Showing Archived Posts

Facebook; Google Translate; Wearable Tech; Windows 10; e-Sports

Posted July 30th, 2015 at 1:09 pm (UTC-4)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: Half of the World’s Population Is on Facebook Facebook’s daily active users now average 968 million, an increase of 17 percent over last year. According to Facebook, up to 1.49 billion users – half of the world’s online population of three billion – accessed the social network by the end of the […]

Google Takes on Sri Lanka; Home Robots; Windows 10; Hammertoss

Posted July 29th, 2015 at 1:07 pm (UTC-4)
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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 […]

Biometrics Have Promise, But Raise Privacy, Security Questions

Posted July 17th, 2015 at 4:02 pm (UTC-4)
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More companies are slowly adopting biometrics, a technology sometimes seen as “the” answer to a crumbling cybersecurity regime that has fallen prey to hackers. But the collection of biometric data is raising all kinds of questions about privacy and security. MasterCard, the latest firm to dip its toes into the waters of biometrics, is developing […]

Future Toilets; Creepy Facebook Algorithm; Privacy; Free Windows 10?

Posted June 23rd, 2015 at 3:44 pm (UTC-4)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: Gates-Funded Toilet of the Future Is Built So Anyone Can Repair It Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Caltech’s Group’s “toilet of the future” uses solar power to turn human waste into clear, sterilized water. After testing it in India, the group decided to tackle maintenance issues, should the toilet […]

Facial Recognition; Cybersecurity; Java Legacies; Twitter Out Loud

Posted June 16th, 2015 at 3:30 pm (UTC-4)
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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 […]

Rise of Smartphones; Global Wi-Fi; Bitcoin; Apple; PayPal User Policy

Posted June 3rd, 2015 at 2:26 pm (UTC-4)
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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 […]

Do You Know What Your Tech Toys Are Sharing About You?

Posted May 29th, 2015 at 2:30 pm (UTC-4)
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Many PC and smartphone owners only use their devices for basic tasks like accessing email and the Internet, or playing a game, often unaware what apps are running in the background, possibly sharing their information. And yet many people gladly trade their privacy for convenience – a decision that makes raising awareness an uphill battle. […]

Digital Human Rights; Abuse Emojis; Google’s I/O Show; the Robot Wars

Posted May 28th, 2015 at 2:29 pm (UTC-4)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: UN Report: Encryption is Important to Human Rights The United Nation’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said digital security and privacy are essential for freedom of expression around the world. A new U.N. report said encryption and anonymity tools help “provide the privacy and security necessary for the exercise of […]

Printed Prosthetics; Green Chips; iPhone Blues; IoT; Instagram

Posted May 27th, 2015 at 3:30 pm (UTC-4)
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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 […]

YouTube Kids; Gaming for Charity, Logjam; @POTUS; Mobile Malware

Posted May 20th, 2015 at 2:09 pm (UTC-4)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: YouTube, Google Under Fire for Adult Content in Kids App U.S. consumer groups have updated a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission after finding adult-themed videos on the Google-owned YouTube Kids app for Android and iOS. Google was already criticized in April for allowing ads to mix with content geared for kids. […]