Technology

Despite coronavirus lockdowns hitting global supply chains and construction projects, telecommunication firms have continued to contract equipment from Chinese technology giant Huawei [HWT.UL], Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson to build fifth-generation technology (5G) networks, which are expected to power everything from high-speed video transmissions to self-driving cars.

French police pushed back several hundred people jostling to get their hands on cut-price PlayStation 4s at the launch of a new Lidl supermarket outside Paris on Wednesday.

Germany's smartphone app to help trace coronavirus infections has been downloaded 6.5 million times in the first 24 hours since its launch, the chief executive of software company SAP said on Wednesday.

Building robots and drones is messy: Developers must pull together sensors to be the eyes and ears, chips for the brains and motors to make the device move, tying them all together with several kinds of software.

Japanese bank Nomura Holdings Inc and cryptocurrency partners Ledger and CoinShares launched Komainu, a custodian to safeguard digital assets for financial institutions, on Wednesday.

Facebook Inc said on Tuesday it would affix labels to political ads shared by users on their own feeds, closing what critics have said for years was a glaring loophole in the company's election transparency measures.

Alphabet Inc's Google on Wednesday introduced new advertising features intended to help local businesses get more customers and recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Environmental campaigners delivered a 12-foot (3.6-metre) tall mock-up of an Amazon parcel to the French finance ministry on Wednesday to demand that the government rein in the e-commerce giant's expansion in France.

A new U.S. rule regarding China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is a needed "clarification" to help develop standards, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Wednesday, adding that security concerns remain over the telecoms equipment maker.

Contentful, a startup based in Berlin and San Francisco, said on Wednesday it had raised $80 million from investors led by Sapphire Ventures to scale up its content management systems for commercial websites.

For the past seven years, a Munich-based firm called riskmethods has tried to interest companies in buying software that allows them to track all their suppliers in a way that minimizes risks in operating globally spread supply chains.

U.S.-Israeli Pagaya, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to manage institutional money, said on Wednesday it raised $102 million in a private funding round led by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC [GIC.UL].

Qualcomm Inc on Tuesday said it is putting 5G technology into chips for smartphones that will sell for as little as $300 and that will come to market in the second half of this year.

The U.S. Department of Commerce on Tuesday posted a new rule that allows U.S. companies to work with China's Huawei to develop standards for 5G and other cutting-edge technologies, despite restrictions on doing business with the telecommunications equipment maker.

Amazon.com Inc on Tuesday launched an artificial intelligence-based tracking system to enforce social distancing at its offices and warehouses to help reduce any risk of contracting the new coronavirus among its workers.

Facebook on Tuesday removed almost 900 accounts associated with the far-right Proud Boys and American Guard, including those belonging to Proud Boys supporters who marched into a protest zone in Seattle Monday and confronted anti-racist demonstrators.

A fifth-generation (5G) telecoms tender in Brazil should not be contaminated by ideological battles with China and more competition will lead to better prices for consumers, the head of the lower house said on Tuesday.

Italy's top pay-TV operator SKY said on Tuesday it was adding broadband connection to its offering of movies, sport and other content, to boost revenues in the crowded telecoms market.

Germany appealed to the public on Tuesday to download a new smartphone app to help break the chain of coronavirus infections, one of several such apps that European governments hope will revive travel and tourism safely.

Top officials from Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google and Twitter Inc will appear before U.S. lawmakers on Thursday at a hearing on foreign influence and election security, the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee announced on Tuesday.