Weekly Roundup 2/29/16

Good morning, readers! Before we begin with the Weekly Roundup, we would like to begin by congratulating the winner of Best Actor in film from the 2016 Oscars….The Bear in the Revenant! ….Just kidding. Congratulations Leonardo DiCaprio! Leo received a standing ovation last night for receiving his first Oscar. During his speech, he also took the opportunity to emphasize the importance of issues like energy consumption  and climate change,  stating,  “we have the capacity to go 100 percent renewable using existing technologies, we just have to have the political will. Our very existence is at stake.”

Today is also the conference on the Principles for Digital Development in Washington, DC. This conference will be tackling several challenges in tech for international development. Some of these challenges include sector-specific silos, counter incentives to implementation, short funding timelines, challenges to adaptive programming, and biases toward international partners. Stay tuned for more updates following the conference!

Tech News:

• You can now type into Google Docs by speaking

• Vacationing in Virtual Reality

• Building a computer made of brains

• “Eternal” Data Storage?

• Facebook now has reaction buttons

Tech4Dem:

• Principles for Digital Development Conference

• Who has access in 2016?

• How maps helped fight Ebola.

• Drones can be an important technology for International Development

Mobile News:

• 10 of the coolest things from the 2016 Mobile Tech Conference

• Pre-Ordering for the Samsung Galaxy S7 has begun!

• Microsoft’s New Hub Keyboard offers awesome shortcuts

• Update on Apple’s 4-inch iPhone SE and iPad Pro