2020
Latest
Sony pledges to be 30 percent 'greener' by 2020
Like the epic vomiting session after a long evening in Las Vegas, climate change is inevitably coming for us all. Sony has decided to show off its greener side by pledging to shrink both its carbon footprint and the amount of power that its devices guzzle. The company has launched a "Green Management 2020" project that aims to make its products 30 percent more efficient by the end of the decade. At the same time, executives are committing to a target of having no impact upon the environment at all by 2050.
Bloomberg: Apple has 200 working on a car it can launch by 2020
In today's Apple Car rumor update, Bloomberg has chimed in with sources spouting more knowledge about the "Titan" electric vehicle project supposedly under way in Cupertino. According to the report, the team is up to about 200 people, with experts on batteries and robotic technology joining recently. While A123 and Tesla may have an idea where some of those battery experts came from, even this rumor has the caveat that execs could scrap or delay it, but that the team is working on having a vehicle ready by 2020. This has been your daily Apple Car rumor update. [Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Nissan's 'Gran Turismo 6' concept car crosses over into reality
Nissan has just revealed that its 2020 supercar design of the GT-R created for Gran Turismo 6 has now become an actual, full-sized 2+2 car. The virtual game car was introduced last week, and the actual glass-and-steel model drew admiring gapes when it was revealed at Goodwood, England today (see the video below). That's no doubt because of the radical styling, which includes a four-wheel drive chassis, active suspension, ventilated hood and that carbon fiber front splitter. We're not sure if the real McCoy is even driveable, but you'll be able to get behind the wheel of the game car on Gran Turismo 6 sometime next month.
Barnes & Noble 2012 Q3 Report: loss-making Nook generates sales, tears
It's that time of the year when Barnes & Noble's accountants reveal the figures for the quarter to determine if the age of print is over. Turns out there's some good news for bookseller. Overall sales for the chain increased five percent: the company took $2.4 billion through the cash registers. That was split $1.49 billion (up two percent) in high-street retail, online sales took $420 million (up 32 percent year-on-year) and the Nook in all its forms and glories took $542 million (up 38 percent). The only grey cloud was that sales in college-only stores dropped three percent, thanks in part to renting textbooks to impecunious freshmen. They're probably all using that money on buying digital content on their Nooks: digital content purchases increased by 85 percent in a single quarter. Like rival Amazon, it wouldn't release how many devices were sold, except to say it likely maintained its market share. However, all of that (pretty) good news is a bit of a smokescreen: B&N won't reveal its profits after interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization has been deducted. Pre ITDA income dropped 12 percent from the same period in 2011 and the company has revealed that the BN.com and Nook businesses made a combined loss of $94 million, with annual income looking to be in negative figures. Update: A tidbit from the conference call, the company believes the device currently holds around 30 percent of the overall e-reader market: using numbers direct from the publishers themselves.
Toyota working on magnesium batteries for PHEVs of the not so near future
Toyota wants to take your range anxiety out for a walk behind the woodshed and obliterate it from the known world. The means for doing this, the Japanese giant has revealed, might very well be contained in its new magnesium-sulfur batteries, which promise to double the energy density of the current industry-best lithium ion cells. Of course, the catch here is that the new magnesium goodness is nowhere near ready and is projected to come in 2020 at the earliest, but we're gladdened to see a long-term view being taken by car manufacturers with regard to powering vehicles electrically. Alternative methodologies currently under review in Toyota's labs also include aluminum and calcium materials, showing that there is indeed no lack of ambition for making plug-ins respectable road warriors.
The Daily Grind: What will MMOs be like 10 years from now?
Brain Trust, assemble! I've called you all here today to put on your prognosticating caps and cast your vision into the future -- the future of 10 years from now, that is. Consider this: It is the year 2020, and I am 44 years old, practically ready for the video games old folks home. Also consider: MMOs are still around, and we're all still playing them fervently. So we need you, the Massively Brain Trust, to tell us what these MMOs will be like. Will they be mind-controlled, like that goofy 1991 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which everyone's addicted to a lame addictive frisbee game? Will these MMOs be huge, revolutionary leaps forward, or will they merely be a series of small, progressive steps to better graphics, better immersion, and larger exclamation points above NPCs' heads? Will we be playing the MMOs of today in 2020, much like how gamers still enjoy EverQuest and Ultima Online? What do you think MMOs will be like 10 years from now? We'll record the responses for posterity, and then in 2020 we'll pull them out to see who was right and who was completely ridiculous.
