Solar-powered plane takes off for round-the-world flight, and more for Monday, March 9, 2015

Solar-powered plane takes off for round-the-world flight Barb Darrow Mar 9 2015, 7:09am PDT Two pilots aboard a solar-powered aircraft took off at 7:12 a.m. local time from Abu Dhabi for the first leg of what they hope will be the first complete-solar-powered circumnavigation flight. If all goes well, Solar Impulse-2 should take about 12 hours to reach Oman (a flight […] Read More » MIT recruitment video parlays drone delivery Barb Darrow Mar 9 2015, 6:19am PDT MIT wants prospective students to know that it’s fully aboard the drone bandwagon, parlaying an army of delivery drones (and computer-generated imagery) for a tongue-in-cheek admissions video, complete with Wagnerian orchestration. MIT sends acceptance letters to its next class of freshmen on Pi Day, aka March 14, or […] Read More » Sponsored post: How will Docker integrate with IT infrastructure? ActiveState Mar 9 2015, 5:55am PDT The explosion of interest in Docker has made clear that containers will profoundly affect the computing environment of the future. However, they are quite new and how they will integrate into infrastructure and application architectures and operations is, as yet, unclear. Still to be defined are […] Read More » How DNA barcoding can prevent foodborne illness outbreaks Elizabeth Armstrong Moore Mar 9 2015, 5:00am PDT In 2012, when several hundred people fell ill in the U.S. amid a salmonella outbreak, the Food and Drug Administration was quickly able to isolate the exact strain of salmonella that had found its way into the contaminated sushi-grade tuna — and then trace it to the exact […] Read More » Germany pushes for widespread end-to-end email encryption David Meyer Mar 9 2015, 4:13am PDT The biggest webmail providers in Germany will soon encourage their customers to use full-blown end-to-end email encryption. The providers, including Deutsche Telekom and United Internet, will next month roll out a browser plugin that’s supposed to make traditionally laborious PGP technology easier to use – and […] Read More » Live blog: The Apple Watch “Spring Forward” event Kevin C. Tofel Mar 8 2015, 3:00pm PDT Announced in September, the Apple Watch is nearly here; expected to ship in April. There are still many remaining questions about the wearable and Apple is likely to answer them all at its “Spring Forward” event in San Francisco at 10am PT, Monday, March 9. I’ll […] Read More » How I manage my creative process on an 11-inch MacBook Air Mark Crump Mar 8 2015, 12:00pm PDT Last week, I waxed poetic about the largest iPhone Apple makes, the iPhone 6 Plus. If I told you a week later that I bought a new MacBook, you’d be forgiven for thinking I would write an article about how much I missed the Texas-sized 17-inch […] Read More » How to run Linux in a window inside Chrome OS Kevin C. Tofel Mar 8 2015, 7:29am PDT Thanks to a handy set of scripts, you’ve long been able to install an instance of Linux on a Chromebook and switch between the two platforms with a simple keypress. What if you could run Linux inside the Chrome OS environment in its own window, though? […] Read More » Apple event preview: Apple Watch, Apple Watch, maybe a MacBook Kif Leswing Mar 8 2015, 6:00am PDT On Monday, Apple is holding a special event starting at 10 a.m. PT. Gigaom will be there to liveblog, and you can stream the video online from a Mac or iOS device. Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t provide an agenda for its special events, so we had to come […] Read More » The future of industrial IoT might be wearables Cormac Foster Mar 8 2015, 6:00am PDT We all know IoT is going to be huge, and as with most technology, the industrial IoT will eventually eclipse its consumer equivalent. But it is certainly in no rush. From smart socks to smart homes, consumer tech is flying off the shelves, but industrial IoT […] Read More » How the internet of things will power the Intelligence Age Guest Column Mar 7 2015, 12:00pm PDT We’re currently shifting from the Information Age to the Intelligence Age. The Intelligence Age will be characterized by autonomous communication between intelligent devices that are sensitive to a person’s presence and respond by performing a specific task that enhances that person’s lifestyle.  The shift is driven […] Read More » Public cloud providers’ end game shouldn’t surprise anyone David Mytton, Server Density Mar 7 2015, 12:00pm PDT In the beginning, public cloud was the only choice. If you had an existing environment on-premise, colocated or with another web hosting company, you couldn’t connect it up to the public cloud. You could set up your own site-to-site VPN across the internet, but this had […] Read More » One big way that book publishing startups can succeed now Ricardo Fayet, Reedsy Mar 7 2015, 10:30am PDT It’s been more than seven years since the introduction of the first Kindle. Ebooks market share seems to be stabilizing at around one third of total books sold in the U.S. according to the latest reports. But ebooks are just the beginning–the detonator, in a way, of a […] Read More » Why my iPhone is the best watch I’ve ever owned Geoffrey Goetz Mar 7 2015, 9:00am PDT In the past, I tried my best to use Apple’s iPod Nano as a watch. Charging it each and every night, syncing it to my Mac, even strapping it to my arm with a custom watch band case. In the end everything I tried did not work […] Read More » Hands on with the HTC Valve Vive virtual reality headset Signe Brewster Mar 7 2015, 9:00am PDT When people put on a virtual reality headset for the first time, they almost always try to do two things: look at their hands and walk around. It’s a natural impulse, but an ability VR headset makers have shied away from because of the technical challenge […] Read More » Mobile recap: iOS Android Wear; Pebble Time Steel; Huawei Nexus Kevin C. Tofel Mar 7 2015, 6:20am PDT In the final run up before the Apple Watch launches, an interesting rumor made the rounds: Google is allegedly working on bringing Android Wear watch support to iPhones. On the surface that may sound odd: Why would Google even consider such a thing? The reality is: […] Read More » Report: Android OS coming to virtual reality headsets Signe Brewster Mar 6 2015, 5:01pm PDT Google has reportedly hired a team to build a version of the Android operating system for virtual reality headsets, the Wall Street Journal reports. Vice president of product management Clay Bavor and engineering director Jeremy Doig are leading the VR team, which includes “tens of engineers,” according […] Read More » Transparency, immediacy and productivity: How IoT will rock your biz Stacey Higginbotham Mar 6 2015, 2:35pm PDT The internet of things when applied to enterprises will take a lot of people out of business, will reduce the profitability of a lot of businesses and it will move massive gains to other businesses, according to Charlie Peters, senior executive vice president at Emerson, the […] Read More » What Apple Watch does, in Tim Cook’s own words Kif Leswing Mar 6 2015, 1:53pm PDT On Monday, Apple will officially launch the Apple Watch, its first completely new product since the iPad was introduced in 2010 as well as its first major launch under CEO Tim Cook. Gigaom will be covering what Apple has in store live from the Yerba Buena Center on Monday. But Apple […] Read More » Tina Fey’s new Netflix show is here for weekend binge-watching Jeff John Roberts Mar 6 2015, 1:23pm PDT There are two good reasons to pay attention to the The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which is Tina Fey’s new series that debuted Friday on Netflix. The first reason is that the show, about a young woman rebuilding her life in New York City after 15 years in […] Read More »