Print -- literature, journalism, you name it -- has experienced an extended obituary over the last decade, alongside the rise of digital media.
But a recent Pew study found that even as sales of e-readers like Nook and Kindle grow swiftly, young people still frequent libraries more than you might think, and print books remain popular. Even the most plugged-in lit fans are not ready to abandon print as a dead medium. In fact, e-book readers consume more books annually, no matter the format.
MIT researchers say they've created a transformer-like robot device that can take on almost any shape imaginable
The contraption, which is roughly the size of a caterpillar, is made of metal rings and strips (pictured below) and designed to twist like a protein. Inside, there's a small motor that's able to hold its position without power -- similar to the beastly electromagnets used to lift cars in scrap yards, where a strong magnet is paired with a weaker one, TG Daily reports.
For its latest Kindle Fire tablets, Amazon included a new parental controls called FreeTime, a walled-off section of the tablet where parents can "whitelist" any content on the device as kid-friendly. That feature is getting a big upgrade, offering a wealth of pre-curated content -- for a monthly fee.
Amazon has inked deals with major providers of children's media -- including Disney, HIT Entertainment (Thomas the Tank Engine), Nickelodeon, Marvel and DC Comics -- to create FreeTime Unlimited, which makes "multiple thousands" of books, videos, games and apps available by subscription. Once you subscribe, the content shows up in FreeTime, and kids can download titles one by one just by tapping. (For a refresher on FreeTime, check out the video below.)
Nature-inspired drones are being developed all around the world. Now, researchers from Switzerland have built a robot inspired by sea turtles.
The sea turtle drone is called Naro-Tartaruga. (Tartaruga is "turtle" in Italian and Portuguese.) It's being developed and tested by researchers at ETH Zurich University with the goal of eventually developing a robot that can swim underwater autonomously. The researchers are also interested in studying fin propulsion and the energy consumption of fin-propelled systems
Researchers from the University of Waterloo in Canada have built the world’s largest model of a functioning brain, consisting of 2.5 million simulated neurons.
Called “Spaun” or “Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified Network,” the model gives scientists insight into “how the complex activity of the brain gives rise to the complex behavior exhibited by animals, including humans,” according to a release.
Much like a human brain, Spaun uses the network of neurons to process visual images, which then controls an arm that draws its answers to different tasks.
Innovator, genius, imitator, businessman, designer, turtleneck lover. Steve Jobs tended to generate opinions from across the spectrum, but being inspirational reamins a steadfast quality in the Apple founder.
Jobs shares his vision of life in this video, unearthed by Interactive. It's brief but incredible, simple yet profound -- stop living like others, realize you can make a difference, and then do it.
Washing your hands is a broken process, according to Dyson. First you use a sink to pour water over your hands, then walk over to a towel dispenser or air dryer to dry them off. What madness is this?
Okay, it's not misery and bedlam, but there may be room for improvement, and Dyson has an idea on that score: Why not combine an air dryer with a sink, so you don't even have to move to (or worse, wait for) a separate unit to dry your hands?
That's the device Dyson envisions in this patent application, spotted by PhysOrg, for a "dual-purpose fixture for a sink or wash basin, incorporating both a water tap and a hand dryer." It's actually not a bad idea, and not just for convenience. On the website for its Airblade hand dryer, Dyson cites data that says every paper towel generates half an ounce of carbon emissions.
Just hours after Google rolled out its latest Gmail app for iOS, the company has introduced a new YouTube update for the iPhone, iPad and AirPlay.
The updated YouTube app -- which is now available in the App Store -- is optimized for the iPad and iPhone 5 device
"Just in time for the holidays, now you can download or update the YouTube app with a look designed for the iPad and iPhone 5, enhanced AirPlay support, videos that start faster and play more smoothly, and improved accessibility with VoiceOver," the company said in an official blog post
Google said on Tuesday that iPad users in the U.S. will be treated to a new interactive experience when they search for restaurants, bars or other locales.
The search engine giant has added a horizontal "carousel" to its iPad platform of local results at the top of the search page. When searching for "ramen shops," the search engine pulls in your geographic location and populates the carousel with pictures of restaurants in that genre. This is designed with the touchscreen iPad in mind, allowing users to easily swipe through results.
