When early terrestrial animals began moving about on mud and sand 360 million years ago, the powerful tails they used as fish may have been more important than scientists previously realized. That’s one conclusion from a new study of African mudskipper fish and a robot modeled on the animal. Animals analogous to the mudskipper would have used modified fins to move around on flat surfaces, but for […]
Despite some setbacks with an earlier program aimed at getting more people online, Facebook is pushing ahead with a new effort to provide wireless Internet access to remote parts of the world: the OpenCellular wireless access platform. Designed to support a variety of connection options from 2G to LTE, the OpenCellular system will be open sourced so telecom operators and other organizations can more easily build locally […]
ABU DHABI // The most academically gifted pupils in the country were rewarded for their hard work at a ceremony at the Emirates Palace hotel on Wednesday. One hundred and fifty high achievers from public schools received certificates from Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, at the Best Achievers Awarding Ceremony There was jubilation at the ceremony, organised by Abu Dhabi Education […]
ABU DHABI // Ahmad Murshed did not speak a word of Arabic when he challenged himself to read and learn the Quran cover to cover. Six years later, the 18-year-old Indian high school student was named winner in the annual Quran Memorisation Award run by the Islamic Affairs Authority & Endowments (Awqaf) “My father is an imam and he started teaching me the Quran when I was […]
With just weeks to go before it launches its one-year Anniversary Update of Windows 10, Microsoft has been rolling out a series of preview builds aimed at fixing various bugs. The most recent build, announced yesterday, resolves a number of issues found in the PC and mobile versions of Microsoft’s operating system. The updates come on the heels of last week’s “Bug Bash,” during which Microsoft gave […]
Liquid drops on soft solid surfaces interact by an ‘inverted Cheerios effect’, which can be tweaked so that the droplets move towards or away from each other, according to an international group of scientists publishing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The phenomenon of the famous breakfast cereal clumping together when floating in a milk bowl is known as the Cheerios effect. The […]
Los Angeles: A California man was found guilty on Thursday of murdering a Saudi engineering student after responding to the victim’s ad to sell his car. A jury in San Fernando deliberated just 15 minutes before convicting Agustin Rosendo Fernandez, 29, of first-degree murder in the 2014 stabbing death of Abdullah Abdul Latif Al Kadi, a third-year electrical engineering student at […]
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced a new suite of applications and services yesterday to help businesses comprehensively manage, govern and extract actionable insights from enterprise information. The new suite, called HPE Verity, aims to offer companies a set of tools that are both integrated and modular. The objective of HPE Verity is to address the problem enterprises have trying to manage a wide variety of data types, […]
Living cells are capable of performing complex computations on the environmental signals they encounter. These computations can be continuous, or analogue, in nature — the way eyes adjust to gradual changes in the light levels. They can also be digital, involving simple on or off processes, such as a cell’s initiation of its own death. Synthetic biological systems, in contrast, have tended to focus on either analogue […]
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund made its highest-profile deal, investing $3.5 billion in U.S. ride-share company Uber Technologies Inc. as the country seeks to diversify its assets with more overseas acquisitions. Yasir Alrumayyan, managing director of the Public Investment Fund, will take a board seat at the San Francisco-based company after the deal, which values Uber at $62.5 billion, the company said in a statement. It’s the biggest […]
Let’s see… “The third time is a charm,” or is it “Strike 3, you’re out!“? The final installment of this trilogy is Nissan’s competition to their own Sentra SE-R. That’s because there were basically two of these… the NX1600, which had 110 horsepower, and the NX2000, with the engine found in the SE-R. The SE-R, of course, had a trunk. Gone is the “Pulsar” name. The NX2000 gets a […]
CONCORD, Calif Honda Motor Co gave a sneak preview of its self-driving prototypes on Wednesday, saying it was already on its way to offering semi-autonomous safety functions to the mass market. The Japanese automaker has been less vocal about its plans for self-driving cars than larger rivals like Toyota and General Motors, which in recent months have shown off major research and development projects and big-ticket acquisitions. […]
