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
Posted July 28th, 2015 at 3:02 pm (UTC-4)
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Three-D Printing; App Fraud; Asia Eyes US Gaming Market
Posted July 23rd, 2015 at 3:00 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: India Needs China’s 3-D Printing Construction Technology Now Building a house in India takes about six months, on average. But recently, a Chinese company put together a 3-D-printed house in a matter of three hours. Writer Abhimanyu Ghoshal argues that India could use this technology to pare down the time it needs […]
Mozilla Blocks Flash; Nadella’s Microsoft; Google’s Photo Mishaps
Posted July 14th, 2015 at 3:09 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Mozilla Blocks Flash Player on Firefox Mozilla has blocked all versions of Adobe Flash Player in its Firefox browser due to its vulnerability to attack. Last week’s breach of the Italian company Hacking Team was made possible by a Flash Player bug that hackers exploited. While Adobe issued a patch, there appear […]
China’s Privacy Law; Gender on Facebook, Google; Mobile Addiction
Posted July 8th, 2015 at 3:32 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: China’s Draft Cybersecurity Law Could Boost Censorship A draft cybersecurity law just published by China’s parliament boosts privacy protection from hackers and information peddlers, but strengthens government powers to obtain records and block information that might be deemed illegal under Chinese law. The move could have significant implications for Internet service providers […]
Smartphones Detect Cancer; Venom Fixed; Apple Watch Flaw
Posted May 14th, 2015 at 2:47 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Smartphones Can Detect Eye Cancer Believe it or not, smartphones can actually diagnose Retinoblastoma, a rare type of aggressive eye cancer that develops as a tumor in the retina and almost exclusively affects children. Those suffering from this disease often have a white glow around their pupils that shows up when photographed with […]
Kinect for Parkinson’s; IBM’s ‘Light’ Chip; Privacy; VR
Posted May 12th, 2015 at 2:06 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: New Kinect Controller Could Be a Game-Changer for Parkinson’s Patients Dr. Konstantinos Banitsas and PhD candidate Amin Amini Maghsoud Bigy of Brunel University London have altered the Kinect game controller to help Parkinson’s patients counter some of the symptoms of the disease. The scientists developed a system that connects Kinect to a […]
Google’s New Algorithm; Robots; Drones; Apple’s ‘RootPipe’ Still Lives
Posted April 21st, 2015 at 2:39 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Disaster Robots Slow to Gain Acceptance From Responders According to the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue, robots have been used in 43 disasters worldwide, although first responders have been slow to adopt them. But the center is working to change that. Drones, Data Fight New Battle Against Poachers South Africa’s iSimangaliso […]
The Future of VR; User-Aided Hack Attacks; Android’s ‘Trusted Voice’
Posted April 14th, 2015 at 2:00 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Google Malaysia Service Disrupted by Hackers Users of Google’s Malaysia website got redirected Tuesday to a hacked site. A Google Malaysia spokesperson told Reuters the company has contacted the group that administers the domain name to address the issue. Likewise, Chinese hackers are said to be spying on governments in Southeast Asia […]
Silicon Valley Diversity; S. Korea Lifts Browser Rule; Can Tech Save Failing Aircraft?
Posted April 2nd, 2015 at 2:00 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Can Technology Steer a Plane Away From Disaster? The Germanwings Flight 9525 that was deliberately slammed into the French Alps last week, killing 150 people, has ignited renewed calls among aviation experts to develop and deploy software that can control an aircraft and automatically steer it to safety if it loses altitude. […]
Creating Shapes in Mid-Air; Apple in China; April Fools’ Gags
Posted April 1st, 2015 at 2:00 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: New Tech Creates Buttons, Shapes in Mid-Air UltraHaptics, a British company, has come up with technology that uses sound waves to project sensations of tactile, three-dimensional shapes through the air and to the user. So for example, air pressure changes are perceived as suspended, tangible interfaces. That could potentially mean a person […]