Technology archive for 2016-06-28
Researchers Find Game-Changing Helium Reserve In Tanzania
(3 years ago)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via CNN: Helium is an incredibly important element that is used in everything from party balloons to MRI machines -- it's even used for nuclear power. For many years, there have been global shortages of the element. For example, Tokyo Disneyland once had to suspend sales of its helium balloons due to the shortages. The shortages are expected to come to an end now that researchers from Oxford and Durham universities have discovered a "world-class" helium gas field in Tanzania's East African Rift Valley. They estimate that just one part of the reserve in Tanzania could be as large as 54 billion cubic feet (BCf), which is enough to fill more than 1.2 million medical MRI scanners. "To put this discovery into perspective, global consumption of helium is about 8 billion cubic feet (BCf) per year and the United States Federal Helium Reserve, which is the world's largest supplier, has a current reserve of just 24.2 BCf," said University of Oxford's Chris Ballentine, a professor with the Department of Earth Sciences. "Total known reserves in the USA are around 153 BCf. This is a game-changer for the future security of society's helium needs and similar finds in the future may not be far away," Ballentine added. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A free bot service, DoNotPay, has helped successfully challenge 160K+ traffic tickets in London, New York since launching last fall; Seattle expansion planned (Khari Johnson/VentureBeat)
(3 years ago)
Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:A free bot service, DoNotPay, has helped successfully challenge 160K+ traffic tickets in London, New York since launching last fall; Seattle expansion planned — A bot made to challenge traffic tickets has been used more than 9,000 times by New Yorkers, according to DoNotPay maker Joshua Browder.
Related
- NYC-based Karhoo, an app that lets you hail taxis from multiple taxi services, raises $250M ahead of its January 2016 launch in London, New York, and Singapore (Murad Ahmed/Financial Times)
- DoNotPay, a free bot service for appealing parking tickets, can now help refugees fill out asylum applications for the US, Canada, and the UK (Elena Cresci/The Guardian)
- Europe's top court, the European Court of Justice, advised to treat Uber as a transport service; a final ruling is expected by late summer (Mark Scott/New York Times)
- Beijing and Shanghai announce that Chinese ride-sharing services can only hire only local residents as drivers (Cao Li/New York Times)
Apple Patents a Way To Keep People From Filming At Concerts and Movie Theaters
(3 years ago)
An anonymous reader writes: Apple has patented a system that prohibits smartphone users from taking photos and videos at concerts, movie theaters and other events where people tend to ignore such restrictions. The patent has been award to Apple today and was first spotted by Patently Apple. QZ reports: "It outlines a system which would allow venues to use an infrared emitter to remotely disable the camera function on smartphones. According to the patent, infrared beams could be picked up by the camera, and interpreted by the smartphone as a command to block the user from taking any photos or videos of whatever they're seeing. The patent also outlines ways that infrared blasters could actually improve someone's experience at a venue. For example, the beams could be used to send information to museum-goers by pointing a smartphone camera at a blaster placed next to a piece of art." The report also mentions that the patent could in theory be used to help police limit smartphone filming of acts of brutality, or help a government shut off filming in certain locations. Last week, SlashGear reported that Alicia Keys is the latest musician to ban cellphones at her events. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Related
- Apple Patents A Way To Make All-Glass iPhones, iPads, Monitors And TVs (Darrell Etherington/TechCrunch)
- Apple Patents Alternative To NFC
- Apple patents iOS 5's exposure metering based on face detection, keeps friends in full view
- Apple patents Siri-like system for controlling cameras, PMPs through a computer or smartphone

