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, is now a beacon-based urban navigation system called Virtual Warsaw.
Deepening Tech Dependency Raises Risk of Breakdowns
Computer outages that paralyzed United Airlines, the New York Stock Exchange and The Wall Street Journal Wednesday have sounded the alarm on human dependency on technology. Humans are unable to cope with the speed of the technological progress they created, especially as their computer systems become increasingly complex and interconnected.
IBM Unveils Most Powerful Chip Ever Created
A new, powerful chip that uses transistors three times wider than a DNA strand could be in computers within a couple of years. The creator, IBM, said the chip, which has four times the power of the best silicon chip currently available, was made possible by using silicon-germanium in the manufacturing process.
Survey Shows Boys Are Aware of Sexism in Games
A recent study by Time found that boys don’t care whether the protagonist in a video game is male or female, and they are quite aware that women are underrepresented. About 58 percent of male gamers said there should be more female protagonists, while 70 percent of surveyed girls said the gender of the protagonist does not factor in playing a game.
Windows 10 Could Have Serious Wi-Fi Vulnerability
Arriving toward the end of July, Windows 10 comes with Wi-Fi Sense, a feature designed to connect Windows Phone automatically to open networks it detects. But security firm AVG warns that automatically connecting to unsecured Wi-Fi networks and accepting their terms by default is a bad idea.
Mozilla Patches Critical Vulnerabilities in Firefox Update
Firefox maker Mozilla has released a new update to its browser that fixes four critical vulnerabilities, among other issues. Users are advised to update their Firefox browsers to the latest version.
Facebook Tweaks Its News Feed – Again
The latest update to Facebook’s News Feed lets users choose which friends and brands they’d like to see first on their pages. The changes are part of revamped preference controls that will roll out on Android and iOS devices in the next few weeks.
