The Global Linkup is a summary roundup of important tech news curated from around the world. On this week’s edition of the global news round up, Facebook announced Facedate a new dating feature at F8, T-Mobile and Sprint are on the edge of a merger, France is being sued to court over a website and Jeff Bezos' plane is being tracked. Read on.
Keeping Up With Jeff Bezos
Amazon is searching for a second North American headquarters, otherwise known as HQ2 and it plans to invest $5 billion and create 50,000 jobs in this location. In January, it announced 20 finalist locations for the prize.
The Guardian reports that there are trackers on Jeff Bezos' 18-seat Gulfstream G650ER jet to determine where HQ2 will be located.
France seizes France.com and gets sued
For 24 years France.com has been a tourist and travel booking site but on the 12th of March, it suddenly went offline and redirected to the English version of the French government’s official website at France.fr.
According to The Verge, the previous owner Jean-Noel Frydman was surprised that a digital asset he registered in 1994 was being taking over forcefully. Courts in France ruled that the website belonged to the French government, but The New York Times reports that Jean-Noel Frydman is now suing the French government in America to get his website back.
Everything Facebook announced at its F8 Developer Conference
On Tuesday 1st of May, the 2018 edition of Facebook’s annual F8 Developer’s Conference held at the McEnery Convention Center in San José California. As usual, there were new announcements; FaceDate a dating feature on Facebook, Clear History a privacy feature allowing users to delete data Facebook has collected from sites and apps, Instagram Video Chat, Facebook app review process, $199 Occulus Go headset and Occulus TV, Simplified Messenger with translation, VR Memories and 3D photos.
TechCrunch has details on all the announcements.
T-Mobile and Sprint on the verge of a merger
Over the weekend, T-Mobile and Sprint the 3rd and 4th wireless carriers respectively in America announced they were on the verge of a merger between the two companies.
CNN reports that the two companies have been in talks since 2014 but held off for fear of government regulations.
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According to reports, the two companies say their merger will help strengthen 5G in America as they both cannot do it independently.
A Forbes report confirms this. It says the merger is likely to avoid the duplication of future capital expenditures in the transition from 4G to 5G. However, a Slate report says the merger is a bad idea and explains why.
