A budding drone program at one East Texas university is giving students more career options in the aviation industry. LeTourneau University's degree in the unmanned aircrafts has students looking to get involved, and the economics of the industry might be the leading factor. It's a practice ground for the next generation of pilots, and the developing industry is driving more into the field. "You don't often think about that for every drone there's a pilot behind it controlling it," aviation professor Ruedi Schubarth said.

From fitness trackers to connected headwear for soldiers on the battlefield, wearable devices stand as one of the fastest-growing segments of the tech industry. But with those always-on devices come a slew of considerations for policy makers, in particular the concern that device manufacturers aren't implementing appropriate security and privacy measures. Those worries got an airing at a recent House hearing, where industry witnesses urged lawmakers to tread lightly before developing stringent new privacy rules, while at the same time acknowledging that device and application makers need to be vigilant in how they are handling the data collected from users.

German automaker BMW is marking its centennial not only by looking back, but also by looking forward. On the morning of March 7, the BMW Group Classic building opened its doors to journalists for the first time and gave a press conference detailing its centenary, with a celebration and multimedia of the brand’s history and accomplishments following later that afternoon. Rather than contenting itself with prior achievements, however, the brand’s milestone motto is “The Next 100 Years,” and a series of events, publications and technological advancements will help the brand maintain its status over that time period.

The Absolut Company is supporting customers in their pursuit of the perfect cocktail via a new partnership featuring a smart scale, mobile application and Bluetooth technology that make it easy to measure ingredients and know when to stop pouring. Absolut has teamed up with The Perfect Company and its smart kitchen appliances in a bid to prompt more consumers to use its vodka when making cocktails at home. 

Electrical engineers at the University of Washington have come up with a new type of Wi-Fi hardware that uses 10,000 times less power than existing technology, Wiredreports. That could have big implications for mobile and embedded applications, helping smartphone batteries last longer, reducing the power demands of devices in the Internet of Things, and ultimately making internet connectivity practical for a much wider range of devices. The technology, dubbed “Passive Wi-Fi,” relies on a phenomenon known as “backscatter.” While most Wi-Fi connections currently require two powered radio signals, the new standard would need only a single powered device, which …

Since Amazon announced its drone program more than two years ago, a number of retailers have been investigating the feasibility of drone delivery. While the idea is often met with skepticism, the practice has already begun. DHL Parcel started delivering medications to the remote German island of Juist in 2014, while California startup Matternet is making drone deliveries of medical supplies in places like the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The first U.S. drone delivery approved by the Federal Aviation Administration took place last July when a drone made a delivery to a remote location in Virginia.

Mozilla may have given up on battling Android and iOS to find a firm position in the smartphone operating system market, but the company is affirming its growing interest in capturing a pie of the IoT space. The Firefox maker has shared details of several Firefox OS-powered connected projects it is working on. The free-software community, led by the Mozilla Foundation non-profit organisation, has announcedthe first round of "connected" projects powered by Firefox OS that cover "a wide range of potential solutions." These programs are called Project Link, Project Sensor Web, Project Smart Home, and voice assistant Project Vaani.

After a century building what it calls the "ultimate driving machine," BMW Group is preparing for a world in which its customers will be mere passengers, and the cars will do the driving themselves. Days before BMW's 100th birthday, Klaus Froehlich, its board member for research and development, described plans for a completely overhauled company, where half the r&d staff will be computer programmers, competing with the likes of Google parent Alphabet to build the brains for self-driving cars. "For me it is a core competence to have the most intelligent car," Froehlich told Reuters in an interview at the …

As vehicle manufacturers compete for innovation leadership in connected cars, commerce is playing a big part, but not all new features are likely to be deemed practical by users. Toyota, Ford and Honda are among the multitude of manufacturers partnering with commerce companies and software developers to bring payment features to connected vehicles for a broader stance in mobile. While all brands are focusing on creating solutions for vehicle-based retail such as parking and gas, Visa is broadening its capabilities through a Pizza Hut partnership, but some speculate on its necessity.    

It’s a problem that’s rapidly getting worse as more and more devices require access to the cloud, not to mention the constant strain of searching for a good signal or boosting a weak one. The student researchers invented a new type of hardware that uses 10,000 times less power than traditional Wi-Fi networking equipment. It’s called Passive Wi-Fi, (you canread their paper here) and it works just like a home router, just more efficiently. To give some perspective, the state of the art in low power Wi-Fi transmissions today consume 100s of milliwatts of power, whereas the technology the student researchers developed consume only 10-50 …