Sci-Tech

Astronauts on new mission dismiss safety concerns after Soyuz accident

by Andrei BORODOULINE Agence France Presse BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AFP) — Astronauts of the first manned space mission since an unprecedented accident in October on Sunday brushed aside concerns about Russia’s Soyuz rocket, saying risks were part of the job. Oleg Kononenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Anne McClain of NASA and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) from Baikonur in Kazakhstan aboard a Soviet-designed Soyuz […]

Continue Reading →

Google extends telecom service Fi to iPhones

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Google said Wednesday it was expanding its “virtual” telecommunication service that was limited to select Android-powered smartphones to a wider range of devices, including iPhones. Freshly renamed “Google Fi” service aims to take on traditional carriers by letting people pay based on how much data they use and roam internationally. Fi was limited to newer Pixel handsets made by Google and a few Android-powered smartphones made by other companies […]

Continue Reading →

Facebook mulled charging for access to user data

by Glenn Chapman Agence France Presse SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Facebook on Wednesday said it considered charging application makers to access data at the social network. Such a move would have been a major shift away from the policy of not selling Facebook members’ information, which the social network has stressed in the face of criticism alleging it is more interested in making money than protecting privacy. “To be clear, Facebook has never […]

Continue Reading →

S. Korea successfully tests space rocket engine

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea on Wednesday successfully conducted a rocket engine test launch, news reports said, paving the way for the development of its own space launch vehicle. A liquid-fuel engine successfully propelled a single-stage rocket weighing 52 tonnes and measuring 25.8 meters (84.6 feet) long, from the Naro Space Center on the southern coast, Yonhap news agency said. The engine, designed and developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI ) […]

Continue Reading →

Google accused of manipulation to track users

  OSLO, Norway (AFP) — Seven European consumer groups filed complaints against Google with national regulators Tuesday, accusing the internet giant of covertly tracking users’ movements in violation of an EU regulation on data protection. The complaints cited a study by the Norwegian Consumer Council that concluded the Internet giant used “deceptive design and misleading information, which results in users accepting to be constantly tracked.” Council official Gro Mette Moen charged that “Google uses extremely […]

Continue Reading →

First legal consultation app, LexMeet, launched; Filipino-invented app to benefit a lot of OFWs

  By Atty. Emily Manuel Contributor Eagle News and Features MAKATI CITY, Philippines (Eagle News) — The first ever online legal consultation app called LexMeet was launched at the AIM Conference Center on Monday, November 26, 2018. LexMeet offers real-time online consultation on their video chat platform where clients can directly ask questions and receive legal advice. Users can download the App from Google Play store and initiate a consultation request by purchasing an initial […]

Continue Reading →

Cheers as Mars InSight spacecraft lands on Red Planet

by Laurent BANGUET / with Kerry SHERIDAN in Tampa Agence France-Presse PASADENA, United States (AFP) — Cheers and applause erupted at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Monday as a waist-high unmanned lander, called InSight, touched down on Mars, capping a nearly seven-year journey from design to launch to landing. The dramatic arrival of the $993 million spacecraft — designed to listen for quakes and tremors as a way to unveil the Red Planet’s inner mysteries, […]

Continue Reading →

Cheers as Mars InSight spacecraft lands on Red Planet

by Laurent Banguet / with Kerry SHERIDAN in Tampa Agence France Presse PASADENA, United States (AFP) — Cheers and applause erupted at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Monday as a $993 million unmanned lander, called InSight, touched down on the Red Planet and managed to send back its first picture. The high-drama landing of the waist-high spacecraft capped a nearly seven year journey, from spacecraft design, to launch to eventual touchdown, marking the eighth successful […]

Continue Reading →

From parcel delivery to security, Singapore bets big on drones

by Martin Abbugao Agence France Presse SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Hi-tech Singapore is planning to roll out a swarm of drones for tasks that include delivering parcels, inspecting buildings and providing security, but safety and privacy concerns mean the initiative may hit turbulence. Companies have already started testing the devices for commercial use, mainly in an area of over 200 hectares (500 acres) dotted with high-rise buildings and shopping malls, specially designated by the government […]

Continue Reading →

Before Mars landing, a nail-biting ‘six and a half minutes of terror’

  by Kerry SHERIDAN Agence France Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) — A spacecraft that cost nearly a billion dollars is on course to make a perilous landing Monday on Mars, if it can survive a high-speed approach and the scorching heat of entering the Red Planet’s atmosphere, a process NASA has nicknamed “six and a half minutes of terror.” “There is very little room for things to go wrong,” said Rob Grover, head of […]

Continue Reading →

NASA counts down to landing of Martian quake-sensor, InSight

by Kerry SHERIDAN Agence France Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) — NASA is counting down to a nail-biting touchdown Monday of the $993 million Mars InSight, the first spacecraft to listen for quakes and study the inner workings of another rocky planet. No one is on board the spacecraft, which launched nearly seven months ago and has traveled some 300 million miles (482 million kilometers). But part of its mission is to inform efforts to […]

Continue Reading →

Silent plane with no moving parts makes ‘historic’ flight

by Patrick GALEY Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The blue glowing jets of science fiction spacecraft came a step closer to reality on Wednesday as US physicists unveiled the world’s first solid-state aeroplane powered in flight by supercharged air molecules. More than a century on from the Wright brothers’ first artificial flight, scientists hailed the “historic” test of the new technology, which could eventually slash greenhouse-gas emissions from aviation. Ever since Orville and Wilbur […]

Continue Reading →
1 … 87 88 89 90 91 … 204