KACHARAGADLA

For the early part of my technology career, keyboards were the only user interface available. Even with early machines like the  Apple   II and the first   IBM   PCs, it was keyboards-only. But in 1984, Apple's Macintosh introduced the graphical user interface and mouse to a wide audience, and a whole new way to interact with a computer was born. Us old-timers took a while to get the hang of digital desktops and mice. But eventually, using them became second nature. Today, pretty much all of our computing devices use some form of graphical user interface with either a mouse, a stylus, or a user's finger as an input device. (Voice-activated gadgets like the  Amazon Echo  aside.) But after over three decades of mouse-and-keyboard computing, we're on the precipice of the next major advancement in user interfaces: Virtual and augmented reality, or VR and AR. Taken together, VR and AR are on track to become the dominant method of computer interaction within the next 10-1

Gigabit LTE, a wireless technology that can support theoretical speeds up to 1Gbps, is closer than you might think. Today, Qualcomm, along with Netgear, Ericsson, and Australian carrier Telstra, is announcing the first product to support gigabit LTE, a mobile hotspot. The hotspot makes use of a variety of technologies to hit those high speeds, including carrier aggregation. It runs on Telstra’s existing LTE networks and will be available to before the end of the year. In addition, Qualcomm is announcing that its next-generation 800 series smartphone processor platform will include the X16 modem that supports gigabit LTE speeds. Qualcomm says that smartphones with the new chip — which doesn’t yet have an official name, but will succeed the  recently-launched Snapdragon 821  — will be available in the first half of next year. The X16 modem represents a significant boost in speed over the 600Mpbs maximum speeds that the current X12 supports. Qualcomm expects that carriers in every