NEWSWORTHY
Line Pay ¥30 billion campaign will allow users to send free ¥1,000 to all their friends
Line has about 80 million active users in Japan, of which about 32 million are registered Line Pay users, according to the firm.
Researchers have created a way for a smartphone to "hear" a warning sign of ear infections — fluid buildup behind the eardrum. If it pans out, parents might one day check their tots' ears at home simply using a phone app and "stuff you have ...
In setback for Apple, U.S. Supreme Court lets App Store antitrust suit proceed
A divided U.S. Supreme Court has given the go-ahead to an antitrust lawsuit accusing Apple Inc. of forcing consumers to overpay for iPhone software applications, a decision that could lead to billions of dollars in damages and put the company's lucrative way of selling ...
'Shooting for big game': Softbank's push for transport dominance
SoftBank Group Corp. leader Masayoshi Son has much bigger ambitions for transportation than simply seeing his investment in Uber Technologies Inc. turn into more than $13 billion when the company goes public next month. The Japanese entrepreneur is placing a $60 billion bet in more ...
Pornography concerns prompt Indian court to ban downloads of Chinese video app TikTok
The Chinese video app TikTok is no longer available on Google and Apple app stores in India after a state court prohibited its downloads, a setback for developer ByteDance Technology’s efforts to tap users in a key market. TikTok, which allows users to create and ...
Osaka begins trial of smartphone disaster information app for tourists from overseas ahead of G20
After a number of natural disasters hit the area last summer, a government bureau in western Japan began trials Monday for a multilingual smartphone-based service to provide overseas tourists with disaster information. The service, operated by the Kinki Bureau of Telecommunications in Osaka, will ultimately ...
The complex fortune growing inside Bytedance, the world's most valuable startup
Software engineer Zhang Yiming started out producing apps for sharing jokes before focusing on news aggregation. That pivot proved lucrative. The 35-year-old founder of Bytedance Ltd. is worth about $13 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him China's ninth-richest person and one of ...
Google barred from LGBT+ equality index over 'life-threatening' app
One of the top U.S. LGBT charities ejected Google from a gay and transgender rights ranking on Thursday for hosting an app that advises people on how to "recover" from same-sex attraction. Human Rights Campaign suspended the tech company from its Corporate Equality Index, which ...
Upgrades in space: Smartphone-like software starts to bring satellites greater capabilities
Once a traditional satellite is launched into space, its physical hardware and computer software stay mostly immutable for the rest of its existence as it orbits the Earth, even as the technology it serves on the ground continues to change. Just as some aerospace startups ...
'East of the Rockies': Reliving Japanese-Canadian internment
Innovative augmented reality storytelling app introduces users to the dark history of Japanese-Canadian internment during World War II, via a touching tale by Joy Kogawa.
New York probing Facebook on gathering of intimate data from apps: source
New York regulators are probing Facebook's gathering of intimate consumer data such as menstrual cycles and body weight through smartphone applications, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday. Facebook, meanwhile, confirmed it had received a letter from New York state's Department of Financial Services ...
Nagoya student tracks classical and jazz gigs for music fans across Japan
A student at Nagoya University's Graduate School of Information Science has developed an online platform for music fans that keeps them update on classical and jazz concerts by musician and venue. Kanji Toyama, 24, named the service Sonoligo after his startup Sonoligo Inc., which incorporates ...
