Today’s Tech Sightings: A Laptop-Sized Solar Panel Is Lighting Rural Africa M-Kopa, a Nairobi-based provider of solar-lighting systems, is making affordable solar panels to power homes that have no access to Kenya’s electrical grid. The panel is the size of a laptop, with a battery that generates about 8 watts of energy. Hawking, Musk, Wozniak Call […]
Lighting Rural Africa; AI; IoT; Windows 10; App Store Vulnerability
Bionic Eyes; Schooling Vietnam; Android Malware; Google Maps
Today’s Tech Sightings: World First Bionic Eye Gives Hope to Millions A British pensioner suffering from macular degeneration has become the world’s first person to be fitted with a bionic eye. The ground-breaking operation gave Ray Flynn, an electronic implant that works with a camera attached to his glasses to send video feeds to healthy […]
Leap Second; 3-D-Printed Building; VPN Leaks; Apple Price Fixing
Today’s Tech Sightings: The Leap Second Is Coming to Confuse the Internet Today It’s June 30; and that could be a problem. Just before midnight in London tomorrow, the world’s atomic clocks will gain a second before reverting back to 00:00:00. The extra leap second is needed to keep the clocks synced with the Earth’s […]
Internet Connectivity; Galaxy Flaw; Apple; a Zuckerberg Snapshot
Today’s Tech Sightings: Airbus, OneWeb to Compete With Internet.org in Worldwide Internet Race The race to connect the world to the Internet is heating up with another company getting into the fray. OneWeb has a plan to bring satellite connectivity to billions of people around the globe in partnership with Airbus, which will build more […]
Facial Recognition; Cybersecurity; Java Legacies; Twitter Out Loud
Today’s Tech Sightings: Privacy Advocates Unsatisfied With Government Plans on Facial Recognition A large group of privacy advocates dropped out of talks with the U.S. government over disagreements on facial recognition safeguards. The group, backed by tech giants that include Google, Microsoft and Facebook, argues that users should have an opt-in feature for facial recognition […]
Oculus VR for Therapy; Cyberinsecurity; iCloud Bug; Foxconn Eyes India
Today’s Tech Sightings: Oculus Virtual Reality Headset Finds Medical Uses Virtual Reality (VR) is great for gaming, but Jennifer Patterson, a University of Pittsburgh engineering student, used the Oculus prototype software to help treat soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. And she hopes her effort might show doctors and therapists the benefits of technology for […]
Robots; Tech Diversity Race; War Crimes App; Apple’s WWDC
Today’s Tech Sightings: Korean Robot Takes Home $2 Million Prize in DARPA Challenge A South Korean team won this weekend’s DARPA Robotics Challenge to design robots for disaster aid, taking home two million dollars. The winning DRC-HUBO robot completed all tasks in 45 minutes and was able to transform into a wheeled position to move faster. […]
Lithuania’s IT Power; Facebook Sued; Android Drops in EU; Mac BIOS Flaw
Today’s Tech Sightings: The Rise of Lithuania’s IT Power Attracted by its infrastructure and tech-favorable environment, more IT companies are flocking to Lithuania to set up shop there. Lithuania is home to 13 of the Baltic region’s 20 biggest IT firms; and its population ranks 16th in the world for their Information and Communication Technology […]
Online Abuse Dilemma; Windows 10; Apple Apps; Hammer of Thor PC
Today’s Tech Sightings: The US Supreme Court Just Made the Web Even More Hostile for Women The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that violent statements on social media websites and the Web in general are not enough to consider the perpetrator’s behavior threatening and that his state of mind at the time should be […]
Printed Prosthetics; Green Chips; iPhone Blues; IoT; Instagram
Today’s Tech Sightings: Google Pledges $20 Million to Give 3-D Prosthetics a Helping Hand The Director of Google’s non-profit Google.org, Jacquelline Fuller, announced the launch of the Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities project in a blog post, with $20 million in funding. The project is intended to support people with disabilities and push the development of […]