future

Before Google, many young'uns (such as myself) relied on magazines, telephone hotlines, and other old-world forms of communication to learn more about upcoming video games, hints, or cheats. One favored source of Nintendo game information for many people, Nintendo Power, will end its 24-year run this year, reports Ars Technica.

Supposedly, the magazine's parent company, Future Publishing, could not strike up a new contract with Nintendo to keep the publication going. An Ars source cites Nintendo as "difficult to work with," uninterested in expanding online content for the Nintendo Power brand, and even unwilling to retake the magazine from Future (which gained rights to the magazine in 2007 from Nintendo).

Future Publishing did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment. … Read more

Do you have a cochlear implant? An intraocular lens in your eye? A prosethetic leg with microservos? You may not realize it, but you're standing on the front line of a new age of medical augmentation, one that's raising a host of complex questions.

Who owns the expensive implant that allows you to hear or see better or the sleek thin blades that let you sprint faster? How are upgrades to your device handled? What happens to you and your device if that company goes out of business? Do the answers change if the procedure is elective rather than life-saving?

No one has easy answers, or even much beyond informed speculation -- certainly not the doctors we spoke to for this article or the medical students who addressed medical augmentation at a Defcon 20 session last month in Las Vegas. But all agree on one thing: A new frontier of medical augmentation isn't just coming sooner than you think. It's already here, as society moves from medically necessary augmentation to elective procedures. Call it human hacking. … Read more

Technological futurism to Intel's Brian David Johnson is a lot more than engineering. He combines ethnography, science fiction literature, and consumer research to help the company know where things are going in the future just beyond the average geek's grasp.

I caught up with Brian at an Intel event where their engineering teams basically hold a science fair -- a really impressive science fair. In addition to what's in the video, I also assembled a slide show of a few more things that caught my eye. Check it out below.

One of the most interesting things I … Read more

Greetings Americans in the year 2012,

I'm contacting you today from the not-too-distant future with a warning for the people of your time. A major health care crisis is just around the corner. No, it's not the one you'll hear political candidates jawing about this fall, and you shouldn't listen to them anyway since one is a robot and the other is an alien (which will surprise you in about 18 months when All is Revealed.) Rather, it's the increasing incidence of tech-related ailments that comes from dumping more digital devices into the lives of your aging population.

But first, a little about me.

Using the new "Google Past" feature on my "extended reality" headset from Huawei (made possible by the remarkable advances that have taken place at CERN in the past few years and the generous permission of our benevolent new leaders in Beijing), I'm able to project myself from the current year, 2016, back to your present day, three years before the Greatest Compromise will make most of you full-fledged citizens of Foxconn.… Read more

Kids, meet Kate the robot. She wants to play with you, help you do your homework, or just give you a big metallic hug while Mom or Dad are deployed overseas. She can't replace your parent, but with her smiling ET-ish visage and gift for gab, she might be able to ease the distance a bit.

Dan Mathias of the Florida-based one-man FutureBots Lab thought up the humanoid telepresence robot specifically as a companion and communication device for kids of remote military service members.

He also thinks Kate (Kids Avatar Teacher and Entertainer) could, like Kaspar the friendly robot, help autistic children improve their social and communication skills or maybe be used in nursing homes to assist Alzheimer's patients. … Read more

Thanks to all the live listeners for bearing with our first day broadcasting video on Livestream. Be sure to check us out every weekday at 12 p.m ET/9 a.m. PT on the Livestream homepage.

Leaked from today's 404 show:

- Jeff gives a spoiler-free review of "The Dark Knight Rises."

- 46 Things You Probably Don't Know About the Batman films.

- eHarmony has some tips to bail you out of a horrible online date.

- How bars use music to get you drunk faster.… Read more

We're back from San Diego Comic-Con 2012 with a wrap-up show of everything we saw at the show. This being our first year, it quickly became obvious that we missed the first rule of Comic-Con: leave your civilian clothes at home!… Read more

The hoverboard floated onto the big screen in "Back to the Future II" and broke the hearts of geeks worldwide when director Robert Zemeckis announced that the technology would not be available until the year 2015. Decades later, we're all still waiting for power laces, hydrator machines, power laces, and a real hoverboard, but Mattel was on-hand at Comic-Con 2012 to show off the next best thing: a 1:1 scale replica of the original hover board ridden by Marty McFly.

While it's still unacceptable that the thing doesn't actually glide through the air (don't even think about water), the prop retains the exact look and feel of the real thing, replete with a scooter handle hole, Velcro ankle strap, motion sensors, and "whooshing" sound effects pulled directly from the movies.… Read more

Much ado has been made about Marty McFly's self-tying sneakers from "Back to the Future Part II." What's been forgotten is his groovy hat of the future...until now.

That's right, McFliers, you can now dress even more like your hero thanks to the Marty Hat Replica at ThinkGeek. At $24.99, it's a lot cheaper than the $37,500 a British rapper paid out for a pair of McFly replica sneakers.

The hat is made from a super reflective fabric that shimmers and glimmers with swirls of color. It looks like a herd of unicorns upchucked some rainbows all over it. The hat is one-size-fits-all-geeks with a Velcro closure at the back.… Read more