They may not be able to afford them, but homeless people need cellphones too. Those who can afford them tend to be disconnected after a while for not being able to pay their bills – a problem that takes them out of the social services loop. But a recent hackathon from a Silicon Valley non-profit […]
Silicon Valley’s Gender Culture; GitHub vs. China; Drones on a Mission
Posted March 31st, 2015 at 2:19 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Women in Silicon Valley Objectified, Paid Less Than Male Counterparts Technology trade shows have a name for them: so-called booth babes, meaning scantily-dressed women hired to tout tech gadgets. Now, some associations are banning this culture, saying it is demeaning to women. Adding insult to injury, a recent study from research group […]
App for Ringing Ears; MusicGlove; Ethical Robots; Trust in Facebook?
Posted March 19th, 2015 at 2:00 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Musical Glove Helps Stroke Patients Use Their Hands Again Part of the problem of rehabilitating stroke victims is that many of them don’t keep up their physical therapy. In an effort to change the situation, Nizan Friedman, founder of Flint Rehabilitation Devices, has come up with a wearable device called MusicGlove […]
Cuba’s First Free Wi-Fi; Printed Prosthetics; Steve Jobs Legacy?
Posted March 17th, 2015 at 2:26 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Non-Profit 3D-Prints $100 Arm for Boy in Sudan Back in 2013, California-based non-profit Not Impossible Labs built its own 3-D printer prosthetic lab in Sudan — the world’s first. Now, the group has printed a prosthetic arm for Daniel, a 14-year-old boy who lost both arms during a bombing attack. Contemporary […]
3D-Scanning Ethiopia’s History; Lenovo’s Superfish; Indonesia Smartphones
Posted February 24th, 2015 at 2:46 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: 3D Laser Scanner Makes Haunting Works of Art Historians Charles Matz and Jonathan Michael Dillon use 3D Lidar scanning — a technology that uses pulses of light to map 3D structures — to help preserve Ethiopia’s historic sites. Inadvertently, they turned their scanning device into a tool for creating works of art. […]
Apps That Connect, Apps That Help
Posted January 23rd, 2015 at 3:02 pm (UTC-4)
There is a mobile app for everything these days — from chatting to gaming, from learning to health and fitness. More recent apps glean users’ tastes to match them with others like them or parse their language to connect them with people they might be looking for. And then there are apps for emergencies that […]
Wiping Out Sony; Girl Scouts; GTA 5; Best Android Apps
Posted December 4th, 2014 at 2:00 pm (UTC-4)
The Princess Trap A New-York based software engineer, whose four-year-old daughter is already going for cultural gender cliches and predesignated social roles, writes about the uphill battle he and others face getting kids – especially girls – interested in science. Inside the “Wiper” Malware That Brought Sony Pictures to its Knees The malware used to […]
Data-Sharing Apps Serious Threat to Mobile
Posted August 15th, 2014 at 2:07 pm (UTC-4)
When was the last time you checked the privacy terms before installing a free or paid app on your mobile device? A mapping app asking for your location might need that information, but if a flashlight app asks for your contacts – you should be concerned. The problem with data sharing on iOS and Android […]