Mark Zuckerberg, Wife Priscilla Donate $25M to Fight Ebola Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have announced that they have made a donation of $25 million to the Centers for Disease Control Foundation to help fight Ebola, the deadly virus that has claimed more than 4,000 lives and continues to spread. While […]
Q&A: XPRIZE Looks to Reinvent Learning in Africa
Posted October 10th, 2014 at 1:00 pm (UTC-5)
The folks at XPRIZE – a non-profit foundation that helped finance civilian space travel and develop better technologies to clean up the oceans, have now launched a $15 million competition to provide learning solutions for children in Africa and the developing world. Chatting with TECHtonics, Matt Keller, Senior Director of Global Learning XPRIZE, shed more […]
Tech Sightings, October 9, 2014
Posted October 9th, 2014 at 2:07 pm (UTC-5)
Zuckerberg in India: Facebook Wants to Boost Rural Connectivity to Reach 5 Billion People Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is visiting India, is meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday to offer help in providing Internet connectivity and possibly local content to about 600,000 remote villages. Robots in US Hospitals Help Prevent Spread […]
Tech Sightings, October 8, 2014
Posted October 7th, 2014 at 2:06 pm (UTC-5)
US Says It Can Hack Into Foreign-Based Servers Without Warrants A new U.S. Justice Department legal filing says the United States may hack foreign servers without warrant. The filing was made during the prosecution procedures of Ross Ulbricht, who is believed to be the operator behind the Silk Road illicit drug website. Computer Kit Will […]
Tech Sightings, October 7, 2014
Posted October 7th, 2014 at 2:04 pm (UTC-5)
Efficient, Useful Blue-light LED Draws Nobel Prize in Physics Japanese professors Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, and American professor Shuji Nakamura won the 2014 Noble Prize in physics for inventing blue light-emitting diode (LED) technology, currently used for high-speed networking, data storage, water purification and home illumination. Software, Robots Will Take One in Three Jobs […]
Fear of ‘New’ Creates Digital Divide for Older Users
Posted October 3rd, 2014 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
Technological innovation is reshaping the world and putting new tools in the hands of people everywhere. But technology for some older demographics is a source of fear and insecurity – a mirror of a generational divide in digital awareness. “There is a lot of fear around learning a new technology,” says Kimberly Brennsteiner, Director of […]
Tech Sightings, October 2, 2014
Posted October 2nd, 2014 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
Twitter Wants MIT to Make Sense of Your Tweets Social media giant Twitter is offering MIT $10 million and a five-year commitment to back the creation of the Laboratory for Social Machines. The aim is to access real-time tweets, old and new, and develop technologies that can distinguish patterns across social media and digital content. If […]
Tech Sightings, October 1, 2014
Posted October 1st, 2014 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
iOS Trojan Spies on Hong Kong Protesters Lacoon Mobile Security has revealed that the phones of protesters demanding more democratic reform in Hong Kong are being targeted by “Xsser mRAT,” which is spyware believed to be the work of the Chinese government. The spyware is disguised as a fake application aimed at monitoring protesters’ communications. […]
Tech Sightings, September 30, 2014
Posted September 30th, 2014 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
Hong Kong Protesters Turn to Mesh Networks to Evade China’s Censorship As tens of thousands of students fill Hong Kong Streets as part of the Umbrella Revolution, demanding democratic reform, Beijing blocked Hong Kong social media sites to keep mainland China in the dark. But the protesters are a step ahead with an app called […]