Computing - MIT Technology Review

SAP Makes Big Data Real– And Real-Time

Fri, 17 May 2013 21:15:00 +0000

The following View from the Marketplace was provided by SAP, the sponsor of our Big Data Gets Personal Business Report.

Google and NASA Launch Quantum Computing AI Lab

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:00:00 +0000

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

Quantum computing took a giant leap forward on the world stage today as NASA and Google, in partnership with a consortium of universities, launched an initiative to investigate how the technology might lead to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.

Google’s Social Network Gets Smarter

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:22:00 +0000

With dozens of new features, Google’s social network is becoming more like a photo service and a news site.

Despite the 190 million people that Google says use its social network every month, Google Plus has always struggled to escape Facebook’s shadow and seem like a hopping social destination.

Google Wants to Help Apps Track You

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:19:21 +0000

Google will help people who build Android apps follow their users around without draining too much battery life.

Google is giving mobile app creators more ways to tap into people’s activities and locations without draining too much phone battery power.

Treading Carefully, Google Encourages Developers to Hack Glass

Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Breaking its own restrictions, Google will show developers how to build any kind of app for Google Glass.

Google has set plenty of restrictions on the functionality of apps for Glass, the head-mounted display it is now shipping out to early adopters. At the company’s annual developer conference, I/O, which kicks off today, it will show app creators how to break those rules.

It’s Time to Talk about the Burgeoning Robot Middle Class

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

How will a mass influx of robots affect human employment?

In the book Race Against the Machine, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee of MIT’s Sloan School of Management present a chart showing U.S. productivity, GDP, employment, and income from 1953 to 2011. The chart looks as you would expect from 1953 until the mid-1980s, with every one of the measures rising together: employees work more productively, companies make more money, and more hires occur as the middle class swells.

China Comes to Silicon Valley at One Startup Accelerator

Tue, 14 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

A year after launch, a startup program is helping U.S. companies reach China—and vice versa.

When Jon Bonanno, chief commercial officer of the clean-tech startup Empower Micro Systems, got up to face a small, packed room in Santa Clara, California, last week, it wasn’t like the polished “demo days” run by the highest-profile Silicon Valley startup accelerators. There was no stage, not even a screen for the projector. The sound system buzzed with painful feedback. The 100 or so guests stood or sat in folding chairs under bright fluorescent lights in a space adjoining a large startup workplace that contained a distinct no-no of Silicon Valley office culture: cubicles.

New Kind of LED Could Mean Better Google-Glass-Like Displays

Mon, 13 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Micro-display LED tech could light up the next generation of face-wearable gadgets.

A tiny head-mounted display, like the one in Google Glass, will only be useful if you can see on-screen alerts and information clearly. And that’s tricky to achieve, especially without draining battery life—as Google notes, it can be hard to use Glass’s projected display in bright sunlight.

Memoto Camera Logs Your Life

Fri, 10 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

A clip-on camera that snaps a picture every 30 seconds.

Facebook Reacts to Criticisms of “Home” App; Promises Upgrades

Thu, 09 May 2013 20:24:00 +0000

A month after the release of Home, Facebook is working to answer criticisms with improvements.

Facebook Home—an app for Android smartphones that provides users with a constant stream of images, messages, and updates from friends on the social network—launched with fanfare a month ago along with the promise that additional features would be added shortly (see “The Facebook Phone Is Finally Here, but Who Wants It?”). Now, as some users level poor reviews at the app, the team behind it is focused on making those upgrades happen—and fast.

Glimpses of a World Revealed by Cell-Phone Data

Thu, 09 May 2013 17:35:00 +0000

An examination of simple cell-phone records reveals maps of poverty levels, ethnic divides, and the movements of sports fans.

Around the world, some mobile carriers have been releasing anonymized records of cell-phone data to researchers.

Honeypots Lure Industrial Hackers Into the Open

Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

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

Just 18 hours after security researcher Kyle Wilhoit connected two dummy industrial control systems and one real one to the Internet, someone began attacking one of them, and things soon got worse. Over the course of the experiment, conducted during December 2012, a series of sophisticated attacks were mounted on the “honeypots,” which Wilhoit set up to find out how often malicious hackers target industrial infrastructure.

How to Avoid Another Flash Crash

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:57:29 +0000

A clever new approach could help monitor an incredibly complicated, increasingly automated system that thrives on secrecy.

Today marks the three-year anniversary of the 2010 Flash Crash, when the U.S. stock market lost 1,000 points in a matter of minutes before recovering most of these losses a few minutes later.

