A few weeks ago news broke that Fitbit purchased most of the assets of Coin. Existing Coin cards will continue functioning until the battery gives out but no additional units will be produced. For those of us that were early adopters of the company’s digital credit card, Coin’s failure comes as no surprise. Their first generation product was widely criticized.While first generation products a...

As conventional storage technologies struggle to keep up with big data, interest grows in a biological alternative. [Test Tube Bits: Biology’s data-storage method, DNA, might work for our data, too.]It was the looming sense of crisis that brought them together. In late April, technologists from IBM, Intel, and Microsoft joined an intimate gathering of computer scientists and geneticists to dis...

The Geneva Airport tests an automated companion that will help travelers avoid lines and drop off luggage.At the Geneva Airport, travelers are lucky to meet a valuable help when it comes to checking-in their baggage: Leo, the airport robot, will handle that for you.SITA, a Swiss company that specializes in airport technology, partnered with robotics firm BlueBotics to come up with an ingenious...

More older Americans – those ages 65 and older – are working than at any time since the turn of the century, and today’s older workers are spending more time on the job than did their peers in previous years, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of employment data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.In May, 18.8% of Americans ages 65 and older, or nearly 9 million people,...

The new ZENTA wrist-wearable takes a different approach. Created by VINAYA, a London-based technology design house, the Zenta goes down this mental wellness path.Physical wellbeing has been the focus of most wearables to date. Products such as the Apple Watch, Microsoft Band, FitBit and Jawbone all track things like movement, heartbeat etc. At the same time some startups are appearing which try...

Some people like to stay on top of the news cycle throughout the day by checking Twitter, Facebook and their favorite news websites. Others prefer to be served a selection of the day’s important happenings by the evening news on TV. Whether you prefer one or the other may come down to your age and what you have become accustomed to in the past.According to data published in the Reuters Institu...

Not more than a month back we saw Dyson reinvent the hairdryer. Over the years we’ve begun to appreciate how their well engineered products are also supported by amazing design. The same goes for the Cyclone Belt Coffee Machine. It captures the hubless style of the Dyson’s Fan and Hairdryer. All you do is place the cup in the negative space, run the controls, and out pours the coffee, tasty a...

Quick Serve Restaurants (QSRs) are becoming very popular in India. This has been enabled by two things: 1) A rising middle-class. 2) The breakneck pace of mobile adoption in India.The middle-class is rising because of IT jobs and the “Make in India” government campaign where foreign companies are required to have local jobs and source 30% of their products from India.Mobile adoption is also a...

California has overtaken France as the world’s sixth-largest economy, fueled by strong growth and the U.S. dollar’s gains against foreign currencies, state data released Tuesday show.The most-populous U.S. state, with a gross domestic product of $2.5 trillion, has also eclipsed recession-plagued Brazil.“This is the result of both good growth in California and exchange-rate movements of the U...