In Warmup Match, Jeopardy All-Stars Defeated By IBM's Supercomputer Watson

01-19-2011 • popsci.com

Can a computer beat a human in the most challenging trivia game on TV? Today, at IBM's headquarters in New York, we learned that the answer is yes

Amber Case: We are all cyborgs now

01-17-2011 • TED Talks

Technology is evolving us, says Amber Case, as we become a screen-staring, button-clicking new version of homo sapiens. We now rely on "external brains" (cell phones and computers) to communicate, remember, even live out secondary lives.

British Company Using E-Ink to Make Tanks Invisible

01-16-2011 • Daily Telegraph

Armoured vehicles will use a new technology known as "e-camouflage" which deploys a form "electronic ink" to render a vehicle "invisible". Highly sophisticated electronic sensors attached to the tank's hull will project images of the surrounding e

Rumour Points to "Extreme" Performance of AMD's Bulldozer Microprocessors.

01-07-2011 • Anton Shilov

AMD Reportedly Wants to Revive "FX" Moniker for Desktop Chips

AMD promises all day battery life with Fusion chips

01-07-2011 • C Shanti

When the Llano (A-Series) comes out, it will deliver 500 GFLOPs. AMD claims that’s 33 times more than a single CPU had two years ago. The Intel P6000 only provides 6h24m, while AMD’s E-350 will give 10h40m of battery life. Ontario, the C-Series, w

Passware Warns of Microsoft Encryption Hole

12-12-2010 • PC Magazine

Password-recovery experts at Passware warned the security of Microsoft's Bitlocker whole-disk encryption is seriously compromised on a computer configured to use sleep mode. The same is true of the open-source TrueCrypt whole-disk encryption tool.

Air Force Unveils Fastest Defense Supercomputer, Made of 1,760 PlayStation 3s

12-09-2010 • Clay Dillow via PopSci.com

The holidays may be driving console sales, but so is the military. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has strung together 1,760 PlayStation 3 gaming systems calling itthe fastest interactive computer system in the entire DoD

3D Printer Prints its Own Upgrades

11-24-2010 • PC World

The 3D printing scene is just getting weirder and weirder as more and more 3D printers get out into the wild. Today’s 3D printing development is a series of extendable clamps that allows the MakerBot 3D printer to print larger objects. This is no

Firm Offers $2K Bounty for Open-Source Kinect Drivers

11-07-2010 • PC Magazine

Adafruit Industries is offering a $2,000 bounty to anyone who can develop an open-source driver for Microsoft's newly released Kinect, a single piece of hardware that lets players control XBox games via their bodies, without a controller.

Tired of Repetitive Arguing About Climate Change, Scientist Makes a Bot to Argue For Him

11-04-2010 • popsci.com

Getting into a climate change debate on Twitter could be even more exhausting than it sounds now that a software developer named Nigel Leck has automated the process.

New Google Tool Makes Websites Twice as Fast

11-04-2010 • technologyreview.com

The optimization tool is the latest result of Google's speed obsession and could add to the company's bottom line.

Supercomputer in China super fast: U.S. computers feel inadequate

10-28-2010 • Washington Post blog

China unveiled the Tianhe-1A, out-powering the previous supercomputer record holder, the Cray XT5 Jaguar, by computing at a rate 43% higher. The computer is "another sign of the country's growing technological prowess that is likely to set off alarms

Twenty Dying Technologies

10-22-2010 • Business Week

Very interesting list. At least 2 of these have barely got off the ground and Businessweek has already pronounced them dead.

Chinese Chip Closes In on Intel, AMD

10-22-2010 • technologyreview.com

China may finally have a processor to power a homegrown supercomputer.

Nano-Gyroscopes Will Let Cell Phones Navigate Indoors, Underground

10-09-2010 • Julie Beck via PopSci.com

Israeli researchers have created the tiniest-ever optical gyroscopes, as small as a grain of sand, but still maintaining the keen accuracy of their counterparts hundreds of times larger.

How Close Is a Workable Brain-Computer Interface?

10-09-2010 • Technology Review

Noninvasive communication between brains and computers just came a step closer.

New computers will ‘boot up in seconds’

10-04-2010 • Claudine Beaumont via Telegraph.co.uk

Wave goodbye to BIOS, say hello to UEFI, a new technology that will drastically reduce start-up times.

Stuxnet Analysis Supports Iran-Israel Connections

10-01-2010 • ThreatPost (hattip Shawn Dow)

He programmed the pump to run for 3 seconds, gently inflating a balloon attached to the pump. O'Murchu then demonstrated how a Stuxnet infected PLC would instruct the pump to run, instead, for 140 seconds, quickly bursting the balloon.

Credit Card with a Computer Inside

09-17-2010 •

A smarter credit card could mean new security features and other functionality.

Sony Shows Prototypes of a Planned 3-D VAIO Laptop

09-02-2010 • Newsfactor

Sony showed prototypes of an upcoming VAIO 3-D laptop at the IFA consumer electronics show that requires active-shutter glasses. Sony also plans to launch a 3-D TV channel. Sony is moving to add 3-D across its product line, including updates to Blu-r

Android Phones Can Substitute for Supercomputers

08-23-2010 • Priya Ganapati via WIRED

There’s an app for almost everything. Now add one that can run calculations from a supercomputer on a Nexus One phone in real time and without the need for internet connectivity.

Wi-Fi hurting children

08/16/2010 • godlikeproductions.com

TORONTO — A group of central Ontario parents is demanding their children's schools turn off wireless Internet before they head back to school next month, fearing the technology is making the kids sick. Some parents in the Barrie, Ont., area say t

OLPC’s Negroponte Offers To Help India Realize $35 Tablet

08-13-2010 • Ryan Paul via WIRED

In an open letter to the government of India, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project founder Nicholas Negroponte expressed enthusiasm for the country’s recently announced $35 tablet effort and offered to assist by making his organization’s technology an

Goodbye mouse: Apple's 'Magic Trackpad' goes on sale

07-28-2010 • AFP

Apple on Tuesday unveiled the "Magic Trackpad," a touchpad which allows a user to operate a desktop computer with finger gestures, eliminating the need for a mouse. The Magic Trackpad costs 69 US dollars in the online Apple Store.

Tan Le: A headset that reads your brainwaves

07-27-2010 • Tan Le via TED

Tan Le's astonishing new computer interface reads its user's brainwaves, making it possible to control virtual objects, and even physical electronics, with mere thoughts (and a little concentration). She demos the headset, and talks about its far-rea

Custom Proteins Drawn from Genetically Engineered Trees Expand Silicon Chips Memory Capacity

07-24-2010 • Rebecca Boyle via PopSci.com

In the future, we won't need rare-earth elements to make powerful computers. We can use poplar trees. Engineers in Israel have figured out how to use protein molecules from poplars to improve computer memory. The technique uses silica nanoparticles c

It's a Trap! Atom Corral Is a Major Step Toward Quantum Computing

07-16-2010 • Alessandra Calderin via PopSci

This maze of electrodes, known as a surface-electrode ion trap, brings us closer to building quantum computers—that is, computers that could manipulate the quantum-mechanical states of atoms to process data millions of times as fast as today’s most p