The world of tech will soon make its annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas for CES 2019, billed as the world's biggest technology trade show. Acting as a showcase for this year's most anticipated products, it also acts as a gauge for what tech trends to expect in the years ahead. Some of the world's biggest companies will be there, including LG, Samsung and Sony, though Apple will once again be among the notable absentees. Officially kicking off on 8 January at the Mandalay Bay, the conference will open for press and preview viewings on 6 January, before the whole thing concludes on 11 January. All the latest news and unveilings will be covered by The Independent but until then here's everything to expect from this year's tech extravaganza.

China's space agency has shared images of its lunar rover driving onto the far side of the moon. The photo shows the tracks made by the little robot as it left the spacecraft that became the first to ever land on the mysterious, distant part that remains entirely hidden from us on Earth. Just as with the pioneering mission of the spacecraft that carried it to the lunar surface, the rover becomes the first piece of kit ever to drive across the far side of the moon. The Jade Rabbit 2 rover drove off a ramp and onto the moon at 10:22 p.m. Thursday, about 12 hours after the Chang'e 4 spacecraft touched down. Lunar project chief designer Wu Weiren called the separation of the rover "a small step for the rover, but one giant leap for the Chinese nation."

Apple boss Tim Cook has written to staff after the company made a shock announcement over its iPhone sales. The company said this week that it was due to miss expectations after selling far fewer handsets than it had expected, particularly in China. The announcement led the company's share price to plunge dramatically, and led to concerns about the future success of the phone. But Mr Cook's letter to staff suggests that there are a range of successes for Apple away from its Chinese and iPhone troubles, pointing to a range of different business that continue to grow. But they were not setting sales records, he wrote, "due to a number of factors -- some macroeconomic, and some specific to Apple and the smartphone industry".

MUMBAI: Private equity group Apax Partners is poised to become the single-largest shareholder in Fractal Analytics by picking up a significant minority stake of around 45% for $175-200 million, valuing India's No. 2 big data firm at $350-400 million. Apax will be buying out existing shareholders Khazanah Nasional Berhad and TA Associates and will infuse fresh capital in the company to bulk up the balance sheet for future acquisitions and growth, said people aware of the development. Discussions are in the final stages and a formal signing is scheduled by early next week or even this weekend. Apax Partners and TA Associates declined to comment. Fractal Analytics was set up in 2000 by five graduates of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, with each pooling Rs 2 lakh. It raised $60,000 from angel investor Gulu Mirchandani of Mirc Electronics, who has chosen to remain invested.

With a number of political parties across the world using big data to reach out to voters during elections, Tamil Nadu too is likely to see the use of big data combined with artificial intelligence ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. With the voters' list, census data, data from all the past elections and social media chatter, parties could crack the polls, addressing issues that are key to voters, according to K. Swaminathan, founder and CEO, Aspire Ventures. Building on the platform he provided to late Jayalalithaa during the 2014 and 2016 elections, Mr. Swaminathan has developed the'Analytical Software for Psephological Influencers Research and Engagement' or Aspire 2.0 as he calls it, which uses AI and machine learning to provide real-time inputs to enable leaders to address issues or plan for the polls. Mr. Swaminathan, who was former secretary of the AIADMK IT wing, insists that the platform is "party independent" and can be used by any political party. The software enables a party to look at voting patterns from the previous elections and at data to identify gaps and ensure that they are plugged.

Given the significant advances made by Artificial Intelligence, it's time India makes good use of this technology to encourage higher farm yields and weed out the many problems that bedevil this sector Artificial intelligence (AI) is much closer to our lives than ever before. Be it Apple's Siri or Google's Alexa, every intelligent assistant relies on speech recognition software whose backbone is AI. But for its untapped potential, human beings are turning to AI not only to play their favourite song from the playlist, but also to safeguard the environment, win over the climate change challenge and increase agricultural productivity. AI-driven technology holds immense potential. The best-laid plans, emanating from the elite minds in the scientific world, have neither been able to stave off worsening environmental conditions, nor could they ensure better state of affairs for our agricultural sector.

A Chinese rover is making its tracks on the soft surface of the'dark' side of the moon after touching down on our nearest celestial neighbour. The Yutu-2 - or Jade Rabbit 2 - rover drove off its lander's ramp and onto the exterior of the moon's far side at 10:22pm Beijing time (2:22 pm GMT) on Thursday, about 12 hours after the Chinese spacecraft carrying it came to rest. A photo was later posted online by China's space agency revealing the rover several yards away from the spacecraft. The tracks it makes on the surface of the moon will be forever immotalised and will never be lost as there is no wind on the moon due to its lack of an atmosphere. By 5pm Beijing time (9am GMT) the three fifteen-foot long antennaes on Chang'e-4 had also been fully unfurled to enable the low-frequency radio spectrometre to begin work. The rover which is currently meandering around the moon on six independently controlled wheels, has also established a robust connection with its relay satellite, Queqiao. Yutu-2 has already completed environmental perception, route planning, walking to where it is pictured currently and starting its scientific operations. Chinese state media also reports that the cameras on the machine have been turned on and are working normally. The other equipment will be turned on one by one, according to the Chinese space agency CNSA. Jade Rabbit 2 weighs 308lbs (139kg) and has six individually powered wheels so it can continue to operate even if one wheel fails.

KSI has addressed continuing rumours about a rematch between him and fellow YouTube star Logan Paul – suggesting that the fight could take much longer than fans think. But he did appear to put a date on the event, though one much further away than the February 2019 date that has been repeatedly rumoured. A rematch has been on the cards ever since the first fight ended, with the location this time due to switch to Logan Paul's home of the US, but the British vlogger said that a number of troubles are standing in its way. Those include finding ways of stopping people pirating the stream and illegally watching the fight live, KSI said. Piracy is thought to have been a significant problem with the last event: though it was legitimately streamed for a fee on YouTube, huge numbers of people are thought to have watched broadcasts on other platforms.

Lidar startup Baraja has raised $32 million in a series A round of funding led by Sequoia China and Main Sequence Ventures' CSIRO Innovation Fund, with participation from Blackbird Ventures. Founded out of Sydney, Australia, in 2015, Baraja is one of a number of lidar startups targeting the burgeoning driverless car industry with the necessary smarts to safely navigate busy thoroughfares without human intervention. Lidar technology essentially surveys the environment by beaming out laser-powered light to measure distances. Anyone who has observed the big players in the autonomous vehicle realm, such as Alphabet's Waymo, will have noticed the giant spinning lasers mounted atop the vehicle's roof that rotate to garner a comprehensive view of the environment. These are not only bulky, but expensive -- perhaps prohibitively expensive if self-driving cars are ever to hit mass production.

Perhaps more than any other sport, gymnastics is both an art and a science. As an athlete executes their carefully-rehearsed flips and leaps, judges look to award or deduct points based on the precise position of the gymnast's body. To ensure a fair competition, organizers typically rely on highly trained human eyes. Now, an international gymnastics association has agreed to incorporate lidar-based technology developed by Fujitsu into future competitions to help judges assess performances. Gymnastics' rigorous scoring rules require judges to closely evaluate the angles of gymnasts' joints, such as their knees and elbows, as athletes move through their routines.