Startup Taps Quantum Encryption for Cybersecurity

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

GridCom Technologies says quantum cryptography can work to make the electricity grid control systems secure.

The notion of harnessing the physics of quantum mechanics for a massive leap in computing power is firmly in the realm of science. But many people believe that applying these techniques to secure commercial communications is far more feasible.

Broadcast Video Will Soon Be Packed into Smartphone Signals

Mon, 06 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Putting broadcast signals within LTE mobile network technology could open up bandwidth and disrupt business models.

If you want to watch video on your phone or tablet, you’ll find that many networks can’t always serve up the data fast enough. So your choices are either to find a Wi-Fi hotspot, take your chances on congestion and high data charges on a cellular network, or plug in a special dongle that picks up TV broadcasts (see “Broadcast TV Aims for Your Smartphone”).

This Box Keeps Information Flowing During a Crisis

Sun, 05 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

The creators of Ushahidi, a crisis mapping platform, have developed hardware that keeps wireless communication going in the midst of chaos.

The people behind Ushahidi, a software platform for communicating information during a crisis, have now developed what they are dubbing a “backup generator for the Internet”—a device that can connect with any network in the world, provide eight hours of wireless connectivity battery life, and can be programmed for new applications, such as remote sensing.

How Today’s Sensors Could Make Tomorrow’s Cars Safer

Fri, 03 May 2013 21:30:00 +0000

Sensors in cars today could do more to reduce traffic accidents, and costs are coming down.

Driverless cars haven’t hit the roads yet, but computers are already helping to slow down or stop a car in situations when a crash is imminent. Still, just like people, these systems require time to react. Using sensor technology already in its vehicles today, Toyota is aiming to reduce the impact of accidents happening at faster speeds.

Twitter Tests a Toolkit That Puts the Internet in Things

Fri, 03 May 2013 14:58:00 +0000

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

Why should only computers, smartphones, and tablets be able to send a tweet? In the hopes of challenging this idea, Twitter recently developed a whimsical tweet-enabled cuckoo clock. It uses a toolkit that could help other designers and engineers test ways for new products to contribute to, and feed on, the social network’s chatter. Twitter created the clock, called #Flock, last month in partnership with London-based technology consultancy Berg; the clock responds to incoming tweets, @-messages, and retweets by animating small wooden puppets.

Intel's New CEO Faces a Major Challenge

Thu, 02 May 2013 22:40:32 +0000

Intel’s new chief executive must reverse the last decade of declining market share.

Intel’s new CEO Brian M. Krzanich, elected by the board today to replace retiring chief executive Paul Otellini, is a longtime Intel insider whose vision must now guide the company through a time of tumult in the computing industry.

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

Thu, 02 May 2013 17:25:00 +0000

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

Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm and some U.S. wireless carriers are investigating an idea that would see small cellular base stations installed in homes to serve passing smartphone users. That approach is believed to be a more efficient way of meeting the rising demand for data and fixing patchy coverage than building more traditional cell-phone towers.

Google Glass and the Rise of POV

Wed, 01 May 2013 22:11:10 +0000

Will Google Glass revive a controversial cinematographic technique?

The other day I wrote about how I was skeptical about advertisements ever finding a home on Google Glass, largely for reasons of “screen real estate” (“reality real estate” may be more apt). I urged readers to take my argument with a grain of salt, having neither sampled Google Glass nor having seen a simulation of it. Yesterday, Google finally posted a video introduction to the Google Glass experience. Check it out here:

Apps for Finding New Tunes, with a Little Help from Your Friends

Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Twitter #music, EQuala, and Piki help you share and discover new music with friends, but they’re not all winners.

I’ve been stuck in a music rut for a long time, listening to the same bands and songs over and over without adding many newcomers to the mix. It’s not that I don’t want new tunes; I’m just bad at discovering them.

How a Cheap Plastic Film Can Give Your Smartphone a 3-D Screen

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:37:00 +0000

A plastic smartphone screen cover patterned with tiny lenses could help mobile 3-D take off.

Last week, a company in Singapore began shipping $35 plastic screen protectors for the iPhone 5. These are no ordinary screen protectors, though—each has half a million tiny lenses precisely patterned on its surface, which can turn an ordinary phone into a device capable of displaying 3-D images and video, no glasses required.

Ghost's Blogging Dashboard Doesn't Need to Exist

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:08:18 +0000

Are dashboards really the best way to deliver analytics to people who want to “just blog”?

