Tech Sightings, March 19, 2014

Posted March 19th, 2014 at 2:20 pm (UTC-4)
1 comment

New Research Claims Microsoft’s Bing Censors More Heavily Within China Than Baidu

GreatFire, a Chinese Web monitoring service, has again raised objections that Microsoft’s Bing heavily censors within China, even more than domestic search engine Baidu. Bing came under fire last month for censoring China-related information worldwide.

Internet Currency Helps Kenya Build Water Wells

A generous member of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency community, donated 14 million Dogecoins or about $11,000, to help Kenya build wells. The donation was done through Doge4Water, a charity set up to help Kenyans get access to clean drinking water. The digital coins will be exchanged for real money to help build the wells.

Africa’s E-Waste Nightmare

According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), e-waste – from computers and cellphones to washing machines and air conditioners – is the world’s largest growing garbage stream and one that particularly affects West Africa, where Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria together generate nearly a million tons of e-waste every year.

How Quickly Did Your Country Adopt the Internet?

A fascinating timeline created by Esri, marking the 25th birthday of the Internet, traces the spread of the Web across the world over the past quarter-century.

Inside the Race to Create a New App Ecosystem

Yesterday’s launch of Google’s wearable platform, Android Wear, is likely to catch the eye of developers who still face a largely fragmented wearable tech scene. Google’s initiative now offers developers the chance to write appealing apps specifically for wearables. A new report from Business Insider Intelligence makes sense of current wearable apps landscape.

Why We Need Video Games in Every Classroom

Author Jordan Shapiro argues that game-based learning encourages creative problem solving rather than memorization and that video games teach critical thinking and perseverance while building cognitive skills. In a recent talk in Dubai, he explained how video games can move people away from the culture of competition and commodified rewards.

Google Sued for Data-Mining Students’ Email

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California is currently looking at what Education Week calls a “potentially explosive” lawsuit involving Google. The search engine giant is allegedly scanning millions of students’ email messages and building “surreptitious” profiles for potential advertisers.

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.

One response to “Tech Sightings, March 19, 2014”

  1. XU says:

    BIG LIKE !! I enjoyed this post sooooooo much. In the near future, maybe you’ll add a Pinterest button so we can share it 🙂 🙂

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