Technology

  Relaxnews Before piloting competition-level kit in immersive flight mode with specially designed glasses, newcomers to the world of drones can have fun trying out their flight skills with an affordable model designed with beginners in mind. They also make great gifts for this season. Syma X5SC Explorers 2 Chinese manufacturer Syma makes a veritable clone of what drone market …

  AP In another black eye for one of the world’s leading consumer brands, US authorities announced a recall of nearly 3 million Samsung washing machines following several reports of injuries — including a broken jaw — due to “excessive vibration.” The recall comes a month after the South Korean manufacturer recalled millions of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones from …

  Relaxnews We may be a full decade away from fully autonomous cars, but by 2018 there is a good chance that your next Ford Sedan or SUV will be able to take the strain, at least when it comes to parking. A 2016 BMW 7 Series can park itself, whether the owner is at the wheel or not, simply …

  Relaxnews Internet usage from mobile devices (51.26%) overtook usage from desktop devices (48.74%) for the first time in October 2016, according to data from StatCounter. In fact, smartphones alone now account for 46.53% of web use, with traffic from tablets at 4.73%. While internet usage from tablets has remained relatively stable year on year, at around 5%, it’s smartphone …

  Relaxnews Chinese electronics firm Huawei has unveiled its latest Mate 9 smartphone in Munich, designed to challenge global market leaders Apple and Samsung with features including a high-quality camera and higher- capacity battery. As Korea’s Samsung struggles with negative publicity following the high-profile recall of its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone in response to reports of it catching fire …

  Bloomberg Microsoft Corp. unveiled a corporate team-chat service that works with its cloud-based Office and Skype products, aiming to take on Slack Technologies Inc. and Atlassian Corp.’s HipChat in a growing market. The new product is “designed to facilitate real-time conversations and collaboration while maintaining and building up that institutional knowledge of a team,” said Chief Executive Officer Satya …

  WASHINGTON / AFP Donald Trump blames Mexico and China for stealing millions of jobs from the United States. He might want to bash the robots instead. Despite the Republican presidential nominee’s charge that “we don’t make anything anymore,” manufacturing is still flourishing in America. Problem is, factories don’t need as many people as they used to because machines now …

  Dubai / Emirates Business Intel® Security has released its McAfee Labs Health Warning report, which assesses the marketplace for stolen medical records; compares it with the marketplace for stolen financial services data; identifies health care focused cybercrime-as-a-service trends; and profiles cybercrime targeting intellectual property in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The Intel Security research asserts that the development of …

  Bloomberg Some of the world’s largest technology companies are banking on a future where people will send text messages to airlines, banks, restaurants or stores and receive automated responses. Facebook Inc., Microsoft Corp., IBM and Tencent each held events this year centered around promoting their bot-related initiatives to software makers. Twitter Inc. introduced chatbot-like functions with Pizza Hut and …

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. unveiled new Mac computers as it seeks to revitalize a product line that co-founder Steve Jobs once said would be rendered redundant by the iPad. Overhauled MacBook Pro laptops and a new computer monitor were presented in a press conference at Apple’s Cupertino, California, headquarters. While laptops are traditionally more profitable for Apple than the iPad, …