Some Apple users lament the lack of a notification light on their favorite iProducts. It's a feature that most other smart-devices boast, leaving some fans of the Cupertino, Calif., company in the dark.
A new tool called myLED aims to get Apple fans caught up. The external notification light for iPhones and iPads flashes to alert users of missed calls, emails and social-network updates so they can keep posted on activity without having to switch on their phone or tablet's screen.
"There is no convenient way to get alerts ... on iOS -- if you've used a BlackBerry or Android and have seen them flash to alert you, you'll understand the difference," according to myLED's Kickstarter page. "Phone notifications are a small detail, however, it can cause much aggravation to check the phone for new activity every few minutes."
Coco Rocha has come a long way since she was spotted by a modeling scout at an Irish dancing competition. Since then, she's become a fixture on the fashion scene -- appearing on the runways for Marc Jacobs, Versace, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Anna Sui, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel and Balenciaga
More recently, though, she's become a fixture on the social media scene, positioning herself as one of the most digitally-savvy models of her generation. Hers was one of the first fashion insider blogs in 2008, and Rocha was an early adopter of Twitter, Pose and Instagram. Across all social platforms, Rocha has more than 7 million followers on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tencent Weibo, Sina Weibo and others, earning her street cred as an socially savvy supermodel and role model for anyone looking to learn a thing or two about branding (she runs her accounts herself, and the
The event will be held May 15-17, 2013 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Additional details surrounding the event will be available in early 2013.
At last year’s conference, Google announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Nexus 7 tablet and the Nexus Q media-streaming device. Google co-founder Sergey Brin also demonstrated the company's new Google Glass by skydiving onto the Moscone Center wearing a pair of the futuristic glasses.
Completely rebuilt from the ground up, Version 2.0 of the app brings with it a new look and feel, which Google hopes will result in a faster, sleeker and easier experience when using the app.
New features in the app include updated animations, infinite scrolling in message lists, and profile pictures in messages. The app also makes autocomplete predictions when you search and allows you to respond to Google Calendar invites and +1 Google+ posts from directly within the app.
Apple announced on Tuesday that it's bringing the iTunes Store to 56 more countries, including Russia, Turkey, India and South Africa.
The platform will include a selection of local and international music from major labels, as well as thousands of independent ones. This brings the number of countries where the iTunes Store is available to 119.
The news comes just one week after Apple rolled out the latest version of the software after a series of delays due to "engineering difficulties."
Tello streamlines the creation and management of passes for brands in Apple’s Passbook. The company launched just a few months ago, on September 19, and already has thousands of customers, including professional sports teams and wireless carriers.
“We've focused on making it easy for all businesses to create and manage Passbook passes, including the industrial strength security and scalability that many require,” Joe Beninato, founder and CEO of Tello said in a statement. “We've seen tremendous interest and adoption since launch and are excited to join UrbanAirship and amplify that momentum through an end-to-end solution.”
Before you begin making 2013 resolutions, take a moment to savor Mashable's top stories of 2012
We scoured the web for fake privacy notices and unbelievable photos, covered everything from Apple launches to Gangam Style, all while staying faithful to our digital roots.
The Lytro camera made a name for itself through photos that you can refocus after you take them, but that was just the first of many tricks you can do with light-field photography. As of today, Lytro owners will now be able to shift the perspective of their photos as well as add special Instagram-like filters.
The new abilities roll out today via a software update to the Lytro desktop client. For people looking at the photos, though, absolutely no update is needed -- the embeds work just like they always have, allowing viewers to refocus with a click. The only difference is now there's a line about how to use perspective shift: click and hold.
This was the year of malware. In particular, according to the latest Sophos annnual report on cybersecurity, the year that's coming to a close saw a resurgence of web malware, and 80% of attacks on the web came in the form or redirects from legitimate sites infiltrated with malicious code. At the same time, the report warns, cybersecurity is not just about the desktop computer or Windows anymore. The continuous rise of smartphones, tablets as well as social media has given ill-intended hackers new platforms to exploit
Typing a password into your smartphone might be a reasonable way to access the sensitive information it holds, but a startup called EyeVerify thinks it would be easier—and more secure—to just look into the phone’s camera lens and move your eyes to the side.
