Walmart is putting its nearly $18 billion cash hoard to good use this year, and how it’s spending it should absolutely scare the heck out of most other retailers. Somewhat getting lost in the market’s maniacal focus on Walmart’s fourth quarter earnings miss on Thursday are two new aspects to the retailer that could help widen its competitive moat. While investors don’t seem to care much about them today (shares are down 6% post earnings), it could seriously alter Walmart’s future earnings… Source link

Google has appointed Dr. Marian Croak to lead its responsible artificial intelligence division within Google Research, Bloomberg reported earlier today. Croak was previously the vice president of engineering at the company. In her new role, Croak will oversee the teams working on accessibility, AI for social good, algorithmic fairness in health, brain fairness, ethical AI and others. She’ll report to Jeff Dean, SVP of Google AI Research and Health. In a Google blog post and video… Source link

Google Search Console is changing how Core Web Vitals are measured and reported on, which is likely to be a positive thing for site owners. Going forward, the metrics defining the boundaries for largest contentful paint (LCP), first input delay (FID), and cumulative layout shift (CLS) are now defined as <= (less than or equal to). Previously the boundaries for each of the Core Web Vitals was defined as < (less than). That meant the Google Search Console report would only show a “good”… Source link

The Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) juggernaut storms into 2021 raising more than $45 billion with no sign of slowing down. “The front end of these SPACs is exploding. January, February will be the biggest months ever for those front end SPACs,” JMP Securities CEO Mark Lehmann told Yahoo Finance Live. “I just caution the overall public, this GameStop fever, unfortunately will probably bleed a little into the SPACS.” Lehmann said investors can find great opportunities in SPACs, as… Source link

It will be the company’s first office in Minnesota. ROCHESTER, Minn. — Google will be opening its first office in Minnesota later this year in Rochester. As part of a partnership with Mayo Clinic, Google will be opening up an office at Collinder Coworking in the Conley-Maass-Downs building in downtown Rochester. “Part of what drew… Source link

The oversight board at Facebook (FB) will decide in the coming weeks whether former President Donald Trump should regain access to the platform or face a permanent ban. Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates — whom Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg considers a mentor — on Wednesday weighed in on the impending decision, telling Yahoo Finance that a permanent ban of Trump “would be a shame” and would amount to an “extreme measure.” He warned that such a move would cause “polarization” if users… Source link

Google announced today the Apple TV+ streaming service has now arrived on the Google TV platform, starting with Chromecast with Google TV. It will also become available on Google TVs from both Sony and TCL, with expansions to other Android TV-powered devices in the months to come, Google says. Google TV was introduced last September as the new way Google will refer to its interface for Chromecast, where it combines streaming services, live TV via YouTube TV and other Google offerings,… Source link

Are you ready to learn more about Android 12?  Stephen Shankland/CNET Google 

Enlarge / This green circle (we added the background) is the Android 12 logo, I guess. Google is launching the first developer preview of Android 12 on Thursday. This is the beginning of a seven-month beta process that should end with a final release sometime around September. System images will be out today for the Pixel line (if these links are broken, check back later). Support is being cut for the Pixel 2 this year; for phones, the… Source link

Google is releasing a developer preview for the next version of Android, Android 12, for Pixel devices today. As is the norm for Google, the very first previews of Android are full of a lot of developer-facing changes. Android 12 has updates to how the OS handles images, video, and future security updates. It’s also the norm for Google to hold some of the major UI changes in reserve for its Google I/O conference, typically held in May. Although this developer preview does include some… Source link