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The Chromebook's New Ambitions

Wed, 30 May 2012 16:53:00 GMT

New hardware and software from Google's computing project.

Google, together with hardware partner Samsung, just announced the next iterations of Chromebook. Samsung’s putting out a new Chromebook laptop, as well as a “Chromebox”--essentially a desktop device.

Should Facebook Buy Opera?

Wed, 30 May 2012 13:52:00 GMT

Speculation swells surrounding the company.

The tech press has been abuzz with speculation that Facebook might want to buy Opera, a Norwegian company, to help Facebook meet its promises of long-term profitability. The speculation reached such a frenzy that shares in Opera soared some 26 percent, per Bloomberg. Rumors about a possible acquisition took off in earnest last week, when the blog pocket-lint.com floated the possibility, citing a “trusted source.”

Soviet Moon Lander Discovered Water on The Moon in 1976

Wed, 30 May 2012 05:29:00 GMT

The last Soviet mission to the moon, Luna-24, returned to Earth with water-rich rocks from beneath the lunar surface. But the West ignored the result

The possibility of water on the moon has excited scientists and science fiction fans for decades. If we ever decide to maintain a human presence on the moon, clear evidence of water will be an important factor in the decision.

Pill Could Reverse Effects of a Stroke Long After It Hits

Wed, 30 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

One pharmaceutical company aims to lengthen a stroke's drug-treatable period from hours to months.

For the 800,000 people in the United States who suffer a stroke each year, the window for drug therapy closes in the first few hours after the attack. That leaves some seven million stroke survivors in this country alone with no medical alternative beyond physical therapy. A small pharmaceutical company in New York hopes to change that with a drug that may help patients regain some of their lost mobility six months or more after a stroke.

Cheap Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Moves toward Commercialization

Wed, 30 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Printable photovoltaics could become viable, thanks to a new advance.

Easy-to-make solar cells that capture light with dyes have garnered an impressive string of scientific awards, including the Millennium Technology Prize in 2010. Yet they've had little commercial impact since their invention in 1988.

The Great Bandwidth Brawl

Wed, 30 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Wireless networks are scrambling to feed the growing hunger for mobile data and downloads.

AT&T has a problem in Chicago. The city was one of the first to be upgraded to the wireless carrier's next-generation LTE (long-term evolution) network, which packs more data into a radio signal and offers much faster download speeds. But independent tests published this month showed that AT&T downloads in Chicago are less than half the speed of those on Verizon's LTE network there. The reason? A lack of radio spectrum. AT&T's radio licenses allow it to use only a 10-megahertz chunk of the airwaves for its LTE network in Chicago, compared with the 20 megahertz it has in other cities

US Military Chips "Compromised"

Wed, 30 May 2012 02:06:00 GMT

As military hardware uses more off the shelf components, it has become vulnerable to common exploits.

A researcher in Cambridge has issued a report claiming that a common sort of reprogrammable microchip (an FPGA, for you gearheads) contains a deliberately-obscured backdoor that would allow anyone with knowledge of it to clone or reprogram the chip. These chips are really common, and show up in everything from drones to nuclear power plants.

Engineers Develop Cheap Onboard Tracking System For UAVs

Tue, 29 May 2012 05:49:00 GMT

Cheap UAVs may soon be able to follow cars or station keep over buildings thanks to a Department of Defense project to make autonomous flyers more capable

The popularity of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or UAVs has exploded in just a few years. That's the result of smaller, cheaper computers that allow these vehicles to fly unaided, better radio communication systems and more efficient, lighter motors for longer flight times.

Where Speech Recognition Is Going

Tue, 29 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Voice-controlled interfaces are showing up in mobile phones, TVs, and automobiles. One company believes it can give just about everything a voice.

Until recently, the idea of holding a conversation with a computer seemed pure science fiction. If you asked a computer to "open the pod bay doors"—well, that was only in movies.

Irish Mathematicians Solve The Guinness Sinking Bubble Problem

Mon, 28 May 2012 13:23:00 GMT

Bubbles sink in Guinness because of the peculiar geometry of pint glasses, say a dedicated group of researchers at the University of Limerick

One of the more intriguing conundrums in fluid dynamics is the puzzling behaviour of bubbles in Guinness, the famous Irish stout.

