- An App Store for Your Home Lighting
Philips invites developers to write apps for its Hue wireless LED light bulbs.
Home lighting has gained new status in the world of network-connected digital gadgetry.
- Danger Lurks in Growing New Internet Nationalism
Cyber-espionage is old news. What’s new is the rhetoric, which is reaching a fever pitch right now.
For technology that was supposed to ignore borders, bring the world closer together, and sidestep the influence of national governments the Internet is fostering an awful lot of nationalism right now. We’ve started to see increased concern about the country of origin of IT products and services; U.S. companies are worried about hardware from China; European companies are worried about cloud services in the U.S; no one is sure whether to trust hardware and software from Israel; Russia and China might each be building their own operating systems out of concern about using foreign ones.
- Astrobiologists Find Ancient Fossils in Fireball Fragments
Algae-like structures inside a Sri Lankan meteorite are clear evidence of panspermia, the idea that life exists throughout the universe, say astrobiologists.
- Microsoft’s Bing Now Can Find Local Businesses That Aren’t Too Crowded
Using smartphone microphones, the crowdsourcing tool could deduce the current atmosphere at bars and eateries.
An app called Bing Now, demonstrated at Microsoft’s headquarters last week, could give Web searchers a way to gauge the current vibe of a bar or restaurant before they book a table.
- A Wireless Brain-Computer Interface
Broadband communication and custom signal-processing chips power a new brain-recording device that may one day help paralyzed people.
- An Anti-iPad for India
Suneet Singh Tuli, the man behind the ultracheap Aakash 2 tablet, says the West doesn’t understand mobile business in the developing world.
A devout Sikh, Suneet Singh Tuli, 44, has found his own way to live by his religion’s central belief of sarbat da bhala, or “may everyone be blessed.”
- Electronic Sensors Printed Directly on the Skin
New electronic tattoos could help monitor health during normal daily activities.
Taking advantage of recent advances in flexible electronics, researchers have devised a way to “print” devices directly onto the skin so people can wear them for an extended period while performing normal daily activities. Such systems could be used to track health and monitor healing near the skin’s surface, as in the case of surgical wounds.
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