The men who first created blue LEDs have won the Nobel Prize for physics. The blue light was necessary for more energy-efficient bulbs and displays. Although working LEDs have been around for more than 50 years, not all colors became available at the same time. That’s because LEDs work by a semiconductor material glowing a […]
Microsoft is using the wisdom of crowds theory to run a prediction service. It may use the technology to turn its Siri-alternative into an opinion pollster. After some previous trials, Microsoft has now launched the Microsoft Prediction Lab. It’s similar to an opinion poll or survey but rather than ask people what they want to […]
The Federal Aviation Administration has given permission to six TV movie production firms to use drones for filming. It’s an exemption to a general US ban on commercial use of drones and could pave the way for other uses. The exemptions mean the production companies won’t have to follow the same extensive set of rules […]
From ASU Research: What if every soldier could run a four-minute mile? That’s the goal behind 4MM, or 4 Minute Mile, a student project to create a wearable jetpack that enhances speed and agility. Working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and a faculty mentor, Jason Kerestes is the mastermind behind 4MM. He built […]
Watch as Arthur C. Clarke accurately predicts the future of computers and of the Internet in a video that dates back to 1974. The man truly was a visionary. [ABC News (Australia) | Via Blastr]
TiVo is releasing a model with 24TB of storage, enough to record between 4,000 and 26,000 hours of TV. At $5,000, it’s clearly going be a niche product. In effect, the TiVo Mega is an ordinary TiVo but instead of an ordinary hard drive it has a rack-mountable 24 terabyte Raid 5 HDD setup. The […]
Intel has produced a 3G modem only a little bigger than a one-cent coin. It’s targeting the connected devices market, otherwise known as “the Internet of Things.” The 6255 has a total area of around 300 square millimeters, with Intel billing it as the world’s smallest modem. It’s based around what Intel calls “Power Transceiver”, […]
TiVo is to sell a DVR designed for over-the-air content. It’s a service aimed at cord-cutters, but the monthly service charge could deter potential customers. The new model, the Roamio OTA, will cost $49.99 and is available exclusively from best buy. TiVo says it’s a limited edition, but that seems a meaningless phrase in this […]
A Minecraft user has created a working hard drive in Minecraft — albeit with a capacity of 1 kilobyte. The drive, created by Reddit user “Smellystring”, works on a simple binary system. Instead of using magnets or transistor cells to store the data, it uses blocks that can be either solid or opaque. Reading from […]
A Japanese company has created movie “makeup” that can be applied instantly and changed without a break – by effectively turning a face into a projection screen. Omote’s technology works in a similar way to the motion capture used in many games. As CNET explains: Taking his inspiration from the Noh mask, Asai first laser-scanned […]