feed info

20,568 articles from Sci-Tech Today

Apple Teases Smart Watch for March 9 Media Event

The media invitation Apple sent out for a March 9 "special event" doesn't offer details about the reason for the gathering. However, the "Spring Forward" message on the invite is leading many to believe the star of the occasion will be the soon-to-launch Apple Watch. "Spring forward," of course, is the saying that helps most of us remember to set our clocks ahead one hour for Daylight Saving...

FCC Approves Historic, Troubling Net Neutrality Rules

After an extensive and sometimes contentious public and politcal debate, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted February 26, with a 3 to 2 split along party lines, in favor of new regulations intended to preserve Net neutrality. The vote is seen as a win both for the Obama administration and a large Net roots activist campaign that has been pushing for this outcome for several years....


MONDAY 23. FEBRUARY 2015


Flex Logix Aims To Make Chips Programmable

A new approach to making silicon chips that are programmable could help drive faster product development cycles and improve the performance of a wide range of devices, according to a small Silicon Valley startup. Flex Logix on Monday unveiled EFLX, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) core that essentially enables silicon chips to be upgraded without having to be replaced. "We give people a...

Spacewalking Astronauts Route Cable in 1st of 3 Jobs

Spacewalking astronauts routed more than 300 feet (90 meters) of cable outside the International Space Station on Saturday, tricky and tiring advance work for the arrival of new American-made crew capsules. It was the first of three spacewalks planned for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Terry Virts over the coming week. Altogether, Wilmore and Virts have 764 feet (233 meters) of cable to...

Filthy India Air Cutting 660 Million Lives Short By 3 Years

India's filthy air is cutting 660 million lives short by about three years, while nearly all of the country's 1.2 billion citizens are breathing in harmful pollution levels, according to research published Saturday. The new study by a team of environmental economists at U.S. universities highlights just how extensive India's air problems have become after years of pursuing an all-growth agenda...

Anti-Vaccine Parents Explain Their Thinking Amid Backlash

One is a businesswoman and an MBA graduate. Another is a corporate vice president. The third is a registered nurse. These three mothers -- all of them educated, middle-class professionals -- are among the vaccine skeptics who have been widely ridiculed since more than 100 people fell ill in a measles outbreak traced to Disneyland. Critics question their intelligence, their parenting, even their...

Small DNA Changes Separate Chimp and Human Brains

Modern humans share about 95% of their genetic code with chimpanzees. Yet human brains, and what we do with them, are vastly different. In the decade since the human genome was mapped, researchers have identified hundreds of small regions that differ between humans and fellow primates. Many show evidence of accelerated changes that might offer evolutionary clues to such fundamental differences...

With Evolution, Bigger Really Is Better, Study Says

When it comes to evolution, bigger might really be better. A team of Stanford scientists analyzing the body sizes of marine mammals over nearly 550 million years have found that average body size has increased 150-fold. The findings, published in the journal Science, provide evidence that animals tend to evolve toward larger bodies over time. While the history of life is around 3.6 billion...

Volvo To Launch Self-Driving Pilot Program in 2017

Volvo made its self-driving ambitions clear Thursday with the announcement of a pilot program that will put 100 autonomous cars on Swedish roads by 2017. The program is unique in that it hands the keys to customers rather than company engineers. The test subjects will be able to operate the cars autonomously on select roads around Volvo's hometown of Gothenburg. "We are entering uncharted...

Financial Apps Help Keep Spending in Check

Joshua Levinson was about to splurge on some exercise equipment, but a personal finance app on his smartphone gave him a friendly reminder: He'd just recently dropped $150 for Valentine's Day. "When I looked at that, I was like 'OK, this has been an expensive week,'" said the 22-year-old college student in Tallahassee, Florida. That notification, flashed by the Mint Personal Finance app,...

NBC Channel Now Live on PCs, Devices in 10 Markets

Television viewers in 10 U.S. markets are now able to watch their local NBC stations live on computers and mobile devices -- as long as they are paying customers. Although the stations are available for free with an antenna, NBC is limiting its free online streaming to cable and satellite TV subscribers. Viewers will need to sign in with their provider's account information, akin to an approach...

Doctors Say Fitness Trackers, Apps Can Boost Care

That phone app keeping track of your exercise and meals might keep you out of the hospital one day. Why give your doctors permission to incorporate data from fitness trackers and health apps into electronic patient records? Well, they might spot signs of an ailment sooner and suggest behavioral changes or medication before you land in the emergency room. They also might be able to monitor how...


TUESDAY 17. FEBRUARY 2015


Why Subscribe to Office When So Much Is Free?

