News

Texas court holds first US jury trial via videoconferencing

>By JAKE BLEIBERG Associated Press DALLAS (AP) — The potential jurors popped onto the screen one by one. They confirmed their names and told the judge how they were connecting to the court: on laptops, tablets and iPhones. There were some wireless issues and camera problems, but eventually 26 Texans in separate boxes raised their […]

Tech giants are embracing remote work. Others may follow

>By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — For a preview of the future of office work, watch how the biggest tech companies are preparing for a post-pandemic world. Silicon Valley and Seattle giants — Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Twitter — were the first to send their employees home as the virus spread to […]

Apple, Google release technology for pandemic apps

>By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer Apple and Google on Wednesday released long-awaited smartphone technology to automatically notify people if they might have been exposed to the corona virus. The companies said 22 countries and several U.S. states are already planning to build voluntary phone apps using their software. It relies on Bluetooth wireless technology […]

AT&T to drop misleading '5G' marketing for non-5G networks

By TALI ARBEL AP Technology Writer AT&T says it will stop advertising its wireless network as “5G Evolution” after a division of the Better Business Bureau determined that its language was misleading. The network AT&T branded this way is not, in fact, 5G — a new technology for fast wireless data. While AT&T and other […]

France: Amazon back in business after virus deal with unions

>By JEFFREY SCHAEFFER Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Amazon is gradually reopening its warehouses in France after working out virus safety measures with unions, in an effort to end weeks of legal troubles that had sharply curtailed the company’s French business and drawn worldwide attention. In a victory for labor unions, French courts ruled last […]

States accused of fudging or bungling COVID-19 testing data

>By MICHELLE R. SMITH, COLLEEN LONG and JEFF AMY Associated Press PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Public health officials in some states are accused of bungling coronavirus infection statistics or even using a little sleight of hand to deliberately make things look better than they are. The risk is that politicians, business owners and ordinary Americans […]

Lebron James, Spotify, HBO among 2020 Webby Award winners

LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James, Jimmy Fallon, Spotify and HBO are among the 2020 Webby Award winners for internet excellence. The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences announced the winners Tuesday. Fallon’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” won a Webby for best social media for promoting a celebrity, while James was honored […]

Video app TikTok names top Disney streaming exec as new CEO

>By TALI ARBEL AP Technology Writer TikTok, the popular short-video app that has also drawn national-security and privacy concerns, has a new high-profile CEO from Disney, Kevin Mayer. Mayer will also be chief operating officer of TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, and report to its founder and CEO, Yiming Zhang, the company announced Monday. He […]

SoftBank racks up losses as Vision Fund investments plunge

>By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp. racked up a loss of 961.6 billion yen ($9 billion) for the fiscal year through March, on red ink related to its Vision Fund investments including troubled office space-sharing venture WeWork. SoftBank, founded in 1981, said Monday the drop in […]

China warns US of 'all necessary measures' over Huawei rules

BEIJING (AP) — China’s commerce ministry says it will take “all necessary measures” in response to new U.S. restrictions on Chinese tech giant Huawei’s ability to use American technology, calling the measures an abuse of state power and a violation of market principles. An unidentified spokesperson quoted Sunday in a statement on the ministry’s website […]