Mike Murphy

American airspace may soon be abuzz with drones from well-known internet brands.

Internet television. The final frontier for Star Trek.

It might not be long before your groceries are delivered by a robot that found its way to your house on its own.

Just in time for Halloween: There’s a new robot in development that looks a lot like a decorative gourd that could one day buzz around our oceans on its own, mapping out the surfaces of the planet that we know so little about.

The robots are gaining on us.

IBM’s Watson might soon be your new weatherman.

Kia Motors, of all companies, might have just changed how major American sports teams make money. The National Basketball Association will slap Kia’s logo on players’ jerseys for the next two all-star games, according to the Wall Street Journal (paywall).

GoPro, the camera company most associated with people filming themselves while doing extreme things, released a less-than-stellar quarterly earnings report today (Oct. 28) and Wall Street took it badly. The company’s share price quickly sank to its lowest point since its IPO in June 2014.

Jumping out of a cab, heading out of the bar, walking out the front door—it happens to everyone. Losing or forgetting your phone can, at the very least, be an annoying hustle. But a new patent from Google wants to ensure you’re never without your phone again, as long as you have a wearable as well.

This post has been corrected.

We’re supposed to be living in a “post-PC” world, but Apple’s Mac computer line just won’t die. On its quarterly earnings call Oct. 27, CEO Tim Cook said Apple had a record quarter for Mac sales, selling 5.7 million Macs—a million more than last quarter—even as the overall computer market continues to shrink. On the other hand, iPad sales sunk to their lowest level since June 2011, with Apple shifting just 9.8 million this past quarter.

Scientists are using machine learning to empower self-driving cars, autonomous robots, and even smarter Google searches. Now a computer has been tasked with an arguably grander task: figuring out how to take the perfect selfie.

Anything you can do, I can do a bit later. Reuters reported today (Oct. 26) that Walmart has applied to the Federal Aviation Administration for an exemption to test out drones in the US, with the end goal of delivering products by drones, much like Amazon intends to.

Love, it’s been said, is a battlefield. And the possibility of future relationships between humans and robots is stirring up hostile emotions in some people. Last month, an internet campaign was launched to prevent any robo-human relationships in the making,  and a Japanese robot company told users that having sex with its robots would void their warranties. Now, officials in Malaysia have canceled a conference that they feared would involve humans attendees having sex with robots.

Google—soon to be Alphabet—announced a strong third quarter yesterday (Oct. 22). Chief financial officer Ruth Porat credited a combination of ads on YouTube and “substantial growth” in mobile search for driving quarterly revenue to $18.7 billion—13% more than a year ago. New Google CEO Sundar Pichai even added that “search traffic on mobile phones has now surpassed desktop traffic worldwide.” Wall Street responded positively to that news, and Google’s promise that once the company starts reporting as Alphabet next quarter, there will be greater disclosure on the health of its different business lines. Google’s stock price was up nearly 10% on the news today.

Microsoft reported yesterday (Oct. 22) that its revenue was up for the past quarter—despite poor phone and Windows sales—and Wall Street was pleased. The company’s stock price today hit over $53—a level it has not reached since March 31, 2000.

In December, the world will get to feel something that it hasn’t felt since 1983: The unmitigated joy of seeing Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia and the other heroes of the original Star Wars trilogy gallivanting around in a galaxy far, far away. But as the new film looms, it’s worth reconsidering the role that Leia Organa, played by Carrie Fisher, had in the original films. Although she’s referred to as Princess Leia, she was more than just a titular figurehead of a planet’s monarchy. She was, over the course of the films, a politician, a resistance leader, and a soldier.

It seems that the discipline that new Google—soon to be Alphabet—Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat was meant to bring to the company did not extend to its hiring practices last quarter.

Today, Oct. 21, 2015, is supposed to be the day when “we don’t need roads”—when our cars can fly, run on garbage, and travel through time. That’s according to the writers of 1989’s Back to the Future Part II.

The virtual and augmented reality markets are starting to heat up. Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung, and HTC are all in various stages of putting together consumer products that could change the way we interact with computers. Another company, however, named Magic Leap, might end up besting them all. The company has so far been tight-lipped on the technology it’s been working on for over a year, but yesterday (Oct. 20) showed off a new demo at a Wall Street Journal conference.

On Oct. 21, a teenager from Hill Valley, CA, will arrive in our time in a flying car, to save his family. He will use our hoverboards and our portable garbage-powered nuclear reactors, and will be there to witness the Cubs wining the World Series over Miami. OK—maybe Back to the Future Part II is not intended as prophesy, but it did get a lot of things right when it came to the technology we use in 2015.

If your iPhone loses its juice quickly, it might be because of Facebook. Although you probably use the app more than any other, it’s likely not obsessive Facebook stalking, photo posting or poking that’s causing the battery drain. The Guardian reported Oct. 19 that the issue may stem from what the app is doing in the background when you’re not using it.

The Gray Lady is moving into virtual reality. The New York Times announced today (Oct. 20) that it would ship more than 1 million Google Cardboard headsets to its print and digital subscribers, so they can watch new VR videos that it’s creating.

The theatrical trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the most anticipated movie this side of Hoth, just debuted during an American football game on ESPN Monday (Oct. 19) night.