Science and technology

SEOUL: Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), opens new tab flagged a continued recovery in memory chips and tech demand in 2024, after reporting a 34% drop in fourth-quarter profit despite a memory price rebound as consumer demand remained weak in many businesses. The world’s biggest maker of memory chips said it expected mobile and PC makers to place more, better chips in devices as use of artificial intelligence expands, while the need to replace older servers would also aid a gradual demand recovery. “In 2024, the memory business expects the market to continue to recover despite various potential obstacles, including interest rate policies and geopolitical issues,” Samsung said in a statement. Samsung said operating profit fell to 2.8 trillion won ($2.11 billion) in October-December, versus 4.3 trillion won a year earlier. For the full year, its chip business swung to a record loss of 14.9 trillion won in 2023 from a 23.8 trillion won profit a year earlier, hit by an unprecedented d

The first human patient has received an implant from brain-chip startup Neuralink on Sunday and is recovering well, the company’s billionaire founder Elon Musk said. “Initial results show promising neuron spike detection,” Musk said in a post on the social media platform X on Monday. Spikes are activity by neurons, which the National Institute of Health describes as cells that use electrical and chemical signals to send information around the brain and to the body. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had given the company clearance last year to conduct its first trial to test its implant on humans, a critical milestone in the startup’s ambitions to help patients overcome paralysis and a host of neurological conditions. In September, Neuralink said it received approval for recruitment for the human trial. The study uses a robot to surgically place a brain-computer interface (BCI) implant in a region of the brain that controls the intention to move, Neuralink said previously, ad

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Dr Umar Saif said that 5G services in Pakistan would be launched by July-August 2024.  Addressing the Pakistan Mobile Summit, the first-ever mobile conference in the country, Caretaker Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Dr Umar Saif said that a 300MHz spectrum would be offered for auction. “Before the launch of 5G services, the optic fiber network has to be enhanced. Currently, only 6,000 mobile towers are related to optic fiber cables (OFC), out of around 56,000 towers across the country,” he added. The IT and Telecommunication minister said that in order to promote the local mobile industry, the federal government has decided to grant three percent 3 Research and Development (R&D) allowance to mobile manufacturers. Dr Umar Saif that the decision will be implemented starting from the next fiscal year. He said that the R&D allowance will be increased from t

Microsoft opens new tab that will let go of 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week, the latest cuts in the technology sector that has extended massive layoffs over the past years into 2024. The cuts represent about 8 percent of the overall Microsoft Gaming division and will mostly happen at Activision Blizzard. Blizzard President Mike Ybarra and Chief Design Officer Allen Adham are also leaving the company, while a previously announced survival game by Blizzard has been canceled, Microsoft said. The news comes months after Microsoft closed its $69 billion deal for Activision Blizzard, boosting its heft in the videogaming market with best-selling titles, including “Call of Duty”, to better compete with industry leader Sony. “Microsoft’s announcement that it will be laying off 1,900 video game workers makes clear that, even when you work at a successful company in an extremely profitable industry, your livelihood is not protected without a voice on the job,” Commu

Social media company X is in the process of hiring 100 content moderators for a new office in Austin, Texas that will focus on fighting child abuse content, a goal it hopes to complete by the end of the year, an X executive said. The Elon Musk-owned company announced the new “Trust and Safety center of excellence” ahead of a US Senate hearing on January 31 about online child sexual exploitation. X Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino is scheduled to testify, along with the CEOs of Meta Platforms, Snap, TikTok and Discord. “The team is currently being built,” said Joe Benarroch, X’s head of business operations, referring to the Austin office, adding the goal to hire 100 content moderators by the end of the year is dependent on finding the right talent. Since Elon Musk acquired the social media company X [formerly known as Twitter] in 2022, the billionaire has been criticized for his own controversial posts and his efforts to overhaul the platform’s content moderation policies. In a blo

President Joe Biden’s administration is expected to award billions of dollars in subsidies in coming weeks to top semiconductor companies including Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW), opens new tab to help build new factories in the US, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The forthcoming announcements aim to kick-start manufacturing of advanced semiconductors that power smartphones, artificial intelligence, and weapons systems, the WSJ reported, citing industry executives familiar with the negotiations. The executives expect some announcements to come before Biden’s State of the Union address on March 7, according to the report. Among the likely recipients of the subsidies, Intel has projects underway in Arizona, Ohio, New Mexico, and Oregon that will cost more than $43.5 billion, the paper said. Another likely recipient, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has two plants under construction near Phoenix for a total

