The Latest and Greatest in Technology News
Microsoft and Google find common ground to build Angular 2
On in Cool Tech, Industry News.
If you had told me Microsoft and Google would collaborate on a major JavaScript framework a year ago, I wouldn’t have believed you, but today the company announced the unlikely pairing.
At ng-conf in Salt Lake City, the Angular team announced that it’s been working closely with Microsoft’s TypeScript team to build Angular 2 and converge the TypeScript and AtScript languages. READ MORE
U.S. chief technology officer Todd Park is stepping down (updated)
On in Cool Tech, Industry News, Working with Recruiters.
Updated (8:11 p.m. PST): Updated with confirmation of Park’s departure via an independent source that spoke with VentureBeat.
If there’s one thing most folks in the tech industry can agree on, it’s that there aren’t nearly enough technology-minded individuals helping to run the government.
The U.S. government’s chief technology officer Todd Park plans to do something about it, which is why Park has decided to step down from his position, VentureBeat can now confirm. The news was initially reported by Fortune.
Confused? Don’t be. READ MORE
Digital Library Wallpaper lets visitors ‘borrow’ ebooks by scanning your walls
On in Cool Tech, Industry News.
Experiments like Night Film have blurred the lines between physical books and digital content, but a project by Vodafone Romania and furniture retailer MobExpert blur the lines between paper books, ebooks, and interior decoration. Digital Library Wallpaper is exactly what it sounds like: a flat representation of books bearing QR codes on their spines. READ MORE
Having High-Tech Gadgets Is a Career-Booster, Says Study
On in Career Assistance, Cool Tech, Industry News.
Always using the latest high-tech gadget is one way to boost your image at work, new research suggests.
Indeed, business professionals who want to be perceived as leaders should be investing in the latest technology breakthroughs, according to a study published recently in The Journal of Product Innovation Management.
“Familiarity with and usage of new high-tech products appears to be a common manifestation of innovative behavior,” the study’s authors wrote. “Those who are tech-savvy are also perceived as authoritative on other subjects and as leaders.” READ MORE
Amazon Dash Is a Magic Wand That Makes Sure You Never Run Out of Stuff
On in Cool Tech, Industry News.
Amazon just unveiled Dash, a handheld Wi-Fi magic wand thingy that helps you keep your AmazonFresh shopping list forever up to date. Never run out of toilet paper or oatmeal again!
The handheld Dash device, about the size of a Nintendo Wii remote, packs a barcode scanner and a microphone, allowing you to scan or say what you’re running low on without having to leave your kitchen. READ MORE
The Ring Input Device Puts Gesture Control And Home Automation On Your Finger
On in Cool Tech, Industry News.
There was once a rumor that Apple would actually use a ring device for input to an Apple television. Neither of those gadgets exist yet, of course, but Ring is a Kickstarter project trying to fund a finger-based wearable that could enable the kind of controls envisioned in that Apple flight of fancy.
The Ring is a hardware device that resembles an ordinary (if slightly chunky) ring, filled with sensors and electronics to give it the ability to control devices and render input. It can enable gesture controls, of the kind you’d get with a Wii remote, for instance, as well as text input by drawing letters in the air, gesture-based authorization for finalizing payments, and transmit alerts from connected devices via a built-in vibration motor and onboard LED. READ MORE
She’s going for speed – Teen’s science project could charge phones in 20 seconds
On in Cool Tech, Industry News.
My high school science project looked at how row covers could help plants grow in cold weather. Not a bad idea, but not nearly as cool as high school student Eesha Khare’s science project, the creation of a supercapacitor that could potentially be used to fully charge a cell phone within 20 to 30 seconds.
Khare, an 18-year-old from California, won the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award and $50,000 for her participation in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair run by the Society for Science & the Public. Think of it as the world’s largest science fair. Khare took home one of the top prizes for “a tiny device that fits inside cell phone batteries, allowing them to fully charge within 20-30 seconds.” READ MORE
Yahoo spends ‘millions’ on UK teen Nick D’Aloisio’s Summly app
On in Cool Tech, Industry News.
An app created by a UK teenager has been acquired by web giant Yahoo in a deal the BBC understands to be worth “dozens of millions” of pounds.
Seventeen-year-old Nick D’Aloisio’s Summly app summarises news stories from popular media companies.
Neither company would disclose the terms of the deal publicly.
The app itself will now close, but its features will be used in mobile products at Yahoo, where Mr D’Aloisio has been given a job. … READ MORE
So You Think You Can Beat Samsung?
On in Cool Tech, Industry News, Mobile News.
Meet the tiny, Florida-based phone maker that thinks it can beat Samsung
One cheap, high-end, unlocked smartphone at a time
Sammy Ohev-Zion starts our chat with an economics lesson. It costs every company about the same amount to manufacture a phone, he says — the price of an Nvidia processor and a Sharp display is consistent whether HTC, Nokia, or Motorola is signing the check. But those costs are only a small piece of the price you wind up paying when you walk into a Verizon store and buy that phone…READ MORE
China Military Hacker – Not like the movie Hackers…at all!
On in Cool Tech, Just For Fun.
What It’s Like to Be a Chinese Military Hacker
All-black stealth suits, fingers flying across keyboards, screams of unintelligible jargon at Matrix-style lines of code. These are the things that generally come to mind when you hear the phrase “foreign military hacking unit”—or at least the mind of anyone who’s seen a movie in the past 10 years. But as the Los Angeles Times discovered when they stumbled across the blog of...READ MORE
