Beyond Infinity

A large watery lake is believed to be hidden beneath the Martian South pole, while studies of the driest places on Earth, like Atacama in Chile, suggest that there might still be dormant microbes near the surface of Mars.

Our weekly news round-up: The world's first trillion dollar companies; Facebook and Twitter's share prices crash on revenue results; Blood moon - the century's longest total lunar eclipse; More delays to America regaining its ability to launch humans into space; Most common ways to die while taking selfies; Negative consequences of facial recognition technology; Your electronic medical records could be worth $1000 each to hackers.

Despite clear benefits to typing speed, there are privacy considerations when using popular apps like SwiftKey, Gboard and Swype. Your private information like phone numbers, email addresses, device ID, contacts info and call records may be shared with service providers.

Oppy remains silent at Meridiani Planum as a global dust storm envelops Mars, drastically reducing energy to the rover's solar panels. While ground controllers keep nervous vigil listening for a signal from the 15 year old veteran explorer, a flotilla of orbiting spacecraft are beaming back a bonanza of scientific info about this major Martian weather event.

What to keep an eye out for in the next few months if you're considering a smart phone upgrade. We look at what's brewing from Apple, Samsung, Google and the specialised premium Oppo Find X and Red Hydrogen One models.

Our weekly news round-up: Another data scandal hits Facebook; Big update for Apple HomePod; San Fransisco plans to issue electric scooter permits in August and begin year-long trials; Google fined US$5 billion over Android mobile system; Nvidia Shield media centre now on sale; Over-heating reported on top-of-the-line Macbook Pro with i9 CPU.

Google engineers and third-party app developers are given permission to read the emails of the 1.2 billion Gmail users around the world. In some cases this is done to train algorithms to handle the data contained in emails, but it does highlight the vulnerabilities of Google's permission system. Companies like Microsoft, Return Path and Edison Software have also been given access to Gmail user info and the problem applies to other online email services.

With almost 6 million Australians already signed on, 13,000 health professionals connected and 6.5 million clinical documents uploaded so far, the Federal Government's new ehealth system aims to improve health outcomes by better sharing of information between service providers. But there are real concerns over sensitive data protection and it is possible to completely opt out by October 15, 2018.

After a lead diver in the Thai cave rescue Vern Unsworth told Elon to "stick his submarine where it hurts" and described it as a PR stunt, Musk branded him a "pedo guy" on Twitter, where the tech billionaire has 22 million followers. He now faces the prospect of being sued for this so far unjustified slur. In addition, his green credentials have been called into question after it was revealed he donated thousands to climate change denier Trump's presidential campaign in 2016.

Many major Australian companies have had job applicants' data compromised by the hacking of Melbourne-based online recruitment services company PageUp. While the true scope of damage is unknown, some might well ask whether it's such a good idea to outsource their hiring needs.

Though incredibly promising for eradicating nasty disease, there remain troubling questions about unintended consequences. Now the US military is getting in on the act, looking at how to defend against and take advantage of gene drives - genetic engineering technology that can propagate inheritable genes through a population.

In the final part of our interview with professional apiarists Simon Mulvany and Ben Moore, we discuss what's so important about bees and how attitudes are changing both in Australia and abroad to the vital need for healthy bee populations. Plus, Simon updates us on his protracted legal dispute with Capilano Honey, saying "there's a very good chance we'll now be able to settle the case".

Our weekly news round-up: New Facebook patent describes how a TV ad could contain a hidden audio trigger for your smart phone's mic; Raya - the world's most exclusive social network; NASA's NExSS aims to refine how biosignatures are used to assess the chance of life beyond Earth; Saturn's moon Enceladus is releasing plumes of far more complex organic molecules than we thought; Drones using AI to spot violent outbreaks in crowds; China builds the world's first laser assault rifle to vapourise targets within a 1 km range; Amazon Prime is well priced downunder; Much anticipated NVIDIA Shield gaming terminal on sale in Oz.

Unnecessary bill complexity is a real (and quite deliberate) issue for Australian retail energy consumers. We offer suggestions on how to read your bill and secure a discount from your gas or electricity provider. And it's worth looking at the plethora of price comparison websites including: energywatch.com.au and compare.energy.vic.gov.au

The co-inventor of the Flow Hive and founder of Beeinventive describes the journey to get 'honey on tap', plus his super effective use of social media and the new deluxe model, the Flow Hive 2. Cedar explains how the original Flow Hive developed over a 10 year period, culminating in a record-setting Indigogo crowd-funding campaign in 2015. Now with a string of awards to his company's name and over a billion views of its web content, he says "the reason we keep going is because we want to have a positive impact in the world. So business for a positive purpose is cred to our company".

Simon Mulvany of Save The Bees Australia has single-handedly run a successful media campaign centered around Facebook and Instagram. Here he offers his insights into how to take full advantage of the power of social media to build a community and raise awareness of a business or social issue.

Our weekly news round-up: Mars VR on Kickstarter to fund new open source VR platform for the public and eventual settlers to visualise Mars landing site; How binge drinking leads to insomnia; New Firefox desktop browser is strong response to crisis of confidence with internet's privacy and security; Tesla ramps up Model 3 production, but still struggling to hit 5000 a week goal; NZ will introduce a universal non-cash payment method for all public transport.

Simon and Ben discuss different approaches to bee keeping in different parts of the world. Despite strong apiarist traditions in Europe, efforts are being made to breed bees that are better at cleaning each other, using genetics. They outline the hot issues facing their industry and explain some of the less well known uses for bee products, including beard conditioner and women's skin treatments.

As bitcoin steadily loses value from its stratospheric heights of late 2017, other cryptos have gained in value and market prominance. John offers an introduction to the differences between bitcoin and ethereum.

Last heard from on June 10th, NASA's venerable Opportunity rover has entered low power mode as the sky darkens dramatically, reducing solar power at Meridiani Planum to dangerous and unprecedented low levels. Meanwhile, an international flotilla of orbiters takes full advantage to harvest precious information about how dust storms form and behave.