The Meta-owned messaging application – WhatsApp – in its latest update introduced a feature, that allows its users to easily transfer their data from one mobile to another. According to WABetainfo , WhatsApp users will be able to transfer their messages to another mobile phone safely without leaving WhatsApp with the latest chat transfer feature. Also, WhatsApp’s chat transfer feature allows the users to transfer their complete account information including all personal messages, photos, videos, and documents excluding the call history. It is worth mentioning here that the backup feature in WhatsApp was introduced in October 2015 through which users can save their WhatsApp history to Google Drive. Requirements to use Chat Transfer feature Android OS Lollipop 5.1, SDK 23 or above, or Android 6 or above installed on both your old and new Android phones. Use the same phone number as your old phone on your new phone. Your new phone must not be registered on WhatsApp until you star

Microsoft Teams services were restored on Saturday after a disruption blocked access to the messaging platform. “After extended monitoring and mitigation efforts, we’ve confirmed that our Microsoft Teams service and features have been restored or have returned to optimal health,” Microsoft said in its post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Several users had flagged issues with the messaging platform on Friday. Complaints peaked in the afternoon with more than 14,000 incidents, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com. All incidents appeared to be resolved on Saturday. The company had earlier said it had identified a networking issue impacting a portion of the Teams service and said it was performing a failover. Microsoft Teams, widely used by professionals to schedule online meetings, chat, share files, among others, is part of the company’s popular 365 software suite. Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from a number of sources including user-subm

Meta-owned instant messaging service WhatsApp had introduced the screen share feature for its users in 2023. The feature allows users to share their screens with other participants during a video call. This feature is also available on other video-calling platforms like Google Meet and Zoom. Users can share their screen using WhatsApp’s Android, iPhone and Windows desktop app With this feature, the other participants in the video call can see everything that the user (who has shared their screen) can see on their phone. From collaboration to teaching, this feature can come in handy in multiple situations. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to share your screen using WhatsApp WhatsApp’s screen share on mobile app The steps to share you screen on both WhatsApp’s Android and iOS app are similar. However, its improatnt to note that users have to share the entire screen of while using this feature on their mobile devices. While sharing their screens, users can switch to different apps

The rumours of the iPhone 16 Pro Max, the successor of the iPhone 15 series, featuring an improved camera with a periscope feature and new design are making rounds on social media. Watch ARY News live on  live.arynews.tv   Numerous technology websites quoted an insider saying that the iPhone 16 Pro Max would sport a customized 48-megapixel 1/1.14-inch Sony IMX903 primary sensor with a double-layer transistor in their report.  Moreover, its camera is speculated to deliver superior image quality thanks to its 14-bit ADC and DCG support. The user’s photography experience would elevate to a new level courtesy of a periscope feature.    View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Tech | Gadget | unbox | Review (@techzone.277) The report also stated that the iPhone 16 Pro Max could sport a 120mm tetra-prism telephoto shooter. Apple is also reportedly planning on introducing Nova in its latest products to enhance video recording. The feature

Apple faces strong action if changes to its App Store do not meet incoming European Union regulations, the bloc’s industry chief said on Friday. In a move designed to comply with the EU’s incoming Digital Markets Act (DMA), the company will soon allow software developers to distribute their apps to Apple devices via alternative stores. From early March, developers will be able to offer alternative app stores on iPhones and opt out of using Apple’s in-app payment system, which charges commissions of up to 30%. However, critics have said the changes do not go far enough, arguing Apple’s fee structure remains unfair, and that the changes may be in violation of the DMA. Asked about Apple’s plans, EU industry chief Thierry Breton exclusively told Reuters: “The DMA will open the gates of the internet to competition so that digital markets are fair and open. Change is already happening. As from 7 March we will assess companies’ proposals, with the feedback of third parties.” He added: “

