Dylan Tweney

1837: The U.S. Patent Office approves Thomas Davenport’s application for a patent on an “Improvement in Propelling Machinery by Magnetism and Electro-Magnetism.” We’d call it an electric motor. Davenport was a Vermont blacksmith and an amateur tinkerer, not a trained scientist or engineer. When he h

While magazine, newspaper and book publishers wrestle with the logistics and technical details of publishing to the Apple iPad, Scribd has an alternative: a “send-to-device” feature that lets people send documents to their e-readers or smartphones for reading on the go. The new feature, reported in

Review: Kayland Zephyr Hiking Boots Hikers usually have to choose between boots that are lightweight and boots that are protective and supportive. Kayland’s Zephyrs override that dilemma with a polyurethane exoskeleton that gives the boots leatherlike rigidity, while keeping them lightweight (about

Someday, you’ll be able to fit as much data in a small, square CompactFlash card as AT&T carries on its entire network in a week. In theory at least, version 5 of the CompactFlash standard will allow CF cards to hold 188 petabytes of data. By comparison, that’s equivalent to 188,000 one-terabyte dri

Sturdier than your average bumbershoot

A new app invites you to command your iPhone in the same way that Captain Kirk addressed the Enterprise’s computer. Siri’s visual interface displays a transcription of what you say, then hands the data off to an appropriate web service or search engine. Siri, an artificial intelligence-based voice-r

Sun’s erstwhile CEO Jonathan Schwartz announced his retirement Wednesday night in a uniquely geeky way: With a haiku posted to Twitter. Financial crisis Stalled too many customers CEO no more Schwartz’s decision to announce his departure in the form of a short, Japanese lyric was, perhaps, a veiled

Apple announced the iPad Wednesday, and with it added e-books to the menu of content it’s selling via iTunes. But I can’t believe that Steve Jobs is going to stop there. Brian X. Chen and I predicted on Tuesday evening that Apple’s big announcement would go beyond the iPad, and include the announcem

Verizon’s MiFi was one of our favorite products of 2009: It takes a 3G wireless data signal and turns it into a Wi-Fi hot spot. Now Sprint has one-upped Verizon with the Overdrive, which takes a 4G signal and turns it into a Wi-Fi hot spot. On Sprint’s WiMax-based 4G network, the Overdrive, which is

I give a quick, 3-minute overview of the top gadget trends that we predict will dominate CES — and the consumer electronics industry in 2010.

LAS VEGAS — Microsoft detailed plans for XBox 360 enhancements, a new gesture-driven interface for the XBox and a tablet-style Windows PC tonight at a keynote presentation kicking off the Consumer Electronics Show here. It was the second year as CES headliner for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who too

Ten years ago today, I was in the middle of trying to get a content syndication startup off the ground. I’d just left InfoWorld, where I had a cushy gig as a columnist and content development editor. In six months, the startup would be dead and I’d be back to journalism, this time as a […]