Monday, 18 Nov, 2024

Tech

Meta completes virtual reality deal after US court win

Facebook-owner Meta finalised its buyout of virtual reality firm Within Unlimited, the VR company’s chief executive said, after a court rejected an attempt by US regulators to block the deal over competition concerns. A spokesperson for the Federal Trade Commission told AFP

SpaceX’s interplanetary rocket fires up engines in unprecedented test

SpaceX just attempted to ignite all 33 engines in a test fire of its gargantuan Super Heavy rocket booster. The trial marks the company’s first “static fire” test for what is expected to be the most powerful launch vehicle ever built. The Super Heavy booster started

Google loses over $100bn after AI chatbot Bard gives wrong answer

Shares of Google's parent company lost more than $100 billion in market value on Wednesday after its Bard chatbot ad showed inaccurate information and analysts said its AI search event lacked details on how it will answer Microsoft's ChatGPT challenge. Reuters was first to

Twitter down in Turkey as earthquake response criticism mounts

Turkish police have detained more than a dozen people since Monday’s earthquake over social media posts that criticized how President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has been dealing with the disaster. Twitter became inaccessible on major Turkish mobile providers on

Google unveils its ChatGPT rival

Google on Monday unveiled a new chatbot tool dubbed “Bard” in an apparent bid to compete with the viral success of ChatGPT. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and parent company Alphabet, said in a blog post that Bard will be opened up to “trusted testers” starting

Saudi Arabia unveils face of ancient Nabataean woman

Saudi Arabia is unveiling a reconstruction of the face of an ancient Nabataean woman after several years of work by historians and archaeologists. The reconstruction, which is the first of its kind, is modeled on the remains of Hinat, a Nabataean woman who was discovered in 2015 in a

Pakistan PM orders Wikipedia website unblocked

Pakistan's prime minister on Monday ordered authorities to unblock Wikipedia, the government announced, just days after the online encyclopedia was restricted for "blasphemous content". Blasphemy is a sensitive issue in Muslim-majority Pakistan, and social media giants

Pakistan blocks Wikipedia over blasphemous content: Report

Pakistan blocks Wikipedia: Pakistani government on Saturday blocked Wikipedia after the website refused to remove offensive or blasphemous material, according to a media report.  Just a few days earlier, the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) had degraded the services of Wikipedia

Elon Musk found not guilty of fraud over Tesla tweet

Tesla founder Elon Musk has been cleared of wrongdoing for a tweet in which he said he had "funding secured" to take the electric carmaker private. Mr Musk faced a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of Tesla shareholders who argued he misled them with his posts in August

Apple, Google profits squeezed on China, sluggish economies

Tech giants Apple and Google have reported lower-than-expected revenue and profits for the last three months of 2022, as online retail behemoth Amazon warned of uncertainty in the months ahead. Apple, the world’s biggest company in terms of market value, blamed falling sales of

Apple and Google app stores get thumbs down from White House

The Biden administration is taking aim at Apple and Google for operating mobile app stores that it says stifle competition. The finding is contained in a Commerce Department report being released by the administration on Wednesday as President Joe Biden convenes his competition council

PayPal cuts 2,000 jobs in latest tech layoffs 

PayPal is shedding around 2,000 jobs, or 7% of its workers, as it becomes the latest big tech firm to cut costs. The online payments company says it was forced to make the decision as it faces "the challenging macro-economic environment." PayPal's announcement follows

Newly discovered green comet comes close to Earth

A newly discovered comet will make its closest approach to our planet on Wednesday. Astronomers say the object's journey toward us took around 50,000 years. Photographs captured by astronomers show a distinct green hue around the body of the comet. But those expecting a

Twitter makes first interest payment on Musk buyout debt: Report

Twitter Inc has made its first interest payment under Elon Musk after the billionaire took the social media company private last year using about $12.5 billion of debt, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Twitter paid a group of seven banks,

Twitter says users will be able to appeal account suspension

Twitter users will be able to appeal account suspensions and be evaluated under the social media platform’s new criteria for reinstatement, starting Feb 1, the company said on Friday. Under the new criteria, which follow billionaire Elon Musk’s purchase of the company in

Meta and Instagram lifts Trump's suspension

Former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts are being reinstated, the social media giant Meta announced Wednesday — a little more than two years after he was suspended from the platforms over incendiary posts about the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

Bill Gates backs Australian start-up targeting cow burps

Billionaire Bill Gates has invested in an Australian climate technology start-up that plans to reduce the methane emissions of cow burps. The Microsoft co-founder has been outspoken about the environmental impact of meat production. Methane is the most common greenhouse gas after

Spotify to announce layoffs as soon as this week: Bloomberg

Spotify Technology, the Swedish audio streaming giant, is preparing to announce layoffs as soon as this week, Bloomberg News has reported, adding to an industry-wide bloodbath that has cost thousands of jobs at Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon. The number of job cuts under

higher priced Twitter subscription won't carry ads: Elon Musk

Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday that a higher priced subscription of the social media platform will not carry advertisements. The billionaire also said that ads are "too frequent on Twitter and too big," and that steps will be taken to address those issues in

Google vows to cooperate with India watchdog after Android ruling

Google has promised to cooperate with India’s competition authority after the country’s top court upheld an antitrust order forcing the United States firm to change how it markets its popular Android platform. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) ruled in October that