VW-JAC Motor electric car venture approved by Chinese regulator

Germany's Volkswagen AG and Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group (JAC Motor) have received approval from Chinese regulators to form a joint venture to make electric vehicles, the two automakers said on Monday.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top state planner, gave a green light to JAC and VW to build 100,000 pure battery electric vehicles annually in a project worth 5.1 billion yuan ($740 million), according to a JAC Motor stock exchange filing.

A VW spokesman confirmed the approval but said certain administrative procedures still needed to be completed for a joint venture contract to be signed with JAC Motor.

Google Is Getting Rid of Those Weird Android Emoji Blobs

Emojis

Google is finally getting rid of those default, blob-like emojis. 

The Verge reports that although Google tried to change the emojis for the Android N, it wasn’t good enough.

Now, the tech giant is completely recreating the emojis, and will feature them for the first time on the Android O.

Cisco Systems announces 1,100 more layoffs

Cisco Systems Inc. said Wednesday that it is laying off 1,100 more workers, deepening job losses at the internet gear maker battling declining revenue.

The new round of layoffs comes on top of the 5,500 jobs Cisco announced it was cutting in August. That amounted to about 7 percent of its workforce at the time.

Cisco sells routers, switches, software and services business and has seen its business hurt as more of its corporate customers rely on remote data centers for their computing needs instead of online networks maintained on their own premises.

What we currently know about the global cyberattack

The danger from a global cyberattack that spread to some 150 nations continues to fade, and that’s only some of the good news.

After two security researchers greatly slowed down that attack , which effectively held people’s documents, photos and other digital files hostage, hard-hit organizations such as the U.K.’s National Health Service seem to be bouncing back. 

While it’s a crude measure of the impact, it also appears that relatively few of those affected were desperate enough to actually pay the ransom demanded by the attackers.

Volkswagen CEO faces first probe over 'Dieselgate'

Volkswagen chief executive Matthias Mueller on Wednesday stood in the focus of an investigation into the world's largest carmaker's 'dieselgate' scandal for the first time, along with other key players at the firm.

Mueller and others "...are suspected of knowingly delaying telling shareholders about the financial consequences for Porsche SE of software manipulation in diesel vehicles by Volkswagen AG," prosecutors in southwestern city Stuttgart said in a statement.

Porsche SE, separate from VW subsidiary Porsche AG, is a holding company with a majority stake in Volkswagen, and is itself owned by the descendants of renowned VW Beetle inventor Ferdinand Porsche.

Top Tech firms makes 25 Highest Paying Companies in America for 2017

It may come as no surprise that tech and physician jobs pay six-figures, but for the average American job hunting, it may be even more important to know where they can work that pays highly. The good news — many companies are offering top dollar for skilled talent.

Glassdoor’s latest report reveals the 25 Highest Paying Companies in America for 2017. In addition to ramping up hiring, all of these companies are offering employees, on average, six-figure paychecks. This report is based on each company’s median total compensation, compiled by looking at salary reports at companies in which employees have anonymously and voluntarily shared both their base pay and other forms of compensation (i.e. commissions, tips, bonuses, etc.) over the past year*.

Microsoft launches Azure Database for MySQL and PostgreSQL

While Microsoft’s big Azure database news today is the launch of Cosmos DB, its new “planet-scale” distributed database service, there is a good chance that many developers will actually be more interested in a slightly smaller update to Azure’s database portfolio. 

At its Build developer conference, Microsoft today announced the launch of Azure Database for MySQL and PostgreSQL.

This, Microsoft says, is meant to ensure that developers can use their favorite databases on Azure. Until now, to use MySQL or PostgreSQL on Azure, they would have had to spin up virtual machines to run and operate those database systems themselves.