Martyn Williams
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IBM’s hub for wearables could have you out of the hospital faster
Researchers at IBM have developed a hub for wearables that can gather information from multiple wearable devices and share it with a doctor, potentially cutting down on the time patients need to spend in a hospital.The gadget, which IBM has dubbed a 'cognitive hypervisor,' funnels data from devices such as smart watches and fitness bands into the IBM Cloud. There, it's analyzed and the results are shared with the user and their doctor.The idea is that patients can be monitored reliably through the device so they can be sent home to recover from illnesses a day or two earlier than they might otherwise have been allowed. It also means that should a problem develop, a doctor can be alerted immediately and an ambulance dispatched if it's serious enough.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Tokyo wants to make Olympic medals from old smartphones
Japan will kick off a drive this week to collect old smartphones and other portable gadgets so that they can be turned into medals for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.The project will be launched on Thursday by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government with a goal of collecting up to 2 million used devices to recycle.Gadgets like smartphones contain small amounts of precious metals in their chips and circuit boards. The quantities are tiny but they're valuable enough to make recovery worth the expense.In the case of a smartphone, there's about 0.048 grams of gold, 0.26 grams of silver, and 12.7 grams of bronze. To make the roughly 5,000 medals that will be awarded in 2020, organizers will need 10 kilograms of gold, 1,230kg of silver, and 736kg of bronze. (The amount of gold is much less because those medals are plated and not solid gold).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Ford to pump $1B into AI for driverless cars
Ford plans to spend US$1 billion over the next five years on the development of an artificial intelligence system for driverless cars.Ford will investment the money in Argo AI, a start-up founded by former leaders from Google and Uber's self-driving car research units, and they will work toward the goal of a system that's ready for deployment in 2021.The research will be focused on a virtual driver system capable of operating at what's called "SAE level 4." It's one of five levels defined for self-driving cars and specifically describes an autonomous car that's capable of completely controlling the vehicle in almost any condition. After it has been engaged, drivers do not need to pay attention to the driving.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Trump to sign cybersecurity order calling for government-wide review
President Donald Trump is due to sign an executive order Tuesday that gives each cabinet official more responsibility for the safety of data within their agency.It will be accompanied by a government-wide review of cybersecurity by the Office of Management and Budget, looking at the technology in place that guards U.S. government systems from cyberattacks, according to a White House official.The results of that review could lead to a government-wide upgrade of federal cybersecurity systems.The U.S. government has been hit by hacks in the last few years. The State Department spent months trying to get rid of intruders in its unclassified network and the Office of Personnel Management lost personal information on millions of government workers through a second hack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Trump to sign cybersecurity order calling for government-wide review
President Donald Trump is due to sign an executive order Tuesday that gives each cabinet official more responsibility for the safety of data within their agency.It will be accompanied by a government-wide review of cybersecurity by the Office of Management and Budget, looking at the technology in place that guards U.S. government systems from cyberattacks, according to a White House official.The results of that review could lead to a government-wide upgrade of federal cybersecurity systems.The U.S. government has been hit by hacks in the last few years. The State Department spent months trying to get rid of intruders in its unclassified network and the Office of Personnel Management lost personal information on millions of government workers through a second hack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Uber, Amazon, Tesla ramped up US lobbying in 2016
Many major tech companies spent less money lobbying in Washington in 2016, but a handful, including Uber and Amazon, invested significantly more in attempting to influence politicians and the regulatory process.The money, which totals tens of millions of dollars, is spent on workers and companies that monitor bills and schmooze with politicians and their staffs in the hopes of shaping laws in favor of their clients.Uber, which is regularly in conflict with regulators, spent $1.4 million on issues as varied as autonomous cars, access to military bases for its cars and transportation regulations. That's almost three times the $470,000 it spent in 2015, according to regulatory filings.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Trump, May agree to take on ISIS in cyberspace
