Technology
Why GM’s Investment in Lyft is Such a Big Deal
January 4, 2016
For years, scientists have dreamed of an efficient future where instead of owning your own car, you'll be able to call up a smart vehicle to your location, have it drive you to your destination, then allow it to continue on its way and pick up another passenger. The whole idea revolves around a gigantic network of driverless cars that serves millions of people on demand, minimizing waste in time and resources. Now, General Motors wants to make that future a reality — by investing half a billion...
January 4, 2016
For years, scientists have dreamed of an efficient future where instead of owning your own car, you'll be able to call up a smart vehicle to your location, have it drive you to your destination, then allow it to continue on its way and pick up another passenger. The whole idea revolves around a gigantic network of driverless cars that serves millions of people on demand, minimizing waste in time and resources. Now, General Motors wants to make that future a reality — by investing half a billion...
Universities Race to Nurture Start-Up Founders of the Future
January 3, 2016
The original charter of Rice University, drafted in 1891, established a school here dedicated to the advancement of literature, science and art. These days, Rice seems equally dedicated to the advancement of the next Mark Zuckerberg. The university offers academic courses in entrepreneurship strategy and financing, extracurricular start-up workshops and a summer program for students seeking to start companies. In August, Rice announced a multimillion-dollar “entrepreneurship initiative” to develop...
January 3, 2016
The original charter of Rice University, drafted in 1891, established a school here dedicated to the advancement of literature, science and art. These days, Rice seems equally dedicated to the advancement of the next Mark Zuckerberg. The university offers academic courses in entrepreneurship strategy and financing, extracurricular start-up workshops and a summer program for students seeking to start companies. In August, Rice announced a multimillion-dollar “entrepreneurship initiative” to develop...
The 10 Most Important Legal Technology Developments of 2015
January 3, 2016
What have been 2015’s most important developments in legal technology? For the past two years, I’ve posted my picks of the top developments in legal tech (2014, 2013). With another year under our belts, it’s time to look back at 2015. 1. Case Law Gets Democratized. 2. Analytics Take Center Stage. The second-biggest legal technology story of 2015 was the acquisition of Lex Machina by LexisNexis. It was a significant deal in itself, but even more so for what it signals about the direction...
January 3, 2016
What have been 2015’s most important developments in legal technology? For the past two years, I’ve posted my picks of the top developments in legal tech (2014, 2013). With another year under our belts, it’s time to look back at 2015. 1. Case Law Gets Democratized. 2. Analytics Take Center Stage. The second-biggest legal technology story of 2015 was the acquisition of Lex Machina by LexisNexis. It was a significant deal in itself, but even more so for what it signals about the direction...
LawSites 10 Most Popular Posts of 2015
January 2, 2016
Microsoft Readies Launch of Practice Management Product for Lawyers (Jan. 12, 2015). 13 15 17 18 20 States Have Adopted Ethical Duty of Technology Competence (March 16, 2015). Shake-Up In Legal Research: Fastcase Acquires Loislaw From Wolters-Kluwer (Sept. 21, 2015). New ‘Redact Assistant’ Easily Redacts Word and Excel Files (Feb. 25, 2015). Striking a Blow Against Legalese: Adobe’s Legal Department Open Sources Its Plain-English Style Guide (July 15, 2015). Westlaw’s Days...
January 2, 2016
Microsoft Readies Launch of Practice Management Product for Lawyers (Jan. 12, 2015). 13 15 17 18 20 States Have Adopted Ethical Duty of Technology Competence (March 16, 2015). Shake-Up In Legal Research: Fastcase Acquires Loislaw From Wolters-Kluwer (Sept. 21, 2015). New ‘Redact Assistant’ Easily Redacts Word and Excel Files (Feb. 25, 2015). Striking a Blow Against Legalese: Adobe’s Legal Department Open Sources Its Plain-English Style Guide (July 15, 2015). Westlaw’s Days...
Samsung’s New Projects – Wearable Is In
January 2, 2016
Samsung's secret lab projects: Smart belt, motion controller and smart watch strap. While I won't be attending CES in Las Vegas next week, I will be following closely the new trends and products. Wearables will be on display, and these three new Samsung products are very interesting. A SmartBelt that measures your food intake sounds really annoying. I already know that my waist is expanding, thank you very much. Of more interest is the strap that attaches to a phone or smartwatch and allows you to listen...
