New Memory Chips Emulate Human Brain; Browsing the Ad-blocked Web

Posted January 20th, 2016 at 11:00 am (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

FILE - DRAM memory chips are pictured in Taiwan. (Reuters)

FILE – DRAM memory chips are pictured in Taiwan. (Reuters)

Memory That Learns Could Help Tomorrow’s Intelligent Computers

Researchers at New Mexico-based start-up Knowm are working on a new generation of computer chips that can emulate more closely the way the human brain works. While existing chips can store a lot of information, the new breed, called memristors, can help artificial intelligence systems understand it and could potentially aid in identifying diseases or parse trends to make predictions.

The Real Cost of Unused Software Will Shock You

A new study from 1E found that billions of dollars are wasted each year on unused software. Looking at 1,800 software titles installed on 3.6 million desktops in 129 U.S. companies, the study tallied up the cost to $259 per desktop, or up to $30 billion annually of wasted money.

JavaScript’s Creator Is Building a Browser for the Ad-Blocked Future

A new web browser is born, courtesy of Brendan Eich, creator of the JavaScript programming language and former CEO of Mozilla. The browser, coming out of Eich’s startup, Brave Software, is still in early access. It promises to block intrusive ads while still making money for publishers. This comes as the advertising industry essentially barred AdBlock’s parent company Eyeo from participating in talks about reforming online ads.

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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.

Twitter Outages; Worst Passwords of 2015

Posted January 19th, 2016 at 11:31 am (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

FILE - The Twitter logo is shown on smartphone in front of a displayed stock graph, April 29, 2015.

FILE – The Twitter logo is shown on smartphone in front of a displayed stock graph, April 29, 2015.

Twitter Hit by Sporadic Outages in Many Parts of Globe

Twitter said on Tuesday its social network was suffering ongoing outages on computers and phones and it was working towards a resolution.  Outages were reported across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America. Users were told: “Some users are currently experiencing problems accessing Twitter. We are aware of the issue and are working.”

New Invention May End Age-old Soldering

Researchers at Northeastern University say they’ve created a metallic glue that gets the same job done at room temperature, as good old soldering. The new high-tech glue – MesoGlue – makes use of research into nanorods. One side of the rod is coated with the element indium, the other with galium. Once they touch, the resulting glue acts like welding or soldering without the heat.

These Are the 25 Worst Passwords of 2015

Managing passwords is no doubt a pain, and most applications require a long series of characters for the best secured and strongest password.  SplashData, a password management company, just released its annual round-up of the worst passwords of 2015. One trend the company found in 2015 is that while users are coming up with longer passwords, which is good, many are simple and not random, which is bad.

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Roominate, LEGO Education Bring Kids Closer to Science

Posted January 15th, 2016 at 11:00 am (UTC-5)
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Roominate's block set lets girls build their very own dollhouses and outfit them with furniture and other stuff that they can also build while learning the basics of STEM - science, technology, engineering and math. (Roominate)

Roominate’s block set lets girls build their very own dollhouses and outfit them with furniture and circuitry that they also build while learning the basics of STEM – science, technology, engineering and math. (Roominate)

A world filled with robots powered by artificial intelligence will need skilled workers who can create, program and maintain tomorrow’s smart machines. That’s a whole generation of kids that needs to be minted into a scientifically-minded workforce. A couple of U.S. toymakers are doing just that.

LEGO Education and Roominate, distinctly different toymakers, are both teaching STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – through their toys. Girls, in particular, are often perceived as lacking an interest in science or are not given the chance to see the fun in it.

Enter Roominate, a company that creates wired building toy sets designed to get girls age six and up excited about STEM learning. Co-founder Bettina Chen said the kit helps show girls “how fun creative engineering and science” can be.

The kit incorporates building, circuitry, crafts, storytelling and programming, and exposes girls “to concepts that they don’t get in their other toys,” said Chen in an interview. That helps them “develop spatial skills that are important for STEM.”

Getting young girls interested in STEM activities can be challenging. An early prototype designed to encourage girls to build cars did not get much traction – until Roominate saw their dollhouses and decided to let them build their own, with furniture and all the circuitry and motors they might need.

