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Your Apple device is full of sensors. The main five consist of a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor, an accelerometer, a magnetometer and a gyroscopic sensor. Also included in these devices are radios, which aren't strictly sensors but which include the GPS for location services. In this week...
It is time to look back on 2013 and consider what we've learned about technology and human nature. Both Apple and Dell were massively changed, and Google went from a company that wanted our private information to one that wanted our jobs. The U.S. government decided, through the NSA, that laws don't...
Scientists from Harvard, MIT and CIT have demonstrated that light can behave in a way previously observed only in science fiction -- that is, photons can bond and create a molecule. The fundamental properties of light derive from the fact that photons, which are the quanta of light, do not interact ...
Nintendo's Wii U hasn't exactly been the smash hit that the company had surely hoped, and a year after the console's debut Nintendo is reportedly exploring a future that could include mobile apps. With Angry Birds, Temple Run and other casual games dominating tablets and mobile phones, Nintendo face...
The Federal Communications Commission this week released a proposal that could significantly change the sports blackout rules that can prevent local TV broadcasts of games when a stadium doesn't sell out.
Isopropyl alcohol is widely used as a solvent and as a cleaning fluid, but researchers at two universities in Canada and the UK recently managed to use it to transmit a text message. The experiment used Arduino computers, an electronic spray to release the alcohol, fans to blow the alcohol along, an...
Verizon on Thursday said it will release a semiannual report about the data requests it receives from the government. It is the first major telecom to make such a move. Verizon and other tech industry giants have come under fire for cooperating with government surveillance programs. Verizon and AT...
A humanoid robot named "Kirobo" has had a chat with a Japanese astronaut on the ISS. The robot, also from Japan, is designed to process questions and construct answers from its vocabulary bank, as opposed to regurgitating preprogrammed responses. Asked if he could handle zero-gravity conditions, the...
Accelerometers, GPS receivers and other sensors in your smartphone let you track your outdoor activities in ways that go beyond just the common map. In this week's All Things Appy, we take a look at the top five free apps for exploring, including options for fine-tuning your GPS, measuring headings ...
For the third time in three years, computers at The Washington Post came under attack by hackers, but this time it seems the paper was ready for them. The intrusion targeting the usernames and passwords of Post employees was relatively short in duration -- a few days, at most. No subscriber informat...
A task force set up by President Obama to review the National Security Agency's surveillance activities has suggested a list of what it calls "significant" reforms, including restrictions on spying. Among the recommendations: changes in surveillance of both U.S. and non-U.S. citizens to protect thei...
The Smithsonian American Art Museum this week announced the addition of two video games to its permanent collection: the 2009 title Flower by Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago of the Thatgamecompany; and the 2010 title Halo 2600 by Ed Fries, former head of Microsoft Games Studios. These new acquisitio...
A Chinese citizen was sentenced to three years in U.S. prison for trying to smuggle American-made microchips to China. The man, Philip Chaohui He, was targeted in a 2011 sting at a Los Angeles-area port. He was nabbed while approaching a Chinese freighter, toting with him 200 radiation-hardened micr...
You can almost date a hotel room's last remodel by the number and location of jacks. In the old days, you'd be lucky to find a usable power outlet -- one that wasn't taken up with lamps or TV. Plug-in phone jacks were nonexistent. We then went to bedside phone jacks and later to desktop phone jacks ...
Google on Tuesday released XE 12, the latest update to its Google Glass product. One of its new features lets users take a photo with a wink. "If I were Google, I'd keep quiet about ... how quickly people can take photos of unsuspecting targets," said Joshua Flood, an analyst at ABI Research. Privac...