Technology

ANTWERP: Workers in the port of Antwerp will next month begin testing wristbands developed by a Belgian technology company that could help guarantee the social distancing required during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rombit, also Antwerp-based, already supplies wearables resembling sports watch that can warn workers if vehicles are approaching, provide an alert if someone falls into the water or control who …

KARACHI: While most technology platforms have stepped up efforts to deal with the proliferation of coronavirus information online, global numbers indicate that users are switching to Wikipedia as a trusted source to share and find Covid-19 updates. Around 4,504 Wikipedia pages have been created to record different aspects of the pandemic, its spread to different countries, the race to find …

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced they had successfully launched the country’s first military satellite on Wednesday, at a time of fresh tensions with US forces in the Gulf. The United States alleges Iran’s satellite programme is a cover for its development of missiles, while the Islamic republic has previously insisted its aerospace activities comply with its international obligations. Tensions between the …

WASHINGTON: Scientists have observed what appears to be the aftermath of a violent collision between two planetary building blocks orbiting a large and luminous star, a glimpse of the type of carnage that may have been commonplace early in our solar system’s history. The apparent crash between two icy bodies, each about 200 kilometres wide, occurred around a star called …

ISLAMABAD: To provide high-speed internet service in a region of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the Universal Service Fund (USF) has awarded a Rs92 million contract for developing broadband in Kurram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The contract has been awarded to Jazz to develop next generation broadband for a sustainable development project in Kurram, including the tehsils of FR …

With the continuous rise in coronavirus across the world, business activity has already taken one of the worst hits in decades, as projections suggest that it might be even scarier than the Great Depression. Apart from a few countercyclical sectors, demand in most has already shown a sharp decline. In such times, agile companies have quickly jumped on whatever opportunity …

WASHINGTON: Google said on Friday it would waive fees for publishers using its Ad Manager platform for the next five months as part of its efforts to support news organisations reeling from the coronavirus pandemic. The move comes in addition to Google’s “journalism relief fund” announced this week, which will include emergency grants to news outlets. Jason Washing, head of …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s first e-commerce index was launched at an online event, hosted by Daraz, showing an increase in digital payments and growing demand for online shopping. Federal Secretary for IT and Telecommunication Shoaib Siddiqui attended the event. The purpose of the index is, not only providing insight about consumer behavior online amid the Covid-19 pandemic, but to also help stakeholders …

LONDON: Facebook said on Thursday it would start sending tailor-made warnings to users highlighting facts about the coronavirus pandemic, after the world’s leading social media platform was accused of tolerating the spread of outlandish conspiracy theories. The US giant has already been publishing fact-checking articles about the global outbreak through its partnerships with media organisations. “We will also soon begin …

Apple is releasing a new iPhone that will be vastly cheaper than the models it rolled out last fall at a time when the economy was booming and the pandemic had yet to force people to rethink their spending. The second-generation iPhone SE introduced Wednesday will sell for as little as $399, a 40 per cent markdown from the most affordable iPhone …