Are you ready for a smartphone battery that lasts twice as long as your current one? According to researchers, that battery is coming. MIT News reported this week that a new kind of lithium battery is on the way to being commercialized. Called lithium metal batteries, they can reportedly pack the same energy as standard lithium-ion cells in half the size — or put twice as much […]
Just months after its public launch, the self-driving truck startup Otto has been purchased by the ride-hailing giant Uber for an undisclosed amount. According to a Bloomberg estimate, the deal could be valued at about $680 million. Uber, whose “anyone-can-be-a-cabbie” business model has already shaken up the taxi industry, is also looking to provide autonomous car services in cities. Later this month, the company plans to begin […]
By Eveline Danubrata and Glenys Kirana | JAKARTA JAKARTA Asian fans of smartphone game Pokemon Go are hunting out the best telecom providers and network gear to overcome the hurdle posed by patchy network signals in their race to capture virtual cartoon characters. From Indonesia to Hong Kong and Cambodia, the wild popularity of Nintendo’s (7974.T) augmented reality app is also driving lifestyle changes for many gamers, […]
SINGAPORE Singapore will make regulatory changes to facilitate the use of electronic payments, the central bank said on Friday, as the city-state aims to become a major centre for financial technology (fintech). “Our vision is to make Singapore an electronic payments society, a society that spurs innovation in payments technology, that gives consumers maximum convenience and confidence in making payments,” said Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the […]
SANA, Yemen — Doctors without Borders announced Thursday that it would evacuate its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen because it could not get assurances that its hospitals would not be bombed again. The group blamed the Saudi-led military coalition for the decision, calling its bombing “indiscriminate” and its assurances of protection for health workers “unreliable,” citing the aerial bombardment of Abs Hospital in Hajjah Province […]
By Jessica DiNapoli U.S. internet publisher Gawker Media Group Inc said on Thursday that it would shut down its news and gossip website Gawker.com next week after Univision Holdings Inc successfully bid for the internet publisher’s six other websites. The decision to end Gawker.com’s 14-year run comes two days after Univision (UVN.N) won a bankruptcy auction to acquire Gawker Media for $135 million, outbidding media company Ziff […]
By calling to their eggs, zebra finch parents may be helping their young prepare for a hotter world brought on by climate change. Uncovering such a mechanism represents a significant advance in the effort to understand how species are adapting to a warming climate. “Incubation calling,” paired with the ability of embryos to hear external sounds, is just one of an array of prenatal guidance tools shared […]
Researchers at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, using the liquid crystal elastomer technology, originally developed in the LENS Institute in Florence, demonstrated a bioinspired micro-robot capable of mimicking caterpillar gaits in natural scale. The 15-millimeter long soft robot harvests energy from green light and is controlled by spatially modulated laser beam. Apart from travelling on flat surfaces, it can also climb slopes, squeeze […]
By better integrating its Inbox software with calendar apps, Salesforce aims to make it easier for sales and marketing professionals to access customer data during meetings and on the go. Coming out in October, Salesforce’s new Inbox Calendar boosts the company’s existing email support by linking customer relationship management (CRM) data to a user’s calendar. Announced earlier this week, Salesforce Inbox Calendar was developed to help sales […]
UAE. A new study released today by global strategy and management consulting firm A.T. Kearney concludes that autonomous driving will trigger the 21st century’s first major wave of growth. Key findings from the report, ‘How Automakers Can Survive the Self-Driving Era’, are based on interviews with more than 150 automotive decision-makers around the world. A.T. Kearney consultants sought to identify the products, services and partner strategies with […]
INTERNATIONAL. Nearly all of the Chief Strategy Officers (CSOs) surveyed by Accenture (NYSE: ACN) around the world acknowledge that digital disruption will reshape their industries, but very few are equipped to navigate the change. Those who feel most prepared are embracing new strategic alliances, devising more collaborative ways of operating with partners, and making themselves indispensable within a broader ecosystem. For the report ‘Thriving on Disruption’, the Accenture […]
INTERNATIONAL. Global bank rating trends were negative again in 1H16 for the fourth consecutive negative six-month period, says Fitch Ratings. The global distribution of Outlooks deteriorated in 1H16 as Negative Outlooks (22%) far outweighed Positives (5%), a level not seen since 2009. Emerging market (EM) banks experienced the majority of negative ratings trends, heavily influenced by rating actions in Brazil, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. In EMs, […]
