The World Health Organization has approved the first rapid blood test.
It will allow patients to be identified, isolated and cared
for as quickly as possible in an attempt to bring an end to the
outbreak that has killed more than 9,300 people.
It is less accurate than conventional tests, but takes minutes rather than hours to get a result.
The test also works without electricity so it can be used in remote regions.
Current Ebola testing requires a laboratory to analyse the blood for fragments of the virus's genetic material.
It can take between 12 and 24 hours to get a definitive answer.
The ReEBOV Antigen Rapid Test, developed by US company Corgenix, searches the blood for a different part of the virus.
Trials in West Africa suggest it correctly identifies about 92% of people who have Ebola.
Researchers in Palo Alto in the US state of California have developed the most powerful X-ray laser in the world.
The Linac Coherent Light Source is being used to see how atoms and molecules move in living systems.
The machine is a billion times brighter than the previous generation of lasers.
Each X-ray pulse has as much power as the national grid of a large country, and a hundred are produced every second.
African largest economy Nigeria has come with a radar of positive outlook in the telecommunication sector with a subscriber based expected to hit 182 million subscribers in 2019.
According to report by Pyramid Research telecommunication is expected to generate $10.9 billion up from 9.2billion in 2013.
The sector will experience a company annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2% in the next five years with mobile data increasing to 16% in 2019.
Although currency devaluation are likely to lead to slower US dollar rate, in local currency terms, the Nigerian telecommunication market offers strong growth rates of up to 6.8% annually for a period of 2014 to 2019.
Other countries in Africa are likely to follow Nigeria when it comes to technology development.
Computer hardware giant Lenovo has
been forced to remove hidden adware that it was shipping on its laptops
and PCs after users expressed anger.
The adware - dubbed Superfish - was potentially compromising their security, said experts.
The hidden software was also injecting adverts on to browsers using techniques more akin to malware, they added.
Lenovo faces questions about why and for how long it was pre-installed on machines - and what data was collected.
In a statement : "Lenovo removed
Superfish from the preloads of new consumer systems in January 2015.
At
the same time Superfish disabled existing Lenovo machines in the market
from activating Superfish.
Users began complaining about Superfish in Lenovo's forums in the
autumn, and user feedback it acknowledged, "was not positive".
Last month, forum administrator Mark Hopkins told users that
"due to some issues (browser pop up behaviour, for example)", the
company had "temporarily removed Superfish from our consumer systems
until such time as Superfish is able to provide a software build that
addresses these issues".
He added it had requested that Superfish issue an auto-update for "units already in market".
A particularly devious new Android malware can make calls or take
photos even if you shut the device down, according to security research
firm AVG.
To achieve this, the malware hijacks the shutting down
process — making it appear as though your Android device is shutting
down. You see the animation, the screen goes black, but the phone is
actually still on.
In this state, the malware can use the phone to send your messages to
a third party, record a call or take a photo, essentially turning your
phone into a device that spies on you.
AVG, which posted code excerpts showing some of the malware's
functionality, names this threat Android/PowerOffHijack.A. According to
the company, it infects devices running Android versions below 5.0 and
requires root permissions in order to act.
The company spokesperson told us some 10,000 devices were infected so
far, mostly in China where the malware was first introduced and offered
through the local, official app stores.
In a recent competition organized by Virgin founder Richard Brownson and MaiTai Global the following companies were recognised as the most exciting tech start-ups in the world.
Breathometer, Doctor on demand and Wanguru.
The competition organized at the Las Vergas consumer electronic show saw several competitors drop down the pack, leaving the 3 companies at the top. Although Breathometer and Doctor on demand came top with a tie, bus hiring service Wanguru had a very good investment plan.
Breathometer has come up with some interesting applications today, the blood alcohol level breath analysis
startup has announced a partnership and API integration with Uber.
