Technology News
French Senate debates social media ban for children under 15
French Senate debates social media ban for children under 15
French senators vote on Tuesday on a draft law that aims to ban social media access for children under the age of 15, joining countries around the world in considering a move unpopular with many teenagers but supported by some parents and teachers. MORE..
NASA set for first crewed moon return in over half a century
NASA set for first crewed moon return in over half a century
NASA is preparing to launch the first crew of astronauts toward the moon in over 53 years with its second Artemis mission, a critical test flight in humanity’s broader lunar goals as the U.S. races to reassert leadership in space faced with growing competition from China. MORE..
Austria becomes latest to propose social media ban for children
Austria becomes latest to propose social media ban for children
Austria has announced plans to ban social media for children aged under 14, becoming the latest country to consider introducing restrictions for children online. MORE..
PS5 price hiked in UK and US due to global ‘pressures’
PS5 price hiked in UK and US due to global ‘pressures’
Sony is raising the price of the PlayStation 5 by £90 in the UK and by $100 in the US, in a dramatic hike it says is due to “continued pressures in the global economic landscape”. MORE..
Apple plans to open Siri to rival AI services, Bloomberg News reports
Apple plans to open Siri to rival AI services, Bloomberg News reports
Apple plans to open its Siri voice assistant to rival artificial intelligence services beyond its current partnership with ChatGPT, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. MORE..
Meta, Google lose US case over social media harm to kids
Meta, Google lose US case over social media harm to kids
A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday found Meta and Alphabet’s Google negligent for designing social media platforms that are harmful to young people, in a $6 million verdict that will serve as a bellwether for numerous similar cases. MORE..
OpenAI ends Disney partnership as it closes Sora video-making app
OpenAI ends Disney partnership as it closes Sora video-making app
OpenAI has shut down its artificial intelligence (AI) video-generation app Sora less than two years after its launch made headlines for creating realistic clips based on simple prompts. MORE..
Sri Lankan minds shaping the future of AI-based crisis management
Sri Lankan minds shaping the future of AI-based crisis management
The escalating conflict involving Iran, the United States, and Israel represents a “global energy stress test” with profound implications for international fuel and LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) security. MORE..
Lamborghinis stranded in Sri Lanka as war disrupts Asia’s used-car trade – report
Lamborghinis stranded in Sri Lanka as war disrupts Asia’s used-car trade – report
The U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran last month plunged the Middle East into crisis, disrupted global shipping routes and spawned a series of headaches for Umar Ali Hyder Ali’s used-car business in Japan. MORE..
Social media bans and digital curfews to be trialled on UK teenagers
Social media bans and digital curfews to be trialled on UK teenagers
Social media bans, digital curfews and time limits on apps are to be trialled in the homes of hundreds of UK teenagers. MORE..
Instagram now lets users reorder carousels after posting
Instagram now lets users reorder carousels after posting
Instagram announced a much-anticipated update for carousel posts, with users now able to rearrange their posts within a carousel after publishing. MORE..
China launches 10 satellites aboard Smart Dragon 3 carrier rocket from Sea platform
China launches 10 satellites aboard Smart Dragon 3 carrier rocket from Sea platform
China successfully launched 10 satellites into orbit late on Sunday, using the Jielong 3 (Smart Dragon 3) carrier rocket that lifted off from a mobile launch platform in the Yellow Sea off the coast of Haiyang in Shandong province, state media reported. MORE..
Facebook offering TikTok and YouTube creators $3,000 to post content
Facebook offering TikTok and YouTube creators $3,000 to post content
Facebook is offering larger influencers $3,000 (£2,260) a month to post on the platform, as part of its Content Fast Track programme. MORE..
US says it disrupted botnets that infected over 3 million devices worldwide
US says it disrupted botnets that infected over 3 million devices worldwide
The US Justice Department on Thursday said it took part in an operation with Germany and Canada to take down infrastructure used by four major botnets that infected more than 3 million devices worldwide, including hundreds of thousands in the US. MORE..
X outage: Elon Musk’s Twitter goes down, thousands affected
X outage: Elon Musk’s Twitter goes down, thousands affected
X, formerly Twitter, has suffered a major global outage. The massive downtime on Wednesday (18) has been knocked the social media offline, rendering thousands of users in India and the US unable to access posts, photos and videos. MORE..
Brazil starts to restrict minors’ access to social media
Brazil starts to restrict minors’ access to social media
Brazil began implementing new measures on Tuesday (Mar 17) to restrict minors’ access to social media and prevent them from viewing violent or illegal content. MORE..
Amazon launches 1-hour shipping in US cities to challenge Walmart
Amazon launches 1-hour shipping in US cities to challenge Walmart
Amazon is ramping up its speedy delivery service by offering 1-hour and 3-hour shipping in markets across the U.S., including Los Angeles and Chicago, in its latest efforts to stave off e-commerce competition from its biggest rival Walmart. MORE..
Google Maps reinvents navigation with AI-powered ‘Ask Maps’
Google Maps reinvents navigation with AI-powered ‘Ask Maps’
Google Maps just got a major upgrade that could make the world’s most popular navigation app even better. MORE..
Russia fines Telegram app for failing to remove banned content
Russia fines Telegram app for failing to remove banned content
Russia has fined the Telegram messaging app 35 million roubles ($432,366) for failing to remove banned content, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported on Monday. MORE..
Meta planning sweeping layoffs as AI costs mount
Meta planning sweeping layoffs as AI costs mount
Meta is planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as Meta seeks to offset costly artificial intelligence infrastructure bets and prepare for greater efficiency brought about by AI-assisted workers. MORE..
Games with loot boxes to get minimum 16 age rating across Europe
Games with loot boxes to get minimum 16 age rating across Europe
Games which feature loot boxes will soon be given an age rating of 16 across Europe, including in the UK, under a host of changes by the European video game ratings organisation. MORE..
One-fifth of Australian teens still use TikTok, SnapChat after social media ban
One-fifth of Australian teens still use TikTok, SnapChat after social media ban
One-fifth of Australian teenagers under 16 were still using social media two months after the country banned platforms from allowing minors, industry data showed, raising questions about the effectiveness of age-gating methods they are using. MORE..
China unveils world’s strongest ultra-high-strength carbon fiber
China unveils world’s strongest ultra-high-strength carbon fiber
China on Wednesday unveiled an independently developed T1200-grade ultra-high-strength carbon fiber, the world’s strongest of its kind, designed for use in aerospace and other advanced industries. MORE..
UK watchdogs press Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube to block children
UK watchdogs press Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube to block children
Britain’s media and privacy regulators on Thursday demanded that major social media platforms do more to keep children off their services, warning that companies were failing to enforce their own minimum age rules. MORE..
YouTube opens deepfake detection tool to politicians and journalists
YouTube opens deepfake detection tool to politicians and journalists
YouTube on Tuesday started offering a free tool to government officials, journalists and political candidates to help them identify and remove AI-generated videos that resemble their appearance. MORE..