IntellectBeat

Online taxi-hailing service Uber will give Saudi Arabian women lifts to polling stations for free on Saturday to help boost female participation at the first elections in the deeply conservative Islamic kingdom open to female voters. Saudi Arabian women are both running for election and voting for the first time in local elections in what is viewed as a pigeon step towards gender equality in the autocratic nation where women are still legally barred from driving. The free service to take women to vote is a joint effort between US-based tech company Uber and Al-Nahda Philanthropic Society for Women, a Saudi women's empowerment group. Uber has proved popular with women in the wealthy desert state to get around amid limited public transportation and general unease about the safety of taxis, said Al-Nahda's Chief Executive Rasha Alturki. "We needed to play a role because we found this really empowering to women," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "With reg...

After Zuckerberg, Google's Sundar Pichai Comes Out in Support of Muslims After Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has come out in support of Muslims, saying that we must support Muslim and other minority communities in the US and around the world. Responding to a recent wave of prejudice against Muslims - especially in the wake of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump asking for a ban on Muslims entering the US - the Indian-born top Google executive reiterated his own experience and said let us not let fear defeat our values. "I came to the US from India 22 years ago. I was fortunate enough to gain entry to a university here, and time after time, I saw that hard work opened other doors. I have built a career and a family and a life here. And I've felt as much a part of this country, as I felt growing up in India," he posted on the social message platform Medium on Saturday. "My experience is obviously not unique. It's been ...

2016 might be the year that virtual reality finally takes hold in the tech world. Sony, Microsoft and Oculus VR are all planning to launch their own hardware before the end of next year, with tons of developers already hard at work on games, apps and other software to ensure that VR hits the ground running. But if you don’t want to wait until next year to see what VR has to offer, you can take a sneak peek at the innovations today without putting a strain on your wallet. The first and most obvious way is to acquire a Google Cardboard viewer, which should run you about $20 (if you can’t find one available for free somewhere). As the name implies, the viewer isn’t an especially advanced piece of hardware, but it’s all you need to try out a whole ecosystem of VR apps with your smartphone. If cardboard isn’t your preferred VR viewer material, you can spend a few extra dollars and pick up the Mattel View-Master for $25 instead. Cardboard works fine, but if y...