Devin Coldewey
Writer & Photographer
The Latest from Devin Coldewey
Sense Photonics brings its fancy new flash lidar to market
There's no shortage of lidar solutions available for autonomous vehicles, drones, and robots — theoretically, anyway. But getting a lidar unit from theory to mass production might be harder than com
AI2’s Semantic Scholar expands to cover 175 million papers in all scientific disciplines
There are a lot of scientific papers out there, and finding the right ones, or the right connections between them, can be extremely difficult. Semantic Scholar uses AI to understand and index journal
Axon adds license plate recognition to police dash cams, but heeds ethics board’s concerns
Law enforcement tech outfitter Axon has announced that it will include automated license plate recognition in its next generation of dash cams. But its independent ethics board has simultaneously rele
The new iPhone is ugly
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a bit old-fashioned when it comes to phones. Everyone scoffs at my iPhone SE, but the truth is it’s the best phone Apple ever made — a beautiful
AI is helping scholars restore ancient Greek texts on stone tablets
Machine learning and AI may be deployed on such grand tasks as finding exoplanets and creating photorealistic people, but the same techniques also have some surprising applications in academia: DeepMi
Swarm gets green light from FCC for its 150-satellite constellation
Swarm Technologies aims to connect smart devices around the world with a low-bandwidth but ever-present network provided by satellites — and it just got approval from the FCC to do so. Apparently th
Every state but Alaska has reported vape lung victims, now numbering 1,479 nationwide
A lung condition apparently caused by vaping has been reported in every state but Alaska, the CDC has announced. The total number of suspected and confirmed cases has risen to 1,479, and at least 33 p
Microsoft accessibility grants go out to companies aiming to improve tech for people with disabilities
The tech world has a lot to offer those with disabilities, but it can be hard to get investors excited about the accessibility space. That's why Microsoft's AI for Accessibility grants are so welcome:
Feast your eyes on the first interstellar comet ever directly observed
The solar system has another interstellar visitor, but there's no question of this one being an alien spacecraft. It's a true comet and the first we've ever confirmed comes from interstellar space, an
The FrankOne is a simple and portable coffee brewing gadget
The FrankOne coffee maker, fresh off a successful crowdfunding campaign, is now available for purchase, and I got a chance to test out one of the first run of these funky little gadgets. While it won'
In the Accelerator over the Sea
In our oceans the scale of disasters is measured in millions, billions, and trillions, while solutions amount to single digits: individuals or institutions working to impact a chosen issue with approa
Leo Labs and its high-fidelity space radar track orbital debris better than ever — from New Zealand
Ask anyone in the space business and they'll tell you that orbital debris is a serious problem that will only get worse,but dealing with it is as much an opportunity as it is a problem. Leo Labs is bu
NASA’s new Moon-bound spacesuit is safer, smarter and much more comfortable
The next Americans to set foot on the Moon will do so in a brand new spacesuit that's based on, but hugely improved from, the original Apollo suits that last went up there in the '70s. With easier ent
Creators of modern rechargeable batteries share Nobel prize
If you had to slip a couple AAs into your smartphone every morning to check your email, browse Instagram, and text your friends, chances are the mobile revolution would not have been quite so revoluti
Senate report says Russian election interference ‘invariably’ supported Trump, recommends national PSA
A bipartisan Senate investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election released today definitively implicates the country in online operations designed specifically to get then-candidate Don
Boeing backs Virgin Galactic with strategic $20M investment
Virgin Galactic has $20 million more to pursue its goal of space tourism with a new investment from Boeing announced this morning. The two companies are both deeply involved in human spaceflight, but
With $15M round and 100K tablets sold, reMarkable CEO wants to make tech ‘more human’
The reMarkable tablet is a strange device in this era of ultra-smart gadgets: A black and white screen meant for reading, writing, and sketching — and nothing more. Yet the company has sold 100,000
Trump tweet gets it wrong on net neutrality ruling
President Trump this morning randomly addressed a recent court ruling on net neutrality, calling it a "great win" that will "lead to many big things including 5G." Perhaps he didn't read the ruling cl
NASA shares 3D Moon data for CG artists and creators
If you want to set your movie or game on the Moon, it's not hard to find imagery of our photogenic satellite. But NASA has just released a useful and beautiful new set of data just for creators that i
Molecule.one uses machine learning to make synthesizing new drugs a snap
Say you’re a pharmaceutical company. You’ve figured out that a novel molecule could be effective in treating an illness — but that molecule only exists in a simulation. How do you actual