Researchers have gotten to the point at which they're able to accurately map the full set of neuron pathways present in one section of the brain of a fruit fly. Gotta start simple - and as incredibly intricate as this section of brain looks here, that's saying something seemingly incredible. This is the most intricate and massive map of a brain ever completed, and it's called the "hemibrain."
Microsoft may not be starting the year on the right foot, at least as far as security is concerned. Just last week the NSA of all people disclosed a critical Windows 10 vulnerability which was followed by a US-CERT report of an actively exploited Internet Explorer security bug. Microsoft's security mishap, however, may have gone even further back, extending up to New Year's Eve when it was discovered its Customer Support system was leaking millions of users' records on the Web.
Game streaming might be one of the buzzwords in the gaming industry today but the idea of accessing computers hosted elsewhere has long existed even before "streaming" itself became a thing. Remote desktop access isn't exactly new but Canonical, the company behind one of the most popular Linux distributions on the planet, is putting a unique twist to that idea by delivering not Windows or even Linux but Android on a cloud.
Forget the AirPods and the Mac Pro Cheese Grater. Apple's most reviled product may not have been a distinct product but a component instead. Fortunately, it seems that the company is ready to put its butterfly switches behind it and is spreading the good news of good old scissor switches. In fact, it may even spread that to a rather unexpected recipient, the iPad Pro. Hopefully not before it comes to other MacBooks first.
Windows isn't exactly an easy operating system to customize and bend to your will, which is why there is a market for third-party software that offer power user tools ranging from organizing windows to launching programs. Microsoft might be putting some of those out of business with the revival of its PowerToys suite, one of which will soon offer a more powerful way for users to search for things and run all sorts of commands in a single place.
JDI or Japan Display, Inc. is perhaps best known for making, as its name implies, display panels, many of which end up on smartphones. It does, however, also dabble in technologies only related to screens on the periphery, like biometrics and imaging sensors that can be placed under its display. Its latest boast may not yet have any display-oriented application but the new ultra-thin image sensor it has developed is in itself already impressive in how it combines two properties often found in two separate sensors.
For the past years, Apple has painted itself as a champion of user privacy, as long as said user is also a customer. Its privacy advocacy has become so central to its message that it has, after decades of formal absence, attended CES but only as a panelist in a privacy roundtable. There will always be some who will doubt a for-profit's ulterior motives and they may have just been given a smoking gun that implies Apple did secretly cave in to the US governments wishes to have easier access to iCloud users' unencrypted backups.
After what seems like a period of slumber, Chromebooks are making headlines again. Part of that is thanks to the recent premium models announced at CES earlier this month, like the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook. The other part is thanks to a reinvigorated campaign to push Chromebooks to schools and students. This particular segment, however, requires more affordable price tags, which is what HP's four new Chromebooks are trying to offer to educational institutions around the world.
Acer showed up to the BETT show in London with a handful of new products aimed at students today. The first is a new 12-inch Chromebook, which is joined by a pair of new TravelMate Windows laptops. While they may not do much to excite Acer's regular customers, we could very well see these notebooks show up in classrooms after they release this year.
There may be a lot of hype trailing the roll out of 5G here in the US, but we're going to be waiting a long time before it becomes the new global standard for mobile internet. With that in mind, today Qualcomm introduced three new mobile processors centered around 4G: the Snapdragon 720G, 662, and 460. While we expect to see these new mobile processors to feature in phones all over the world, it seems that a major area of focus will be India, where Qualcomm says it'll be supporting 4G well into the future.
It's almost hard to believe that the Google Pixelbook Go has already been out for three months now, and that's partly because it was still missing what could be considered its "launch color". The "Not Pink" option was the head-turning color that leaked before the announcement and its confirmation definitely sparked discussion, interest, and pre-orders. Fortunately, it seems that the waiting game is finally over and Google's second, final, and more expensive Pixelbook Go color is available for purchase.
Virtual reality, more than its cousin augmented reality, is often seen as an entertainment platform. Save for a few notable exceptions, most of the experiences available on VR platforms today revolve around games and multimedia. There are, of course, applications that take advantage of VR's capability to take people places they've never been to before or see things they normally couldn't. Lenovo is trying to build upon that with the VR Classroom 2 kit which ditches Google's abandonware for its own ThinkReality platform.