JERUSALEM: Israel has used an airborne laser to shoot down drones in a series of tests, officials said Monday, calling it a “milestone” to update its already powerful defence systems. During the tests, which took place “over the last week,” a prototype of the high-power laser system carried on a small civilian plane “successfully intercepted several UAVs”, said Yaniv Rotem, head of the defence ministry´s research and development unit, using the acronym for unmanned aerial vehicles. The system could down any flying object, including “drones, mortars, rockets, ballistic missiles,” Rotem said, adding they hoped to have a working prototype in “three to four years”. It was not possible to verify the military´s claims. A video released by the Israelis showed the laser system on the back of the small plane, directing a beam of energy towards a test drone, apparently burning a hole and setting it on fire. The tests saw the airborne lasers intercept drones from a range of one kilometre (3,280 feet), but once operational, developers claimed it could reach targets as far as 20 kilometres (12 miles) away, Rotem said.
Category: Technology
Study highlights gender gap in health innovations
WASHINGTON: Harvard business professor Rem Koning studies how bias hurts innovation. But three years ago, his research hit too close to home when his wife, suffering from a rare post childbirth condition, couldn´t find treatments designed with new moms in mind.
“It came out of nowhere. And the whole thing was a lot more scary than I think it needed to be,” Koning told media about the diagnosis of postpartum preeclampsia, which is characterized by high blood pressure.
The couple were also disappointed by the quality of tech products aimed at mothers — and realized it might be because most medical innovations were designed by men who dismissed or overlooked women´s needs.
These experiences led Koning to conduct a machine learning text analysis of more than 440,000 US biomedical patents filed from 1976 to 2010, the results of which were published Thursday in the journal Science. By tracking inventors´ names and tying them to patents, Koning and his colleagues John-Paul Ferguson and Sampsa Samila found patents filed from all-female inventor teams were more than 35 percent more likely to focus on the health of women.
Teams that were majority female were 18 percent more likely to make products with women in mind. These patents were aimed at solving problems that affect women either specifically — like menopause or preeclampsia — or disproportionately, such as fibromyalgia.
Then there are conditions like atrial fibrillation that affect women differently, from risk factors to symptoms and even treatments. But while the impact of women innovators on women´s health products was significant, their representation was small.
Robots start serving Aabe Zamzam in Makkah ahead of Hajj
NUT Desk- MAKKAH: Robots began handing out bottles of sacred water (Aabe Zamzam) in Makkah this week in preparation for a socially distanced Hajj pilgrimage in Islam´s holiest city, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Saudi Arabia announced on Saturday that 60,000 residents vaccinated against the coronavirus would be able to perform the July pilgrimage — a number up from last year but drastically lower than in normal times.
Some 2.5 million Muslims from around the world participated in 2019. Officials hoping to prevent any coronavirus outbreaks rolled out the small black-and-white robots on Sunday, each loaded with three shelves of water bottles, as a few devotees helped themselves with a mixture of bafflement and amusement.
“The aim of these robots is to provide personal services without any human contact,” said Bader Al-Loqmani. He manages water from the sacred spring of Zamzam which emerges in Makkah´s Grand Mosque. “Roughly 20 robots are currently available for helping visitors and pilgrims at the hajj,” Loqmani said, noting that more could be brought on stream if necessary. For centuries, pilgrims have flocked to drink water from the Zamzam spring, seen as miraculous in Islamic tradition.
Hundreds of thousands of bottles of Zamzam water are usually distributed each year. The Hajj is one of the five pillars or key duties of Islam, but for the second year in a row will only be permitted for vaccinated residents of Saudi Arabia.
First astronauts arrive at China s space station
NUT desk- JIUQUAN, China: The first astronauts arrived at China”s new space station on Thursday in the country”s longest crewed mission to date, a landmark step in establishing Beijing as a major space power. The trio blasted off on a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan launch center in northwest China”s Gobi desert, and their craft docked around seven hours later at the Tiangong station, where they will spend the next three months. State broadcaster CCTV showed a live feed from inside the spacecraft during the journey, with the three astronauts lifting their helmet visors after it reached orbit as one smiled and waved at the camera. Another floated a pen just off his lap in zero gravity, as he browsed the flight manual. The Shenzhou-12 spacecraft — having separated from the Long March rocket — “successfully docked with the forward port of the core module” of the Tiangong station, said the China Manned Space Agency, as state TV showed live footage.
