Where Are All The AI Gadgets?
Flashy gadgets were surprisingly absent from Asia's biggest tech conference. Not only is it a risky time to build them, they're not really the future, says Bloomberg Opinion Columnist Catherine Thorbecke. (Source: Bloomberg)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Private Japanese spacecraft aims to land in the moon's 'Sea of Cold' this week
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The Japanese company ispace is poised to make a historic moon landing this week. The company's Reslience lunar lander will attempt to touch down in Mare Frigoris ("Sea of Cold"), a basalt plain in the moon's northern hemisphere, on Thursday (June 5) at 3:24 p.m. EDT (1924 GMT). You'll be able to watch the landing attempt online via a live webcast on ispace's YouTube page, beginning about one hour before landing. Success would be huge for ispace and for Japan, which has just one soft lunar landing on its books to date — that of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's SLIM spacecraft, which touched down just last year. It would also be a big milestone for commercial spaceflight, which has increasingly set its sights on the moon. Resilience is ispace's second lunar lander. The first reached lunar orbit but failed during its touchdown try in April 2023. If Resilience succeeds on June 5, the lander will deploy a small rover called Tenacious and also operate a suite of scientific instruments on the lunar surface. Reslience launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 15 along with another private moon lander — Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost, which aced its touchdown on March 2. Resilience took a much longer path to the moon. It completed a brief Earth orbit phase, a lunar flyby and deep space and lunar orbit maneuvers, all of which helped guide the spacecraft along a fuel-efficient trajectory that used gravitational forces to adjust its path. Related stories: — What's flying to the moon on ispace's Resilience lunar lander? — Japan's Resilience moon lander aces lunar flyby ahead of historic touchdown try (photo) — Japan's Resilience moon lander arrives in lunar orbit ahead of June 5 touchdown The lander entered lunar orbit as planned on May 6. On May 28, Resilience performed an orbital control maneuver, a 10-minute engine burn that brought the spacecraft into a circular orbit around the moon about 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the lunar surface, according to a statement from ispace. "Just as they always do after a major burn of the propulsion system, ispace engineers are currently hard at work analyzing the path that the 3rd orbital control maneuver put Resilience on," ispace officials said in a May 30 post on X. "If necessary, they may make a small adjustment to optimize the lander's direction of travel called an orbital trim maneuver." Prior to its latest maneuver, the spacecraft snapped a stunning photo of the lunar surface from orbit, showcasing the moon's many craters and complex topography. Traveling at approximately 3,600 mph (5,800 kph), Resilience is racing around the moon, making a lap every two hours or so as it gears up for its landing attempt later this week.
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
What time will Japan's ispace Resilience probe land on the moon on June 5?
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The Japanese company ispace is hoping to make some space history on Thursday (June 5), when it attempts to land a private spacecraft on the moon. But if you're hoping to watch it live, you'll need to know when and where to tune in. The Resilience lander, the second-ever private ispace lunar probe, is on track for a midday landing in the northern reaches of the moon. Resilience is flying a mission of redemption for ispace, which failed a similar moon landing attempt with its first effort, called Hakuto-R Mission 1, in April 2023. Here's a look at what time ispace's Resilience moon will attempt to land on June 5, how to watch it and what may happen during the mission. Currently, ispace's Resilience moon lander is scheduled to land on Thursday, June 5, at 3:24 p.m. EDT (1824 GMT), though it will be 4:24 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Friday, June 6, at touchdown time. That landing time follows a specific timeline of events ispace has laid out to deliver Resilience to the lunar surface. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched Resilience torward the moon on Jan. 15 along with the private Blue Ghost moon lander built by Firefly Aerospace. (Blue Ghost successfully landed in the moon's Mare Crisium, or Sea of Crises, region on March 2.) Unlike Blue Ghost, Resilience followed a "low energy transfer" path to reach the moon, which added months to the journey. It arrived in lunar orbit on May 6 and is finally ready for its landing attempt. While ispace is targeting June 5 at 3:24 p.m. EDT (1824 GMT) for the moon landing, that time could actually change. The prime landing spot is in the middle of Mare Frigoris, or the "Sea of Cold," on the near side of the moon's northern hemisphere. If ispace decides to use a backup landing site (there are three in all), those attempts would occur on different days and times. "Should conditions change, there are three alternative landing sites that are being considered with different landing dates and times for each," ispace wrote in an update on social media. Yes, you'll be able to watch ispace's Resilience lander attempt to touch down on the moon live as it happens, and you'll be able to pick which language you'd like to follow the mission when you livestreams will begin at 2:10 p.m. EDT (1810 GMT/3:10 a.m. JST on June 6) with the landing itself targeted for 3:24 p.m. EDT (1924 GMT; 4:24 a.m. JST on June 6). "ispace will host a global live stream event with coverage of Resilience's landing attempt on the moon on June 6, 2025 (JST) (June 5, 2025, depending on location)," ispace wrote in an announcement. "The coverage will be broadcast in Japanese with English translation provided." Both will be webcast via ispace's YouTube channel, with the English broadcast here and the Japanese broadcast here. The Resilience moon lander will attempt to land on a vast basalt plain in the moon's near side northern hemisphere known as Mare