WASHINGTON: NASA said on Thursday its Mars robot helicopter Ingenuity, the first vehicle to achieve powered, controlled flight on another world, has been grounded for good after flying dozens of times over three years, ending a landmark mission that far exceeded all expectations. The fate of Ingenuity was sealed when imagery beamed back to Earth after its 72nd and final flight on Jan. 18 showed that a portion of one of the miniature whirligig’s twin rotor blades had broken off, leaving it incapable of further operation, NASA officials said. “It is bittersweet that I must announce that Ingenuity, the ‘little helicopter that could’ – and it kept saying, ‘I think I can, I think I can’ – well, it has now taken its last flight on Mars,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a video posted on social media. What was planned as a 30-day technology demonstration of no more than five short flights ended up stretching well beyond the expectations of engineers who designed and built the helic

Apple iPhone shipments in China shrank 2.1% in the final quarter of 2023 from the same year-ago period, hurt by intensifying competition from local rivals led by Huawei, data from research firm IDC showed on Thursday. The drop underscores the challenges facing the U.S. firm in its third biggest market, as some Chinese companies and government agencies limit employees’ use of Apple devices, a measure that mirrors U.S. government restrictions on Chinese apps on security grounds. Huawei, whose smartphone business was decimated by U.S. sanctions, also made a comeback last year with new launches, intensifying competition in the world’s biggest smartphone market that grew just 1.2% in the final quarter of 2023. Huawei’s shipments increased 36.2% in the last quarter of the year, the IDC figures showed. The company became the fourth largest smartphone vendor in China in the period with a 13.9% market share, up from 10.3% in the same year-ago quarter. For the full year 2023, however, Appl

TOKYO: Japan’s “Moon Sniper” craft landed around 55 metres (180 feet) from its target, the country’s space agency said Thursday as it released the first images from the mission. The unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), dubbed the “Moon Sniper” for its pin-point technology, had the goal of touching down within 100 metres (330 feet) of a specific landing spot. That is much more precise than the usual landing zone of several kilometres. “SLIM succeeded in a pin-point soft landing… the landing point is confirmed to be 55 metres away from the target point,” space agency JAXA said. Saturday’s soft lunar landing made Japan only the fifth nation to achieve the feat, after the United States, Soviet Union, China and India. But celebrations were muted because of a problem with the lightweight spacecraft’s solar batteries, which were not generating power. JAXA decided to switch the craft off with 12 percent power remaining, to allow for a possible recovery when the sun’s ang

In a groundbreaking move, the Delhi Police utilized artificial intelligence (AI) to reconstruct the face of a man whose body was found near a flyover, subsequently deploying posters featuring his image to unravel the mystery surrounding his identity. The initiative not only facilitated the victim’s identification but also led to the apprehension of the perpetrators, as confirmed by law enforcement authorities. According to police reports, the body was located in proximity to the Geeta Colony flyover on January 10, prompting an immediate investigative response. A senior police officer said: “For us, it was a blind murder case as no documents were found in the victim’s pocket that could help us identify him. The body was taken into custody, and after 72 hours, doctors conducted an autopsy, which revealed that he was strangled to death.” A dedicated team of 30 police personnel was assembled to tackle the case, with the primary challenge being the establishment of the victim’s identi

NEW YORK: Microsoft’s stock market value crossed the $3 trillion milestone for the first time on Wednesday, retaining its place as the world’s second most valuable company, just behind Apple.   Microsoft and Apple shares have been vying for the top spot as the most capitalized stock on Wall Street since the start of the year, with the iPhone maker briefly losing its crown to the software giant earlier in January. Shares of Microsoft hit a record high of $405.63, up 1.7%, enabling it to breach the $3 trillion market capitalization level. Apple’s shares were trading at $195.50, up 0.3%, giving it a market value of $3.02 trillion, according to LSEG data. Backed by its investment in ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Microsoft is widely seen as a frontrunner in the race for market dominance in the rollout of generative artificial intelligence (AI) among other tech heavyweights, including Google owner Alphabet, Amazon.com, Oracle, and Facebook owner Meta Platforms. Using OpenAI’s technology, Micros