Ericsson eyes global 5G subscriptions over 580m this year
TOCKHOLM: Sweden’s Ericsson said on Wednesday the number of 5G subscriptions were expected to rise to 580 million by the end of 2021 from 220 million last year, and cross 3.5 billion by 2026.
North East Asia, including China, now has the highest 5G subscription penetration, followed by North America. But in 2026 North America is forecast to have the highest share of 5G subscriptions of all regions at 84%, Ericsson said.
About 73% of all subscriptions would be 5G in Gulf countries in 2026 and about 69% in western Europe, Ericsson’s biannual mobility report said.
Early availability of spectrum made 5G deployment go faster in China last year and this year but other regions were catching up, Ericsson’s head of networks Fredrik Jejdling told media.
At the end of 2020, there were 6 billion smartphone subscriptions, and Ericsson forecasts that number would reach 7.7 billion in 2026, accounting for around 88% of all mobile subscriptions at that time.
Punjab moves for funding chip design centres
NUT Desk- LAHORE: The provincial government has approved Rs41.75 million funding for establishing chip design centres in eight universities.
The UET Lahore, the UET Taxila, the ITU Lahore, and the Islamia University Bahawalpur will have centres during the current financial year while the MNS UET Multan, the KF UEIT Rahim Yar Khan, the University of Gujrat, and the University of Chakwal next year.
Integrated Circuits (ICs), commonly known as chips, have radically altered the industry and nanotechnology has greatly contributed to major advances in computing and electronics, leading to faster, smaller, and more portable systems that can process, manage, and store larger and larger amounts of information.
Chip design technology is one of the most important and significant technologies globally in the electronics industry. With the Covid-19 crisis disrupting supply chains and geopolitical tensions increasing, semiconductor companies have become more interested in achiev-ing end-to-end design and manufacturing capabilities for leading edge technologies.
Local universities in Pakistan are not extensively teaching the skills which are flourishing quite rapidly all over the world such as micro and nano-electronics IC design because of a lack of highly-trained faculty and academic resources in these domains.
realme Conducts First-ever Global Launch Event to Unveil realme GT & New AIoT Products
realme GT redefines the flagship experience by featuring a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, a speed-inspired dual-tone leather design and a stainless-steel VC cooling system for sustained performance while the AIoT portfolio grows with realme Watch 2 Pro and the realme TechLife Robot Vacuum, with the brand’s first laptop and tablet to be launched in coming months
Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) realme, the world’s fastest-growing smartphone brand, today introduced their highly-anticipated 2021 flagship killer smartphone, the realme GT, at the company’s first global launch event along with three new AIoT products – the realme watch 2 & 2 Pro and the realme TechLife Robot Vacuum and an accelerated AIoT product strategy for the next five years.
As realme’s inaugural product under the GT series and the first Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 powered device, the realme GT delivers a high quality experience expected of a flagship product as well as accessibility and three key features – speed-inspired aesthetics, thunderous power and sustained performance – setting new industry standards for the mid-to-high-end flagship phone segment. It is the start of a new chapter for realme, which will see all of the brand’s future flagship products launch globally to allow young consumers worldwide to experience realme’s latest products at the same time.
During his opening speech at the launch event, Sky Li, CEO of realme commented, “We are thrilled to bring our flagship killer phone to users worldwide. The realme GT aims to disrupt the mid-to-high-end phone segment. By offering the maximum number of flagship features for our budget-minded consumers, the global launch of the realme GT reflects our ongoing commitment to making cutting-edge technology more accessible to young consumers around the world and hence empowering them in their daily lives”.
realme GT: A new flagship killer
- Speed-inspired aesthetics
The realme GT’s design is based on the core concept of grand tourers (GT) sports cars which were made for high speed, long-distance driving combined with exceptional performance and luxury features. Embodying this concept, the flagship GT phone series offers a glass covered design with a 3D light reflecting pattern on the back plus a vegan-leather covered version with a repeated acceleration symbol along the length of the phone, conveying the fast breakthrough spirit of racing cars.
