Technology

WASHINGTON: Nasa has confirmed that its Perse­verance rover has succeeded in collecting its first rock sample on Mars. “I’ve got it!” the space agency tweeted in the early hours of Monday, alongside a photograph of a rock core slightly thicker than a pencil inside a sample tube. Nasa said last week it thought it had accomplished the feat, but poorly-lit …

Tech’s hot in Pakistan these days no matter how one looks at it. You could substantiate that claim by using the inflow of investment in startups, which has already crossed $250 million with four months to go, but if anything, that doesn’t depict the true extent. A more representative way probably would be to turn to new company incorporations where …

ISLAMABAD: As the telecom industry’s market size has grown to $16.9 billion after attracting $1.2bn in foreign direct investments in the last three years, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom is aiming to roll out 5G in 2023. The ministry has said that the target has also been welcomed by foreign investors too. In a recent presentation on the …

BERLIN: Germany has protested to Russia over attempts to steal data from lawmakers in what it suspects may have been preparation to spread disinformation before the upcoming German election, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin said on Monday. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Andrea Sasse said that a hacker outfit called Ghostwriter has been combining conventional cyberattacks with disinformation and influence operations, and …

El Salvador on Tuesday becomes the first country in the world to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, despite widespread domestic scepticism and international warnings of risks for consumers. President Nayib Bukele’s government claims the move will give many Salvadorans access to bank services for the first time and save some $400 million in fees on remittances sent home from abroad …

Amazon.com Inc plans to take a more proactive approach to determine what types of content violate its cloud service policies, such as rules against promoting violence, and enforce its removal, according to two sources, a move likely to renew debate about how much power tech companies should have to restrict free speech. Over the coming months, Amazon will hire a …

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haq has said that the auction of additional spectrum for the country is scheduled for Sept 16, however no new entrant has applied to participate in the auction. He said that the IT ministry would launch a new social media platform for federal government employees by the end of September, …

The Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging app is one of the most popular in the world, although rival Telegram is definitely gaining a lot of subscribers and that too very fast. WhatsApp is used by people from all over the world and all walks of life be it students, working professionals, housewives and even grandparents. While WhatsApp makes communication easier, it also …

Many people who lose their sense of smell due to COVID-19 eventually regain it, but some survivors later report smell distortions and unexplained smells, a new study found. Researchers analyzed survey responses from 1,468 individuals who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 between April and September 2020 and had suffered loss of smell and taste at the start of their illness. …

People with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who were treated with a monoclonal antibody “cocktail” had lower hospitalization rates than similar people who did not receive the treatment, researchers reported on Monday in EClinicalMedicine. They looked at nearly 1,400 such patients, roughly half of whom had received Regeneron Pharmaceutical’s combination monoclonal antibody therapy. Among those who received the treatment, about 45% were older than …