Emerging Tech

Google this week announced a hardware initiative to design and build new quantum information processors based on superconducting electronics. The effort is related to the launch last year of its Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab. Physicist John Martinis, winner of the 2014 Fritz London Memorial Pr...

Pharmaceutical giant AbbVie on Wednesday announced it was teaming up with Google-funded Calico, the life sciences initiative aimed at helping patients deal with diseases and other negative effects associated with aging. Under the terms of the partnership, both AbbVie and Calico will invest up to $25...

Samsung and Oculus on Wednesday unveiled the Gear VR -- a virtual reality wireless headset optimized for Samsung's Galaxy Note 4 phablet, also announced Wednesday. The Gear VR -- or "Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition," as Oculus describes it -- will be compatible with a wide range of film, gaming, 3...

Leap Motion last week announced a virtual reality headset developer mount for Oculus Rift and a new API that together will take the VR game to new heights. The API feeds raw infrared imagery straight from Leap's sensors to the controller on the headset, giving users a real time view of the environme...

A very interesting book just hit the market. Written by Martine Rothblatt -- apparently she is America's top paid female CEO -- its title is Virtually Human: The Promise -- and the Peril -- of Digital Immortality. The subject is digital clones, and Rothblatt goes into depth about what they are, when...

A current trend among smartphone makers is to thrust a sapphire screen onto the face. Among the 17 million rumors regarding the next iPhone is that it will feature such a display -- the camera and Touch ID components already feature sapphire. Until Apple reveals the truth about its next smartphone, ...

Samsung and LG both announced brand-new smartwatches on Wednesday in the run-up to next week's IFA 2014 consumer electronics trade show in Berlin. Featuring a sleek, curved Super AMOLED display along with 3G, Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, the Samsung Gear S runs Tizen and allows users to make an...

A team of university researchers have been busy building Robo Brain, a large-scale computational system that collates information from the Internet, as well as data from computer simulations and real-life robot trials, and learns from it. That knowledge base will be used to drive prototypes for robo...

Instagram has released Hyperlapse, a free iOS app that takes the jitters out of time-lapse video. Just two weeks ago, Microsoft demonstrated a similar technology that bears the same name. The Instagram app "is the most impressive effect to hit smartphone video in recent memory," said tech analyst Ro...

An update to the software that runs Glass gives users of Google's wearable computing device more control over their interactions with contacts. The latest version of the software -- also known as version XE20.1 -- adds the flexibility to choose how to reach out to a contact after selecting the perso...

HOT TECH RUMOR

'iWatch' Could Be Late for a Very Important Date

There is a chance that Apple may be forced to postpone the launch of the hotly anticipated "iWatch" or health band -- perhaps pushing it back to 2015. Apple apparently is facing wide-ranging production issues involving components, system design, manufacturing, and integration between hardware and so...

Specs of the forthcoming Moto 360 smartwatch from Motorola appeared briefly on a Best Buy Web page this week, sparking increased chatter about the device. Concerns about price -- the watch was listed at $250 -- tempered the usual gasps of delight from geeks. Amazon lists a Samsung Galaxy Gear for $1...

Aloft Hotels this week announced the launch of a new, robotic "butler" at the company's Cupertino, Calif., location. Dubbed "A.L.O.," the new botlr, or robotic butler, is designed to help the hotel's human staff by delivering amenities to guest rooms. A.L.O. comes professionally "dressed" in a custo...

As an analyst in a market of experts, I'm known as a generalist, but if I have an area of particular focus, it is how to make customers love you. In the car space, there are two emerging vendors on the world stage: India's Tata, which now owns brands like Jaguar and Land Rover; and Tesla, the domina...

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