Microsoft is planning to introduce a new feature to Windows 10 that will allow a user to prevent installation of desktop apps. The latest Windows Insider build comes with an option that allows users to enable app installations only from…
Google Assistant To Be Available On Older Versions of Android Soon
Matthew Miller, writing for ZDNet: Google has announced that Google Assistant is coming to smartphones running Android 7.0 Nougat and Android 6.0 Marshmallow, starting this week. The Google Assistant will begin rolling out this week to English users in the…
Supersmart Robots Will Outnumber Humans Within 30 Years, Says SoftBank CEO
Computers running artificial intelligence programs will exceed human intelligence within three decades, Masayoshi Son, founder of the Japanese technology and telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank Group, said on Monday. From a report on Fortune: “I really believe this,” Son told a large…
How Cable Monopolies Hurt ISP Customers
“New York subscribers have had to overpay month after month for services that Spectrum deliberately didn’t provide,” reports Backchannel — noting these practices are significant because together Comcast and Charter (formerly Time Warner Cable) account for half of America’s 92…
Slooh Observatory Is Webcasting Today's Rare 'Ring of Fire' Eclipse
An anonymous reader quotes Space.com A solar eclipse and its spectacular “ring of fire” will be visible from the Southern Hemisphere this Sunday morning, but no matter what side of the equator you’re on, you can watch the spectacular event…
UK Police Arrest Suspect Behind Mirai Malware Attacks On Deutsche Telekom
An anonymous reader writes: “German police announced Thursday that fellow UK police officers have arrested a suspect behind a serious cyber-attack that crippled German ISP Deutsche Telekom at the end of November 2016,” according to BleepingComputer. “The attack in question…
Professors Claim Passive Cooling Breakthrough Via Plastic Film
What if you could cool buildings without using electricity? charlesj68 brings word of “the development of a plastic film by two professors at the University of Colorado in Boulder that provides a passive cooling effect.” The film contains embedded glass…
Did Silicon Valley Lose The Race To Build Self-Driving Cars?
schwit1 quotes Autoblog: Up until very recently the talk in Silicon Valley was about how the tech industry was going to broom Detroit into the dustbin of history. Companies such as Apple, Google, and Uber — so the thinking went…
Scientists Teach Bees How To Play Soccer
Clint Perry, a biologist who studies the evolution of cognition in insects at Queen Mary University of London, and his colleagues have released the results of a creative new experiment in which they essentially taught bumblebees how to play “bee…
Arizona Bill Would Make Students In Grades 4-12 Participate Once In An Hour of Code
theodp writes: Christopher Silavong of Cronkite News reports: “A bill, introduced by [Arizona State] Sen. John Kavanagh [R-Fountain Hills] would mandate that public and charter schools provide one hour of coding instruction once between grades 4 to 12. Kavanagh said…