By Dieter Bohn
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld an earlier ruling that isolated human genes can, in fact, be patented. The case involves Myriad Genetics, Inc. and its patents on two genes (BRCA1 and BRCA2), mutations in which are highly correlated with hereditary breast and ovarian...
"Extracting a gene is akin to snapping a leaf from a tree." Dissenting Judge William Bryson
GameStop plans to launch its cloud gaming service, Spawn, in summer 2013 on "PCs, tablets, and connected TVs," according to Tony Bartel, GameStop's president.
"Based on consumer feedback, our success in selling mobile devices and the imminent...
A judge's outburst. One attorney accusing another of listening into private conversations. A disinterested juror, bopping his head to a private groove, a Johnny Rotten snarl on his face
Three weeks into Apple v. Samsung, the cracks are starting to show.
There seem to be more attorneys in the hallways. Each court break feels like it lasts a little longer. There's a caffeinated buzz when the...
Sandia National Laboratories has developed a highly cost-effective robotic hand that can efficiently use tools and even repair itself. The Sandia hand is covered in a gel-like layer to mimic the gripping capabilities of the human hand, and is also modular — all of the fingers are detachable and can be replaced with different tools or parts as necessary. In fact, principal investigator Curt Salibury says "if a finger pops off, the robot can actually pick it up with the remaining fingers, [...] and resocket the finger by itself."
The project was funded by DARPA with the goal of creating a relatively inexpensive robot hand that could disarm bombs, replacing the traditional disposal method — blowing them up. Salisbury says that the Sandia Hand costs $10,000, and each joint is 90 percent cheaper than current commercially available...
Moves like a creepy nightmare spider
Little known fact about Joshua Topolsky: he's really, really tall. So tall we should've filmed this in portrait. Okay, that might not the best way of introducing an episode, but we thought the world at large would like to know that all tripods required extra platforms to film today's episode. And the camera operators, too. Very well known fact about Ross Miller: I'm clearly filling up random...
So tall we should've filmed this in portrait
The Verge staffers aren't just people who love technology. They're people who love stuff. We spend as much time talking and thinking about our favorite books, music, and movies as we do debating the best smartphone to buy or what point-and-shoot has the tightest macro. We thought it would make sense to share our latest obsessions with Verge readers, and we hope you're encouraged to share...
If you’ve spent any amount of time on the internet, chances are you’ve come across Ustream. The company’s focus is streaming-as-broadcasting, with a platform designed to scale to support hundreds of thousands of simultaneous viewers during live events like last week’s Curiosity Mars rover landing. Now, the company is using its broadcasting know-how to let you share video to your friends’ Facebook News Feeds with a new mobile app called BFF, or "Broadcast for Friends."
Researchers at Harvard Medical School have encoded a full-length HTML ebook, including rich formatting, images, and even JavaScript, entirely in DNA. Their report, published today in Science, attempts to prove that DNA is not only a viable digital storage medium, but that it offers a much higher density than a conventional hard drive. George Church, a member of the Harvard research team, encoded a draft of his 5.27 Mbit ebook using off-the-shelf DNA synthesis machines, resulting in 54,898 strands of DNA 159 nucleotides long. The book can then be decoded using the same DNA sequencing techniques commonly practiced in undergraduate biology...
Microsoft is in the midst of what it says is a major backend overhaul to the infrastructure for the Windows Phone Store (neé Windows Phone Marketplace). Apparently there have been some bumps in the road — specifically many users have been unable to download or update apps. The error, according to a blog post at Microsoft's Windows Phone Blog, is related to digital certificates and should only affect users who have upgraded their phones to...
"We know what’s causing the issue and are already planning to roll out a fix." Mazhar Mohammed, Microsoft
The iPhone toy camera app Hipstamatic has just laid off three developers, a designer, and a writer, according to a former employee and as reported by TechCrunch and The Next Web. The laid-off employees are irked and are being pretty vocal. "And to be frank this is the best thing, it became...
Apple began its rebuttal case this afternoon, and it used a pair of former employees to argue against claims it had infringed Samsung's utility patents. Path employee Emilie Kim, formerly of the iOS software team, was up first to explain the nuances of the iOS Camera and Photos apps. She was...
After an initial reluctance to make any comments regarding Microsoft's first foray into PC building and selling with Surface, the Redmond company's hardware partners are now starting to gradually open up. First it was Acer CEO JT Wang expressing...
As part of its 2012 Fall Seller Update, eBay is banning would-be wizards from selling their wares. Several "metaphysical" categories are being dropped as of August 30th, and sellers will have to remove listings for "spells, curses, hexing, conjuring, magic, prayers, blessing...
The US State Department's $16.5 million contract with Amazon for Kindle ebook readers has been officially canceled. The details of the contract were proposed back in June and would have netted the State Department 2,500 Kindles for use in overseas English language programs. The docket has since...
Diaspora, the social network inspired by privacy concerns about Facebook, has some odd news. Its high-minded, idealistic founders have taken a break from preaching against the dangers of giving personal data away to corporations like Facebook and...
If you live in an area where unpredictable weather is a problem, the free SkyMotion app for iOS is a reliable resource for precipitation warnings, and now the service is available on the desktop and non-Apple mobile devices. Residents in the United States and Canada can the SkyMotion web app to...
Two great phones, two great winners: that's the plan for our latest contest that we're launching in partnership with Qualcomm. Samsung's Galaxy S...
You've waited, you've watched, you've sent angry letters to our homes and offices — and now the day is finally here. Yes, The Verge has been unleashed in the App and Play Stores, and you can go...
So you've purchased an HTC One series phone after reading our reviews, and now you’re looking for the perfect accessory to complement your new device. HTC thinks it has the answer with the Media...
The Oatmeal writer Matthew Inman has just gotten a high-profile supporter for his campaign to buy Nikola Tesla's laboratory: space and internet tycoon Elon Musk. Jalopnik reports that they put...
Fresh off of its massive partnership with Starbucks that turned the still-young company into the US' largest mobile payment network, Square has just opened up a new flat-rate processing fee for...
One of Samsung's witnesses today called into question the veracity of Apple's damages report, testifying that Cupertino's expert hadn't factored in...
New evidence of Nokia's upcoming Windows Phone 8 devices surfaced yesterday following the discovery of a bright yellow Lumia "Phi" prototype last week, and now yet another pre-production bezel has appeared. A rectangular bezel similar to the one used in the Phi was uncovered in a forum thread on WPXAP, but there are a few notable differences between the two. Among other small changes, the...
Apple is backtracking on recent staffing changes made at its retail stores which led to employees complaining over slashed hours and lower wages. In an internal communication with Apple Store management, John Browett — who replaced longtime retail chief Ron Johnson earlier this year —...
