Investors should invest in properties as prices are reasonable and the market is showing signs of recovery, according to an Omani real estate developer. Latest data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information showed sales are up 124 percent to $19.99 billion (OMR7.7 billion) in the first ten months of 2016 from $8.83 billion (OMR3.4 billion) for the same period 2015. Mortgage deals jumped by […]
One of CES’ major trends over the last few years has been the connected car — the concept of adding Internet connectivity and networking to our vehicles. Stealing the spotlight this year was Nvidia, which launched the Drive PX 2 — an in-car artificial intelligence system. PX 2 is designed for automakers exploring autonomous driving and includes 360-degree situational awareness, deep learning and the processing power of […]
Google refreshed its Daydream View VR device with two new colors, crimson and snow, expanding the number within the virtual reality headset range to three variants. When the device was unveiled last October, it only had the Slate coloring. New Colors, Same VR Technology The new colored headsets will not come with different or improved hardware specifications. Both variants are similar to the standard version under the […]
Good morning. Here’s our daily summary of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. The rise of “fake news” inspires the press to uncover its many practitioners worldwide, discern its economics and herald the alleged guilt-ridden soul-searching by its greatest enablers, Facebook and Google. But the media dances around another reality with the dexterity […]
03 December 2016 The Roads and Transport Authority – Majdi Abu Zaid: The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in Dubai has recently signed two Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with Khalifa University and the University of Dubai calling for stepping up cooperation in the field of robots and drones. The step is part of RTA endeavours to keep pace with the latest technological trends, share expertise with the academic […]
The planet’s technosphere now weighs some 30 trillion tons — a mass of more than 50 kilos for every square meter of the Earth’s surface, report investigators. Additionally, the numbers of technofossil ‘species’ now outnumber numbers of biotic species on planet Earth. The definition of the term technosphere includes physical human-made structures such as houses, factories, smartphones, computers and landfill. Source
Apple has written a letter to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration telling that new companies entering the auto industry should be given the same rights as established companies. This letter hints that Apple has the rumored iCar in the works. Apple’s Letter To NHTSA Apple’s letter to the NHTSA indicates that the company still has plans of testing autonomous cars. “Apple uses machine learning to […]
(Image: Liminal) Australian health insurer Medibank has launched an immersive virtual reality (VR) experience for Australian hospitals on Google Daydream View, in collaboration with a group of neuropsychologists at Melbourne-based VR developers Liminal. The “Joy” experience, which was entirely designed in 3D using Google’s Tilt Brush, provides hospital patients with a virtual experience to attempt to relieve loneliness and isolation, particularly for long-stay patients with restricted mobility. […]
It’s becoming an increasingly difficult chore trying to scour the App Store for decent apps given its very saturated library. A plethora of excellent apps intermingle with shovelware, and it’s often a tall order to sort the ones worthy of downloading from the ones that aren’t. A tall order, sure, but not impossible. Here’s a chief list of the best iPhone apps for 2016. Evernote Evernote has struggled […]
Apple has for the first time publicly acknowledged its plans to develop self-driving cars, with a letter that urges the US highways regulator to promote “fair competition” between newcomers to the automotive industry and traditional manufacturers. In an unusually direct statement accompanying the letter, an Apple spokesman confirmed its work on autonomous systems that could be used to transform “the future of transportation”. Apple’s letter touts the […]
This figure compares a traditionally trained algorithm to Aarabi and Guo’s heuristically trained neural net. The left and centre columns show an aggressive and conservative image-recognition algorithm trained to recognized human hair, compared to the more precise heuristically trained algorithm at right. Credit: Courtesy: IEEE Trans NN & LS “Hey Siri, how’s my hair?” Your smartphone may soon be able to give you an honest answer, thanks […]
The Samsung Galaxy S8 seems to be the blue-eyed boy of the rumor mill and the latest buzz is that the impending flagship will not sport a dual-camera setup. Previous reports have suggested that the Galaxy S8 would pack in two rear-facing cameras – a 12-megapixel one and another with a 13-megapixel resolution (with a Sony module). The news comes courtesy of a new leak from Weibo leakster Ice […]
