Articles by Technology Review from October 2013

Despite limitations, the Firefox OS-running ZTE Open shows promise for low-cost smartphones.While the word smartphone usually evokes images of pricey iPhones and Android handsets, plenty of inexpensiv...

A Stanford startups new radio can send and receive information on the same frequencyan advance that could double the speed of wireless networks.A startup spun out of Stanford says it has solved an age...

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A technology for reading emotions on faces can help companies sell candy bars. Now its creators want to see whether it can take on bigger problems in areas including education.Last year more than 1,00...

A technology for reading emotions on faces can help companies sell candy. Now its creators hope it also can take on bigger problems.Last year more than 1,000 people in four countries sat down and watc...

In five years, what will fundamentally change the customer experience as we know it today?This Conversation on the Future of Business is brought to you by SAP &MIT Technology Review Custom....

In five years, what will fundamentally change the customer experience as we know it today?This Conversation on the Future of Business is brought to you by SAP &MIT Technology Review Custom....

Todays medicines can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. The story of how two companies set prices for their costly new drugs suggests that the way we determine the value of such treatments ...

As Web companies and government agencies analyze ever more information about our lives, its tempting to respond by passing new privacy laws or creating mechanisms that pay us for our data. Instead, we...

The community that built the largest encyclopedia in history is shrinking, even as more people and Internet services depend on it than ever. Can it be revived, or is this the end of the Webs idealisti...

A cheaper fuel cell could provide affordable power for microgrids.A one-meter-square gray box studded with green lights sits in a hallway near the laboratory of materials scientist Eric Wachsman, dire...

Todays medicines can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. The story of how two companies set prices for their costly new drugs suggests that the way we determine the value of such treatments ...

Dont expect self-driving cars to take over the roads anytime soon. Heres what carmakers are really working on.A silver BMW 5 Series is weaving through traffic at roughly 120 kilometers per hour (75 mp...

As Web companies and government agencies analyze ever more information about our lives, its tempting to respond by passing new privacy laws or creating mechanisms that pay us for our data. Instead, we...

Todays medicines can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. The story of how two companies set prices for their costly new drugs suggests that the way we determine the value of such treatments ...

A mobile, one-armed robot that costs $35,000 is headed for research labs and maybe even some workplaces.According to Melonee Wise, the manual laborer of the future has only one arm and stands just thr...

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A new database tool dramatically improves processing speeds using technology thats already in your computer.New software can use the graphics processors found on everyday computers to process torrents...

After spending millions of dollars on legal fees, film studios should stop suing downloaders and take better advantage of what they do.Jack Valenti, the late president of the Motion Picture Associatio...

New outliners and authoring tools are machines for new thoughts.In 1984, the personal-computer industry was still small enough to be captured, with reasonable fidelity, in a one-volume publication, th...

Smart watches risk becoming just another irritating gadget unless their makers learn to use AI and sensors to take advantage of the fact that theyre worn all day.A century ago, banker Henry Graves Jr....

Economist Simon Johnson says governments will feel the urge to suppress the crypto-currency Bitcoin....

AOL cofounder Steve Case makes the case for American entrepreneurs outside of Silicon Valley.Entrepreneurs made America the leader of the free world, and only entrepreneurs can keep it there....

A leader at Microsoft proposes protecting personal data using technology once used to lock down music files.When sharing music online took off in the 1990s, many companies turned to digital rights man...

A leader at Microsoft proposes protecting personal data using technology once used to lock down music files.When sharing music online took off in the 1990s, many companies turned to digital rights man...

Worlds largest smartphone chipmaker offers to custom-build very efficient neuro-inspired chips for phones, robots, and vision systems.The worlds largest smartphone chipmaker, Qualcomm, says it is read...

A Microsoft researcher proposes big data due process so citizens can learn how data analytics were used against them.Data analytics are being used to implement a subtle form of discrimination, while a...

A Microsoft researcher proposes big data due process so citizens can learn how data analytics were used against them.Data analytics are being used to implement a subtle form of discrimination, while a...

Revelations that the NSA has compromised hardware for surveillance highlights the vulnerability of computer systems to such attacks.In 2011, General Michael Hayden, who had earlier been director of bo...

Oculus Rift has heavyweight developer support, and millions of dollars of crowdsourced investment. But many of the old challenges to this new technology remain.This technology is going to revolutioniz...

Kapricas malware-scanning charger does its job without actually residing on your phone.At the annual Black Hat security conference this summer, researchers demonstrated how it would be possible to add...

Scanning a smartphone for malware with a charger offers more protection than security apps ever can.At the annual Black Hat security conference this summer, researchers demonstrated how it would be po...

A Tesla Model S caught fire. What happened brings both good news and bad news for electric vehicles.(UPDATE: Tesla has provided more information about the accident. See below.)...

By changing the way certain organisms process sugar, UCLA researchers have shown how to produce more biofuel.Researchers at UCLA have opened a path to cheaper and cleaner biofuels by using genetic eng...

New research suggests graphene could enable highly efficient optical communication in chips for data centers and supercomputers.Computer chips that use light, instead of electrons, to move data betwee...

Adding 3-D sensors to existing and future mobile devices will enable augmented-reality games, handheld 3-D scanning, and better photography.Just over a decade since cameras first appeared in cell phon...

Several gene therapies are or will soon be in late-stage human trials. One of them could be the first to get FDA approval for sale in the U.S.Though many gene therapies have been tested in patients ar...