Army Deploying $2.8M Mobile 3D Printing Labs
Feb 28
For the first time, the Army is deploying special scientists and self-contained, mobile laboratories — 3D Printing Labs — to the warzone capable of designing and producing problem-solving inventions for soldiers operating in remote outposts in Afghanistan…
How Technology Threatens Intimacy
Feb 05
Many of us may be turning away from close relationships. Studies show that we’re spending increasing amounts of time playing video games and surfing the web instead of hanging out with friends and neighbors, so much so that some researchers have even suggested that technological isolation is at least one contributing factor to the decline in marriage and committed long-term relationships. All of which means that our capacity to hide in addictive technologies could be turning more and more of us into intimacy-phobes…
iDoctor: Could A Smartphone Be The Future Of Medicine?
Feb 04
One of the world’s top physicians, Dr. Eric Topol, has a prescription that could improve your family’s health and make medical care cheaper. The cardiologist claims that the key is the smartphone. Topol has become the foremost expert in the exploding field of wireless medicine. Dr. Nancy Snyderman reports…
WakaWaka Power
Jan 14
WakaWaka Power is a super efficient personal solar power station that charges your iPhone and any other smartphone or shines 40 hours of excellent reading light, all on just one day of solar charge. A lifesaver for those without electricity. For every WakaWaka Power sold during this pre-sale campaign the creators of WakaWaka will give two WakaWaka Lights (lights only) to Haiti, where 370,000 people still live in makeshift shelters without electricity…
‘One Laptop Per Child’ Unleashes The Genius In African Children
Nov 07
One Laptop per Child (OLPC) performed a bold experiment. They dropped off closed and taped boxes with Motorola Xoom tablets and without any instruction in two remote Ethiopian villages. The tablets were preloaded with alphabet-training games, e-books, movies, cartoons, paintings, and other programs. About 20 first-grade-aged children each were given a tablet in Wonchi and Wolonchete respectively — two isolated rural villages without a person that can read or write. Within four minutes after the tablets were dropped off, one of the children figured out how to turn on and use the tablet. Within five days, they were using about 47 apps per child, per day. Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs in the village, and within five months, they had hacked Android…
Google’s ZeitgeistMinds
Oct 24
Google’s Zeitgeist events are a series of intimate gatherings of top global thinkers and leaders. ZeitgeistMinds is a collection of inspiring videos from these events. Dive in to explore the ideas that affect our social, economic, political and cultural surroundings. Hear perspectives from industry pioneers and statespeople, renowned writers and bloggers, scientists and artists, activists and musicians. Learn from progressive minds, and discuss topics that influence the world around us…
Rent-to-Own Laptops Secretly Photographed Users
Sep 27
Seven rent-to-own companies and a software maker are settling charges with the Federal Trade Commission that rental computers illegally used spyware that took “pictures of children, individuals not fully clothed, and couples engaged in sexual activities.”…
LIFX: The Light Bulb Reinvented
Sep 23
LIFX is the smartest light bulb ever created. It’s a wifi-enabled, energy efficient, multi-colored bulb that you control with your iPhone or Android. LIFX gives you unprecedented control of your lights, reduces your energy costs, lasts up to 25 years and delivers an amazing range of experiences…
The Lighter Side: ‘iPhone 5: The Tallest iPhone Ever’
Sep 20
iPhone 5: The Tallest iPhone Ever…
Sweden Most Effective At Using Internet (U.S. Number 2; Britain Number 3)
Sep 16
Sweden is the most effective at using the Internet to improve people’s lives, ahead of the United States and Britain, according to a global survey launched by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web…
Google Glass Prepares To Change The World
Sep 16
David Pogue writes: “New gadgets — I mean whole new gadget categories — don’t come along very often. The iPhone was one recent example. You could argue that the iPad was another. But if there’s anything at all as different and bold on the horizon, surely it’s Google Glass…”
Self-Driving Cars (Updated)
Sep 01
90 percent of traffic accidents are caused by human error, meaning that if humans are taken out of the process, there’s a strong probably that accident rates will plummet. Bay Area tech giant Google has been leading the way in self-driving cars. The team behind the project asserts that the technology is largely already there and their self-driving cars are ready to hit the road right now…
Russian Billionaire Plans Immortality Research Center
Aug 30
Dmitry Itskov, a Russian billionaire and media mogul, is betting that money can buy eternal life. Itskov’s 2045 Initiative, which is trying to make immortality a reality, launched its own political party in Russia last week: Evolution 2045. Though Evolution 2045 is based in Russia, it aims to create “a new stage of human civilization” throughout the world…
Could 3-D Printing Be the Biggest Invention Since the Internet?
