Tech Zone

  Stocks rose on Monday, building on a record-setting week, as developments on coronavirus treatments drove the bullish sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 245 points, or 0.9%. The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% and hit an all-time high. The Nasdaq was marginally higher after also trading at a record level. Shares of airlines and cruise operators gained amid the coronavirus treatment developments. United Airlines rose by more than 7% along with Delta and American. Carnival gained 7.2%. Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean advanced 8.2 and 3.7%, respectively.  Earlier in the session, shares of Big Tech companies such as Apple and Microsoft led the market gains. However, they rolled over in late-morning trading.  Monday's moves come as the number of new coronavirus cases continues to decline in the U.S. Since spiking by more than 64,000 cases, the number of new daily infections in the U.S. has not topped 49,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. On Sunday...

Although WFH is the most effective way to maintain social distancing and safeguard from coronavirus, the transition is a bit challenging and could be exhausting for employees.In this scenario, it is the responsibility of employers to boost employees' morale and keep them motivated and focused to sail through the tough time.WFH is not a new concept but the COVID-19 crisis has triggered its massive adoption in India Inc. Given the very fact that social distancing continues to be the foremost effective thanks to curb the coronavirus, WFH is about to become mainstream practice within the country.However, WFH has its challenges and limitations both for companies and employees. The sudden shift into working may cause frustration, anxiety, and insecurity in some employees.Also, not all are comfortable performing from home. Technical limitations can also create hindrance within the job and constant interruptions reception may affect performance.Therefore, employers must make sure that the...

Electric vehicles (EVs) are spreading throughout the world. While Tesla has drawn the most attention in the United States with its luxurious and cutting-edge cars, EVs are becoming a mainstay in markets far away from the environs of California. Take India for instance. In the local mobility market, two- and three-wheel vehicles are starting to emerge as a popular option for a rapidly expanding middle class looking for more affordable options. EV versions are popular thanks to their reduced maintenance costs and higher reliability compared to gasoline alternatives. Two-wheeled electric scooters are a fast-growing segment of India’s mobility market. There’s just one problem, and it’s the same one faced by every country which has attempted to convert from gasoline to electric: how do you build out the charging station network to make these vehicles usable outside a small range from their garage? It’s the classic chicken-and-egg problem. You need EVs in order to make money o...

This week: Microsoft's play for TikTok, Netflix's new secret weapon, and takeaways of the Facebook ad boycott. TikTok users are making memes about stanning Microsoft. @prettyboykope/@blueboynv/TikTok Microsoft is interested in advertising again People who know their Microsoft history are scratching their heads when it comes to its planned deal for TikTok's US business, and not just because it would plunge the tech giant into the unfamiliar territory unknown of teen-driven social media, with all its potential messiness and drama. It's also because Microsoft all but abandoned its ad business in 2015 after its display ad revenue eroded over several years. In recent years, it's focused on going after Amazon and Google on sponsored products, but still holds only an estimated 1.4% of the display ad market, according to EMarketer. And while TikTok's own ad business is nascent, it has big potential, with its growing, young user base that advertisers are sali...

He hit No. 1 on Institutional Investor's all-star analyst list for software 17 times  during a  row. Now as an  underwriter  , Rick Sherlund  may be a  tech power player who believes the group's record run is  within the  early innings. During Tuesday's exclusive interview on CNBC"s "Trading Nation," he delivered a bullish case for tech, emphasizing demand for cutting-edge software  because the  U.S. battles the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. "Software  isn't  only eating  the planet  , it's leading the market higher," said the Bank of America Merrill Lynch  president  of technology investment banking. "Covid has accelerated the momentum  and therefore the  urgency behind digital transformation." Big Tech has been crushing records on Wall Street. On Tuesday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed at its 30th all-time high  thus far  this year. It's now up almost 22% in 2020, while the bro...

It’s time for Microsoft’s cloud gaming platform to officially move out of preview mode and into the important world. the company announced today that Project xCloud will officially launch on Sept. 15—though just in beta for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members at the instant . However, anyone can check in for that service and access the 100+ games Microsoft has made accessible through its cloud gaming platform, including Minecraft Dungeons, Destiny 2, Tell Me Why, Gears 5, and Yakuza Kiwami 2. Game Pass Ultimate is $15 per month, apart from new subscribers it’s $1 for the first month. If you’re not already using the service or haven’t already tried out xCloud in Microsoft’s preview, you'll take it for a spin for a fairly low price. Games are playable on Android phones and tablets to start out out , and may require a minimum of a ten Mbps connection, whether wifi or mobile. (Might want to ascertain out that Razer Kishi.) Another benefit to creating xCloud accessible to Xbox Game Pa...

