October, 2016

• 6 October

  Mini ‘Pepper’ robots start new jobs in Taiwan

  

    AFP A shiny new cohort joined the workforce in Taiwan on Thursday — a troop of mini robots all going by the name “Pepper”, enlisted to entertain customers and give them the hard sell. Chinese-speaking Pepper was introduced into two banks and an insurance company in the capital Taipei, dancing to music, playing with children in lobbies and leading …

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• 6 October

  Alphabet cancelled launch of Google robotic arm

  

    Bloomberg Google published research this week detailing how its software enables robots to learn from one another. To demonstrate, the company’s scientists showed videos featuring robotic arms whirling inside its labs. Google’s robotics group built those machines and wanted to sell them to manufacturers, warehouse operators and others. However, executives at Google parent Alphabet Inc. nixed the plan because …

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• 6 October

  Honda Accord gets sportier

  

    Emirates Business Honda Motor Co. Africa and Middle East Office announced the official launch of the ‘2017 New Accord’ at Four Seasons Resort Jumeirah Beach, Dubai on Thursday. The New Accord gets a major facelift with sportier, more sophisticated styling. New Accord features restyled alloy wheels on the 4 cylinders and Honda SensingTM Technology on V6 grades. An additional …

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• 6 October

  Oris Aquis depth gauge returns with a revamp

  

    Emirates Business The Oris Aquis Depth Gauge was hailed by the international press as one of the most innovative diving watches of the century when it was launched in 2013. It answered the challenge of how to build a depth gauge into a mechanical watch. It had a pioneering depth gauge function, developed and patented by Oris. Marking the …

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• 6 October

  How to upgrade America’s ‘third world’ airports

  

    It’s the one opinion that Donald Trump and his opponents seem to share: America’s airports are so bad, it’s like “they’re from a third world country,” as Trump said in the first debate. Vice President Joe Biden used the same phrase to describe New York’s LaGuardia two years ago. Much of the flying public seems to roughly agree. The …

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• 6 October

  There’s family, and then there’s insider trading

    The connection between the law of insider trading and the nature of the sibling relationship may not be immediately obvious — but the U.S. Supreme Court will consider it Wednesday in what may be one of the most interesting cases of a term that the justices have designed to be boring. Salman v. U.S. turns on whether one brother …

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• 6 October

  We agree on Obamacare’s flaws, but not on fixes

  

    For weeks, rumors have been flying that WikiLeaks would deliver an “October surprise” for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, a bombshell revelation that she would struggle to recover from in the short weeks remaining until the election. (So far, it’s a dud — surprise!) But Clinton should be worried about a “November surprise” — the wave of policy cancellations and rate …

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• 6 October

  EasyJet posts first profit drop since 2009 on terror, Brexit

  

    Bloomberg EasyJet Plc’s annual profit fell for the first time since 2009 as a spate of terror attacks clipped demand and the decline of the pound following Britain’s vote to quit the European Union inflated foreign-currency costs. Pretax profit for the 12 months ended Sept. 30 is expected to have been in the range of 490 million pounds to …

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• 6 October

  Future Group to raise US$1bn sales by 2021

  

    Bloomberg Future Group, which runs India’s largest chain of department stores, expects record growth in the current financial year as a favorable monsoon boosts agricultural output and rural incomes. The group, which controls four listed entities including Future Retail Ltd., is expecting to register 25 percent to 28 percent growth, Chief Executive Officer Kishore Biyani said in an interview …

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• 6 October

  Wal-Mart boosts stake in JD.com, forays into China

  

    Bloomberg Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is pushing more aggressively onto Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s turf. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer boosted its stake in China’s second-largest e-commerce website JD.com Inc., strengthening an alliance to win more market share in the world’s largest online market. Wal-Mart lifted its holding to 10.8 percent from 5.9 percent, according to an amended 13-G filing on …

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