In London last month, Arabian Business was treated to a behind-the-scenes explanation of how in March Google’s AlphaGo computer programme thrashed the world’s best player at the ancient board game Go. The match represented a breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) research being undertaken by Google’s DeepMind since the start-up was acquired for a reported $400m in 2014. Go involves two contestants moving black and white stones on […]
For months we’ve been warning that real estate markets in NYC and San Francisco, among others, are getting ready to rollover as the market is about to be flooded with new supply of luxury apartments (see here and here). Real estate in both markets are just starting to show signs of cracking as the apartments sales cycle is getting stretched out and pricing growth has stalled. Now, […]
Apple has lost a key executive from its digital health team after less than a year in the job. Yoky Matsuoka, a former robotics professor, was a co-founder of Google’s experimental X lab and held a senior position at Nest Labs, the smart-home company that is now part of Alphabet, for five years. A MacArthur fellow, she joined Apple to work on its health efforts earlier this […]
All our smart phones have shiny flat AMOLED displays. Behind each single pixel of these displays hide at least two silicon transistors which were mass-manufactured using laser annealing technologies. While the traditional methods to make them uses temperatures above 1,000°C, the laser technique reaches the same results at low temperatures even on plastic substrates (melting temperature below 300°C). Interestingly, a similar procedure can be used to generate […]
Opec’s production cut this week to bolster oil prices may strike many as a throwback to an earlier era, but it hinged on a very modern method of communication: a messaging group between the smartphones of Saudi Arabia’s delegation in Vienna and Prince Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud. For a royal priding himself on being a tech savvy moderniser in the kingdom, the use of a popular encrypted messaging service may […]
Virginia-based Kryptowire said that it had discovered the problem in a number of Android-based phones using firmware from the Chinese company Shanghai ADUPS Technology A US security company says a Chinese-made smartphone popular in the United States forwarded detailed user data and user texts back to a Chinese server without the phone owner’s knowledge. Virginia-based Kryptowire, which provides mobile security services to government agencies and private businesses, […]
Juniper Networks announced Thursday it plans to acquire AppFormix, providers of cloud operations management and optimization technology. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2013 by former Microsoft and Cisco executive Sumeet Singh, AppFormix’s software platform leverages streaming analytics and machine learning in a distributed architecture for use in cloud environments. The platform works with any OpenStack or Kubernetes distribution and includes services for […]
First, write out the numbers one to 100 in 10 rows. Cross out the one. Then circle the two, and cross out all of the multiples of two. Circle the three, and do likewise. Follow those instructions, and you’ve just completed the first three steps of an algorithm, and an incredibly ancient one. Twenty-three centuries ago, Eratosthenes was sat in the great library of Alexandria, using this […]
A digital battle is being waged over the huge amount of technical data that will be stored in autonomous vehicles Just like credit cards, smartphones or search engines, autonomous cars will carry a trove of information about their owners as they make driving more comfortable, raising new concerns about privacy. Automakers are engaged in a fierce race to develop the first driverless car, which experts say should […]
DirecTV Now reestablishes the channel paradigm in a system built for apps Graduations are often accompanied by proclamations. Such was the case for Apple TV when Apple’s former hobby became a full-fledged OS vessel as Tim Cook proclaimed, “the future of TV is apps.” The prediction invited skepticism for many reasons. A year earlier, Google had made its own run at app TV with Android TV, which […]
Apple has started to reduce its orders for the iPhone 7 amid declining demand for the smartphone, according to a report by DigiTimes. The publication’s sources, which come from the supply chain in Taiwan, said that demand for the iPhone 7 in China and other markets has decreased significantly since the smartphone was launched in September. Massive Demand For iPhone 7 At Launch Now Fading According to […]
5G subscriptions are forecast to reach 20 million by 2022 in the Middle East and North East Africa, according to new research from tech giant Ericsson. Its Mobility Report for the Middle East and North East Africa also said mobile subscriptions are growing steadily across the region. They are expected to reach 690 million by the end of 2016, making up to 8 percent of the global […]
