Technology

Biometric information used for identification is among IBM's five newest forecasts for the year 2016, along with thought-reading smartphones, which is reminiscent of a forecast it made five years ago. Since 2006, IBM has published an annual list of ... five technology trends it expects to take effect within five years. This year's forecasts include the end of passwords, which by 2016 may be replaced by biometric log-ins like fingerprint scanners , iris scanners or even DNA readers. As science fiction as that may seem, it's already in the works: Windows 8 is thought to support an option for log- ... (view more)

A Microsoft manager has revealed that the latest Windows Phone system already includes support for "contactless" smartphone payments in stores. However, there remain serious questions about the system's security status, which is still being worked ... on. Electronic Payments Make Transactions Quicker NFC is a form of wireless communication that works very much like Bluetooth and WiFi, but only over a much shorter distance (as little as a few centimeters). One of its primary uses could be to make electronic payments in stores without swiping a card. Although technically NFC payments are ... (view more)

It's neither a bird, nor a plane, nor Superman. The giant object now appearing next to the planet Mercury remains a mystery. UFO followers believe it could be an alien ship. Scientists, however, aren't convinced. The object appears in a number of ... images taken by a NASA telescope named Heliospheric Imager-1, which was focused on a coronal ejection from the Sun. In a sequence where the telescope observes a solar flare, viewers can clearly see a massive circular object moving around in the frame. YouTube Video Arouses Speculation Video of the object next to Mercury has been posted to YouTube, ... (view more)

It seems like we've seen a million studies conclude that texting from behind the wheel of an automobile is an extremely dangerous practice. Yet a new report suggests most Americans just haven't received the message. Even more surprising is that the ... number of people texting while driving has actually increased since most U.S. states passed laws to ban the dangerous practice, and to levy stiff fines on perpetrators. The new report comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which on Thursday (December 8th) announced that texting while driving has increased by a ... (view more)

Are you unhappy with your mobile service? If so, there's a good chance you're an AT&T customer. According to a recent customer satisfaction survey, AT&T once again ranks dead last among all mobile service providers. The survey comes from ... Consumer Reports, which released this latest report on mobile service providers this past Tuesday (December 6). For the second straight year , AT&T came in well behind its major competitors, including Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile. Even worse, AT ... (view more)

Google's Android platform continues to be a powerhouse in the highly competitive smartphone market, despite a recent study that reported malware attacks are up nearly 500 per cent . Industry analysts Nielson recently released its third quarter ... statistics for smartphone usage among United States-based mobile subscribers. Researchers found that Android once against ranked as the most popular mobile operating system (OS), with devices using this platform accounting for approximately 42.8 per cent of the total smartphone market. More specifically, Android phones made by HTC accounted for 15 per ... (view more)

California-based researchers have unveiled what they claim is the lightest material ever produced. In fact, it's so lightweight that photos of the material show a piece of it balanced delicately on the top of a puffy dandelion without a single seed ... being damaged or removed. The material was revealed by a research team made up of scientists from University of California Irvine, HRL Laboratories and Caltech, working under the U.S. Department of Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In the recently published November issue of Science (magazine), they boldly assert it is the lightest ... (view more)

The first hands-on reviews of Amazon's debut tablet device, the Kindle Fire , are beginning to appear. Their general theme is that the price is great, but the device itself could use some improvement. The Fire costs $199, approximately 60 per cent ... lower than Apple's iPad, and right on the consumer electronics price point at which mass market purchasers become more willing to try out new technology. Kindle Fire: Silky Smooth But Not Ultra Fast Most of the reviews claim that Amazon's highly promoted web browser for the Kindle Fire, Silk, is too slow. The browser actually displays web pages ... (view more)

An Ohio firm has developed a new software system which promises to reduce the time and money people waste waiting for deliveries and repairmen to show up on call. According to TOA Technologies, US workers lose about $37 billion each year because of ... vague schedules that keep them pinned down, waiting for delivery and service personnel. Software Monitors Real Time Events, Not Schedule The problem of delivery and service call scheduling has long been a tough nut to crack. TOA's new system, however, tackles the problem by calculating both the amount of time that a given job might take, and the ... (view more)

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion's fall from grace continued on Thursday as the Canadian company's stock value continued to plummet. Now, analysts wonder if the firm, which helped pioneer the smartphone device, will be able to recover. Times have ... been tough of late for Research in Motion (RIM), the Waterloo, Canada-based firm whose BlackBerry handheld device was once the darling of the smartphone market. Besides a major outage in early October that affected users around the world, the company has seen BlackBerry sales slip steadily in recent years. Beyond that, RIM also flubbed in its ... (view more)