News

Federal judge approves T-Mobile's $26.5B takeover of Sprint

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has approved T-Mobile’s $26.5 billion takeover of Sprint, rejecting objections from a group of states and removing a major obstacle to a shakeup in the wireless industry. After the deal closes, the number of major U.S. wireless companies would shrink from four to three. T-Mobile says the deal […]

Growing dispute over ride-hailing apps and Phoenix airport

By BOB CHRISTIE Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — A dispute between ride-hailing companies and the city of Phoenix deepened on Monday, as Arizona state lawmakers introduced legislation that would bar raising fees on Uber and Lyft at Sky Harbor airport. The latest salvo in the growing fight is an attempt by state lawmakers to keep […]

Unique Illinois privacy law leads to $550M Facebook deal

By KATHLEEN FOODY Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Adam Pezen, Carlo Licata and Nimesh Patel are among millions of people who have been tagged in Facebook photos at some point in the past decade, sometimes at the suggestion of an automated tagging feature powered by facial recognition technology. It was their Illinois addresses, though, that […]

Barr's call for U.S. control of 5G providers quickly rebuked

By TALI ARBEL AP Technology Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Trump administration officials, increasingly intent on preventing Chinese global technological domination, keep floating the idea that the U.S. government should take a more direct hand in running next-generation 5G wireless networks. But the notion isn’t terribly popular — not even within the administration. On Thursday, […]

US lets autonomous vehicle bypass human-driver safety rules

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — For the first time, the U.S. government’s highway safety agency has approved a company’s request to deploy a self-driving vehicle that doesn’t need to meet the same federal safety standards for cars and trucks driven by humans. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration granted temporary approval […]

Uber loses $1.1B investing in food delivery, driverless cars

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Uber is still losing money as it expands its food delivery business and develops technology for driverless cars. But revenue for its rides business nearly tripled in the final three months of last year as the company picked up more passengers around the world. That […]

Facebook, YouTube: Firm must stop scraping faces from sites

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer Facebook joined YouTube, Twitter and payment service Venmo on Wednesday in demanding that a facial recognition company stop harvesting user images to identify the people in them, which the startup does as part of its work with police. Facebook said it has demanded New York-based Clearview AI stop accessing […]

Twitter to label altered media, remove if it may cause harm

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter will begin to label and in some cases remove doctored or manipulated photos, audio and videos that are designed to mislead people. The company said Tuesday that the new rules prohibit sharing synthetic or manipulated material that’s likely to cause harm. Material that is […]

Disney Plus hits nearly 29M subscribers in 3 months

By TALI ARBEL AP Technology Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Disney said its Disney Plus streaming service reached nearly 29 million paid subscribers in less than three months, an impressive start for what the company has positioned as its future as more people drop cable subscriptions. But as expected, starting up a new service comes […]

Google 4Q revenue grew, but not enough for Wall Street

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google’s revenue grew, but Wall Street wanted more. Parent company Alphabet‘s stock fell more than 4% after financial results came out Monday, even as profits rose 19% and beat expectations for the last three months of the year. Helped by lower taxes, Alphabet said Monday […]