After scrapping last year's I/O developer conference because of the pandemic, Google used this year's event Tuesday to debut a more personalized version of Android and a big update for wearables, as well as a potential breakthrough in videoconferencing, among other advances.
Why it matters: Beyond showcasing new technologies, events like I/O and Apple's upcoming Worldwide Developer Conference serve as a chance to influence where other businesses large and small place their energy and resources.
Riot Games is suspending "Valorant" pro player Jay "Sinatraa" Won for six months "for failing to fully cooperate" with a sexual harassment investigation.
Why it matters: Won is a former Overwatch League MVP, and one of the most prolific "Valorant" competitors. In March, Riot suspended Won after former girlfriend Cleo Hernandez came forward with graphic allegations of emotional and physical abuse, which included audio recordings.
Chinese telecom giant Huawei is finding plenty of government buyers for its cloud services despite growing suspicion of the company, according to new data compiled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Reconnecting Asia Project.
The big picture: Middle-income countries without strong civil freedoms are the most common customers for Huawei's cloud and e-government services.
Amazon is reportedly in talks to acquire MGM Holdings, the legendary Hollywood studio, according to The Information. The deal could cost between $7 billion and $10 billion.
Why it matters: This would be Amazon's biggest move yet into entertainment.
Yesterday's news that AT&T is offloading its WarnerMedia assets into a joint venture with Discovery is far from a surprise since buying a media company in the name of vertical "synergies" has rarely ended well.
Case in point: WarnerMedia itself merged in 1990 with Time Inc. to create Time Warner.
China is home to most of Apple's manufacturing and accounts for a significant and growing share of its sales. At the same time, doing business in China requires the company to make significant concessions that run counter to the company's positioning as a protector of the "human right" of privacy.
Between the lines: Apple says that it's simply following local laws in China, as it does elsewhere. However, China's "local laws" require granting the government access to a great deal of user content, as well as severely limiting what can be said about a wide range of issues, from Taiwan and Tibet to mentions of the 1989 Tienanmen Square uprising.
Google is among several big U.S. companies criticized in a report Monday for taking part in an April meeting of Republican state leaders that focused on efforts to pass new restrictions on voting.
Why it matters: Google has publicly said it is opposed to bills that would make voting harder, but it's also trying to engage with both Democrats and Republicans and some of that latter group are working hard to pass such bills in a number of states.
As outrage about the conflict in Gaza and misinformation about clashes between Palestinians and Israelis snowball online, social media companies face yet another test of their capacity to manage their platforms.
Why it matters: Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians haven't been this high since the last round of combat in Gaza in 2014, and social media has become a much larger part of our everyday lives and media diets since then.
A group of editorial employees at gaming outlet IGN is calling for corporate management to restore a deleted article that had urged support for the Palestinians.
Why it matters: The controversy over an unexpected public plea for Palestinian relief from the world's biggest video game media outlet has now become a dispute over the limits of editorial freedom.
Zach Perret, the CEO of payments infrastructure company Plaid, is raising $30 million for a venture capital fund called Mischief, according to an SEC filing. His partner is Lauren Farleigh, founder of defunct Gen Z shopping app Dote and an angel investor in such companies as Faire and Modern Fertility.
Why it matters: Plaid is now valued at $13.4 billion, after federal antitrust regulators blocked a proposed $5.3 billion acquisition by Visa.
Parler, the controversial social media app popular among conservatives, is back on the Apple App Store after being booted for its content moderation policies.
Context: Parler was kicked off the App Store after Apple deemed its content moderation policies inadequate in the wake of the January 6 Capitol riot.
Twitch is rolling out new localized subscription pricing abroad, its VP of monetization, Mike Minton, told Axios. Every new subscription price will be lower than the current $4.99 fee, which will remain in the U.S.
Why it matters: "We heard around world that price point not attainable," Minton told Axios. "In Latin America, for example, 80% can’t support streamers in the same way as people can in the U.S. because of the price." Minton said Twitch's subscription price hadn't changed in seven years.
If you run a hospital, a bank, a utility or a city, chances are you'll be hit with a ransomware attack. Given the choice between losing your precious data or paying up, chances are you'll pay.
Why it matters: Paying the hackers is the clear short-term answer for most organizations hit with these devastating attacks, but it's a long-term societal disaster, encouraging hackers to continue their lucrative extortion schemes.
Representatives for Bill Gates pushed back on claims Sunday that he left Microsoft's board because of an earlier sexual relationship and against two other reports detailing more extensive ties with Jeffrey Epstein than had previously been reported.
Driving the news: Microsoft said in an emailed statement to Axios that it "received a concern" in 2019 that its co-founder "sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000," but denied a Wall Street Journal report that its board members thought Gates should resign over the matter.
