Technology

TOKYO — Canon Inc. is moving toward fully automating digital camera production in an effort to cut costs — a key change being played out across Japan, a world leader in robotics.
If successful, counting on machines can help preserve this nation’s technological power — not the stereotype of machines snatching assembly line jobs from workers, Jun Misumi — company spokesman, said Monday.

TORONTO — First there was audio, then video. Now baby monitors have gone really high-tech.
Rogers (TSX:RCI.B) announced Tuesday that it has partnered with U.S.-based biomedical engineering company Exmovere Holdings Inc., for the launch of digital pyjamas, called Exmobaby, later this year.

TOKYO — It looks just like iRobot’s Roomba vacuuming machine, except the new circular roaming vacuum cleaner from Sharp Corp. is trilingual, and even knows a hip humorous dialect.
Cocorobo, which can also send photos taken from your home to your cellphone, says 36 phrases including “Long time no see” and “Hello,” in Japanese, English and Chinese.

NEW YORK — Moving digital files between your work and home computers can be a pain. Add smartphones and tablet computers to the mix, and you’ve got yourself a giant headache.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Amid the palm trees and theme parks of sunny Orlando, the Canadian company that once revolutionized the mobile phone industry spent a very expensive week trying to sell the idea that the BlackBerry isn’t a dying technology.

NEW YORK — Apple generates more gossip than the British royal family.
There’s a constantly spinning mill of rumours about Apple products, most of which turn out to be untrue. What’s unusual this week is that talk has revived of a smaller iPad model, an idea company founder Steve Jobs derided publicly a year before he died.

ATLANTA — Baseball is back, which means die-hard fans like me are hungry for updates and highlights when we’re not near our televisions or computers.

TORONTO — They say all good things must come to an end — even the most awesome things.
Shortly after midnight on Thursday, 32-year-old Toronto-native Neil Pasricha posted what might be the last entry on his blog 1000awesomethings.com, which has surpassed 45 million hits after a little under four years on the web.

NEW YORK — How much would you pay for an amazing, state-of-the-art light bulb? Shoppers will ask themselves that very question at Home Depot and other outlets starting Sunday — Earth Day — when the bulb that won a $10 million U.S. government contest goes on sale.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Discovery has one last mission to complete.
At daybreak Tuesday, the oldest of NASA’s retired shuttle fleet will leave its home at Kennedy Space Center for the final time, riding on top a modified jumbo jet.
Its destination: the Smithsonian Institution’s hangar outside Washington, D.C.