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Last month, the FBI issued a warning urging people to be cautious when opening emails and texts from unknown senders who promise information on getting a vaccine. So did the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a division of the US Treasury Department. Police in Florida, the UK and other jurisdictions say they're seeing the scams pop up, too. In the English county of Derbyshire, law enforcement officials say scammers sent out texts with links to a site that painstakingly imitated the look of UK's National Health Service. The goal was to steal personal and financial information, authorities said. … [Read more...] about Phishing scams use the promise of COVID-19 vaccines to trick you

Like Google's driverless cars, Project Loon is very much an experiment that's in "very early days." Google says that it has already built the system, however, carrying balloon at 60,000 feet, providing internet speeds "similar to today's 3G networks or faster." Balloons drift, of course, so Google says it's using "complex algorithms and lots of computing power" to ensure that the balloons can move where they're needed using a combination of wind and solar power — potentially floating around the entire globe at stratospheric heights. Google says that the balloons communicate with "specialized antennas," that only work with Project Loon — so it's not using traditional cellular or Wi-Fi tech. On the ground, internet providers can take the signal and move it to the last mile to users. … [Read more...] about Google unveils ‘Project Loon,’ an experiment to bring balloon-powered internet to ‘the entire world’

"Fixed-wing drones are more reliable when it comes to flying longer distance due to their low consumption of battery power," says Chris Sanz, CEO of Skycatch. A big balloon with hot air is much riskier to keep in the air and moves more slowly. On the other hand, balloons are far safer and more commonplace. "One danger I can think of is one of these drones falling into a populated area," says Sanz. At 165 feet wide and weighing in at 350 pounds, a Solara could do a lot of damage if it fell out of the sky. … [Read more...] about Google’s balloons versus Facebook’s drones: the dogfight to send internet from the sky

Project Loon's balloons appear to have made big advances all around. Even the fact that they're now staying in the air for 75 days or so is impressive, according to Wired. Traditionally, a similar balloon might last just three weeks. Though Loon's goal is to bring internet to areas of the world that still aren't wired up, Google is already reported to have started eyeing ways to use Loon for profit. The balloons could fill in coverage gaps even in the US, or — because they're using LTE — they could even extend the roaming ranges of big carriers. … [Read more...] about Google wants to start beaming internet from its high-altitude balloons next year

Loon isn’t the only moonshot that Alphabet has shut down. It wound down Makani, which aimed to use wind turbines attached to kites to create renewable electricity, last year. And Project Foghorn, which researched how to create clean fuel from seawater, ended its work in 2016. … [Read more...] about Alphabet is shutting down Loon, its internet balloon company