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Your guide to what matters today

09.30

  1. The Internet of Things Goes Rogue

    A huge online attack enabled by Internet-connected devices illuminates a problem keeping security experts awake at night.

    by Jamie Condliffe

  2. A Close Election Could Expose Risky Electronic Voting Machines

    Voters in 15 states, including several battlegrounds, will use systems that lack an important safeguard against software errors and tampering.

    by Mike Orcutt

  3. Fist-Sized Laser Scanner to Make Autonomous Cars Less Ugly

    A chip that steers lasers could be crucial to the future of transport.

    by Tom Simonite

  4. The Paris Motor Show Confirms It: The Future Is Electric

    Any automaker worth its salt is showing off a battery-powered car.

    by Jamie Condliffe

  5. This Calorie-Counting App Thought My Pasta Was Granola

    Lose It says its app can now recognize many foods from a photo but it sure couldn’t guess mine.

    by Signe Brewster

  6. Hydroelectric Power Isn’t as Green as We Thought

    Dam it. (Actually, on second thought, maybe don’t.)

    by Jamie Condliffe

  7. The U.K.’s Largest Sperm Bank Is Now an App

    Reproductive technologies have advanced a lot in 40 years—and now our access to them is evolving, too.

    by Julia Sklar

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

The Download

Innovation strategies

Mr. Musk Goes to Mars

The founder and CEO of SpaceX has laid out a dazzling plan for getting to the Red Planet, but he also left a lot of blanks to fill in.
Tomorrow's machines

Alexa, Talk Some Sense, Will You?

Amazon is offering $2.5 million to fund research aimed at enabling its personal assistant software to hold a 20-minute conversation.
Machine learning

Tech Titans Join Forces to Stop AI from Behaving Badly

The new partnership is also designed to head off unwanted regulation.
Innovation strategies

Uber and Amazon Want to Muscle In on the Shipping Industry

Whether it’s food delivery or hauling freight, tech giants think they can move stuff better than the old guard.
Wearable devices and sensors

Why Snap’s Spectacles Are Going to (Finally) Make Life Logging Cool

They’re so simple, even a Gen-Xer can use them.
Sponsored White Paper

Problem-Solving Smart Machines Revolutionize Industries

Produced in partnership with National Instruments

Innovation strategies

Technology Is Eating Up Restaurants

Apps and tech giants are closing down dining rooms, one way or another.
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

Features

Genomic medicine

Despite the Hype Over Gene Therapy, Few Drugs Are Close to Approval

There are hundreds of early clinical trials, but only a handful of late-stage ones have reached completion.

by Emily Mullin

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.
Wearable devices and sensors

I Saw Alphabet’s Health Watch

A first peek at the search giant’s health-tracking wearable gadget.

October 18-20, 2016

Cambridge, MA

Discover the emerging technologies that will change the world.

This is where technology, business, and culture converge, and where you gain access to the most innovative people and companies in the world.

Register Now

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

Computing

From the latest smartphones to advances in quantum computing, the hardware behind today's digital age is rapidly changing.

All Topics

  1. Most of India Still Isn’t Online—Here’s Google’s Plan to Fix That

    Google is testing new initiatives to boost Internet access in India that could prove useful everywhere.
    by Jamie Condliffe

  2. Single Photon Carries 10 Bits of Information

    Physicists have smashed the record for the amount of information a single photon can carry. Their experiment has immediate implications for quantum cryptography.
    by Emerging Technology from the arXiv

  3. The Spies Who Loved iPhones

    U.S. intelligence agencies know better than anyone how vulnerable today’s technologies are to being infiltrated—but some spies are getting smartphones and Wi-Fi anyway.
    by Jamie Condliffe
More from Computing
Biomedicine

The Painkillers That Could End the Opioid Crisis

Researchers may soon vanquish our pain without causing addiction and other devastating side effects.

Adam Piore

Features

Social networking

Watching the Debate on Twitter Only Made It More Surreal

It made a night of partisan shouting seem even more divisive.

by Nanette Byrnes

Social needs

The Internet Is No Place for Elections

It’s not safe to connect our voting infrastructure to the Internet, but some election boards are doing it anyway.
Clean power

Tesla’s Next Broken Promise

Automakers from Shanghai to Detroit have responded to Tesla’s remarkable success by accelerating their own electric vehicle ambitions. Now Tesla is promising to upend large-scale car manufacturing, but it faces tough competition.

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

Mobile

How ubiquitous information and communication are transforming our lives.

All Topics

  1. This Accessory Makes VR So Real a Surgeon Could Train with It

    Using this exoskeleton in a virtual environment, a baseball feels firm, and an egg light and fragile.
    by Simon Parkin

  2. The U.K.’s Largest Sperm Bank Is Now an App

    Reproductive technologies have advanced a lot in 40 years—and now our access to them is evolving, too.
    by Julia Sklar

  3. I Saw Alphabet’s Health Watch

    A first peek at the search giant’s health-tracking wearable gadget.
    by Antonio Regalado
More from Mobile

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. 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

  3. Striving for Innovation Success in the 21st Century

    Open innovation bridges the gap between business and academia. It encourages participation on both sides, through a distributed and decentralized approach.
    by Henry Chesbrough, Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley
More in Innovations, Ideas, and Insights