Articles by Nick Kolakowski
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Need a Hand? Robot Arm Attachments Here to Help
In comics and movies, Spider-Man fights Doctor Octopus, a mad scientist with four robotic tentacles. Sounds like pure fantasy, right? Not to the group of MIT researchers who want to make Doc Ock’… -
Employers Having a Hard Time Hiring IT Staff
IT staff are among the most difficult jobs for employers to fill, according to the ninth annual Talent Shortage Survey by ManpowerGroup. Some 47 percent of the employers surveyed said those hirin… -
A First Look at Apple’s Swift Programming Language
As expected, Apple executives spent the first day of the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) unveiling iOS 8 and Mac OS X “Yosemite,” the newest versions of operating systems for iOS… -
Get Ready for a Supersized iPhone 6
Will Apple unveil the next iPhone at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this week? Tech punditry seems to think the answer to that question is a big, fat “No,” and it’s probably right—App… -
Is 2014 the Year of the Phablet?
If research firm IDC is correct, 2014 could become the year of the "phablet." IDC defines phablets as smartphones with screens exceeding 5.5 inches, a category that encompasses a growing number o… -
Take a Look at Apple’s ‘80s iPhone
Apple has always placed enormous emphasis on good design. “It’s not just about aesthetics,” Jony Ive, the company’s design guru, told The Sunday Times earlier this year. “They care about things t… -
What We Could See at Apple’s WWDC
Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is scheduled to take place June 2-6 in San Francisco, and whatever the company unveils on stage is likely to send tech punditry into its usua… -
The Year 2038 Problem: Y2K on Steroids?
This is how the world ends: not with a whimper, or a bang, or in fire and ice, but because of a signed 32-bit integer. Here’s the issue: Many bits of software rely on a 32-bit integer to store ti… -
What eBay Can Teach Us About Security Breaches
Major e-security breaches have become depressingly commonplace among major companies: When eBay announced that attackers had compromised an internal database loaded with customer passwords (still… -
Too Tired to Walk the Dog? Use a Drone.
Need to walk your dog? Feeling reluctant to go outside yourself? Use a drone to walk your pooch. Videographer Jeff Myers recently documented how he uses his AR drone to remotely walk his golden r…