The Tribune

• YOUTUBE is testing a messaging feature in its smartphone app so people can share and discuss videos without resorting to other ways to connect with their friends and family.

The messaging option initially is only being offered to a small group of people with YouTube’s app installed on an iPhone or device running on Google’s Android software. If all goes well, messaging will be included in a future app update available to everyone with an iPhone or an Android phone.

YouTube is examining whether the messaging feature will encourage its audience to spend even more time inside its popular video app. Currently, people typically copy links to YouTube and paste them into text messages or other messaging apps such as Snapchat, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

• INVESTIGATORS in the United States can now probe Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites as a part of background checks for security clearances, something that lawmakers says is a classic case of the government playing catch-up with technology.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper signed a policy directive last week that allows investigators to collect publicly available social media information pertaining to the person whose background is being checked. Unless there is a national security concern or the need to report a crime, any information pertaining to people who appear in the subject’s social media will not be investigated or pursued, the directive says.

• A SOLAR-powered airplane has landed in Oklahoma after taking off from Arizona on the latest leg of its around-the-world journey.

The Swiss-made Solar Impulse 2 took off from Phoenix Goodyear Airport and landed without incident at Tulsa International Airport 18 and a quarter hours later. After Oklahoma, the plane is expected to make at least one more stop in the United States before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Europe or northern Africa. The globe-circling voyage began in March 2015 from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and made stops in Oman, Myanmar, China and Japan.

• A NEW study has shown that eighth-grade girls in the United States are better than boys at thinking through problems and using technology to solve them.

The findings released yesterday come from a first-of-its-kind assessment of technology and engineering literacy by The Nation’s Report Card.

The 2014 assessment had 21,500 students in 840 schools tackle real-life challenges on computers, such as designing a safe bicycle lane and improving a pet iguana’s habitat. The report found that 45 per cent of girls and 42 per cent of boys scored at or above proficient at understanding and using technology to develop solutions.

• ANTHONY Levandowski, a robot-loving engineer who helped steer Google’s self-driving technology, is convinced autonomous trucks hauling cargo will be the next big thing on the road to a safer transportation system.

A co-founder of Otto, Levandowski is aiming to equip trucks with software, sensors, lasers and cameras so they eventually will be able to navigate the more than 220,000 miles of US highways on their own, while a human driver sleeps in the back of the cab or handles other tasks.