In all my long days as an automotive writer, not one single car manufacturer has asked me to attend their display at an international motor show, and drape myself alluringly across the hood of one of their vehicles. Sex Sells When people (in truth, men) discovered sex sells, car makers jumped on the band wagon. They found that a seductive model adjacent to the product seemed to […]
The Chevrolet Spark is designed for city dwellers who are looking for a small car that packs all the connectivity features of the big cars, but don’t require the horsepower or the proportions of a bigger vehicle. For 2016, the all-new Spark packs 17% more power than the first-generation model, so the power output increases from a measly 84 horsepower to a more acceptable 98 horsepower. What’s […]
Minivans have gotten a bad rap for a long time, but if you haven’t looked at one recently you are in for a surprise. Toyota builds the Sienna minivan which is attractive on the outside and roomy on the inside. Did we really say attractive? The new Sienna isn’t your typical box on wheels that distinguished the model for so long. It has sleek styling that sets […]
A new line of chips from Qualcomm aim to be the go-to hardware to power the growing wearables market. Over the weekend, the chipmaker announced a new line of processors called the Snapdragon Wear 1100, containing numerous functions and complex usage capabilities. The new chipsets will be integrated into smart watches, smart headsets and various accessories. The new chips, which are meant to complement Qualcomm’s recently introduced […]
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, is briefed on the construction phases, design, building technologies and the methods used to transport the ‘artificial island’ from Finland to Dubai. Wam Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, said the project reflected Dubai’s vision to achieve global leadership in innovation and excellence. Wam Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of […]
An Apple store is seen in Los Angeles, California, United States, April 22, 2016. Reuters/Lucy Nicholson/Files SAN FRANCISCO Apple Inc is investigating how to charge electric cars, talking to charging station companies and hiring engineers with expertise in the area, according to people familiar with the matter and a review of LinkedIn profiles. For more than a year, Silicon Valley has been buzzing about Apple’s plan to […]
When the 1986 Taurus hit the market, it turned car styling on its head. Gone instantly were straight line creases and wedgie shapes. Curves were now in, and oh yeah, were they! This second generation Pulsar NX followed the trend, and looked so much better with a reskin. It also offered more FUN things like T-Tops and a removable hatch panel that left flying buttresses for strength. […]
Solar Impulse has been delayed as team engineers check for possible damage to the hybrid plane. The solar-powered plane was expected to take off on Tuesday morning for Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania but was delayed as the inflatable hanger used to store the plane began deflating. Parts of the hanger touched the plane during the 2.5 minutes it took to reboot the system. The solar panels are […]
Noting that “terrorism is one of the truly urgent issues of our time,” Microsoft recently said it is taking several steps to identify and combat extremist content online. Those measures include a change in its terms of use to prohibit the posting of terrorist content on Microsoft consumer services like Xbox Live, OneDrive, Skype and Outlook, according to a blog post on Friday. The company defines such […]
Big Blue has announced that it is now offering the Nvidia Tesla M60 GPU accelerator to enterprise clients in the cloud. IBM said it is the first company to do so, giving companies of all sizes easier and more affordable access to virtual desktop applications without having to skimp on performance. The Tesla M60 (pictured above) is the latest in a line of Nvidia GPUs available through […]
SAN FRANCISCO When Google introduced its Google Glass smart glasses four years ago, it turned to Glass-sporting sky divers buzzing a San Francisco convention center, Glass-adorned models at a glitzy fashion show and a Twitter campaign to notify early “Glass Explorers” of their luck in snagging a pair. This year, when Microsoft showed off an early edition of its HoloLens augmented-reality goggles, it took the opposite approach: […]
The logo of Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company Microsoft (MSFT) is seen in Los Angeles, California, United States, April 22, 2016. Reuters/Lucy Nicholson/Files SAN FRANCISCO With the world growing more concerned about attacks by militant groups on civilians, Microsoft Corp on Friday outlined new policies to crack down what it called “terrorist content” on some of its consumer services. In a blog post, […]
