Sci-Tech

Google Mini captures top spot in connected speaker market: survey

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Google Home Mini has vaulted to the top spot in the global market for connected speakers, edging out a rival device from Amazon, a survey showed Wednesday. The Strategy Analytics report for the second quarter of 2018 showed the smallest device from Google captured 20 percent of the market with sales of 2.3 million. That was slightly ahead of the Echo Dot, the similarly sized device from Amazon, with […]

Nation state cyber attacks on rise, says Europol

  by Danny Kemp Agence France Presse THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — Global ransomware attacks are increasingly linked to nation states, with the lines between politics and crime often blurring, Europe’s police agency said on Tuesday. Key ransomware attacks include the so-called WannaCry and NotPetya malware, which infected hundreds of thousands of computers around the world in 2017, demanding that users pay ransoms to regain access. “Ransomware retains its dominance,” said Europol’s latest annual report […]

Japanese billionaire businessman revealed as SpaceX’s first Moon traveler

by Ivan Couronne Agence France Presse HAWTHORNE, United States (AFP) — A Japanese billionaire and online fashion tycoon, Yusaku Maezawa, will be the first man to fly on a monster SpaceX rocket around the Moon as early as 2023, and he plans to bring six to eight artists along. Maezawa, 42, will be the first lunar traveler since the last US Apollo mission in 1972. He paid an unspecified amount of money for the privilege. […]

Robots, machines will do more tasks than humans by 2025: WEF

  PARIS, France (AFP) — Robots will handle 52 percent of current work tasks by 2025, almost twice as many as now, a World Economic Forum (WEF) study said Monday. The sharp increase could also see a net gain in “new roles” for humans, who will have to revamp skills to keep pace with the “seismic shift” in how we work with machines and computer programmes, the forum estimated. “By 2025 more than half of […]

Machines will do more tasks than humans by 2025: WEF

PARIS, France (AFP) — Robots will handle 52 percent of current work tasks by 2025, almost twice as many as now, a World Economic Forum (WEF) study said Monday. The sharp increase could also see a net gain in “new roles” for humans, who will have to revamp skills to keep pace with the “seismic shift” in how we work with machines and computer programmes, the forum estimated. “By 2025 more than half of all […]

Apple unveils new smartwatch, nears 2 bn devices

  CUPERTINO, United States (AFP) —  Apple unveiled a redesigned smartwatch on Wednesday as the California tech giant said it was nearing its two billionth device for its mobile operating system. “We are about to hit a major milestone, we are about to ship our 2 billionth iOS device,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said as he opened a media event expected to unveil a new lineup of iPhones. “This is astonishing, iOS has changed the way we […]

NASA counts down to launch of laser study of ice sheets

  by Kerry Sheridan Agence France Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) — NASA counted down Saturday to the launch of its $1 billion ICESat-2 mission, using advanced lasers to uncover the true depth of the melting of Earth’s ice sheets. The mission will inform sea level rise forecasts and is “exceptionally important for science,” according to Richard Slonaker, ICESat-2 program executive at NASA. The half-ton satellite should reveal unprecedented detail about the current thickness of […]

SpaceX announces new plan to send tourist around Moon

  LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — SpaceX on Thursday announced a new plan to launch a tourist around the Moon using its Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), a massive launch vehicle that is being designed to carry people to deep space. “SpaceX has signed the world’s first private passenger to fly around the Moon aboard our BFR launch vehicle — an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of traveling to space,” […]

UAE announces first astronauts to go to space

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — The United Arab Emirates has selected its first two astronauts to go on a mission to the International Space Station, Dubai’s ruler said Monday. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum named the new astronauts as Hazza al-Mansouri, 34, and 37-year-old Sultan al-Neyadi. Writing on Twitter, he said the duo “raise the bar of ambitions for future Emirati generations”. Sheikh Mohammed, the UAE’s vice president and prime minister, last year vowed to […]

Brief Facebook outage after ‘networking issues’

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)–Facebook users around the world reported the social network was briefly inaccessible Monday, with many taking to Twitter to voice their frustration. Reports of issues on the downdetector.com website began around 2100 GMT, with users particularly affected in North America and Europe. The outage lasted less than 90 minutes before normal service resumed. Some users had read-only access while others were unable to log in. “Earlier today, a networking issue caused some […]

Apple expected to unveil new iPhones at September 12 event

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) – Apple on Thursday sent out invitations to a September 12 event at which it is expected to unveil new additions to its money-making iPhone line-up. In typical enigmatic style, Apple offered scant clues to what it has in store for the presentation to take place in the Steve Jobs Theater at its spaceship campus in the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino. Invitations had the words “Gather round” under a […]