Category: Technology

In the dense tropical rainforests of the Minkebe national park in northern Gabon, conservationists are hoping a new weapon can help them win a war against elephant poaching. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports. ...

You've seen apps and toys that promise to teach your child to code. Now enter the robots. At the CES electronics show in January, coding robots came out in force. One convention hall area was packed with everything from chip-embedded, alphabet-like coding blocks to turtle-like tanks that draw on command. Of course, no one can really say how well these coding bots teach kids, or even whether learning to code is the essential life skill that so many in the tech industry claim. After all, by the time today's elementary-school kids are entering the workforce, computers may well be programming themselves. But experts like Jeff Gray, a computer science professor at the University of Alabama and an adviser to the nonprofit coding education group Code.org, say kids can derive other…

Plastic foam, plywood and some other plastic parts could make the difference between life and death. These are the materials that make up a delivery drone created by DASH Systems. The California company also describes its lightweight aircraft as an unmanned aerial vehicle or glider. It can be used to deliver up to 20 kilograms of food, medicine or other essential supplies to people in need in areas that traditional shipping and delivery companies cannot reach. And because it's made of low-cost materials, it's disposable, so there is no worry about getting it back. "Many times, we found that during times of crisis or humanitarian need, it's very, very difficult to get supplies into remote regions," said Joel Ifill, chief executive officer and co-founder of DASH Systems. "Couple that with reduced or…

It has been called a delivery drone, an unmanned aerial vehicle or even a glider. It can be used to deliver essential supplies to areas traditional shipping and delivery companies cannot go to. Elizabeth Lee has details from Los Angeles. ...

Billionaire CEO Elon Musk is off to a big 2018. He's chief executive of both SpaceX and Tesla. His space-travel company launched off the planet and into orbit a roadster from his electric car company. It was the latest milestone for an executive who looks to revolutionize space travel and technology. Arash Arabasadi reports. ...

Astronomers say a new instrument, now being tested on one of the telescopes in Chile's Atacama desert, will greatly enhance their ability to search for earthlike planets. VOA's George Putic has more. ...

Ride-sharing giant Uber and the self-driving car company Waymo have agreed to settle their legal battle over allegedly stolen trade secrets. The surprise agreement Friday came as lawyers for the companies prepared to wrap up the first week of the case’s jury trial in San Francisco, California. As part of the agreement, Uber will pay $245 million worth of its own shares to Waymo. Waymo sued Uber last year, saying that one of its former engineers who later became the head of Uber’s self-driving car project took with him thousands of confidential documents. After the lawsuit was filed, Uber fired the employee and fell behind on its plans to roll out self-driving cars in its ride-sharing service. Waymo, a company hatched from Google, says the settlement also includes an agreement…

Engineers at Russia's top nuclear research facility have been detained after they attempted to mine bitcoin on its computers, Russian news agencies reported Friday. Several employees at the Russian Federal Nuclear Center in the city of Sarov have been detained after making "an attempt to use the work computing facilities for personal ends, including for so-called mining," a spokeswoman for the center, Tatiana Zalesskaya, told Interfax news agency. "Their activities were stopped in time," she added. "The bungling miners have been detained by the competent authorities. As far as I know, a criminal case has been opened regarding them," she added, without saying how many were detained. The center is overseen by Rosatom, the Russian nuclear agency, and works on developing nuclear weapons. Such attempts "at our enterprises will be…

Twitter says it had first quarterly profit in history and returned to revenue growth in the fourth quarter.   Its stock increased in pre-market trading Thursday.   Though the results beat Wall Street's cautious expectations, they don't solve the company's broader problems.   It's been dealing with abuse, fake accounts and attempts by Russian agents to spread misinformation. The troubles have been compounded by stagnant user growth.   And with a prominent executive leaving shortly, and the CEO splitting its time with another company, Twitter's now facing questions about just who is minding the store.   Twitter has said it's dealing with the problems. The company has introduced a slew of new measures to weed out abusive accounts. Still, critics say the company is playing whack-a-mole with its problems, with…

