List of All Articles with Tag 'tech'

Global smartphone shipments are set to fall to their lowest level in a decade this year, according to new research. Preliminary figures from market research firm Counterpoint forecast a 6 per cent decline to 1.15 billion units in 2023, down from a peak of 1.57 billion shipments in 2017. The slump in shipments comes amid economic uncertainties that have seen demand drop significantly in the US and China. Despite declining smartphone shipments, Apple may be in a good position to become the world’s number one brand for the first time ever, according to the figures, with Counterpoint observing both a premium and ultra-premium growth trend globally in 2023. Apple is set to unveil its latest iPhone 15 in September, offering an opportunity to boost its market share. “So far this year it’s been record low upgrades across all carriers,” said Jeff Fieldhack, a research director at Counterpoint Research. “The iPhone 15 launch is a window for carriers to steal high-value customers. And with that big iPhone 12 installed base up for grabs, promos are going to be aggressive, leaving Apple in a good spot.” Mr Fieldhack added: “It’s the closest Apple’s been to the top spot. We’re talking about a spread that’s literally a few days’ worth of sales. Assuming Apple doesn’t run into production problems like it did last year, it’s really a toss up at this point.” High inflation and relatively modest upgrades across the smartphone sector mean consumers are “hesitant to upgrade their devices”, according to Counterpoint’s report. Upgrades for Apple’s iPhone 15 range of phones are expected to be substantial, with new hardware features like a USB-C port, a multi-action button and periscope cameras. The US smartphone giant is expected to announce its next-generation iPhone 15 on 12 September or 13 September, with the devices going on sale on 22 September. Read More iPhone owners to receive payouts from Apple Something unexpected is happening to people’s iPhone 14s, owners claim Apple is working on a mysterious new project called ‘Watch X’, report claims Apple iPhone 15 rumours: Pro and Pro Max release date, price, cameras, specs and more

Scientists have detected huge waves in outer space that measure three times the size of our sun. The waves are being formed on a star system called MACHO 80.7443.1718, found around 169,000 light-years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The waves are formed in a similar way to waves on Earth. Just like ones on our planet are formed due to the gravitational pull of the moon, a nearby celestial object stretches the star and causes enormous waves in the system MACHO 80.7443.1718. Experts have studied the star’s unusual behaviour and published a paper in the journal Nature Astronomy. The experts stated that MACHO 80.7443.1718 contains a "heartbreak" star, which is a term they use to describe the way plasma is influenced by the pull of a nearby object to unleash incredible waves of energy. The sheer power of these waves is, itself, difficult to imagine. In fact, just one of them would end life on Earth in an instant. "Each crash of the star’s towering tidal waves releases enough energy to disintegrate our entire planet several hundred times over," MacLeod said. "This heartbreak star could just be the first of a growing class of astronomical objects," MacLeod added. "We’re already planning a search for more heartbreak stars, looking for the glowing atmospheres flung off by their breaking waves." The scale in general is far beyond human comprehension – at least ours, anyway. In fact, the waves of plasma measure around 2.5 million miles above the surface of the primary star – which itself has a radius of 10.4 million miles, around 24 times the size of the sun. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The world’s largest battery maker has launched what it claims is the first ever “superfast charging” battery capable of delivering 400 kilometres (249 miles) of range from just a 10 minute charge. China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL) said its new lithium-ion battery would open up a new era for electric cars and eliminate range anxiety for owners. On a full charge, the battery holds enough charge to travel over 700 km without needing to recharge – roughly 60 per cent further than the average electric vehicle in 2023. CATL said the increase in battery capacity and charge time was achieved through a “brand-new superconducting electrolyte formula” that results in improved conductivity. “The future of the EV battery technology must remain steadfastly anchored at the global technology frontier, as well as the economic benefits,” said Dr Wu Kai, chief scientist at CATL. “As EV consumers shift from pioneering users to ordinary users, we should make advanced technology accessible for all and enable everyone to savour the fruits of innovation.” CATL, which manufactured more lithium-ion batteries than any of its competitors in 2022, plans to begin mass production of its next-generation battery later this year. The company did not reveal which automakers would be the first to receive the batteries, though its customers include BMW, Daimler AG, Honda, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo. Electric car sales have experienced record-breaking growth in recent years, with more than 10 million sold last year, however they still account for less than a fifth of all car sales. Range anxiety remains one of the main barriers for consumers when considering the purchase of an electric vehicle, according to the International Energy Agency, which has led manufacturers like CATL to invest heavily in overcoming this obstacle. Other challenges include access to battery materials and battery degradation, though CATL claims this second pain point is not an issue with its latest battery. Most major carmakers have set targets to phase out cars with internal combustion engines entirely by 2040 and estimates from the IEA suggest electric car sales will overtake fossil fuel-powered car sales within the next 15 years, though battery breakthroughs could reduce this time scale even further. Read More Battery breakthroughs are about to trigger a transport revolution Streaming services now cost more than cable TV Hozier would consider striking over AI threat to music industry Google is getting ready for the ‘quantum apocalypse’

