Today’s Tech Sightings: Like It or Not, ‘Internet of Things’ Is Going to Invade Your Home Let’s face it, there will come a time when you will not be able to avoid buying that smart fridge that orders your groceries or the digital assistant that listens to your every word at home or in your […]
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The IoT Home Invasion; Apple Pulls New York Times Apps in China
2016 Was Year of Ransomware, Exploding Devices, AI, Social Media Lies
Looking back at this past year’s tech scene, 2016 distinguished itself as the year of ransomware and fake news. It witnessed the ongoing battle over privacy and Samsung’s exploding phones, and saw the continued rise of artificial intelligence and the proliferation of drones. Here are some of the year’s leading stories: The ransom year While […]
Six-year-old Skirts Biometric Login; How Hackers Use Stolen Credit Data
Today’s Tech Sightings: Child Uses Sleeping Mom’s Fingerprints to Buy Pokémon Gifts Biometrics are supposed to offer better security for your mobile devices. But no one probably expected that Bethany Howell’s six-year-old daughter, in Arkansas, would borrow her fingerprint while she slept to buy $250 of Pokémon Christmas gifts. The child, Ashlynd, later admitted she had […]
Closing in on a Cyborg Future; Social Media Use Makes You Miserable?
Today’s Tech Sightings: How We Got Closer to Our Cyberhuman Future in 2016 There is no escaping the growing symbiosis between man and machine. Writer Kristen V. Brown says we have already become cyborgs in the sense that we are tethered to electronic devices. And she argues that the breakthroughs seen in 2016 have brought […]
E-taxi GPS Data Tapped to Improve Roads; 2016’s Worst Cyberbreaches
Today’s Tech Sightings: GPS Data From E-taxi Platforms Could Improve Roads in Developing Countries The World Bank is partnering with tech companies, nonprofits, and cab-hailing services in Asia and Latin America in an effort to improve transportation services and ease congestion in different parts of the world. Under an open data license, the Open Transport […]
Television Is Taking Over Social Media; 2016’s Biggest Breaches
Today’s Tech Sightings: Social Media Is Killing Discourse Because It’s Too Much Like TV Writer Hossein Derakshan argues social media now represents the ascendance of television over other media. As video and graphic content replace text and hypertext, he says social media is recreating television, albeit with new problems. On social media, he argues, algorithms […]
What President Trump Means for Tech; Election Big Winner Was Twitter
Today’s Tech Sightings: What the Trump Win Means for Tech and Science As writer Karissa Bell put it in Mashable, Silicon Valley was freaking out last night. In large part, the tech sector had hoped Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, whose clear tech policies were positively received, would win the White House. But with Republican President-elect […]
US Vote Underway Amid Cybersecurity Alert; Year of the Election Bots
Today’s Tech Sightings: US Cybersecurity Officials on High Alert as Voting Gets Underway Cybersecurity officials were on the lookout for potential threats from hackers looking to disrupt the U.S. presidential election as voters went to the polls Tuesday. The high alert came amid concerns that some hackers might try to disrupt voting in key states. […]
US Social Media Campaigns Are Playbook for Future Elections
The level of social media engagement in this year’s U.S. presidential election has been unprecedented. And experts say it will serve as a template for influencing voters in future election campaigns in the U.S. and beyond. Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a Republican who dropped out of the race, were the […]
WWW Turns 25; Saving Lives in South Africa’s Slums
Today’s Tech Sightings: Happy 25th Birthday to the World Wide Web Yes, it’s been 25 years already. On August 23, 1991, Switzerland-based computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee deployed the World Wide Web (WWW), where all documents and web pages are stored, for the first time. Berners-Lee, who worked for CERN – the European Organization for Nuclear […]