Science & Tech

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Google on Wednesday introduced new Pixel earbuds that the company says are capable of real-time translation of conversations in different languages. A demonstration given as Google unveiled a host of new products infused with its digital “Assistant” smarts got people playfully referring to Pixel Buds as an internet-Age version of alien “Babel Fish” depicted in famed science fiction work “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” In the literature, inserting a Babel Fish in an ear enabled a person to understand anything spoken in any language. Pixel Buds, synched to freshly-introduced second-generation Pixel smartphones, promised real-time ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Yahoo on Tuesday said that all 3 billion of its accounts were hacked in a 2013 data theft, tripling its earlier estimate of the size of the largest breach in history, in a disclosure that attorneys said sharply increased the legal exposure of its new owner, Verizon Communications Inc. The news expands the likely number and claims of class action lawsuits by shareholders and Yahoo account holders, they said. Yahoo, the early face of the internet for many in the world, already faced at least 41 consumer class-action lawsuits in US federal and state courts, ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Samsung’s flagship smartphone Galaxy Note8 on Friday won the ‘Gadget of the Year’ award at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2017 here. Note8, which features ‘Bixby’ digital assistant and enhanced ‘S Pen’, was launched in India on 12 September at Rs 67,900. “With the launch of Galaxy Note8, we have further strengthened our leadership in the premium smartphone segment in India and this prestigious award bears testimony to our efforts,” said Asim Warsi, Senior Vice President, Mobile Business, Samsung India, in a statement. The 6.3-inch smartphone comes with 6GB RAM, 64GB internal memory which is ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: The next version of Microsoft Office — Office 2019 — will be released in the second half of 2018 and its previews will start shipping mid-year. The release will include perpetual versions of the Office apps including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook and servers including Exchange, SharePoint and Skype for Business, Microsoft said in statement late on Tuesday. Office 2019 will add new capabilities for customers, including improved inking features like pressure sensitivity, tilt effects and ink replay. The release will bring server enhancements, which will include updates to IT manageability, usability, voice and security, ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Australia on Monday committed to creating a national space agency as it looks to cash in on the lucrative and fast-evolving astronautical sector, reported news agency. The announcement came at a week-long Adelaide space conference attended by the world’s top scientists and experts including SpaceX chief Elon Musk. It brings Canberra—which already has significant involvement in national and international space activities—into line with most other developed nations, which already have dedicated agencies to help coordinate the industry and shape development. “The global space industry is growing rapidly and it’s crucial that Australia is part of ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: A petition organised by Uber against London’s decision not to renew its operating license has gathered 500,000 signatures, little more than 24 hours after the decision was announced, a website monitoring its progress showed on Saturday. The online petition was started on Friday after transport authorities in the British capital deemed Uber unfit to run a taxi service and stripped it of its license from next week. The petition calls on London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who also acts as chairman of local regulator Transport for London, to reverse the decision to withdraw Uber’s license to ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Facebook said it has banned a Rohingya militant group from its site, designating it a ‘dangerous organisation’ as information on the deepening crisis is muddied by claims, counter-claims and hate speech on social media. The social network is a key tool in the information war taking place over violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, which has driven more than 420,000 Rohingya Muslims from the country and sparked UN accusations of military-led “ethnic cleansing”. A Facebook spokeswoman told news agency that it was not requested by the government to bar the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Google today come up with a doodle marking 308th birth anniversary of British lexicographer Samuel Johnson, acknowledged for his lasting contribution to the English literature. Called Dr Johnson, he was a poet, moralist, literary critic, essayist, lexicographer, biographer and an editor as well. After nine years of work, Dr Johnson published an English dictionary in 1755. The dictionary ‘Johnson’s: A Dictionary of the English Language’ remained one of the most popular until Oxford came up with its dictionary in 1928. The pages of the dictionary were nearly 18 inches tall and the book was 20 ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Apple unveiled three new iPhone models — iPhone X, iPhone 8 and 8 Plus — on Monday, including a top-of-line handset described as “the biggest leap forward” since the original iPhone 10 years ago. Apple chief executive Tim Cook announced the premium iPhone X—pronounced 10 — as well as a new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. Cook, speaking