EyeVerify’s software identifies you by your “eyeprints,” the pattern of veins in the whites of your eyes. Everybody has four eyeprints, two in each eye on either side of the iris. The company claims that its method is as accurate as a fingerprint or iris scan, without requiring any special hardware.
This article is brought to you by GE. Launched in the summer of 2011, the GE|OMD Incubator is an intensive 10-week startup incubator, inviting 15 of the brightest young entrepreneurs to build the next generation of innovative companies from idea to launch. For more information about BrandSpeak, click here.
An incubator is an opportunity for company founders to take an idea out of the confines of reality -- to put it in boot camp, so to speak, and plug it with resources to achieve growth that could not otherwise be generated. These resources include mentorship, access to top talent and time set aside to work solely on their company
Think you’re addicited to your smartphone? Turns out that cellphone addiction might be contagious
According to a new study conducted by the University of Michigan, people are more likely to pull out their phone when someone around them does the same.
In the study, researchers watched groups of students, documenting their cellphone use every 10 seconds. Overall, students were on their phones 24% of the time they spent with a friend, and were 39.5% more likely to use their phone when the person they were sitting with had done so in the previous 10-second interval.
Check out the gallery above to see our picks for the definitive apps of the year. Although some were launched before 2012, we feel the impact they've made during this calendar year deserves merit. Some make life a little easier, and others provide entertainment, but they're all notable.
By now, you've likely heard something about a United Nations meeting revolving around, and possibly determining, the future of the Internet. It's called the World Conference on International Telecommunications, or WCIT, and it started Monday. Here's what you need to know.
Acronym Soup
First, let's stop by the UN cafeteria and get an order of acronym soup: WCIT, being held in Dubai, was convened by the International Telecommunications Union, or ITU. The purpose of WCIT is to discuss and possibly act upon updates to the International Telecommunications Regulations, or ITRs, a global treaty that governs cross-border communications. The ITRs haven't been updated in more than two decades -- before the Internet was a household invention -- so many think it's time the treaty had a facelift.
The first SMS was sent in 1992 by Neil Papworth. He sent the message “Merry Christmas” from his personal computer to his friend Richard Jarvis' Orbitel 901 handset over the Vodafone GSM network.
The text message was first commercially deployed a year later, in 1993, and after a relatively slow start is now one of the most popular ways for people to communicate with one another.
Scientists have developed an entirely new light bulb that could potentially replace the typical buzzing, fluorescent lights in offices and commercial spaces.
The team at Wake Forest University said on Monday it has created a lighting solution twice as efficient as traditional fluorescent bulbs that don't shatter, flicker or hum. Because the bulbs are based on polymer electroluminescent (FIPEL) technology, they give off a soft white light, so rooms can be free from a yellow tint usually emitted from fluorescents (or, in the case of LEDs, blue).
Is Santa Claus delivering an iPhone 5 to your special someone this holiday season? Then you might want to think about buying a new case to protect her shiny new handset
We've found 10 fantastic iPhone 5 cases that your friends will be ecstatic to unwrap this Christmas
An infectious worm spread rapidly across the blogging platform Tumblr Monday morning, causing the site to disable posting and encourage users to reset passwords immediately.
As Tumblr cleans up the mess, web security firm SophosLabs took a deeper look into how the infection spread so quickly. The culprit? Its reblogging feature.
"It appears that the worm took advantage of Tumblr's reblogging feature, meaning that anyone who was logged into Tumblr would automatically reblog the infectious post if they visited one of the offending pages," Sophos said in a blog post.
Everyone knows that with each successive generation of computer chips, they get more powerful and often more power efficient. But for the latest Intel processors, progress may come early.
Intel is planning to cut power demands in its current line of Core processors, known as Ivy Bridge, which serve as CPUs in most PCs and Macs sold today, CNETreports. While Intel was already planning to slash power consumption to the extreme in the next generation of processors, code named "Haswell" -- the leaner Ivy Bridge chips -- would presumably come much sooner than that
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