Microsoft announced its pledge to become waste-free within a decade. The Windows 10 and Xbox producers said that its company operations would produce zero trash by 2030, with single-use plastic packaging being phased out by 2025. To meet this goal, Microsoft will introduce what it calls Circular Centers, which it claims will allow it to recycle 90% of the waste it produces on-site. Notably, these centers will allow for the recycling of the servers that Microsoft employs in its data centers. This will greatly reduce its dependency on third-party recyclers, which can sometimes be unreliable. “This is kind of our initiative during a journey,” said Brian Janous, Microsoft’s head of energy and sustainability. “There’s getting to be tons more to return as we learn more about how we will actually influence that waste lifecycle.” In 2019, Microsoft offices sent nearly 3,200 metric tons of trash to landfills. Earlier in 2020, Microsoft also pledged to become carbon negative by 2030, me...

Employees of Indian IT outsourcing giant Infosys in Bangalore. Infy, as it is known, is one of the ... [+] biggest beneficiaries of the H-1B visa program in the U.S. (Photo by MANJUNATH KIRAN/AFP/Getty Images) Getty Companies looking to bring in foreign software engineers and other IT specialists got dealt another uppercut by the Trump Administration this week. It’s a “no soup for you” moment for companies accustomed to bringing in mostly Indian tech workers to fill the hiring gaps they have been blaming on the lack of domestic STEM talent, for at least the past decade. “Today I’m signing an executive order to ensure that the federal government lives by a very simple rule: hire American,” Trump said yesterday.  Nearly two-thirds of all H-1B visa hires are from India. Most of them end of working for the Indian multinational IT firms — Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services here in the U.S. But companies like Amazon AMZN , Facebook, Deloitte and IBM IBM also bring in foreign ...

Apple  (AAPL) - Get Report denied that it is in the running to purchase the U.S. operations of popular Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok after Axios reported that the tech giant was interested in buying it.  While Microsoft  (MSFT) - Get Report has confirmed that it is negotiating with ByteDance, the Chinese conglomerate that owns TikTok, to purchase the platform's U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand operations, Apple responded to the report by saying that there are no negotiations and it is not interested. Apple has about $193 billion in cash on hand and last month strong second-quarter results helped the tech company overtake oil driller Saudi Aramco as the world's most valuable publicly listed company. Axios reported earlier that multiple sources outside of Apple said that the tech giant has expressed interest in buying TikTok.  Meanwhile, TikTok has been a lightning rod for scrutiny after President Trump told reporters that he would...

Your tech news digest, by way of the DGiT Daily tech newsletter, for Tuesday, 4 August 2020. As it turns out, loads of reviewers had hands-on with the Pixel 4a in advance of Google announcing the phone, which came out in one model for $349/£349/€349. And, the majority reckon it’s pretty good. My colleague David Imel calls it Google’s best phone in years in his review, noting that it’s one of the best experiences on Android, for one-third the price of flagships, and adding: “If you don’t care about flashy features and just want something that works well, the Pixel 4a is a no-brainer.” The camera here is again the real winning element. It has the same 12.2MP Sony IMX363 rear sensor as the Pixel 4, Pixel 3a, and Pixel 3, and it offers much of the same. Here, versus the 3a, the Snapdragon 730G looks to have given Google some improvements, with better white balance, employing warmer tones and more balanced shadows. Google didn’t get anything wrong here. You get good battery...

To have data is to have power, and collecting it is the lifeblood of four of the most valuable companies in America: Facebook Inc., Google, Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. Together, they are worth more than $5 trillion by market cap. That’s like adding up the market values of Walmart Inc., Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Procter & Gamble Co., Pfizer Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Exxon Mobil Corp., Nike Inc., McDonald’s Corp. and Walt Disney Co. — and then multiplying that sum by two. Calling it “Big Tech” doesn’t even do it justice. These leaders of social-media, online-search, e-commerce and smartphones are so embedded in consumers’ lives that it’s nearly impossible to avoid interacting with them on a given day and handing over reams of data, all for free, in the process: Checking emails, “liking” a post about Taylor Swift, clicking on an enchiladas recipe, joining a group for novice knitters, searching for bug spray and new e...

You might say I faked it. You might say I paid attention to the macro rather than the micro. I prefer to be generous to myself. I managed to convince many scholars, deans, reporters, and even the editors of this esteemed publication (to which I have subscribed since about 1996) that I am, in fact, an expert. I have written or edited six books related to the effects of technology on democracy and culture, including one devoted to the consequences of our collective dependence on Google and another to the uses and dangers of Facebook. Am I really an expert on Google and Facebook? Or, more appropriately, who is an expert on these companies? Is anyone? I have some nominees. There are journalists like Steven Levy or Kara Swisher, who have been covering the personalities and policies of these companies for decades. But do they understand the code, the server farms, the global networks of undersea cables? Can they discuss the fragile treaties and legal settlements that have let these c...