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Today’s Tech Headlines

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Google in its 10-year legal battle with Oracle. The 6-2 vote set a precedent that it’s not possible to copyright code or set limits on how software is built and distributed. Here’s how the landmark decision will shape the future of software. Plus, throughout the dispute, more than two dozen parties – including IBM and Microsoft – voiced their support for Google.

2. Tim Cook said Facebook’s objections to letting people pick whether or not to be tracked are “flimsy arguments.” In a new interview, the Apple CEO criticized Facebook’s arguments about Apple’s upcoming privacy features. Mark Zuckerberg and Cook have feuded for years over user privacy and antitrust concerns. Here’s where their rivalry began and everything that’s happened since.

3. Uber is battling DoorDash to rule food delivery. Uber’s CEO is trying to transform the company into the Amazon of local commerce and transportation. In our exclusive report, we detail the strategies Uber is using to overtake DoorDash and other rivals.

4. Elon Musk issued an “urgent” plea for more housing in Austin, Texas. As Tesla and SpaceX look to fill hundreds of jobs in the state, the CEO took to Twitter to call for more housing opportunities.

5. An NFT of a house just sold for over $500,000 – the world’s first crypto real-estate sale. In exchange for half a million dollars, the buyer received 3D files and clips of the NFT home – which can be uploaded to a virtual world and used as a home for an avatar. Take a look at the entirely digital home, known as the “Mars House.”

Speaking of Mars… NASA’s Mars helicopter survived its first night alone on the red planet. The helicopter, named Ingenuity, could pave the way for future space helicopters to explore new frontiers on other planets.

7. More companies – including PayPal and Starbucks – are accepting bitcoin as payment. Despite volatility warnings, major fast-food chains, big tech firms, and leading drink companies are embracing cryptocurrencies.

8. Tesla will soar 51% as huge first-quarter sales point to a looming “green tidal wave.” Pent-up demand for electric vehicles and President Biden’s green-energy agenda are catalysts for Tesla’s growth, analysts say.

9. Founders Fund VC Keith Rabois and Atomic’s Jack Abraham are building a new stealth startup: OpenStore. The new Miami startup will “provide instant liquidity to long-tail Shopify merchants.”

10. These are InstaCart’s top nine power players. As it prepares to file its IPO paperwork, Instacart is poaching talent from Uber Eats, Goldman Sachs, and Amazon. In light of its massive growth, we compiled a list of the top execs helping InstaCart dominate grocery delivery.

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Australia Central Bank Maintains Key Rate

Australia’s central bank left its current policy settings unchanged on Tuesday, as widely expected.

The policy board of the Reserve Bank of Australia headed by Governor Philip Lowe decided to retain its cash rate at a record low of 0.10 percent.

The central bank retained the target yield on the 3-year Australian government bond at around 0.1 percent and also maintained the parameters of the Term Funding Facility and the government bond purchase programme.

The bank said the initial A$100 billion government bond purchase program is almost complete and the second A$100 billion program will commence next week.

“The Board will not increase the cash rate until actual inflation is sustainably within the 2 to 3 percent target range. For this to occur, wages growth will have to be materially higher than it is currently,” the bank said.

This will require significant gains in employment and a return to a tight labor market. The board does not expect these conditions to be met until 2024 at the earliest, RBA added.

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China’s Service Sector Growth Accelerates In March

China’s service sector growth accelerated in March driven by steeper increases in activity and overseas sales, survey results from IHS Markit showed on Tuesday.

The Caixin Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 54.3 in March from 51.5 in February. The pace of expansion was the fastest in last three months. The score has remained above the neutral 50.0 level for eleventh consecutive month.

The survey showed that new orders increased at the fastest pace in three months despite a slight fall in export business.

Rising intakes of new work led to renewed pressure on operating capacities. As part of efforts to expand capacity and process orders, employment at service providers increased in March.

Average operating expenses rose for the ninth straight month in March. Nonetheless, the rate of inflation was the softest recorded since last September. In order to alleviate pressure on margins, prices charged by services companies increased again.

Amid hopes of post-pandemic recovery, business confidence improved markedly in March, hitting its highest since February 2011.

Underpinned by sharper rise in services activity, the composite output index picked up to 53.1 in March from 51.7 in February.

“To sum up, the economy continued to recover from the epidemic,” Wang Zhe, senior economist at Caixin Insight Group said.

Supply and demand in the manufacturing and services sectors remained in expansionary territory, though at different paces due to the end of the Covid-19 flare-ups in the fall and the winter, the economist noted.