The word “metaverse” came into existence via Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash. Nearly 30 years on, what was once a science fiction construct is now a highly profitable reality. [The virtual museum's founder expands on the potential of the metaverse as a space for cultural experiences and interconnectivity. Image: @museumcryptoart on Twitter]What started as detailed virtual environment...

Engineers at the University of British Columbia created a flexible waterproof battery that is durable enough to undergo multiple wash cycles. The battery is so pliant that it can still function when stretched to double its original length. It’s made of low-cost materials, making it potentially highly suited for wearable health monitoring technology, such as items of clothing, patches, or watch...

Created at a Microsoft Surface virtual design workshop, the Windows Pay concept is a combination of hardware and software that allows Microsoft to cement its place in the retail space by allowing Microsoft Surface tablets to become point-of-sales devices. In a world with oddly shaped POS units that eventually have to interface with Windows computers used by cashiers, Windows Pay makes everythin...

In one of the most competitive markets in the world, grocery retailers will need new strategies and capabilities to sustain growth.The grocery market in China is the most intriguing in the world: it is huge (second only to the United States), it leads the pack in online commerce, and it’s growing rapidly. It is also a source of inspiration and awe for digital and online-to-offline (commerce)....

The biggest results at auction keep getting bigger.[In This Case (1983), by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Photographer: Cindy Ord/Getty Images North America]These 10 works, which were the most expensive to sell at auction this year, represent more than the total international grosses for this year’s latest Bond film, No Time To Die; more than Crypto.com paid to rename the Staples Center; and just a ha...

The HB1 utilizes dual fans to create a vacuum between its underside and the wall.It's safe to say that any task which involves going up high is at least somewhat dangerous. The HB1 robot was designed with this fact in mind, as it climbs walls and even scuttles across ceilings so people don't have to.Currently about to enter the market, the HB1 was designed by British startup HausBots, which is...

Our digitally-driven society is powered by an extremely robust semiconductor supply chain, and until the COVID-19 pandemic, not many people thought about it.Our digitally-driven society is powered by an extremely robust semiconductor supply chain, and until the COVID-19 pandemic, not many people thought about it.But a sudden surge in demand for digital goods, improved technologies, and recoveri...

Solace Cremation allows families to avoid traditional funeral homes when a loved one dies.When Keith Crawford and David Odusanya started their cremation company in April 2019, there was no way they could anticipate that a worldwide pandemic would soon prove the urgency of their model.As Covid-19 approaches the two-year mark, Solace Cremation has turned out to be a service for the modern age—a...

Back in March we wrote about "crypto art" — which turned out to be the early days of what would go on to be a breakthrough year for NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which beat out "metaverse", "pingdemic" and "cheugy" for Collins Dictionary’s word of the year.If you've managed to avoid reading about NFTs until now, we'll catch you up. The short version of the explainer is that NFTs allow you to "o...