Features

SAN FRANCISCO – Sony on Tuesday announced it has sold more than six million PlayStation 4 (PS4)consoles since the videogame system debuted in November.

The Japanese consumer technology and entertainment titan said that the global sales figure includes 370,000 PS4 consoles snapped up in Japan since they launched there on February 22.

“I am absolutely delighted that PS4 is off to such a great start in Japan,” Sony Computer Entertainment chief executive Andrew House said in a release.

The long-awaited Japanese launch came after a stellar debut in the United States and Europe, offering a ray of hope to Sony after years of gloomy sales of its key consumer electronics goods.

House said player response to console features for sharing game play and connecting in online matches has been “phenomenal.”

Early adopters of the PS4 have enthused over its vast computing capacity and the cinematic graphics it makes possible.

Industry trackers have the PS4 strongly outselling the new-generation Xbox One that US rival Microsoft fielded in November.

Sony’s fellow Japanese rival, Nintendo, launched its new Wii U console in late 2012. It took more than a year for the video game giant to sell 5.86 million units.

PS4, Wii U and Xbox One are fighting to be at the heart of digital home entertainment at a time when consoles are under intense pressure to prove their worth as people increasingly turn to smartphones or tablets for games and videos.

Sony’s gaming division has emerged as a potential saviour for the once-mighty giant, which is struggling to reinvent itself in the digital age, having been left in the dust by nimbler rivals like South Korea’s Samsung.

SAN FRANCISCO – For almost as long as there have been computers, there have been people intent in playing games with them.

Since young programmers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology came up with “Spacewar!” some 50 years ago, the world of video games has exploded into a multibillion-dollar industry.

“From the earliest days of computer, these folks went after computer graphics and went after video games,” Gartner consumer technologies research director Brian Blau told AFP.

“People enjoy games, and marrying the concept of real-world games with a computer and interactivity is really powerful.”

Gartner predicts the worldwide video game market combining console, online, mobile and personal computer offerings will expand from $101 billion this year to $111 billion next year and top $128 billion in 2017.

While play on high-performance desktop or laptop computers has long captivated hardcore video game lovers, rival console makers Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have successfully turned games into standard family household entertainment during the past 20 years, with Xbox, PlayStation and Wii hardware respectively.

Console Kings 

New-generation Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles released late last year are credited with bringing new life to a section of the market under pressure from the popularity of smartphones and tablets.

But Nintendo’s latest console, Wii U, has had trouble gaining traction among players.

Console kings are also the big names behind titles for play on their hardware, but third-party studios such as Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Disney Interactive and Warner Brothers are established titans in game software.

While movie-like immersion in play and broadening entertainment menus to include streamed films and television shows has consoles proving their worth, mobile games are on fire.

There are more game “apps” for smartphones or tablets than any other type of mini-programme for mobile devices and it is the top revenue-producing category, according to Gartner.

Apps on fire 

Smartphones and tablets have lured players from dedicated handheld mobile game devices that, for a time, were a hit with people who wanted to play on the go.

Mobile game revenues can come from people paying to download “apps” or from in-game transactions in which players pony-up to advance more quickly through levels or buy abilities or digital items.

Britain-based King Digital Entertainment, which is behind a Candy Crush Saga game craze, is set for a keenly anticipated stock market debut. Other sizzling mobile game firms include Rovio, Wooga and Supercell.

Even Zynga, which pioneered online social games only to get caught on its heels when players turned to mobile devices, is not out for the count.

The San Francisco company is intent on reviving a line-up that includes “Farmville” and “Words With Friends” along with a popular Zynga Poker title.

Mobile game revenue globally is set to nearly double in the next two years to $22 billion, according to Gartner.

Spectator sport 

A new and flourishing eSport category in which video game play is spectator sport complete with commentators, sponsors and ads has yet to be factored into the global video game revenue model.

“Computer graphics represent a new interaction paradigm,” Blau said. “Today’s high-detail graphics and more immersive experiences are almost science fiction-like.”

Innovations in game hardware and software from Internet-linked eyewear to augmented reality programmes are expected to fuel increasing demand for play.

SAN FRANCISCO – Tablet computer sales soared last year with Android-powered devices dethroning iPads atop a booming global market, according to figures released Monday by Gartner.

Sales of tablet computers surged to 195.4 million last year in a 68 per cent jump from what was seen in 2012, the industry tracker reported.

The raw number of iPads sold climbed more than nine million to a total of 70.4 million.