The U.K. and U.S. are planning to work more closely to combat the spread of extreme Islamist ideology in cyberspace, British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Friday.May was speaking at a White House news conference, alongside U.S. President Donald Trump, held to outline the results of talks between the two leaders. May is in Washington as the first foreign head of state to meet Trump.She noted the conventional military fight against ISIS is working and the group is losing territory but noted the two countries "need to redouble our efforts.""Today we’re discussing how we can do this by deepening intelligence and security cooperation and critically, by stepping up our efforts to counter Daesh in cyberspace," she said, using an alternate name for the terrorist group.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Trump, May agree to take on ISIS in cyberspace
The U.K. and U.S. are planning to work more closely to combat the spread of extreme Islamist ideology in cyberspace, British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Friday.May was speaking at a White House news conference, alongside U.S. President Donald Trump, held to outline the results of talks between the two leaders. May is in Washington as the first foreign head of state to meet Trump.She noted the conventional military fight against ISIS is working and the group is losing territory but noted the two countries "need to redouble our efforts.""Today we’re discussing how we can do this by deepening intelligence and security cooperation and critically, by stepping up our efforts to counter Daesh in cyberspace," she said, using an alternate name for the terrorist group.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Alphabet earnings surge on mobile, YouTube
Alphabet reported significantly higher revenue for the fourth quarter of 2016 on the back of increased mobile and YouTube video advertising.Revenue in the last three months of the year jumped 22 percent from a year earlier, reaching $26.1 billion, while net income rose 8 percent to $5.3 billion.“2016 was simply a great year for us,” said Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Alphabet and Google, in a conference call with analysts.The vast majority of the quarter's revenue, $22.4 billion, came from Google's advertising business, with $3.4 billion coming from other business segments such as hardware sales, the Google Play Store and Google's Cloud services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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US Park Service tweets were result of old Twitter passwords
Two instances of tweets from U.S. National Park Service accounts that became political hot potatoes in the last few days were the result of bad password management, according to officials.The first incident took place on inauguration day when the main National Park Service account retweeted images from a CNN reporter that compared unfavorably the crowd size at President Donald Trump's inauguration with that of President Barack Obama's in 2009.When Trump began to openly dispute the images and smaller crowd sizes, the National Park Service deleted the retweet and apologized."We regret the mistaken RTs from our account yesterday and look forward to continuing to share the beauty and history of our parks with you," it said on Saturday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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US Park Service tweets were result of old Twitter passwords
Two instances of tweets from U.S. National Park Service accounts that became political hot potatoes in the last few days were the result of bad password management, according to officials.The first incident took place on inauguration day when the main National Park Service account retweeted images from a CNN reporter that compared unfavorably the crowd size at President Donald Trump's inauguration with that of President Barack Obama's in 2009.When Trump began to openly dispute the images and smaller crowd sizes, the National Park Service deleted the retweet and apologized."We regret the mistaken RTs from our account yesterday and look forward to continuing to share the beauty and history of our parks with you," it said on Saturday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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GPG Suite updated for secure email on OSX Sierra
GPG Suite, an application that brings encrypted email to Mac OS, is now available in public beta for Sierra.The software package had been compatible up to El Capitan but wasn't working with Sierra, which was released by Apple in September. The new software can now be downloaded from the GPG Tools website.It adds support for the OpenPGP encryption standard, which is an open-source version of the PGP encryption package first developed in 1991.Four software apps are contained in the package:-- GPG Mail is a plugin for Apple Mail that allows users to encrypt, decrypt, sign, and verify mails sent using OpenPGP.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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GPG Suite updated for secure email on OSX Sierra
GPG Suite, an application that brings encrypted email to Mac OS, is now available in public beta for Sierra.The software package had been compatible up to El Capitan but wasn't working with Sierra, which was released by Apple in September. The new software can now be downloaded from the GPG Tools website.It adds support for the OpenPGP encryption standard, which is an open-source version of the PGP encryption package first developed in 1991.Four software apps are contained in the package:-- GPG Mail is a plugin for Apple Mail that allows users to encrypt, decrypt, sign, and verify mails sent using OpenPGP.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Samsung sees 2016 profit jump despite Note 7 debacle
