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Amazon Pumping Nearly $1.5 bn Into US Air Freight Hub

1Feb By NitishNo Comments

USA

Amazon Pumping Nearly $1.5 bn Into US Air Freight Hub

Online retail colossus Amazon said it will strengthen its distribution muscle, and create US jobs, by building its first air freight hub, an investment of nearly USD 1.5 billion. A hub for the company's growing fleet of Prime Air cargo planes will be built at an airport in northern Kentucky, adding more than 2,000 workers to the approximately 10,000 people it already employs at fulfillment centers in that state. Seattle-based Amazon did not specify the amount of the investment, but the local economic development organization placed the figure at USD 1.49 billion. The spot for the hub was chosen for reasons that included being a centralised location for moving goods, according to Amazon senior vice president of worldwide operations Dave Clark. Eager to decrease its dependence on sh...

Amazon’s Flying Warehouse to Launch Drones For Fast Delivery

31Dec By reutersNo Comments

USA

Amazon’s Flying Warehouse to Launch Drones For Fast Delivery

American e-commerce giant Amazon will fly a warehouse at an altitude of around 45,000 feet that would act as a launchpad for drones, with an aim to deliver consignments in a jiffy, media reports said today. Amazon, after winning a patent for flying the warehouse in the US, announced plans for an "airborne fulfillment center" (AFC) such as an airship, CNBC reported. The airship will be stocked with lots of products and would float at an altitude of around 45,000 feet, it said. When a customer places an order, a drone or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) will fly down and deliver the parcels. Amazon said the process would require little power as the drone would be gliding down rather than having to take off and land. "When the UAV departs the AFC, it may descend from the high altitude ...

Regtech’ Startups See More Business in Trump Era

24Dec By reutersNo Comments

USA

Regtech’ Startups See More Business in Trump Era

President elect Donald Trump is pro-business and anti-red tape. But what if your business is red tape? Companies whose technology helps banks and investors cope with the welter of post financial crisis regulations and avoid increasingly hefty fines - a sector known as "regtech" - are sanguine about Trump's pledge to dismantle some of those reforms. Their equanimity is based on a belief that if regulations are replaced rather than scrapped and the overall system of rules becomes more fragmented, financial firms will need their systems to navigate the new landscape. "Change is itself a driver of regtech adoption," said David Buxton, the chief executive of compliance startup Arachnys. "Volatility creates opportunity for relatively nimble regtech firms." Founded in London in 2010, Ara...

US Blacklists Chinese E-commerce Giant Alibaba For Fake Product Selling

22Dec By PriyankaNo Comments

CHINA, USA

US Blacklists Chinese E-commerce Giant Alibaba For Fake Product Selling

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is back on the US government's annual list of "notorious markets" that sell pirated goods. The Office of the US Trade Representative said yesterday that Alibaba's on-line marketplace Taobao sells "high levels" of counterfeit goods and is slow to respond when companies complain about the knockoffs. USTR took Alibaba off the blacklist in 2012, but several US trade groups successfully sought to get it reinstated. "There are a lot of victims here," including US companies that lose sales to fakes and consumers who wind up with shoddy goods, said Stephen Lamar, executive vice president at the American Apparel & Footwear Association, which wanted Alibaba back on the list. Alibaba Group President Michael Evans said the company is "disappointed." ...

Trump Campaign Announces $25 Million Ad Buy in Final Five Days

4Nov By NitishNo Comments

USA

Trump Campaign Announces $25 Million Ad Buy in Final Five Days

The Trump Campaign has announced buying a $25 million advertisement slots in key battleground states as part of its effort to swing the pendulum in its favour amidst reports that the race to the White House has tightened. Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, himself sent an email to his supporters yesterday announcing his decision in this regard. "With a clear path to victory, we just announced an aggressive USD 25 million final ad-buy in the 13 most winnable battleground states. Tightening polls have even forced Hillary to make her first-ever ad-buy in Wisconsin," Trump said. The Trump Campaign said it has strengthened its leads in six battleground states: Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina and Nevada. If this trend continues until Election Day, they can...

Facebook Changes ‘Trending’ Feature to Rely Less on Human Editors

27Aug By AnkitaNo Comments

USA

Facebook Changes ‘Trending’ Feature to Rely Less on Human Editors

Facebook Inc changed its popular "Trending" feature, which shows users the most-talked about topics of the day, to make it more automated and further eliminate the potential for human bias, the company wrote in a blog post on Friday. The update is Facebook's latest attempt in recent months to stress its neutrality as its influence grows. The feature came under scrutiny in May after a news report alleged it suppressed conservative news, which prompted a demand from Republican members of the U.S. Congress for more transparency. Facebook said an internal probe found no evidence of bias. The Trending feature shows users the most-talked about stories and topics on the top right-hand corner of Facebook's home page with one-sentence descriptions. To eliminate the potential for bias, Facebook...

