Didi Chuxing, China’s dominant ride-hailing firm, is rolling out a range of financial and insurance services as it looks to fortify its service against a range of challenges in 2019.
The company announced today that it is adding “pro…
If you’ve conquered China, then India — the world’s second-largest country based on population — is the obvious next port of call, and that’s exactly what has happened in the world of consumer apps.
Following the lead of Chinese sm…
Qatar’s cabinet approved the establishment of a Microsoft global data center in the small Gulf country, state news agency QNA reported on Wednesday.
Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform, announced plans to expand into the Middle East for t…
Think you know tech? Square off against TechCrunch editors with 2018’s year in tech quiz.
TechCrunch's 2018 Year In Tech Quiz
Which was the first company in California to be granted a permit to allow driverless vehicles on public…
2018: BBC Tech's biggest stories and what happened next
By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor
30 December 2018
Share this with Facebook
Share this with Messenger
Share…
A cyber attack caused major printing and delivery disruptions on Saturday at the Los Angeles Times and other major U.S. newspapers, including ones owned by Tribune Publishing Co (TPCO.O) such as the Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun.
Th…
A camera-equipped drone will watch over New Year's Eve celebrations in New York City, the NYPD has confirmed.
It is the first time the force has used a surveillance drone to monitor the annual party in Times Square.
It will be tether…
MPEG LA announced today that patent holders in MPEG LA’s AVC/H.264 Patent Portfolio License have enforced verdicts of injunction in German District court (“Landgericht Dusseldorf”) cases finding that Huawei Deutschland GmbH (“Huawei”) and …
We spend a third of our lives either sleeping… or trying to get to sleep. But in the world of 24/7 living and artificial light, our sleep is increasingly under threat.
Many of us don’t get the recommended seven to nine hours we need ea…
When it comes to your personality, your nation of birth may not be your true home. Where in the world are people most like you?
This story is featured in BBC Future’s “Best of 2018” collection. Discover more of our picks.
Read m…
This year has been good for tech titles. Books like Bad Blood and Brotopia brought us some in-depth reporting on crashes and burns, while Stephen Hawking brought us his last thoughts. Here are some of our favorite tech titles for 2018.
We are living in an interstitial period. In the early 1980s we entered an era of desktop computing that culminated in the dot-com crash – a financial bubble that we bolstered with Y2K consulting fees and hardware expenditures alongside irr…
The Indian government is playing the role of festive party pooper for Walmart and Amazon after it announced new regulations that look set to impede the U.S. duo’s efforts to grow their businesses in India.
Online commerce in the countr…
Instagram has apologised after a test feature was accidentally rolled out to millions of people using its app.
The change meant moving through a feed had to be done by swiping horizontally rather than vertically.
Almost as soon as th…
Across the globe, a clutch of companies from Oxford, England to Redwood City, Calif. are working to commercialize a new solar technology that could further boost the adoption of renewable energy generation.
Earlier this year, Oxford P…
India will ban e-commerce companies such as Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and Walmart (WMT.N)-owned Flipkart Group from selling products from companies in which they have an equity interest.
In a statement, the government also said that the compa…
Short-seller Citron Research on Wednesday backed Facebook Inc, saying the stock could hit $160 in 2019 as the company’s revenue and user base have seen little impact from the reported data scandals and privacy issues this year.
Shares o…
Apple Inc will begin assembling its top-end iPhones in India through the local unit of Foxconn as early as 2019, the first time the Taiwanese contract manufacturer will have made the product in the country, according to a source familiar w…
There is a growing sense of unease among many smartphone owners about the amount of time we're spending on our devices.
Google told me that around 70% of the Android users it spoke to wanted to "find a better balance" in their tech use.…
News of high-profile cyber breaches has been uncharacteristically subdued in recent quarters. However, we recently learned that Marriott International/Starwood was the victim of the multi-year theft of personal information on up to 500 mil…
Data abuse has "darkened" technology's potential, the EU's Competition Commissioner has warned.
In an interview for the BBC's Today programme, Margrethe Vestager criticised the tech giants for misusing data and failing to respect citize…
The term “social network” has become a meaningless association of words. Pair those two words and it becomes a tech category, the equivalent of a single term to define a group of products.
But are social networks even social anymore? If…
WeChat, the Chinese messaging giant with over 1 billion monthly active users around the world, just added a Snap-like ephemeral video feature as part of its biggest overhaul since 2014.
The revamp comes as Tencent, which owns stakes …
There were countless gadgets released in 2018. It’s the end of the year, so Brian and I rounded up the best of the best and the worst of the worst.
Some where great! Like the Oculus Go. Or the Google Home Hub. But some were junk, like …
This was a bad year for the smartphone. For the first time, its seemingly unstoppable growth began to slow.
Things started off on a bad note in February, when Gartner recorded its first year-over-year decline since it began tracking t…
In this app-laden world, there is now a void. One so large, it will be difficult to fill. Perhaps, the Kardashians will reconsider.
