Wall Street Journal

Software on iPhones and Android smartphones help mobile apps like Uber and Facebook to pinpoint a user’s location, making it possible to order a car, check in at a local restaurant or receive targeted advertising. But 911, with a far more pressing purpose, is stuck in the past. U.S. regulators estimate as many as 10,000 lives could be saved each year if the 911 emergency dispatching system were able to get to callers one minute faster. Better technology would be especially helpful, regulators say, when a caller can’t speak or identify his or her location.

Google-parent Alphabet said Eric Schmidt will step down from his post as executive chairman in January and transition to a role as technical adviser. Schmidt, who joined Google in 2001 and served as its chief executive until 2011, also will continue to serve on Alphabet’s board. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai “and I all believe that the time is right in Alphabet’s evolution for this transition,” Schmidt said.

Apple, facing questions from users and tech analysts about reduced performance in older iPhones, acknowledged that its latest software curtails the computing power of some models to prevent unexpected shutdowns. It was a rare statement from the company that shed light on how Apple internally dealt with a growing user complaint. The statement came two days after John Poole, founder of the computer-performance testing group Geekbench, wrote a blog post illustrating how iPhone computing performance slows as battery health declines on iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 devices.