WSJ Tech News Briefing

Tech News Briefing is your guide to what people in tech are talking about. Every weekday, we’ll bring you breaking tech news and scoops from the pros at the Wall Street Journal, insight into new innovations and policy debates, tips from our personal tech team, and exclusive interviews with movers and shakers in the industry.

Tech News
News
2351
Twitter Fizzling After Election-Fueled Growth
Twitter posted no real increase in users after getting a bump three months ago from the U.S. presidential election, stressing the growing challenges the social-media company faces. The Wall Street Journal's Georgia Wells has more.
4 min
2352
How Amazon's Jeff Bezos Became World's Richest ...
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos's net worth topped $90 billion on Thursday morning, allowing him to dethrone Microsoft's Bill Gates as the richest man in the world. The Wall Street Journal's Laura Stevens talks what this means for Amazon's ever-growing momentum.
4 min
2353
Amazon's Job Fair: Now Hiring 50,000 Positions
The Wall Street Journal's Laura Stevens talks Amazon's giant job fair around the country as the tech giant pushes to make good on its pledge to hire 130,000 employees.
4 min
2354
8 Biggest Tech Hubs for $100,000+ Tech Jobs
The Wall Street Journal's Josh Zumbrun talks about the leading tech cities for higher-wage tech jobs, and why expensive prices in metro areas aren't enough to stop its growing momentum.
5 min
2355
Lego Boost Review: Creating Kid Coders
With the new Lego Boost kit making classic Lego bricks come to life with programmable motors and sensors, the Wall Street Journal's Geoffrey Fowler talks how encouraging kids to code has become a big trend among toys and apps.
6 min
2356
Net-Neutrality: New Hope in Finding Common Grou...
An influential House committee chairman is aiming to pass compromise net-neutrality legislation, seeking common ground between high-tech and telecommunications firms that have battled for a decade over internet governance rules. John D. McKinnon has the latest.
5 min
2357
Robotic Breakthrough: Boxing Your Online Order
Facing more pressure to speed orders more quickly to customers, a rising number of companies are using high-tech robots in their manufacturing process. The Wall Street Journal's Brian Baskin talks how this shakes up the e-commerce and traditional retail industries.
4 min
2358
PayPal, J.P. Morgan Deal Shakes Up Mobile Payme...
J.P. Morgan Chase and PayPal, two of the highest-profile companies providing mobile wallets in the U.S., will now be partners as well as competitors under terms of a new deal. The Wall Street Journal's Peter Rudegeair has the latest.
4 min
2359
Lyft Shifts Gears With New Driverless-Car Divis...
As Lyft announces plans to launch its own driver-less car division, the Wall Street Journal's Greg Bensinger talks where this leaves the always competitive self driving car race.
4 min
2360
Elon Musk Tweets New York-to-D.C. Hyperloop Tea...
With billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeting that he got "verbal" government approval for his ambitious New York-to-D.C. Hyperloop project, the Wall Street Journal's Tim Higgins explains why he may have raised more questions than he answered.
4 min
2361
Can Samsung's Bixby Take on Apple's Siri, Amazo...
With a new talking sidekick arriving on millions of Samsung Galaxy S8 phones this week, the Wall Street Journal's Geoffrey Fowler breaks down what makes chatting with Bixby different from Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant.
5 min
2362
Do Twitter's Rules Apply to Trump's Tweets?
With President Donald Trump's tweets raising questions about a violation of Twitter's rules, the Wall Street Journal's Georgia Wells talk how the the social network's anti-harassment campaign forces the company to confront tricky questions about how it applies standards.
5 min
2363
Google Tries Again With Glass Headset
Google is relaunching Glass, its head-worn computer, by targeting corporate customers and dubbing the device, "Glass Enterprise Edition." The Wall Street Journal's Laura Stevens has the details.
4 min
2364
The Rise of the Retail Robots
Amid increasing pressure from Amazon, Wal-Mart and other large retailers are turning to technology to do workers' rote tasks. The Wall Street Journal's Sarah Nassauer has the latest.
4 min
2365
Best Way to Back Up Photos on Your iPhone
Is your smartphone constantly telling you there's no more storage? Michael Hsu, Gear & Gadgets editor for The Wall Street Journal's Off Duty section, breaks down three free and paid ways to easily copy your photos and videos to the cloud before safely deleting them.
4 min
2366
Netflix Soars Thanks to Big Subscriber Gains
Netflix blew through its subscriber-growth estimate, proving that big bets on original programming and international expansion are paying off. The Wall Street Journal's Austen Hufford has the latest.
5 min
2367
Will Apple Test Mass Market With New iPhone Des...
As rumors circulate that Apple's new iPhone will arrive late -- and at a much higher price, the Wall Street Journal's Dan Gallagher talks whether the tech giant can keep its appeal with the mass market as it scrambles to get the device done.
5 min
2368
Elon Musk Pushes to Regulate AI's 'Existential ...
Elon Musk warned a gathering of U.S. governors about several worst-case scenarios for AI, saying that the technology "is the biggest risk that we face as a civilization." The Wall Street Journal's Tim Higgins has the latest.
5 min
2369
Visa's Big Push to Go Digital
The Wall Street Journal's AnnaMaria Andriotis discusses Visa's offer to small businesses to upgrade payment technology and stop taking cash, as well as its broader effort to steer us away from using paper money.
6 min
2370
Too Many Robocalls? FCC Offers New Hope
With hits running at a rate of more than 2.5 billion a month, technology advances continue to make robocalls cheap and easy to place. The Wall Street Journal's John D. McKinnon talks the FCC's latest move to curb these unwanted calls.
4 min
2371
Self-Driving Car Makers' Roadblock? Digital Map...
The Wall Street Journal's Tim Higgins talks how restrictions on digital mapping by overseas firms in China present hurdles to non-Chinese vehicle and tech companies.
5 min
2372
Hi-Tech Airport Screening: Hope for Faster Secu...
Two different airport-screening changes-one high-tech, one very low-show promise at speeding up security lines and improving accuracy at finding weapons. The Wall Street Journal's Scott McCartney has the latest.
7 min
2373
Tovala: The Oven Reinventing TV Dinners
The Wall Street Journal's Geoffrey Fowler talks the new Tovala meal kit, which aims to reinvent the TV dinner by shipping meals to your home that are ready to cook in a special steam oven.
5 min
2374
Google's Academic Influence Campaign: Paying Pr...
Reporter Jack Nicas discusses the Wall Street Journal's report about Google's little-known program that harnesses the brain power of university researchers to help sway opinion and public policy.
6 min
2375
Microsoft's Tries TV 'White Space' to Close Dig...
The Wall Street Journal's Jay Greene talks how Microsoft is pushing for "TV white-space technology," and why it may be the key to solving the digital divide between U.S. cities and rural areas.
5 min