Next year will bring a solution to arguably the greatest annoyance in modern technology hardware. Yes, it’s true: the next generation of USB plugs will work either way up. The news comes from the USB 3.0 Promoter Group, made up of major computing firms such as HP, Intel and Microsoft. It’s announced that work has […]
The man who oversaw the growth of Android to become one of the most used operating systems is now helping Google work towards filling the manufacturing and retail world with robots. Former Android CEO and Google vice president Andy Rubin has been heading the project for at least six months. It appears he’s gone public […]
On Sunday, Dec. 1, China launched its Chang’e-3 lunar probe. If all goes as planned, it will not only be China’s first spacecraft to land on an extraterrestrial body, but it will be the first rover to land on the moon in nearly 4 decades. According to io9: The six-wheeled rover, called “Jade Rabbit” in English, […]
Nope, this isn’t an April’s fools joke. It’s just like getting a present from a sponsor in The Hunger Games! We’re excited to share Prime Air – something the team has been working on in our next generation R&D lab. The goal of this new delivery system is to get packages into customers’ hands in […]
Samsung is reported this week to be on course to spend around $14 billion on advertising during 2013. That’s led to questions about how effective the spend is compared with that of rival firms. The figure comes from the Reuters news agency, though it doesn’t make clear if that is an actual number from Samsung […]
Now, I’ll admit — I saw this floating around the interwebz and I was highly skeptical. And then I finally watched the video. Go, Ladies, go! [via Jalopnik]
Three of the biggest US cellphone carriers are to drop premium rate text messages. It should spell the end of cramming, a scam by which phone users are tricked into paying for a costly subscription service. The scam usually involves the user getting an unsolicited message and replying under the impression they are entering a […]
A newly published study covering 11,000 children found no strong evidence that extended television watching or video game playing was linked to behavioral or psychological issues among children even as young as five. The study was carried out by the Medical Research Council, based at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom. It used […]
Watson, the IBM supercomputer that famously beat champion players on Jeopardy, is to be made available to public developers for remote access. IBM used Jeopardy as a test of the supercomputer’s parallel processing abilities. The gameshow, which supplies players with an answer and asks them to supply the question, was considered a particular challenge for […]
Motorola has applied for a patent on a neck tattoo that could make it easier to use a cellphone. Fortunately it’s just a phrase rather than a proposal for permanent inking. The patent, titled “Coupling an electronic skin tattoo to a mobile communication device”, was filed in May 2012 and has just been published by […]