Google's Internet Balloons; Car Talk; and more [Weekly Computing Newsletter]

February 26, 2015 Weekly Computing Newsletter

TECHNOLOGY Google’s Loon Balloons Are Ready to Deliver Cheap Internet Billions of people could get online for the first time thanks to helium balloons that Google will soon send over many places cell towers don’t reach. Availability: 1-2 years       TECHNOLOGY Networked Cars Will See Accidents Before They Happen A simple wireless technology promises to make driving much safer.Availability: 1-2 years

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NEWS A Bitcoin-Inspired Digital Currency, Stellar, Will Power Mobile Savings Accounts for Poor Teenage Girls A nonprofit experiments with using digital currency to give poor teenagers their first experience of financial services.       NEWS Pebble’s Long-Lasting, Color E-Paper Smart Watch As the Apple Watch casts a shadow across the smart-watch market, Pebble preps a wrist-worn gadget with a color e-paper display.       NEWS Nanotech Converts Conventional LCDs into Glasses-Free 3-D Displays Startup aims to give mobile devices the power to display full-color holographic images and video.     NEWS Chips with Flexible Circuits Could Make the Cloud More Powerful and Smartphones Longer-Lasting Software upgrades that can change the circuitry of the silicon chips inside computing devices could make them more powerful.       NEWS An App with Just One Button Will Help You Tame the Internet of Things A simple but powerful app offers a “Do” button that can bend Internet services and gadgets to your will.     NEWS Five Potential Problems with the FCC’s Open Internet Rules “Open Internet” rules are on the verge of being approved in the U.S., but crucial details remain unclear.     NEWS New Haptics That Can Trick Your Sense of Touch Could Be Crucial to Smartwatches and Virtual Reality Touch feedback that’s more nuanced than a simple buzz could make virtual reality more real and cars safer.     VIEW Google's AI Masters Space Invaders (But It Still Stinks at Pac-Man) Google’s artificial intelligence researchers say software that learns to play video games could graduate to the real world before long.     VIEW Seven Stories You Shouldn’t Miss (Week Ending February 21, 2015) Another chance to catch the most interesting, and important, articles from the previous week on MIT Technology Review.     VIEW Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending February 21, 2015) A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.     SEE MORE STORIES »

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