Devin Coldewey

Devin Coldewey

Writer & Photographer

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He first wrote for TechCrunch in 2007. He has also written for MSNBC.com, NBC News, DPReview, The Economist/GE’s Look Ahead, and others.

His personal website is coldewey.cc.

The Latest from Devin Coldewey

No tears, only launches now: Virgin Galactic heads back to space as Virgin Orbit goes under

Update: The flight, launch, and glide were all successful and the crew is back Earthside. 🙌 Touchdown, VSS Unity! Our crew and spaceship are back on Earth after landing smoothly at Spaceport Americ

28 years later, Windows finally supports RAR files

It’s 1999, and my friends and I are surfing warez sites using Internet Explorer on our 98SE gaming rig. Finally we push past the scams and porn to find an FTP server with a list of files labeled

Kenya’s Tawi takes on auditory processing disorder to win Microsoft Imagine Cup

Microsoft’s student tech-for-good competition, the Imagine Cup, has crowned this year’s winner: Tawi, a team from Kenya that applied machine learning tools to help kids with auditory proce

OpenAI leaders propose international regulatory body for AI

AI is developing rapidly enough and the dangers it may pose are clear enough that OpenAI’s leadership believes that the world needs an international regulatory body akin to that governing nuclea

From root to crown, Mast Reforestation is regrowing the tree economy for the 21st century

Here’s the problem: The planet is burning, and there’s not much we can do about it. Forests are in peril not just because of the ravages of climate change, but because the industries that

The week in AI: Google goes all out at I/O as regulations creep up

Keeping up with an industry as fast-moving as AI is a tall order. So until an AI can do it for you, here’s a handy roundup of the last week’s stories in the world of machine learning, along with

SLAIT pivots from translating sign language to AI-powered interactive lessons

Millions of people use sign language, but the methods of teaching this complex and subtle skill haven’t evolved as quickly as those for written and spoken languages. SLAIT School aims to change

AI2 Incubator’s new $30M fund triples down on early-stage AI startups

The AI startup world may be getting hotter by the day, but there’s a difference between a startup that uses AI and an AI-first startup — and the Allen Institute for AI prides itself on fosteri

Acapela lets anyone back up their own voice for free in minutes — just in case

Synthetic speech can be a fearful object these days when paired with deepfakes and other AI deceptions, but it’s also an indispensable tool for anyone who can no longer speak on their own. Acape

Optery using its new funding to evolve from data broker opt-outs to personal info platform

We can all agree that data brokers are creepy and bad, and that in this age they have feasted upon our personal information like never before. Opting out is hard enough — which is why Optery is ther

Navier’s hydrofoiling electric boat cruises West Coast waterways to line up first pilot programs

Electric boats are still a rarity on America’s waterways, but everyone seems to agree they represent a cleaner, quieter future for our lakes, rivers and coastal waters. Navier has moved impressi

Google and OpenAI are Walmarts besieged by fruit stands

OpenAI may be synonymous with machine learning now and Google is doing its best to pick itself up off the floor, but both may soon face a new threat: rapidly multiplying open source projects that push

Vint Cerf on the ‘exhilarating mix’ of thrill and hazard at the frontiers of tech

Vint Cerf has been a near-constant influence on the internet since the days when he was helping create it in the first place. Today he wears many hats, among them VP and chief internet evangelist at G

Why is Discord making you change your name?

Popular chat and streaming app Discord is making every single one of its users change their names, and you could be forgiven for wondering why make such a disruptive move at all. But the platform&#821

FTC moves to completely prohibit Meta from monetizing kids

The Federal Trade Commission alleges that Meta has “repeatedly violated” privacy rules and proposes to tighten the agency’s 2020 order against the company, completely barring it from

Satellite-to-phone race heats up with voice calls and cross-Canada access

The prospect of contacting a satellite to send a text or contact emergency services may soon be an effortless reality as startups move from proof of concept to actual product. Canadians on the Rogers

Why ChatGPT lies in some languages more than others

AI is very much a work in progress, and we should all be wary of its potential for confidently spouting misinformation. But it seems to be more likely to do so in some languages than others. Why is th

Colorado’s new right-to-repair law ensures tractor and wheelchair owners get the parts they need

Colorado’s governor signed a refreshingly straightforward “right-to-repair” bill into law this afternoon, requiring companies to provide resources like parts, firmware and manuals fo

ispace loses contact with lunar lander seconds before touchdown

Japanese company ispace lost communication with its Hakuto-R lander just moments before it was supposed to touch down on the lunar surface. “At this moment, we have not been able to confirm succ

The week in AI: OpenAI attracts deep-pocketed rivals in Anthropic and Musk

Keeping up with an industry as fast-moving as AI is a tall order. So until an AI can do it for you, here’s a handy roundup of the last week’s stories in the world of machine learning, along with n
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