Online Harassment; Apps for the Blind; Bitcoin; iOS 9.1

Posted October 22nd, 2015 at 12:02 pm (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

Experts Address How Silicon Valley Can Solve Online Harassment

Despite all the wonders of the Internet, it remains a playground for abusers looking to silence minority voices. Wired talks to six experts about what Silicon Valley can do to help put an end to online harassment.

How One Woman is Using Instagram to Shame Online Pervs and Creeps

The dark side of social media sites like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook is that they attract Internet perverts. And having had a few encounters of her own, Mia Matsumiya went on the offensive with an Instagram account called Perv Magnet, which displays some of the offensive messages she had to put up with.

The New App That Serves as Eyes for the Blind

Scientists at IBM Research and Carnegie Mellon University working on accessibility solutions for the visually impaired have come up with a pilot app for Android and iOS that helps visually impaired navigate their way using voice commands or sound vibration.

Experts Now Say iPads Okay for Early Developing Children, With Guidance

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) now has a new position on the potential harm of smartphones and tablets for developing kids. Research done in May has induced the AAP to adopt a more permissive stance. Given the proliferation of digital devices, the AAP now says such tools can be useful, with parental participation, but should not be viewed as babysitters or reward or punishment.

EU Rules Bitcoin Is a Currency

The European Union’s Court of Justice ruled Thursday that for tax considerations, Bitcoin should be treated like currency, rather than a commodity. The ruling resolves a dispute over how Europe should approach Bitcoin and removes tax hurdles that would have faced the virtual currency had it been classified as a commodity.

Apple iOS 9.1 Release Admits to Serious Problems

Apple iPhone users may be moving quickly to the latest operating system, iOS 9, but by Apple’s admission, that release has serious problems. Writer Gordon Kelly lists bugs that have already been fixed.

Twitter Officially Opens Moments Publishing Tools to Everyone

Twitter’s Moments, a new feature intended to help publishers and developers group their tweets by subject or story to make it easier to find them, is now available to everyone. The service includes Publishers and Curator, which make it easier to search for tweets and customize them for publication.

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.

#BlackLivesMatter; Palmyra; Twitter Polls; Back to October 21, 2015

Posted October 21st, 2015 at 12:01 pm (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

How #BlackLivesMatter Uses Social Media to Fight the Power

#BlackLivesMatter is a Twitter hashtag created in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed young African American Trayvon Martin in Florida. The hashtag has since become a rallying cry for millions of people looking for change.

Jailed Activist’s 3-D Models Could Save Syria’s History

Online activists are planning to release a batch of files from the Palmyra Project – an online archive of 3-D models of the ancient Syrian city based on photographs taken by Bassel Khartabil, an activist who is currently locked away in one of the Syrian regime’s jails. The idea is to bring attention to the Palmyra Project and push for Khartabil’s release.

Facebook Targets Minority Parents to Improve Tech Diversity

Facebook Wednesday launched a new website in English and Spanish to help minority students interested in learning about programming. The site also helps families eager to get their kids interested in technology.

As Threat of Foreign Hackers Grows, US Firms Are Slow to React

New research from cybersecurity companies Ponemon Institute and CounterTack that surveyed people who work in the IT sector found that 75 percent of those polled were unprepared for a cyberattack or are unable to deflect one. Only half said they were preparing for such a scenario.

Twitter Opens Up Polls to Everyone

Twitter’s poll feature is now available to iOS and Android mobile users. The service allows users to embed two-question polls into their tweets and keep them open for a full day. Results are secret, and when the poll expires, all those who participated will be notified.

Microsoft’s Rule-Breaking Vision of a Future With Countless Devices

In today’s gadget-obsessed world, consumers are lured by digital devices of all sizes and capabilities. And in the race to be the first to get your attention – and wallet – a do-everything Microsoft is betting that the future is a landscape of multiple devices that could lead to dominance or unearth new niches looking for a player.

What ‘Back to the Future II’ Got Right (and Wrong) About October 21, 2015

According to the movie Back to the Future II, today is the future. That means all of the technology introduced in the movie was ahead of its time, so to speak. Here’s a look at what technology it got right – and wrong.