Just as I was warming up to choosing a Microsoft Office 365 subscription over making a one-time software purchase, Microsoft started giving away a lot of subscription benefits for free. The company now offers Word, Excel and others at no cost on most mobile devices. It's a smart move by Microsoft, but it makes me wonder whether you really need a subscription, which starts at $70 a year. The...

Silicon Valley Really Is More Innovative

When it comes to turning good ideas into great businesses, there's no place like home. Researchers have built a new map of entrepreneurial "hotspots" in California and pinpoint the San Francisco Bay Area -- Silicon Valley, in particular -- as birthing more successful startups than anywhere else in the state. Startups in Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale have 20 times the...

3-D Printing Rewrites the Script on Cooking and Tech

Printed pastries with individually tailored nutrient levels. Ravioli that assemble themselves. Wedding cake toppers that are exact, tiny, renditions of the happy couple. It's all possible thanks to a fresh meeting of taste and technology that has chefs exploring what 3-D printing might mean for the future of food. "The really exciting thing is the food we can't even imagine today because we...

Google Glass Out, Sony SmartEyeglass In

Just one month after Google suspended sales of its Glass smart eyewear, Sony is jumping in to take its place with SmartEyeglass. The Japanese electronics firm announced Tuesday that it is taking orders for a developer edition of its new wearable to be released March 10. Selling in the U.S. for $840, the SmartEyeglass Developer Edition features camera-equipped and sensor-equipped eyewear that...

Scientists Probe Dark Matter Near Milky Way's Core

Even though scientists have managed to quantify how much dark matter lurks in distant galaxies, astronomers have been hard-pressed to figure out how much of the mysterious stuff lies within our own. But in a paper published in the journal Nature Physics, a team of researchers has managed to measure the amount of dark matter in the inner Milky Way, which could shed light on the structure and...

Noise and Light Pollution Alters Ecologies

Human noise and light are creating fundamental changes in ecological communities -- changing the density, diversity and dependencies of bird species that are biological barometers of the natural world. But peace can be restored to the wilderness by enlisting technologies that create a darker and more silent world, a panel of experts said Monday in San Jose on the final day of the annual meeting...

Eye-Opener: U.S. Teens Getting Less & Less Sleep

U.S. teens are getting sleepier: Many lack even seven hours of shut-eye each night and the problem has worsened over two decades, a study found. More than half of kids aged 15 and older would need to sleep at least two hours more each night to meet recommendations for adequate rest, heightening concerns about the impact on their health and academic performance. That's according to researchers...


MONDAY 16. FEBRUARY 2015


Diet and Exercise Alone Are No Cure for Obesity

A group of respected physicians has stepped forward to challenge the common assertion that obesity can be easily fixed by diet and exercise. For most of the nation's 79 million adults and 13 million kids who are obese, the "eat less, move more" treatment, as currently practiced, is a prescription for failure, these doctors say. In a commentary published Thursday in the journal Lancet Diabetes...

Experts Say World Dumps 8.8 Tons of Plastic in Oceans

Each year about 8.8 million tons of plastic ends up in the world oceans, a quantity much higher than previous estimates, according to a new study that tracked marine debris from its source. That's the equivalent of five grocery bags full of plastic debris dotting each foot of coastline around the world, said study lead author Jenna Jambeck, an environment engineering professor at the University...

Smartphone Apps Keep Pace with Fitness Trackers

If you're delaying your walking program to save up for a wearable fitness tracker, the ruse is over. A free app on your smartphone can do the job about as well as some popular wearable devices, a new study has found. On average, steps counted with free apps strayed only slightly from observed counts and were comparable or better than those tallied by the devices, according to the study...


SUNDAY 15. FEBRUARY 2015


Chinese Mobile Sensation Xiaomi Dips Toes in U.S.

Xiaomi, one of China's hottest companies, is bringing its blend of cheap yet fashionable technology and crowd-pleasing antics to the U.S. Although its smartphones won't be available here anytime soon, Xiaomi unveiled plans Thursday to test the U.S. market by selling inexpensive headphones and other accessories online. It plans to hew to the Internet-driven, customer-friendly model that has...

Pepper Meets Watson: Softbank's Robot Gets Smarter

Japanese mobile carrier Softbank said Tuesday it will incorporate artificial intelligence technology from IBM into its empathetic robot Pepper that will be available to Japanese consumers around midyear. The AI engine "Watson" is already used in health care, travel and insurance services in English, but an adaptation was needed to make it work and think in Japanese, said Steve Gold, Vice...

Anthem Data Breach Poses a Big Test for Its CEO

In unusually blunt terms, the chief executive of Anthem Inc. told investors recently that his company and the health insurance industry rank last in customer service. That was before the insurance giant disclosed a massive data breach last week affecting as many as 80 million Americans. Now, there's a lot at stake in how CEO Joseph Swedish handles his first full-blown crisis at the nation's...