X Prize aims to challenge inventors into creating technologies that could benefit mankind, but it can’t design competitions for every problem out there. That’s where its spin-off company called HeroX comes in. HeroX is a platform similar to Kickstart…
Technical
Bitcoin’s tech could be used to prevent digital gift card fraud
Bitcoin may linger on the fringes of the mainstream, but plenty of companies are casting envious eyes towards the technology that underpins it. Just days after IBM announced a plan to use the blockchain as the basis for its own payments platform, Gyf…
NASA’s testing its far-out electric plane concept
NASA’s set to test a wing concept it says “may herald (the) future” of electric planes, but it almost looks like a joke — it has one-third the wing area of a normal aircraft and 18 electric motors. However, the space agency is dead serious about the…
Google open-sourcing the software behind its Fiber TV box
SageTV was one of the original streaming companies and sold a DVR box, home theater PC software, and even a Sling-like place-shifting app. But since Google acquired it in 2011, all that technology has been off the market and limited to Google Fiber T…
NASA wants your help hunting for asteroids
“Asteroid hunters”. It sounds like Hollywood blockbuster / straight-to-DVD ‘classic’ that probably already exists, but now you, yes you, can be one… albeit from your PC. NASA has launched a desktop app that recruits civilians to help identify aster…
Ultrasound helps destroy Alzheimer’s-causing plaque in mice
Alzheimer’s is a degenerative disease often characterized by severe memory loss, and even though it effects more than 5 million people in the United States (with an uptick expected as the Baby Boomer generation ages), it remains notoriously difficult…
Sprint will cover whatever it costs you to switch carriers
Sprint still really, really wants you to switch to its phone network. To that end, it just launched an offer that reimburses whatever it costs you to hop aboard, whether it’s a contract termination fee or device installment payments — there’s no cap…
Lockheed is getting into the reusable spacecraft business
Far and away, the most expensive part of manned spaceflight involves just getting the payload off the ground. But as humanity expands its extraterrestrial influence beyond the International Space Station to the moon, Mars and beyond, space-faring nat…
Twitter’s limiting a video competitor’s access to its social framework
Not too long after Twitter bought its own live-video streaming company, it’s cutting off the competition’s access to its infrastructure. We’re talking about the new, social-broadcast video darling Meerkat, of course. As Buzzfeed’s sources tell it, th…
3D-printed Iron Man gauntlet becomes a kid’s awesome bionic arm
It looks like Iron Man’s arm, but it’s actually a fully-functioning bionic prosthetic for a seven-year-old kid. Electronically wired and capable of moving, it can, for instance, open and close its hand if the user flexes their bicep. The limb was cre…
‘Titanfall’ sequel headed to more than just Xbox and Windows
Standby for Titanfall, PlayStation 4 owners. The crumbs from the game’s first birthday cake are just starting to get crunchy, and developer Respawn Entertainment’s dropped news that there’s a sequel in the works. What’s more, it’s shedding Windows an…
Here is VAIO’s first smartphone
No longer a part of Sony, VAIO likes the look of that smartphone market, and has decided it’s going to go up against its former parent company’s Xperia series with its own creation — one that looks very familiar to our smartphone-seasoned eyes. It’s…
Snapchat reportedly gets $200 million from China’s online shopping giant
Think you get a lot of value out of Snapchat’s disappearing messages, payments and stories? You’re not the only one. Bloomberg sources claim that Alibaba, China’s online shopping behemoth, plans to invest $200 million into Snapchat on the assumption …
Twitter profiles on Android look much better now
Twitter’s mobile app has seen a fair bit of newness as of late, and its latest tweak brings the Android version’s profile pages in line with iOS’. What’s so different? Let’s start at the top. Header images and avatar photos have gotten a bump in size…
Apple invests $50 million to get more minorities working in tech
Just like Intel, Apple is also pledging millions of dollars to various initiatives in an effort to make its workforce a lot more diverse than it has been these past years. When its diversity report was published in 2014, Tim Cook promised to be “inno…