Tag: Meta Platforms Inc.

Apple iMessage, Microsoft Bing Dodge EU’s Big Tech Crackdown
14Feb By adminNo Comments
Technology

Apple iMessage, Microsoft Bing Dodge EU’s Big Tech Crackdown

[ad_1] Apple Inc.'s iMessage and Microsoft Corp.'s Bing search engine, Edge web browser and Advertising service will avoid strict new European Union rules reining in Big Tech platforms.A probe concluded that the services don't hold a dominant enough position to be regulated under the EU's Digital Markets Act, the European Commission announced on Tuesday. Apple and Microsoft said they welcomed the decision in separate statements following the announcement.  The decision from EU regulators is a win for the two US firms, which would have been obliged to adapt their services to meet a swathe of new obligations and prohibitions designed to limit market power abuses. The decision confirms an earlier Bloomberg News report that the services would escape the scope of the tech crackdown.   We are...
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Apple rises as BofA upgrades on potential from AI, headset
19Jan By adminNo Comments
Technology

Apple rises as BofA upgrades on potential from AI, headset

[ad_1] Apple Inc. shares rose on Thursday, after Bank of America upgraded the iPhone maker to buy from neutral, a sign of confidence in the stock following a weak start to the year.The stock gained 3.3%, its biggest one-day percentage gain since May. It remains down 2% this year, making it one of the weakest performers among the so-called Magnificent 7 megacaps that fueled market gains in 2023. Artificial intelligence will be a driver for the company's hardware and services business, according to BofA analyst Wamsi Mohan, who wrote that he sees a “stronger multi-year iPhone upgrade cycle driven by need for the latest hardware to enable Generative AI features to be introduced in 2024/2025.” Mohan also thinks the upcoming launch of Apple's virtual reality headset has potential, writing th...
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Meta to offer ad-free Facebook, Instagram subscriptions in Europe
30Oct By adminNo Comments
Technology

Meta to offer ad-free Facebook, Instagram subscriptions in Europe

[ad_1] Meta Platforms Inc. will offer users in Europe ad-free access to Facebook and Instagram for a subscription fee. Starting in November, users will be able to subscribe to the social media sites for €9.99 ($10.574) per month on the web or €12.99 per month via Apple Inc.'s and Android's mobile operating systems, the company said in a statement on Monday. The subscription services will be offered to anyone in the European Union, European Economic Area and Switzerland.  The subscriptions are a reaction to increasing regulations around how user data is collected and used in Europe. In a blog post explaining the decision, the company cited an EU Court of Justice decision in July that said companies should consider offering an alternative service “if necessary for an appropriate fee.” Met...
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Google Search Executive Worried About Amazon, TikTok Enticing Users
28Oct By adminNo Comments
Technology

Google Search Executive Worried About Amazon, TikTok Enticing Users

[ad_1] Google's top search executive said concerns about Amazon.com Inc. keep him awake at night as the company loses users to the online retail giant and newer apps such as ByteDance Ltd.'s TikTok.Testifying as part of the Justice Department's antitrust case against Google Thursday, Prabhakar Raghavan, a Google senior vice president, said young people in particular are using apps such as TikTok and Meta Platforms Inc.'s Instagram and WhatsApp, where they spend an average of four hours per day. “I feel a keen sense not to become the next roadkill,” said Raghavan, one of the first employees the Alphabet Inc. unit has called in its defense. For young people, “Grandpa Google knows the answer and will help you with homework. But when it comes to doing interesting things, they like to start ...
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Google, Meta and Apple set to win US approval for virtual reality devices
28Sep By adminNo Comments
Technology

Google, Meta and Apple set to win US approval for virtual reality devices

[ad_1] Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Apple Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. are on the verge of winning approval from US regulators to deploy a new set of mobile virtual and augmented reality devices, including goggles and in-car connections.The very low power gadgets would be allowed to tap airwaves used by Wi-Fi-enabled devices under a proposal announced Wednesday by Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. The agency is to vote Oct. 19 on the matter, which is considered likely to be approved because Rosenworcel leads a Democratic majority at the agency. Tapping into the 6 GHz band would “foster a new wave of innovation in devices that will benefit consumers in exciting ways and bolster US leadership in advanced wireless technologies,” Rosenworcel said in a statement. D...
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Meta Plans to Expand Its WhatsApp Payment Service to India
20Sep By adminNo Comments
Technology

