Brian Heater
I have been carrying both of Samsung’s new foldables on my person when I leave the house for the last few days. It’s mostly for testing purposes, of course, but there’s also a fun game I like to play when I see people I know. I pull them...
Allow me to borrow a phrase from baseball for a moment. If you follow the sport, you’re likely aware of the concept of the “three true outcomes.” They are, specifically, a home run, a strikeout, and a walk. The throughline between the three is that, in most instances,...
More smartphone struggles, as reports trickle in for Q2. Per Canalys, global shipments dropped 9% for the quarter, reversing a brief recovery for the category, whose woes have only been amplified by the pandemic, ensuing shutdowns, supply chain issues and persistent economic uncertainty.
The 287 million units represent the...
The devs tell me there were so many of you tuning in to the beginning of our robotics event that we knocked the site offline for a bit. I’m extremely grateful for that — not for getting knocked off our axis for a bit, but rather for the...
New numbers from Counterpoint Research paint a rough picture for China’s smartphone market. Things show a steady climb, dating back to the iPhone 5’s 2012 launch, before peaking in December 2016 and beginning their descent back down to Earth.
Sales in China dropped sharply in Q2 at 14.2%, year...
This wasn’t a story you were expecting to read today, nor was it one I was expecting to write. Heck, judging from their interviews on the subject, it’s probably fair to say the team of mechanical engineers at Rice University weren’t expecting for their work to take them...
It took exactly two minutes for today’s TC Sessions: Robotics fulfillment panel to make its first Amazon mention. The retail giant looms over the category like no other. It played a foundational role with the 2012 acquisition of Kiva Systems that birthed Amazon Robotics, and remains the 800-pound...
It’s probably hyperbole to credit Google’s Pixel A devices for single-handedly keeping the broader line alive during some admittedly lean times. Let’s be honest, much of that goes to Google’s very deep pockets — when you’re one of the world’s largest companies, what’s a little sunk-cost fallacy between...
More than 40 years and 1,000 or so patents after selling his first company, AutoSyringe, to healthcare giant Baxter, Dean Kamen still gets a charge describing breakthrough innovation. It’s been five years since his organ fabricating project ARMI (Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute) divided critics.
The project made more waves...
It’s easy to fall prey to panic around automation. It’s also just just as easy to dismiss it outright. As ever, the truth almost certainly lies somewhere between these two extremes — though precisely where has yet to be determined. Both companies and regulatory bodies will play an...
