Chinese manufacturer Huawei has been on the brink of the big time for some years now, gently edging up the list of most popular phone manufacturers and, earlier this year, overtook Apple to the number two position, with only Samsung ranking above it. Much of that was down to the Huawei P20 Pro, released in the Spring and chiefly noticeable for an astonishing photographic capability thanks to three rear cameras, all made in conjunction with Leica. Today, the company revealed its latest phone, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. Huawei's timetable sees two main releases a year, with the bigger-screen Mate Series taking the autumn slot. Quite a lot actually, and while some manufacturers seem to offer incremental upgrades every six or 12 months, the Mate 20 Pro is stuffed to the gills with innovation, including a super-cool reverse wireless charging feature.

Paul Allen found fame and immense fortune through his work building Microsoft. But his passions were as broad as they were spectacular: he had an enthusiasm for everything from rocket ships to rock'n'roll. The Microsoft co-founder died in Seattle this week from complications of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, according to his company Vulcan Inc. Allen came to fame and fortune as a consequence of his work with Microsoft. He gave the company its name and its start, and spawned an entire industry that changed the world: "Personal computing would not have existed without him," Bill Gates said in a statement. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

Google CEO Sundar Pinchai has said a separate, censored version of its search engine for the Chinese market has undergone several successful internal tests. The comments are the first time Google has officially confirmed it is working on the search engine, dubbed Project Dragonfly, which has been criticised heavily by human rights organisations. Pinchai defended the decision of working on a search engine which will censor any results critical of the Chinese government by saying providing some information is better than providing no information at all. "We are compelled by our mission [to] provide information to everyone, and [China is] 20 percent of the world's population," the Google CEO said during the Wired25 conference, as reported by the organiser, Wired. "People don't understand fully, but you're always balancing a set of values," he continued, adding that the company will try to provide information in any market it enters.

When Google's chief privacy officer admitted to the Senate that the company is working on a secret project called'Dragonfly,' he refused to say what it is. According to previous reports, Dragonfly is the codename for the censored search engine Google has been developing for China since 2017 -- a search engine that can automatically identify websites banned by the country's infamous firewall and can remove them from the results page. Now, Google chief Sundar Pichai has openly confirmed the search engine's existence at the Wired 25 Summit and even told the audience that its development is going very well. "It turns out we'll be able to serve well over 99 percent of the queries," he said on stage. The executive defended the project, telling people that Google is "compelled by [its] mission [to] provide information to everyone," but it also has to follow the laws in every country.

A pair of Japanese robots have captured stunning new photographs and video from the surface of an asteroid 180 million miles away. The cookie tin-shaped robots successfully reached the Ryugu asteroid last week after being released from the Hayabusa2 probe. The stunning new images and video released by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency show the craggy surface of the asteroid, and reveal the rover's first'hop' was a success. They were beamed back 180 million miles to Earth by the Hayabusa2 probe. The rovers are being used by Japan's space agency to search for clues of the origins of the solar system.

If you think regular snakes are scary, try a robotic serpent that can scale ladders. Japanese researchers at Kyoto University have unveiled a prototype'robot snake' that can slither and curl around surfaces and climb just like the real thing. Rather than just creating it to trigger nightmares, they believe it could one day be used to save lives. Kyoto University researchers say the robot snake could be used to enter dangerous situations that are unsafe for humans. It may also be able to rescue humans that are stuck in hard to reach places. They developed an advanced gait for the device that could enable it to crawl through narrow pipes that would otherwise be inaccessible by search and rescue teams.

A robot will appear before a select committee for what is believed to the first time when it answers questions about the fourth industrial revolution. The education committee will ask Pepper about the implications for education of developments in artificial intelligence. The robot is part of an international research project developing the world's first culturally aware robots aimed at assisting with care for older people. On Tuesday the committee will hear about Pepper's work with students at Middlesex University, which includes an initiative involving teaching primary level children. It also examines what role increased automation and robotics might play in the workplace and classroom of the future.

Japan's biggest electronics trade show kicked off Tuesday, offering a future peek at how the latest technologies can be integrated into everyday living. This year's CEATEC (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies) at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture is still making a push to cast off the image of being just a home electronics hardware exhibition. Featuring 725 firms and organizations, up by 58 from last year and with 345 new entrants, all are eager to show off a preview of their possible future business models by combining services with hot technological trends such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the "internet of things." Convenience store chain Lawson Inc., joining CEATEC for the first time, demonstrated some concepts of its next-generation store. For instance, visitors can shop at its pop-up store, which uses a QR code payment system, in the convention hall.

LONDON (Reuters) – Softbank's Vision Fund plans to pump more money into insurance, a sector it sees as both ripe for disruption and a potential booster for its bigger bets in cars, health and financial services, a Vision Fund executive told Reuters. In the past year, the world's biggest private technology investor has backed China's largest online insurer ZhongAn 6060.HK as well as PolicyBazaar, India's biggest online insurance distributor, and app-based U.S. home insurer Lemonade. And these and other insurance bets totaling nearly $3 billion are just the start, Vision Fund dealmaker David Thevenon said. The Vision Fund has raised nearly $100 billion, almost half of it from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund. "We believe that technology and how data is used, processed and collected is going to transform insurance," Thevenon said.

LONDON (Reuters) - Softbank's Vision Fund plans to pump more money into insurance, a sector it sees as both ripe for disruption and a potential booster for its bigger bets in cars, health and financial services, a Vision Fund executive told Reuters. In the past year, the world's biggest private technology investor has backed China's largest online insurer ZhongAn (6060.HK) as well as PolicyBazaar, India's biggest online insurance distributor, and app-based U.S. home insurer Lemonade. And these and other insurance bets totaling nearly $3 billion are just the start, Vision Fund dealmaker David Thevenon said. The Vision Fund has raised nearly $100 billion, almost half of it from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund. "We believe that technology and how data is used, processed and collected is going to transform insurance," Thevenon said.