Devin Coldewey
Writer & Photographer
The Latest from Devin Coldewey
R&D Roundup: Ultrasound/AI medical imaging, assistive exoskeletons and neural weather modeling
In the time of COVID-19, much of what transpires from the science world to the general public relates to the virus, and understandably so. But other domains, even within medical research, are still ac
Before suing NSO Group, Facebook allegedly sought their software to better spy on users
Facebook's WhatsApp is in the midst of a lawsuit against Israeli mobile surveillance outfit NSO Group. But before complaining about the company's methods, Facebook seems to have wanted to use them for
Google research makes for an effortless robotic dog trot
As capable as robots are, the original animals after which they tend to be designed are always much, much better. That's partly because it's difficult to learn how to walk like a dog directly from a d
FCC enacts $200M telehealth initiative to ease COVID-19 burden on hospitals
The FCC has developed and approved a $200 million program to fund telehealth services and devices for medical providers, just a week or so after the funding was announced. Hospitals and other health c
Activity-monitoring startup Zensors repurposes its tech to help coronavirus response
Computer vision techniques used for commercial purposes are turning out to be valuable tools for monitoring people's behavior during the present pandemic. Zensors, a startup that uses machine learning
This adorable tiny record maker lets you cut your own 5-inch vinyl singles
Vinyl has been coming back for the last few years, but unlike MP3s, CDs or even cassette tapes (also coming back), records aren’t easy to record on your own. This tiny toy record maker makes it
FCC mandates strict caller ID authentication to beat back robocalls
The FCC unanimously passed a new set of rules today that will require wireless carriers to implement an tech framework to combat robocalls. Called STIR/SHAKEN, and dithered over for years by the carri
We’ve come full rectangle: Polaroid is reborn out of The Impossible Project
More than a decade after announcing that it would keep Polaroid's abandoned instant film alive, The Impossible Project has done the... improbable: It has officially become the brand it set out to save
Coronavirus pushes Folding@Home’s crowdsourced molecular science to exaflop levels
The long-running Folding@Home program to crowdsource the enormously complex task of solving molecular interactions has hit a major milestone as thousands of new users sign up to put their computers to
AI and big data won’t work miracles in the fight against coronavirus
To someone with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail — and as expected, the tech sector is hard at work hammering every nail it can find. But the analytical prowess of the modern data ecosystem
YouTube defaults to SD quality worldwide to tame bandwidth surge
YouTube has announced that videos on the site will default to standard definition (SD) quality for the next month in order to cope with demand from the bored, housebound masses. Similar measures were
Game downloads will be throttled to manage internet congestion
For the billions stuck at home during the global effort to flatten the curve, gaming is a welcome escape. But it’s also a bandwidth-heavy one, and Microsoft, Sony and others are working to make
Amazon warehouse workers organized to demand PTO, and coronavirus clinched it
Amazon never tires of explaining how great it is to work at one of its warehouses, but as usual the actual employees tell a different story. This particular group of Chicago workers was fed up with th
The best video chat apps to turn social distancing into distant socializing
The vicissitudes of social distancing have taken many people by surprise, making video calls a new necessity for distant socializing. But which of the two dozen apps out there should you and your (per
Stuart Russell on how to make AI ‘human-compatible’
In a career spanning several decades, artificial intelligence researcher and professor Stuart Russell has contributed extensive knowledge on the subject, including foundational textbooks. He joined us
Be on guard for coronavirus robocalls, warns FCC
Robocalls have been targeting the vulnerable and unsuspecting for years, so it’s no surprise that the scumbags would take advantage of the current global catastrophe to enhance their scams. The
FluSense system tracks sickness trends by autonomously monitoring public spaces
One of the obstacles to accurately estimating the prevalence of sickness in the general population is that most of our data comes from hospitals, not the 99.9 percent of the world that isn’t hos
Vaping additive blamed for outbreak produces ‘exceptionally toxic’ byproducts
The threat of vape lung seems to have receded to the distant past now that we are all facing the coronavirus, but new research has shed light on the nature of that much more limited epidemic. It turns
Bill Gates addresses coronavirus fears and hopes in AMA
Bill Gates, newly free from his role on the Microsoft board, has taken to Reddit to answer the community’s questions about the pandemic, the government response, and what the world can do to be
Lynk sends the first text message from space directly to a normal cell phone
Last year Lynk — then called Ubiquitilink — showed that, from now on, every phone can be a satellite phone. But they’ve spent the last year honing the product and have just demonstrated the