technology

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Dear Self-Righteous Hikers, Enough With the Tech Shaming

Essayist at 'Outside' is tired of the judgy comments, often directed at newbies

(Newser) - A warning to anyone who uses a phone on a hike, a run, or any other kind of outdoor activity: You will be judged. In an essay at Outside , Marissa Stephenson writes that it's time for the tech shaming to stop. Stephenson listens to podcasts when she runs, and...

Say Goodbye to the World's Oldest Webcam

The FogCam in San Francisco will soon be no more

(Newser) - Dewy-eyed tech lovers, we're sorry: The FogCam is coming down. After 25 years, the world's oldest-known webcam will be removed from its perch at San Francisco State University campus, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Jeff Schwartz and Dan Wong set it up in 1994 while studying computer science...

Amazon Offers Gift Cards in Exchange for Body Scans

Project is for internal research only, those who sign up are told

(Newser) - Amazon is enlisting participants for an image study in New York. In exchange for undergoing a 30-minute digital 3D scan of their bodies, Mashable reports, volunteers receive a $25 gift card. Photos, 3D scans, and videos of study participants, both clothed and in "form-fitting" swimwear, are taken, per the...

3 Win Tech's Nobel Prize for Work Once Deemed 'Nonsense'

Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton, Yann LeCun take home Turing Award for work in AI 'neural networks'

(Newser) - Computers have become so smart during the past 20 years that people don't think twice about chatting with digital assistants like Alexa and Siri or seeing their friends automatically tagged in Facebook pictures. But making those quantum leaps from science fiction to reality required hard work from computer scientists...

Warren: Time to Bust Up Google, Amazon

Presidential candidate is going after the giants of tech

(Newser) - Elizabeth Warren wants a fair playing field in the marketplace—and she's going after Big Tech to make it happen. "To restore the balance of power in our democracy, to promote competition, and to ensure that the next generation of technology innovation is as vibrant as the last,...

This Technology Is Too Good —and Scary—to Be Released

The nonprofit OpenAI has created a text generator from heaven, and hell

(Newser) - Makers of a new AI system say it's so good they're keeping it hidden away—for our own protection, the Guardian reports. Called GPT2, the text generator ably produces news articles and fiction stories when fed only a few words; it can also summarize long articles (uh-oh!),...

Massive FaceTime Privacy Flaw Revealed

Apple bug let users eavesdrop in secret

(Newser) - Anyone might've gained access to a FaceTime user's conversations and live camera footage via a bug Apple is now racing to fix. The website 9to5Mac first reported Monday that a bug in Apple's Group FaceTime feature allowed an iPhone or iPad user to call another user and...

Report: Favorite Flip Phone Making a Comeback

New Motorola Razr will sell for $1.5K, reports 'WSJ'

(Newser) - Still longing for your Motorola Razr flip phone? Good news. A new version of the ultrathin phone, hugely popular upon its 2004 release, is expected to hit the market as soon as next month. Lenovo-owned Motorola is currently performing tests on the $1,500 model to be released in an...

Zuckerberg Reveals His 2019 Personal Challenge

He'll have a role in debates on future tech 'every few weeks'

(Newser) - Mark Zuckerberg set the lofty goal to "fix" Facebook in 2018 . "Proud of the progress we've made" but with work still to do, he's now eying the tech industry at large, reports CNN . "My challenge for 2019 is to host a series of public discussions...

The $7M Legwear to Turn US Troops Into 'Super Soldiers'

ONYX exoskeleton being developed by Lockheed Martin to reduce weight, help troops move better

(Newser) - The Army is pushing for a new generation of "super soldiers," and critical in that effort is a cutting-edge technology first used to help people with serious medical conditions (e.g., multiple sclerosis, osteoarthritis) stay on the move. Reuters reports the Pentagon is pumping nearly $7 million into...

Device That Makes Water From Thin Air Wins $1.5M Prize

It creates rainstorms in shipping containers

(Newser) - It started out modestly enough: David Hertz, having learned that under the right conditions you really can make your own water out of thin air, put a little contraption on the roof of his office and began cranking out free bottles of H2O for anyone who wanted one. Soon he...

Man Who Helped Shape the Computer Age Is Gone
Microsoft Co-Founder
Is Dead at 65
OBITUARY

Microsoft Co-Founder Is Dead at 65

Paul G. Allen is gone

(Newser) - Paul G. Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Bill Gates before becoming a billionaire philanthropist who invested in conservation, space travel, and professional sports, died Monday. He was 65, the AP reports. His death was announced by his company, Vulcan Inc. Earlier this month Allen announced that the...

The Super-Wealthy Are Prepping for a Cataclysmic Future

The 'future of technology' has devolved into a view of humans as liabilities

(Newser) - Douglas Rushkoff opens his Medium article with a pretty intense anecdote: Rushkoff is regularly invited to give talks on the future of technology and was offered a massive fee to be a keynote speaker last year. But this was no normal speech. He was led into a room that consisted...

Apple and Samsung Settle Epic Patent Infringement Battle

The companies filed a notice in federal court that they have agreed to drop the case

(Newser) - An epic legal battle between smartphone titans is finally over. Apple and Samsung have settled their seven-year patent dispute over Apple’s allegations that Samsung copied the iPhone’s design and software, reports CNN . Terms were not available, but according to the Wall Street Journal , the companies filed a notice...

It's a Chair. No, It's a Bulletproof Vest

Seattle inventor's seat converts into a life-saving device

(Newser) - An enterprising attorney has created a portable chair that converts to a bullet-proof vest, for use in schools and entertainment venues. Aaron Ansel came up with the idea for the CoverMeSeat following the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. "I just thought, is there any sort of technology-based...

US Again Has World's Most Powerful Supercomputer

Summit will study everything from Alzheimer’s disease to supernovas

(Newser) - The Department of Energy is introducing a supercomputer that it believes is the world’s fastest, which would put the US at the head of the pack in a twice-a-year official ranking of the world’s 500 fastest computers . As the Wall Street Journal points out, the competition for fastest...

One Airline Just Ditched Windows in First Class

Emirates Airlines is giving them 'virtual windows' instead

(Newser) - This may not be good news to white-knuckle flyers, but Dubai-based Emirates Airlines is testing a new kind of flight experience—one without windows. Instead of looking through actual windows, passengers in the first-class cabin of Emirates’ newest Boeing 777-300ER aircraft will view the outside via images projected by fiber-optic...

3 Quotes That Explain Apple's iPhone Battery Confession

It is indeed slowing down older phones

(Newser) - Apple on Thursday copped to something users have long suspected: It slows down older iPhones. While conspiracy theorists have suggested it was part of a planned obsolescence gambit, Apple says it is, on the contrary, trying to make sure older phones continue to work. The admission came after Geekbench , a...

Twitter Rolls Out Long-Awaited Feature

The company is making it easier to post and read threads

(Newser) - Reading tweetstorms is about to become a whole lot easier. Coming off the heels of the controversial decision to expand its character limit, Twitter announced Tuesday that it will be rolling out a threads feature over the next few weeks. Threads, which the company describes as “stitching Tweets...

Snap's Futuristic Sunglasses Apparently a Massive Fail

Hundreds of thousands of camera-fitted Spectacles said to be gathering dust in warehouses

(Newser) - A misstep for Snap? Citing "two people close to the company," the Information reports hundreds of thousands of its camera-equipped Spectacles released last fall are sitting unused in warehouses because of low demand, despite CEO Evan Spiegel's recent claim that some 150,000 sales had surpassed company...

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