Japan plans mind-reading robots and brain interface devices 'by 2020'
Our grandparents did warn us that laziness would get us in trouble. The Japanese government and private sector are, according to the Nikkei, all set to begin work on a collaborative new project to develop thought-controlled gadgets, devices ... and robots. The aim is to produce brain-to-computer interfaces that would allow the ability to change channels or pump out texts just with your almighty brain power, while also facilitating artificial intelligence that would be capable of detecting when you're hungry, cold, or in need of assistance. Manufacturing giants Toyota, Honda and Hitachi get name-dropped as potential participants in this 10-year plan, though we wonder if any of them will have the sense to ask what happens when an ultra-precise and emotionless bot is given both intelligence and mind-reading powers. Would it really stick to dunking biscuits in our tea, or would it prefer something a little more exciting?
Japan sending biped robots to conquer moon by 2020
Remember back in 2006 when we told you about Japan's goal to colonize the moon with robots? Some dreams don't seem to die, and the country's Strategic Headquarters for Space Development said recently that they expect a two-legged droid traversing the satellite's surface by 2020. Should that prove successful, it'll be followed later by a joint mission with humans -- that is, if the robots don't find a way to take over before then and deny the spacemen their planetary visas.
Internet leaders peg phones as leading medium for internet use by 2020
A survey of internet leaders, activists and analysts -- which undoubtedly included one Kim Jong Il -- found that by 2020, the leading method for accessing the intarwebz will not be highly potent Alienware gaming rigs, but cellphones. Granted, the finding isn't all that shocking considering just how ubiquitous mobiles are in comparison to full-fledged PCs, but it's still a rather astounding hypothesis. Comically enough, these very "leaders" couldn't come to an agreement on whether the widespread access along with other tech advances would "lead to more social tolerance, more forgiving human relations, or better home lives." Ah well, we've only got a dozen years to find out, no need to spin your wheels now.[Via mocoNews]
ABC's World News Tonight and Nightline enter high definition tonight
ABC's push for HD evening news comes to a head tonight, when World News with Charles Gibson and Nightline both hit your screen in 720p from the Democratic National Convention. Besides covering both conventions in HD -- and there'll be plenty of that in the '08 campaign -- when they return to the studio in September the HD love continues. 20/20, Primetime and World News on the weekend will all be HDTV-ready shortly after. B & C reveals ABC News is deploying the same Sony XDCAMs -- full HD newsgathering is on hold 'til 2009 -- used to bring home high definition Survivor this fall, add in a tropical location and it would likely be hard to tell which one we're watching.
Japan's new plan: replace the internet by 2020
Apparently, Japan's minister of communications has big plans for the current iteration of the internet -- namely, to stamp it out of existence by 2020. According to reports, Yoshihide Suga -- the country's communications minister -- has announced that the Japanese government is hard at work on a newer, faster, stronger, and generally better looking internet. According to Suga, the new network will deliver more reliable data transfers at higher speeds, be more resistant to viruses and crashes, and will be 60 percent more charming. The ministry hopes that in setting a timeframe and outlining goals for the system, the country's technology industry will be able to have a hand in developing global standards while gaining leverage for themselves in the new market.[Via Slashdot]
Toyota looking to go hybrid-only by 2020?
Be warned, you should certainly take this one with a helping or two of salt, but according to a report over at Motor Authority, Toyota's Masatami Takimoto has at least insinuated that by 2020, hybrid vehicles would account for "100-percent" of the automaker's fleet. Of course, the context of the conversation was surrounding the firm's recent report that it expected to "make as much money on hybrids as it does on conventional gasoline-powered cars by 2010," so all sorts of boasting was likely to be aimlessly floating out of higher-ups' mouths. While making such a bold claim can't be seen as entirely unrealistic, we have to wonder if purely electric whips won't have at least some presence in the mainstream automotive market (and Toyota's lineup) within the next 13 years.[Via Edmunds]
