Category: Technology

This week the Biden administration is promoting a plan to boost electric bus production, proposing $45 billion spending to reduce American-made bus emissions to zero by 2030. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report. ...

This week the Biden administration is promoting a plan to boost electric bus production, proposing $45 billion spending to reduce American-made bus emissions to zero by 2030. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report. ...

With America’s electrical infrastructure getting zapped daily by an unprecedented number of cyberattacks, the federal government is taking action to prevent a potentially crippling hack of the grid.  A 100-day plan was announced Tuesday by the U.S. Energy Department to harden security systems for the country’s electrical infrastructure and increase the ability to detect and neutralize cyber threats.  “The United States faces a well-documented and increasing cyber threat from malicious actors seeking to disrupt the electricity Americans rely on to power our homes and businesses,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement. “It’s up to both government and industry to prevent possible harms — that’s why we’re working together to take these decisive measures so Americans can rely on a resilient, secure, and clean energy system.”  The electric industry was among those hit by recent cyberattacks and data breaches targeting Solar Winds and Microsoft Exchange software, but officials stress the timing of Tuesday’s…

San Francisco's International Airport and United Airlines have become the first in the U.S. to test technology that enables domestic passengers to check in and board flights with minimal contact between travelers and agents. Those behind the trial say the technology could make traveling safer during the pandemic, as VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.  ...

An innovative home recycling unit aims to revolutionize the world of recycling as we know it. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.Camera: Adam Greenbaum  Producers: Julie Taboh/Adam Greenbaum   ...

Apple will allow the self-proclaimed free speech social media app Parler back in the App Store.The news came from a letter from Apple to Colorado Republican Congressman Ken Buck and Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee, who had pressed the company about its removal of Parler.Apple said it removed Parler in January because it had been used to plan the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Facebook was also used by protesters but was not removed from the App Store.In the letter, Apple said Parler had strengthened its content moderation, leading to its reinstatement. Parler had marketed itself as a social media platform with less moderation.“Apple anticipates that the updated Parler app will become available immediately upon Parler releasing it,” Timothy Powderly, Apple’s senior director for government affairs, wrote in…

A final ruling on whether to overturn Facebook's ban on former U.S. president Donald Trump will take a bit longer than anticipated, an independent oversight board said Friday.Critics of the social media company and even strong advocates of unfettered political discourse called on Facebook's oversight board to endorse the decision to boot Trump from the platform in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol."The board's commitment to carefully reviewing all comments has extended the case timeline," a spokesperson told AFP."The board will announce its decision on the case concerning former U.S. President Trump's indefinite suspension from Facebook and Instagram in the coming weeks."The Facebook oversight board had originally expected to have its decision by this month.Calling Trump a "clear and present danger," scholars and civil rights…

Advocates for children from around the world urged Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday to ditch plans for a version of Instagram geared toward preteens.Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Electronic Privacy Information Center were among nearly 100 groups and individuals from North America, Europe, Africa and Australia to make the plea in a letter to Zuckerberg.Instagram "exploits young people's fear of missing out and desire for peer approval," the letter contended."The platform's relentless focus on appearance, self-presentation and branding presents challenges to adolescents' privacy and well-being," it said, building on concerns about predators, bullies and inappropriate content.On Oct. 6, 2020, Images of instagram corporate logos are displayed online on a laptop computer.Instagram is exploring the launch of a version of the image-centric social network for children under 13,…

Predicting whether an outbreak is likely to happen is now possible with the COVID-19 Outbreak Detection Tool, a map that shows the coming hotspots for the disease, if accurate data is available.  VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details.Producer: Elizabeth Lee ...

South African mobile communications company Vodacom South Africa, with British parent company Vodafone and charity Hestia, has launched a free mobile phone application to support targets of gender-based violence, which has soared during the coronavirus pandemic.  The application, “Bright Sky,” provides information for people to identify gender-based violence and get counseling and emergency help. Franco Puglisi reports from Johannesburg.Producer: Rod James. Camera: Franco Puglisi.  ...

The international Future City Competition recently announced its 2021 winners in the first ever all-virtual event. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. ...

Predicting whether an outbreak is likely to happen is now possible with the COVID-19 Outbreak Detection Tool, a map that shows the coming hotspots for the disease, if accurate data is available.  VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details.Producer: Elizabeth Lee ...

