In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology news:

  • Apple and IBM unveil enterprise apps for the Watch
  • Uber loses legal case in France
  • PayPal is going mobile
  • The FAA hopes apps will fight flight delays
  • PowerSecure teams with Cree for a solar project in Durham

The details:

  • Apple, IBM take Watch apps to the enterprise

Apple and IBM are rolling out three apps that are designed to make the Watch enterprise friendly, says ComputerWorld.

The apps deal with healthcare:

Hospital RN

Incident Aware

Field Connect

Get details at: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2925166/wearables/ibm-confirms-apple-watch-is-also-an-enterprise-product.html

  • French court rejects Uber’s challenge to legal restrictions

France’s highest court has rejected ride-sharing company Uber’s bid to have much of a recent law banning its services declared unconstitutional.

Uber had sought to overturn multiple restrictions placed on it and similar services by a law enacted last year after a series of large and sometimes violent protests by taxi companies seeking to ban the upstart challenger.

The Conseil Constitutionnel on Friday upheld most limits placed on Uber-style services, including a ban on the popular ride-hailing app that informs users of the location and availability of nearby rides.

Uber wasn’t completely shut out, though: the court ruled that a part of the law reserving to taxis the possibility of charging by a trip’s time and distance was unconstitutional.

  • FAA unveils messaging system to reduce delays 

A system that replaces verbal communication between pilots and air traffic controllers with computerized messages was unveiled Thursday by federalaviation officials, who said the system will reduce delays during weather events and cut down on errors that occur during routine voice transmissions.

The Federal Aviation Administration demonstrated the Data Communications system, called Data Comm, at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport. The system has been used on a trial basis since 2013 at the Newark and Memphis, Tennessee, airports.

The system is used to communicate alternate routes for planes awaiting takeoff that are heading toward bad weather. Currently, the information is given by voice and can take several minutes as the pilot copies it down and reads it back to the controller, then enters it into the plane’s computer system.

Using Data Comm, the controller transmits the information with a few clicks of a mouse. The information also is sent simultaneously to the airline’s dispatcher, whom a pilot often has to consult before taking an alternate route that will expend more fuel.

  • PayPal’s new chief promises new services for a mobile world

As PayPal prepares to split from its corporate parent, itsnew chief executive is promising to expand the popular online payment system, adding a variety of services for consumers to use when shopping on their phones or in traditional stores.

PayPal will be spinning off from parent company eBay later this year at a time when it’s facing new competitive challenges. Alibaba, Amazon and even Facebook are promoting online payment systems, while Apple Pay and Google Wallet are competing to handle transactions in stores and on mobile devices.

Veteran executive Dan Schulman, who will be CEO of the new PayPal, says his company will compete by positioning itself as a “full-service” payments partner for consumers and merchants, handling mobile transactions, credit purchases and even customer loyalty rewards programs.

PayPal was best known for many years as a payment method for purchases made on desktop computers. But consumers are increasingly using mobile phones to shop online and even when they make purchases in traditional, brick-and-mortar stores. Almost a third of transactions handled by PayPal are now made on mobile devices.

“Those worlds are blurring,” Schulman told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday. “When you go into a store environment, and you have your mobile phone with you, it should be a simple step to do a checkout from that device.”

  • TBJ: Cree plans PowerSecure solar canopy

Durham-based Cree is seeking to build a $1 million solar canopy as designed by Wake Forest-based PowerSecure for one of its sites in Durham County, reports the Triangle Business Journal.

Read more at: http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/techflash/2015/05/cree-to-funnel-1m-into-solar-canopy-in-durham.html