Airbnb seeks funds valuing it at $30 billion: source
(3 years ago)
(Reuters) - Apartment-sharing startup Airbnb is in talks for a new round of funding that would value the company at $30 billion, a source close to the company said on Tuesday.
Verizon is marketing a $1.2B bond backed by mobile phone contracts, the first of its kind in US, with three categories rated triple-A to single-A by Fitch (Joe Rennison/Financial Times)
(3 years ago)
Joe Rennison / Financial Times:Verizon is marketing a $1.2B bond backed by mobile phone contracts, the first of its kind in US, with three categories rated triple-A to single-A by Fitch — Verizon is marketing a $1.2bn bond backed by mobile phone contracts, the first of its kind in the US, which could pave the way to similar deals from other mobile phone providers.
Related
- Verizon kicks off pre-sale for HP Pre 2 mobile phone
- Apple's federal EEO-1 filing shows that its diversity in US barely improved last year, contradicting figures reported by Apple in August (Amar Toor/The Verge)
- AOC reveals 22-inch, USB-powered 1080p monitor
- Backpage.com co-founder released on $1 million bond in prostitution case

China launches new carrier rocket
(3 years ago)
China's next-generation carrier rocket blasted off from the country's new Wenchang space port Saturday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Exoplanet hunter seeks life on other worlds
(3 years ago)
The hunt for Earth-like planets has intensified as scientists search for potential life on other worlds.

Sculpture controlled by bees
(3 years ago)
Deep inside the Royal Botanical Gardens in London, a 40 ton steel sculpture has arisen in a peaceful wildflower meadow. The structure is called "The Hive" -- a 17 meter tall ode to the plight of honeybees, created by artist Wolfgang Buttress.
Related

2016 On Pace To Be The Hottest Year On Record
(3 years ago)
The American Southwest isn't the only place feeling the heat.

$1,000 device 3D-scans body fat
(3 years ago)
Naked Labs makes a 3D body scanner for your home. Founder Farhad Farahbakhshian tells CNN's Samuel Burke that the company's device will tell you if your diet or workout is making a difference, before you'd see results on a scale.

(3 years ago)
See photos of the Solar Impulse 2's attempt to circumnavigate the globe using only solar power.

(3 years ago)
Chinese fans were glued to their screens watching the NBA finals thanks to a savvy business move from one Chinese tech giant. CNN's Andrew Stevens reports.
Let's Stop Freaking Out About Artificial Intelligence
(3 years ago)
Former Google CEO, and current Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and Google X founder Sebastian Thrun in an op-ed on Fortune Magazine have shared their views on artificial intelligence, and what the future holds for this nascent technology. "When we first worked on the AI behind self-driving cars, most experts were convinced they would never be safe enough for public roads. But the Google Self-Driving Car team had a crucial insight that differentiates AI from the way people learn. When driving, people mostly learn from their own mistakes. But they rarely learn from the mistakes of others. People collectively make the same mistakes over and over again," they wrote. The two also talked about an artificial intelligence apocalypse, adding that while it's unlikely to happen, the situation is still worth considering. They wrote:Do we worry about the doomsday scenarios? We believe it's worth thoughtful consideration. Today's AI only thrives in narrow, repetitive tasks where it is trained on many examples. But no researchers or technologists want to be part of some Hollywood science-fiction dystopia. The right course is not to panic - it's to get to work. Google, alongside many other companies, is doing rigorous research on AI safety, such as how to ensure people can interrupt an AI system whenever needed, and how to make such systems robust to cyberattacks.It's a long commentary, but worth a read.[..]
Related
- Vladimir Putin says the nation leading in artificial intelligence will rule the world as Russia, China, and the US compete for the best AI tech (Tom Simonite/Wired)
- Artificial Intelligence Has 'Great Potential, But We Need To Steer Carefully,' LinkedIn Co-founder Says
- Corruption, dirty tricks, let's stop pussy footing about
- What Does Artificial Intelligence Actually Mean?
Siemens plans to invest $1.1B over next five years in a new startups unit focused on developing AI, decentralized electrification, block chain apps, more (Oliver Suess/Bloomberg)
(3 years ago)
Oliver Suess / Bloomberg:Siemens plans to invest $1.1B over next five years in a new startups unit focused on developing AI, decentralized electrification, block chain apps, more — Next47 will operate from Berkeley, Shanghai and Munich — CEO Kaeser aims to foster a more nimble corporate culture
Related
- Intel launches new IoT retail platform called Responsive Retail Platform and announces plan to invest $100M over next five years in the retail tech sector (Natalie Gagliordi/ZDNet)
- China to invest $15 billion in big data, cloud computing over next five years
- Siemens to invest $1.1 billion in new startups unit
- Google to invest $140 million to expand data center in Chile
Exploring how humans, machines will work together to solve society's problems as AI advances: new tech must have protections for privacy, transparency, security (Satya Nadella/Slate)
(3 years ago)
Satya Nadella / Slate:Exploring how humans, machines will work together to solve society's problems as AI advances: new tech must have protections for privacy, transparency, security — Advanced machine learning, also known as artificial intelligence or just A.I., holds far greater promise than unsettling headlines …
Related
- How hackers and pirates worked together to locate and steal millions of dollars in diamonds from cargo ships (Joseph Bernstein/BuzzFeed)
- Google and Twitter are working together on an open source version of "instant articles" on mobiles (Re/code)
- Google's Founders & CEO Promised To Work Together Until 2024 (Barry Schwartz /Search Engine Land)
- Unicorns aggressively recruit employees from Silicon Valley giants, with Airbnb poaching over 100 workers and Uber targeting Google's mapping unit (Mike Isaac/New York Times)

