A team of researchers from MIT, Northeastern, and Harvard has found links between cell phone usage and unemployment, reports Janelle Nanos for BetaBoston. The researchers found that “cellphone use and mobility dropped significantly in areas which eventually reported massive unemployment spikes,” Nanos explains.
New Scientist reporter Hal Hodson writes about MagMIMO, a new device that can wirelessly power phones at a distance. "In our vision we wanted to have people's phone charge the minute they are sitting next to their desk: they go to a meeting, they come back, the phone starts charging again," says Prof. Dina Katabi.
“Researchers from MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group and Fluid Interface Group are working on a project called THAW that allows smartphone cameras to identify what’s happening on another screen and interact with it,” writes Lily Hay Newman for Slate.
ABC News reports on the new smart benches created by Changing Environments, a spinoff from the MIT Media Lab. The ‘Soofas’ will be placed in various locations throughout Boston and Cambridge and allow users to charge phones and download environmental data.
“The high-tech benches were invented by MIT Media Lab spinoff Changing Environments,” writes Meghan Irons of The Boston Globe about new solar-powered “smart benches” coming to Boston. “Your cellphone doesn't just make phone calls, why should our benches just be seats?” Boston Mayor Marty Walsh says of the project.