James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Facebook admits hiding posts asking India Prime Minister Modi to resign
Indian Facebook Inc. users today lashed out at the company after they found that any posts featuring a hashtag asking for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi were hidden. When people tried to post content asking for the man to step down, they received a message saying that the post was hidden to keep ...
Spotify’s podcast subscription service may pose serious challenge to Apple Podcasts
Spotify AB today announced it’s launching a paid podcast subscription service, something that may look more enticing to anyone thinking about using Apple Inc.’s similar product. In a blog post today, Spotify said the product will be available first to select podcasts in the U.S., but the plan is to roll it out globally in ...
Lyft is selling its self-driving car unit for $550 million to Toyota’s Woven Planet
Lyft Inc. announced today that it’s selling its self-driving car unit Level 5 for $550 million to Woven Planet, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Co. Some $200 million will be paid upfront, while the rest of the cash will be paid over a period of five years. The deal follows in the tracks of Uber ...
Apple plays down AirTags stalking concerns
Apple Inc. said today that there’s no need to worry about stalking in a response to fears regarding its new AirTags. This week Apple introduced a slew of new products, including the said AirTags. At first sight, they appear to be a very useful piece of technology. The tags are small and can be attached ...
Senate antitrust hearing questions Google and Apple app store dominance
Apple Inc. and Google LLC today were grilled in front of a Senate judiciary antitrust subcommittee regarding anticompetitive behavior. The hearing, titled “Antitrust Applied: Examining Competition in App Stores,” included testimony from lawyers from Spotify Technology SA and Match Group, the parent company of the Tinder dating app. The two companies have for a long ...
Amazon experiments with its own futuristic … hair salon?
Amazon.com Inc. is boldly going where no one expected the company to go, opening its first-ever hair salon today. The home of the salon reportedly will be London, England, in the neighborhood of Spitalfields, an area renowned for fashionable restaurants, clothes stores and crafts. It won’t be an ordinary salon, of course: Amazon says artificial ...
Hello, Clubhouse: Facebook to release new audio products this summer
Facebook Inc. announced today a slew of audio-only products that it says will be rolled out in the coming months. First the company will release an audio app very similar to Clubhouse, joining a host of tech companies doing the same. Called “Live Audio Rooms,” it will first be available to Groups and later to ...
Advocacy groups tell Mark Zuckerberg Instagram for children is a very bad idea
Advocacy groups today signed off on a letter telling Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg that he should not go ahead with plans to develop an Instagram app for children under the age of 13. Thirty-five consumer advocacy groups, as well as 64 experts in the field of child development, said technology such as Instagram ...
Twitter to study its algorithms for unintentional harms
Twitter Inc. announced today that it will study its machine learning algorithms in an effort to ascertain whether they cause unintentional harm. The company said that over the next few months as part of its “Responsible Machine Learning Initiative,” it will try to understand if there is racial or gender bias. Last year the company ...
Whistleblower says Facebook allows global politicians to manipulate the platform
A new investigation accuses Facebook Inc. of allowing world leaders and politicians to use the platform to manipulate the public, despite being told about it by staff. In a report by The Guardian today, the newspaper said it had seen internal documents that revealed how Facebook treated 30 cases across 25 countries in which politicians ...