Leap Motion Gestural Interface

A company called Leap Motion has launched ‘the world’s most accurate’ 3D motion control device, which it says is 200 times more sensitive than Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral.

Computer passwords

Computer passwords need to be memorable and secure. Most people’s are the first but not the second. Researchers are trying to make it easier for them to be both.

Here’s Why Google and Facebook Might Completely Disappear in the Next 5 Years

We think of Google and Facebook as Web gorillas.  They’ll be around forever. Yet, with the rate that the tech world is moving these days, there are good reasons to think both might be gone completely in 5 – 8 years.  Not bankrupt gone, but MySpace gone.  And there’s some academic theory to back up that view, along with casual observations from recent history.

How Google Works

How Google Searches the Entire Web in Half a Second.

The Jig Is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future

After five years pursuing the social-local-mobile dream, we need a fresh paradigm for technology startups.

How iPads are made

Marketplace Shanghai Bureau Chief Rob Schmitz is only the second reporter ever to gain access to visit the factory floor at Apple’s Chinese producer Foxconn.

Will You Miss DVDs When They’re Gone?

The DVD is dead. And you helped kill it.

What happens in an internet minute

Do you know what happens in one minute on the Internet? In just one minute, more than 204 million emails are sent. Amazon rings up about $83,000 in sales. Around 20 million photos are viewed and 3,000 uploaded on Flickr. At least 6 million Facebook pages are viewed around the world. And more than 61,000 hours of music are played on Pandora while more than 1.3 million video clips are watched on YouTube.  

What Your Facebook Account Says About Your Brain

Why do some people have thousands of friends on Facebook and others have just a few? It turns out that it depends on the size of their brain. A recent study found that people with more friends have a larger orbital prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain in your forehead right above your eyes.

How the Speed of Information Has Affected Human Progress

Imagine receiving today’s newspaper…and then discovering our meandering correspondence postmarked for March 24, 2012. Or, to switch directions, imagine sending an email this afternoon…only to learn it won’t arrive until next Friday, April 13; a ten day delivery time.

LG Begins Mass Production Of World’s First Flexible E-Paper Display

LG has officially begun the process of mass producing the world’s first plastic electronic paper display (EPD) that is designed to be used in eBooks. LG’s EPD measures 6 inches and offers a resolution of 1024×768.

Facebook’s Management Secrets

Facebook currently has 3,200 employees worldwide.That number, already up from a mere dozen people in 2005, is going to grow a lot in the next couple years as Facebook begins life as a public company. Facebook’s new Menlo Park alone will eventually house 10,000 people.

The future of mobile

Smartphones and tablets will continue the rapid growth.

Competing Visions of a Computer-Controlled Future

Computers dominate how we live, work and think. For some, the technology is a boon and promises even better things to come. But others warn that there could be bizarre consequences and that humans may be on the losing end of progress.

Study: People with lots of Facebook friends more likely to be narcissists

Do you have tons of Facebook friends and often update your status? If so, you may be a narcissist, a new study suggests.

Apple: Rise Of The Gadgets (In 1 Graph)

Apple announced the new iPad. Here’s a bit of corporate context.

The Internet Has Just Finally Killed The Encyclopedia

Do you remember a simpler time when there were no computers with Internet service full of information? You actually had to leave the house and go to a library to check out one of those Encyclopedias. If you were lucky enough, and had the money, your parents might purchase a set of books from Encyclopaedia Britannica to enrich your learning experience.

The personal computer is dead

The PC is dead. Rising numbers of mobile, lightweight, cloud-centric devices don’t merely represent a change in form factor. Rather, we’re seeing an unprecedented shift of power from end users and software developers on the one hand, to operating system vendors on the other—and even those who keep their PCs are being swept along. This is a little for the better, and much for the worse.

How our mobiles became Frankenstein’s monster

As always, Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest mobile telephone extravaganza, is being held in Barcelona this year. But it really should be held in Geneva, close to where Mary Shelley created Frankenstein.

How Much Do They Know About Me In The ‘Cloud’?

What do Google’s computers and Facebook’s, and Amazon’s, and Verizon’s, and all the other Internet servers know about me?

Robot Quadrotors Perform James Bond Theme

Flying robot quadrotors perform the James Bond Theme by playing various instruments including the keyboard, drums and maracas, a cymbal, and the debut of an adapted guitar built from a couch frame.