The international Future City Competition recently announced its 2021 winners in the first ever all-virtual event. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. ...

Religious organizations in the U.S. are a key part of a community’s response to a disaster.  As Mike O’Sullivan reports, a new smartphone app is helping coordinate that response between relief workers and faith groups while making it more effective. ...

Plans by the world's largest contract chipmaker for a record $100 billion capacity expansion will just mildly dent a growing worldwide shortage of semiconductors for gear such as high-speed notebook computers, 5G smartphones and newer vehicles, tech experts believe.Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said in an April 1 legal notice to the Taipei stock exchange that it would use the money over three years on “leading technology” for manufacturing and R&D to “answer demands from the market.” The notice specifically cites demand for chips used in 5G-enabled and high-performance devices.That amount would set a dollar-value record for the company, which is better known as TSMC, said Brady Wang, an analyst in Taipei with the market intelligence firm Counterpoint Research.TSMC’s investment will ease “anxiety” among clients worried about semiconductor supply-chain instability caused…

The Supreme Court sided Monday with Google in an $8 billion copyright dispute with Oracle over the internet company's creation of the Android operating system used on most smartphones worldwide.To create Android, which was released in 2007, Google wrote millions of lines of new computer code. But it also used 11,330 lines of code and an organization that's part of Oracle's Java platform.Google had argued that what it did is long-settled, common practice in the industry, a practice that has been good for technical progress. And it said there is no copyright protection for the purely functional, noncreative computer code it used, something that couldn't be written another way. But Oracle said Google "committed an egregious act of plagiarism," and it sued.The justices ruled 6-2 for Google Inc., based in…

Chinese tech giants are expanding in Singapore as they face a crackdown at home and growing pressure in other key markets — but they may struggle to find talent in the city-state. Messaging-and-gaming behemoth Tencent is opening a hub and TikTok owner ByteDance is on a hiring spree after establishing a regional headquarters, while e-commerce giant Alibaba is investing in property and recruiting. The tech firms are shifting their focus to booming Southeast Asian markets as authorities tighten the screws at home amid concerns about the platforms’ growing power. China’s regulators have launched a blitz on the sector, hitting several firms with heavy fines, and threatening to slice up massive companies whose reach now extends deep into the daily lives of ordinary Chinese.  Meanwhile, festering tensions between Washington and Beijing after an assault on Chinese tech titans during Donald Trump’s presidency make the United…

Professional social network LinkedIn is giving nearly all of its 15,900 full-time workers next week off as it seeks to avoid burnout and allow its employees to recharge, the company told AFP Friday.The Microsoft-owned firm said that the "RestUp!" week starting Monday is meant to give employees time for their own well-being."There is something magical about the entire company taking a break at the same time," LinkedIn said in reply to an AFP inquiry. "And the best part? Not coming back to an avalanche of unanswered internal emails."During the week, LinkedIn will provide employees who may feel isolated the option of taking part in daily activities such as volunteering for worthy causes through "random acts of kindness," according to the company."A core team of employees will continue to work for…

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday tossed out a lawsuit accusing Facebook Inc. of violating a federal anti-robocall law.The justices, in a 9-0 decision authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, sided with Facebook in its argument that text messages the social media company sent did not violate a 1991 federal law called the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).The case highlighted the challenge for the justices in applying outdated laws to modern technologies. The ruling sparked calls for Congress to update the law, enacted three decades ago to curb telemarketing abuse by banning most unauthorized robocalls."By narrowing the scope of the TCPA, the court is allowing companies the ability to assault the public with a nonstop wave of unwanted calls and texts, around the clock," Democratic Senator Edward Markey and Democratic Representative…

The record-breaking sale of a digital artwork in March is part of a rush to invest in previously unmarketable things like basketball highlights, video game art, and even tweets. Making it possible are NFTs or Non-Fungible Tokens. Matt Dibble explains. ...

