Wednesday, 27 Nov, 2024

Tech

Google employees protest over company's ties with Israel

Google employees staged sit-ins at two of the tech giant's offices in California and New York City, protesting the company's ties with Israel. Led by a group called "No Tech For Apartheid," the protests demanded that Google and Amazon terminate their Nimbus contract

Tesla to lay off over 10pc of staff worldwide amid falling sales

Electric carmaker Tesla plans to lay off more than 10 percent of its global workforce, according to a memo sent to employees by CEO Elon Musk. Musk told staff in an email on Monday that the cuts were necessary due to the “duplication of roles and job functions in certain

Apple announces investment in Vietnam as CEO visits Hanoi

Apple has announced plans to boost spending in Vietnam, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the Southeast Asian country for a two-day visit. The California-based tech giant said in a statement on Monday that it would boost spending on suppliers in the country but did not elaborate on the amount

NASA unveils probe bound for Jupiter's possibly life-sustaining moon

US space scientists on Thursday unveiled the interplanetary probe NASA plans to send to one of Jupiter's icy moons as part of humanity's hunt for extra-terrestrial life. The Clipper spacecraft is due to blast off in October bound for Europa, one of dozens of moons orbiting the

Nobel-winning 'God particle' physicist Higgs dies aged 94

Peter Higgs, the Nobel prize-winning physicist who proposed a new particle known as the Higgs boson, has died. Higgs, 94, who was awarded the Nobel prize for physics in 2013 for his work in 1964 showing how the boson helped bind the universe together by giving particles their mass,

Tesla settles lawsuit over fatal Autopilot crash for undisclosed amount

Electric carmaker Tesla has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of an Apple engineer who was killed when his Model X swerved off a California highway while on autopilot. Tesla settled with the family of Wei Lun Huang in the wrongful death suit they filed over the crash in Mountain

How to maximise the solar eclipse experience

Make the most of this once-in-100-years eclipse event with educational and entertaining travel. In just a few weeks' time, the total solar eclipse scheduled to occur on 8 April 2024 is slated to be one of the most exciting celestial events in years. The eclipse will trace a path

Nasa pilots on once-in-a-lifetime eclipse mission

Millions of observers will watch next week's American solar eclipse from the ground. But a few lucky Nasa flight crews will get a much closer view. When a total solar eclipse crosses North America on Monday 8 April, an estimated 31 million people will be in its path –

Meta to start using ‘Made with AI’ labels next month

Facebook owner Meta announced major changes to its policies on digitally created and altered media on Friday, ahead of US elections poised to test its ability to police deceptive content generated by new artificial intelligence technologies. The social media giant will start applying

X gives free blue check to big follower accounts

Users with big followings will receive a free subscription to X, formerly Twitter -- and the platform's famous blue check, the company said in another policy U-turn. Before Musk, the blue check mark was used as a verification system for major accounts including celebrities,

Google looks to AI paywall option - report

Google, the search engine used by more than a billion people around the world, is reported to be considering charging for premium content generated by artificial intelligence (AI). The company, owned by Alphabet Inc, is said to be revamping its business model and looking at putting

WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook apps hit by outage

WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram have all gone down briefly as part of a major outage at parent company Meta. Thousands of app users reported issues accessing the three sites late on Wednesday, with people taking to other social media to air grievances. While Meta's status site

US directs NASA to create lunar time standard for space bodies

With the United States keen to set international norms beyond Earth's orbit, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) instructed the US space agency to formulate a plan by the end of 2026 for a standard it is calling Coordinated Lunar Time. "As NASA,

Microsoft: Technology giant splits Teams and Office globally

Microsoft has said it is splitting the Teams business messaging and video app from its Office software globally. The firm separated the two products in Europe last year as it faced a possible fine from competition watchdogs. Teams was added to Office in 2017. The European Commission

Google to delete records from Incognito tracking

Google has agreed to delete billions of records and submit to some restrictions on its power to track users, under the terms of a proposed legal settlement. The deal aims to resolve a class action lawsuit brought in the US in 2020, which had accused the tech giant of invading

OpenAI unveils voice-cloning tool

OpenAI on Friday revealed a voice-cloning tool it plans to keep tightly controlled until safeguards are in place to thwart audio fakes meant to dupe listeners. A model called "Voice Engine" can essentially duplicate someone's speech based on a 15-second audio sample,

Educators sue social sites in Canada for disrupting learning

Four of the largest school boards in the Canadian province of Ontario said Thursday they launched lawsuits against TikTok, Meta and SnapChat alleging the social media platforms are disrupting student learning. The lawsuits claim platforms like Facebook and Instagram are “designed

Sam Bankman-Fried: Disgraced 'Crypto King' to be sentenced

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former billionaire crypto boss who was convicted of fraud and money laundering last year, will return to court in New York on Thursday to be sentenced for his crimes. It is certain the 32-year-old will be going to jail; what is not known is how long for. The

Romanian agency uses AI to help farmers get EU funding

Romania’s Rural Investing Finance Authority (AFIR) is streamlining the grant submission process for farmers by using AI to do their administrative work. Romania is now using artificial intelligence (AI) to help farmers access grants and funding from European bodies. The

Apple, Meta and Google to be investigated by the EU

The EU has announced investigations into some of the biggest tech firms in the world over uncompetitive practices. Meta, Apple, and Alphabet, which owns Google, are being looked into for potential breaches of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) introduced in 2022. If they are found to