Consumer
What Walter Cronkite thought 2001 would look like
February 12, 2013 3:41 pm | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Blogs | CommentsPredictions about future technology are always interesting. Sometimes, the prediction is pretty mainstream, like a mobile phone. Other times they’re a little more ambitious. I’m still waiting for my flying car. But one thing is always guaranteed: Predictions about the future are always fun to watch decades later — particularly if they star Mr. Walter Cronkite.
Beer: The next great alternative energy source
February 8, 2013 10:10 am | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Blogs | CommentsForget solar power. The future of energy is beer power. I’m not talking about beer goggles that make you feel like you can invent the perfect form of alternative energy ... but actually using beer to power a brewery. The Alaskan Brewing Co, is located in Juneau, Alaska...
Engineering Update #3: Watson, Nano Batteries, 3D Chips, and Mission: Impossible Gets Real
February 7, 2013 1:42 pm | Videos | Comments"Watson," no, not Sherlock's sidekick, but the famous supercomputer who beat the world's best human at Jeopardy, is going back to school. IBM is sending the Watson system to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, so it can improve its "thinking" skills. Because making robots more human always works out just fine.
EU to order banks, energy firms to report cyber attacks
February 7, 2013 8:44 am | by Ethan Bilby, Reuters | News | CommentsAround 42,000 firms in the European Union, including airports, banks and hospitals, would have to inform regulators whenever their computers are hacked, under a proposed EU law to be published on Thursday.The law could set a global precedent for safeguarding critical infrastructure against digital attacks that have hit companies...
New York defends its "Amazon tax" in court
February 7, 2013 8:43 am | by Nanette Byrnes, Reuters | News | Comments(Reuters) - Major online retailers Amazon.com Inc and Overstock.com on Wednesday told a New York state court that they should be allowed to not charge state sales tax. The case, in the State of New York Court of Appeals, represents one of the first legal tests of recent "Amazon taxes" meant to make online retailers start charging state sales taxes.
EU backs plan to make Internet safer from cyberattacks, requires more risk management planning
February 7, 2013 8:41 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsBRUSSELS (AP) -- EU officials are pushing a plan to make the Internet safer - more resistant to cyberattacks, freer from cybercrime and safer for children to use. The proposal unveiled Thursday would require each of the European Union's 27 nations to designate an authority to prevent and respond to Internet risks and incidents.
In defense of crazy technology
February 6, 2013 4:22 pm | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Blogs | CommentsAlright, I’ll admit it. I’m a bit of a technological dreamer. I’ve seen my fair share of pipe-dream technology—easily created, easily dismissed—but most days are a roving door of surprisingly innovative, potentially life-changing, incredibly awesome designs. In general, I tend to be a bit jaded, some might say curmudgeonly...
Microsoft and Huawei launch phone aimed at growing African phone market
February 6, 2013 8:58 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsChinese phone maker Huawei and Microsoft are combining forces to sell a new smartphone in Africa, which they say is the world's fastest growing mobile phone market. The two companies launched the Huawei 4Afrika Tuesday. The phone runs Windows Phone 8 and comes pre-loaded with applications designed for the African market.
Online sales tax is immoral, runs contrary to the free markets
February 5, 2013 2:54 pm | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Blogs | CommentsThe central fallacy with crony capitalism is that it ignores the invisible hand of the free marketplace. This is precisely what the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) is doing with their support for "e-fairness" legislation (i.e., an Internet sales tax).
Top 10 posts for January
February 1, 2013 12:41 pm | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Blogs | CommentsWe had a record-breaking January here at ECN online with our most trafficked month in the history of the website. So, without further delay, here’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.
Science cafes offer a sip of learning
January 31, 2013 9:09 am | by Barbara Liston, Reuters | News | CommentsAmericans may be turning away from the hard sciences at universities, but they are increasingly showing up at "science cafes" in local bars and restaurants to listen to scientific talks over a drink or a meal. Want a beer with that biology? Or perhaps a burger with the works to complement the theory of everything?
Review: BlackBerry Z10 is good stab at rebirth for embattled brand, but has uphill slog
January 31, 2013 9:07 am | by PETER SVENSSON AP Technology Writer | News | CommentsAre you ashamed to have a BlackBerry? It's not exactly a status symbol any more, at least not in the U.S., after it got left in the dust by the iPhone. Now, there's a new BlackBerry that wants to get back into the cool club: the Z10.
Did the Justice Department cause Aaron Swartz’s suicide?
