Showing Archived Posts

Junub Games Reaches for Peace as South Sudan Wages War

Posted May 19th, 2017 at 11:30 am (UTC-4)
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Political feuds and ethnic violence in South Sudan have displaced more than 1.5 million people. Among them is a software engineer determined to push past hate to promote peace through games. “Hate is one of the things that is inciting violence in South Sudan right now,” Lual Mayen, a game developer from Juba, South Sudan, […]

How One Game Developer Came to Grips With Anxiety

Posted September 23rd, 2016 at 11:30 am (UTC-4)
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GeekGirlCon – an organization that seeks to empower women in technology and other areas – opens its 2016 convention on October 8. One of its featured speakers is a developer who wants to use games to shine a light on mental health. When writer and game developer Andrea Ayres was in her early 20s, she […]

Filtering Cuba’s Text Messages; Free Smartphones for India’s Voters

Posted September 6th, 2016 at 12:12 pm (UTC-4)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: Cuba Has Been Filtering Texts Containing Political Dissent Internet connectivity has been a difficult transition for Cuba’s Communist government, which apparently is filtering out and blocking democracy and human rights key words from mobile phone text messages, according to an investigative report. The report, by blogger Yoani Sanchez and journalist Reinaldo Escobar, […]

In the Right Hands, This Game Teaches Kids About Cybersecurity

Posted May 13th, 2016 at 10:52 am (UTC-4)
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When Matt Trobbiani created Hacknet, it was intended as a game, no more, no less — until he discovered it was being used to train cyber warfare teams. Now, he is testing educational versions of the game to teach school kids and would-be sleuths about cybersecurity. It started out at a game-jam competition as a […]

India Rebuffs Apple; Scientists Seek Gamers to Battle Dementia

Posted May 4th, 2016 at 12:37 pm (UTC-4)
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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 […]

‘That Dragon, Cancer’: Q&A With Developer Ryan Green

Posted January 22nd, 2016 at 11:00 am (UTC-4)
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Let’s face it. Most video games involve some sort of stabbing, shooting or otherwise killing of an enemy. Few are the games that go off the beaten path to explore different themes, let alone gut-wrenching emotions such as hope, faith or grief. That Dragon, Cancer is one of them. The idea started in 2012, born […]

Windows 10 is Spying on You; Are Video Games Addictive?

Posted January 6th, 2016 at 11:08 am (UTC-4)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: Microsoft Shows off What It Knows About Windows 10 Users If you ever had any doubts that Windows 10 collects all kinds of user data for Microsoft, then here’s proof. In a recent blog post, Microsoft revealed what it knows about its Windows 10 customers, including how many hours they spent with […]

Three-D Printing; App Fraud; Asia Eyes US Gaming Market

Posted July 23rd, 2015 at 3:00 pm (UTC-4)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: India Needs China’s 3-D Printing Construction Technology Now Building a house in India takes about six months, on average. But recently, a Chinese company put together a 3-D-printed house in a matter of three hours. Writer Abhimanyu Ghoshal argues that India could use this technology to pare down the time it needs […]

Virtual Warsaw; IBM’s Power Chip; Sexism in Games; Windows 10

Posted July 9th, 2015 at 3:33 pm (UTC-4)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: How the Blind Led Warsaw to Internet of Things A project that started in Warsaw, Poland, a few years ago to help the visually impaired get around the city has taken on new life. The service, which provided an app that gave real-time traffic and navigation information based on the user’s location, […]

YouTube Kids; Gaming for Charity, Logjam; @POTUS; Mobile Malware

Posted May 20th, 2015 at 2:09 pm (UTC-4)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: YouTube, Google Under Fire for Adult Content in Kids App U.S. consumer groups have updated a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission after finding adult-themed videos on the Google-owned YouTube Kids app for Android and iOS. Google was already criticized in April for allowing ads to mix with content geared for kids. […]