Perhaps we’ve grown too accustomed to AI hype stories of late, as last week’s unveiling of IBM’s Project Debater barely caused a ripple in news rooms across the United States. It certainly turned few heads here at ExtremeTech. Could this be how the Anthropocene age ends — not with …

A team of researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia, has identified an ancient gene that plays a key role in regulating the human body’s immune response to infection and disease. The discovery, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, could have intriguing implications for antiviral …

Rumors that Microsoft is working on a dual-screen device, codenamed Andromeda, have popped up online for years, along with various leaked reports, OS references, and patent grants. Now, according to yet another leak, we know it’s also supposed to be a pocket-sized device, presumably of a size comparable to a …

In June, after months of increasing customer complaints and vocal unhappiness, Apple kicked off a program to replace the keyboards of customers who had stuck or non-responsive keys. There was a sharp increase in the number and frequency of these complaints after Apple switched to a new keyboard design in …

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft has spent more than three years alone in the emptiness of space on its way to rendezvous with an asteroid. The Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) has now confirmed that Hayabusa 2 is in position to begin its primary science operations. On the agenda are numerous mapping …

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket flared to life in the early hours of Friday morning to launch a resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The rocket carried, among other things, a floating robot head. That’s not the only reason this launch was special. Both the Falcon 9 first …

Struggling smartphone maker HTC continues to struggle. After offloading 2,000 engineers to Google as part of a $1.1 billion deal with the search giant, HTC is now laying off 1,500 staff, or nearly one-quarter of its total headcount, to cut more costs. That’s according to a report from Reuters which …

Ahead of the 10th anniversary of the iOS App Store on July 11th, App Annie has today released a retrospective of the top iOS apps of all time, along with key milestones in App Store history. Its report tallies up the top apps of all time by both downloads and …

A team of scientists has identified 27 new viruses that infect European honeybees (Apis mellifera) and other bee species. Galbraith et al identified 27 novel viruses in bees. Image credit: Joanna Jankowski. “Populations of bees around the world are declining, and viruses are known to contribute to these declines. Despite …

An international research team led by University of Otago’s Professor Neil Gemmell is using the latest DNA technologies to compile a census of life in Loch Ness, a large freshwater lake best known for sightings of the long-necked ‘monster.’ Loch Ness. Image credit: Gregory J. Kingsley. “There have been more …