Meanwhile, the portion of sales grabbed by tablets running on Google-back Android rose to 61.9 per cent last year from 45.8 per cent in 2012, according to Gartner.

“In 2013, tablets became a mainstream phenomenon, with a vast choice of Android-based tablets being within the budget of mainstream consumers while still offering adequate specifications,” Gartner research director Roberta Cozza said in a release.

Apple continues to rule the high-end of the market with iPads, but low-cost Android tablets appeal to buyers with slim budgets in emerging markets, according to Gartner.

California-based Apple’s compelling “ecosystem” of music, games, films, and other digital content and services for mobile devices has rivals under pressure to provide similar experiences on tablets, Cozza said.

Apple remained the top tablet seller, but sales of Android devices by second-place Samsung more than quadrupled last year to 37.4 million, according to Gartner.

Microsoft sold slightly more than 4 million Windows-powered tablets in a jump from the prior year, but remained far behind the market leaders.

SYDNEY – Australia will suffer more days of extreme heat and a longer bushfire season as greenhouse gases force temperatures to continue rising, a new report warned Tuesday.

The joint study by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and the Bureau of Meteorology said temperatures across Australia were, on average, almost one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than a century ago.

Seven of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1998 while over the past 15 years the frequency of very hot months has increased five-fold, it said.

The scenario was starkly illustrated in 2013, which was Australia’s hottest year since records began in 1910 and included a prolonged national heatwave.

Megan Clark, chief executive of the CSIRO, Australia’s peak science body, said the country has warmed in every state and territory and in every season.

“Australia has one of the most variable climates in the world. Against this backdrop, across the decades, we’re continuing to see increasing temperatures, warmer oceans, changes to when and where rain falls and higher sea levels,” Clark said. 

“The sea-surface temperatures have warmed by 0.9^oC since 1900 and greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise.”

Australia is routinely hit by bushfires during its December-February summer months, with hot windy conditions again fanning hundreds of blazes this season with dozens of homes destroyed.

The report said it would only get worse.

“A further increase in the number of extreme fire-weather days is expected in southern and eastern Australia, with a longer fire season in these regions,” it said of areas devastated by fires this year.

It also forecast less rainfall in southern Australia and more severe droughts in a grim warning for farmers.

The report, released every two years, added that tropical cyclones were projected to decrease in number but increase in intensity, while rising seas levels would cause more problems for coastal dwellers.

The report said Australian temperatures could rise by 1^oC-2.5^oC by 2070, compared to 1980 to 1999, depending on the level of greenhouse gas emissions.

While cutting global emissions would be crucial to preventing the worst  global warming has in store, that alone would not be enough, the agencies warned.

“Adaptation is required because some warming and associated changes are unavoidable,” it said.

NEW YORK – Young smokers who have smoked more cigarettes have clear differences in their brains compared to lighter smokers, according to a new study.

“Earlier studies of older participants showed that the smokers had structural differences in various brain regions,” said senior author Edythe D. London.

And in studies of adolescent animals, nicotine damaged and killed brain cells, added London, from the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behaviour at UCLA and the David Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles.

“While the results do not prove causation, they suggest that there are effects of cigarette exposure on brain structure in young smokers, with a relatively short smoking history,” London said.

She and her team at UCLA mapped the brains of 42 people ages 16 to 21 using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and asked them about their smoking history and cravings.

Eighteen of the participants were smokers. They had typically started smoking around age 15 and smoked six to seven cigarettes per day.

There were no clear differences in the brains of smokers versus non-smokers. However, among smokers, those who reported smoking more cigarettes tended to have a thinner insula, a region of the cerebral cortex involved in decision making, according to results published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. The effects seemed confined to the right insula.

Previous studies have suggested the insula plays a central role in tobacco dependence, with the highest density of nicotine receptors in the brain.

The researchers also found a thinner insula in the brains of people who had more cravings and felt more dependent on cigarettes. Their study was funded by Philip Morris USA, makers of Marlboro and Virginia Slims.

Young people ages 18 to 25 have the highest smoking rates in the U.S. at 30 per cent, London said.

“Because the brain is still undergoing development, smoking during this critical period may produce neurobiological changes that promote tobacco dependence later in life,” she said. Changing the structure of the insula may affect future smoking dependence and other substance abuse.

“It is possible that changes in the brain from prolonged exposure help maintain dependence,” she said.

People who start smoking early in life seem to have more trouble quitting and have more serious health consequences than those who start later, London said.

