This Week in Emerging Technology – July 29

Written By
Jim Rapoza
Jim Rapoza
Published: Jul 29, 2009
Updated: Feb 2, 2021
1 minute read
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Here are the emerging technologies stories for the week of July 27th.

4G Network Tests – Verizon announced that they will launch tests of their 4G LTE network in Seattle and Boston later this year. The 8 to 10 Mbps speed sounds nice but we’ll see.

Robot Firefighters – The London Fire Brigade has been using robot firefighters to deal with high-risk situations such as fires involving acetylene tanks. According to the report, the tests of these robot firefighters have been very successful.

Aluminum Goes Transparent – Scientists at Oxford University were able to turn aluminum invisible (for a very short time) using a high-powered laser blast. The scientists claim that this could have a huge impact for future technologies such as nuclear fusion. Though it doesn’t sound like it would work as a Romulan cloaking device.

Jim Rapoza

Jim Rapoza, Chief Technology Analyst, eWEEK.For nearly fifteen years, Jim Rapoza has evaluated products and technologies in almost every technology category for eWEEK. Mr Rapoza's current technology focus is on all categories of emerging information technology though he continues to focus on core technology areas that include: content management systems, portal applications, Web publishing tools and security. Mr. Rapoza has coordinated several evaluations at enterprise organizations, including USA Today and The Prudential, to measure the capability of products and services under real-world conditions and against real-world criteria. Jim Rapoza's award-winning weekly column, Tech Directions, delves into all areas of technologies and the challenges of managing and deploying technology today.

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