Thursday, 02 May, 2024

Tech

France bans TikTok, WhatsApp, Netflix from state employees' phones

The French government on Friday banned the installation and use of "recreational" applications including the Chinese social network TikTok and the American streaming platform Netflix on the work phones of the country's 2.5 million state civil servants. According to French

First 3D-printed rocket lifts off but fails to reach orbit

Startup Relativity Space sent what it’s calling the “world’s first 3D-printed rocket” toward space on Wednesday, vaulting it into the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Though, it suffered an engine issue after launch and failed to reach orbit. Terran 1, a

TikTok's US future at stake as boss faces Congress showdown

On Thursday, TikTok's CEO, Shou Zi Chew, will be opening a lion's mouth and placing his own head into it. He's giving testimony in the US Congress for the first time, a scary thing to do. And at stake is the future of the phenomenally popular video-sharing app in the US.

Google launches ChatGPT rival Bard in US and UK

Google has invited people in the United Kingdom and the United States to test its AI chatbot, known as Bard, as it continues on its gradual path to catch up with the Microsoft-backed ChatGPT. Bard, ChatGPT and other similar artificial intelligence apps churn out essays, poems or

ChatGPT released a new AI that can build websites

When ChatGPT came out in November, it took the world by storm. Within a month of its release, some 100 million people had used the viral AI chatbot for everything from writing high school essays to planning travel itineraries to generating computer code. Built by the San

US threatens TikTok ban if app is not sold – report

The US government says TikTok should be sold or else face a possible ban in the country, according to reports. The video-sharing app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is accused of posing a national security risk through data gathered from millions of users. A request for a

The Digital Innovation Challenge for Women 2023 kicks off

To motivate women in digital technology the event titled “Digital Innovation Challenge for Women 2023" has kicked off on Tuesday (Mar 14) at KIB centre, Dhaka.   The fourth edition of the program has organised by Women in Digital, women lead organization in

Samsung to invest in South Korea mega chip-making plan

Electronics giant Samsung says it plans to invest around 300tn won ($230.8bn; £189.6bn) over 20 years in the South Korean government's push to develop a mega semiconductor hub in the country. This will be put towards building five chip factories, the firm told the BBC.

Facebook owner Meta to cut 10,000 staff

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs. It will be the second wave of mass redundancies from the tech giant, which laid off 11,000 employees last November. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the cuts - part of a "year of

OpenAI’s GPT-4 to ‘launch next week’

GPT-4, the much anticipated new large language AI model from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, could be released next week according to Microsoft Germany’s CTO. The model is likely to be exponentially more powerful than its predecessor, opening up new enterprise use cases for generative AI.

Meta working on potential Twitter rival

Facebook owner Meta is working on a new "text sharing" social media network, it said Friday, in a project seen as a potential rival to embattled Twitter. Since billionaire Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter in October, the platform has suffered outages, layoffs and seen

Twitter suffers major outage disabling external links

Twitter on Monday suffered a major outage with users worldwide reporting they could no longer read links to articles from outside websites. “Some parts of Twitter may not be working as expected right now,” the company’s tech support account said in a tweet, blaming

iPhone maker sees revenue slump as demand weakens

Apple's biggest supplier Foxconn says its revenue last month fell by 11.65% compared to the same period in 2022 due to weaker demand for electronics. However, February revenue was more than $13bn (£10.8bn), the second highest figure on record for the month. Foxconn added

Twitter can’t protect you from trolls any more: insiders

Twitter insiders have told the BBC that the company is no longer able to protect users from trolling, state-co-ordinated disinformation and child sexual exploitation, following lay-offs and changes under owner Elon Musk. Exclusive academic data plus testimony from Twitter users backs

Father of cellphone sees dark side but also hope in new tech

The man credited with inventing the cellphone 50 years ago had only one concern then about the brick-sized device with a long antenna: Would it work? These days Martin Cooper frets like everybody else about his invention’s impacts on society — from the loss of privacy to

White House says it’s open to tighter restrictions on TikTok

The White House has said it is open to further action on curbing TikTok as legislation to ban the Chinese-owned app in the United States began making its way through the US Congress. The video-sharing service has more than a billion users worldwide, including more than 100 million in

Canada bans TikTok on government devices

Canada will ban video app TikTok from all government-issued devices starting on Tuesday. The decision follows a review by Canada's chief information officer, and the app "presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security", a government spokesperson said in a

WhatsApp now let beta users keep messages from disappearing

Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp is reportedly rolling out a new feature, which will allow users to keep messages from disappearing on iOS and Android beta. This feature is rolled out to some beta testers after installing the latest beta version of the application from the Play

Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

Nokia has announced one of the first budget Android smartphones designed to be repaired at home allowing users to swap out the battery in under five minutes in partnership with iFixit. Launched before Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Saturday, the Nokia G22 has a removable back

European Commission bans TikTok on staff devices

Staff working at the European Commission have been ordered to remove the TikTok app from their phones and corporate devices. The commission said it was implementing the measure to "protect data and increase cybersecurity". TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has