A hundred years ago, an arms race between the dominant global superpower the (British Empire) and a rising power (Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany) culminated in the mass slaughter of World War One. The deep mistrust between the United States and the People’s Republic of China has all the potential to spawn a traumatic chapter in international relations. Despite its “pivot” to Asia, the Obama White House was cautious […]
IDC predicts that 35 percent of leading organizations in logistics, health, utilities, and resources will explore the use of robots to automate operations by 2019. What does the future hold for robotics? It’s hard to say, given the rapid pace of change in the field as well as in associated areas such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. But one thing seems certain: Robots will play an […]
It isn’t magic but close. The Prisma app helps turn mere smartphone photographs into high-resolution artistic images with the use of its AI-based neural network servers. To enhance and tweak images on the app, Prisma performs precalculated algorithms. To keep its users, Prisma promises to deliver a continuous flood of new filters, features, and effects. Recently, the app also doubled the photo resolution to deliver high-quality output. […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. Most of us can feel unavoidably like Mongo in Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles,” meaning a self-perception that “Mongo only pawn in game of life.” (YouTube) Yes, we all try to be philosophical but can lapse into merely being dim-witted, like […]
Dubai, United Arab Emirates- December 22, 2016-(ME NewsWire) Space Imaging Middle East (SIME) is pleased to announce that Crime Prediction- its latest predictive policing software- has been successfully launched by the Dubai Police force. The software, which is the first of its kind in the region, was developed in support of the UAE’s Smart Governance Initiative, and specifically designed to complement the Dubai Police force’s modernized approach […]
I was really keen to test the Tabcat locator. I have used its predecessor, Loc8tor for several years to successfully find my cats whilst they were out on the prowl. Tabcat is a locator that does not rely on GPS or Bluetooth to find your pet. It uses radio frequency based technology which the brand says will give you a greater range and performance than Bluetooth cat […]
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 […]
Virgin America refutes a recent report that one of its flight got delayed due to a Galaxy Note 7 prank. The company, however, did not comment on whether a passenger indeed trolled its flight 358 by renaming his Wi-Fi hotspot with the notorious Samsung device. ( Drew Angerer | Getty Images ) BBC has reported that a Virgin flight has been disrupted almost to the point of […]
In the wake of reports that Fitbit has dominated the wearables segment and with its acquisition of Pebble, it would seem that the picture for the wearable industry is all rosy. A new report, however, shows that it is not the case. Wearables’ Negative Outlook Research firm eMarketer has downgraded its outlook on the wearable devices market. It estimates a 24.7 percent growth this year for an industry […]
Output at Libya’s Sharara oilfield reached 58,000 barrels on the first day of reopening after the lifting of a two-year blockade, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said in a statement on Wednesday. “The NOC gave instructions to operating companies to restart production from the fields and to carry out necessary works, testing and maintenance. Production at Sharara reached 58,000 on the first day,” the statement said. The […]
NAND flash memory SK Hynix will invest 2.2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) to build a new fabrication facility that produces NAND flash memory in its factory in Cheongju, South Korea, the company announced. The world’s second largest memory chip maker will also put additional investment into its counterpart in Wuxi, China, which mostly produces dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), to meet rising demand from local customers there. The […]
We’ve seen the iPhone 7 and the Google Pixel, and yes, both devices are some of the best smartphones of 2016. They will likely still be some of the best throughout 2017. The thing is, one device is better than the other. In our mind, the better one is the iPhone 7. There are many reasons to love the Google Pixel. It has a good design, and […]
It began on September 24, with a three-word plea: “I need peace.” That day, 18 more tweets were sent from a newly opened Twitter account attributed to Bana Alabed, a seven-year-old girl trapped with her family in eastern Aleppo. Within days, the mainstream western media was carrying stories about “the little girl who shames world over Aleppo”, as the UK’s Daily Mail headlined a front-page picture of […]
In the summer of 2015, I left Washington, D.C. and moved to Carrboro, population 19,582, in the middle of North Carolina. I had never lived in the South before, or in a small town. Most of my life had been spent along the Acela corridor, in Philadelphia and New York and Boston and Hartford, Connecticut. I thought we would stay a year, maybe two. This summer, we […]
Two illegal immigrants planning to enter the UAE by hiding in a truck have been arrested, according to a news report. Officials in Mezyad Customs Centre in Abu Dhabi pulled over an Arab truck driver and conducted a search. They found two people hiding in the spare tyre compartment, Khaleej Times reported. Mohammed Khadem Al Hameli, acting director of Abu Dhabi’s general administration of customs, said that […]
Uber wants to attract a million drivers in India over the next two years, a challenge in a country where many people are unfamiliar with smartphones or GPS. A Wall Street Journal article today explains how the company aims to reach its goal. Click above to watch one driver describe his Uber training. (via WSJ)
Google and Apple are the most valuable companies in the world, and undoubted winners from the smartphone boom. In their wake lies Nokia’s handset business, which was sold to Microsoft and later wound down. But, when it comes to defending themselves against the arsenal of patents Nokia built up in its years at the top, the US tech giants want the world to view them as victims […]
A study by RMIT University has found that around 2 million Australians are often risking data breaches by logging into internet banking and conducting other financial transactions on unsecured public Wi-Fi networks. In compiling its report [PDF] Practicing safe public Wi-Fi: Assessing and managing data-security risks, RMIT surveyed 1,200 adult Australians, asking explicitly what they do on public Wi-Fi networks, as well as what they know about […]
Nokia was the world’s leading mobile phone maker from 1998 until 2011 when it bet on Microsoft’s Windows mobile platform, which proved to be a flop Nokia announced Wednesday it is suing Apple in German and US courts for patent infringement, claiming the US tech giant was using Nokia technology in “many” products without paying for it. Finnish Nokia, once the world’s top mobile phone maker, said […]
A recent study shows how smartphones can be used to make movies of living cells, without the need for expensive equipment. The study makes it possible for laboratories around the world to do the same thing. (via WSJ)
Self-driving cars are rolling out much faster than expected, from Uber testing autonomous taxis in San Francisco to Google spinning off its self-driving car division into Waymo and partnering with Fiat-Chrysler. To Fiat, this likely looked like the fastest and best way to get up to speed, considering that rivals like Ford, Honda, and Toyota have a head start. It wasn’t always like […]
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways is reviewing its strategy of investing in European airlines and is seeking an exit in a shake-up that could lead to the departure of CEO James Hogan, company and industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday. Etihad saw a strategy to take equity stakes in carriers like Air Berlin, Alitalia and Air Serbia as a way to expand its European network but losses have mounted with Air […]
This year. I started out as a managing editor of the L.A. Times. I end it as a vice president at CNN. We lived in Los Feliz, under the hills of Griffith Park and neon signs of donut shops. Now we’re in Jackson Heights, in the shadow of brick buildings and halal butchers and planes headed to LaGuardia. After the move, we let our 12-year-old walk to […]
HTC HTC just sent out this very cryptic image to members of the press. The text of the email doesn’t offer any further clues, simply stating the company “wanted to share the date of our next big announcement.” Even more puzzling is that HTC’s announcement comes after the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, a stage where companies typically make product and partnership announcements. However, HTC has made its […]