Olympic unisuits protect against polluted waters
(3 years ago)
The U.S. Olympic rowing team will appear in seamless unisuits when they hit the bay waters of Rio de Janeiro this summer. Though many viewers will notice only the second-skin fit, these innovative suits will also be providing much-needed protection against the foul waters of Guanabara Bay. The unisuits are knitted with antimicrobial material, their designer said.

These clothes can charge your phone
(3 years ago)
With this line, Seattle startup Baubax is turning jackets, jeans and shorts into mobile charging stations.
Related
Here's How Pinterest Plans to Get You To Shop More
(3 years ago)
Pinterest is figuring out new ways to bolster its revenue. On Tuesday, the social media company announced a range of new e-commerce features that will encourage its users (the service attracts more than 100 million users every month) to purchase items directly from its website. One of the biggest features is visual search for products, which will allow users to take a picture of an object and then see similar items to buy on Pinterest. The company has also announced a shopping bag that can be accessed on its mobile apps and website. From a Fortune report:Merchants will be able to create dedicated pages displaying all the merchandise being sold through Pinterest and, like Amazon, will suggest items that a user might want to buy. [...] The company wants to make it increasingly easier for people to buy items on its site. If Pinterest does have ambitions of becoming more of an e-commerce destination, it makes sense for Pinterest to start emulating moves made early on by e-commerce giant Amazon, such as personalization and recommended items. The key to personalization for Amazon has been the trove of data it has accumulated in order to recommend more products to its users. Pinterest said that its users are currently pinning four million items per day, and this data could be key to providing users with more personalized recommendations.[..]
Sources: Airbnb seeking a new investment round at a valuation of around $30B, about a year after raising at a reported $24B valuation (New York Times)
(3 years ago)
New York Times:Sources: Airbnb seeking a new investment round at a valuation of around $30B, about a year after raising at a reported $24B valuation — Airbnb, which lets users list their homes and apartments for short-term rentals, is in talks for a new round of investment that would value the company …
Related
- Sources: Tencent-backed Meituan Dianping, China's largest group-buying and restaurant reviews service, is close to raising $3B+ at a $28B valuation (Lulu Yilun Chen/Bloomberg)
- Tumblr closes $85 million investment round
- China's Alibaba to expand U.S. reach with new investment group
- HCL halts new investments in computer hardware
US Healthcare Records Offered For Sale Online
(3 years ago)
An anonymous reader writes:Three U.S. healthcare organisations are reportedly being held to ransom by a hacker who stole data on hundreds of thousands of patients. The hacker has also put the 650,000 records up for sale on dark web markets where stolen data is traded. Prices for the different databases range from $100,000 to $411,000. Buyers have already been found for some of the stolen data, the hacker behind the theft told news site Motherboard. No information about the size of the ransom payment sought by the data thief has emerged, although he did say it was "a modest amount compared to the damage that will be caused to the organisations when I decide to publicly leak the victims." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Leaked investor update doc: Lyft had record May, providing 12.7M rides in the month but volume may flatten with Austin retreat and college students heading home (Biz Carson/Business Insider)
(3 years ago)
Biz Carson / Business Insider:Leaked investor update doc: Lyft had record May, providing 12.7M rides in the month but volume may flatten with Austin retreat and college students heading home — Lyft had a record May, completing 12.7 million rides in the month, according to a leaked investor update viewed by Business Insider.
Related
- Lyft executive says the company made about $83M in gross bookings from 7M rides in October (Heather Somerville/Reuters)
- LulzSec leaked AT&T documents outline LTE rollout and iPad 3
- Google Drive updates Docs and Slides with integrated search
- BlackBerry Bold 9900 appears in leaked T-Mo docs, reveals August 29th release date and $300 price
Amazon gives the Alexa 'app store' a makeover, now lets you add new Skills by voice (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
(3 years ago)
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:Amazon gives the Alexa ‘app store’ a makeover, now lets you add new Skills by voice — It will now be easier to add “Skills” - new functionality by way of voice-activated apps to Amazon's smart speaker Echo, and its other Alexa-powered devices, Amazon announced this morning.

