ABU DHABI // Residents in the areas of Al Ruwais, Al Hamra, Ghayathi, Al Gheweifat and some internal western areas woke up to patches of fog on Monday morning. Humidity is expected to hover around 70 to 95 per cent in the interior and coastal areas on Monday and increase overnight boosting the chance for more visually-impairing mist and fog, especially over the western part of the […]
By Charlotte Greenfield | WELLINGTON WELLINGTON An appeal by flamboyant German tech entrepreneur Kim Dotcom over a decision to extradite him to the United States began in New Zealand on Monday, with the Megaupload founder’s legal team arguing the hearing should be livestreamed on YouTube. The High Court hearing opened in Auckland nine months after a lower court ruled Dotcom could be sent to the United States […]
ABU DHABI // Fish prices are expected to fall next month as the summer heat subsides after increasing by as much as 50 per cent over the past few months. Ali Al Mansouri, president of Abu Dhabi Fishermen Cooperative Society and the UAE Fishermen Cooperative Association, acknowledged the increased prices but said they would soon start to decrease. “Due to the summer heat the catch is very […]
By Yasmeen Abutaleb | SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO Facebook Inc (FB.O) changed its popular “Trending” feature, which shows users the most-talked about topics of the day, to make it more automated and further eliminate the potential for human bias, the company wrote in a blog post on Friday. The update is Facebook’s latest attempt in recent months to stress its neutrality as its influence grows. The feature […]
James Cook University, University of Sydney and Queensland University of Technology scientists working with laser data from the Royal Australian Navy have discovered a vast reef behind the familiar Great Barrier Reef. JCU’s Dr Robin Beaman says the high-resolution seafloor data provided by LiDAR-equipped aircraft have revealed great fields of unusual donut-shaped circular mounds, each 200-300 metres across and up to 10 metres deep at the centre. […]
Using the world’s most powerful telescopes, an international team of astronomers has found a massive galaxy that consists almost entirely of dark matter. The galaxy, Dragonfly 44, is located in the nearby Coma constellation and had been overlooked until last year because of its unusual composition: It is a diffuse “blob” about the size of the Milky Way, but with far fewer stars. “Very soon after its […]
By Heather Somerville | SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO Chinese powerhouse Didi Chuxing’s acquisition of Uber Technologies Inc’s China operations marked the biggest move yet toward consolidation in an industry that many investors and Silicon Valley pundits view as a winner-take-all game. On the day the Didi deal was announced earlier this month, Uber board member Bill Gurley said Uber’s rivals in other markets had a slim chance […]
In-depth review charts the scientific understanding of rainbows and highlights the many practical applications of this fascinating interaction between light, liquid and gas. There’s more to rainbows than meets the eye. Knowledge gained from studying these multicoloured arcs of scattered light can be incredibly useful in ways that may not immediately spring to mind. Rainbow effects can warn of chemical contamination in the atmosphere, help to develop […]
By David Shepardson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Volkswagen AG has agreed to spend more than $1.2 billion to compensate its 650 U.S. dealers for their losses from the German automaker’s diesel emissions scandal, two sources briefed on the matter said on Thursday. The company and a lawyer for VW dealers announced a tentative settlement at a court hearing in San Francisco, but declined to disclose the amount. The […]
Can the woolly mammoth be brought back from the dead? Scientists say it’s only a matter of time. In fact this year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature issued its first official set of guidelines on resurrecting extinct species. What’s more, university research labs and non-governmental agencies have projects in motion to bring back extinct species. But is all of this a good idea? A new […]
In a paper presented today at the Association for Computing Machinery’s special interest group on data communication (SIGCOMM) conference in Florianópolis, Brazil, a team of computer science researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst led by professor Deepak Ganesan introduced a new radio technology that allows small mobile devices to take advantage of battery power in larger devices nearby for communication. Ganesan and his graduate students in […]
A new speech analytics tool announced yesterday by Verint Systems is designed to help customer service professionals get real-time guidance for better managing calls. The software-based system can alert service reps to caller insights as they happen as well as help companies ensure compliance with important policies and regulations, the company said. The Melville, New York-based Verint said the new real-time speech analytics capabilities are natively embedded […]