The International Rescue Committee has announced Project Core — a $1 million job training program for refugees in Germany. The IRC is collaborating with computer giant Intel to to equip at least 1,000 migrants with “critical skills in information and communications technology and other in-demand sectors of the German economy.” “It is exciting and encouraging to see that opportunities are being extended to refugees living in the country,” IRC President David Miliband said.  He thanked Intel for its cooperation and commitment. “The work we will do together epitomizes the power of partnerships to develop the right solutions and create meaningful impact,” Miliband said. The IRC says more than 1.5 million refugees have arrived in Germany since 2015, seeking asylum from war, terrorism, poverty, and little hope their lives will get…

The International Rescue Committee on Wednesday announced the creation of Project Core, a $1 million job training program for refugees in Germany. The IRC said it would collaborate with computer giant Intel to equip at least 1,000 migrants with "critical skills in information and communications technology and other in-demand sectors of the German economy." "It is exciting and encouraging to see that opportunities are being extended to refugees living in the country," IRC President David Miliband said.  He thanked Intel for its cooperation and commitment. "The work we will do together epitomizes the power of partnerships to develop the right solutions and create meaningful impact," he said. The IRC said more than 1.5 million refugees had arrived in Germany since 2015, seeking asylum from war, terrorism and poverty, and having little hope their…

A social media monitoring tool used by the Boston Police Department to identify potential threats swept up the posts of people using the hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter and a lawmaker's Facebook update about racial inequality, according to a report released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. The ACLU says in a report based on documents obtained through a public records request that the police department's use of Geofeedia to mine the internet appears to have had little benefit to public safety while unfairly focusing on groups such as Muslims. Boston police say the ACLU's conclusions are misguided and that the program helped police successfully monitor events that could lead to demonstrations or crowds and threaten security. "Our main focus in all of this is public safety, not targeting speech,…

Just days after the announcement that the 4,400 year old tomb of a high-ranking priestess had been found in Egypt, comes word of an even older discovery in the country, from about 100 million years ago. Faith Lapidus tells us about the new species of dinosaur found in the western Egyptian desert. ...

A second patient has been treated in a historic gene editing study in California, and no major side effects or safety issues have emerged from the first man's treatment nearly three months ago, doctors said Tuesday. Gene editing is a more precise way to do gene therapy, and it aims to permanently change someone's DNA to try to cure a disease. In November, Brian Madeux, 44, became the first person to have gene editing inside the body for a metabolic disease called Hunter syndrome that's caused by a bad gene. Through an IV, he received many copies of a corrective gene and a genetic tool to put it in a precise spot in his DNA. "He's doing well and we were approved to go ahead with the second patient, who also…

What does the not-so-distant future look like when an increasing number of robots enters the workforce? What types of jobs will they do and would you be replaced by a robot? VOA’s Elizabeth Lee spoke to experts in the field of robotics at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year for the answer. ...

Imagine putting on a pair of glasses and immediately being able to record 360-degree video, hands free, regardless of what you are doing. It will soon be possible with glasses made by Orbi. “We’re making the first 360-degree video recording eyewear,” said Adil Suranchin, chief of operations at Orbi, a company headquartered in Berkeley, California, with its software team in Russia and with hardware developed in Taiwan, Japan, China and Canada. Pair of glasses, four lenses The glasses have a built-in camera with four lenses, two in front and two in the back. The result is 4K resolution immersive video. The glasses allow video to be recorded from the user’s perspective. “You put them on, press the button, and you can say goodbye to all the mounts and rigs and…

Digital currencies such as bitcoin demand increased oversight and may require a new federal regulatory framework, the top U.S. markets regulators will tell lawmakers at a hotly anticipated congressional hearing on Tuesday. Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Jay Clayton, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, will provide testimony to the Senate Banking Committee amid growing concerns globally over the risks virtual currencies pose to investors and the financial system. Giancarlo and Clayton will say current state-by-state licensing rules for cryptocurrency exchanges may need to be reviewed in favor of a rationalized federal framework, according to prepared testimony published on Monday. Reporting by Michelle Price. ...

