Category: Technology

A federal judge is expected to hear arguments on Thursday about whether President Donald Trump violated Twitter users' free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution by blocking them from his account. The arguments before U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan are part of a lawsuit brought last…

Nine teams with members from 25 countries entered the final phase of the $7 million Ocean Discovery XPRIZE competition for technologies that could cheaply and efficiently map the floors of the world’s oceans.  Using current technology this feat would take up to 600 years. VOA’s…

The FBI views companies hit by cyberattacks as victims and will not rush to share their information with other agencies investigating whether they failed to protect customer data, its chief said Wednesday. Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, encouraged companies to promptly…

The South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, starts Friday. It's grown from a grassroots event to a phenomenon that attracts 400,000 people. For attendees, it can feel overwhelming. What's worth your time? Where's the buzz?   The latest AP Travel "Get Outta Here" podcast…

Classic children’s books are getting a 21st century upgrade, as British researchers have begun testing a project that would bring 3D versions of children’s stories to life on gaming platforms. VOA's Elizabeth Cherneff reports. ...

Tech giants Facebook, Twitter and Google are taking steps to police terrorists and hate groups on their sites, but more work needs to be done, the Simon Wiesenthal Center said Tuesday. The organization released its annual digital terrorism and hate report card and gave a…

Porsche is studying flying passenger vehicles but expects it could take up to a decade to finalize technology before they can launch in real traffic, its head of development said Tuesday. Volkswagen's sports car division is in the early stages of drawing up a blueprint…

Shoes that promote health and safety were featured last week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Faith Lapidus reports. ...

Every day, billions of photos uploaded to the Internet contain faces. Experts say sophisticated algorithms can collect these images, compare and glean information – some for law enforcement agencies and some for hackers, intent on stealing and misusing that data. An Israeli company says there’s…

Washington became the first state Monday to set up its own net-neutrality requirements after U.S. regulators repealed Obama-era rules that banned internet providers from blocking content or impairing traffic. “We know that when D.C. fails to act, Washington state has to do so,” Gov. Jay…

There's a dirty little secret about artificial intelligence: It's powered by an army of real people. From makeup artists in Venezuela to women in conservative parts of India, people around the world are doing the digital equivalent of needlework -drawing boxes around cars in street…

From a shopping center and an airport to a concert venue or even your own phone, these are all places facial recognition technology can now be used due to technological advancements in the last few years. The types of applications are growing in a world…

For months, university students Ash Bhat and Rohan Phadte had been tracking about 1,500 political propaganda accounts on Twitter that appeared to have been generated by computers when they noticed something odd. In the hours after the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida, the bots,…

Social media users like to have friends and followers on various platforms. But how many accounts are real and how many are generated by computers? Two university students in California say they have a way of detecting if you're communicating with a human or a…

"A game-changer for weather forecasts." That's what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA are calling the just-launched GOES-S satellite. It is the second in a pair of the most advanced weather satellites ever built. Faith Lapidus reports. ...

Instagram users fed up with the service becoming more and more like Facebook are flocking to a hot new app called Vero. Vero lets you share photos and video just like Instagram, plus it lets you talk about music, movies or books you like or hate.…

An Egyptian teenager has turned cables and sheets of aluminum and metal into a robotic exoskeleton that he says can one day help the disabled walk. Faith Lapidus reports. ...

Forget self-driving cars! Imagine a future filled with flying cars. The latest design comes from the Netherlands, where a company plans to officially unveil the newest combination of a gyrocopter and a sports car. VOA's George Putic has more. ...

Facebook Inc on Thursday put an end to a test of splitting its signature News Feed into two, an idea that roiled how people consumed news in six countries where the test occurred and added to concern about Facebook's power. The test created two streaming…

Equifax said Thursday that an additional 2.4 million Americans were impacted by last year's data breach, however these newly disclosed consumers had significantly less personal information stolen. The company says the additional consumers only had their names and a partial driver's license number stolen by…

The battle to identify and remove extremist video online just got a new weapon. Video-sharing sites can now use artificial intelligence to scan thousands of videos as they are uploaded. Faith Lapidus reports. ...

Facebook wants to make it easier for people to find low-skilled jobs online. After testing the new software in U.S. and Canada since last year, Facebook added job postings Wednesday in another 40 countries across Europe and elsewhere. The software works with both Apple and…

Several high-tech companies are teaming up on a plan to put a mobile phone network on the moon next year. Vodaphone Germany, Nokia, and Audi are working on a mobile network and robotic vehicles that are part of a private expedition to the moon, timed…

The world's biggest mobile phone trade fair, the Mobile World Congress, or MWC, opened earlier this week in Barcelona, Spain. Except for Apple, which traditionally stays away, all other big and small phone manufacturers and developers are displaying their wares as they continue to battle…

Ford Motor Co. is making Miami-Dade County its new test bed for self-driving vehicles. The automaker and its partners — Domino's Pizza, ride-hailing company Lyft and delivery company Postmates — are starting pilot programs to see how consumers react to autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles. Self-driving…

Authorities in China have launched an intense crackdown on online commentary in the wake of a proposal by the country’s communist party leaders to amend the constitution and scrap a two-term limit on the president’s time in office. A wide range of phrases in Chinese have…

The U.S. Justice Department and Microsoft will face off against each other Tuesday when the Supreme Court hears arguments on whether tech companies’ desire to protect user data is at odds with the government’s interest in pursuing criminals who use the internet. The case, known…

After researching digital currencies for work last year, personal finance writer J.R. Duren hopped on his own crypto-rollercoaster. Duren bought $5 worth of litecoin in November, and eventually purchased $400 more, mostly with his credit card. In just a few months, he experienced a rally,…