[embedded content] The Walabot DIY pairs with your Android phone to see through walls, allowing you to detect wiring, studs, plastic & metal pipes, and more, making DIY construction projects, quicker & easier. It’s powerful enough to see 4 inches into cement & can even detect movement—rodents beware. Let’s block ads! (Why?) -Werd
Starting Sunday, AT&T is launching new wireless plans that it said will eliminate data overage charges for customers. Instead of generating extra fees once they exceed their monthly data caps, the network speeds of customers with Mobile Share Advantage plans will be slowed down to limit further data consumption. Verizon, the largest wireless company in the U.S., made similar changes to its mobile plans last month with […]
CAIRO — Seven people were killed in Saudi Arabia when a missile fired from Yemen struck a commercial district in the city of Najran, the kingdom’s official news media confirmed on Wednesday. The attack, on Tuesday evening, appeared to have been carried out by Houthi militias in northern Yemen in retaliation for a series of deadly airstrikes by the Saudi-led military coalition on Monday and Tuesday. Those […]
As anyone who has driven a car or crossed a busy street knows, colors play a significant role in influencing people’s interactions with the world around them. And the color red, in particular, elicits the highest level of compliance for conformity with social norms. But according to new research co-written by a University of Illinois expert in product development and marketing, under certain conditions, the color red […]
A new certification program is aimed at assuring users that USB Type-C chargers won’t damage their devices or fail to provide adequate charges. Announced yesterday by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), the program sets compliance standards for original equipment manufacturers of USB-C products. Introduced in 2014, the USB-C standard for universal serial bus connections is a more compact type of connector that’s easier to plug in and […]
At some point in their lives, 15 percent of people with diabetes will develop a painful and hard-to-treat foot ulcer. Twenty-four percent of those affected will require a lower-leg amputation because of it. And, in some instances, what seems like a harmless sore might even lead to death. A Northwestern University team has developed a new treatment for this severe and potentially deadly complication of diabetes. Called […]
Associate Professor Dr Joan Vaccaro, of Griffith’s Centre for Quantum Dynamics, has solved an anomaly of conventional physics and shown that a mysterious effect called ‘T violation’ could be the origin of time evolution and conservation laws. “I begin by breaking the rules of physics, which is rather bold I have to admit, but I wanted to understand time better and conventional physics can’t do that,” Dr […]
By Tom Bergin | LA HULPE, Belgium LA HULPE, Belgium More than a dozen current and former board directors and senior managers of SWIFT, the bank messaging system that helps transmit billions of dollars around the world every day, have told Reuters that the organisation for years suspected there were weaknesses in the way smaller banks used its messaging terminals – but did not address such vulnerabilities. […]
Cisco Systems Inc is laying off about 14,000 employees, representing nearly 20 percent of the network equipment maker’s global workforce, technology news site CRN reported, citing sources close to the company. San Jose, California-based Cisco is expected to announce the cuts within the next few weeks, the report said, as the company transition from its hardware roots into a software-centric organization. (bit.ly/2bEQfa3) Apart from Cisco, the other […]
MOSCOW — Russia launched a fleet of bombers bound for Syria on Tuesday from an Iranian air base, becoming the first foreign military to operate from Iran’s soil since at least World War II. Russian use of the base, with Iran’s obvious support, appeared to set back or at least further complicate Russia’s troubled relations with the United States, which has been working with Russia over how […]
Scientists sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) have genetically modified a common soil bacteria to create electrical wires that not only conduct electricity, but are thousands of times thinner than a human hair. As electronic devices increasingly touch all facets of people’s lives, there is growing appetite for technology that is smaller, faster and more mobile and powerful than ever before. Thanks to advances in […]
CAIRO — An airstrike on a residential area near the Yemeni capital, Sana, on Tuesday killed 17 civilians, most of them women and children, as international criticism continued to build over a deadly bombing the day before of a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders. Residents of a village in Nehem District, northeast of the capital, said that warplanes from the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition fighting on […]
