Category: Tech news

 It’s just about impossible to get your hands on Microsoft’s impressive mixed-reality HoloLens platform these days — unless you’re a computer science student at the University of Washington. Then you get to play with them whenever you want. Read More

 Remember MCNs? Those quaint multi-channel networks — aggregators of YouTube channels — that generally focused on a specific vertical audience? In the past year or so, something curious happened — companies shied away from the “MCN” moniker. Some did so violently, contending they were never MCNs in the first place. Here the five reasons this happened. Read More

For a $180 fitness tracker, the comfy Gear Fit2 is loaded with features. The post Review: Samsung Gear Fit2 appeared first on WIRED.

 Can AI outpace the expertise of vaunted futurists like Mary Meeker or Ray Kurzweil?
The artificial intelligence system called UNU is slated to answer questions tomorrow about technology and its long-term impact on humanity via a Reddit AMA (“ask me anything” interview).
The same system accurately predicted Oscars winners, and the top four horses to win at the Kentucky Derby… Read More

 The Tango-powered (and weirdly named) Phab 2 Pro wasn’t the only crazy phone on display at Lenovo’s Tech World today. Joining it on stage was a new handset from Lenovo’s sister company, Motorola: the Moto Z, a modular smartphone that can use backpack-like accessories to double as everything from a small boombox to a portable projector. We only got a few minutes with the… Read More

 Earlier today, Lenovo unveiled the world’s first smartphone fueled by Google’s Project Tango (or just “Tango,” as it’s now known) computer vision efforts. The big new thing? Really, really awesome augmented reality capabilities, all based on the phone’s ability to recognize what’s around it. Think video games that come to life in your living room,… Read More

 The notion of such aerial vehicles has always fascinated, but the pesky need to pilot the things has generally grounded it — as if the engineering and legal challenges weren’t enough already. But autonomous driving technology may be the missing piece that leads us to the place where, yes, we won’t need roads. Read More

 When Honda announced that its latest Civic sedan would have a full suite of state-of-the-art driver assist features for $20,000, The Wall Street Journal called it a self-driving vehicle. While the Civic can do a lot, it cannot drive itself. Yet. So what are we even talking about when we talk about autonomous or self-driving vehicles? Lucky for us, engineers are on top of this. In January… Read More

 Thomas Perkins, who co-founded venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has died of natural causes. He was 84 years old. Before becoming an investor, Perkins founded a laser company called University Labs, and was the first general manager of Hewlett-Packard’s computer division. He co-founded Kleiner Perkins with Eugene Kleiner in 1972, helping to lay the foundation… Read More

 While it seemingly came out of nowhere, Slack’s meteoric rise was no coincidence. Between its early focus on winning over developers who quickly became incredibly effective evangelists and its aggressive moves to integrate with other popular business apps, Slack provided a distinct model for others to follow. So who is following such a model, and what does their growth look like? Read More

 Out of all the federal regulations turmoil, questionable test results and threats to oust her from her own company, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is getting a silver screen lining — Jennifer Lawrence will play her in an upcoming movie. Deadspin reports “The Big Short” director Adam McKay will be making the film about the 32-year-old founder and her one drop medical… Read More

 OpenVote, the political startup from early Facebook designer Bobby Goodlatte and Sean McCann, is unveiling a larger publishing platform where people can debate policies and pledge their votes. Before becoming a prominent designer at Facebook, Goodlatte grew up with politics in his family. For almost all of Goodlatte’s life, his father has served as a Republican Congressman. While he and… Read More

 Facebook launched video comments today, a feature that acknowledges the meteoric rise and continued growth of online video creation and consumption. By 2020, internet video traffic will represent 82% of all consumer internet traffic, according to forecasts from the Cisco Visual Networking Index. It could also help Facebook catch up, yes catch up, to Snapchat in terms of daily videos viewed on… Read More

 Call me old fashioned, but I like my phones in one piece.
But that’s not the future according to LG. Or Motorola. Or Google’s Ara team. These companies see consumers swapping widgets and gizmos on and off their phone like it’s some sort futuristic communication device. That’s crazy. I don’t like it. Get off my lawn.
Lenovo just introduced the Moto Z with Moto Mods. Read More

 When will teens get tired of taking selfies? Probably never given the myriad ways they can augment what nature gave them thanks the power of the smartphone in their pocket. And YC-backed Lollicam is another app to add to the teen face morphing arsenal. Read More