Facebook thinks millions of people are cheating it out of ad views. Using Facebook is a trade. You get a way to socialize over the Internet, and the company gets to rent out your eyeballs to advertisers. But today Facebook signaled that …Continue reading
How to Operate Your Smart Watch with the Same Hand That Wears It
Researchers used a smart watch’s existing sensors to add gesture controls like pinching and waving. Smart watches aren’t exactly models of efficiency—they require one hand to operate while the other wrist wears it. A team of Carnegie Mellon University researchers figured there …Continue reading
China’s Xiaomi Unveils Its Answer to VR
Users will be able to customize an inexpensive mobile headset with cloth covers. Chinese mobile giant Xiaomi has revealed its first virtual-reality headset, and like the rest of the company’s products, it’s built to appeal to a wide audience. The Mi VR …Continue reading
This Is the Robot Maid Elon Musk Is Funding
Inside a secretive AI nonprofit backed by Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley figures, a handful of robots designed to help out in warehouses are gradually learning how to do useful household chores. OpenAI, which was created to do basic AI research, …Continue reading
$32 Billion Buyout of ARM Is a Giant Bet on the Internet of Things
The Japanese telecom and Internet company SoftBank is taking control of technology that powers most of the world’s mobile devices (and increasingly more besides). The Japanese telecom and Internet company SoftBank is gaining control of technology used to run most of the …Continue reading
Facebook Has a Plan to Take Cellular Data to the Sticks
Project aims to place access points in trees and lampposts to pump 4G data into remote communities. Facebook has launched a new open source wireless access platform called OpenCellular that will provide both hardware and software to set up small-scale cellular networks. …Continue reading
Control Your Smartphone with Your Eyes
Researchers are making mobile software that could let you rely on eye movements to play games (or do other things). In an effort to make eye tracking cheap, compact, and accurate enough to be included in smartphones, a group of researchers is …Continue reading
Can a Social-Media Algorithm Predict a Terror Attack?
Researchers unpacked how terrorists use social media, then built an algorithm that could help us predict future events. Monitoring social media seems like an obvious way of predicting events such as a protest or a terrorist attack, but it has so far …Continue reading
Mobile This App Knows Just the Right Emoji for Any Occasion
Emoji add pictorial sparkle to typed conversations; an image of a tiny slice of pizza or a cheeseburger, for instance, makes a simple question like “What’s for dinner?” a little more fun to ask. Hunting for the right one to express a …Continue reading
Why Oculus and HTC Need to Watch Out for Sony in VR
Sony announced earlier this week at the E3 gaming trade show in Los Angeles that its forthcoming virtual-reality headset, PlayStation VR, will come out on October 13. At $399 (or, more realistically, $500 for a bundle that includes a pair of motion-tracking …Continue reading