Today’s Tech Sightings: Report: China’s WeChat Censors Users Abroad A new report from Toronto’s Citizen Lab says China’s top messaging app WeChat censors or blocks key words and sensitive terms in messages sent from overseas to mainland China. The block affects group chats of three or more users and messages containing terms not sanctioned by […]
Wechat’s Censorship Game; FireEye: Russia Weaponized Social Media
Posted December 1st, 2016 at 12:29 pm (UTC-4)
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Tech Giants Brace for Trump Presidency; Russia to Block LinkedIn
Posted November 10th, 2016 at 1:02 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Tim Cook: ‘The Only Way to Move Forward Is to Move Forward Together’ Apple CEO Tim Cook stressed his commitment to diversity and social progress in a message to employees following the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States. Without mentioning Trump, who had threatened to ban […]
Building the Bionic Man; Facebook Urged to Stop Racial Exclusion Ads
Posted November 2nd, 2016 at 12:34 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Building the Bionic Man It’s no longer science fiction. Replaceable body parts are already here. Now Swiss psychologist Bertolt Meyer, who has a prosthetic arm, is working to create a robot modeled after himself. The robot, Rex, is made of various prosthetic parts, has a circulatory system and a clunky body. Rex […]
WhatsApp Turns Its Back on Privacy; Happy 25th Birthday, Linux
Posted August 25th, 2016 at 11:55 am (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: WhatsApp Is Going to Share Your Phone Number With Facebook So much for WhatsApp’s promise to protect the privacy of its one billion users! The global messaging service today announced users have a limited time to opt-out of sharing their information with Facebook. WhatsApp claims Facebook won’t post the telephone numbers online […]
Dealing With Augmented Reality Cities; Facebook Under Fire Over Ads
Posted August 11th, 2016 at 11:37 am (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Games Will Reshape Cities As the Pokemon GO craze continues unabated, many countries are restricting and zoning urban areas to prevent players from meandering into government sites and other sensitive areas to hunt Pokemon characters. Writer Geoff Manaugh argues that once this game is forgotten, new augmented reality games that place a […]
New Hard Drive Uses Chlorine Atoms; Protecting Privacy With Snapchat
Posted July 19th, 2016 at 12:21 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: World’s Smallest Hard Disk Stores Data Using Chlorine Atoms Researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have created the world’s smallest hard drive – a rewritable device that stores up to 500 terabits per square inch. This is enough room to store all the books ever written. The technique uses chlorine […]
Pakistan Goes for Robocup Glory; Russia’s New Online Spying Laws
Posted June 27th, 2016 at 9:36 am (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Pakistani Roboteers Hunt Global Soccer Glory For the first time, students at Pakistan’s National University of Science and Technology will participate in the annual RoboCup tournament, held this year in Leipzig, Germany, June 30–July 4. The Pakistani ‘team’ of six humanoid robots was purchased from France, costing about $17,000 each. Russia’s State […]
Apple Pulls Refugee ‘I Sea’ App; Preserving Digital History
Posted June 21st, 2016 at 11:59 am (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: App That Falsely Claimed to Aid Refugees at Sea Pulled From App Store Apple has pulled from its App Store an app called I Sea that claimed it could help find refugees lost at sea by showing real-time satellite footage of the Mediterranean Sea. But developers found the app only shows the […]
India Rebuffs Apple; Scientists Seek Gamers to Battle Dementia
Posted May 4th, 2016 at 12:37 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Apple Rebuffed as New Delhi Pushes ‘Make in India’ Initiative Indian government officials have rejected Apple’s plan to import refurbished iPhones at a discount, citing rules against importing used electronics. A government spokesman said India “does not encourage dumping or recycling of hazardous materials.” But the development also coincides with New Delhi’s […]