- Two Ways To Fix The Typing-on-Touchscreens Problem
One asks us to change our behavior; the other changes its behavior to fit us.
Considering how much typing on a glass touchscreen blows in comparison to using hard keys, it’s easy to imagine how Blackberry saw the first iPhone back in 2007 and thought, “Bah, this isn’t a threat.” We all know how that turned out. But typing on glass still blows, and voice dictation on mobile devices (while pretty awesome) isn’t a good fit for every situation. So how can we un-blowify touchscreen typing? Two interesting software-design approaches have recently emerged: one rethinks how the keyboard looks, while the other rethinks how the keyboard acts. (Spoiler alert: I think the latter has more potential.)
- Google Fiber’s Ripple Effect
The threat of superfast Google Fiber is causing other Internet providers to crank up their own offerings.
As Google plans to expand its ultrafast Internet service from a fledging effort in Kansas City to Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah, evidence is emerging that the company has forced broadband competitors into offering dramatically better service.
- What Happened When One Man Pinged the Whole Internet
A home science experiment that probed billions of Internet devices reveals that thousands of industrial and business systems offer remote access to anyone.
You probably haven’t heard of HD Moore, but up to a few weeks ago every Internet device in the world, perhaps including some in your own home, was contacted roughly three times a day by a stack of computers that sit overheating his spare room. “I have a lot of cooling equipment to make sure my house doesn’t catch on fire,” says Moore, who leads research at computer security company Rapid7. In February last year he decided to carry out a personal census of every device on the Internet as a hobby. “This is not my day job; it’s what I do for fun,” he says.
- Why Tech Companies May Really Want All Those Extra Visas
The shortage of workers in the IT industry may be overblown, a new study claims.
Internet and software executives are heavily lobbying for immigration reform legislation that would increase the pool of high-skilled foreign citizens who can work in the U.S., many receiving what are known as H-1B visas. They argue that a U.S. skills shortage is slowing growth in the industry. For example, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in a recent a Washington Post editorial, says that each H-1B employee creates “two or three more American jobs in return.”
- Bird Flu: On the Move and Hard to Track
The H7N9 virus is deadly to humans but does not present symptoms in birds, which makes it more difficult to control.
A 53-year-old Taiwanese man has contracted the H7N9 influenza virus, most likely while on a business trip to China, reported the New York Times on Wednesday. This is the first time the virus has been reported outside of China, where that country’s Health and Family Planning Commission says the new strain has infected more than 100 people, 23 fatally, according to CNN.
- Google Trends Could Predict Stock Market Moves, Study Shows
A paper found that trading based on search query volumes for the term “debt” could yield large returns.
This week’s fleeting stock market crash prompted by a false report from the Associated Press’s hacked Twitter account has focused attention again on the growing Wall Street practice of mining news and social data to make trades.
- Nanoscale Pressure Sensors Mimic Human Skin
New research shows how arrays of tiny electronic devices can achieve human-skin-like sensitivity to mechanical force.
Arrays of transistors made of nanowires could form the basis of a new class of devices nearly as sensitive to mechanical force as human skin is, according to research published today in Science.
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