Aug 30
“Personally, I believe it’s the next big thing, says Abe Reichental, president and CEO of 3D Systems, one of biggest companies that make 3D printing machines. “I think it could be as big as the steam engine was in its day, as big as the computer was in its day, as big as the Internet was in its day. And I believe this is the next disruptive technology that’s going to change everything. It’s going to change how we learn, it’s going to change how we create, and it’s going to change how we manufacture,” he says…
Favorite TED Videos (Updated)
Aug 21
A collection of our favorite TED videos…
The Epic Hacking of Mat Honan (& How To Protect Yourself)
Aug 07
Mat Honan writes: “In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed. First my Google account was taken over, then deleted. Next my Twitter account was compromised, and used as a platform to broadcast racist and homophobic messages. And worst of all, my AppleID account was broken into, and my hackers used it to remotely erase all of the data on my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook…”
Short Film: ‘Sight’
Aug 02
A short futuristic film by Eran May-raz and Daniel Lazo…
Documentary: ‘Mister Rogers & Me’ (Updated)
Jul 26
An MTV producer’s life is transformed when he meets the recently retired host of ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,’ Fred Rogers. Friendship with the PBS icon sets the young producer on a hero’s quest to find depth and simplicity amidst a shallow and complex world through conversations with Susan Stamberg (NPR), Tim Russert (‘Meet The Press’), Marc Brown (‘Arthur’) and more…
Is The Internet Driving Us Mad?
Jul 13
The current incarnation of the Internet — portable, social, accelerated, and all-pervasive — may be making us not just dumber or lonelier but more depressed and anxious, prone to obsessive-compulsive and attention-deficit disorders, even outright psychotic. Our digitized minds can scan like those of drug addicts, and normal people are breaking down in sad and seemingly new ways…
India Seeks To Identify All 1.2 Billion Of Its Citizens Using Biometric Technology
Jul 12
In India, a massive experiment is underway to take a technology that was once a hallmark of science fiction and apply it to solving the nation’s greatest challenges. A small group of entrepreneurs within the government have set out to identify to every one of their 1.2 billion residents by using biometric technologies, such as iris scans and fingerprints…
The Future Of Military Surveillance: Swarms Of Cyborg Insect Drones
Jun 20
The kinds of drones making the headlines daily are the heavily armed CIA and U.S. Army vehicles which routinely strike targets in Pakistan — killing terrorists and innocents alike. But the real high-tech story of surveillance drones is going on at a much smaller level, as tiny remote controlled vehicles based on insects are already likely being deployed. Over recent years a range of miniature drones, or micro air vehicles (MAVs), based on the same physics used by flying insects, have been presented to the public…
How Apple & Google Are Like Sparta & Athens
Jun 13
The reason is that Google and Apple are the Athens and Sparta of the tech industry. It’s in the DNA of both companies to rule the tech world. They will battle each other for supremacy and, in the process, greatly diminish each other’s power and reach. United, they could accomplish anything. But they will not be united. They will become increasingly divided. It’s a Greek tragedy unfolding before our very eyes…
Terence McKenna’s Theory Of Everything
Jun 11
All about Terence McKenna, Timewave Zero Theory, and McKenna’s belief that all of human history and cultural and scientific evolution were moving inexorably towards a “strange attractor” at the end of time (which could occur when the Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012)…
‘Remee’ – New Lucid Dreaming Mask
May 21
In a twist straight out of the movie Inception, a duo of developers from Brooklyn, New York, have built a sleeping mask designed to allow people to have lucid dreams that they can control. The goal of the product is to allow people to have the dreams of their choice, from driving a race car to flying to having lunch with Abraham Lincoln…
GPS For The Soul: A Killer App For Better Living
Apr 16