Meta Plans to Expand Its WhatsApp Payment Service to India

[ad_1] Meta Platforms Inc. is expanding its WhatsApp payment feature to India, letting users in the country purchase goods and services directly from local businesses via chat.The move, which follows the launch of the service in Brazil and Singapore, taps a market with more than 400 million WhatsApp users. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg announced the plan during an event in Mumbai on Wednesday. “I am excited to announce that we are bringing this service to India,” he said in prepared remarks. “This is going to make it even easier for people to pay Indian businesses within a WhatsApp chat using whatever method they prefer.” Meta, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion, has been trying to generate more revenue by charging businesses for some premium features. The new pay...
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Google to add AI models from Meta, Anthropic to its cloud platform
31Aug By adminNo Comments
Technology

Google to add AI models from Meta, Anthropic to its cloud platform

[ad_1] Alphabet Inc.'s Google is adding artificial intelligence tools from companies including Meta Platforms Inc. and Anthropic to its cloud platform, weaving more generative AI into its products and positioning itself as a one-stop shop for cloud customers seeking to tap into the technology.Google's cloud clients will be able to access Meta's Llama 2 large language model, as well as AI startup Anthropic's Claude 2 chatbot, to customize with enterprise data for their own apps and services. The move announced Tuesday at Google's Next '23 event in San Francisco, is part of the company's effort to position its platform as one where customers have the freedom to choose an AI model that best meets their needs, whether from the company itself or one of its partners. More than 100 powerful AI...
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Meta lays off tech teams, battering employee morale
20Apr By adminNo Comments
Technology

Meta lays off tech teams, battering employee morale

[ad_1] Meta Platforms Inc on Wednesday carried out another round of job cuts, this time hitting engineers and adjacent tech teams, as Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg further moved to streamline the business in a bid to make 2023 a "year of efficiency."Meta in March became the first Big Tech company to announce a second round of mass layoffs, which it said would take place in three main batches over several months and impact 10,000 employees. Wednesday's cuts, though expected, prompted expressions of frustration from Meta employees. Layoffs were the subject of the most popular questions posted on an internal company forum on Wednesday ahead of an upcoming employee town hall. "You've shattered the morale and confidence in leadership of many high performers who work with intensity. Why sho...
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Meta Urged to Halt Plans Allowing Minors Into the Metaverse
15Apr By adminNo Comments
Technology

Meta Urged to Halt Plans Allowing Minors Into the Metaverse

[ad_1] Dozens of advocacy organizations and children's safety experts are calling on Meta Platforms Inc. to terminate its plans to allow minors into its new virtual reality world.Meta is planning to invite teenagers and young adults to join its metaverse app, Horizon Worlds, in the coming months. But the groups and experts that signed the letter, which was sent to Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg on Friday, argue that minors will face harassment and privacy violations on the virtual reality app, which is only in its early stages. “Meta must wait for more peer-reviewed research on the potential risks of the metaverse to be certain that children and teens would be safe,” wrote the groups, led by online safety groups including Fairplay, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, C...
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Meta Gives Regulators a New Reason to Bite
24Nov By adminNo Comments
Technology

Meta Gives Regulators a New Reason to Bite

[ad_1] The company appears not to know the full extent of what its systems do with users’ data. That could be a problem. For all the difficulties that Meta Platforms Inc. is going through with declining ad revenues, higher costs related to its risky investment in the metaverse and its first major restructuring, the company has been relatively lucky with privacy regulators.It has avoided the most detrimental fines under Europe's main privacy law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR, despite making billions of dollars from being one of the world's biggest processors of personal data. But that luck may be about to run out. Meta looks like it could struggle to comply with the European Union's upcoming antitrust law, which prohibits data combination and reuse. In a rece...
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