Frigoris. ispace targeted the same plain in 2023 when the company attempted to land its first moon lander on April 25 of that year. During that attempt, which crashed as mentioned above, ispace tried to land in Atlas Crater, which is 54 miles (87 kilometers) wide. ispace does not appear to be targeting the same crater for Resilience, which is also known as Hakuto-R Mission 2. (Hakuto-R is the name of ispace's lunar exploration program as well as its line of robotic rovers.) Instead, the lander is expected to touch down in the northern region of Mare Frigoris, with three potential backup landing sites, according to a map released by ispace before launch. Once on the moon, ispace's Resilience lander is expected to last about two weeks, or one lunar day. But the full mission, from launch on Jan. 15 to the end, will run about five months. The spacecraft is equipped with solar panels to power its onboard instruments, and will spend that time conducting experiments with several payloads. They include the following: Water Electrolyzer Experiment: An experiment built by air conditioning equipment manufacturer Takasago Thermal Engineering Co. to test technology to generate oxygen and hydrogen from moon water. Algae-based food production module: An experiment designed by Euglena Co. to test ways to grow algae on the moon as a potential source of food. Deep Space Radiation Probe: A small detector that has been monitoring radation levels on Resilience throughout its months-long mission. Resilience is also carrying a microrover called Tenacious, which was built by ispace's European subsidiary. If all goes well, the rover will be deployed on the surface to test its camera and sample-collection shovel for future sample return missions. The Tenacious rover is also carying a work of art called "Moonhouse," a small red house designed by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, as part of a cultural program for the mission. Finally, Resilience is carrying a commemorative plate provided by Bandai Namco Research Institute, Inc. with an inscription based on the fictional document "Charter of the Universal Century" from the famed Japanese manga and science fiction series Gundam.
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Podobas Global Investments Acquires 5% in Japanese Cloud POS Giant Smaregi Inc. (4431.T)
TOKYO, June 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Podobas Global Investments, the private investment firm led by investor Wojciech Jakub Podobas (Voytek Podobas), has formally disclosed the acquisition of a 5.08% stake in Smaregi Inc. (4431.T), a leading provider of cloud-based POS, payments, and back-office solutions in Japan. This strategic position marks a long-term commitment to supporting one of Japan's most innovative SaaS companies in retail and food service sectors. Smaregi, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is known for its powerful cloud POS ecosystem, modular SaaS architecture, and high customer satisfaction. A Strategic Investment in Japanese SaaS Excellence The decision to invest was the result of months of independent due diligence, research, and multiple meetings with Smaregi's leadership team. "We have held extensive discussions with the Smaregi management team over the past few months and were consistently impressed by their clarity of vision, strategic discipline, and deep understanding of their market," said Voytek Podobas, Founder of Podobas Global Investments. "Their ability to scale without compromising product quality or customer intimacy is rare. Smaregi is not just a great SaaS company—it is a deeply mission-driven business that delivers tangible productivity gains to thousands of retail and F&B operators across Japan."Mr. Podobas continued: "What excites us most about Smaregi is the combination of world-class product design, scalable unit economics, and an outstanding management team with a clear roadmap. Their continued development of adjacent modules—including order management and cashless payment features, along with future-oriented capabilities such as e-commerce integrations and time and attendance tracking—demonstrates a bold but methodical expansion strategy. We see Smaregi as one of the few Japanese SaaS platforms with the potential to become a national infrastructure layer for offline and online commerce." A Shared Vision for Long-Term Growth The investment comes at a time of growing international attention toward Japan's SaaS sector and digitization wave. Smaregi's Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) continues to grow steadily, with strong net revenue retention, high user engagement, and a powerful partner network. Smaregi's management team and Wojciech Podobas have held several strategic meetings in recent months, discussing the company's long-term business plan, product innovation cycle, and growth opportunities in Japan. Smaregi's official comment on the investment: "We are sincerely grateful for the recognition and support from Podobas Global Investments. At Smaregi, we remain committed to steadily improving our products and services, one step at a time, while staying close to the needs of our customers. We believe that sustained progress comes from consistent effort and honest dialogue with all stakeholders. We will continue working diligently to deliver value to the businesses we serve." About Smaregi, Inc. (4431.T) Smaregi Inc. is a publicly listed Japanese technology company providing cloud-based point-of-sale and back-office systems tailored to retail stores, restaurants, and service providers. Smaregi's platform goes beyond simple POS—it integrates real-time inventory management, staff scheduling, payroll processing, and customer engagement tools, making it a comprehensive solution for modern businesses. Founded in Osaka, Smaregi has grown to serve thousands of clients and consistently earns industry awards for usability and innovation. For more information: About Podobas Global Investments Podobas Global Investments is a private investment firm founded by Wojciech Podobas, focusing on long-term equity investments in exceptional companies across Asia, particularly Japan. For more information, users can visit: ContactCaesar TabotaPodobas Global Investmentsoffice@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Podobas Global Investments
