Technology Review AudioDizer Podcast - Computing Top Stories

Flying Robots

Helen Greiner — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Compact unmanned aerial vehicles will perform many valuable jobs if aviation regulations allow them to operate commercially.

Adapting to Automation

Jason Pontin — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT

From different angles, two of our feature stories explore the role of humans in an automated world.

The Secret to a Video-Game Phenomenon

Simon Parkin — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT

By eschewing grit and realism for creativity and simplicity, Minecraft shows how bedroom programmers can create global hits.

Bitcoin Millionaires Become Investing Angels

Tom Simonite — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Early investors in Bitcoin got rich. Now they are the cryptocurrency’s most powerful gatekeepers.

Google Irks Developers with Ruling on Facial-Recognition Apps

David Talbot — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Developers complain that by banning facial recognition for Glass, Google is hindering doctors, police, and others.

The World as Free-Fire Zone

Fred Kaplan — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT

How drones made it easy for Americans to kill a particular person anywhere on the planet.

As Data Floods In, Massive Open Online Courses Evolve

Tom Simonite — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT

As online education companies track students’ behavior and experiment with different delivery methods, assumptions about effectiveness are being challenged.

Autonomy in Cars Progresses, But Regulators Struggle to Keep Up

David Talbot — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 14:17:44 GMT

The federal government is scrambling to deal with the rapid pace of IT-driven innovation in cars.

Wearable Computing Pioneer Says Google Glass Offers "Killer Existence"

Rachel Metz — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Thad Starner thinks people will soon crave the ultrafast communication that Google Glass makes possible.

Microsoft and IBM Researchers Develop a Lie Detector for the Cloud

Tom Simonite — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT

A way to check whether calculations have been tampered with could make cloud computing more reliable, and boost privacy.

Trained on Jeopardy, Watson Is Headed for Your Pocket

Tom Simonite — Tue, 28 May 2013 12:53:42 GMT

The software that obliterated human champions on Jeopardy will now be talking to customers of banks and other companies through websites and mobile apps.

Bitcoin Hits the Big Time, to the Regret of Some Early Boosters

Tom Simonite — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:30:26 GMT

The first major conference for the digital currency suggests it is gaining legitimacy, but in a manner disappointing to some early enthusiasts.

Google and NASA Launch Quantum Computing AI Lab

Charles Choi — Thu, 16 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT

The Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab will use the most advanced commercially available quantum computer, the D-Wave Two.

Honeypots Lure Industrial Hackers Into the Open

Tom Simonite — Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Dummy water-plant control systems rapidly attracted attention from hackers who tinkered with their settings—suggesting it happens to real industrial systems, too.

Twitter Tests a Toolkit That Puts the Internet in Things

John Pavlus — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:58:00 GMT

Platforms that combine networking with user interfaces will help companies test post-PC ideas.

Qualcomm Proposes a Cell-Phone Network by the People, for the People

Tom Simonite — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:25:00 GMT

Mobile network speeds in urban areas could dramatically increase if consumers connected small, public base stations to their home broadband.

What Happened When One Man Pinged the Whole Internet

Tom Simonite — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

A home science experiment that probed billions of Internet devices reveals that thousands of industrial and business systems offer remote access to anyone.

Baxter: The Blue-Collar Robot

Will Knight — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Rethink Robotics’ new creation is easy to interact with, but the innovations behind the robot show just how hard it is to get along with people.

Deep Learning

Robert D. Hof — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

With massive amounts of computational power, machines can now recognize objects and translate speech in real time. Artificial intelligence is finally getting smart.

How Facial Recognition Tech Could Help Trace Terrorism Suspects

Tom Simonite — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:55:35 GMT

The FBI could use software to help identify suspects, and more advanced techniques are around the corner.