NASA's Mars-Bound Rocket Booster Passes a Key Test
(3 years ago)
The heavy duty rocket will one day carry humans to Mars.
Evernote raises prices of paid plans: Plus tier now $4, previously $3, and Premium tier now $8, previously $6; device sharing on free tier limited to 2 devices (Dan Seifert/The Verge)
(3 years ago)
Dan Seifert / The Verge:Evernote raises prices of paid plans: Plus tier now $4, previously $3, and Premium tier now $8, previously $6; device sharing on free tier limited to 2 devices — Evernote today announced a new suite of pricing for its paid plans and new limitations for its free service.
China Tells App Developers To Increase User Monitoring
(3 years ago)
An anonymous reader writes: The Cyberspace Administration of China has imposed new regulation for the mobile app community, requiring that developers keep a close watch over users and keep a record of their activities. However, the proposed legislation would also prevent apps from requesting unnecessary access to users' contacts, camera, microphone and other spurious installation requests. The regulator introduced the new laws in the name of cracking down on illegal use of mobile platforms for the distribution of pornography, fraud and the spread of 'malicious' content. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Related
- AT&T service in the works to let app developers pay for users' data use
- California AG Harris urges app developers to respect users' privacy
- FTC Tells Mobile App Developers To Honor User Privacy, Threatens Fines (Carl Franzen/Talking Points Memo)
- Trump Tells Apple To Make Products In the US To Avoid China Tariffs
Twitter launches Twitter Dashboard, an iOS and desktop app to help businesses manage their accounts, now in beta (Noah Pepper/The Twitter Blog)
(3 years ago)
Noah Pepper / The Twitter Blog:Twitter launches Twitter Dashboard, an iOS and desktop app to help businesses manage their accounts, now in beta — For businesses, Twitter is a place to share news, tell stories, and have conversations that support, educate, and delight their customers. It's a place for authentic interactions …
Related
- Twitter launches Twitter Reader skill for Amazon Alexa to hear trends, top Tweets, notifications, more (Steve Dent/Engadget)
- Twitter acquires IP, staff of iOS A/B testing company Clutch.io for its 'Growth and International' team (Matthew Panzarino/The Next Web)
- LinkedIn brings its Work With Us job tool to mobile, launches iOS app to help recruiters manage candidates (Ken Yeung/The Next Web)
- Polaroid Cube+ adds Wi-Fi, 8-megapixel photos, and new iOS and Android apps to serve as viewfinder and controls; available in August for $150 (Joshua Goldman/CNET)
Pinterest is rolling out a shopping bag, buyable pins on web, visual search with your camera (Jordan Novet/VentureBeat)
(3 years ago)
Jordan Novet / VentureBeat:Pinterest is rolling out a shopping bag, buyable pins on web, visual search with your camera — Pinterest, the startup whose app lets people pin photos and other content to boards and even buy things shown in pins, today announced that the buy buttons that first appeared on the app are now coming to the web version.
Facebook launches official Share and Save Chrome extensions and redesigns its web-embeddable Like, Share, and Follow buttons (Yue Cai/Facebook Developers)
(3 years ago)
Yue Cai / Facebook Developers:Facebook launches official Share and Save Chrome extensions and redesigns its web-embeddable Like, Share, and Follow buttons — Today, we're introducing several new ways for developers to help people improve their sharing and saving experience. This includes two new Chrome extensions …
Airbnb Has Sued Its Hometown Of San Francisco
(3 years ago)
Robert Mclean, reporting for CNN:Airbnb is taking its hometown to federal court. The company has filed a lawsuit against the city of San Francisco, objecting to short-term rental rule changes approved by its Board of Supervisors. A new ordinance set to take effect in late July would require all Airbnb hosts to register with the city. If they do not, Airbnb would be fined up to $1,000 a day for each listing, putting the burden on the company to make sure each listing is legal. But the city's $50 registration process is analog enough to turn off many hosts. It can't be completed online and requires submitting all the documents in person. Airbnb contends the new rule violates the Communications Decency Act, Stored Communications Act and the First Amendment. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Related
- Airbnb files lawsuit against city of San Francisco saying recent ordinance breaks federal law (Joshua Sabatini/The San Francisco ...)
- Airbnb Must Pay Hotel Tax in San Francisco (Matt Smith/The Bay Citizen)
- SoundCloud cuts 173 employees, or about 40% of its staff, and plans to close its offices in San Francisco and London to cut costs and stay independent (Adam Satariano/Bloomberg)
- Airbnb and HomeAway settle lawsuit with San Francisco over short-term rental law, will both roll out host registries in San Francisco over next eight months (Ken Yeung/VentureBeat)
Facebook now has official Save and Share extensions for Chrome (Nate Swanner/The Next Web)
(3 years ago)
Nate Swanner / The Next Web:Facebook now has official Save and Share extensions for Chrome — Taking dead aim at Pocket, Facebook is releasing a ‘Save to Facebook’ extension for the Chrome browser as well as a new ‘Share’ extension. — Launched at F8 , the Save button lets you tuck articles away on Facebook to read later on.
Twitter hires former Apple designer Alessandro Sabatelli as Head of VR and AR, forms new team focused on VR and AR development (Will Mason/UploadVR)
(3 years ago)
Will Mason / UploadVR:Twitter hires former Apple designer Alessandro Sabatelli as Head of VR and AR, forms new team focused on VR and AR development — Until recently Twitter has appeared dormant through the rise of two of Silicon Valley's hottest technologies, augmented and virtual reality, but the company's silence appears to be drawing to a close.
Related
- Twitter hires former Apple comms exec Natalie Kerris as VP of global communications, seven months after firing former communications lead Gabriel Stricker (Kurt Wagner/Re/code)
- Facebook reportedly hires former Apple iOS 6 Maps lead Richard Williamson
- Facebook hires former UK deputy prime minister as head of global affairs
- Huawei hires former Apple creative director Abigail Brody as chief user experience designer (Haze Fan/CNBC)

