Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock Though television has existed for well under a century, its mark on culture and society is indelible and undeniable. Last week, we described how TV got to where it is today: by traveling a winding road of antennas, black and white broadcasts, news and game shows, broadcast formats, reels, and remotes. These days, TV as we’ve known it is facing a confusing time. After a long, comfortable, monogamous … [Read more...]
Google director: Early adoption is for rich chumps
June 18, 2013 by
Ray Kurzweil, a director of engineering at Google, addressing the crowd at the GF 2045 conference. Casey Johnston Rich people get all the cool stuff first—or so we in the middle class grumble and gripe to one another. Cell phones, laptops, smartphones, and now Google Glass (if applicants managed to both present a convincing case and pony up $1,500) all end up in the hands of the wealthy first. But Google Director of … [Read more...]
AT&T will rescue your dying phone with a solar-power charging station
June 18, 2013 by
The standing solar charger AT&T is touring around New York. AT&T is sponsoring 25 solar-powered charging stations across the five boroughs of New York City, the New York Times reported Tuesday. The stations, which look like fan blades mounted atop a 12.5-foot-pole, will be installed in outdoor locations like parks and beaches and will rotate to new places through October. The solar-paneled structures can charge up to six devices at a … [Read more...]
Instagram will add video-sharing, according to reports
June 17, 2013 by
Vine's six-second-video paradigm may be so good that Instagram and Facebook are about to copy it. Casey Johnston TechCrunch is reporting that Instagram and Facebook are planning to start letting users take and share short videos from within the Instagram app. The feature would mimic the functionality of Vine, the embattled video creation app that launched a few months ago. Matthew Keys reported a few weeks ago that … [Read more...]
Microsoft pays “$100,000 or more” to get devs coding for Windows Phone
June 14, 2013 by
Windows Phone is a hard-sell effort for developers, but Microsoft has the goods to make it worth their while. Microsoft is paying developers up to $100,000 to get their applications over to the Windows Phone 8 platform, according to a report from Bloomberg Businessweek. This is in addition to a promotion the company is running where it will pay any developer to get their app into the Windows Store ASAP in an effort to catch up to the … [Read more...]
NASA offers money to startups that can solve space-travel problems
June 13, 2013 by
NASA has announced plans to fund startups that help the organization's quest to develop new technology for healthcare and medical needs both in space and on Earth, according to an announcement Tuesday from the National Space Biomedical Research Institute Industry Forum. The funding program, named SMARTCAP ACCEL, will give no-strings-attached grants to companies that target a list of areas and fit a certain number of criteria. NASA is focusing in … [Read more...]
