For many of us, smart homes seem like a far off concept from a science fiction novel set hundreds of years in the future. Imagine things like appliances that learn our schedules, lights that turn off after we leave a room, locks that can be remotely…
Technical
UC Irvine School of Medicine outfits students with Google Glass
Medical schools have been eyeing Google Glass for some time, but the UC Irvine School of Medicine is making the device a standard tool for its four-year program. Starting this month, third- and fourth-year med students will sport ten of Mountain…
Hollywood, Amazon and your local realtor are fighting to legalize drones
In the United States it’s legal for you to take your A.R Drone out for a spin around the neighborhood, but if you want to use one to shoot a car chase on a closed movie set you’d be breaking the law. The use of commercial drones is a complicated…
Volkswagen introduces 10-speed transmission for better fuel efficiency
When it comes to gas mileage, Volkswagen’s always had a competitive lineup of vehicles. Even still, the company wants to improve its fuel economy by 15 percent across the board come 2020. As part of said initiative, VW Group development boss…
Germany wants Google to stop sharing customer data between services
Google’s privacy-related woes in Europe aren’t over just because France has issued a fine over a lack of transparency — if anything, they’re getting worse. Germany now says it will order the search firm to stop pooling user data, such as search…
Don’t freak out: Firefox is testing advertisements in new tabs
You know those rectangles that appear when you open a new tab in the Firefox internet browser? They show your most frequently visited websites — convenient! — but soon they’ll also show a mélange of Firefox sites “and other useful sites on the…
Cyberbullying: Are you just as brave in person?
Cyberbullying: Your biggest challenge is going to be to control yourself to only pay attention to the items that are issues and not intrude entirely in your kids lives.
‘Weird’ email marketing subject lines can increase your open rate nearly 50%
Joystiq Weekly: overdrive the sunset, a million dark souls and sample Destiny
Welcome to the Joystiq Weekly wrap-up where we present some of the best stories and biggest gaming news from our sister-publication….
Self-healing plastic bleeds when cut, and that’s a good thing
Wouldn’t it be great if everything was as good at healing itself as our own skin? That’s the concept behind a new self-healing plastic that’s been developed over at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Unlike ordinary plastics, this one…
Recommended Reading: Star Wars visuals and Square’s data gold mine
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you’ll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. The Man Who Literally…
Whatever happened to Netscape?
Netscape’s story reads like a proper fairy tale: takeovers, fierce and hostile competition, split-ups, a giant payout and even a dragon! While Netscape may now only be a sweet, sweet memory to those who used it to first discover the web, the…
Big risk marketing: You lose 100% of the races you don’t enter
Companies like Virgin America, IKEA, and AT&T, and brands like Old Spice and Hydroxycut are betting big and winning big in marketing.
Google now lets you use Chrome apps to open files on your Mac
Although Google has quietly been working to bring Chrome apps to the desktop, you’ve not been able click a file and have it open inside a browser extension. According to Chrome tinkerer François Beaufort, that’s all about to change, after the search…
Solar Highways wants $1 million to turn the US’ roads into an energy farm
At some point, you’ve probably sat back and said “Couldn’t we solve climate change and the broader energy crisis just by sticking solar panels to everything?” It’s not a bad idea, mind, but the cost and resistance to such a scheme would make it a…