Amazon has dropped the price of its Echo Dot – already a budget version of the Echo voice control system – from $90 to $50. It’s also offering bulk discounts with the idea of people filling their homes. The full-sized Echo device appears to have become established despite being somewhat awkward to describe and promote. […]
A variant on X-rays could scan the pages of a closed book according to MIT researchers. Tests already show the technique working on a bundle of nine sheets of paper. The research is detailed in the snappily-titled Nature Communications article “Terahertz time-gated spectral imaging for content extraction through layered structures.” It’s based around using T-rays, […]
For all you programmers out there, here are a few ressources you might want to check out as part of our free ebook list for today! –Java Design Patterns: Reusable Solutions to Common Problems A design pattern is a general reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem within a given context in software design. A […]
Google has given up on its modular smartphone plans known as Project Ara. The news comes only a few months after it significantly scaled back plans for the devices. The original idea was that the phones would effectively be nothing more than a frame with every major component replaceable and upgradable in a process that […]
The people behind OpenOffice say the free software may need to be ditched. A lack of staff working on the project is making it increasingly difficult to be confident about maintaining security in the software. The news comes in an email from Dennis Hamilton, vice president of the Apache group that oversees the software. He […]
Early test of Jimmy, a teleoperated robot based on hybrid hydrostatic transmissions, developed by researchers from Disney Research, the Catholic University of America, and Carnegie Mellon University. Video courtesy: Disney Research.
If you like the idea of a stylus but prefer pen and paper, Lenovo’s latest tablet could be for you. The Yoga Book captures handwritten notes and drawings even through a paper notepad, though has some big limitations. Available in both Android and Windows 10 versions, the device folds out with a screen on one […]
The European Union has published strict guidelines to enforce net neutrality. However, the rules do have exceptions that mean they fall short of a ‘pure’ interpretation of the principle. While the net neutrality debate in the US has been bogged down in arguments about legal authority in the rulemaking process, the EU had already agreed […]
Six people have finished a year of isolation designed to replicate life on Mars. The crew have been inside a 36 by 20 foot dome near a Hawaiian volcano. It’s the third and longest such mission following previous experiments lasting four and eight months. While similar studies have concentrated on the long journey inside a […]
The man whose company made the first widely-sold laptop has died aged 75. John Ellenby was credited with having a notable ability to turn technology into commercially viable products. Ellenby spent much of the 1970s at Xerox when it was working on the Alto range, generally regarded as the first to use a graphical user […]