Crave

The dream of having large-screen interactive touch table computers in every home has taken its sweet time at becoming reality. Maybe it's the cost of the technology, or the lack of a good place to put it. Lenovo seems to think it may also be a matter of furniture fashion.

To spice up the home table PC concept, the company commissioned three unique takes on integrating its $1,700 IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC into the home environment. The designs range from the whimsical to the practical.… Read more

Larry Page may have officially just assumed the title of bizarro Steve Jobs.

Page wrapped up the kick-off address at Google I/O Wednesday not with a slick sales pitch or "one more thing," but with some pretty inspiring talk about the role of technology in creating a better world, mixed with a laundry list of companies and institutions that make him sad.

Speaking softly due to a medical condition that Page revealed earlier has afflicted him for many years, the Google CEO ended the three-hour-plus keynote not quite with a bang, but with an unprecedented question-and-answer session punctuated with many a jab.

Here then, are the highlights of what might be Larry Page's first annual festival of disses:… Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. -- One of the most memorable moments from BlackBerry Live 2013 was when CEO Thorsten Heins jumped into a special Bentley luxury auto tricked out with BB10 software. That's why I decided to see what the fuss was all about personally.

Luckily BlackBerry was thoughtful enough to provide the premium car for display on the BlackBerry Live show floor. And yes, after spending a short time behind the wheel of this fine automobile, I can report it's a sweet ride. Specifically I'm speaking to the Bentley's smooth integration of phone features, though the vehicle'… Read more

We've seen some pretty out-there limited-edition cars from luxury manufacturer Lamborghini, but its newest may have just taken the biscuit and sped off with it.

The Egoista, unveiled at the closing gala of the 50th anniversary Grande Giro tour, was designed by Volkswagen's head of design, Walter De Silva, and it's meant to be the ultimate in self-indulgence.

"This is a car made for one person only, to allow them to have fun and express their personality to the maximum," De Silva said. "It is designed purely for hyper-sophisticated people who want only the most extreme and special things in the world. It represents hedonism taken to the extreme, it is a car without compromises, in a word: egoista (selfish)." … Read more

Google says it has rebuilt Google Maps for the Web with a new version that's more immersive and social.

The new version takes a page from Google's mobile efforts by putting the search box inside the map and making use of cards -- Google's take on interactive information widgets.

"It's simple and powerful. The map is the user interface," Google's Bernhard Seefeld told attendees at the company's annual developers conference, where the new Web service was unveiled.

When users click on locations, information about those areas appears on cards. Information can include … Read more

Google's new education initiative, Google Play for Education, is designed to put more tablets into K-12 classrooms, the company said Wednesday at its Google I/O developers conference.

The new store launches this fall. It enables teachers deploy an app or an e-book to all of their students' tablets at once, and has apps that have been recommended by other teachers to make sure they are appropriate for specific ages and grades.

"Each app has been recommended by a group of educators," Engineering Director Chris Yerga said during the keynote. "This is key because teachers trust … Read more

FIFA may be implementing goal-sensing technology in international soccer games, but the World Cup is getting even more high-tech with military robot security.

iRobot announced today $7.2 million in contracts to provide Brazil with military PackBot robots for security at the 2014 World Cup. PackBots have been deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, and even inside Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.

As part of the deal, Brazil will get 30 PackBot 510 units, which usually cost about $100,000 to $200,000 apiece. The contracts include services, spares, and associated equipment. … Read more

QR codes haven't exactly set the world on fire, yet most people know what they are, and most phones can scan them, either out of the box or with a third-party app.

The Findables Case takes that idea to heart by emblazoning a unique QR code on each hard-plastic shell, the idea being to use that code to share information about yourself or help recover your lost phone.

In other words, your case can now take the place of your business card, while at the same time offering good Samaritans a means of contacting you (that doesn't involve poring through your address book).

When someone scans the code, they'll see one of three profiles (chosen by you via a companion app or the Findables Web site): Business, Social, or Lost.… Read more

I had always thought Americans were willing to try something new -- at least once.

This sense of adventure often explains the nation's predilection for naivete, war, and forgiveness.

So I had imagined that from Alaska to New York, there were people desperate to adorn their faces with the new intellectual's makeup: Google Glass.

And yet, despite the fact that pioneers like Rep. Michele Bachmann have already been game enough to pose in them, ordinary Americans still seem to be feeling resistance.… Read more