A new startup accelerator in Silicon Valley aimed at Latinos has just announced its partnership with Google for Entrepreneurs. Manos Accelerator, a “mentorship-driven accelerator program,” is beginning this partnership in the fall with its first class for Latino entrepreneurs. The hope is to increase the Latino presence in the startup ecosystem by providing  a three-month program which gives the startups access to mentors and an opportunity to show what they can do.… more

The Pew Internet Center released new data regarding Americans and their ownership of smartphones. The full report can be read here. The data shows us a rise in the percentage of Americans who own smartphones over the past three years , as well as how this data relates to consumer gender, age, race, income level, and education. It also gives us insight as to which of the two major phones, iPhone or Android, are preferred by Americans. As of 2013, 56% of Americans who claim to own a cell phone own a smartphone, and almost half of the 91% of the American population which owns a cell phone.… more

The Internet is a miner’s home, a paradise for valuable goods. And in Mexico, the big rush is for data — not coal or silver. Financial information, personal information, and voter rolls are where the money is, according to Frontera NorteSur’s article on Mexican data mining. Mexico City’s daily newspaper, Reforma, reported that a list of 30 million registered voters was sold for under $400 dollars (Mexico only has 40 million people with constant Internet access). The data was purchased online via an email sent to a “Jose Luis,” the owner of the email address had been advertising the availability of these “exclusive” and “important” Mexican information databases.… more

Apparently, there really is an app for everything. Working with OpenWatch Corporation, the ACLU has recently updated a bilingual app called “ACLU-AZ STOP SB 1070”, which allows Arizona citizens to document and report racial profiling by institutions of the law. It’s basically a social justice app to document racial profiling. The app is available on iOS and Android devices through a direct link hosted on the ACLU of Arizona’s website here.  … more

Everybody in the U.S. seems to be wired to the Internet, so it’s often easy for people to forget that the rest of the world isn’t as jacked in to the system as we are. Data taken from Frontera NorteSur ‘s article last month about Internet trends in Mexico, however, illustrates that Mexico’s use of the Internet is growing rapidly. Internet adoption has soared since 2001, from 7.1 million users to 40.9 million as of 2012 according to INEGI (Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics).… more

You don’t usually think of Latinas and technology in the same breath. That’s unfortunate, but fortunately for us Latina magazine put together a list of exactly that! The list starts with one of the founding members of Twitter, Laura I. Gomez, Xeni Jardin who co-founded Boing Boing, as well as women who work at Google, IBM and Cisco. Did the list leave anyone out? Check out the entire list here, and leave your own additions to the list in the comments. [Image Via Search Engine People Blog]… more

Americans are practically required to have some sort of computer skills these days. It’s expected. However, for families with lower income, it can be hard to access the Internet to check emails or hunt for jobs – never mind that they have the high tech skillsets some jobs demand. Latinos often fall into these lower income brackets. While technology keeps getting more and more advanced, it’s easy for people in these lower brackets to fall behind the tech curve and adapt to changing operating systems and programs.… more

Language teachers commonly say that you should listen to music or television shows in the language for the exposure, but the usefulness of that is debatable at best. The speed and inflection of the singer could easily throw somebody off with pronunciation. Television? Forget it — conversational foreign languages are spoken at a pace intended for native or fluent speakers to understand — not the kid in Spanish 101.  And nevermind the boatload of words they’d never hear in class.… more

Dr. Yanira Cruz, Executive Director of National Hispanic Council on Aging For fifty years now, May has been Older Americans Month. It’s a time for celebrating older Americans and for encouraging them to share the wisdom and knowledge accumulated over their lifetimes. In our fast-moving, modern age, we can benefit from the guidance and experience of previous generations.Seniors are not just looking back. They are looking to the future too and, defying all stereotypes, are embracing the high speed broadband tools and technology of the 21st century with enthusiasm and aplomb.… more

Sabio is an organization that aims to help unemployed women and minorities become tech workers through an intensive boot camp and targeted networking with tech professionals. Currently the group is competing in the LA2050 challenge in an effort to seek funding. Co-founder Gregorio Rojas worked 14 years programming in a variety of fields, from e-commerce to social networking, and said that the lack of diversity in tech was one of the main drivers for him to found Sabio. “The technology sector has so much opportunity and potential for those that decided to be a part of it — but we struggle to find people to get involved in building and creating technology,” Rojas said.… more