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Category: mobile phones – Page 8

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a new material poised to revolutionize the next generation of high-power electronics, making them faster, more transparent, and more efficient. This engineered material enables electrons to move at higher speeds while staying transparent to both visible and ultraviolet light, surpassing previous performance records.

The research, published in Science Advances, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, marks a significant leap forward in semiconductor design, which is crucial to a trillion-dollar global industry expected to continue growing as digital technologies expand.

Semiconductors power nearly all electronics, from smartphones to medical devices. A key to advancing these technologies lies in improving what scientists refer to as “ultra-wide band gap” materials. These materials can conduct electricity efficiently even under extreme conditions. Ultra-wide band gap semiconductors enable high-performance at elevated temperatures, making them essential for more durable and robust electronics.

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Supported, in part, by NASA and administrated by Resources for the Future, Kevin Boyle and colleagues from Moravian University, Penn State, and the University of Rhode Island have assessed the feasibility of implementing a smartphone app designed to convey cholera risk forecasts to households to mitigate the threat of cholera in Bangladesh. This forms part of early warning measures.

The research is titled “Early warning systems, mobile technology, and cholera aversion: Evidence from rural Bangladesh,” and it appears in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.

For the research, the team developed CholeraMap, an Android-based smartphone application that conveys cholera risk forecasts to households. The app enables users to access risk predictions – from low to medium to high – for both their community and individual home locations.

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Waymo has expanded its robotaxi service to the general public in Los Angeles, allowing anyone with the Waymo One app to request a ride. This marks a significant step in autonomous vehicle technology, as Waymo continues to lead the industry with over 50,000 weekly passengers and a strong safety record.

Waymo on Tuesday opened its robotaxi service to anyone who wants a ride around Los Angeles, marking another milestone in the evolution of self-driving car technology since the company began as a secret project at Google 15 years ago.

The expansion comes eight months after Waymo began offering rides in Los Angeles to a limited group of passengers chosen from a waiting list that had ballooned to more than 300,000 people. Now, anyone with the Waymo One smartphone app will be able to request a ride around an 80-square-mile (129-square-kilometer) territory spanning the second largest U.S. city.

After Waymo received approval from California regulators to charge for rides 15 months ago, the company initially chose to launch its operations in San Francisco before offering a limited service in Los Angeles.

Continue reading “Waymo’s robotaxis now open to anyone who wants a driverless ride in Los Angeles” | >

The lightbulb illuminated our world, the airplane connected it, and the iPhone put it in our pockets. Here’s the case for tech-optimism.

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In a world where innovation is often met with skepticism, longterm optimism is the driving force behind technological advancements. History has shown us time and again that even the most groundbreaking innovations—like the lightbulb, the bicycle, and the airplane—started as failures. But those who believed in the potential of these technologies saw past their initial limitations, and it was this belief that transformed the world into the one we have today.

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, once doubted the first Macintosh’s impact, despite being one of the creators. Time and time again, history has shown us that a forward-looking mindset and a belief in potential can transform even sub-par prototypes into lasting innovations. The optimism that drove Edison, the Wright brothers, and Steve Jobs is the same force that continues to shape our future.

Continue reading “The case for long-term tech optimism” | >

This was Mastercard in March: You probably do it every day without a second thought — shop online with your credit card, or install an update on your phone, or send a confidential file to a co-worker.

Mastercard’s efforts include a pilot to test whether quantum key distribution would work on its complex global network.

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The world of personal AI assistants is crowded. No doubt, you’ve probably seen or heard a cacophony of complaints around the recent launches of AI-powered gadgets that are meant to act as personal assistants, while minimizing use of your smartphone. We’ve seen the reviewers trash the Humane AI Pin, and the Teenage Engineering-designed, Rabbit R1.

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Whether we’re staring at our phones, the page of a book, or the person across the table, the objects of our focus never stand in isolation; there are always other objects or people in our field of vision. How that visual “clutter” affects visual processing in the brain, however, is not well understood.

In a new study published Oct. 22 in the journal Neuron, Yale researchers show that this clutter alters how information flows in the brain, as does the precise location of that clutter within the wider field of vision. The findings help clarify the neural basis of perception and offer a deeper understanding of the visual cortex in the brain.

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