Computers/Consumer Electronics

Anyone who listens to Beethoven as much as Beyoncé knows it is basically impossible to find the perfect recording of your favorite violinist playing in the best concert hall with the ideal conductor.  The world’s richest company released a sleek new product this week that was years in the making and had to meet its exacting standards before it was ready to be used by millions of people. But it wasn’t a phone, a gadget or an AI chatbot. The latest innovation from Apple was a better way of listening to…

HONG KONG—Eighteen months ago, she was a high-profile symbol of a bigger tech battle between China and the U.S. Now, she is set to take the helm of a Chinese telecommunications company at the leading edge of the country’s push to break free from dependence on America for key technologies. Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer at Huawei Technologies Co., is set to begin a six-month rotation as company chairwoman after presenting annual results on Friday in Shenzhen, China. Her rising stature…

Electronic Arts Inc. EA 0.99% said it is laying off about 6% of its workforce and reducing its office-space footprint to focus its spending on the best growth opportunities in the videogame industry. The maker of hit franchises such as “Madden NFL” and “The Sims” didn’t specify how many people would be let go or from which departments. In the middle of last year, it said it had nearly 13,000 employees. That would translate into around…

Microsoft Corp. MSFT 1.39% patched a dangerous security issue in Bing last month just days before it launched a new artificial intelligence-powered version of the search engine. The problem was discovered by outside researchers at the security firm Wiz Inc. It was created by a mistake in the way that Microsoft configured applications on Azure, its cloud-computing platform, and could be used to gain access to emails and other documents…

He used to be boss of a tech giant. Now he’s studying fish and rice.After he appeared to fall out of favor with China’s leadership following a 2020 speech he gave that criticized financial regulations, Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. , has generally kept a low profile. Outside the public eye, the 58-year-old multibillionaire, who stepped down as Alibaba’s executive chairman in 2019, has been quietly building a life that includes earnest…

When a payment app goes ding, we expect it’s somebody giving us money—or wanting money from us. It also could be someone we don’t want to hear from.Alexuis Baremore was asleep in her High Point, N.C., apartment early on Jan. 27 when Cash App’s coin-dropping alert woke her up. The 28-year-old slid her arm under her pillows to feel around for her phone, held it to her face…and then rolled her eyes. Her ex-boyfriend, whom she had blocked months earlier on social media and in her phone’s contact list, sent her $1 with just…

Ryan Cohen  took control of GameStop Corp. in 2021 vowing to transform the faltering videogame retailer into an e-commerce juggernaut.Meme-stock investors loved the idea. Ordinary consumers, it turns out, did not. E-commerce sales didn’t take off—they declined. Losses grew, and a succession of online-sales executives Mr. Cohen brought in left.  Last year, to little fanfare, the billionaire investor reversed course and slammed the brakes on the e-commerce push to refocus…

The metaverse that was the hot thing in tech less than two years ago has cooled.  Meanwhile, the price for virtual real estate in some online worlds, where users can hang out as avatars, has cratered. The median sale price for land in Decentraland has declined almost 90% from a year ago, according to WeMeta, a site that tracks land sales in the metaverse. Meta’s name change in October 2021 spurred excitement about metaverse experiences, products and platforms. But slow user adoption, driven in part by…

Apple Inc. AAPL -0.76% has introduced its buy now, pay later service in the U.S., marking the tech company’s latest foray into financial services.  The new program, called Apple Pay Later, allows consumers to split purchases into four payments spread over six weeks with no interest and no fees. People using the iPhone’s Wallet app can borrow anywhere from $50 to $1,000 using Apple Pay Later.  The service can be used to…

If ChatGPT is your crazy Uncle Leo, Google’s Bard is your goodie-two-shoes Aunt Martha. You know, the one who covers her couch with plastic.On Tuesday, Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG -2.83% Google released its artificial-intelligence chatbot contender, an answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft Corp.’s Bing chatbot, which uses OpenAI technology. As with those others, you type a prompt into Bard and out pops prose that’s likely better than your last texting convo. It can answer…