The glass version comes in two colors – Dashing Silver and Dashing Blue – and is adorned with a series of shooting arrow patterns on the back of the phone, symbolizing speed and dynamism. Meanwhile, the vegan leather edition is available in Racing Yellow, a rare color for a mobile phone design, which aims to pay tribute to young consumers who are constantly challenging and recreating themselves. It adopts the industry’s first dual-tone leather design, which not only provides a unique, deluxe look but also practical benefits such as fingerprint resistance, and anti-odor and anti-crack features.
- Thunderous power
The realme GT is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, the most sophisticated chip possible that has a new super-efficient LPDDR5 RAM and the fastest UFS 3.1 storage, showcasing realme’s dedication to delivering the ultimate flagship-grade performance to users worldwide.
Leveraging the most advanced 5nm processing technology, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip has improved the realme GT’s performance and AI computing power. Together with a stronger and larger Cortex-X1 core and three new-generation high-performing A78 cores, the phone’s CPU performance has increased by 20% and power consumption reduced by 50% compared with the previous generation.
Sustained performance
With an aim to create the ‘coolest 888’ the realme GT uses a new generation stainless steel VC cooling system, which plays an essential role in the phone’s durable peak performance by using stainless steel to optimize the phone’s heat dissipation structure. During testing, the stainless steel VC cooling system demonstrated a 50% increased cooling power compared with a traditional copper VC cooling system and was capable of reducing the CPU core temperature by up to 15°C.
In addition, despite an ultra-thin body weighing less than 186g, the realme GT is equipped with a large 4,500 mAh battery and 65W SuperDart charging support, allowing the phone to be fully charged in just 35 minutes.
Alessio Bradde, realme Product Marketing Manager, said, “We are incredibly proud to launch globally the realme GT, our flagship product of the year. Just like the GT cars with their ultimate pursuit of speed, performance and precision, the realme GT is designed for users who want an outstanding experience in a flagship smartphone. We hope the spirit of the realme GT series will ignite a passion among our young users to constantly push their limits and realize their full potential.”
Growing realme’s 5G offerings with the launch of its first 5G flagship device
The realme GT – company’s first 5G flagship phone, is part of realme’s plans to increase its 5G offerings in more than 20 devices by next year, upping the ratio of 5G devices in its entire product lineup to 70%.
realme continues to be a ‘popularizer of 5G’ and to build a diverse portfolio of 5G products, from no-compromise affordable smartphones to premium flagship products. At its recent 5G summit, the company announced its intention to put young users at the forefront of driving global 5G adoption, with the goal of providing them with 100 million 5G phones by 2024 and launching an industry-first USD 100/- 5G mobile phone in the next few years.
realme was named the fastest-growing player in global 5G smartphone sales by Counterpoint Research with a 3465% YoY growth in Q1 2021. In 2020, realme launched 14 5G devices, accounting for around 40% of all of its products.
realme enters AIoT 2.0 development phase with advanced ‘1+5+T’ strategy
The company also announced an accelerated AIoT product strategy for the next five years. The new ‘1+5+T’ strategy is a progression from the previous ‘1+4+N’ strategy and further expands realme’s AIoT ecosystem and product portfolio.
‘1+5+T’ is defined as:
- 1 smart phone, as realme’s smartphones are at the center of its AIoT ecosystem.
- 5 key categories for realme’s AIoT products, including the True Wireless Stereo (TWS), Wearables, TV, Smart Speakers and Laptops.
- T stands for TechLife, realme’s open partner platform, which aims to support innovative and dynamic AIoT startups through the sharing of realme’s own sales channels and supply chains. TechLife focuses on three product categories: Smart Entertainment (e.g. TV boxes, projectors, speakers and game accessories); Smart Care (e.g. vacuum robots, air purifiers and body fat scales); and Smart Connect (e.g. smart sockets, smart light bulbs and cameras).
Connecting the dots is the realme Link App, the center of realme’s AIoT ecosystem. In the future, all products will be connected to realme Link to bring a complete AIoT experience to users.
