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Microsoft’s $16bn takeover of AI firm behind Apple’s Siri Apr 13, 2021

Show notes

The artificial intelligence and speech tech firm behind Apple’s Siri has been bought by Microsoft for $16 billion. The purchase of Nuance Communications is the second largest in Microsoft's history. Plus, the Kent coronavirus variant 'spreads more easily, but doesn’t make you more sick,’ Japan plans to release into the sea more than a million tonnes of radioactive water, Cyberpunk 2077 ‘will sell for years to come’ and, why the latest dinosaur discovery has been dubbed ‘Monkeydactyl’.

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Women Tech Charge: interviews with incredible women leading in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths

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Nasa’s helicopter ‘safe and healthy’ as it prepares for Mars flight Apr 12, 2021

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Nasa’s tiny helicopter it hopes will prove powered flight on another world is possible is gearing up for its first attempt to take to the Martian skies. Ingenuity had been scheduled to fly on Monday but a tech issue during a rotor test means the Nasa team is now hoping for a Wednesday launch at the earliest. Plus, more than half of children think gaming should be part of the school curriculum, but parents aren’t so sure, Nintendo warns of a possible stock shortage of Switch consoles this year and, with the help of robotics, transforming a Transformer has finally got easier.

Listen to our other podcasts:

Women Tech Charge: interviews with incredible women leading in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths

The Leader: a daily news podcast helping you make sense of the day’s most important stories

Ask your Smart Speaker to ‘play the news from the Evening Standard'

Visit standard.co.uk/tech for more tech news

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Gagarin ISS anniversary launch: Astronaut describes being “catapulted” into space Apr 09, 2021

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It’s a big day in space history - marking 60 years since Russian Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space, and also 40 years since the launch of Nasa’s first space shuttle. How women are crowdsourcing their own security for protection against street predators with app SafeUp. Egyptologists announce the discovery of a 3,000-year-old royal city thought lost forever beneath the desert. Ocean study will use underwater microphones to monitor whale migration and disintegration of icebergs. Monkey tennis: Elon Musk releases video apparently showing a macaque using his brain implant controlling a video game. Twitter launches Milk Tea Alliance emoji as anti-Beijing protest movement grows.

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Twitch will ban video game streamers for ‘severe misconduct’ that happens offline Apr 08, 2021

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Twitch says it will ban users for offline offences such as child abuse, threats of mass violence or membership of “hate groups” that happen entirely away from the site. Facebook says it does not plan to notify half-billion users affected by data leak, Carbon dioxide pollution hits record high despite pandemic lockdowns, a mystery of the exoplanet born ‘far away from current location’ is zooming through deep space. Rugby player develops a tech wearable to monitor head trauma. How the Ganges river dolphin's rare hearing powers helped it fight extinction, plus scientists reconstruct oldest female DNA from remains more than 45,000 years old.

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More than 1.5 million YouTube videos violated content rules Apr 07, 2021

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The Google-owned platform says some 1.6 million out of every one billion pieces of content uploaded were flagged and deleted for sexual abuse, misinformation and hate speech. A new search tool lets Facebook users check if their data was among half a billion users hacked. The health regulator NICE says opioids should not be prescribed for phantom chronic pain. Google, Facebook and Amazon face a new regulator in a bid to curb tech giants’ dominance. The E3 gaming expo will be streamed to everyone for free this year without paywalls. Nasa’s Ingenuity mini-chopper snaps its first colour photo of Mars, and, forget smartphone map apps - a Bronze Age slab found in cellar is one of world’s oldest 3D maps.

Listen to our other podcasts:

The Leader: a daily news podcast helping you make sense of the day’s most important stories

Women Tech Charge: interviews with incredible women leading in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths

Ask your Smart Speaker to ‘play the news from the Evening Standard'

Visit standard.co.uk/tech for more tech news

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Facebook data hack: Latest on 533 million accounts exposed Apr 06, 2021

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Millions of social media users are being urged to keep an eye out for fishy emails and dodgy feed activity after personal account details, including phone numbers, were splurged over the internet. A five-minute breast cancer jab is being rolled out. NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity survives first night in sub-zero Martian weather. Russia will use space conference to push forward plans for China moon base. Moscow extends throttling of Twitter until mid-May over Navalny protests. Sexual violence is promoted on most used pornographic websites, legal study finds. The $1 parts causing a worldwide PlayStation and Xbox chips shortage. Plus, how chemical weapons gas ended up in a Welsh landfill.

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Want to visit space? An ESA astronaut tells us what it'll take Apr 01, 2021

Show notes

The European Space Agency is looking for a new cohort and applications are now open. Thomas Reiter, ESA astronaut and advisor to the Director General, tells us what it’ll take to make the cut of the agency’s most diverse team yet. Plus, new evidence of meteor particles reaching Antarctica 430,000 years ago, a living robot’s been created out of frog skin cells, and coins unearthed in Rhode Island may help solve one of the planet's oldest cold cases.

Listen to our other podcasts:

Women Tech Charge: interviews with incredible women leading in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths

The Leader: a daily news podcast helping you make sense of the day’s most important stories

Ask your Smart Speaker to ‘play the news from the Evening Standard'

Visit standard.co.uk/tech for more tech news

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘World’s biggest’ video game cheating gang raided by police Mar 31, 2021

Show notes

Police in China and the tech giant Tencent say they have busted $10-a-day cheating hacks ring allegedly netting $76 million for codes to games including Call of Duty and Fortnite. No intergalactic experience required: first all-civilian crew ready to buckle-up for SpaceX flight. Another super-rocket fail for Elon Musk as exploding prototype scatters debris over miles in Texas.

Rise of ‘extortionware’ as hackers seek to embarrass victims for cash. DNA can be collected from air so could help enforce social distancing, scientists discover. Fears child had finger on nuclear button as gibberish tweet by US Strategic Command sparks panic. A digital Gormley in your living room...sculpture park recreated virtually in Minecraft for those unable to visit.

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Close encounter with Earth could cause ‘asteroid quakes’ on Apophis Mar 30, 2021

Show notes

Earth’s been given the all-clear for the next century, with NASA dismissing the threat from a particularly menacing asteroid. But we’ll still have a close encounter from Apophis in 2029 and Marina Brozovic from Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory tells us it's the space rock that’ll be more likely to experience a shudder as it passes by Earth. Plus, light coming from an explosion three billion years ago has illuminated a ‘goldilocks’ black hole, long-term weightlessness causes the heart to shrink and, Donald Trump’s back - on his own terms.

Listen to our other podcasts:

Women Tech Charge: interviews with incredible women leading in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths

The Leader: a daily news podcast helping you make sense of the day’s most important stories

Ask your Smart Speaker to ‘play the news from the Evening Standard'

Visit standard.co.uk/tech for more tech news

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

WHO report: ‘Extremely unlikely’ Covid-19 came from Wuhan lab leak Mar 29, 2021

Show notes

The World Health Organisation says its ‘extremely unlikely’ Covid-19 came from a lab leak in Wuhan, China. The Associated Press reveals details of a leaked report from a WHO team who visited the city to study the origins of the virus. Plus, a Suez Canal video game aims to capture the ‘gargantuan’ task of freeing the boat, a mass experiment shows how music festivals post-Covid can go ahead, and Elon Musk hints at another Starship launch.

Listen to our other podcasts:

Women Tech Charge: interviews with incredible women leading in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths

The Leader: a daily news podcast helping you make sense of the day’s most important stories

Ask your Smart Speaker to ‘play the news from the Evening Standard'

Visit standard.co.uk/tech for more tech news

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.