Verily is stepping up its debugging game by focusing on eliminating a real, dangerous bug: the mosquito.
At the end of 2014, Google started exploring what it could do about problems caused by mosquitos. At the same time, Verily (initially Google Life Sciences) was founded to solve the problems of preventing disease on a global scale, according to a Verily blog post.
Verily is now launching the Debug Project, combining data analysis, sensors, lab automation technology, and scientific expertise to tackle issues around the reproduction and sex sorting of mosquitoes. This will enable more targeted releases to target the mosquitos that carry diseases.
Additionally, Verily is focusing on a particular mosquito called Aedes aegypti, which is the primary carrier of the Zika virus, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever. Right now, Verily added, there are no good ways to control this mosquito.
While the Debug Project is in early development, it has built a team of mosquito biologists, software engineers, and automation experts who want to solve the problem of mosquito-borne diseases.
Nexedi launches lawsuit against Apple
Nexedi, an open-source ERP company, wants to improve HTML5 support on the iOS platform. To achieve this, the company is launching a lawsuit against Apple so the developers of browsers with better HTML5 support than Apple’s WebKit can publish their apps on the Apple App Store.
The main reason for the lawsuit is because Nexedi wants to get Apple to support the latest web and HTML5 standards on its iOS platform. Nexedi said that anyone running HTML5test on an iPhone will find the current iOS support of HTML5 web technologies is lagging behind.
Right now, with an iPhone, users are not able to run OfficeJS HTML5 spreadsheets in offline mode, participate in a Hubl.in HTML5 online conference, and watch videos in webm format. According to Nexedi, these are all possible on other platforms.
With French Civil Law, Nexedi said it is more difficult in France than in the U.S. to get a ruling that contradicts the wording of the law, so the company hopes this lawsuit will lead to a better situation for HTML5 support on iOS.
Verizon wants a discount from Yahoo
After recent reports of Yahoo’s breach and supposed spying on users, Verizon is pushing for a US$1 billion discount off its pending $4.8 billion agreement to buy Yahoo, according to sources that spoke with the New York Post.
Verizon is seeking a discount because it feels Yahoo’s value has been diminished with all of the recent bad news, especially revelations earlier this week that Yahoo has been ordered by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to scan e-mails for terrorist signatures.
Verizon was planning on coupling Yahoo with its AOL unit to scale up the organizations and compete with Facebook and Google. This spate of bad news might make it difficult for Yahoo to “roll back the price,” wrote reporter Claire Atkinson in the Post.
Yahoo’s next board meeting is in two weeks, and in the meantime both parties are discussing the discount. However, Yahoo is telling Verizon that “a deal is a deal,” and they will not change terms, wrote Atkinson.