The effects of long Covid are still being uncovered by experts, and now doctors have been studying a rare complication that saw a man’s legs turn purple. A new research paper has been released which looks into the case of a 33-year-old man who had been infected with Covid 18 months earlier and experienced difficulties when standing up. His legs would turn purple when he did so, as well as tingling and itching, but things would return to normal when he lay down. The odd condition was diagnosed as POTS dysautonomia. This was determined after his pulse was found to rise to 127 beats per minute when standing, as well as feeling shaky and unsteady on his feet. The paper leads on from previous studies, which detected POTS in 20 people after they developed a Covid-19 infection. According to the new study published in The Lancet, there is "evidence is growing of a link between long Covid and POTS dysautonomia”. The paper’s co-author Dr Manoj Sivan said in a statement: "This was a striking case of acrocyanosis in a patient who had not experienced it before his Covid-19 infection. "Patients experiencing this may not be aware that it can be a symptom of long Covid and dysautonomia and may feel concerned about what they are seeing. Similarly, clinicians may not be aware of the link between acrocyanosis and long Covid." Dr Sivan added: "We need to ensure that there is more awareness of dysautonomia in long Covid so that clinicians have the tools they need to manage patients appropriately." Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Irish singer Hozier has said he would consider striking over the threat of artificial intelligence (AI) to the music industry. The 33-year-old said he would be willing to join similar action to the US actors and writers’ strikes, who are fighting for better contracts and protection against the use of AI in the industry. Members of US acting union Sag-Aftra and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) began industrial action on July 14 and May 2 respectively. Appearing on BBC’s Newsnight, Hozier responded to presenter Victoria Derbyshire who asked if he could imagine going on strike over the threat AI poses to music. The Take Me To Church singer, whose real name is Andrew Hozier-Byrne, said: “Joining in solidarity if there was… action on that? Absolutely.” He later said: “Whether (AI is) art or not, I think, is nearly a philosophical debate. “It can’t create something based on a human experience. So I don’t know if it meets the definition of art.” Hozier’s comments come amid Hollywood concerns over proposals by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to use ground-breaking AI to keep a digital likeness of actors. The interview also heard the Grammy-nominated star discuss fellow Irish singer Sinead O’Connor, who was found dead at her home in south-east London last month aged 56. He said he had been “walking on this road that she paved”, after she made headlines in 1992 when she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II on US TV show Saturday Night Live in protest at the Catholic church, sparking a ferocious backlash. In 2013, Hozier’s debut single Take Me To Church, in which he criticised the church’s teaching of “shame about sexual orientation”, reached number two in the UK official charts and achieved global success. Speaking about the difference in public reaction, he said: “I think sensibilities have changed. “I think part of it is because Sinead was a woman. I think a lot of it is she was one of the first who had that courage to stand up and say it. “That was such a taboo at the time.” He also revealed he had once been invited to perform Take Me To Church in the Vatican City, quipping: “That would’ve been fun.” The full interview will be broadcast on Newsnight at 10.30pm on BBC Two.

