Author: Techman

The International Telecommunication Union reports that for the first time in history, half of the global population is using the internet. A new report finds by the end of the year, 3.9 billion people worldwide will be online. The report finds access to and use of information and communication technologies around the world is trending upwards. It notes most internet users are in developed countries, with more than 80 percent of their populations online. But it says internet use is steadily growing in developing countries, increasing from 7.7 percent in 2005 to 45.3 percent this year. The International Telecommunication Union says Africa is the region with the strongest growth, where the percentage of people using the internet has increased from just over two percent in 2005 to nearly 25 percent…

The International Telecommunication Union reports that for the first time in history, half of the global population is using the internet. A new report finds by the end of the year, 3.9 billion people worldwide will be online. The report finds access to and use of information and communication technologies around the world is trending upwards. It notes most internet users are in developed countries, with more than 80 percent of their populations online. But it says internet use is steadily growing in developing countries, increasing from 7.7 percent in 2005 to 45.3 percent this year. The International Telecommunication Union says Africa is the region with the strongest growth, where the percentage of people using the internet has increased from just over two percent in 2005 to nearly 25 percent…

The role drones play in our lives today is becoming greater and greater, as are the capabilities of these autonomous flying robots. Genia Dulot visited CalTech, the California Institute of Technology, where the potential for drones is being explored for surprising new uses. ...

Security agencies will gain greater access to encrypted messages under new laws in Australia. The legislation will force technology companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google to disable encryption protections to allow investigators to track the communications of terrorists and other criminals. It is, however, a controversial measure. Australian law enforcement officials say the growth of end-to-end encryption in applications such as Signal, Facebook’s WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage hamper their efforts to track the activities of criminals and extremists. End-to-end encryption is a code that allows a message to stay secret between the person who wrote it and the recipient.  PM: Law urgently needed But a new law passed Thursday in Australia compels technology companies, device manufacturers and service providers to build in features needed for police to crack those…

The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee warns the United States is being outgunned in cyberspace, already having lost its competitive advantage to Russia while China is rapidly closing in. "When it comes to cyber, misinformation and disinformation, Russia is already our peer and in the areas of misinformation or disinformation, I believe is ahead of us," Senator Mark Warner told an audience Friday in Washington. "This is an effective methodology for Russia and it's also remarkably cheap," he added, calling for a realignment of U.S. defense spending. Warner, calling Russia's election meddling both an intelligence failure and a "failure of imagination," strongly criticized the White House, key departments and fellow lawmakers for being too complacent in their responses. As for China, Warner called Beijing's cyber and censorship infrastructure…

A newly enacted law rushed through Australia's parliament will compel technology companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google to disable encryption protections so police can better pursue terrorists and other criminals.      Cybersecurity experts say the law, the first of its kind globally, will instead be a boon to the criminal underworld by undermining the technical integrity of the internet, hurting digital security and user privacy.      "I think it's detrimental to Australian and world security,'' said Bruce Schneier, a tech security expert affiliated with Harvard University and IBM.      The law is also technically vague and seems contradictory because it doesn't require systematic weaknesses — so-called "back doors'' — to be built in by tech providers. Such back doors are unlikely to remain secret, meaning that hackers and criminals could…

Joseph Wheeler and his team of students and faculty from Virginia Tech University are convinced they are building the house of the future. Judges at the recent Solar Decathlon Middle East agreed, awarding their future house first place in the December competition held in Dubai. “We set it up in two days,” Wheeler told VOA. “All the other teams took the full two weeks of construction. Ours was set up in two days, generating power on the third day by the sun.” The quick assembly time is just one thing that makes this home special. All of, literally all of it, comes in modules that are put together on-site into a fully functioning plug-and-play house. Quick to assemble “Our typical cartridge is 3-feet wide and about 12-feet long and no…

Many experts predict that the emerging 5G wireless technology will revolutionize the world's economy. They say it holds the key to a smarter, more efficient, more connected and much wealthier world. But a recent congressional report outlines how China plans to use the transition to 5G and its access to billions of networked electronic devices for intelligence-gathering, sabotage and business deals. As VOA's Jela de Franceschi reports, China's aim is to put an end to US high-tech pre-eminence. ...

It's official: A team of faculty and students from Virginia Tech University has built what's being billed as the world's best solar home. The decision was made last weekend in Dubai when officials announced the winner of the Solar Decathlon Middle East competition. VOA's Kevin Enochs reports. ...

