Mobile phones are on the verge of becoming powerful tools to collect data on many issues, ranging from global health to the environment. Computer scientists at the University of Washington have used Android, the open-source mobile operating system championed by Google, to turn a cell phone into a versatile data-collection device. Organizations that want...
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Android is a mobile operating system running on the Linux kernel. It was initially developed by Google and later the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed code in the Java language, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries. The unveiling of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 was announced with...
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In a critique of the XO laptop (widely known as the $100 laptop), a senior computer industry official once said the effort was like seeking to replace modern cars with faster ‘horses’. The XO laptop uses flash memory and does not have a hard drive. It is admittedly slower than other laptops. While the...
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Author: Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy Belfer Center Programs or Projects: International Security ARE YOU one of the over 63 million people who watched the “Evolution of Dance” on YouTube? Did you download the latest version of “The Colbert Report” on your iPod? Instead maybe you were stuck somewhere in Asia on business...
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The World Economic Forum released today its study on ICT for Enabling Transformation, an analysis of how information and communication technologies (ICT) can serve as strategic enablers in the transformation of the global economy. The analysis notes that to achieve long-term social, economic and environmental benefits, reinvigorated levels of public-private collaboration will be required...
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Image via Wikipedia Cloud computing is the provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources as a service over the Internet on a utility basis. Cloud computing services often provide common business applications online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers. The term cloud...
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Growing water needs, mismanagement leading to ‘catastrophic decline’ in freshwater biodiversity The world will miss its agreed target to stem biodiversity loss by next year, according to experts convening in Cape Town for a landmark conference devoted to biodiversity science. The goal was agreed at the 6th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention...
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Contracting private providers of healthcare services and giving cash incentives to patients are two strategies that have been proposed to increase access to healthcare in low income countries. In two new Cochrane Systematic Reviews of public healthcare policies in poor and middle income countries, researchers evaluated the effectiveness of these approaches for increasing use...
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