Technology

STOCKHOLM/TOKYO: Microsoft will on Tuesday launch its Xbox cloud gaming service priced at $1 for new users’ first month, in a major drive to attract casual gamers with the promise of cutting ties to the living room and as competition with Sony heats up. Subscribers to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, priced at $14.99 monthly, will be able to play more …

SHENZHEN: Huawei Technologies plans to introduce its Harmony operating system (OS), viewed as its replacement to Google’s Android mobile operating system, on smartphones next year, as it seeks to overcome curbs placed on it by the US. The company first unveiled its proprietary HarmonyOS last year which it has billed as a multi-device platform across watches, laptops and mobiles, rather …

BERLIN: Managers at electric carmaker Tesla on Thursday demonstrated new supercharger equipment on a Berlin research campus, saying they were looking at more target cities to attract potential buyers worried about access to charging. “Now, as part of our commitment to make Tesla ownership easy and convenient for everyone including those without immediate access to home or workplace charging, we …

ZURICH/FRANKFURT: AstraZeneca should still know before the end of the year whether its experimental vaccine protects people against COVID-19, the drugmaker’s chief executive Pascal Soriot said on Thursday, as long as it can resume trials soon. The British company suspended late-stage trials this week after an illness in a participant in Britain. The patient was reportedly suffering from symptoms associated …

SHENZHEN: Huawei Technologies is expected to respond on Thursday to the latest salvo of US technology restrictions against it and share its progress on developing a system that is seen as its best bet to replace Google’s Android mobile operating system. Richard Yu, the head of Huawei’s consumer business group, will deliver a keynote speech at its annual developers conference …

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has formed a committee for finalising the process of licence issuance of 5G technology in Pakistan. A series of decisions was taken in the today’s session of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) held under the chair of Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh. The committee approved new rates for electricity and …

STOCKHOLM: Finnish telecom firm Nokia has suffered a setback after a source close to the matter confirmed it had lost out to Samsung Electronics on a part of the contract to supply new 5G equipment to Verizon in the United States. With this $6.64 billion contract win, Samsung has reinforced its position as a challenger to the dominance of Nokia …

Epic Games is trying to convince a California court to reinstate Fortnite on the Apple App Store pending legal proceedings, arguing that doing so is in the “public interest,” court documents show. If not, the game could suffer “irreparable harm,” the company’s lawyers said in a new lawsuit delivered Friday. The gambit comes amid a battle over whether Apple’s tight …

ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has long positioned himself as a global internet entrepreneur, largely eschewing Chinese government involvement, but US demands to sell his crown jewel TikTok are testing the boundaries with Beijing. A year ago, ByteDance was approached by the Chinese government with offers of help when TikTok, a short-video app with a huge following among young people globally, …

China’s first reusable spacecraft landed on Sunday after two days in orbit, a possible step toward lower-cost space flight, the government announced. The secretive, military-run space program has released few details of the craft, which was launched Friday aboard a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China’s desert northwest. The craft landed as planned at …