Technology

Things aren't getting any easier for BlackBerry smartphone maker Research in Motion (RIM). With its new products experiencing repeated delays, the Canadian firm continues to struggle to maintain a viable presence in the mobile market. Now, there's ... word the company has decided to lay off 2,000 of its workers worldwide. This is the second time RIM has been forced to execute significant lay offs. Last summer the company cut about the same number of workers, most of whom were based at the company's headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Executive Restructuring Fails to Stop Bleeding RIM's ... (view more)

United States customs officials have reportedly blocked shipments of two high-profile Android smartphones from entering the country. It's the result of a court injunction obtained by Apple on the basis of alleged patent violations. The affected ... phones are the One X and the EVO 4G LTE, both manufactured by HTC. It's a significant blow to the smartphone maker, as these phones were intended to be its flagship models in the fast-growing Android smartphone market. Apple, Android No Strangers to Courts Apple and various manufacturers of Android devices have been engaged in a lengthy war of ... (view more)

Thanks to a new innovation, the reality of three-dimensional holographic communications is closer than ever before. A research team at Queens University in Ontario, Canada, recently began experimenting with a new system that brings face-to-face ... social media to life. The 'TeleHuman System,' as it is called, is said to be able to produce life-sized holograms that some observers are describing as 'Star Wars-like video conferencing.' Microsoft Kinect Powers 'Star Wars' Holographic System The 'TeleHuman System' marks the culmination of a ten year research project at the university. The system ... (view more)

The share price of Research in Motion (RIM), the Waterloo, Canada-based maker of the once-popular BlackBerry smartphone, continues its free-fall. Shares of the faltering company dipped to an eight-year low late last week. Incredibly, that price took ... a 15 per cent tumble in just three days, following the unveiling of a new BlackBerry device. It has been a wild and entirely unpleasant year for Research in Motion. Early in 2012, the company turned away from high-profile co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie in favor of a new CEO: Thorsten Heins. The shift in leadership evidently ... (view more)

Recently media reports have focused on the dangers posed by complex and high-tech in-car communications and media systems that seek to entertain but ultimately distract drivers. However, a new report suggests that different types of in-car ... communications systems -- those that allow drivers of different vehicles to communicate with one another -- could save millions of lives. In a recent presentation before the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan, National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator David Strickland proclaimed that vehicle-to-vehicle ... (view more)

The good news: Philips has launched a brand new light bulb designed to last for 20 years or more and save hundreds of dollars in electricity charges before needing replacement. The bad news: The bulb carries a retail price tag of $60. The new ... Philips bulb is a prime example of alternative energy-saving technology that wallops the inefficiency of today's conventional but popular devices. The reason: Traditional light bulbs work by heating a thin metal filament inside a glass bulb. While this produces light from the glowing filament, it also wastes a lot of the energy. In fact, conservationists ... (view more)

Environmental organization Greenpeace has issued a widespread warning about the technology used to host the Internet. According to Greenpeace, much of the online space is dependent on 'dirty' power. The group says that some of the largest web firms ... are intentionally moving their servers and other power-hungry facilities to geographical areas that can provide cheaper, although more environmentally harmful sources of electricity. The criticisms were recently published in a report titled: "How Clean Is Your Cloud?" The title is a reference to the current emphasis on cloud computing , ... (view more)

A new report suggests that in-car tech systems intended to simplify the navigation of media and communications platforms may create more problems than they solve. According to the report, which originated in the United Kingdom, more than seven in ... ten people find the systems distract them from driving. The publisher of the report, the UK-based publication 'Which?,' says it asked 1,000 of its members to report on their in-car technology. About one in four said they owned cars with advanced systems such as satellite navigation, touchscreen displays, and steering wheel-based control buttons. ... (view more)

At most major automotive shows, the "star" attraction tends to be a really hot, really expensive sports car, or more recently an incredibly fuel-efficient hybrid. But at the 2012 New York International Auto Show, what's stealing the spotlight is a ... flying car. Early glimpses of the "Transition ," a unique flying car from Massachusetts-based Terrafugia, were first seen back in 2010. At that time, the fledgling firm hoped it could start selling its ground-breaking dual-use vehicle by the end of 2011. That timeline never quite panned out. But Terrafugia and its Transition flying ... (view more)

The push to create smarter surveillance systems recently produced a major leap forward: A Japanese company has unveiled a new security system that can identify one particular face in a crowd in just one second flat. At the 2012 Security Show Expo in ... Tokyo, Hitachi revealed an exciting new security system that can scan a myriad of faces and compare them against 36 million records in a security database, and find all the matches in time to make use of the information. Using facial recognition to process surveillance footage is an established concept. In the United Kingdom, Scotland Yard has ... (view more)