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2014 in Mobile: The Year of Wearable Gadgets
Wearable devices took center stage in mobile, and 2015 should be a landmark year for them.In 2014, the hottest theme in mobile technology was the introduction of wearable gadgets that can track everything from seizures to how much sunlight you soak up. Device makers large and small attempted to make wearables that are both functional and fashionable.
2014 in Mobile: Wearable Gadgets Galore
Wearable technology finally took off in 2014, although some devices fared better than others.In 2014, the hottest theme in mobile technology was the introduction of wearable gadgets that can track everything from seizures to how much sunlight you soak up. Device makers large and small attempted to make wearables that are both functional and fashionable.
WEDNESDAY 24. DECEMBER 2014
Best of 2014: How to Win at Rock-Paper-Scissors
In April, the first large-scale measurements of the way humans play Rock-Paper-Scissors revealed a hidden pattern of play that opponents can exploit to gain a vital edge.
“Smart” Software Can Be Tricked Into Seeing What Isn’t There
Humans and software see some images differently, pointing out shortcomings of recent breakthroughs in machine learning.A technique called deep learning has enabled recent breakthroughs from Google and other companies in getting computers to understand the content of photos. Now researchers at Cornell University and the University of Wyoming have shown how to make images that fool such software...
TUESDAY 23. DECEMBER 2014
Best of 2014: Forget the Shortest Route Across a City; New Algorithm Finds the Most Beautiful
If you prefer beautiful routes over short ones, GPS mapping algorithms are of little use. But In July, Yahoo researchers came up with an approach that could change that.
2015 Could Be the Year of the Hospital Hack
Health-care organizations often store medical records and other information insecurely.Along with vast troves of credit card information and celebrity snapshots, hackers stole a record number of medical records from U.S. health-care facilities this year. In 2015, attacks targeting health data will become even more common, according to security researchers.
A Prototype Battery Could Double the Range of Electric Cars
Startup Seeo has developed batteries that store far more energy than conventional ones, which could extend the range of electric cars.An experimental lithium-ion battery based on materials developed at a U.S. Department of Energy lab stores twice as much energy as the batteries used in most electric cars.
Singapore Wants a Driverless Version of Uber
Singapore plans to let anyone test driverless cars in one of its busy neighborhoods in 2015.As driverless cars edge slowly toward commercial reality, some people are wondering how cities might change as a result. Will traffic lights disappear? Will parking garages become obsolete? Will carpooling become the norm?
MONDAY 22. DECEMBER 2014
Best of 2014: First Graphene Audio Speaker Easily Outperforms Traditional Designs
In March, the world’s first electrostatically driven graphene speaker matched or outperformed commercially available earphones.
The Startup Meant to Reinvent What Bitcoin Can Do
A company given $21 million by leading Silicon Valley investors aims to extend Bitcoin’s functionality so it can power much more than just payments.LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman announced an unusual new investment late last month. He and other Silicon Valley luminaries, including Sun Microsystems founder Vinod Khosla, sunk $21 million into a company that may never have to make a profit to be...
SUNDAY 21. DECEMBER 2014
How to Light a Nanoscopic Christmas Tree
Honey, I shrunk the Christmas tree…thankfully Swedish scientists have found a neat way to illuminate it with a laser pulse.
Other Interesting arXiv Papers (Week ending December 20, 2014)
The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv preprint server.SenseMyCity: Crowdsourcing an Urban Sensor
Cuba’s Internet Revolution Faces Economic and Political Realities
The new White House approach could help Cubans gain access to the Internet—but the question is whether the regime will play ball.Cubans could be about to enjoy vastly improved access to communications technology under proposed normalization of relations with the United States, which will permit companies to import telecom infrastructure and expertise. But economic and political obstacles still...
FRIDAY 19. DECEMBER 2014
New Chip Points the Way beyond Silicon
Germanium could be the next great chip material after silicon’s limits have been reached.The first sophisticated electronic circuits made from germanium, a promising alternative to silicon, show a path for the computer industry to keep advancing beyond the physical limitations now being reached. Researchers from Purdue University demonstrated the circuits this week at the International Electron...
Seven Must-Read Stories (Week Ending December 20, 2014)
Another chance to catch the most interesting, and important, articles from the previous week on MIT Technology Review.
THURSDAY 18. DECEMBER 2014
Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending December 20, 2014)
A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.Back to the Future: Advanced Nuclear Energy and the Battle Against Climate ChangeA thoughtful exploration of Transatomic Power’s elegant ideas for ultra-safe nuclear energy and whether they can become reality. —Brian Bergstein, deputy...
Can Japan Recapture Its Solar Power?
The way the Land of the Rising Sun built and lost its dominance in photovoltaics shows just how vulnerable renewables remain to changing politics and national policies.It’s 38 °C on the Atsumi Peninsula southwest of Tokyo: a deadly heat wave has been gripping much of Japan late this summer. Inside the offices of a newly built power plant operated by the plastics company Mitsui Chemicals, the AC...
Fixing Autism Research
We need to come to grips with what autism really is.Autism researchers have published thousands of papers in recent years. With those numbers, you’d think we’d all be rejoicing over great progress. Yet many people—especially autistic adults—are frustrated by how little benefit has actually materialized. Why?
From the Editor
In “The Troll Hunters,” Adrian Chen writes, “Old-school hate is having a sort of renaissance online, and in the countries thought to be furthest beyond it. The anonymity provided by the Internet fosters communities where people can feed on each other’s hate.”
On Creativity
How do people get new ideas?Presumably, the process of creativity, whatever it is, is essentially the same in all its branches and varieties, so that the evolution of a new art form, a new gadget, a new scientific principle, all involve common factors. We are most interested in the “creation” of a new scientific principle or a new application of an old one, but we can be general...
Teaching the Many, Rather than the Few
Four decades before the MOOC, a 1970 essay anticipates the potential boon of an education by computer.Excerpted from “Computers in Human Society: For Good or Ill?” by MIT professor Robert M. Fano, from the March 1970 Technology Review.
The Troll Hunters
A group of journalists and researchers wade into ugly corners of the Internet to expose racists, creeps, and hypocrites. Have they gone too far?We’ve come up with the menacing term “troll” for someone who spreads hate and does other horrible things anonymously on the Internet. Internet trolls are unsettling not just because of the things they say but for the mystery they represent: what kind...
What MOOCs Teach Us Online education
Online education offers one effective way to close the skills gap.Three years ago, several of us at stanford launched the first massive open online courses, or MOOCs. We wanted to make the teaching of the world’s great universities accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. The company we founded, Coursera, recently passed a milestone: 10 million enrolled learners. That makes it a good...