Samsung Electronics said its profit rose almost 20 percent in 2016 despite nearly flat sales and the costly recall of the Note 7 smartphone.The company reported an annual net profit of 22.7 trillion won (US$19.5 billion), up 19.2 percent, on sales of 201.9 trillion won (US$173.5 billion), up just 0.6 percent.Samsung saw some of its biggest sales gains in memory chips on the back of strong demand from smartphone makers. The company is one of the world's biggest memory chip manufacturers.The mobile division saw sales fall 3 percent in 2016 to 97.8 trillion won. It's Samsung's biggest division by sales and was hit by the recall of the Note 7 smartphone and slowing demand for high-end phones.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Apple sues Qualcomm over patent licensing and $1B in payments
A nasty spat between Apple and Qualcomm broke into public view on Friday when the smartphone maker accused the chip supplier of charging "exorbitant" licensing fees for its cellular technology.Apple is asking a Southern California court to order Qualcomm to pay it nearly $1 billion that it says Qualcomm is holding back. Apple says it is owed the money but Qualcomm is holding it back because Apple cooperated with a South Korean government investigation into Qualcomm's licensing practices.The lawsuit alleges that Qualcomm charges high licensing fees to the companies that make iPhones for Apple. Those companies pass the fees on to Apple but aren't allowed to show Apple the specifics of the licensing deals, leaving Apple unsure what it is paying for.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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US alleges systemic employment discrimination at Oracle
The U.S. government says Oracle routinely and systemically pays white men more than women and minorities and that it favors Asian candidates over others in product development and technical roles.The allegations are contained in a lawsuit filed by the Department of Labor that represents the results of a two-year investigation into hiring practices at the Silicon Valley company.The investigation was triggered by a regular compliance review by the government. As a federal contractor, Oracle is prohibited from engaging in discrimination based on race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.As a result, Oracle stands to lose millions of dollars in federal contracts if the Labor Department can prove its case and the company doesn't change its ways.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Now it’s AT&T’s turn to talk jobs, investment with Trump
AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson met with President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday to talk jobs and investment, but the company's multi-billion takeover of Time Warner was not on the table. The company didn't say much about the meeting, which took place at Trump Tower in New York, but characterized it as wide ranging. "As the country’s leading investor of capital for each of the last five years, the conversation focused on how AT&T can work with the Trump administration to increase investment in the U.S., stimulate job creation in America, and make American companies more competitive globally," AT&T said in a statement.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Here’s what you look like when you’re trying VR
Virtual reality at CESImage by Alexandra Wimley/BU News ServiceVirtual reality was all over CES, providing attendees with a glimpse into the computer animated future. But while show-goers were deep in their virtual worlds, photographers Ann Singer and Alexandra Wimley of BU News Service were outside looking on. Here's what they captured. Here, David Nevas, of Lawrenceville, New Jersey, tries out the Icaros virtual reality flying device at CES on Jan. 6, 2017.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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The crazy sights of CES
The crazy sights of CESImage by Ann SingerThe annual CES show is celebrating its 50th anniversary and seems to get busier and crazier every year. Here's a look back at some of the most memorable sights of CES 2017 through the lenses of Ann Singer and Alexandra Wimley, photojournalism students at Boston University.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Yahoo will become Altaba, lose Mayer after Verizon buyout
Yahoo intends to change its name to Altaba once the sale of its internet portal to Verizon is completed. CEO Marissa Mayer and co-founder David Filo also will leave the company then, Yahoo said in a regulatory filing on Monday.The changes are part of a $4.8 billion dollar deal signed in July 2016 to sell Yahoo.com to Verizon.NEWSLETTERS: Get the latest tech news sent directly to your in-box Once that deal is complete, Yahoo will become an investment company and the board will be reduced from 11 to five people. Altaba's main holdings will be stakes in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and major Japanese Internet portal Yahoo Japan.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here