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Monday, March 5, 2018 Technology brings the all-connected world to Mobile World Congress

BARCELONA: Building on its success in delivering “We’ve made it our mission to push the boundaries of Generation (r) Core(tm) i7/i5 processor, a discrete The 10.8-inch HUAWEI MediaPad M5 Pro comes with beautifully-designed and powerful high-end mobile what technology and innovation are capable of. With NVIDIA(r) GeForce(r) MX150 GPU with 2GB GDDR5 an ultra-precise HUAWEI M-Pen featuring 4,096 lev- devices, Huawei Consumer Business Group (CBG) has the introduction of the new HUAWEI MateBook X and a long-lasting 57.4Wh (Typical Capacity) battery els of pressure sensitivity to make note-taking more unveiled the HUAWEI MateBook X Pro, the HUAWEI Pro, HUAWEI MediaPad M5 Series and the world’s - making it one of the lightest and most powerful note- realistic, easier and effortless. MediaPad M5Series and the HUAWEI 5G customer- first 3GPP 5G CPE, we are delivering on the promise books on the market. The HUAWEI MateBook X Pro premises equipment (CPE), the world’s first commer- to provide breakthrough devices that redefine every features Dolby Atmos(r) Sound System and custom 3GPP Standard 5G CPE cial terminal device supporting the globally recog- part of the mobile computing experience.” The speakers that deliver breakthrough, immersive audio The HUAWEI 5G CPE is the first of its kind sup- nized 3GPP telecommunications standard for 5G. With HUAWEI MateBook X Pro and HUAWEI MediaPad for sound to flow above and around you, making you porting the globally recognized 3GPP telecommuni- stunning new design updates and outstanding per- M5 Series will be available in the spring of 2018 in feel like you’re inside the action. cations standard for 5G. Available in indoor and formance advances, Huawei’s new devices showcase China, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and the outdoor configurations, it provides super-fast the power of technology to deliver innovative comput- Middle East. HUAWEI MediaPad M5 Series download speeds of up to 2Gbps and can operate ing experiences ready for the mobile world. Ergonomically designed with a 2.5D glass screen on both 4G and 5G networks. The HUAWEI 5G CPE “At Huawei, we’re guided by a vision of an all-con- HUAWEI MateBook X Pro and 2K HD, ClariVu 5.0-enhanced display, the sleek adopts Huawei’s internally developed Balong 5G01 nected world, and to achieve that goal, we invest sig- The HUAWEI MateBook X Pro is an ultra-slim, yet and powerful 8.4-inch and 10.8-inch tablets feature chipset - the world’s first commercial chipset sup- nificantly in research and development to understand full-featured 13.9-inch notebook with an all-new 3K speakers tuned by Harman Kardon. HUAWEI Histen porting the 3GPP standard, compatible with all 5G the ways in which people interact and connect with touch-enabled HUAWEI FullView Display and 91 per- technology provides immersive 3D audio and fully frequency bands, including sub-6GHz and millime- technology,” said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei CBG. cent screen-to-body ratio. Powered by an 8th supports Hi-Res audio for exceptional sound quality. ter wave (MMW).

