Future Technologies

Last week, Pierre Ferragu, an analyst working for Bernstein Research, had some  cutting things to say  about the state of Nokia’s business, most of which concerned the firm’s finances. However, Ferragu also had something to say about Nokia’s dependance on Microsoft’s  Windows  Phone platform, and the rapidly diminishing feature phone market. He claimed that “Both could cost Nokia a lot of cash in the near term” and that it “could be too late” to turn back and fix this in a few years. His solution: Nokia should “take the pill” and make a few  Android  phones before it’s too late; low-end Android phones could come by the end of the year. "Swap out Windows Phone for Android Jelly Bean, and the re you have it: the Lumia 925 Google Edition" Ferragu saying Nokia should adopt Android or die isn’t news either. It has been discussed by analysts, shouted across rooms in fanboy arguments, and endlessly rolled out in forums and comment threads all over t...

On Monday, fans of Google's popular Reader application will bid farewell. Google shuts down Reader on July 1, citing a drop in usage and a shift toward a smaller selection of Google services. If you're a Google Reader user, now's the time to export your subscriptions. Users can do this by going to Settings, Import/Export and follow the steps to export your subscriptions through Google Takeout, which will download to a computer in a ZIP folder. Most RSS readers will let you import subscriptions (saved as an XML file) easily. Feedly is a replacement for Google Reader, a tool for bringing headlines and articles from your favorite websites into a single place. Since Google announced Reader's demise in March, several other options have emerged to potentially fulfill your RSS needs. Here are five alternatives to consider. Feedly .  As of right now, this is the best option in a Google Reader free world. It's flexible, so users can opt for the tradit...

Google may have found one more clever way to squeeze juicy data out of its users: Get them to catalog their possessions online. There are some potential advantages to the user, of course, including having a nice tidy inventory for insurance purposes and setting up sharing and bartering opportunities with friends. Those probably pale in comparison to the advantages for Google and its advertisers, however. Google is internally testing a new service, Google Mine, that will be integrated with Google+, according to the Google Operating System unofficial blog. It will let users list their belongings, post photos to a Mine album, and share and track their belongings with friends. Think of it as Craigslist on steroids with a homey touch. "It'll be like an eBay for sharing," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the  Enderle Group , "but the groups are pretty tight -- and only people you'll want to know what you have will know it." Google Mine will b...

Back in early 2012, before the world had heard of Google Glass, the tech world was ablaze with  rumours  that the search giant was beavering away on augmented reality goggles. As the days went by, it was clear that not only was this true, but that Google's dream of wearable technology was far, far closer to release than anyone would have guessed. Roll forward just over a year and the  first versions are in the hands of developers  who went into a  lottery to fork out $1,500  for their own pair of spectacles. TechRadar has had time with the  Google Glass Explorer so you can find plenty more information right there. But what exactly is Google Glass? Why is it attracting all this attention and what are the implications - both good and bad - of having a Google-eye view of the world? What is Google Glass? Google Glass is an attempt to free data from desktop computers and portable devices like phones and tablets, and place it ...

Question: I have an Android phone and an iPad. How do I get the pictures I take on the phone to show up on the tablet? STORY HIGHLIGHTS Google+ Android app, iPad app can save backups of photos Google also applies 'auto enhance' to uploaded photos Delete three of every five photos you take to save storage space Answer: Assuming you'd rather not transfer the photos through whatever computer you might sync both devices with (and why would you, considering the hassle involved and  the need to add extra software to sync photos with Android ), you should go with  Google+ . Install that social network's  Android app  on the phone and put its  iOS release  on the iPad, and its automatic online backup should ensure that every photo you take from the phone will show up in the G+ app on the tablet moments later. That doesn't mean everybody else on G+ can see your shots — this automatic backup is done in private, leaving it to you to decide later...

The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem.  There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity—jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month’s income.  Solving these problems isn’t simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we’re unveiling our latest  moonshot  from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth below. It’s very early days, but we’ve built a system that uses balloons, carr...

President Obama's  defense of the government's collection  of phone records and Internet traffic may not appease staunch privacy advocates. Jody R. Westby, adjunct computer science professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, would prefer that Obama call for "a full investigation to ensure that no laws have been stretched or broken." Should the wide exposure of the government's Internet and telephone records data mining projects prompt a similar reaction among the general public, the tech giants that generate and store this data very well might be compelled to adjust their business models, going forward. Americans have always been willing to know that some crimes will take place simply because people are acting undetected, but the rule of law, based on police, courts, and prosecutors to keep the public safe works well, says Westby, who is also CEO at consultancy Global Cyber Risk LLC. "Whatever happened to that line of thinking? It is an odd tw...