For experts in the field of ocean mapping, it is no small irony that we know more about the surfaces of the moon and Mars than we do about our planet’s sea floor. “Can you imagine operating on the land without a map, or doing anything without a map?” asked Larry Mayer, director of the U.S.-based Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, a research body that trains hydrographers and develops tools for mapping. “We depend on having that knowledge of what’s around us, and the same is true for the ocean,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. With their deep craters and mountain ranges, the contours of the earth beneath the waves are both vast and largely unknown. Seabed 2030 But a huge mapping effort is underway to change that. …

The Australian parliament’s lower house Thursday passed a bill to force tech firms such as Alphabet Inc’s Google, Facebook and Apple to give police access to encrypted data, pushing it closer to becoming a precedent-setting law. However, the proposal, staunchly opposed by the tech giants because Australia is seen as a test case as other nations explore similar rules, faces a sterner test in the upper house Senate, where privacy and information security concerns are sticking points. The bill provides for fines of up to A$10 million ($7.3 million) for institutions and prison terms for individuals for failing to hand over data linked to suspected illegal activities. Labor party concerns Earlier in the week it appeared set to secure enough support from both major political parties, with some amendments, to…

Facebook Inc let some companies, including Netflix and Airbnb, access users' lists of friends after it cut off that data for most other apps around 2015, according to documents released on Wednesday by a British lawmaker investigating fake news and social media. The 223 pages of internal communication from 2012 to 2015 between high-level employees, including founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, provide new evidence of previously aired contentions that Facebook has picked favorites and engaged in anti-competitive behavior. The documents show that Facebook tracked growth of competitors and denied them access to user data available to others. In 2014, the company identified about 100 apps as being either "Mark's friends" or "Sheryl's friends" and also tracked how many apps were spending money on Facebook ads, according to the documents,…

Jeff Bezos boldly predicted five years ago that drones would be carrying Amazon packages to people’s doorsteps by now. Amazon customers are still waiting. And it’s unclear when, if ever, this particular order by the company’s founder and CEO will arrive. Bezos made billions of dollars by transforming the retail sector. But overcoming the regulatory hurdles and safety issues posed by drones appears to be a challenge even for the world’s wealthiest man. The result is a blown deadline on his claim to CBS’ “60 Minutes” in December 2013 that drones would be making deliveries within five years. The day may not be far off when drones will carry medicine to people in rural or remote areas, but the marketing hype around instant delivery of consumer goods looks more and…

Teacher Rishi Rawat has one student who is not human, but a machine. Lessons take place at a lab inside the University of Southern California’s (USC) Clinical Science Center in Los Angeles, where Rawat teaches artificial intelligence, or AI. To help the machine learn, Rawat feeds the computer samples of cancer cells. “They’re like a computer brain, and you can put the data into them and they will learn the patterns and the pattern recognition that’s important to making decisions,” he explained. AI may soon be a useful tool in health care and allow doctors to understand biology and diagnose disease in ways that were never humanly possible. ​Doctors not going away “Machines are not going to take the place of doctors. Computers will not treat patients, but they will…

With the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning, doctors may soon have new ways of diagnosing and treating patients in ways that were never humanly possible. Scientists at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles are developing a way of using machine learning to identify specific types of breast cancer tumors, and they say it's just the beginning of what the computer can do. VOA's Elizabeth Lee has the details from Los Angeles. ...

Microsoft's big bet on cloud computing is paying off as the company has surpassed Apple as the world's most valuable publicly traded company.    The software maker's prospects looked bleak just a few years ago, as licenses for the company's Windows system fell with a sharp drop in sales of personal computers.    But under CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has found stability by focusing on software and services over the internet, or the cloud, with long-term business contracts.      That 1990s personal-computing powerhouse is now having a renaissance moment, as it eclipses Facebook, Google, Amazon and the other tech darlings of the late decade.    Apple had been the world's most prosperous firm since claiming the top spot from Exxon Mobil earlier this decade. Microsoft surpassed Apple briefly a few…

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein called on social media companies and technology firms Thursday to work with law enforcement to protect the public from cybercriminals.     Speaking at a symposium on online crime, Rosenstein said that "social media platforms provide unprecedented opportunities for the free exchange of ideas. But many users do not understand that the platforms allow malicious actors, including foreign government agents, to deceive them by launching vast influence operations."    He said it was up to the companies to "place security on the same footing as novelty and convenience, and design technology accordingly."     He warned that if the technology sector failed to do so, government would have to step in.     "I think the companies now do understand if they do not take it upon…

Facebook is cautiously expanding a feature that shows people local news and information, including missing-person alerts, road closures, crime reports and school announcements. Called “Today In,” the service shows people information from their towns and cities from such sources as news outlets, government entities and community groups. Facebook launched the service in January with six cities and expanded that to 25, then more. On Wednesday, “Today In” is expanding to 400 cities in the U.S. — and a few others in Australia. The move comes as Facebook tries to shake off its reputation as a hotbed for misinformation and elections-meddling and rather a place for communities and people to come together and stay informed. Here are some things to know about this effort, and why it matters: The big picture…