Television titans Cameroon startup bulk up to battle launches drones Internet rivals NEW YORK: Traditional television titans are bulking up in a battle with online streaming giants Netflix and as for global market viewers take to binging on shows when and where they want. The latest evidence was the surprise move this week DOUALA: Talking fast and dreaming big, William Elong shows by US cable giant Comcast to outbid Rupert Murdoch’s off the first “made in Cameroon” drone at his sixth-floor work- 21st Century Fox for pan-European satellite TV group Sky shop in downtown Douala, minutes from the economic capital’s with an all-cash offer valued at more than $31 billion (25 Atlantic seafront. The 25-year-old, known as a high-flyer after billion Euros). being named one of Forbes’ most promising young Africans The twist comes after Britain’s competition regulator pro- under 30, is enthusing about his new unmanned aerial drones visionally ruled that Fox’s offer was “not in the public inter- and keen to promote his company and Africa as a place where est”. In 2016, 21st Century Fox bid for the nearly two-thirds IT and new tech can flourish. of Sky it does not own-but a full-takeover had been held up We must “get out of the Afro-centric vision of business” to by UK government concerns. Maneuvering has accelerated “understand that when one has a global vision, worldwide, this in the sector, which is being transformed by Silicon Valley includes Africa,” Elong says in a discussion of future technolo- technology that enables viewers to stream shows on- gies. Elong has no degree in IT or robotics but studied strategy demand to a broad array of internet-linked devices. and competitive intelligence in France, becoming the youngest- Content is critical ammunition, with Netflix and Amazon ever graduate from Paris’ Economic Warfare School. He founded pouring massive amounts of money into ‘original’ pro- his startup Will & Brothers in 2015 with a main project called gramming and licensing deals with the backing of share- Drone Africa, which aims to provide drones for civil purposes to holders who have seen the companies values’ soar. businesses, the state in Cameroon and elsewhere. Meanwhile, YouTube cultivates armies of ‘creators’ who With a top range of up to 20 kilometers, the drones can be upload videos to the platform with the potential to share in BEVERLY HILLS: Michelle Veintimilla attends the premiere of Netflix’s “Seven Seconds” at The Paley Center for used for purposes as different as cartography, media coverage, advertising revenue. Media. —AFP support for agriculture and detecting gas in mines to reduce the The -owned online video venue also has a sub- risk of accidents. “The know-how is here, in Cameroon,” says scription service called YouTube Red, which also features Elong, who is aware young African talent often seeks employ- Department of Justice, which opposes the deal on anti-trust Street Journal and New York Post. Sky and its 23 million cus- original content. Acquiring content makers has become a go- ment in Europe and elsewhere. He says at this stage his firm’s grounds. tomers represent an opportunity for Disney to strengthen its to tactic for traditional actors in the television and cable sec- capital of $200,000 (162,400 euros) has come from Western A trial in the matter is slated to begin in the middle presence in Europe. It also offers a streaming service (Now tor, where they are under pressure to replicate success of backers. Also supported by the government of President Paul of March. Meanwhile, a Walt Disney Co. bid for much of TV). Apart from its catalog of films, Disney does not offer disruptive newcomers. Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Biya, Elong hopes eventually to raise $2 million to expand the the film and television assets of 21st Century Fox could much other content outside the US. Wieser was among those who expected the content market business but he regrets that “not many Africans are involved” in help make the streaming platform Hulu a legitimate rival to become more consolidated, especially as large US com- the project, which features two airborne types of drone and one to Netflix. Ballet panies bring home large amounts of spending money from terrestrial model. The commercial market in Africa is expanding The proposed multi-billion-dollar deal has drawn atten- Comcast already owns NBC, NBC Sports, MSNBC and overseas due to recent tax reform. with unmanned aircraft already whizzing across the skies deliv- tion for potentially turning over to Disney another major CNBC, E !, Telemundo, Xfinity (cable and internet), and ering items like medicine and food, and even helping farmers Hollywood studio and key television operations in the US Universal (Dreamworks). The company was valued just Who’s courting whom? sow seeds. and overseas. But if streaming video represents the future, above $168 billion based on the price of shares on the AT&T wants to merge with Time Warner (HBO, Cartoon Hulu could be the key. Nasdaq exchange on Wednesday. Other media firms in this Network, Warner Brothers Studio, CNN) in an $85.4 billion ‘Flying wing’ Created in 2008, Hulu has garnered comparatively little ballet include Viacom and CBS. Both properties of media deal. Already the owner of DirecTV satellite group, AT&T In Rwanda, drones get medical supplies such as blood and attention as the number three streaming platform in the US mogul Sumner Redstone, the two companies plan to merge. would add significant muscle in the distribution and produc- vaccines to remote areas. Tanzania is launching a similar program. market, behind Netflix and Amazon. Such a transaction would bring under one roof tion of shows. The catalog AT&T would gain from the merg- And drones equipped with night-vision cameras help to detect Hulu was created by the major