In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology news:

  • Whale-finding app increasingly popular
  • Gawker may be for sale after losing Hulk Hogan lawsuit
  • Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 hard
  • The SEC is investigating Alibaba

The details:

  • Whale-finding phone app grows in use, steering mariners away

With summer whale watching season fast approaching, conservation advocates and government agencies who want to protect whales say a mobile app designed to help mariners steer clear of the animals is helping keep them alive.

The Whale Alert app provides a real-time display of the ocean and the position of the mariner’s ship, along with information about where whales have been seen or heard recently. It also provides information on speed restrictions and restricted areas, and recommends routes shippers can take to avoid endangered species such as the blue whale and the North Atlantic right whale.

New England whale watching companies are gearing up for summer, and more than a quarter of the entire North Atlantic right whale population visited Cape Cod Bay this season. That means conditions are perfect to get more mariners and the public on board with protecting whales, said Patrick Ramage, whale program director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Andy Hammond, of Martha’s Vineyard, is one such mariner. He has used the tool aboard pilot boats to avoid whales in Boston Harbor.

“It’s all about making sure people understand the regulations and how to operate in certain areas,” Hammond said. “It takes the guesswork out.”

Collisions with high speed ships are one of the leading causes of death for some species of whales, and many mariners often try to navigate around them using outdated equipment.

IFAW collaborated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on the app, which provides information on both U.S. coasts. Alaskan cruise ships began using it this month.

Ramage said more than 33,000 users have downloaded the app, which first came out four years ago, and recent changes — such as giving civilians the ability to report whale sightings — have made it more popular.

“It is literally a situation where the sort of fog of incomplete data or outmoded equipment can be lifted for the mariner,” Ramage said.

  • Gawker may be looking to sell after losing Hulk Hogan case

The embattled online media company Gawker Media has hired an investment banker to explore its options, including a possible sale.

Two months ago, Gawker lost a $140 million invasion-of-privacy suit against Hulk Hoganover a sex tape of the wrestler that the site posted online. Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel told The New York Times that he has bankrolled lawyers to mount cases againstGawker.

Gawker said Thursday that it expects to prevail in an appeal of the verdict and that it’s always said it is exploring contingency plans. The company would not say when the banker, Mark Patricof of Houlihan Lokey, was hired.

The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post earlier reported that Gawker was interested in a sale.

  • Windows 10 push

Microsoft really, REALLY wants you to upgrade to Windows 10.

Since last summer, the tech giant has pushed and prodded PC owners to upgrade their machines to its latest Windows version. While the upgrade is currently free for most consumers with Windows PCs, critics say the company’s heavy-handed nudging amounts to an “offer you can’t refuse.”

Microsoft initially offered Windows 10 as an optional upgrade — that is, one that users had to choose themselves. Then, earlier this year, the company reclassified it as a “recommended” update. Some Windows 10 holdouts cried foul, since many PCs are set up to automatically install recommended updates, which are usually important security fixes. Suddenly those machines would automatically install Windows 10 as well.

At one point, some PC owners complained, Microsoft began sending on-screen messages prompting them to download and install Windows 10. The catch: Where most such pop-up windows have buttons marked “OK” and “Cancel,” this message displayed two buttons that both led to an upgrade (“Upgrade Now” and “Upgrade Tonight”). To avoid the upgrade, diehard resisters had to click a red “X” in the upper-right corner that closed the window.

Microsoft then revised the notifications, citing customer feedback. A new version tells PC owners they are scheduled for a “recommended” upgrade to Windows 10 at a specific time in the near future, and bears a prominent “OK” button. To reject or reschedule the change, users have to find and click a less conspicuous link in small type. But clicking the “X” no longer blocks the upgrade.

  • US probes e-commerce giant Alibaba’s accounting practices

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba wowed investors when it went public in the U.S. in September 2014, and its profits have bucked Wall Street expectations amid the Chinese economy’s slowdown. Yet its unorthodox business structure has raised eyebrows, it’s been suspended from an anti-counterfeiting group, and now U.S. regulators are investigating its accounting practices.

Alibaba disclosed in a regulatory filing that the Securities and Exchange Commission has requested documents and information related to the way it adds together earnings from its various divisions, and how it reports transactions with other companies it has a stake in, among other things.

“I think it’s a moment of truth for the company,” said Anant Sundaram, a finance professor at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. “If I’m buying into that stock, what am I buying into?”

U.S.-traded shares in Alibaba tumbled almost 7 percent in heavy trading Wednesday after news surfaced of the SEC probe. They are down 20 percent in the past year.