CES 2017 is the 50th anniversary of the annual consumer electronics trade show. There have actually been well over 70 CESes since there used to be a summer version in the 1980s and 90s; this will be my 60th. And while interest in the show waned a bit in the 90s due to competition from Comdex, it’s been full steam ahead since Comdex bit the […]
The women cowered behind a flimsy bedroom door. One of them dialed 911. Another clutched a stubby kitchen knife. Continue reading the main story Since leaving the corps in 2012, Siatta had been unable to switch off the habits of war. He was hypervigilant and struggled to relax. He watched people, sizing them up and scanning for threats. In the varying situations of everyday life, he constantly […]
LIMA Peruvian president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said on Saturday that he is evaluating the possibility of suing Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht [ODBES.UL] for damages after the company admitted to using bribes to secure public contracts in the Andean nation. Odebrecht, Latin America’s largest construction outfit, acknowledged in a U.S. settlement earlier in December to having doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to public officials […]
Samsung Electronics’ 2017 premium TV line-up to debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), branded Samsung QLED TV, applied ‘metal coating’ to improve the integrity of the quantum dot (QD) materials, company insiders say, allowing colour in a wider range to be accurately represented at higher brightness level or better than those reached in OLED TVs. Internally called the “Q Project,” the business set a target resolution […]
Wall Street’s most important equity barometer is on track for its biggest annual recovery since the beginning of the bull market, underscoring the sharp turn in investor sentiment following the worst start to a year on record. The S&P 500 index is poised for an 11 per cent gain in 2016, shaking off a brutal start that at its lowest point in February left it down 10.5 […]
Reproducibility is a necessity for science but has often eluded researchers studying the lifetime of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Recent research from Japan sheds new light on why: impurities present in the vacuum chamber during fabrication but in amounts so small that they are easily overlooked. (via WSJ)
The Gionee M2017 Chinese smartphone is now official and it packs some impressive specs, including 7,000 mAh battery power and 6 GB of RAM. The 7,000 mAh battery capacity is the main selling point of this device, and is achieved through two 3,500 mAh battery units. It remains unclear just how Gionee managed to cram two batteries and get them to communicate with each other, but it likely […]
Law Blog rounds up the morning’s legal news: Pooled accounts: Tens of billions of dollars every year move through opaque law-firm bank accounts that create a gap in U.S. money-laundering defenses, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. [WSJ] Judicial vacancies: Donald Trump is set to inherit an uncommon number of vacancies in the federal […] (via WSJ)
Stacie Overton Johnson and Adam Workman pick their favourite restaurants of the year, based on great decor and ambience as well as fabulous food. • Reviewed meals are paid for by The National and conducted incognito. Contact the restaurants as prices may have changed since our original reviews newslide Abu Dhabi Butcher & Still Very few of us will ever be cool enough to recreate the Al […]
Retailers in the U.S. are hoping to clear stock a day after Christmas so, for bargain hunters, Dec. 26 is the next best day — after Black Friday and Cyber Monday — to score some amazing deals and discounts. Before we forget: today is also a federal holiday. This means that most government offices, banks, post offices, schools, and libraries will be closed on this day. Some people, […]
Acer Aspire C Series all-in-one desktop PC Looking to get a jump on the forthcoming deluge of CES news, Acer has released a new all-in-one PC family that adds a couple of interesting wrinkles to the popular desktop category. With the Aspire C Series, Acer delivers an improved all-in-one (AIO) design while retaining a budget price point. It’s worked to create a sleeker look for its full […]
There are probably those who fail to see the appeal of playing games in a portable computer. But this list of best gaming laptops for 2016 might just change your mind. Aorus X5 v6 Let us begin with the relatively unknown commodity: the Aorus X5 v6. This laptop can slug it out with the best in this list and emerge unscathed in the process. You can expect […]
