Emerging Tech

The ease with which the Microsoft Kinect can be torn down�and the familiarity of the software driving it�has quickly proven a feature and not a bug for hackers. Hacking commercial gadgets is nothing new of course; but the pace at which hacks now appear, as well as the appeal they generate, is something to watch.

"Data envelops and surrounds a newborn in a neonatal ward, forming a protective shell/blanket/mobile�we might even think of it as bathwater. It's magical no, wait, it's science!"

The Tokyo-based Shimizu Corporation is one of the world's leading construction and engineering contractors. It's also a prolific producer of corporate science fiction: fanciful, high-concept design projects that offer glimpses of astonishing futures. Its "Luna Ring" envisions such a future for the moon�and for Shimizu.

The New York Times bestseller list not only measures book sales, it also sells books; millions of readers make selections based on what they find there. Starting early next year, the New York Times Company will try to bring that clout to bear on the electronic books market.

Ford's 2012 Mustang Boss 302 is a high-tech reboot of the muscle car packed with treats. But the key to its real secrets don't merely lie under the hood, but in the code.

In 'What Technology Wants', author and Wired founder Kevin Kelly elaborates a theory of technology that emancipates tools from the bondage of human hands. In the weeks to come, I'll be blogging my reading of Kelly's challenging and provocative work.

Isabella Products, a maker of wireless digital picture frames, has teamed up with publishing giant Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to bring a children's e-reader to market next summer. Called the Fable, the device will be marketed as a networked color tablet for kids, and will feature a 7-inch color touchscreen and a wireless networking over a secure, managed connection.

Just for a moment, take into consideration that in the 1950s, it would have taken a supercomputer of this size just to power your cellphone. And that much computing power might have even been a stretch. Today at the Annual Meeting of National High Performance Computing (HPC China 2010) in Beijing, the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) in China ...

Facial recognition has been standing on the edge of relevance to the average man for a while now, yet it hasn’t quite made the jump from security science to mainstream integration. Scientists at The University of Manchester have been covertly mastering the function of facial recognition from mobile phones with MoBio, and their results are impressive. �Existing mobile face trackers ...

While I love defacing a building just as much as the next guy, the law doesn’t agree with my propensity for destroying the hopes and dreams of many a business owner. In fact, some lawmakers even shun upon it. So I can’t use spray paint to tag your buildings. I get it. Even though I can’t understand why you don’t ...