Apple iPhone manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group is set to invest $700M on a new plant in India, according to Bloomberg sources. The facility, to be located in southern Karnataka state, marks the latest effort to shift electronics manufacturing away from China. More: - Foxconn is expected to make iPhone parts at the plant near the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, Karnataka's tech hub capital.
- The Taiwanese company could also manufacture Apple handsets, as well as auto parts for its growing EV manufacturing business.
- The estimated $700M investment is expected to create around 100,000 jobs.
- This would make the factory about one-third the size of Foxconn's “iPhone City" factory and campus in Zhengzhou, China.
- Earlier this week, Foxconn announced separate plans to build a major electronics manufacturing plant in India's Telangana, which borders Karnataka. That plant could also create 100,000 jobs.
Zoom Out: - According to India's commerce and industry minister, Apple wants to shift up to 25% of its production to India, an increase from the current 5% to 7%.
- In September, Apple confirmed that it will move some manufacturing of the iPhone 14 to India. It's been producing mostly older iPhones in India since 2017.
BLOOMBERG 
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 Following a brief delay, a SpaceX capsule carrying four crew members successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS) early on Friday. The Crew Dragon spacecraft carried two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut, and a United Arab Emirates astronaut, who will remain onboard the ISS for six months. More: - The launch of Crew-6, initially scheduled for Monday, was postponed due to a technical issue involving the rocket propellant ignition fluid.
- After fixing the issue, NASA successfully launched the crew to orbit on a Crew Dragon propelled by a Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday morning.
- About 25 hours later, the Crew Dragon arrived at the ISS. The docking was delayed briefly while SpaceX engineers created a software patch to fix a faulty sensor on the ISS' docking system.
- Crew-6 will now conduct scientific research, joining seven other astronauts aboard the ISS.
- Four of those astronauts, who belong to Crew-5, are scheduled to return to Earth in about five days.
REUTERS
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Amazon said it has postponed construction on its second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The pause affects the project's second phase, known as PenPlace, which is slated to have three 22-story buildings and a 350-foot-tall tower dubbed “The Helix.” More: - The first phase of Amazon's "HQ2," called Metropolitan Park, is still on track to open in June.
- That 2.1-million-square-foot development, near Washington, D.C., contains two finished office towers that will accommodate more than 8,000 employees.
- Amazon said "Met Park" will have enough space to eventually support 14,000 employees, allowing it to push out the groundbreaking of PenPlace, to be built just north of Met Park.
- A spokesperson said pre-construction work on PenPlace could begin later this year.
- The company still expects to eventually bring 25,000 corporate and tech jobs to the Arlington campus, which is its second headquarters in addition to its first HQ in Seattle.
THE WASHINGTON POST
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 Meta is lowering the prices on two of its Quest virtual reality headsets. Starting on March 5, the high-end Meta Quest Pro will cost $1,000, down from $1,500. Likewise, the 256GB version of the Quest 2 will drop to $430, from $500. More: - In a blog post today, Meta said its goal is to develop hardware that is "affordable for as many people as possible to take advantage of all that VR has to offer."
- The timing and price reductions vary based on country.
- Notably, the entry-level Quest 2 with 128GB of storage will still cost $400.
- The price cut in the Quest Pro, Meta's most advanced headset geared for business users, comes less than five months after it was released in late October.
- Meanwhile, Meta plans to release its next consumer headset in late 2023, with full-color mixed reality. The Quest 3 is expected to cost $300 to $500.
THE VERGE
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Online therapy platform BetterHelp agreed to pay $7.8M to settle FTC allegations that it improperly shared customers' health data with Facebook and other companies. As part of the proposed order, BetterHelp will be barred from sharing mental health data with third parties for advertising purposes. It's also agreed to change some of its data-handling practices. More: - The FTC accused BetterHelp, Teladoc’s online counseling business, of sharing consumers’ sensitive data such as health questionnaire responses, emails, and IP addresses with Snapchat, Pinterest, and others.
- According to the FTC, BetterHelp shared personal health data despite promising to keep it private.
- BetterHelp has denied any wrongdoing. The company said it doesn't share and has never shared private data such as customer names or clinical information with advertisers, social media platforms, or similar third parties.
- The company did say its use of “limited, encrypted information” for ad targeting is an "industry-standard practice."
- Customers who used BetterHelp from mid-2017 through 2020 will now be eligible for partial refunds, to be paid out from the $7.8M fine.
THE VERGE
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Ford Motor Co. announced the launch of Latitude A its wholly-owned subsidiary focused on more advanced self-driving technologies. The automaker said the new unit will focus on building "hands-free, eyes-off-the-road automated driving" for millions of cars. More: - Latitude is focused on driving automation during "tedious" and "stressful" times, like long highway stretches and bumper-to-bumper traffic, according to Ford.
- The company's aim is to expand its development of AI-enabled self-driving car tech, which includes advancements in its BlueCruise hands-free highway driving feature.
- Sammy Omari, Ford's ADAS Technologies executive director, will take over as CEO of Latitude, which is based in Pittsburgh.
- About 550 of Latitude's employees formerly worked for Argo AI, the Ford- and VW-backed autonomous vehicle startup that shut down in October.
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- The Reserve Bank of Australia, the country’s central bank, announced plans to launch a live pilot of a central bank digital currency.
- According to 9to5Mac, Apple is expected to launch a yellow-colored version of its iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus this spring.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. She has written the Inside AI newsletter since 2019. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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