But since the study only assessed smokers at one point in time, it doesn’t prove that cigarettes changed their brains.

“It is possible that such changes pre-dated the smoking, i.e. they were not caused by smoking,” Dr Nasir H. Naqvi told Reuters Health in an e-mail. “The only way to know this is to take a group of adolescents who have never smoked, follow them over time, and then see who starts smoking, and then compare them to the adolescents who never started smoking.”

Naqvi, a substance abuse researcher at Columbia University in New York City, was not involved in the study.

He studies the insula and said that area drives drug addiction like a “gas pedal” and also controls decision making like a “brake pedal”.

Since the insula was thinner in heavier smokers, it could be they have reduced power over the “brake pedal” and less control over cravings, he said.

“The key question is whether these changes are reversible with smoking cessation, or whether they persist,” Naqvi said. But few studies have measured changes in the brains of people who stop taking a drug.

“What we do know is that once you are addicted to smoking, you will always have a high likelihood of relapse, even if you are abstinent for many years,” Naqvi said.

AMMAN — The classiest of the wider Volkswagen group’s big SUVs sits lower in the pecking order than a flashy Porsche Cayenne or Audi Q7, but instead exudes a restrained and understated but elegantly conservative sensibility. 

Introduced in 2011, the second generation Touareg makes a better case for itself as a sensible and middle class large family SUV, which combine on-road refinement and reassuring dynamics with spacious size, tasteful cabin and ride comfort. 

And with the optional Terrain Tech package, as tested, the Touareg gets low gear ratios and locking differentials to significantly improve its off-road abilities.

Classy conservatism

A complete but evolutionary redesign, the second generation Touareg is not a radical departure since the original or from the rest of the Volkswagen range, but features a larger bumper, more prominent wheel-arches and a tidier fascia design. 

The biggest compliment to the Touareg’s tight, clear and uncomplicated design is that it looks smaller and better packaged than its actual size, and resembles an overgrown Golf. 

Benefiting from the slightly moodier and more assertive design language since the 2008 Scirocco, the wider, lower and longer Touareg looks subtly sportier and more resolved, and features improved cabin space and aerodynamics.

Well fitted and finished, the Touareg has a typically classy Volkswagen feel to it, with symmetric, clear and user-friendly layouts, prominent soft textures and clean design lines and curves, while hard plastics are more discretely positioned. 

Seating is comfortable and adjustable while the thick steering wheel falls nicely to hand and large round instruments are clear. 

Efficient and elegantly uncomplicated, the Touareg’s airy cabin looks best in dark tones. 

Passenger space is generous, with a lengthened wheelbase improving rear legroom, while cargo volume extends from 580 litres to 1,642 litres when the rear seats are folded.

Smooth operator

A long-standing Volkswagen engine, the Touareg’s entry-level 3.6-litre naturally aspirated direct injection petrol V6 sits below the European market three-litre supercharged V6 and the range-topping 4.2-litre V8. 

Smooth and well up to the job of motivating the Touareg’s 2,136 kilogramme mass, the 3.6 V6 is mated to an eight-speed auto gearbox, which with aggressive first and second gears allows for reasonably swift 7.8-second 0-100km acceleration. 

The eight-speed’s two overdrive gears and a wider number of ratios allow for better optimisation of output, restrained 10.2l/100km combined cycle fuel efficiency and smooth, low rev and quiet motorway refinement.

Developing 276BHP at 6,200rpm and 265lb/ft torque throughout a 3,000-4,000rpm mid-range, the Touareg’s naturally-aspirated V6 is progressive in delivery, but with usefully healthy mid-range flexibility that is aided by its eight-speed gearbox when quick overtaking is required. 

Hustling the 3.6 Touareg at a brisk pace along winding roads is also done best by manually working the gearbox to hold revs longer. 

As quick as an SUV really needs to be, the Touareg’s respectable performance always feels refined and timely rather than aggressive or abundant, especially so because of its 2.1-tonne weight and extensive cabin insulation.

Reassuring ride

A refined car-like SUV with unibody construction and independent suspension all around, the Volkswagen Touareg rides smoothly and comfortable soaks up bumps, cracks, ripples and imperfections, despite riding on relatively low profile 265/50R19 tyres. 

However, the Touareg’s comfort and suppleness by no means suggests sloppy or wallowing handling, as is a reassuring and composed through corners, with good body control and only light lean. 

With precise and light but somewhat clinical steering, the Touareg is easy to manoeuvre and turns in tidily, stays true to cornering lines through curves and grips hard.

