Consumer
Top 10 must-read posts from February
March 1, 2013 3:12 pm | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Blogs | CommentsHere’s a rundown of the most read, most popular, most awesome articles on the web. Take a look at what you missed the first time around or check up on an old favorite to see the conversation in the comments. Keep checking out the Lead at www.ecnmag.com and follow us on Twitter @ecnonline for our most up-to-date articles.
Mayer’s memo ending telecommuting puts Yahoo in good company
March 1, 2013 12:27 pm | by Chris Warner, Executive Editor | Blogs | CommentsMarissa Mayer created quite a hornet’s nest when she issued a memo effectively ending the work-at-home option for Yahoo employees. In the memo, obtained by AllThingsD, Mayer writes, “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side."
Why 3D-printable guns are a terrible idea
March 1, 2013 9:45 am | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Blogs | CommentsMention the words "3D printed guns" and you’ve got an instant, increasingly heated debate on your hands. When you consider there were 16 mass shootings—defined as a shooting with multiple, random victims—in 2012 with at least 88 people dead including children, it’s definitely a topic worth discussing. My take? No one needs a 3D printed gun or the ability to create one.
Engineering Update #5: Robotic cockroaches, lightsabers, a 3D wearable mouse, and Google Glass
February 28, 2013 9:20 am | Videos | CommentsIn this episode of Engineering Update, brought to you by Mouser Electronics (www.mouser.com): Researchers at the University of Michigan are studying cockroaches in order to advance robotic technology. A 3D wearable, wireless, thumb-activated, space recognition, Bluetooth 4.0 low-energy protocol mouse called Mycestro.
Metal pushbutton switch radiates white ring
February 27, 2013 4:46 pm | Schurter Inc. | Product Releases | CommentsSCHURTER expanded its MSM Series metal pushbutton switch to include a version with white ring and point illumination. Existing color options include red, green, yellow and blue. The series also expands its range of integrated resistor options to include
Apple to settle lawsuit on inadvertent app purchases by kids
February 26, 2013 9:13 am | by Reuters | News | CommentsApple Inc has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit that said customers were charged when their children inadvertently downloaded certain applications from the company's online store, a court filing showed.
EU judges to hear arguments in Google test privacy case
February 26, 2013 9:12 am | by Claire Davenport, Reuters | News | Comments(Reuters) - Google will do battle with Spain's data protection authority in Europe's highest court on Tuesday in a landmark case with global implications which poses one of the thorniest questions of the Internet age: When is information really private?
Chinese hackers seen as increasingly professional, methodical, as they plunder Web for secrets
February 26, 2013 9:09 am | by CHRISTOPHER BODEEN Associated Press | News | CommentsBeijing hotly denies accusations of official involvement in massive cyberattacks against foreign targets, insinuating such activity is the work of rogues. But at least one piece of evidence cited by experts points to professional cyberspies: China's hackers don't work weekends.
Music service Spotify hooks up with Ford in first vehicle foray
February 25, 2013 2:34 pm | by Reuters | News | CommentsStreaming music service Spotify has partnered with Ford Motor Co (F.N) to allow its subscribers to listen to music in more than one million Ford vehicles in North America. Owners of Ford models with SYNC AppLink can access Spotify's catalog of more than 20 million songs through voice activation using its smartphone app. The deal, announced by both companies on Monday, is Spotify's first collaboration with an automaker
Changes in how people watch TV make measurements much harder
February 25, 2013 2:32 pm | by DAVID BAUDER AP Television Writer | News | CommentsEvery Tuesday, the Nielsen company publishes a popularity ranking of broadcast television programs that has served as the industry's report card dating back to when most people had only three networks to choose from. And every week, that list gets less and less meaningful.
Graphene: A material that multiplies the power of light
February 25, 2013 8:57 am | by Eurekalert! | News | CommentsBottles, packaging, furniture, car parts... all made of plastic. Today we find it difficult to imagine our lives without this key material that revolutionized technology over the last century. There is wide-spread optimism in the scientific community that graphene will provide similar paradigm shifting advances in the decades to come.
Analysis: The near impossible battle against hackers everywhere
February 25, 2013 8:49 am | by Joseph Menn, Reuters | News | CommentsDire warnings from Washington about a "cyber Pearl Harbor" envision a single surprise strike from a formidable enemy that could destroy power plants nationwide, disable the financial system or cripple the U.S. government. But those on the front lines say it isn't all about protecting U.S. government and corporate networks from a single sudden attack. They report fending off many intrusions at once from perhaps dozens of countries, plus well-funded electronic guerrillas and skilled criminals.
White House directs open access for government research
February 25, 2013 8:47 am | by Mark Felsenthal, Reuters | News | CommentsThe White House has moved to make the results of federally funded research available to the public for free within a year, bowing to public pressure for unfettered access to scholarly articles and other materials produced at taxpayers' expense."Americans should have easy access to the results of research they help support," John Holdren, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, wrote on the White House website.