Anyone who registers at the halfway point of the legal limit in
California (.04 blood alcohol concentration level) or higher on a
Breathometer Breeze device will now be directed to order a cab, Uber or a
designated driver to ensure they don’t get behind the wheel when tipsy.
Breathometer has been testing the Uber API integration with
its app since October 2014. Over 1 million tests have been conducted
since then, according to the breathalyzer startup. Breathometer says
that it has had about a 10 percent conversion rate with drunk users
calling for an Uber so far.
It will make a lot of sense if this sensor is built into the microphone piece of our smart phones...
Snapchat has solved one of the most annoying problems with mobile video so you
can finally record your dance parties, even if you’re the DJ.
The company has been experimenting for some time with ways to better
integrate music into its application. Today it’s launching a new feature
that allows you to record video while playing music from your phone,
rather than the music pausing. You can listen to jams from iTunes, Spotify,
SoundCloud, or any other app while recording.
The feature has just rolled out to iOS with the release of Snapchat
version 9.2.0, but has yet to appear in the Android version hosted now
on Google Play.
The smartphone is the most successful consumer device ever.
Deloitte
predicts that one billion smartphones will be purchased as upgrades for
the first time in 2015, generating over $300 billion in sales.
The quantity of smartphones bought as upgrades is unparalleled among
consumer electronics devices. In 2015 smartphone sales will be greater
in units and revenues than the PC, television, tablet and games console
sectors combined. What’s more, according to Deloitte’s research,
undertaken in May-June 2014, about seven in ten smartphone owners in 14
developed markets had upgraded their phone in the previous 18 months.
This is more frequent than for any other consumer electronics device,
which may surprise in view of the fact that in 2015 most smartphone
owners are likely to spend more time looking at TV screens, and
information workers and students may spend more time looking at PC
screens. However, the smartphone is the most personal of consumer
electronics devices: the most constant companion, the most personal of
choices, the most customized and reflective of the owners, the least
likely to be shared with other users, and the most frequently looked at.
In addition, the huge production volumes of smartphones manufactured
make this the most competitive market among devices, undergoing the most
substantive technical improvement on a year-by-year basis. Assessing
the smartphone upgrade market from a purely technical perspective, it
might be concluded that most existing owners do not ‘need’ a new device.
But this assessment is too narrow; there is a wide spread of
motivations, practical and emotional, which will drive the billion
upgrades we anticipate for 2015 and the 1.15 billion for 2016.
A new web protocol that promises to speed up internet browsing has been approved.
The changeover to HTTP/2, when it happens, will be the first major update to the standard in 15 years.
The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) has accepted the protocol, one of its senior members wrote in a blogpost on Wednesday.
The standard will now go on to be edited before being applied, Mark Nottingham added.
Its developers believe the new standard will represent a big
step forward because it will make pages load quicker and improve
encryption.
Making HTTP/2 succeed means that it has to work with the existing web.
Apple’s
MacBook Air is the ultimate ultralight laptop and the only ultralight
for Mac users. Windows users have more options. Like the new Asus
Zenbook UX305.
The
Zenbook is one of the thinnest and lightest notebooks around, and with a
starting price of N150K, it’s N65K less than Apple’s 13-inch MacBook
Air.
It’s a good machine, but sadly there are tradeoffs.
A beauty with some warts
At
2.6 pounds, the aluminum Zenbook is about a third of a pound lighter
than the MacBook Air. But it’s about the same size: 12.8 x 8.9 x 0.5
inches, compared with the Apple’s 12.8 x 8.9 x 0.7 inches. The
difference in weight comes from the fact that the Zenbook doesn’t use as
many internal parts as the MacBook, a result of the processor used in
the Zenbook.
Lenovo’s
Yoga 3 Pro, another superthin laptop, offers the same dimensions and
weight as Asus’s Zenbook and doubles as a tablet. However, at $1,299,
the Lenovo costs nearly twice as much as the Asus and $300 more than the
MacBook Air.
