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Nigeria slow… ranks 105th in mobile Internet speed

Editor February 12, 2019 Business, Latest, Science & Tech Leave a comment

Nigeria ranked 105th in mobile Internet download speed as of December 2018, down two places from its 103th position in November, the latest data from the Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index showed.

The country’s ranking for fixed broadband speed also dropped by three places; it occupied 106th position globally in December.

The report indicated that Nigeria’s average mobile Internet download speed in December was the highest in the year, recording 11.70 megabits per second.

The Internet speed was lowest at 9.50mbps in March last year.

The index, which compares Internet speed data from around the world on a monthly basis, stated that the global average for mobile Internet download speed for the 125 countries examined in December was 25.08mbps while 9.79mbps was the global average upload speed attained.

In the fixed broadband category, Nigeria’s average download speed dropped from a peak of 10.03mbps in January to 9.63mbps in February.

The global average for fixed broadband download speed for the country was 10.76mbps while it recorded 8.74mbps for the upload speed.

As per the December Speedtest Global Index, Iceland clinched the top position in the mobile broadband category globally with an average download speed of 72.77mbps while Norway came second with 65.88mbps.

Singapore ranked highest for fixed broadband with a 190.94mbps average download and 198.11mbps upload speed.

The Nigerian Communications Commission data indicated that the number of active subscribers to Internet services in the country increased to 111.6 million in December 2018.

This is an indication that the country gained 3,175,465 new Internet users between November and December 2018, recording a three per cent rise in subscribers under the Global System for Mobile communication category.

Fixed wireless network providers, however, lost 87 users, dropping to 9,868 users in December from 9,955 subscribers in December, the NCC statistics stated.

Nigerian students shine at world robotics competition

Editor August 21, 2018 Latest, Science & Tech Leave a comment

Nigerian teenagers, who flew the country’s flag at the 2018 First Global Robotic Olympiad (GRO) in Mexico, won two bronze medals at the competition involving 187 countries.

The Nigerian team won the medals in the Outstanding Support and International Journey categories.

There were 20 categories of awards at the event which ended on Sunday.

The competition began on August 13.

The challenge was on Energy Impact. Competitors were to solve problems related to energy with the use of robotics.

Remi Willoughby, national coordinator of the GRO, told NAN on telephone from Mexico that there were 193 teams from 187 countries at the competition.

Willoughby described Nigeria’s victory as an attestation that the Nigeria child was making progress in science technology engineering and mathematics.

The five teenagers, aged from 15 years to 17 years, are from secondary schools in Lagos.

They are four females and a male.

They are Anjolaoluwa Olowokere from Lagoon School; Iroaganachi Udodirim, Queens College; Samuel Mbah, Osezele Comprehensive Senior Secondary School; Tochukwu Anyigbo, Lagoon School; and Daberechi Onyeacholem, Greensprings School Lekki.

At a press conference in Lagos to announce the competition, Faisal Jarmakani, managing director, Aramex and Doculand Nigeria, sponsors of the team, had said that the teenagers were building the foundation blocks for a technology-advanced Nigeria.

“Without any doubts, we will soon join other countries of the world where science and technology have become the backbone of economic development,” he said.

In July, three Nigerian students won gold for proper documentation of processes on engineering note at the 2018 World Adolescent Robotic Competition in China.

The students – Tawakalitu Giwa, Oluwaseun Omotayo and Ayomide Adetunji – also won the “Rajaa Cherkaoui El Moursli’ Award for Courageous Achievement at the event organised by the China Association of Science and Technology.

The challenge was on Water Problem.

MIT computer model predicts end of the world in 2040

Editor August 13, 2018 Latest, Science & Tech Leave a comment

An apocalyptic computer model developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have predicted the end of the world as it is.

The computer model processed by one of the world’s largest computers in 1973, predicted that the civilisation as it is will end by 2040, reports Express UK.

The prediction came from a programme nicknamed World One, which was developed by a team of MIT researchers and processed by Australia’s largest computer.

This prediction showed that the world cannot sustain the current level of population and industrial growth for more than two decades.

The model-based its predictions on trends such as pollution levels, population growth, availability of natural resources and quality of life on earth.

Australian broadcaster ABC republished its original report from the 1970s, since there is just two years until a major change is expected according to the computer model.

The eerie calculation has been remarkably accurate in certain predictions, such as a stagnated quality of life and diminishing pool of natural resources.

Facebook suspends 200 apps over data misuse

Editor May 14, 2018 Science & Tech Leave a comment

Facebook Inc has so far suspended around 200 apps in the first stage of its review into apps that had access to large quantities of user data, in a response to a scandal around political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

The apps were suspended pending a thorough investigation into whether they misused any data, said Ime Archibong, Facebook’s vice president of product partnerships.

Facebook said it has looked into thousands of apps till date as part of an investigation that Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg announced on March 21.

Zuckerberg had said the social network will investigate all apps that had access to large amounts of information before the company curtailed data access in 2014.

