The cyborg in Terminator 2. Form an orderly queue. Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveA burst of 10 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team
Who's ready to be a cyborg? >> Bloomberg ViewNoah Smith:
Barely a day goes by when I don't read about some advance in cyborg tech. For example, a Stanford engineer just invented a way to safely transfer energy to biomechanical implants. A University of California-San Francisco team won a grant to build brain implants to fight depression and PTSD. There's a man who can hear colours, thanks to a mechanical implant. Brain-controlled flight is now real. Bionic implants are ending disability as we know it. And these are only a few of the cyborg headlines from the last couple of weeks.
This is enormous. It's absolutely history-ending, world-shaking stuff. And by and large, the press is ignoring it.
Why is cyborg tech so earth-shattering? Because it represents a qualitatively different kind of technology.
He's correct that biomechanical implants can be absolutely transformative. But elective surgery to insert a piece of technology that isn't essential and that might fail in unpredictable ways at an unpredictable time? As any woman who received a breast implant from PIP what she thinks of it now.
IDC lowers tablet projections for 2014 as phablet shipments and slower refresh rates impact shipment growth >> IDC
Based on a greater decline in demand than predicted in the first quarter and concerns that tablets and 2-in-1s will face additional market challenges the rest of the year, International Data Corporation (IDC) has lowered its 2014 worldwide tablet plus 2-in-1 forecast to 245.4m units, down from the previous forecast of 260.9 million units. The new forecast represents a 12.1% year-over-year growth rate, which is notably lower than the 51.8% year-over-year growth of 2013.
"Two major issues are causing the tablet market to slow down. First, consumers are keeping their tablets, especially higher-cost models from major vendors, far longer than originally anticipated. And when they do buy a new one they are often passing their existing tablet off to another member of the family," said Tom Mainelli, Program Vice President, Devices & Displays at IDC. "Second, the rise of phablets
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