Walking a carefully balanced middle road between comfort and dynamics, the Touareg has a distinct sense of solidity and confidence, with its four-wheel-drive clawing at the tarmac when one puts power down, while its long wheelbase and good body control lend it terrific road holding through corners. 

Being a large German car designed for regular Autobahn duties, the Touareg naturally feels poised and rock solidly planted on the highway, where it is insulated and refined but with a subtle reassuring firmness and excellent directional stability. Light steering and good visibility also make town driving easy.

Off-road ability

Classy, composed and comfortable the Volkswagen Touareg may be best known for its smooth on-road driving, but it can also well handle itself off-road. 

This is especially so when fitted with the optional Terrain Tech package, which crucially off-road hardware like a low ration gearbox transfer, to allow one to reduce speed to a crawling pace while exploiting the engine’s maximum power output, whether driving hard and fast through sand or on a more technical course or steep incline. 

Terrain Tech also brings locking centre and rear differentials to allow wheels to prevent slippage and keep turning in sync.

Diff locks help get the Touareg out of low traction situations, while optional air suspension raises ride height by 300mm to allow 580mm water wading, 30° approach and departure and 27° break-over angles for traversing obstacles. 

Taking on choppy dirt tracks and sand well during it regional launch test drive, the Touareg also impressed in how it climbed steep sand inclines, through which one had to keep in first or second gear with engine revs high. 

The Touareg also features a hill descent control, which utilises ABS, traction and stability controls to steady, smooth and safe low traction descents.

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 3.6-litre, cast iron block / aluminium head in-line V6-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 89 x 96.4mm

Valve-train: 24-valve DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, 

Ratios: 1st 4.85; 2nd 2.84; 3rd 1.86; 4th 1.44; 5th 1.22; 6th 1.0; 7th 0.82; 8th 0.67

Reverse / final drive: 3.83 / 3.7

Drivel-line: four-wheel drive, low gear transfer, locking centre & rear differentials

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 276 (280) [206] @ 6,200rpm

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 265 (360) @ 3,000-4,000rpm

0-80 km/h: 5.5-seconds

0-100 km/h: 7.8-seconds

Maximum speed: 228km/h

Fuel consumption, combined: 12.2-litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 239g/km

Fuel capacity: 100-litres

Length: 4,795mm

Width: 1,940mm

Height (w/ roof rails): 1,709 (1,732)mm

Wheelbase: 2,893mm

Tread width, F/R: 1,656 / 1,676 mm

Ground clearance, minimum: 159mm

Approach / departure / break-over angles: 30° / 30° / 27°

Hill climbing angle: 45°

Side slope: 35°

Water wading: 580mm

Curb weight: 2,136kg

Turning circle: 11.9-metres

Head room, front (w/ sunroof): 1,014 (1,005)mm

Head room, rear (w/ sunroof): 989 (984)mm

Interior width, F/R: 1,549 / 1,511mm

Luggage capacity, min / max: 580 / 1,642-litres

Payload: 583kg

Suspension, F/R Upper & lower control arms / multi-link

Steering: Power-assisted rack & pinion

Tyres: 265/50R19

SINGAPORE — WiFi in aircraft, hobbled in the past by slow speeds, could soon take off as new technology enables passengers to surf the web as if they were in a coffee shop, Internet executives say.

More airlines are rolling out new and improved services thanks to satellite technology, industry leaders said at the recent Singapore Airshow, with the public increasingly demanding WiFi on planes.

US-based Honeywell Aerospace and Gogo, which supply inflight connectivity systems to airlines, are collaborating with satellite giant Inmarsat to implement the “first global high-speed broadband for the skies” dubbed the Global Xpress (GX) Aviation network.

Briand Greer, president of Honeywell Aerospace Asia Pacific, said inflight WiFi could generate $2.8 billion for the company alone over the next 20 years.

He estimates that around 7 to 8 per cent of airlines currently offer wireless connection, but says this number is expected to grow to 25 per cent by 2018.

After years of being bogged down by weak demand due to poor signal quality, inflight WiFi can now enable download speeds of up to 50 megabits per second, Greer said.

“How we describe it is it will be like you are sitting at Starbucks with your smartphone, your computer and your iPad,” Greer told reporters.

Onboard WiFi is not a new idea — European carrier Lufthansa debuted Conexxion by Boeing’s system in 2004.

But by 2006 the company announced its exit after the expected growth in the market did not materialise.