In Pictures: The World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Plant

Mon, 28 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

BrightSource’s 370-megawatt facility near Las Vegas is taking shape, but the future of solar thermal is much more fuzzy.

How Small Can a Speaker Get?

Fri, 25 May 2012 21:15:00 GMT

And still be any good?

Speakers are getting smaller and smaller these days, but can a speaker be both truly portable and worthwhile? A spate of reviews of one of the leading mini-speakers suggests we aren’t quite there yet.

What Happened to A123?

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Once the rising star of the clean-tech industry, the advanced battery maker faces an uncertain future.

A few days after A123 went public in the fall of 2009, the value of the company's stock nearly doubled as investors rushed to get a piece of one of the hottest clean-tech companies. The company boasted advanced lithium-ion battery technology, developed at MIT, that promised to popularize electric cars by making batteries more powerful, safer, and longer-lasting.

Startup Helps You Connect with Those You Don't Yet Know

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Bangalore-based Hachi connects the dots between your social-network contacts and recommends the best "people path" to someone new.

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn make it easy to keep in touch with people you already know, but what if you want to connect with someone you haven't met?

Smallest Artificial Heart Keeps Baby Alive

Thu, 24 May 2012 17:51:00 GMT

Italian doctors implant tiny pump into a 16-month-old boy awaiting his new heart.

Here's a new twist on an long-running story: an artificial heart kept a baby boy alive for 13 days while doctors waited for his new heart, reports Reuters. The bridge-to-transplant device was an infant version of the Jarvik 2000 and weighed only 11 grams (you can see the device in this slideshow). The titanium implant does not beat but instead uses a rotating motion to pump blood from the heart and through the body.

Software Better at Detecting Frustration Than Humans

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:43:00 GMT

And it's not because subjects have been trained to "smize".

Did you know that you smile when you're frustrated? Starting at 1:20 in the video below, witness a behavior that you may find novel -- and doubly so because you're a human being who is exquisitely tuned to reading the emotional expressions of others.

SpokenLayer Makes an Audio Book of the Web

Thu, 24 May 2012 14:14:00 GMT

What if you could have actual humans read websites to you?

A friend of mine, a graduate student in history, says he sometimes so tires of reading that he’ll highlight large amounts of text and have his Mac’s automated voice read aloud to him, while he cooks or exercises. While this seems logical enough to me, it also seems like a stopgap solution. I love being read to, but the last person I would have read to me would be Stephen Hawking. For all the wonders of text-to-voice and voice synthesizing technology, there’s still no match for an old-fashioned, human voice when it comes to having someone read aloud to you.

A SIM Card for Domineering Parents

Thu, 24 May 2012 14:08:00 GMT

Look out, kids. Big Mother is watching.

This week, Vodafone starts offering a service called Bemilo that gives parents unprecedented control over how their kids use their cell phones. Bemilo, a £2.95-a-month service (that’s about five bucks), uses a special SIM card that can go in any phone or tablet. Amazingly, and somewhat terrifyingly, parents can log on to a web interface that basically serves as a remote dashboard to their kid’s phone or tablet. There, parents can read all texts, including deleted ones, and can even control who their kid has contact with. Parents can also monitor and restrict browsing of certain websites (read: porn). The BBC has the full story, as does The Telegraph.

A Photonic C-NOT Gate Breakthrough for Quantum Computing

Thu, 24 May 2012 10:23:00 GMT

Physicists have built a quantum logic gate that combines a quantum dot that fires photons with a photonic circuit that processes them

In the race to build powerful quantum computers, many groups are competing to build logic gates that can process quantum information and still be connected together on a large scale.

My So-Called Quantified Life

Thu, 24 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

After tracking my walking, biking, drinking, and stress levels for weeks, I've learned I'm more a creature of habit than I thought.

Until recently, I didn't pay much attention to the data that makes up my life—how many steps I take each day or miles I bike each week, how often I update my Facebook status, feel stressed out, or have a drink.