“There is a lot more work to be done to find all the apps that may have misused people’s Facebook data – and it will take time,” Archibong said.

“We have large teams of internal and external experts working hard to investigate these apps as quickly as possible.”

Facebook was hit by the privacy scandal in mid-March after media reports that Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed data to build profiles on American voters and influence the 2016 presidential election.

The incident led to backlash from celebrities and resulted in the company losing billions in market value. Zuckerberg apologized for the mistakes his company made and testified before the U.S. lawmakers.

The company, however, regained much of its lost market value after it reported a surprisingly strong 63 percent rise in profit and an increase in users when it announced quarterly results on April 25.

Shares of the company were up 0.4 percent at $187.65 in premarket trading on Monday.

With WhatsApp update, you can regain deleted files

Editor April 17, 2018 Science & Tech Leave a comment

Concerns have been raised about the new update of WhatsApp, which allows users to access videos and images they have deleted.

It is believed the update clearly shows that the app stores users’ personal information for longer than it says it does.

The update, which is now available to Android users worldwide, enables users to recover pictures, videos, GIFs, documents or voice notes that were sent and subsequently deleted.

Tech website, WaBetaInfo said it was able to download images which had been deleted two or even three months ago. Normally Whatsapp stores images received for 30 days, so they can be downloaded. It then deletes the images after this time.

However, WaBetaInfo said it was able to download images up to three months after they should have been deleted. It wrote: “WhatsApp allows to download deleted media from their servers again. This automatically translates in the fact that WhatsApp continues to store our media on their servers also after downloading them. This feature was partially available before: non-downloaded media were available for 30 days and, when the recipient downloaded the media, WhatsApp immediately deleted it from the server.”

WhatsApp’s parent company, Facebook has been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks as it was revealed 87 million of its users had their personal information harvested and used by the political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook has issued a series of apologies for the privacy breach and incorporated drastic changes to its privacy policies to stem the flow of thousands of users leaving the platform.

Twitter suspends one million accounts for promoting terrorism

Editor April 5, 2018 Science & Tech Leave a comment

Twitter said Thursday it has suspended over one million accounts for “promotion of terrorism” since 2015, claiming its efforts have begun to make the platform “an undesirable place” to call for violence.

In its latest transparency report, Twitter said it suspended 274,460 accounts between July and December 2017 “for violations related to the promotion of terrorism.”

The figure is down 8.4 percent from the previous reporting period and is the second consecutive decline, a Twitter statement said.

“We continue to see the positive, significant impact of years of hard work making our site an undesirable place for those seeking to promote terrorism, resulting in this type of activity increasingly shifting away from Twitter,” said the statement from the messaging platform’s public policy team.

Twitter has faced pressure from governments around the world to crack down on jihadists and others calling for violent attacks, while at the same time maintaining an open platform for free speech.

In the latest six-month reporting period, Twitter said 93 percent of the suspended accounts were “flagged by internal, proprietary tools,” and that 74 percent were cut off before their first tweet.

It said government reports of violations related to the promotion of terrorism represent less than 0.2 percent of all suspensions in the period.

Twitter also used the report to express concerns about what it called “legal threats to freedom of expression” online in countries around the world.

“With the passage of new legislation and ongoing regulatory discussions taking place around the world about the future of public discourse online, we are seeing a potential chilling effect with regards to freedom of expression,” the report said.

It cited a Human Rights Watch report suggesting that “governments around the world (are) increasingly look to restrict online speech by forcing social media companies to act as their censors.”

AFP

World reknowned physicist, Stephen Hawking dies at 76

Editor March 14, 2018 Latest, Science & Tech Leave a comment

Stephen Hawking, the brilliant British theoretical physicist who overcame a debilitating disease to publish wildly popular books probing the mysteries of the universe, has died, according to a family spokesman. He was 76.

Considered by many to be the world’s greatest living scientist, Hawking was also a cosmologist, astronomer, mathematician and author of numerous books including the landmark “A Brief History of Time,” which has sold more than 10 million copies.

With fellow physicist Roger Penrose, Hawking merged Einstein’s theory of relativity with quantum theory to suggest that space and time would begin with the Big Bang and end in black holes. Hawking also discovered that black holes were not completely black but emit radiation and would likely eventually evaporate and disappear.

“A star just went out in the cosmos,” Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist and cosmologist, wrote on Twitter. “We have lost an amazing human being.”

Hawking suffered from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a neurodegenerative disease also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, which is usually fatal within a few years. He was diagnosed in 1963, when he was 21, and doctors initially gave him only a few years to live.

The disease left Hawking wheelchair-bound and paralyzed. He was able to move only a few fingers on one hand and was completely dependent on others or on technology for virtually everything — bathing, dressing, eating, even speech.

Hawking used a speech synthesizer that allowed him to speak in a computerized voice with an American accent.