Imagine how much dental care you’d need if you had 300 or more teeth packed together on each side of your mouth. Duck-billed dinosaurs (hadrosaurs), who lived in the Cretaceous period between 90 million and 65 million years ago, sported this unique dental system, which had never been fully understood until it was examined at the microscopic level through recent research conducted by Aaron LeBlanc, a University […]
Printers are down, but PCs are up — for now. That’s the scenario presented by Hewlett-Packard when it discussed its third quarter earnings with analysts this week. HP reported a quarterly profit of 49 cents per share, on revenue of $11.9 billion, compared with earnings of 39 cents a share on revenue of $12.4 billion for the same quarter last year. The company said its outlook for […]
Two years after being acquired by Facebook, the messaging service WhatsApp said it will coordinate more with its parent company to make it easier for businesses to communicate with its users. However, WhatsApp said it’s rolling out those changes in a way that doesn’t expose users to third-party banner ads and spam. WhatsApp revealed the coming changes in a blog post today centered around updating its terms […]
TOKYO Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp said Tuesday it will review its TV brand licensing deals overseas in an effort to boost its global presence under the aegis of Taiwan’s Foxconn. “We have decided to review our current brand licensing business in Europe and Americas, and are currently examining various possibilities,” Sharp said in a statement. The comment follows a report by the Yomiuri […]
By Ben Gruber | CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA scientists are putting the finishing touches on a spacecraft designed to rendezvous with Asteroid Bennu in 2018 to find clues about the origins of life. “We are days away from encapsulating into our rocket faring and lifting this spacecraft on to the Atlas V vehicle and beginning the journey to Bennu and back,” Dante Lauretta, the […]
Set to arrive on September 30, iOS 10, the latest update of Apple’s mobile operating system, will offer a number of new features, including a redesigned lock screen, a more intelligent Siri digital assistant and new looks for other apps. One improvement to Siri will be especially welcome for at least one famous iPhone user: Barbra Streisand. In an interview over the weekend, the singer told NPR […]
Beginning “as early as next year,” Samsung may start selling refurbished smartphones directly to consumers. The new resale program is aimed at strengthening Samsung’s earnings as global phone sales slow down, according to report today citing “a person with direct knowledge of the matter.” Offering lower-cost refurbished phones could also help Samsung better compete against Chinese manufacturers whose cheap devices have cut into its sales, especially in […]
ABU DHABI // An earthquake recording 2.6 on the Richter scale hit north of Dibba Al Fujairah early on Monday. The National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology said the earthquake was recorded at 7.23am. The earthquake was near Musandam. “Its a minor earthquake and is part of normal activity in the region,” said a seismologist at the centre. Such small earthquakes are common, he said. There was […]
FUJAIRAH // Commuters are contending daily with roadworks, diversions and traffic jams as the emirate proceeds with upgrading its road infrastructure. As part of the Fujairah 2040 Plan, busy streets and motorways are being refurbished, uneven surfaces relaid, and lanes and traffic signals added to cope with the population growth and the increase in the number of vehicles that accompanies it. Although the work meant short trips […]
ABU DHABI // Few people can say they have braved subzero temperatures and the virtually uninhabited, ice-covered landmass of Antarctic, but Fatma Al Sahlawi Al Ali can add her name to that list. After enduring mountainous hikes in the blistering cold, witnessing crumbling icebergs, observing fur seals, humpback whales and penguins on the frozen continent and plunging into icy waters during her expedition earlier this year, the […]
The term “screw gun” perfectly describes the Craftsman 4V Slide Screwdriver. It features a revolver-style 6-bit Twist & Go cartridge that’s activated by a slide mechanism in the rear. Cock it back, change the bit and squeeze the trigger! It delivers 30.9 in-lbs. of torque and reverses for unscrewing with its rocker trigger button. Let’s block ads! (Why?) -Werd
T-Mobile and Sprint began yet another duel yesterday by unveiling rival wireless plans with unlimited data usage. Their announcements came just one day after AT&T unveiled new wireless service plans it said will eliminate data overage charges for customers. Starting at $70 per month for one line, the new T-Mobile One plan comes with several caveats, including slower data speeds after customers exceed 26 GB in a […]