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.

Snapchat & Teens; Your AI Muse; Apple; Online Reviews

Posted October 20th, 2015 at 12:00 pm (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

I’m 15 and Snapchat Makes Me Feel Awful About Myself

Writer Ruby Karp argues that Snapchat’s latest update encourages FOMO or fear of missing out among teenagers. She says teens are obsessed with the Snapchat stories feature, which lets them “boast” about who they are with, what they’re doing — and “what everyone else is missing out on.”

The AI That Writes Articles for You is Available for Testing

Wordsmith is Automated Insight’s new platform for taking care of repetitive, time-consuming writing tasks. Wordsmith creates a story based on uploaded data and user definitions of the story structure.

Tim Cook: We Should Have Both Privacy and Security

Apple CEO Tim Cook again argued in favor of strong encryption during a debate with government agencies on Monday. He also defended privacy, saying users should not have to choose between privacy and security.

Chinese Firm Behind Snooping iOS Apps Admits Guilt

Apple has been busy removing and banning up to 256 apps from the App Store for sniffing out user data. The culprit – a Chinese advertising firm – has admitted guilt and apologized for collecting private user data.

Beware of Scammers Impersonating Apple Tech Support

A report from cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes says crooks are masquerading as Apple technicians to lure unsuspecting victims to their website, ara-apple.com. The elaborate scheme makes victims believe something is wrong with their computers and seduces them to call the fake technicians.

Amazon Cracks Down on Fake Reviews

Amazon has filed suit against more than 1,000 people who allegedly offered themselves for hire to write fake product reviews and, on occasion, offered to let sellers write their own reviews, which they would then post.

How to Spot a Fake Online Review

Can tell a fake review from a real one? Research firm Mintel found that 49 percent of those surveyed believe online reviewers get incentives from the sellers whose products are being reviewed. Here are a few tips to help you determine what’s real and what’s not.

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.

Laser-Beaming the Internet of the Future

Posted October 15th, 2015 at 4:20 pm (UTC-5)
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A visitor takes pictures with her mobile phone in front of laser beams and a projected image of the Arc de Triomphe, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, Nov. 2, 2013. (Reuters)

A visitor takes pictures with her mobile phone in front of laser beams and a projected image of the Arc de Triomphe, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, Nov. 2, 2013. (Reuters)

Several tech companies are looking at laser or a combination of radio and laser technologies to take Internet connectivity the next level.

Spearheading the effort are Google and Facebook. Google, which is deploying helium balloons in the stratosphere to provide Internet connectivity in remote areas as part of Project Loon, wants to use radio or laser to enable its balloons to transfer data in areas that are far from ground relay stations.

Facebook wants to launch drones that use laser beams for high-speed Internet connectivity in remote regions. The idea is that the drone closest to urban areas would use laser to connect to the Internet and then pass along the connection to drones flying over rural area.

“Both Google and Facebook think that if they can these aircraft in the stratosphere, roughly 20 kilometers above the Earth, they could kind of function like aerial cell towers and spread the connections more easily and without having to figure out the power and the cabling and everything on the ground,” said Tom Simonite – the San Francisco Bureau Chief of the MIT Tech Review..

Facebook, in particular, is very interested in using laser to transfer data.

“They claim to have set a new record and made the fastest laser data transfer ever,” said Simonite. “And I just think it shows that they are taking it seriously and are trying to push the technology forward.”

Other companies are coupling laser technology with radio redundancy to deliver uninterrupted Internet connectivity in inclement weather. In that kind of situation, Simonite said both laser and radio connections run in parallel, so that the laser can pick up any slack in case of radio interference.

“They’re extremely fast,” he said, “but if anything gets in the path of the beam, the signal is blocked.”

If the laser cannot travel in a straight line, the radio side would cover the deficit. “So it’s like a redundancy thing so that they always have a connection that’s live,” he said.

But the need to use both radio and laser simultaneously can be limiting, said Simonite. He said “lasers can be used to fuller potential” with project like the ones Google and Facebook are undertaking.