Outside
of Apple, Asus easily makes some of the most attractive laptops on the
market. As with its predecessors, the Zenbook UX305’s cover features a
large ASUS logo ringed by a series of concentric circles. It’s a
beautiful design that gives the laptop a decidedly upscale look.
Zenbook looks great, but it’s an absolute fingerprint magnet.
Screen
The
Zenbook’s 13-inch, 1920 x 1080 resolution display offers crisp, sharp
text and images, but there are issues with its anti-glare matte coating.
Matte
screens are great for using in direct sunlight or under bright office
lights because they are less reflective, but they make colors look
duller. A glossy screen (as on a MacBook Air) shows bright, vibrant
colors but can be tough to see under bright lights.
If you’re
the kind of person who needs to use your computer outside, a matte
screen will likely be a better choice.
When Robin Williams died last August, people around the world rushed
online to mourn the loss of the actor. “Oh dear God. The wonderful Robin
Williams has gone,” Bette Midler tweeted. “No words,” added a somber Billy Crystal.
“Shame. I liked Jumanji,” tweeted one England-based Twitter user. “Good
movie. Loved it as a kid,” replied an account with the handle
@Mujahid4life.
“Mujahid,”
for those unfamiliar, roughly translates to “jihadist warrior.” And
this particular handle belonged to a 19-year-old British-born guy by the
name of Abdullah, who happened to be both a supporter of the Islamic
State and a big Robin Williams fan.
Abdullah’s opinion of the fallen star unleashed a torrent of blog posts,
most of which marveled at the fact that a member of an organization
that openly beheads its enemies could also have the emotional capacity
to mourn a U.S. comedian on Twitter. But however surreal it was to watch
Hollywood actors and terrorist sympathizers tangle online, those
voyeuristic bloggers missed a larger point. That moment encapsulated a
key pillar of the group’s now infamous social media fortress: Spreading
extremist ideology doesn’t need to start with religious screeds and
beheadings. It starts — as a social media 101 instructor might say — by
simply taking part in the conversation.
It’s
been less than a year since IS burst onto the stage, seizing large
amounts of territory and shocking the world with its brutally violent
tactics. During that time, the group has evolved into a highly
sophisticated multimedia organization, boasting slick social media
strategies that could give major corporate marketing teams a run for
their money. IS knows how to package its extremist ideology in the form
of well-produced videos, attractive graphics, polished magazines and
strategic online posts. It’s also strikingly savvy at spreading them
online, tailoring their presentation and message to media sites like
Twitter, YouTube and Vine. The messages are hypercustomized in language,
tone and content to reach as many people possible and ultimately go
viral. As Marshall Sella recently wrote in Matter,
IS is “an entire brand family, the equivalents of the Apple logo’s glow
... terrorism’s Coca-Cola.” There’s no need to hold an IS-stamped watch or baseball hat in your hands to face the truth: IS is a powerful and terrifying brand that we were not prepared to reckon with.
How exactly did we go from
the days of fuzzy, subtitled Osama bin Laden bootlegs to a Travel
Channel-esque hub for propaganda and recruitment? As sophisticated as IS
is at promoting its message on public platforms, it is deeply
protective of its digital tradecraft. Here’s what we know:
Building a digital empire
IS runs all its communications through the official propaganda headquarters it launched in the spring of 2014, the Al-Hayat Media Center.
This is where skilled, well-paid IS supporters work with high-tech
equipment and the latest editing and design tools to produce recruitment
films, propaganda materials like its glossy magazine Dabiq and its most famous product: gruesome torture videos.
Though
this is the terrorist group’s central communications hub, its influence
extends to about 20 other branches spread out along IS’ claimed
territory, according to estimates by Daniel Cohen, a research associate
at the Institute for National Security Studies.
