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 […]
YouTube Turns 10; Video Sharing Wars; ‘Project Fi’; PC Graveyards
Facebook, YouTube Changes; Internet Trolls; Uganda’s Digital Migration
Today’s Tech Sightings: Facebook Shifts News Feed, Gives Priority to Friends Facebook has announced that it is reconfiguring its News Feed to help people learn more about what is happening to the friends they care about. Changes will decrease emphasis on sharing and referral traffic and show people only the content that matters to them. […]
Creating Shapes in Mid-Air; Apple in China; April Fools’ Gags
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 […]
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 […]
WoW for Ebola; Samsung’s TV Saga; Apple’s Labor Woes
WoW Players Raise Nearly $2 Million to Fight Ebola Blizzard’s World of Warcraft’s latest charity campaign has netted more than $1.9 million to help fight Ebola in Africa. The donations were raised through in-game purchases; and all proceeds were donated to the Red Cross. Microsoft Researchers Say Their Newest Deep Learning System Beats Humans An […]
Watson Learns Japanese; Hospital Robots; Samsung’s Smart TV Debacle
Today’s Tech Sightings: Gaming Can Give Troubled Teens Another Shot at Learning Game developer Kuato’s game, Hakitzu, a hit in London schools, already has been used in more than 1 million coding sessions. The game lets students, some of whom have had various issues, learn how to code by leading a robot through an adventure-shooter scenario. […]
Print Your Own Phone; Drone No-Fly Zone; Smartphone Replaces Computer
Print Your Own Phone from Home British start-up OwnFone launches Kickstarter campaign. In its new PrintFone Kit users design and print a 2D or 3D phone at home, using either a standard inkjet printer or a 3D printer. Users are free to create any type of phone they like, adding any personal touches to their […]
Japan’s Robot Hotel; Mobile Money; Street View Bangladesh
Can Mobile Banking Revolutionize the Lives of the Poor? Kenya’s mobile payment system, M-PESA, introduced in 2007, enriched the lives of Kenyans and gradually spread to other countries. M-PESA allows cellphone users to save and transfer money and use SMS to exchange funds over the network. But will mobile money actually transform the lives of […]
The Pope’s Hangout; Privacy Invasions; Sleeping With Your Gadgets
Pope Francis to Address World’s Children on Google Hangouts Pope Francis is getting ready to host his second video chat on Google Hangouts on Thursday. Sponsored by his educational entity Scholas, the Pope’s chat will feature questions from children with special needs and disabilities from Spain, Brazil, India and the US. China to Ban Online […]