Consumer Electronics News from Scientific American

Recent media reports and ongoing protests over the reportedly abhorrent working conditions at factories where Apple's iPhones are produced have left socially conscious Americans with a dilemma: Is it ethical to own an iPhone?

A smart phone can do pretty much anything a PC can. But, aside from password protection, phones have very little security--a real problem with more and more people using phones for online banking and shopping.

CES 2012: Intel to Power Smart Phones, Create Ultrabook-Tablet Hybrid Devices [More]




How Much Energy Do You Waste Charging Your Cell Phone?

How many chargers do you own? One for your cell phone? Another for your laptop? Yet another for your tablet, podcast player or even electric toothbrush? It adds up.

You’re on the way to a meeting. Traffic seems to be slowing. A text comes in: “You’re going to be late. Take the next exit for alternate route.” It’s from Google.

A fighter pilot heads back to base after a long mission, feeling spent. A warning light flashes on the control panel. Has she noticed? If so, is she focused enough to fix the problem? [More]




Hydrogen and Kinetic Energy Will Keep Phones Ringing

Carmakers learned years ago it's not easy to make a practical hydrogen fuel cell. Yet hydrogen fuel cells do work, and they're greener than batteries. So how about using a mini hydrogen fuel cell to recharge something small--like your mobile phone battery?

On January 23 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that law enforcement authorities do not generally have a right to affix a GPS tracking device to a suspect's car without first obtaining a valid warrant. Of the many things that can be said about the case, which has been called the most important Fourth Amendment test in a decade , perhaps the most sobering in the long run will be this: the decision is based on technology assumptions that are rapidly becoming irrelevant.

Seems like everyone's a photographer these days. Digital technology has put high-caliber photo equipment is in the hands of countless amateur enthusiasts. But astrophotography remains a bit more specialized. It takes a unique skill set and the right equipment to produce a stunning image of another planet or even another galaxy.

Science on Ice: Four Polar Expeditions [More]




Digital Health Care Puts Control in Consumer Hands

For years, do-it-yourself health care meant looking up your symptoms on WebMD. But smart phones are extending our control, with apps that let people plan and track workouts, monitor important health indicators, and even locate nearby clinical trials. Apple's App Store alone offers thousands of mobile health apps.

As a tech columnist, I’m often asked to speak about the future of technology. Well, sure. Who doesn’t want to know what the future holds? Yet I’d be in much better shape if I were asked to predict the future of politics or bass fishing. Because nothing changes faster, and more unpredictably, than consumer technology.

In my Scientific American column this month , I pondered why it's so hard to predict the future of technology. It sometimes seems as though it's not even worth the effort; inevitably you wind up looking like an idiot.

Rather than deliver an ultimatum to those on either side of the debate, the recent White House statement related to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act of 2011 (PIPA) encourages the entertainment and technology industries to work together to find a solution. This call for a back-to-the-drawing-board approach to clamping down on Internet intellectual-property piracy while preserving free speech has many wondering whether lawmakers will simply rework SOPA (pdf) and PIPA (pdf) using different language or if they will take anti-SOPA and anti-PIPA concerns to heart. [More]




Scientific American Presents the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) [Slide Show]

Ultrabooks , smart phones and gadget-friendly automobiles were the stars of last week's International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. But they were hardly the expo's only bright spots. Spread out on a show floor more than 37 football fields in area were plenty of robots, 3-D printers and a variety of new gadgets. [More]




A Brief History of Clocks

Humankind’s efforts to tell time have helped drive the evolution of our technology and science throughout history. The need to gauge the divisions of the day and night led the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans to create sundials, water clocks and other early chronometric tools. Western Europeans adopted these tech­nologies, but by the 13th century, demand for a dependable timekeeping instrument led medieval artisans to invent the mechanical clock. Although this new device satisfied the requirements of monastic and urban communities, it was too inaccurate and unreliable for scientific application until the pendulum was employed to govern its operation. The precision timekeepers that were subsequently developed resolved the critical problem of finding a ship’s position at sea and went on to play key roles in the industrial revolution and the advance of Western civilization.

Apple, Nokia and Research In Motion (RIM) gave Indian intelligence agencies secret access to encrypted smartphone communications as the price of doing business in the country, according to what appear to be leaked Indian government documents.

Contrary to rumor, the incandescent lightbulb is not going away--at least not right away. New U.S. regulations, starting January 1, cap energy consumption of a roughly 1,600-lumen bulb (equivalent to a standard 100-watt incandescent bulb) at 72 watts--which means the workhorse of home lighting will have to become about 30 percent more efficient overnight. The law will expand in the next two years to cover 75-, 60- and 40-watt bulbs. There is room for improvement: incandescent bulbs currently waste 90 percent of their energy as heat. Halogen incandescents provide a more efficient, if pricier, alternative and will give compact fluorescents a run for their money. A light-emitting-diode replacement for 100-watt bulbs is expected to reach market this year; dimmer LEDs are already available. Consumers will be able to check federally mandated labels that give performance specs, similar to nutrition labels on food, but here we illuminate the essential facts.

More and more workers in the next few years will be shortening their morning commute as they make the move from an office building to their home office.  According to a new report by global market intelligence and advisory service firm International Data Corp., the mobile work force will surpass 1.3 billion people by 2015 – representing 37.2 percent of the world's overall work force.

You're not likely to hear much about laptops at the International Consumer Electronics Show next week in Las Vegas. Or even netbooks. It's all about ultrabooks now. "Ultrabook" is technically an Intel trademark, but it's being used to describe a class of thin, lightweight portable computers that have evolved to save PCs from extinction.