Smart agriculture: Using intelligent system to improve age-old farming techniques
February 22, 2013 12:23 pm | by Eurekalert! | News | CommentsClimate change, population growth and increasingly scarce resources are putting agriculture under pressure. Farmers must harvest as much as possible from the smallest possible land surface. Until now, the industry confronted this challenge with innovations in individual sectors: Intelligent systems regulate engines in order to save on gas, for instance. With the aid of satellites and sensor technology, farming equipment can automatically perform the field work; in doing so, they efficiently distribute seed, fertilizer and pesticides on the arable land.
1 week and counting: Don't cut the research that fuels the US economy
February 22, 2013 12:12 pm | by Eurekalert! | News | CommentsWASHINGTON, DC – With only one week left before sequestration is to take effect, America's research community sustained its call for an end to the across-the-board cuts to discretionary spending that will severely restrict the nation's ability to invest in the basic scientific research that drives innovation and produces economic growth.
NYPD, Microsoft create crime-fighting technology; city could make millions in business deal
February 22, 2013 9:02 am | by COLLEEN LONG Associated Press | News | CommentsA 911 call comes in about a possible bomb in lower Manhattan and an alert pops up on computer screens at the New York Police Department, instantly showing officers an interactive map of the neighborhood, footage from nearby security cameras, whether there are high radiation levels and whether any other threats have been made against the city. In a click, police know exactly what they're getting into.
SD college tests fingerprint purchasing technology
February 22, 2013 8:57 am | by AMBER HUNT Associated Press | News | CommentsRAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- Futurists have long proclaimed the coming of a cashless society, where dollar bills and plastic cards are replaced by fingerprint and retina scanners smart enough to distinguish a living, breathing account holder from an identity thief.
The greatest use of (bus stop) technology ever
February 21, 2013 3:13 pm | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Blogs | CommentsCompanies often struggle with how to incorporate new technology in a useful way, but Qualcomm knocked it out of the park this week with their new bus stop surprise. Qualcomm, a company that specializes in wireless technology, decided that they could use the combination of smart phones and boredom at bus stops
Transceiver chipset enables the development of low-power, high-data rate solutions for true mobile devices
February 20, 2013 4:41 pm | Imec Inc., Panasonic | Product Releases | CommentsImec, in collaboration with Panasonic Corporation (Japan), has presented at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC2013) a 60GHz radio transceiver chipset with low power consumption, that delivers high data rates over short distances.
Microsoft made mistakes in early mobile strategy: Bill Gates
February 20, 2013 3:52 pm | News | CommentsMicrosoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates said he was not satisfied with the company's pace of innovation over the last few years, and that it had mishandled its early mobile strategy. "We didn't miss cellphones, but the way that we went about it didn't allow us to get the leadership. It's clearly a mistake," Gates, Microsoft's former CEO, said in a rare interview with CBS.
Future science: Using 3-D worlds to visualize data
February 20, 2013 2:38 pm | by CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer | News | CommentsTake a walk through a human brain? Fly over the surface of Mars? Computer scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago are pushing science fiction closer to reality with a wraparound virtual world where a researcher wearing 3-D glasses can do all that and more.
Researchers create semiconductor 'nano-shish-kebabs' with potential for 3-D technologies
February 20, 2013 9:01 am | by Eurekalert! | News | CommentsResearchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new type of nanoscale structure that resembles a "nano-shish-kebab," consisting of multiple two-dimensional nanosheets that appear to be impaled upon a one-dimensional nanowire.
Microcontroller provides high 72-MHz operating speed
February 19, 2013 4:36 pm | Nuvoton Technology Corporation America | Product Releases | CommentsNuvoton Technology Corporation announces the launch of NUC123 series, a new 32-bit Cortex-M0 microcontroller with USB 2.0 Full Speed devices and a 10-bit ADC. The NUC123 series provides the high 72MHz operating speed, large 20KB SRAM and 8 USB endpoints which make it powerful in USB communication and data processing.
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day
February 19, 2013 4:18 pm | by Polygon Solutions Inc. | Blogs | CommentsOn February 21, 2013, women engineers, along with their male counterparts, will engage and mentor as many as one million girls around the country during National Engineers Week Foundation’s 12th Annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day.
Paint Your Pizza turns MS Paint scribbles into ugly-looking pizzas
February 15, 2013 10:34 am | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Blogs | CommentsI never thought I’d say this, but I’m nauseated by pizza – this after taking a gander at Paint Your Pizza, a crowdsourcing site that allows you to turn amateur artwork into quasi-edible Neapolitan creations. I stress quasi-edible because I don’t think I could stomach any of these custom-designed "pizzas."
