Technology News and More

Silicon Valley marked its favorite math holiday by protesting President Donald Trump.

It may no more be news for most of us who have been around or more so, participated either as producers or users of mobile technology, particularly in communication: the thought of an infrared in the late 1990s straight into the new millennium when we began to replace that with the Bluetooth among others.

There are few people with computer science backgrounds who work in the federal government. Long hours coupled with smaller salaries make it hard to recruit techies to Washington, according to Representative Ruben Gallego.

Technology firms will get "exclusive access" to details of the CIA's cyber-warfare programme, Wikileaks has said.

Several of the tech firms whose products have been allegedly compromised by the CIA have given their first reactions to the claims.

Most users of personal computers enjoy the opportunity to upgrade their apps on a regular basis but the idea of those updates running automatically once the system is connected to the internet could be quite offensive. 

Even concerns about Snapchat's slowing user growth aren't stopping investors from clamoring for its stock.

YouTube will soon offer a streaming TV service for people who don't want to pay for traditional cable.

Prosecutors on Tuesday indicted Lee Jae-yong, the de facto chief of the giant South Korean conglomerate, on bribery and other charges. Four other Samsung executives were also charged with bribery and other crimes under the investigation into a huge political corruption scandal that has shaken the country.

While Uber does damage control for its reputation, competitor Lyft is sinking its teeth into more markets.

The director of Ringing Bells, the Indian firm which claimed to be selling the world's cheapest smartphone, has been arrested on allegations of fraud.

Facebook says it is investigating a mother's complaints about a post that misused photos showing her child with a severe case of chickenpox.

Nothing could be more annoying than when one drops by YouTube to watch, or download a video than a compulsory lady sprawling across the beach side and trying to tell you about an orange juice, perhaps so much that the video site can no more ignore the nuisance of such ads to its visitors. Hence, YouTube has finally scrapped the "unskippable" 30-second adverts.

Ahead of the launch of some new smartphones this year, Blackberry has filed a lawsuit against the Finnish manufacturer, Nokia over an alleged illegal use of about a dozen of its inventions.

Toshiba chairman Shigenori Shiga has resigned, hours after the Japanese conglomerate revealed details of a multi-billion-dollar loss.

Source: BBC

A UN expert has called on Cameroon to restore net access to English-speaking parts of the country.

US automaker, Ford has announced its plans to invest $1bn (£800m) over the next five years in the artificial intelligence (AI) firm, Argo.

Think of a blogging software option among most circles of discussion and the name that may likely pop up is, WordPress. But recent security defects in that favorite blogging software has created a safe haven for hackers, resulting in the distortion of tens of thousands of sites.

The National Basketball Association has in collaboration with the video game publisher Take-Two Interactive created an e-sports league in the US.

 

 

Source: BBC                                                                                                                                  

Thirty more US technology firms have signed a brief opposing President Trump's immigration ban, bringing the total number involved to 127.

A hacker has briefly hijacked more than 150,000 printers accidentally left accessible via the web.

Following growing concerns from employees and the public over President Trump’s controversial immigration ban, chief executive of the ride-sharing service – Uber, Travis Kalanick, has resigned from the White House economic advisory group.

The number of human interventions in journeys made by driverless cars from Google company Waymo in California more than halved in 2016.

There were only 124 "disengagement" incidents last year, where a driver had to take control of a test vehicle on public roads, down from 341 in 2015.

The cars drove nearly 636,000 miles last year, compared with just over 424,000 in 2015.

Other states in the US do not require such reporting.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles published the annual reports on Wednesday.

'Reckless behaviour'

"Disengagements are a natural part of the testing process that allow our engineers to expand the software' s capabilities and identify areas of improvement," Waymo said in its report.

The most common reasons for interventions in Waymo cars were "software discrepancies, unwanted manoeuvres of the vehicle and perception discrepancies", according to the company.

Of the 124 incidents, only 10 were caused by the "reckless" behaviour of another road user.

Beyond Waymo's impressive results, the news was generally good.

Cruise, the start-up leading General Motors' autonomous driving development, upped its testing in San Francisco markedly. It went from driving fewer than five miles in June 2015, to nearly 400 in June 2016.

It reported 414 disengagements in almost 10,000 miles of driving in 2016 overall.

For some companies the records show a very small amount of mileage covered by the autonomous cars.

Image copyright Getty Images

In other US states with self-driving regulations - including Nevada, Michigan, and Florida - there is no requirement for public disclosure of this type of data, which is why, for example, not much is known about Uber's autonomous vehicle testing.

Ford only reported 590 miles driven in 2016, all in the month of March. It only has two autonomous cars in California, but has a much larger fleet in Michigan, where reporting is not required.

Meanwhile BMW recorded one disengagement in its 638 miles of autonomous driving in March and April 2016, because lane markings on Highway 101 were not clear enough. The operator's reaction time

Source: BBC

In a latest move by the online retail giant, Amazon has disclosed its plans to build an air cargo centre at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport in Hebron, United States.

Facebook has revealed how it will start tackling fake news stories and how users' newsfeeds will change after a new update.

In a series of developments following the dismissal of US acting attorney general over her alleged refusal to enforce President Trump’s travel ban, Amazon and Expedia have collaborated with other firms legally challenging the ban.

For months, Silicon Valley seemed to be heeding the advice of one of its most powerful figures, billionaire investor Peter Thiel, who said President Trump should be taken "seriously, but not literally”.

The rise of the new threat of cyber-attack on the world is one that perhaps can no more be ignored by government or private institutions, especially in an era when about everything is ran by information. In what might be received in several quarters as staggering, Microsoft Corporation has reasserted its place as one such companies with an aggressive response to the threat with a plan to maintain its over $1 billion annual investment on cyber security research and development over the next few years.

Facebook’s CEO has demised as false, the speculations that he will be running for President of the United states.

It may now be taken for granted that, in this 21st century, not only the rules but likewise the battle ground for attacks have changed; whether it be on individuals, private institutions or governments. A notable example is the recent Malware attacks on Libraries across the city of St Louis in Missouri state of the United States.