Shopify has acquired Threads.com, the Seqiuoa-backed Slack alternative, Threads said on its website. The companies didn’t disclose the terms of the deal but said that the Threads.com team will join Shopify.Threads added that after the launch of Meta’s social network with the same name last year, the startup had “the opportunity to sell our domains.” It is not clear if the startup sold the domain name to Meta, Shopify, or anyone else, but the note does indicate that it would have had to rebrand from Threads ...

Meta on Thursday said it is rolling out its Meta Verified program for WhatsApp Business users in Brazil, India, Indonesia and Colombia, and eventually to more countries. Subscription plans for this service start from $14 a month. The company is also adding more features to its messaging service for businesses, and letting companies use their APIs to service customers over calls inside of the app. Meta launched its verification program for creators in March 2023 and extended it to businesses in September 20 ...

Last year, during the Q3 2023 earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg talked about leveraging AI to have business accounts respond to customers for purchase and support queries. Today, Meta announced AI-powered features for WhatsApp Business apps, such as helping with the creation of click-to-WhatsApp ads and generating responses to frequent customer messages.Mark Zuckerberg announced these tools at the company’s Meta Connect conference in Brazil today. He noted that that apart from building consumer-facing bots on ...

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference next week promises to be a pivotal moment in the iPhone maker’s history. Though the Vision Pro debuted at last year’s event, don’t expect hardware to be the main attraction at WWDC 2024, which kicks off Monday at 10 a.m. PT. WWDC is for developers, and much of the focus will be on iOS 18. The Cupertino tech giant will showcase how it’s chosen to integrate AI technology into its devices and software, including through a historic partnership with OpenAI. As the big even ...

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is officially on its way to the International Space Station, marking a historic first for the long-delayed astronaut transportation program. Inside the spacecraft are two NASA astronauts — spaceflight veterans Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — who are set to arrive to the station on Thursday. The spacecraft lifted off at 10:55 a.m. ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center aboard an Atlas V rocket from United Launch Alliance (a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture). The lift-off come ...

Group 1 - Alphabet has appointed Anat Ashkenazi, the CFO of Eli Lilly and Company, as its new chief financial officer [1] - Ashkenazi will assume her role at Alphabet on July 31, 2024, after spending 23 years at Eli Lilly [1] - The announcement follows the departure of current CFO Ruth Porat, who has been in the position since joining from Morgan Stanley [1]

Microsoft’s education-focused flavor of its cloud productivity suite, Microsoft 365 Education, is facing investigation in the European Union where privacy rights non-profit noyb has just lodged two complaints with Austria’s data protection authority. The complaints target use of Microsoft’s cloud software by schools. The first one focuses on transparency and legal basis issues. noyb says it’s concerned minors’ data is being processed unlawfully — and its press release hits out at what it dubs “consistentl ...

GM’s Cruise is redeploying a small fleet of robotaxis in Dallas this week as part of the company’s previously stated goal to validate its self-driving systems and win back public trust.Dallas is the second city that Cruise is easing its way back into after pulling its entire U.S. fleet late last year, following an incident that left a pedestrian run over and dragged by a Cruise robotaxi in San Francisco. The California Department of Motor Vehicles immediately suspended Cruise’s permits to operate in the st ...

Meta has been banned from launching features on Facebook and Instagram that would have collected data on voters in Spain using the social networks ahead of next month’s European Elections. The local data protection authority, the AEPD, has used emergency powers to protect local users’ privacy. Meta confirmed to TechCrunch it has complied with the order, which can last for up to three months. In a statement about the “precautionary measure”, the AEPD wrote it has ordered Meta to suspend implementation of E ...

Amazon has received approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly its delivery drones longer distances, the company announced on Thursday. Amazon says it can now expand its Prime Air service, which uses delivery drones to fly individual packages, to more customers. The FAA requires that operators maintain a line of sight to their drones until it approves technology that can safely monitor and control them without visuals. Amazon says it spent years developing Beyond Visual Line of Sigh ...