Tech

BMW and Jaguar Land Rover on Wednesday said they will jointly develop electric motors, transmissions and power electronics, unveiling yet another industry alliance designed to lower the costs of developing electric cars. Both carmakers are under pressure to roll out zero-emission vehicles to meet stringent anti-pollution rules but have struggled …

WhatsApp will be introducing adverts to its messaging app next year, Facebook has confirmed. The technology giant, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion, revealed the update at its annual Facebook Marketing Summit in the Netherlands. Conference attendee Olvier Ponteville shared photos of the presentation on Twitter, together with …

Two of the world’s largest video surveillance products manufacturers, China’s Hikvision and Dahua, are likely to follow Huawei onto the US blacklist, according to reports. The sanction may be announced, “in the coming weeks.” Washington is considering denying more Chinese companies a share of the US market. Limiting access to …

An Indian company had stored the data of 49 million Instagram users in an unguarded online database. Photo sharing site Instagram says it is trying to find out how contact details of almost 50 million of its users were stored online in an unguarded database. TechCrunch, which broke the story, …

Google has suspended Huawei’s Android license after the Trump administration blacklisted the Chinese phone maker over security concerns. The move will prevent Huawei devices from receiving key software and security updates, as well as potentially impact their ability to access popular Google apps like Maps and YouTube. Huawei is one …

Facebook has uncovered an extensive Israeli-run political influence campaign that has been ‘changing reality according to clients’ wishes’ targeting elections in African, Latin America and Asian nations for years. The social media platform has shut down 65 Facebook accounts, 161 pages, 23 groups, 12 events, and four Instagram accounts run …

Facebook said on Thursday it had removed 265 Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages, groups and events linked to Israel due to what it called “inauthentic behavior” targeting users in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa. The move is part of wider efforts by Facebook to address concerns over privacy lapses …

Tesla’s “Autopilot” system was engaged by a driver who was killed in a March crash in Florida, according to an initial accident report released Thursday. Preliminary data showed the Tesla driver engaged “Autopilot” about 10 seconds before the crash and that the device was active at the time the vehicle …

An international crime gang which used malware to steal $100m (£77m) from more than 40,000 victims has been dismantled. A complex police operation conducted investigations in the US, Bulgaria, Germany, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The gang infected computers with GozNym malware, which captured online banking details to access bank accounts. …

Five global technology companies have pledged to limit terrorist material online. Facebook, Amazon, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft will develop shared tools to detect and remove terrorist or extremist content among other measures. The pledge was made at a Paris summit, which was called after the terror attack in Christchurch, New …

Updates are annoying. But you really need to update WhatsApp on your phone.The Facebook-owned messaging platform is urging its approximately 1.5 billion users to upgrade to the latest version of the app, which contains a fix to a security breach first reported by the Financial Times (paywall) yesterday. In a statement (paywall), WhatsApp also encouraged users …

Amazon.com Inc is rolling out machines to automate a job held by thousands of its workers: boxing up customer orders. The company started adding technology to a handful of warehouses in recent years, which scans goods coming down a conveyor belt and envelopes them seconds later in boxes custom-built for …

Production has reportedly started on a key part of Apple’s next generation of iPhones. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing has started early test production of the A13 processor that will power Apple’s next phone, possibly called the iPhone 11, according to a Bloomberg report Friday citing unnamed sources. The chip could reportedly …

Facebook is suing a South Korean firm it accuses of unlawfully using data to sell marketing and advertising. The social network is asking a judge to force Rankwave to allow it to audit the firm’s activities to see if user data was obtained and potentially sold. A source at Facebook …

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned the UK that allowing Huawei to bid on 5G contracts could spell the end of the US-UK “special relationship” – and, apparently, the UK’s membership in the Five Eyes. “With respect to 5G, the United States has an obligation to ensure that …

The hugely popular video game Mortal Kombat is notorious for extremely graphic in-game violence, setting the industry standard, but now one developer claims they were diagnosed with PTSD after working on the game. Physics-defying gory finishing moves called ‘fatalities’, replete with gratuitous blood spatter and bone splintering attacks, have become …

Facebook has chosen London as its base for a payment system on WhatsApp, its mobile messaging service confirmed Wednesday, highlighting the capital’s attractiveness as a fintech hub despite Brexit strains. The Financial Times said that WhatsApp would hire about 100 staff, with most of the required software engineers based in …

The Hubble telescope has captured a spectacular photograph of one of the universe’s most majestic sights, a spiral galaxy in all its twirling glory. The powerful orbital telescope explored the NGC 2903 galaxy and the European Space Agency (ESA) released the dazzling image this week. The stunning spiral is located …

India’s space agency wants to touch down its rover on the Moon’s south pole, an area on the Earth’s natural satellite where no one has gone before. The launch is scheduled for July. “All the [ISRO] missions, whatever we have had till now [to the moon], have all landed near …

Microsoft has a lot of sympathy for your point of view. Software updates are inevitable because the world changes, new hardware technologies are developed, new features are needed to cater to new circumstances, and new threats need new defenses. That’s true for every operating system in the fast-moving consumer world. …