“It was just a really great way to kind of introduce these concepts to girls in a way and in a space that they’re … comfortable in and that they’re familiar with,” said Chen.

Isabella and Kira work together to complete their dollhouse, using Roominate bricks. (Roominate)

Isabella and Kira work together to complete their dollhouse, using Roominate bricks. (Roominate)

Once the girls build a room, Chen said they find that they have to build a bed and a couch. “And then they’re like … I need to put in a fan, now I have to wire up this motor circuit.”

And yes – they also built a car. When the dollhouse was ready, the girls decided their doll needed a car.

“And suddenly all these other things that maybe originally they weren’t thinking about or were not interested in … make sense and become part of their story that they’re building,” she said.

When a subject like circuits is unfamiliar, girls tend to be less excited about it and inclined to think the material might not be for them. “And that’s a really big problem,” said Chen, and the reason why Roominate wanted to bring science concepts into its toys.

The toymaker is working with U.S. non-profit Tech Bridge to make its product available to more girls in underserved communities. Chen sees this as an opportunity to expose more girls to unfamiliar science subjects at an early age, while giving them the tools to unleash their creativity.

“It’s really important to get these girls when they’re younger … comfortable with these things,” she said. “When they do come up in school, they’re not afraid to tackle them.”

A couple of kids use a tablet to program the robot they created (forefront), using LEGO Education's WeDo kit. (LEGO Education)

A couple of kids use a tablet to program the robot they created (forefront), using LEGO Education’s WeDo kit. (LEGO Education)

Another group – LEGO Education – is also pushing STEM education, not just for girls, with WeDo 2.0, a redesigned elementary robotics learning platform.

The idea is to “help children unlock their creative problem-solving and analytical thinking skills,” said Leshia Hoot, LEGO Education’s Senior Segment Manager in an interview.

“So for instance, in elementary school, we … help classrooms explore writing and English language art and math and mathematical problem-solving, and then STEM and science,” she said. “We then look specifically at the standards and the specific topics that schools are teaching, and our curriculum is all designed to support those topics.”

A frog children created with LEGO Education's WeDo platform. (LEGO Education)

A mobile frog created by children using LEGO Education’s WeDo platform. (LEGO Education)

The platform, developed from the ground up with direct feedback from educators, is easy for elementary school teachers to learn and deploy in the classroom.

The first version of WeDo was released in 2009, but has since trailed new innovations in mobile and wireless technologies. The new, updated version was redesigned to let students build and program moving LEGO models.

“We’ve completely rewritten all of the curriculum to really focus on STEM and science,” said Hoot. “We’ve added a wireless Bluetooth connection so you can build … mobile models, so you can imagine something that can move around … And we’ve also made sure that we can support the devices that are used in a lot of schools today.”

Older devices are still in use in many schools, particularly in developing parts of the world in Asia and Africa, where LEGO Education also operates.

The redesign exposes kids to a wide variety of topics, including Earth science, physical science, life science and engineering.

And so the idea is that you would explore one of those topics and then build a LEGO model and use a very graphical, colorful programming language to bring that model to life and explore the topic at hand.

Hoot stressed that in the future, almost every career in any part of the world will require some STEM skills and a basic understanding of science.

“We really feel that elementary and primary school students are at a point when they’re so curious and engaged in learning about the world around them,” she said. “And so it’s an opportunity to help them gain some of those really foundational STEM and science skills that will be important no matter what career they go into.”

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.

Americans Choose Privacy Over Savings; Here Comes Your New AI Doctor

Posted January 14th, 2016 at 11:19 am (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

FILE - Nest's Learning Thermostat is shown at Nest Labs in Palo Alto, California, Sept. 10, 2015. The thermostat recognizes when no one is home and turns itself down. (AP)

FILE – Nest’s Learning Thermostat is shown at Nest Labs in Palo Alto, California, Sept. 10, 2015. The thermostat recognizes when no one is home and turns itself down. (AP)

When Is It Worth Giving Up Your Data? Americans Aren’t Quite Sure

A new report from the Pew Research Center found more than half of the 461 Americans surveyed would rather give up discounts than be tracked by gadgets wherever they go. Forty-five percent of respondents rejected energy savings and car insurance discounts contingent on being tracked all the time. Those wary of such tracking don’t trust companies to secure the data they collect.