Arianna Huffington writes: “I’m delighted to announce that HuffPost, along with a great team of partners, is at work on an app we call “GPS for the Soul,” projected to launch in June. The philosophy behind it is based on two truths about human beings. First, that we all have within us a centered place of wisdom, harmony, and balance. This truth is embraced by a vast range of the world’s religions (“The Kingdom of Heaven is within”) and philosophies. And whether or not we believe in the existence of the soul, we’ve all experienced times in which we’re fully connected with ourselves. “Give me a place to stand and I will move the world,” said the Greek mathematician Archimedes. It’s a great way of saying that when we come from that centered place within ourselves, nothing is impossible. The second truth is that we’re all going to veer away from that place, again and again and again. That’s the nature of life. In fact, we may be off-course more often than we are on-course. So what we need is a great course-correcting mechanism — a GPS for the Soul — because otherwise the consequences can be serious, in terms of our health, our relationships, our jobs, and even our country…”
New Smartwatch Causes Funding Frenzy On KickStarter
Apr 12
Remember when the Pebble, the watch that talks to your iPhone or Android device via an array of open-source apps, was asking for a mere $100,000 on crowdfunding site Kickstarter? The Pebble’s funding hit $500,000 Wednesday evening. It reached $1 million in investment, just 28 hours after the Kickstarter launched…
Ray Kurzweil Defends His 2009 Predictions
Mar 23
The title of Alex Knapp’s blog post is “Ray Kurzweil’s Predictions for 2009 Were Mostly Inaccurate” is itself blatantly inaccurate. I made 147 predictions for 2009 in my book The Age of Spiritual Machines (ASM) which I wrote in the mid to late 1990s and which was published at the end of 1998. You can read a detailed and carefully researched 148 page report on all of these predictions (in fact on all of the predictions I’ve made over the past quarter century in a number of different books and publications) here…
Japanese Researchers Invent Speech-Jamming Gun
Mar 03
Japanese researchers have invented a speech-jamming gadget that painlessly forces people into silence…
Corning: ‘A Day Made Of Glass’ – 1 & 2
Feb 04
A look at Corning’s vision for the future with specialty glass at the heart of it. This post includes Corning’s first viral video, which has been viewed by over 17 million people, and the followup video which was posted yesterday…
Apple’s iPad To Kill The Textbook
Jan 19
Apple announced it would update its iBooks platform to include textbook capabilities. It also added a new platform called iBooks Author, which lets anyone easily create and publish their own e-books. Apple’s late co-founder and chairman Steve Jobs had hoped to bring relief to the higher education masses in the late 80s and early 90s, but 20 years later, Jobs’s legacy lives on in Apple, which hopes to make yet another dent in the education industry…
The Dark Side Of iPhones & iPads
Jan 17
Almost all of the major electronics manufacturers make their stuff in China. One difference with Apple, though, is the magnitude of the company’s profit margin and profits. Apple could afford to pay its manufacturers more or hold them to higher standards and still be extremely competitive and profitable…
Amazing ‘Skin Gun’ Heals Burns
Jan 15
Amazing ‘Skin Cell Gun’ Heals Burns…
Samsung Smart Window
Jan 13
Soon, we shall be living in the world of Minority Report, and this “Smart Window” technology Samsung has at CES 2012 is going to help us get there. Ashley Esqueda checks out what’s happening over at the Samsung booth and gives a little demo of the window…
Daria Musk: Google+’s Secret Weapon Against Twitter & Facebook (Updated)
Jan 12
This summer I was lugging my guitar amp through the rain, getting ready to play a dive bar in upstate NY, and my phone started buzzing… It was my big brother who lives out in California, he said, “Hey, do you need an invitation to Google+? Maybe you could be one of the first musicians on there.” I was like, “What’s Google+!? I gotta make sound-check!” Click. The next day I signed up to Google+ and I saw this feature called the Hangout — A video-chat where you can see and interact with up to 10 people at once. And I thought, maybe I could use this to play a concert without having to lug my amps through the rain! 3 days later, on July 16th, I stood in my little make-shift studio in the woods of Connecticut and clicked start a Hangout at 8pm. And at 8:01pm there was no one there. But just then a face popped in, and another and another and they were from England and Sweden and India and Texas and The Dominican Republic and Portugal… And they said, “So are you going to play?” That night I saw the sunrise in Norway through a guy named Martin’s screen. I saw little girls in Australia dancing to my songs with the Sunday morning light streaming into my studio when it was still Saturday night here. I got to tour the world in a night, and my heart, life and career were changed forever, in an instant…
A Chat With Apple’s Siri
Dec 21