“I try to lead as normal a life as possible, and not think about my condition, or regret the things it prevents me from doing, which are not that many,” he wrote on his website.

“I have been lucky that my condition has progressed more slowly than is often the case. But it shows that one need not lose hope.”

Cosmologist Stephen Hawking on October 10, 1979, in Princeton, New Jersey.

Hawking was married twice. He and his first wife, Jane Wilde, wed when he was still a graduate student and remained together for 30 years before divorcing in 1995. Hawking was later married for 11 years to Elaine Mason, one of his former nurses.

Hawking was born in Oxford, England, on what an auspicious date: January 8, 1942 — the 300th anniversary of the death of astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei.

In an exclusive interview with CNN in October 2008, Hawking said that if humans can survive the next 200 years and learn to live in space, then our future will be bright.

“I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space,” Hawking told CNN’s Becky Anderson.

“It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next 100 years, let alone next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn’t have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let’s hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load.”

At Cambridge, he held the position of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics — the prestigious post previously held by Sir Isaac Newton, widely considered one of the greatest scientists in modern history — for 30 years until 2009.

Yet Hawking once said if he had the chance to meet either Newton or Marilyn Monroe, he would opt for the movie star.

After stepping down, Hawking continued to work at the university as director of research at the Institute for Theoretical Cosmology. The following year, he co-authored “The Grand Design” with Leonard Mlodinow.

After the book was published in 2010, Hawking told CNN that science can explain the universe without the need for a creator.

“Gravity and quantum theory caused universes to be created spontaneously out of nothing,” Hawking said in 2010. “God may exist, but science can explain the universe without the need for a creator.”

“Science is increasingly answering questions that used to be the province of religion,” he added.

Hawking became a hero to math and science geeks and a pop-culture figure, guest-starring as himself on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “The Simpsons.” His life was dramatized in the 2014 movie, “The Theory of Everything.”

He had at least 12 honorary degrees and was awarded the CBE in 1982. A CBE, or Commander in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, is considered a major honor for a British citizen and is one rank below knighthood.

Despite being a British citizen he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the US’s highest civilian honor, in 2009 by President Barack Obama.

In September 2016, Hawking joined 375 “concerned” scientists in penning an open letter criticizing then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, citing the threat of climate change and blasting his push for the US to leave the Paris accord.

Fellow scientists hailed Hawking for his work and influence in the field.

“His passing has left an intellectual vacuum in his wake,” tweeted Neil deGrasse Tyson. “But it’s not empty. Think of it as a kind of vacuum energy permeating the fabric of spacetime that defies measure.”

Hawking leaves behind three children and three grandchildren. “We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today,” Hawking’s children, Lucy, Robert and Tim, said in a statement. “He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humor inspired people across the world.

“He once said, ‘It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.’ We will miss him forever.”

Artificial Intelligence, bigger threat to civilization than nuclear weapons- Elon Musk

Editor March 13, 2018 Latest, Science & Tech Leave a comment

Elon Musk, the chief executive officer (CEO), Tesla and SpaceX, has said the development of intelligent machines that far surpass human intelligence poses a greater threat to civilization than nuclear weapons.

The business magnate, investor, and engineer told an audience at the South by South West festival in Austin, Texas, that efforts to advance artificial intelligence posed a “very serious danger” to the public, and called for Artificial Intelligence (AI) research to be properly regulated.

Musk has been one of the most vocal critics of AI development, previously describing it as “our biggest existential threat”.

“I’m close to AI and it scares the hell out of me,” Musk was quoted as saying by Deadline. “It’s capable of vastly more than anyone knows, and the improvement is exponential.”

The billionaire recently quit the board of OpenAI, a non-profit research group he co-founded to develop “safer” AI, to avoid any conflict of interest.

He pointed to Google’s DeepMind AlphaGo AI, which defeated the world’s number one Go player Ke Jie in May last year.

“Those experts who think AI is not progressing: look at things like Go,” Musk said. “Their batting average is quite weak.

“The danger of AI is much greater than the danger of nuclear warheads – by a lot. Mark my words, AI is far more dangerous than nukes.”

Musk questioned why no public body had been set up to oversee research into AI.

“I’m not normally an advocate of regulation and oversight,” he stated. “This is a situation where you have a very serious danger to the public. There needs to be a public body that has insight and oversight so that everyone is delivering AI safely. This is extremely important.

“Nobody would suggest that we allow anyone to just build nuclear warheads if they want, that would be insane.

“My point was AI is far more dangerous than nukes. So why do we have no regulatory oversight? It’s insane.”

Musk is not alone in his dire warnings about a future world that is dominated by intelligent machines.

Prof Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s foremost physicists, has warned that developing true AI “could spell the end of the human race”.

“AI would take off on its own and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate,” Hawking told the BBC in 2014.

“Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.”

Facebook announces major changes

Editor January 12, 2018 Business, Latest, Science & Tech Leave a comment

Facebook plans major changes to news feed from media and businesses to focus on personal interactions, which may lead to people spending less time on the website, its CEO said.

“As we roll this out, you’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media.

“The public content you see more will be held to the same standard — it should encourage meaningful interactions between people,” Mark Zuckerberg wrote.

The chief executive said the Facebook community has complained of a hike in the numbers of public posts on the social network in the past two years, which has been “crowding out” the personal moments.

It would take months to introduce the changes, Zuckerberg said in the post, adding he expected people to spend less time on Facebook and some other types of engagement to go down.

The end result, he said, will likely be good for the business in the long term.

(Sputik/NAN)

Beware: Security flaws put phones, computers as risk

Editor January 4, 2018 Latest, Science & Tech Leave a comment

Security researchers have disclosed a set of security flaws that they said could let hackers steal sensitive information from nearly every modern computing device containing chips from Intel Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and ARM Holdings.

One of the bugs is specific to Intel but another affects laptops, desktop computers, smart phones, tablets and internet servers alike.

Intel and ARM insisted that the issue was not a design flaw, but it will require users to download a patch and update their operating system to fix.

“Phones, PCs, everything are going to have some impact, but it’ll vary from product to product,” Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said in an interview with CNBC Wednesday afternoon.

Researchers with Alphabet Inc’s Google Project Zero, in conjunction with academic and industry researchers from several countries, discovered two flaws.

The first, called Meltdown, affects Intel chips and lets hackers bypass the hardware barrier between applications run by users and the computer’s memory, potentially letting hackers read a computer’s memory and steal passwords.

The second, called Spectre, affects chips from Intel, AMD and ARM and lets hackers potentially trick otherwise error-free applications into giving up secret information.

The researchers said Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp had patches ready for users for desktop computers affected by Meltdown.

Microsoft declined to comment and Apple did not immediately return requests for comment.

Daniel Gruss, one of the researchers at Graz University of Technology who discovered Meltdown, called it “probably one of the worst CPU bugs ever found” in an interview with Reuters.

Gruss said Meltdown was the more serious problem in the short term but could be decisively stopped with software patches.

Spectre, the broader bug that applies to nearly all computing devices, is harder for hackers to take advantage of but less easily patched and will be a bigger problem in the long term, he said.

Speaking on CNBC, Intel’s Krzanich said Google researchers told Intel of the flaws “a while ago” and that Intel had been testing fixes that device makers who use its chips will push out next week.

Before the problems became public, Google on its blog said Intel and others planned to disclose the issues on January 9.

Google said it informed the affected companies about the “Spectre” flaw on June 1, 2017 and reported the “Meltdown” flaw after the first flaw but before July 28, 2017.

The flaws were first reported by tech publication The Register.

It also reported that the updates to fix the problems could cause Intel chips to operate 5 per cent to 30 per cent more slowly.

Intel denied that the patches would bog down computers based on Intel chips.

A statement by Intel indicated that it has begun providing software and firmware updates to mitigate these exploits.

“Contrary to some reports, any performance impacts are workload-dependent, and, for the average computer user, should not be significant and will be mitigated over time.”

ARM spokesman Phil Hughes said that patches had already been shared with the companies’ partners, which include many smartphone manufacturers.

“This method only works if a certain type of malicious code is already running on a device and could at worst result in small pieces of data being accessed from privileged memory,” Hughes said in an email.

AMD chips are also affected by at least one variant of a set of security flaws but that it can be patched with a software update.

The company said it believes there “is near zero risk to AMD products at this time.”

Google said in a blog post that Android phones running the latest security updates are protected, as are its own Nexus and Pixel phones with the latest security updates.

(Reuters/NAN)

Google pulls YouTube from Amazon devices, as tech spat escalates

Editor December 6, 2017 Latest, Science & Tech Leave a comment

A rare public spat in the technology industry escalated when Google said it would block its video streaming application YouTube from two Amazon.com Inc devices.

Google also criticized the online retailer for not selling Google hardware, Media reports on Wednesday.

The feud is the latest in Silicon Valley to put customers in the crossfire of major competitors.

Amazon and Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc, square off in many areas, from cloud computing and online search, to selling voice-controlled gadgets like the Google Home and Amazon Echo Show.

The stakes are high: many in the technology industry expect that interacting with computers by voice will become widespread, and it is unclear if Amazon, Google or another company will dominate the space.

Amazon’s suite of voice-controlled devices has outsold Google’s so far, according to a study by research firm eMarketer from earlier this year.

In a statement, Google said, ”Amazon doesn’t carry Google products like Chromecast and Google Home, doesn’t make (its) Prime Video available for Google Cast users, and last month stopped selling some of (our sister company) Nest’s latest products.

“Given this lack of reciprocity, we are no longer supporting YouTube on Echo Show and Fire TV. We hope we can reach an agreement to resolve these issues soon,” Google said.

Amazon said in a statement, “Google is setting a disappointing precedent by selectively blocking customer access to an open website.”

It said it hoped to resolve the issue with Google as soon as possible but customers could access YouTube through the internet – not an app – on the devices in the meantime.
The break has been a long time coming.

Amazon kicked the Chromecast, Google’s television player, off its retail website in 2015, along with Apple Inc’s TV player.

Amazon had explained the move by saying it wanted to avoid confusing customers who might expect its Prime Video service to be available on devices sold by Amazon.

Amazon and Apple mended ties earlier this year when it was announced Prime Video would come to Apple TV; not so with Google.

In September, Google cut off YouTube from the Amazon Echo Show, which had displayed videos on its touchscreen without video recommendations, channel subscriptions and other features.

Amazon later reintroduced YouTube to the device.

However, the voice commands it added violated the use terms and on Tuesday Google again removed the service.

The Fire TV loses access to its YouTube app on Jan. 1, Google said.

Amazon has sold that device for longer than the Echo Show, meaning more customers may now be affected. (Reuters/NAN)

Apple begins sale of robot built by Nigerian-born engineer

Editor November 22, 2017 Science & Tech Leave a comment

Apple stores in the US and UK have begun the sale of MekaMons, a gaming robot built by Silas Adekunle, a Nigerian-Briton.

Adekunle, an engineer, graduated with first class honours from the University of the West of England in Bristol, with a bachelor of science in robotics technology.

He was born in Nigeria but moved to the UK when he was 11 years old.

His company, Reach Robotics, an augmented reality gaming company which creates robots for both fun and STEM education, struck the deal with Apple recently.

MekaMons has been on sale since November 16 for $299.95.

The four-legged robots can be controlled via an iPhone and other smartphone using a companion app for augmented reality gameplay.

“We’ve created an entirely new video gaming platform,” Adekunle said in a statement by Black Enterprise.

“MekaMon straddles both the real and virtual worlds while taking the gaming experience beyond a player’s screen and turning their sitting room into a limitless robotic battle zone.

“MekaMon represents a quantum leap forward in the leveraging of augmented reality. Players can whip out their iPhone to battle their multi-functional, connected battlebots in the physical and virtual worlds at the same time.

“When I was a student at UWE Bristol I spent some time going into schools to help inspire young people and it struck me that there was a huge untapped market for a consumer robot with a difference.

“We used to go in and explain simple robotics to try to inspire the young roboticists and engineers of the future and this experience set me off thinking about designing gaming robots.

“This is an exciting time for our company as now after years of development work we are finally able to bring Mekamon to customers across the UK and US and with plans to go global.

“UWE Bristol has given us an amazing start and we are so grateful for their support.”

Google maps saves Nigerians travel time, N190bn

Editor November 9, 2017 Latest, Science & Tech Leave a comment

Maps and Street View from Google, American multinational technology company, is positively impacting geospatial services in Nigeria, a report has revealed.

Launching the report conducted by a research group, Alpha Beta, on the economic impact of geospatial services in Nigeria, Google noted that its tools like Maps and Street view are making positive economic contributions around the globe to employment, emergency responses and time management.

The report reveals that digital maps reduce travel time in Nigeria by an average of 8%, saving some ₦190 billion (US $748 million) based on local wages. Similarly, among Nigerians, digital maps are valued at ₦22,131.00 annually – translating into ₦1781 billion per year for all users.

At the launch in Abuja, Titi Akinsanmi, Google Policy and Government Relations Manager said: “We worked with Alpha Beta to support a study that quantifies the economic impact of the geospatial technology, looking at the benefits and value geospatial technology brings to consumers, businesses and society.

“Digital Maps have become powerful tools for policymakers to ensure the safety of their citizens, and for companies and consumers to save time and money when managing their daily affairs. And their benefits are far bigger than people may think. We discovered that geospatial services not only make life easier — by helping people turn their intentions of finding a place into actions of getting there – but also support the global economy by creating tangible benefits for businesses and consumers.”

According to the report, about 86% of the online population in Nigeria use digital maps and geo-enabled apps for various reasons but, most especially for education and social networking. The report also shows that geospatial services could have a significant productivity impact in sectors that can grow the Gross Domestic Product in the country. At the launch of the report in Abuja, Google also shared its journey of Maps in Nigeria. The company has worked with Nigerians since 2012 to add thousands of roads, landmarks, and businesses throughout the country to Maps.

In 2013, Google introduced Turn-by-Turn navigation in Nigeria for users using Google Maps for Mobile.
In 2014 Real-Time Transit information on the LAGBUS was launched to help people in Lagos access bus times on BRT routes.
In 2015 real-time traffic updates was introduced, as a way to help people better navigate busy traffic conditions.
In July 2017 Google announced the launch of Street View in Nigeria making imagery of about 10,000 kilometers of roads in Lagos available to people in Nigeria and around the world.

Speaking at the launch, Titi Akinsanmi, Google Policy and Government Relations Manager said, “We worked with AlphaBeta to support a study that quantifies the economic impact of the geospatial technology, looking at the benefits and value geospatial technology brings to consumers, businesses, and society.

Each month, more than one billion people use Google Maps to find, discover and explore their world. Nearly one-third of all mobile searches are related to location, and location-related mobile searches are growing by 50% faster than all mobile searches.

WiFi going obsolete as Chinese scientists create LiFi

Editor October 3, 2017 News, Science & Tech Leave a comment

WiFi could become obsolete in a few years as Chinese scientists have developed a faster way of transmitting data via LiFi.

The Chinese news agency Xinhua reported the breakthrough by the scientists in creating full-color emissive carbon dots (F-CDs), which brings them one step closer to developing a faster wireless communication channel that could be available in just six years.

Light Fidelity, known as LiFi, uses visible light from LED bulbs to transfer data much faster than radio wave-based WiFi.

A 2015 test by a Chinese government ministry showed that LiFi can reach speeds of 50 gigabytes per second, at which a movie download can be completed in just 0.3 seconds.

While most current research uses rare earth materials to provide the light for LiFi to transmit data, a team of Chinese scientists have created an alternative — F-CDs, a fluorescent carbon nanomaterial that proves to be safer and faster.

“Many researchers around the world are still working on this. We were the first to successfully create it using cost-effective raw materials such as urea with simple processing,” said Qu Songnan, an associate researcher at Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which leads the research.

Qu said rare earth has a long lifespan which reduces the speed of LiFi transmission. However, F-CDs enjoy the advantage of faster data transmission speeds.

In previous studies, carbon dots were limited to the emission of lights such as blue and green. The new nanomaterial that Qu’s team has developed can emit all light visible to the human eye, which is a breakthrough in the field of fluorescent carbon nanomaterial.

Qu said this is significant for the development of LiFi, which he expects to enter the market in just six years.

Zuckerberg denies Facebook is anti-Trump

Editor September 28, 2017 News, Science & Tech Leave a comment

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has issued a public response to a tweet earlier Wednesday from President Trump, who claimed that the social network “was always anti-Trump” during the 2016 presidential campaign.

“Trump says Facebook is against him. Liberals say we helped Trump,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Both sides are upset about ideas and content they don’t like. That’s what running a platform for all ideas looks like.”

Zuckerberg’s statement comes on the same day that Facebook, Google, and Twitter have been asked to testify before Congress on November 1st, where they’ll face questions about Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and how it might have used their platforms to spread misinformation in an attempt to influence the outcome.

Facebook’s chief executive was critical of that notion in the days immediately following the election; Zuckerberg said it was “pretty crazy” to believe Facebook might’ve helped to swing the presidential race. But it has since been revealed that Russia spent over $100,000 on political ads on the Facebook platform with the intention of “amplifying divisive social and political messages.”

Facebook groups associated with Vladimir Putin may also have organized pro-Trump rallies on US soil. “After the election, I made a comment that I thought the idea misinformation on Facebook changed the outcome of the election was a crazy idea,” Zuckerberg said yesterday.

“Calling that crazy was dismissive and I regret it. This is too important an issue to be dismissive.” That’s the most direct about-face that Zuckerberg has made on his controversial November remarks.

The company has also agreed to provide Congress with Russia-linked ads that moderators told The Verge they were left unprepared to catch, and Zuckerberg on Wednesday delivered a statement to viewers on Facebook Live announcing that the social network will no longer accept untraceable ads. “We’re going to bring Facebook to an even higher standard of transparency,” he said.

“Not only will you have to disclose which page paid for an ad, but we will also make it so you can visit an advertiser’s page and see the ads that they are currently running to any audience on Facebook.”

But Zuckerberg is still very, very insistent that Facebook is doing far more to help the democratic process than to harm it.

“The data we have has always shown that our broader impact — from giving people a voice to enabling candidates to communicate directly to helping millions of people vote — played a far bigger role in this election.” Facebook hasn’t to this point shared any of that data with its users and the public at large, but here are some of Zuckerberg’s arguments:

– More people had a voice in this election than ever before. There were billions of interactions discussing the issues that may have never happened offline. Every topic was discussed, not just what the media covered.

– This was the first US election where the internet was a primary way candidates communicated. Every candidate had a Facebook page to communicate directly with tens of millions of followers every day.

– Campaigns spent hundreds of millions advertising online to get their messages out even further. That’s 1000x more than any problematic ads we’ve found.

– We ran “get out the vote” efforts that helped as many as 2 million people register to vote. To put that in perspective, that’s bigger than the get out the vote efforts of the Trump and Clinton campaigns put together. That’s a big deal.

“We will continue to work to build a community for all people,” he wrote today. “We will do our part to defend against nation states attempting to spread misinformation and subvert elections.”

ICYMI: Dubai unveils autonomous ‘flying taxis’

Editor September 28, 2017 Science & Tech Leave a comment

Dubai has test-flown a crewless two-seater drone designed to transport people autonomously.

