Amazon workers are voting on whether to join the Amazon Labor Union. The vote will affect workers at all of Amazon's warehouses, where two-day Prime shipping is made possible. The election runs through March 30, and the National Labor Relations Board will begin counting votes the following day.
The deal cThe U.S. and the European Union reached a preliminary deal to allow data about Europeans to be stored on U.S. soil, heading off a growing threat to thousands of companies’ trans-Atlantic operations. The deal, announced Friday by President Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, could if concluded resolve one of the thorniest outstanding issues between the two economic giants. It also assuages concerns of companies including Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google that were facing mounting legal challenges to data transfers that underpin some of their operations in Europe.
Apple is expected to release an iPad Pro with the rumored M2 chip sometime between September and November. The new model will supposedly include support for MagSafe charging. Apple last updated the iPad Pro in 2018 with a design with harder corners and an edge-to-edge display.
Instagram is reportedly working on a way to send voice messages to Stories. A developer shared a screenshot of the new interface feature. Instagram recently introduced private likes as an additional way to interact with Stories. It's not clear if the new feature will be added to the app in the future.
London police arrested seven teenagers in connection with a data extortion gang. The group, Lapsus$, has been involved in a series of cyberattacks in the past month. None of the seven arrested have been formally charged, a police spokeswoman said. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that cybersecurity researchers traced the attacks to a 16-year-old living at his mother’s house.
Uber announced on Thursday that it will list all New York City taxis on its app, adding 14,000 taxis to its arsenal. The deal is one of the largest partnerships between Uber and New York's taxis since the company arrived in 2011, with the company and taxi partners taking a cut of each ride.
Exxon Mobil is considering expanding its bitcoin mining pilot program in North Dakota to reduce the volume of natural gas it routinely burns off or flares into the atmosphere. The pilot project has been launched in 2021 and expanded in July, consuming up to 18 million cubic feet of gas per month that Exxon can't otherwise monetize.
The Digital Markets Act is the most sweeping piece of digital policy since the EU put the world's toughest rules to protect people's online data into effect in 2018. The legislation is aimed at stopping the largest tech platforms from using their interlocking services and resources to box in users and squash emerging rivals. Violators of the law, which will take effect as early as later this year, could face penalties of up to 20 percent of their global revenue.
Netflix has far fewer development studios compared with companies like Microsoft and Sony, which produce gaming consoles and hit titles like Halo and Spider-Man. The company bought a studio called Night School in September, and this month it bought Next Games. Netflix would not say how much it paid for Boss Fight.
A new report from Flexera reveals where enterprises and SMBs are placing their bets on the world's three largest cloud providers. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are the three largest providers of public cloud services. Gartner predicts that public cloud revenue will increase 22 percent globally in 2022 year over year.
Apple is reportedly working on selling iPhones and iPads as part of a hardware subscription service. The monthly charge wouldn’t simply be the price of the device divided by 12 or 24 months, but rather be a still-undecided monthly cost. The move would fit into Apple’s ongoing push towards subscription services.