at the first event at the new campus theater named for the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, said the latest flagship handset is a milestone for the company a decade after the first iPhone release. “Ten years ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: At a time when reports of suicides linked to the Blue Whale challenge internet game are sending shock waves through the country, Facebook on Friday said it is working with suicide prevention partners to collect phrases, hashtags and group names associated with online challenges encouraging self-harm or suicide. “We offer resources to people that search for these terms on Facebook,” the social media giant said. The Blue Whale challenge is said to psychologically provoke players to indulge in daring, self-destructive tasks for 50 days before finally taking the “winning” step of killing themselves. Facebook said ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: HMD Global has now confirmed that all of the company’s Nokia-branded Android smartphones will be receiving the Android 8.0 Oreo update going ahead. While the company has already provided regular updates to its smartphones and the handsets are relatively new, it is good to get official confirmation from the company regarding the update to the next version of Android. In a tweet posted on Saturday, Juho Sarvikas, the Chief Product Officer at HMD Global, said, “All of our smartphones will upgrade to Oreo, Nokia 3 included.” This clears any doubts about Nokia 3 getting the ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Chinese electronics giant Huawei on Saturday unveiled its first mobile personal assistant with artificial intelligence in Berlin, in hopes it will rival the dominance of Samsung’s Bixby and Apple’s Siri. Internet giants have been investing heavily in creating software to help machines think more like people, ideally acting as virtual assistants who get to know users and perhaps even anticipate needs. And as smartphones and other electronic devices make greater use of artificial intelligence (AI), the digital assistants already pervasive in our lives are set to become more intuitive and play a bigger role in ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Huawei has released a new technology white paper entitled ‘Next-Generation Assurance in NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) Networks. The white paper analyzes in detail Communication Service Provider’s (CSP) NFV assurance and maintenance technique requirements during digital transformation, says a press release. NFV offers a new way to design, deploy and manage networking services. Also decouples the network functions, such as network address translation (NAT), firewalling, intrusion detection, domain name service (DNS), and caching, to name a few, from proprietary hardware appliances so they can run in software. At the same time, active network data forecast and ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced the birth of their second daughter, releasing a family photo on Facebook, reported news agency. The couple named the child August after the Facebook founder’s wife gave birth earlier this month. In a post on the social network on Monday evening that attracted hundreds of thousands of followers, Mr Zuckerberg wrote: ‘Priscilla and I are so happy to welcome our daughter August!’ He then posted an open letter to their new-born baby below the announcement, explaining: ‘We wrote her a letter about the world we hope she ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Every year about 25 lakh Muslims gather in Makkah city for hajj and these pilgrims will be excited to know that an Arabian scientist has invented a smart umbrella. The weather in Makkah is hot and dry. People coming from abroad find it hard to cope up with such weather. The inventor of the umbrella is Mohammad bin Hamed As-Sayeg. The umbrella is known as ‘Qafia’. The specialty of the umbrella is it can emit 40 degree Celsius temperature weighing 660 gram. It can be carried easily. The umbrella has a fan. Besides, a water ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Millions of people looked skyward in awe through protective glasses, telescopes and cameras on Monday as the first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in a century marched from the US Pacific Northwest to the Atlantic seaboard. After weeks of anticipation, onlookers from Oregon to South Carolina whooped and cheered as the moon blotted out the sun, plunging a narrow band of the United States into near darkness and colder temperatures for two minutes at a time. Even President Donald Trump stepped out of the White House to see the eclipse. The eclipse first reached “totality” – ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday he would be taking two months of paternity leave after the birth of his second daughter. Mark Zuckerberg said he would be taking advantage of Facebook’s option to take leaves in parts, reported news agency. “I’ll take a month off to be with Priscilla (Chan) and the girls at the beginning, and then we’ll spend the whole month of December together as well,” Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. Mark Zuckerberg had also taken a two-month paternity leave following the birth of his first child, Maxima ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Former President Barack Obama’s tweet reacting to the attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, is the most liked tweet ever on the social network. Obama tweeted a quote from Nelson Mandela’s 1994 autobiography “Long Walk to Freedom” Saturday that said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” The quote was split into three tweets, ...