It isn’t easy to have a lengthy conversation with Siri that is entirely unproductive, but we rose to the occasion. Although still in beta, Siri has already proven to be a very able assistant. She’s so capable, in fact, that it’s common for those who try her to quickly turn from obvious commands to pointless questions in an effort to stump her, only to find that she has a lot more to say than many would have guessed (as evidenced by the current crop of blogs that catalogue Siri’s most comical comebacks). To get a good sense of the “personal” side of this personal assistant, Mac|Life editor-in-chief Chris Slate sat down with Siri for an enlightening one-on-one interview. Every question and answer that follows is written exactly as it was spoken, without so much as an “um” having been altered…
Learning High-Performance Tasks With Little Or No Conscious Effort
Dec 13
New research published today in the journal Science suggests it may be possible to use brain technology to learn to play a piano, reduce mental stress or hit a curve ball with little or no conscious effort. It’s the kind of thing seen in Hollywood’s “Matrix” franchise…
Synchronicity Google Style: Dalai Lama & Desmond Tutu Hangout On Google+
Dec 12
Small is truly beautiful. A single email winged its way from the Dalai Lama’s office to my Google colleague Shailesh in India and then on to Vic in the U.S. and Marvin in Korea before landing finally in my inbox. It expressed an interest that the Office of the Dalai Lama had in the product I am working on — Google+ — and it started me noodling some ideas on a piece of paper. One of them was to put together The Dalai Lama with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in a Google+ Hangout and allow thousands of people to view it live on the Internet. I told a few colleagues about this random and crazy idea… and the rest is history…
Lytro: Breakthrough Camera Captures Entire Light Field
Dec 12
SmartPlanet meets Ren Ng, founder of Silicon Valley start-up Lytro, to see how it’s re-imagining the digital camera with its patented light-field photography technology. They talk to Ng about his future plans, including the ability for users to capture images that are more three-dimensional…
Car Of The Future: Toyota Fun Vii
Dec 03
Is this a car? Is it a smartphone? Is it a gaming machine? Yes to all three. The Toyota Fun Vii is a spectacular design concept unveiled at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show this week…
Lighter Side: A 2011 Family Christmas Card
Dec 02
Example of a 2011 family Christmas Card…
WiFi-Enabled Laptops May Be Nuking Sperm
Nov 28
In a report in the venerable medical journal Fertility and Sterility, Argentinian scientists describe how they got semen samples from 29 healthy men, placed a few drops under a laptop connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi and then hit download. Four hours later, the semen was, eh, well-done…
NASA Launches Giant Rover To Mars
Nov 27
A rover of “monster truck” proportions zoomed toward Mars on an 8 1/2-month, 354 million-mile journey Saturday, the biggest, best equipped robot ever sent to explore another planet…
Lighter Side: Husband & Wife Siri Argument
Nov 25
Husband and wife Siri argument…
Britta Riley: Window Farms
Nov 25
Artist and innovator, Britta Riley, explains R&D-I-Y. Using social media and mass participation, the community has researched and developed her unique approach to growing food in small urban apartments using a window, plastic bottles and some plants. Her company, Windowfarms.org was named one of the top 100 businesses to watch in 2010 by Entrepreneur Magazine. Windowfarms makes vertical hydroponic platforms for growing food in city windows, designed in conjunction with a online citizen science web platform for with over 16,000 community members worldwide…
Cartoon: ‘Sorry, Son… There’s No App For That.’
Nov 17
“Sorry, son… there’s no app for that…”
Google X: Google’s Top Secret Lab
Nov 15
In a top-secret lab in an undisclosed Bay Area location where robots run free, the future is being imagined. It’s a place where your refrigerator could be connected to the Internet, so it could order groceries when they ran low. Your dinner plate could post to a social network what you’re eating. Your robot could go to the office while you stay home in your pajamas. And you could, perhaps, take an elevator to outer space…
Nokia’s HumanForm Concept Phone
Nov 14
Nokia’s vision of the mobile phone of the future…
Pete Cashmore: The Future Of Social Media
Nov 10
At the Mashable Media Summit last Friday, Pete Cashmore provided a broad overview of media’s trajectory. He covered the rapidly advancing mobile industry, the relationship between tablet technology and the current media climate, and social interaction around TV and music…