Spotify users in Europe can start to buy audiobooks and subscription plans from within the music-streaming app from March as a result of the region’s new competition law for Big Tech, the Swedish company said on Wednesday. The move will help the company avoid Apple’s 30% fee for purchases through its App Store, which has long been a source of contention between app developers and the tech giant. Spotify has for years been in embroiled in a legal battle, alleging that it was forced to raise the price of its monthly subscriptions to cover costs tied to Apple’s App Store rules. U.S.-listed shares of the Stockholm-based company rose around 2%. “For years Apple had these rules where we couldn’t tell you about offers, how much something costs, or even where or how to buy it,” Spotify said in a blogpost. “The DMA (Digital Markets Act) means that we’ll finally be able to share details about deals, promotions, and better-value payment options in the EU.” Under the DMA, which all Big Tech

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday ordered authorities concerned to ensure undisrupted internet services across the country until elections 2024, ARY News reported.  The orders were passed by the Sindh High Court while hearing a plea against frequent disruption of internet services in Pakistan. The Interior Ministry, IT Ministry and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) were made respondents in the plea. The high court while ordering a stay order sought a response from the authorities concerned on January 29. On January 20, internet services and social media platforms were hit by outages  as users in parts of Pakistan reported disruptions. Read more: Minister responds to reports of internet shutdown during elections According to Downdetector – an internet monitoring service, the platforms, especially the website versions have been down shortly after 6pm local time. Earlier, Caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi refuted reports of possible internet sh

Netflix on Tuesday blew past Wall Street subscriber estimates in the fourth quarter, driven by a strong slate of shows that included the final season of the long-running royal drama “The Crown” and David Fincher’s original film, “The Killer.” The company reported it added 13.1 million subscribers in the December quarter, its largest-ever fourth-quarter subscriber growth, handily exceeding projected gains of 8.97 million. That brings the total number of subscribers to 260 million. Netflix shares were up 8.3% in after-hours trading. The stock gained 65% during 2023. “It is becoming increasingly clear that Netflix has won the ‘streaming wars,'” wrote Bank of America media analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich. The company reported per-share earnings of $2.11, falling short of consensus estimates of $2.22 per share. Netflix said the per-share earnings were impacted by a $239 million noncash loss related to currency exchange rates. Revenue rose to $8.8 billion, topping forecasts and the co

TikTok today shared its approach to uphold and protect election integrity on its platform ahead of the Pakistan parliamentary elections slated for February 2024. The initiative underscores TikTok’s commitment to being a responsible and reliable source of information, especially during critical civic events. TikTok has robust measures in place to combat misinformation, violence, and hate speech in line with its Community Guidelines, available both in English and Urdu. The platform is dedicated to removing misleading information about civic processes, including voter registration, candidate eligibility, ballot counting, and election results. TikTok’s policies strictly prohibit content that intimidates voters, suppresses voting, or incites violence. Over 40,000 personnel globally, in conjunction with advanced technology, are deployed to ensure user safety on the platform, complemented by collaborations with intelligence firms, industry partners, and civil society organizations. To hel

The Japan government launched a third major round of auctions on Friday to select operators for two new offshore wind power areas capable of generating 1.05 gigawatts (GW) in the northern part of the country. One area is in the southern side of the Japan Sea off Aomori prefecture, near Tsugaru city and the town of Ajigasawa which will have capacity of 600 megawatts (MW). The other will be off the coast of Yamagata prefecture near the town of Yuza and will have capacity of 450 MW. Both were selected in October as “promotion areas” to develop offshore wind farms and will be fixed-bottom wind farms. The projects could start by mid-2030. The successful bidders will be allowed to use the sea areas for up to 30 years. The auction will run to July 19, with the result expected to come in December, according to a statement issued by Japan’s land and industry ministries. Japan introduced a new law in 2019 to promote the development of wind farms and plans to select operators for up to 10 g

NASA has re-established contact with its tiny helicopter on Mars, the US space agency said Saturday, after an unexpected outage prompted fears that the hard-working craft had finally met its end. Ingenuity, a drone about 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) tall, arrived on Mars in 2021 aboard the rover Perseverance and became the first motorized craft to fly autonomously on another planet. Data from the helicopter are transmitted via Perseverance back to Earth, but communications were suddenly lost during a test flight on Thursday, Ingenuity’s 72nd lift-off on Mars. “Good news today,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) wrote on X, formerly Twitter, late Saturday. The agency said that contact had finally been made with the helicopter by commanding Perseverance to “perform long-duration listening sessions for Ingenuity’s signal.” “The team is reviewing the new data to better understand the unexpected comms dropout during Flight 72,” it added. NASA previously said that Ingenuity had attained

