Good morning! Here is the tech news you need to know this Tuesday.
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10 things in tech you need to know today
Google's Alphabet announced its second quarter results, an Uber-like startup raised $2 billion in South East Asia, and Microsoft plans to end support for Paint.
Microsoft's HoloLens.
1. Google's parent company Alphabet announced its second quarter earnings results, beating Wall Street's general expectations thanks to $26.01 billion (£19.9 billion) in revenue, a 21% year-over-year increase. However, some investors still expected more, and the company's stock fell about 3% as a result.
2. Grab, a ride-hailing service that operates primarily in South East Asia, announced that it has raised $2 billion (£1.5 billion) from Japanese tech investor Softbank as well as its Chinese counterpart, Didi Chuxing. The company's hope is to raise another half-billion to bring the total investment to $2.5 billion (£1.9 billion), which would make it the biggest investment in a South East Asian tech startup.
3. Microsoft is planning to phase out its famous graphics editing program, Paint, after 32 years. The app won't disappear all at once, and the Redmond company promised it will be available to download from the Microsoft Store, however support for it will end when the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update starts rolling out later this year.
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4. Facebook has bought a content rights startup, Source3, to help fight video pirates who share illegally downloaded videos in private. Source3, which owns a technology that identifies intellectual properties shared without permission, will be fully integrated into Facebook and not operate as a standalone unit.
5. Microsoft is working on a second version of the HoloLens mixed reality headset, and is planning to integrate an AI-powered chip in it. The company aims to run artificial intelligence tasks directly on the device, without relying on the cloud, which is why it needs the power and optimisation only a self-designed silicon can offer.
6. Google's CEO Sundar Pichai is joining the board of parenting company Alphabet. Pichai served as CEO of Google since the birth of Alphabet in 2015, replacing Larry Page, and is now being added as Alphabet's thirteenth member of the board.
7. A Microsoft AI-powered chatbot, "Zo," has gone off-script and is insulting the company's own Windows operating system (OS). Zo is not only claiming older versions of the OS are better than the more modern ones, but also straight up saying that some are "Windows' latest attempt at spyware."
8. Spotify is getting closer to striking a deal with Warner Music, the last big music royalty deal it would need before its US listing. The Swedish startup sought to increase its revenue cut by promising to make new album releases available only to paying Premium customers, and it now seems likely that an agreement will be formally reached by September.
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9. Workers at Facebook's cafeterias at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California are unionising to ask for increased wages, as they claim they can't afford to live in Silicon Valley with their current pay. The company didn't stop the union, but didn't confirm whether it would reevaluate the $15 (£11) minimum wage either.
10. iRobot, the company behind the Roomba vacuum, has been collecting data of people's houses and is now hoping to sell it to improve the future of smart house technologies.The company is reportedly looking to strike a deal with Amazon, Apple and Alphabet (Google).
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