Month: February 2019

The Iowa Democratic Party on Monday proposed the biggest changes to the state's famed caucuses in nearly 50 years by recommending Iowans be able to participate virtually.   If approved, the measure would allow people to caucus using telephones or smart devices during the days leading up to the Feb. 3 caucus night.   It's a dramatic shift from the current system in which caucus-goers have to physically show up at a site — often a school, church or community center — and show their support for presidential candidates by standing in groups. If the group doesn't meet an established threshold, the participants have to select another candidate.   It's an often chaotic process that plays out before banks of television cameras on an evening that formally ushers in the…

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order asking federal government agencies to dedicate more resources and investment into research, promotion and training on artificial intelligence, known as AI. Under the American AI Initiative, the administration is directing agencies to prioritize AI investments in research and development, increase access to federal data and models for that research and prepare workers to adapt to the era of AI. There was no specific funding announced for the initiative, but the White House wants better reporting and tracking of spending on AI-related research and development. The White House said investment in AI is "critical to creating the industries of the future, like autonomous cars, industrial robots, algorithms for disease diagnosis, and more." The initiative aims to make sure the United States…

A much-hyped network upgrade called "5G" means different things to different people. To industry proponents, it's the next huge innovation in wireless internet. To the U.S. government, it's the backbone technology of a future that America will wrestle with China to control. To many average people, it's simply a mystery. The technology is one of the issues expected to take center stage at the MWC mobile conference in Barcelona, Spain, this month. The interest goes well beyond engineers: In Washington, there are fears that China could take the lead in developing the technology and sell equipment that could be used to spy on Americans. What, exactly, is 5G wireless — and will you even notice when it comes online? What is 5G? 5G is a new technical standard for wireless…

A new type of solar panel promises a cheap, flexible way to get more power from the sun. They may help the growing renewable energy industry expand even faster. VOA's Steve Baragona has more. ...

In Algeria, it was banned from bidding for public contracts after one of its executives was convicted of bribery.   In Zambia, it was probed over allegations of bribery involving a multi-million-dollar contract to build cell towers in rural areas.   In the Solomon Islands, it was accused of offering millions of dollars to the ruling party in exchange for an undersea fiber optic cable contract.   In all three cases – and half a dozen others in recent years – the alleged perpetrator was Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecom behemoth facing scrutiny from Western nations over allegations of intellectual property theft and espionage.   Saying it poses a national security threat, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand have banned the company from building new, state of the art 5G…

Scientists are helping patients fight flu, diabetes and other maladies with the help of a smart watch that monitors body chemistry for blood sugar, sweat and other data. Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas say it can also help couples get pregnant by tracking the stress. Mariia Prus traveled to Texas to learn more. Joy Wagner narrates her report. ...

A new kind of electric car charging point has been switched on in London. It's designed to make electric vehicle, or EV, charging infrastructure cheaper and greener. It also acts as a data port, as VOA's Mariama Diallo reports. ...

One of the world's top research universities, the U.S.-based University of California, Berkeley, has stopped new research projects with Huawei Technologies, a Chinese telecommunications giant. The university's suspension, which took effect on January 30, came after the U.S. Department of Justice filed criminal charges against the corporation and some of its affiliates two days earlier. The department announced a 13-count indictment against Huawei, accusing it of stealing trade secrets, obstruction of justice, violations of economic sanctions and wire fraud. Vice Chancellor for Research Randy Katz said in a letter addressed to the Chancellor's cabinet members the campus would continue to honor existing commitments with Huawei that provide funding for current research projects. Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, has been under house arrest in Canada since December 1 for allegedly…

What you need to know about the next generation of broadband technology. ...

More than two-thirds of jobs that today's college students will have in 11 years haven't been invented yet. “Those who plan to work for the next 50 years, they have to have a mindset of like, ‘I’m going to be working and learning and working and learning, and working and learning,' in order to make a career,” says Rachel Maguire, a research director with the Institute for the Future, which forecasts that many of the tasks and duties of the jobs that today's young people will hold in 2030 don't exist right now. The Institute for the Future, a nonprofit that identities emerging trends and their impacts on global society, envisions that by 2030, we'll be living in a world where artificial assistants help us with almost every task, not…

There is no real preparation for dealing with the reality of being in a combat zone. But training helps, and that's the idea behind a virtual reality exercise that the International Committee of the Red Cross is providing to field employees. VOA's Kevin Enochs reports. ...

Apple Inc. on Thursday rolled out software updates to iPhones to fix a privacy issue in its FaceTime video calling service, and said it would contribute toward the education of the Arizona teenager who discovered the problem.  The software bug, which had let users hear audio from people who had not yet answered a video call, was discovered by a Tucson, Ariz., high school student Grant Thompson, who with his mother, Michele, led Apple to turn off FaceTime group chat as its engineers investigated the issue. The technology giant said it would compensate the Thompson family and make an additional gift toward 14-year-old Grant's education. Apple also formally credited Thompson and Daven Morris from Arlington, Texas in the release notes to its latest iPhone software update. "In addition to addressing the bug that was reported, our team conducted a thorough security audit of…

Apple Inc has moved its modem chip engineering effort into its in-house hardware technology group from its supply chain unit, two people familiar with the move told Reuters, a sign the tech company is looking to develop a key component of its iPhones after years of buying it from outside suppliers. Modems are an indispensable part of phones and other mobile devices, connecting them to wireless data networks. Apple once used Qualcomm Inc chips exclusively but began phasing in Intel Corp chips in 2016 and dropped Qualcomm from iPhones released last year. Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, took over the company’s modem design efforts in January, the sources said. The organizational move has not been previously reported. Srouji joined Apple in 2008 to lead chip design,…

Facebook has been ordered to curb its data collection practices in Germany after a landmark ruling on Thursday that the world's largest social network abused its market dominance to gather information about users without their consent. Germany, where privacy concerns run deep, is in the forefront of a global backlash against Facebook, fueled by last year's Cambridge Analytica scandal in which tens of millions of Facebook profiles were harvested without their users' consent. The country's antitrust watchdog objected in particular to how Facebook pools data on people from third-party apps — including its own WhatsApp and Instagram — and its online tracking of people who aren't even members through Facebook 'like' or 'share' buttons. "In future, Facebook will no longer be allowed to force its users to agree to the…

Californians are bracing for what could be the next big earthquake. Scientists have developed a new early warning system relying on sensors and an algorithm to help prepare. Deana Mitchell reports. ...