News

Smartphones Are Killing the Planet Faster Than Anyone Expected

A new study from researchers at McMaster University published in the Journal of Cleaner Production analyzed the carbon impact of the whole Information and Communication Industry (ICT) from around 2010-2020, including PCs, laptops, monitors, smartphones, and servers. They found remarkably bad news. Even as the world shifts away from giant tower PCs toward tiny, energy-sipping phones, the overall environmental impact of technology is only getting worse.

Early thoughts on Uber’s flying car from an aviation engineer

Spying on a Storm’s Infrasonic Signals to Improve Tornado Warnings

Google launches the third version of its A.I. chips, an alternative to Nvidia’s

Google Duplex will call salons, restaurants, and pretend to be human for you [Updated]

NASA’s Orion spacecraft getting closer to finally flying again

It has been a long three-and-a-half years since the Orion spacecraft first launched into space in December 2014, making a successful shake-out flight. But now, NASA’s program aimed at building a large, deep-space capsule capable of sending astronauts to and from lunar orbit is finally ramping back up toward a series of test flights. In less than a year, a boilerplate model of the Orion spacecraft will be jettisoned from its rocket at 55 seconds after liftoff, to test the vehicle’s launch abort system.

Introducing CloudEvents 0.1 – An open effort by Google, Microsoft, IBM and more

Delivery Robots Will Rely on Human Kindness and Labor

In April, Starship Technologies announced that it is going to launch “robot delivery services for campuses.” Its goal is to deploy at least 1,000 delivery robots to “corporate and academic campuses in Europe and the U.S.” within the next year. It’s the latest in a long list of automated delivery schemes from a tech companies big and small.

Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real World Tasks Over the Phone

Google: Deep Learning for Electronic Health Records

When patients get admitted to a hospital, they have many questions about what will happen next. When will I be able to go home? Will I get better?