Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs is nearing a big decision point in one of the company’s most ambitious projects: the possible construction of a futuristic district.

Sidewalk chief Dan Doctoroff and his team plan to discuss the secret project, codenamed “Project Sidewalk”, with Alphabet CEO Larry Page in the coming weeks. If Mr. Page gives the green light, they could solicit ...

Earlier this year, The Huffington Post got a polite but pointed request from Twitter: Stop using The Huffington Post’s personalized Snapchat logo as its Twitter profile image, according to a person briefed on the situation.

In response, HuffPo reduced how often it used the logo on Twitter—which makes it easier for people to find the publication on Snapchat by scanning the ...

A member of Apple's elite industrial design team, Danny Coster, is jumping ship, joining GoPro to head up a new hardware design group there.

Verizon has hired digital media executive Chip Canter from NBCUniversal as general manager of its go90 video app, said two people familiar with the situation. Mr. Canter, who started at Verizon in recent weeks, will serve under Verizon’s head of consumer product Brian Angiolet.

He comes to the company at a critical time for the video app and Verizon’s video streaming ambitions. ...

At its developer conference in May, Google is expected to talk a lot about its plans for tailoring Android smartphones to virtual reality. But make no mistake: for Google, VR isn’t the ultimate prize—augmented reality is.

Google leaders including CEO Sundar Pichai and Clay Bavor, who heads a newly formed VR unit at Google, have privately said that augmented, or “mixed,” ...

AT&T has recently discussed selling a smartphone powered by an alternative version of Android, the operating system developed by Google, according to one person with direct knowledge and one person briefed about the talks. If the proposed phone sells, it could weaken Google’s control of Android in the U.S. and set back its efforts to be more competitive with Apple by creating a ...

At a November all-hands meeting for engineers at Nest’s Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters, co-founder Matt Rogers said he was “losing sleep” over an exodus of staffers—roughly 70 in about six to 12 months, out of its workforce of roughly 1,000.

Tony Fadell, the company’s CEO, interrupted, pointing out that many of those departing employees had come from either ...

In the two years since Nest was acquired by Google, the company hasn’t released a new hardware product, besides an updated version of a camera it inherited with the Dropcam acquisition. Yet several products are in development, many of which revolve around a home security system. If released, these products could further shake up the home security market, which is becoming more ...

Apple’s move to tap Google to handle parts of its iCloud traffic is a sign that the Cupertino company has failed to build its own cloud infrastructure despite years of work, say people with knowledge of the situation. The company is still years away from being able to completely leave its existing cloud vendors, which also include Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, according to people ...

Time Warner is pumping more money into Mashable, a millennial-focused tech and pop culture news site, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The site has been on and off the market for several years and has been in acquisition discussions with Time Warner more than once, including late last year. Those discussions don't appear to have gone anywhere.

Time Warner already owns a ...

For Snapchat employees hoping to cash in on the startup’s $16 billion valuation, the company has offered them a firm message: don’t go anywhere.

In a departure from the norm, Snapchat makes employees wait until the third and fourth year of employment for the bulk of their stock compensation to vest, say former employees and attorneys who have reviewed employment documents. After the ...

Here’s a new twist on governments’ tussles with technology companies over privacy: San Francisco legislators are using the ephemeral messaging app Telegram, which could allow them to sidestep public record disclosure laws.

Several elected members of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors are active users of the app, along with their advisors and aides, according to multiple ...

Verizon Communications planned to spend nearly $30 million to drive two million downloads of go90, its “mobile TV network” app, in the months before and after its launch last fall, according to a confidential marketing plan reviewed by The Information. On a per download basis, the marketing cost would be many times the amount paid by developers for ads that entice people to ...

Thrive Capital is in talks to take a big piece of Slack’s next funding round, according to people familiar with the situation.

Two former Samsung executives in the U.S. are expected to join Chinese video streaming service and electronics manufacturer LeEco, previously known as LeTV, according to people familiar with the matter. Their hirings are part of a push by LeEco, sometimes called the Netflix of China, to establish a bigger presence in the U.S.

The two are Samsung’s former Chief Marketing Officer, Todd ...

Last year, Facebook tested software that would represent a bold expansion of its display ads business beyond its own inventory, a move potentially worth billions in revenue. Using a demand-side platform, or a DSP, marketers would be able to use Facebook users’ identity data to bid on ad slots across the mobile and desktop Internet in real time.

But Facebook recently yanked the bidding ...

Dropbox is working on a chat product, according to two people the company told about it.

The product is likely to be a “workspace” where teams of people can collaborate on items stored in the main Dropbox application. It isn’t likely to take on chat programs like Slack and Yammer directly.

The project has been in the works for at least two years but has recently become a ...