Porsche says its future is in electric cars but for now it is rolling out a more powerful version of its internal combustion mainstay, the sleek 911 sports car. Stuttgart-based Porsche, part of Volkswagen, is to show off the eighth version of its brand-defining model at the Los Angeles Auto Show.   The new 911 doesn't look much different than earlier editions of the car. The new one has bigger wheel housings and a slightly wider body but the same long hood, sloping roof and prominent headlights that have marked successive versions since 1963.   The company said in a news release Wednesday that the new 911 Carrera S and 4S have flat six-cylinder turbocharged engines putting out 443 horsepower, 23 horsepower more than the predecessor. The Carrera S has…

In the first case of its kind, the U.S. Justice Department announced charges Wednesday against two alleged Iranian cybercriminals who used malware to infect the computer networks of U.S. municipalities, hospitals and other organizations in a scheme to extort millions of dollars from the victims. Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri, 27, are accused of creating and deploying a sophisticated malware known as SamSam Ransomware to forcibly encrypt data on the computer networks of more than 200 organizations and other victims in the United States and Canada.   Savandi and Mansouri would then demand a ransom payment in the form of the virtual currency known as bitcoin in exchange for decryption keys for the encrypted data.   In all, the two allegedly received more than $6 million in…

Alphabet Inc's Google in May introduced a slick feature for Gmail that automatically completes sentences for users as they type. Tap out "I love" and Gmail might propose "you" or "it." But users are out of luck if the object of their affection is "him" or "her." Google's technology will not suggest gender-based pronouns because the risk is too high that its "Smart Compose" technology might predict someone's sex or gender identity incorrectly and offend users, product leaders revealed to Reuters in interviews. Gmail product manager Paul Lambert said a company research scientist discovered the problem in January when he typed "I am meeting an investor next week," and Smart Compose suggested a possible follow-up question: "Do you want to meet him?" instead of "her." Consumers have become accustomed to…

Facebook came under fire on Tuesday from lawmakers from several countries who accused the firm of undermining democratic institutions and lambasted chief executive Mark Zuckerberg for not answering questions on the matter. Facebook is being investigated by lawmakers in Britain after consultancy Cambridge Analytica, which worked on Donald Trump's presidential campaign, obtained the personal data of 87 million Facebook users from a researcher, drawing attention to the use of data analytics in politics. Concerns over the social media giant's practices, the role of political adverts and possible interference in the 2016 Brexit vote and U.S. elections are among the topics being investigated by British and European regulators. While Facebook says it complies with EU data protection laws, a special hearing of lawmakers from several countries around the world in London…

A mobile application launched in dozens of U.S. and Canadian cities on Monday measures the planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions of inner-city travel, its creators said, letting concerned commuters map their so-called carbon footprints. Mapping app Cowlines can suggest the most efficient route as well which uses the least fuel, combining modes of transport such as bicycling and walking, within cities, its Vancouver, Canada-based creators said. Some two-thirds of the world's population is expected to settle in urban areas by 2050, according to the United Nations. The trend presents an environmental challenge, given that the world's cities account for the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions. Not only will the app measure a trip's emissions and suggest alternatives, it will provide the data to cities and urban planners working on systems from…

Apple is launching a new program designed to address the technology industry's scarcity of women in executive and computer programming jobs.   Under the initiative announced Monday, female entrepreneurs and programmers will attend two-week tutorial sessions at the company's Cupertino, California, headquarters.   The camps will be held every three months beginning in January. For each round, Apple will accept up to 20 app makers founded or led by a woman. The app maker must have at least one female programmer in its ranks to qualify. Apple will cover travel expenses for up to three workers from each accepted company. Like other major tech companies, Apple has been trying to lessen its dependence on men in high-paying programming jobs. Women filled just 23 percent of Apple's technology jobs in 2017,…

One of Cameroon's first video games studios and most successful digital startups is growing into a major player in the industry. Despite obstacles, Kiro'o Games - as it's called - is committed to drawing inspiration from its local mythology and culture. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports. ...

Britain's parliament has seized confidential Facebook documents from the developer of a now-defunct bikini photo searching app as it seeks answers from the social media company about its data protection policies. Lawmakers sought the files ahead of an international hearing they're hosting on Tuesday to look into disinformation and "fake news." The parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has "received the documents it ordered from Six4Three relating to Facebook," Committee Chairman Damian Collins tweeted on Sunday. "Under UK law & parliamentary privilege we can publish papers if we choose to as part of our inquiry," he said. The app maker, Six4Three, had acquired the files as part of a U.S. lawsuit against the social media giant. It's suing Facebook over a change to the social network's privacy policies in…

Scientific curiosity can lead to some surprising, and useful, discoveries. Consider the cat – questions about its sandpaper-like tongue led to plans for a synthetic version that could be used for household products or to dispense medicine. Faith Lapidus explains. ...

The problem with plastics is a well-known refrain by now: It never goes away and far too little of it is being recycled. That means it is turning up in every corner of our planet, from our beaches to our bodies. But one British firm has figured out a new way to recycle plastics, and customers are waiting in line. VOA's Kevin Enochs reports. ...