January 31, 2013 9:00 am | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Articles | CommentsAaron Swartz was a 26-year-old computer programmer and online activist who died of apparent suicide on January 11, ahead of a scheduled trial where he was charged with 13 felonies. Swartz, founder of Demand Progress, an online group actively working against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)...
A disturbance in the Force: The smartphone market is changing
January 30, 2013 2:45 pm | by Andrew Berg, Senior Editor, Wireless Week | Blogs | CommentsCan you hear it? That's the sound of the device market changing. It sounds a little like the whispers that RIM just might have something with BlackBerry 10. It also sounds a little like rumors that Amazon has the right kind of content ecosystem to launch a smartphone of its own.
Sensor pad analyzes impacts in football helmets
January 29, 2013 4:27 pm | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Texas Instruments | Articles | CommentsOne of the highlights of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was a low-power wireless system that could revolutionize the game of pigskin. The Riddell InSite Impact Response System utilizes a five-point sensor pad lined in the player’s helmet to quantify an impact and, if it passes a predetermined threshold, notifies the sideline.
Insight: Apple's grip on carriers, suppliers loosens
January 29, 2013 12:27 pm | by Poornima Gupta and Noel Randewich, Reuters | News | CommentsApple Inc's shareholders have been hit by one of the bloodiest weeks in the history of the stock, but wider fallout from such weakness might be more important to the long-term value of their investments.
Plastic interconnection technology touts easy, fast application of LED arrays
January 28, 2013 11:29 am | Molex Incorporated | Product Releases | CommentsMolex Incorporated announced a new technology that transfers the connectivity and ease of use features from the LED array metal or ceramic substrate to a separate plastic body substrate, allowing for improvements in thermal, optical and mechanical interconnect functionality. This plastic
Hackers angry over suicide of Internet activist hijack federal sentencing guidelines website
January 28, 2013 9:13 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsThe hacker-activist group Anonymous says it hijacked the website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission to avenge the death of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who committed suicide. The FBI is investigating.The website of the commission, an independent agency of the judicial branch, was taken over early Saturday
What’s mine should be mine: Ruling makes it illegal to unlock your phone
January 25, 2013 2:29 pm | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Blogs | CommentsThink you own your wireless handset, inside and out? Think you can do whatever you wish with your own property? Think again. Beginning Saturday, it will become illegal to unlock a phone without the express permission of the carrier who locked it.
Speaking of speakers
January 25, 2013 9:14 am | by M. Simon, Technical Contributor | Blogs | CommentsThe Consumer Electronic Show (CES) has been in the news at ECN, but boy was I surprised when my home town paper featured a CES story on its front page this past week. The story was mainly about Prescient Audio, a local company that has designed a new type of bass driver that will reduce the volume such drivers take up in cars.
Fame and fortune await the inventor _ along with angry mobs, burnings, exile. A brief history
January 25, 2013 9:04 am | by BERNARD CONDON AP Business Writer | News | CommentsNEW YORK (AP) -- For every clever man who invents a labor-saving machine, it seems a crowd of angry men rises up to destroy it. The most famous of the machine haters were the Luddites, the skilled weavers of England who, in 1811, began smashing power looms that were threatening to take their jobs.
Meet the Luddites: They fought the future with hammers and lost, but their legacy lives on
January 25, 2013 9:02 am | by PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer | News | CommentsTheir name is synonymous with futile attempts to roll back technology - and with fuddy-duddies who can't figure out how to use the iPhone. The Luddites were British textile artisans who 200 years ago smashed the mechanized looms they thought threatened their jobs.
Will a high-velocity, DNA-tagging police pellet gun deter protesters?
January 24, 2013 3:43 pm | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Blogs | CommentsGun control is a hot button issue, so it makes sense that police and security firms would look towards expanding effective methods of nonviolent interaction. This becomes particularly important during riot situations with a lot of people and confusion, where police are often outnumbered and overwhelmed.
Obsolete industries won’t drive economic growth
January 24, 2013 12:09 pm | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Articles | CommentsAn article in the Associated Press, "Big Data and cloud computing empower smart machines to do human work, take human jobs," bemoans the loss of jobs to technology – a highly dubious assertion that crops up every generation like a broken record. And like the damaged piece of vinyl, this argument is immune to logic and reason.
Preparing for the worst: Author Martin Ford imagines a future when machines have all the jobs
January 24, 2013 9:38 am | by PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer | News | CommentsMartin Ford saw it everywhere, even in his own business. Smarter machines and better software were helping companies do more work with fewer people. His Silicon Valley software firm used to put its programs on disks and ship them to customers. The disks were made, packaged and
