Brian Heater
Three years after the debut of its wildly popular Razr phone, Motorola gave the world the Rizr. While beloved by many, the product never managed to capture the same level of cultural cache as its predecessor. The two devices shared some key design languge, with the Rizr distinguishing...
The days of a cautious OnePlus release cycle appear to be behind us. In January, the Oppo-owned mobile brand unveiled its new flagship, the OnePlus 11. Earlier this month, the 11R arrived, focused on the growing Indian smartphone market. These days, the company also offers last year’s 10T...
Planet Computers turned heads when it arrived on the scene almost exactly five years ago. The London-based hardware startup was banking on a bit of nostalgia for the days of tactile mobile keyboards, as it attempted to drag the PDA kicking and screaming into the 21st century with...
In a word: “telecom.” Network and enterprise have long played a key part in Barcelona’s big mobile show, but more than ever, such topics are going to have an outsized role at the event. The consumer element appears to be taking an increasing back seat at the event,...
It was genuinely a bit surreal seeing deep green hills in the South Bay last week. Growing up in Fremont, I know the change from brown to green is about as close as we get to having seasons, but it’s been so long since I’ve seen them, I’d...
D.C.-based Current Surgical this week announced a $3.2 million seed. The round, which brings the firm’s total raise up to $4 million, was led by True Ventures and features 1517 Fund and SciFounders. It will be used, in part, to modestly grow the startup’s team, hiring between 6-8...
Earlier this week, the Toyota Research Institute opened the doors of its Bay Area offices to members of the media for the first time. It was a day full of demos, ranging from driving simulators and drifting instructors to conversations around machine learning and sustainability.
Robotics, a longtime focus...
“I think I’m probably just as guilty as everybody else,” Toyota Research Institute’s (TRI) senior vice president of robotics, Max Bajracharya, admits. “It’s like, now our GPUs are better. Oh, we got machine learning and now you know we can do this. Oh, okay, maybe that was harder...
“Jidoka” is a new one to me. TRI (Toyota Research Institute) CEO Gill Pratt described the concept as “Automation with a Human Touch.” The anglicized version of the notion is “Autonomation” — both are modified forms of “ automation,” in their respective languages. The word was originally applied...
I’m not sure how high up size is on the VR scene’s current list of complaints. Truth is, there are still a lot of things standing between the technology and mainstream acceptance. Still, massive, bulky headsets are a thing worth discussing.
Back at CES, I tried HTC’s VIVE XR...