Kuwait's emir warns against sectarian abuse on social media
(3 years ago)
DUBAI (Reuters) - Kuwait's ruler warned on Monday against the abuse of social media to stoke sectarian tensions in the small Gulf Arab country, which has a mixed Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim population.
Related
Microsoft To Make Saying No To Windows 10 Update Easier
(3 years ago)
Less than a week after a California-based woman won $10,000 lawsuit against Microsoft over Windows 10 upgrades, the Redmond-based company has announced it will make it easier for users to say no to Windows 10 updates. The company plans to change the Windows 10 update prompt to make it clearer and easier for Windows 7 and Windows 8.x users to schedule or reject upgrading to Windows 10. ZDNet reports:Microsoft officials said late on June 27 that the new update experience -- with clearer "upgrade now, schedule a time, or decline the free offer" -- will start rolling out this week. Microsoft also will revert to making clicking on the Red X at the corner of the Windows 10 update box dismiss the update, rather than initiate it, as it has done for the past several weeks. Microsoft officials said they are making the change "in response to customer feedback." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Related
- Microsoft pushes 'mixed reality' features with Windows 10 update
- Microsoft issues crash warning with latest Windows 10 update
- Microsoft to now share Windows 10 release notes, debuting Windows 10 update history website (Paul Thurrott/Thurrott.com)
- Microsoft Removes the 'X' From Windows 10 Update Leaving No Way Out

