A weekly aggregation of tech stories of note

December 11, 2012

Steam Without Boiling Water – Metallic nano particles can be used to produce steam using sunlight without raising the surrounding water to the boiling point. This has huge implications for energy production and other industries that rely on steam generation.  See story at Earth Techling.

Classical Musician Reinterprets Video Game Music – Canadian violinist Angele Dubeau lends her strings to compositions for Angry Birds, Halo 3, and others. See story and hear samples at NPR.

FTC Investigates Children’s Apps on Data Collection – It seems at leas some applications designed for kids may be collecting data, including phone numbers and location information.  See story at the LA Times.

Not Just Apple Using Mobile for Retail POS – As someone who would rather experience physical pain than wait in line, I have to cheer the retailers moving toward using mobile devices for POS in-store transactions. Turns out, it might help boost sales, too.  Read or listen to story at NPR.

Storytelling Software the Future of AI – It is the goal of technologists working in AI to build machines that mimmic human behavior, but what are the implications for human behavior? See story at Big Think.

Facebookers Didn’t Vote on Site Governance – I don’t know how many people posted and shared meaningless copyright statements on Facebook when it announced its new user policies, but it turns out only .067 percent of users bothered to vote on those policies when invited by Facebook to do so.  See story at The Huffington Post.