Month: January 2018

A California court has ruled that the popular dating app Tinder violated age discrimination laws by charging users 30 and older more than younger ones. Allan Candelore of California sued the app company over the pricing of its Tinder Plus premium service. Tinder Plus costs…

This year’s flu season in the U.S. is the worst in 15 years and health officials predict there are weeks of sickness ahead. One company’s “smart thermometer” is tracking how the flu is spreading across the country in real time by gathering data every time…

When a child feels sick, one of the first things a parent does is reach for a thermometer. That common act intrigued Inder Singh, a long-time health policy expert. What if the thermometer could be a communication device – connecting people with information about illnesses…

The annual Washington Auto Show is not the biggest or the most important convention of the year, but it still attracts a lot of attention, from enthusiasts and potential customers to automotive industry professionals.  Self-driving cars are still some time off, so the focus this…

The controversy over information gathered from GPS-enabled fitness devices and published online – in some cases highlighting possible activity at U.S. military bases in places like Syria and Afghanistan – could be just the start of an ever-growing problem in a world where more people…

Amazon.com on Monday opened a rainforest-like office space in Seattle that it hopes will spark new ideas for employees. While cities across North America are seeking to host Seattle-based Amazon's second headquarters, the world's largest online retailer is still expanding its main campus. Company office…

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., one of the few Olympics sponsors signed up until 2028, said it wants to upgrade the technology that keeps the Games running and will study the Pyeongchang Games to help find ways to save future host countries money. "Pyeongchang will be…

Coming to a hotel or hospital near you may be a robot that makes deliveries.  Companies are creating robots to help with the workload and make human workers more efficient. One such company is Silicon Valley-based Savioke. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee met a couple of its…

The U.S. military says it is evaluating its policies after a global map of fitness activity drew attention to possible security concerns regarding locations of overseas bases and soldier movements. Strava published its so-called heat map of user activity in November showing the routes millions…

Projecting three-dimensional (3D) images in thin air, called holography, moved from science fiction to reality a long time ago. But this type of graphic display is not in wide use because the required equipment is still expensive. Scientists at the Brigham Young University have discovered…

Incorporating technology into learning can sometimes be a slippery slope toward computer distraction. That's why some of the best new educational tools work in the real and the virtual world. VOA's Kevin Enochs reports. ...

Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck Inc said Sunday it would return about 46.3 billion yen ($425 million) of the virtual money it lost to hackers two days ago in one of the biggest-ever thefts of digital money. That amounts to nearly 90 percent of the 58…

Although long replaced by more efficient types of engines, steam-powered machines still have a certain appeal, and not just for museum-goers. In Britain, the country that gave us both the steam engine and the legendary off-road vehicle the Land Rover Defender, one inventor combined the…