I can’t make sense of website analytics at all. When I go to my personal blog, I want to just blog, not pore over dials and meters like a Con Ed repairman. Which made me curious about Ghost, a new open-source platform expressly designed as, as the creators put it, “just a blogging platform.” It’s pretty darn gorgeous. And right there in the middle of their pitch is their so-called “revolutionary” analytics dashboard, which also looks great: it’s flat (in 2013, you gotta be flat, yo), it’s got great typography, it’s got Feltron-esque infographics.

Why Big Companies Are Investing in a Service that Listens to Phone Calls

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:00:00 +0000

A startup that converts conversations to text so it can offer instant information gets financing from Telefónica, Samsung, and Intel.

Would you give your wireless carrier permission to listen in on your phone calls? Telefónica, one of the world’s largest mobile carriers, is testing a technology that can understand conversations and quickly pull up relevant information. If that info turns out to be useful, customers may want to invite it to listen in.

African Bus Routes Redrawn Using Cell-Phone Data

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

The largest-ever release of mobile-phone data yields a model for fixing bus routes.

Researchers at IBM, using movement data collected from millions of cell-phone users in Ivory Coast in West Africa, have developed a new model for optimizing an urban transportation system.

What Will Terms-of-Service Agreements Look Like in the Age of Brain-Computer Interfaces?

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:27:21 +0000

As consumer tech companies bring brain interfaces ever closer to the mainstream, human-friendly legalese could become a crucial part of the user experience.

The New York Times recently claimed that brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are headed for the mainstream market sooner rather than later. Whether these kinds of “think it and the computer does it” UIs will be practical and useful enough to achieve adoption outside the “glasshole” set is up for debate. But one thing’s for sure: consumer products mean legalese–a lot of it. Few of us read the Terms of Service (TOS) agreements associated with the bevy of networked technology we blindly rely on. We only tend to notice or care about TOS when something breaks or freaks us out after the fact (as Instagram found out last year). But when a consumer product claims to jack itself right into your mind? That might just make people want to actually read these contracts up front.

Social Media Censorship Offers Clues to China’s Plans

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

What gets removed from China’s social networks shows how censorship strategies are advancing, and can even hint at the government’s plans.

In February last year, political scandal rocked China when the fast-rising politician Bo Xilai suddenly demoted his top lieutenant, who then accused his boss of murder, triggering Bo’s political downfall.

A QWERTY Keyboard for Your Wrist

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 04:01:00 +0000

Zoomboard—a miniscule keyboard that zooms when you tap it—could make it easier to type on smart watches.

It seems like everyone is building a smart watch lately. Pebble ran a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign earlier this year for its e-paper watch; Samsung has confirmed it is making one; and both Apple and Microsoft are thought to be developing their own versions, too (see “Smart Watches”).

Internet Everywhere--But on Your Terms

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:40:14 +0000

I hate feeling tethered to the internet. So why do I love FreedomPop?

Rarely do I, even in casual conversation, refer to something as the “best thing ever.” And yet I’m fairly certain I’ve used that epithet a few dozen times in gushing to friends, acquaintances, and strangers about my latest toy: the Freedom Stick 4G from FreedomPop. “Go ahead!” I dare them, as they scatter to the edge of the sidewalk. “Try and name a better thing!”

The Incompleteness of the Harm Principle

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:10:00 +0000

A response to Jason Pontin’s essay on free speech by the author of Principles for a Free Society.

Jason Pontin has written a perceptive analysis of a timeless question: what changes in law need to be adopted in order to account for technological advances (see “Free Speech in the Era of Its Technological Amplification”)? In answering that question, he takes the right approach by taking up John Stuart Mill’s harm principle, which at its core makes this claim:

A New Computer Screen Reaches Out to Touch You

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:29:34 +0000

An experimental new touch screen, the Obake, has a stretchable surface that to reacts user interaction in new ways.

An inexpensive new prototype device called the Obake adds a new dimension to touch screen technology. The surface of the device, developed by Dhairya Dand and Rob Hemsley of the MIT Media Lab, can react to how it’s being used by reaching out toward the user. It was relatively simple to make: the researchers used an open source software framework to enable the screen to react; the hardware costs between $50 and $60, Dand says.

Yahoo's Weather App Has No "Cool" Interactions--and That's Amazing

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:07:46 +0000

It’s pretty, yes. But more importantly, it doesn’t force you to interact with it.

I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but Yahoo’s new weather app for iOS is great. Is it “innovative”? No. Well, actually it is. Its innovation is in being as non-“innovative” in its interaction design as possible. No fussy gestures, no neato animations, no infographics to “explore”. No “interactivity” at all, really. It’s more a piece of graphic design than interactive design–and my God, I wish more apps were just like it.