Recent surveys by Airbus and Honeywell, however, suggest that the market might now be ready as passengers increasingly expect airlines to have inflight wireless services.

Airbus published a report in February about the comfort demands of Asian passengers, carried out by global consultancy Future Laboratory.

One of the future trends highlighted was that Asian business passengers would expect WiFi enabled cabins with telephone and conference calling facilities.

Honeywell also conducted a survey of 3,000 passengers from the US, Britain and Singapore and nearly 90 per cent would give up an amenity, such as drinks or a better seat, for a faster and more consistent wireless connection.

When flying over land, planes use telecommunication towers to transmit Internet signals but during long-haul flights, when they fly over large expanses of water, consistent connectivity becomes a problem.

In those cases, a satellite network is needed.

In December last year, Inmarsat launched the first of three satellites that will serve the GX network. Air China will be the first airline to test it, on its A330 fleet in the second quarter of 2015.

Singapore Airlines, which launched its $50 million inflight connectivity programme in September 2012, said it planned to finish equipping its aircraft with the hardware by 2015.

A Lufthansa spokesperson said that it would also begin rolling out inflight WiFi on all of its planes in the middle of this year.

Even no-frills airlines are catching on.

Thai budget airline Nok Air announced during the Singapore Airshow that it will equip its new Boeing 737 fleet with WiFi.

Peter Andersson, general manager of aviation navigation company Jeppesen, also said that the technology could benefit cockpit and airport operation.

“If you have something that you need to repair, you can get the status check to the ground level so they can be prepared so they can actually do the maintenance quicker,” Andersson told AFP.

“You can reduce the turnaround and maintenance [of airplanes] dramatically.”

NEW YORK — Less than half of German people who are told they have cancer through a set and accepted protocol for breaking bad news are satisfied with the conversation, according to a new study.

Researchers found that may be due to gaps in what patients considered important during that process and what they report actually happened when they got the news.

The study's lead author told Reuters that traditionally doctors thought they were aware of their patients' preferences and breaking bad news hadn't been a focus during their training.

"The idea was somehow that physicians will ‘naturally' have the ability to communicate," physician Carola Seifart wrote in an e-mail.

She is from Philipps-University of Marburg in Marburg, Germany.

Doctors of all kinds break bad news to their patients, but it is especially common among oncologists, who diagnose and treat cancer, Seifart and her colleagues write in Annals of Oncology.

For example, the diagnosis of a new cancer or a negative development with an existing cancer can significantly change a person's view of the future.

In many countries, the so-called SPIKES protocol is widely accepted as the standard for breaking bad news.

The protocol is based on six steps that involve finding an appropriate setting, determining what the patient already knows or suspects, understanding what the patient wants to know, knowing how to deliver information the patient understands, being sympathetic and summarising the information at the end of the meeting.

While SPIKES has been tested in the US, the researchers write that it has not been tested in Germany and there is little information on how bad news is broken there.

They surveyed 350 people who were patients at two medical centres in Germany and had cancer.

The surveys focused on how patients felt the news of their cancer was first broken to them based on the SPIKES protocol and which parts of the protocol were most important to them, out of 37 items.

Overall, only about 46 per cent of the participants were completely satisfied with the way the bad news was broken to them.

Of the 10 parts of SPIKES that the patients rated most important, five addressed how doctors provide information or knowledge, three pertained to how doctors conclude the meeting and two were about the setting where the news is delivered.

The researchers compared those preferences to what the participants actually experienced when they received bad news.

The greatest difference was between the information participants wanted on their prognosis and what the doctors actually told them.

Based on their findings, the researchers suggest doctors ask about what information patients want and focus on the disease's prognosis and how it will impact daily life. Doctors should also routinely ask whether patients understand the information and offer them the opportunity to ask questions.

The researchers also suggest that the process of breaking bad news be split over two visits, because many of the participants felt unable to make decisions during the first visit.

Seifart cautioned that the new findings can't be generalised to all countries.

Walter Baile, another doctor, also cautioned that the study's findings are limited, because what the participants reported happening during their visit may be different from what actually happened.

Baile, from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, is an expert on the SPIKES protocol but was not involved with the new study.

"Patients don't often remember at the time of diagnosis what they've been told," he said, adding that the request for a second visit is important.

"From our work, what we found is that patients need to have these conversations over and over again," physician Juliet Jacobsen, who was also not involved with the study, said.

She is a specialist in palliative care at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Centre in Boston.

