technology news stories on Newser

Scientists Set Record for Ultra-Fast WiFi

Dustin Lushing — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:25:05 CDT

Japanese scientists have set a whopping record for wireless data speeds—20 times faster than typical WiFi—by using an unconventional part of the electromagnetic spectrum known as the "T-ray" band. The researchers were able to transmit data at 3 gigabytes per second. "T-ray" technology could eventually lighten the load...

Coming Soon: X-Ray Phones

Kevin Spak — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:41:45 CDT

Soon, your phone could let you see through walls, superhero-style. Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have devised a way of harnessing the terahertz band of the electromagnetic spectrum with inexpensive microchips much like those already found in most consumer electronics, and a way of creating images from...

Quiet Startup Might Change Business of Online Video

Dustin Lushing — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 07:37:07 CDT

There's a startup company you've probably never heard of, but chances are you've seen its work, writes Michael Humphrey in Forbes . It's called Ooyala, and it powers an enormous number of videos across the web. ESPN highlights, Miramax movies, videos that appear on the sites of Rolling Stone , TV Guide...

Instagram Hits 40M Users

Dustin Lushing — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:33:59 CDT

Instagram signed up 10 million more users—bringing its total to 40 million—in just the past 10 days. The retro-styling, photo-sharing app was the talk of tech after releasing a version for Android and then getting scooped up by Facebook for $1 billion, reports SlashGear . Instagram launched for the...

Google Shows Off High-Tech Computer 'Glasses'

John Johnson — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:18:23 CDT

That report in the New York Times several weeks ago was right on the money: Google is working on a pair of "eyeglasses" that functions as a computer of sorts. The company today unveiled Project Glass with a post on Google Plus , notes PCMag.com . A person straps on the...

Luddite: I Wish I Had Embraced Technology

John Johnson — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:52:16 CDT

Aaron Traister cultivated a technology-is-evil image growing up and shunned one advance after another, from video games to beepers to iPods to Facebook. (His was a Betamax family.) Now, at age 33, Traister writes in Salon that he feels woefully behind the rest of the world. He realizes that...

Scientists Developing GPS for the Galaxy

Dustin Lushing — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:55:09 CDT

A GPS in a car can precisely navigate a city, but what if a GPS in a spaceship could precisely navigate our galaxy? German scientists are developing that very gadgetry, reports the BBC . This interstellar mapping system would use X-ray signals from pulsars, a type of dead star that rotates...

Time to Banish CAPS LOCK

Dustin Lushing — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:37:47 CST

The computer keyboard may be an essential tool of daily life, but everybody is driven nuts by at least one aspect of it, writes Matthew J.X. Malady at Slate . He offers some suggested tweaks:

Rumor: An iPhone 5 Summer

Dustin Lushing — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:19:08 CST

A fresh new rumor declares an iPhone 5 launch this summer with a screen enlarged to at least 4 inches (compared to 3.5 inches on the iPhone 4S). Prototypes of the iPhone 5 are apparently "floating around," claims the Apple-centric blog 9to5Mac , which is getting its info from a...