Ever wanted to design a city from scratch? All those years tinkering with SimCity and Legos are going to finally start paying dividends for a lucky few. YCombinator is looking for urban mavericks to address everything from the creation of affordable housing to the design of public spaces in its new research undertaking. The buzz-word smart-city is rapidly becoming platitudinous but YC will… Read MoreDaily Archives: June 27, 2016
Ever wanted to design a city from scratch? All those years tinkering with SimCity and Legos are going to finally start paying dividends for a lucky few. YCombinator is looking for urban mavericks to address everything from the creation of affordable housing to the design of public spaces in its new research undertaking. The buzz-word smart-city is rapidly becoming platitudinous but YC will… Read More
New mobile games and robot butlers are all well and good, but there are also many applications for the latest technology in poverty-stricken school districts and in the service of the disabled. A Carnegie Mellon project that targets both of those things is described by its leaders as an exercise in what they call “compassionate engineering.” Read MoreWriting aid for the blind provides a case study for ...
Twitter is in trouble. In a move out of a middle school flag football game, Microsoft selected LinkedIn to join its team. The sheer size of the transaction has reignited conversations about who will be picked next to join the super special circle of public mega-cap tech companies. Vultures have been circling Twitter for well over a year, but the company has defied all experts who have… Read MoreSo, does anybody want Twitter?
It’s been a long time since Marty Hellman and his collaborator Whitfield Diffie ushered in a new era of private communication with their invention of public key cryptography — but better late than never when it comes to winning the Turing Award, referred to by some as the Pulitzer for technology. I talked with Hellman about tech, global politics, and keeping relationships alive. Read MoreCryptography pioneer Marty Hellman calls for compassion in personal, cyber, ...
Most people can’t shoot compelling videos, and static photos are boring. That’s why the tech giants are all pushing their own versions of automatically created themed mini-movies based on your media. This month, Apple announced its version called Memories coming to iOS 10, Google Photos already has its Movies Assistant, and today Facebook is rolling out Slideshow to all iOS… Read MoreFacebook rolls out Slideshow movie-maker to compete with Google and ...
Online clothes shopping can be a gamble – you never really know if items will fit until you try them on. Meanwhile, shopping at local retailers can be time-consuming. A startup called Boon + Gable aims to solve both those problems with a service that offers a personal stylist who comes to your home with a curated selection of clothes for you to try, then buy on the spot if you like them. Read MoreBoon + Gable closes on $2.5 million for its in-home ...
550 million people use Facebook Events each month, with 60% of connections to events happening serendipitously in the News Feed. But Facebook is giving hardcore extroverts seeking more parties a new Featured Events list full of hand-picked gather...
Facebook launches human-curated Featured Events list
Services like YouTube Gaming and Twitch are great for watching videos and live streams from your favorite gamers, but a new app called Leet, launching now, has a slightly different take. Instead of focusing on live streamed gameplay and real-time chat, Leet lets gamers share just short highlights from their favorite console or PC games to its online community and the social web. Others can… Read MoreLeet debuts a simple app for sharing your best gameplay ...
If you’ve ever gnawed your way through a plastic bottle to get out the last delicious drops of soap you’ll be pleased to learn that researchers at The Ohio State University have created a type of plastic containing small structures that “cradle the droplets of soap aloft above tiny air pockets.” In other words, the soap never touches the bottle so it never sticks.… Read MoreResearchers make it easier to squirt out the last of ...
People seem to like editing photos through social media, which comes as no surprise with today’s announcement from Twitter: stickers. Made to be plastered over your new photos, Twitter is making sure that emojis, props, accessories, and anything else of the sort is available to add to that penchant of decorating images you post online.
Twitter’s new stickers are also connected… Read More