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Features

• 5 ways to use virtual reality in the enterprise

  With Facebook executives focusing so much of their annual F8 developers conference on virtual reality, people are wondering how the technology will affect gaming and social networking.

• HP turns to 3D printing to revive flagging fortunes

  On top of its decision to split into two companies, Hewlett-Packard's move into 3D printing appears to be an attempt to spur revenues and rekindle a culture of innovation within the company.

• No, Google Glass isn't dead

  Is Google Glass dead?

• Airbnb, Uber and problems with the digital-sharing economy

  If I have an apartment in San Francisco, and I'm going to be away for a week, and you want to stay in my apartment, I should be able to charge you for the privilege. You get a furnished room for less than the cost of a hotel, and I get to put my apartment to work making money back when it would otherwise be empty.

• Boston's Bolt launches hardware companies

  Watch the first episode in our new series Breakout Startups here.

• Here's why Amazon drones may never land at your door

  Amazon's ambitious plan to use flying drones to deliver packages is far-fetched, but not just because of technology limitations or air traffic regulations. Amazon's fulfillment center network, as it stands now, is too limited to serve even a tiny fraction of the U.S. in the method described by CEO Jeff Bezos.

• NASA Turns to Open Source Middleware for Human-to-Robot Communications

  Data management is inherently tricky, but when it involves robots in space-communicating via a low-bandwidth intermittent link#8212;it's trickier. NASA is leveraging Data Distribution Service for Real-Time Systems to help it solve that problem as part of its Human Exploration Telerobotics project.

• 40 years ago, Ethernet's fathers were the startup kids

  Bob Metcalfe, Dave Boggs and the rest of the scientists at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in 1973 were a lot like young developers at a Silicon Valley startup today.

• Worst security snafus of 2012

  The first half of 2012 was pretty bad - from the embarrassing hack of a conversation between the FBI and Scotland Yard to a plethora of data breaches - and the second half wasn't much better, with events including Symantec's antivirus update mess and periodic attacks from hactivists at Anonymous.

• Can the US military fight a war with Twitter?

  Students at a U.S. military graduate school in California are mining social media with new methods that may change the way the armed forces collect intelligence overseas.