White House Declines To Support Encryption Legislation – Sources

7Apr By reutersNo Comments

USA

White House Declines To Support Encryption Legislation – Sources

The White House is declining to offer public support for draft legislation that would empower judges to require technology companies such as Apple Inc to help law enforcement crack encrypted data, sources familiar with the discussions said. The decision all but assures that the years-long political impasse over encryption will continue even in the wake of the high-profile effort by the Department of Justice to force Apple to break into an iPhone used by a gunman in last December's shootings in San Bernardino, California. President Obama suggested in remarks last month that he had come around to the view that law enforcement agencies needed to have a way to gain access to encrypted information on smartphones. But the administration remains deeply divided on the issue, the sources s...

Drone Makes First Urban Package Delivery in US

26Mar By NitishNo Comments

USA

Drone Makes First Urban Package Delivery in US

RENO(NEVADA): A drone has successfully delivered a package to a residential location in a Nevada town in what its maker and the state's governor said Friday was the first fully autonomous urban drone delivery in the U.S. Flirtey CEO Matt Sweeney said the six-rotor drone flew about a half-mile along a pre-programmed delivery route on March 10 and lowered the package outside a vacant residence in Hawthorne. The route was established using GPS. A pilot and visual observers were on standby during the flight but weren't needed, Sweeney said. He said the package included bottled water, food and a first-aid kit. NASA is working with the drone industry and the Federal Aviation Administration on a low-altitude air traffic control system to prevent crashes involving drones and other low-...

MobileIron Software Could Have Opened San Bernardino Shooter’s iPhone

21Feb By reutersNo Comments

USA

MobileIron Software Could Have Opened San Bernardino Shooter’s iPhone

The US investigation agency FBI demands that Apple Inc unlock an iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Rizwan Farook might have been avoided if his employer, which owns the device, had equipped it with special mobile phone software it issues to many workers. San Bernardino County, which employed Farook as an environmental health inspector, requires some, but not all, of its workers to install mobile-device management software made by Silicon Valley-based MobileIron Inc on government-issued phones, according to county spokesman David Wert. That software is designed to secure corporate data. It also allows information technology departments to remotely unlock phones, even without assistance of the phone's users or access to the password needed to open the phone and unscramble the data. "I...

Twitter Sued By U.S. Widow for Helping Islamic State

15Jan By reutersNo Comments

USA

Twitter Sued By U.S. Widow for Helping Islamic State

(Reuters)- Twitter is being sued by the widow of an American killed in Jordan, who accuses the social media company of giving a voice to Islamic State, adding to the pressure to crack down on online propaganda linked to terrorism. Tamara Fields, a Florida woman whose husband Lloyd died in the Nov. 9 attack on the police training center in Amman, said Twitter knowingly let the militant Islamist group use its network to spread propaganda, raise money and attract recruits. Lawyers specializing in terrorism said Fields faces an uphill battle though the case could lead to more calls for social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook Inc to take down posts associated with terrorist groups. In her complaint filed on Wednesday, Fields said San Francisco-based Twitter had until recently g...

The End of Superpower: Internet Set to Cut Off US Oversight Role

14Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

USA

The End of Superpower: Internet Set to Cut Off US Oversight Role

A plan to end a key US government oversight role on the Internet is on track for completion this year, the head of the online address gatekeeper said, in a symbolic move towards asserting the independence of the web. While the transition will not change how the Internet works, it would help reassure users, businesses and governments about its integrity, according to Fadi Chehade, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Chehade told AFP the transition plan being prepared since early 2014 will be delivered to the US government in February, and that it could take place on September 30, a year later than originally planned. If the US government approves the plan, "then the contract between ICANN and the US government which is set ...

White House, Silicon Valley to hold summit on militants’ social media use: Report

8Jan By reutersNo Comments

USA

White House, Silicon Valley to hold summit on militants’ social media use: Report

Senior White House officials and U.S. intelligence and law enforcement figures will meet with Silicon Valley executives on Friday to discuss how to counter the use of social media by militant groups, sources familiar with the meeting said on Thursday. In an escalation of pressure on technology firms to do more to combat online propaganda from groups such as Islamic State, the meeting follows attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, that underscored the role played by social media companies such as Twitter Inc, Alphabet Inc's YouTube and Facebook Inc. Invited participants include White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, presidential counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, National Intelligence Director James Clapper an...