Print Your Own Phone; Drone No-Fly Zone; Smartphone Replaces Computer

Posted February 10th, 2015 at 2:19 pm (UTC-4)
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Print Your Own Phone from Home

British start-up OwnFone launches Kickstarter campaign. In its new PrintFone Kit users design and print a 2D or 3D phone at home, using either a standard inkjet printer or a 3D printer. Users are free to create any type of phone they like, adding any personal touches to their creation. Using OwnFone’s FoneBuilder App the design can be converted into a working cell phone.

Reaching Deaf Babies With Implants, iPads and Therapy

Using FaceTime, speech therapists are able to offer deaf children distant learning experiences. The program benefits both families and professionals by skipping the commute. The iPad can also track progress.

No, Your TV Doesn’t Care What You Say

However… recently, copyright-activism director Parker Higgins tweeted about the eerie parallel of Samsung TVs’ voice-recognition features and its privacy policies to a description of the “telescreen” in George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” The Samsung contract clause reads: “If your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.”

JetBlue Debuts Apple Pay to Speed Snack Service at 35,000 Feet

JetBlue Airways Corp. will be the first major U.S. carrier to accept Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay for on board purchases. Starting next week on select transcontinental flights, passengers will be able to use their iPhones and other Apple devices to pay for food, beverages and even seats with extra leg room. JetBlue will provide iPad Minis to more than 3,500 flight attendants as part of the program. The devices will include a special case to accept both Apple Pay and credit cards.

Hate Drones? New Website Lets You Create a ‘No-Fly Zone’ Over Your Property

A new organization has risen to help individuals secure the blue skies above their properties, making it a no-fly drone zone. NoFlyZone.org lets you register your address online, letting drone manufacturers and fliers know that their machines are not welcome near your business or home.

The Apple Watch May Have Its First Medical App — a Glucose Monitor for Diabetics

The Apple Watch, set to launch this April, will feature fitness applications. Additionally, a health-related app will provide diabetics with devices for continuous glucose monitoring, or CGM. The app will display real-time glucose readings in a “simple graph that is just a glance at the wrist away.”

In Less Than Two Years, a Smartphone Could Be Your Only Computer

Thanks to increased processing power, better battery life, vastly improved networking speeds, and larger screen sizes on mobile devices, the shift away from the desktop to a smart phone is accelerating. A powerful, new generation of smartphones will offer users the ability to handle almost all of their at-home—and even at-work—tasks without needing anything else.

Infected Web Ads Use Flash Flaws to Spread Ransomware

Online criminals exploiting ads to infect users’ computers is not a new phenomenon. Things just got a bit more sophisticated. Malicious ads, called malvertising, are finding their way into legitimate ad networks that feed ads to widely viewed websites then appear in the browsers of people who visit these sites, which can trigger malware infections. It spreads via ad networks, and takes advantage of Adobe flaws.

Aida Akl
Aida Akl is a journalist working on VOA's English Webdesk. She has written on a wide range of topics, although her more recent contributions have focused on technology. She has covered both domestic and international events since the mid-1980s as a VOA reporter and international broadcaster.

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