Every Thursday we hand the blog over to the smartest people at Vibrant to share what they’ve been reading and watching this week. All tech related of course! Tho, we’d love to think some Love Island has crept into their viewing habits.
This week there’s lots of fines, lots of fake news (not from us) and new partnership deals. Have a great Thursday!
Top Tech Stories This Week
Fork it! Google fined 4.34bn Euros over Android, has 90 days to behave
This one has dominated the headlines today. News that Google leveraged its platform dominance in Android to promote its own services and apps, at the expense of third-party services (says the European Commission) has resulted in a a very hefty fine. It has 90 days to mend its way or face further penalties of up to 5 per cent of the average daily worldwide turnover of parent firm Alphabet.
Facebook will begin taking down fake news intended to encourage violence
Under the new policy, text and image items that are flagged for”contributing to or exacerbating violence or physical harm” will be removed. Facebook will work with outside organizations as well as its own internal teams to detect these types of offensive items. Parties will have to confirm the information is false, and other groups may be asked to weigh in.
Microsoft and Walmart team up to take on Amazon
The five-year agreement will see Walmart use Azure and Microsoft 365 across the company, alongside new projects focused on machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data platforms.
Power to the drones: Utilities place bets on robots
Italy’s Snam, Europe’s biggest gas utility, and France’s RTE are just two of the many companies that are testing drones to fly ‘beyond the visual line of sight’ to detect damage and leaks. Michal Mazur, partner at consultancy PwC, said of drones “They’re 100 times faster than manual measurement, more accurate than helicopters and, with AI devices on board, could soon be able to fix problems.”