- Twitter Tests a Toolkit That Puts the Internet in Things
Platforms that combine networking with user interfaces will help companies test post-PC ideas.
Why should only computers, smartphones, and tablets be able to send a tweet? In the hopes of challenging this idea, Twitter recently developed a whimsical tweet-enabled cuckoo clock. It uses a toolkit that could help other designers and engineers test ways for new products to contribute to, and feed on, the social network’s chatter. Twitter created the clock, called #Flock, last month in partnership with London-based technology consultancy Berg; the clock responds to incoming tweets, @-messages, and retweets by animating small wooden puppets.
- The Amount of Oil We Can Recover Keeps Growing
The U.S. Geological Survey doubles its estimate for the size of a huge U.S. oil and gas resource.
The U.S. Geological Survey keeps increasing its estimate for the amount of oil under North Dakota. In 2008, the organization estimated that oil deposits in part of the Williston Basin—an area that includes parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana—had 3.65 billion barrels of oil yet to be discovered. That was 25 times higher than its previous estimate, made in 1995, of about 150 million barrels. Now it’s increased its estimate by a similar amount, raising it 3.75 billion barrels to 7.4 billion barrels. The total is a little more than the amount the United States consumes in one year.
- Will Utilities Embrace Distributed Energy?
Disruptive technological changes are at work but utilities are hamstrung by outdates business models and regulations.
A homeowner who puts solar panels on his roof immediately slashes his monthly electricity bill and gains a measure of independence from the utility. As more distributed energy technologies take hold, utilities in the U.S. are wondering out loud what their future holds.
- The Data Made Me Do It
The next frontier for big data is the individual.
Would you trade your personal data for a peek into the future? Andreas Weigend did.
- Intel's New CEO Faces a Major Challenge
Intel’s new chief executive must reverse the last decade of declining market share.
Intel’s new CEO Brian M. Krzanich, elected by the board today to replace retiring chief executive Paul Otellini, is a longtime Intel insider whose vision must now guide the company through a time of tumult in the computing industry.
- Qualcomm Proposes a Cell-Phone Network by the People, for the People
Mobile network speeds in urban areas could dramatically increase if consumers connected small, public base stations to their home broadband.
Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm and some U.S. wireless carriers are investigating an idea that would see small cellular base stations installed in homes to serve passing smartphone users. That approach is believed to be a more efficient way of meeting the rising demand for data and fixing patchy coverage than building more traditional cell-phone towers.
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