Taiwanese chip supplier says Apple conservative on orders: Nikkei
(3 years ago)
(Reuters) - Taiwanese chip firm Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc said on Tuesday that its biggest customer, Apple Inc, was being more conservative in placing orders compared with last year, according to the Nikkei.

London start-up scene weighs threat of British Techxit
(3 years ago)
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Britain's tech start-up scene was having a bumper year in terms of new company creation, fresh funding and acquisitions by global tech players before voters decided to leave the European Union in Thursday’s referendum.

Young Turks: e-commerce start-ups bet on enviable demographics
(3 years ago)
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - When Demet Mutlu dropped out of Harvard six years ago to found an online fashion retailer in her native Turkey, friends thought she was crazy to leave the world's top business school for a leap into the unknown.

Siemens to invest $1.1 billion in new startups unit
(3 years ago)
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German industrial group Siemens plans to invest 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) over the next five years in a new startups unit to help it develop businesses in areas such as artificial intelligence and decentralized electrification.

EU regulators readying third Google antitrust charge: sources
(3 years ago)
BRUSSELS - Alphabet's Google may face a third EU antitrust charge as soon as next month, this time focusing on its revenue mainstay AdWords ad placement service, three people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Chinese economic cyber-espionage is diminishing, says U.S. official
(3 years ago)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said on Tuesday that Chinese hacking activity appears to have declined since the Chinese government vowed last September to stop supporting the hacking of U.S. trade secrets.

Court rules Dutch cyber-bullying suspect can be extradited to Canada
(3 years ago)
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch court ruled on Tuesday that a 38-year-old man can be extradited to Canada to face charges of using a computer to harass and blackmail a teenager who later committed suicide.
Related
- NZ court rules Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom can be extradited to U.S. for alleged fraud
- New Zealand court rules Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom can be extradited to U.S.
- Dutch court rules that Samsung didn't infringe on Apple multi-touch patent
- Dutch court rules in favor of Samsung in 3G patent case against Apple, could lead to compensation

Young Turks: e-commerce start-ups bet on enviable demographics
(3 years ago)
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - When Demet Mutlu dropped out of Harvard six years ago to found an online fashion retailer in her native Turkey, friends thought she was crazy to leave the world's top business school for a leap into the unknown.

China tightens rules for mobile app developers
(3 years ago)
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China has tightened rules for mobile app developers including requiring real-name registration and preserving users' activity logs, the country's internet regulator said on Tuesday, as Beijing looks to strengthen oversight of the growing app market.
Related
- China tightens rules for mobile app developers
- New Chinese rules for mobile app developers require user verification with real-name registration and saving user activity logs for 60 days (Adam Jourdan/Reuters)
- Mobile app developers see Google+ on the rise
- Windows Phone, Kindle Fire make big gains among mobile app developers

EU regulators readying third Google antitrust charge: sources
(3 years ago)
BRUSSELS - Alphabet's Google may face a third EU antitrust charge as soon as next month, this time focusing on its revenue mainstay AdWords ad placement service, three people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Chinese economic cyber-espionage is diminishing, says U.S. official
(3 years ago)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said on Tuesday that Chinese hacking activity appears to have declined since the Chinese government vowed last September to stop supporting the hacking of U.S. trade secrets.