Technology

  AFP Hong Kong’s 2014 pro-democracy “Umbrella Revolution” was re-imagined as a zombie apocalypse by gamemakers who transformed politicians and protesters into the walking dead using virtual reality technology at a comic and games expo recently. Teenagers and video game enthusiasts packed the Ani-Com show at the city’s harbourfront convention centre and queued for “Hong Kong Infected”, where they shot ...

  AP You’d be wrong to think that Facebook’s Messenger app is all about messaging. Although people typically install it on their phones to chat privately with their Facebook friends, Facebook also uses Messenger to bring features and capabilities that might not make sense, or even be possible, as part of the main Facebook service. And of course, a separate ...

AP The little robot that caused a big stir when it hit crowdfunding site Indiegogo is now a retail reality. After passing its funding goal by some 300%, Riley, the AppBot, is now officially on sale at a number of retail outlets and on Amazon for $229. As homes get smarter and connectivity becomes the norm, it’s only going to ...

  Relaxnews The Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences and Samsung are pooling their considerable resources in order to build a connected health and lifestyle platform that will interact with everything from smart TVs to wearables in order to help people make healthier choices. As more and more areas of our lives — from the homes we live in to the ...

  Bloomberg Social game developer Zynga is moving into school spaces in an official capacity as “Words With Friends” receives an educational edition. First introduced in 2009, the mobile sensation “Words With Friends” has been made over for use within school teaching settings. “Words With Friends EDU” is the result of Zynga’s refit, and it’s being released as a free ...

  Bloomberg Oracle Corp., lagging the competition in cloud-based services, is essentially buying market share with its $9.3 billion acquisition of NetSuite Inc. Oracle has been trying for years to shift from selling software installed on corporate customers’ gear the old way to delivering it over the internet. Yet in its most recent quarter, the company said the cloud division ...

  Relaxnews September brings with it a first reveal of Nintendo’s next home console, and a new report indicates that it will be a tablet-style affair with big screen capabilities. The Nintendo NX will combine handheld and stationary console design standards, with each controller comprising a display “bookended by two [detachable] controllers on each side,” according to a new report. ...

  Bloomberg Supercomputers that create 3-D seismic maps of BHP Billiton Ltd.’s oil and gas assets are accelerating work to bring new fields into production and have already notched savings of $500 million in development costs at a project in the Caribbean. The computers are among initiatives aimed at using technology such as drones and robot drills to cut operating ...

  Bloomberg Line Corp. posted a profit in its first earnings report since ushering in the year’s biggest technology debut, as monthly active users rose just 4 percent to 220 million. Japan’s largest mobile messaging service announced 2.56 billion yen ($24.3 million) of net income in the six months through June, from a loss of 5.3 billion yen a year ...

    AP Facebook is once again getting pushy about how people message one another. Two years ago, the social-media giant forced its users to adopt its Messenger app for direct communication, a change it enforced by deactivating messages in the main Facebook app and steering users to the app. There was an uproar, some users thought Messenger violated their ...