"I think they [the authors] recognise that by saying even a two-step process would be an improvement," she said.

Baile said the finding that a lot of patients were unhappy with the way bad news was given is significant.

"Patients really need a lot of information and that's what other studies have shown," he said.

CUPERTINO – Apple Inc.  sold more than $1 billion of Apple TV set-top boxes in 2013 and is investing heavily in the next generation of products, Chief Executive Tim Cook said at the company’s annual meeting on Friday.

Apple’s ability to again transform the fast-moving technology arena is the central question in investors’ and Silicon Valley executives’ minds as the company’s growth slows, and rivals like Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Google Inc. take chunks out of its market share.

Industry executives and Apple observers continue to believe that the company will come up with some sort of wearable device, like a smartwatch, and speculation persists about a long-rumoured TV product of some sort to shake up the living room viewing experience.

“We’re working on some things that are extensions of things you can see and some that you can’t see,” Cook said at the annual meeting, referring to a 32 per cent increase in research and development costs last year.

Responding to a question about innovation, Cook said Apple preferred not to talk about new products under development so as not to tip off the competition.

“You can see we’re getting ripped off left, right and sideways,” he said.

Apple’s shares fell 0.27 per cent to close at $526.24 on Friday. They have clawed back substantial ground since falling below $400 in June, but remain well below the record-high $700 level of 2012, weighed by concerns about whether the company has any new hit products in the pipeline.

Though Cook steered clear of that discussion, he shed some more light on the Apple TV business, which executives have long referred to as a “hobby” for a company expected to chalk up some $181 billion in sales this fiscal year.

The $99 Apple TV set-top box, which streams content from Netflix and other video sources to a TV, had racked up $1 billion in sales in the past year, he said.

“It’s a little more difficult to call it a hobby these days,” Cook said.

Cook took pot shots at Google, saying that most users of its Android mobile operating system are using older versions, presenting a security threat. In contrast, he said, 89 per cent of users of devices based on Apple’s iOS operating system have the most recent version of the software.

Shareholders at the annual meeting at Apple’s Cupertino, California, headquarters re-elected all board members.

In the run-up to the meeting at 1 Infinite Loop, many investors had publicly debated whether Apple should not put any of its massive cash pile to better use.

Cook said the company will provide an update within 60 days on how it will use the cash, which totalled nearly $160 billion at the end of 2013. That time frame is in line with Apple’s previous comments that it would announce its latest cash management plans around April.

BARCELONA – From the release of connected bracelets, watches and even a smart toothbrush to a future of one-second high-definition movie downloads, the mobile world is developing rapidly.

Here are five major trends to emerge at the four-day World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, the industry’s biggest annual gathering, which wrapped up Thursday:

Connected watches, bracelets and a toothbrush 

The new star accessories of manufacturers such as mobile titan Samsung, Sony or China’s Huawei are smartphone-connected bracelets and watches. You can take a call and read messages on them. But now they offer to count your steps, check your pulse, even monitor your sleep cycle and decide the best moment to wake you. 

They are part of a “quantified self” trend, in which smartphone owners can measure the minutiae of their own lives, right down to cleaning their teeth. 

Procter & Gamble’s Oral-B smart toothbrush will check your technique, and you can share the results on social networks.

Cheap smartphones 

From a $25 smartphone, which Mozilla Foundation says it is developing for this year for developing markets, to Nokia X models for less than 150 euros ($200), manufacturers are trying to tap into the fastest-growing markets such as Latin America, China, South Asia and Africa.

Smartphones for a better ‘selfie’ 

Often neglected, the camera on the front of your smartphone for taking a photo of yourself is becoming more powerful to satisfy the growth of the “selfie”. 

Huawei’s Ascend G6 boosts the front camera to five megapixels. More broadly, photo and video quality is improving rapidly. 

Sony’s new Xperia Z2 allows users to film in 4K resolution, the most advanced available on the market.

Spam and other threats      

As people pour sensitive personal data into their smartphones and tablets, and as more objects are hooked up to the network, security threats can take on a new dimension. 

Some hackers manage to get into target devices to take photos or record conversations. One compromised refrigerator has been caught sending spam. Security specialists say even your connected car’s brakes could be at risk.

A movie download in one second 

The next, fifth-generation mobile networks to begin rolling out in 2020 promise to let users download an entire high-definition movie in one second flat. 

The network will have to cope, also, with billions of connected objects communicating with each other, from kitchen appliances to cars and traffic signals, industry players say.