Today’s Tech Sightings: Russia Plans National OS to Escape Android, iOS Dependence Russia’s Minister of Communication Nikolai Nikiforov announced that the country will develop a national operating system based on open source mobile operating system Sailfish. The intent is to slash dependence by half on the Android and iOS mobile operating systems by 2025. Digital […]
Watson Joins Cancer Fight; Tech Diversity; Linux Malware, Patch Tuesday
Posted May 6th, 2015 at 2:04 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: How IBM Watson Will Change the Fight Against Cancer IBM has announced a new Watson Genomics initiative that will allow clinicians to use the supercomputer’s data-crunching capabilities to sequence the genomes of cancerous tumors and then access relevant medical and treatment data to make appropriate recommendations to their patients. IBM’s Watson is […]
3-D Printing; VR; Fighting Cancer With Games; Apple vs. Tattoos
Posted April 29th, 2015 at 2:36 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Your Next Hand Brace Could Be 3-D Printed Two firms – MHOX and CRP Group – have come up with an additive manufacturing process that allows them to 3-D-print flexible, waterproof material that can be used to create custom-made rehabilitation devices. How Virtual Reality is Being Used to Tackle Prejudice Prejudice runs […]
Reaching Out to Nepal; Robots Rising; the Tweeting Pope; WordPress Woes
Posted April 28th, 2015 at 2:12 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Earthquake Rocks Internet in Nepal The devastating earthquake that struck Nepal on Saturday claimed more than 4,000 lives and affected more than eight million people. It also took a toll on Internet connectivity. While international links survived, the same cannot be said for connectivity on the ground in areas where underground fiber […]
YouTube Turns 10; Video Sharing Wars; ‘Project Fi’; PC Graveyards
Posted April 23rd, 2015 at 2:10 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: YouTube Marks 10 Years of Uploads With New Studios for Filmmakers A decade after its launch, YouTube still gets billions of views each day. To improve content, YouTube is investing in “YouTube Spaces,” or studios similar to what it has in Tokyo that give filmmakers access to everything they need to create […]
Silicon Valley Diversity; S. Korea Lifts Browser Rule; Can Tech Save Failing Aircraft?
Posted April 2nd, 2015 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
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-5)
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 […]
Tim Cook’s Apple; Cryptoine Hacked; Android Woes; Facebook’s Transformation
Posted March 26th, 2015 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Tech Giants Call for Mass Surveillance Reform A slew of leading tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, Dropbox and others have banded together in a Reform Government Surveillance coalition to call on U.S. Congress to end government agencies’ bulk collection of communications data. The coalition has also attracted civil rights groups […]
Google, Facebook Vie for Africa; AI Threat; Kaspersky Denies KGB Ties
Posted March 24th, 2015 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Battle for African Internet Users Stirs Freedom Fears Africa is expected to have as many as 360 million smartphones and 50 percent Internet penetration by 2050, according to data from McKinsey Consultants. And Google and Facebook are paying attention and offering controversial freebies as they vie for the continent’s Internet users. […]
App for Ringing Ears; MusicGlove; Ethical Robots; Trust in Facebook?
Posted March 19th, 2015 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Musical Glove Helps Stroke Patients Use Their Hands Again Part of the problem of rehabilitating stroke victims is that many of them don’t keep up their physical therapy. In an effort to change the situation, Nizan Friedman, founder of Flint Rehabilitation Devices, has come up with a wearable device called MusicGlove […]