A slopeside location-based social networking service came to five ski resorts this season, allowing skiers and boarders to track their Vail Resorts vertical feet, earn virtual ski pins and connect with friends. Called <a href="http://www.snow.com/epicmix">EpicMix</a>, Vail Resorts rolled the system out to mountains in California and Colorado, covering 17,000 acres or about 70 square kilometers of terrain.
On World Tech Update this week, we're at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Ford Motor Company debuted its first all-electric vehicle, the Focus Electric, at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show Friday. It is one of five new electrified vehicles that will be available in North America and Europe by 2013.
ioSafe's Rugged Portable hard drive launched at the Consumer Electronics Show this week withstood drops, submersion and even blasts from a 12-guage shot gun.
Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of One Laptop Per Child said that the XO-3 tablet computer will debut sometime in February 2011, about 45 days later than originally planned.
Philips introduced the GoGear Connect, an Android-powered device that can play music and movies, take pictures and surf the web, during the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin.
Aiptek has introduced the i2, a pocket-sized twin lens camcorder that can record 3D video, at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin.
The AR.Drone from France-based Parrot is an exciting, fun-to-fly, four-rotor helicopter that can be piloted over Wi-Fi by an iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone. But flying indoors proves tricky and may frustrate inexperienced pilots. The helicopter goes on sale in the U.S. at Brookstone stores on Sept. 3, 2010, for US$299 and is available for pre-order now.
A team of students and faculty at Cornell University claim that their <a href="http://ruina.tam.cornell.edu/research/topics/locomotion_and_robotics/ranger/Ranger2010/">Ranger robot</a> has set a new record for nonstop distance walked by an untethered, legged robot: 23 kilometers or 14.3 miles.To see video of the robot, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjTLSpFyi38">click here</a>.
These days, it’s fairly obvious that owning a PC is necessary, not only for business purposes, but for day-to-day life. Who could survive without one? It is with this mind that we provide you with a step-by-step guide, created by <i>IDG News Service’s</i> Nick Barber, on how exactly to build a PC.
MIT Media Lab researchers have developed a mobile-phone application that, coupled with a small plastic device held over the screen, can determine users' eyeglass prescriptions. Called NETRA or near-eye tool for refractive assessment, the system asks users to align lines on the phone's screen while looking through a small plastic cube.
A helicopter that wirelessly sends video to its controlling iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch will be available in the U.S. in September, France-based Parrot announced this week at the E3 game expo in Los Angeles.
Steve Spohn is wheelchair-bound, on a ventilator and can barely move because of muscular dystrophy, but he's still able to play video games. He participated in last week's Games for Health conference in Boston, where the AbleGamers Foundation hosted the Hardware Hackers Challenge, a contest to build a handicap-accessible game controller in under two hours.
Santiago Alfaro hopes to one day use the Surround Vision technology he created at the MIT Media Lab and work with famous director James Cameron to incorporate it into a film.
The runners took center stage during the Boston Marathon Monday, but behind the scenes of the prestigious road race was an enterprise-class data center capable of accurately tracking more than 26,000 runners and relaying that information to a number of outlets.