WASHINGTON: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has lost contact with its tiny helicopter Ingenuity during the hard-working craft’s 72nd flight, the space agency said. The agency’s engineers are attempting to re-establish communications, which ended abruptly on Thursday as the craft was making its descent from a test flight, NASA said late Friday. Ingenuity, which resembles a large drone, had arrived on Mars in 2021 with the rover Perseverance and became the first motorized craft to fly autonomously on another planet. Data from the helicopter’s flights are transmitted via Perseverance back to Earth. On its flight Thursday — “a quick pop-up vertical flight to check out the helicopter’s systems, following an unplanned early landing during its previous flight,” NASA said — Ingenuity successfully attained an altitude of 40 feet (12 meters). But “during its planned descent, communications between the helicopter and rover terminated early, prior to touchdown,” the

Google will invest $1 billion on building a data centre just outside of London, the US technology giant said on Thursday, in its latest investment in Britain as it meets growing demand for internet services in the region. The data centre, located on a 33-acre (13-hectare) site bought by Google in 2020, will be located in the town of Waltham Cross, about 15 miles north of central London, the Alphabet-owned company said in a statement. The British government, which is pushing for investment by businesses to help fund new infrastructure, particularly in growth industries like technology and artificial intelligence, described Google’s investment as a “huge vote of confidence” in the UK. “Google’s $1 billion investment is testament to the fact that the UK is a centre of excellence in technology and has huge potential for growth,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in the Google statement. The investment follows Google’s $1 billion purchase of a central London office building in 2022, clos

PARIS: It was impossible to see through the snow and fog on the Antarctic seas but expedition leader Ian Strachan knew his ship was approaching a true behemoth: the world’s biggest iceberg lay somewhere ahead. “Then the clouds lifted, and we could see this expansive — almost abstract — white line that extended each way across the horizon,” he told AFP. As the ship got closer during its visit on Sunday, huge gaping crevasses and beautiful blue arches sculpted into the edge of the iceberg came into focus. Waves up to four metres (13 feet) high “smashed” and “battered” its wall, breaking off small chunks and collapsing some arches, Strachan said. He compared sailing along the endless jagged edge to looking at sheet music. “All the cracks and arches were different notes as the song played.” The tooth-shaped iceberg named A23a is nearly 4,000 square kilometres (1,550 square miles) across, making it more than twice the size of Greater London. After three decades stuck to the Antarctic

Japan on Saturday became only the fifth nation to achieve a soft lunar landing, but its “Moon Sniper” spacecraft was running out of power due to a solar battery problem. After a nail-biting 20-minute descent, space agency JAXA said its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) had touched down and communication had been established. But without the solar cells functioning, JAXA official Hitoshi Kuninaka said the craft — dubbed the “Moon Sniper” for its precision technology — would only have power for “several hours”. As mission control prioritised acquiring data while they could, Kuninaka suggested that once the angle of the sun changed, the batteries might work again. “It is unlikely that the solar battery has failed. It’s possible that it is not facing in the originally planned direction,” he told a news conference. “If the descent was not successful, it would have crashed at a very high speed. If that were the case, all functionality of the probe would be lost,” he said. “Bu

LAHORE: To provide hassle-free services to the masses, the Punjab government has launched the “Excise Apki Dehlez Per” (Excise at your doorstep) app. According to the director general of Excise Punjab, the services of registration of vehicles and transfer of properties will be provided to the masses at their doorsteps. An excise official will personally visit the owner for vehicle registration, he said, adding that the original file and smart card would be delivered to the owner’s residence. The Punjab government is taking steps for the convenience of the masses. Read more: Punjab govt launches learning driving license application In December, last year, the caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab Mohsin Naqvi launched an online application for the procurement of a learning driving license. According to the details, the caretaker government of Punjab along with Punjab police launched an application that will enable citizens to avoid long queues and get a learning driver’s license fro