The Kardashian sisters, specifically Kim Kardashian West, Khloé Kardashian and Kylie Jenner are shutt…
Twitter’s newest feature is reigniting the flame war between iOS and Android owners.
The U.S. social media company’s latest addition is a subtle piece of information that shows the client that each tweet is sent from. In doing so, the c…
Italy will offer subsidies of up to 6,000 euros ($6,820) to buyers of new low emission vehicles while slapping taxes on the purchase of larger petrol and diesel cars, according to measures approved in parliament.
The measures, contained…
Velodyne Adds Nikon Corporation as a Strategic Investor
Velodyne Lidar, Inc. (Velodyne), the inventor and leader of the lidar sensor industry for autonomous vehicles (AV), today announced Nikon Corporation (Nikon) as a new strategic inv…
Greene Tweed has announced the introduction of Chemraz® 663, a new compression-molded perfluroroelastomer (FFKM), engineered to withstand low-temperature Etch and Deposition applications where plasma resistance and maintaining sealing forc…
The suggestion there may not have been any drones at Gatwick Airport was a "miscommunication by police", a government source has told the BBC.
During a conference call between ministers, chaired by Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, it…
Drone "hot spots" in Australia are getting sensors to automatically identify the aircraft and their pilots.
Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Casa) said it would install the equipment at the nation's airports starting next mo…
If you’re concerned about what you eat, there’s a good chance you’ve looked at the food in the supermarket, or in your fridge, and wondered where it actually comes from. Now urban farming incubator Square Roots is introducing a new way for…
Apple has confirmed to The Verge that some iPad Pro models come slightly bent out of the box due to a manufacturing process. According to Apple, it shouldn’t impact your iPad in any way.
But if you buy a new iPad Pro, please make sur…
The app economy is continuing to grow, both in terms of app downloads and consumer spending. According to preliminary year-end data shared by App Annie, it’s predicting the number of global app downloads in 2018 will surpass 113 billion, …
A cyberattack has the power to paralyze cellular communications; alter or erase information in computerized systems; prevent access to computer servers; and directly harm a country’s economy and security by attacking its electricity networ…
IBM Research and agtech startup Hello Tractor have developed an AI and blockchain-driven platform for Africa’s farmers. The two companies will pilot the product in 2019 through an ongoing partnership co-financed by IBM.
Dubbed Digital Wa…
SoftBank’s Vision Fund is set to continue its recent spree of investments in Asian tech unicorns. The mega fund — which is targeted at $100 billion — is planning to invest upwards of $1 billion into Southeast Asia’s ride-hailing leader Gr…
Amazon.com Inc is going to lower some fees it charges third-party sellers on its marketplace, the company said on Thursday.
The marketplace unit allows third-party sellers, who account for over 50 percent of the total units sold on Amaz…
Chip supplier Qualcomm Inc won a second court skirmish in its worldwide patent battle with Apple Inc on Thursday, with the iPhone maker saying it would pull some older models from its German stores.
Qualcomm’s win in Germany comes weeks…
Rogue drones "deliberately" flown over one of the UK's busiest airports caused travel chaos this week.
Incoming planes were forced to divert to airports up and down the country as the drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), repeated…
Washington DC's top prosecutor is suing Facebook in the first significant US move to punish the firm for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, said…
Children as young as 14 are making thousands of pounds a week as part of a global hacking network built around the popular video game Fortnite.
About 20 hackers told the BBC they were stealing the private gaming accounts of players and …
Thousands of passengers have seen their flights from Gatwick Airport cancelled after two drones were spotted flying over the airfield within a 12-hour period.
The runway is currently shut as officials investigate.
So why has a drone …
In a new blog post, Facebook VP of Product Partnerships Ime Archibong addressed the company’s latest user privacy controversy. The rebuttal is the second round of Facebook’s push back against Tuesday’s report by the New York Times detaili…
WhatsApp is making group calls easier with a change to the way its mobile app works. Before, users would have to start a 1:1 video call, then add participants — there wasn’t an option to begin a group call at once, the company says. Now, t…
Volkswagen (VW) (VOWG_p.DE) is buying a controlling stake in Volvo’s (VOLVb.ST) WirelessCar, a digital service developer specializing in connected driving, for 1.1 billion Swedish crowns ($122 million), the companies said on Wednesday.
…
GE Connects Financing and Turbine Technology to its Flagship Onshore Wind Project in Sub-Sahara Africa
GE Energy Financial Services (GE EFS) and Renewable Energy partner to deliver 100MW wind power project in Kenya
GE’s flagship onsh…
Google has reportedly "effectively ended" plans for a censored search engine in China.
The Intercept, which revealed the existence of Project Dragonfly in August, says Google has been "forced to shut down a data analysis system it was u…
A little taste of 5G is coming early, courtesy of AT&T’s new mobile hotspot. The carrier announced this morning that it will be firing up limited 5G service in a dozen cities across the U.S. this Friday, currently only accessible via the N…