In December 2021, just before CES, the world’s leading tech event, Dell introduced Concept Luna, a reimagining of the laptop PC that focuses on repairability. Modern laptops are notoriously difficult (and sometimes impossible) to repair, a problem Luna’s designers address by reducing the number of screws to four and avoiding permanent adhesives. Instead, many components […]
While most of us have been adjusting to the arrival of 5G networks in the world around us, Roger Nichols has been thinking about 6G. Nichols is the 6G program manager at Keysight, a California-based test and measurement equipment manufacturer. In other words, Keysight is one of the companies that builds the tools the rest […]
Barbara Campbell was walking through a New York City subway station during rush hour when her world abruptly went dark. For four years, Campbell had been using a high-tech implant in her left eye that gave her a crude kind of bionic vision, partially compensating for the genetic disease that had rendered her completely blind […]
Andrew Ng has serious street cred in artificial intelligence. He pioneered the use of graphics processing units (GPUs) to train deep learning models in the late 2000s with his students at Stanford University, cofounded Google Brain in 2011, and then served for three years as chief scientist for Baidu, where he helped build the Chinese […]
Quantum computing is a devilishly complex technology, with many technical hurdles impacting its development. Of these challenges two critical issues stand out: miniaturization and qubit quality. IBM has adopted the superconducting qubit road map of reaching a 1,121-qubit processor by 2023, leading to the expectation that 1,000 qubits with today’s qubit form factor is feasible. […]
The government of Chile is taking a stand: Its citizens must be protected from technologies that are capable of mind control, mind reading, or any other nefarious interference with their brains. While such concerns used to be relegated to conspiracy-theory chat rooms and science fiction, now they’re subject to debate by senators. Thanks to a […]
A wallet to hold bitcoins—or other cryptocurrencies—is not at all a new idea. Basically a souped-up flash drive, these gadgets hold a private key, protected by a pin or passcode, that allows a user to securely access cryptocurrency data; the data itself lives in the blockchain. Some of these “wallets” have their own displays, some […]
Elon Musk’s brain tech company, Neuralink, is subject to rampant speculation and misunderstanding. Just start a Google search with the phrase “can Neuralink…” and you’ll see the questions that are commonly asked, which include “can Neuralink cure depression?” and “can Neuralink control you?” Musk hasn’t helped ground the company’s reputation in reality with his public […]
Elon Musk’s brain tech company, Neuralink, is subject to rampant speculation and misunderstanding. Just start a Google search with the phrase “can Neuralink…” and you’ll see the questions that are commonly asked, which include “can Neuralink cure depression?” and “can Neuralink control you?” Musk hasn’t helped ground the company’s reputation in reality with his public […]
Feeling tired? Applying electricity to a nerve in the neck with a handheld device can reduce fatigue and improve multitasking in sleep-deprived people, according to a new study conducted on U.S. Air Force volunteers. Previous research found that electrically stimulating the brain with a technique known as transcranial direct current stimulation can improve mental performance […]