Tag archive: Future Technology

One of the most striking bits of automotive technology showcased at CES 2012 was the 17-inch Nvidia-backed screen in the new Tesla S Sedan. It reminded me more of a tablet than a car entertainment system, and Tesla has been the first to really get aggressive on things like apps for automobiles. Personally, I remain annoyed that the services I use to enjoy media at home just won’t work in a car yet, and even more annoyed that I have to pay for… Read More

Since 2006, IBM has published an annual end of year forecast called the “Five in Five,” a list of five technological innovations the company thinks will change the way people live and work in the next five years. IBM has now released its 5 in 5 for 2011, and the forecasts contains some doozies — including mind-readying mobile phones. “Every year IBM predicts the future of technology via the IBM 5 in 5 initiative — our… Read More

Lit with bright overheard fluorescents and littered with massive wooden crates the size of backyard sheds, GM’s R&D garage feels less like a hangout for grease monkeys and more like a Hollywood sound stage. The sleek, pod-shaped vehicles dotting the floor could be movie props. – or perhaps leftovers from Blade Runner or Total Recall, maybe. Until they sit up, almost silently, and begin moving. On two wheels no less. The EN-V concept… Read More

They’ve been among us for a while now. Tiny microbots that work together to fight disease, find a lost soldier, or even build a new structure have appeared in science fiction movies like Minority Report in the past. And, several companies, including IBM and HP, have shown how a few small robots can communicate with each other to complete a task. Now, Harvard researchers have developed the kilobot, a tiny robot that costs just $14 to build and… Read More

Freescale is one of the biggest processor companies that we hardly ever talk about. I’m at the Freescale Technology Forum this week, but I really had no idea just how deeply the company penetrates the automotive and appliance markets. Freescale processors can be found in connected cars, connected appliances, e-readers, and non-Apple tablets (mostly in Asia). Looking at the demonstrations and connecting the dots, the firm is advocating a… Read More

It is about time man flew among the birds – alone. We may not have the homes on the moon, or the flying cars that our totally reasonable childhood imaginations ensured us would be waiting for us when we grew up, but with a little luck and a lot of money, we might soon be able to scratch “jetpack” off of our bucket lists. Imagine one day soon, you kiss the spouse good bye, walk the kids off to the school bus, then you prepare for the… Read More

Far future predictions of tech gadgets rarely work out. Not many of us ride a jetpack to work or step into a transporter to beam over to France on a whim, and the flying car is still a figment of the imagination (if not downright impossible). Even the light saber in Star Wars, which would be really handy as a hand-to-hand combat weapon, has never materialized. (Of course, it also defies the laws of physics.) Why can’t book authors and… Read More

For the past few years, car companies have jumped on the digital media bandwagon, offering USB ports to load music from your iPod Touch and Bluetooth streaming audio to play tracks right from your iPhone. Now, new music technology is emerging that goes a step further — letting you play music from Pandora Radio or over a very high-speed wireless network.

I spent much of last evening on a plane. My laptop, a Dell M11x, didn’t have an adapter that worked with the American Airlines cigarette lighter plug, so I had to use the laptop battery, which meant my screen was really dim as I tried to preserve my system’s precious juice. This is one of the reasons I’m flying Virgin America now: They not only have Wi-Fi (which American increasingly has as well) they have normal US AC pugs. Hey there’s an… Read More

As the FCC develops plans for rolling out national broadband — 100 Mbps access for at least one third of the nation — we started thinking about how we could make use of it. 1. Real-time access to medical records Let's say 100 Mbps access becomes ubiquitous. And, let's say health care becomes commonplace even for those who are out of work or self-employed. With the more prevalent access, it's easy to envision a day… Read More

Marvell just launched its Avanta line, which could enable a whopping 10-gigabit network – or about 100 times what most folks now have. This is enough bandwidth for near-virtual-reality video gaming, HD video conferencing, at least four HD video feeds, and a good HD 3D video feed at the same time, with room to spare. Now that would be change I could believe in. Some of the toys showcased at Marvell’s launch event for Avanta really caught my… Read More

With 3D coming to market aggressively, both in the movie theater and at home on 3D TVs, it got me wondering what was likely to be next. After listening to DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg speak on 3D technology the other day, it would seem that the real ramp for 3D will come with TVs that don’t require glasses. They should arrive at good price points sometime around 2018 to 2020, so we have a bit of a wait. Still, it is fun to break out the… Read More

If ever the print industry needed a knight in shining armor to reverse the world’s growing preference for blogs, online news and YouTube, it’s now. And if any device can don the armor and play the part, it’s Apple’s iPad.

In case you haven’t noticed, the same handful of names tend to dominate tech headlines. Every week, someone is speculating over Apple’s new iSomething, Microsoft is playing a new game of catchup, and Google engineers cause a privacy uproar when they sneeze. With the big players hogging the mainstream limelight virtually every day, certain products inevitably slip under radar. Here are 10 innovative, intriguing and downright promising products… Read More