Author: Connor Livingston

For all of their technological genius and massive resources, Google sure doesn’t know how to make hardware. It’s a problem that has plagued them for years but it seems to be best highlighted with the Chromebook Pixel. Over at CNET, they were focused on one of the major bugs with the laptop – the challenge the device has with connecting to cameras. There’s good and bad that comes with having an operating system that is designed to be light and shareable. One of the bad parts is that you often miss some of the common accepted notions that other operating systems (and their users) take for granted. Because…

In one corner, you have a real many who has dreams of a greener world that travels to space using genius and money. In the other corner, you have a fictional character who saves the world from bad guys using genius and money. The similarities don’t end with intellect and cash. Elon Musk has been successful in three completely different arenas: eCommerce through PayPal, environmentally friendly cars with Tesla, and space travel with SpaceX. His list of accomplishments are the type that you’d normally see from a fictional character, which makes the comparison to Iron Man’s Tony Stark an easy one…

It isn’t easy for anyone, even law enforcement agencies like the ATF, to break into an encrypted iPhone. They are often forced to look for help from Apple itself. The rise in requests from law enforcement agencies has compelled the Cupertino company to create a waiting list to get to the data of alleged bad guys. Currently, that means 7 weeks or more before requests can be fulfilled. According to CNET: An agent at the ATF, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “contacted Apple to obtain assistance in unlocking the device,” U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell wrote in a…

The blogosphere is normally abuzz with stories about Facebook that demonstrate negative sentiment towards their activities. Most of their moves are scrutinized and the company is often targeted for its activities, failures, and missteps. Facebook Home, the app that was supposed to be the “next version of Facebook” according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has been so underwhelming with its numbers that most bloggers started ignoring it shortly after its launch. This could all change once it’s allowed to be released to a wider audience. Currently, it’s only available on the HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung…

Energy is all around us. Even the smallest particles that we cannot see without a microscope have the potential to unleash enough energy to destroy large portions of the world. There’s a huge gas ball that rises over our east horizon every morning, unseen wind currents that can turn power-capturing turbines, and good ol’ fossil fuels that are still in abundance beneath our feet despite decades of massive collection processes. With all of these standard energy sources, it’s still refreshing to see that some people are being creative with the ways that we collect the energy around us. It is a collection…

There you are. It’s 1993 and you’re sporting he hair, the youthful look of post-teen angst, the smile of one dedicated to making it in a Clinton-era, computer driven world. You know that it’s time to get into computers but you don’t know where to turn. No worries – Kim Komando is there to help you. You pick up a VHS copy of “Komputer Kindergarten” and you start the process of learning DOS. Unfortunately, it takes a while to get to that portion of the learning because this isn’t really kindergarten. It’s preschool. Best of all, looking back 20 years, it’s actually quite hilarious. This isn’t a knock against…

Technology often gets accused of making our world less beautiful. Progress has a price and it’s often associated with taking the wonders of nature and making them less wonderful. To combat this, many cell infrastructure providers are trying their best to blend in. In this collection of images compiled by FastCo, we see a dozen examples of how technology is worked into the landscape in an effort to not stick out and ruin the view of the surroundings. In some cases, it’s a great success and only under close examination would anyone be able to tell that there are conversations coursing through the apparently…

The vast majority of Microsoft Xbox users have known that May 21st was likely the date that the next generation of their console would be revealed. Now, it’s finally official. Invitations were sent out today to the media, most of whom had already been publishing the speculations of the special event on the 21st. This will be the final unveiling of a major console with Nintendo unwrapping the Wii U last November and Sony unveiling the Playstation 4 in February. This is by design – Xbox has been dominant in sales the past two years and wanted to be the last to the party. Nintendo needed a boost but are still…

Big business has always been the center for many communities around the world. Industries make cities. Resources make entire countries. From the coal towns of West Virginia to the automakers of Detroit, companies and industries have been able to put people to work, to keep taxes flowing for the government, and to build the personality of a community through the various projects associated with the companies. Tech is different. With technology, you don’t have to center around a resource. Proximity to infrastructure has less of an effect. You don’t even really need a strong workforce in many…

As of April 30th, several of Yahoo’s products will be shuttered as part of their initiative to consolidate focus and resources around their core services. That’s the bad news. The good news is that you’re probably not using any of them. You probably didn’t even know some of them existed. Here’s the list that they announced today: Upcoming Yahoo! Deals Yahoo! SMS Alerts Yahoo! Kids (formerly known as Yahooligans) Yahoo! Mail and Messenger Feature Phone Apps It’s not exactly as earth shattering as Google’s announcement that they were killing off their feed reader. Included in the announcement…