Features

A survey has found that technology gifts top the charts as the most desired Valentine’s Day presents this year, with over 42 per cent of people wanting some form of gadget from their partner.

Michael Liedtke / AP Technology Writer San Francisco—Technology’s big-spending trio of Google, Facebook, and Amazon.com appear to be tightening their belts—at least a notch—in a concession to cost-conscious investors and a strong dollar that’s taking a big bite out of their revenue.

SCOTLAND-—Paisley, a historic region in the lowlands of this country was flooded with 10,000 car enthusiasts last week as the Monte Carlo Classic Rally revved into town for the second time.

Shanghai—A total of 23.72 million automobiles were produced and 23.49 million sold in China last year according to figures released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

MINNEAPOLIS— A Toyota Motor Corp. lawyer has told a Minnesota jury deciding whether the automaker is responsible for a crash that killed three people that the car couldn’t have accelerated so quickly if the driver hit the brakes as he claimed.

Brandon Bailey / The Associated Press Apple said sales of Macintosh computers were up 9 percent in the last quarter. The company increased its share of the personal-computer (PC) market at a time when overall PC sales were declining. Apple no longer reports separate numbers for its iPod music players.

The A7 uses sensors, radars and a front-facing camera as “eyes” and advanced computer technology to intelligently negotiate traffic. A self-driving Audi A7 traveled from Silicon Valley to the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, while Mercedes-Benz and Ford also made announcements about autonomous technology, reports Time.

Toyota expects overseas sales to grow 2 percent this year to more than 8 million vehicles from 7.9 million vehicles last year. Tokyo—Toyota Motor Corp. stayed at the top in global vehicle sales in 2014, taking that auto industry crown for the third year straight, but was less upbeat about this year.

The HiLux accounted for almost a quarter of that number to be the nation’s third best selling vehicle behind the Corolla and Mazda3. Hyundai has finally revealed the first tangible evidence of its intention to enter the same market segment as Toyota’s HiLux.

DETROIT—The head of self-driving cars for Google expects real people to be using them on public roads in two to five years. Chris Urmson says the cars would still be test vehicles, and Google would collect data on how they interact with other vehicles and pedestrians.