Prototype "ambulance drone" could be a lifesaver It's been well-established (and then some) that drones are ruthlessly efficient at taking lives, but given everything else they've shown they can do, there's no reason to believe that unmanned aerial vehicles can't save lives, too. To that end, an engineering student at TU Delft in Delft, the Netherlands, named Alec Momont has designed what’s being dubbed an "ambulance drone."...Capable of traveling at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour (hence the near-instantaneous arrival times), the ambulance drone also has on-board camera, which allows an operator to talk to the victim and provide instructions to whomever is on the ground. Slate
BlackBerry classic: An open letter from John Chen To our loyal (current and former) BlackBerry users: BlackBerry is driven by an urgent, obsessive focus on what matters: you. When we lose sight of what you want and you need, we lose you. It's tempting in a rapidly changing, rapidly growing mobile market to change for the sake of change -- to mimic what’s trendy and match the industry-standard, kitchen-sink approach of trying to be all things to all people. But there's also something to be said for the classic adage, if it ain't broke don't fix it. BlackBerry
The 5K display is coming. Here's how it stacks up to Retina and more The 5K monitor has landed, with the launch of the 5K iMac and the upcoming release of a 5K Dell monitor. We're taking the next big step in screen resolution. When we already have Retina-class and other high-res displays, though, it's natural to ask whether 5K delivers a difference worth the premium price. Dell's 5K monitor shown above, for instance, will sell for a wallet-splitting $2500. We'll show you the answer using just two display specs. PCWorld
Beyond gaming, the VR boom is everywhere -- from classrooms to therapy couches When Oculus almost single-handedly revived the idea of virtual reality from its '90s vaporware grave, it chose the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo as the place to unveil the first public prototype of the Rift headset. The choice of a gaming convention isn't that surprising, as the game industry has been the quickest and most eager to jump on potential applications for VR. Ars Technica
Job brokers steal wages and entrap Indian tech workers in US Labor brokers providing Indian high-tech workers to American companies have hijacked a professional visa program, creating an underground system of financial bondage by stealing wages and benefits, even suing workers who quit. About 840,000 people from around the world work in the United States on temporary visas, intended to help companies seek uniquely talented employees for specific jobs. The Guardian
Does the FCC really not get it about the Internet? The key to an open Internet is nondiscrimination and in particular, a prohibition on discrimination or prioritization based on the identity of the user (sender/receiver) or use (application/content). I explain why at length in my book, Infrastructure: The Social Value of Shared Resources(2012). Unfortunately, the rules now being considered by the FCC don't come close to implementing this simple and important benchmark. The Washington Post
Which service providers side with users in IP disputes? The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today released a new report and scorecard that shows what online service providers are doing to protect users from baseless copyright and trademark complaints. "Who Has Your Back: When Copyright and Trademark Bullies Threaten Free Speech" [PDF] examines how online service providers handle copyright and trademark-based takedown requests. EFF
DARPA circuit achieves speeds of 1 trillion cycles per second Officials from Guinness World Records today recognized DARPA's Terahertz Electronics program for creating the fastest solid-state amplifier integrated circuit ever measured. The ten-stage common-source amplifier operates at a speed of one terahertz (1012 GHz), or one trillion cycles per second -- 150 billion cycles faster than the existing world record of 850 gigahertz set in 2012. Phys.org
Xbook Duo The Xbox 360/One Combination Laptop! Yes you heard right, there is both an Xbox 360 and an Xbox One inside of this Xbook… THE XBOOK DUO! This solves the life long problem of the Xbox One not being backwards compatible! Play Xbox One games, and when you feeling nostalgic, or can't play with your friends that still have a 360, with just a simple flip of the switch you now have a Xbox 360 laptop! Eds Junk
Xbox One readies shift to 20nm -- but can a smaller node help it match the PS4's performance? Ever since the Xbox One and PS4 were unveiled as being based on 28nm technology, it’s been clear that both Microsoft and Sony would transition to smaller nodes as soon as those technologies were ready for prime time. It now looks as though Microsoft may make this jump before its rival. ExtremeTech
The cliff and the slope Devan Dewey, the Chief Technology Officer of midsize investment consultancy NEPC, has an orderly office and a highly organized mind. So naturally, when some at-home employees near Boston complained they could barely work because their connections to the company data center had slowed to a crawl, Dewey and his team determined to find out why. Medium
A print magazine for hackers On a Saturday afternoon earlier this summer, dozens of hackers, journalists, and activists sat on the floor in a darkened hallway of the Pennsylvania Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, watching a projection of an empty lectern. Many of the gathered were shoeless, and some were dancing to a rolling beat that issued from a pair of speakers. The New Yorker
Met Office to build £97m supercomputer The facility will work 13 times faster than the current system, enabling detailed, UK-wide forecast models with a resolution of 1.5km to be run every single hour, rather than every three. It will be built in Exeter during 2015 and become operational next September. The Met Office said it would deliver a "step change" in forecast accuracy. BBC
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