Asia
EarthRoamer campervan costs more than some people's homes
A luxurious camper favoured by the super rich and celebrities comes packed with all of the comforts of home, and a price-tag to match. The extravagant EarthRoamer XV-LTS 2017 model starts at £337,000 ($438,000) and allows buyers to fully customise an interior that includes a refrigerator, memory foam bunk, and can sleep up to four people. Previous editions have been purchased by American singer-songwriter John Mayer and a number of other high-profile owners who cannot be named. A luxurious camper favoured by the super rich and celebrities comes packed with all of the comforts of home, and a price-tag to match. Adventurer and nature photographer Bill Swails started the company back in 1998 with the aim of producing a vehicle where the comforts of an RV can be experienced on almost any terrain.
Intel to sponsor Olympics to showcase VR, 360-degree video, AI and drone technologies
NEW YORK – Intel Corp. will sponsor the Olympics through 2024 in the company's latest bid to show off its technology through high-profile sports events. The chipmaker said it will partner with the International Olympic Committee to use Intel's technology, such as virtual reality, 360-degree video, artificial intelligence and drones, to enhance the Olympic Games. Intel is signing on at a time when global interest in the Olympics is waning. Television ratings have fallen, and cities have dropped out of the running to host the games as costs spiral. Yet for Intel, the sponsorship is part of a broad push into sports after it launched a group to explore such deals last fall, seeking to highlight initiatives other than its main computer processor business.
Son to pick successor from Softbank Group
Softbank Group Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son said that he will pick his successor from executives at group companies. At a general shareholders meeting in Tokyo, Son said his successor "will be a person who plays an important role with me in the group's management for five to 10 years, is compatible and leads the management in the same direction as I do." In 2014, Softbank Group invited former Google Inc. executive Nikesh Arora to succeed Son. But in June last year, Son said he intended to stay on for 10 more years, citing his interest in leading the telecommunications and technology group's artificial intelligence business by himself. Arora left the group as a result.
India Eyes Breakthrough on U.S. Surveillance Drones Ahead of Modi Trip
Since Trump's election on an "American First" platform, U.S. and Indian officials have sought to play down any contradiction between his stated desire to protect American jobs and Modi's "Make in India" policy, arguing, for example, that deals in which components made in the United States are shipped to India for assembly benefit workers in both countries.
Commentary: The superpowers big data and analytics are quietly giving banks
SINGAPORE: If you could be a superhero, which of the following superpowers would you pick: Flying or invisibility? This, I heard recently, is an interview question one of the big technology companies asks potential candidates. This is a question no doubt designed to test a candidate's ability to think on their feet and demonstrate reasoning. However, with the accelerating pace of technology advancement, navigating the future of business is like choosing superpowers. The emerging superheroes: Blockchain, APIs, cloud, big data, machine learning, the Internet of things (IoT), biometrics all claim to have superpowers that enable you to save the world.
Volunteers teach AI to spot slavery sites from satellite images
Online volunteers are helping to track slavery from space. A new crowdsourcing project aims to identify South Asian brick kilns – frequently the site of forced labour – in satellite images. This data will then be used to train machine learning algorithms to automatically recognise brick kilns in satellite imagery. If computers can pinpoint the location of possible slavery sites, then the coordinates could be passed to local non-governmental organisations to investigate, says Kevin Bales, who is leading the project at the University of Nottingham in the UK. South Asian brick kilns are notorious sites of modern-day slavery.
Kalashnikov reveals first ever drone to go with its AK-47s
Gunmakers of the world's most deadly firearm has unveiled its first ever spy-in-the-sky drone and is planning on rolling it out for public sale. The Kalashnikov Group famous for the AK-47 will officially reveal what it is describing as a noiseless unmanned reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft at next month's MAKS international air show near Moscow. It has a four hour flying time and can be launched by hand as Vladimir Putin's biggest weapons maker takes a step back from its AK-47 - a rifle that has killed more people than any other firearm on the planet. The Kalashnikov Group's state-of-the-art drone which is said to be completely noiseless The drone weighs 7.5 kilograms and also boasts vertical takeoff capability. Reportedly, three types of noiseless drone to be released onto the market by the weapon manufacturing giant.
Nasa's Curiosity rover spots rock 'circle' on Mars
A mysterious circular rock formation on the surface of Mars has been captured by one of NASA's Orbiters. The formation was photographed by the Curiosity Rover this week and has excited alien hunters who invited speculation over how it came to be online. They suggested that the rocks were'arranged', laid out by another form of life, or that it was part of a larger, buried structure which has never before been seen. NASA's Curiosity Rover has captured a mysterious circular formation on rocks on the surface of Mars Alien hunters were excited by the images (above, after color enhancement) and suggested that the rocks had been'arranged' or could even be evidence of a larger, buried structure'Whatever we're seeing here, it's in a perfect circle and it's much different from the craters that we normally see on Mars and the moon and throughout the other planets in the solar system. This almost looks like these rocks were arranged in this circular formation.