Ant-sized chip could pave the way for the 'next wave of wireless devices'
Engineers at Stanford University have developed a radio the size of ant that they claim could make a big impact on the fledgling Internet of Things (IoT) market.
The computer chip, which is just a few millimeters across, is powered by harvesting radio signals and so requires no external power.
Google transforms old oil fields in to a $145m solar project
Google has announced it is investing $145 million into its latest renewable energy project.
The search engine giant is helping to finance the 82 megawatt solar power plan, which will be the company's 17th renewable energy project, alongside SunEdison.
Once a fantasy from a galaxy far, far away, holograms are finally nearing reality
The original Star Wars movies are packed with iconic scenes and futuristic technology, such as the moment when R2-D2 projects a hologram recording of Princess Leia into thin air for Obi-Wan Kenobi. Forget FaceTime and Skype, this is how we should be communicating with each other in the 21st century.
A little over three decades after Star Wars first hit the cinemas, hologram technology is slowly beginning to edge its way from the realms of science fiction and into science fact and it may not be long until we're able to project holograms straight from our mobile phones.
Harvard scientists develop a self-organizing thousand-robot swarm
The Harvard school of engineering and applied sciences (SEAS) have created the "first thousand-robot flash mob". The swarm consists of 1,024 "kilobots" that collaborate and provide "a simple platform for the enactment of complex behaviors".
Michael Rubenstein, a research associate at SEAS, said "Biological collectives involve enormous numbers of cooperating entities -- whether you think of cells or insects or animals -- that together accomplish a single task that is a magnitude beyond the scale of any individual".
How malware could be used to predict future world conflicts
In terms of usefulness, we typically think of malware as somewhere between a volcano eruption and the Ebola virus. But researchers from security firm FireEye have developed a technique by which the spread of malware could predict upcoming world conflicts.
According to researchers who monitored millions of malware messages sent over the past 18 months, the amount of communications sent by malware programs spiked dramatically in the lead-up to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine over the future of Crimea. A similar spike was seen in malware attacking Israel in the days before its recent hostilities with Hamas in Gaza.
For future computing, look (as always) to Star Trek
"The step after ubiquity is invisibility," Al Mandel used to say and it’s true. To see what might be The Next Big Thing in personal computing technology, then, let’s try applying that idea to mobile. How do we make mobile technology invisible?
Google is invisible and while the mobile Internet consists of far more than Google it’s a pretty good proxy for back-end processing and data services in general. Google would love for us all to interface completely through its servers for everything. That’s its goal. Given its determination and deep pockets, I’d say Google -- or something like it -- will be a major part of the invisible mobile Internet.
What makes a disruptive technology?
According to Clayton M Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, disruptive innovations are characterized by their ability to create entirely new markets rather than merely update existing markets with new products. They are black swans, rare events where new thinking and changing markets combine to create radical change.
A common example is the light bulb and Pearl Street Station -- a major gamble by Thomas Edison. Within years of its development the kerosene lighting industry was all but non-existent, and the world was a brighter place. (The kerosene industry had similarly put an end to the whaling industry -- thankfully -- a few decades earlier).
The age of supply, not demand
I had lunch last week with my old friend Aurel Kleinerman, an MD who also runs a Silicon Valley software company called MITEM, which specializes in combining data from disparate systems and networks onto a single desktop.
Had the Obama Administration known about MITEM, linking all those Obamacare health insurance exchanges would have been trivial. Given MITEM’s 500+ corporate and government customers, you’d think the company would have come to the attention of the White House, but no.
Honda's Asimo robot can now run, jump and recognize voices
The latest upgrade to Honda's Asimo has given the robot enhanced intelligence, the ability to run 5.6mph and enabled it to perform complex sign language.
Asimo was first introduced in 2000 and is seen as one of the leading attempts at creating a humanoid robot.
The moon now has faster broadband than some parts of the UK
Thanks to work carried out by MIT and NASA, the moon now has faster broadband than some parts of the UK, after registering speeds of just under 20mbps.
According to Wired, the Earth's satellite is now able to receive large amounts of data, with video and audio streaming possible as a result of new, record-breaking broadband transmission speeds.
Soon police will be able to trace photographs back to the camera that took them
Forensic experts have long been able to match a series of prints to the hand that left them, or a bullet to the gun that fired it. Now, the same thing is being done with the photos taken by digital cameras, and is ushering in a new era of digital crime fighting.
New technology is now allowing law enforcement officers to search through any collection of images to help track down the identity of photo-taking criminals, such as smartphone thieves and child pornographers.
When are economic sanctions not sanctions at all?
I came across this news story today in which a Russian space official suggests the US consider using trampolines to get astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station. It’s all about economic sanctions applied to Russia over its annexation of Crimea and other meddling in Ukraine. The Russian space agency, you see, has been hard hit by the cancellation of at least five launches. Except according to my friends in the space biz Russia hasn’t been hurt at all.
Space customers pay in advance, way in advance. All five canceled NASA launches were paid for long ago and the same for a number of now-delayed private launches. They may go ahead or not, it’s hard to say. But nobody in Russia is losing sleep over the problem because the space agency will actually make more money keeping the launchers on their pads than by firing them.
I gave up the Ghost
I spent time with the Ghost blogging platform today. I am intrigued by the visuals and promised simplicity. But I don't see the latter. At this stage, I just see complexity. Yet the whole premise is stripping back to basic blogging, rather than managing content as WordPress increasingly demands.
This month I put up a website for my personal independent publishing brand, and there are few posts, making it a good test case for migration. I easily used the WordPress plugin for exporting posts in Ghost format and imported them just fine. But I see too much trouble adapting themes, most of which look fabulous, BTW, or prepping other basic features.
Seven unbelievable 2014 tech predictions
I'm not big on making year-ahead predictions -- common as the stories are at the turn of the year. But it's a slow news week, with the holiday and Consumer Electronics Show still ahead, so I thought: "Why not look into the crystal ball?"
If any of these come to be, something is seriously wrong with the space-time continuum.
10 cutting-edge technologies Santa can use to deliver Christmas gifts this year
Christmas is nearly here, and Santa is getting ready for his yearly round of toy deliveries. Of course the days of making wooden soldiers and spinning tops are long gone -- kids today want more hi-tech gear, and Saint Nicholas has had to move with the times.
He no longer has to rely entirely on hand delivering everything in a reindeer powered sleigh either, thanks to advances in parcel delivery like the Hyperloop inspired YuleTube or the Amazon Drone-style Gift-o-Copters, and optical camouflage technology ensures Santa will remain virtually invisible while making deliveries (and enjoying furtive kisses with mommy underneath the mistletoe).
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