Devin Coldewey
Writer & Photographer
The Latest from Devin Coldewey
A terrifying AI-generated woman is lurking in the abyss of latent space
There’s a ghost in the machine. Machine learning, that is. We are all regularly amazed by AI’s capabilities in writing and creation, but who knew it had such a capacity for instilling horr
iPhone 14 and 14 Pro gain satellite SOS for off-grid emergencies
Apple is adding a limited form of satellite connectivity to new iPhones that lets users send an SOS even when they’re off the grid, no dish required. While it won’t allow ordinary data, vo
Going back to school? The Switch is your destination for RPG-powered procrastination
As the new school year starts, a fresh cohort of students will soon be hard at work finding ways to avoid writing papers and watching lectures they slept through, and just generally finding ways to wa
Rocket Lab fires up its first recovered engine, on track to full booster reusability
Four months after the spectacular feat that was catching a descending rocket stage in mid-air, Rocket Lab has re-ignited one of the engines from that booster — an important step on their roadmap to
Puna Bio’s extremophile microbe menagerie survives and revives depleted soil
The farming industry spends tons of money on artificial means of reinvigorating soil, but an all-natural solution may already exist: beneficial microbes that have evolved to thrive in extreme environm
Royal Caribbean will equip all its cruise ships with Starlink internet
After SpaceX announced its Starlink Maritime service last month, it was only a matter of time before some household name in boat world went all-in on the satellite service. Sure enough, today Royal Ca
Finally, an underwater messaging app
Don’t you hate it when, after going just five or 10 meters underwater, you lose signal completely? Now this vexing limitation of modern technology is being addressed by researchers at the Univer
Neurofenix puts a new spin on home stroke rehabilitation with the NeuroBall
Millions around the world suffer strokes every year, and millions more are in recovery from one they’ve suffered. Regaining the use of affected limbs and capabilities is a long road, but one tha
Randomly selected quotes from Zuck’s very, very long interview
Life is too short to listen to a three-hour conversation between successful normal human Mark Zuckerberg and the farcically neutral Joe Rogan, so I’m taking a different tack: scrolling very fast
Perceptron: Face-tracking ‘earables,’ analog AI chips and accelerating particle accelerators
Research in the field of machine learning and AI, now a key technology in practically every industry and company, is far too voluminous for anyone to read it all. This column, Perceptron, aims to col
T-Mobile phones will connect to Starlink for free starting next year
T-Mobile and SpaceX have announced that Starlink satellites launched next year will be able to connect directly to the carrier’s phones over existing cellular bands. The companies hope to enable
Emerge Career’s tech-forward job training lets incarcerated folks hit the road on release
Reentering society after years in prison is difficult for many reasons, among which perhaps the most prosaic is simply that it’s hard to get a job — and what training and transition programs e
Diagnostic Robotics has AI catching health problems before they take you to the ER
A stitch in time saves nine, they say — and a blood thinner in time saves a trip to the emergency room for a heart attack, as Diagnostic Robotics hopes to show. The company’s machine learning-
FTC sets the wheels in motion for a major data privacy ruling
The Federal Trade Commission is warming up for a major ruling on data privacy and digital surveillance, a domain it has long enforced case by case but which has reached a stage of crisis it believes m
SunGreenH2’s nano-scale engineering could double green hydrogen production
If there is ever going to be a national hydrogen economy, we’re going to need to change a few things. One of them is how we produce hydrogen itself, the vast majority of which comes from fossil
FCC denies Starlink’s application for $885M subsidy
The FCC has rejected the application of Starlink to provide broadband to rural America at a cost of $885 million over 10 years, nullifying a tentative approval back in 2020. The agency said SpaceX, an
Facebook helps cops prosecute 17-year-old for abortion
Meta provided user information to police in Nebraska that led directly to the prosecution of a 17-year-old girl for alleged crimes relating to an abortion, court documents show. The company could have
Muon Space plans a ‘turnkey solution’ for custom Earth observation satellites
Plenty of companies want to operate in space, but few have or need the expertise to do so. They want an eye in the sky but not a satellite company. Muon Space is one of several startups looking to put
That message from ‘Twitter Support’ is almost certainly fake
Users on Twitter have been receiving messages purporting to be from “Twitter Support” urging them to act quickly to avoid suspension, often even from users with a blue check. But these are
Google’s ‘quantum supremacy’ usurped by researchers using ordinary supercomputer
Back in 2019, Google proudly announced they had achieved what quantum computing researchers had sought for years: proof that the esoteric technique could outperform traditional ones. But this demonstr