Articles By John Brandon

How retailers are taking advantage of location-based services

Businesses are integrating location-based services such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt and Socialight into enterprise applications.For example, ice cream retailer Tasti D-Lite incorporated Foursquare into its loyalty program, providing extra reward points for customers

Published on: November 1st, 2010 John Brandon @itbusinessca

New technologies will make ‘zero fatalities’ car a reality

In the future, new cars might include an appealing sticker: This car is rated for zero fatalities. Over the next 10 to 20 years, car companies will rely increasingly on computer simulations and

Published on: August 17th, 2010 John Brandon @itbusinessca

10 exciting ways you can put your old computer to new uses

They're collecting dust in storage rooms and taking up extra space in your garage or office. They can't handle today's applications, peripherals or operating systems. Yes, older computers are a nuisance, like the

Published on: May 25th, 2010 John Brandon @itbusinessca

Apple iPad – what makes it today’s hottest gadget

Like the iPhone before it, Apple's new iPad tablet is a technological powerhouse with a multitouch-screen interface, an accelerometer that senses movement and tilt, an antiglare screen you can view from a side

Published on: April 16th, 2010 John Brandon @itbusinessca

Stunning supercomputing apps that can run on your desktop

High-performance computing (HPC) has almost always required a supercomputer -- one of those room-size monoliths you find at government research labs and universities. And while those systems aren't going away, some of the

Published on: February 22nd, 2010 John Brandon @itbusinessca

The latest driver assistance systems and how they work

You're driving down the road, and suddenly another car swerves behind you and approaches in your blind spot just as you were preparing to change lanes. Your car gives you a quick nudge

Published on: January 7th, 2010 John Brandon @itbusinessca

5 great ways to keep your Web site running smoothly

When the site GDGT.com went live this past summer, Ryan Block was expecting a lot of interest. Prior to launch, the former Engadget.com editor in chief had built up momentum for the site

Published on: November 10th, 2009 John Brandon @itbusinessca

Inside the iPhone – secrets behind how it works

You put it up to your ear and the screen goes blank. Turn it on its side, and the screen rotates. Walk outside and it can find your location, point a compass in

Published on: October 12th, 2009 John Brandon @itbusinessca

The city of tomorrow is nearly here … and this is what it looks like

Science fiction writers call it Utopia, the glorious City of the Future. But short of downtown atriums being guarded by invisible walls and flying cars, City 2.0 is not as far off as

Published on: May 19th, 2009 John Brandon @itbusinessca

10 technologies that could change the way we work and live

They start as a mild tremor at first: rumors of an Apple Phone and rumblings about Web 2.0, whispers about touch interfaces and flash storage. Then, in what seems like an instant, there

Published on: May 4th, 2009 John Brandon @itbusinessca

Eight awesome technologies from HP labs

Innovation is both an exciting, revolutionary event and a mundane step-by-step process. For every remarkable, headline-making discovery -- flash memory! high-def movies! quad-core processors! -- there are more iterative research projects that move

Published on: March 30th, 2009 John Brandon @itbusinessca

OpenOffice upgrade gives free office suite wealth of new features

OpenOffice.org is a powerful productivity suite--including tools for word processing, spreadsheets, slideshows and more--with one major additional feature: it's free. Whether OpenOffice 3--the first version to run natively on OS X and Intel-based

Published on: December 16th, 2008 John Brandon @itbusinessca

Notorious tech myths that just refuse to die

Have you heard this story?One day, Bill Gates was standing on a street corner, watching the clouds roll by. Absentmindedly, he dropped a US$1,000 bill out of his pocket. A bystander noticed and

Published on: September 30th, 2008 John Brandon @itbusinessca

The scoop on Google’s hottest projects

With a skyrocketing stock price, fanboy hysteria and – most importantly – really useful products, Google Inc. is the prima donna of tech for the new millennium. The company is so active that

Published on: July 7th, 2008 John Brandon @itbusinessca

10 broken tech ideas and how to fix them

Sometimes a technology idea is too good to be true. A flexible keyboard, Internet voting and watching feature films on your smart phone are examples.Today, these concepts are still evolving, but they're broken

Published on: March 7th, 2008 John Brandon @itbusinessca