Technology category, Page 20
Apple suffers 1st quarterly sales decline in nearly 4 years
Apple on Thursday posted its first quarterly revenue drop in nearly four years after pandemic-driven restrictions on its China factories curtailed sales of the latest iPhone during the holiday season. The company’s sales of $117 billion for the October-December period represented a 5% decline from the same time in the...
Google has the next move as Microsoft embraces OpenAI buzz
NEW YORK — Before the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT was unleashed into the world, the novelist Robin Sloan was testing a similar AI writing assistant built by researchers at Google. It didn’t take long for Sloan, author of the bestseller “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore,” to realize that the technology was...
Amazon axes free grocery delivery on Prime orders under $150
NEW YORK — Amazon is axing free grocery delivery for Prime members on orders less than $150. Customers who get their groceries delivered from Amazon Fresh — and pay less than $150 — will be charged between $3.95 and $9.95, depending on the order size, the company said in an...
Manchin bill would delay tax credits for electric vehicles
WASHINGTON — Ratcheting up his criticism of the Biden administration, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on Wednesday moved to delay new tax credits for electric vehicles, a key feature of President Joe Biden’s landmark climate law. Manchin said guidelines issued by the Treasury Department allow manufacturers in Europe and other countries...
Elon Musk defiantly defends himself in Tesla tweet trial
SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk returned to federal court to defend himself against a class-action lawsuit that alleges he misled Tesla shareholders with a tweet about an aborted buyout that the billionaire defiantly insisted Tuesday he could have pulled off, had he wanted. Musk spent roughly three more hours on...
Spotify latest tech name to cut jobs, axes 6% of workforce
LONDON — Music streaming service Spotify said Monday it’s cutting 6% of its global workforce, or about 600 jobs, becoming yet another tech company forced to rethink its pandemic-era expansion as the economic outlook weakens. CEO Daniel Ek announced the restructuring in a message to employees that was also posted...
Elon Musk takes witness stand to defend Tesla buyout tweets
SAN FRANCISCO— Elon Musk took the witness stand Friday to defend a 2018 tweet claiming he had lined up the financing to take Tesla private in a deal that never came close to happening. The tweet resulted in a $40 million settlement with securities regulators. It also led to a...
Microsoft cuts 10,000 jobs, about 5% of global workforce
Microsoft is cutting 10,000 workers, almost 5% of its workforce, joining other tech companies that have scaled back their pandemic-era expansions. The company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that the layoffs were a response to “macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.” The Redmond, Washington-based software giant said it will...
Fastest Corvette ever is all-wheel-drive gas-electric hybridVideo
The fastest Corvette ever made comes out later this year, and it’s not powered soley by a howling V8. The E-Ray is a gas electric hybrid, the first all-wheel-drive version of Chevrolet’s storied sports car with the front wheels running on an electric motor the traditional 6.2-liter V8 powering the...
Elon Musk’s next drama: a trial over his tweets about Tesla
SAN FRANCISCO — While still grappling with the fallout from a company he did take private, beleaguered billionaire Elon Musk is now facing a trial over a company he didn’t. Long before Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October, he had set his sights on Tesla, the electric automaker...
Apple CEO Tim Cook to take more than 40% pay cut
Apple CEO Tim Cook will take a more than 40% pay cut this year from a year earlier as the company adjusts how it calculates his compensation partly based on a recommendation from Cook himself. Apple Inc. said in a regulatory filing late Thursday that Cook’s target total compensation is...
CES 2023: 10 tech innovations that caught our eye
LAS VEGAS — From electric cars and boats to wireless TVs to the latest phones and tablets, there was a wide range of innovations on display at the CES tech show in Last Vegas last week. Some of it aimed to solve big real world problems. Some of it aimed...
Feds reviewing Musk tweet about disabling driver monitoring
DETROIT — A tweet from Elon Musk indicating that Tesla might allow some owners who are testing a “Full Self-Driving” system to disable an alert that reminds them to keep their hands on the steering wheel has drawn attention from U.S. safety regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says...
CES showcases electric hydrofoil boats
Flying cars and self-driving vehicles always get attention at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas, but this year electric recreational boats are making bigger waves. Swedish company Candela on Thursday unveiled a 28-foot (8.5-meter) electric-powered hydrofoil speedboat that can cruise for over two hours at 20 knots, or about...
See wireless TV, delivery robots and in-car VR at CES show
LAS VEGAS — Tech companies of all sizes are showing off their latest products at CES, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics show. The show is getting back to normal after going completely virtual in 2021 and seeing a significant drop in 2022 attendance because of the pandemic. On Wednesday,...
Amazon layoffs to hit 18,000 people
The wave of layoffs at Amazon will hit thousands more people than originally expected. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Wednesday evening the company planned to eliminate “just over” 18,000 roles. In November, when news of layoffs first broke, Amazon said the number of impacted roles remained fluid as leaders evaluated...
Salesforce to lay off 8,000 workers in latest tech purge
Business software maker Salesforce is laying off about 8,000 employees, or 10% of its workforce, as major technology companies continue to prune payrolls that rapidly expanded during the pandemic lockdown. The cuts announced Wednesday are by far the largest in the 23-year history of a San Francisco company founded by...
Electric skates, pet tech and AI for birds at CES 2023
LAS VEGAS — Tech companies of all sizes are showing off their latest products at CES, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics show. The show is getting back to normal after going completely virtual in 2021 and seeing a significant drop in 2022 attendance because of the pandemic. Exhibitors range...
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty in New York
NEW YORK — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court Tuesday to charges that he cheated investors and looted customer deposits on his cryptocurrency trading platform. Bankman-Fried, 30, is accused of illegally diverting massive sums of customer money from FTX to make lavish real estate purchases,...
God of War, Wordle lead a bumpy year in video games
It’s been a bumpy year for video games, in part thanks to the ongoing repercussions of the pandemic. Some major releases got delayed (2023 could be a doozy), but enough crossed the finish line to keep gamers happy. Indie developers held up their end, delivering innovative challenges and fascinating stories....
Explainer: 2023 tax credits for EVs will boost their appeal
WASHINGTON — Starting Jan. 1, many Americans will qualify for a tax credit of up to $7,500 for buying an electric vehicle. The credit, part of changes enacted in the Inflation Reduction Act, is designed to spur EV sales and reduce greenhouse emissions. But a complex web of requirements, including...
Rocky ride: Tesla stock on pace for worst year ever
LOS ANGELES — Owning Tesla stock this year has been anything but a smooth ride for investors. Shares in the electric vehicle maker are down nearly 70% since the start of the year, on pace to finish in the bottom five biggest decliners among S&P 500 stocks. By comparison, the...
Elon Musk says he’ll be Twitter CEO until a replacement is found
Elon Musk said Tuesday that he plans on remaining as Twitter’s CEO until he can find someone willing to replace him in the job. Musk’s announcement came after millions of Twitter users him asked to step down in an unscientific poll the billionaire himself created and promised to abide by....
Could lethal-force police robots be coming to other cities?
News out of San Francisco caught many off guard recently as city officials considered allowing the use of weaponized robots controlled by law enforcement officers. The city quickly dropped those plans after public outcry. The proposal would have allowed San Francisco police officers to use robots that can use deadly...
FBI: Steep climb in teens targeted by online ‘sextortion’
WASHINGTON — The FBI sounded the alarm Monday about an explosive increase in teenage boys being targeted online and extorted for money after being tricked into sending sexually explicit pictures. At least 3,000 children, mostly teenage boys, have been victims of the schemes that are connected to more than a...
