Technology

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday sought assistance from the counsel for a petitioner seeking restoration of internet services in tribal dis­­tricts whether it can intervene to enf­o­rce fundamental rights in the former tribal agencies which have already been merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The internet services to the region were suspended in 2016 on security grounds. IHC …

KARACHI: Last week, Facebook appointed 20 people from around the world to serve on what will effectively be the social media network’s “Supreme Court” for speech, issuing rulings on what kind of posts will be allowed and what should be taken down. The list features a former prime minister, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and several constitutional law experts and …

Twitter announced on Monday that it will start alerting users when a tweet makes disputed or misleading claims about the coronavirus. The new rule is the latest in a wave of stricter policies that tech companies are rolling out to confront an outbreak of virus-related misinformation on their sites. Facebook and Google, which owns YouTube, have already put similar systems in place. …

Israeli firm Sharp Shooter developed the scopes to find targets and place a red square around them, exponentially increasing accuracy. It’s been hailed a ‘game changer’ for infantry warfare and the SAS are particularly keen after the US’ secretive Delta Force called it ‘outstanding’. The shooter holds down the rifle’s trigger and the system calculated factors including distance, angles, motion …

In a world suddenly fearful of touch, voice technology is getting a fresh look. Voice-activated systems such as Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple’s Siri have seen strong growth in recent years, and the virus pandemic could accelerate that, analysts say. Voice assistants are not only answering queries and shopping, but also being used for smart home control and for …

Samik Sarkar was managing to eke a profit out of his online apparel store before the coronavirus crisis hit India, forcing the 36-year old to reinvent his business overnight. “I started selling masks because that’s all I could sell,” Sarkar said. “I have salaries to pay.” The rapid global economic slowdown, India’s coronavirus lockdown of 1.3 billion people and an exodus of …

In a world suddenly fearful of touch, voice technology is getting a fresh look. Voice-activated systems such as Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple’s Siri have seen strong growth in recent years, and the virus pandemic could accelerate that, analysts say. Voice assistants are not only answering queries and shopping, but also being used for smart home control and for …

YouTube will give Pakistan $5 million in advertisement grants to spread awareness about the coronavirus, it emerged on Saturday. In a letter written to Prime Minister Imran Khan, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, YouTube Chief Executive Officer Susan Wojcicki outlined the work “Google and YouTube have been doing to support Pakistan’s citizens and businesses through this difficult time”. …

KARACHI: It is the age of sitting at home and working from home, which has opened the doors to new areas of discovery such as video conferences, web conferences and webinars. In the early days of the lockdown, many events such as conferences and seminars were postponed by their organisers in the hope of coming back to them later. But …

BEIJING: China on Tuesday successfully launched a new rocket and prototype spacecraft, state media said, in a major test of the country’s ambitions to operate a permanent space station and send astronauts to the Moon. The Long March 5B rocket took off from the Wenchang launch site in the southern island of Hainan and eight minutes later an unmanned prototype …