MNA Technology Desk: Sarahah, a new messaging app, that’s gaining popularity among teens can be used for bullying, experts warn. Sarahah is a messaging service that lets anyone with a link send or receive anonymous texts to those registered. There’s no way of knowing who posted the comments and no way to respond to the messages. It was initially created by a Saudi developer who was worried about workplace discrimination. The app can now be integrated into Snapchat and has become a serious lure for teens. Sarahah works by giving each of its users a custom URL. That URL then ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: Uber on Tuesday announced the integration of the nationwide emergency number 999 in its rider app to increase riders’ safety, reported news agency. In a reinforcement of Uber’s commitment towards safety of riders, Uber integrated the government’s helpline number in the app, which would prompt riders to dial 999 in case of an emergency, Uber said in a statement. In the event of an emergency situation during a ride, riders in an Uber can now access an in-app card and press ‘Call Now’ to connect to the toll free national help desk run by the ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: The Chinese government’s crackdown on the internet continues with the news that Apple has removed all major VPN apps, which help internet users overcome the country’s censorship system, from the App Store in China. The move was first noted by ExpressVPN, a provider based outside of China, which said in a blog post “all major VPN apps” including its own had been purged from Apple’s China-based store. The company shared a note from Apple (below) explaining that its app was removed because “it includes content that is illegal in China.” The app continues to be ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Walmart.com, trailing Amazon.com Inc in the number of goods for sale on its website, is recruiting vendors in China and other countries to boost its online offerings in a pivot away from Wal-Mart’s Made-in-America campaign. While there is a financial incentive behind the move, Wal-Mart’s decision comes out of necessity: not all the goods its customers want – ranging from jeans to bicycles to beauty products – are manufactured within the United States. Americans are quick to say they favor US-made products. But their mood shifts when the products hit the store aisles, where they ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Patients of National Heart Foundation (NHF), who forget to take their heart medicines as prescribed can now better manage their dosages and routines through a new smart phone App launched in Dhaka on Tuesday. Bangladesh University at its Urban Lab, with the cooperation of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Division, made this App for the NHF heart patients. Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Annisul Huq inaugurated the app as the chief guest at a function at (NHF) auditorium in city’s Mirpur area. The App can only be used by the patient of NHF. Patient ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: A total of 3,918 illegal websites were shut down by China’s internet watchdogs from April to June, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has said. The websites included those that published content that jeopardized national security, and those that spread violence, vulgarity or unfounded rumours, according to the CAC statement on Saturday, news agency reported. Up to 316 cases related to illegal websites were handed to judicial organs in the same period, the CAC said. More than 810,000 illicit cyber accounts were also closed in the second quarter of the year, the statement read. Moreover, ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: After spending two years on the sidelines, Google Glass internet-linked eyewear is back in the game, this time aimed at helping workers do their jobs. General Electric, Volkswagen, and Boeing are among more than 50 businesses taking part in testing a Glass Enterprise Edition in a limited program, reported news agency. Three years ago, an Explorer program let developers and other “early adopters” try out the glasses, in an early test of potential business applications. But that initiative was eventually put on ice in 2015. Workers in many fields, like manufacturing, logistics, field services and ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: A major, global cyber attack could trigger an average of $53 billion of economic losses, a figure on par with a catastrophic natural disaster such as US Superstorm Sandy in 2012, Lloyd’s of London said in a report on Monday. The report, co-written with risk-modeling firm Cyence, examined potential economic losses from the hypothetical hacking of a cloud service provider and cyber attacks on computer operating systems run by businesses worldwide. Insurers are struggling to estimate their potential exposure to cyber-related losses amid mounting cyber risks and interest in cyber insurance. A lack of historical ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Apple has unveiled plans to build a data centre in China to store its local iCloud customers’ personal details, marking the first such move by a foreign technology firm following the imposition of strict new cyber-security laws in the country. The US titan said it was partnering with an internet service provider in southwestern Guizhou province on the project, which will “improve the speed and reliability of our products and services while also complying with newly passed regulations.” Some foreign firms have said the law is worryingly vague on key provisions and expressed concern over ...