There may be a pretender in your next box of fruit, a fake fruit that tracks temperatures, motion and shocks to ensure your plums are sweet and hard and your peaches are pretty as can be. Created by Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, the project involves a 3D-printed apple that hides in with all the real apples and contains a number of sensors.… Read More
As we all know, the bee population is declining at an alarming rate, and while the causes are many, the solutions are few. At the very least, beekeepers need to keep an extra-close eye on their hives — which can be difficult when there are a few thousand of them. A Canadian researcher is working on a monitoring system that listens to the buzz and passes on word if things are going south. Read More
If you own a Google Home, you’re already on the cutting-edge of future-dwelling space astronauts who can shout things at their house and have it respond. Want to be even more cutting-edge? Though it hasn’t been formally announced, it looks like Google is working on a Google Home preview program that’ll grant early access to upcoming Home features to those who opt in. Read More
The Apple Watch is one slick piece of engineering — but it’s not without its faults. Amongst other things: If you want to leave your phone at home, your smartwatch is suddenly a good bit less smart. Without an iPhone nearby, it can’t pull data over the cell networks. According to the latest whispers out of the rumor mill, that might be about to change. Read More
Stories taught us the joy of dictating the pace of content consumption. We fast-forward in 10-second increments, with a quick trigger finger let loose the moment we get bored. That’s why soon, endless paragraphs of text and time-consuming videos might not be the only ways to get the news. Read More
Whether or not consumer VR becomes as widespread as many hope, there’s no denying that a lot of the current technology is a blast to try. For interested startups like Munich-based HolodeckVR perhaps the most ready opportunity is capturing the attention of amusement park-goers with attractive location-based multi-user VR experiences. Read More
Amazon has quietly launched a new feature called “Themes,” designed to make it easier for shoppers to navigate a product’s customer reviews. Now, in the Amazon mobile app, you’re able to see which words have been used the most frequently across the reviews left by other customers, and then tap a button to hop straight to a filtered selection of reviews that include… Read More
Google and other tech companies have come up with glasses and contact lenses for the purposes of AR, but Omega Ophthalmics is taking a much more invasive approach by using surgically implanted lenses to create a space for augmented reality inside the eye. Read More
Google is creating a visual publication format for media companies similar to Snapchat’s “Discover,” based on its AMP mobile optimization technology for webpages and called “Stamp,” according to a new Wall Street Journal report. The program is said to be announced as soon as next week, and could include a range of publishing partners including Vox, CNN, The… Read More
In a video out of North Carolina State University and Duke, five tiny cubes float freely under a microscope. Suddenly two pairs snap together, before all five combine into a single unit. Once together, they bend around a hinge, snapping together like Pac-Man’s jaws. The cubes approach a small, circular object — a single yeast cell — using the opening and closing motion to… Read More
Another weekend, another mechanical watch. This time we have the Commander from CJR, the company that brought us the Airspeed last year. This unique piece features an unusual curved dial and rotor-like seconds wheel that harkens back to some strange alternate future where airplanes become sentient. Early bird watches cost $449 and come on a thick leather strap. “The aircraft industry is… Read More
Facebook is testing a new way to “go live” on its social network – an option that was previously available by pressing the “Live” button on the Status update box. Now, for some users, the ability to “go live” – meaning start a live video broadcast – is appearing right within the Facebook Camera screen, alongside other options, like the… Read More
University of Virginia Assistant Professor Matthew Gerber has discovered a correlation between Tweets and crime. No, folks aren’t Tweeting that they’re going to knock over a liquor store. Instead, by looking at the GPS coordinates attached to Tweets as well as assessing a heat map of popular locations, police can predict where crime is most likely to happen.
“My initial… Read More
As Dropbox slowly gears up toward its initial public offering, it’s bringing on a longtime enterprise executive — Quentin Clark, a former VP of Microsoft as well as SAP CTO — as head of its very-long-title-where-he-will-oversee-a-ton-of-things. Read More
What’s going to happen in episode 4? It turns out that some people already know the answer. Earlier today, the fourth episode of the seventh season of Game of Thrones leaked online. You may think that it’s related to HBO’s recent hack — but it’s not. When HBO got hacked, the hackers claimed that they managed to acquire the script of this week’s Game of… Read More
Fantasy sports, and probably to an even greater extent daily fantasy sports, can be intimidating. You’re usually playing for real money, and potentially going up against people who spend countless hours researching statistics to craft the perfect lineup. Gameday, a startup part of Y Combinator’s Summer ’17 batch, wants to change this by making a few tweaks to daily fantasy… Read More
Snap Inc desperately needs ad revenue to redirect its sinking share price. So after a year of getting mercilessly copied by Facebook, Snapchat is returning the favor by launching its take on the Facebook ads Power Editor. This new “Advanced Mode” for its Snapchat Ads Manager lets big advertisers rapidly deploy complex ad campaigns with tons of creative variants. Read More
These Blue Apron layoffs come about a month after the company’s lackluster initial public offering, its co-founder and COO Matthew Wadiak stepping down and a lawsuit from a former employee. The layoffs are aimed at Blue Apron’s facility in New Jersey, where it will cut 1,270 jobs. Read More
Xfinity xFi, Comcast’s Wi-Fi management service launched this spring, is now making it easier for parents to set boundaries for internet usage in their home. The changes include the ability to put the internet “on pause” for a period of time, as well as lock down web searches so they won’t return adult-oriented results, among other things.
With the newly launched… Read More
Real talk, Level Money is the only budgeting app that has ever stuck with me. So I’m bummed to report that Level Money is shutting down on September 1. Capital One snapped up Level Money in early 2015 for an undisclosed amount. Prior to the acquisition, Level had raised $5 million and had 700,000 users (including yours truly). Read More