Local offices are able to take cues from the main center, but they also
have room to create location-specific content to more effectively
communicate to the fighters in those areas. For example, supporters in
France have access to Dar al Islam, IS’ French-language propaganda magazine. Aref Ali Nayed, the Libyan ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, put it well when he told the New York Times
that “the Islamists have been very clever at rebranding. They have
learned the franchising model from McDonald’s. They give you the
methodology, standards and propaganda material.”
Sheer
volume dictates that these centers cannot approve every piece of
IS-related social media that floats through the digital ether. Rather
than try to monitor each message from the community, the media centers
offer jihadist soldiers guidelines on the types of messages they should
post.
“From
the beginning, [members of IS] started to send pictures from Twitter,”
Cohen told Yahoo News. “They did it for purposeful recruitment. Instead
of showing the fights, they’d show people sitting and eating pizza in
their lockers. Or they’d show people watching TV together, playing
PlayStation together. They are targeting a young audience and speaking
to them in the same language, showing that it’s a pleasant place.”
View gallery
.
Islamic State branding (via The Institute for National Security Studies)
It was perhaps the same genre of audience-based marketing that, in September, encouraged Western-based IS sympathizer
Anjem Choudary to tweet a short listicle titled “10 Facts from the
Islamic State that everyone should know.” (Number 7: “For every newly
married couples are given 700usd as a gift.”)
The
all-seeing Oz character who’s behind it has yet to be publicly
identified. Senior IS leader Abu Muhammad al-Adnani acts as Al-Hayat’s
main spokesperson and public face. However, he’s not widely believed to
also be the brains behind the operation.
“Usually
the people up on the frontlines aren’t the strategist,” Cohen said.
“Just like a McDonald’s ad campaign. Someone came up with the concept
and the script. But they’re never the same person who stars in the
commercial.”
McLaren has officially released the long awaited McLaren P1GTR
Call it the famed paint scheme, or
the monster rear wing. Or maybe it's the 986 hp on tap. Or the $3
million price tag. Whatever it is, the P1 GTR, dressed for its official
reveal in Geneva, looks utterly magnificent.
The downside of the P1GTR is that it is only meant for the racetrack.
The "base" P1 is one of the fastest hypercars on the planet. The P1 GTR
will be faster. A lot faster. The 3.8-liter turbocharged V-8 gets a 62
hp bump while the electric motor zaps an additional 21 hp. Further more,
110 lbs. of weight is shed by using "motorsports derived parts" like
polycarbonate side windows, as well as ditching superfluous items needed
for road homologation. The front track is 80mm wider, the ride height
is 50mm lower and the adjustable rear wing has been replaced by a fixed
one, albeit still capable of the DRS feature. This wing is set 100mm
higher than the road-going P1's most aggressive setting, helping ensure
total downforce levels increase by 10 percent, or 1,455 lbs. at 150 mph.
Let that number sink in for a second.
Public photos on Facebook could've been deleted with just four lines of code, says an online security researcher.
Laxman Muthiyah was playing around with Graph API - the tool which developers use to make Facebook apps.
Testing it on his own photos, Muthiyah found a way to manipulate the code so that it deleted one of his images.
"What if your photos get deleted without your knowledge? Obviously that's very disgusting isn't it?" he wrote on his blog
He immediately reported the bug to Facebook's security team.
"They
were fast in identifying this issue and there was a fix in place in
less than two hours from the acknowledgement of the report."
It does not appear that any misuse has been reported as a result of this bug - and private photos and data were not affected.
A
Facebook spokesperson confirmed the sequence of events, saying in a
statement: "We received a report about an issue with our Graph API and
quickly fixed it
Two british banks are to allow their customers access their account just by the use of finger print.
RBS and NatWest customers must activate the feature with their
security information, but would only need to use Apple's Touch ID
thereafter.
The banks said that, after three failed login attempts, customers would have to re-enter their passcodes.
But a security expert expressed concern that Touch ID is not secure enough.
The banks, both part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group,
said that the feature would be available on the iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus.
Customers would have to enable the feature using their existing login
details.