Lasers can emit light that can be modulated at very high speeds and can carry more than a petabit of data per second. A petabit is 1,000 terabits. A terabit equals a mind-boggling one trillion bits. The average U.S. Internet connection speed topped 11.7 megabits per second in the last quarter of this year, according to Akamai’s State of the Internet Report. Globally, Internet speeds vary, depending on equipment and region.

Used in communications, they typically operate at 850 and 1550 nanometer wavelengths or colors of light, which are invisible to the human eye.

The technology is promising for developing countries and in parts of the world where laying cables is difficult, where cables are easily damaged, or in rural areas where labor and materials tend to be expensive. Simonite said governments and cellular carriers now want to push their coverage into new, unsaturated regions.

“And it looks like this technology could help maybe with that in places where the regular way of connecting up cell towers with cables and so on doesn’t really work so well,” added Simonite.

Laser technology is not new, however. Professor Siddharth Ramachandran of Boston University’s Nanostructured Fibers & Nonlinear Optics Lab, said laser, a critical feature of Internet connectivity, has been used for communications since the late 1970s.

One company, in particular – Washington-based TeraBeam – was interested in the idea of free-space laser communications back in 2004 and produced free-space optical transceivers for Internet access.

Ramachandran speculated TeraBeam wanted to use 1550nm laser light, which is considered “eye-safe.”  It is unclear, however, if it is hazardous when used at higher levels of power in free-space communications.

“The main reason I believe Terabeam planned to use1550nm light is because most of the terrestrial and undersea fiber-optic communications equipment operates at this wavelength, which means it would be cheaper to piggy back on a lot of the technological infrastructure that was already developed,” he said.

The 1550nm wavelength, invisible to the human eye, is becoming the color of choice.

“And while modern communications systems [such as, for example Cable Television applications] transmit a lot of laser power through the fibers or devices in the system, the laser beam seldom exits packaged devices so as to be directly harmful to human beings,” he said.

Moreover, Ramachandran said laser beams connecting consumers with fiber-to-the-home applications “that promise massive bandwidths to each user, are low enough in power to not be a health concern generally.”

Propagating light in free space to wirelessly transmit data has the same advantages as wireless or satellite links, but will be more expensive. But Ramachandran said the costs could drop if the market is looking for the kind of higher bandwidth that laser-based free-space communications will provide.

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.

E-Learning; Women in Tech; Cloud Culture; Kiss Your Piggy Bank Goodbye

Posted October 15th, 2015 at 12:30 pm (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

The Coming Trends in Online Education

Online learning has benefited from new and improved tech tools during the past six years. However, these improvements have not produced better learning outcomes, claims writer William Fenton. He argues that priorities need to change as online learning shifts towards “blended initiatives with residential universities.”

More Than 10,000 Women in Tech Gather in Houston

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference convenes in Houston, Texas, this week with a record 12,000 people attending, a growth of 25% from last year. The meeting, described as the world’s largest gathering of women technologists, is said to have become a source of inspiration for women in technology, a largely male-dominated field.

The Cloud Changes IT Culture, Demands New Tech Skills

The migration to the cloud is underway, at times forcing companies to change the way they do business. But as they begin moving their data and services to the cloud, the IT culture itself is shifting and forcing a new look at the kind of skills that workers need to occupy in this evolving space.

Could Kids’ Phones Replace Piggy Banks?

The piggy bank you might remember from your childhood could very well become extinct. Money apps for kids are showing up on mobile, allowing parents to deposit their children’s allowance digitally. One app – Beanstocks – lets parents create a list of chores and then pay their kids for the chore they complete, such as taking out the garbage.

French Experts Say Hackers Could Control Siri

French researchers claim that radio waves can disrupt commands on voice-activated iPhones, if headphones are plugged in, allowing hackers to eavesdrop on conversations or take control of the phone.

No Thanks: JPEG Images May Soon Have Copy Protection

If you haven’t already had enough of Digital Rights Management or DRM, a new initiative from the Joint Photographic Experts Group could bring DRM to regular JPEG images. The move could protect user privacy but it could also prevent users from copying or opening some of these pictures.

