Tech Sightings, June 26, 2014

Posted June 26th, 2014 at 2:26 pm (UTC-4)
Leave a comment

What Developers Need To Know About Android L

Google’s latest mobile operating system, Android L, which is available to developers as a preview version, could be the biggest Android update ever. The new release changes the way Android operates in fundamental ways that developers working with the Android OS will probably want to know.

New Industrial Age is Being Built on Sensors, 3D Printing and the Cloud

Sensors, circuit boards, 3D printers, open-source development platforms, cloud services and Kickstarter  are shaping a new industrial revolution, enabling a so-called Maker-Movement that allows ordinary people to design and build just about anything.

These Cute Little Drones Could 3-D Print a House

Saša Jokić and Petr Novikov have come up with new creations called Minibuilders, tiny drones that can coil liquified building material in one continuous motion along lines set down by an architect. The operation works on a smaller scale than in real building projects. And the resulting structures suffer from instability due to the coiling technique, which only goes in one direction.

Facebook Mirrors Tech Industry’s Lack of Diversity

While Facebook boasts that its global workforce is 31 percent female, its tech workforce is 85 percent male. In the United States, about 57 percent of Facebook workers are white, 34 percent Asian, 4 percent Hispanic, 2 percent black.

Viber Trumps Facebook Among Mobile Web Users in Myanmar

A recent survey released by On Device Research shows that around 79% of 577 mobile Web users in Myanmar, also known as Burma, use Viber’s free texting and calling features on their smartphones. That’s  more than the 58 percent using Facebook’s similar features.

World Cup 2014 Wi-Fi Password Accidentally Shared With the World

Never write your password on a whiteboard for all to see. This is the lesson from this incident when a reporter managed to photograph FIFA’s World Cup 2014 Wi-Fi password, which was clearly written on a wide-screen whiteboard in FIFA’s operations room in Brazil. The good news is that Wi-Fi has limited range.

Five Online Privacy Tips From an Ex-FBI Agent

Not sure how to protect your personal information online amid all the hacking and the snooping? Check out five tips from former FBI cyber and special operations agent, Mary Galligan.

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.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *