Google name change to Alphabet shocks Wall Street August 11, 2015 Google stunned investors last night by unveiling a radical restructuring that will see it become part of a holding company named Alphabet. Shares in the global tech giant jumped in after-hours trading after co-founder Larry Page published a blog post detailing the new plans. The move is designed to differentiate between Google’s core [...]
Gene-editing startup Editas just raised $120m from Bill Gates, Google Ventures and 12 other investors August 10, 2015 A gene-editing startup has just raised $120m to learn more about replacing faulty genes, gaining support from Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates and 13 other investors. The startup Editas Medicine want to tackle grave illnesses by removing our defective genes, and plan to use the recently raised capital to study a new technology that could finally [...]
Lexus hoverboard video: Manufacturer says it has created a levitating board called Slide, using superconducting magnets August 10, 2015 Has Lexus just created a hoverboard? The company has released details of a “frictionless movement” vehicle called Slide, which it says uses magnets inside a chassis to levitate. The Lexus Hoverboard operates using magnetic levitation to achieve amazing frictionless movement. Liquid nitrogen cooled superconductors and permanent magnets combine to allow Lexus to create the impossible. [...]
Carphone Warehouse cyber attack probed by data watchdog ICO August 10, 2015 Dixons Carphone has suffered its first major blow since last year’s £4bn merger after admitting to a huge data breach that has put millions of customers at risk and sparked an investigation by the UK’s data watchdog. The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) said yesterday that it is “making enquiries” into the attack after being [...]
Facebook hack: Security flaw allows hackers to harvest personal data using only a phone number August 9, 2015 Facebook has come under fire for lax user data security, as a software engineer was able to extract personal information about thousands of users from the social media company. With thousands of users’ names, photos, location settings and phone numbers leaking out through a security loophole, Facebook has been called upon to tighten its privacy [...]
WalkCar: This Japanese transporter is the size of your laptop and rivals Segways and hoverboards August 9, 2015 It’s 2015, and yet the hoverboards promised to us by Marty McFly have yet to materialise. But if you’ve been dreaming of something similar hitting the market, you may like this futuristic skateboard from a Japanese inventor. 26 year-old engineer Kuniako Saito has developed WalkCar, a portable transporter that he says is the world’s first [...]
Astronauts on International Space Station about to harvest first-ever space-grown food, as Nasa develops “Veggie” plant growth chamber August 9, 2015 Nasa astronauts have been growing lettuce in space, as the first-ever space-grown fruit and veg is about to be harvested on the International Space Station. Forget freeze-dried meals, astronauts are about to get a better deal. Nasa has developed a plant growth chamber dubbed “Veggie” and sent it into orbit. Produce from the mini-greenhouse is [...]
Facebook knows how you laugh online: Analysing digital laughter shows that “haha” is much more common than “lol” August 7, 2015 Do you “haha” or “lol”? Or even forgo words altogether, replacing them with an emoji as your digital laughter? Drawing from its database of over 1bn users, Facebook published figures on how we “write laughter” on the social media platform. It seems “haha” is the most common e-laugh out there, with over half of the [...]
Scientists produce robots that can artificially evolve and adapt to unfamiliar terrain with Darwinian thinking August 7, 2015 Here’s some news that might send you scrambling to sign that petition to ban killer robots: scientists have for the first time produced robots that can evolve and adapt to new situations. Using Darwinian selection, scientists at the Belgian University of Leuven found that they could artificially evolve robots, so they could self-organise the division of [...]
Facebook security chief Alex Stamos calls for internet companies to improve global cyber security at Def Con conference August 7, 2015 Facebook wants the web industry to do more for global cyber security, with the tech giant calling for internet giants to improve cyber security defences in emerging markets. Speaking at Las Vegas' Def Con cyber security conference, Facebook’s security chief Alex Stamos said consumer internet companies, including Facebook, could no longer rely on the cyber [...]