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An App Inspired by App Overload
An app called Vurb aims to make it easier to search for stuff to do using a smartphone.For the past few years, Bobby Lo has been trying to figure out how to use a smartphone to plan a night out with friends, without shuffling back and forth between apps and Web pages just to make dinner reservations or find movie times.
MONDAY 2. MARCH 2015
Zuckerberg: Internet Growth Means More than Drones
Efforts to expand Internet access via mobile technologies may be stymied by economic and social challenges.Mark Zuckerberg said today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, that Internet.org, Facebook’s effort to subsidize Internet access in the developing world, has brought new people online and helped telecommunications operators pick up new data subscribers around the world. “It...
The Curious Adventures of an Astronomer-Turned-Crowdfunder
Personal threats, legal challenges, and NASA’s objections were just a few of the hurdles Travis Metcalfe faced when he set up a crowdfunding website to help pay for his astronomical research.
SATURDAY 28. FEBRUARY 2015
Other Interesting arXiv Papers (Week ending February 28, 2015)
The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv preprint server.Computing Real Numbers using DNA Self-Assembly
FRIDAY 27. FEBRUARY 2015
Apple’s Real Car Play
The world’s most valuable company doesn’t need to build a car in order to reinvent driving.It’s been fascinating to read all the recent discussion and speculation over Apple’s supposed car project—and to wonder if a company that already dominates several huge product categories thanks to innovative design and engineering might pull off the same trick with the...
The Emerging Challenge of Augmenting Virtual Worlds With Physical Reality
If you want to interact with real world objects while immersed in a virtual reality, how do you do it?
Virtual Creatures in a Box, Controlled by You
A startup uses an old parlor trick and smartphone sensing to let you control virtual objects in a see-through box.A Canadian startup is working to make monsters, fish, and other creatures seem to come alive inside a tabletop box. The company, H+, hopes you’ll use the device to play games and do other activities with friends.
App Ads Are Booming Business for Facebook
App ads account for more than half of Facebook’s mobile revenue—and they show how the ad market is changing.After launching a mobile app in December 2012, the event ticket search engine SeatGeek needed a better way to get lots of people to install it. Driving installations with search ads was expensive, and banner ads were annoying to smartphone users. As luck would have it, two months earlier...
Seven Must-Read Stories (Week Ending February 28, 2015)
Another chance to catch the most interesting, and important, articles from the previous week on MIT Technology Review.
THURSDAY 26. FEBRUARY 2015
Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending February 28, 2015)
A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.Why Firmware Is So Vulnerable to Hacking, and What Can Be Done About ItWhy the NSA and others can invisibly hide malware inside your devices. —Tom Simonite, San Francisco bureau...
U.S. Commitment to Energy R&D Still Insufficient, Say Business Leaders
Five years after a stern warning from Bill Gates and other business leaders, U.S. funding for energy R&D remains stuck in the mud.Five years ago the American Innovation Council, a group of six prominent business leaders including Bill Gates and GE’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt, published a “business plan for America’s energy future,” which included recommended investments the group said would...
At EmTech Digital, Meet Insiders from Magic Leap, Google's Project Loon
Our June event in San Francisco offers access to the people behind our 10 Breakthrough Technologies, including insiders from Magic Leap and Google’s Project Loon.This June, MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Digital (formerly Digital Summit) brings a global examination of the most significant technologies and trends of the digital era to San Francisco. Our live events include you in our...
This FCC Rule Will Matter More Than Net Neutrality Will
The decision in favor of municipal broadband networks does more than “open Internet” rules ever could to increase competition in a broken market.Today’s ruling on net neutrality by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is being described as a historic and crucial milestone, but a separate decision by the regulatory body today is more meaningful because it addresses the problem of...
New Titanium-Making Process Could Result in Lighter Aircraft
A new process could extend the use of titanium for lightweight, more fuel-efficient airplanes.A new process for producing titanium—a metal that’s increasingly used in aircraft to reduce weight and fuel consumption—is significantly cheaper and less energy-intensive than conventional methods. The technique could lead to titanium being used to reduce the weight of cars, helping automakers meet...
WEDNESDAY 25. FEBRUARY 2015
Data Mining Indian Recipes Reveals New Food Pairing Phenomenon
By studying the network of links between Indian recipes, computer scientists have discovered that the presence of certain spices makes a meal much less likely to contain ingredients with flavors in common.
Google's AI Masters Space Invaders (But It Still Stinks at Pac-Man)
Google’s artificial intelligence researchers say software that learns to play video games could graduate to the real world before long.Notch up another win for the machines. Software from Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence group has learned to play the classic Atari 2600 game Space Invaders to a superhuman level.
New Display Technology Lets LCDs Produce Princess Leia-Style Holograms
Startup aims to give mobile devices the power to display full-color holographic images and video.During a famous scene in Star Wars, Princess Leia has R2D2 play a holographic video message in midair in which she pleads for help from Obi-Wan Kenobi. In the near future, smartphones and other mobile devices will have the ability to show something quite similar, according to David...
TUESDAY 24. FEBRUARY 2015
Venture Capitalists Love Biotech Right Now
Scientific advances and new business models are spurring investor confidence in biomedical-related ventures.Venture capital investment in U.S. life sciences companies soared 29 percent in 2014 from the year before, reaching $8.6 billion, the highest level since 2007. And there is reason to think 2015 will also be a big year for a sector having its third boom of the last two decades.
Five Loopholes That Could Undermine Net Neutrality
“Open Internet” rules are on the verge of being approved in the U.S., but crucial details remain unclear.After years of struggle, U.S. advocates of “net neutrality” are likely to declare victory on Thursday, when the Federal Communications Commission is expected to approve sweeping new rules meant to foster an open Internet. But people who have closely studied the FCC’s proposal see at...
Does Obama's Keystone Veto Matter?
The Keystone XL pipeline is a distraction from what’s really needed to solve climate change.This week President Obama is widely expected to veto a bill that would have approved the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline, which would transport oil from Canada’s oil sands deposits, provides a convenient, tangible rallying point for the environmental movement. But without concerted political action...
A Smart Watch Pioneer Has an Answer for Apple
As the Apple Watch casts a shadow across the smart-watch market, Pebble preps a wrist-worn gadget with a color e-paper display.If Eric Migicovsky, founder and CEO of smart-watch maker Pebble, is nervous about Apple’s looming entry into his company’s turf, he isn’t showing it.
MONDAY 23. FEBRUARY 2015
Computational Anthropology Reveals How The Most Important People in History Vary by Culture
Data mining Wikipedia people reveals some surprising differences in the way eastern and western cultures identify important figures in history, say computational anthropologists.
Programmable Chips for a More Powerful Web and Smarter Phones
Software upgrades that can change the circuitry of the silicon chips inside computing devices could make them more powerful.The computing devices that pervade our lives and generally keep the world running can be taught new tricks with software upgrades. But those can only change so much about a device, because the designs of the chips inside are locked in silicon from the moment they’re...
SUNDAY 22. FEBRUARY 2015
Other Interesting arXiv Papers (Week ending February 21, 2015)
The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv preprint server.Verification Of The Vibronic Origin Of Long-Lived Coherence In An Artificial Molecular Light Harvester