Bloomberg Alphabet Inc. will focus its biggest bets next year on the staid world of business software and cloud computing, a marked departure from lofty “moonshots” of recent years, such as burrito-carrying drones and super-fast internet service. Alphabet was formed last year, in part, to insulate the lucrative online advertising business of its Google division from riskier, more capital-intensive projects ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc.’s software knows your face almost as well as your mother does. And like mom, it isn’t asking your permission to do what it wants with old photos. While millions of internet users embrace the tagging of family and friends in photos, others worried there’s something devious afoot are trying block Facebook as well as Google from amassing ...

  Relaxnews Facebook has launched a new feature for Facebook Live that allows users to don a variety of scary masks without putting on a stitch of makeup. With just a few taps, Facebook users can wish their friends and family a happy Halloween wearing a variety of limited-edition masks — skull, evil queen, pumpkin and witch — when sharing ...

  Bloomberg Jerome Jarre hasn’t posted on Vine in more than a year. The 26-year-old goofy Frenchman once ruled the six-second looping video platform, where he drew in millions of viewers with clips of him walking up to unsuspecting strangers and saying, “I love you.” But by 2014, he was already doing similar videos on Snapchat, where teens were beginning ...

  Tokyo / AFP The Marc Jacobs of Japan, singing cats and models cloaked into armour: J-pop and science fiction transformed Tokyo Fashion Week spring/summer 2017 into a style fest unlike any other. In a world where fashion mines entertainment like never before, Japan’s established and break-through labels pounced on musical hook-ups, street culture and animation to drive interest. Here ...

  Relaxnews Fashion designer Paul Smith is set to launch his new PS by Paul Smith collection at the upcoming menswear event Pitti Immagine Uomo 91. The UK designer, whose aesthetic blends British heritage and pop inspiration, will unveil his new contemporary line in the context of his role as Special Guest at the trade show, which takes place in ...

  Lagos / AFP Karl Lagerfeld once sniffed that “no one wants to see curvy women” on the runway, but a wave of Nigerian designers are proving him wrong. The opening night of Lagos Fashion and Design Week last week featured five designers showcasing plus-size collections in a defiant celebration of all things curvy. “Everyone is entitled to their own ...

  Tokyo / AFP Aged just 17 and still living with her family, Rina Fukushi has seen more of the world than most Japanese schoolgirls. She is the newest model sensation making waves in Europe and New York, wowing on the runway for the likes of Miu Miu and Marc Jacobs when not chowing down on hamburgers or playing with ...

  Rosh Haayin / AFP An Israeli firm says a super-efficient engine it has created could drastically reduce fuel consumption and help power an auto industry revolution as manufacturers search for environmentally sound alternatives. Industry analysts, however, question the reinvented internal combustion engine’s chances of success at a time when purely electric car technology is advancing and attracting investors. The ...

  Subang Jaya / AFP Collectors and music fans wearing the t-shirts of obscure rock bands brave the tropical heat outside a record store near Malaysia’s capital, waiting to get their hands on new cassette tapes. No, this isn’t a flashback to the 1980s, but an event marking recent International Cassette Store Day, an annual celebration of a music format ...