Chinese Usher in Lunar New Year on WeChat With a Billion Virtual Red Envelopes The annual tradition of gifting red envelopes with token money went online yesterday as the Chinese celebrated the new lunar year on the popular messaging app WeChat, also known as Weixin in China. Weixin users, said to number more than 400 million, […]
Red Envelopes From China; Superfishy Lenovo; Sony; Bitcoin Auction
Posted February 19th, 2015 at 2:45 pm (UTC-5)
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Biohacking; Bionic Hands; CLAMs; Million-Year Storage
Posted February 18th, 2015 at 2:44 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Scientists Create Million-Year Data Storage With DNA Floppy disks may be dead and hard drives may not be far behind. In an effort to save digital human knowledge from eventual extinction, researchers at ETH Zurich have found a way to use DNA as a storage medium to hold data possibly for more […]
Apple’s Car Buzz; Robot Ethics; Impossible Malware?
Posted February 17th, 2015 at 2:38 pm (UTC-5)
Google Exec: Digital Media Could Vanish Remember the LP and the cassette player? Or the Floppy Disk? Looking back, it seems as if these gadgets became obsolete a very long time ago. With the stunning speed of technological progress, though, even newer gadgets are at risk of becoming passé just as quickly. Google’s Vice President, […]
UNDP Eyes Ukraine’s Damaged Buildings With Crowdsourcing, Mobile App
Posted February 13th, 2015 at 2:37 pm (UTC-5)
The crisis that plunged east Ukraine into war in November 2013 has damaged or destroyed critical infrastructure and limited access to areas caught up in fighting between Ukraine’s government forces and pro-Russian rebels. In order to assess damage, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) turned to crowdsourcing to help restore social infrastructure as part of […]
WoW for Ebola; Samsung’s TV Saga; Apple’s Labor Woes
Posted February 12th, 2015 at 2:21 pm (UTC-5)
WoW Players Raise Nearly $2 Million to Fight Ebola Blizzard’s World of Warcraft’s latest charity campaign has netted more than $1.9 million to help fight Ebola in Africa. The donations were raised through in-game purchases; and all proceeds were donated to the Red Cross. Microsoft Researchers Say Their Newest Deep Learning System Beats Humans An […]
Watson Learns Japanese; Hospital Robots; Samsung’s Smart TV Debacle
Posted February 11th, 2015 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Gaming Can Give Troubled Teens Another Shot at Learning Game developer Kuato’s game, Hakitzu, a hit in London schools, already has been used in more than 1 million coding sessions. The game lets students, some of whom have had various issues, learn how to code by leading a robot through an adventure-shooter scenario. […]
Print Your Own Phone; Drone No-Fly Zone; Smartphone Replaces Computer
Posted February 10th, 2015 at 2:19 pm (UTC-5)
Print Your Own Phone from Home British start-up OwnFone launches Kickstarter campaign. In its new PrintFone Kit users design and print a 2D or 3D phone at home, using either a standard inkjet printer or a 3D printer. Users are free to create any type of phone they like, adding any personal touches to their […]
White Space Gives Ghanaians Affordable Broadband Access
Posted February 6th, 2015 at 2:17 pm (UTC-5)
Broadband Internet access can be expensive, even prohibitive in some countries, if it’s even available at all. To remedy the situation, tech giant Microsoft, among others, has turned to unused, unlicensed spectrum on VHF and UHF bands, also known as White Spaces, to deliver affordable high-speed Internet connectivity in Ghana. The program provides students at […]
Japan’s Robot Hotel; Mobile Money; Street View Bangladesh
Posted February 5th, 2015 at 2:17 pm (UTC-5)
Can Mobile Banking Revolutionize the Lives of the Poor? Kenya’s mobile payment system, M-PESA, introduced in 2007, enriched the lives of Kenyans and gradually spread to other countries. M-PESA allows cellphone users to save and transfer money and use SMS to exchange funds over the network. But will mobile money actually transform the lives of […]
The Pope’s Hangout; Privacy Invasions; Sleeping With Your Gadgets
Posted February 4th, 2015 at 2:16 pm (UTC-5)
Pope Francis to Address World’s Children on Google Hangouts Pope Francis is getting ready to host his second video chat on Google Hangouts on Thursday. Sponsored by his educational entity Scholas, the Pope’s chat will feature questions from children with special needs and disabilities from Spain, Brazil, India and the US. China to Ban Online […]