Today’s Tech Sightings: Google’s Internet Balloons Will Provide Connectivity to All of Sri Lanka Google’s Project Loon and the government of Sri Lanka have just signed an agreement to provide connectivity to the entire country. The island’s IT Minister, Mangala Samaraweera, said the project — using helium balloons to provide Internet access — will connect […]
Google Takes on Sri Lanka; Home Robots; Windows 10; Hammertoss
Lighting Rural Africa; AI; IoT; Windows 10; App Store Vulnerability
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 […]
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 […]
Ad Malware; Ozzie the Goose; IoT Insecurity; Microsoft Mobile Payments
Today’s Tech Sightings: Malicious, Large-Scale Google Ad Campaign Slams Users With Malware Researchers with Dutch security company Fox-IT found that advertisements distributed by Engage Lab, one of Google’s advertising partners in Bulgaria, redirect users to the Web-based Nuclear Exploit Kit. This particular exploit attempts to install malware on users’ computers by targeting vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash […]
Silicon Valley’s Gender Culture; GitHub vs. China; Drones on a Mission
Today’s Tech Sightings: Women in Silicon Valley Objectified, Paid Less Than Male Counterparts Technology trade shows have a name for them: so-called booth babes, meaning scantily-dressed women hired to tout tech gadgets. Now, some associations are banning this culture, saying it is demeaning to women. Adding insult to injury, a recent study from research group […]
Tech Diversity; Wearable Computers; IoT Privacy Risks
Today’s Tech Sightings: Intel Announces $300 Million Tech Diversity Initiative Given the bleak diversity numbers that keep coming out of Silicon Valley, Chip giant Intel has pledged $300 million over the next five years to increase diversity in its workforce to include more women and minorities. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said in a speech at […]
Choking Russia’s Internet; Uber Troubles; IoT; Google Hangouts
Today’s Tech Sightings: Russia’s Creeping Descent Into Internet Censorship A new Russian law could soon prevent foreign Internet companies from reaching the country unless they set up local servers. The move would effectively put these companies at the mercy of the Russian government, which has been gradually expanding censorship. Obama Becomes First US President to Write […]
PC Power Fights Ebola; IoT; Google’s Santa Tracker
Tech Sightings today: IBM Helps You Donate Computer Power to Fight Ebola In a new twist on ways to fight the Ebola virus, IBM and scientists at Scripps Research Institute in southern California have come up with a way to enable users to donate processing time on their PCs and various digital devices to researchers. Harvard: […]
Tech Sightings, September 24, 2014
Taiwan Probes Xiaomi on Cybersecurity Taiwanese authorities launched an investigation into whether China’s leading smartphone maker, Xiaomi, poses a cybersecurity risk. The probe started following reports that some of Xiaomi’s phones automatically send user data to its servers in mainland China. The results of the investigation will be released in three months. Facebook to Start […]