18 Feb 2017

Tech news: Facebook TV and India's space race

From This Way Up, 12:25 pm on 18 February 2017

In this week's tech news, Facebook gets into the TV business, and India launches 104 satellites in a single mission. It's a new world record and announces the country as a serious player in the commercial space race.

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Photo: (Public Domain from maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com)

This week Facebook announces plans to launch a TV app later this year. This would allow its 1.86 billion monthly active users to watch more video without leaving the Facebook ecosystem. But where are all the ads going to go?!

Also Microsoft proposes a 'digital Geneva Convention' to protect internet users from having their privacy compromised in the crossfire of state-sponsored cyber attacks. But in the wake of the Sony Pictures hacking attack in November 2014, could there be an element of self interest at play?

Finally India has launched 104 satellites in a single mission. It's a new world record and promises to radically reduce the cost of launching satellites into space, as well as announcing India as a major player in the commercial race into space.