Called the Autonomous Air Taxi (AAT), the city claims the vehicle will be the world’s first “self-flying taxi service.”

The AAT is environmentally friendly, powered by electricity, and the prototype version has a maximum flight time of 30 minutes, at a cruising speed of 50 km/h (31 mph), and a maximum airspeed of 100 km/h (62 mph).

The drone was uncrewed and hovered 200 meters high during the test flight, according to Reuters. The AAT, which is about two meters high, was supplied by specialist German manufacturer Volocopter, known for its eponymous helicopter drone hybrid with 18 rotors.

The AAT is fitted with optional emergency parachutes and nine independent battery systems. Each battery takes two hours to fully charge, but that charging time will be “significantly reduced” in the final production version of the taxi, the Government of Dubai claims.

There are also plans to make AAT available to the public via a smartphone app that would allow users to book flights and track routes.

The Government of Dubai says over the next five years, Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA) will work with the country and city’s aviation authorities to develop policy and laws for the AAT and its services. Trial operations will take place during this time, and US company JDA Aviation will oversee preparations for the AAT flights and manage safety.

Dubai has a target for autonomous transport to account for a quarter of total trips by 2030. “Encouraging innovation and adopting the latest technologies contribute not only to the country’s development but also build bridges into the future,” Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed said in a statement.

Facebook uncovers Russia-backed ‘fakenews’ campaign

Editor September 7, 2017 Science & Tech Leave a comment

Facebook says it has discovered a Russian-funded campaign to promote divisive social and political messages on its network.

The company said $100,000 (£77,000) was spent on about 3,000 ads over a two-year period, ending in May 2017.

The ads did not back any political figures specifically, but instead posted on topics including immigration, race and equal rights.

Facebook said it was co-operating with a US investigation into the matter.

The advertisements directed users towards around 470 accounts that spread false information or were otherwise in breach of Facebook’s terms and conditions, the site said.

“The ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum,” the company said in a blog post published on Wednesday.

The company said it believed, but could not independently confirm, that the accounts were created by the so-called Internet Research Agency, a St Petersburg-based group known for posting pro-Kremlin messages on social media.

The accounts in question have now been shut down, Facebook’s chief security officer Alex Stamos added.

How the campaign was uncovered

The campaign was uncovered as part of Facebook’s internal investigation into ways in which the network may have been abused during the last US presidential election campaign.

The site, and its founder Mark Zuckerberg, came under extremely heavy criticism for not taking the issue seriously in the days following President Donald Trump’s election win. Mr Zuckerberg dismissed the notion that “fake news” on Facebook swayed the election as “crazy”.

In Wednesday’s post, Mr Stamos went into detail about how the campaign was uncovered.

“[We] looked for ads that might have originated in Russia, even those with very weak signals of a connection and not associated with any known organized effort.

“This was a broad search, including, for instance, ads bought from accounts with US IP addresses but with the language set to Russian – even though they didn’t necessarily violate any policy or law.

“In this part of our review, we found approximately $50,000 in potentially politically related ad spending on roughly 2,200 ads.”

News of Facebook’s discovery came on the same day Facebook was accused of inflating its advertising reach.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Facebook told potential advertising partners that it could reach 41m 18-24 year olds in the US. However, according to official US census data, there should only be 31m people of that age in the country.

Richard Newman, a lawyer specialising in online marketing, said the scale of the issue was too small to cause Facebook any significant headache – but the company did need to get on top of the issue.

“Facebook clearly has a dominant position in social media space and internet advertising,” he told the BBC.

“I don’t really foresee that as a problem at all as long as they take preventative measures with respect to policing fake news and trying to gauge the authenticity of advertisements on its platform.”

Nigerian inventor develops device that can smell explosives

Editor August 29, 2017 Science & Tech Leave a comment

Oshiorenoya Agabi, a Silicon Valley-based inventor, has developed a computer that can recognise the smell of explosives and aid in bomb detection.

He unveiled modem-sized technology at the TEDGlobal conference in Tanzania.

Named Koniku Kore, the system is made from a mixture of living neurons and silicon, with sensors that can detect and recognise smells.

Agabi said it could be used to replace traditional airport security and could provide the brain for future robots.

“You can give the neurons instructions about what to do – in our case we tell it to provide a receptor that can detect explosives”, he told BBC.

The device could also be used to detect illness by sensing markers of a disease in the air molecules that a patient gives off.

The prototype was shown off at TED in a video of it being taken out of the laboratory.

“This device can live on a desk and we can keep them alive for a couple of months,” he said.

“We think that the processing power that is going to run the robots of the future will be synthetic biology-based and we are laying the foundations for that today.”

Agabi’s start-up company- Koniku- was launched over a year ago and has raised $1m (£800,000) in funding.

He says the company is already making profits of $10m upwards and has customers in the aviation and pharmaceuticals industries.

