TOKYO: Japan’s SoftBank Corp said on June 18 that it was setting up a joint venture with Alibaba and Foxconn Technology to sell its human-like robot Pepper to consumers around the world. The robots – which the mobile phone and Internet conglo-merate envisions serving as baby-sitters, medical workers or even party companions – are already being used at stores including SoftBank’s own mobile phone shops, but the companies said they would now be available to general consumers.

SoftBank said it would have a 60 per cent stake in the joint venture, with Alibaba and Foxconn holding 20 per cent each. — Reuters

Google’s new Nest Cam is always watching

LONDON: Google has released another product in its Nest Internet of Things lineup. This time it’s an internet-streaming home security camera, which means Google could be watching your every move, if you let it. The Nest Cam, leaked a week before its official unveiling, is the product of another Google acquisition – Dropcam. The Nest Cam is essentially an improved Dropcam Pro, and is very similar to competitors from D-Link, Samsung and others. The differentiator for Google is Nest’s ‘Aware’ system. The camera is small enough to be relatively inconspicuous – though not a spy camera by any stretch of the imagination – and is designed to be placed on a shelf, attached to the wall or a tripod. It connects to the internet via Wi-Fi and streams a wide-angle view of your room day or night, similar to competitors. But with Nest Aware, Google is also offering to record up to 30 days of video, with audio, to the cloud and do constant analysis of it. — The Guardian

Twitter to let users follow live events

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter will start curating tweets on live events, the microblogging service said, as it plans major changes to make its real-time news feed more user friendly. Dubbed Project Lightning, the changes will let users follow events instead of just people, and instantly upload photos and videos that can be shared across websites, social news and entertainment website Buzzfeed reported on June 18. A team of editors will curate the most visually appealing and relevant tweets about say, a red-carpet event or shooting, and present them in one place, so that users need not be flooded with every single tweet as it is posted, Buzzfeed said. Twitter’s mobile app will show both pre-scheduled events and breaking news events, Buzzfeed said. Twitter spokeswoman Rachel Millner confirmed the report but declined to comment further. Twitter has struggled with user growth. About one billion people have visited the website, but only 302 million are users. — Reuters