Supercomputers have become a symbol for both technical and economic competitiveness. And while China and the United States are locked in a contest to develop the world’s most powerful one, a massive machine in Japan has topped them both by taking the top position on the TOP500 list, - a supercomputer benchmarking index.

Facial recognition has numerous applications that could simplify our lives as we've seen with Apple using it to unlock smartphones or in stores to replace cash registers. But the technology has a dark side, with facial recognition integrated into China's massive public surveillance system and its social credit experiment where even minor infractions of public norms can result in sanctions.

5G phones are growing in popularity – and with the four iPhone 12 models set to come with 5G later this year, the technology will only grow more attractive. However, one of the biggest problems with 5G phones is that their price point tends to be set quite high. But that could all change with the latest announcement from Qualcomm, the leading chipset manufacturer.

The world leader in the development of robotic exoskeletons, German Bionic, presents the latest generation of its smart power suit. Made of ultra-light carbon fiber, the 4th generation Cray X supports workers when lifting heavy loads of up to 28 kg by actively amplifying their movements and
thus protecting the lower back from excessive strain. 

To meet the growing technology needs of Spanish businesses, Google Cloud and Telefonica announced last week a new partnership to foster the country’s digital transformation and advance 5G mobile edge computing. As part of this agreement Google Cloud also announced its plans to open a new cloud region in Spain that will leverage Telefonica’s Madrid region infrastructure.

The first Arab space mission to Mars is ready for a mid-July start, news wires reported. Named Amal, meaning Hope, the robotic craft is due to lift off from the Japanese island of Tanegashima during a narrow launch window about 14 July. It will pass the 493 million km to the Red Planet for about seven months, and then will remain in Martian orbit for an entire Martian year, 687 days, to gather sufficient data.

With most hyperscale cloud companies being headquartered in the US and China, the European Union is looking to set up a cloud ecosystem of its own to enhance its economic sovereignty and ensure that it has complete control over data flowing across its Member States. 

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but apparently one image is worth potentially thousands of headaches for Android users recently. The noted tech information leaker Ice Universe this weekend posted a warning about an image that if set as wallpaper will soft-brick Samsung and Google Pixel phones.

Microsoft is replacing journalists with artificial intelligence (AI) software that will generate the news stories available in the homepages of the Edge browser and the news website MSN. According to The Guardian's report, the decision of Microsoft will replace dozens of journalists with robots.

As countries emerge from lockdowns imposed to blunt the coronavirus pandemic, dozens have rolled out phone apps to track a person's movements and who they come into contact with, giving officials a vital tool for limiting contagion risks.