Category: Technology

People around the world are living longer, and how they grow old is changing. The World Health Organization finds the number of older adults living alone is dramatically increasing, and fewer multi-generational families are living together. To help the elderly with loneliness, social isolation and…

Twenty-First Century Fox's Fox Sports is partnering with Twitter to stream a live show and Snap Inc's Snapchat to showcase stories with match-day highlights on the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament to be hosted in Russia later this year. Fox Sports would produce the show,…

The inability of law enforcement authorities to access data from electronic devices due to powerful encryption is an "urgent public safety issue," FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday as he sought to renew a contentious debate over privacy and security. The Federal Bureau of…

U.S. Senate Democrats said on Tuesday they will force a vote later this year on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's reversal of landmark Obama administration net neutrality rules and will try to make it a key issue in the 2018 congressional elections. Senate Democratic Leader…

The new smart electronic gadgets on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas may help drive you into an increasingly connected future.     In the case of Byton, a futuristic smart car that is one of the hits of the CES -…

Vietnam announced on Monday the creation of a cyberspace operations command to protect its sovereignty on the Internet, with prime minister citing risks related to the disputed South China Sea and complex regional and global situations. The new unit would "research and predict online wars,"…

China shut down nearly 128,000 websites that contained obscene and other “harmful” information in 2017, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Monday, citing government data. Xinhua said 30.9 million illegal publications were confiscated in 2017, while 1,900 people were subject to criminal penalties,…

Two former employees of Google have accused the tech giant of discriminating against conservative white men, in a class action lawsuit filed Monday.   One of the accusers, James Damore, was fired from the company last year after writing a memo defending the gender gap…

Coral reefs support nearly a quarter of all marine species, but because of climate change, half of the world’s reefs have disappeared in the past 50 years. With that problem not going away, scientists are looking for ways to make better coral that can resist…

Packed inside an SUV and heading to Las Vegas, employees of CaptureProof, a San Francisco startup, are part of a time-honored technology industry tradition — attending the giant consumer electronics show that takes over the Las Vegas strip every January. Starting Monday, more than 180,000…

What's the hottest thing in the world of technology these days? Your voice. Some of the most popular gadgets over the holiday season were smart speakers with digital assistants from Amazon and Google . Apple is coming out with its own speaker this year; Microsoft…

Dogs are often used in airports to sniff out explosives or illegal drugs. But a high-tech machine has been developed that can "sniff" the air, so baggage handlers and bomb experts can check luggage and containers without touching them. VOA's Deborah Block has more. ...

Researchers in Europe and the U.S. say the use of social media among preteens and teenagers is on the rise, while internet companies, authorities and parents are slow to recognize its potentially harmful impact. VOA's George Putic reports. ...

Nearly 4,000 companies and 170,000 people will descend on Las Vegas next week for CES, the massive consumer electronics show. For many small technology companies, the event is a big opportunity to raise their profile. VOA's Michelle Quinn visits one San Francisco company to learn…

Social media giant Twitter has reiterated its stance that accounts belonging to world leaders have special status, pushing back against calls from some users for the company to ban U.S. President Donald Trump.  In a blog post Friday, Twitter said it would not block the…

Chances that a fix to a major microchip security flaw may slow down or crash some computer systems are leading some businesses to hold off installing software patches, fearing the cure may be worse than the original problem. Researchers this week revealed security problems with…

The Consumer Electronics show opens this weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are a host of new tech startups descending on the city, hoping to become the next big thing. VOA's Kevin Enochs reports. ...

Apple Inc. will release a patch for the Safari web browser on its iPhones, iPads and Macs within days, it said Thursday, after major chipmakers disclosed flaws that leave nearly every modern computing device vulnerable to hackers. On Wednesday, Alphabet Inc.'s Google and other security researchers disclosed two major chip…

Intel Corp shares fell nearly 2 percent Thursday as investors worried about the potential financial liability and reputational hit from recently disclosed security flaws in its widely used microprocessors. The largest chipmaker had confirmed Wednesday that flaws reported by researchers could allow hackers to steal…

YouTube star Logan Paul has stepped away from posting videos following an outcry when he uploaded images of what appeared to be the body of someone who killed themselves in a Japanese forest. Paul took to Twitter on Wednesday to say he was suspending his…

Coal-fired power plants release greenhouse gases into the air, causing pollution and contributing to climate change. But as much as 10 percent of the coal used in power stations could be replaced ... by chicken waste. VOA's Deborah Block has a report. ...

Security researchers on Wednesday disclosed a set of security flaws that they said could let hackers steal sensitive information from nearly every modern computing device containing chips from Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and ARM Holdings. One of the bugs is specific to Intel but another affects laptops, desktop computers, smartphones,…

BlackBerry Ltd and Chinese internet search firm Baidu Inc on Wednesday signed a deal to jointly develop self-driving vehicle technology, sending BlackBerry's Toronto-listed shares up 13 percent to a four-year high. The deal follows similar agreements with firms including Qualcomm Inc, Denso and Aptiv Plc…

In 2009, the world watched as Iranians marching in the streets turned to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to organize and share information. The technology-assisted protests were dubbed the first “Twitter revolution." Flash forward to 2018 and technology again is playing a role…

Tencent Holdings' WeChat, China's most popular messenger app, on Tuesday denied storing users' chat histories, after a top businessman was quoted in media reports as saying he believed Tencent was monitoring everyone's account. "WeChat does not store any users' chat history. That is only stored…

Britain may impose new taxes on tech giants like Google and Facebook unless they do more to combat online extremism by taking down material aimed at radicalizing people or helping them to prepare attacks, the country's security minister said. Ben Wallace accused tech firms of…

The World Health Organization estimates more than 800,000 people around the world die every year because of unsafe drinking water. But researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology may have figured out a simple and inexpensive way to clean the world's dirtiest water. VOA's Kevin Enochs…

January is almost here, and the world is bracing for the unofficial opening of this year's race for the hearts, minds and pockets of tech enthusiasts. The international Consumer Electronics Show, CES for short, is the venue where technology manufacturers, from giants to startups, show…