year for vacuums. There’s a lot of innovation, there’s a ...

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The loneliness of a highbrow teenage songwriting robot

Bloomberg Meet Yona. She loves reading Margaret Atwood and articles about teenage life and sings about loneliness and relationships on her newly released track. If this sounds a bit scripted, that’s because it is: Yona’s not human. Yona has been created by London-based company Auxuman and trained using artificial intelligence (AI), fed on music and literature, and learning from reactions ...

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