Technology

Bloomberg The Philippines’ richest man Henry Sy will start rolling out robots next year to help customers navigate his massive shopping malls. Initially three androids will be deployed in the first quarter of 2019 in SM Megamall, the nation’s second-biggest shopping centre, said Steven Tan, chief operating officer for the shopping malls of SM Prime Holdings Inc. The talking bots ...

Bloomberg GameStop Corp., the video-game retailer, agreed to sell its AT&T wireless stores to Prime Communications LP for $700 million, exiting a business that the company once viewed as a key source of future growth. The sale of Spring Mobile, with 1,289 stores, is expected to close by the end of January, Grapevine, Texas-based GameStop said. Proceeds from the sale ...

Bloomberg Elon Musk is apparently charting his way out of what he’s referred to as “delivery logistics hell” by making acquisitions and lining up contracts with trucking haulers. The Tesla Inc. CEO tweeted that Model 3s ordered in the US by the end of the month will be delivered by year-end. He wrote that using trucks instead of rail shaves ...

Bloomberg Bringing fast, widespread internet to rural Africa has proven vexing for companies that have tried—and largely failed—with strategies ranging from drones to satellites. Now, a sister company of Google says it has the answer: balloons. Loon, spun out of the search giant’s X innovation lab in July, is teaming up with Telkom Kenya Ltd. to build a network of ...

Bloomberg Volkswagen AG plans to add a subcompact crossover costing about 18,000 euros ($21,000) to its all-electric I.D. range, expanding its lineup of zero-emissions vehicles that are more affordable than those of Tesla Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. The entry level vehicle may be built at VW’s factory in Emden, Germany, said the people, who asked not ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc. disclosed a pair of issues affecting two of its more popular products: the iPhone X and the 13-inch MacBook Pro. The Cupertino, California-based technology giant said the screen on some iPhone X units doesn’t respond or responds intermittently when touched. The company also said some units could have displays that react even when they aren’t touched. The ...

Bloomberg Dyson is considering developing a wearable air purifier that could double as a pair of headphones, hoping to tap demand from pollution-choked cities in Asia, people with knowledge of the project said. The UK company submitted patents for a “wearable air purifier” this year, according to filings to the UK Intellectual Property Office. The gadget is primarily an air ...

Bloomberg Apple and Amazon.com, two of the world’s most valuable technology companies, struck a deal to get the newest iPhones into the hands of Amazon customers. Amazon said it would begin selling the most-recent iPhone, iPad, Mac computer, Apple Watch and Apple TV models on its website, along with branded accessories and headphones from Apple’s Beats subsidiary. Apple introduced the ...

Bloomberg Baidu Inc.’s making a concerted effort to catch up in the driverless car race. The search giant showcased its “Apollo” self-driving technology in Beijing, unveiling a partnership with Hongqi — the “Red Flag” brand created to serve late Communist leader Mao Zedong — to develop a near-full autonomous vehicle in 2019. It’s also inked a deal to install the ...

Bloomberg Did Bill Ackman, John Overdeck and David Siegel give a bunch of money to get kids building robots, only to see those kids displaced by machines when they grow up? At a benefit for FIRST, the science and technology nonprofit they’ve supported, the answer was a resounding no, and it came from an authoritative source, Jeff Bezos, the guy ...