Some of the in-app features used to pay money that required
additional verification would continue to do so and limits were set on
new payments, the banks said.
They said that around 880,000 of their customers currently use the apps on those handsets.
The feature, which uses fingerprint recognition to grant
access to iPhones, was criticised soon after it was introduced with the
launch of the iPhone 5 in 2013.
A group of hackers managed to get around it only a day after
the launch by making a fake finger from a photograph of a fingerprint
left on a glass surface.
While Apple insisted that TouchID was secure, it said it was not a total
replacement for traditional security measures and was meant to make
unlocking the phone more convenient. In a similar vein, the banks have
now said they wanted to make it "even easier and more convenient for
customers".
Google faces the prospect
of a fresh competition investigation after Russia's biggest search
engine filed a complaint with the authorities.
Yandex alleges that its rival has an unfair advantage because
it insists device-makers set Google as the default search setting if
they want to pre-install its Play store.
Google Play is promoted as the safest and best-stocked marketplace for apps and other media for Android devices.
Chinese based online retailer say it is testing a drone based delivery service to it customers.
The tech giant says the trial will last three days and be limited to areas within a
one-hour flight of its distribution centres in Beijing, Shanghai and
Guangzhou.
The company's blog adds that it believes the technology has the potential to speed up deliveries.
Amazon, Google and parcel service UPS are among other companies carrying out more private trials of such aircraft.
It is using its drones to deliver orders for a specific
type of ginger tea, helping limit the maximum weight of the packages to
340g (12oz).
The Tech in Asia blog, which was one of the first to report
the development, said the experiment was being undertaken by Alibaba's
Taobao division - an eBay-like marketplace that connects third-party
sellers and buyers - and would involve 450 shoppers.
Hope Nigerian based, online retailers are thinking that way already.
Android users are being
warned that several popular apps that were on the official Google Play
store appear to have contained hidden code that made malicious ads pop
up.
Security firm Avast said that one of the apps involved - a
free version of the card game Durak - had been downloaded up to 10
million times, according to Google Play's own counter.
Google has now blocked access.
But one expert noted that the problem might be less widespread than feared.
Avast said that it first became aware of the issue after a member of the public contacted it after carrying out his own investigation into how his Nexus 5 smartphone had come to be infected with malicious code.
The "adware" was causing spurious pop-up messages to appear
that had been made to look like system notifications. These told him his
phone was running "slow" and that he needed to install new software to
fix the problem.
If he followed the on-screen prompts he was then directed to download other apps, only some of which were legitimate.
The controversial file sharing site pirate bay is back on stream.
Pirate bay which was taken down by Swedish authorities after complain from Right Alliance, which target internet crime.
A counter at thepiratebay.se showed a countdown to 1 February, but it appears to have come back online a day early.
The website, which provides links to pirated content, was taken offline following a raid in Sweden in December.
The
police operation took place in an area in Nacka, south-east of
Stockholm, with the area's cold weather used as a natural cooling system
for computer servers.
The site was taken down in 2006 after another raid by police but reappeared online three days later.
A message from "Winston" on the newly-relaunched site reads: "So,
first we ditched the trackers. We even got rid of the torrents. Then we
left the servers to enter the clouds.
"Now, we're about to take the biggest step in our history."
Isohunt has being holding brief for pirate bay for awhile.
India phone maker Micromax has become the largest mobile phone seller in India.
Micromax overtook Samsung by claiming 22% of the smart phone market in India. Samsung which came in behind has 20% of the market which is the third largest smart phone market in the World.
Most smart phone shipment to India are in the medium and low range level which is less than $100.
Micromax has been quicker than its competitors to improve the appeal of
devices, for example, by including a wide variety of local languages on
its Unite phones.
This should be encouraging to local Nigeria smart phone manufactures, that they can compete favourably with established global brands if they are innovative.
Poking around inside our nostrils is disgusting, unhygienic and
potentially harmful, so it’s baffling that it’s as common as it is, says
Jason G Goldman.
