Thursday, 26 Dec, 2024

Tech

To buy Twitter, Musk has to keep banks, investors on board

If the squabbling ever stops over Elon Musk’s renewed bid to buy Twitter, experts say he still faces a huge obstacle to closing the $44 billion deal: Keeping his financing in place. Earlier this week, Musk reversed course and said he’d go through with acquiring the social

Vietnam eyes China’s tech crown as firms tire of ‘zero COVID’

In industrial parks set among the rolling hills and tea fields of northern Vietnam, legions of factory workers are busy making products for leading tech giants such as Apple, Samsung, LG Electronics and Microsoft. Already hundreds of thousands strong, their ranks are swelling fast.

Elon Musk Twitter deal back on in surprise U-turn

Billionaire Elon Musk has apparently changed his mind about buying Twitter, again, and is now willing to proceed with his takeover of the social media platform. In a letter to the firm, Mr Musk agreed to pay the price he offered months ago before trying to quit the deal. The

Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to three scientists

Alain Aspect of France, John Clauser of the United States and Austria’s Anton Zeilinger have won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for “experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science”, the

Elon Musk unveils humanoid ‘Optimus’ robot at Tesla’s AI Day

Tesla CEO Elon Musk showcased his much-touted humanoid robot “Optimus” at the electric vehicle maker’s “AI Day” event on Friday. The billionaire has said a robot business will be worth more than its cars, hoping to expand beyond self-driving vehicles that

Meta to freeze hiring to tighten budget: report

Facebook-parent Meta put out word to employees on Thursday that it will freeze hiring to cut costs as it endures tough economic times, The Wall Street Journal reported. Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg revealed a planned pause in hiring during a weekly all-hands meeting, the Journal

Apple Watch Series 8 review

The latest Apple Watch adds new safety features and a temperature sensor for some intriguing uses for women’s health and family planning. But otherwise, it remains the same as last year’s version. Like the latest iPhones, the Series 8 gets a £50 (A$30 in Australia)

NASA spacecraft collides with asteroid in planetary defence test

A NASA spacecraft has hit an asteroid in an unprecedented test designed to prevent potentially devastating collisions with Earth. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft crashed into the asteroid Dimorphos about 11 million kilometres (6.8 million miles) from

Apple makes iPhone 14 in India in shift from China

Apple says it has started making its iPhone 14 in India as it diversifies its supply chains away from China. The company makes most of its phones in China but has shifted some production outside the country as tensions rise between Washington and Beijing. China's

TikTok may face £27m fine for failing to protect children

TikTok could face a £27m fine for failing to protect children's privacy when they're using the platform. The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) found the video-sharing platform may have processed the data of under-13s without appropriate consent. The

Elon Musk greenlit to activate Starlink internet for Iranians

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been given the green light by the United States government to activate the satellite internet service Starlink to help Iranians protesting against the death of a woman in police custody. Access to social media and some content is tightly restricted in Iran and

Meta sued for breaking Apple privacy policies to ‘snoop’ on users

Meta was sued on Wednesday for allegedly building a secret workaround that allowed the company to bypass privacy features Apple introduced earlier last year to protect iPhone users from having their internet activity tracked. Two Meta users filed the lawsuit in San Francisco, where a

Instagram disrupted across Iran amid protests

Iranians saw their access to Instagram, one of the few Western social media platforms still available in the country, disrupted on Wednesday following days of mass protests over the death of a woman who was detained by the morality police. NetBlocks, a London-based group that monitors

Jupiter to be closest to Earth in 70 yrs on 26 Sept

Jupiter which is the largest planet of the solar system will make a closest approach to Earth in 70 years on 26 September, NASA said in a blog post. "Stargazers can expect excellent views of Jupiter the entire night of Monday, Sept. 26 when the giant planet reaches

Afghanistan sets out to ban TikTok, PUBG this year

The Afghan government is set to ban video-sharing platform TikTok and online multi-player game PUBG within the next three months, an official confirmed on Tuesday, following a string of bans on content deemed immoral since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last year. The Taliban

Uber investigating hack on its computer systems

The ride-hailing company said it was investigating after several internal communications and engineering systems had been compromised. The New York Times first reported the breach after the hacker sent images of email, cloud storage and code repositories to the newspaper. Uber staff

Samsung to invest over $5B to become carbon neutral by 2050

The tech giant will spend the money on research and development for technology aimed at filtering out greenhouse gases and capturing carbon dioxide generated during chip production. Samsung Electronics will invest over $5.02 billion (7 trillion won) by 2030 as part of sweeping

Foxconn and Vedanta to build $19bn India chip factory

Foxconn and Vedanta have announced $19.5bn (£16.9) to build one of the first chipmaking factories in India. The Taiwanese firm and the Indian mining giant are tying up as the government pushes to boost chip manufacturing in the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's

Twitter shareholders approve $44bn Musk deal

Twitter's shareholders have voted to approve a deal with Elon Musk to buy the company for $44bn (£38bn). The decision was made in a short conference call with investors from the company's San Francisco headquarters. It means Twitter will now try to force Elon Musk to

NASA’s Moon mission pushed back, again

NASA is now targeting September 27 as the earliest possible launch date for its uncrewed Artemis 1 mission to the Moon, the agency said in a blog post Monday. The date would depend on engineering teams successfully carrying out a test to fuel up the Space Launch System rocket, and