By Kelly Faircloth 11/28/12 9:51am

the robots are coming

(Source: Steve Jurvetson via Wikipedia)

If We’re All Getting Robot Chauffeurs, We Need Robot Ethics

Get ready for the day when you sip mimosas and curl your eyelashes as you commute, because the driverless car revolution is upon us. These futuristic machines are now legal in three states, and Google’s working hell-for-leather to make them part of regular life. But, as this essay in the New Yorker points out, such a technology raises thorny implications.

When we turn our shiny metal death machines over to computers, how are they going to make the right decisions? Read More

By Jessica Roy 9/10/12 9:31am

Wearable Tech

5 Photos

Salmon colored Google Glasses.

Even Hot Models Look Kind of Dorky in Google Glasses

A few months ago, following a cyborg attack in a Parisian McDonalds, we predicted that Google would be the first to market with computer glasses, but that Apple would take its time perfecting a beautiful, sleek prototype that would automatically become the emblem for hipness everywhere. Now, it looks like Google is trying to head off that theory by incorporating the Project Glass prototype into a New York Fashion Week show. Face computers are super glam, you guys. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 6/28/12 11:26am

15 Minutes Into the Future

"Check my specs, guys." (Photo: Screencap)

Start Saving Your Pennies: Google Glasses Are Coming in 2014, Says Sergey Brin

Yesterday’s bonkers skydiving demo left plenty of gadget geeks–your Betabeat staff included–amused but intrigued. Google cofounder Sergey Brin announced that developers in attendance at I/O could order a $1,500 prototype to experiment with, but made it clear these weren’t market ready. Unacceptable! When can we expect the future to land on our face, Mr. Brin?

Luckily, Bloomberg TV got an answer out of him in an interview outside I/O: they’d likely hit the shelves in 2014. “Within a year after that I want to have broad consumer offering,” he told Bloomberg while wearing his own pair, complete with hilarious clip-on sunglasses. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 6/14/12 3:59pm

Planet GOOG

Photo from Glass

Google Forgot To Mention Its New Glasses Are Packing Some Junk in the Trunk

The future isn’t quite as streamlined as GOOG might have us believe. Promotional photos for Google Glasses have revealed prototypes for Project Glass to be a little awkward, sure. Perhaps even a smidge La Forgian, if you will.

But new evidence uploaded by Sergey Brin on his very own social network highlight some undeniable heft in the posterior region where, presumably, the battery is stored. “Look how big Google Glasses are behind the ear,” wrote one alarmed commenter who posted the photo on Hacker News. Read More

By Jessica Roy 5/30/12 7:50am

Linkages

(lolfed.com)

Booting Up: Kim Dotcom Still a Boss Edition

The New York Tech Meetup is producing a video series called #startupstories. “Failure” is apparently Fred Wilson’s fav. [NYTM]

Sergey Brin lets California lieutenant governor Gavin Newsom try on Google Glasses. [The Verge]

There’s a new digital divide in town. [New York Times]

A roundup of Tim Cook’s chat at the AllThingsD conference. [Wall Street Journal]

Kim Dotcom is winning legal battles left and right. [Bloomberg]

No one on Facebook actually cared about the Facebook IPO. [Buzzfeed]

By Kelly Faircloth 5/25/12 5:22pm

Nerds!

6 Photos

Jeff Bezos

7 Famous Techies We Suspect are Living Out Their Childhood Dreams

Obviously, the best thing about joining the ranks of the fabulously wealthy and successful is the freedom to do whatever you want. For some people, this might mean racing sports cars and popping bottles with models. (Fair enough, Eduardo.) Maybe you’d like to move into venture capital. (That sounds lovely, Marc.)

But a select few think a little bigger and get a little crazier. In fact, we’re starting to wonder whether they’re executing on plans they’ve had since they were 13, because their current lives are exactly what a 13-year-old boy would dream up if he were asked to imagine being a billionaire.

There are seven guys (yes, they’re all dudes) that we’ve got in mind.

By Adrianne Jeffries 11:05am

Reasons to Look at Google+

Mr. Brin. (flickr.com//24372810@N00/3116215583/)

Sergey Brin Takes to Google+ to Defend His Comments in The Guardian

“Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, warns Google’s Sergey Brin,” screamed the headline in Sunday’s Guardian. The piece talks about the triple threat to the Internet from governments suppressing information, the entertainment industry’s efforts to fight piracy, and the “walled gardens” of Facebook and Apple.

Oops, Mr. Brin says in a walk-it-back Google+ post published yesterday. While mostly on-point, the story misrepresented the relative significance of each of these threats, he says. Read More

By Ben Popper 10/26/11 1:12pm

Silicon Alley U

Cali, Cali, is coming, coming

NYC Tech Campus: Stanford Adds Alumni Starpower With Larry and Sergey

You knew it was coming. Stanford is bring out the big guns as the final deadline approaches for New York City’s new applied sciences campus. In a video posted to StanfordNYC.tumblr, Google’s co-founders rhapsodize about their younger days as computer science PHDs.

“Larry had this crazy idea he was going to download all the links on the web and do something with them,” says Sergey Brin. “It wasn’t entirely clear what.”

“Google is an interesting story,” continues Larry Page. “It’s a good example of the benefits of pure research. We had no idea what we wanted to do.” Read More