Techies around the world would have been hard-wired for insights last week as the DLD17 conference in Munich and the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos ran concurrently. The former – populated by academics and innovators – was marked by a frisky anticipation over technological possibilities, while the latter – made up of politicians and business leaders – succumbed to fear and uncertainty over global events, even as the sun shone outside. Chinese premier, Xi Jinping, speaking in Davos, said: "Unlike the industrial revolution, our fourth technological revolution is unfolding at an exponential, and not linear, pace". One statistic that came out of the meeting was how Hollywood box office takings have been outpaced by App revenues – even though they didn't exist before 2008. Premier Xi opened his address with a quote from Charles Dickens: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times", to highlight the many contradictions facing modern society.

The next iPhone is going to entirely do away with the home button at the bottom of the screen. The much-rumoured – and potentially already previewed – removal of the button has long been thought to be one of the major changes coming to the next phone. But a new report sheds light on how potentially the biggest design change ever to come to the iPhone will actually work. In the place of the characteristic round button will come a special sensor embedded in the screen. And that will be the beginning of a range of new additions that could eventually become an entire biometric system for checking who is using the phone.

When Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft in 1975, they set a goal to put "a computer on every desk in every home." Now some forty years later, a Chinese start-up is hoping to do the same with robot arms. "We really think [a robot arm] can make lives easier for people," says Tony Le, one of three co-founders of uFactory, a start-up in Southern China that builds desktop robot appendages dubbed the UArm. The very first model came out in 2014 after a very successful Kickstarter campaign -- raised US$250,000, more than 20 times their initial goal -- and led to a fun video showing the first-gen uArm making breakfast for a tech writer (while also making a huge mess). Le concedes that early model wasn't "that good" -- he and the company's co-founders built it for fun and didn't expect the Kickstarter campaign to blow up the way it did -- but they're back with two new models on Indiegogo.

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, young directors who go by the joint film credit Daniels, are known for reality-warped miniatures--short films, music videos, commercials--that are eerie yet playful in mood. In their work, people jump into other people's bodies, Teddy bears dance to hard-core dubstep, rednecks shoot clothes from rifles onto fleeing nudists. Last year, their first feature-length project, "Swiss Army Man"--starring Daniel Radcliffe, who plays a flatulent talking corpse that befriends a castaway--premièred at Sundance, and left some viewers wondering if it was the strangest thing ever to be screened at the festival. The Times, deciding that the film was impossible to categorize, called it "weird and wonderful, disgusting and demented." Perhaps it is no surprise, then, that when the Daniels were notified by their production company, several years ago, that an Israeli indie pop star living in New York wanted to hire them to experiment with technology that could alter fundamental assumptions of moviemaking, they took the call. The musician was Yoni Bloch, arguably the first Internet sensation on Israel's music scene--a wispy, bespectacled songwriter from the Negev whose wry, angst-laden music went viral in the early aughts, leading to sold-out venues and a record deal. After breaking up with his girlfriend, in 2007, Bloch had hoped to win her back by thinking big. He made a melancholy concept album about their relationship, along with a companion film in the mode of "The Wall"--only to fall in love with the actress who played his ex. He had also thought up a more ambitious idea: an interactive song that listeners could shape as it played. But by the time he got around to writing it his hurt feelings had given way to more indeterminate sentiments, and the idea grew to become an interactive music video. The result, "I Can't Be Sad Anymore," which he and his band released online in 2010, opens with Bloch at a party in a Tel Aviv apartment. Standing on a balcony, he puts on headphones, then wanders among his friends, singing about his readiness to escape melancholy. He passes the headphones to others; whoever wears them sings, too. Viewers decide, by clicking on onscreen prompts, how the headphones are passed--altering, in real time, the song's vocals, orchestration, and emotional tone, while also following different micro-dramas. If you choose the drunk, the camera follows her as she races into the bathroom, to Bloch's words "I want to drink less / but be more drunk." Choose her friend instead, and the video leads to sports fans downing shots, with the lyrics "I want to work less / but for a greater cause."

"I had the worst dream," said Professor Einstein. "My vast intellect had been downloaded into a prosthetic body. I was then made to present the world of science to perfect strangers." Within moments of being activated, the 14-inch robotic replica of Albert Einstein made a meta comment about being trapped in a knowledge-dispensing machine. It shook its head from side to side and slowly blinked its eyes as if it were contemplating his situation.

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I read a book today, oh boy. Actually, I read a lot of books--not quite one per day, but close to one each week in 2016. When browsing the Internet, I am continually bombarded with stories about politics that cause me to wonder what is happening in the world. I have such a love for progress, but civility, globalization and acceptance of others were seemingly going backward in 2016. As I look through the list of books that I read during the past year, apparently I was immersing myself in books about how changes in technology and social connections can propel the world in the direction I would like to see it take.

Babee on Board, a new app designed to help pregnant commuters find a seat on public transport, has just been launched. It works by delivering a notification to the fellow commuters around you, telling them, "There might be a pregnant person near you who needs a seat." Baby on Board comprises a pair of companion apps that communicate with each other. The version of the app with the alert feature costs £3.99, while the version for receiving requests only is available for free. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.

Tiny drones could scout high-rise buildings and underground tunnels for possible threats to US troops in cities of the future. But instead of spending years cooking up the necessary drone technologies in military research labs, the Pentagon might be better off shopping for the latest civilian drones coming soon to stores. US military leaders have discussed the need for a new generation of scout drones for some time. After all, kicking down doors is a dirty and dangerous business for US troops trying to clear enemy-held buildings. It would be far safer to deploy diminutive drone buddies to provide an initial peek inside, and identify any potential threats.

Welcome to the second in a new series of brief reports. Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye. Anything goes, so here goes. Last week I was in Hong Kong, but that region has probably been discussed enough for the moment. As part of that trip there was the 2017 StartmeupHK Festival, which produced a few interesting points from a presentation and a panel discussion.