Yahoo Mail Drops Passwords, Adds Third-party Email Support

Marking its 18th birthday this month, Yahoo Mail announced new offerings on Android and iOS. The new apps support multiple third-party email accounts and introduce the Yahoo Account Key – a new approach to security that does away with passwords altogether.

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.

Connecting the World; Flash Malware; Apple; Twitter

Posted October 14th, 2015 at 12:20 pm (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

Ericsson CEO Explains How He’s Going to Connect the World to the Internet

In an interview with Re/Code, Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg spoke about what is needed to connect the world to the Internet as hardware prices drop and mobile phones become more accessible.

4.2 Billion People Are Still Offline

The world maybe getting more connected, but the United Nations Broadband Commission says around 4.2 billion people are still offline. In fact, Internet access growth is expected to slow down. Languages not represented online and the gaps between rich and poor countries are some of the challenges that make Internet adoption among the world’s unconnected citizens a slow process.

Microsoft Patches Critical Security Flaw Affecting All Windows Versions

Microsoft has issued a patch to fix a serious remote code execution vulnerability in Internet Explorer. The vulnerability relates to the way the browser handles objects in memory, which could give an attacker access to the affected machine, including log-in access rights.

Flash Hit by Malware – Again

Security firm TrendMicro has reported a new Adobe Flash malware that allows attackers to install software on their victim’s computer. The attack starts with an email related to current news, though. The malware installs on the system once the victim clicks on the link in the email.

Apple Loses Patent Lawsuit to University of Wisconsin, Faces Hefty Damages

Apple could pay up to $862 million in damages after a U.S. jury ruled that the tech giant used technology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison without permission to enhance the processing efficiency of its chips. A trial will now decide how much Apple will pay in damages.

Twitter Names Google’s Omid Kordestani As New Executive Chairman

Following a large round of layoffs, Twitter’s new CEO Jack Dorsey has appointed former Google exec Omid Kordestani as the social network’s new executive chairman. Kordestani was poached from Google, where he served as the company’s chief business officer.

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.

Margaret Hamilton; Apple News; Google Drones; Pepsi Smartphone?

Posted October 13th, 2015 at 12:00 pm (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

Her Code Got Humans on the Moon — and Invented Software

You might never have heard of Margaret Hamilton. In the 1960s, she landed a job as a programmer at MIT. But when the Apollo space program came along, she led an engineering feat that would land a man on the moon and invent the modern software concept.

The Tech Sector’s Best Innovations for the Syrian Refugee Crisis

A number of technology companies are trying to come up with solutions to help meet the needs of Syrian refugees heading for Europe, including donations, raising money on social media and housing credits. The most noteworthy, however, is a Kickstarter project backed by the United Nations Refugee Agency, which has raised more than $1.5 million.

Android Security Is ‘Market for Lemons’ That Leaves 87 Percent Vulnerable

New research from Britain’s Cambridge University reveals that up to 90 percent of Android devices are threatened by at least one critical vulnerability. Part of the problem is that even when Google fixes security bugs, it is unclear which Android vendors or third parties will apply the fix.

Amazon Commits $10M Over Five Years to Help Translate Books Into English

Amazon Publishing has already helped translate 200 titles in 19 languages. Now, the company has earmarked $10 million to increase the number of countries and translated languages and is launching a new portal for publishers, authors and agents to accept translation suggestions.

Apple Disables News in China

The long arm of China’s Internet censorship has extended to Apple News. Apple’s response has been to stop the service for customers in mainland China rather than censor certain content. But Pay4Bugs founder Larry Salibra said on Reddit that Apple is “censoring news content that I downloaded and stored on my device purchased in the USA, before I even enter China.”

Google Registers Two Delivery Drones for US Testing

U.S. Federal Aviation Administration documents show that Google has registered two unmanned aerial vehicles or drones for testing, probably for delivery services. Both are fixed-wing light aircraft. Google’s earlier plans for delivery drones did not fare well.

Pepsi Is Making Its Own Smartphone in China

Yes, Pepsi is in fact launching its own mobile phone. The mid-range device is called Pepsi P1, an Android mobile phone that will reportedly sell for $200 in China. Pepsi said it will be licensing production of its brand to a partner.

