The founders of Siri are working on a new service called Viv that can link disparate sources of information together to answer questions: But Kittlaus points out that all of these services are strictly limited. Cheyer elaborates: “Google Now has a huge knowledge graph—you can ask questions like ‘Where
When I was growing up, I was fascinated by space. One of my earliest memories—and I know this is strange—is, when I was four or five years old, trying to grasp the concept of emptiness in space. I imagined the vast emptiness of space between galaxies, nothing but
Monday’s WWDC Keynote was easily the largest set of changes made to Apple’s platforms since iOS 2 was announced in 2008. The effects of what was announced will be felt and discussed for years to come. There is a lot to think through and write about, which I
Tesla plans to build a massive new lithium ion factory that would double world production volume. Doing so could dramatically change the car industry: When Tesla first began working on its Model S saloon barely five years ago, lithium-ion batteries were priced at about $1,000 a kilowatt-hour
Julian Sanchez: I’m perfectly open to the notion that it may be wise and justifiable to extent the protections of anti-discrimination law to groups not currently covered—but I also wish supporters of such reforms would acknowledge that there’s a genuine impingement on associational freedom involved in
My thanks to Campaign Monitor for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed. Designing emails that look beautiful, render perfectly and drive strong response is increasingly difficult. That’s why Campaign Monitor compiled the top 100 emails of 2013 into a free eBook, alongside tips on design and content. The Top
Sean Penn: The Oscar-winning actor and political activist accused the US media of smearing Venezuela’s socialist president and called for journalists to be punished. “Every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it. And this is mainstream media. There
Matt Bischoff on the New York Times’ 10-free-articles-a-month limit: Since The Times’s mobile products are partially supported by advertising, it’s counterintuitive to drive down the number of ad impressions by cutting off enthusiastic users just as they’re getting excited about the content. Ten
Amy Harmon wrote a terrific article for the New York Times about a Hawaiian town’s “debate” over whether to ban genetically-engineered crops, and the insanely stupid things said about them: A report, in an obscure Russian journal, about hamsters that lost the ability to reproduce after three generations
Fascinating article in Popular Science about the development of insect-like drones: They teamed up with Wood, whose lab had since joined Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and together they applied for an Air Force grant. Wood’s group then used an image-capture system to record
Last week, Nest was acquired by Google for $3.2 billion. There are only a few companies that have truly excited me in the last few years, and Nest is at the top. They worked on a very original, very real problem—thermostats were not only a user interface disaster
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has announced an art and technology lab sponsored by Google and SpaceX that will allow artists to experiment with new technologies. The lab will also feature talks, demonstrations and prototypes for the public. I absolutely love this, and I’m particularly excited that