france

Google announced Monday that it is rolling out extensive bike directions on Google Maps in several European countries, including Germany, France, Poland, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein.

If only this had existed six years ago, I could have avoided my best friend wanting to ring my neck.

When we decided to ride our bikes on a 500-mile tour around the south of France in 2007, my one job was to map our route. I got a paper map, highlighted a loop adjoining several country roads, and off we went. Easy.

Actually, not so much.

While our ride started out pleasant, we … Read more

Yahoo's bid to take a controlling stake in French video-sharing site Dailymotion has reportedly been killed by the French government.

Dailymotion, which is owned by France-Telecom, was in talks to sell a 75 percent stake to Yahoo, according to a report last month by The Wall Street Journal. The deal was expected to give Yahoo a much-needed boost in the overseas video-sharing space, which is mainly dominated by services like Google's YouTube.

While Marissa Mayer purchased a recommendations startup late last year to fortify Yahoo's presence on mobile, Dailymotion would be her first big acquisition since she … Read more

There may be a reason why Android devices are more popular in Europe than Apple's iPhone: they're cheaper.

The CEO of one of Europe's largest wireless carriers said today that European customers are becoming increasingly more pennywise, which is putting a damper on sales of costlier mobile phones. Hence, this should sound as a warning call to Apple.

"Customers are more focused on price," France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard told Bloomberg. "Except for a few hundred thousand people who will buy the latest iPhone -- except for that category of people -- the majority … Read more

The Union of Jewish French Students, UEJF, has doubled down in its battle with Twitter and said it filed a $50 million lawsuit against the social network yesterday.

The cause of the suit? User data for anti-Semitic tweets.

The fracas goes back to October when Twitter was awash in anti-Semitic French-language tweets tied to the hashtag "#unbonjuif" ("a good Jew"). This prompted the student union and other anti-racism groups to ask Twitter to remove both the tweets and the hashtag. The social network complied by deleting the tweets in France that it deemed racist.

While deleting … Read more

France has referred Skype, the Internet calling service, to prosecutors for investigation after failing to register as an telecoms company in according with the country's laws.

First noted by The New York Times, the move stirs debate over what exactly constitutes as a phone company in the digitally connected age, and the rise of Internet calling voice-over-IP offerings. For instance, video-calling features -- which Facebook also includes as part of its service -- could force others into registering in the country. 

French regulator Autorite de Regulation des Communications Electroniques et des Postes (ARCEP), the electronic … Read more

If you enjoy dreaming up fanciful ways of tooling around, here's something out of the ordinary: an all-electric plane with a helium-filled balloon topped by photovoltaic cells.

It sounds more like a sci-fi prop, but the Ecologic Aircraft Design Concept by French industrial designer Daphnis Fournier is intended to explore new ideas for prototypes that fly.

After all, we do have a flying car that works, so why not this airship-airplane?

About 71 yards long, the craft would be supposedly be able to achieve speeds of 750 mph propelled by four electric turbines while carrying up to 324 passengers. … Read more

Sometimes passion just overtakes you.

It's going 110 mph in the outside lane and suddenly all you want to do is take your lover in your arms and express your feelings as fully and openly as you can.

Perhaps that's what happened to a couple in the changing room of the Krakatoa extreme sports store in Briancon, France.… Read more

Google is settling a copyright dispute with French news publishers by dumping 60 million euros ($81.98 million) into a digital publishing fund and agreeing to help publishers make money off online ads.

The search giant's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, posted about the new fund in a blog post today, writing that these two initiatives would "help stimulate innovation and increase revenues for French publishers." He didn't provide details of how exactly either effort is supposed to work.

Schmidt didn't mention a settlement in his post, but Google has confirmed that these actions resolve a … Read more

Twitter must hand over the identities of users in France who post racist tweets, a French court ruled today.

According to AFP, the court's ruling stemmed from a test case "that pitted the right to free speech against laws banning hate speech," and answered a petition made in October by the French Union of Jewish Students (UEJF), which had claimed that many anti-Semitic tweets had violated the law in the European country.

The UEJF had demanded that Twitter do a better job of policing obviously anti-Semitic tweets.

Twitter said today in a statement that "we are … Read more