Daimler’s new Mercedes A-Class, unveiled on Friday, includes the German automaker’s own machine-learning and voice recognition technology in one of the industry’s boldest attempts so far to take on Silicon Valley’s finest.

The Mercedes “MBUX” dashboard system to be rolled out across the lineup is about as capable at understanding what you say and more importantly what you mean as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri or Alphabet’s Google Assistant.

Its debut comes as carmakers are embroiled in a tech arms race, raising questions about the ultimate profitability of new services that often duplicate those available on smartphones. Daimler itself warned on Thursday that 2018 profit growth would be dampened by technology investment.

If you in the market for a slightly older iPhone that has been certified and covered by warranty? Do you want to save some cash? If so, Apple is now selling refurbished Apple’s online store is now selling refurbished iPhone 7 and 7 Plus phones. According to splashgear, the refurbished devices are tested and certified by Apple, with a brand new battery and outer shell.

Apple has removed Telegram's official app from its App Store, owing to the claim that telegram had made inappropriate content available to its users.

The move came shortly after Telegram launched an unfinished version of its "experimental" Telegram X app. Apple took down both the official messaging app and the one still being developed.

Prominent reporter of technology site TechCrunch, Natasha Lomas speculated that the new app could have fallen foul of Apple's rules requiring all apps to have filtering and blocking systems as well as ways for offensive content to be removed hurriedly.

Sony's chief executive Kazuo Hirai is stepping down and handing management of the company to finance chief Kenichiro Yoshida.

Mr Yoshida, Sony's chief financial officer, is to take over control of the Japanese electronics giant from 1 April.

Mr Hirai will remain at Sony as chairman. Mr Yoshida and Mr Hirai have been instrumental in turning Sony around to focus on smartphone image sensors.

Intel the world’s largest chipmaker aims to start offering smart glasses to consumers as soon as this year, according to Bloomberg. The company is reportedly looking to sell a majority stake in an augmented reality spinoff company, with plans to potentially launch consumer smart glasses this year, according to Bloomberg Technology.

This afternoon, SpaceX launched its second Falcon 9 rocket of the year from Florida, but the company chose not to land the booster after takeoff and instead dispensed it in the ocean. SpaceX usually tries to land Falcon 9 first stages during such liftoffs, either on a "drone ship" at sea or back on terra firma, so the boosters can be reused. But the company didn’t to that instead the first stage came in for a sort of mock touchdown over open ocean off the Florida coast.