Category: Science & Technology News

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Analysis, Business, Internet, Science & Technology News

Retailers Need to Reach Out and Touch More Mobile Users

 

apple apps

Fifty-one percent of shoppers are more likely to buy from retailers with mobile-specific websites.

Retailers must answer the call to make mobile shopping easier and more engaging or they risk getting disconnected from the majority of mobile device users.  While 89.7 percent of the U.S. population aged 18 to 64 have mobile phones, only 49.1 percent are using their phones to shop, according to Arc Worldwide, the marketing services arm of advertising agency Leo Burnett.

 

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Globalism, Great New Product, Science & Technology News

Ushahidi: Crisis Mapping Software Meets Check-in

crisis mapping

This crisis map, created using Ushahidi software, is keeping track of unfolding events in Libya.

From Libya to Japan, a Web-reporting platform called Ushahidi has helped human rights workers and others document and make sense of fast-moving crises. The platform allows reports from cell phones and Web-connected devices to be collected and displayed on Web-based maps.

 

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Analysis, Big Problems, Health & Fitness, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Texting Teens Exhausted by Being ‘On Call’ All Night

texting teen

Teens don’t want to miss emergency texts, even late-arriving ones.

10th-grader Ashley Olafsson sleeps with her cellphone under her pillow so she doesn’t miss “emergency’’ texts — “like if a friend broke up with her boyfriend.’’ Stephanie Kimball of Waltham, 14, is also available for urgent overnight correspondence, such as, “Hey, seeing if you’re awake.’’ Dedham ninth-grader Courtney Johnson gets as many as 100 texts while in bed. “I just don’t feel like myself if I don’t have my phone near me or I’m not on it,’’ she said.

 

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Science & Technology News

Firefighters in the Future Could Fight Fires with Flame-Bending Electricity

fire

Firefighters could someday snuff out flames by zapping them with pulses of electric current.

In some respects, firefighting technology has come a long way over the past several decades–we now have flame suppressing foams and powders for instance, as well as new ways of delivering them to the fire. But fundamentally, we’re still fighting fires the old fashioned way: point hose/bucket/ pressurized container and drench. But a team of Harvard researchers envisions a day when firefighters will snuff out flames not with a physical suppressant but with a blast of electric current.

 

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Analysis, Global Warming, Globalism, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News, Weather

The World is Getting Windier and the Waves Higher

blowing in the wind

If winds continue to pick up at the same rate, hurricanes could become far more damaging by the middle of the century. 

The world is getting breezier, according to a new study, which found a slow but steady increase in top wind speeds across the oceans over the last 23 years.

 

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