Most of us do it, but few of us will admit to it. If we get caught
red-handed, we experience shame and regret. And we tend to frown upon
others when they do it in public. I'm talking, of course, about reaching
up into your nostrils with a finger in an effort to scrape out snot. Is
nose-picking really all that bad? How prevalent or bad is it, really?
And why (really, why?) would anybody ever decide to see what snot tastes like?
The formal medical term used to describe the act of picking one's nose is “rhinotillexomania”. The first systematic scientific study
of the phenomenon may have been undertaken as recently as 1995, by a
pair of US researchers named Thompson and Jefferson. They sent a survey
by mail to 1,000 adult residents of Dane County, Wisconsin. Of the 254
that responded, a whopping 91% of their respondents confessed to picking
their noses, while only 1.2% could admit to doing it at least once each
hour. Two subjects indicated that their nasal mining habits interfered
with their daily lives (moderately to markedly). And, to their surprise,
two other people reported so much nose picking that they had actually
picked a hole right trough their nasal septum, the thin tissue that
separates the left and right nostrils.
With a digital and mobile revolution already
in full force across the African continent, satellites and who is in
control of them are becoming increasingly important.
South Africans are leading the way with
their National Space Agency (SANSA) operations in Hartebeesthoek,
Gauteng. With an antennae farm of over 22 antennae and orbcomms, as
well as a mission control centre and operations room tracking and
downloading satellite data, the facility is designed to grow. SANSA
is currently assisting the Ghanaian government to re-purpose an old
mobile-phone facility, in Ghana's first steps towards participation in
the African space race.
Matloop is a polyvalent wireless
communicatio, or PWC, system. This is a system that allows the
simultaneous provisioning of telephony, internet and video services
from a satellite broadband connection without using any landline cable
such as fiber optics. Dr Victor Agbegnenou wants to keep his
invention in the hands of Africa and believes it should be delivered to
the continent without the intervention of large Western technology
companies.
His PWC system is being tested as a way to connect
medical laboratories throughout the continent. Agbegnenou is Togolese
but based in Paris, where he has gathered a large community of
scientists from the diaspora who are all committed to finding ways of
implementing the PWC technology to solve a number of African problems.
Dr Patience Mthuzi is Africa's only doctor of biophotonics. Her
research entails using light to manipulate cells. The aim is to create
ground-breaking diagnostics tools for serious diseases. She is also
working on ways to deliver drugs directly to cells to treat
life-threatening diseases.
Dr Sandile Ngcobo has found a way of controlling the shape of
the light coming out of a laser - something previously thought to be
impossible. With his discovery, laser beams can be digitally controlled
from inside the laser device itself. His work is talked about as a
"disruptive innovation", something which turns previous scientific
ideas upside down. Scientists liken his invention to the actual
discovery of the laser 50 years ago. Now that it is possible to
manipulate the light in this way, scientists believe that applications
will be found in areas like medicine and manufacturing.
The online retail giant
Amazon has reported weaker profits for the busy Christmas period, but a
15% rise in sales has cheered investors.
The company made a net profit of $214m (£142m) for the last three months of 2014, which is a drop of $25m on the same period in 2013.
However, it was an improvement on the previous quarter, in which Amazon made a net loss of $437m.
The company's shares rose by nearly 8% in after-hours trading.
But despite net sales of $89bn, Amazon made a loss of $241m for 2014 as a whole.
The firm also warned that its finances were "inherently unpredictable".
It sounded a note of caution for the next few months, saying it could make an operating loss of up to $450m.
The web giant added that profits may be "materially affected
by many factors, such as fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes
in global economic conditions and consumer spending, world events, the
rate of growth of the Internet and online commerce".
Amazon also experience stiff competition from Chinese rival Alibaba, which made $9bn in one day sales sometime in November last year.
BMW has fixed a security flaw that left 2.2 million cars, including Rolls Royce and Mini models, open to hackers.
