Developers Represent: EA and Ubisoft E3 Highlights

Now that things have settled down, and the fallout between Microsoft and Sony’s press conferences are sifting to a murky haze – let’s take a look at some other announcements from two of the industries leading developers. Ubisoft and Electronic Arts hosted their events on Monday and treated fans to an array of new titles, […]

Introducing The World’s First Mind-Controlled Quadrotor Drone

In a jaw-dropping feat of engineering, electronics turn a person’s thoughts into commands for a robot. Using a brain-computer interface technology pioneered by University of Minnesota biomedical engineering professor Bin He, several young people have learned to use their thoughts to steer a flying robot around a gym, making it turn, rise, dip, and even […]

Google buys robot kite wind turbines

Google has bought a firm that uses robotic kites to generate power using miniature wind turbines in the sky. Makani Power originally started with the assistance of ARPA-E, which isn’t the Defense Department’s gadget factory (that’s DARPA) but rather an agency of the Department of Energy exploring alternative power sources. Google had later come along […]

Powermat and PoweKiss: Wireless Charging Firms Settle Differences

Transatlantic travelers took another step closer to ditching their phone chargers this week with two major wireless charging firms announcing they’ll use a common standard. The deal is between American firm Powermat and Finland-based PowerKiss, which are among the leading providers in North America and Europe respectively. Both firms use a form of inductive charging […]

“30-Second Cellphone Charge” Not Here Yet

A California teenager has attracted widespread media attention after creating a “supercapacitor” that could recharge a cellphone battery in under 30 seconds. But much of the coverage appears to have downplayed the word “could.” 18-year-old Esha Khare (pictured above left) won an Intel Young Scientist Award of $50,000 at the company’s International Science and Engineering Fair. […]

Government fires back in 3D printer gun dispute

The makers of the blueprints for the first 3D printer-produced gun hoped to spark a debate on the first and second amendments to the US Constitution. That’s just what they’ve got thanks to a government demand to take the designs offline. The group Defense Distributed recently attracted attention with the first firing of a gun […]