Tech Sightings, April 15, 2014

Posted April 15th, 2014 at 2:53 pm (UTC-4)
1 comment

Are Touchscreens Melting Your Kid’s Brain?

Touchscreens continue to proliferate, but researchers know very little about what effect they might have on children. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, kids under the age of two should not be using touchscreens, while older kids should limit use to two hours.

Heartbleed Heartache: This Was Not a Drill, People, and You Failed

A week after the Heartbleed vulnerability emerged, the SANS Institute’s Internet Storm Center cancelled its yellow alert that required immediate action to contain the impact. As things settle down, the finger-pointing begins.

Kenya Shakes Up Mobile Money By Licensing Three MVNOs

Kenya’s Communications Commission has licensed Mobile Pay, Finserve Africa and Zioncell Kenyato to offer customer registration, SIM cards issuance, billing and customer care in a mobile payment market dominated by Safaricom’s M-Pesa.

Swedish Startup Lets You Pay With the Swipe of a Hand

Swedish company Quixter has come up with a new variation on biometrics that lets customers at retail outlets swipe their palms instead of their credit cards to make a payment.

Google Fires Up Asia Pacific Region Cloud Platform

Google has boosted its Cloud Platform with two new East Asia regions to serve the growing number of users in Asia. The move follows Google’s recent launch of new datacenters in Taiwan and Singapore.

‘Gods’ Make Comeback at Toyota as Humans Steal Jobs From Robots

Going against the automation trend, Toyota is replacing machines with humans in plants across Japan to allow workers to develop new skills and find new ways to improve production lines.

Thermoelectric Generator Turns Body Heat Into Energy

A team of researchers from the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has created a light, flexible generator made of thermoelectric substances printed on glass fabric – a design that minimizes heat loss and maximizes output.

MIT Whizzes Invent Magical Furniture That Changes Shape on Demand

Looking ahead to a future where furniture can sense our emotions and respond accordingly,  MIT’s Tangible Media Group has come up with Transform, a table-like structure that metamorphoses based on the motions and emotions of humans around it.

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, April 15, 2014”

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