My friend (and occasional writer for The Verge) JR Raphael has a newsletter in which he recently wrote about cleaning up your Google Contacts list by deleting old and no-longer-wanted entries. What a good idea, I thought. But. Unfortunately, I am something of a hoarder when it comes to contacts. After years as a tech journalist, I have who-knows-how-many business contact listings, many of which are completely out of date. But although it’s likely that a lot of these people have moved… Source link

In this photo illustration, a Verizon Media logo seen displayed on a smartphone. Igor Golovniov | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images Apollo Global Management is preparing to close its $5 billion acquisition of Verizon Media on Sept. 1, and the private equity firm is already causing consternation among existing executives at the company soon to be known as Yahoo. Apollo hasn’t informed Verizon Media leadership, including Chief Executive Guru Gowrappan, of their new roles at the company… Source link

As Apple and Google continue to face increasing scrutiny over the rules they set for how third-party apps in their app stores charge for services, a significant development in that story is going down in South Korea. South Korea’s parliamentary committee passed on Wednesday (25 August) a landmark bill to prevent Google and Apple from charging software developers’ commissions on in-app purchases, the first of its kind in the world. The final vote by all members of… Source link

Google is expanding the scope of its AI-powered Smart Reply feature to suggest responses to comments in Google Docs. It will be rolling out in the coming weeks to all users and will be turned on by default, though you can disable it via Tools > Preferences > Show Smart Reply suggestions. It’s the latest territory claimed by Google’s AI Smart Reply and Smart Compose features. The latter is already available in Gdocs and elsewhere, while the former lurks most prominently in your Gmail… Source link

Enlarge / Take the Google Messaging quiz! Can you name all the icons? Ron Amadeo Google Talk, Google’s first-ever instant messaging platform, launched on August 24, 2005. This company has been in the messaging business for 16 years, meaning Google has been making messaging clients for longer than some of its rivals have existed. But thanks to a decade and a half of nearly constant strategy changes, competing product launches, and internal… Source link

TOKYO — Yahoo Japan will vacate 40% of its Tokyo office space by November as it expects the COVID-necessitated work-from-home trend to gain permanence. The subsidiary of SoftBank-backed Z Holdings will return about 30,000 sq. meters, more than four soccer fields worth, of office space, when leases expire. It will empty out seven of 20 floors at its Kioi Tower headquarters, in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward, and all five floors that it has in Akasaka K Tower, in Minato Ward. Only about 10% of Yahoo’s… Source link

TOKYO — Yahoo Japan will vacate 40% of its Tokyo office space by November as it expects the COVID-necessitated work-from-home trend to gain permanence. The subsidiary of SoftBank-backed Z Holdings will return about 30,000 sq. meters, more than four soccer fields worth, of office space, when leases expire. It will empty out seven of 20 floors at its Kioi Tower headquarters, in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward, and all five floors that it has in Akasaka K Tower, in Minato Ward. Only about 10% of Yahoo’s… Source link

Russian internet search engine Yandex said customers can now block spam calls using its Yandex application. The application includes a function that automatically defines telephone numbers; it can recognise advertising calls from financial service providers, as well as other unwanted calls, including fraud calls or calls from debt collectors, for example. The company says the option can block 70 percent of spam calls. Source link

This article first appeared in the Morning Brief. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe Wednesday, August 25, 2021 S&P 500 targets are rising left and right The calendar today reads August 25, but it’s starting to feel like the year is over.  Starbucks (SBUX) unleashed its Pumpkin Spice Latte on the masses Monday; the chain’s holiday-themed cups are now right around the corner. And Wall Street strategists have been issuing revised… Source link

A 3D printed Google logo is placed on the Apple Macbook in this illustration taken April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo SEOUL, Aug 25 (Reuters) – A South Korean parliamentary committee voted on Wednesday to recommend amending a law, a key step toward banning Google and Apple from forcibly charging software developers commissions on in-app purchases, the first such curb by a major economy. Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google have faced global criticism… Source link