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Buy now, pay later: Apple will now lend you money to keep you spending and expand its empire

Apple has joined the thriving "buy now, pay later" industry, with a customized service called Apple Pay Later. The service was announced earlier this week at the 2022 Worldwide Developers Conference, and will initially be launched in the United States later this year. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-apple-money-empire.html

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Disney pulls blockbuster from French cinemas in streaming row

Disney will not release blockbuster animation "Strange World" in French cinemas, it said Wednesday, in protest against the country's strict streaming rules. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-disney-blockbuster-french-cinemas-streaming.html

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China approves 60 new games, sparking hopes tech crackdown is ending

China has approved the release of dozens of new video games, boosting the shares of some of its biggest tech firms Wednesday on hopes that a long-running and painful crackdown on the sector is easing. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-china-games-tech-crackdown.html

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Amazon says it prevented 4 billion bad listings in 2021

Amazon, which has been under increasing pressure to tackle counterfeit products, said in its second-annual report that it prevented 4 billion bad listings from making it onto its site and got rid of more than 3 million phony products last year. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-amazon-billion-bad.html

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Raytheon to establish global headquarters in Virginia

Aerospace and defense company Raytheon Technologies will establish a global headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, the company announced Tuesday. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-raytheon-global-headquarters-virginia.html

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Bank of Jamaica to launch nationwide digital currency

The Bank of Jamaica is preparing to issue a nationwide digital currency for the first time in its history following recent approval from legislators. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-bank-jamaica-nationwide-digital-currency.html

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Apple debuts pay-later service, iPhone updates to developers

Apple Inc. unveiled a flurry of new software features and services at its Worldwide Developers Conference, including an updated iPhone lock screen, multitasking features for the iPad and a pay-later service that vaults it further into finance. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-apple-debuts-pay-later-iphone.html

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Texas attorney general opens investigation of Twitter bots

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he opened an investigation of Twitter, claiming the social media platform may be misleading people with false reporting of its bot accounts, violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-texas-attorney-twitter-bots.html

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EU agrees single charger standard, in blow to Apple

European officials on Tuesday agreed the text of a proposed EU law imposing a standard charger for smartphones, tablets and laptops sold in the bloc, in a blow to Apple. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-eu-charger-standard-apple.html

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Amid crypto turmoil, senators propose sweeping oversight

Wide-ranging bipartisan legislation unveiled Tuesday would regulate cryptocurrencies and other digital assets following a series of high-profile busts and failures. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-crypto-turmoil-senators-oversight.html

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EXPLAINER: Is Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter falling apart?

Elon Musk on Monday threatened to walk away from his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter, the latest sign that his plan to overhaul the social media platform may really be starting to fray. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-elon-musk-twitter-falling.html

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Apple offers glimpse at upcoming changes to iPhone software

Apple on Monday provided a peek at upcoming tweaks to the software that powers more than 1 billion iPhones and rolled out two laptops that will be the first available with the next generation of a company-designed microprocessor. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-apple-glimpse-upcoming-iphone-software.html

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New York bill targets Amazon's use of productivity quotas

New York lawmakers have passed a bill targeting the use of warehouse productivity quotas in the state, a move aiming to curtail metrics employed by Amazon that has come under more scrutiny in the past few years. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-york-bill-amazon-productivity-quotas.html

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For NFT collectors, there's a fine line between buzz and boredom

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are all the rage, with collectors spending vast sums—in some cases, tens of millions of dollars—to own and trade unique digital images. For researchers, that offers a rare opportunity to study the way that people learn about new marketplaces and assign value to different categories of assets. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-nft-collectors-fine-line-boredom.html

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Making blockchains more efficient: Calculate a useful task as part of the consensus mechanism

A combined team of researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Tsinghua University has found a possible way to make blockchain processing more efficient—by calculating something useful as part of the consensus mechanism. In their paper published in the journal Nature Energy, the group suggests a useful task that could fit the bill would involve calculations engaged in optimizing energy systems. Mahmoud Mahmoud, with North Carolina A&T State University, has published a News & Views piece in the same journal issue outlining the work done by the team in China. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-blockchains-efficient-task-consensus-mechanism.html

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Musk threatens to walk away from Twitter deal

Elon Musk is threatening to walk away from his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter, accusing the company of refusing to give him information about its spam bot accounts. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-musk-threatens-twitter.html

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Spain eyes crackdown on video game 'loot boxes'

Spain's government will within days present a draft bill to regulate video game "loot boxes" for which users must pay, a minister said Friday, warning of the addiction risks for youngsters. source https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-spain-eyes-crackdown-video-game.html