” For the last decade, Nandan Nilekani has been working to make these “invisible people,” as he calls them, visible by giving them access to official identification. One of India’s leading technology entrepreneurs, Nandan joined the government of India to lead the launch of India’s national biometric ID system, which uses fingerprints and other biological traits to verify the identities of the country’s more than 1.3 billion residents. This ID system, known as Aadhaar (Hindi for “foundation”), is the world’s largest biometric identification system and has become a valuable platform for delivering social welfare programs and other government services.
Zuckerberg has now explained that combining these three platforms will provide offer more secure end-to-end encryption. While end-to-end encryption is currently available only on WhatsApp, this move is said to benefit Messenger and Instagram users as it would enable them to send end-to-end encrypted messages across these platforms. Right now end-to-end encryption has to be activated on Messenger whereas it’s not available on Instagram DMs.
He also noted that ‘tens of millions’ of Android users who use Messenger as their default SMS app at present would benefit from having encryption enabled as a default.
“The integration that we’re thinking about, we’re really early in thinking through this,” said Zuckerberg during the earnings call. “There’s a lot more we need to figure out. I think it’s the direction we should be going with more things in the future,” he added.
But while Facebook’s CEO is planning to broaden the availability of end-to-end encryption by stitching the apps’ infrastructure into one, several questions have raised about privacy and how users data will be shared across these messaging services.
Today, Loon is announcing a partnership with Canadian telecommunications company Telesat, in a deal that will see Loon’s custom software service for managing its LTE balloon fleet be put to use controlling Telesat’s new constellation of Low Earth orbit satellites.
It’s part of Loon’s realization that no one solution will get internet everywhere across the globe, and that its technology can benefit a major player in an industry it once viewed as a potential competitor.
Loon has spent a majority of its existence as a Alphabet-funded project developing this software, and its become an instrumental system for controlling the network traffic for Loon’s LTE service in areas like Brazil, Peru, and elsewhere around the globe where the company has performed field tests.
Around 3.5 billion people, or a bit under half the world’s population, don’t have access to the internet, according to the 2018 Global Digital report.
Today, current options for bringing remote areas online, like geostationary satellites that sit more than 20,000 miles above the surface, provide ample coverage area, but suffer from high latency and sluggish connection speeds. They’re also immensely difficult and expensive to maintain. For companies like Loon and Telesat, newer solutions ranging from satellites in Low Earth orbit — a more cost effective and lower latency portion of space — to stratospheric balloons and airships are necessary to begin bridging the gap. And it’s no longer about providing a single, one-size-fits-all solution, but a patchwork of different approaches all targeting different segments of the connectivity problem.
Amazon will fund both introductory and Advanced Placement (AP) classes across all five NYC boroughs, including over 30 schools near its new headquarters, Long Island City, Queens.
The courses will be supported by the Amazon Future Engineer program, whose stated goal is to bring over 10 million kids to computer science per year, and fund computer science courses for over 100,000 underprivileged kids in 2,000 low-income high schools in the U.S. It also awards 100 students per year with four-year $10,000 scholarships and offers internships at Amazon.
Saudi Arabia’s and the United Arab Emirates’ (UAB) central banks have teamed up to test a new cryptocurrency.
The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) and the United Arab Emirates Central Bank (UAECB) clarified that one of the objectives of launching the common digital currency project “Aber” is for use in financial settlements between Saudi Arabia and UAE through Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers technologie.
The G Suite certification stands out a bit because it’s cheaper ($75) and far less technical, but as Google notes, the overall idea here is to address the “cloud skills crisis.”
Amazon is launching a new self-driving delivery device called Scout.
In a promotional video, you see a six-wheeled, bright blue bot roll down the sidewalk, cross the street, and stop in front of an idyllic suburban house. A woman comes out and Scout’s lid lifts, revealing a Prime box. Easy, right?
Not really. The reality of streets and sidewalks is messy and complex. There are obstacles to avoid, mischievous teenagers to dodge, and numerous unseen technical issues.
“The devices will autonomously follow their delivery route but will initially be accompanied by an Amazon employee,” Amazon said in a statement. “We developed Amazon Scout at our research and development lab in Seattle, ensuring the devices can safely and efficiently navigate around pets, pedestrians and anything else in their path.”
Kalamsat-V2 was made by students belonging to Space Kidz India, a Chennai-based space education firm.
ISRO will launch the satellite from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota at 11: 37 pm on 24 Jan, 2019.
Kalam SAT is a Femto Satellite.
It is named Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and was built by an Indian High school student team, led by Rifath Sharook, an 18-year-old from the Tamil Nadu town of Pallapatti.
This 10-cm cube and the first 3-D printed satellite has a life span of two months and weighs 1.2 kg.
It is built at a cost of Rs 12 lakh and will be first to use the rocket’s fourth stage as an orbital platform. Following this, the fourth stage will be moved to a higher circular orbit to establish an orbital platform from where it will carry out experiments.
“The main purpose of student satellites is to enable students to conduct experiments in space. We see that students get involved in the whole process of building the associated systems, including the satellite bust and power system, instead of concentrating on the main science. We wanted to tell them that they can just bring their payload and we will plug in. All the paraphernalia is available with us. Students should just focus on the science, experiment, research and innovation,” Sivan had said while announcing the launch of Kalamsat in New Delhi.
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