A view of a sign above the entrance of the Google office, ahead of presentation of the detailed investment plan for Germany, in Berlin, Germany, August 31, 2021. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse Sept 9 (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google (GOOGL.O)is facing a renewed EU antitrust investigation into whether it may have forced device manufacturers to use Google Assistant as the default voice assistant on Android devices, an MLex reporter tweeted on Thursday. The latest investigation comes amid concerns of… Source link

(Bloomberg) — Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Netease Inc. shed more than $60 billion of value as investor fears grow that Chinese regulators are preparing to tighten their grip dramatically on the world’s largest gaming industry. Chinese regulators summoned industry executives to a Wednesday meeting to instruct them to break their “solitary focus” on profit and prevent minors from becoming addicted to games, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Regulators also said there will be a… Source link

Russian tech giant Yandex plans to start testing driverless taxis in Moscow later this year. The ‘robotaxis’ will be operated via the app Yandex.Go. Initially, the service will be limited to Yasenevo, a district in the Russian capital. Over time, there will be more locations and more cars. Russian law does not allow driverless vehicles without an ‘emergency driver’ at the wheel. Exceptions can be made in Special Economic Zones, such as Innopolis, a tech city in… Source link

Google Photos now lets you order prints of specific photographs and get them shipped to homes in the US for as little as $0.18 plus shipping, the company has announced. Although it’s previously been possible to print individual photos through Google Photos, until now you’ve had to pick them up from a local Walmart, CVS, or Walgreens. Otherwise, getting prints shipped has required paying for Google’s $6.99 a month photo subscription, which sends 10 cardstock photo prints each month…. Source link

Russian internet giant Yandex has been targeted in a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that started last week and and it reportedly continues this week. A report in Russian media says that the assault is the largest in the short history of the Russian internet, the RuNet, and that it was confirmed by a U.S.-based company. RuNet is the Russian segment of the internet, created to function independently of the worldwide web. Its purpose is to maintain the unified… Source link

After weeks of rumors, the Big 12 will add BYU, UCF, Houston and Cincinnati in a league vote on Friday. The news was first reported by Pete Thamel of Yahoo and then Brett McMurphy of Action Network. The three American schools are obligated to provide two years of notice to leave the conference and a $10 million exit fee. But a host of reports say the schools will play in the Big 12 in 2023. That would require paying a negotiated exit fee. Connecticut did that to leave the league earlier… Source link

(Bloomberg) — Sea Ltd. aims to raise $6.3 billion in the largest equity offering of the year, a deal that will propel a global expansion and acquisitions for Southeast Asia’s largest company. The online gaming and e-commerce firm backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. is offering 11 million shares, a stake worth about $3.8 billion at Wednesday’s close. It also intends to issue $2.5 billion of equity-linked debt. Sea, which has risen more than 70% this year, fell in post-marketing trading in New… Source link

Futures dipped in Wednesday’s after-hours session, pointing to a lower open on Wall Street, with investors struggling to reconcile a still hot jobs market with an economy that’s seen its momentum dented by soaring COVID-19 infections.  On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Index posted their 3rd consecutive day of losses, and the technology-laced Nasdaq fell for the first time since last week. The market has mostly taken disappointing news in stride, but August’s jobs… Source link

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Hi friends! Welcome to the Daily Crunch for Wednesday, September 8, 2021. Alex is still out, so I’ll be steering this ship for a few more days while (I hope) he stares at trees, or the ocean, or really anything but words on a computer screen. Alex, if you’re reading this, please put your phone in airplane mode and do something cool. — Greg The… Source link

Google reached a settlement with a fired employee who the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claims was let go from the company for his workplace activism, Bloomberg reports. The employee, Laurence Berland, was fired in 2019 allegedly for violating Google’s data security policies. He had been a vocal critic of Google’s work with the US Customs and Border Protection and was terminated amid internal organizing. The settlement was approved in July by the NLRB, though the terms… Source link