Advances

Before we replace smartphones entirely, we can expect to see devices that put some of their components in more natural positions on our body. Just like we put activity detection technology on our wrists and speakers on our ears, more devices in the near future will put cameras on our faces.Meta and Ray-Ban’s smart glasses are an early example of this, with the $450 specs connecting to your phone but letting you leave it in your pocket when you want to use the camera. They also have microphones, and speakers in the arms,…

The world needs gargantuan amounts of clean energy moving forward, making this an area of colossal and growing opportunity for disruptive innovations. Here are some of the fascinating energy ideas and technologies that made us most hopeful in 2023.Let's start out with the problem. The world currently produces somewhere approaching 30 terawatt-hours of electricity per year – a total that's rising sharply as developing countries modernize, and as developed countries pour country-sized quantities of energy into making…

John Littlejohn remembers the days when lots of people had a couple of dollars to spare to buy a copy of Street Sense, the local paper that covers issues related to the homeless and employs unhoused individuals as its vendors.Today, he's finding fewer people are walking around with spare change. Even well-meaning individuals who want to help are likely to pat their pockets and apologize, he said. “I would be out here for six or seven hours and wouldn't get more than $12 to $15,” said Littlejohn, 62, who was homeless for…

A crowd examining the Microsoft Surface Studio 2+ at the company's New York City event in September. June Wan/ZDNET2023 has been the year of many things; Artificial intelligence took the world by storm, prompting major shifts in businesses, small and large, the mixed reality market saw a key entrant looming in the form of arguably the world's most influential technology company, smartphones appeared in all shapes and sizes, including lapel clips(?), and there was plenty of finger pinching -- I'll explain.Also: How…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain When one of the world's largest container ships crashed into the bank of the Suez Canal in 2021, a major gateway for global trade became blocked with an estimated $9.6 billion in daily commerce being held up. Accidents like the one involving the Ever Given almost…

Exploring the overlooked but remarkable progress of MusicGenAn image symbolizing how Music AI products can elevate music-making for everyone. Image generated through a conversation with ChatGPT and DALL-E-3.How it started…In February 2023, Google made waves with their generative music AI MusicLM. At that point, two things became clear:2023 would be the breakthrough year for AI-based music generationA new model would overshadow MusicLM in no timeMany anticipated that the next breakthrough model would be ten times the size…

When chatbots first became commercially accessible, companies big and small embraced them with open arms. “Have a robot handle easy customer service questions in seconds? Amazing!” — we thought. The problem was, these early chatbots were less C-3PO and more an annoying barrier to an actual human. From being asked: “Can you repeat the question” 10 times over to being directed to a completely unrelated information page — customers simply don’t have the patience to deal with badly made chatbots…

Ola Electric Mobility Pvt. is in line for an initial public offering sooner than its founder previously imagined, reflecting the Indian startup’s whirlwind pace of growth since it started selling electric scooters in late 2021.“I thought it would take me four to six years of revenue to go public,” Founder and Chief Executive Officer Bhavish Aggarwal said in an interview while sipping iced Vietnamese coffee in New Delhi’s bustling Connaught Place. “Now I can feel that it will be much earlier. Ola Electric has grown and…

Scientists from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have successfully enhanced the capacity and longevity of a flow battery by 60% using a starch-derived additive, β-cyclodextrin, in a groundbreaking experiment that might reshape the future of large-scale energy storage.Sugar additive plays a surprise role, boosting flow battery capacity and longevity for this grid energy resilience design.A team of researchers from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has…

Scientists have unveiled the atomic structure of UCP1, a protein key to calorie burning in ‘good’ brown fat. This discovery, enabled by a cryogenic electron microscope, offers insights into potential weight loss treatments and methods for regulating body temperature via thermogenesis.Findings represent the first structural details of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), which allows fat tissue to burn off calories as heat.New research has unlocked insights into how “good fat” tissue could potentially be harnessed to combat…