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Your guide to what matters today

10.22

  1. This E-Ink Post-It Never Needs to Be Charged

    It may be time to say goodbye to your Sharpie.

    by Jamie Condliffe

  2. Massive Internet Outage Could Be a Sign of Things to Come

    Hackers have shown how they could take down the Internet.

    by Jamie Condliffe

  3. Pokemon Go Increased U.S. Activity Levels by 144 Billion Steps in Just 30 Days

    The latest gaming craze increases activity levels for players, regardless of their age, sex, or weight.

    by Emerging Technology from the arXiv

  4. A Hotter World Is Poorer and More Violent

    Recent research suggests climate change will lead to troubling social and economic damages, including a severe drop in global GDP.

    by David Rotman

  5. Tesla Announces New Sensors and Puts the Brakes on Autopilot

    Every new Tesla will be kitted out with all the hardware that Elon Musk claims is required for the cars to go fully autonomous—but they won’t be allowed to for now.

    by Jamie Condliffe

  6. Major Opponent of Phone Encryption Still Expects Congress to Roll the Technology Back

    The top prosecutor in Manhattan thinks Washington will finally heed his call to make Apple resume opening devices to investigators.

    by Brian Bergstein

What's important in technology and innovation, delivered to you every day.

The Download

#EmTechMIT Coverage

Presented by MIT Technology Review

  1. Workers at This Startup Will Soon Swap Their PC Monitors for Augmented Reality Glasses

    Meron Gribetz says that his gesture controlled glasses can make you more productive.
    by Tom Simonite

  2. Stop “Gene Spills” Before They Happen

    Proposal would use gene-editing patents to force scientists to open their labs to scrutiny.
    by Antonio Regalado

  3. Making VR Movies You’d Actually Want to Watch

    Google’s in-house VR filmmaker has figured out how to improve cinematic content for VR headsets.
    by Elizabeth Woyke
More in #EmTechMIT Coverage

Weren’t able to make it to EmTech?
We’ve got you covered.

EmTech is where technology, business, and culture converge. The 16th annual event examines this year's most significant news on emerging technologies.

Read our coverage of the event Watch video of the event sessions

Features

Work

Learning to Prosper in a Factory Town

Greenville, South Carolina, has bet its future on high-tech manufacturing. Who wins and who loses in this increasingly automated economy?

by Nanette Byrnes

Gene editing

On Patrol with America’s Top Bioterror Cop

Will garage gene editing unleash a biological plague? Special Agent Ed You is ready if it does.
Social needs

Bad Math Props Up Trump’s Border Wall

Set aside the questions of whether it’s wise to put a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border or who should pay for it. It simply can’t be done at the price Donald Trump has claimed.
Responding to climate change

Capitalism Behaving Badly

It’s time to rethink the role that government plays in shaping and supporting policies to solve big problems like climate change and income inequality.
Better batteries

What We’re Doing Wrong in the Search for Better Batteries

The world needs cheap, scalable batteries to support a clean energy grid—but there’s a big obstacle standing in the way.
Security and privacy

Major Opponent of Phone Encryption Still Expects Congress to Roll the Technology Back

The top prosecutor in Manhattan thinks Washington will finally heed his call to make Apple resume opening devices to investigators.
Smartphones and apps

Google’s New Pixel Phone Matters (But You’re Not Going to Buy It)

The device is the first phone Google designed from scratch, and it has its AI-powered personal assistant built in.
Wearable devices and sensors

This Contact Lens Will Kick-Start the Internet of Disposable Things

Objects that recycle ambient radio signals can get online without a power source.
View from the Marketplace

Emerging Trend Analysis: What is Digital Performance Management?

Organizations serious about gaining—and maintaining—competitive advantage must optimize their digital customer experience. This introduction to DPM explains how this emerging approach can provide serious business value.

In partnership with Dynatrace

View from the Marketplace

Making the Invisible Visible: Matter, Methods, and Minds

The 2016 winner of the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, which honors outstanding mid-career inventors, discusses his work as an imaging scientist and his plan to expand peer-to-peer inventing opportunities for young people via the REDX platform.

Provided by Lemelson-MIT Program

Partner Webcast

The Connected City: Trends and Developments Driving Smart City Innovation

Presented by IEEE Collabratec

Sponsored White Paper

IPO Readiness: Control the Variables Within Your Grasp

Produced in partnership with Deloitte

Insider Conversations

You can be part of the discussion.

Insider Premium subscribers are invited to join Insider Conversations as our editors interview technologists and entrepreneurs to discuss some of the most important stories happening today.

