Trailblazers

The United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last week launched a probe of the safety of the Tesla Model S automobile. The investigation "was prompted by recent incidents in Washington State and Tennessee that resulted in battery fires due to undercarriage strikes with roadway de...

I've been noodling on this question ever since I attended an EMC analyst event last month and was astounded by the number of analysts who wanted its CEO to run for office. They started with president but seemed to feel no matter where he ended up in government, he would make things better. Joe Tucci...

Mammoth tomes about high-tech entrepreneurs with a secretive bent are almost a sure bet to stir up a hornet's nest of controversy when they're published. That's certainly been the case with Brad Stone's The Everything Store about CEO Jeff Bezos and Amazon. The twist here is that the critic in the po...

A project to build a super-high-speed transportation system in California is gaining traction. JumpStartFund on Thursday revealed its users had voted to select the official name, "Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc.," for the company undertaking the challenge. Marco Villa, Ph.D., former direc...

Yahoo on Monday announced the hire of New York Times tech columnist David Pogue to lead "a major expansion of consumer tech coverage." He will publish columns, blog posts, video stories and more, starting later this year, the company said. Pogue and his team "have much bigger plans, too, for all kin...

Tech billionaire Pierre M. Omidyar, founder and chair of eBay, will team up with Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald -- the first to open Edward Snowden's treasure chest of leaks -- to launch a mass media venture designed to foster top-flight journalism. Omidyar has long supported journalism. He has ...

A coalition of companies, foundations and governmental bodies has launched the Alliance for Affordable Internet Access to create the conditions for open, competitive and innovative broadband markets in developing nations. The alliance "will undertake a blend of international advocacy and research, c...

For a glimpse at the future of gaming control, there are few places better to look than iMotion. Intellect Motion's concept is to create a large, motion-sensitive area in front of you while you're gaming -- a kind of invisible, virtual touchscreen. Handheld controllers then interact with that touc...

If you've ever used Microsoft's Kinect motion-sensing input device for the Xbox 360 game console, you'll have an initial grasp of how Occipital's 3D scanner for mobile devices, called "Structure Sensor," functions. Whereas game add-on Kinect is a sensor for detecting and interpreting movement, new K...

There's no denying the popularity of Apple's iPad and its Android-based kin, not just with adults but with kids as well. Now, for all those parents out there who wish their kids would play with something else once in a while -- simple drawing paper and pens, for instance -- a new Kickstarter funding...