Good morning. A media A-list’s favorite books of 2016 Jake Tapper, the CNN reporter-show host, needed far less time than even a hyperactive wire service rewrite guy to answer a question about his favorite book this year: “‘Moonglow’ by Michael Chabon.” Bam, that didn’t take long. But it’s why amid a Trump- and-terrorism-centric moment, I asked busy and smart journalists to go high when so many others […]
By Ellen Francis and Stephanie Nebehay | BEIRUT/GENEVA BEIRUT/GENEVA The Syrian army said on Thursday that it had retaken complete control of Aleppo after the last rebel fighters were evacuated from the city, handing President Bashar al-Assad his biggest victory of the war. The army said it had brought “security and safety” to Aleppo, ending four years of rebel resistance in parts of the northern Syrian city. […]
2016 was fact-checking’s finest year [1]. No it wasn’t, it was the year of “post-truth” [2] — some preferred “post-fact” [3] — and fact-checking is a fool’s errand. The discussion about facts in journalism worldwide has rarely been as fractured and animated as it has been in 2016, so we collected 366 links, one for each day of the year, to try and make sense of what […]
By Thanarith Satrusayang | BANGKOK BANGKOK Thailand and China are in talks about building military production facilities in Thailand, a Thai defense ministry spokesman said on Wednesday, the latest sign of warming relations between China and America’s oldest ally in Asia. Relations between Thailand and the United States cooled following a May 2014 military coup that the Thai military said was necessary to end months of unrest, […]
About nine months before George W. Bush became president I, along with about 70 others, were asked to join an independent tech advisory board to help Bush, then governor of Texas, understand the role of tech in the new decade and help craft a tech policy should he become president. Our first meeting took place in Austin, and from that came various subcommittees to research […]
Verizon has put up four phones available for free without trade-in requirements, save for a $20 device activation fee. The free phones being offered include the Moto Z Play Droid, a Verizon exclusive that supports Motorola’s modular-ish Moto Mods; Samsung Galaxy J3 V, a mid-range released early this year; and the LG K8 V and Stylo 2. Moto Z Play Droid The Moto Z Play Droid rocks a 5.5-inch […]
AMMAN, Jordan — Four Jordanian police officers and a Canadian tourist were shot and killed by gunmen in the southern city of Karak on Sunday, according to a statement from the Public Security Department. The violence began when a police patrol was sent to check on reports of a house on fire. When the police arrived on the scene, they were met with a barrage of gunfire […]
Kickstarter campaigns sometimes never deliver, Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Core, but we also see successfully funded products that end up providing what was promoted. The Ticwatch 2 campaign began in late July and reached its funding goal of $50,000 in just 10 minutes. While I surprisingly did not back this new smartwatch, I was recently sent an evaluation Ticwatch 2 Active to test out. I’ve used […]
If you are thinking of buying a new computer from Apple, now is the best time to do it since the company debuted several new models in October. Unlike the iPhones, which are regularly updated every year, Apple’s line of computers usually stay put for the next couple of years before they get an update. Compared to Windows computers, Apple’s lineup has always been pretty much straightforward […]
Etihad Airways and Lufthansa have signed a codeshare agreement that could herald further partnership growth between the two national carriers. In what is seen as the potential start of a growing relationship between the two airlines, Etihad and Lufthansa have agreed to codeshare on the UAE carrier’s twice-daily flights between its home base of Abu Dhabi and Frankfurt, and its twice daily services between Abu Dhabi and […]
In 2009, my TV cable bill went over $100 a month, and I decided enough was enough. I cut my cable. It wasn’t easy then. The internet streaming devices were primitive, and my choices were few. Today, Netflix is more popular than conventional TV, more teenagers watch YouTube than the networks, and rival streaming services Amazon Video, Hulu, and Sling TV are growing by leaps and bounds. […]
By Karolina Tagaris and Renee Maltezou | ATHENS ATHENS Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras seems determined to go down in history as a leader who tried to save Greece’s most vulnerable from austerity. But the crowd of pensioners in Athens on Thursday night was cynical about his promise to placate them with a one-off Christmas bonus. “We are living in misery and we won’t tolerate being fooled […]