More to come
During the event, realme also offered a sneak peak into its first tablet, the realme Pad and first laptop, the realme Book, which will be launched in coming months. realme also announces a co-creation programme to create realme Book with fans together.
realme was born an underdog that would challenge the market
realme was founded in 2018 at a time when the global smartphone market was already highly saturated and competitive. There were more than 200 mobile phone brands on the market, of which the top six players occupied 74% of the market share, leaving little opportunity for any new entrants. Almost three years later, realme is now the world’s 7th largest smartphone vendor and one of the top five suppliers in 13 out of the 61 countries it has a presence in, with a total user base of over 85 million users. It has achieved tremendous growth at a rate unprecedented in the smartphone industry by introducing affordable, high-performance, stylish devices to meet the lifestyle and budget needs of young consumers.
EU court backs national data watchdog powers in blow to tech giants
NUT Desk- PARIS: Europe’s top court on Tuesday endorsed the power of national data watchdogs to pursue big tech firms even if they are not their lead regulators, in a setback for Silicon Valley companies such as Facebook.
The EU Court of Justice (CJEU) ruling could encourage national agencies to act against U.S. tech companies such as Google, Twitter and Apple , which all have their European Union headquarters in Ireland.
Many national watchdogs in the 27-member European Union have long complained about their Irish counterpart, saying that it takes too long to decide on cases.
Ireland has dismissed this, saying it has to be extra meticulous in dealing with powerful and well-funded tech giants.
The CJEU got involved after a Belgian court sought guidance on Facebook’s challenge against the territorial competence of the Belgian data watchdog’s bid to stop it from tracking users in Belgium through cookies stored in the company’s social plug-ins, regardless of whether they have an account or not.
“Under certain conditions, a national supervisory authority may exercise its power to bring any alleged infringement of the GDPR before a court of a member state, even though that authority is not the lead supervisory authority with regard to that processing,” the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) said.
Under landmark EU privacy rules known as GDPR, Facebook faces oversight by the Irish privacy authority because it has its European head office in Ireland.
Samsung enters Europe with Vodafone 5G network
NUT Desk- LONDON: British telecoms group Vodafone (VOD.L) has chosen Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) to supply its 5G network equipment in Britain, the pair said on Monday, a breakthrough for the South Korean company in Europe’s telecoms gear market.
European mobile operators are increasingly considering Samsung to replace China’s Huawei (HWT.UL) as a supplier, with executives from Spain’s Telefonica (TEF.MC) and France’s Orange (ORAN.PA) previously telling mediathey had held talks with the firm.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Britain has already ordered all Huawei equipment to be removed from its 5G network by the end of 2027, echoing a U.S. campaign against Huawei, citing national security risks.
Samsung is banking on Europe to maintain growth in its network equipment business, a senior executive told media earlier this month, as 5G rollouts widen.
TECNO’s Selfie-Portrait Master Camon 17 Pro is out now with a 48MP Selfie Camera
TECNO is one of the most consistent smartphone brands in Pakistan applauded for their high-quality phones and affordable price segments. Recently, there was a lot of hype surrounding the launch of the new camera phones from the brand, the Camon 17 series. As Camon is TECNO’s flagship photography series, Camon 17 series had a huge buzz. The series was revealed in a live Tech Talk on Friday, 11th June accompanied by some renowned experts from the industry. Thousands of fans joined to witness the launch of the Clearest Selfie phones.
Camon 17 series comes with two new phones, Camon 17 and Camon 17 Pro. The Camon 17 Pro has keeps the camera legacy alive with the Clearest 48MP Selfie camera with AI super portrait. It also comes with TAVIOS 2.0, TECNO’s exclusive photography technology for amazing photography. It also supports Super Night Portrait Algorithm which enables the Selfie camera to take clear and bright pictures any time you want. With AI Super Resolution Portrait, the phone will give you clear, non-blurry portraits.
Not only this, but it comes with a powerful back camera of 64MP for premium quality pictures. The camera includes a 64MP Main lens, 8MP Wide-Angle lens, 2MP Bokeh lens, and 2MP Mono Camera lens. It supports 4k time-lapse videography, with upgraded features along with video Bokeh and night video portrait features. These features add an aesthetic look to the videos making them easier to film in with low lighting. Moreover, the cinematic master is an exceptional feature for videos because it provides customized templates to choose from.
