Associated Press

News Agency

Microsoft profits soar as cloud demand continues in pandemic

Microsoft’s profits soared during the first three months of 2021, thanks to ongoing demand for its software and cloud computing services during the pandemic. The company on Tuesday reported fiscal third-quarter profit of $14.8 billion, up 38% from the same period last year. “Over a year into the pandemic, digital adoption curves aren’t slowing down. […]

3D printing's new challenge: Solving the US housing shortage

A new generation of startups wants to disrupt the way houses are built by automating production with industrial 3D printers. 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, uses machines to deposit thin layers of plastic, metal, concrete and other materials atop one another, eventually producing three-dimensional objects from the bottom up. In recent years, 3D […]

Google's Q1 ad sales surge 32%, Alphabet profit doubles

Google’s digital advertising network has shifted back into high gear, with its corporate parent reporting profit that more than doubled after an unprecedented setback during the early stages of the pandemic. The robust first-quarter advertising growth announced Tuesday provides the latest sign that advertisers are expecting the economy to roar back to life as more […]

Texting option weighed for upcoming '988' suicide hotline

Recognizing that many Americans rely on texting, U.S. regulators are weighing whether to require that phone companies allow people to text a suicide hotline. The Federal Communications Commission last summer voted to require a new “988” number for people to call to reach a suicide-prevention hotline. Phone companies have until July 2022 to implement it. […]

Toyota acquires Lyft's self-driving unit for $500 million

Toyota Motor Corp. has acquired the self-driving division of American ride-hailing company Lyft for $500 million, in a move that underlines the Japanese automaker’s ambitions in that technology. The acquisition, announced Tuesday, was carried out by Woven Planet Holdings, a Toyota subsidiary that began business in January and focuses on innovations and investment in projects […]

Apple's iPhone privacy clampdown arrives after 7-month delay

Apple is following through on its pledge to crack down on Facebook and other snoopy apps that secretly shadow people on their iPhones in order to target more advertising at users. The new privacy feature, dubbed “App Tracking Transparency,” rolled out Monday as part of an update to the operating system powering the iPhone and […]

Tesla posts $438M 1Q profit on strong electric vehicle sales

Charged up by strong sales of its electric cars and SUVs, Tesla on Monday posted its seventh-straight profitable quarter. The company made $438 million in the three-month period that ended March 31, as sales more than doubled the same period last year to nearly 185,000 vehicles. Tesla said adjusted net income, excluding stock-based compensation, passed […]

Apple Music launches more than 100 city-focused music charts

Apple Music is coming to a city near you — the streaming service has launched daily music charts focused on particular cities around the world, including New York City, Tokyo and Lagos. The streaming service unveiled City Charts on Monday for more than 100 cities, and the Top 25 songs on each local chart are […]

UK spy chief says West faces 'moment of reckoning' on tech

Western countries risk losing control of technologies that are key to internet security and economic prosperity to nations like China and Russia if they don’t act to deal with the threat, one of the U.K.’s top spy chiefs warned Friday. “Significant technology leadership is moving east” and causing a conflict of interests and values, Jeremy […]

The big Pentagon internet mystery now partially solved

A very strange thing happened on the internet the day President Joe Biden was sworn in. A shadowy company residing at a shared workspace above a Florida bank announced to the world’s computer networks that it was now managing a colossal, previously idle chunk of the internet owned by the U.S. Department of Defense. That […]