This afternoon, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the hopeful next big thing for his company: augmented reality, allowing people to use their phones to interact with the physical world through their phones — carving virtual messages into table tops, leaving notes in public for friends that only they can see, and creating public art that is nothing more than a blank wall with people staring at their smartphone screens. [More]
the future is soon
Facebook Hopes To Have Us All Staring In Awe At Blank Walls With New Augmented Reality Tech
By 4.18.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Streaming Subscription Audience Has Surpassed Pay-TV Subscribers In U.S., Claims Survey
By 3.8.17
It’s been about two years since America’s major cable companies started seeing their internet service customers outnumber their pay-TV subscribers, and now a new survey claims that streaming video subscriptions in the U.S. have overtaken cable and satellite subscriptions. [More]
Facebook’s Robot Army May Soon Determine If Your Live Video Is Offensive
By 12.1.16
Facebook — the company whose artificial intelligence has had a wee bit of trouble distinguishing between fake and authentic news sources — believes that its machine censors can be deployed to determine if a users’ live video stream is too naughty or offensive. [More]
Could New DirecTV Streaming Service Be A Replacement For Satellite TV?
By 9.26.16
We’ve known for a while that AT&T plans to launch an online-only version of DirecTV in the coming months, but even though it shares the same brand name as the nation’s biggest satellite-TV provider, it is not being marketed as a replacement for satellite. However, a recent report claims that AT&T’s long-term goal is to eventually migrate the entire DirecTV customer base online. [More]
AT&T Testing Super-Fast Wireless Internet Using Power Lines
By 9.20.16
While good chunks of the country, particularly rural and tribal lands, currently lack access to high speed broadband, most inhabited parts of America are serviced by power lines. AT&T is currently testing a new project that aims to deliver data at fiberoptic speeds, but without having to run any new cables or build huge cellular or microwave towers. [More]
How Well Do You Know Your Fictional Tech Companies?
July 21, 2016
Sure, we all know that George Costanza worked, however briefly, at Kruger Industrial Smoothing, and that Laverne and Shirley toiled away at Shotz Brewery (before they randomly picked up and moved to California in Season 6), but have you really been paying attention to all those fake companies? [More]
Tesla Says It Already Has Reservations For 115,000 $35K Model 3 Electric Vehicles
By 4.1.16
It’s been nearly two years since Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed the development of the Model 3, the high-end electric vehicle maker’s first venture into more affordable automobiles. Aside from that price point and claims about being able to get around 200 miles to a single charge, not much else has been disclosed until tonight’s long-awaited press/sales event. [More]
GameStop Planning To Sell Sony VR Headset In The Fall
By 2.16.16
We’ve been hearing about the Sony VR since it was dubbed “Project Morpheus,” but as much as the tech giant loves to show it off, Sony has yet to give a firm release window for the virtual reality headset. However, GameStop CEO Paul Raines tipped his cards on that schedule during an interview this morning. [More]
Comcast’s Next-Gen Broadband Service Coming To 5 Cities This Year
By 2.2.16
A few weeks after flipping the switch on its first next-generation DOCSIS 3.1 modem — which can deliver speeds faster than Google Fiber over existing cable lines — Comcast is detailing plans on which markets will be the first to get access to the service. [More]
A Message From The Year 2026 About The Future Of Your TV
By 1.4.16
Thirty years ago, in 1996, you actually used your TV to watch broadcast or cable signals — live, as things aired. Twenty years ago, in 2006, you probably still had cable, but you probably also had a DVR, freeing you to watch programming at your leisure (much to the chagrin of advertisers). Ten years ago, in 2016, you may or may not have decided to cut the coaxial cord — but even if you had cable, odds were high you complemented it with some kind of streaming service. But by today, Jan. 4, 2026, if you even remember what “cable” was, that’s probably because you only see it at your grandparents’ house. [More]
Samsung Galaxy S7 Will Reportedly Charge Faster, Have Pressure-Sensitive Screen
By 12.14.15
Back in September, Apple unveiled its more responsive “3D Touch” display for the iPhone 6S, so it should come as little surprise that Samsung may have something similar in its back pocket for the upcoming launch of its flagship Galaxy phone. [More]
Citi Testing Screenless, Cardless ATMs
By 10.26.15
The next generation of ATM may be nothing more than a slot in the wall that spits out money. No screen, no swiping your card, no having to pull your sleeve down over your fingers because the person in front of you sneezed all over the buttons. [More]
Results Of First Large-Scale 5G Wireless Test: Faster Than Google Fiber
By 10.9.15
While Verizon and other U.S. carriers are prepping to test next-generation 5G wireless service, Chinese electronics biggie Huawei says it has just completed its first “large-scale field trial” of 5G and saw download speeds that were up to several times that of current high-speed fiberoptic networks. [More]
Toyota Plans To Have Self-Driving Car For The Masses By 2020
By 10.7.15
Toyota attempted to break away from the self-driving car fanfare last month by announcing it would instead invest $50 million into creating “life-saving intelligent” vehicles that weren’t necessarily autonomous. Today, the company made it clear that it’s also pursuing the fully driver-less route, revealing plans to release a commercially available self-driving car by 2020. [More]
AT&T Testing Wireless Home Broadband In At Least 4 States
By 10.2.15
AT&T helped grease the wheels for its recent acquisition of DirecTV by promising to bring high-speed wireless broadband to homes in rural America. Now that the merger is official, it’s look like AT&T is beginning to make good on that promise, though a number of questions about the new service still remain. [More]
Verizon Prepping Trials Of 5G Wireless; Could Be 50 Times Faster Than 4G
By 9.8.15
Odds are that your wireless provider’s 4G LTE service is nearly as fast — and maybe faster — than the wired Internet service to your home (if only it weren’t so expensive on a per-gigabyte basis). But Verizon says it’s getting ready to test 5G service that could blow all current wireless — and most wireline — broadband out of the water. [More]
Toyota Investing $50M Into “Life-Saving Intelligent” Vehicles
By 9.4.15
There’s a lot of talk these days about the inevitable arrival of self-driving cars and the implications they will have on safety, insurance, traffic, and fuel costs, but Toyota has announced an investment in new research to develop “life-saving intelligent” vehicles that aren’t necessarily self-driving, but which could ideally combine the best of the autonomous car with one driven by a real human. [More]
Experimental Verizon FiOS Service Would Be 10X Speed Of Google Fiber
By 8.13.15
With Google Fiber continuing to expand, offering gigabit broadband service for a reasonable price, some Internet service providers are feeling the heat and beginning to test networks that would blow the pants of Google. [More]
