Stockholm, Sweden | AFP | Former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden on Monday downplayed the importance of President-elect Donald Trump and again defended his decision to leak documents showing massive surveillance of US citizens’ communications. “Donald Trump is just the president. It’s an important position. But it’s one …
Read More »Amazon video going global with rival to ‘Top Gear’
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Amazon is set to challenge Netflix worldwide with a massive expansion of its on-demand video streaming service featuring its remake of the BBC’s global hit “Top Gear.” Amazon Prime Video is currently available in Austria, Britain, Germany, Japan and the United States, with …
Read More »Facebook authorizes $6 bn share buyback
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Facebook’s board of directors on Friday authorized spending as much as $6 billion to buy back shares in the leading social network. The stock repurchase program would go into effect at the start of next year, potentially allowing Facebook to take advantage of …
Read More »Facebook buys facial recognition tech startup
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Facebook on Wednesday said that it has bought facial recognition startup FacioMetrics, potentially using the technology for photo or video effects to better challenge rival Snapchat. “How people share and communicate is changing and things like masks and other effects allow people to …
Read More »Huge cyber attack disrupts internet in Liberia
Monrovia, Liberia | AFP | A massive cyber attack targeting Liberia’s single broadband link has taken the country’s internet intermittently offline for the last week, web security experts said Friday. The characteristics of the attack point to the same type of cyber weapon that crippled several major websites based in …
Read More »Alibaba sales growth soars into the cloud
Beijing, China | AFP | Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s sales soared 55 percent in the last quarter, thanks in part to a more than doubling of revenue from cloud computing, the company said Wednesday. The year-on-year growth in group sales, to 34.29 billion yuan ($5.14 billion), was not matched by …
Read More »Tablet market shrinks as demand grows for hybrids
San Francisco, United States | AFP | The tablet market shrank in the recently-ended quarter, as shipments of bargain-priced computers with detachable screens hit a record high, according to market analysis firm International Data Corporation. Tablet makers shipped 43 million units in the quarter, down 14.7 percent from the number …
Read More »Clinton voices concern over AT&T-Time Warner mega-deal
Washington, United States | AFP | White House hopeful Hillary Clinton said the proposed mega-merger of AT&T and Time Warner “raises questions and concerns” and merits further study. AT&T and Time Warner, home of CNN and HBO, have said the proposed $108.7 billion deal will benefit consumers as they gird …
Read More »Ongoing cyber attack hits Twitter, Amazon, other top websites
Washington, United States | AFP | Major internet services including Twitter, Spotify and Amazon suffered service interruptions and outages on Friday as a US internet provider came under sustained cyber attack. The internet service company Dyn, which routes and manages internet traffic, said that it had suffered a distributed denial …
Read More »Facebook launches intra-office ‘Workplace’ network
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Social network giant Facebook on Monday launched new global product Workplace, a platform that it hopes will replace intranet, mailbox and other internal communication tools used by businesses worldwide. It is intended to compete with similar office communication products including Microsoft’s Yammer, Salesforce’s Chatter …
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