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Jan Scheuermann, a quadriplegic, in 2012 was able to use her thoughts to flex the wrist of a new mind-controlled robotic arm in a project run by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Scheuermann earlier this year demonstrated her ability to use her thoughts to move the robot hand into different positions while controlling the wrist and ...

China last week apparently began blocking Gmail, and the outage was still in effect on Tuesday, although to a lesser degree, according to reports. A sharp drop in traffic from China to Google services began last Friday, according to its Transparency Report, and the company could find no explanation in its own systems....

Hacker Jan Krissler, aka "Starbug," this weekend told attendees at the 31st Chaos Computer Club convention in Hamburg, Germany, that he had replicated the fingerprints of German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leven using a standard photo camera and commercially available software from VeriFinger Krissler used a close-up of a photo of the minister'...

Check Point Software Technologies recently revealed a flaw in millions of routers that allows the devices to be controlled by hackers The company's Malware and Vulnerability Group detected 12 million Internet-connected devices that have the flaw....

It's well known that certain second-rate media outlets use provocatively misleading headlines to attract viewers and parlay those figures into increased ad revenue, but some better known outlets appear to be resorting to clickbait as well For example, Time earlier this year published the findings of a Gallup poll with the headline "Americans Are Mo...

Last week, we looked back at the largely untold (or under told) stories of 2014. This week, let's look ahead to some of the stories that are coming in 2015. We'll have robots, self-driving cars, armed autonomous drones, the professional proliferation of head mounted cameras, some scandals, and some interesting political implications....

The political spotlight in Washington was on congressional approval of the 2015 budget before legislators broke for the holidays, but a less volatile proposal also was passed in the closing days of the session -- one of considerable importance to the information technology sector For information technology providers, final approval of the 2015 budg...

Researchers at the University of Twente and the Eindhoven University of Technology have come up with what they claim is an unprecedentedly secure way to authenticate credit cards, IDs, biometrics, and parties involved in quantum cryptography The method -- quantum-secure authentication of optical keys -- basically consists of sending a beam of light...

Vulnerabilities in Signaling System 7, telephony signaling protocols used by carriers worldwide, allow third parties to listen to people's cellphone calls and intercept text messages despite encryption, The Washington Post reported last week German cybersecurity researchers Tobias Engel of Sternraute and Karsten Nohl of Security Research Labs separ...

Amazon is working on a second iteration of its Fire Phone but doesn't plan to release it until 2016, according to reports Following the disappointing performance of the phone's first generation -- Amazon reported a US$170 million charge in unsold inventory in its third quarter -- the company has gone "back to the drawing board," VentureBeat report...

Boeing has enlisted BlackBerry to help bolster the security of its Black smartphone, BlackBerry CEO John Chen said Friday during the company's earnings call "Boeing is collaborating with BlackBerry to provide secure mobile solutions for Android devices utilizing their BES-12 platform," confirmed Boeing spokesperson Andrew Lee. "We see the need for ...

Gather around, friends, for another edition of the column that holds up just-announced gadgets to scrutiny, Gadget Dreams and Nightmares In the stocking for our pre-holidays edition are a smartphone-controlled lock, an inexpensive fitness tracker, a red-hot wearable and much more....

Dish Network last week announced that it had integrated the Netflix app into its set-top box. The video streaming service is now available to Dish subscribers with a second-generation Hopper Whole-Home HD DVR. This integration of the services allows Dish customers the ability to stream Netflix movies and TV shows from the same platform that is use...

It is time to look back at 2014, so I'll focus here on a series of stories I thought were interesting but didn't seem to catch much or any real air. Some, like what is really behind Sony's decision to pull The Interview still might take off. I'll close with my last product of the week: a well-priced new full-size notebook from HP for the small ...

The end of the year and holiday season is a natural time to look back -- and then look forward to the year to come. Apple started 2014 slowly but more than made up for it in the long haul, introducing the Apple Watch, Apple Pay, Mac OS X Yosemite, iOS 8, an iPad Air 2 with a super-fast processor, the massively selling iPhone 6, the iPhone 6 Plus, and a luscious iMac with a 5K Retina screen, which, it turns out, is priced less than some 4K monitors...

Ever built a house of cards? It's critical to start with a sound foundation to support your later efforts. No matter how sturdy your start is, however, a wrong move anywhere along the way can bring down the house and cause all your work to be for naught Delivering good customer experiences is like that: You can do extraordinary work in planning the...

The Open Invention Network, or OIN, is waging a global campaign to keep Linux out of harm's way in patent litigation. Its efforts have resulted in more than 1,000 companies joining forces to become the largest defense patent management organization in history The OIN was created in 2005 as a white hat organization to protect Linux from license assa...

Google on Friday filed a lawsuit against Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, the latest salvo in its battle with the Motion Picture Association of America over piracy Hood targeted Google with an "unreasonable, retaliatory and burdensome" subpoena, the complaint alleges.

The U.S. government will remain a steady and significant customer for information technology providers over the next several years. That's the good news for vendors. For the foreseeable future, though, the days of ever-growing federal spending for IT are over The clear takeaways from several recent conferences focusing on the federal IT market: Ven...

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Thursday said the United States "is actively considering a range of options" to take in response to the Sony hack The hack is "very serious," Johnson said, though he refused to label it as a terrorist attack....