NASA and SpaceX celebrated the successful launch Saturday of a new astronaut capsule on a week-long round trip to the International Space Station — a key step towards resuming manned space flights from US soil after an eight-year break. This time around, the only occupant on board SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule was a dummy named Ripley — but NASA plans to put two astronauts aboard later this year.

The Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Amr Talaat, witnessed on Wednesday a contract signing between Microsoft and Telecom Egypt (TE) to establish Microsoft s first date centre in Egypt which will improve the service provided to Microsoft s customers. The new collaboration will expand the services of Microsoft in Egypt, as well in Africa and the Middle East, the minister said on the side-lines of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Samsung, the tech giant, unveiled on Wednesday a new line of smartphones-the Galaxy S10. The new smartphone comes with triple-cameras, ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensors, and is the first mainstream phone to have one-terabyte (TB) of storage.

South Korean tech giant Samsung said it aims to expand production lines in Egypt for home appliances and mobile phones, a statement by the Egyptian investment and international cooperation ministry said on Tuesday. The Egyptian investment ministry quoted Samsung officials as saying during a high-profile Egyptian delegation s visit to the East Asian country that it has invested $265 million in Egypt in the past years.

Huawei unveiled a new foldable smartphone on Sunday on the eve of the world’s top mobile fair in Barcelona and hit out against Washington’s campaign to bar it from developing next-generation 5G wireless networks. China’s most successful global firm has booked a huge stand at the four-day Mobile World Congress and has sent a large delegation which includes its media-shy founder, Ren Zhengfei, and two rotating chairmen.

Minister of Higher Education Khaled Abdel Ghafar announced that a Russian insurance company has covered the costs for the third Earth observation satellite EgyptSat-A’s $100 million cost, following the loss of EgyptSat-2 in 2015. EgyptSat-A has been rotating around Earth for one hour and 20 minutes since its launch on Thursday, and would be able to send photos during this week, Ghafar said. The satellite weighs 1150 kilograms and is equipped with high technology enabling it to rotate around the country several times a day.

Samsung, the tech giant, unveiled on Wednesday a new line of smartphones-the Galaxy S10. The new smartphone comes with triple-cameras, ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensors, and is the first mainstream phone to have one-terabyte (TB) of storage. The inauguration of the Galaxy S10 is considered to be the tech firm s most important event this year, as Samsung is fighting intense competition from China s Huawei and the US s Apple.

Hundreds of orange robots zoom and whiz back and forth like miniature bumper cars — but instead of colliding, they re following a carefully plotted path to transport thousands of items ordered from online giant Amazon. A young woman fitted out in a red safety vest, with pouches full of sensors and radio transmitters on her belt and a tablet in hand, moves through their complicated choreography. This robot ballet takes place at the new Amazon order fulfillment center that opened on Staten Island in New York in September.

A new map of the night sky published Tuesday charts hundreds of thousands of previously unknown galaxies discovered using a telescope that can detect light sources optical instruments cannot see. The international team behind the unprecedented space survey said their discovery literally shed new light on some of the Universe’s deepest secrets, including the physics of black holes and how clusters of galaxies evolve.

British lawmakers issued a scathing report Monday that accused Facebook of intentionally violating privacy and anti-competition laws in the UK, and called for greater oversight of social media companies. The report on fake news and disinformation on social media sites followed an 18-month investigation. The parliamentary committee that prepared the report says social media sites should have to follow a mandatory code of ethics overseen by an independent regulator to better control harmful or illegal content.

NASA is accelerating plans to return Americans to the Moon, and this time, the US space agency says it will be there to stay. Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s administrator, told reporters Thursday that the agency plans to speed up plans backed by President Donald Trump to return to the moon, using private companies. “It’s important that we get back to the moon as fast as possible,” said Bridenstine in a meeting at NASA’s Washington headquarters, adding he hoped to have astronauts back there by 2028.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA s Opportunity, the Mars rover that was built to operate for just three months but kept going and going, rolling across the rocky red soil, was pronounced dead Wednesday, 15 years after it landed on the planet. The six-wheeled vehicle that helped gather critical evidence that ancient Mars might have been hospitable to life was remarkably spry up until eight months ago, when it was finally doomed by a ferocious dust storm. Flight controllers tried numerous times to make contact, and sent one final series of recovery commands Tuesday night, along with one last wake-up song, Billie Holiday s “I ll Be Seeing You,” in a somber exercise that brought tears to team members eyes. There was no response from space, only silence.

