James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Google’s power is again under fire as Yelp seeks help from FTC
Review site Yelp Inc. is hoping the U.S. Federal Trade Commission will take action against Google Inc. regarding its accusation that the search engine giant is violating a 2013 agreement not to scrape images from Yelp or other websites in its own search results. In a letter to FTC Chair Maureen Ohlhausen, Yelp said that ...
GM is about to start mass-producing the first ‘real’ self-driving cars
General Motors Co. and its self-driving car subsidiary Cruise Automation said today that they’re ready to mass-produce vehicles that already have fully autonomous hardware built in, meaning once the software is fully up to speed the cars will be good to go. Unlike other cars currently using self-driving technology, the Chevrolet Bolt EVs, 50 of ...
Russian-based operation likely paid Facebook $100K for political ads during U.S. election
In another possible sign of attempted foreign interference in the U.S. presidential election, Facebook Inc. revealed on Wednesday that it’s likely a Russian operation spent $100,000 on ads to promote certain views to targeted U.S. citizens. According to a report in the Washington Post citing several unnamed sources, the social media giant told congressional investigators that ...
Tech leaders again oppose Trump after decision to end DACA immigration program
Not for the first time since Donald Trump was elected president, leaders from some of the world’s biggest tech companies have united against him, this time in opposition to his call to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Obama-era program that has protected ...
Uber now has a much cheaper rival in London called Taxify (updated)
Update: As of Friday, Sept. 8, Taxify had temporarily stopped its service while London’s transport authority investigates the company’s legal position. It’s early days for Estonian ride-hailing startup Taxify OÜ, but it has just moved into its second major western European market and is severely undercutting its main rival, Uber Technologies Inc. Started by then-19-year ...
No ‘fast lanes,’ please: Apple finally chimes in on net neutrality
Apple Inc. has spoken out at last on the ongoing issue of net neutrality, asking the government to keep the current regulations in place. In the four-page filing to the Federal Communications Commission, Apple laid out its thoughts on how the FCC should retain “strong and enforceable” open Internet protections. The message Apple sent emphasized ...
Google-funded think tank just axed a Google critic because he decried tech monopolization
Google Inc.’s ethics are under fire today after the company recently put pressure on one of its sponsored think tanks to fire a prominent academic who was critical about Google’s dominant position in search. The Washington-based think tank, called the New America Foundation, has reportedly received more than $21 million from Google. The organization, reported ...
‘The Walking Dead’ zombie apocalypse is coming to a street near you – in augmented reality
“Pokemon Go” shook the world last year with its lightweight chase-down game that had players flocking like zombies to public areas. Now, fictional zombies from the TV series “The Walking Dead” will come to life in a new augmented reality mobile game called “The Walking Dead: Our World.” Announced Tuesday by AMC and Next Games, ...
Athelas releases automated blood testing kit for home use
Silicon Valley-based startup Athelas today introduced a smartphone app that it says can do simple blood diagnosis at home and return results in just 60 seconds. The kit itself looks a bit like an Amazon Echo device and is coupled with a smartphone app to reveal the results of the test. In a demonstration, co-founder Deepika ...
Google rolls out search feature to help people determine if they’re clinically depressed
Google Inc.and the National Alliance on Mental Illness want to help with the American epidemic of depression by rolling out a feature that will allow people to screen themselves online more easily. A Google mobile search result for a depression-related question will now bring up a pop-up box asking you if you’re depressed. If you hit ...