Five years ago, Israeli investor Jon Medved started OurCrowd, a business that lets people buy into some of the newest and most innovative tech startups in the world. Some of the most innovative new products were on display at the recent investor summit. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. Faith Lapidus narrates. ...

Statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency show automobiles are responsible for at least 50 percent of emissions of harmful and planet-warming gases. But because cars are not going away, one enterprising British company is working to fix the problem where it starts. VOA's Kevin Enochs reports. ...

Feb. 4 is World Cancer Day, an annual opportunity to raise awareness of cancer and encourage its prevention, detection and treatment. In the area of detection, Faith Lapidus reports that researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore, Maryland, are developing a blood test that screens for eight different types of cancer. ...

Getting onto a bus with a driver may be a thing of the past someday. Already, a technology company in Sweden is trying out a driverless minibus in Stockholm. VOA's Deborah Block tells us about it. ...

Spain has extradited to the United States a Russian citizen who is suspected of being one of the world’s most notorious spammers. Pyotr Levashov, a 37-year-old from St. Petersburg, was arrested in April while vacationing with his family in Barcelona. U.S. authorities had asked for him to be detained on charges of fraud and unauthorized interception of electronic communications. He was scheduled to be arraigned late Friday in a federal courthouse in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where a grand jury indicted him last year. A statement from Spain’s National Police said officers handed Levashov over to U.S. marshals Friday. The extradition was approved in October by Spain’s National Court, which rejected a counter-extradition request from Russia. The Russian Embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Army of botnets Authorities…

As virtual reality becomes more popular, different types of 360-degree cameras are popping up for consumers. One that stands out from the crowd for its unique look and design are eye glasses with built-in cameras. Elizabeth Lee has the details. ...

Just like every other health technology, prosthetics are now able to do things that were unimaginable a few years ago. The advances are happening with the help of machine learning, but also through human ingenuity. VOA's Kevin Enochs reports. ...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently declared that artificial intelligence fueled by powerful computers was more important to humanity than fire or electricity. And yet the search giant increasingly faces a variety of messy people problems as well. The company has vowed to employ thousands of human checkers just to catch rogue YouTube posters, Russian bots and other purveyors of unsavory content. It’s also on a buying spree to find office space for its burgeoning workforce in pricey Silicon Valley.  For a company that built its success on using faceless algorithms to automate many human tasks, this focus on people presents something of a conundrum. Yet it’s also a necessary one as lawmakers ramp up the pressure on Google to deter foreign powers from abusing its platforms and its YouTube unit…

Apple is making more money than ever, but it still doesn't seem to be enough to keep everyone happy. Not with conspiracy theories swirling around Apple's secret slowdown of older iPhones while a cloud of uncertainty looms over its high-priced iPhone X. It's a reality check for a company accustomed to an unflinchingly loyal customer base. Apple expected buyers to embrace the iPhone X as a revolutionary device worth its $1,000 price, but it appears many Apple fans aren't impressed enough to ante up, especially with other recently released models selling for $200 to $300 less. And not even the less expensive iPhone 8 line appears to be selling quite as well as analysts had expected, based on the numbers that came out Thursday in Apple's fiscal first-quarter earnings report.…

Scientists and engineers around the world are slowly but steadily improving brain-controlled artificial limbs hoping to make them more affordable to patients. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – EPFL - say their lightweight artificial hand may someday help paraplegic patients be able to feed themselves. VOA’s George Putic explains. ...

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 $9.99 per month for users younger than 30, while those 30 and older are charged $19.99 per month. The features for Tinder Plus are identical for users regardless of age. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brian Currey ruled in favor of Allan Candelore, 33, of San Diego, saying Tinder's pricing violates California's Unruh Civil Rights Act. That law "provides protection from discrimination by all business establishments in California." The company countered in court documents that it is "self-evident that people under 30 face financial challenges"…