Technology

Technology giant Microsoft has done a U-turn on its underhanded policy that was forcing Windows users to unknowingly upgrade to version 10. A dodgy pop-up would periodically appear encouraging users to upgrade to the latest Windows 10. Users were angry that closing the annoying pop-up automatically scheduled an upgrade of their operating system without their consent. The BBC reports: Based on “customer feedback”, Microsoft said it would add another notification that provided customers with “an additional opportunity for cancelling the upgrade”.

Less than two weeks after Apple unveiledan unexpected $1 billion investment in China's Didi Chuxing, an amount some have speculated may be the cost of continuing "business as usual" for Apple's service offerings in China, moments ago Toyota unveiled that it would inject an undisclosed amount of funds in one of the most valuable private "Decacorns" in the US, Uber.

Police officers may be able to remotely control self-driving cars in the future, as part of crime fighting efforts being considered by the U.S. government.  Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are fast becoming a reality and prominent scientists such as Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and Bill Gates all signed a letter urging the U.S. government to create new laws governing and restricting their use in the future. Naturalnews.com reports: In addition, authentication and encryption standards would be needed to restrict which people would be allowed to override the system.

Scientists from Harvard University say they have found evidence that an ancient Earth exists within our planet.  According to a team of researchers, a previously unexplained isotopic ratio from within the Earth may be leftover material from an ancient Earth 4.5 billion years ago. The ancient Earth collided with a huge celestial body that eventually led to the creation of Earth’s moon, the scientists say. Ancient-code.com reports: The creation of Earth’s Moon and its origin are among some of the greatest scientific mysteries of science.

Scientists have confirmed that in 2017 a mysterious ‘alien probe’ object will pass by the Earth, leaving them baffled as to its origin.  Scientists studying the approaching object say its continued speed does not make sense due to the fact that it continues to move towards us at a varying speed, meaning that it accelerates and decelerates gradually. The mysterious object was originally discovered in November 1991 by astronomer James Scotti. Ewao.com reports: The object referred to as 1991VN is a mere 10 meters in diameter and has a heliocentric orbit spin past the edge of the Milky Way.