Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 121

Microsoft has posted a tweet that was an ad for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on the Xbox One X which has caused much controversy surrounding the image, as it appears to be stolen, or at least heavily influenced from a Redditor's concept art.

The company is currently being accused by many people for 'stealing' Redditor Macsterrs concept art as his own image is almost identical to that of the one posted by Microsoft. As seen in the above image we can see that there is very strong resemblance between the two pictures, as both consist of an Xbox One X with a Battlegrounds character placed in the middle huddling in some grass.

The only differences or changes that Microsoft have done to the image is that they have changed the camera view of the image as well as added an Xbox One X controller and a small loot crate located to the right of the character. These small additions to the already highly popular image circling Reddit had has caused people to say that even if Microsoft did steal the image that they should of at least given credit to the artist that designed the idea.

Wu Xiangyang, a local Chinese man has been seized by authorities for running a unauthorized VPN service which bypassed China's 'Great Firewall.'

The Great Firewall is a system that has been employed by the Chinese government to block sites and services that the Chinese government has not authorized, examples of this are YouTube, Facebook, Google and many others.

Due to internet users only being able to access government authorized sites privacy activists have come fourth explaining that this is a violation of online human rights. They say this because under the Chinese government laws they have the ability to save and store logs from each authorized service.

There is one woman on the planet that can easily say she had the biggest electricity bill ever, or alternatively she's an evil mastermind that is about to take over the world by building killer robots, or something.

Mary Horomanski from Erie, Pennsylvania, recently logged onto her online utility account where she saw a balance of $284,000,000,000 - yes, $284 billion. Horomanski was interviewed by local news outlet GoErie, where she said: "My eyes just about popped out of my head. We had put up Christmas lights and I wondered if we had put them up wrong".

But don't worry, the utility company only wanted $28,156 up front, and would give the family 12 months to pay the $284 billion bill. Mary's son contacted the utility company, where they were quick to fix the bill which eventually came down to a respectable $284.46.

Google has upgraded their AI service Google Assistant but this time not silently, new languages and device actions have been added and will allow for further customization across SDK devices.

Google has expanded their Google Assistant SDK toolkit, it now supports additional languages and locations which grants users the ability to change their settings to the following languages English (Australia, Canada, UK, US), French (Canada, France), German, and Japanese.

Google has said that "one of the most prominent questions we received was "how can I ask the Assistant to control my device?" and to answer this question Google has updated the SDK with a new utility called 'Device Action' which has the functionality to be able to build user created actions and implement them straight into a Assistant-enabled device.

Eric Schmidt, now the former executive chairman at Alphabet's board of directors has stepped down from his leading position to transition into a new role of advising issues regarding "science and technology."

Larry Page, the CEO of Alphabet has come forward and spoken on the job transition "Since 2001, Eric has provided us with business and engineering expertise and a clear vision about the future of technology, continuing his 17 years of service to the company, he'll now be helping us as a technical advisor on science and technology issues. I'm incredibly excited about the progress our companies are making, and about the strong leaders who are driving that innovation."

Schmidt has said that he has been spending quite some time on science and technology issues and believes this area is the next area he would like to expand his work in "In recent years, I've been spending a lot of my time on science and technology issues, and philanthropy, and I plan to expand that work."

Recently there has been a lot of fire between the two titan companies Amazon and Google, product disagreements have surfaced and many discussions have taken place but now we might see a strike at Google's YouTube as Amazon has filed trademark requests for the following titles, Amazon Tube and Open Tube.

Amazon has recently re-listed Googles chromecast as a result of Google pulling YouTube from Amazon FireTV and all Echo Shows, still in constant discussion to reach a verdict Amazon might not want/need YouTube as a service on their platforms, as the company might just go and make their own.

On the same day as Google announcing that YouTube will be discontinued from Amazon services on January 1 we learn that Amazon has filed for two new trademarks 'Amazon Tube' and 'Open Tube', both have descriptions extremely similar to that of YouTubes.

A new Apple store is opening up in Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia, the location of the store is in a public place and in the heart of the city. According to The Federation Square website the store is scheduled for an opening in 2020 and will be the most significant store in the Southern Hemisphere.

The new store will be 500 square meters of new public space and will connect Federation Square with the Yarra River and Birrarung Marr. Based on the above renderings Apple will be replacing the old Yarra building with the new one, which will have glass windows surrounding it allowing for a sight for customers over the Yarra River.

Angela Ahrendts, the retail chief at Apple has told The Australian that the store will be a "bespoke design concept" and have "extensive landscaping."

Waymo is the mists of striking a insurance bargain with Trov, a insurance start-up concentrating on protecting riders using the upcoming self driving hailing service. Trov will be protecting riders by covering health expenses that result from rides and or any possesions lost throughout the transition of the trip.

Trovs insurance will invisible to riders using the service as the deal Waymo has struck with the insurance company is a bundled package within the overall cost of the service making Trov operate behind the scenes out of sight.

This is a massive step towards the normalization of self-driving cars being used throughout society, many people will feel a lot more safer knowing that they are covered completely if there happens to be a collision, thus resulting in a overall increase of use for the service.

French newspaper Le Pariksien has reported that a complaint has been made with the Paris Commerce Court against e-commerce super-giant Amazon for abusing their dominate position in the market.

This complaint will cause a two year investigation into Amazon from the DGCCRF which is a consumer fraud investigation company. The Economy Ministry is seeking a retribution stack of $10 million euros ($11.8 million USD), and they have also confirmed this complaint to be true and not taken as a warning.

A DGCCRF official named Loic Tanguy told Le Parisien that "The platform imposes unbalanced relations to its vendors."

For those who still use BlackBerry's Messenger app there has been an update that most will enjoy, Uber has become a in-built service within the app making for fast Uber calls and easier access.

It may seem strange as to why Uber and BlackBerry want to collaborate on what seems like a not so popular app let alone phone brand but for those wondering it is because currently there are 60 million users using the app in Indonesia alone, making it the most used app in the country.

Also, this update compliments the current surge in self driving vehicle services that India is going through right now, according to a report from Google and Temasek, 40 percent of the industry in South East Asia will become a ride-hailing business.