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.

Study: Women’s Tweets on Tech Less Popular Than Men’s

Posted October 9th, 2015 at 4:38 pm (UTC-5)
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People use their smartphones in New York City, in this picture taken Nov. 6, 2013. (Reuters)

People use their smartphones in New York City, in this picture taken Nov. 6, 2013. (Reuters)

A recent study of men’s and women’s tweet patterns and engagement levels reveals a topical bias that renders men’s tweets, particularly on tech issues, more popular than women’s.

The study was done by Kieran Snyder, co-founder and CEO of Textio, a machine-learning company that looks for bias patterns in business documents and hiring practices and helps correct them.

TECHtonics caught up with Snyder to learn more about the study.

Q. How did you come to do this research?

SNYDER: Well, I published quite a bit in the past on gender bias and text. … But I do tweet quite a bit. And I tweet kind of a range of topics. … And I noticed that engagement patterns with my tweets were really skewed. And it made me wonder whether others would show a similar pattern, where I saw that … my tweets on gender got significantly more engagement than my tweets about any other topic.

Twitter Gender Bias

Q.  Do you think that reflects the lack of diversity in technology?

SNYDER: … I don’t want to say that it reflects the lack of diversity in the tech field. There’s something … all of these people are active with careers in technology; it certainly reflects the conversational bias that exists where it appears at least in this context that men are participating more actively in the conversation … at the core of evolving industry. And women are participating more actively in conversations about inclusivity in the industry.

Q.  So this is then behavioral bias rather than social media bias?

SNYDER: … It reflects patterns that are otherwise seen in other contexts … One of the reasons that was very interesting … is because previously I had worked mostly at other kinds of documents that are more intrinsic to the workplace. And certainly, there are striking patterns of gender language in those other kinds of documents. And so, I think in this case, social media reflects how conversations often happen in the workplace to begin with.

Q. What concerns you most about these results?

SNYDER: … There are legitimate inclusivity issues in technology. There is no doubt about that. I think anyone with a long-standing career in technology would probably acknowledge that.

I worry that if we have fundamentally different groups of people talking about inclusion and talking about the actual technology itself, it makes it very hard for those conversations to converge in a useful way. So if you end up with sort of a traditional white male group dominating the conversation about the work that we do in the industry and … a group that is more underrepresented having the conversation about inclusivity, there’s just not a lot of incentive to bring the conversations together for the group that’s in the majority.

It’s easier to marginalize the inclusivity concerns if the people having the inclusivity conversations are not also seen as active contributors to the business conversations that are happening.

…. I believe, having worked in technology myself for a lot of years, that most people in the industry have bias. And I believe most even don’t want to. Most people are good people. And I think most bias really is unconscious. And so I see the Twitter patterns … more as a product of that unconscious bias … If the people leading the conversation are all from one group, I don’t know if the exclusion is intentional, but it happens anyway.

Q. What do you think should be done about these results?

SNYDER: … There [are] a couple things. Driving up inclusivity and diversity at technology companies isn’t trivial. It’s not impossible. It’s not as complicated as companies make it out to be. But it’s not trivial. It’s work … to hire people, to create an inclusive environment.

… On an individual level, I think we benefit when we make an effort to follow people or engage with people who are a little bit outside our traditional comfort zone on topics when we see that they have things of value to say.

… A little more deeply, I think it is a good wakeup call to be conscious of when you are having a conversation in your workplace. … [If] you’re in the majority and you’re participating in core conversations, are you making an effort to seek out various perspectives for those conversations?  And then kind of conversely, if you’re in an underrepresented group, are you finding the conversational opportunities that you need and want with people who are in the majority? … I think there’s something broader about how we have conversations within companies and within the industry.

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.

Thailand’s Firewall; the Next Big Thing; Android; Steve Jobs

Posted October 8th, 2015 at 3:38 pm (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

Thai Military’s Plan for ‘Great Firewall’ Risks Internet Competition

Free speech advocates and former officials say the proposal by Thailand’s military government to create a single, controlled Internet gateway would kill competition and be seen as the latest effort to smother freedom of expression and dissent.