US firm reveals gun-toting drone that can fire in mid-air

Editor August 14, 2017 News, Science & Tech Leave a comment

A US technology firm has developed a drone that is able to aim and fire at enemies while flying in mid-air.

The Tikad drone, developed by Duke Robotics, is armed with a machine-gun and a grenade launcher.
The gun can be fired only by remote control, and is designed to reduce military casualties by cutting the number of ground troops required.

But campaigners warn that in the wrong hands, it will make it easier to kill innocent people.

The Tikad drone, available for private sale at an undisclosed price, has won a security innovation award from the US Department of Defense, and there is interest from several military forces around the world, including Israel, reports Defense One.

According to the firm’s website, two of the three co-founders of Duke Robotics worked for the Israel Defense Forces and the third at Israel Aerospace Industries.

“As a former Special Mission Unit commander, I have been in the battlefield for many years,” said CEO Raziel Atuar.
“Over the last few years, we have seen how the needs of our troops in our battlefield have changed.”

The weapon can be fired only remotely by human control.
However, robotics expert Professor Noel Sharkey expressed concern that gun-toting drones could make it easier to kill innocent people.

“Big military drones traditionally have to fly thousands of feet overhead to get to targets, but these smaller drones could easily fly down the street to apply violent force,” he told the BBC.

“This is my biggest worry since there have been many legal cases of human-rights violations using the large fixed-wing drones, and these could potentially result in many more.”

For the past decade, Prof Sharkey has been campaigning against killer robots, which are fully autonomous, computer-powered weapons that would be able to track and select targets without human supervision.

Together with the Campaign To Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of over 60 international NGOs including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Nobel Women’s Initiative, Sharkey has been lobbying the United Nations to ban autonomous weapons.

However, the machine-gun on board the Duke Robotics device still has to be controlled remotely by a human operator.

Copycat fears
According to Prof Sharkey, some US military officials are concerned that although the US might follow the laws of war, terrorists could easily look at drone innovations and copy the idea to kill innocent people.

“We already know that Islamic State is using drones laden with explosives to kill people. What’s to stop them from getting their hands on this? Copying has not been possible with big military drones, but once you get the idea that you can strap automatic weapons onto one and operate it remotely, that’s very much easier,” he said.

“This type of weapon is another dangerous step towards the development of fully autonomous weapons that could hunt down targets and kill them without human supervision.”

‘Half a million buyers order for Tesla’s Model 3 electric cars’

Editor July 29, 2017 Business, Science & Tech Leave a comment

Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on Friday the Model 3 had over half a million advance reservations as he handed over the first 30 to employee buyers, setting the stage for the biggest test yet of the company’s strategy to become a profitable, mass market electric car maker.

Outside Tesla’s Fremont, California factory, Musk showed off the $35,000 base vehicle with a range of 220 miles (350 km) on a charge that marks a departure from the company’s earlier luxury electric cars.

Musk took to the stage driving a red Model 3, and said Tesla has produced 50 of the vehicles so far, including 20 for testing purposes.

Hours before the event, Musk acknowledged it would be “quite a challenge” to build the car during the early days of production.

“We’re going to go through at least six months of manufacturing hell,” Musk told journalists.

The over half a million reservations are up from about 373,000 disclosed in April 2016. Customers pay $1,000 refundable deposits for the car, which is eligible for tax credits.

Any new buyers would likely not receive their car until the end of 2018, Musk said.

A longer-range version of the car is priced at $44,000 and will drive 310 miles (500 km) on a single charge. The cars feature a streamlined dashboard devoid of buttons or knobs, with a 15-inch touchstream display to the right of the driver.

Tesla faces major hurdles living up to the Model 3 hype. The 500,000 vehicles Tesla vows to produce next year are nearly six times its 2016 production.

Were Tesla to produce and sell 500,000 cars per year, the company would likely outsell the BMW, Mercedes, or Lexus brands in the United States.

Production delays and quality issues marred the launches of Tesla’s Model S and Model X vehicles, and the company blamed production problems for a shortfall during the second quarter of this year.

Musk has said a simpler Model 3 design will greatly reduce potential assembly-line problems.

Tesla has burned through over $2 billion in cash so far this year ahead of the launch.

A troubled Model 3 launch could heighten the risks for the company, while a steady delivery of Model 3s could generate a stream of cash that would allow Tesla to avoid going again to the capital markets to fund its operations.

Tesla’s share price has surged 54 percent since January in anticipation of the Model 3 launch, and Tesla’s pricey valuation now exceeds that of traditional rivals like General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co.

Until now, Tesla has operated as a niche producer of luxury electric vehicles, with a charismatic, showman CEO who regularly interacts with fans on his Twitter account.

Now loss-making Tesla is trying to move into a different league, building vehicles in high volume for customers able to pay only a few thousand dollars more than the average price of a conventional car or truck sold in the United States.

The Model 3 is part of Musk’s broader plan to build a clean energy and transportation company that offers electric semi-trailer trucks, rooftop solar energy systems and large-scale battery storage systems.

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