broadcast operators to Paramount movie studio, CBS, MTV, Comedy Central, er would be impressive, from hit shows “Game of Thrones” and track poachers in Kenya, Namibia, South Africa and counter the growing influence of Netflix. But Hulu’s structure Nickelodeon, and BET. The merger would reconstitute the and “Big Little Lies” to popular channels such as TNT, TBS, Zimbabwe. Elong presents the two airborne prototype models on has been a handicap. Disney Fox and Comcast’s group as it existed before Viacom became a separate entity and CNN, seen as a perpetual source of global news. The a table inside his assembly shop. The first “flying wing that we’ve NBCUniversal each own 30 percent, with Time Warner on the stock market in 2006. Even if they are not yet in the content could also be used to entice people to subscribe to baptised Algo” has the furthest range and could prove an eco- holding the remaining 10 percent. The Disney transaction dance, others in the sector could step in-like US telecom AT&T plans. nomical solution to the costly task of making maps, he suggests. would exclude popular, conservative Fox TV channel and firm Verizon and leading social network Facebook, which An obstacle in the path of the merger is the US The second type, known as Logarythm, has four arms form- sports stations as well as its newspapers, notably the Wall has made video a priority. —AFP ing a propeller, can reach an altitude of up to 500 metres (1,640 feet) and is fitted with high-definition cameras, which would be useful in high-risk zones and for precision work, Elong adds. project’s lead investigator. “Telescopes cannot see far makes up 85 percent of the matter in the Universe, provid- Crucially, he argues, manufacturing costs are lower than Astronomers detect enough to directly image such ancient stars, but we’ve seen ing the first glimpse of physics beyond the Standard those of foreign manufacturers, so the drones produced will be when they turned on”-that is, sparked to life-”in radio Model,” said Bowman. priced competitively across the African marketplace. He envis- waves arriving from space.” Data from the Planck satellite showed in 2013 that ordi- ages “selling drones to Vietnam, to Venezuela, to Denmark for signal of Universe’s Fingerprints of the stars, already active 13.6 billion years nary matter-which makes up everything we can touch and example, and becoming one of the biggest global enterprises in ago-a mere 180 million years after the Big Bang gave rise to see-comprises a mere 4.9 percent of the Universe, and dark this sector.” Elsewhere, two young engineers in white lab coats the Universe-were picked up by a dining table-sized radio matter 26.8 percent. The other 68.3 percent is dark energy. are carefully building a prototype. “When all the components first stars spectrometer in the Australian desert. Such evidence had been Invisible to telescopes, dark matter is perceived through its are available, we are able to assemble a drone like this in 24 PARIS: A signal from the Universe’s first stars, born a cos- expected, but not for years to come. To everyone’s surprise, gravitational pull on other objects in the cosmos. But its hours,” says engineer Louis Ekani. Some of the parts are made mic heartbeat after the Big Bang, has been detected for the and delight, the signal contained something curious. The early existence is not explained by the Standard Model of in Cameroon, while others are supplied from abroad. first time, astronomers said Wednesday, setting the science Universe, the data showed, appears to have been twice as cold physics-the mainstream theory of the fundamental particles world aflutter. The observation came after a decade-long as previously estimated, at minus 270 degrees Celsius (-454 that make up matter and the forces that govern them. ‘The pride of Cameroon’ quest, years earlier than expected, and was described by degrees Fahrenheit), according to the study in Nature. Some Finding dark matter particles could require updating the “The start was extremely complicated,” says young technical one excited observer as the biggest astronomical break- suggested a role for dark matter-the theme of an accompany- Standard Model with futuristic theories such as “supersym- director Yves Tamu, who is described on the company website through since the Nobel-capped detection of gravitational ing science paper published by the same journal. metry”, which postulates the existence of a heavier sibling as an entrepreneur, digital champion and inventor. “But we have waves in 2015. for every particle in the Universe, or extra dimensions. a dynamic, autonomous and state-of-the-art team thanks to The findings have to be confirmed by other experiments. ‘Wow!’ Expert observers’ reactions ranged from “a truly amazing which we found the solution (to assembling drones).” The aver- Crucially, it is hoped the discovery will shed light on dark The author of that study, Rennan Barkana of Tel Aviv result”, and “wow!”, to advising caution. “The apparent age age of employees is barely 22 and the team comprises matter-an invisible, mysterious substance thought to make University, said the freeze might be explained by ordinary detection of the signature of the first stars in the Universe mainly engineers and developers who have spent two years up a large share of the Universe. “Finding this miniscule sig- matter interacting with, and losing energy to, dark matter. will be a revolutionary discovery if it stands the tests of building airworthy drones. —AFP nal has opened a new window on the early Universe,” said “If Barkana’s idea is confirmed then we’ve learnt something time,” said Nobel Prize-awarded astrophysicist Brian Arizona State University astronomer Judd Bowman, the new and fundamental about the mysterious dark matter that Schmidt of The Australian National University. —AFP