Facebook has announced plans to automatically play sound on the videos that pop up in your News Feed. The move is unlikely to prove popular with the vast majority of users, but video content has become increasingly important to the social network. "As people watch more video on phones, they've come to expect sound when the volume on their device is turned on," it wrote in a blog post. 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. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.

Can artificial intelligence do the work of high-powered consultants? A Munich-based startup founded by a math major is doing just that. His fast-growing software startup offers companies like 3M, Cisco, and General Electric better results at a fraction of the cost -- and he's grabbing market share in a $15 billion market from consulting powerhouses like IBM and Accenture. Should investors in those incumbents be worried? Before getting into why, let's take a trip down my memory lane.

Halfway through talking to two of Nintendo's most high-powered executives, one of them pulls a playing card from his pocket. It's a strangely low-tech demonstration – especially given that they are here to talk about the Nintendo Switch, perhaps the company's most important console ever made. But that card makes beautiful sense for at least two reasons. The first: that Nintendo actually started out as a business making handmade playing cards in 1889, and the Switch is a conscious attempt to reconnect with some of the companies long and celebrated history. But more importantly it is a way of understanding the very essence of what the Switch is about, or at least how Nintendo conceives of it – it's best compared not with the PlayStation or Xbox's run of blockbuster gaming experiences, but with the fun, social thrill of a game of poker.

Amazon receives a patent from the U.S. government for drones that would parachute drop an item right to your door. Amazon may have a new option for how it plans to deliver your packages by drone. CNN reports the retailing giant was granted a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that could allow packages to drop by parachute. The drone would stay nearby to make sure it arrives in the right spot. The report says, for example, Amazon's drone could deploy a parachute or landing flap on the package to prevent it from hitting a balcony or tree.

Apple is preparing to completely redevelop its fingerprint sensor to feature in a new iPhone, according to patent filings. The rumoured development is probably a way of having the technology fit into its next handset, mostly referred to as the iPhone 8. Because that phone is likely to bring with it an entirely new design – and a range of never-before-seen features – some of the most central parts of the phone will have to be re-designed. Apple is planning on making the display of the new phone reach all the way across the front of the handset, according to rumours, doing away with the black or white plastic that has surrounded the screen in some form since the very first iPhone. 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.

We need to be super careful with AI. That same year University of Cambridge cosmologist Stephen Hawking told the BBC: "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race." Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates also cautioned: "I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence." How the AI apocalypse might unfold was outlined by computer scientist Eliezer Yudkowsky in a paper in the 2008 book Global Catastrophic Risks: "How likely is it that AI will cross the entire vast gap from amoeba to village idiot, and then stop at the level of human genius?" His answer: "It would be physically possible to build a brain that computed a million times as fast as a human brain.... If a human mind were thus accelerated, a subjective year of thinking would be accomplished for every 31 physical seconds in the outside world, and a millennium would fly by in eight-and-a-half hours."

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says humans will have to merge with machines to avoid becoming irrelevant. Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, he explained that the human brain isn't capable of keeping up with computers, which will start replacing people in certain fields of work. "Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence," said Musk, according to CNBC. 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. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.

Amazon is toying with the idea of equipping its autonomous delivery drones with parachutes. The idea is that they would enable the flying contraptions to float packages down to the ground in situations where landing could prove tricky. The potential plans are outlined in a new US Patent and Trademark office patent spotted by CNN. 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. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.

The bizarre patents of Amazon's drone programme keep on coming. Hot on the heels of the company's proposal for a floating airship warehouse, it has now filed a patent for parachute-aided delivery of packages. In the future, if the patent is implemented, Amazon's delivery drones may not even need to land on your enormous lawn to deliver your parcels. Instead, the drone will simply release parcels from on high, deploying parachutes to slow their descent and ensure the valuables inside remain intact. Of course, normal parachutes would bring their own problems – a strong gust of wind, and your Blu-Ray box set ends up on the roof – so a second aspect of the patent contains the real innovation.

The power of a connected toy is how it can complement a child's natural play behaviour. It's not about breaking the mould of how children play, it's about the potential of their creativity combined with technology. Toys should be a tool that enable cognitive development through imaginative play. A well designed toy is adaptable, allowing a child's play to branch out from its primary narrative or original purpose. This amplifies learning and growth, and more interest in the toy, meaning fewer one-day wonders discarded at the bottom of the toy chest. This year Tech Crunch reported an increase in investment and Google searches for connected toys.