January 2, 2016
Samsung's secret lab projects: Smart belt, motion controller and smart watch strap. While I won't be attending CES in Las Vegas next week, I will be following closely the new trends and products. Wearables will be on display, and these three new Samsung products are very interesting. A SmartBelt that measures your food intake sounds really annoying. I already know that my waist is expanding, thank you very much. Of more interest is the strap that attaches to a phone or smartwatch and allows you to listen...
Samsung’s New Bio-Processor: Much Better Fitness Trackers?
January 1, 2016
Samsung thinks it's about time that fitness trackers did more than monitor your pulse. It announced today that it's put into mass production a new chip that builds in support for measuring five attributes: body fat, skeletal muscle mass, heart rate, skin temperature, and stress level (although, "stress" appears to actually mean how sweaty you are). Samsung calls this chip the Bio-Processor, and fitness devices using it are supposed to start shipping in the first half of 2016. Fitness trackers...
January 1, 2016
Samsung thinks it's about time that fitness trackers did more than monitor your pulse. It announced today that it's put into mass production a new chip that builds in support for measuring five attributes: body fat, skeletal muscle mass, heart rate, skin temperature, and stress level (although, "stress" appears to actually mean how sweaty you are). Samsung calls this chip the Bio-Processor, and fitness devices using it are supposed to start shipping in the first half of 2016. Fitness trackers...
Will The Rumoured Microsoft Surface Phone Run iOS Apps Natively On Launch?
December 31, 2015
When Microsoft chief experience officer Julie Larson Green was asked if Microsoft was working on an Android fork, she said ”We’ll go wherever our customers are.” At that time the natural reaction from the mobile development community was to assume that Redmond was working towards a future where Android and Windows were close cousins. * * * Now fast forward to this month, and rumours are flying around of a new Surface Phone, having been all but confirmed by Microsoft CMO Chris Capossela....
December 31, 2015
When Microsoft chief experience officer Julie Larson Green was asked if Microsoft was working on an Android fork, she said ”We’ll go wherever our customers are.” At that time the natural reaction from the mobile development community was to assume that Redmond was working towards a future where Android and Windows were close cousins. * * * Now fast forward to this month, and rumours are flying around of a new Surface Phone, having been all but confirmed by Microsoft CMO Chris Capossela....
Ford in Talks with Google to Build Self-Driving Cars
December 27, 2015
Ford Motor Co. and Google are in talks to have the automaker build Google’s next-generation autonomous cars under contract, Automotive News has learned. Although few details about the project are known, a source with knowledge of the project says both parties have been negotiating on a contract manufacturing deal “for a long time.” An announcement, if finalized, could come as early as the week of Jan. 4 during the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. A Google spokesman...
December 27, 2015
Ford Motor Co. and Google are in talks to have the automaker build Google’s next-generation autonomous cars under contract, Automotive News has learned. Although few details about the project are known, a source with knowledge of the project says both parties have been negotiating on a contract manufacturing deal “for a long time.” An announcement, if finalized, could come as early as the week of Jan. 4 during the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. A Google spokesman...
Disney Software Can Change Actors’ Emotions In Scene
December 26, 2015
Disney has released video of a new, bizarre tool that allows people to visually modulate actors' emotions, seemingly in real time. By taking two shots, with actors performing two different ways in each shot, Disney has shown it can then sew them together into one moment, with someone behind the controls shifting the emotions on command. The result is the company's "FaceDirector" software, which is more than a little unnerving to see in action, mostly for how seamless it is. You can see why Disney...
December 26, 2015
Disney has released video of a new, bizarre tool that allows people to visually modulate actors' emotions, seemingly in real time. By taking two shots, with actors performing two different ways in each shot, Disney has shown it can then sew them together into one moment, with someone behind the controls shifting the emotions on command. The result is the company's "FaceDirector" software, which is more than a little unnerving to see in action, mostly for how seamless it is. You can see why Disney...
Artificial Intelligence in a Legal Environment
December 26, 2015
Industry publications and blogs make it sound like just a matter of time before all attorneys are replaced by robots or software programs, and artificial intelligence will run practices, handle cases and argue the law in front of juries. Consider IBM’s Watson. According to IBM, Watson is “a technology platform that uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data.” Feasibility Index: 1 out of 5 Realistically, robots won’t...
December 26, 2015
Industry publications and blogs make it sound like just a matter of time before all attorneys are replaced by robots or software programs, and artificial intelligence will run practices, handle cases and argue the law in front of juries. Consider IBM’s Watson. According to IBM, Watson is “a technology platform that uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data.” Feasibility Index: 1 out of 5 Realistically, robots won’t...