London Startup ‘Babylon’ Thinks AI Doctor Could Predict Future Health

British digital healthcare startup Babylon has an app that offers users an Artificial Intelligence (AI) doctor in an effort to predict illness before it occurs. The app tracks users’ habits and makes its diagnosis based on collected data, health indicators and medical records. The AI doctor can warn users about increased heart rate, for example, which could be a sign of an impending cold.

New York Bill Would Ban Strong Encryption, Mandate Backdoors

The ongoing battle against encryption has taken another turn with the introduction of a formal bill in the New York State Assembly. The bill would mandate smartphone vendors Apple, Google, Microsoft and others to create backdoor mechanisms to decrypt devices.

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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.

Android Malware Hijacks Bank Accounts; Facebook’s Dilemma in India

Posted January 13th, 2016 at 11:00 am (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

FILE - People visit an Android stand at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, March 4, 2015. (Reuters)

FILE – People visit an Android stand at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, March 4, 2015. (Reuters)

Android Malware Steals Banking Passcodes, Hijacks Accounts Protected by Two-factor Authentication

Internet security firm Symantec has warned that an updated Android malware, called Bankosy, can intercept one-time passcodes that help safeguard online banking accounts. While banks have moved to relay the codes by phone, instead of email, the updated malware forwards all calls to the hackers and allows them to control a smartphone’s silent mode and locking mechanism.

Facebook Has 24 Hours to Find 11 Million People It Says Support Free Basics in India

The Telecoms Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is looking into Internet neutrality violations by Facebook’s Free Basics network, which provides free, limited Internet services in some areas. TRAI said the 1.89 million autofilled responses it received from Facebook users supporting the network failed to address its concerns. Facebook claimed earlier in January that 11 million people actually contacted the regulators about the campaign.

Warning: All but One Internet Explorer Will Now Be Open to Attack

Microsoft just discontinued support for older versions of its Internet Explorer Web browser. So if you still have not upgraded to version 11 or the latest Edge browser, you will be using Internet Explorer at your own risk.

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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.

Greece Tests Rescue Robots at Sea; Apple Pushes Board Diversity

Posted January 12th, 2016 at 12:10 pm (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

A Syrian refugee holding a baby swims towards the Greek island of Lesbos, Sept. 12, 2015, after another boat crammed with dozens of migrants and refugees deflated and sank. (Reuters)

A Syrian refugee holding a baby swims towards the Greek island of Lesbos, Sept. 12, 2015, after a boat crammed with dozens of migrants and refugees deflated and sank. (Reuters)

Robot Life Preserver Goes to Work in the Mediterranean Refugee Crisis

In Mediterranean waters off Greece, rescuing African and Middle Eastern migrants trying to make the perilous voyage to Europe is a daily affair. Looking for help, the Greek Coast Guard invited Texas A&M University’s Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue to pilot a specialized robot. Remotely controlled, it can literally offer a life-line to migrants struggling at sea.

White Men, Corporate Boards and the $578 Billion Diversity Push

It’s no secret that corporate boardrooms, particularly in U.S. tech firms, tend to be overwhelmingly male and white. But Apple shareholders will vote on February 26 on a milestone resolution that will envision more diversity on its board. Apple currently has one African-American man and one Asian-American woman on its eight-person board.

Trend Micro Flaw Could Have Allowed Attacker to Steal All Your Passwords

You’d think antivirus programs are supposed to protect your computer systems. Well, Google security researcher Travis Ormandy found bugs in Trend Micro’s antivirus product that could allow any website to execute remote code and steal users’ passwords. A patch has been released.

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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.

Are Connected Toys Harmful to Your Kids?

Posted January 8th, 2016 at 11:00 am (UTC-5)
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Toys have come a long way. They’re smarter. They’re Wi-Fi connected. They can talk to children and become their new best friend. And for some experts, that might be a potential problem that could hinder children’s development and put their data at risk.