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Mobile

How ubiquitous information and communication are transforming our lives.

All Topics

  1. This E-Ink Post-It Never Needs to Be Charged

    It may be time to say goodbye to your Sharpie.
    by Jamie Condliffe

  2. Workers at This Startup Will Soon Swap Their PC Monitors for Augmented Reality Glasses

    Meron Gribetz says that his gesture controlled glasses can make you more productive.
    by Tom Simonite

  3. Making VR Movies You’d Actually Want to Watch

    Google’s in-house VR filmmaker has figured out how to improve cinematic content for VR headsets.
    by Elizabeth Woyke
More from Mobile
Business

Restoring the Allure of the Movie Theater

Filmmaker Douglas Trumbull has invented a super-immersive film format and projection technology in hopes of improving the cinematic experience. Now he needs to get the industry to pay attention.

Elizabeth Woyke

Features

Automated cars

What to Know Before You Get In a Self-driving Car

Uber thinks its self-driving taxis could change the way millions of people get around. But autonomous vehicles aren’t any­where near to being ready for the roads.

by Will Knight

Innovators Under 35

Our 16th annual list of young innovators highlights a mix of inventors, pioneers, entrepreneurs, humanitarians, and visionaries who are poised to be leaders in their fields.
Machine learning

Japanese Robotics Giant Gives Its Arms Some Brains

Fanuc, a company that produces robot arms for factories, is trying to get them to learn on the job.

The Growing Threats to Cybersecurity

Sponsored by Northrup Grumman

  1. Israeli Hacking Firm Said to Be Behind Groundbreaking iOS Malware

    NSO Group, a firm that trades in spyware, stands accused of peddling an unprecedented attack on iPhones.
    by Jamie Condliffe

  2. Security Experts Agree: The NSA Was Hacked

    Analysis of the software tools made available by the Shadow Brokers suggests that they’re the real deal.
    by Jamie Condliffe

  3. Hackers Claim to Be Selling Secret U.S. Spy Software

    A group called the Shadow Brokers appears to be in possession of NSA code, though it’s unclear exactly how powerful it is.
    by Jamie Condliffe
More in The Growing Threats to Cybersecurity

50 Smartest Companies 2016

Explore the 50 smartest companies in depth, including the full list and stories that examine the opportunities for small companies going big and the challenges facing big companies fending off the newcomers.

See the Collection

Robotics

Smart machines are beginning to speak to us and act on their own.

All Topics

  1. Tesla Announces New Sensors and Puts the Brakes on Autopilot

    Every new Tesla will be kitted out with all the hardware that Elon Musk claims is required for the cars to go fully autonomous—but they won’t be allowed to for now.
    by Jamie Condliffe

  2. Searching Rat Brains for Clues on How to Make Smarter Machines

    A $28 million government project is betting that tapping rodent brains will pay big dividends for AI research.
    by Tom Simonite

  3. Novelty of Driverless Cars Wears Off Quickly for First-Timers

    NuTonomy is conducting “the world’s largest, most expensive focus group” with self-driving taxis in Singapore.
    by Will Knight
More from Robotics

Working Toward Tomorrow’s Healthcare Today

Sponsored by Horizon Pharma

  1. Fetal Cells Offer Promise in Prenatal Testing

    A scientist says a blood test that can discern a fetus’s entire genome is coming.
    by Bonnie Rochman

  2. In Rehab Clinics, a Possible New Role for Brain-Computer Interfaces

    Paralyzed people regained some motion after operating a brain-controlled robotic exoskeleton.
    by Ryan Cross

  3. A Big Step Forward in the Quest for a Better Painkiller

    Scientists have developed a new drug that promises the pain-numbing effects of opioids without the addiction.
    by Adam Piore
More in Working Toward Tomorrow’s Healthcare Today

Innovations, Ideas, and Insights

Provided by BBVA

  1. The Ethics of Human Enhancement

    Recent scientific advancements increasingly allow humans to improve everything from memory to appearance. But those capabilities come with questions about how they should be used, and who should make those decisions.
    by Andy Miah

  2. Outlook for the Internet of Things

    Fast-growing networks of smart, Web-connected objects are creating both opportunities and challenges—and this is just the beginning.
    by Juan Ignacio Vázquez Professor of Telematics, University of Deusto

  3. A Gender Power Shift in the Making

    We are well into the second decade of the 21st century, but the vexing topic of gender in corporate life is commanding more serious attention than ever before.
    by Alison Maitland
More in Innovations, Ideas, and Insights