Android Creator Thinks the Next Big Thing Isn’t in Mobile

“The Father of Android,” Andy Rubin, thinks that mobile will not dominate in the next 10 or 20 years as Artificial Intelligence becomes the next computing platform. He believes that people will start thinking about doing things without a screen as they interact more with various smart devices.

Android Malware Hammers Phones With Unwanted Ads

Researchers from security firm FireEye have detected a malicious malware called Kemoge that appears like a legitimate third party app but actually bombards Android devices with unwanted ads. The researchers said the malware, which has infected smartphones in more than 20 countries, could have been written by Chinese developers or is being controlled by Chinese hackers.

Samsung: Customer Payment Data Not Affected by Hack Attack

LoopPay, a company Samsung acquired earlier this year to power its electronic payments system, was hacked Thursday. Samsung said the attack was an isolated incident and sought to assure its customers that their data is safe. LoopPay was the target of a previous hack attack in March.

Windows 10 Continuum Will Forever Change Smartphones – or Whatever We’ll Call Them

Writer Daniel Bean argues that Microsoft is now in a position to lead with next-generation handsets and that its vision for a ubiquitous, across-all-devices user experience is not too far down the road. He says this is possible because of the “Windows 10 Continuum,” which turns new Lumia smartphones running Windows 10 into full-functioning, mobile computers

Steve Jobs and Tech’s God Complex

Writer Jason Tanz takes on the latest biopic about the late Apple founder, Steve Jobs, an iconic name in technology. But he says the movie sees Jobs’ tech creations not as divine inspirations but “as physical manifestations of the neuroses and pathologies” of an all-too-human creator.

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.

Nong Kalaland; Nepal’s Drones; Internet Use & Teen Health; Microsoft

Posted October 7th, 2015 at 3:37 pm (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

Thailand’s Gamers Fight to Save Open Internet

Thailand’s idea of controlling Internet traffic through one gateway is not sitting well with a lot of the country’s citizens. Several groups that include privacy activists – even gamers – have united to take down government websites with coordinated Distributed Denial of Service attacks. The groups have created a fictional character to represent their struggle on Facebook, called Nong Kalaland.

In Nepal, a Model for Using Drones for Humanitarianism Emerges

Following the devastating earthquake that rocked Nepal earlier this year, Patrick Meier of Humanitarian UAV Network has been using drones to map affected areas. The aerial photos and 3D models generated by the drones help track  recovery efforts.

Smartphone Users in Emerging Markets Deserve Better Than Watered-Down Internet

As billions of people in countries like India and Bangladesh and others adopt mobile devices for their Internet use, Mark Surman, Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation, asks about the quality of content they are getting, given a survey released earlier this year by Quartz that said millions of Facebook users don’t even know that they are on the Internet or how much access they are getting. Surman calls for access that allows for education and openness.

Lagos Finds Its Digital Saviors

According to a recent report from Ericsson, Nigeria boasts around 150 million active mobile phones. And when those gadgets break down, people try to have them fixed at market stalls. But a new startup called SuperGeeks has found a market niche for maintaining and repairing the country’s mobile toys.

Heavier Internet Use Raises Risk of High Blood Pressure in Teens

Teens spending at least 14 hours a week on the Internet have elevated blood pressure, according to research done at Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital. The findings bolster existing studies that show a correlation between heavy Internet use and a variety of health risks, including addiction, anxiety, depression, obesity and social isolation.

Instant Messaging Continues to Grow, Led by Asia

A study from global research consultancy firm TNS shows that daily use of instant messaging (IM) has risen 12 percent over the past year with platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Viber. Up to 55 percent of global Internet users are now using IM on a daily basis. About 76 percent use it weekly.

Why Microsoft’s Audacious Vision for the Future of Computing is Finally Ready

Until recently, the question of relevance – or irrelevance – plagued Microsoft for years. But writer Brad Chacos argues that Microsoft’s vision of unifying hardware and software in a holistic way is finally coming to fruition, although it remains to be seen if the world will embrace the new Microsoft.

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.