Microsoft received a good amount of deserved praise for adding backwards compatibility to the Xbox One. Today, the company is adding another way to play older titles on its flagship console. The new Xbox Game Pass is another take on the “Netflix for games” concept, and it’s not dissimilar to what Sony has been offering for a few years with its PlayStation Now service. For $10 (£8) a month, Xbox Game Pass lets you access … Read More → "Xbox One to offer ‘Netflix for Games’"

This is the Dot Smartwatch. It’s a watch that connects to a phone via Bluetooth and can display messages for the blind using four dynamic braille cells. It can read virtually any message from a phone include texts, emails, map directions, etc. Previous smart devices for the blind relied on sound to communicate messages, this one is silent so nosy people on the … Read More → "First braille smartwatch allows the blind to read texts from phone"

SpaceX announced today that it will be sending two (currently) anonymous citizens to orbit the Moon sometime in 2018. While there’s obviously many logistical, technical, and scientific questions that will undoubtedly be asked in the coming days about this venture, we’ … Read More → "Why on earth would you pay millions of dollars to fly around the Moon?"

Imagine glasses that could bring everything into focus, shifting prescriptions from near to farsighted and back again in moments. It’s not possible with today’s glass lenses, but a breakthrough in what are called liquid lenses could make smart glasses that do exactly that. They could put an end to bifocals, and you’d … Read More → "These smart glasses automatically adjust to your eyes"

Add yet another skill to Alexa’s repertoire: staunch defense of the First Amendment. 

Amazon is holding firm and refusing to hand over voice and transcription data recorded by an Echo speaker to prosecutors in Arkansas as part of a murder trial. 

Amazon maintains the authorities haven’t clearly established that the investigation … Read More → "Amazon cites First Amendment in refusal to hand over Alexa data in murder case"

IBM’s Watson technology has helped doctors before, but usually by poring through databases before offering its advice. Now, it’s ready to look at the patients themselves — or rather, their body scans. It’s following up on past promises by launching Watson Clinical Imaging Review, its first picture-based cognitive computing solution. The AI platform can sift through … Read More → "Watson can diagnose heart disease by looking at medical images"

Engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin and the AMOLF institute in the Netherlands have invented the first mechanical metamaterials that easily transfer motion effortlessly in one direction while blocking it in the other, as described in a paper published on Feb. 13 in Nature. The material can be thought of as a mechanical one-way shield that blocks energy from coming in … Read More → "New metamaterials could improve energy absorption and harvesting"

If you’ve ever listened to Radiohead and thought to yourself, “Oh jeez, I do wish someone could quantify just how sad this song is making me feel,” your strange desire has been granted. Data scientist Charlie Thompson recently used the programming language R to find “a data-driven determination of [Radiohead’s] … Read More → "Radiohead’s saddest song is True Love Waits, according to data analysis"

NASA has announced the discovery of seven potentially habitable Earth-size exoplanets around the ultra-cool red dwarf TRAPPIST-1, the most ever discovered around a single star. Three of the planets fall within the star’s habitable zone but the other four could also have liquid water given the right conditions.
via Read More → "Astronomers discover seven potentially habitable Earth-size exoplanets around a nearby dwarf star"

The New York Times published its first issue on September 18, 1851, but the first photos wouldn’t appear on the cover until the early 1900s over 60 years later. This visual timeline by self-described data artist Josh Begley captures the storied newspaper’s approach to layout and photography by incorporating every NY Times … Read More → "The rise of the image: every NY Times front page since 1852 in under a minute"