US space agency NASA will make one final attempt to contact its Opportunity Rover on Mars late Tuesday, eight months after it last made contact. The agency also said it would hold a briefing Wednesday, during which it will likely officially declare the end of the mission. Opportunity landed on Mars in 2004 and covered 28 miles (45 kilometers) on the planet, securing its place in history after lasting well beyond its expected 90-day mission.

Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreed on Tuesday to form a joint technical committee, aiming to study the establishment of a factory for medical waste disposal as part of the Egyptian government’s integrated plan of waste-recycling management. During a meeting held between Minister of State for Military Production Mohammed al-Assar and Chairman of Emirates Group for the Transformation Industries Badr bin Fares, Assar said that the factory would enhance the country’s environmental, health and life conditions.

It was only a matter of time until we d have scientists claiming they can read our minds. Certainly only a matter of time coming from the US, and especially the Zuckerman Institute at New York s Columbia University, which is renowned for research into neuroscience and the mechanics of the human brain. Scan their most recent headlines and you get the gist: "A new party trick: A hearing aid that reads minds" (…Studying how your brain picks individual voices from a crowd […] to build a better hearing aid that reads your mind.) Or: "Election Day: The brain science of making decision" (…Take a moment to ask yourself: How did my brain make this decision?)

The Accept for Technology and Payments announced a partnership agreement with valU, specialised in payment-on-instalment programmes, to avail the latter as an alternative payment method for online stores. The agreement offers online access to valU s client base and selling proposition that allows consumers to pay on instalments over tenures between 3 and 24 months. “We believe that by offering this solution to merchants in the country we are enabling businesses to reach their maximum growth potential, while embedding an indispensable payment method into the behaviour of the average Egyptian consumer,” stated the Co-Founder and CEO of Accept Payments, Islam Shawky.

Through improving the telecommunications infrastructure, establishing smart cities, and enabling citizens to use digital services, Egypt is looking into how this could impact the country in the future. This week, Amr Talaat, the minister of communications and information technology, said that “technology, including artificial intelligence, is a key discipline and will continue to be in the coming decade.” It came during a meeting held between Talaat and a team from Oxford Business Group (OBG), the global research and consultancy company. Egypt is one of three countries, alongside China and Mexico, to receive technical assistance from the Financial Inclusion Global Initiative community in order to promote digital financial inclusion.

Mark Zuckerberg said Monday he sees Facebook as a largely “positive” force for society as the embattled social network marked its 15th anniversary. Even as Facebook is facing a wave of criticism over issues of manipulation, misinformation, abuse and other social ills, Zuckerberg said it would be a mistake “to overly emphasize the negative” impacts of social media and the internet.

Over the years, Safer Internet Day (SID) has become an important event in the online safety calendar. It started as an initiative of the EU s Safe Borders project in 2004, and was taken up by the Insafe network as one of its earliest actions in 2005. The SID has grown to be recognised in 140 countries worldwide, and this year, the SID is celebrated on 5 February under the slogan “Together for a better internet”. It comes at a time when corporate privacy scandals, global ransomware epidemics, nation-state attacks, and the regrettably fast-expanding cybercriminal world all threaten to tear the internet apart.

Virtual Reality (VR) started to change gaming, music, and even the medical field, and it can now change architecture and the way architects create their designs. The VR was slowly adopted in many architectural fields, revolutionising the sector that used to be stable in the 21st century culture.

It’s a dilemma for European telecoms firms: Should they steal a march on competitors and rapidly roll out next-generation 5G mobile networks using equipment from top supplier Huawei? Or should they heed US-led warnings of security threats and sit tight, and possibly fall behind? Getting it right will have big consequences as 5G networks are the next milestone in the digital revolution, bringing near-instantaneous connectivity, vast data capacity and futuristic technologies.