Sergei Konkov | TASS via Getty Images DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Calls for the UAE to lift its ban on internet calling platforms like Whatsapp and Facetime are growing louder by the day as residents hunker down in their homes amid the coronavirus lockdown, unable to travel, meet or go outdoors. “Given the pandemic, […]
Tag: Technology
Israel, China, Singapore use surveillance tech to track Covid-19
From Israel to South Korea to China, governments around the world are using technology to track the coronavirus outbreak as they race to stem its spread. But how long will it last and is this an infringement of privacy, rights groups have asked. In China, government-installed CCTV cameras point at the apartment door of those under […]
Apple drops after report says iPhone launch could be delayed
A man uses his mobile phone as he walks past advertising for the new iPhones outside the Apple store in Hong Kong on October 10, 2019. Philip Fong | AFP | Getty Images Apple shares dropped late during the trading day on Wednesday after the Nikkei Asian Review reported that the company considered delaying its annual iPhone […]
Singapore to make contact tracing tech open source
Medical staff walk to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases building at Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore on January 31, 2020. Roslan Rahman | APF | Getty Images Less than a week after launching an app to track potential exposure to the coronavirus, Singapore is making the technology freely available to developers worldwide. The […]
Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla’s Elon Musk pledge donations
Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., left, speaks as Marc Benioff, chairman and co-chief executive officer of Salesforce.com Inc., listens during a keynote at the 2019 DreamForce conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images U.S. technology CEOs including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg […]
Hospitals turn to crowdsourcing, 3D printing amid equipment shortages
Earlier this month, the CEO of an Italian 3D-printing startup learned that a hospital near the center of the coronavirus outbreak in Italy was running short on a small but crucial component: the valves that connect respirators to oxygen masks. The company that makes the valves couldn’t keep up with the demand, and doctors were […]
Give Amazon warehouse workers sick leave, hazard pay
Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, pictured on Oct. 2, 2019. Elif Ozturk | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images Four senators sent a letter to Amazon urging the company to better protect warehouse workers during the coronavirus outbreak. In a letter sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Friday, Sens. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, Bob […]
We want to help small businesses pay employees
Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook Inc. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s operating chief, said on Tuesday that the company will do what it can to help its employees and small businesses as the coronavirus spreads and wreaks havoc on the economy. “We’re going to keep responding to […]
Alphabet Waymo suspends driving operations in Phoenix, Detroit
Alphabet’s self-driving car business, Waymo, is suspending all driving operations in Phoenix and Detroit amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. All driving operations have been paused starting Wednesday night until April 7th. They will resume on April 8th at 5:30 am, which is when drivers normally start their morning shifts, according to internal documents viewed by […]
Pornhub is offering free premium memberships
scyther5 | iStock | Getty Images Plus Adult entertainment website Pornhub has just given people stuck in coronavirus lockdown one more way to pass their time. The company this week announced free premium membership to viewers in France and Spain, after doing the same for Italy a week prior. “In light of expanding quarantines, we […]
