Tech
New hires at Lawson convenience stores to work remotely via avatars
AVITA Corporation, a Japanese company providing business solutions based on avatars, and Lawson Inc, which operates Lawson convenience stores throughout Japan, have entered into a collaboration. Their goal is to provide potential employees with a new way of working not limited by factors such as "time" and "place of employment"… Read
NASA spacecraft crashes into asteroid in defense test
A NASA spacecraft rammed an asteroid at blistering speed Monday in an unprecedented dress rehearsal for the day a killer rock menaces Earth. The galactic slam occurred at a harmless asteroid 7 million miles (9.6 million kilometers) away, with the spacecraft named Dart plowing into the space rock at 14,000… Read
Riken researchers develop rechargeable cyborg cockroach
A team of researchers has developed a rechargeable cyborg cockroach that can be remotely controlled for use in search-and-rescue and other missions, Japan's Riken research institute said. In experiments led by the state-backed institute, the team attached 4-micrometer ultrathin solar cell film to the backs of Madagascar cockroaches, which are… Read
Why 'Monkey Island' creators returned to 1990s classic game
When Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman first let loose their swords, voodoo and pirates epic "The Secret of Monkey Island", it was sold on floppy disks and released for long-forgotten home PCs like the Amiga. Three decades later, they are back at it with "Return to Monkey Island", a sequel… Read
NASA gears up to deflect asteroid, in key test of planetary defense
Bet the dinosaurs wish they'd thought of this. NASA on Monday will attempt a feat humanity has never before accomplished: deliberately smacking a spacecraft into an asteroid to slightly deflect its orbit, in a key test of our ability to stop cosmic objects from devastating life on Earth. The Double… Read
SoftBank to hold tie-up talks with Samsung over chip designer Arm
SoftBank Group Corp is set to enter talks with South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co on a possible strategic tie-up over Arm Ltd, a British chip designer under the Japanese technology conglomerate, a corporate source familiar with the plan said. SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son will visit South Korea next month to… Read
ANA confirmed as launch customer for Boeing's Insight Accelerator
All Nippon Airways (ANA) has been confirmed as the launch customer for Boeing's Insight Accelerator (IA), a new cloud-based digital solution employing artificial intelligence to improve operational efficiency and avoid high impact service disruptions. While the latest generation of commercial airplanes like the 787 generate a large amount of flight… Read
Revamped Detroit auto show now also features new flying tech
The Detroit auto show has returned after a three-year absence with a roar. And a soar. Visitors to the prestigious North American International Auto Show, which kicked off last week, can lay eyes on the latest offerings from some of the world's biggest automakers, as they've been able to in… Read
Facebook whistleblower launches nonprofit to take on big tech
Whistleblower Frances Haugen -- a former Facebook engineer who leaked documents suggesting the firm put profits before safety -- has launched an organization devoted to fighting harm caused by social media. The new Beyond the Screen nonprofit said that its first project will be to document ways big tech is… Read
Electric planes are coming: Short-hop regional flights could be running on batteries in a few years
Two-seater Velis Electros are already quietly buzzing around Europe, electric sea planes are being tested in British Columbia, and larger planes are coming. Air Canada announced on Sept 15 that it would buy 30 electric-hybrid regional aircraft from Sweden’s Heart Aerospace, which expects to have its 30-seat plane in service… Read