The flaw affected models fitted with BMW's ConnectedDrive software, which uses an on-board Sim card.
The software operated door locks, air conditioning and
traffic updates but no driving firmware such as brakes or steering, the German car maker
said.
No cars have actually been hacked "thank God", but the flaw was identified by German motorist association ADAC.
ADAC's researchers found the cars would try to communicate
via a spoofed phone network, leaving potential hackers able to control
anything activated by the Sim.
The patch, which would be applied automatically, included
making data from the car encrypted via HTTPS (HyperText Transfer
Protocol Secure) - the same security commonly used for online banking,
BMW said.
"On the one hand, data are encrypted with the HTTPS protocol,
and on the other hand, the identity of the BMW Group server is checked
by the vehicle before data are transmitted over the mobile phone
network".
MPs in the British parliament will today decide on the controversial three persons babies technique.
They will have a free vote on the technique, which is aimed at
preventing deadly genetic diseases being passed from mother to child.
After these vote the UK could become the first country to introduce laws to allow the creation of babies from three people.
It has sparked fierce ethical debate and senior Church figures have called for the procedure to be blocked.
However, if there is a "yes" vote in the Commons, then the
first three-person baby could be born as soon as next year. It could
eventually help about 150 couples a year.
The latest threat to users involves a fake Flash Player update which pops up during a preview of a pornographic video.
Once
you click on the link to update your video player, malware (the name
given to malicious software), downloads onto your computer.
This Trojan horse software gives the creator of the malware remote access to your computer.
They can then download viruses onto your computer.
Security researcher Mohammad Faghani alerted users to the threat in a post on the Full Disclosure blog, which flags up network vulnerabilities.
"The Trojan tags the infected user's friends with an enticing post," he explained.
Faghani
warned that the malware then tags up to 20 friends of the victim in the
malicious post, thus leading to a larger number of those who could be
affected
Internet giant Google reported fourth-quarter profits of $4.76bn
(£3.16bn), up nearly 30% from the same period a year before, but revenue
missed Wall Street expectations.
The company's revenue increased by 15% to $18bn - nearly the same amount as Apple's profit last quarter.
Google, like other US firms, was hurt by the strength of the US dollar.
It said revenues would have been $541m higher had foreign exchange rates been more favourable.
The cost-per-click - or the amount Google can charge
advertisers for placing ads on its network - decreased by 3% over the
quarter, indicating that Google is still having difficulty raising the
price it charges for mobile ads.
The metric is closely watched by investors, who worry that
the firm's mobile ad business is not as strong as its desktop search
business - which is troubling, given that consumers are increasingly
switching to accessing the internet on their smartphones and mobile
devices.
Google shares dipped nearly 2% in trading after markets had closed, but recovered later in the evening.
If you are not threatened by AI(Artificial Intelligence) Bill Gates thinks you should.
Ultron an AI
The Microsoft Co-founder said he never understood why people are not trouble by the fact that AI could grow too strong for people to control and even contradicted Eric Horvitz Microsoft research chief who saw nothing wrong with the use of AI.
During an interview on Reddit Mr. Gates wrote "I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence. First the machine will do lots of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well".
Other notable individuals that feel AI is a threat are Elon Musk (Paypal and Tulsa) founder and Prof. Stephen Hawkings.
Let the truth be told I am threatened by that machine guy. LOL
Mobile tech giant Nokia has threaten to sue a London start-up firm for using the word "HERE".
Lowdownapp - the digital personal assistant that allows users to tell their friends and connection they have arrived at a scheduled location by pressing the button "HERE".
The company has also released a standalone app for checking in location which has angered Nokia.
Nokia claims the name infringe on it own brand name app HERE for mapping and navigation.
Nokia said it has invested $12m in promoting the HERE brand and has registered trademarks for the word.
The company has given Lowdownapp 10 February, 2015 to rebrand the "HERE" function on its app.