The combined cost of popular streaming services like Netflix and Disney Plus is now more expensive than traditional cable television, according to new analysis. Recent price rises to all of the main streaming platforms for ad-free subscriptions have pushed the cost above the average cable TV package of $83 per month for the first time. Calculations by the Financial Times found that a bundle of the top US streaming services – including Disney+, Hulu, Netflix and Peacock – rose in price from $73 to $87 over the last year. Some of the price rises of streaming services have been considerable, going way above the rate of inflation. Netflix raised the price of its basic advertisement-free monthly subscription from $9.99 to $15.49, representing a 55 per cent increase. Disney Plus saw an even bigger increase for its ad-free subscription price, nearly doubling from $7.99 per month to $13.99. “From a business point of view, streaming was going to have to move in this way – the price point was going to have to go up,” David Rogers, a professor at Columbia Business School and expert in digital business, told the FT. “This was accelerated by the fact that we no longer have cheap debt to flood the market with streaming content.” These rising costs, combined with an increasingly fractured streaming ecosystem, have helped contribute to a major surge in online piracy over the last year. Figures published earlier this year by research firm Muso revealed that the most popular form of piracy is websites that host free streams of films and TV series, which account for 80 per cent of all illegal content consumption. Visits to these sites rose by nearly 9 per cent last year, with early data suggesting that this trend will continue into 2023. Several illicit streaming sites offer similar functionality to the legitimate platforms like Netflix, however they typically do not have any restrictions on the content you can watch. Security experts have warned, however, that such sites may pose a risk to visitors, while links shared on social media sites can often lead to fake versions of these illicit sites that seek to steal financial and other sensitive data. Read More Free streams to watch Barbie spread online amid security warnings Hozier would consider striking over AI threat to music industry Google is getting ready for the ‘quantum apocalypse’ X now sorts posts on accounts based on number of likes, not by chronology

By Jesus Calero and Marie Mannes STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Swedish games developer Embracer on Thursday reported slightly weaker than expected operating

Lenovo Group Ltd.’s profit missed estimates for a second straight quarter after the global PC market slid deeper

Twitter, recently rebranded as X, now sorts account posts based on their like counts, straying away from the platform’s historic approach to display them in the chronological order in which they were posted. This new change affects how logged-out users see other profiles and comes as the latest in the string of alterations made to the platform since Tesla titan Elon Musk took over the company last year. Before the platform was rebranded as X, Twitter blocked users without an account from accessing the site in any form, directing them instead to the login page – a move that was quickly ended. Now for logged-out users, X shows posts on other profiles sorted by their like counts. This new sorting method seems to be done based on likes, and not by the number of views garnered by individual posts as it can be seen that tweets with more views, but fewer like counts are showing up lower in the feed. For instance, if a logged-out user – or one who hasn’t signed up on the platform – now visits Elon Musk’s account, they would see on top his cheeky April 2022 tweet about “buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in” and not his most recent post. Some posts by users on the platform suggest this change was likely made towards the last week of July. It remains unclear why this change has been made as it could frustrate users who may want to see the most recent posts made by other profiles. Earlier this week, X also placed Tweetdeck into a paid service and placed it behind a paywall, and also slowed down access to rivals, and news organisations via the platform. The change makes accessing Tweetdeck, rebranded recently to “X Pro”, to require a subscription to the company’s premium service Blue. Those visiting Tweetdeck’s website without a Blue subscription are now being redirected to a page promoting signup to the premium service. X also seemed to have added a delay of about five seconds when people clicked on links to go elsewhere on the web. The delay was found to be applied to a range of rival social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky. Websites of news organisations that have been critical of Mr Musk such as Reuters and the New York Times also seemed to be slow to load. Read More Elon Musk’s Twitter slows down access to rival websites Twitter is turning Tweetdeck into paid service after slowing down access to rival sites Mark Zuckerberg says he’s ‘out of town’ as Elon Musk drives to his house to fight Snapchat experiences ‘temporary outage’ as My AI chatbot posts own Story Musk’s Twitter takeover sparks mass exodus of climate experts Elon Musk’s Twitter slows down access to rival websites

HONG KONG (Reuters) -China's Lenovo Group on Thursday posted a worse-than-expected 24% fall in revenue for the April-June quarter, hit

Ask Jeeves became a casualty of the search engine wars of the early 2000s. Eventually, their mascot was escorted right out the door.

JAKARTA Indonesia's central bank said on Thursday it had started a trial of cross-border QR code payments with