Devin Coldewey
Writer & Photographer
The Latest from Devin Coldewey
John Carmack steps down at Oculus to pursue AI passion project ‘before I get too old’
Legendary coder John Carmack is leaving Facebook's Oculus to focus on a personal project — no less than the creation of Artificial General Intelligence, or "Strong AI." He'll remain attached to the
The Math of Sisyphus
"There is but one truly serious question in philosophy, and that is suicide," wrote Albert Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus. This is equally true for a human navigating an absurd existence, and an artifi
Minecraft Earth is live, so get tapping
Microsoft’s big experiment in real-world augmented reality gaming, Minecraft Earth, is live now for players in North America, the U.K. and a number of other areas. The pocket-size AR game lets y
Review: Samsung’s Space Monitor is handsome and minimal — if you have the desk for it
When Samsung announced the Space Monitor, I knew in an instant that it was going to be something I had to try out in person. Now that I've had time to do so, I'm happy to say it's much as advertised,
Adidas backpedals on robotic shoe production with Speedfactory closures
An expensive experiment in global distribution has been abandoned by Adidas, which has announced that will close its robotic "Speedfactories" in Atlanta and Ansbach, Germany, within 6 months. The comp
‘Death Stranding’ brings back appointment gaming
Game launches these days are frequently the very worst time to play them. Plagued by bugs, server issues, balance problems, and a lack of content, many "games as a service" titles are best consumed af
Facebook machine learning aims to modify faces, hands and… outfits
The latest research out of Facebook sets machine learning models to tasks that, to us, seem rather ordinary — but for a computer are still monstrously difficult. These projects aim to anonymize face
Vape lung ‘breakthrough’ suggests lethal culprit in THC products could be vitamin E acetate
Official word has come down from federal authorities on one potential cause of the mystery illness affecting vape users: Vitamin E acetate, a chemical found in some vaping products that has been demon
This robotic arm slows down to avoid the uncanny valley
Robotic arms can move fast enough to snatch thrown objects right out of the air… but should they? Not unless you want them to unnerve the humans they’re interacting with, according to work
T-Mobile sugar-coats Sprint merger with promises of free data — but only if it’s approved
The planned $26 billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint has been approved by the Justice Department and the FCC, but it's not a sure thing yet. To sweeten the deal, T-Mobile is dangling three big f
Saudi Arabia reportedly recruited Twitter employees to steal personal data of activists
Saudi Arabian officials allegedly paid at least two employees of Twitter to access personal information on users the government there was interested in, according to recently unsealed court documents.
FCC approves T-Mobile/Sprint merger despite serious concerns
The FCC has given its stamp of approval to T-Mobile and Sprint's proposed merger, saying the deal will "enhance competition" and hasten 5G deployment. Those opposed say the merger defies common sense,
AT&T will pay $60 million over fake unlimited data ‘bait and switch scam’
AT&T is being punished at last for its shady claims of plans with "unlimited data" but were in reality nothing of the kind: The company has agreed to a $60 million settlement with the FTC, which has p
Nintendo’s Ring Fit Adventure is a silly, gentle way to shape up
Nintendo has a long history when it comes to exercise-driven games. I'm dating myself, but I can say I remember playing Track & Field on NES with the Power Pad. How far we've come! Ring Fit Adventure
Mario Kart Tour will test real-time multiplayer in December
The mobile version of Nintendo's iconic racing franchise, Mario Kart Tour, will soon support multiplayer races, bringing the game closer to its competitive roots. A limited beta test is planned for De
This tactile display lets visually impaired users feel on-screen 3D shapes
Using a computer and modern software can be a chore to begin with for the visually impaired, but fundamentally visual tasks like 3D design are even harder. This Stanford team is working on a way to di
Twitter banning political ads is the right thing to do, so it will be attacked mercilessly
Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey announced abruptly — though the timing was certainly not accidental — that the platform would soon disallow any and all political advertising. This is the right
This robot relies on human reflexes to keep its balance
As much as we'd like to think that we're entering an era of autonomous robots, they're actually still pretty helpless. To keep them from falling down all the time, a human's fast reflexes could be the
The slow death of Flash continues as Google begins to remove it from search
The death of Flash has been a long time coming... and a long time going on, too. For years we've heard that it's on its way out, but who among us has not found an errant Flash video or widget in the l
Will the quantum economy change your business?
Google and NASA have demonstrated that quantum computing isn’t just a fancy trick, but almost certainly something actually useful — and they’re already working on commercial applications