Today’s Tech Sightings: Indonesia Warns Messaging Apps to Drop Same-sex Emoticons The government of Indonesia, where homosexuality is a sensitive topic, is demanding that instant messaging apps remove stickers and images that express support for bisexual or transgender orientations. The move follows a backlash on social media over same-sex stickers on popular messaging app Line […]
Indonesia Fights Same-sex Emoticons; 25 Percent of Mobile Apps Insecure
Posted February 11th, 2016 at 11:10 am (UTC-5)
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Google Exec to Head Cancer-Detection Startup; Facebook’s Andreessen Offends Indians
Posted February 10th, 2016 at 12:00 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Google’s Huber to Lead Illumina Cancer-Detecting Startup Grail Google executive Jeff Huber has been named CEO of Illumina Inc.’s Grail, a startup developing a blood test to detect cancer at its earliest stage. Grail aims to create a screening blood test that can diagnose all types of cancers before their symptoms begin […]
USBs Fight N. Korea’s Media Ban; Facebook’s Dilemma in India
Posted February 9th, 2016 at 11:07 am (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Old USB Drives Fight North Korea’s Media Ban The New York-based Human Rights Foundation and Silicon Valley nonprofit Forum 280 have launched a new initiative to collect USB flash drive donations and then ship them to the Koreas. Once activists in Seoul, such as the non-profit North Korean Strategy Center, receive the […]
How Facebook Censors Some Posts; Alibaba’s Shopping Site Hacked
Posted February 4th, 2016 at 11:20 am (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Facebook Censorship Under the Microscope OnlineCensorship.org – a non-profit looking at social media censorship – has been collecting data about posts blocked by Facebook. Surprised? There are some topics that Facebook will block if you try to post stories about them, such as drone strikes or some topics related to conflict zones. […]
Mobile Apps Challenge Open Web; The New Internet Digital Gap
Posted February 3rd, 2016 at 11:30 am (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Why Mobile Apps Are the Biggest Challenge to Internet Freedom Smartphone users spend up to 90 percent of their phone time in mobile apps. And while that may not necessarily be a bad thing, writer Matt Asay argues that it is not a healthy or open web environment if one company owns […]
Amazon Takes on Math; Bitcoin’s Future Could Be in Developing World
Posted February 2nd, 2016 at 11:45 am (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Think You Stink at Math? Amazon Wants to Change That Amazon, in collaboration with Stanford University and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, is launching a new initiative to help kids and teachers look at math in a more favorable way. The initiative – With Math I Can – has a […]
North Korea Online Population: 0.03 Percent; Death of the Java Plug-in
Posted January 28th, 2016 at 11:40 am (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: There Are Just 7,000 Web Users in North Korea That there are any people online in North Korea is refreshing. But a new survey from marketing Group We Are Social found only 7,200 Web users in the country. The survey says only about 0.03 percent of the population are allowed to go […]
iPhones Too Pricey for Poorer World; Malaysia Blocks ‘Medium’
Posted January 27th, 2016 at 11:39 am (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Tim Cook Basically Admits Price of iPhones May Be Too High for World That’s Growing Poorer Apple’s earnings report shows iPhone sales declining. But CEO Tim Cook’s also conceded while addressing the report that one of the reasons for the decline is Apple’s policy of charging the highest possible prices to protect […]
Internet of Things Devices Still Not Secure; AI Pioneer Minsky Dies
Posted January 26th, 2016 at 11:30 am (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Forrester: Internet of things Security Years Away From Being Fully-baked A new report from Forrester Research expresses alarm that the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem has glossed over user security while focusing on analytics and growth. The research, based on 27 companies, says security standards are still non-existent and integration issues between […]
Encrypted Smartphone Sales Banned in California; iHeartRadio Reaches 80mil
Posted January 21st, 2016 at 11:34 am (UTC-5)
Now California State Wants to Ban Sale of Encrypted Smartphones California’s assembly member Jim Cooper introduced legislation to ban the sale of smartphone devices that come with unbreakable encryption. The state is home to the world’s biggest technology companies. If approved, the legislation would require any smartphone manufactured “on or after January 1, 2017, and […]