Technology

  Bloomberg Plunging battery costs will drive the auto industry’s biggest change in more than a century, enabling a boom by 2030 in technologies from self-driving electric cars to ride-sharing applications. The price of lithium-ion battery packs for electric cars has fallen 65 percent since 2010 and is likely to keep declining, according to a report by Bloomberg New Energy ...

  Relaxnews Microsoft has launched its HoloLens mixed-reality goggles in a further six markets, following the device’s initial debut across the US and Canada. Pre-orders for the goggles, described by Microsoft as “the world’s first self-contained holographic computer,” will begin from Wednesday for consumers in Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, with the product to be ...

  AFP Cloud computing rivals VMware and Amazon Web Services on Thursday announced an alliance that will let them play off each other’s strengths. The powerful cloud computing arm of online retail giant Amazon will be able to handle VMware software and tools popular with businesses, according to the companies. The move was described as being tailored to integrate the ...

  NEW YORK / AP If you’re like many people, you have thousands of photos on your phone, long forgotten after you’ve posted a few on Instagram or Facebook. They don’t have to stay forgotten. Apple and Google are both applying a form of artificial intelligence called “machine learning” to organize your pictures and video — and along the way, ...

  Relaxnews Television manufacturer Samsung is to partner with PC gaming giant Valve to integrate its Steam Link game streaming device into future TV sets. Announced during the Steam Dev Days developer event in Seattle, the partnership means that in future, owners of new Samsung TVs will be able to stream video games and other content to their televisoin set ...

  Bloomberg Sony Corp.’s release of the PlayStation VR on Thursday brings virtual reality to the cusp of mainstream adoption. To make it a must-have home entertainment device, the gadget will need a breakaway hit like Angry Birds or Pokemon Go. A list of the challenges faced by virtual-reality developers offers hints of what a killer VR app or game ...

  Bloomberg On Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., BMW Group debuted a motorcycle concept so artificially intelligent that it eliminates the need for the rider to wear protective gear, including a helmet. The BMW Motorrad Vision Next 100 motorcycle is the latest incarnation of BMW’s Vision Next series, which celebrates 100 years of the German brand with forward-looking concept vehicles ...

  AFP Social network giant Facebook on Monday launched new global product Workplace, a platform that it hopes will replace intranet, mailbox and other internal communication tools used by businesses worldwide. The platform allows employees to collaborate in real-time and is intended to compete with similar office communication products including Microsoft’s Yammer, Salesforce’s Chatter and Slack. The Silicon Valley company ...

  San Francisco / AFP Industry reports released recently showed that shipments of personal computers slid anew in the recently ended quarter as lifestyles continued to shift to smartphones and tablets. Worldwide PC shipments in the third quarter of this year totaled 68.9 million units in a 5.7 percent decline from the same period a year earlier, according to preliminary ...

  Bloomberg Five months after shaking hands with Apple Inc., retailer Kohl’s Corp. is starting to compete with the tech giant’s mobile-payment service Apple Pay. For Apple, the market leader of in-store mobile payments, moves like Kohl’s are becoming increasingly familiar. Over the summer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. rolled out its own mobile-payment service nationwide and pharmacy chain CVS Health Corp. ...