The Raspberry Pi: reviving the lost art of children’s computer programming

A generation of kids with little idea of what makes their prized gadgets tick could be given the coding bug by this computer.

Twitter partners with Datasift to unlock tweet archive

Companies are now able to search and analyse up to two years of Twitter updates for market research purposes.

Google knows too much about you

If you use Google, and I know you do, you may have noticed a little banner popping up at the top of the page announcing: “We’re changing our privacy policy and terms.” It gives you the choice to “Learn More” or, another option, the one I’m betting most people followed, to “Dismiss.”

The Numbers Behind Humanity’s YouTube Addiction

According to Google, one hour of web video is uploaded to YouTube each second. This short animation straight from the horse’s mouth does the rest of the math, complete with cute visualizations to help viewers wrap their heads around the crazy data.

Internet Study: Facebook Fatigue is Spreading

GlobalWebIndex, one of the world’s most detailed global insight studies into consumers’ online behaviour, has released the findings of its latest research which highlights both new and continuing trends in the way consumers access and use Web-based platforms.

A world without wikipedia

During the recent SOPA and PIPA protests last Wednesday, we got a glimpse of an alternative universe:  A world without Wikipedia.  Here’s a graphic created by Greg Voakes, showing this.

The Rise and Fall of Megaupload

We’re not even three weeks into the aftermath of the Megaupload shutdown, but the saga seems to unfold with a new angle or detail everyday. From Kim Dotcom’s colorful personal life to questions about the fate of non-infringing data uploaded by former Megaupload users, this story is far from over.

Is This The Future of Touchscreen Tech?

Gorilla Glass manufacturer Corning has unveiled a follow-up YouTube video to its wildly successful “A Day Made of Glass,” providing another look into what the future could be like with the growth of glass touchscreen interfaces, from innovative chalkboards and activity tables in classrooms to uses for it in hospitals.

Should you feel guilty for buying your iPhone?

Last week, The New York Times gave us an inside look at what it’s like to work at Foxconn, the manufacturing company that owns several China-based factories that crank out Apple’s iPads, iPhones and iPods by the millions.

The Internet of Things

When we think of being connected to the Internet, our minds immediately shift to our computers, phones, and most recently tablets. That’s right. There are more devices tapping into the Internet than people on Earth to use them. How is this possible?

A Numeric Breakdown Of how Bad It Is To Work At Foxconn

An investigative series by the New York Times aput the spotlight on Foxconn, the Taiwanese company whose massive Chinese factories manufacture some of the world’s most popular consumer electronics.

Printing a Home

It can take anywhere from six weeks to six months to build a 2,800-square-foot, two-story house in the U.S., mostly because human beings do all the work. Within the next five years, chances are that 3D printing (also known by the less catchy but more inclusive term additive manufacturing) will have become so advanced that we will be able to upload design specifications to a massive robot, press print, and watch as it spits out a concrete house in less than a day. Plenty of humans will be there, but just to ogle.

Kids Think Technology is Fundamentally Human

Growing up with the Internet gives today’s children a very unique view on the way the world works — one that is vastly different from that of older generations.

How much would Facebook, Google or Twitter lose if they shut down for one day?

With Wikipedia going through with its decision to shut down the site for 24 hours as part of their protest against SOPA, it’s received quite a bit of criticism in the process for the decision. The Next Web’s own Brad McCarty gave a pretty good argument for how Wikipedia could have used its site to raise awareness, in the same way it was able to raise money for its own cause.

Who You Are on Facebook Is Probably Pretty Much Who You Are

A study finds that our personalities, from the physical world to the digital, are portable.

At which games computers beat humans?

Difficulty of various games for computers.

Addicted! Scientists show how internet dependency alters the human brain

Internet addiction has for the first time been linked with changes in the brain similar to those seen in people addicted to alcohol, cocaine and cannabis. In a groundbreaking study, researchers used MRI scanners to reveal abnormalities in the brains of adolescents who spent many hours on the internet, to the detriment of their social and personal lives. The finding could throw light on other behavioural problems and lead to the development of new approaches to treatment, researchers said.

The hot tech gig of 2022: Data scientist

By the end of the decade 50 billion devices will be emitting information nonstop. Data scientists will help manage it all.

The Top 10 tech trends for 2012

From the continuing rise of tablet devices to the daily-deals craze and the return of the Internet IPO, 2011 has been a transformative year for technology.