Many connected toys interact with children. Some might record their names or address them by name. Others can answer questions or hold a conversation with children – to a point, as in the case of My Friend Cayla, the first Internet-connected smart doll, My Friend Teddy, and Mattel’s Hello Barbie doll.

For Psychologist Larry Rosen of California State University at Dominguez Hills, putting these types of toys in the hands of young children is okay so long as “there is no ulterior motive in the interactions.” The activity, he added, “promotes creative play that helps the brain develop those areas.”

Technology, being auditory, visual, tactile and kinesthetic, activates more of the brain than other pastimes. Playing with LEGO bricks might activate the creative part of the child’s brain. Playing a smartphone game might activate the brain’s problem-solving areas.

In a world of constant distractions, Rosen said it might be a good thing if “these kinds of toys or games can help a child learn to focus for 5, 10, 15 minutes … as long as it’s not overdone.” But for him, the major issue with connected toys is that “they are compelling and that they keep your focus and attention on something that may not be healthy.”

“My rule of thumb with young children is you never let a child use a piece of technology for more than about a half-hour at a time and that … you then use 3-5 times that amount of time to let them engage in creative play, in the kind of play that stimulates other parts of the brain that [are] important for their development.”

Playing with connected toys, tablets and smartphones is a “highly active” exercise, said Rosen, compared to passively watching a television show, for example.

“It is highly engaging,” he cautioned. “And from what we’re seeing from all the research, it does tend to overactivate the brain in certain areas.”

While good research on children and brain scanning is lacking, Rosen said keeping a child’s brain focused on one activity for a long time will stimulate the area of the brain related to that activity, leaving out other areas the child also needs developed. And using connected toys as pacifiers for young children for extended periods of time can also be harmful.

“They derive cues from their Mom’s smile, from the proximity of the Mom’s face, from other children, from Dad,” said Rosen. “As they grow up to learn what facial expression means, what body language means – and this is very important to their future social interactions – kids who grow up basically isolated and only getting interaction with say parents and toys are going to grow up in a way that may affect their ability to communicate effectively with their peers in the future.”

Limiting communication to inanimate objects, dubbed as human or human-like, deprives children of “those all-important non-verbal cues that you should be getting from communicating with real human beings,” said Rosen.

From a developmental standpoint, it is “probably better for children to have dolls that don’t talk so that they can have their imaginary conversation,” said Angela Campbell of Georgetown University’s School of Law. “They can have both sides of the conversation just playing with toys without being programmed.”

Some toys do not respond very responsively. Campbell cited Hello Barbie as an example.

“You’ll be talking about something and then she’ll say, ‘well, let’s talk about fashion’ … So she kind of tries to steer the conversation in certain directions, which I think is troubling,” she said.

Mattel has not responded to Techtonics’ requests for comment. But Rosen said it is important to understand that these kinds of toys are “designed for a purpose.” Parents have to decide if that purpose – be it education, data-collection for research or marketing – has any value for their children.

Nevertheless, marketing that is done “in a subtle way and is wrapped up inside of a device that purports to be doing something else” is a concern for Rosen, particularly with children, whose ability to understand something like subtle marketing or data-collection does not develop fully until they are in their 20s.

In some cases, parents have to consent to the manufacturer’s privacy policies online before their kids can play with toys like Hello Barbie, which records its conversations with children and saves them elsewhere.

But both Rosen and Campbell agreed that few parents read privacy policies. Those typically contain – often in convoluted legal language – articles that detail how manufacturers plan to store and use their information and their children’s information without their consent.

If such data must be saved, Campbell said people should demand that their private information be kept private and that it be stored in a safe manner, given how easy it is for hackers to access personal data these days, even from connected toys.

This will become a bigger concern as the world gets more entangled in connectivity and Wi-Fi-enabled toys. Privacy laws that protect children under the age of 13 exist in many countries. But in some cases, as with the 1998 U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, laws trail the technology that is transforming the way people work, communicate and play.

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.

