Month: December 2022

Month: December 2022

Americans Weigh Pros and Cons as Musk Alters Twitter
12/28/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Marie Rodriguez of Bountiful, Utah, began using social media when she enlisted in the U.S. Navy. At first, she saw it as a positive thing. “It helped me to really keep in touch with people at home while I was deployed and living overseas,” she told VOA. However, in the two months since Tesla CEO

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US House Bans TikTok on Official Devices
12/27/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

The popular Chinese video app TikTok has been banned from all U.S. House of Representatives-managed devices, according to the House’s administration arm, mimicking a law soon to go into effect banning the app from all U.S. government devices. The app is considered “high risk due to a number of security issues,” the House’s Chief Administrative

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Los Angeles Looking to Get Flying Taxis by 2028 Summer Olympics
12/25/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Taking to the air could be one solution to help get around traffic jams on city highways. Genia Dulot reports from Los Angeles on plans to get air taxis flying in time for the city’s 2028 Summer Olympics. …

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Year in Tech: What Do Tech Layoffs Say About the Economy?
12/25/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

The end of 2022 saw major layoffs at Twitter, Amazon, Salesforce and Snap. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, had its first layoffs ever, cutting about 13% of its staff. Deana Mitchell looks at what the tech job losses mean for the future. …

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Doctors Using Virtual Reality to Relieve Patients’ Pain and More
12/24/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Virtual reality, an immersive technology embraced by gamers, has moved into medicine, where it is used for stress relief, physical therapy, pain management and other applications. Mike O’Sullivan has more.   …

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Whistleblower Files Complaint to Congress Over Twitter Suspending Journalists
12/23/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Nearly a week after Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk said that the accounts of suspended journalists would be reinstated, at least six remain blocked. Voice of America’s chief national correspondent, Steve Herman, is among them. Twitter suspended the accounts Dec. 15 over posts about another removed account — @Elonjet — which uses public data to

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France Planning AI-Assisted Crowd Control for Paris Olympics
12/22/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

French authorities plan to use an AI-assisted crowd control system to monitor people during the 2024 Paris Olympics, according to a draft law seen by AFP on Thursday. The system is intended to allow the security services to detect disturbances and potential problems more easily, but will not use facial recognition technology, the bill says.

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Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt Building Factories for Battery Powered Vehicles
12/22/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Between the close of this year’s climate conference in Sharm el Sheikh and the 2023 climate event slated for December 2023 in the UAE, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt are all working to position themselves as new electric vehicle powerhouses. Signaling an era where next-generation electric vehicles are made in a region most strongly associated

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What Kind of Leader Does Twitter Need?
12/22/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

If not Elon, then who? That’s a question many are contemplating since Elon Musk, Twitter’s CEO, said this week he was actively looking for a new leader to run the social media network. Musk’s proclamation comes after more than 10 million respondents said in a Musk-created Twitter poll that he should resign. Musk followed up

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Musk Says He’ll Be Twitter CEO Until a Replacement Is Found 
12/21/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Elon Musk said Tuesday that he plans on remaining as Twitter’s CEO until he can find someone willing to replace him in the job.  Musk’s announcement came after millions of Twitter users asked him to step down in an unscientific poll the billionaire himself created and promised to abide by.  “I will resign as CEO

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Will Elon Musk Save or Destroy Twitter?
12/19/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Elon Musk had an eventful year, capping 2022 with a $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, a takeover that almost didn’t happen. The controversial CEO has brought changes and disruptions, layoffs and resignations that put Twitter’s fate into question. VOA’s Tina Trinh has more. …

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Twitter Poll Closes, Users Vote in Favor of Musk Exit as CEO 
12/19/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

More than half of 17.5 million users who responded to a poll that asked whether billionaire Elon Musk should step down as head of Twitter voted yes when the poll closed on Monday.  There was no immediate announcement from Twitter, or Musk, about whether that would happen, though he said that he would abide by

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Twitter Bans Linking to Facebook, Instagram, Other Rivals
12/19/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Twitter users will no longer be able to link to certain rival social media websites, including what the company described Sunday as “prohibited platforms” Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon. It’s the latest move by Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk to crack down on certain speech after he shut down a Twitter account last week that was

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Frustrated Virtual Reality Pioneer Leaves Facebook’s Parent
12/18/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

A prominent video game creator who helped lead Facebook’s expansion into virtual reality has resigned from the social networking service’s corporate parent after becoming disillusioned with the way the technology is being managed. John Carmack cut his ties with Meta Platforms, a holding company created last year by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, in a Friday

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Taiwan to Fine Foxconn for Unauthorized China Investment
12/18/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Taiwan’s government said on Saturday it would fine Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, for an unauthorized investment in a Chinese chip maker even after the Taiwanese firm said it would be selling the stake. Taiwan has turned a wary eye on China’s ambition to boost its semiconductor industry and is tightening legislation to

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China Trying to Fight Back US Ban on Its Chip Industry
12/16/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

China is spending $143 billion to combat U.S. moves to cut off its supply of semiconductor technology.  The funds will be used to provide financial subsidies and incentives to help China’s chipmakers develop and acquire semiconductor technology to withstand the U.S. move.  This is one of three measures, analysts say, taken by Beijing to protect

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VOA Journalist Among Media Suspended on Twitter
12/16/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

VOA Chief National Correspondent Steve Herman was among several journalists to be suspended from Twitter late Thursday. Followers of the former White House bureau chief’s Twitter account were greeted with a blank screen and message saying, “Account suspended.” Accounts for journalists from CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as some

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Hacker Claims Breach of FBI’s Critical-Infrastructure Forum 
12/15/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

A hacker who reportedly posed as the chief executive of a financial institution claims to have obtained access to the more than 80,000-member database of InfraGard, an FBI-run outreach program that shares sensitive information on national security and cybersecurity threats with public officials and private sector individuals who run U.S. critical infrastructure. The hacker posted

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Ethiopians File Lawsuit Against Meta Over Hate Speech in War
12/14/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Two Ethiopians have filed a lawsuit against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, over hate speech they say was allowed and even promoted on the social media platform amid heated rhetoric over their country’s deadly Tigray conflict. Former Amnesty International human rights researcher Fisseha Tekle is one petitioner in the case filed Wednesday and the other is

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Fraud Charges Unsealed in Arrest of Crypto Magnate Bankman-Fried
12/14/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Law enforcement officials and financial services regulators have filed a raft of criminal and civil charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange company FTX, alleging wide-ranging fraud that eventually brought down the company, which was valued at $32 billion earlier this year. The Department of Justice on Tuesday morning unsealed an

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NASA’s Orion Capsule Blazes Home From Test Flight to Moon 
12/11/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

NASA’s Orion capsule made a blisteringly fast return from the moon Sunday, parachuting into the Pacific off Mexico to conclude a test flight that should clear the way for astronauts on the next lunar flyby. The incoming capsule hit the atmosphere at Mach 32, or 32 times the speed of sound, and endured reentry temperatures

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Apple Plans to Move Production Outside of China
12/09/2022 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

The Wall Street Journal reports U.S. smartphone giant Apple Inc. is accelerating plans to move some China-based production lines to other southeastern Asian countries such as India and Vietnam. That, analysts said, would represent a significant shift in the so-called de-Sinification of global supply chains after manufacturers become aware of risks of concentrating production in

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