Flying cars! Jet packs! Lasers that zap malaria-carrying mosquitoes! Here are the year's biggest (and coolest) breakthroughs in science, technology and the arts
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2029497,00.html#ixzz15NyONYLu
Monday, November 15, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Saturday, October 09, 2010
Sunday, October 03, 2010
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Fisher-Price recalls millions of toys
(CNN) -- Toy manufacturer Fisher-Price announced Thursday that it has recalled about 10 million toys because they were dangerous to children.
The toy maker said it has recalled about 2.8 million of several types of baby play areas with inflatable balls because of problems with choking. It also recalled 125,000 of the toys in Canada.
The company found that a valve from the inflatable ball can come off and become a choking hazard.
Fisher-Price said it knew of 46 reports where the valve came off in the U.S. and eight incidents in Canada.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
A New Low for Laptop Pricing: $37
A brand new laptop for € 30,00 ? It's true...
For sale at an eBay near you...
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Shoppers Check Out of Stores Via Cell Phone
Credit-card issuers are testing "contactless commerce" that lets consumers pay for purchases with a chip affixed to their cell phones
At the Rochester, Ind., Dairy Queen, more than 350 customers can wave special stickers fixed to the backs of their cell phones at a scanner in the store, thereby banking loyalty points and qualifying for free cones and Blizzard sundaes. Customers have come back to the store more frequently as a result, helping sale rise more than 3 percent in the past year, says co-owner Dave Reasner. "It's something that's working," he says.
The radio frequency identification technology behind DQ's loyalty cards, similar to warehouse inventory tracking systems, is starting to work on behalf of consumers at the cash register. Discover Financial Services (DFS), Citigroup (C), and Visa (V) are introducing "contactless payment" technology that lets consumers pay for purchases by waving chips attached to their cell phones. Instead of swiping a credit or debit card, consumers can wave or tap phones—items that are nearly always handy—equipped with specially encoded stickers, or holsters, on receivers at the checkout counter.
Card issuers also hope that handset makers will embed the RFID chips into phones, then create smartphone applications to help shoppers manage payments. "Everything you store in a leather wallet will migrate to a mobile handset," says Barry McCarthy, a general manager at First Data, which processes transactions for 2,000 card issuers worldwide
Monday, May 10, 2010
Friday, May 07, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Teens and Mobile Phones
Apr 20, 2010
OVERVIEW
Daily text messaging among American teens has shot up in the past 18 months from 38% of teens texting friends daily in February of 2008, to 54% of teens texting daily in September 2009. And its not just frequency – teens are sending enormous quantities of text messages a day. Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, or 1,500 texts a month and one in three send more than 100 texts a day, or more than 3,000 texts a month. Older teen girls ages 14-17 lead the charge on text messaging, averaging 100 messages a day for the entire cohort. The youngest teen boys are the most resistant to texting – averaging 20 messages per day.
Text messaging has become the primary way that teens reach their friends, surpassing face-to-face, email, instant messaging and voice calling as the go-to daily communication tool for this age group. However, voice calling is still the preferred mode for reach parents for most teens.
ABOUT THE SURVEY
This study is based on the 2009 Parent-Teen Cell Phone Survey which obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 800 teens age 12-to-17 years-old and their parents living in the continental United States and on 9 focus groups conducted in 4 U.S. cities in June and October 2009 with teens between the ages of 12 and 18. The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. The interviews were done in English by Princeton Data Source, LLC from June 26 to September 24, 2009. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Volcano illustrates world's interconnectedness
Apr 16, 6:31 PM (ET)
By MICHAEL TARM
CHICAGO (AP) - A volcano erupts in Iceland, and the effects ripple around the globe: A mom in Romania frets about making her son's wedding in Texas. A florist in New York worries shipments won't arrive. Patients awaiting treatment in Nigeria have to wait another week for the doctors.
The fallout from the ash cloud looming over Europe illustrates just how interconnected our world has become.
Thousands of planes fly millions of passengers and tons of cargo each day, providing the economic lifeblood of nations and businesses. The flights deliver products for sale or items as small as a specialized tool that lets a factory keep operating.
The planes also bring medicines to hospitals and food aid to earthquake or hurricane victims. And they bring war and peace. Soldiers are often transported to and from hot spots by air.
Tales of woe and inconvenience span every social level, from the Norweigian prime minister who got stuck in New York and had to govern using his iPad, to ordinary people who saved money for trips of a lifetime, then had to abandon those plans.
The eruption was a single act of nature, but it stopped the world in countless ways.
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