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A ROUND-UP OF THE LATEST NEWS IN THE DIGITAL WORLD
FACEBOOK’S DRONE PLANS COME BACK DOWN TO EARTH
FACEBOOK has long-harboured ambitions to expand its global connected networks beyond those that currently have good internet coverage.
Let’s face it, if the social network is to get bigger, it’s going to have to find more people – anyone who can use the service and wants to probably already does.
That’s why it set up Project Aquila a couple of years ago – a long-term scheme with the goal of bringing internet access to remote corners of civilisation.
It bought a small company in Somerset, of all places, which was pioneering work in building drones able to fly for months on end.
Facebook’s plan was to build a solar-powered drone that could remain airborne for up to three months at a time, and thus widen its global audience by beaming wifi access to earth without the need to even be on the ground.
Alas, the Somerset based company, which had been folded into Facebook itself, has ceased operating and all its people have left. The drone plan is no more. Do not fear, though, Facebook still plans on breaking into those markets if it can – it says other people are building better solutions, so Project Aquila will live on, utilising those options instead.
GOOGLE HOME GOES QUIET
REPORTS emerged this week about a long downtime for Google’s Home smart-speakers, with some unavailable to users for up to 12 hours.
Google Home is a range of smart-speakers that allow you to interact with the Google Assistant in your home, accessing information controlling home devices conveniently, and also playing media via a built-in speaker.
The glitch also affected the Google Chromecast media streamer, a device you plug into your TV to stream video content from your phone to your TV.
Google was vague about the reasons, and it was more than 12 hours before it sent out a message via Twitter that a fix was available. The update could be applied to Home and Chromecast by rebooting or waiting for an automatic update which Google said would be applied within six hours. And that was that, no further explanation was given.