Think Gestural Interactions Suck? Design Your Own

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 19:32:12 +0000

Creating your own gestural patterns could make these interactions easier to remember, researchers say.

Two Ways to Fix the Typing-on-Touch-Screens Problem

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:17:36 +0000

One solution to the typing-on-a-screen problem asks us to change our behavior; the other changes its behavior to fit us.

Considering how much typing on a glass touch screen blows in comparison to using hard keys, it’s easy to imagine how BlackBerry saw the first iPhone back in 2007 and thought, “Bah, this isn’t a threat.” We all know how that turned out. But typing on glass still blows, and voice dictation on mobile devices (while pretty awesome) isn’t a good fit for every situation. So how can we un-blowify touch-screen typing? Two interesting software -design approaches have recently emerged: one rethinks how the keyboard looks, while the other rethinks how the keyboard acts. (Spoiler alert: I think the latter has more potential.)

Overview of Electronic Mail Protection Systems

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:33:00 +0000

Everyone who uses e-mail sometimes wonders how well the transmitted information is protected from prying eyes. Indeed, a message to be transferred travels a long way between different computers and mobile devices before it reaches a recipient; the intentions of these devices’ owners are unknown. Besides, each device in the chain can run malware that stores transmitted messages. Another problem is that a mail recipient may not always use the information received in the way it is meant to be used.

Google Fiber’s Ripple Effect

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

The threat of superfast Google Fiber is causing other Internet providers to crank up their own offerings.

As Google plans to expand its ultrafast Internet service from a fledging effort in Kansas City to Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah, evidence is emerging that the company has forced broadband competitors into offering dramatically better service.

What Happened When One Man Pinged the Whole Internet

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

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

You probably haven’t heard of HD Moore, but up to a few weeks ago every Internet device in the world, perhaps including some in your own home, was contacted roughly three times a day by a stack of computers that sit overheating his spare room. “I have a lot of cooling equipment to make sure my house doesn’t catch on fire,” says Moore, who leads research at computer security company Rapid7. In February last year he decided to carry out a personal census of every device on the Internet as a hobby. “This is not my day job; it’s what I do for fun,” he says.

Physicists Build World's First "Magnetic Hose" For Transmitting Magnetic Fields

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:12:16 +0000

Magnetic fields decay rapidly and so have never been transmitted over long distances. Until now …

A Simple Way to Turn Any LCD into a Touch Screen

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 21:52:00 +0000

Electromagnetic interference can turn a plain LCD into a touch screen on the cheap.

Electromagnetic interference can screw up cell phone and radio reception. But it may also be the key to cheaply transforming regular LCD screens into touch- and gesture-sensing displays, according to recent research.

Nano-scale Optical Antennas Could Have a Big Impact

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:54:35 +0000

A lab at Harvard is developing materials with potentially revolutionary optical characteristics.

The antenna, a century-old technology, is everywhere. Listening to the radio? Making a call on your cell phone? Surfing the web over Wi-Fi? The antenna made it all possible.

First Enzyme-Based Memory Created in the Lab

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 09:44:07 +0000

Some clever biochemistry has led to the world’s first enzyme-based memory capable of learning, say biochemists

Apple’s R&D Spending Rises, But It’s Still Small Change

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:22:39 +0000

Apple plans to keep inventing new product categories without much of a boost from its cash reserves.

As its gross margins shrink and the company casts about for its next hit product categories, Apple is continuing to spend more on research and development than it has in the past (see “Can Apple Still Innovate on a Shoestring?”).

Preventing Misinformation from Spreading through Social Media

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:22:09 +0000

New platforms for fact-checking and reputation scoring aim to better channel social media’s power in the wake of a disaster.

The online crowds weren’t always wise following the Boston Marathon bombings. For example, the online community Reddit and some Twitter users were criticized for pillorying an innocent student as a possible terrorist suspect. But some emerging technologies might be able to help knock down false reports and wring the truth from the fog of social media during crises.

Software Predicts Which Companies Are an Easy Sell

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:53:57 +0000

A former Yahoo search engineer raises funds to bring sophisticated data mining and modeling to the business world.

A startup called Infer, led by a former Yahoo search engineer, plans to help salespeople identify potential business customers by gathering useful information from news sites and the Web. For example, marketing department job postings online might be one clue of a company’s readiness to buy marketing software.

BeagleBone Black: A Maker's Dream?

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:32:42 +0000

If Arduino is too underpowered and Raspberry Pi doesn’t have enough hardware inputs for you, BeagleBone’s $45 microcontroller board will let you have your cake and eat it too.

Introduction to the 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2013