Microsoft won a nearly $22 billion contract to supply U.S. Army combat troops with its augmented reality headsets.     Microsoft and the Army separately announced the deal Wednesday.   The technology is based on Microsoft's HoloLens headsets, which were originally intended for the video game and entertainment industries.   Pentagon officials have described the futuristic technology — which the Army calls its Integrated Visual Augmentation System — as a way of boosting soldiers' awareness of their surroundings and their ability to spot targets and dangers.   Microsoft's head-mounted HoloLens displays let people see virtual imagery superimposed over the physical world in front of them — anything from holograms in virtual game worlds to repair instructions floating over a broken gadget. Users can control what they see using hand gestures…

Four Republican U.S. lawmakers requested on Tuesday that Facebook Inc., Twitter, and Alphabet Inc.'s Google turn over any studies they have done on how their services affect children's mental health.The request follows a joint hearing last week of two House Energy and Commerce subcommittees at which the companies' chief executives discussed their content moderation practices in the wake of the siege on the Capitol in January.Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the committee's ranking Republican, asked the CEOs at the hearing whether their companies had conducted internal research concerning children's mental health.Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg said he believed the company had, while Twitter’s Jack Dorsey said he did not believe so. Google’s Sundar Pichai said the company consulted with outside experts and invested "a lot of time and effort in these areas."In letters…

Elon Musk’s SpaceX suffered another setback Tuesday when one of its experimental rockets malfunctioned during a test flight at the company’s Texas facility.   The incident occurred as the Starship SN11 prototype was attempting to land after what the company called a normal ascent to roughly 12 kilometers in altitude.   Heavy fog obscured observers from seeing exactly what happened, but an explosion seems most likely, as there were reports of fire and debris.   "At least the crater is in the right place!" Musk tweeted.   This is the third time the experimental rocket has crash-landed or exploded.   John Insprucker, a SpaceX engineer, said all was going well when data feeds and the on-board cameras stopped working as the vehicle entered a thick layer of fog while trying…

A robot conceived to roll on planets is being used by firefighters in the U.S. to give them “situational awareness” before going into dangerous situations. It’s called Squishy, and Michelle Quinn found out more.Camera: Michelle Quinn Producer: Michelle Quinn   ...

After canceling plans for undersea cables connecting the United States with Hong Kong because of U.S. government pressure, Facebook and Google now say they will run similar cables to Singapore and Indonesia.   “Named Echo and Bifrost, those will be the first two cables to go through a new diverse route crossing the Java Sea, and they will increase overall subsea capacity in the trans-Pacific by about 70%,” Facebook’s vice president of network investments, Kevin Salvadori, told the Reuters news agency. Salvadori would not comment on the cost of the project. He said the Echo cable, which is being built in partnership with Google and Indonesian telecommunications company XL, would be completed by 2023. Bifrost, which is being done in partnership with Telin, a subsidiary of Indonesia’s Telkom, and Singapore’s…

Facebook hired fact-checkers, Twitter labeled tweets and Google took down videos, but for tech companies, disinformation is the problem that won’t go away. The social media giants face intensifying pressure to curtail disinformation as lawmakers in the US talk about new regulations. Tina Trinh reports. Producer: Matt Dibble ...

Hackers in China used fake Facebook accounts and impostor websites to try to break into the computers and smartphones of Uyghur Muslims, the social network said Wednesday.The company said the sophisticated covert operation targeted Uyghur activists, journalists and dissidents from China's Xinjiang region, as well as individuals living in Turkey, Kazakhstan, the U.S., Syria, Australia, Canada and other nations.The hackers tried to gain access to the computers and phones by creating fake Facebook accounts for supposed journalists and activists, as well as fake websites and apps intended to appeal to a Uyghur audience. In some cases, the hackers created lookalike websites almost identical to legitimate news sites popular with Uyghurs.The accounts and sites contained malicious links. If the targets clicked on them, their computers or smartphones would be infected with…

When Joe Biden took office as president, the Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei Technologies saw at least a glimmer of hope that the U.S.-led campaign to shut it out of international markets might be eased somewhat. Once a global leader in smartphone sales, Huawei has seen its market share outside China plummet since the Trump administration began choking off its supply of technology key to producing modern 5G handsets. Likewise, the company’s business installing mobile telecommunications infrastructure, and especially new 5G-capable systems, has been severely damaged by a U.S. campaign against it.Biden had not signaled that he would be particularly easy on China -- his appointment of China hawk Katherine Tai as U.S. Trade Representative confirmed that. But Huawei and other Chinese firms thought that, if nothing else, the two countries could…