Today’s Tech Sightings: 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 […]
Online Harassment; Apps for the Blind; Bitcoin; iOS 9.1
Posted October 22nd, 2015 at 12:02 pm (UTC-5)
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 […]
Hawking’s Voice; Google in Africa; Bitcoin Split?
Posted August 18th, 2015 at 3:55 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Stephen Hawking’s Voice Now Available as Open Source Software Intel is making astrophysicist Stephen Hawking’s distinctive voice available to the public for free. The technology developed for Hawking, who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is called the Assistive Context-Aware Toolkit (ACAT). Intel will now make the source code open for people to […]
AI Demons; the Solar Race; Bitcoin; Cybersecurity; Firefox
Posted July 7th, 2015 at 4:16 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Five Ideas to End the Demonization of Artificial Intelligence The Future of Life Institute recently announced 37 winners of research grants in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), following concerns and warnings from luminaries such as Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence. The project is […]
Leap Second; 3-D-Printed Building; VPN Leaks; Apple Price Fixing
Posted June 30th, 2015 at 3:20 pm (UTC-5)
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 […]
Rise of Smartphones; Global Wi-Fi; Bitcoin; Apple; PayPal User Policy
Posted June 3rd, 2015 at 2:26 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: The Unstoppable Rise of the Smartphone A new mobility report from Ericsson said about 70 percent of the world’s population will be using smartphones by 2020. That means that 6.1 billion smartphones will be sold globally within five years. Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa accounted for the highest number of […]
Smartphones vs. Wearables; Flexible Battery; Bitcoin Foundation Bankrupt?
Posted April 7th, 2015 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Apple, Google agree Only Wearables Can Save Humanity From Evil Smartphones These two tech giants don’t agree on much, but writer Chris O’Brien argues that Google and Apple, both fierce competitors in the smartphone market, see smartphones as a malady inflicting phone addiction and anti-social behavior on society. And the two giants, […]
Red Envelopes From China; Superfishy Lenovo; Sony; Bitcoin Auction
Posted February 19th, 2015 at 2:45 pm (UTC-5)
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, […]