3-D-printing Damaged Heritage Sites; Scaling Mount Everest in VR

Posted January 7th, 2016 at 11:58 am (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

A May 17, 2015 file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a general view of the ancient Roman city of Palmyra, northeast of Damascus. Syrian activists say Islamic State militants have destroyed a nearly 2,000-year-old arch in Palmyra, the latest victim in the group's campaign to destroy historic sites across the territory it controls in Iraq and Syria. (AP)

A May 17, 2015, file photo released by Syrian official news agency SANA shows a general view of the ancient Roman city of Palmyra, northeast of Damascus. Syrian activists say Islamic State militants have destroyed a nearly 2,000-year-old arch in Palmyra, the latest victim in the group’s campaign to ruin historic sites across the territory it controls in Iraq and Syria. (AP)

How 3-D Printers Can Help Preserve Heritage Sites

Historical heritage sites have paid a heavy toll for the exploits of Islamic State fanatics in the Middle East. But a joint venture between the Institute for Digital Archaeology, Harvard University, the University of Oxford and the Museum of the Future in Dubai is fighting back with a 3-D-printed replica of the Arch of Palmyra. CyArk, a non-profit that is creating a 3-D library of endangered cultural heritage sites, has also been engaged in preserving some of these monuments.

Beacon Tech for Grain Harvesters Helps Protect Crops

A German company that makes farming equipment has come up with the Fliegl Tracker, a Bluetooth transmitter that can be attached to harvesting and grain transport vehicles. The beacon sends constant messages to mobile devices on the location and weight of shipments. The tracking can help farmers reduce loss and give buyers confidence about the source of the shipment.

The Balancing Act of Scaling Mount Everest – in Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) can immerse people wearing special VR gear into alternative – and sometimes hair-raising – realities. PC World writer Brad Chacos got a firsthand experience when he checked out the Everest demo at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Did I mention he’s afraid of heights?

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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.

Windows 10 is Spying on You; Are Video Games Addictive?

Posted January 6th, 2016 at 11:08 am (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

A Microsoft delegate takes a picture during the launch of the Windows 10 operating system in Kenya's capital Nairobi, July 29, 2015. (Reuters)

A Microsoft delegate takes a picture during the launch of the Windows 10 operating system in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, July 29, 2015. (Reuters)

Microsoft Shows off What It Knows About Windows 10 Users

If you ever had any doubts that Windows 10 collects all kinds of user data for Microsoft, then here’s proof. In a recent blog post, Microsoft revealed what it knows about its Windows 10 customers, including how many hours they spent with the operating system and its Internet browser, and how many questions were directed at the Windows digital assistant Cortana, among other details. So if you haven’t tweaked your Windows 10 settings yet, this is the time to do it.

When Video Games Become an Addiction

As any gamer will tell you, video games can be addictive if you let them take hold of your life. But new research by Iowa State University psychologist Douglas Gentile shows that about 8.5 percent of U.S. children who play video games are addicted. His research also shows similar numbers worldwide.

The Must-see Products at CES 2016

Keeping an eye on the Consumer Electronics Show 2016 in Las Vegas? For an inkling of where the future is headed, CNET has put together a list of must-see CES products.

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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.

LEGO Launches Robot-based Learning Kit; ‘That Dragon, Cancer’

Posted January 5th, 2016 at 11:27 am (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

FILE - A child grabs LEGO bricks at a Kindergarten in Hanau, Germany, July 16, 2013. (Reuters)

FILE – A child grabs LEGO bricks at a Kindergarten in Hanau, Germany, July 16, 2013. (Reuters)

LEGO Education Launches New Robot-based Learning System

Forget the old way of learning. Kids today have more fun learning their sciences, and LEGO Education just jumped into the ring with a new kit it hopes will be added to school curricula. The kit includes a LEGO brick set, software and servos that will allow students to do science, engineering, technology and coding projects.

Ryan Green began working on That Dragon, Cancer in 2012 after his son, Joel, was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of cancer. After months of torment, Green and co-designer Josh Larson put together a demo that lets players live the trauma by clicking various items in a hospital room to try and relieve Joel’s suffering. The game launches this month.

Top Themes on the Cybersecurity Horizon for 2016

Hackers wreaked havoc on the Web in 2015, violating the privacy of millions of people. Looking ahead, Internet security firm Zscaler offers a perspective on the kinds of threats that are likely to surface this year in cybersecurity.

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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.