Spotlight Features

The U.S. government is learning quickly that achieving the next big thing in information technology depends upon implementing a huge number of little things. For federal IT managers, that big thing is the cloud. Federal agencies have busily pursued cloud solutions since December 2010, when the gover...

We might never get to the point of having a Jetsons-like kitchen that prepares our meals for us, but some recent advances in kitchen technology are getting close to that. Programmable ovens and stoves with pre-set recipes and instructions for various dishes, for instance, take much of the guesswork ...

It may have been a "bad moon" rising in the famous 1969 song by CCR, but this weekend's full moon could well inspire predictions for trouble of a similar kind. That's because it's this year's "supermoon" -- the full moon that occurs when the moon is closest to Earth -- and supermoons are often belie...

Tim Shriver likes to talk to his house. "Turn the porch light on at 3 p.m.," he says through an intercom to the female voice that belongs to his house. She confirms that she will make sure the light comes on as instructed. "Open my shopping list, and add apples, bananas and bread," he continues. Sh...

If you've been anywhere near a consumer electronics retailer lately or have leafed through the consumer electronics circulars and ads that supplement Sunday newspapers, you've no doubt noticed the words "Smart TV" shouting out at you. And if you've been wondering what a Smart TV is, or whether whate...

Marla Cilley, aka the FlyLady, knows a thing or two about housecleaning. One of those things is that it's hard to get motivated to do it. To address this problem, she created an empire around inspiring others to step up their housecleaning game. "We do behavior modification through email, Facebook a...

Forget to turn on your security system at your home in Denver, and you're on a business trip in Chicago? No problem: With the tap of a finger on a touchscreen, you can switch it on. And while you're at it, you can adjust your home's temperature and flip on a few lights as well. In the converging wor...

The tumultuous convergence of entertainment devices, greater interaction with the television-viewing experience, and increased involvement of social networks were all in the Klieg lights at the IP&TV World Forum, the Internet television show I attended recently in London. I was immersed in the f...

Turbochargers once were associated more with high performance than with efficiency. New turbocharging systems, however, tell a different story. By using otherwise wasted exhaust to provide a power boost, they allow car manufacturers to create smaller engines that act more like larger ones. "Turbocha...

Canonical, the commercial developer of the Ubuntu Linux operating system, seems at times to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Some testers and industry watchers alike have praised the company's innovative Unity desktop shell and the Heads Up Display (HUD) bolted on top of it in this month's ...