Technology

Apple cannot delay a court-mandated change to its App Store policy. So the tech company had to give app makers the option from December 9 to let their users know that they can take out cheaper subscriptions elsewhere via a website.   Apple had requested a postponement because the company has appealed but is now being blunt. The obligation stems from Epic Games' lawsuit against Apple. The software company behind the popular game Fortnite found that Apple's rules for the App Store amounted to an abuse of power. For example, software makers have to pay Apple a 30 percent commission on every transaction through the App Store and are obliged to use Apple's own payment system for this. Nor may they point to cheaper ways of taking out subscriptions. Many software makers charge a cheaper ...

Kyndryl is now a standalone publicly-traded company separate from IBM. So it is not a daughter but a separate entity. What does that mean? And how is the relationship with IBM going forward?   With 90,000 people employed, Kyndryl shouldn't really startup. But, now led by CEO Martin Schroeter, the company sounds mainly double in its first formal press conference. "Anyone who flies, has a phone, uses telecom… does it with something from Kyndryl in the background," said Rick Ruiz, president for Strategic Markets at Kyndryl. "We have 27,000 years of experience in the UK and Ireland alone," adds Tosca Maria Colageni, responsible for that region. At the same time, it sounds like things can be done better and more freely from now on. For example, in EMEA, a number of geographic regions ha...

The space company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is going to build a commercial space station. Blue Origin will collaborate with industry peer Sierra Space for this.   The space station, dubbed Orbital Reef, should be in orbit and fully operational by the second half of this decade, Blue Origin announced in a press release on Monday. According to Blue Origin, anyone will be able to travel to the space station if they pay for it. The company mentions in a press release from researchers, but also from commercial customers. "Seasoned space agencies, high-tech consortia, countries with no space programs, media and travel companies, entrepreneurs and investors all have a place in Orbital Reef," said a Blue Origin press release. That still describes the space station as a 'mixed-use busine...

The social networks Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, Facebook Inc., will soon be renamed the parent company. That reports the American technology blog The Verge on Tuesday.   CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to explain that name change for the company, which has been under fire on several fronts for some time, at the company's annual Connect conference next Thursday. According to The Verge, the new name will focus on the metaverse, a recent concept that describes the next generation of the internet. The metaverse is a universe in which all virtual spaces are connected. As far as Zuckerberg is concerned, the virtual reality services that Facebook already offers with Oculus should play a major role in that vision. In July, Zuckerberg said he expects that in the coming years, "people...

While the gulf between the world's richest two men has widened again, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk can't help but give a stab at Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos. On Twitter, Musk responded to a message from Bezos with a silver medal.   Musk saw his fortune grow by about $9 billion last week after an investor deal valued his space company SpaceX at more than $100 billion, more than four times as much as competitor Blue Origin. According to the billionaires' index of financial news agency Bloomberg, Musk now has a wealth of $ 222 billion, of which about three quarters comes from the electric car manufacturer Tesla. Bezos has $190.8 billion to his name. On Monday, Bezos posted an image of a negative newspaper report about his 1999 internet conglomerate Amazon on Twitte...

Apple is investigating whether it can recognize conditions such as depression and anxiety with the iPhone. The devices could use sleep patterns and behavioural patterns for this, among other things.   That writes the Wall Street Journal, which reports the start of an extensive study on this. Diagnoses such as depression, anxiety, or cognitive decline can include facial expressions, breathing, and even how users type. This would make the iPhone go a lot further than the sensors that are already in many smartphones. Therefore, the idea of using the device you always have with you to monitor your health is not new. From heart rate monitors to pedometers to sleep diagnosis, it's all there already. However, diagnoses of a person's mental state are a lot more sensitive. The company has ...

Facebook has apologized after the networking site's artificial intelligence (AI) technology mislabeled a video of black men arguing with white police officers and civilians as "about primates."   Social media users who had watched the video were asked afterwards if they wanted to "continue to see videos about primates." The video was published by the Daily Mail. "This was clearly an unacceptable mistake," Facebook spokesman Dani Lever said in a statement to USA Today. "We disabled the topic recommendation feature as soon as we become aware so that we can investigate the cause and avert this from happening again. While we've made improvements to our AI, we know it's not perfect and needs improvement. Our apologies to anyone who saw these offensive recommendations." The event is th...