Technology

  Relaxnews As we head to the end of the year, the strains of work and modern life could be taking a toll on your sleep schedule. With the importance of a good night’s sleep at the forefront of health this year, here are some of the ways in which the latest technology releases can help, not hinder, your shut-eye, ...

  NEW YORK / AP Don’t count on smartphone health apps in an emergency: A review shows many don’t warn when you’re in danger. The study published in the journal Health Affairs found problems even with apps considered to be among the highest-quality offerings on the market. There’s been a proliferation of health apps for mobile phones. According to the ...

  Bloomberg Davis, a marketing and management consultant to other small business owners, was so immersed in emails, texts and social media that she was getting only four or five hours of sleep a night and her husband said he felt invisible. It also hurt her productivity — she’d get distracted reading people’s posts and realize she’d lost two hours ...

  Bloomberg Sony Corp. is stepping up efforts to gain a foothold in mobile gaming. It has announced 11 new mobile titles and unveiled Project Field, a thin, lightweight device the size of a kitchen cutting board that connects to real-world objects so they can be used for controlling games on smartphones and tablets. “We believe this is a brand ...

SAN FRANCISCO / AP Google is crossing a milestone in its quest to reduce pollution caused by its digital services that devour massive amounts of electricity. The internet company believes that beginning next year, it will have amassed enough renewable energy to meet all of its electricity needs throughout the world. That’s significant, given Google’s ravenous appetite for electricity to ...

  Bloomberg Two months after rolling out its digital assistant, Google is opening its doors to outside developers to help the company chase rivals, particularly Amazon.com Inc., in a critical technology race. The Alphabet Inc. unit recently launched a system for developers to build chatbots that work with Google Assistant, its voice-based virtual helper. The tools, called Conversation Actions, will ...

  Bloomberg Microsoft Corp. is creating a version of the Windows 10 operating system that will run on laptops powered by Qualcomm Inc. chips, a move that could erode Intel Corp.’s dominance in PCs and help the software maker gain a bigger foothold in mobile computing. Chips from Qualcomm, the largest maker of semiconductors used in phones, are designed to ...

  Relaxnews Acer Starbreeze, Facebook Oculus, Google, HTC Vive, Samsung and Sony Interactive Entertainment have announced the formation of an international non-profit organization, called the Global Virtual Reality Association (GVRA), to research and foster virtual reality technology and bring together all the players in this global industry, including consumers. Together, partners in the alliance hope to shape the future of ...

  Bloomberg BlackBerry Ltd. rebranded the software products it acquired over the last three years, tying them together into a single system it hopes will be the go-to platform companies and governments use to protect their electronic devices from hacks. The system, called “BlackBerry Secure,” is the culmination of Chief Executive Officer John Chen’s efforts to shift the company from ...

  BERLIN / AP Scientists have developed a mind-controlled robotic hand that allows people with certain types of spinal injuries to perform everyday tasks such as using a fork or drinking from a cup. The low-cost device was tested in Spain on six people with quadriplegia affecting their ability to grasp or manipulate objects. By wearing a cap that measures ...